Topic: I am thinking of leaving site.

I spend a lot of time on reviews in order to post my own work for review.  I understand that is the nature of this site.   I have woken up every morning for the past three weeks and only twice has somebody given me a review. Such is depressing and discouraging therefore I am not letting the automatic review through this month and I will possibly be closing down my profile. A big thank you to all the people who have given me reviews early on, unfortunately the last three weeks have almost killed it for me.  Obviously if things improve in the remaining time I would consider staying on.
To be honest, I am not the best writer; I know that.  On top of that I hate reading (rather wait for the movie to come out), so it takes enormous effort to do a review of someone's work; I do the best that I can.  But in the end, is it worth the effort to do so and get very little back?
On the other side, many of the reviews I have had have been extremely helpful and reviewers are inspiring when they say they will be back.  It's a huge crush when that does not happen sad.   
I am wondering how many new writers like me, come here and fall off from such declines.  It could be something site managers would like to look into and I would be willing to participate in that regard.   There is a lot of promise here, which is why I have decided to communicate this.   

...lets see how the next few weeks go...

Quote Post 1

2 Reply by GPyrenees (edited by GPyrenees 2017-05-20 23:04:15)

Re: I am thinking of leaving site.

Per my quickee message:

I'm sorry you feel so dismayed. I've been on the site for roughly 5 years. I have found the review process to be extremely helpful. I know you don't always get as many reviews as you would like, some people are not very good about reciprocating, and you don't always hear what you want to hear. But I saw the reviews you received, including the in line reviews (that take an incredible amount of time to write) from some of the best writers and reviewers on this site. I took a look at one of your chapters, and had nothing to add some of the comments that were made already. Based on your post here, I see no need to do my own review when you're planning on leaving the site anyway, you said that you don't read but only watch movies, and you think your work is screen-ready. Good luck to you.

Quote Post 2

Re: I am thinking of leaving site.

It is too bad you feel that way, Tamihana. When first-time writers join this site, recognition comes slow. You have to get out and visit the profiles of a lot of other writers. I notice you have only 7 connections to show for a year of membership. In my first year, I had nearly 40. If you want anyone to see your posts, the best way to do that is to make friends with as many writers as you can. Search the groups you are interested in and send connection requests. It doesn't cost a thing to do that. Then, when they post something, go read it and comment. This way you build up points you can use to post your own works.

It takes time to gather reviewers. Keep trying and they will show up. I suggest you find a story you are really interested in reading and get started. Most new reviewers will opt for a Regular review. Surely you can find 50 words to tell the writer what you think. Later, as you gain confidence in your own abilities, venture into an Inline review. They aren't as hard as you think. Everyone (and I do mean everyone) makes mistakes, typos, and bad grammar at times. Don't be afraid to point things like that out. We're happy to have that happen.

Give writing in a new genre a try. I had never given much thought to writing a romance novel, but soon I'll have my first one published. That's a heck of a boost to one's ego. Above all, don't give up.

Bill

Quote Post 3

Re: I am thinking of leaving site.

Hi, TJ, what works for one doesn't necessarily work for another, but the odds are that you just might be selling the site (and yourself) short. Just as an example, when I joined, my novel was already completed, but I didn't post anything for several months while I reviewed others and became active in the forums to get to know a lot of folks at least indirectly. And once I started posting, the reviews came very quickly and from a diverse audience. You might note that on average you need to do three or four reviews  for each you receive, but you're probably going to have to do those in order to gain the credits to publish your next chapter anyway, so the counting doesn't really mean anything. Overall point is that it takes time to build working relationships and to be quite frank and honest (if you stay, you'll find that's the only way I will be) you have not done your part to date. You talk of expecting reviews everyday when you are "complaining" about not liking to read. That just may be why your review ratio comes up short for achieving the number of reviews you seem to expect. Of course you have your right to high expectations without the required input And once n a great while there may be writers who achieve just what you expect, but it doesn't happen often. The odds most often times win. Having said all that, I wish you luck with whatever final decision you make. I will offer one more tidbit that you might find useful at some point, if not on this site, perhaps another: It happens quite often that folks come to the forums and ask politely for help with their stories and surprisingly often they end up receiving a fair amount of reviews. However, most of the time, threatening to leave the site doesn't work nearly as well. Just my two cents for what it's worth if anything. Take care. Vern

Quote Post 4

Re: I am thinking of leaving site.

Tamihanna.....I would suggest that you don't give up on this site yet. You prob need to do more reviews in your genre and develop a base with them. It takes time to gather reviewers, but it is worth it...

Quote Post 5

Re: I am thinking of leaving site.

It can take weeks to build the recip relationships you need with writers whose work AND reviews you appreciate.

I glanced at the first chapter of =Strike Wing=.  You've got reviews from published writers.  That's pretty good.

I haven't looked to see if you'te active in any group forums.  That helps to maintain recip relationships.

Quote Post 6

Re: I am thinking of leaving site.

Tamihanna, I've been looking for something else from you, but haven't seen anything come through since the initial two when you first joined.  May I suggest that you join as many of the different groups as you can, and then when you publish a page, publish it in all those groups.  There's a place to check them all on the publishing page.  Check all the groups you're a member of, then update your page.

These groups still get me confused.  I think the largest one is the Premium group.  Anyway, try that before you leave.  I enjoyed your first two stories. It could be they're just not getting seen.  Good luck!

MJ

Quote Post 7

Re: I am thinking of leaving site.

I've been fairly non-active on this site for a while as I work on my undergrad studies and spend a lot of time thinking about novels I haven't bothered to write, and patter about in the forums smile so first of all, well done writing anything at all and posting it. Completing something and putting it out there for response is a difficult first step, and one many potential writers never achieve. (I refer again to my own very empty portfolio and very scarce activity as a reviewer.)

As you're weighing the pros and cons in your decision, you might consider:

1) that reviewing others' work here can strengthen your own work by offering context and exercising your mind.*
2) that reading published works does the same, even if you find the activity arduous. If you choose to quit the site, my advice is to go to the library and overcome your dislike of reading, immediately. Power through it until you conquer books.
3) that by my count you've given 21 reviews since you joined, and received 24 back. I don't know if I've calculated that right, since I believe reviews disappear if people delete their work. But if what I'm reading is nearly accurate, you have actually done very well on the site. A lot of the reviews you've given have been since April 2017, and a lot of the reciprocated reviews have been since April 2017. You've given 7 reviews in the last three weeks and have gotten 10 back, by my count -- not 2? That includes a few by Marilyn Johnson since this forum post was written seeking additional feedback. It seems like you're planning to base your entire assessment of the site on the response-time of less than a month.

I've been on this site for a while, & have seen people post in a flurry and leave as quickly, claiming disappointment with the scarce response to their work. Sometimes leaving is exactly the right choice. For example, when a writer lacks confidence or a sense of what he or she intends to write, opposing reviews can be extremely confusing and push out the writer's own viewpoint. I see this a lot when people post a work in progress rather than a completed work. The story starts to be written according to the reviewers' opposing tastes rather than the author's, leaving the author dissatisfied and lost. Certainly not what you want! It doesn't sound like that's your issue though: you seem to be extremely confident about your work and just crave more feedback. I expect that's the lot of many writers. There will be peaks and troughs in the writer's journey. The troughs can be frustrating. Only you can decide how best to respond to them.

If you think leaving the site is the best way to achieve success as a writer, I don't think anyone here will try to stop you. Most here would want to see you succeed.

Very best wishes, however, you choose to proceed.

- corra

* Although one of the site's new perks seems to be that a person can review for free when the work is visible to a wide audience of non-paying members. So (if I understand things correctly) you can still do some piping good reviewing exercises as a non-paying member! You don't even have to post your remarks, if you don't want to. You can do that privately, for exercise. I humbly suggest that you've gotten something out of writing reviews even if it wasn't the sort of feedback you wanted or expected when you joined. smile

Quote Post 8

Re: I am thinking of leaving site.

...and off she goes hmm

Quote Post 9

Re: I am thinking of leaving site.

To paraphrase Lincoln, You can't please everyone all the time.

Bill

Quote Post 10