An announcement about my future publishing on Literotica

[pink_silk_glove]

but the level of drama and martyrdom displayed here is pure performance art.

Yea, holding a grand press conference all about one's (never ending) exit deserves several Oscars: best performance, best director, best stunts ...

 

[EmilyMiller]

I recognize your strength. But if you are cutting the cord, why not cut it completely and leave this site?

I have a lot of friends here. I talk to a lot of talented and friendly authors. And the obsessive parasocial haters would like nothing better than to silence me.

I have tried to quit several times, but it has sadly become an addiction for me. I hope that doesnt happen for you!

I like a lot of people here and it seems mutual. At least we can share the experience of watching the site go to hell and commiserate with each other

PS: The story of Nix was absolutely amazing. I love the way you write

Thank you - dystopian is very much the vibe around here right now

 

[a_horse_with_no_name]

Well, I read through many comments here. I have a few comments of my own.

First, Ms. Miller's original post? I understand what she's saying, 110%. I may have little experience here (easy for y'all to check on that), but for nearly the past 9 years, I've been the Site Admin and Owner of another erotic stories site. Note: I will not be posting the link here. The OP knows of the site. So do FreyaGersemi, Duleigh, ShadyLadyJulie, and others.

Running a website like this is, and the site I run, is fraught with challenges. From the beginning, I knew that my site would be different, and smaller. A group of us left what we commonly refer to as Blue Hell, and started _____ with the idea that authors would come first. We have a policy. You can't be a dick. Period. You can't be a dick to an author. You can't be a dick in your comments on a story. You can offer constructive criticism, but that's it. No free-for-all. We have a very liberal policy about posting stories, much more so than here. Your stories post immediately. There is no review. Further, you can edit your story forever. Some sites don't allow that.

We have a bunch of writing competitions, and, only members can vote. That's because in order to participate in ANY way at our site, you must be a member. No guests. Sure, it doesn't make for big, gaudy numbers, but I'll tell you what. I've been in the website and SEO business for 30+ years now, and I can absolutely tell you that any website that doesn't require membership (which means no visits from Google and the zillion other bots out there) is getting pounded often by them, which rapidly inflates numbers. I remember publishing a series over in Blue Hell and one day added up my views and they were 1,000,000+. Then, when I volunteered for that site as a Moderator, and had access to details, I saw the logs and saw that 98-99+% of the traffic was not organic, but rather, was bot-generated. That was depressing.

Anyway, sure, we're smaller than this site, absolutely, because of our protection in place. It's definitely not for all. Had a longtime member who made a large contribution ask me if he could post this political cartoon. Nope. We don't do politics, religion, or anything else that will cause that kinda' stress. Sometimes I irritate members with my protection of authors. Meh. Life goes on.

My point is, people in this thread have lamented "where else is there?" and I'm here to say, there are other jewels out there. It just depends what you are looking for. If it is a LOT of members, a LOT of numbers, blah blah, well, you're here! We're kinda' like a boutique. You make friends, you chit chat, you play Trivia, you attend Music Night, you write stories, you get comments, and you know, you absolutely know, that if anyone gives you a rash of shit, ever, they're going to get a visit from the ban hammer.

But make no mistake. It takes a lot of time/effort and some money to run a site like mine. This being larger and with more content restrictions, it's even tougher. I don't envy the site owner here. Lot of work.

Peace,

Rob

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Well, I read through many comments here. I have a few comments of my own.

First, Ms. Miller's original post? I understand what she's saying, 110%. I may have little experience here (easy for y'all to check on that), but for nearly the past 9 years, I've been the Site Admin and Owner of another erotic stories site. Note: I will not be posting the link here. The OP knows of the site. So do FreyaGersemi, Duleigh, ShadyLadyJulie, and others.

Running a website like this is, and the site I run, is fraught with challenges. From the beginning, I knew that my site would be different, and smaller. A group of us left what we commonly refer to as Blue Hell, and started _____ with the idea that authors would come first. We have a policy. You can't be a dick. Period. You can't be a dick to an author. You can't be a dick in your comments on a story. You can offer constructive criticism, but that's it. No free-for-all. We have a very liberal policy about posting stories, much more so than here. Your stories post immediately. There is no review. Further, you can edit your story forever. Some sites don't allow that.

We have a bunch of writing competitions, and, only members can vote. That's because in order to participate in ANY way at our site, you must be a member. No guests. Sure, it doesn't make for big, gaudy numbers, but I'll tell you what. I've been in the website and SEO business for 30+ years now, and I can absolutely tell you that any website that doesn't require membership (which means no visits from Google and the zillion other bots out there) is getting pounded often by them, which rapidly inflates numbers. I remember publishing a series over in Blue Hell and one day added up my views and they were 1,000,000+. Then, when I volunteered for that site as a Moderator, and had access to details, I saw the logs and saw that 98-99+% of the traffic was not organic, but rather, was bot-generated. That was depressing.

Anyway, sure, we're smaller than this site, absolutely, because of our protection in place. It's definitely not for all. Had a longtime member who made a large contribution ask me if he could post this political cartoon. Nope. We don't do politics, religion, or anything else that will cause that kinda' stress. Sometimes I irritate members with my protection of authors. Meh. Life goes on.

My point is, people in this thread have lamented "where else is there?" and I'm here to say, there are other jewels out there. It just depends what you are looking for. If it is a LOT of members, a LOT of numbers, blah blah, well, you're here! We're kinda' like a boutique. You make friends, you chit chat, you play Trivia, you attend Music Night, you write stories, you get comments, and you know, you absolutely know, that if anyone gives you a rash of shit, ever, they're going to get a visit from the ban hammer.

But make no mistake. It takes a lot of time/effort and some money to run a site like mine. This being larger and with more content restrictions, it's even tougher. I don't envy the site owner here. Lot of work.

Peace,

Rob

So… say someone were to, say, im, uh, ask nicely, would you perhaps DM them the link. Asking for a friend, obviously…

 

[MindSketch]

So… say someone were to, say, im, uh, ask nicely, would you perhaps DM them the link. Asking for a friend, obviously…

I second that sentiment.

 

[PennyThompson]

Well, I read through many comments here. I have a few comments of my own.

First, Ms. Miller's original post? I understand what she's saying, 110%. I may have little experience here (easy for y'all to check on that), but for nearly the past 9 years, I've been the Site Admin and Owner of another erotic stories site. Note: I will not be posting the link here. The OP knows of the site. So do FreyaGersemi, Duleigh, ShadyLadyJulie, and others.

Running a website like this is, and the site I run, is fraught with challenges. From the beginning, I knew that my site would be different, and smaller. A group of us left what we commonly refer to as Blue Hell, and started _____ with the idea that authors would come first. We have a policy. You can't be a dick. Period. You can't be a dick to an author. You can't be a dick in your comments on a story. You can offer constructive criticism, but that's it. No free-for-all. We have a very liberal policy about posting stories, much more so than here. Your stories post immediately. There is no review. Further, you can edit your story forever. Some sites don't allow that.

We have a bunch of writing competitions, and, only members can vote. That's because in order to participate in ANY way at our site, you must be a member. No guests. Sure, it doesn't make for big, gaudy numbers, but I'll tell you what. I've been in the website and SEO business for 30+ years now, and I can absolutely tell you that any website that doesn't require membership (which means no visits from Google and the zillion other bots out there) is getting pounded often by them, which rapidly inflates numbers. I remember publishing a series over in Blue Hell and one day added up my views and they were 1,000,000+. Then, when I volunteered for that site as a Moderator, and had access to details, I saw the logs and saw that 98-99+% of the traffic was not organic, but rather, was bot-generated. That was depressing.

Anyway, sure, we're smaller than this site, absolutely, because of our protection in place. It's definitely not for all. Had a longtime member who made a large contribution ask me if he could post this political cartoon. Nope. We don't do politics, religion, or anything else that will cause that kinda' stress. Sometimes I irritate members with my protection of authors. Meh. Life goes on.

My point is, people in this thread have lamented "where else is there?" and I'm here to say, there are other jewels out there. It just depends what you are looking for. If it is a LOT of members, a LOT of numbers, blah blah, well, you're here! We're kinda' like a boutique. You make friends, you chit chat, you play Trivia, you attend Music Night, you write stories, you get comments, and you know, you absolutely know, that if anyone gives you a rash of shit, ever, they're going to get a visit from the ban hammer.

But make no mistake. It takes a lot of time/effort and some money to run a site like mine. This being larger and with more content restrictions, it's even tougher. I don't envy the site owner here. Lot of work.

Peace,

Rob

 

[EmilyMiller]

Well, I read through many comments here. I have a few comments of my own.

First, Ms. Miller's original post? I understand what she's saying, 110%. I may have little experience here (easy for y'all to check on that), but for nearly the past 9 years, I've been the Site Admin and Owner of another erotic stories site. Note: I will not be posting the link here. The OP knows of the site. So do FreyaGersemi, Duleigh, ShadyLadyJulie, and others.

Running a website like this is, and the site I run, is fraught with challenges. From the beginning, I knew that my site would be different, and smaller. A group of us left what we commonly refer to as Blue Hell, and started _____ with the idea that authors would come first. We have a policy. You can't be a dick. Period. You can't be a dick to an author. You can't be a dick in your comments on a story. You can offer constructive criticism, but that's it. No free-for-all. We have a very liberal policy about posting stories, much more so than here. Your stories post immediately. There is no review. Further, you can edit your story forever. Some sites don't allow that.

We have a bunch of writing competitions, and, only members can vote. That's because in order to participate in ANY way at our site, you must be a member. No guests. Sure, it doesn't make for big, gaudy numbers, but I'll tell you what. I've been in the website and SEO business for 30+ years now, and I can absolutely tell you that any website that doesn't require membership (which means no visits from Google and the zillion other bots out there) is getting pounded often by them, which rapidly inflates numbers. I remember publishing a series over in Blue Hell and one day added up my views and they were 1,000,000+. Then, when I volunteered for that site as a Moderator, and had access to details, I saw the logs and saw that 98-99+% of the traffic was not organic, but rather, was bot-generated. That was depressing.

Anyway, sure, we're smaller than this site, absolutely, because of our protection in place. It's definitely not for all. Had a longtime member who made a large contribution ask me if he could post this political cartoon. Nope. We don't do politics, religion, or anything else that will cause that kinda' stress. Sometimes I irritate members with my protection of authors. Meh. Life goes on.

My point is, people in this thread have lamented "where else is there?" and I'm here to say, there are other jewels out there. It just depends what you are looking for. If it is a LOT of members, a LOT of numbers, blah blah, well, you're here! We're kinda' like a boutique. You make friends, you chit chat, you play Trivia, you attend Music Night, you write stories, you get comments, and you know, you absolutely know, that if anyone gives you a rash of shit, ever, they're going to get a visit from the ban hammer.

But make no mistake. It takes a lot of time/effort and some money to run a site like mine. This being larger and with more content restrictions, it's even tougher. I don't envy the site owner here. Lot of work.

Peace,

Rob

Hi horse,

I tried, it all went wrong for me. I didn’t one what I was doing and everything got messed up. Maybe I should try again, but with some actual guidance.

 

[MrPixel]

I also know exactly of the site of which "horse" speaks, and I will pass. First impressions are important, and your site's, dear sir, are awful. You (or your management) has been told this.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I also know exactly of the site of which "horse" speaks, and I will pass. First impressions are important, and your site's, dear sir, are awful. You (or your management) has been told this.

It does make Literotica look modern, which takes some doing.

 

[a_horse_with_no_name]

Hi horse,

I tried, it all went wrong for me. I didn’t one what I was doing and everything got messed up. Maybe I should try again, but with some actual guidance.

I hope that you do. You're an amazing writer, and we'd love to have you back. There's a new extensive help section, but better than that, simply message me over there and I'll answer each and every question that you have.

 

[a_horse_with_no_name]

I also know exactly of the site of which "horse" speaks, and I will pass. First impressions are important, and your site's, dear sir, are awful. You (or your management) has been told this.

Hmm. That's sorta' being not willing to read a book because you're not impressed with the cover? ::: shrug ::: There's no way that one site can be all to everyone. Sorry that we left a bad taste in your mouth. We use the same software as they do here, just different skins, and possibly some paid upgrades. I'm personally not a big fan of message board software per se, but for me to get my programmers to write custom software, well, I don't have the funds for that. Anyway, thanks for the input.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Hmm. That's sorta' being not willing to read a book because you're not impressed with the cover? ::: shrug ::: There's no way that one site can be all to everyone. Sorry that we left a bad taste in your mouth. We use the same software as they do here, just different skins, and possibly some paid upgrades. I'm personally not a big fan of message board software per se, but for me to get my programmers to write custom software, well, I don't have the funds for that. Anyway, thanks for the input.

Silly saying's aside, that's kind of the whole point of a book cover, to sell you on what's on the inside.

 

[EmilyMiller]

You're an amazing writer, and we'd love to have you back.

Thank you for the kind comment

 

[FreyaGersemi]

I tried, it all went wrong for me. I didn’t one what I was doing and everything got messed up. Maybe I should try again, but with some actual guidance.

I hope that you do. You're an amazing writer, and we'd love to have you back. There's a new extensive help section, but better than that, simply message me over there and I'll answer each and every question that you have.

I second this!!

 

[spankmytentacle]

Hmm. That's sorta' being not willing to read a book because you're not impressed with the cover? ::: shrug ::: There's no way that one site can be all to everyone. Sorry that we left a bad taste in your mouth. We use the same software as they do here, just different skins, and possibly some paid upgrades. I'm personally not a big fan of message board software per se, but for me to get my programmers to write custom software, well, I don't have the funds for that. Anyway, thanks for the input.

You handled that with much more grace than I (probably) would have. Kudos.

 

[lovecraft68]

Hmm. That's sorta' being not willing to read a book because you're not impressed with the cover? ::: shrug ::: There's no way that one site can be all to everyone. Sorry that we left a bad taste in your mouth. We use the same software as they do here, just different skins, and possibly some paid upgrades. I'm personally not a big fan of message board software per se, but for me to get my programmers to write custom software, well, I don't have the funds for that. Anyway, thanks for the input.

In the market when people search for something the search delivers hundreds-or more-options. The person then scrolls and all they see is covers and titles, and if your cover doesn't pop? They keep moving.

I get your point, but not a good analogy.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Hmm. That's sorta' being not willing to read a book because you're not impressed with the cover? ::: shrug ::: There's no way that one site can be all to everyone. Sorry that we left a bad taste in your mouth. We use the same software as they do here, just different skins, and possibly some paid upgrades. I'm personally not a big fan of message board software per se, but for me to get my programmers to write custom software, well, I don't have the funds for that. Anyway, thanks for the input.

Sadly, the cover is very important when there are so, so many stories being offered. I still don't know which story website is the one you're talking about, but in the case of SOL, for example, it's their terrible interface that's unforgivable, even if there are many things I like about the site.

 

[lovecraft68]

The year is 2028 this thread is still continuing as the OP weighs their future here while some beg them to stay by fluffing them, some credit how incredibly strong they are to endure such hardships on a free writing site where everyone deals with the same dumb shit, and others roll their eyes and poke fun at the former types.

Like Ringling Brothers, the show must go on.

 

[MrHereWriting]

I also know exactly of the site of which "horse" speaks, and I will pass. First impressions are important, and your site's, dear sir, are awful. You (or your management) has been told this.

There's nothing wrong with the site. You just have to be a good writer, and a consistent writer, to be noticed.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I get your point, but not a good analogy.

Actually, they described the details of the site quite well, far more info about the site than a mere cover.

 

[lovecraft68]

There's nothing wrong with the site. You just have to be a good writer, and a consistent writer, to be noticed.

That's not what many people in the AH want to hear. They complain Lit readers don't know quality and all the non AH members high scores are fake, but of course their high scores are legit. But they have no desire to go prove themselves in a not as easy venue.

 

[lovecraft68]

Actually, they described the details of the site quite well, far more info about the site than a mere cover.

I'm responding simply to the cover comment. Covers catch the eye online of on the shelf, they get attention and generate sales. If the cover sucks far less people will choose it.

That's my point.

 

[a_horse_with_no_name]

Sadly, the cover is very important when there are so, so many stories being offered. I still don't know which story website is the one you're talking about, but in the case of SOL, for example, it's their terrible interface that's unforgivable, even if there are many things I like about the site.

SOL is an interesting example. I have conversed with the site owner many times over the past two years. I have brought the man many thousands of dollars each year by being an author's agent and posting books on his eBooks site, and utilizing SOL as a focal point for traffic to said eBook site. However, the mentality behind the site is as woeful as the 2002 design, and has caused me to direct staff to create two new alternatives, one an eBook site (of which there are many) and another that is similar in concept to Patreon, but without one of their major logistics problems.

With Patreon, an author can post there for say two years, and offer a monthly subscription service, allowing subscribers to read what they post. All good. The author gets supported, the readers can pick and choose what they wish to read, new chapters arriving weekly, bi-weekly, whatever. However, the flaw is that along comes Smarty Pants Johnny, who subscribes for a month, downloads ALL of said author's work for the past two years, then cancels. Our site, when finished, won't allow that to happen.

Back to SOL. It does draw quite a bit of readership, and posting to the home page works. However, once you've posted there, you're done. A year later, will all new readership, you cannot repost. Two years later. Three years later. It doesn't matter. So, after sales in the hundreds of a book, after your run is over, your sales fall off a cliff. With almost two dozen authors that I assist, I have seen it happen over and over. I can understand not reposting a book that sold two dozen copies, but one that sold 100, 200, 500? If readers from "this time period" to "this time period" found it exciting enough to buy despite getting free chapters on SOL, why wouldn't readers a year later do the same? I could never get an answer. ::: shrug :::

If you wish to know the name of the site, you may ask and I will tell. But not in this open forum. And my cover analogy is probably not a good one. Our home page is the epitome of simple, at least for me. It may not win awards for design, but after having designed websites for the past 30 years, I would expect a story repository to be just that, an easy-to-navigate library.

 

[a_horse_with_no_name]

I'm responding simply to the cover comment. Covers catch the eye online of on the shelf, they get attention and generate sales. If the cover sucks far less people will choose it.

That's my point.

And it is a legit point . . . in a bookstore. But online, the sites don't stack up that way, and so my analogy of a book cover was, well, flawed. Sorry. You can't really judge a website until you have visited it, and navigated it yourself. Point. Click. Read.

Edit: That's odd, my avatar has disappeared from public posts. It's in my profile. Hmmm.

 

[lovecraft68]

And it is a legit point . . . in a bookstore. But online, the sites don't stack up that way, and so my analogy of a book cover was, well, flawed. Sorry. You can't really judge a website until you have visited it, and navigated it yourself. Point. Click. Read.

Edit: That's odd, my avatar has disappeared from public posts. It's in my profile. Hmmm.

The avatar winking in and out has been another ongoing issue and we're not privy to the answer. Mine is always visible far as I can tell, but I see other people's going in and out.

When you're scrolling Smashwords which other than Amazon I believe is the top selling indy e-book site and huge for erotica, you see the gallery as you search and covers mean a lot there. Maybe not everywhere else, but especially there. I'd think titles are big too but from what I gather the cover seems to be the initial draw.