The Official Authors' Hangout 2023 Valentine's Day Contest Support thread

[Jackie.Hikaru]

Noticed a string of one bombs on my story after today's sweep

 

[SomaSlave]

Noticed a string of one bombs on my story after today's sweep

That's cold! So many Lit readers with all the taste of an American remake of a foreign sit-com.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Noticed a string of one bombs on my story after today's sweep

LOL. Let me tell you about one bombs and competitions sometime, Jackie. A few years ago I had a story in, and the first 50 votes were, literally, all 5 stars, and then the one bombs came.....all the way down to about 3.5 - this was when I was new here, and it was sooooo traumatic. Now I just laugh. Whatever.....

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

Congratulations to the Jackie.O.Hikaru, Smuttyandfun, and Jtb_ on winning 1st, 2nd, and 3rd respectively in the contest and to all who entered. There were some excellent stories posted.

 

[RejectReality]

I think this plays somewhat into the debate about what is a chapter story versus a series story, and where readers' expectations might be with contest entries.

In your author notes for "Valentine's Dance", you state: "For readers of We're a Wonderful Wife this story occurs about a half of the way into Chapter 4."

To me, this hints at your entry not being the stand-alone story that the contest rules specify, or what I would expect for a contest. I don't think I was alone in this, and, while I rated your story a 5* effort, it may have suffered from other readers being confused.

Keep in mind, details that you as an author think are redundant in series stories can be enlightening to readers new to your work. Author notes directing readers back to previous stories are not a substitute for basic details about characters or plot that are carry-overs from other works. For example, describing what a character looks like once in a series is probably not enough if you are now in the fifth or sixth part of the series.

Readers should be expected to start at the beginning of chapter stories where they get the benefit of the developing plot and characters. With series stories, readers expect to be able to start anywhere. I treat stories in a universe the same as series stories.

I'd be willing to bet that the majority of readers have no idea that the chapter rule even exists.

Said rule was put in place for a single purpose: To stop people from entering multiple chapters of the same story in a single contest, with each chapter competing for the prize. It had become an epidemic at the time the rule was put in place. It's not there to stop you from telling a side story from an ongoing serial, or from adding a new tale to a series.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

LOL. Let me tell you about one bombs and competitions sometime, Jackie. A few years ago I had a story in, and the first 50 votes were, literally, all 5 stars, and then the one bombs came.....all the way down to about 3.5 - this was when I was new here, and it was sooooo traumatic. Now I just laugh. Whatever.....

I do my best to laugh it off but every one bomb I get makes that little puppy inside my soul whimper.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

Congratulations to the winners, and to all those who are satisfied with how their contribution(s) worked out.

Thanks! And congrats to the other winners and all who participated. As always there were alot of very enjoyable stories. Happy Call in Single Day everyone

 

[SomaSlave]

Congratulations to the winners, and to all those who are satisfied with how their contribution(s) worked out.

Congratulations to the winners, all of whom were more than deserving. It's inspiring to see the range and quality of storytelling. Thank you, all.

 

[Voboy]

Congrats! Good contest.

 

[NoTalentHack]

Congratulations to the winners! There were so many lovely stories.

 

[TxRad]

Congrats to all that entered and double congrats to the winners.

 

[JuanSeiszFitzHall]

Congrats to the winners, regards to all contributors, and thanks to the readers.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Congratulations to Jackie.O.Hikaru, Smuttyandfun, and Jtb - and to everyone else that got stories in! That was a fun one

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I'd be willing to bet that the majority of readers have no idea that the chapter rule even exists.

Probably not, but they would quickly recognize that they knew nothing about characters whose entire development occurred someplace other than within the story that they were reading.

IMO, if submitting a part from a chapter story isn't a restriction for contest entries, it should at least be advised against. One of the benefits of contests is their attraction of new readers for an author. Bringing new readers into an existing story mid-stream is more likely going to impact the scores received, and likely not in a positive way. Series stories can fare better if the character and plot development are able to stand on their own within each installment.

That was my advise.

 

[KeithD]

Congrats to those who placed and all who participated.

My highest-rated entry was "Blitzed" in the sr71plt account rated at 4.88. The highest rated entry in my KeithD account was "Interrupted Escape" at 4.79.

 

[KeithD]

Something for future entrants to keep in mind. Once again the story has to be very long to have a good chance to place in a themed contest here. Once again, all of the placers in this contest were long, running from seven to twelve Lit. pages. The voting here is set up to favor the long works for high ratings. My best-rated stories in this contest also were the ones that went to several pages.

Just the way it is as Lit. voting is constructed here. So, it's best if you're entering the contest with a one-to-three Lit. page work knowing you are doing so just for the extra exposure and to be part of a writing exercise, not with a likelihood of placing.

 

[Nellymcboatface]

Congratulations to Jackie.O.Hikaru, Smuttyandfun and Jtb_
Well done everyone for entering, whilst I'm still enjoying reading a broad spectrum of entries, and good to see some new people in the competition mix.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Something for future entrants to keep in mind. Once again the story has to be very long to have a good chance to place in a themed contest here. Once again, all of the placers in this contest were long, running from seven to twelve Lit. pages. The voting here is set up to favor the long works for high ratings. My best-rated stories in this contest also were the ones that went to several pages.

Just the way it is as Lit. voting is constructed here. So, it's best if you're entering the contest with a one-to-three Lit. page work knowing you are doing so just for the extra exposure and to be part of a writing exercise, not with a likelihood of placing.

Another thing to keep in mind:

All three winners didn't submit their stories for the contest until at, or very near the deadline, which exposed their story to readers for only a week or less. There were stories submitted at the beginning of the contest that received very respectable scores and almost more than ten times the views of those that won.

That is a trade off that writers might want to consider. More views doesn't ensure greater or higher votes, but it does mean that your work is likely exposed more readers during the contest period. Less time for consideration by readers could result in "quality" views over quantity.

 

[lovecraft68]

Congrats to the winners!

 

[PennameWombat]

Hip hip hooray to the winners! One more in the books.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Well done!

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

Congrats again to the winners.

SNI

There were stories submitted at the beginning of the contest that received very respectable scores and almost more than ten times the views of those that won.

That is a trade off that writers might want to consider. More views doesn't ensure greater or higher votes, but it does mean that your work is likely exposed more readers during the contest period. Less time for consideration by readers could result in "quality" views over quantity.

I submitted later than I would have liked, on February 1st, and my story was published the next day. As of the end of the contest, it had fewer views (about 11,800) in comparison to some of my past entries submitted earlier in such contests but more votes (about 1 vote per 20 views, one of my best performances on that ratio) and helped me pick up 20-something followers. While I finished a few hundredths behind the winners in the score, that was a win in my view.

 

[GrantBricksly]

Congrats to the winners!

My story did very well. 4.82 by the end of it. And having been up the entire month, I am very proud of that number. My best rating by far. Now, it's on to March, and the April Fools Day Contest. (and Moving this week too...)

 

[KeithD]

While I finished a few hundredths behind the winners in the score, that was a win in my view.

Does anyone know what the winning scores were? Had to be 4.89 or more.

 

[SomaSlave]

Does anyone know what the winning scores were? Had to be 4.89 or more.

Star-Crossed was 4.92
Forever Valentine was 4.9
Belle & Jack was 4.89