Polls are getting interesting.

And I hope AFFers don't rely on it too much in making simple decisions here in AFF.

Decide for yourself so you won't regret it in the end. (Yep. I know what I'm talking about. May pinaghuhugutan.)

The only reason I find why authors set up polls is that they want to be sure that they would have an audience for their story. They ask which pair or couple AFFers want to get featured in a story.

You don't need to set up a poll for that. Go to the featured section and see which artists most users here like to read. 

I know it's cliche but cliche sells. Of course, the audience would want something new and so you put a creative twist in your cliche plot.

What is the equation? You know it already! Boy meets girl, they break-up, and then they make-up. It's not it? Oh right, add a third party - a jealous ex, rich controlling parents or the manipulative company! No? I missed something? Yeah, throw in a lot of craziness: they first hate each other; he's popular, she's a nerd; she lives inside a dorm with a dozen hormone-crazed boys...etc.

Scrap the last part, the craziness part. No, leave it there. Set your own crazy story in the real world. Make us laugh, make us cry, make us...fall in love...in this reality.

Sit back and relax, wait for the subscriber count to go up, up, up! AFFers are easy to please, most of us.

This is AFF, 2012

They like 'you' (not the tag) or reader-insert fics, so they could imagine themselves to be the character. They like love triangles, love squares, love decagons, love dodecagons. The fangirl reader must have lots of perfect guys to choose from, preferably living under the same roof or close to her. Add in lots of fluff, angst... 

The key: fangirl. What do fangirls want? Oppa. A life with oppa/oppas. Give them that.

If they swing the other way or prefer boyxboy, write . Use the popular pairings. Just look at the tags. Likewise, write about triangles, squares, hexagons, undecagons. Lots of fluff and angst. 

Okay, forgive me, I exaggerate.

I do understand the rationale of you wanting know what the readers like. It is about catering to the demands of the consumers.

...it is about marketing. How you sell yourself or how your novel sells itself to an audience. Know your target audience. What do they want? What do fans here in AFF want?

This is AFF, 2012

Right, yuu?

Why write about something they won't read? 

It is a give and take relationship. You write, they read, subscribe and hopefully, comment.

But here's the thing, readers, me included, are getting lazier every day to comment, which is bad. Very bad. I no longer read/subscribe save for a few friend's stories. (I'll get back to it once I get past this hurdle, lol)

So, if the readers are your motivation for writing, think again.

Why bother asking the opinion of people who can't even drop a single comment? Why bother getting stressed wanting to please your silent readers?

Just write.

With you asking such questions, it doesn't present a very good picture of what I think an author should be. I want my author to be decisive. I want my author to know what she wants and how to get it or do it.

Eck. This Keeper had a very bad experience with one story here. To think I fell in love with the plot, setting, characters and her style. It started with an original character which is good, then after five chappies or so, author changes oc into a kpop idol, like BAM! And I would have accepted it, if the whole character is changed completely and the whole story is re-written to fit her. But nooo. She just changes the name. LOL. Just the name. Same character, a different name. She didn't even bother changing the physical appearance, lol. And then it doesn't add up anymore LOL.

Why?! Because die-hard shippers said so in the comment section. So, I unsubbed. Yeah. And author talked to me saying the oc was really patterned after kpop idol. Uhuh. Yeah. Still unsubbing. LOL.

How about you?

Do you like your author to have you write the story for her? In a poll?

Oh a quick tip for newbies. With the homepage's current layout, I know it would be hard for you to gain subbies. But you still have a chance with those who search for stories to read via tags. Use existing ones as much as possible.

Another way is to update your story when most readers are here. Make sure your story trends at peak times. You can run an experiment yourself but since most are students, friday nights and weeknights are your best bets. Well, those who have jobs have weekends free usually too. 

As an encouragement, I decided to pull this out: It's not you, it's me