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I've been posting here for about 16 years and have probably posted more than anyone else, last week I started a new story Spider and I thought the first episode was going to get no comments but it got two or three eventually, so I wrote a second episode and that was posted about five days ago, it got seventy odd kudos, but no comments. Now I don't expect many comments from readers because I realise that most are selfish shits who are only interested in themselves, but there are several who comment quite regularly on my efforts for which I am grateful.
I have decided that I am going to take a break from writing anything new as my time could be better spent scratching my arse or something, I will continue posting my Gaby trilogy because those are already written but I will ask Erin to pull my last two stories as people obviously didn't like them. Perhaps, it's time for me to stop writing and let younger writers have a chance so I am taking a break I don't know when or if I shall be back. except to post the Gaby stories.
Comments
Ang,
Ang,
We all appreciate your writing and the corrections to our lousy English that you give some of us. I've enjoyed both chapters of your new story, with the second chapter nothing came to mind. It was interesting that mom was thinking of allowing her son, who wants to be a girl, to go out with a boy. It is an interesting story line. It is hard for some people to write a comment, and for some who are visitors who are 'guest readers' to leave a comment as only one can leave a comment since they have to sign on and I think that only one comment can be left per user, ie. Guest Reader. So only the first person to sign on that way can leave a kudo or comment. (Correct me if I'm wrong, Erin.)
I hope that you rethink your decision.
Hugs,
Teddie
Hey I was enjoying that story!
I have to ask. What do you expect people to comment? Nice story? Good plot?
I make sure to kudo good stories. If you want comments right away join discord channel.
Perhaps many readers enjoy
Perhaps many readers enjoy and love your stories but don’t comment; that does not mean we readers don’t get enjoyment from said stories. I for one can’t string a story from start to finish and have the guts to publish it.
My life is PowerPoint presentations and excelsheets. So, thank you for the laughs and all. Just like any work, most is not credited with a thanks and good job.
I would say that most readers read and don’t comment. Even follow the publishment of new stories looking for that one favorite author and get joy from reading. Why is that not enough? For any real kudos, like any work in real life you measure it by price. Sell the story for a price.
Kudos, you get for me and many. But get real, a reader on the website is for the most part here and gone. Taking an attitude that a payment not stated is a must in a very short time after publish is very unrealistic and will never come to fruit.
Thank you. The payment is a kudos click.
Time management
“Scratching my arse or something” made me LOL. I don’t read multi-part stories until they’re complete, so maybe I’m part of the problem? I’ve seen a general decline in the number of views that stories seem to be getting at BC, though, and I worry that it’s correlated with the growing “in memoriam” list. We’re ageing out and the younger folks to whom you propose to pass the torch seem to have a very different take on matters of gender.
Sugar and Spiiice – TG Fiction by Bryony Marsh
Scribblehub
Two or three years ago, when TGStorytime was having bad problems with a homophobic, transphobic troll that the owner of the site refused to ban, a bunch of trans authors migrated to Scribblehub, and we've found it a pretty welcoming place. It's not exclusively dedicated to trans or gender bender fiction like BigCloset or TGStorytime, but it has some appropriate tags (transgender, female to male, male to female, etc.) and good moderation that will delete transphobic comments if the author reports them, unlike RoyalRoad. You might find it worthwhile to try out your new stories there; it can't hurt. These days I'm getting slightly more comments on Scribblehub than on BigCloset, though that's not saying much, and some trans authors are getting a lot of engagement.
This transgender tag search URL might be a better place to start looking at Scribblehub than the main page, as the main page tends to be dominated by non-trans adventure stories.
https://www.scribblehub.com/tag/transgender/?sort=9&order=2&...
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http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/trismegistusshandy
http://shifti.org/wiki/User:Trismegistus_Shandy
Never Watched Soaps
If I read a multi part story it's because I've read one of the author's stories they completed and they showed great talent as a writer. If I indulge in a chapter of a multi chapter story it's to look at the skill and talent of the author not to read the story itself. Erin has exceptional talent as an author. I read a couple chapters of one of her continued stories wondering how good she was.
Over the years I've read a couple of your chapters. What is the line in "Her Alibi?" You're predictable and I'm not into soaps. Authors pick up a following of fans if they post many stories or chapters. Fans who like the predictable. I'm not trying to convince you to come back and continue with your new story line. Your fans may not have realized it was you or a new story line? If you will go to the top of the page and open up the list of authors, that's the number you are competing against for eyes to read your stories.
In publishing if the artist isn't top of the list and even if they are if the story doesn't follow what their readers want, a large number of books are going to remainder. That's a nice way of saying unsold books. To sell a novel the author must be well known. If not well know the book cover must get the reader to pick the book up. They picked up the book and hopefully read the endorsements of the critics on the back. Or there will be short "sound bites" of the story. We lost some potential readers, we still have a few who will open the cover and look if it has a prelude which may or may not pull them into scanning a chapter or two. We lose more readers and still hold onto a few. They scan a few paragraphs. We lost more readers and hold onto a few who will purchase the book. Hopefully we sell enough books to cover our publishing, distribution, and overhead costs such as labor, royalties, utilities, etc.
Did your first chapter have enough pull to draw your readers into staying with it for a second chapter? Blaming the readers for lack of interest is pretty lame.
Hugs Angharad
Barb
When we entered the sunset of life, do we still have the spark to enjoy all or did the flame go out?
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
I never watched Jerry Falwell, Tucker Carlson
Or any other self-appointed Guru or World's Greatest Authority who's hopelessly in love with the sound of their own voice and thinks everybody needs the benefit of their hard-won folksy wisdom about everything at all times. But I gotta have my General Hospital, to find out if the doctor's wife's sister's hairdresser will come out of her coma in time to keep her evil twin from swindling Marsha out of her life's savings + foreclosing on the orphanage to build a swanky nightclub that'll launder money for her mobster stepfather, who was last seen being swept over the railing during a typhoon somewhere south of Bora Bora. Riveting stuff!
I dunno about trite and predictable,
it's hard to do anything original (and if you do
you REALLY don't get readers, comments or kudos)
and none of us here is gonna get the Nobel Prize for literature;
but one thing Angharad's stories do have is a helluva lot of heart...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry8CpIg2fvU
~hugs, Veronica
"Government will only recognize 2 genders, male + female,
as assigned at birth-" (In his own words:)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1lugbpMKDU
Never Watched Soaps
it posted twice, sometimes there is a glitch in BCTS and it has a hiccup.
the way to handle it if Erin doesn't remove it is to edit, remove all text
Hugs People
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Commenting, etc ,,,
My not commenting ...
Well, sometimes
- I'm shy ...
- I don't have anything to add/say ...
- Others have said it ...
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Others have said that they write, first, for themselves.
Others are clearly (look in any bookstore) looking for "the Big Bucks". (Pounds, yen, marks, ...)
Yeah, some want the comments and kudos ... I'll admit, I kept checking on my first & so far only story here, for comments and kudos. But 'none' would have been OK (mostly). >I< had fun.
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Someone else has noted a shift in the general "tone" and story-type here on BCTS. For me, it seems there are fewer fantasy-happy-ending stories - and I >miss< them. Examples: https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/18155/dorothy-colleen, https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book-page/64483/ray-drouillard.
Sometimes, stories have a natural end.
- Teddy S brought his "Tommy, Trials and tribulations of a girl(?)" to an end.
- The USA TV series M.A.S.H, decided to conclude when ratings were still high - and the series had run longer than Korean War itself!
If you do decide to end some stories - (Bike) - leave yourself a way to continue them. A Big Question in Bike is "What are the plans of the Goddess for Cathy (& family)". The World is so sick, so Wounded ... that there is more work to do than we have people to do it.
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I 'diagnose' you with with a borderline (?) case of burnout. I 'prescribe' :
First, "tea & biscuits/cookies".
Then, get out in nature (From what I know about English weather, you get about one nice day per week.)
"Back out of" the 'World Of Story' (here & everywhere) for about a week. This might frustrate your Muse, so She drops something into your head.
And I'm sure you any number of hobbies & such that call your attention once you're not spending (I'll guess at least a dozen) hours per week keeping us happy.
===
In all cases, I do thank you for 'hours of reading pleasure' (probably more like cumulative days ...)
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Take care, please don't 'just leave', and very please, don't un-publish/withdraw any stories. Thanks!
I'm sorry your dissapointed
When it comes to commenting.... I am not very good at it, especially when I am relying on my phone as I do not have home internet, that would make doing so easier & certainly living, in a small rural town, getting the use of wifi, on this laptop I am tethering atm to my phone, which i cannot do often.
Is next to impossible.
I also, like when i too write, do not do so on a dash. I use my emotions & am honest (usually unless I am having a fit) to give my heartfelt true feelings & intentions in the comments, I take time to write out.
Also, I know many people as of late are very high-strung on all thw risks, worries, etc going on in the most progressive countries, atm that are falling backwards into fascist theocratic anarchy of bigotted transphobic dingbats.
So many like even myself, have a ton of other things on our minds. We read the stories which if felt as myself, are very grateful for. We write, comment etc sure, but sometimes things get skipped. I know its not intentional. Personally I know the comments I got for mine, almost always it seemed had to do with my lack of editing skills. Well I hate editing & don't like others micromanaging my personal works.
As it appears getting the recognition of comments for your works is this important to you, when I read your works. I promise to try harder to remeber to comment. I certainly do not intentionally try to hurt your feeling of neglect to give u the recognition you absolutelly do deserve.
So please accept my apologies.
With Love and Light, and Smiles so Bright!
Erin Amelia Fletcher
What Erin said ^^^^
I too have been caught up with life and have been reading more without commenting due to stress and life commitments. I will try to do better to comment on the stories I read to encourage the writers to continue to give me the pleasures of reading their works.
Disappointed
I understand where you're coming from. Comments have become few and far between. My last few efforts with Pink Bear and Mutation makes me wonder if anyone is "getting it". In several of these, I thought I'd made them all very commentable, putting in humor and/or easter eggs. The kudos are great, but it's the comments that let the writer know the reader is picking up what we're laying down. Sometimes I feel like shouting the same question as Maximus in Gladiator..."Are you not entertained?" There are a few who provide comments and feedback on a regular basis, but there are many who used to comment consistently, but now rarely, at least on my stories.
It's been said before...comments are the only payments the writers on a free site get. It's how we know the reader gets it. That the reader was entertained or even care. There are a few story lines I've let drop because it seemed the readers weren't interested. I know writing looks easy peasy, but for the most part it's not. And if you don't receive any feedback that anyone enjoys or cares, well there's other things to be done with your time. Anyway, I thought I'd toss my two cents in.
Melanie
Sorry I don’t comment
Sorry I don’t post comments, but my Saturday fix is truly something I look forward to, and one reason I support the site. I suspect others might be like me and very private, maybe fearing that a comment might sound stupid or maybe something else? I almost always give a kudos to things I like which so far as been all of yours. I did catch up on bike via kindle so I do like you as a reader,do read the comments as looking back on past episodes might have influenced how you write further chapters. As for the most recent story, life got away from me with work and other things, that by Friday I can read Samantha’s latest on her site and maybe catch-up what I’ve missed here. I Somehow missed a pink bear episode from Melanie. I don’t know if it would help to post first on the Patreon feed a day early? I get notified on those posts, so I tend to read those first. There seems to be a lively discussion of what was posted over there.
Maybe Angharad --
It just might be that a lot of things in you life have added up to "too much."
You have been here a very long time. You're an intelligent and sensitive person. You're a strong woman.
But sometimes. . .enough is enough.
I'm relatively certain that you have come to the same conclusion that I have that the numerous of kudos, hits, and comments has little or no correlation with the quality of the story.
I didn't read your new serial. As a rule I don't read serials because too often they're never finished. Also my memory has enough challenges without having to press it by reading a serial.
So -- since you're not one to whine and have been delivering for years - I read it and left a kudo. I didn't leave a comment because it didn't seem needed.
I noted that the story had received 124 kudos on 914 views. That is an incredibly high ratio. Any time a story receives more than a hundred kudos from the first 1000 views it is a success.
You sound tired. Perhaps along walk, a cup of tea, and a nap?
You're a proud person (as evidenced by your diligence with Bike) who has given a great deal of love to this site. It might not be realistic to think that this or any other site would, or could, reciprocate in kind.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Hope You'll Reconsider...
To me. the whole point of the kudos button is to forestall the need to provide vapid comments like "nice story". As with many stories here, I didn't have anything more intelligent than that to offer on "Spider", so I didn't comment.
That doesn't preclude me from hoping you'll continue with it here.
Best, Eric
(Since this blog entry was removed from the listing on the front page , I only saw it because at that time some of the comments to it were still present in the "comments" listing there. I suppose there's an irony there.)
Ditto
What Eric said. I don't comment unless I have something to say. To me, the kudo button is saying "I liked it; good story" so why repeat myself?
Not that I'd know, but maybe there's a shift
I've been posting here for 15 years -- I had to go check. Not as long as Angharad; not as often or as consistently, but enough to have some experience with comments.
It's an open secret that I began posting as Kaleigh Way, and started up this Iolanthe identity so I could post stories that weren't very Way-ish.
I guess I've written a lot here. I was lucky when I joined BCTS, I had a very strange job that required very little of me. Consequently, I spent entire days writing.
The world of comments surprised me at first. I didn't expect them at all. I hoped for readers, yes, but I didn't expect them to talk to me.
I was even more surprised that a lot of the comments (at least as I recall them) were complaints: the first was that the chapters were too short. Then, when I happened to say that the story was already written, I was asked why I didn't post the whole thing at once. Another person insisted that the main character needed to have a diagnosis, and that if I didn't give one, readers would be upset. One reader complained that the story was implausible, which I still find one of the most bizarre comments anyone could possibly have made.
In one of my next stories there was a legal matter -- it was only a detail mentioned more-or-less in passing. A few readers HEAVILY engaged with it. They'd send me DMs about what would not stand and WHAT HAD TO BE DONE. All nonsense, inevitably.
Of course, there were nice comments: encouraging comments, expressions of affection and even thanks.
At the same time, there was a reader who, as I posted each chapter of a story, would send me a note to say that she didn't understand it, and was not reading it. I have to assume that the "not reading" occurred in the moments after she'd read it. I tried to point out that I got her message, that repetition didn't improve it, that she would do well to go off and read something that she *did* understand. But no, she wanted to go on "not reading" and expressing her incomprehension.
And speaking of comprehension, there are comments -- often expressing outrage -- based entirely on a misreading of my story. One reader -- on some small pretext -- imagined that one of my main characters was lying, and that everything in the story was the opposite of what it seemed. It struck me as rather like James Thurber's MacBeth Murder Mystery.
Other readers have (in their imaginative misreadings), added motives, hormones, crimes, conditions, and conspiracies not found in the story by any stretch -- and then *complained* about the presence of the elements they themselves added!
So... COMMENTS! Comments? Comments!?
I'm perfectly happy when people send me a DM to point out typos, to point out errors of plot (which DID happen in a time-travel story of mine) -- corrections are very welcome. I do like the comments that I take as expressions of affection, such as "I liked the story." or "The thing about the shoes made me laugh."
As far as negative criticism, I'm pretty sure I've only ever gotten one: where someone said that they tried reading Rules Are Rules but found it was "a mess of words." I went and took a look and had to agree. I keep meaning to go back with a hedge-trimmer and have at it, but time is always a factor.
All comments aren't created equal. For that reason, I am just fine when I get few or none. My current story isn't garnering much attention, and I'm good with that. I'm struggling to find the time to write, and I find that trying to post on Fridays helps get the words out. I feel like my style is in transition, so it's nice to have a place to put it out potentially for all the world to see, but I'm not checking how many hits I got.
Then again, maybe BCTS is changing. Maybe the internet itself has changed in a way that's made comments passé.
Hugs hopefully,
- iolanthe
Ang, You're One Of Our Anchors
I've been off-line for a week so I haven't read your latest effort, but I make it a point to kudo and (usually) comment on your stories because I appreciate the effort that goes into them and I find them always well-written and entertaining. Just because somebody in Oklahoma is dismissive doesn't detract from the quality that you always produce. I don't see too much literary output coming from that quarter, whereas you have been posting very readable fiction for a very long time.....and I hope you continue to do so.
Now, I've got to put my money where my mouth is and actually read your latest.