successful or not?

Just wondering how others judge a story as being successful on site? Getting any story on site is a success in itself and not to be downplayed, but do you have certain things in mind when a author decides the story was successful or no?

All comments appreciated. Thanks

CS

Hi CS, first of all I'd like to say I am only ever competitive with myself! I wouldn't rate a story as being a success or a failure compared to any other author's work. And, as you have already pointed out, all stories on this site are an accomplishment.

Before answering this I went onto my stats page to check out my 'figures' and where my eyes automatically search first.

"Most commented" is not always an indication of success as competition entries, for example, usually get a high rate of comments...but that doesn't necessarily mean they were great stories. Controversial stories also get many comments but not always positive ones. Comments can be both praising and critical so the face value of the amount can be deceiving.

"Most viewed" can often just come down to the stories that have been out there longest.

I have decided my personal view of 'success' lies is in the "most favourited" column. For a reader to make the effort of adding it to their list of faves is a real compliment. It usually indicates that they also want to read it again one day. When you consider how many stories are on lsf and how many new ones are coming on all the time, that is a real achievement.

Mini
XxxX

Interesting question! This is something most of us care about whether we want to admit it or not: A good reception is a great boost to the story writing ego. There are many ways to count: the number of views, the number of comments, the number of favorites, a weighted average of all the above. In addition, one might consider the length and the quality of the comments, and the interaction they lead to.

Personally, I am most interested in comments, but when a story gets few comments, a lot of favorites is not a bad consolation. Many views and few comments/favorites is a double edged situation - it may suggest a catchy title and little substance. One also has to take the kind of story into account - parts of serials usually get fewer views and comments than independent stories, and with a poem you are lucky to get more than 50 views (although you may get a fair number of comments).

The distribution of comments and favorites is intriguing. In total, I have more than five times as many comments as favorites, but for one story the favorites are in the lead, and for some other stories they are pretty close. It seems to me that "classical" spanking stories get more favorites and fewer comments than more "experimental" ones, and the explanation may be that "ordinary" readers prefer to give favorites to classical stories while the "high brows" (i.e. the authors and other regulars) are a bit tired of the classical stuff, and prefer to acknowledge an original contribution with a comment. Another interesting observation is that most of the comments arrive when the story is new: You may have 200 views in the first week and 200 views later, but the large majority of comments will be from the first week.

Comments seem to have fallen off recently in general. I used to consider a story successful when it had a good views to comments ratio, whether those comments are good or bad, and I guess I still do. Taking time to comment means the reader at least thought about it.

After working so hard and pouring out my soul into a story, I mostly want someone to read it.

As an aside, I'd just like to say that I appreciate so many people asking about my writing, as it has been several months since I submitted anything. Nothing makes me feel more successful than that!

As far as a particular story, the same one is my most viewed, most commented, and most favorited, so that one must be successful.

I agree with everything Alef said, with the views to *quality* comments ratio being number one.

As merely a reader and new member of LSF, i see success of the authors writing, as whether i enjoyed the story. If that story only has a few comments but i enjoyed it then it was successful.

There are a wealth of hugely successful authors and literary masterpieces in libraries and shops, but i have no interest in reading them, sorry Mr Shakespeare, Mr Tolstoy...etc, rated by many but not on my reading list.

I strongly feel that i as a reader should always comment if i enjoyed the story, both out of etiquette, gratitude and to encourage the author to continue their writings, (the latter has a selfish element on my part too).

If i were to write, then i would view success as yes the number of comments, favourites etc, we humans view success in big numbers (other than on bathroom scales).

What a great topic! For me I feel like if I was going to base my 'success' on the numerical tally of any of the mentioned criteria, I should probably give up writing and hang myself now. LOL. But because I like writing and don't really want to hang myself, I measure my success on particular individual comments instead.

The LSF is massive. I know that in that ocean of spanking, my work is a subset of a subset of a subset. Certain quirky pieces ( like Montage or 3 Piggies) are even smaller subsets of that minute faction. And since I've written different types of stories, I can see what 'goes over' better with most readers here. Now, I know what I 'should' write IF my goal was popularity..............but I choose to write what interests and challenges me instead. So, if I make that choice consciously, I can't get too distraught if the reaction is in line with what I would have predicted in the first place. So, instead I wait and hope for that particular comment where the reader demonstrates that they understood what I was doing, or how I worded something, and loved it. It might be one comment, maybe more, but it's enough to keep me going.

Recently I wrote a poem. My first, "spanking poem". So far I've gotten three very appreciated comments. But while 30 comments would be very nice, I know a poem isn't going to attract the attention of a M/f schoolgirl spanking story with a juicy spanking in it. I knew that going in. So while it stings a bit to put that much effort into something and have minimal (but positive) feedback, it goes with the "poem territory".

I currently have a finished short piece which is a fictionalized re-imagining of the poetry and life of William Carlos Williams. Once I've re-read it enough times without further revision I'll send it in. I like the piece. But......it's F/M (just lost 2/3 to 3/4 of the readership here), there's no great spanking scene in it, (just lost another half of what's left) and the point of the piece is more of an esoteric, tongue-in-cheek, commentary/homage to Williams, than a sexy spanking story (probably 2 or 3 loyal fans left. LOL). But, dammit....I'm going to still send it in eventually, because I think it's a good piece....and if even one fan makes a positive comment, I'm going to take that as a success.......for me. Now, I know that if I just changed a few things...( make it M/f, change Williams into a nubile, be-knickered school-girl, add a detailed caning, and leave the door open for said school-girl to return for adventure upon adventure involving an ever-growing cast of characters in a world seemingly made up of nothing but spankers and spankees ) I could get a much better numerical result. But then it wouldn't really be a KDPierre piece.

So, it's a tough one. I work hard on my stories, and when I finally send one to Flopsy, I've probably tweaked it for weeks or months or longer. I personally feel good about the piece when I finally hit the 'send' button. But in terms of numbers? It's like I said, if I went by the numbers, I should probably give up.

If I'm satisfied with a story, then I view it as successful. Many of my non-spanking stories rarely, if ever, receive comments so I've learned to think success is if I'm satisfied with the story I've written. I'm currently in the process of editing a spanking story. My measure of success on this story will be if I'm satisfied that it's as good as the original, or better, but that's a subjective judgement on my part.

A good point, Mini. Comments come in all types of points seen by the reader. When you can anger someone, or make them cry, then the author has done his/her job well. I've been in this situation a few times and it truly makes me happy to see both sides. That's a successful story in my mind.


Another good point. I've received comments saying, "this is definitely going in my favorites." This also makes me happy and feel it was a success. There are so many opinions, likes, and dislikes in the LSF readership that it's hard to pin down. However, with 326 stories and the comments associated with them, I kind of feel like I know what certain people enjoy and don't enjoy. I took a chance on one of my last entries in: Bad Idea With An Audience, which is definitely an 'out of the box' story. Sometimes it's good to change not only the scenery, but the scenario as well.

As Rosie Cheeks, says, I also judge a story by whether I like it or not. Some spanking stories turn on, others turn me off. That also goes for me whether I view Spanking Tube, spanking photo's, news stories about the subject of spanking, spanking blogs, etc.