Does alphabetization carry influence? (the more input the better)

[Smokey125]

Yet another question. As always, sorry if this question's already been asked and answered elsewhere. Didn't find it if it has.

As I'm sure most here have experienced firsthand or found out some other way, there are stories whose numbers of views seem to "skyrocket" from the beginning, and then that of those which just crawwwwwwwl and never really pick up. My most recent story is a case of the latter. In its first week, it's received some of the least attention of anything I've posted, and I'm suspecting the title being a possible part of the problem. It starts with a 'Z'. It occurred to me that while I'm not sure, new stories may be arranged alphabetically, and so logically, if that's the case, it would take Readers a long time to get to a 'Z'-one, if at all. Strangely, my last two alphabetically before this (starting with a 'T' and 'W') have huge numbers and have done very well. But yes, according to this pattern, most of mine towards the beginning of the alphabet (and one that starts with quotation marks) seem more popular than the others (y'know, 'A' through 'M' get read/favorited/commented on more than 'N' through 'Z').

Am I on the right track here at all? Or is it something completely different that dictates such things? I'm sure as authors we all want our stuff to receive decent attention and am just looking for some insight. Thanks, S

 

[sr71plt]

My Z stories has a large number of reads/votes compared to comparable stories more in the middle of the alphabet. When it's evident that someone is going from the forum to my story file to "punish" me, they invariable do it on the story on the New list or the stories at the beginning of the list and run out of stories to "I'll show you" on when they realize how many stories they'd have to zap.

 

[barefootgirl69]

I may go through the list alphabetically, but I look at the genre of each story as I do. If I know one of my favorite writers is coming out with a new story, I don't bother - sometimes I will get a message, or will see in their signature block that there is something new - maybe they will provide a link.

 

[Smokey125]

sr71plt

Thanks...I admit I had to read that a couple times to really kinda get what you were trying to say, but I believe you got your point across. Then again, you're also far more prolific and visible with what I'm sure are legions more fans and Readers that haven't heard of me or wouldn't care for my stuff...I'm sure there are several that would enjoy my stories or already do...I just don't think they're in the AH section. But thanks for the two cents.

 

[Smokey125]

barefootgirl69

Thank you as well, BFG...if others' browsing methods are similar to yours, then I guess I shouldn't worry about what the title is. And honestly, it shouldn't matter. The best title available should be used, regardless what its first letter is. The signature thing is probably a good idea for authors who post a lot, but as little as I do—less than 100 posts in four years—it may not work as well.
Incidentally, your name represents one of my biggest fetishes, girls' bare feet—at least their soles. There are a lot of barefoot girls scattered all over my stories, and just as many additional girls tickling their feet.

 

[oggbashan]

I try to spread the titles of my stories across the alphabet.

I don't think that alphabetical titles have made any difference. What has made an impact is the words in the title. I try to use titles that no one else has used.

For some reason, no one else wrote:

Hedgehog Feud, or Getting Nude with Chairman Mao.

I wonder why not?

 

[rjordan]

Yet another question. As always, sorry if this question's already been asked and answered elsewhere. Didn't find it if it has.

As I'm sure most here have experienced firsthand or found out some other way, there are stories whose numbers of views seem to "skyrocket" from the beginning, and then that of those which just crawwwwwwwl and never really pick up.

If I were you, I'd be more inclined to look at my tag line, then my opening paragraphs. The LAST thing I would look for is the alphabetical rank of my title, though I would consider the title.

I read a lot of Lit stories. My first introduction to every story I read is the tag line. If that doesn't interest me, I go no further. If it does, I open it in a browser tab, then go to the next one. I may glance at the title for a clue, but that's all. The tag line is the most important. Dull, non-descriptive tag line gets a skip. If the author can't write a compelling tag line, I have no confidence they can write an interesting story that's worth my time.

The next test is the opening paragraphs. Grab me within two paragraphs or forget it. If the tag line is strong, I'll even wade through a few weak paragraphs hoping things will get on track.

Pretty simple. A lot simpler explanation than trying to blame the fucking alphabet.

rj

 

[Smokey125]

oggbashan

Hm! A good point. Uniqueness in titles can matter for sure. A couple of mine are or include portmanteaus ("Wargasm," "Lesbionage"), which most seem to like and I'm a fan of. I'm sure some of the others could use some originality. Something to think about in the future.

 

[Smokey125]

rjordan

Simple question, sir, no need to freak out on me.
Not trying to "blame" the fucking alphabet, if that's not obvious to anyone else; the fucking alphabet's a fucking writer's fucking friend. Tossing up a mere speculation.
Description line's a good thing to keep in mind, though. It would be nice if the description field was a little longer, but oh well, not up to us.

 

[oggbashan]

Hm! A good point. Uniqueness in titles can matter for sure. A couple of mine are or include portmanteaus ("Wargasm," "Lesbionage"), which most seem to like and I'm a fan of. I'm sure some of the others could use some originality. Something to think about in the future.

I've just looked through my list of titles with their urls. Only Photo Shoot is a title used by a significant number of other authors. The majority of my titles are the only stories with that title on Literotica.

 

[Bramblethorn]

As I'm sure most here have experienced firsthand or found out some other way, there are stories whose numbers of views seem to "skyrocket" from the beginning, and then that of those which just crawwwwwwwl and never really pick up. My most recent story is a case of the latter. In its first week, it's received some of the least attention of anything I've posted, and I'm suspecting the title being a possible part of the problem. It starts with a 'Z'. It occurred to me that while I'm not sure, new stories may be arranged alphabetically, and so logically, if that's the case, it would take Readers a long time to get to a 'Z'-one, if at all. Strangely, my last two alphabetically before this (starting with a 'T' and 'W') have huge numbers and have done very well. But yes, according to this pattern, most of mine towards the beginning of the alphabet (and one that starts with quotation marks) seem more popular than the others (y'know, 'A' through 'M' get read/favorited/commented on more than 'N' through 'Z').

Am I on the right track here at all? Or is it something completely different that dictates such things? I'm sure as authors we all want our stuff to receive decent attention and am just looking for some insight. Thanks, S

The New Stories list holds about seven days worth of stories, and it's ordered from newest to oldest. Looking at the latest New Stories, the titles (in order) begin with: S, T, M, F, S, F, D, R, B, M. Not alphabetical.

The new stories do come out in batches, and in my experience, where your story sits within that batch (and how long until the next batch) makes a big difference to initial views. I've had some that sat near the top of the first page for almost a day, and some that were bumped to page 2 within hours, and that definitely does affect views, but it's not something you can influence so no point in worrying about it.

Category and blurb can also make a big difference to viewer counts.

 

[Smokey125]

oggbashan

Hmmm...just went through mine, and 10 of them are titles that apparently have been used before. 10 out of 80 total, that's not so bad. So the other 70 are originals, though if the site only puts a number on the end if you're not the original, then I guess it takes a little more work to find out if yours is the only one.

 

[Smokey125]

Bramblethorn

Thanks for the good advice. So the answer to my original question would be a probable no. That is helpful to know...guess it's a bit of a crap shoot in that regard. I definitely know the category can affect things. I have one story in the Incest category and it's huge compared to most others. Lesbian Sex—my specialty category—obviously fluctuates from one to the next.
Blurbs are an interesting idea. By that do you mean making a post in the "New Story Advertisements" thread to inform Readers a new story's coming out? I've been doing that for the last several submissions. Is there somewhere else or in another method a blurb can be incorporated? Thank you again.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I think there's no question alphabetization makes a difference in reads. However, it's not "A" or "B" but punctuation marks that come first. A story whose name starts with a punctuation mark will often get more reads than any other. My most popular story, with about 1.5 million reads, is in incest, which category gets more action than any other. However, none of my other incest stories gets anywhere near that many reads.

I am referring here to established stories, rather than the New List.

 

[Smokey125]

Boxlicker101

Hey, thanks for chiming in. So you think my theory is founded. Well, I will tell you that I've one story starting with punctuation—quotation marks. It's called "Housekeeping!" and was published in January '16. It has a little more than 27,000 views—even if some of them are mine—which IS pretty good for five months, at least by the way my stories usually go. My stories with 30K or 40K+ have been up for a couple of years. I've actually considered submitting stories from now on in quotes, but it might not make a real difference. In fact, it may somehow affect things negatively. Thank you again! I'm appreciating all the input very much!

 

[sr71plt]

This ignores what I posted about the end of the alphabet being as influential as the beginning. My Z story has four times the number of votes of any other story on my list--and there's nothing particularly significant or comparatively wonderful about that story.

 

[Smokey125]

sr71plt

It's apparently not that influential for me, from the post I opened this thread with. My voting's turned off, because it's meaningless—Anons and trolls are just going to one-bomb me, and even if those get swept, more will just be added later. So it's pointless. But ideally, all the stories would get around the same amount of attention, and a fair number of faves or comments. I don't even care if there are unfavorable comments, as long as...SOMETHING happens. The Anons can comment-flame me all they want; I honestly don't care about that anymore. In fact, they actually amuse me at this point. When one shows up now, I just give it a sardonic chuckle and move on. A hell of an improvement from two or three years ago.

 

[JKendallDane]

Why am I suddenly visualizing a rush to title stories: "AAA Aardvark Hunters Find Twins" or "AAA Auto Roadside Serviceman Scores." ???

.

 

[Smokey125]

JKendallDane

Heh! Like I was saying!...

 

[rjordan]

Simple question, sir, no need to freak out on me.
Not trying to "blame" the fucking alphabet, if that's not obvious to anyone else; the fucking alphabet's a fucking writer's fucking friend. Tossing up a mere speculation.
Description line's a good thing to keep in mind, though. It would be nice if the description field was a little longer, but oh well, not up to us.

The tag line is plenty long enough to write something that leads into the first paragraphs of the story. BTW, I just scanned yours and I don't see a problem there.

Maybe it's just a matter of over-analyzing a non-problem.

That was not a freakout. It was the logical use of a perfectly good word.

rj

 

[Smokey125]

rjordan

Well a'right. Not attacking you if you're not attacking me.

 

[legerdemer]

I don't think alphabetization makes much of a difference (I have a very short list of stories, however). OTOH, what the title actually is I think makes a huge difference (outside of category and description). A catchy title that alludes to sexiness = many more views. I am a largely obscure author here without any following whatsoever (no complaints, btw - just here happily enjoying myself). A 2015 Winter Holiday contest story, in Romance, I wrote is doing reasonably well in terms of score (above 4.68) but has a pitiful number of views - just over 5K (I have a couple of poems that have more views than that!). I ascribe it to the title - Hanukkah's Gifts - not exactly an attention grabber. A 2015 Halloween contest story, Pandora's Panties, is 4.72-4.73 with over 95K views and at the top of its category. I don't write incest or LW, so my views don't reach into the hundreds of thousands.

So my not-very-original advice is to concentrate on what the title is rather than what letter of the alphabet it starts with. Best wishes!

 

[Smokey125]

legerdemer

5K...that's more than some of my stories (including the new 'Z'-one).
It's easy to believe some of it has to do with me myself (I have a tendency to be kinda invisible, uninteresting and less than special). But yes, that's what the concensus seems to be. Seems it would be a good idea to just concentrate on the title, description and the quality of the content itself.
In other words...just what I've been doing all along...

 

[legerdemer]

5K...that's more than some of my stories (including the new 'Z'-one).
It's easy to believe some of it has to do with me myself (I have a tendency to be kinda invisible, uninteresting and less than special). But yes, that's what the concensus seems to be. Seems it would be a good idea to just concentrate on the title, description and the quality of the content itself.
In other words...just what I've been doing all along...

I looked at your list and you have quite a number of stories with the coveted red H, so you're reaching and succeeding in stroking quite a few someones' sexy. I haven't read your stories (I will) but don't be so quick to be self-effacing - it takes a long time and a lot of stories to build the kind of following of many of the writers who've responded to you on your thread. (I don't count myself among them - I count myself with you.) Other than posting well-written stories in the most popular categories and posting often (some post a , posting in contests is the most effective at getting views.

Other ways are to write many-chaptered stories, and win contests - but the latter has many elements of luck in addition to having the writing chops that connect with readers here. Keep writing and enjoying yourself doing - the now-cliché of "build it and they will come" is really true.

 

[sr71plt]

It's apparently not that influential for me, from the post I opened this thread with.

Fine, but there's more to be discussed in the general topic than just your own circumstance. And I was responding to Boxlicker's post.