Newby seeks help with categories

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Newby seeks help with categories

I'm new here and halfway through a story about a girl joining a married couple for a consensual threesome but which category do I submit it under? So it's not one on one consensual sex, it's not exactly first time, it's not really group sex and loving wives looks like the story graveyard. Can anyone please point me in the right direction?

Thank you.
 
You should know which category is the best fit by the time you finish the story. If you don't know by then, there's a very good chance that the readers won't know either.

If it continues as you described it, Erotic Couplings sound appropriate.
 
Threesome fits into Group Sex; how is it not one?

Otherwise, Loving Wives is the most appropriate probably, with all that it entails...
 
This is a difficult one. If it's very clear that it's consensual, and the focus is on the dynamics of the married couple, then a F:F:M story in LW might be fine. You would expect a lower score relative to other categories but a higher level of engagement, particularly if it's a good story. LW is renowned for its factions and harsh critics, but also for strong engagement (if I sort my stories by 'views' or 'comments', five of the top six are in Loving Wives).

Group Sex or Erotic Couplings will give you milder 'meh' reactions, but might be a safer option for you to test the waters while you're finding your voice. Make sure that you read this essay, although it's starting to date a little.
 
Newby seeks help with categories

I'm new here and halfway through a story about a girl joining a married couple for a consensual threesome but which category do I submit it under? So it's not one on one consensual sex, it's not exactly first time, it's not really group sex and loving wives looks like the story graveyard. Can anyone please point me in the right direction?

Thank you.
My first suggestion for a new author and categories is what I was pointed to: A How To by Tx Tall Tales (Love Your readers: Categories)

I also point new authors to my (How To Be an Author On Literaotica)

To you direct question, if the three-some is the focus of the story, the highlight of it, I would go for Group Sex,
 
Group Sex suggests a kind of orgy of six or seven people, but it's like what does 'a few' or 'several' mean? The lower limit is three. Even if there are only three, it's more like Group Sex than anything else.

Possibly look through the category and do some random sampling: how many are orgies of six or ten or twenty people? Are there many that are just threesomes or two couples swapping?
 
I would put that in group sex.

But also--if you've chosen the "wrong" category when submitting, that will be fixed when it's actually approved and published. I had one of mine that was so changed by Laurel before it went live.
 
Three people? I'm confused as to why that isn't Group Sex.

PS: welcome to Lit!
Group Sex is a backwater category though. You put a story there, and you wouldn't know it's alive. Of all the categories I've posted in, Group is the least responsive by a long shot.

For a threesome, I'd post in EC. If it's decently written, it won't disappear.
 
Newby seeks help with categories

I'm new here and halfway through a story about a girl joining a married couple for a consensual threesome but which category do I submit it under? So it's not one on one consensual sex, it's not exactly first time, it's not really group sex and loving wives looks like the story graveyard. Can anyone please point me in the right direction?

Thank you.

You might want to think about putting it in Erotic Coupling. You can read a few of the stories and see if it fits. HTH
 
Group or EC, and I would go with Group. The one time I've had a story die totally, it was posted in EC and didn't get on the category front page the day it was released.
 
Group Sex is a backwater category though. You put a story there, and you wouldn't know it's alive. Of all the categories I've posted in, Group is the least responsive by a long shot.

For a threesome, I'd post in EC. If it's decently written, it won't disappear.
I'll say I get slightly more attention on my group sex stories than my EC stories (in the same series). YMMV.
 
Agree with everyone. It depends on what happens in the story. If it's about adultery, LW. If the three of them get into, say, the lady/ladies putting on high heels and getting their feet loved, Fetish. If the focus of the story is padlocks and paddles, BDSM. It they're just engaging in mutually fun happy sex times, Group Sex.

--Annie
 
Group Sex has very slow turnover. Two to five stories a day, means your story will stay on the front page for a while.
Erotic Couplings is a crap shoot. Sixteen stories came out TODAY. The category as a whole gets more clicks, but they are not evenly distributed.

Now if you don't click the "more new stories" button, the current category screen only shows you ten new stories. That's atrocious and I've reported it as a bug, but that's reality right now. And it makes a big difference. As of the point I am writing this, the six stories that came out today and don't show up until you press the more stories button have less views than the lucky story at the top of the page. Not less views each, less views combined. All six of them together have been clicked on less than the single story that randomly got the top entry.

So if I didn't already have a following, I think it would make a lot more sense to put my story in Groups than Erotic Couplings if there was a question.
 
Group Sex suggests a kind of orgy of six or seven people, but it's like what does 'a few' or 'several' mean? The lower limit is three. Even if there are only three, it's more like Group Sex than anything else.

Possibly look through the category and do some random sampling: how many are orgies of six or ten or twenty people? Are there many that are just threesomes or two couples swapping?
I’ve always considered the reader the fourth person in a threesome clearly placing such a story in ā€œgroupā€
 
As described, I'd put it in Group; the other times I've written threesome stories there, that's where I've put them. The response was not bad.

If there is a significant age gap in the story, Mature is an option. Especially if there is any kind of "mentoring" that occurs at any point. It's a fairly flexible and polite readership, though they do tend to prefer a gentler tone and a somewhat happier ending. If this were my story, I would probably "steer" it in the direction of the girl taking some sort of protege role, sexually, and Mature is where I would put it. I'd make sure everyone ended up happy, and that there was little or no bad blood between any of the characters.

EC certainly does work, but I tend to avoid it because the turnover tends to bury new stories.
 
Wow! Thank you all for all your time, trouble and advice, I am stunned: ask a silly question and get a lot of very sensible answers! Having read all of your replies carefully, followed most of the links and thought about what you have all said I think that Group Sex sounds like the place for a newby to post a story about a threesome.

Once again thank you all for all your help, i am amazed.
 
You should know which category is the best fit by the time you finish the story. If you don't know by then, there's a very good chance that the readers won't know either.

If it continues as you described it, Erotic Couplings sound appropriate.
"Couplings" implies two people, not three
 
This is one of the problems (and virtues) of EC: it's ambiguous. You can fit anything there, or nothing.
 
Wow! Thank you all for all your time, trouble and advice, I am stunned: ask a silly question and get a lot of very sensible answers! Having read all of your replies carefully, followed most of the links and thought about what you have all said I think that Group Sex sounds like the place for a newby to post a story about a threesome.

Once again thank you all for all your help, i am amazed.
Welcome to AH, hope you stay😊 We can be a useful bunch once in a while, in between all the griping and the bad puns.
 
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