HD fics produced for fests in 2015: Totals and comparison to 2014

[snowgall]

So last year I did a count of how many HD fics were produced for fests in 2014. This year I decided to do a side-by-side comparison of 2014 fests vs 2015 fests to see if I could spot any trends.

Comments

[digthewriter]

Curious, for hp_darkarts dark fest challenge for 2015, you said 1, but it was art (i think) but you didn't include art in other counts? Or am I mis-understanding it?

[snowgall]

Thank you so much for pointing this out! I did some of these counts months ago so I can't be sure where the error crept in - it might have been that I accidentally counted your art (since the fic and art lists weren't separated) or I might have counted Jo's fic as H/D even though it was Harry with multiple partners which I usually didn't count.

There were so many lists to go through that I would be surprised if this were the only error! I fill fix this now - thank you so much again for your eagle eyes!

♥

[snowgall]

Thank you so much :)

♥

[gracerene]

Ooo, interesting. I'm actually surprised to see that overall the # of fics stayed relatively steady!

As for fests, I could be totally missing it up there, but I'm not seeing hp-getlucky which I believe ran both 2014 & 2015 and had H/D fics. :)

I wasn't sure if you'd be including Draco Malfoy's Tropes & Kinks Party, since I believe there were several drabbles that posted in the comments section. Did you include those as well, or just the ones that people decided to post as individual entries?

[snowgall]

Oh no - I did forget hp-getlucky! I will go in and add that now :)

Yeah, the draco Kinks and Tropes one was a close call. It's one of the reasons I tried to come up with "rules" even though some fests make it hard to abide by them (case in point, hd-cliche not providing a masterlist for 2015!) I felt that in most other respects the kinks and tropes fest complied with my arbitrary rules, so I included it. But I can see arguments for not doing so, for sure :) I included all the fics that were listed in the masterlist, I think, regardless of how they were posted.

Off to fix hp-getlucky :)

[snowgall]

OK, I think it's fixed now :) I had to make sure I changed the totals columns as well, so I hope all my math still works out!

Thank you so much for spotting this. If you see any other errors or omissions, don't hesitate to let me know!

[alisanne]

How fascinating!
It makes me wonder what the numbers would be for my OTP.

And I wonder if the numbers are stable because the same core number of people who write H/D no matter what fest it's for are at their max output?

[snowgall]

I assume you mean Snarry? :) I confess I haven't tracked those numbers. It's possible they would show similar trends.

But your suggestion that the same core people who write H/D are at their max output is pretty much what I was thinking too ♥ Although I'm sure there is some fluidity with some authors leaving the fandom and new ones coming in to replace them, but overall the numbers do seem rather stable :)

[alisanne]

I do mean Snarry. I'm surprised you know that. ;)
And I didn't say because, well, I didn't want to be seen as contaminating your H/D post or anything. LOL.
And yes, H/D does seem to have new people joining, but I suspect, like our corner of fandom, it's only just enough to account for the attrition of older writers.

[snowgall]

You learn a lot about various authors when you start tracking fics from every HP fest you can find :) I'm sure there's lots I don't know, but your love for Snarry is very clear ♥

I think if I had the resources to track fic output over the last decade, say, we'd probably see a large spike in the year or two right before and after DH, and then a slow decline for a couple of years before a leveling off. This is just an impression, mind you - I don't have stats to back it up. But I think that the HD fandom is still pretty active, and that this activity has been more-or-less stable for the past couple of years.

The fandom has changed to be a bit more fest-oriented however. In the early days, more fic was created independent of fests, and there were far fewer fests as well. (see my post on that hereSometime in 2010 or so, interest in fests took off and that is where a lot of the action has been in recent years. Not that people don't still write for other reasons, just that fest participation is a bigger sector of fandom than it used to

[capitu]

This is so cool. I love how seeing some fest that aren't H/D exclusive do have a large number of H/D fics, and in some cases that number has been higher last year compared to 2014 (kinkfest and drizzle) Yet some H/D fests have had less submissions that the year prior. Nifty!

[snowgall]

Thank you! Yes, I agree it's very interesting to see the ebb and flow of fest output from year to year. Even while the numbers change for individual fests, it seems like maybe they don't change so much overall :) At least I hope so!