Which category does this fall under?

[BlackBeardedBasteerd]

Hello and good day to you. I haven't submitted a story to Lit and thought about trying to write one, but not sure how I would categorize it. If I was to write a story about orcs, but it was also gay, would I submit it as a fantasy story or a gay story? Like I said, I haven't posted a story and I don't know how the categories works, this was just something I wondering about. Hopefully the seasoned authors here can answer my question.

 

[sr71plt]

If it includes homosexual activity, it probably will receive the best reception in Gay Male.

As an example, although this isn't about orcs, it's sci-fi gay male: https://www.literotica.com/s/roswells-frontier-motel

 

[RejectReality]

I'm going to defer to SR on this one. If he thinks the fantasy theme will fly in the GM category, I can hardly argue with his experience and knowledge of that readership.

That does make it an exception rather than a rule, though. Most categories don't like you mixing swords and sorcery or phasers and warp drive into their sex stories. In most cases, you'll want to defer to the Sci-Fi & Fantasy category for otherworld stories rather than basing the category on the sexual situations.

The readership for the fantasy elements is there, and they're generally tolerant of any sexual situation. Some just aren't as popular as others, and GM is one of those less popular things.

 

[Nezhul]

When stumbling upon things like that, here's what you should think about:
The story fits into categories A, B and C.

Is Category A playing major part or is it episodic/non-defining? (for example a small peeing scene in an otherwise not-pee fetish story)
Will readers of category A be offended by categories B and C?
Will readers of A be also turned on by B or C?
(repeat for every category)

Then you chose the one that is best or, in case of controversy - a lesser evil.

For example in your case, both orcs and gay are defining features and will appeal to respective audiences.
However there's more chance that readers of fantasy will be turned off by gay porn, than there's a probabilty of readers of gay section be turned off by orcs.
Additionally a lot of gay readers may find fantasy appealing (or not care about it enough).

There you go. Fantasy category risks getting you a lot of dislikes from straight people who are turned off by gay, but Gay category, if even it has such potential with orcs, has a much less risk value.

I hope this helps you make decisions in the future. You should always ask if you are uncertain, however. Gay-orc example is easy to see, but for example BDSM-NonConsent is harder.
For many people, rape fantasy with restraints and spanking - is effectively BDSM. But BDSM community itself will be strongly offended if you put it in that section, because BDSM relies on trust and consent, a play for the benefit of both partners with care for one another.
But you can see how easy it is to mix things up.

Another classic example is Loving Wives category. Even a glance from such a wife towards another man, let alone any sex with one for any reason - will bring your ratings ground low. It doesn't matter how loving your wife in the story really is.

 

[BlackBeardedBasteerd]

Perhaps a little more elaboration is in order and perhaps paint a better picture. I got the idea from viewing artwork from a hentai gallery. My idea was orcs and a femboy, transsexual elf that is mistaken for a woman and is kidnapped. When the orcs discover their mistake, they're too horny and excited, and they decide to give it a go. The elf being a tranny, and not getting any action anywhere else, has no qualms about the decision when he sees what the orcs are packing downstairs.

Might not be the greatest idea, but it gets me going.

 

[legerdemer]

Perhaps a little more elaboration is in order and perhaps paint a better picture. I got the idea from viewing artwork from a hentai gallery. My idea was orcs and a femboy, transexual elf that is mistaken for a woman and is kidnapped. When the orcs discover their mistake, they're too horny and excited, so they decide to give it a go. The elf being a tranny, and not getting any action anywhere else, has no qualms about the decision when he sees what the orcs are packing downstairs.

Might not be the greatest idea, but it gets me going.

Safest is probably Transsexuals & Crossdressers, though it may lose you some fantasy fans. By picking appropriate tags, however, you should be able to draw in a lot of those as well - especially since the Tags portal will start going into beta testing June 12, according to Manu.


This made me wonder: which category would The Rocky Horror Picture Show story do best in?

 

[Nezhul]

As the poster above says, tags help a lot.
If I have something controversial in my story that I'm not sure about - I also make a small author's foreword to prepare my readers for such topics, so that everyone who is not interested can leave right away. This helps.

 

[BlackBeardedBasteerd]

I suppose I'll have to be clear in the tags, and possibly add an author's note to give the reader a heads up. That's if my story is posted. Thank you everyone for sharing your input!

 

[AwkwardMD]

The story you are describing sounds a lot like my story Terrible Company, the highest rated chapter of which features gay sex. Sci-Fi & Fantasy can reward a good gay male romp if the story is there.

 

[BlackBeardedBasteerd]

The story you are describing sounds a lot like my story Terrible Company, the highest rated chapter of which features gay sex. Sci-Fi & Fantasy can reward a good gay male romp if the story is there.

I'm getting ready to go to work here in a few. What's your series about? Might check it out when I get home.

 

[AwkwardMD]

It's a fantasy satire, so it's like comedic sword and sorcery stuff that primarily pokes fun at the tropes of sword and sorcery fantasy. It's got a fairly large ensemble cast of characters, so there's lot's of variety.

 

[AwkwardMD]

If you've written about a trans elf character, I feel like you might really like Terrible Company.