![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Original Works on AO3
Apr. 16th, 2025 03:48 pmOn Reddit earlier today I came across a disgruntled young person (they said they were young, I'm not assuming) who is very cast down that their original work is attracting almost zero attention on AO3.
I took a look at their linked fic, and found that it's in an existing fandom, but uses only Original Characters. That's a really tough combination, which I told them.
Similar works that I've posted attract about 0.05504 kudos per day.
Original-character works I've posted that were for challenges -- where there's a bit of a built-in audience; your gift recipient, if no one else -- attract about 0.161109 kudos per day, or about three times as many.
And works I've posted with known ships in known fandoms attract about 0.261748 kudos per day, or almost five times as many.
Keep in mind that's counting a bunch of unpopular fics of mine -- small ships, tiny fandoms, or just things no one wanted to read. The ten fics I've written that are the most popular all have well-known ships. They attract an average of 0.577138 kudos per day, which is over ten times as many as the Original-Character fics I've written.
People search for ships or genres they want to read. They're probably not going to randomly search for your Original-Character fic, sadly. And that's especially true if the Original-Character work you posted is your first work. In my case, I posted works for some relatively popular ships early on and attracted a few subscribers that way, and some of them are willing to give my original stuff a shot, too.
That's one reason I was so surprised to get a bunch of enthusiastic comments on Tournament of Dragons, and why I assumed they must have been from my gift recipient. Because who would randomly find that fic without knowing about me first? I was so surprised!
From looking at that reader's bookmarks, I got the feeling that they're trawling for ancient Rome and/or ancient China fics, which is probably how they found me -- which shows the true power of tagging. Without those tags, I never would have attracted that reader.
I took a look at their linked fic, and found that it's in an existing fandom, but uses only Original Characters. That's a really tough combination, which I told them.
Similar works that I've posted attract about 0.05504 kudos per day.
Original-character works I've posted that were for challenges -- where there's a bit of a built-in audience; your gift recipient, if no one else -- attract about 0.161109 kudos per day, or about three times as many.
And works I've posted with known ships in known fandoms attract about 0.261748 kudos per day, or almost five times as many.
Keep in mind that's counting a bunch of unpopular fics of mine -- small ships, tiny fandoms, or just things no one wanted to read. The ten fics I've written that are the most popular all have well-known ships. They attract an average of 0.577138 kudos per day, which is over ten times as many as the Original-Character fics I've written.
People search for ships or genres they want to read. They're probably not going to randomly search for your Original-Character fic, sadly. And that's especially true if the Original-Character work you posted is your first work. In my case, I posted works for some relatively popular ships early on and attracted a few subscribers that way, and some of them are willing to give my original stuff a shot, too.
That's one reason I was so surprised to get a bunch of enthusiastic comments on Tournament of Dragons, and why I assumed they must have been from my gift recipient. Because who would randomly find that fic without knowing about me first? I was so surprised!
From looking at that reader's bookmarks, I got the feeling that they're trawling for ancient Rome and/or ancient China fics, which is probably how they found me -- which shows the true power of tagging. Without those tags, I never would have attracted that reader.
