Trouble with Tags

[Kumquatqueen]

We know it would be wonderful if the tag list were tidied up and curated.

My issue is a bit different - I can only assume most people aren't looking for the 'tone' of a story that they want to read. I'm finishing a draft atm, and vowed this time I'd actually plan the tags in advance of posting. The key thing about the story is it's two people who have regular sex, don't want to be in a relationship, but eventually realise a relationship is developing. Too filthy to be considered a Romance.

So I looked up potential tags that I'd be interested in:
Dirty romance 0 hits
unexpected emotions 0
Friends to lovers 5 pages
friends who fuck 0
Unexpected feelings 1 hit
Unexpected relationship 0
friends with benefits, 5 pages

Neither 'friends to lovers' (implying no sex to start with) or 'friends with benefits' are perfect, but given those results I'll use them anyway.

I'd guess people who like my stories would be looking for a similar realistic tone, but that's not going to attract many people - especially as most stories tagged 'Realistic' really really aren't... :
Unromantic 0
Unromantic man 0
realistic 1 page
Realism 3/4 of a page
Realistic sex 1 hit

So I guess I need to use some really factual tags. There's plenty of sexual activity, but no real focus on a blow job, for example:
Long-haired man 1 hit
Long haired man 0
Cambridge 1/3 page
Boat 4 pages
Outdoor sex 18 pages
British 7 pages
Kissing 35 pages

Right, remove long-haired man and Cambridge, replace with 'boat' and 'kissing'. Tough shit, fans of men with hair. There is a pivotal kissing scene, although it's near the end.

So I'm very glad I happened to give my MMC a key feature, when I first wrote him a couple years ago:
Big cock 98 pages

 

[Omenainen]

We know it would be wonderful if the tag list were tidied up and curated.

My issue is a bit different - I can only assume most people aren't looking for the 'tone' of a story that they want to read. I'm finishing a draft atm, and vowed this time I'd actually plan the tags in advance of posting. The key thing about the story is it's two people who have regular sex, don't want to be in a relationship, but eventually realise a relationship is developing. Too filthy to be considered a Romance.

So I looked up potential tags that I'd be interested in:
Dirty romance 0 hits
unexpected emotions 0
Friends to lovers 5 pages
friends who fuck 0
Unexpected feelings 1 hit
Unexpected relationship 0
friends with benefits, 5 pages

Neither 'friends to lovers' (implying no sex to start with) or 'friends with benefits' are perfect, but given those results I'll use them anyway.

I'd guess people who like my stories would be looking for a similar realistic tone, but that's not going to attract many people - especially as most stories tagged 'Realistic' really really aren't... :
Unromantic 0
Unromantic man 0
realistic 1 page
Realism 3/4 of a page
Realistic sex 1 hit

So I guess I need to use some really factual tags. There's plenty of sexual activity, but no real focus on a blow job, for example:
Long-haired man 1 hit
Long haired man 0
Cambridge 1/3 page
Boat 4 pages
Outdoor sex 18 pages
British 7 pages
Kissing 35 pages

Right, remove long-haired man and Cambridge, replace with 'boat' and 'kissing'. Tough shit, fans of men with hair. There is a pivotal kissing scene, although it's near the end.

So I'm very glad I happened to give my MMC a key feature, when I first wrote him a couple years ago:
Big cock 98 pages

His cock is 98 pages long? Dayum, I need to read that one.

 

[Lost_Writer01]

We know it would be wonderful if the tag list were tidied up and curated.

My issue is a bit different - I can only assume most people aren't looking for the 'tone' of a story that they want to read. I'm finishing a draft atm, and vowed this time I'd actually plan the tags in advance of posting. The key thing about the story is it's two people who have regular sex, don't want to be in a relationship, but eventually realise a relationship is developing. Too filthy to be considered a Romance.

So I looked up potential tags that I'd be interested in:
Dirty romance 0 hits
unexpected emotions 0
Friends to lovers 5 pages
friends who fuck 0
Unexpected feelings 1 hit
Unexpected relationship 0
friends with benefits, 5 pages

Neither 'friends to lovers' (implying no sex to start with) or 'friends with benefits' are perfect, but given those results I'll use them anyway.

I'd guess people who like my stories would be looking for a similar realistic tone, but that's not going to attract many people - especially as most stories tagged 'Realistic' really really aren't... :
Unromantic 0
Unromantic man 0
realistic 1 page
Realism 3/4 of a page
Realistic sex 1 hit

So I guess I need to use some really factual tags. There's plenty of sexual activity, but no real focus on a blow job, for example:
Long-haired man 1 hit
Long haired man 0
Cambridge 1/3 page
Boat 4 pages
Outdoor sex 18 pages
British 7 pages
Kissing 35 pages

Right, remove long-haired man and Cambridge, replace with 'boat' and 'kissing'. Tough shit, fans of men with hair. There is a pivotal kissing scene, although it's near the end.

So I'm very glad I happened to give my MMC a key feature, when I first wrote him a couple years ago:
Big cock 98 pages

I’m not sure if there is a question to this but if you’re looking for advice, I would suggest that most people will see it in the category when published (and you’re highly followed so people will see it that way too) and they’ll find it via some of the common tags. I would still suggest using the little-used tags if that helps summarise your story - you can always start a trend for ‘unexpected feelings’ - I’d imagine the majority of stories could use that tag!

Hope this is a little helpful.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I’m not sure if there is a question to this but if you’re looking for advice, I would suggest that most people will see it in the category when published (and you’re highly followed so people will see it that way too) and they’ll find it via some of the common tags. I would still suggest using the little-used tags if that helps summarise your story - you can always start a trend for ‘unexpected feelings’ - I’d imagine the majority of stories could use that tag!

Hope this is a little helpful.

Having counted up, I have 9 tags so might as well go for an indulgent one for the tenth.

I often curse the Lit 10-tag limit (it's hard to get to 10 for a vanilla het story, impossible to include all relevant search terms for BDSM in only 10), but sometimes I read AO3 stories where the list of tags is longer than the story. Just because it's often true, doesn't mean I'll be using 'no beta we die like men', let alone run-on tags like '$Character is a $thing' 'because why not' 'it seemed like a good idea okay'...

 

[Bazzle]

I am not sure if my tags ever work!

But as I write in fetish, I need to make sure everyone knows which branch of fetish it is, unless of course it says peeing/smoking in the title!

 

[SimonDoom]

There's nothing wrong with picking a seldom-used tag if you think there's a decent chance someone would use it in a search. The fewer hits, the more your story stands out. It's kind of hard to stand out in a list that's 98 pages long.

 

[NotWise]

For the last few years, I've picked most of my tags from the tag cloud for the story's category, then indulged myself on the last one or two. That way the list might be rare if not unique, but probably no-one will ever search for those last one or two tags.

 

[SimonDoom]

Another tag strategy I use sometimes is to look at popular stories that have similar themes and check out the tags they use. One of the very best ways for a story to remain popular is for it to pop up on "similar story" lists for other stories, and I figure that piggybacking off of others' tags increases my chances of doing that. I know it's worked in at least a few cases.

Also, some words just have an inherent sexy appeal, like the word "bikini." If you have a bikini in your story, then by all means use it as a tag.

 

[Trionyx]

Do we really know how many readers use tags? Or do they look more at the categories and the description lines for guidance?

 

[Bamagan]

His cock is 98 pages long? Dayum, I need to read that one.

But what if it's 98 pages thick? Barely more than a pamphlet!

 

[MrPixel]

YMMV, but tags with more than two words are fails in the making. Combinations like "long-haired man" are tricky because it depends on the prospective reader entering "long-haired" with the hyphen, as you discovered (yes, the tag search is that stupid). In short, the longer the tag, the less likely your phraseology is going to correspond with somebody else's. Same goes for unusual words like "unexpected" and "unromantic".

That said, I haven't done the same analysis you have, and have no basis to compare. I try real hard, though, to keep tags to one word or two if it's common, like "group sex" or "girl-girl". I look at the word soup on rare occasion for a better idea, but the soup is a compilation of published tags and not what readers enter when looking for something.

 

[yowser]

I can see the conference program clearly:

LitCon 2024

Day 1 9am Seminar Room 202

Tags: Theory and Practice

Panel Topics: Controlled Vocabulary, Hierarchical Headings, Lumping vs. Splitting, Tag Envy, What do Readers Want?

10:30 Casanova Ballroom

Loving Wives, What does it mean?

Panel topics: The Subtle Art of Trolling, Score Interpretation Analytics, Revenge Basics, Why is this category different from all other categories?

11:15 Lolita Room

Underage

etc....

 

[Gamblnluck]

Do we really know how many readers use tags? Or do they look more at the categories and the description lines for guidance?

I personally use them for 'newish' stories when I am in the mood to read similar stories. I might hit a tag like 'slave' or 'slavery' to see who might have posted a story I missed over the past few weeks. I rarely go much past the first couple pages.
For me, I am far more likely to go to the favorites list of readers who enjoyed my stories. Some are hundreds or thousands of stories long so in that case the effort worthless. I see many who favorite any story they liked.

 

[boytoyjoy]

I use a few specific tags, then look at titles, descriptions, author info, etc.