The now fully official Author’s Hangout Halloween 2025 competition support thread

[MelissaBaby]

Finally submitted. Later than intended, but still a lot earlier than usual for me. (That's just because it was half finished last year)

 

[EmilyMiller]

View attachment 2570154

Finally submitted. Later than intended, but still a lot earlier than usual for me. (That's just because it was half finished last year)

Cool

 

[TheDok]

At the risk of being labelled blind, I can find no reference to the Halloween competition where a "normal reader" will find it. They are unlikely to be reading this thread after all! If I am not mistaken and have missed a thread somewhere, then I find the silence deafening. Do authors not care? What is the point of a competition that nobody knows exists, particularly if people should be asked to vote for the winner? I entered this competition not to win but to increase the number of people reading this work, and this has not happened and frankly, I am very disappointed.

 

[TheDok]

Am I wrong? Do others have an opinion?

 

[StillStunned]

Front page of Literotica.com:

 

[EmilyMiller]

At the risk of being labelled blind, I can find no reference to the Halloween competition where a "normal reader" will find it. They are unlikely to be reading this thread after all! If I am not mistaken and have missed a thread somewhere, then I find the silence deafening. Do authors not care? What is the point of a competition that nobody knows exists, particularly if people should be asked to vote for the winner? I entered this competition not to win but to increase the number of people reading this work, and this has not happened and frankly, I am very disappointed.

 

[dreams_in_words]

Y'all too fast. I was doing the same thing

View attachment 2570216

Front page of Literotica.com:

View attachment 2570215

 

[EmilyMiller]

I’ve PMed @Laurel and @Manu to update:

https://www.literotica.com/stories

 

[TheDok]

When I open lierotica

View attachment 2570216

When I open Literotica, I reach the public beta page, where I can see no mention of this or the competitors' list. How do I find it please?

 

[StillStunned]

When I open lierotica

When I open Literotica, I reach the public beta page, where I can see no mention of this or the competitors' list. How do I find it please?

It seems that you're looking at the Classic version. That hasn't been updated since the Nude Day contest.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Welcome to Day 9 of The Halloween 2025 Competition

https://www.literotica.com/stories/contest.php/halloween-2025

 

[TheDok]

It seems that you're looking at the Classic version. That hasn't been updated since the Nude Day contest.

No when I go from my home page to explore and then categories I reach the public beta page, where again there is no mention except of summer loving competition

 

[StillStunned]

No when I go from my home page to explore and then categories I reach the public beta page, where again there is no mention except of summer loving competition

You'd have to click on [literotica] at the top of the page:

 

[TheDok]

Ok Kind of sorted. My tab, on my toolbar, which I use to open the site, bypasses the opening page, and after that, there is no way back to the opening page and the link to the competition.. The competition is not mentioned on the Public beta page although Sommer Lovein is. I would suggest this is a weakness since the competition is being poorly publicised by not being more prominently displayed. Just saying

 

[EmilyMiller]

Ok Kind of sorted. My tab, on my toolbar, which I use to open the site, bypasses the opening page, and after that, there is no way back to the opening page and the link to the competition.. The competition is not mentioned on the Public beta page although Sommer Lovein is. I would suggest this is a weakness since the competition is being poorly publicised by not being more prominently displayed. Just saying

I just mentioned asking the site to fix that above. It often lags the main page.

 

[TheDok]

You'd have to click on [literotica] at the top of the page:

View attachment 2570222

Thanks. I didn't think to do this. If, after 77 stories, I have missed the opening page, how many readers are doing the same? It has not been very well thought out

 

[TheDok]

I just mentioned asking the site to fix that above. It often lags the main page.

Thanks

 

[EmilyMiller]

Thanks. I didn't think to do this. If, after 77 stories, I have missed the opening page, how many readers are doing the same? It has not been very well thought out

More generally, my personal perspective had been that the comp effect has somewhat deteriorated over time. But I think this is a part of the general issue that writers face here. Readers have gone up by X%, numbers of stories published have gone up by Y%, Y > X, and so views per story have gone down.

It used to be possible to at least get mid-level views outside of the honeypot categories, but things like SF&F are now graveyards with respect to views. What seems to be holding up is categories like E&V, Group, Lesbian, and Anal (maybe Mature as well, but I don’t write Mature very often).

Erotic Horror - pertinent to this thread - seems quieter than SF&F.

 

[TheDok]

Mine is in Romance and I have 3600 views and 97 votes after 8 days, which is more miserly than is usual, particularly since I estimate a good ten or so of these votes are "shenanigarly" LOL

 

[EmilyMiller]

Mine is in Romance and I have 3600 views and 97 votes after 8 days, which is more miserly than is usual, particularly since I estimate a good ten or so of these votes are "shenanigarly" LOL

That’s low for Romance, I agree. I wonder how many other stories were published the same day?

Having said that, I’ve had stories at the top of their category page and on page one of new stories and still had low views.

Something feels qualitatively different. Maybe people are worried about accessing porn in the current environment.

 

[TheDok]

That's an interesting thought. Why would people be worried about accessing porn? I assume you mean in the US?

 

[EmilyMiller]

assume you mean in the US?

I know it’s an international site, and I don’t know the actual numbers, but I would assume that we account for a big chunk of views.

 

[Eisenloewe]

More generally, my personal perspective had been that the comp effect has somewhat deteriorated over time. But I think this is a part of the general issue that writers face here. Readers have gone up by X%, numbers of stories published have gone up by Y%, Y > X, and so views per story have gone down.

It used to be possible to at least get mid-level views outside of the honeypot categories, but things like SF&F are now graveyards with respect to views. What seems to be holding up is categories like E&V, Group, Lesbian, and Anal (maybe Mature as well, but I don’t write Mature very often).

Erotic Horror - pertinent to this thread - seems quieter than SF&F.

This is interesting. I've never really thought about category effects like that before. But wouldn't an increase in published stories per active reader increase the benefit of writing for challenges and competitions, just because those will stand out a little more and at least briefly have one prominent front-page link to the compendium? Or is what you really mean that because participation in challenges and competitions has increased (the Halloween stories page certainly seems to be rocking this year), even participating in them doesn't boost your views/reviews/comments that much because even active readers don't have time to read everything submitted for a challenge or competition?

For what it's worth, the lower submission pace of less-used categories may help views just because a published story will stay on the front page of that category for longer (I see that on its second day, my Halloween submission in Fetish has only moved down to the fifth spot from the top on that category page). I don't put too much stock in that myself, though, because just personally, I almost never go to the front page of a category and just "see what's new." I read for challenges and competitions (which is plenty of reading material right there; I still haven't worked my way through all of the Crime & Punishment and Dark Fairy Tales material that I wanted to read, let alone Halloween), then read more works by authors whose stories in challenges and competitions stood out to me there. I also have found some good material based on the "Similar Stories" recommendations when I read my own works and see what the Literotica Morlocks have come up with. (I found my all-time favorite works on Literotica that latter way.)

Mine is in Romance and I have 3600 views and 97 votes after 8 days, which is more miserly than is usual, particularly since I estimate a good ten or so of these votes are "shenanigarly" LOL

This is also interesting because of the votes-per-view ratio, not just the total views. That's far higher than even my highest. I wonder if that's category-dependent, i.e., certain categories' readership is more likely (on a per-view basis) to rate and/or comment. I haven't been able to determine any pattern based on my own submissions, and my six stories actually span five different categories. (I hadn't set out to be quite so erotically ecumenical, but so it went.)

 

[EmilyMiller]

This is also interesting because of the votes-per-view ratio, not just the total views. That's far higher than even my highest. I wonder if that's category-dependent, i.e., certain categories' readership is more likely (on a per-view basis) to rate and/or comment.

Romance has a high vote to view ratio. Each category has its own characteristics.

 

[DEFCOM5]

@EmilyMiller, nice reference to the shinning in your painting post!