The Official Authors' Hangout Winter Holidays 2025 Support Thread

[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

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I went for both a boring-sounding title if you don't get to see the tagline (and possibly even if you do), and a less-read category (BDSM).

So after a couple weeks Last Christmas has 4.2k views and now 28 votes, two recent ones being 1s so that's lowered the score a lot. It's very easy to track votes when you only get one or two a day.

I don't think there was a better category, though. Nor title, really, so there we are.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Update: at least one 1 swept away and score back up... Ooh, the excitement!

 

[WittyUserName]

Well, my story is live. https://literotica.com/s/firelight-at-snowcap-ridge 4.32. Ouch. :/

 

[SamanthaBehgs]

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.

It took me a long while to hit 25 votes. Could it be the holiday? Maybe. But we also have a comparable number of followers so I wonder if you'll follow the same trajectory I did. It's why I ended up submitting so early for this one, giving myself the time to slowly pick up the votes to make sure I at least had enough to qualify (I need to get far better at writing to win, but qualifying was nice especially since I wrote in a category that wasn't even permitted - poetry - for my first ever entry).

 

[MegaTank]

Sweep came in, my story got a whole one vote shaved off. So much for getting a kick up into hot...

Is that the last of the entries in, or might there still be one or two stragglers out there?

 

[WittyUserName]

Sweep came in, my story got a whole one vote shaved off. So much for getting a kick up into hot...

Is that the last of the entries in, or might there still be one or two stragglers out there?

None of the votes were removed from my story yet. I think I read someone saying their story was coming out tomorrow. I might be wrong, but I think we might have a couple more entries coming in.

 

[YmaOHyd]

I didn't get anything removed either.

 

[cw5523729]

I lost one vote and gained .02 points, pushing me up to 4.47

Lit is such a tease sometimes...

 

[cw5523729]

It took me a long while to hit 25 votes. Could it be the holiday?

Somehow my holiday entry got more votes in 2 weeks than any other story I've submitted. And it did so with the generic category of EC and the fact that I fucked up the tags due to my haste to get it submitted before the deadline.

 

[dreams_in_words]

Anyone else finally got their 25 votes to be tied for 4th place?