What is the most popular story length?

[jill999]

Hi everyone,

I'm still trying to get a feel for this site. I have posted two stories so far and I noticed that one of them was read by lots of members (45,000) and I received lots of email feedback (about 30). The next story has less than 5,000 views and just a couple of emails so far.

The first story was 25,000 words and took an average reader about 90 minutes to read. The second story was 75,000 words and would take almost five hours to read.

I think it is the story length that is holding back the longer story. Of the two the longer is a much better work, but the shorter story has been very well received. Should I have broken up the longer work and puplished it a chapter at a time?

I think I'm going to try a real short one next. Maybe 10,000 words. That might even get more readership. If that keeps working I guess a story consisting of one four letter word that begins with "F" would be rated 5 by all. Maybe I will do it. LOL

Please let me know what you think is the perfect length for Literotica?

Kisses for all who reply.

Jill

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

I don't know that there is a perfect length. Some readers will read longer stories and some want the shorter ones. Reads and vote counts also depend on what category the story is in as some categories get more reads and votes than others do.

You think a short story is 10,000 words? lol The minimum word count is 750.

 

[cloudy]

That's the cool thing about Lit - the readership is so vast that any decent author will have at least some that like their work, regardless of story length.

Some folks just want to wank, others want some plot with their porn.

*shrug*

Different strokes for different folks (pun intended).

 

[Weird Harold]

Hi everyone,

I'm still trying to get a feel for this site. ...
I think I'm going to try a real short one next. Maybe 10,000 words. That might even get more readership. If that keeps working I guess a story consisting of one four letter word that begins with "F" would be rated 5 by all. Maybe I will do it. LOL

Please let me know what you think is the perfect length for Literotica?

One Lit page is approximately 3,767 words and a story should be at lest one full page, IMHO.

A story needs to be well written, intriguing, or both for most people to invest the time to read three full Lit pages or more -- 11,300 words or so.

So, if you can tell a good story in about 7,000 to 10,000 words it will generaly do better than a comparable story of 25,000 or 75,000 words would.


But the best length for a submission here at Lit is however long is required to tell the story well. Quality is far more important than quantity and just behind shameless self-promotion in increasing readership.

 

[jill999]

I don't know that there is a perfect length. Some readers will read longer stories and some want the shorter ones. Reads and vote counts also depend on what category the story is in as some categories get more reads and votes than others do.

You think a short story is 10,000 words? lol The minimum word count is 750.

The 750 word minimum screwed up my one word story idea. To bad, I guess I will have to edit that one. LOL

 

[rgraham666]

Hey Jill.

I really can't say what is an ideal story length.

My longest piece (7 Lit pages) is my second best story according to the feedback I've gotten.

My best is 5 Lit pages.

I just posted one that is only a single Lit page and it's doing pretty good.

So I really can't say.

 

[jill999]

One Lit page is approximately 3,767 words and a story should be at lest one full page, IMHO.

A story needs to be well written, intriguing, or both for most people to invest the time to read three full Lit pages or more -- 11,300 words or so.

So, if you can tell a good story in about 7,000 to 10,000 words it will generaly do better than a comparable story of 25,000 or 75,000 words would.


But the best length for a submission here at Lit is however long is required to tell the story well. Quality is far more important than quantity and just behind shameless self-promotion in increasing readership.

Thanks for the feedback Harold. I thought that the 10,000 word range appeared to be in the sweet spot for this site. You confirmed my thinking.

One quick question? Was your last sentence directed at me?

Jill

 

[jill999]

Hey Jill.

I really can't say what is an ideal story length.

My longest piece (7 Lit pages) is my second best story according to the feedback I've gotten.

My best is 5 Lit pages.

I just posted one that is only a single Lit page and it's doing pretty good.

So I really can't say.

Hey sweety,

How are you doing tonight? I just got back home from NYC. Did you think about me like I asked you to? I thought I was feeling something. I was feeling it at 39,000 feet. It felt so good.......

kisses

Jillian

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Hi everyone,

I'm still trying to get a feel for this site. I have posted two stories so far and I noticed that one of them was read by lots of members (45,000) and I received lots of email feedback (about 30). The next story has less than 5,000 views and just a couple of emails so far.

The first story was 25,000 words and took an average reader about 90 minutes to read. The second story was 75,000 words and would take almost five hours to read.

I think it is the story length that is holding back the longer story. Of the two the longer is a much better work, but the shorter story has been very well received. Should I have broken up the longer work and puplished it a chapter at a time?

I think I'm going to try a real short one next. Maybe 10,000 words. That might even get more readership. If that keeps working I guess a story consisting of one four letter word that begins with "F" would be rated 5 by all. Maybe I will do it. LOL

Please let me know what you think is the perfect length for Literotica?

Kisses for all who reply.

Jill

I write long stories. Considerably longer on average than most Lit writers. I get significantly more PC's and feedback wishing they were longer than shorter. My longest works, tend to be some of my best rated and most read.

My regular readership like my stories because there is more to them than the sex. I do occasionally get feedback from casual readers telling me they are too long, too slow to develop, yadda yadda. If you write long stories, you will develop a readership that appreciates them. If you wirte short stories, your readership will appreciate those.

Neither is, on balance, better or worse. I have a a lot of H's. I have some contest winners and even a editors chocie or two. So long works aren't a bar to being well recieved. the only real difference is the amount of time and how prolific you need to be to cultivate an audience. If your works are longer on average, you will need more time and exposure to build a readership. If you wirte short works and are a good writer, you can get an almost instant reaction.

My readers are some of the finest people in the world. I wouldn't trade them for any amount of success. Their astue feedbacks and comments boost me everytime I get one. And I have running dialogue with many of them.

You rbest bet is to write what you are confortable with writing. Long or short, you will build a readership and once you do, you will find you quit worrying about length, simply wishing to tell the story that's in you in it's own time and place.

 

[davidwatts]

There's so many more variables besides length that have a bearing on the number of reads and the feedback. Here's some:

1. the title
2. the category
3. the day of the week it first goes up
4. where it is positioned on the New page the first day, the higher the better
5. how many other new stories go up on the day yours does


June also seems to be a less active time reader wise, but I have no proof of that, just a feeling. I'm sure that there are other reasons that some of the more statisically astute here know of. It is very frustrating to put a lot of work into something and have it not even be read.

Hi everyone,

I'm still trying to get a feel for this site. I have posted two stories so far and I noticed that one of them was read by lots of members (45,000) and I received lots of email feedback (about 30). The next story has less than 5,000 views and just a couple of emails so far.

The first story was 25,000 words and took an average reader about 90 minutes to read. The second story was 75,000 words and would take almost five hours to read.

I think it is the story length that is holding back the longer story. Of the two the longer is a much better work, but the shorter story has been very well received. Should I have broken up the longer work and puplished it a chapter at a time?

I think I'm going to try a real short one next. Maybe 10,000 words. That might even get more readership. If that keeps working I guess a story consisting of one four letter word that begins with "F" would be rated 5 by all. Maybe I will do it. LOL

Please let me know what you think is the perfect length for Literotica?

Kisses for all who reply.

Jill

 

[jill999]

My readers are some of the finest people in the world. I wouldn't trade them for any amount of success. Their astue feedbacks and comments boost me everytime I get one. And I have running dialogue with many of them.

You rbest bet is to write what you are confortable with writing. Long or short, you will build a readership and once you do, you will find you quit worrying about length, simply wishing to tell the story that's in you in it's own time and place.

Colleen,

I'm one of those readers. It's nice that I'm one of the finest people in the world now. I'm going to tell my hubby that tonight and see what he does.

I have enjoyed your stories a great deal. Our writing styles are somewhat similiar but our subject matter differs. My stories here have been mysteries. The sex is the thread which ties the characters together and eventually solves the mystery.

I like the idea of a woman who is smart and able to use her brains and body to achieve her objective. My stories reflect that. The mystery always has a few twist and turns but there is always a strong female character.

If you ever get a chance to read "Voices In The Darkness" I would love your thoughts on the female characters.

Thanks,

Jill

 

[Weird Harold]

One quick question? Was your last sentence directed at me?

Nope, "shameless self-promotion" is kind of a generic term for "advertising" and also the thread title I usually use for requesting feedback in the Story Feedback Forum when I post a new story (if I ever get around to finishing any of the stories I've started over the last five years. )

 

[EnglishMuffin]

:snicker:

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I hate reading off a screen and I don't know how people do it. I just can't imagine anyone settling front of their computer for a nice, relaxing read.

I hate it so much that I don't think I've ever read a story on Lit that made me wish it were more than 2-3 pages long. I get down to the bottom of page 1 and see that the story goes on for 7,8 pages, and my heart sinks. I just can't take it.

So I'll put my ass on the line and say that my ideal story length is 1-3 pages long.

People seem to think that story quality is the most important determinant for the length, and that's probably true for those of us who hang around this board, but I don't think the majority of visitors to Lit are looking for quality fiction. I think they're looking for stroke, which means they're in a hurry. So if I'm looking for a lot of reads, I'm going to keep it short and filthy.

--Zoot

 

[jill999]

I hate reading off a screen and I don't know how people do it. I just can't imagine anyone settling front of their computer for a nice, relaxing read.

I hate it so much that I don't think I've ever read a story on Lit that made me wish it were more than 2-3 pages long. I get down to the bottom of page 1 and see that the story goes on for 7,8 pages, and my heart sinks. I just can't take it.

So I'll put my ass on the line and say that my ideal story length is 1-3 pages long.

--Zoot

Well I guess that means you never finished any of my stories.

Thats okay, it appears that my second story was to long for this site. I'm going to try and figure this out. Short stories which get right to the action or full length stories which give the reader the depth to understand and relate to the characters. That's a hard choice.

You might have the answer to the mystery in your theory about reading a long work from a computer screen. I print my works before I edit them, so I never really read more than a chapter at a time directly from my screen.

I have always enjoyed a good book, but I never read one from a 17 inch monitor.

I will try to have some fun figuring this out.

Jill

 

[stormkitty]

I recently posted my first story, which runs 15 Lit Pages - actually the last page only has about three sentences in it; I wonder if they'd be willing to either put them at the end of the 14th page, or move the final break a little earlier, but I digress. At any rate, it is a long story, and now I'm skeptical of how long it will take to accumulate a decent number of votes or comments.

To be eligible for the Monthly Award Contest, for instance, a story has to have 50 votes by the 15th of the month after submission. How often do longer stories get the required number of votes before the deadline?

 

[Octavian]

I recently posted my first story, which runs 15 Lit Pages - actually the last page only has about three sentences in it; I wonder if they'd be willing to either put them at the end of the 14th page, or move the final break a little earlier, but I digress. At any rate, it is a long story, and now I'm skeptical of how long it will take to accumulate a decent number of votes or comments.QUOTE]

If the story is good it will get votes.
I posted my first story three years ago. I was new to Literotica and I had no idea whatsoever about the 'ideal' length. The story amounted to 13 Lit pages. I touted for readers and received at least two put downs along the lines of my story being far too long for discerning readers to invest their time, one coming from an acknowledged luminary at Literotica.
Three years later this story was at number 1 in its genre for the best part of two months. It has only recently slipped to number 4.

I wrote my next story in bite size chunks and posted it accordingly. What I quickly established was the morons/trolls who frequent this site (and there are plenty, believe me) could cope with 2 or 3 lit pages and were able to trash it. (I tend to write in the 'Loving Wives' genre and this is a magnet for such people.)

I reverted to posting my next story as a one-off, irrespective of its length and will adopt this policy in the future.

Without demeaning the good Dr_Mabeuse, his is merely one opinion. There are plenty of people out there who will read a story, however long it is, provided that it holds their interest, and that is the key to it all.