Requesting Readers?

Ok I don't know if there is a thread out there for this, I flipped through the 1st 15 pages here and didn't see anything like it, so here we go.

I wanted to start this so that writers can seek out readers. Here you can pitch your ideas, upcoming and past, and try and appeal to what the readers out there are looking for.

Basically its a place to advertise your story and request readers.

I've been a member now for over two years and I've noticed how hard to pick up readers. It seems that if you aren't well known already, you never will be.

So feel free to pitch your stories here and let other readers know what you are doing. Hopefully they will stop in and try a story or two.

 

You can also put a small snippet of your story in the Fan Fiction Trailer with a link. It might help...

 

well thanks guys.

I don't see what is so bad about trying to promote your stories but i'm not one to argue with rules.

I'll try the other rooms you peeps have suggested and see if I can't conjure something up.

thanks a bunches

 

It's not bad, but if everyone created a thread seeking readers, it'd be a mess.

 

: You can also put a small snippet of your story in the Fan Fiction Trailer with a link.

Good call. That's one place where it *is* okay to promote yourself. Also, get yourself listed in any index your story qualifies for. People do go searching for certain kinds of fics.

 

Playing devil's advocate here- I understand that no one wants tons of threads cluttering up the Resource Forum about authors searching for readers. But if there was only one thread, then wouldn't that work? I don't believe in requesting readers myself, but I can see the point, I guess. And if there was one thread for all the advertisments, then you don't have to worry about each author opening up their own and fics can still get advertised.

But yes, I suggest posting in the indexs, linking in your sig, linking in your bio and basically making your name known so that people recognise you and pay attention to you.

 

There is, it's the trailer thread

 

Actually, I pretty much agree with every single one of Alethia's statements.

I understand that it's against the rules, but it's one of those things where, if you give everyone a place to do it, we won't have to put up with all these random threads that, though they get locked right away, still clutter things up.

Actually, I'm kinda surprised this hasn't been locked yet. Makes me wonder if the Mods weren't looking for this kind of discussion... *shrugs*

 

Creating such a thread seems sort of ... unneccessary. Doesn't everyone want their stories to be read?

Why would a reader want to come into the WR, peek into a whinning "read my stuff thread," and pick out a story when they can accomplish the exact same thing by going into the stories boards and clicking on something that sounds interesting?

Now I know there are support threads around here with a "you read my stuff, I'll read yours" sort of primise. That would work much better. Afterall, how can you expect someone to read your stuff if you don't do likewise?

Maybe I sound harsh, but it really isn't very useful. Much better to do things the old fashioned way: indexes, sig lines, reading other fics, speaking in discussion threads, and, maybe I sound I bit too much like the indexer, but think of how much more alluring your fic would be to potential readers if you gave basic info in your first post (a summary and whatnot).

Edit: me no spel good

 

Oh, I agree that it is unnecessary, but we could turn it into a "graffiti wall." Give the people who want to someplace so that the Mods won't have to lock six similar threads every week.

It was just a random though, personally, I don't care one way or another. Seemed like a good idea when Alethia said it, and I still think so.

 

There are already several threads on the first couple of pages that allow writers to promote themselves or their fics.

The snippet thread and the new/returning author thread comes to mind immediately.

If I get a few spare moments I'll check through the forum index and double check to see if there isn't already yet another thread that's exactly what you describe.

 

A while back Kit? opened a mod-sponsored snippet thread in response to similar queries. It is currently locked, but did serve a purpose at one time, especially for those who didn?t want to be bothered with producing a trailer. Leona left some wonderful resources that would benefit anyone concerned with the same topic, so I too wonder why this thread has not been locked. The practice of advertising is against the FAQ and not open for discussion - as opposed to something like the interspecies rule, which is a debatable interpretation of board standards. Herman?s Fanfiction Forum Index has numerous resources like ?ship and character threads that could serve as a starting point ? get into an index, meet people who write about OCs, whatever you need to do to develop interest. As it stands this thread is just taking up space in a valuable resource simple to allow users a forum to complain about something that isn?t up for discussion.


Edit: Herman, found it for you.

 

I think this thread is a very good idea.

Sometimes when a new author write a new fic, and people don't show up to review it, it soon goes to the bottom of the pile.

Now, if someone wanted to read this particular sort of story, and they look at the forum, and don't see it on the first page, they won't go down to page 9 to seek it.

The problem with relying on reviewing to 'advertise' yourself, and hoping that by putting your name onto a reply post onto a good story, and hoping that people will click on your link, it won't work.

Why? When someone reads a good story, trying constantly to scroll down to get rid of the choruses of omg it's so good, I love what you are doing, hey great stories... It GET annoying. Ruins the atmosphere. People gives up after scrolling down an insane amount of compliments to find out in the end that the story was never finished... with forced out reviews (all by authors who wants to advertise themselves indirectly) spanning pages 5 to 12.

What we need is post where people can advertise their stories on particular threads, such as this one.

Also, maybe the monthly newsletter could probably review the stories from last month instead of featuring reviews on unifinished stories made in 2002. This way, everyone gets the same publicity.

An automated system which automatically up people's stories would be nice too. sans useless half hearted reviews.

 

Personally? The huge number of reviews between posts is why I shied away from this site at first and why I don't read or post many stories here. I find it irritating, most of the time. I've learned to deal with it, but it's still not my favorite way to run things.

I think that what we really need is an option to see only posts by a threads originator, that would solve a lot of this whole "Advertising" thing. I have to really want ot read a fic to read it here (aforementioned reasons) and this feature would solve my problem.

Also, I think on the fanfiction boards that only posts by the threads originator should "up" the thread.

Of course, at the moment I'm asking the impossible and I'm sure it's been asked for before... but I'll say it anyway.

What surprises me, though, is that this particular conversation is turning into a debate. Who'd have thunk a mistake would start this mess, huh?

 

If there is already a "Post a snippet from your fic" thread where people can advertise, I suggest that thread be unlocked, upped, and put to good use again. Not only will that placate authors wanting to advertise fics, but it will also give readers even more links without digging through many pages, since the boards tend to move quickly.

DARTH_MU:

Also, maybe the monthly newsletter could probably review the stories from last month instead of featuring reviews on unifinished stories made in 2002. This way, everyone gets the same publicity.

As the Newsletter Editor, I make a distinction between the older threads - both abandoned and completed stories - and newer threads. That's why there is a separate category for locked threads. My intention with the newsletter is to spotlight fics from authors who aren't as well-known as others. Newer stories are reviewed as much as older stories. But speaking now as one of the reviewers, regardless of how old or new the story is, it's much harder to review something with only a few posts, as opposed to one that has 20 chapters or so.

An automated system which automatically up people's stories would be nice too. sans useless half hearted reviews.

I'd like to think that every review counts for something, even when it's a simple, "I liked this." As for an automated system, do you mean one that ups a person's thread every week or so, regardless of whether the author posts? I don't see how such a system would be beneficial. New stories would get buried by the ones being automatically upped. In my opinion, it's not much better than readers or authors upping threads every 30 minutes just to see them on page 1.

As for the idea that reader replies ruin the atmosphere, in my experience they've heightened it. Authors can get ideas for their stories through interaction with readers, people can meet on story threads, etc. I will admit that there's more to gain from this while the story is actually being written, than if someone starts reading long after it's been completed or abandoned.

I didn't think a different format was an option for these forums, but I want to say that I personally love the format here. I can't quite picture how I would be able to find stories with a different one - that is, one where only the author can up the thread - unless there were a search engine of some kind. But I would still much rather prefer this format.

Also, I haven't seen a lot of this problem, where replies to a completed/abandoned story are mostly advertisements. I don't know that a different format would cut down on the ads.

 

Possible solutions:

One: If you're reading a story, put the author on your watched user list. Then you can see when they post on the thread, and not visit it if they haven't.

or, Two: Make a rule that all the story's authors edit the subject line of their post with "updated ___" and the date, so ppl can see at a glance if there's something on it they haven't read yet.

What *I* wish is that it were easier to find fics of a specific type. True, there are some special indexes made, so the fans of the more popular characters have an easier time finding, say, Qui-Gon fics. But I'm looking for Palpy fics, and it's bleepin' HARD. I'm trying to start an index, but either there just aren't many Palpy fics out there, or ppl don't notice that I'm looking.

Everybody spread the word: I'm lookin' for PALPY FICS!!!!

(Thank you.)

 

We Hear you LLL (but keep reminding us) we just don't have anything to send you yet...

 

Whoa...I make one little comment, playing devil's advocate, and an entire discussion ensues... Definitely not what I meant to do.

*sigh* As I said before, I'm playing devil's advocate. I personally don't care about the issue. Even if there was a thread to advertise fics on, I probably wouldn't use it, because for some reason, I prefer going through pages and pages of fan fic every day...


Now I know there are support threads around here with a "you read my stuff, I'll read yours" sort of primise. That would work much better. Afterall, how can you expect someone to read your stuff if you don't do likewise?


That would be nice... I definitely understand the point of not wanting people to review fics and then in their posts, ask the author to review their fic. That is kind of rude. But if you make a deal out of it... that could be interesting.

The huge number of reviews between posts is why I shied away from this site at first and why I don't read or post many stories here. I find it irritating, most of the time. I've learned to deal with it, but it's still not my favorite way to run things.


Definitely agree. It is annoying to have to shift through tons of comments to get to a chapter. In current stories it's not so bad, but in stories that have been finished or not updated for awhile, sometimes there can be 100 pages of thread- but only fifty actual posts, which would accumilate to two pages, not 100... However, like Jade said, in more current threads I find the comments interesting. It's interesting to read people's different views on the stories as well as their speculation and the comments of the authors. And you can end up meeting new people and making friends. It's just that in older stories, it can get annoying. Comments from the last month or so are okay, but I really don't care what a poster had to say about the fic a year ago...

Also, I think on the fanfiction boards that only posts by the threads originator should "up" the thread.


That might work...

What surprises me, though, is that this particular conversation is turning into a debate. Who'd have thunk a mistake would start this mess, huh?

Tell me about it...

I also agree that if there is a snippet thread, that it should be unlocked again. The trailer thread is all very well and good, but I read through it last night and it seems to me like it was intended to be more of a random plot bunny thread. Plus, there's the fact that making a trailer is hard to do (at least for some people) and it's very time consuming. But posting a snippet that you've already written is much easier.

My intention with the newsletter is to spotlight fics from authors who aren't as well-known as others. Newer stories are reviewed as much as older stories. But speaking now as one of the reviewers, regardless of how old or new the story is, it's much harder to review something with only a few posts, as opposed to one that has 20 chapters or so.


That seems very handy, with the Newsletter. I'll admit that if you're new anywhere, you have to try to stand-out to get recognition. But even some older authors aren't as well known as others. It all depends... And it is usually easier to review longer chapters/ longer fics. A chapter that is only a few paragraphs or so and doesn't have much content does deserve a review, but it's very hard to think of one other than 'nice job, I liked it' sometimes. I always try to mention something that I liked as well, just so that my review has a bit more substance to it.

An automated system which automatically up people's stories would be nice too. sans useless half hearted reviews.


I really think that that might cause more problems then solving them. What happens to the newer fics then? They'd just end up getting buried under the fics that might not be updated as often or something.

And although an author probably prefers longer tought-out reviews (I know I do), I'm sure that everyone accepts the

 

I have a question: what about a featured fic? People nominate fics from a certain genre that is voted on in advance, and then out of the nominations, people vote for one fic to be put at the top of the boards every week. Or people could just randomly choose a fic and have it as the featured fic or something. It wouldn't be like the fan fic awards, where it's voted as the best or anything, it's just a way to get some recognition for different fics.

This isn't exactly what you're thinking, but The Most Interesting Idea thread seems to at least be along similar lines. I admit that it's not a thread I've had time to keep up with myself, but there always seems to be a lot of concern about how "different" stories tend to be neglected in favor of the more accepted genres. This thread exists to explore those differences.

Or what about a reading challenge? A challenge is given to read maybe a ship you don't like or an Era or a character or something you're not very familiar with and then you have to read it and post a review not only in the fic's thread, but in the challenge thread as well.

This already exists in the form of The Review Challenge, which has an extremely balanced and well thought out format and is definitely worth checking out.

Ultimately, there already are quite a number of ways to promote your own fics or to explore others. No system is perfect, of course, but this forum generally does very well, and overall the community tends to be much more supportive than otherwise. If a writer gets involved with the community by showing genuine interest in the work of others, participating in Resource threads whenever possible, supporting the indexes, and including links to stories in his or her sig and bio, the odds are pretty good that readers will come.

 

Ultimately, there already are quite a number of ways to promote your own fics or to explore others. No system is perfect, of course, but this forum generally does very well, and overall the community tends to be much more supportive than otherwise. If a writer gets involved with the community by showing genuine interest in the work of others, participating in Resource threads whenever possible, supporting the indexes, and including links to stories in his or her sig and bio, the odds are pretty good that readers will come.

I totally agree with you. Personally, I prefer the 'harder' methods of just being friendly, participating in discussions and reviewing others' fics. But some people like to have it easier on them... Which I can also understand. If I were new to fan fiction in general (which I'm not- just semi-new to SW fan fic), then I'd be hesitant at first as well. But with five + years of fan fic experience under my belt, well, it's the same pretty much anywhere around the net. And I'll definitely say that this place is a lot better, easier to use and friendlier than other sites I've experienced...

 

Edit the thread title with each update and include in it the most interesting part of your update, the featured couples, and update date. At least it works on me, since I, as a reader, will read everything with the label J/TK in the title.

 

well what do you guys think about a thread where you promote your favorite author or story thread. Like a "you gotta read this", kind of thing. That would help writers get readers, and readers get interesting well worth it reads. Place it in one thread, allow for the reader to do a little bit of a plug for thier story or author.
You are never really going to confine all the additional plugging anyway. Someone will always want to pitch a thread just to promote thier own story I.E. "The So and So Story" chapter 4 trailer up now... yadda yadda whatever. Just seems to me it would be more beneficial to the fickers, not to mention less time consuming for such a place.

 

I have two ideas that I've tried myself:

---

1) Have an IC for the story & an OOC for the comments & interaction, and interlink each thread.

I realize this is probably not a good option here with the size of these boards, but I've noticed that it works rather well on small ones.

[hr]
2) Add links in your first post to each of the chapters.

I'm doing this with my story "Comeback," and though it's still small, the links have been a great help. Why? Because all my reviewer comments have given me more pages than I should have for a fic that size.

It occurs to me that you could also edit into each section a link to the next section, so readers wouldn't have to keep referring back to the next page.

[hr]

This next idea I've seen implemented by [b]RedGold[/b]:

Highlight chapter titles. Makes them easy to find. Especially if you use that "natural" highlighter yellow no reviewers seem to use, even when they go on an insane streak. ;)

[hr]
As for advertising, it helps to seek out people who like the kinds of fics you like, or an audience who likes you for a certain kind of fic. Challenge threads are excellent for that.

My reviewer body is almost completely different between Before the Saga and Beyond the Saga?and my sock gets others.

Find a niche of story that you can fit in with an audience, if you want your stuff read. I've found a few. That doesn't mean you have to limit yourself to those ("Most Can't Hear Me," anyone?); but it does develop a readership, some of whom might be willing to follow you into your other story types.

I know this sounds like I'm promoting my stuff, but I'm not?I don't know other writers' niches or intents, so I only know my own as examples. If I knew another author's, I'd reference it.

If I've repeated someone, my apologies.

 

Hi, Alethia, and welcome to the boards. I know it's a month late, but still.

Your experience sounds pretty similar to mine when I started posting at TFN. I also came from a fandom where finding what you were looking for was easier--in part because it was more decentralized. Instead of one huge site containing *everything,* there were hundreds of small archive sites that formed webrings. Eventually readers found webrings that offered what they liked to read, and from there it was just "Favorites," "Add to Favorites," and "click."

We have character index threads here that offer sort of the same thing, but if you're used to a less . . . let's call it "dynamic" organization of fanfic stories,it can seem irrational and overwhelming at first.

We had a recommendations thread where I came from, where people would go to tell each other, "You've gotta read this!" I PM'ed a mod early in my time here and asked whether we could have one of those, and was basically told that this forum couln't handle it. She predicted that such a thread would only turn into another thread for authors to advertise themselves, either openly or via sock or via a friend. Remembering what the forums were like after AOTC came out, when there were *so* many fics and *so* much competition for reader attention, I suspect the mod was right. There were something like 3 "advertise yourself" threads in Resource at the time, and still people were clamoring for more opportunites for exposure. The place has settled down considerably since then, and I think we could handle such a thread now, but after ROTS hits, who knows? I have a gut feeling that this is going to be the prequel film that "normal" people like, and we're going to get slammed by the volume of new users. Just MHO.

I'm sure you've noticed by now that Fanfic Forum users tend to form their own little unofficial "web rings" (read: terrible, horrible, exclusive, newby-crushing cliques) and that they tend to read stories written by and recommended by that circle. This is, unfortunately, the most efficient means I've found to go right to the kind of story you're looking for. I think the best way of avoiding the newby-crushing aspect is to get new users "adopted" by established users who share their fanfic interests. That way people are likely to get drawn into a sub-community right away instead of being left to flounder through thousands of threads on 4 different boards. Even if the new user doesn't stay in that "clique," at least they know *some* people on the boards.

Speaking of which, I should go check in with my Padawan.