http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ Web Fiction Guide Forums » Recent Posts en Sat, 04 Feb 2012 02:38:06 +0000 http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/rose-and-bay-awards#post-7736 Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:08:50 +0000 Grace McDermott 7736@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>The nominations for the 2012 Rose and Bay awards are up - I've got a vested interest because I'm a nominee, but there's a lot of good authors up this year. </p> <p>The nominations are:</p> <p>The Many Writings of K.A. Jones by kajones_writing aka moonwolf1988<br /> The Fiction of Lyn Thorne-Alder by aldersprig<br /> Garden of Prose by Clare K.R. Miller (clare_dragonfly)<br /> <em>Require: Cookie by Stormy (Grace McDermott)</em> (Me! :D)<br /> A Rosary of Stones and Thorns by M.C.A. Hogarth<br /> No Dominion by C. E. Murphy<br /> Eclipse Court by Shirley Meier<br /> Hiraeth: the Adventures of Trevor and Jason by robling_t<br /> Free Microfic Day! by skjam<br /> Philosopher in Arms by Karen Wehrstein<br /> Wonder City Stories by Jude McLaughlin</p> <p>You can vote <a href="http://crowdfunding.livejournal.com/397215.html">here.</a> </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/get-featured-on-a-webfiction-podcast/page/4#post-7735 Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:54:25 +0000 Chris George 7735@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>I've been bad (and busy) and not keeping track of this, so I only just realised that you'd used my excerpt in the most recent podcast. I'll have to have a listen to it later, but until then, thank you very much! </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/get-featured-on-a-webfiction-podcast/page/4#post-7734 Thu, 02 Feb 2012 07:16:47 +0000 A. M. Harte 7734@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p><strong>@Regina</strong> If you can find an excerpt of your work that would work well for a reading, just drop all the details here and I'll send it over to our producer. :-)</p> <p><strong>@SgL</strong> You know, that's a great idea. I'm going to ping Nina about maybe getting a post up on Wattpad about it!</p> <p>Everyone else: if you want to stay on top of the podcast, you can do so in four ways:</p> <ol> <li>Check the archives regularly at <a href="http://www.webcastbeacon.com/webfiction-world-archive/" rel="nofollow">http://www.webcastbeacon.com/webfiction-world-archive/</a> </li> <li>Like us on facebook <a href="http://www.facebook.com/webfictionworld" rel="nofollow">http://www.facebook.com/webfictionworld</a> </li> <li>Follow us on twitter @webfictionradio </li> <li>Subscribe to the RSS at <a href="http://www.webcastbeacon.com/category/webfiction-world/feed/" rel="nofollow">http://www.webcastbeacon.com/category/webfiction-world/feed/</a> </li> </ol> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/spam#post-7733 Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:44:17 +0000 ubersoft 7733@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>Ah. Sorry, I didn't realize it was spam. Though in hindsight I can see it. </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/spam#post-7732 Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:09:31 +0000 Chris Poirier 7732@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>Hi all,</p> <p>Just deleted the last new topic and banned the poster. I'm happy to have members talk about their projects—even commercial ones—but for somebody to join and post a commercial message before doing anything else is my definition of spam.</p> <p>Chris. </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/the-great-site-redesign-of-2012#post-7728 Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:01:39 +0000 ubersoft 7728@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>So the sites are now all consolidated into a single domain (eviscerati.org). But -- clever me -- the old domains are still working. ubersoft.net redirects to eviscerati.org/comics, and unexploredhorizons.net redirects to eviscerati.org/fiction.</p> <p>The layout hasn't really changed too much (sorry Chris) because this effort was mostly focused on smooshing the three sites together, but I did remove one layer of branding. So there's that.</p> <p>When I move up to Drupal 7 I'm going to be switching to a more modern template (HTML 5 compliant, etc) that has built-in support for mobile devices, and at that point I expect some more significant design changes to creep in. </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/sci-fi-web-serial/page/2#post-7727 Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:58:12 +0000 Matthew 7727@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>Awesome, thanks! No rush. It'll be there. :) </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/wither-wattpad#post-7726 Thu, 26 Jan 2012 20:16:03 +0000 SgL 7726@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>It takes a while to register in searches, but it does show up eventually. However it doesn't show up near the top (page 2) if I search by story title name, and below my Facebook page.</p> <p>But if I vary the search by character names and such, it does pop up on page 1, but again below my website ... but at least above tumblr (where I post art).<br /> At least that's one good sign -- and that it's actually indexing content ... </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/wither-wattpad#post-7725 Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:36:12 +0000 ubersoft 7725@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>One thing I've noticed 7 days in that I don't like much: its not registering in their search pages.</p> <p>When I am logged in and I type "pay me bug" in the search field I get a message reporting 0 results, but it *does* link to the ebook version on Amazon. When I'm logged out, I get no results at all, just a message reporting the search engine couldn't find anything.</p> <p>But if you search for "ubersoft," you get my account and you see PMB! listed there.</p> <p>I guess they get so much traffic it's not practical for them to update their search database every night? It's possible but given how often new content gets added there it makes the search engine not terribly useful. </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/wither-wattpad#post-7724 Wed, 25 Jan 2012 23:56:59 +0000 SgL 7724@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>I have been using Wattpad for several months now for "Tales of the Big Bad Wolf." At first I was sort of posting chapters as they completed, but then expanded to posting usually every other week (compiling two weekly posts or approximately five pages of content per Wattpad's formatting style). </p> <p>The one real issue with Wattpad is getting noticed, but I benefited from a bump via facebook. I'm not quite sure how they found the story -- but I interact actively with staff on various outlets including FB, Tumblr, and Twitter.</p> <p>That one facebook bump took up the first installment to 1000 reads. However, the retention declined after that. In reality what I have at this point is about 60 active readers. Most do not comment or vote, but I have a sense of who at least is reading as people "subscribe" or "add the story to the library" such that they get alerts whenever I update.</p> <p>The one thing I have to say about Wattpad is it's all about immediate gratification. I usually see Wattpadders read stories that have updated one or two days after posting. Their behavior is very different than folks who have to be coached to read off the web. I think this has a lot to do with the community aspect of Wattpad as well as the convenience.</p> <p>I do plan to keep updating on Wattpad and have been mulling whether to put other stuff up there, including fanfiction or short stories. I'm also considering doing a Wattpad exclusive story whereby I post there first and then my website second... the community there is far more forgiving of "works in progress" and it might allow me to write two serials at once if I have a more forgiving playbox to play in. </p> <p>Regarding genres: The most popular one right now seems to be paranormal romance and straight out romance. However Wattpad trends likely will change over time. Dystopian should be next ... zombies... that sort of thing if one looks at the current fictino trends. </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/critique-circle#post-7723 Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:23:16 +0000 Chris Poirier 7723@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>Everything I learned from critique groups I learned by writing critiques for better writers. I learned almost nothing useful from critiques written for me—most of the time the advice you get tells you how to make your story different, not better. As a result, I eventually abandoned crit groups—the better a writer you are, the less opportunity you get to learn anything, and the more crap you have to put up with.</p> <p>If you are in a crit group and find you aren't learning much any more, it's probably time to find a writing teacher instead—somebody whose work (or advice) seems incredible to you, and who is good at analyzing and verbalizing how to improve yours. Anybody with that kind of skill will be charging for their time, as they are well beyond any other form of quid pro quo. </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/critique-circle#post-7722 Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:35:56 +0000 ubersoft 7722@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>Critters works the same way. I was on it a loooong time ago, but I had to unsub because it got a little overwhelming. </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/critique-circle#post-7721 Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:02:14 +0000 Erin Klitzke 7721@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>Critique Circle is nice, but it's a mixed bag and sometimes it'll take a bit of time for your work to come up in the queue. I've had a few go-rounds on there. It does, however, force you to critique the work of others in order to get your own critiques done. </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/critique-circle#post-7720 Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:45:22 +0000 Chris Poirier 7720@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>They are fairly comparable in terms of what you'll get. You'll probably get a faster turnaround on CC, however. </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/critique-circle#post-7719 Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:59:11 +0000 John Crandall 7719@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>I'm trying to find a good, trustworthy place for critiques. </p> <p>Ideally a site that won't steal my identity :-P</p> <p>Is Critique Circle good? How about Critters? </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/sci-fi-web-serial/page/2#post-7718 Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:57:13 +0000 John Crandall 7718@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>Will check out your story when I can man. </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/sci-fi-web-serial#post-7717 Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:17:34 +0000 Matthew 7717@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>Listing is up now if anyone cares to do a review.</p> <p><a href="http://webfictionguide.com/science-fiction/animus/" rel="nofollow">http://webfictionguide.com/science-fiction/animus/</a> </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/sopa-blackout#post-7716 Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:15:50 +0000 Matthew 7716@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>I have to compliment Wordpress.com - they made it super easy to take part in SOPA. They provided a fully customizable blackout page that would automatically cycle on and off at 8am/8pm EST respectively the day of the protest. I had a bit of fun with mine as well... made it look like a "message" from the "bad guys" on my web serial. Three cheers for wordpress! </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/wither-wattpad#post-7715 Sat, 21 Jan 2012 12:54:18 +0000 ubersoft 7715@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>So one of the things I thought was interesting about Wattpad was that it was originally setup for reading via phone -- it has now expanded to include a bunch of different mobile devices, tablets, and the web, but originally it was for mobile phone reading.</p> <p>"Cool," I thought. "That's potentially an entirely different audience. And if that's how Wattpad started I bet their phone &amp; tablet support is excellent."</p> <p>So I have the Wattpad app installed on both my Atrix 2 and my ASUS eee Pad (smartphone and tablet respectively) and... I'm nonplussed.</p> <p>When I uploaded my first five chapters to the web account that manages your stories, I was impressed. It preserved most, though not all, of my formatting. The bolded words were bolded, the italics were italicized, there was even spacing between lines and slightly more spacing between paragraphs. When I published chapter 1 and viewed it from the web, it looked pretty good. Pretty readable.</p> <p>It's... horrible on the phone and tablet. There's no bolded text, no italicized text, and it looks like every paragraph is separated with not one, but two blank lines. I find it intensely distracting and very hard to read.</p> <p>I thought I had done something wrong, so I opened up a few other stories to see.</p> <p>No, that's the way it is for all of them.</p> <p>The good news is that if that's the way it works on Wattpad, the Wattpad audience probably isn't put off by it. And according to Alexa they have a ridiculously low page rank (lower is better on Alexa) so there is a massive potential audience to tap into, so it's not "wrong," but it was very startling. </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/creative-monetization#post-7714 Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:55:37 +0000 Tim Sevenhuysen 7714@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>What kinds of interesting experiments have you tried in terms of ways to monetize your web fiction?</p> <p>I've seen some ideas floated out there, especially regarding serials. I know people have tried requiring a set donation amount before the next chapter gets posted, or using donations to accelerate the posting schedule, and things like that... What's worked for you, and what hasn't?</p> <p>This week I ran a couple of experiments with selling the right to name/create characters for me, and it's been successful so far. I seem to be very lucky, because I don't necessarily have a huge audience, but they appear quite willing to invest in me, which is awesome.</p> <p>I sold the right to create a character, including name + special ability, for <a href="http://specialpeople.timsevenhuysen.com">Special People</a>, for $5, and it got snapped up in under 10 minutes.</p> <p>Then I put out a novelette yesterday, with special offers to buy the right to name a minor or major character in the novel I'm working on set in the same world as the novelette. I made three minor characters available for $4.99 each, and one major character for $19.99. So far one minor character and the major character have sold. (When they bought the rights they also got a copy of the novelette.)</p> <p>So I guess this thread is a partial triumph story, and a partial call for sharing your experiences. What kinds of special ways have you monetized your web fiction or online fiction sales? </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/wither-wattpad#post-7713 Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:49:06 +0000 Tim Sevenhuysen 7713@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>I put a 6-part story up there a while ago. I'm going to go check how many views it's received with no external marketing by me.</p> <p>...<br /> ...</p> <p>Looks like nothing changed in the past month or so. About 20 people read through it, no feedback, no comments, and I didn't get even a single clickthrough to my site. But like I said, I didn't promote it at all, I didn't fiddle too much with moving it around into different categories, and that wasn't the first place I put the story, so... YMMV, I guess. </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/wither-wattpad#post-7712 Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:36:34 +0000 ubersoft 7712@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>Well I put up Chapter 1. I'll add a chapter a day and let you all know if anything interesting happens. </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/wither-wattpad#post-7711 Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:43:57 +0000 ubersoft 7711@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>No, it looks like they have serial fiction up there. They also have a fan fiction category. </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/wither-wattpad#post-7710 Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:39:05 +0000 Wildbow 7710@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>This is interesting. It's only for completed works, though, I'm gathering? </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/wither-wattpad#post-7709 Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:08:12 +0000 ubersoft 7709@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>A month back it looked like it was 98% YA. It does seem markedly different today.</p> <p>My first problem: when you post content you are allowed to link to an external site yay! I can link to the TOC I set up for Pay Me Bug on unexploredhorizons. Well... no, I can't, because I have SSL enabled on my site so you can only reach there using https:// -- and the external link field won't accept "https://", only "http://"...</p> <p>... which means that even if this experiment resulted in me getting a decent audience over there... it wouldn't translate to visitors on my own site. Le sigh. </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/wither-wattpad#post-7708 Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:02:12 +0000 Erin Klitzke 7708@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>It seems...interesting. Though I don't get the impression that it's mostly YA. </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/wither-wattpad#post-7707 Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:16:45 +0000 ubersoft 7707@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p><a href="http://www.wattpad.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.wattpad.com</a> </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/wither-wattpad#post-7706 Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:47:20 +0000 Alexander.Hollins 7706@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>i'm not familiar with wattpad, do you have a link? </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/wither-wattpad#post-7705 Fri, 20 Jan 2012 09:40:33 +0000 Jim Zoetewey 7705@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>I've been thinking of putting a section of Legion of Nothing up there too. Haven't tried it yet.</p> <p>If you do, I'll be curious to hear the results. </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/wither-wattpad#post-7704 Fri, 20 Jan 2012 08:13:19 +0000 ubersoft 7704@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>I was thinking of putting Pay Me, Bug! up on Wattpad as a way to introduce more people to that story, but I'm not really sure. I sort of have the impression that Wattpad is mostly a YA genre site and PMB! is definitely not that.</p> <p>Have any of you used it? Thoughts/impressions? </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/sopa-blackout#post-7703 Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:37:29 +0000 Letitia Coyne 7703@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>There's no like button and I'm getting lazier by the day, but 'LIKE'. Thank you. </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/sopa-blackout#post-7702 Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:16:21 +0000 ubersoft 7702@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>Yep. I'm doin' it too. </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/sopa-blackout#post-7701 Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:12:49 +0000 Chris Poirier 7701@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>Hi all,</p> <p>WFG and related sites will be participating in the <a href="http://sopablackout.org/">SOPA blackout</a> starting at midnight Eastern Time tonight. Haven't yet decide if the site will be completely dark or not. I was going to save it for a surprise, but changed my mind. :-)</p> <p>Chris. </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/guts-and-sass-an-anti-epic-new-twists-and-more-frequent-updates#post-7700 Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:44:51 +0000 M.E.Traylor 7700@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>So I've been putting up a story called "Guts and Sass: An Anti-Epic" most Tuesdays and Fridays for almost exactly a year now (anniversary!), and all sorts of <a href="http://metraylor.com/gutsandsass/plains18">fun drama plot</a> just hit the fan. I'm also posting more often in a bid to complete the book for April, so there's usually three, sometimes four updates a week. So in case you're bored, and don't already have enough on your reading list, come on over. Love to have ya. </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/help-support-an-indy-kids-book-production#post-7699 Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:57:31 +0000 Alexander.Hollins 7699@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>Wow. I suck. Thanks!</p> <p><a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/289230880/lorelei-has-a-dream-i-want-to-show-it-to-you" rel="nofollow">http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/289230880/lorelei-has-a-dream-i-want-to-show-it-to-you</a> </p>