Linking to other websites from here

[avery_elzmyth]

My short stories are now being sold on amazon.com. I've asked if I could post my erotica here, with a small mention of amazon at the bottom of each story, with the understanding that the stories for purchase are NON-erotic.

I'm not getting any reply from literotica. Problem is, I love it here and I don't want to post my erotica elsewhere. It's one thing to get a response and come to some arrangement, but I get nothing. Anyone know what the problem is?

If someone can place a literotica link right on their homepage, where everyone can see it right away, why can't we leave a link at the bottom of a story here? There's some place in our bio for this, but it's so buried that no one will ever see it.

Any advice would be helpful.

 

[SweetErika]

My short stories are now being sold on amazon.com. I've asked if I could post my erotica here, with a small mention of amazon at the bottom of each story, with the understanding that the stories for purchase are NON-erotic.

I'm not getting any reply from literotica. Problem is, I love it here and I don't want to post my erotica elsewhere. It's one thing to get a response and come to some arrangement, but I get nothing. Anyone know what the problem is?

If someone can place a literotica link right on their homepage, where everyone can see it right away, why can't we leave a link at the bottom of a story here? There's some place in our bio for this, but it's so buried that no one will ever see it.

Any advice would be helpful.

How are you contacting Lit? Through the Webmaster link, or by PMing Laurel, or ...?

I am not a Lit official, however, my guess is that they will not allow you to link to ANY site in the stories themselves, even if the Amazon stories are different or it's a link to a non-commercial site. This is based on the answers I've seen to similar questions before. Lit's not a place to advertise, and it'd be unfair to allow you to put (especially commercial) links in stories when others have been denied the same ability.

Personally, I wouldn't be excited to see links to anything other than the next/previous chapter(s) in the series the story's a part of, and a part of me would wonder if an author with an outside link was posting the story to promote the other site, or because they wanted to share their love of writing with us. I think it'd be pretty pathetic for someone not to post their stories just because they weren't allowed to advertise their other stuff here.

Placing a link to Lit on another site (provided its content isn't illegal or doesn't sully Lit's name, like a kiddie porn site, I think) is fine because the owners want to improve this site's visibility. That's very different from allowing people to use Lit as a mode of advertising and possibly drawing people away from the paid advertisers that the owners rely on for their livelihood and to keep this site running. Apples and oranges.

You can probably get away with having your Amazon link as your homepage in your profile because it IS hidden, but be aware ANY commercial advertising is not looked upon fondly here, and it'll be removed if it's deemed spam or people complain about it. Reread the forum and site rules, at the bottom of each page, and ask a Mod if you're unclear on any of them.

At the end of the day, this is a free site, and most of us are of the opinion that we have no right to bitch about the rules or demand quick responses from exceedingly busy officials because they've built a wonderful place for us to write, share and form a strong community and can manage that as they please. I'm not saying you've acted poorly or shouldn't ask, but I'd advise examining your motives and communications carefully, being very polite and respectful in your dealings, and thinking about the above philosophy because it'll likely produce better results than any complaints, demands, or a sense of entitlement.

 

[Weird Harold]

If someone can place a literotica link right on their homepage, where everyone can see it right away, why can't we leave a link at the bottom of a story here?

Lit has a blanket policy against links or even explicit references to websites in stories -- even fictional web sites. In part the policy exists because web addresses even for sites like Amazon are constantly changing and just noticing when a web address in a story changes, let alone editing a story to change the reference is a maintenance nightmare waiting to happen.

There is nothing to keep you from putting a discrete link in your signature line either to your stories here, your bio here, your personal webpage, or directly to Amazon's listings for your work -- or all of the above. A link in your signature would actually give your work more exposure than a link in your stories.

 

[avery_elzmyth]

A link in your signature would actually give your work more exposure than a link in your stories.

Nah, Lit won't let me do that either, not to my webpage at freeweb.

I've posted erotic stories in the past for the sheer fun of it, with over thirty thousand Literotica readers, but now that I could possibly make a bit of $$, I can't get the word out to any who might like my other stories.

Ah well, I guess we're supposed to remain starving writers.