Do you know your audience?

[dr_mabeuse]

I read this as having an audience for all of my collective works, and no, I don't. Perhaps that's why I don't have a 'fan following' or repeat readers.
Or maybe I suck.

About individual stories, do I write to an audience? Not really, no. I know what my story is going to be, and the type of people who will probably enjoy the story come to mind only after I've written it. I don't start out by saying, now I am going to write for the 25 year old college-going virgin boy who is shy, lives alone and delivers pizza for extra cash. No.

No, you're right. I don't think I write for a specific audience or market or demographic, but I am talking to a certain kind of person when I write.

 

[rachlou]

Now the sex topic is one I find interesting. When I started writing here, my first 2 chapters didn't have any sex, but people liked them. At first I was a little worried about that, you know? I mean, this is a PORN site, right? (Ooh!Writing to please your constituents or staying true to your story. Mmm...) However, I don't think you have to have sex in every chapter or even every story to make people happy here. I just read a comment on the editor's forum that stated that it's tough to get the red H if there's no sex, but, well... no.

Several of you who have commented here on this thread have had stories that are quite successful without sex.

That makes me thoughtful, too. Do you write the sex just for the ratings, or because the sex is what makes the story be true to itself?

I have a few stories with no sex in them. Not one bombed, and in fact they have all done very well. Might not have happened if it had been my first story, but I think people know my work by now and are more willing to accept the lack of sex. My regular readers enjoy the romance element I think. (Or so it would seem judging from the feedback.)

 

[neonlyte]

Having dispensed with a couple of 'fantasy situations' in my earlier stories, I began to write to test ideas and narrative voice. In that sense, I wrote for an audience and measured success. I believe any intense relationship between two people - in story form - is almost obliged to have a sexual undercurrent though clearly there are a great many successful stories devoid of sex. I don't think sexual act description is essential to convey sexual intensity, if you are going to include it, Lit is the obvious place to post it If you're scoring 4 or above with no sex stories, you are doing extremely well on an erotic website where the scoring can be flaky at best.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I mostly write stories for myself. And for anyone else who likes the same stories I do.

There are exceptions, though. When I was participating in the Survivor Contest, I did my best to write even for the categories I never read myself, such as BDSM, Lesbian Sex, Toys & Masturbation, etc.