Reviews Lounge Central

Welcome to Reviews Lounge Central, the Blog dedicated to making all aspects of The Reviews Lounge more easily accessed and available. The goal of Reviews Lounge Central is to offer a centralised hub to all pieces of the Reviews Lounge and to further promote its goal of spreading the review love!

The Reviews Lounge aims to encourage readers to review every story they read. Reviews are a very important aspect of posting stories and poems on FanFiction.net, and, as a whole, we encourage each and every one of our participants, whether heavily active or just the occasional visitor, to review! One never knows when a simple comment, friendly piece of encouragement or a gentle piece of constructive criticism might just make someone's day!

To help our cause, we archive the under-loved, under-reviewed stories we find on FanFiction.net, in particular, those of the Harry Potter fandom, so that our participants can join in and review the masterpieces we stumble across. When a story has successfully acquired a specific number of reviews, it is forever placed upon a pedestal of glory in the Reviews Lounge Recommendations C2 archive where, for years to come, those stories can bring light to our ever-darkening world.

A Reviews Lounge Guide to Encouraging Feedback

1. Make friends with your readers. Review for others, chances are they will review for you. (Lexie 1, Cassie 3)

2. Reply to reviews you do receive. This encourages people to return to the story and leave future reviews. (Lexie 2, Cassie 2)

3. Do not use Author's Notes to complain about a lack of reviews. People DO NOT like complainers. Ask for opinions, thank, in brief, those that have reviewed. Ask your readers to review, but go about it in a prompt and polite way. Don't blackmail or badmouth your readers into reviewing, all this does is create a negative atmosphere that causes the readers to leave. Extensive and long pleas for reviews also distract from the story. Use Author's Notes at the top of a chapter only if absolutely necessary, and keep them very brief. (Lexie 3, Cassie 1, TML 1)

4. Before you post, check spelling, grammar, syntax, and word flow. Doing this shows your potential reviewers that you respect them. If necessary, look for and use a beta. There are many tools and sites that offer beta services or where beta services can be found. (Lexie 4, Cassie 6, Defier 2)

Sites that could be of use to you:

http://www.perfectimagination.co.uk/ (Random 1)
http://www.fanfiction.net/topic/29938/4515279/1/ (Cuba 1)
http://www.fanfiction.net/topic/35244/2647497/1/ (Cuba 1)

If your word processor does not have spell check, you can download OpenOffice for free at OpenOffice.org (TML)

5. Keep in mind that the rarer, less sought after and non-canon pairings will not attract as large an audience as the canon pairings. (There are a few exceptions to this, however, Draco/Hermione and Harry/Hermione have larger reader bases than their canon counterparts.) (Cassie, TML)

6. Titles and summaries matter. On Fanfiction.net, the title and summary are like the first five pages of a real-life novel. They'll either hook the reader or dissuade them from venturing further into your potential masterpiece. (Cassie 7, Kerichi 2)

7. Update often. While this is difficult, it is by far one of the most effective ways to get reviews. If you don't update, your stories won't be posted at the "New Chapters" section and, as such, requires more to actually find. (IE: People must dig for the pairing or else go to your page). Frequent updating, whether once every-other-day or every-other-week, is an effective tool because most readers like to have some flow to the story they're reading. (TML 2, Defier 1)

8. Keep content and rating at T (Teen) or lower. Stories rated above "T" (namely "M") do not show up on the "New Chapters" or "New Stories" lists, and have to be searched for. Chances are, if it's an "M" rated obscure pairing, you're not likely to get very many hits. Even in the standard search feature, "M" rated stories have to be enabled to show up, hindering your story's likelihood of being discovered by a potential reviewer. (TML 3)

9. Involvement. One of the best tools for a story is a way to get the reader involved in a fashion that extends beyond the mundane world of simply reading it. Story-related forums, polls, and blogs are an additional tool that can make a moderately-reviewed author an extraordinarily reviewed author. (TML 4, Morwen 1)

10. Update time. The best time to update is when people are actually on. If you update during FFN times 4 PM PST to 10 PM PST, you're more likely to get people to see the story on the "New Chapters" and "New Stories" lists because there are more people on that can see your story before it is flooded out of the list. (TML 5)

11. Keep your chapters of moderate length. Longer chapters tend to dissuade possible readers, which are, of course, possible reviewers. (Cassie 8)

12. Don't be offended by constructive criticism. Not everyone will love your story, no matter how great you feel it may be. It may be the greatest work of art, but someone, somewhere will not like it. As heretic as it may sound, even the original Harry Potter books aren't loved by all. (Defier 3)

13. Formatting is key. Messily formatted stories are likely to be brushed aside without given a real look - no matter how brilliant the story may be. Keep Author's notes separated from the story with horizontal rules or otherwise bold them. Add new lines for dialogue and follow literary guidelines. DO NOT put Author's notes in the middle of chapters. (Lexie 6, Lexie 7)

14. Controversy and originality both breed interest. Stories that are thought or emotion provoking are much more likely to receive a lot of attention in the area of reviews than are stories that are little more than messily organised clichés. (Cassie 9, Lexie 8)

15. Persevere. Someone, somewhere, reviewer or not, is reading and enjoying your story. Give the story time, keep writing. The longer your story is up, the more chance it has to collect an audience. (Lexie 5, Kerichi 1, Whiskey 1)

This is a compilation of ideas put forth by members of the Reviews Lounge. You can see the ideas put forward in their original format, here.