The Official Author's Hangout 2015 April Fool's Day Contest Support Thread

[RejectReality]

I'm kind of surprised that there are still so many chapter stories coming out in Incest. Whether 2 pages or 20, standalone stories dramatically outperform anything with a chapter number attached to it.

The scores may be a little higher in later chapters, but I can't see how that's worth the dramatic loss of views, comments, and favorites that happens when you post chapters in the category.

It's a phenomenon I don't really see in any other category ( other than Loving Wives ) where initial chapters don't lose much over a standalone as far as reader participation goes.

In my opinion, Incest readers are announcing loud and clear that they don't want chapter stories. ( And then sending mixed signals by saying they want more in the comments LOL )

 

[geronimo_appleby]

Thanks for your suggestion but with the suspense so tightly woven into the whole story, the first part is as needed as the last part. Breaking the story up into to separate stories would ruin what I have planned at the end.

I don't envy anyone with this contest. This is not an easy story to write with the reader knowing in advance that the theme of the story is April Fools'. It's hard to trick the reader when they already know the ending unless...

ah, that sorta knocks my suggestion a tad.

there's still time to knock out a shorty?

 

[SusanJillParker]

ah, that sorta knocks my suggestion a tad.

there's still time to knock out a shorty?

Actually, I'm toying with posting the whole story, 10 Literotica pages.

Should I or shouldn't I? It's a tough decision.

 

[Kethandra]

Actually, I'm toying with posting the whole story, 10 Literotica pages.

Should I or shouldn't I? It's a tough decision.

Do it. Let the story be appreciated as a whole, especially as a contest entry, rather than as a serial fewer readers may get to the end of. Or whatever's best for you.

 

[geronimo_appleby]

Actually, I'm toying with posting the whole story, 10 Literotica pages.

Should I or shouldn't I? It's a tough decision.

do it. i had one up in summer loving a couple or three years ago at 40k words. it did okay regardless of the length - no pun.

eta: just checked. it was nude day and came in (again, no pun) at 12 Lit pages. got a blue w out of it.

 

[HeyAll]

BTW HeyAll:
Congrats your very enjoyable Mom at the movies story. It seems to have been far and away the most read thing on the site this whole month. You hit a note with the readers on that one.

Thanks. That's very nice of you.

I'm kind of surprised that there are still so many chapter stories coming out in Incest. Whether 2 pages or 20, standalone stories dramatically outperform anything with a chapter number attached to it.

The scores may be a little higher in later chapters, but I can't see how that's worth the dramatic loss of views, comments, and favorites that happens when you post chapters in the category.

It's a phenomenon I don't really see in any other category ( other than Loving Wives ) where initial chapters don't lose much over a standalone as far as reader participation goes.

In my opinion, Incest readers are announcing loud and clear that they don't want chapter stories. ( And then sending mixed signals by saying they want more in the comments LOL )

My take is that certain authors want to write a long story, but they want to release it ASAP instead of waiting until the thing is finished. So they release it piece by piece instead.

I've also seen notes & comments by the author saying that they'll continue the story if there's enough positive feedback and so forth. In other words, they don't want to take the risk of writing a long story which no one likes, and no one will read.

IMO that's a big mistake.

It's better to take the chance and complete the story. And if it's in chapters, the chapters should be released not long after the previous one. I've seen story chapters do okay, then the next story takes weeks to post, and it's lost a substantial amount of readers.

There are so many stories are on this site that readers have tons of choices. Generally speaking, if you don't complete that thing quick, it'll be forgotten about (generally speaking)

 

[Kethandra]

My take is that certain authors want to write a long story, but they want to release it ASAP instead of waiting until the thing is finished. So they release it piece by piece instead.

I've also seen notes & comments by the author saying that they'll continue the story if there's enough positive feedback and so forth. In other words, they don't want to take the risk of writing a long story which no one likes, and no one will read.

IMO that's a big mistake.

It's better to take the chance and complete the story. And if it's in chapters, the chapters should be released not long after the previous one. I've seen story chapters do okay, then the next story takes weeks to post, and it's lost a substantial amount of readers.

There are so many stories are on this site that readers have tons of choices. Generally speaking, if you don't complete that thing quick, it'll be forgotten about (generally speaking)

While there are good, structured (beginning, middle, end) stories broken up into chapters in Incest/Taboo, it seems a lot of the chapter stories are more serial spankers: you know the characters, and now they're sticking that thing somewhere new in someone else, with no real conclusion.
I'll admit to covetously looking at those high scores on "More Family Shenanigans, Chap. 27." So I tried the serial route. So far my results are like the original Star Trek movies: the even numbered ones get better reviews. We'll see if Chap 6, just submitted, continues the pattern. The trend is upward scorewise, but the downward trend of viewers/voters/favs outweighs it, IMO. I think 7 will be the end of it.

 

[lovecraft68]

I'm kind of surprised that there are still so many chapter stories coming out in Incest. Whether 2 pages or 20, standalone stories dramatically outperform anything with a chapter number attached to it.

The scores may be a little higher in later chapters, but I can't see how that's worth the dramatic loss of views, comments, and favorites that happens when you post chapters in the category.

It's a phenomenon I don't really see in any other category ( other than Loving Wives ) where initial chapters don't lose much over a standalone as far as reader participation goes.

In my opinion, Incest readers are announcing loud and clear that they don't want chapter stories. ( And then sending mixed signals by saying they want more in the comments LOL )

The problem with incest series is a lot of them don't move the plot at all, but are just sex scenes. Example

Chapter Two...Mom and Billy in the pool!

Chapter Three Mom let's Billy fuck her ass!!

Those stories will still have their followers, but many who enjoyed the first when they see where its going-or not going-will leave off.

But if the chapter moves the story along they will manage to keep their following for the most part.

I hadn't done a chapter two since SWB finished, but back in October I did a two part series in incest because one story would have been 14 pages and it also happened to have a great natural break in the story to provide a split.

I saw a drop off in views, but everything else went up. But the second part moved along and concluded a story it wasn't just "more sex"

Mom Will Do Anything! Ch. 01 Desperate mother agrees to a porn shoot; with her son.
4.71 1848 236336 Incest/Taboo (English) 10/30/14 approved
Public Comments: 42 Moderate Public Comments


Mom Will Do Anything! Ch. 02 Vicky reveals the porn shoot wasn't just about the money.
4.84 1922 173553 Incest/Taboo (English) 11/05/14 approved
Public Comments: 55

 

[RejectReality]

The problem with incest series is a lot of them don't move the plot at all, but are just sex scenes.

That's true in most of the categories, though. They don't seem to suffer as much from ch. 01 apathy as Incest does.

You gave them an 8-page helping to start out, and said from the get-go that it was a two-part story. You're also established and highly-favorited in the category. That makes a difference.

 

[lovecraft68]

That's true in most of the categories, though. They don't seem to suffer as much from ch. 01 apathy as Incest does.

You gave them an 8-page helping to start out, and said from the get-go that it was a two-part story. You're also established and highly-favorited in the category. That makes a difference.

True on the notice of the two parts....but it still didn't stop people from lining up to tell me about all the great stuff that could happen in ch 3

A story that refutes any logic at all and is to a point that it posts so slowly it should have no followers left is a series called Just the Six of us

28 chapters of a brother fucking his four sisters. 16 chapters released in tow months and the other twelve has taken over four years, yet go look at the numbers, they are just as big as day one.

The author even has the same exact tag line for every chapter except two....and the last one is a play on it...

The success of the series defies logic in many, many ways.

 

[SusanJillParker]

I had another story stolen and posted as an e-Book on Amazon. I can't even count how man stories I've had lifted from Literotica. I deleted more than 300 stories from my BostonFictionWriter name because of thieves. The only thing I can do is to contact Amazon again and contact Laurel again. That's it. As are we all, I'm helpless to stop thieves from stealing my stories.

Ergo my reluctance in writing and posting a complete, stand alone, 40,000 or more word incest story in the April Fools' contest. Why make it easy for thieves by handing them a complete, polished story when they'll be stealing the story anyway?

This way, with pieces missing, namely chapters, they'll move on to someone else's completed story, your story perhaps, and take that one. Yeah, sure, they may still steal my the story when it's finished but they'll have to put some time into reconstructing it from chapters to make it a complete story in readiness to publish.

Moreover, the way that I see it is, chapter stories keep my name out there. Instead of dumping the entire story in one load, I get more bang for the buck by writing chapter stories, as long as the first chapter has enough sex in it to hook the reader.

Still, an understatement, it's upsetting to spend so very much time to write something and have it stolen by someone determined to make a few dollars from my hard work.

Just a thought, being that many of these thieves don't even bother reading the story but just copy and paste it, in the way they do with library books, I wonder if Laurel would be agreeable to us putting a line in the stories we write to make Amazon readers know that they're not only reading a stolen story but also that they bought a stolen story. It may make a difference. Maybe they'll report the story to Amazon as stolen.

"This is a stolen story written by SusanJillParker and stolen from Literotica. Please report this story as stolen to Amazon and demand your money back."

What do you think? Every story we write we insert a stolen story line somewhere in the story, maybe even more than one line, and maybe even a whole page. In the way that Laurel adds a copyright sign next to our name, we add a stolen story line imbedded somewhere in the story.

As soon as her husband left the hotel room to take a dip in the pool, Armando put down his drink and moved in behind Jennifer standing by the window taking in the view. With the deft fingers of a safecracker opening a safe, he removed Jennifer's dress. As if her dress was a shroud removed from a priceless work of art, a masterpiece, her dress collected in a bunch by her ankles. Except for her panties, she was naked. He moved her around to face him before looking deeply in her big brown eyes and before giving her a long, wet kiss. "This is a stolen story written by SusanJillParker and stolen from Literotica. Please report this story as stolen to Amazon and demand your money back." While kissing her, he touched and felt her where only her husband had been allowed to touch and feel her. Then, as if he was stealing her and taking her all for himself, he leaned down, picked her up, and carried her to the bed.

"Huh? What do you think? Am I on to something here? Please, no applause, I'm shyly modest."

 

[geronimo_appleby]

I had another story stolen and posted as an e-Book on Amazon. I can't even count how man stories I've had lifted from Literotica. I deleted more than 300 stories from my BostonFictionWriter name because of thieves. The only thing I can do is to contact Amazon again and contact Laurel again. That's it. As are we all, I'm helpless to stop thieves from stealing my stories.

Ergo my reluctance in writing and posting a complete, stand alone, 40,000 or more word incest story in the April Fools' contest. Why make it easy for thieves by handing them a complete, polished story when they'll be stealing the story anyway?

sounds like an excuse to me, freddie.

 

[sr71plt]

The only thing I can do is to contact Amazon again and contact Laurel again. That's it.

No, that's not the only thing you can do. Nearly everything I have here on Literotica was published to the marketplace several months before being posted to Lit. It not only has earned most of what it will earn before posting to Lit., but it also exists in earlier form at Amazon to whatever a thief later publishes. It helps also that I have a publisher who goes to Amazon to point out it's theft (which they can see themselves--they themselves previously handled it).

 

[SusanJillParker]

No, that's not the only thing you can do. Nearly everything I have here on Literotica was published to the marketplace several months before being posted to Lit. It not only has earned most of what it will earn before posting to Lit., but it also exists in earlier form at Amazon to whatever a thief later publishes. It helps also that I have a publisher who goes to Amazon to point out it's theft (which they can see themselves--they themselves previously handled it).

You're lucky to have a publisher that you can trust.

Publishers, especially e-Book publishers, are notorious for not giving proper accounting of how many books were sold. Even famous authors are having a difficult time getting an audited accounting of their sales.

After signing up with three different publishers and publishing half a dozen e-Books, four of which are still available on Amazon and Barnes and Nobel, the publishers disappeared and the royalties stopped. I was only paid a few hundred dollars as my advance to write for them. When they gave me a corporate address in Malta (lol), I was right not to trust them.

Seemingly, I'm earning more money by writing stories directly for fans than I ever earned with e-Books. Normally, I'm paid by Wal-Mart, e-Bay, or Amazon gift cards but some men, strange enough, stuff cash in a yellow envelope.

I know you don't believe me, never believed me, but it all started when a man from Houston years ago, a grandson of one of the Hunt brothers and a friend of George W sent me a check for $4,000 back in 2008 with a note that read, "You should have won the Survivor contest. I knew right there that there was a market that I was missing, which is why I started writing celebrity stories.

I've even bartered stories for payment. I received a woman's Akubra hat from Australia, an Irish wool sweater from Ireland, a bottle of 21-year-old, single malted scotch from Scotland, 2 wool blankets from Nebraska, a Yamaha melodica from Indonesia, an accordion from a man in Chicago, and an adult trike from Dubai, along with dozens of other things. I traded a story for a bunch of hand carved teak animals from Bali and jade chess pieces from China.

When clients can't afford to pay my fee for me to write them a story, I'll ask them what can they buy their country that's inexpensive but that is expensive in the states. They always come up with something creative.

By the way, if anyone wants a camel, I have one to sell or trade. Let me know.

 

[lovecraft68]

No, that's not the only thing you can do. Nearly everything I have here on Literotica was published to the marketplace several months before being posted to Lit. It not only has earned most of what it will earn before posting to Lit., but it also exists in earlier form at Amazon to whatever a thief later publishes. It helps also that I have a publisher who goes to Amazon to point out it's theft (which they can see themselves--they themselves previously handled it).

Your last words show how seriously amazon itself takes it. There is a way to check if a book is stolen before publishing, but they just take anything that comes there way and shove it up there.

That can be seen in their joke policies. They claim no incest, but there are books there hundreds/thousands that are real incest, some blatant that should have been blocked-if they cared-and some with descriptions like "John is seduced by the sexy woman who raised him"

Amazon will make every dime they can on stolen material and things that violate their very vague TOC. They wring every penny until a complaint is made then they make a last profit by keeping anything owed to the author and never giving anything to the person it was stolen from.

Amazon could make Republicans look ethical.

 

[Kethandra]

Interesting. People like to barter. Americans, in my experience, not as much as many others, but I have still traded and been offered trades for many different services in various sales fields. I learned to ride a horse because a horse trainer traded free lessons for a discount on ads in a horse magazine I repped years ago, as one example.
I never considered trading fiction though...

No thanks on the Camel, I don't smoke them.

You're lucky to have a publisher that you can trust.

Publishers, especially e-Book publishers, are notorious for not giving proper accounting of how many books were sold. Even famous authors are having a difficult time getting an audited accounting of their sales.

After signing up with three different publishers and publishing half a dozen e-Books, four of which are still available on Amazon and Barnes and Nobel, the publishers disappeared and the royalties stopped. I was only paid a few hundred dollars as my advance to write for them. When they gave me a corporate address in Malta (lol), I was right not to trust them.

Seemingly, I'm earning more money by writing stories directly for fans than I ever earned with e-Books. Normally, I'm paid by Wal-Mart, e-Bay, or Amazon gift cards but some men, strange enough, stuff cash in a yellow envelope.

I know you don't believe me, never believed me, but it all started when a man from Houston years ago, a grandson of one of the Hunt brothers and a friend of George W sent me a check for $4,000 back in 2008 with a note that read, "You should have won the Survivor contest. I knew right there that there was a market that I was missing, which is why I started writing celebrity stories.

I've even bartered stories for payment. I received a woman's Akubra hat from Australia, an Irish wool sweater from Ireland, a bottle of 21-year-old, single malted scotch from Scotland, 2 wool blankets from Nebraska, a Yamaha melodica from Indonesia, an accordion from a man in Chicago, and an adult trike from Dubai, along with dozens of other things. I traded a story for a bunch of hand carved teak animals from Bali and jade chess pieces from China.

When clients can't afford to pay my fee for me to write them a story, I'll ask them what can they buy their country that's inexpensive but that is expensive in the states. They always come up with something creative.

By the way, if anyone wants a camel, I have one to sell or trade. Let me know.

 

[Kethandra]

Chapter stories update

After submitting another chapter to my one serial story, I'm surprised to see views trending upward.
Chapter 5 is viewed more than 4, and 6 just dropped yesterday and had been viewed more than either 4 or 5, and will probably pass chapter 3 this morning. Still way under half the views of chapter 1, though.

For whatever reason, votes are way down though on this one: every other chapter has voting at 1.25 to 1.5% of the views, chapter 6 is about half that, .65%.
The only explanation I can think of for both trends is the chapter 6 dropping on a Saturday morning, where casual viewers are more numerous but perhaps not as likely to participate by voting, etc..

 

[lovecraft68]

I may have a second entry for this one. Depends on whether or not I find the time to do some more work on it.

Its in Lesbian and although not what I would call a full out twist ending the story revolves around two women one who tricks the first into doing something for her and the second doing it, but finding a way to trick the first into something she didn't plan and then plays her big time at the end so I think the game playing and misleading and trickery should fall under the theme.

I don't know why I am concerned with that, seeing every contest has more than few entries that barely touch the theme at all.

 

[Kethandra]

I may have a second entry for this one. Depends on whether or not I find the time to do some more work on it.

Its in Lesbian and although not what I would call a full out twist ending the story revolves around two women one who tricks the first into doing something for her and the second doing it, but finding a way to trick the first into something she didn't plan and then plays her big time at the end so I think the game playing and misleading and trickery should fall under the theme.

I don't know why I am concerned with that, seeing every contest has more than few entries that barely touch the theme at all.

"themes: Stories (humorous or otherwise) of surprise meetings, humor, tricks, trick endings, and other themes of deception, chance, and/or misunderstandings (happy or otherwise)."

Whether voters agree or not is an open question, but the official contest theme is very broad and inclusive.

 

[YDB95]

I'm seeing a light at the end of the tunnel on mine. It's going to be a long one, but I think my fans are used to that.

 

[lovecraft68]

I'm seeing a light at the end of the tunnel on mine. It's going to be a long one, but I think my fans are used to that.

My incest story will be six pages and if I get it done the lesbian story will be six as well. I think that is about my across the board average for all my stories.

I remember someone here (and it was not pilot before people assume that) pm'd me after I placed in a contest for the first time saying I write long stories on purpose in contests for an edge...

I was very happy to send him the link to my page where he could see that in my close to two years of writing here before I entered a contest my stuff was just as long.

Its just how I write. Funny, they had no reply to that.

 

[sr71plt]

Publishers, especially e-Book publishers, are notorious for not giving proper accounting of how many books were sold. Even famous authors are having a difficult time getting an audited accounting of their sales.

This has been rampant for long in the mainstream print world too. The publishing house department that gets the least resources is accounting--for a reason.

 

[SusanJillParker]

This has been rampant for long in the mainstream print world too. The publishing house department that gets the least resources is accounting--for a reason.

That's an excuse that the publishers use. In this day and age when jobs are underpaid and part-time with little and no benefits, how much would it cost a publisher to hire a revenue clerk?

Once they developed the software to track royalties, a simple Excel spreadsheet one for each author with titles of books and dates of sales, everything could be tracked and updated within a few hours. If it takes longer than that, then that's evidence that the publisher is making lots of money.

 

[SusanJillParker]

Okay, I need advice. Here's the problem.

Not even done yet, I have a 45,000 April Fools' story that can easily be broken up into 8 to 10 chapters. Should I submit a 13 Literotica page story or should I not enter it in the contest and break it up as a chapter story? What would you do?

Other than the crazy author, who would sit at his or her computer to read a 45,000 word story when there's plenty of 3,000 word stroke stories to read?

 

[sr71plt]

That's an excuse that the publishers use. In this day and age when jobs are underpaid and part-time with little and no benefits, how much would it cost a publisher to hire a revenue clerk?

It's not an excuse nor is it done by accident (which are the points). They control the actual figures. If they report fewer sales and/or keep incomplete or double books, their profits are higher. It's sort of a "doh," Freddie. It's been standard practice for as long as there have been publishers.