Advice on Categorizing Story?

[sillypanda]

Hello everyone!

I came to Lit months ago when, on a whim, I wrote up a fantasy for a friend and submitted it one night, and in the morning it had posted - eek!

You of the Authors thread were incredibly supportive and welcoming - thank you so much!

Now, some 8 months later, I am finally finalizing my second story.

It's far more in depth and the characters will continue for a few chapters (hopefully not 9 months apart lol).

However, I don't know how to categorize it... it could fall under a few different categories:

- Erotic Couplings (a good catchall)
- First Time (it's one of the character's first time - not to worry, everyone's of age)
- Mature (there's a bit over a decade between the characters)
- Novellas (because it will have several chapters - I have 5 plotted out, the first currently at 33 Word pages and counting, with ideas for 4 more, but unoutlined)

Is there a benefit / detriment to putting a story in one category versus another? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you very much!

 

[jdnunyer]

My attitude is to pick the category that has the most potential to offend people. Just about everything on here is Erotic Couplings, in a sense. But I think people expect that to mean Erotic Couplings Which Don't Include Anything Objectionable.

Doesn't sound like you've got anything too outside the mainstream, but mature might be the best bet.

A lot of people write chaptered stories without posting them under novellas. Seems that the readers of most categories are open to that.

 

[PennLady]

Any reason it couldn't go under Romance? That can cover a broad range of things. I've done romances that contain first time experiences, for example, and one with an age difference that I didn't think quite was enough to go under mature. So there's a lot of room there.

 

[sillypanda]

Thank you very much for your advice!

I don't anticipate the story offending anyone really lol... but later chapters might... hmm...

xD

I may read some Mature stories and see if it would fit the category well.

Thanks again!

 

[sr71plt]

What's being emphasized the most? If their age difference and one is over 40, then Mature might be a good category because the readers tend to be welcoming there. Are you making a big deal out of it being the first time for one or more of them, then First Time would be fine. Erotic Coupling is a catchall and Novels/Novellas is good for chaptered stories that cover a lot of categories.

 

[sillypanda]

Ahh, Romance is a category I hadn't even considered - thank you very much! I'll read some in there as well. Thanks again!

 

[sillypanda]

Excellent points Habu - thank you very much! Really different things are emphasized in different chapters... can a serial story skip around? Or better to stick to one category?

Thank you again!

And thank you all for the prompt responses - I thought it would take a while to get some advice! Now I feel like an even lazier writer.

 

[sr71plt]

Excellent points Habu - thank you very much! Really different things are emphasized in different chapters... can a serial story skip around? Or better to stick to one category?

I put one serial that skipped around as chaptered entries in the Novel/Novella category. Another one that skipped around I didn't submit as chapters, but as related stories with a common slug title followed by a title element that put them in alphabetic order--and went ahead and marked them for different categories.

 

[TE999]

I would say 'Erotic Couplings'. A singular occurrence (First Time) or a time line (Mature/Maturation) are presumably not the primary focus of the story. Could this story be categorized as a 'Romance'?

 

[Darkniciad]

A decade is a little short for the sweet zone in Mature, where around 15 years of gap works better.

If it's a multi-chapter story that doesn't end with the first time sex ( or at least running through all the firsts ) then that probably doesn't fit.

As long as it's 1on1, EC would work, though the catch-all nature of the category generally hurts readership numbers. N&N is a bit of a reader desert.

If Romance applies, then that's a good option. Decent view and vote numbers, not too many trolls, and none of the content you're suggesting would be unusual or unwelcome there.

Multi-category stories ( at least those labeled with chapter numbers ) tend to not perform as well as single category stories.

 

[sillypanda]

Thank you both so much for your insight! I apologize for the delayed reply.

I really appreciate everyone's feedback! I think I may wait until I have more chapters written and see where they appear to lead, then post several at once.

Thanks again!