No feature, but...

I’m calling it a successful release of C&C Chapter 15 yesterday, with a bevy of new tracks and two new likes, taking me all the way up to 150! That means I now have nearly a tenth the audience the original story did...

But I’m not disappointed or jealous. I’ve always been patient in building up my readership, willing to earn my popularity chapter by chapter and like by like. I once told DEL that I envied him for his success, but his response was that he just got lucky to write a mega-hit like Gentleman for Mares to start. The stars aligned and it took off; it got him his initial audience and made all his subsequent stories hits in turn. it helped that it was coming on the heels of Xenophilia and was at least in part inspired by it, hitting on the same trifecta of themes that made Xeno popular—HiE, reversed gender roles, and interspecies sex.

Ah, the fandom was so young and fresh back then, full of new ideas and interesting concepts. But you know what? It still is. A complaint I sometimes hear is that we’re out of original ideas now for G4, at least, which I strongly disagree with. I like to think stories like this show there’s still plenty of gas in the tank and concepts to be explored. If I’m using C&C and Eros for anything, it’s bringing together all the lore and canon we’ve come up with over the past ten years into a single story. You be the judge if the results work.

Anyway... I just wanted to let readers know about the writing and release schedule for the rest of the week. Now that the first of three leadup chapters is launched, the current plan is to release the middle chapter on Tuesday night, and the final chapter on Thursday or Friday night, depending on how quickly I get it done. The latter currently stands at 7k words and climbing; likely to be over 10k or even 12k words when all is said and done.

The first 5k words have already been preread and gotten rave reviews from AJ_Aficionado, and there’s even going to be a setup for another Eros chapter in there. You’ll have to look carefully for it, though; it’s going to be a blink-and-you-miss it thing. But as far as actual adult moments go, this chapter will not have any. It will be no more than PG.

Speaking of Eros, I’ve decided to work on it next. I’d like to see if I can get out one or two more chapters before the holidays; start catching it back up to the main story. I think that cliffhanger I left the last one chapter to has been dangling in front of readers for long enough!

Be advised this final chapter is going to go at a breakneck pace; a roller-coaster of action and emotion that will involve some serious mood swings. There’s a lot of ground to cover here, and I will say that the route we take getting to the Cloven attack is much different than in the original story. I won’t spoil it more than that, and to that end, I’m also not going to release a teaser. This is just one of those instances where I don’t want to give anything away.

Nothing else to say, except a warm welcome to new readers, and thanks for all the feedback on the chapter! I hope the subsequent chapters will be received as well. Look for Part 16 - Guns and Roses to be launched on Tuesday night, which is named in part for Gilda finally guessing the true nature of human weapons.

Comments

[SPart]

All around good news! Sorry that I can like the story only once and not thumb up for every new chapter.
I'm looking forward to read more tomorrow!

[AJ Aficionado]

But I’m not disappointed or jealous. I’ve always been patient in building up my readership, willing to earn my popularity chapter by chapter and like by like. I once told DEL that I envied him for his success, but his response was that he just got lucky to write a mega-hit like Gentleman for Mares to start.

If DEL can say that about himself, I can say the same about me. Does anyone really think The Scent of Prey would have been as big as it wasn't a mere two years after Xenophilia and Gentleman For Mares? This is the nature of trends: One person kicks it off, others jump on, and eventually, trends change. Being popular doesn't necessarily make a story great. Music these days is engineered by an algorithm to hit the mid-tempo as to maximize its appeal to the masses.

A lot of people become cynical when they realize the trend-riding effect and think none of it matters. To those people, I will point to the wealth of amazing stories, works of art and compositions known the world over that nearly everyone has heard of.

HIpsterism is a dead-end; a sad, final end-point of the victims of post-modern irony. If you post something bad that happens to be popular, you acknowledge this fact to yourself and do what you can to justify the platform so graciously offered to you by producing work that is better. You and I understand this and it's why after 7 years of working together, we continue sharpening each other's iron.

You haven't won anything easy or caught very many breaks in your time on fimfiction. 5SS was ignored for nearly 2 years before it started taking off. When we met, it had fewer than 100 likes. But you, sir, are living proof that hard work and simple old-fashioned meritocracy can break through the wall of mediocrity that is the feature box. You're an inspiration to us all, and in particular, me.

[Firesight]

5616679

All around good news! Sorry that I can like the story only once and not thumb up for every new chapter.
I'm looking forward to read more tomorrow!

Thanks! I’ve already staged the chapter for launch this evening. You’ll see it posted in two or three hours.

[Firesight]

5616804

But I’m not disappointed or jealous. I’ve always been patient in building up my readership, willing to earn my popularity chapter by chapter and like by like. I once told DEL that I envied him for his success, but his response was that he just got lucky to write a mega-hit like Gentleman for Mares to start.

If DEL can say that about himself, I can say the same about me. Does anyone really think The Scent of Prey would have been as big as it wasn't a mere two years after Xenophilia and Gentleman For Mares? This is the nature of trends: One person kicks it off, others jump on, and eventually, trends change. Being popular doesn't necessarily make a story great. Music these days is engineered by an algorithm to hit the mid-tempo as to maximize its appeal to the masses.

Being popular doesn’t make a story great, and having a great story doesn’t make it popular. We’ve both had to learn that the hard way over time. Scent of Prey rode the wave, while Five Star Service didn’t for the longest time. You remember the struggle it was to get readers to that.

A lot of people become cynical when they realize the trend-riding effect and think none of it matters. To those people, I will point to the wealth of amazing stories, works of art and compositions known the world over that nearly everyone has heard of.

Oh, it matters. And there’s a wealth of good material in this very fandom, as well as a lot that did not deserve its popularity but just happened to push a few buttons and catch a wave of readers.

HIpsterism is a dead-end; a sad, final end-point of the victims of post-modern irony. If you post something bad that happens to be popular, you acknowledge this fact to yourself and do what you can to justify the platform so graciously offered to you by producing work that is better. You and I understand this and it's why after 7 years of working together, we continue sharpening each other's iron.

Steel sharpens steel in terms of both the sword and pen. We play off each other quite nicely, and I’ve been honored to use your lore.

You haven't won anything easy or caught very many breaks in your time on fimfiction. 5SS was ignored for nearly 2 years before it started taking off. When we met, it had fewer than 100 likes. But you, sir, are living proof that hard work and simple old-fashioned meritocracy can break through the wall of mediocrity that is the feature box.

Thanks. And my thoughts exactly. With regards to my stories, I’m too stubborn to quit most of the time even if they perform poorly on launch. I just kept writing and tried to stay patient, watching as the like counter slowly ticked upward. The first night I launched it, I thought it was a failure because it was 3/4 at one point, then recovered to 15/5 after a full week. It had no traction, but I also didn’t know about groups or think to tag it with the Gentleman for Mares name, which might have gotten it more initial interest.

You're an inspiration to us all, and in particular, me.

Why, thank you! And you, too, persevered, finally writing a story that broke through to the top of the feature list. You kept plugging and trying and was finally rewarded with that #1 slot. Hell, I still haven’t done that!