At least five one-bombs in the last ten votes

[KeithD]

Truth? You can't handle the truth!

Your calling something "truth" when it isn't is ludicrous...

The issue I have addressed was the claim that you are self-publishing when your material appears on Literotica. You are not. Literotica is the publisher and has selected your material to publish. This is not self-publishing.

I'm sorry that for some reason you won't recognize this is the disinformation I am addressing and that it's true that being published by Literotica doesn't mean you are self-publishing here.

As I directly said, I think this only came up because Lovecraft can't stomach my saying I don't self-publish while he says he does. I think he's posted disinformation here just as a personal jab and that others are being swept up into believing the disinformation he has posted about their status as authors on Literotica. Being a Literotica author does not in itself make you self-published. That is a fact.

He has brought this false distinction up himself in connection with his own complexes and vendettas. I don't give a shit what he thinks he's doing to get his material in front of readers/buyers or if my using publishers (and, yes, my works are on Smashwords and Amazon--put there and brokered there by my publishers) rather than handling everything myself puts some sort of burr under his saddle.

Nor do I care that it upsets you that I keep to the single issue I addressed here and that I continue to hold it as a truth that you are not self-publishing if Literotica publishes your material.

 

[Lifestyle66]

Truth? You can't handle the truth!

Your calling something "truth" when it isn't is ludicrous...

In case you haven't realized it, KeithD has been in an ongoing forum battle against lovecraft68. He was attacking something lovecraft68 said about self-publishing, which is why he wanted us to stay out of it.

So, you and I can both expect more 1-bombs on our next stories.

 

[windar]

Here is a list of erotica publishers. Lit isn't on it, nor is Amazon, Smashwords or anywhere else people self-publish.

https://publishersarchive.com/erotica-book-publishers.php

Moreover, the famous and much-debated Section 230 (c) of the Communications Decency Act of 1996
says:"no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as a publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."

Why don't you ask Laurel and Manu if they consider themselves publishers? I will bet that they or their attorneys will say no, just as Zuckerberg and Dorsey et al. do.

 

[windar]

In case you haven't realized it, KeithD has been in an ongoing forum battle against lovecraft68. He was attacking something lovecraft68 said about self-publishing, which is why he wanted us to stay out of it.

So, you and I can both expect more 1-bombs on our next stories.

I strongly doubt I will ever self-publish any more stories here. There are far better places where I have been a valued member for years. I tried self-publishing an old story here as an experiment. My scores and views were perfectly fine. The comments were mostly positive (some negative, of course, but I wouldn't expect everyone to like them) and I've met some interesting people. But overall the experience was not enjoyable enough to make me want to continue to self-publish here. Too much bitchiness and competitiveness over nothing. If earning a red H is the highlight of your life, I really feel sorry for you.

For those who see this and would like to read my stories, I know posting links are a no-no, so I won't do that. Google "windar Trabbian Justice" and you will find many more, some much better than what I put here.

Good day, all!

 

[Lifestyle66]

I strongly doubt I will ever self-publish any more stories here. There are far better places where I have been a valued member for years. I tried self-publishing an old story here as an experiment. My scores and views were perfectly fine. The comments were mostly positive (some negative, of course, but I wouldn't expect everyone to like them) and I've met some interesting people. But overall the experience was not enjoyable enough to make me want to continue to self-publish here. Too much bitchiness and competitiveness over nothing. If earning a red H is the highlight of your life, I really feel sorry for you.

For those who see this and would like to read my stories, I know posting links are a no-no, so I won't do that. Google "windar Trabbian Justice" and you will find many more, some much better than what I put here.

Good day, all!

I'm planning to post three more here, two to bring my series to a quick finale for those who DID love it, and one for the Feb Pink Orchid event to see how that works.

But you are right. I'm also looking elsewhere to post the other stories I have completed or near complete in my longer series, due to the lack of audience here and poor responses. It's gotten to the point of "why bother." I'm wasting too much time trying to get any kind of feedback to improve my writing.

 

[PennameWombat]

I'm planning to post three more here, two to bring my series to a quick finale for those who DID love it, and one for the Feb Pink Orchid event to see how that works.

But you are right. I'm also looking elsewhere to post the other stories I have completed or near complete in my longer series, due to the lack of audience here and poor responses. It's gotten to the point of "why bother." I'm wasting too much time trying to get any kind of feedback to improve my writing.

It's been said, but this site won't give you that. Well, it might by pure, unadulterated happenstance. In fact, I'm in lots of groups. And the constant stream of people wanting others to give them critiques, reviews, analysis, and all of it for free, is unending.

If what you want is guaranteed feedback and critique from people who (seem to) know what they're doing, there seem to be two ways:

• Get a job as personal assistant to a truly successful writer, like Mercedes Lackey did with Marion Zimmer Bradley and Ty Frank (half of the James SA Corey duo who write The Expanse novels) did with George RR Martin. That hooks you in with a possible mentor but more importantly they usually have a network of other authors to interact with.
• Pay for it.

On the latter, I'm acquainted with three 'pro' authors who offer one on one critique and development. They're all published, you can buy their books, but none are mega-successful, all have day jobs (well, one has a spouse who has the day job). But they don't do it for free. But they WILL go over your work with a fine tooth comb.

I met them through workshops through the local Adult Extension classes at a local University and the local Writer's Guild (essentially). So I'm at least a bit familiar with their methods. One of them seemed to mesh well enough with me, a second less so. The third doesn't cover genres I care about, but she's good with grammar and with plotting.

But they'll all do one on one. But not for free.

Same method. Look for a couple of short workshops (my favorite one was six weeks, two hours one night a week, with 'homework' and in-class writing. One, in person pre-WorldwideDeathVirus, the second via Zoom.) Check references. If it's serious, they should be able to provide someone they've already helped.

 

[rjordan]

When someone signs you to a book deal, takes your work, and they're doing everything for you including marketing, distributing sales, editing etc...that is being published. It says Random house on the spine of the paperback not "Halfwit publishing" through createspace(sorry, that's amazon now)

Anybody can self-publish a book meaning getting it from manuscript to final product. That's the EASY part.

The hard part is marketing and selling the book, and most self-publishers had no skill or resources for that.

That's always been the main benefit of having a publisher. That was always the problem with the the vanity press. They did the easy part.

rj

 

[Lifestyle66]

It's been said, but this site won't give you that. Well, it might by pure, unadulterated happenstance. In fact, I'm in lots of groups. And the constant stream of people wanting others to give them critiques, reviews, analysis, and all of it for free, is unending.

If what you want is guaranteed feedback and critique from people who (seem to) know what they're doing, there seem to be two ways:

• Get a job as personal assistant to a truly successful writer, like Mercedes Lackey did with Marion Zimmer Bradley and Ty Frank (half of the James SA Corey duo who write The Expanse novels) did with George RR Martin. That hooks you in with a possible mentor but more importantly they usually have a network of other authors to interact with.
• Pay for it.

On the latter, I'm acquainted with three 'pro' authors who offer one on one critique and development. They're all published, you can buy their books, but none are mega-successful, all have day jobs (well, one has a spouse who has the day job). But they don't do it for free. But they WILL go over your work with a fine tooth comb.

I met them through workshops through the local Adult Extension classes at a local University and the local Writer's Guild (essentially). So I'm at least a bit familiar with their methods. One of them seemed to mesh well enough with me, a second less so. The third doesn't cover genres I care about, but she's good with grammar and with plotting.

But they'll all do one on one. But not for free.

Same method. Look for a couple of short workshops (my favorite one was six weeks, two hours one night a week, with 'homework' and in-class writing. One, in person pre-WorldwideDeathVirus, the second via Zoom.) Check references. If it's serious, they should be able to provide someone they've already helped.

Those are all very good points, which all come down to: Pay for it, nothing's free.

And that begs the question: Then why should I post anything here?

My hopes for this site was not for professional instruction, but more like an ad agency uses "focus groups" to provide some feedback. It's not about "help me write this", but more "OK, what do you really think about it?" Given that my 1K to 3+K readers seem to have no thoughts at all ... I'm getting a blank stare.

Maybe you're correct, and I should find an English professor or writer, and just work with that person to improve my writing skills.

 

[KeithD]

It's true that Literotica isn't set up to be a critique site. It's set up to be story share site, with low standards on what is accepted (which isn't to say that high quality isn't appreciated). Although I've found that it gives more author support (especially that capability to erase comments) than other story sites I submit at, it is most supportive to readers. It doesn't require them to do any more than read the stories if that's what they want to do. On a site including pornography, it should be understandable that that is as much a footprint a lot of readers want to leave here as they'd want to.

 

[windar]

Those are all very good points, which all come down to: Pay for it, nothing's free.

And that begs the question: Then why should I post anything here?

Maybe you're correct, and I should find an English professor or writer, and just work with that person to improve my writing skills.

Feedback and mentors are fine, but the most critical way to become better at writing is to write, because you want to develop your own distinctive style and that's very hard for anyone to teach you. The other thing that will help is to read a lot. Not here; go to your local library and read the good stuff with an eye towards, "What did that author do and how can I adapt that?"

The question you need to answer is what is your goal?

If you enjoy writing, just do it and who cares if anyone likes it and whether it's voted a 5 or a 2. Your story won't make Oprah's Book Club either way. The whole scoring thing here is really a bad idea and as far as I can see leads only to bad feelings and conflict.

Is it to make money? Well, then stick it on Amazon or Smashwords or wherever. The worst that happens is you sell 0 copies. But, actually, I was pleasantly surprised with how well my books have sold. You never know..

But looking for validation on a website is probably unwise. You will know when you've come up with an interesting story and told it passably well. No one will have to tell you...

 

[PennameWombat]

Those are all very good points, which all come down to: Pay for it, nothing's free.

And that begs the question: Then why should I post anything here?

Because it's fun? But like anything, 'fun' is in the eye of the beholder. If it ain't fun for you, it ain't fun.

Beyond that, I got nothing.

My hopes for this site was not for professional instruction, but more like an ad agency uses "focus groups" to provide some feedback. It's not about "help me write this", but more "OK, what do you really think about it?" Given that my 1K to 3+K readers seem to have no thoughts at all ... I'm getting a blank stare.

My Winter Holidays story was published just before the deadline, and it's bumping up against 11,000 views. It has zero comments . It has enough votes and a high enough rating to be H, so... does that mean it's good? It means enough people enjoy it enough to vote so my black, shriveled heart gets a slight jolt.

I did a very long (70,000 word) single story. A key theme I intended was that two of my characters SHOULD'VE been a great love match, but various aspects of duty and such meant that never happened. I've only ever received one, a single, comment on that story (it's been out 18 months and is also H). But that comment told me I'd managed to convey the essence of their lost forever opportunity[1] to at least that reader.

Like I said, happenstance.

I've gotten on rare times a similar comment on other stories, but most of the few tell me I misspelled a word or 'where's the sequel?'

I'm never going to be one of the first-rank contributors here with thousands of followers, that's demonstrable by my followers list . But the fact I know someone will see my stories makes me think about what I'm writing and I can (mostly) let my freak flag fly (I don't have a thing for underage nor bestiality nor non-con, so those generally aren't bumpers for me.) And whatever it actually is (self- or not) publishing here is essentially frictionless.

Maybe you're correct, and I should find an English professor or writer, and just work with that person to improve my writing skills.

I'd be careful with actual professors. They think in terms of Literature (you need to say it in a posh, snobbish voice .)

[1] They both died.

 

[Lifestyle66]

Because it's fun? ...
My Winter Holidays story was published just before the deadline, and it's bumping up against 11,000 views. It has zero comments . It has enough votes and a high enough rating to be H, so... does that mean it's good? It means enough people enjoy it enough to vote so my black, shriveled heart gets a slight jolt.

I did a very long (70,000 word) single story. A key theme I intended was that two of my characters SHOULD'VE been a great love match, but various aspects of duty and such meant that never happened. I've only ever received one, a single, comment on that story (it's been out 18 months and is also H). But that comment told me I'd managed to convey the essence of their lost forever opportunity[1] to at least that reader.

...
I'd be careful with actual professors. They think in terms of Literature (you need to say it in a posh, snobbish voice .)

[1] They both died.

But you ARE watching the numbers.

And while you caution against professors, you earlier said perhaps I could attend "workshops through the local Adult Extension classes at a local University", which to me equates to English professors.

So, as I suggested in another post, some of the recommendations and success methods described here are eluding others, and as one poster here admitted the 1-bombs may be coming from someone who hates the author, regardless of the quality of the story.

 

[PennameWombat]

But you ARE watching the numbers.

I've never claimed to NOT watch the numbers. As amply discussed for most of us they're mostly all we can get around here.

Also, I'm a numbers geek. My career's been working with coding, databases, and so on. So dump a bunch of numbers on me and I'll roll around in 'em.

And those numbers tell me I'll probably never have a thousand followers. Nor will I have a story that'll hit 100,000 views. So anytime I hear about those things, I have to just shrug and carry on.

And while you caution against professors, you earlier said perhaps I could attend "workshops through the local Adult Extension classes at a local University", which to me equates to English professors.

Ah, my sloppiness. Apologies. Most Adult Extension courses aren't taught by professors. As a rule, they're taught by "professionals" in the subject areas. It's a common area where 'pro' writers (those who make money, but not enough money, from their writing) make up the shortfalls, doing 'creative writing' (or memoir writing, or editing, etc) courses. Years back an ex-girlfriend was an adult extension coordinator at a US University, and one of her tasks was recruiting these instructors from various fields. And I've taken a few such classes, never ran into a professor (well, one retired one, that was for Linguistics.)

But yes. Always check out the instructor. If they claim they're published, it's trivially easy to check.

So, as I suggested in another post, some of the recommendations and success methods described here are eluding others, and as one poster here admitted the 1-bombs may be coming from someone who hates the author, regardless of the quality of the story.

My one bombers have never explained themselves. But I've been on the 'net' since before TCP/IP existed so no way I'd argue with this as a possibility.

 

[Lifestyle66]

...
My one bombers have never explained themselves. But I've been on the 'net' since before TCP/IP existed so no way I'd argue with this as a possibility.

KeithD says that in the posts above that 1-bombs can be expected from someone who hates the author ... after I engaged him in arguing against his premise in this thread.

So, I'm expecting to exceed my previous high of thirty-three 1's for my next story post. So, my search for substantive feedback on story quality will probably need to continue elsewhere.

 

[KeithD]

KeithD says that in the posts above that 1-bombs can be expected from someone who hates the author ... after I engaged him in arguing against his premise in this thread.

So, I'm expecting to exceed my previous high of thirty-three 1's for my next story post. So, my search for substantive feedback on story quality will probably need to continue elsewhere.

I don't read the stories or check on who has written what; I'm here to write them. I have no plans to read yours. If you think I'm someone who would do that on this this Web site, then screw you. You didn't have to post this as a personal reference, but you did.

I haven't checked but I'm willing to bet that I make a whole hell of a lot more stories available for hate voting than you do.

 

[Comshaw]

I've never claimed to NOT watch the numbers. As amply discussed for most of us they're mostly all we can get around here.

Also, I'm a numbers geek. My career's been working with coding, databases, and so on. So dump a bunch of numbers on me and I'll roll around in 'em.

And those numbers tell me I'll probably never have a thousand followers. Nor will I have a story that'll hit 100,000 views. So anytime I hear about those things, I have to just shrug and carry on.



Ah, my sloppiness. Apologies. Most Adult Extension courses aren't taught by professors. As a rule, they're taught by "professionals" in the subject areas. It's a common area where 'pro' writers (those who make money, but not enough money, from their writing) make up the shortfalls, doing 'creative writing' (or memoir writing, or editing, etc) courses. Years back an ex-girlfriend was an adult extension coordinator at a US University, and one of her tasks was recruiting these instructors from various fields. And I've taken a few such classes, never ran into a professor (well, one retired one, that was for Linguistics.)

But yes. Always check out the instructor. If they claim they're published, it's trivially easy to check.



My one bombers have never explained themselves. But I've been on the 'net' since before TCP/IP existed so no way I'd argue with this as a possibility.

Personally, I believe anyone who posts here and claims the numbers don't mean anything to them is, in my less than gentlemanly father's terms, "full of shit right up to their eyebrows".

If a story has lower scores, you wonder and try to figure out why. If it has a higher score, you wonder and try to figure out why. The former to improve it to a point where it has a better score, the latter so that you can duplicate on the next story what you did that was enjoyed by the reader.

Some may pay less attention to it than others. Some may be obsessed by the scores.
But everyone pays some attention to those numbers. We are a competitive species, and it's or nature to want to do the best you can.

As far as one bombs, I can't say I've seen a flood of them on any of my stories. But then I fly under the radar. By that I mean I don't have a large body of work, I haven't put a lot of tags on my stories, and I wouldn't categorize myself as a popular author here. I think most that read my stories stumble onto them while perusing the story lists. So I think I'm a bit insulated from a lot of the one bomb crap ya'll get whacked with.

Comshaw

 

[SimonDoom]

Personally, I believe anyone who posts here and claims the numbers don't mean anything to them is, in my less than gentlemanly father's terms, "full of shit right up to their eyebrows".



Some may pay less attention to it than others. Some may be obsessed by the scores.
But everyone pays some attention to those numbers. We are a competitive species, and it's or nature to want to do the best you can.

I think there's some truth to this. Most if not all of us care to the extent we'd prefer to get good numbers than bad numbers.

We differ about which numbers, exactly, we care about, and we differ in how we react when we don't get the numbers we'd like.

For instance, I don't fret about 1 bombs the way some people do, and I don't ever get upset if a story drops .03 from one high score to a slightly less high score (on those occasions when I DO get a high score, which is not always). I think, in general, authors fret too much about scores, and they would be more satisfied if they focused their attention on other things. It's healthier to focus on the readers who LIKE your story than on those who don't. Accentuate the positive.

I'm like a few others here in that I like numbers for numbers' sake. I track data because I think it's interesting, in and of itself, not because I'm fretting or obsessed about it. There are plenty of authors here, however, who regard this sort of thing as a waste of time.

 

[windar]

I think there's some truth to this. Most if not all of us care to the extent we'd prefer to get good numbers than bad numbers.

We differ about which numbers, exactly, we care about, and we differ in how we react when we don't get the numbers we'd like.

For instance, I don't fret about 1 bombs the way some people do, and I don't ever get upset if a story drops .03 from one high score to a slightly less high score (on those occasions when I DO get a high score, which is not always). I think, in general, authors fret too much about scores, and they would be more satisfied if they focused their attention on other things. It's healthier to focus on the readers who LIKE your story than on those who don't. Accentuate the positive.

I'm like a few others here in that I like numbers for numbers' sake. I track data because I think it's interesting, in and of itself, not because I'm fretting or obsessed about it. There are plenty of authors here, however, who regard this sort of thing as a waste of time.

I've looked at my scores. I had no particular expectations for them one way or the other, so I can't say what they mean. On other free sites I belong to, there is no voting, only like buttons and the names of those who liked it are shown. That gives you some information as to who is reading the story, which I feel is important. If you have a personal grudge against the author, you can't 1 bomb them; all you can do is ignore the story...

In my mind at least, all votes/likes are not equal. Anonymous lurkers matter less than those who put a name on it. The opinions that matter most are those of people who write themselves and whose work I like.

But, overall, comments are more meaningful than votes (unless they're content-free fluff like, "It sucks!" or, frankly, "It's great!"). What can one do with those? Interestingly the one guy who said "It sucks" on my story said it on multiple chapters, including the final one. So either he didn't read it or he read 11 chapters and over 50k words of a story he hated...

 

[rjordan]

Personally, I believe anyone who posts here and claims the numbers don't mean anything to them is, in my less than gentlemanly father's terms, "full of shit right up to their eyebrows".

Comshaw

I only keep ~20 stories on my list at a time. One or two might go back 20 years. Most are more recent. Some on the list didn't have voting enabled when I posted them. Some did. I couldn't tell you within +/- 1.00 what any one story vote was.

For years I disabled voting as irrelevant. It is to me. But that generated a lot of negative comments. Many readers feel cheated if they aren't allowed to vote, and they let me know it. So to declutter the comments, I allow voting.

Strangely, I get praise for enabling anonymous comments. I like comments. Many are pointless, but some are interesting and fun to read. I don't look to comments for writing advice or validation.

The longest comment I ever got was 2,303 words on a story called Strictly Business which probably wasn't much longer than that. Trying to figure out reader motivation is a delusional fool's errand.

rj

 

[TadOverdon]

Personally, I believe anyone who posts here and claims the numbers don't mean anything to them is, in my less than gentlemanly father's terms, "full of shit right up to their eyebrows".

They don't mean nothing, but they don't interest me at the level of detail and analysis that they do some other writers here. This was one of the big surprises for me when I started reading AH, the extent to which ratings are examined and debated.

I like it and feel affirmed when a red H sticks to one of our chapters for more than a day or two. I think our first story, the only real self-contained story I've posted at Lit, settled in at just under 4, but at the time of posting I was very much engaged in understanding the angry and negative comments that were directed at it (and us, personally) but not so much at the rating. That came later, as I paid more attention to what other people here say about voting.

And after all I've read here I feel like there's way too much caprice and antagonism amongst our anonymous readership to make any effort to figure out what would make the difference between a 4.4 and a 4.56. So I can't let it affect what I write or how I write it. I'm sure that by now I have more of an eye on the responses of the writers in this forum to my work than I do to the site readership in general.

 

[oggbashan]

Many of my stories are consistently rated just below 4.5 or a Red H e.g 4.48.

When some creep up to 4.51, they don't tend to keep the Red H for more than a few hours.

I know some of my followers are determined to deny me the Red H when they can. But my assessment of the story is what I think of it, not the variable rating. Some I think are rated too high.

 

[rjordan]

Many of my stories are consistently rated just below 4.5 or a Red H e.g 4.48.

The only badge I have that means anything at all to me is a green E (Editor's Choice) for Telemarketer. To have a story that stands out to a woman who reads HUNDREDS of these things a day is some kind of accomplishment.

rj

 

[jsmiam]

127.0.0.1 (loop back adapter)

Since we last spoke…

- Two more sweeps occurred, so I temporarily got up to 4.83 twice

- Both times, within less than a day, the next vote took me down again.

- And both times, plus each time before (sorry, starting to lose count), once my score was at 4.8, votes returned to a more normal/expected distribution. (They trickle in rather slowly, but whatever they are, they are of a more normal distribution.

- And (I won’t mention names out of respect for their right to choose whether to discuss here) another author contacted me via PM relaying that the exact same thing happens to them. Inch above 4.8, instantly back down. Stay at 4.8 and below, no atypical voting patterns.

- And just a day or so ago, another author who partakes in the boards here just then (congrats!) inched above 100 votes and has a score > 4.8. It will be still interesting (my favorite word in this context) to see how that unfolds.

To recap - this was about *changes* in scoring patterns once hitting the Exhibitionism and Voyeur hotlist.

Anyway, it’s been an interesting thread. I’ll take this self published thread (ha ha) and probably not talk much more about it. I feel like I’ve observed irrefutable fact based evidence that the voting changed drastically once hitting the top list and at any point having a score over a certain point.

 

[windar]

If I could ask a really basic question, what is the purpose of the scores? I mean beyond creating petty jealousies and rivalries and grounds for moaning and complaining (unless that is the true purpose)?

Ideally their purpose would be to help a reader decide which of the hundreds of thousands of stories here they should invest their time in reading. Do they accomplish that? IMO, even putting aside issues of manipulation, they do not.

Why not? Because I as a reader don't necessarily want to be guided by the opinions of unknown strangers. There are people whom I have found over time tend to have the similar tastes as I do and I would look to them for guidance. But the votes are anonymous, so they don't allow that judgement. And the really interesting, innovative stories may tend to evoke strong feelings, positive and negative, and end up with lower scores than the pedestrian tried-and-true crowd pleasers.

What would help me as a reader? A blurb, such as most book sites have. Something beyond the half dozen word summary allowed here. Yes, I know the pages are crowded as is, but so are the pages at Amazon and they've figured out how to have blurbs...

By the way, this has nothing to do with the scores on the story I posted here, which I am quite content with.

 

[jsmiam]

If I could ask a really basic question, what is the purpose of the scores? I mean beyond creating petty jealousies and rivalries and grounds for moaning and complaining (unless that is the true purpose)?

Ideally their purpose would be to help a reader decide which of the hundreds of thousands of stories here they should invest their time in reading. Do they accomplish that? IMO, even putting aside issues of manipulation, they do not.

Why not? Because I as a reader don't necessarily want to be guided by the opinions of unknown strangers. There are people whom I have found over time tend to have the similar tastes as I do and I would look to them for guidance. But the votes are anonymous, so they don't allow that judgement. And the really interesting, innovative stories may tend to evoke strong feelings, positive and negative, and end up with lower scores than the pedestrian tried-and-true crowd pleasers.

What would help me as a reader? A blurb, such as most book sites have. Something beyond the half dozen word summary allowed here. Yes, I know the pages are crowded as is, but so are the pages at Amazon and they've figured out how to have blurbs...

By the way, this has nothing to do with the scores on the story I posted here, which I am quite content with.

I’ve used this analogy before, but I like it.

Imagine if Lit were really a bookstore in real life, with real books. Real paper, physically occupying space on a real shelf.

Lots of reads equates to being popular, thereby taking up more space on the physical bookshelf, or in an end cap. ANd the higher visibility just gets even MORE visibility after.

A high score (remember we’re partly visualizing) means a favorable book review. Which maybe makes it more popular or more visible. (As a side note: for a person to claim they don’t care at all about scores, should translate that they also don’t care at all if nobody at all reads their works. In other words, everybody cares to a degree, whether admitting it or not.)

Comments are like people waiting in line for a book signing. (Or, a deranged person with a deranged complaint, but hey, they made the line longer too.)

The Green E? Pulitzer Prize? (Sorry, maybe too facetious.). ;-)

Blurbs, maybe longer than a brief-sentence or two? That’d be great. I totally agree and encourage asking. Unfortunately, asking for a new feature here has a tendency to yield about the same results as asking for a pony. It tends not to happen.