Your Stories That Few People Read

[RetroFan]

Every movie studio or TV production company has made them. A film or TV series that is well scripted, well acted, well directed, has an interesting and engaging plot, is well-marketed and designed to appeal to wide audience and seems to tick every box of what it aims to achieve. Upon release, it gains considerable praise from critics and people who watch it.

Unfortunately, for reasons that are hard to determine very few people actually do bother to watch it, and instead of the next summer blockbuster the movie production company has an expensive financial flop. And the good TV series nobody watches instead of becoming the next Friends, CSI or X Files is banished to a late night graveyard timeslot in summer to die a premature death.

Have you ever submitted a story to Literotica in one of the popular categories that should have had wide appeal (not a fetish type story or genre with limited appeal), and found that while your story gained reasonable scores and positive comments, very few people actually read it and it slipped quietly away into obscurity?

One of my recent stories suffered this fate - it is called 'The Coal Miner and The Conservative', set during the UK Miners' Strike in 1984, and was about a young miner who meets a stuck-up, opinionated female law student who is a vocal supporter of the Thatcher Government's policies, the pair butting heads relentlessly before realizing they are actually attracted to each other. I worked hard on it, was pleased with my efforts and thought that this 'opposites attract' story would be a real winner, but for some reason very few people bothered to read it. In the 3 months it has been on the site, it has had less than 5000 views, very small for an Erotic Couplings story.

Do you have any stories like this one?

 

[Nezhul]

Unfortunately, for reasons that are hard to determine

Most of the time it's bad marketing. Because if your creation is really as good as you say, then the only reason you had low audience is that people either don't know about it, or know about it but think it sucks.

Also I don't think an author can judge the worth of his/her own story reliably. Sometime you have this great idea that to you seems like the greatest thing ever... and then you find out that everyone else think it's weird, strange or plainly boring.

 

[Darkniciad]

Looking at the title and description compared to the rest of your work, I don't see any reason there that it should have languished behind the others.

More likely than not, it chanced to have a bad position in the new story lists.

It's also entirely possible that a story released in what was a horrible U.S. election year with the word "conservative" in the title caused people to run away as fast as they could.

 

[NicoleZ]

Just like real life, excellence does not sell. Take a look at the following list and pay attention to the number of Nobel Laureates amongst the books that have sold in excess of 10 million copies:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books

Pay special attention to the "List of best-selling book series" topped by J.K Rowling (500+ million), R.L. Stine (350+ million) and Erle Stanley Gardner (300+ million). Did you observe that seventh on this list is Enid Blyton's "Noddy"? Did you notice that while J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit", a book that he rued having written as a children's book, has sold 100+ million copies whereas the entire epic and genre-creating "The Lord of the Rings", arguably the greatest piece of literary creativity of the 20th Century, has only managed 150+ million the three parts combined, half that of the Hobbit as seen as a series?

It's the same with Literotics. Stories that score high on the "Hall of Fame" are simple escapism with little or no foundation in reality - they pander to the readers' need for escapism (and more power to the writers who realise this). It is very rare for a complex story that actually could be true to even make it to the "Hot" list so if you want Lit success, make it simple! Write what in essence is a story for adolescents with as few sub-plots and embellishments as possible. Bottom line - readers are (as a body) simple. Don't ask too much of them.

The question you have to answer is: Do you want to write the best possible story you can, or, will you prostitute yourself in order to write what the vast majority of readers want?

 

[Handley_Page]

One of my recent stories suffered this fate - it is called 'The Coal Miner and The Conservative', set during the UK Miners' Strike in 1984, and was about a young miner who meets a stuck-up, opinionated female law student who is a vocal supporter of the Thatcher Government's policies, the pair butting heads relentlessly before realizing they are actually attracted to each other. I worked hard on it, was pleased with my efforts and thought that this 'opposites attract' story would be a real winner, but for some reason very few people bothered to read it. In the 3 months it has been on the site, it has had less than 5000 views, very small for an Erotic Couplings story.

Do you have any stories like this one?

Given that the majority of Litizens are not from the UK, I suspect that the subtleties of the Miners' Strike and Maggie may be lost.

PS. I cannot find the story. How about a pointer ?

 

[oggbashan]

The original post parallels my reason for originally starting The Authors' Hangout Last Place (tm) Contests for stories that had the lowest (adjusted) rating in a themed contest.

The 'winners' were not popular stories. They were unpopular or just unnoticed scoring few votes and a low rating. Yet many 'winners' were well written interesting stories. They were just unpopular or of limited appeal to Literotica's readers.

Titles are very important for Literotica stories. They can attract or deter readers or leave them unmoved.

"The Coal Miner and the Conservative" is unlikely to attract anyone who is not UK based and old enough to remember the Thatcher years. In that one title you have failed to attract what? 90% of Literotica's readers. They are unmoved by it.

The word "Conservative" has a different significance in the US. That word alone can deter many of those who weren't attracted by the full title. So a subset of the 90% actively don't want to read the story.

The title is an accurate description of the story so those who don't want to read it have a reasonable basis for their decision.

My suggested 10% of the readers who haven't decided not to bother nor have been repelled by the title are those how understand from the title what period and situation is covered by the story. But even then the title suggests a difficulty. It presents the protagonists as stock characters. They might not be but the title suggests that they are. That loses even more potential readers, including me.

So - I suggest that your title was the problem. It didn't interest many, it deterred some, and left others unenthused - even or perhaps BECAUSE the title was accurate for your story.

 

[RetroFan]

Given that the majority of Litizens are not from the UK, I suspect that the subtleties of the Miners' Strike and Maggie may be lost.

PS. I cannot find the story. How about a pointer ?

If you were interested in the story, it is on the Erotic Couplings Site. Some of the tags used were 'England', 'historical' and 'rich girl'.

I can see from this and other responses that the title may not have caused a reaction in younger readers and those who are unfamiliar with the UK, although a story I set in England during WW2 rated very well.

I was also interested if any other authors have had one of those stories that they enjoyed writing and got positive responses (not one that was met with low scores and negative reactions), but simply failed to attract much interest.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

McDonalds sells billions of crappy burgers.

 

[Handley_Page]

If you were interested in the story, it is on the Erotic Couplings Site. Some of the tags used were 'England', 'historical' and 'rich girl'.

I can see from this and other responses that the title may not have caused a reaction in younger readers and those who are unfamiliar with the UK, although a story I set in England during WW2 rated very well.

I was also interested if any other authors have had one of those stories that they enjoyed writing and got positive responses (not one that was met with low scores and negative reactions), but simply failed to attract much interest.

And the title is ??

 

[NotWise]

The story in the OP is The Coal Miner and the Conservative

It seems to be pretty easy for stories to get lost in the shuffle. Maybe they come out on a busy day and they're way down the list of new stories, maybe in the category hub they're up against a popular chapter story or a well-known author. Maybe the title or short description fail to grab an audience.

I have one story that's been up in EC since last December. It has had a total of 5430 views in nearly a year. My Summer Luvin' entry is in EC and despite the contest (it was a late entry) and it's high score (my highest rated stand-alone story) it's had just over 10,000 views.

My all-time winner for being lost in the shuffle was unfortunately posted in Erotic Horror. That isn't a well-read category, but still it seems like it should be able to get more than 2550 views in nearly four months.

 

[oggbashan]

And the title is ??

Oops, Handley. It's in the original post:

'The Coal Miner and The Conservative' Here:

https://www.literotica.com/s/the-coal-miner-and-the-conservative

 

[Bramblethorn]

JDid you notice that while J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit", a book that he rued having written as a children's book, has sold 100+ million copies whereas the entire epic and genre-creating "The Lord of the Rings", arguably the greatest piece of literary creativity of the 20th Century, has only managed 150+ million the three parts combined, half that of the Hobbit as seen as a series?

The article has a note next to the figure for LotR:

"The Lord of the Rings is considered by most people to be a single book, because it was written and planned by the author to be such. It is written in the preface to many editions that the book is sometimes 'erroneously' referred to as a trilogy, and goes on to state that it is one book in three volumes... The figure of 150 million is a 2007 estimate of copies of the full story sold, whether published as one volume, three, or some other configuration."

So that's not "three volumes each selling 50 million copies". Counted as a single story, LotR has sold 50% more copies than The Hobbit.

Side note: I love LotR and it certainly inspired an explosion in fantasy fiction, but Tolkien didn't invent that genre. Robert E. Howard was writing swords-and-sorcery fantasy well before The Hobbit saw print, and Dunsany's fantasy e.g. "The King of Elfland's Daughter" was a big influence on Tolkien.

 

[glynndah]

I think most of the views on my stories are me checking to see if anyone's read or commented on them.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

For the OP's question, what gets seen is a random function of what else is happening when it gets posted. I have a publication worthy novella up in non-erotic here. Scores are high, but the best scoring chapter has 3000 views (whatever those are) after a year. That's minuscule. Voting started out ok, but early on some jealous 1-bomber knocked the score of chapter 1 down, and by the time that was cleaned up it was well off the new list. Oh well.

This is why I don't take the numbers seriously. There are people around who actively game the system, they can't be stopped, and I can't be bothered to reply in kind.

I've started looking at stories that my fans like, and I'm seeing complete drivel with red H's all over it. This isn't sour grapes; my own scores are a sea of red too. But what counts as popular here isn't about quality, and once you accept that time and chance and a dash of maliciousness rule the numbers, it's easier to stop caring about them.

Personally, if a story seems to have a political slant, especially set in Europe, I'm not going to bother. I've probably missed some great sex scenes that way; but I'm annoyed enough at American politics (and not just recently) that I'm not going to worry about what Maggie got up to. I'm sure people feel that way about some of my stuff, too. Dystopias? Farmers? A magical book? Can we get to the freaking sex please?!

Unless you need the money, write to please yourself. Unless you're into emus licking armpits or something, you'll find plenty of people who like it. The rest, who cares.

 

[NicoleZ]

The article has a note next to the figure for LotR:

"The Lord of the Rings is considered by most people to be a single book, because it was written and planned by the author to be such. It is written in the preface to many editions that the book is sometimes 'erroneously' referred to as a trilogy, and goes on to state that it is one book in three volumes... The figure of 150 million is a 2007 estimate of copies of the full story sold, whether published as one volume, three, or some other configuration."

So that's not "three volumes each selling 50 million copies". Counted as a single story, LotR has sold 50% more copies than The Hobbit.

Side note: I love LotR and it certainly inspired an explosion in fantasy fiction, but Tolkien didn't invent that genre. Robert E. Howard was writing swords-and-sorcery fantasy well before The Hobbit saw print, and Dunsany's fantasy e.g. "The King of Elfland's Daughter" was a big influence on Tolkien.

Oh dear, (directed at both of us )

(Ladies first ) You are correct, LoTR has indeed outsold "The Hobbit" three to two. In mitigation I plead a bad cup of Lipton's (tea bag), brewed with insufficient attention, in lieu of my usual, lovingly prepared Assam long leaf, something which apparently failed to wake me sufficiently.

(Now to your dodo ) "The Shadow Kingdom" (1926), Conan the Barbarian (idea 1932, first appearance 1935?) supposedly invented a genre begun by J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis a decade or more earlier??? Tolkien wrote the first story, "The Fall of Gondolin", of what was to become "The Book of Lost Tales" during the First World War when he was convalescing after contracting trench fever during the Battle of the Somme in late 1916. Dunsany's "The King of Elfland's Daughter" was publish in 1924, by which time Tolkien had already laid down the foundations of what was to become Middle Earth.

I suppose if we could call up the spectres of all those involved and subjected them to a Grade IV Astral Interrogation, we might arrive at who truly inspired whom and to what extent. As it is, I fail to see how Howard's exploits in the mid-30s could have influenced Tolkien during the Great War, about two decades earlier. Unless of course we invoke H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine" (1895)

 

[TamLin01]

Wow, this is a really great question.

Most of my stories are in Erotic Horror, one of the least popular categories on the site, so none of them really get a lot of attention relative to the sort of numbers more popular writers get. But comparing them all at least to each other, my least popular story in terms of the number of people who bothered to vote is one from almost two years ago called "Grand Guignol."

No secret why it hasn't done terribly well: That's just not a very marketable title. I don't think many people would place the reference, and without it there's basically no way to know what the story could possibly be about.

I knew this would be a problem, but I never considered any other title. Since the content of the story is such that I debated whether to even submit it to this site in the first place, I didn't really have much of a mind to promote it very heavily.

In terms of stories that I thought might do better than they did, a September story called "The Vampire of Venice" attracted relatively little attention.

My theory: Vampires just aren't as popular in the Horror category as they used to be. Once the most oft-used tag, "vampire" has now slipped down to fifth place, unseated by both "demon" and "succubus," which have become the new vogue for horror writers in the last five years.

 

[Voboy]

Ah, Thatcherism; such a well-understood topic for the average Lit reader.

I think that's the start and the end of it. I enjoyed your story, OP, but then I'm an Irvine Welsh fan who liked his Skagboys enough to do some background research on Orgreave. Which wouldn't have worked if I hadn't already had a far-greater-than-the-average-American understanding of British class conflict, modern-style.

I think it might have benefitted from a less specific setting, is what I'm trying to say.

 

[Handley_Page]

First attempt:
It's not an easy read. But I'll try again later.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Quoting this bit again to emphasise context:

while J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit", a book that he rued having written as a children's book, has sold 100+ million copies whereas the entire epic and genre-creating "The Lord of the Rings", arguably the greatest piece of literary creativity of the 20th Century

(Now to your dodo ) "The Shadow Kingdom" (1926), Conan the Barbarian (idea 1932, first appearance 1935?) supposedly invented a genre begun by J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis a decade or more earlier??? Tolkien wrote the first story, "The Fall of Gondolin", of what was to become "The Book of Lost Tales" during the First World War when he was convalescing after contracting trench fever during the Battle of the Somme in late 1916. Dunsany's "The King of Elfland's Daughter" was publish in 1924, by which time Tolkien had already laid down the foundations of what was to become Middle Earth.

I was replying to a post in which you specifically mentioned Lord of the Rings.

Some background: Tolkien created a fictional universe (legendarium) within which he told many different stories. "The Fall of Gondolin" is one of those stories; "The Book of Lost Tales" collects several of them.

"Lord of the Rings" (LotR) is another story within that legendarium. Along with "The Hobbit" it's his best-known and in many ways his most important, but it's still only a part of that universe.

Some people do use "Lord of the Rings" to refer to Tolkien's entire legendarium, but that's a misnomer; calling "The Fall of Gondolin" part of "Lord of the Rings" would be like describing the fall of Troy and foundation of Rome as "part of WWII". (Most of the action of LotR takes place about 6000 years after Gondolin; even the backstory where Sauron loses the ring is 3000 years post-Gondolin.)

As quoted above, you named "Lord of the Rings" as Tolkien's "genre-creating" work. Since you brought it up as a contrast to "The Hobbit", another part of his legendarium, it seemed clear to me that you did indeed mean specifically LotR there.

Since that's what you said, I gave pre-LotR counter-examples. Dunsany published "The King of Elfland's Daughter" in 1924. Conan was first published in 1932 (not 1935) in "The Phoenix on the Sword" - although he began life as a rewrite of a different Howard hero, Kull, who goes back to 1929. So I'm quite happy to stand on those as examples of fantasy published before Tolkien started writing LotR. (He started around 1937, although LotR wasn't published in 1954.)

If we're going to revise that "LotR created the genre" to "Tolkien's earlier work created the genre", then obviously I'll need to provide earlier counter-examples, but I'm happy to do that.

For example, Dunsany's "The Gods of Pegāna" was published in 1905 when Tolkien was only thirteen. In that, Dunsany constructs a fictional pantheon and mythology, much as Tolkien subsequently did in "The Silmarillion". (Tolkien frequently mentioned Dunsany's work in his own letters.)

A little bit earlier, there's William Morris. His fantasy "The Well at World's End" was published in 1896 when Tolkien was four. It features a very fast white horse named "Silverfax", which might ring a bell for LotR readers.

And so on back. Modern fantasy fiction traces its roots back to Mallory, Grimm, Beowulf and the Norse sagas, the 1001 Nights, the Nibelung, Homer, Gilgamesh, and all sorts of folklore and religion. Tolkien, as an Oxford don of Norse heritage, was very much aware of those sources and greatly influenced by them; compare e.g. the story of Túrin Turambar with Die Walküre/Volsung Saga.

Dragons, dwarves, elves, trolls, goblins, fictional pantheons, riddle contests, heroic quests, wizards, magic rings, a One God whose leading angel rebelled to become a force of evil, a lost Golden Age and a continent sunk to punish humans for their pride, the long-lost king who returns at a time of need? All of those elements are present in Tolkien's work. None of them originated with him.

The things that make Tolkien so important to fantasy have less to do with innovation and more to do with hard work. He spent decades fleshing out his universe before any of it saw print; he designed entire languages and worked out thousands of years of history. That, and he was a good writer who knew how to make his readers care about the story.

(Sadly, those traits are also the hardest to imitate, which is why we have a glut of Extruded Fantasy Product with all the trappings and none of the strengths of Tolkien.)

 

[Hypoxia]

Earlier generations may have 'invented' genres, as HP Lovecraft 'invented' the zombi trope in what many see as his worst story, but other writers perfect them. Did REH invent Sword-n-Sorcery with Conan? No, but he did bloody good work there, and set the tone for others.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Earlier generations may have 'invented' genres, as HP Lovecraft 'invented' the zombi trope in what many see as his worst story, but other writers perfect them. Did REH invent Sword-n-Sorcery with Conan? No, but he did bloody good work there, and set the tone for others.

Indeed. Invention is a great thing but it's not the only way to be great.

 

[ishtat]

I think you would have to be British and 50+ to be interested in this story. Remember that 40% of the readership is American, India is second with 11% with Germany and UK following.

The heart of the plot is 'told' within the first 3 paragraphs, so even if not put off by the title I suspect that a lot of those viewers never got to the end. There is too much telling rather than showing throughout the story - also weak dialogue. The political /social sympathies of the writer are too obvious - they intrude.

It's an example of a competently written piece which has no market. I suspect that the story might have succeeded if written as a tragi/romance emphasizing the social and personal histories rather than one so strongly referencing the social/political history of the time.

Had the author obtained a literary criticism of his effort he may not have developed quite as high an opinion of his own work?

Sorry if you find my comments a little harsh but I think you got some basics wrong.

 

[NicoleZ]

Nice post Bramblethorn, but it's even more circuitous than that as the LOTR was based on and a logical continuation of his earlier works on Beleriand and the First Age. It could be construed though, that Akallabeth (the Tales of Numenor), was at the very least fleshed out in order to provide a backdrop for the LOTR.

PS. Please, do not call the Edda "Norse sagas" as there will be quite a few Icelanders as well as Cantabrigian scholars who'll take great exception to that.

 

[Bramblethorn]

PS. Please, do not call the Edda "Norse sagas" as there will be quite a few Icelanders as well as Cantabrigian scholars who'll take great exception to that.

As it happens, I wasn't talking specifically about the Edda. That's why I wrote "Norse sagas" and not "Edda"

 

[Silkess]

Slow start

I took a look at the story and found it to be a really slow start which lost my interest. I think maybe the pacing needs to be changed. I got bored of the family dynamic and the fathers endless bloody this and bloody that and drifted away. I see you're trying to write more literature than fluffy erotica, but I see why people on this site may have started it and then wandered off. Perhaps the story is starting in the wrong place?

Also yes the title is kind of drab. I think a better title and a faster start would help. Not to say jump right into sex, but titillate the reader early and move faster through the whole 'setting up the blue collar family dynamic' part. We all get the gist of what working people are like so no need to belabor it and risk losing the reader. That father character had nothing interesting to bring to the scene, he was more a caricature of a blue collar guy without much personality. So another way to make it interesting is to give him something real to say that isn't just complaining. Or minimize him in the scene.

Also I don't think an author can judge the worth of his/her own story reliably. Sometime you have this great idea that to you seems like the greatest thing ever... and then you find out that everyone else
think it's weird, strange or plainly boring.