Wide-ranging ratings

[NaokoSmith]

So, I find my stories get a huge range in ratings. I think I once had a '0'! although I'm not sure that's possible. My ratings seem to be 2s and 5s with occasional 4s, ending up in the lower 4.somethings. Is that unusual? Or do people often have a twofold set of readers who either love or hate their stories.
A further question - does this change with a chaptered story? So, by the later chapters have you got your devoted fans on board while the ones who aren't so keen on your oeuvre have gone to give the thumbs down to other stories?
Thanks!

(Banana dancing in syncopated 2:5 rhythm.)

 

[sr71plt]

A "0" rating would have to mean that nobody's rated it yet.

 

[NaokoSmith]

A "0" rating would have to mean that nobody's rated it yet.

Isn't that xx.xx? This was when I had a number in the rating box but someone appeared to have input '0'. I'm sure I was wrong! That can't be possible LOL xxx

 

[sr71plt]

Since "0" isn't a voting option, I wouldn't expect it to be a possible score, no.

 

[lovecraft68]

So, I find my stories get a huge range in ratings. I think I once had a '0'! although I'm not sure that's possible. My ratings seem to be 2s and 5s with occasional 4s, ending up in the lower 4.somethings. Is that unusual? Or do people often have a twofold set of readers who either love or hate their stories.
A further question - does this change with a chaptered story? So, by the later chapters have you got your devoted fans on board while the ones who aren't so keen on your oeuvre have gone to give the thumbs down to other stories?
Thanks!

(Banana dancing in syncopated 2:5 rhythm.)

Hmmm, let me ask you, do you write mostly in the same category or do you jump around?

I ask because if you are the type of writer to have a "specialty" as in most of your stories are one genre your scores will be pretty consistent because you will have a following.

If you jump around then you're getting a new audience all the time.

Most of my work is in incest and I grab around the same scores, but in my other ventures its more along the line of the average for that category.

A perfect example is my lowest rated story is in LW which is a category that's very hard to get a decent score in.

 

[lovecraft68]

Isn't that xx.xx? This was when I had a number in the rating box but someone appeared to have input '0'. I'm sure I was wrong! That can't be possible LOL xxx

I think zero was a glitch the lowest you can vote is a 1

 

[Darkniciad]

Your scores are all over 4.0, and you don't have that many votes ( at least on the most recent series that can be checked in the toplists )

So, you can't have very many votes at all lower than 4. Remember, any vote lower than 5 reduces your score when it's above 4.0.

Most likely, you have a mixture of mostly 5s and 4s, although it's possible you could have straight fives with the odd 1 or 2.

 

[NaokoSmith]

If you are the type of writer to have a "specialty" as in most of your stories are one genre your scores will be pretty consistent because you will have a following.

If you jump around then you're getting a new audience all the time.

That's helpful. I started in the fantasy genre but I just put one story up in non-human, which has netted the most ratings I ever got - but they do seem very variable.

Darkniciad, on my earlier stories I could easily see what was happening because there weren't many votes and they did tend to the 2s and 5s. I would only get comments that said: Loved it, which was nice but didn't explain the 2 ratings. At least on the latest story two people said something about why they weren't keen on the story; which I find helpful. I know I got a 2 on this story because it was the first rating, then I got a string of 4s and 5s and then the score started yo-yoing about before the numbers became too big for me to tell.
Thanks!
xxx

 

[DeeZire]

Isn't that xx.xx? This was when I had a number in the rating box but someone appeared to have input '0'. I'm sure I was wrong! That can't be possible LOL xxx

When you turn off the ratings option on your story, you get the xx. I did that to lock in a couple of red H's back when I was active in the political threads and paranoid about getting trolled.

I see no rhyme or reason to how stories get rated. Some of my favorite stories here - the ones with plot twists or life lessons or clever, humorous writing - never make it to a red H. Others do.

(Oh crap. My favorite author, Daphne DeWitt, pulled all her stories and went home -unless I screwed up the search, which is likely.)

 

[NaokoSmith]

A boring example. A minute ago I had 45 votes, overall rating 4.2. Now I've got 4.13 with 46 votes, so someone rated the story 1.
I don't mind if it's pants! Well, I do but I put the story up here in a genre I'd never written in before to test out if it's OK or I should just carry on with the flowery romantic fantasy stuff. But I'm bemused by the leaps between 1s and 5s.
LOL!
xxx

 

[lovecraft68]

When you turn off the ratings option on your story, you get the xx. I did that to lock in a couple of red H's back when I was active in the political threads and paranoid about getting trolled.

I see no rhyme or reason to how stories get rated. Some of my favorite stories here - the ones with plot twists or life lessons or clever, humorous writing - never make it to a red H. Others do.

(Oh crap. My favorite author, Daphne DeWitt, pulled all her stories and went home -unless I screwed up the search, which is likely.)

I never use the "H" to determine what I read. I used to and would always go to the 30 6 month and all time lists to find things to read. But a lot of times I would read the high rated story and be "meh"

Then I would just search by category and read titles that grabbed my eye and found that most of the ones I enjoyed were well under a 4.5.

For my own work I'm a worse judge the best things I feel I've written are lower rated then the ones I was like "whatever"

 

[TxRad]

A boring example. A minute ago I had 45 votes, overall rating 4.2. Now I've got 4.13 with 46 votes, so someone rated the story 1.
I don't mind if it's pants! Well, I do but I put the story up here in a genre I'd never written in before to test out if it's OK or I should just carry on with the flowery romantic fantasy stuff. But I'm bemused by the leaps between 1s and 5s.
LOL!
xxx

Actually vote 46 was a 4 not a 1.

Wait a few days for the end of the month sweeps and scores will change as bad votes (?) are swept away. You're scores might go up, as most do after the sweeps.

 

[ChrissieLecker]

I see that too with my less often voted stories. I've also noticed that the later the votes come in, the higher they tend to be, with the one or other exception. So those "1" downvotes are probably just dunderheads that aren't capable of looking at the category and short synopsis.

And about series: yes, the scores tend to get a bit better later on, though not massively (yet 0.1 or 0.2 more might often be enough to snatch that shiny red 'H' badge).

 

[NaokoSmith]

Thanks guys! I feel better already.
I think I may have a denser writing style, being a Brit and (gasp of horror ) an academic in my 'other' life. I mean DeeZire, I do "clever, humorous writing"! I think some people manage to wade through it and enjoy the stories and others want something more straightforward.
Cheering that the best readers don't go by the 'H' Lovecraft!
Oops - better get back to the supper I'm cooking, I don't mind multitasking but I hate getting blood on my laptop (heh heh heh!)

 

[NaokoSmith]

Actually vote 46 was a 4 not a 1.

Wait a few days for the end of the month sweeps and scores will change as bad votes (?) are swept away. You're scores might go up, as most do after the sweeps.

At risk of inflaming my skillet pan I must send a big thank you to my favourite dirty old man! (And I have a large collection!)
Thanks for that. Perhaps my story isn't so pants! or at least freshly ironed warm ones

 

[Cruel2BKind]

I never use the "H" to determine what I read. I used to and would always go to the 30 6 month and all time lists to find things to read. But a lot of times I would read the high rated story and be "meh"

Then I would just search by category and read titles that grabbed my eye and found that most of the ones I enjoyed were well under a 4.5.

For my own work I'm a worse judge the best things I feel I've written are lower rated then the ones I was like "whatever"

I like to write very story-based pieces, but my go-tos for jerking off are all in the 4.0-4.3 range. From Kent100

Never trust the score. Especially in GM. Some of the highest rated pieces just don't do anything for me.

 

[DeeZire]

I never use the "H" to determine what I read.. ..

Did Laurel ever put up a Green E list? Out of the seven stories Daphne Dewitt posted, 3 got Green E's, none got a Red H.

 

[lovecraft68]

Did Laurel ever put up a Green E list? Out of the seven stories Daphne Dewitt posted, 3 got Green E's, none got a Red H.

Two reasons for that. One the green E simply means Laurel liked it, so it doesn't necessarily mean the story was well received by the readers.

also the E can be a target for trolls and might get some "spite" one bombs.

 

[NaokoSmith]

I get the ratings message!

Well, my rating is going slowly up so there must be some 5s in there. On Smashwords, the story got three 5 star reviews, is close to 1000 downloads and in over 50 libraries. I sold about 20 copies on Amazon (where I had to charge because I don't want to be part of the Select club, in spite of my elitist ways).
However, I have managed to get some honest feedback on my writing which suggests that although of course it's clever and humourous (I mean humorous), as DeeZire puts it, it's not as clean-cut as it could be and this can be distracting for readers. That might explain the 1s and 2s which I think I'm getting: people who aren't willing to wade through my rather individual prose style for the sake of the story.
I really this site because it's one you can learn on as well as publish to. And the lesson today is, Get a good editor who will tell you when your stuff is bumfluff.
Thank you all for your very helpful and supportive input on this - and
Blwyddyn newydd dda!
as they say in the part of the world where I hang out.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I find that AMAZON feedback is a fair place to get an idea of what readers think. Lotsa trolling and BS over there. One author threatened to sue me after I flagged BS in his book, but my review remained.

I suspect LIT reviews are influenced by hormones more than critical skills. The whole LIT experience reminds me of high school campaigns for Prom Queen.

 

[NaokoSmith]

I find that AMAZON feedback is a fair place to get an idea of what readers think. Lotsa trolling and BS over there. One author threatened to sue me after I flagged BS in his book, but my review remained.

I suspect LIT reviews are influenced by hormones more than critical skills. The whole LIT experience reminds me of high school campaigns for Prom Queen.

Thanks for this JBJ

 

[Exquisition]

A boring example. A minute ago I had 45 votes, overall rating 4.2. Now I've got 4.13 with 46 votes, so someone rated the story 1.
I don't mind if it's pants! Well, I do but I put the story up here in a genre I'd never written in before to test out if it's OK or I should just carry on with the flowery romantic fantasy stuff. But I'm bemused by the leaps between 1s and 5s.
LOL!
xxx

I found that my one and only story took some trolling 'hits' early on pushing the score below 4.50 for sometime before this 'sweeping' system came in and knocked off a lot of the lower scores.

So, don't get too anxious about seeing your score take a nose dive early on, it should right itself to some degree.

 

[NaokoSmith]

I found that my one and only story took some trolling 'hits' early on pushing the score below 4.50 for sometime before this 'sweeping' system came in and knocked off a lot of the lower scores.

So, don't get too anxious about seeing your score take a nose dive early on, it should right itself to some degree.

Thank you for that.
I'm not overly hung up on whether my story is officially Hot to Trot - honest, honest!
Seriously, I just do notice that there is a huge range in ratings of my writing and while I understood that with the soft and fluffy fantasy stories, I was surprised to still be getting it with a werewolf story. I know some of those votes were genuine low ones because of the comments left on my story, I just wondered if that was a general trend or if it said something about my work. Posts here suggest it's not that usual and so I understand it to be trying to tell me something about the way I write.
It's good to learn!

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Thank you for that.
I'm not overly hung up on whether my story is officially Hot to Trot - honest, honest!
Seriously, I just do notice that there is a huge range in ratings of my writing and while I understood that with the soft and fluffy fantasy stories, I was surprised to still be getting it with a werewolf story. I know some of those votes were genuine low ones because of the comments left on my story, I just wondered if that was a general trend or if it said something about my work. Posts here suggest it's not that usual and so I understand it to be trying to tell me something about the way I write.
It's good to learn!

I read somewhere that maybe 15% of people know good coffee from bad coffee, McDonalds is popular around the world and they sell crap.

Its mostly important that YOU know the quality of your wares. William F. Buckley said that his writing standards didnt include the readers' ignorance as criterion.

 

[lovecraft68]

I find that AMAZON feedback is a fair place to get an idea of what readers think. Lotsa trolling and BS over there. One author threatened to sue me after I flagged BS in his book, but my review remained.

I suspect LIT reviews are influenced by hormones more than critical skills. The whole LIT experience reminds me of high school campaigns for Prom Queen.

The problem with amazon's review policy is they allow people to review without buying the book which is Bullshit.

I got a 2 star review and the person even said in the review he only based it on the "look inside" I clicked on his other reviews and lo and behold he has given 2 dozen reviews all 1's and 2's and has never bought single book.

But amazon won;t remove those they're too busy removing 5 star reviews from indy authors because they think they're all placed there by family members.

Meanwhile the big six flood all their new releases with paid reviews to sucker people into buying their latest drivel.

Look at 50 shades its first wave of reviews were sickeningly glowing, but once it hit big the majority of the last several thousand have been awful, because these are customers reviews not the publishers.