New Lit Writer struggling with categories

I am having trouble classifying my stories. My first one I submitted is primarily between father and daughter, so I slapped it into the incest category. However upcoming chapters will involve exhibitionism, bdsm, group sex, even romance. Should they still go into incest?

Also, I am working on a series involving the journey of a homeless girl to prostitute set in the 20s. Again, different chapters will have varying elements. I have no idea where I will put it though.

Any ideas on how to sort this out?

sinfuldeeds said:

I am having trouble classifying my stories. My first one I submitted is primarily between father and daughter, so I slapped it into the incest category. However upcoming chapters will involve exhibitionism, bdsm, group sex, even romance. Should they still go into incest?

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Provided they are all between father and daughter, yeah all should go to Incest. If a story has incest + anything else, it goes to incest simply because readers in other categories won't be pleasantly surprised to see it. I'll admit there are stories which are exceptions, but they are few and far between.

For a more detailed explanation, check out TTT's article on categories.

Also, I am working on a series involving the journey of a homeless girl to prostitute set in the 20s. Again, different chapters will have varying elements. I have no idea where I will put it though.

Any ideas on how to sort this out?

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Again, refer to TTT's article above. If there isn't a single overwhelmingly unifying theme through the series, you can even put each individual chapter in a category best suited to it.

Hope that helped.

I was looking for just such an article before I posted here, but couldn't find one! Thanks so much!

Yep. Don't split the story up between categories. Readers who see "Daddy Dearest pt. 2" and pt. 3, and pt. 4 in each of those other categories might not read it not only because incest is part of it, but because it's pt. 2 or pt. 4, and they don't know where pt. 1 or pt. 3 is. Meanwhile, the incest folk who read pt. 1 will be saying, "Where's pt. 2, pt. 3, pt. 4....?"

In short, it just confuses the issue to split the thing up among other categories. And, as said, so long as the incest is a part of all those other parts, then to incest it should go. Those who like incest really like it, and those who don't really don't. So the incest readers will deal with other categories, but other categories won't like the incest.

In the end Laurel has the last say in category selection.

TxRad said:

In the end Laurel has the last say in category selection.

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^^^^^Our Captain Obvious.

Not obvious to someone new.

3113 said:

Yep. Don't split the story up between categories. Readers who see "Daddy Dearest pt. 2" and pt. 3, and pt. 4 in each of those other categories might not read it not only because incest is part of it, but because it's pt. 2 or pt. 4, and they don't know where pt. 1 or pt. 3 is. Meanwhile, the incest folk who read pt. 1 will be saying, "Where's pt. 2, pt. 3, pt. 4....?"

In short, it just confuses the issue to split the thing up among other categories. And, as said, so long as the incest is a part of all those other parts, then to incest it should go. Those who like incest really like it, and those who don't really don't. So the incest readers will deal with other categories, but other categories won't like the incest.

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A simple note at the beginning with a brief explanation will do.

Handley_Page said:

A simple note at the beginning with a brief explanation will do.

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Not always, and I know of what I speak here. I had a very low scoring third story (third in the same universe) because I moved it to BDSM instead of keeping it in Gay Male. And yes, I had a note at the beginning of it, and at the beginning of the fourth story in the series indicating where story #3 could be found.

NO ONE read story #3 because the BDSM folk weren't interested in the Gay Male part of the story, and the Gay Male readers thought, mistakenly, that there was going to be less or no Gay Male as I'd put it in BDSM. Meanwhile, Stories #1, #2, #4, all in Gay Male, did great.

And I can't blame readers as I've done the same myself. I've seen stories that were pt. 4 & pt. 5 favorite category and not read them because there didn't seem to be a pt 1, pt. 2, pt.3. Even if the writer told me those parts were in other categories, I didn't want to bother reading them as they weren't in the category I wanted to read.

There are, in the end, so many stories here, that readers don't need to bother with stories that are going to make them jump category to category. Why should they bother with such stories when there are plenty of multi-part stories that remain in one category, making it easy and letting the reader know that, whatever else is i the story, the thing they most want to read about will be in all those parts?

I jumped categories with one early series because 1) each chapter DID have a different focus, and 2) I though I'd pick up readers from more categories. Big mistake. I've since moved all the chapters into the same category and they're doing better. Another early series was all in Group Sex but I added internal chapters in Novels-Novellas, where they got good scores but many fewer views. I may move all those to Group also. Hey, it's all a learning process...