Novels and novellas

[GrantBricksly]

This category is new to me. I've never written in this category before. I've also never really written a story that had as many chapters/parts as this will have.
I've written stories that were in the same universe..same characters, and technically a continuation..but they were each standalone stories.

Now, these are legit chapters of one larger story. Chapter 4 is not going to make sense if you haven't read chapters 1-3..

So..my question is this:
When the whole story is done, and put together, there will be a good amount of sex in it..but how much forgiveness will I get from readers if I publish a chapter that has a steamy scene..but no actual sex?

In a novel...sex in every single chapter seems gratuitous and unnecessary. But when I'm posting each individual chapter here on Lit....I'm worried that a chapter without sex will not perform well...

 

[NotWise]

Novels and Novellas doesn't have a lot of readers, but the readers seem to accept a lot of variation. My one story there is in a single document but it's divided internally into twelve chapters. There's no sex in either of the last two chapters, and no-one's ever complained.

 

[SkyBubble]

How many words would novels and novellas be?

 

[GrantBricksly]

For what I'm posting here, each submission is a minimum of around 10k words...

 

[GrantBricksly]

For what I'm posting here, each submission is a minimum of around 10k words...

So far only one chapter is up..but the second and third chapter have been submitted, and I'm almost done with chapter 4

 

[Bramblethorn]

How many words would novels and novellas be?

Definition of a "novella" depends on who you ask, but approximately 17500 to 40000 words seems to be the usual range, with anything longer being a novel. I tend to think of about 80k-100k as being a typical novel size though some go much longer.

I don't think Lit enforces any particular definition.

 

[GrantBricksly]

Definition of a "novella" depends on who you ask, but approximately 17500 to 40000 words seems to be the usual range, with anything longer being a novel. I tend to think of about 80k-100k as being a typical novel size though some go much longer.

I don't think Lit enforces any particular definition.

That's about what I figured...and I've got probably a good 30-40 chapters minimum planned. So at 10k a piece, I'm looking at a total of 300-400k...
Though to be fair...I might split it into multiple "books"

 

[SimonDoom]

40,000 words is generally considered the minimum for a novel. The Great Gatsby is about 47,000 words. That's a short novel, but it's a novel.

Literotica reader story preferences, based on data, skew long. 20,000 words probably is long enough to be a novella by conventional standards, but there are many Literotica stories published in other categories that are that long or longer.

If you have a long story that isn't clearly anchored in another category, then I think N&N would be appropriate. But if the story clearly falls in a well-defined category, I'd recommend posting it in that category rather than Novels and Novellas, to maximize your ability to reach the appropriate receptive audience.

 

[THBGato]

but how much forgiveness will I get from readers if I publish a chapter that has a steamy scene..but no actual sex?

You'll be fine. I've got five chapters of stories up that are sex free and all are 4.8+. That is in lesbian though - might be different in other categories. But I suspect not - often the anticipation is the most exciting part.

 

[MelissaBaby]

This category is new to me. I've never written in this category before. I've also never really written a story that had as many chapters/parts as this will have.
I've written stories that were in the same universe..same characters, and technically a continuation..but they were each standalone stories.

Now, these are legit chapters of one larger story. Chapter 4 is not going to make sense if you haven't read chapters 1-3..

So..my question is this:
When the whole story is done, and put together, there will be a good amount of sex in it..but how much forgiveness will I get from readers if I publish a chapter that has a steamy scene..but no actual sex?

In a novel...sex in every single chapter seems gratuitous and unnecessary. But when I'm posting each individual chapter here on Lit....I'm worried that a chapter without sex will not perform well...

You shouldn't have any problems. Readers there are generally invested enough in the narrative aspects that they aren't likely to object to non-erotic chapters.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

I recently had the opportunity to post my first story, Hard Way Home, in Novels and Novellas. It was a standalone one-shot so I was hesitant to place it there instead of Romance since the story was just under 29K words, but that actually puts is squarely in the middle of the typical Novella length discussed above. With the story covering several possible categories in addition to Romance, N&N seemed like a good fit and Laurel didn't move it despite my note saying I'd understand if she felt it would fit better elsewhere.

Coming up on a full week, I'm very pleased with the progress of the story but I've also used this as a learning opportunity about Novels and Novellas. Roughly 90% of the stories submitted in the category in the past week have been part X of Y of ongoing stories (32 of 35 if I counted correctly, though one isn't labeled as part 1 until you read the opening paragraphs). As with many series in other categories, viewership tends to drop off after the initial few chapters, but a couple of spot checks showed that early chapters of popular, long-term N&N series can really build viewership over time, just like in other categories. I was a bit embarrassed to see the first chapter of one of those I spot checked had a lot more views that my most-viewe standalone story, but the drop-off seemed to be about 1-100%, 2-50%, 3-25%, and lesser percentages of the maximum number as the chapters progressed, much like chapter stories in other categories.

If you have a long story that isn't clearly anchored in another category, then I think N&N would be appropriate. But if the story clearly falls in a well-defined category, I'd recommend posting it in that category rather than Novels and Novellas, to maximize your ability to reach the appropriate receptive audience.

I suspect Simon's right that this story might have done better views-wise if I'd placed it in Romance based on bigger reading base and past experience with even longer Romance stories, some of which touched on other categories with an overall romantic theme. Like many of my stories, this one focused more on the story and the relationship versus the sex along but it also focused on some historical aspects of the period and some action/adventure, so the rating might have suffered as a result of the added viewership, but there's no way to tell if that might be the case. For the potentially more views, I'd have gladly risked a drop in the rating.

Finally, after watching the story (all too) closely this week, I'm considering taking the potential advantage offered by Novels and Novellas and writing a Part 2. It would be an interesting experiment to see if a new chapter could help boost what was originally going to be a single, standalone story.

 

[GrantBricksly]

It seems it doesn't much matter....my second/third chapter seems doomed to never be published.....I've been trying to publish it for 2 months now, and it just sits in limbo over and over. It's being falsely flagged as AI, and I've re-written it twice now trying to fix it...I may have to scrap the entire story all together.....

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

It's being falsely flagged as AI, and I've re-written it twice now trying to fix it...I may have to scrap the entire story all together.....

Grant, if you haven't already, send Laurel a PM explaining your process and what software you use for writing. I don't know if that will be enough but engaging with her might let her spot the problem. Rewriting twice sounds like you may be repeating the same things throwing up the possible AI flags in the first place. Good luck!

 

[GrantBricksly]

I've reached out.
And When I say re-written, I mean I've had several people look at/read it, point out problems, and I've gone back and re-written those parts, as well as other mistakes I've found along the way.

But 2+ months in, and I still can't get it published...I've just about given up.

I've had people that have looked at it, but despite posting and requesting, I've yet to have a single Volunteer Editor respond to me. And everything I'm being told says that at this point, my best bet is to have a VE vouch for me....but I can't seem to get one....

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Most of my stories are published in N/N. I originally submitted individual chapters but overwhelming reader feedback convinced me to convert those published stories into single-file submissions and to have the chapters deleted. I've only published single-file submissions since then.

My first piece of advice is to finish the entire story before publishing any part of it. You maintain complete control of it that way so that if scenes in later chapters prompt modification in earlier chapters, you can easily make them. Something not possible once a part gets published. Patience is your friend.

My second piece of advice is to submit the entire story at the same time, either as a single large file or all of the chapters, one right after the other. The advantage to that is it gives Laurel the opportunity to take all of your story content into consideration before making any judgements on publishing it. Analyzing 80-100K words for possible AI-generated content could result in different "percentages" than analyzing 10-20K words.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Technically, novellets are 10,000 to 19,999 words, novellas are 20,000 to 39,999 words, and Novels are 40,000 or more. And to go in Novellas and Novels, it must be published all at the same time.