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Which category to post in?

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LadyMireille

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THANK YOU. STORY HAS BEEN POSTED (Which category to post in?)

I am ready to post a story, but I am having trouble with which category to post in. ;)

The story is the first part of a multi-part story. As the story develops, it is revealed that there is more to some of the characters. Some of them have special qualities - not exactly super-powers... more like heightened senses, healing, etc. I believe that fits most in fantasy/sci-fi. But there is also a romance between two of the main characters, and they are--for all intents and purposes--humans.

My trouble is that Part 1 doesn't get into either the sci-fi part or the romance. It establishes the background of the main character and her relationship with her abusive boyfriend (who is basically out of the picture after this first part). There is a regular erotic sex scene and another sex scene, which starts out as him pleasing her, but then it turns more into more of a rough punishment (though she still experiences pleasure despite her anger and disgust with him treating her that way).

So... will it end up in non-com because of the second sex scene?

Should I request it be in sci-fi even though this part has nothing to do with sci-fi?

Or do I post in Novels and Novellas? CAN I post in there if I only have the one part written? The next is going to take me a while to finish because I have like 3 others already written and in need of editing and posting.

Advice, please! :)
 
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Yeah, welcome to my world. I write stories and in them, people behave like people, which is to say they don't always fit neat categories.

In your case I'd veer towards sci/fi. Non-con seems to get rated better when the story line is mostly about non-con. Romance can happen in any category. But special powers, et al. may put people off who just don't like fantastical stuff in their sex. Plus, the crowd there has always seemed nice and fairly accommodating.

Some people might put a note at the top of a chapter that contains abusive elements. I don't bother; my darker characters make it pretty obvious how they roll, well before they do anything dark. And people who don't like what they are reading simply close the story and move on; the adult ones do anyway.

I've scattered chapters of a story into different categories. I don't think it helps ratings, but since we have categories it's probably best to engage in truth in advertising and put each chapter in whatever fits best.
 
I read your stories, so I know what you mean.

I agree with what you said about the different categories.

So, you think I should do Sci-fi even though the first part has NOTHING sci-fi in it? Honestly, it may be another 2 parts before it comes out. The main character doesn't know she has it, and the guy has to get close enough to her to discover it, which takes a while.
 
LadyMireille said:
I read your stories, so I know what you mean.

I agree with what you said about the different categories.

So, you think I should do Sci-fi even though the first part has NOTHING sci-fi in it? Honestly, it may be another 2 parts before it comes out. The main character doesn't know she has it, and the guy has to get close enough to her to discover it, which takes a while.
Click to expand...

Add a short authors note explaining that there are Sci Fi elements that will be established later in the story rather than in the beginning and that good things come to those who wait.
 
HisArpy said:
Add a short authors note explaining that there are Sci Fi elements that will be established later in the story rather than in the beginning and that good things come to those who wait.
Click to expand...

This. The readership is easygoing. So long as you get to the fantastic elements they're expecting in time, and provide a good story in the meantime, the S&F crowd will be fine with it.
 
RejectReality said:
This. The readership is easygoing. So long as you get to the fantastic elements they're expecting in time, and provide a good story in the meantime, the S&F crowd will be fine with it.
Click to expand...

Gah. I hope it's enough. It's not like magic or aliens or vampires.
 
I had the same problem. Started trying to categorise the stories, then found that by chapter 4, I was struggling. In the end, I moved the whole lot to Novels & Novellas.
I'm not suggesting you should do the same, but it's a way of keeping 'cross genre' stuff together.
 
You might consider a flashback style: start with a vignette that shows off some of the SF/F elements, then jump back to "one week before..." or whatever. Otherwise, if the story doesn't start out looking like a SF/F story, it may be hard for readers to figure out whether this is something that they want to invest time in.
 
LadyMireille said:
I am ready to post a story, but I am having trouble with which category to post in. ;)

The story is the first part of a multi-part story. As the story develops, it is revealed that there is more to some of the characters. Some of them have special qualities - not exactly super-powers... more like heightened senses, healing, etc. I believe that fits most in fantasy/sci-fi. But there is also a romance between two of the main characters, and they are--for all intents and purposes--humans.

My trouble is that Part 1 doesn't get into either the sci-fi part or the romance. It establishes the background of the main character and her relationship with her abusive boyfriend (who is basically out of the picture after this first part). There is a regular erotic sex scene and another sex scene, which starts out as him pleasing her, but then it turns more into more of a rough punishment (though she still experiences pleasure despite her anger and disgust with him treating her that way).

So... will it end up in non-com because of the second sex scene?

Should I request it be in sci-fi even though this part has nothing to do with sci-fi?

Or do I post in Novels and Novellas? CAN I post in there if I only have the one part written? The next is going to take me a while to finish because I have like 3 others already written and in need of editing and posting.

Advice, please! :)
Click to expand...
Frankly, if you have only one part of a multi-part story written, wait till you have at least a couple more parts written before submitting. Not much worse than reading ch 1 and waiting weeks for ch 2!
 
If you submit the story in separate chapters, you can put different chapters in different categories. Laurel might change the listings anyhow, to better fit the nature of the different categories. One problem with Novels and Novellas is they don't get as many reads as other categories.
 
Bramblethorn said:
You might consider a flashback style: start with a vignette that shows off some of the SF/F elements, then jump back to "one week before..." or whatever. Otherwise, if the story doesn't start out looking like a SF/F story, it may be hard for readers to figure out whether this is something that they want to invest time in.
Click to expand...
This is an interesting approach, but it's tough, I think, because it presupposes a level of patience some readers might not have. Not to say this is the author's fault . . . but this applies to a lot of categories, where more mature authors prefer to build a story gradually (rather than to inject something spicy into each and every chapter to justify the category).
 
RejectReality said:
This. The readership is easygoing. So long as you get to the fantastic elements they're expecting in time, and provide a good story in the meantime, the S&F crowd will be fine with it.
Click to expand...

Based on the OP's first comment, I'd be inclined to do this ^^^

The very fact of opening in the (later on) predominant category is going to immediately alert readers that, sooner or later, some sci-fi or fantasy elements are going to show up, regardless of the early content.

Writing a rivetting opener is going to grab readers no matter where you put the individual chapters, and the advantage of staying with the broad rather than the precise means more overall coherence to the story, I reckon.

Also, I sense (with zero empirical evidence) that readers in this category have a higher "squick" tolerance than some of the preciouses elsewhere. They're used to weird shit like tentacles and psychic warfare, so a bit of GM or anal (for example) isn't going to put them off their cornflakes.

Whereas, if you "category jump" but don't know the "rules" established by each set of (self-appointed) category police, you might attract some tedious "but I don't like it therefore it's crap" commentary.
 
Anal would barely blip their radar, but GM...

Yeah, you should warn about GM or Incest anywhere you post it outside those categories. The positive thing about S&F and Non Human is that the readership actually uses those warnings as intended, rather than a signpost to leave a 1 vote and nasty commentary as happens in some other categories.

If you warn them about content they're not going to enjoy, they'll either back away, or skip that scene if they've already been reading and enjoying a multi-chapter story.

Anal is a bit of a touchy subject in most categories, though. Incest readers aren't particularly fond of it, and they're vocal about that dislike. Though people don't seem to try it very often, I've seen some rather strong ( if politely worded ) rebukes of it in Romance. "You ruined it with the butt stuff" is not uncommon in most categories. The opposite of "Thank you for not ruining it with butt stuff" shows up quite often as well.

electricblue66 said:
Based on the OP's first comment, I'd be inclined to do this ^^^

The very fact of opening in the (later on) predominant category is going to immediately alert readers that, sooner or later, some sci-fi or fantasy elements are going to show up, regardless of the early content.

Writing a rivetting opener is going to grab readers no matter where you put the individual chapters, and the advantage of staying with the broad rather than the precise means more overall coherence to the story, I reckon.

Also, I sense (with zero empirical evidence) that readers in this category have a higher "squick" tolerance than some of the preciouses elsewhere. They're used to weird shit like tentacles and psychic warfare, so a bit of GM or anal (for example) isn't going to put them off their cornflakes.

Whereas, if you "category jump" but don't know the "rules" established by each set of (self-appointed) category police, you might attract some tedious "but I don't like it therefore it's crap" commentary.
Click to expand...
 
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