Question: The amount of your stories vs. how many followers

[8letters]

So...

I see a few people approaching this very scientifically, very deliberately as if it were a business.

Given that we are not getting paid for any of this, that literotica is 100% free, and undoubtedly primarily a labor of love for the owner, I am curious as to what the motivation is for such a businesslike approach?

Does that make it more fun?

When I started writing, I didn't set out to rack up a lot of favorites. It just so happened that the type of story I like to write racks up a lot of favorites.

It takes a long time from me to take a story from typing its first word to having it published. And I have far more story ideas than I have time to write stories. So when I'm deciding what story I'm going to pour time into, I take into account what the reaction is going to be. I may write a story that's going to get a small response because that's what I feel like writing. But typically, I pick the story idea that I think will get the biggest response.

Is this a training platform for subsequent for-profit enterprises?

Are people building an audience here with the plan of transitioning that audience to paid writing elsewhere, or something similar, e.g., patreon?

Don't expect to turn your Literotica writing into money. Lots of great writers have tried, and very, very few have had success.

 

[LAHomedog]

So...

I see a few people approaching this very scientifically, very deliberately as if it were a business.

Given that we are not getting paid for any of this, that literotica is 100% free, and undoubtedly primarily a labor of love for the owner, I am curious as to what the motivation is for such a businesslike approach?

Does that make it more fun?

Is this a training platform for subsequent for-profit enterprises?

Are people building an audience here with the plan of transitioning that audience to paid writing elsewhere, or something similar, e.g., patreon?

I am too new to be thinking seriously along those lines, but of course it has all crossed my mind.

For me, you bring up an interesting question: Why write and post on Literotica?

I understand for as many different people as there are on here, there are as many different reasons. Me? As strange as this may seem from college on I have rarely written anything unless I was getting paid to write it, or I was writing it on spec with the hope of getting paid. (Unless I was volunteering for a cause I believed in.)

I have never written for the fun of it, or the joy, or to express myself or whatever.

This is the first time I have been writing simply to write and have fun. So for me, I write, I post, it's a wonderful outlet. I can't speak for others.

Different strokes for different folks!

 

[SimonDoom]

Given that we are not getting paid for any of this, that literotica is 100% free, and undoubtedly primarily a labor of love for the owner, I am curious as to what the motivation is for such a businesslike approach?

Speaking for myself . . .

I don't think of my approach as businesslike. I ask myself, Why am I publishing a story, as opposed to writing it and keeping it for myself, on my hard drive?

I publish because I want people to read my stories. And the more readers, the better. It's not business, it's pleasure. I see publication as a communicative process.

I'm also an analytical person who enjoys studying data for its own sake. So when I started publishing stories, I studied this Site and its stories and developed a personal philosophy about publishing. My personal philosophy is to write the stories I want to write, to try to get better at it, and also to do what I can to connect with as many readers as possible. There's nothing business-ish about it. It's all pleasure.

 

[lovecraft68]

Th thing about followers is at the end of the day its kind of meaningless in the sense of being misleading.

Example Silkstockinglover has an insane 34k+ followers....but look how many votes her stories get...not even 10% a lot of people following authors who've been here awhile probably are no longer active and never deleted their page, others fav every damn author they find, and then you get the ones that the one second of effort required to vote is way too much after they consumed 5 pages of your free material

So I wouldn't think much of the totals and certainly not strain your brain with statistics and number of this per that.

 

[KeithD]

As far as I can see--and I haven't looked far because I don't see myself as in competition with anyone else here--the more stories you have published here the more likely your author favorite-to-stories posted ratio will be low. A reader can only favorite you once as an author, so added stories gets you nowhere in this ratio. It just lowers the ratio. Add the disparity of category trends and I think this statistic only serves you if you are attacking a fellow author at Literotica. I saw where this discussion started (before this thread), so I'm not surprised it's being played here.

 

[Payne_Hall]

Given that we are not getting paid for any of this, that literotica is 100% free, and undoubtedly primarily a labor of love for the owner, I am curious as to what the motivation is for such a businesslike approach?

Does that make it more fun?

I don’t know that this is necessarily the case. I think a lot of authors start with this as a hobby and then realize how much fun it is to get validation while writing about sex. So then it turns into a hobby you really love. The metrics give more to enjoy and think about with that hobby.

Sort of like gunpla. Some people like building gundams. Some people go a little deeper and get into custom painting, display cases, and how to effectively make battle scuff marks.

 

[Blind_Justice]

My recipe for success? I don't have a clue. I'm amazed I even managed to earn a following. My stories are long, plot-heavy and if anything, the sex is more awkward than arousing. Besides, chasing trends and doing research on what's hot takes away from my already limited writing time. As does advertising how awesome my stuff is.

I operate on "write it and someone will probably read it". Seems to work. Despite not having published anything for the past two months, I get new fav's and followers. Maybe I have reached the "word of mouth" phase?

 

[stickygirl]

If you write for followers and scores, it's not difficult to follow the formula: one fuck a page and don't mix genre. Pricks are always huge unless its a humiliation story, vaginas are always dripping egg-white unless its an incest or virginity one. If you can weave a meaningful plot into that, you'll be a star.

 

[HeyAll]

So...

I see a few people approaching this very scientifically, very deliberately as if it were a business.

Given that we are not getting paid for any of this, that literotica is 100% free, and undoubtedly primarily a labor of love for the owner, I am curious as to what the motivation is for such a businesslike approach?

Does that make it more fun?

Is this a training platform for subsequent for-profit enterprises?

Are people building an audience here with the plan of transitioning that audience to paid writing elsewhere, or something similar, e.g., patreon?

I am too new to be thinking seriously along those lines, but of course it has all crossed my mind.

For me it's the love of writing. And part of that love is people actually reading it.

I work really hard on my stories. Some stories, more than others. I put a lot of thought into them... again, some more than others. A lot of times there's a feeling of dread over how much work I need to finish, but that's all self-imposed.

I have zero intent of making money off my work. For me the profit is, again, people reading it.

 

[YDB95]

I figured out quite early on, people either love or hate my stories and there's no point in my trying to pander to the latter. If I did, I probably couldn't succeed and I also wouldn't be as happy with my work as I am when I stick to what I love.

 

[FifthEstate]

So...

I see a few people approaching this very scientifically, very deliberately as if it were a business.

Given that we are not getting paid for any of this, that literotica is 100% free, and undoubtedly primarily a labor of love for the owner, I am curious as to what the motivation is for such a businesslike approach?

Does that make it more fun?

Is this a training platform for subsequent for-profit enterprises?

Are people building an audience here with the plan of transitioning that audience to paid writing elsewhere, or something similar, e.g., patreon?

I am too new to be thinking seriously along those lines, but of course it has all crossed my mind.

I write for a variety of reasons, but primarily because I enjoy it!

But I would be lying if I said that reader reaction in terms of views, ️scores (especially hot designations), favorites, followers, and favorable comments/emails weren’t important and major motivations to me. Because we don’t get paid for this, I don’t think i would keep doing it if Literotica didn’t have all those feedback mechanisms in place.

But that said, I won’t write in a category that doesn’t float my boat just to chase popularity. I could never write in Incest/Taboo or gay male because I have no interest in either. But as someone else said in this thread, what makes Literotica so unique is the varied options for readers and writers alike. My number one recommendation is to write about what interests you! Your works will be way better as a result. I’m sure there are some talented authors on Lit who can author good works in topics that don’t really interest them, but I am not one of them.

One other piece of advice I would give is if you are going to write multi-chapter stories, be consistent in the category across most if not all the chapters. When I wrote and published my first story series “UCLA To Big D”, I failed to realize ahead of time that readers didn’t all have the same kinks as me. I wrote in 5 different categories across the first five chapters. So when chapter 3 published in Lesbian Sex, I thought to myself, “Wait till the fans in this category read this, they’re going to love it!” But what I hadn’t considered was the readers in that category weren’t all that interested in “chapter 3” of a story they had no familiarity with.

Ultimately, that series captured a small cult following, but after publishing my first 18 chapters, I had lots of high scores, but think I had around 200 followers. In the three story series I’ve written since (ironically through 18 total chapters also) in non-con and Interracial Love (neither a wildly popular category), I’ve gained another 1000 followers.

I will write in Loving Wives at some point because I like the category, and while the feedback can be toxic at times, it is a pretty popular category from which I’d like to capture new readers. But that is probably the last category I will venture into. I would prefer to be known as a good author in the few categories I focus on. As Simon Doom pointed out, when you write successful stories, you’ll get more Popular Story tags at the end of other authors works. Those are the kind of things that will keep people looking at your works and increase your popularity even when you aren’t putting out new content.

 

[stickygirl]

I write for a variety of reasons, but primarily because I enjoy it!
~snip
One other piece of advice I would give is if you are going to write multi-chapter stories, be consistent in the category across most if not all the chapters. When I wrote and published my first story series “UCLA To Big D”, I failed to realize ahead of time that readers didn’t all have the same kinks as me. I wrote in 5 different categories across the first five chapters. So when chapter 3 published in Lesbian Sex, I thought to myself, “Wait till the fans in this category read this, they’re going to love it!” But what I hadn’t considered was the readers in that category weren’t all that interested in “chapter 3” of a story they had no familiarity with.

Yups. I did this with a recent series, swapping across three categories because I was being honest about the content. I write for the emotional narrative rather than the sexual one, so Lit probably isn't the best site for that.
An earlier series was 100% trans and it's been popular mostly because of its main character was consistent in her orientation.

Too bad.

 

[gordo12]

So...

I see a few people approaching this very scientifically, very deliberately as if it were a business.

Given that we are not getting paid for any of this, that literotica is 100% free, and undoubtedly primarily a labor of love for the owner, I am curious as to what the motivation is for such a businesslike approach?

Does that make it more fun?

Is this a training platform for subsequent for-profit enterprises?

Are people building an audience here with the plan of transitioning that audience to paid writing elsewhere, or something similar, e.g., patreon?

I am too new to be thinking seriously along those lines, but of course it has all crossed my mind.

It's a training ground for sure.

I have around 20x followers for stories. It used to be 15x, but "Homeless," which I deliberately dropped on Christmas because I couldn't get it out for the winter contest, produced an astonishing 50% increase in followers and a flood of fav stories and author. Tugging the old heartstrings.

I ask for comments, votes & favs. Additionally, I now include a link at the end of each story to lead them to the next story I want them to read.

I'm about to launch two books out into the marketplace, and if you can't attract them in to drink the cool-aid...you'll never do much in the way of sales.

Many good writers fail the translation to selling because they're afraid to ask or have no networking skills.

If you want it to be a business, you have to treat it like a business.

 

[gordo12]

If you write for followers and scores, it's not difficult to follow the formula: one fuck a page and don't mix genre. Pricks are always huge unless its a humiliation story, vaginas are always dripping egg-white unless its an incest or virginity one. If you can weave a meaningful plot into that, you'll be a star.

Dang, how come I never get those memos?

 

[lovecraft68]

It's a training ground for sure. If you want it to be a business, you have to treat it like a business.

Yes to both statements. Also selling is like lit, you're only as good as your last story and you don't put up something new on a regular basis everything tanks.

Homeless stories strike chords with people.

My second most successful story here is "Home is where the heart is" about a down on his luck young man pan handling on street corners.

 

[lovecraft68]

Because I have OCD with numbers I had to look.

I have 112.651 times followers vs stories.

However, to back my point I made in the previous post, if you slow down so does that number. The majority of my followers came between end of 2011 when I finished my long running hardly read SWB series to 2017 when I started posting new work only occasionally.

You lose ground quick, at one point I was over 1k ahead of heyall on the top list, but since the little shit is so prolific and I'm not, he's now past me by a few hundred and I'm not going to drop a bunch of stories to catch him. More power to him, he deserves it and my priorities have changed.

What have you done for me lately is a good motto for lit readership.

 

[TadOverdon]

If you write for followers and scores, it's not difficult to follow the formula: one fuck a page and don't mix genre. Pricks are always huge unless its a humiliation story, vaginas are always dripping egg-white unless its an incest or virginity one. If you can weave a meaningful plot into that, you'll be a star.

It helps to have a passport to the country Samuel R. Delany described in writing about one of his novels:

Its action takes place in Pornotopia—that is, the land where any situation can become rampantly sexual under the least increase in the pressure of attention. Like its sister lands, Comedia and Tragedia, this means it can only be but so realistic.

He didn't coin the term. As far as I know, it was invented or popularized by an academic writing about Victorian pornography.

 

[FifthEstate]

Secondary question to this discussion: Do you think authors gain more followers from single chapter stories or multiple? Why?

 

[ElectricBlue]

Secondary question to this discussion: Do you think authors gain more followers from single chapter stories or multiple? Why?

So far as I can recall my own numbers over several years, my chaptered stories probably pick up more followers.

Why? I'm guessing because the stories are longer, readers invest in the characters and get to know them, like or dislike them, and overall, there are more permutations of sex. I'm just guessing though, guided by the number of times I've been asked, "Will there be more?"

 

[SimonDoom]

Secondary question to this discussion: Do you think authors gain more followers from single chapter stories or multiple? Why?

It depends. In general, a standalone story will get more readers than a separately published chapter of a story. But if you keep publishing more chapters, you'll get more readers, and some of them will go back to the first chapter and start from the beginning. So by publishing a series you draw more interest to your story over more time. That way you can get more followers. I picked up more followers in 2017 when I was publishing a lot more and publishing an ongoing series. I haven't picked up as many followers in any year since.

But in general I'd say if you want to pick up followers it's better to publish 10 separate stories than to publish 10 separate chapters of a single story.

 

[Jay142]

I write mostly as a hobby and I enjoy it. I've tried to write in several different categories to expand my writing ability and because it also gets boring and stale to keep writing over and over again in the same categories. Everyone wants their stories to be liked and read and I'm no different.

Sometimes I feel my writing has gotten repetitive so I've gone to the Story Ideas board for new ideas and I also enjoy writing stories for other people. That can have the benefit of them sending you pictures of their wives. Those tend to be men wanting me to write stories about sharing their wives which is one of my favorite. Their plot ideas and suggestions help make it a better story also which I have found, make it more popular.

To make a long story short, I write what I like and hope others agree.

 

[JanusGoneAwry]

I'm still a fledgling on this site and consequently, I notice everything, score, views, favorites, comments, and follows. I suspect that this preoccupation will settle down over time.

That having been said I write the stories that are in my head and that please me. I think that somewhere I realize that writing what I enjoy and appreciating that there are readers here on Lit who enjoy my stuff is probably the surest path to happiness here.

Now I've got to go and check out the vitals of my "On The Job" entry for the 101st time...

 

[TadOverdon]

So...

I see a few people approaching this very scientifically, very deliberately as if it were a business.

Given that we are not getting paid for any of this, that literotica is 100% free, and undoubtedly primarily a labor of love for the owner, I am curious as to what the motivation is for such a businesslike approach?

Most of what I'll post here I also offer for sale, elsewhere. So nowadays I do it with that in mind as well.

 

[LAHomedog]

As I said when I originally poised this question it is something I hadn't thought about before, and now I've learned it is a vast universe made up of lots of thoughts, opinions, strategies, and discussion.

So, I'm adding this: Since my story was published as part of the "On The Job" event I have picked up 7 followers.

As folks have been saying, submitting to contests and stories helps that number if that is what you are seeking.

 

[8letters]

My biggest piece of advice:
Give your stories titles that make people want to click on them. If they don't click on them, they won't read them. And if they don't read them, then they aren't going to favorite you.

I graphed my number of followers by week since 10/14/19, and it's a close to a steady slope of 10-11 followers a week. When I published the one story I published in that time, I got 63 followers the week it was published, ~20 a week for the next six weeks, and then back down to 10-11 followers a week.

I think the big reason I have a steady inflow of followers is that I have two highly-rated stories with very click-bait-y titles. They pull in new readers, and a lot of those readers follow me.