The 2022 Literotica Awards

[MelissaBaby]

Last year, I won aLiterotica Award in the Humor & Satire category. I was very grateful, but also kind of chagrined that, on a site with more than two million registered members, I won while receiving only 18 votes, out of a total of 40 cast. (Also, it feels rather bittersweet now that one of the authors I bested was Oggbashan)

Granted, Humor is not one of the most popular categories, but only 115 votes were cast in Incest and 112 in Loving Wives.

That seems like a shame to me. These awards ought to be an opportunity for authors to receive some well deserved recognition, and for readers to be exposed to new authors.

I think that one of the reasons the vote totals are low is lack of promotion. So, I started this thread to encourage more participation.

All the categories are listed here: Awards & Contests

Regular readers of the AH will see a lot of familiar names. You'll also see many you probably don't know. I think it's a great opportunity to reward your favorites, or to make some new ones.

*Full disclosure: I have two nominations, but I'm posting this to try to encourage support for all the nominees.

 

[yowser]

Thanks for this reminder.

A goodly number of authors complain, mildly to strongly, about lack of voting and reader contributions to their efforts. This is an opportunity for writers to practice what they preach (or wish for.)

A lot of these tales I have not read, but all of the ones I have digested indeed merit their nominations.

Best of luck to all nominees. (My only, minor, request is not to start preparing long acceptance speeches. Just smile with thanks and keep writing....)

 

[AwkwardMD]

I will be making an effort to read a couple complete sets of nominated stories. Good luck to everyone.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Thanks for this reminder.

A goodly number of authors complain, mildly to strongly, about lack of voting and reader contributions to their efforts. This is an opportunity for writers to practice what they preach (or wish for.)

A lot of these tales I have not read, but all of the ones I have digested indeed merit their nominations.

Best of luck to all nominees. (My only, minor, request is not to start preparing long acceptance speeches. Just smile with thanks and keep writing....)

I was pleased to see a good number of authors receiving nominations for their first submissions. What a great way to encourage new writers!

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

I've been making my way through the list. Lots of really great entries!

 

[lovecraft68]

You can barely get a percentage of the readers to vote on a story they just finished reading and are on the page. The odds of the feasters of free actually clicking a link and then having to vote?

Yeah...no.

[Arguing amongst participants, insulting nominees, off-topic negativity, and questioning the legitimacy of the contest/contestants will no longer be tolerated in the contest threads.]

 

[alohadave]

The thread with the list: https://forum.literotica.com/thread...ual-literotica-readers-choice-awards.1594775/

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

You can barely get a percentage of the readers to vote on a story they just finished reading and are on the page. The odds of the feasters of free actually clicking a link and then having to vote?

Yeah...no.

The annual awards are an inbred group of back slapping toadies who vote for the same people every year.

I looked up inbred back slapping toadie... google always provides:

 

[oneagainst]

Yeah, look, it's good that there's an annual award thing. What would have been a bit better is knowing about it... if this thread hadn't turned up in AH I would have been oblivious and therefore would have lost the opportunity to cast the obligatory ballot for @NoTalentHack

Even a little thing like a banner or a footer one liner to top/tail a story and draw attention for the readers (and authors!) wouldn't have been a massive ask. If, as @MelissaBaby says, the difference between winning and losing is 20 votes out of 50, then this kinda just feels like a little pointless. If we're going to have a popularity contest, then the site should lean into it. Especially given the backlinks to the site and traffic from the socials for the authors who DO care about promoting.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

Yeah, look, it's good that there's an annual award thing. What would have been a bit better is knowing about it... if this thread hadn't turned up in AH I would have been oblivious and therefore would have lost the opportunity to cast the obligatory ballot for @NoTalentHack

Even a little thing like a banner or a footer one liner to top/tail a story and draw attention for the readers (and authors!) wouldn't have been a massive ask. If, as @MelissaBaby says, the difference between winning and losing is 20 votes out of 50, then this kinda just feels like a little pointless. If we're going to have a popularity contest, then the site should lean into it. Especially given the backlinks to the site and traffic from the socials for the authors who DO care about promoting.

The details aren't that easy to find. I have been nominated a few other years, and didn't even know, till another author pointed it out. And I doubt many readers even know that they can vote.

 

[Duleigh]

Thank you for the reminder. I've already voted in two categories, I have some reading to do to properly vote in many others.

 

[alohadave]

Even a little thing like a banner or a footer one liner to top/tail a story and draw attention for the readers (and authors!) wouldn't have been a massive ask.

It's on the front page, and was posted to the New Stories list on the 5th.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Yeah, look, it's good that there's an annual award thing. What would have been a bit better is knowing about it... if this thread hadn't turned up in AH I would have been oblivious and therefore would have lost the opportunity to cast the obligatory ballot for @NoTalentHack

Even a little thing like a banner or a footer one liner to top/tail a story and draw attention for the readers (and authors!) wouldn't have been a massive ask. If, as @MelissaBaby says, the difference between winning and losing is 20 votes out of 50, then this kinda just feels like a little pointless. If we're going to have a popularity contest, then the site should lean into it. Especially given the backlinks to the site and traffic from the socials for the authors who DO care about promoting.

All the more reason to promote it where we can.

There are two different types of year end awards. The Special Awards (Most Influential Writer, Sexiest Female Character, etc.) are, frankly, a straight up popularity contest. Since the nominations are made by readers in nominating threads, they will always be dominated by those who write in popular categories and have many thousands of followers. And, basically, I'm okay with that. Why shouldn't people get recognized for pleasing thousands of readers?

But the Category Awards are another matter. The highest rated stories each month are compiled, and the (usually) five highest of those are the nominees.

It is entirely possible for a story to be nominated with a low view count if it has a high enough rating. My nominated story in Novels and Novellas has only about 12k views.

So, it is much less of a popularity contest in picking the nominees. I noted previously that there are a number of author's who have been nominated for their first stories.

 

[ElectricBlue]

But the Category Awards are another matter. The highest rated stories each month are compiled, and the (usually) five highest of those are the nominees.

It is entirely possible for a story to be nominated with a low view count if it has a high enough rating. My nominated story in Novels and Novellas has only about 12k views.

So, it is much less of a popularity contest in picking the nominees. I noted previously that there are a number of author's who have been nominated for their first stories.

Agree, the Category Awards are the opposite of the "nomination" go arounds. They're based on how well a story runs, which is more about the story on the day, less about the author.

I think the site should get rid of the Special Awards, which are popularity and clique based, and only promote these Category Awards.

 

[TxRad]

If you put Lit in your favored list, you get informed of such things as this.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Agree, the Category Awards are the opposite of the "nomination" go arounds. They're based on how well a story runs, which is more about the story on the day, less about the author.

I think the site should get rid of the Special Awards, which are popularity and clique based, and only promote these Category Awards.

Two special categories seem particularly egregious.

Most Influential Author is a stand in for most Popular. Is it meant to be the author who has had a significant impact on their writing peers, or the one who has somehow influenced their readers in some way? How would any particular reader make that judgment.

The other is Most Literary/Genre Transcending. The more literary and genre transcending a story is, the less popular it's likely to be.

 

[SimonDoom]

Agree, the Category Awards are the opposite of the "nomination" go arounds. They're based on how well a story runs, which is more about the story on the day, less about the author.

I think the site should get rid of the Special Awards, which are popularity and clique based, and only promote these Category Awards.

Agreed. The vote pool is so small that they don't mean much and are incredibly vulnerable to clique voting.

 

[NoTalentHack]

Two special categories seem particularly egregious.

Most Influential Author is a stand in for most Popular. Is it meant to be the author who has had a significant impact on their writing peers, or the one who has somehow influenced their readers in some way? How would any particular reader make that judgment.

As a nominee in Most Influential Author, please vote for me.

I admit that it's a popularity contest, but that's true of basically every award show of any kind. Do you really think Titanic is a better picture than L.A. Confidential? Shape of Water is better than Lady Bird? Shakespeare in Love over Saving Private Ryan? Forrest Gump over Pulp Fiction, for goodness sake? Come on now.

I will say that Most Influential, as described by laurel is "Please choose the writer from the list who affected you the most in 2022. Whose stories did you seek out and enjoy? Who made laugh/cry/etc.?" We may think of it as "Most Influential among other authors," but that's not what the people running the award are saying. Whether that's accurate or not? Who knows. It's all in good fun anyways.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

It's on the front page, and was posted to the New Stories list on the 5th.

Thanks. I marked Lit as a favorite, too.

 

[Djmac1031]

As a nominee in Most Influential Author, please vote for me.

Done.

Now, if everyone would vote for me in...

*checks every category, finds no nominations*

....um, nevermind.

 

[MelissaBaby]

As a nominee in Most Influential Author, please vote for me.

I admit that it's a popularity contest, but that's true of basically every award show of any kind. Do you really think Titanic is a better picture than L.A. Confidential? Shape of Water is better than Lady Bird? Shakespeare in Love over Saving Private Ryan? Forrest Gump over Pulp Fiction, for goodness sake? Come on now.

I will say that Most Influential, as described by laurel is "Please choose the writer from the list who affected you the most in 2022. Whose stories did you seek out and enjoy? Who made laugh/cry/etc.?" We may think of it as "Most Influential among other authors," but that's not what the people running the award are saying. Whether that's accurate or not? Who knows. It's all in good fun anyways.

First of all, I sincerely wish you good luck with the nomination.

That description reiterates that it's a ass backward way of saying "Most Popular>"

As I stated before, I don't have a problem with some categories being pure popularity contests. I just wish they'd be called what they are.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

You know, you guys could just not participate It feels weird to see you invested in something you are openly criticizing. I mean, I understand the extra exposure you could get from this, but is it worth the risk of being annoyed when/if you lose for the wrong reasons?

 

[MelissaBaby]

You know, you guys could just not participate It feels weird to see you invested in something you are openly criticizing. I mean, I understand the extra exposure you could get from this, but is it worth the risk of being annoyed when/if you lose for the wrong reasons?

I don't think it's weird for people to think that things they participate in could be improved.

 

[NoTalentHack]

You know, you guys could just not participate It feels weird to see you invested in something you are openly criticizing. I mean, I understand the extra exposure you could get from this, but is it worth the risk of being annoyed when/if you lose for the wrong reasons?

Oh, I'm fully expecting to get a pasting. Harddaysknight (whose stuff I like A LOT) has 6.7K followers. CherylTerra has 3.8K. Silkstockingslover has 47,000! If any of them post a story with an afterword that says, "Hey, go vote for me," I'm going to get murdered. And that's okay!

It's an honor just to be nominated.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Oh, I'm fully expecting to get a pasting. Harddaysknight (whose stuff I like A LOT) has 6.7K followers. CherylTerra has 3.8K. Silkstockingslover has 47,000! If any of them post a story with an afterword that says, "Hey, go vote for me," I'm going to get murdered. And that's okay!

It's an honor just to be nominated.

It's also really nice to see a story you wrote a year ago all of a sudden gets hundreds of new views a day.