A couple of months back, my little story Like a Flower to the World got reviewed by a moderately prominent review group on Fimfiction. It was absolutely savaged, with the final verdict being "28/100 Avoid". That was the point at which it picked up its first downvote, I assume from its reviewer. I was, as you can imagine, more than a little disappointed with that rating – it's not an amazing story by any means, but I don't think it's that bad. But hey, everyone has a right to an opinion on a story. I'd be pretty hypocritical if I didn't believe that!
The thing is, since that happened, Flower has picked up 50-60 views – not negligible for a story with under 200 at the time of review! – and its thumbscore has gone from +26/-1 to +30/-1. I can only conclude that all publicity really is good publicity. Or that reviewers' opinions count for nothing, but that's too scary a thought for me to deal with. ;)
I think it really varies by reviewer. I know that stories I review generally don't see an obvious immediate uptick in votes (regardless of how many stars I gave it), but do tend to get a few extra beyond their "normal" pace for couple months after my review goes up if I gave them a positive score. I interpret that to mean that the people who read my reviews are more inclined to throw a fic I like on their "read it later" list and get to it on their own time.
ReplyDeleteWhen PresentPerfect positively reviews a story, on the other hand, that does tend to produce a small burst of attention--his readers appear more likely to go read something he recommends right away--while stories he doesn't recommend don't seem to get much increased attention, positive or negative.
Congrats on turning the reviewer's lemons into attention lemonade! I haven't read said review, but hopefully that means your reviewer was fair enough with his comments that readers were able to separate "I don't like this" from "you won't like this, which is always a good thing.
Maybe it's at least in part because a lot of your Fandom Classics are longish stories, whereas most of PP's are short and so easier for people to read immediately. Just speculation.
DeleteI deliberately didn't link to the review or reviewer, because I didn't want to make this about them. But from responses to it at the time, it was pretty clear that there were people who'd read it and weren't put off. I was a bit irritated with the use of "Avoid" rather than simply "Not recommended" or even just the score, but that was rather irrational of me.
Logan, I think you're right to be annoyed at the use of "Avoid." Reviewers ought to give the reader a good idea of how well the reader will enjoy the fic. By the time I've finished reading a review, I shouldn't need to see a shorthand version of the reviewer's reaction.
DeleteI don't mind shorthand in itself. If you're (say) Chris, you can write a detailed review of high quality pretty much every time. Many of us aren't at that level, and so something like a star rating helps readers a bit. (So they tell me, anyway.) I do think "Avoid" is more than a bit harsh for this particular story, but is it actually any harsher than when I give something a one-star rating?
DeleteIt really depends on the reviewer. I would say that it's rather unprofessional to have the "avoid" on there, and I find most numerical scores to be virtually useless. And of course personal taste is going to keep individuals from liking what the majority does. Look at any story you consider great, and it's got downvotes. Hell, I had a prominent (but not prolific) reviewer do a dedicated post to reading some of my works in which the average score he gave me was worse than his overall average, i.e., I'm worse than your randomly selected average FiMFic writer. And he happily posted a link to that review on my homepage as if it would make me happy. Another of my stories which I consider among my best and which reviewers like Chris and Present Perfect loved got torn apart by another reviewer who cited all manner of construction errors (arguments not backed up by any writing guide I could find). It works the other way, too. I can think of two stories the RCL inducted that I can't imagine why. One's on the verge of working but never explains the motivations of two characters we're obviously supposed to have strong opinions about, and another rehashes a topic that's been done countless times without bringing anything new to it, plus it completely glosses over all but the first character reaction to the situation. But that's my opinion. Obviously, the majority of the RCL staffers loved both.
ReplyDeleteI don't notice much of an uptick in views from being in a review blog. Most will get me about 10 views, Titanium Dragon might get me 20, TRG used to consistently run about 40 for me (though other people reported more often getting 100+), RCL got about 30, and EqD can vary widely, but usually around 200-750 these days. I've never been featured by Seattle's Angels, so I don't know where they run.
Yes, I agree with you on numerical scores, and would stretch that to include stars and other simplistic rankings, though I suppose they serve a purpose.
DeleteThe thing is, when I read a review by Chris or PP, I pretty much know how I'm going to enjoy the fic without looking at the "rating."
With a lot of other reviewers, this isn't usually the case, and I suppose stars or recommendation levels are useful for expressing their opinion, when they can't quite convey it in text.
though I suppose they serve a purpose
DeleteJudging by what happened when I experimented with removing ratings, in my case the purpose is "not having people complaining too much". :P
I don't notice much of an uptick in views from being in a review blog.
ReplyDeleteI haven't usually done so either, which is why what happened here surprised me. There is one exception: It Doesn't Matter Now was boosted by 120 when Present Perfect reviewed it. Mind you, it's the only fic of mine he's rated HR, which probably has something to do with it. For that story, by some distance the biggest uptick (well over 300) was from the RCL-related Fimfiction site post. The RCL website feature itself added around 30. The only others of significance were the EqD feature (low 200s) and Seattle's Angels (30-ish).
Most of my other fics are fairly steady. There is one exception (Shining Amour's Amour's Armour), which has a huge uptick of 200+ three months after publication for which I have absolutely no explanation! The fic in question hasn't been on EqD, or made the Fimfiction feature box, or been reviewed by PP. The story's comments don't give any clue, either, and the incoming links aren't very high from anywhere. I don't mind getting hundreds of extra views, but it's a bit odd all the same.
Those random, massive upticks drive me crazy. It's like, did I get reviewed by someone on the site maybe? Those won't show up in the (now completely useless) references, after all! Sometimes you can say things like, "Oh, I had just published a fic, maybe people were checking out my other stuff", but 90% of the time, there's just no explanation, and it leaves you wondering what you did right. D:
DeleteI noticed the biggest uptick in views after my RCL feature, with varying results from other reviews.
DeleteThe two things that seem to generate the biggest view spikes is an EQD feature and writing a sequel that hits the feature box.
And none of those apply to SAAA, so I'm still stumped! :P
Delete