I have no brain; feedback

[indri]

I'm either fighting off another virus or the one from a fortnight ago has come back seeking a rematch: I feel almost too knackered to type. I have a huge backlog of emails and board correspondence to respond to and I'll just have to do it very slowly.

But, I was going through LJ stuff I missed the first time around and was a bit freaked out by something I read. peasant_ reckons the usual ratio for feedback to readers is between 1:100 and 1:500. Is this true? My stuff is archived in various places and I've never had proper hit counters so I don't know. Because if it's true I may have more readers than you'd normally get with a first print run in Australia (about 3000 people). I've been assuming that maybe a few dozen read my stuff, maybe a couple of hundred at most.

Erk.

Comments

[shapinglight]

I guess there's just no one you will ever know. Strange.

[amerella.livejournal.com]

My average number of fbs is 10-15 per fic; yet I have a hit counter on my site and whenever I post something new the traffic skyrockets. It hasn't bothered me until lately, and I'm trying not to let it bother me at all. Of course none of us review everything we read for various reasons, time being the big factor. 1:500 sounds like a huge number, though. It's kind of nice to think that that many people, from all around the world, are taking the time to read what you've written, and kind of scary. Because, wow.

Anyway, sorry for the ramble. Hope you feel better soon! ^_^

[indri]

I don't know about feedback at all. It's lovely to get and I can't pretend that I would have kept writing if I hadn't received some lovely comments as a beginner. But we all know that the sheer volume of feedback is in no way commensurate to the quality of the fic.

I very seldom give feedback because it feels as if it's time stolen from my own writing and I stumble over how to express what I like about a fic. If it's very well written then I can't see the wood for the trees, as it were, I'm left standing there saying "I could see no obvious flaws" which, while well-meant and usually spoken in a tone of awe, would actually come across as a half-hearted compliment which it isn't.

I wrote fanfic for years without publishing a word or even letting people read it. It still feels strange to have people write back to me about my fic.

[http://users.livejournal.com/peasant_/]

I'm going on:
1) Page hits, which are really, dodgy because the google bots etc tip them off kilter. And in the case of Ficbitch are utterly screwed by Jess's Will Shakespeare pics taking over most of the stats!

2) Membership of yahoo groups, which are dodgy because you don't know how many people are actually reading what they are signed up for.

And
3) The number of people who have signed up for my updates list. Which is presumably at least vaguely relevant.

Ages ago I added the lot together, did some wild and fairly random maths, made a few guesses, and then promptly forgot the numbers. So 1 in 500 may well be rubbish.

I do remember Estepheia saying she had about 1 in a 100 though.

And I think anyone who gets more than a dozen per piece is probably doing really, really well.

But nobody ever comes right out and mentions numbers, so I thought it was high time that particular taboo was broken!

[indri]

1 in 500 may well be rubbish.

onetwomany says she gets pretty much 1:100 hits at ffnet. But it wouldn't surprise me if some fic, especially longer fic, was reviewed less often simply because of the effort required, especially when there's no easy form to fill out but, gasp, the author must be contacted directly. I've also heard that many readers presume that authors they admire can't possibly be interested in their opinion. To be honest, I felt like that hen I first started to read fic.

But nobody ever comes right out and mentions numbers, so I thought it was high time that particular taboo was broken!

Oh I agree, although my own recent set of numbers may have depressed roseveare for no good reason.

Feedback's a strange thing.