Poll Results for Creative Writer Readership and Changes Being Made
Poll Results for Creative Writer Readership and Changes Being Made
There were two polls taken. One poll was posted to Creative Writer and another poll was posted to my personal journal. I have combined both for the results.
People who are members of communities are 23 to 19 comparatively as having fewer ten communities on their friends page (23) or having more than ten communities on their friends page (19). What this means to you the writer is while a higher percentage does not have community after community to wade through on their friends page, there is still a high percentage (45%) that do. This means the writer on Creative Writer has to compete with all of the other communities being read. Keep this in mind if you want to have feed back on your individual posts. You are competing for attention.
69% of the people who took the poll read all of their communities from their friends page. Only 30% read from the actual community. Since seven out of ten people who have communities read from their friends pages, consideration taken to keep their friends pages readable is up to our community. We lost a member last week due to this - Creative Writer has not moderated appropriate etiquette in consideration to the reader.
We have always tried to keep Creative Writer as free as possible and up to the writer to post their pieces the way they feel they would be read the best - we are working against ourselves. Friends page etiquette will now be held as part of the moderation queue.
54% of those polled stated they prefer any post longer than their screen (approximately 25 lines)to be placed behind an lj cut. 38% prefer posts longer than one paragraph placed behind an LJ cut. There was one request stating that because of the mode of computer usage she has, she cannot open lj cuts. I’m not really sure how we can help here. There are many many pieces that are way too long to be without a cut. The moderation we are going to put into place is that poetry longer than 25 lines will have to be placed behind a cut - up to the writer as to where the piece is cut as long as it is before the 25th line. Story work will need to be cut after the first paragraph. I HIGHLY suggest to you to cut it AFTER the first paragraph and write a GOOD first paragraph to ensure readership. We will be rejecting and asking to resubmit posts with lj cuts from this point forward.
42 people took our poll collectively. Out of 42, 23 stated that they read some of the posts in their communities if they appear to be interesting. 56% skim their friends pages and breeze over posts that do not interest them. They read what catches their attention. For the writers of Creative Writer, a GOOD TITLE to your piece will catch interest at a moments notice. It needs to be big enough and bold enough to stand out. Placing the title in the subject line will go a long way here.
Only 29% of the people who took the poll will go back and try to catch up on missed posts in a community. Please keep in mind that 30% actually read their communities from the actual community, so this suggests that most of the people that read from the communities will go back to catch up on (interesting) posts they have missed. It is unlikely that the people who read from their friends pages will do this. In this I will suggest that if you do not receive a reply on a piece you have written, you may consider deleting the original post after two weeks has passed and repost the piece to see if you get feed back the second time. I will ask as the moderator to please at the end of the post put ‘second posting’ and date of original post. You are welcome to remove the marker after it has passed moderation review. This will keep me from duping the work load. This is only if you have not received ANY replies to the original post.
When asked what people reply to, we received some interesting results: 59 respond to and interesting post. 11% reply to a quick read post, 61% reply IF they have something to say. 14% reply if they know the person who posted the piece, 47% reply if the piece relates DIRECTLY to them. ALL of these statistics are important. The more the writer connects to the reader on as many of these reasons as possible; the better chances the writer will receive a reply from the reader. A quick read does not necessarily mean short, it can mean that it does not fight the reader to be understood. Use language that is easy to manage for the reader. If it is short piece of prose, the language can be more complicated, but longer short stories or novel work that is difficult to read and understand probably will not be read much less replied to. Relating a piece directly to the reader does not necessarily mean to write about what one specific person you don’t know in relations to THEIR life. It means writing what they would like to read. The reader is going to read the genre they are interested in written on subjects they are interested in. Writing true will give them things they can relate to. In saying, there ARE ways of writing directly to the reader - but increasing the number of readers you are writing directly to. Building friendships here on Creative Writer, replying to other writers and getting to know them increases your chances of receiving replies as well. Your friendships that you build can go off of Creative Writer and to your own friends pages. Simply said, if you want a friend, be a friend, if you want replies, reply to others and build those relationships. We at Creative Writer are planning to post more interactive posts to help people get to know each other. Hopefully we will start this within the next week or two.
Specific to a writing community replies: 52% stated they would reply if the reader enjoys the piece the read. Only 16% will tell you if they didn’t enjoy the piece, and 40% will try to critique the piece.
45% stated that they do not reply to community posts MOST of the time. 38% sited that they post only when they have time, and usually they do not. Only 14% stated they post when they have time, and usually they do have time. What this means is that time is valuable to the people who read their communities, but you will have to REALLY EARN that reply. It will go back to what’s in it for them, because frankly they don’t have time to reply if it isn’t something pressing or important enough to give up their time for. Your posts have to REALLY count. They have to be something that the reader HAS to reply to, or it’s going to bug them all day long. The encouraging thing is that they are READING. They just aren’t replying. I have no problem with posts being posted with a poll down at the bottom that simply says “I read this - yes/no” if you would like to find out how many people read your work. But be aware, that if someone was GOING to reply to tell you how much they liked your piece, they may forgo this in favour of a quick poll.
Of the Writing Mediums community readers prefer to read:
- 54% enjoy poetry
- 52% enjoy short stories
- 50% enjoy short short stories
- 40% enjoy prose
- 35% enjoy novellas
- 33% enjoy novels
- 23% enjoy lyrics
- 19% enjoy plays
Please keep this in mind when posting a specific type of medium, some mediums will have more readership than other mediums. For a play to receive the same readership as a short story or a piece of poetry, it will have to have a very interesting title, be well written, and be easy for the reader to follow.
Of the Writing Genre community readers prefer to read:
- 50% enjoy Drama
- 45% enjoy Science Fiction and Fantasy
- 33% enjoy Historic Fantasy and Mysteries
- 30% enjoy Suspense
- 26% enjoy Historic Drama
- 23% enjoy Horror and Romance
- 16% enjoy War and Animal
- 11% enjoy Crime
- 2% enjoy Westerns and Classic and Current Literature
This is for your information more than anything else. People write what they enjoy writing. Just know this is what the reader preference is. If you are writing for you and you alone, then this is a non issue. If you are writing to be read, then this may be something you might want to think about. Sometimes a mixture of two genre’s can gain a reader than necessarily wouldn’t read a specific genre to read. For instance, a Western with a Sci-Fi slant, or a Suspenseful Romance may be an option to pull more readers to your posts.
50% of our readers stated they would prefer to read a short story in whole, not broken into pieces or chapters. Only 11% stated they would prefer the short story to be broken into chapters. How you decide to post your short stories is up to you, but I would suggest that if you DO decide to break your short story into chapters and post a little at a time, let there be a very GOOD *OMG WHAT HAPPENS NEXT cliff hanger* at the end of each segment and do not allow segments to be posted with more than a day or two apart. Keep in mind that each short story that’s broken up has a TO BE CONTINUED sign marked across the bottom, and people usually hate things that have to be continued when they are ready to finish it NOW.
The surprising part of this poll was the length a reader is willing to read when reading a short story. 50% of those polled stated they would read a short story over 5000 words. 4% stated they would not read a short story over 5000 words, or over 3000 words and only 2% stated they would not read a short story over 2000 words. So while the readers will reply to a quick read more often, they ENJOY a longer fully written short story.
54% of those polled stated that if they read the first paragraph in a story, and it interests them, they will complete reading the piece. 21% stated if the first sentence is interesting, they will keep reading the piece - and 38% stated that they will read the piece until they lose interest, then they will stop reading. So what does this mean to you the writer? That first sentence is very important, that first paragraph is extremely important, but even if you have a great first sentence and an awesome first paragraph, if the story doesn’t keep the reader reading, the reader will simply go on to something else. So the first sentence and paragraph are to catch their attention, but the story still has to pull its weight.
50% of those polled state that they will make a note of specific writers they enjoy reading and will watch for them to post again and read their work specifically. 21% do not do this. We DO use tags on Creative Writer. I’ve currently enlisted Ayoub to help me get the tags caught up, but this is something YOU the writer can do. If you will simply tag your piece with your user name, it will make your work very easy to find for those people who want to read specific writer’s work. If you don’t choose to do this, we will get caught up eventually, but if you are doing this in the process, then that makes your work that much more accessible.
Ok, this is the whole kitten caboodle. From here, I will be placing a new link into the Welcome Mat with a shortened to the point summary of how to increase your chances of gaining readership for your work. There will be a community guideline change concerning the lj cuts. The rest will be up to the individual writer. I hope this information helps the writers here at Creative Writer, but I also hope that the readers of Creative Writer will enjoy their time here even more.
Bethanna
There were two polls taken. One poll was posted to Creative Writer and another poll was posted to my personal journal. I have combined both for the results.
People who are members of communities are 23 to 19 comparatively as having fewer ten communities on their friends page (23) or having more than ten communities on their friends page (19). What this means to you the writer is while a higher percentage does not have community after community to wade through on their friends page, there is still a high percentage (45%) that do. This means the writer on Creative Writer has to compete with all of the other communities being read. Keep this in mind if you want to have feed back on your individual posts. You are competing for attention.
69% of the people who took the poll read all of their communities from their friends page. Only 30% read from the actual community. Since seven out of ten people who have communities read from their friends pages, consideration taken to keep their friends pages readable is up to our community. We lost a member last week due to this - Creative Writer has not moderated appropriate etiquette in consideration to the reader.
We have always tried to keep Creative Writer as free as possible and up to the writer to post their pieces the way they feel they would be read the best - we are working against ourselves. Friends page etiquette will now be held as part of the moderation queue.
54% of those polled stated they prefer any post longer than their screen (approximately 25 lines)to be placed behind an lj cut. 38% prefer posts longer than one paragraph placed behind an LJ cut. There was one request stating that because of the mode of computer usage she has, she cannot open lj cuts. I’m not really sure how we can help here. There are many many pieces that are way too long to be without a cut. The moderation we are going to put into place is that poetry longer than 25 lines will have to be placed behind a cut - up to the writer as to where the piece is cut as long as it is before the 25th line. Story work will need to be cut after the first paragraph. I HIGHLY suggest to you to cut it AFTER the first paragraph and write a GOOD first paragraph to ensure readership. We will be rejecting and asking to resubmit posts with lj cuts from this point forward.
42 people took our poll collectively. Out of 42, 23 stated that they read some of the posts in their communities if they appear to be interesting. 56% skim their friends pages and breeze over posts that do not interest them. They read what catches their attention. For the writers of Creative Writer, a GOOD TITLE to your piece will catch interest at a moments notice. It needs to be big enough and bold enough to stand out. Placing the title in the subject line will go a long way here.
Only 29% of the people who took the poll will go back and try to catch up on missed posts in a community. Please keep in mind that 30% actually read their communities from the actual community, so this suggests that most of the people that read from the communities will go back to catch up on (interesting) posts they have missed. It is unlikely that the people who read from their friends pages will do this. In this I will suggest that if you do not receive a reply on a piece you have written, you may consider deleting the original post after two weeks has passed and repost the piece to see if you get feed back the second time. I will ask as the moderator to please at the end of the post put ‘second posting’ and date of original post. You are welcome to remove the marker after it has passed moderation review. This will keep me from duping the work load. This is only if you have not received ANY replies to the original post.
When asked what people reply to, we received some interesting results: 59 respond to and interesting post. 11% reply to a quick read post, 61% reply IF they have something to say. 14% reply if they know the person who posted the piece, 47% reply if the piece relates DIRECTLY to them. ALL of these statistics are important. The more the writer connects to the reader on as many of these reasons as possible; the better chances the writer will receive a reply from the reader. A quick read does not necessarily mean short, it can mean that it does not fight the reader to be understood. Use language that is easy to manage for the reader. If it is short piece of prose, the language can be more complicated, but longer short stories or novel work that is difficult to read and understand probably will not be read much less replied to. Relating a piece directly to the reader does not necessarily mean to write about what one specific person you don’t know in relations to THEIR life. It means writing what they would like to read. The reader is going to read the genre they are interested in written on subjects they are interested in. Writing true will give them things they can relate to. In saying, there ARE ways of writing directly to the reader - but increasing the number of readers you are writing directly to. Building friendships here on Creative Writer, replying to other writers and getting to know them increases your chances of receiving replies as well. Your friendships that you build can go off of Creative Writer and to your own friends pages. Simply said, if you want a friend, be a friend, if you want replies, reply to others and build those relationships. We at Creative Writer are planning to post more interactive posts to help people get to know each other. Hopefully we will start this within the next week or two.
Specific to a writing community replies: 52% stated they would reply if the reader enjoys the piece the read. Only 16% will tell you if they didn’t enjoy the piece, and 40% will try to critique the piece.
45% stated that they do not reply to community posts MOST of the time. 38% sited that they post only when they have time, and usually they do not. Only 14% stated they post when they have time, and usually they do have time. What this means is that time is valuable to the people who read their communities, but you will have to REALLY EARN that reply. It will go back to what’s in it for them, because frankly they don’t have time to reply if it isn’t something pressing or important enough to give up their time for. Your posts have to REALLY count. They have to be something that the reader HAS to reply to, or it’s going to bug them all day long. The encouraging thing is that they are READING. They just aren’t replying. I have no problem with posts being posted with a poll down at the bottom that simply says “I read this - yes/no” if you would like to find out how many people read your work. But be aware, that if someone was GOING to reply to tell you how much they liked your piece, they may forgo this in favour of a quick poll.
Of the Writing Mediums community readers prefer to read:
- 54% enjoy poetry
- 52% enjoy short stories
- 50% enjoy short short stories
- 40% enjoy prose
- 35% enjoy novellas
- 33% enjoy novels
- 23% enjoy lyrics
- 19% enjoy plays
Please keep this in mind when posting a specific type of medium, some mediums will have more readership than other mediums. For a play to receive the same readership as a short story or a piece of poetry, it will have to have a very interesting title, be well written, and be easy for the reader to follow.
Of the Writing Genre community readers prefer to read:
- 50% enjoy Drama
- 45% enjoy Science Fiction and Fantasy
- 33% enjoy Historic Fantasy and Mysteries
- 30% enjoy Suspense
- 26% enjoy Historic Drama
- 23% enjoy Horror and Romance
- 16% enjoy War and Animal
- 11% enjoy Crime
- 2% enjoy Westerns and Classic and Current Literature
This is for your information more than anything else. People write what they enjoy writing. Just know this is what the reader preference is. If you are writing for you and you alone, then this is a non issue. If you are writing to be read, then this may be something you might want to think about. Sometimes a mixture of two genre’s can gain a reader than necessarily wouldn’t read a specific genre to read. For instance, a Western with a Sci-Fi slant, or a Suspenseful Romance may be an option to pull more readers to your posts.
50% of our readers stated they would prefer to read a short story in whole, not broken into pieces or chapters. Only 11% stated they would prefer the short story to be broken into chapters. How you decide to post your short stories is up to you, but I would suggest that if you DO decide to break your short story into chapters and post a little at a time, let there be a very GOOD *OMG WHAT HAPPENS NEXT cliff hanger* at the end of each segment and do not allow segments to be posted with more than a day or two apart. Keep in mind that each short story that’s broken up has a TO BE CONTINUED sign marked across the bottom, and people usually hate things that have to be continued when they are ready to finish it NOW.
The surprising part of this poll was the length a reader is willing to read when reading a short story. 50% of those polled stated they would read a short story over 5000 words. 4% stated they would not read a short story over 5000 words, or over 3000 words and only 2% stated they would not read a short story over 2000 words. So while the readers will reply to a quick read more often, they ENJOY a longer fully written short story.
54% of those polled stated that if they read the first paragraph in a story, and it interests them, they will complete reading the piece. 21% stated if the first sentence is interesting, they will keep reading the piece - and 38% stated that they will read the piece until they lose interest, then they will stop reading. So what does this mean to you the writer? That first sentence is very important, that first paragraph is extremely important, but even if you have a great first sentence and an awesome first paragraph, if the story doesn’t keep the reader reading, the reader will simply go on to something else. So the first sentence and paragraph are to catch their attention, but the story still has to pull its weight.
50% of those polled state that they will make a note of specific writers they enjoy reading and will watch for them to post again and read their work specifically. 21% do not do this. We DO use tags on Creative Writer. I’ve currently enlisted Ayoub to help me get the tags caught up, but this is something YOU the writer can do. If you will simply tag your piece with your user name, it will make your work very easy to find for those people who want to read specific writer’s work. If you don’t choose to do this, we will get caught up eventually, but if you are doing this in the process, then that makes your work that much more accessible.
Ok, this is the whole kitten caboodle. From here, I will be placing a new link into the Welcome Mat with a shortened to the point summary of how to increase your chances of gaining readership for your work. There will be a community guideline change concerning the lj cuts. The rest will be up to the individual writer. I hope this information helps the writers here at Creative Writer, but I also hope that the readers of Creative Writer will enjoy their time here even more.
Bethanna