How to generate readership and feedback

[C James]

I often get asked how to generate feedback and increase readership, so I thought I'd offer a few

suggestions that seem to work well for many writers.

 

#1, Let 'em know: Post chapter announcements in the eFiction announcements forum. Make sure you include a link to your chapter.

 

#2, Be involved: You aren't the only person who wants feedback. If you want feedback, make sure you also give feedback to others. The more active you are in other people's threads (and elsewhere on GA), the more likely you are to acquire readers yourself, especially if you include a link to your story in your sig.

 

#3, Have a thread: Start a thread in this forum, and don't forget to participate. If you aren't showing an interest in your thread, why should your readers?

 

#4, Patience: It takes time to develop a reader base. It won't happen overnight, especially if you aren't well known here yet. Just keep working at it and keep working on your writing, too (Everyone has room for improvement).

Edited May 12, 2007 by C James

[Graeme]

Also check out the Getting your story noticed and The Care and Feeding of your readers' forum threads in the Writer's Corner. There are a lot of useful comments there.

[C James]

Also check out the Getting your story noticed and The Care and Feeding of your readers' forum threads in the Writer's Corner. There are a lot of useful comments there.

 

Excellent advice, but I'd like to add a caveat: One of the recommendations is posting your story to Nifty. This can indeed get you more exposure, BUT, please be aware of Nifty's licensing agreement; you grant them PERPETUAL license. That means you can't have your story taken down unless you pay them to do so. You are, in essence, giving up the right to control your work. If a writer is okay with this, then fine, but it needs to be known.

[Krista]

Excellent advice, but I'd like to add a caveat: One of the recommendations is posting your story to Nifty. This can indeed get you more exposure, BUT, please be aware of Nifty's licensing agreement; you grant them PERPETUAL license. That means you can't have your story taken down unless you pay them to do so. You are, in essence, giving up the right to control your work. If a writer is okay with this, then fine, but it needs to be known.

 

 

Lol.. hmm, I over-looked that bit of information...

 

Krista

[Graeme]

They changed their licensing agreement -- it didn't used to be that way. I don't know when they changed it, but it was at least a couple of years ago.

[C James]

They changed their licensing agreement -- it didn't used to be that way. I don't know when they changed it, but it was at least a couple of years ago.

 

I'll paste in the license agreement below, with some bits highlighted.

 

Legal stuff: Authors retain rights to and title to their submitted works. By submitting a work, the author grants the Nifty Archive a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, and non-cancellable license to display the work. (If this is unacceptable, please contact us to discuss your concern.)

 

Authors may license their stories to other publishers, but that does not revoke the license granted to the Nifty Archive. Authors may reclaim the license granted to Nifty by replacing a story with an equivalent story appropriate for display in the Nifty Archive, or by making a contribution to the Nifty Archive of equal value in another form.

 

The maintainers of the Archive will respect requests for changes to stories, to attribution, and/or to email addresses in the Archive by the original author of the work. Decisions to honor requests to remove a work from public display are determined on a case-by-case basis. This does not nullify, terminate, or revoke any license granted to the Nifty Archive. Updates and changes will propagate to all Nifty mirror sites within a day or two.

[Demetz]

Wow... they suddenly seem even more sleezy than before... I had intended to eventually put all my stories there as well, but now I'm glad I put it off... I think I'll just post the more er... sexually-oriented stories there with links back to GA for the rest of my works.

[Tiff]

Wow... they suddenly seem even more sleezy than before... I had intended to eventually put all my stories there as well, but now I'm glad I put it off... I think I'll just post the more er... sexually-oriented stories there with links back to GA for the rest of my works.

Good idea! I didn't know if Nifty was always this shady. Back then, maybe I didn't read over everything carefully enough to get the full picture. But in one of these forums, a guy got his two books published, but had to weasel the NIfty archivist in order to get his story taken off the site, but it worked out, since he replaced it with a new story. I guess Nifty worries about their own money making or whatever.

[Hylas]

I dunno...

 

It feels kinda like pimping yourself y'know.

[Tiff]

I dunno...

 

It feels kinda like pimping yourself y'know.

You're a little pimp!

 

.........that's the first thing that came to mind. It doesn't even really fit into the context of anything.

 

But hey, we're always pimping out our stories, trying to get more readers. Authors are sick pimpers.

[GaryK]

That's a weak legal agreement. It's already been tested via a cease-and-desist order from an attorney and Nifty gave-in immediately. I suspect if someone challenged this more fully Nifty would lose and a legal precedent would begin to be established.

 

I've been working with an author for many years. First he published to Nifty. Then he started self-publishing and continued to post to Nifty for PR. Finally he was approached by a publisher who has since published two books by this author. One of the conditions of being published was to remove the published stories from both the author's website and all other websites. I used my IP Attorney to contact Nifty on behalf of the author and the stories were withdrawn promptly.

[BeaStKid]

That's a weak legal agreement. It's already been tested via a cease-and-desist order from an attorney and Nifty gave-in immediately. I suspect if someone challenged this more fully Nifty would lose and a legal precedent would begin to be established.

 

I've been working with an author for many years. First he published to Nifty. Then he started self-publishing and continued to post to Nifty for PR. Finally he was approached by a publisher who has since published two books by this author. One of the conditions of being published was to remove the published stories from both the author's website and all other websites. I used my IP Attorney to contact Nifty on behalf of the author and the stories were withdrawn promptly.

Remind me to keep in touch with you...

 

Seriously, I'm having second thoughts about whether to continue with Nifty or not after reading alla this...

[Bondwriter]

In Nifty's defense, I'd imagine the agreement is also a way not to spend lots of time maintaining the site and having to cater to authors' requests all the time, since it's not a very big operation from what I understood. I'd think being polite and considerate should get you what you want from the site.

[Conner]

Wow... they suddenly seem even more sleezy than before... I had intended to eventually put all my stories there as well, but now I'm glad I put it off... I think I'll just post the more er... sexually-oriented stories there with links back to GA for the rest of my works.

 

Let me know when you post to Nifty.

[Demetz]

Hehehe... well, part one of a story I intend to post there is already available here...

 

https://www.gayauthors.org/efiction/viewsto...3&warning=5

[NickolasJames8]

When it somes to Nifty, the best thing to do is post something you never plan to have published. In my case, that's ever single story I've ever written so far. Given the quality of most of the stories on that site, even someone's worst story is likely to be one of the nest stories on that site.

 

Just for the record, Nifty isn't all that bad. I've never had trouble getting work taken down. Most likely, the only thing they'll ask is that you'll replace what they take down with something else. In exchange, you get great exposure to a lot of people who are looking for quality stories.

 

One of the best things someone can do to generate new readers, besides posting in efiction, is to add a link to your story in your GA forum signature. Also, start a Yahoo Group. Make it easy for your readers to join it by adding a link to your group in your sigi, then steer your readers back to GA.

[GaryK]

When it somes to Nifty, the best thing to do is post something you never plan to have published.

I could not disagree with you more. If the author I mentioned previously had done that he never would be where is is today. I'm guessing his stories would still be on Nifty were it not for his publisher's insistence on exclusivity.

 

Granted you need to don your bio-hazard suit before delving into the cesspool known as Nifty. But there are good stories to be found there. It just takes wading through a lot of crap to find the occasional gem.

[S.L. Lewis]

I've found that I've gotten some good amount of readership on eFiction, Adult fanfiction.net and Fiction Press.net. I would post it on Nifty, but I don't wanna wait 6 weeks to be told my story won't be posted. Even if I did post on Nifty, I wouldn't be happy that it would take some one weeks to find the story since they have to shift through the rest. I don't mind shifting through, but not when I want a good story right then. It's just to much hassle to go through. I deal with it enough with my site and the private sites that I'm apart of.

Like I said, I get a good amout of readership on eFiction, AFF.net and FP.net. I'm happy with that for now.

Oh, piece of advice. When gathering readers, tell those friends you know who will read them. Personally drop a line to those who have been constant reviewers, even when you post an answer to those reviews. It's the little personal touches that brings readers and help encourage reviews.

At least, that's what I've discovered.

[Daisy]

I've found that recently I have to have a penname to leave feedback for efiction authors (which I don't have). Before I could just leave feedback with I presume my gayauthors name (or maybe it didnt require a name can't remember). Thats detered me recently, but if I get time I may get a penname so I can give feedback.

Celia

[Happiness is Key]

well from what i've read, i decided to post just the very first chapter of my story, with a link to my gay authors eFiction page. besides if i ever need to get that first chapter back then i'll just write some short story and use that to swap it with.

[Steven Keiths]

1, Let 'em know: Post chapter announcements in the eFiction announcements forum. Make sure you include a link to your chapter.

 

How does one add a link to their story when you post a response to a thread or whatever these things are called? I see most people have a whole bunch of stuff at the end of their responses. Stories they've written. Their favorite charities and cutsie sayings, not to mention graphics and pics.

 

I'm serious, I do not know how to do it. I'm computer stupid. I need a dummies book to explain the dummy books for dummies when it comes to these wonderful modern marvels.

 

Oh, and please, he begs of the gods: make the instructions detailed and/or simple.

[steph]

How does one add a link to their story when you post a response to a thread or whatever these things are called? I see most people have a whole bunch of stuff at the end of their responses. Stories they've written. Their favorite charities and cutsie sayings, not to mention graphics and pics.

 

I'm serious, I do not know how to do it. I'm computer stupid. I need a dummies book to explain the dummy books for dummies when it comes to these wonderful modern marvels.

 

Oh, and please, he begs of the gods: make the instructions detailed and/or simple.

 

Hey Steven, adding to your signature is similar to creating a post on a thread. I noticed that you already have a signature, so you're halfway there!

 

1. Click on your username in the top-left-hand corner of the forums. This will show you you're profile.

 

2. In the middle of the page, you'll see About Me, Edit My Content and your signature. At the bottom of this, click on "Edit My Signature"

 

3. To add a hyperlink to the signature, first type out the words that you want to be the link... something like, Read My Story!

 

4. Highlight those words (click and drag the mouse).

 

5. Click on the 'Insert Link' button under the Font menu above the text box where you type in your post (or signature in this case). I'm not quite sure what the graphic on the link button is supposed to be, but it's green and has a green plus sign.

 

6. In the box that pops up, paste in the website address that you want to link to, and click OK.

 

7. Voila!

 

8. You can use the other controls at the top of the textbox to change the font and color and other such stuff.

 

Hope this helps!

[Steven Keiths]

Hey Steven, adding to your signature is similar to creating a post on a thread. I noticed that you already have a signature, so you're halfway there!

 

1. Click on your username in the top-left-hand corner of the forums. This will show you you're profile.

 

2. In the middle of the page, you'll see About Me, Edit My Content and your signature. At the bottom of this, click on "Edit My Signature"

 

3. To add a hyperlink to the signature, first type out the words that you want to be the link... something like, Read My Story!

 

4. Highlight those words (click and drag the mouse).

 

5. Click on the 'Insert Link' button under the Font menu above the text box where you type in your post (or signature in this case). I'm not quite sure what the graphic on the link button is supposed to be, but it's green and has a green plus sign.

 

6. In the box that pops up, paste in the website address that you want to link to, and click OK.

 

7. Voila!

 

8. You can use the other controls at the top of the textbox to change the font and color and other such stuff.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Thanks a lot Steph, I'll try that. I'll have to print these out first so I can follow along. It appears it is much like posting a link to your story in the "Annoucement" thread or site, or whatever it is called. I'm gonna' get all this down one day and then turn in my resume to Bill Gates. I'm sure he will be so impressed that he will snatch me up ere Steve Jobs finds me.

Thanks, again, Steph.