romance voters?

[peaches07]

So I submitted my first Romance category story, and with 12,000 + views I have 544 votes on it. After 2 days. (I'm really not trying to boast, I have a genuine question) None of my other category stories even come close to having that many votes, even with twice as many views. So, to those of you who submit in the Romance genre, is this normal? Are romance readers just big voters?

 

[lovecraft68]

Romance is a widely read category and a pretty friendly one, so yes its fairly common to get a good result there, especially if you give them their fix with a HEA ending,

Other categories-like incest, and loving wives-get more votes and views, but also have a lot of trolls.

Romance seems to be just about troll free.

Big softies!

BTW congrats on the numbers, nice job.

 

[peaches07]

Thank you!

Good to know.

 

[_Lynn_]

So I submitted my first Romance category story, and with 12,000 + views I have 544 votes on it. After 2 days. (I'm really not trying to boast, I have a genuine question) None of my other category stories even come close to having that many votes, even with twice as many views. So, to those of you who submit in the Romance genre, is this normal? Are romance readers just big voters?

I would say your votes are higher than average for the number of views, but I haven't posted in romance recently, either.

Congrats.

 

[RejectReality]

It's been a long time since I submitted anything in the category as well, but I think you struck a chord.

That vote to view ratio and the total number of votes looks quite a bit stronger than average to me -- especially for someone relatively new. ( Since most of your stuff has come out this year )

 

[peaches07]

Hmm, so probably a one-off then. I suppose the only way to really tell is to submit more romance stories. Thanks all for your thoughts. I am still pretty much a noob at this stuff.

 

[GaleWinters]

Hmmmm, so do people not really mind (maybe even prefer) stories with more romance over blatant eroticism? Because I have started to put some stories in the works but I wasn't sure if a story built more around emotions than explicit sex would be well received....

I guess everyone finds certain things more erotic, and the mushy feels is one of them.

 

[RejectReality]

Hmmmm, so do people not really mind (maybe even prefer) stories with more romance over blatant eroticism? Because I have started to put some stories in the works but I wasn't sure if a story built more around emotions than explicit sex would be well received....

I guess everyone finds certain things more erotic, and the mushy feels is one of them.

Romance readers trend toward appreciating the chase more than the mounting of the trophy at the end of the hunt.

In most categories, not getting to the sex quickly and in quantity tends to hurt you. In Romance, the readership sometimes penalizes stories where there's too much sex, and if the buildup of the relationship is strong enough, little to no sex is perfectly fine.

 

[sr71plt]

Hmmmm, so do people not really mind (maybe even prefer) stories with more romance over blatant eroticism? Because I have started to put some stories in the works but I wasn't sure if a story built more around emotions than explicit sex would be well received....

I guess everyone finds certain things more erotic, and the mushy feels is one of them.

Who is this "people" you refer to? You start losing any useful context of this when the second "people" arrives on the scene.

 

[SamScribble]

I've posted one or two Romance stories here and, while they have scored pretty well, on a percentage basis, they haven't got the votes yours have. Well done!

 

[Katiecat]

My favorite story I've posted was in the "First Time" category -- that was the best fit -- it was well-received, but the responses seemed to indicate it would have also done well in Romance. So I finally finished a sequel (after an extended, painful writer's block, all of my fiction in progress has been stuck in the mud, going nowhere), and posted this one to Romance. I'm interested to see how it does...

 

[DreamCloud]

Romance seems to have around a 2% voting rate compared to views. Other categories tend toward 1% - at least in my experience.

You're closer to 4%, which is an awesome beginning for a story. The lack of nasty comments is also a bonus.

 

[lovecraft68]

Romance readers trend toward appreciating the chase more than the mounting of the trophy at the end of the hunt.

In most categories, not getting to the sex quickly and in quantity tends to hurt you. In Romance, the readership sometimes penalizes stories where there's too much sex, and if the buildup of the relationship is strong enough, little to no sex is perfectly fine.

Depends on the category. I think EC and Group which are more sex driven categories are a little impatient, but others...

I've done well with two mature stories here where there is no sex until page 6.Incest-believe it or not enjoys a good long slow burn that ends in a taboo romance. First time as well will go for a good "chase"

lesbian is good with it...there's a few.

 

[49greg]

I've only done one romance story, for last year's Valentine contest. I did OK, but well withing the average range of votes vs views for any of my contest submissions.

 

[lovecraft68]

I've never posted there. I have three that would qualify, but two had large age gaps so worked better in mature and one was a first time so they always had a 'kink' that outweigh straight romance.

 

[sr71plt]

I think there's a huge audience for exclusively happy endings here, which is the basic element of Romance, so I don't see why an author wouldn't write to that category here if they are inclined to write Romance.

 

[Katiecat]

I think there's a huge audience for exclusively happy endings here, which is the basic element of Romance, so I don't see why an author wouldn't write to that category here if they are inclined to write Romance.

Excellent point. I do love my happy endings. Maybe I'm a romance writer at heart. A naughty, dirty, twisted, kinky, little romance writer.

 

[RejectReality]

Depends on the category. I think EC and Group which are more sex driven categories are a little impatient, but others...

I've done well with two mature stories here where there is no sex until page 6.Incest-believe it or not enjoys a good long slow burn that ends in a taboo romance. First time as well will go for a good "chase"

lesbian is good with it...there's a few.

But, you paid off that chase at the end, didn't you?

The degrees vary, but no detailed sex hurts you in pretty much every category but Romance. ( and non-erotic )

 

[lovecraft68]

But, you paid off that chase at the end, didn't you?

The degrees vary, but no detailed sex hurts you in pretty much every category but Romance. ( and non-erotic )

Oh you mean minimal sex? Then you're probably right, I thought you meant sex scenes in general.

 

[JKendallDane]

Romance readers trend toward appreciating the chase more than the mounting of the trophy at the end of the hunt.

In most categories, not getting to the sex quickly and in quantity tends to hurt you. In Romance, the readership sometimes penalizes stories where there's too much sex, and if the buildup of the relationship is strong enough, little to no sex is perfectly fine.

Even though I will crank out the occasional one-off, stroker story, I prefer to use the term "romantica" rather than "erotica" when someone asks what I write. Keeping a story both physically and mentally hot, and also in balance between the two, can be a real challenge at times.

But hey...half the fun of being an author are the challenges...right?

 

[DG Hear]

I seem to do well with my romance stories. My latest has 16402 read and 790 votes. It's been out for a week. Readers of romance do like a happy ending and emotions seem more important than the amount of sex output. I have found out that if there is no sex I have some comments telling me this is an erotic web site. haha
Just my nickles worth.
DG

 

[ishtat]

I have only ever posted poems rather than stories and remember that the number of views was much higher if the work was at the top of the daily list. Does the same apply to stories? The daily story list is of course much longer than the daily list of poems.

 

[LadyVer]

Romance readers trend toward appreciating the chase more than the mounting of the trophy at the end of the hunt.

In most categories, not getting to the sex quickly and in quantity tends to hurt you. In Romance, the readership sometimes penalizes stories where there's too much sex, and if the buildup of the relationship is strong enough, little to no sex is perfectly fine.

True. As a romance reader, I've gotten tired of the amount of sex and what is being put into romance stories as "romance". I've lost count of the number of books I've bought where the story and characters are interesting, then the story veers off into a menage or bdsm sex scene that is pages long. I've started paying attention to reader reviews on Amazon since a lot of authors these days think romance = erotica or porn, or even non-consent. When I want to read erotica I look to Lit, or search for erotica on Amazon.

 

[sr71plt]

I have only ever posted poems rather than stories and remember that the number of views was much higher if the work was at the top of the daily list. Does the same apply to stories? The daily story list is of course much longer than the daily list of poems.

I think that's true, but that many readers now go directly to the relatively recently instituted category hubs, which gives more play to stories that were put deeper into the daily "New" list.

 

[shutterpsb]

In my case the two stories I submitted to Romance have gotten the highest ratio of votes to reads of any of my stories. Not even close to as high as yours, so I'm guessing yours struck a nerve. Well done.