Story promotion

[AwkwardMD]

I have a story that I'm extremely proud of. I think I succeeded at writing not only erotica and humor, but also satire. Actual satire. The ratings are good, and the comments are great.

The problem is that it has very few readers.

https://www.literotica.com/s/terrible-company-ch-01

I do a lot to track view counts for my stories. It's not just a matter of the natural drop off in retention.

There's an ensemble cast of characters with a wide variety of sex. Literally something for everybody.

Does anyone have any tips for attracting readers? I'm open to suggestions.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

What the hell are you talking about 'so few views??!'

20,000 is surely pretty good isn't it?

...What do I think about the writing?

For those who like that kind of category - it's very VERY good and indeed you should be proud of it. It's also a very clear writing style, easy to 'get' a certain mood or 'sense' that is being conveyed. Yep. It's the stuff anyone who reads those novels would surely love and they would probably love for the narrative to be extended into plot depth and the 'whole nine yards.'

 

[AwkwardMD]

Other stories I have with a similar number of chapters (ie, having had their name on the recently posted list the same number of times) are much higher. In the 30-50k views range.

 

[AwkwardMD]

To be clear, it has 11 chapters and is just shy of 80,000 words. It's already getting near novel length, and the plots are quite plotty.

I just feel like I should be doing a little something else for this story to help get it more attention. There's quite a few chapters with less than 5,000 views.

 

[RejectReality]

You're doing well in Sci-Fi & Fantasy. It's not exactly the go-to destination for the majority of readers on Lit.

I doubt any amount of promotion from any platform is going to significantly increase readership. For the most part, once you're four or five chapters in, you've picked up the largest part of the new readers you're going to.

 

[SimonDoom]

If you compare your story's views with those of other top-rated stories submitted in the Sci-Fi category over the last 12 months, you are doing well. Many of those stories have far fewer than the near-20,000 views your first chapter has. Multi-chapter stories tend to winnow readership down to the die-hards, so some drop in views may be inevitable. I think you are dealing with the constraints of that particular category on this site, and there may not be much you can do about it here.

 

[AwkwardMD]

The genre system of story categorization on Lit is not kind to me. I'm not box-shaped.

Does anyone find that the "New Story" thread in the feedback forum is helpful to draw readers in?

 

[sr71plt]

To be clear, it has 11 chapters and is just shy of 80,000 words. It's already getting near novel length, and the plots are quite plotty.

I just feel like I should be doing a little something else for this story to help get it more attention. There's quite a few chapters with less than 5,000 views.

An 80,000-word work is a novel in both the print and the e-book world.

Sorry, I don't feel your pain on views. And I can completely understand why views would taper off as a story just rambles away in chapters written and tacked onto the end. Your ratings are quite fine too.

As far as advertising more, there's a area of the forum to do that and to talk about your new stories/chapters. http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=181349&page=132

Incidentally (or maybe not incidentally) complaining about a list that is well above the average in views/ratings/etc. on the forum sometimes goes in the opposite direction from what you were hoping for.

 

[AwkwardMD]

You guys are peaches.

 

[RejectReality]

If you have an idea for a continuation, side-story, or something else directly connected to the story you want to highlight, that's one way to get new readers to give it a try. If they enjoy the new story and you mention that it's connected to the other story in a note, it will certainly send people to check it out.

Regular posting of new work is the only sure, tried and true method of building your readership. Anything else is a crapshoot.

 

[AwkwardMD]

Thank you, RR. I appreciate it.

 

[SusanJillParker]

I have a story that I'm extremely proud of. I think I succeeded at writing not only erotica and humor, but also satire. Actual satire. The ratings are good, and the comments are great.

The problem is that it has very few readers.

https://www.literotica.com/s/terrible-company-ch-01

I do a lot to track view counts for my stories. It's not just a matter of the natural drop off in retention.

There's an ensemble cast of characters with a wide variety of sex. Literally something for everybody.

Does anyone have any tips for attracting readers? I'm open to suggestions.

Add a mother and son having sex and you'll have over 100,000 views. Seriously.

It doesn't matter where you put them in the story, preferably at the beginning.

April 1st is the last day that incest stories are accepted on Literotica.

After that, sadly, we'll all be writing stories of humor and satire.

Good luck with your story.

 

[NotWise]

Does anyone find that the "New Story" thread in the feedback forum is helpful to draw readers in?

Yes and no.

On the no side, here aren't a lot of readers in feedback forum so the largest number of views you can get by posting there will be insignificant compared to your total to date.

On the yes side, the readers you do get by posting there are more critical than your average reader and more prone to comment. Even though posting there won't get you a lot of new views, it may get you some well-conceived comments.

 

[AwkwardMD]

Thanks NW! That really helps!

 

[Bramblethorn]

FWIW, my one story in SFF is one of my highest-rated, and IMHO one of my better efforts, but after twelve months it still hasn't reached 6K views. On the other hand, the readers who did find it have been pretty positive.

(also, female orcs are like hyenas? Who knew?)

 

[Zodia195]

Besides posting in the New Story Thread. I also post the links of stories I am working on in my Signature here too.

Only 20,000? I am lucky if I get to 1,000. You are very fortunate.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Does anyone have any tips for attracting readers? I'm open to suggestions.

Yes. Write the next story.

Once you have posted a story, there's very little you can do to encourage readers to it, it survives or dies on its merits. It doesn't matter how good you think it is, readers will view and score it according to their inclinations, the genre, the time of day. And how "good" they think your writing is....

A story is like a fledgling chick kicked out of the nest. It's either going to soar like an eagle or plod around on the ground like a turkey, but it's gotta do it by itself.

Just write the next story, that's about all you can do. You're dealing with Joe Public here, and they'll do what they want to do, not what you want them to do.

 

[My I]

I have one story in Sci-fi. It has the most views of any of my stories. But it has been up longer than anything else at 7 years. It has just over 20k views.

How long has your story been up? If it's only been a few weeks, I'd say you did fine.

 

[SimonDoom]

I noticed your stories have not been published in the categories with the most readers. Publish a story with a catchy title to a popular category, especially incest, and you will double your readership overall. Some of those readers may check out your other stories. This happened for me when I recently published a story in ex-voy that got a lot of views (45,000 in a month). I've noticed that the rate of getting views of my other stories has picked up, too. This should work for you because you write well and readers who like your writing will look for similarly written works.

 

[AwkwardMD]

Yes and no.

On the no side, here aren't a lot of readers in feedback forum so the largest number of views you can get by posting there will be insignificant compared to your total to date.

On the yes side, the readers you do get by posting there are more critical than your average reader and more prone to comment. Even though posting there won't get you a lot of new views, it may get you some well-conceived comments.

This is excellent insight. Exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to learn. Thank you, NW.

 

[AwkwardMD]

FWIW, my one story in SFF is one of my highest-rated, and IMHO one of my better efforts, but after twelve months it still hasn't reached 6K views. On the other hand, the readers who did find it have been pretty positive.

(also, female orcs are like hyenas? Who knew?)

You are, as far as I know, the ONLY reader in 2+ years who knew/guessed that we based orcs on the Spotted Hyena. Super impressed.

 

[AwkwardMD]

Besides posting in the New Story Thread. I also post the links of stories I am working on in my Signature here too.

Only 20,000? I am lucky if I get to 1,000. You are very fortunate.

The first chapter has 20,000. The next has 7,000, and then it drops off to like 4,000. The last couple chapters are all between 1,000 and 3,000. That's the part of the story I'm really hoping to prop up.

 

[Haulover]

If you post the next bit in a different category, you'll attract a new set of readers. They might be also tempted to read the first part - and hence increase your audience.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

You guys are peaches.

Well, no. But some of us are honest and realistic. And you're being slightly absurd. There's no mechanism for promoting stories on Lit. Good thing too. Plenty of crap rises to the top as it is; imagine what marketing would do to the place.

I have a story that's been here about 5 years, in Erotic Couplings, red H, that's just above 20,000 views. It's well written and I'm happy with it. So are the people who stumbled across it. Does it matter that it's not 200,000 views? Nope. If you want those numbers, write mindless stuff in Incest or LW.

But if you want to write smart, plot-filled commentary, expect to be read by the 3% of the readership that cares about such things. 3% might be optimistic and is based on my guesses. The rest of the crowd here wants something very different, mostly either their mother or their sister.

 

[AwkwardMD]

Well, no. But some of us are honest and realistic. And you're being slightly absurd.

I have a complex relationship with my stories. They feel like intangible children rather than being representative of me or acting as some kind of avatar for myself. It's not absurd to wonder if there's something more one might do for their children no matter how well they're doing, especially when "how well they're doing" is relative and not easily ascertained without asking in the first place.

There's no harm in asking.

Being realistic is admirable, and much appreciated, but there's no need to be rude.