After I posted the story I realized that Fictionmania has a 'Details' page and realized it shows pageviews. I had about 2400 page views on the day I posted it, about 3200 after the first week, and about 3500 3 weeks later. My reviews follow that metric as well - 5 reviews the first day and 1 review since. The inability to publicize myself and get good visibility at Fictionmania is one of the reasons I am planning to post my stuff on other sites but before I get into that I'm going to put up a comparison of my stories in the order I posted them. I'm doing this to create a point of time marker to see how many views my stories get in the next six months.
- Story of a Crossdresser as a Young Man (Rated G - 28.8k - 5,519 words - Crossdressing /TG)- Written as a semi-autobiographical first person story written from the persprective of a future self. Started as a blog post and I shouldn't have put it on Fictionmania without more editing. There's a good story in there but it needed work and I'm glad most ignored it. 1 Review - 806 Pageviews - 806 R/PV)
- The Trial of Stewart (Rated R - 59.6k - 10,893 words - Transformation) - Written in a week as I had writer's block on the novels I still haven't published anywhere. I wanted to go dark with this and used a form of the magic system I developed in my novel. The story felt a little flat and probably was ended too soon. (12 Reviews plus 1 by me - 9230 Pageviews - 769.1 R/PV)
- Bringing Back Isabell (Rated R - 58.0k - 10,732 words - Transformation) - Written in three days as I continued work on my novels. Again tried to go dark and while I enjoyed writing it I chickened out on the darkness. Didn't seem to be well received. (2 Reviews - 8,404 Pageviews - 4,202 R/PV)
- A Brother's Request (Rated G - 9.7k - 1,711 words - Crossdressing/TG) - Written in the middle of a dark night as I considered how I'd like to spend eternity. Very dark. Very focused. Very short. The shortness made the story better and I think it contains some of my best writing. (11 Reviews - 3646 Pageviews - 331.5 R/PV)
- Small Town Journey - (Rated R - 274.2k - 50,845 words - Crossdressing/TG) The first of my 'novels' and possibly my favorite story. It's my goto when I don't feel like writing. I wish more people took the time to finish but fictionmania isn't great for reading that many words. (8 Reviews plus 1 response by me - 3660 Pageviews - 457.5 R/PV)
- Jersey Girls - (Rated R - 41.2k - 11,813 words - Transformation) I really like the way this turned out. I was finally able to go dark but it didn't get a good reception. Probably needed to go more explicit but I really struggle with that. My most read work. (4 Reviews - 11340 Pageviews - 2835 R/PV)
- Mystic Godfather - (Rated R - 113.7k - 21.175 words - Transformation) This is probably my second favorite work as I really enjoyed writing the SciFi aspect. It probably could have used more graphic details as the main character dealt with his issues. If I rewrote it I'd include sections on his date with Tim, the night with Lynn, and a meaningless fling with Lynn after the change. (6 Reviews - 3805 Pageviews - 634.2 R/PV)
What makes people at fictionmania read a story?
A few things are obvious - All three had between 8000 and 11000 pageviews are about 10,000 words long. I initially planned for Mystic Godfather to be about the same because of their relative popularity but as I wrote the SciFi parts I realized it would be double the length.
Another factor is my least viewed stories are about Crossdressing and not Transformation. I think it is safe to say people are more likely to read that type of story.
There are other factors that get people to read like a good synopsis and those are too much of an afterthought and I needed to address that in the future. People click what interests them and they will never click if you don't hook them with a compelling synopsis.
The only other thing people can see before viewing a story is Rating. I'm currently sticking to the R section as I don't feel comfortable going more explicit (I may try it at some point but worry it would be derivative of other writers). Story Rating isn't a factor between my stories though I imagine X and XXX stories get more views.
Jersey Girls has the most pageviews by far but is also easily my least reviewed work. Why so many reviews? I include smoking in all my stories and all three are transformation stories as I've found crossdressing stories aren't as well received. All three are magical transformations and revenge stories which could be why they are more read but not why Jersey Girls has the most. The main difference is Jersey Girls has a slow transformation while the other two are fast. Other than that it doesn't make sense - Bringing back Isabel has Age regression and Trial of Stewart has Crime/Punishment. The other area is Key Words - Stewart and Isabel only have a few while Jersey Girls has Appliances Attached, Hair Salon, Long Finger Nails, and Very High Heels. Is it possible that is the reason for the extra 2,000 pageviews? If so perhaps I need to focus on accommodating this in the future where it makes sense.
Of course all the pageviews in the world don't mean a thing if people don't like it. The only metric we have to view that is R/PV or review per page view. The thinking is you really have to touch a reader if they take the time to leave a review. Most people don't bother but a lower number of reviews per page view means the story was better received.
The top four are A Brother's Request (331), Small Town Journey (458), Mystic Godfather (634), and The Trial of Stewart (769). That is closer to what I'd expect as it mirrors my own preference. My other well stories have gotten fewer reviews any of the above which could mean a few things - when you go for the masses you won't get as many people to respond. Somehow Trial of Stewart hit a sweet spot (I did a little advertising on the forums last summer which got it another 2 reviews but I assume the R/PV was about the same).
The only difference on Stewart vs my other 'popular stories is it is a body swap story that turns the protagonist into a bimbo and is about her/his struggle to escape. I think that type of story resonates with the core audience looking for kink, and you can capture the more 'literate' group by adding backstory.
I'm not sure what any of this means except I meant this post to pick a point in time to see pageviews. I guess I also learned that stories need to be less than 10,000 words, that transformation stories are more popular then crossdressing, and people like their stories darker (bimbo's and more sex) than I feel comfortable doing at this point.
I knew all of that before doing the metrics but it is nice to see my instincts aren't far off the mark. The biggest key is keeping my stories short which as you can tell by the length of this blog post is something that needs work.
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