My first year publishing on Literotica

[Naughtylit81]

I am approaching my first year publishing on Literotica. I thought I would share some of the qualitative and quantitative insights from this year.

If I get straight to the most important aspect this summer was not a good time for me emotionally and mentally. I found a supportive community from both the authors and readers. The kindness shown and the support offered really helped me when I needed a helping hand. There were two particular fans that made a specific effort to encourage me to seek help when I opened up about my struggles and took the time to keep checking in. I won't mention them by their site ID but if they read this they know who they are and how much I appreciate them.

When I started writing, as I imagine is the case for many, I was in dire need of an editor. Through the last year I have used 5 different editors from the volunteer program and they have all made their significant contributions to improving my writing. Particular thanks goes to Brucru and KenjiSato who have become my go-to editors and I firmly believe their efforts have been a big part of the success for my work. Fortunately, I have been able to learn as we go and while I still get edits from them they are fewer than when we started and tend to be for new things so I am actually improving as a writer thanks to them.

Speaking of my writing in the last 12 months I have published 8 stories starting 3 series in 1 category for a total of 64K+ words. As this year closes out I have 3 more queued up as submitted, completed or in editing including my first foray into a new category for an additional 23K words. Not to mention a half dozen ideas somewhere between notions, notes, and unfinished musings. Not sure if that is a little or a lot but for my first year writing 87K words is a milestone I would not have imagined reaching.

For my 8 stories all have earned and retained their their little red H which as much as that isn't important in the grand scheme was, and is, an important outward sign of success I needed as I struggled with some of my mental health issues this year. Across all 8 stories the weighted average rating comes out to a 4.68 with 349 favorites. They have also been viewed a total of 175K times. Given all of them are in the more niche interracial category, and even more niche bwwm aka not BBC sub-category, I think those numbers reflect a decent degree of success in they represent readers who are enjoying my efforts.

My goal in the next year is to branch out into at least 2 more categories, to finish the the 3 series I have up already and the 1 series I have in the works and which with a little luck will see chapter 1 go up before the end of the year. Not sure if I have a word count in mind but my confidence to write longer stories is growing as I have moved from 6.2K for my first story to 12K for my latest. Keeping that confidence to put that many words down on paper is probably the way to express that goal.

Now having said all of that if you are a numbers nerd here is a less narrative presentation of the numbers:

Published - 3 Series with 8 Stories total
Series 1 - 5 Stories, 257 Favorites, 132K views, 4.7 weighted average rating, 33K words
Series 2 - 2 Stories, 71 Favorites, 30K views, 4.64 weighted average rating, 21K words
Series 3 - 1 Story, 21 Favorites, 13K views, 4.52 weighted average rating, 9.8K words

Unpublished - 2 Series with 3 Stories total
Series 2 - 1 Story, 12K words
Series 4 - 2 Stories, 11K words

I am looking forward to what stories I am able to create in 2025.

 

[StillStunned]

Congratulations! Keep writing, and keep enjoying what you write!

 

[THBGato]

Well done! Quite apart from your considerable achievements, I think that being reflective in this way is, in itself, admirable.

It's exactly a year since I started reading on Lit, 10 months since I published my first story. I'm having similar thoughts...

 

[Naughtylit81]

Well it looks like I was wrong in my first post. In my first year I will publish nine stories. My ninth story, Cheating at Church Chapter 1, is set to publish on 22 December just shy of my one year anniversary.

Not sure if I get to count it as part of my goal to expand my categories or not.

 

[SimonDoom]

Congratulations for all you've accomplished in just your first year. I hope the success and enjoyment continue in 2025.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Congratulations.

Here's a suggestion for you:

Your series stories appear to be actual chapters to the same story rather than a series of stand-alone stories, which is fine, if...

Are the stories finished? If they are, I suggest that you go into the Series Manager and mark them as complete.



A lot of readers, including myself will not start a story that isn't obviously finished, whether it is actively being worked on or not. If the story looks interesting to me, I'll bookmark it in some fashion and check back on its status occasionally, but I won't make the investment of time to start reading it unless I know that I can finish it at my own pace.