#if you follow my main you've seen some fandoms. it's not as intense as 10 years ago but you bet your ass they're still there.

[hipsternumbertwo]

Favorite Angela Moments 48/∞: Angela's love for Wicked

[pinkletterday]

Adding to this: IT DEPENDS ON YOUR SHIP AND YOUR FANDOM.

I'm a little blown away that OP is discouraged by an 18% kudos rate (!!!!!!!!!) which is the highest ratio I've personally seen in my fandoms. But honestly, it varies? For one of the ships I write, a really good fic can clock in at 13% while another will average between 10-8% at best. Some other rarepairs will have a much lower hit count but a higher kudos ratio, still others won't. I never understand why some fandoms/ships are such a joy to feed and others are so lackadaisical, but there you are.

Also of note - readers engage with tropes they already prefer and content they personally relate to. Smut and kink readers are usually not that discriminate about the quality of fic. The more intense and popular the kink, the higher the kudos. So I wrote a fairly decent one, only for it to have the lowest kudos ratio of all my work. Why? I made the character my fandom usually prefers as a bottom into a top. Otoh, my short fluffy pieces have a kudos ratio far exceeding the fandom average.

Length, fandom and ship, reader predisposition, fandom-specific tropes they gravitate to matter. Morever, how long you've been writing, how visible you've been consistently through the years, how well you've interacted in fan communities to build a following also matter.

None of these are necessarily a reflection on your writing. I've gotten little feedback on stories I know are good even looking back. Conversely, after moping about the lukewarm reception for a fic that should have been more popular, I will look at it a year later and see that the writing should have been shorter, tighter or more fleshed out.

Obviously in multi-chapter fics there's no point to the kudos ratio past the first chapter. And your ratio will trail off after the first couple of months, because for some reason people seem to see older works as dead. Literally, the kudos ratio is a crapshoot.

What you should be listening to are the comments. No matter how few, these are people who were genuinely moved by what you have written, the people who have taken note of you and the ones who might eventually try pairings and tropes they hadn't considered purely because they trust you. Even if they are only a handful, listen to them. Appreciate them. Write for them.

Honestly I'd rather write for ten people who I know will like it and send me feedback than a thousand invisible strangers too uninvested to leave a kudos. If we could go back to the days of forums and listserves as the main source of fan content dissemination I'd be the first to sign up.

I think we all just want to be seen. It's really normal and human to be discouraged and pissed off by the inconsiderateness of consumers, but that means it's more important to pay attention to the people who do see you. Don't dismiss and devalue their appreciation, really comprehend and realize what it means that you brought pleasure and joy into another life and that they love and remember your work. Popularity is a precarious thing to hang your hat on when it comes to creating.

I’ve seen five different authors take down, or prepare to take down, their posted works on Ao3 this week.  At the same time, I’ve seen several people wishing there was more new content to read.  I’ve also seen countless posts by authors begging for people to leave comments and kudos. 

People tell me I am a big name fan in my chosen fandom.  I don’t quite get that but for the purposes of this post, let’s roll with it.  On my latest one shot, less than 18% of the people who read it bothered to hit the kudos button.  Sure, okay, maybe that one sort of sucked.  Let’s look at the one shot posted before that - less than 16% left kudos.  Before that - 10%, and then 16%.  I’m not even going to get into the comments.  Let’s just say the numbers drop a lot.  I’m just looking at one shots here so we don’t have to worry about multiple hits from multiple chapters, people reading previous chapters over, etc.  And if I am a BNF, that means other people are getting significantly less kudos and comments.

Fandom is withering away because it feels like people don’t care about the works that are posted.  Why should I go to the trouble of posting my stories if no one reads them, and of the people who do read them, less than a fifth like them?  Even if you are not a huge fan of the story, if it kept your attention long enough for you to get to the bottom, go ahead and mash that kudos button.  It’s a drop of encouragement in a big desert. 

TL;DR: Passively devouring content is killing fandom.