The official Authors' Hangout Winter Holiday 2022 contest Support Thread

[DarkRaven13]

I have not been on here as much as I should have .... I definitely want to congratulate all the winners - especially our own @TarnishedPenny !!! Wooo hoooooooooo



Well done everyone....well done indeed

 

[DarkRaven13]

Oh, my!

There were so many good entries; I didn't think I had a chance!

*super giant hugs to you* ..... yayyyyyyyyy

 

[Rustyoznail]

I was pleased with how many read my story and chose other stories I'd written. I even added a few more followers.

What's next?

Next site comp will be Valentines Day. Entries open mid Jan for publishing 14 Feb.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

Congrats to everyone and especially the winners! There were some amazing stories

 

[OldFloridaGuy]

Congrats TP and the rest.

I hope everyone who entered had tons of fun.

Yes! Congrats to the winners, and congrats to those who actually submitted.
I did not manage to get my story to the finish line - maybe next year (to steal the oh-so-often-written line)
Even without getting it done, I enjoyed the process, I learned, and I did/do enjoy reading the comments in this forum.
Kudos and thanks to all of you

 

[dmallord]

I just downloaded my stats for recent stories. My winter contest submission shows a drop of 22 votes in 'Tim Returns Home for the Holidays' from 12/8 to 12/11. From comments I've read previously, Lit does a 'sweep' to weed out troll votes during contest times. My reduction of 22 votes was not low scores; it happened in the 4 to the 5-vote range. My initial score on 12/8 was 4.45; after adjustments, I am now at 4.55. Five other stories were affected by the sweep reducing one vote per story among them.

 

[RejectReality]

The sweeps remove votes that meet certain criteria, and that doesn't always mean 1-bombs. It's any vote that was cast in a way considered invalid.

If you're losing a lot of votes — and especially higher votes — it's time to inform your fans that you don't want any less than scrupulous "help" in the form of voting more than once on your story or bombing other people. And if you don't think you have enough or enough devoted fans for something like that to happen, you're probably wrong. I found out I had a couple of these when I was averaging less than 50 votes per story. Most of them think you'll approve, and when told you don't want that kind of help, they'll stop. The hemorrhaging of votes and score drops will stop.

You have to be consistent about it though. You're picking up new regular readers all the time, and every crop inevitably has a certain percentage of these benevolent vigilantes. Any time you go too long without asking people to play fair, you'll start seeing the Hoover chew up your vote totals and scores again.

 

[HuckPilgrim]

If you're losing a lot of votes — and especially higher votes — it's time to inform your fans

How do you go about making this communication? Do you just leave a note at the top of your story? I'm curious how authors communicate with fans. I have a mailchimp list and a blog, but it's mostly one-way communication that I don't find particularly satisfying and so it's hard for me to keep it up. I think it would be better if I could figure out how to make it more of a back and forth kind of thing.

 

[RejectReality]

How do you go about making this communication? Do you just leave a note at the top of your story? I'm curious how authors communicate with fans. I have a mailchimp list and a blog, but it's mostly one-way communication that I don't find particularly satisfying and so it's hard for me to keep it up. I think it would be better if I could figure out how to make it more of a back and forth kind of thing.

Closing author's note right above the voting form is my standard form of delivery. From my Winter Holiday contest story:

Only one vote per reader, please. No stuffing the ballot box, and no down-voting other people either. Play fair, everyone.

I do that every so often, but the rest of the time, I just go with saying I'd appreciate the vote, and then put ( Once per reader ) after it. I noted it on my website several times, and directly addressed the handful of people who admitted that they were voting every time they read the story, or something similar. With them, I flat out tell them that not only does their cheerleading not help, there's a better than average chance that it's getting all their votes cancelled out, and potentially even causing friendly fire on other legitimate votes. It's not only 'help' I don't want, it's actually detrimental.

 

[HuckPilgrim]

Thanks, I've done something similar at the start of a story, but I'm just making an appeal for folks to vote. What you're doing is still pretty much one way communication, but you've got a strong message you want to get out (vote fair), so it makes sense to put it right in the story, and right at the end -- where and when the voting should take place. I haven't really thought about the impact of multiple fan votes. People either love or hate my noncons, so I try not worry too much about scores and just roll with the likes, views, and comments.