We Can't Make People Read Our Work

Introduction

This is more observations about our creations on Vocal. I am reasonably prolific and I certainly don't expect anyone to read all or even part of my work, but we all want a little recognition to confirm that we are moving in the right direction. I try to comment as much as I can to let people know that I have read their story and sometimes I find I am the only one in there, and think "Why has nobody else read this" and then if I have the option I share in one or more of the Facebook Groups.

So How Do We Hook A Read, A Top Story, Or Even A Challenge Win?

If I could answer that I probably wouldn't be writing this.. I can only say why I read stories, and it is mostly the title of the story and the subject and possibly the creator.

I am put off by people telling me to read their stories unless they are relevant to what is happening where they post it and when I see published story after published story by the same creator I get put off, even when they are friends of mine. The Haiku, Senryū (川柳) and the current Nonet is devilish for that. If I don't read your challenge entry it's not that I don't like your work it's just that it overwhelms me (I know that might seem like an excuse from me), but when I see something that grabs my interest I am in there.

It may be a word, a phrase, a title, or an image. It could be anything. Sometimes we write stories that we think are good but get very few reads yet have more hearts and comments than reads. Every story I share in the rest of this article has a maximum of two reads but has comments and five hearts or more, so they are liked, but Vocal doesn't see them as being read.

So the implication is that these are not pieces that catch people's attention, but then there are others that get lots of attention and I don't know why.

A recent one for a challenge was given a Top Story within hours of publication, but that does not mean it will even place in the challenge, but it gave me some recognition and therefore it was successful.

Conclusion

I have had over fifty thousand reads, hundreds of Top Stories and one Challenge placement. How do I do it? I don't know, but I engage with as many creators as I can and that generates reciprocity. I have a decent-sized audience and every so often one of my posts gets an unexpected number of reads, again I do not know why.

The music I included is "Don't You Want Me" by The Human League which is sort of appropriate.