Success or failure rating?

[Lauren Hynde]

Has anyone worked out why some of their stories are popular and others aren't?

Og

I have 96 submissions (20 Hs, 4 Ws, 1 E), but only 3 of them are stories. Of those, two have solid Hs (one with a W to go with it).

The only time any of the story Hs was threatened was the week after "Letters from Pohjola" (link in the signature) won its W, with a handful of 1-votes, but as the number of votes mounted, its position solidified.

The third story, "Plastic Love" (link also in the signature) the one that doesn't have and never had an H, is probably my best story; it's certainly the better written and the more tightly constructed, the only one I felt truly satisfied with in all senses. It is only marginally longer than the other two (3 lit-pages vs. 2), but the language isn't dumbed down to the masses, and it can be interpreted to be a bit confrontational to the readers of the category it's placed in. As a result of that, it gathered practically as many 1s as it did 5s, in the first few days, and its rating kept in the middle 3s for months.

Only recently, with the story falling out of radar for everyone except those who follow the link under my posts, has it climbed slightly above 4, but still a long way to go before it gets an H. (So, any help you can give me will be welcomed )

 

[impressive]

From what this thread has exposed, one road to success is to stick it out until you have written enough in certain genres to be accepted into one of the giant cliques of readers.

I'll never make it, then. Like my fantasies, my writing is very cross-categorical. If that means I never develop a fan base, then I'll just resign myself to being niche-less.

I am happy with my work. That's what matters to me. If someone else gets off on it, too -- that's just icing.

Tee hee to Colly -- a "few" Hs, indeed.

 

[CharleyH]

Interesting thing. I note cross-category stories as one of the things people have been bringing up. Intriguing (to me anyhow)

 

[carsonshepherd]

After all the talk about AH being cliquish, we can now see that the charge should have been lodged against another community.

When one considers how different the writers here are: different genres, different fetishes, different styles, different aspirations, different abilities, and different degrees of professionalism, it is amazing that anyone is speaking to anybody.

From what this thread has exposed, one road to success is to stick it out until you have written enough in certain genres to be accepted into one of the giant cliques of readers.

I don't think the AH is a clique; it's more of a support group. And what a great support group!

And as far as the readers go, I have a (modest) following. I have an e-mailing list for new submissions. I have people who email me after every submission with their opinions and support. But I don't cater to these people. I just do what I do - try to write the best I can - and they like it - or not. I still experiment with different styles. I don't worry about alienating anyone; but that email list is usually enough to clinch my H's (not always though!)

I stick to gay male stories because that's what I like (although I did write one bi story for Group for a very special person ). I try to write good stories and challenge myself to do better. The feedback, support, votes and wonderful friends I've made are the motivation. That's why I love Lit. Long may it live.

 

[Guest]

Of my 17 submissions here at Lit, 11 have red H's. One of those is a poem, and another is not under this name. The one that is not under this name is the one I am most proud of, as it's the first and only submission under that name (although more will follow). It has a solid H, and got it through no build up of loyal readership, and nobody knows who I am!

Reasons why I think certain stories score well, or get the readers to vote in the first place...

1. Being a woman helps, and writing from the woman's POV. I don't doubt that.

2. Every single one of my stories here at Lit is under 2 Lit pages long (the longest being a little over 5,000 words). I have found that most people prefer this kind of length.

3. The sex has to be GOOD. I mean pure, dirty sex, without any faffing about.

4. The categories do make a difference. I find NonConsent and BDSM tend to score well, maybe because of the more discerning readership. Erotic horror scores pretty well. I have two in that category, and until recently both had red H's, now one has dropped just below. Loving Wives and Humour tend to score low - mine do anyway.

5. In my experience, first person POV scores well. Taking into account I write from my POV, drawing from a lot of actual experiences.

6. A sexy pic in your bio.

Lou

 

[Guest]

Did I kill this thread? I do hope not, I find this kind of thing quite interesting.

 

[impressive]

6. A sexy pic in your bio.

Does it have to be YOU? (If not, can I borrow yours?)

 

[oggbashan]

...Reasons why I think certain stories score well, or get the readers to vote in the first place...

1. Being a woman helps, and writing from the woman's POV. I don't doubt that.

2. Every single one of my stories here at Lit is under 2 Lit pages long (the longest being a little over 5,000 words). I have found that most people prefer this kind of length.

3. The sex has to be GOOD. I mean pure, dirty sex, without any faffing about.

4. The categories do make a difference. I find NonConsent and BDSM tend to score well, maybe because of the more discerning readership. Erotic horror scores pretty well. I have two in that category, and until recently both had red H's, now one has dropped just below. Loving Wives and Humour tend to score low - mine do anyway.

5. In my experience, first person POV scores well. Taking into account I write from my POV, drawing from a lot of actual experiences.

6. A sexy pic in your bio.

Lou

Lou:

1. That worked for a while for me as jeanne. There was a noticeable difference in the number of reads and votes and the anonymous feedback suggesting *interesting* activities. Interesting to anonymous perhaps.

2. The length of my stories doesn't seem to matter. Long, medium or short: they get Hs or not depending on the content. Very long tends to deter all but the few.

3. I'm not good at writing Lou's type of in-your-face sex. I seem to do better when I leave the sex to the reader's imagination. I also get bombed and bad feedback for that.

4. Incest was an eye-opener. I had more views and votes in a couple of days than I usually get for the sum of five stories in other categories. I wouldn't consider writing incest except between brother/sister and mother/son. Anything else seems to be considered too mild and gets down voted.

5. 1st person POV does work for me too. I don't see any difference between my few stories based on real events and those that are wholly invented. Some of my stories describe impossible scenarios and impossible sex. If there is any trend, the wilder the fantasy, the better the score - a goddess, triple-titted aliens, ghosts and a giant squid are all good.

6. That worked for jeanne. Some of the feedback was more about the picture than the story. Lou's avs should be described as weapons of mass distraction.

My conclusion seems to be that I should rewrite some of my stories to change the hero and heroine into brother and sister. That, and apparently that alone, is likely to improve ratings.

Thanks to Lou, and everyone else who has contributed to this thread.

Og

 

[cloudy]

I couldn't even begin to guess why some of my stories do better than others, it seems more like a lottery, or a spin of the wheel of fortune, than it is anything else.

I'm constantly flabbergasted at the number of votes some people are able to amass in a very short period of time. The second story I ever posted here (in April of this year) has the most votes of any of mine - 60....that's all. Yet, some writers get 100+ votes in one day.

I think that Colly is right when she speaks of a fan base. I have yet to get mine, though. Hmmm.....

 

[Boxlicker101]

To date, I have 93 entries listed as stories. I say it that way because that includes a six part novella that is counted as six entries. Of these, I have 46 red H's, just under 50%. Most of these are just smut, with no almost no story line or character development or anything else but sex. Some of these do quite well and some do not. I have never had an E or W and probably never will have.

The two romances and the six-part novella have more than just smut (although they have plenty of that also) and have done well, collecting seven H's. One part of the novella was hit with a one-bomb and has not recovered yet because these kinds of stories get few votes.

I don't believe I have ever included a quote from Shakespeare, except maybe a saying somewhere.

I also have 25 poems and only one of them, an illustrated poem about my grandson has a red H. Most of the others are basically jokes told in verse. All of my poems are written in meter and rhyme, in the style of Poe, Emerson, Whitman and others and poets on Lit. tend to look down on this kind of thing. Even the poem about Lou quitting smoking, which mentions a lot of writers on this forum, has garnered only six votes and not very many views.

Edited to add: Cloudy said:
I'm constantly flabbergasted at the number of votes some people are able to amass in a very short period of time. The second story I ever posted here (in April of this year) has the most votes of any of mine - 60....that's all. Yet, some writers get 100+ votes in one day.

Most of my stories have fewer than 60 votes. The most votes for any one story is about 150 and most stories have collected well under 60.

 

[KarenAM]

Exactly 50% of my stories have the red H. One is a bondage love story, another has sex with an automaton under a rising alien sun, and the one with the highest rating has much less sex and much more character development stuff than the others. The one with the most sex does not have an H, and neither does the one with no sex.

It's also worth noting that my stories seem to get fewer votes than most, whatever that means, but those who choose to comment have always had favorable things to say.

I suppose if I posted more stories I'd have more data to work with, but lately I've been working on two erotic science fiction novels and they've been taking up most of my writing time.

So, in conclusion, I have absolutely no idea how to get votes or high ratings, but I do enjoy it when I do.

 

[Guest]

Including Rideme Cowgirl's story I have 10 here on lit. Of those 8 are H rated. Most are hovering in the 4.65-4.75 range now. Literatica Olympics Day 20 had been at 4.89 for a couple months but I was fighting a troll who bombed it as fast as I could have the vote removed. And I'm tired of having it removed on a daily basis, so it can stay at 4.68 and the troll will leave it alone.

I am going to take The Striped Shirt down for a while. I think rewritten in a different tense and mybe a different perspective it may do better than the 3.83 it is at now. I am even considering giving the story to Rideme Cowgirl to play with.

All in all I'm pretty happy with the 80% "success" rate. As to why I have that success rate, well, that's a good question. Most of the stories have very little in common. And several are completely different genres. Maybe I'm just not popular enough to have garnered enough trolls. But I'd like to think it's because they are just good reading.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I like to think I get relatively few votes because, by he time most readers are 1/4 through, their hands are in their pants or under their skirts and they get themselves off before they finish the story. Once they get off, they leave the site and don't vote.

 

[Sabledrake]

I've thought sometimes about creating a pseudo-pseudonym to see if that boosts the readership. Heh ... the other day I caught my husband being a girl online ... he was only playing poker, though, so I hope I don't have too much to worry about

As for a sexy pic, give me a year and we'll see. If I do lose 100 pounds by then, I'll consider it!

Sabledrake

 

[Guest]

 

[Green_Gem]

I have 17 submissions across 12 categories - E/C, BDSM, Anal, Mature, Incest, Humor, Erotic Horror, Non-Consent, Exhibitionism/Voyeur, Romance, First Time and Group Sex.

Fifteen of these stories have the Red H, (one a W) and the other two have dropped just below the 4.50 mark.

Only two of the stories have less than 100 votes ( Humor - 27 and Erotic Horror -56) and the highest number of votes 484 - Mature and 482- Incest. The others range between 109 and 302 votes.

I have a story under another pen name in the Erotic Horror category which also has a score in excess of 4.50 with over 40 votes.

I've given these stats simply to indicate that it has NOT been my experience that writing across categories reduces the number of votes or views. Obviously there are categories that pull in views and votes much quicker, for example, in my case Incest, Mature, Exh/Voy and Anal but I think one has to build up a following, and also create unique and original storylines to keep people coming back for more from you. ( In my case I've found readers to be quite discriminating and many expect a certain standard of writing and originality from me. I've had (valid) criticism recently when I wrote a story that was a pretty standard father/daughter incest one).

I can't say any one particular style or voice is better. I've written in first and third person p.o.v. (One in second person, but I prefer to forget that). I do spend time on characterization because characters have to come alive to make a story work for me. Having said that, I NEVER give a shopping list of physical attributes or measurements, so it's left loose enough to require readers to use their imagination. I like to incorporate a 'plot'/storyline as well as conflict of some kind and yes, I do enjoy writing sizzling sex as well ( damn, this is erotica, isn't it ) The thing is, the sex must 'fit' the category, it's an important variable and I think I have managed to pull this off fairly well.

Lengthwise, I've been told by a good friend here, that I have an 'economical way with words' but I write until the story feels complete to me. Most are 2 to 3 Lit pages, although I do have one that is 5 Lit pages. Generally though, I prefer to read stories that happen in 2 or 3 Lit pages and I guess I write that way as well.

My overall feeling is that first and foremost, writers should be true to themselves. Time, care and effort should be put into writing the best story they can, each time they write without specific thought or emphasis on votes and scores. ( MLyons is a perfect example of a writer who does this). Of course it's a nice warm fuzzy feeling to have the red H, but the fact is, it isn't everything. It might be an indicator of popularity, but it isn't always a true measure of literary quality or success.

Green_Gem

 

[sack]

good thread, Ogg!

Hmmmm....... Some of my submissions are simple "stroke" stories, and others are more extensive, with plot and character development. About one-fourth have an "H", no "W's or "E's. Interestingly enough, the stroke stories have done much better, only one "real" story is currently slightly above 4.50. It's ironic that what I consider to be my best story, The Door, has only a mediocre rating. And my contest entries have never come close to winning, but I consider them to be far better than the current "H" stories in my portfolio. There often is no rhyme or reason to voting, but if you aspire to write a really high ranking story, I suggest the following:

1. Keep it heterosexual in nature, unless you are at the Colleen Thomas or CarsonShepherd level.
2. Write from the male point of view. A lot of description of breasts, panties, lingerie, oral sex (to a woman), etc. Wimpy husband stories are out like a light. I don't do this, centering on mens' underwear, private parts etc., and am down-voted accordingly.
3. The stranger the better....aliens, green martians, and Master/Slave relationships seem to have a good following and always add to a story's ranking.
4. Incest is best, especially mother-son and father-daughter. And if you make the son impregnate mom, your ratings will really soar!
5. Story length has nothing to do with high votes, but a story of more than 3 Literotica "pages" does tend to turn some readers off.

Dave (Sack)

 

[Kassiana]

I'm new to posting stories here. I have no letters after my stories other than the summaries I've written for them. However, if people here want to help me GET those letters, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

 

[Belegon]

Something I never noticed until reading this: My only two stories without an "H" are the only two in which the male protagagonist does not get laid. Hmmm...

I have 8 posted stories, six with an "H". Oddly, two of my favorites are the non-H stories. My Lit Olympic entry has no outright sex, but was when I started really making friends here and is directly related to the beginning of my friendship with one of my favorite writers, Colly. It is important to me for that reason. My other non-H was co-written with my RL best friend and has definite emotional content because of that. I think it is actually better than rated, but I am biased.

I get a lot of votes apparently. "Wingman" has 303 votes @ 4.79 and is my highest rated story. "A Beautiful Friendship" was higher but got hammered with lower votes, if not outright bombs, one week after it became the number one story in Group Sex. The ranking dropped so quickly in so few votes that I suspect it got heavily trolled. By trolls intelligent enough to use "2 bombs".

The stories are in 6 different categories. So I am missing out on one piece of the puzzle.

I have 30 poems with 9 H's. Two poems ( Romance & Dancing Wildly ) have a perfect 5.0 with less than ten votes. one of these got one bombed once but the vote was removed.

My favorite thing is comments and emails. The votes are an ego-boost, but I try not to let them be more than that. I must admit to a little bit of self-pity about my non-H's, but it is definitely ego-related.

 

[oggbashan]

I'm new to posting stories here. I have no letters after my stories other than the summaries I've written for them. However, if people here want to help me GET those letters, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

Kassiana,

Two tips:

1. Add a link to your stories in your signature line. Go to Control Panel, edit Profile, and add this:

>url=http://english.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=238484&page=submissions]Kassiana's Stories[/url<

You have to replace the arrow marks >< with opening and closing square brackets >=[, <=]. If I didn't include them all you would see is 'Kassiana's Stories'.

2. Try writing something that isn't celebrity fiction. I looked at one of your stories. I haven't watched this film, series or whatever so I have no idea who the characters are and therefore I wasn't involved in the story. I didn't feel that they were real people. It might work for those who do know the characters, but it limits your readership.

Hope that helps.

Og

 

[Evil Alpaca]

Kassiana,

Two tips:

1. Add a link to your stories in your signature line. Go to Control Panel, edit Profile, and add this:

"Kassiana's Stories"

You have to remove the quotation marks "". If I didn't include them all you would see is 'Kassiana's Stories'.

Og

So if you want to add a link to your stories, you don't put it in quotation marks? Do you just you a sing ' on each side? Sorry, but I'm new at this also and would appreciate the help.

 

[Kassiana]

1. Add a link to your stories in your signature line. Go to Control Panel, edit Profile, and add this:

"Kassiana's Stories"

--Sorry. Didn't work.

 

[oggbashan]

So if you want to add a link to your stories, you don't put it in quotation marks? Do you just you a sing ' on each side? Sorry, but I'm new at this also and would appreciate the help.

Oops. I need to edit.

I'll go back to that post and edit so you can see the code.

Og

 

[oggbashan]

Edited the original post.

Kassiana. All I think you need to do is add a ] to the end of the code.

Og

 

[Kassiana]

Thanks, Og. It works now.

I do have some original erotic works as well. I may start submitting them as well, but unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your preference) much of what I write is genre-restricted to X-men fanfiction. Perhaps I'll be doomed to smaller fan groups, but I can comfort myself with the knowledge that at least the X-men readers here on Lit seem to like what I've done so far.