A couple of questions for Authors - Clicks or Score

[massageaddict]

So, I'm new to posting stories, and have been blessed that one of my stories is sitting at #2 today in most read for the last 30 days.

It was just a story that wasn't premeditated, but written as it flowed. I've since added a couple of followups to the story.

First question, do you guys write for clicks or for score? A story that I have spent a lot of time on has 5% of the clicks of the story that I spent a couple of hours writing on a theme that just popped into my head one day.

Second question, is it better to have a longer story in one post, or multiple posts?

Seems like with the followup stories the clicks drop off dramatically.

Thanks

 

[Emirus]

If you add a link to your stories in your signature it would be very helpful. Not just for now but for any future posts.

 

[oggbashan]

Q1 Clicks or Score?

Answer - neither. Just to get the story out of my head.

Q2. Multiple chapters or a longer story?

Answer - personal choice. There are perceived advantages to both. Whatever you feel like writing.

 

[LexxRuthless]

Q1: Clicks or Score? I always hope to get both, but my focus when I'm writing is just trying to make the story as good as I can manage. Sometimes you have a story idea that you just know will get the clicks, and you hope you write it well enough that it also gets a decent score.

Q2: Long standalone story or series / multiple chapters? A standalone story will always get more views, particularly short-term. Subsequent chapters will usually get fewer and fewer views. However, over the course of months or years those individual chapters will all accumulate more views as new readers discover your series. Those subsequent chapters will usually have higher scores as well. Some readers on the site love a good, long story with multiple chapters and room for growth. Most readers won't invest the time, and won't bother to read "Chapter 3" or later of any series. It helps if you have both. More readers will take the time to read your standalone work, and if they like it they are more likely to give your series a try.

 

[Enchantment_of_Nyx]

Clicks (views) only mean that somebody opened it. If someone reads the first few sentences and decides not to read the rest, it's still a click. Number of votes gives you a number of people that (hopefully) read it, but I think only a small percentage of people who read a story vote for it. I don't think there's any metric available just to tell you how many people read it.

I don't write for either the number of views or the score. Of the two, the score is much more meaningful to me. I do like having a good score, but having a good score is not as important to me as having a story I'm proud of. I'm much more motivated by the comments and private feedback I receive. That tells me a lot more about how people feel about the story.

I think it's worth keeping in mind that when readers vote, their vote may be based more on the subject matter than on how well the story is told. If a reader gives you a high vote, it's probably safe to assume they liked the type of story and the writing. If they give you a low score there's just no way to know whether it was because they didn't like what the story was about or that they didn't like the way you wrote it.

 

[EmpressV]

"Everything's made up and the points don't matter." Write to please yourself.

 

[SimonDoom]

So, I'm new to posting stories, and have been blessed that one of my stories is sitting at #2 today in most read for the last 30 days.

It was just a story that wasn't premeditated, but written as it flowed. I've since added a couple of followups to the story.

First question, do you guys write for clicks or for score? A story that I have spent a lot of time on has 5% of the clicks of the story that I spent a couple of hours writing on a theme that just popped into my head one day.

Second question, is it better to have a longer story in one post, or multiple posts?

Seems like with the followup stories the clicks drop off dramatically.

Thanks

A few thoughts:

1. Please keep in mind there's no one way to do this. You can have whatever goals you want. Nobody's goals are any "better" than anyone else's. Do what gives you satisfaction, not what you think conforms to the norm.

2. I write a) to write stories I want to write, b) to get better at it, and c) to get eyeballs on my stories. I want people to read them, and especially want to reach whatever audience will most appreciate them.

3. As a consequence, "clicks" (i.e., views) are more important to me than scores. High scores are nice because they'll tend to be more visible and get more views, but the score numbers are influenced by so many factors that often they have little to do with quality and do not mean much in and of themselves. That said, it's nice to get a high score. I do not "write" my story to maximize clicks, but when I submit it for publication, I tailor the category selection, title, tags, tagline to maximize eyeballs on my story.

4. View numbers are hugely influenced by category. I checked out your stories. You published a few in incest, a few in other categories. Incest has far more readers than any other category, so you cannot compare incest stories with other stories and make any inferences about quality or relative reader approval

5. Re chapters v. standalone story: There's been endless discussion of this. 8Letters has compiled some data on this question and posted in in previous threads at this forum, which you can find by searching for his name and the thread title "stats." Basically:

a. Chapter stories get considerable attrition from chapter to chapter, especially after the first chapter. It's not uncommon for chapter 2 to have half the views of chapter 1, or fewer.

b. It appears that there are many readers who do not click on chapter stories. Nearly all the most viewed stories of all time are standalone stories. You'll find few first chapters on the list. That's interesting.

c. There is some data indicating that you will get the most views and highest score if your story is around 8000 to 20,000 words. That's longish by most short story standards. Very short stories -- under one Literotica page (3750 words) -- tend not to do as well.

d. If the story is quite long, that's a different ball of wax. But if it's under 30,000 words I think you're generally better off publishing it as a single standalone story.

e. The advantage of publishing in chapters is each time you publish a chapter you draw new attention to the story as a whole. But if this factor outweighed the attrition factor, you would expect to see more Chapter 1s at the top of the all time most viewed list, and you don't.

f. It's true that knowing the number of views does not tell you how many people have read your story, but it DOES give you an idea how readership of your story stacks up with readership of other stories, because view:vote ratios, while they vary a lot, show enough stability across authors, stories, and categories that we can make some inferences about how stories stack up relative to others, reader-wise. The more views you get, generally speaking, the more of everything else you are going to get: votes, comments, favorites, etc. It stands to reason that means more reads, as well. High views do NOT correlate strongly with high scores, however.

 

[Voboy]

I like high scores and red Hs, but that's not why I write. I write the stories I'd like to read, and that's really the only criterion.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

If you want lots of views, enter a themed contest. Alternatively ensure you have story tags that people who might like your story will be looking for.

If you want a red H, either write.competently what many people want to read, or go for something a bit different which rapidly puts off people who don't like it, so they don't get to the end and vote.

I'm experimenting with posting a novel-length story a chapter every few days, with a few chapters in a different category. I might have got happier readers in Novels & Novellas, but fewer of them. One chapter has a red H so far so I'm content.

At some point I will have to write another novel to test the alter8 posting strategy...

 

[ElectricBlue]

I use Votes and Scores as a fair way of ranking my own stories against each other but not against the next writer. I don't crave Views and therefore have only dabbled in I&T, and at last count I have stories in thirteen or fourteen categories so I wander down many corridors and am an expert in none. My conclusion, therefore, is I write what I want to write, and my readers have found me.

I've written long stories and published in one go, I've published on the run; written short stories and long. There are strengths and weaknesses in doing all of those things, none is "better" than the other, but have different effects.

Comments are the best feedback of all, but they're so very rare - I guess I'm being read more by readers, not writers; so in the absence of scores, there's not much to get by way of feedback. Views tell me someone clicked in on a page, but without unpacking stats from chaptered stories, there's no way for sure to know when they clicked out.

 

[litfan10]

Lit writing is strictly for me for fun, absolutely no other reason.

That being said, of course my stories are my babies. I hope the world will love them, but I don't obsess or even ultimately care. I just let them exist.

I'm a retired writer, all pressure is off. I don't use editors; I don't stress; there are no deadlines.

I just let my long time companion, my muse, take me where she will, and I'm just going to enjoy the ride.

 

[KeithD]

If I was happy enough with it to submit it, I'm happy enough with however well it is received here. Receiving lower than anticipated anything--views/scores/comments--might make me reassess my original view of the story, which is to the good, but the readership here is so large, so uncontrolled, and so varied that I don't let any of those results control what I write. If I was happy enough with it to submit it (and in my case, it was probably written a year or more ago and already has been through the marketplace, so it isn't exactly a great current concern), that's good enough for me.

One submission or by chapters is discussed here regularly and has been fully discussed in the last couple of weeks. If I have the time to take, I'll go back and find a link. Those interested could easily find a recent exhaustive discussion of that here themselves, though, by reading in on the discussion board.

 

[SyleusSnow]

Comments and messages.

Having a score cross the red H threshold results in more reads, but the number of comments, emails and PMs tells me the story has affected readers enough to make the effort to communicate.

Even if the communication is "Hated it. Never write again."

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I write for me. Simple as that. I write what I would like to read. If other like it, good. But clicks and scores don't mean much to me. Comments, meh. I do delete ones that are either attacking another reader or me personally or spam.

 

[Salacious_Scribe]

I have a boring sex life, infrequent and vanilla. I am never going to have a threesome or partake in an orgy or bondage.

My stories are a way for me to deal with my sexual frustration, and experience things my wife will not do.

I measure success by getting the story posted.

I look at Views and Votes while a story is new, after that I glance at them but don't obsess. I strictly look at Fav and Votes.

All my stores, except 3, are 4+. Of the three stories that scored low...
one is LW which always scores low unless you "burn the bitch"
one is short-under 1K words.
one is a transcript of an erotic chat between two friends of mine. I put it in lesbian. Would have a higher score but fewer views in letters & transcripts.

About 50% of my stories have a HOT rating. A few are on the cusp.

I don't even glance on views. That metric is meaningless. There is no way to see how much they red. Could be one sentence or the whole story.

 

[lovecraft68]

Especially when you're new there is no way to predict anything. Even people who have been here for years and have a good feel for what works in the various categories can be surprised by either a story flopping or taking of soaring when there seemed to be nothing especially good or bad about it.

Its best to just write the story that comes to you and everything else falls into place as you'll build a fan base.

There are categories that have bigger readerships than others, but if you start forcing yourself to write where the numbers our you're doing your muse a disservice

 

[PennameWombat]

So, I'm new to posting stories, and have been blessed that one of my stories is sitting at #2 today in most read for the last 30 days.

It was just a story that wasn't premeditated, but written as it flowed. I've since added a couple of followups to the story.

Congrats. Sometimes overthinking it can interfere with creation.

First question, do you guys write for clicks or for score? A story that I have spent a lot of time on has 5% of the clicks of the story that I spent a couple of hours writing on a theme that just popped into my head one day.

Second question, is it better to have a longer story in one post, or multiple posts?

Seems like with the followup stories the clicks drop off dramatically.

Thanks

Last first. I did a story I released in three parts. The viewership dropped off by 50% from chapter 1 to 2, but chapter 3 has viewer numbers slightly higher than chapter 2 . But both around 50% of chapter 1. That said, all three are 'Hot' (over 4.5 rating with 10+ votes) and I'm very happy with that series because it told the story I wanted to tell and from the only ways I can measure readers enjoyed the overall story.

But yes, viewership does drop with 'serials'. But. To agree with others here, the readers who stick around stay because they like the work. I have consistent ratings across chapters, although later ones don't always get the 'H' because not enough votes.

I'll also agree with the points on story length. Most of mine are 15,000-30,000, whether stand-alone or as chapters. Interestingly, one of my shorter stories (about half of a Lit page, 1700 words) has lots of Favorites but never broken the 4.5 rating barrier. But I released one work in SF&F as a single, 70,000 word story and it's done fine (currently just over 4.5 with the 'H'.) It just read better (in my head) as a single narrative instead of multiple chapters.

I've mentioned the 'H' (Hot) multiple times. Yes, I like those. But from the aspect that readers seem to enjoy my work, not because I aim for them. I couldn't tell you the magic words to include to get the 'H'.

I don't get paid for writing here. Well, not in cash. I do it to get stories out of my brain and so long as I'm writing, let's try to do sensual and yeah, sometimes down and dirty sexual stories. I do it to work on the craft of writing. I've done lots of software, technical writing and the like but never until recently focused on creative writing.

I write in the categories I enjoy, E&V, SF&F, Erotic Horror, with forays into Group, Fetish and EC. I don't have much interest in I&T or NonCon or LW. Oddly, my stories have lots of anal sex in them but I've never considered posting in Anal because my universe(s) just see it as a part of regular heterosexual sex life. They're my universes, my rules

I do want people to enjoy my work. I work at making my stories work as stories beyond the sexual aspects. I don't get many comments so all I can go on are the views, favorites and ratings. But those are side effects of telling the stories I want to tell.

 

[SisterJezabel]

"Everything's made up and the points don't matter." Write to please yourself.

This is a good one to go by and it just reminds me how hot Wayne Brady is!

 

[gunhilltrain]

This is a good one to go by and it just reminds me how hot Wayne Brady is!

Oh, you mean the actor. For a second I thought there was a character on The Brady Bunch named Wayne (like the older son), but my memory failed me. He was actually Greg. This all proves how old I am.

I do notice the number of clicks or views. If ten percent or even five percent actually read it, that's still a considerable number.

 

[Omenainen]

I write for me. Simple as that. I write what I would like to read. If other like it, good.

That was my thought exactly when I started publishing here. Now it’s much the same, but I suppose if nobody read my stories or nobody liked them I wouldn’t continue publishing them. I would keep writing, but probably not the same stories. At least now I’ve written stories that I wouldn’t have written if I wasn’t publishing here. Everything affects everything.

 

[Emirus]

First question, do you guys write for clicks or for score?

I have no idea the number of views any of my stories have received so when the discussions in respect of ratio of votes to views comes up it’s not something I’m bothered about.

It’s obvious I’m interested in how many votes each story gets and the score, particularly if it’s in the magic red zone. Anyone who tells you they aren’t bothered whether or not they have that little red icon by their story is lying.

My main reason for writing is to put my imagination into a form of words I like to read and hopefully so do some others.

 

[PennameWombat]

I have no idea the number of views any of my stories have received so when the discussions in respect of ratio of votes to views comes up it’s not something I’m bothered about.

Your author dashboard ("Works") will show you the number of views for each story, right between the count of Favorites and your average rating. If you open the story in the Beta "new reader format" it'll show the number of views when you're on the first page. You can also sort by Views (see 'Sort by' line.)

Note that Views counts everyone who clicked on the story, whether they read any of it or half or all. I've always had mixed thoughts about "Opened" and "Finished" counts because it might be depressing how many people didn't finish. That's why we sometimes debate "Views" vs. "Votes" since we assume that most Voters actually completed the story.

It’s obvious I’m interested in how many votes each story gets and the score, particularly if it’s in the magic red zone. Anyone who tells you they aren’t bothered whether or not they have that little red icon by their story is lying.

Agreed. I like having the red 'H'. Stories that don't have it are ones where I analyse what I could've done differently. In some cases I conclude the story I wanted to tell is just confronting or otherwise challenging or possibly just poorly written. But one of my stories which is a personal favorite (City of Angels) has never broken 4.5. A couple of others were just not that well written, didn't quite gel in my head but it's a learning experience so I posted anyway.

My main reason for writing is to put my imagination into a form of words I like to read and hopefully so do some others.

This. Echo this.

 

[Emirus]

Your author dashboard ("Works") will show you the number of views for each story, right between the count of Favorites and your average rating. If you open the story in the Beta "new reader format" it'll show the number of views when you're on the first page. You can also sort by Views (see 'Sort by' line.)

Note that Views counts everyone who clicked on the story, whether they read any of it or half or all. I've always had mixed thoughts about "Opened" and "Finished" counts because it might be depressing how many people didn't finish. That's why we sometimes debate "Views" vs. "Votes" since we assume that most Voters actually completed the story.



Agreed. I like having the red 'H'. Stories that don't have it are ones where I analyse what I could've done differently. In some cases I conclude the story I wanted to tell is just confronting or otherwise challenging or possibly just poorly written. But one of my stories which is a personal favorite (City of Angels) has never broken 4.5. A couple of others were just not that well written, didn't quite gel in my head but it's a learning experience so I posted anyway.



This. Echo this.

Thank you for taking the time to compose your comment. I’m aware of everything you say and it’s probably down to my not explaining myself fully why you took the trouble to detail everything. What I should have said was when looking at the information all I’m concerned with is the score, the number of votes and any comments.

My eyes skip over the views as I think they are unimportant because they’re not an accurate record of who has actually read the story and although it’s nice to see someone has favourited a story when you check many times you find they have favourited a multitude of stories.

I’m now in my third year of submitting stories and although there aren’t many that’s by choice (or maybe not) because I’m lazy. So many ideas but not the inclination to sit down and get them done.

 

[Enchantment_of_Nyx]

Your author dashboard ("Works") will show you the number of views for each story...

How did you attach an image? That doesn't look like a regular link.

 

[PennameWombat]

Thank you for taking the time to compose your comment. I’m aware of everything you say and it’s probably down to my not explaining myself fully why you took the trouble to detail everything. What I should have said was when looking at the information all I’m concerned with is the score, the number of votes and any comments.

My eyes skip over the views as I think they are unimportant because they’re not an accurate record of who has actually read the story and although it’s nice to see someone has favourited a story when you check many times you find they have favourited a multitude of stories.

No worries. I think we're in agreement on what the current Views mean. I just took you at your word but no worries, it might help some of the newer authors who chance by to understand. Never a waste if it helps someone.

I’m now in my third year of submitting stories and although there aren’t many that’s by choice (or maybe not) because I’m lazy. So many ideas but not the inclination to sit down and get them done.

I've taken over a year to get four (out of many planned) chapters in a serial out, so I'm not the one to throw "write more!" stones (Literally, chapter 1 posted 6/6/19 and chapter 4 posted 6/5/20!)