I'm currently posting a series of stories titled "The Evacuee" about a boy's sexual adventures in the second world war. They get between 1000 and 4000 reads. By mistake I published chapter 7 under the tile "Mary discover's the children's secret" and it got over 12,000 reads.

Does the title make that much difference??

 

I hadn't thought about it, but it would seem so.

I guess something with a 'Jerry Springer' style title is going to be more eye-catching for a significant number of people who are just browsing the titles for something to read. I'm expecting big things of my forthcoming story "Daddy's Pre-teen Lesbian Space Vampires vs The Third Reich" a tale of three time-travelling alien vampires, sent back in time by their over-sexed father to halt WWII by shagging Hitler's army to death in a mass orgy in the snow outside Lenningrad.

 

WHAT?!? Damn, I was going to use that theme. Back to the drawing board.

 

Not that old chestnut again!!

 

I will say that some titles turm me off. "Sister does the football team and then blows dad" is not one I'm going to read. Too blatant. I'm more attracted to the writer and the tags.

 

Dammit! That's one for the waste-basket, then.

What about if I put a twist on it - "Dad does the football team, then blows sister"? :???:



Being serious for a moment, I'm still a bit of a newbie here, and there's (literally) thousands of good stories on here, just too many to read all of them, so I go on things like the 'Recomended' thread, author's names that I've read previously, and people who've posts/threads I've read and enjoyed, as well as tags occasionally.
However, I can imagine that there would be quite a few people who'd just go for the more blatant shock-scandal titles, a bit like newspaper headlines. We have The Daily Sport over here (I think the American equivalent is called The National Enquirer) with all sorts of saucy/silly headlines, it's a fun read but not quite the same standard of journalism as the posh papers like The Times or The Telegraph.

 

I do a bit of work on internet marketing. People far wiser and more successful than me say that as much time and effort should go into the headline as goes into a whole sales page.

So the title of your story, according to this theory will have a big influence on how many people read it and how much they will read.

And some will be an absolute putt-off as shown above by ejls

 

I think it DOES. Very much on here. "Dirty Sex With My Kid Sister" is going to draw more reads than "The Broken Promise". You KNOW what the first story is about before you read it. It's both a title and an ad.

 

Well I think you've pretty much answered your own question, or rather the readers have answered it.

I feel like with a title like Taking my daughter Sabine, or My daughter's gang bang I'm being helpful to the reader.
You don't even have to bother with the tags because the title tells you what you're in for, and if you know that is not your thing you can quickly move on to something you might like better.
Now of course even with a title as unambiguous as Popping Ashley's little cherry, I still get people telling me how sick I am for even thinking, much less writing something like that, but I imagine that I would get a lot more of that if my titles weren't so blatant.
I might get more reads, but I would rather not fool someone into reading something that they don't like, and this way I feel fully justified in calling my trolls idiots.

 

Unfortunately, you're right. However, I would not name a book "Dirty Sex with My Kid Sister" so I don't title my stories like that. I actually look for stories with a decent title that doesn't tell me what it's about. That's what the genre tags are for. To me, seeing something titled "The Broken Promise" has more...um, promise...than "Dirty Sex with My Kid Sister." But I am sooo in the minority on that one. I guess that's why my stories don't get more exposure than they do. I got titles like "Primal Urge" not "Hot Lady Gets Jiggy with the Werewolf" and "Master" not "Slut Slave Gets Fucked by Her Master and Her Bi-Sexual Friend."

But as someone said, you should definitely spend a good bit of time on your title as well. I personally just don't like titles that's basically a short synopsis of the story. To me it smacks of an author who doesn't care enough to spend a little extra time coming up with a good title. But that's just me. There are plenty of stories on here with suckass titles that are damn good stories. To each his own I guess.

 

Well, I think for most people it's always about first impressions. We are a generation of people that are accustomed to being hooked quickly by what we see, hear, or read. That's why good headlines grab you!

So in answer to the question, yes, a catchy title is important! :rose:

 

It sucks to have some overly generic, cheesy porno title.

But at the same time you don't want an over-extravagant title that tells the reader nothing about the story.

This isn't high-brow literature, with some exceptions, readers come to cum and they want to know what they're getting into.

 

Yes they do

I have found by experience that titles are very much related to the number of reads you get. I'm a fairly successful writer on the sex stories site here. I have one story called "ADAM AND EVE'S FIRST TIME" which has 11,000 reads. Those who read it generally applaud its humor and well-crafted storyline. My story before this is called, "LITTLE SIS, BIG SIS, AND ME" and it has 273,000 reads. Readers here generally make comments like, "God, what a lucky boy...Wow, write some more about those young pussies...etc." Don't even even ask me how many reads "NAUGHTY AND NICE NEXTDOOR NIECE" got...

Heck, while I'm here, I may as well throw in a shameless promo. Click on the link below to read either of these stories!

 

yes it attracts readers

 

thanks for your thoughts - I shall title my next epic with care!

 

I agree that the title is the first thing that will get the readers attention, but, in your case, I think it is just a case of seeing "Jackass Tales" as the author of a story and you can be guaranteed that it is going to be good; very good to excellent, in fact. One thing about titles that turn me off completely is where it (the title) gives you the low-down on the story even before you read it. I'd imagine that there are some very good authors out there whose stories did not get the attention they deserve simply because of a poor title.

 

The title is absoltely mission critical to how many times a story gets read. Readers flip through titles looking for something they can get off on.
A title "The Evacuee" would see me skipping past. Not too late to retitle?

 

Oh for me sure the title tells me if I am going to read,
like Son fucks mother or dad, sure I am going to stop and read.

 

I've now titled the series The Evacuee followed by a 3/4 word summary so that anyone following the series can find it and newcomers know what is happening.

See if this works!

 

It's interesting to look at the number of reads which some old stories of mine are receiving.

None are particularly highly rated, it was a tougher rating system then (feeble excuse but true)

The three highest read day by day
To Save Her Daddy's Life
This Time Her Daughter - (Whatever you do don't go and read this - it's junk)
Sally's Serious Mistake.

If you'll pardon my lack of modesty - good titles all of them. Suggestive and provocative.

Higher rated stories but with less punchy titles just don't cut it. There's a lesson for me here.