The Official Authors' Hangout Summer Lovin' Contest 2017 Support Thread

[SolarRay]

My contest entry has set a personal record that I didn't think I'd ever break. It's now over 6300 views without a comment. It's like I never really published a story.

Geez...
Another author was just telling me about how if / when you get the first 1 or 2 comments determines whether you get any / many at all.

 

[ChloeTzang]

My contest entry has set a personal record that I didn't think I'd ever break. It's now over 6300 views without a comment. It's like I never really published a story.

Well you're way above me on views but I have a few comments. Just goes to show, most views come from the category, not the competition. First and last romance for me. I'd rather have the views.

And the competition has attracted one of my beloved trolls. Someone just went thru and one starred every one of my stories. I've really got to them. Wish I knew how coz I'd write a story especially to push every single one of their buttons. Thats a lot of one starring. Hard work. One has to admire such dedication and commitment.

 

[litfan10]

Well you're way above me on views but I have a few comments. Just goes to show, most views come from the category, not the competition. First and last romance for me. I'd rather have the views.

And the competition has attracted one of my beloved trolls. Someone just went thru and one starred every one of my stories. I've really got to them. Wish I knew how coz I'd write a story especially to push every single one of their buttons. Thats a lot of one starring. Hard work. One has to admire such dedication and commitment.

I often throw in a romantic comedy in the contest. Oh the views are horrible; I have half of NotWise right now, and the votes....gah! I started at 3.0 and inched my way up to a gasping red 'h' but I have a bunch of very sweet comments. This is the trend for my romcom contest stories - low viewing/rating but great comments, so I'll stick with that. I love my dedicated readers and each contest brings me new ones.
It's all good.

 

[NotWise]

Well you're way above me on views but I have a few comments. Just goes to show, most views come from the category, not the competition. First and last romance for me. I'd rather have the views.

I think for new stories a lot of the views come from the "New" list.

Romance is actually a lot bigger category than Mature. I wonder if the 'sad' aspect of your story may have kept people from viewing it. Given that it is a sad tale, the reception you've gotten in Romance is pretty good. They're mostly into HEA with warm and fuzzy feelings at the end.

You may not want to post to Romance again, and I'm not likely to ever post to Mature again. It seems to be okay for Voboy, but my reception there has been cool. My main issue is that there aren't many age difference stories I want to write. I guess it's not my niche, and they aren't doing anything to encourage me.

 

[ChloeTzang]

I think for new stories a lot of the views come from the "New" list.

Romance is actually a lot bigger category than Mature. I wonder if the 'sad' aspect of your story may have kept people from viewing it. Given that it is a sad tale, the reception you've gotten in Romance is pretty good. They're mostly into HEA with warm and fuzzy feelings at the end.

You may not want to post to Romance again, and I'm not likely to ever post to Mature again. It seems to be okay for Voboy, but my reception there has been cool. My main issue is that there aren't many age difference stories I want to write. I guess it's not my niche, and they aren't doing anything to encourage me.

It's quite fascinating seeing the reader reactions to different stories in different categories. An endless education. And yes, the sad thing is definitely a minus - most readers want something happy or fun, not something sad but on the other hand I've had some great comments and it was an intense writing experience for me so I've already got a lot from it and I'm happy with that. Got my backup story going now too which is a bit more mainstream.

 

[Voboy]

Careful putting me up as some sort of expert at anything: I spent almost two weeks or so plotting out and crafting my first entry (which is doing well enough), then did my second entry start to finish in like three days (and it's doing well-er). But you never really know. I was pretty proud of my Nude Day entry, which went nowhere fast. So what do I know?

I do tend to enjoy the Mature category, though. Writing and reading; it just makes sense to me.

 

[TxRad]

I think I'll drop my second fish in the barrel tomorrow.

 

[philipmitchellstein]

My contest entry has set a personal record that I didn't think I'd ever break. It's now over 6300 views without a comment. It's like I never really published a story.

My entry has just received its first comment - after 22,800 views!

 

[ChloeTzang]

My entry has just received its first comment - after 22,800 views!

I'm sooooooo jealous. I dream of 22k views for Summertime Sadness. I just passed 4500 views after being up since the contest opened. My First Time stories get that # of views in the first hour. Sob. Lol. I'm going to win the least viewed award at this rate. Or maybe the award for the author who whines the loudest about the least views and gets laughed at the most. Lol.

 

[philipmitchellstein]

I'm sooooooo jealous. I dream of 22k views for Summertime Sadness. I just passed 4500 views after being up since the contest opened. My First Time stories get that # of views in the first hour. Sob. Lol. I'm going to win the least viewed award at this rate. Or maybe the award for the author who whines the loudest about the least views and gets laughed at the most. Lol.

You're in a 'new to you' category, trying to win over new readers - hopefully you'll get lots of new fans. I played it safe - Farmer's Daughter Threesome is in Group Sex - it's a fairly popular category, and home of a lot of my stories. The # of views IS a little ahead of what I usually get though, so I guess putting it in the competition has helped...

 

[philipmitchellstein]

I'm sooooooo jealous. I dream of 22k views for Summertime Sadness. I just passed 4500 views after being up since the contest opened. My First Time stories get that # of views in the first hour. Sob. Lol. I'm going to win the least viewed award at this rate. Or maybe the award for the author who whines the loudest about the least views and gets laughed at the most. Lol.

I just looked - 20 comments! At least you're getting a reaction. I'll happily trade some of my views for your comments!

 

[Kethandra]

I just looked - 20 comments! At least you're getting a reaction. I'll happily trade some of my views for your comments!

Agreed. She might get 'least viewed' but will win 'most comments per view.'

 

[NotWise]

My fun little contest entry ("Modern Biology") has now, by my count, been 1-bombed seven times.

I'm probably just being paranoid. The score was at 4.78 after the first 9 votes then four of the next 11 votes knocked it down to 4.3. The score has struggled back toward 4.5 over and over and each time it almost gets there it's bombed back again. It feels like someone other than me is watching.

 

[ChloeTzang]

My fun little contest entry ("Modern Biology") has now, by my count, been 1-bombed seven times.

I'm probably just being paranoid. The score was at 4.78 after the first 9 votes then four of the next 11 votes knocked it down to 4.3. The score has struggled back toward 4.5 over and over and each time it almost gets there it's bombed back again. It feels like someone other than me is watching.

Lol. You and me both then. I got one bombed again this morning and it's not thaaaaat bad. Maybe not a happy romance but still ..... Be interesting to see what the outcome is after the sweeps.

 

[Halin24]

Lol. You and me both then. I got one bombed again this morning and it's not thaaaaat bad. Maybe not a happy romance but still ..... Be interesting to see what the outcome is after the sweeps.

Seems to be a trend then. My entry started at 4.75 after four votes, then hit bottom (so far...) at 4.17 after 15 votes. It recovered to 4.56 and is currently just under 4.5 with 43 votes.

I can't say that I care too much but I find it a bit strange. I know there are issues with the grammatical side of my writing and I know that I'm not a great author. I don't have a fan-base either but I would have thought there should be some consistency.

I have seen this the previous times I have entered contests too but really, I'm not a threat to anyone so why bother?

 

[ChloeTzang]

Seems to be a trend then. My entry started at 4.75 after four votes, then hit bottom (so far...) at 4.17 after 15 votes. It recovered to 4.56 and is currently just under 4.5 with 43 votes.

I can't say that I care too much but I find it a bit strange. I know there are issues with the grammatical side of my writing and I know that I'm not a great author. I don't have a fan-base either but I would have thought there should be some consistency.

I have seen this the previous times I have entered contests too but really, I'm not a threat to anyone so why bother?

It does make me shake my head. I mean, I can understand me getting one bombed. I post in Loving Wives and I don't exactly win friends elsewhere. I do have that fan base but it's nowhere near a few others here and this is very much an outlier as far my story for the competition goes. I can see why I'd get picked on but you and Not Wise? That's kind of weird. Still there's a couple of weeks to go.

 

[NotWise]

Be interesting to see what the outcome is after the sweeps.

The sweeps are always interesting and I was surprised a little that (as far as I could tell) it wasn't swept last night. I commonly see some votes swept the night after I post a story.

If the sweeps do what I think they might, then a sweep would bump my score up enough to make me happy, but it wouldn't put the story into contention. That's fine with me. I didn't expect the story to be a contender, I expected it to be fun.

 

[SolarRay]

I got bombed a little too, though not as bad as I've gotten right before the contest closes. It's always strange that the vote count rapidly goes up with little change to the score and then 2 more votes come in and it plummets. Will also see if a sweep makes any difference.

 

[ChloeTzang]

I got bombed a little too, though not as bad as I've gotten right before the contest closes. It's always strange that the vote count rapidly goes up with little change to the score and then 2 more votes come in and it plummets. Will also see if a sweep makes any difference.

Oh, I think the scores will likely jump across the board with sweeps. There's always trolls who get their thrills from taking scores down. The sweeps seem to have the most effect on stories with low vote numbers obviously but right now that seems to be a lot of us across the board....

Now the latest romance entries are doing much better rating wise, but they're also rather more conventional romance plots than mine. I guess my story is outside the norm enough that readers accustomed to standard LIT romances don't like it. Can't say I had any expectations for mine, but the low views are a bit disappointing. More sad whining noises from Chloe. LOL. Fortunately, I don't take myself too seriously.....

It's good to see so many entries in though. Over 40 now and hopefully more over the next week.

 

[Glaze72]

Problem submitting?

Hey All:

I submitted my second entry in this contest yesterday morning. It is still sitting in pending after 21 hours. Is there a reason for this? Could the contest runner take a look and see if I screwed this up somehow?

 

[Voboy]

Hey All:

I submitted my second entry in this contest yesterday morning. It is still sitting in pending after 21 hours. Is there a reason for this? Could the contest runner take a look and see if I screwed this up somehow?

You'd need to PM Laurel to find out. None of us will have a clue.

If you're sure you put the right entry notice in the NOTES field, she usually expedites those; like I said above, mine was on the board after just 9 hours. But yours may have fallen through the cracks.

 

[Glaze72]

Thanks!

Thanks for the advice Voboy. Just sent an IM to Laurel.

 

[toetyper]

IN case you were wondering; there are 66 stories on literotilca with a 'ghostbusters' tag.,.


youre welcome

 

[NotWise]

Now the latest romance entries are doing much better rating wise, but they're also rather more conventional romance plots than mine or Not Wise's.

Just to clarify, my story's in Mature instead of Romance.

It's my first story in Mature, and after watching the scores in the category the last few days before I posted I almost switched to Romance. I didn't because I thought the story had too much gratuitous sex, and the ending, while HEA for the narrator, is a little contrived.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Just to clarify, my story's in Mature instead of Romance.

It's my first story in Mature, and after watching the scores in the category the last few days before I posted I almost switched to Romance. I didn't because I thought the story had too much gratuitous sex, and the ending, while HEA for the narrator, is a little contrived.

Sorry, you're right of course. Half asleep as I was. My apologies. Correction underway...... still tho, I can't see why anyone would trash yours. Oh well. Some people ......