A few questions about the site

[FreeLove_]

Hello all, so, here I am.

I started writing erotica back in March really not expecting much but was quickly surprised when my stories became quite popular on Wattpad - gaining 170,000 hits on one and 20,000 on a 2nd book posted only 3 weeks ago. They well, obviously due to their content, got removed and a large number of my fans suggested this site. So here I am.

Question is, how do you build up a fanbase here - how does a story from someone new to the site get noticed? Are there avenues I need to take? I mean I can tell people who fanned my Wattpad account to move over here - but getting people to change websites is like trying to move a parked bus - a pain in the ass.

Basically - how does a newbie whore themselves around and get noticed?

and how much traffic does the site get, fans motivated me to get this far in my writing and I feel without the nagging "update" or thousands of reads I'd lose my drive to write. I want to say i wouldn't but I probably would - yes I admit it, I'm an attention whore when it comes to my writing.

I have a 50,000 word completed book and about 12,000 from a second - do you need to post complete texts (I'm assuming not) or can I continue to add chapters - also once a book is published does it still have that 3 day to a week waiting time on updates (ie new chapters)?

sorry for so many questions, I like to know everything I can before jumping into a new site with my writing. I learned the ropes of wattpad pretty quick and I hope to do the same here for my more, Adult exclusive, content.

*EDIT* oh, if you're wondering - link to my now dead account: http://www.wattpad.com/user/FreeLove I'm of course losing fans now lol, guess when all the books are gone people leave fast. but still a good number...

 

[sun_sea_sky]

According to WolframAlpha the site gets around 10 million daily page views with 890,000 daily visitors.

I don't know about building a fanbase, personally I've just been uploading stories and hoping for the best. With no particular action on my part I have had some stories favourited, and myself as an author favourited by a handful of people.

You can see from stats on various stories (eg. recent ones, popular ones) the sort of views you might expect. I suggest something like 10,000 views would not be abnormal, and some popular stories seem to reach 1.5 million views.

 

[FreeLove_]

I was going for the gold lol, I really wanted 1 million views XD it was averaging 3,000-6,000 a day before it got killed. Sad day.

 

[bashfullyshameless]

How to get noticed and build up a fanbase varies significantly depending on your genre.

Across all genres, things like grammar and mechanics are of great importance. Having a consistent narrative and all that is also important... but I gotta tell you, we all know that we're here looking for erotica/smut/porn of varying tastes, so "realism" is a very relative thing. Again, though, those mechanics are extremely important in separating the wheat from the chaff. I'm pretty sure at least a third of my good fortune on this site comes from being able to write clearly and properly, just like we were all taught in school.

Be patient with your comments. There are trolls on this site. There are commenters who are simply tactless. Do not get defensive. Do not respond to anything that feels like an attack; delete it if you wish (you have that power), but don't get into a pissing contest with some anonymous person on the internet.

As for the rest?

I can tell you that in sci-fi/fantasy, readers expect an internally consistent setting and plot, regardless of how crazy it might actually be. My impression is that the "nonhuman" category is the same way, though I've read very little of it.

I can tell you that there are readers who will get upset anytime a female character finds more than one male sex partner. She can sleep with as many women as the author likes; the guys can sleep with however many women they want; but the second a female character beds more than one male in a story, regardless of context, you WILL anger some readers.

Also: if you've got a big book and you can break it up into chapters, I highly recommend submitting it as such. If you put in multiple chapters (or stories) in one given night, then the first one will post within about 72 hours and the rest will post in a daily sequence. It's a good way to maintain visibility, and there are a lot of readers who like to read serials.

And finally, welcome to the Authors' Hangout. Remember that the "ignore" function is your friend. There are a couple of trolls here. You'll be able to identify them soon enough. Set them on ignore and live a happy life without them.

Good luck.

 

[FreeLove_]

thank you bashfullyshameless, I'm no newbie to writing erotica or to the online scene - I had the story posted on another writing site that took it down, close to 200,000 hits from March - but yeah, there really were not any trolls there since the site wasn't designed for erotica and anything that was erotica was gladly accepted - I see since everything here is erotic people can afford to be trolls and picky.

Yes the book I have in mind is sci-fi fantasy... so no chapters don't post all at once but daily. Mmmm I have 31 chapters I have broken up, having them post daily like that will keep my content on the "new" list and hell, having the site post 1 chapter a day saves me the time of posting the chapters up.

What about incomplete content, normally I would write then post what I wrote that day or a day later, how would that work for a longer book (serial)? would there be a 3 day delay on every new chapter? (ie should I plan for that when posting new chapters?)

and how long do readers expect to wait for new chapters - like is it common for people to write entire books and post all chapters then have them come out daily or is it more common to see weekly or bi-weekly updates?