Anyone played with the Series (BETA) yet?

[NotWise]

No tutorial I've seen, but there's an up-to-date FAQ. From the series page, select either "Manage Works" or "+ New Story Series." There's a link to the FAQ near the top of both of those pages.

 

[stickygirl]

I'd advise keeping any new text on a separate app. I wrote a lovely description to a new series, clicked FAQ and lost the words. Got there in the end, even uploaded pics but it was slow

 

[Voboy]

No tutorial I've seen, but there's an up-to-date FAQ. From the series page, select either "Manage Works" or "+ New Story Series." There's a link to the FAQ near the top of both of those pages.

Thank you!

 

[ElectricBlue]

What do people see as the best features of the new system? I have two series that have been set up and it looks like I have the option to add an overall series introduction -- where would that show up?

I think the series intro blurb is the best thing about this. I assume it will become the new first page when you click into the Series, with, presumably, a link to Chapter One.

The cover art will be a very mixed deal, I reckon, given that everyone's visual aesthetic will be completely different. The expression, "Never judge a book by its cover" might be up for a bit of a workout.

 

[stickygirl]

Just had it drawn to my attention that the Biography section in Stories doesn't update as fast as one's About signature here in the Forum. I'm sure it'll come out in the next spin cycle... unless I've got this completely round my ear? I mean, they used to be the same thing so maybe it's the Beta version that's responsible and isn't hooked up fully yet?

 

[Quinn_McMullen]

Any suggestions on how to get someone to create a book cover?

 

[AWhoopsieDaisy]

Any suggestions on how to get someone to create a book cover?

Commission an artist. Asking an animator for a rough still sketch usually yields decent results for cheaper than commisioning someone who primarily works in stills. Animators draw fast and can afford to have lower prices for the same product without cutting their hourly rate.

I can also do some asking around the art Institute and see if anyone needs quick cash.

 

[AWhoopsieDaisy]

Any suggestions on how to get someone to create a book cover?

Also:

If you want good public domain/royalty free images, every picture on Wikipedia is public domain so taking images from there and popping them into photoshop or MS paint is a viable option.

 

[TxRad]

You could ask in the Visual Artist Corner forum.

 

[NotWise]

You could ask in the Visual Artist Corner forum.

I think that if I don't have an immediate idea for a cover then I'll just leave it blank and spend my time writing instead.

 

[RejectReality]

You can always fill in the blank with a plain text cover if you don't have ideas for anything else. We don't know what the series cards in the various places are going to look like yet. If you feel yours looks out of place or perhaps underwhelming without a cover image once they go live, the plain text option is always there. Pick a nice free for non-commercial use font and a complementary background color.

 

[RejectReality]

Note: Adding a cover during the initial creation of a new series doesn't seem to work. Instead, create the new series, then go back and edit it. Once it's been created, it will accept the cover image during the edit. All the other fields work fine during series creation.

Got my Ancient Peoples series linked up.
View attachment 2185901

I think I'll leave my Fey Folk series as is, because those stories don't have a chronological order or any real connections between them other than being set in the same world. Now I've got to figure out creative ways to censor the covers for all my existing chapter stories. I'm assuming full on nudity and fucking isn't going to be allowed in these images that are uploaded to Lit's servers. So far, things like the lightning bolts in the one above have been sufficient, but that could simply be Manu testing the approval end of the code.

I get a kick out of stuff like this anyway.

View attachment 2185903

 

[NightPorter]

On a related note. Is the Smash Words, Amazon, Patreon integration new!?! I feel like I need to dig through these options menus more often.

 

[RejectReality]

On a related note. Is the Smash Words, Amazon, Patreon integration new!?! I feel like I need to dig through these options menus more often.

Yep. Must have been added at the same time as the series beta.

Like the series stuff, it won't matter much for the moment ( if it's a fully functional new feature ) because the corresponding code on the bio page hasn't been released yet.

 

[NightPorter]

Like the series stuff, it won't matter much for the moment ( if it's a fully functional new feature ) because the corresponding code on the bio page hasn't been released yet.

I agree. I like it. It's exciting that Literotica is slowly evolving into an improved website.

 

[Lifestyle66]

I looked at the Series Beta page in my Author'sControl Panel, and I changed my "Lifestyle Ch" series to manual, so I could edit the title and provide a series description. Now this morning, I see I have the manual version "Swinger Lifestyle" ... AND I have a new autogenerated series "Lifestyle Ch" again.

I also have a two-story "Getting Started" series with two stories I replaced and deleted a year ago with my Lifestyle series.

I am noticing also there are other flaws in the whole LitE system. My Amorous Goods story shows on my Control Panel Works page with a rating of 4.66 with 10.1K views, 22 stories with 80 followers. But when I clicked on the story link from the announcement page, the story heading shows 4.44 with 7.8K views, and my Author name says I have 21 stories with 70 followers.

The LitE web site system of servers is apparently drawing from several unsynchronized and some old databases.

 

[Duleigh]

I am noticing also there are other flaws in the whole LitE system. My Amorous Goods story shows on my Control Panel Works page with a rating of 4.66 with 10.1K views, 22 stories with 80 followers. But when I clicked on the story link from the announcement page, the story heading shows 4.44 with 7.8K views, and my Author name says I have 21 stories with 70 followers.

I've noticed that a while ago, the data is different with each story. It was probably current when the story was published

 

[Lifestyle66]

I've noticed that a while ago, the data is different with each story. It was probably current when the story was published

When the story was published, there was no rating or views, and the number of views didn't reach 7K until about a week later.

At some point, about the time it switches from "New" to just another story, the story with stats might be transferred to another server and database.

 

[Quinn_McMullen]

You could ask in the Visual Artist Corner forum.

Thanks. I did

 

[MsCherylTerra]

There's no separate top list for series. The series tool that's in beta now is the first step of several changes to the way series will be handled. None of the other changes are out yet.

When it's done, the toplists will contain a single entry for a series, rather than (as it is now) several chapters from one series taking up space on the list. That will make a big difference to the ranking of stories that are fairly far down in the top lists, and it will put more stories on the list. In some cases there will be a lot of new stories on the list.

Do you or anyone else happen to know what will happen in the case of series where the stories or chapters are part of different categories? If I'm understanding what you're saying correctly, if I had stories (or chapters) in multiple categories, the series itself would appear on the toplist rather than the story from that category... and it would be based off of the highest rated score in the entire series as well?

 

[NotWise]

I looked at the Series Beta page in my Author'sControl Panel, and I changed my "Lifestyle Ch" series to manual, so I could edit the title and provide a series description. Now this morning, I see I have the manual version "Swinger Lifestyle" ... AND I have a new autogenerated series "Lifestyle Ch" again.

I also have a two-story "Getting Started" series with two stories I replaced and deleted a year ago with my Lifestyle series.

I am noticing also there are other flaws in the whole LitE system. My Amorous Goods story shows on my Control Panel Works page with a rating of 4.66 with 10.1K views, 22 stories with 80 followers. But when I clicked on the story link from the announcement page, the story heading shows 4.44 with 7.8K views, and my Author name says I have 21 stories with 70 followers.

The LitE web site system of servers is apparently drawing from several unsynchronized and some old databases.

Different sources for the story stats update at different times. You can get them from your works page, from the category hub (if it's a new story), from the information on the story itself, or from the public catalog in your author page. For a new story, those can all be different.

I think the stats on your works page are as close to right as you can get. The rating on your public catalog usually only updates once/day. The stats shown on the category hub when the story is new are wrong until you get the expanded list, then they update. I'm not sure how often the stats on the story itself are updated.

The difference are small or absent when the story gets older.

 

[NotWise]

Do you or anyone else happen to know what will happen in the case of series where the stories or chapters are part of different categories? If I'm understanding what you're saying correctly, if I had stories (or chapters) in multiple categories, the series itself would appear on the toplist rather than the story from that category... and it would be based off of the highest rated score in the entire series as well?

I don't know, but I think it's a really good question.

 

[AWhoopsieDaisy]

I'm working on a post that will give a basic tutorial on how to make your own cover using free software. While I don't have time to drop everything and make people covers for them, I am still primarily a visual artist so I'm no stranger to the process. If you find yourself stuck on any art software free or otherwise take a screenshot and I can probably point you to whatever button or menu has the tool your looking for.... or introduce you to a major shortcut.

 

[Duleigh]

I threw together a series and built a cover using MS Publisher. now we'll see what happens with that series - how is it going to be displayed?

 

[Voboy]

I just wrote a description 'n' shit.

I wonder what will become of it...