The Official Authors' Hangout Valentine's Day 2021 Contest Support Thread

[HeyAll]

btw, here are the dates according to the main announcement.

https://www.literotica.com/beta/s/the-2021-literotica-valentines-day-contest

You can begin submitting on (or before): January 14
The last day to submit is: February 5 at 11:59pm EST
Winners will be announced on: February 12

 

[Lovecraft_lore2]

Are people better off posting on day 1 or waiting? It seems like the first three days I post the story goes down to 1.2 stars, then up to 4.6, then down to 3.8 stars. It feels like there is a group that vote down every story the first few days.

I have a story I wrote about three years back, three years in a row I have tracked it down about two months after the contest is over. Plus a second story outlined.

 

[KeithD]

Are people better off posting on day 1 or waiting? It seems like the first three days I post the story goes down to 1.2 stars, then up to 4.6, then down to 3.8 stars. It feels like there is a group that vote down every story the first few days.

I have a story I wrote about three years back, three years in a row I have tracked it down about two months after the contest is over. Plus a second story outlined.

There's no "better off" to be isolated or had.

 

[NotWise]

Are people better off posting on day 1 or waiting? It seems like the first three days I post the story goes down to 1.2 stars, then up to 4.6, then down to 3.8 stars. It feels like there is a group that vote down every story the first few days.

I have a story I wrote about three years back, three years in a row I have tracked it down about two months after the contest is over. Plus a second story outlined.

I really doubt it makes a difference to the score whether you publish early or late, but if you publish early, then the thrill is gone long before the contest is over. Unless you're actually in the running (and it's hard to tell if you are), you spend a lot of time living the anticlimax.

 

[PennameWombat]

Are people better off posting on day 1 or waiting? It seems like the first three days I post the story goes down to 1.2 stars, then up to 4.6, then down to 3.8 stars. It feels like there is a group that vote down every story the first few days.

I have a story I wrote about three years back, three years in a row I have tracked it down about two months after the contest is over. Plus a second story outlined.

I don’t think posting on the first day, or submitting ahead so it (hopefully) goes online on day 1 is required to score highly or win. And to echo NotWise, it gets kind of boring to track what’s happening. In only one case (Summer Loving 2020) did I intentionally submit ahead of time and track day to day stats as an experiment. Given one-bombing and sweeps, it’s not normally worth paying attention to scores until the winners are announced.

But IMHO you can be too late. For a variety of reasons I submitted my Nude Day 2020 story late and it was published only a couple of days before the end of the submission period. It was highly rated but nowhere near enough votes to come close to qualifying (not that it would’ve won, an ongoing situation for me ). And it sort of got lost after that.

My Winter Holidays entry was submitted and published about three or four days into the contest and did quite well (for me, at least. Never in line for a podium finish...)

 

[sirhugs]

for those of us in it for more readers (but still with an ego about wanting a DECENT score, I think "just right" means neither too early nor too late- so not the first day or two, but not the last few days.

Then NOT obsess about the ups and downs of daily scores. If you can...

Since my story is done ahead of time this contest (a rarity for me), I might have trouble not being too early.

 

[JuanSeiszFitzHall]

My main reason for entering a contest is to maximize a story’s views. To the extent that I have an underlying Evil Plan, it’s to use the story to entice those viewers to read other stories that I’ve posted, and will post in the future. I’m gained some followers from past contest entries.

With that goal in mind, I try to get a contest story posted on its first day. This gives the story all of the days available for readers to give it a look strictly because it’s a contest entry. Also, the number of stories shown on the list on a contest’s opening day is the smallest that it will ever be, so even a casual browser might notice my story and take a chance on it.

https://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=5116173&page=submissions

 

[JuanSeiszFitzHall]

Yuck. "I've gained," not "I'm gained."

 

[KeithD]

I've had one posting on day one of a contest for a decade and a half of contests and then usually another one or two sometime later, including in the last week of entries. I haven't noticed a pattern of timing of posting making a significant difference in rating.

 

[JuanSeiszFitzHall]

I have finished a first draft. It's 14.7k words, which for me is probably much too long. I have about a week to get it in shape for submittal, or to decide I can't and give up.

 

[NotWise]

I have finished a first draft. It's 14.7k words, which for me is probably much too long. I have about a week to get it in shape for submittal, or to decide I can't and give up.

Mmm. Per the calendar, you have a month from Tuesday to get it in shape and submitted.

 

[SimonDoom]

I have finished a first draft. It's 14.7k words, which for me is probably much too long. I have about a week to get it in shape for submittal, or to decide I can't and give up.

That's a fine length for a contest story. The stories that win tend to be on the longish side. I rarely see stories with fewer than 10k words win.

 

[PoisonPen33]

I ended up putting my story to the side. It's a good concept and I want to see it through but right now I'm banging my head against it. I'd rather let a good story marinate than rush a poor one.

So, my 2021 V-Day story is being edged until 2022.

 

[ShellyHunter469]

A total Newbie hoping to get a story up

Hello All! Newbie writer here.

PoisonPen, I feel you. Sometimes a story 'gels' and I'm stunned of it's cohesion. The writing just flows... But most of the time, I have way more excuses not to write (hungry children; of both the two and four-legged variety, job, housework, etc.).

I was trying to get my act together and put down a cute little tale bouncing about my head for the beginning of the month themed loosely on a 20-something's New Year's Resolution. So I'd rather post it this time of year. (Worse case, it can join the other two entries I have started for other Themed Contests!) But I keep doing errands for others or other urgent stuff. (Or reading over Author's Hangout while eating and wanting to commiserate with other writers who have way more posts than I do...)

Now I see the Valentine contest ! Hopefully I can come up with a story for that too. Better get my two teenagers to resume their chores instead of trying to do them myself. (I gave them a bad cold. Been 3 weeks and they are still coughing!)

The first step is to get off this post and start writing! So.....
Happy Writing all!

 

[PoisonPen33]

The first step is to get off this post and start writing! So.....

Happy Writing all!

I wish you good luck and good fortune in the stories to come!

 

[JuanSeiszFitzHall]

NotWise: Based on my experience, I prefer to have a contest story go live when the contest opens. So I’d submit it in a week or so.

SimonDoom: Based on my experience, I don’t think readers stay with me very long. The response to my stuff well over 10k, in terms of total votes, is teensy.

I’m not looking to win. The best I’ve done in a contest is, I think, middle of the pack. What I hope for is for the story to be read by as many people as possible.

Despite my rather glum earlier post, I probably will submit the story, if the upcoming editing sessions can dispatch a whole lot of bloat.

 

[Hypoxia]

I have just 'finished' drafting a V-Day entry. QUICKSILVER is my longest single story yet at around 70k words, and on the Editor's Forum I've solicited for beta reader(s) to advise on what bloat to cut. I say 'finished' because I'm still fixing continuity and orthography fuckups. But the story is essentially done, or maybe overdone. Will a June-October romance grab a good score? I have no expectations.

I think I'm cooking a couple of shorter V-day tales. We'll see what pops out.

 

[oggbashan]

I have just submitted my firstone. Noqw for the second...

 

[oggbashan]

And now number two has been finished and submitted...

 

[JuanSeiszFitzHall]

I've just submitted mine.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Submitted???

I thought it didn't start until the 21st!

Don't panic! Don't panic!!!

 

[oggbashan]

Submitted???

I thought it didn't start until the 21st!

Don't panic! Don't panic!!!

You can start submitting as soom as Laurel has posted the official thread. I am pleased that I had or I would have lost the two stories when my other computer died.

 

[KeithD]

Laurel's wording on submission--at least the last time I looked--was that stories can be submitted a couple of days before the opening. So, I submit my first one two days before the opening. It would be interesting to do a study, if possible, on where the stories land on the New list in relationship to when they were submitted, but I'll leave that to others. I'll just follow the guidance given as closely as I can. I think this is too soon, myself, to expect Laurel to keep track of them.

 

[JuanSeiszFitzHall]

From my recollection (perhaps flawed) of other contests, the first of the bold-face dates in an announcement is when a contest goes live on the site, and entries are posted for reading. As far as I know, early submissions aren’t a problem for the site folks, and mine is by no means the earliest. (Oggbashan has stated that he already has two in the queue.) The time frames until close of submittals and announcement of results are such that the go-live date might be 1/14, or 1/21, or some date in between. As for whether the site folks can keep track of very-early submittals, my hunch is that the requirement for copying and pasting VALENTINES DAY 2021 in the Notes field triggers an automatic shunt of the story into a contest queue.

 

[KeithD]

We'll see where Ogg's and other identified early submissions wind up on the New list. If it turns out they are pushed down the list as posted (the list composed by most recent submission on top), then this might be a factor to be considered by authors submitting contest entries. It's a pretty standard phenomenon that the stories listed closest to the top stand the better chance to be opened.