How do I get readers to post comments?

[ElectricBlue]

Maybe we should ask Laurel to add another category to the annual awards: Most appreciated commenter.

Although, thinking about all the games being played in the Literotica Awards cesspit, maybe not...

As you say (in faded grey) that would be a foregone (and completely non-representative) conclusion. The Lit Awards are the equivalent of a pre-stacked wedding cake, if you ask me. There not much room for an outsider.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I added this to the bottom of my story. It seems to have worked as I've gotten 33 comments on three weeks, all positive.

I hope you enjoyed the story. I'd like to ask you to please rate my work and then scroll down to the bottom of this page and drop me a comment. Hearing from readers makes my day.

Rob

 

[MillieDynamite]

Add a reward for every comment, regardless of a good or bad review, you will make their PayPal account $5.00s richer. On second thought, don't it might actually work.

 

[SomaSlave]

Add a reward for every comment, regardless of a good or bad review, you will make their PayPal account $5.00s richer. On second thought, don't it might actually work.

Sounds like a great idea! Could you send me the details of your PayPal account so I can set it up?

 

[SimonDoom]

Add a reward for every comment, regardless of a good or bad review, you will make their PayPal account $5.00s richer. On second thought, don't it might actually work.

This sounds like a mom paying other children to play with her kids.

 

[lovecraft68]

Add a reward for every comment, regardless of a good or bad review, you will make their PayPal account $5.00s richer. On second thought, don't it might actually work.

Years ago an author named "Sarahhh" offered to send a picture of her breasts to anyone who faved her. Later on there was a rumor, not sure it was 100% proven, that Sarahh was actually a guy, and one of the AH's most infamous trolls.

If that were true I wonder who's boobs he was sending pics of?

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

Add a reward for every comment, regardless of a good or bad review, you will make their PayPal account $5.00s richer. On second thought, don't it might actually work.

I'll tell her to put that on her to-do list for the 12 of nevertember.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Sounds like a great idea! Could you send me the details of your PayPal account so I can set it up?

Um, forgive me, but I'm not gonna do that.

This sounds like a mom paying other children to play with her kids.

It does a little, doesn't it?

Years ago an author named "Sarahhh" offered to send a picture of her breasts to anyone who faved her. Later on there was a rumor, not sure it was 100% proven, that Sarahh was actually a guy, and one of the AH's most infamous trolls.

If that were true I wonder who's boobs he was sending pics of?

Gross, so very gross! I'd never do such a thing, not even show my legs in the forum, or my ass. I don't kiss and tell either. Do I Mary?

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

Um, forgive me, but I'm not gonna do that.

It does a little, doesn't it?

Gross, so very gross! I'd never do such a thing, not even show my legs in the forum, or my ass. I don't kiss and tell either. Do I Mary?

Yes, you did. And how would I know?

 

[NoTalentHack]

I've got 5 slots on the Top 10 Most Sitewide Comments for the last 30 days, including the top 3 slots (No Place to Go, Unwanted Memories, and Spoken in Anger at 1-3, Indulgences at 7, Arbitrary at 10 as I write this). If what you're looking for is comments, especially if what you're looking for is meaningful comments, here's the advice I'd give:

1. Write in Loving Wives. I/T gets more views (probably), but LW is comment central. I have stories in four categories right now, with plans to get to twelve within a few months, but if I want feedback? LW. Here's a quick comparison, with my most commented on story outside of LW and a LW story with similar view numbers.

A Very Long Engagement in I/T has ~36K views, a 4.7 rating, 109 favorites, and 27 comments.
Indulgences in Loving Wives has ~38K views, a 4.1 rating, 77 favorites, and 155 comments.

2. If you write in LW, don't write stroke stories. They rarely do well there, either in terms of popularity or comments. You can have sex, you can even have explicit sex, but stick to relatively vanilla stuff; but, honestly, that's true of a lot of places. I/T is weirdly conservative about a lot of sex acts, too. Four of those 27 on A Very Long Engagement were complaints that I included anal. Arguably, don't write stroke stories at all if you're looking for comments. Give them something that's either a highly polished take on an existing trope or something that takes them out of their comfort zone or both.

3. Write something that challenges the reader. That doesn't mean "write something that makes them mad," like a political screed or a straight up cruel cuckolding story in LW (which, arguably is where it belongs, but is generally going to be better received in Fetish), although that can work. But to give you examples:

No Place to Go is about a man who receives a letter from his wife who's just passed from cancer, delivered by a lawyer that she's hired to help him make decisions about what it contains. It has no sex, but it is extremely emotionally intense, as the MC tries to make his way through a painful no-win situation.

Unwanted Memories is about a husband and wife who were on the verge of divorce before the wife's car accident put her into a coma and erased most of her memories. It's a love story about forgiveness and the notion of self and memory. There are sex scenes, but they're both tied directly into the plot.

Spoken in Anger is about a support group for young widows and widowers on Valentine's Day. The main themes it explores are forgiveness and grief, and how those two things influence each other.

Indulgences was me going up my own ass and letting a character free associate from recording industry contracts to medieval indulgences to reverse mortgages as she tries to find a way to give her husband to trust her again by describing the post-nuptial she's prepared for him. It's short and pretty silly, but also heartfelt and sweet.

Arbitrary is a take on the "We Need to Talk" subgenre of LW stories, where one of the spouses, usually the wife, decides unilaterally that they want to open up the marriage. It contains elements of a love story as well, between the male MC and his best friend that were intimate in college but broke up to be FWBs after an incident. But what it's mostly about is vows and commitments, and how the fact that they're arbitrary is sort of what makes them special.

4. Give them drama, regardless of the category. This one goes without saying; you can do a nice coffee shop AU or a sweet romance or a hot sex story, and those are all great. But if you want comments, give the readers someone to root for and against, even if you leave it up to them which is which.

You need a thick skin for LW, I'll admit. But it has a worse reputation than it arguably deserves, at least in my experience. Yes, there are a lot of misogynists there, a lot of "-1 cuck wimp shit" posters, a lot of dudes who either had bad divorces that turned them bitter or were always assholes that led to them having bad divorces. However, it's also the place where I get some of the best and most insightful comments. Even the anonymous commenters; some of the regular writers post as anonymous there to avoid getting brigaded by trolls.

You WILL get a bunch of the BTB (Burn the Bastard/Bitch) Brigade if you have the characters reconcile at the end of the story, no matter how well you as a writer feel it's earned. You WILL get people calling you a misogynist who writes controlling men if the husband walks away from the wife, regardless of their reasons. It is an absolute pit fight in there sometimes.

But you'll also get people that tell you their life stories. You'll get people that tell you that you've touched them, made them understand their divorce, gave them empathy for their ex, helped them figure out where things went wrong with their relationship with their kids. You'll get people that criticize your storytelling, your structure, your characters and characterization. You'll get folks that tell you you've written something amazing, something they couldn't put down, something they are so glad they read but never want to read again.

It's a fucking amazing place in a lot of ways. It's torture in others. But if you want comments, real, meaningful ones both about your writing and people's lives? It's the place to be.

 

[2soon2no]

Create friends here in the author page. Be active in their comment section and activity will invite activity

That answer is as nice as your smile.

 

[MajorRewrite]

I've got 5 slots on the Top 10 Most Sitewide Comments for the last 30 days, including the top 3 slots (No Place to Go, Unwanted Memories, and Spoken in Anger at 1-3, Indulgences at 7, Arbitrary at 10 as I write this). If what you're looking for is comments, especially if what you're looking for is meaningful comments, here's the advice I'd give:

1. Write in Loving Wives.

It's a fucking amazing place in a lot of ways. It's torture in others. But if you want comments, real, meaningful ones both about your writing and people's lives? It's the place to be.

You’re proving that the “only BTB stories do well in Loving Wives” saying is rubbish. Thanks for the tips for getting more comments.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Um, forgive me, but I'm not gonna do that.

It does a little, doesn't it?

Gross, so very gross! I'd never do such a thing, not even show my legs in the forum, or my ass. I don't kiss and tell either. Do I Mary?

In the signature it doesn't count as showing.

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

In the signature it doesn't count as showing.

Sure, shouldn't you be at church right now?

 

[MillieDynamite]

Sure, shouldn't you be at church right now?

I went to early service, if you must know. Going to church, temple, mosque, or whatever, doesn't make a person good or bad, does it?

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

I went to early service, if you must know. Going to church, temple, mosque, or whatever, doesn't make a person good or bad, does it?

Sorry, didn't mean to hit a nerve. Not sure why you are upset, it was a joke and I'm pretty sure knew that. So, I'm going back to writing.

 

[lovecraft68]

This is the only service I would attend.

 

[lovecraft68]

In the signature it doesn't count as showing.

I thought that was a body double you use for stunts and racy shoots.

 

[SomaSlave]

And, in the "be careful what you ask for" category, it appears I now have a regular commenter. S/he prefers to remain anonymous but is expressing a desire to marry Soma in almost every comment. I'm flattered that Soma is so appealing; however, since he is in large measure a projection of me, I'm not sure how I feel about my new suitor.

On the brighter side, I've also received several helpful and encouraging comments from fellow writers, which means the world to me.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I thought that was a body double you use for stunts and racy shoots.

We can go with that as long as Mary doesn't come back with some kind of smart-ass response.

 

[ecorche]

All this talk of sending boob shots or PayPal payments got me thinking about a comment rating system and how it might work.
Suppose you, the author, get to award each comment a star rating on each comment. The commenter's accumulated rating would be publicly displayed as "avg rating / total # of comments", sort of like the rating we see on our story dashboard. Imagine we shut down anonymous commenting, or maybe limit anonymous comments to once per week. Seems like such a system could potentially increase both the quantity and quality of comments.
Any such system would need to be implemented by site admins, and it would be a significant coding project. Like the admins don't have enough on their hands already. So before I even think about suggesting this, would it even work? Would it be something we authors would want?
It's a half-baked idea, but maybe it can be refined. Improvements welcome.

 

[SomaSlave]

All this talk of sending boob shots or PayPal payments got me thinking about a comment rating system and how it might work.
Suppose you, the author, get to award each comment a star rating on each comment. The commenter's accumulated rating would be publicly displayed as "avg rating / total # of comments", sort of like the rating we see on our story dashboard. Imagine we shut down anonymous commenting, or maybe limit anonymous comments to once per week. Seems like such a system could potentially increase both the quantity and quality of comments.
Any such system would need to be implemented by site admins, and it would be a significant coding project. Like the admins don't have enough on their hands already. So before I even think about suggesting this, would it even work? Would it be something we authors would want?
It's a half-baked idea, but maybe it can be refined. Improvements welcome.

I'm pretty certain any commenting system would be gamed by folks sooner rather than later. Unfortunately (or, perhaps, fortunately), human nature can't be circumvented by technology. There are going to be people who come to Literotica for stroke stories. There are others who come here for erotica. There are others who come here for good writing. As long as I can appeal to the second and third groups, I'm happy.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I'm pretty certain any commenting system would be gamed by folks sooner rather than later. Unfortunately (or, perhaps, fortunately), human nature can't be circumvented by technology. There are going to be people who come to Literotica for stroke stories. There are others who come here for erotica. There are others who come here for good writing. As long as I can appeal to the second and third groups, I'm happy.

Is it possible some will cum for all 3? I mean, come, not cum, though; in retrospect, maybe they come for the story and stay for cum.

 

[Thorlol]

4. Give them drama, regardless of the category. This one goes without saying; you can do a nice coffee shop AU or a sweet romance or a hot sex story, and those are all great. But if you want comments, give the readers someone to root for and against, even if you leave it up to them which is which.

You need a thick skin for LW, I'll admit. But it has a worse reputation than it arguably deserves, at least in my experience. Yes, there are a lot of misogynists there, a lot of "-1 cuck wimp shit" posters, a lot of dudes who either had bad divorces that turned them bitter or were always assholes that led to them having bad divorces. However, it's also the place where I get some of the best and most insightful comments. Even the anonymous commenters; some of the regular writers post as anonymous there to avoid getting brigaded by trolls.

This right there. If you want comments, go there. But like NoTalentHack said, be prepared and dont let those one liners (cuck wimp shit) get on your nerves. LW just attracts people with very different views from all parts of the world.

edit: damn I wanted to go and read some of your stories to give some thoughtful comments on them but unfortunately they are in a genre I do not prefer to read Still wish you good luck

 

[SomaSlave]

This right there. If you want comments, go there. But like NoTalentHack said, be prepared and dont let those one liners (cuck wimp shit) get on your nerves. LW just attracts people with very different views from all parts of the world.

edit: damn I wanted to go and read some of your stories to give some thoughtful comments on them but unfortunately they are in a genre I do not prefer to read Still wish you good luck

I would urge you to read some stories by NoTalentHack, regardless of category. NTH's stories are some of the more difficult reads I've encountered here, not because of the quality (the writing is superb), but because they have an intensity that can be hard to handle. I can't I like the stories, themselves, because they are painful to read; but it's a good pain, possibly cathartic and definitely thought-provoking.