HD fics produced for fests in 2015: Totals and comparison to 2014

[snowgall]

So last year I did a count of how many HD fics were produced for fests in 2014. This year I decided to do a side-by-side comparison of 2014 fests vs 2015 fests to see if I could spot any trends.

The table below lists all the HP fests I know of that ran in either 2014 or 2015 and produced HD fics. The top set are HD-exclusive fests, while the bottom set are more general HP fests that included some HD fics as well. Gray boxes indicate that the fest didn't take place that year.

Note that I included two HD fests that I saw run on tumblr in 2015. I don't know of any other HD-generating fests hosted on tumblr, but if you know of others I may have missed (on tumblr, LJ, or elsewhere), please let me know!

Some boring details:

You might notice that the numbers given below for fics produced in 2014 are slightly different from what I came up with the first time around. That's because I made some changes as to which fests I decided to count. For the sake of consistency (and trying to compare apples-to-apples as much as I could) I decided to make a distinction between "fests" and "challenges".

For my purposes, a "fest" conforms to these requirements:

• has its own comm
• each fic should get its own individual post (not restricted to the comment section)
• all entries are posted initially to the comm (can be simultaneously posted to AO3)
• fics posted are expected to be exclusive to the fest for some minimum duration of time
• a masterlist is produced at the end of the fest Note: hd_cliche doesn't seem to have produced a masterlist for 2015, but there was one for 2014, so I went ahead and included it
• There are other characteristics common to many fests (anonymity, mod posting, minimum word counts), but for now I decided not to limit the candidates any further

The Tables:

HD fics from HD fests
		2014		2015
Feb	Dralentine's Day (tumblr)			18
Mar	hd_remix	27		29
Mar	hd_familyfest	13		5
Mar	hd_hurtfest	17		7
Apr	dracotops_harry	45		23
Apr	hd_remix Flashfest			11
May	harrydracompreg	17		22
Jun	hd_smoochfest	39		37
Jul	hd_tropes	22
Jul	hd_collab			15
Aug	hd_cliche	19		14
Sep	hd_eighthyear			13
Oct	hd_fan_fair	37		16
Oct	Dralloween (tumblr)			25
Nov	serpentinelion Glompfest	20
Dec	hd_erised	39		40
Dec	hd_owlpost	62		47
	Totals	357		321
HD fics from non-HD fests
		2014		2015
Jan	harrybang			8
Feb	do_me_veela	11		7
Feb	hpsolemnlysworn	1
Mar	hp_getlucky	3		5
Mar	dysfuncentine	1
Mar	hp_goldenage			3
May/Feb	hp_kinkfest	9		12
May	hds_beltane	12		13
May	hp_darkarts Horrorfest	4		7
May	hp_mhealthfest	0		5
Jun	dracomalfoy			14
Jul	hpholiday	1
Sep	bottom_draco			14
Sep	hp_drizzle	8		14
Sep	hp_silencio	10		3
Oct	hp_creatures	5		4
Oct/Nov	hp_darkarts Dark Challenge/Darkfest	2		0
Oct	hp_adoptaprompt			2
Nov	interhouse_fest	0		1
Dec	daily_deviant Kinky Kristmas	6
Dec	mini_fest	11		10
	Totals	84		122
	Grand Totals	441		443

 

Observations:

• More HD fics were produced for HD-fests in 2014 (357) than in 2015 (321)
• Conversely, more HD fics were produced for non-HD fests in 2015 (122) than in 2014 (84)
• When added together, the number of HD fics produced for fests in 2014 and 2015 is nearly identical.
• There were more HD fests that ran in 2015 than in 2014. Consequently, it appears that having more fests does not seem to produce more fics :)

Anything I missed? Please let me know if I made any mistakes in counting fics, classifying fests, or in adding numbers!

Comments

[digthewriter]

Curious, for hp_darkarts dark fest challenge for 2015, you said 1, but it was art (i think) but you didn't include art in other counts? Or am I mis-understanding it?

[snowgall]

Thank you so much for pointing this out! I did some of these counts months ago so I can't be sure where the error crept in - it might have been that I accidentally counted your art (since the fic and art lists weren't separated) or I might have counted Jo's fic as H/D even though it was Harry with multiple partners which I usually didn't count.

There were so many lists to go through that I would be surprised if this were the only error! I fill fix this now - thank you so much again for your eagle eyes!

♥

[blithelybonny.livejournal.com]

I love seeing all your stat-lists like this. This is really interesting!

[snowgall]

Thank you so much :)

♥

[gracerene]

Ooo, interesting. I'm actually surprised to see that overall the # of fics stayed relatively steady!

As for fests, I could be totally missing it up there, but I'm not seeing hp_getlucky which I believe ran both 2014 & 2015 and had H/D fics. :)

I wasn't sure if you'd be including Draco Malfoy's Tropes & Kinks Party, since I believe there were several drabbles that posted in the comments section. Did you include those as well, or just the ones that people decided to post as individual entries?

[snowgall]

Oh no - I did forget hp_getlucky! I will go in and add that now :)

Yeah, the draco Kinks and Tropes one was a close call. It's one of the reasons I tried to come up with "rules" even though some fests make it hard to abide by them (case in point, hd-cliche not providing a masterlist for 2015!) I felt that in most other respects the kinks and tropes fest complied with my arbitrary rules, so I included it. But I can see arguments for not doing so, for sure :) I included all the fics that were listed in the masterlist, I think, regardless of how they were posted.

Off to fix hp-getlucky :)

[snowgall]

OK, I think it's fixed now :) I had to make sure I changed the totals columns as well, so I hope all my math still works out!

Thank you so much for spotting this. If you see any other errors or omissions, don't hesitate to let me know!

[alisanne.livejournal.com]

How fascinating!
It makes me wonder what the numbers would be for my OTP.

And I wonder if the numbers are stable because the same core number of people who write H/D no matter what fest it's for are at their max output?

[snowgall]

I assume you mean Snarry? :) I confess I haven't tracked those numbers. It's possible they would show similar trends.

But your suggestion that the same core people who write H/D are at their max output is pretty much what I was thinking too ♥ Although I'm sure there is some fluidity with some authors leaving the fandom and new ones coming in to replace them, but overall the numbers do seem rather stable :)

[alisanne.livejournal.com]

I do mean Snarry. I'm surprised you know that. ;)
And I didn't say because, well, I didn't want to be seen as contaminating your H/D post or anything. LOL.
And yes, H/D does seem to have new people joining, but I suspect, like our corner of fandom, it's only just enough to account for the attrition of older writers.

[snowgall]

You learn a lot about various authors when you start tracking fics from every HP fest you can find :) I'm sure there's lots I don't know, but your love for Snarry is very clear ♥

I think if I had the resources to track fic output over the last decade, say, we'd probably see a large spike in the year or two right before and after DH, and then a slow decline for a couple of years before a leveling off. This is just an impression, mind you - I don't have stats to back it up. But I think that the HD fandom is still pretty active, and that this activity has been more-or-less stable for the past couple of years.

The fandom has changed to be a bit more fest-oriented however. In the early days, more fic was created independent of fests, and there were far fewer fests as well. (see my post on that here).

Sometime in 2010 or so, interest in fests took off and that is where a lot of the action has been in recent years. Not that people don't still write for other reasons, just that fest participation is a bigger sector of fandom than it used to be.

[alisanne.livejournal.com]

Well that's a good thing I suppose. People should know what they're getting into. ;)

I think you're right about the spike, although I imagine there was another one, albeit smaller, after each of the movies, too. As for the leveling off, I'm not sure we've seen how low it will go yet, although I hope you're right that this is the plateau point.
I was just talking to torino10154 about the same thing. We keep debating whether expanding the Snarry fests to other places (AO3, Tumblr) would be a good way to re energize the Snarry corner of fandom since comment numbers continue to decline, even as the number of Snarry fen stays stable.

Oh yes, in the ~Golden Era™ people just wrote for writing's sake, to tell a story, but these days unless you're in a fest, you won't get comments and no matter what we all say, we do go where the comments are. Not that fests are bad things, IMO. Even though I love my Snarry, I write a lot of other things, and I doubt I'd stretch myself nearly as much without fests.

Okay, off to read your other post now. :)

[capitu]

This is so cool. I love how seeing some fest that aren't H/D exclusive do have a large number of H/D fics, and in some cases that number has been higher last year compared to 2014 (kinkfest and drizzle) Yet some H/D fests have had less submissions that the year prior. Nifty!

[snowgall]

Thank you! Yes, I agree it's very interesting to see the ebb and flow of fest output from year to year. Even while the numbers change for individual fests, it seems like maybe they don't change so much overall :) At least I hope so!

[rainfallsdown8.livejournal.com]

I've been in the H/D fandom for 10 years now and I can definitely say I see the shift to more fic produced during fests then just randomly posting. I have to confess that I pretty much only read fest fic or new fic from authors that I know. I know that's not helpful in encouraging new writers to create and stay in this fandom. It's just I don't have the time I used to (I was a sophomore in college when I got sucked in to H/D). I used to spend hours scrolling though fanfiction.net, hexfiles, hpfandom, and skyhawke looking for fic to read. Sadly that's no longer the case.

[snowgall]

Thanks for the confirmation! :)

I'm mostly the same. Outside of fests I either stick with authors I know, or else recs I trust. Who has the time indeed? ♥

There are some other minor changes in how fics are posted I've noticed too. For one, it's amazing how many older fics on LJ don't have a word count given. Even sometimes those for fests. Now that most fics are either for fests where the header requests a word count or else posted to AO3 where the word count is automatically provided, not having a word count is less common. (thankfully!)

Basically, headers were all over the place. Sometimes you'd get a summary, sometimes not. Sometimes a rating, sometimes not. I've even seen some where all you get is a title and pairing! And even *there* I've seen fics where the author wanted to keep the pairing a surprise until the end of the fic (I personally hate that :) It frankly baffles me that these fics could still get good readership. I need to know as much as possible about a fic before deciding to read it!

[cagnurit.livejournal.com]

Thank you for these statistic details. So well-organized! I think it's very time-consuming. (I wish I could help you double check the numbers, but RL gets me trapped I still haven't finished reading 3 recent big H/D fests :'<).

I secretly love fics from fests a little bit more. I think because 1) they have a theme, how wonderful from just one theme we can see many different aspects, and 2) there's always the beauty of anonymity, to read without bias :)))

[snowgall]

No kidding about real life! I almost wasn't able to do these stats. I had hoped to maybe do a larger comparison from more years, but this was as much as I could do. I'm glad you appreciate it, and thanks for the nice comment ♥

Fests really are great! I like the anonymity too, and I also like that it's very clear when the fics are first published, and there are no WIPs :)

Checking the numbers would be really time-consuming for sure! I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few mionor errors, considering all the counting that had to be done. And some fics weren't always clear if they were HD or not. I didn't count fics that were about threesomes like Harry/Draco/Snape, though maybe other people would?

[cagnurit.livejournal.com]

Threesome is absolutely another category, I think. Only when it's 2 pairs (like Draco/Harry + Draco/Snape) should it be H/D. That's my way of thinking :)))