Newbie Looking for Information & Feedback

[HardandFrustrated]

Newbie here and I have posted eight stories. Unfortunately, the first few were written for a girlfriend and not rewritten for posting here and resulted in some poor comments. I was sure not to repeat the same mistakes and the latter stories received lots of positive feedback. This is a hard crowd to please!

I have some questions regarding some of the stats on the "View Submissions" page. How is the rating calculated and what is a good rating? My stories range from 3.45 to 4.54.

I posted stories in several different categories and found that the number of views range widely from category to category. Am I to assume that the number views is not an indicator of how much a story is liked?

Someone un-favorited my story. What is this, why was it done and how does it affect my ratings?

Lastly, I'm always looking to improve and wonder what's the best way to get feedback? Most readers just posted brief comments and it would be nice if someone were to point out the strong parts (to be repeated in later submissions) and identified weak parts (to be improved upon in later submissions). I requested assistance from three of four editors, but only one got back to me. I sent him the story a couple of days and haven't heard back.

Thanks,

 

[JaxRhapsody]

Newbie here and I have posted eight stories. Unfortunately, the first few were written for a girlfriend and not rewritten for posting here and resulted in some poor comments. I was sure not to repeat the same mistakes and the latter stories received lots of positive feedback. This is a hard crowd to please!

I have some questions regarding some of the stats on the "View Submissions" page. How is the rating calculated and what is a good rating? My stories range from 3.45 to 4.54.

I posted stories in several different categories and found that the number of views range widely from category to category. Am I to assume that the number views is not an indicator of how much a story is liked?

Someone un-favorited my story. What is this, why was it done and how does it affect my ratings?

Lastly, I'm always looking to improve and wonder what's the best way to get feedback? Most readers just posted brief comments and it would be nice if someone were to point out the strong parts (to be repeated in later submissions) and identified weak parts (to be improved upon in later submissions). I requested assistance from three of four editors, but only one got back to me. I sent him the story a couple of days and haven't heard back.

Thanks,

Ratings on your CP differes from in the list, it's discussed about every so often, especially with sweeps. Nobody but Laurel and Manu really know the algirithim used. Wether somebody unfavorites or favorites bares no difrerence to ratings- that's all voting. You want real feedback, well there's a board for it above this one. And remember...you won't please everybody.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I posted stories in several different categories and found that the number of views range widely from category to category. Am I to assume that the number views is not an indicator of how much a story is liked?

Someone un-favorited my story. What is this, why was it done and how does it affect my ratings?

Yes, different categories have vastly different reader behaviours, some categories are more popular than others, some readers more visible. You can have stories with high reads and high scores but no comments in one category, go somewhere else and the ratios can be completely different. Overall, there seems to be reasonable consensus that the number of votes is typically around 1% of views, the number of comments is unpredictable (always way lower). Some of my stories have pushed 1.5% scores per view - that's a high ratio.

Un-favouriting means some one has removed a bookmark. It won't affect the score (faves are not part of the score calculation). It usually means someone has tagged the story to read later and has done so, then cleans up their users page as they go along. I see the same readers tagging and untagging my stories regularly - it can in fact signify a fan (which is counter-intuitive, but there you go).

The best way to get comments, in my world at least, is to write "away from the norm..." (whatever that means), to write at least competently, if not perfectly. Develop your own style and your own voice, figure out why you're writing, stick to your guns.

Someone will come along and like what you do, if it's worth reading.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Scores: readers can rate your story from 1 to 5. The story rating is the average of their votes. Occasionally the site runs a "sweep" to remove bogus votes, in which case you might see the vote count drop.

 

[uksnowy]

I have never written to gain points and haven't looked at mine, in fact didn't think of looking. I am not bothered, I just want to get my dirty ageing brain out there.

 

[8letters]

I have some questions regarding some of the stats on the "View Submissions" page. How is the rating calculated and what is a good rating? My stories range from 3.45 to 4.54.

Ratings vary by category. I read Incest. I don't read stories with a score less than 4. I scan for stories with a red "H", which means they have at least a 4.5 score. But that's just me.

For incest, the premise is the most important determinant of a score. A story with an appealing premise will do fine if even if the characters are cartoonish and the writing has lots of errors. I don't know how it is for other categories.

Write what you want, because you get paid the same for a 4.9 story as you do for a 2.5 story.

 

[sr71plt]

Need to keep in mind that there are tens of thousands of readers browsing the story file at any given time. There's really very little in standardization on how this revolving readership, with each individual having his/her own personal interests and quirks, that you, as an author, can expect. There will be a fan/hate base for each of the stories you post that will give your general rating some stability, but there are far too many other readers drifting through with disparate interests and quirks and randomly dealing with your story for you--or anyone--to make meaningful comparisons.

 

[CoffeeWithMonkeys]

Newbie here and I have posted eight stories. Unfortunately, the first few were written for a girlfriend and not rewritten for posting here and resulted in some poor comments. I was sure not to repeat the same mistakes and the latter stories received lots of positive feedback. This is a hard crowd to please!


Lastly, I'm always looking to improve and wonder what's the best way to get feedback? Most readers just posted brief comments and it would be nice if someone were to point out the strong parts (to be repeated in later submissions) and identified weak parts (to be improved upon in later submissions). I requested assistance from three of four editors, but only one got back to me. I sent him the story a couple of days and haven't heard back.

Thanks,

I think you got replies to about everything but this. I contacted a few volunteer editors when I first came here, got no replies, so I posted on the editor board and had better luck there. You might try that if you don't hear back from the other editor. It is a busy time of the year right now though with the holidays, so I would give them some extra to read over your story and get back in touch with you.
But it doesn't hurt to post looking for someone else.
http://forum.literotica.com/forumdisplay.php?f=9

 

[HardandFrustrated]

Thanks for your replies. I did get a hold of two editors, one of which has edited for me and the other is in the process of editing. As was mentioned earlier, the holidays delayed their responses.

So what's the story with contests and what is gained by entering them? Bragging rights, a few bucks, fun, all of the above?

 

[glynndah]

Thanks for your replies. I did get a hold of two editors, one of which has edited for me and the other is in the process of editing. As was mentioned earlier, the holidays delayed their responses.

So what's the story with contests and what is gained by entering them? Bragging rights, a few bucks, fun, all of the above?

Yes, as well as a much wider audience.

A welcome for the little newbie from the good little witch.

 

[NotWise]

So what's the story with contests and what is gained by entering them? Bragging rights, a few bucks, fun, all of the above?

Contests give your story much more exposure than it would get otherwise, and that is true regardless of how you place in the contest.