AO3 Hits Meme, Redux
dira_sudisrecently posted about how her top 10 AO3 stories (by number of hits) have changed over the past year. Sounded interesting, so I thought I'd try it.
For comparison's sake, here is my my Top Ten Meme a year ago.
1. Three Days on the Rack (Supernatural, Sam/Dean, NC-17)
Summary: It’s been months, but Sam finally found a crossroads demon willing to Deal to get Dean’s soul out of Hell. The Deal sounded too good to be true. Sam took it anyway.
3,800 words and a pod-fic of gay incestuous demonic amnesia torture porn, posted in July 2011. Also known as, "The darkest, most fucked-up love story I've ever written." When people look me up on the AO3, THIS is what pops on the top of the list. I think I'm riding reena_jenkins' coat-tails here, because she's a pod-ficcing BNF. This was our collaborative entry for the pod-together challenge, and her performance is truly incredible. 2,889 hits.
2. Runaways (Supernatural, gen, pre-series outsider POV)
Summary: We lost seven teenage boys from the shelter in the summer of '97. The last were a pair of brothers so wrapped up in each other that I never had a chance to save them. Their names were Sam and Dean.
10,100 words posted September 2011. I'm really pleased to have this as my #2. This was a Mini-Bang. The artwork with it is delightful, and I really like my OC and the insights this fic offers into the Winchester boys as teenagers. It has vastly more kudos than any of my other stories, and I regularly get more. Yay! 1,438 hits.
3. Dominance Issues (Supernatural, Sam/Dean, NC-17, dark and kinky mostly-PWP)
Summary: A Sam without a soul is convinced he should be in charge. Dean's prepared to do whatever it takes to prove otherwise.
13,300 words written for the Slave Exchange challenge, posted in December 2011. I'm not even sure that I LIKE this fic. To me, kink is all about trust, and this fic is about how badly things go wrong when that trust isn't there. Then again, it shouldn't surprise anyone that when Dean and Soulless!Sam are fucking, it gets ugly. My only explanation for the popularity of this fic is that it has so many kink tags that it pops up on searches all the time. 1,248 hits.
4. Like Taking Candy from a Baby (Dresden Files, gen, Thomas Raith, Outsider POV)
Summary: Charlie had heard rumors about Warden Dresden, but he never expected this.
267 words that I banged out in 10 minutes for a Yuletide Madness Treat in December of 2009. WTF? If I knew that so many people would read it, I would have gotten it beta'd! Is Dresden Files THAT big of a fandom? Is there a secret cult of Raith worshippers out there boosting my hit-count? So bizarre. At least it's not #2, like it was last year. 1,148 hits.
5. O Drom si Baro (The Road is Long) (Supernaural, gen, Romani!Winchesters)
Summary: Their father's road ends here, but Dean and Sam drive on.
1,600 words written for the Racebending Revenge Challenge in June 2010. This was an interesting story to research and write. The Winchesters get away with so much by virtue of being good-looking white boys, you know? But unlike most of the other Racebending Revenge stories I read, there are advantages to NOT being part of main-stream American culture. Down from #3 position last year. 1,114 hits.
6. VID: 867-5309 (Supernatural, Dean/Castial, BAMF!Castiel
Summary: Castiel is an Angel of the Lord and Dean Winchester is his bit - uh, the soul he raised from Perdition
A vid I created for Club Vivid, posted in August 2011. I should really get more of my vids up on the AO3. This vid is fast, fun, and (IMHO) hilarious. 1,021 hits.
7. Life, stripped of all luxuries (Curse of Chalion, Cazaril/Palli, pre-canon)
Summary: Poetry created under siege.
2,600 words written for Yuletide in December 2009. This story is quite grim. It shows the Siege of Gotorget, which was mentioned but never explained in the book canon. This was my #1 fic last year. 876 hits.
8. Save your anaesthetic for the boy next door (the bruises remix) (Supernatural, not-exactly Sam/Dean, sort-of amnesia-fic)
Summary: When Dean pulled me out of Hell, I could tell he was hiding something.
A 1,200 word of remix of rivkat's Save your anaesthetic for the boy next door, a dub-con fic between Soulless!Sam and Dean. Posted in April 2011. My remix is from the newly-resouled Sam's POV, trying to figure out what happened. Neither the original nor my remix are pleasant reading. 812 hits.
9. Sacraments Supernatural, Sam/Dean, demon!Dean AU)
Summary: I’ve been known by a thousand names over the ages. Raum, Akoman, Mara, Azazel’s Hound. Lately, I go by Dean Winchester.
A 3,300 word AU in which Dean Winchester is a demon, and always has been, written for the sammessiah Anti-Christmas Challenge in May 2009. I love this story. The AU aspects fit so neatly into canon, and it is still very much the Love Story of Sam and Dean. 779 hits.
10. A Soldier's Death (Vorkosigan Saga, gen, Miles after-life story)
Summary: Most men accepted their own death, after the fact, with a certain tranquility; Miles seemed determined to argue his way out of it.
434 words written as part of the December 2011 Yuletide Madness. I blame my formative years as a writer in the due South fandom for this one. 611 hits.
I have a number of fics with hits in the 400's and 500s, but I wanted to give one Honorable Mention.
18. VID: Children's Work (Sherlock, gen, Sherlock POV post-Reichenbach)
I just posted this vid on April 26, 2012, and it already has 406 hits, with 5 comments, 32 kudos, and 5 bookmarks. What a great ratio! Go little vid, go!
Observations: The top 3 stories from last year are still in the top 10 list, but have been knocked down several spaces. 7/10 stories are in the Supernatural fandom. 7/10 stories are new, posted since I last did this meme a year ago. Podfic, artwork, vids, and challenge fic all seem to get a boost to the hit count, as does anything with a Rape/Non-con tag.
As a side note, I've found that I get kudos or comments on older fics several times a week, which is something I love about the AO3. I tend to judge the success of a particular fic not by the number of hits, but by the RATIO of hits to kudos, bookmarks, and comments. If I'm at 10 to 1 or better, I feel the fic's been a wild success, in that it inspires many of the people who read it to respond.
If any of you haven't yet set up an AO3 account, I strongly recommend it! The tags system lets people search for and find your fics years after they've been posted, and since WE own the servers, you'll never have to worry about C&D orders.
For comparison's sake, here is my my Top Ten Meme a year ago.
1. Three Days on the Rack (Supernatural, Sam/Dean, NC-17)
Summary: It’s been months, but Sam finally found a crossroads demon willing to Deal to get Dean’s soul out of Hell. The Deal sounded too good to be true. Sam took it anyway.
3,800 words and a pod-fic of gay incestuous demonic amnesia torture porn, posted in July 2011. Also known as, "The darkest, most fucked-up love story I've ever written." When people look me up on the AO3, THIS is what pops on the top of the list. I think I'm riding reena_jenkins' coat-tails here, because she's a pod-ficcing BNF. This was our collaborative entry for the pod-together challenge, and her performance is truly incredible. 2,889 hits.
2. Runaways (Supernatural, gen, pre-series outsider POV)
Summary: We lost seven teenage boys from the shelter in the summer of '97. The last were a pair of brothers so wrapped up in each other that I never had a chance to save them. Their names were Sam and Dean.
10,100 words posted September 2011. I'm really pleased to have this as my #2. This was a Mini-Bang. The artwork with it is delightful, and I really like my OC and the insights this fic offers into the Winchester boys as teenagers. It has vastly more kudos than any of my other stories, and I regularly get more. Yay! 1,438 hits.
3. Dominance Issues (Supernatural, Sam/Dean, NC-17, dark and kinky mostly-PWP)
Summary: A Sam without a soul is convinced he should be in charge. Dean's prepared to do whatever it takes to prove otherwise.
13,300 words written for the Slave Exchange challenge, posted in December 2011. I'm not even sure that I LIKE this fic. To me, kink is all about trust, and this fic is about how badly things go wrong when that trust isn't there. Then again, it shouldn't surprise anyone that when Dean and Soulless!Sam are fucking, it gets ugly. My only explanation for the popularity of this fic is that it has so many kink tags that it pops up on searches all the time. 1,248 hits.
4. Like Taking Candy from a Baby (Dresden Files, gen, Thomas Raith, Outsider POV)
Summary: Charlie had heard rumors about Warden Dresden, but he never expected this.
267 words that I banged out in 10 minutes for a Yuletide Madness Treat in December of 2009. WTF? If I knew that so many people would read it, I would have gotten it beta'd! Is Dresden Files THAT big of a fandom? Is there a secret cult of Raith worshippers out there boosting my hit-count? So bizarre. At least it's not #2, like it was last year. 1,148 hits.
5. O Drom si Baro (The Road is Long) (Supernaural, gen, Romani!Winchesters)
Summary: Their father's road ends here, but Dean and Sam drive on.
1,600 words written for the Racebending Revenge Challenge in June 2010. This was an interesting story to research and write. The Winchesters get away with so much by virtue of being good-looking white boys, you know? But unlike most of the other Racebending Revenge stories I read, there are advantages to NOT being part of main-stream American culture. Down from #3 position last year. 1,114 hits.
6. VID: 867-5309 (Supernatural, Dean/Castial, BAMF!Castiel
Summary: Castiel is an Angel of the Lord and Dean Winchester is his bit - uh, the soul he raised from Perdition
A vid I created for Club Vivid, posted in August 2011. I should really get more of my vids up on the AO3. This vid is fast, fun, and (IMHO) hilarious. 1,021 hits.
7. Life, stripped of all luxuries (Curse of Chalion, Cazaril/Palli, pre-canon)
Summary: Poetry created under siege.
2,600 words written for Yuletide in December 2009. This story is quite grim. It shows the Siege of Gotorget, which was mentioned but never explained in the book canon. This was my #1 fic last year. 876 hits.
8. Save your anaesthetic for the boy next door (the bruises remix) (Supernatural, not-exactly Sam/Dean, sort-of amnesia-fic)
Summary: When Dean pulled me out of Hell, I could tell he was hiding something.
A 1,200 word of remix of rivkat's Save your anaesthetic for the boy next door, a dub-con fic between Soulless!Sam and Dean. Posted in April 2011. My remix is from the newly-resouled Sam's POV, trying to figure out what happened. Neither the original nor my remix are pleasant reading. 812 hits.
9. Sacraments Supernatural, Sam/Dean, demon!Dean AU)
Summary: I’ve been known by a thousand names over the ages. Raum, Akoman, Mara, Azazel’s Hound. Lately, I go by Dean Winchester.
A 3,300 word AU in which Dean Winchester is a demon, and always has been, written for the sammessiah Anti-Christmas Challenge in May 2009. I love this story. The AU aspects fit so neatly into canon, and it is still very much the Love Story of Sam and Dean. 779 hits.
10. A Soldier's Death (Vorkosigan Saga, gen, Miles after-life story)
Summary: Most men accepted their own death, after the fact, with a certain tranquility; Miles seemed determined to argue his way out of it.
434 words written as part of the December 2011 Yuletide Madness. I blame my formative years as a writer in the due South fandom for this one. 611 hits.
I have a number of fics with hits in the 400's and 500s, but I wanted to give one Honorable Mention.
18. VID: Children's Work (Sherlock, gen, Sherlock POV post-Reichenbach)
I just posted this vid on April 26, 2012, and it already has 406 hits, with 5 comments, 32 kudos, and 5 bookmarks. What a great ratio! Go little vid, go!
Observations: The top 3 stories from last year are still in the top 10 list, but have been knocked down several spaces. 7/10 stories are in the Supernatural fandom. 7/10 stories are new, posted since I last did this meme a year ago. Podfic, artwork, vids, and challenge fic all seem to get a boost to the hit count, as does anything with a Rape/Non-con tag.
As a side note, I've found that I get kudos or comments on older fics several times a week, which is something I love about the AO3. I tend to judge the success of a particular fic not by the number of hits, but by the RATIO of hits to kudos, bookmarks, and comments. If I'm at 10 to 1 or better, I feel the fic's been a wild success, in that it inspires many of the people who read it to respond.
If any of you haven't yet set up an AO3 account, I strongly recommend it! The tags system lets people search for and find your fics years after they've been posted, and since WE own the servers, you'll never have to worry about C&D orders.