I will be posting the chapter of What If soon here.
But I had a thought when I was typing up my post. It tied in beautifully into what I have been thinking the last few days.
It is is simple. Most people when they look at stats for a story, they look at reviews. Not them themselves, well not everyone does, but the number.
But I have noticed on my fics and others out there a disturbing trend on Fanfiction and other sites. But you see it mostly on Fanfiction and WordPress since those of us that have WordPress can see how many hits we had to the site. And for ones like me, we can see how many visitors are clicking in.
I taught myself early on to look at the numbers, and don’t look at the reviews. But I know how it hurts on especially new writers, or people like me to open a story we have just started, and seeing TONS of followers. And one review.
Now, I will admit I am BAD about leaving reviews. But I have hit that follow button for later.
Last night after thinking on it, (It was late give me a break…) but seriously. When I hit that follow button, why can’t I leave a simple “Hey this interests me!” Or something to that effect? Something. Anything? If you can hit that follow button, you must found something that you liked on it. So why not let the author know it?
Yeah, Fanfiction sends us emails when people follow and favorite, but to be honest, I tune them out. I get 35 emails between me falling asleep and waking up. Then I get more, sometimes a hundred over the day. I empty my trash every other day of over 300 unread emails. When you deal with that many, when you see it is not a review or an update to a story, you delete. Sorry, but yeah.
So, I figured, after seeing my plan for World Domination (see the post following this for more information) is getting pretty far in reaching out to the world out there, I figured I could use those numbers to see if I can help out new authors or even authors like me.
Here is the official challenge: If you are going to follow a story (Or Favorite instead of follow), leave a quick note why. What interested you enough to hit that button?
If we do this, it might help some struggling writers out there to feel better on their works. Since a lot of them don’t think to look at the follows and favs as much as they do those reviews.
And hey, don’t we deserve it as authors? As Readers? To spend a few minutes over something that may have spent hours, days, weeks, months and who knows what other issues for that writer to publish it? Also, it may just inspire that author you loved to write more.
Who will share this? (I am publishing this on my Reblog page for you ladies who like to hit reblog)
Who will take up my challenge?
Kittyinaz…
What bugs me, and this is strictly FFn since you can’t follow individual stories on WP, someone will follow a story which has been marked as complete, and has been for nearly three years!
If they want to reread the story at a later time they need to favorite, not follow, lol. I guess it would help if FFn would put out a user’s manual instead of leaving us to fend for ourselves.
Like you I’m horrible about leaving a review of any sort *sigh*. I have at least started hitting the like button though.
I can try to do the challenge, don’t know how successful I’ll be though.
Actually, I leave a lot of reviews, although am open on them that I may not review absolutely every chapter. For a new story, it may be as simple as commenting that I like the pairing (Carlisle/Bella is my first preference), and that I look forward to reading more. If warranted, I may very gently make a comment about poor spelling, grammar or formatting, although I will check out the writer’s profile first to see if there may be a language issue, and to make sure I’m not dealing with a very young author.
On older finished stories that I may not have run across until after they were finished I make sure to say how much I enjoyed the story. Much to my surprise, I’ve several times had replies back from the authors thanking me for my interest, even although the story in question had been finished over five years ago. On unfinished ones I’ll leave a review saying that it would have been nice if the story had been finished, but I am aware that real life doesn’t always permit, and thanking them for what did get written. Again, on one story recently, my review got the author motivated again, and it is now being updated after a three year hiatus. I’m actually now working on it as an unofficial beta/proof reader, although only from chapter 4 onwards. (It is the Carlisle/Bella story Marked on FF, if anyone is interested.)
I can completely see where you’re coming from. As an avid fanfic reader who is totally jealous of your ability to write such amazing stories, I think that one thing that keeps me from writing reviews is not knowing what to write. Sometimes I read others reviews and they are so eloquently written and go into such detail, and then I consider the lame things I can think to say and I feel intimidated. The short comment I can think to write doesn’t feel like it would be worth reading. I guess next time I’ll just have to forget my pride and leave some kind of comment, even if its just to say I’m enjoying the story. I will say a Thank You to you and all the amazing writers out there. Sometimes you are the only good thing in an otherwise bleak day.
I don’t read much fanfiction anymore, but I do try to tell an author that I like the idea of their story or whatever when I find it. If I’m binge reading I’m probably not going to review every chapter but I will comment if something great or crazy happens. I do try to like a chapter if I do indeed like the chapter. I do look at my stats but I do wish more would at least hit like on a chapter. Also I do like to hear from my readers. 🙂
I agree with you…leaving a review on a story you follow or like is always welcome!
The reviews help the writers to keep the Muse working…I always try to leave reviews.
But I know people that don’t leave them they are shy or they don’t know what to say.
Remember that we all love you and I personally thank every single one of you for the amazing stories you give us each day!
Hugs.
Jackie69
You make an excellent point. When I first started reading fanfiction I never left reviews but I truly enjoyed the stories. I’ve gotten much better now, but I still don’t review all the time. Sometimes I just don’t think I have anything relevant to say other than “I really enjoyed it”. I will admit that I never thought about “liking” a chapter as a way to show my appreciation so that’s something I’ll start doing when I don’t leave a review. Thanks for all the time and effort you put into “our” entertainment.