Gay Authors News

BendtedWreath · February 14

The only surprise for me is how high "general fiction" is on that list.

Lee Wilson · February 14

For example, if you like Westerns, you might get a sidebar that has the newest Westerns on it. While someone else might get Historicals. The purpose would be to make it easier to find things you like.

I would hope something like this could be disabled based on user preference.

Jason Rimbaud · February 14

I am a numbers guy, I analyze data for my restaurant, reviews, engagement, units sold, prices, and so on.

I also have taken that love of data and have been analyzing my own readership stats for each of my stories on a weekly basis. I am tracking story page views, individual chapter views, comments, likes, and recommendations. I know I'm a bit retentive, but I have a system and it doesn't take me long.

Currently, Frosted Hearts has 12,430 story page views. While overall, my total chapter views is 7,158. And as with most stories, the first seven chapters have a higher reader count than the last ones. So my data shows me I've retained about two hundred readers per chapter.

So if 12K readers have hit on my story page, yet only 500 readers actually clicked on the first chapter, gives me the impression that I am losing readers based on the story description, story tags, or the idea itself. (we shall not entertain I'm a sucky writer/righter)

And looking at the above preferences of the members, I see the majority of people want something other than what I write/right. Which is fine, I'm not going to change, but I am going to focus harder and put more thought into writing story descriptions and including proper tags moving forward.

And just as an aside, I was averaging 400 readers per chapter until I informed a commenter that I was not writing a rom/com, my readers fell by half after that comment.

Anyways, I love data, and looking at numbers and trying to make sense of things in spreadsheets.

Sorry, a long response saying I love that you look at things trying to improve the site.

Yet, I'm with Lee in one regard. My screen is already cluttered and if we are going to be shown recommendations based on our preferences, is that replacing an existing "banner", or will this be an addition? And would it be a feature we could customize? Like change our preferences if we so desire.

And my own worthless two cents, please disregard if I'm out of line, but too many places try to tailor my experience to my own preferences as it is. I don't want to live in a bubble and see only comforting things. I do not like algorithms on YouTube or anywhere actually, because it only gives me videos it thinks I will like based on the one cat video my husband sent me. It took me nearly a month to get rid of cat videos recommendations.

I like that I see all new posted stories/chapters. I discovered many stories using that existing tool, stories I would never read because it's outside my normal reading habits. I know I am in the minority probably, but I have control issues and hate the idea that some "AI" knows me better than I know myself.

I, no doubt, will learn to adjust to any new re-tooling of GA, and outside of this comment, will probably never mention things again. I can, in some small way, understand trying to make something better for all users, and in that vein pissing off some of them. Happens every three months when I change my signature sauces, I remove some and add new ones. I deal with pissed off people all the time. So ignore me if I'm being nit-picky

I'm a work in progress...maybe. Sorry for the long response.

Mark Arbour · February 14

Myr,

I love that you analyze this data and share it with us. This is super-useful.

Mark.

Myr · February 14

7 minutes ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

if we are going to be shown recommendations based on our preferences, is that replacing an existing "banner", or will this be an addition? And would it be a feature we could customize? Like change our preferences if we so desire.

Most likely replacing though, with the changes coming with the forum software upgrades, it might not be apples to apples comparison. And yes, it would be tied to preferences.

11 minutes ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

I like that I see all new posted stories/chapters.

This will always be available. It is the default update feed for the site and shall be in the future.

12 minutes ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

I have control issues and hate the idea that some "AI" knows me better than I know myself.

There isn't any AI in our software, and I don't see that in the near future either. The software will just use data points you provide. It might do new things with that data. I used a feed as an example. But maybe if you don't visit the site for a couple weeks, you'll get an email (if you allow those), that says, "Hey, we see you haven't visited in a while. Here are 5 of the newest stories in your favorite genre you can check out"

23 minutes ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

So if 12K readers have hit on my story page, yet only 500 readers actually clicked on the first chapter, gives me the impression that I am losing readers based on the story description, story tags, or the idea itself. (we shall not entertain I'm a sucky writer/righter)

OMG... someone gets it! Yay! I've explained that a few times over the years when people complained about high views on their story and low views on the chapter.

2 hours ago, Lee Wilson said:

I would hope something like this could be disabled based on user preference.

yes, preferences will be tied to this stuff for the most part. You could also set your favorite genres to "none"

Myr · February 14

16 minutes ago, Mark Arbour said:

I love that you analyze this data and share it with us. This is super-useful.

Something that popped out of the data about our Secret Author Contest in July:

Quote

Secret Author Story Contest (launched 7/21/2025, lasts 2 weeks)

Event weeks in your sheet: Jul 26, 2025 and Aug 2, 2025
Baseline used: the 4 prior weeks (Jun 28–Jul 19, 2025)

Per 1,000 active members (weekly average)

New Chapters: 52.8 → 85.9 (+62.6%)

New Stories: 7.28 → 14.08 (+93.3%)

New Reviews: 8.85 → 60.89 (+587.6%) ✅ biggest lift

New Chapter Comments: 762.9 → 1052.6 (+38.0%)

Participating in the contest nets some strong engagement for all involved.

I'm looking the data and trying to make it more useful and have ways to act on it to improve everyone's experience.

This includes exploring fundamental changes to the layout and look of the site as we go into the future. A snapshot of the test server with some mockups of possible new front page designs for the site:

Mobile screen view:

Jason Rimbaud · February 14

26 minutes ago, Myr said:

But maybe if you don't visit the site for a couple weeks

Could this be your secret desire? .

I enjoy some of the contests GA does annually, but the Secret Author contest is by far the best, in my opinion. And seeing the analytics showing that I am right, (i know you didn't release the other contests/anthology data but I'm going to pretend it's because SA was the highest performing) makes me want to participate next year.

29 minutes ago, Myr said:

This will always be available.

Then I'm down for any of the changes. Thank you for answering my questions and just for fun, my favorite genres are some of the lowest on your list in the original posting. Action and Adventure being the highest surprised me, I thought for sure it would be rom/com.

Myr · February 14

2 minutes ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

I thought for sure it would be rom/com.

Basically what the reading stats say, yes. I think this might be an artifact of "2nd choice" artifact and/or people clicked save when the first 20 minutes or so "Action/Adventure" was the default.

Davide · February 14

2 hours ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

Currently, Frosted Hearts has 12,430 story page views. While overall, my total chapter views is 7,158. And as with most stories, the first seven chapters have a higher reader count than the last ones. So my data shows me I've retained about two hundred readers per chapter.

So if 12K readers have hit on my story page, yet only 500 readers actually clicked on the first chapter, gives me the impression that I am losing readers based on the story description, story tags, or the idea itself. (we shall not entertain I'm a sucky writer/righter)

I sometimes click on a story, follow it if it seems interesting, but only come back another day to actually read it. (This specifically happens when I only found it after a few chapters are already out, which was the case with Frosted Hearts, and it's a result of me prioritising stories I can still comment on in real time.) That means my first hit on the story page doesn't continue into a chapter, even though the story didn't lose me as a reader. This works against your calculations of views to only the story page always being readers you lost.

Edited February 14 by Davide

Jason Rimbaud · February 14

5 minutes ago, Davide said:

I sometimes click on a story, follow it if it seems interesting, but only come back another day to actually read it. (This specifically happens when I only found it after a few chapters are already out, which was the case with Frosted Hearts, and it's a result of me prioritising stories I can still comment on in real time.) That means my first hit on the story page doesn't continue into a chapter, even though the story didn't lose me as a reader. This works against your calculations of views to only the story page always being readers you lost.

I can agree with you on that statement, I to only read a few stories at a time. And I will mark a story for later viewing.

I also know some won't read a story until it's complete to ensure they will get an ending. So I believe your reason is one of many to explain the disparity of story views vs chapter views.

And as with any data, it can be interpreted many ways. I do believe a good portion of it is story description, and what you tag the story. This is an area I struggle with which i why I fixate on it so much. For Gabriel's Gambit, I used an "AI" for the description as per Myr's suggestion in some other thread.

This is why I really appreciate Myr looking at data and trying to find ways to improve author/reader engagement. With his deep dive end of year wrap-up, he gave all the authors a blueprint on how to achieve greater visibility on the site. Many other sites don't offer that much insight.

ReaderPaul · February 14

2 hours ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

Yet, I'm with Lee in one regard. My screen is already cluttered and if we are going to be shown recommendations based on our preferences, is that replacing an existing "banner", or will this be an addition? And would it be a feature we could customize? Like change our preferences if we so desire.
And my own worthless two cents, please disregard if I'm out of line, but too many places try to tailor my experience to my own preferences as it is. I don't want to live in a bubble and see only comforting things. I do not like algorithms on YouTube or anywhere actually, because it only gives me videos it thinks I will like based on the one cat video my husband sent me. It took me nearly a month to get rid of cat videos recommendations.
I like that I see all new posted stories/chapters. I discovered many stories using that existing tool, stories I would never read because it's outside my normal reading habits. I know I am in the minority probably, but I have control issues and hate the idea that some "AI" knows me better than I know myself.
I, no doubt, will learn to adjust to any new re-tooling of GA, and outside of this comment, will probably never mention things again. I can, in some small way, understand trying to make something better for all users, and in that vein pissing off some of them. Happens every three months when I change my signature sauces, I remove some and add new ones. I deal with pissed off people all the time. So ignore me if I'm being nit-picky.
I'm a work in progress...maybe. Sorry for the long response.

One thing I did which reduced screen clutter was become a Premium Subscriber. Yes, there is a cost, but there are various plans. Especially when I am on my phone, the Premium status saves me much time and aggravation.

Jason Rimbaud · February 14

6 minutes ago, ReaderPaul said:

One thing I did which reduced screen clutter was become a Premium Subscriber. Yes, there is a cost, but there are various plans. Especially when I am on my phone, the Premium status saves me much time and aggravation.

I think that is good advice for anyone looking to get rid of ads and help support GA continue to be a free site at the same time.

Flip-Flop · February 15

Quote

We will be using this data in the future for updates, notifications, and newsletters.

Please make sure this accurate. Early entries I think defaulted to "Action/Adventure" because we had an unusually high weighted score with this.

Snapshot after 15 minutes:
154 members updated.

Top 10 genres among MEMBERS (Weighted: Fav=3, 2nd=2, 3rd=1; excluding 'None'):
1) Action/Adventure — 439

A little warning before this change would have been helpful. I had no idea what was going on when I logged in? I thought I would that I would never be able to access my story page. That may explain the very high Action/Adventure counts. I just kept pressing buttons till it would let me proceed past this block. Perhaps other older members also did not understand what this was all about? I entered 3 nones and used Everything for my favorite, but "it is what it is". I'm still toying with my settings.

Edited February 15 by Flip-Flop

Ron · February 15

39 minutes ago, Flip-Flop said:

Perhaps other older members also did not understand what this was all about?

My comment is not personal to the commenter but it does draw attention to the not-inconsiderable bias toward ageism generally in the world. :thumbdown:

We may be older than some of you younger individuals, but that does not preclude the understanding of simple questions. Nor do complex ideas and/or algorithms generally exempt us from participation in this community.

Get a grip youngling's! :rolleyes:

Flip-Flop · February 15

"My comment is not personal to the commenter but it does draw attention to the not-inconsiderable bias toward ageism generally in the world. :thumbdown:

'We may be older than some of you younger individuals, but that does not preclude the understanding of simple questions. Nor do complex ideas and/or algorithms generally exempt us from participation in this community.

Get a grip youngling's! :rolleyes: "

I am well into my seventies and admit to being confused by many tech changes, It is good that someone much older and wiser is here to look after us younger members. 😇 Thanks for your very helpful input. :rolleyes:

Edited February 15 by Flip-Flop

Ron · February 15

19 minutes ago, Flip-Flop said:

I am well into my seventies

You've got me beat by a decade then. I do maintain that younger people are often dismissive of our generation. And I do get that 'progress' in technology can at times be a daunting task to keep up with as one ages. At least here on GA if you don't understand something and ask for further explanation you'll be met with kindness in the offering up of help.

As I initially stated my comment was not directed at you. Your sarcasm and eye-roll at the end was uncalled for.

Darryl62 · February 15

Fascinating reading! Ive been a premium subscriber from when I discovered this site, so finding out there were ads was a surprise!. Like Jason, I too often wander through different stories based upon some other readers comments and down a rabbit hole I go. I also prefer completed stories, or regular chapters ( thank you Mark Arbour) as when you start an amazing piece of work that becomes long term hold to abandoned gives grief to both reader and author. As an older member, the survey was just a blip and happy to complete. I will be curious about what happens next, but will still follow trails left by others, especially the weekly genre news about everything. It made me read some poetry that I wouldn’t have otherwise.

Thank you finally to Myr and the other administrators for all that you do bringing joy and excitement to us vis the penmanship of others.

William King · February 15

10 hours ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

Currently, Frosted Hearts has 12,430 story page views. While overall, my total chapter views is 7,158. And as with most stories, the first seven chapters have a higher reader count than the last ones. So my data shows me I've retained about two hundred readers per chapter.

So if 12K readers have hit on my story page, yet only 500 readers actually clicked on the first chapter, gives me the impression that I am losing readers based on the story description, story tags, or the idea itself. (we shall not entertain I'm a sucky writer/righter)

I think you are missing the probability that readers click on new stories which are displayed in the sidebar with only author name and title. This counts as a story view, but readers are only looking to see what the story is about, the synopsis, the genre, the tags. Then they may or may not click the first chapter. In summary, you can ignore story views, they are the equivalent of picking up a book, reading the back cover and putting it back on the shelf.

Imo, the only stats that count for anything are chapter views and the first chapter(s) are always higher than later chapters, drop off. You also need to take account of variable chapter views, some middle chapters higher than previous chapters, illustrating clicking to re-read, place finding.

The true number of readers you could estimate as 80% of the lowest chapter views (80/20 rule).

The system does also throw in wobblies, chapters with views in the thousands when the rest of the chapters are hundreds!

A final word, is Action/Adventure really readers favourite genre? Somehow, I doubt that. Romance, yes, and general fiction, a cover all genre for authors that is not really a genre.

Davide · February 15

3 hours ago, William King said:

A final word, is Action/Adventure really readers favourite genre? Somehow, I doubt that. Romance, yes, and general fiction, a cover all genre for authors that is not really a genre.

When I got the screen asking me to fill my preferences, all three would have been left as Action/Adventure if I had just clicked next without reading. That's probably the only reason it's so high, it's the first one alphabetically. But it seems they fixed it after a few minutes, based on a comment above.

Edited February 15 by Davide

Mike Carss · February 15

7 hours ago, William King said:

You also need to take account of variable chapter views, some middle chapters higher than previous chapters, illustrating clicking to re-read, place finding.

Another factor for higher views on chapters is comments. If a chapter garners many comments (with readers and the author coming back to reply), that will inflate the viewer count. Honestly, I'd prefer if the system counted one view per member, regardless of the number of times they visited a chapter. Yes, that would bring the numbers down significantly, but it'd also provide a truer metric.

In any case, thanks for all the information, @Myr. I find this behind-the-scenes stuff very interesting.
And I'm looking forward to the updated forum software being deployed. Do you have a planned time window to go live, or is it a "it's ready when it's ready" situation? I imagine there's no going back to the old software if something went catastrophically wrong, so cautiously rooting out any bugs is a prudent decision.

Myr · February 15

12 minutes ago, mcarss said:

"it's ready when it's ready" situation?

when the Story app is updated to work with the new forum software. And we've done all the testing we need to do.

Jason Rimbaud · February 15

4 hours ago, mcarss said:

If a chapter garners many comments (with readers and the author coming back to reply), that will inflate the viewer count.

IF this true, that makes so much sense to me. As randomly, Frosted Hearts hanging out at 200 views per chapter suddenly jumped up to 800 in a few hours on Chapter Eight. Which is weird cause the comment count wasn't crazy high. But it was puzzling why Chapter One will have 300 views but Chapter Two will have six hundred. I was thinking, why do people skip chapters.

Thanks for this!

Lee Wilson · February 15

8 minutes ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

IF this true, that makes so much sense to me. As randomly, Frosted Hearts hanging out at 200 views per chapter suddenly jumped up to 800 in a few hours on Chapter Eight. Which is weird cause the comment count wasn't crazy high. But it was puzzling why Chapter One will have 300 views but Chapter Two will have six hundred. I was thinking, why do people skip chapters.

Thanks for this!

Yeah, I always thought it was one user, one view, but that’s apparently not the case. Just looking at ’Manny Needs A Nanny’ the chapter view counts are all over the place. The last chapter has nearly the most views of the whole story. Only chapter 3 has more (by 36). I’m thinking it’s not just the comments, but every comment like/love/sad… counts as a new view as well. Maybe @Myr can elucidate for us.

Myr · February 15

6 minutes ago, Lee Wilson said:

Only chapter 3 has more (by 36). I’m thinking it’s not just the comments, but every comment like/love/sad… counts as a new view as well. Maybe @Myr can elucidate for us.

Nope. Views are pages loads on a chapter or story table of contents page.

Jason Rimbaud · February 15

2 minutes ago, Myr said:

Nope. Views are pages loads on a chapter or story table of contents page.

Excuse my slowness of mind. So each time someone visit the chapter page, it counts as a unique view?

If that's the case, I'm back to being flummoxed. . Not hard to do with my slow mind

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