How do you know if people actually like your work, and how do you know if they're just trying to make you feel better? I've had a sneaking suspicion for years that, the people who agree to read my stories, they're just trying to make me feel better about myself. I can sense problems with my own works, but instead, people tend to say that they enjoyed whatever short prompt or story that I've made. It got to a point where I cut ties with people a few years back, thinking that they're simple yes men who are actually bringing me down by saying how great my garbage is. I don't just mean stories here on CHYOA either. For some strange reason, I don't really care if readers of mine give upvote, none of them really give back feedback, and when the rare non-friend of mine do comment, it's different from what I usually get on the criticism forums...
If you're looking for good feedback and your reviewers are giving no criticisms... then they are not good reviewers. No one is perfect. Even if you love an author or a book, you can often point out plot holes, pacing or characterization issues that you disagree with. There isn't much point getting feedback if it's not constructive.
This is a free site and you're doing this in your spare time, no one owes you anything and correspondingly neither do you owe them anything. But this is good. People have no obligation to read or like anything they don't want to, they're not trying to brownnose or seduce you. So you have no reason to doubt people's honesty when they offer praise. Why would they lie?
If they offer positive feedback it’s most likely in the hope that you keep writing. They like your stuff enough to want more, and that in and of itself is telling. Besides readers and writers have different goals and priorities. Readers first and foremost want to be entertained. If it does the job of being entertaining then you’ve done the most important thing they asked for and all else becomes secondary. I think that’s the big take away. You have different goals than the people who read your work.
I think a lot of us are literary masochists hoping that reader-senpai notices us...but in the end, all we usually have is raw data: views, likes, bookmarks, and if we are exceptionally lucky, comments. If you look at the forums, it's really rare for a story to generate enough interest to keep even a modest thread going for long. So...if you're getting any likes at all when you post a new chapter, take it as a win. Some folks don't even get that.
I usually track by metrics (In order best to worst): Comments - If someone is going out of their way to create an account and post a comment on your story, bravo. This is porn that most people can see for free and they went far and beyond what they needed to do. I know a handful of my readers because of this. And recognize the ones that actually appreciate my work. Followers - Shows that a person is at least passingly interested in your work, enough to want to see more of your stuff. I don't know if they get notifications if I post (I don't follow anyone so I'm not sure). Favorites/Likes on Introduction - Shows how many people are interested in the story. I think likes on the introduction are more indicative of how many people actual read your story as Favorites tends to be a higher number. Bookmarks - No idea what this means, but I feel like its an indicator of something. Views - Any time you post your story youre gonna get views. I post a new chapter and I'll get 50 views in a few hours sometimes, other times zero. Views can easily be farmed if you want "internet points". 90% of views come from the Recently Updated Sex Stories section on the main page, Notable Sex Stories from Backers, and New Sex Stories. Why? Because they are on the front page and if someone wants a quick wank its an easy way to find something. One day I had a lot of free time on my hand and I wanted to boost some of my old stories onto the Recently Updated Sex Stories page, not only that, but I wanted every one of my stories to be there. I wrote 1 chapter for each story I've written and had them all open in multiple tabs, then I clicked submit and watched as the entire front page was flooded with my transformation and mind control fetish stories. At the time I thought it was funny and might have done something to the algorithm or something. But in the end I got a few more clicks than when I normally posted stories. Then again I'm not doing this for the clicks or the views. I'm doing this to write stories that I want to see so someone else writes stories I want to see. My favorite thing to do was give other writers access to my stories in exchange for writing on theirs, but I've got bad writers block on stories I'm not as into, so it can be difficult. Also I went on hiatus for like... three years? Because I started getting the itch to write smut again. My metrics: 19 Stories 1233 Chapters 17,328 Likes recieved 11 Awards 165 Followers At one point I thought maybe I could get paid for what I write or something. Have a patreon, but if I was gonna do that I'd do something a lot less NSFW. And I did, and I get paid probably more than if I got paid to write smut.
A follower sees every chapter you post regardless of what story it is in, a Favorite on a story sees every chapter posted on that story regardless of who does it. A bookmark pops up in the author's notifications, but isn't publicly posted (same as a favorite). I think some users treat it like a "shadow like" or something because I've had readers bookmark one chapter after another and like none of them.
Bookmarks are there to quickly go back to a favorite chapter, or to mark your place in a longer story.
I never knew for the longest time that a bookmark means you'll get notified if a chapter is added to that bookmarked chapter. So yeah, it's used to alert a reader that there was a new chapter added if they don't want to follow the story or author. But it's definitely used as a shy persons like too, since bookmarks do not show on a users activity page at all. I've seen a number of readers who bookmark numerous chapters in a story of mine (but rapidly, so they are still actively reading so no need to 'bookmark' their location) but have no likes or follows at all. Some nice numbers! I personally divide my total likes by the number of chapters I've posted, to give me a simple average of likes per chapter. This is a number that slowly goes up over time (unless I add a bunch of new chapters to a less popular story that does not get many likes) and it means I'm only comparing myself to myself, so to speak. That's... an unusual mindset IMO but fair enough. I think as someone else pointed out this is a website to freely give your work to be consumed or not. I don't think it's unusual or frankly bad to get simple encouragement from readers. They may just want you to write more stuff they want, and likes/comments/feedback is the thing that *most* writers here enjoy so it's kind of the coin of the realm. I understand the point, but I don't quite agree. I mean, I would love for someone to point out flaws in my stories or pick it apart in a serious sense. When a reader comments about typos and bad grammar I appreciate the heads up and correct it ASAP because I want the writing to be as good as possible. But as a *reader* I often give simple, uncomplicated compliments for the stories I read. If a writer has given out some small piece of themselves and I'm enjoying it I will say only that, because I don't think positive reinforcement is bad in and of itself. God knows, some times you just feel lazy and unmotivated to write, and a quick "I like this!" from a reader helps. So yeah, I guess my point is that comments are not always (or even often) intended as proper criticism really, so much as a small token of thanks and the wish from the reader that they want more of this thing they enjoyed. But I guess that's what you mean by "good feedback" and it's likely that is what Warden-Yarn is looking for. For me though, I am tickled and flattered by anyone taking the time to give any opinion or thought at all to my writing, so I'm not demanding an honest literary critique... besides my stories absolutely do not warrant any kind of legit scrutiny LOL.
"... how do you know if they're just trying to make you feel better?" Funny, I never thought of that before. My readers probably don't care at all how I feel, they just want to read a good story. Every now and then someone complains when I don't write sequels or I don't take up their suggestions. But never have I gotten feedback like "Hey, how are you doing, is there anything I can do to make you feel better?" Yeah, that would be nice, now that I think about it ....
I've treasured the thoughts and suggestions that have helped me drive sequences in "Slut World", "Lusty Magical Academy", and "When The Cat's Away". As to the rest of the signals, a "like" or a "bookmark" sometimes calls me back to look at a chapter and think about extending it.
Get a few chapters accepted to At The Cabin and reader-senpai will notice you. Duskford's world is quite the phenomenon.
Unnecessary hate and unreasonable aggression are things I commonly encounter online and offline. Over time, I became numb to that pain and just did what I wanted regardless of what would happen. After all, being insulted verbally is better than being curb-stomped for my jacket because I can control how much it'll hurt.
Chapters on huge collaborative works tend to get more attention more quickly and easily compared with writing your own story from scratch. I would still recommend the latter in the long term, though.
I somewhat agree with that perspective. I get a bigger ego boost if I submit my own story, though if a moderated story is popular to begin with, then I can achieve a minimum of 20 likes. Something that hasn't happened in quite some time... if ever, until now, to be honest.
