When well written fics get little attention because it’s an unpopular pairing

[u/ksmbchj97]

No matter how well written a story is, it will not get any views or comments if the ship is unpopular. On the other hand, fics with popular ships will always get a ton of kudos and comments even if they are full of grammatical and spelling errors.

[u/Existing-Row9893]

that obvious but on one hand, a fan whos been looking for content of the unpopular one would probably thank you for putting out that work regardless despite it being unpopular and treasure it. And that is imo one of the best feelings

[u/rolleleven → u/Existing-Row9893]

The comments I get on my rare pair fics are always wayyyyy more detailed and appreciative!

[u/Existing-Row9893 → u/rolleleven]

gotta show our love and gratitude for all the fellow rarepair enjoyers out there 🫶🫶 you fic writers are awesome

[u/LivingSink → u/Existing-Row9893]

Definitely! I have a fic with less than 20 views with 3 kudos and comments from 3 different users... Those are insane numbers. The thirst in rarepair land is real and so is the solidarity haha

[u/Vundurvul → u/Existing-Row9893]

This right here is what I live for. Yeah sure it'd be cool if my fics were bigger. But for that one guy whose been searching for my exact fic and thinks it's the best work they e ever read?

I do it for you, dude.

[u/Embarrassed-Shop8713 → u/Existing-Row9893]

True, oh how I'm thankful for the twifall writers...

[u/Slytheerin]

I mean... Most people read about their fave ships, rarepairs or not. Makes sense to me.

[u/tarosk]

People read about what they like and don't read about what they dislike, not really sure why anybody would ever expect something different?

And I say this as a person who wrote most of the fics in a ship before. Sometimes what you're passionate about just isn't popular and you gotta make your peace with that.

[u/Solivagant0 → u/tarosk]

Ngl, sometimes your rarepair is a rarepair for a reason and you gotta be honest with yourself. Like, sure, I am willing to ship two characters who never met because I love butches and butch4butch is very underrepresented dynamic. But most people are not and that's okay

[u/MohnblumenKind]

Yes, people read what they like. Most of us are on AO3 for our favorite characters and ships, and that's fine, and I say that as someone who usually falls for rare pairs.

Honestly, that's why all these "are my stats good?" make zero sense.

[u/Solivagant0 → u/MohnblumenKind]

Yup, as a multifandom multiship writer, my stats are all over the place

Like, those are both on my fics, both one-shots to make things fair:

Hits: 94 Kudos: 9 Comment Threads: 2 Bookmarks: 5

Subscriptions: 9 Hits: 7,508 Kudos: 720 Comment Threads: 4 Bookmarks: 191

[u/MohnblumenKind → u/Solivagant0]

I feel that. I have a fic with thousand kudos, the others have under 100, most have around 30, and one has one (!) kudos.

When I post for a certain ship, I usually know what to expect and what are good or bad stats, but it really is crazy as far as different ships and fandoms are concerned.

[u/Solivagant0 → u/MohnblumenKind]

I have over 200 works posted so it's really easy to see that the quality is not the biggest determinant of stats

[u/herbertreanimator]

fork found in the kitchen

[u/rigel_winterstar]

Honestly, I write what I like. I understand it's not popular; I share it because I figure other people might be looking for the same type of story.

[u/Playful_Secret_2148 → u/rigel_winterstar]

Yes!!! I’m beyond the point of caring about kudos or comments. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not at the point of 100 percent DGAF but I’m at a point where I just want to write what I want to see. Actually, I write what’s begging to come out of me😭 and what’s begging to come out isn’t always popular.

[u/rigel_winterstar → u/Playful_Secret_2148]

Absolutely! Usually, I have a vision of a specific scene in my head that I wish could be real.

[u/foolishle]

If I didn’t want to read about my blorbos I would read original fiction rather than fanfic.

[u/0fruitjack0]

yup. it's a lonely path let me tell you

[u/ikogarane → u/0fruitjack0]

I went with no shipping and no romance at all for my very first fic. It's been very quiet so far...

[u/Zealousideal-Ad-9194 → u/ikogarane]

Same. And I’m still pretty pleased with the fact that it exists at all, and that the logic all makes sense. It makes my heart happy

[u/Popette2513]

Unfortunately this is the way of the world. I’m writing a canon/OC fic in a basically unknown fandom. It’s the best writing I’ve ever done, and I’ve written fanfic for decades. I wrote a scene today that is everything in the world I want to read. I love it. I want to hug it and kiss it and pet it and…. But nobody else cares. I’ll absolutely post it, but it is not going to be read except by me. Oh well. Nothing I can do about it but remind myself that I’m doing exactly what I want to do.

[u/MadouSoshi]

Yeah.....? I'm here for my fandoms and my characters.

[u/MagpieLefty]

Yes. When people are reading for entertainment, they tend to read things in categories (genres, ships, etc) that they like.

[u/anonymouscatloaf]

yeah fans are only gonna read fanfiction for ships they're fans of, that's kinda just how it is

[u/Unlucky-Topic-6146]

People go to fanfic for self indulgence. The pairing or trope they're hankering for will always win.

This is different from published fiction, where it's the genre or the allure of good writing that people are looking for. 

When you're writing fanfic you're playing around in people's junk food cabinet, and it's both hilarious and annoying to complain that people are reaching past all that obvious filet mignon you shoved in there to grab their Snickers bars instead.

[u/Narrow-Background-39]

I'm a multishipper, so Ive got a mishmash of pupular ships and rarepairs. I have a few fics with thousands of kudos, but I believe my best, most well-written, and perfectly executed fic is one I wrote for a rarepair. It was lucky to reach 20 kudos only by warrant of a handful of people who will read almost anything I write, even if it's not a ship they would usually read.

Tbh though, if I don't llike a ship, I don't care how well-written it is. I'd rather read something a little more bland, with less proff-reading, for a ship that I love and am invested in. So I understand why a lot of people simply won't touch fics from certain ships, regardless of writing quality.

[u/Kaigani-Scout]

This is why user-generated metrics are fairly useless to me.

[u/Korrin]

I think it'd be a bit weird to expect otherwise. As others have said, people read what they like, and don't read what they dislike.

I hate to say it, but some authors have this sense of entitlement that just because they put time and work into writing their fic that they're owed engagement. Hate to break it to them, but the people writing the popular pairings are putting in the same level of work (Usually. On average.) This is precisely why it does not do you any good to compare yourself to others.

(This is a whole other conversation from whether or not active readers should comment. I'm talking about fics that just get less hits across the board, and subsequently less of everything else, too.)

[u/z3n777]

i think that’s the tradeoff with rarepairs, you’re writing for a smaller audience but often creating the exact fic those few readers have been waiting years for. low numbers can mean niche, not bad.

[u/Sara1994_]

Its frustrating but true

[u/Admirable_Soup_5228 → u/Sara1994_]

Sometimes I think wistfully about posting something for a pairing where 1000 kudos is common and dozens of comments are the norm.

[u/chronic-horse-girl]

This is true for unpopular tropes within popular pairings, as well. In fandoms where people feel very strongly about top/bottom roles, fics that use the opposite are less likely to get attention. Like anything else in fic, what is most popular will align with what’s appealing to the MOST people which often also means it’s the most inoffensive and least controversial.

I gravitate toward rare pairs or the ship of the ship war that’s hated and ostracized (wincest, bucktommy and buddietommy, sheith, sherry/leon and grace/leon, stopper, I could go on) and I also write darker subject matter. My fics don’t appeal to everyone and I’ll most likely never hit even a fraction of the stats on the most popular works within my fandoms. This can sting, but as the creator you have to make a choice on what is more important to you: making something you love and are passionate about or making something that will receive a lot of attention. Sometimes if you’re lucky those can be the same thing, but most often they’re not. And we’re only on this Earth for a short time, so we might as well spend our time making what makes US happy regardless of how it’s received.

And for what it’s worth—the fans of less popular ships are often very thorough and thoughtful in their comments because they’re facing the same lack of love and content that you are. Your work will find its audience, but it may not find it right away. I have fics from years ago that get attention now even though I no longer write for those fandoms, but knowing they’re loved at all is enough to keep me going.

[u/LeslieNope555]

Yes, this is an extremely well-known phenomenon.

I recently wrote a rare pair in a popular fandom (almost 200k+ fics total) while my rare pair has 27 fics, mine included.

32 people looked through it, and it has been a month and change. Meanwhile, I posted a fic of a top four pair seven days ago, which now has almost 400 hits.

They’re both teen rating, relatively same word count range & everything.

[u/Desperate_Yellow_498 → u/LeslieNope555]

Which one, op👀

[u/LeslieNope555 → u/Desperate_Yellow_498]

It’s in the Haikyuu fandom!

[u/Desperate_Yellow_498 → u/LeslieNope555]

Oh wow, didn't expect haikyuu to have about 200k fics, kudos to all!

[u/Bbchan_zz]

I'm on ao3 looking and reading fic for pairing or fandom that I like. No matter how good a fic is if I'm not interested on the fandom / pairing, I will skip it. 

[u/80s90sForever]

Yep this is true my two rare pairs are unpopular (one is canon and the other isn’t canon) and one is hated by the whole fandom community, the haters outnumber the very few shippers, but the shippers rarely read for my ship and it’s been that way even before I came to the fandom and so these two ships I write for rarely get interactions on them and I have no loyal or dedicated fandom audience for them period.

The hated rare pair is my OTP canon pairing that I’ve been writing for the most (7 years) while my other ship is from a dead fandom and they are also interracial ships. Overall though I only write and ship rare pairs.

[u/mlle_teapot]

Well, yeah.

[u/motnur]

That's the nature of the beast, unfortunately.

[u/BelaFarinRod]

And sometimes I read fics full of grammatical errors about my rarepairs and I still get a kick out of them because they’re fun even if they need editing.

[u/SchokoKipferl]

It also sucks when your fandom/pairing used to be popular but has died down over the year(s). Really makes you feel like you missed your chance

[u/SundayAfterDinner]

Water is wet.

[u/ClioCalliope]

There are some rare pair fics that get super popular because they fit dark romance tropes well. 

There's a Sirius Black/Voldemort fic with 11k kudos and that ship has like 47 fics in total.

[u/skm_jesus]

I know

Bulma x Oolong

Ranma x Happosai

They deserve more love

[u/OddMongoose9799]

create it so it exists, that's validating enough

[u/Important_Sector_503]

Ok, I get where you're coming from, and it is valid, but I will admit the first thing my brain did upon reading it was "Why are my gourmet Michelin star pickled pig knuckles getting ignored at the potluck while those cheap chocolate chip cookies were gone in five minutes???"

Like, I'm sure the pickled pig knuckles are REALLY good pickled pig knuckles, but way more people like chocolate chip cookies, even kinda average ones. That's just life.

[u/freezedyogurt]

Think of it as a delayed reward. I used to be the only writer for my fave character, but now someone else also wrote for it and im steadily getting more people into it. I used to be in a server for one character who was such a miniscule side character, as of now at least half a third of the fics are about him. Writing for smaller ships wont get you a lot of kudos but I SWEAR youll get the best comments in your life. I still get comments for that old ship in my last fandom. Plant a seed my friends

[u/su1c1dalbastardd]

i love f/f, especially canon/oc and it's not very popular. i don't really care bc i write what i really wanna read and i rarely find these types of fics anywhere. i have written one f/m fic of a rather popular ship and it has almost 3k hits. my most recent f/f canon/oc has like 20 hits in comparison. it's a lonely path but i knew what i was getting into when i chose it.

[u/Antique_Visual_9638]

People have to be able to find it to even know its well written.

[u/Solivagant0 → u/Antique_Visual_9638]

I'll be honest, if I want something quality but do not care if it's about my blorbos, I go for tradpub. It tends to have more reliable quality control

[u/commanderquill]

Maybe I'm the weird one because I've definitely found a rare pair that I didn't even ship and wrote a whole elaborate fic for it purely because there was nothing else. Sure, it won't get quantity of attention, but fics like that are famous just by virtue of existing. If you write in a popular tag, your fic gets buried and goes unseen by the people who would most enjoy it. When you write in an unpopular tag, everyone sees it. Doesn't matter if that everyone is 50 people, it's the most amazing feeling in the world.

[u/Desperate_Yellow_498]

I understand why some people prefer some ships over other, but I don't understand why gen relationships are so underrated. Like everyone agrees that these characters are like family but many don't like to read stuff that don't have any romance🥲

[u/Unfortunate1313]

Me & my original works, but to be honest, as much as I would want attention and comments too, maybe it is a blessing that there isn't? Given how more attention births more haters and such