How do you engage readers on Literotica?

[pink_silk_glove]

The only thing I’m not going along with is your projection and accusations about my motivation for providing an informative blurb. I stated my motivations, for some unknown reason you said those were not my motivations.

Before this interaction, I gave your posts the benefit of the doubt, just as I give it to everyone else who I believe to be posting in good faith. You have lost that benefit here by basically saying that I am lying about my motives.

Neither of those statements are true. I never said either of those in regards to your works.

You are doing exactly what you are falsely accusing me of doing.

 

[AlexBailey]

Neither of those statements are true. I never said either of those in regards to your works.

You are doing exactly what you are falsely accusing me of doing.

Wow. You’re funny.

This conversation never got into my works except where I was saying how I’d mentioned drug use and social conflicts in my blurb out of consideration for my readers. I only said you are wrong about my motives.

Never mind. Knock yourself out. I don’t think it’s possible for us to effectively communicate with each other.

 

[Rob_Royale]

If a reader sends me a DM or email, I will respond and happily chat about writing or my story.

When they try to engage me in dirty chat, I politely excuse myself. It happens occasionally.

I just post stories. I'm not here to have a fan club, though the occasional attaboy is nice. My sexual interests are very mainstream and due to that, I think my stories appeal to a wider audience than say, BDSM. I try to pull the reader into the story using early dialogue and initial necessary detail. I get descriptive later in the story.

A big descriptive backstory in the beginning of the story is a real put off for me.

 

[Abbafan]

Post interesting things on the forum a lot and include links in the signature, which looks like you've got that covered.

I've clicked on posters stories sometimes. I think that works well.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Never mind. Knock yourself out. I don’t think it’s possible for us to effectively communicate with each other.

Indeed. You're talking a lot and not listening. therein lies the problem.

And as far as me knocking myself out, hey you're the one going to all the efforts to discredit me. I'm sitting here filing my nails, so keep it up.

 

[lustychimera]

Post interesting things on the forum a lot and include links in the signature, which looks like you've got that covered.

I've clicked on posters stories sometimes. I think that works well.

I do that, too. Like when someone's giving advice on the forum, I click to see if their writing backs it up.

(Mostly just replying to give a big thumbs up on the signature pic. That is stupidly hot.)

 

[ElectricBlue]

I'm just trying to figure things out (and forcing myself to market my work which I am notoriously terrible at). But maybe I'm trying to solve the unsolvable?

This.

You're doing the best thing you possibly can, Freya, by writing good stories, and writing them well. That's all you can do, but it won't change the overall reader response much. They'll still only Vote once in a hundred (or whatever your number is), and Comment once in a thousand. They're bastards like that, not engaging as much as we want them to; but over time, when your hard core fans drop by and leave a comment, there's a tiny smile of satisfaction, "Yay, I've still got it!" You gotta go with the love that you get!

 

[AchtungNight]

This.

You're doing the best thing you possibly can, Freya, by writing good stories, and writing them well. That's all you can do, but it won't change the overall reader response much. They'll still only Vote once in a hundred (or whatever your number is), and Comment once in a thousand. They're bastards like that, not engaging as much as we want them to; but over time, when your hard core fans drop by and leave a comment, there's a tiny smile of satisfaction, "Yay, I've still got it!" You gotta go with the love that you get!

This is very true. And you have at least one hardcore fan here, so don’t worry. I hope I have a few also. All creators do.

 

[intim8]

That's all you can do, but it won't change the overall reader response much. They'll still only Vote once in a hundred (or whatever your number is), and Comment once in a thousand.

Are you saying none of these other things can change that?

This is anecdotal evidence and n=1 to boot, but my last story, where I added the pre/post notes, those numbers are down to 1 in 13 and 1 in 160. And I've gotten 5 PMs about it. That is better than even my best previous story, and the numbers you cite, by multiples, not increments. I can't say for sure the pre/postamble did it, but it looks like it.

Possible other reasons: It is in Romance (my only entry there) which may be just that much better for feedback, and it is my highest rated story by a significant amount, so maybe it is just that much better of a story and organically inspired more feedback (or maybe asking for votes prompted higher voting, which would be unfortunate). I'll see what the ouctome is on my next story, whenever that is.

You're doing the best thing you possibly can, Freya, by writing good stories, and writing them well.

But aside from the above, I totally agree with this. Both that Freya's stories are good, and that without good stories and good writing, none of the rest matters.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

This is anecdotal evidence and n=1 to boot, but my last story, where I added the pre/post notes, those numbers are down to 1 in 13 and 1 in 160. And I've gotten 5 PMs about it.

You are the exception. Why? Dunno but maybe you really are that fucking good. For the rest of us the average really is about 100 hits per vote and 1000 hits per comment.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Are you saying none of these other things can change that?

My data set is my own, 130 or so stories/chapters over ten years, 1.3 million words across eighteen categories, 80% of which are Red H. My metrics haven't changed much over the decade.

I don't actively solicit comments at the end of stories, so I wouldn't know what effect that might have. I figure the comments box is immediately below the final sentence, and if folk want to comment, they will. I continue to gauge my better stories by the number of comments received.

This is anecdotal evidence and n=1 to boot, but my last story, where I added the pre/post notes, those numbers are down to 1 in 13 and 1 in 160. And I've gotten 5 PMs about it. That is better than even my best previous story, and the numbers you cite, by multiples, not increments. I can't say for sure the pre/postamble did it, but it looks like it.

Those are very high feedback returns, sounds like you struck a real chord. Cudos for that.

Possible other reasons: It is in Romance (my only entry there) which may be just that much better for feedback, and it is my highest rated story by a significant amount, so maybe it is just that much better of a story and organically inspired more feedback (or maybe asking for votes prompted higher voting, which would be unfortunate). I'll see what the ouctome is on my next story, whenever that is.

Romance does score high, a few of my highest rated stories are in that category. I've not written the sad ending yet, though.

But aside from the above, I totally agree with this. Both that Freya's stories are good, and that without good stories and good writing, none of the rest matters.

 

[Paul_Chance]

1. Write a quality story.
-a character or characters that draw reader interest
-a story arc that readers find compelling
-a story that is technically perfect
-the stronger the hook (opening paragraphs) the better

2. Write a quantity of stories
-the more high quality stories you write and publish, the better

3. Passive marketing options you control
-your screen name
-your member profile
-story title
-story short description
-story category
-tags

4. Passive marketing options Lit controls
-Contests and Challenges
-Designation of a story as New
-the vaunted Red H

5. Niche passive marketing
-the signature line in your profile
-participation in the forums
-participation in chat
-cross-marketing/adjacent marketing

6. Have a strategy that works for you

 

[intim8]

Those are very high feedback returns, sounds like you struck a real chord. Cudos for that.

My working hypothesis is that it wasn't the story, but the gentle prodding after the story. I didn't demand anything, I just try to talk to the reader conversationally. I don't think the story was that much better than the best of my others, but then, I always say, the author is often the last to know.

I figure the comments box is immediately below the final sentence, and if folk want to comment, they will.

My guess is that most readers get to the end of the story and immediatlely navigate away, or get up to toss their sock in the hamper. That little bit at the end gives them a pause to think about what they thought about the story. Keeps them on the page that extra second longer.

That may work to selectively choose good feedback, as those prone to give negative feedback are already motivated. I don't want it to skew the results, because as I said earlier, I'd like it to be something of an objective measure of whether I am getting better at this (though with a low signal to noise ratio). Negative feedback (other than the "you got my kink wrong" variety) are more directly useful in that regard. Not to say the positive feedback isn't great, including psychologically.

I've not written the sad ending yet, though.

I think my ending was happy. It was the denouement that was melancholy, but it reinforced the happiness of the ending.

We'll see on my next story, which won't be in Romance. My WIP is likely to be in Science Fiction, which I understand is notorious for low rates of feedback.

 

[Voboy]

My working hypothesis is that it wasn't the story, but the gentle prodding after the story. I didn't demand anything, I just try to talk to the reader conversationally. I don't think the story was that much better than the best of my others, but then, I always say, the author is often the last to know.

I dunno. I don't do anything different in postscripting my stories, and some of them just catch fire like that. Most of my postscripts remind readers which contest I'm entering (if any) and encourage them to read all the entries and vote up their favorites; I'm at the point where most of the postscripts are literally identical. I can never explain why some stories take off. I mean, if I had the formula figured out, I'd be raking in nothing but 5*s.

Sometimes a story just finds legs and gets great numbers. I've stopped worrying about it so much, and been grateful when it happens.

 

[AlexBailey]

Do many AH authors use Lit’s ‘erotic chat’?

I saw an author’s post somewhere in the AH who was wondering why someone would follow a member with no posted works. It’s probably because of erotic chat.

When you’re in a chat room, the names in the list of present members have links to their profiles. People in chat can look up profiles and posted works.

Chatters can follow members they like interacting with. I’ve had several people from chat be interested in my works after having conversations. It’s been nice to meet some other writers who don’t use the forum and trade some instant feedback or links….


It might take a few minutes to figure out how to navigate, use your phone in landscape. It’s called “erotic chat” but you can decide how you interact. You may need to block some people, but for the most part everyone I’ve dealt with has been respectful. Not everyone is there to bone.

YMMV.

 

[THBGato]

You are the exception. Why? Dunno but maybe you really are that fucking good. For the rest of us the average really is about 100 hits per vote and 1000 hits per comment.

I'm not sure @intim8 is the exception though.

My worst ranked story (4.43 currently) has 2208 views and 15 comments. That's 1 comment per 147 views. It's had 143 votes, so that's 1 vote per 15.4 views. And it isn't that I've got loads of followers - this was the first story I posted, at which point I had 0 followers (currently on 126).

I actually wrote quite a long intro/author's note on that one! The story plunged straight into dialogue in media res, which I think helped grip readers. I also left it on a cliffhanger, something I often get comments about when I do that in other stories.

 

[Cagivagurl]

I just write more stories.

The ways I've found to try getting more VIEWS (ie. readers) is to ignore the ratings. I write in Loving Wives, and the ratings there are mostly 1s or 5s. I write swinger/sharing stories, and 50-60% of those reader HATE my stories. But they read them!

So, know your audience for the selected category. I KNOW that 50-60% of LW readers prefer BTB stories, awarding those with 5s. So, I wrote one story about my favorite swinger couple titled "What Were You Thinking?" tagline: "Husband discovers his wife’s deception."

Note that for the LW BTB crowd, that's like a magnetic shouting "This is a cheating wife story!" It now has over 100k views since it published in July last year! But it's rated at just 3.35 with 1,329 votes, because many of the BTB lovers think he should have divorced the bitch. (But they're my favorite characters, so I had to give them a way out.)

One other tactic I use it to choose tags carefully. Before publishing, go to the category page and see what tags are popular. For Loving Wives, tags such as "cuckold", "cheating", or "Hot Wife" are popular.
For the Erotic Couplings category, "LESBIAN" is far more popular than "lesbian sex", so learn how to phrase the tag for the best search to build on the views after the story falls off the New list.

I actually disagree with you on the ratio in LW.
I don't believe that the BTB crowd is as big as you think it is....
This is only my opinion. I have no facts to substantiate it. However, this is what I believe.
The BTB crowd is absolutely passionate, and any story that does not follow their rationale. Is immediately 1 bombed... They are vociferous, and vengeful.

The rest of the readership in LW do not share the same passion. If they don't like a story, they are more likely to say "Ho Hum." And back out of it without commenting or voting...

If I write an LW story it get's 1 bombed by the BTB crowd. Mostly because I write reconciliation stories with no wives burnt at the stake, They hate my stories. Their comments are many and often vicious. Still even knowing that they attracted all that hate. My stories in the LW category still score between 3.5 and 4. Which means they attracted more than 50% likes than dislikes.
The BTB crowd are loud and obnoxious, but they are not the largest majority in LW. They are just more vengeful.
Like every noisy wheel They get the grease...
Just my thoughts.

Cagivagurl

 

[lovecraft68]

The BTB crowd is absolutely passionate

Hatred and passion aren't the same thing.
Understand I have a lot of experience with the former. They think they're angry, I could show them what it really looks like, and that's not some kind of brag, just something I have struggled with my entire life. I know the difference between those two emotions and that is not passion.

 

[lovecraft68]

Do many AH authors use Lit’s ‘erotic chat’?

I saw an author’s post somewhere in the AH who was wondering why someone would follow a member with no posted works. It’s probably because of erotic chat.

When you’re in a chat room, the names in the list of present members have links to their profiles. People in chat can look up profiles and posted works.

Chatters can follow members they like interacting with. I’ve had several people from chat be interested in my works after having conversations. It’s been nice to meet some other writers who don’t use the forum and trade some instant feedback or links….


It might take a few minutes to figure out how to navigate, use your phone in landscape. It’s called “erotic chat” but you can decide how you interact. You may need to block some people, but for the most part everyone I’ve dealt with has been respectful. Not everyone is there to bone.

YMMV.

Never been to chat, no interest, but I can see how it could help get a few more followers and eyes on your story.

For that matter, I imagine if anyone here goes to the role play forums that could do the same.

 

[Cagivagurl]

Hatred and passion aren't the same thing.
Understand I have a lot of experience with the former. They think they're angry, I could show them what it really looks like, and that's not some kind of brag, just something I have struggled with my entire life. I know the difference between those two emotions and that is not passion.

I don't disagree... However... LOL, isn't there always one of those.
You can hate with a passionate vengeance.... Hatred is just another level of anger. When you add the passion to the hatred. It goes up a notch or two...
I think so anyway...

Cagivagurl

 

[lovecraft68]

I don't disagree... However... LOL, isn't there always one of those.
You can hate with a passionate vengeance.... Hatred is just another level of anger. When you add the passion to the hatred. It goes up a notch or two...
I think so anyway...

Cagivagurl

The BTB crowd's hatred is allegedly over this morality that cheating is wrong. Which, I do believe it is...in real life.

But is it morality?

There is nowhere near this reaction to incest stories, Non con stories, both of which in real life are crimes and disgusting behavior.

Stealing, rape, abuse, drugs etc....are all immoral and criminal behavior, yet nowhere on the internet do those things inspire that level of vitriolic spew.

Because the things that dwell in that faction are not throwing shade from a moral high horse, they have a pathological hatred of women. Hating cheating is one side of it, because in those stories what spurs them on is the abuse of the cheater. That is where they show their hatred. Cheering on rape, torture, all manner of abuse because a cheater deserves that? No, but a woman who had the nerve not to live like a 1950's housewife does. That's what its about.

The crowd there is a hate group pure and simple. Nothing erotic there, and again, nothing to do with morals. Just angry hateful little men (Notice you don't see women trolling over there) who froth at the mouth anytime a woman isn't a man's little plaything.

That is not passion. The KKK is not "passionate" about race they are hatemongers. This is no different.

 

[lovecraft68]

Did I leave a scathing nasty comment on that story where I abuse the author and call the cheaters a bunch of names? If so, go find it.

My comment was left in the feedback forum for the story, and the context around it-which you did not post-is it was a compliment to the story because the author had me so caught up in their vengeful thoughts that I was waiting for the Tales of the Crypt style karma ending, and they went another way. The only revenge was them disclosing they she knew, so not sure it even falls under BTB, but whatever, it was far from a torture and rape fest, in fact....nothing ever really happens.

Nice try, troll, thanks for playing.

 

[bumpercars]

We'll see on my next story, which won't be in Romance. My WIP is likely to be in Science Fiction, which I understand is notorious for low rates of feedback.

I don't know if this is the case - I think SF/F gets low views but good amounts of feedback. My most-commented story is SF/F, for instance. The category's difficulty is that any fetish or interest can go there, whereas most categories have like one or two.

 

[KeithD]

Including a defensive proslug or postslug on Literotica stories to improve ratings/get more votes or comments might work more than not at Literotica (so, do it with your stories, if you like), but I don't do it, trying to maintain the same personal standards for my erotica that I do for mainstream writing, where this isn't done. I don't really want a reader who has to be babysat on what in my stories might give them the vapers. I want sophisticated, adult readers who will take responsibility for what they read and will just move on if they find the content of my stories too objectionable for them to read. The only proslug I use is for multiple-chapter entries, where I assure the reader writing of the series was completed before submission began and where I give an approximate time frame when posting of the finished product will be complete. I think readers are due this--that they know they won't be left in the lurch with an unfinished story or have to wait an unreasonable time between chapter postings.

But Literotica attracts a wide range of readers in terms of sophistication, so it might work here if you are that wedded to relatively higher scores and more than the usual level of votes/comments and are willing to see yourself as an enabler babysitter as well as writer.

 

[intim8]

I actually wrote quite a long intro/author's note on that one!

I think that doing that is engaging with the readers. Showing them that there is a person behind the story, and someone who wants to engage and be engaged with. It makes them more likely to reciprocate.