What makes a story successful?

It seems to me that generally, the most popular, therefor successful, stories here are about punishment in schools, a subject I am never likely to write about. It's all a matter of personal preference anyway and I often read a story that, to me, is so mundane it just doesn't engage my interest, only to find that there are massive views and comments, so obviously others loved it.
I agree that 'success' is a story that we, as an author, are satisfied with. Having said that, I have written a few stories that just 'happened', with little thought or preparation, almost a throwaway story and they have been better received than those I invested much more time, effort and passion into!
I am just as frustrated when I see a reader has allegedly 'viewed' several of my stories in the same minute, they can't possibly have read even the first few lines, so why 'view' multiple stories?
We all reluctantly admit that we crave 'views', 'favourites' and 'comments', but at the end of the day, we will never know the impact of our story for most readers as they will not share their thoughts, for whatever reason. We all need affirmation from time to time, and I would welcome more interaction with my readers, as I know many others would.
It is also a bafflement that book sales on lsf are apparently ruled by the title, so many good books are left unsold and unread because they have not grabbed the attention of a buyer.
Let's just relax and enjoy the fact that we at least have a platform to share our work.

I couldn't find any "spanked at school, spanked at home" stories in my collection but I do have one entitled "Rosie In Space" where alien tentacles feature strongly, indeed very strongly, but I feel one such story is quite sufficient in anyone's body of work.

All of Japan apparently disagrees with you ;)


I'm also out of the running on school punishment stories, since I mostly write adult stories. And about it being mundane, well, it's mundane to you, because you've spent a long time reading stories (or I assume so, I dunno...), but many readers are new to spanking stories (again, I'm assuming) , and are enjoying devouring written-out, detailed accounts of all the basic spanking fantasies.

You gotta get your fill of the mundane before you feel like you're sated, and start to look for more quirky stuff, I guess? In my own experience, it's been kinda like that anyway. I spent years tearing through M/F stories when I was younger (on a much younger internet), and now I feel like I've seen them all and don't read them much anymore. But if 20-year-old me was on LSF for the first time, I'd be wallowing around in M/F heaven and smearing it all over myself 24/7. I think a significant chunk of readers on here are 20-year-old me...

As a reader, I tend to comment when I have enjoyed a story and there is a particular aspect that caught my imagination. I have just checked my stats and see I have read 502 stories, made 327 comments but only made 2 stories favourite, mainly because I keep forgetting the favourite function.

I cannot say I favour f/m or m/f or m/m or f/f. I don't look for particular types either and read domestic, judicial, school etc . What influences me most is the synopsis and the author.

I judge a story successful if there is an unusual twist or the narrative style is flowing or the psychological aspects are covered well. Sometimes I just take pot luck and am surprised.

RosieRad
As to the formula for getting lots of reads -- I think it's a tempting title, as Burgundy, Kyle and Guy have been discussing, along with a relatively short word count. I think people are intimidated by longer stories (and long serials -- not many have stuck with my 30-part serial that I'm just wrapping up!), or pop in when they only have a few minutes to read something fun. Between 1000 and 2000 words seems to be the sweet spot (though shorter stories may also get lots of reads, because after all it's not much of a commitment to read 400 words.)


Good point. I tend to be rather detail-oriented (or long-winded, depending on how you see it). So I'm sure people have looked at the length and decided they could read several shorter stories in the time it would take them to make it through a 5k+ word story of mine. I used to break them up into multiple parts, but the readership always dies after part 1. So now I just hope that a reader will get hooked and takes the time to stay with it all the way to the end.

Based on what the numbers look like on my own serials and a few other people's, I think what's happening is that a lot of readers hunt for the spanking part, read that, and skip the rest. Number of views are higher for part 1 (to quickly check out what the story is about), and then for the parts that feature the actual spanking (the parts that are labeled 'no actual spanking' always get fewer views). The same thing probably happens in one-shot stories, but of course we don't see that.

I mean, I guess I shouldn't feel surprised that a lot of readers aren't here because they looooove to read - reading is fun, kids!!! - they're here to get titillated, and my carefully crafted plots and witty double-entendres and profound commentary on the state of our society are all going to waste. Yes, yes, you're so clever - gimme some ass-whoopin' or I'm outta here.

Then I remind myself again, this is a spanking site...

MJ, you have a lot of shorter stories too, though looking at your view, your longer stories seem to get more views than your shorter ones. So I guess you've proven that you don't waste words, and your longer stories are worth the investment

Honestly for me what makes a story [of mine, at any rate] successful is when somebody comments on it, be it a positive or a negative comment. This way I know that A) somebody has read the story and B) that they cared enough about it one way or the other to comment on it. Aside from that I am much like Canadianspankee in that I write these as an outlet for myself and I post them here because it's nice to have a repository for them (and a marvelous one at that) and it's nice to see that a good many people read them, so that makes me happy.

LOL. After all these comments I have come to one conclusion.

There is no more of an idea than what I already had about what makes a story successful. Some say the numbers count, which I believe as well but numbers are not the be all and end all of anything. Some say favourites and comments count. I also looked at that and with commenting sliding the past few years my expectations on that has faded as well. Some say write for your own happiness. If I had not done that I would have quit 5 years ago.

Clearly there are a lot of happy people here because stories are published and read that would never have seen the light of day anywhere else. I think that is what makes this SITE successful for a fact, and it makes AUTHORS happy also a fact, but to me when I think of individual stories there is nothing conclusive in proving a story is successful.

Guess I will go back to trying to figure it all out. It should only take me a few more decades and by then I will have dementia and won't give a damn anyway .... The saying 'Don't Worry, Be Happy' applies here I guess, so on with writing and one day I promise you all I will figure it how to judge a story if a story is successful. I hope none of you hold your breath while you are waiting.

CS

CS, I think the point we have all made is actually that it is impossible to figure it out! We can tie ourselves up in knots trying to understand the dynamics and intricacies, but it's self destructive. I confess I am guilty of spending far too much time worrying about these details, but I decided a while ago to just accept that I love high viewing numbers, comments and favourites and will enjoy them when I can, but not fall into decline if they do not happen.
Burgundy, I expect you may be right about the mundane stories, I admit that after several years experience of
both reading and writing, I need much more to satisfy my craving than I did initially. On occasions, I simply want a quick fix of spanking action, rather than a quality story, so I use the 'search' option to choose a short story after reading the synopsis.
It's good to be able to discuss these things here and share our thoughts, we NEED each other!.