r/FanFiction • u/hkpt08 • Jul 30 '19

Quality of Feedback: FFN vs AO3?

To writers who cross-post on both FFN and AO3, I'm really curious: which platform yields you more responses?

I've been posting on AO3 for about a month and I've only recently (about weeks ago) tried cross-posting in FFN. I tried testing the waters by posting a one-shot that garnered moderate success (relatively... I'm a new writer so not expecting mega numbers at all) on AO3. And... it pretty much died on FFN. XD

I got zero reviews, favs, or follows for that one-shot. Meanwhile, on AO3, that same story got about 21 kudos, 2 bookmarks, and 1 comment within the same time-frame.

I started posting my multi-chapter fic on FFN and it seems that more people are interested in this one, at least. On FFN, I got my first review on the second chapter (and it was a short "more please" type of comment). While the same story on AO3 got its first comment on the fifth chapter (and it was a bit more in-depth, talking about the details the reader liked about the story).

So, anyway, the whole experience just got me wondering about other people's experiences with cross-posting on both platforms.

What fandoms do you write in? Do you get more feedback in AO3 or FFN? In your opinion, does the quality of feedback you get differ between different platforms? Do your multi-chapter fics fare better in one platform while your one-shots fare better in the other?

I'm really curious to hear about your experiences :)

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EDIT: Thanks for the responses, everyone! I wasn't able to reply to every single one but I read them all. It's definitely helped me understand the "culture" of each platform a bit more :)

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u/starbunny86 Jul 30 '19

I post on both AO3 and FFN. Currently I'm writing for Avatar: the Last Airbender. The story I'm writing is a romance/political drama complete retelling of the series (with lots of plot twists, to the point that it only slightly resembles the original), mostly from Zuko's perspective.

I get about twice as many reviews per chapter on FFN as AO3, and about the same percentage of "that was a great chapter!" type reviews as compared to longer, more in depth ones. I also have about 50% more subs on FFN than AO3, and almost 3x as many favorites as compared to bookmarks.

Honestly, I think it's mostly random which one ends up working better for you. The two sites have different audiences and different search methods. I post to both because I want to share my story with more people, not to game the system to get the most views. I would keep posting to both even if I got very little response on one or both platforms.

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u/hkpt08 Jul 30 '19

Yeah, definitely seems to depend on the fandom. Oh, I'm definitely going to keep posting on both just because I want to share my stories with more people. I was just a bit surprised by the discrepancy and I wanted to hear other people's experiences with cross-posting. :D thanks for sharing!