Changing Categories in a Series

[Daddysgirlfl]

I’m in the process of writing a series but the current story, at this point, would be better in another category than the others. Any pros or cons would be appreciated.

 

[HeyAll]

The biggest con is that less people will read it. I think people usually stick to the few Hubs that they like. But of course, if people follow you they can see the story posted on their panels.

But i think long-term if you get new readers, it wouldn't matter because readers will just go down your list.

 

[KeithD]

I've done it both ways, but I think that any multipart series in which each series can't stand completely alone would best be in one category. If the categories are quite different and differentiated in content, it can be put in the Novels and Novellas category.

That said, I do have some where the point is that each chapter is in an entirely different category and they've done OK in separate categories. (The parts of one written in an earlier account even received Green Es.)

 

[Daddysgirlfl]

Thanks for the input. I believe at this point I will stick to one, because as you mentioned, most do.

The biggest con is that less people will read it. I think people usually stick to the few Hubs that they like. But of course, if people follow you they can see the story posted on their panels.

But i think long-term if you get new readers, it wouldn't matter because readers will just go down your list.

 

[Daddysgirlfl]

Thanks for your thoughts. I’m not going to change because this really wouldn’t stand alone. Not well certainly.

For some reason I also forget about Novels and Novellas. Glad you reminded me!

I've done it both ways, but I think that any multipart series in which each series can't stand completely alone would best be in one category. If the categories are quite different and differentiated in content, it can be put in the Novels and Novellas category.

That said, I do have some where the point is that each chapter is in an entirely different category and they've done OK in separate categories. (The parts of one written in an earlier account even received Green Es.)

 

[PeytonMirabelle]

I'm in the process of doing it now. I have four (of planned six) chapters, each in a different category, and the last two will be too. It's been a challenge, to see if I can build a cohesive story in such a manner.

Results are mixed. Some folks flat out tell me they don't read other categories, and wouldn't see previous chapters, or any future chapters. But I have also found new readers (some of whom may only stick to one or two hubs) who have followed me, so hopping brought me to the attention of more folks.

 

[Daddysgirlfl]

I believe you’re doing it the correct way. Planning ahead to split categories. As you say, it’s important to stay cohesive. In my case I didn’t do any of this because it was unplanned.

Thanks for your thoughts. Good luck on your new works! Sounds challenging but fun

I'm in the process of doing it now. I have four (of planned six) chapters, each in a different category, and the last two will be too. It's been a challenge, to see if I can build a cohesive story in such a manner.

Results are mixed. Some folks flat out tell me they don't read other categories, and wouldn't see previous chapters, or any future chapters. But I have also found new readers (some of whom may only stick to one or two hubs) who have followed me, so hopping brought me to the attention of more folks.

 

[TadOverdon]

I've done something similar this week, and the results of the experiment have been mixed.

The Good: I think the two chapters of the story that were placed in a different category may have been ranked a little higher there by readers than they would have in the category that most of the novella falls into.

The Bad: Some categories are a lot more popular than others. The total readership for those two chapters has been much lower.

I think I'm going to stick to keeping all chapters in one category from now on. I might get a few complaints and downvotes along the lines of "this story doesn't belong in this category" for a few chapters that happen to be light on certain kinds of action, but I'd prefer the larger readership over the higher rating.

 

[Daddysgirlfl]

Hmmm, I never thought about categories having more readers than others. Do you know if there's a place we can get that information?

After everyone's advice, I am going to stick to one category, for quite a number of reasons mentioned.

Thanks for your thoughts!

I've done something similar this week, and the results of the experiment have been mixed.

The Good: I think the two chapters of the story that were placed in a different category may have been ranked a little higher there by readers than they would have in the category that most of the novella falls into.

The Bad: Some categories are a lot more popular than others. The total readership for those two chapters has been much lower.

I think I'm going to stick to keeping all chapters in one category from now on. I might get a few complaints and downvotes along the lines of "this story doesn't belong in this category" for a few chapters that happen to be light on certain kinds of action, but I'd prefer the larger readership over the higher rating.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Hmmm, I never thought about categories having more readers than others. Do you know if there's a place we can get that information?

After everyone's advice, I am going to stick to one category, for quite a number of reasons mentioned.

Thanks for your thoughts!

There's a fair correlation between the volume of stories in each category and the audience size - writers on the whole tend to chase the readers.

Several people have compiled the stats - hopefully someone will step forward with the numbers.

 

[Daddysgirlfl]

Ah OK, I can keep an eye out around here. I'm not too sure how much it would affect my stuff. I write by my mood. LOL

Thanks!

 

[PennameWombat]

Hmmm, I never thought about categories having more readers than others. Do you know if there's a place we can get that information?

This was posted in 2018 by 8letters. If anyone’s posted a similarly thorough study more recently I don’t have it. But anecdotes mentioned since in general discussions seem to bear this out, e.g., Incest/Taboo and Loving Wives are easily the most viewed categories. After that, Anal, First Time, NonConsent are higher viewed.

Literotica Statistics by Category.

The categories I have most interest in writing for - SF&F, NonHuman, Exhibitionist & Voyeur - are all relatively low on the average views according to these stats.

I’m not aware of the site providing this kind of information directly. It’s calculable, as the linked work shows. But takes some effort.

After everyone's advice, I am going to stick to one category, for quite a number of reasons mentioned.

Thanks for your thoughts!

I did some work on looking at average ratings for some series in the SF&F and NonHuman categories, looking at ratings for each individual chapter compared against average of all and number of views. It was... lots of work to go through just a handful I posted it on a thread that was proposing various changes to how to list the “Top Lists” - the top 250 rated stories in each category. In some cases (such as SF&F) some very long multi-chapter works have multiple entries because at a certain point it seems only the True Believers continue to read and vote and thus the individual chapter ratings trend upward and they get lots of spots on the top lists. But my work wasn’t comprehensive enough to be truly statistically significant, although it fit the assumed trend.

I only analyzed series that stayed in one category.

I’ve written one series of three (began with Carole at the Art Lecture) that had each entry in a different category. Two of the three highly-rated, the lower-rated one is a weaker story (it certainly had ‘middle of the trilogy’ issues). But otherwise I’ve kept series entries in a single category.

 

[Imstillfun]

I’m in the process of writing a series but the current story, at this point, would be better in another category than the others. Any pros or cons would be appreciated.

I’ve had one series that started off in LW and the last chapter was in incest/taboo it’s one of my most popular stories. The 2nd chapter in LW got 177k reads. The 3rd chapter in incest got 199k leads.

 

[stickygirl]

I've swapped categories with a series and the results are very different, for the same character, same author and basically the same amount of wank fuel.

Mature: 9k 4.55 hotness
Trans: 7.2k 4.62 hotness
Trans: 5.2k 4.46 hotness
Lesbian: 5.8k 4.58 hotness
Trans: 3.1k 4.75 hotness
Lesbian: 1.8k 4.25 hotness

I find it bizarre how people rate the stories but the scoring has a major impact on visibility once it's slipped off the NEW tag. My take away is to not care too much. I write for my pleasure and if people like a story that's great, but it's not the driving force for me.

 

[Daddysgirlfl]

Crap, I got logged out and lost several of my replies to you.

Y'all really rock. I mostly write for the fun of it, but appreciate the amount of effort in some of these stats. I've marked the links to go back and do some reading.

I know now if I want to change categories, I'll plan a bit ahead to do it.

Thanks again you guys... So much to think about

 

[gunhilltrain]

It's possible to have an entire series in one category, but I have never been able to do it. One of them did pretty well anyway.

 

[TadOverdon]

So, based on one brief experiment my preference going forward will probably be to put all chapters of a story in the most popular category for which the overall long piece qualifies.

Because here's what happens: a chapter that is light on the overall category's content may be rated lower and draw some criticism, but if a great many more people read it that's what matters to me. Chapters in the I/T novella I'm posting right now that I put into a less-read category on the basis of its content rated about one star higher than when a similar chapter had gone in the more popular category but they also have rated by only about 5% as many people. Which means that a lot more people read the chapter and rated it highly even if it was "miscategorized" in some respect.

The bigger readership is worth more than the overall rating, IMHO, as long as the chapter is legitimately part of a big story that's squarely inside the category.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

For a long series there is the catch all "Novels & Novellas".