I wouldn't be shocked if Twitter starts restricting things as well. All the social media sites are in the crosshairs from regulatory agencies, and adult content is a soft target to attack for the purpose of getting the public on the side of regulation.
I've already seen the evidence of panic mode coming from camgirls, who all but depend on those platforms to direct fans as they move from site to site.
While this is my preferred usage, fairly widespread, and even set down as a grammar rule with some publishers, it is not universal.
It's even seen as incorrect by a not insignificant number of readers to use the "archaic" version of "come" instead of the modern "cum", for both noun and verb.
I've heard it argued that in time, cum will become the standardized verb, in order to distinguish it from the common, non-sexual usage. That comes from people who use "come" as the verb, and prefer it that way, but see the transformation as almost inevitable. Their argument and examples make sense.
I'm fairly certain Lush doesn't discriminate against "cum" used as a verb or "come" used as a noun, either. This reads almost like a rules post, rather than a preference, so I thought I'd say something.
The only time I've ever heard ASMR mentioned is by people saying they use it to wind them down to fall asleep.
That's not exactly the reaction you're hoping to get when writing erotica. LOL
I'm with Sprite on this one. I think she might just have some inkling of how the story mods and management think about categorization. LOL
It's not physical contact, so is the right place for it. Considering how many stories during the hiatus of the full-blown category were dancing on the line, or straight-up rewrites of stories with step- appended, people should know that the kink appears in that category, so they can use tags to avoid it, if it gives them the heebie-jeebies.
The bulk of the readership for the category expect the relationships to be full blood, preferably nuclear family, with full-on sex. This kind of story would be considered pseudo and watered down to that readership. It's not what they're looking for.
Now, if this ends up being a chapter 1 of an ongoing series, where that physical, blood relation stuff will eventually happen, that's a different ball of wax. In that case, I think is a perfectly appropriate category, as it will get to what the readers expect in time.
I'm not likely to write any flash outside of contests requiring it, or by pure chance that something ends up less than the limit and doesn't fit in any other category, but I'm for leaving it. I've seen 1000 as the upper limit on quite a few flash story categories/etc. and it seems pretty standard.
Canned spinach. ( Or the same preparation ) Perfectly fine with putting it raw in a salad, but Popeye can get fucked.
There are really only two options for me. A) None. B) Mullens Imitation French. Yes, that's a specific brand and flavor. I've found absolutely nothing else that I like.
Not surprisingly, Mullens is what I grew up on.
Knickers Off for me as well.
Apparently, my math was off. I assume by one. Guess prolific will happen with whatever the next story I post in a new category is.
Are you sure you didn't transpose the the 8 and 9 in your head when you were looking at it earlier? That's an easy enough mistake to make — even multiple times. Five digits seems to be where the brain's tendency to take shortcuts kicks in when reading numbers.
I don't know why they would adjust view counts, and even if they did, I think I would have seen it somewhere in my own numbers.
Advertise them in your signature, and give them a shout-out on Twitter/Facebook/Etc. It's not a huge boost, but every little bit helps when you're that close. If you really want to push them, and have an idea for one, write a sequel, parallel story, or something similar, and link back to the original. For a lesser boost, anything new in the same category can attract new reads to the older story. For that matter, any new work posted should bring reads on your whole story file.
LOL
Well, now that I look at the actual contest page, I see the end date is all the way out there on the 30th of next month.
I'll keep blinking back to the image every so often. If I can come up with a workable concept in the next couple of weeks, it might still be feasible.
Maybe I need to shift my headspace out of the real world and over to fantasy... Hmm...
Amazon will remove an Ebook from listing if it is discovered to be available elsewhere for a cheaper price. Free certainly qualifies as cheaper, so any story published on Lush could get the book removed from listing.
( As a side note, if you find your work for sale under someone else's name on Amazon, this is often the quickest and most reliable means to get it removed. Link to your story on the original free site when you report it, and don't even mention copyright. They're wishy-washy about copyright claims, but quick to nuke something that hurts their profits )
Going with Kindle Unlimited creates even more restrictions. It's a personal decision, but if you have any thought of diversifying to other venues such as Smashwords, going with Unlimited can be very detrimental to your bottom line. Amazon is also notorious for burying erotica, and seems to come up with new ways to further hide it every few months. You could very well find yourself stuck in an exclusivity agreement with your work that generates no sales when the next wall goes up.
That image is evoking far too long of a story in my head, no matter how I try to twist, turn, or compact it.
There's too much for me to unpack within the word limit on this one, I'm afraid.
As predicted, Stocking Stuffer crossed the 30k threshold today, bringing me up to 12 famous stories.
Barring some surges or a new story going gangbusters, that will probably be it for several months. The next crop has been varying from February to April for a famous date.
I'll probably still update this once a month just to see how different factors affect the monthly view numbers.
So glad to see this. I've been hoping for it for a while. Many thanks!
Tried Langoliers, The Stand, and one other that I can't even remember. Never make it more than a couple of chapters into anything by King. There's just something about his writing style that completely turns me off.
Despite still considering fantasy to be my homebase for writing, and being a DM for years, and still playing RPGs, I've never even opened the cover of Tolkien. I have no reason not to read it. I just haven't. I've looked at it on physical and digital shelves more than once, but never picked it up.
Always makes people stare at me like a cow looks at an oncoming train when they know me from my fantasy work.
"Mom's Second Chance" just crossed the threshold to become my #10 famous story. I have 6 between 28k and 30k right now.
If I'd finish something and get it out, it would probably help push others over the line.
I've pondered and abandoned four different ideas for this one. Not looking good.
Still one new idea brewing, but getting it from that stage to completion in the time allotted is a stretch — especially with a word count limit.
