I don't know why, but I didn't do my usual assessment of a new story before I bookmarked Dante's Confessions of Running an Escort Agency.
I decided to read today instead of write and opened his story. When I reread the description, I found the following statement:
If the reviews are good, I may do subsequent chapters with a mix of true and fictional stories.
Does this sound like blackmail to you?
Does this sound like blackmail to you?
No.
"Blackmail - Wikipedia
Blackmail is an act of coercion using the threat of revealing or publicizing either substantially true or false, and often damaging, information about a person, to the public, family members, or associates unless certain demands are met."
Doesn't political correctness require the term be African-American mail? Also Blacksmith, the color black, and blackteria.
Alright. How about cohersion?
ETA: Then there is also the definition of: "the payment that is extorted". Give me good ratings or else I won't finish the story.
Blackmail... maybe, maybe not.
Definitely wishy washy and an automatic do not read till completed. What it says to me is the author is not dedicated to his craft but rather the accolades. 'If you don't like what I write then I will quit rather than try to improve.'
If you look at Dante's story codes, they are "edgy" and - judging by Blog / Forum comments by writers of similar stories - offend a number of people.
'If you don't like what I write then I will quit rather than try to improve.'
does not really apply when it is the content people dislike, rather than the style.
Speaking for myself, I read less than 10% of what appears here and Dante's stories are in that 90%. I don't vote on them either.
If you look at Dante's story codes
That was the main thing I forgot to do before bookmarking the story.
To me, it's a form of emotional blackmail as it so0unds like the story isn't yet finished and he won't finish it unless he gets good reviews etc.
Calling it blackmail is a bit out there. Bad taste/form, fishing, unprofessional, among others is a bit more accurate. What that statement does for me, is ensure I never read the works of that author.
I'd call it emotional blackmail, but besides disinclining me to read any of the author's works, it wouldn't bother me as I don't now read anything that's in-progress.
Does this sound like blackmail to you?
Yes, and I loathe all forms of it used by authors eg saying they won't continue a story unless the score reaches a certain level, or they won't release a new chapter until the latest one has had a certain number of downloads.
ETA: To be fair, I even loathe myself for not following up on 'First Day at a New School' :(
AJ
To be fair, I even loathe myself for not following up on 'First Day at a New School' :(
I remember a story way back in August 2006 where the author posted two chapters and then simply stopped. I asked him why and:
To be honest, you are the first feedback I have gotten on the story so I gave up on it.
To be honest, you are the first feedback I have gotten on the story so I gave up on it.
That's sad. Nowadays there's story comments as well as story scoring so there's an additional way of providing feedback beyond sending an e-mail to the author.
I even loathe myself for not following up on 'First Day at a New School'
If anything, I got too much feedback and I was daunted by the weight of expectations. I'm basically a science fiction author using SOL to experiment and increase my range. Perhaps one day I'll have the confidence to go back to the story.
AJ
While I would say that an author who demands good feedback for them to continue a story is practicing emotional blackmail even if that is not their intention.
Having said that I could see an author who is experimenting with something new to have as their primary concern "how well is this experiment being received." In this case it might tend more towards the To Much Information than actual intention to commit blackmail.
Giving up for lack of feedback totally ignores the large percentage of readers who won't read a story until after the full story is posted, so they won't be giving any feedback until after it's all up.
large percentage
In my own experiences of serialising my stories, I've found it to be actually quite a small percentage, probably well under 10% of the total readership unless you add in the dribs and drabs of new readers who accumulate over the years.
AJ
In my own experiences of serialising my stories, I've found it to be actually quite a small percentage,
One of the things that does throw out the statistics for stories being posted over time is for each reader who reads a chapter as it's posted they count as an extra download per chapter. Thus if you post 10 chapters at a rate of one chapter per week and you have 10 readers, they'll count as 100 downloads by the end of the story. Thus to get a good read of actual followers for a story being posted each week you need to divide the number of downloads by the number of chapters to get a realistic count on the people reading the story as it posts.
I was going by the number of people who downloaded the early chapters immediately after the final chapter was released. I was unable to discern any significant increase over the number of people who downloaded the early chapters after the release of intermediate chapters.
I'm aware several forum contributors have said they won't read an incomplete story. I wonder if they represent a vociferous minority.
AJ
I'm aware several forum contributors have said they won't read an incomplete story.
This discussion came up some months ago for the fourth or fifth time. It was just when I started posting a couple of new stories, so I tracked the downloads of them and noticed the downloads were fairly even while being posted and there was a significant uptick after the final chapter was posted, and that happened with both stories. It's a small empirical sample, but it is indicative.
In that case our experiences differ.
Has anyone else monitored their downloads on story completion?
AJ
Has anyone else monitored their downloads on story completion?
I think Crumbly Writer and Switch Blayde may have, but not sure.
I'm aware several forum contributors have said they won't read an incomplete story. I wonder if they represent a vociferous minority.
There are exceptions but generally I try to avoid incomplete stories. There are too many that never do get finished.
I'm aware several forum contributors have said they won't read an incomplete story. I wonder if they represent a vociferous minority.
I started avoiding unfinished stories when too many ended up permanently unfinished. The funny thing is that I sometimes read an unfinished story that has been unfinished for a long time and has no chance of ever being finished. Most of the time those are stories that have a high score despite of being unfinished or are lauded by others here in the forum.
There are very few serials that I follow simply because my memory often makes it difficult to pick up a story after a week. I wouldn't be surprised if more readers have that problem as a reason and wait for a story to complete so they can read the whole story in a single or few sittings without bad memory bothering them.
There are more reasons then the fear of a story not getting finished. Take all reasons together and I'm afraid it might be a significant group.
Well, that particular author has not posted any new stories (or updates) since late August 2006 - although he has obviously logged on in the last five years - so it is all rather moot in this case.
Does this sound like blackmail to you?
No, just illogical. If people like the story enough to care about its continuation, then they will give decent scores anyway. If not, they won't give a shit if new chapters will ever appear.
No, just illogical. If people like the story enough to care about its continuation, then they will give decent scores anyway. If not, they won't give a shit if new chapters will ever appear.
And yet I can recall an author threatening to abandon their story if its score failed to reach a certain level and its score suddenly swerved markedly upwards, so the 'blackmail' appeared to work.
AJ
The author makes a difference in my normal behavior to only read stories that are complete. Mr. Bywater (I have too much respect just to call him Ernest) has years of proving he completes stories and the ones he posts are interesting. It may also depend on what else has been posted that day or week and how much time I have to spend on-line reading. Sometimes when I search I forget to decline incomplete stories so I might read a chapter or two before deciding not to continue. Or I might read all there is posted, if I like the story. There is something about a unnecessary consistency being a hobgoblin of small minds.
