Supporting our Authors

[botticelliangel]

Where the heck did all the wonderful support (sappy, silly, and constructive) go to?!

When I started posting stories just about ten years ago I was happily recieving multiple reviews with every upload, no matter how crappy it was. And some of them were oh so crappy riddled with mistakes, cliche's, ect... probably from too many nights of staying up till three in the morning and then going to early classes the next day. (At the time I was drowning in my undergraduate research.)

I left the fanfiction community for a while. Life happens.

But even after leaving the community I always appreciated reviews, good and constructive. I don't say bad because I firmly believe there is a difference between pointing out faults (constructive) and attacking the author personally (bad). It was working with a fanfiction community (particularly this one) that helped me grow not only as a writer, but as a person.

Recently I returned to posting fanfictions. I never really stopped writing them, and decided that I was going to just put them out there and see what happened.

I didn't expect a huge outpouring of reviews or anything, but after a little while it became very clear to me that there is a stunning lack of support for authors in the fanfiction community.

It is disheartening to see so many stories that appear to boast thousands of hits and have a meager 1 or 2 reviews. Really?! What the heck is going on here? Are people so unwilling to say "hey nice story" or whatever? Now I admit I don't read much outside of my chosen fandom (Inuyasha), but I enjoy it. Even the poorly written, crappy spelling, bad plot line fics can bring a smile to my face... mostly because I can remember a time when my writing was just as horrible.

I review because I want people to feel like they are growing. I feel like my writing blossomed from reviews, my outlook changed from them. Writing fanfictions has been a giant and awe inspiring influence on my life.

Unless I really can't find anything at all good to say about the fic (I think all of us have found them: Troll fics), I make my best effort to leave a review. And I hope by doing so that I am setting a good example, not only to members of the community who read and review only, but to fellow authors.

I will continue writing all my life. I know it. It is who I am, and what I live for.

But sharing my writing is difficult when there seems to be such an apathetic attitude in the community regarding the works of many good writers, and all of us who are looking for ways to grow.

Also, how the heck are people getting thousands of hits for one chapter? Some of the stories that have the most hits and are relatively new are... well... they are. Lets just leave it at that. And I have seen some stories, just as new that are averaging less than 500 hits per uploaded chapter. Is this some kind of lie? I don't know what the right word for it is, but my point is are people conspiring to just sit and constantly click in and out of the story to make it look more readable?

I have very quickly learned that the combo of hits and rates is not a particularly good measure of whether or not the story is good, and am baffled that the system appears to be exploited to lure unsuspecting readers in. Especially since there is a serious lack of reviewing to give a better estimate of redability.

That being said, I still do like a lot of the poorly written stories. At the very worst they are good for a laugh.

Now that I have worked myself up about what I feel (my opinion only) are the responsiblitites of active members of the fanfiction community. I am going to go and review a few things.

[RogueMudblood]

There are, honestly and all kidding aside, a number of factors, I believe.

One is going to be the definition of "constructive criticism." Some authors think that anything that tells them their story isn't perfection is a flame. They do this for the lulz, and not necessarily to improve, and those readers who like to encourage authors to improve on their craft and offer honest, thought-provoking feedback aren't welcome to such writers.

On the flip side, there are those people who think they're being constructive, when they're really serving to be destructive in the terms they use to tell the author there is a need for improvement.

Another factor is the "something for nothing" mentality. It permeates our society, so it isn't really any surprise that readers wouldn't think twice about not letting an author know that they read the story. Liked or not, they read it. I tend to think of it this way: "hits" are the number of times someone checked the book out in the card catalogue, read a few pages, and put it back on the shelf. The "hits" mean nothing to me.

The reviews, on the other hand, tell me quite a bit. They can tell me that the story was good, that it needs improvement, that it's total fluff, etc. As I am one of those who doesn't write, I can tell you that I also look at the names of the reviewers. If I recognize the names as people that read fluff fic, whose names I only see reviewing fluff pieces, and they rave about the story in their review, I'll generally leave it alone. I'm not usually in a fluffy mood. There are those rare occasions when my brain can't handle much more than fluff (say, when I had the flu), and those are the times I'll read those pieces.

The 'least loved' stories in the archive - but the most read - are generally oneshots. People read them, and -let's face it- 'fap' to them, and close the browser window. Sometimes, the readers leave TMI reviews (IMO) but at least they're giving the author some feedback about what was written.

I can honestly state that another reason readers may not leave a review may have to do with their age. DG, at the beginning of this year, had to do a massive sweep through the archive to nuke underage reviews that weren't getting deleted when the accounts were being removed for minors (details here). Being completely underage aside, younger adult readers won't necessarily leave one either. They're not at that point yet where they realize that the authors don't have to write - and even if they do write, they don't have to post it for anyone to read. Sharing it is completely up to the author of the piece.

I'll be completely forthright: I'm appalled at the lack of reviews. I understand not having a great deal of time to leave a massive review - and most authors don't want that anyway. They just want "I liked such n such" or "I didn't like thus n so" and a reason as to why a reader felt that way.

But one thing that I think keeps a good number of people from reviewing a story is not knowing what to say. Particularly if it's a very well-written piece. Readers tend to think that on a completed story, or on something that's by well-loved authors, they can't offer feedback. (Especially if they didn't like something that well-loved author did - heaven forbid you read SS/HG 'ship in HP and not like an aspect of a story by one of the big names that write in that genre.)

The bottom line is that I wholeheartedly agree - reviews support the authors. Sadly, a lot of authors don't have tough skin and throw tantrums in their author's notes. (Yes, we've seen this - I see it on cleanup quite a bit.) Not knowing how an opinion is going to be received can sway the choice of the reviewer to leave it. Just as all of the authors in the archive take a chance on putting their work out there for scrutiny, the reviewers take a chance on leaving their opinion of the work.

But I think it's a chance that should be taken, given that the author put him/herself out there first. All a reviewer is being asked to do is respond to the author's effort. After all, if you took the time to read it, telling the author you did so won't hurt.

[Danyealle]

Gonna add this here... another factor depends on the age of the fandom. The older fandoms (Inuyasha falls in here as it's an older anime and the manga is done-it'll probably see some resurgence when The Final Act finally finishes being dubbed and hits TV in the states but won't last long) don't get the reviews, period. They have their die hard fans but are not the 'trending' fandoms where people congregate and leave a multitude of reviews. This goes for most sites when it comes to the older fandoms, not just AFF. It also depends on the size of the fandom. The smaller ones get very little 'love'.

As Rogue said, it's a trend across all sites with this but will add that you're lucky to get what you do. I post on a couple sites that make AFF look like the Garden of Eden for reviews. They get hits, likes, follows, whatever you want to call fav'ing but no reviews and that's how it is for all authors there. So, just keep that in mind. It might not be a massive amount you get but as long as you get one or two it's better than so many stories on other archives or even excellent ones in the small archives here on AFF

To expound on something Rogue said... so many authors have actually seriously hurt the review counts of others by tantruming, throwing fits, review whoring and other appalling things that many are afraid to review for fear that they will be on the receiving end of such things. We see this all the time working in the archive and in other places. So people aren't going to 'put it out there' and have someone and their fans attack them (yes, that happens quite a bit, more than most authors realize).

There are many other factors involved but those are the big ones and my thoughts on them...

[DemonGoddess]

My personal favorite are the stories which are utter trash and get loads of reviews. Why? Because all the authors "buddies" review to up the count. Are the reviews meaningful? Nope, not at all. In those stories, you'd be LUCKY to see actual concrit that either hasn't been deleted by the author, or caused an attack of the reviewer by the author and his or her little friends .

When I go through the archive looking to actually read something in a fanworld I'm unfamiliar with, I'm more likely to read something with many hits and little or no reviews, than to read something with smaller hits/reviews ratio.

When I actually have the time to read, I do leave a review.

[LockedBox]

They've gone the same way as the art feedback my friend, though I was never really around when the feedback was plentiful

I have to say that I am guilty of read and running as I like to call it. I just don't know what to say, and just saying "I liked this" feels cheap and unnecessary to me. If a story has no reviews or if there is something that stands out as bad or especially good then I'll usually give it a go, but most of the time I can never think of anything worth saying.

[BronxWench]

I rarely have time to read beyond my work in the archives these days, but I do try to leave even just a line to let the author know I was there. If I don't have time for an in-depth review, I try to comment on something that stood out, such as deft characterization or vivid imagery.

[RogueMudblood]

I have to say that I am guilty of read and running as I like to call it. I just don't know what to say, and just saying "I liked this" feels cheap and unnecessary to me. If a story has no reviews or if there is something that stands out as bad or especially good then I'll usually give it a go, but most of the time I can never think of anything worth saying.

I've seen a lot of author's profiles that state that even the "good job" reviews are welcome - it at least lets them know they're on the right track. But it is hard to know what to say - especially on those completed stories that you find two or three years after the fact.

I rarely have time to read beyond my work in the archives these days, but I do try to leave even just a line to let the author know I was there. If I don't have time for an in-depth review, I try to comment on something that stood out, such as deft characterization or vivid imagery.

And that I think is all that most authors want. What prompted you to read that piece out of the 40 or 50 thousand other links you could have clicked, and since you did read it, what did you like/dislike about the story?

My personal favorite are the stories which are utter trash and get loads of reviews. Why? Because all the authors "buddies" review to up the count. Are the reviews meaningful? Nope, not at all. In those stories, you'd be LUCKY to see actual concrit that either hasn't been deleted by the author, or caused an attack of the reviewer by the author and his or her little friends .

This is one of the things that personally irritates me to no end. And like Dany said, all it takes is one time of being ganged up on and it turns the reader off of reviewing. Especially in that fandom. And if that's the only fandom that the person is familiar with or wants to read in, then they're not going to review.

[botticelliangel]

This was helpful. I got to let off some steam, and have reminders about the many factors that go into the lack of author support. I hear what everyone's saying, and DANG it's still so frustruating.

Danyealle, I agree that the age of the fandom does impact the reviews. I kinda figured it would when I started reposting. *Shrugs* I have a hard time getting into other fan areas. I've only written fanfictions for two things in my life: Beast Wars, and Inuyasha... and that should tell you just about how often I get into a television show.

I guess this is going to be one of those "it is what it is" things. And I am still going to try to review when I can.

Ty everyone for talking about it!

[BronxWench]

::grins:: I write Games fanfics, specifically Neverwinter Nights 2 and Dragon Age. I haven't branched into any other fandoms myself, although I do write Originals as well.

[sumeragichan]

To be honest. I'll leave a review when I feel I have some thing constructive to input. Whether it be on the Board thread or the review page. A lot of times, I have trouble arranging it in my head, so I'll do the vote thing if I liked the story.

There are people like me on this, probably a lot of us. We'll promote our stories (hits boost our itty bitty egos), but we'll write regardless of reviews. Sometimes... Some reviews make you think no reviews are better... Just sometimes. XD

[Lisbet_Adair]

I think if you write for a niche fandom, you're not going to have many reviews. I realised that when I started off on here, writing for a niche fandom myself.

Lately, I've made a point of reviewing new OC stuff on the promote a story board and today I reviewed something that was not within a fandom I was familiar with, which is branching out. I feel that if I post my own stuff on here and would like constructive criticism, I have a duty to provide others with the same service (as much as time allows). And I have enjoyed a lot of the OC stuff.

[BronxWench]

::nods:: I try to read outside the fandoms I write when I can. Most of my reading time lately is taken up by moderating in the archive, but hopefully I can squeeze in a read or two.

But it is true that when you write for a niche fandom, like I myself do, reviews will be even fewer. That makes the reviews I do get even more cherished, especially if the reviewer has taken the time to offer me some helpful criticism or even to let me know what worked.