Yeah, it's kind of like those Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. Sometimes you get breastmilk and hot wax, other times you get toe jam and smegma.
I believe the people who regularly check that category for content (I am one) are probably more likely than the general population of LE readers to go tag diving.
Still, the author would be wise to call out the specific fetish via title and/or description in such a widely ranging category. It's inevitably going to attract more of the readers who will enjoy it that way. It's the same reason you call out the specific coupling in Incest. Get them up front and don't make them work for it. If you don't make it obvious and someone two slots down does, that's where the readers are going to gravitate. If that story doesn't fail them, they may never get around to finding out what yours is about.
You won't get any argument from me that that's a good practice, but checking the tags is still something I do on anything in that category, even if the description seems pretty clear. So I can kind of understand a writer making the assumption that the tags will take care of covering the fetish content and trying to do something clever with the title/description. They might be wrong, but they also might not be as concerned about votes and comments as the people who hang out in these forums. A lot of the stuff I run across there is by non-prolific authors.
At a guess, I'd say a lot of the authors are hoping to avoid people assuming that their story is just whatever fetish is mentioned or alluded to in the title/description, so they focus on some other aspect of their story to try and draw people in, with the assumption that fetishists will know how to filter for their kinks.
Lipstick on a pig may be a relevant aphorism to drop here.
Even if it is a masterfully told story that has much more than just the fetish going for it, you show that to a lot more people when you let them know that you're delivering what they're looking for.
Although I've not posted anything in the Fetish category, I mostly write fetishy stuff, and I expect that in the long run most people who find them accidentally will be doing tag searches. So if they're looking for, say, petplay, the lack of it in the title is not necessarily a drawback. I usually do try to mention it, as I agree it's a good practice, but with less than a tweet's worth of words, I don't worry unduly about what nuances I can't convey.
I was actually trying to imply that the stories in question were just getting dressed up to try to look more 'literary,' often not deservedly.
Simply writing a kink story is owning the kink. Or so I would contend. Doesn't matter how well-publicized it is.
There's some level of this I see in other places, but nowhere near to the extent I see here. It's as if some sort of self-defeating sub-culture has emerged where everyone is racing to the bottom to see how few people they can get to open their story.
You have a point there, I kind of lump them into 'feet' but it is its own thing
Yeah, and have fun with it. my two stories in fetish are titled "Under The Mistle-Toe" and "Paid by the Foot"
They typically go together with mine as well, but there are distinct fetishes for both. They just happen to naturally intersect. So long as you're covering both, you can bring both sets of readers along for the ride. Talk about the exquisite pedicure beneath the nylon, but don't forget to describe that unique feeling and sound of nylon sliding over skin. Give them equal focus.
Never leave out of delicious sound of nylons being torn....or the sound of rough hands grating down the smooth stockings(something my wife enjoys)
I write three sort of fetish stories smoking, drinking and wetting. The latter has the highest scores every time.
I'm much more casual with both fetishes. It's a mood thing. I typically don't get as deeply into the foot part of it that the real hardcore people do. Going down that rabbit hole you get into smelly feet, dirty feet, smashing things with your feet, etc.
