Bad at advertising my stories

[Darla_Darling]

I lack the knack for advertising my stories. I don't seem to have had a great many views. I was reading some of the suggestions in another thread saying perhaps I should put the words "virgin" or "slut" in the blurbs! (I suppose that's a start!)

Does anyone else have any helpful ideas?

Here is my most recent attempt. I would like to enter it into the Halloween short story contest, but it hasn't received any votes yet:

http://english.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=222098

I would be most grateful if you would take a look and give me your feedback.

 

[CopyCarver]

I lack the knack for advertising my stories. I don't seem to have had a great many views. I was reading some of the suggestions in another thread saying perhaps I should put the words "virgin" or "slut" in the blurbs! (I suppose that's a start!)

Does anyone else have any helpful ideas?

Here is my most recent attempt. I would like to enter it into the Halloween short story contest, but it hasn't received any votes yet:

http://english.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=222098

I would be most grateful if you would take a look and give me your feedback.

Vox populi has spoken, once at least.

Story tags probably would help a lot, since people have to find your stories before they can read them. The trick is not merely describing the story accurately, but doing it in terms that prospective readers are likely to use when they hit the search engine.

You're on the right track by posting on the boards. Even if you don't get tremendously helpoful suggestions, you'll build some name recognition. Lit has so many stories by so many authors that readers need some yardstick to choose what to read; often, the decision revolves around a story title or author name that rings a bell.

Keep writing; the readers will find you.

 

[Darla_Darling]

That is some very sound advice. Thank you. Sometimes it is difficult to condense one's story down into a series of "Keywords", but of course it makes sense that people are going to search for tales that appeal to their own personal fetishes/tastes. I will definitely be putting more thought into the story tags in the future, as well as the description. Also, I think that it's important to have an opening paragraph that grabs the reader's attention, as I admit that I myself will often open up a story and skim just the first couple of paras to see if I'm interested!

 

[CopyCarver]

Yep

Right on. It's axiomatic in commercial publishing that the title is the frosting that sells the cake and that the first two graphs are what determines whether the "customer" eats or merely nibbles.

 

[Boratus]

a good description

I've noticed that a good description can greatly increase your readership, and by good I mean something that hints that it will be a hot, dirty story. Your current description "The carnival was in town for one night only" will not entice many readers. No offence, but it wouldn't even entice people if it was a non-erotic story. There's no hook. Some like "She must give her body to save her sister" or "A virgin's dream comes true ... at a price" would work better. You just have to make sure you don't over-advertise or you'll get knocked down in the ratings by annoyed readers who expected something different.

 

[M-Y-Erotica]

describe but dont ruin story

I had a really hard time coming up with the description for my first story "A Gift of Tea" "After work excitement, she tries phone sex. "

http://english.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=219311

The problem was that I explicitly didn't want to reveal where it was headed, because I felt if I ruined that little surprise, then the whole first half of the story was wasted. But then my final result pretty much would only interest people into phone sex, which limits the audience. This was a hard call for me.

 

[Darla_Darling]

Thanks Boratus. I agree with you about my description, now that I look back over it.

Thanks for leaving feedback on my story, as well. Of course, it hurt my pride a little to see that my tale was less than perfect, but your criticisms were well thought out and useful. Now that I've seen what people have to say about my story, I see so many things that I would have done differently!

 

[Boratus]

Now that I've seen what people have to say about my story, I see so many things that I would have done differently!

You know you can always edit it and resubmit. It's not like it's been up for a year or you're already at chapter 8.

 

[Darla_Darling]

You know you can always edit it and resubmit. It's not like it's been up for a year or you're already at chapter 8.

Really? We're allowed to do that? Since I've submitted it into the Halloween Contest, would that be a problem? I think I'll look into doing that, actually.

[Edit: I didn't realize how easy it was! I just went to the FAQ and it told me how. Thanks for all your advice Boratus. I think I <i>will</i> change the description to something like "Girl sacrifices virginity for sister" or something of the like!]

 

[Adam Rightmann]

I liked it

Darla,

I liked it, perhaps you could go for a more mysterious description too, something like "A virgin gives up her gifts, and gets a greater gift back."

The story was great, too, nice pacing in the act.

Thanks,

Adam

 

[Darla_Darling]

Thanks, guys!

After a great deal of constructive criticism, I was able to smooth out some of the rough edges of my story, and the revised version is up there now. I tried to change the "description", but for some reason they kept the original. Thanks for everyone who made suggestions for how I could improve the tale, especially Boratus.

There were a few rather negative feedback comments that I deleted after I reposted the story because I didn't want the old feedback to affect the rating. I felt a little guilty for doing that, but I figured it applied to the old version of the story anyway.

 

[Boratus]

After a great deal of constructive criticism, I was able to smooth out some of the rough edges of my story, and the revised version is up there now. I tried to change the "description", but for some reason they kept the original. Thanks for everyone who made suggestions for how I could improve the tale, especially Boratus.

You're welcome, Darla. I just re-read it and the extras with Madame Szabo made a huge difference to the flow of the story. I also like the slight change you made at the end. Great job! Looking forward to more from you.

Oh, and you should see what you can do about getting that description changed or you will not get nearly as many reads as you should.

B.

 

[Darla_Darling]

You're welcome, Darla. I just re-read it and the extras with Madame Szabo made a huge difference to the flow of the story. I also like the slight change you made at the end. Great job! Looking forward to more from you.

Oh, and you should see what you can do about getting that description changed or you will not get nearly as many reads as you should.

B.

Thanks Boratus. I've changed the title now so it says, "Foolish wish at a carnival cost her virginity." Hopefully that will be more enticing to Literotica patrons!