StillStunned
Scruffy word herder
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2023
- Posts
- 8,722
I just checked my story stats, and I have about 1082k views with 14.5k votes. This is spread across 63 stories, ranging from 181k views with 3k views (60:1) to 834 views with 36 votes (23:1). Overall, the view-to-vote ratio is 75:1.
Most people quote a rates of about 90:1 to 100:1. If so, I must be doing something right. Particularly if we take this as an indication of how likely a reader is to finish a story.
So I'm sorry to disappoint all you statisticians, but this is actually a thread about getting readers to keep reading.
We're forever discussing ways to get people to click on our stories, and of course that's the first step. Without the click, there's no reader, no vote, no comment, no disturbing email about how the story reminded the the reader of what they did to their mother when they had to share the guest bedroom.
But once we've got the click, what then? Assuming that the reader has some idea of what to expect from the category, title and description, how do we hold their attention until the end, when they wipe their brow/eyes/fingers [delete as appropriate] and leave a vote and perhaps even a comment?
Two of my high view count stories that skew higher than my average view-to-vote count most likely put readers off quite quickly. One is 2P POV, the other warns about a twist halfway through the story (the blackmailed student turns out to be trans and blackmails the professor). I think we can chalk those up on the side of "don't try this at home".
But how about some positive advice? Something more concrete than "I just try to write an engaging story." Sure, we all do that. But what do you do to engage your reader? Instead of just shrugging and muttering "dunno", take a moment and think about your writing style, or your approach to characters and plot, or setting the mood, or whatever.
Remember, there are no wrong answers. Except shrugging and muttering "dunno".
(I'll link to this thread in the other thread about the craft of writing.)
Most people quote a rates of about 90:1 to 100:1. If so, I must be doing something right. Particularly if we take this as an indication of how likely a reader is to finish a story.
So I'm sorry to disappoint all you statisticians, but this is actually a thread about getting readers to keep reading.
We're forever discussing ways to get people to click on our stories, and of course that's the first step. Without the click, there's no reader, no vote, no comment, no disturbing email about how the story reminded the the reader of what they did to their mother when they had to share the guest bedroom.
But once we've got the click, what then? Assuming that the reader has some idea of what to expect from the category, title and description, how do we hold their attention until the end, when they wipe their brow/eyes/fingers [delete as appropriate] and leave a vote and perhaps even a comment?
Two of my high view count stories that skew higher than my average view-to-vote count most likely put readers off quite quickly. One is 2P POV, the other warns about a twist halfway through the story (the blackmailed student turns out to be trans and blackmails the professor). I think we can chalk those up on the side of "don't try this at home".
But how about some positive advice? Something more concrete than "I just try to write an engaging story." Sure, we all do that. But what do you do to engage your reader? Instead of just shrugging and muttering "dunno", take a moment and think about your writing style, or your approach to characters and plot, or setting the mood, or whatever.
Remember, there are no wrong answers. Except shrugging and muttering "dunno".
(I'll link to this thread in the other thread about the craft of writing.)