"If I could go back and change the title..."

[StillStunned]

The other day I mentioned that after two and a half months "Life and Death of the She-Wolf" hadn't even had a thousand views. Well, apparently my griping worked, because a few dozen people at least glanced at it, and several even rated it.

But in the same post I mentioned that perhaps I should have given it a more catchy title - "A Ghost Recalls Her Sex Life", if I remember correctly.

This same week, I published my Pink Orchid story. The title went through several changes: originally the story was called "A Shared Experience", then it was "Inside Outside". Finally I settled on "The Walled Garden" simply because I couldn't think of anything better or sexier. The story is doing well, so I can't complain.

But do you ever look at a story of yours that's struggling for attention and think, "If only I'd given it a different title"? Despite my earlier remark, I don't think I'd change She-Wolf, because I love the story, and in fact I quite like how niche it is.

But others? "Fun with Fingers" could have been sexier, perhaps "An Unseen Touch" or something like that. "Closeness" would be "Look, Don't Touch", maybe. "Love at First Sight" might have done better as "To Watch Over You".

So, anyone else here have these regrets?

 

[Not2Pervy]

I have absolutely had that regret. I even once published a story I thought was pretty decent in Erotic Couplings, where after a few months it had only about 5k views and a rating around 4.5. A very small number of people commented very favorably. I pulled it down, tightened it up a bit, and reposted it a few weeks later in Mature under a different name, where it proceeded to score about 0.25 higher with 3 to 4 times as many views.

The longer I’ve been on this site the more I’m convinced that the title and capsule description are really important in driving views.

 

[samhasstories]

That's an interesting question. I struggle with titles in my non-erotica stuff, usually combing through the text to find one line that sort of thematically represents the whole, and highlighting that. It can be hard to find the right one, and easy to question whatever I pick.

I guess it's telling that I don't think about that much with my erotica. My titles are pretty bland, essentially just a short descriptor of what's taking place - Vacation with the Marshals is about a vacation with the Marshal family, The Photo Shoot is about... you get it. But it kinda fits, I think. My erotica is simple, no frills. A more inspired title might set the expectation that I'm trying to do something more interesting with the story than I am. The only reason I don't call them all Cumshots is I might start to get them confused.

 

[PeytonMirabelle]

The story I titled, "Dance With Me." It didn't really struggle for attention at release but there are a dozen or more stories on the site with the exact same title, so that name feels less interesting. Doing it over, I would chosen something else.

Now I do a story search on my pending title to see how often it's been used before I submit it.

 

[Devinter]

Caught in a Sticky Web had a working title of "Gas station hot dog" and honestly that's a better title considering it's a blowjob story set in a gas station. To make matters worse, the tagline reads: "Mature man and young woman fulfil each other's fantasies." - that's saying so very little, especially since the story is already in the Mature category.

The Inquisitor's Judgement really isn't a memorable title either, and it says next to nothing about what kind of story it is. The tagline "Dystopian world in which food must be earned. Sexually." is also fairly obscure, but at least there's something to lure a person in there potentially. It got very few reads despite how hard I worked on it. At least people like it, though!

The Crestfallen is not a good title whatsoever, but I named it that for personal reasons, as this story is a bit less fictional than some of the others I've created. (An element of truth in every story, eh? But this one more than most of mine.) If I could go back in time, I would change a lot more than just the title about this story - including the category I put it in, as it definitely belongs in Anal and not Erotic Coupling. I believe it's my longest published non-chaptered work at 26k words, and it only got about 6000 views - and out of those, I bet less than half finished it as certain parts are just unnecessarily dull. Maybe one day I'll rewrite it. Probably not, but maybe.

 

[karina_jayde]

I do wish I could change the title of my 'Drowning at Dusk' series. I honestly can't even really remember why I chose it. I think I had the term 'dusk' in mind because it's a fantasy series with an elven culture called 'dusk elves.' While the alliteration is nice, and I suppose it does hint at a belabored metaphor about drowning in emotions, it doesn't really work overall, and sort of alludes to actual drowning or something nautical/maritime, which doesn't really fit at all. Given that the later stories involved the main characters bonding through an unusual magical dance, something with 'dance' and 'dusk' in the title might have worked better.

Mostly I wish I had done different short descriptions for several of my works. The character limit makes it a struggle, but I definitely felt I could have done better, especially with the first entry, which was 'An assassination mission goes awry.' That is an apt descriptor of what happens, but it doesn't really hint at the allure of the target and the seeds that are planted in that first installment.

I have also found (albeit my data set is limited, given I only have 16 works) that directly mentioning a sex act gets a big boost in reads, lol. The entries later in my series that mention 'threesome' have a notable jump in views compared to other later stories that don't mention that. Sheer views aren't everything, of course, but going forward I am going to try to entice people more with the descriptions and titles.

 

[NoTalentHack]

Five Nights With Freddy. Love the story, both because it's a fun story and because of the collaboration with @seraph_nocturne, but I feel part of why it never got the readership I hoped for was because of the name.

 

[MyBareTorso]

My huge regret is actually opting to use the term "Oz Beach Boy" in all of my titles. Yes, it makes my stories instantly recognisable, but I think it might also turn some readers off. It also means my titles are very short, and rather artless. When I wrote my first stories, however, I genuinely did not think I'd still be here with nearly 100 tales published (the literary track marks of my addiction to Literotica)...if so, "Oz Beach Boy" would definitely not have been used. It doesn't bother me enough to go back and change anything, but it's certainly a regret...

 

[mildlyaroused]

I think there's a difference on Lit between a good title and a title that draws views.

In my experience, very plain titles that just outline the kink in question tend to attract readers. As an example, I saw a title recently that was called "Breeding my wife's Sister" (or something along those lines). I don't know about you, but I wouldn't consider this title very literary or clever - but it gets the point across well and gets the I/T audience excited.

A clever, metaphorical title that's drawn from the themes of the story, or has a unique artistic flair, might be a better title than these plain ones - but maybe not better on Lit.

 

[StillStunned]

A clever, metaphorical title that's drawn from the themes of the story, or has a unique artistic flair, might be a better title than these plain ones - but maybe not better on Lit.

My most-viewed story is called "Too Cold Not to Fuck". It doesn't really make any sense, even in the context of the story, but it sounds great and it's definitely an eye-catcher.

 

[Rob_Royale]

Yes. Hedonism House is about a crumbling ruin of a resort that does a "Shining" kind of thing when a woman enters it. She's whipped back in time to 1962. It's rated well and comments are positive, but views are about sixty percent of my other stories in that category, with more provocative titles. The lousy thing of it is, that it's actually a good title for the story. It fits. So as much as I thought about changing it, I won't.

 

[TheRedChamber]

I love a good title, and am pretty happy with most of mine.

That said, the story "The Accidental Doggers" had it's title changed after my beta-reader told me I was reaching too much with the original title. "The Curious Night of Incidental Dogging"

Much to my suprise he had no such objections to my April Fools story (publishing later today) called "Chocolate and the Charlie Factory"

 

[BobbyBrandt]

The other day I mentioned that after two and a half months "Life and Death of the She-Wolf" hadn't even had a thousand views. Well, apparently my griping worked, because a few dozen people at least glanced at it, and several even rated it.

But in the same post I mentioned that perhaps I should have given it a more catchy title - "A Ghost Recalls Her Sex Life", if I remember correctly.

This same week, I published my Pink Orchid story. The title went through several changes: originally the story was called "A Shared Experience", then it was "Inside Outside". Finally I settled on "The Walled Garden" simply because I couldn't think of anything better or sexier. The story is doing well, so I can't complain.

But do you ever look at a story of yours that's struggling for attention and think, "If only I'd given it a different title"? Despite my earlier remark, I don't think I'd change She-Wolf, because I love the story, and in fact I quite like how niche it is.

But others? "Fun with Fingers" could have been sexier, perhaps "An Unseen Touch" or something like that. "Closeness" would be "Look, Don't Touch", maybe. "Love at First Sight" might have done better as "To Watch Over You".

So, anyone else here have these regrets?

I'll share a few examples of stories that I have posted with single word titles:

and finally,

I don't regret any of the titles, but I admit that I do wonder how different ones might have impacted the stories with readers, positively or negatively.

 

[Djmac1031]

Over all I'm pretty happy with my title choices.

I have had some regrets on category selection.

The Devil And Angel Em, while having some BDSM elements, really should have gone in Fantasy.

Same with Pornville. It's essentially a Fantasy story, but it had so many various sexual kinks / genres that I went with the catch all Erotic Couplings. And in hindsight that was a mistake.

Mya Watches did just find in E/V, but it really is more a Mature story.

 

[StillStunned]

Eight months down the road, let's revisit this topic.

I think there's a difference on Lit between a good title and a title that draws views.
[...]
A clever, metaphorical title that's drawn from the themes of the story, or has a unique artistic flair, might be a better title than these plain ones - but maybe not better on Lit.

Not A Soul - This one I'd definitely change. The idea came to me, and I thought it was clever, because it's a story about a space vampire sucking the souls out of the crew of a space station and the security team that go to investigate. It's really only clever in hindsight, though, and I wish I'd gone for something sexier. Even "Soul-Sucking Space Vampire" would probably have drawn more views than the 2.9k it has now.

One Orgasm At A Time 01 - Again, clever if you know what the story is about (a woman has been hogging all the orgasms, and is sent on a mission through space and time to give them back to those more deserving). Perhaps not even then. Maybe if I add more chapters it would work. 3.6k views, but it would probably have done better as "Orgasmic Payback" or something.

 

[lovecraft68]

I glossed through my titles and honestly, I think they all work fine. Titles and tags have always come easy to me.

Only regret I could see was I did a teacher/student piece for Heyalls On the job event and titled it Extra Credit which works fine, but being the teacher was a woman it was also a milf or cougar cub piece and I should have made it part of my Milf Tails series "Milf Tails: Extra Credit. Its numbers were good, but below several installments in that series, so I might have gotten more attention if I had added it to that list.

But looking through reminded me of a story where I came very close to going with a title that wouldn't have been as good. A BDSM story was originally going to be called Black Friday. I wrote it around the fall so seeing the upcoming Friday in the story could lead to bad consequences if the main character made the wrong decision about something, but was playing off the upcoming Black Friday sale madness. But being the lead character is a black woman I realized the title could be seen as racist. I normally don't get caught up in worrying much about what people think, but if it occurred to me, maybe others would see it that way.

When I thought on a new one it hit me the characters persona name is Mercedes, and the story was about her having an issue with a particular rule she was supposed to follow that she ended up conceding to-and enjoying. Thus I came up with "Mercedes Bends" some clever word play if I say so myself and several others commented on it.

I feel like I saved myself at zero hour.

 

[Writer61]

I think there's a difference on Lit between a good title and a title that draws views.
[...]
A clever, metaphorical title that's drawn from the themes of the story, or has a unique artistic flair, might be a better title than these plain ones - but maybe not better on Lit.

This makes sense to me, except my most viewed (average 10.5k) and second highest rated story (4.73) has the accurate but opaque title 'Summer by the sea'. The highest rated story (4.84) has a clearer title 'Adam in Asia - All is revealed' but it is not exactly explicit.

The follow-up stories to 'Summer by the sea' all have working titles 'Naked in …' or 'Naked on …' and I am tempted to stick with them to see if that approach does better.

The downside is that there are probably several stories with the same/similar name, although I wonder how much that matters. For example, if you searched for 'Naked in church' and got three hits you would probably choose the one in the category that appeals to you with the highest rating and most engaging short description first.

 

[SimonDoom]

Most of my stories have simple, descriptive titles, and that seems to work. In retrospect, I'd change the title of my first story, The Holiday Party, because it's a boring, unsexy title and its reception was meh.

 

[Writer61]

Thus I came up with "Mercedes Bends" some clever word play if I say so myself and several others commented on it.

Nothing like a good pun in the title. I have a whole story idea that grew from a jokey title.

 

[TheLobster]

I'm a sucker for punny titles, usually by playing them off of well-known works, and I know I should go with something more descriptive and explicit from time to time.

But then again, how could anyone resist what lies beneath such enticing titles as Naked Without a Cause, or Gym Girl, Interrupted, or how what's the three-layered meaning behind Debra's in for a Pound?

 

[Kumquatqueen]

If there's an obvious erotic hook, it's probably best to mention it in the title. I should have called my Smoking Hot series something like 'Stopping Smoking the Cock-Sucking Way'. Though if the content isn't widely popular, it may not help - 'Switching at KinkCon' makes clear there's a kinky convention and indicates people getting some action both as dom and sub, but most readers aren't interested in switches, certainly not within a story.

Some stories don't have a clear hook - 'A Tale of Two Christmases' is I think the best I could do as a title for a novella that's an emotional story of friends vs family (plus some sex) over guess what, two consecutive Christmases.

If the story isn't a simple erotic piece then being more indirect can pique the interest of readers who want something different. I like my title 'Image Nine Point Four' because it makes you wonder why an image would have a number, and indirectly suggests a legal drama, which it is (albeit written to justify kink and sex in the House of Lords, as you do).

I think the tagline needs to be combined with the title to attract people, but there's always the risk that you attract interest from those who hate most of what you write. When I wrote a sibcest story I got about 80 new followers, but then my total followers didn't rise for a year, as my usual kinky queer content drove them away as fast as I attracted new followers (about half a dozen per story).

The only other ones I'd change would be Sit on My Face, Tell me You Love Me, which is a bastardisation of Monty Python's song "Sit on my face and tell me that you love me", which didn't fit. It loses the rhythm and I suspect few people got the reference. And 'Denying Alex', because while I was using 'deny' in the footballing sense, Alex doesn't get what he wants, it was interpreted as the female narrator purposely cock-blocking the guy, and attracted lots of incel vitriol (and it's only 750 words).

 

[Erozetta]

"Blood Wine" and "Friends and Family" are the only ones I think I'd change.

I'd switch "Blood Wine" to "A Wolf and His Witch" as I think it suits the story a bit better. The wine is only one aspect of the story, the new title would be more character focused.

With "Friends and Family" I think the title is misleading as it would suggest some sort of incest in play to some degree, but there's none. It makes sense in the context of the story, so I don't know what I would change it to.

 

[lovecraft68]

With "Friends and Family" I think the title is misleading as it would suggest some sort of incest in play to some degree, but there's none. It makes sense I'm the context of the story, so I don't know what I would change it to.

Friends and Family....but not that kind of family!

 

[AwkwardMD]

"Light Rays Coming Out Of The Computer" is, perhapa, a bit too obtuse, but I wouldn't change it for the world

 

[Erozetta]

Friends and Family....but not that kind of family!

To be fair to my title... It involves a girl who is expected, by both her family and his, to date and eventually marry her male best friend.

Then his oldest brother and a Popsicle get involved and everything goes sideways when little brother surprises them just before they get too carried away.

It's a fun little story, lol. I want to rewrite it and clean it up some. Sticky Popsicle drips being licked up will stay, older brother teaching younger brother how to get the girl off (because older brother had a couple of hours to work out some of her buttons already) is probably gonna go. It's also one of the first erotica stories I wrote so it's super disjointed.

Basically, I like the premise, but I can do better with it than what I delivered on previously.