Followers as a “success” metric?

[Duleigh]

Amen. Let there be peace among writers in the Literotica Valley ... not war. The warriors are too busy sharpening their blades for battle. The writers need to be ready to tell their stories after the last sword is held victorious. Worry not about those who do or will not read your words. In the end none of it matters.

Amen Brother! If you want war - there's a whole lot of forum outside of the Authors Hangout. It's scary out there.

Very scary

 

[Zootonius]

I had my next story published today. And while I'd still occasionally write for the fun of setting erotic stories to words, getting good initial ratings is one hell-of-a positive reinforcement to write more.

 

[Whanmore]

I don't think Followres are a reliable Method. I've seen Authors have hundreds of followers but only had posted one story in 2005 so It seems like there are factors that have little to do with how good of writer you are Ext

 

[MelissaBaby]

I don't think Followres are a reliable Method. I've seen Authors have hundreds of followers but only had posted one story in 2005 so It seems like there are factors that have little to do with how good of writer you are Ext

Or they had more stories that they have had removed.

 

[FifthEstate]

I asked the question originally to get some perspective from you all, but it’s clear there are a lot of variables that affect the number of followers an author has—whether it’s amazing talent, longevity, publishing in the right categories etc. But suffice to say, if someone has a lot (whatever that is) he/she is doing something right. But if not, it doesn’t mean that author isn’t.

 

[tenyari]

If you want an external source for a metric of success on stories posted to sites like this - look at how many readers read the MIDDLE chapters of your stories. Those are the ones that are the least likely chapters to get random click intos. They will still get a LOT because story recommend links seem to to go to random chapters, but it's likely less than the start or end. People might check the end to see if it actually ends, and the start will get a lot of 'do I want to read this' checks.

The second metric would be comments that are intelligent. Not the 'I wanna do your character' comments, but the ones that actually talk about the story like it's an essay for Ms. Henderson's Eleventh grade English class.

 

[Imstillfun]

i have to say I never looked at followers till I made the top 25. Now I look at it 1000 ways till Sunday. Total followers, followers per view, followers per story. I didn’t know I made the top 25. Someone told me.

I write a lot of LW stories where ratings wars are brutal, so bad people used to say I cheated. Having the amount of followers I have makes it hard for them to criticize.

 

[SimonDoom]

i have to say I never looked at followers till I made the top 25. Now I look at it 1000 ways till Sunday. Total followers, followers per view, followers per story. I didn’t know I made the top 25. Someone told me.

I write a lot of LW stories where ratings wars are brutal, so bad people used to say I cheated. Having the amount of followers I have makes it hard for them to criticize.

Having many followers insulates you somewhat from attack. Since you have so many followers, when you publish a Loving Wives story notice goes out to all of them, and I'm sure many of them check out the story and vote positively on it because they are predisposed to do so (since they follow you). That probably offsets to some degree the impact of the one-bombers.
I was pleased to see my own loving wives story that was published as a letters story finally cracked 4 (it started under 3!), probably due in part to some followers.
I'm not sure what they must think you do to cheat. Bribing Laurel?

 

[Imstillfun]

Having many followers insulates you somewhat from attack. Since you have so many followers, when you publish a Loving Wives story notice goes out to all of them, and I'm sure many of them check out the story and vote positively on it because they are predisposed to do so (since they follow you). That probably offsets to some degree the impact of the one-bombers.
I was pleased to see my own loving wives story that was published as a letters story finally cracked 4 (it started under 3!), probably due in part to some followers.
I'm not sure what they must think you do to cheat. Bribing Laurel?

Yes actually. They thought laurel and I were in cahoots to boost my scores. Seriously. You should see the comments. Once in a comment I mentioned sweeps. They accused me of rigging the sweeps with laurel.

 

[Imstillfun]

I also use views/favorites as a metric. The Halloween contest for example. I felt really good about my story but, I posted in the very contentious LW category. So, between one bombers and lower than normal readership the score was very low for me.

so I then look at favorites. Just as a way to get an impartial view of how I did.
My story has more favorites than any other contest story with the tag ‘Halloween 2022’. Butt it has more reads than quite a few so I look at views/favorites. Using that metric my story is #2. With the 2 top stories having almost 1/2 the views to favorites ratio as the others.

so although it has a low rating, I feel pretty good about the story.

btw, the one story with a better ratio is the leading story right now.

 

[Amy_66]

I'm American, I don't use metrics...

 

[lovecraft68]

Yes actually. They thought laurel and I were in cahoots to boost my scores. Seriously. You should see the comments. Once in a comment I mentioned sweeps. They accused me of rigging the sweeps with laurel.

If someone is mentioning Laurel, or even "the site" in the comments, then that was left by either a forum member, or forum ghoster as most readers don't think in those terms.

 

[Imstillfun]

If someone is mentioning Laurel, or even "the site" in the comments, then that was left by either a forum member, or forum ghoster as most readers don't think in those terms.

I never thought of that. That’s actually pretty cool, because now I know, that they know, I’m successful.

I hate the way comments post right now because you can’t respond to comments real time, and sometimes I like trolling the trollers.

 

[lovecraft68]

I never thought of that. That’s actually pretty cool, because now I know, that they know, I’m successful.

I hate the way comments post right now because you can’t respond to comments real time, and sometimes I like trolling the trollers.

Back when you could title a comment, you could troll them "@" whoever or if anymouse by something they said, now you can't do that anymore so replying, even to positive comments is kind of a waste now

 

[lc69hunter]

When looking at mine, yes, I enjoy the number of new followers, but no matter the scores, I look at the number of people who have saved it as a favorite.

Also, when reading another author's story, I look at the same metric. How many saved it as a favorite