What makes a story successful?

Oh get real CS! What statistical measure fails to put you high in the ranks of authors?

But to answer your question as stated, ""What makes a story successful" my answer comes in two parts:

1) If "I" like a story I wrote, then it's a success. By that measure the few historical fiction stories I have posted here are each a blinding success regardless of their statistics, simply because they are my personal favorites.

2) If the readers like a story I wrote, then that story is a success. It's often hard for me to predict what readers will like. For example, "Detention With Corporal Punishment" was a bit of a hit here, and that came as a complete surprise to me. I didn't think that there was anything special about that story, still don't. But it's a success!

Dear CS, I think I detect a touch of "poor me" in your opening post. If I'm correct, you should not feel that way. All of us who write and read here are weirdos; you are a writer whose work appeals to a significant minority of us. Under these circumstances statistics, even if accurate don't mean a lot.

Only from a personal and reader perspective, but if i feel a story is a success i openly state so and why in the comments.

Without getting all psychoanalytical, my interpretation of a totally successful story, is one which by the end i feel i have been engrossed to point of not aware of surroundings, feel moved, feel changed from how felt before read story and just think WOW!!!!

To feel the above merely through reading the written word, is mind blowing, the author who is able to do that cannot be praised and admired too highly.

I guess the story challenges offer a opportunity to compare your stories with the other entries in same genre, the authors are initially anonymous, readers rate in numbers their liking, and hopefully leave comments, so quite a good snapshot i would say.

Personally if story is in my preferred genre then that is the first tick, if the implements/scene light my fire extra ticks, then the synopsis is viewed if available, that is all before i even read the story, but by that stage i am either 'hooked' or decide not to read.
The title of the story is not important factor for me.

Apologies for length of rambling.

Let me know if you discover the magic formula. I'm trying to convince myself I don't care, but I am a liar.


I suspect you're right. I'm not positive about this, but it feels like stories with words that relate directly to spanking get more views (ie. bottom, belt, paddle, strap, hurt, spanking, spank, spanked, etc., also words that relate to school scenarios, student, teacher, principal, etc.) You and I should experiment with this; find the perfect title! It will end up being something like "Spanked with a strap on my bottom by the principal and it hurt!" Thousands of views, here we come

Spanked in front of the whole schoolwith a strap on my bare, feminine bottom by the male principal and it hurt!

Our attempts are crafting the perfect title for a spanking story remind me of the song in which the singer said the perfect county and western song would have these lyrics:

Well, I was drunk the day my mom got out of prison
And I went to pick her up in the rain
But before I could get to the station in my pickup truck
She got runned over by a damned old train.

(From You Never Even Called Me by Name sung by David Allan Coe)

Favorites are always a bit of a crap shoot; I can never tell why people happen to like a particular story well enough to make it a favorite. To me comments are a better indicator, particularly if they're insightful (as opposed to just saying they liked it). If it makes people think enough to make a comment, even if it is to point out the logical flaws I missed, then that makes it worthwhile. Raw numbers aren't always a great indicator because, as others have pointed out, some genres just don't generate as many reads.

Spanked hard in front of the whole school and extended family with a leather strap on my bare, bouncing, feminine bottom by the masterfully dominant male principal and it hurt and I cried!

Perseverance, people! We will find the holy grail of titles!

This reminds of the time that my husband and I spent an entire afternoon perusing just the titles on a Japanese porn site, and nearly peed ourselves laughing for hours. "Mother-in-law incest with big boobs and he eats off her ass!"; "Oh no! The maid is stern and wears stockings and dominates you!"; "Tentacles enter three virgins in all their holes and he is aroused!!" I could go on.

Now compress that down into about 40 characters, and you're golden.

p.s. Please do write the story that goes with that title, someone

This is the writer I want to be. The one who writes for my own pleasure and doesn't worry about whether or not others read it and appreciate it. And I do often re-read my own stories for my own pleasure, so I would say that most of my stories are successful by that measure.

But I'd be lying if I said I didn't crave feedback about how my stories were received.


It's often hard to know if that is true. Some readers are kind enough to leave a comment or mark a story as a favorite, which is obviously a happy sign. And praise from certain commenters whose opinion I have come to value, I appreciate even more.

But otherwise, it can be hard to know if readers liked it. I don't think number of reads is a good indicator, because they may have just opened the story, decided they hated it after the first paragraph, and moved on to something else. Sometimes I'll see in my stats that someone read through one of my serials, which I'll take as an indicator that they liked it (but I may not get to see that if I don't happen to login shortly after they read it) or similarly, if they have opened a number of my stories in a row, with at least a few minutes in between (time to have read them) then I'll assume they liked something about my style, which also makes me feel good.

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.)