The Give and Take of Reviews

Of all the tips I have this is probably the fastest way to get more reviews, but it’s a hit-or-miss tactic, so beware. Before I reveal all, some things will affect reviews no matter how much attention you pay to these articles. It’s smart to know what they are.

FACTORS THAT AFFECT REVIEWS:

The fandom. On fanfiction.net, Harry Potter has over 828,000 stories with more fics posted every day. The next most popular fandom is Naruto with over 433,000 stories, then Twilight with over 221,000. On the opposite end of things, some fandoms only have a single story or none at all. It stands to reason that the more obscure the fandom, the fewer views you’ll get because the fanbase is small. Whether the fandom is still “alive” will also affect the number of people reading your stories.

The pairing. When readers have picked their OTP (one true pair/pairing), they become fiercely loyal to it, and most will avoid their NOTP (not one true pairing) like the plague. A good example in the Harry Potter fandom is Snape/Lily—some people hate it; some people love it.

The genre. People will filter stories to find their favourite pairing, so if there’s a romantic aspect to your story, you’re more likely to get hits. In each of the most popular fandoms per category (anime, books, cartoons, comics …), romance is by far the most popular genre with over half of all stories falling into that tag. There are only three exceptions: Batman (comics), Star Wars (Movies), and Supernatural (TV). For those three, the most popular genre is general, with romance coming in at a close second.

The rating. The M rating is the most popular in each of the top fandoms.

The length. The more chapters your story has, the more often it will feature on the first search page; therefore, the more likely it will be that potential readers will see it and read it.

The age. The story with the most reviews in the Harry Potter fandom is 5 years old. The second most reviewed is 10 years old. The longer a story is online, especially if it’s still being updated regularly, the more views and reviews it will get.

Side Note—WAYS OF ASKING FOR REVIEWS THAT DON’T WORK:

I see these fairly often, and from what I can tell, they don’t work. Sometimes they even have the opposite effect and will make people stop reading your story.

Holding the next chapter of your story for ransom in exchange for more reviews. I’ve seen this in Author’s Notes at the end of chapters: “I’ll post the next chapter when this one gets 10 reviews”. Instead of making me want to leave a review, that kind of demand has me closing the tab even if the story is decent.

Begging. A quick request like: “Review to let me know [if you liked this scene / what you thought of this character’s actions]” is fine, but seeming desperate may be counterproductive.

HOW TO GET MORE REVIEWS—THE BEST TIP I’VE GOT:

Review other people’s stories.

If you’re familiar with self-advertising, you probably know how important it is to have an email list: A number (the bigger, the better) of subscribers who are interested in your product and will buy it when it’s available. That’s what writing reviews will get you, but as I said, it’s hit-or-miss.

Hit: The writer whose story you reviewed is grateful and reviews one of your stories in return.

Miss: The writer whose story you reviewed is grateful but doesn’t offer a review in return, yet you’ve made that writer’s day, so it isn’t really a “miss”.

HOW TO MAXIMISE YOUR CHANCES OF SUCCESS:

To avoid any “misses”, there are a few things you can do.

Make sure that the writer whose story you’re thinking of reviewing, reviews other people’s stories. To do this, check their favourites list and see if they’ve reviewed those stories. If they haven’t, there’s a fair chance they won’t review a story of yours. I avoid writers who don’t have a favourites list or who have only favourited stories with thousands of reviews.

Make sure that the writer whose story you’re thinking of reviewing is currently active either in terms of updated stories or reviews posted. If they haven’t posted a story in a while, and you can’t find a recent review, the chances are that they no longer read fanfiction regularly.

When you find an active writer who reviews stories, pick one of their fics and write a great review. I’ll go into further detail about this in the next article. The idea is to start with a compliment—be sure to mention the things you really liked about their story—and then add in some constructive criticism and finish with another compliment.

Choose to review stories that have few to no reviews. Like with the above tip, the goal is to make your review stand out so that the writer takes notice; that’s easier done if the writer doesn’t receive reviews regularly. Plus, they’ll be all the more grateful.

Review every chapter of the story even if it’s already complete. This is another sure way to grab the writer’s attention and make them like you.

Check out forums on fanfiction.net like The Reviews Corner where you’ll find people to review your stories, but make sure you play the game right and review their stories too!

Most importantly: If someone writes a good review/reviews on your story/stories, return the favour. Writing a good review takes time. When that effort isn’t rewarded, reviewers will lose the motivation to go to all that trouble for you.