fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2959 ]

[ SECRET POST #2959 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2959 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Better early than late!

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 044 secrets from Secret Submission Post #423.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I sometimes worry about how to get more readers to give something I wrote a chance. Mostly I just post to ff or ao3 and whatever will be, will be, although if I find a forum I'll drop a link now and then when my anxiety is running low. :P

But tumblr's gotten to be a big thing. Is it worth the time also posting chapters of a fic to a tumblr blog to get people to read it? I've linked to fic from there, yeah, but maybe it's the difference between someone making an effort to click the link and having the story be just right there.

or do you think that's just too much time and effort and the stories are better off where they're archived?

I dunno, maybe the question makes no sense. I just feel like I get a low readership and want to know if there's anything else I can do.

This is tough, because it really depends on the fandom. If your fandom has a large-ish (or even medium-sized) Tumblr fandom, it can really help. If there isn't much of a fandom for your thing on Tumblr, though, it might not help you as much.

Do keep in mind, though, that if you post in to Tumblr, most of your feedback on that site will likely be in the form of likes. I know some people are really happy with those, while others find that sort of unsatisfying.

I'm going to second this. It really, really does depend. I hang out in a corner of my fandom that's very writing-centric, so I do post full chapters and completed one-shots to my blog. It's what people want and expect. But that doesn't work for every space, particularly considering that, as someone pointed out below, "read more" doesn't work on mobile (which is fucking stupid, but hey, it wouldn't be tumblr if its design wasn't abominable).

OP, look through your fandom's tags and get a feel for the norms. If you see a lot of writing, then posting chapters is probably fine. If you don't, then just drop some links.

No. I'm pretty sure posting chapters to tumblr is too much effort and isn't going to do any good. If your summary&pairing/trope tags don't get someone interested enough to click an AO3/FFN link, then they aren't going to bother reading your stuff in tumblr's uncomfortable layout, either.

I'm sure there must be self-rec comms somewhere, but I haven't had any experience with those.

IMO there aren't many ways to promote your own stuff apart from being active in the fandom and just sort of hoping that someone will check your works out. Posting them to AO3 and FFN is the best you can do.

(IDK, though; I'm speaking from the perspective of someone who doesn't care enough to do much self-promotion, so there may be others who'll offer something more helpful).

I wouldn't post actual fic to Tumblr, if only because people's varying themes can make it very difficult to read anything of length in that format very comfortably. A (very) short summary or teaser is probably your best bet, with a link to the fic elsewhere.

The one plus you might get from Tumblr is that you can add that teaser/link to the fandom or ship tag. Chances are that the majority of people scouring that tag for fic will already have checked AO3 or FF for new fic anyway -- I know there's always a lot of overlap in my current fandoms, but yours may not have -- but you might get a few others who haven't.

Yeah, this. If you want to post it (especially if it's a long fic), do yourself and your followers a favour and don't post the actual thing on tumblr. Because the "Read More" function (that thing that work like a livejournal cut) does not work on phones and tablets and a lot of people use those to browse tumblr. And nothing will annoy them more than an endless wall of text they have to scroll by.

OP.

The gist I'm getting - and it's a good one - is to just post links, the occasional teaser snippet, and bide my time. I can do that.

And yeah, I use mobile a lot and huge posts are just annoying to wrangle. Even if they're normally interesting.

I think posting the links on tumblr is just fine. Though, if you do decide to post some text, please put it behind a "Read More" cut.

One thing to note: If you're new to a particular fandom, it might take a while to get noticed (especially if it is a very active fandom). This has happened to me in multiple fandoms. My early fics get little to no notice, but my later fic did and some of those readers sought out my earlier ones.

Whatever you do, don't put "please read" or "give it a chance" or especially not "better than it sounds" in the summary.

OP here and OH HELL NAW. That smacks of stinky desperation.

ayrt

I completely understand why people would, especially if they're new to the fanfic game. And it doesn't... always mean the story is bad. It just sends up huge warning signs, justified or otherwise.

don't do it like this:
http://sherlockbbc.livejournal.com/6422822.html#cutid1

what is this, i don't even D:

My immediate inclination is no, just because OH GOD THE FORMATTING. And tumblr just axed the HTML bar too, so good luck fixing any bugs.

Also, YOU'D NEVER BE ABLE TO FIND IT AGAIN. I hate reading things on tumblr. Like, post a link from Ao3 or FF.net or whatever, but I'd never recommend posting it all alone.

--Rogan

And tumblr just axed the HTML bar too

WHAAAAAT

*hasn't logged on in a few days, is now frothing at the mouth*

ETA: All right, just checked. They didn't ax it completely *phew*; it's just under settings now.

Edited 2015-02-10 01:09 (UTC)

Well, that's good to know. Still a pain in the ass though. Seriously, tumblr eventually drove me off because of UI bullshit. A site that simple has no right to be as hoggy as it is.

--Rogan

TBH, I get waaay more reaction on my fanfic on AO3 than on tumblr. I think hardly any people find it through tumblr.

I really prefer AO3, especially since ff can't sort crossover stuff for crap. At least ao3 has a tag dealie, makes finding fic so much easier.

Uh?

But FF has crossovers apart, making easier to find or avoid them? AO3 on the other hand...

Not the anon above, but FFnet makes it very easy to avoid crossovers, while AO3 makes it very easy to encounter them. If you're trying to find crossovers on FFnet or not find crossovers on AO3, you'll have a tough time.

FF makes it easy to find crossovers but only if you're specifically choosing to look for crossovers.

AO3 just throws them all together so you find them with all the non-crossover fics.

(seriously, can't AO3 implement a check button on the sidebar to restrict a search to works that only have one fandom or something?)

i think my main problem is the MCU stuff is just a hot mess to deal with on ff more than anything else. like, if you want to do a Captain America story, but you've got Thor in it and you want the tagged characters to search Thor instead of just saying it in the descrip, you have to make it a crossover with Thor.... aaaand now you're sort of mired away from the main fandom.

it's just sort of a mess to deal with the mcu there, imo.

I usually post fic to Tumblr behind a read more, with a link in the header to where I've got it posted on AO3 and ff.net so people can read it there if they want. I think it sort of helps, in that now I get kudos plus likes so all together I guess that's added attention, but I don't know if I'd say it's a huge bump. I do get more likes and reblogs on posts where I actually posted the fic plus links versus the ones where I just posted a link. I've also posted a couple fics Tumblr-only because they were less-edited short fics and those tend to get more likes than the ones with external links, presumably because some people from Tumblr are reading them on the other sites.

Like everyone else said, just post a link to Tumblr rather than the whole fic. I use a sideblog that I don't have publicly connected to my main blog (because anxiety and embarrassment), and whenever I post a fic to AO3 I make a post on the sideblog linking to it, with relevant fandom/character/pairing tags.

I usually get a handful of likes and reblogs when I post a link that way, so it seems like it nets me a few readers, at least.

Post it to Tumblr (or link it) but don't expect to get a ton of notes. It's hard for fic to get many notes on Tumblr. But hey, someone may stumble upon it and like it!

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[ SECRET POST #2959 ]

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