The Vocal Readers

Introduction

Yesterday I got a new subscriber, a fellow Novocastrian (I am just by relocation, not by birth, by birth I am a Prestonian). I thin I may know her name, though she is probably a friend of a friend although her Vocal profile is fairly detailed (though not as detailed as mine which has all my social media IDs there)

The second two in the list have appeared in my stories, and I will share them at the end. They joined so they could comment on the stories that I did for them, but this got me thinking.

So Who Reads My Stories?

Seven of my ten most-read stories have nearly five thousand reads between them but only a total of 65 Vocal Hearts, that is one Vocal Heart per 75 reads. This is not a complaint, but an observation. If "Rose Red" had that many reads per heart it would have clocked 5,700 reads which would be a significant number of dollars.

Having said that, one of my stories (which got a Top Story bonus) had almost double the number of hearts than reads (75% more). The reason for this which I submitted to Vocal is that sometimes people will go into a story and heart it, with the intention of coming back later to read it properly. This is counted as a visit by Vocal but not a read. When the Creator comes back a second time to read the story, Vocal counts it as a second visit so does not record the read.

I don't know if other creators have a similar situation with their creations, but I would love to hear if you do or don't.

I think that all Vocal Creators' priority is to create something worth reading. The next one is for people to read it and hopefully have a positive or constructively critical reaction to it.

If we just publish on Vocal, it is only going to be picked up by your subscribers, maybe a few other Vocal Creators, and if it hits a search engine with popular search data then some outside readers. This latter thing is a huge plus in the Vocal model. I think that is what happened with my second most-read story which was just an exercise in clickbait, but I was sort of embarrassed by it being my most-read story for a long time.

The others in my Top Ten are the results of sharing in other Facebook groups and other sites, and these, as well as many further down the stats ladder, get two or three reads a day.

I am looking forward to the day my Gail Collins Pappalardi story becomes my second most read one. I think this is the result of the story being shared in a Facebook group and then being shared on by people that enjoyed it.

A similar situation occurred with this piece on Greg Davies's "The Cleaner" "Christmas Special" which was written with Robbie Curran. an actor and writer from London and was the first autistic performer to graduate from the Oxford School of Drama. This taught me so much about autism and highlighted several traits in my own personality. If you can watch it you should. It will teach you a lot, and make you laugh as well.

Conclusion

In all honesty, I don't know where most of my reads come from, and I probably never will. All the big hits have been pure luck, but I am grateful. I am also very grateful for all the support and encouragement I get from other Vocal Creators and I always try to reciprocate.

I will conclude this with a poem I write that contains my favourite Vocal Facebook groups so may give you opportunities to share your stories further.