What are your thoughts on smut stories?

Sylver

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In conclusion, I think you should change the synopsis a bit to center around the nekomata if she is the protagonist, and maybe adjust your tags a bit so people would know exactly what they're getting.
They are both the protagonists, the story focuses on both as they each have a strong role to play. The first act has both of them play a balanced role in a sort of slice of life mixed with a bit of adventure as new events begin to unfold. I can't share much further without adding spoilers, but is it so uncommon for a novel to have two main protagonists? :blob_hmm:

On a side note, how on Earth do you have the time and effort to write so many chapters in such a short amount of time!? :blob_shock:
I demand you reject your intrusive thoughts.
Were it so easy :blob_nom::blob_cookie:
I think girl's love stories are popular on here, so there's nothing wrong with adding the girl's love subplot tag in your story if it has that element.
I had the GL tag removed but kept the GL subplot tag in, and I am hoping people are patient with me for that :sweating_profusely: the GL subplot is introduced in the second act and currently the story is nearing the end of its first act. The GL subplot remains a central subplot throughout the story, it has plenty of development and focus! The issue is that it's not in the first act, so again I hope reader's are patient with me for that. Someone commented in one chapter about that and I offered the same explanation, it plays a role in the story just not yet.
 
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Kalliel

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They are both the protagonists, the story focuses on both as they each have a strong role to play. The first act has both of them play a balanced role in a sort of slice of life mixed with a bit of adventure as new events begin to unfold. I can't share much further without adding spoilers, but is it so uncommon for a novel to have two main protagonists? :blob_hmm:

On a side note, how on Earth do you have the time and effort to write so many chapters in such a short amount of time!? :blob_shock:

Were it so easy :blob_nom::blob_cookie:

I had the GL tag removed but kept the GL subplot tag in, and I am hoping people are patient with me for that :sweating_profusely: the GL subplot is introduced in the second act and currently the story is nearing the end of its first act. The GL subplot remains a central subplot throughout the story, it has plenty of development and focus! The issue is that it's not in the first act, so again I hope reader's are patient with me for that. Someone commented in one chapter about that and I offered the same explanation, it plays a role in the story just not yet.
Having two protagonists in a story is perfectly normal, I think. But again, there is still the problem of potentially being misunderstood that the guy is involved in the romance aspect, which could turn away people who only like sapphic stories.

I think you could handle this pretty easily. Just make a note below your synopsis clarifying the romance part, that should pretty much solve it.

And about how I write so much in so little time, well... Firstly, I love my stories. Secondly, it's my job now. And finally, I'm on a break now, that's probably why.
 

DannyTheDaikon

| Azure tamer | Harbinger of chaos and soup
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It says I have 18.8k views, but I'm looking at the number of readers that stay and not just people who click on the main page.

Just off those 18.8k views, 11.8k read the chapters. And the average views is 300. That's not to say that I'm ungrateful for them, far from that. But I'm always aiming to improve and do better, and I want to see those numbers grow as well. Not by demand, but by working my way up there.
You have to consider that many people like to binge read and they usually wait for chapters to build up. Others like to read only when the novel is finished (so they're not left hanging if the thing gets dropped). So like it was already mentioned, just keep updating and the numbers will go up.

Another very pragmatic advice is that you should try posting at a different hours, to attract people from different time zones.

If you want more engagement, I feel that having author's notes after chapters helps with that. At least this is my experience.
 

SailusGebel

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It may do me some good to check those out, I see they're not too lengthy averaging around 30 chapters so far. Geez, why so little views though? I'm assuming these are well-written stories, is this why some users scoff when I say that I want to gain more views? :blob_shock:
Well, this is subjective, but I think Renalia Tale was good, Hushed Paradise was okay, as for To the Roots of Akasha, I didn't read it. Users scoff at you when you say that you want more views, because of various reasons, but I think it's not as important to talk about it.

Why so little views on all these novels? There are multiple things you need to consider. First of all, and the most important part, you can't please everyone. If you want to write smut, write it. Sexual content will repel readers. The thing is, sexual content will attract different kind of readers. You won't be left with no readers at all unless you make huge mistakes.

Here are the list of common mistakes. First, people judge books by their covers, it is important to have a nice cover, your cover is fine. Second, tags and genres, the more fitting tag you have, the more visibility you have. This one is also covered. Third is synopsis, your synopsis is okay(this is subjective opinion).

Fourth point is your schedule. There is no such thing as the perfect time to upload a new chapter, you create it yourself, because readers get used to your upload schedule. You should stick to it, and not deviate from it too much. Since your average wordcount is 2,404 I advice you to upload 3-4 times a week to maximize the views. If you upload more, there is a chance that readers will get burnt out, if you upload less, they would lose interest.

Warning! Don't upload more than 3 chapters a day, and if you release more than one, spread out your releases. If you bulk upload, SH's antispam system will hide your novel from latest update for a day or so. You get a majority of views and new readers from latest update, so it will be very damaging.

Lastly. There are novels that have the same number of views as your novel with less chapters. There are some novels that have a lot more views than your novel. I simply didn't look for them. Popularity and quality don't go hand in hand all the time. Sometimes we can't understand why this novel got popular, and this one did not. As for you, you are definetely doing something right, so keep doing it. Write more, edit more, analyze your own writing. If you want to improve, you should look for the guides and feedback threads.
 

TsumiHokiro

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Smut be smut.

There are those who like, those who don't. Those who need, those who don't. In the end, we all were born out of it, unless you were born in a laboratory, and those are the minority. (Some lab acts are still smut, mind you.)

As it's been said, write what you desire, and mind what you mind. This bird will use words because that which required no words has already been said. What you, as an author, need are reassuring words that your work is OK. Well, let me tell you:

It's OK to write smut.
 

prognastat

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It can be good, it can be bad. I'm not a fan of the 100% revolving around smut stories where it's happening 50% or more of the time and the non-smut parts are just there to connect to the next session of smut and nothing more. Or worse and there isn't anything even connecting the smut and the story just jumps from one smut scene to the next. I don't mind stories where smut is a large element or minor element if there is still actually a plot then it's not a negative to me and just depends on how good the actual plot is.

At the end of the day write what you want to write though. If you want to just write a story that's 100% smut write it. There will still be people interested in it. If you don't want to then don't.
 
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Beta_Krogoth

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I had a similar issue when I first started Sweet Venom but it has grown significantly since then. The original version was just complete and utter smut, with story being an after-thought. Since I've rewritten it, its now a story with smut, rather than smut with a story.

My biggest issue is I have weird smut and divisive content that people can have a strong gut reaction to. But I don't really mind, I won't change it for broader audience appeal so that is a decision I have to live by. The thing i'm most annoyed by at the moment is the rating bombers i've been hit with, including some arsewipe that said he gives stories he likes two stars because that's just how he does things(?), maximum score you could earn from that knob was three stars, what a shite. Anyway, i'm ranting.

My attempt to meet half-way with the smut was to be upfront about the smut content with warnings and have the scenes be skippable so that readers who like the story can still approach it. No idea if that has worked for people, I've had no feedback on that specifically.

But i'd round off by saying if you enjoy writing smut, then write it. Simple as that. Better to get words down than none-at-all and it does have an audience.
 

Jaymi

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I don't really read smut, I've tried it once or twice and it was alright but they're definitely not for me. I already get flustered by the average ecchi scenes in those isekai stories lmao.
 

dummycake

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Who's horny today? :blob_hide:
 

Sylver

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Hulk Smash :blob_teehee:
My attempt to meet half-way with the smut was to be upfront about the smut content with warnings and have the scenes be skippable so that readers who like the story can still approach it. No idea if that has worked for people, I've had no feedback on that specifically.
I plan to try that same approach for my story, because it's not uncommon to hear people say they like it but they don't like smut :blob_hmm: it's possible that I'm losing potential readers because they don't like smut content, so perhaps meeting halfway and labeling which chapters contain smut could persuade them to give it a chance :blob_evil_two:
 
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