The now fully official Author’s Hangout Halloween 2025 competition support thread

[DEFCOM5]

@EmilyMiller,

Lily and Emma as zombie is GREAAAT!

 

[TheLobster]

I cannot say I had high expectations, but...

View attachment 2573659
For now, I am telling myself that there has been a glut of EH stories and readers are saturated. At least the contest motivated me to complete the story, and I am enjoying writing the follow-up.

Well, I guess I should be happy that I'm doing twice as good vote count-wise:



Seriously, though, the category is clearly deader than your two protagonists combined, and not even my 1500+ followers have managed to breathe any life into it

 

[MelissaBaby]

Is this a new thing? I put a ghost story into Erotic Horror in 2023 thinking, like everyone, that was the natural place for it. It did amazingly well. Only got one comment about it not being horrific enough.

My experience has been similar. My previous Halloween submissions were in EH and did fine, despite a few comments politely telling me that ghost stories should be in non-human. ( I dispute the concept that ghosts aren't human) I have no idea why this year is different, but it clearly is.

But, I would like to make a point about competition strategy. Granted, most people enter contests for increased exposure, but I assume they would rather win than not win. So, as someone who has won, and come close a few times, a little bit of advise.

Once you have accumulated a decent number of followers, let's say a couple of hundred, you ought to easily get enough votes from them to qualify. It's also safe to assume that your followers are likely to give you higher scores than new readers. Posting in a low-view category like EH can be beneficial, since the lower readership means a higher percentage of votes will come from readers already favorable to your writing.

 

[SkyBubble]

We do not know how they determine what is suspicious and we are explicitly forbidden to speculate about it on the forum.

Is that rule posted anywhere? I haven't seen it.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Posting in a low-view category like EH can be beneficial, since the lower readership means a higher percentage of votes will come from readers already favorable to your writing.

It also means the impact of malicious voting is that much greater.

 

[MelissaBaby]

It also means the impact of malicious voting is that much greater.

That may be the case with normal submissions, but I think the effect of malicious voting is actually less regarding contest entries, because of the multiple sweeps.

 

[iwatchus]

Is that rule posted anywhere? I haven't seen it.

I had been told that by fellow AHers when I started here 6 months ago. And I have seen the moderator warn someone about it.

 

[EmilyMiller]

That may be the case with normal submissions, but I think the effect of malicious voting is actually less regarding contest entries, because of the multiple sweeps.

As I always say. There are dumb one bombs and smart one bombs. At least one person knows how to avoid sweeps and still one bomb with impunity. Which suggests some one who has been around here a while and understands how things work.

 

[MelissaBaby]

As I always say. There are dumb one bombs and smart one bombs. At least one person knows how to avoid sweeps and still one bomb with impunity. Which suggests some one who has been around here a while and understands how things work.

I think that’s likely. But a smart bomber is as likely to target an author in one category as in another.

 

[iwatchus]

I think that’s likely. But a smart bomber is as likely to target an author in one category as in another.

But if you are in a category that gets fewer votes (BDSM vs LW, say), you are much more vulnerable to their attack, each 1 hurts much more with 30 votes than 1000 votes

 

[EmilyMiller]

But if you are in a category that gets fewer votes (BDSM vs LW, say), you are much more vulnerable to their attack, each 1 hurts much more with 30 votes than 1000 votes

 

[MelissaBaby]

But if you are in a category that gets fewer votes (BDSM vs LW, say), you are much more vulnerable to their attack, each 1 hurts much more with 30 votes than 1000 votes

I think you may have missed my point, that this strategy makes sense if you have enough followers that the low readership of the category is less relevant.

 

[iwatchus]

I think you may have missed my point, that this strategy makes sense if you have enough followers that the low readership of the category is less relevant.

Not all of us have that luxury.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Not all of us have that luxury.

I get that, which is why I said in my first mention that it was a strategy for people with a decent number of followers. I think it's just a fact of Lit life that having more followers gives you an advantage in contests, and in achieving high scores, generally.

 

[Lotus_Kitty]

Are audio submissions supposed to have a 'Halloween 2025 Contest' tag in them?

I put HALLOWEEN 2025 in the notes to the mods section but didn't know about a special tag.

Only just found this thread. Should have checked the forums earlier!

 

[MelissaBaby]

Are audio submissions supposed to have a 'Halloween 2025 Contest' tag in them?

I put HALLOWEEN 2025 in the notes to the mods section but didn't know about a special tag.

Only just found this thread. Should have checked the forums earlier!

It is helpful to add a tag, but not required.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Are audio submissions supposed to have a 'Halloween 2025 Contest' tag in them?

I put HALLOWEEN 2025 in the notes to the mods section but didn't know about a special tag.

Only just found this thread. Should have checked the forums earlier!

There seems to be differing opinions on whether or not audio is included in comps. Some claim that there have been audio entries in prior years, but I have yet to see a link.

 

[Lotus_Kitty]

13 votes is a very on theme number of votes, innit? Don't think I'll even be in the contest without 25 votes but it was such fun making the audio! Here's hoping 12 more people decide to vote before the cutoff!

To anyone who scrambled to finish before the deadline, I was right there with you! Learning experience for next year, for sure. Worked with a wonderful ensemble cast but did not ask them to record their dialogue together. Didn't ask them to record sexy time scenes as reactions to another VAs audio track. Ended up synchronizing dialogue and sexy moans by hand for hours, days! And that's for just 20 minutes of audio! Fun, definitely, but next time I'm saving myself work!

Submit earlier, get seen/heard more? An experiment for next year.

 

[Lotus_Kitty]

There seems to be differing opinions on whether or not audio is included in comps. Some claim that there have been audio entries in prior years, but I have yet to see a link.

There were audio category winners in 2024 but I never saw an audio entry list. :/ I was thus very confused this year about whether audio entries were even accepted into the contest.

 

[EmilyMiller]

There were audio category winners in 2024 but I never saw an audio entry list. :/ I was thus very confused this year about whether audio entries were even accepted into the contest.

It’s not awfully clear, sorry

 

[MelissaBaby]

13 votes is a very on theme number of votes, innit? Don't think I'll even be in the contest without 25 votes but it was such fun making the audio! Here's hoping 12 more people decide to vote before the cutoff!

To anyone who scrambled to finish before the deadline, I was right there with you! Learning experience for next year, for sure. Worked with a wonderful ensemble cast but did not ask them to record their dialogue together. Didn't ask them to record sexy time scenes as reactions to another VAs audio track. Ended up synchronizing dialogue and sexy moans by hand for hours, days! And that's for just 20 minutes of audio! Fun, definitely, but next time I'm saving myself work!

Submit earlier, get seen/heard more? An experiment for next year.

View attachment 2573746

Don’t give up hope, there is usually an uptick in voting after the deadline.

 

[MelissaBaby]

There are way too many stories to expect anyone to read them all at this point, but I would suggest that anyone who has gotten in late and doesn't think they can get the 25 votes needed to quality to post a link to their stories here. Perhaps some of your fellow authors will take a look at your story and cast a vote.

 

[Lotus_Kitty]

It’s not awfully clear, sorry

No worries Thank you for helping contestants.

 

[EmilyMiller]

No worries Thank you for helping contestants.

I’m doing my best, but I don’t work for the site and can only do so much

 

[Actingup]

There are way too many stories to expect anyone to read them all at this point, but I would suggest that anyone who has gotten in late and doesn't think they can get the 25 votes needed to quality to post a link to their stories here. Perhaps some of your fellow authors will take a look at your story and cast a vote.

An honest, wholesome vote, hopefully - no 1-bombs allowed!

What we can also do is to leave encouraging and constructive feedback on stories. If there are things that could have been improved, say so nicely. If it's an absolute stinker, maybe take it into a private message or just stop reading. If it's a shining pearl that puts your own story to shame, say so and leave those 5 stars for all to see. Let's make sure that we behave as we would like all of our readers to behave.