"Pending" Put My Baby In A Corner.

[shakespeare_i_aint]

It is really a tale of two tales. My very first submission was posted on a Saturday morning two days after it was submitted, back in October. It had a good weekend and now sits at 4.53 with 16,000 views after 46 days. So it's good enough.

Chapter 2 of the story was submitted on a Wednesday because of those long pending times I'd read about. It didn't get published on Friday, as I'd hoped. It didn't get posted on Saturday either. But when I woke up Sunday morning in my Eastern Standard Time, I saw that it had gone live four hours earlier and that I was the first person to look at it. And I already knew what it was about.

Hour by hour, throughout the day, the views languished until Sunday came to an end. The numbers started slowly and never really took off. Why? I figure because it is Sunday over in England and those people have better things to do on a Sunday. And as the sun advanced, most of North America (shoutout to Canada, eh?) had better things to do than visit Literotica.

By Monday, the story had slipped off the second page of its category due to other submissions and will no longer be seen unless a reader uses tags and/or the search engine. After three days, it has eleven hundred views.

I guess that's the breaks on Literotica. Timing is everything, and a story can flourish when it launches in the face of people's free time. But when it falls out of the nest on Sunday at two o'clock in the morning, there's no way to pick it up and put it back in the nest.

I reckon the only solution is to get the next chapter submitted and hope for a better launch window.

That's my testimony,

Shakespeare_I_Aint

 

[Voyeurkenneth]

Publishing day is a topic that’s always interested me. With no real empirical evidence to back up my claims, I feel like Sunday (USA time zones) is pretty good for reader activity, while Monday is slowwww. But I don’t know, so many variables to account for like Title/Short Description, placement on the new list, other stories published in your batch. Also chaptered stories, views drop off.

You’re right that sometimes it’s just luck. In the past, one could’ve asked for a specific publishing date but I have a feeling that flexibility might be gone in the current climate.

 

[alohadave]

Post in these two threads:

https://forum.literotica.com/threads/new-story-advertisments.181349/

https://forum.literotica.com/threads/what-have-you-posted-recently.1586479/

That will get some eyeballs on your stories.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Well, it's an issue we all have. Most stories live for a day or two before getting buried under the tide of new submissions. After that, only top lists, or author's activity can revive it.

It sucks, and it's a consequence of Lit being designed in the days when two new stories per day were an exciting event.

The times have changed, radically so, but Lit admins don't care in the least about those issues. Now, It's all about pumping out more and more stories.

 

[PennyThompson]

Not to say that publishing days don't matter at all, but another extremely consistent thing about stats on Lit is that chaptered series view rates pretty much all look like this:


Anything titled "Chapter X" or "Part X" or whatever will inevitably get fewer views, because a random person browsing New is not likely to click on part two when they haven't read part one. The first chapter of a series will always, always have significantly more views than the rest of the series!

 

[12oclocktales]

Well, it's an issue we all have. Most stories live for a day or two before getting buried under the tide of new submissions. After that, only top lists, or author's activity can revive it.

It sucks, and it's a consequence of Lit being designed in the days when two new stories per day were an exciting event.

The times have changed, radically so, but Lit admins don't care in the least about those issues. Now, It's all about pumping out more and more stories.

I always wished there was a way to reconfigure stories in each category chronologically, as you can in the lists, rather than just alphabetically by title. Even if it was just for a couple of months it would make it so much easier to keep up with newer stories for a longer stretch of time.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I always wished there was a way to reconfigure stories in each category chronologically, as you can in the lists, rather than just alphabetically by title. Even if it was just for a couple of months it would make it so much easier to keep up with newer stories for a longer stretch of time.

Well, at this point, any little improvement would have an impact in that sense. But alas, we've learned that what matters to us, authors, rarely, if ever, matters to Lit.

 

[MillieDynamite]

It's a jungle out there, a dog-eat-dog world, and getting noticed ain't easy.

 

[ElectricBlue]

The times have changed, radically so, but Lit admins don't care in the least about those issues. Now, It's all about pumping out more and more stories.

What do you suggest the site does about that? Issue a quota each day, first in, best dressed?

Noting the post a day or two ago, stop allowing the 80% - 90% of new stories each day, coming from first time authors?

How can the site ever control the number of new stories scrolling down those top pages? You constantly slam the site for inaction, and now you want it to slow down the flow somehow - what's your solution to this one?

 

[Actingup]

It is really a tale of two tales. My very first submission was posted on a Saturday morning two days after it was submitted, back in October. It had a good weekend and now sits at 4.53 with 16,000 views after 46 days. So it's good enough.

Chapter 2 of the story was submitted on a Wednesday because of those long pending times I'd read about. It didn't get published on Friday, as I'd hoped. It didn't get posted on Saturday either. But when I woke up Sunday morning in my Eastern Standard Time, I saw that it had gone live four hours earlier and that I was the first person to look at it. And I already knew what it was about.

Hour by hour, throughout the day, the views languished until Sunday came to an end. The numbers started slowly and never really took off. Why? I figure because it is Sunday over in England and those people have better things to do on a Sunday. And as the sun advanced, most of North America (shoutout to Canada, eh?) had better things to do than visit Literotica.

By Monday, the story had slipped off the second page of its category due to other submissions and will no longer be seen unless a reader uses tags and/or the search engine. After three days, it has eleven hundred views.

I guess that's the breaks on Literotica. Timing is everything, and a story can flourish when it launches in the face of people's free time. But when it falls out of the nest on Sunday at two o'clock in the morning, there's no way to pick it up and put it back in the nest.

I reckon the only solution is to get the next chapter submitted and hope for a better launch window.

That's my testimony,

Shakespeare_I_Aint

On the bright side, you haven't been arrested yet!

I totally get what you're saying. We all want better numbers and we'd like all of our stories to be 'hits'. But I think that it's also really important to moderate our expectations. We're here posting smut as a hobby for the enjoyment of readers who like that kind of thing. If we were submitting to publishers, our work might be read by precisely zero people before the rejection slip is sent out. This way, we get a couple of days in the sun, some feedback (usually), thousands of people reading our work, and the chance to improve our skills. Timing of publication is pretty much out of our control because the publishing dates are set by the Editor-In-Chief, not by us. Them's the breaks.

Are you going to keep going with your series, or wrap it up quickly?

 

[AwkwardlySet]

What do you suggest the site does about that? Issue a quota each day, first in, best dressed?

Noting the post a day or two ago, stop allowing the 80% - 90% of new stories each day, coming from first time authors?

How can the site ever control the number of new stories scrolling down those top pages? You constantly slam the site for inaction, and now you want it to slow down the flow somehow - what's your solution to this one?

Ah, EB, my favorite fanboy. Where there's a will, there's a way. But there is no will whatsoever.

But first, let's address the "why" of it. Lit truly has no need to pad its story file. The number is now well over 600k. So really, whether there are 300 or 30 new stories every day, I'd say it doesn't make much of a change for Lit when it comes to traffic.

I suspect not many visitors browse Literotica every day. It takes time to browse the stories, and it takes time to read them. But with the numbers Lit has been putting out for a few years now, it's literally impossible to keep up.

Yet, fewer stories being published would be a good thing for most of us here. It would let our stories remain on the first page or at a reasonable position in the list for far longer. It would give them more value and appreciation.
What's the benefit for Lit? Well, if nothing else, it would reduce Laurel's workload by a significant amount.

Anyway, on to the "how" of it. That's the big question, right?

To answer it, one should be familiar with the typical Lit story. It's usually between 1-1.5k words long, pure stroke story, often badly written. In my mind, I see more than one way one can go about reducing the number of submissions, but most are complicated and would take time to properly implement.
But there's one simple way. Significantly increase the word count threshold.

It would prevent thoughtless 1k-word garbage. It would prevent the practice that many authors use, and that's to split their chaptered stories into many, many small-sized, often around 1k words, chapters, all with the intention of padding their story file, but also to keep the readers' attention in a bullshit way.

This is a quick and easy-to-implement solution. With this solution, all of the best stories would be positively affected, and the number of submissions would be cut in half at the very least. I'd say it would drop even more than that, although it does depend on the exact number of words limit.

No more 750-word slop, except maybe for one specific event during the year.
No more 100-chapter stories that get increasingly high ratings and thus abuse top lists.
No more of your stories that took months of writing, typing, and fretting over details being drowned by the 1k-word "Joe with a big cock and Sue with big tits and ass met and fucked, The End."

I'm ready to take the heat now.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Flannery O'Connor's work is far from having perfect grammar or conventional spelling of common words (yistedee comes to mind). And I can't see her publishing here, even if she were still alive, which she isn't. But her work is some of the best Southern Gothic ever produced. Hum, produced, sounds like a grocery store section, Southern Gothic on aisle five, a blue light special, The Violent Bear it Away, this is a three-minute special. But anywho, the length of the piece has little to do with how good it is. I know we never stay in the Eyes on Zone very long, and yes, I guess fewer stories would be good for us, unless our stories are the ones that are left out, that is.

Ah, EB, my favorite fanboy. Where there's a will, there's a way. But there is no will whatsoever.

But first, let's address the "why" of it. Lit truly has no need to pad its story file. The number is now well over 600k. So really, whether there are 300 or 30 new stories every day, I'd say it doesn't make much of a change for Lit when it comes to traffic.

I suspect not many visitors browse Literotica every day. It takes time to browse the stories, and it takes time to read them. But with the numbers Lit has been putting out for a few years now, it's literally impossible to keep up.

Yet, fewer stories being published would be a good thing for most of us here. It would let our stories remain on the first page or at a reasonable position in the list for far longer. It would give them more value and appreciation.
What's the benefit for Lit? Well, if nothing else, it would reduce Laurel's workload by a significant amount.

Anyway, on to the "how" of it. That's the big question, right?

To answer it, one should be familiar with the typical Lit story. It's usually between 1-1.5k words long, pure stroke story, often badly written. In my mind, I see more than one way one can go about reducing the number of submissions, but most are complicated and would take time to properly implement.
But there's one simple way. Significantly increase the word count threshold.

It would prevent thoughtless 1k-word garbage. It would prevent the practice that many authors use, and that's to split their chaptered stories into many, many small-sized, often around 1k words, chapters, all with the intention of padding their story file, but also to keep the readers' attention in a bullshit way.

This is a quick and easy-to-implement solution. With this solution, all of the best stories would be positively affected, and the number of submissions would be cut in half at the very least. I'd say it would drop even more than that, although it does depend on the exact number of words limit.

No more 750-word slop, except maybe for one specific event during the year.
No more 100-chapter stories that get increasingly high ratings and thus abuse top lists.
No more of your stories that took months of writing, typing, and fretting over details being drowned by the 1k-word "Joe with a big cock and Sue with big tits and ass met and fucked, The End."

I'm ready to take the heat now.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Anyway, on to the "how" of it. That's the big question, right?

To answer it, one should be familiar with the typical Lit story. It's usually between 1-1.5k words long, pure stroke story, often badly written. In my mind, I see more than one way one can go about reducing the number of submissions, but most are complicated and would take time to properly implement.
But there's one simple way. Significantly increase the word count threshold.

Okay, so how do wannabe writers ever start?

I doubt anyone here hit the decks with a 10k story, because to that you need to do an apprenticeship before you: a) know how to write; b) know your own style; c) get the technical stuff nailed before you attempt your first proper story.

Your suggestion would limit the site to a tiny tiny percentage of authors who have previously written something, but not erotica. In terms of AH writers, that's maybe half a dozen, a dozen, tops. Just about none of us would be here if that was your starting out rule.

It would prevent thoughtless 1k-word garbage. It would prevent the practice that many authors use, and that's to split their chaptered stories into many, many small-sized, often around 1k words, chapters, all with the intention of padding their story file, but also to keep the readers' attention in a bullshit way.

That's because beginner writers haven't figured out a better chapter length, because they don't know how to write yet.

Again, you find malice in every action, whereas it's far more likely they haven't ever actively thought about "padding out", they're more likely struggling to get 3k written, let alone two or three Lit pages worth.

This is a quick and easy-to-implement solution. With this solution, all of the best stories would be positively affected, and the number of submissions would be cut in half at the very least. I'd say it would drop even more than that, although it does depend on the exact number of words limit.

Which is directly contra to the purpose of the site, which is to encourage amateur smut writers to write.

No more 750-word slop, except maybe for one specific event during the year.

Maybe; but again, you regard every 750 word story as "slop". I agree, much is junk, but some is genius.

No more 100-chapter stories that get increasingly high ratings and thus abuse top lists.

I'll agree there, that the Top Lists require a significant overhaul. They're crap.

No more of your stories that took months of writing, typing, and fretting over details being drowned by the 1k-word "Joe with a big cock and Sue with big tits and ass met and fucked, The End."

Again, you gotta start somewhere.

I'm ready to take the heat now.

It's a daft idea, because no-one new gets a chance.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Okay, so how do wannabe writers ever start?

I doubt anyone here hit the decks with a 10k story, because to that you need to do an apprenticeship before you: a) know how to write; b) know your own style; c) get the technical stuff nailed before you attempt your first proper story.

Man, my literally first attempt at writing was Chapter One of my first Literotica story. It was 11k words long and I wrote it directly in a foreign language.

If you can't go over, say, 3k words, maybe you shouldn't write at all, as harsh as that may sound. It makes sense from Lit's perspective as they are already huge and don't need every barely literate person to post their stories here.

Your suggestion would limit the site to a tiny tiny percentage of authors who have previously written something, but not erotica. In terms of AH writers, that's maybe half a dozen, a dozen, tops. Just about none of us would be here if that was your starting out rule.

I think this is just plain wrong.

That's because beginner writers haven't figured out a better chapter length, because they don't know how to write yet.

Again, you find malice in every action, whereas it's far more likely they haven't ever actively thought about "padding out", they're more likely struggling to get 3k written, let alone two or three Lit pages worth.

I've seen many authors do this just to keep their stories constantly refreshed on AO3 and SOL. Add a 300-400 word chapter every day or every other day. It's abuse. Many do it here too, but not for the same reason as Lit doesn't work that way. They want to pad their file, and they want their pen name to show in the list. It brings attention.

Which is directly contra to the purpose of the site, which is to encourage amateur smut writers to write.

Maybe; but again, you regard every 750 word story as "slop". I agree, much is junk, but some is genius.

Genius is pushing it likely, but even if that's so, that's like 2% of such stories, tops. I already said there should be a yearly event for those. But the general point would be to stop the deluge of short, thoughtless slop.

I'll agree there, that the Top Lists require a significant overhaul. They're crap.

Yes, they are.

Again, you gotta start somewhere.

It's a daft idea, because no-one new gets a chance.

Everyone gets a chance. Once again, if you can't write a 3k-word story, even if it's very amateurish and badly written, then you shouldn't be writing at all, IMO. Or at least, not on a site of Lit's size and influence.

There should be plenty of other sites that could host such stories and authors. If they have what it takes, they could hone their skills there and try on Lit once they can write something longer than 750 words. It would even give Lit an "Elite" status, and I don't see how that could be detrimental to its traffic and impact.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I'll make another post rather than edit again:

Once, when Lit was fresh and new and barely known, it made sense to be very inclusive with stories. But the times have changed. Lit is the number one erotic story site, period. And it's being drowned with submissions. The way things are being done now, I see mostly good authors being pushed away. And it makes zero sense now when Lit is big and influential. Now, if ever is the time to go elite.

 

[MillieDynamite]

So, Poe's a lousy writer because the Cast of Amontillado is only 2372 words? Eleonora, 2464, Hop-Frog 3636. Me thinks you speak from your ass!

If you can't go over, say, 3k words, maybe you shouldn't write at all, as harsh as that may sound. It makes sense from Lit's perspective as they are already huge and don't need every barely literate person to post their stories here.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

So, Poe's a lousy writer because the Cast of Amontillado is only 2372 words? Eleonora, 2464, Hop-Frog 3636. Me thinks you speak from your ass!

No, they are excellent stories. I love Poe. But the comparison is ludicrous. Poe didn't have to compete for publishing space in the newspapers with his baker, milkman, or chambermaid. And I mean this in the sense of their literary capability compared to his. There was no need to limit the number of words when there was always a skilled human editor who acted as a gatekeeper for literary works.

I suspect 95% of stories here would never see the light of day in such circumstances.

 

[ChloeTzang]

It is really a tale of two tales. My very first submission was posted on a Saturday morning two days after it was submitted, back in October. It had a good weekend and now sits at 4.53 with 16,000 views after 46 days. So it's good enough.

Chapter 2 of the story was submitted on a Wednesday because of those long pending times I'd read about. It didn't get published on Friday, as I'd hoped. It didn't get posted on Saturday either. But when I woke up Sunday morning in my Eastern Standard Time, I saw that it had gone live four hours earlier and that I was the first person to look at it. And I already knew what it was about.

Back when the time between hitting submit and being published was a predictable 2-3 days, it made sense to subit around Tuesday, your story would go live on Friday and you would pick up the peak in readers over a weekend. Now, you're just taking a stab in the dark and you can't really forcast howlong for a story to go live - but submittimg mid week gives you a better chance of hitting the weekend as a new story on the front page nefore you sink out of sight,

That said, Chapter 2's on always get lower reader #'s. Sometimes it's better topost one long and complete story than chapters, esp if you're newer

 

[MillieDynamite]

I'm making a point; your contention leaves out a lot of wonderful stories because of a forced word count. We have writers here who weave stories in the 750 range.

No, they are excellent stories. I love Poe. But the comparison is ludicrous. Poe didn't have to compete for publishing space in the newspapers with his baker, milkman, or chambermaid. And I mean this in the sense of their literary capability compared to his. There was no need to limit the number of words when there was always a skilled human editor who acted as a gatekeeper for literary works.

I suspect 95% of stories here would never see the light of day in such circumstances.

 

[Actingup]

I'll make another post rather than edit again:

Once, when Lit was fresh and new and barely known, it made sense to be very inclusive with stories. But the times have changed. Lit is the number one erotic story site, period. And it's being drowned with submissions. The way things are being done now, I see mostly good authors being pushed away. And it makes zero sense now when Lit is big and influential. Now, if ever is the time to go elite.

I'd favour a more direct approach than word count rules and the other things discussed. A a small fee (USD $5 - $10) for each submission to cover processing costs would enable Lit gets to hire staff to run the site without looking to advertisers (who can be ditched). We'd have to think twice about hitting that 'submit' button, but considering that most of us put many hours into each story, that's virtually nothing in the scheme of things. Those who submit rubbish or AI would have little incentive to do so if it's costing them money.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I won't pay to publish my work.

I'd favour a more direct approach than word count rules and the other things discussed. A a small fee (USD $5 - $10) for each submission to cover processing costs would enable Lit gets to hire staff to run the site without looking to advertisers (who can be ditched). We'd have to think twice about hitting that 'submit' button, but considering that most of us put many hours into each story, that's virtually nothing in the scheme of things. Those who submit rubbish or AI would have little incentive to do so if it's costing them money.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

I always wished there was a way to reconfigure stories in each category chronologically, as you can in the lists, rather than just alphabetically by title. Even if it was just for a couple of months it would make it so much easier to keep up with newer stories for a longer stretch of time.

I just did an experiment and searched for "e" in "Erotic Couplings" using Advanced Search. Lit accepts the search. Very, very few English language stories will have no "e" in them. (By that I mean none.) You can sort Advanced Search results by date.

--Annie

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I'd favour a more direct approach than word count rules and the other things discussed. A a small fee (USD $5 - $10) for each submission to cover processing costs would enable Lit gets to hire staff to run the site without looking to advertisers (who can be ditched). We'd have to think twice about hitting that 'submit' button, but considering that most of us put many hours into each story, that's virtually nothing in the scheme of things. Those who submit rubbish or AI would have little incentive to do so if it's costing them money.

That solution plays right into the elite thing I was talking about, so I wouldn't be against it. It should include better channels of communication with admins though.

But I also suspect it would be off-putting for many authors. I can speak for myself only.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

LMAO EB, now you're a fanboy even officially. It's almost like getting that green E.

Keep it up, old boy.

 

[Actingup]

I won't pay to publish my work.

I respect that. In 'real-life' I've taken a similar position with academic papers, and I've managed to avoid paying to have my academic papers published so far, and in one case I even got paid for an article. However, there is also the reality that it costs money to publish within a quality-controlled process, and those costs have to be borne by somebody - the readers, the host institutions, or the authors. Nothing happens for free.

In Literotica, we have a huge surplus of authors willing to publish without being paid, and that's reflected in the quality and quantity of what is going out. If we want to change that equation, one way to do it is through market forces and impose a cost to publish.