Consultation on Categories

[Priscilla_June]

So I have read the nicely done article about categories, and it goes into great depth on a lot. However I have a story upcoming that I am stuck between two non-trump categories and wanted a second opinion.

Story is about a woman who enjoys exhibitionism and in fact starts off with her videoing herself in public and eventually having sex in public.

However….

It had heavy themes of interracial.

I want to put it in exhibitionism (because that is what I was going for) but will it be received poorly or do better in interracial?

Thanks in advance!

 

[lovecraft68]

My opinion is E/V because IR expects certain tropes to feed their fetish, but if its in E/V and not fetishizing the I/R aspect its just, okay he just happens to be black, it should do fine.

I/R is a category that I, and I know others feel this way as well, has devolved into racist parody so unless that's what you're playing into I'd avoid it. E/V might get less attention, but you'll be true to their kink, not the I/R

 

[MillieDynamite]

Personally, in the future, I will stick to Erotic Couplings and use the tags to identify the kink. But I'm also writing a BDSM series and probably will put them in BDSM.

 

[lovecraft68]

I want to add a quick point. When it comes to categorizing stories, the alleged be all end all of how to's is TTT's Love your readers.

The thing about that essay is 9 years old, and although still relevant in some cases a lot of categories have shifted, and the readers reactions to things have shifted(seemingly mostly to the negative)

Which is why posting a thread is a great idea to get opinions of current authors, not people who haven't posted a story in years.

Also, if I was put on the spot to answer who here is the best when it comes to where to put something, it would hands down be Reject Reality

 

[MillieDynamite]

I want to add a quick point. When it comes to categorizing stories, the alleged be all end all of how to's is TTT's Love your readers.

The thing about that essay is 9 years old, and although still relevant in some cases a lot of categories have shifted, and the readers reactions to things have shifted(seemingly mostly to the negative)

Which is why posting a thread is a great idea to get opinions of current authors, not people who haven't posted a story in years.

Also, if I was put on the spot to answer who here is the best when it comes to where to put something, it would hands down be Reject Reality

I've always appreciated your advice! I don't always follow it, but I do appreciate it!

 

[lovecraft68]

I've always appreciated your advice! I don't always follow it, but I do appreciate it!

Hey, my wife tells me the same thing.....

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I’d go with Millie’s suggestion.

 

[lovecraft68]

I’d go with Millie’s suggestion.

Being a catch all its hard to put something wrong there, but if there is a trump kink I'd still follow that category. But in this case, a 'hybrid' story as I call them, she's probably right.

 

[NotWise]

I have no experience with E&V, but my experience is Erotic Coupling says the place is a wasteland. There are too many stories and not enough readers. My stories posted there usually get little attention, and all of them are lost once they fall off the New list.

 

[Priscilla_June]

Hmmmm interesting, I think I will go E/V with all thats been said. I do appreciate everybody’s time

 

[MillieDynamite]

I have no experience with E&V, but my experience is Erotic Coupling says the place is a wasteland. There are too many stories and not enough readers. My stories posted there usually get little attention, and all of them are lost once they fall off the New list.

My current story in EC has over 3,000 reads in less than 72 hours. It only has a 4.0 rating on 38 votes but is being read, which is what I'm after.

 

[Voboy]

I have no experience with E&V, but my experience is Erotic Coupling says the place is a wasteland. There are too many stories and not enough readers. My stories posted there usually get little attention, and all of them are lost once they fall off the New list.

I avoid EC whenever I can.

Alas, I'm also plagued by conscience. Which won't let me try to weasel a story into another category if I don't think it belongs there. But yes, EC is almost always a disappointment.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I avoid EC whenever I can.

Alas, I'm also plagued by conscience. Which won't let me try to weasel a story into another category if I don't think it belongs there. But yes, EC is almost always a disappointment.

Please, explain to me what you mean it is a disappointment.

 

[NotWise]

My current story in EC has over 3,000 reads in less than 72 hours. It only has a 4.0 rating on 38 votes but is being read, which is what I'm after.

I'd count 3000 views in 3 days as a pretty low number, but I suppose anything is good.

What I dislike the most about EC is the way stories are forgotten. I have nine stories in EC and together they total about 30 views/day. If not for a couple stories that pull in a few views, that total would be below 20 views/day. I think just web bots alone would give those stories about 18 views/day ( about 2/day/story). I have single stories in other categories that get about 20 views/day even years after publication.

Wait. Maybe that's not what I dislike the most. I also dislike the fact that the readers don't vote much and tend to vote low when they do vote.

On the other hand, I've seen contest stories published in EC do well. I suspect those stories get little out of the EC readers, so most of the rating comes from contest readers.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Loving Wives is the most read category and the worst to post in, Incest Taboo gets tons of reads, but you know it has to be incest to go there. Where do you suggest that a person who does stories in multiple categories (in the same story) should post? Many of my stories are interracial, might have lesbianism or gay characters, horror or sci-fi elements, but most of my stories with IR are a black female and white male, which non here seems to like. I've posted in EV, and the tale has been up since June last year and only has 18K reads, 58 votes, four hearts, and some lovely comments, but not many reads for the length of time. That's almost 14 months.

 

[SimonDoom]

My recommendation is E/V, UNLESS the I/R elements are sufficiently pronounced.

E/V is a fairly flexible, forgiving category. You can put stuff in E/V that has other elements, and the readers tend to be accepting. I use E/V as a place to post stories that have some "hot wife" elements. If I posted them in Loving Wives, I might have more views, but I'd get a lot of nastiness too, and it might hurt my other stories.

E/V is a moderately trafficked category. It's in the middle. It's not close to Loving Wives or Incest, but it gets more views on average than low-traffic categories like Fanfiction.

Interracial gets more views. If your story has sufficiently pronounced interracial elements, you might want to put it in Interracial. You'll probably get more readers, if that matters to you.

I would avoid EC. EC is a bland category that does not get a great deal of traffic because there's nothing spicy about it. Also, there are a ton of EC stories so you'll have more competition. The two things to weigh, in my opinion, are 1) which is the most pronounced kink? and 2) where will you get the most approving readers?

 

[NotWise]

EC is sometimes the best choice. I wish there were a better one. The alternative in the OP was E&V, and that might get a better reaction. Some writers really like that crowd.

Not long ago I had more stories in EC than in any other category, but it's been two years now since I posted anything there. I keep thinking I'll try it again just to see if it's changed, but then it wouldn't be a good test if it weren't a good story, and I don't want to throw a good story down a hole.

 

[Voboy]

Please, explain to me what you mean it is a disappointment.

Compared to the categories I'm more accustomed to posting in, it gets fewer views and a poorer reception. I suspect it's because it drops off the category page very quickly, given the large number of stories that go up in that category every day.

 

[MillieDynamite]

My recommendation is E/V, UNLESS the I/R elements are sufficiently pronounced.

E/V is a fairly flexible, forgiving category. You can put stuff in E/V that has other elements, and the readers tend to be accepting. I use E/V as a place to post stories that have some "hot wife" elements. If I posted them in Loving Wives, I might have more views, but I'd get a lot of nastiness too, and it might hurt my other stories.

E/V is a moderately trafficked category. It's in the middle. It's not close to Loving Wives or Incest, but it gets more views on average than low-traffic categories like Fanfiction.

Interracial gets more views. If your story has sufficiently pronounced interracial elements, you might want to put it in Interracial. You'll probably get more readers, if that matters to you.

There are several problems with my writing for the masses on here. I don't write for the reader. Sometimes, I write for a fan, by request and what they want. Most of the time, my stories are not conventional. They are written for me, and I hope people who find them enjoy them. I'm concerned with people finding them, but I won't bend them to accommodate fitting into pigeon-holes of the categories. I write about men and women. Most of my women are in charge, not submissive, which kills half the audience on this site from the get-go. I tried to do the cuckold thing. They were requested, and what was requested doesn't fly at this site. I'm doing a series that has BDSM elements, but the first story isn't getting the reads I want, so the second one might go in EC with BDSM as one of the tags. The title of the next one is Mr. Lucky 2: Wild Black Cat, and the tagline is "If he can’t make her purr, she’ll make him bleed!"

 

[Kumquatqueen]

EC works for simple straightforward stories where male meets female and they have vanilla PIV sex together without mentioning anything else beyond oral sex (her sucking him, obviously).

Deviate from that, or make it more complicated, and the rush of readers who see a new story will be unimpressed.

E&V readers consider feelings and thoughts more and are a bit more flexible as long as some E or V happens (the E being by a woman will go down much better).

Adding an Interracial tag will give you many more views. No idea how many will read.

 

[SimonDoom]

There are several problems with my writing for the masses on here. I don't write for the reader. Sometimes, I write for a fan, by request and what they want. Most of the time, my stories are not conventional. They are written for me, and I hope people who find them enjoy them. I'm concerned with people finding them, but I won't bend them to accommodate fitting into pigeon-holes of the categories. I write about men and women. Most of my women are in charge, not submissive, which kills half the audience on this site from the get-go. I tried to do the cuckold thing. They were requested, and what was requested doesn't fly at this site. I'm doing a series that has BDSM elements, but the first story isn't getting the reads I want, so the second one might go in EC with BDSM as one of the tags. The title of the next one is Mr. Lucky 2: Wild Black Cat, and the tagline is "If he can’t make her purr, she’ll make him bleed!"

This has nothing to do with "writing for the masses." That's a red herring. We're taking it for granted in this conversation that the story is written already, and the only question is where to put it. There's no right answer, and everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but my general approach to that question is: assuming you have options (based on the way the Site chooses to categorize stories), put the story in the category where it will reach the widest readership of people who appreciate it, so long as it doesn't draw so many negative reactions that it may hurt your other stories (this is the "Loving Wives Rule"). That doesn't mean the category with the most traffic, because if it's a bad fit there all those plentiful readers won't like it. But I wouldn't put an interracial story or an exhibitionist story in erotic couplings both because it would be a poor fit and because it wouldn't get many readers.

 

[tenyari]

It had heavy themes of interracial.

Stay out of Interracial unless you and your story are racist.

I'm hoping that would be a horribly incorrect assumption about either.

That genre has an extremely troubled legacy. It's rightly perceived as a place full of stories that delve not into relationships that are multi-racial, but stories about racist stereotypes and abuse.

If you don't see yourself as having a white hood in the closet, don't go there. Because the readers in that category do, and the genre in the wider world of 'erotica' - here and beyond - is full of "that kind" of story.

Exhibition and Voyeur will get a lot of readers and comes free of baggage. And stories in there often feature mixed race couples because that fact alone does not make a story fit the negative tropes of the "Interracial" category.

 

[MillieDynamite]

My stories aren't vanilla. Interracial, in my stories, is about people of different races coming together and the relationship, and possible difficulties due to their differences, not in any way racist. However, they might have to put up with some racist shit. At times, there is some amount of violence in my stories.

 

[ElectricBlue]

So I have read the nicely done article about categories, and it goes into great depth on a lot. However I have a story upcoming that I am stuck between two non-trump categories and wanted a second opinion.

Story is about a woman who enjoys exhibitionism and in fact starts off with her videoing herself in public and eventually having sex in public.

However….

It had heavy themes of interracial.

I want to put it in exhibitionism (because that is what I was going for) but will it be received poorly or do better in interracial?

Thanks in advance!

I'd drop that into E&V.

So what if it's got inter-racial? For many readers that's not a kink, but might be offensive to those who don't like kinkifying race, whereas exhibitionism doesn't care about skin colour (except, don't get sunburned.).

 

[Rustyoznail]

I've written three Indian women - Anglo Australian male stories. Two went into romance, one into mature. Not one obnoxious comment and one story placed 3rd in a comp.

I'd toss it into E&V with appropriate tags.