We started this project with a preconceived notion or two. We thought we had an idea of what fandom looked like, we thought we knew where the most feedback came from, we thought a lot of things. But you told us something different - the results are summarized for you below.

A note on our survey methods: we left the survey form up for 7 days, during which our fellow zenites pimped the survey in various fandoms with much success, judging by the results (thank you!). We understand that it would take a much longer time span in order to sample all of fandom and we admit that we may have missed a major fandom or five along the way. The results of this survey admittedly represent a sample of fandom - not fandom in general - and we're using the results of this sample to interpret fandom as a whole. Questions on that? Our email addresses are at the bottom of this article.

And now, on to the good stuff. Of course, we'll also answer that pesky question - how to get more feedback? - for you eventually. But first, some background information.

The majority of fan fiction readers and writers are between the ages of 18 and 29, with an average age of 23.3 years. Our youngest respondent was 13 years old, the eldest 75. The majority are female and about 65 percent hail from the United States, followed by Canada and the United Kingdom, each with 9 percent and Australia with 5 percent. We also heard from respondents in Belgium, South Africa, Israel, Singapore, New Zealand, Saint Lucia, Japan, Croatia and the Philippines - just to name a few of the countries. The majority of respondents are both readers and writers of fan fiction; only 9 percent are readers only and 3 percent are writers only.

We found out that the average age of a newbie to fandom was 21.7 years; this isn't surprising as 40 percent of respondents fell into the 18 to 29 years age group. Twenty-nine percent of responses came from those who were aged 11 to 17 when they became fans. Approximately 19 percent fell into the 30 to 39 years age group with 6 percent landing in the over-40 group and 3 percent of respondents became fans under 11. A note about our age distribution: the 18 to 29 year age group is admittedly large, but 17 is the age of majority in many countries, so we chose that as a cut-off point. We also note that it's significant that many writers and/or readers entered fandom at age 17 or below.

When it came to the fandoms respondents participate in, we had a wide variety of responses. The big fandoms - Star Trek, Star Wars, X-Files, The Sentinel, West Wing, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Xena, Hercules and X-Men - were well-represented. We also heard from people in the following fandoms: Harry Potter, Smallville, Lord of the Rings, ER, Law and Order, Sailor Moon and JAG. We heard from writers of boyband and anime fan fiction. We learned that The Professionals, a fandom originally zine-based, was alive and well on the Internet. Some who responded write and read fan fiction in Witchblade, Millenium, War of the Worlds, Lone Gunmen, Jurassic Park 3, Rent, Newsies, La Femme Nikita, Daria - you get the idea as the list goes on and on. We are pretty confident that we hit nearly every fandom on the Internet with this survey, including some we never realized existed.

So let's talk about fan fiction itself.

We found out that more fans read and write slash (61.2 percent) versus het (55.4 percent). Het writers were more inclined to read both slash and het fiction (13 percent). A similar percentage (12.6 percent) of slash writers were inclined to read both slash and het. A majority of you - 28.4 percent - read and write both slash and het fiction. However, the number writing/reading het fiction only is a mere 14 percent compared to the 20.2 percent of exclusive slash readers/writers. In the non-ship fan fiction category, we found out that 19.3 percent of you read non-ship fan fiction only, but only 4.2 percent of writers are actually writing non-ship stories.

Sixty-three percent of respondents have their own web sites and on average, these personal sites receive two pieces of feedback per week, out of an average of 206 hits a day. The 35 percent of you who monitor your site stats don't see any correlation between feedback and the traffic to your web sites.

"As a general rule, for every 20 people that look at a story, 1 or 2 will write," one respondent wrote.

One fan told us that "I can tell people are coming and reading, but solely from the site stats. If I relied on fb, I wouldn't think my stories were receiving much if any notice."

About 55 percent of writers archive to sites other than their own, while 31 percent don't archive their fan fiction at all.

When it came to feedback we heard one thing loud and clear: authors want feedback and could certainly use more of it. Sixty-six percent said that feedback was welcome while 22 percent did not care one way or another. Only 18 percent said you didn't want feedback.

We were gratified to see that 93 percent of readers give feedback on a regular basis; an intrepid six percent of readers feedback every single story they read. On average though, readers gave feedback to five stories a week out of the average 17 stories a week they read. Fifty-one percent of you did give constructive criticism - but whether you were comfortable doing that is another story entirely, more on that later. Out of the responses we received, 83 percent wanted constructive criticism.

So where do authors get the most feedback from?

There was no competition on this one. Eighty-three percent of you post to mailing lists and this is where you found the best and most feedback. On an interesting note, personal web sites do not increase feedback at all; in fact, only six percent of you receive your most feedback from your web site, but it is intriguing to note that nearly double that number - 13 percent - say that their *best* feedback comes from their web site.

Coming in second after mailing lists is Fanfiction.Net, where 14 percent of respondents said that they got the most FB from after the mailing lists; it's also significant that only 5 percent said the best feedback comes from Fanfiction.Net.

When it came to the actual receiving and giving of feedback, fans were honest with us and told us exactly how they felt about the feedback experience in general. Please note: all comments have been used with permission.

You told that sometimes you avoid giving feedback because you're not sure if you're qualified to give feedback in the first place.

"It sounds silly, but I sometimes hesitate giving feedback to authors who are significantly above me in style (at times, this is *everyone*), because I feel as though my opinion doesn't count, and there's someone out there that's giving more coherent feedback, surely," says one respondent.

"Sometimes I don't feel qualified enough to give constructive criticism, for English is not my mother tongue. I end up writing things I noticed, liked or dislike and tell the reasons for my opinion. I never write: you should do this or you should do that. I'm not comfortable with this kind of FB."

"Sometimes I don't know what to say besides, 'Nice job,' or something along those lines."

"Because I'm shy."

"Mistrust my own judgement."

We found that most readers keep silent when they can't think of anything good to say.

"My mother taught me that if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. I don't feel comfortable in tearing apart a piece of work" was a response we read over and over again.

Others have been burned by their offers of constructive criticism; these comments gave us insight on how fandom members regard writers and what was interesting is that some of the following comments were offered by writers themselves:

"Many authors perceive criticism of any kind as flaming and it's not worth the risk."

"Previous attempts to give feedback or constructive criticism have been rebuffed or ignored. It makes me feel a bit unwelcome, and a little cagey to offer further. Now, unless I really have something strong, and usually positive, to say, I'll usually not comment."

"I don't feel comfortable giving feedback to people who just want praise and nothing more. I find constructive criticism more valuable than compliments."

"Various reasons, mainly that I've seen too many people get flamed for saying anything negative about a story, especially when done in public."

"Too many authors say things like 'be gentle' and I've seen many lists dissolve into a flame war at the slightest hint of constructive criticism."

"I feel comfortable giving positive feedback but if something needs fixing, I would rather not continue to read it then make suggestions to the author because I feel that most people are not open enough for me to do this."

A lot of respondents admitting to giving feedback to authors they had built up a relationship with.

"In my experience, most people who read a story and like it don't give feedback unless they know the writer personally or happen to meet the writer in person. While it's always nice to be told someone enjoyed a story, I really like criticism - detailed, intelligent criticism (positive and/or negative)indicates that the reader has both read and thought about my story. I give feedback myself when I especially enjoyed a story, have a way of getting in touch with the writer, and can think of something more interesting to say than 'Wow, I really enjoyed that.'"

"I only give feedback if I know the person well enough to know whether or not they really mean it when they say they want feedback. That's why I do it in person most of the time."

On the flip side, we heard from an author who specifically mentioned why she did not want public feedback: "I prefer not to get public criticism because if it's public, it often comes from somebody with an agenda, and I have my own betas, thanks. I don't like to give public criticism for similar reasons--I don't know the person well enough to be able to know how phrase in a constructive, rather than a destructive, way. Private criticism is a completely different thing. I try to get my stories betaed as much as possible, and I, myself, am a very busy beta. I always have more stories to beta than I can really manage."

However, the distinction between the ability to take and give criticism was nicely summed up for us: "It does seem to me that there are two groups of fan fiction writers out there - those whose self-confidence and facility with language are such that they truly welcome critiques (as opposed to fan letters) as a way of improving their writing, and those who are still finding their feet as writers, and for whom such feedback is likely to do more harm than good. The tricky part, when writing feedback letters, is to discern which group a particular writer falls into."

On a more positive note, fans wanted to give praise to stories they felt were exceptional. You wanted to applaud the authors who hit a chord with you and who had made you think. In instances like this, it appeared there was no hesitation; the email went off so that the author would know their efforts were appreciated.

Respondents were concerned about the sincerity of their feedback. Some noted that mailing lists were breeding grounds for praise regardless of quality and readers wanted to avoid fawning over work that they felt did not make the grade.

"WHEN I do send feedback for a story, it tends to be for a really outstanding story. Some people who send feedback to lists seem to totally lack discrimination and think ANYTHING is wonderful. I am very tough on myself as far as beta-ing and correcting mistakes and I tend to expect that of others too so when the story suffers from basic errors of grammar, etc. it throws me out of the story. I try to be encouraging without being insincere."

The responses also told us that begging for feedback was a specific turn-off.

"I'm not sure this has anything to do with the information you're gathering, but I hate it when authors beg for feedback at the beginning of a story, and I generally won't give them feedback if they do. I know a lot of other readers who won't give feedback if it's begged for as well. It would be interesting to see how much more feedback writers would get if they didn't always ask for it or complain that they weren't getting it."

Many respondents also wanted to be encouraging to newbie writers. One respondent even made the distinction that age matters in what type of feedback offered; the younger the writer, the more gentle the feedback. Someone else specifically noted that "The first timers need our encouragement the most." The overall tone of your comments showed a care and concern for encouraging writers to keep writing, but the "Feedback welcome" notes have been taken with a grain of salt.

So what do all of these numbers and comments really mean?

Well, we wish we had an easy answer for you regarding feedback and how you can get more of it. We apologize; we don't. What we can say is that the most important way to get feedback and to market yourself within a fandom is a one-to-one relationship. The better your relationship with other members of fandom, the better your feedback experience will be; mass, anonymous marketing of fan fiction simply will not work. Fandom tolerates lurkers, but we do not reward them.

So how do you become more visible? Good question and we have some hints for you. All of this takes work, but the end results may be worth the effort.

The first step is giving feedback itself and encouraging other writers - especially newbies. We noticed that you had a concern for the new writers. Mentor them and encourage them; we think it's significant that the second largest cohort of fan fiction writers are below the age of 18.

We found that how an author responds to feedback matters and that perception - good or bad - does not go away. It's also interesting that even authors are timid when it comes to giving feedback to other authors. When you respond to feedback, whether publicly or privately, remember that fandom isn't as big as we think it might be nor is it as forgiving as we might assume. Keeping a level of civility does matter and the feedbacker wants to be certain that they will not get flamed when offering feedback.

Grammar, punctuation, spelling - these matter a lot to you. In your comments, we learned that many of you have no patience for poorly edited pieces. One of you even mentioned bailing after the fifth misspelling. You have only a few opening paragraphs to make an impression. Beta readers are helpful to this end.

Ultimately fandom is a group activity. You might write for yourself, but if you care enough to put your work into the public eye and you want people to respond to it,you have to engage with other fans. It's true, we all have our Bitter Old Fic Queen days but let us leave you with these comments from two young writers.

"Because of my introduction to the fanfic world (first as a reader, then a writer) I've made many friends, I pay more attention to detail in my everyday life, and I like to think that it's made me a smarter, more creative person. I can see things with my eyes everyday. Now while I see them I try to see them with words as well."

"That's the main thing, to enjoy the fandom."

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Vera and Seema are Real Life marketers who got slightly carried away. They wish you luck in marketing your fanfic.