About Feedback...

I found this article by Te today about feedbacking and the lack thereof. The tone is definitely not my style, but it was interesting to read anyway, since Te put into words what many authors are thinking to begin with.

Lack of FB is a conversation I've been having on and off with someone for a while now and we both agree that when your fics end up in a dark black hole, that's the absolute worse. That's when you post a story and no one, absolutely no one, even responds. You wonder if anyone is reading you at all. You wonder if the story is terrible and no one wants to tell you. And then you notice another story that is getting all the accolades for the week and you try to stifle the green-eyed monster, but it's impossible. You wonder what that author did to get all that FB and you wonder what you can do to get some of that yourself. And then, things get reversed. All of a sudden, you get tons of FB and some poor author somewhere gets none.

Getting FB is one of those very, very strange things. It's so incredibly lovely when you get it and I probably even shouldn't talk, since I think I've been very fortunate in getting FB on a fairly regular basis, whether for new or for old fics. Just the other day, I got FB on W/D stories I had written years ago and that was wonderful, to know people were still reading those fics.

But at the same time, this "regular" FB thing is fairly new to me as well - there were days when I despaired of ever getting anyone to acknowledge that I existed. I remember once telling Liz that I could drop out of fandom and *no one* would notice. It could even be true today, who knows? If you're getting into fandom, it's important to realize that you've got to write because you *love* fandom and because you *want* to write. If you're doing it for the FB, you're going to be disappointed. Unfortunately, there are more writers than FBers out there.

That being said, FB is good and adored and I'm so grateful for every single word that people have taken time to write. I have saved nearly every piece of FB I've ever received. I keep it in my "Feedback" folder - something to soothe my ego when things aren't going well at all. When I'm especially down, I read the FB SnoopMary posted on ASC, the one with the subject line that nearly knocked me right out of my shoes and I came out of my reclusive fanfic writing status for just a second to show a coworker exactly what SnoopMary had written because I was so shocked.

So how do you get FB? Beats me. Conventional wisdom says that if you write something good, they will read it and then they will send you comments. Could be true - good stories move me to FB, whether publicly or privately, but lately with time being such a premium, I read but don't always FB in a timely manner. Sometimes I'll rec a story here without ever telling the author. Sometimes the story sits in my newsreader for weeks at a time and then I think that it's too late to FB. Excuses, excuses. I've made a resolution to myself to FB more during my break - after all, working only 2 days a week and not having much else to do, what excuse could I possibly have *not* to FB?

Note to self: Feed the author. Makes them happy. Keeps them writing.