Talk about a blow to the ego

yeah, it was too depressing. Number of views kept going up, but only one like on one chapter. Clearly there was not an audience for it
 
well I just published a story recently and there's 2006 views and only 6 likes. Suspicious it might be bots, the cadence of likes seem a bit too weird, but some of the profiles do check out with comments on other works, so I don't know. Don't feel bad about your story not doing well. Write for yourself first, not for the site. When I started writing in Wattpad a long time back I would write detailed science fiction and horror, and realize that the only works that got popular were teenage copies of dystopian YA cliches, or fan fics that are edging on badly written smut.

Even if you're not going to get a thousand views like some of the more popular works here, having even one reader helps. Someone will appreciate your work.
 
I had five total chapters and only one like. If you added up all the views for all 5 chapters, it was over 500 views.
It's like having a book signing at a book store and no one showing up.
It was embarrassing and humbling.
 
Most readers wouldn't interact with the story to leave a like, its an active decision that even if someone enjoys your story they wouldn't bother to press it.

Also deleting the story just because it didn't become a front page blockbuster in a day is an unrealistic expectation. Stories don't become famous overnight, they gain traction and through regular updates that push them forward to the front page so more people are exposed to them.

It's like you are a traditional writer that sets up a stall at a book fair and wait for people to come and read and get your autograph but your competitors are utilizing the internet to string readers bit by bit with a carrot on a stick every day while the buzzword spreads and their story sits on r/All on reddit.

A good story is just part one if you really want to succeed on sites like this, its similar to Wattpad. Too over-saturated with hundreds of works being spammed and created every hour, nobody is going to know your story exists. I write my stuff here in short bursts and get a lot of views and likes, then I stop and the story falls into obscurity over the next few days because other works just push this further back into the archives. It's fine. Don't write for the masses. Have confidence in your own story.
 
I don't know how common this is, but I like things very infrequently due to the fact that Likes are publicly tracked on your profile, with timestamps. It goes hand-in-hand with my turning off showing when I was last online. I therefor go days, often weeks without giving a single Like. It's a shame, because I'd probably give lots of likes otherwise. Many thousands, I'd expect.

Meanwhile, I have nearly 1000 stories favorited, 400 chapters bookmarked, and 100 authors followed.
 
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Aman Onfy Mous said:
I don't know how common this is, but I like things very frequently due to the fact that Likes are publicly tracked on your profile, with timestamps. It goes hand-in-hand with my turning off showing when I was last online. I therefor go days, often weeks without giving a single Like. It's a shame, because I'd probably give lots of likes otherwise. Many thousands, I'd expect.

Meanwhile, I have nearly 1000 stories favorited, 400 chapters bookmarked, and 100 authors followed.
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This actually has me thinking, if a "like anonymous" option would help

Even if its a porn site, sometimes you don't want to shout out your preferences.
 
Gambio said:
This actually has me thinking, if a "like anonymous" option would help

Even if its a porn site, sometimes you don't want to shout out your preferences.
Click to expand...

I thought about that, but anonymous voting is easily manipulated. There would have to be some way of validating it. The lack of bots vote-spamming stuff to the top is a key benefit of the site imo.
 
The Alchemist sold only three copies the first month it was quietly introduced to Brazillian book stores. If I recall correctly the first buyer bought a copy in the second week. And the two other books were bought by the same man when he returned the day after to buy two more. I'm sure the author was very discouraged, but today it has been widely translated and has gained world acclaim.

If you haven't read the alchemist, highly recommend it, because of the way it's written. many of the words in it are very meaningful while the story is simple but engaging and bring you on a journey of personal growth. It's also a highly giftable book because it's easy to read and fairly short.
 
Well, by the time I saw this, they'd already deleted the story, so I can't comment on how to improve as a writer. But here are a few points that I think probably hold up in the general case, though:
  • I'm pretty sure the number next to the eyeball takes into account time spent viewing the page, not just the number of clicks. So really long chapters will have more Eyeball Number than shorter chapters, probably.
  • Most people come here because they want to write, not so much because they want to read. As such, writing for validation is a waste of time. You should be writing to create something that makes you happy by its existence.
  • That said, the way to improve isn't by deleting your bad stories. It's by writing more and more bad stories, trying to learn from your mistakes with each new one, until you're kinda good at writing stories.
Man, I'm really overusing this bullet point feature. I'm not even sure why. It's just handy, tonight.
 
parkingdiscount said:
Yeah ikr. Its like those mid to rich people telling us poor folk that they could only afford last year's Porsche and not this years'.

Meanwhile if I get one comment I am happy enough.

Signed,
Someone with only double digit likes here.
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Are you kidding me!? That's crazy. Your writing advice is so good. I'm gonna block out an evening and read as much of your back catalogue as I can, because I know you can write. The verbal backflips you were pulling off in this thread alone... -_- It must be something else you're doing wrong.

Would you like focused critique, general impressions, or just validation?

Edit: Wait... double digit? All the way down the Map? That's a lot!
 
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My new story just got nine favorites and a grand total of zero likes

Admittedly made me laugh a bit
 
yeah checking my stories the favorites far outnumber the bookmarks. I guess they are just more convenient.
 
Makes sense. Favoriting something is useful for the reader, whereas liking something doesn't do anything for them.

On the other hand, you can't favorite a story twice, but you can like a story twice. As the number of chapters goes up, I'd expect to see the ratio of favorites to likes change.
 
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