Anyone around back then?

[BobbyBrandt]

This is an image for the Literotica Book on Amazon.

This is an image of the second book on Amazon:


I'm curious if anyone who was around on Literotica at the time knows how these compilations of stories occurred. Who decided which stories to include and which authors to select for participation?

 

[ronde]

I was here but had just started writing. As far as I know, the idea was Laurel's, probably to generate some income. Literotica was a little different then as there were no ads and no paid content. The stories were selected from those on the site at the time. I'm not sure how the stories were selected unless they were selected by the editor, Lori Selke.

 

[TxRad]

I was around for the second but know nothing about it. As far as I remember, none of it went through the AH. I don't even remember any of the names associated with it.

 

[KeithD]

I was around for the second one but heard nothing then about it being put together or how stories were selected.

I edited anthologies like that for a mainstream website twenty years and would be happy to do that again for Lit., if Laurel wanted to put one together. Probably even could get my publisher to publish it. I think it would be a site enhancement. To be marketable, it would need to be category-specific, though. A group here tried doing anthologies a few years ago, but included a full range of kinks in the books--and they didn't sell well on Amazon.

A possibility would be a series of category anthologies based on site-sponsored contest placings for X years. One problem would be, though, that stories that have been winning lately are too long for anthology treatment.

 

[THROBBS]

hmmm...
That's interesting.
I was involved (illustrating)-(had a different user name back then) with another LIT anthology,
Coming Together: An Erotic Cocktail (edited by Alissa Brio).
It was first published in 2005. I know there were subsequent editions, some you can find on line.
Literotica is mentioned in the dedication, as all the authors had published here.

Found my original copies of Vol1 and 2.
(many more of my illustrations in vol 1 and just 1 in vol 2)



Found a link to the original thread which started that one>
https://forum.literotica.com/threads/ah-anthology.331419/

and more details (the link that is in the first post)
https://forum.literotica.com/threads/coming-together-an-erotic-cocktail.389076/

Basically it was print on demand initially. There are a bunch of options to do that. If someone is very ambitious they could put together a collection(s).


Obviously, today, there would likely be no illustrations, or only slick looking AI imagery.
I think subsequent editions dropped the illustrations.

For that matter, the stories could all be AI. No need for authors OR illustrators.

I get the idea of not having illustrations — one can be more surreptitious while reading.

I have had in the works for a long time a collection of my own erotic drawings, plus caption and background thoughts. I don't think there would be any customers, but I'd like a couple copies for myself.
Attached is a crude mock-up of a cover concept (not A.I.), and some thumbnails from when I was assembling the content.

 

[SimonDoom]

I was around for the second one but heard nothing then about it being put together or how stories were selected.

I edited anthologies like that for a mainstream website twenty years and would be happy to do that again for Lit., if Laurel wanted to put one together. Probably even could get my publisher to publish it. I think it would be a site enhancement. To be marketable, it would need to be category-specific, though. A group here tried doing anthologies a few years ago, but included a full range of kinks in the books--and they didn't sell well on Amazon.

A possibility would be a series of category anthologies based on site-sponsored contest placings for X years. One problem would be, though, that stories that have been winning lately are too long for anthology treatment.

I'm curious if you think, based on your experience, that the intolerance for kink variety is greater than it used to be. Are readers more ensconced in their particular kinks, with less appetite for others, than they were before?

My sense is that it has changed, but I didn't start writing until 2016.

 

[KeithD]

I'm curious if you think, based on your experience, that the intolerance for kink variety is greater than it used to be. Are readers more ensconced in their particular kinks, with less appetite for others, than they were before?

My sense is that it has changed, but I didn't start writing until 2016.

I don't think readers interested in straight erotica are going to lay out money for anthologies that also include several GM and lesbian stories.

 

[lovecraft68]

I don't think readers interested in straight erotica are going to lay out money for anthologies that also include several GM and lesbian stories.

You're right, the market seems to be getting more niche driven. Even within a kink, if there's subsets they don't go over that well either. I did a few taboo anthologies, and the ones all with the same 'pairings' did okay, but ones where I'd drop a mom/son sib, dad/daughter mix didn't do half as well.