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Last time we talked about five tips to promoting your fan fiction masterpiece.
To review, here
they are:
Tip # 1. Dedicate Accounts
Exclusively to Your Fanfic Writing.
Tip # 2. Put Your Profile to Work.
Tip # 3. Create a Provocative Story Description.
Tip # 4. Direct Your Contacts To Your Fic.
Tip # 5. Broadcast Your Updates
Tip # 2. Put Your Profile to Work.
Tip # 3. Create a Provocative Story Description.
Tip # 4. Direct Your Contacts To Your Fic.
Tip # 5. Broadcast Your Updates
These next five tips build upon the
previous five and I’m making some assumptions: you’ve got dedicated
Twitter/Facebook/tumblr/blog accounts under the same name as your fan fiction
identity; your profile is reflective of your writing persona and directs
readers to your work; your story description is intriguing and compels
potential readers to check out your first chapter; you’ve appended the story’s
hyperlink to all social networking profiles and communications; and you’ve
begun to alert current readers when you post new chapters. *Rubs hands together
excitedly.* Excellent! Let’s go!
Now, not to freak you out, but here
are the facts: FanFiction currently lists 200,300 Twilight
stories. Did you know that? And look at the rest of these:
Harry Potter —- — — 606,892 fics
Narturo —-— —309,171 fics
Glee —- — —78,658 fics
Supernatural —- — —65,912 fics
Buffy —- — —44,593 fics
NCIS —- — —31,687 fics
Bones —- — —18,235 fics
Grey’s Anatomy —- — —12,307 fics
iCarly —- — —12,754 fics
Castle —- — —10,815 fics
Once Upon a Time —- — —4,150 fics
Pretty Little Liars —- — —2,953 fics
Walking Dead —- — —1,988 fics
Narturo —-— —309,171 fics
Glee —- — —78,658 fics
Supernatural —- — —65,912 fics
Buffy —- — —44,593 fics
NCIS —- — —31,687 fics
Bones —- — —18,235 fics
Grey’s Anatomy —- — —12,307 fics
iCarly —- — —12,754 fics
Castle —- — —10,815 fics
Once Upon a Time —- — —4,150 fics
Pretty Little Liars —- — —2,953 fics
Walking Dead —- — —1,988 fics
Okay, calm down. I’m not trying to
make you feel insignificant. My point is that getting eyeballs on your story
can be a challenge. You’ve already figured that out; hence your eyeballs on
this article.
Here’s the deal … what you get out
of your marketing efforts is directly proportionate to what you put into them.
Ocular (eyeball) traffic isn’t about the quality of the work itself. Sorry. It
just isn’t. The world is full of brilliance that never saw the light of day
because no one bought a megaphone and stood up on the bleachers at half time to
sing it’s praises. Quality will, however, affect your retention rates — how
well you keep those eyes coming back — but that’s a topic for another day.
Today we’re talking about traffic, a.k.a. eyeballs, clicks, views, visitors,
and reviews. These things require provocative marketing tactics with a hard
focus on recency and frequency.
Am I saying you’re gonna have to
brag? Hell, yes! What if it’s hard or embarrassing? Assume it will be. What if
you annoy some people? You can count on it, so get over yourself, cupcake. If
you’re here to be well liked by everyone, you’re in the wrong business. If you
are here to share the wonderfulness that is your story with those eager readers
who will fall in love with it and be forever changed by it, then this is a good
place to start.
Look, you obviously had the
ovaries/cojones to post a story. Apparently, you’ve gotten it into your head
that your story deserves more ocular traffic than it’s currently getting. So,
guess what? You’re already up to your armpits in bragging activity. You
might as well hold your nose and take a dive. So — ego in park, brain in third
gear, let’s get going!
********
Tip # 6. Tease, tease, tease. Get people interested
enough to click on a link to your story. The tease generates new readers and
keeps current ones hungry for more. Keep a list of all your social media
followers who have self-identified as your readers. How do you get readers to
self-identify? Ask them! Announce in your chapters that you give progress
updates, excerpts, and sneak peeks on Twitter (from now on, I’ll just say
twitter, but know I mean Facebook/blog/tumblr, etc). Some will bite, some will
just lurk, and that’s okay.
Once you have that list of
self-identified reader tweeps, notify them personally when you tweet a tease.
What’s a tease, you ask? It can be anything from:
A) A quote … which fits in a tweet. If you have to use a tool like TweetCut to shorten the text to fit in the tweet, do it. Even better --
choose a short but powerful quote that fits in the social media field without
abbreviation! Discussion of the mandatory components will follow in the next
tip.
B) An excerpt … which requires a tool like Twitlonger. I recently used to deploy a 2,500 word excerpt of an upcoming
chapter.
C) A full-on chapter preview … which is just that — an early reading of a not-yet-posted
chapter. This will most likely require the use of Dropbox. Dropbox allows you to save a file to a secure site, then
provides you with a short link to that file which you can then deploy through
social marketing channels.
D) A review of a recent chapter … which is exactly that. You’ll need Twitlonger for this, but keep it short. “Here’s what readers are saying … bla
bla bla.”
When you have a new chapter to
announce, send out 2-4 tweets spread throughout that first day it posts. Do
this every day, experimenting with which days of the week and what times of the
day net the greatest response rate. How do you determine response rate? Keep a
close eye on the Traffic Stats>Story Stats graphs on your
fanfiction account and on your trackable hyperlink back to the chapter. More on
that later. Keep tweeting, decreasing in number as you go, until the URL is no
longer being accessed, or until you post your next chapter.
If you wanna go hard core, there
are services that will automatically deploy your tweets at predetermined times.
If you do do that, always alter your text. No one wants to see the same thing
over and over.
Whenever possible, use your story's
full title. The more your readers, tweeps, and friends hear the title inside
their heads, the more likely they are to remember it. Be careful, there is a
fine line between promoting and spamming. Use that Twitter account to interact,
have fun, and build relationships with your tweeps. You want the majority of
your tweets to be from you -- the person -- not you the Mac Daddy of fic pimps!
Tip # 7. Track Your Following. In an ideal situation, every marketing effort will net you
either quantifiable results; education you can put to work informing future
marketing choices.
An effective chapter announcement
might look like this:
'Taking One 4 the Team' CH208 The
When & the How: A Bone to Pick - the recent chapter in a #Bones romance http://bit.ly/QepuHn
Or,
#Bones Chasing Cars: S7 Finale Story! What happened off screen B4 Bren
left the Christening. http://bit.ly/K8MW4k
A quote for that same chapter might
look like this:
"That would depend on if you
were the kisser or the kissee," said Booth. "Should we
experiment?" Ch 208 TWATH:AB2P http://bit.ly/QepuHn
At the very least, every effort
should contain the following:
A) Provocative text … the quote,
excerpt, preview, review of your fic. To see samples of each of these, check
out my samples.
B) The source of the information …
the name of your chapter/story. This can be
▪
The full title: ‘The When and the How: A Bone to Pick’
▪
A squished title: ‘TheWhen&theHow:ABone2Pick'
▪
The title’s acronym once it’s achieved
name recognition: ‘TWATH:AB2P’
C) A trackable link back to your
story/chapter. This requires the use of another very simple tool which will
create a unique and trackable URL for your chapter/story. I use bitly.com. Copy
and paste the new chapter hyperlink from FanFiction.net into bitly. Bitly
shortens the URL from something like this:
'http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7177882/208/The-When-and-the-How-A-Bone-to-Pick'
to look like something like this:
'http://bit.ly/QepuHn'
Now, I can either deploy a tweet
straight from bit.ly, or I can copy the URL and use it where ever I want. Bit.ly
tracks every time that link is clicked and provides me with that information.
D) Hashtag to fandom threads.
Always include the hashtag (#) for your fandom. For example, #BONES, #ICARLY, #NCIS!Twitter
followers visit the threads of these accounts to see what’s going on, to chat
with others who love their show, and to find other tweeps to follow. This is
the perfect place to find fellow fans who may become readers one day. However,
interact here, don’t just pimp. People want to know you are a person, not a
machine. People don’t have relationships with machines. Well, none that we can
talk about here on this website at least!
If you make sure your tweets
contain those components, and you watch the activity they generate, you will
soon learn what works and what needs improvement. As long as something works,
keep doing it!
Tip # 8 Return the Favor. When you are
fortunate enough to have another writer comment publicly about your story, do
the same for them. If you read another writer’s story, make sure you review
generously. Every review is precious to me … but there’s something especially
sweet about a review from another writer. Your fellow writers know what it
takes to birth a chapter. A nod from one of these precious people hits me right
between the eyes and sets my writer's heart on fire. What comes around goes around,
people. Spread the love and it will come back to you in unexpected ways. But,
do it out of love, not looking for something back. That’s not what this is
about. If you want respect in any endeavor, you first have to give it.
If someone asks you to read their
work, be gracious and do it if you can. I struggle with this myself because I
feel like I’m cheating off someone else’s homework when I read other fics in my
own fandom. On top of that, I find myself overwhelmed as it is with my own
writing and endless reviewing. However, you don’t have to read another person’s
whole 208 chapters … just take a look at a couple and comment on what you
appreciate about it. And always … always … without exception, compliment in
public, provide constructive criticism in private. It should go without saying
that if you ain’t got no money, take your broke ass home. In other words, if
you have nothing nice to say and you have not been explicitly asked for
feedback by the writer … keep your comments to yourself and move on. #ThatIsAll
Tip # 9. Above All, Be a Gracious
Recipient. One of the best
tools for the fanfic writer is the website engine itself. Not only do they
provide activity metrics in the Traffic Stats section, they also provide you
with other invaluable tools. Quite frankly, it is amazing we are able to get
this kind of marketing for free!
On the
Account>Settings>Account Options section of your fanfiction.net account,
make sure you have elected to Accept Private Messages. Then, under Alerts>Settings/Guide>Alert
Settings, make sure you have elected to be notified about Plus+ Alerts, Review
Alerts, Author Alerts, and Story Alerts.
When you receive a notification
from fanfiction.net that someone new is following your story, go to their
profile and send them a personal message welcoming them to your story and
thanking them for their readership.
When someone Favorites your fic, or
you personally, well, that act deserves a bouquet of flowers and a box of cyber
chocolates because this person has just given you free pimpage. Yes! Every time
you post something, those people will receive an email alert. How slick is
that? Just remember, every message is an opportunity to be gracious, welcoming,
and proactive about promoting your work.
When you receive a review, always
respond and thank the reader for taking the time to share their thoughts with
you. (Are you noticing a theme here? It’s called ‘expressing appreciation’)
Readers frequently get so engrossed in a story that they whip from chapter to
chapter without stopping to breathe, much less write a review. Their time is as
important as yours is … thank them for choosing to spend some of it on giving
back to you.
Regular reviewers are golden. They
are your cream, but the lurkers and anonymous reviewers are your bread and
butter. I promise. Acknowledge them in the opening notes of your next chapter.
Never, ever, deride lurkers, anonymous reviewers or one and done reviewers. Not
all people come to fan fiction looking for a relationship. Many come solely to extend
their experience of their favorite character universe. Readers don’t owe you
anything. You chose to write that story and put it up there. They have taken
nothing from you. If they choose to express their appreciation, that is a gift
to you. Treat it as such.
Tip # 10. Become a Pundit. And the last tip … write an article for a website like this.
Get your name out there. That’s how you garner greater ocular traffic, drive
more eyeballs in the direction of your brain child. That being said, allow me
to lay some pimpage on you:
Interact with me on Twitter at @MoxieGirl44,
Peruse my Bones Titles,
Or, hell, just go straight to the
blurb of my magnum opus …
The When and the How: A Bone to Pick
“Following VNM's death & spurred by an unlikely
catalyst, B&B navigate the rough terrain of their neglected relationship.
Facing their mutual pain over the previous year while working a shocking case,
they discover the true meaning of partnership—in life & in love. Quoted by
one reader: "This story will make you laugh and cry, think and feel. It's
the secret that every Bones lover deserves to be let in on."
If you’re a Bones aficionado,
sample a chapter: ‘A DreamIs A Wish Your Heart Makes’
There. Now that wasn’t so bad, was
it? Now get to work, chop, chop!
Written By Catherine Cabanela
