What do readers in each category like and dislike?

[Paul_Chance]

There couldn't be. There's no way to capture the individual disparate likes and dislikes of the volume of readers on Literotica.

I'm with Keith on this one. It's way too subjective. A person could possibly take an academic approach, with very limited data, but I've never seen anyone go that far.

If you're trying to inform your own writing and you want to write for/to the audience, probably the best approach would be to do a deep dive into the highest rated stories in a category and break them down to distinct elements, such as length, etc., to ferret out the technical aspects of story telling that resonate in each category.

But, it will come back to this - the end result will be BAD. (Best Available Data).

 

[SimonDoom]

People have odd choices of fantasies.

Emily

That's certainly true. We agree about that.

 

[SimonDoom]

I'm with Keith on this one. It's way too subjective. A person could possibly take an academic approach, with very limited data, but I've never seen anyone go that far.

If you're trying to inform your own writing and you want to write for/to the audience, probably the best approach would be to do a deep dive into the highest rated stories in a category and break them down to distinct elements, such as length, etc., to ferret out the technical aspects of story telling that resonate in each category.

But, it will come back to this - the end result will be BAD. (Best Available Data).

I think there's a middle ground. On the one hand, yes, I completely agree that preferences are complex and subjective and one doesn't want to take too seriously what the "average" reader wants, because there may not be an average, and even if there is it's nothing more than an average.

But I don't think it's fruitless to read stories and read the responses of readers to try to understand what turns people on and why. I find it interesting for its own sake and I think it does inform my writing without compromising my artistic purposes. I also think that for newbie authors in particular it can be helpful to know the lay of the land here so they can make their artistic choices in as informed a way as possible.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Hmm. Ratings IMO are a poor indicator.

But whenever someone asks this question it is invariably to avoid bad ratings.

If you want a kick ass score, here's your plot:

1 ~ Write in anal.
~intro
2 ~ Have your male main ask his gf (the female main) to let him stick it in her ass.
3 ~ Have the gf protest because she thinks it's painful and/or gross.
4 ~ Have the bf argue some form of 'how can she know since she never tried?'
~instigating moment
5 ~ Have the gf huff, "Fine!"
~rising action
6 ~ Make the male main stick it in her ass.
~climax
7 ~ Make the gf cum everywhere.
~denouement
8 ~ Have the gf realize that anal is in fact the most amazing thing ever and question why she ever would have thought otherwise, then reward bf for showing her the truth.

Instant 4.9!

 

[FreyaGersemi]

If you want a kick ass score, here's your plot:

This needs to be a separate thread with plots for all the categories!! Clearly, I've been doing the "Literotica Author" thing all wrong!!!

 

[tenyari]

Lesbian Sex - Readers in this category prefer romance above all. Some light BDSM/spanking and such are well accepted, although, as Em said, fetishes in general are not as welcome. In general, more extreme fetishes will be punished but it's nothing serious. You will mostly lose on readership by introducing such elements rather than being rating-bombed.

SciFi/Fantasy - Readers in this category prefer a good fantastic story above everything else. Long/chaptered stories that include world-building, good characters, and plot, will be rewarded even without any sexual content, although the same as most other categories, certain sexual tropes such as incest, harem, breeding, futanari, and so on, will attract much more attention. It's a very positive category, one with very active readers when it comes to voting, although not that much when it comes to commenting.

Lesbian: Back before the Internet a relation of mine was a published author in the Lesbian scene and some of her stories would get rejected anytime any Lesbian character had a non-perfect character trait because 'only men are like that'. I've never written in the category but I suspect on a general site like this you will have readers who are lesbian or bi women, and you will have readers who have a 'lesbian fetish' akin to porn tropes. The two want radically different things.

SciFi/Fantasy: Yeah. There's intense diversity of themes within this category. First SciFi and Fantasy shouldn't usually be lumped together. They overlap often, but are also often very different. Inside the stories there are romances, survival-porn (the kink of counting calibers of ammo while your harem dotes on you on the other world you've been stranded on), short and long form, and so much more. Almost every other category on the site pops up in here randomly. All that said the readers seem to be willing regardless. That noted, I was just reading a long multi-chapter story from 4 years ago the other day and halfway through the author's chapters started to being with "you L/W people can F-off, this story wasn't for you, it's not in your theme, stop complaining about women who have agency." So... now and then you can get some weird I guess.

If you build up a fandom in SciFi/Fantasy your readers will leave hundreds of comments per chapter. The people who write long serials / novels all seem to end up with that. But if you write a story here or there or a few chapters every few years (like I do), you won't have that built in fanbase and the 'pass by' readers will vote but never say anything.

Exhibition / Voyeur is a lot like SciFi/Fantasy - the readers love long epic stories. They also tend to be nicer to their authors. They do however often like some harsh kinks around 'consent' and 'shame'... Romance very popular here, and softcore seems to work better than hardcore. On other sites, this category has a severe problem with the age of characters. Even here, there are an unusual number of 'just turned 18', 'still living at home', or 'somehow attending an all 18 year olds high school' stories - and these seem to attract comment happy readers like moths to a flame.

 

[KeithD]

But I don't think it's fruitless to read stories and read the responses of readers to try to understand what turns people on and why. I find it interesting for its own sake and I think it does inform my writing without compromising my artistic purposes. I also think that for newbie authors in particular it can be helpful to know the lay of the land here so they can make their artistic choices in as informed a way as possible.

It wouldn't mean anything to me that it turned readers on. If in such reading, it turned me on and I hadn't explored it yet in my writing, I probably would. That would be because of what turned me on, not because of what random readers indicated it turned them on.

 

[ElectricBlue]

This needs to be a separate thread with plots for all the categories!! Clearly, I've been doing the "Literotica Author" thing all wrong!!!

Here's a quick guide for you:

Something for Everyone

It's only 6k words - a vignette for every category.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

If you build up a fandom in SciFi/Fantasy your readers will leave hundreds of comments per chapter. The people who write long serials / novels all seem to end up with that.

It still depends on the sexual themes and tropes in the series. The themes that are popular in other categories are popular here as well and they will attract much more readers on average. There are readers who don't ordinarily read SciFi or Fantasy on Lit but they get pulled in by the sexual tags and kinks present in the story. If you don't write such popular sexual themes, you will pull in considerably fewer readers, those who are "native" to the SciFi&Fantasy category mostly. As everywhere else, some (many) will be put off if your sexual themes are niche, extreme, or contrary to the popular ones.
It's a great category though and my favorite by far.

 

[FreyaGersemi]

Here's a quick guide for you:

Something for Everyone

It's only 6k words - a vignette for every category.

Brilliant!!!

 

[RetroFan]

Exhibition / Voyeur is a lot like SciFi/Fantasy - the readers love long epic stories. They also tend to be nicer to their authors. They do however often like some harsh kinks around 'consent' and 'shame'... Romance very popular here, and softcore seems to work better than hardcore. On other sites, this category has a severe problem with the age of characters. Even here, there are an unusual number of 'just turned 18', 'still living at home', or 'somehow attending an all 18 year olds high school' stories - and these seem to attract comment happy readers like moths to a flame.

My only foray into E & V was with a story called 'Betty the All American Cock Tease' - and it was a total bomb, scoring badly and attracting only one negative comment, before somebody did leave a positive comment 18 months later. I've never been able to work out why this flopped so badly, especially as you mentioned the readers are easy to please and that they seem to like stories about 18 & 19 year olds, and Betty is aged 18. I just never could work out what went wrong with this story and why the readers disliked it as follows:

1. The story is set in 1948 in Maine and narrated by Betty - could the thought that Betty would now be in her 90s if still alive have put them off? Do they prefer only 'present day' stories?
2. Betty is a tomboy and the boy she likes to tease is Eric, an 18-year-old mama's boy who lives next door and has a crush on Betty. She does this by undressing with her bedroom curtains open and the bathroom window ajar when she is in there. Outside of the voyeurism, Betty is nice to Eric, who is a total wimp and completely controlled by his domineering mother and aunt while his father says nothing. Could the fact that the story is narrated by the woman who is being observed be what put readers off, do they prefer their stories narrated by the voyeur or in third person? Or could the fact that Eric is a weak young man and Betty much stronger in character put them off? Loving Wives readers hate wimps and simps appearing among the male characters in those stories, do E & V readers follow the same ways of thinking?
3. There is never any sexual activity between Eric and Betty, aside from seeing her partially dressed, naked and in the bathroom, as well as watching her bras and her panties drying on the clothes line. Is the 'payoff' in this category sex between the voyeur and the object of the voyeurism?
4. Betty has a serious boyfriend, with whom she is sexually active at lovers' lane. Could the notion that Betty is 'faux-cheating' by letting another guy see her naked and in her underwear be something readers don't like?
5. Betty is described as a cock tease in the title. Do readers dislike women who like to tease and not put out in this category, and prefer stories where the woman either doesn't know about the voyeurism or is fully in on it, sort of like a swingers' club scenario or dogging?
6. Not wanting to get political, but could the term 'All American' have been a factor? Perhaps given this and the setting in America many years in the past, readers thought I typed the story out while wearing a red 'Make America Great Again' hat and with a large painting of Donald Trump on the wall above me? Okay, I'm joking around with this one, but amazingly in IT I managed to offend readers with a story about an aunt and nephew who share right-wing, conservative political views and become secret lovers, so one never knows.

 

[tenyari]

@RetroFan None of those things seem atypical for the E & V genre.

 

[Voboy]

Mature likes someone to root for. They don't demand a HEA ending, but they do like some closure that's at least non-tragic. They're willing to invest time in a longer work, and they're happy to reward good writing.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Exhibition & Voyeur is an odd category. It's like opposite ends of the same spectrum, but there's not much balance. Most of the readers have voyeur kink but most of the stories are exhibitionist and the fewer voyeur stories usually don't do so well. One might think that it would be the other way around.

It's probably because (now this is just my speculation) that first voyeurs deep down know that their kink is creepy. On the other hand, if a girl (usually it's men watching girls) decides to just show off, the voyeur can still watch while being let off the creepy hook. If the girl is willingly indulging the voyeur in his kink, his hands are clean (insert pun here). But a voyeur story reminds the voyeur that he's being creepy and he doesn't like this, so he clicks out or downvotes, even though it's what he really wants. The truth is just too close to home.

And of course it would make sense that the voyeur kink writers would not write voyeur, they would write exhibition stories full of girl who just magically start showing off in public. Wow! What a wonderful world that is!

I could be wrong but it does add up.

 

[Rob_Royale]

Mature likes someone to root for. They don't demand a HEA ending, but they do like some closure that's at least non-tragic. They're willing to invest time in a longer work, and they're happy to reward good writing.

In the Mature category, I've had very good responses from my stories that feature relatable people, loving relationships being built, healthy sex, and a happy ending. A story where the older woman and young man stay together at the end, despite the issues an age gap can bring, is the cat's meow.

 

[StillStunned]

Exhibition & Voyeur is an odd category. It's like opposite ends of the same spectrum, but there's not much balance. Most of the readers have voyeur kink but most of the stories are exhibitionist and the fewer voyeur stories usually don't do so well. One might think that it would be the other way around.

It's probably because (now this is just my speculation) that first voyeurs deep down know that their kink is creepy. On the other hand, if a girl (usually it's men watching girls) decides to just show off, the voyeur can still watch while being let off the creepy hook. If the girl is willingly indulging the voyeur in his kink, his hands are clean (insert pun here). But a voyeur story reminds the voyeur that he's being creepy and he doesn't like this, so he clicks out or downvotes, even though it's what he really wants. The truth is just too close to home.

And of course it would make sense that the voyeur kink writers would not write voyeur, they would write exhibition stories full of girl who just magically start showing off in public. Wow! What a wonderful world that is!

I could be wrong but it does add up.

That's not been my experience at all. "Flesh for Fantasy" is one of my highest-rated stories, and even "Love at First Sight" has a respectable score.

 

[SimonDoom]

It wouldn't mean anything to me that it turned readers on. If in such reading, it turned me on and I hadn't explored it yet in my writing, I probably would. That would be because of what turned me on, not because of what random readers indicated it turned them on.

We're different in that respect. Which is fine. I admire the fact that you just do what you do without any hand-wringing.

 

[SimonDoom]

Exhibition & Voyeur is an odd category. It's like opposite ends of the same spectrum, but there's not much balance. Most of the readers have voyeur kink but most of the stories are exhibitionist and the fewer voyeur stories usually don't do so well. One might think that it would be the other way around.

It's probably because (now this is just my speculation) that first voyeurs deep down know that their kink is creepy. On the other hand, if a girl (usually it's men watching girls) decides to just show off, the voyeur can still watch while being let off the creepy hook. If the girl is willingly indulging the voyeur in his kink, his hands are clean (insert pun here). But a voyeur story reminds the voyeur that he's being creepy and he doesn't like this, so he clicks out or downvotes, even though it's what he really wants. The truth is just too close to home.

And of course it would make sense that the voyeur kink writers would not write voyeur, they would write exhibition stories full of girl who just magically start showing off in public. Wow! What a wonderful world that is!

I could be wrong but it does add up.

I think there's something to this. There are some voyeur stories that do very well, but they typically involve the consent and active involvement of the person (woman, usually) being watched. Some good examples are My Neighbor's Shenanigans by storm_usmc or the Saturday Night School series by Jessica_tang_vonharper. I find myself feeling this way. I'm working on a story about a man spying on his naked neighbor through a window, but the only way it works for me erotically is if the woman knows she is being spied on and willingly participates in the exhibition.

 

[KeithD]

We're different in that respect. Which is fine. I admire the fact that you just do what you do without any hand-wringing.

If it's a scenario that turns me on, I assume there will be enough others who would be turned on by it as well to justify writing it and putting it on offer. Re readers, I think I just assume there are readers for what I write.

 

[jehoram]

This is as good a summary answer to this question as I know of: https://literotica.com/s/love-your-readers-categories

If this isn't already a sticky somewhere, it should be.

 

[SimonDoom]

If it's a scenario that turns me on, I assume there will be enough others who would be turned on by it as well to justify writing it and putting it on offer. Re readers, I think I just assume there are readers for what I write.

I've found that this is, in fact, the case. When I write for myself as a reader, I think I probably write better, and as a consequence I probably do a better job of pleasing readers who want what I want. Based on the responses I've received, I think this view is justified.

 

[Paul_Chance]

I think there's a middle ground. On the one hand, yes, I completely agree that preferences are complex and subjective and one doesn't want to take too seriously what the "average" reader wants, because there may not be an average, and even if there is it's nothing more than an average.

But I don't think it's fruitless to read stories and read the responses of readers to try to understand what turns people on and why. I find it interesting for its own sake and I think it does inform my writing without compromising my artistic purposes. I also think that for newbie authors in particular it can be helpful to know the lay of the land here so they can make their artistic choices in as informed a way as possible.

I'd agree with you on this. I think there is value in reading other stories (here and out in the wilds) with a questioning eye. "What makes this story work?" "How did this author handle this...". Set's a person on a continuous improvement path. I don't think there's enough data points (or people investing enough actual hours in encoding and analyzing the data) to make any sort of conclusive statements about "the readers want X" in any category. Mostly what we get is subjective interpretations of what the readers want or don't want, usually in a way that strokes the writers ego. It seems to take one of two forms:

Either "The readers want X and I always deliver X therefore I'm a great writer."
Or "The readers want X but dammit I'm an (artist/original/deviant) so I give them Y and I'm great because I subvert the tropes!"

 

[FreyaGersemi]

I'm [a]... deviant

Aren't we all, though...?

 

[Paul_Chance]

LOL - without a doubt. Deviants one and all.

 

[FreyaGersemi]

Either "The readers want X and I always deliver X therefore I'm a great writer."
Or "The readers want X but dammit I'm an (artist/original/deviant) so I give them Y and I'm great because I subvert the tropes!"

And if you're able to hit that magical, illusionary target, it can be both!