Is Literotica still the place to get maximum views on your erotica?

[FrancesScott]

I will admit that what I said was probably over the top, and probably uncalled for. Most well written stories will find their audience in time, as will most authors who stick with it. Frances, it sounds like you’ve found your audience. I’m happy for you.

I will also admit I am more than a little disappointed that a story I recently wrote, that I think is an excellent story with great structure and storytelling, has failed to catch a wider readership. However, I’m not going to come in here and say, “how dare people not be awed by my craft and my skill.” I took my shot and missed. On to the next story where I will use the things I learned to craft a better story.

I recently made the mistake of going back to listening to Janet Burroway’s “Writing Fiction.” It is full of great tradecraft, but her pomposity and denigration of genre fiction irritates me to no end. The early posts reminded me a great deal of Burroway’s attitude.

Sounds like you have other stuff going on. Sorry about that. But please don’t make me a lightning rod for your frustrations, neither I nor anyone else here deserves that.

 

[StillStunned]

EDIT: as with most things, you get out of Lit what you put into it.

Unless you're publishing in Chain Stories, SF&F or Erotic Horror...

 

[TheLobster]

Unless you're publishing in Chain Stories, SF&F or Erotic Horror...

For me, that last category definitely delivered on its promise. I posted my Halloween story in EH and watched its performance with abject horror.

 

[Voboy]

Titles are such a huge part of the game. My two series are called "loves last chapter" and "the naked hiking club." The naked hiking club is doing gangbusters by my standards even though I felt loves last chapter was much better writing (so far - I hope the next chapter of TNHC to be my best work yet). Why is it doing better? The title. The Naked Hiking Club gives the potential reader a very clear idea what vibe to expect.

I wrote a story once that I thought was pretty good, certainly no worse than anything else I had written. It failed to get any traction, which I thought was odd. So I asked about it here in the AH.

A wiser and more astute writer took me to task because the title was simply a word in German. I just nodded; I hadn't even thought about it, but I'm sure they were right. It's the perfect title for the story, but it failed to get eyes.

Lesson learned. I'll put other languages in my stories now, but never in the title. A Lit reader has just moments to decide what to click on, and a German title for an Anglophone reader was a bad choice.

 

[ChloeTzang]

I wrote a story once that I thought was pretty good, certainly no worse than anything else I had written. It failed to get any traction, which I thought was odd. So I asked about it here in the AH.

A wiser and more astute writer took me to task because the title was simply a word in German. I just nodded; I hadn't even thought about it, but I'm sure they were right. It's the perfect title for the story, but it failed to get eyes.

Lesson learned. I'll put other languages in my stories now, but never in the title. A Lit reader has just moments to decide what to click on, and a German title for an Anglophone reader was a bad choice.

Hmmmmm, I did a story at the start of this year with an Afrikaans title and it has around the same views as most of my other stories this year, but it was pretty close to English and I guess, understandable. Probably the German you used didn't translate easily. I wouldn't do a title in Chinese, for example - lol, well, orobably not

 

[StillStunned]

I have a story called "Pas de Trois" which has done pretty well, with 8.8k views, 111 votes and 14 reader comments. But when it was stolen, it was renamed "Three Dancers".

 

[LunaJupiter]

Hmmmmm, I did a story at the start of this year with an Afrikaans title and it has around the same views as most of my other stories this year, but it was pretty close to English and I guess, understandable. Probably the German you used didn't translate easily. I wouldn't do a title in Chinese, for example - lol, well, orobably not

你覺得「口交城市」不會吸引人嗎？

 

[EmilyMiller]

I wrote a story once that I thought was pretty good, certainly no worse than anything else I had written. It failed to get any traction, which I thought was odd. So I asked about it here in the AH.

A wiser and more astute writer took me to task because the title was simply a word in German. I just nodded; I hadn't even thought about it, but I'm sure they were right. It's the perfect title for the story, but it failed to get eyes.

Lesson learned. I'll put other languages in my stories now, but never in the title. A Lit reader has just moments to decide what to click on, and a German title for an Anglophone reader was a bad choice.

People don’t understand schadenfreude ?

 

[TheLobster]

A wiser and more astute writer took me to task because the title was simply a word in German.

Was it one of the half dozen German words that most English speakers understand, like Schadenfreude, Gesundheit, Sauerkraut, etc.? If not, then I can see people getting confused and assuming a German story for accidentally filed under English section of Literotica.

 

[SimonDoom]

I will also admit I am more than a little disappointed that a story I recently wrote, that I think is an excellent story with great structure and storytelling, has failed to catch a wider readership. However, I’m not going to come in here and say, “how dare people not be awed by my craft and my skill.” I took my shot and missed. On to the next story where I will use the things I learned to craft a better story.

There's a significant random chance factor, in my opinion, and I've been doing this for a while. You have to restrain your expectations. I see wildly varying responses to my stories, and of course I think each one is just as good as the last. So keep improving your craft but always understand that the response to stories does not run like clockwork.

 

[StillStunned]

Was it one of the half dozen German words that most English speakers understand, like Schadenfreude, Gesundheit, Sauerkraut, etc.? If not, then I can see people getting confused and assuming a German story for accidentally filed under English section of Literotica.

Today's Oglaf at least went to the trouble of translating "Fledermaus".

 

[Erozetta]

Unless you're publishing in Chain Stories, SF&F or Erotic Horror...

Erotic horror can do really well. My serial killer story did really well there, but maybe things have changed drastically in that category over the past couple of years.

 

[Husky_Embrace]

It probably has already been said in 6 pages, but are views truly a good metric? I would argue that engagement is much more important than someone clicking on your story once and scrolling to the bottom, only then realising they're not in the mood to read something that day.

I would argue that engagement is more important. People that have read your story and have been touched enough, good or bad, to add a rating and possibly even a comment. Those are very low in general, so if those numbers do not satisfy, I think it is difficult to post a story anywhere.

That being said, some of the low views categories have higher engagement. More people reading through to the end, more people touched enough to rate and comment.

 

[Voboy]

Was it one of the half dozen German words that most English speakers understand, like Schadenfreude, Gesundheit, Sauerkraut, etc.?

People don’t understand schadenfreude ?

I, too, was surprised.

Hell, maybe it's just a shitty story. I dunno.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Hell, maybe it's just a shitty story. I dunno.

I doubt that!

 

[AwkwardMD]

It probably has already been said in 6 pages, but are views truly a good metric? I would argue that engagement is much more important than someone clicking on your story once and scrolling to the bottom, only then realising they're not in the mood to read something that day.

I would argue that engagement is more important. People that have read your story and have been touched enough, good or bad, to add a rating and possibly even a comment. Those are very low in general, so if those numbers do not satisfy, I think it is difficult to post a story anywhere.

That being said, some of the low views categories have higher engagement. More people reading through to the end, more people touched enough to rate and comment.

Personally I care the most about views. Engagement is nice but it requires the user to do something. As long as engagement is hitting average levels (1 vote per 100 views, 1 comment per thousand view) or exceeding them, I'm happy with the engagement.

What I crave are the eyeballs, and then I have some made-up mental percentages that work out like "take 20% off the top who didn’t make it past the first few paragraphs" and "take another 20% off for the one handed readers who check out after the first sex scene." "Take 10-20% off the top for bots and web crawlers trawling for data."

Your mileage may vary, but I want people to see my smut and think about it later.

 

[Actingup]

Unless you're publishing in Chain Stories, SF&F or Erotic Horror...

After entering Erotic Horror, I’m just happy to have gotten out of the deathly mansion alive.

 

[EmilyMiller]

After entering Erotic Horror, I’m just happy to have gotten out of the deathly mansion alive.

It’s my new worst category, replacing Celebs & FanFic

 

[StillStunned]

It’s my new worst category, replacing Celebs & FanFic

Challenge within a challenge: for next year's Fan Fic challenge, the first story to get 1k views wins a prize!

 

[Actingup]

Challenge within a challenge: for next year's Fan Fic challenge, the first story to get 1k views wins a prize!

Taylor’s Big Tits
My little sister takes a break from her music career

 

[StillStunned]

Taylor’s Big Tits
My little sister takes a break from her music career

Try putting it in Celebrities & FF and see how far you get...

Also, technically that's a Celeb story, not Fan Fic.

 

[PennyThompson]

Taylor’s Big Tits
My little sister takes a break from her music career

...to take up bird watching as a hobby?

 

[Actingup]

Try putting it in Celebrities & FF and see how far you get...

Also, technically that's a Celeb story, not Fan Fic.

Dang… you’re right, of course. Back to Elizabeth Bennet then.