How Do You Measure Literotica "Success?"

[KeithD]

That is an achievement indeed!

It's happened 38 times.

https://search.literotica.com/?query=&categories=12&editorsChoice=true&page=1

 

[Spencerfiction]

Measuring success

I think you should be proud of your results, they do show that you have had success in your chosen field.

I must admit to have submitted twice as many stories, over 120 to date, and consider myself very lucky to have attracted 600 followers in my 6 years on Literotica. It took me about 6 months as a reader only before I tentatively entered a few of my own stories and, oh boy! did those early stories get savaged! That was a wake-up call, I can tell you, with some of the cruelest responses being very personal attacks. Then, about 3 or 4 months later, one of my stories which had absolutely no erotic element at all, hit a nerve and the response exceeded all my expectations. So, although initially put off, I felt I had some incentive to persist with submissions.

I still get hate mail on some of those old stories, I even had death threats for one story, which is why I rarely rush to read anonymous messages anymore, although I do read them all eventually and sometimes I'm moved to reply. I wonder if death threats counts as success, winding up a reader enough that they want to kill you? I'm still here, older, uglier, no wiser, so maybe that only goes to show you that maybe the pen is mightier than the sword (all the while you are anonymous and a deep ocean away from where settling grievances with deadly violence seems quite normal).

I leave those old stories there as tombstones to remind me that the Literotica audience are as tough to please as a Glaswegian crowd at a standup comedian/ienne routine, but if you do hit a particular tone that attracts a few heart warming comments, then I can discount all the rotten tomatoes and revel in smelling the odd bouquet.

So, my advice is to keep on writing, extend your range if you can or if you event want to, and enjoy the roller coaster of your success that many of us believe by any measure on here that you are already on.

I am not that prolific a writer, stories take me a long time to write and I do all of my own proofreading and editing. I don’t really consider myself a writer of erotica, as those stories I've written to fit into that genre have been among my least well received. I also publish most of my "stuff" on several web sites as well as formatted over twenty of them for paperbacks and ebooks, bit I find that publishing anywhere other than Literotica, I get very little response of any kind.

So I will continue to post stories on here because for me the success is measured by getting feedback, any feedback.

 

[LexxRuthless]

I suppose one of my measures of success is 6 Ws and two Es.

One W for an essay; one for a How-To; one for the special Free Speech contest; two for stories and now one for a poem.

One E for a story and one for a poem.

After getting a green E in Loving Wives, I guess there's no other level of success to need to seek here.

Those are certainly measures for success that I am lacking. I have steered well clear of contests and LW.

 

[ChloeTzang]

It's happened 38 times.

https://search.literotica.com/?query=&categories=12&editorsChoice=true&page=1

2001 thru 2010, so I guess not so much lately

 

[lovecraft68]

2001 thru 2010, so I guess not so much lately

LW used to be a very different category with fun and even romantic stories. The readership was better and more receptive, still more trolls than most categories, but there were more supportive readers/

When the cuck stuff and racist AF Black bull stories, BTB and humiliation and all around depravity started the readership turned into the mouth breathing scumbags that are there now and many of the decent authors left or started posting in other categories, now a lot of the authors there(not all mind you) but more than a few are as bad as the crowd

A green E means Laurel likes the stories, some categories will never get one as she doesn't care for them, I'm sure she no longer reads in LW.

I think she should come up with the skull and bones poison symbol and post that on most of the stories there.

 

[syn4321]

I'm enjoying that I feel better and better about my stories. But I ain't going to lie... The hearts, scores--and especially the follower count--those are fun to see doing well, to boot! Also the comments are a gas. I especially get a kick from happy readers! Recently, someone told me that one of my stories was their favorite EVER. Can't top that for a feeling, eh?

 

[EmilyMiller]

How Do You Measure Literotica "Success?"​

With a ruler. If it’s over 10” and thick (mustn’t forget the thick) then your doing good…

Em

 

[StillStunned]

With a ruler. If it’s over 10” and thick (mustn’t forget the thick) then your doing good…

Em

Hey, my wife always tells me size doesn't matter! She's very comforting about it.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Hey, my wife always tells me size doesn't matter! She's very comforting about it.

Oh, hun. That’s so sweet of her.

Emily

 

[StillStunned]

Oh, hun. That’s so sweet of her.

Emily

She says I have a lovely personality, and a great sense of humour.

 

[luv2custrip]

39 out of 60 works with the red H? Why can’t it be 40?

 

[EmilyMiller]

She says I have a lovely personality, and a great sense of humour.

Of course she does. And you know that women never lie.

Emily (double Nobel Laureate and Pulitzer Prize nominee for 2024)

 

[karina_jayde]

I measure my success in erotica if I get people off (which I've certainly succeeded at, given a few comments and feedback). I measure literary success if I inspire people to write or make them cry (which I've also succeeded at, given a few comments and some anonymous feedback I've received).

So by that metric I'm quite successful in terms of my own standards.

 

[Devinter]

Did @onehitwanda read your story? Then it was a success.

Everything else? Debatable.

Note: This post and opinion is not up for debate as I am sure OneHitWanda will eventually read it.

 

[onehitwanda]

Did @onehitwanda read your story? Then it was a success.

Everything else? Debatable.

Note: This post and opinion is not up for debate as I am sure OneHitWanda will eventually read it.

I read very few things any more - attention span of a crack-addled squirrel and too many of my own ideas and pictures running around upstairs.

 

[ElectricBlue]

It's a four year old necro-thread, people. Did no-one notice that?

 

[StillStunned]

It's a four year old necro-thread, people. Did no-one notice that?

We're holding a séance.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

It's a four year old necro-thread, people. Did no-one notice that?

There are so many of these popping up lately that hardly anyone reacts anymore. I've even used the image of Sandro the Necromancer on one of those but no one recognized him

 

[Devinter]

There are so many of these popping up lately that hardly anyone reacts anymore. I've even used the image of Sandro the Necromancer on one of those but no one recognized him

I love Sandro the Necromancer!

 

[ElectricBlue]

There are so many of these popping up lately that hardly anyone reacts anymore. I've even used the image of Sandro the Necromancer on one of those but no one recognized him

I think they're linked to spam bots. I've reported three blatant spam posts already this morning.

 

[la_ruche]

One would hope the people training AIs using this site would get smarter, but alas…

 

[intim8]

Honestly, one of the big reasons I write here is to improve my writing, to practice. So my measure of sucess is getting stories written and posted (limited success on that) that have feedback positive enough to know that I'm not just phoning it in or deluding myself (11/14 "H", and the others over 4.3, so doing OK on that one).

It's not the only reason, but it's the one I measure success by. Would like to win a contest one day though, and get a lot of followers. That would probably be my long term measure.

 

[lovecraft68]

One of the reasons for the nercro threads is this is what the site wanted.

They added a similar discussion/thread feature in the hopes of stopping new threads with the same topic over and over.

So if people bother to look as they're typing their topic they will see an older one and post to it.

Now, let's review.

People complain when we get multiple threads on the same topic.
People complain when posters bump old threads rather than add a new thread about the same topic.

A lose, lose situation.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

What - the royalty cheques aren’t enough?

 

[lovecraft68]

I think some people measure their Lit success by reaction score and number of posts.