Know thy audience? Not me.

[cinpii]

Yanno what’s weird?  When you write something, and you expect all these responses to it, and you don’t get any.  And then, you write something not expecting anyone to comment on it, and lo and behold, there’s a flood of responses to it.

It applies to both blog entries and fics.  Some fics I write, I get really excited about.  Say… Cuffed!  Dude

Comments

[aspirea]

When are you ever going to update Cuffed anyway? I don't normally look at reviews or the number of reviews. Usually it's the summary that catches my eye. Like if the person has tons of the typos, I do not click.

Haha, I can't wait you come up with for Cuffed. :D I really like that one. ♥~~!

[cinpii]

when i'm gonna update? heck if i know! lol. i have so many fics that need updating, but if i was honest, cuffed is the fic i'm more interested in working on. solitude... bleh. february 14... mayyyyybe. but cuffed? oh yah.

[kirisaku]

Currently, I'm writing mostly for very small or obscure fandoms so I know I won't get much feedback. But yeah, that has happened to me too: the fics I thought were good enough to get more feedback didn't get much, while the fics that thought were so-so, got more reviews.

For example, of all the fics I've written for a certain challenge, I liked this fic the most and I feel it's the best one out of the 8 I've written. Ironically, it got the lowest comments here in LJ. Meanwhile,this fic got the most feedback , and while I enjoyed writing it, I didn't expect to receive several reviews.

It's really mind-boggling how fandom works sometimes.

On the flipside, sometimes I come across a fic with a lot of reviews, so I click on it to see what the hype is all about. And the fic is utter crap.

Hmmm...I think I found one the last time I checked the TeniPuri fandom. It has three chapters and over 150 reviews. You weren't referring to this, were you?

[cinpii]

lol. do you remember when pot was small and obscure? i remember when the non-yaoi community for gundam wing was that way. now there's hundreds of great non-yaoi gw fics. so it's really just a matter of time for the series you're interested in.

i actually didn't have a specific fic in mind when i was talking about the popular crappy fics. hmm, take that back. i was vaguely thinking of a rk fic, and some ccs fics. not gonna disclose the titles, but let's just say that i've checked them out, and they're so not worth the popularity they're receiving.

some writers, i would PAY for them to keep writing. ironically, they're the writers who are grossly overlooked.

yah. fandom is weird. about your fics, i noticed that if you want to improve your chances of your fic getting popular, it should be a pairing fic. friendship fics are not popular at all. and ironically, friendship fics are the ones i probably crave the most.

[kirisaku]

so it's really just a matter of time for the series you're interested in.

I know I will sound pessimistic for saying this, but sadly, I don't think that'll ever happen to the fandoms I currently enjoy writing for. Either they are too old, or they don't have appeal outside of Japan, or both.

Oh, RK. I used to read a lot of fics in that fandom. And I noticed that AUs are quite popular there. Specifically OOC AUs. I won't name fics as well, but there was one story there which really made me wonder why it got so popular despite the fact that the characters were horribly OOC. Kenshin wasn't acting like Kenshin and Kaoru was doing and saying things that are uncharacterstic of her. Same goes for CCS.

I think these fics are popular because they're giving the fantasies/fanservice which most of the readers want to read about?

i noticed that if you want to improve your chances of your fic getting popular, it should be a pairing fic.I noticed that too. And while there are also gen fics that gain the same degree of popularity,their

[cinpii]

hmm, well, that's true for certain fandoms, i guess. like, i know there'll never be much hope for hajime no ippo, one of my all time fave series. but hey, keep writing for the series you want to, anyways. who knows, you might build up the fandom that way. at least, it feels like that for me and pot, lol.

yah, there is a derth of friendship fics. there needs to be more! it's like, why can't two male charas simply be friends? why do they always have to be gay? *sigh*

btw, which popular gen fics are you talking about? i really can't think of any off the top of my head.

[keikeiaznqueen]

Heh, I sorta know what you mean, but I've been deprived of the Tenipuri fandom for so long that I sorta-- well, am not used to what goes on there anymore. But what I can say about the Naruto fandom is that it is so big that most fics that are slightly decent are read and reviewed, and popular fics usually surge above 1000 reviews (the longer 20 chapter plus ones), while getting around 300 reviews for a 10 chaptered fic, I'd say, should be considered normal if not little

[speadee]

I know what you mean. Things happen unexpectedly. There are stories and entries where you don't expect to get comments, but ended up with many. Then the opposite happens too.