What makes you click on a story?

I guess my next story has to have a titlesuch as "Ouch" or "Smack" to get some people 's attention, eh? Or just "Boy spanks girl."

I'm sorry if I offended anyone. I didn't realize that the story had to be "Validated" before it got orientation rating. I thought the author provided that information when the submitted it. I do appreciate the time volunteers put into the site. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. And thanks to the volunteers.

I check on the orientation first. F/m and F/f are always my choice as I am drawn to strict but caring ladies. Of course there are favourite authors too but I do tend to read all those with the above classification.

May I also congratulate everyone concerned in creating and maintaining this resource. It is truly a remarkable feat and we should all be grateful there are folk who are prepared to give so much of their time for no reward.

Thank you very much indeed.

I enjoy spanking stories in general. I think a good synopsis is a must for choosing stories, but I don't like choosing a book by its cover either. If I'm reading a serial, I enjoy them more if they're not too long in the word count. There are a lot of good writers here at The Library, and I'm glad to be part of it. There is a lot of time and effort put into this site and it's all free of charge, that's the amazing part of it. To me, this is the best site of its kind on the Internet.

This board seems to have taken off like a rocket. As far as I was concerned there was never a good, current, active place for witers to go. This is the best I've seen in a long time. USENET seems to have fizzled, Yahoo groups are cumbersome and narrowly focused and private web sites are hard to find.

So what do I look for in a story? The main thing is good writing. It's a skill some have and some don't. Second, good characters. I want to know the people as people in order to identify with them and their predicament. Finally, some modicum of realism. Now I know many of you don't like a spanking story without action, but for me I like to know "this might have actually happened this way." that means over-the-top spankings of bared teenagers with hand, belt, and paddle leave me cold. A spanking is an "event" and an important one. It should not be routine or business as usual. If it is, in a story, it's just not very interesting. I don't care generally for "scene" stories because again it tends to be about something routine. I don't like it when the story devolves into a purely mechanical description of the physical act.

I know, I've violated all these rules myself, but lately I'm trying to be more focused on my characters. What are they thinking, feeling? How did they get into this mess--or exciting prospect? I especially like stories where nobody's been spanked before and it's a new experience. As readers of my stories know, I tend to like judicial-type plot lines. Well, this is a longer rant than I wanted so I'll stop. Next up I'll tout my favorite authors.

Fiona, you sound like my kind of reader, that describes mostly what I try to write.

Linda
I noticed that the stories that have 'No Actual Spanking' get less reads. This can be seen in a lot of the serials that are published. The part numbers with the spankings written into play have more reads. This is kind of sad because they're not getting the full story. Also, the bigger the word count, the less they're read.

I look for FF or MF to be honest. I think all you volunteers are doing a superb job.

JC

I recently signed up for a monitoring service for my public spanking story site, and have used it to learn a little bit about what attracts searchers (but not necessarily readers) to a story. If number of page clicks were my goal as an author, I would always name the implement in the title. Statistics tell me that the most popular story on my public site is Grandpa's Belt; apparently because that title floats near the top on any search that requests spanking stories along with the word "belt". Yet here at the Library (which I suspect has a more focused type of user) that story rates only average.

The moral? Clickers are not necessarily readers. Do I plan on changing my story naming practices based on this information? No. I write for myself first, and my readers second; "clickers" rate a distant third.

Guy