A hell of a lot of stories.

[HectorBidon]

634 new stories were published on this site last week: 56 on Monday (12/4), an average of 105 per day on Tuesday through Saturday, and 55 on Sunday (12/10). That's a hell of a lot of stories. How many of them did you read?

One of them was mine. I'm still a wide-eyed enough author that I like to see how my stories are doing, so this time I payed attention. My story was in the 12/10 batch, which first came up late Saturday evening (12/9, PST). By the next morning it had already gotten a score and even some comments. I was kind of curious to see how this compared to the level of attention that the other stories in the same batch were getting. Here's what I found:

This table shows the total number of views, votes, and comments across all the 12/10 stories for the first three days after publication. The data was obtained from the story pages themselves and the Tops lists. Since it takes a while for the numbers to be updated on the site, I compiled them in the mornings, so that the "day 1" data came from 12/11 (about 36 hours after publication) and so on.

[tr][td].[/td] [td]

___day 1​

[/td] [td]

___day 2​

[/td] [td]

___day 3​

[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Views[/td] [td]

301123​

[/td] [td]

143082​

[/td] [td]

89902​

[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Votes[/td] [td]

3451​

[/td] [td]

2103​

[/td] [td]

919​

[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Comments[/td] [td]

180​

[/td] [td]

45​

[/td] [td]

23​

[/td] [/tr]

This table shows shows the average number of views, votes, and comments per story in each category. "Others" includes Celebrities (3 stories), Erotic Horror, Exhibitionism/Voyeur, Humor/Satire, Non-erotic, Nonhuman, and Novels/Novellas (1 story each).

[tr][td].[/td] [td].[/td] [td]

____​

[/td] [td]

Views​

[/td] [td]____[/td] [td]

____​

[/td] [td]

Votes​

[/td] [td]____[/td] [td]

Cmts​

[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Category[/td] [td]Stories[/td] [td]

day 1​

[/td] [td]

day 2​

[/td] [td]

day 3​

[/td] [td]

day 1​

[/td] [td]

day 2​

[/td] [td]

day 3​

[/td] [td]

day 1​

[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Incest/Taboo[/td] [td]

*7​

[/td] [td]

20879​

[/td] [td]

11629​

[/td] [td]

4670​

[/td] [td]

235​

[/td] [td]

169​

[/td] [td]

61​

[/td] [td]

7​

[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Loving Wives[/td] [td]

4​

[/td] [td]

13900​

[/td] [td]

6832​

[/td] [td]

3494​

[/td] [td]

193​

[/td] [td]

109​

[/td] [td]

35​

[/td] [td]

18​

[/td][/tr] [tr][td]NC/Reluctance[/td] [td]

*3​

[/td] [td]

12740​

[/td] [td]

5992​

[/td] [td]

3718​

[/td] [td]

91​

[/td] [td]

63​

[/td] [td]

26​

[/td] [td]

2​

[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Romance[/td] [td]

*3​

[/td] [td]

8094​

[/td] [td]

3267​

[/td] [td]

1116​

[/td] [td]

173​

[/td] [td]

130​

[/td] [td]

51​

[/td] [td]

6​

[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Gay Male[/td] [td]

2​

[/td] [td]

6982​

[/td] [td]

4110​

[/td] [td]

2030​

[/td] [td]

63​

[/td] [td]

42​

[/td] [td]

27​

[/td] [td]

2​

[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Mature[/td] [td]

*2​

[/td] [td]

6209​

[/td] [td]

3096​

[/td] [td]

2932​

[/td] [td]

63​

[/td] [td]

35​

[/td] [td]

33​

[/td] [td]

4​

[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Anal[/td] [td]

1​

[/td] [td]

5849​

[/td] [td]

3110​

[/td] [td]

2033​

[/td] [td]

22​

[/td] [td]

17​

[/td] [td]

10​

[/td] [td]

2​

[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Group Sex[/td] [td]

2​

[/td] [td]

5339​

[/td] [td]

2952​

[/td] [td]

1232​

[/td] [td]

85​

[/td] [td]

--​

[/td] [td]

9​

[/td] [td]

1​

[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Mind Control[/td] [td]

2​

[/td] [td]

4319​

[/td] [td]

2463​

[/td] [td]

1457​

[/td] [td]

22​

[/td] [td]

13​

[/td] [td]

7​

[/td] [td]

1​

[/td][/tr] [tr][td]BDSM[/td] [td]

2​

[/td] [td]

4106​

[/td] [td]

2109​

[/td] [td]

849​

[/td] [td]

25​

[/td] [td]

16​

[/td] [td]

7​

[/td] [td]

1​

[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Trans & Cross[/td] [td]

2​

[/td] [td]

4092​

[/td] [td]

2344​

[/td] [td]

1195​

[/td] [td]

28​

[/td] [td]

16​

[/td] [td]

10​

[/td] [td]

1​

[/td][/tr] [tr][td]E Couplings[/td] [td]

6​

[/td] [td]

3313​

[/td] [td]

1698​

[/td] [td]

805​

[/td] [td]

27​

[/td] [td]

22​

[/td] [td]

6​

[/td] [td]

1​

[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Fetish[/td] [td]

1​

[/td] [td]

2800​

[/td] [td]

1700​

[/td] [td]

953​

[/td] [td]

13​

[/td] [td]

13​

[/td] [td]

4​

[/td] [td]

1​

[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Sci-Fi Fantasy[/td] [td]

9​

[/td] [td]

1177​

[/td] [td]

441​

[/td] [td]

213​

[/td] [td]

33​

[/td] [td]

16​

[/td] [td]

8​

[/td] [td]

4​

[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Others______[/td] [td]

__8​

[/td] [td]

_____1150​

[/td] [td]

__550​

[/td] [td]

__296​

[/td] [td]

_____16​

[/td] [td]

__10​

[/td] [td]

___3​

[/td] [td]

_____1​

[/td][/tr]

[*In most of the categories, including "others," the results were not too different between stories and the averages were taken across all the stories in the category. However, in NC/Reluctance, Romance, and Mature, the chapter stories had considerably fewer views than the stand alone ones and so only the stand-alone stories were averaged. In Incest/Taboo, three stories also had considerably fewer views than the others, for non-obvious reasons. Only the more-read stories were averaged.]

Results. The 12/10 batch consisted of 55 stories, each from a different author (at least a different author name). I wasn't familiar with any of them (except myself). Five were first time authors, five had more than 100 previous submissions. The median number of previous submissions was 6. The stories ranged across categories. The most were in Sci-Fi/Fantasy (9), Incest/Taboo (7), and Erotic Couplings (6). 26 of the stories were stand alone, while 29 were chapter stories.

The main thing that the data shows is that the site has a robust readership. Most stories received over 1k first-day views, and even the least read (in Humor/Satire) received over 400. Ten stories received over 10k first-day views, and two received over 20k.

The biggest determinant of the number of views was category. The most popular categories were Incest/Taboo, Loving Wives, and NC/Reluctance. The other well-read categories were the ones you might expect. Sci-FI/Fantasy did not get a lot of views, but all but one of the stories were chapter stories.

Within categories there was some variability in the number of views received by the different stories. For example, in NC/Reluctance, one stand-alone story received twice as many first-day views as the other (17k vs 8k). This can presumably be attributed to author reputation and/or title/description effectiveness. Chapter stories also tended to be less popular than stand-alone stories

The results also show a pronounced "first-day" effect. A lot of readers apparently like to read stories as soon as they come out. Overall, the 12/10 stories received a total of over 300k views their first day up. This number dropped by about half on day 2, and by about half again on day 3. We all know that this number drops to a mere dribble by day 8 when the stories drop off the New list altogether.

The numbers of votes and comments were also biggest on day 1 and then exhibited a similar decline. Overall, there was about 1 vote for every 100 views and 1 comment for every 2000 views. By day 3, all but 3 stories had received enough votes (5?) to be listed in the Tops list, and all but 15 had received at least one comment.

[Caveat: All these results should be taken with a grain of salt because of the small sample size (only 1 or 2 stories in many categories). Also, it's not clear whether the results would have been different if day 1 had fallen on a weekday instead of a Sunday.]

Conclusion. Even though there are a hell of a lot of authors writing a hell of a lot of stories, there are an even heller of a lot of readers, and they seem to be keeping up. I've also got to think that the readership is constantly expanding. My story received 95% as many views and 90% as many votes in 4 days as one of my other popular stories in the same category received in two years. I'm happy with the number of views and votes I got, and I don't feel so guilty about not reading all the new stories myself, because at least somebody is.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Hector, congrats on doing this analysis. Shows in a nutshell that each category has a different set of dynamics, some markedly different.

It also reinforces the 1:100 vote / view ratio 'rule'; and sorta kinda reinforces the 1 comment every 1-2 thousand, which I use as a rule of thumb for judging a higher number of comments as a good response indicator.

 

[LoquiSordidaAdMe]

God bless the data nerds with too much time on their hands. Thanks so much for sharing, HectorBiden.

The data nerd in me would love it if Literotica shared those sorts of metrics with authors without us having to do our own data mining. The writer in me knows that I shouldn't pay attention to numbers and just write what makes me happy. So conflicted.

 

[RejectReality]

Well, if you're a stats junkie and want a snapshot of some history, you can always check out the tracks of my pen names:

http://darkniciad.com/hotlink_pics/lit_stats_home.htm

They were done quarterly for several years. I let them lapse in May of last year for various reasons, and haven't decided when I'm going to start back up. It will be much easier now that you can download your stats in a spreadsheet-ready format, but I'm actually getting writing done, so that's taking priority.

The lack of story titles and categories in the early tracks is because I was keeping this pen name secret at the time to see how I could do without name recognition.

 

[PuckIt]

Man, if only my former students could see that. And they thought I was a nerd!

Seriously, well done and well presented HectorBiden. Most of it was things we've long suspected and discussed in general, but it was nice to see the analysis in hard cold numbers and know we aren't nuts. (Well, some of us. The others are fruitier than Toucan Sam.)

Of course it's hard to know just how many of those 1k views are web crawlers and first time authors pulling up their own work and saying "Yup. I did it. There it is. Looks great. Oh, shit. Wait. I meant to say 'he shot his load in her bowels', but I typed 'he shot his load in her bowls'. That's like a whole nother fetish! Curse you spellcheck!"

Um... or so I've heard.

But, yeah. I sort of agree with LoquiSordidaAdMe. I love to see those metrics. I'm just too lazy (and no longer savvy enough) to pull them on my own.

 

[NotWise]

What a hell of a lot of work. Thanks! You answered some questions I've wondered about.

 

[Kantarii]

I don’t have a lot of spare time to waste on numbers and stats. I usually funnel that time into working on the next chapter and let the numbers fall into placeKant

 

[SimonDoom]

HectorBidon, awesome work. I love crunching data, and I've done a lot of it with my stories, but never anything quite on this scale.

Most of the results aren't surprising. I knew Incest/taboo gets about twice as many views as other categories, and I knew Loving Wives was popular, but I had no idea nonconsent was so popular.

One thing I didn't quite follow was your comment that two stories received over 20,000 views. Unless those two received a lot more than 20,000 I don't see how that squares with the average first day view total for incest/taboo being over 20,000, when there were 7 stories published in that category. Does the 7 include the 3 that you said had low views so you excluded them?

Good work!

 

[HectorBidon]

HectorBidon, awesome work. I love crunching data, and I've done a lot of it with my stories, but never anything quite on this scale.

Most of the results aren't surprising. I knew Incest/taboo gets about twice as many views as other categories, and I knew Loving Wives was popular, but I had no idea nonconsent was so popular.

One thing I didn't quite follow was your comment that two stories received over 20,000 views. Unless those two received a lot more than 20,000 I don't see how that squares with the average first day view total for incest/taboo being over 20,000, when there were 7 stories published in that category. Does the 7 include the 3 that you said had low views so you excluded them?

Good work!

Thanks. I agree that the results are not too surprising, but the numbers themselves are kind of interesting. 100 new stories most days! 300,000 first-day views! Considerably more than I might have thought.

The IT first-day views were 28k, 21k, 19k, 15k, 4k, 3k, and 2k. This seemed like a pretty clear bimodal distribution, with 4 stories getting way more views than the typical 12/10 story and 3 getting only about the same number. The other starred categories had similar bimodal distributions. In those categories the distinction was due to whether the story was a stand-alone or a chapter. In IT the reason for the distinction wasn't clear. I decided to only include the "higher than typical" stories in the averages for the starred categories, thinking, I guess, that this would better characterize the eagerness of the first-day readerships. Maybe I should have just averaged across all the stories in each category instead. In that case the average IT first-day view count would have been 13172, roughly the same as LW.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Just awesome research Hector. Thanks a million for sharing that. And also thanks to Pilot for his stats. That sort of stuff tabulated is just great to know.

 

[EnglishTeacher]

I also would like to say thanks for the hard work doing all the data mining. Much appreciated.

 

[SimonDoom]

Thanks. I agree that the results are not too surprising, but the numbers themselves are kind of interesting. 100 new stories most days! 300,000 first-day views! Considerably more than I might have thought.

The IT first-day views were 28k, 21k, 19k, 15k, 4k, 3k, and 2k. This seemed like a pretty clear bimodal distribution, with 4 stories getting way more views than the typical 12/10 story and 3 getting only about the same number. The other starred categories had similar bimodal distributions. In those categories the distinction was due to whether the story was a stand-alone or a chapter. In IT the reason for the distinction wasn't clear. I decided to only include the "higher than typical" stories in the averages for the starred categories, thinking, I guess, that this would better characterize the eagerness of the first-day readerships. Maybe I should have just averaged across all the stories in each category instead. In that case the average IT first-day view count would have been 13172, roughly the same as LW.

Those IT results are interesting. What they suggest is that while the mean stories in IT and LW are comparable in popularity, for whatever reason IT has the potential to really take off.

I've noticed that mean total views for my incest stories are nearly three times what mean views are for my non-incest stories.

I've often wondered what makes one story take off and do so much better than others, especially when it can't be explained by a really high score.

For instance, the toplists tend to be dominated by IT stories, but every once in a while a story from another category will separate from the pack and muscle its way into the top echelon of stories. Often, it's not clear why.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Wow.That is staggeringly depressing.

 

[SimonDoom]

Wow.That is staggeringly depressing.

Why so?

 

[MelissaBaby]

Why so?

Average views on Romance stories is more than 8,000 on the first day.

My new chapter that went up yesterday has fewer than 1,000. The first chapter, which has been up for a month has 4,600.

That feels like a real punch in the gut.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Well,looking at the Romance stories posted on the 14th, none have anywhere near that number of views. The story with the most views currently has around 2,600.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Average views on Romance stories is more than 8,000 on the first day.

My new chapter that went up yesterday has fewer than 1,000. The first chapter, which has been up for a month has 4,600.

That feels like a real punch in the gut.

Views don't tell you much about story quality, because readers don't know how good it was until after they've viewed it. A low view count is more likely to be due to the title and blurb, or just how prominent the story was in its early days. Sometimes a story sits at the top of the new list for a day; sometimes it gets bumped to page two almost immediately, and that will greatly reduce views. I've had both happen on different chapters in the same series and it makes a big difference to views. Just the luck of the draw.

 

[SimonDoom]

Average views on Romance stories is more than 8,000 on the first day.

My new chapter that went up yesterday has fewer than 1,000. The first chapter, which has been up for a month has 4,600.

That feels like a real punch in the gut.

You shouldn't think of it that way!

First of all, the sample size is three stories. That's too small to draw any firm conclusions.

Second, the figure of 8,000 on the first day is skewed by one story, which now has over 20,000 views after five days.

Third, that story is a standalone story, not a chapter story, like yours. You cannot compare the two. Standalone stories receive on average a LOT more views than chapter stories, because many readers have no patience to get invested in a long series.

Fourth, if you don't mind my saying so, that story has an advantage over yours, which has nothing to do with the quality of the story itself but has a lot to do with views: its title and description are somewhat more enticing. Its title is "Gender Neutral", which is a suggestive and somewhat eyebrow-raising title for an erotic story, and its description is clear and to the point: "A guy and a girl have to share a room at college." Young love is a scenario that people eat up. That, plus the somewhat provocative title, is going to get views.

Your story is "Mary and Alvin Ch. 01." It's not bad but it's a little bland. The tagline is "the first encounter of an unlikely couple." That doesn't give away much. YOu've done a lot less than the other author to entice and hook the reader with your title and tagline.

I don't mean this to sound like a lecture. There's no right way to do this. There are people here who write solely for their own satisfaction, and as far as I'm concerned, bless them. But if you ARE going to care about the views you get, then it makes sense to know and to play the game.

Your story has done well and gotten very high marks. Obviously, your readers like what you've written.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Views don't tell you much about story quality, because readers don't know how good it was until after they've viewed it. A low view count is more likely to be due to the title and blurb, or just how prominent the story was in its early days. Sometimes a story sits at the top of the new list for a day; sometimes it gets bumped to page two almost immediately, and that will greatly reduce views. I've had both happen on different chapters in the same series and it makes a big difference to views. Just the luck of the draw.

Those who have read my work seem pleased, 16 of my 17 submissions have an H

That matters a lot more to me than number of readers, particularly as I am aware that my stories are not for everyone. Nonetheless, I have to admit, Hector's stats were disheartening.

 

[MelissaBaby]

You shouldn't think of it that way!

First of all, the sample size is three stories. That's too small to draw any firm conclusions.

Second, the figure of 8,000 on the first day is skewed by one story, which now has over 20,000 views after five days.

Third, that story is a standalone story, not a chapter story, like yours. You cannot compare the two. Standalone stories receive on average a LOT more views than chapter stories, because many readers have no patience to get invested in a long series.

Fourth, if you don't mind my saying so, that story has an advantage over yours, which has nothing to do with the quality of the story itself but has a lot to do with views: its title and description are somewhat more enticing. Its title is "Gender Neutral", which is a suggestive and somewhat eyebrow-raising title for an erotic story, and its description is clear and to the point: "A guy and a girl have to share a room at college." Young love is a scenario that people eat up. That, plus the somewhat provocative title, is going to get views.

Your story is "Mary and Alvin Ch. 01." It's not bad but it's a little bland. The tagline is "the first encounter of an unlikely couple." That doesn't give away much. YOu've done a lot less than the other author to entice and hook the reader with your title and tagline.

I don't mean this to sound like a lecture. There's no right way to do this. There are people here who write solely for their own satisfaction, and as far as I'm concerned, bless them. But if you ARE going to care about the views you get, then it makes sense to know and to play the game.

Your story has done well and gotten very high marks. Obviously, your readers like what you've written.

Simon, thank you for talking me off the ledge, and for some very sound advice.

 

[SimonDoom]

Simon, thank you for talking me off the ledge, and for some very sound advice.

MB, I hope that you are talking about a figurative, not literal ledge. But in either event, I'm glad I could say something helpful.

Two other things (concerning the game):

Subsequent chapters receive fewer views than first chapters, so it's to be expected that your latest chapter doesn't have as many views.

The longer you wait to post the next chapter the more dropoff you are likely to get. I'm a terrible offender of this rule. I wrote five chapters of a story in April and May and waited until October to post the sixth chapter, and even though it received by far the highest score of any chapter in the series its views are nowhere near as high as the previous chapters. If you want to keep views high publish the chapters in relatively quick succession -- say, post a chapter as soon as the previous chapter published. This only works, of course, if the next chapter already is written.

 

[MelissaBaby]

MB, I hope that you are talking about a figurative, not literal ledge. But in either event, I'm glad I could say something helpful.

Two other things (concerning the game):

Subsequent chapters receive fewer views than first chapters, so it's to be expected that your latest chapter doesn't have as many views.

The longer you wait to post the next chapter the more dropoff you are likely to get. I'm a terrible offender of this rule. I wrote five chapters of a story in April and May and waited until October to post the sixth chapter, and even though it received by far the highest score of any chapter in the series its views are nowhere near as high as the previous chapters. If you want to keep views high publish the chapters in relatively quick succession -- say, post a chapter as soon as the previous chapter published. This only works, of course, if the next chapter already is written.

I am willing to accept the dropoff, because my interest is in longer narratives.

My first "novel" (and again, can we please have a category for memoir?) ran thirteen chapters. I am considering editing it into one long piece and resubmitting it, but as it does not fit into any existing category besides Novels and Novellas, I don't know that it would get any greater readership.

I choose to believe that eventually, the right readers will find the stories.

 

[KindofHere]

...........

 

[MelissaBaby]

Put yours in romance or erotic couplings. It sounds like a melodrama, it will fit there. The worst thing that happens is they don't finish it.

With a few pinches of Erotic Horror.

 

[LoquiSordidaAdMe]

Y'know, with a few unfortunate exceptions, I've always been impressed with how supportive the crowd here on the AH can be. It's why I rarely venture onto other boards.