Takeaways from the Poll
Our big poll is still open, and it will continue to be open for the foreseeable future! But now that we've had it going for a week, we feel good about crunching some numbers and sharing the results. Here are the bits and things we learned we thought would be of most interest to readers and contributors alike.
And yes, it's a long post, but there's pictures!
Finding Us
(I'm putting this one above a cut because there seems to be a lot of confusion on this point.)
You can find Shousetsu Bang*Bang at LiveJournal, our main website, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, DeviantArt, y!gallery, Archive of Our Own, and GoodReads! Some of those are officially maintained, some are coordinated by fans of the project, some are groups creators can opt into, and some (mostly Facebook) exist only to point the way to more active locations, but all are connected to the project.
We also have an announcements newsletter -- in fact, we have three! There's the general one, and then if you scroll down a bit, you can also sign up for the artist- and author-specific lists. They don't contain any secret information; you're just more likely to get deadline reminders that way.
We're still in the process of building our wiki, too. While that's not a good place for up-to-the-minute notifications, archives don't get much better than that. This is a community-based project, too, so please consider coming and adding your knowledge to the pile.
We try to cross-post all major information, but that doesn't always happen, so following us in a couple places is always a good idea.
What gets read?
Things Readers Like
Here are the things that many readers said help them decide which stories to read -- and can encourage them to read things they might otherwise have skipped.
Things Readers Dislike
Sure, different strokes for different folks -- one person's nightmare is another's bulletproof kink, and nearly every story element one person said would make them stop reading, another person said they wished we had more of. There were, however, some more specific structural things readers said would make them bail out of a story before reaching its conclusion:
On Summaries
Officially, we don't and won't; we're sticking to our guns on this one.
Unofficially, however, that's why we have the wiki. We know people want summaries, and this is the best way we can deliver. We're working on getting a page for every story, and those pages all have room for summaries as long as anyone could possibly want to make them.
Now here's the hitch with this approach: You've got to do it. (Or at least someone on the user end does.) You can write them for your own stories, or you can write them for someone else's -- we welcome both! If you're one of our brave readers that reads every single story (which is actually, according to the poll, at least a quarter of you), we're asking you very nicely to help your more cautious fellows out. It can be anything from a vague sentence to a detailed recap, as you like.
Same applies to content warnings. Except in very specific cases, we will not issue official warnings for stories, and we will never issue one without the author's desire we do so. However, if you think there's content in a story worth alerting your fellow readers about, wiki away! And don't just take this as an opportunity to warn people away from -- think of it also as warning them, hey, don't miss the thing in this story you might like!
On Commenting
Here's the bottom line: Authors who don't get feedback stop writing.
That's not just my suspicion; that's feedback from a lot of former contributors. It's not the only reason they quit contributing to SSBB, but it's an oft-heard one. Regardless of whether or not you think they should, they do.
99% of authors follow their feedback. Okay, that's not a super-scientific number, but damn near every contributor indicated that they track comments on LJ and/or the website. If you think your feedback is going into the ether, you're probably mistaken. Of course not everyone responds, but there are several reasons for that, ranging from technological restrictions to real-life obligations to a strong desire for anonymity. A few writers even mentioned having to work up the nerve to go read comments on their work in the first place, much less answer them.
Authors don't even have to go back and check individual pages -- if you've got a LiveJournal account, you can set it so you get an email every time someone comments on an entry. You can do the same on our website, and you don't even need an account. Speaking personally, I still get comment notifications on stories from eight years ago.
Some people just don't leave comments and never will. Of the people who've expressed that sentiment, they're about equally hampered by shyness, hamstrung by technology, and disinclined to leave comments if they think no one will read them. If you want to say something to a creator and you don't want anyone else to see, send it to us by email or put it anonymously in our Tumblr ask box, and we'll pass it on privately!
Several people have said that they'd be more encouraged to leave feedback if the authors responded. However, looking back over the last several years' worth of issues, it doesn't seem to me there's a measurable difference in feedback left on stories where the author responds to every comment and stories where the author doesn't respond to a single comment. Even so, if you're an author who doesn't generally leave responses to comments, you might consider starting. (You'll have to get up the nerve to read them first, though.)
A few people expressed the desire for more conversation. To that, we've put together a GoodReads group. It only covers the authors and stories that are listed on GoodReads, but it's very easy to add both. We've even started a weekly group read, where we read and discuss a different story by a different author every week!
Do you want to become better about leaving/responding to comments? Do you want a comment buddy? Leave comments to this post and find someone that you can mutually remind and encourage! A surprising number of people mentioned something like this, in fact, so the need is real! (And it's always nice to make new friends who enjoy the same porn you do.)
Several people indicated that they leave comments offsite, which is great for signal boosting to new audiences. However, authors and regular readers don't often know those sites exist, so consider either adding the link to your review to the wiki page for the story or leaving a link in comments! Many people would appreciate it.
And of course, we have our little green hearts on our website! They function like AO3's 'kudos', and though most creators won't see them, the top submissions lists help readers decide what to read. Many, many people said they'd like something like that, and if you're one of those people, you're in luck! We would put them on LiveJournal too, but there is literally no way to make it work, because of the way LJ disallows scripts.
What could be done to encourage you to leave more/any feedback for creators?
A better format than LJ.
That's why we've got comments enabled on the website! A lot of people like Disqus better, and you can log in with several IDs from other social media sites.
If there were some sort of link to their social media accounts that I happened to frequent.
Update your wiki pages, folks! This is a good place to note, however, that we on the editorial staff won't put anyone's contact information on the wiki; it is up to individuals how anonymous they want to be.
A mention about leaving comments in that little 'get in the mood' paragraph on each issue.
I try not to harp on it because I know it gets annoying, but I swear, it's in every patter text I do, one way or another. Cross my heart.
Of course, part of the problem with anonymity is that we can't privately answer questions or address concerns. So we've tried to respond to some of them here!
Participation
Future contributors, what would help entice you to participate?
Maybe a newbie guide
That's a great idea. We've got our Quick Answers, but participants, what else do you wish someone had told you beforehand?
make info on deadlines and issue themes easier to find - as in, stupidly easy "It's right there in broad daylight."
We've revamped the front of our Tumblr page to reflect that, and of course, they're always second from the top at s2b2. We announce a year's themes around August of the year before, so if you like planning ahead, rest assured that we do too.
Maybe if I can submit a story a month before it's intended publishing to get better feedback?
You can submit a story whenever. I have inbox folders tagged a year in advance. If you're done with something, send it in! It also helps if you specify the level of feedback you want from me -- my general level is pretty mild critique, but say the word and I'll tear right in!
Especially kind anti-ESL-betaing.
There are plenty of SSBB authors who are not first-language English speakers, and I'm always impressed by that. If you're concerned about English-language skills, email us and we'll be glad both to be helpful and to get you in touch with some fantastic -- and fantastically gentle -- beta-readers.
I've always wanted to contribute but feeling like I have to break through the in-crowd barrier has always stopped me.
Oh no! While it is true we have some regulars (and irregulars), we have at least one first-time author nearly every issue, and we adore new participants. We run 99% of the stories that arrive in our inbox, too, so please don't think we sneer at anything just because we don't recognize a contributor's email address. As far as issues are concerned, what you see is what we get. If you have any concerns about submitting, do get in touch! I will do everything short of coming to your house with pompoms and a short skirt.
I'd be much more likely to contribute if I could do something in the 7K range.
7000 sounds great! Our word count requirements are between 1500 and 23,000 words, and honestly, coming in under 11,000 is easier on us, HTML-wise.
I might participate again if I can submit under a new pseudonym?
Sure! Part of the reason we strongly encourage people to keep the same pseudonym is that every time someone changes an existing one, we have to go back and change all the pages and tags, and that's a royal pain. However, if you just want to start fresh, go ahead! We've had at least one person do that in recent memory, and that's fine by us.
more partner projects
I don't know what that means, but it sounds intriguing! Partnering with other individuals or other sites?
Odds and Ends
Would prefer a dedicated website to host the mag instead of LJ.
Have we got good news for you!
Is there a way to offer beta-services to the contributors through means other than LJ?
Yes! While you can always leave anonymous comments to LJ posts, you can also put offers in our Tumblr ask box and we'll reblog them.
More searchable or indexed by keywords would be great.
The wiki is fully searchable and we're trying to curate rec lists for precisely this purpose. We don't put official keywords on ourselves, though, because we don't want to tag a story with something the author wouldn't want on there.
I wish you posted the issue covers and accompanying issue line-up all together on tumblr
We don't quite do this, but we do post each issue cover on Tumblr when the issue goes live, then post individual stories throughout the day. If there's enough of a call for it, though, we could definitely switch to this format.
It would be great if you did ebook versions of the individual stories instead of the entire issue
You can get those! Go to the website, find the story you like, go down to just above the comment form, and click the option to let you save as .pdf! It's not the prettiest auto-formatting, but it's perfectly functional.
I wonder what would be a good way to "check out" newer authors in a short amount of time--maybe highlight their favorite short story in the author link?
I like that idea -- and again, the wiki would be the perfect place for authors to add that information to their own pages.
Can the Livejournal issues link to the website version?
The only problem I see with this is that the LJ issues publish on Monday and the website issues publish on Wednesday, so when the LJ issues go live, the website pages don't yet exist. New issues will always go up first at http://www.shousetsubangbang.com/mirror/current-issue/, though, so I can definitely put a link to that.
I was wondering if artists might have a little section (on their wiki maybe) where they can say a little about their basic drawing preferences. Sometimes I worry about approaching an artist with a story that contains common squick elements. On the flipside it could be useful to know that artist A loves drawing things related to topic B, etc.
Artists, you might consider adding this!
AO3 is so frequented by readers that I wonder if SSBB could find another home there.
A lot of people have brought up AO3, which is wonderful for individual creators, and just not what we're looking for in terms of this project. We'd have problems posting stories under several hundred different pseudonyms, some authors have already uploaded their work there, and it lacks the issue announcement capabilities we've got with LJ.
Is there a button for 'share this by email'?
Your wish is our command! You can find it on the website.
if the Artist Specials were free for alls that allowed just about anything--f/f, m/m, trans and nonbinary stuff--I would be very happy.
That is something we've been pondering, though (especially in light of the poll answers earlier) we're not sure if that would increase or decrease participation and readership. Any opinions?
when you guys gonna get with the times and get a myspace, yo.
My Win95 machine is too slow to handle that much autoplay, dogg.
I like W2's dogs. There should be mandatory puppies in each issue!
Careful, don't tempt me into instituting a Draconian Puppy Policy.
And of course, the ever-frustrating Impossible Binaries
And most importantly, thank you for all the compliments and kind words! You guys are so sweet. This is a project we love, and it's always nice to hear from other people who love it too. We appreciate all the support and feedback so we can make SSBB better for everyone!
And yes, it's a long post, but there's pictures!
Finding Us
(I'm putting this one above a cut because there seems to be a lot of confusion on this point.)
You can find Shousetsu Bang*Bang at LiveJournal, our main website, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, DeviantArt, y!gallery, Archive of Our Own, and GoodReads! Some of those are officially maintained, some are coordinated by fans of the project, some are groups creators can opt into, and some (mostly Facebook) exist only to point the way to more active locations, but all are connected to the project.
We also have an announcements newsletter -- in fact, we have three! There's the general one, and then if you scroll down a bit, you can also sign up for the artist- and author-specific lists. They don't contain any secret information; you're just more likely to get deadline reminders that way.
We're still in the process of building our wiki, too. While that's not a good place for up-to-the-minute notifications, archives don't get much better than that. This is a community-based project, too, so please consider coming and adding your knowledge to the pile.
We try to cross-post all major information, but that doesn't always happen, so following us in a couple places is always a good idea.
What gets read?
Things Readers Like
Here are the things that many readers said help them decide which stories to read -- and can encourage them to read things they might otherwise have skipped.
- Stories by authors they know. Unfortunately, there's only so much you can do about that -- but the more you submit, the more likely you are to be recognized next time around.
- Illustrations. If you can work with an artist, work with an artist! The collaboration process can be a lot of fun, and pretty pictures are a draw (pun unintended).
- A gripping start. Most readers say they can tell by a few paragraphs in whether or not it's something they want to keep reading. That's why we put the start of each story above the cut on s2b2.
- Interesting titles. Of course, what makes a title 'interesting' is wholly subjective, but being creative can help you here.
- Stories with lots of comments already. Again, that's not a thing you can control as an author, but it's an important thing for commenters to keep in mind -- if you like a story, leaving a comment, no matter how small, is often an indicator to other readers that a particular story is worth their time.
- Recommendations. Once more, not something authors can do a whole lot about, but also important for other readers to keep in mind.
- Summaries. We'll talk about that in a minute.
Things Readers Dislike
Sure, different strokes for different folks -- one person's nightmare is another's bulletproof kink, and nearly every story element one person said would make them stop reading, another person said they wished we had more of. There were, however, some more specific structural things readers said would make them bail out of a story before reaching its conclusion:
- A dull intro.
- Poor description.
- Obvious cultural misrepresentation/fetishization.
- Telling instead of showing.
- Unnecessarily convoluted plots.
- Lack of internal consistency.
- Flat characterization.
- Unnatural, stilted, and/or hokey dialogue.
- Cliché -- though I want to nuance this a bit and say, hey, cliché is what SSBB was built for! But if you're going for tried-and-trite old tropes, the burden is on you to make them new and interesting.
On Summaries
Officially, we don't and won't; we're sticking to our guns on this one.
Unofficially, however, that's why we have the wiki. We know people want summaries, and this is the best way we can deliver. We're working on getting a page for every story, and those pages all have room for summaries as long as anyone could possibly want to make them.
Now here's the hitch with this approach: You've got to do it. (Or at least someone on the user end does.) You can write them for your own stories, or you can write them for someone else's -- we welcome both! If you're one of our brave readers that reads every single story (which is actually, according to the poll, at least a quarter of you), we're asking you very nicely to help your more cautious fellows out. It can be anything from a vague sentence to a detailed recap, as you like.
Same applies to content warnings. Except in very specific cases, we will not issue official warnings for stories, and we will never issue one without the author's desire we do so. However, if you think there's content in a story worth alerting your fellow readers about, wiki away! And don't just take this as an opportunity to warn people away from -- think of it also as warning them, hey, don't miss the thing in this story you might like!
On Commenting
Here's the bottom line: Authors who don't get feedback stop writing.
That's not just my suspicion; that's feedback from a lot of former contributors. It's not the only reason they quit contributing to SSBB, but it's an oft-heard one. Regardless of whether or not you think they should, they do.
99% of authors follow their feedback. Okay, that's not a super-scientific number, but damn near every contributor indicated that they track comments on LJ and/or the website. If you think your feedback is going into the ether, you're probably mistaken. Of course not everyone responds, but there are several reasons for that, ranging from technological restrictions to real-life obligations to a strong desire for anonymity. A few writers even mentioned having to work up the nerve to go read comments on their work in the first place, much less answer them.
Authors don't even have to go back and check individual pages -- if you've got a LiveJournal account, you can set it so you get an email every time someone comments on an entry. You can do the same on our website, and you don't even need an account. Speaking personally, I still get comment notifications on stories from eight years ago.
Some people just don't leave comments and never will. Of the people who've expressed that sentiment, they're about equally hampered by shyness, hamstrung by technology, and disinclined to leave comments if they think no one will read them. If you want to say something to a creator and you don't want anyone else to see, send it to us by email or put it anonymously in our Tumblr ask box, and we'll pass it on privately!
Several people have said that they'd be more encouraged to leave feedback if the authors responded. However, looking back over the last several years' worth of issues, it doesn't seem to me there's a measurable difference in feedback left on stories where the author responds to every comment and stories where the author doesn't respond to a single comment. Even so, if you're an author who doesn't generally leave responses to comments, you might consider starting. (You'll have to get up the nerve to read them first, though.)
A few people expressed the desire for more conversation. To that, we've put together a GoodReads group. It only covers the authors and stories that are listed on GoodReads, but it's very easy to add both. We've even started a weekly group read, where we read and discuss a different story by a different author every week!
Do you want to become better about leaving/responding to comments? Do you want a comment buddy? Leave comments to this post and find someone that you can mutually remind and encourage! A surprising number of people mentioned something like this, in fact, so the need is real! (And it's always nice to make new friends who enjoy the same porn you do.)
Several people indicated that they leave comments offsite, which is great for signal boosting to new audiences. However, authors and regular readers don't often know those sites exist, so consider either adding the link to your review to the wiki page for the story or leaving a link in comments! Many people would appreciate it.
And of course, we have our little green hearts on our website! They function like AO3's 'kudos', and though most creators won't see them, the top submissions lists help readers decide what to read. Many, many people said they'd like something like that, and if you're one of those people, you're in luck! We would put them on LiveJournal too, but there is literally no way to make it work, because of the way LJ disallows scripts.
What could be done to encourage you to leave more/any feedback for creators?
A better format than LJ.
That's why we've got comments enabled on the website! A lot of people like Disqus better, and you can log in with several IDs from other social media sites.
If there were some sort of link to their social media accounts that I happened to frequent.
Update your wiki pages, folks! This is a good place to note, however, that we on the editorial staff won't put anyone's contact information on the wiki; it is up to individuals how anonymous they want to be.
A mention about leaving comments in that little 'get in the mood' paragraph on each issue.
I try not to harp on it because I know it gets annoying, but I swear, it's in every patter text I do, one way or another. Cross my heart.
Of course, part of the problem with anonymity is that we can't privately answer questions or address concerns. So we've tried to respond to some of them here!
Participation
Future contributors, what would help entice you to participate?
Maybe a newbie guide
That's a great idea. We've got our Quick Answers, but participants, what else do you wish someone had told you beforehand?
make info on deadlines and issue themes easier to find - as in, stupidly easy "It's right there in broad daylight."
We've revamped the front of our Tumblr page to reflect that, and of course, they're always second from the top at s2b2. We announce a year's themes around August of the year before, so if you like planning ahead, rest assured that we do too.
Maybe if I can submit a story a month before it's intended publishing to get better feedback?
You can submit a story whenever. I have inbox folders tagged a year in advance. If you're done with something, send it in! It also helps if you specify the level of feedback you want from me -- my general level is pretty mild critique, but say the word and I'll tear right in!
Especially kind anti-ESL-betaing.
There are plenty of SSBB authors who are not first-language English speakers, and I'm always impressed by that. If you're concerned about English-language skills, email us and we'll be glad both to be helpful and to get you in touch with some fantastic -- and fantastically gentle -- beta-readers.
I've always wanted to contribute but feeling like I have to break through the in-crowd barrier has always stopped me.
Oh no! While it is true we have some regulars (and irregulars), we have at least one first-time author nearly every issue, and we adore new participants. We run 99% of the stories that arrive in our inbox, too, so please don't think we sneer at anything just because we don't recognize a contributor's email address. As far as issues are concerned, what you see is what we get. If you have any concerns about submitting, do get in touch! I will do everything short of coming to your house with pompoms and a short skirt.
I'd be much more likely to contribute if I could do something in the 7K range.
7000 sounds great! Our word count requirements are between 1500 and 23,000 words, and honestly, coming in under 11,000 is easier on us, HTML-wise.
I might participate again if I can submit under a new pseudonym?
Sure! Part of the reason we strongly encourage people to keep the same pseudonym is that every time someone changes an existing one, we have to go back and change all the pages and tags, and that's a royal pain. However, if you just want to start fresh, go ahead! We've had at least one person do that in recent memory, and that's fine by us.
more partner projects
I don't know what that means, but it sounds intriguing! Partnering with other individuals or other sites?
Odds and Ends
Would prefer a dedicated website to host the mag instead of LJ.
Have we got good news for you!
Is there a way to offer beta-services to the contributors through means other than LJ?
Yes! While you can always leave anonymous comments to LJ posts, you can also put offers in our Tumblr ask box and we'll reblog them.
More searchable or indexed by keywords would be great.
The wiki is fully searchable and we're trying to curate rec lists for precisely this purpose. We don't put official keywords on ourselves, though, because we don't want to tag a story with something the author wouldn't want on there.
I wish you posted the issue covers and accompanying issue line-up all together on tumblr
We don't quite do this, but we do post each issue cover on Tumblr when the issue goes live, then post individual stories throughout the day. If there's enough of a call for it, though, we could definitely switch to this format.
It would be great if you did ebook versions of the individual stories instead of the entire issue
You can get those! Go to the website, find the story you like, go down to just above the comment form, and click the option to let you save as .pdf! It's not the prettiest auto-formatting, but it's perfectly functional.
I wonder what would be a good way to "check out" newer authors in a short amount of time--maybe highlight their favorite short story in the author link?
I like that idea -- and again, the wiki would be the perfect place for authors to add that information to their own pages.
Can the Livejournal issues link to the website version?
The only problem I see with this is that the LJ issues publish on Monday and the website issues publish on Wednesday, so when the LJ issues go live, the website pages don't yet exist. New issues will always go up first at http://www.shousetsubangbang.com/mirror/current-issue/, though, so I can definitely put a link to that.
I was wondering if artists might have a little section (on their wiki maybe) where they can say a little about their basic drawing preferences. Sometimes I worry about approaching an artist with a story that contains common squick elements. On the flipside it could be useful to know that artist A loves drawing things related to topic B, etc.
Artists, you might consider adding this!
AO3 is so frequented by readers that I wonder if SSBB could find another home there.
A lot of people have brought up AO3, which is wonderful for individual creators, and just not what we're looking for in terms of this project. We'd have problems posting stories under several hundred different pseudonyms, some authors have already uploaded their work there, and it lacks the issue announcement capabilities we've got with LJ.
Is there a button for 'share this by email'?
Your wish is our command! You can find it on the website.
if the Artist Specials were free for alls that allowed just about anything--f/f, m/m, trans and nonbinary stuff--I would be very happy.
That is something we've been pondering, though (especially in light of the poll answers earlier) we're not sure if that would increase or decrease participation and readership. Any opinions?
when you guys gonna get with the times and get a myspace, yo.
My Win95 machine is too slow to handle that much autoplay, dogg.
I like W2's dogs. There should be mandatory puppies in each issue!
Careful, don't tempt me into instituting a Draconian Puppy Policy.
And of course, the ever-frustrating Impossible Binaries
And most importantly, thank you for all the compliments and kind words! You guys are so sweet. This is a project we love, and it's always nice to hear from other people who love it too. We appreciate all the support and feedback so we can make SSBB better for everyone!