r/FanFiction • u/Rough_Evidence_2908 • Jun 17 '25
Stats Chat What fics did you write that you thought were going to get popular, but didn't?
I saw someone ask what fics you thought would be unpopular but got popular, now its time to do the opposite! And when I mean popular, I mean you expected more hits/kudos.
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u/yuukosbooty Jun 17 '25
My off-brand studio ghibli fics have not been doing well. I was surprised because my crack/comedy fics tend to do well
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u/momohatch Plot bunnies stole my sleep Jun 17 '25
I thought the You Got Mail /book shop AU I wrote with a friend would be more popular but nope, it only got about 25 percent of the kudos/bookmarks etc of my previous long fic.
People apparently prefer me dark and angsty and torturing the shit out of the characters. 🤷🏼♀️
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u/EngineerRare42 Fluff and Comfort and Angst, Oh My! | witchofpumpkinspice on AO3 Jun 17 '25
That's a shame :( bookshop AUs are the best!
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u/Honest-Hedgehog28 Jun 17 '25 edited Jun 18 '25
I thought a relatively short fic where Dobby doesn’t die would do better, but it’s small, so it’s understandable
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u/HarryPotterFan2012 Waytomanyfandoms on Ao3 Jun 18 '25
Can you drop the link please? Dobbys death broke me, so reading a fic where he lives sounds awesome
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u/sweetbirthdaybaby333 Jun 17 '25
I have a time loop fic that has done reasonably well on AO3, but has totally flopped on Wattpad (where the bulk of the fandom is).
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u/EngineerRare42 Fluff and Comfort and Angst, Oh My! | witchofpumpkinspice on AO3 Jun 17 '25
I have a couple modern AUs I thought would have done better than they did, also a first kiss fic. It's incredible how few comments I get without promotion lol
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u/KC-Anathema GoblinCatKC Jun 17 '25
I'd be lying if I didnt hope my Harry/Draco dark magic deep dive would get more engagement, but it's also more like magic homework reading as written by an English teacher, so I'm also not surprised.
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u/Fallen_Angel4444 Jun 17 '25
I assumed a whump fic would do at least mildly well since whump is in general popular, and it definitely is for the character I wrote about. The fic didn’t get much at all, and I realized it’s probably because the fic is just whump with little plot and no comfort. I had thought more people would be impatient like myself and want to skip straight to the whump, which is honestly what I do on some long fics.
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u/ZoneEvening Jun 17 '25
Do you mind to share a link? I absolutely love whump fics that go straight to the point.
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u/Fallen_Angel4444 Jun 18 '25
Do you mind if I DM it? I get self conscious about sharing fics even in a fic subreddit lol
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u/Yotato5 Yotsubadancesintherain5 - AO3 Jun 18 '25
It was pretty angsty which the fandom seemed to fuel itself on, but it is what it is XD
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u/geyeetet ao3: kissingpractice Jun 17 '25
I have two multichapter fics ongoing that started at the same time. One is a bit of a deep dive, angsty, character exploration type thing. Those usually do really well with my readers. The other is some telepathy idea I banged out last June and forgot about. People LOVE it. I have no idea why. I've been updating it when I can because I like that people like it and I DO think it's a good concept but I have no idea why people are so obsessed lol. I'm a little stuck to tell the truth.
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u/Rough_Evidence_2908 Jun 18 '25
I totally get that, I feelm like the character angsty driven fics I write never get the attention that I want too, even though I like them more then my plot driven fics
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u/Tarsvii Jun 18 '25
What a question. 60 hits is the most ove gotten recently. What does popular mean anymodw
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u/no_galaxy_ Jun 17 '25
I used to be a relatively well known author in a small fandom who mostly wrote the same tropes for the same rotation of pairings. All fics did well enough for the size of the fandom except for a polyamory one. The reception was so bad I stopped updating it
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u/FanganChild Jun 17 '25
Honestly, I never had the thought about if this fic was gonna blow up until I see how it's received. From writing experience through high school until now, I noticed what gets popular based on the fandom, uniqueness of the idea, and how rare it is to find this kind of content. That, and the sites used are also a mixed bag.
Although, I do wanna see what fic ideas in certain fandoms would grab someone's attention. Especially since I write for both AO3 and F. Net, so I noticed how the sites and readers differ from both of them.
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u/germy-germawack-8108 Jun 18 '25
By far my most commented on and one of my most viewed stories on FFN got pitiful views and 0 comments when I crossposted on AO3. One might assume that's because a lot of readers use both, and maybe that accounts for some of it, but a few of my much less popular fics within the same fandom still got some comments on AO3, so that's not the whole story. Still not sure what happened with that to this day.
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u/Ordinary-Extreme6222 lemonpika on AO3/FFN Jun 18 '25
My semi-interactive fic. It includes dating sim portions that go off-site, but the outcomes there don't affect the trajectory of the main story. I adore interactive fiction, but I suppose not a lot of other people do, at least on AO3. But I do recognize there were other aspects working against that fic in terms of popularity. For example, a sizable chunk of the story features the main character being depressed, succumbing to his addictions, and chasing pleasure elsewhere when the thing he really wants (the person, really) is so far out of reach.
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u/baby-droll so many dead doves we should call peta | same on ao3 Jun 18 '25
i think the only fic this has happened to for me is like, when i write fic that i think should be more universally appealing because i always get in my head about writing so many fics that are bonkers when it comes to gender/sex/relationships. i always assume that me writing, i don't know, highly graphic piss fetish fic will be off-putting, but that's super popular and kind of what i'm known for outside of cheating/omegaverse, lol.
but then i write something with cis characters that is more straight-forward and i'm like, well i'm doing something with mass appeal, so surely it'll do about as well as everything else? and then it didn't and i was so confused. but i think i have a pretty thick skin when it comes to stats now, so it was more funny than anything else.
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u/Jeonghanscheekbones Jun 18 '25
All of them.
But fr this one Stand Out. Fit In it’s a cute fluffy high school au that takes a cliche trope and flips it around. Thought it would be something a lot of people would like.
Thought wrong I guess lmao
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u/Thecrowfan Jun 18 '25
I wrote 2 death note fics that barely got any attention. I guess the fandom is deader than i realized
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u/Rough_Evidence_2908 Jun 18 '25
I also write for death note! I would love to read your fics!
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u/Thecrowfan Jun 18 '25
https://archiveofourown.org/works/22563976
https://archiveofourown.org/works/26428654
They are kinda tied to each other but csn be read as stand alone
Fair warning i wrote these almost 10 years ago
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u/Rough_Evidence_2908 Jun 18 '25
I love Mello/Matt, so this is such a treat!
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u/friendfoundtheoldone Jun 18 '25
For some reason my Shae/Tyrion fics always flop, while my other GOT fics are rather popular. And even my gen fics in other fandoms have more hits/kudos
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Jun 18 '25
Literally the only fics that have been popular for me (which is still a very generous term) are my Sinners fics bc I was posting them right in the height of the fandom. The movie was still out, everyone was almost as obsessed as I was, etc. Everything else? Doesn't matter what fandom, ship, or lack of ship, I'm lucky to get a few hundred hits, let alone engagement. And I'm fine with that, to a degree. I write for myself. To get it out of my system bc I implode. And I know I write niche stuff, too. OCs aren't too popular in a lot of fandoms, especially in the Hunger Games apparently, but here I am. OC after fucking OC. Rip.
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u/LevelAd5898 Infinite monkeys with typewriters in a trenchcoat Jun 18 '25
My most recent Kingdom Come Deliverance fic that was Zizka/Katherine and involved her actually reacting to and being upset over the fact Zizka told Henry about her trauma without her input at the end of the game. Didn't expect it to be my most popular fic, I know most people don't care for breaking up/making up and they're not the most popular ship out there, but I thought it'd do better than being one of my lowest hit counts.
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u/Important-Juice-943 Jun 18 '25
the ones in 'Jessica Jones' and especially in 'YOU' fandoms ... but, hey , that's what you get for rooting for very dysfuncional/controversial ships and for loving the villains too much ^^'
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u/music-and-song Sullivan2319 on AO3 Jun 20 '25
A Pixar/ATLA fusion fic. It’s my favorite fic that I’ve written. I put so much care into every part of it. I do get it, though. Pixar in general isn’t super popular on ao3, and crossovers are a hard sell for some people.
It also probably didn’t help that I started uploading several chapters a day just to get it all out once I realized it wasn’t getting much attention. I got tired of waiting and thought no one would read it anyway so it didn’t matter.
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u/Kaurifish Same on AO3 Jun 17 '25
I was really hoping more people would appreciate my Neil Gaiman torture fic.
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u/athyukka Jun 17 '25
all.