How the heck to market a story?

[RepresentingWrath]

I've seen it happen with SEVERAL other Ranma fanfictions.

No, it didn't happen. You said, * To be recognized as "a work that transcends what fanfiction is supposed to be," which I know is fuzzy, but like... "one of the better fanfic writers out there."

There is no Ranma fanfic like that. If you look at smaller forums or ask around smaller communities, like trans community, maybe it did happen. It didn't happen on a broader scope. So far, the only 'huge' fanfic is 50 shades, but not in terms of quality or transcending what fanfiction is supposed to be. Only in terms of popularity. Maybe HP fanfic about Rational thinking fits this description, but again, even though it's popular, it is still fairly niche.

If you look at it positively, you can be the first to do it. If you are okay with smaller community, you can repeat this success, but it's still going to be a lifelong job.

 

[aurifex]

I see that it's a near impossibility. I know that. I'm not an idiot. But I have to ***try.*** I'm not willing to resign myself to giving up until I know I have done *absolutely everything I can.* So I am asking for suggestions of literally anything within my power to do, and yeah, I'm getting a little prickly when basically everybody is saying "don't try, also you probably suck."

There is a legitimate suggestion that might actually work which you're saying 'no I can't do that'

It's not physically impossible for you to trade out half your Ranma writing time for something else

Whatever man, keep doing more of the same then

 

[BLIGHT_ZERO]

this feel charged considering we just came from dis.

 

[John_Owl]

I currently post daily on Royal Road, Scribble Hub, AO3, Fanfiction.net, Wattpad, Webnovel, Inkitt, Neobook, QuoteV, Spacebattles and Sufficient Velocity. With chapter links daily on multiple discords, Twitter, BlueSky, and Tumblr.

This is my first post on this forum, so I hadn't set up my profile. Judging by the tone of most responses, it'll probably be my last.

To be fair, we ARE trying to be helpful and you just meet it with venom and vitriol. That's not on us. We're generally a rather kind and caring community, as we all share the same pitfalls and struggles. that said, most of us aren't accepting of people that treat these forums like reddit, spewing hate and anger at anyone for not saying what you want to hear.

More generally, the marketing advice is to actively engage with your readers and try build a community. As someone who read serialized novels for years, I would only ever comment and favourite when I really liked a series. Knowing that, I've made sure to constantly thank and engage my readers for their favourites, comments, ratings and reviews.

I never ask for these things, but I am appreciative. I try to reply to all my comments, and always give a shoutout to reviewers. I believe letting readers know that their interactions with you have a positive and motivating effect only encourages it more. This has paid off, and I have a very high amount of comments/favourites per chapter compared to novels of similar size.

This. State your appreciation for any interaction. Call out your readers (Just a general "readers" acknowledgement is fine), thank any followers on their page and reply to comments and reviewers ALWAYS give a public shout out to. let your readers know that their interaction is as valuable to you as your story is to them.

I've had 1 share, and I went out of my way to find it on X just so I could thank them there. why? Because it makes a huge difference to me. I haven't gotten any new readers (as far as I know) from it, but knowing that they took the time to share it inspired me to start a whole new story geared around reader interaction (Two Faces, link in my sig. reader beware r18 only).

 

[AnneOminous]

To be fair, we ARE trying to be helpful and you just meet it with venom and vitriol. That's not on us. We're generally a rather kind and caring community, as we all share the same pitfalls and struggles. that said, most of us aren't accepting of people that treat these forums like reddit, spewing hate and anger at anyone for not saying what you want to hear.


This. State your appreciation for any interaction. Call out your readers (Just a general "readers" acknowledgement is fine), thank any followers on their page and reply to comments and reviewers ALWAYS give a public shout out to. let your readers know that their interaction is as valuable to you as your story is to them.

I've had 1 share, and I went out of my way to find it on X just so I could thank them there. why? Because it makes a huge difference to me. I haven't gotten any new readers (as far as I know) from it, but knowing that they took the time to share it inspired me to start a whole new story geared around reader interaction (Two Faces, link in my sig. reader beware r18 only).

I'm not mad when people don't tell me what I don't want to hear. I'm mad when they tell me not to bother trying and I'm stupid for thinking there's a prayer. That is not being a supportive, kind or caring community.

I do all of the reader interaction stuff you mentioned and more. Hell, I routinely will gift them merch from the fic.

(and before anybody trolls about that - the merch I do is 100% my original stuff that happens to be in the fic, and I have it marked at 0% markup for everything. I generally only send the link to folks when they ask.)

 

[BLIGHT_ZERO]

Yeah. But it may well be that it is - and if so, before I resign myself to impossibility, I want to pull every lever and flip every switch I can so I can know I left no stone unturned trying.

i mean, think you've unturned all of them brah

 

[Tyranomaster]

It's not about being big. It's about being *consistent.* It's about the fact that a year or two or ten after the story is posted, the stats and the popularity it did *once* are such that it still gets a residual trickle. I know it'll trail off. I'm trying to keep the trail off from reaching zero.

You said you'd seen other Ranma fanfics reach an audience the level of Salvos. I don't even care if it's that big (which is huge), just bigger than yours by a few times. Your response was to then backtrack on your initial statement, and say it's not about a big reach, its about residual reach.

Residual reach that's a trickle is easy to get. I'll gladly give advice on that. Continue to promote your work. It's that simple. Whenever you move on to a new project, continue to advertise your old work. Or simply promote it on websites that let you occasionally. Frequent reddit and find people who are asking for story recommendations that fit your story, and promote it. It's a continual process.

If that was ultimately your original question, in a convoluted way, then there you go. It's just continual work to keep continual attention.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

I'm not mad when people don't tell me what I don't want to hear. I'm mad when they tell me not to bother trying and I'm stupid for thinking there's a prayer. That is not being a supportive, kind or caring community.

I do all of the reader interaction stuff you mentioned and more. Hell, I routinely will gift them merch from the fic.

We seem to have a different definition of "kind." I don't think it's kind to lie to people. What you have done is entered into three niches. You have entered into trans, fanfiction, and a small subsection of fanfiction (Ranma). The last one is a niche within a niche.

It's like this. You have entered into a population of 10,000 people, and you are expecting to have 1million readers in that population.

 

[aurifex]

I'm not mad when people don't tell me what I don't want to hear. I'm mad when they tell me not to bother trying and I'm stupid for thinking there's a prayer. That is not being a supportive, kind or caring community.

Personally I would never want my community to lie to my face. People who care about you will tell you when something is impossible, not encourage you to waste your time

 

[AnneOminous]

You said you'd seen other Ranma fanfics reach an audience the level of Salvos. I don't even care if it's that big (which is huge), just bigger than yours by a few times. Your response was to then backtrack on your initial statement, and say it's not about a big reach, its about residual reach.

Residual reach that's a trickle is easy to get. I'll gladly give advice on that. Continue to promote your work. It's that simple. Whenever you move on to a new project, continue to advertise your old work. Or simply promote it on websites that let you occasionally. Frequent reddit and find people who are asking for story recommendations that fit your story, and promote it. It's a continual process.

If that was ultimately your original question, in a convoluted way, then there you go. It's just continual work to keep continual attention.

I've never heard of Salvos, so I cant make any comment as to their reach. I feel like I need big reach for a while in order to reach a place where the coast happens without me as an author continuing to hammer it every day. The fics I'm thinking of in the Ranma fandom do that. Where like, every time somebody says "Recommend me 5 Ranma fics," they're consistently on the list. Mine never appears, and when I DM the people and ask "what about my story made it not make your list" it's invariably "we didn't know about it." So that's the sort of bubble I'm trying to punch into within the fandom.

I honestly think my best move would be targeting it to *trans* communities - who seem to be 90%+ of my readers even within the Ranma space. Maybe I can break out of the Venn diagram of fanfic by landing dead-center in one of the other circles.

We seem to have a different definition of "kind." I don't think it's kind to lie to people. What you have done is entered into three niches. You have entered into trans, fanfiction, and a small subsection of fanfiction (Ranma). The last one is a niche within a niche.

It's like this. You have entered into a population of 10,000 people, and you are expecting to have 1million readers in that population.

Nope. I'm trying to find a way to get out of that population into a bigger one.

Personally I would never want my community to lie to my face. People who care about you will tell you when something is impossible, not encourage you to waste your time

Well you clearly don't, and yet you keep responding..

 

[aurifex]

Okay, here you go:

You can do it! I believe in you! Just try harder!

 

[Nolff]

I'm not trying to earn. I'm trying to get people to f***ing read it. The story stands alone with no canon knowledge required whatsoever. "Have you tried writing a different 24-year project" is.... not exactly the most helpful advice.

Motherf*cker, I write fanfics too, alright? I suck and you don't, because I have 1k+ while you have 50k+.

You should've been glad, dumbo.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Where like, every time somebody says "Recommend me 5 Ranma fics," they're consistently on the list.

Can you please post links? Or at least post name of those fics.

 

[AnneOminous]

Motherf*cker, I write fanfics too, alright? I suck and you don't, because I have 1k+ while you have 50k+.

You should've been glad, dumbo.

Alternatively, neither of us suck and we both need better marketing tactics.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

Nope. I'm trying to find a way to get out of that population into a bigger one.

That's impossible. Majority of readers are straight and don't read fanfiction. Even if something like GL/GB is popular on scribble hub, this site is a very small population of actual readers.

You have an unrealistic goal. If your goal is 2000 readers on SH, that could be more achievable.

 

[AnneOminous]

Can you please post links? Or at least post name of those fics.

The most common one is called "Genma's Daughter." There's another one that's something like "ice and fire", but I keep wanting to call it "A Song of Ice and Fire" because of GOT but it's not that. The top fic on Sufficient Velocity right now is a Ranma/Destiny cross.

That's impossible. Majority of readers are straight and don't read fanfiction. Even if something like GL/GB is popular on scribble hub, this site is a very small population of actual readers.

You have an unrealistic goal. If your goal is 2000 readers on SH, that could be more achievable.

My goal is "more." And people went right to "no chance, and go pound sand." And then they wonder why I'm frustrated.

 

[Tyranomaster]

I've never heard of Salvos, so I cant make any comment as to their reach. I feel like I need big reach for a while in order to reach a place where the coast happens without me as an author continuing to hammer it every day. The fics I'm thinking of in the Ranma fandom do that. Where like, every time somebody says "Recommend me 5 Ranma fics," they're consistently on the list. Mine never appears, and when I DM the people and ask "what about my story made it not make your list" it's invariably "we didn't know about it." So that's the sort of bubble I'm trying to punch into within the fandom.

I honestly think my best move would be targeting it to *trans* communities - who seem to be 90%+ of my readers even within the Ranma space. Maybe I can break out of the Venn diagram of fanfic by landing dead-center in one of the other circles.

Nope. I'm trying to find a way to get out of that population into a bigger one.

Well you clearly don't, and yet you keep responding..

Then you need to be spending less time writing, and more time actively promoting your work. "Every time somebody says recommend me 5 Ranma fics" post your own list with the obligatory "I included mine on the list".

As for breaking out of one population and into a bigger one... it's not simply a matter of "if I just try hard enough I'll break out." A venn diagram of readers for a story this old is established. Whatever you've been doing doesn't appeal to a bigger audience. The original work is old enough that I can say with certainty that you won't be breaking out with your initial volume. Whatever is in there keeps people from giving it enough of a chance.

With the numbers you already have, we have a large enough sample to say that marketing isn't enough for you to appeal to a larger audience without changing something in the initial work. You've done a lot of work, and it shows. Unfortunately, because of that, it's very unlikely that chance has led you to this point.

 

[AnneOminous]

Then you need to be spending less time writing, and more time actively promoting your work. "Every time somebody says recommend me 5 Ranma fics" post your own list with the obligatory "I included mine on the list".

As for breaking out of one population and into a bigger one... it's not simply a matter of "if I just try hard enough I'll break out." A venn diagram of readers for a story this old is established. Whatever you've been doing doesn't appeal to a bigger audience. The original work is old enough that I can say with certainty that you won't be breaking out with your initial volume. Whatever is in there keeps people from giving it enough of a chance.

With the numbers you already have, we have a large enough sample to say that marketing isn't enough for you to appeal to a larger audience without changing something in the initial work. You've done a lot of work, and it shows. Unfortunately, because of that, it's very unlikely that chance has led you to this point.

Which is why I am doing a complete relaunch, with every chapter remastered, starting this Saturday to coincide with the reboot of the canon anime, which resets the "how old is the source material" for both the fic, and the canon, to 0 days. And I'm trying to figure out how to market the second bite at the apple better than the first, and the typical response has been "put the apple in the garbage disposal."

 

[Deleted member 84247]

My goal is "more." And people went right to "no chance, and go pound sand." And then they wonder why I'm frustrated.

No, you said your goal to sailus was different. Every achievable long term goal needs short term goals. For now, why not try to achieve 500 readers? If you get to that level, you can easily get on trending. And one day on trending can usually add 50-100 readers early on.

 

[aurifex]

Alternatively, neither of us suck and we both need better marketing tactics.

Yes, popular fanfics definitely become popular because of their... marketing tactics