Should I come back?

[Jonathan Phillips]

Hi all,

I have been writing erotic stories for almost a year now. When I started out I posted here and at lustylibrary.com, but because of the vastness of this site I quickly found it to be a little intimidating and ended up only using lustylibrary.com, but I wonder...am I missing something?

I am taking my writing very seriously these days and am starting to get some professional work. One of my stories was recently awarded the $500 first prize for "Story of the Year" at Lusty Library (can be viewed at literotica at http://english.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=244826).

I know there are a lot of serious writers at this literotica.com and wondered if it would be worth my while trying to post here again and come here more regularly.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

The Silver Fox
(Jonathan_Philips at Lusty Library).

 

[minsue]

Welcome! Is there any reason you can't post your stories on both sites? If nothing else, you would then be eligible for cash prizes here, too.

 

[oggbashan]

Why not?

We don't bite (most of the time).

We do sometimes discuss literary topics and the techniques of writing.

We get jealous of people who actually make money from their writing even when we have made a few pence ourselves.

We are united against the trolls who mark down stories without giving a reason.

We sometimes have silly threads that run on and on; and political threads that change nothing. Both can be avoided.

You can always fade away if you find the forum uncongenial.

Just don't visit the General Board without adequate body armour.

Og

 

[Jonathan Phillips]

Thank you Minsue and of course an excellent point. I suppose I found this site to be a little too impersonal initially. It was hard to view your submissions and I was not altogether happy with my story being classed as a "mature" when really it was just a story of one young man's passion for a slightly older woman, but perhaps I should be more patient.

JP

 

[Jonathan Phillips]

Thanks Og!

JP

 

[cloudy]

Thank you Minsue and of course an excellent point. I suppose I found this site to be a little too impersonal initially. It was hard to view your submissions and I was not altogether happy with my story being classed as a "mature" when really it was just a story of one young man's passion for a slightly older woman, but perhaps I should be more patient.

JP

That's most likely the reason it was posted in Mature ("one young man's passion for a slightly older woman").

I have my submissions page bookmarked, so it's only a click for me to view them. As Min says, you can post at both sites - many here post their stories at more than one site.

Welcome to the AH.

 

[FallingToFly]

I love Lit. I've gone other places, and always come back here.

It's worth the while it takes to build up a friend base and reader base, and both should be tended lovingly.

 

[Jonathan Phillips]

That's most likely the reason it was posted in Mature ("one young man's passion for a slightly older woman").

Thanks for your kind words Cloudy.

I see the reasoning behind the categorization, but, to me, such a label would attract readers who are "in to" older men or women whereas I felt my story was a simple tale of romantic lust.

It really doesn't matter though lol!

JP

 

[English Lady]

You get a big audience here at lit, you get some lovely feedback (and some nasty stuff too, but you should just ignore it) and it does youno harm having your stories "out there" for the public to find.

Even if you don't put your stories on the site, you should hang out here -it's a good place to make friends and we do talk about writingn ow and then too

 

[Jonathan Phillips]

When I originally posted "Caroline" I received some lovely feedback together with some hillarious nonsense, which I thought was wonderful, but it seemed as though, once it was no longer "new" it quickly disapeared - never to be read or commented on again - into the vast vaults of Literotica.

You are all, of course, right. Where's the harm in posting? Perhaps I will post my most popular story at Lusty Library, "A Very Naughty Girl" here and see what happens.

JP

 

[TxRad]

The way to keep your stuff being read here on Lit is to post new stories...

I find that with new stories, if readers like them, they will hunt up more of your stories so the old ones get new reads and votes....

So welcome back and welcome aboard...

 

[Jonathan Phillips]

Thank you! An excellent point well made!

 

[rgraham666]

Welcome Fox.

I've been very happy with this place. As Tx pointed out, it's a good place to build a fan base, if you keep writing.

I've made a little money here myself. And I've sold several of the stories that I first posted here to publishers. The links to them are in my sig. (Plug, plug)

Made a lot of good friends here. And lost some. One in particular.

 

[Jonathan Phillips]

Thank you Graham and I will look forward to reading your work.

Very sorry for your loss.

JP

 

[TxRad]

out of curiosity and as a writers (I feel the need to expand my fan base and readership) I went to visit the site Silver Fox was advertising....

Not a bad place, I registered and checked out the forums.... a couple of our regulars were there and one lost sheep.... he was tired of finishing fourth in the contests so he left.... seems he's still finishing fourth over there.....

Seems to be friendly enough even if a mod decided that friends discussing the past was almost a plea for people to leave and join somewhere else. to each their own I guess and I figure we'd be defensive of Lit if the same thing happened here.

One thing i liked very much was that you have to be registered to vote.... that's something a lot of folks have wanted around here to curb the trolls....

The only problem I found was in the agreement on the submissions page.... Legaleez isn't my best language, some say engish ain't either, but there is a paragraph that gives the site the rights to your story. The owner stated in a thread on the feedback forum that it was to cover them as they may use stories for IPod casts (whatever that is) advertising, and even in an anthology. on the anthology, any profits go to the parent site.

Several people stated that the owners would never make use of this agreement to make a profit off other peoples work... I figure they're right after being on the site but what happens if they sell the site or something else along that line.

Since i want to publish my work, I don't think I'll be posting stories there. That is unless someone with a better understanding of legaleez can tell me i wouldn't be signing my stories away. Read it for yourself and make up your own mind.

Okay, I'll mind my own business now...

 

[cloudy]

The only problem I found was in the agreement on the submissions page.... Legaleez isn't my best language, some say engish ain't either, but there is a paragraph that gives the site the rights to your story. The owner stated in a thread on the feedback forum that it was to cover them as they may use stories for IPod casts (whatever that is) advertising, and even in an anthology. on the anthology, any profits go to the parent site.

Several people stated that the owners would never make use of this agreement to make a profit off other peoples work... I figure they're right after being on the site but what happens if they sell the site or something else along that line.

Since i want to publish my work, I don't think I'll be posting stories there. That is unless someone with a better understanding of legaleez can tell me i wouldn't be signing my stories away. Read it for yourself and make up your own mind.

Indeed. I'm not giving up rights to anything I've written unless I'm under contract, or as in the Coming Together anthologies.

I don't much like the idea of mods, either, since we've gotten along just fine without them here.

 

[Trombonus]

I'm a member of at least a half dozen forums, but this is the only one I post in regularly. The people here are friendly, intelligent and sincere. They are some of the most caring individuals I know, and I consider many posters on here to be true friends. I think if any forum is worth giving a shot it's this one. Hope you find the same.

 

[Jonathan Phillips]

Hi TxRad,

I really wasn't "advertising" for Lusty Library in any way. I was merely mentioning that as the site where I ended up posting my stories.

Regarding the legal waver. It is something many of us who post at Lusty Library have worried about and, to be totally honest, I am not completely happy with still. The lady you refer to as "the owner" is merely an employee and is the face of the company that own Lusty Library. I trust her implicitly and if she says that no profits will be made out of any of the stories then that is good enough for me. However, you make an excellent point with regard to what happens if the site is sold on.

The podcasts you refer to do not exist any more. They were narrated versions of certain stories that were available to download at iTunes. iTunes have since decided to distance themselves from erotica. Prior to that I decided I was going to turn a blind eye to any of my stories being sold as podcasts.

The anthology worries me a little as I would think it highly immoral for the company that own Lusty Library to profit out of a book made up of stories they received for free. So far it has yet to happen, but the idea does bother me a little.

I love the Lusty Library. I have made some great friends there and the site themselves have been very kind towards me, but, like you, I hope to be in a position to sell some of my stories in the not too distant future and your well made point has raised some questions in my mind once again.

I had been wondering about posting stories anywhere on the web for free, but I think you may be right to be wary.

I might approach the site moderator and suggest that if they are really just covering themselves that they write a new waver similar to the one we have to accept here.

JP

 

[Jonathan Phillips]

Thanks Trombonus!

I think I will start posting here again and it is always good to have a forum dedicated to serious writers.

I will post one of my stories every week and see how that goes.

All the best JP.

PS. Do you know if it is possible to change your username here because I am not terribly keen on mine anymore?

 

[cloudy]

Thanks Trombonus!

I think I will start posting here again and it is always good to have a forum dedicated to serious writers.

I will post one of my stories every week and see how that goes.

All the best JP.

PS. Do you know if it is possible to change your username here because I am not terribly keen on mine anymore?

You'd have to pm Laurel to change your user name, and move your stories to your new one....or, you could just open a new one, and post any new stories under that name.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Any idea of what the readership numbers are on Lusty Library?

BTW, my best guess is that the "views" figure here translates into a number of actual readers amounting to between 10 percent and 50 percent of the actual figure, with the latter only applying to very, very short items, and the average for stories probably around 15 to 25 percent. I've stated this a few times here but not seen any reaction to it pro or con.

 

[Jonathan Phillips]

I am sorry Roxanne I have no idea. I believe there are over 200,000 members now though.

JP

 

[TxRad]

Silver fox.... sorry, the word advertising was maybe a bad choice...

I by no means meant to do diservice to you or the other site... i was just making observations and tried to report for the best interest of my friends here....

 

[Jonathan Phillips]

Silver fox.... sorry, the word advertising was maybe a bad choice...

I by no means meant to do diservice to you or the other site... i was just making observations and tried to report for the best interest of my friends here....

That is exactly as I understood it Tx please do not worry.

With regard to something you mentioned about having to be a member of the site to vote. That was something we had to lobby for. That aspect was to stop people bumping up their own ratings. LL got rid of the 'average score' system to stop the mean people from hammering your average with a "1" vote. LL used to be out of 10! Imagine what damage the trolls could do then and they really did. Why not lobby here too? It has got to be a good thing if the worst the fools can do to you is not vote. The only downside now is that popular people in the chatroom can have very high ratings for often poor work, but the good stories still tend to shine through.

Regarding your Literotica regulars who joined LL. I do remember one lady who marched in announcing how good she was here only to disappear like a wet fart when readers didn't quite have the same high opinion of her writing as she did.

The only Literotica regular I know at LL is Sarahh (who may be called makafesa or some such) who I think is an astonishing writer.

JP

 

[cloudy]

The only Literotica regular I know at LL is Sarahh (who may be called makafesa or some such) who I think is an astonishing writer.

JP

She also only writes for contests, and posts comments/votes on her own stories.

(she's not very well thought of here, to say the least)