Finding popular authors

[MelanPonca]

I know we readers can find which STORIES are most popular by score and by number of times read, but I can't find a way to discover which AUTHORS are the most popular (i.e. by greatest number of followers).

I suppose I could follow every author on the site and then look through each listing to see how many followers each author has, but I was hoping for something more elegant (and WAY less time consuming).

Is there a tool in existence on the Lit site that I haven't found yet, or a search method that I don't know about?

Any advice is most appreciated.

Thanks,

Mel

 

[Nezhul]

I don't think there's such an option.

Also you should consider that having many followers doesn't really mean a lot. Literotica is quite an old site, and some authors has been here for decades. They couls steadily accumulate thousands of subscribers, however that doesn't mean all of them are active.

For example - I personally have only 2 stories left on the site, and I've taken the rest down. However I'm seeing new subs still, they trickle in little by little. But I'm 100% sure that a lot of those who subbed a long time ago either don't remember me or don't even visit the site any longer.

I think the best way to find good authors - is searching for well-rated stories of the genre you like. If an author wrote a story that you love - chances are, the rest of his/hers creations will not disappoint.

 

[MelanPonca]

My thoughts (and discoveries) as well...

Thanks Nezhul,

I thought of that consideration before I asked my question, and I think you're exactly right. I have seen cases where the author hadn't posted anything in years, but because the stories had been around such a long time, and plenty of people were following him/her waiting for the next new story to pop up, he/she had an enormous number of followers.

An additional question came to me after I finished posting my query: Does popularity correlate positively to good writing? Sadly, I am not convinced it does.

I've used the strategy you suggested for many years; looking at the genre(s) of interest, finding the highly rated stories within it, reading said stories and subsequently poking around the various authors' pages. More recently, I've discovered that I can find an occasional "diamond in the rough" by looking at the authors that the story writer him- or herself follows.

Many thanks for responding so quickly and reinforcing both my parsing of the Lit site and my strategy for finding authors I like.

Much obliged,

Mel

 

[Hypoxia]

An additional question came to me after I finished posting my query: Does popularity correlate positively to good writing? Sadly, I am not convinced it does.

Quite right. A story's vote score reflects 1) chance, 2) timing, 3) length, and 4) pandering level. It ain't science.

 

[ElectricBlue]

An additional question came to me after I finished posting my query: Does popularity correlate positively to good writing? Sadly, I am not convinced it does.

80/20 rule, I reckon. I think I read maybe half a dozen or a dozen Hall oF Fame stories in a few categories of interest when I first tuned in to Lit, and quickly decided that popular and good don't mean the same thing, not by a long shot. I generally apply the "first five hundred words" rule - if it's limping along at that point, I'm out, but if there's a glimmer of hope I'll often give it the the end of the first page, and decide then.

The diamonds, though, are often quite astonishing - beyond good, some of them.

 

[yukonnights]

One other thing about an author's "following list" or "favorites list" is that oft times folks will add the author in order to come back to the story series or an unfinished story. They may or may not ever return though, etc.

There is this though; The link below goes to a Literotica page which provides "Most Read"/Reader Voting for every story/Votes filtered by Category. Link-> https://www.literotica.com/top/

 

[MelanPonca]

Popular not equating quality

Hey Hypoxia, Electricblue66, and Yukonnights ,

As I've tried to devise a way to find some relationship between popular writing and high quality writing, I've come to the same conclusion that you (Hypoxia and EB66) describe; multiple variables effect the popularity of a given author's stories and quality is only one of them, and only a potential factor at that! By the way EB66, I think you're being quite generous by believing that the 80/20 rule applies, my experience is much closer to 90/10 or even 95/5. Good writing is hard work and hard to come by. But, oh, how I love those diamonds! Many thanks for your ruminations on the subject; I appreciate the affirmation of my narrative.

Yukonnights, I found a way to follow up with the stories that I want to finish (or even start, if they look good and I'm tired). On our member page, there is a "reading list" link which takes you to a spot where you can add a story to your "read later" list! Quite cool I thought. It also doesn't require voting for an author OR a story to keep it in your queue. Regarding the /top/ link: I'm familiar with that page and have used it with great success, especially once I've narrowed down the list by genre. I'm grateful for the suggestion.

Thanks to you one and all.

Sincerely,

Mel

 

[ElectricBlue]

Hey Hypoxia, Electricblue66, and Yukonnights ,

As I've tried to devise a way to find some relationship between popular writing and high quality writing, I've come to the same conclusion that you (Hypoxia and EB66) describe; multiple variables effect the popularity of a given author's stories and quality is only one of them, and only a potential factor at that! By the way EB66, I think you're being quite generous by believing that the 80/20 rule applies, my experience is much closer to 90/10 or even 95/5. Good writing is hard work and hard to come by. But, oh, how I love those diamonds! Many thanks for your ruminations on the subject; I appreciate the affirmation of my narrative.

I'm a generous soul, and always start 80/20 until proven wrong (a glass half full kind of approach) - but you're probably right (Pareto being a mathematician not a writer). Brutal, but 95/5 is more like it, I suspect.

I also caution myself against being over-critical of a writer's technical ability - one of my all time favourite stories here is a one-off, and an absolute train-wreck in terms of grammar and construction, but somehow so intensely visceral, despite that.

 

[Nezhul]

Quite right. A story's vote score reflects 1) chance, 2) timing, 3) length, and 4) pandering level. It ain't science.

Yeah. And considering that on Literotica the timing is out of your hands completely (pending process takes from 1 to several days) - then it's mostly luck

It does, of course, help to write a good story.

 

[SimonDoom]

Is there a tool in existence on the Lit site that I haven't found yet, or a search method that I don't know about?


Mel

Sure there is, and I'm surprised no one's mentioned it yet. Lit maintains a list of the all-time 250 most-favorited authors. You can access the list from your control panel under the heading "Explore" and then click Favorites on the drop-down menu. There's also a list of the top 250 most favorited stories.

Whether or not those lists correspond to your own sense of who is a good author or what is a good story, I don't know. They may not. I agree with others who've commented that a variety of factors having nothing to do with literary merit can make a story highly rated, or highly viewed, or often favorited. For instance, all-purpose toplists are much less useful to a reader who doesn't like incest stories, because incest is by far the most popular category of story here, and it dominates the toplists based on favorites and views. Having a lot of followers may also be a function of just having been around here a long time.

That said, I think there's some correlation between good stats and quality. If you check out the top 250 most favorited authors list, you will find there's a higher percentage of authors whose stories are well told and reasonably free of glaring technical mistakes. They may or may not suit your erotic tastes.

My biggest wish about this site is I wish it had better story and author search functions. It should be possible to do fine-grained searches for stories based on score, favorites, category, tags, and date. Right now this site doesn't offer that capability.

Somebody -- I forget who -- proposed the idea of giving readers the ability to set up their own customized hub page based on their preferences. It's a great idea and it would greatly enhance the ability of readers to find the stories they like.

 

[MelanPonca]

Ability, luck, and "favorite" function

Hey Electricblue66, Nezhul, and SimonDoom,

EB66, I also try not to be overly critical of an author's grammar and construction mistakes; that said, I think that might change the ratio to 93/7. Good writing is still hard to do and hard to find ;-) BTW, I read one of your favorites, "Sabine." Loved it! Thanks for selecting it as one of your faves so I could learn of and read it.

Nezhul, I agree, there is a significant factor that luck plays in generating story scores...and it REALLY helps to write a good story

SimonDoom, you have revealed the function for which I was searching! I made an assumption that the "favorites" on the drop-down Explore menu was somehow related to the favorites I already had in my collection; many thanks for enlightening me!

I also agree with you that any level of customization users could set up for their own benefit would be a good idea. You'd have my support if it ever came up for a vote!

Many thanks (again) to one and all,

Mel

 

[Hypoxia]

I started writing for LIT only a couple of months after I started reading here because so many pieces had horrible orthography (grammar, spelling, punctuation) errors I wanted to edit. I thought, "I can write better than this!" Some of those orthographic horrors masked quite compelling stories. That's the nub -- some authors have strong tales to tell but lack the skill to write. It's as if the ideas and the execution are on separate tracks.

And some competent writers tell boring or misplaced stories. Me too, at times.

 

[ElectricBlue]

EB66, I also try not to be overly critical of an author's grammar and construction mistakes; that said, I think that might change the ratio to 93/7. Good writing is still hard to do and hard to find ;-) BTW, I read one of your favorites, "Sabine." Loved it! Thanks for selecting it as one of your faves so I could learn of and read it.

Yes, Sabine is quite exquisite.

The strange, oh very strange one, is Pobrat's A Game of Chance. I don't think I could figure out what it was about, but it was compelling.