Which category do you think readers prefer the most?

[Light_Yagami]

What is the Chain story category?

In which story should we use Erotic coupling?

What is exhibitionist and voyeur?

Where to use "How To"?

What is illustration?

When to use Taboo/Incest?

What is Interracial Love?

What is Letters and Transcripts?

What is a loving wife? What is the best way to use this category?

What is considered as Mature?

What is NonHuman?

What are Novels and Novellas?

What are Reviews and essays?

Lastly, which category is dead, and which one does readers like the most?

 

[Katie_Mae]

https://www.literotica.com/s/love-your-readers-categories

 

[mildlyaroused]

Lastly, which category is dead, and which one does readers like the most?

Impossible to say. Readers like different categories precisely because different categories contain different content. Incest and LW get the most views, but not the highest ratings. Is your definition of "like the most" related to views, positive feedback, followers, high scores? You'll find varying levels of each interaction in each different category.

It's hard to answer most of your questions because they're very broad. Read up on a few stories in each category you want to understand, and you'll start to find patterns in the stories and their contents. There are also some good resources published by authors which unpack the various categories more comprehensively than has been done on the main Stories page.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Incest. Bar none. Hands down. Not really close. It's not what I think, the proof is in the traffic numbers.

Least viewed? Iunno, non-erotic?

Not the least viewed but the lowest views to submissions ratio is erotic couplings. If you want your story to get lost forever in obscurity, post there.

 

[mildlyaroused]

Not the least viewed but the lowest views to submissions ratio is erotic couplings. If you want your story to get lost forever in obscurity, post there.

Maybe. My first every story was in EC and has 19k views with a 4.74 rating. I always hear this opinion, but it's not so black and white. Plenty of readers browse the category: you just need your title and description to stand out to draw as many of those eyes as you can.

 

[lovecraft68]

Incest. Bar none. Hands down. Not really close. It's not what I think, the proof is in the traffic numbers.

Least viewed? Iunno, non-erotic?

Not the least viewed but the lowest views to submissions ratio is erotic couplings. If you want your story to get lost forever in obscurity, post there.

I don't think EC is as dead as you think it is.

I'll find out soon enough, I have something I want to post here that doesn't really fit anywhere else. I'll let you know the tale of the tape once its up and out for a couple weeks.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Not the least viewed but the lowest views to submissions ratio is erotic couplings. If you want your story to get lost forever in obscurity, post there.

I dunno. My second most commented on story is EC, with 4.76/306, off 39k views. That's not too bad.

The biggest backwater for me is Group. Those guys have a much lower than average response rate: views, votes - you barely get a response. And don't even think about comments.

 

[StillStunned]

Chain Stories is a wasteland, and from what I hear Celebs & FF is even worse.

 

[holliday1960]

What is the Chain story category?

In which story should we use Erotic coupling?

What is exhibitionist and voyeur?

Where to use "How To"?

What is illustration?

When to use Taboo/Incest?

What is Interracial Love?

What is Letters and Transcripts?

What is a loving wife? What is the best way to use this category?

What is considered as Mature?

What is NonHuman?

What are Novels and Novellas?

What are Reviews and essays?

Lastly, which category is dead, and which one does readers like the most?

This is where and when the masters of lit are so greatly missed. (Such as Tex, Pilot/Keith, JBJ, SamScribble, Ogg, etc.) Unfortunately, it takes longer than the system will allow to respond to this many inquiries all at once. The system will time out before anyone can answer them all. If you're looking for definitions of categories, you can google many of these, such as interracial and nonhuman, novels vs novella, essay and so on. It sounds like you need a language transcription more than anything. Is English not your native language? Knowing that would help some of us know how best to answer your inquiries. I'll take a swing at a couple of these... Mature is used whenever one participant is significantly older than the other. Also known as May/December romance. Taboo/Incest is used if there is any sexual engagement by blood relatives or normally frowned upon relationships, like step parent and step-daughter or step-son, In-laws, distant cousins or relations by marriage, even a taboo might be teacher and student, or doctor and patient, or priest and parishioner. Illustrations are just that...paintings, sketchings, art depictions. Exhibitionist and voyeur is watching and being watched. Nonhuman is aliens, plants, microbes, ghosts, werewolves, leprechans and fairies, unicorns anything NOT human or not realistic beings proven to exist on our planet. For instance, dinosaurs were once real, so they cannot be depicted because to do so would violate their natural rights and be considered abusive. On the other hand, you cannot abuse a fairy because they don't exist, so feel free to hold them down, tie them up and tickle their fancy all you like. Erotic Coupling is pretty much vanilla sex between opposite sex consenting partners. Loving wives is all about extramarital sex, usually between opposite sex strangers. If you crossover on categories, or have more than one you could choose, the general consensus is that Gay/Lesbian takes precedence over all other categories. Next is Incest. Next would probably be NonConsent. Then, BDSM. Most of the others will fall in place pretty much on their own. Category choice is more about trigger warnings than anything. I hope this helps some. (Gosh, I miss the wonderful old-timers of Lit.)

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Maybe. My first every story was in EC and has 19k views with a 4.74 rating. I always hear this opinion, but it's not so black and white. Plenty of readers browse the category: you just need your title and description to stand out to draw as many of those eyes as you can.

A grabby title and description works the same in any category. But there are a couple of categories where you don't even need them: I/T and LW.

EC has the lowest hits to submissions ratio. Mathematically it actually does, because the lack of proper categories makes EC a huge grab bag. It has roughly the same amount of submissions as I/T but it does not get nearly the eyeballs as I/T. An EC story stays on the recent 25 list for just two days. That is terrible exposure considering that almost no one searches EC specifically. So you have few eyeballs and max competition for said eyeballs. In I/T you get the same amount of competition but you get like 20x the eyeballs because half the site is specifically searching for incest.

Think about it. People who want a BDSM story go straight to BDSM. People who want mom/son or bro/sis go straight to I/T. People who want an anal story go to anal. People who want a hotwife story go to LW. People who want a pee story go to Fetish. People who want a romance go to Romance. How many people browse for miscellaneous vanilla? Effectively nobody. Stories in EC once they drop off the new list get hit by tags or 'you might also like' more than any category search.

I have a 4 part series, they are 4 stand alone stories of basically the same plot and roughly of equal quality. The one that easily gets the most hits is the one not in EC. I also have a story in L&T - an invisible category - that easily outpaces all of my EC stories.

 

[Light_Yagami]

https://www.literotica.com/s/love-your-readers-categories

Thanks a lot ... I was looking for this.

 

[Light_Yagami]

Incest. Bar none. Hands down. Not really close. It's not what I think, the proof is in the traffic numbers.

Least viewed? Iunno, non-erotic?

Not the least viewed but the lowest views to submissions ratio is erotic couplings. If you want your story to get lost forever in obscurity, post there.

I didn't know erotic couplings doesn't get view.... actually I thought it gets the most views

 

[Light_Yagami]

Maybe. My first every story was in EC and has 19k views with a 4.74 rating. I always hear this opinion, but it's not so black and white. Plenty of readers browse the category: you just need your title and description to stand out to draw as many of those eyes as you can.

Yes, I totally agree with you. I think the biggest turnoff for a reader is your story's name and its description. If they do not find it erotic, then they will not even think of clicking it. And be honest, everyone, the maximum time a reader spends reading something is to jerk off themselves.

 

[Light_Yagami]

I don't think EC is as dead as you think it is.

I'll find out soon enough, I have something I want to post here that doesn't really fit anywhere else. I'll let you know the tale of the tape once its up and out for a couple weeks.

I'm then following you then... please share the info. How did it do and how much interaction it got.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I didn't know erotic couplings doesn't get view.... actually I thought it gets the most views

Hardly.

Here are today's stories (Dec 22).

I/T ~ 12 new stories today ~ 650 total votes = 54.17 votes per story
EC ~ 19 new stories today (pretty big day for EC) ~ 127 total votes = 6.68 votes per story

But wait, I/T had one story with a massive outlier of 233 votes, so let's omit that one.

I/T ~ 11 stories ~ 417 total votes = 37.91 votes per story.

Oh ... it's still not even close. I/T gets 5.67 TIMES (!!) the eyeballs that EC gets even with the outlier removed.

 

[Light_Yagami]

This is where and when the masters of lit are so greatly missed. (Such as Tex, Pilot/Keith, JBJ, SamScribble, Ogg, etc.) Unfortunately, it takes longer than the system will allow to respond to this many inquiries all at once. The system will time out before anyone can answer them all. If you're looking for definitions of categories, you can google many of these, such as interracial and nonhuman, novels vs novella, essay and so on. It sounds like you need a language transcription more than anything. Is English not your native language? Knowing that would help some of us know how best to answer your inquiries. I'll take a swing at a couple of these... Mature is used whenever one participant is significantly older than the other. Also known as May/December romance. Taboo/Incest is used if there is any sexual engagement by blood relatives or normally frowned upon relationships, like step parent and step-daughter or step-son, In-laws, distant cousins or relations by marriage, even a taboo might be teacher and student, or doctor and patient, or priest and parishioner. Illustrations are just that...paintings, sketchings, art depictions. Exhibitionist and voyeur is watching and being watched. Nonhuman is aliens, plants, microbes, ghosts, werewolves, leprechans and fairies, unicorns anything NOT human or not realistic beings proven to exist on our planet. For instance, dinosaurs were once real, so they cannot be depicted because to do so would violate their natural rights and be considered abusive. On the other hand, you cannot abuse a fairy because they don't exist, so feel free to hold them down, tie them up and tickle their fancy all you like. Erotic Coupling is pretty much vanilla sex between opposite sex consenting partners. Loving wives is all about extramarital sex, usually between opposite sex strangers. If you crossover on categories, or have more than one you could choose, the general consensus is that Gay/Lesbian takes precedence over all other categories. Next is Incest. Next would probably be NonConsent. Then, BDSM. Most of the others will fall in place pretty much on their own. Category choice is more about trigger warnings than anything. I hope this helps some. (Gosh, I miss the wonderful old-timers of Lit.)

No, English isn't my native language. Thanks for all the information.

 

[SimonDoom]

Suggestions:

1. Read the article Love Your Readers, which was linked to above.
2. Read the category descriptions at the site and the content regulations posted at the site.
3. Do a search in this forum for a few threads started by 8Letters regarding categories and views. He did an analysis that is the most empirically valid analysis of which categories receive the most views that I can think of so far.
4. Incest and Illustrated receive the most views of any of the categories. Loving Wives is next, and it's a big drop off after that. Categories like Mature, Anal, Lesbian Sex can do quite well. Exhibitionist and Voyeur can do very well. Erotic Couplings on average does not do that well because it's a grab bag without a clear identity; it doesn't appeal to any particular kink. Categories like Humor and Letters get very few views.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Everything @holliday1960 said is correct. In addition, be aware that stories can and do fit into multiple categories. A story can have two men, one of whom ties up the other and anally penetrates him. That story fits in Gay Male, BDSM, and Anal. If they're falling in love (or one of them is falling for another character) it could fit Romance. If it's the first sex for at least one of them, it could be in First Time. The writer has to decide which category to put it in.

-Annie

 

[Naughtylit81]

I don't think EC is as dead as you think it is.

I'll find out soon enough, I have something I want to post here that doesn't really fit anywhere else. I'll let you know the tale of the tape once its up and out for a couple weeks.

I just posted a story this morning and while it isn't I/T level traffic I am happy with the traffic and response.

It is my first story outside of interracial. It has 2K+ views, 39 vote and a 4.41 score plus it has netted me 5 new followers.

In half a day it has gotten almost half the traffic my last story in interracial has recieved in a month. Granted that was a chapter 2 and today's publication is chapter 1 so that plays into it but still this story is tracking to my satisfaction which is what matters.

 

[ChloeTzang]

.....And be honest, everyone, the maximum time a reader spends reading something is to jerk off themselves.

Nah. If you write a good story, readers will read it thru to the end regardless. Jerk-off stories is just one category - and for Lit, an important one, but not the be all and end all.

Jerk-off's are generally optimal at around 2-3 pages. LOL. Don't ask me how I know. Let's just say my husband and empirical encouragement. Observation....I mean observation. LOL.

But seriously, write a story readers get hooked on, and you can go waaaaaay longer and a lot of readers like that combo of a good story and jerk-off sex that they can really get into. You can divide it into chapters of course, I often do, but I also have 100-150k word stories here (basically novels) that readers read thru to 5am in the morning. Or, based on the comments, jerk off to 3 or 4 times LOL. Now THAT is a tribute to a good jerk-off story - the ultimate for a Literotica writer IMHO.

One of the great things about connecting with your readers is you can dig into all these things and get into the psychology of it all. I make no bones about primarily writing for male readers, that's what gives me my writing buzz - the gratification of inspiring a million erections LOL, so I do get into this with my readers.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Everything @holliday1960 said is correct. In addition, be aware that stories can and do fit into multiple categories. A story can have two men, one of whom ties up the other and anally penetrates him. That story fits in Gay Male, BDSM, and Anal. If they're falling in love (or one of them is falling for another character) it could fit Romance. If it's the first sex for at least one of them, it could be in First Time. The writer has to decide which category to put it in.

-Annie

Just be aware some categories trump others, so regardless of what else is there, if it has gay male sex in it that's generally where Laurel will put it. Likewise incest. Any story with incest in it, even if very minor, will end up in Incest.

Other categories can be more fluid. I've put Sci-Fi in First Time, and IR stuff in all sorts of categories, but generally, as long as its not gay, incest or trans, you can put it anywhere you like. Readers might disagree with you and downvote if they think you're wrong, but that's your choice. The Sci-Fi story I put in first time was up there in the First Time Hall of Fame for quite a few months, for example, so that went well and it got way more readers than it would have got in Sci-Fi.

 

[ChloeTzang]

lol the 2-3 three pages have me rolling! I figure that translates to 2-3 minutes and done lol

LOL. Depends on how fast you read and how fast you jerk off. LOL. And how many repeats.....rotflmao. Men are at a disadvantage here

 

[ElectricBlue]

Likewise incest. Any story with incest in it, even if very minor, will end up in Incest.

Not true. I've got two long stories with incest sub-themes, but I said to Laurel, I don't want these stories in the I&T category because that's not the primary theme.

She put them in my categories of choice, and put a note at the top, "This story contains incest themes."

 

[TheWritingGroup]

I happen to be working on a story now (it's open as I type) that has incest, but mixed in with lots of other stuff (anal, medical, sort-of noncon, even a bit of Mature). I wonder if Laurel will force it into Incest and Taboo.

-Annie

 

[Britva415]

Erotic Couplings on average does not do that well because it's a grab bag without a clear identity

To me it’s the opposite of a grab bag and has a very clear identity. Maybe it’s just one which people aren’t looking for, as much.

“Vanilla” is pretty definable.

If EC is a grab bag, it’s only because people do put stuff in it which belongs in another category. This happens a lot. They’re usually very new Lit authors.