Hi everyone,

Thanks for reading my post. I've had about 15 people consistently read my whole book. However, not a single one has followed me. I got one review from my friend @Likibella (we traded and reviewed each other's work) and I'm super grateful. And I'm super grateful for the people who read my book. 

Is there any way to know who read them, so I can go to their page, thank them, and ask if they would kindly leave a review?

Thank you for your time,
Elisa 

Elisa_Hope Wrote: Is there any way to know who read them

Not that I know off aside of seeing them commenting. Also even if you could, it feels like a bad idea. You can remind people to leave a review/comment in the author notes but chasing after them, even in a polite and super kind way just seems too much. If they feel like reviewing and got the time, they will do it anyway. Most people don't seem to like it very much.

'Elisa_Hope' Wrote: Hi everyone,

Thanks for reading my post. I've had about 15 people consistently read my whole book. However, not a single one has followed me. I got one review from my friend @Likibella (we traded and reviewed each other's work) and I'm super grateful. And I'm super grateful for the people who read my book. 

Is there any way to know who read them, so I can go to their page, thank them, and ask if they would kindly leave a review?

Thank you for your time,
Elisa

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there’s a good chance that they’re all bots.

Psyoperator37f Wrote: Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there’s a good chance that they’re all bots.

The story only appears in one other site and i am not sure it is a pirate one. So probably not bots 

People are slow to comment and review. I've heard from others that some readers hold off on reviewing until the book is finished. 

If you get a commenter, shower them with rep, and make sure you reply. 

I will say this, 90% of the comments I've received are from other authors. I'm reading their work, and I'm commenting on their chapters. They return the favor.  

You've made 10 comments.  Maybe give if you want to receive.  I've made 467 comments and received 154. And I've never received a review from someone that hasn't first left comments. 

Okay. Sermon over.  Good luck

That's just how it works it the beginning, man. But once you get the ball rolling, you'll get one or two consistent commenter on your work. I got one right now, so it's possible, even for non-meta stories!

Psyoperator37f Wrote:

Elisa_Hope Wrote: Hi everyone,

Thanks for reading my post. I've had about 15 people consistently read my whole book. However, not a single one has followed me. I got one review from my friend @Likibella (we traded and reviewed each other's work) and I'm super grateful. And I'm super grateful for the people who read my book. 

Is there any way to know who read them, so I can go to their page, thank them, and ask if they would kindly leave a review?

Thank you for your time,
Elisa

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there’s a good chance that they’re all bots.

It's not bad news. Having bots around means that your work is worth scraping for its content!



At least, that's how I cope with it.

Ryan Andrew Wrote: People are slow to comment and review. I've heard from others that some readers hold off on reviewing until the book is finished. 

If you get a commenter, shower them with rep, and make sure you reply. 

I will say this, 90% of the comments I've received are from other authors. I'm reading their work, and I'm commenting on their chapters. They return the favor.  

You've made 10 comments.  Maybe give if you want to receive.  I've made 467 comments and received 154. And I've never received a review from someone that hasn't first left comments. 

Okay. Sermon over.  Good luck

Yup, readers are pretty much silent, for the most part. You’ll get much more interaction out of writers who are swinging by to check out your work. And the best way to make that happen is to check their story out first. In my experience, very few writers won’t reciprocate and read through some chapters and drop a few comments if you’ve done the same.

Thank you so much for the responses! I apologize that I Just found them!

I didn't even think about them being bots!!! Does that still show up as readers and cause my number (I dropped from 72,000 to 38,000 to change?) Does it allow me to get awards?

I'm more than willing to swap and comment on other people's stuff and I already did with my Royal Road friend @Likibella. I'm not sure how to meet more people to swap and do reviews. How do I find them? 

I'm also on Inkitt, and it's as lot easier to "meet" people and get involved in groups to review others' stuff and have them review yours. I've been having some difficulty trying to navigate this page to find the same options. Any ideas?

Thanks so much!!! I "repped" as much as it would let me per response.

Elisa_Hope Wrote: I dropped from 72,000 to 38,000 to change?

Someone left a rating or review

Elisa_Hope Wrote: I'm not sure how to meet more people to swap and do reviews. How do I find them?

Go to marketing in the forum

Thank you, I will check that out!!

That's not how any of this works. This is a publishing site, not a feedback site. You need to adjust your expectations a bit. 

My long story, that I've been posting for nearly 3 years, has over 900 followers. And 10 reviews. 10. That's it. Readers are a quiet bunch. They are here to read, not teach, not criticize, not instruct. 

If you have under 100 average views on your chapters, there is a chance that less than a handful of those are real people. On my smaller story, the ship story, my average views is 155. Of those 155, I've 16 followers, and according to the premium stats, only 58 actual humans with accounts have even looked at the story, with over half of them stopping in the first few chapters. This is normal. 

Most of your early views will be bots. It takes time for readers to find stories. Think of it this way, there are over 130 thousand stories on this site. Imagine that as a pile of books. How long do you think it would take you to find your one book in a pile that big? picking up and tossing one book a second would take you a day and a half to sort the pile. Do you think readers looking for entertainment are going to put that much effort in? Of course not. They'll find you when they find you. Be patient, keep writing, keep posting. 

If you are looking for feedback, head to the swaps forum and arrange for honest swaps with like-minded authors. It is important to note that some authors are not looking for feedback, and are looking to do a rating swap. Be clear in what you are looking for and what you are willing to do in return. 

Best of luck.

What do the bots actually do? If my "readers" are bots, and there's no way to get to actual readers, I'd rather just focus on the other site where I am having more luck

Oh and what about the publishing or writing contests? I did submit to publishing and I'm waiting for another writing contest. 

Elisa_Hope Wrote: What do the bots actually do? If my "readers" are bots, and there's no way to get to actual readers, I'd rather just focus on the other site where I am having more luck

There are lots of bots, but real people hiding in there as well. Doesn't take much to keep adding. Might as well post both places since it's so easy. Put as many hooks out as you can, something will bite.

Elisa_Hope Wrote: What do the bots actually do?

Web crawlers, indexers, adcheckers, etc. If you can google your story and see it here, a bot has visited it. These are not RR bots. They're web bots. RR filters a lot of them out of the stats, but naturally cannot eliminate all of them. 

Elisa_Hope Wrote: If my "readers" are bots, and there's no way to get to actual readers, I'd rather just focus on the other site where I am having more luck

No way to get readers? What have you done to get readers other than just post? 
The competition here is stiff. There are over a hundred thousand other stories competing with yours. That said, there are hundreds of thousands of readers too. This is a publishing site that caters to readers. As a reader focused site, making things comfortable and easy for readers is the goal. That means authors need to do a bit of work to be noticed. This is as it should be. 

If you are having better luck elsewhere, then maybe that place deserves most of your attention. I post to multiple sites, too. I have roughly 3x the readers here than elsewhere, so I give most of my attention here. If you misunderstood views as reads here, I would be suspicious of the metrics on the other site too. Bots are all over the internet.