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I’m The Asshole Who Brings Your Read Ratio Down
But I will always read you eventually…
I’ve spent the last couple of months (actually probably more) amusing myself over the amount of attention that people put into getting a high read ratio.
How many times have you seen the following phrase at the beginning of people’s stories?
“Scroll to the very end of my piece so your read counts.”
Yet, as my alter-ego, Meg, and I tried to show in an article last year, read ratios mostly count for nothing of any importance whatsoever. Other than a nice ego boost, if that’s your bent.
As writers trying to put food on the table, what matters is the amount of time someone spends reading your piece because that’s what converts into wonga in the bank, rather than the number of people who make it to the end of your piece.
Actually, as I will explain in a bit, that’s not the full story. Read ratios can be useful statistics to help us improve our art. But not if we are trying to manipulate them by asking people to register a read whether or not they reach the end of our story.
Still, because I am a sad bitch who has nothing interesting to fill my life with, I find myself…
