How much feedback and voting can I expect?

[professor_jim]

Hi everyone,

This morning, my first story was published on Literotica. It's really exciting to have written it, posted it, and seen it published here. (It's called "A Professor of Two Minds." You'll notice that it has a typo in the FIRST SENTENCE! Oops!

My question has to do with the voting system.

First, I'm amazed how many people have looked at the story! It's like 12,000 in one day! Lots of erotica lovers out there! That's great. But is that normal? Should I expect the number of views to drop off drastically now that it's not the first day anymore?

Also, of those 12,000 views, only about 55 people voted. Is that normal, that only one in 200 people actually vote? Not sure how to take these stats. I'm happy that the numbers are decent (it has a rating of about 4.38, which as a college prof, I'll consider about a B+...).

When it was first posted, the story had a little red "H" next to it, which could stand for "hot", "honors", "ho hum," or a few other curse words I can think of!

But now, the score has kind of drifted down, down, down, from an early score of 4.75.

Anyway, it's all good! Loving Literotica and its readers, just trying to figure out what is what around here!

Thanks!!!!!!

Professor Jim

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Hi everyone,

This morning, my first story was published on Literotica. It's really exciting to have written it, posted it, and seen it published here. (It's called "A Professor of Two Minds." You'll notice that it has a typo in the FIRST SENTENCE! Oops!

My question has to do with the voting system.

First, I'm amazed how many people have looked at the story! It's like 12,000 in one day! Lots of erotica lovers out there! That's great. But is that normal? Should I expect the number of views to drop off drastically now that it's not the first day anymore?

Also, of those 12,000 views, only about 55 people voted. Is that normal, that only one in 200 people actually vote? Not sure how to take these stats. I'm happy that the numbers are decent (it has a rating of about 4.38, which as a college prof, I'll consider about a B+...).

When it was first posted, the story had a little red "H" next to it, which could stand for "hot", "honors", "ho hum," or a few other curse words I can think of!

But now, the score has kind of drifted down, down, down, from an early score of 4.75.

Anyway, it's all good! Loving Literotica and its readers, just trying to figure out what is what around here!

Thanks!!!!!!

Professor Jim

Hi Jim and welcome to the AH. Your readership is quite high, the number of votes is pretty good and the gradual downward flow of the points is normal. Comfortable now?

 

[driphoney]

Since you didn't say which genre you posted in and I'm too tired to go on an expedition, I'm just going to answer in general terms.

You're numbers seem about right, especially if it appears it's a single chapter short story and has a reasonably catchy introductory line. The ratio between "views" and "votes" is typically, yet surprisingly, large.

The red "H" does indicate Hot. And the fact that you started out hot, then fell once others noticed that little H is also typical, I'm afraid. Heartbreaking for sure. But never fear, your score will fluctuate from now until it no longer exists on the site! And, after the picky and/or jealous voters tire, you're score is likely to creep up eventually.

Hope this helps some. Welcome to Lit.

 

[professor_jim]

The story is in "Erotic Encounters"

Thanks for the answers.

Since it didn't really fit any category, I put the story in "Erotic Encounters."

Could be one of the rare Literotica stories where no one character actually touches any other character.

The first line would be even better if I hadn't repeated a word in it. Ugh.

 

[driphoney]

Thanks for the answers.

Since it didn't really fit any category, I put the story in "Erotic Encounters."

Could be one of the rare Literotica stories where no one character actually touches any other character.

The first line would be even better if I hadn't repeated a word in it. Ugh.

You can submit an edit, though it won't hit until the majority of your readers have swept through. If it really bugs you, it's worth the time it takes even if it won't be in time to stop the Grammar Police.

 

[professor_jim]

Do these stories keep getting read (I know the super popular ones do) after the first couple days, or do they get ignored?

I guess my question is: how do people decide what to read? That little red H helps, I'm sure, but would someone go back and look for old stories a week, month, or year from now?

Still trying to figure out how this site really works.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I submit all of my stuff to the Special Olympics Category; acceptance comes with a Rainbow hued, YES WE CAN! '1st Place' ribbon, and no one can vote but me...and I can vote as often as I want.

 

[Darkniciad]

Do these stories keep getting read (I know the super popular ones do) after the first couple days, or do they get ignored?

I guess my question is: how do people decide what to read? That little red H helps, I'm sure, but would someone go back and look for old stories a week, month, or year from now?

Still trying to figure out how this site really works.

If you keep putting out new work, you'll continue to get reads of your older work. People find you in the NEW list, and move on to more stories if they liked the first one. New people notice your name every time it pops up in the new stories list.

Yep, Hs make a difference in where people's eyes gravitate, but a catchy title and tagline can be just as -- or more -- important.

I've had a half a dozen emails on my stuff in the last couple of weeks, despite not having anything new out since... Halloween I believe. No idea how many of those were the same person, since they were all anonymous. So even without high ranking in the toplists or NEW list exposure, you still get read at Lit long after the initial release. It just isn't the rapid rise in numbers you have in the beginning.

 

[lesbiaphrodite]

It varies a lot, but in general your observations thus far have been bang-on. High spikes of readers in early days followed by lulls and re-spikes. Fewer votes than you would hope for always. And a challenging voter system where you see a high score early and a medium decline (depending).

 

[Boxlicker101]

Hi, Prof. There's no such category as "Erotic Encounters." Do you mean Erotic Coupling?

If nobody in the story touches anybody else, it probably wouldn't be in E/C. It might pe placed in Toys & Masturbation or in Voyeur & Exhibitionists, since stories in these categories frequently involve only one person or one person watching another, with no actual contact.

12,000 votes is pretty good for the first day of a new author's work. A score of 4.75 is also pretty good except, as some others have said, the H will lure two kinds of readers: Those who want to read what seems to be a good story or those who are saying "Oh, yeah! I got your fuckin' red H right here!" or words to that effect.

ETA: I RCVed the story. It is in E/C, which surprised me, because I thought it would have been in one of the other categories I mentioned. It was quite good. There was no dialogue, but there rerally couldn't have been any.

 

[jomar]

I was guessing loving wives, but keep your eye on it. "Sweeps" get rid of troll votes that drag down scores.

 

[sr71plt]

Expect none and then you'll usually be pleasantly surprised.

 

[professor_jim]

Thanks, and one more thing

Thanks to everyone who replied to the post. You were all right on--the views on my first story, "A Professor of Two Minds," dropped like a rock after the first day, from 12,000 on day one, to 4000 on day two, to about 1,000 today. Very interesting. A little sad after that initial rush of reads, but hey, all good things must slow down to a trickle.

The pace of voting remained consistent. About one in every 200 people voted.
Someone said that the troll's votes will be deleted at some point. Can you explain what that means?

Thanks to the Licker for your nice comments. I decided that my first story would not have any actual sexual contact in it. I guess I did this in the spirit of the "erotica" part of "literotica."

In my interpretation, anyway, erotica is about the mind. In my story, the protagonists don't touch and don't talk. They have no contact whatsoever, except eye contact. Yet the sparks fly, and there is tremendous sexual tension (at least that's how I tried to write it.)

Has anyone else tried writing erotica without sex? Trust me, a lot of my favorite stories are all about crazy fucking and sucking. But I decided to take a lighter approach in the first couple stories. I do wonder if my ratings would have been higher if they'd just had a nice little fuck after class..... Soon enough...

I think I'm going to write one more similar story--no sex, but tons of sexuality and thick erotic tension--before I let my characters get physical.

Maybe I'll start a new thread on the topic of "erotica without sex." Probably already been a million of 'em! One more can't hurt, can it?

-PJ

 

[professor_jim]

And Boxlicker, one more thing--it's funny that I mistakenly called the category "erotic encounters," since my story is an encounter without (physical) coupling, though there's intense mental coupling, i suppose.

I'm pretty sure when I submitted the story, they asked which category I wanted to put it in. "Erotic Coupling" seemed as close as any. But maybe they'll move it to a different category?

Thanks again to everyone who replied

 

[Guest]

It sounds as if you have things well in hand, prof.

Congratulations on your first posted story and welcome to Lit and the Authors' Hangout!

 

[Boxlicker101]

Thanks to everyone who replied to the post. You were all right on--the views on my first story, "A Professor of Two Minds," dropped like a rock after the first day, from 12,000 on day one, to 4000 on day two, to about 1,000 today. Very interesting. A little sad after that initial rush of reads, but hey, all good things must slow down to a trickle.

The pace of voting remained consistent. About one in every 200 people voted.
Someone said that the troll's votes will be deleted at some point. Can you explain what that means?

Thanks to the Licker for your nice comments. I decided that my first story would not have any actual sexual contact in it. I guess I did this in the spirit of the "erotica" part of "literotica."

In my interpretation, anyway, erotica is about the mind. In my story, the protagonists don't touch and don't talk. They have no contact whatsoever, except eye contact. Yet the sparks fly, and there is tremendous sexual tension (at least that's how I tried to write it.)

Has anyone else tried writing erotica without sex? Trust me, a lot of my favorite stories are all about crazy fucking and sucking. But I decided to take a lighter approach in the first couple stories. I do wonder if my ratings would have been higher if they'd just had a nice little fuck after class..... Soon enough...

I think I'm going to write one more similar story--no sex, but tons of sexuality and thick erotic tension--before I let my characters get physical.

Maybe I'll start a new thread on the topic of "erotica without sex." Probably already been a million of 'em! One more can't hurt, can it?

-PJ

Some of the troll votes might be deleted, or "swept" as the process is called by people on this forum. Periodically, especially during periods when there is a contest going on, some votes are deleted. Nobody knows just how it is decided what should be deleted, but the Hoover, as the program is sometimes called, erases votes that are duplicates or are otherwise not valid. I don't know how the process works, and I don't know of any author who does. There is no guarantee that any votes will be swept. Some people might have been disappointed at the lack of physical contact or dialogue and voted one-bombs because of that. I disagree with their opinions, but I have to admit they are valid. I have gotten bad votes for the same reasons.

Most of us have written stories about masturbation, but some people might not consider that to be sex. We have also written stories about voyeurs and exhibitionists, where there was no sex between the people involved, not even anybody masturbating.

ETA: Authors are always asked about category when submitting a story, and given the opportunity of choosing from a list. This is just a suggestion, and Management will place it where they think it best belongs, which is not always where the author wants it.