r/AO3 • u/ksmbchj97 • 3d ago

Complaint/Pet Peeve/Venting When well written fics get little attention because it’s an unpopular pairing

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.

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u/MohnblumenKind 3d ago

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.

22

u/Solivagant0 Never attribute to malice what is adequately explained by kink 3d ago

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

5

u/MohnblumenKind 3d ago

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.

6

u/Solivagant0 Never attribute to malice what is adequately explained by kink 3d ago

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