Stories that cross over categories

[rimaday]

My stories tend to be in the gay/lesbian submissive categories and do quite well. But I have several with chapters that cross over.

For example; I currently have a series were the first few chapters clearly fell into the gay category depicting a husband being manipulated into gay sex with a dominant male.

The latest chapter involves the dominant male meeting the wife of the man from the first chapters and her succumbing to him on her own. There were no depictions of any gay sex in the chapter, just the interaction of the wife and the Dom Male. I put it in the loving wives category (who's description includes extra marital sex.) with an intro stating it was a stand-alone story, but a chapter in a series that began in the gay category. I described the content and advised the reader if this was not for them, please find another story.

There were no depictions of gay sex or activity at all, but I got several one bombs stating it should be in the gay category. It clearly doesn't belong in the gay category, so I am confused how to avoid being one bombed, by people who obviously never read it and scream wrong category.

Any suggestions on handling stories that cross categories like this?
Thanks

 

[KeithD]

I think it best to put all chapters of a series in a single category (and to take a good look at your work to ensure that it all serves the category you're writing to). You're offering it as one story and presumably hoping the reader will read all of the chapters. If not, you should consider doing them as related standalones. A publisher would probably say (because publishers have told me this) if most of work is gay/lesbian, all chapters should reflect this--everything should serve the central story. That doesn't mean every chapter needs to include gay/lesbian sex. If you go off in an unrelated tangent in a chapter, you probably should be doing this as a separate work.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

The general reference for this sort of question is Love Your Readers, by Tex Tall Tales, but yours is definitely a curious one. One problem of course, is that LW tends to be a scorpion pit WRT votes, comments and trolling. One-bombs and vitriolic comments are kind of standard.

 

[stickygirl]

I stand to be corrected but there's no reason you have to stick with one category for a series. My last series crossed from Trans to Lesbian and so long as you request a link, ie Ch03 - Ch04, then readers will be forewarned about the general story content and avoid, if they're squicked by either, or follow the series if they're not.

You can further qualify content with a short introduction to each story, which I suspect people are more likely to read than <tags>

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I stand to be corrected but there's no reason you have to stick with one category for a series. My last series crossed from Trans to Lesbian and so long as you request a link, ie Ch03 - Ch04, then readers will be forewarned about the general story content and avoid, if they're squicked by either, or follow the series if they're not.

You can further qualify content with a short introduction to each story, which I suspect people are more likely to read than <tags>

For a series, different categories can make sense. For chapter stories, I would tend to agree with Keith.

The problem with many writers (and IMO it IS a problem), is they are so impatient to get something posted that they give up their story vision (if they ever actually had one). As Keith mentioned, "everything should serve the central story", but posting as you write typically defeats the ability to remain true to that concept.

When what happens in chapter six conflicts with what has already been posted in the first five chapters (such as the category the story should be in), the writer is screwed, and so are the readers. Follow these three simple steps for chapter stories:

1. Write complete story
2. Edit complete story
3. Publish complete story

 

[ElectricBlue]

I put it in the loving wives category (who's description includes extra marital sex.) with an intro stating it was a stand-alone story, but a chapter in a series that began in the gay category. I described the content and advised the reader if this was not for them, please find another story.

There's the mistake. Any category but that one. If in doubt, next time, use Erotic Couplings for less drama.

The problem you now have - it will take a very long time to get a category change (resubmit the chapter, same title plus the word EDIT, ask for the category to be changed), so the damage is done and the vitriol will continue.

 

[Imstillfun]

I have one multi chapter story. 11 chapters. It crossed into four different categories. People followed the story from category to category
It received high views high scores and high favorites in each category

 

[KeithD]

I have one multi chapter story. 11 chapters. It crossed into four different categories. People followed the story from category to category
It received high views high scores and high favorites in each category

Was one of the categories gay or lesbian or trans? That's the case with the OP's example.

 

[Imstillfun]

Was one of the categories gay or lesbian or trans? That's the case with the OP's example.

No, but one of the chapters contains a purely lesbian love scene Actually the main focus of the chapter .. No one complained.

the chapters include group, E/v, and I/T.
sny time you go into LW without a. BTB story expect1* bombers.

 

[jaykaythree]

I've written only one multi-part series so far, and it was intercategorical -- FT, FT, Romance (in that order). The two FTs have red Hs, and the Romance is a 4.48. Not too shabby, if i do say so myself.

 

[Duleigh]

Mean comments can be deleted, abusive comments can be reported, one bombs can be swept, all three can be avoided by putting every chapter in Novels and Novellas - trolls don't like having to search for something to hate

 

[jaykaythree]

Mean comments can be deleted, abusive comments can be reported, one bombs can be swept, all three can be avoided by putting every chapter in Novels and Novellas - trolls don't like having to search for something to hate

One bombs can be swept?

I've heard of that, but don't know how -- please tell me; I'm not Dr Crane, but I am listening.

 

[ElectricBlue]

One bombs can be swept?

I've heard of that, but don't know how -- please tell me; I'm not Dr Crane, but I am listening.

The site doesn't encourage speculation as to how the sweep process works, for obvious reasons. Suffice to say, it does. Any suspect vote (ones or fives, or in between, it doesn't matter), can be stripped from the vote tally and the score adjusted.

Sweeps are regular, more frequent during contests, and go through the whole story file. Your story doesn't have to be in a contest to get swept - we all get the broom.

 

[PennameWombat]

One bombs can be swept?

I've heard of that, but don't know how -- please tell me; I'm not Dr Crane, but I am listening.

Define ‘one bomb’ though. The site runs ’sweeps’ that remove what it considers through methods not disclosed votes it believes are ‘invalid’ (or ‘bomb’ or whatever you want to call them) votes. But, while my stories have had ‘one’ votes (aka, ’one bombs’) disappear, I’ve also had ‘four’ and ‘five’ votes disappear… So… in a couple of cases the site believed someone ‘five bombed’ my story.

And keep in mind, a ‘one’ is a valid vote. Just because someone gave your story such a rating doesn’t mean that makes it ’invalid’ (or ‘suspect’ or whatever.) The site runs sweeps when they feel like it, but will always run one before determining a contest winner. Other than that, I’ve read on the forum here that you can ask Laurel via PM for one, but I’ve never done so.

 

[Imstillfun]

Define ‘one bomb’ though. The site runs ’sweeps’ that remove what it considers through methods not disclosed votes it believes are ‘invalid’ (or ‘bomb’ or whatever you want to call them) votes. But, while my stories have had ‘one’ votes (aka, ’one bombs’) disappear, I’ve also had ‘four’ and ‘five’ votes disappear… So… in a couple of cases the site believed someone ‘five bombed’ my story.

And keep in mind, a ‘one’ is a valid vote. Just because someone gave your story such a rating doesn’t mean that makes it ’invalid’ (or ‘suspect’ or whatever.) The site runs sweeps when they feel like it, but will always run one before determining a contest winner. Other than that, I’ve read on the forum here that you can ask Laurel via PM for one, but I’ve never done so.

When I first started writing in LW you could see my scores get 1* bombed, then a few days later they’d be back up. I assumed this was because of sweeps. With my stories I have a faction that just goes in and 1* bombs. As soon as they’re published.

I once had 7 stories in the LW hall of fame. Someone mentioned this in a comment. Within a week they were all below hall of fame level.

i don’t know what metrics they use but I assume my stories have too many voters to be swept.

 

[Duleigh]

One bombs can be swept?

I've heard of that, but don't know how -- please tell me; I'm not Dr Crane, but I am listening.

I believe that a Sweep is based on logic, imagine you're a shooter or archer and you get one round 'way outside of the intended area of the target, and you end up with 9 holes inside the "ten ring" and one way outside sitting in the "one ring" My theory is that the logic driven sweep mechanism comes by and "sweeps" that one bad shot away and that bad hole in the target is no longer averaged in with the other 9 shots.

Same with scoring our stories, if you get "swept" you'll see your vote tally drop by one and you'll see your score rise. On the other hand, if all your scores are 1s and 2s the sweep can just as easily take that one 5 that you had because the majority of the scores are one. The sweep is looking for the outlier.

 

[HopelessDreams]

The sweep is looking for the outlier.

I've sometimes had non-outlier scores swept away by the system. My guess is that sweeps are based on that particular reader's overall pattern of voting. Maybe if they often give outlier votes (especially 1-bombs), then all their votes get removed, even the higher ones.

For example, let's say a reader comes to my story and concludes from my note at the top that they'll probably hate it, but they choose to read it anyway so that they can leave a troll comment detailing everything that they hate about it. But then when they reach the surprise twist toward the end, they decide that they actually love it, so they leave a 5-star vote when they finish it. My guess is that this vote has a higher likelihood of getting swept away if that reader has a pattern of reading stories that they expect to hate and then 1-bombing them. The initial intent to troll my story was there, and that reader was not the story's main, target audience anyway (even if most of its other votes are also 5-stars, but for other, more legit reasons).

I also wonder if the system detects when people skip to the last page without reading what's in between, and removes votes from the people who do that.

 

[ElectricBlue]

i don’t know what metrics they use but I assume my stories have too many voters to be swept.

Or the removal of a couple of votes is inconsequential to the maths. If you have huge voting numbers, one or two votes won't change the maths much, given the answer is rounded to two decimal places.

 

[Imstillfun]

Or the removal of a couple of votes is inconsequential to the maths. If you have huge voting numbers, one or two votes won't change the maths much, given the answer is rounded to two decimal places.

when I first started, before I had a following, I could tell they swept my stories. Now that I get lots of votes I don’t think they bother.

 

[SimonDoom]

when I first started, before I had a following, I could tell they swept my stories. Now that I get lots of votes I don’t think they bother.

The problem with this is it assumes that they're picking and choosing which authors to sweep. I find that hard to believe without evidence. It would be extremely problematic if true. I suspect they have a sweep system and when sweeps happen they happen to everybody equally. I have a lot of votes and followers and I see the results of sweeps from time to time, although the scores for stories that have been around a long time don't budge much.

 

[TheRedChamber]

I believe that a Sweep is based on logic, imagine you're a shooter or archer and you get one round 'way outside of the intended area of the target, and you end up with 9 holes inside the "ten ring" and one way outside sitting in the "one ring" My theory is that the logic driven sweep mechanism comes by and "sweeps" that one bad shot away and that bad hole in the target is no longer averaged in with the other 9 shots.

Same with scoring our stories, if you get "swept" you'll see your vote tally drop by one and you'll see your score rise. On the other hand, if all your scores are 1s and 2s the sweep can just as easily take that one 5 that you had because the majority of the scores are one. The sweep is looking for the outlier.

Shh, we're not suppose to speculate...but I'm not sure that's quite it. I've always supposed that the system is looking for 'bad faith' votes rather than just outliers. If an accound only ever votes 1s, but is coming to the site regularly, that would be a good reasons to sweep. As would be low votes coming in so fast that the user couldn't possibly have read all the stories.

 

[ElectricBlue]

when I first started, before I had a following, I could tell they swept my stories. Now that I get lots of votes I don’t think they bother.

I'd say it's an algorithm that runs through the whole story file, everybody's stories. Why would they select anyone with different criteria? That's just a complication (as Simon says).

Software is software, it doesn't care. It just does the maths.

 

[ScottieDog61Redux]

Fascinating discussion, all. I work in accounting and finance, and have several things I do to qualify customers for credit. At no point do I speak to the customer; per policy, only Sales and the branch do so. We make the process a 'black box' so that customers and the branches can't "game the system" to have someone unworthy get a credit limit.

Looks like it's a similar approach here.

 

[AchtungNight]

I just lock out votes entirely on my stories. Sweeping is a process that confuses me, I don’t know every reader’s criteria for votes either. It makes more sense to me to just post the stories and let them be. Not every hot story here has a big shiny “H” in my opinion. I like hidden gems.