Writer Awards - From Authors instead of Readers

[BobbyBrandt]

I'm sympathetic to what you're aiming for here, but I'm not sure "has written stories in this genre" is a good litmus test for that familiarity. Plenty of people write in BDSM and/or Lesbian with zero real-life experience in those topics. Sometimes their stories do quite well, especially with readers who also don't have that experience.

(One hopes that in categories such as Incest and Erotic Horror, neither the authors nor the readers have RL experience.)



I don't think that's entirely fair. We have our frictions, as does any large social group, but plenty of peer support does happen here too. We have countless discussions on these forums on things like writing technique, finer points of grammar and vocabulary, the nitty-gritty of the story process here, options for selling one's work, authors offering feedback on one another's work, people organising story events, and so forth.

No argument. I just think that individually and collectively we can do better if there was a will to do so.

The admins here shouldn't be the discouragement to writers being more supportive and receiving greater peer recognition for their contributions, which it appears from a lot of the comments, is exactly the case.

 

[MelissaBaby]

No argument. I just think that individually and collectively we can do better if there was a will to do so.

The admins here shouldn't be the discouragement to writers being more supportive and receiving greater peer recognition for their contributions, which it appears from a lot of the comments, is exactly the case.

I don’t see how the admins are discouraging anyone from being supportive of other authors.

If you believe some sort of awards competition would be helpful, you could post polls and do it yourself.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Has this ever been done on Literotica?

I'm referring to awards for writers of stories here as determined solely by their peers. We could even go so far as to stipulate that in order to vote for writers in a category, the voting author must have posted at least one story in the same category. (This would be similar to how major awards such as the Oscars recognize peers in their crafts.)

Nominations for the Oscars are done by Academy peers, while the general membership does voting. This is the reason most actors, writers, and directors state the nomination is more important to them personally than the win. And by the way, a small minority of actors, directors, writers, and others in the business belong to The Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences. Just as a minority of western authors are in the Western Writers of America or other genre writers belonging to the writing organizations for the different genres.

 

[TadOverdon]

Writer's envy is an idiom for a reason.
No group is more insecure and less supportive than writers. Certainly on this site.
A writer will praise his peer only after his death.

The exception is a team.
They lick each other's asses in public. Tit for tat.
Dozens unfollowed me and disfavored my stories because I didn't reply in the same currency. Disgusting.

Oh, go to Hell.

 

[lovecraft68]

A lovely idea in conception. Likely to be an epic shitshow in execution.

Shit show is putting it mildly.
The whining would be legendary.

 

[lovecraft68]

And by the way, I suspect that a majority of votes in the Readers Choice Awards are cast by authors.

And their alts in some cases.

 

[lovecraft68]

No argument. I just think that individually and collectively we can do better if there was a will to do so.

The admins here shouldn't be the discouragement to writers being more supportive and receiving greater peer recognition for their contributions, which it appears from a lot of the comments, is exactly the case.

The problem is fragile egos.

I go back to someone wanting to start an AH Hall of Fame to reward authors who have been here a long time, been contributors to the forum and have had story success. So, like you're suggesting, a way to reward your peers. It turned into a thread of people whining about why should someone get something they can't have, even though they've done a lot more to earn it...

The nomination process for this would be a nightmare, the nominated stories will get bombed to oblivion, the thread here will be full of complaints, snark and accusations. We already have proof one author here fluffs their stories, so its not unheard of.

There are cliques here, circles of friends....and of course the most important thing of all, everything is subjective. Let 10 authors review the same story and get 10 different opinions.

I don't need the validation of my peers, and my peers here do not need my validation.

Nothing good will come of this.

 

[Emotional]

Oh, go to Hell.

You dont agree? I see this all the time.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Dozens unfollowed me and disfavored my stories because I didn't reply in the same currency. Disgusting.

You were unfollowed and disfavored because of your off-the-wall, discourteous, and hateful remarks to others.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I support the idea, even though I share much of the concern expressed. Writers are a vain bunch in general and yeah, it would hurt some egos and we would be reading essays here, coming from hurt feelings and egos. Then again, I feel that we might be too negative about all this and trying it could be educational and it could maybe result in something good, something we are unable to predict, despite all our glorious wisdom. As Albert Einstein said, "A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new." Maybe we shouldn't be so afraid of making mistakes.

 

[MillieDynamite]

The Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts, and Science has 9,500 eligible to vote out of 10,000 total members. While SAG represents approximately 160,000 actors, narrators, and other related acting professionals. So, a very small percentage of motion picture professionals belong to AMPAS.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I wouldn't be upset with any winner. I have no delusions about being a popular or massively talented writer. I feel more like one who is adequate for the task, not one who is brimming with talent. There would need to be a nomination procedure, a voting requirement, and a site dedicated to those who would do the voting to do so with a measure of anonymity. I think that another website has such a process in place for yearly winners of what is called the Cilt or Clitorides Awards!

 

[AwkwardlySet]

We already have proof one author here fluffs their stories, so its not unheard of.

You gotta explain the term to me. I know what fluffing is, but fluffing a story...?

 

[lovecraft68]

You gotta explain the term to me. I know what fluffing is, but fluffing a story...?

Using an alt to comment on their own stories. Going on and on about how 'the author' is so great, and its actually them saying it. So in a sense its the fluffing you're think of....self fellating is pretty much what it is.

But in addition to be pathetic, its also sketchy because it boosts the number of comments and is a way to try and get others to read the story. I suppose if voting on your own story-at least the once we're allowed to, is okay, I suppose Lit doesn't care if someone does this, but its pretty telling if anyone finds out.

 

[TadOverdon]

You were unfollowed and disfavored because of your off-the-wall, discourteous, and hateful remarks to others.

"Discourteous" is quite a circumspect characterization.

Let's hope we get to their crybaby meltdown and demands to have their account cancelled a little more briskly this time.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Using an alt to comment on their own stories. Going on and on about how 'the author' is so great, and its actually them saying it. So in a sense its the fluffing you're think of....self fellating is pretty much what it is.

But in addition to be pathetic, its also sketchy because it boosts the number of comments and is a way to try and get others to read the story. I suppose if voting on your own story-at least the once we're allowed to, is okay, I suppose Lit doesn't care if someone does this, but its pretty telling if anyone finds out.

Creating an alt to praise your own stories seems incredibly silly to me, as you are not selling your product here, you are giving it for free, so what exactly is gained there? I feel it is unlikely that any author here would judge anyone's story differently if they saw a comment from some registered reader, so it's not about that. Is it done simply to create an impression for the ordinary readers who would rate or comment on your story, to try to sway their minds and rate the story better? Wow.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Creating an alt to praise your own stories seems incredibly silly to me, as you are not selling your product here, you are giving it for free, so what exactly is gained there? I feel it is unlikely that any author here would judge anyone's story differently if they saw a comment from some registered reader, so it's not about that. Is it done simply to create an impression for the ordinary readers who would rate or comment on your story, to try to sway their minds and rate the story better? Wow.

It is an incredibly childish thing for a person to do right up there with downvoting to hurt someone else's scores. But it does happen.

 

[lovecraft68]

Creating an alt to praise your own stories seems incredibly silly to me, as you are not selling your product here, you are giving it for free, so what exactly is gained there? I feel it is unlikely that any author here would judge anyone's story differently if they saw a comment from some registered reader, so it's not about that. Is it done simply to create an impression for the ordinary readers who would rate or comment on your story, to try to sway their minds and rate the story better? Wow.

The answer is most likely having such insecurity that you need to see validation even if it comes from yourself. I suppose I could see someone doing a fake review in a place where you're selling to drum up sales, I still wouldn't do it, but you can somewhat see the motivation. Doing it here is just...sad, but in this case pretty damn funny because the person runs around all full of themselves and now some of us just laugh and role our eyes everything we see them making more fake claims about themselves

 

[Voboy]

No argument. I just think that individually and collectively we can do better if there was a will to do so.

But IS there a will to do so?

 

[MillieDynamite]

Where there is a will, there is a way, and many poisons have a very short half-life, so the odds of getting caught are very slim.

 

[Euphony]

The answer is most likely having such insecurity that you need to see validation even if it comes from yourself. I suppose I could see someone doing a fake review in a place where you're selling to drum up sales, I still wouldn't do it, but you can somewhat see the motivation. Doing it here is just...sad, but in this case pretty damn funny because the person runs around all full of themselves and now some of us just laugh and role our eyes everything we see them making more fake claims about themselves

Never underestimate the power of self delusion.

If you can convince yourself you've been targeted/cancelled, whatever you like to call it, you are merely rebalancing the score, not invalidating the data.

Lit has had some real cases over my time here. And they weren't as shy about it as they are (mostly) today.

 

[MillieDynamite]

The quality of any person's work is in the mind of any specific reader. The proclivity of kink covered, desire for the characters (or lack thereof), love or hatred of the scene, self-identification positively or negatively of mc, racial prejudice for or against characters, feelings about the author (real or imagined). Just saying the quality of the writing isn't what we judged are judged on here. Pure shit writing can be loved if it fills a need. A wordsmith with magic in his or her writing can be hated if they venture into the wrong crowd.

EDIT
Wrong fucking thread, oops,