Share your strategy(ies) for building and/or increasing your fan base

[legerdemer]

I'm a relatively new erotic fiction writer on Lit, and I'd love to get feedback from those willing to share what has worked as well as what has not worked for them to build their following here.

 

[lovecraft68]

I would say....the best way to build a fan base is to post a lot in one category.

Readers vary of course, but a lot of them have certain likes and dislikes and will not read 'across the board' so if they like a romance of yours, great, but they may not follow you into non consent.

If you post several stories in the same category you'll build an audience in that category and you can build multiple audiences, but having say....15 stories in 12 categories probably isn't going to do it.

Looking at some of the top authors on the fav list it seems they all either

Post heavily in one category and a popular one like incest or mature

Or they have a huge story file so even with a 'fractured' audience they add up.

I imagine the bulk of my fan base came through incest, but I have a fair amount of mature stories and milf and mom stories have an overlapping audience and I think that is what's really pushed me the last year

 

[MatthewVett]

I'm not really sure I have much of a following, but usually when I get emails from fans, it's because they just came across my stories on Literotica and liked them. Sometimes they go through a bunch without intentionally doing so, and just notice afterwards that they share an author. That's what happened with one girl. I have a blog, see signature, but I don't think it necessarily does much for my fanbase. I do send out emails for new stories to anyone who's expressed an interest, though. Most of my fans just seem to flutter past, though, enjoying the stories and moving on. Very few of them have stuck with me long-term, or at least, very few of them have made me aware that they've been with me for a long time.

 

[CyranoJ]

I'm not arsed about questions of "following" personally, but then I'm even newer than the OP.

 

[TxRad]

Write what you like to get started. It will make for better flow and better stories. That alone will build a fan base.

 

[oggbashan]

I don't have one.

If I did, perhaps I might have some more Hs.

 

[sr71plt]

I think LC's "write a lot in one category" hits closest, although I get stopped at the word "strategy," as I don't think it as campaigning for a fan base. It's more, write it well enough--in whatever terms the separate readers think as well enough--and they will come back for more. When it's looked at as a strategic campaign, it stops being fun and inviting for me.

 

[legerdemer]

I think LC's "write a lot in one category" hits closest, although I get stopped at the word "strategy," as I don't think it as campaigning for a fan base. It's more, write it well enough--in whatever terms the separate readers think as well enough--and they will come back for more. When it's looked at as a strategic campaign, it stops being fun and inviting for me.

I understand what you mean - that often what worked was an "accidental" byproduct rather than a purposeful strategy. To tell you the truth, I wasn't sure what to call it so just called it strategy. I appreciate your answer.

I imagine that some authors, at least at some point, do turn to a strategy, but I don't think I'd get a very accurate count of the fraction of those who do or don't, and that's not what interests me anyway.

I look forward to the results of this poll - not sure how much I'll benefit from everyone's wisdom, but the answers have been instructive, and pretty close to what I would have predicted without anything to back it up.

You know me - I'm enamored with the idea of data.

 

[oggbashan]

Added: I try to write for most of the themed contests.

That seems effective in getting my other stories noticed.

 

[legerdemer]

Added: I try to write for most of the themed contests.

That seems effective in getting my other stories noticed.

Ogg, I started this thread after answers to my observation in the Nude Day support thread to the effect that I had not seen a single bump in scores, comments, or favorites in my other stories after this latest one of my contest entries. Each of my contest entries have essentially been their own individual drop in the bucket of Lit readers. (The couple of exceptions are friends, and special cases.) RejectReality had made a comment that my contest stories were in different categories that don't have much cross-readership.

That's where the idea of this poll and thread came from.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I assume there's a niche and audience for everything, so build it and they will come. Most writers follow the crowd, though.

Most of my fan base hates me but always shows up for the circus. Be the Kid Rock of LIT, I say. And kiss my ass, you frogs.

 

[sr71plt]

I suppose you could obtain the base of a fan club by finding and joining a voting block/cheering squad and making it appear to other readers that you must write hot stuff because of the fan base and nice ratings and story comments you already have.

 

[nomoretears00]

Write what you like to get started. It will make for better flow and better stories. That alone will build a fan base.

^This^

I stumbled across Lit in 2010 and found the Gay Male category. I read damn near every story in it lol. Then I decided to give it a try myself. I wrote here for a year and my Harvest series took off. I also only posted to GM.

I tried my hand at publishing a few years ago and the fans from here followed me. Dreamspinner Press is now my main publisher for paranormal, and I plan to use All Romance as my publisher for my scifi.

 

[legerdemer]

^This^

I stumbled across Lit in 2010 and found the Gay Male category. I read damn near every story in it lol. Then I decided to give it a try myself. I wrote here for a year and my Harvest series took off. I also only posted to GM.

I tried my hand at publishing a few years ago and the fans from here followed me. Dreamspinner Press is now my main publisher for paranormal, and I plan to use All Romance as my publisher for my scifi.

Yes and no. Inadvertently, your strategy was to concentrate your stories in one category and become successful there. That cat was consistent with your preferences. Nothing wrong at all with that!

 

[lovecraft68]

Guess I should note even on the writing a lot in one category...people have to want to read it

My first 18 months here I think I did about 60 stories, but 50 were the SWB series which was not a well received incest series, too dark, too nasty and laced with BDSM so despite 50 incest stories I was nowhere near the top list.

I didn't hit that until after I put SWB to bed and wrote some standalone incest stories that were 'fun', entered a couple of contests and hit a couple of different categories.

What that shows is here regardless of talent and skill you do have to have some 'popular' stories to get a large base.

I write a lot of fun stuff, but still throw in some edgier things and even with my fan base the numbers are very different. Put something depressing in an incest story and my numbers will cut in half from the happy ones.

 

[oggbashan]

Ogg, I started this thread after answers to my observation in the Nude Day support thread to the effect that I had not seen a single bump in scores, comments, or favorites in my other stories after this latest one of my contest entries. Each of my contest entries have essentially been their own individual drop in the bucket of Lit readers. (The couple of exceptions are friends, and special cases.) RejectReality had made a comment that my contest stories were in different categories that don't have much cross-readership.

That's where the idea of this poll and thread came from.

In the last seven days 14 separate older stories from my back list have been favorited.

That is more than in the month before the contest.

But I have nearly 250 stories (including as jeanne_d_artois).

 

[sr71plt]

In the last seven days 14 separate older stories from my back list have been favorited.

That is more than in the month before the contest.

But I have nearly 250 stories (including as jeanne_d_artois).

Same here. 51 "favorite" hits on older stories in the last week. One reader is tripping through my extensive Clint Folsom mystery series and favoriting everything. One amusement is comments on seven-year-old stories on whether I'm going to add to them. Well, no, they are seven years old and I considered them finished when I submitted them. But thanks for the interest.

 

[HeyAll]

As mentioned, consistently writing great stories in the same category is the way to go.

Also, it helps to know what the readers like.

For instance, if you want to be popular in Incest, focus on the build-up where the line is being straddled. In other words, lots of teasing.

If you write in Mature, focus on the age aspect.

If you write in Non consent, focus on the loss of control.

ect...

If you consistantly try to write your best, the readers will come.

 

[lovecraft68]

As mentioned, consistently writing great stories in the same category is the way to go.

Also, it helps to know what the readers like.

For instance, if you want to be popular in Incest, focus on the build-up where the line is being straddled. In other words, lots of teasing.

If you write in Mature, focus on the age aspect.

If you write in Non consent, focus on the loss of control.

ect...

If you consistently try to write your best, the readers will come.

I agree with your take on incest. For a category with a dubious reputation and one that tends to be associated with implausible stroke(and there is a lot of that) the readership there loves well drawn out characters, a lot of conflict and a slow burn to get to the crossing of the line.

I based my incest how to pretty much around that and the oxy moron sounding "incest romance"

Having said that this week I am going to 'test' my fan base which is used to that style from me with a 6k pure stroker....I'll be interested in the response both numbers and comments.

 

[49greg]

My first post was a story I had started a long long time ago, so long I couldn't remember where I had planned it to go with it. I slapped on an ending and let it go.

I got a few feedbacks asking for a continuation and somehow it ended up in a mom-son incest series, that to date I have never finished.

I then tried my hand at several other categories and haven't settled on any particular one. However a look at my incomplete stories and ideas for future stories a few weeks ago showed me that I'm leaning toward incest and a weird loving wives sub category where the wife is forced to cheat and likes it.

Unfortunately over the last six months I think I've written more words in this forum than I have in any of my unfinished stories.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Define fan base.

And how would you know?

You might have 30,000 (hey, I work with numbers I know, that's a big read for me) people read one story in a single category once, but not read any other story.

Or you might have 1500 people read every single story you write, regardless of category, and come back and read some stories over and over.

Which guys and gals are your fans? Me, I'd prefer the loyal followers who read everything I write because they like my style, regardless of my subject matter. But I write for me. Fans are a bonus. If they tell me, "yes, love your work, more please" that's icing on the cake. And if they tell me, "god almighty, you got me so wet, so hard" then that's sticky but nice. But if they say, "you moved me so" then that's the best, because you touched them.

But again, how would you know? The score rates are a tiny fraction of the read rates, and the comments are a fraction of the number of scores. Readers are like the yeti or bigfoot, there's some evidence they're out there, but no-one's actually seen one.

But number one strategy - pretty bloody obvious to me. Write good stuff.

The strategy isn't hard, it's in the execution where things come unstuck.

Writing from the heart helps, for me at least.

 

[sr71plt]

Favoriting you as an author (or frequently favoriting your stories) would indicate the existence of a fan. Over a long time, leaving a favorable comment frequently on your stories with identify a fan.

 

[TxRad]

With well over a million visitors a day I wouldn't think finding a following would be all that hard. Someone for everything and all.

 

[sr71plt]

With well over a million visitors a day I wouldn't think finding a following would be all that hard. Someone for everything and all.

It's probably harder not to obsess over the readers you have--and how they compare with the readers some other author has.

 

[legerdemer]

With well over a million visitors a day I wouldn't think finding a following would be all that hard. Someone for everything and all.

Well, based on that assessment, I must be a crap writer because my three stories have garnered 84, 81, and 52 votes, and between 2 and 5 comments each. They have between about 10K and 13.5K views. Each has a handful of faves. Only one is in Romance, the others are not in highly popular categories. They've done OK (2 have red H's but marginal scores for at threshold).

I posted my first story in the Valentine's Day contest, the second for April Fool's and the third for Nude Day.

So yes, I'd love to work on building a bigger fan base, or at least know how others did or do it.