What category to put stories in?

[Throwaway256897q6r72]

Hi all, as I continue to post more of my stories on here, I'm wondering if I'm placing them into the right category? As my series progresses, there's always the cheating aspect of it, but will also include group play, one-on-ones, swinging, and toys. Would Loving Wife's be better then erotic couplings like I've been doing? Will a story get flagged if it's in the wrong category?

Edit: also, what about different categories for the same series? One chapter goes into one, another chapter goes into a different one?

 

[AchtungNight]

No, but be careful of the audience in each category. I hear the Loving Wives category has nasty reviewers. Might want to try Group Sex or Toys if those tropes are prevalent in your tale.

 

[yowser]

The standard advice (discussed a fair amount in the AH) is to decide what the 'main' theme of the series is, and use that for the whole business. Not sure you have provided enough detail about the arc of your epic for much more useful advice than that.

The only exception I would offer (and many would disagree with this) is that if your series naturally belongs in LW (hotwife, cheating, marriage-centric) you can sometimes gain extra viewers (and avoid some of the toxicity common to LW readers) if you post some chapters in other categories.

More than once, I have submitted a story in one category to have it placed by admin in another. If you tell us a little more, we might be able to offer better guidance.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Although not all of my stories are written for mainstream publication, I approach them all as if they were.

This means that I treat every story as if it will eventually have a cover and all the pages bound within the jacket. Where would that finished book be placed in a bookstore or library? Just because my book on Mexico has a chapter that lists a few recipes, I wouldn't expect those pages to get yanked out and put in the cookbook section.

The same concept holds true for something like a series to be published in periodic segments within a magazine. I wouldn't expect some segments to be published in Vanity Fair, some in GQ, and some in Cosmo. Readers would go bonkers trying to keep up with the tale.

Just because Literotica allows for story segments to be posted in different categories doesn't mean that it is the correct thing to do.

 

[harkon9225]

Just because Literotica allows for story segments to be posted in different categories doesn't mean that it is the correct thing to do.

I agree, but apparently the admins/mods don't? One of my series had several chapters in the erotic couplings section. Then my latest chapter had a significant amount of group sex. If it was a standalone story, I would definitely have submitted it there. However, I still submitted it under erotic couplings, since that was where I put the rest of the series. The admin disagreed, changed the category to Group Sex without me realizing, and published the story like that.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I agree, but apparently the admins/mods don't? One of my series had several chapters in the erotic couplings section. Then my latest chapter had a significant amount of group sex. If it was a standalone story, I would definitely have submitted it there. However, I still submitted it under erotic couplings, since that was where I put the rest of the series. The admin disagreed, changed the category to Group Sex without me realizing, and published the story like that.

That is their prerogative.
In my opinion, keeping series parts in one category is limiting your viewership. If your first part is in Group, and the second in Mature, most readers are not unwilling to read another segment of the story in a category they don't usually visit. Choose the category you know fits it the best. Let people discover your work all over the place and then pull them in to read your other stuff.

 

[Abbafan]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but there also seems to be a hierarchy with the categories, at least for the ones that might be considered more controversial.

Like a submission (story chapter or self contained) with a lot of erotic coupling type encounters but there's a BDSM incident could wind up in BDSM.

A mostly BDSM story but with a scene between a brother and sister could be put into the incest/taboo category. And so on. I hope I explained that decently.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I agree, but apparently the admins/mods don't? One of my series had several chapters in the erotic couplings section. Then my latest chapter had a significant amount of group sex. If it was a standalone story, I would definitely have submitted it there. However, I still submitted it under erotic couplings, since that was where I put the rest of the series. The admin disagreed, changed the category to Group Sex without me realizing, and published the story like that.

Generally speaking, when the site does a category shift like that, it's because the Editor reckons your story will run better in their nominated category.

If you violently disagree, resubmit the story as an edit, and ask for the category to be changed back to EC. It'll take a couple of weeks, but if you argue the case, it might be worth it in the long run.

 

[harkon9225]

Generally speaking, when the site does a category shift like that, it's because the Editor reckons your story will run better in their nominated category.

If you violently disagree, resubmit the story as an edit, and ask for the category to be changed back to EC. It'll take a couple of weeks, but if you argue the case, it might be worth it in the long run.

Nah, I don't disagree or mind that much. Like I said, if it was standalone, I would have put it into that category myself. Just interesting to see that rather than kick it back to me and tell me to change the category, they just did it themselves was all.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

Although not all of my stories are written for mainstream publication, I approach them all as if they were.

This means that I treat every story as if it will eventually have a cover and all the pages bound within the jacket. Where would that finished book be placed in a bookstore or library? Just because my book on Mexico has a chapter that lists a few recipes, I wouldn't expect those pages to get yanked out and put in the cookbook section.

The same concept holds true for something like a series to be published in periodic segments within a magazine. I wouldn't expect some segments to be published in Vanity Fair, some in GQ, and some in Cosmo. Readers would go bonkers trying to keep up with the tale.

Just because Literotica allows for story segments to be posted in different categories doesn't mean that it is the correct thing to do.

True. That's only really a problem if one is looking for it all. The next chapters are linked in the chapters themselves and somebody determined to read the whole thing won't really notice they're catagory jumping, following the links in the story itself.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but there also seems to be a hierarchy with the categories, at least for the ones that might be considered more controversial.

Like a submission (story chapter or self contained) with a lot of erotic coupling type encounters but there's a BDSM incident could wind up in BDSM.

A mostly BDSM story but with a scene between a brother and sister could be put into the incest/taboo category. And so on. I hope I explained that decently.

Well I guess you could say certain ones trump others because they either are specific or broad. To be honest, practically anything can go in fetish, a number of things could go in erotic coupling. While Incest is specific in itself, that there has to be incest, you could even say it's "inversely broad", that as long as it's incest it goes there. BDSM is a broad catagory in of itself. It seems like an incest bdsm story would be a quandry, but the incest trumps it probably everytime and it won't matter that it's a bdsm story, because it's incest. Also bdsm readers won't wanna read incest either. Probably depending on how it's written, it's least likely to clash and be something to really think about, such as a story with incest, but one of them is transgender, would- both being specific catagories, unlike fairly broad ones that could overlap, like fetish, EC, romance, bdsm.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

Nah, I don't disagree or mind that much. Like I said, if it was standalone, I would have put it into that category myself. Just interesting to see that rather than kick it back to me and tell me to change the category, they just did it themselves was all.

She won't do that, it's more convenient to do it herself. Any other issues is on you, though.

 

[alohadave]

Would Loving Wife's be better then erotic couplings like I've been doing?

I've been reading your stories as they come out. LW is not the right place for your stories.

They are pretty simple cheating stories, the wife doesn't even have any dialogue, so she's barely part of the story, except as an obstacle to his hookups.

I haven't taken notice of what category you are posting in since see them in the New list, but Erotic Couplings is the most appropriate category IMO if you are in doubt.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I agree, but apparently the admins/mods don't? One of my series had several chapters in the erotic couplings section. Then my latest chapter had a significant amount of group sex. If it was a standalone story, I would definitely have submitted it there. However, I still submitted it under erotic couplings, since that was where I put the rest of the series. The admin disagreed, changed the category to Group Sex without me realizing, and published the story like that.

This is one of the many advantages of completely finishing a story before posting any parts of it. Laurel is able to judge the work as a whole and place it accordingly.

 

[Throwaway256897q6r72]

Thank you all for your replies. Lots of good insights in here.

 

[AchtungNight]

My advice- look for the most prevalent category. The Tiffany category, let’s call it. Most of my stories here are in Celebrity, which also includes fanfics. I have also written various other genres in these stories. My Conviction fanfic includes Lesbian sex, for example. Passion Ch. 1 is a First Time story. Ch. 2 goes Anal & Interracial. Ch. 3 goes Lesbian, also Mature and Voyeur. Ch. 4 brings in Exhibitionism, Group Sex, and Taboo with a dash of Loving Wives. All these stories are Satire. All have characters based on Celebrities in adult situations. Celebrity is the Tiffany category.

For another example, my story Snakes in Taipei involves a male human main character getting with a female main character who may be a were-snake in human form. It’s his public First Time (previous experience with Taboo he can’t publicize), she’s an escort. Swinging is involved, so are voyeurs. And there are various other Fetishes. It’s also a Satire. The category that best fit was Erotic Couplings. I may have gotten lower ratings for not posting in First Time, Non Human, or elsewhere, but I didn’t want to build up the appropriate angle. Them’s the breaks.

 

[BrightShinyGirl]

Over the last few months, I've been writing 100-word micro-stories for a Writers' Challenge thread. Now that I'm nearing 100 of them, I want publish them all together in one big 10,000 word story.

The big question is: Which category? They're all over the place--gay, lesbian, straight, romance, cheating, exhibitionism, group sex, time travel, space aliens, masturbation. The only thing they have in common is that they're all erotic and they're all exactly 100 words long (including their titles).

Where do I put this Frankenstein's monster of a story?

 

[Bamagan]

Over the last few months, I've been writing 100-word micro-stories for a Writers' Challenge thread. Now that I'm nearing 100 of them, I want publish them all together in one big 10,000 word story.

The big question is: Which category? They're all over the place--gay, lesbian, straight, romance, cheating, exhibitionism, group sex, time travel, space aliens, masturbation. The only thing they have in common is that they're all erotic and they're all exactly 100 words long (including their titles).

Where do I put this Frankenstein's monster of a story?

Horror, obviously.
Joking aside, probably EC.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Over the last few months, I've been writing 100-word micro-stories for a Writers' Challenge thread. Now that I'm nearing 100 of them, I want publish them all together in one big 10,000 word story.

The big question is: Which category? They're all over the place--gay, lesbian, straight, romance, cheating, exhibitionism, group sex, time travel, space aliens, masturbation. The only thing they have in common is that they're all erotic and they're all exactly 100 words long (including their titles).

Where do I put this Frankenstein's monster of a story?

Erotic Couplings - it's the catch all.

 

[RejectReality]

EC is what I did with my micros.

 

[alohadave]

I do wonder how the professionals do it though.

Granted, I am not a professional and do not aspire to become one. The advice given above is what I follow myself.

But I can't help but wonder: how do they do it?

They have contracts to fulfill and deadlines to meet and rent to pay. They can't afford to wait for their muses to return.

Maybe partly it's a matter of margin? They're good enough that their half-hearted, hung-over, phoned-in pablum is still publishable, where ours is not?

Or maybe it's a matter of consistency? Not for the Ted Chiangs of the world, but for Steven King and K. A. Applegate and so on. They've trained themselves to churn out serviceable, workmanlike stuff under all conditions. When they're good, they're great, and when they're not, they're still okay.

They treat it like the job that it is and work at it.

Just like you go to work every day even if you don't feel motivated to do so, a professional writer writes.

Look up some interviews with Stephen King or Nora Roberts. They write more and faster than most, but they do the same thing as every other professional. They write every day.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

Sure, I can force myself to write too. I just can't force myself to write well. (And I have tried.) How do they do that?