Can a series change categories?

[LifePilgrim]

My first story was Long Term Lovers in the fetish category. It's the story of a couple in which the woman's view of her husband's penis evolves. The fetish was the husband's erection. I've written a continuation of that story, but this next chapter could also stand alone, b/c of the background that I put in the beginning. But the next chapter fits better in the mature category, b/c the guy begins a relationship & affair w/ a young woman, a woman young enough to be his daughter. So far, I have 88 paragraphs with 5,950 words -which is either one long chapter or 2 chapters. What I'm wondering is: Can a series change categories & still remain a series? Seems like I should start a new story in Mature. Please advice.

 

[jaykaythree]

I've done it that way ... I have a series called The Light And The Fire, a three-parter. Chapters 1 and 2 are in First Time; Chapter 3 is in Romance.

But that's just one example of many of this site, where one chapter is in one category, and others are in different ones. So have at it.

 

[MsNatalie99]

I'd be cautious doing it, and making sure to tag carefully. Personally I don't see anything wrong with a series branching over multiple categories, but some readers might. For example if you wrote a story in which boy meets girl, and in the next one same boy has a steamy encounter with her father. The strictly straight readers from part 1 may feel a disservice from part 2. I don't necessarily think that this should dissuade you from doing it, just something to keep in mind. I personally enjoy reading stories within a wide variety of categories, even if I can't invest myself in it's erotic portions.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I've done it that way ... I have a series called The Light And The Fire, a three-parter. Chapters 1 and 2 are in First Time; Chapter 3 is in Romance.

But that's just one example of many of this site, where one chapter is in one category, and others are in different ones. So have at it.

It's hard not to do it. Ideally, everything would be in one category. But if you have the trajectory of a love affair, the first chapter is probably going to be in Romance or First Time. If there is a breakup at the end, then - well, readers in Romance may call you out on that. They might say put in Non-erotic, although sometimes it won't do too well there either. I guess breakups are a downer for many people.

It's probably easier if the whole thing is in Lesbian or Gay Male if that's what it's about. It's conceivable that it could all be in BDSM, if that is what the participants are mostly interested in doing.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Category bounce is problematic, I think, because many category readers only want to read their favourite category content, and very often the stats show they don't read the whole story, which does your story a disservice.

These days I'm more inclined to submit individual stories tailored to the particular category; or category be damned, and I don't care if I give readers squick shock, I put the story into its major erotic thematic category - and the nervous nellies can either back out or jump over those nasty "I don't like that" sex scenes.

That is, pander completely, or don't pander at all.

The satisfaction you get though, when a reader says, "But I didn't really like that," but keeps reading anyway, AND leaves a comment, is, well, very satisfying. It means your writing got them in, and kept them in.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

My first story was Long Term Lovers in the fetish category. It's the story of a couple in which the woman's view of her husband's penis evolves. The fetish was the husband's erection. I've written a continuation of that story, but this next chapter could also stand alone, b/c of the background that I put in the beginning. But the next chapter fits better in the mature category, b/c the guy begins a relationship & affair w/ a young woman, a woman young enough to be his daughter. So far, I have 88 paragraphs with 5,950 words -which is either one long chapter or 2 chapters. What I'm wondering is: Can a series change categories & still remain a series? Seems like I should start a new story in Mature. Please advice.

I've seen it done with several categories, even going from humour to erotic couplings, to ski-fi to non-consent.

The only time I think it's hard to get out of a certain category is erotic Horror. I mean if your setting for multi-chapters is a zombie apocalypse you're hardly gonna wind up veering between that and loving wives are you?

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Remarkably few readers seem to care about series. If the title, tagline or tags have lured them in, they won't care if it's Ch.07, and however much they enjoy that, they won't go to Ch.01 or ch.08 if it doesn't have an equally attractive description.

Even within the same category, I've had recently chapters 3, 4 and 5 of Educating Laura in Group Sex, and ch.5 has twice the views of ch.4 which has 1/3 of Ch.3 - it's a bit of a climax, but shows most readers don't care about reading stuff in order. I did a 14-chapter series, 11 in GM, three in EC. After the first, the tagline for the chapter was important - needs to mention sex, I guess.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Personally, as a reader, I avoid stories that change categories, but that's just me.

There are plenty of "general interest" type categories that would support a change in the erotic theme from chapter to chapter. I post in those and accept that the occasional reader may be disappointed in one chapter or another, but it's the sum of the whole that I focus upon.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Remarkably few readers seem to care about series. If the title, tagline or tags have lured them in, they won't care if it's Ch.07, and however much they enjoy that, they won't go to Ch.01 or ch.08 if it doesn't have an equally attractive description.

Even within the same category, I've had recently chapters 3, 4 and 5 of Educating Laura in Group Sex, and ch.5 has twice the views of ch.4 which has 1/3 of Ch.3 - it's a bit of a climax, but shows most readers don't care about reading stuff in order. I did a 14-chapter series, 11 in GM, three in EC. After the first, the tagline for the chapter was important - needs to mention sex, I guess.

Which, when you think about it, is a tad insulting to authors - readers not really giving a fuck about the overall story.

This is why you should never pander to readers' whims, unless said readers show some respect, or even regard, to your efforts to write stories. Some do, obviously, and they're the followers worth having.

 

[LifePilgrim]

Thanks for your thoughts & help. I'm leaning toward starting something new in the mature category.

 

[GrushaVashnadze]

I am relatively new to Literotica, but it seems that categories matter a great deal to a certain brand of reader here, far more than on Certain Other Sites.

However, my Alison Goes to London is a novel, driven by the characters, their development arcs, and their interactions, within the context of the futuristic sexually dysfunctional world in which they live. Though it contains a heck of a lot of very filthy sex, it is, at rock bottom, about love, friendship, race, societal control, identity, truth - and there are no "categories" for that! So I am switching categories with impunity, from "anal" to "group sex" to "fetish" to "lesbian" to "romance"; the readers that matter to me, and who really appreciate the story for what it is, will, I hope, not mind that.

 

[intim8]

"There are plenty of "general interest" type categories that would support a change in the erotic theme from chapter to chapter. I post in those and accept that the occasional reader may be disappointed in one chapter or another, but it's the sum of the whole that I focus upon."

What are those? I have a multi chapter story working and am trying to figure out how to categorize it. I like E&V both because it seems to be a bit of a catch-all for stories that have any element of sex or nudity that isn't stricly private, and because it seems to be the category that does the best job of challenging societal norms about sex generally (as opposed to specific orientations or fetishes).

But some of the chapters, those readers will be disappointed. And some chapters have basically no erotic content, they just set things up for it in later chapters. I don't like category hopping in what I read, but I don't want to have disappointed readers of one specific chapter. The very first scene in the first chapter has public nudity, so that might set it up well for readers in that category.

And yes, when I see a mid-series entry pop up when I'm reading, I go back and start at chapter 1 and follow it if I like it. Series are my favorite things here. I like to follow certain characters over multiple stories.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

"There are plenty of "general interest" type categories that would support a change in the erotic theme from chapter to chapter. I post in those and accept that the occasional reader may be disappointed in one chapter or another, but it's the sum of the whole that I focus upon."

What are those? I have a multi chapter story working and am trying to figure out how to categorize it. I like E&V both because it seems to be a bit of a catch-all for stories that have any element of sex or nudity that isn't stricly private, and because it seems to be the category that does the best job of challenging societal norms about sex generally (as opposed to specific orientations or fetishes).

But some of the chapters, those readers will be disappointed. And some chapters have basically no erotic content, they just set things up for it in later chapters. I don't like category hopping in what I read, but I don't want to have disappointed readers of one specific chapter. The very first scene in the first chapter has public nudity, so that might set it up well for readers in that category.

And yes, when I see a mid-series entry pop up when I'm reading, I go back and start at chapter 1 and follow it if I like it. Series are my favorite things here. I like to follow certain characters over multiple stories.

First, let's distinguish between "series", "sequels", and "stand-alone" stories submitted in multiple chapters or parts.

I think a series would typically involve all the individual stories having a common theme which would imply that they would be posted into the same category. My "Before They Were Stars" series is an example of this, with each individual story posted in "Celebrities/Fan Fiction"

A majority of my stand-alone stories are sequel parts of the "Brandt Family Adventures". Most are multi-part submissions, but all were submitted in the "Novels and Novellas" category due to their length.

Unlike many authors here, I don't post any story, or part of a story until the entire project is completed. This allows me the ability to know what category the completed story best fits into regardless of the events that unfold in individual chapters or parts. I believe that it is more honest to let the readers know what the overall story category is rather than to focus on individual chapters.

 

[Athalia]

I've done this with my "Hot Tub" series. As long as you tag your stories and have a warning up front about what the reader can expect, you'll do fine. I've found that the readers I value most will follow me wherever I go, regardless of the category that particular chapter falls into.

 

[tenyari]

The category system here is kind of weird. It really doesn't work very well for actually delivering the right stories one might want to read because it's singular and categories can overlap very easily.

The tagging system works a lot better - but many stories are wrongly tagged. My own older work has really weird tags that seem to have been auto-generated by grabbing some words out of the story. Maybe the tag system was made after 2002?

But for any current story, I strongly advice tagging every chapter for the right tags, as well as a tag for the category it is in, and some other categories that are close to it.

I'm on the fence on this bit of advice: If you foresee that later chapters will belong in another category, tag the first chapter for that category. This could both help and hinder... so think about it before doing it.

I find when I search for stories by tag I am much more likely to find a story I will enjoy reading. When I search by category I might as well just be picking stories at pure random.

I imagine newer readers to the site use categories more than tags, but only because it's easier to get to the category listing than the tagging listing. The tag system works more like both Internet 0.1 (Usenet era), and Web 2.0 work. The category system is solid Web 1.0 - so any reader that can find a way to avoid it is likely to do so.

As for switching categories in mid series, I suspect that most readers who land on a long series will 'rewind' to chapter 1 and start there. If I am correct on this - switching categories in mid series might actually help you find more readers, IF the theme of your story remains consistent.

People who read long series are looking for a deep story. People who search for a kink and read just a short thing are just looking for something to do while one hand is busy elsewhere...
- The very existence of many chapters will turn away the second group of readers long before a category switch does. And a category switch will only turn off a 'story seeker' if it alerts them that you will be heading into an area that 'squicks' them.

 

[Bramblethorn]

The category system here is kind of weird. It really doesn't work very well for actually delivering the right stories one might want to read because it's singular and categories can overlap very easily.

The tagging system works a lot better - but many stories are wrongly tagged. My own older work has really weird tags that seem to have been auto-generated by grabbing some words out of the story. Maybe the tag system was made after 2002?

AFAIK you are correct: tagging was added a few years after the site started, and pre-existing stories were retroactively tagged via an automated process.

The main method seems to have been ignoring commonly used words ("of", "the" etc.) and then looking for two-word combinations that appear more than once. For instance, your "Naked Girl Ch. 1" has two occurrences of "pile of rocks", three of "gotta get home", so it gets "pile rocks" and "gotta home" as tags.

As for switching categories in mid series, I suspect that most readers who land on a long series will 'rewind' to chapter 1 and start there. If I am correct on this - switching categories in mid series might actually help you find more readers, IF the theme of your story remains consistent.

IME many do, but by no means all.

My series "A Stringed Instrument" has 14 chapters, posted roughly a month apart. For most of the time I was posting it, I kept track of the view numbers by chapter.

Every time I posted a new chapter, I'd see a small but noticeable bump in views on the earlier ones - I'd guess this is new readers jumping back to check out the series from the beginning, though I can't tell whether they read the latest chapter first.

But some time after I finished the series, chapters 13 and 14 drifted into the category toplist for a while. They got a sharp uptick in views, which I assume was from new readers, and a lot of those people apparently didn't go back to the early chapters - the views on those toplisted chapters climbed much faster than views on the preceding chapters.

Currently I have 36k views on chapter 10, then 25k views on chapter 11 (with the extremely enticing blurb "Phoebe's grandmother goes into hospital for surgery"; I suck at blurbs), and 28k views on chapter 12, before jumping up to 45k and 56k for the last two chapters.

Some of those will be re-reads; chapters 10-12 have a fair bit of angst, 13-14 are where the happy ending happens, no doubt explaining why they got rated higher. But from the way the reads came in, closely matching the times when those chapters were toplisted, I think a lot of it was new readers reading only those chapters. I did see some increase in readership on the earlier chapters that looked like people coming in via the toplist and jumping back, but not nearly as much as the increase on the chapters that were in the list themselves.

People who read long series are looking for a deep story. People who search for a kink and read just a short thing are just looking for something to do while one hand is busy elsewhere...

This would've been my assumption too. But after watching the numbers on that series, I get the impression there are more readers willing to dive into late chapters than I would've guessed.

 

[tenyari]

AFAIK you are correct: tagging was added a few years after the site started, and pre-existing stories were retroactively tagged via an automated process.

The main method seems to have been ignoring commonly used words ("of", "the" etc.) and then looking for two-word combinations that appear more than once. For instance, your "Naked Girl Ch. 1" has two occurrences of "pile of rocks", three of "gotta get home", so it gets "pile rocks" and "gotta home" as tags.

Yeah, that results in those really old stories having meaningless tags.

Eventually I will resubmit my AI Girl story and clean it's tags, but 'Naked Girl' is set for deletion at some point - if I get it's replacement done. Probably next year.

I'm not the only 'old writer' - so categories still help for finding really old work.

 

[intim8]

>"First, let's distinguish between "series", "sequels", and "stand-alone" stories submitted in multiple chapters or parts."

This is more like a single very long story, a novel in the way it is currently written. Some of the individual chapters don't really work as a standalone entry as written, so I've been working to divide it up differently and add things so that each chapter has a beginning middle and end while still building for the later chapters.

IOW, I'm working on structuring it more like the chain of sequels thing. I've seen other "series" here that do this, where the first chapter or two are more about establishing characters and situations without much payoff, and I really like them as part of the categories I follow as opposed to the Novels category.

>"As long as you tag your stories and have a warning up front about what the reader can expect"

Tagging is a great point I hadn't thought of, thanks. I'm new here, writing wise, only submitted one story so far, for the
Nude Day contest. (Long time reader, though). Any advice on the up front note? I've seen some that are off putting and some that work for what they are supposed to do.

>"Unlike many authors here, I don't post any story, or part of a story until the entire project is completed. This allows me the ability to know what category the completed story best fits into [...] . I believe that it is more honest to let the readers know what the overall story category is rather than to focus on individual chapters."

I have about 50K words written that are fairly solid, and another maybe 50K+ that start to ramble and need to be rewritten or at least tightened up. I do know where the story goes. I'll post parts before I finish that rewriting. I like the E&V category, it nominally fits, and this doesn't really go anywhere that readers of that would be put off by, but the theme is the characters' psychology, not specifically E&V.

Thanks for all the feedback everybody.