Tumblr for all its frustrating quirks has introduced me to some amazing writers.
I appreciate your work and sharing it with us and explaining that feedback feeds you. I
am trying to not feel self conscious and start leaving more feedback. Even if all my brain can spit out is “nghhh”.I’m hoping this @ works to call out a few folks who are just brilliant writers. If I’ve missed anyone feel free to let me know.
@merindab
@atlinmerrick
@berlynn-wohl
@consultingpurplepants
@ivyblossom
@inevitably-johnlocked
@msdisdain
@prettyarbitrary
@rominatrix
@watsonshoneybee
@xistentialangstAww, lovely!! Thank you! I’m not a fic writer, but I do appreciate teh shoutout! Also! @snogbox1, @coloringthegreyscale and @beejohnlocked are fabulous writers as well!! <3
One day I aspire to be mentioned in a post like this. ;_; But honestly I have no idea how to even tempt people to read my stuff. It’s really hard as a new writer to let people know you even exist.
What do other people do to get noticed?
Okay, so first, keep in mind that motivation matters. If you try to do this just to get readers, then it will come across as self-serving because it will be self-serving. But I think that the desire of most fanfic writers to be read is not selfish: it’s because they want to feel that they’re part of the conversation, contributing to the community. Wanting to be appreciated and to belong is pretty much as normal and universal as it gets.
So with that in mind, here’s what I do when I want to make friends in a fandom. I’ve probably missed some stuff, but hey, this got long enough as it is.
I’ve been a big writer in some fandoms, and a little writer in others, and in yet others I’ve been nothing but a consumer. I also work in PR and communications professionally. So I can tell you that it is an incontrovertible truth that your readership increases with your name recognition. There are many different ways you can build name recognition. You can implement one of them, or a combination, but the more of these you engage, the faster and better the results you’ll see. That said, ‘fast’ is still a matter of many months at the very least. A big following does not come overnight. Depending on the fandom, your following may never get big. Some fandoms are just small, or cliquey, or what you’re into is a niche interest so only a minority of fans are into it. But you’ll still get something.
A lot of this stuff goes for artists and meta-writers, etc. too, but the progression can differ. Artists, for example, build a big following faster, usually, because enjoying a piece of art is a much smaller time commitment than reading someone’s story, and so it’s often easier to convince people to do it.
First and most successful: COMMENT ON OTHER PEOPLES’ WORK.
In every single fandom I’ve been in, this has been the absolutely unchallenged driver to my building fandom relationships and consequently readership. Not little one-line comments, either. Here’s the trick. I know we tell people–and we mean it!–that even the smallest comment swells our thirsty writer-hearts like the Grinch on Christmas. This is true! It really happens, and we love every single one of you. But if you want to really stand out to writers and and connect with them, then not only reading their work but leaving them a long, gushing or (even better) thoughtful comment is what will draw their attention and affection. In doing so, you will engage their curiosity. They’ll come scope out your stuff. They might follow you, even if you aren’t a writer, because you are clearly someone who’s articulate and thoughtful and on the same page as they are, and you’ve proven that you’re inclined to give them some portion of your time–and of such stuff are friendships often made.
The reason, though, that this is so very effective, is that writers who already have a following already have friend groups in the fandom. If you make that connection, then through them you can meet like-minded others, bond with them, start conversations, participate in fandom. You don’t even need to a writer for this. Readers contribute in their own ways. So do artists, translators, meta writers, vidders, betas, people who come up with great prompts and AU ideas but can’t write them, the people who find and reblog all the best art but don’t make their own… Basically, no matter who you are, if you want to get out and meet people in fandom, leaving long and thoughtful remarks on their content is the #1 way to do it.
Leaving big honking comments (sometimes it takes more than one) has consistently been how I’ve gotten invited into writer’s circles and fandom chats and stuff. And I don’t know about you, but personally when I have a circle of friends I’m enjoying fandom with, I don’t even so much feel the need to have my fanfic read to feel like I’m a participating member of the community. Although it also happens that then I feel more inclined to write more fanfic, because now I have friends I want to entertain and give gifts to.
Second: Produce a lot of content.
I know this is harder than it sounds for some people. Believe me. I’m a slow writer. It takes me twice as long to produce the same amount of content as it does for a lot of people I know. I can squeeze myself dry and burn out in a relatively short amount of time, if I’m not careful. But when you have a decent sample-sized body of work, and you continue adding to it in a relatively consistent manner (consistent means reliable, not necessarily fast), this lets people see it’s worth keeping an eye on you. They start subscribing, on AO3 or Tumblr or wherever they can find you, and you start building a followership of people who are anticipating the next one.
It is true, alas, that if you produce more content faster, you will draw more attention than if you produced the same amount of content more slowly. I’m doing Kinktober right now, a story a day (frankly I’m shocked I’ve stuck with it this long), and I’m finding that a side effect of it is that it’s doing…let’s say notable things for my follower count. A couple of friends who are doing similar October challenges have commented on the same phenomenon on their blogs. But. We are not content-production machines. We do what we can, and must putty the gaps with patience.
Third: Provide a fun time on your blog.
This is both entertaining, and more important than it sounds. Especially if you’re a purveyor of rarepairs or weird kinks or AUs or something. Look. Fandom is community. Fandom is a whole series of interlinked communities, in fact, lots of little circles of people going around looking for people they connect with over their specific favorite things about the fandom. Your blog can become a watering hole for those people. A community hotspot or maybe even a safe space for people with your shared interest to rally around. The longer you go for, the more visible and entertaining and engaging and interactive you are about it, the more people will find you and flock to you. If you also periodically produce some kind of content as well as an entertaining curated experience, then these people will also enthusiastically partake of that.
Bonus for those with a really really esoteric interest: in doing this, you can often build a community that didn’t even exist before, inspire people to create their own content that you can enjoy (make sure to comment and express your joy and gratitude, it’s really important in this case!), and perhaps even lure in people who hadn’t previously considered your interest! With some dedication and nurturing, a tiny group of people–say, you and two friends–can even build up an entire little fandom for things you love but nobody else has ever even apparently heard of.
Fourth: Create non-fiction content.
Yes, you want people to read your stories. But the thing about stories is that they require an investment of time on the part of the reader. A lot of us run short on that commodity, and so you want to provide reasons for people to decide YOUR stories are worth their time. A way you can do this is by producing other, more quickly digestible kinds of content. I built a lot of following in BBC Sherlock fandom by writing meta. (Okay, my meta was usually more like an essay, and maybe you’ll get a quicker response if you don’t always write three-page manifestos.) A lot of those people then also read my fics, because hey they liked my meta and presumably my fiction was rooted in my perspective on the show, right? Or just throw around crazy AU ideas and play around with them! Sometimes you don’t need to write the stories; you can just share the ideas. Ideas are a lot faster to consume, usually, and once people decide that they like their ideas, they’ll often check out your fics because obviously your ideas are a good time.
Fifth AND MOST IMPORTANT: Let people know when they make a difference to you.
I periodically drop little messages to people–sometimes basically total strangers–when I enjoy their blog, or they’ve inspired me on something, or they gave me a smile on a bad day… It’s nice, I think, and maybe it even matters. You know that feeling of loneliness and isolation you have? The way you wonder, sometimes, if you’ve ever made a useful contribution to the universe at large? Every single one of us feels that. Most of us go through life never really knowing that we’ve made a positive impact in someone’s life, so I like to tell them. Honestly I think people need to hear it.
But anyway. This can be as small as a Tumblr tag comment, or an Ask, or as big as creating and dedicating a story or other gift to them. If you do this, then it’s really nice to let them know directly. It’s not a creepy-stalker move to say, “You don’t know it, but something you did mattered so much to me that it inspired me to create a thing, and I’m dedicating it to you in gratitude.” That’s the kind of thing I think we need a lot more of in life.
Again: this is how you make friends, and making friends leads to building community, and your community will be inclined to read your stuff. But more importantly, you’re helping beat back the darkness a little by letting people know that yes, they do matter, and they have helped.
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2dnn9vZ