All Comments on 'Love Your Readers: Categories'

Please PM me if you prefer. You stated twice that you are one of the top 'favorited' writers on the site.

I don't dispute that. I am instead asking HOW you know that. I have looked for a way to tell how many favorites I have, not for a story, but as an AUTHOR and would appreciate any help in finding that out.

(Yes, I have an ego...and I am curious)

Outside of this one deviation, categorizing is one of the hardest things to gauge properly because once one goes into 'fantasy sex' which is what most of these stories embrace as a theme, one quickly crosses a whole bunch of lines.

I also believe in 'honorable mentions'. I don't particularly like incest stories, and appreciate when an author gives me a heads up that a story contains such elements...though others hide this to try for 'shock' value. Ditto when it comes to blatant harsh violence. Since most of my reading is in LW, there is a STRONG torture porn element there these days which involve the destruction of the wayward spouse.

Unless it is VERY well written, I don't like that. So if you have any of the top exempt categories up to Gay Male, I would definitely put an 'honorable mention' in the header.

Love your readers, make it easy for them to find your tale.

If it is a Chaptered saga, then Your readership will be lost if week one is in Wives, Week 2 is in Fetish, Week 3 in ... you get my point. because readers, and by this i mean Me, go to "New Stories", and in there search for "Fet", to bring up *Only* Fetish, because that's our bailiwick,

If you've changed classification from chapter 1 to 2, then my "Fet" Search will miss your BDSM-classified story completely.

And your Chaptered Saga, it is nice if the chapters are both Sequentially and Alphabetically in the same Order. Chap 1 Chap 02 Chap 003 will be listed as Chap 003 Chap 02 Chap1., alphabetically, and Disastrously. And Keep "Chap". Changing Mid-saga from "Chap" to "Chapter" is a recipe for disaster.

And Beware of the errant Full Stop ( usa=Period) in Chapter Headings. They'll mess up the order too.

Cheers

Kilroy

FD45: Check out the Favorites Portal:

http://www.literotica.com/stories/favoritesportalv2.php

It lists the stories and authors who've been 'favorited' the most times. You can view the top 250 favorited Authors, Stories and Poems. The current top 5 favorite authors are:

1. silkstockingslover (5251)

2. Goldeniangel (5014)

3. Tx Tall Tales (4624)

4. Many Feathers (4546)

5. alwayswantedto (4434)

I am writing a series and have kept every chapter in the Novels and Novellas category. The first chapter contained a paragraph, near the end, where a woman gives her sister a massage and the sister receiving the massage has an orgasm. I was told I had to, therefore, put the entire series in the Incest category. I have chosen, instead, to include a paragraph at the top of each chapter stating which sexual elements will occur in said chapter.

I feel that is a better choice. I'm glad I chose the right categories with my illustrations and my poem, also.

since i've thought several of your recent stories belonged in non-erotic because there's zero sex in them, but you won't put them in that category for whatever reason

@Anonymous - funny how you wrote this

Your comment had me wondering. I admit. Had I miscategorized my own stories? I reviewed all 18 stories I submitted this year, under 7 different categories, prior to this one. You are correct, that three of the stories had zero sex in them.

No Sex

9/9/13 - A Gift To Writers - How-To

8/2/13 - Love Your Readers - How-To

7/12/13 - A New World Record - Humor & Satire

The two other how-to's and the humor flash story had no sex. I believe they are still categorized correctly, although you may not find the humor story funny, it was meant to be.

My other 15 stories all had sex scenes. Some more than others. None would pass for 'PG-13' which is the Non-Erotic bar. Mr E and the Guilty Conscience is the only story I wrote in the last year, which may have fit under a different category better, possibly humor & satire. Marriage as a House had minimal detailed sex, but was clearly a 'LW' story. LW story categorization is broad, and a great many of the stories in the category have little or no sex. Much of LW is more dependent upon the scenario and story, then the actual sex scenes. I stand by my categorization.

There was one Anonymous comment (out of 142) for Mr E and the Guilty Conscience who thought it was miscategorized, and belonged in Non-Erotic. Perhaps that was you.

There was also one Anonymous comment (out of 89) for Heads I Win, Tails She Loses. Again suggesting it belonged in Non-Erotic. You again?

Sex Scenes

10/23/13 - That Old House - Erotic Horror

- lots

9/4/13 - Mr E and the Guilty Conscience - Loving Wives

- three scenes, not detailed

8/18/13 - Yes, I'm the Asshole - Humor and Satire

- several scenes, mixed level of detail

8/16/13 - Two Moms, Two Laps (5 chapters) - Incest Taboo

- lots and lots

8/7/13 - F2: We Gotta Stop Mom! - Chain Stories

- lots

8/6/13 - He Looked Like Me (1&2) - Loving Wives

- chapter 2 is not much else than one long sex scene

7/27/13 - Heads I Win, Tails She Loses - Loving Wives

- one scene, light detail

4/19/13 - Something... Talk About in Tx (1&2) - Loving Wives

- little in chapter 1, lots in chapter 2

4/15/13 - TxQ - 7 on 7 on 2 - Group Sex

- continuous

4/14/13 - Nature's Miracle - Group Sex

- lots

4/11/13 - Marriage as a House - Loving Wives

- one scene, moderate detail

4/8/13 - Eco-"Friendly" Cleaning - Loving Wives

- lots

1/17/13 - Gamer Goddess(1-3) - Exhib/Voy & Group Sex

- lots

2/07/13 - That Damned Valentines Day Card - Loving Wives

- lots

1/21/13 - The Luckiest Man in the World - Loving Wives

- lots

I'm not sure if you just didn't read the stories, are looking for wall-to-wall sex in everything, or if this was just a drive-by troll comment. If you'd like to specify the stories you were talking about, I'd love to hear it. If you just want all LW tales to be stories about swinging and cuckolding, you're missing out on a large portion of the category.

From what little I have been able to stomach from the "Queen of RACC" writers is that she consistently fails to warn the reader of the impending emasculation to her current male protagonist.

A simple warning: "To anybody with balls, don't read this story as it will disgust you."

See? How difficult was that?

Good article, Tex. One further caveat regarding the NonCon/Reluctance category needs to be mentioned. The only stories that should go in there are those in which the victim is female and the aggressor is male. It's not a site rule, but readers will punish authors submitting stories where the aggressor is female and the victim is male. Those stories should go in Fetish. Thank Laurel for the Fetish category, where it's safe to be a freak. As for those stories that are M/M or F/F? I don't know.

This made me evaluate a lot of what I've seen in Lesbian Sex. Vampires or elves occasionally do well and even bad writing usually gets a 3.75-4.00 with a plug for the editor program, but a whiff of MF in the story gets it torn to shreds.

Someone called TripleL wrote a series with 11 parts in EC, GS, E&V, BDSM, and FT. The story follows a college stud and his fantastic conquests, and each part received 4.30-4.75, (lowest in BDSM). He put a chapter in Lesbian Sex for 3.15. It got blasted by category readers and defended by fans of the series.

It was essentially jealous hate sex between two of the stud's lovers while they washed off his "essence" in the bathroom. No man took part in that specific scene, but it was still about him. The quality of writing didn't change and his fans liked it. (Oddly, the negative comments seemed to come from angry guys.) Each negative comment said the category was the issue. Rule of thumb: if your characters display an interest in engaging in MF, put the story in something else for ratings.

Nod to Tex, the only other category TripleL took below 4.30 was a 2.62 in Loving Wives.

Though I don't have a strong opinion in fact a well written stories about step-relations, or in-laws are fun. I've read comments flaming the author for placing those stories in the incest category, if they don't sex between those related by blood. Pseudo-incest is a category used on commercial sites such as Amazon which has very oppressive censors and policies. IMHO they still belong in the incest/TABOO category

Thx for this and all your writing!

Stop it! We want the next 2 moms 2 laps chapter!!! And you idiot sheeple STOP giving 5 stars to a non-story...it's NOT HOT!!!! Fucken dumbassses!!!! 3 months wait! Arrrrrrrrghgghhhh!!!!

This is a subject that has long been a source of confusion for me. I still don't understand it as well as I would like but you have lifted the veil a bit. I certainly understand it now better than I did before. Thanks again for sharing your insight.

Are you going to do something on title and tags?

BTW, I don't know if anyone else has mentioned this, but you mentioned the "complexity is exasperated," when I believe you meant "exacerbated."

Good information and great presentation. Thanks.

You said in your discussion on Loving Wives that it needed a whole posting totally unto it's self , and I wholeheartedly agree !

If you have been keeping up with that category , then you know that it's fallen into a virtual Civil war amongst the authorship , readership , and especially both of them in the comments section .

The two leading factions , the so called BTB ' ers and the Hotwife /Swingers/ Willing Cuckold' s are at each others throats !

There are many Trolls who are fomenting anger on both sides , but their's also Cadre's of honest fans of both genres , and a few lesser clans ( RAAC) that also have their point of view on what actually constitutes what story lines belong in the category .

I truly wish you would post another of your knowledgeable essays on what stories actually belong their , and which should be posted in other categories .

Thank you , and I hope you will consider my proposal .

I know you wrote this to help the writers, but I can see this helping the readers, too. If both groups paid attention to categories, I believe that it would help keep things moving smoothly within the Lit world.

I agree with Crkcppr about needing another chapter to discuss Loving Wives category. I would be very interested in your take on the category.

I know that I'm commenting a long time after this was written, but this has already been a big help.

Thanks again!

This is excellent advice and insight, thanks for taking the time to share it

I have long been frustrated as to why an author is restricted to just one category, I'm sure I am not the only author who feels their story belongs in more than one and may lose readership because of it. Certainly tags may help but that is still relying on people searching by Tags. A simple example would be a story about, four lesbians having sex while being spanked and tied up insert some panty play/sniffing and you have a story that belongs in:-

Lesbian

Group Sex

BDSM

Fetish

I struggle to believe in this day and age of technology that it is not possible to allow for multiple category choice when submitting.

Thanks for writing this. Even though it has been around a while, it's still very helpful today.

This is incredibly helpful, particularly the info about Exempt and Trump categories.

Thank you. I have made the mistake of miss-categorizing stories and your section on which category is trump is very helpful.

How do I recategorize/re-tag my story after publishing it, to be more in line with these guidelines?

I believe this might be outdated. I have two incest femdom series. One has gone in BDSM/Fetish, the other in Incest. I’ve received no objection to incest in the BDSM/Fetish classified. Very vocal and aggresive objection to the femdom in the Incest classified. So “trump” hierarchy would seem to be wrong.