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How To Break the Literotica Toplist

Have you ever wondered why some authors seem more popular than others? Why do some stories get so many views and votes, while others languish without the hope of a little red "H"? Why does it seem easier to get into the toplists in some categories but impossible in others? Is there some secret formula for writing a popular story?

Yes, actually, there is—at least to some degree. Every category at Literotica has its own essential theme, something that a majority of readers are looking for when they click on a story. These vary, of course, but just as there are real examples to fill any stereotype, there are formulas and reader expectations that apply to stories in each category. So if you're a writer who's always wondered how to break into the "toplists" on Literotica, read on!

First of all, I want you to note that the following advice is about how to write popular stories. I didn't necessarily say the most literary, or the best. We all know the books which make it to the NY Times Bestseller lists aren't always the most well-written or important, and so the stories that make it to Literotica's "toplists" aren't always, either. They just happen to appeal to the masses. This is a guide that will tell you what's popular and how to make your stories conform more to those guidelines so you'll be likely to draw in more readers.

Secondly, everything that I'm about to say is a huge generalization. Of course there are exceptions, and none of these are true 100% or even 99% of the time. All I'm doing here is trying to give you an idea of what most readers want, so as a writer, if you want to cater to readers in order to write a more popular story, you can. This guideline, then, by no means encompasses all of Lit's readership, and sometimes categories are split almost 50/50, making them even more difficult to navigate and readers harder to please.

Literotica "Toplists" consist of the first 75 highest ranked stories in each category. If your name is anywhere on that page, you will be much more likely to have your story—and any other stories you write—read by more people. If that's something you long for, then knowing what most readers want is going to help you write a story that appeals to the masses. Each category, though, has its unwritten rules and requirements, and not all of them are obvious. So, let's delve into what a majority of the readers are really looking for in each category...

Anal

Readers in this category want long, detailed, lurid descriptions of anal sex. I know, I know, that seems so obvious—but haven't you read stories in this category that are pretty much just a normal sex story with only a paragraph or two tacked on at the end, like an afterthought, where the anal sex actually occurs? That won't fly here if you want a popular story. Anal readers are... well... anal! They want the details, every last one, including long, preferably realistic descriptions of how it's done and how it feels. If you can do that, you'll rock the anal reader's world. Some authors on the toplist to look at: selenakittyn's Unfolding series for the female's view of anal and Mindfiend's Ass-ignation, for excellent, detailed descriptions.

BDSM

True sadism and masochism aren't often topics found in this category on Literotica. Popular stories are primarily varying versions and degrees of the domination/submission aspect of BDSM. The most popular stories explore the dom/sub relationship, how it manifests and how it looks and feels. Techniques and tricks and toys (which are all part of the BDSM world) are good, but secondary to the emotion and connection between the dom and the sub. If you want two good examples of BDSM, check out A Good Student by Dr_Mabeuse or The Birdcage by Ohida.

Celebrities

This is one of the least read categories on all of Literotica. Celebrity fantasies tend to be very hit and miss, and their success is usually dependent on whether or not your reader has a fantasy about the particular celebrity you're writing about. So the key is: write about celebrities who are popular and hot. Of course, that's a broad range, since everyone's tastes are so different. My suggestion for this category, if you want to be on the toplist, is to know your subject, whatever it is, and write a real story. Don't just write a scene where the names could be changed, and instead of Sarah Michelle Gellar, it could be anyone having sex. This works best for fanfic stories, like the popular Buffy the Vampire Slayer series. Mindfiend writes excellent Buffy stories—his voice is accurate and dead on. That's key when writing in celebrities. See his Buffy and the Corruptor story in the celebrity toplist for a sample.

Chain Stories

This is another low-read category, but the good news is, if you're involved in a chain, you'll at least get views and votes from the other chain members. If it's a big chain, you'll get lots of views and votes and most of them will be good (because the other authors won't want you to vote their story down when it comes time to post their own.) Most chain stories start with authors seeking a challenge, and they're more for writers than for readers. That said, there are good chain stories out there. So the best way to write a popular chain story is to get involved with a good chain, preferably a large one. These are found most often in the Author's Hangout, but there is a Chain Story Directory you can check on the Survivor board for contestants. Ordinary Lit readers are more likely to read your story if there are well-known authors in the chain, or if there is a title and theme that attracts them. It's helpful to have an original idea with broad appeal. A good example of a recent chain like this is the Laresa's World series.

Erotic Couplings

This is the missionary position, the catch-all category of Literotica—if it doesn't fit anywhere else, writers put it here. Readers in erotic couplings are mostly looking for a good quality story with a sensual, erotic sex scenario. This is almost like the softcore porn channel of Lit—the hardcore stuff here is going to most likely get voted down. Things usually not liked in this category: m/m or f/f pairings (which should go in gay male and lesbian, respectively). "Couplings" in this case means hetero, if you want to write a popular story in this category. Look at Goodbye La La Land by MLyons.

Gay Male

In spite of the category name, don't assume your audience consists only of gay men. They aren't the only people reading this category—there are many bicurious men out there, and believe it or not, lots of women adore this category. You have to be familiar with and know the ins and outs (ha, pun intended) of hot, sexy man-love. There's a strong, physical aspect to gay erotica, a lusty sort of passion, whether it's a story involving emotion and love, an in-depth exploration of sexuality, or a quickie in a parking lot. Whatever story you want to tell, in order to write something popular in this category, you need to make it hot, physical, and descriptive. An excellent example of something from gay male to look at is Sweet Music by Tom Collins.

Group Sex

A very popular category on Literotica, but in spite of the name, it really isn't about "group" sex, in the sense of orgies. There is the odd gangbang or swinger type of story, but really, the most popular stories here are threesomes, and it's primarily the female/female/male version that readers want. There are some male/male/female versions, but if you're going to write one of those, I'd suggest a disclaimer at the top, because there are readers out there who might be offended by the gay male aspect of such a story outside of the gay male category—and don't expect it to make it to the toplist. A popular story in this category should have two women, one man, and will suspend the reader's disbelief that jealousy and fear aren't an issue for any of the people involved in the three-way. Remember, Lit readers want a fantasy, not what might really happen in that situation. Usually these stories involve a couple who adds a third (often the wife's best friend) and leaves the reader with a warm fuzzy feeling at the end. A good example of a group sex story from the toplists is King Size Bed by strickland83.

How To

The most popular how-to's are easily readable, humorous, contain personal examples, show the writer's personality, and are about sex. There are exceptions, of course, but if you really want a shot at the toplist in this category, you'll follow that sort of formula. You also really need to know your subject or have done your research, because if you have errors in your how-to, readers will let you know it! BatsandGlamour writes great how-to's, and his Breaking the Rules of Sex & Marriage currently sits at number one on the how-to toplist as I write this.

Humor and Satire

This is a tough category, because humor is such a personal experience. Everyone's idea of what's funny tends to be different, so it's hard to tell you how to "make it funny." There honestly isn't a formula for this one. You can't appeal to the masses. Your best hope is to write what you think is funny and then post it and cross your fingers! Your response will probably be relatively small, but people who "get" your sense of humor will give you positive feedback, I'm sure. I'm not even going to attempt to give you an example in this category...!

Illustrated

If humor is one of the hardest to nail down, then illustrated is one of the easiest. This category is very straightforward—supply realistic, sexy illustrations to complement your story. It's that simple. Okay, maybe it's not that simple. It has to be a good, engaging story, and you have to be able to actually draw (or know someone who can!) With the new computer drawing programs, you might be able to circumvent that last requirement, although it seems that most people still enjoy hand-drawn work over computer-generated stuff. You can do a story with abstract images, or ones that aren't meant to be sexually arousing, if you want to, but don't expect to be on the toplists. Readers will feel cheated and invariably vote you down. One of the toplist stars in this category, Chris Cross, has a great example in Rock Chick.

Incest/Taboo

This is Lit's money-maker, as they say. Probably eighty to ninety percent of Literotica's readers come to the site specifically to read this topic. There are writers out there who, after seeing the sheer numbers this category generates, will write incest stories just to get that volume of readers! The primary ingredient in any popular incest story is (are you ready?)... love. It's true. There are very few nonconsensual incest stories and they rarely do well.

Readers of incest want to see love, and they want that bond to be so overwhelming the two (whether it's brother/sister, mom/son, father/daughter, doesn't matter) simply can't deny it—the very strength of that love is what compels them to commit such a taboo act. Yes, sexual desire, teasing, obsession, all of those are involved in the beginning, but ultimately, readers want to see the emotion driving the characters. If you can give readers that, in whatever pairing you're writing, you're already halfway there.

Another aspect of incest that you have to pay attention to is dialogue. Remind readers of the familiar bonds by having characters state them—often. Have the brother call his sister "Sis" or "Sissy." In father/daughter stories, the daughter should call him, "Daddy," and in mother/son, "Mommy" should be reiterated (as in, "Mommy loves her little boy...") Without this, all you've got is another sex story. When you focus on those familiar bonds, you give the readers what they really want—the extra heat of the taboo. Just having related characters isn't enough—they have to be extremely aware of that relationship and find it arousing. That's why so often writers get their hand slapped when they write about "in-law" incest. Readers in this category find in-law incest to be "cheating" because it doesn't highlight the taboo nearly enough.

On top of that, each incest pairing has its own set of genre requirements. Brother/sister tends to be about the older sibling fulfilling the role of sexual teacher, leading the younger one into the adult world with love and knowledge.

The mother/son pairing focuses generally on a reluctant desire to give in. Mother should be full of angst over her attraction, but eventually, she finds it too much for her to deny, so she falls into a sexual relationship. There's a great deal of reluctance at first, but she ultimately finds it totally amazing and fulfilling. As with any older woman story, here or in the Mature category, the reader wants to hear about certain physical attributes—larger breasts and copious amounts of pubic hair symbolize her maturity and maternal nature, for example.

The father/daughter category tends to split on whether the reader is male or female. Women who read this category want a daddy figure, and men want the young, nubile Lolita. For the most part, the popular stories in this category should be a father lusting after an innocent, beautiful young girl, and being drawn into a sexual relationship. The girl should be teasing and tantalizing, but in fairly innocent ways—just testing out her sexuality, but still generally sweet and pure. There are physical requirements here as well. The daughter should be petite, small-breasted, and have little or no pubic hair (all which symbolize youth and virginity.) Mindfiend's Stacy series is a good example in the incest category of the brother/sister pairing.

Interracial Love

The politically correct tyranny of our society today often keeps this category from going as far as it could. Still, the most popular stories in interracial remain black men and white women, with racial language playing a major role. Yes, the black man should be well-endowed, the woman usually fair-skinned and petite. If you want to know how to get into the toplists, you need to give readers what they want. In this category, it's still the stereotype. If you're going to write a less popular interracial pairing, make sure to highlight the differences and the obvious taboo in the pairing of two races and cultures. Remember, that's the titillating part for readers in this category. Housewife Porn Star by karenkay is a good example of what readers are really looking for in this category.
Lesbian sex

Do you know the answer to the question: "Who watches the most girl on girl porn?" If you answered: Men! You're correct. The majority of the readers in this category are male, followed by bi-curious females, with actual lesbians bringing up the rear. So the majority of readers will be looking for stories of (legal, of course!) teen girls having gentle, exploratory sex with their friends. If you want to make the toplist, I wouldn't write about rough sex, fist fucking, dykes, butches or ass play. To write a popular story in this category, think about male-oriented fantasy porn, and you've pretty much got it. Secret Kisses by stepjones is a perfect example.

Letters and Transcripts

The key element here is in how realistic you can get the piece to seem. The readers want to believe it's a letter or conversation that actually happened, rather than a creative piece. My Moment of Weakness by RebeccaBrowning is a great example.

Loving wives

This is the strangest category. "Loving" in the title at first seems like a misnomer, because basically, this category involves some sort of infidelity. The idea, often, is that the wife or husband "loves" their partner so much they're willing to give them anything they want—even another lover. Be forewarned, writing in this category takes a strong ego and the ability to withstand some pretty caustic criticism, because fans of this category are very vocal and opinionated, and often use the story comment sections to argue and debate their beliefs about infidelity. To write a popular story in this category, you need all the details. Readers here want to know characters' histories, motivations, all the details of their lives that led up to the infidelity, etc. and often the aftermath as well. Revenge stories are popular in this category. Usually, you're going to split your readership no matter what you do, because there are those that like the cuckold fantasy, and those who feel anything short of shooting a spouse who cheats makes the wronged partner a "wimp." There are authors who succeed here, though, and if you want to know what a popular Loving Wives story looks like, check out the Fool's Envy series by S-Des.

Mature

The most popular stories in this category are men with older women fantasies. There are a smaller percentage of stories that are younger woman/older man. The key to writing a good mature story is that the older partner should be comfortable in their sexuality, knowledgeable, and willing to fulfill the teacher role. For older women, there should be a physical indication that she's older—larger breasts and thick pubic hair, for example. For the older man/younger woman fantasy, the girl should be the petite, small-breasted, Lolita type. A good example of the older woman as teacher can be found in The Process of Illumination by Barb36D.

Mind Control

The most popular stories in this category are about sexually immature males with little or no experience who dream of being able to have the power to make women fulfill their sexual desires. To write a popular story in this category, you usually need to have a male adolescent main character who can suddenly get all the popular cheerleader types who have always been mean to him to do whatever he wants them to sexually. Revenge scenarios are popular, here, too. The Alan series by juliancoreto is popular in this category.

Non-Erotic

This is a pretty self-indulgent category on a sex site. Stories here are most often about writers working out a personal demon of some sort, and those that are popular happen to coincide with the personal demons of the masses. All By Myself by leapyearguy is an example.

Nonconsent/Reluctance

This is a complex category and, like Gay Male and Loving Wives, one that's difficult to excel in because so many readers will vote stories down simply because they don't agree with the basic premise. The readership is also split along gender lines, making it even harder to write something that appeals to the masses. This category is about power, either having it or not, and sex just happens to be the method by which it's expressed in a non-consent story. Like the exhibitionist/voyeur category, it's two halves of the same whole, but it isn't always expressed with the same perspective. Women who read and have rape fantasies want to experience a loss of control—they want to be dominated and forced. For men who read and have rape fantasies, it's about being in control, dominating, and forcing a woman to his will. The most popular stories in this category will come at the power dynamic from one of those two perspectives, and will give the reader a vicarious experience that is "safe" to live out in story form. Hunted by furrybert is an example from the masculine perspective.

NonHuman

Now here is where we find our Anne Rice vampire wannabe's and "I'm not a dog, I'm a werewolf!" stories. Also stories about aliens, ghosts, androids, fairies, demons, catgirls, things with tentacles—you name it. If you want to write a popular story in this category, you have to have a good grasp of the genre the creature you're writing about usually lives in. For example, most vampire lovers want the dark, brooding, irresistible sort. Also, readers here want sexual descriptions involving the weird and surreal aspects of these characters, so detail is important. Yes, they want to hear about large, hairy wolfman penises and tiny, little fairy vaginas. I'm not kidding. To write a really popular story in this category, it helps to have a little bit of a fetish in one of these areas, to make the details appealing to the reader. A great example is Dirty Alice Black's Wolf Man series.

Novels and Novellas

Novels and Novellas can be split into chapters or posted whole, but most readers seem to prefer the chapters, released a day or so apart, sort of like reading a serial story. Novels and novellas implies a longer work—don't post short stories here (anything under a total length of 25,000 words, I'd say, should go somewhere else.) Any genre goes here, of course, but the most popular are the romance novels. DanielleKitten's Saint's Quest is a good example, and even won a monthly award.

Reviews and Essays

I know this category says reviews and essays, but reviews are less popular than essays. For essays, as with how-to, the most popular are easily readable, humorous, contain personal examples, show the writer's personality, and are about sex. Again, BatsandGlamour excels at this with a href= http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=93988" >In Praise of Older Women.

Romance

This category is fairly simple to excel in, actually, especially if you've read a lot of formulaic romance novels. If you want to write popular stories here, make your characters larger than life, the situation pushing the boundary of belief with lots of adventure and conflict, have tons of sexual tension and banter between the hero and heroine before the first sex act, and make the sex more prosaic and softly done than hardcore descriptive. The number one requirement for a popular romance story, though, is some sort of Happily Ever After or Happy For Now ending. The queen of Literotica romance is DanielleKitten, and her A Gift of Love is a good example of what is popular in this genre.

Sci-fi and Fantasy

Storytelling and world-building is the key element in this category. Writing popular stories in this genre is all about how well you can immerse the readers into your created world, whether that's an alien universe or some magical realm. Colleen Thomas wrote superb lesbian sci-fi stories, creating worlds of depth equal and beyond many professional authors. See her The Run for an example. The sex in these tales is really just an incidental bonus as your readers are mostly focusing on the world you're creating. The Danica series by Darkniciad, does a good job of balancing both—great sex and great world building.

Text with Audio

Readers in this category are seeking a sexual experience beyond that of just reading words on the page. In these stories, you need to get to the action quickly, or at least put something in at the start to grab and hold the reader's attention. The other primary thing that makes these popular is a sexy, woman's voice reading the story. If she orgasms (or at least sounds as if she does) during the story, it's even better. Women with accents are very popular, as in Kitten's Playtime by sxy_kitten and Just For You by Asian Princess. These are stories that don't have an actual text to follow along with. There are popular authors who do write stories and read them in a sexy female voice, though, like the Bluebeard's Wife series by SelenaKittyn, which has proven quite popular.

Toys and Masturbation

This category caters primarily to men who like to see women masturbate. The most popular stories here should be female narrated, and about women. Toys and fingers and lots of detail will make the readership here very happy. My Time Alone by LilacWine is a great example.

Transsexual and Crossdressers.

This category is almost a cross between fetish and gay male. As in fetish, detail is paramount, especially in the case of a cross-dressing story. Also, your primary readers are probably men with latent homosexual/bi fantasies that read this category who refuse to read gay male, so the pronoun "she" is important here, even if she has a male appendage. My Initiation by cdandy is a good example of how to write a popular story in this genre.

Now, those are obviously just guidelines about what makes a story popular in any given category. It doesn't take anything else into account. If you write a story with any of the above elements so riddled with errors and human sexual positions which defy the laws of physics that your reader can't get past the first paragraph, you're going to seriously lessen your chances of getting onto the toplists.

If you already manage to write a decent story, though, and you employ the aforementioned formulas, you're going to increase your readership considerably—and probably make it into a toplist or two. Once you've made it there, you need to decide if and how you want to keep your momentum. There are writers who have made it to the toplists once or twice, and that's it. There are writers who have written hundreds of stories, whose names are all over the toplists. You need to decide which you want to be.

If you want to keep and maintain a readership, there are three more ideas I will leave you with. My first suggestion would be to write as a woman. A huge percentage of Literotica readers are male, and most of them really enjoy reading stories written by a woman (or someone they believe to be a woman.) I would also suggest never writing a story in 2nd person—1st or 3rd person is best. And my last suggestion would be to keep your readers happy—write what they like, write it well, and write it often.

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I hope this little how-to helped give you an idea of what a majority of readers are looking for on Literotica. Remember to take time to enjoy your newfound fame and all those little red H's! One last little hint... remember that the toplists are based on votes, so ask the readers to vote at the end of your story, something that looks like this: Thank you for reading! Please leave me feedback and remember to vote if you enjoyed my story!
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