What do I put in the "Story Tags" field?

When submitting a story for publication on Literotica, the “Story Tags” field is where you enter keywords or key phrases to help readers find your work.

The main places Literotica readers find stories to read include the New Stories section, the Category Hubs, the Literotica Search, and the Literotica Tags Portal. Over 500,000 stories have been published on Literotica since the 1990s. Readers need a way to find specific stories that are relevant to their tastes. Millions of readers every month use Story Tags to find Literotica tales that interest them. Relevant well-selected Tags can bring appreciative readers to your work and increase your fanbase.

Currently, authors can add ten tags to each of their stories. Tags should be words or phrases that accurately describe the content of the story.

DO Use These As Tags:

• location of the story action (i.e. “outer space”, “castle”, “office”, “beach”, “New Zealand”, “costume party”)
• occupations of the characters, if it’s important to the story (i.e. “policewoman”, “fireman”, “stripper”, “cowgirl”, “samurai”, “elf”, etc.)
• words and phrases describing the characters, if it’s important to the story (i.e. “milf”, “older man”, “younger woman”, “blonde”, “big breasts”, “bbw”, “bbm”, “long legs”, etc.)
• genre (i.e. “love story”, “crime drama”, “science fiction”, “historical”, “fantasy adventure”, etc.)
• the number of people involved in the sex scenes (i.e. “threesome”, “mmf threesome”, “orgy”, etc.)
• sexual activities that take place in the story (i.e. “spanking”, “blowjob”, “carsex”, “tickling”, etc.)
• kinks and fetish-related words and phrases in the story (i.e. “rimming”, “pegging”, “furry”, “handcuffs”, “blindfold”, “spanking”, “peeping tom”, etc.)
• triggers that describe any content that might be an unhappy surprise or shock to some readers (i.e. “violence”, “scat”, “degrading language”, “bisexual male” or “bisexual female”, “gay” if outside the Gay category, etc. - these will vary by category, so having knowledge of the expectations that readers have for each category is very helpful)
• other relevant categories your story may include (i.e. if your Exhibitionist/Voyeur story is about an orgy on the beach, you may want to include “Group Sex” as a tag)
• any relevant words or short phrases you think appreciative readers of your story might be interested in browsing.

DON’T Use These As Tags:

• your username (readers can already click on your name above the story and find all your works, so this is unnecessary and a waste of a tag)
• generic words like “sex”, “fuck”, “man”, “woman” (these tell the reader nothing about your story)
• character names (the “Julie” in your story will not be the same “Julie” tagged in another author’s work)
• the category in which the story is posted (the reader already knows there is BDSM in a story in the BDSM category - use more specific Tags like “femdom”, “corporal punishment”, or “male dominant”)
• words or phrases unrelated to your story (if there are no tall blondes in your story, do not use “tall blonde” as a tag, as you will face the ire of disappointed readers who will likely downvote you for your trickery)

For more information, please read this Story Tags How-To Article. You may also want to research what tags are included on popular stories in your category and genre. That said, please do not just copy all the tags verbatim from another author’s story!

You do not have to enter all 10 Story Tags for every submission - but the more you add, the better chance your story will find interested readers.

If you have questions about tags, you can get answers from other authors in the Literotica Author’s Hangout Forum.