Objective partially achieved!

[RonClarkeson]

Well my tirade about readers who do not vote has at last born fruit!
My latest story has about a ten to one voter ratio!
You may well ask WTF.
It is my contention that writers need feedback to enable them to write what the readers like. No feedback and the service provided by the writers just goes down and down.
So If no one encourages, or dare I say force's readers to vote, the service provided by Lit just degenerates to a load of old and illiterate crap!
I welcome feedback even from the moles, because I can hit back at them and have a good laugh. Other writes may not be that robust and therefore suffer and never submit again. The end result? Well all miss out!
I implore all writers to insist that if readers do not vote then they run the risk of never reading the next chapter!

 

[starrkers]

Pointless to make that threat in my case. The only second chapter I've ever written was on a chain story - and no one reads them anyway!

 

[elfin_odalisque]

While Starrkers has that AV I'll always read a thread she's commented on.

Ron, you are crazy. If you put your wares out in the marketplace, you are simply a mendiant, a merchant in the khazbaar. For a start, a ratio of 10% for votes to clicks is pretty good. Remember that someone clicking on your story doesn't mean they got past the first line - they just opened it.

If you put something up 'for sale' - and asking readers to give you their time is, in my view, a price - you have to respect their opinions on the product you offer. How many shopkeepers watch with frustration as insouciant visitors regard the goods and leave without buying.

You want to write, so do I, but the bit I understand is that when I post a story - even here where all is without payment - I have to earn the interest and not demand it like some soviet gulag.

Good writing gets rewards here - both in votes and comments as well as constructive help. The site has launched many a published author. Temper your criticisms.

Elle

 

[evanslily]

The thing is, the readers aren't here to provide a service. Maybe if this site wasn't free, or if it was a writers' forum or something, then perhaps they would be. But they aren't.

If folks are kind enough to read my stories, then I'm extremely appreciative. If they're kind enough to vote, that's lovely too. But to expect that, nay, to demand that? I don't feel that I should. I usually end my stories with a "Thanks for reading. All votes and comments gratefully received" and I guess it might provide a gentle reminder that I like feedback. But to threaten to withold my next chapter, LOL? No. What would be the point in anyone reading my work if I did that? Not everyone thinks to vote, it's as simple as that. But that doesn't mean that people aren't following your work.