Are the Literotica readers representative?

[NotWise]

Representative of the purchasing public, I mean.

I get the impression that a lot of Lit readers may skim through stories to get to the juicy bits and miss out on everything else. It makes me wonder how much of the time spent on characters and setting and plot is wasted.

Someone who actually buys a story -- rather than getting it for free here -- may be more inclined to reading all the words. Could stories that get a "meh" reaction here be better accepted by the purchasing public?

 

[lovecraft68]

I think people who pay want the entire story. Then again strokers sell well, just like they get a lot of read here.

But I don't think if you write an actual story its a waste just because a bunch of one handed types skimmed the plot to find the sex. If even a handful read it all, its worth it to me.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

Representative of the purchasing public, I mean.

No. People who pay money expect quality. People here largely don't.

I get the impression that a lot of Lit readers may skim through stories to get to the juicy bits and miss out on everything else. It makes me wonder how much of the time spent on characters and setting and plot is wasted.

There's another thread on this topic nearby. The current upshot of it is that there's a small percentage of readers who gravitate towards actual plot and characters, and a larger group that just want to get off and don't care about much else if they get their fetished prodded.

I write for the smaller group and have made friends there. So I don't consider my time wasted.

 

[sr71plt]

Let's see, with over 150 e-books in the marketplace, my observation is that the raunchier the e-books are slugged as, the more they sell.

This continued insistence by Lit. forum posters that more people, free readers and buyers alike, want literary reads as opposed to stroke material anywhere seems wishful thinking by some posters to the forum. I'm not pushing the stroke material; I write as many literary ones as strokers, but I can clearly see where most of the profit is coming from in the areas in which I write (and, yes, I have lots of straight books in the marketplace too).

 

[HeyAll]

Naturally, if someone pays for something, they're more willing to read it.

It makes perfect sense that a lot of Lit readers are skimmers. After all, there are tons of stories, and many are flat out terrible.

IMO, by far, Incest has the most amount of skimmers.

As far as spending time creating characters & plot, I definitely think it's worth it. After all, those kinds of stories get higher scores & more favs & more comments (usually). So that should tell you something.

Just look at the different reactions that short jerk off story gets compared to a story driven piece. People here actually want to read it.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

All depends on how interesting the filler material is.

 

[Handley_Page]

No. People who pay money expect quality. People here largely don't.

I write for the smaller group and have made friends there. So I don't consider my time wasted.

If you really have a look at some of the "purchasable" erotic literature to be found, for example, at some Motorway services or even Airports, you're not going to see good literature, IMO.

 

[Carnal_Flower]

This is the big myth of this site, yet to be substantiated.

I've not found it to be true.

My first Incest story was six chapters of a long corporate intrigue saga set in the south with a big cast of characters and plot galore. One chapter had no sex at all (the highest rated.) It is just as highly rated as my one lone "stroker" two pager. I see it all the time. Incest readers, which I know the best, go nuts for "actual plot and characters," since they get so little of it.

In regards to your own work, yes you may have plot and character, yet, you also flesh out a niche in Non-Con and other themes of Submission, which you obviously know well. Maybe your know-how with a Fetish is part of it, too. It's not like you leap around from genre to genre writing great story after great story in any old subject.

People are looking for hot. If you write a phenomenal story that's not hot, that's a problem. "Hot" doesn't mean "meaningless fetish stroker." It's that attitude which leads a lot of people to not connect with this audience.

There's another thread on this topic nearby. The current upshot of it is that there's a small percentage of readers who gravitate towards actual plot and characters, and a larger group that just want to get off and don't care about much else if they get their fetished prodded.

I write for the smaller group and have made friends there. So I don't consider my time wasted.

 

[sr71plt]

After all, those kinds of stories get higher scores & more favs & more comments (usually). So that should tell you something.

There now, there it is again. I haven't seen evidence that that's true. This is that wishful thinking by a certain number of posters to the forum I posted about, I think.

Statistical evidence, please.

 

[lovecraft68]

There now, there it is again. I haven't seen evidence that that's true. This is that wishful thinking by a certain number of posters to the forum I posted about, I think.

Statistical evidence, please.

I'm sure there is statistical evidence on both sides. I could show you some lights out numbers on long story driven pieces, but someone else can come along and show those same numbers for a 'stroker'

I think author fan base factors as well because the regulars will read it because of the name.

Here's numbers for the only flat out incest stroker I've done.

Mom Likes Porn Too! Joey loves mother son porn... and so does his mother!
4.54 2500 211450 Incest/Taboo (English) 07/24/15 approved
Public Comments: 45

I can say the story had about as much substance as the title and tag let on

Now the numbers. The vote total is pretty damn good. The views as well, but...the comments? 45 is a little lower than I've seen for some of my other stories. But the score is what stands out.

That is about .22 less than my average mother /son because a lot of my 'fans' voted lower because they weren't happy with me doing a stroke piece. If you look through the comments some come right out and say it.

But...flip side? How many of those votes were readers who checked it out because it had a stroky title and was only 2 pages? How many new readers did I get? Answer, who knows?

Point? There's no use really discussing what does and does not work here because its impossible to compare and pin anything down by a set formula, way to varied of a readership and way to many variables period.

 

[HeyAll]

Originally Posted by HeyAll View Post
After all, those kinds of stories get higher scores & more favs & more comments (usually). So that should tell you something.

There now, there it is again. I haven't seen evidence that that's true. This is that wishful thinking by a certain number of posters to the forum I posted about, I think.

Statistical evidence, please.

Every Hall of Fame for each category, are from very long stories. Same with the Top List for each category.

 

[TxRad]

Every Hall of Fame for each category, are from very long stories. Same with the Top List for each category.

Are those top stories chapters or standalone?

 

[lovecraft68]

Are those top stories chapters or standalone?

At this point that's close to rhetorical.

 

[TxRad]

At this point that's close to rhetorical.

If they are chapters then Heyall's point has no bearing on the discussion.

 

[lovecraft68]

If they are chapters then Heyall's point has no bearing on the discussion.

I agree, my point was chapter stories dominate many of the top lists and its discussed all the time.

 

[LadyVer]

Representative of the purchasing public, I mean.

I get the impression that a lot of Lit readers may skim through stories to get to the juicy bits and miss out on everything else. It makes me wonder how much of the time spent on characters and setting and plot is wasted.

Someone who actually buys a story -- rather than getting it for free here -- may be more inclined to reading all the words. Could stories that get a "meh" reaction here be better accepted by the purchasing public?

I'm more accepting of a story on Lit that has developmental and mechanics issues. Would I buy a story that hasn't much of a plot, hasn't been edited for developmental and mechanical issues, and the cover makes me want to cringe? No.

 

[JackLuis]

Let's see, with over 150 e-books in the marketplace, my observation is that the raunchier the e-books are slugged as, the more they sell.
<snip>

With maybe fifty stories/chapters on Lit, I found the slug attracts the readers more than the title. Since I write chapters series mostly the slug is what differentiates the chapters and slugs with "Fuck, Suck", or other key words causes a lot of readers to jump chapters.

I put up a re-edited version of my longest series and grouped 4-6 chapters into seven about 40K word Sagas and found that several sagas had a lot more reads/views than sagas with less "attractive" slugs. I'm still collecting data for analysis, I gather Scores, Votes and Views every day for the seven sagas hoping to learn something about what sells (or attracts readers) to a story. I am going to collect data for 30 days and see what happens for the seven Sagas.

Since this is Novels & Novellas the votes and views are a lot lower than Incest, LW or some more popular niches. I have gotten about 60 favourite hearts since launching the sagas but I think it is just a way to bookmark these long winded strokers.