Troubles by the score.

Why do I have such a fixation on the Kudos and Total Views numbers?

That is a very good question when you consider that I’ve been saying for eons that there is absolutely no correlation between the quality of writing and these two numbers, for any given story.

The over-riding answer is this – I’ve seen too many new or impressionable writers turned off when their stories don’t receive high scores.

I’ve reposted about eighty stories, over the last six months. I’m not an expert on this subject. But -- I do have a strong opinion backed by considerable experience. Those stories and story parts have received an average of 155 Kudos and 5,725 Total Views since first being posted on BC. These numbers are skewed since many of my stories have been unpublished after they went to Hatbox or Doppler Press.

The main point is. . .some of my best stories received some of the lowest numbers of Kudos and Total Views are completely random.

Total Views is often misinterpreted as the number of people who have read a story. This isn’t even close to reality. People will be intrigued by a title or the small blurb. To learn more about the story they need to open it and read the descriptions of the characteristics. This counts as a View -- but often will result in the story being closed due to genre, length, topics covered, age of the characters, etc. If you’re like me -- and in and out of your own stories quite frequently to tinker -- that also impacts the numbers.

My guess is that the average story loses about fifty percent of the readers at the initial opening. Obviously, this becomes less of a factor as time goes by and serial chapters are posted. I base this theory largely on drop off with serials between the first chapter’s Total Views and the second chapter’s Total Views. For me, that results in Total Views of between 45% to 65% of the first chapter’s views for the second chapter. After that, the Total Views remain somewhat consistent with a larger number for the last chapter. . .reflecting people who read the last chapter first to see if the story is for them.

Add to that, the number of people who open a story multiple times to read it -- or those who read the story multiple time.

Historically, my stories generate a two to three percent Kudos to Total Views percentage. They always start out with a higher percentage. The longer a story is posted, the less likely it will receive a Kudos or a Comment. The romantic side of me believes this is because readers are coming back a second and third time because they like the story. This ratio will also drop if there are a lot of comments because people need to open the story to read comments. Often these are people who have already read the story and have left a Kudo.

My educated guess is that a two to three percent kudos ratio means that eight to twelve percent of those who read the entire story have left a Kudo. Some of my stories have a Kudos percentages of around eight, which could mean about a fourth of those who read the whole story leave a Kudo.

The easiest way to get a lot of Kudos or Total Views might be to do it yourself. This happens from time to time and is easily noted. Those authors might be finding a way to defeat the system. I have NO problem with doing what you have to do to stroke your own ego. I do that every day and believe it is mentally healthy. BUT – when a new or impressionable writer sees inflated numbers for another BC author -- they might become discouraged when they can’t match them.

Number inflation has gone on for as long as I’ve been on BC. Erin has changed the system a few times to thwart it.

The number of Kudos and Total Views are influenced by many factors. One of the biggest is how long your story remains on the front page and/or near the top. Obviously, this has nothing to do with story quality.

In this same vein is the uncontrollable factor of what other stories are posted at the same time as your story.

I’ve also noticed that weekends seemingly generate more Total Views and Kudos, for my stories. So, the day of the week your story is posted is seemingly salient.

I won’t go into Comments in depth. However . . . a few months ago I received a PM suggesting that an assertion I had made about the Big Closet “community” was flawed -- in that there isn’t a BC “community.” I disputed that statement.

After a lot of thought, I believe we are both right. I believe the vast majority of users of BC have zero sense of BC community. I believe the vast majority are takers -- who add nothing to this site other than their readership. That isn’t to say that readership doesn’t have value. A good percentage of BC’s revenue comes from advertising. Advertising is based on the number of “unique visitors.” Even if a person comes here and doesn’t participate beyond reading, they contribute by simply being here.

More importantly, there is a community-within-the-whole of BC that contributes stories, money, comments, kudos, and blogs on a frequent basis. That small percentage of the overall users is remarkable in many ways.

I sometimes try to write controversial stories that challenge the reader to examine the human spirit. My characters are often horribly flawed. My villains are despicable. Those that like my stories seem to be very loyal. Like the other authors here, I don’t get paid -- so I’m not about to change how I write -- to please the crowd.

I’ve never had a story that generated more than 400 Kudos. One of my stories is close to 400 and eight have gone over 300. However, many of my stories were first posted in the pre-Kudos era, or have been published by Doppler and have sold quite a number of copies, with the total revenue going to support this site.

A couple of my books that were published years ago still periodically hit the charts of the bestsellers on Amazon. That to me is one heck of a kudos.

My message, again – is to those newbies who are disappointed by a small number of Total Views, Kudos, or Comments. Just tell a good story and everything else is meaningless.

I’ll let Tony and Lady Gaga sum it up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYfF9VKMp4w

Jill