Author comments on own submissions

[quote=yenz]comments like this: "This is an F/M story", and go on [/quote

I really like comments, but I do appreciate comments even more that say what the commenter likes without giving away the surprising twist of the story if there is one. I have seen a seen an author work really hard to try and surprise everyone and the first or second comment gives everything away.

I really do like the "author' comment" section. On my recent story "Validation Process" I made a slight obvious error and asked Pink Angel to correct it, but got a lot of comments on it. I finally put a comment in myself so people did not keep on looking for the error. An "author's comment" section would have come in really handy.

We can't have it both ways - ie comments AND a proviso to those comments.

I think that anyone browsing through the comments should realise that they might find 'spoilers' lurking in there - in which case, don't look until after you have read the story

That is an easy error to make. I do it myself occasionally.


The intended audience for my comments varies depending on the situation. Sometimes it is the author, but sometimes I aim directly at prospective readers of the story.

I brought this up with Flopsy once before and she understood what I meant. I don't read the comments on an author's story anymore. You're right, they sometimes give away the gist of the story. Then again, so does the synopsis at times, but it doesn't take away from the actual story, and that's what I look for. . . A good spanking story.

The LSF tries hard to accommodate both readers and authors. I usually know what I'm getting into when I choose a story just by who wrote it. I'm happy with that now.

B

I replied on the Comments board to a story I had written, not realizing it was not the thing to do. However, i like the idea of an "author's note" somwhere, like if one wishes to explaing how he or she came to write a story, what inspired it,etc., or anything that might help the reader to understand it better, or enjoy it more.
I assume the Storyboard section or the Plugboard would be where an author would post something for readers in general, and not just a comment from an individual.

My post was actually in relating to using the comment facility rather than the forum but author's can also use both the Storyboard and Plugboard sections of the forum to promote or comment on their own library submissions if they wish.

So many choices here! What's an author to do?

The answer: write more stories

A simple way for an author to put in information about the story that all readers will see without having to go anywhere else is to include an "Author's Note" at the beginning or end of the story itself. I did that with my story "The Eagle Flies Again" alerting readers that the story contained a number of anagrams. I put that notification at the end because I wanted to see if readers would pick up on that before it was explained. If the author wished to give some information to the reader before the start of the story it could be put there.

In the case of a story in parts or a serial the author could summarize what had happened in the earlier parts at the start in case the reader had not read those parts or had forgotten them. TV shows often do that showing briefly at the beginning what had happened in earlier episodes.

Of course an author commenting about a reader's comment would have to be done elsewhere but including an Author's Note with the story could be extremely useful.

This seems like a good move. I did reply once or twice in the comments section a while back, but since then I've always sent a message to the commenter.

The only reservation I'd have is over authors' comments on older stories when they were replying to a reader's specific point. If there are a dozen or more readers' comments it may be hard to work out exactly what the author was replying to, and the reply will make no sense. In those cases, I'd suggest the author's comment should stay where it is.