In one week, The Battle of Granite Falls got 95 reads and 6 faves.
In 15 HOURS, Lady Phantom Gets Her Man got 99 reads and 6 faves.
Of course, for all I know, the Keywords helped, since "Lady" had a lot more.
BTW, at some point I'm going to reformat all the stories a bit. When I learned to type, we were taught to put TWO spaces after sentence-ending punctuation, and that's what I do, totally unconsciously. But in an uploaded story, double spaces are turned into two nonbreaking spaces, which can mess up line breaks, AND really inflates the file size. So at some point I'm going to re-load every story with single spaces. I might also go and file the serial numbers off some of the references harder.
Update: As of now, 1 day, 16 hours after LPGHM went up, it's 99 to 144
2d 17h, 101-166
Two months later, 170-390, so it's slowing down.
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Watching: Nana to Kaoru OVA (LA)
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Eating: Homemade Veggie Stew
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Drinking: Coke
In my story writing, this is the approach I try to take, because I love writing sexy stories. Of course, I'm often not sure whether or not I've succeeded (partially or wholly), but I keep asking for feedback from readers, and so keep learning how to get better. I do want to get better at it.
And as important as feedback is to writing, when it comes to erotica, while you want to know if they enjoyed the story, sometimes they tell you a little too much about how they enjoyed it....
Yep, understood. "Feedback" ought not to include getting a copy of one's own story returned by a reader covered with suspicious stains (real or virtual)....
Your comment about amount of detail got me thinking hard about the erotica I've encountered on the web--especially in dA, but in other places as well (like Literotica and BDSM Library and Kristen's Korner). My first reaction was that level of detail wasn't the major issue, that poor writing skills were the biggest culprit. But on reconsideration I'm inclined to agree that, once the writing skills are in place, the ongoing tension between what the writer provides and what the reader provides is crucial to really good erotica. I'd add one thing: knowing when to put in more detail, and when to put in less, at various strategic points in any story. The "erotica writer as consummate tease" approach.
The funny thing is I'm working on a story set a hundred years before Dr. Mauser, and trying to capture that kind of style is pretty damned hard!
The thing that drives me batty reading fetish erotica is adjective abuse. "She slid on her tight black shiny latex opera length gloves, then laced up to tight shiny black latex corset over the tight shiny black latex catsuit." That and the cliches. Just once, I'd like to read a straitjacket story that doesn't say "her(or his) arms were pulled back into a tight self-hug." Or a mummification story that doesn't steal from the ancient "Wet Sheet Pack" story, which you can always tell by a reference to "feet were strapped into an exaggerated en-pointe position." For God's sake people, at least TRY to be original!
There are a number of studies done that test the two approaches for legibility, but the results are not straightforward, partly because other aspects of the printing have primary and secondary effects: font-size, serif vs. sans-serif, page formatting, kerning, etc., etc.
Still, I agree you'd do better by globally replacing the 2-spaces with 1-spaces. Using Find/Replace All does the trick for me.
Think about it for a second. You have two different buddies, and they're both telling you that a movie they just saw was absolutely fantastic. One was "Primer" and the other was "Jail House Hotties From Beyond Neptune". Which one do you think has the stronger recommendation, praise that is worth more? Which one makes you think your buddy is really impressed by something outstanding, and which one makes you think he's easily pleased?
Anyway, I can write both, and be happy that one story, while harder to approach, is full of dramatic tension and action, character development and a overall story arc, and that the other has the audience either fapping away or saying "Fuck man, you're too weird for me." As long as I'm pleased with what I did, it shouldn't really matter, right?
But damn, praise sure can be addictive if you let it go to your head.
And hey, if the smut gets more readers for my other work, so much the better.
And to steal a verse from Rush - "Anthem"
Live for yourself
There's no one else
More worth living for
Begging hands and bleeding hearts
Will only cry out for more