The now fully official Author’s Hangout Halloween 2025 competition support thread

[EmilyMiller]

Understood. Historically however, the 'master' page such as the current one at https://www.literotica.com/stories/contest.php/halloween-2025 has only ever included stories. No poems are listed either.

@amaliajquinn mentioned they did last year. Perhaps they can post a link.

​

 

[amaliajquinn]

https://www.literotica.com/s/halloween-story-contest-2024-at-literotica

Here is the link I was provided when I asked about audio submissions on the main author hangout thread.

 

[Soixenta]

Cold Embrace went up as well (without any notification in my feed, though...). Looking forward to all the tumbleweed it gathers.

I just read it and left a comment!

 

[Soixenta]

After a promising start, my story seems to have stagnated at... five votes. It seems I should have taken the advice about Erotic Horror to heart.

 

[TheLobster]

After a promising start, my story seems to have stagnated at... five votes. It seems I should have taken the advice about Erotic Horror to heart.

Mine's got nine, and a "staggering" score of 4.11. Pretty much what I expected, honestly; it's a weird category.

 

[Djmac1031]

Mine's got nine, and a "staggering" score of 4.11. Pretty much what I expected, honestly; it's a weird category.

Look, we all know some poorly written story about a son tricking his mom and / or sister into fucking by wearing a Halloween costume they dont recognize him in / mistake him for someone else in will win this thing anyway.

 

[StillStunned]

Look, we all know some poorly written story about a son tricking his mom and / or sister into fucking by wearing a Halloween costume they dont recognize him in / mistake him for someone else in will win this thing anyway.

There seems to be the same conceit in erotica that also exists in adventure movies and stories: a simple mask, or a pair of glasses, makes the wearer completely unrecognisable.

 

[TheLobster]

Look, we all know some poorly written story about a son tricking his mom and / or sister into fucking by wearing a Halloween costume they dont recognize him in / mistake him for someone else in will win this thing anyway.

Oh, I'm not complaining. I only had a vague idea where I was going with my thing, finally figured out it in editing, then had to rush through said editing to actually submit it before the deadline; and even then, I wanted to kept things vague for, ahem, connoisseur readers to speculate.

In the end, it's at least one item off the category bucket list.

 

[WeShallUnclench]

The bitter-sweetness of 4-star ratings:

You are glad they voted
You are glad they liked it
You are glad that they voted positively

Yet if you were "hot", it still brings your score down

I'm only half-serious; personally I much prefer if you bring my score down with a 4-vote rather than not vote at all. This way I have confirmation you read my story!
If I get 3000 clicks and 30 votes, my baseline will be that 2970 people didn't read it or had such a low opinion of it they were reluctant to express it

 

[Actingup]

If I get 3000 clicks and 30 votes, my baseline will be that 2970 people didn't read it or had such a low opinion of it they were reluctant to express it

Yep. Next time I’m contemplating Erotic Horror, I’m going to get somebody to slap me around the head with a fish until I change my mind. I *am* grateful for the views and votes, but some categories give you more back than others.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Welcome to Day 25 of The Halloween 2025 Competition

https://www.literotica.com/stories/contest.php/halloween-2025

 

[EmilyMiller]

Yep. Next time I’m contemplating Erotic Horror, I’m going to get somebody to slap me around the head with a fish until I change my mind. I *am* grateful for the views and votes, but some categories give you more back than others.

It’s a totally unrewarding category. No views and bizarre, narrow expectations. After two attempts, never again.

 

[old_prof]

It’s a totally unrewarding category. No views and bizarre, narrow expectations. After two attempts, never again.

I guess this is one I won't ever try for.

 

[SyleusSnow]

Yep. Next time I’m contemplating Erotic Horror, I’m going to get somebody to slap me around the head with a fish until I change my mind. I *am* grateful for the views and votes, but some categories give you more back than others.

Is this a new thing? I put a ghost story into Erotic Horror in 2023 thinking, like everyone, that was the natural place for it. It did amazingly well. Only got one comment about it not being horrific enough.

 

[Soixenta]

It’s a totally unrewarding category. No views and bizarre, narrow expectations. After two attempts, never again.

I cannot say I had high expectations, but...


For now, I am telling myself that there has been a glut of EH stories and readers are saturated. At least the contest motivated me to complete the story, and I am enjoying writing the follow-up.

 

[old_prof]

I cannot say I had high expectations, but...

View attachment 2573659
For now, I am telling myself that there has been a glut of EH stories and readers are saturated. At least the contest motivated me to complete the story, and I am enjoying writing the follow-up.

It's still a nice rating and a really high engagement rate for comments. Wow. Give it a few days to get some readers.

 

[Soixenta]

It's still a nice rating and a really high engagement rate for comments. Wow. Give it a few days to get some readers.

It is only three comments really. Plus three replies by me, and one correction of a typo by @Actingup .

But considering the votes and views, yes, I am still very happy with three comments and with the score so far.

 

[old_prof]

It is only three comments really. Plus three replies by me, and one correction of a typo by @Actingup .

But considering the votes and views, yes, I am still very happy with three comments and with the score so far.

Even three is really good for 600 views.

 

[Voboy]

It’s a totally unrewarding category. No views and bizarre, narrow expectations. After two attempts, never again.

I suspect that what I think of as "erotic horror" is probably what many think of as "nonhuman."

Is this a new thing? I put a ghost story into Erotic Horror in 2023 thinking, like everyone, that was the natural place for it. It did amazingly well. Only got one comment about it not being horrific enough.

They really double down on the supernatural tropes. Your vampires MUST be killable with silver bullets. If you go too far outside the comfort zone, the rewards diminish quickly. I too have had great success there sometimes, but in looking back at those stories I now think it's because I stayed orthodox and kept in in third person. My favorite one is sitting at 4.83, which is cool (and I think it's a great story, personally)... but it's only got 8,863 views in nearly two years.

In my case this time around, I had witches that were basically just sexy women and werewolves who were basically just snarly men. In the past that's been fine, but my narrator was a normal everyday cop. I am starting to come around to the idea that my stories about cops are not as good as I think they are, but apart from that, the story was more about the human cop than it was about the witches or werewolves.

I think that's where I shot myself in the foot. Though of course I don't really know.

 

[DEFCOM5]

@EmilyMiller,

Lily and Emma as zombie is GREAAAT!

 

[TheLobster]

I cannot say I had high expectations, but...

View attachment 2573659
For now, I am telling myself that there has been a glut of EH stories and readers are saturated. At least the contest motivated me to complete the story, and I am enjoying writing the follow-up.

Well, I guess I should be happy that I'm doing twice as good vote count-wise:



Seriously, though, the category is clearly deader than your two protagonists combined, and not even my 1500+ followers have managed to breathe any life into it

 

[MelissaBaby]

Is this a new thing? I put a ghost story into Erotic Horror in 2023 thinking, like everyone, that was the natural place for it. It did amazingly well. Only got one comment about it not being horrific enough.

My experience has been similar. My previous Halloween submissions were in EH and did fine, despite a few comments politely telling me that ghost stories should be in non-human. ( I dispute the concept that ghosts aren't human) I have no idea why this year is different, but it clearly is.

But, I would like to make a point about competition strategy. Granted, most people enter contests for increased exposure, but I assume they would rather win than not win. So, as someone who has won, and come close a few times, a little bit of advise.

Once you have accumulated a decent number of followers, let's say a couple of hundred, you ought to easily get enough votes from them to qualify. It's also safe to assume that your followers are likely to give you higher scores than new readers. Posting in a low-view category like EH can be beneficial, since the lower readership means a higher percentage of votes will come from readers already favorable to your writing.

 

[SkyBubble]

We do not know how they determine what is suspicious and we are explicitly forbidden to speculate about it on the forum.

Is that rule posted anywhere? I haven't seen it.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Posting in a low-view category like EH can be beneficial, since the lower readership means a higher percentage of votes will come from readers already favorable to your writing.

It also means the impact of malicious voting is that much greater.

 

[MelissaBaby]

It also means the impact of malicious voting is that much greater.

That may be the case with normal submissions, but I think the effect of malicious voting is actually less regarding contest entries, because of the multiple sweeps.