The Official Authors' Hangout Summer Lovin' 2024 Contest Support Thread

[Morevinila]

I always put a disclaimer at the beginning, just so there’s no doubt that all characters are 18+.

I did - it still didn't work - according to my editor, it's because things happen in the story with two characters who are childhood friends. We had to clear all confusion that they are childhood friends but nothing sexual happened between them before they were 18. There never was anyway but just rewriting some sentences that might give that impression if read too quickly.
It got there in the end: Impromptu Sex Beach Party.

 

[Voboy]

Are we experiencing the "sweep"?

I've gotten more votes in the past 24 hours than I have in the past week...

Lol, if we are, my score is behaving differently from every other sweep for years.

I am moving in ENTIRELY the wrong direction at the moment.

 

[forgotmyantidepressants]

Lol, if we are, my score is behaving differently from every other sweep for years.

I am moving in ENTIRELY the wrong direction at the moment.

Me too lol! I'm not really sure what happened

 

[Duleigh]

Mine cratered for kind of the opposite reason - which is what I thought LW was about - i.e. wives with other men. What I got was a bunch of puritan comments about cheating - maybe I misunderstood ?

Whatever, I write what my brain needs me to write and I don't care if people don't like it

Actually I entered a Husband/Wife romance story just to troll the LW trolls. It worked so good! I could just see them with their mouse in one hand and a kleenex in the other saying, "They're married? To each other? EWWWW!"

 

[MelissaBaby]

Lol, if we are, my score is behaving differently from every other sweep for years.

I am moving in ENTIRELY the wrong direction at the moment.

Mine has dropped as well. It may be that there is a one bomb campaign going on....

...which is why Laurel does sweeps.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

Mine has dropped as well. It may be that there is a one bomb campaign going on....

I'm hoping that's what it is, but I'm not sure why they would be bombing mine. It has enough votes that the sweep probably won't help it much, though hopefully that will eventually get it back up to where it was last week before this latest round of apparent bombing started.

 

[Northstar4695]

Yeah, my story dropped by .26 in a day after being constant for a week and despite little new engagement otherwise. I’m humble enough to believe there are people out there who just don’t like my story, but it seems a little suspicious.

 

[nicksouth]

Lol, if we are, my score is behaving differently from every other sweep for years.

I am moving in ENTIRELY the wrong direction at the moment.

Uh-oh. Me too. Not a lot but a bit. Whatever. Haha. It's kind of a silly scoring system anyway where it seems like # of total votes doesn't matter at all?

 

[MelissaBaby]

Uh-oh. Me too. Not a lot but a bit. Whatever. Haha. It's kind of a silly scoring system anyway where it seems like # of total votes doesn't matter at all?

If total votes mattered, only stories in the most popular categories would be competitive.

 

[gordo12]

Indeed. They were all upset that the wife pre-meditated having sex with two other guys - with and in front of her husband, and I got a lot of moralizing. Weird

I also got more votes in one day than all but one of my other stories in total, so make of it what you will I guess. It definitely isn't a story for everyone but no need to be rude - yeah ?

It's Loving Wives and they're almost always rude. Go read some of the threads on LW if you want a sample.

 

[gordo12]

Lol, if we are, my score is behaving differently from every other sweep for years.

I am moving in ENTIRELY the wrong direction at the moment.

Mine too. Since last night, it's dropped 3 points. Considering the number of votes that's unrealistic! Gotta be a troll party.

 

[Voboy]

Yeah, this is a more pronounced and widespread scoring change than I can remember recently. Interesting.

 

[Trionyx]

Though I don’t claim my Summer submission is anywhere near my best, I don’t feel it is my worst, but the score sure is my lowest by far. I do, however, see decent scores on some of the other stories so any heavy duty downvoting is not hitting everyone.

Last Screw of Summer

 

[TheLobster]

I, too, had something like .02 drop. Perhaps it is a sweep, but the votes being caught in it are the fives...

 

[mrs_mackenzie]

Mine has lost a bit over the past few days but it's hard to know whether it's deliberate or just bad luck.

 

[Wineandcheese]

My Summer Lovin’ story now has the most views, votes, and favorites of any of my stories. There’s only five others, so it’s not a huge deal, but at 4.64, I’m very happy. I won’t win the contest, but I’ve got some victories anyway.

 

[forgotmyantidepressants]

My Summer Lovin’ story now has the most views, votes, and favorites of any of my stories. There’s only five others, so it’s not a huge deal, but at 4.64, I’m very happy. I won’t win the contest, but I’ve got some victories anyway.

Me too. I'm very happy with how everything has worked out. I'm calling it a "personal victory".

 

[Jorunn]

Wine and Forgot - Don't forget that the fruits of your labour, began with the quality of your labour! You both wrote wonderful stories for this contest.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Me too. I'm very happy with how everything has worked out. I'm calling it a "personal victory".

My outlook on contests is that some people may win a little bit more than others, but nobody loses. You might not get a prize, but you will get increased exposure to new readers, which is worth more in the long run.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

<Snip> You might not get a prize, but you will get increased exposure to new readers, which is worth more in the long run.

That's the key in my mind. A number of my older stories receive additional, often positive, attention as a result of entering new stories in contests or challenges. Between the reads of the new story and the older works, there are often some new followers added that can help on future stories.

 

[yowser]

So looks like the list is complete, here are the Lovin' stats:

146 stories (more than last year) from 119 writers.

8 authors had double entries, 5 with more than that, including one overachiever with 9.

22 Categories Represented.

21 in IT
16 in EC
15 in Group Sex
14 in Romance
13 in Lesbian
11 in LW and EV
8 First Time
6 in Mature
5 in Non-Con
4 in Trans/Crossdress, and Illustrated
3 in Gay Male
2 in BDSM, Fetish, Interracial, Humor, and Novels (!)
1 each in Anal, Mind Control, Sci-Fi and Non Human

There's your summer reading list.

 

[OffNSFW]

2 in BDSM, Fetish, Interracial, Humor, and Novels (!)

Hey, that's me!

 

[nicksouth]

If total votes mattered, only stories in the most popular categories would be competitive.

Not saying it should be just total but some kind of weighting - in a low traffic category, just a few 5 votes could win. But yes not just total votes for sure

 

[FreyaGersemi]

The official rules state that "a story has only to accrue 25 votes to be eligible" for the contest. Although that may not quite offset the idea that a few 5-Star votes could skew the contest, it does help to even the playing field. Also, how many votes do the winning stories usually get? I would guess a few hundred?

But the bottom line is that we're all having fun!!

 

[Morevinila]

My outlook on contests is that some people may win a little bit more than others, but nobody loses. You might not get a prize, but you will get increased exposure to new readers, which is worth more in the long run.

You're right - what matters is to get more readers but also some (constructive) comments. From what I gather some of you are getting nasty comments just because of the plot, not the way the story is written. Too bad. Fortunately it happens only in LW (at least I hope so). I have some stories in mind, some partly written about LW but I'm not sure I'll post them or at least not in LW if comments are personal.