Hmm...my reading tends more to be driven by the writing qualities of the author. Do I like the style, structure, plot, etc.? That tends to drive me more than the pairing.
As far as writing is concerned, I haven't found an appreciable lowering or rise in feedback for my rareslash pairings versus my H/D for the most part. I find that if I post to the comms, I get more feedback, regardless of pair. Even my Patilcest got a decent amount of feedback in spite of warnings that I didn't think I'd managed to pull it off well at all. So, I would say if one's voice resonates with a good core of readers, even if it's a small number of readers as in my case, one will receive decent feedback.
I think to grow one's readership, if that is goal, a focus on more common pairs might make sense. But if that's not the concern, than I would say write what you like, just make it well written.
no subject
As far as writing is concerned, I haven't found an appreciable lowering or rise in feedback for my rareslash pairings versus my H/D for the most part. I find that if I post to the comms, I get more feedback, regardless of pair. Even my Patilcest got a decent amount of feedback in spite of warnings that I didn't think I'd managed to pull it off well at all. So, I would say if one's voice resonates with a good core of readers, even if it's a small number of readers as in my case, one will receive decent feedback.
I think to grow one's readership, if that is goal, a focus on more common pairs might make sense. But if that's not the concern, than I would say write what you like, just make it well written.