Unexpected turn of votes

[thesidelongview]

I was surprised when (what I thought was) a bit of a silly side-story garnered much more views and an overall higher rating than the main story.

The side story: http://literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?url=semesters-end

Semesters End. The ex-dropout graduating senior and the TA are roughly the same age, and bang. Because I'm holding the heroine back for the main event, I left her boy toy deliberately a kind of an inattentive, unsatisfactory partner.

The main story, The Ex-Lovers, started as an alternating Man's-POV, Woman's-POV story, but when I struggled with the Woman's-POV I switched to the 3rd person POV. So I know the story's style is changing kind of dramatically, and Chapter 4 was bogged down with too much exposition. (As is in-submission chapter 5.)

Apart from that, the whole main series I'm doing hovers around a 4.25, while the side piece started at 4.5 and floated upwards.

Catalogue here: http://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=2021694&page=submissions

The in-submission Chapter 6 of the main line (Ex-Lovers) directly follows the formula of Semesters End exactly because of this, and I'm wondering -- should I just drop the main line and do follow-ups to the side piece?

I guess I'm looking for feedback on what's being done right and what's not, because my comments sections are really thin.

*Edit*: I want to point out that this isn't a numbers thing only; the absence of comments has a big part in why I'm confused about audience expectations. In particular, my lowest rated story has two sympathetic comments that "get" the idea of the situation, while my highest rated story has one quasi-hostile comment complaining the story isn't worth reading because it doesn't carry on with the main characters fucking quite enough.

 

[RejectReality]

Erotic Couplings and Novels&Novellas are both "grab bag" categories. The kinks, couplings, and storylines vary so widely that the readership is flighty.

I can tell you this: Your title and tagline on the side story are much more enticing than the main series, IMO. That explains the higher view count. In EC, you have to really grab people's attention to entice them to open the story.

As to the quasi-hostile comment, that's likely a fan of the main series who doesn't want you to fiddle around with other things until you finish the main storyline. It's a common thing when you have an ongoing series.

Scores and feedback are inconsistent -- especially in flighty categories -- so I wouldn't suggest adapting your style or making hasty decisions about killing a series based on them.

My advice is to finish your story. Some people will see an unfinished story in your list and write everything else off. An unfinished story tied to your side stories will be an even bigger turn-off.

 

[8letters]

My take is that if you are interested in comments, then you are better off working on stand alone stories. At this point, any additional chapters are likely to be lightly read. IMHO most people when they see a chapter 5 of a story they don't recognize, aren't going to bother to read it. They don't want to take the time to start from the beginning. So your readership is going to be people who read chapter 4, remember it and liked it enough to read chapter 5. If you are posting all the chapters basically at once, it is a different thing. But as you are posting them now infrequently, you aren't going to get much of a response to them.

I have basically abandoned a chapter story and no one seems to hold it against me. I get the occasional PM asking me to continue it. As I write so slowly, I have been putting my writing time into stories that will provide me more reader response. I wish I had the time to alternate working on the chapter story and writing stand alones, but I don't.

 

[Gunter99]

My take is that if you are interested in comments, then you are better off working on stand alone stories. At this point, any additional chapters are likely to be lightly read. IMHO most people when they see a chapter 5 of a story they don't recognize, aren't going to bother to read it. They don't want to take the time to start from the beginning. So your readership is going to be people who read chapter 4, remember it and liked it enough to read chapter 5. If you are posting all the chapters basically at once, it is a different thing. But as you are posting them now infrequently, you aren't going to get much of a response to them.

I have basically abandoned a chapter story and no one seems to hold it against me. I get the occasional PM asking me to continue it. As I write so slowly, I have been putting my writing time into stories that will provide me more reader response. I wish I had the time to alternate working on the chapter story and writing stand alones, but I don't.

I hope to see more stories from you soon

If you would like me to edit or review, please feel free to email me again