target audience?

[loneflame]

At any point in your writing (before you get to the submission page and have to choose a category), do you ask yourself who you're writing for? (Gender, sexual orientation, etc.) Do you write specifically for this audience or do you just write and identify who would read it later? Do you tweak an existing story to appeal to a different audience?
I am especially wondering about authors who are successfully selling their work.

 

[OhMissScarlett]

At any point in your writing (before you get to the submission page and have to choose a category), do you ask yourself who you're writing for? (Gender, sexual orientation, etc.) Do you write specifically for this audience or do you just write and identify who would read it later? Do you tweak an existing story to appeal to a different audience?
I am especially wondering about authors who are successfully selling their work.

It's been my experience it's better not to think about that kind of stuff and to just write what you like and what you're inspired to write. If you get too caught up in pleasing a crowd, it can make your work look like you're trying too hard and then the self-doubt will start to creep in. I don't know so much about marketing specific stories, but I've read a lot of published authors whose series have gone downhill fast once they started worrying about what everyone thinks.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I've got to agree with MissScarlett. Besides, it's a lot more fun to write for yourself and let the market decide whether they agree with you.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

On the otherhand there's Thomas Edison. If he didnt have a market for it he didnt fool with it.

 

[R. Richard]

My lowest rated story in Fictionwise is currently my best seller. Go figure.

 

[TE999]

I have written stories for specific Lit cats to see if I could resonate with habitues of that cat...in most cases I've had some success...it's fun to research and then write to subject matter you aren't immediately conversant with (BDSM for instance) ...a challenge, if you will.

 

[oggbashan]

My original erotic writing was for specific Yahoo Adult Groups, mainly for a particular fetish.

I started writing the stories because I was disappointed with the stories in those groups and thought "I can do better than that".

Those stories haven't been well received in Literotica because they were aimed at a small audience who would read almost anything that included their particular fetish e.g. unbirth. Unbirth doesn't have a wide appeal.

Og

PS. I am still stalled on my attempt to write a story for a Yahoo Group that specialises in South Indian Women's sweaty and hairy armpits...

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Thats STELLA'S specialty. STELLA sez a hairy armpit on a fat girl is almost as good as the real thing.

 

[Boxlicker101]

At any point in your writing (before you get to the submission page and have to choose a category), do you ask yourself who you're writing for? (Gender, sexual orientation, etc.) Do you write specifically for this audience or do you just write and identify who would read it later? Do you tweak an existing story to appeal to a different audience?
I am especially wondering about authors who are successfully selling their work.

Hi, Flame, and welcome to Literotica and the AH.

First, I always know what category I want to submit a story for long before I go to post it. Lit. doesn't always agree, but that can't be helped.

If it is a Gay Male story, I am writing it primarily for gay men. Anything else, I am writing for anybody who wants to read smut. Of course, I mostly write for my own enjoyment, but I write a wide variety because I like to appeal to a wide variety of readers. I also realize there are some who get squeamish about certain subjects, such as anal sex, for one example. All that means is that I don't write about anal sex for them, but they are certainly welcome to read it.

 

[sr71plt]

I keep in mind a target audience I'm writing for. Otherwise it's easier for the story to change in the category of readers who might respond well to it while you're writing the story and you wind up with something everyone can feal justified dumping on--and you become one of those folks who frequently come to the board and complain that their story doesn't fit into one of the categories provided here.

 

[DeeZire]

I come from the wise-ass school of writing. I write for myself, which usually ends up offending conservatives and the small-minded. Knowing this, I play on offending that demographic, which results in some truly choice reader's comments at the end of my stories. I suppose I should delete the truly ignorant and offensive comments, but I feel justified in leaving them up, since it was my wise-ass writing that provoked them.

I think writing for money entails a whole different approach. I would compare it to the content producers at network TV - assemble a focus group and figure out how to tweak (water down) your presentation in such a way that it will appeal to your advertiser's preferred demographic. That, to me, is more about marketing than writing, but if you need the money, (or the LIT votes) go for it.