Desiring feedback is the perennial state of pretty much every fanfic writer I know. Fortunately, it is possible to increase the feedback you receive with a few simple and respectful tips! Unfortunately, there are many factors which are outside the writer’s control when it comes to receiving feedback, so you should be aware of those, but don’t worry about them. 

Writing quality is subjective. We should always strive for quality, but we shouldn’t beat ourselves up over it or compare ourselves to other writers. All that does is slow you down, which in turn stifles your improvement. You are only ever competing against yourself. So I’m going to start with a few reasons why your fic might not be getting the feedback you think it deserves, before diving in to ways you can improve that.

– Fandom size: larger fandom will, naturally, have more readers. You should scale your expectation of Hits, Kudos, and Comments accordingly. In theory, if you’re starving for feedback you should focus your attention on larger fandoms, but I don’t recommend that. You should write what you’re passionate about.

– Fandom timing: The day after the sequel film hits the theater you’re going to have an inrush of fans who are looking for fixit, romance, canon AU, or any number of needs the film/book/comic release etc left them with but did not fulfill. Unfortunately, writing takes time, especially for long pieces. Audience interest tapers off over that same time, with the occasional bump from a DVD release or a sequel announcement to remind people of that thing they love. 

Also, maybe you’re writing for a large fandom like the MCU, but it’s either flooded with writers or it’s been a while since they had a film focusing on your corner of it. Don’t despair that just because it’s a large fandom and you’re not getting attention that it’s necessarily a quality issue. It may just be there’s too much out there or there’s new, different content to disseminate and that’s where the majority of focus is.

– Reader trust: It takes time to build up an audience, and you need to be gentle with yourself and with your expectations of feedback during that time. Even if you’re the greatest writer in the world, your first fic in a new fandom doesn’t necessarily come with a lot to recommend it. You’re relying on curiosity or boredom from readers scrolling randomly through the section, especially if you don’t promote yourself elsewhere or have readers who are following you from a prior fandom. There’s a lot out there, and like with published books, many readers just stick to authors they already like and trust, or they may just have one specific idea they want to read which your story doesn’t fit, or they just don’t intend to spend a lot of time in the fandom (which not everyone does!) and they rely on kudos/comment/hit count to tell them based on other readers what has been considered to be popular (which is not always the same as good!) so don’t take it personally. Sometimes it’s just a product of fandom timing. Having that solidly written movie fix-it ready within the week the film came out will tend to shoot a story to the top of the list, even if a “higher quality” one comes out later. 

Perennial rule for fanfic writers: do not compare yourself to other writers based on these metrics. There’s room enough for everyone. A larger number of fics in a fandom tends to INCREASE the number of readers, not decrease the amount of attention to go around. The presence of other fics and fic writers helps you, it doesn’t hurt you. You are colleagues, not competition. With that in mind, you should not be afraid to promote fellow fic writers! It’s very likely they will return the favor, but even if they don’t (and that’s fine!), it’s just a nice thing to do and makes you a positive member of fandom, which we should all strive to be. This can also serve as an aspect of winning reader trust if you are a known, positive entity in fandom.

With that in mind, let’s dive in to tips to increasing reader feedback. Most of my tips are going to focus on how to build an audience by increasing reader trust, the one thing a writer actually has some control over. See those below the cut.

Tips for increasing reader trust/increasing feedback on your fic:

– Be aware of fandom size, timing, and trends. This is more about tempering your own expectations. That said, if you are extremely keen on maximizing your feedback, it’s unrealistic not to pay attention to fandom interest and timing. If you have that one short fix-it or fluff piece that you can get done within the first week of that film coming out, don’t wait. Get it out there, even if it’s not perfect. That’s your foot in the door, and that gets you a point of reader trust. People who are stopping by the fandom in the early days will now recognize your name and, if your work speaks to them, they may continue to follow you while you work on those longer pieces. Admittedly, this may require extra work or an all-nighter to get it done in time. Don’t feel guilty if this isn’t realistic for you! These tips are meant as motivation, not a guilt trip, but you may be surprised what you can accomplish when you put your mind to it and don’t get discouraged. 

Side tip on publication timing: When posting a chapter, be aware of the time of day. Posting an English language fic at 4am EST means very few people are scrolling through looking for new stuff to read. Common times are around lunch or after work hours, so around 1pm or 6pm EST. Contrary to popular belief, people read less on the weekends. Fic is more commonly read in free moments during breaks or commutes, people have stuff to do on the weekend. This is not to say don’t post on weekends, during the day is still effective, but I’ve noticed from experience that there’s less social media and reader activity on Friday and Saturday nights than you might think.

– Finish what you start. Nothing loses reader trust like starting to read a fabulous work in progress, only to discover it’s never going to be finished. Writers are also readers, so I’m sure you can sympathize with this feeling. Be honest with your readers if a work is abandoned, but also endeavor to get finished pieces out there. Bonus: It will help you grow as a writer to finish what you start, you will see marked improvements over time when you do this. 

Finishing pieces may mean being realistic with yourself about what your current endurance level is. If 5,000 words leaves you exhausted, then it’s unlikely you’re going to be able to finish a novel-length piece without burning out. But there’s hope! Endurance can be increased with practice, but be mindful of whether that is even something you want to do. 

Side tip on writing long pieces: Pound for pound, I’ve seen many good short pieces get way more feedback for the amount of words and effort that went into it compared to a long piece. If feedback is your goal, a long piece doesn’t necessarily get you more vs. the effort you put in, because people’s time is precious and a long piece is a big commitment for them too. Again, length has nothing to do with your skill or the quality of your work! It’s just a reality of readership. Long story short (heh), don’t judge yourself by your ability to finish a long piece, and don’t assume a long piece  is necessarily going to get you more feedback and readers. Being a short fic writer is just as worthwhile!

Use a beta reader (if that is an option for you) and let readers know you have one by thanking and crediting your beta reader in your author notes. Having a beta reader increases reader trust in the overall quality of the story. Always run spell check at the very least, and read your chapter once aloud to yourself before posting. It’s fanfic, so line editing, spelling and grammar aren’t necessarily always a major concern, but it’s disrespectful to your readers to expect them to read something you haven’t even read once through yourself! And always thank readers if they find a typo (so long as they are polite about it too). 

– Stick to a reliable update schedule: This is an aspect of the above point on finishing what you start. Reader attention wanes over time. This is a simple reality and it’s not their fault, it’s hard to keep track of a story that hasn’t updated in a while and people’s lives are busy. They forget. To keep reader attention, I recommend updating within a few days to a few weeks. Any more time between updates than that and you risk people forgetting your story. Obviously this is often unavoidable, but if you can’t update for a long time, don’t be surprised or discouraged if you have lost readers or see reduced feedback as a result. It’s not personal, it’s just the reality.

Ideal update schedule for feedback: Based on my own experience, there is a bell curve of reader feedback based on update schedule. The sweet spot is somewhere between 3-7 days for maximum feedback per chapter. 

If you post a finished fic all at once, especially if it’s a multi-chapter fic, you shoot yourself in the foot in many ways. Readers will see that your multi chapter story doesn’t have many hits/kudos/comments – just because I don’t recommend a writer worrying too much about these metrics, doesn’t mean a reader won’t. Those statistics are widely seen as a mark of quality, my cautionary is more about not letting yourself get discouraged by those metrics. But when you post a multi-chapter story all at once, on average readers will read to the end, and leave one comment there. Therefore, if you want to avoid just getting comments on the final chapter, you need to space out your updates. 

Posting every day, while admirable and good for building reader trust, does not maximize your reader feedback for two reasons. One, people just don’t have the time to reader your update! People’s lives are busy and even if they love your story, they might just not have to get to the chapter before the next one comes out. This leads to reason two, they may just wait until the story is done now that they can be reasonably certain when that will be, and they may have fallen behind. You do not want your reader’s thought process to be that they’ll just wait to read a bunch of chapters at once in a few days and then they’ll comment at the end of it, at least not if your goal is to maximize feedback.

In my experience, you get your first rush of feedback for a chapter in the first 24 hours. Then it’s diminishing returns, with fewer on the second day, generally made up of eager readers who just didn’t have the time to read on the first day. Then it gets sporadic throughout the first week as less eager readers find the time to catch up. Certainly if you leave a story up for a couple weeks without updating, you will get some feedback later than that, but my recommendation is to have the next chapter up by the end of the week for maximum feedback. This is enough time to keep your story in people’s minds and to encourage people to comment because they feel the sting of wanting to know what happens next, and they know that the next chapter won’t be there immediately. It gives them a little time to stew, without giving them time to forget what’s happening in the story.

It’s very unusual to get readers who comment after every chapter unless you guide them to do so, and those readers are awesome! You want to cultivate and reward those readers! You can reward readers who leave feedback on every chapter by responding to them and thanking them! Answer questions (without spoiling your story, ideally), take an interest in their thoughts, and show gratitude for the time out of their day that they took to let you know what they were experiencing, it’s not an easy thing to do! It’s much easier to just lurk, and formulating a response takes courage because you’re putting your thoughts and feelings out there. Be respectful of this. This is also how you build a faithful audience, when you take individual interest in your readers (and how can you not? They’re actually interested in what you have to say!) who may even follow you to new stories, maybe even to new fandoms! This is the dream, and it’s built one reader at a time. 

Bonus: Every reply you give to a reader is one more hit to your comment count! No one will blame you for responding once to a reader (though I do not recommend padding your comment count with multiple frivolous replies or comments to yourself, readers will catch onto this and you will lose their trust, because frankly it’s somewhat dishonest). If you’re truly dedicated to maximizing reader attention and feedback, be aware that some people sort by comment count, and your replies still count as comments. It’s basically a free, honest, and understandable way to increase your comment count. If you’re truly dedicated, I’d recommend doing this sooner rather than later on new pieces. A new piece that has lots of comments tells readers that this story has an enthusiastic audience and may be worth checking out!

Don’t be afraid to ask readers to comment in your author notes! It’s actually been proven on government forms that asking people to not commit fraud or lie on the form actually works, which is insane to me, but it’s a provable metric that asking people to do something in writing actually increases their likelihood of doing it. Don’t be afraid to put an end note at the bottom of each chapter gently requesting that your reader leaves a comment, if they have the time. It may seem obvious to you that you want feedback after every chapter, but it’s an easy thing for the reader to forget when they’re caught up in your story! You will increase your feedback by a reliable metric simply by reminding people to leave it.

Don’t be afraid to promote your work! If you’re reading this on Tumblr, I’m going to assume you have a Tumblr blog, and if you’re reading this at all I’m going to assume you’re a fanfic writer. Don’t be afraid to direct people from your fic to your blog for updates. Don’t be afraid to direct people from your blog to your fics! This feedback loop helps to build and cultivate a reliable audience. I know many writers are self-conscious, and many fear putting themselves out there but never, in all my years of blogging and writing, has anyone complained or even unfollowed me because I promoted my work, even when I reblogged the notification post from myself every few hours (though, do try to make it a reasonable amount of time, every six hours or so is fair and won’t clutter your reader’s dashboard in a way that makes them want to unfollow you). 

I have, however, seen readers get annoyed and outraged when they didn’t realize you had updated because you didn’t promote your work. Sometimes people forget to subscribe, or can’t because they don’t have an account! Your readers and blog followers will completely understand and thank you for letting them know when you’ve created something new, so long as you don’t spam to some crazy level like every five minutes. Don’t be afraid to let them know when you’ve made something!

Tips on promoting your work on Tumblr:

– Put a post on your blog whenever you update. 

– Talk about the process of creating your work (without spoilers) – the ideas that went into it, the time you spent, the stuff you’re excited to try in the future. Reader trust is about the reader connecting to the author, and that means caring about how and why you do things as much as the things you actually make. Be aware of spamming, but letting people know about your ongoing work on a story they’re following can be of interest to them and helps build your authorial brand. This is also useful for original fiction writers. Author brand is a big deal, and often has far more to do with why people pick up a story than the story itself.

– Don’t be negative. Do not complain about a lack of feedback, ever. I won’t pretend I haven’t done this, or felt the desire to do this, and I’m advising from a place of experience. It does not help in any appreciable way. Maybe you’ll get a pity recommendation or comment from a friend, but even that’s better requested in private. You should never berate your audience for not doing what you want them to do. It’s not their job to do so. It’s your job to earn their trust and attention with your work and enthusiasm. It’s also just a generally crappy thing to do, and puts negative energy out there. You never know when one of your followers might also be a fic writer whose story is getting even less attention than yours, so then it just makes you look greedy and insensitive. There’s really no upside. Just don’t do it. 

This includes not making negative posts about fellow fic writers or fics. They are your colleagues, not your competition. This is also a general life tip: never, ever publicly criticize another fic for any number of reasons that could range from them getting more attention than you, to just not liking it, especially not if you’re a fic writer too. You have no idea how hard that other person might have worked on their story, you know nothing about their life or circumstances, and you have no way of knowing if they’re going to read your criticism or have it shown to them. If you don’t like something, just don’t talk about it publicly. If you do like something, promote the heck out of it! People will respond positively to you sharing your taste in things and you may even get a rec in return. No one likes negativity on their dash, and you will lose reader trust.

– Use images in your update post. If you have the time (and it’s fine if you don’t! this is just a tip) put a reaction gif, or better yet make up an image banner for your story or even for individual chapters. It makes your update post stand out from a sea of text. If you do have the time and interest to make a different banner for each chapter it can be very rewarding, as it keeps your update posts from blurring together in people’s minds and lets them know there’s new content. I’d recommend this practice for your big magnum opus work, the one you poured your heart and soul into, and not just any little fic, given that it takes extra time and creativity. Though it should go without saying: Do not steal people’s art or fanart to make your chapter headers. Always ask the artist first and credit them if they say yes, or just make your own from some stock photos.

And finally, my last tip: Be true to yourself! Writing is hard! It’s no fun to try to write something you’re not interested in just because it seems popular right now. Don’t write fluff or smut just because it seems to get readers, write what you genuinely love or want to practice! It will keep your motivation burning during the hard parts. 

Don’t try to chase the rabbit of reader popularity. Sure, maybe fluff in general gets more hits these days, but if you want to write a really good dark fic, people will respond to your passion and enthusiasm, and may have secretly been longing for that exact story. Be nice to your fellow fic writers and your readers, and remember that you improve with every word you write, so don’t get discouraged!