Followers

[BiscuitHammer]

That would be where the winds of Thor are blowing cold.

I'm proud to say I quoted Led Zeppelin at the beginning of my "Mordor" elf/hobbit sex story.

"In the darkest depths of Mordor, I met a girl so fair."

Can you link me, Simon? I enjoy your stories to begin with, but adding Zep and Tolkien is a surefire way to grab my attention.

 

[SimonDoom]

Can you link me, Simon? I enjoy your stories to begin with, but adding Zep and Tolkien is a surefire way to grab my attention.

The link to all my submissions is in my signature line, but here's the link to One Night In Mordor:

https://literotica.com/s/one-night-in-mordor

It's pretty short, so it doesn't take much time to get through.

 

[davion2308]

Followers?

I looked and I have 300+ followers. I don't know if that's good, bad, or other. It just is and I don't use those stats for my happiness or a measure of success.

I write in a few different genres, I try to write really well to engage people, and I always answer DMs and chats. I don't know if I should have more followers for the length of time I've been here or the number of stories I have but I'm happy with what I'm doing.

 

[KeithD]

Unfortunately, racking up a lot of followers doesn't seem to bring much return in votes and comments. It might have an effect on views. But "followers" don't seem to be following too closely.

 

[windar]

I've been submitting less as my follower count goes up. I know it should be the goal to gain followers, but between the number of votes and followers (which is very few by most standards, but by mine it's a lot) it feels like more eyes on my writing than I anticipated and that's scary.

I'm probably the outlier here, but I was expecting two or three people to actually read my dumb little stories, not hundreds.

It's a lot to digest and a bit overwhelming.

I am in your camp. Readers are fine, but followers creep me out a bit. Unless they are sending me money, in which case I love them all...

 

[xelliebabex]

It would be interesting to see total vote and view counts by author (across their entire library) to see the correlation to follower count.

I bet that adds a lot of insight, since some successful authors reach high followings faster (by story count) than others. Kudos to them. It makes me wonder what their views and votes are. I bet very high.

I had a look at three of my VDay contest stories one from 2013, one from 2017 and this one and honestly I don't think there is any obvious insight aside of people like romance and that story continues to gather votes and fav's while the ones in EC get a few now and then.

I took a screenshot but I forgot how tiresome it is to add an image to this forum.

2013 - 125 fav 3.26M views 4.72/1.6k votes 55 comments

2017 1.2k fav 356.1k views 4.89/6.6k votes 249 comments (Romance)

2022 12 fav 5.9k views 4.9/146 votes 20 comments

I have a mid-range number of followers but I doubt they are all active, I know some fellow authors have left Lit.
The fact is most stories improve over time just because they are there to be read.

 

[stickygirl]

I've been submitting less as my follower count goes up. I know it should be the goal to gain followers, but between the number of votes and followers (which is very few by most standards, but by mine it's a lot) it feels like more eyes on my writing than I anticipated and that's scary.

I'm probably the outlier here, but I was expecting two or three people to actually read my dumb little stories, not hundreds.
It's a lot to digest and a bit overwhelming.

When I started writing for Lit I didn't know there were such things as followers and my motivation for writing wasn't an ego trip. I'd had a story in my head that wouldn't go away so I wanted to see if I could do it, as I hadn't written anything since school.

I've always written poetry as a kind of therapy and a means of venting emotions and my stories are a long hand version of the same process. If I've been able to convey those emotions to the readers then that's awesome. Writing is a means of feeling less isolated in the world, to be part of a group - just like the classic storytellers who'd entertain people round a camp fire.

If anything followers put a pressure on me that I'm not sure I welcome - like a crowd sitting on the front lawn. Happily I don't have too many sitting out there, but I take them cups of tea on cold days and make sure everyone's okay.

Anyway, back to you Erozetta. You're so chilled in your attitude I'm going to read some of yours. PM me if you'd like a follow as well - I don't want to be a nuisance

 

[JGittes]

When I started writing for Lit I didn't know there were such things as followers and my motivation for writing wasn't an ego trip. I'd had a story in my head that wouldn't go away so I wanted to see if I could do it, as I hadn't written anything since school.

I've always written poetry as a kind of therapy and a means of venting emotions and my stories are a long hand version of the same process. If I've been able to convey those emotions to the readers then that's awesome. Writing is a means of feeling less isolated in the world, to be part of a group - just like the classic storytellers who'd entertain people round a camp fire.

If anything followers put a pressure on me that I'm not sure I welcome - like a crowd sitting on the front lawn. Happily I don't have too many sitting out there, but I take them cups of tea on cold days and make sure everyone's okay.

Anyway, back to you Erozetta. You're so chilled in your attitude I'm going to read some of yours. PM me if you'd like a follow as well - I don't want to be a nuisance

Literotica started out 22 years ago as an amateur erotic writing site in a publishing environment that still focused on physical books, magazines, and newspapers. Erotic literature publications were highly specialized and while obtainable by mail, unless you lived in SF or NY you would have to work to get them. I'm sure mainstream authors published on Literotica back then, but they wouldn't try to cross-promote their mainstream work.

In the past two decades, mainstream publishing has collapsed and moved online. That's all due to Amazon, FB, Instagram, Twitter, and the like. Even mainstream authors must actively promote their author 'brand' and Literotica is one of the places where an author can easily do that. It can be as passive as publishing old stories here with information to look elsewhere for a more complete catalog or actively encourage readers to look at Patreon, Amazon, or Smashwords accounts and provide email addresses to receive regular updates. Oh, and actively encouraging followers and deliberately publishing in categories that attract high levels of readership.

I started reading Literotica because I was living in Africa and wanted to find a particular kind of story. Literotica was a gold mine. I've lived a crazy life and frequently found myself not being able to make sense of the remnants of my life bouncing around inside my head. For me, writing brings form to the chaos. Once I'd written it down, edited it, and after some time, revisited it, I thought. 'Damn, that's not too bad. Maybe a few others might enjoy it.' That's why I write here.

Other amateur authors have other reasons for publishing here. Some are more competitive and aligned with the brand-building professionals, but aren't interested in the hassle of the marketplace. Yet others, well, who knows why they do it, just for fun is probably the most important reason.

I began following authors because I discovered, not surprisingly, that if someone writes a story I like in a category and kink-space I respond to, they might write more stories I'd like to read. Lit provides a tool for me to easily keep track of those authors; the follow button. If you are a reasonably competent author and continue to publish stories here, you'll soon have readers who want to easily find your new work when it is published in the future. Magically, you have followers. Some authors actively whip them into a frenzy, others provide a calming cup of tea and another story. It's entirely up to you.

 

[lovecraft68]

Followers are kind of meaningless in the sense that it doesn't mean they vote or comment. Numbers would be through the roof if everyone who followed voted on all your stories.

Why is this?

Not every follower reads every category if you write in different ones

Many come here, follow some people, leave and the account stays so its a dormant follower.

Most simply can't be bothered which is the most common, and worst reason.

Some follow people they want to troll...so some of your bombs? Followers.

Its a stat that looks good , but its kind of useless.

Reminds me of some people I know

 

[LexxRuthless]

I'm a perfectionist and a procrastinator, so it is far too easy for me to put writing on the back burner for months at a time. The fact that I have followers is something I use to motivate myself when I feel uninspired and don't have a story idea burning to get out of my head. "Come on, man, there are thousands of readers who want to read the next thing you write! Get over there and write it!"

Even a really shitty story idea can turn into something fun if you poke at it long enough. Followers and feedback let me know that it's sometimes still a shitty story, but they at least appreciate the effort.

 

[ChloeTzang]

To attract followers who leave 1 votes, challenge idiots on the Politics Board...

Ohhhhhh, THAT works really well. I did that, and I can vouch for the accuracy of that one.

Its a stat that looks good , but its kind of useless.

Reminds me of some people I know

: LOL. Say what you REALLY think, lovecraft

 

[lovecraft68]

To attract followers who leave 1 votes, challenge idiots on the Politics Board...

I'm amazed they'd one bomb you only because most of them don't think there are stories here and lit is just the GB and politics forum

 

[DarkWhispers2U]

I coming up on 600 which is more than I ever imagined, but is that reasonable?

Hey congrats on 600! Seems like an amazing number to me.

I had a message from the site this morning that I had gained a new follower, but when I went to check out their favorite authors list, I had already been removed from it.

Even my friend who used to write on here only amassed like 100 followers in the decade they were on here.

 

[JuanaSalsa]

I had a message from the site this morning that I had gained a new follower, but when I went to check out their favorite authors list, I had already been removed from it. .

Sometimes it takes a day for new follows to show up on their list.

 

[CiaoSteve]

Thank you all so much for engaging. As I said, 600 is a lot more than I ever expected, so I am happy. I take on board though what Oggbashan said about unwanted followers.

Thanks also for the link
https://www.literotica.com/s/love-your-readers

I wish you all success in your next tales. I know I have one ready to edit.

It is a mix of genres which always confuses me. There are blindfolds, leads, and two obedient naked women. There is a packed bar, two sybians to which the women are lightly bound, and a contest to see who can ride the longest without cumming. Then there is the reward for one... a surprise fisting as she lay in the arms of the other.

So, anyone have a view? BDSM (because of the blindfolds and bindings), Exhibitionism (because of the audience), or something completely different? I always struggle with cross-genre.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

The number of followers is not important. What matters is where you lead them.

 

[SimonDoom]

Followers are kind of meaningless in the sense that it doesn't mean they vote or comment. Numbers would be through the roof if everyone who followed voted on all your stories.

This has it somewhat backward. Far more people vote on my stories than follow me or favorite the story. In fact the ratio across all my stories is about 20 votes to every follower. Among stories it's about 7 votes to every story favorite.

"Followers" is a set that consists primarily, I think, of two classes of readers: one that genuinely likes what I do, and one that isn't sure but wants to get notices about my stories in the future out of curiosity. I suppose there are also some who follow me because they checked out the followed list of someone else they liked.

But, still, I can safely say that the larger the number the people who follow my stories, the more readers I'm connecting with and the larger the audience of readers that like my story. I don't see any way that this is NOT true. What I have found in 5 years of following Literotica data is that it's not random; it's actually fairly predictable, and ratios among views, votes, favorites, comments and followers, while variable, are nonetheless reasonably stable, and fall within certain ranges -- enough so to be able to make some predictions with a high degree of confidence. Like, "the more people who follow my stories, the more people have read and like my stories or like me as an author." Or, "If story A has 10 times as many views as story B, it will have far more favorites than story B and I will get more followers as a result of it." Both of these propositions have been true in every single case in my stories published over the last 5 years.

Getting the maximum number of happy readers is what I'm going for. It's not getting high scores among a narrowed, sculpted discrete reader audience. My goal is to say what I want to say in my stories and then to get it heard by the largest possible audience. I think tracking favorites and followers, along with views, is the best way for me to gauge whether I'm doing that. It doesn't give me any sort of absolute number of happy readers, but it lets me now how I'm doing in a relative sense.

I should add to this that I am happy to get what I call the "silent happy reader." Most readers don't vote or comment. I will never get feedback from them. But if I know story A has 100 favorites and story B has 600 favorites, I know that there are many more silent happy readers of story B, and I enjoy knowing that, even if I will never know exactly how many there are and I will never hear from them.

 

[JuanaSalsa]

Thank you all so much for engaging. As I said, 600 is a lot more than I ever expected, so I am happy. I take on board though what Oggbashan said about unwanted followers.

Thanks also for the link
https://www.literotica.com/s/love-your-readers

I wish you all success in your next tales. I know I have one ready to edit.

It is a mix of genres which always confuses me. There are blindfolds, leads, and two obedient naked women. There is a packed bar, two sybians to which the women are lightly bound, and a contest to see who can ride the longest without cumming. Then there is the reward for one... a surprise fisting as she lay in the arms of the other.

So, anyone have a view? BDSM (because of the blindfolds and bindings), Exhibitionism (because of the audience), or something completely different? I always struggle with cross-genre.

I'd put it in exhibition. I had a tied up girl on display story I put in that category. I'd go with bdsm if there was an element of submission to a particular person.

 

[KeithD]

"Followers" is a set that consists primarily, I think, of two classes of readers: one that genuinely likes what I do, and one that isn't sure but wants to get notices about my stories in the future out of curiosity. I suppose there are also some who follow me because they checked out the followed list of someone else they liked.

I think that's a rather high-flown understanding of the followers mechanism. I think most followers were browsers who didn't think they had time to read a story they might like on Tuesday and so used the "favoriting" mechanism, which is at the base of what has become the follower function, to make the story easy to find. Then they did, or did not, ever come back to read it and there was a slight chance they actually began reading the author's stories regularly. As has already been noted, authors have a hell of a lot more followers than those who are actually demonstrably following them. I also don't worry about it or try to make it into anything significant connected to my writing ability.

I have over two and a half thousand "followers" in one acknowledged account and over eight hundred in another. That doesn't translate into anything to write home about on views/comments/votes for each entry. I have no illusions that this army of readers is really following me anywhere. I think my closest followers are the one or more who want to know when my entries post so that they can quickly roll out their zapper programs.

 

[Nylonian]

Me and my 9 followers would like to say "Hello!" Hehe. I am new tho so I don't mind. 600 is definitely a respectable number of followers.

 

[CiaoSteve]

Me and my 9 followers would like to say "Hello!" Hehe. I am new tho so I don't mind. 600 is definitely a respectable number of followers.

Well, hello there Nylonian

 

[Nylonian]

Well, hello there Nylonian

Hope you're having a good day, Steve.

 

[oggbashan]

What surprises me sometimes is how many people favourite or add to a reading list or even comment on some of my very old (15 years+) stories.

It's about one a week.

 

[NC_Coastal]

- 411 -

 

[lovecraft68]

This has it somewhat backward. Far more people vote on my stories than follow me or favorite the story. In fact the ratio across all my stories is about 20 votes to every follower. Among stories it's about 7 votes to every story favorite.

"Followers" is a set that consists primarily, I think, of two classes of readers: one that genuinely likes what I do, and one that isn't sure but wants to get notices about my stories in the future out of curiosity. I suppose there are also some who follow me because they checked out the followed list of someone else they liked.

But, still, I can safely say that the larger the number the people who follow my stories, the more readers I'm connecting with and the larger the audience of readers that like my story. I don't see any way that this is NOT true. What I have found in 5 years of following Literotica data is that it's not random; it's actually fairly predictable, and ratios among views, votes, favorites, comments and followers, while variable, are nonetheless reasonably stable, and fall within certain ranges -- enough so to be able to make some predictions with a high degree of confidence. Like, "the more people who follow my stories, the more people have read and like my stories or like me as an author." Or, "If story A has 10 times as many views as story B, it will have far more favorites than story B and I will get more followers as a result of it." Both of these propositions have been true in every single case in my stories published over the last 5 years.

Getting the maximum number of happy readers is what I'm going for. It's not getting high scores among a narrowed, sculpted discrete reader audience. My goal is to say what I want to say in my stories and then to get it heard by the largest possible audience. I think tracking favorites and followers, along with views, is the best way for me to gauge whether I'm doing that. It doesn't give me any sort of absolute number of happy readers, but it lets me now how I'm doing in a relative sense.

I should add to this that I am happy to get what I call the "silent happy reader." Most readers don't vote or comment. I will never get feedback from them. But if I know story A has 100 favorites and story B has 600 favorites, I know that there are many more silent happy readers of story B, and I enjoy knowing that, even if I will never know exactly how many there are and I will never hear from them.

Anon voters, and I'm sure we all have regular anon voters, will help your vote totals.

My simple point is, say you have 3k followers. How many of your stories get 3k votes? And if you have any that have garnered that total, how many were followers and how many were anon or people who stumbled on that story, liked it, voted, but didn't bookmark you?

Answer is, we'll never know.

What I do know is Silkstockinglover has an insane 39k followers, how many of her stories even get 10% of that total-and when I'm speaking of this, I mean when the story is first out to a few months old, not something ten years old that's been gaining votes for a decade.

I just don't like to see people get hung up on it, like it means something as far as quality of the story, or them as a writer. Like everything else here there's so many factors as to why you'd have a lot, or have very few, followers and none to do with how good the story or author actually is or isn't.