Remember your first 100 followers? First 1K? First 10K? Lessons learned.

[jaykaythree]

Sure would be nice to have a hundred followers ... I have eighteen, I think. Then again, in fairness, I've only been here two years, and have nine published stories and a poem. All things in time, I guess.

 

[Rob_Royale]

What did you learn as your grew in LitE?

I learned that if a story idea pops into your head and you like it, what "you're not into" sexually speaking, stops mattering. When I started here, I figured I was gonna sit in my little "MILF next door" corner and crank out sexy, fun stories of mature ladies having adventures. Non-con, incest, loving wives? Zero interest. Until there's an idea. Then all bets are off.

I realized just how big the incest and LW crowd is. I have 12 stories and 254 followers, in eight months. But 20% of those followers came with just the incest and LW story.

Out of curiosity, what does the term LitE, refer to?

 

[John_Vandermeer]

I learned that if a story idea pops into your head and you like it, what "you're not into" sexually speaking, stops mattering. When I started here, I figured I was gonna sit in my little "MILF next door" corner and crank out sexy, fun stories of mature ladies having adventures. Non-con, incest, loving wives? Zero interest. Until there's an idea. Then all bets are off.

I realized just how big the incest and LW crowd is. I have 12 stories and 254 followers, in eight months. But 20% of those followers came with just the incest and LW story.

Out of curiosity, what does the term LitE, refer to?

LitErotica

 

[Rob_Royale]

LitErotica

That's what I figured, but I usually just see it shortened to Lit.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I strongly agree with this. If you look at the lists of authors with the most followers, many of them write incest stories, but not all. Some of them write Loving Wives stories. Some write Gay Male or Lesbian stories. A common theme is that they play to their strengths and pick up loyal followers by doing so. I write a wide variety of types of stories, but I've probably picked up 90+ % of my followers by writing incest and exhibitionist wife stories -- two types of stories I enjoy reading and writing.

I don't disagree that catering to certain categories will attract more followers, but so will diversity.

I have just over 1,100 followers currently, and while I do have a few I/T stories, I also have loyal followers who read only my N/N stories or prefer the C/FF, LW, or romance stories.

From a feedback perspective, readers loyal to N/N contribute the most for me.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I don't disagree that catering to certain categories will attract more followers, but so will diversity.

I have just over 1,100 followers currently, and while I do have a few I/T stories, I also have loyal followers who read only my N/N stories or prefer the C/FF, LW, or romance stories.

From a feedback perspective, readers loyal to N/N contribute the most for me.

That's nice to hear. Clearly, that type of story is more work and effort than your average 7k stroke story. It's nice that the readers recognize and appreciate that.

 

[jessIncognito]

I checked a while ago and was surprised I had 100 followers and some likes. I don't really write a lot of stories. I only have 2. But what I really focus on is quality. Granted, my quality is not that good because I'm an amateur. However, I do the best I can. Sometimes I take a month of writing and proof reading before I submit my work. I don't make them perfect, since perfect can be the enemy of good.

I'd rather have 1 good story than 10 decent ones.

 

[dmallord]

I started writing during the 'isolation period.' I stumbled into Lit stories and saw that submissions were encouraged, so I wrote a story and hesitantly submitted it. My thoughts were, would anyone like it? Was it worth the time and energy? How about getting slapped bassackwards over my amateur attempt?

Fortunately, the first one wasn't badly received and had no blowback. So I wrote another, then another, and I was hooked. It became an outlet for expressing some of my past life experiences through the feelings of some characters. Of course, I did get some eventual negative feedback, but by then, I had found the Forum and read about how authors such as those commenting in this thread dealt with it, even expected it, as I learned about trolls.

I set a goal of writing one story in each category though I have not been hellbent on tackling that immediately. I started writing in December 2020. As of today:

703,921 views 10,868 votes 304 followers 48 stories / 29 HOT 4.44 AVG Score Highest 4.78 Lowest 3.07

My trend seems to be to write stories with plots; then include some sex thrown within [it's an erotic site, after all.] Not sexual titillations first, then some thoughts as to a plot. I recall a conversation with another Lit denizen as I asked for some feedback. What he said inspired me. The difference between our writings, he said, is that if you take the sex out of your work, you still have a real story. I had to think about that. It was an epiphany moment for me.

 

[LexxRuthless]

If you look at the Most-Followed Authors page, you can see that there are only 12 authors who have 10k followers. I'm not knocking you or anything, but there are only a dozen people who can legitimately say, "Ah, yes. I can remember when I hit 10k followers." I think half of them would add, "It was right about the time I published my 90th story."

 

[ElectricBlue]

If you look at the Most-Followed Authors page, you can see that there are only 12 authors who have 10k followers. I'm not knocking you or anything, but there are only a dozen people who can legitimately say, "Ah, yes. I can remember when I hit 10k followers." I think half of them would add, "It was right about the time I published my 90th story."

Lol. I've got 120 stories/chapters, ain't anywhere close to 10k followers.

The bigger clue to the numbers, I suspect, will be their duration on the site, and their category of choice.

 

[John_Vandermeer]

If you look at the Most-Followed Authors page, you can see that there are only 12 authors who have 10k followers. I'm not knocking you or anything, but there are only a dozen people who can legitimately say, "Ah, yes. I can remember when I hit 10k followers." I think half of them would add, "It was right about the time I published my 90th story."

No question that 10K+ followers is the very top of the top. But they do exist, and some do pop around AH. I guess looking at the most followed authors list it is clear that time-on-Lit, story quantity, story rating, and story theme/category are all factors in building a large following. Not a single path to get there, but most hit several of those drivers one way or another. If you've been writing a backseat momcest story that has been going on since Lit's founding and earning red-H after red-H you pretty much have a guaranteed large following, so to speak.

 

[LexxRuthless]

No question that 10K+ followers is the very top of the top. But they do exist, and some do pop around AH. I guess looking at the most followed authors list it is clear that time-on-Lit, story quantity, story rating, and story theme/category are all factors in building a large following. Not a single path to get there, but most hit several of those drivers one way or another. If you've been writing a backseat momcest story that has been going on since Lit's founding and earning red-H after red-H you pretty much have a guaranteed large following, so to speak.

Lol. I've got 120 stories/chapters, ain't anywhere close to 10k followers.

The bigger clue to the numbers, I suspect, will be their duration on the site, and their category of choice.

Yeah...it seems like the surest path to leap up onto that "Follower Leaderboard" would be to somehow transmit your stories back in time and have them published on the site 20-22 years ago.

 

[SimonDoom]

No question that 10K+ followers is the very top of the top. But they do exist, and some do pop around AH. I guess looking at the most followed authors list it is clear that time-on-Lit, story quantity, story rating, and story theme/category are all factors in building a large following. Not a single path to get there, but most hit several of those drivers one way or another. If you've been writing a backseat momcest story that has been going on since Lit's founding and earning red-H after red-H you pretty much have a guaranteed large following, so to speak.

There's a lot of truth to this, although I don't think story rating has a lot to do with attracting a lot of followers over time.

I have nowhere near 10,000 followers, but I should hit 5,000 by September. I've published 58 stories so far, since December 2016. Not quite half are incest, which is a big factor, because they attract more views than other categories. Diversity helps, too. I also have posted stories in many other categories, and that helps reach different groups of readers.

It's somewhat of a crapshoot/get struck by lightning thing, but having a blockbuster story--one that's near the top of the most-viewed list for a year-- helps immeasurably. I've had one such story, early in my Lit career, and it made all the difference in terms of attracting attention to my stories and gaining followers. Yep, it was a mom-son on a seat-together story.

There's definitely no single path. Your best bets, if you are interested in attracting followers, are to write what you really like, write as well as you can, write incest, and write a lot. Plus, be smart and mindful about things like titles, category choices, tags, and taglines.

 

[ElectricBlue]

There's definitely no single path. Your best bets, if you are interested in attracting followers, are to write what you really like, write as well as you can, write incest, and write a lot. Plus, be smart and mindful about things like titles, category choices, tags, and taglines.

It's a shame that's the predominant factor, which disproportionately outweighs all the others. Before I found Literotica, I never knew erotica was defined by your mother, but here we are, chasing penguins .