Anticipated vs. actual scores

[dadadadiox]

Serial writers like myself tend to score higher on our chapters as loyal readers reward you for the time and effort put into the long form. I have learned there is no predicting reader response. They baffle me always.

I’m on my sixth series, four are related. My last series was filled with travel, adventure, and romance. I don’t get a great deal of traffic but it did very well score wise. There were chapters I thought weaker than others that scored better. I expected my current series to see a drop in ratings because it’s the tale of that same character settling down and being domesticated.

I have him cleaning his bathroom and buying furniture and window shades, doing yard work and putting roots down. Somehow, that mundane writing of his routine life has outscored his previous adventures. I am baffled once again.

You just have to drop the work you feel is ready for the public eye and take what they give you. I do like analyzing the content and stats but it’s futile. Some I understand but I have no clue why other chapters do better.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Several of my stories score lower than expected because I hit an squick with certain readers, and they punish the story for it. Even allusions to gay sex in a story mostly of hetero and lesbian seem to draw the down-votes. In a few cases, though, I'm starting to think that some are hammered because a troll is having a bad day and wants to take it out on somebody.

IOW, there is no "simple explanation".

"As flies to wanton boys are we to the readers. They kill us for their sport." They certainly are unpredictable. I think anyone can come on to this site and vote as they please. It is possible that different random people will vote on each story. Then five days later they all have moved on to something else. One can't even depend on one's followers. I've got something like 194 of them, and then maybe fifteen people will vote on a story.

 

[Rob_Royale]

Looking over my stories, the only pattern that pops up is stories that are loving and sweet, focusing on just two people making a connection, tend to be rated better. The comments would back up that assumption.

 

[dadadadiox]

Looking over my stories, the only pattern that pops up us that stories that are loving and sweet, focused on just two people making a connection tend to be rated better. The comments would back up that assumption.

Yes, 100%, every time my MC gets lucky I have a predictable bump. It’s the non-erotic parts that vex me. They sometimes do better than the romance chapters. I don’t get these people. I just keep feeding them stories.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Looking over my stories, the only pattern that pops up us that stories that are loving and sweet, focused on just two people making a connection tend to be rated better. The comments would back up that assumption.

I can confirm. People like happy endings; both kinds.

 

[TheLobster]

It’s the non-erotic parts that vex me. They sometimes do better than the romance chapters. I don’t get these people.

Do you add a disclaimer on non-erotic chapters that they don't contain any sex? If so, then that easily explains the higher ratings.

 

[dadadadiox]

Do you add a disclaimer on non-erotic chapters that they don't contain any sex? If so, then that easily explains the higher ratings.

I did at one point, a hundred chapters ago, then realized it was unnecessary. In Romance, I don’t mention if this is an erotic chapter or not. I just publish and let them find out. It doesn’t seem to matter to serial readers if they like the story.

I found the opposite is true in non-erotic. I ran afoul of the cleanies by putting a very short sex scene in a chapter posted in non-erotic. They punished me. It is to this day my lowest rated chapter. Then mods started bumping any chapter that crossed the invisible erotic-non-erotic boundary into EC.

It seems the cleanies are more offended by a dirty chapter than regular Lit users are with a clean story.

 

[Duleigh]

Has anyone else wondered about why the scores are significantly different from your expectations and the potential reasons?

Yep. I can offer no explanation. Some stories I work so hard to find a balance between humor and sexy and exciting and score so much lower than I expect and other stories I toss together on a whim and they take off into the 4.9s

If you think this is hard to understand, try selling your stories

 

[Rob_Royale]

My expectations were just to get a story out. That over a thousand people would read one was not even in my mind.

Oh this is so true. I've participated in forums for other artistic mediums where I could show off my work and at best get a couple hundred views. When my first story went up and it had a couple of thousand by lunch time I was over the moon.

"As flies to wanton boys are we to the readers. They kill us for their sport."

GHT wins "coolest post" award for today, quoting King Lear, slightly modified.

 

[LonRivers]

I have submitted 22 works so far, and of those 22, 6 are not doing well. The others went "HOT" fairly quick. It just depends on subject matter, story and lord only knows what else at the time someone reads it. Certain topics will get you a quick "HOT" status. Incest will certainly get you one. Lesbians will too. It's a kink most preferred apparently among the one-armed readers out there that earns you a better rating.

 

[intim8]

I have one story: Bessie’s New Job, that has done really well. I expected people to hate this one, it’s super weird and out there.

I think it did well because it is pretty unique.

However my story: Pathokinetic has not been scoring well.

This was due to a category issue, and some poor character development I’m working on, and I posted the sequel in a better category for it, so I’m hoping that it starts to do better.

I pulled both of these up and read the first few paragraphs. Aside from having dramatically different categories and themes, the writing style - and honestly, the quality - differs as well. Pathokinetic starts out passively. Passive voice, qualified assertions, and constructions that put a psychic distance between the reader and the character.

Consider "When Josh was born, he did not cry" vs. "Josh did not cry when he was born"
or "He could feel himself getting hard..." vs "He got hard..."

It does have a really interesting premise.

Bessie is written more actively. Not just that there is (presumably) more action in the story, but the writing feels more immediate, and there's a more direct connection to the character.

"Samantha woke quickly and violently." That really draws a reader in.
"She gasped a breath of the cool air coming in through her window." is a lot more immediate than a more passive alternative such as: "Cool air came in through her window, and she gasped a breath of it."

Neither story is my cup of tea, but I find myself more invested in Bessie than in Josh right off the bat.

I'm not saying that completely explains the different scores, but I do think there is a correlation between writing quality and scores, and things like this at least make readers more or less likely to stick with it even if they don't understand why, and to overlook minor flaws or plot holes or whatever, because they care more about the characters and story. Category and the rest play into it, but more engaging writing makes it easier for a reader to like a story.

 

[THBGato]

Certain topics will get you a quick "HOT" status... Lesbians will ... It's a kink most preferred apparently among the one-armed readers out there that earns you a better rating.

I think you're right: Lesbian Sex does seem to have a very kind/generous readership. I often think that if I'd put my non-erotic stories in Lesbian they would have scored even better: non erotic seems quite a tough crowd.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Certain topics will get you a quick "HOT" status. Incest will certainly get you one.

Review the daily 'new' entries and you'll see that doesn't really pan out. I often see 2s and 3s among that list.

 

[LonRivers]

Review the daily 'new' entries and you'll see that doesn't really pan out. I often see 2s and 3s among that list.

There are some stories that just plain suck though, and no topic can help get it a better score if the writing is subpar or if it is not what the reader expected. Plus, give it time and some of those stories will start getting higher scores. A lot of people just go through and favorite stories to save for later. I've seen some of mine do a slow crawl, and then suddenly go HOT with an influx of good scores.

 

[LonRivers]

You also have to take into consideration the type of reader who is browsing LIT. Are they looking for something juicy to masturbate to are they authors looking for ideas who stumble across your work? Are they registered users or are they anonymous readers who don't give two shits about voting. If I read a work by someone, I rate it with 5 Stars only if I really like what they wrote. If they didn't impress me, I just move on. People are finicky when it comes to voting.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

There are some stories that just plain suck though, and no topic can help get it a better score if the writing is subpar or if it is not what the reader expected.

Yeah, like mine.

 

[LonRivers]

Yeah, like mine.

Even I have stories that suck. It goes with the job. You win some, you lose some.