more on voting vs. feedback

[coaster12345]

curious, the ways of literotica readers. my first story, "bingo!", about
a wife who tests and finally fulfills her husband's fantasy of her doing
another man, received a cool dozen letters of praise, yet it languishes
down at 4.47 in the vote and hasn't been read at all in three days. by
comparison, "make me die a little," parts one and two, about wife-
watching and a fmf threesome at a wild nyc christmas party, drew just
one "well done" e-mail each. yet part one sits at a respectable 4.53,
and part two has climbed steadily to 4.6 today. i'm grateful for the
favorable votes, naturally, but wonder what it is in a reader's psyche
that impels him or her to take the extra step of actually drafting a feed-
back letter?

coaster12345

 

[Axeltheswede]

voting/feedback

Appreciate the fact that you are building a following, coaster. You will get more feedback as you gain readership. "Loving Wives" readers will look for your new story posts. You will likely get acknowledgement for your body of work after five, six, or seven posts in this category.

That has been my experience.

 

[mistyfox]

Coaster,
I agree with you on the curiousness of the feedback. I have one story posted that as of yesterday had almost 14,000 views in a mere 6 days, yet I have not gotten one single feedback from it. I find that fascinating.
However, being as much of a reader as I am a writer, I find that some of the stories I read are so "moving" that the most I can do is click on a number to vote before I need to leave for "other activities."
One other thought...I am an English major, so when I read, I find things like typos to be terribly distracting and I then tend to just skim over text. I worry that the feedback I give is not what the writer is looking for, therefore, unless specifically asked, I hold my tongue. I have posted asking readers to give me critical feedback. the only way I can improve is with the help of others. I can't speak for others to know what kind of feedback they are looking for.
Anyway, I thought I'd throw my two cents in. I'll go check out your stories and give you FEEDBACK
Misty

 

[Axeltheswede]

He who asks, gets

If you enjoy feedback email, ask for it. Add a short note at the end of your story. Ask an opened ended question, like "would you like to see this story continued?"

Some authors consider this pandering to your audience. I think it is perfectly justified. More readers will respond if they have something specific to respond to. Makes sense to me. I enjoy hearing from readers. I also try my best to answer them all if they supply an email addy.

 

[ronde]

I have such a request appended to my recent stories, and I do get much more feedback. I also try to answer each one that has a return address, although I'm a bit behind at the moment.

 

[coaster12345]

"If you enjoy feedback email, ask for it. . .Some authors consider
this pandering to your audience. I don't . . ."

i respect the suggestion, and i don't consider it pandering. but it
seems to me that anything more than "feedback welcomed"
crosses the line of taste (for which, remember, there is only personal
accounting).

i do, in good nature, reject your suggested open ended question:
"would you like this story continued?" in my view, the erotic story
should be a structure all its own. it should stand alone, whole and
complete in itself, just as the works of fitzgerald, cheever, updike
and my other favorites stand alone. it's true that occasionally, novels
can be excerpted as short stories; now and then, a short story can be
expanded into a novel or novella. but sequels more often fail than
succeed, and that's especially true in this genre, where story characters
and situations are rarely sufficiently developed to sustain spinoffs.

by way of example: my story "bingo!" the whole thrust of the story lay
in the husband's fantasy of his wife with another man. the wife (the
narrator) allows the fantasy to grow in her, but worries whether her
husband can truly handle its realization. she tests him. his positive
response intersects with her rising desire for a new thrill. she goes
ahead and realizes his dream. and tells him. bingo! story's over!
what happens next is for the reader to imagine. (always leave them
wanting more).

please accept these thoughts not as counter-criticism, but simply as one
man's personal view on what constitutes good writing.

coaster12345

 

[coaster12345]

"I have such a request appended to my recent stories,
and I do get much more feedback."

hmmmm. i guess i have to refine this topic further. it's not
quantity feedback i want. it's quality response.

a woman reader recently told me that i wrote so unerringly
from a woman's point of view in "bingo!" that she had to go
back and reread the beginning to make sure i was indeed a
man. That made my day. I am infinitely more grateful for a
note like that than one from some adolescent whanker saying
"hot, dude! got off twice!"

coaster12345

 

[NoJo]

I have had a lot of feedback, all complementary of my technique, but coaster, I'd trade five of my "you express yourself so eloquently"'s for one "hot, dude! got off twice!" -- which I have yet to get.

That's in my "serious stuff."

But my funny stuff gets "I laughed a lot", which is all and only the feedback I want from those stories.


Before I retire, I want to get ONE "hot, dude! laughed a lot and also got off twice!" then I'll have achieved my game plan with this erotica writing, and move onto something else.

 

[Octavian]

eloquent feedback

Sub Joe

Call it beginner's luck but this is the first bit of feedback I ever got.

"Very impressive and imaginative story! You make it almost easy to believe; that's a trait of a very good writer. I'm a retired professional and must admit it turned me on very much. So much so, that I'm quite sore now, but a "nice" sore!! "

The second was at the other end of the spectrum.

"At last! A well written story in competent English. Very erotic."


http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=51798

 

[Axeltheswede]

voting/feedback

Lighten up, coaster. I meant my question as an example of an open ended question. No need to go off on a rant about how stories should stand alone.

Try different things for notes at the end of a story. See what works for you. If you plan to answer emails, say so. If you want to know what part of your story moved the reader, ask.

Different categories prompt different levels of feedback email. Incest stories seem to get some wild feedback. No shyness there about what people want to see.

I enjoy those emails like "had to change my shorts after that one" or "got off twice on that last scene". For all of our collective literary pretensions, readers come here for good erotica and the arousing pleasure of a satisfying, hot read.

 

[KillerMuffin]

I feel like a freak sometimes. I'm content with the feedback that I get and the amount of it.

One sure fire way to increase your feedback is to increase your productivity. Another way to increase your readership is to increase the number of categories you write in.

As far as putting stuff at the end? I think the operative words here should be "courteous and respectful." Not of just the reader but of oneself. I like the "Feedback is always appreciated." There was one I recently ran across where someone actually asked for a 5. Sorry, no, that's disrespectful. Asking for a vote is fine, asking for a 5 is wrong.

 

[NoJo]

Disrepect

Killer, I aked for a five vote in one of my stories. Who do you consider that disrespectful to?

I guess possibly only the voting system itself was shown any direspect by this, so maybe you could say Laurel. But I'm sure she would let authors know if that's what she felt about it.

It may have been cheek, but I can't imagine how readers would think it was disrespectful to them.

There are a lot of people and institutions I have no respect for, but having no respect for my readers would be very nasty -- and therefore it's quite a stong accusation for you to make against an author.

Joe (not sub)

 

[KillerMuffin]

Well, the way I see it, people who ask specifically for 5s aren't interested in my opinion at all, they just want a number. It's disrespectful because it assumes that the reader's opinion on the story has no value unless it's a 5.

But that's just my opinion. No one says you have to agree with it. This is fine, too.

 

[coaster12345]

"Lighten up, Coaster . . . No need to go off on a rant about how stories should
stand alone." . . . aexeltheswede

apologies, axel. i certainly didn't mean to rant. i was under
the impression that the bulletin board was a forum for airing
any and all opinion. since most of the posts are short stories.
and i have a long-standing interest in the form, i simplistically
thought that my views might be of interest to fellow writers
and readers. but i'm a newbie to literotica, so what do i know?
pehaps, as a literotica guru, you could set down a list of topics
which you consider acceptable for discourse here. i'm sure it
would be a great help to us all, and would certainly unclog the
board from rants like mine. i do hope thisis light enough for you.

coaster12345

 

[entitled]

Yeesh! No need to attack each other here. No need to be so nasty and bitter... it's all a difference of opinion.

The way a person words their request would make all the difference in the world on the -type- of feedback they would get. For example, something like: "Please let me know what can be done to improve this story" would probably get more useful feedback than something like: "Hey! Let me know how hot you got!"

 

[Axeltheswede]

voting/feedback

Apologies to coaster. I was trying for a little light clarification. I didn't realize you would be so sensitive.

No need to beat yourself up or denigrate your opinion on things. No on carries any more weight than someone else here, unless you're Muffie. She's the 800 lb gorilla and does what she wants.

As pissing matches go, this one doesn't even qualify as getting unzipped. Sometimes I miss those epic battles between Muffie and Mysterywriter.

 

[NoJo]

Votes are not opinions. They're like promotion. When I want an opinion I look for feedbak mail, not votes. The more votes, the more readers. That's how it is, so that's how authors who want more readers have to play it.

I can smell envy a mile away, and it doesn't really bother me when a popular story of mine gets downvoted. But with four hundred or so stories a week, I want to make sure a new story at least gets a chance to be read by readers who otherwise might never even notice it.
So you have to "shout" a little to get your story out there. Once I'm satisifed that it's been given a chance to be widely read, I don't care what the votes are, particlarly.

Same thing happens even with some of the very busy forums here: I notice people "tickle" the threads they started to the most recent every so often by posting, to keep the thread active.

 

[KillerMuffin]

If it works for you, do it. If it doesn't work for me, I don't do it. It's all good. I think it's disrespectful, but you know what? You think it's good story karma. So do it and do so in good health. If you think there's anything involving "envy" in there, then you are mistaken. I don't compare my writing to yours, nor do I enter myself into some sort of competition with you. I had my epiphany about this place a very short while ago. At Literotica I will always be a mid-list writer. I'm okay with that. There is nothing I can do to change that so there's no reason to get worked up over the issue.

When I vote, I will vote whatever I think was appropriate for the story or poem no matter who wrote or what they asked for. I do not give feedback unless I have been specifically for it or I think I can do it without offending someone. I do not give feedback via email. The only feedback you'll get from me is through the vote system. It is feedback. It's just not the kind of feedback that you can use to tweak a story or make you a better writer. It just tells you if you're doing it for the average Lit reader. I'm not.

 

[coaster12345]

"When I vote, I will vote whatever I think was appropriate for the story or poem no matter who wrote or what they asked for. "

bless you.

coaster12345

 

[Axeltheswede]

voting/feedback

I have to agree, asking for a specific vote is pretty bold. Guess my comfort zone falls somewhere between "feedback appreciated" and "I would like to hear from you, good or bad".

I understand what you are saying about coming to terms with how things work, Muffie. Some time after posting my sixth or seventh story my attitude about voting changed. It is still a matter of curiosity. But, a story will end up with a rating pretty close to what it deserves. Subsequent posts in a category will generate reads for older stories.

I send email feedback when I enjoy a story. I have enjoyed some interesting email swaps with other authors that started with that first feedback. Some interesting people post stories here.