No readers

[diplomat69]

I am a first time author on Literotica and have posted one story: Terms and Conditions. No one to my knowledge has read my story. How do I promote it? I would hope that others will enjoy my story or at least read it and provide feedback. Thanks.

 

[Ched21]

I am a first time author on Literotica and have posted one story: Terms and Conditions. No one to my knowledge has read my story. How do I promote it? I would hope that others will enjoy my story or at least read it and provide feedback. Thanks.

Link to the story?

 

[StillStunned]

The data on the story page say you've had 1.7k views, and a comment as well. Your author dashboard will show the actual data, including how many people have rated your story.

Seriously, 1.7k views isn't bad. You could have tried a catchier description, but still it's impossible to say who's going to read it.

I have stories that have struggled to get 1000 views. Sometimes it just happens. Write more, get some followers, and if you really want high viewing numbers try posting in Incest & Taboo.

 

[RejectReality]

Go to your dashboard and click on the Works link. That's a ( more or less ) realtime update of your statistics. Views only update every 15 minutes, and comments process in batches, but everything else should be more or less to the moment.

One thing I will warn you about after clicking on the story to check category, length, etc. Laurel is usually a stickler for punctuation around dialogue.

"I know," she said, "I should have listened to you."

You're omitting the comma after the first bit of dialogue whenever you have dialogue split by a tag like this. Make sure you get into the habit of including that comma, or you'll almost certainly start getting grammar rejections.

As to the response, I've never really ventured much into the Non-Con category, so I don't have any yardstick to measure it against. You can't really compare across categories. The level of readership and engagement is too wildly different between any two categories to do that.

Anywhere else you see statistics other than your own Works page will be behind by varying degrees. Most of the pages on the site are cached, and only update on a schedule varying from every quarter hour to once every 24 hours. So if you see different numbers on a different page ( even the statistics shown on the story itself ) that's why. Your Works page will always be the most up-to-date version of the numbers. Everything else is behind.

 

[PennameWombat]

I am a first time author on Literotica and have posted one story: Terms and Conditions. No one to my knowledge has read my story. How do I promote it? I would hope that others will enjoy my story or at least read it and provide feedback. Thanks.

As others have said, look at your dashboard. On your story page, it shows the story has 1700 views and 2 comments. I don't know how many readers have voted (rated one to five stars), but at least some have as your story has a 3.5 rating (total points, each vote worth one to five points, divided by the number of votes.) That's not bad, my most recent story has 2300 views (inn Exhibitionist & Voyeur category) and it's my 52nd story. But I've never posted in Non-Con and don't normally read stories there, so can't say how your stats compare, and each Category ) as RejectReality says) is its own little world.

As to promotion, there really isn't anything on the site you can do, except the usual advice is "write more stories." The larger your catalog, the more likely a reader will come across one of them and explore others. Readers can Follow you, but that doesn't work like an email list that you can use. However, they will be notified each time you publish a new story by the site, so they'll get announcements.

Literotica does have a Twitter account (the only deadname I use, but well, X if you want to call it that). You can post there and include a link to your story and tag Literotica and they're very good about retweeting your post to everyone who follows their account. But, I've done that, but I've never really seen a bump from it. But I know of a number of other authors who also post there.

Finally, feedback. Your story has two comments, both complimentary. But if you spend any amount of time here on AH, you'll see this discussed. As a rule, most Literotica readers aren't going out of their way to give feedback. They're here to read. You can take a look at the comments, they're not deep critiques, but those readers liked your story.

 

[SimonDoom]

Your story has 1.7 thousand views, a score, and two comments, both favorable, so it obviously has readers. If you download the file with your daily story stats you can see how many votes it has received. You can be fairly confident that the number of actual readers lies somewhere between the view and vote totals.

A few tips if you want more readers:

1. Include a link to your story submission page in the signature of your comments here. You can set that up.

2. Think about your story title. Remember, you need to grab people's attention amid all the other stories published every day. "Terms and Conditions" is a bit bland.

3. Your tagline doesn't entice. You merely use it to say you are a first time reader.

4. Keep publishing and you'll stimulate more reader interest.

5. Use the full allotment of tags. You have no tags on your story.

6. I agree with RejectReality that you should be more mindful of punctuation. Not only do you increase the risk of getting the story rejected, but people are less likely to finish reading a story if the punctuation isn't careful.

7. I'd suggest starting the story with more of a bang. Jump into the scene where they meet and make it more interesting, foreshadowing what is to come. The story starts off with a summary. You want to capture the reader's attention right away and hold it. The story premise is a good one but it needs more teasing and foreshadowing at the beginning.


Good luck.

 

[OnlyHappyEndings]

I see the problem. No one actually reads terms and conditions. They just click to accept.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Good suggestions above. Another is to submit stories to events and contests, for they bring in readers. My entry for the on-going Summer Lovin' event actually boosted my views five times and presumably some of those went on to read some of my other tales. It's (no pun intended - well, maybe just a little) compounding interest.

Good luck.

 

[MrPixel]

I see the problem. No one actually reads terms and conditions. They just click to accept.

My exact thought!

 

[KachinaDoll]

When looking for a story to read I skim through the new stories list. A daily refresh gives me about 300 stories to choose from. To catch my eye, a story needs to have an attractive title and byline. TBH, I would have passed your story by. The title and byline are your book cover.

 

[gunhilltrain]

When looking for a story to read I skim through the new stories list. A daily refresh gives me about 300 stories to choose from. To catch my eye, a story needs to have an attractive title and byline. TBH, I would have passed your story by. The title and byline are your book cover.

This site has a huge number of members which has upsides and downsides. There are a huge number of people who are here only to read. That's okay, but sometimes I imagine them as locusts sweeping down on those 300 stories per week and then moving on. And that many stories means there are a lot of people writing here too. Another analogy I've used is that Lit is a content factory mass producing stuff constantly. As a writer, one can feel lost in this huge enterprise. It takes a while to get used to it. I'll have something more to say in another message.

 

[gunhilltrain]

As others have said, look at your dashboard. On your story page, it shows the story has 1700 views and 2 comments. I don't know how many readers have voted (rated one to five stars), but at least some have as your story has a 3.5 rating (total points, each vote worth one to five points, divided by the number of votes.) That's not bad, my most recent story has 2300 views (inn Exhibitionist & Voyeur category) and it's my 52nd story. But I've never posted in Non-Con and don't normally read stories there, so can't say how your stats compare, and each Category ) as RejectReality says) is its own little world.

As to promotion, there really isn't anything on the site you can do, except the usual advice is "write more stories." The larger your catalog, the more likely a reader will come across one of them and explore others. Readers can Follow you, but that doesn't work like an email list that you can use. However, they will be notified each time you publish a new story by the site, so they'll get announcements.

Literotica does have a Twitter account (the only deadname I use, but well, X if you want to call it that). You can post there and include a link to your story and tag Literotica and they're very good about retweeting your post to everyone who follows their account. But, I've done that, but I've never really seen a bump from it. But I know of a number of other authors who also post there.

Finally, feedback. Your story has two comments, both complimentary. But if you spend any amount of time here on AH, you'll see this discussed. As a rule, most Literotica readers aren't going out of their way to give feedback. They're here to read. You can take a look at the comments, they're not deep critiques, but those readers liked your story.

This is useful to think about. As I write more stories here, I have more people coming back to read the old ones. I can usually predict which ones will be their favorites because, well, they are better than my average output.

Having followers is nice, but check how many authors they are following. Dozens, probably hundreds in some cases. They just don't have time to hang on everything you put out here. Yet, it's still better to publish widely rather than keeping everything to oneself or only for a few friends.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

The sweetest thing for me is being the first on their list.

 

[Lifestyle66]

I just finished your story, and it was good.

First, your title and description doesn't tell us why we should want to click on your story. Nobody cares that you're a first-time writer, they're looking for something for their own entertainment. So, use all of the limited number of words in the title and description carefully to GRAB their attention.

Next you put it in Nonconsent/Reluctance. But there was very little noncon in it to appeal to those hardliners who want NONCONSENT. Liliana was basically selling herself for a free apartment, and her attitude was "anything goes" for her lover. You would need a lot more words to build more reluctance into the story. Just having her think "Well, I haven't done this before, but , well, okay" doesn't sell it. And the wife didn't put up any resistance to giving up her ass for her first time. So, it would probably have done better rating-wise in Group Sex. I personally prefer Loving Wives where it would also fit, and it would have gained a much larger number of views. But they would have trashed it with disgusting comments and a low rating, because of the extra-marital sex.

EDIT: Think of selecting the category as your first step in selecting WHICH audience you want to read it and think about what those readers for that niche really LOVE to read. Look at the types of highly rated stories in that category and decide whether yours carries those same fetishes to the extreme which would earn it a 5.

But overall, it was good for your first, and I gave it a 5.

 

[OnlyHappyEndings]

the wife didn't put up any resistance to giving up her ass for her first time.

There's the tagline! Now I want to read it.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

There's lots of readers, and no algorithim, so a story not being read is practically impossible, outside of people actively avoiding it. Do the best you can, and tag properly. Just remember ya can't win'em all or plwase'm all.