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[kattahj]

I know I'm throwing stones in glass houses here, considering that I can be pretty slack in giving feedback, and that I've even told people "oh, I'll send you feedback ASAP" and then not sent them any. I'm a total hypocrite and an attention whore and...

...and the curiosity itches like mosquito bites.

During the past couple of weeks, I've seen two

Comments

[koshkaphoenix]

Hun? Tell me where it is and I'll read and give you feedback. =)

[kattahj]

Nah, I'm not trying to coerce anyone into reading my stuff. It was just since those two were obviously on the brink of reading it anyway.

[koshkaphoenix]

Ya can't do that because now I am curious and interested. ;p

[kattahj]

Well if you're interested, just go here and read whatever catches your fancy. It's not as if I'm spoiled with feedback for my other stories either. ;-)

[mofic]

During the past couple of weeks, I've seen two people saying on their LJs that they're about to read one of my stories

Why did they do that? Does that happen often? Is it like a to-do list of stories to read? I've often seen people saying in their journals that they are going to write certain stories and, of course, I've seen people talk about stories they have read. I've never seen anyone say in their journal what their reading plans are, though. Still, I'm new to lj.

Considering that the total number of actual feedbackers on the story is also two, it's getting increasingly hard not to beg.

Is this the Young Han one? I thought of putting a feedback comment on it, but then I thought maybe that Isn't Done. Can you FB stories you beta'ed? I'm sure I told you in the beta process how very much I enjoyed that one. It seemed kind of tacky or something to do it on your lj after posting, though...

[kattahj]

Why did they do that? Does that happen often?

I don't know why, and no, it doesn't happen often. Most of the time people will talk about stories they have read. But this was "Oh, Katta has written this story, I'm going to read it tonight!"

Chances are they just forgot about reading it at all, or didn't have the time. But of course there's also a possibility that they did read it and didn't mention it again for one reason or another.

Is this the Young Han one? I thought of putting a feedback comment on it, but then I thought maybe that Isn't Done.

No, it's not. As for feedbacking stuff you've beta read, I don't know what's Done or not - obviously for me, it doesn't matter since I know what you think. (Thanks, btw!) But I know roseveare recced me at one point and pointed out that she shouldn't have, since she was my beta reader, but that she was going to anyway.

[mouse42]

I try to look at it this way.

I read a lot of fanfic and most of what I find I tend to like. Do I send feedback? No, not really. I probably get around to sending it once out of twenty stories that I read. So, thinking of it that way, I consider one piece of feedback to mean that 19 other people also liked my story but were too busy to leave feedback or (as is my usual problem) didn't know what to say. Thinking of it that way, I can look at a story I just posted and say, "Hey! Look! Two reviews! 40 people really love me!"

It may be a delusion, but it's a happy delusion, so I'm holding onto it. ;p

[mouse42]

And, you know, a lot of it depends on fandom. I've noticed some fandoms are better about giving feedback than others. Gargoyles is a miserable fandom for feedback (mostly because our central archive at gargoyles-fans.org is terribly, terribly organized and nobody goes to ff.net because most of the stuff there is crap). Small fandoms, in my opinion, tend to mean very little feedback, but the feedback I get tends to be of a higher quality. Large fandoms are so over-saturated with stories and authors, you can get swallowed up by BNF's and the like, so you might not get much feedback there, either, unless you manage to write something that explodes in popularity for no explicable reason

[kattahj]

Oh, it doesn't bother me that I don't get a lot of feedback - I hardly ever do. It's just that knowing that these two specific people were about to read my story and evidently excited enough about it to mention in their journals that they were going to read my story, it'd be nice to know if they actually did read the story or not, and if it worked for them.

[roxymissrose]

Ahhh! I *slap* myself* I slap myself hard! I really am a lousy person right now--I know how it feels not to get feedback on your work!(boy, do i know that) And I *love* your work, you know how much I do. Please forgive me? And forgive my enormous ego for thinking you might even be talking about me? because even if you're not, it still holds true.

[kattahj]

Whee, there's one! *hugs Roxy* Thank you so much once again for the lovely note you sent me.

[roxymissrose]

*hug* Thanks for being so kind! And so talented! (grin)

[love2loveher]

you know, sometimes I read a fic and when I'm finished I either think "ok, now I've read it," and have no opinion really. So then, I don't want to talk to the author because it's like I don't have anything to say, and I'm feeling anti-social and don't want to get to know them or anything, so I just never end up feedbacking.

I always assume that's the case with everyone else.

[kattahj]

Yeah, I know the feeling.

It's just as Nanny Ogg says in one of the Discworld stories: when Granny says "everyone" and "nobody" she doesn't mean herself...

*grin*