I like my genre but you don’t

[bananapink]

I think I find my genre Josei more miserable... not many likes romance, the mature kind of romance *laughing while crying miserably*

 

[MissPaige36]

Just like you, I also write BL because I really fell in love with the genre. Whatever genre I write, whether seriously or just idea dumping, there's always a BL element inside it. True, it's not really that popular in SH, but I think if you like writing it, don't let the number of views or drops stop you.

If it can make you feel better, your numbers are way better than mine that is currently ongoing. More than 3 times in comparison. And 10 times more than my finished story.

I think I’ve gotten too obsessed with my numbers, I actually feel awful about posting this. I won’t delete it though since y’all got valid post. And same here, I love the BL genre. I love all genre, but BL just hits extra with the romance and stuff. I think I’ll try to post a chapter and not stay on SH too much. Check up on it like once a week or I’ll hget worse…

You're making some people happy, and that's what matters. Personally, I want more one-star ratings!

Pfft, I recognize you! Yes, I somehow forgot my original goal: finish one single novel. That’s really it.

I'd suggest tapas for pushing your story. It has a very large LTGBQ audience. However, you will have to do promoting on their forums since it doesn't really have a place where new/smaller stories can get easy exposure

Tapas is an intimidating app though, but i might try posting there, thank you

 

[SailusGebel]

It feels nice having more than 200k views.

 

[MissPaige36]

It feels nice having more than 200k views.

I was expecting that

 

[SailusGebel]

I was expecting that

But I still don't feel like I'm part of a majority. My stats are, in fact, very mediocre. Sure I got more views than some other authors. However, if you look behind this number, my story isn't doing well at all. I would gladly exchange these views for more readers\fans, better rating, Patreon subscribers, etc.

 

[MissPaige36]

But I still don't feel like I'm part of a majority. My stats are, in fact, very mediocre. Sure I got more views than some other authors. However, if you look behind this number, my story isn't doing well at all. I would gladly exchange these views for more readers\fans, better rating, Patreon subscribers, etc.

That's actually pretty interesting, so views are nice but also don't really reflect your writing abilities... Got it!

 

[Nyaa]

You're right. I don't like your genre. BL does not appeal to me. Never has, and never will.

But what does that matter... You're not writing it for me; you're doing it for you and people like you.
If you want everyone to read, you need to write something that is fun for everyone - but that won't work if it's not fun for you.

BL isn't the only thing I won't read - there are many things I find unpleasant. There are many interesting stories that I've turned down because the author took it upon themselves to include a topic that doesn't motivate me to read. Yours as well, has other things I won't touch. There are millions of stories out there - why would I waste my time on yours when I could probably find something similar with all the good aspects and none of the bad. I read to relax, so I lose interest quickly when it gets unpleasant. I'd rather spend my time reading something that makes me happy.

I will not read your story because of the BL tag (among others), but having the decency to tag it is a good thing.
Letting me waste my time for several chapters before finding out what I'm getting into is a sure way to get me to hate you.

I may dislike BL, but I despise bait-and-switch scams.

 

[MissPaige36]

You're right. I don't like your genre. BL does not appeal to me. Never has, and never will.

But what does that matter... You're not writing it for me; you're doing it for you and people like you.
If you want everyone to read, you need to write something that is fun for everyone - but that won't work if it's not fun for you.

BL isn't the only thing I won't read - there are many things I find unpleasant. There are many interesting stories that I've turned down because the author took it upon themselves to include a topic that doesn't motivate me to read. Yours as well, has other things I won't touch. There are millions of stories out there - why would I waste my time on yours when I could probably find something similar with all the good aspects and none of the bad. I read to relax, so I lose interest quickly when it gets unpleasant. I'd rather spend my time reading something that makes me happy.

I will not read your story because of the BL tag (among others), but having the decency to tag it is a good thing.
Letting me waste my time for several chapters before finding out what I'm getting into is a sure way to get me to hate you.

I may dislike BL, but I despise bait-and-switch scams.

Ah, you're completely right. And I totally agree. I have lots of tags I don't like here (smut especially, that stuff isn't very good here). And of course, I'd never lie about the content of my story. But I want to have a story that can be a bit gay but still have regular straight people read it (I mean any kind of gay, girl, guys, enby pals etc) so I'm motivated to finish my story and improve :D

 

[Zirrboy]

You can always find reasons your works never meet the desired reception.

Unpopular tags? People skip/drop because of that. Why are they so narrow in their choices, making them miss actually good niche works (like yours)?

Popular tags? Braindead masses who want idiotic wish fulfillment (which of course isn't what you're writing)


Authors who don't get views lament about views

Those who do complain about the lack of feedback

And the lucky few who get both obsess about the inevitable handful of dislikes


Can you people get a hold of yourselves? You're reminding me of myself!

 

[MissPaige36]

You can always find reasons your works never meet the desired reception.

Unpopular tags? People skip/drop because of that. Why are they so narrow in their choices, making them miss actually good niche works (like yours)?

Popular tags? Braindead masses who want idiotic wish fulfillment (which of course isn't what you're writing)


Authors who don't get views lament about views

Those who do complain about the lack of feedback

And the lucky few who get both obsess about the inevitable handful of dislikes


Can you people get a hold of yourselves? You're reminding me of myself!

Pfft! Thanks for the advice!

 

[EchoingRuby]

At least you're not writing Sports; that genre only has 72 stories in it and said stories only average 4k pageviews.

Full stats:

Genre	Number of Stories	Average Pageviews	Popularity Ratio*
Action	6,103	29,919	0.22
Adult	1,975	50,362	1.04
Adventure	5,477	30,274	0.24
Boys Love	703	14,328	1
Comedy	2,804	32,468	0.5
Drama	2,410	19,544	0.44
Ecchi	870	89,255	3.49
Fanfiction	1,135	30,370	1.27
Fantasy	6,864	31,985	0.21
Gender Bender	1,225	45,150	1.94
Girls Love	1,022	49,996	2.26
Harem	1,404	79,066	1.78
Historical	574	16,035	1.51
Horror	813	11,726	0.85
Isekai	2,933	47,584	0.64
Josei	191	17,006	4.41
LitRPG	1,688	64,754	1.27
Martial Arts	1,326	28,992	0.87
Mature	2,348	41,057	0.71
Mecha	215	11,698	3.28
Mystery	1,527	11,737	0.43
Psychological	1,589	21,091	0.65
Romance	3,837	29,297	0.34
School Life	1,360	30,009	1.2
Sci-fi	1,472	15,671	0.58
Seinen	568	32,177	2.41
Slice of Life	2,356	35,140	0.63
Smut	1,026	67,946	2.69
Sports	72	3,927	3.12
Supernatural	2,845	21,700	0.41
Tragedy	1,483	13,597	0.54

*: Comparison between how popular a genre is with readers vs. authors. Number is read as "Stories in genre X are [popularity ratio] times more liked by readers than by authors". Values above 1 mean readers like the story more than authors, a value of 1 means they like them about the same, etc.. The formula used to compute these numbers was AveragePageviews/(NumberOfStories*AverageChaptersPerStory).

 

[MissPaige36]

At least you're not writing Sports; that genre only has 72 stories in it and said stories only averages 4k pageviews.

Full stats:

Genre	Number of Stories	Average Pageviews	Popularity Ratio*
Action	6,103	29,919	0.22
Adult	1,975	50,362	1.04
Adventure	5,477	30,274	0.24
Boys Love	703	14,328	1
Comedy	2,804	32,468	0.5
Drama	2,410	19,544	0.44
Ecchi	870	89,255	3.49
Fanfiction	1,135	30,370	1.27
Fantasy	6,864	31,985	0.21
Gender Bender	1,225	45,150	1.94
Girls Love	1,022	49,996	2.26
Harem	1,404	79,066	1.78
Historical	574	16,035	1.51
Horror	813	11,726	0.85
Isekai	2,933	47,584	0.64
Josei	191	17,006	4.41
LitRPG	1,688	64,754	1.27
Martial Arts	1,326	28,992	0.87
Mature	2,348	41,057	0.71
Mecha	215	11,698	3.28
Mystery	1,527	11,737	0.43
Psychological	1,589	21,091	0.65
Romance	3,837	29,297	0.34
School Life	1,360	30,009	1.2
Sci-fi	1,472	15,671	0.58
Seinen	568	32,177	2.41
Slice of Life	2,356	35,140	0.63
Smut	1,026	67,946	2.69
Sports	72	3,927	3.12
Supernatural	2,845	21,700	0.41
Tragedy	1,483	13,597	0.54

*: Comparison between how popular a genre is with readers vs. authors. Number is read as "Stories in genre X are [popularity ratio] times more liked by readers than by authors". Values above 1 mean readers like the story more than authors, a value of 1 means they like them about the same, etc.. The formula used to compute these numbers was AveragePageviews/(NumberOfStories*AverageChaptersPerStory).

Oh thank you! This is very helpful

 

[Snusmumriken]

So yeah… I’ve gotten very into writing my book after a dramatic time where I kinda dropped it and then picked it up again… And the thing is, I’m very happy about the views, likes and readers that I get, it’s even more than I expected!

But like every writer, you’re never satisfied. I know I shouldn’t ask for more, but I want to. My writing is good— not perfect, not excellent, it’s just good. When it comes to the fantasy aspects too, it’s not bad either (listen I’m not an expert), and the characters, while a little bland, can be nice.

However… my genre is BL. So I’m doomed.

Don’t pity read my novel, I just wanted to express my jealousy to writers with 100K views and say they’re living my dream. But honestly, how does it feel to be a part of the majority? Like post a chapter about women with big boozangas and get thousands of views? Cuz my tag literally made a reader drop my story after they said it was good.

There is always something else to strive for in my opinion. My concerns are probably the same as yours just a step above. Yes, I am blessed by views and lots of comments. But every time I think where I can expand further the only option I see is probably Amazon. Because my story is too explicit for RR and these scenes weren't just extra flavour that I can simply chop off. My story is too much about interactions and politics for progressionlit too old for YA and has zero numbers for other common genres like litrpg.

So you are right the satisfaction isn't long-lasting - and what you feel is probably what 99.9% of others feel.

 

[MissPaige36]

There is always something else to strive for in my opinion. My concerns are probably the same as yours just a step above. Yes, I am blessed by views and lots of comments. But every time I think where I can expand further the only option I see is probably Amazon. Because my story is too explicit for RR and these scenes weren't just extra flavour that I can simply chop off. My story is too much about interactions and politics for progressionlit too old for YA and has zero numbers for other common genres like litrpg.

So you are right the satisfaction isn't long-lasting - and what you feel is probably what 99.9% of others feel.

Huh that's actually quite interesting. So you're basically stuck here on this site because no other sites have so few boundaries and the next step would be selling your work, which isn't possible either?

 

[Zirrboy]

Huh that's actually quite interesting. So you're basically stuck here on this site because no other sites have so few boundaries and the next step would be selling your work, which isn't possible either?

Amazon is a goal, afaik.

Because my story is too explicit for RR and these scenes weren't just extra flavour that I can simply chop off.

As someone who has skipped them I can tell you that the story work without for me.

 

[Ai-chan]

There is always something else to strive for in my opinion. My concerns are probably the same as yours just a step above. Yes, I am blessed by views and lots of comments. But every time I think where I can expand further the only option I see is probably Amazon. Because my story is too explicit for RR and these scenes weren't just extra flavour that I can simply chop off. My story is too much about interactions and politics for progressionlit too old for YA and has zero numbers for other common genres like litrpg.

So you are right the satisfaction isn't long-lasting - and what you feel is probably what 99.9% of others feel.

Why not use wattpad? Don't the screaming little girls there like yaoi fiction?

 

[Snusmumriken]

Huh that's actually quite interesting. So you're basically stuck here on this site because no other sites have so few boundaries and the next step would be selling your work, which isn't possible either?

I wouldn't say stuck per se, especially since I do post on similar sites already. And selling is likely to be possible I think, not sure about success but that's a different story.

Amazon is a goal, afaik.


As someone who has skipped them I can tell you that the story work without for me.

Then you probably missed hints of Irje's power as early as chapter 4. Granted many did too - these were designed to be obvious on the second read, not on the first. But speaking of skipping scenes do you want me to clearly label them so they are easy to identify?

Why not use wattpad? Don't the screaming little girls there like yaoi fiction?

I would be widely unpopular then since my story severely lacks yaoi. Unless you misquoted me.

 

[greyblob]

Then you probably missed hints of Irje's power as early as chapter 4. Granted many did too - these were designed to be obvious on the second read, not on the first. But speaking of skipping scenes do you want me to clearly label them so they are easy to identify?

I've skipped most of them as well. If I remember correctly, they dragged on unnecessarily at the beginning. I was more interested in the plot than the porn.

 

[MissPaige36]

Why not use wattpad? Don't the screaming little girls there like yaoi fiction?

…? Is that supposed to be an attack or something? And I don’t write yaoi, I write BL. Yaoi is a term that… no one uses these days. My stuff is purely romance, so it’s not a yaoi. It just so happens to be about guys instead of the typical paring.

And why don’t I use it? Because you need followers for anyone to check out your work. And wattpad isn’t a very good site either. So that‘s another reason. I’m fine posting here too, my greed has lessened

 

[Ai-chan]

…? Is that supposed to be an attack or something? And I don’t write yaoi, I write BL. Yaoi is a term that… no one uses these days. My stuff is purely romance, so it’s not a yaoi. It just so happens to be about guys instead of the typical paring.

And why don’t I use it? Because you need followers for anyone to check out your work. And wattpad isn’t a very good site either. So that‘s another reason. I’m fine posting here too, my greed has lessened

Don't know why you would call that an attack. But yaoi is used all the time in Japan. Basically, BL is considered the sweet type of gay relationship. But yaoi is always sexual. So if your story has a lot of gay sex, explicit or not, that makes it closer to yaoi than BL. Ai-chan hasn't read your story, so Ai-chan doesn't know which really applies to your story. BL has always been something more implied than shown, so if it's shown, it's closer to yaoi.

Ai-chan's comment was directed at @Snusmumriken because he said that his story was too explicit for RR. Since the thread is about BL, Ai-chan assumed that he was talking about BL, which would make his story yaoi. As for Boku no Pico, it's practically yaoi.