Could use guidance about categories (sorry)

[MrPixel]

I need to consult the brain trust here in AH.

I just finished a story - I mean truly finished, proofread and edited - for the Nude Day contest. It's ready to be uploaded at the opening bell. It is one piece, long and involved; at 18K+ words likely to be six or so LitE pages. That's not my usual style, and - my gosh - it's 3rd person. I don't do that! I don't do contests, either, but here I am.

Trying not to give anything away, it is about two swinger couples, one roughly twenty years older than the other, randomly meeting under difficult circumstances and forming a special friendship once they discover each other. Lots of sex or sexy situations, lots of pathos, several tender moments, riding off into the sunset in a particularly fraught situation. Some touching on a specific religion and its doctrine's influences over one character's life.

My usual categories are Mature and Group Sex. It fits Mature given the autumn-spring relationship, but that's barely the main feature. GS is a ghost town; though there is an orgy scene, and recollections of another.

E&V - Yeah, it's a Nude Day piece. A different take on 'E', and bunches of it.
Romance - Definitely fits, it's a real story (but not an IRL story) about believable characters in believable situations, with detailed real locations many may recognize.
EC - Plenty of that.

Yeah, those. There are a couple of scenes with M-M and G-G contact, but those aren't written for the tastes of the GM or LS crowd. There is nearly something for everybody except BDSM and LW.

My inclination is Romance. How much sex play or showing off can it have before I get complaints about "wrong category"?

 

[onehitwanda]

romance, with a blurb at the top and with tags for group sex, m-m, w-w so the pearl-necklace-clutchers don't scream about not being warned?

 

[alohadave]

I think you'd be fine in Romance or EC. Does riding off into the sunset imply a HAE ending?

the pearl-necklace-clutchers

The harder you squeeze, the more slips between your fingers...

 

[MrPixel]

...HAE...

My LitE AH to English conversion table doesn't have that acronym... yet. Apologies for being so dense.

 

[NoTalentHack]

I need to consult the brain trust here in AH.

I just finished a story - I mean truly finished, proofread and edited - for the Nude Day contest. It's ready to be uploaded at the opening bell. It is one piece, long and involved; at 18K+ words likely to be six or so LitE pages. That's not my usual style, and - my gosh - it's 3rd person. I don't do that! I don't do contests, either, but here I am.

Trying not to give anything away, it is about two swinger couples, one roughly twenty years older than the other, randomly meeting under difficult circumstances and forming a special friendship once they discover each other. Lots of sex or sexy situations, lots of pathos, several tender moments, riding off into the sunset in a particularly fraught situation. Some touching on a specific religion and its doctrine's influences over one character's life.

My usual categories are Mature and Group Sex. It fits Mature given the autumn-spring relationship, but that's barely the main feature. GS is a ghost town; though there is an orgy scene, and recollections of another.

E&V - Yeah, it's a Nude Day piece. A different take on 'E', and bunches of it.
Romance - Definitely fits, it's a real story (but not an IRL story) about believable characters in believable situations, with detailed real locations many may recognize.
EC - Plenty of that.

Yeah, those. There are a couple of scenes with M-M and G-G contact, but those aren't written for the tastes of the GM or LS crowd. There is nearly something for everybody except BDSM and LW.

My inclination is Romance. How much sex play or showing off can it have before I get complaints about "wrong category"?

Are you aiming to win, or just to put something in as though it were a contest? Or increase your reach? Or a bit of each?

If it's the first, I'd avoid Romance; even with the warnings, you'll get a lot of cisheteronormativity enforcers 1-bombing you regardless of the warnings. EC might work, but maybe not. Group is a ghost town, like you said, but it might do best there scorewise.

If you're trying to increase your reach, I'd be so bold as to say "go Loving Wives." If there's sex between people who are married but not to each other, it's fine to put it there. You absolutely will not win, and there's a decent chance you'll get 1-bombed into the 3s or even lower. But you're also likely to pick up some new readers that will follow you to existing works; that has its upsides and downsides.

The middle ground might be the obvious one: Exhibitionist. It does, as you say, have a bunch of both E and V.

If it were a little bit longer, I might suggest Novels & Novellas, but that's another one that's a little quiet.

 

[NoTalentHack]

My LitE AH to English conversion table doesn't have that acronym... yet. Apologies for being so dense.

Happily Ever After

HFN, if you see it, is Happy For Now, a story that ends on an up note but doesn't necessarily imply this is a forever thing. HFN stories get a lot of FTDS (Finish the Damn Story) complaints.

 

[NoTalentHack]

Also, if you'd like a beta reader to give you an opinion, HMU.

 

[onehitwanda]

I think you'd be fine in Romance or EC. Does riding off into the sunset imply a HAE ending?


The harder you squeeze, the more slips between your fingers...

 

[NotWise]

Long stories and sentimental stories can do well in about any category.

Be aware of two things about contest stories: contest stories are published at the top of the New list and get more attention than other stories, regardless of category, and the contest page is up for about two months (depending on the schedule) and over that time the contest votes can easily outweigh even the New list votes.

As a result, your category selection may not be critical, you just don't want to offend the category readers.

From what you've described, I'd put it in GS. The description is similar to my GS story I put into the Nude Day contest a few years ago. It didn't do well in the contest, but that was because of the story, not because of the category.

I'm careful about what I put in Romance, and from what you described I'd avoid Romance. I think you'd be asking for one bombs. The bread-and-butter in Romance is the Romance: two people meet and find they have a mutual interest in each other, struggle through obstacles to build a relationship, and live happily ever after. Plot normally dominates over sex. The readers accept variations, but if a story really doesn't fit, then they may treat it roughly.

EC is a good place to have your story forgotten, but that may not be so bad for a contest story. Winners have come from EC.

I haven't published in E&V, but that's where a lot of Nude Day winners come from. Maybe that should be your default choice.

 

[NotWise]

My LitE AH to English conversion table doesn't have that acronym... yet. Apologies for being so dense.

HEA: Happily ever after. HFN (happy for now) also works.

 

[MrPixel]

HAE. Duh. It is left in a way it can be either HAE or HFN, but further development would be forced. The story is the adventure they share. Strong inclination to leave it be and work on other stuff.

Are you aiming to win, or just to put something in as though it were a contest? Or increase your reach? Or a bit of each?

Truthfully? None of the above! It's just a compelling story I'd like to share inspired by some not-serious musings in the forum about a fellow AHer's writer's block. I did want to write a story for this particular contest's theme, but winning is not on the radar. I have a (much) shorter one done that's basically just a confection which is truly E&V.

LW is a nonstarter with me. Way too much hatred. And I know full-well about the 1.5 star penalty for publishing there.

GS really isn't the feel I have with it. My biggest, novel-length serial is in GS and it is truly GS. This one is not; the orgies are minor plot points at best. So is the Non-Con scene on the pathos side of the ledger.

Based on your and others' advice so far, given the exposure as a contest entry I think EC may be the call. I'm pretty adjusted to the concept of publishing in LitE ghost towns and avoiding the train wrecks.

 

[Djmac1031]

Erotic Couplings is a good Catch All category, with perhaps the tags / disclaimers about swinging/ group sex etc.

 

[SimonDoom]

EC might be a good fit for the story the way you describe it.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Just to throw a curve ball at you, I picked up a third place with a story that had a lot of FMF action in romance.

Personally, I'd go with your gut and hope the brooms push the shrapnel out the door.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Given that you've got a twenty year age gap between your couples, I'd give Mature a whirl. In my experience, it's the category with the most grown up adult readers on the site, who don't seem to have a long list of "I don't likes."

 

[Voboy]

Mature (a category which you seem to be familiar with already) is a category that definitely rewards HEA and HFN. I'd consider putting it either there or in Ex/Voy, since people who're willing to click on that category come out in droves for the Nude Day thing.

I always cordially avoid EC unless I can't help it. It's fine; it's just nothing special, at all. Romance is a category I haven't got much experience with, though what little I've done in there has been very positively received. One of my own Nude Day entries will be in Romance, though it's very unconventional.

In my mind, HEA/HFN almost always belongs in Romance or Mature, depending on whether the age difference is a significant part of the story.

 

[MrPixel]

Given that you've got a twenty year age gap between your couples, I'd give Mature a whirl.

Mature (a category which you seem to be familiar with already) is a category that definitely rewards HEA and HFN.

The more I re-read it for editing, the more I sense the overarching theme is the older couple taking the younger couple under their wing, showing them a good time while helping them work through their life crisis.

Leaning strongly toward Mature. Ready to roll pending beta input.