On reviews.

[icarus]

These days I'm not very good about reviewing stories I read. I have a tendency to just stick them on a rec-list and make my contribution that way.

Should One Reply To Reviews?
When I reviewed my first story, the author graciously got back to me about a week later. (I think it was keelywolfe but don't quote me on that.)

I was surprised because I hadn't expected a reply. I figured emailing the author was like sending a letter to the editor: into the Abyss, but at least you expressed your feelings. I wrote detailed reviews in the early days, several paragraphs (sometimes pages) of con-crit - and always sent a direct email as I wasn't about to critique a story publicly.

One author updated her abandoned fic with two or three chapters in response. Reviews really do have an impact.

It was so gratifying to hear from the author that I resolved to reply to every review I received, especially when I learned that not everyone did. It seemed... mannerly. I also found that once someone replied to my review I felt warmly about them and their stories.

Yes, I'm definitely in the camp that feels it's best to reply.

Must One Reply To Reviews?
Here's where I grow a little uncomfortable with the "respond to reviews or else" camp, people who feel not replying is the height of rudeness and deserving of punitive action up to ten years suspension of review privileges with internment in little cages where the author is required to produce fic on bread and water.

The division of labor between writer and reviewer is a tad disproportionate.

Writer:

30 minutes-to-an-hour to plot story
3-5 hours writing rough draft
45 minutes begging for betas
2-3 hours of rewrites on drafts
30 minutes of coding for website
Provide story free of charge, with maybe 10% leaving any sort of feedback

Total: 6.5 - 10 hours of writing time.

Reviewer:

30 minutes to read and enjoy story
5 minutes to reply and review
(Bearing in mind I used to spend upwards of an hour on my con-crit reviews)

Being angry that the writer "didn't do enough" by not replying strikes me as unreasonable.

I'm reminded of myself in high school when my parents drove me an hour and a half to a school event after working full 8-hour days -- and I blew my stack because I couldn't go to my friends' party afterward. Pretty darned selfish, but I took my parents for granted and expected to be catered to.

Now most of us are more mature than I was at 15, and can see the inequity.

Strategies To Get Replies To Reviews
If it is important to you to have people reply to your reviews, then I believe in being pro-active. There are strategies to *poke* the author into replying.

Personal emails.
The truth is, especially with Big Important Authors, the personal touch counts. Take the extra few seconds to look up their email instead of simply clicking reply in an archive. That way they're getting the review from you and not fanfiction.net. There's a reason salespeople introduce themselves. People connect with a name.

Shotgun reviews.
Nothing says "I'm a devoted fan" like five reviews from the same person in a single afternoon. Very few people do this, but repetition works. The downside is that the author will often reply to several reviews in one email, but they will remember your name. (Hi Mathilda!) Yes, there's that name thing again.

Size matters.
Authors eagerly open their reviews and while a one-liner is appreciated, there's nothing like a satisfying paragraph or two. The shortest review I ever received was:

:). (I think I replied with: ;))

Interestingly, if your review is very long and loaded with valuable insights you can expect a delayed response as the author thinks about it. Then you're in danger of being consigned to the Drafts Folder -- (Icarus dodges food and things thrown by writers) -- but it's not that I want to discourage Mega-reviews. Hell no! It's just a hazard.

Depth matters.
A layered response comparing the author's story to Dante's Inferno and Ursula K. LeGuin, puzzling about the socio-political structure implied, will make an author think. It leaves an actual opening for conversation. Compare that to the next review that says, "Hee hee! I liked it. You hit all my kinks." That's a conversation killer. Imagine yourself at a party and someone says that. Wh-what can you say? A pat, "Gosh, I'm glad you liked it." Meanwhile, the person who mentioned LeGuin has left a door open. Whose email gets the faster reply?

Pissing the author off.
If you don't care about quality and just want a reaction, a nasty shot of accurate con-crit (emphasis on the crit) seasoned with just enough positive feedback to not be classified a troll will very often provoke a swift reply. Be sure to spell everything accurately, use punctuation that would make your English teacher smile, and ten-dollar words also help. You might get a response so fast scorch-marks are left on your couch. I don't recommend it, I hate negative reviews, but if you don't care about rewarding and encouraging the author and replies are your only goal, this is your best bet.

And that's the real question, isn't it? Why review?

Is the goal to get a reply, or is it to encourage the author? If it's primarily the latter, why be angry and punitive when you don't get that response?

A Final Word Of Caution
If someone doesn't reply to your review, don't assume you know why. There could have been a death in the family. They could have had a computer crash and had Outlook wiped. Your review might've just gotten buried in their in-box. Or a reply is sitting in their drafts folder and the author is feeling a little silly because it's been there for three months.

You can count on the fact that all reviews are read. And they are appreciated. That's a given.

Comments

[tesseract-5.livejournal.com]

10% ?! that's a high end of reviews received estimation-- honestly (my most popular story has ~ 250+ page views, of which some of those must have read the story, and a grand total of ONE review)

Granted, archived stories don't generally get reviews, as opposed to LJ presented stories. On LJ I always reply with at least a "thanks". The more detailed the comment, the more detailed the reply.

It doesn't matter how long ago the story was posted, Authors LOVE to see any comment, even if it's just a =)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh. Right. My numbers are way off there. I was thinking of my analysis of "reader return rates" on WIPs. The average return for additional chapters for most people was 10%. For bad!fic it was 5-8%. If a writer had written a full novel-length trilogy, the reader return jumped to 30-40% for the third book, which was pretty amazing.

Reviews it's more like 1%, and the percentage decreases the more popular the writer is, even as the recs increase the traffic-flow to that story exponentially. So there are more people reading it, but a smaller and smaller percentage leave a review.

On LJ I always reply with at least a "thanks". The more detailed the comment, the more detailed the reply.

I've been doing that, and it seems to work pretty well.

amireal had a point (above) that the longer the story, the more wiped the author is by the time they post it. True. Very true. The numbers involved represent real work -- nights where the writer's up until 3am and still going to work at 8 o'clock the next morning.

Icarus