The Authors' Hangout 2011 Halloween Contest Support Thread.

[Boxlicker101]

And if you look at the score on the toplists, you may very well find a different number. Same for the category hubs. You might even find different numbers on the "New" section and the "Recently Popular" of that page.

Everything updates at different times during the day. Your private author page is the only one that updates in real time.

Even your personal index page doesn't update completely. Votes and Average Score do, but Views updates periodically.

 

[LunaEroticaMystica]

Sugary Comfort: Yeah, none of that is fun stuff. Glad the check-up went well though. A doula could help ease your mind and if you don't find one, just be straight with your midwife about what you do and don't want and let her be your ally. *chuckles at the junk comment* You crack me up! Can you watch Vamp Diaries or Secret Circle on-line? That station puts new episodes up about a week after they air them. Just a thought. That's the only way I get to catch any shows now. TV online at night, when pixie is sleeping.

 

[Darkniciad]

Here's tonight's track.

Seven new stories brings us up to 74.

The average score is 4.07 with a median of 4.12

The average vote total is 178 with a median of 83 and a total of 11,914

Two stories over 1k votes already, and it looks like the top 3 will be shaken up for the first time tomorrow, if the score on the category hub holds up for one story.

 

[Sugary_Comfort]

Sugary Comfort: Yeah, none of that is fun stuff. Glad the check-up went well though. A doula could help ease your mind and if you don't find one, just be straight with your midwife about what you do and don't want and let her be your ally. *chuckles at the junk comment* You crack me up! Can you watch Vamp Diaries or Secret Circle on-line? That station puts new episodes up about a week after they air them. Just a thought. That's the only way I get to catch any shows now. TV online at night, when pixie is sleeping.

One of the reasons for a doula is because I get the feeling my nurse midwife is going to treat this as more of a medical thing. I've been angry with him for a while over it all. But yesterday I realized that as long as he doesn't say my baby is huge, I'm fine. I figured this out when I was okay with him in the beginning and then not okay when he was saying that at 36 weeks average weight is 5lbs and the u/s machine was estimating mine at 7lbs.

For some reason this office has weird info. Everything else I've read and heard, including from the birthing center midwives says average weight is different. For 36 weeks they all say 6 1/2lbs.

Oh man, do I need to show you a picture of my little man's piece? I mean what I saw today was his testicles but his penis is pretty big for a fetus. I kept having to correct people when I posted the gender shot, saying the circle is around the genitalia! People were mistaking his penis for his leg. -_-' So they were thinking he was a girl.

As for watching the shows, I managed to find that damn remote. I'm one of those people who have organized clutter. Things in my room can look like a complete mess but ask me where stuff is and I can tell you right away. I have problems when I decide to be a grown-up and put stuff where they should go. When I do that, I always lose it. The remote was sitting right in front of the stupid TV. I'd picked up stuff in that area several times and never saw it until today after I'd organized the mess in the my closet and cleaned up my room. It was all a ploy to get me to clean since I have no nesting instinct. So I did get to watch the shows, yay!

*****

Now, as for story, I didn't write anything new yet. After all the shows went off I was getting super tired. Around midnight I tried to go to bed, thinking, "Yay I'm finally going to change my schedule around!" But no. I was so uncomfy for some reason and though I did actually sleep some, I kept waking up and just feeling wide awake. So I got up. I'd only been sleeping for 3 hours. And what woke me up the last time was a lovely braxton hicks contraction. This is the first one I've felt and people aren't kidding when they say they're uncomfortable. I'm thinking I've been having them while sleeping for the past few days.

Anyways, so yeah, nothing new yet. I'll be writing some today, though, at some point.

 

[PennLady]

Sugary -- as I recall, there's a pretty big margin of error on a baby's weight when they're estimating via ultra-sound. And as for average, pffft. It doesn't sound good that you're angry with your nurse/midwife, though. :-/ Best of luck!

 

[LettersFromTatyana]

I still haven't gotten the hospital bag packed. My nesting instinct has not kicked in....

Mine never did. *shrugs*

One of the reasons for a doula is because I get the feeling my nurse midwife is going to treat this as more of a medical thing. I've been angry with him for a while over it all.

Have you written out a birth plan? Write one, and make multiple copies. We handed one to each midwife and nurse in attendance, and posted one on our door so that anyone entering would see it.

My husband was great... but I wish I'd had a doula. I know plenty of people who only got one at the last minute, so don't fret.

Sugary -- as I recall, there's a pretty big margin of error on a baby's weight when they're estimating via ultra-sound.

Yup. I had an ultrasound done at 41 weeks, and the tech said she was "average height and average weight." By the next day--handily enough, she decided it was time to start moving on out as soon as I left that damn appointment, therefore making us pay for the stupid ultrasound--she was out and off the charts for both height and weight. We're talking around nine and a half pounds, and I don't remember how many inches. I remember holding her and thinking, "where is this newborn I was promised?" She's now a bit over a year and wearing 2T clothing.

But that baby came out just fine; no need to worry about the size.

Oh, well, now I'm depressed.

I seem to recall that you've told me not to pay attention to the numbers, so now I'll toss that advice back at you.

 

[SuperHeroRalph]

Here's tonight's track.

Seven new stories brings us up to 74.

The average score is 4.07 with a median of 4.12

The average vote total is 178 with a median of 83 and a total of 11,914

Two stories over 1k votes already, and it looks like the top 3 will be shaken up for the first time tomorrow, if the score on the category hub holds up for one story.

Being that you're the man with the statistics and I'm a writer who writes in 30 of the 35 categories and one who appreciates numbers, which categories have a better chance of winning a contest? Which categories have less of a chance of winning a contest?

We all know that the Incest category is the big draw around here, but many of those who read the incest category don't vote and never make a comment. In the way that search engines captures random comments made on different sites, I imagine incest readers don't want anyone to know that incest is the thing that floats their boat.

If I was to hazard a guess, as to which categories have a better chance of winning a contest, I'd say Romance and Sci-Fi. If I was to guess which categories will never win a contest, sadly, being that I enjoy writing stories in those categories, I'd pick, Gay, Lesbian, Fetish, and Cross Dressing. Yet, what other categories have you noticed that are more popular with readers than some of the other categories.

Not so much for myself, but I think this is information that many of the others can use, especially some of the new writers.

Lastly, in all my stories, I remind the reader to vote. What else can we do, as a group of writers to get readers not only to vote but also to give us more feedback. Years ago, I wrote a story about readers not voting and leaving comments. That story helped me in getting votes and comments, but I don't know if that story helped any other writer.

I was just wondering, if we all added a reminder to not just our contest stories but also to all of our stories to prompt the reader to vote, leave a comment, and/or to add our stories and us to their favorite lists, perhaps, that would help. What do you think?

Thanks in advance for taking the time to answer my inquiry.

 

[geronimo_appleby]

romance does pretty well, non-erotic less so. anal is another popular category, i find.

 

[scouries]

what was he thinking?????

http://blog.mydirtyfamily.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/0614.jpg
Scene from mommy deadest

182. [size=+2]Mommy Deadest[/size]
by [size=+2] sr71plt [/size](10/13/11) 3.41 (216)

http://lionsraw.org/images/articleimages/450a.JPG

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[sethp]

shit guys. I'm not going to finish on time unless I can rip it out this weekend and get it edited. lol Good luck to everyone else though

 

[PennLady]

Have you written out a birth plan? Write one, and make multiple copies. We handed one to each midwife and nurse in attendance, and posted one on our door so that anyone entering would see it.

Funny, I feel so old fashioned and out of it. Had to have both my kids at hospitals. I had good experiences, though, so no problems.

...she was out and off the charts for both height and weight. We're talking around nine and a half pounds, and I don't remember how many inches. I remember holding her and thinking, "where is this newborn I was promised?" She's now a bit over a year and wearing 2T clothing.

But that baby came out just fine; no need to worry about the size.

A baby's size is always fun to manage. When my son was born, 5.5 weeks early, I worried about clothes and we got some preemie stuff. He was 6.5lbs and wore the preemie stuff for maybe two weeks. After that, he was always ahead of his age in his size. I also think it's pretty common for kids to wear sizes that don't match their age.

Then my daughter was born 10 days earlier than the due date (so she was almost full term), but she was 4lbs, 15oz, and wore preemie for a month, newborn for another month and always trailed in size. She's now 3 and a half and finally wearing 3T clothes. Sometimes.

But yes, it all works out.

I seem to recall that you've told me not to pay attention to the numbers, so now I'll toss that advice back at you.

Oh, I know. I do have to admit to being a little bummed. I thought it would get a better reception, but what can you do. I mean, geez, I even included a woman masturbating with an audience. What more do these people want?!? haha. Just another instance of me writing a story with more sex that gets lower ratings than my stories without sex. We'll have to see how R&B does once I start posting that.

 

[LettersFromTatyana]

Funny, I feel so old fashioned and out of it. Had to have both my kids at hospitals.

I've had friends who did this in hospitals. It's not necessarily a birth center midwife thing.

I haven't had a chance to read your finished story, PL. Hopefully tonight.

 

[PennLady]

I've had friends who did this in hospitals. It's not necessarily a birth center midwife thing.

I haven't had a chance to read your finished story, PL. Hopefully tonight.

Oh, I know. I just never went that route. For one thing, with my son, my water started leaking two months early, and so I had to go in the hospital. After initial estimates/expectations that I'd have him in a week or so, I was there for four weeks and induced early. With my daughter, like I said, I had a couple of complications and when I went in for a checkup, my fluid was low so I had to have her that day, and it had to be c-section anyway as she was breech.

Hope you enjoy the story. It's changed a bit since you read the original draft.

Hope Little Tat is feeling better.

 

[Boxlicker101]

romance does pretty well, non-erotic less so. anal is another popular category, i find.

Anal is very popular in terms of views, almost equal to Incest. At least, judging from my story index. However, I also believe the fans of Anal are quite demanding, wanting long stories with detailed descriptions of the actions, including preparation of the woman's ass. Also, some readers object to the use of a condom, while others object to the lack of one.

The highest ranked story the category is at 4.78, which is lower than any other top ranked story, including LW.

 

[Darkniciad]

Because the contests are based on score, some categories have an advantage in all the themed contests. Sci-Fi & Fantasy, NonHuman, and Romance. Those categories simply score higher on average. However, there are stories in those categories in the middle and bottom of almost every contest, so simply writing to a category isn't going to ensure a high score and a better chance of winning.

Gay Male actually has a very strong record of late. Several stories have placed, and many have performed quite well. I would put GM just below the three above as the current trends are running. Historically, this wasn't the case, but it has been in recent years.

Some categories have disadvantages in every contest as well, and the list is much larger. #1 is Loving Wives. The category is heavily populated with readers who downvote far more stories than they give positive marks to, if the percentage of signed comments is an indicator. If you write a LW story for the contest, your chances of placing are very slim, all the way back through the history of the contests.

Incest is disadvantaged on several fronts, although not nearly as badly as LW. Incest suffers from people who downvote the stories on the subject matter alone. Most likely, this increases in contests as more people are attracted to the stories by the high placement on the New list. Likewise, the category is not listed on the Contest page, so people who click from there may consider the content a "surprise" and downvote it.

Incest also draws very high vote totals, which means that swept votes have less of an effect ( LW suffers from this disadvantage as well ) Because of the regularity of low votes from "incest is sick!" voters, fewer low votes look "out of place" when that sweep runs, compounding the problem.

As with the advantaged categories, this isn't a "No way you can win" Several incest stories have placed in the last couple of years, and there are frequently several in the top 3-10. There are two in this contest that currently stand a strong chance of placing. Incest also has a strong history of placing in themed contests. It is amongst the top 5 ( if I'm remembering correctly ) categories for number of themed contest wins. This has waned in recent years, but I have noticed a trend of more incest stories placing highly in this year's contests.

Though these two categories have reduced chances of placing in the contests, they do expose your writing to large groups of readers, which can have tremendous advantages for later stories ( incest moreso than LW ) Having your story at the top of the NEW list further enhances this, and can be worth it simply for the number of new readers who become familiar with your pen name.

Historically, themed contest stories in these categories have a good track record of gaining nominations for the year-end awards as well. The same disadvantages work against them in the monthly contests, however.

Anal & Transsexuals and Crossdressers suffer from some of the same sort of downvoting as the previous two. Anal gets much higher vote counts on average. They're both tough sells, however. Again, I have seen T&D stories doing quite well recently, and one is ranking fairly high in the current contest.

Lesbian has a poor historical record of placing. I think this is primarily due to the number of men writing Lesbian stories and getting downvoted for that alone. Any number of people have experimented with female pen names and found that those stories outperform similar stories in male pen names by leaps and bounds. A genuine female ( better, genuinely lesbian or at least bi ) writer could very well find success with this category if they write a good story. Guys... not so much.

Some categories are disadvantaged by lack of readership. Non Erotic, Letters and Transcripts, How-To, Humor and Satire, Novels and Novellas are amongst these. Simply getting 25 votes to qualify is difficult, let alone having a high enough score to place. Only those with already strong, established reader bases or a VERY good title + tagline on top of a damn good story are going to make a run for the win in these categories.

Horror is really amongst this list as well, although it has a boost in the current contest.

Most everything else really falls in the middle.

Part of the reason lower vote categories have an advantage is that vote-bombs can drop them off the troll radar. They may lose an H, and fall deep into the 30 day toplist. At that point, the trolls find more enticing targets. This may also hamper other readers from finding the story, reducing the number of 4 votes that typically move the score. If the troll votes are then swept, the score of the story leaps.

In these cases, the trolls have actually done the exact opposite of what they intended. There's quite a historical record of this.

My observations are actually that the playing field is becoming far more level for stories in all categories -- with the exception of Loving Wives. Stories from categories across the board are scoring highly with solid vote totals, even if they aren't winning.... Yet.

In the end, a catchy title and tagline coupled with a good story is your best bet to win a contest. It's also your best bet to gain new readers, which in turn increase your odds in future contests.

Write the best story you can write, in the category you want to write in. It may be years before you come close to those top 3 spots, and in some cases you may never reach the top of the list, but you will almost always gain readership in the process.

If your primary goal is to win every contest you enter, you're going to be disappointed FAR more often than not. Just enjoy the ride and the gain in readership that comes with participation.

 

[Boxlicker101]

There is something you omitted. Many of us have personal trolls who, because of the personal animosity they feel for us, vote low on everything we submit. Freddy has complained of this too, and he's probably right. In a category that gets few votes, these troll bombs keep the scores low. As I calculated before, if it takes forty votes of "5" to offset a single one-bomb, stories in the low vote categories have no chance of winning because they don't get that many votes.

I "won" the last place (tm) trophy in the last contest because my Gay Male story had only ten votes, including bombs. I must admit, it was also not as good a story as I wish it had been.

 

[PennLady]

There is something you omitted. Many of us have personal trolls who, because of the personal animosity they feel for us, vote low on everything we submit. Freddy has complained of this too, and he's probably right. In a category that gets few votes, these troll bombs keep the scores low. As I calculated before, if it takes forty votes of "5" to offset a single one-bomb, stories in the low vote categories have no chance of winning because they don't get that many votes.

I "won" the last place (tm) trophy in the last contest because my Gay Male story had only ten votes, including bombs. I must admit, it was also not as good a story as I wish it had been.

See, that first part -- I don't doubt it but it's just wrong. Sigh.

I really think that for me, people seem not pleased when I go out of my usual romance zone. Won't stop me from writing those, but I can't help a little disappointment.

 

[Darkniciad]

Well, that wasn't what the question was about. It was about categories. I covered personal trolls a page or so back.

 

[estragon]

See, that first part -- I don't doubt it but it's just wrong. Sigh.

I really think that for me, people seem not pleased when I go out of my usual romance zone. Won't stop me from writing those, but I can't help a little disappointment.

SA Penn Lady, which is why "The Collection", an EH, isn't getting the praise (or at least the votes) it deserves. Popular authors' followings want more of the same.

 

[PennLady]

SA Penn Lady, which is why "The Collection", an EH, isn't getting the praise (or at least the votes) it deserves. Popular authors' followings want more of the same.

Well, when it's all over, I'll just take it down and publish it. I've met with similar stuff when I tried a couple of quickies/stroke stories like Island Encounter. Although as Dark pointed out, some of that scoring is a result of the different scoring patterns in those categories.

All of which adds up to why I tell people not to live and die by votes and views and ratings. And I suppose I should take my own advice.

 

[sr71plt]

As I calculated before, if it takes forty votes of "5" to offset a single one-bomb, stories in the low vote categories have no chance of winning because they don't get that many votes.
(

Offset it in what way? forty "5" votes plus one "1" vote arrives at a rate of 4.9. Who would complain about how that score worked out?

 

[sr71plt]

See, that first part -- I don't doubt it but it's just wrong. Sigh.

I really think that for me, people seem not pleased when I go out of my usual romance zone. Won't stop me from writing those, but I can't help a little disappointment.

Nearly all contest stories get batted down more than an author's usual experience. You aren't even waiting for the sweeps to slit your wrists. Getting a little tiresome.

 

[Sugary_Comfort]

It would be nice to even place, but this being my first contest, I'm not expecting much. I would just love to get this dang thing finished and submitted. I wonder if I could make myself finish it tonight. The room is clean, hospital bag pretty much all packed, gotta call the doula but that's about it, so I have loads of time. It's just motivation I lack lol.

*******

As for baby stuff, once I get my doula secured I'm going to go over the birth plan with her and get it written out nice and neat. The nurse midwife I'm with gets a lot of the women from the birthing center so he knows where I'm coming from, but for some reason I'm just not comfortable enough to talk to him about what I want. I think it's because he comes off as more being for the whole medical deal rather than just a normal, natural thing. But it could also be because I'm still disappointed I'm not going to be giving birth where I wanted. I mean, I've been dreaming of giving birth at the birthing center since I was 14 (almost 10 years now) and all because of my unhealthy body I can't. Next time, though, definitely.

But yeah my birth plan is simple. No medications whatsoever (unless I am positive for group B strep, then of course I want the antibiotics) and that includes pitocin. I do NOT want any induction stuff. I'm hoping my water doesn't break until after I'm at the hospital because I would like to labor at home as long as possible so I don't end up going in and not progressing much and them be like, "Well it's taking too long so we're going to give you pitocin."

 

[PennLady]

Nearly all contest stories get batted down more than an author's usual experience. You aren't even waiting for the sweeps to slit your wrists. Getting a little tiresome.

Good grief -- slit my wrists? Geez. I realize the sweeps haven't happened yet, and also that I entered a category that doesn't get as many views/votes as some others. I'm curious and a bit disappointed, but that's it. Geez.

 

[Sugary_Comfort]

I keep meaning to read your story, PennLady. I probably will today when I take a break from my own story.

From what you've said of the votes for your story I would be ecstatic to have those numbers. My stories on here already are crap so I don't expect it, I didn't put much effort into them, but still if I were getting stuff over 4 and it was because of a bunch of different votes I'd be super happy.

But I understand where you're coming from feeling a bit disappointed.