How to proceed: categorization and "parts"

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Sep 17, 2018
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Hi everyone,

I'm a very new writer on Literotica, and my first story, Hostess at Ladies Night was well received so far, so I'm very glad about that.

I'm writing a sequel to it at the moment, but I'd like some input on these two things.

1. Categorization
1.1 I'm not sure whether my story actually should belong in Lesbian Sex (it's All Girl, but it leans somewhat heavily towards BDSM I suppose); from just glancing over it (I'm not expecting you to read the whole thing), where do you think it belongs?
1.2 My sequel leans towards BDSM (or rather, humiliation) even more, even though the whole thing will be All Girl throughout. Do you think it would be wise to keep it in the Lesbian Sex category, or just pick a different category for it per part?
1.3 "Part 3" that I'm planning to write even leans towards DubCon/NonCon. Is it wise from a publishing point of view to put that under yet another category? It's just generally hard to categorize the story, I suppose. I'm not sure what the effect will be on followers and what not, however.

2. "Parts"
I didn't intend the story to be a multi part story from the start, but once I published it I just kept thinking about it, and I'm far into writing a sequel now. But should I publish this as a separate story, or should I simply introduce "Part 2" now? I'm thinking that since the first part was very much centered around a certain Club, and the sequel isn't, perhaps it can be a different story. But I'd really like to hear your thoughts.

Thanks so much in advance!

- S
 
Here's my two cents. Feel free to ignore:
* If you're going to do a series, do at least four chapters. If you're only doing chapters 1 and 2 (which I did on my first story), post it as one big story
* If you change categories in your second story, you're going to lose most of your audience as Lesbian readers mostly don't read BDSM, BDSM readers most don't read Lesbian, and most people aren't interested in reading the second chapter when they haven't seen the first
* So I'd either post each story as a stand-alone story; or I'd delete the first story, repost it in the category that best fits all the chapters with a note saying it's a repost, and then post the other chapters in that category
 
You will always have categorisation issues when you mix content, so I would prepare stand-alone stories and drop them into the most appropriate category. I wouldn't bother re-categorizing your first story - it's probably in the right place. 8Letters is right - your planned bdsm content could just be a squick for some lesbian readers, so you might as well target a new audience.

If you use the same characters, or some of the same characters with new partners, you could do what I've done with my Floating World series - call them Parts rather than Chapters so they cluster together on your story list, but with different categories.

Always categorize by the major theme, noting that Laurel (the site editor) may re-categorize regardless.
 
Thanks a whole lot, both of you, much appreciated!

If you're going to do a series, do at least four chapters. If you're only doing chapters 1 and 2 (which I did on my first story), post it as one big story

Yep, I'm planning to do at least four chapters/parts. But they'll all have a kind of different vibe to it.

If you use the same characters, or some of the same characters with new partners, you could do what I've done with my Floating World series - call them Parts rather than Chapters so they cluster together on your story list, but with different categories.

This sounds quite useful, I didn't know you could do that! I think I'll go down that road. So basically by just using that naming convention, they are clustered together?

Always categorize by the major theme, noting that Laurel (the site editor) may re-categorize regardless.

Right, I think I'll also need to just become a bit more stubborn. The story is what the story is, and I'll categorize appropriately, without worrying too much about losing readers. It's a niche story anyway.

Thanks again!
 
Read this article about categories. It's the best summary of categories and how to navigate them on Literotica that I know:

https://literotica.com/s/love-your-readers-categories

It's worth reading.

The key point is that some categories "trump" others, meaning if A is a "trump" category and B is not, and your story has both A and B, you put it in A, or, if you don't, the site administrator may do so anyway. This hierarchy is based upon the peculiar but strongly-held preferences of Literotica viewers.

Although it's not a hard and fast rule, it's better to publish all chapters of a multi-chapter story in the same category, so you don't lose picky readers along the way. In the case of your story, I'd recommend publishing all chapters in Lesbian Sex if they'll all fit.
 
Oh no, this makes sense too! Now everything is different but everything makes sense!

It's worth reading.

I've read it, thanks a bunch! The "trumping categories" concept definitely makes sense. Some categories/aspects have to be treated very delicately, and non-con is definitely one of them. And given that my story tends to include at least DubCon, it is likely to put off BDSM people as well (as they're quite strict on the consensual thing apparently), and applying the trumping concept to this, it shouldn't belong in the Lesbian Sex category either, as NonCon trumps "all the others".

So I think my next part should at least end up in NonCon, and I'll leave the other one where it is. Perhaps I can mention in an intro somewhere that this is an all female story, to at least inform that crowd.
 
This sounds quite useful, I didn't know you could do that! I think I'll go down that road. So basically by just using that naming convention, they are clustered together?
Yes. If you look at my story page (there's a link below), you'll see how I use the story title and subtitle to cluster work together.

The Floating World has a common character, Adam, throughout, but different protagonists in each story. He is present in the whole "world arc" - to coin a phrase - but the stories themselves are only loosely related to each other.

In the Library and The Dark Chronicles, on the other hand, are both long stories broken down into chapters.

You can see the naming convention used to cluster the stories together.
 
2. "Parts"
I didn't intend the story to be a multi part story from the start, but once I published it I just kept thinking about it, and I'm far into writing a sequel now. But should I publish this as a separate story, or should I simply introduce "Part 2" now? I'm thinking that since the first part was very much centered around a certain Club, and the sequel isn't, perhaps it can be a different story. But I'd really like to hear your thoughts.

I'm sometimes a bit annoyed when I find good stories at lit that make sense to be read in chronological order but aren't named that way. I sometimes end up reading the sequel before the first part then and get spoilered, or I have to look closely at the publishing date to find out the correct sequence (and hope that none of the parts was updated out of sequence). So from the position of a lazy reader, I say go for part 2 :)

Oh, and I'm looking forward to your next installment. :kiss:
 
The Floating World has a common character, Adam, throughout, but different protagonists in each story. He is present in the whole "world arc" - to coin a phrase - but the stories themselves are only loosely related to each other.

Ah yes, I can see how this works, I will do this as well, thanks again!

...from the position of a lazy reader, I say go for part 2

I definitely will, after all, this isn't really about any sort of purism, it's about readers finding my stories. And the way I'm writing the sequel, it makes much more sense to have read the first part before you start reading it.

Oh, and I'm looking forward to your next installment.

Thank you, that's kind of you :)
 
I think Tx Tall Tales is spot on with trump categories. I am writing a near future story that has terms of slavery as punishment for crimes. I personally think any forced slavery story should always be in noncon/reluctance. I saw a debt slavery story listed as BDSM, and the comments were...not kind.
 
I personally think any forced slavery story should always be in noncon/reluctance.

I definitely agree. What I'm struggling with there though, is that I play around with dub-con elements mostly. So strictly it might not be non-con, but it might be frowned upon in other categories still (although readers from those categories might also find it a turn on, more than actual non-con perhaps; that makes it difficult for me).
 
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