Do people use CHYOA for general erotica publishing/reading, outside interactive/collaborative stories?

V

Vox_Nihili_S

Virgin
For clarification, I mean that, are people using CHYOA to publish whatever erotica they write whether or not it's interactive/collaborative (e.g. linear story telling, one-offs, etc.) and are users coming here to read general smut or are they mostly interested in interactive/collaborative stories? Are users here interested in erotica that isn't smut in every chapter? I'm a new user to CHYOA and, as a writer, looking to get a feel of what people expect from this site.

With AO3 down, Literotica a publishing nightmare, and most other erotica publishing websites outdated, underdeveloped or overloaded with a number of serious issues from a writer's perspective, it seems like there's a void in the market for a competent and effective place to publish erotica.

I'm currently trying to decide where to start publishing my erotica and it seems like a real crapshoot out there. So far, I've liked CHYOA's UI and design more than every other site, and while the user base seems smaller than some of the other more common publishing websites, with everything happening right now, I think there's a possibility readers are going to be looking for a good alternative to their usual sites.

Before I start committing to publishing here, I want to see what people's opinions are on whether its worth the effort to build a following here, since I don't plan on all of my stories being interactive, not all of them will be long-form, multi-part stories, and not all of them will be "sex, sex, sex" every - or even most - chapter.
 
I've been hanging out here for about a year, publishing for a little over six months. My thoughts:

1. All three types of stories are widely represented on this site and popular--linear stories, traditional CYOA branching stories, and straight-up game stories with variable conditions. The latter are rarer than the other two, but tend to be very popular.

2. For "popularity", I think the bigger concern would be genre, characterization, etc. rather than form. Certain genres are much more popular than others, as you can see from the categories on the main page. Mind control stories absolutely dominate. Fantasy is also popular, and I find those stories tend to be more long-form and have a lower sex-to-chapter ratio. Some of the really popular stories are downright non-erotic! If a lot of AO3 refugees start trickling in, though, maybe the genre appeal becomes more diversified. In any case, I wouldn't have any concerns about your stories being insufficiently smutty; if they're compelling and fit the genre tastes of the readership, they'll be picked up.

3. Male-focused stories, or at least stories with male protagonists, generally have a lot more appeal--to the point that it sometimes feels like MTF protagonists outnumber birth female protagonists, as though even female stories can only be told through an initially male perspective.
 
bartolimieu07 said:
I've been hanging out here for about a year, publishing for a little over six months. My thoughts:

1. All three types of stories are widely represented on this site and popular--linear stories, traditional CYOA branching stories, and straight-up game stories with variable conditions. The latter are rarer than the other two, but tend to be very popular.

2. For "popularity", I think the bigger concern would be genre, characterization, etc. rather than form. Certain genres are much more popular than others, as you can see from the categories on the main page. Mind control stories absolutely dominate. Fantasy is also popular, and I find those stories tend to be more long-form and have a lower sex-to-chapter ratio. Some of the really popular stories are downright non-erotic! If a lot of AO3 refugees start trickling in, though, maybe the genre appeal becomes more diversified. In any case, I wouldn't have any concerns about your stories being insufficiently smutty; if they're compelling and fit the genre tastes of the readership, they'll be picked up.

3. Male-focused stories, or at least stories with male protagonists, generally have a lot more appeal--to the point that it sometimes feels like MTF protagonists outnumber birth female protagonists, as though even female stories can only be told through an initially male perspective.
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Thanks for your response, it's definitely given me a lot to think about! Wasn't even thinking about genre but it totally makes sense!
 
I stumbled across CHYOA a while ago now and the UI and design was what kept me here. It was the first place I published and is still my main publishing site. I use AO3 now as well, I've tried others and have yet to find anything actually worth trouble (Lush was okay, but every story gets proof read by a human and it becomes annoying). Aside from the UI and design, and of course the branching and game options, CHYOA is very good for photos and gifs if that's your thing. But for me, the biggest positive here is the people. I don't ever remember getting a troll or abusive comment. The people here are just really rather nice.

I write traditional, linear stories, and so do many others, there's definitely a market for it here. Plot driven stories without smut in every chapter will find an audience, slow burns are quite popular.

Overall, I'd say that CHYOA is smaller, but well run, easy to use with a friendly readership and authors.

Happy to chat in DMs is you need advice or to bounce ideas or whatever.

Best of luck.
 
bartolimieu07 said:
I've been hanging out here for about a year, publishing for a little over six months. My thoughts:

1. All three types of stories are widely represented on this site and popular--linear stories, traditional CYOA branching stories, and straight-up game stories with variable conditions. The latter are rarer than the other two, but tend to be very popular.

2. For "popularity", I think the bigger concern would be genre, characterization, etc. rather than form. Certain genres are much more popular than others, as you can see from the categories on the main page. Mind control stories absolutely dominate. Fantasy is also popular, and I find those stories tend to be more long-form and have a lower sex-to-chapter ratio. Some of the really popular stories are downright non-erotic! If a lot of AO3 refugees start trickling in, though, maybe the genre appeal becomes more diversified. In any case, I wouldn't have any concerns about your stories being insufficiently smutty; if they're compelling and fit the genre tastes of the readership, they'll be picked up.

3. Male-focused stories, or at least stories with male protagonists, generally have a lot more appeal--to the point that it sometimes feels like MTF protagonists outnumber birth female protagonists, as though even female stories can only be told through an initially male perspective.
Click to expand...
That's a really good point about male protagonists. I enjoy writing female characters and have a story with a female protagonist, that I think, was my best work. But it didn't do nearly as well as my other stories. You can never be sure why some stories resonate and others don't, so i may be wrong about that.

I also find readers here, and to be fair on AO3 to, don't like the male protagonists sharing their women with other males. Which frustrates me sometimes. Anything with a Harem feel tends to be popular.
 
Vox_Nihili_S said:
For clarification, I mean that, are people using CHYOA to publish whatever erotica they write whether or not it's interactive/collaborative (e.g. linear story telling, one-offs, etc.) and are users coming here to read general smut or are they mostly interested in interactive/collaborative stories? Are users here interested in erotica that isn't smut in every chapter? I'm a new user to CHYOA and, as a writer, looking to get a feel of what people expect from this site.

With AO3 down, Literotica a publishing nightmare, and most other erotica publishing websites outdated, underdeveloped or overloaded with a number of serious issues from a writer's perspective, it seems like there's a void in the market for a competent and effective place to publish erotica.

I'm currently trying to decide where to start publishing my erotica and it seems like a real crapshoot out there. So far, I've liked CHYOA's UI and design more than every other site, and while the user base seems smaller than some of the other more common publishing websites, with everything happening right now, I think there's a possibility readers are going to be looking for a good alternative to their usual sites.

Before I start committing to publishing here, I want to see what people's opinions are on whether its worth the effort to build a following here, since I don't plan on all of my stories being interactive, not all of them will be long-form, multi-part stories, and not all of them will be "sex, sex, sex" every - or even most - chapter.
Click to expand...

Honestly I think on here there's an audience for most types of stories. I think that more standard erotic couplings tends to fly under the radar a little though.
 
Every time you publish a chapter on CHYOA, your story goes to the top of the new stories list, and that's where you'll get a large fraction of your views. My current main story publishes one chapter of about 1500 words every other day, and on days where I publish I get 30-60% more views than on days where I don't. The boost in likes is even stronger (2x-3x difference), because readers who enjoy your story are naturally more likely to, uh, like it, and if they follow it they get a notification anytime you post.

Because of that, fairly long-form, slow burn stories do very well here.

I'm a solo, mostly linear writer, and I've never felt like readers have skipped my stories because of a lack of interactive or collaborative elements. People just want to read good shit, whatever form you choose to put it in.
 
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