The Official Authors' Hangout Halloween 2023 Contest Support Thread

[Jorunn]

Every morning now my older less viewed story in the contest now gets 1 star, for 3 mornings in a row. I'm at this point starting to get kind of suspicious. It's a bummer that people might get that weirdly competitive about it.

I am in a niche category so it only has 60 votes total since Oct 2nd. And these regularly timed one star ratings have brought it down from something like a 4.68 to a 4.60 - it stands out as unusual activity.

Someone posted the leaders a few days into the contest. My story 'The Greatest Witch Hunter' was leading at that time with 4.89/24. Within two days, it got clubbed down to 4.63. So, yes, painting target on the stories DOES WORK for trolls. I climbed back slowly to 4.75 yesterday, but got hit with a 2, which pretty much ended any dreams of glory. Hoping for a sweep to bring me back to a respectable but out of the running 4.75.

 

[Bazzle]

Someone posted the leaders a few days into the contest. My story 'The Greatest Witch Hunter' was leading at that time with 4.89/24. Within two days, it got clubbed down to 4.63. So, yes, painting target on the stories DOES WORK for trolls. I climbed back slowly to 4.75 yesterday, but got hit with a 2, which pretty much ended any dreams of glory. Hoping for a sweep to bring me back to a respectable but out of the running 4.75.

I was sitting with a red H at 4.63 with 14 votes. Only to wake up to 4.33 with 15 votes. Meh...grumble grumble. Hey ho. I enjoyed writing it. Plus I think some actually enjoyed reading it.

 

[Jorunn]

Good grief. 199 stories entered, assuming there are none left in the queue (and that I counted properly).

I have a winter contest story in draft, but honestly, the main idea of entering contests for exposure is losing some validity. Perhaps better to write non-contest stories in many different sections for exposure.

 

[Jorunn]

I was sitting with a red H at 4.63 with 14 votes. Only to wake up to 4.33 with 15 votes. Meh...grumble grumble. Hey ho. I enjoyed writing it. Plus I think some actually enjoyed reading it.

Bazzle - I opened with a new story in Romance yesterday, ripping out the gates at 4.91. Then saw at least two ones, and it got hammered down to 4.43. Barely creeping up toward the red H now. I am close to the point of holding up a piece of paper in front of my screen to block the scores, and just check to see the usually favorable comments.

 

[samhasstories]

Lust Demon's Orgy is up.

I have a couple of admissions to make with this one:

1. The title and description, while accurate to the story, are mostly to see how many readers I can attract by being very obvious.

2. The story was inspired by The Summoning, by @samhasstories. I was reading it and thought, "What if...?"

There's nothing complicated about this story. I had the idea and wrote it in a few hours while I was watching the rugby. It's about an orgy. With a lust demon. Get your wank rag out and read.

Very cool! Thanks for the shout-out - I'm thrilled my story could provide some inspiration. Read, enjoyed, voted, etc.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Bazzle - I opened with a new story in Romance yesterday, ripping out the gates at 4.91. Then saw at least two ones, and it got hammered down to 4.43. Barely creeping up toward the red H now. I am close to the point of holding up a piece of paper in front of my screen to block the scores, and just check to see the usually favorable comments.

With my first 12 votes I was at 4.77. Next time I checked it was 4.50 at 24 votes. That’s just par for the course on contests, unfortunately. But there is usually a sweep before the winner is determined, so scores can change dramatically in the final tabulations.

 

[SimonDoom]

Finally posted. Only took 4+ years. Scratch one off my long unfinished list. Thanks to TarnishedPenny for her Beta read. This is the only time I've ever had help writing or editing a story, although it probably shouldn't be the last time.

 

[RainyDayPen]

Yeah reading what's going on with others I do think strange things are afoot! It's not cool and I hope admin is able to see these votes that seem targetted. I would have assumed my fetishes annoyed people if this happened early on, but right now it's been weeks since my story has been posted and it's very quiet with activity so drive by attacks stand out!

 

[Trionyx]

If you agonize over every little hundredth of a point, you'll certainly ruin your sleep. It is best to look at the simple odds. Only three winners and, for all intents and purposes, 200 entries. That's 1.5 percent chance of winning from the get-go. If your story is in the top half in terms of quality (a very subjective metric, I admit), your odds have climbed up to 3 percent. If it is in the top quarter, your odds are still only 6 percent. To be competitive and have any hope for a prize, your story should probably be in the top 10 percent where the odds of winning are still only 15 percent and the sweeps will toss things around like crazy come judgement day.
So take a big breath, knock back a second cup of your favorite brew, read some of the good stories and relax. You've written your story and now it is up to the voting/sweeping/Literotica gods to determine the winners.

 

[SimonDoom]

That's a lot of entries. Mine is in Erotic Horror, which I assume is overrepresented for this contest, so the sheer number of stories somewhat dilutes what otherwise would be the beneficial effect of getting attention from having a story in a contest. My story view traffic is far, far below what I'm used to, but I think that's because of the category.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

That's a lot of entries. Mine is in Erotic Horror, which I assume is overrepresented for this contest, so the sheer number of stories somewhat dilutes what otherwise would be the beneficial effect of getting attention from having a story in a contest. My story view traffic is far, far below what I'm used to, but I think that's because of the category.

Category may have something to do with it but the glut of entries is definitely having a diluting effect on number of views. My sole entry is in Romance and it's fought it's way up from the initial trashing in the first three votes; however, unless there's a miraculous change, it's going to end up with my second fewest number of views on any of my stories when the contest is over. Base on current trends, it will be down anywhere from 25 to 75% versus past contests, though I've never entered a Halloween contest here so I have no comparison versus that.

 

[SimonDoom]

Category may have something to do with it but the glut of entries is definitely having a diluting effect on number of views. My sole entry is in Romance and it's fought it's way up from the initial trashing in the first three votes; however, unless there's a miraculous change, it's going to end up with my second fewest number of views on any of my stories when the contest is over. Base on current trends, it will be down anywhere from 25 to 75% versus past contests, though I've never entered a Halloween contest here so I have no comparison versus that.

This is my second entry in Erotic Horror. The last was four years ago, and it was not in a contest, and it had far, far more views than this one, despite not having an impressive score. It makes me re-think the usefulness of entering a contest as a way of getting attention for a story.

 

[Red_Herring4]

My story view traffic is far, far below what I'm used to, but I think that's because of the category.

It's category, but it's also the day your story was posted in its category. There were 15 stories posted today in Erotic Horror. The previous 10 days, the story post count in Erotic Horror was: 1, 2, 2, 4, 1, 1, 3, 2, 1, and 2.

It will take regular readers of the category time to work through the huge number of stories that were posted today. Once they do, your view numbers should rise. Hopefully!

 

[FeralSmile]

It's category, but it's also the day your story was posted in its category. There were 15 stories posted today in Erotic Horror. The previous 10 days, the story post count in Erotic Horror was: 1, 2, 2, 4, 1, 1, 3, 2, 1, and 2.

It will take regular readers of the category time to work through the huge number of stories that were posted today. Once they do, your view numbers should rise. Hopefully!

When fewer entries are posted in a given day, a story will remain on the "new" list for several days instead of disappearing quickly. Inevitably, more stories being posted means fewer views for any new story, everything else being equal; they have more competition for views on the "new" list and they drop off that list faster.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

My Halloween story, About That Night, is going live early tomorrow. I guess because I submitted so late, they only took a day to approve it.

 

[SyleusSnow]

My Halloween story, About That Night, is going live early tomorrow. I guess because I submitted so late, they only took a day to approve it.

Heh. Mine also got approved to go live tomorrow morning, after submitting it at 11:25 last night. Guess there are advantages to submitted just under the wire.

Good luck to you (and your co-author Fun) in the contest ;-)

 

[Smuttyandfun]

I'm not sure how, but I often submit on the last day, sometimes with only minutes to spare. I submitted mine at 11:30 last night. And when it's that late, they usually publish it pretty quick. So, I guess there are advantages to pulling a story out of my 'you know what' at the last minute. LOL I'm just hoping it doesn't look rushed, or the readers will be sure to let me know.

Good luck with your story, too.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Wow! That's a big crowd this year. Goes to show how much interest there is in spooky tales. No chance of me reading them all, but I have managed to get to 4 or 5, and they've all been pretty good. It's a shame more people haven't read/voted them.

For most of us with early entries, nothing to do now but sit back and wait for the cleaner to come through.

Good luck all, and on to the next story!

 

[MillieDynamite]

I don't think I can have enough sweeping done to make my scores competitive this years.

 

[FeralSmile]

One of my Halloween stories, Possession of 9/10 of the Law, keeps bouncing up and down. I'm really not sure what to make of the reaction honestly; though it's been generally rated well it only has one favorite so far, which is low compared to the ratios of my previous works. The other Halloween story, The House is Quiet, is barely getting any views, no favorites, and has so few votes that anything could happen to it. Both stories were published today, to be fair, but I guess I've grown used to the far higher views and more plentiful votes of I/T and LW.

"The House is Quiet" is erotic horror, to be fair, which is a less-popular category. I'm also disappointed that most of my formatting was stripped out upon publication, which leaves the work a bit unclear to readers IMO (it hops between narration, diary entries, and dreams). I submitted an edit but by the time it goes through the story is likely to be off the "new" lists. Ah well.

I suppose I just need to practice detachment and let go of any expectations for views, ratings, and favorites, and let what happens happen.

 

[BelleCanzuto]

I was sitting with a red H at 4.63 with 14 votes. Only to wake up to 4.33 with 15 votes. Meh...grumble grumble. Hey ho. I enjoyed writing it. Plus I think some actually enjoyed reading it.

Bazzle- you and I are on the same Rollercoaster

 

[SimonDoom]

This is shaping up to be one of those "I'm glad I wrote it just for the sake of writing it" stories, because so far NONE of the numbers are noteworthy. 571 views, 11 votes, well under 4.5 score, 1 comment, 1 favorite, about 17 hours after publication. Heck, an incest story can get that kind of action in under ten minutes.

 

[MillieDynamite]

This is why I use RTF format.

One of my Halloween stories, Possession of 9/10 of the Law, keeps bouncing up and down. I'm really not sure what to make of the reaction honestly; though it's been generally rated well it only has one favorite so far, which is low compared to the ratios of my previous works. The other Halloween story, The House is Quiet, is barely getting any views, no favorites, and has so few votes that anything could happen to it. Both stories were published today, to be fair, but I guess I've grown used to the far higher views and more plentiful votes of I/T and LW.

"The House is Quiet" is erotic horror, to be fair, which is a less-popular category. I'm also disappointed that most of my formatting was stripped out upon publication, which leaves the work a bit unclear to readers IMO (it hops between narration, diary entries, and dreams). I submitted an edit but by the time it goes through the story is likely to be off the "new" lists. Ah well.

I suppose I just need to practice detachment and let go of any expectations for views, ratings, and favorites, and let what happens happen.

 

[FeralSmile]

This is why I use RTF format.

Good idea. I manually add all my < i > < /i > < b > < /b > tags and double check them. Might just start uploading the files instead of cutting and pasting.

 

[SyleusSnow]

My humble ghost story Eight Dates with the Dead went live in the wee hours of this morning, as did 11 others.

There are now 210 stories in the contest. Yikes. Way more than the 147 in 2022 and 154 in 2021.

Good luck to all who contributed.