Lush Stories is a joke of a website

[M_K_Babalon]

@Priscilla_June
AO3 if you are interested in fanfic content. It's huge and it has almost no restrictions. But it's heavily focused on fanfic.
SOL is a standard erotic story website with a bit fewer restrictions that Lit. It's also much smaller, and somewhat more focused on the needs of authors, but with an aged interface and with no forum worth mentioning.
Both sites have no categories, but they do have a much better tags system that works pretty well on SOL (although it's restricted in the sense that you can't come up with your own tags), and a very messy tags system on AO3 because there you have absolute freedom to create tags as you see fit. Mods there put in work to unite and link related tags so it does work in a way, but it's incredibly messy and confusing for new users.

It's not just for erotica. I still find it a bit complicated to use.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Decided I'd try to post some stuff on a different story site and "Lush Stories" was the first one that came up. I submitted my story "Beach Bum" and it was rejected because there were a couple times the main character said "no" and they said it was non-consentual even though it was in the context of a BDSM relationship. I changed it enough so it could get through, and it was accepted. Then I submitted the first chapter of my series "Owned". It was rejected because it contained fart fetish stuff, and they said it falls under "scat" and is unacceptable. I politely tried explaining that those are two different fetishes entirely, and that my first story also contains elements of it and was accepted. This prompted them to retroactively tell me to edit my first story or have it deleted. Fuck these people, honestly. I'm sick and tired of encountering censorship everywhere. What the fuck is the point of reading erotic lit if you have gatekeepers trying to make it more boring than what you see on Pornhub? Fart fetish isn't everyone's thing, for sure. But it's harmless. Who the fuck are they to decide this kink is inappropriate? Unbelievable. Modern internet is a complete joke. I told them I wouldn't be submitting to them anymore.

Much of what humans do is a "joke" in the sense that they contradict themselves without even noticing it. Also, every decision forecloses other options. Too bad Jonathan Swift isn't around to see what the Internet age has brought us to.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

It's not just for erotica. I still find it a bit complicated to use.

Which one? Every platform takes some getting used to. If anything, Lit is the most complicated platform among these for actually publishing a story.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Forget engagement on AO3 unless you write fanfic, it isn't happening

It's definitely a lot lower than on Lit, but it does happen. It's very dependent on the content; Ao3 readership is a different crowd with different tastes to the average Lit reader.

My most successful non-fanfic story over there is Red Scarf with 45 comments (ten of those me responding to other stuff) vs. about 186 here. So not huge, but the comments I do get there are pretty thoughtful. I even had one poster ask for permission to do a fanbinding of the story (bookbinding as a one-off art project) which isn't something I've ever encountered here.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Hmmm SOL not having the best feedback mechanism kinda makes me not want to bother. Really I’m just wanting to get more engagement but the more I look Ao3 and Lit are pretty much my best bets?

There's WritingDotCom, Wattpad, Tapas. Quotev is still pretty active. There are sites that take erotica, then there are erotica sites. There's not a whole lot of choices for straight up erotica, not a whole lot of good choices for writing in general. You'll get read on just about any site... pat on the backs may vary.

 

[Priscilla_June]

Forget engagement on AO3 unless you write fanfic, it isn't happening Maybe with something popular like futanari, but not with any regular Lit stuff. Lit is better for feedback than SOL because it has more readers but also because it lets anonymous readers comment. SOL has some great ways to protect you from trolls, and comments post instantly there because you have to be registered to comment. The bottom line is, there is no website that does it all good. Lit is probably the best overall, which kinda speaks volumes about how bad it is for us who basically provide free stories. New players are needed.

I deff dont get much on Ao3, not as much as lit, but I get some.

100% agreed a new more modern player or someone willing to step it up is sorely needed. But then again, its a porn site dedicated to the written form. How much of an investment is someone going to be willing to do?

 

[MillieDynamite]

Yes, but the math he claims to use doesn't make sense. Weight by the average of all votes at the time of the vote, what the hell does that even mean? It's a strange bell curve to prevent high scores or scores being too low.

They've got a one-to-ten system instead of our one-to-five. Not a bad idea, I guess, but then they messed it up by doing that. Their explanation seems incomprehensible. Yet the webmaster, as cranky as he is, will honestly answer your questions on the same day.

 

[Priscilla_June]

There's WritingDotCom, Wattpad, Tapas. Quotev is still pretty active. There are sites that take erotica, then there are erotica sites. There's not a whole lot of choices for straight up erotica, not a whole lot of good choices for writing in general. You'll get read on just about any site... pat on the backs may vary.

Thanks for the comprehensive list! Ill check some of those out.

What about nom-erotica? Just curious what are the players there?

 

[Bramblethorn]

This is not censorship. Censorship is something governments do. A site choosing not to host content of one type or another is their prerogative. I understand that, from your perspective, there is little distinction between the two, but the distinction exists in spite of that.

Although the two aren't necessarily exclusive. Often these "choices" by websites are motivated by legal requirements. Content laws are murky and vary from country to country, and nobody knows exactly where the line is now let alone where it might be in a few years' time, so every site takes their own guess on what they can host.

But frustration about that is better directed at governments than at site operators.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Actually, she calls herself a Jew Bitch. We're friends and I wasn't being derogatory to her. She recently changed to Messianic Judaism. But she's still Jewish.

I'm not surprised if you call her a Jew writer!

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

What are you talking about, Millie?

Actually, she calls herself a Jew Bitch. We're friends and I wasn't being derogatory to her. She recently changed to Messianic Judaism. But she's still Jewish.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Nothing important.

What are you talking about, Millie?

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Which one? Every platform takes some getting used to. If anything, Lit is the most complicated platform among these for actually publishing a story.

SOL. Lit is easy. I was on sol before I joined here, I think I published something there earlier this year, did some updates and shit. I hate dancing around that site, so I bookmarked my profile.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Thanks for the comprehensive list! Ill check some of those out.

What about nom-erotica? Just curious what are the players there?

Tapas
Wattpad
FictionPress
SOL
WritingDotCom
Quotev
FanFictionNet bans smut.

 

[Priscilla_June]

Tapas
Wattpad
FictionPress
SOL
WritingDotCom
Quotev
FanFictionNet bans smut.

Thanks!

 

[AwkwardlySet]

SOL. Lit is easy. I was on sol before I joined here, I think I published something there earlier this year, did some updates and shit. I hate dancing around that site, so I bookmarked my profile.

SOL has a shitty interface, that's for sure. Other than that, stories post superfast and I find that they appreciate authors who publish there a lot more than other websites. Maybe it's because they are trying to attract more authors and grow bigger, which was kinda my point all along. Competition is needed.

 

[lovecraft68]

LS at least has an actual staff, does review stories before publishing them and has real rules that they enforce consistently and is run as more of a business than a clubhouse. Post where you want, but if you don't think what you described, and worse, doesn't happen here, think again.

 

[lc69hunter]

Can't find SOL through Google

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Can't find SOL through Google

storiesonline

 

[gunhilltrain]

Thanks for the comprehensive list! Ill check some of those out.

What about nom-erotica? Just curious what are the players there?

You mean non-erotic? Whatever I've got I put here rather than joining yet another site. They will take it. One submission is fiction, plus I have some "memoirs" that have little or no erotic content. One is about the first movie I ever saw in a theater and what I thought about it seeing it on YouTube as compared to what I remembered from childhood. (I'm so old it was 55 Days at Peking). I had completely missed that the entire Chinese imperial court was played by English people and Australians.

Flora Robson as the Empress. I love that stuff on her head.

Flora Robson

 

[silky52]

Actually, she calls herself a Jew Bitch. We're friends and I wasn't being derogatory to her. She recently changed to Messianic Judaism. But she's still Jewish.

I'm glad you are friends, and that it wasn't meant derogatorily. It's just that there are so many ill meant comments about Jewish people on lit that I feel compelled to answer. By the way, I am Jewish too, so tell your friend that she has a compatriot. But I don't live in the US as I presume you guys do. Also, if you are born a Jew you die a Jew no matter what!

 

[intim8]

SOL is the biggest site behind Lit.

EDIT: Sent you a PM.

Can you shoot me that link as well?

EDIT: NVM, I shoulda read the rest of the thread first. I've seen storiesonline, and it looks like it might be OK, but I think I want to avoid a site that has explicit categories for pedo stuff. I know I can just avoid it, but aside from not wanting anything to do with it myself. it is such a third-rail, in the US at least, that I'm sure everyone with an account there is on a list somewhere.

 

[Cagivagurl]

Decided I'd try to post some stuff on a different story site and "Lush Stories" was the first one that came up. I submitted my story "Beach Bum" and it was rejected because there were a couple times the main character said "no" and they said it was non-consentual even though it was in the context of a BDSM relationship. I changed it enough so it could get through, and it was accepted. Then I submitted the first chapter of my series "Owned". It was rejected because it contained fart fetish stuff, and they said it falls under "scat" and is unacceptable. I politely tried explaining that those are two different fetishes entirely, and that my first story also contains elements of it and was accepted. This prompted them to retroactively tell me to edit my first story or have it deleted. Fuck these people, honestly. I'm sick and tired of encountering censorship everywhere. What the fuck is the point of reading erotic lit if you have gatekeepers trying to make it more boring than what you see on Pornhub? Fart fetish isn't everyone's thing, for sure. But it's harmless. Who the fuck are they to decide this kink is inappropriate? Unbelievable. Modern internet is a complete joke. I told them I wouldn't be submitting to them anymore.

It's their website...
Their rules...
Don't like them.
Go somewhere else....

Cagivagurl

 

[gunhilltrain]

Can you shoot me that link as well?

EDIT: NVM, I shoulda read the rest of the thread first. I've seen storiesonline, and it looks like it might be OK, but I think I want to avoid a site that has explicit categories for pedo stuff. I know I can just avoid it, but aside from not wanting anything to do with it myself. it is such a third-rail, in the US at least, that I'm sure everyone with an account there is on a list somewhere.

No, there is/was another site that had true pedophilia in it and, yes it was quite shocking, but it wasn't SOL. A list somewhere? Who knows, but there is a certain amount of paranoia that goes through erotic sites.

The third-rail trope; I love that one. Especially since I'm only about 200 yards away from a real one on Metro-North. But don't touch those things!

New York third rails

 

[MillieDynamite]

Done! 14 is the lowest age limit on SOL. Even though they have the Pedo tag, they don't actually allow actual Pedo stories. Hebephilia at the upper age and Ephebophiles, yes.

Can you shoot me that link as well?

EDIT: NVM, I shoulda read the rest of the thread first. I've seen storiesonline, and it looks like it might be OK, but I think I want to avoid a site that has explicit categories for pedo stuff. I know I can just avoid it, but aside from not wanting anything to do with it myself. it is such a third-rail, in the US at least, that I'm sure everyone with an account there is on a list somewhere.