Advice re story category please

[TheDok]

I am part way into a story about a guy who meets a girl and then her mother and with the full knowledge of each one sleeps with them both first separately and then together. They all care deeply for one another and in many ways this is a romance but would it be better in taboo, group sex even though in my opinion it is a romance, which is my gut reaction to where it should be. Any thoughts please

 

[anthrodisiac]

I guess it depends what your goal is for the story. Are you trying to find the place it'll score the highest, best connect with readers, get the most views? Romance might be a bit tricky, they tend to be a bit traditionalist, but you could want to break up some of the normative values in the place by showing romance can take many forms. T/I is great for views, but if the mother/daughter incest is only facilitated through the guy, it might not sit right with the audience. Group Sex feels like the safest bet.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I did something similar and Laurel placed it in Taboo when I'd selected something else.

 

[IWroteThis]

I did something similar and Laurel placed it in Taboo when I'd selected something else.

I had a similar story where they both played with the guy together but not with each other. I added a "No Incest" tag and it got published in the category I had picked.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I am part way into a story about a guy who meets a girl and then her mother and with the full knowledge of each one sleeps with them both first separately and then together. They all care deeply for one another and in many ways this is a romance but would it be better in taboo, group sex even though in my opinion it is a romance, which is my gut reaction to where it should be. Any thoughts please

Tricky. My gut feeling says, not Romance, coz they're a traditional lot, and the idea of the threesome with mom and daughter in the room might upset those traditional views.

Group Sex maybe, but you'll get very little audience reaction - in my experience, it's a tumbleweeds category, where stories go somewhere to die.

If mom and daughter get it on in the threesome, them I&T might be the best destination, but I sense you don't particularly want it to go there, if the incest is only a subordinate theme (assuming the women get with each other, but you've not made it clear if that's the case).

Or Erotic Couplings. Depending whether the threesome has incest or not, that would work okay.

I'd finish the story first, all three sections, then decide. You're jumping the gun if the story isn't finished, because you might not yet know where the story will go. Especially in that third chapter.

 

[TheDok]

I guess it depends what your goal is for the story. Are you trying to find the place it'll score the highest, best connect with readers, get the most views? Romance might be a bit tricky, they tend to be a bit traditionalist, but you could want to break up some of the normative values in the place by showing romance can take many forms. T/I is great for views, but if the mother/daughter incest is only facilitated through the guy, it might not sit right with the audience. Group Sex feels like the safest bet.

Thank you. This is very helpful

 

[TheDok]

I did something similar and Laurel placed it in Taboo when I'd selected something else.

Thank you

 

[TheDok]

I had a similar story where they both played with the guy together but not with each other. I added a "No Incest" tag and it got published in the category I had picked.

Thank you

 

[TheDok]

Tricky. My gut feeling says, not Romance, coz they're a traditional lot, and the idea of the threesome with mom and daughter in the room might upset those traditional views.

Group Sex maybe, but you'll get very little audience reaction - in my experience, it's a tumbleweeds category, where stories go somewhere to die.

If mom and daughter get it on in the threesome, them I&T might be the best destination, but I sense you don't particularly want it to go there, if the incest is only a subordinate theme (assuming the women get with each other, but you've not made it clear if that's the case).

Or Erotic Couplings. Depending whether the threesome has incest or not, that would work okay.

I'd finish the story first, all three sections, then decide. You're jumping the gun if the story isn't finished, because you might not yet know where the story will go. Especially in that third chapter.

Thank you for taking the time to advice. I will finish the story first as you suggest and go from there. I may avoid a threesome and heep it as a guy on love with Mum and daughter as a romance since the story so far has that vibe rather than simple sex. but let's see. FYI i agree with you regarding Group Sex

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I'd finish the story first, all three sections, then decide. You're jumping the gun if the story isn't finished, because you might not yet know where the story will go. Especially in that third chapter.

Definitely finish it first, then decide on the category. It really does give you more clarity and purpose.

The key will be to focus on the main plot and not any subplot elements in the story. We often see writers putting pieces of their story into different categories because they don't understand this basic tenet of storytelling.

Pieces do not always make the whole. They just remain pieces.

 

[sirhugs]

If you have not yet done so, be sure to check out Love your Readers:Categories by TxTall Tales, the classic guide on this topic.

 

[RoyalAuthor]

I have found that erotic couplings is the safest bet if you can't place your story, which seems to be its job - no other category? Stick it there. It gets a decent amount of readership, and the readers are generally alright with anything as long as it's tagged, except maybe MM stuff - I've never written any, but I've heard that can cause a backlash if it's not in its own category.

I write mostly what I'd call romance with explicit smut scenes, with enough elements to fit in either one, and I get way more viewers in EC than romance, so I'm starting to avoid that category.

 

[sirhugs]

I have found that erotic couplings is the safest bet if you can't place your story, which seems to be its job - no other category? Stick it there. It gets a decent amount of readership, and the readers are generally alright with anything as long as it's tagged, except maybe MM stuff - I've never written any, but I've heard that can cause a backlash if it's not in its own category.

I write mostly what I'd call romance with explicit smut scenes, with enough elements to fit in either one, and I get way more viewers in EC than romance, so I'm starting to avoid that category.

Erotic Couplings is designed for "couplings", that is two people in lust or love and stories involving more than two characters getting intimate may sufer from a backlash.

 

[Britva415]

Erotic Couplings is designed for "couplings", that is two people in lust or love and stories involving more than two characters getting intimate may sufer from a backlash.

Nah, it won’t. A couple of EC readers might react negatively to Anal or something, but Group isn’t taboo enough to set them off.

Besides, unless I missed something, we don’t even know that this is a group story. And if it were, it would also necessarily be an Incest story, which is where the real backlash risk would be. Not the group aspect.

People still “couple” even if there are more than two of them in the action. And this could very well be a “doesn’t fit anywhere else” story.

 

[Britva415]

erotic couplings is the safest bet if you can't place your story, which seems to be its job - no other category? Stick it there

I kind of agree, except to the extent to which it sounds dismissive of EC actually being its own thing. It really isn’t just “none of the above.”

 

[ElectricBlue]

Erotic Couplings is designed for "couplings", that is two people in lust or love and stories involving more than two characters getting intimate may sufer from a backlash.

Disagree. I've had a bunch of threesome stories do very nicely in EC. There's no "couples only" constraint or reader vibe that I'm aware of.

 

[RoyalAuthor]

I kind of agree, except to the extent to which it sounds dismissive of EC actually being its own thing. It really isn’t just “none of the above.”

It might not be designed for that, but it does appear that it gets used for it. Since there's no "other" category, I've seen lots of ambiguous stories in there. There definitely is a story genre in there but it definitely also picks up all the strays.