Hi. I notice that very few people have downloaded my 'Lauren' story compared to my other stories and no one has voted for it. Have I done something wrong with it or do people just not like it?
Hi. I notice that very few people have downloaded my 'Lauren' story compared to my other stories and no one has voted for it. Have I done something wrong with it or do people just not like it?
probably just the timing. There are peaks and troughs in reader responses due to the seasons, the weather, and the day of the week. In bad weather many people are too busy dealing with the weather to take time out to read. Wait until it's been up several months before you worry, then look at the reader comments.
I haven't looked at the description, but when something like that occurs to me, I'll often start there to see if there might be any red flags, or it simply isn't exciting enough. Sometimes, all else being equal, just rephrasing the description and emphasizing different elements might jump start a story, but chances are, if you're at the point of quibbling about the description, there's probably something about the story that's hurting your numbers.
Blog postings can alert anyone who wasn't around when you first posted it, reminding your fans that it's out there, but as Ernest says, I'd wait for the current string of bad weather in the U.S. to blow over first.
Personally, the low number of votes would disturb me more than the low number of downloads. That suggests that readers haven't yet discovered anything that they love about it (i.e. they may see it as 'more of the same' and are reserving judgment until later).
From the description it just didn't draw my interest. I looked at some of your other story blurbs and found a couple I might be interested in reading. It's just that some of your fetishes are pretty big squicks for me. This may sound contradictory as I have a WIP that includes them, but with negative connotations.
Since you don't have feedback turned on, they can't tell you WHY they don't vote.
How do I turn feedback on, I love getting feedback
Two ways, messages and comments on the story
Go Home page - then the Authors / Editors link, then the Manage Stories link - select the story by name and click on it. At the top of the next page is a bunch of buttons, one is labelled either Hide Public Comments or Show Public Comments - if the button says which you want leave it alone, if it says the other you click on it to change it. So if it says Show Public Comments clicking on it will allow that action to happen. This lets readers write public comments at the end of the story.
For the Message to the Author system you go to the Home Page then click on the My Account link near the top right corner, that opens a page with setting. Three quarters of the way down is the setting for Messaging and Notification with a Change link beside it you adjust the settings there.
It shows 'show public comments' so not sure why Capt Zapp is saying it's not turned on.
It shows 'show public comments' so not sure why Capt Zapp is saying it's not turned on.
Public comments are the ones that show up at the end of the story that anyone who reads the story can see. I was referring to the 'Message to author'. Some readers prefer to let the author know directly and privately. After all, would you rather everyone could see a negative comment or just see it privately?
edited to correct edit.
It shows 'show public comments' so not sure why Capt Zapp is saying it's not turned on.
the option active at the time you look at the button is the opposite of what it says - to do what it says you click on it.
the option active at the time you look at the button is the opposite of what it says - to do what it says you click on it.
I haven't messed with it since I set it up that I forgot that it displayed the desired action instead of the current status. It looks like he got it turned on, thanks to you.
Ah, well that's shown as turned on too.
I had forgotten that it showed the desired setting, not the current one. A big thanks to Ernest for pointing that out.
I see you have it on now, so I hope you get lots of feedback and comments.
CZ
Also, what's a WIP?
It's a length of braided leather used for punishing naughty slave girls.
I checked the story's description. I can't tell you what others may think about it, but I honestly can't relate to such a story, so I'm not interested in reading it.
Somebody voluntarily getting extremities amputated isn't something that I can even fathom.
I took a look at the description and it could have been written specifically to turn me off so I won't be checking it out. At a guess the extreme nature of some of the aspects of the story (amputating her own legs and working to become someone's owned sex toy) isn't going to appeal to a really wide array of readers.
As the things in a story narrow more and more to more particular niches, you'll have fewer and fewer people reading the story. If it doesn't sound like it'll appeal to them, they'll move on to other stuff (and to be clear, I think this is a good thing: people should read things they'll like). Contrawise, I think you'll on average get better ratings, though, especially if you scratch that itch well: a combination of "not much out there" and "this really is my thing" and up-front not having people who wouldn't like it pass on it.
My personal example is my "I, Newbie" series. It's distinctly had a lot fewer people reading/rating it, but it continues to hover near the top of my stats page in terms of score (my longest story taking the top spot, because long stories rate better than short ones on average).
I have seen your story postings as they posted. No offense intended, but most of the tags turn me off. As written by others, I can't fathom self mutilation. A few descriptions sound like there might be romance but the tags cause me to turn away. I do appreciate honest tags, 'cause if I started reading then found it wrong, I might not be nice. (I'm most 60, when I was in high school, teacher assigned a book that still gives me nightmares - if I recall, it was bigger thomas.) Again, no offense intended, I wish you well in what you wish to write.
Yep, I just checked the description and the codes. Just as the others stated, just not anything I would even consider reading. If you really want, I can break my own rules on not reading or scoring those stories which do not interest me. It would bump up the download count. But I can tell without reading it that it will be close to if not a 1 in scoring.