Personal sites?

[jdnunyer]

Just out of curiosity, do any of you other authors distribute your work through personal sites or blogs or any format besides submitting to Literotica?

I love Literotica. And I hope that by submitting stuff I here, I may attract interest in my writing. But I also have a blog I've set up both to distribute my work and provide more information about myself and it (click my profile for a link, if you're interested). It's not a commercial site. I don't even have advertising on my blog. I'm not looking to make money. Just want more control over how and when to distribute my work. And even if I were submitting all my writing here (I may end up doing that anyway -- haven't decided yet), I like the idea of having a blog where interested readers can go for more information, should they want it.

Am I alone?

 

[Darkniciad]

I don't actually post work on my site ( though I have in the past, and plan to revive my "scenes from the cutting room floor" section as I rebuild the site ) but I've got one.

Once I get everything back online, it'll be useful for providing information that can't really be worked into a story as it used to be, as well as providing updates via my blog, interaction through the forum, and alerts through the opt-in newsletter. It also provides links to stories that don't post on both story websites due to rule or readership reasons, allowing readers to cross over if they wish to pick up on what they might have missed.

 

[jdnunyer]

Thanks for the quick reply. Awesome site! Color me jealous.

How did you set it up, if you don't mind my asking? You have some seriously kick-ass features on there!

 

[Darkniciad]

Other than the blog ( Wordpress ) everything is running off Invision software -- forum and IP.Content. Most of the code is my own ( I used to code mods for older Invision boards ) but it all runs off the backbone of Invision, providing the security and session environment.

Beyond that, the template is a free-use download from somewhere that I've been modifying as needed ( and as I learn CSS )

 

[jdnunyer]

I see. Thanks for the info!

 

[Darkniciad]

For what you're wanting to do, you could probably do it all with Wordpress. It's free ( Invision isn't cheap! I only splurged because I placed in a contest and still had almost all of my tax check in the bank ) and has the ability to create pages, where you could put your stories if you don't want to post them directly on the blog, or to store background information, etc.

Lots of plugins and such that I didn't research, which may give you even more abilities with a point-n-click interface ( if you don't know web coding )

There are lots and lots of websites built entirely on the Wordpress backbone, with little to no modification of the underlying code and plugins. Thus, it's a format that visitors should be used to, and easy for them to navigate.

 

[jdnunyer]

Yeah, I'm pretty pleased with Wordpress, and I know it has features I haven't even figured out yet. Plus I don't know any web coding. I also don't have the body of work that you do. So for my purposes, I'm pretty happy with what I've got. But if I had as many different stories, in as many different genres, under two different pen names, I could see how Wordpress would be limiting. The drop down menus you have to let people search by genre, series, or pen name are really cool.

I look forward to reading your work!

 

[Darkniciad]

Three pen names, actually ( and an additional several categories that I haven't ventured into in my known names )

Created the third name to see what I could do without name recognition, and once that proved a success, decided to keep it secret and dump all the stuff that I can't manage to build a larger plot around there *laugh*

 

[jdnunyer]

That makes sense.

I'm awful new around here, so I'll just worry about *getting* name recognition for now.

 

[Firebrain]

I do have a site (I bought my domain name through blogger and I'm happy with how easy it has been to use). I don't really use it for Lit stories per se--unless you go on a big platform-building drive, most of your traffic will come from Lit anyway--but I use it as a blog, and to build a platform for my upcoming novels (you can find the URL in my profile if you're feeling nosy).

If you're setting it up just to re-post Lit stories, I wouldn't bother. It's much harder to get blog traffic than Lit traffic. But if you're planning on publishing in the future, or just want to offer a bit more of yourself as an author, it's a useful exercise.

Incidentally, I found wordpress a lot harder to navigate. But then I am a girl

 

[jdnunyer]

Thanks for the response. Nice site! Some very useful stuff on there.

I had more of the "offer more of yourself" bit in mind. I assume my traffic will be pretty much entirely Lit traffic.

I've used Blogger before, for a professional site (I'm an academic). Thought I'd try Wordpress out this time. They don't seem all that terribly different to me. But so far, I'd agree with you that Blogger is a bit easier to navigate.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I kind of do...

I have a web site that I have links on to my ebooks for sale and links to my works on Lit. If you would like take a look XavierCarter.5gigs.net

 

[jdnunyer]

Very nice. I really like your cover art! Looking forward to reading some of your stories.

By the way, you might be interested to know that my spyware protection software tried to block your site. It let me through when I clicked allow, but something on your site is triggering its spidey sense. Just FYI.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Very nice. I really like your cover art! Looking forward to reading some of your stories.

By the way, you might be interested to know that my spyware protection software tried to block your site. It let me through when I clicked allow, but something on your site is triggering its spidey sense. Just FYI.

Thanks.

I don't know why it does that with some spyware/virus software.

Which one are you using? Mine doesn't get triggered but it does on sites I know there is none and it's really frustrating.

 

[jdnunyer]

Spyware Doctor, from PC Tools.

http://www.pctools.com/compare/prot...ngchallenger&gclid=CMOH9OPsnaoCFdBrKgod91Em5w

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Spyware Doctor, from PC Tools.

http://www.pctools.com/compare/prot...ngchallenger&gclid=CMOH9OPsnaoCFdBrKgod91Em5w

You know, it might be the counters and the globe that triggered the spyware. The globe tells me where everyone is from but doesn't save IP's. Just city/state for the US and Region for other countries.

 

[jdnunyer]

Could be. I think I've visited other sites that do that without the same problem. But this particular piece of software does generally err on the side of caution.

Not sure if it matters. Just thought you might want to know.

 

[Jake Marlow]

I've had my own website since 1996. My stories usually go up there before they go up, plus a lot of my back catalog stories that I've pulled from here and Erotic Stories are there. Also, it has links to all my ebooks. Having my own website helped me develop a mailing list for promotional purposes.

Jake's Wonderland

 

[jdnunyer]

Nice site! Thanks for the link.

 

[BrielleJameson]

I have a wordpress blog... though there's only one story there (which I just submitted here), I hope to write more and more.

I can access wordpress a bit more easily than this site, so yea... much easier to write and post.

 

[jdnunyer]

Same here.

Another factor, for me, is that I'd been writing for a while in a software program that I'd gotten comfortable with through work before I'd ever considered trying to share my work with others. Removing all the formatting before submitting to Lit is a bit tedious. If I'd known I would eventually want to submit my work here, I wouldn't have simply defaulted to that software. But here I am. At least with my own site, I can post the .pdfs with the formatting I'd intended. Hopefully some readers will get interested enough by what they see on Lit to click through...

 

[Babeslady]

Blogger user here!!

I too have a blog that I update about twice to three times a week. I put a mix of information and stories on there. There are a couple of writers in the world who run weekly collections whereby a number of writers contribute to a common prompt. The stories are all linked through a common site and most of the writers use Twitter to promote.

The idea being that if you are in the group other people in the group and their followers will follow the links to read your work. It works OK and I have gotten some good ideas, feedback and traffic that way.

Twitter is also another great way to drive traffic to your blog. I see you all sneering derisively but truly. I get way more traffic from twitter than here. Although I must admit I haven't posted here for a while.

Personally I think if you intend to sell stories posting them on a blog isn't good. Once they are in the public domain and available for free I think it is a bit rude to then expect people to pay for your book. But putting little teasers and other stuff on there to create interest always helps.

Oh I forgot. I use blogger feel free to have a read at
http://swinginggemma.blogspot.com/?zx=d06411d2662d00bd

 

[jdnunyer]

Thanks for the input.

I'm not sure why people would sneer at Twitter. I haven't used it before, but there's no particular reason for that. I keep thinking that I should.

I don't intend to sell my stories. This is just a hobby for me. But that's certainly something to keep in mind for the future. I didn't think I planned on doing this either...

Nice blog. Your posts are quite witty. I like it.

 

[English Lady]

I've got a website and have had it for years now, it's run through wordpress apparently but my husband does all the techy stuff so I don't have a clue.

It's got all my published works listed plus a pile of freebies and my blog as well.

Links in my sig, but anyone who knows my pen name can work it out pretty easily. I don't want to get deleted for spam. *LOL*

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Same here.

Another factor, for me, is that I'd been writing for a while in a software program that I'd gotten comfortable with through work before I'd ever considered trying to share my work with others. Removing all the formatting before submitting to Lit is a bit tedious. If I'd known I would eventually want to submit my work here, I wouldn't have simply defaulted to that software. But here I am. At least with my own site, I can post the .pdfs with the formatting I'd intended. Hopefully some readers will get interested enough by what they see on Lit to click through...

What formating do you use that you can't do with some simple HTML codes?

Copy and paste your text from the tool you use and paste it into notepad or wordpad or textpad. Then add the html tags you want to use, don't forget to close them, cut and paste into the submission textbox.

I use Word 2007 and any bold, italic or centered text I want I just type the tags in as I go. It would be nice to be able to change font, but they don't allow that html tag to be used.

You can use...

<b></b> bold
<i></i> italic
<u></u> underline
<center></center> --- self explanatory

Other than those I haven't found any I would use in a story.

eBook publishers are restricted by the reader they publish to. So changing font or font size is immaterial as the reader can to that for the user. e is not print.