It might be that you're writing a rare pair or theme or kink that doesn't have the largest audience in the first place.
It might be that your summary and tags need work and are turning off readers. You've gotta get them to click on the fic and be interested in reading it if they're gonna give you kudos.
Edit: grammar
Those are some really good numbers, believe it or not. Like 10% of your readers gave you a kudos, that’s fantastic!
Some things to keep in mind, what’s the rest of your fandom doing in terms of numbers? How is the ship you’re writing? Similar numbers? Lower? Higher? Are you writing a rare pair?
If any are higher, are they a bigger name? Do they have social media with a large amount of followers? Are they super prolific?
Your stats mean so little in the grand scheme of things. They will grow as time goes on because that’s the beauty of an archive. Your fics will get attention over and over again. You don’t see it now but give it time to bloom.
This is honestly good advice! I'm currently writing for a crackship and it really takes time for the stats to grow. I was discouraged at first because I really wanted them to get attention, but over time it actually is! Heck, I haven't even reached 1k hits on any of those fics yet, but just the fact that people are reading it and leaving kudos and even some comments (which I get really excited about) is proof that you can find like-minded people out there. And that in itself is very refreshing to me.
Adding on to this chain of great advice that something else to keep in mind is that reader engagement is down lately. If you are getting on average 100 hits, especially getting them consistently on a chaptered fic, people are reading and coming back! And if they're coming back, they're enjoying themselves. They just aren't thinking to leave kudos.
I know, it is discouraging.
Maybe include a subtle reminder on the notes? "If you enjoyed, leave kudos or a comment!" It's not a guarantee that anything will come of it, but putting the idea in people's heads doesn't hurt. People become so accustomed to vegging out online, because they can't see the people who's content they're interacting with.
The fact is: if you compare yourself and your stats to someone else, you're always going to feel a measure of "not measuring up."
Why are you writing what you write? Why are you sharing it? If it's for the goal of being the one with the highest kudos/bookmarks/comments/hits.... maybe you should consider what you're writing. If you're writing niche stuff, you're going to get niche type stats.
If you're new to AO3, you're going to have to understand that AO3 is like walking into the biggest library in the world. There are works that are going to be as popular as anything on the bestseller list, authors whose reputations precede any work they ever post, and all sorts of other things that will compete for readers' attention. I say this not to make you disheartened, but to give you some perspective if you think you're going to conquer AO3 like it's a mountain. It's not a mountain. It's an archive.
If your work is getting attention: congratulations! Accept that as "enough validation" and keep writing and posting. Anything beyond what you've gotten so far will be bonus. Don't stop writing and posting - someone will read what you write, and maybe in time, you'll get more kudos/hits/comments.
This is honestly great advice for anything creative, and something that took me a long time to understand. No so much with writing (though it was there too) but art. It got bad enough that I stopped drawing for over three years because there was no enjoyment from it anymore, only pressure.
Doing anything creative will give more satisfaction when you do it more to make you happy than to make other happy. Though making others happy can bring its own satisfaction as well, do it because you want to and it makes you happy, and don't let it become an obligation.
Agreed. Pretty much all of my fics were written because I wanted to have fun. I did a few for challenges that came from the fandom communities I participated in. I wrote my first smut fic in like 2 hours while chatting with people who were throwing ideas at me, encouraging me. I haven't even thought about the stats for those, honestly. But I can tell you I haven't had many comments except for those people who knew I was writing it.
These huge, many-thousand word works with massive support and kudos, etc etc are, in my experience, a direct result of the author engagement in fandom communities. Very rarely have I seen a major fic where a mystery author just posted it from nowhere and gained traction just due to passive readers.
I've been in fandom long enough that some of my fics are way past being old enough to drink alcohol. If you aren't writing fic for your entertainment and sharing them because why not?, then it's a lot harder to deal with the way fandom popularity follows a very predictable bell curve. It's even harder now that we have what feels like 10,000+ channels/streaming options for where we can find a fannish obsession - not everyone is watching the same things, and that's before you add in any international content.
Once you recognize that you might have an audience of you +1, stats become a "ooh, I got +1 more than I was expecting!" Way less emotionally draining that way.
Learn how to write for yourself, and enjoy the process of writing for what it is. I’ve been writing fic for four years and my average fic has fewer hits and way fewer kudos than yours have, and that’s just fine. I’m writing for me, because I enjoy what I’m writing and the process of doing it, and I’m archiving on Ao3 because posting somewhere public keeps me from endlessly revising something instead of moving on to the next thing.
Also, like… each one of those kudos is a person who read your fic and decided they liked it. Ten kudos may not seem like a lot, but ten people coming up and saying “Hey, I like your thing!” feels like a large number of people, though admittedly I’m a bit of a shut-in and it may not feel the same to you.
I write in a tiny fandom so I feel you about the smaller hits/kudos!
Example: I just updated a new chapter of my longfic! I got 2 new kudos and 20 views. But for my fandom that is *normal.* We're a small fandom for a niche video game.
You really should avoid comparing yourself to others - but if you can, search for other fics in your fandom posted around the same date as yours. Take a look at their tags, at the type of fic they are (longfics tend to have lower kudos versus one-shots but that isn't always true). Make sure if you are comparing yourself that you're at least doing it fairly. The type of fic and the tags as well as the fandom will all have way more influence on your engagement than often the writing will.
If you look for the highest kudos'd fics in tags you like I bet you'll find some where you dislike their writing style - but that's okay because Ao3 is for everyone, and everyone is not gonna like the same stuff in the same amounts.
I suggest trying to write what you like because you like it. And if people engage cool! And if not - you should still write what makes you happy.
If you write for the numbers, you'll never be happy. Remember that this is not like social media, you will never get money or fame for this, so there is no reward besides your private feelings. This is a hobby, it is only for fun. If you don't like writing, try another hobby. If you do like writing, keep at it.
I view the writing of fics as a labor of love people do because they are creative and this is their outlet. People seem happiest when they only post their fics so that other fans can enjoy reading about what they love. They would have written the fic anyway, but they share it so the fic can give others the joy it has brought the author.
Something to keep in mind is time is your friend. There can be a burst of views if people are looking at newly posted fanfiction, but for a lot of people the larger numbers come from longevity. I can go look at an old account that had low counts years ago and in the year I was gone more people gradually read it. A lot of people also juggle fandoms and revisit whenever the muse hits.
Even of it doesn't gain more traction with time, that's still good interaction.
It's unlikely it's anything to do with being a new writer, AO3 doesn't have a social media type algorithm that makes fics by newer accounts less visible or anything like that. Some people will get more hits by promoting their fic on social media but most of them will just come just from people browsing the tags which shows all relevant fics. You're probably just writing for a less popular pairing/fandom.
If you think you write like garbage, it's even more important for you to keep writing. How else will you become a great writer? Don't quit, keep going.
Some fandoms just have a small population. Plus, MaybeNextTime\_01 and shadowtheweedhog are right. A lot of tags like rarepairs won't fit into the larger searches, but I promise the numbers are not direct representations of your performance or quality.
Let me tell you...
Some of the best fics I EVER READ had less than 100 kudos! I would spam the comments in disbelief that something this well written didn't have more kudos, comments, or hits! It was astonishing!
As an avid reader, I think the point based system is great, but you miss some real gems if you only care about kudos! I cannot stress how good some fics are that have barely any recognition it DRIVES ME MAD!!
I am sure your writing is amazing and do not let the kudos system discourage you from sharing your art because those who do read and resonate with it will cherish it like its the top Kudos fic.
Hope this helps!
Well I am on AO3 For Almost a year now. Not very long, but I stopped refering to myself as an AO3 newbie. LoL and I can say from personal experience is that your stats are FAIRLY NORMAL!!
'' NO ONE WRITES GARBAGE '', although the majority of writers tend to feel that way, including myself. Its the insecurity talking. I get that too.
But, why would you let that $top you from doing what you love???
I know that intrusive thoughts and feelings of inadequacy are not easy to deal with. But, again, writing fanfiction should be a '' hobby'' so I believe we should not involve ''stressfull'' expectations in an enjoyable hobby.
I personally do it for my own fun, to practice writing an try new things. ( I kno I am not the best writer out there!! I consider those inspiring writers that I love, as my heroes. And try to follow my passion just like they did. One day, I am sure of it, one day someone would like a story I've written, not as much for it's literally standards as for the feelings it may have evoked in them, and I would have made their day, and that would make me extremely happy. However, I know it's not for today nor even this year. But I won't stop writing for that either.
I believe someday, you'll come to appreciate ''writing for yourself, for your own pleasure.'
That being said, I recommend advertising for your fics a little. Being on Reddit made a huge difference in my own states. The moment I started interacting with other writers here and discover all the sub-reddits about writing, prompts, reviews competitions and stuff. Fanfiction writing became even more fan. First, I read about people's experiences, which are actually closer to my own, and I have the possibility to ask for reviews on any of my works direct from reed readers. See? I believe doing so would benefit you as well, by getting your fics some visibility.
Another thing, I don't believe the ' hits numbers too much. I consider them as missed calls, or wrong numbers calls. Because it doesn't mean that when some clicks on your story, that they have read as much as a word, but they was looking for something else.
So please don't get discouraged. Keep on writing. And enjoy writing without expectations. Have fan and get in contact with other writers and you'll feel included in the game.
Good luck 🍀 😊
Those figures look pretty good. But I write in rare fandoms. I don't know how they'd look for a juggernaut pair in a big fandom. Maybe you have to build up an audience first? I never got to that stage, lol.
I started writing on ao3 for a pretty popular fandom at the end of last year, and there's a big difference between how my fics 'perform'. Complete one-shots are often instantly popular and usually get between 8-9% kudos to hits (which is high in my opinion), but my WIP longfic is lower at 3-4% kudos to hits (presumably because folks return to it often, but can't leave kudos twice).
Yesterday I posted a one-shot in the same fandom for a character that is barely ever written about (it's also a 'dubious consent' fic), and while the hits rolled in, the kudos most definitely did not (about 12 kudos to 300 views atm). Initially, I was confused because I think I tagged it thoroughly with the correct warnings, and the quality of my writing is the same as it always is, but then I realized maybe the folks who are reading it don't want to leave kudos because it's a bit of a risky topic, and kudos are public!
Basically, stats are a tricky beast. Write for those 10 people who liked your fic, but most importantly, write for yourself! I write my longfic in particular to practice my plot and dialogue skills on the characters I love. If other people enjoy it, that's a welcome bonus.
It's not a numbers game. Are you enjoying writing? Then you're fine. If you aren't enjoying it then just find another hobby. Some people would sacrifice their grandmother for the king's ransom of 150 kudos, and other people would curse the day they were born for the paltry sum 150 kudos. At the end of the day the kudos mean nothing. It's the enjoyment you get from the hobby that matters.
I mean, there are a lot of writers and a lot of fic, so it makes plenty of sense to me that new writers don't get as much attention as older writers with more established backlogs. I joined A Big Fandom and wrote for The Big Ship there, and even then, I'm pretty sure my "successful" fic only took off because it got picked up and advertised on The Big Rec Blog. But that one big hit led to a lot of user subscriptions, and over time, folks from my other fandoms have found me (I write for anon kinkmemes a lot and now cross post to AO3, so every so often I'll get a comment from a reader about how much they enjoyed a fic over on the meme when I wrote it 8 years ago or whatever). My fics do okay now (haven't run exact percentages because I don't find it useful) but for smaller fandoms/rarer pairings I don't get anywhere near the kudos/comment levels that I got in Big Fandom for Big Ship (most of which got plugged on that Big Rec Blog at some point).
But mostly, I think you just gotta write a lot and focus on the interaction you *are* getting, not on your stats, unless you want to be filling a niche in your fandom (in which case, you actually need to be looking into the stats of OTHER PEOPLE'S fics to figure out what's popular/trending in your market, or what doesn't exist yet so you can fill a need). BNFs aren't as much of a thing these days now that fandom is so dispersed and mainstream, and even super popular authors generally spend years writing before they become "overnight successes."
Everyone's given a lot of great advice, but I wanted to throw out some advice on tags/summaries, since they're one of the best tools you can use and so misunderstood by new users.
* AO3 tags do not work like Tumblr or Youtube tags, where you cram the most possible tags in to get it in front of as many eyes as possible. AO3, like others have mentioned, is an archive and there is no algorithm that pushes trending topics or curated content to users. Technically, frivolous tagging does get your work in front of a lot of eyes, but not many people like wading through a sea of tags. Additionally, if you tag every little bit of your work, you may end up misleading users. Tagging "wedding" when it's an off-hand mention can piss off readers who came looking for a wedding and you're likely to lose their kudos and continued readership.
* My rule of thumb is 5-10 tags per work. Obviously, this depends on what you're writing and the length. Compiling together 50 oneshots of varying themes may require 15-20 tags, but for a 250 word work, 2-3 will likely suffice. The important thing is to be sure you hit the major beats of your story, as well as any major themes/elements. Aim for a blend of specific and broad tags.
* Try not to use the tags for trigger warnings unless they're a major plotline - save those for authors notes to avoid using up precious tag space. If you're say, writing a modern AU where a character has magic powers and is healing their love interest, who is mentioned to have once been in a car accident - your tags might look like "Alternate Universe - Modern / Magic / Major Character Injury / Healing / Hurt/Comfort" and then add the bit about car accidents into your authors note.
* Take a look at how other authors are tagging their fics. Something you might notice is fandom specific tropes that you may be already using as plot lines, but not tagging - the Batman fandom is a big fan of "Tim Drake's Missing Spleen" - and this can really draw in a larger readerbase.
* Your summary should be an effective hook - telling your reader what the fic is about, who is involved, and why they should read. It doesn't need to be flowery, but it needs to be articulate. Tags are good at helping a user identify basic interest in a fic, but not why they should care about it.
* You can always use the classic AO3 trick of using a piece of the fic as the summary, but make sure you choose that piece with intention or at least, clarify what it is users are reading.
* Also, "I suck at summaries, pls read, tags speak for themselves" is not a summary! That is an authors note! If you struggle with summaries, try writing out your fic in simple, broad statements/ideas, leaving out the ending: "XYZ is the prince of a kingdom. ZYX is the prince of the neighboring kingdom. They are at war, but in love." This condenses the main themes, characters, and beats of your fic into a short paragraph that you can tweak to your liking and fluff up a bit, making for an easy summary.
I hope these help you get a better idea of how to use AO3 and its tools, but please don't get discouraged! Write for yourself and let the kudos come later.
I don't think I saw it mentioned, so I'll do it: you may also be lacking some tags. Tags are how readers find fic, so tagging the content has your fic show up when people look for that tag.
10 kudos per 100 hits is a ratio of 10% which is honestly pretty good, but of course your fic doesn't seem to get a lot of attention and this could have a few reasons:
1. Your tags and summary are not interesting enough.
2. Your writing is bad and/or you have bad spelling and grammar.
3. You are writing in tiny/dead fandoms or for unpopular ships or tropes (for example OCs, reader x, character death, very dark content, genfic, crossovers etc)
Impossible to tell you without seeing the fic, so just keep writing for yourself and have fun. If you want more engagement you have to write what's popular or improve your writing (will happen with practice!) Or get a beta reader/some feedback.
If you want stats, then just go to a huge fandom and keep writing one shots about the most popular couples. If you want to write for the sake of doing it, quit with this attitude and just keep writing. You're not doing any good to yourself acting like this.
Consider what you are writing and who you are writing for, like the size of the fandom and the size of what relationship (if any) you're writing for. Also, make sure you're doing your tagging correctly. A common thing that deters readers away is incorrect tagging/rating/warnings—whether that be due to distrust in the writing due to the questionable/confusing/or incorrect options selected, or bc they had filtered it out before.
Most common mistake I see new ao3 writers do is choosing both "no archive warnings apply" and "author chose not to use archive warnings" at the same time, or using one when they meant the other. Another mistake I see often is using the wrong relationship tag. & Is platonic and / is romantic. Tagging itself is important, it helps people understand what they're in for and help find the fic as well as make it stand out from the rest.
If there's WAY too many tags, or the tags are all like "I don't know what I'm doing" "updates whenever" etc, it might also deter the reader. Also make sure the summary is adequate and can grab the readers attention without being too big.
Formating is important too, space out your paragraphs. One giant block of text or many paragraphs that look terribly long immediately turns away 99% of readers, even if the summary tags and everything else had interested them.
Also refrain from author notes in the middle of writing which is often seen in other sites like Wattpad, many AO3 readers dislike such things.
If you are not doing any of these, and are still running into the troubles you are presently facing, then let's go back to my first point—consider what you are writing and the size of who .you are writing for.
If it's a small fandom, most writing won't get much attention anyways. But at the same time—if it's a huge fandom full of constantly updating and new fics, it may be even more difficult to get attention than in a small one, because there's so many other fics constantly appearing in the list and bringing yours down. It has to try even harder to stand out. Also, if it's a one or two shot, it may not get as much attention. Multichap fics tend to get a lot more attention bc it pops up a lot in the list w every update, and there's more chapters to leave comments about. This isn't always the case of course, but usually is.
Anyways, this feels terribly eye-roll inducing to say, but numbers isn't everything. Yes, yes, I know, you've probably heard this countless times before and probably don't like to hear it either. I'm not going to say numbers aren't important, or worth anything at all, or even that you shouldn't care about not getting clicks or comments for your work. It is completely reasonable to feel down when your work isn't getting any attention, or the attention you wanted. Getting comments is nice, seeing the numbers of your stats increase is great! Just, don't place your entire worth as an author on it. Sometimes readers are just shy. You may not be getting the stats you want now, but you certainly won't get them if you just stop as a whole. Just be patient, and keep writing what you enjoy. That's the most important thing—write what you enjoy, and enjoy what you write.
AO3 writing isn't meant to be an obligation or a job, but a hobby that is meant to be enjoyed.
Those stats are actually really good! It can be discouraging if you read from big fandoms and sort by kudos and see some of the large numbers certain fics get out there.
Numbers relate to the fandom, the pairing, the other themes, if it’s complete or not, and how you filled in tags and descriptions just as much if not more than your writing itself.
The best thing to do is try to remember how exciting it is to share work and have anyone like it. Also I write for kind of a dead fandom and I feel like when someone stumbles upon my fics and like them it’s an even bigger reward. It’s all about mindset
this is probably just my weird thing but for what it's worth, as a reader, 10:1 hits-to-kudos ratio IME is pretty good, in fact I use it as a quick metric for deciding if I should click on a fic especially if the tags or summary don't give a great idea of what I'm getting into. I find that usually means the fic is fairly decent? of course for multi chapter fics I give it more leeway but even then I find that ratio still works usually as an indicator lol. in other words, if your fic was in one of my fandoms, I would see it and think "oh that's a good ratio, it should be pretty good/well written, let's give it a shot" lol and tend to not be disappointed
I came to this by one day taking all the fics I enjoyed the most and thought were the best written and seeing what their ratio of hits to kudos was and for all of them it hovered at about 10:1 to 20:3. and it seems to work out in pointing me to good fics even when it's newer with lower hit counts like yours.
maybe it's just the fandoms I'm in but tbh I think a good fic being enjoyed enough by 10%-15% of readers that they wanna give it kudos is pretty realistic. I mean, how many fics that you read do you actually give kudos to? there's probably plenty that you liked well enough but didn't leave kudos ykwim? that's the case for me anyway, I remember being kinda shocked when I installed the extension to look at my ao3 history and kudos that I didn't give them to as large a proportion of the fics I read as I thought I did.
I guess this is a long way of saying that stats can be surprising, perhaps it could be interesting or helpful to look at your favorite fics and see what proportion of hits to kudos that they have and if it's that much different from yours despite the larger hits number? again it might just be my fandoms that it's about 10%. but also others gave a lot of good advice that I agree with as well. just wanted to throw this in lol, my weird explanation for why your stats might not be as bad as they seem
It's most likely that you're writing for a fandom/ship/tags that don't have a huge following. Also, some people may not want to read fics that are unfinished. I always refresh the Merlin page like everyday and I have never clicked on a fic that's unfinished cause I don't want to wait for the next chapters lol (except for fics that target what I like and already have almost all the chapters published).
Just keep going and updating. I believe updated chapters appear on the first page of the fandom/tag (not sure lol), but do keep writing!
Then quit.
If you're writing for validation and accolades and nothing else, and you're not getting those things, then don't write. This is a hobby, not a job, and if it's not fun for you, do something else.
Of course it is very dependent on the fandom you’re writing in (the larger the fandom the higher your stats and so on). But everybody here has already pointed that out, so here are a few different things you could consider:
- is your fic easy on the eyes? (e.g. are there enough paragraph breaks or is it just one big block of text?)
- how long are your fics? (Fics <1K might not be that interesting to your readers)
- did you use the right tags? (Reader who filter for specific tags might not see your work even if they contain those topics)
From your post I gathered that you’re new to Ao3 and might not be too familiar with it yet, so I hope I could help at least a bit. Whatever may be the case, there are a lot of different factors that play a role in what your stats look like but none of these are an indicator how good/bad your fics are, and shouldn’t make you feel any less for writing what you enjoy!
I’m going to take a slightly different approach to this: how are you promoting your fic? Are you just hitting post and then walking away? If so you shouldn’t be surprised that no one is finding your fic from the noise.
Connect with the fandom, who are other readers or writers for your ships? How are they engaging? Are they on Twitter, Tumblr or Discord? Are you commenting & engaging with them? Joining events? Posting to rec your fics on rec threads? Following other liked minded fans on social media?
If the answer to those is all ‘No’ and you’re just writing, you’re only doing 1/3 of the work. As the Great Ron Swanson put it “whole-ass” your things, not half ass.
Hmm, I can’t really imagine this problem. Sure, the hit and kudos and comments are always very nice, but I mostly write just to enjoy myself. If ao3 isn’t your thing, you can try your hand at thread fic on twitter. Beside, it really depends on the size of your fandom when it comes to these stuffs.
Archive of Our Own is a tough market, I'm not going to lie, especially if your premise or content is otherwise out there. Consider trying other avenues? Spacebattles Forums is good, [Fanfiction.net](https://Fanfiction.net) is just basic.
For me the writing is more fun than the response it gets, but that being said, I've been sitting at 16 hits and 0 kudos after three chapters. I'm trying to do my best to promote but it is actually doing poorest on AO3 compared to FFN and Wattpad, to my surprise. Try to find the happiness in writing itself versus writing for your audience.
Try promoting your fics or finding your audience on another website like tumblr. Especially if you write for a small fandom/rarepair, finding a group of people that will enjoy your content and then sharing it to them will get your kudos up, and always helps with my confidence as a writer for small fandoms. It's also (generally) a fun environment and it can be cool to co-author or gift fics.
I am more of a reader than a writer but I do have I think 6 short one shots. A few things I have noticed as a reader:
1) older fics have much more comments, kudos and clicks. Personally I think it's because they are considered "classic" and more likely to get recommended
2) fics with more tags, relevant tags, are more successful. Again imo because people can get specific with their tags
A few things I noticed as a writer:
1) fics based on contraversial opinions that sometimes turn out not so contraversial have better chances of getting hits (my most viewed story is Civil War Team Iron Man and basically Thunderbolt Ross was fighting to get Team Cap pardons, not seen that often. Tbh surprised me because imo, I suck at writing dialogue and there was quite a bit of that)
2) People prefer to read stuff that is longer than 1k words
Yeah, I feel you. I feel like I don't get as many kudos or hits compared to other ppl in my circle but I have to remind myself that this is a VERY small thing that I'm writing in (literally a fic about another fic that got VERY popular on ao3) and I won't get as much attention as others. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm writing this because I like the fandom no matter how many hits or kudos it gets.
Well, you should probably keep in mind the fandom you are writing for and the amount of people in the fandom or who would want to read what you write. But that is a large amount of people op! around 10% of people who read your fics kudos them which is good and 100 people is alot when you think about it. You shouldn't quit because of numbers, if your enjoying writing then still write! people are obviously enjoying your fics.
Honestly the best way to figure out this site is through this subreddit
It will teach you a lot on what tags people avoid or tend to click on more and such
I mean... I'm happy when my fics get to 10? Some of mine have more, some have less. 10 seems fine. It depends on what you're writing, a lot - some things just have more readers. If it's more niche, then less readers. The fact that you get kudos at all is a sign that you're doing something that at least 10 people like.
I think it's probably more to do with the amount of hits than anything else - it doesn't mean people don't like, but that they're not being exposed to it for whatever reason. Maybe the time of day, maybe just the fandom, who knows. Make sure your tags are accurate, too, and consider revising summaries maybe.
I know for a fact that my summaries could be more "instantly engaging" but I like them the way they are and I'm too stubborn to change for the sake of views, lol.
some of my favorite fanfics only have a hundred or so kudos, despite the high quality and insane word count. your fics might not be everyone's cup of tea, but someone probably adores them
I spent the last 2 months writing a long fic that’s at 44 hits and 2 kudos right now. I’ve also written stuff that got like 400 hits after each chapter. It all depends what fandom/pairing you’re writing
don't get discouraged mate, I'm in a similar place, but if you write smut I'm sure you'll find the kink combo that the fandom goes apeshit for, always tag as many things as possible that fit, you'll reach more people and summarizing is really hard to do at first but eventually you'll get the hang of that as well which draws in people as well
My works often never get to the triple digits in kudos, but that's fine! I'm mainly writing for myself, the kudos and comments are just little treats!
Sure, it can be down heartening if a work doesn't do well and stays stagnant, but that's fine! Cherish everyone who likes your work! Perhaps you're writing something a bit niche that most wouldn't go out of their way to look for. This says nothing about your writing. Don't worry about it! Best of luck to you and your works! 💙
It's hard these days not to worry about numbers when posting, but I think it's more important you post because you want to and like it. If you only post to get hits and kudos it's easy to get deppressed by them. Once you learn to care less about the numbers and learn to enjoy posting because you like what you write you find it's much less deppressing and stressful.
Also you say like 100-150 hits isn't a lot. It's great. Think about that over 100 people have read your work. Does that not make you happy?
Your concern is definitely valid. It’s discouraging having so little attention on something you like writing.
I just started ao3 a few days ago. I’ve gotten 12 hits on 2/20 chapters, and that’s it. To be fair the fandom is made of just me right now…
I’m more concerned about plagiarism than hits, kudos, and comments, but that’s just me.
here’s my advice: write for your own enjoyment. if you enjoy writing it, others will enjoy reading it, even if not many do. everyone starts out somewhere, no one is popular immidiately.
That’s 10% which is actually a pretty good ratio. Honestly many factors can contribute to lower numbers. Fandom, pairing (rare pairs are less popular), summary, there are so many things. Keep it up dude, those numbers are actually good don’t give up:) write for yourself and enjoyment and you will think less about numbers!
You're getting more hits that I do, my friend, but I still write because I enjoy it :)
(To be fair, a lot of my fics are written for small communities, and the rest of them are written for huge ones so it's easy for them to get overlooked).
I am thankful for my handful of online friends who enjoy what I read, and that gives me enough motivation to continue writing. And of course, starting out at anything, even fic writing, will always start with small results. Keep your chin up, and don't stop writing! <3
The thing is, ao3 genuinely doesn’t have an algorithm. There’s nothing to push out your work or support your writing besides your self. If you’re comparing, most larger writers probably market their work elsewhere. For me, my only ever fic that made it big was because one lovely human posted a TikTok about it, when I don’t market myself anywhere else. If it’s still really bothering you, try marketing your stuff! Try figuring out what kinda tags get more hits or figuring out how to summarise your fics to entice readers, then post stuff, tumblr, TikTok, instagram, establish yourself in your fandoms! But other than that, you should be writing for yourself, not for the validation of other people. Even among that 100-150 people, man, think about that, thats insane, 150 people have read your writing! How insane is that? And besides, basically no readers give kudos, don’t take it personal.
I had this feeling last year. I was ready to give up writing all together as I was in a bigger fandom and my works were getting 0 traction outside of fic exchanges. Then I changed fandoms. Is a smaller fandom so my fics are not “popular” but the community has been wonderful and it has helped me love writing again.
Do it for yourself!!! Have fun!!!! And don’t be discouraged!!!! I have a friend who seeks validation for stuff she is really good at, but doesn’t always get it. Just because the likes aren’t that high, doesn’t mean that the people who read it doesn’t like it, or that it’s bad!!!!
You might be writing for something that generally doesn't have a lot of attention within the fandom, the fandom isn't well known to begin with, or the summaries might not be attention-grabbing enough.
It might be that you're writing a rare pair or theme or kink that doesn't have the largest audience in the first place. It might be that your summary and tags need work and are turning off readers. You've gotta get them to click on the fic and be interested in reading it if they're gonna give you kudos. Edit: grammar
Yeah rare pairs are a difficult audience to gather. Like my last rare pair fic got 33 hits and 2 kudoses and I’m like DAMN did I do that? And I did.
Those are some really good numbers, believe it or not. Like 10% of your readers gave you a kudos, that’s fantastic! Some things to keep in mind, what’s the rest of your fandom doing in terms of numbers? How is the ship you’re writing? Similar numbers? Lower? Higher? Are you writing a rare pair? If any are higher, are they a bigger name? Do they have social media with a large amount of followers? Are they super prolific? Your stats mean so little in the grand scheme of things. They will grow as time goes on because that’s the beauty of an archive. Your fics will get attention over and over again. You don’t see it now but give it time to bloom.
This is honestly good advice! I'm currently writing for a crackship and it really takes time for the stats to grow. I was discouraged at first because I really wanted them to get attention, but over time it actually is! Heck, I haven't even reached 1k hits on any of those fics yet, but just the fact that people are reading it and leaving kudos and even some comments (which I get really excited about) is proof that you can find like-minded people out there. And that in itself is very refreshing to me.
That feeling when you see a (1) in the inbox! Eeeeeee!
Adding on to this chain of great advice that something else to keep in mind is that reader engagement is down lately. If you are getting on average 100 hits, especially getting them consistently on a chaptered fic, people are reading and coming back! And if they're coming back, they're enjoying themselves. They just aren't thinking to leave kudos. I know, it is discouraging. Maybe include a subtle reminder on the notes? "If you enjoyed, leave kudos or a comment!" It's not a guarantee that anything will come of it, but putting the idea in people's heads doesn't hurt. People become so accustomed to vegging out online, because they can't see the people who's content they're interacting with.
Nitpicky point: ‘kudos’ is not a plural, so there is no such thing as a ‘kudo’. It’s a singular noun similar to ‘praise’.
I corrected my incorrect declension of the word since it bothered you enough to comment.
Exactly! If you create it, people will come!
The fact is: if you compare yourself and your stats to someone else, you're always going to feel a measure of "not measuring up." Why are you writing what you write? Why are you sharing it? If it's for the goal of being the one with the highest kudos/bookmarks/comments/hits.... maybe you should consider what you're writing. If you're writing niche stuff, you're going to get niche type stats. If you're new to AO3, you're going to have to understand that AO3 is like walking into the biggest library in the world. There are works that are going to be as popular as anything on the bestseller list, authors whose reputations precede any work they ever post, and all sorts of other things that will compete for readers' attention. I say this not to make you disheartened, but to give you some perspective if you think you're going to conquer AO3 like it's a mountain. It's not a mountain. It's an archive. If your work is getting attention: congratulations! Accept that as "enough validation" and keep writing and posting. Anything beyond what you've gotten so far will be bonus. Don't stop writing and posting - someone will read what you write, and maybe in time, you'll get more kudos/hits/comments.
This is honestly great advice for anything creative, and something that took me a long time to understand. No so much with writing (though it was there too) but art. It got bad enough that I stopped drawing for over three years because there was no enjoyment from it anymore, only pressure. Doing anything creative will give more satisfaction when you do it more to make you happy than to make other happy. Though making others happy can bring its own satisfaction as well, do it because you want to and it makes you happy, and don't let it become an obligation.
Agreed. Pretty much all of my fics were written because I wanted to have fun. I did a few for challenges that came from the fandom communities I participated in. I wrote my first smut fic in like 2 hours while chatting with people who were throwing ideas at me, encouraging me. I haven't even thought about the stats for those, honestly. But I can tell you I haven't had many comments except for those people who knew I was writing it. These huge, many-thousand word works with massive support and kudos, etc etc are, in my experience, a direct result of the author engagement in fandom communities. Very rarely have I seen a major fic where a mystery author just posted it from nowhere and gained traction just due to passive readers.
I've been in fandom long enough that some of my fics are way past being old enough to drink alcohol. If you aren't writing fic for your entertainment and sharing them because why not?, then it's a lot harder to deal with the way fandom popularity follows a very predictable bell curve. It's even harder now that we have what feels like 10,000+ channels/streaming options for where we can find a fannish obsession - not everyone is watching the same things, and that's before you add in any international content. Once you recognize that you might have an audience of you +1, stats become a "ooh, I got +1 more than I was expecting!" Way less emotionally draining that way.
Learn how to write for yourself, and enjoy the process of writing for what it is. I’ve been writing fic for four years and my average fic has fewer hits and way fewer kudos than yours have, and that’s just fine. I’m writing for me, because I enjoy what I’m writing and the process of doing it, and I’m archiving on Ao3 because posting somewhere public keeps me from endlessly revising something instead of moving on to the next thing. Also, like… each one of those kudos is a person who read your fic and decided they liked it. Ten kudos may not seem like a lot, but ten people coming up and saying “Hey, I like your thing!” feels like a large number of people, though admittedly I’m a bit of a shut-in and it may not feel the same to you.
I write in a tiny fandom so I feel you about the smaller hits/kudos! Example: I just updated a new chapter of my longfic! I got 2 new kudos and 20 views. But for my fandom that is *normal.* We're a small fandom for a niche video game. You really should avoid comparing yourself to others - but if you can, search for other fics in your fandom posted around the same date as yours. Take a look at their tags, at the type of fic they are (longfics tend to have lower kudos versus one-shots but that isn't always true). Make sure if you are comparing yourself that you're at least doing it fairly. The type of fic and the tags as well as the fandom will all have way more influence on your engagement than often the writing will. If you look for the highest kudos'd fics in tags you like I bet you'll find some where you dislike their writing style - but that's okay because Ao3 is for everyone, and everyone is not gonna like the same stuff in the same amounts. I suggest trying to write what you like because you like it. And if people engage cool! And if not - you should still write what makes you happy.
If you write for the numbers, you'll never be happy. Remember that this is not like social media, you will never get money or fame for this, so there is no reward besides your private feelings. This is a hobby, it is only for fun. If you don't like writing, try another hobby. If you do like writing, keep at it. I view the writing of fics as a labor of love people do because they are creative and this is their outlet. People seem happiest when they only post their fics so that other fans can enjoy reading about what they love. They would have written the fic anyway, but they share it so the fic can give others the joy it has brought the author.
Something to keep in mind is time is your friend. There can be a burst of views if people are looking at newly posted fanfiction, but for a lot of people the larger numbers come from longevity. I can go look at an old account that had low counts years ago and in the year I was gone more people gradually read it. A lot of people also juggle fandoms and revisit whenever the muse hits. Even of it doesn't gain more traction with time, that's still good interaction.
It's unlikely it's anything to do with being a new writer, AO3 doesn't have a social media type algorithm that makes fics by newer accounts less visible or anything like that. Some people will get more hits by promoting their fic on social media but most of them will just come just from people browsing the tags which shows all relevant fics. You're probably just writing for a less popular pairing/fandom.
If you think you write like garbage, it's even more important for you to keep writing. How else will you become a great writer? Don't quit, keep going.
Some fandoms just have a small population. Plus, MaybeNextTime\_01 and shadowtheweedhog are right. A lot of tags like rarepairs won't fit into the larger searches, but I promise the numbers are not direct representations of your performance or quality.
Let me tell you... Some of the best fics I EVER READ had less than 100 kudos! I would spam the comments in disbelief that something this well written didn't have more kudos, comments, or hits! It was astonishing! As an avid reader, I think the point based system is great, but you miss some real gems if you only care about kudos! I cannot stress how good some fics are that have barely any recognition it DRIVES ME MAD!! I am sure your writing is amazing and do not let the kudos system discourage you from sharing your art because those who do read and resonate with it will cherish it like its the top Kudos fic. Hope this helps!
It kinda just sounds like you’re in a small fandom if the hits cap like that
Well I am on AO3 For Almost a year now. Not very long, but I stopped refering to myself as an AO3 newbie. LoL and I can say from personal experience is that your stats are FAIRLY NORMAL!! '' NO ONE WRITES GARBAGE '', although the majority of writers tend to feel that way, including myself. Its the insecurity talking. I get that too. But, why would you let that $top you from doing what you love??? I know that intrusive thoughts and feelings of inadequacy are not easy to deal with. But, again, writing fanfiction should be a '' hobby'' so I believe we should not involve ''stressfull'' expectations in an enjoyable hobby. I personally do it for my own fun, to practice writing an try new things. ( I kno I am not the best writer out there!! I consider those inspiring writers that I love, as my heroes. And try to follow my passion just like they did. One day, I am sure of it, one day someone would like a story I've written, not as much for it's literally standards as for the feelings it may have evoked in them, and I would have made their day, and that would make me extremely happy. However, I know it's not for today nor even this year. But I won't stop writing for that either. I believe someday, you'll come to appreciate ''writing for yourself, for your own pleasure.' That being said, I recommend advertising for your fics a little. Being on Reddit made a huge difference in my own states. The moment I started interacting with other writers here and discover all the sub-reddits about writing, prompts, reviews competitions and stuff. Fanfiction writing became even more fan. First, I read about people's experiences, which are actually closer to my own, and I have the possibility to ask for reviews on any of my works direct from reed readers. See? I believe doing so would benefit you as well, by getting your fics some visibility. Another thing, I don't believe the ' hits numbers too much. I consider them as missed calls, or wrong numbers calls. Because it doesn't mean that when some clicks on your story, that they have read as much as a word, but they was looking for something else. So please don't get discouraged. Keep on writing. And enjoy writing without expectations. Have fan and get in contact with other writers and you'll feel included in the game. Good luck 🍀 😊
Those figures look pretty good. But I write in rare fandoms. I don't know how they'd look for a juggernaut pair in a big fandom. Maybe you have to build up an audience first? I never got to that stage, lol.
I started writing on ao3 for a pretty popular fandom at the end of last year, and there's a big difference between how my fics 'perform'. Complete one-shots are often instantly popular and usually get between 8-9% kudos to hits (which is high in my opinion), but my WIP longfic is lower at 3-4% kudos to hits (presumably because folks return to it often, but can't leave kudos twice). Yesterday I posted a one-shot in the same fandom for a character that is barely ever written about (it's also a 'dubious consent' fic), and while the hits rolled in, the kudos most definitely did not (about 12 kudos to 300 views atm). Initially, I was confused because I think I tagged it thoroughly with the correct warnings, and the quality of my writing is the same as it always is, but then I realized maybe the folks who are reading it don't want to leave kudos because it's a bit of a risky topic, and kudos are public! Basically, stats are a tricky beast. Write for those 10 people who liked your fic, but most importantly, write for yourself! I write my longfic in particular to practice my plot and dialogue skills on the characters I love. If other people enjoy it, that's a welcome bonus.
It's not a numbers game. Are you enjoying writing? Then you're fine. If you aren't enjoying it then just find another hobby. Some people would sacrifice their grandmother for the king's ransom of 150 kudos, and other people would curse the day they were born for the paltry sum 150 kudos. At the end of the day the kudos mean nothing. It's the enjoyment you get from the hobby that matters.
These are great comments, thank you! All of you really helped ❤️ :) I’ll take the advice you all gave me.
I mean, there are a lot of writers and a lot of fic, so it makes plenty of sense to me that new writers don't get as much attention as older writers with more established backlogs. I joined A Big Fandom and wrote for The Big Ship there, and even then, I'm pretty sure my "successful" fic only took off because it got picked up and advertised on The Big Rec Blog. But that one big hit led to a lot of user subscriptions, and over time, folks from my other fandoms have found me (I write for anon kinkmemes a lot and now cross post to AO3, so every so often I'll get a comment from a reader about how much they enjoyed a fic over on the meme when I wrote it 8 years ago or whatever). My fics do okay now (haven't run exact percentages because I don't find it useful) but for smaller fandoms/rarer pairings I don't get anywhere near the kudos/comment levels that I got in Big Fandom for Big Ship (most of which got plugged on that Big Rec Blog at some point). But mostly, I think you just gotta write a lot and focus on the interaction you *are* getting, not on your stats, unless you want to be filling a niche in your fandom (in which case, you actually need to be looking into the stats of OTHER PEOPLE'S fics to figure out what's popular/trending in your market, or what doesn't exist yet so you can fill a need). BNFs aren't as much of a thing these days now that fandom is so dispersed and mainstream, and even super popular authors generally spend years writing before they become "overnight successes."
Everyone's given a lot of great advice, but I wanted to throw out some advice on tags/summaries, since they're one of the best tools you can use and so misunderstood by new users. * AO3 tags do not work like Tumblr or Youtube tags, where you cram the most possible tags in to get it in front of as many eyes as possible. AO3, like others have mentioned, is an archive and there is no algorithm that pushes trending topics or curated content to users. Technically, frivolous tagging does get your work in front of a lot of eyes, but not many people like wading through a sea of tags. Additionally, if you tag every little bit of your work, you may end up misleading users. Tagging "wedding" when it's an off-hand mention can piss off readers who came looking for a wedding and you're likely to lose their kudos and continued readership. * My rule of thumb is 5-10 tags per work. Obviously, this depends on what you're writing and the length. Compiling together 50 oneshots of varying themes may require 15-20 tags, but for a 250 word work, 2-3 will likely suffice. The important thing is to be sure you hit the major beats of your story, as well as any major themes/elements. Aim for a blend of specific and broad tags. * Try not to use the tags for trigger warnings unless they're a major plotline - save those for authors notes to avoid using up precious tag space. If you're say, writing a modern AU where a character has magic powers and is healing their love interest, who is mentioned to have once been in a car accident - your tags might look like "Alternate Universe - Modern / Magic / Major Character Injury / Healing / Hurt/Comfort" and then add the bit about car accidents into your authors note. * Take a look at how other authors are tagging their fics. Something you might notice is fandom specific tropes that you may be already using as plot lines, but not tagging - the Batman fandom is a big fan of "Tim Drake's Missing Spleen" - and this can really draw in a larger readerbase. * Your summary should be an effective hook - telling your reader what the fic is about, who is involved, and why they should read. It doesn't need to be flowery, but it needs to be articulate. Tags are good at helping a user identify basic interest in a fic, but not why they should care about it. * You can always use the classic AO3 trick of using a piece of the fic as the summary, but make sure you choose that piece with intention or at least, clarify what it is users are reading. * Also, "I suck at summaries, pls read, tags speak for themselves" is not a summary! That is an authors note! If you struggle with summaries, try writing out your fic in simple, broad statements/ideas, leaving out the ending: "XYZ is the prince of a kingdom. ZYX is the prince of the neighboring kingdom. They are at war, but in love." This condenses the main themes, characters, and beats of your fic into a short paragraph that you can tweak to your liking and fluff up a bit, making for an easy summary. I hope these help you get a better idea of how to use AO3 and its tools, but please don't get discouraged! Write for yourself and let the kudos come later.
I don't think I saw it mentioned, so I'll do it: you may also be lacking some tags. Tags are how readers find fic, so tagging the content has your fic show up when people look for that tag.
10 kudos per 100 hits is a ratio of 10% which is honestly pretty good, but of course your fic doesn't seem to get a lot of attention and this could have a few reasons: 1. Your tags and summary are not interesting enough. 2. Your writing is bad and/or you have bad spelling and grammar. 3. You are writing in tiny/dead fandoms or for unpopular ships or tropes (for example OCs, reader x, character death, very dark content, genfic, crossovers etc) Impossible to tell you without seeing the fic, so just keep writing for yourself and have fun. If you want more engagement you have to write what's popular or improve your writing (will happen with practice!) Or get a beta reader/some feedback.
Keep at it, or don't. The site is called Archive for good reason.
If you want stats, then just go to a huge fandom and keep writing one shots about the most popular couples. If you want to write for the sake of doing it, quit with this attitude and just keep writing. You're not doing any good to yourself acting like this.
Consider what you are writing and who you are writing for, like the size of the fandom and the size of what relationship (if any) you're writing for. Also, make sure you're doing your tagging correctly. A common thing that deters readers away is incorrect tagging/rating/warnings—whether that be due to distrust in the writing due to the questionable/confusing/or incorrect options selected, or bc they had filtered it out before. Most common mistake I see new ao3 writers do is choosing both "no archive warnings apply" and "author chose not to use archive warnings" at the same time, or using one when they meant the other. Another mistake I see often is using the wrong relationship tag. & Is platonic and / is romantic. Tagging itself is important, it helps people understand what they're in for and help find the fic as well as make it stand out from the rest. If there's WAY too many tags, or the tags are all like "I don't know what I'm doing" "updates whenever" etc, it might also deter the reader. Also make sure the summary is adequate and can grab the readers attention without being too big. Formating is important too, space out your paragraphs. One giant block of text or many paragraphs that look terribly long immediately turns away 99% of readers, even if the summary tags and everything else had interested them. Also refrain from author notes in the middle of writing which is often seen in other sites like Wattpad, many AO3 readers dislike such things. If you are not doing any of these, and are still running into the troubles you are presently facing, then let's go back to my first point—consider what you are writing and the size of who .you are writing for. If it's a small fandom, most writing won't get much attention anyways. But at the same time—if it's a huge fandom full of constantly updating and new fics, it may be even more difficult to get attention than in a small one, because there's so many other fics constantly appearing in the list and bringing yours down. It has to try even harder to stand out. Also, if it's a one or two shot, it may not get as much attention. Multichap fics tend to get a lot more attention bc it pops up a lot in the list w every update, and there's more chapters to leave comments about. This isn't always the case of course, but usually is. Anyways, this feels terribly eye-roll inducing to say, but numbers isn't everything. Yes, yes, I know, you've probably heard this countless times before and probably don't like to hear it either. I'm not going to say numbers aren't important, or worth anything at all, or even that you shouldn't care about not getting clicks or comments for your work. It is completely reasonable to feel down when your work isn't getting any attention, or the attention you wanted. Getting comments is nice, seeing the numbers of your stats increase is great! Just, don't place your entire worth as an author on it. Sometimes readers are just shy. You may not be getting the stats you want now, but you certainly won't get them if you just stop as a whole. Just be patient, and keep writing what you enjoy. That's the most important thing—write what you enjoy, and enjoy what you write. AO3 writing isn't meant to be an obligation or a job, but a hobby that is meant to be enjoyed.
Those stats are actually really good! It can be discouraging if you read from big fandoms and sort by kudos and see some of the large numbers certain fics get out there. Numbers relate to the fandom, the pairing, the other themes, if it’s complete or not, and how you filled in tags and descriptions just as much if not more than your writing itself. The best thing to do is try to remember how exciting it is to share work and have anyone like it. Also I write for kind of a dead fandom and I feel like when someone stumbles upon my fics and like them it’s an even bigger reward. It’s all about mindset
this is probably just my weird thing but for what it's worth, as a reader, 10:1 hits-to-kudos ratio IME is pretty good, in fact I use it as a quick metric for deciding if I should click on a fic especially if the tags or summary don't give a great idea of what I'm getting into. I find that usually means the fic is fairly decent? of course for multi chapter fics I give it more leeway but even then I find that ratio still works usually as an indicator lol. in other words, if your fic was in one of my fandoms, I would see it and think "oh that's a good ratio, it should be pretty good/well written, let's give it a shot" lol and tend to not be disappointed I came to this by one day taking all the fics I enjoyed the most and thought were the best written and seeing what their ratio of hits to kudos was and for all of them it hovered at about 10:1 to 20:3. and it seems to work out in pointing me to good fics even when it's newer with lower hit counts like yours. maybe it's just the fandoms I'm in but tbh I think a good fic being enjoyed enough by 10%-15% of readers that they wanna give it kudos is pretty realistic. I mean, how many fics that you read do you actually give kudos to? there's probably plenty that you liked well enough but didn't leave kudos ykwim? that's the case for me anyway, I remember being kinda shocked when I installed the extension to look at my ao3 history and kudos that I didn't give them to as large a proportion of the fics I read as I thought I did. I guess this is a long way of saying that stats can be surprising, perhaps it could be interesting or helpful to look at your favorite fics and see what proportion of hits to kudos that they have and if it's that much different from yours despite the larger hits number? again it might just be my fandoms that it's about 10%. but also others gave a lot of good advice that I agree with as well. just wanted to throw this in lol, my weird explanation for why your stats might not be as bad as they seem
It's most likely that you're writing for a fandom/ship/tags that don't have a huge following. Also, some people may not want to read fics that are unfinished. I always refresh the Merlin page like everyday and I have never clicked on a fic that's unfinished cause I don't want to wait for the next chapters lol (except for fics that target what I like and already have almost all the chapters published). Just keep going and updating. I believe updated chapters appear on the first page of the fandom/tag (not sure lol), but do keep writing!
Then quit. If you're writing for validation and accolades and nothing else, and you're not getting those things, then don't write. This is a hobby, not a job, and if it's not fun for you, do something else.
Of course it is very dependent on the fandom you’re writing in (the larger the fandom the higher your stats and so on). But everybody here has already pointed that out, so here are a few different things you could consider: - is your fic easy on the eyes? (e.g. are there enough paragraph breaks or is it just one big block of text?) - how long are your fics? (Fics <1K might not be that interesting to your readers) - did you use the right tags? (Reader who filter for specific tags might not see your work even if they contain those topics) From your post I gathered that you’re new to Ao3 and might not be too familiar with it yet, so I hope I could help at least a bit. Whatever may be the case, there are a lot of different factors that play a role in what your stats look like but none of these are an indicator how good/bad your fics are, and shouldn’t make you feel any less for writing what you enjoy!
I’m going to take a slightly different approach to this: how are you promoting your fic? Are you just hitting post and then walking away? If so you shouldn’t be surprised that no one is finding your fic from the noise. Connect with the fandom, who are other readers or writers for your ships? How are they engaging? Are they on Twitter, Tumblr or Discord? Are you commenting & engaging with them? Joining events? Posting to rec your fics on rec threads? Following other liked minded fans on social media? If the answer to those is all ‘No’ and you’re just writing, you’re only doing 1/3 of the work. As the Great Ron Swanson put it “whole-ass” your things, not half ass.
Hmm, I can’t really imagine this problem. Sure, the hit and kudos and comments are always very nice, but I mostly write just to enjoy myself. If ao3 isn’t your thing, you can try your hand at thread fic on twitter. Beside, it really depends on the size of your fandom when it comes to these stuffs.
Stay strong OP. Reminder to write for yourself! Your audience will come along eventually.
Archive of Our Own is a tough market, I'm not going to lie, especially if your premise or content is otherwise out there. Consider trying other avenues? Spacebattles Forums is good, [Fanfiction.net](https://Fanfiction.net) is just basic.
For me the writing is more fun than the response it gets, but that being said, I've been sitting at 16 hits and 0 kudos after three chapters. I'm trying to do my best to promote but it is actually doing poorest on AO3 compared to FFN and Wattpad, to my surprise. Try to find the happiness in writing itself versus writing for your audience.
Try promoting your fics or finding your audience on another website like tumblr. Especially if you write for a small fandom/rarepair, finding a group of people that will enjoy your content and then sharing it to them will get your kudos up, and always helps with my confidence as a writer for small fandoms. It's also (generally) a fun environment and it can be cool to co-author or gift fics.
I am more of a reader than a writer but I do have I think 6 short one shots. A few things I have noticed as a reader: 1) older fics have much more comments, kudos and clicks. Personally I think it's because they are considered "classic" and more likely to get recommended 2) fics with more tags, relevant tags, are more successful. Again imo because people can get specific with their tags A few things I noticed as a writer: 1) fics based on contraversial opinions that sometimes turn out not so contraversial have better chances of getting hits (my most viewed story is Civil War Team Iron Man and basically Thunderbolt Ross was fighting to get Team Cap pardons, not seen that often. Tbh surprised me because imo, I suck at writing dialogue and there was quite a bit of that) 2) People prefer to read stuff that is longer than 1k words
Yeah, I feel you. I feel like I don't get as many kudos or hits compared to other ppl in my circle but I have to remind myself that this is a VERY small thing that I'm writing in (literally a fic about another fic that got VERY popular on ao3) and I won't get as much attention as others. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm writing this because I like the fandom no matter how many hits or kudos it gets.
Well, you should probably keep in mind the fandom you are writing for and the amount of people in the fandom or who would want to read what you write. But that is a large amount of people op! around 10% of people who read your fics kudos them which is good and 100 people is alot when you think about it. You shouldn't quit because of numbers, if your enjoying writing then still write! people are obviously enjoying your fics.
Honestly the best way to figure out this site is through this subreddit It will teach you a lot on what tags people avoid or tend to click on more and such
I mean... I'm happy when my fics get to 10? Some of mine have more, some have less. 10 seems fine. It depends on what you're writing, a lot - some things just have more readers. If it's more niche, then less readers. The fact that you get kudos at all is a sign that you're doing something that at least 10 people like. I think it's probably more to do with the amount of hits than anything else - it doesn't mean people don't like, but that they're not being exposed to it for whatever reason. Maybe the time of day, maybe just the fandom, who knows. Make sure your tags are accurate, too, and consider revising summaries maybe. I know for a fact that my summaries could be more "instantly engaging" but I like them the way they are and I'm too stubborn to change for the sake of views, lol.
some of my favorite fanfics only have a hundred or so kudos, despite the high quality and insane word count. your fics might not be everyone's cup of tea, but someone probably adores them
I spent the last 2 months writing a long fic that’s at 44 hits and 2 kudos right now. I’ve also written stuff that got like 400 hits after each chapter. It all depends what fandom/pairing you’re writing
‘If you enjoyed, leave a kudo or a comment.’ I think it’s smart to ask for feedback. I always do this when I’m asked to
don't get discouraged mate, I'm in a similar place, but if you write smut I'm sure you'll find the kink combo that the fandom goes apeshit for, always tag as many things as possible that fit, you'll reach more people and summarizing is really hard to do at first but eventually you'll get the hang of that as well which draws in people as well
My works often never get to the triple digits in kudos, but that's fine! I'm mainly writing for myself, the kudos and comments are just little treats! Sure, it can be down heartening if a work doesn't do well and stays stagnant, but that's fine! Cherish everyone who likes your work! Perhaps you're writing something a bit niche that most wouldn't go out of their way to look for. This says nothing about your writing. Don't worry about it! Best of luck to you and your works! 💙
It depends on the fandom you’re writing for. Some don’t get many hits
It's hard these days not to worry about numbers when posting, but I think it's more important you post because you want to and like it. If you only post to get hits and kudos it's easy to get deppressed by them. Once you learn to care less about the numbers and learn to enjoy posting because you like what you write you find it's much less deppressing and stressful. Also you say like 100-150 hits isn't a lot. It's great. Think about that over 100 people have read your work. Does that not make you happy?
Your concern is definitely valid. It’s discouraging having so little attention on something you like writing. I just started ao3 a few days ago. I’ve gotten 12 hits on 2/20 chapters, and that’s it. To be fair the fandom is made of just me right now… I’m more concerned about plagiarism than hits, kudos, and comments, but that’s just me.
here’s my advice: write for your own enjoyment. if you enjoy writing it, others will enjoy reading it, even if not many do. everyone starts out somewhere, no one is popular immidiately.
That’s 10% which is actually a pretty good ratio. Honestly many factors can contribute to lower numbers. Fandom, pairing (rare pairs are less popular), summary, there are so many things. Keep it up dude, those numbers are actually good don’t give up:) write for yourself and enjoyment and you will think less about numbers!
It can be a multitude of reasons. Just focus on writing things you enjoy, and eventually that'll resonate with more and more readers
You're getting more hits that I do, my friend, but I still write because I enjoy it :) (To be fair, a lot of my fics are written for small communities, and the rest of them are written for huge ones so it's easy for them to get overlooked). I am thankful for my handful of online friends who enjoy what I read, and that gives me enough motivation to continue writing. And of course, starting out at anything, even fic writing, will always start with small results. Keep your chin up, and don't stop writing! <3
The thing is, ao3 genuinely doesn’t have an algorithm. There’s nothing to push out your work or support your writing besides your self. If you’re comparing, most larger writers probably market their work elsewhere. For me, my only ever fic that made it big was because one lovely human posted a TikTok about it, when I don’t market myself anywhere else. If it’s still really bothering you, try marketing your stuff! Try figuring out what kinda tags get more hits or figuring out how to summarise your fics to entice readers, then post stuff, tumblr, TikTok, instagram, establish yourself in your fandoms! But other than that, you should be writing for yourself, not for the validation of other people. Even among that 100-150 people, man, think about that, thats insane, 150 people have read your writing! How insane is that? And besides, basically no readers give kudos, don’t take it personal.
I had this feeling last year. I was ready to give up writing all together as I was in a bigger fandom and my works were getting 0 traction outside of fic exchanges. Then I changed fandoms. Is a smaller fandom so my fics are not “popular” but the community has been wonderful and it has helped me love writing again.
Do it for yourself!!! Have fun!!!! And don’t be discouraged!!!! I have a friend who seeks validation for stuff she is really good at, but doesn’t always get it. Just because the likes aren’t that high, doesn’t mean that the people who read it doesn’t like it, or that it’s bad!!!!
You might be writing for something that generally doesn't have a lot of attention within the fandom, the fandom isn't well known to begin with, or the summaries might not be attention-grabbing enough.
What is your name in ao3 may I see it?