Okay, I admit it. Chris and I are posting the latest Eerie Saloon story one chapter at a time, about four days apart, in the hopes of getting comments from our readers.
And it doesn't seem to be working. We're averaging 2.4 comments per chapter, and that includes a few response comments that I've made.
At the same time, I happened -- it wasn't a deliberate comparison -- to post an old shot story of mine, "Habeas Corpus." In three days, it got as many hits as the first chapter of the current Eerie Saloon story has gotten in two months, and more kudos than any three parts of the current story. It has, I admit, only gotten two comments.
I have to ask, what's going on?
I'd like to think that Chris and I are going to be flooded with comments when we post the last part of the current Eerie Saloon story, but, sadly, I don't expect that to happen. We'll get some comments, but not near as many as we'd like.
I realize that people are more likely to read a short piece than a longer one. A second reason for posting the Eerie Saloon story one part at time is that people are more likely to read a 125K chapter than what may well be the 1M+ entire story.
And, yes, they are more likely to read a complete story than a chapter.
But, I think, that part of the problem is the way people think of these sites and these stories. Big Closet is a free site, and these stories are free stories. The authors do the work, and the readers -- including me -- read it for free.
Somebody once defined writing as staring at a blank piece of paper until drops of blood appear in your forehead. That's every writer's blood, the readers are getting for free. Blood and sweat and tears -- and time.
It's a pretty good deal -- for the readers.
Maybe I'm just venting, but is it fair to the writers?
In science fiction fandom, there's an old tradition of apas (Amateur Press Associations). People send letters to a designated editor, who compiles them on a regular basis (often monthly) and sends a complete set to each participant. It's like a Yahoo list that uses snail mail and the source of such e-mail abbreviations as LOL and IMO. Some apas have gone electronic, but some still are still done on paper and are distributed by the U.S. postal system.
One feature of a lot of apas is minac, which is short for minimum activity. A participant didn't have to send in a letter for every issue, but he or she had to contribute a minimum of, say, four pages every six months, or
lose membership in the apa.
I'm not saying that Big Closet should go that far.
But it would be helpful to us writers for the readers to think of the site, not as a free site, but as a site where the readers were expected to pay by providing feedback -- comments -- on what they read.
End of vent, and I bet I get feedback on this.
Comments
For what it's worth...
You can beg, plead, demand, cajole, entreat, or do whatever else you can think of to get people to comment and/or press the kudos button.
It doesn't matter. People either will, or won't.
~And so it goes...
I count more on the counters
I haven't posted much lately, but over the years I've posted quite a bit here,
and from the start it was clear to me that comments are a blessing and a curse.
There often isn't much to say after reading a story, aside from "I liked it" --
and if a story has a strong emotional impact it isn't always possible to say anything.
While I appreciate comments, I don't think it's a good idea to create any pressure on the reader,
or a feeling of guilt if they don't comment. When I know an author feels this way about comments,
I don't read their stories unless I feel I've got the time and energy to say something afterward.
For myself, I'd rather have readers than commenters. If someone doesn't -- for WHATEVER reason --
if someone doesn't leave a comment or hit the kudos button or whatever, at least the hit counter
went up by one. Even if they got there by accident. That's fine with me.
I've got one story with 5,780 hits. That doesn't mean that 5,780 people read it. But some of them did.
And in my series, I can see whether people make it through to the end or fall off along the way.
That tells me a lot.
So... comments are great. Good, bad, whatever. I read them, I usually reply, I like them. Some have
taken me (literal) years to understand or get over, and that's fine too. It's all part of the deal.
But if someone wants to stop by, read a couple paragraphs and go away without a word,
that's fine too. The clicker went up by one, and I'll see it.
story so good, hard to make comments
i think that most stories that get a lot of comments are works in progress with issues and are centered around a main character and the comments are to help improve the story. i am one of those who never comments, but this is about the forth time i have on your story. to me eerie is one of the best stories on big closet and you deserved good comments. one comment that i made about flora having trouble getting her money because she could not prove she used to be forry was shot down by another person's comment that what i said was useless since the story was already finished. your story is complex with many main characters and no mistakes. i do not have the ability to really tell you how good your story is. i look forward to jessie's story that is coming next but really sad that after chapter 13 of spring, the main story of eerie will not come out until 2020. that's a long wait. thanks for your gift of eerie to us.
I have not started reading it yet,
though I have it bookmarked.
I just lost a job (that I hated), so I am conflicted. Depression dominates though, and my reading goes down when I am depressed. When I first came out to myself it stopped all together, for almost a year.
When I had the job I was too tired and had too little time. You just can't win sometimes.
For what it is worth, both of you are on my top list of authors to read. Your stuff will not get by me unless I am in the hospital or prison.
Market appeal
Many readers seem much like a flock of geese. A's stories catch the flock's attention and they all head over to read A's stories. Then something about B's stories catchs their attention and they drop A and all head over to read B's stories. A may be cranking out some of the best stuff they've ever written but that little matters to the flock. They're reading B's stories but are about to move in mass to C's stuff, dropping B just like they dropped A.
Now personally I've never cared for the Erie Saloon or the Ovid stories, just to name a couple of story universies that don't appeal to me. Doesn't really matter though, I'm not a member of the flock. But if somebody who is a mover and shaker in the flock decides to drop those stories in favor of another type of story universe (for whatever reason) then the flock will drop their previous desires and switch to the newer genre, simply because that's what the rest of the flock is doing.
Yeah, it is irrational and yeah, it sucks. That's life.
They know they can survive
As I've said before, I just
As I've said before, I just haven't been in the mood for Eerie. I also haven't re-read the Julieverse stuff, or the Professors. I go through cycles.
I will admit that I _rarely_ comment on a chapter of a serial, unless there was something in there definitely worth pointing out, or that really chapped my hide. I do, however, tend to comment near or at the end of a story (or at the very beginning).
Many of my comments I send through PM, because they are either pointing out things that will disappear when corrected, or I simply feel it's inappropriate in a public forum.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
I've read a few paragraphs
It may be a free site but readers are not compelled to read every story which appears. I reckon I probably click on about 1 in 20 stories, and read to the end about 1 in 100. So the writer needs to sell the story to the reader, otherwise they are going to read one of the dozens of other stories appearing each week.
I've just read a few paragraphs - the place where you have to hook your readers and convince them to read on. I would like to make the following observations:
The very first section is great. It reay compels me to read on.
But then we come to the words of the Rev Yingling which are indecipherable. It sounds as though I've come into the story partway through. I think many readers at this point will have clicked the Back button, me included, but even if they go through to the next section they get the speech from Gregorio. Most speeches are boring - this is no exception.
To be blunt, you need to find other vehicles to portray this info, preferably written in plain English.
I also think the title is rather off putting. Habeas Corpus sounds great; this sounds too complicated and is totaly meaningless to me.
I wouldn't normally write this kind of comment, but you have asked the question. I hope this is useful.
Commenting on serials in progress
Sometimes I read serials in progress, and if so I'll generally comment on them as I do so, but more commonly I'll wait until a serial is finished to start reading it. I've done that with the latest Eerie Saloon story because I haven't read the earlier stories in several years and wanted to re-read them before starting the new serial. Now that chapter 13 is posted I'll start re-reading the older stories within a few days, and I expect I'll post a comment here when I finish the latest story.
Even if a story is posted all in one piece I won't necessarily read it right after it's posted; I don't check this site more than once or twice a week, and FM less than once a month on average.
Sometimes asking or begging for comments works and sometimes it doesn't. Recently Maeryn Lamonte offered to post chapters of "Lifeswap" more often if people would comment more copiously and after a while it did start happening. I tried that with the latest chapter of "Twisted Throwback" and got some results, offering to post the next chapter after three days instead of seven if there were more comments than on previous chapters. Chapters 1-4 got between 4 and 6 commments each (and my previous several stories got no more than 6 comments per chapter, usually far fewer), but chapter 5 has gotten 8 comments so far (after around 36 hours).
I think people may be more inclined to comment if they feel their comments are affecting the course of the story -- that the author is making it up as they go along, or at least hasn't finished writing the story or set their plans for later chapters in stone yet. That works against certain types of writer, people like me who can't easily produce a coherent, consistent first draft; my stories aren't fit for public consumption until the second or third draft is finished, as I keep changing my mind about things during the first draft and they end up with inconsistencies and holes that need to be fixed in later drafts. I may change things in a later revision of the story if people point out plot holes or other problems, but I'm not likely to change the course of the story because (e.g.) some readers think that certain characters should or shouldn't get together, etc.
---
http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/trismegistusshandy
http://shifti.org/wiki/User:Trismegistus_Shandy