Readers sure love their 'school' stories, don't they?

I have often been curious as to just why readers choose to read the stories they do. We all no that a large number of members go no further than the "latest loaded" list, often to the exclusion of finding stories through the many other means Februs has provided. The longer a story stays at the top of the "Latest" list, the more views it is likely to receive. Whether a reader is looking at the "latest" list or searching in some other fashion, he or she still makes choices, or else all of the "latest" stories at any one time would have a similar number of views.

Readers may make a selection based on either the classification or the summary provided in the validation process ... IF they wait long enough for that information to be added. Readers may also have their own favorite authors, or be guided by the number of "favorites" received, or the "reviews" provided in the form of comments.

And then there is the other biggie - the title. How much can a title mean? A lot, apparently. I recently had a story sit at #7 on the "latest" list for over three days, and then stay on the front page of the "latest" list for another three days, picking up a rather paltry number of 'views' - fewer than any of the other stories loaded at the same time.

When my next story was loaded, I kiddingly said to an unnamed assistant librarian (who could verify this story, if the confidentiality requirements of her job didn't hold her to maintain secrecy), that the new story would do much better than the previous one simply because it had "School" in the title. Lo and behold, less than 48 hours after loading, it not only has 34 more 'views' than my previous story received overr 8 days, it is in first place (rather than last place) among stories loaded at the same time.

Both stories obviously have the same author. Neither was validated early, so that potential readers couldn't initially use that info in their selectiions. The earlier story actually received a couple more (positive) comments early, if those would serve as 'recommendations,' and neither was marked a 'favorite.'

The only obvious reason a reader would choose to read the second story rather than the first was... that it had "School" in its title. (the first story was also much shorter, which I would think might make it more likely to be viewed, though perhaps I have it backwards)

I would also note that, of my five other stories with "school" or "schoolgirl" in the title, three of them rank in my top four when it come to total number of views (out of 130 stories total).

I'm sure there are other factors in choosing a story to read, but it's clear that the readers here LOVE their "school" stories.

Am I crazy for thinking that this is remarkable?

Surely it's because so many readers value education highly. Or perhaps they just need schooling ...

Well, if someone enjoys stories about a young person being punished, there are only so many believable scenarios outside of parental discipline. A strict school scenario is the most obvious. The miscreant is punished by someone other than a relative, so it's more humiliating. Then there is the element of self-discipline as the student is required to submit and expected to accept the punishment without being physically forced – with the consequence of being further humiliated in front of their peers if they fail. I think these factors push a lot of people's buttons and they have enjoyed many other such stories in the past, so I suppose it's natural that the word 'school' will get their attention.

I hadn't thought of this. You're probably right.

I don't know about valuing education, but I do think they value a great title. I have seen some stories with an average title slip by the viewing pubic with very few reads, and I have seen some stories that were fair but not great, but the title was attractive and they got a lot of reads. Not sure how many viewers finished reading the story but the title I think was prime in getting them to open it in the first place.

The words "school" or "education" may bring back a lot of memories for many people and thus placing such wording in a title may be what attracts them. I know for myself, I am not great writer of "titles" and therefore some of my stories do not get as many views as the others, but the ones that I happen to create good titles for, do just fine.

I am spending more time on thinking of titles lately and have taken to watching for short sentences that would be great titles.

You didn't need to spend time - just had the word "school" to your title. And people will value the education (particularly if the story is nothing about school)

I decided to do a little research and I believe with the results that Rick is right here.

My stories having any type of school theme came to this:

Secretary Witness Tells All – Added 2/19/12 had 350 reads and 13 comments

Adult Education And Disciplinary Action – Added 1/24/12 had 400 reads and 11 comments

Failure To Make The Grades – Added 3/4/12 had 231 reads and 9 comments

In Front Of All The Girls – Added 1/6/12 had 396 reads and 7 comments

McBride School For Boys And Girls – Added 1/6/12 had 342 reads and 13 comments

I do think that tells us something on the school punishments theme. I have to agree that I enjoy this type of story as well. I also believe there are a lot of readers who enjoy the In Law themes as well. Mother In Law, Daughter In Law, Father, Sister, Brother, you name the in law and they love it. Me too.

There are so many themes in the LSF to like it's not funny.

B

Bendover, please never tell NJ he is right, even if he is!! We find it tends to keep him quieter if we don't let him know...

CS

Hopefully he doesn't wear a hat. Now he'll never get it on.

Now I'm curious what would happen if the title is: "The girl who never went to school".

Maybe we could have a field experiment, taking the same story of the same author with just different titles like "Jennies visit to the Headmaster", "Life after high school" and "Working on the cotton fields". Februs could give random access to the different variants of the latest-story-list and then somebody could write his thesis about the psyche of spankophiles.