Thoughts About Lit Readers

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I have 4 or 5 LIT accounts for my stories. In the beginning I wanted to see how toxic JAMESBJOHNSON is, now I use the accounts to sort categories. Incest goes one place, loving wives someplace else, erotic horror yet another place.

JAMESBJOHNSON comes with a quarter point penalty, because most of you are pitiful pathetic losers who ambush from the dark, our fags and fag-hags mostly, but I digress. Readers don't like stories with incidental sex, they want stories where sex is numero uno, and anything else is like punctuation. Don't write stories where people have lives and causes, and they fuck after work. Focus your laser on the deed.

High score LIT stories remind me of porn from the 70s where the lonely Maytag guy comes to the house and unclogs mom's drain.

 

[Carnevil9]

Lit readers do indeed have laser-like focus on their fetishes. I wrote an incest/taboo story once where I wanted to include both incest and some other taboo. So I wrote about a mom who was fucking her son and her priest. The readers largely didn't like the priest subplot. A typical comment was, "lose the priest. he's a distraction!"

 

[Carnal_Flower]

Most of the time this is true. People want their fetish and they want it done right. Nothing wrong with that.

But toss them a big sloppy Romance full of soulmating and eternal love and they sing a different tune.

They want their fetish and they want a hot hot stroker, but then they want to redeem themselves with gushy love, which scores higher and wins contests.

Lit readers do indeed have laser-like focus on their fetishes. I wrote an incest/taboo story once where I wanted to include both incest and some other taboo. So I wrote about a mom who was fucking her son and her priest. The readers largely didn't like the priest subplot. A typical comment was, "lose the priest. he's a distraction!"

 

[HandsInTheDark]

But toss them a big sloppy Romance full of soulmating and eternal love and they sing a different tune.

I have trouble generalizing about readers; a wide variety of sorts has commented or emailed me. Since I lean towards character development, I have what I imagine is a smaller set of readers than some. But in that set:

Romance is popular, especially with female readers. Men mostly seem to tolerate it.

An unambiguously triumphant ending drives scores up. (Captured Princess had an ambiguous ending, the Princess might or might not be seen as getting what she wanted; the Princess fetish people (aka females raised on spoiled Disney Princesses who always win in the end, plus a pony and a tiara) were livid and the score took a hit.)

For females, sex is very nearly optional if the story is good enough. Men flip that around.

If you're going to mess with a fetish - I lean towards submission and noncon - signal that fact early, somewhere on page 1. I imagine that goes double for incest and gay, but I wouldn't know. Readers love surprises in plot, and sometimes characters, but NEVER sex.

Assholes with a heart of gold rock the female vote, except for the maybe 5% that hate it. Men prefer they have no heart at all. Everyone seems to like it when slutty women get slapped around and dissed, which I find both fascinating and vaguely disturbing. Characters with clear emotional problems are more popular than I imagined; which might or might not say something about the readership.

All in my experiences based on a handful of stories spanning maybe two genres.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

JAMESBJOHNSON comes with a quarter point penalty,

You've worked hard for that.

Readers don't like stories with incidental sex, they want stories where sex is numero uno, and anything else is like punctuation. Don't write stories where people have lives and causes, and they fuck after work. Focus your laser on the deed.

Not in my experience, but we write different categories. My readers are clearly looking for characters they can identify with, and only then want to see them get lots of sex. But they want to come to grips with the characters first.

Maybe you have more male readers than I do? Wild guess.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I have trouble generalizing about readers; a wide variety of sorts has commented or emailed me. Since I lean towards character development, I have what I imagine is a smaller set of readers than some. But in that set:

Romance is popular, especially with female readers. Men mostly seem to tolerate it.

An unambiguously triumphant ending drives scores up. (Captured Princess had an ambiguous ending, the Princess might or might not be seen as getting what she wanted; the Princess fetish people (aka females raised on spoiled Disney Princesses who always win in the end, plus a pony and a tiara) were livid and the score took a hit.)

For females, sex is very nearly optional if the story is good enough. Men flip that around.

If you're going to mess with a fetish - I lean towards submission and noncon - signal that fact early, somewhere on page 1. I imagine that goes double for incest and gay, but I wouldn't know. Readers love surprises in plot, and sometimes characters, but NEVER sex.

Assholes with a heart of gold rock the female vote, except for the maybe 5% that hate it. Men prefer they have no heart at all. Everyone seems to like it when slutty women get slapped around and dissed, which I find both fascinating and vaguely disturbing. Characters with clear emotional problems are more popular than I imagined; which might or might not say something about the readership.

All in my experiences based on a handful of stories spanning maybe two genres.

I write for me, and assume my audience is male. If I hadda clue what females want I wouldn't chase after them. My goal is to create an antisocial survivor who eats dog food if that's whet there is, and fucks anyone with a pussy. He does temp labor, clubs drunks for their pocket change, or puts a cap in your ass for a dollar. He's mix of George Smiley and the early Clint Eastwood.

 

[Carnal_Flower]

True, generalizations are suspect.

Just speaking from my own experience. I have a 6 part series. The chapter with hardly any sex, very plot heavy, everyone comments on the story part, has the highest score.

I also have one short, unapologetic stroker. Page and a half. Every single comment raves that it made them. . . er . . . "finish." Most feedback I've gotten. Second highest views, and . . . lowest score. Of my incest stories that is.

Of course it is shorter. Longer gets higher score, no doubt. At least for me.

People are always putting down "stokers" here like that's what lit readers want, when actually the longer, romantic or plot-heavy ones tend (in general) to score higher. Not saying I know the reason for that. A happy ending definitely scores big.

I have trouble generalizing about readers; a wide variety of sorts has commented or emailed me. Since I lean towards character development, I have what I imagine is a smaller set of readers than some. But in that set:

Romance is popular, especially with female readers. Men mostly seem to tolerate it.

An unambiguously triumphant ending drives scores up. (Captured Princess had an ambiguous ending, the Princess might or might not be seen as getting what she wanted; the Princess fetish people (aka females raised on spoiled Disney Princesses who always win in the end, plus a pony and a tiara) were livid and the score took a hit.)

For females, sex is very nearly optional if the story is good enough. Men flip that around.

If you're going to mess with a fetish - I lean towards submission and noncon - signal that fact early, somewhere on page 1. I imagine that goes double for incest and gay, but I wouldn't know. Readers love surprises in plot, and sometimes characters, but NEVER sex.

Assholes with a heart of gold rock the female vote, except for the maybe 5% that hate it. Men prefer they have no heart at all. Everyone seems to like it when slutty women get slapped around and dissed, which I find both fascinating and vaguely disturbing. Characters with clear emotional problems are more popular than I imagined; which might or might not say something about the readership.

All in my experiences based on a handful of stories spanning maybe two genres.

 

[DreamCloud]

It's not a story without the story.

 

[SamScribble]

Given that writing the sex bit is the part that I usually struggle with, I sometimes wonder why I even post on LIT. That said, many of my more successful stories are rather light on sex. Maybe I have somehow developed a bit of a following with a readership from a gentler era.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

You've worked hard for that.



Not in my experience, but we write different categories. My readers are clearly looking for characters they can identify with, and only then want to see them get lots of sex. But they want to come to grips with the characters first.

Maybe you have more male readers than I do? Wild guess.

Todays difference is greater than 2 points.

I posted a LW story designed to piss off the gang, and it did, tho many men like the cuck theme.

 

[legerdemer]

Given that writing the sex bit is the part that I usually struggle with, I sometimes wonder why I even post on LIT.

If you have any (insightful) thoughts on this one, please do share. I've tried posting on one other non Lit/non sex site - the responses were sluggish at best. Plus this place has a rather unusual mix of charm, grit and snark that seems to hit my spot.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Most sites fail because they forget porn is entertainment. LIT boards aren't for enlightenment or moral instruction, theyre entertainment. LIT is tv wrestling NOT a revival for Jesus.

 

[TxRad]

If you have any (insightful) thoughts on this one, please do share. I've tried posting on one other non Lit/non sex site - the responses were sluggish at best. Plus this place has a rather unusual mix of charm, grit and snark that seems to hit my spot.

Over the years, I've made the rounds of Non-Erotic writing/posting sites. Two things become apparent really quickly. One the people there take themselves far too seriously and two, they are paranoid as hell when it comes to their literary baby.

Most have very small readerships as compared to the million plus that hit Lit everyday. My experiments that are non-erotic or non-erotic stories that i post to see the reaction, I post here on Lit.

 

[DreamCloud]

If you have any (insightful) thoughts on this one, please do share. I've tried posting on one other non Lit/non sex site - the responses were sluggish at best. Plus this place has a rather unusual mix of charm, grit and snark that seems to hit my spot.

Lit brings to readers to you. Most other sites (non-porn based) require you to market for readers. It's more of a social game.

I had posted one of my low sex stories on another site and for six months had only three readers (I think I was one of them). Through a quirk, not of my own doing, the story got some strange publicity. Now it is nearing 300 readers and I added three more of my stories (partially sanitized) which are also doing as well. So, six months and I am excited about 300 readers. That can be achieved in an hour on Lit.

Most non-adult themed writing sites are littered with young writers. The young trade ratings with each other and socially boost the reads. They were born to digitally market.

 

[Carnal_Flower]

Thoughts about Lit Readers.

I posed a little romp in EC for the hell of it and my Feed for D/d has just exploded with faves, comments, etc. Interesting to me. I'm sure it must have to do with posting in a new genre, people who wouldn't normally look at Incest are taking a look. I didn't expect that.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

I also have one short, unapologetic stroker. Page and a half. Every single comment raves that it made them. . . er . . . "finish." Most feedback I've gotten. Second highest views, and . . . lowest score. Of my incest stories that is.

I don't write, read or tolerate incest, so take this for what it is worth - I'd assume an incest reader is looking for the specific "tang" of forbidden/wrong/twisted, etc. For that to work, you have to have enough character development that a reader can get some resonance with the character before the character gets some. At least, I'm assuming that incest strokers don't work for the same reason that noncon strokers wouldn't - there's no sense of wrongness if you're detached from the characters.

A straight up sex scene between obscure characters can work. But if you're trying to play on the taint of wrongness, it has to be personal.

 

[geronimo_appleby]

Todays difference is greater than 2 points.

I posted a LW story designed to piss off the gang, and it did, tho many men like the cuck theme.

fun, isn't it.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

fun, isn't it.

I'm working on a story readers are sure to hate: A young lesbian matures to become a gold digger who sleeps her way up with both sexes, deserts her high school sweetheart to marry a man, etc. I wanna stimulate the lezzies.

 

[Carnal_Flower]

No, it did "work." Very well apparently. "A perfect little gem" of a stroker. If the comments and feedback are accurate, it hit the sweet spot with my fetish, which is exactly what I wanted it to do.

The point being, just something I've noticed, these kind tend to score a bit lower. The ones that are hottest, whether they are short or part of a long developed series, from the feedback and comments I get, will drop in score.

[Added]. I can almost predict it from the comments. If they go on and on about how well-written it is, great story, scores will shoot up. If the comments are more along the lines of "sizzling hot!!!" the score goes down.

I don't write, read or tolerate incest, so take this for what it is worth - I'd assume an incest reader is looking for the specific "tang" of forbidden/wrong/twisted, etc. For that to work, you have to have enough character development that a reader can get some resonance with the character before the character gets some. At least, I'm assuming that incest strokers don't work for the same reason that noncon strokers wouldn't - there's no sense of wrongness if you're detached from the characters.

A straight up sex scene between obscure characters can work. But if you're trying to play on the taint of wrongness, it has to be personal.

 

[Areala-chan]

I'm working on a story readers are sure to hate: A young lesbian matures to become a gold digger who sleeps her way up with both sexes, deserts her high school sweetheart to marry a man, etc. I wanna stimulate the lezzies.

Oh, so she's bi? Cool.

You wanna stimulate us, make sure the girl/girl stuff is hot as hell and the reason she goes for dudes makes logical sense. Not hard at all.

*huggles*
Areala-chan

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Oh, so she's bi? Cool.

You wanna stimulate us, make sure the girl/girl stuff is hot as hell and the reason she goes for dudes makes logical sense. Not hard at all.

*huggles*
Areala-chan

Gold digger.

 

[TxRad]

Gold digger.

Simple answer but....
Why would a gold digging lesbian go after guys?
Why wouldn't she go after rich girls?
If she switches teams that easy, she probably wasn't a lesbian to start with.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Simple answer but....
Why would a gold digging lesbian go after guys?
Why wouldn't she go after rich girls?
If she switches teams that easy, she probably wasn't a lesbian to start with.

She does.

I imagine this'll come as revelation to you but plenty of lesbians sell pussy to men. Plenty are married to men.

Send me a money order for tuition.

 

[Areala-chan]

I imagine this'll come as revelation to you but plenty of lesbians sell pussy to men.

Of course they do!

Like the way straight men such as yourself routinely sell themselves to other men just to make a little money on the side doing the glory hole circuit? Because that's how sexuality works, right? I mean, you just flip it like a switch? "Today, I don't feel like being straight. Time to be gay for a while." You woke up this morning and chose to be heterosexual, right, just like you do every day before you roll out of bed?

Leave your "lesbians are just women who haven't fucked the right man yet" fantasies in your stories; they have no place in real life.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

Leave your "lesbians are just women who haven't fucked the right man yet" fantasies in your stories; they have no place in real life.

That is *clearly* not what he was saying. He was saying something worse - that there exist women who have traded pussy for economic comfort, even if having their pussy rammed by guys didn't do much for them, for centuries. And it's hardly unique to lesbians, though by definition it applies to them best if it applies to them at all.

It may startle you, but once upon a time, lesbians were treated as ill or confused. Lots of them got with guys simply for the social security of male protection. It's still that way in plenty of places in the world. (You know there's no gays in Iran, right? Their political leadership has assured us of this. Homosexuality is a dirty American problem.)

It often amuses me to compare the sexual mores and understandings of people under 30 with people over 60. Seriously, it's like different planets.