Tips for newbie authors

[LadyBelleBlue]

Hey, hope this is the right area to post this thread?! I have just submitted my first story "The Lady & the Stallion"...I'm sure no other description is required ;-). And so far have received 2 private feedback emails and 5 favourites.
Couple of questions:
1) do you normally respond to private feedback? Is there an etiquette? Nothing horrible in what I have received, in fact very complimentary feedback which is great to hear as I'm here to perfect my writing craft and get feedback from readers. Eventually I want to self publish.
2) is there a way you can market yourself on this site so more peeps can read the story? And comment!

Plus any other tips for a newbie author would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks

 

[lovecraft68]

Hi, welcome to the AH

You can advertise your story here

http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=181349

and you can link your first story and ask for feedback on the boards here

http://forum.literotica.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1

As for responding to private feedback, if they left you an e-mail to reply to go for it. If it was anonymous there's no way to get back to them.

As for replying to public comments, you can do that, but many times the person who left the comment never comes back and sees the reply.

 

[RejectReality]

The best way to pick up new eyes is to keep posting new stories.

Every time you post a new story, you'll get new eyes on existing work.

 

[Sara_Hawkes]

1) do you normally respond to private feedback?

I'm a newbie too and I've been responding to absolutely everything with one exception.

I couldn't actually come up with a satisfactory response to, "YOU CANT GET FUCKED HARD ENOUGH CAN U SLUT!" and not just because it didn't have a question mark.

 

[lovecraft68]

I'm a newbie too and I've been responding to absolutely everything with one exception.

I couldn't actually come up with a satisfactory response to, "YOU CANT GET FUCKED HARD ENOUGH CAN U SLUT!" and not just because it didn't have a question mark.

Should have replied "I have an 8" strap on that says I can fuck pretty damned hard."

 

[LadyBelleBlue]

Fab lovecraft68 I've just posted on that thread!
Appreciate your help on the feedback front too, just wasn't sure the best way to deal with it!
Take it easy

 

[LadyBelleBlue]

Very true RejectReality, I'll be on the case with that now!! Onwards and upwards
Thank you!

 

[LadyBelleBlue]

LOL!! Well yes, I'm not sure what to respond to that...unless in a similar vein to lovecraft68. ;-). Lots of luck to you, nice to meet a fellow newbie!

 

[zotique]

I just read it and liked it. Sent you a comment too.

 

[NotWise]

I haven't seen you ask for feedback in the feedback forum yet, and the one public comment you got was certainly not very helpful. As a result I'll offer some feedback here.

Next time around you should probably try to get help from a volunteer editor. There are some features of your writing that are a little unusual and an editor may help you sort out what you really want to do with your writing. I'll list a few issues that I noticed:

Your use of tense is a little loose; sometimes past, sometimes present and sometimes in between.
You may be over-reaching on vocabulary. Some word choices seemed a little awkward.
Your sentences have sometimes, well... unusual structure and occasionally require interpretation.

The story is quite short and perhaps more of a vignette than an actual story. I was surprised by your choice to not name either character. Partly for that reason, characterization -- especially for your female character -- is largely absent. The setting is also a bit of a mystery. It's someplace on the ground. Even the motivation is obscure since you don't know what your character is doing there until the end.

I did enjoy reading it.

 

[LadyBelleBlue]

I haven't seen you ask for feedback in the feedback forum yet, and the one public comment you got was certainly not very helpful. As a result I'll offer some feedback here.

Next time around you should probably try to get help from a volunteer editor. There are some features of your writing that are a little unusual and an editor may help you sort out what you really want to do with your writing. I'll list a few issues that I noticed:

Your use of tense is a little loose; sometimes past, sometimes present and sometimes in between.
You may be over-reaching on vocabulary. Some word choices seemed a little awkward.
Your sentences have sometimes, well... unusual structure and occasionally require interpretation.

The story is quite short and perhaps more of a vignette than an actual story. I was surprised by your choice to not name either character. Partly for that reason, characterization -- especially for your female character -- is largely absent. The setting is also a bit of a mystery. It's someplace on the ground. Even the motivation is obscure since you don't know what your character is doing there until the end.

I did enjoy reading it.

Thanks so much for your feedback NotWise, this is exactly what I want to hear
I do have trouble with tenses I agree and this is something I am trying to work on, so I will make sure my next effort improves on that front.
I will definitely look into getting help from a volunteer editor, still new to the site so just getting my bearings of what is available!
Yes this was more of a scene really rather than a full on story, although I have thought about expanding on it and making the characters more real (ie names etc).

thanks so much again, really appreciate it and also glad you did enjoy it!
Take care

 

[LadyBelleBlue]

Thank you zotique, really appreciate your thoughts! Glad you liked it too

 

[TxRad]

Welcome to the madhouse.

If you decide to reply to e-mail comments, make sure you use an e-mail account that is only linked to your user name and not your personal one.

Secondly, go to the Editors Forum to find an editor. The link in your users Control Panel is hopelessly out of date.

The best way to get a following is to write and then write some more.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I hope you're talking about a human stallion and not a real stallion of the equine variety?

The first is acceptable here, the second isn't.

 

[LadyBelleBlue]

Thanks TxRad! Good tip there on the messaging front
I'm definitely going to check out the editors area, think that is exactly what I need!
Thanks again!

 

[LadyBelleBlue]

Have no fear Zeb_Carter, no bestiality occurred in the writing of the story, pure human male stallion ;-)

 

[rjordan]

I have just submitted my first story "The Lady & the Stallion"...I'm sure no other description is required ;-).

Good title. I knew right away it was about a girl and her horse.

rj

 

[sr71plt]

Good title. I knew right away it was about a girl and her horse.

rj

Interesting. I understood immediately what was meant by "stallion," and, in contrast to what others have posted, I thought the stallion/mare use was one of the sensual aspects of the story. (I probably would have tried to make even more out of it).

 

[rjordan]

Interesting. I understood immediately what was meant by "stallion," and, in contrast to what others have posted, I thought the stallion/mare use was one of the sensual aspects of the story. (I probably would have tried to make even more out of it).

That's because you're a mainstream (for pay) author with a solid understanding of themes, multiple levels of meaning, too-subtle humor and shit.

rj

 

[lovecraft68]

That's because you're a mainstream (for pay) author with a solid understanding of themes, multiple levels of meaning, too-subtle humor and shit.

rj

Nah, I got it too and I grew up reading Marvel comics and bad horror novels.

Shit, there I go not taking this stuff seriously again.

Hey, I was thinking of you a couple days ago, we had a pot luck get together at my house and one of my wife's friends brought over celery...stuffed with peanut butter.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Nah, I got it too and I grew up reading Marvel comics and bad horror novels.

Shit, there I go not taking this stuff seriously again.

Hey, I was thinking of you a couple days ago, we had a pot luck get together at my house and one of my wife's friends brought over celery...stuffed with peanut butter.

I like it better with cream cheese.

 

[lovecraft68]

I like it better with cream cheese.

Yup, my sister takes cream cheese and mixes it up with sliced up green olives and uses that for stuffing. Pretty damn good.

 

[rjordan]

Nah, I got it too and I grew up reading Marvel comics and bad horror novels.

Shit, there I go not taking this stuff seriously again.

Hey, I was thinking of you a couple days ago, we had a pot luck get together at my house and one of my wife's friends brought over celery...stuffed with peanut butter.

That's a classic. Sort of a gateway recipe leading to PB omelets.

rj

 

[sr71plt]

That's because you're a mainstream (for pay) author with a solid understanding of themes, multiple levels of meaning, too-subtle humor and shit.

rj

Or it could be that the mention of stallion pops the image into my mind that the author was evoking. (Not least because I'd recently used that image myself in a story.) this is an erotica site, though. I don't see it as unusual for the connotation to come up immediately. Having the literal meaning come up first here seems rather anal retentive to me.

I mentioned somewhere that I would have pushed the image if I was going to use it. In a recently written period-piece e-book, I started off with a woman on her way to a chalet to meet her lover and the Black Forest stallions (sort of like the Budweiser horses but not as tall) pulling the sleigh taking her up the mountain to him are being frisky and have massive erections (evoking "horse hung"), which makes her start thinking of her lover as a stallion--and starts the foreplay right there.

Years ago I used the image in the short story "Honey Hollow Swimming Hole," where a horse owner trying to put the make on a young man uses the language of breaking a horse while they watch a stallion cover a mare in the pasture, eventually getting around to talk about his target as a mare--and hiring a hunky horse trainer to seduce and break in the young man for him.