I read this before I went to work this morning and put some thought into it.
I'll be honest here. One of the main reasons I started writing Harry Potter fanfictions is because of the huge established fan base. I could practice my skills at writing while building a fanbase of my own. It worked more than I ever thought possible.
I'm now in the position where I'm writing a story that is more popular than I ever thought it could be, and in order to do justice to it, I have to give it my all every chapter. And people clock watching will notice that it has been a year since I've posted a chapter. Of course, real life has kept me busy, and I've been busy building this site. I still haven't gotten to the point where I feel it is safe to stop for a little while and let the site take care of itself. Now that the userbase here is getting more active, I might have more time to write again.
(I think I strayed )
Now that I have a fanbase built, I know I can release a story (especially to Fan Fiction) that will have a lot people reading it. I'd imagine it's much the same as you Comsie, only you're on a larger scale.
Myr