Random writing observation.
I’ve read books about writing to market but I’ve never experienced that phenomenon myself. It’s actually really interesting, or at least I find it interesting.
I started posting The War Within, my alternate season six fic on June 21st. It’s got 6 chapters, it’s 26k so far and will be approaching novel length by the time it’s done. I have 18 kudos on it, I usually get a couple of comments and 6-9 notes on tumblr per chapter.
I posted the first chapter of Painting Layers of Love last night. The first chapter is about 5k, I have no clue what the final length will be as I haven’t planned it out. I have 21 kudos on it, 2 comments and 14 notes on tumblr.
So it’s like 18 kudos in a month vs 21 kudos over night – writing to market at work perhaps? Now this is just a random observation, not a complaint or a criticism. I thought it was interesting, it sort of ‘proves’ (as much as anything can be proven with such a tiny sample size) that what you write, has an affect on the response.
Although this isn’t really much of a revelation. I mean there is a reason that the romance section of the market is so huge, romance sells. If that is true generally, then it is likely to be true in a a microcosm as well. However, I don’t think I could ever write to market on purpose. So this observation isn’t going to affect what I write because I write what I love. Obviously, I hope other people will enjoy it but I can’t control that. I learnt a long time ago to write for me first and foremost, there’s less disappointment that way.
Anyway, that’s my random observation for the day. You know I think I will have to try writing a variety of fics and compare the response. Ok, I admit it, I find this slightly fascinating. Well, that’s kinda why I wrote this post because it’s so interesting. You know it’s too bad AO3 doesn’t have a genre filter because I would totally put my statistics hat on and analyse that.
I think that the “market” for fanfictions is really different from the market for printed books. Of course romance always sells, but personally I’ve read very few strictly romantic books, while 95% of fics I’ve ever read were centered on one of my OTPs. I think many read fics because of shipping, so they may be more focused on strictly romantic ones than whole season rewritings.
Length is also a factor. As much as we might despise it, we can’t spend the whole day reading fics. Personally, I find it very frustrating when I’m reading a really good fic but I have to stop because it’s too long and I don’t have time. That’s why I only read long fics when I discover them early on, because I don’t want to find myself with 100K words to read. Knowing that a fic is a season rewriting gurantees that it will be a long thing; maybe someone doesn’t want to get invested in a really long fic, and would rather read something shorter and/or less complicated, like a story that starts off a prompt.
I hope I made at least some sense XD
Ooooooh yes! You made perfect sense 🙂 I hadn’t thought of those points. That is so true!
I want to reiterate I wasn’t complaining, I’m just fascinated by the difference. I might also be procrastinating. I’m supposed to be working and randomly wondering about stuff was a lot more interesting /hides.
You see your points are actually one of the reasons why I don’t attempt to write to market. It’s so complex, there are so many reasons why people do things that trying to puzzle them out and do things “right” is a bit like trying to hit a bullseye on a moving target.
Yeah, I only start reading a long fic if I know I have time to read a chunk. There are so many RCIJ fics I haven’t got to yet because I read some of the shorter ones first, and then I haven’t gone back for the longer ones yet. I will do eventually but I feel vaguely guilty. I didn’t read the shorter ones first because I liked them better, I just haven’t had time. It is no reflection on the authors I haven’t read – promise!