How Do You Measure Literotica "Success?"

[LexxRuthless]

There are a ton of numbers we can look at for our stories. Do any of them "mean more" when it comes to measuring your success as an author?

I just hit my two-year anniversary writing and submitting stories to this site. My first chapter of my first series went "live" on May 25, 2018. On May 19 of this year, my 55 submissions reached a combined total of 7 million views. That seems like a lot, but there are nine individual stories that have more views than that. None of my submissions has yet reached 400k views. I also understand that "views" does not equate to people actually reading my stories. No idea what that would work out to as a ratio. My stories have accumulated just over 94,000 votes at this point. Maybe that's a better benchmark? People have added my stories to their favorites 11,666 times. That's good, right?

I've had a few stories spend months on the first page of the "Anal" category's Hall of Fame. However, I am aware that category has a lot of vote manipulation--or perhaps it's just more obvious there because there are fewer stories. There are certainly better stories than mine in that category with lower scores. Overall, my scores are pretty good, but over time I have become aware what a crap-shoot that is. If you happen to post a story on the wrong morning, and the trolls are particularly hungry... Nom! Nom! Nom!

It will take a long time for the score on that story to recover. Plus, of course, I have steered clear of "Loving Wives" as a category.

Today, I have...3970 followers. I can still recall looking at the number of followers I had three months in. I thought, "What does that mean, really?" Then I looked at some of my favorite authors and laughed at myself. Whatever number of followers I had at that point seemed paltry compared to the authors I was following, but those included Silkstockingslover, HeyAll, TxTallTales, TryAnything and DesurtDawg.

It isn't like I hear from most of my followers. I try to post updates on my Author Profile to keep them up to date with what I'm doing. If I look at the "Favoritest Authors" list (https://www.literotica.com/stories/favauthorsv2.php), I see I'm among the top 60--already ahead of a lot of authors I admire the hell out of and have enjoyed reading here for years. That's flattering, and a little ridiculous really. (And it's not like anyone's ever going to catch Jasmine for followers at the top of that list!)

In short, I feel like I have been successful at this, but I wonder how YOU measure success. Do ANY of these numbers really matter?

 

[KeithD]

Literotica is too much of a wide-open Web site for me to be concerned about what "Literotica success" would be.

 

[NotWise]

I suppose the way you measure success depends on what your goals were. You have some flashy numbers, and if getting flashy numbers was your goal, then pick a stat. They all look good.

 

[SimonDoom]

Well, first of all, LexxRuthless, I think it's fair to say that you have been very successful by almost any measure at Literotica, and you should feel good about that.

You've published 24 more stories than I have even though you didn't get started until about a year and a half after I did. Your stories get a lot of views and it looks like almost all of your stories have high scores. I've only read a few of your stories but it's obvious that you have storytelling ability and that readers like your stories. 3970 followers is a lot, especially for someone who's only been publishing for 2 years. I've been publishing for 3 1/2 years and have less than 2/3 that number.

Like me, you publish many of your stories in the incest category, so you (and I) get many more readers, favorites, and followers than you would if you published mostly in other categories. So to some extent the numbers, taken alone, don't represent success except to the extent they show you are publishing stories of the type that a great many readers want to read. There's nothing wrong with that, IMO, but it means it's hard to compare numbers and success across categories.

I've thought a lot about your question, and here's what "success" here means to me. Basically, two things.

One, I want the personal, artistic satisfaction of writing stories I like, that meet my own artistic standards, and I want to feel like I keep getting better at doing this. This type of success has very little to do with any stats. Feedback can be useful to the extent it reveals to me things I could have done to make my story better, or things that I did well that perhaps I didn't know for sure I did well. But comments and stats are at best very minor and imperfect reflections of this sort of success.

Second, I want my stories to reach out to and be read by as many people as possible who might like them. I see publication as a communicative act. I could finish my stories and put them in a drawer and more or less fulfill goal number 1, but I want more than that. Stats are very, very helpful toward letting me know if I have achieved this second goal, but they're not everything.

So, for example, I feel more sure that I've achieved success if my story has 50,000 views and a score of 4.55 than I do if my story has 5,000 views and a score of 4.75. Why? Because my story in situation one probably has achieved the goal of being read by more people who like it. It probably has more favorites. If I felt that the higher score reflected the actually higher worth of the story I might disagree with this, but I don't feel that way. Most of the time, I think it reflects other things.

So, anyway, cheers to your success!

 

[lovecraft68]

Congrats on the two years and moving up the lists and 55 stories in two years is pretty impressive.

I think success would be in the form of what are your personal goals and are you achieving them? You can have long term goals like the fav lists or a top list or you can have story goals where you try to achieve a certain style or get a certain reaction from the readers.

I don't have any aspirations on lit at this time. The last couple years I've focused a lot more on the pay market and toss a couple stories up here a year to have a presence and to thank the readers who follow me, both old and new.

If success here is judged by numbers or contest wins top lists etc...I've done okay here, but the thrill of favs/comments/ red H's is nowhere near the rush of sales and $$$ and at cons getting to sell my books in person.

 

[oggbashan]

Success for me is finishing and posting a story.

Once posted, it is up to the readers to decide whether it works for them or not. I've moved on to the next story.

 

[ElectricBlue]

You seem to be doubting yourself, Lexx, in some way. I can't see why - in two years those figures are astonishing, and your output, 55 stories, is pretty amazing. As Simon notes, you've chosen I&T as your primary category of choice, so if you wanted eyes on pages, that category worked for you.

Move away from Lit's favourite category and you'll get another frame of reference.

My question for you is, are you writing what you want to write? If you are, then aren't you your own measure of success?

If you're a slave to your audience though, that might be different - I don't know anything about that because sheer volume means nothing to me. My measure of success is the comments I get back telling me I've touched someone deeply - not just those who say "Wow," but those who take a little more time to say, "Why."

Cudos, though, for your success. Well earned and a lot of work, I'd say .

 

[MelissaBaby]

I'll never have millions of readers, and that's fine with me. I am happy for your success, but my metric is completely different. I measure success in three ways: whether or not I feel I wrote a good story, whether my loyal readers feel they were presented with a good effort and whether or not the small group of my fellow writers respect what I have achieved.

I feel more successful by achieving those goals and getting a few thousand views than I would getting a million views and not doing so.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Success? On Lit? Just publishing a story here and that it is the story I wanted to tell.

Like Ogg said, once it's published, I move on to the next one if my muse will let me.

 

[UsuallyPresent]

My answer is simple. The metric is, "Am I having fun?"

Thus far the answer's 'Yes!"

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Success? It’s the big cheque which I’m sure will be coming in the mail any day now. Yeah, yeah, I know it’s overdue, but that’s only ‘cause the Plague has slowed down mail deliveries, right?

 

[gunhilltrain]

Success? On Lit? Just publishing a story here and that it is the story I wanted to tell.

Like Ogg said, once it's published, I move on to the next one if my muse will let me.

Sometimes I will rewrite an old story, often extensively, and publish it elsewhere. Yes, the newer versions are better I think. I guess it's a matter of having gained experience.

For the original poster: nearly 4,000 followers is amazing. I have about the same number of submissions and I have thirty-two. That's actually fine with me.

I define success as getting published and not being laughed off the page. Sometimes people like my stuff, sometimes they don't. It can be the subject matter at times. My parodies of Dr. Phil didn't go over that well. From a couple of comments, I concluded that Phil and his self-important advice shtick are not well-liked here. I still liked the stories anyway.

 

[Enchantment_of_Nyx]

I wonder if the greatest Lit successes are the writers who never get more than a mediocre score, aren't within sniffing distance of a red H, have triple-digit views, and can count their followers on one hand, but still keep writing.

They're not chasing the stats or living for the kudos. They're not running on the wheel for virtual cheese. The only possible incentive they have is that they enjoy doing it. If success is measured by fulfillment without external gratification, they are the purest form of success.

People should be proud of their scores and whatever metrics are important to them, but thinking from time to time of that more internal form of success keeps things in perspective.

I'm as guilty as any other persnickety reader of being irritated by bad writing, so I thought this was a good opportunity to step back and admire these writers' perseverance, internalized measures of success, and enjoyment of their own stories.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I wonder if the greatest Lit successes are the writers who never get more than a mediocre score, aren't within sniffing distance of a red H, have triple-digit views, and can count their followers on one hand, but still keep writing.

They're not chasing the stats or living for the kudos. They're not running on the wheel for virtual cheese. The only possible incentive they have is that they enjoy doing it. If success is measured by fulfillment without external gratification, they are the purest form of success.

People should be proud of their scores and whatever metrics are important to them, but thinking from time to time of that more internal form of success keeps things in perspective.

I'm as guilty as any other persnickety reader of being irritated by bad writing, so I thought this was a good opportunity to step back and admire these writers' perseverance, internalized measures of success, and enjoyment of their own stories.

Good point.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

As soon as someone tells me something like 'I don't understand what you're saying' I go 'Yes!' and do that thing with your closed hand pulling downwards, you know, that thing the kids all do.

Keeping the barbarians OUT. That's me.

 

[HeyAll]

Probably favorite authors, then story favs tied with votes on a story.

If the amount of votes on a story per catagory remain constant, then that's a great sign that people like your work and remember you and want to keep reading.

As for score, it's more of a way of making the story look good. A lot of great stories have low scores for whatever reason.

 

[KeithD]

Sometimes I will rewrite an old story, often extensively, and publish it elsewhere. Yes, the newer versions are better I think. I guess it's a matter of having gained experience.

Particularly satisfying when you can bring a whole new and different focus to the story, as originally written. Fun to put the two together for comparison of theme delivery.

 

[Blind_Justice]

Success? The last year was pretty spectacular for me. There are actual people out there giving me money in exchange for more writing. Not enough to splurge it on coke and hookers just yet, but more than I earned this time last year. I've published my 50th submission last weekend and I have a ton of Red H's despite doing my own weird thing.

I'd like to see one of my stories in the SF/F HoF for more than a few days, but given some very precise snipers, my scores usually stay just below the astronomical 4,89 they need to get there.

 

[TxRad]

If you're writing is getting better with each story then you have succeeded on Lit.

At first, to me, Lit was a training ground. Now it is a fun outlet for fantasies.

 

[vanmyers86]

By pretty much any Lit metric you care to name, you've surpassed many, if not most, of us, including me. I can only dream of having that many followers and views. Well done, you!

I measure success partly by reader reaction (otherwise why post at all?), but also by my own internal criteria: Did I craft a good story? Did I try something new while writing it? Did it challenge me in some way, and did I meet that challenge? In many ways, I still consider myself an apprentice in this world, and my goal with any given piece is to learn, deepen and grow as a storyteller, as well as to entertain.

 

[Rustyoznail]

My answer is simple. The metric is, "Am I having fun?"

Thus far the answer's 'Yes!"

That’s my answer. The red H is a bonus.

 

[BelleCanzuto]

My answer is simple. The metric is, "Am I having fun?"

Thus far the answer's 'Yes!"

That’s my answer. The red H is a bonus.

I'm with Usually and Rusty on this one.

I passed my first anniversary here at the end of March. I have 147 followers, a third of whom started following me in the last two months. I have 22 stories posted. I have one story on the HoF for my main category, and another that would/will be, if/when I get 16 more votes (assuming those votes don't substantially reduce the current score).

Combined views for all my stories? Maybe 200K (I'm not going to bother to add them up).

These are all paltry numbers compared to Lexx's. And I'm ok with that. The category I write in most often is one of the least viewed. But it's my kink; I enjoy reading and writing those kinds of stories.

How do I define success? It really is just a matter of whether I'm still enjoying myself, and if *I* think there's an improvement in my skill.
I love thoughtful feedback from readers; I like any kind of feedback, because as EB notes, it shows that I've elicited some sort of reaction from the reader.

Two years ago, I couldn't imagine writing anything, I just didn't think I had that skill set. I could tell stories, but those were usually short and humorous. That I've spent as much time as I have, writing as many stories as I have, and that I've gotten the generally positive response that I have? That's success to me.

But, let me add my congratulations to Lexx. I think by any metric you listed, you're successful. I hope you feel the same way about yourself.

 

[CoffeeWithMonkeys]

I remember eons ago there was a radio interview with Geddy Lee and the DJ said, Let's go out with a hit, to which Geddy said A hit, we don't have any...or something like that.

So success, I don't have any!
I got rid of all my stories here months ago and in that time I think three people have contacted me asking if I planned to resubmit them or if I had them any other place.

Seriously though, my advice, don't let self-doubt eat at you. If you wrote something and you like it, great! If other people like it, even better!

 

[LexxRuthless]

I think I've allowed the numbers to lead me astray. It's the reason I brought it up in the first place. When I look over my submissions to this point, it's a little embarrassing to have such a large proportion of them in the I/T category. I made the mistake of thinking those stories were "better" than the other stuff I had been writing, simply because those first few I/T stories and chapters got a ton more views, lots of positive comments, and attracted followers like mad.

I can look at those numbers and think, "See, it's working!" But I have to wonder if I wouldn't be writing better stories if I hadn't let those numbers guide me each time I've sat down to write something new.

I'm still having fun with it, so I guess that counts.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

My answer is simple. The metric is, "Am I having fun?"

Thus far the answer's 'Yes!"

This.