Winter Holiday 2024 Contest Support and Seasonal Story Discussion Thread

[taytay4eva]

For what it's worth, my top five viewed stories are:

The First Blowjob
The Valentine's Day Triple Play (but the description may be the real draw with this one)
Fingered in the Dark
Alex Fucks Cyn
Here Cums Santa's Cock

You have to snag readers first with the title. Then with the description. Then with the first couple of sentences of the story. If you fail at any point, you will have lost them.

Just my experience.

Thanks!

To be fair, it's a non-erotic superhero story, which I have given the title "Mustard Maniac: Time of Your Life" and I'm pretty proud of it.

Working on a non-erotic followup called "Mustard Maniac: Fireside Legacies".

Eventually, I'll add other heroes to the mix, and those stories will get titles like "<Hero>: <Story Name>" as well

 

[FreyaGersemi]

To be fair, it's a non-erotic superhero story, which I have given the title "Mustard Maniac: Time of Your Life" and I'm pretty proud of it.

Working on a non-erotic followup called "Mustard Maniac: Fireside Legacies".

Eventually, I'll add other heroes to the mix, and those stories will get titles like "<Hero>: <Story Name>" as well

I love it!! And I love the continuity of the titles between stories!!! Good luck with it all!!!!

 

[AlexFourways]

Thanks!

To be fair, it's a non-erotic superhero story, which I have given the title "Mustard Maniac: Time of Your Life" and I'm pretty proud of it.

Working on a non-erotic followup called "Mustard Maniac: Fireside Legacies".

Eventually, I'll add other heroes to the mix, and those stories will get titles like "<Hero>: <Story Name>" as well

You should also consider creating a series* once you have a couple of them (saves them getting lost amongst your other stories) but I and Freya noticed (correction Freya noticed) that a [NEW] story does better if it is not put straight into its series for a week or so.
The reason being that if not put in the series, it is at the top of the stories shown to anyone who goes to your 'Stories by taytay4eva' page.
If you put it straight in the series (from part 6 onwards) then it will be off the bottom of the screen and so may not be found, even by a follower!
YMMV

 

[thanagar]

I’m 99% I know the answer for this, but when the sweep happens, it’s just for Christmas stories, correct? I’ve had a few other stories targeted and I wouldn’t mind if they had some Solstice cleaning as well….

 

[AlexFourways]

I’m 99% I know the answer for this, but when the sweep happens, it’s just for Christmas stories, correct? I’ve had a few other stories targeted and I wouldn’t mind if they had some Solstice cleaning as well….

As I was looking at the FAQ about something else it states that they do regular sweeps on everything and you can report a story where you think there is 'voter fraud'. https://www.literotica.com/faq/publishing/suspicious-votes

 

[Actingup]

I’m 99% I know the answer for this, but when the sweep happens, it’s just for Christmas stories, correct? I’ve had a few other stories targeted and I wouldn’t mind if they had some Solstice cleaning as well….

I put in a request last month as per @AlexFourways post, and all of my stories got swept.

 

[AlexFourways]

I put in a request last month as per @AlexFourways post, and all of my stories got swept.

Yes the article says they do that - and nice to know that they do. Still waiting for a sweep on mine as I am sure I have had some 1 (or 2) votes that don't fit the pattern.

 

[thanagar]

As I was looking at the FAQ about something else it states that they do regular sweeps on everything and you can report a story where you think there is 'voter fraud'. https://www.literotica.com/faq/publishing/suspicious-votes

Thank you. It feels whiny to complain about a story that is still highly rated with a lot of feedback. But there’s no way this particular story drops 5 points in a matter of a couple of weeks, when it already had more than 2400 votes, unless something targeted was going on. I’ll send a request.

 

[NotWise]

I’m 99% I know the answer for this, but when the sweep happens, it’s just for Christmas stories, correct? I’ve had a few other stories targeted and I wouldn’t mind if they had some Solstice cleaning as well….

FWIW, the contest sweeps cover the whole site. That said, I don't know how it works, but the last sweep for a contest seems to dig deeper than others.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Sweep ongoing right now. I just lost 4 votes and got a .03 bump.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Thank you. It feels whiny to complain about a story that is still highly rated with a lot of feedback. But there’s no way this particular story drops 5 points in a matter of a couple of weeks, when it already had more than 2400 votes, unless something targeted was going on. I’ll send a request.

LOL. I remember the days I used to watch my votes and score like an eagle - I think it was The Temptation of Sammi Woo in one of the comps where it got something like 50 5*'s out the gate, and then it got one starred down to about 3.5 and I was freaking out and spinning my wheels. Now I don't even look. I'm more interested in the comments and views. The score always averages out over time and not being egotistical or anything, but once you have a few wins behind you and you know you can do it, it's more important to write what you want and enjoy doing it rather than going all out to win.

Anyhow, good luck, and yes, there are trolls and they do target stories for kicks and giggles. No point in worrying about it. The sweeps clean them out and the readers will vote and it usually works out about the same. LOL. Which is exactly what all the long-time members told me years ago when I first apparated in here. Here's looking at you, Tex & Keith. LOL

 

[NotWise]

Sweep ongoing right now. I just lost 4 votes and got a .03 bump.

Yep. Lost two, no change in score.

 

[taytay4eva]

You should also consider creating a series* once you have a couple of them (saves them getting lost amongst your other stories) but I and Freya noticed (correction Freya noticed) that a [NEW] story does better if it is not put straight into its series for a week or so.
The reason being that if not put in the series, it is at the top of the stories shown to anyone who goes to your 'Stories by taytay4eva' page.
If you put it straight in the series (from part 6 onwards) then it will be off the bottom of the screen and so may not be found, even by a follower!
YMMV

Ah, dang, I put it into the series right out of the gate! Maybe since it's the only one in the series right now it'll still float at the top. Still, I'll keep that in mind for future stories! Thanks!

Also, I did wanna ask about that: how often is too often to submit stories if you want to be sure they get read and noticed?

I've seen on other websites that if someone posts a lot of posts in succession then posts tend to drown each other out, and I'd like to not shoot myself in the foot here.

 

[taytay4eva]

Yep. Lost two, no change in score.

I got some additional votes and my story got a 0.2 bump, which I'm pleased with. It's over 110 votes, now, and I feel like that means it'll be less likely to slip below 4.5 (it's at 4.53ish right now )

 

[FreyaGersemi]

Ah, dang, I put it into the series right out of the gate!

You can remove it from a series.

Also, I did wanna ask about that: how often is too often to submit stories if you want to be sure they get read and noticed?

I've seen on other websites that if someone posts a lot of posts in succession then posts tend to drown each other out, and I'd like to not shoot myself in the foot here.

I agonized over things like this when I started here. The advice I got was not to worry about it. Just write good stories. You story should stay on the "new" list in whatever category it's in for a while. A week, maybe? But here are some thoughts.

Your story will get a bunch of reads as "new" but will (hopefully) get many, many, many more reads down the line as your presence on Literotica grows. Maybe a reader liked your story and wants to read more? No matter what you do, you'll wonder about what you didn't do. But I think the bottom line is to get some work out there and start making your stories known. In a week (or less) your "new" story is just another story in the pile. You may as well start adding to that pile!!

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Sweep ongoing right now. I just lost 4 votes and got a .03 bump.

I think I've been excluded from the sweep. I men obviously, if all invalid votes on my stories were removed, I'd have 5.0's across the board, right?

 

[Jasonjjones2012]

Hey all, although I've posted on Lit for a while, I haven't submitted a story for a competition before. I'm just wondering how the voting works? Is it the number of ratings? Or average score?

For reference, my story is a literotica adaptation of A Christmas Carol

https://www.literotica.com/s/a-christmas-carol-5

Although posted in LW, it's probably different from the standard over there, give it a read if you're interested!

Wishing all of you wonderful authors all the best this Christmas,

JJJ

 

[MelissaBaby]

Hey all, although I've posted on Lit for a while, I haven't submitted a story for a competition before. I'm just wondering how the voting works? Is it the number of ratings? Or average score?

For reference, my story is a literotica adaptation of A Christmas Carol

https://www.literotica.com/s/a-christmas-carol-5

Although posted in LW, it's probably different from the standard over there, give it a read if you're interested!

Wishing all of you wonderful authors all the best this Christmas,

JJJ

It’s the score from the star ratings. There is no separate voting.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I’m 99% I know the answer for this, but when the sweep happens, it’s just for Christmas stories, correct? I’ve had a few other stories targeted and I wouldn’t mind if they had some Solstice cleaning as well….

Sweeps go through the whole story file, and go back at least ten years. You don't need a story to be in a Contest to get swept. All stories get the process. They're not contest specific. I rarely enter Contests, but nearly always see score adjustments when a sweep goes through.

 

[AlexFourways]

Thank you. It feels whiny to complain about a story that is still highly rated with a lot of feedback. But there’s no way this particular story drops 5 points in a matter of a couple of weeks, when it already had more than 2400 votes, unless something targeted was going on. I’ll send a request.

Probalby should be doing this one to one, but I find it hard to believe you have 2400 votes as my read to vote ratio is 0.6% but (based on the latest figures for Dildo for the Holidays is 3.6k (3600) views so a ratio of reads to votes of 66%. If that was one of my stories the votes would be 24! On your home page, the score and votes are shown like 4.66/24.
which is rating 4.25, 48 votes, 5 favourites, 4.3k reads (4303 when you hover over it) and 8 comments.

I would like to know if my read to vote ratio is admormally low, but it is fairly consistent.
As ever, I take the coward's motto of YMMV!

 

[NotWise]

Probalby should be doing this one to one, but I find it hard to believe you have 2400 votes as my read to vote ratio is 0.6% but (based on the latest figures for Dildo for the Holidays is 3.6k (3600) views so a ratio of reads to votes of 66%. If that was one of my stories the votes would be 24! On your home page, the score and votes are shown like 4.66/24.
View attachment 2442581which is rating 4.25, 48 votes, 5 favourites, 4.3k reads (4303 when you hover over it) and 8 comments.

I would like to know if my read to vote ratio is admormally low, but it is fairly consistent.
As ever, I take the coward's motto of YMMV!

The 30-day top list for Romance shows the story with 63 votes, and that would not be current.

0.6% is a little low for a votes/views ratio, but that ratio can be all over the place. I think normal is around 1%-2%.

 

[AlexFourways]

The 30-day top list for Romance shows the story with 63 votes, and that would not be current.

0.6% is a little low for a votes/views ratio, but that ratio can be all over the place. I think normal is around 1%-2%.

Well it must be me - as that figure is based on 50 stories. (my two competition ones are a smidgen over 1%) But I also generally have very few comments! I only did the overall figures, not story by story. Possibly I get a lot of people opening, reading the introduction and then clicking out! I wish I knew, but nobodys telling me! (actually a select few are and they are usually saying )

 

[AlexFourways]

Ah, dang, I put it into the series right out of the gate! Maybe since it's the only one in the series right now it'll still float at the top. Still, I'll keep that in mind for future stories! Thanks!

Also, I did wanna ask about that: how often is too often to submit stories if you want to be sure they get read and noticed?

I've seen on other websites that if someone posts a lot of posts in succession then posts tend to drown each other out, and I'd like to not shoot myself in the foot here.

Not disagreeing with Freya (wouldn't dare ) but the issue doesn't occur with the first story as it is top of the Series and the Series is new so it's at the top. It's later that it has an effect.

On frequency. If you consider I have been here just over a year and have 50 stories then it implies I did a lot of one a week (I did). (The following proof reader advice I have learnt more recently).
I didn't get complaints. But possibly try to be a bit slower than that. (The story stays [NEW] for a week)
Top tip, get a proof reader, or at very least use a screen reader (ideally both so your proof/beta reader isn't having to correct 'whist' to 'whilst' and so can help more with dialouge and other things).
Also no point publishing once a week for 6 months and then once a month for 6 months and then once a quarter...
Don's my coward's coat YMMV!

 

[RBeemer]

Well it must be me - as that figure is based on 50 stories. (my two competition ones are a smidgen over 1%) But I also generally have very few comments! I only did the overall figures, not story by story. Possibly I get a lot of people opening, reading the introduction and then clicking out! I wish I knew, but nobodys telling me! (actually a select few are and they are usually saying )

Are you stories usually pretty long? I know that I will often open a story and see that it's 16 pages and click right out. I just don't have the time or attention span. I max out at 3 or 4 pages.

But, even though I don't usually go for the long ones, I would NEVER give a score to a story I haven't completed. Good or bad.

 

[Voboy]

LOL. I remember the days I used to watch my votes and score like an eagle - I think it was The Temptation of Sammi Woo in one of the comps where it got something like 50 5*'s out the gate, and then it got one starred down to about 3.5 and I was freaking out and spinning my wheels. Now I don't even look. I'm more interested in the comments and views. The score always averages out over time and not being egotistical or anything, but once you have a few wins behind you and you know you can do it, it's more important to write what you want and enjoy doing it rather than going all out to win.

Anyhow, good luck, and yes, there are trolls and they do target stories for kicks and giggles. No point in worrying about it. The sweeps clean them out and the readers will vote and it usually works out about the same. LOL. Which is exactly what all the long-time members told me years ago when I first apparated in here. Here's looking at you, Tex & Keith. LOL