Do You Often Look at Your Story's Ranking?

[bulgariansumo]

Full disclosure, part of the reason I made this thread is because I didn't know where to celebrate my story's recent rankings. (Novel LGBTQ+ | Trending: 16/52, Popular 50 < for about a week)

But genuinely, I've been wondering if anyone else checks how high up their stories are in the popularity / trending tabs. What do you consider good for your story? Do you care at all about the rankings? That kind of thing. This probably also varies by medium and genre. Fantasy Comics are probably going to be a more competitive genre than Nonfiction Novels, for instance.

I personally consider it a good thing if I'm able to find my stories within a couple page scrolls because if a potential reader was looking for novels in that tab, they'd be able to see it too.

[Katzalcoatl]

Don't do it!!! I mean we all do it. But only do it once in a while. Number 1 error many people do is become obssesed with rankings. But just be careful and look at rankings in an innocent way. Be proud of what you have done but don't become obsessed with the results. Enjoy your story and your fans.

[Katzalcoatl]

Btw, congrats on your ranking. I always look at my ranking but I am always careful to not let it dominate me or change my personality. Sometimes being top 1 can change you for the worse. We sometimes have to step back and get humbled remembering we didn't start as the number 1.

[Hayka]

I always look at it. I think I hit #3 or smth in mystery, I used to be #1 for a while but I haven't written much these days because I'm rewriting some stuff; though nothing much happens in the mystery section anyway so it's easier to score a rank in it.
But there are a lot of stuff going on in LGBT and Fantasy side of things, so congrats

[bulgariansumo]

I can't argue with that advice. I try to limit checking to when I get a like, which isn't often enough where it becomes a huge time sink, but like with anything like that, you have to be careful. I'm mostly just surprised that I managed to get that high. Back when my story was mainly listed under Sci-Fi, it would shoot up to within the top 5 if I managed to get one like a week, so when I changed the genre over to LGBTQ+, I was worried that it would get absolutely buried by the more popular novels, since is a much more popular genre here. Also, thank you!

@Hayka Thanks! Yeah, that sounds a lot like Sci-Fi Novel section, but even still, I don't think I ever managed to get to #1, so congratulations!

[LouisWinter]

How does one check ranks? I didn't know about this.

[BoomerZ]

Yes, how do you do this?

[bulgariansumo]

@BattleStead @BoomerZ Going to Comics (or Novels) > Your Story's genre > Popular (or Trending). The "ranks" aren't numbered (I probably should've chosen a different word), so I wouldn't recommend counting a story's place if it's really far down.

[LouisWinter]

I see. Now that looked at soo many cover on the way down to finally see mine, having a dark cover doesn't make it stand out. Probably going to have to redesign it again.

[XiuLyn_12]

In my case, not really. I don't check my comic performance too much, probably because my comic is nowhere near popular.
But sometimes, I check my ratings (Like on Webtoon). If it drops below 9/10, it hurts me a bit.
I started to think about what went wrong with how I made my comic, but that's pretty much it.

[WildMoonCrow]

I don’t really check that much, I don’t really use the website version unless I’m uploading chapters or something like that so idk about the trending ranking since it doesn’t appear on the app. I just check where I’m at on the popular ranking on the app once in a while but that’s it, usually someone else will tell me first, before I even notice, if I’m high up in any ranking lol

[Flios]

I check occasionally, but most of the time it's hanging around #20-30 in popularity and just somewhere in the trending in Fantasy.

[Katzalcoatl]

If you need help. Don't be afraid of asking. We all respect artist creativity but we can give you a baluable point of view.

[Hayka]

thanks. I'm changing to fantasy in a while because the fantasy part is kicking in in a lil bit, and it helps when you have a book with 3k views and 350 likes from mystery suddenly appear in fantasy side. Might be high up for a while and have more people see it.
In other words, I'm playing dirty

[XiuLyn_12]

Thank you. („• ᴗ •„) I've received nothing but great suggestions and valuable points from this forum~
I'm happy to be part of this community. (⁀ᗢ⁀)

[darthmongoose]

I used to look at it a lot, but I realised it was super bad for my mental health and stopped.

When I moved from Action to LGBTQ+ I was also seeing myself ranked numerically against people I know not just from online communities, but people I know IRL from years on the UK comics scene. It wasn't healthy for me.

Yeah, it was fun the first couple of times I got featured to see my comic right up at the top, but the novelty of that wears off. I just need to stay confident that I'm usually somewhere around the middle of LGBTQ+ comics, and that's pretty good, and get on with my life and focus on creating and promoting my work, not fretting about the small numerical fluctuations that happen over time.

[DasIstWunderblyat]

In my opinion, it's pointless and vain; it also potentially leads to unnecessary obsession and disappointment. You will feel dopamine rush and accomplished when it hits high, and you will be temped to seek that rush again by keep checking it. While it hits low, it lead to disappointment and boredom. It may lead to frustration when it is not getting higher or as high as you expected. We better work on the next chapter than refreshing that tab over and over.

I used to do it when I was newer. Now, I only do it to check if certain thing works (e.g changing genre or changing the cover).

I only check my notification occasionally to reply to comments or see if someone tip and thank them. It matters more to me.

[BoomerZ]

I'm actually not to far down. But I find it funny that the first 3-4 rows all look exactly the same. I couldn't tell them apart.

[candiedcotton]

I am genuinely too dumb to remember to check stuff like this. My partner checks it sometimes though. That's how I found out I was trending one time.

[Kelheor]

I don't. I know one of my comics is always hanging around it's genre's top30 on WT Canvas and another one probably has a looong way to crawl there because the genre is much more competitive and the numbers are still pretty small. On Tapas I don't check anything, unless I see some biggy influx of readers and realize it's probably the feature/banner thing and then go look where is it (or other people tell me).
I mean, it is good if you're there though!
I just don't like checking on this stuff because this whole "so do people see us anywhere" really exhausting me, I just don't have this energy to spend x)