I like my genre but you don’t

[GodlessEmperor]

…? 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 pure romance, so it’s not yaoi. It just so happens to be about guys instead of the typical paring.

They are the same word though. yaoi = BL = homosexual romance. There is also Bara which is homoerotic stuff.
And Yaoi is used more often than BL. I can attest both from my experience and by looking at google trends (that thingy that shows how often something is searched for).

 

[Snusmumriken]

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.

Most likely because I had no idea what I was doing in the beginning since I have never written a novel before. And especially set the task for myself to learn how to write sex scenes properly. I will edit my early chapters however, I am aware of how much polish I would probably need and would probably work on it at the same time I am working on book 2

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.

I was talking from the other side as the author that doesn't have BL tag and has a bit more views. Since I assumed the thread was more about the authors feeling and perceptions.

 

[greyblob]

Most likely because I had no idea what I was doing in the beginning since I have never written a novel before. And especially set the task for myself to learn how to write sex scenes properly. I will edit my early chapters however, I am aware of how much polish I would probably need and would probably work on it at the same time I am working on book 2

It's still leagues better than the majority of what's on the site. I'd label the beginning of the novel as smut, but only the beginning. I think if you scrub some of the sex scenes, or shorten them, you could very easily shine on RR. Though, you'll most likely be shadowbanned from ever appearing on trending. They like to keep their front page PG-13 for the most part.

 

[Snusmumriken]

It's still leagues better than the majority of what's on the site. I'd label the beginning of the novel as smut, but only the beginning. I think if you scrub some of the sex scenes, or shorten them, you could very easily shine on RR. Though, you'll most likely be shadowbanned from ever appearing on trending. They like to keep their front page PG-13 for the most part.

We will see what the future brings, but yeah shadowban is a garanteed expectation heh.

 

[yansusustories]

I kind of want to echo this:

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.

but from the BL side of things. I have novels with 100k views but that really doesn't mean much. Views accrue over time. If you update often enough and have enough chapters, you are bound to end up with a high number of overall views but that doesn't map out to having a novel that is actually read and/or engaged with. It is kind of an empty metric that might make you feel good at first but if the other stats don't keep up with that, it starts to mean nothing.
Like, don't get me wrong. It is nice to have many views, definitely feels better than to see a finished novel sitting there with less than 1k views, lol (Which I also have ...) But, at the end of the day, it's just a number. It doesn't mean you're a better or worse author. Oftentimes, it's just a question of posting at the right time (e.g., a lot of my views on those novels simply stem from the fact I posted in the earlier days of SH), profiting off some lucky coincidence (Like that time I got stuck on the sidebar of NU for some reason? Yeah, I saw the change.), or a multitude of other reasons. What's more important if you want to watch stats would be to look at not just the views but also how the number of favorites or comments go up in comparison to that. Unfortunately, the result might be disappointing.

Anyway, my advice would be to not compare your views (or any other metric, really) with het novels or even GL. Like, I have a second account where I write both of those, as well as BL, and it's not even funny to see the disparity. Clearly, it can't be about quality because I'm not magically turning into a better writer when female characters are involved. So yeah, just don't do that to yourself. It's out of our hands so we should focus on what we can change which is making each story a bit better than the ones before.

 

[cryum]

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.

My favorite genre is "Balanced and fun mechanics", so I don't see much either.