Baffled (and disgruntled, there's a surprise)

[quasar273]

I wrote two fics for Yuletide. The first was in a fandom I'd never heard of before reading the request. But I caught up with the canon and wrote what I felt was a nice, meaty story that captured the author's voice and style pretty well. I was nicely satisfied with that story, and I looked forward to posting it here after the author reveal.

Then I volunteered for a pinch-hit, and despite having a better familiarity with the source material, I just couldn't get that one off the ground. I had one piece of inspiration that allowed me to put some realistic detail in, but I couldn't find a plot. So it turned out to be just a vignette, some conversation about what happened after the end of canon, not even twice the minimum required story length. I was not satisfied with this story and figured I probably wouldn't even bother to post it here later on.

Then the archive went live, and the comments started coming in, and I got just as many (sometimes nicer) comments for the vignette as for the plotty story. In fact, the vignette got two recommendations! And none for the story I thought was much better. I am baffled.

So, what's up? Is it relative popularity of the source material? I didn't think they were that much different -- both bookfic, although one is more recent than the other. Is it the combination of a rare fandom with a long story, making people unwilling to try the meatier story unless they know the source? Or am I just that wrong about the relative quality of the stories? Soon, friends, you will be able to judge for yourselves!

But I still think the long one is way better. Hmmph.

Comments

[magic-rat.livejournal.com]

As the author, it's difficult for you to judge what will appeal to the public at large. After all, there are many songwriters who wrote best-selling hits that they just didn't care for at all ("Living on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi comes to mind as an example, but there are many, many more). You're just too close to it to see what the public would like.

Also, "more popular" is not the same as "better". The best example of that is Paris Hilton.

[aetherbunny.livejournal.com]

(randomly wandering in from the yuletide friending meme)

I haven't got around to reading either of the stories you did this year, although I'm intending to read both of them eventually (I usually print out fic to read it and I'm dead out of ink.)

I really think it has a lot to do with relative popularity of the source material. The fic I received this year was great, but it didn't get very many comments and only one rec.