Quarter 2 Performance Report

Just keeping with my own commitments and planning for publishing on Vocal for this year and hoping some of the good habits will stick, this is my Second Quarter Report (the first one is here):

April tally: 17 stories published in 9 communities (2 new added), with a total of 28 communities covered; 2 Top Stories; entered one official challenge and 2 unofficial challenges; won 2 placements in official challenges and one unofficial challenge; 698 total earned reads; 96 stories of other authors I liked and commented on.

At the end of April, I started a real traveling book project here on Vocal. Happy to report that the book is now with its third reader in the UK and will be on the way to the fourth one soon:

May tally: 20 stories published in 13 communities (5 new added), with a total of 33 communities covered; 2 Top Stories; entered two official challenges and one unofficial challenge; placed in one official challenge; hosted the Ancient Wonder, Modern Review challenge; 740 total earned reads; 98 stories of other authors I liked and commented on.

Even though my Ancient Wonder, Modern Review challenge did not get as much enthusiasm as the Fucked-Up Wedding Toasts (in a way, it was easier for me, as I didn't have so many tips to manage), it produced some wonderfully hilarious stories:

June tally: 14 stories published in 8 communities (2 new added), with a total of 35 communities covered; 1 Top Story; entered 3 official challenges and one unofficial challenge; placed in two official challenges; 560 total earned reads; 124 stories of other authors I liked and commented on. This was the slowest month so far, with lots of uncertainties and anxieties in my real life interfering with the life on Vocal. But it was good to be back in my house in Atlanta and do a lot of gardening. I wrote about it a couple of stories here in the Lifehack Community, too.

Some overall reflections:

Planning to write a story for at least two new communities in addition to my usual favorite ones (Fiction, Poets, Geeks, and The Swamp) definitely helps to get all of them covered. I only have 13 left, and half a year to go. I have a strong feeling that I will be able to do it without cramping 5-6 new community stories in December like I did last year.

I think all of us were really hit by the new updates on Vocal. Even though I like the new editor, I don't like the fact that I have to enable comments after the story is published if I don't want to embed the comment button into the story. And on the 4th of July (Happy US Independence Day to everyone who celebrates!) I still see my reading stats at 0. Hope this will get fixed soon.