Novellas, readership and categorising

[Monster_slayer]

Hi there, I've been working on a novella (specifically to post on Literotica) that falls under the non-consent category, and that includes MM and well as MF sex. It's currently sitting at around 50,000 words and will probably be 60,000 by the time I'm done.

When I look through the novella category, it seems the readership (or at least, the number of likes on stories) is lower, and I'm wondering if this is because the parts that are published don't fall under a specific kink heading, so they're less likely to be read.

I really want people to read my story, but I'm not sure how to best go about it. There is actually a story element, that I hope lends to the theme of the story, which is kind of a 'guy learns about consent the hard way' - but this means I can't cut it up into pieces and post into separate categories the way I might like to, because there's not enough 'sexy' in some pieces t count as erotica as the characters are built out (I'm guessing that might be one suggestion - make sure there's enough sexy in each portion to hold readers' attention).

So, I'm wondering how to best tackle this. And given I can't categorise in non-con, or MM, which I understand upset some people when they stumble across it accidentally, I'm thinking the best approach is to put a disclaimer header on each part explaining all of this, for people who care, and just hope people look into the novella section and see it.

Any thoughts?

 

[sr71plt]

In e-publishing terms, 50,000-to-60,000 words is a novel, not a novella. I suspect that the lack of obvious subject category is what keeps readers from browsing--and reading--in the novella/novel category. Folks are publishing humongous tomes straight to the subject categories here, so you might consider just doing that.

 

[Monster_slayer]

Good point. So, you think split it up, put some warnings on it, and maybe give people an idea of where the sexy starts, so they can skip ahead if they don't want all the prelude?

 

[sr71plt]

If you don't want to split it up for some reason or another, you can post it as one entry to the dominant story category. There are people posting full novels to the themed contests here in subject categories with twenty or more Lit. pages (and doing well in the contests because the system here benefits stories of lengths that make downvoters give up before getting to the end).

 

[ChloeTzang]

Good point. So, you think split it up, put some warnings on it, and maybe give people an idea of where the sexy starts, so they can skip ahead if they don't want all the prelude?

I've done 35k words as as one story and not many readers complained. Most liked them and the score was good. I always write a note at the start now wigh a length advisory. If tg e sex doesn't com e to later on I say that too. Set some expectations and post it in the subject category. Thats what I do anyhow.

 

[sr71plt]

I don't write for readers requiring babysitting, so, although I'll give a chapter count and estimated last posting date note up front of a multichapter series, I don't do any other babysitting and hand holding in story notes. And I only give the chapter count and an estimated clearing date because there are so many here walking out on the readers and not completing their series. I want my readers to know the story was completed before I started posting it and that I'm not going to let it drag on until they've lost context with it.

 

[legerdemer]

The second or third place winning story in the Winter Holiday contest was 21 pages according to the Lit count, which translates to between 75,000 and 78,750 words, depending on how many words were on the last page.

 

[SamScribble]

Slightly off topic, but modern novellas tend to be between 18k and 40k words. A good few Lit authors seem incapable of writing a shopping list with such concision.

 

[Monster_slayer]

Thanks everyone for your comments. Because this is my first attempt at a full erotic novel, I've been reading a few of the best selling ones, and I see that a lot of the prelude in mine could be removed without harming the story... like coming into a film's narrative at the right moment. So, while it's good to have all that back story behind the characters, and to let that shape their motivations, I don't think it all needs to be in the final. Which will bring the word count down and also let the story get off to a stronger start.

I chopped 6 chapters off the front (very short chapters) and as suggested, I'll post the whole thing once it's finished in non-con as that sounds like the way to go.

Really appreciate the advice!

 

[NOIRTRASH]

As a rule readers read as long as the story is good, regardless of length.