People don't like to read and tend to go for the visual mediums more.

I get similar view counts, but favorites are always very low for stories. I think I got enough comments to confirm my hypothesis. :)

i guess lot of peep's just do not read stories X3

On average my stories get more view than the majority of pictures, but if a picture and a story both get 1000 views, the picture might get 150 favorites, and the story 20 or less. I'm certainly not unhappy with the amount of people reading, just curious at the favorites discrepancy.

Because stories are a significant time investmnt to consume, as opposed to pictures that are evaluated almost instantly. People really don't have the time to read.

I’ve made it through 70+ chapters so far of FotU. It’s a little bit more slow going now, since you can only take in so much, and some of the viewpoints and actions of a couple of the dragon characters lately make me wish them a slow death.

Now I'm curious. What characters and what did they do? :)

*In chapter 14 or 15 I believe, a female slave is fed alive to her mistresses Drake, whoever ordered that Pissed me off.
*In either chapter 73 or 74, the dragoness who castrated one of the unicorns in a very early chapter visited a BDSM/torture shop where it is explicitly implied that slaves can be maimed or even killed with no repercussions, the proprietor of the shop and his slave goat are implied to have tortured slaves to death before.
* Many smaller things spread throughout the story, especially dragons eating on people who can’t regenerate their health, thereby crippling or killing them eventually.

If these themes are not in your taste, it is noted that Dragontalon has made it very clear from the beginning that dragons have ultimate power over their slaves. Such themes, that's what the storyline is known for.

Oh I know the theme. And I don’t have an issue with the majority of it. It’s just that You get to like some of the characters(even if they’re assholes sometimes), and to find out some of the REALLY DARK things going on in their society, I even admired them a bit...but not anymore. The carelessness and cruelty in their society towards their subjects is going to bite them in the ass in the long run.

You can be a slave-keeping Empire without turning into MONSTERS, but Dragon society seems to ignore this.

It can be a balancing act when exploring some of the darker sides of things. It's not really that the dragons ignore it, in fact an upcoming chapter a dragon will address this directly. Most however are driven by their rather powerful instincts for dominance and submission, and with such a vast power imbalance between dragons and their slaves you get a lot of unchecked cruelty.

The other factor is their fight against the insects has them breeding and training large numbers of warriors specifically for violence. The civilian breeds are actually much nicer and calmer. Talos being the prime example.

But it will come back to bite them.

when I read a story ,it means I copy it as .txt to my phone.
When I read it there, I cannot fave it.
Until I am back at my PC again, I forgot which story I read when and where.

Good point, I forget how annoying it is to read stories on FA.

This is my biggest complaint on FA - very difficult to go back and fav a story after downloading it to read. :(

Yea I load my phone up with the stories and then I forget to fave them also

You are absolutely right. Favourites are more like bookmarks for pictures I like and want to share later. I rarely read something twice :c

I read your storys but i prefer to leave them in the submission notifications rather than faving them.

I like stories sometimes. If that helps.

Having used to devour stories for a few years, to the point that it made me want to write some of my own, I can definitely attest that you fall off after a certain point. Reading a story takes far more time and attention span than looking at a picture. That's also what can make it much more rich and rewarding if one is willing to sit down and stick with it... but hey, I'm not knocking instant gratification either. There's a lot to be said for both.

FA is pretty strongly geared towards the visual, there's a shitload of pictures on the front page, and even the stories in front are represented by visuals - so I find myself not even considering the ones that have bland previews, on the fleeting occasions that I find time to do some good old erotic reading. Hell, you don't even know what you're getting yourself into when you open up a story on FA unless the author has included some snippets of what you should expect in the preview image.

Do you post stories in places that have an interface/audience more centered on literature? I'm wondering if you notice a significant difference there, you being someone who's been doing this a long-ass time and been pretty visible for it.

I only post on FA and SoFurry, and tend to lag behind on SoFurry as some changes they made caused my readership to drop off sharply there. I would probably get a lot more readers there, but my posts are pretty much invisible.

Interesting. Do you write full-time or is this a side thing? I'm fascinated by the life of people who write consistently on a regular basis... having failed to be one of them, hahahah

I like your stories. Honestly Talos needs to get Elyon pregnant though >3>

To be fair I tend to be a very slow faver anyway. Im one of those wierdos who hoards their favs on their watch notice list.

With me personally I have a missive collection of novels at home and I read almost every day, but I prefer physical books to reading online.

I used to be that way until I got a Kindle, and after a year got used to reading it. I still prefer physical books but am getting used to tablet shaped reading devices, especially if the screen is e-paper.

I really enjoy your stories.

I will admit that I like the pictures more than reading, but I do have a link to your first chapter on my page! :D

I know! It's appreciated. As was the gift. :)

Heh, you're welcome fellow draggy. :)

I love stories and bookmark em, its just...FA Kinda ruins the formatting for said stories lol. I prefer reading stuff elsewhere. Easier on the eyes. Otherwise, Loving your stories!

Furaffinity is a place where people come to find artwork. Like Deviantart, it is known for the pictures.

Stories, music, videos, and other sorts of things are not popular in comparison.

It is just how it is. I read your stories when I have down time. I tend to forget to favorite things, though.

That being said, the pictures turned me towards reading the stories. The pictures are like billboards.

Fortuna's unicorn style inspired my unicorns, too. Specifically the horns matching the hair.

She sure does inspire, and I like the red horn.

I always wondered why red is such a rare color for unicorns. Good news is, I have an easily recognizable character

When you look at a thumbnail for a picture you usually have a good idea of what's there. Thus it's much more likely to result in a fav.
With a story there are far more chances that something in it will reduce the odds of a fav.

you can thank your table of contents for that.

Hah, I need to update that. :)

You hit the nail on the head there. Favourites are kind of like bookmarks. Similarly if I find a comic or longer series of images I favorite the first one/page, plus individual ones in the series that are “double favourites”.

I also tend to read more on sofurry because, you know. FA.

I think the reason is that you unlikely will reread the chapter again.
So you read it, and then move on (maybe just few can be exception, particular kinky ones, that may be rereaded multiple times).

You fav the pictures to find them again, but the story is in your head, no reason to hold it near. Also, it's always easier to open you page with chapter numbers, than search through the fav list.

I'd say you have hit the unicorn horn right on the tip.

Hope it's a de-tipped one. :)

Well... i did get started on Fates of the Unicorns a few years ago, but kinda hit a snag.

Maybe its just because the quantity of chapters and their length were a bit overwhelming.

I might get back to the story in the future. It was pretty good as far as i can recall.

At one point I noticed they were getting long and started trying to write shorter chapters. I still sometimes get carried away.

In my case I tend to forget to fav because I'm too busy searching for the next chapter.... I do the same thing with comic art - if there's a next part I just move on and forget to fav. No matter whether or not I loved the writing.
I love FotU - it's one of the reasons I initially signed up for FA years ago.... I found it and couldn't get enough. 8,D
But I notice I have like none of it fav'd.

I tend to do all my reading on inky bunny now.

I have a bad case of of "I will read this later" and yet i never do...

FA sucks for written works. Plus pictures are just easier/faster for folks to digest. Or they just -won't- read (even a description box), and ask you questions you answered in said description...

It's hard being a writer on an art site. I'm going to be focusing my writing stuff on a couple of other websites that have gone live recently.

I've always been a writer on here, and I found that fact very discouraging early on. But I've come to realize that it's really just a matter of there being finite time that everyone spends on here. You can check out a hundred images in the time it takes to read a story, particularly long stories like mine. So it's really just a matter of time that causes fewer faves on stories, not anything that's really wrong with the medium.

I favorite one, and use it to find the others since you have this amazing thing called an index I can use to get to any of the stories.
Mind, very few people have one with links.
You do, this might explain who so few of them get a lot of faves. we use our one bookmark to go and read any and all of them.

Having an ongoing story is like having ONE submission, nobody needs to favorite all of them because as long as one is favorited, you can find them all.

I'm making it too easy. :)

I do tend to fav your stories as a book mark for later Just read through the last 2 chapters today that I had faved on previously. Fyi they were rad.

For artwork, I try to fav it in the original artists gallery unless there is a story added or substantive description.

I may have asked you this before, but do you post your stories on SoFurry too? SoFurry seems to be much more receptive to writers and stories than FA. It's a smaller overall audience, but an audience much more interested in reading. I've got more views on one story over there than I have on my entire FA combined lol. If you don't already post much there, might be worth a shot!

I do post over there, but I don't get anywhere near the views or comments that I do here. I used to get a lot more until they changed how the front page works. I lag behind on updating SF though.

I typically don't gave stories because I can easily find them again if need be due to watching the author. Art is a little different. Since you have a go to artist, I typically fave the piece if it's posted to her account as a show of support to both of you.

Being that I write in your setting (and thank you so much for the words of encouragement and recognition you've given me in the past) I can certainly go back and fave my favorite chapters.

I try to favorite every story of yours I find mate. I get inspiration to creativity in my own works from them, especially since your universe is more realistic than most despite the dark themes.

Thanks! I kind of figure dark themes ARE realistic for my setting. If a society encourages slavery, it's not going to be all roses and pastries. :)

I would like to ask about something I haven't seen yet, that you may already have touched on in your earlier chapters. How does the agriculture system work for dragon city? Do they even farm fruits and vegetables, or is it mostly meats and alcohol produce?

I definitely think it's more of a quick "like" than anything else. Cuz although I look at the images and go 'ooh sexy!" I gotta say, I RUSH to read new chapters when I see them up. When I see an image I'm hoping for a short story :P
I'm definitely here to read the work. But I don't fave it as often because that isn't the first thing on my mind?

*snickers* Don't look at me...I couldn't seem to get much interest in my work at all so I sort of wandered away from it. :p

For me reading one of your stories, to truly digest it and take in all its detail takes me between 20-30 minutes.

I do not think I've personally favorited any of your stories but there are a few chapters that come to mind that I have revisited out of curiosity or favoritism.

Generally, my favorites reflect my kinks, favorite artist, or images that deserve more praise than they receive. As one of few artists that I enjoy on FA, I have noticed with a few others that the favorite count is always lower compared to their images. Even though a lot of your images are tied to amazing story chapters and amazing artists. The written chapters themselves I feel most don't have the true patience to look into someone's favorites and think "huh he/she favorited a story? Let me read this in it's entirety."

Als I would consider a few factors as to why some people don't always favorite a chapter.
- length
- initial processing of thoughts after reading
- possible some people were "busy" while reading
- some people generally don't favorite writing
- They prefer the art over the writing
- some simply forget.

I personally fall into two maybe three of those factors.

I use the favorite system when I like a submission. But I am generally very hard to impress and I don't hand out likes easily. They come rarely from me and only when I am particularly impressed. That said, in the case of your story submissions it is a little different. In all honesty I became so busy with my irl life a good while back, that I fell far behind following up on your story. Now you have so many chapters uploaded, I lost track on which one I was at and chapters are also very very long (Not that that is a bad thing in general), so I never really got around to start reading them again and knowing how much there is to read through I don't think I will get started again even though I want to
Which is a shame of course, because who doesn't have a fantasy about being dominated by those dragons in your story?!. I know that I have

You don't have to read them all at once you know. :)

Not all slaves of the Dragon Empire are unwilling, many are lured or seek them out of their own free will. At first. Heheh.

I know that

And that I also know. I remember reading the chapter where the elf tells her story of how she came to the dragons city. Also we had a long pm chat once about that subject, but I do not blame you if you forgot it has been a few years.
Still doesn't stop me from having my own fantasies/daydreams about how some of my own toons would end up in your city, willing or unwilling

Yeah, I do tend to use favs as a bookmarking system, which also means I tend to bookmark the first entry in serials. Since FOTU is a serial, I guess I don't bookmark anything beyond the first entry.

We should try raising a request for 'fav' and 'bookmark' options. It'd encourage the use of fav for faving.

I can't comment about the discrepancy, but of the 9 items in my favourites, 6 are things I commissioned.

I rarely hit the favourite button because I take it a little bit too literally - something has to really move me to click it.

I used to use favorites as a “bookmark,” but I’ve gotten burned too many times, where a favorite story of mine will vanish, and often times I won’t even know which story is was. Now, I “bookmark” stories by downloading them to my hardrive.

Now I only use favorites as a list of stories I think others should read, which means I only gave chapter 1 of a series.

Pretty much what I figured. Thanks.

Reading takes effort?

With favorites, since I can track this easier on deviantArt, there are people who honestly fav a thumbnail without viewing the full image (I've had images that initially would rack up in favs but no views at all). It's a weird hording behavior, and easier to do with an image as text requires involvement.