Too Manipulative?

[LexxRuthless]

Would it be too manipulative to post an anonymous criticism on one of my own stories to prompt readers to respond to it?

I recently posted a story to I/T called Daddy's New Girlfriend. The story idea was simple enough: Teenage daughter sneaks into her attractive father's bed after his girlfriend came over for a quickie. She has no idea that her sweet Papa and his girlfriend are really into anal until his lubricated cock slides into the "wrong hole."

I started by writing that scene, then went back to set up the premise. I spent four nights writing the story, got a lot of feedback and editing help, and then posted the final version. When I saw it in print on the site, though, it sprawled on for eight pages--far longer than I thought it would.

My thought was, "Good lord, that's way too long. This story would have been a lot hotter if I had kept it to half that length."

I thought about posting an anonymous comment on the story, but did not do so. If I did, it would be this:

Ugh! Way too long.
You took a good idea and dragged it out with too much blah, blah blah. This could have been a really hot story if you would have cut to the chase.

So, what do you think? Would it be acceptable for me to post something like that on my own story to see if readers agree or disagree with that assessment?

 

[TxRad]

I started by writing that scene, then went back to set up the premise. I spent four nights writing the story, got a lot of feedback and editing help, and then posted the final version. When I saw it in print on the site, though, it sprawled on for eight pages--far longer than I thought it would.

My thought was, "Good lord, that's way too long. This story would have been a lot hotter if I had kept it to half that length."

Post what I have left from above as yourself and just ask the readers for their thoughts. Direst is always better than devious.

3750 words are approximately a Lit page. so do the division next time.

 

[Hypoxia]

You'll know what you've done. It's on your conscience.

 

[jaF0]

If you want to trash your own submission, why not just take it down? Rewrite, edit, rethink and resubmit someday.

 

[AlinaX]

Go for it - and add a second Anon comment along the lines of: "That's so obviously a fake comment. I hate when authors comment on their own pieces."

 

[SimonDoom]

Just post the question/issue under your name. No need to be anonymous.

 

[Voboy]

OP: You’re kidding, right?

You already posted a comment there. It was called “Daddy’s New Girlfriend.”

 

[astuffedshirt_perv]

Would it be too manipulative to post an anonymous criticism on one of my own stories to prompt readers to respond to it?

So you are thinking a reader will slog through 8 pages, then read the comments, then respond? Seems unlikely. YMMV

 

[yukonnights]

Post what I have left from above as yourself and just ask the readers for their thoughts. Direct is always better than devious.

3750 words are approximately a Lit page. so do the division next time.

I add my vote to this suggestion. IMO, honesty is usually the best course. I have posted responses/comments on some of my own stories, mostly saying thanks—but you might get some good interaction. Maybe even add that you'd welcome longer, more in depth critique via Private Message if that's something you'd like to encourage.

 

[LexxRuthless]

Just to be clear, it was just an idle thought that crossed my mind, and I wanted to see what y'all thought about the idea. In this case, though, I would not have to post anything. The very first comment:

"Not bad

by Anonymous user on 7 hours ago
But way too long and repetive. Got really boring around page 5.

2 stars


DragonRider55"

--and, no, that is not me under an alias. Amusingly enough, I have three comments, two of which are pretty negative. But the Sunday morning crowd has voted my story to the top spot of the I/T Hall of Fame.

I have to grin and shake my head. That poor story is like a clay pigeon in that spot, just begging to get shot down. Oh, well. It's still nice to see that someone likes my writing.

 

[CuteSlaveLisa]

I know if a story 1,300 views with 19 likes and score is under 3.00. It's black licorice, some folks love it, some folks hate it.

Love and Kisses

Lisa Ann

 

[LexxRuthless]

I know if a story 1,300 views with 19 likes and score is under 3.00. It's black licorice, some folks love it, some folks hate it.

Love and Kisses

Lisa Ann

Oof. I watched my story get "crushed" by a series of low votes...but that only dropped it from a 4.87 down to 4.79. You are stronger than I am to be unoffended by the level of down-voting you describe.

 

[AlinaX]

Ohh! What wouldn't I give for a 4.79! I sometimes hang awake at night dreaming of a 4.79.

 

[astuffedshirt_perv]

Ohh! What wouldn't I give for a 4.79! I sometimes hang awake at night dreaming of a 4.79.

IKR? This is like the a-lister complaining that they don't get invited to the good parties. com'on man.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Oof. I watched my story get "crushed" by a series of low votes...but that only dropped it from a 4.87 down to 4.79. You are stronger than I am to be unoffended by the level of down-voting you describe.

FFS, will you listen to yourself? You've written an eight page incest story where dad boffs his eighteen year old daughter in the ass, and you're moaning about the score (4.82 when I looked just now, with 67 faves), and fretting about the one-bombs? Get a grip, mate, seriously.

Bloody penguin herders, can't recognise the Antarctic when they're in the middle of it .

 

[LexxRuthless]

FFS, will you listen to yourself? You've written an eight page incest story where dad boffs his eighteen year old daughter in the ass, and you're moaning about the score (4.82 when I looked just now, with 67 faves), and fretting about the one-bombs? Get a grip, mate, seriously.

Bloody penguin herders, can't recognise the Antarctic when they're in the middle of it .

Nah, not griping. I understand the random nature of shit-bombing that happens on this site and expect the story to drop substantially. Then there will be sweeps, and another round of shit-bombing...lather, rinse repeat. There are so many factors that go into the score that we as authors have zero control over. So it has been amusing to watch. It would be nice if the score actually reflected the quality of the work so I could use those numbers to improve my writing.

It would also be nice to be have a money tree in my back yard. Neither of those things is gonna happen.

I was merely saying that the story Lisa referred to had been thoroughly savaged. That would have been more aggravating than amusing, if it were my story.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Look at the results in thirty days, I reckon. It's a new story, so it's far too early to get any true sense of its "goodness."

 

[LexxRuthless]

Look at the results in thirty days, I reckon. It's a new story, so it's far too early to get any true sense of its "goodness."

Just to be clear, I'm not trying to troll you. Nor am I trying to start an argument. I simply disagree with that assessment. I think the most accurate measure I will ever get of a story's "goodness" is that initial snapshot, before the turd-blossoms start opening up on it.

We all know that there are individuals who relentlessly patrol the various categories of this site. They will bomb a story because they don't like the subject matter, or because they see a high score on a story by a new author. I doubt they even take the time to actually read the story before they down-vote it, most of the time.

The title and intro to my story made it clear what kind of story it was. People who were drawn to that type of story then voted based on how well they thought I had executed it. I got an early 1-bomb. Even with that, it had a 4.88 rating with 142 votes. What that tells me is that my concerns about the length of the story were unfounded. Ever since that time, the story has been persistently down-voted. That is to be expected.

In a month, it will settle in some random middle ground. I can't worry about that--obviously I don't have any control over it. The accurate assessment of how well I wrote the story--the tightness of prose, consistent character descriptions, engaging dialogue and arousing sex scenes--was that it was practically flawless.

My followers didn't start tagging the story until much later in the day, so that hadn't skewed my early snapshot. At this point all I can do is shrug and move on to my next story, knowing that I have done a solid job on this one.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Just to be clear, I'm not trying to troll you. Nor am I trying to start an argument. I simply disagree with that assessment. I think the most accurate measure I will ever get of a story's "goodness" is that initial snapshot, before the turd-blossoms start opening up on it.

Don't sweat it. Each to their own - I ignore the first week or two for exactly the reasons you mention. After thirty days the bullshit has gone away, a sweep or two has cleaned the garbage out, and the story has settled down into its steady state.

After five years of writing, my older story rating is pretty much unchanged from whatever it was after two or three months, and newer stories have just slotted in wherever they fit. Over time, some stories creep higher in my list, but in the grand scheme of things the overall ranking stays pretty much the same. And it's never what it was during the first week.

Maybe you get more story trolling than I do, so you see a bigger effect, I don't know. I think you write in more volatile categories than I do, with more category police (but I've not gone and checked that). I suspect we've got quite different reader bases, so the reader reactions are quite different, too. Horses for courses, it's no big deal .

 

[KeithD]

Just to be clear, I'm not trying to troll you. Nor am I trying to start an argument. I simply disagree with that assessment. I think the most accurate measure I will ever get of a story's "goodness" is that initial snapshot, before the turd-blossoms start opening up on it.

My first "turd blossom" faithfully shows up within twenty minutes of the story posting--always a 2 vote--each . . . and . . . every time. So, for me, at least, the initial snapshot means nothing.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

Oof. I watched my story get "crushed" by a series of low votes...but that only dropped it from a 4.87 down to 4.79. You are stronger than I am to be unoffended by the level of down-voting you describe.

There are those who vye for the red H, and those of us who don't give a shit.

 

[8letters]

Ugh! Way too long.
You took a good idea and dragged it out with too much blah, blah blah. This could have been a really hot story if you would have cut to the chase.

So, what do you think? Would it be acceptable for me to post something like that on my own story to see if readers agree or disagree with that assessment?

My stories typically get a lot of comments, and it's pretty rare for a comment to mention another comment. It typically happens when a commenter strongly disagrees with a recent comment.

For example, I got these two comments back-to-back:

by Anonymous user on 10/17/2017
1500 votes 155 favs I'm tired of you new authors cheating

by Anonymous user on 10/17/2017
you have 1500 votes with half the views and less than authors who have beem here years and you only have 150 favorites. the #s don't jive. Fucking a-holes on this site.

Four comments later, I got:

To the anonymous...
by LewBrishess
on 10/17/2017
...whiners about all the votes: Pull your heads out of your asses. Votes and favorites aren't based on number of readers but on the quality of the story. If you want more good votes for your own stories, try writing better stories instead of whimpering about how unfair it is that a good author gets what he deserves.

Oh! Right! That would mean you'd have to admit that you're getting what you deserve, too. Couln't have that!

The comment you proposed was unlikely to provoke enough disagreement to spark a response.

 

[SimonDoom]

I think the most accurate measure I will ever get of a story's "goodness" is that initial snapshot, before the turd-blossoms start opening up on it.

.

I'm scratching my head at this, because my universal experience is that the stinkiest and most numerous turds get thrown right at the beginning, in the hours immediately following publication. The first 12 hours following publication are the most volatile, with by far the most fanatically hostile reactions and the most unpredictable swings in the score. After about 24 hours I usually have a pretty good idea what people, overall, think of the story, and I get a better idea still after the sweeps take effect.

 

[TornConflict]

I have to agree with SimonDoom. I try not to look at my comments the first day or score. All the ones on day one are nasty and ugly usually. I find two or three days in my score usually ends up where I expected or comments get nicer. I only comment to thank people.for being nice or giving respectful feed back. I now delete the nasty comments from trolls without hesitation. I didn't used to and I know I am not the greatest writer but stating "you don't need and editor, you need to give up writing" is trolling. So far my nude day story is slightly lower than I would like but I think anything above a 4 is a win. That red h is nice but if I don't hit it, I don't sweat it.

I can't imagine leaving an anonymous comment on my own story. I get enough of that without my own help. I wish there was way to only allow non anonymous comments or feedback.

 

[LexxRuthless]

I wish there was way to only allow non anonymous comments or feedback.

Actually, you can. Just go into the settings on your dashboard and check the box to not allow anonymous feedback.

I had done that for a while, but then I was only getting positive feedback and not very much of it. I take the critical rants and leave them alone now. Thanks to a previous thread on the AH, I came to realize that the comments section below one of my stories is sometimes an entity unto itself, unrelated to my story. It can be a discussion between readers on the site, and I try to leave that alone now.

The only time I delete comments now is when they actively detract from my story.