The Official Authors' Hangout Winter Holidays 2025 Support Thread

[WittyUserName]

I'm waiting on a posting date. I wish I had gotten mine in earlier. The reason to enter is to get more views. Firelight at Snowcap Ridge is still pending.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

An unusual number? My Xmas story went live a few days ago in Romance and things seem slow, so I checked some similar Xmas romance stories submitted around that time.

Favorites and Comments and Votes are driven by the quality of the story. I tend to use lots of history, culture, and nature, so along with my humble writing skills, I accept that readers bailed out before reaching the end.

My score is OK, with a Red H, so I looked at similar Red H stories near mine, and found big differences in Reads. One story had 4x the number of reads. But that author has 5000 followers. Another story had 2x the number of reads, but the author has half the followers that I do.

So what explains that? Same category, same submission date. It has a slightly higher score. Well deserved, it’s good. But not significant. So what else?

Do readers say - Ewww! It’s a Jorunn story! And skip it?

Or perhaps, it shows how important your title and one line description are in attracting (or not) readers. Food for thought.

I suspect title plays a big factor.
If people look at the list the title is going to sell it.

 

[dreams_in_words]

There were a few I avoided based on title alone. Then read some because of glowing recommendations

 

[Voboy]

Back in the old days, when contests were a bit more predictable, there were usually a few sweeps that went through, deepening each time before the final whopper just before the checkered flag.

I bring that up today because the first sweep used to go through about now, during the first or second day after submissions closed. Then you could expect a second with about 3-5 days left before the winners were announced.

The last couple of contests... well, let's just say they haven't worked quite that way.

 

[TurinTurambar]

I suspect title plays a big factor.
If people look at the list the title is going to sell it.

From my experience title is a major influence on number of views. I submitted two stories to this contest. The first reached 12k views easily on it's first day. The second has barely gotten over 10k on it's fourth day. Both stories were in the same category, so that is not a factor for this. The first story had Sorority in the title, which I suspect was the reason it received so many more views right away.

 

[SamanthaBehgs]

Back in the old days, when contests were a bit more predictable, there were usually a few sweeps that went through, deepening each time before the final whopper just before the checkered flag.

I bring that up today because the first sweep used to go through about now, during the first or second day after submissions closed. Then you could expect a second with about 3-5 days left before the winners were announced.

The last couple of contests... well, let's just say they haven't worked quite that way.

When sweeps happen, do the total number of "votes" reflect that? Like, do you see suddenly that you have fewer votes? Or does your score just change?

 

[old_prof]

When sweeps happen, do the total number of "votes" reflect that? Like, do you see suddenly that you have fewer votes? Or does your score just change?

yes that is the easiest way to tell.

 

[Actingup]

Mixed results with two stories in the competition, but I’ll take it. The ‘Jade’ story got heavily bombed immediately when it came out a couple of days ago - it was never going to win anything, but that was still annoying for all the reasons we always discuss.

The other one can’t win anything because statistically it’s almost impossible to do that from Loving Wives, but the engagement was out of sight!

 

[old_prof]

Like ActingUp, I'm not going to win this time either.
One story was not a serious entry but it was from a joke (maybe earlier on this thread) about a Mommy sat in my lap story.

The other story, which I liked, was doomed by my FMC, apparently, because too many people found her too much of a bitch. I had maybe half a dozen comments that essentially said "I liked the story, but she was too much of a bitch, so I stopped reading." I still like you Jenny even if they are mean to you.

And it's dropped another 0.02 rating since the site decided to render it as effectively unreadable. At least I wasn't going to win with it anyway.

But I had a great week of engagement (my How To broke out of purgatory in the middle of the week) for all three stories (two for this contest). I can't believe I got 80K views for 4 hours f writing/editing, but I still feel disgusted at myself for writing it. And one commenter (I hope he was joking) said it made him think about the first time with his mother. Cringe.

 

[TheLobster]

I can't believe I got 80K views for 4 hours f writing/editing, but I still feel disgusted at myself for writing it. And one commenter (I hope he was joking) said it made him think about the first time with his mother.

I see you got the taste of both the best and the worst parts of T/I.

 

[TheLobster]

I suspect title plays a big factor.
If people look at the list the title is going to sell it.

Welp, now I realize that calling my story Shannon’s Big Helper might’ve misled people as to what’s big in there…

 

[Fatdog25]

"Christmas Rayne" was approved and will go live on December 8th.

I really need to work on my time management skills...

 

[Voboy]

When sweeps happen, do the total number of "votes" reflect that? Like, do you see suddenly that you have fewer votes? Or does your score just change?

Usually, but not always. Particularly if you're checking daily, instead of refreshing every ten seconds like I know a lot of folks do: the sweep removes votes, and that is reflected in your total, but oftentimes people then cast new votes before you can check, driving your count back up. So you won't really know how deeply the sweep cut into your total.

Very often, I've stopped in here to hear from other people that a sweep went through. So I've checked my story, only to find that there might be one fewer vote but a MASSIVE change in the score. When that happens, I don't think a single one-vote was swept; I think a number (x) of questionable votes were broomed, but then another number (x-1) were submitted. And if those were all fives, there'll be an unduly dramatic effect on the score I'd seen the day before.

 

[ChloeTzang]

"Christmas Rayne" was approved and will go live on December 8th.

I really need to work on my time management skills...

Yup. Mine goes live on the 8th too.

Does anyone else have a story that's still pending with no publication date? If you could check and drop the story name here if it was submitted and no publication date showing, I will chase again again

@TexasLark
@anthonyrevere

 

[WriterPerson314159]

Hoping that everyone who submitted, regardless of the vote score or the category, is reaching new readers and bringing joy, arousal, entertainment, and/or inspiring thoughts in someone out there.

 

[WittyUserName]

Yup. Mine goes live on the 8th too.

Does anyone else have a story that's still pending with no publication date? If you could check and drop the story name here if it was submitted and no publication date showing, I will chase again again

@TexasLark
@anthonyrevere

My story also goes live on the 8th. Firelight at Snowcap Ridge. Just got the date a couple hours ago.

 

[Purechicanery]

Those comments are our karmic retribution for writing mum fucking stories. The universe is a cruel but fair mistress.

(I tried to add a quote from the last page but my browser didn't like it so now this looks like a bizarre non sequitur oh no)

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Those comments are our karmic retribution for writing mum fucking stories. The universe is a cruel but fair mistress.

(I tried to add a quote from the last page but my browser didn't like it so now this looks like a bizarre non sequitur oh no)

If a bizarre non sequitur belongs anywhere it's the AH.

 

[secretLace]

I posted mine 22nd november, fingers crossed it make it before christmas. My last one was held for over 40 days.

 

[TexasLark]

My story also goes live on the 8th. Firelight at Snowcap Ridge. Just got the date a couple hours ago.

Mine came out yesterday and I'm pleased so far. Thank you for your help! (intended for Chloe.Tzang...)

 

[srosa]

Yup. Mine goes live on the 8th too.

Does anyone else have a story that's still pending with no publication date? If you could check and drop the story name here if it was submitted and no publication date showing, I will chase again again

@TexasLark
@anthonyrevere

Hi Chloe, I also submitted a story for the contest (on the last day, I confess). It has no publication date. It's called "Her Scarf". I did put "WINTER HOLIDAY 2025" in the note to admin field in accordance of the guidelines.

P.S. Hope you've been well, and that someone's keeping the coffee brewing with our dear Tex gone.

 

[TruthwithaTwist]

Submitted my story for Holidays “Heating up the Holiday Town”. Weird thing(s) on this one - low views, ZERO comments, 2nd lowest ratings of all my stories. I feel like it’s in the usual category for me, similar style, submitted midway through contest, wondering why the huge variance.

And no, I’m not staying up nights, sitting in darkness with sad Christmas music playing as I worry and sulk … just legitimately curious on this one. My biggest thought - the title. Struggled with a good one - perhaps should have kept thinking!

(Maybe I should have lied & made the main female character my sister and submitted in a different category. )

 

[ChloeTzang]

Hi Chloe, I also submitted a story for the contest (on the last day, I confess). It has no publication date. It's called "Her Scarf". I did put "WINTER HOLIDAY 2025" in the note to admin field in accordance of the guidelines.

P.S. Hope you've been well, and that someone's keeping the coffee brewing with our dear Tex gone.

I've PM'd Laurel

 

[Jimisnob]

Here is my entry: Making a Very Good Hanukkah .
It’s my 5th story and 4th contest. I enjoy the contests mostly to give me a creative head start be conforming to the theme. And I noticed that the volume of views was substantially larger than my one stand alone pub.

But this time, the view volume is the large (already 3K+) but after a week only 8 scored. So wondering if its the topic; maybe people don’t identify with that holiday, so they move on. Or is it the system not keeping up. I noticed it took till today for it to show that I had 5 stories on my bio even though it was clearly published last week. At this rate, I won’t have enough votes to be a contender, which is not really a big deal, but just curious what’s the deal.

 

[Purechicanery]

Hmmm it seems like my story ( https://www.literotica.com/s/a-kiss-for-luck ) is still not in the Christmas stories list. I'm pretty positive I correctly tagged it.

EDIT: ok now it's there thanks