How do you get your fic noticed?

[joshuachasseur 6]

What is the best way to get your fic noticed?

[Jest (Inactive) 875]

Don't write fic's myself but I would probably think promotion - advertising - posting on the major sites and just patience 'cos it's a pretty saturated area 

[reader8363 1,281]

it can be done in a few ways

1. Title

2. cover

3. someone talking about it, in a good way

[ShadOBabe 19,068]

You gotta market yourself.

Go to places you think people would enjoy your fic, and mention that you have one. If you use DeviantART, I cannot recommend groups more highly. They help my stud get noticed so much!

[Bendy 1,821]

What is the best way to get your fic noticed?

 

Well written, human and pony romance... I'm sorry but lots of people just love that on fimfiction.

Edited February 4, 2016 by Bendy

[DeadRightNowBoi 161]

Put as much effort as you can in both the fic itself and it's content. Once you've uploaded your fic on a site like FimFiction or Deviantart, you can start by drawing some artwork for your story and upload it to sites like deviantart and whatnot. (If you can't draw, you can get someone else around here who can draw for you ) 

 

Hope that helps!

[AmbientBeat 27]

Advertising. Doing it here would work, unless it's NSFW, as in my case.

[silvadel 1,394]

1) Write a very good fic.  But really, do you want a poor fic to be noticed?

 

2) Obviously you want a merely good fic to be noticed because a very good fic gets noticed regardless and we have established you don't want a poor fic noticed anyway...  If your merely good fic is technically very well written, submit it to eqdaily.

 

3) You probably do not have a lot of followers yet, or even a merely good fic would be noticed.  So you want followers.  If you had written a number of mediocre or better fics you would already have followers so I am assuming you are a newish author who has written a good fic.

 

4) Make sure the fic has some general interest.  A fic with all background characters or OCs in an unpopular genre is unlikely to be noticed by an author without many followers.

 

5) You can make sure it is in several groups on fimfiction that are relevant to the story.  You can have a very good picture, and a catchy description.  These are all things that can propel a merely good fic into the limelight.

[Idris 241]

Being controversial helps, so my troll fic "Thomas / MLP" crossover did okay because folk are going to give a daft one a go. Especially with Thomas and Twilight on the title art.

 

Other than that cheap trick, I have only done any good by cheating. I had a story good enough to interest a popular Brony voice actor. I commissioned them to put it on their channel as an audio book and the link on YouTube threw folk down the pipe toward the fimfiction file.

 

To be honest writing good stuff often is the best way to get your story noticed. Regular output keeps folk coming back. All the Twitter, forum and face book splurges only generate blips. For instance, someone might read this thread and say "Who's TeamIdris" and then have a look around and like something. Or they might just pass through.

My own favourite stories generally do badly, but when they are liked they really hit a note with the reader. I think I would rather have that than 'volume'.

[SFyr 1,982]

What I'm about to say has been touched on a lot above, but I'ma finish this reply anyways. 

 

Key point though: even if your story is amazing, you're not gonna get much attention unless you post it to places. Often, people develop a little bit of a following, or other people give them a bit of publicity (such as features, or posting it to the front page of someplace). But, you'll still need those readers.

So yeah, make it accessible. Post it to major sites. See if you can get a little word of mouth or attention thrown at it if it's sliding under the radar. Over time, you'll ideally build at least a minor following, which makes getting each story noticed progressively easier than the last.

 

Anyways, here's some other general bits:

• Make what the reader first sees, reads, and judges to your advantage. Sink a solid hook in as soon as you can, be it with the image, summary, or preferably both.
• Tags; pay attention to why they're there, and what the people sifting through tags are looking for.
• If your story involves a really interesting idea, or controversial topic, highlight it to heck. 
• If your general idea is a bit cliche, sell the unique hook or angle twice as hard in what ways you can.

[MDLineArt 93]

Quality And Consistency

Before you start trying to get your Writing noticed, make sure you are always trying to improve it.  This does not mean grand ideas, though that helps.  What I mean is technical writing, dot your T's, cross your I's kind of technical.  It's probably the reason why I don't write and post my work, because anyone who has read my posts before knows how atrocious my spelling is.  (I Canz Ze Engrish!)

 

I know this seems obvious, but seriously.  If you can not display a certain level of technical writing skills in your day to day activities (Such as Forum Posts) then often times even if you post links to your work no one will be intrigued to do so because of assumptions on what they have already scene.   People make snap judgements, it's on you to make sure that they make the decision to check your work out.  That starts with having a very strong practical set of skills, and if you've read some fan fiction you know how bad it can get. 

 

 

Posting, Sharing, And Self Promoting

I know you probably figured a part about what kind of stories you should right, but I am going to make the assumption that you have or are currently researching.  No, what I am going to focus on is how to get it out there and trying to draw traffic. 

 

First part is finding appropriate venues to post to.  High-Traffic sites have the downside of making many great stories just more 'internet white-noise', but your chance of getting a random person to click on your story is significantly higher.  If a site uses Tags, don't be lazy, use them!  Many search engines use tags as self-filters, and you are going to want to make it as easy as possible for people to find your work.  Standing out is hard enough when you do everything right, far less when handicapping yourself.

 

Share your work with friends, family, message boards, any place that would have an interest in what you are offering.  You're already here, which is a good start, but there are a few things you can do to help yourself out.  Keep a link to your work, and if you have a promotional Facebook, Twitter, Deviant Art, and/or other page in your Signature.  A good Signature shows others who are browsing your posts what you are about and who you are, and maybe gives them a reason to pay attention.

 

Speaking of social media and forums, get engaged with them and their communities early.  I wish it was as simple as 'build it and they will come', but it isn't.  You're gonna need to get engaged in the communities to show them what you can do, speak to people who have done it before.  Networking with your peers will help you out a lot, especially if your work is good.  You know you are on the right track when other Writers are taking time away from writing to read what you are posting!  And chances are, they also have a following that may find you through them (Depending on how much they like you and how good your work is).

 

 

Presentation, Growth, and Criticism

Alright, so one thing that usually helps is branding.  This is a way for people to recognize You for YOUR work.  This helps people to quickly associate you and your work and if you've made quality work thus far, it's what they will know you for.  Take time on how you do this, after all, you will be associated with what you use for a while.  If you change it ever two months, it loses impact.

 

Ok, so you got your stories out, you got a few followers, what now?  Engage the reader outside the story.  Trust me, a quick reply by a content creator can be amazingly quick to spark return visits from that reader, and when you're small, consistent readership is gold.  They are the ones who will share your work with like-minded individuals, and after a certain level of participation the readers will start promoting your stuff for you.  This is gonna require a lot of leg work on your part, but if you have built a solid foundation, you should make it very easy for your readers to find your work, get in touch with you, and keep updated on what you are currently working on.

 

Now, this is the internet, so we have to have that discussion of the Trolls and the Bees.  When ever you create something, someone is gonna want to pick it apart.  Now, it's gonna sting a bit if you are invested in your work, but listen to the criticism.  If there is anything remotely useful being said, consider it.  I wish you would get more constructive criticism but again, this is the internet.  Don't let it discourage you, but instead make it a point to use it to hone your craft.  After all, you haven't made it on the internet until you have at least 10 trolls following you! 

 

Curb Your Expectations

I really shouldn't have to say this one, but some people think they are going to get famous for their work overnight.  The truth is, if you don't enjoy doing this for the sake of doing it, you're in for a long road trip.  Celebrate small mile stones.  Getting that first 10 Likes, or 10 Followers is tough.  The next 20 even more so.  However, as you build up and interact with them, you'll see your site grow in traffic.

 

One last thing:  Must like a Youtube video, remind your readers to Like, Comment, Follow and Subscribe (If applicable).  NO ONE is going to promote your work more than yourself, so get comfortable in telling people what you do, and don't worry too much about self promoting so long as the space is appropriate for it.

Anyway, I hope that helps you out a little. 

[cuteycindyhoney 13,345]

If the site offers such a feature, make sure to utilize "Tags". That way if someone searches the site for something to read, your story will pop up if they key in some of the tags you used.

 

Advertising. Doing it here would work, unless it's NSFW, as in my case.

 

I learned that lesson the hard way. I said a little too much about something I wrote, and ended up getting banned for a while. Not fun!

[rst64tlc 11]

You want you fanfic to get noticed, here what I did: Try to write a fanfic with an story no one else has thought of or never consider going.

 

For me, this happened to me years ago on Fanfiction.net: I made a story where Ash Ketchem was sent to the Ransei region (I lost interest to continue the story.)

 

The morale of the story: Thing outside the box.

 

or alternatily: you can mix and match some of your favorite story groups together and make it work.

 

We are Writers, our imagination is both our tool and clay, we form the idea from our mind to be brought forth and give new shape. What form with you make.