Double Feature · 9:30am May 3rd, 2017
You guys are insane.
So, after waiting patiently for "Man Cannot Live On Tea Alone" to drop down the feature box, I finally uploaded "Man Cannot Live On Coffee Alone". After some missteps early on and some crazy metrics, "Coffee" reached the feature box... and "Tea" struggled it's way back up again, too.
I don't think I've ever seen something like this happen before, where a story drops OFF the feature box as a sequel goes up, and then the popularity of the sequel brings enough readers to the first story to bring it BACK onto the feature box.
I'm just feeling really, really humble, right now.
I'm so happy that everybody enjoys these stories, and I'm seeing some of my other stories get some attention from people as well. It's pretty incredible, and I'm very, very thankful to all of you for reading my work, commenting, sending me edits, and all the love I've gotten from the whole community, here.
When I read comments like "I don't like Human in Equestria fics, but this was so good I gave you an upvote", it's a surreal experience. I wrote these stories for myself, and I've been doing that and having fun for a while. The fact that people have latched onto this series is pretty amazing, and especially the fact that it's making people that normally don't like this type of story enjoy it?
Wow.
So, again, thank you to everybody who's joined me in this. Thank you to all of my followers for the support and kind words, to The Noble Jury for the interest and enjoyment, and all the readers who are enjoying this story.
I'm excited for what comes next!
And what IS next? Well, first, I have my first ever commission to write, and it is coming along nicely. I should be finishing it up soon, and then moving on to Chapter 2 of "Man Cannot Live On Coffee Alone". So, things are in the works, and we have lots to look forward to, together.
Take it easy!
I have to agree, this is the first slice of life HiE I've liked for it's own merits. Only Horse Voice's trope subversions or a few things like it had ever been interesting to me, and I wrote off long form HiE very early into the fandom. That seemed like the only way to do it. Highlight a fundamental cultural incompatibility and watch the world burn. Anything longer turns into a first contact sci fi story, or a fuck yea ponies/humanity war story that strains credulity, neither of which are particularly pony-like pony stories. But Jake is handling things in a very mature, yet alien, manner, and things are progressing naturally.
Is nobody going to mention the twelve-hundred unread chapters you have!?!?
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Uhh...my library is sitting at 9142. Cut the guy some slack, at least he's got an excuse in that he writes as well.
Well done dude, a double feature is incredible. Here's to a triple feature including your commissioned story, yes?
4518383
That's child's play, I have 2,300.
I wonder if the next sequel will be called "Men Cannot Live On Apple Cider Alone"
Also, congratulations man! It's hard to find a good HiE story that doesn't feel off or to different from the FiM show. Your story is very sweet and balanced for him and I do hope that the world building we'll allow Rarity and him to explore places that remind him of home.
Jake sure needs to go to Raritys place since she keeps asking... I wonder what Celestia is thinking about this?
Dude, your dialog is some of the most sophisticated on the FimFiction site. You deserve all the rewards that come with your hostile takeover of the Featured board.
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4518383 I added four very, very long stories to my reading list recently, all of which contain over 200 chapters.
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Thank you very much. It's been a really fun time, writing Jake and exploring the dynamic between him and Rarity. I just always wanted to write as much of a 'real' human as possible, some idealization aside. This isn't going to be a typical romance.
4518409 That's such a fun idea. A series of one-off stories exploring the Mane 6 in a similar light. The only problem is that Rarity's wit clashing with Jake's is a lot of the driving force of this fic. There's certainly opportunities for strong and interesting dialogue from the rest of the Mane 6, though.
I'll give that a little thought.
4518630 Applejack and apples, Pinkie Pie and cake, Rainbow Dash and cider, Twilight and sleep, then Fluttershy and ???
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dont do it
that idea WILL crash and burn
Wow, good job. I don't think I've ever seen an author have two fics in the feature box at the same time. How does it feel? Inquiring minds want to know.
4519851 Frankly, it's a little awesome, but also a little embarrassing? I know how it feels for people to be trying to get a story onto the feature box. I don't want to hog that spotlight.
4520004 I'm predicting a trend where people try get as many of their stories on the feature box as they can at once.
4520018 Please, no, lol.
I know exactly what it feels like to have a story at the cusp of being featured, with all the right metrics. It's great exposure for new writers, and I'm actually sort of pleased that "Man Cannot Live On Coffee Alone" isn't occupying the top feature slot. That "Cat-tastrophe" fic is super cute, and if I hadn't messed up the metrics of the day with the issues my story had (unsubmitting it twice, due to unforseen rules), it likely wouldn't have ever made it onto the feature bar. And that was written by an author with 1000+ watchers, too. The feature box is fickle.
4520018 Also worth noting, ShortSkirts&Explosions actually made an attempt to see what would happen if a major author dropped a large number of stories at once, an experiment of sorts known as L-Day. It's not even remotely easy, turns out, because when a major author publishes a dozen (LITERALLY a DOZEN) stories on the same day, his audience gets split among all the stories and the individual fics don't get a lot of exposure. This results in one or two hitting the feature box, only to be eclipsed and knocked out by the author's SAME stories. Despite Skirts' relative mass of followers, it takes concentrated effort by their reader base to get a story into the feature box.
4520027 Nah, Cat-tastrophe would have made it in no matter what. Just the concept alone is feature box worthy. Even the name and cover art would be enough to get a new author plenty of attention. Of course, it'd still have to be good.
4520031 That's Short Skirts for you. I bet you'd have to space them out by dropping one or two a day. You'd probably have to wait until a fic is more than mid-way through it's run in the feature box before dropping the next one. I wonder if it'd be better to release stand alone one-shots or a group of sequels.