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

M_K_Babalon said:
I didn't put mine there this year, mainly because there wasn't any horror. It hadn't originally dawned on me until this thread, that EH doesn't get a lot of readers, votes, or what have you. It was simply ghost isn't tantamount to horror. Casper and Samara don't move in the same circles. I've attempted to write one [survival] horror story with my other name, and one—I guess you could call it a psyhic thriller. It's not really in my wheelhouse.
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My story will be posted in Erotic Horror
 
MillieDynamite said:
Wait, no, there can never ever be too much paid work.
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Take it from me, yes there can be. I had an 8 year stretch where I worked over 360 days every year. I had a stretch of almost four months with over a hundred hours every week. It took me over six months to recover when I went back to a single full time job
 
EmilyMiller said:
There is a lot going on on the site and it’s very hard to work out what might be transitory noise and what might be long-term trends.

This has been a very strange Halloween Comp contemporaneous as it is with many stories falling into a black hole (including comp ones), stories getting published late (including comp ones), the ongoing notifications debacle, even more one bombing than usual, and the overlay of AI rejections, number of stories increasing after than number of readers, and perhaps a general malaise that is affecting at least the U.S. and maybe other places.

At this point, it’s impossible to make robust predictions about how the Winter Holidays Comp with go. It may see a return to the historical mean of enhanced views, but The Halloween Comp could also be the new normal. People can speculate, but only time will tell.
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Well, either way I'm excited for my story, so I'll still enter the Winter Contest... hopefully.
 
If you don't get your story submitted for this contest, just think of it as preserving your eligibility for Winter Holidays.
 
Actingup said:
No - I got those from https://search.literotica.com/ - search for stories using ' ' as the search term, and use advanced options to get results for the last 12 months. That gives you a page with 66K search results, which averages out to 181 stories a day. If my maths is right, the long term average is around 80 per day over the past 25 years, as the database seems to kick in properly from mid 2000.

More fun facts:
920 Editors Choice stories show in the (All Years) search (average of 37 per year), but only 2 have been awarded in the past year (hello @FrancesScott!). In the last six months of 2000, there were 86 Editors Choice Awards. In 2001, there were hundreds.
There are 1281 Contest Winners in the (All Years) search (an average of about 51 per year), but only 18 Contest Winners in the past year, because the site isn't running Monthly Contests any more.
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Nice little bit of data, thanks.
 
Jamie6977 said:
Is there a way to find out how many 1's, 2's, 5's a story gets? I've only seen the average, but would love to see how many of each I've gotten.
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No is the short answer. Some of us who obsess over our scores see each vote come in. If you do that and are comfortable with relatively simple math, you can track each vote. At least until your number of votes gets too large.
 
iwatchus said:
No is the short answer. Some of us who obsess over our scores see each vote come in. If you do that and are comfortable with relatively simple math, you can track each vote. At least until your number of votes gets too large.
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Kinda what I thought. It was easier to see the votes in the Halloween contest, since they've been so few. Summer was crazy. I had 40K views in that one (my first contest). Just over 5K here. Of course, different categories could have played a role. T/I for Summer and Nonhuman for Halloween.
 
Jamie6977 said:
Kinda what I thought. It was easier to see the votes in the Halloween contest, since they've been so few. Summer was crazy. I had 40K views in that one (my first contest). Just over 5K here. Of course, different categories could have played a role. T/I for Summer and Nonhuman for Halloween.
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5k is doing well for nonhuman
 
Jamie6977 said:
Is there a way to find out how many 1's, 2's, 5's a story gets? I've only seen the average, but would love to see how many of each I've gotten.
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If you are in a low traffic category. Like EH or SF&F, the votes come in slowly and you can track them, or make reasonable assumptions about small clusters. But there is no actual break down provided by the site.
 
I just submitted "Dead Together". Almost 9000 words, and in Erotic Horror. A homeless girl dies, but a dying demon takes refuge in her body. I hope it's sexy and gruesome enough. 🤪
 
talemestories said:
Yes, they can change from pumpkins to Yule logs and slip it right in!
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True, but my point was that if you win the Halloween contest, you are ineligible to win the next contest, which is Winter Holidays, not that to could Christmatize your story.
 
MelissaBaby said:
True, but my point was that if you win the Halloween contest, you are ineligible to win the next contest, which is Winter Holidays, not that to could Christmatize your story.
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Just being pedantic, but it's actually the next two contests.
 
Last minute dash but it's in. Standalone story using a couple of dubious characters from another tale. Hopefully will make the deadline.

Heaven & Hell - Amber Gets Stoned​

 
Just threw mine over, too. Even if it makes it, I’m not sure it’ll be able to rack up enough votes as it’s in EH.

On the bright side, it’s less than 5k words.
 
Anyone still putting the finishing touches to their Halloween masterpiece, you have only hours to go 👻
 
EmilyMiller said:
September is here and that means it's Fall here in the northern hemisphere.

That can mean only one thing - it's time to start cranking out that Halloween story that you've been dying to tell! Let's kick off Autumn 2025 in the northern climes with a new support thread -

Halloween (Oct 31)

View attachment 2564679

Themes: scary stuff, costumes, Halloween traditions (trick-or-treating, etc.), etc.

You can begin submitting on (or before):October 2

The last day to submit is October 23

Winners Will Be Announced: October 30

The author must copy and paste the phrase "HALLOWEEN 2025" to the "Notes to Admin" field of the submission (without the quotation marks).

And please add the tag "HALLOWEEN 2025" (without the quotation marks)

Read Laurel's notice of the start of the contest sticky at the top of the Authors' Hangout (when it magically appears), before submitting and follow the instructions in that thread. I will keep an eye out for that information and update this page as soon as I see it (or as soon as someone points it out to me).

This thread is to SUPPORT and ENCOURAGE authors to enter stories in the 2025 Halloween Contest. For you new writers, this thread is a great place to meet your fellow authors and share ideas, tips, and tricks of the trade.

As Ogg always told us, there is an advantage to entering stories in one of Literotica's themed contests. Apart from the possibility of winning, your story gets far more exposure and attention than it would normally do.

Some of that attention might be unwelcome, some abusive, but this thread is a good place to vent after getting that kind of attention. Some of that attention could be appreciative and helpful and this thread is a great place to come and share those accolades.

It's that time! Bring out your masks, candies, and creepy accessories, and prepare to put a spell on your readership.

[plagiarized with prejudice from @Rustyoznail’s announcement from 2024]
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Looks like I missed it. I'm actually still working on one. I'll just hold it for next year.
 
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