Checking your numbers, it's something we all are tempted to do.
Seriously maybe the worst thing an author can do is look at the numbers. It won't make you write better or improve your story and it's easy to compulsive about.
Suggestions for avoiding the "Stat's trap"?
I would be more curious about the reasoning for your claim that it may be the worst thing an author can do or that it won't make them a better writer over suggestions for avoiding monitoring your progress.
I can easily think of a few ways knowing what works and does not work regarding reader response could be helpful.
I agree with CB. Stats are about the only way a writer has here of gauging reader feedback. If you 'avoid' the numbers Emmeran, how on Earth do you know if you are improving, or getting worse? If your readership falls, then it's a good indication that you are either writing about something no-one has interest in, or are doing so badly. If your readership gains every time you post, then obviously you are doing something right.
I also don't agree that it won't make you write better or improve your story, maybe not directly, but for most, personal pride is the driving force and that is in turn driven by stats/numbers.
Came here to say this. As a non-prolific writer (largest story in progress is still smaller (150k) than some write for whole chapters) in a somewhat niche genre, comments are few and far between, so watching readership and votes is one of the only ways to gauge how things are doing.
My other pen name is dedicated to writing small serials, and sometimes the stats is a good measuring point for throwing stories against the wall and seeing what sticks. If people aren't interested, I have to decide if there's a point to telling the story or not.
I also don't agree that it won't make you write better or improve your story, maybe not directly, but for most, personal pride is the driving force and that is in turn driven by stats/numbers.
For authors in general, feedback is our only renumeration. Even for those of us who publish for money, considering the time and effort involved, there are few who make more than you could standing behind a register in a fast-food restaurant. Even most famous novelists only make money because they farm the work out of a crew of struggling no-name potential authors.
So, aside from the few of us who employ book signings across the country, reader feedback and/or SOL stats are generally the best we get. And if you can't even generate any enthusiasm or reader ire, I'm guessing most authors won't stick around for long.
I have been dealing with this for more than three years on various sites. I look at the stats but I try to avoid being obsessed with them. Sometimes I'm surprised when something doesn't do as well as I expected, but I write for myself, not to collect good scores.
There is one site that is extremely generous in the way the readership hands out high scores. On another site, I got some low scores probably because of the subject matter. To me, the stats (and comments) are a rough gauge of how I'm doing. They have been consistently good enough - not always! - to motivate me to keep going.
The stats can be useful, but not if you go overboard watching them and trying to make some sort of sense out of them. On an irregular basis I check the download stats, and I ignore the rest unless I need to look at them as part of a forum discussion on them.
Suggestions for avoiding the "Stat's trap"?
Don't avoid stats. Use them wisely.
There's another thread here on advertising. There was something about the number of views (of the ad) and the number of click-thrus (which was a small percentage of views). That stat is telling. The ad needs to be modified to get more click-thrus.
My most rewarding stat is the number of sales. The important part of that is where the sales occur.
But I assume you're talking about the author's stats on SOL.
For the novel I'm currently posting, when I posted chapters where a woman was abused the score went down. That's good information. Would I have written it differently? No. But it's telling anyway.
The point is, don't obsess over the stats. If you do, you'll write what you think people will like rather than what you think makes a good story. And take pleasure in stats. When the novel I'm currently posting hit 100,000 downloads, I smiled. When I see the large number of people who have it in their library, I also smile. Look for stats that encourage you.
But for improving your writing, feedback is what's important.
But for improving your writing, feedback is what's important.
Feedback is encouraging, knowledgable feedback is helpful, but constructive feedback makes a significant difference. And often, the most productive feedback (if you can get them talking about it) is from your worst critics. Fans will rave, almost regardless of what you write, critics typically dislike you for specific reasons, which you likely haven't focused on before.
I've learned that watching stats and sales too closely is a fast track to letting my obsessive self bend me into a mental pretzel. These days I mostly manage to keep that corralled. It doesn't help that, on SOL, the only way to easily see that there's a new comment is the author Stats page. Oops, data in my face, ready to be tea-leafed.
(Though I have gotten some amusement out of this: for most of the past month, of my two lowest-ranked stories, one has spent most of the time being the top download and the other most of the time the least downloaded. This was especially striking, the three days they were tied in the ratings and at top/bottom. The correlation between rating and readership is quite loose, it seems.)
Suggestions for avoiding the "Stat's trap"?
Like most SOL authors, I've spend untold hours studying my stats, but I look at them more like an economist than a popularity rating. They make the most sense when you look at either the percentage-change between chapters, or the outliers. The mean generally means little, as it's largely an arbitrary figure, its the many hidden details which make up that unimportant figure which helps you make informed decisions.
A classic case is studying the use of a specific technique, say cliffhangers or short, concise action scenes. They obviously won't change the overall score--which is largely based on what the other SOL authors are posting within the same period--but you can tell whether your use of those techniques is helping or hurting your story. If score rises or falls after using them, that's a definite signal from your readers, as long as it's more than a momentary glip (ex. you had a couple church-attending old ladies stop by one afternoon).
I generally don't care what score my stories receive, but I use them to tell me which chapters excite my fans, and which they really don't care for.
