The AH Tip/How To thread

[WrongFrog]

Tip regarding posting a chaptered story

Do not submit more than one chapter at once. Let's say for example you submit chapters 1-3 at the same time. Chapter one goes live, two gets rejected for some reason and while you're trying to get it re-submitted three goes live and readers are confused, and at that point may not come back to the series.

Also, there is a current glitch going on where stories get stuck in pending for days on end and Laurel does not see them, and they have to be submitted again or a message sent to her. Like the first case, one could go through, two gets stuck...etc

One chapter at a time is what you want to do, and never submit the next one until the previously submitted one goes live

Good to know. I have several things submitted currently, but not all on the same project. I've been trying to submit the new stuff on the day the previous stuff goes live, but now that I'm starting to post more than one project, I've submitted a chapter apiece on several things.

 

[NoTalentHack]

Additional editing and proofreading advice

You know the story you've written better than anyone else.

This is a problem.

When reviewing your stories, whether editing or proofreading, you need to trick your brain into actually reading the text, rather than skipping over pieces that are wrong. There are a lot of ways to do this, but the easiest is to vary the presentation of the text. If possible, read it on a different screen, like your phone. If not, change the text size, font, color, etc. Every few passes, try to change how the text looks to jolt your brain.

After that, run it through text to speech if you can; Word has a pretty decent TTS function, but there are plenty of other options. Your brain will process language differently if it's spoken rather than written; one thing this will help with is spotting repetition of words you didn't notice on the page. If you don't have TTS, read it out loud, or, ideally, have someone else read it out loud to you. This step is VERY important if you're publishing a story with multiple plot-important characters; speaking from experience, it's easy to attribute dialogue to the wrong character and confuse your readers.

Next, get a beta reader, as pink_silk_glove suggests. Nothing's better than additional eyeballs on the text. They'll catch stuff you won't.

When you've done all of that, put it in Literotica's story submission screen, hit Preview & Publish, and read it again. You're probably going to find at least one more error. Then, once it's published, you'll likely find some more. Still, better to have one or two errors rather than dozens.

 

[StillStunned]

Category: SciFi&Fantasy

Many types of stories can fly in this category. Every sexual theme has its audience here, and out of those, futanari and breeding/impregnation/harem work the best. In general, sex with Elves, Orcs, Vampires, and such races is well-received. But don't be too shy with more exotic ones, such as non-anthropomorphous races - furry, tentacles, aliens... they all have their audience here. It is a welcoming Category in general that tolerates almost any exotic fantasy you might have.

The most important thing to know is that readers come here mostly to read a good SciFi or Fantasy story. They prefer long or chaptered stories with fleshed-out characters, interesting plots, and imaginative world-building. Sexual themes matter, but these things matter more. Readers of this category will gladly read such a story even if it has no sexual content (some readers even prefer that), although a good romance is always appreciated.

So feel free to write whatever you wish; It is likely you will find an audience for it in this Category. But if you want followers and high scores, then long, imaginative stories that feature some of the popular sexual themes (without overdoing the sex) are the way to go.

Here's an anomaly I've observed about the SF&F category.

If I publish a new story in another category - E&V, I/T, EC - most of the ratings of my other stories will go up. Except my stories in SF&F: those go down. They go up if I publish a new story in that category, though.

Has anyone else noticed this?

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Here's an anomaly I've observed about the SF&F category.

If I publish a new story in another category - E&V, I/T, EC - most of the ratings of my other stories will go up. Except my stories in SF&F: those go down. They go up if I publish a new story in that category, though.

Has anyone else noticed this?

I can't say that I had similar experiences. Publishing any new story attracts readers to the author's old stories but I can't say that I had negative reactions to them. Maybe they expected some different content in them? Do you have anything in them that might trigger a negative reaction? Did you tag them properly and warn about such content?

 

[NoTalentHack]

Here's an anomaly I've observed about the SF&F category.

If I publish a new story in another category - E&V, I/T, EC - most of the ratings of my other stories will go up. Except my stories in SF&F: those go down. They go up if I publish a new story in that category, though.

Has anyone else noticed this?

I think it's very dependent on where the readers are coming from. At least with LW readers, having a story outside the category doesn't prevent them from judging it based on their personal prejudices, and I think this is true of people in general. Give that SF&F has a smaller readerbase than most other sections of the site AND that a lot of people don't like SF&F AND SF&F lends itself to more outlandish ideas/themes, people following you from a non-genre category may rate accordingly.

I don't have hard proof for this, but I do have pretty decent anecdotal evidence. If I provide a warning at the top at the top for something outside LW, like "This isn't in LW, and treat/don't read it appropriately," I still know it'll get lower ratings than... I hate to say "it deserves," because that sounds really egotistical. Sort of, though? If I were a random writer in that category, I think it would do better, and comments from people who don't regularly comment on my stories (and therefore who I assume are "from" said categories) usually back this up.

An example: I wrote a Group Sex story called New Year, New Experiences, which tells the tale of a young man being coached through his first experience sharing his girlfriend with another (extremely well-endowed) man by the man's wife. It's neurotic and sweet, ultimately with a HEA ending, and it did pretty well when I posted it, staying in the H range for months, although it didn't score as high as I would have liked; I had braced myself for that, though, given my previous experiences of posting anything outside of one guy/one girl HEA/HFN stories in other categories.

On another site I posted it on, it got both a Recommended Read award by the editors and in-site currency tips from users. I received feedback (not comments, but actual mail feedback) from Literotica authors in that category that said they really liked it and who were mystified that it didn't perform better. Commenters that hadn't commented on any of my other stories seemed to like it as well. Most of the folks that follow me and regularly comment on my stories, even the ones that didn't like its content, were fair in their comments, and several of them posted "not my cup of tea, no rating" as part of their comments, as I hoped they would; "not for me, didn't rate" is perfectly fair.

However, with every LW story I post, it drops in ratings. Where it had a 4.7 at its height, it's currently at 4.41 and falling. A typical comment in the months since is "Awful. I had thought this writer was better than this. Sigh." Anonymous, of course, as most of them at this point are. In the same period, Longings From the Past, Amorous Goods: Carter's Key, and Five Nights With Freddy, all M/F HEAs with varying levels of smut and/or kink, have risen slightly.

One other noteworthy thing: my two SF/F stories have among the lowest number of views and ratings of all my stories, with only one published work having fewer views than Carter's Key. From what I can tell of the category, low views make most stories there very vulnerable to shifting votes and brigading from people that might be reactively hatevoting/1-bombing a reader or even one who simply doesn't like the work.

 

[TheLobster]

Here's an anomaly I've observed about the SF&F category.

If I publish a new story in another category - E&V, I/T, EC - most of the ratings of my other stories will go up. Except my stories in SF&F: those go down. They go up if I publish a new story in that category, though.

Has anyone else noticed this?

So, nerds only like nerds and only nerds like nerds?

Looks like someone needs another wedgie!

 

[StillStunned]

I can't say that I had similar experiences. Publishing any new story attracts readers to the author's old stories but I can't say that I had negative reactions to them. Maybe they expected some different content in them? Do you have anything in them that might trigger a negative reaction? Did you tag them properly and warn about such content?

Nothing too outlandish. Some tentacled demons. A six-breasted cat-woman. But mostly fairly straightforward one-on-one straight sex.

I think it's very dependent on where the readers are coming from. At least with LW readers, having a story outside the category doesn't prevent them from judging it based on their personal prejudices, and I think this is true of people in general. Give that SF&F has a smaller readerbase than most other sections of the site AND that a lot of people don't like SF&F AND SF&F lends itself to more outlandish ideas/themes, people following you from a non-genre category may rate accordingly.

They're not coming from LW, because I don't have any stories there. The most recent incident was with an EC story, and before that a couple of E/V stories. Both of which are, in my experience, pretty pleasant categories. I/T accounts for about three quarters of my total views, but they don't seem to mind any of my stories in other categories.

So, nerds only like nerds and only nerds like nerds?

Looks like someone needs another wedgie!

Help, help, I'm being virtually wedgied by the E/V crowd!

Perhaps if I buckle down and finish my Nude Day story they'll be appeased for a while.

 

[NoTalentHack]

They're not coming from LW, because I don't have any stories there. The most recent incident was with an EC story, and before that a couple of E/V stories. Both of which are, in my experience, pretty pleasant categories. I/T accounts for about three quarters of my total views, but they don't seem to mind any of my stories in other categories.

I'm not saying they're coming from LW; that was just the example I have the most evidence for. I will say, though, that I/T can be surprisingly conservative both in content and form. I have one story there, posted very early on, so before I had many followers. It included anal, and a sizable, vocal contingent did not like that at all. Of the first dozen comments (therefore most likely from I/T regulars), three of them complained about anal. A couple complained that the sex happened too fast, unlike a "correct" I/T story, so clearly folks who are into the genre.

Even if they're into I/T, that doesn't mean they're down for other stuff, and in a category with much fewer views, a handful of reactionary readers can absolutely damn a story's rating. For comparison's sake, my I/T story has 76K views and 1.3K votes, which isn't far off from the LW stories I published around that time; my stories in Romance and Anal published within a month of that have a third of those numbers; my stories in Humor *published earlier) and SF&F (published about three months later) have a third of that third. A few people who really hate what you're doing in a low-traffic category outside of their favorite, especially if they don't read any warnings you put up, can absolutely tank ratings in those smaller categories.

 

[lovecraft68]

I'm not saying they're coming from LW; that was just the example I have the most evidence for. I will say, though, that I/T can be surprisingly conservative both in content and form. I have one story there, posted very early on, so before I had many followers. It included anal, and a sizable, vocal contingent did not like that at all. Of the first dozen comments (therefore most likely from I/T regulars), three of them complained about anal. A couple complained that the sex happened too fast, unlike a "correct" I/T story, so clearly folks who are into the genre.

Even if they're into I/T, that doesn't mean they're down for other stuff, and in a category with much fewer views, a handful of reactionary readers can absolutely damn a story's rating. For comparison's sake, my I/T story has 76K views and 1.3K votes, which isn't far off from the LW stories I published around that time; my stories in Romance and Anal published within a month of that have a third of those numbers; my stories in Humor *published earlier) and SF&F (published about three months later) have a third of that third. A few people who really hate what you're doing in a low-traffic category outside of their favorite, especially if they don't read any warnings you put up, can absolutely tank ratings in those smaller categories.

I/T is like any other category, they have their factions and preferences. The difference is the sheer number of readers can usually cancel out the negative minority.

One ongoing difference of opinions I see in sibling stories is commenters will say "We need more and to have the parents/ friends/other siblings, the guy at the hotdog stand get involved" then other commenters say, "No, keep it just between them."

The pregnancy fetishists vs the non, as you said anal...and I learned rough sex isn't exactly smiled upon there. I occasionally get flak because my mothers talk dirty. So...Mom can blow her son, just not describe it? Gotcha...

But I think every category has that.

 

[Gamblnluck]

Category: Incest/Taboo

Simple tip. Any element of non-consent will not fly well with many of the readers.

My story "How My sister Took Over" was perfect proof. It was about a kid who had a small fantasy about his sister being in charge. Then when he did get into trouble, he blurted that out. He did not like what happened.
I think I'd have done much better putting the story into Non-consent.

 

[Gamblnluck]

he category is meant for stories where a spouse, usually a wife, has sex with someone not their spouse. There are stories that do not include this dynamic there, but it's not the "right" place for most of those. However, the flipside of this is that, due to a shift in the readership over time, stories of happy swinging/sharing/swapping and especially cheating are not as well-received there as stories where the infidelitous spouse is caught and drama ensues.

I wrote a whole essay on how to approach the category and why you may or may not want to, but the TL;DR is that there are a bunch of competing camps of readers there, several of which who hate the types of stories the others love. You'll get a ton of criticism, both fair and unfair (along with a bit of unhinged), but a fair bit of it will be on the technical aspects of your writing, which is golden when you're just starting out.

They like mid-length stories there; if it's longer than 10K words or so, break it into chunks. Character development, plotting, and the other basics of storytelling are paramount there, much more than erotic writing. Even stories with no sex can do pretty well if they obey those rules.

Spot on. I get more views there by noon the day a story is published than after a week on several of the other categories. I personally enjoy plot and character development over 'wank' stories.

 

[lovecraft68]

My story "How My sister Took Over" was perfect proof. It was about a kid who had a small fantasy about his sister being in charge. Then when he did get into trouble, he blurted that out. He did not like what happened.
I think I'd have done much better putting the story into Non-consent.

My Siblings with Benefits series featured a brother and sister who were into BDSM and hardcore rough sex, switching off with who was top and bottom throughout the series, and I caught a lot of heat for it.

To this day one of my favorite comments was on the first chapter "Good sir, that is no way for a brother to treat his beautiful sister!"

But Incest is a trump category, there is no putting it in BDSM or NC...if you did you'd get flamed even more.

 

[Gamblnluck]

I beat the drum on this one a lot. Write the story that you like, and write it the way you want it. If you plan to never publish, do whatever the hell you want with it. However, if you do plan to publish, take the time to polish it up. Have beta readers take a look at it if you can; the things that are self-evident to you might not be quite so for a reader who hasn't lived with the characters in their heads for weeks or months.

Put it in the right category, even if you don't like that it belongs there. Yes, your fetish story belongs in Fetish, even if you don't like that people think of it as a Fetish. No, your story about a happily married couple doesn't belong in Loving Wives, no matter what the category's called. If you're in doubt, ask.

Couldn't agree more. It boils down to know your audience. I have three beta readers who often tell me IF they are feeling nice: "Yeah you have some good ideas and I can tell this is a rough sketch of what you want to do.." Another tells me if he thinks the story 'flows' or not. He will tell me quickly if he had trouble following.
All too often the author cannot tell. To him it is all perfectly clear. Then he gets upset when a reader does not like it. They are 'trolls' or just ignorant bastards who have no idea of a good story. Or worse.....

 

[Gamblnluck]

When reviewing your stories, whether editing or proofreading, you need to trick your brain into actually reading the text, rather than skipping over pieces that are wrong. There are a lot of ways to do this, but the easiest is to vary the presentation of the text. If possible, read it on a different screen, like your phone. If not, change the text size, font, color, etc. Every few passes, try to change how the text looks to jolt your brain.

I let my story sit for a couple days and then go back and read it. It appears to be a fresher read. Like the commercials about febreeze, about being nose-blind. Later you will forget what you meant and instead see what you wrote.

 

[Gamblnluck]

Finish your whole story completely, including all editing before you submit any of it.

I disagree with this to some degree. If it is a relatively short story, say 40K words broken up in to 3 or 4 chapters fine. But for long 20 or 30 chapters, go ahead and start getting the story out there.

 

[rdodger]

Category: Incest/Taboo

Simple tip. Any element of non-consent will not fly well with many of the readers.

For an extreme kink, taboo readers generally enjoy their fantasies here to be sexy and fun. They don't mind depth or conflict, or more serious matters in a story, but abuse and non con are mostly frowned upon.

My theory on that, based on being both a writer and reader in the category, is that fans of the genre are well aware that in real life incest is rarely the hot taboo we get here, but rape, abuse, and overall ugliness. It's also a reminder of what people who don't like the subject matter think a lot of people here are promoting by writing or supporting the category, and know all we support is harmless fictional 18+ consensual fantasy, and we condone real life pain and misery.

Like I said in the opening post, this isn't telling you not to do it, write as thou will, but its a warning to be prepared for some heat in the comments section. Keep in mind non con and incest are trump categories. NC will always be placed in NC, taboo in taboo-often by the site even if you try otherwise-and neither base has much of a tolerance when it comes to seeing the other 'real life crime kink' mixed with theirs.

I got b-slapped by several readers when I originally posted a couple of stories outside the NonConsent category; I eventually worked out how to get them re-categorized. I took such criticism more personally back then, but I understand their feelings and rationale (though I contend that mind control can almost never involve informed consent). I might have avoided this with a better understanding and use of tags.

 

[Thanatos_X13]

After that, run it through text to speech if you can; Word has a pretty decent TTS function, but there are plenty of other options. Your brain will process language differently if it's spoken rather than written; one thing this will help with is spotting repetition of words you didn't notice on the page. If you don't have TTS, read it out loud, or, ideally, have someone else read it out loud to you. This step is VERY important if you're publishing a story with multiple plot-important characters; speaking from experience, it's easy to attribute dialogue to the wrong character and confuse your readers.

Wanted to add something useful I found out today. While I don't use MS Edge browser as my default browser, it does have versatile, natural-sounding Text-to-speech built in. If you don't use a software that already has decent TTS built-in, this is a great alternative. I saved my current chapter as a .txt file, opened it in the browser, and listened to it being read aloud. There's SO many voice options, and they sound pretty good. Not like the default robotic voice you often hear. It really helped catch some mistakes that I always make, like writing "driver her" instead of "drive her." I totally agree with reading your own work aloud or having it read to you in some way. It is super helpful in making sure the verbiage sounds right and that you don't have misplaced or missing words. Hope it helps someone.

 

[Voyeurkenneth]

Wanted to add something useful I found out today. While I don't use MS Edge browser as my default browser, it does have versatile, natural-sounding Text-to-speech built in. If you don't use a software that already has decent TTS built-in, this is a great alternative. I saved my current chapter as a .txt file, opened it in the browser, and listened to it being read aloud. There's SO many voice options, and they sound pretty good. Not like the default robotic voice you often hear. It really helped catch some mistakes that I always make, like writing "driver her" instead of "drive her." I totally agree with reading your own work aloud or having it read to you in some way. It is super helpful in making sure the verbiage sounds right and that you don't have misplaced or missing words. Hope it helps someone.

Thanks for the MS Edge tip. I also highly advocate for TTS!

One interesting dynamic I've found is that something can sound great to me via TTS, mostly for cadence purposes. But when I manually read it without TTS, I'll get a different reaction, feeling like I've overwritten a tad. I end up re-writing until I feel it sounds and reads "right."