Author's favorites vs. Reader Favorites

It's a strange dichotomy indeed. There's a place where my highest rated story is by far the least read and my second highest rated is the most read. It really depends on what resonates with audiences, but I've found when I've stretched and pushed myself and put a lot into a story that it gets received well.

Necessary distance

Perhaps those who don't get the highest ratings on their favorite stories lack the necessary distance to see possible turnoffs or weaknesses that the readers experience while reading them. I'm not saying that these "weaknesses" have to be flawed writing or storytelling skills, maybe the story just doesn't meet the expectations of a certain readers. Most fantasy readers want some serious worls-building shit and romance readers obviously want loads of romance. That means that stories that aren't written for any specific category sometimes end up not pleasing readers of any category the story could be placed in.

All comes down to the old cliche of 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder'. Sometimes when I read a story, it is just a single sentence or a distinct moment that captivates me and makes it great. But that is just for me. Someone else can read the same section and just shrug and there is no connection to them.

I've felt like the OP in situations where stories I thought 'this is great', didn't pan to the level I thought it'd be, compared to others, and vice-versa. But part of the problem of that feeling is we only see the final score. Unless I'm blind, I'd like to see the actual breakdown of scores. This would be especially helpful for those writers looking to improve and get accurate intel on why a specific story or chapter didn't hit the 'Hot' level. Was it a ton of 4s that kept the story out of contention, or a smattering of 1s to torpedo it and you know something really went wrong.

Embodies my sentiment

sr71plt said:

I post extensively in GM here (several times more stories than the next most prolific GM author here) and have a few in Crossdressing. No, they don't comment too much, but that's pretty much across the board for GM on the Internet. They read and vote at a lower rate than some other categories here--but they participate in that at this site as much as I see them do on any other site, including solely GM sites. So, that's all relative. I also don't see much in the way of homophobia comments/votes (a few). They do, in my experience, respond to the sex-filled better than the less-sex GM stories, but I get good reaction--and enthusiastic comments--to the more complex stories. It isn't like they are ignored or unappreciated.

So, the bottom line is that, for GM and Crossdressing, this site will probably give you better reception than most others.

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I quite agree, although for me, the GM and CD readers seem to somewhat inconsistent. In GM, it seems that the simple 'setup/straight to sex' stories do the best. Honestly, if they're like me, I'm reading one-handed and, want to get to the sex quickly. CD readers seem to sit still for a little more fleshed out characterizations. I've only submitted a few stories, but my own favorite CD story/series, with characters I truly love has fared more poorly than I would have hoped (avg score between 4 to 4.4), while several 'experimental' stories have struggled to even rise to the 4 level.

I, like most on here, write what pleases me, and it doesn't always please the audience, and I have yet to really figure out the qualities in the story that make the difference.

It doesn't have to be one way or the other. Most of my stories are heavy on plot. That doesn't mean I can't start them with a sex scene.

In my experience, feedback on Lit is never a true reflection on the story, especially the scores. I uploaded a story in the Loving Wives category about a year ago and it got savaged by trolls.

All my stories have received low scores and negative votes for the most ridiculous reasons. I delete some
and Lit's moderators are usually quite good at cleaning up the racial slurs. So I'd say a lot of negative feedback can be chalked up to the fact that Lit has its fair share of morons.

Some examples for negative feedback:

The story featured a black man (or a n*****r as they eloquently put it).

Part 1 of a 2-part story received complaints because I uploaded an incomplete story.

The story theme was "sissy cuck shit".

I could go on and on. The list is endless.

I find that my feelings about my stories have a lot to do with the technical aspects of writing - being pleased with solving a plot issue, or sneaking in an easter egg. The readers don't see that - they read the finished product and react to the flow of the story and how they connect with the characters and action. So it doesn't surprise me that there's a difference.

I'll know more in a month or two - I just dumped twenty stories into the hopper, with what I consider a good variety in topics and treatments.