New Author Guidelines

Having been an author on SexStories.com for almost ten years now, I wanted to share some advice for new authors, to provide information about the site and answering questions (See FAQ section).

Play Nice and Share – This is the most important piece of advice. The first page of Sexstories is where an author gets their story read by potentially thousands of people (top stories last 30 days and latest stories). Please play nice and share this fleeting opportunity with your fellow authors. Don’t vote others down and don’t publish 20 stories all at once. Authors crave attention. We need to know our stories are read and enjoyed. However, voting other authors down, just to scrab and claw your way a little higher in the rankings is very rude. Your story will receive votes if it is worthy. If not, get better and ask for feedback. The forums are a great place for this. We put so much time into writing our stories it is truly heartbreaking to see a story quickly banished, due to vote abuse. Please be nice to your fellow authors.

Feedback – Don’t expect much, if any, feedback in the comment section. You have to register to comment, and many readers are anonymous. However, if someone takes the time to comment, be respectful and take it as constructive criticism, even if they are rude. No one wants to see negative comments, but hopefully the reader is kind and concise, and not derogatory. Some of the best feedback I’ve received is “Too short” “To wordy” (both true) and my favorite, “Thanks! I blew a huge load!” (Hey, we write porn!) Though, as an author, as much as I want to provide feedback, it can be taken the wrong way, resulting in retaliatory actions. So, be cautious and very polite. Remember to thank your readers for their comments.

Posting – Please don’t post 20 stories at once. If your stories are well received, your multiple postings will consume most of the all-important-for-our-egos-front-page. And, instead of publishing 10 short chapters, post a few larger ones. Many stories end before the reader can even get started, if you know what I mean.

Punctuation – If you are a new author, or not an English major, writing is HARD! Take a little time to research punctuation if you are not sure of its proper use. Authors on the forum will always volunteer to help.

Grammar and Spelling – See above. Use a tool such as Word that will offer suggestions on language use and spelling corrections.

Spacing – The worst mistake a new author makes is posting huge blocks of texts without proper paragraph length, or providing spacing between paragraphs. A paragraph is meant to contain a single topic with some supporting sentences. Readers will rarely read a story when confronted with an entire wall of words. When you post a story, most formatting will be removed, but here is a tip - If you use MS Word, replace all ^p with ^p^p – then copy/paste and post. This will retain a line between paragraphs after pasting the text. Otherwise, add the spacing lines manually.

Proof Read – Proof read, then proof read again, ad nauseam. Even a spell checker will not correct a misused word, for example “Your” VS “You’re”. I find it helpful to copy my story to another format, like a text editor, and even read it one more time on the Sexstories draft/submission page before pressing the final “Submit” button.

Sad Truths:

Voting - Know that readers will vote down your story if they don’t like the genre no matter how well it is written (gay, trans, watersports, scat, etc. or political commentary). You may find many core readers like your work, but expect the worst. Even the “Don’t read it if you don’t like this type of story” doesn’t help. The thought police are everywhere.

It is tempting to allow only registered users to vote on your stories, but it only takes one or two negative votes to bury your story forever. Trust the readers who like it to compensate for the ones that don’t.

Trolls- Trolls are everywhere. Don’t feed them. Don’t be one. No drunken rants you’ll regret later.

FAQs

HOW DO I POST A STORY? There are two places for stories – Sexstories and the Forums. For forums, register and go to the Stories forum, start a new conversation, and post. Don’t post your story in the Author’s forum. Instead, you can post there and can attach a link to your story. For SexStories, you have to register first and create your profile. Then sign-in, and click ’post a new story.’ You can also find all of your stories there (though at the time of this posting, new stories are not always appearing under your profile when a user clicks on your name - add your stories to 'favorites' so they can be found). There may be requirements like validating your e-mail address or posting so many comments before you can start a new topic.

WHEN WILL MY STORY BE POSTED? SexStories are usually posted twice a week. This can change, as the web gurus take vacation, get sick, etc. The stories are first reviewed for unacceptable content - typically age-related concerns (no pedo allowed). If rejected, you will see the offending story on your author page with a difference status. Change the offending parts and submit again. Note – if you edit your story again before it is published, it causes it to start the review process all over again (putting you on the bottom of the list of stories to be reviewed).

WHAT VOTING OPTION SHOULD I USE? While it is enticing to allow only registered users vote, it only takes one or two negative votes to bury your story forever. You can resubmit it with different options, but the current rating will be retained.

HOW CAN I CHAT WITH OTHER AUTHORS? Go to the Author’s Lounge in the Stories forum. Most are very friendly and helpful. Again, be respectful.

WHY ARE PEOPLE VOTING DOWN MY STORIES? 1. See Play Nice and Share section. 2. See Grammar, Punctuation, Spacing and Proof-Reading sections. 3. See Voting. 4. Trolls.

WHY DON’T I GET FEEDBACK? 1. People must register first. 2. Most don’t sign in just to read a story or two. 3. Many readers finish before finishing the story. 4.That’s just how it is.

WHY ARE PEOPLE SO MEAN? 1. See Voting. 2. See Play Nice and Share section. 2.Trolls.

FORUM TIPS – research before asking a question. Invariably, new authors will regularly post “When will my story be posted?” and “How do I post?” and “Why is someone voting down my story?” Also, avoid “Why don’t people like my stories? I’m a fantastic writer!” posts. Again, play nice!

Overall, this is a great place to post your stories. One of the best, IMHO. The read rates are awesome (if suspect). And the site allows many genres not allowed at other places. Yes, the voting can be very annoying and seemingly vindictive, but most every site has issues with voting – either with self-designated porn police, vote police, anonymous attention-seekers, or vote manipulators. So, play nice and have fun!

 

Or just post them here on the forum where people will comment and you can easily reply. You won't get as many reads over all but you avoid all the voting nonsense and games that made the sexstories.com site so unpleasant for many.

 

Just a comment here. I think it's kind of rude to bump 10-15 of your stories at one time. I might do one or two (or three to complete a series) but to take over the first page here and push everyone to the nether lands of page two doesn't seem right. Not a specific call out, it's just that today's made me think of posting this. There are others that do the same. I mean I have enough stories on this forum that I could take over pages 1 and 2, but that wouldn't be nice.

Just my opinion.

 

Hi my name is Becca, I'm new to writing. I have may true stories I hope to post here. I use Grammerly but I may need some help editing my stories.

 

I assume you're referring to me. I unlike you, have only been a here a few months, still trying to find my way. Everyone sounds so helpful and understanding, so it's a little perplexing when I ask question after question with no response. I didn't know what I was doing was bumping people as you refer. But I'll certainly be more careful in the future. However I've been putting a question to everyone. As to what would be an easy way to track the progress of what I'm doing here, with no response. So I figured out a way on my own of how, to get them to a place. I could use my anal-litical skills like I always have to figure thingsn out. Without looking for them for several hours. There's a total of ten, that I've released in the last three months. So you'll never have to worry about me releasing that many stories at once. Now that I understand what a real writer goes through having to deal with novices like me. I guess I'll try harder not to bother you. Looking forward to reading a few of those great stories you have out there. Sincerest apologies. Mike

 

No it's not that at all, I haven't come Here to cause inconvenience. Just looking for a place that doesn't judge my every move, make some friends that still have some soul. That haven't forgotten what Civil liberties and Civil discourse really mean to this country. When they're gone, they won't be coming back, sorry about the rant. And of course, to have a little fun, for I'm not dead yet. Very certain, I don't want to leave in a wimper after having such a fantastic time. You have a wonderful day my friend. OhP.S. you wouldn't know of a Way to capture, views, likes and some general numbers easily by chance

 

Adding to the Sheree and NCfan dialogue, I too am new here. I find this site a good outlet but the site navigation is still somewhat of a mystery to me. I have a backlog of stories to post and, you may have seen, I usually post 3 at a time. After that, I get error messages. I also don't mean or want to "hog page 1". NCfan is right. Most readers choose from page 1 or search for specific authors. I do the same.
Like Sherree says - I've found two different pages that list wildly different view numbers. It depends on how I get into the XNXX site. One page (with much higher view #s) also lists positive and negative ratings - something missing from page 1. I echo Sherree: where is the official views and ratings info shown?
NCfan - thanks for the insight. Helps me understand how to try to fit in better here. I know my audience is niche, but I enjoy knowing that someone is reading my smut.

 

After reading UndeniableUrges explanation, I now see that there appear to be two branches to this site: one by clicking "Sex Stores" on the XNXX main page; the other by clicking on "Forums" then 'Sex Stories' on the XNXX site. Still confused why there's a difference.

 

Do stories need to be reviewed before they can be posted? It says my story was posted three hours ago, but I don't see it.

 

Thank you

 

No way to automatically capture read rates, ratings, etc., that I know. You can grab screen images or manually enter into a spreadsheet, I guess.

 

Yes. All stories are reviewed. They post twice a week, usually.

 

If posted on the sexstories site it may take 2-3 days to be available for people to view. If posted on the forum it's no different than this post.

 

Thank you

 

Hey everyone- just knocking out my 6 replies. Full of stories I have stored in my drafts to share you with you guys! Hope you enjoy when I can post em!

 

Is there a set of guidelines for posting stories? I had a story rejected because I was underage. But I see stories in the young category where the girls were my age.

 

Try not specifying the number.

 

Underage is the biggest (only?) reason for rejection. Like NCfan said, don't mention a specific age, and it might/should get approved. The site used to be a lot more lenient on ages; at one time the allowed limit was 13, then 16, now the stated age is 18. Times change. I've had to change stories multiple times before they got approved. You can write with the specific age in your mind, just leave it up to the reader to fill in the details.

 

Great thanks

 

I like many stories but if I wish to comment, it requires logging on. Sometimes I’d like to suggest the writer get a proof-reader, spelling error are usually picked up by spell-checkers but the mistake of using homophones is not. And that’s one thing that really grates with me.

I’m willing to proof-read/edit for some writers. If they use Word, I can mark the text up for the author to review and accept/reject suggested changes.