Forum: Author Hangout

As Switch said, no one "owes" you a thing. You're doing this of your own volition, it's your choice to volunteer your services.

Sadly, for the vast majority, most will never offer any thanks (most won't even vote for a story they don't like), which is actually a blessing for most new authors still struggling to find their voice.

Then again, SOL readers aren't like those on most online sites. So many won't vote until they finish the story, many do, yet they won't assign a final vote until they do.

The best way of determine how successful you are, isn't the number of reads—which could easily be how many people read the first few chapters before tossing the story entirely—instead it's the actual votes, as people who do vote are already committed to the story. So, even if they give it a low vote, that's often because of you taking the story in a direction they don't approve of, but they're still communicating something with their votes.

However, their comments are often the most informative thing of all, as there, they'll specifically tell you what you are doing well, or alternative, what you're doing wrong, for them. Both of which can be invaluable, as long as you're willing to listen.

Yet, in the end it's the combination of total reads, votes (scores)—where often the changes in the weekly scores means more than the actual score does—comments (positive and critical) and, if you happen to have the books to sell, your sales.

Because, SOL readers are unusual, as opposed to purchasing a book and then reading it, SOL readers typically do the opposite, they'll read the entire story for free, and then they'll then purchase it, just to help ensure the reader continues to post more stories to SOL.

Again, the delay isn't that they don't like the story, it's to ensure you continue to write the same quality of stories.

Yet, now we have more nontraditional viewers than ever, who now seem to be voting strickly a stories Squick factor, now much the offend readers (writing about violence, sexual abuse, incest, water sports, anal play and sometimes even the sheer sexual pleasure of murdering their companions, as a part of the sex act (though thankfully, this is still a fairly rare occurrence).

So, SOL readers volunteer their praise in much the same way SOL authors do, by volunteering the praise in a variety of ways.

if they give it a low vote, that's often because of you taking the story in a direction they don't approve of

This post refers to a review on ZBookStore not a score on SOL, but it fits what was quoted above.

I have a 3-star review on my novel "The Breeder." That's a low score for me. But what I found so interesting about it was the reason for the low score. The review is:

Married wrong woman
Reviewed it on June 14, 2024

Should have married Katie.

The reader gave it a low score because he wanted the main character to marry a different character. As Vincent said, "you taking the story in a direction they don't approve of" can result in a low score.

I have a 3-star review on my novel "The Breeder." That's a low score for me.

I had an SOL reader who took one sentence out of context and dumped on the book. He rated it a '2' because he disagreed with something a character said (which he misinterpreted AND which had been explained thoroughly in previous books in the series).

All you can do is shrug your shoulders and move on.

Personally, I like the idea dialog box for scoring appearing on reading a story (if the reader has not already rated the story). Many readers may just forget or perhaps not want to take the effort to rate if it is not automatically available to them.

I would favor that, to some level.

Was also thinking, like how you can get premier membership by posting stories, maybe have a reward for voting? And an extra reward for comments?

I can see lots of issues with something like that, but then again, the site exists because of authors, and authors like feedback....

Side note: I overly appreciate this site, and have loved it since I started to post. Would like to see it continue to attract human authors, new and old.

I think premier membership may be a bridge too far ... but perhaps they can gain some sort of benefit (sorting stories by score, etc.) which is not available to passive readers.

Was also thinking, like how you can get premier membership by posting stories

It's worth noting that Writing Premiership and Paid Premiership are two separate entities.

For instance, you only have competition voting ability on Paid Premiership, not on Writing Premiership.

Technically, a "writer" is anyone who writes, even if it's just shopping lists, love notes or bathroom graffiti. Conversely, an "author" is anyone who publishes, which includes those who post stories to the site, while "published authors" or "novelists" are those who actively sell their works, to pay for the expense involved in writing them.

That said, yes, if an author has a reputation for higher ranking story, then readers will often vote whether the newest story meets those other scores or not, rather than on the true merits of the story alone, as scores are more often a response of each readers reaction to the story, as opposed to the story's contents.

Just like diddlers diddle in their margins of their textbooks for free. ;)

Technically, a "writer" is anyone who writes, even if it's just shopping lists, love notes or bathroom graffiti.

Since the context is SOL, I think it's fair to employ the subset that applies to SOL.

Conversely, an "author" is anyone who publishes,

That definition is absent from my dictionary (COD).

AJ

scores tell you how many finish your story,

That's not true. Many people finish a story without scoring it. Probably the majority of readers. And a score can be given to a story even if the reader does not finish it.

If the story is serialised, a reader might vote on the first chapter and either not finish the story or not bother to update the score to reflect how their perception changes.

AJ