Q's from a first-time author

[LifePilgrim]

I've written a story just a little over 7000 words. It's a love story of a young couple that meet in college, & their relationship thru the years, & her evolving view of his penis. My question is about which category to submit it for. It's partly First Time, b/c it describes their first sexual experiences w/ each other. It's partly Fetish, as his penis is part of the story. & it's partly Erotic Coupling. Is this part of what a Volunteer Editor would help me with?

I've been reading literotica stories on & off for about a decade, & this story's perspective is not one that I recall having seen, partly since it follows their relationship for over 30 years, and partly b/c of the way in which her thoughts about his penis change along the way.

 

[HeyAll]

First Time has the most readers by far. Keep that in mind, and if I were you, I'd put it there.

Best of luck.

 

[Rustyoznail]

First Time has the most readers by far. Keep that in mind, and if I were you, I'd put it there.

Best of luck.

Agreed. Readers of First Time stories expect a bit of sexual exploration. Sounds like a perfect fit.

Cheers

 

[SimonDoom]

I agree about first time, unless two much of the story focuses on the penis over the years. Then it's not really about First Time, even though that is the category with the most readers of those you've listed.

It sounds more like fetish story to me.

 

[KeithD]

As depicted, I'd go with fetish. If it's "over the years," the first time aspect wouldn't be a very big part of it.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Weigh it up and drop it into the most appropriate category. If it's mostly about the love and the first time, then First Time. If it's more about fetishising the organ, then Fetish.

If it's about dressing up said organ in little knitted jumpers, then definitely Fetish. It's all about the emphasis and degree.

Simon, feel free to run with it .

 

[jaF0]

I've written a story just a little over 7000 words. It's a love story of a young couple that meet in college, & their relationship thru the years,

partly since it follows their relationship for over 30 years,

Sounds like Romance.

and partly b/c of the way in which her thoughts about his penis change along the way.

Unless she gets obsessed and goes full Bobbitt, keeps it for a dildo and discards the rest, then maybe Erotic Horror.

 

[gordo12]

I've written a story just a little over 7000 words. It's a love story of a young couple that meet in college, & their relationship thru the years, & her evolving view of his penis. My question is about which category to submit it for. It's partly First Time, b/c it describes their first sexual experiences w/ each other. It's partly Fetish, as his penis is part of the story. & it's partly Erotic Coupling. Is this part of what a Volunteer Editor would help me with?

I've been reading literotica stories on & off for about a decade, & this story's perspective is not one that I recall having seen, partly since it follows their relationship for over 30 years, and partly b/c of the way in which her thoughts about his penis change along the way.

You keep coming back to the penis in your explanation. It's obviously a very important part of the story to you. I would go with fetish. 30 years would strain belief in the first-time category.

 

[LifePilgrim]

My story fits best in fetish.

THanks for all ur comments which were helpful in sorting thru which category fits best.
While my story has first time in it, the penis fetish is a more common theme. Hmm. I'll reflect on whether to rewrite it somewhat b4 going to a volunteer editor. Or maybe I'll submit it as is, & see what the volunteer editor thinks of it.

I'm not sure if 7000 words is too long, but read in a sticky for authors here there isn't a set range of words, for length of stories here on literotica.

 

[jaF0]

ur

b4

:: cringes ::

I'm not sure if 7000 words is too long,

7K is about 2 Lit Pages .... for 30 years of life history?

 

[gordo12]

I'm not sure if 7000 words is too long, but read in a sticky for authors here there isn't a set range of words, for length of stories here on literotica.

Nope, 7000 words are not quite two pages, 3750 per page. The minimum is 750 words and the maximum is whatever it takes to write the story.

 

[yukonnights]

THanks for all ur comments which were helpful in sorting thru which category fits best.

While my story has first time in it, the penis fetish is a more common theme. Hmm. I'll reflect on whether to rewrite it somewhat b4 going to a volunteer editor. Or maybe I'll submit it as is, & see what the volunteer editor thinks of it.

I'm not sure if 7000 words is too long, but read in a sticky for authors here there isn't a set range of words, for length of stories here on literotica.

IMO, 7000 words should be your greater concern over category. As others have said, that's not much of a story for thirty years of shared life. Since you've decided that it's a fetish theme — I would find it very difficult to write a decent fetish story in only 7000 words. For what it's worth, I've been best rewarded by readers on my longer stories. Perhaps you might write more of the details of the penis fetish — elaborate on how it started and how it progresses over the years. Be sure to include the emotions & thoughts of both husband and wife to portray the inner feelings of both, etc. The goal is to do your best to draw the readers in — make them feel they are vicariously in the story, etc.

As for a Volunteer Editor / Beta Reader; it seems best to have someone look it over before publication so you can incorporate any additions/modifications they recommend. Why bother to find out after the story is online?

Anyway, best wishes for high ratings on your story!

 

[LAHomedog]

Well, I have 31 published under my name and two more co-written for a total of 33. I say that to establish some context to my comments.

I have stories that range from exactly 750 words to 25,000 words, and a multi-part story that goes beyond that. The correct amount of words in you story is how many do you need to tel your story as others have pointed out.

I do not understand your comment about re-writing before you work with a V-editor. It seems to me what you need right now the most is another set of eyes and an experienced hand to help guide you.

Do you know yet what story you are telling? Is it the story of a 30 year romance? Is it the story of sexual and human growth between two people? Is the story of one person's discovery, fascination and then evolving love and appreciation of anther's cock? From which perspective is your story told? Are you sure you know exactly what your story is about? I can't say I'm getting that from this thread.

 

[dmallord]

Nope, 7000 words are not quite two pages, 3750 per page. The minimum is 750 words and the maximum is whatever it takes to write the story.

I am not qualified to render an opinion on in what category this belongs. But ...

I've wondered about how many words are on a Lit page. I've put a lot of effort into what MS Word says is 30 pages and posted that. It was a head scratcher at first. Who took all my pages? It came out posted a hell of a lot shorter in "Lit pages" than I typed in 19 MS Pages.

I'm scratching my head at your numbers ... one more time here. So 7,000 is not quite two pages? But your next number 3,750 - I take that to be the Lit number per page. But if you double that 3,750 for two pages it comes out to 6,300. That seems to contradict your statement that 7,000 words are not more that two pages then.

What did I miss here?

 

[ElectricBlue]

I am not qualified to render an opinion on in what category this belongs. But ...

I've wondered about how many words are on a Lit page. I've put a lot of effort into what MS Word says is 30 pages and posted that. It was a head scratcher at first. Who took all my pages? It came out posted a hell of a lot shorter in "Lit pages" than I typed in 19 MS Pages.

I'm scratching my head at your numbers ... one more time here. So 7,000 is not quite two pages? But your next number 3,750 - I take that to be the Lit number per page. But if you double that 3,750 for two pages it comes out to 6,300. That seems to contradict your statement that 7,000 words are not more that two pages then.

What did I miss here?

A Lit page is approx 3750 words, so two full Lit pages = 7,500 words (your maths is mistakenly 3,150 x 2, not 3,750 x2). So a 7000 word story will be no more than two Lit pages.

 

[gordo12]

I am not qualified to render an opinion on in what category this belongs. But ...

I've wondered about how many words are on a Lit page. I've put a lot of effort into what MS Word says is 30 pages and posted that. It was a head scratcher at first. Who took all my pages? It came out posted a hell of a lot shorter in "Lit pages" than I typed in 19 MS Pages.

I'm scratching my head at your numbers ... one more time here. So 7,000 is not quite two pages? But your next number 3,750 - I take that to be the Lit number per page. But if you double that 3,750 for two pages it comes out to 6,300. That seems to contradict your statement that 7,000 words are not more that two pages then.

What did I miss here?

What EB said! 7,000 words will be 500 short of two pages.

 

[jehoram]

I'm surprised nobody has suggested this before, but the way I'd do it is put the story in the category you think most appropriate, and add a note to Laurel that it's just a place-holder and she can assign the story to whatever category she thinks best. She's probably going to do that, anyway, so it might make it easier for her to know that you have her blessing.

 

[SimonDoom]

I am not qualified to render an opinion on in what category this belongs. But ...

I've wondered about how many words are on a Lit page. I've put a lot of effort into what MS Word says is 30 pages and posted that. It was a head scratcher at first. Who took all my pages? It came out posted a hell of a lot shorter in "Lit pages" than I typed in 19 MS Pages.

I'm scratching my head at your numbers ... one more time here. So 7,000 is not quite two pages? But your next number 3,750 - I take that to be the Lit number per page. But if you double that 3,750 for two pages it comes out to 6,300. That seems to contradict your statement that 7,000 words are not more that two pages then.

What did I miss here?

2 times 3750 is 7500.

There's been quite a lot of analysis of data on this issue. You can look up threads on "statistics" in this forum.

What it shows is, Literotica readers vote down short stories, generally, a short story being under 2 Lit pages. Scores, and even views, tend to go up as stories get up to 6 pages.

Stories that are much longer than that often do well. My unscientific observation is that contest winners tend to be over 8 pages, and can be much longer than that.

So no one should ever be concerned about posting a 30,000 word story as a standalone story. Some readers (like me) prefer them shorter, but there are many, many Lit readers who like long stories.

 

[gordo12]

I'm surprised nobody has suggested this before, but the way I'd do it is put the story in the category you think most appropriate, and add a note to Laurel that it's just a place-holder and she can assign the story to whatever category she thinks best. She's probably going to do that, anyway, so it might make it easier for her to know that you have her blessing.

I always put it in the category I want and if there is any contention I put a note in the admin field as to why I chose the category.

That being said, there is evidence that stories are now being processed by software and only the ones triggering some alert are scanned.

I've seen too many breaking the rules slipping through lately. Especially the age issue.