In normal publishing of course promotion would be needed before you'd launch your work on the unsuspecting public but I took a gamble that since Literotica was dedicated to publishing the stories for free that hopefully some readers would click on my work and read it.
The key here is you'd be more inclined to seek out more stories by that author. That's how the reader base is built. I don't think the credentials matter, but I do think the brand/name matters. And building that kind of stuff takes time.
I see. That's a fair way to look at it. But even in Lit, there are millions of stories. Coming out with a story as an anonymous person without any promotion whatsoever? That's a tough scene. But promoting it in a bunch of places (Reddit, Twitter, Discord, etc.) and making friends is how I've seen authors get their work seen by more people.In normal publishing of course promotion would be needed before you'd launch your work on the unsuspecting public but I took a gamble that since Literotica was dedicated to publishing the stories for free that hopefully some readers would click on my work and read it.
If no read it and therefore rated it then the only assessment it would have received would have been from me and of course I think all my stories are 10/10
I mean, 133 followers is higher than some of us.
Agree if widespread exposure is the aim, it's prudent to link with other platforms and content producers etc but for me I just wanted to try it out, see if my work would cut the mustard at all and have a place to publish easily and with little hassle.
That's brave. Better than me for sure.
I mean, 15 months is a decent amount of time to accumulate clout. At least, if you're posting consistently.
Spending time doing homework and posting consistently is part of what I mean. Sticking with it takes time. You have to be in it long-term. That's building the clout. Building your name. It's not arriving in a puff of smoke and thinking you're the next hotshot. The new authors who think what you describe just don't consider or aren't willing to put in the time it takes to "make it."
Mhm. One of my drums: just write what you want. Scores can be useful indicators if a story works well/doesn't, and if there's an outlier, it's helpful to get feedback to see why that one, or to do some more thoughtful analysis. I'm here to brush up on my writing skills after 5 years away from writing, and to expose more people to non-human
the horror!). Could be a few different reasons, I did a lot differently in that story compared to the others, but I haven't gotten a clear reason why that might be, so I went to Story Feedback to see if anyone had any ideas if there was anything about the story itself, beyond maybe my attempts to expose more people to non-human, that made it deserving of the several 1s it's gotten. But, at the end of the day, even if I never truly know for sure (I suspect it's because I dared to stick my non-human degeneracy outside of where I'm "allowed" to post as a non-human writer*), it's a well-written story where I tried some new styles and voice, and the comments have been some of my favorite. That's fucking nifty.Additionally, I find it interesting when folks make it about what they do or do not deserve.
I reckon it takes two or three years to get real traction.
They are, though. If a story gets a Red H in the first few days, it will do demonstrably better than the title next to it, that doesn't.
Depends which side of the Red H it's on.
I agree, time and steady material make a difference, obviously, but spending time on "Figuring out what readers want" is a complete waste of time - unless you're a churn it out single category writer, but then, I don't think those folk agonise about it.
It's not that strange an angle. I've met a LOT of entitled writers, mentored a few, crushed their ego by letting them know they weren't the hot shit they thought they were (got me a yelling at by one). Some people think they're God's gift to writing, and get pissed off when even a single person shatters that illusion, whether that's somebody offering anything other than dick-sucking praise of their dumb short story or somebody daring to give them anything less than a 5 and rave comments on Lit. I'm talking generalities, not anybody in particular: it's a common enough phenomena.
It's helpful for us niche people to know the community. But I still maintain that you write what you want to write, and not force a story just to pander. It can help shape the idea to know what works best in the space, or, conversely, help you write subversions — which is what I'm working up to as I build up my writing muscles with more normative stories; I have one such subversion, not counting the fact I'm using species that don't normally show up in this space, but have several more in store.
From what I've seen, promotion helps. Some of the biggest authors I've seen have huge followings on Twitter and other sites. I can't imagine that makes little difference to their Lit viewership.
I wouldn't say it's a complete waste of time. Stories that don't appeal to the readers of the relevant category don't get high ratings. Stories that piss off readers of a relevant category get low ratings. Getting low ratings can hinder growth and increase the amount of time it takes to get clout.
I agree 100%. The theme of the story for the majority of the readers is more important than the construction. If the reader doesn't vibe with the theme, more than likely the rating will be lower.
