Encouraging currently active writers.

[ishtat]

This site doesn't seem to do much to encourage new or currently active writers. The "most read" list is a fossil with only one story less than 10 years old in the top 10, and there is nothing current about the category top lists - most are at least 2 years old.

Should there be a " best new writers list" or "best new stories list" which excludes the clapped out old stuff - and in electronic publishing terms that's anything more than 3 months old.

The competitions offer some sort of opportunity for promotion but some are looking terribly tired - same old, same old etc.

In any enterprise marketing of the product needs constant renewal. What would your recommendations be?

Positive recommendations would have to be cheap, I doubt the site earns enough to afford anything flash.

 

[NotWise]

The top lists include lists for the last 30 days and for the last 12 months as well as the all-time list so maybe that takes care of the initial complaint.

I would like to see some recognition for new writers. On the other hand, I wonder if the site really needs to encourage new authors. Recently we've had more stories submitted in a day than will fit on the first page of the "New" list.

I considered asking Laurel to split my money from the recent contest between the two highest scoring first-time authors, but decided against it when I came in 3rd rather than 2nd. There is a problem with that because the author may just be a new alt rather than an actual new author.

Maybe a "Top New Authors" list would work, and I suspect I could name someone on that list right now.

I've been wondering about ways to promote stories within a category. Promoting stories to a general population draws in readers who are marginal or maybe even hostile to the category and produces low votes and poor comments.

 

[sr71plt]

I think new writers do pretty good in the themed and monthly contests. Not so much in the Top Lists, where authors tend to be given a lot of attention even though they are long gone and not producing anymore. I think the more important issue, though, is the same here as in the mainstream. If you want to build a fan base you have to post stories frequently. You can't really complain much about low readership if you don't post more than a couple of stories a year or let half a year go by before posting the next chapter in your series. And most of those who have written to Literotica only have one or two stories on their list.

 

[ChloeTzang]

I think new writers do pretty good in the themed and monthly contests. Not so much in the Top Lists, where authors tend to be given a lot of attention even though they are long gone and not producing anymore. I think the more important issue, though, is the same here as in the mainstream. If you want to build a fan base you have to post stories frequently. You can't really complain much about low readership if you don't post more than a couple of stories a year or let half a year go by before posting the next chapter in your series. And most of those who have written to Literotica only have one or two stories on their list.

I think that just depends on how good you are. Not being a smart-ass or anything, but I've been writing here a year and a half and I have three stories in that first page Hall of Fame in two different categories. It's the ratings that break you in there, not the views. If its good enough, it's going to pop up to the top. But if you're not there and you don't write frequently, it's hard for readers to come across you.

I write in more categories now and that brings me new readers to my older stories all the time. As a relative newbie, can't say I'm complaining. It's not bad. And my fan base is building.

I'd like to see those monthly competition things back though. I placed in one of those and that did things for my views and exposure when I first started.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Like most people I know 2-3 things really well, and suck at the rest. My 2-3 gifts are a GREEN THUMB and NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. I come from master gardeners and socio-biological scientists. Both are in my blood. But I suck at most things. A long life taught me when to hold em, and when to fold em.

That said music and writing are interests of mine tho Ima half-assed writer and cant carry a tune. I recognize good writing and nad music intuitively. Most of us are the same, we know what shit tastes like but cant boil water.

Prolly the best novel of all time is a Western by Alan Le May, THE UNFORGIVEN. Its about two white kids captured and raised by Kiowa Indians. The boy becomes chief, the girl is captured by whites. Its a furious story. And at the end the girl kills her brother. You prolly never read it. Its author never made its equal. Its a perfect story.

But readers don't long for perfection. Theyre voyeurs. They wanna peek in your window for a thrill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv62uysSvQE

 

[SciFurz]

I think there's no single solution that satisfies everything.

An absolute top list is difficult. What formula to use to score a story? What if there's just two ratings of 5 stars? Does that make it a top story? What about loads of views? Post daily a mediocre story and you will get lots, but that doesn't make it good. Is older with the same ratio of viewers and rating better?

As stated before, there's the 1, 7, and 30 day top list and I did manage to get in all 3 at once at the art and non-human category once, making that an encouragement to write/draw apart from the positive comments from readers.

I've had comments from readers who didn't really like some of the themes in my stories in general, but found enjoyment reading mine. That tells me there's people reading stories outside the main category they're put in, and that means more to me than an arbitrary number (of course, getting into the top is still cool )

I say just have new writers write, if people like the stories they will get more readers over time. There are new readers born every second in this world anyway.

Besides, since my girl Kittypet found me through my stories, there are none that can top mine in my opinion.

 

[oggbashan]

...

An absolute top list is difficult. What formula to use to score a story? What if there's just two ratings of 5 stars? Does that make it a top story? ...

When ratings were only visible to the author until after 10 votes many stories reached 10 with a perfect rating of 5.00. Then reality set in as later readers seemed to think 'The story is good, but not THAT good'.

I have always thought that the star system of 1 to 5 was flawed if HOT is set at 4.50. A new reader could easily assume that 1 to 5 means a vote of 3 is the average, 4 is good and 5 should be rarely used for excellent. That is NOT how the voting system works. Any vote or 3 or below can outweigh other votes of 5 to force a story off the HOT rating. Many anons know this and seem to vote low on every new story by an author they don't like. Gaming the new list is very obvious.

Of course any author who has several alts could vote 5s on his own new story, and some people have many alts. I use jeanne_d_artois for different stories but I never vote as jeanne. Years ago I voted once or twice on a couple of my own stories to see the impact (when we had the % vote as well as the 1-5) but I don't do that now. But I could create as many alts as I have email addresses so I could easily give any of my stories multiple 5 votes.

The rating system is too easy to abuse.

 

[NotWise]

I have always thought that the star system of 1 to 5 was flawed if HOT is set at 4.50. A new reader could easily assume that 1 to 5 means a vote of 3 is the average, 4 is good and 5 should be rarely used for excellent. That is NOT how the voting system works.

That is how the site defines the scale, and some people use it that way, but not many. It's actually pretty normal for people to vote only in the upper part of a 5 or 10 point system. When I was trained to score TaeKwonDo on a 10-point system I was told that a score below 5 was an insult and should never be used. I also recall an instructive video on wine ratings, which theoretically is a 100-point system, but the video said that you give 50 just for being wine, no matter how bad it is.

I've watched the votes come in on most of my stories in the last year. I usually get few enough votes that it's easy to do. I think it's odd when I get no 2* votes, but three 1* votes. It makes the 1* votes look pretty disingenous.

Any vote or 3 or below can outweigh other votes of 5 to force a story off the HOT rating. Many anons know this and seem to vote low on every new story by an author they don't like. Gaming the new list is very obvious.

Of course any author who has several alts could vote 5s on his own new story, and some people have many alts. I use jeanne_d_artois for different stories but I never vote as jeanne. Years ago I voted once or twice on a couple of my own stories to see the impact (when we had the % vote as well as the 1-5) but I don't do that now. But I could create as many alts as I have email addresses so I could easily give any of my stories multiple 5 votes.

The rating system is too easy to abuse.

Hence the sweeps.

 

[tomlitilia]

This site doesn't seem to do much to encourage new or currently active writers. The "most read" list is a fossil with only one story less than 10 years old in the top 10, and there is nothing current about the category top lists - most are at least 2 years old.

Should there be a " best new writers list" or "best new stories list" which excludes the clapped out old stuff - and in electronic publishing terms that's anything more than 3 months old.

The competitions offer some sort of opportunity for promotion but some are looking terribly tired - same old, same old etc.

In any enterprise marketing of the product needs constant renewal. What would your recommendations be?

Positive recommendations would have to be cheap, I doubt the site earns enough to afford anything flash.

I'm not so concerned with the age of the stories in the hall of fame first page. As others have pointed out, you can get past 1 or 6 month top lists there too. But related to your issue is the bias towards long story series on those lists. This filters out (or in) the right right audience in early chapters, so that only the readers who liked the story votes in the later chapters. I looked at the BDSM first page today, and noticed that only one story (mine -- hooray for me!) was a stand-alone story.

This I think discourages new writers, who might not feel like they want to start with a 20 chapter story. The lists aren't very useful for readers either, and neither are the monthly contest wins. I don't think I've ever seen a stand-alone story place in those. (I'm sure it happens, I just have never seen it when I've checked).

 

[oggbashan]

The positive side of Literotica for new authors is that their stories get far more attention than posting on other sites.

I used to post on Yahoo Adult groups before I came to Literotica. Any new story I posted on a Yahoo group usually passed without any notice at all. Sometimes the moderator said 'thanks' but that was it. A few groups were more welcoming and one ot two were actively helpful. But compared with Literotica? The response was usually silence with no record of views, no voting and no comments.

My stories have been stolen and posted in many places on the internet. Very few of them attract any interest at all.

The best way for a new author to get noticed on Literotica (apart from writing in the Incest and Loving Wives categories) is to enter a themed contest. The response to any entry in a Literotica contest is massive compared to the lack of attention on many other story sites.

Literotica may be flawed but it still has a large readership.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

The positive side of Literotica for new authors is that their stories get far more attention than posting on other sites.

I used to post on Yahoo Adult groups before I came to Literotica. Any new story I posted on a Yahoo group usually passed without any notice at all. Sometimes the moderator said 'thanks' but that was it. A few groups were more welcoming and one ot two were actively helpful. But compared with Literotica? The response was usually silence with no record of views, no voting and no comments.

My stories have been stolen and posted in many places on the internet. Very few of them attract any interest at all.

The best way for a new author to get noticed on Literotica (apart from writing in the Incest and Loving Wives categories) is to enter a themed contest. The response to any entry in a Literotica contest is massive compared to the lack of attention on many other story sites.

Literotica may be flawed but it still has a large readership.

Theres attention and ATTENTION.

I suggest LIT writers get lower case attention that doesn't matter. LIT is like dispkaying your culinary skills at McDonalds. Hold the pickle hold the lettuce.

 

[SciFurz]

The positive side of Literotica for new authors is that their stories get far more attention than posting on other sites.

Definitely.
I started first with my Wordpress blog and came here later when I wanted to write some erotica. Later I also started posting on Wattpad when a reader suggested it.

Over here there's much more response, and it doesn't have to do with it being erotica either.
At the request of my girl, I posted the non-erotic (comedy/romance/anthro) themed Sheep & Wolf here (blatant plug: https://www.literotica.com/s/sheep-and-wolf-ch-01-05) and received a lot more response compared to Wattpad.

It made me think whether to post any next non-erotic story here as well, although it makes me reluctant to do so just as it did with the Sheep & Wolf chapters at first, since this site is focused on erotica.

 

[SciFurz]

Theres attention and ATTENTION.

I suggest LIT writers get lower case attention that doesn't matter. LIT is like dispkaying your culinary skills at McDonalds. Hold the pickle hold the lettuce.

Cheap crap works though, just look at that 50 shades of grease-I mean grey.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Cheap crap works though, just look at that 50 shades of grease-I mean grey.

The best beer I ever drank was ice cold, cost a dime, and the day was 120 degrees in the shade.

 

[Zodia195]

Definitely.
I started first with my Wordpress blog and came here later when I wanted to write some erotica. Later I also started posting on Wattpad when a reader suggested it.

Over here there's much more response, and it doesn't have to do with it being erotica either.
At the request of my girl, I posted the non-erotic (comedy/romance/anthro) themed Sheep & Wolf here (blatant plug: https://www.literotica.com/s/sheep-and-wolf-ch-01-05) and received a lot more response compared to Wattpad.

It made me think whether to post any next non-erotic story here as well, although it makes me reluctant to do so just as it did with the Sheep & Wolf chapters at first, since this site is focused on erotica.

Same here. Before coming here, I use to post in Fictionpress. I did pretty well there, but I wanted to come up with more adult content and that place is more 'family friendly'. I eventually found this place through web browsing lol. Plus one of my friends was here too (we lost contact at one point though sadly). DeviantArt is pretty much a joke for stories. Unless it's fanfiction, your unlikely to get attention there. In fact, fan content gets more attention there than anything original, which is sad, unless you have a huge fanbase.

Anyway, I do try to be active here and I really don't complain about the drop in readership of my own stories since I am not very frequent in uploading. Which is why I always make a point to personally thank those who do favorite my stuff or start following me. I am working on my consistency though.

I actually don't bother looking at some of the lists mentioned. I just look at the new entries.

 

[rutger5]

I agree it's a good idea to encourage writers to be active. Far too many are sedentary, spending all their time typing.

Get up and move around a little, take a walk, do some exercise and not just in the bedroom.

 

[SciFurz]

Same here. ... In fact, fan content gets more attention there than anything original, which is sad, unless you have a huge fanbase.
...
I actually don't bother looking at some of the lists mentioned. I just look at the new entries.

I got that same idea from other creative sites too. There's a lot of fanfiction going around, which is nice if you're a fan, but not when you get bored easily with the same sort of characters that you see everywhere.

That's why I do look at top lists to see what's most wanted but often skip a lot of entries because it's more of the stereotypical same. I look for enough originality to make a story/picture interesting.

One reason why none of my werewolves will ever deal with a wolf pack.

 

[Zodia195]

I know right? I find myself becoming pickier with things now when it comes to any kind of media. When it comes to published authors I use to read a good number, but now I primarily just focus on Christine Feehan and Nora Roberts because they still manage to keep me entertained. I wonder if this is partially due to my age and having experienced so many genres and stuff that barely anything keeps me entertained now. I know I am still a bit young (only 35 here), but at times I feel older than that. Probably because I hang out with more people online in their early 20s.

 

[FortySixtyFour]

I agree it's a good idea to encourage writers to be active. Far too many are sedentary, spending all their time typing.

Get up and move around a little, take a walk, do some exercise and not just in the bedroom.

Got a chuckle out of me because I've had to diet since I took up writing as my dominant hobby. Usually I can just eat whatever garbage I want because I'm out running around and being active with my free time.

I'd probably disagree with new writers needing encouragement--looking at the site's toplist by rating, there's a lot of newcomers on their first story (or chapters of their first story) on the first page. I'm actually one of them, which was shocking to me. I'd pretty much taken it for granted that the toplists would be locked down by pro erotica writers who make a living at this kind of stuff.

On the one hand the erotica stories in the toplist are becoming increasingly... uh, episodic, I guess? In that they aren't a complete story all in one posting, they're a chapter of an ongoing series. While later chapters will have filtered out the people who would give the series a low score (by virtue of uninterested readers not bothering to have continued reading), that's more or less offset by the amount of votes.

If there's a huge amount of votes, then (in theory) the story hasn't "filtered out" many uninterested readers. Or at least, that's what I tell myself, but then again, I'm only on the toplist with the most recent Chapter 8 of my series, and the other installments had middling scores at best.

Of course, it's doubtful I'll ever enter any toplist ranking by views, even my best chapter's only netted some 20k views after four months. I think that getting that kind of fame's really only plausible after you've put in your time and built up a following of people who know your name and writing.

 

[OmnislashXX]

I need to start writing more, I just haven't had the incentive lately.

 

[sr71plt]

I'd pretty much taken it for granted that the toplists would be locked down by pro erotica writers who make a living at this kind of stuff.

Umm, no, this being the Internet, anyone exhibiting or claiming any expertise in a discipline is just putting a target on her/his back for the "everyone is equal on the Internet" crowd to take pot shots at. Here that's expressed by down voting anything they post.

 

[Zodia195]

I would think if anyone was 'pro' here, in other words, making money off of their works, they wouldn't be posting any works here. I remember one of my favorite authors taking all of her stories off the site here because she was making money and didn't want her works to be well, 'read for free'.

 

[sr71plt]

I would think if anyone was 'pro' here, in other words, making money off of their works, they wouldn't be posting any works here. I remember one of my favorite authors taking all of her stories off the site here because she was making money and didn't want her works to be well, 'read for free'.

You would think wrong. I have nearly 150 works for sale on Amazon under the pen name of habu alone, and I have much of that collection posted here on Literotica in 936 entries under the name of sr71plt alone. And after twenty years of publishing fiction in both the mainstream and in erotica that people pay for, I qualify as a pro. There are other professional fiction writers posting stories to Literotica. So, you need to just think something else about this.

 

[lovecraft68]

I'll second the above post in that although you wouldn't think so, you can have stuff here for free and in the market and it will still sell.

My theory used to be simple. The paying people don't know about lit. But then I found out a few lit readers have bought my stuff, even some of what' here for free to support me.

Would I sell more if I had nothing here? Or...does having a presence here help draw people to my paid stuff?

No way to know for sure, but I do okay selling.

I will add the publisher I deal with hates I have stuff here for free.