An announcement about my future publishing on Literotica

[THBGato]

Good luck Emily and thanks for all the support you've given other writers here.

You aren't alone. @SugarStorm just announced something similar on her profile yesterday.

 

[Bazzle]

Your communication is better than the sites.

Since August something "fell over". I think we can all understand your thought process.

For all the issues I would say that the site looked after you with publishing your novel.

We look forward to seeing your new work as and when it appears.

B

 

[nice90sguy]

Yeah, I can see why you feel it's time to fly the coop.
Personally I think the quality of your story shows that it's time you aimed a little higher than Literotica with your writing, which quite a few others here are doing. Rework it and find out what potential book publishers make of it.

In 2003, I wrote a screenplay for a nationwide competetion. It won first prize - £1,000. I'd poured my heart and soul into that story, dreamed it, wept, lived it. It took me eighteen months to write it. Rereading it now, I can see why it won that prize, but also why it was passed over by all the movie company readers I sent it to. Was it my "one story"? Or did I have more?
That's what you need to find out.

 

[Aoife_from_Ulster]

Hi all,

I’ve had a great time growing as a writer on Literotica. I started out writing quasi-biographical stories that relied more on memory than invention. I graduated to more creative works, I began to focus more on plot, and characters, and on dealing with broader themes than just people fucking. I’ve come a long way and my characters have cum an awful lot.

The culmination of this literary journey is my first novel, The Story of Nix. This is something into which I poured every single thing I have learned about writing, along with many of my feelings about the world in 2025.

I’m super proud of the result and even more so of the deluge of positive comments and messages from a wide range of people. I never had any idea that this essentially personal project would resonate with so many, including excellent authors for whom Nix was their first experience of my work. It’s one thing having fans, quite another to reach a wider audience of fellow writers. The response has been truly amazing and humbling.

But, sadly, this writing career peak has coincided with changes at Literotica. The site has never been very writer-friendly. It’s focused on readers and us authors are seen as fungible commodities, and not valued content partners. We provide the product that Literotica sells, and the only recompense is seeing our work appreciated by others.

For years this has been enough. It wasn’t maybe a great deal for good authors, but the views you got allowed writers to ignore how little our basic needs were catered for. But, sad to say, things have gotten worse.

The views have fallen off a cliff edge in many categories. The few pro-author aspects (comp-related sweeps, or the site looking into malicious voting when asked to) have atrophied, and are becoming close to non-existent. The Halloween Competition sweep was something of a joke in its ineffective shallowness. And the site no longer responds to requests to fix clearly malicious votes. The trolls have totally free rein. Literotica is becoming an unregulated, dystopian hellscape for authors. And I know it’s not just me who thinks so.

Add to this the current submission crisis, and Literotica has become much less author-friendly; and that decline is from a starting position that was already very low. For me at least, things have reached a tipping point where the benefits of publishing here have dropped below the hassle factor.

For that reason, the story I have already written for the Winter Holidays Competition will be the last new one I publish. I’m not doing anything as dramatic as deleting my back catalog - to do so would be punishing my loyal readers, rather than the site - but part of me feels that I should, to be entirely consistent.

I’m not so stupid to think that a lack of new Emily Miller stories will bring Literotica to its knees, but I’m no longer comfortable contributing even 0.00001% to the site’s revenue, when the most basic of courtesies and protections are no longer extended to authors.

Maybe there is a crisis of some sort at Literotica Towers. Illness, disability, old age catching up with the principals, a decision to sell the site, the technical infrastructure crumbling… who knows? Absent any communication about this, I see no need to extend the benefit of the doubt to the site.

What is indisputable is that the basic hygiene factors no longer exist, and it feels as if the level of respect towards the other half of what ought to be a symbiotic relationship has evaporated. Authors never mattered much, now they don’t matter at all.

While I won’t post any new stories here (unless things change radically - and I’m not holding my breath), I might consider completing some series in deference to my readers. But any new stories will be published in different ways.

I’m not quitting the forums, I’ll still be here to annoy a range of people as much as always. So if the aim of attacking my work was to make me leave, then fuck you! I’ll also continue to promote my back catalog here from time to time, and to comment on the work of other writers.

I apologize to my regular readers. This isn’t about you, it’s about the environment for authors here becoming intolerable. I’m fine, I don’t need messages of support. If you want to do something positive, consider messaging @Laurel and @Manu asking them to treat authors with greater respect. Not that I anticipate this leading to any change either. The site doesn’t listen to its users and the death spiral - whatever caused it in the first place - already seems well-established.

Thank you to those who have enjoyed my work and said so. You’re the best. I’m not going to stop writing, but I’m no longer going to provide Literotica with a revenue stream when I get little in return.

Love

Emily

PS I’m not going to argue with anyone on this thread. Feel free to call me a spoiled princess, or a drama queen, if you feel like it, I really don’t care.

Your love and support means more to me that you will ever know. As to your writing, well I hope my love for it was reflective in my comments. If not let me say your have taken me on journey’s thrilling, exciting, and sensually near perfection, if not perfect.
I will miss you Em you are the top of the mountain peak and the cream of the crop.

 

[TheRedLantern]

@EmilyMiller I've expressed this privately but let me say that I'm better off as a writer because of the time you spent here. I hope this is not the last I get to see of your talent.

Thank you, and good luck on whatever's next!

 

[Cagivagurl]

Hey Em,
Best wishes for the future. For what it's worth... I agree with most of your complaints.
Literotica, has many compounding issues.
The worst is their refusal to communicate.
Personally, I have not been affected, but it isn't hard to see they have many, simply by reading the complaints department threads (AH).

Anyway I hope you find something that works better for you. Good luck my dear friend...

Kia Kaha...
Be strong, be proud and for God's sake.... Keep writing...

Cagivagurl

 

[StillStunned]

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

Sorry to see you go! But the most important thing is that you keep writing. If that means setting out to find greener platforms for your work, then so be it.
Keep us posted!

 

[millamomud]

I totally feel you and am thinking about doing the same as well, as it has become virtually impossible for me to publish something on the German site.

The BDSM category, for example, went from about 3–6 new releases a day to about one, and I’m still fighting to prove I’m the author of my works.
Submitting a Word document with a history, outlining the creation of my last story over the span of about a month, totaling around 14 days of active writing, averaging 600 words per written day, was not enough.

Fortunately, Germany has some alternatives. Not as big as Literotica (yet!), but L2F announced it had its best month ever in October, mainly because of Lits refugees starting to publish there instead of here. And I can't see the trend reversing.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I totally feel you and am thinking about doing the same as well, as it has become virtually impossible for me to publish something on the German site.

The BDSM category, for example, went from about 3–6 new releases a day to about one, and I’m still fighting to prove I’m the author of my works.
Submitting a Word document with a history, outlining the creation of my last story over the span of about a month, totaling around 14 days, averaging 600 words per written day, was not enough.

Fortunately, Germany has some alternatives. Not as big as Literotica (yet!), but L2F announced it had its best month ever in October, mainly because of Lits refugees starting to publish there instead of here. And I can't see the trend reversing. And I can't see the trend reversing.

What's L2F?

 

[millamomud]

What's L2F?

[Please don't post links to competing sites on the open forum. If you wish to share links, please do so via private message. - AH Mod]

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Ah, didn't know about that one. Not that it matters though, as it's all in ze German.

 

[UntoldDepths]

I can understand your dismay. It’s obvious how much effort you put into your last story. I guess there comes a point where the effort versus the reward becomes too much. I’m not sure how you could resolve this.
The validation of your writing by your peers is sometimes the only reward you get.
You could argue that writing is not about reward, but there has to be a point to doing something. A radio show with no listeners is pointless, no matter how many records you play. (Not a great analogy, but I’m sure we all write to be read).
I wish you all the best in your endeavours, wherever they may take you. x

 

[millamomud]

Ah, didn't know about that one. Not that it matters though, as it's all in ze German.

 

[ChloeTzang]

But, sadly, this writing career peak has coincided with changes at Literotica. The site has never been very writer-friendly. It’s focused on readers and us authors are seen as fungible commodities, and not valued content partners. We provide the product that Literotica sells, and the only recompense is seeing our work appreciated by others.

For years this has been enough. It wasn’t maybe a great deal for good authors, but the views you got allowed writers to ignore how little our basic needs were catered for. But, sad to say, things have gotten worse.

I hear ya

Add to this the current submission crisis, and Literotica has become much less author-friendly; and that decline is from a starting position that was already very low. For me at least, things have reached a tipping point where the benefits of publishing here have dropped below the hassle factor.

Yes - when you have to fight to get your story published against unknown technical issues that can leave your story hanging for weeks, if not months, with zero admin response, it's way less author-friendly. The lack of any Admin updates on the issues just compounds that, sadly. It's only affected a subset of authors - but that subset could be any of us.

Maybe there is a crisis of some sort at Literotica Towers. Illness, disability, old age catching up with the principals, a decision to sell the site, the technical infrastructure crumbling… who knows? Absent any communication about this, I see no need to extend the benefit of the doubt to the site.

It's the lack of communication that is the major issue. If we knew what was going on, and understood the issues and whats being done to fix or addres them, and what the workarounds are, fine, but the reall issue is that this has been affecting a lot of us and there has been no update, other than a very uninformative "wait 15 days" message. Then what?

Anyhow, I completely understand your decision, Em.

For myself, I'm hanging in here. I like LIT, I've been here 10 years and LIT got me started, I have a lot of followers and friends here so I'm sticking with it in the hope that these issues do get resolved and that Admin communication does improve. I'm not going to keep all my eggs in one basket tho.

I aready have some of my work backed up on StoriesOnline, and I'm also going to put them on Lush Stories, and likely as freebie ebooks thru Draft2Digital / Smashwords. I'v said this to one or two other people but I'll say it here to - Literotica has been good to me but it's not the be-all and end-all of online erotica - I've been comfortable here and haven't looked elsewhere before, but all this nonsense is pushing me to look to broaden my horizons a bit and also to look to sell a bit more rather than put it all here for free.

I am going to Draft2Digital as well, and I intend and publishing a lot of my existing work as free stories or anthologies - Amazon have that policy where you can't sell them on Amazon if they are free elsewhere so I am thinking of just doing them as free - I don't want to take anything down from Literotica - and self-publishing them as freebies and looking to use them to draw eyes to the "for sale" stuff I am writing.

But I do intended to stick with Literotica and just engage the other sites as a backup and to extend my readership a little - it's minimal additional effort to post to 2 additional sites after all.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Yeah, I can see why you feel it's time to fly the coop.
Personally I think the quality of your story shows that it's time you aimed a little higher than Literotica with your writing, which quite a few others here are doing. Rework it and find out what potential book publishers make of it.

In 2003, I wrote a screenplay for a nationwide competetion. It won first prize - £1,000. I'd poured my heart and soul into that story, dreamed it, wept, lived it. It took me eighteen months to write it. Rereading it now, I can see why it won that prize, but also why it was passed over by all the movie company readers I sent it to. Was it my "one story"? Or did I have more?
That's what you need to find out.

All I can say is, keep at it.

 

[ChloeTzang]

https://letters2feel.de/

And I know some of the guys are moving to dexotika too - I joined there and just use google translate and for German it works really well

https://dexotika.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=123

 

[millamomud]

And I know some of the guys are moving to dexotika too - I joined there and just use google translate and for German it works really well

https://dexotika.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=123

Yes, some of the more productive authors from german lit already have their own areas there, and who knows how many started publishing in the public space. But I personally find the user interface somehow confusing. Also: letters2feel has a really well made voting system, which is better guarded against manipulation and gives better feedback to the authors.

 

[Voboy]

I've nothing to add, Em, except to say that you're a good friend as well as an equal-opportunity fan, and we need more of that around here.

Thanks for letting us know.

 

[FeldGasden]

I hear ya


Yes - when you have to fight to get your story published against unknown technical issues that can leave your story hanging for weeks, if not months, with zero admin response, it's way less author-friendly. The lack of any Admin updates on the issues just compounds that, sadly. It's only affected a subset of authors - but that subset could be any of us.


It's the lack of communication that is the major issue. If we knew what was going on, and understood the issues and whats being done to fix or addres them, and what the workarounds are, fine, but the reall issue is that this has been affecting a lot of us and there has been no update, other than a very uninformative "wait 15 days" message. Then what?

Anyhow, I completely understand your decision, Em.

For myself, I'm hanging in here. I like LIT, I've been here 10 years and LIT got me started, I have a lot of followers and friends here so I'm sticking with it in the hope that these issues do get resolved and that Admin communication does improve. I'm not going to keep all my eggs in one basket tho.

I aready have some of my work backed up on StoriesOnline, and I'm also going to put them on Lush Stories, and likely as freebie ebooks thru Draft2Digital / Smashwords. I'v said this to one or two other people but I'll say it here to - Literotica has been good to me but it's not the be-all and end-all of online erotica - I've been comfortable here and haven't looked elsewhere before, but all this nonsense is pushing me to look to broaden my horizons a bit and also to look to sell a bit more rather than put it all here for free.

I am going to Draft2Digital as well, and I intend and publishing a lot of my existing work as free stories or anthologies - Amazon have that policy where you can't sell them on Amazon if they are free elsewhere so I am thinking of just doing them as free - I don't want to take anything down from Literotica - and self-publishing them as freebies and looking to use them to draw eyes to the "for sale" stuff I am writing.

Thanks so much for sharing.

So if there are stories we are hoping to write to share with as many people as possible, that we hope we can be around on the Net as long as possible, should we still try our luck here or should we look elsewhere?

I did write a story which was rejected and sent back three times but I managed to get it accepted on the fourth try. It took me weeks each time to learn of the rejection, one for probably three weeks to a month, which almost made we want to tear my hair out.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

You know where I stand, Em. The bombing is theft of an author's efforts, it's vandalism and the anechoic silence is the worst.

Take care of yourself, young lady. Embrace life and, always, always, always take big bites.

 

[onehitwanda]

It's been a privilege to watch you grow in skill.

you know where to find us; we'll keep a seat warm for you at the nice table.

 

[ChloeTzang]

So if there are stories we are hoping to write to share with as many people as possible, that we hope we can be around on the Net as long as possible, should we still try our luck here or should we look elsewhere?

My view - LIT has the most readers and authors and it's great exposure with a great community on the Authors Hangout - it's worth staying here - but I would say it's not much extra effort to post your stories on 2 or 3 sites either - but don't self-publish on Draft2Digital / Smashwords / Amazon until your stories are high enough quality to pass - a lot of the crap there gives self-publishing a real negative connotation. Read a few best-sellers, read your own work, take the ego out of it and you can easily judge for yourself if you are good enough or not. LOL. I'm probably far too judgemental on my own work so take that one with a grain of salt.

I did write a story which was rejected and sent back three times but I managed to get it accepted on the fourth try. It took me weeks each time to learn of the rejection, one for probably three weeks to a month, which almost made we want to tear my hair out.

Been there, had that happen to me early on. I feel the pain. It's a learning curve. Fortunately I have lots of hair. LOL

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

we'll keep a seat warm for you at the nice table.

You mean the 18+ kids’ table?

 

[DEFCOM5]

you know where to find us; we'll keep a seat warm for you at the nice table.

It feels like at the Round Table, Lancelot seat is empty.