Regular readers or fans

[GoldenMaia]

What is the key for developing a larger reading base? Is it posting more regularly or posting in a particular category that gets more eyes?

Is there a way to get in touch with those people who leave comments like 'please write more'?

The whole 'write what you like', is fine, but when I write what I like and have encouraging feedback to write more, I'd like to find a way to point those people saw an earlier work.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

You can write what most write and compete with them for the same readers, or aim for your own niche and nurture it. My choice is to add to the variety.

 

[GoldenMaia]

You can write what most write and compete with them for the same readers, or aim for your own niche and nurture it. My choice is to add to the variety.

I think I'm mostly trying to find a way to connect with readers who are already reading what I write.

Isn't there a way to tell people who liked something I wrote 'hey, this is another one -- come put your eyes on it.' Or is it just a luck of the draw that they will circle around and look?

 

[sr71plt]

Suggest that you write prolifically in one category, but write some in others as well to bring in more variety of interest in what you write.

 

[lovecraft68]

Suggest that you write prolifically in one category, but write some in others as well to bring in more variety of interest in what you write.

I think this sums it up. I write mostly in incest and mature where I've built my fan base, but toss some other things out there once in awhile to draw some new eyes...and because I write what I like so if an idea outside my main categories strokes me I go with it

 

[legerdemer]

I think I'm mostly trying to find a way to connect with readers who are already reading what I write.

Isn't there a way to tell people who liked something I wrote 'hey, this is another one -- come put your eyes on it.' Or is it just a luck of the draw that they will circle around and look?

I think I understand what you're getting at.

There's a painstaking way that I've tried (with limited success; actually strike that - I have no way to measure its success), which is that if a commenter logged in or "favorite'd" me, I sent them a message thanking them and included my email, saying "if you want to be notified when more of my stories come out, send me your email; I won't spam you." Only about 10% of people I contacted did so. I do keep track of the people who comment or pick me as a favored author, but I don't have the amount of time it would take to send each one a PM. I could do it to 5 at a time, I suppose, through the Lit system.

Another way that's been recommended is to use my author's profile as a place to advertise when stories either will or have come out. I've started doing that just recently, but have no idea if it's working on not. My Winter contest story went up only at the last minute (alas, life) and it was 1-bombed out of the starting gate and is only now starting to come up. Maybe I'll see evidence of my "advertising" but I am pessimistic.

One of my stories has done very well in terms of views and scores, and is on the Hall of Fame list for its category. That has brought it more than twice the views and 2-3 times the votes of my other stories. So if you are lucky to hit one of those, it will do well. Hit enough of those high notes, and I assume people will start following you more and more. But in my case, it did not bring a ton of attention to other of my stories, most of which are in different categories. People may stick pretty close to their choice kink/fetish. Who knows?

Good luck, and if you find a magic pill, why, do share!

 

[NotWise]

Is there a way to get in touch with those people who leave comments like 'please write more'?

If your readers really want to chat with you then they can send you feedback by email through the site and include their email address in the letter. You could suggest that in the author's notes.

On the other had, are you sure you really want to get chummy with them? You are talking about the unwashed masses. It's hard to get in touch with them without also giving them your information and that can lead to problems.

You might also be able to use the Chat facility on Lit, or open up your own thread on the GB. Those routes would not release your email address. You might also start a blog.

I think it would be interesting if the site could notify readers when an author on their favorites list posts a new story. I thought I read that something like that might be in the works, but I went looking for the announcement and came up empty.

 

[NaokoSmith]

One way you may be able to use is something called about.me. It works like a little calling card; you describe what you do and it allows you to do updateable links for your stuff. It automatically uploads the link to the latest blogpost I've written, although I have to go on and manually put the link to new Literotica stories. You could use that, and put it in your Biography for readers to check out when they are looking for something new to read. Or you could set up a Twitter Feed for them to get the latest, if you think they won't mind getting a link to #SexySexy!!!HotReadsHere.

A good way to build readership is to enter the competitions. I always get a lot more reads and votes with competition stories.

 

[Nathan_Brazil]

You want more readers?

Dumb it down.

I'm betting that almost all of us have read 50 shades... Middle school writing right?

Or Harry Potter... A children's book.

Or Star Wars... A children's movie.

Or the categories that score here: Loving Wives and Incest.

Lowest common denominator stuff.

You want readers? Write about President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho.

...but maybe I'm just kidding.

 

[sr71plt]

Certainly don't do what high brows in the forum say readers want. Don't have sophisticated, complex story lines. Don't have completely realized characters. Do have extensive sex scenes. Oh, and do go on and on and on. The more chapters there are the more readers think it must be great stuff.

 

[lovecraft68]

Dumb it down.

I'm betting that almost all of us have read 50 shades... Middle school writing right?

Or Harry Potter... A children's book.

Or Star Wars... A children's movie.

Or the categories that score here: Loving Wives and Incest.

Lowest common denominator stuff.

You want readers? Write about President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho.

...but maybe I'm just kidding.

Actually the statement that LW scores is incorrect. LW does get a lot of reads and a lot of votes and comments.

But....the scores then to be low and a vast majority of the comments abusive so its a lot of attention, but not exactly the kind most want.

Categories that do well numbers wise and seem 'friendly' as in not much trolling are mature and group. Incest will get you good numbers, but it does come with some of the "you're a sick fuck" trolls.

 

[legerdemer]

One way you may be able to use is something called about.me. It works like a little calling card; you describe what you do and it allows you to do updateable links for your stuff. It automatically uploads the link to the latest blogpost I've written, although I have to go on and manually put the link to new Literotica stories. You could use that, and put it in your Biography for readers to check out when they are looking for something new to read. Or you could set up a Twitter Feed for them to get the latest, if you think they won't mind getting a link to #SexySexy!!!HotReadsHere.

A good way to build readership is to enter the competitions. I always get a lot more reads and votes with competition stories.

GoldenMaia has been entering the contests. She's got that one covered.

Interesting about the calling card bit...

 

[LadyVer]

Know your category/genre conventions.

 

[JackLuis]

Try writing a Looooong story that is really good and sexy. People will book mark it for later reading by Favoriting you. Then your other work will show up and they might click on your other work.

As LC68 and Pilot said, write a lot and show up on the New List Every day, if your Muse will cooperate.

 

[lvs2lck]

Well your post helped increase your base by at least one. I sought out your stories after reading your post here, and enjoyed what I read, and honestly, I wouldn't have found your stories otherwise.

 

[GoldenMaia]

Well your post helped increase your base by at least one. I sought out your stories after reading your post here, and enjoyed what I read, and honestly, I wouldn't have found your stories otherwise.

Thank you!

I heard so often posting will make people troll you more. I'm really most interested in finding people who like what I write and let them know when I do something new. It sounds like if someone puts an author as a fav they can get notifications with new things.

Learning the little things to get a voice out there.

 

[SamScribble]

In 'real life' I get paid to write like other people. Not exactly ghost writing, but not far from it. On Lit I tend to post stories that half appeal to me. And my following (such as it is) tends to be mainly 'gentlemen of a certain age'. Given that I'm well past a certain age, perhaps that is not surprising.

As far as gathering your own following, I'd suggest writing what you want and then seeing who likes it (and who doesn't). If the fish take the bait, use it again; otherwise, try some squid. Or herring. Or ... well ... you get the idea. Unfortunately, it ain't an exact science - well, not in my experience anyway.

Good luck.

 

[GoldenCojones]

I have one (1) guy that emails me within a day or two every time I have a new story up. He loves me and tells me about his cheating wife and her many bulls and how they abuse him and he loves it. His emails rarely say anything more about my story than how much he loved it before he goes into his, ahem, interesting sex life.

I'd call him a fan, I guess, but he seems like a likable chap if certifiable. I always respond back to him but he doesn't email back until my next story goes up.

Obviously by my astounding number of fans (1) I'm not much help in building a fan base, but my opinion is, just keep writing your stories and those who enjoy reading what you are writing will eventually find you. Not much help I know.

However, I read in another thread a while back that Manu is working on some cool tools to help us authors connect with our readers. It scared the shit outta me, but might be good for you.

 

[NaokoSmith]

I heard so often posting will make people troll you more. I'm really most interested in finding people who like what I write and let them know when I do something new. It sounds like if someone puts an author as a fav they can get notifications with new things.

My following (such as it is) tends to be mainly 'gentlemen of a certain age'. Given that I'm well past a certain age, perhaps that is not surprising.

It's actually not true that posting will make people troll you. We all used to be convinced that people who hated us on the writers' board snuck off behind our backs and trolled us. I think there are very very few on here who would bother to do that, the vast majority are too busy writing their own stories. Even if one or two people went off the chat board and did that, it wouldn't have much effect on your story unless you are in one of the low voting categories.

When we did the first FAWC - anonymous writing competition, everyone said they were looking forward to seeing how much bigger our votes would be without the trolls from the board being able to tell which was their story and 1-bomb it. In fact ALL of us had much much lower votes than usual. Our usual fans didn't follow us and vote our stories up.

Like Sam is saying, once you get known, you do get a regular set of people following you. If you post reasonably regularly, they look out for your stories and rush to read when they see one. They will vote because they want you to have some acknowledgement and keep writing, and usually vote high. They often don't leave feedback, unless they are particularly in love with the story or want to get into your knickers (I always comment on Sam's stories ) or were a bit disappointed with it when normally they love your work, and they really want you to go back to writing how you used to.

So as others are saying, the very best way to develop a following is just to keep writing and posting stories. You don't really have to do much on here to reach out to your readers, they will come and look on your submissions page to see if you have something new or pick up on it when you are on the New lists and check it out.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Interesting about the calling card bit...

I like about.me but I'm really not sure how many people use it to get to my writing. I never see it come up on the stats on my blog, where the threads here or Facebook or Google in various different countries are the main sources for people logging in to my blog. Every week I get an email saying so many hundred people viewed my about.me page but I sometimes think that's just other about.me people trying to find people to look at their page.

 

[sr71plt]

It's actually not true that posting will make people troll you.

How could you possibly know what you claim here? You might check on folks posting to the forum, by the way. Most of them neither write nor read stories here. Some admit that they don't even know there's a story file at Lit.

When we did the first FAWC - anonymous writing competition, everyone said they were looking forward to seeing how much bigger our votes would be without the trolls from the board being able to tell which was their story and 1-bomb it. In fact ALL of us had much much lower votes than usual. Our usual fans didn't follow us and vote our stories up.

To claim this, you'd also have to admit that it's just as possible that our usual detractors didn't follow us and vote our stories down. (That said, it was rather obvious that some FAWC authors were informing their fan clubs, because within hours their stories had gathered significantly more--and more favorable--votes--in the hundreds--than the norm for other authors in FAWC.) The FAWC, like everything else involved leaking of story authorship (one gave such strong hints on the forum that that author was banned from future FAWCs) and shared voting/favorable comments.

It's true that once you get known (and posting to the forum is one of those ways) you do get people following you. You have no basis to claim that they are all fans rather than detractors.

 

[NaokoSmith]

I don't post direct answers to the person above me when he is just looking to pick a fight.

It's very obvious that if we are all posting anonymous stories - and especially if we have informed our friends so they can vote us up, not our enemies so they can vote us down, and our stories all have significantly WORSE scores than usual, that we do not suffer so much from personal trolls 1-bombing us, as we do from people who are not sure about our work scoring us lower than our regular fans score us.

As poorly as I think of many people on this board, I do not believe they waste their time following me around 1-bombing me. When I'm 1-bombed I often see other stories in the same category suffering too. I came to the conclusion that it's a computer app someone has set up to log on to all of stories in that category, or maybe on the site and routinely 1-bomb them.

 

[Hypoxia]

Easy way to get a following is to pander. More than a few of us follow certain authors not due to inspired writing but because their repetitious images and plots punch our buttons. Some readers MUST have Sonny ass-pumping Mom, or Hubby watching Wifey take a few BBCs, or whatever vampires do. Romantic tragedy works; kill off a lovable character, leave readers in tears, and watch the votes soar. Different categories have their own optimal sexual-action levels; find and exploit.

 

[sr71plt]

I don't post direct answers to the person above me when he is just looking to pick a fight.

It's very obvious that if we are all posting anonymous stories - and especially if we have informed our friends so they can vote us up, not our enemies so they can vote us down, and our stories all have significantly WORSE scores than usual, that we do not suffer so much from personal trolls 1-bombing us, as we do from people who are not sure about our work scoring us lower than our regular fans score us.

As poorly as I think of many people on this board, I do not believe they waste their time following me around 1-bombing me. When I'm 1-bombed I often see other stories in the same category suffering too. I came to the conclusion that it's a computer app someone has set up to log on to all of stories in that category, or maybe on the site and routinely 1-bomb them.

I wasn't picking a fight (unless that's what you wanted). I was saying that there is no foundation for the statements you made.

 

[Sammael Bard]

What is the key for developing a larger reading base? Is it posting more regularly or posting in a particular category that gets more eyes?

Is there a way to get in touch with those people who leave comments like 'please write more'?

The whole 'write what you like', is fine, but when I write what I like and have encouraging feedback to write more, I'd like to find a way to point those people saw an earlier work.

Depends on a lot of things, actually.

First and foremost: Category.

Incest notches up the most views, votes, favourites and comments as compared to other categories. Next is Mature, Anal, Loving Wives etc (not necessarily in the same order or particulars). If you're a regular author in these categories, and write great formulaic stories, expect a fan base in a few months time.

Plot is very important for categories like Sci-Fi, Non-Human and other categories with elements of Science fic. World building requires brains as well as words to draw in like minded readers. Most high rating stories are obviously chaptered series, but quite a few stand alone stories have done great for themselves. If you want to get noticed, write a series that has done well from the beginning.

Incest, Anal etc doesn't require much of a plot, but erotica. The more titillating you make, the more faves you gain. Scores get hit if you don't have a coherent plot, or a series to follow. Most of the high-ranking stories are either novel length or a part of a never-ending series. You can gain a lot of fans that way too. But keep it running for too long and you'll definitely get trolled for not finishing it.

Loving Wives is a different animal altogether. Readers don't seem to read the erotica, which is negligible in almost all of the high-ranking stories (stand alone and series alike). In this category, write at your own risk. That's all I can say.

Second, and almost as important as the first one: Quality

Believe it or not, as shitty as this place is, good writing is what draws serious readers in. Crappy grammar, bad plot and cheap sex will only get you as far as the next solemn 1 star and a hateful comment on your story.

One author that I follow has only 6 stories in his name and is already in the top authors list. Some authors will argue on this, but it all boils down to personal satisfaction: Do you want to write something that the readers will remember for a long time or do you want to write forgettable erotica?

You can gain a lot of favourites and fan bases either way, but personally speaking, I'd rather write for people who are interested in my story for the writing itself. I don't find one-handed readers particularly helpful in terms of helping me improve as a writer. Different strokes for different people, but my goals from this place are slightly different.

Third: Get something into the Hall of Fame

As ridiculous and insanely hard as this sounds, a random reader who's not particularly well-versed with Literotica will first look for the high rated stories in the Hall of Fame. They're the biggest advertisement board you can have for yourself. Literotica registers a lot of new readers every month, so if you have something in the top list, and it hit someone's sweet spot, expect a loyal fan.

These days, longer stories with good writing will get you up the ranks. Short two-page somethings get stuck at 4.6 rating, however good the writing be,so you could write a longer story and submit it as a series. You'll find that the fifth or sixth chapter has somehow managed to crawl into the HoF. If it's good, it'll stay there or it'll sink back to the abyss of Literotica anonymity.

There are several things that I want to add, but I'm too f-ing tired. So, that's all for now.

Keep writing and good luck.