Category Question

Agreed. It's a very chill category, slanted to E more than V.

Funny you mention that, because most of my EV stories lean heavy on the Exhibition side, although there also has to be a voyeur to view it, right?

The one story I wrote that leaned more heavily towards the voyeur side, telling it from his viewpoint, did well, but looking back at it, slightly off from my others.

So there may be something to that.
 
1) Non-con/blackmail or any trickery that causes someone to engage in sex that they wouldn't have consented to if they know the truth goes over badly in most categories.
2) Incest gives people the heebie jeebies when it appears outside that specific category.

Anal: Anal should be the centerpiece of the story and the readers will be quite accepting. There are also a lot of them. Easily just below the highest readership categories ( Incest, LW, Mature )
Exhibitionist & Voyeur: Middling readership. Hit the kink and they're fairly friendly. More into exhibition than voyeurism.
Fetish: Hard to get noticed because it's such a wide-ranging set of kinks that are usually on the edge. Don't do what 90% of the writers seem to do and obscure what kink you're writing about in the title and description. Advertise what you're selling and you're more likely to find an audience.
First time: The readers are there for virgins' first time — not the first time someone does X or Y. Female virgins attract far more attention.
Gay Male: Because the content is so viciously shunned in most other categories, the readership is more tolerant than many other categories. So long as you're writing M/M sex, they're okay with you exploring other kinks as well. Also has a fairly large readership who seem particularly loyal when they find an author they like.
Group Sex: Middling readership, and one of the few places where M/M is at least slightly tolerated outside of Gay Male. Drive-by readers pull the scores down with 4s quite a bit.
Humor & Satire: Low readership and hard to please. Humor is too subjective.
Incest & Taboo: Largest readership on the site. Blood relatives from the nuclear family are king. Ranging farther down the family tree or into step/in-law can have less impressive results, and sometimes complaints about it not being real incest. Non-con is particularly frowned upon, and anal can often get you in hot water.
Interracial: Middling readership, and enough hate-readers wearing sheets/intersectional cancellers to depress scoring.
Lesbian Sex: The polar opposite of Gay Male. F/F is accepted virtually everywhere, so the gatekeeping in LS is strong. If there's a penis that isn't plastic lurking anywhere, you're asking for trouble. That includes one attached to the author. Most of the big numbers go to women writing in the category. Whether that's bias or men failing to portray women correctly is up for debate. Probably the latter in most cases.
Mature: Large readership with May/Dec. couplings as king. Friendly to both smut and romance, but a well-done romance more likely to pull both views and high votes.
Non-Human: Low to middling readership, but can be particularly loyal when they find an author they like. Heed content warnings better than many categories. Accepting of a lot of kinks. Not nearly as hostile to M/M, Non-con or Incest as most 'real world' categories. Prefer long, world-building stories. Willing to stay for a story with minimal sex.
Novels & Novellas: Low readership. Also a grab-bag like EC, with readers that are similarly tolerant of kinks.
Romance: Middling readership, but quite friendly when you're actually providing romance. It's more about the chase/emotion than the sex. Going overboard with the naughty scenes or ranging too far into kink often doesn't go over well. Perfectly happy with limited/no sex when the story provides the emotion they're looking for.
Sci-Fi&Fantasy: See Non-Human. Reasonable place to put things like pseudo-historical fiction that have no fantastic elements. Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, etc.
Toys & Masturbation: Low readership, and a lot of drive-by 4s depress scores.
Excellent - should be pinned.
 
Apologies if this has been asked before. I did a search and didn't find what I was looking for so I'm asking...

I keep reading that the Loving Wives category is famous for being very tough/harsh on feedback.

In your experiences as writers, which would be the opposite of that? Which categories would you say were the most welcoming/ appreciative/ generous when it came towards feedback?

Respectfully, I am not looking for "Write for yourself" advice. I want to grow as a writer and the feedback is encouraging to me. If I can fit a story into a category that would offer that, that would be great (much like trying to write for a challenge.)

Thanks in advance.
I have found Novels and Novellas to be rich for feedback and most of it is positive/constructive. I attribute this to the feedback coming from people who stuck with a story they liked, and having invested the time to read a longer story, they are more compelled to comment on it.

The readership is lower in this category since those readers interested in the erotic portion of the site name are not as numerous as those readers focused on the literature part of the site name.

There are also far fewer writers contributing to the category because it favors more of a commitment to plot and character development over a sustained period than many have the patience for, or they want their stories placed in more specific "kink" categories instead.
 
Lesbians are super friendly as long as the story doesn't turn into one of those lesbians suddenly thirsting for cock type stories or other male gazey stuff like that👍
Romance and pure smut both do well there otherwise.

FYI I'm not saying you can't write lesbian suddenly wanting the D type story. Just don't put it in lesbian and expect a great response.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top