Nothin' But Memes
There's this meme going around now where if you have stories archived on AO3, you sort them by hit count and see what you can see about what's most popular.
My top ten are:
"Upholding the Laws of Time" (Doctor Who/Calvin & Hobbes): Yes, I've said it before. This tiny little ficlet that I dashed off in, I don't know, maybe 20 minutes in response to some "I'm bored, give me a prompt" challenge is far and away the most popular thing I've ever written. It must have just gotten recced again somewhere, too, because the last couple of days, I've been getting an avalanche of kudos on it. I can't help finding this almost more amusing than anything.
"Does the Doctor Know Where His Towel Is?" (Doctor Who/HHGTG): This one doesn't really surprise me. Who is a huge fandom, after all, and even if Hitchhiker's, in itself, isn't, it's one everybody knows. And it's a fun little fic thingy, if I do say so, possibly even the sort of humor piece that people who don't usually read fic might read.
"Every Bodyguard Loves Somebody Sometime" (Venture Bros.): OK, this one surprises me! Maybe not all that much, because it's a Yuletide story, and Yuletide stories get lots and lots of hits; even people who don't know the fandom will read them as part of the Yuletide craziness. But why does this one beat the other Venture Bros. story I wrote for the same Yuletide, which, unlike this one, actually got several recs? I'm wondering how many of those hits are mine, actually, as I recall obsessively revisiting this one to tweak it before the archive went live.
"The Start of a Beautiful Something" (Futurama): Also Yuletide, and this one did get a few recs, mostly of them along the lines of "OMG, the pairing (uh, threesome) actually works!"
"Eclipsing Binary" (Doctor Who): Dark, porny, and somewhat twisted Doctor/Master slash. Not the sort of thing I write that much anymore, actually, but there sure is an audience for it! Not surprised it makes the top ten; it's always been one of my most popular fics on Teaspoon. I try not to feel embarrassed about that.
"Dance in the Snow (The Chiana Was Here Remix)" (Farscape): This one does surprise me. Aww, it's nice to see it on here, though. I'm rather fond of it; I think it's one of the more successful remixes I've done.
"It's the Thought" (Venture Bros.): Aforementioned other VB story I wrote for Yuletide last year. It was tossed off very quickly as a pinch hit, but seems to have been well received, which is nice.
"Consummate" (Farscape): Wow, Scorpius/Braca smut? Really? Well, I guess, again, the slash is always popular, and people looking for Scorpy/Braca probably don't have a whole lot of options to choose from.
"Res-Q" (Farscape/ST:TNG): Humorous, mildly plotty crossover story. Readers have always seemed to like this one a bit better than I do, actually, but, hey, Q is always fun.
"Glossophilia" (Doctor Who): More Doctor/Master, this time a tiny thing written for a kink meme, although it's really not kinky at all. This one, I think, appeals to people who are interested in both Doctor/Master and language, which, pleasantly, turns out to be more people than I would have expected. It's probably one of the stories on which I've gotten the most feedback on LJ, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised it makes the list.
So, what does all this tell us? Fandom likes humor, smut, slash, and Yuletide, and how much time and effort you put into something has very little relation to how many people read it or how much they like it. All of which I knew already.
Although, really, I should point out that the top two there are well over a thousand hits (!!), but after that there's a huge jump, and everything else in the list is clustered pretty close together, and there's no significant gap between number ten and what would have been number eleven.
Out of curiosity, I also looked at my least read stories, and they seem to involve mostly Blake's 7, the less popular Farscape characters, and Nyssa.
My top ten are:
"Upholding the Laws of Time" (Doctor Who/Calvin & Hobbes): Yes, I've said it before. This tiny little ficlet that I dashed off in, I don't know, maybe 20 minutes in response to some "I'm bored, give me a prompt" challenge is far and away the most popular thing I've ever written. It must have just gotten recced again somewhere, too, because the last couple of days, I've been getting an avalanche of kudos on it. I can't help finding this almost more amusing than anything.
"Does the Doctor Know Where His Towel Is?" (Doctor Who/HHGTG): This one doesn't really surprise me. Who is a huge fandom, after all, and even if Hitchhiker's, in itself, isn't, it's one everybody knows. And it's a fun little fic thingy, if I do say so, possibly even the sort of humor piece that people who don't usually read fic might read.
"Every Bodyguard Loves Somebody Sometime" (Venture Bros.): OK, this one surprises me! Maybe not all that much, because it's a Yuletide story, and Yuletide stories get lots and lots of hits; even people who don't know the fandom will read them as part of the Yuletide craziness. But why does this one beat the other Venture Bros. story I wrote for the same Yuletide, which, unlike this one, actually got several recs? I'm wondering how many of those hits are mine, actually, as I recall obsessively revisiting this one to tweak it before the archive went live.
"The Start of a Beautiful Something" (Futurama): Also Yuletide, and this one did get a few recs, mostly of them along the lines of "OMG, the pairing (uh, threesome) actually works!"
"Eclipsing Binary" (Doctor Who): Dark, porny, and somewhat twisted Doctor/Master slash. Not the sort of thing I write that much anymore, actually, but there sure is an audience for it! Not surprised it makes the top ten; it's always been one of my most popular fics on Teaspoon. I try not to feel embarrassed about that.
"Dance in the Snow (The Chiana Was Here Remix)" (Farscape): This one does surprise me. Aww, it's nice to see it on here, though. I'm rather fond of it; I think it's one of the more successful remixes I've done.
"It's the Thought" (Venture Bros.): Aforementioned other VB story I wrote for Yuletide last year. It was tossed off very quickly as a pinch hit, but seems to have been well received, which is nice.
"Consummate" (Farscape): Wow, Scorpius/Braca smut? Really? Well, I guess, again, the slash is always popular, and people looking for Scorpy/Braca probably don't have a whole lot of options to choose from.
"Res-Q" (Farscape/ST:TNG): Humorous, mildly plotty crossover story. Readers have always seemed to like this one a bit better than I do, actually, but, hey, Q is always fun.
"Glossophilia" (Doctor Who): More Doctor/Master, this time a tiny thing written for a kink meme, although it's really not kinky at all. This one, I think, appeals to people who are interested in both Doctor/Master and language, which, pleasantly, turns out to be more people than I would have expected. It's probably one of the stories on which I've gotten the most feedback on LJ, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised it makes the list.
So, what does all this tell us? Fandom likes humor, smut, slash, and Yuletide, and how much time and effort you put into something has very little relation to how many people read it or how much they like it. All of which I knew already.
Although, really, I should point out that the top two there are well over a thousand hits (!!), but after that there's a huge jump, and everything else in the list is clustered pretty close together, and there's no significant gap between number ten and what would have been number eleven.
Out of curiosity, I also looked at my least read stories, and they seem to involve mostly Blake's 7, the less popular Farscape characters, and Nyssa.