rivers_bend

I do often wonder how I would feel about comments if I got a significant number more than I do. I think I average about 40-50 unique comments per fic (for SPN), which I do not find at all overwhelming to respond to, because on the whole it takes 2+ days (and often 2+weeks) for that number to come in. And I don't work, so it's rare that I am away from my computer for more than 6 hours or so at a time. I usually try to post in the morning, because, living on the West Coast of the US, that is the time that most people in the world are awake. You folks are getting up soon, the Europeans are having a before-bed read, and these time zones are checking their flists at work. that also means that I can start answering comments within a reasonably short time of posting in most instances, so I rarely have to answer more than 8 or so comments at once. I have about four sets of wording appropriate for responding to a generic "I like this!" comment, so I don't feel like I'm repeating myself, and if the person says anything more than that, I try to comment on it in some way, just to make myself feel like I have something different to say. Sometimes I will use a comment on their icon for the same purpose.

I do sometimes find it exhausting if for some reason or another I have been away from my computer and there are 20 comments to answer at once. So i can totally see how, for the people who get four pages of comments on every fic within a few hours of posting, it seems unimaginably daunting. Especially with a job, or kids, or a partner, or all of the above.

I cannot bear the thought of not answering all my comments. I cannot bear the thought of turning off comments. So I really do not know what I would do if I suddenly became a must-read author.

...Or the kind of author that more people left feedback for. I do often wonder about things like reader:commenter ratios versus straight-up numbers of readers.