Sorry I have to rant.
It's more that I feel it would seem so big-headed to make a blog about my own fic.
But is it, really? Big-headed? Every time we promote our own work, is it really because of our egos demand the attention?
I thought about this a lot after the last time I posted in this thread. About the whole shyness thing, and about the need to stand up and go "everyone, look at what I did!" This is also because I've been promoting my stuff on Tumblr lately, and I'm not shy to post links in common chats or links on TLS.
I'm not gonna go as far as saying that "being shy" is seen as a virtue in females (except that it is), and I don't really want to make this another "men is better at some stuff than women" thing. But. I do think women are taught that any type of promotion of oneself is a negative trait, and it feels more awkward for girls to simply say "look, I did this thing, I am proud of it, you should take a look at it". As I said I don't really want to turn this into another debate of sexes, and I know I repeat myself to death re: the whole spending a lot of time with men, but the fact is I honestly believe men are better at self promotion, and not because they're selfish, but because they're clever. Over the past six years I've worked with men mostly, gone to college with them, done all my team work with them, even hung out mostly with guys in my spare time. It is from them I have picked up to be straight forward and honest with my wants and wishes, like when writing a resume and a job application. Women tend to say things like "I
think I am good at... because that's the feedback I've had" in an application, while men go "I
know I do this well, feedback also supports this statement". People say men have more confidence than women, but it's not really about confidence, it's about realizing that without self promotion and believing in your skill - why should anybody else? It's a technique to success, not a selfish want.
(I know you're to be a lawyer, Cam; another male heavy 'industry'. I have a feeling this might sound familiar to you?)
I did an "ask me" to one of my favourite FF fic writers, which you are bound to have come across if you've been into the XII fandom, pendency/intradependency, a couple of weeks ago. The question was originally about if having social skills is a good or a bad thing for a writer, but turned into a back and forth about other things as well, such as Tumblr tags, and also about "the cliché of a writer". She said something that stuck with me:
The stereotype of the artiste who induces depression to provoke creativity (self-ostracises, insults people, eats bad food, isolates themselves, smokes, loses their partner due to bad behaviour and/or putting work ahead of everything else, substance abuse,) is really out of date in a day and age where consistently published writers are those who know how to use their social networks to form connections which will actually make them money.
I don't know much about the publishing business, but I'm fairly sure she does, and I think when you look at how the Internet have changed things for us, she has a point. It's about saying "this is good. This should be published." instead of sitting around waiting for someone to see your work and go "glory hallelujah!" because so many people have access to a computer and an email address today. Anyone can write a manuscript.
Now, as a simple fanfic writer,
why do you want to market your stuff? Everyone keeps saying "write because you enjoy writing, and not because you want other people to read it", which I believe is true. Your key motivation should be the craftsmanship itself, not the attention you get, like an athlete who focuses on the task, not the goal.
I wrote a long rant about it on Tumblr. So if not for the attention, why do you want as many people as possible to look at your creations?
I think Cam explains quite well the motivation for having other people read your stuff:
I made a fan club dedicated to one of my AU fics on DA, not because I’m big headed but because I appreciated people doing fanfic for me and wanted to archive it and I wanted to make it known I was fine with people playing in my world. I even held a fanfic contest where I asked people to fill in a back-story for one of the characters that I had described but not put in scene. I wanted to see how fans pictured that backstory and I loved seeing what I got.
Again, I love the level of inactivity between creator and fans, it’s like we can all be fans of something. I love what I wrote, you love it too, and that’s flattering, and I love you’ve created for it! It’s beautiful.
It's about the love for stores, for the characters. When I write something, I explore the characters. The discussion it sparks - THAT'S the true prize. I want people to read my stuff because I love debating the content. But to have people read my stuff, I need to market it, which also includes an amount of
shameless self promotion. When I post something on TLS or Tumblr, maybe 30% will click the link. Another 50% might look at the summary, and of those, another 40% will skim it - most of those will find the story uninteresting and leave, for several reasons ("I'll read it later", "it looks dull and/or poorly written", "it doesn't contain the kind of smut I like"), so I might be down to 30% of the skimmers actually reading the story. Which means a percentage of 1.8% that actually ends up reading the thing. For those 1.8% to be about 3-4 people, I need to show the link to a lot of people! It's a question of math, really.
My stuff has a decent amount of hits and kudos for someone with just 11 works on AO3 (I count 3 kudos as good), and I know that for those who can be arsed to sit down and read it, they usually end up
liking my stuff too, which of course is key. ("Liking" is wrong, by the way. "Bothering to finish and then being left with an impression" is a better way of putting it. "Disgusted" is better than bored to tears.) The best way to convince people to read it, is to have other people recommend your stuff. This includes the silent recommendation that is decent hits, kudos and comment count. People are more likely to read what other people endorse. So I need to market it to as many people as possible - getting as many as possible to click it, then just keep writing as hopefully one day someone will read it.
As when applying for a job, you have to forget about the self glorification stuff. Look at your goal, look at how you portray yourself (and your stuff) and have the confidence to say "I know me/ my stuff is good; I believe in it" and then just go for it.
If we want to emphasize that this is a fanclub, we can ask someone to put in something extra in the title, or of course Kassi can change it too. Thoughts?
