There is no metric for success
I’m sorry. I know people would love to tell you that hits, comments, shares, subscribes, or even—in Archive of Our Own parlance—kudos means something, but it doesn’t mean anything other than someone clicked, liked, or said something about your fic. Success is what you make it! There is no algorithm on Archive of Our Own or Fanfiction.net. Using a system of tags, fanfiction writers can only hope that their fic reaches its intended audience. But success doesn’t matter, fanfic is written for fandom, for yourself, and for the love of the game. Well, the love of the original media. You get it.
