Are there any methods you use to get feedback from your readers? I asked in the blog, so far only one comment. Thanks.
Are there any methods you use to get feedback from your readers? I asked in the blog, so far only one comment. Thanks.
Trust me, if I knew I would be using it. Getting any kind of feedback, a comment on a story, or a blog post, or even an email (I'm old), is always a reason to celebrate.
Trust me, if I knew I would be using it
This, pretty much this.
I think the first step would be acknowledgement.
A logical consideration would be that people are more likely to comment if they believe their comments are read/actioned, or otherwise acknowledged. That could be achieved either by replying directly to story comments at the end of stories, or via blog posts where any questions are answered and attributed to the writer, ie "Joe blogs messaged me the other day asking if..."
Obviously, this is going to be difficult if/when you don't have comments or PM's to reply to in the first place, which you can only really get around by directly asking for feedback with questions directed at your readers like: "What did you think of the last chapter?" "What characters do you like/hate?" etc etc.
My personal belief, is that you are more likely to garner feedback, if you are publicly seen to respond positively to all directed comments. But, ultimately, TheDarkKnight is right. If we knew the answer, we would all be doing it.
Open story comments?
Actually, do you (Duncan7) even accept SOL's emails? Certainly not under that name.
Open story comments?
I didn't realize that I didn't have comments turned on for my latest story for a day or two — not that anyone has left a comment yet...
I'd love to know what people think of my stories — good or bad — but that's a step beyond voting, and it looks like less than 3% of people are even doing the two clicks needed to vote.
I don't worry about feedback. I write for myself.
If you are thinking of the ratings assigned to a story as feedbak, remember that the raters don't always rate what you wrote. They sometimes vote high to reward you for your time and effort, and then there are the 'one' bombers who handout "1" frequently.
How can anyone comment when you have no stories on SOL and you removed most of your stories on the other site.
Right now I am rereading your "Star Guardian" stories and was lucky to have downloaded them years ago because you removed them for some reason.
I never posted them on finestories, but on scifistories. I have other stories on finestories, now storyroom.
There's no Author Hangout forum on the sister sites, so I post here.
First and foremost, write and engaging story. If you're posting it as a sereal release, ending postings on cliff hangers tends to get some reactions. Leaving mysteries hanging for a while also drives a bit of conversation. The other option is to do sonething no one expects. You'll get comments, trust me, but you may not like them.
After a couple decades away, I've started to complete and revise some horribly written stories. Apart from a couple of helpful comments like "you accidently reposted chapter 2 as chapter 3" the comments appeared to be trolls, so I turned them off.
The only indicator that seems helpful is story download counts, even if they aren't wholly accurate. Two or three people have actually read (or at least skimmed through) a couple of them. A view is a vote, IMO.
I don't pay too much attention to comments. Often it's just people moaning about something. Also, many people do not comment until a story is actually finished.
A lot of people won't read a story until posting is complete so I can understand them not commenting until then.
I don't have problems getting comments.
A few of them point out errors - usually grammatical.
A few of them are the "When are you going to post the next chapter" Or "please finish this story". (Hard to do when the muse has flittered off.)
And enough "I like this/where it's going" to keep me wanting to write more. I like happy readers. Those comments are frequent enough to keep my clawing my way forwards.
oyster
If I get critical comments, I name my next villain after them and arrange a horrible end for them. :)