coaltide | Coal All The Way

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Coal All The Way

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As a relative newbie, what are people's standards when they say a fic is doing badly at this point? No kudos? Only one kudos per fifty hits? Only one comment? No comments? I would be interested to know what people think is good so that I know how my fics are doing!

That would depend entirely on whether your fandom has only one person in the world who wants to read from it, or 10, or 1000.

I've posted in this fandom before so I know what to expect, although I'm giving it a bit of leeway considering the holiday period.

It depends on how neurotic and anxious you are. If you are very neurotic, obviously every nice comment is sekritly by someone who hated your fic.

It differs by fandom for me. There's one perennial Yuletide fandom I like writing in because the comments are always enthusiastic and abundant. If I had no comments in that fandom I'd probably say it was doing badly, even if my kudos to hits ratio was 1:1.

In most other fandoms I don't factor comments in at all, though. If the recip comments, that's good enough for me. I'll usually look at how my kudos to hits ratio compares to other fics in the fandom. If no one else wrote in that fandom, I'll try comparing to fics in a similar fandom (like a book by the same author, or another five minute fandom, or whatever other totally arbitrary and mostly meaningless criteria I decide on).

I would very much like the people I wrote for (one of whom is a friend and the other I've beta'd for) to like the fic. Everything beyond that's gravy.

With Yuletide, it really, really depends on fandom popularity. If you're the only person who wrote in a tiny even for Yuletide fandom and you currently have, idk, five hits, one comment, and one kudos, and that one comment is your recipient and they seem happy, you are doing awesome. If you wrote for a big for Yuletide fandom that multiple other people wrote for, and you have substantially fewer comments/kudos than the others who wrote about the same characters/ship, you're probably not doing so hot.

Compare to other fics in the fandom if there are any. Everyone seems to hate my fic lol. The recip left a polite comment at least, so I guess there's that (still a bit disappointed, but I *now* realize why people might dislike it).

my fic has single digit hits and kudos, and recip left a "thanks for writing".

so yeah, doing badly, and I'm pissed. I like the fucking fic. it's better than the other fic in the fandom, and that one has 3 digit both. /seethe, seethe

Did you redate?

I'm curious about this too, if the other fic is doing well enough to garner triple-digit hits/kudos. Means the fandom is big for yuletide and moves fairly quickly. If OP did re-date, then it might just be a matter of writing for a rarepair.

Would you redate if the fandom is small? It's not weird? The fic on top of me redated yesterday and they are getting double hits, like 50 v. 100 hits difference. Same ship. It's seriously making me sad because I know my story is solid.

If it's a fandom that gets works outside of Yuletide, I redate. It's not weird - nobody could read your story before Dec 25, so that is a reasonable date to put on it.

I don't redate my fics that are in such tiny fandoms that they will still be on the first page of the fandom regardless. And in certain big, wanky fandoms (this doesn't apply to Yuletide, they're not eligible) I will redate only after author reveals, because most non-exchange following fans won't read works by anonymous authors.

Re: Doing well/doing badly?

(Anonymous) - 2019-12-27 02:03 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Doing well/doing badly?

(Anonymous) - 2019-12-27 02:06 (UTC) - Expand

I would be shocked if this isn't it.

Like, as an example, this is what the Scum Villain fics look like right now:

Juggernaut dated Dec 25th (rated E): 1400+ hits, 200+ kudos

Rarepair dated Dec 24th (rated M): 200+ hits, 59 kudos

Juggernaut dated Dec 16th (rated G): 66 hits, 19 kudos

Juggernaut dated Dec 12th (rated T): 57 hits, 11 kudos

Aw no, nonnny, I hope it gains traction later!

I mean, there's a certain amount (a LOT) of subjectiveness to what is a good fic, but if there are two fics in the collection for a fandom and one has 3 digit kudos and one has single digits? Unless, like, the other is the juggernaut pairing and yours is gen about the character nobody likes, you might want to re-evaluate your writing, or have a friendly reader who will give you concrit look it over.

(also, THREE DIGITS of kudos? In Yuletide? I am envious.)

NC

As someone who landed on writing the 'gen about the character nobody likes' fic this year, this hurt!

I really don't think coalie's writing is THAT bad, though. Then there'd still be a lot of hits from the fandom, before they realized it's a mess of a fic. Unless they're also the sort of person who tags 50 pairings and 100 freeforms and has a social media AU summary?

Re: Doing well/doing badly?

(Anonymous) - 2019-12-27 02:11 (UTC) - Expand

NC

you might want to re-evaluate your writing
Jesus christ, this was assholic.

Re: Doing well/doing badly?

(Anonymous) - 2019-12-27 03:29 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Doing well/doing badly?

(Anonymous) - 2019-12-27 03:31 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Doing well/doing badly?

(Anonymous) - 2019-12-27 03:34 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Doing well/doing badly?

(Anonymous) - 2019-12-27 03:38 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Doing well/doing badly?

(Anonymous) - 2019-12-28 00:36 (UTC) - Expand

the other fic's in yuletide? cos...I can't find anything that this scenario fits.

If you aren't getting hits and the other one is, then there's something in the presentation making people not click. Assuming same pairing, check that you redacted and that your tags/description don't have errors. They aren't even seeing your fic yet so fic quality has nothing to do with it.

Unless you mean the other fic in the fandom total rather than Yuletide, in which case it might just be one of those that will slowly trickle in over months or years.

Managed to hit the double digits in the kudos! Now am very scared it'll just stay there. I didn't think of myself as someone obsessed with stats, but below 20 kudos hurts, a bit.

"below 20 kudos hurts, a bit"

Oooof. For Yuletide-sized fandoms? I have a whole bunch where 20 kudos would be asking for about 15 kudos more than the fandom can deliver.

For context: of the 2076 works currently in the main collection, somewhere under 300 have broken 20 kudos at this point. ~14%. If you've got under 20 kudos, you're in good company with almost everyone else writing in this small fandoms exchange.

CYRT - you're right! I matched on a medium-sized fandom, though, I was hoping a bit more!

(didn't write for any big ships or characters within that so it's on me for not managing my expectations!)

Fuck, most of mine don't get 20 hits during the anon period. I love small fandoms and I cannot lie. One of my fics has exactly one (placeholder) comment from the recip, and one kudos they left. If that's all it gets . . . man I had a blast writing that shit!

I also don't compare my stories to others. What's the point? To feel relieved and/or smug if they're "doing better" or to be bummed if they're not?

Nah. I'm here to have fun and wallow in small fandoms that don't get enough love, not feel bad about shit I can't control. *throws confetti*

The fic that I was unsure of has double digit kudos and a really good kudos-to-hit ratio.

My pornfic is doing well, with the expected kudos-to-hit ratio. Few comments though, but that's expected with pornfic.

My gen is doing slightly worse than I expected in the kudos department, but the comments all seem enthusiastic so I guess I didn't do too bad?

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