Loving Wives? Not worth it in my opinion.

[Gamblnluck]

There are authors here in the AH who opine and naysay the LW category based on their ONE experience having written an LW story, which obviously makes them the expert on the category!

And yet they'll admit in other threads that they never READ any of those LW stories written by those misogynistic, incel, women-haters.

That would be like me saying I can write a lesbian story because I once kissed a pussy, and I liked it!

I think I need another drink and get back to writing my 55th LW story.

LOVE this!!! I found different categories have things they look for and things they hate to see. AND I'll bet you money it's the same readers.

I personally have a formula for what I like to read. I like to see the poor sap shot down, trounced and beaten into the mud. I like to see the kink as it's done. Then I like to see the guy have some kind of light at the end of that long tunnel. He at least is left with a life. (make it a logical ending with a bit of suspension of belief)
I personally believe there is nothing more dangerous that a person with nothing to lose. Faced with no future any reasonably normal person will lash out. But until he gets to that final point, the guy will (might) endure some wild and kinky things.

A normal man will endure only so much before he reacts. The best stories have a logical resolution. Watch any television show or movie. It isn;t always the good guys have to win, but there needs to be a reasonable resolution. Your idea of reasonable may differ from the readers.

 

[Gamblnluck]

Having said that, the tsunami of new stories means there aren’t enough views or go around. Even in LW.

Which is one reason scoring, even if authors hate it, is important. Readers LOOK at those scores. They have a hundred stories available and time to read ten. Which do they choose?

 

[Gamblnluck]

If I get the energy, I might at some stage update the stats in this thread, but what I concluded then was that the voting seems much harsher recently than the long term average. Of course the most recent stories are also all 'unswept' in terms of removing bombing votes, and this certainly influences the statistics for Loving Wives, although there's no evidence of that in the broader 'all stories' statistics. I presume that if we only looked at the last 30 days, the effect of the bombs would be even more obvious.

View attachment 2563103

Does your chart mean that LW stories are getting an uptick in scoring? No way. There are few stories of late that get a decent score.

 

[EmilyMiller]

If I get the energy, I might at some stage update the stats in this thread, but what I concluded then was that the voting seems much harsher recently than the long term average. Of course the most recent stories are also all 'unswept' in terms of removing bombing votes, and this certainly influences the statistics for Loving Wives, although there's no evidence of that in the broader 'all stories' statistics. I presume that if we only looked at the last 30 days, the effect of the bombs would be even more obvious.

View attachment 2563103

Like everything else, it’s becoming meaner and more polarized.

 

[Lifestyle66]

LOVE this!!! I found different categories have things they look for and things they hate to see. AND I'll bet you money it's the same readers.

I personally have a formula for what I like to read. I like to see the poor sap shot down, trounced and beaten into the mud. I like to see the kink as it's done. Then I like to see the guy have some kind of light at the end of that long tunnel. He at least is left with a life. (make it a logical ending with a bit of suspension of belief)
I personally believe there is nothing more dangerous that a person with nothing to lose. Faced with no future any reasonably normal person will lash out. But until he gets to that final point, the guy will (might) endure some wild and kinky things.

A normal man will endure only so much before he reacts. The best stories have a logical resolution. Watch any television show or movie. It isn;t always the good guys have to win, but there needs to be a reasonable resolution. Your idea of reasonable may differ from the readers.

In LW, I look for the "extra-marital FUN and sharing" stories, as the category is supposed to be per the category tag line.

But the high rated stories there are those which burn anyone having extra-marital fun, and the cluelessly weak MC must win the best spouse in the end and keep their spouse selfishly monogamous, everyone having learned their lesson: Extra-marital sex is BAD!

BTW: Did you ever go back to actually READ the details of my last story?

 

[Actingup]

Does your chart mean that LW stories are getting an uptick in scoring? No way. There are few stories of late that get a decent score.

No, the opposite, as @EmilyMiller says. Over all years, the median LW score was 4.06, but over 2024 it was 3.75. So half of all stories scored less than 3.75 during 2024 (that stat includes some stories 'polluted' by 1-bombs).

That's markedly different to the scores for all stories. Over all years, the median score was 4.41, but in 2024 it was 4.5 - higher, kinder, or arguably less discerning. And given that that stat includes LW stories, it means the other categories are doing some heavy lifting.

 

[FrancesScott]

This thread does seem to have provoked some reactions on either side of the argument. For me, it’s very simple. A lack of appreciation and only a little more views. I have no intention of repeating this experiment. On to ‘First Time’ for my next story. I guess I’ll maybe get around to all the consensual categories over time.

 

[StillStunned]

That's markedly different to the scores for all stories. Over all years, the median score was 4.41, but in 2024 it was 4.5 - higher, kinder, or arguably less discerning. And given that that stat includes LW stories, it means the other categories are doing some heavy lifting.

2024 was the first full year that I was publishing here, so presumably the quality of the stories went up and that's why the median is so much higher.

 

[ElectricBlue]

This thread does seem to have provoked some reactions on either side of the argument. For me, it’s very simple. A lack of appreciation and only a little more views. I have no intention of repeating this experiment. On to ‘First Time’ for my next story. I guess I’ll maybe get around to all the consensual categories over time.

You've crossed the LW bridge and returned.

You'll discover each category has its quirks and tribes. If in doubt, read a random sample of the stories and comments, but don't think for a moment the reader dynamics are the same across categories. They're most definitely not.

 

[TheLobster]

Over all years, the median score was 4.41, but in 2024 it was 4.5 - higher, kinder, or arguably less discerning.

I always find it hard to believe that (almost) half the stories get the red H. Any seemingly random sampling, such as a tag page or search results for one of the suggested keywords, doesn’t seem to have as many.

Is it all propped up by the endless series in SF and elsewhere, whose episodes get automatic 4.8+ because only the fans read them?

 

[FrancesScott]

You've crossed the LW bridge and returned.

You'll discover each category has its quirks and tribes. If in doubt, read a random sample of the stories and comments, but don't think for a moment the reader dynamics are the same across categories. They're most definitely not.

Every day is a learning experience here.

 

[Actingup]

I always find it hard to believe that (almost) half the stories get the red H. Any seemingly random sampling, such as a tag page or search results for one of the suggested keywords, doesn’t seem to have as many.

Is it all propped up by the endless series in SF and elsewhere, whose episodes get automatic 4.8+ because only the fans read them?

Er, well, I'm a bit too lazy to do this systematically tonight, but just as a quick check on your very apt example, try:
https://search.literotica.com/?query= &page=64&categories=38&period=1 year&sort=vote



That's a descending order search, and we get down to 4.5 after more than two thirds of the 4505 stories published in SciFi in the last 12 months. The median looks to be about 4.67 (note that there are some unrated stories that need to be excluded from the stats, so this is a quick and dirty check).

 

[lc69hunter]

Write what you like. Some will like it, and others won't

 

[Tomh1966]

You take the LW good with the bad. You get lots of view and you deal with 1 bombers and angry comments.

My latest story in LW did very well. I also know the very first rating was a 1. It was early on the first day and it was star1 on the LW story list.

 

[FrancesScott]

You get lots of views

Not in my experience. I’m told the views used to be more in the past. If I can get almost as many views in a nicer category, and have a much more pleasant experience, then what’s the point?

And I don’t aim to actively annoy people with my writing, which seems all too easy to do with the hair-trigger people there.

I don’t buy the ‘you get more honest feedback in LW’ argument. As ever, with any feedback, first consider the source.

I wholly reject the ‘it’s just one data point’ pseudo- argument. Putting your hand in a flame is just one data point too. Sometimes one data point is more than enough. Masochists may disagree with me.

 

[Actingup]

We can't sort the Literotica search results for views, but we can for comments and use that as a defacto for engagement (flawed but the best we can do). Some snapshots of the medians for the last 12 months:

Romance (median is 2 comments):


Taboo/Incest (median is 4 comments):



Loving Wives (median is 8 comments):


All stories (median is 2 comments):

Just for fun, it's worth looking at the top of that 'All Stories in the last 12 months' list and sort it by comments. Note the categories represented:



https://search.literotica.com/?query= &page=1&period=1 year&sort=comments if you want to explore more!

 

[iwatchus]

I wonder what the median rating for the top 8 comments for any other category would be. (4.555 for LW).

Is there another category where you can get enormous engagement and struggle for an H? That plus the nastiness of some the comments is the essence of the quandary for authors. Plus, I don't like writing infidelity.

 

[FrancesScott]

enormous engagement

If you mean views, then that wasn’t my experience (and I was #1 on the LW new story page). If you mean comments, then again it wasn’t very different in quantity to other categories, but the quality was very poor. I may be an outlier, but I’m not a fan of the genre anyway and I see no compelling reason to write in it again. I’ve written off LW, I suspect many other authors have reached the same conclusion. It’s probably different if cheating or hot wifing is your kink.

 

[iwatchus]

If you mean views, then that wasn’t my experience (and I was #1 on the LW new story page). If you mean comments, then again it wasn’t very different in quantity to other categories, but the quality was very poor. I may be an outlier, but I’m not a fan of the genre anyway and I see no compelling reason to write in it again. I’ve written off LW, I suspect many other authors have reached the same conclusion. It’s probably different if cheating or hot wifing is your kink.

I meant comments in this case, but I would also include favorites and votes as engagement.

LW has amongst the best number of views (maybe not by that much, but it is a site to get lots of views, especially compared to say SF&F or N&N)

It is also very high in comments/view, votes/view and favorites/view. I don't know if it is absolutely the tops in any of those, but I bet it is close for all three.

So you can expect more comments, more votes, more favorites in LW than you would in any other category. I think @Actingup demonstrated that for comments pretty convincingly.

E&V, on the other hand -- still my most common category -- gets sky views (much better than the sleepy ones, but very little engagement.

I will note that the events (author organized or contests) seem to get more engagement. I haven't seen a big bump in views (except for what I got after the blue W), but all of my event stories got a higher rate of comments. So if what you are seeking as an author is lots of comments, trying to do the events is a good choice. Contests have the downside of getting 1-bombed much more.

 

[FrancesScott]

So you can expect more comments, more votes, more favorites in LW than you would in any other category. I think @Actingup demonstrated that for comments pretty convincingly.

My mileage varied. Votes? I agree. But bizarre, angry votes. Who needs that? It’s not for me. And what use are comments if they have zero substance to them? As @ElectricBlue said, maybe my expectations for feedback are too high.

 

[Lifestyle66]

If you mean views, then that wasn’t my experience (and I was #1 on the LW new story page). If you mean comments, then again it wasn’t very different in quantity to other categories, but the quality was very poor. I may be an outlier, but I’m not a fan of the genre anyway and I see no compelling reason to write in it again. I’ve written off LW, I suspect many other authors have reached the same conclusion. It’s probably different if cheating or hot wifing is your kink.

What's the point of writing and posting to a category if you're NOT writing a story FOR that category?

If you don't read LW stories, then you don't know that audience. The problem with LW is that about 40% of that audience is NOT into extra-marital FUN stories as the category description says, and they are a very vocal part of that audience. They read that category to 1-bomb the fun stories and want the cheater-gets-burned stories to rate a 5.

EM proudly says she wote to the LW category to show it can be done. But her story was highly rated because it showed the swingers getting burned!

"Non-monogamous sex is BAD" wins in that category, even though that goes against the category description. ... If you're stuck on looking for a pat on the back and high ratings, stick with the subsets of readers in the lesser viewed categories who love those stories. If you're looking for more people to read your story, then accept that some will hate it.

 

[StillStunned]

If you're stuck on looking for a pat on the back and high ratings, stick with the subsets of readers in the lesser viewed categories who love those stories. If you're looking for more people to read your story, then accept that some will hate it.

I thought the point that @FrancesScott was making in the OP was that Loving Wives doesn't automatically give you so many more readers than some of the supposedly "lesser viewed categories".

 

[Lifestyle66]

I thought the point that @FrancesScott was making in the OP was that Loving Wives doesn't automatically give you so many more readers than some of the supposedly "lesser viewed categories".

As I indicated, there's roughly a 40% premium added to the LW audience of "people who HATE extra-marital sex" and they're looking for stories which burn those having non-monogamous sex. That faction is just more likely to rate stories they read there, and they rate extra-marital FUN stories a 1.

But it IS a larger audience. The OP's Lesbian story is almost one month online and just under 11K views, while the LW story is still "New" only fives days online and near 14k views.

 

[FrancesScott]

I thought the point that @FrancesScott was making in the OP was that Loving Wives doesn't automatically give you so many more readers than some of the supposedly "lesser viewed categories".

Precisely. There is some cognitive dissonance on this thread, which also seems to be a trait of LW. If people like the category, that’s cool. It demonstrably has no value for me. It’s not my audience.

I’m not sure why people seem to care about this so much. I’m allowed to have my own opinion and to state it. People are allowed to think differently, but it’s bizarre to think their opinions are going to change my mind.

We’re in the parasocial, ‘You should have written it this way…’ / ‘You should do the following…’ / ‘You should think this way…’ vibe again. I sort of think some of the posts are the person trying to justify their own preferences, but whatever, they aren’t me, I’m not them.

 

[StillStunned]

But it IS a larger audience. The OP's Lesbian story is almost one month online and just under 11K views, while the LW story is still "New" only fives days online and near 14k views.

I've had figures like that - and better - in other categories, without the negativity. I believe it was @Soixenta who mentioned in this thread that her story in Erotic Couplings had nearly 16k views - and she's a new writer with only two stories.

So you can get all those delicious, feel-good views in LW if you want, and suffer the backlash from that 40% premium, or you can do just as well in other categories and not deal with the hate. My first Incest story, for instance, had 40k views within the first 24 hours. If it's views you want, that's where you should publish.