http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ Web Fiction Guide Forums » Tag: audience - Recent Topics en Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:38:41 +0000 http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/a-definition-of-success#post-7368 Sat, 10 Sep 2011 18:28:06 +0000 M.C.A. Hogarth 7368@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>Since this has come up a few times in the past few weeks, I thought I'd offer a link to my post about definitions of success:</p> <p><a href="http://haikujaguar.livejournal.com/989051.html" rel="nofollow">http://haikujaguar.livejournal.com/989051.html</a></p> <p>If you are too busy to read the whole thing, the takeaway is probably the last line: Because if you have ever made a single thing that touched another person, you too, have succeeded. </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/do-writers-have-societal-obligations#post-6909 Fri, 01 Jul 2011 09:41:48 +0000 Gavin Williams 6909@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>An interesting conversation happened in the comments on Jim Zoetewey's "Legion of Nothing" this week when someone mentioned the superhero trope "Woman in Refrigerator," which is an idea with its own website that women in comic books are frequently victimized (killed, hurt, raped) to up the stakes on storylines. Different comments on the Women in Refrigerators website (WIC from here on) and comments on JZ's actual story summarized this trend as the result of a largely white, male, heterosexual writing class wanting strong masculine heroes to have emotional reactions to damsels in distress because that's their culture.</p> <p>So, parallel to that, most comics are white hetero-normative (I think that's the phrase I want to use). There's not a lot of cultural, racial, sexual or gender diversity. There are sometimes "token" gay or racial characters. (There are also some comics that deal with diversity well - I think of X-Men, which addresses oppression, discrimination and diversity all the time).</p> <p>Anyway, what I was wondering, was where do writers here weigh in? Do we have a social responsibility to try to incorporate different voices, perspectives and cultures in our writing, or just go with what we know? Do you write to be entertaining or educate? (This isn't an either/or thing, just want to see people comment).</p> <p>Me personally, I have a lot of multi-cultural experience, but because of plots I've decided to do in my stories, I just realized that the majority of my characters are white, and they're all heterosexual (so far as I know, I haven't really asked most of my characters about their sex lives). I found it funny that a kid that had black, white, Asian, Christian, Muslim, straight, gay, agnostic friends and studied world religions grew up to write primarily white fiction. My own writing doesn't reflect my experiences and while I know my plots have a lot of planning (like in NMAI the main characters are rural Canadian white kids from the same small town, not much room for a gay kid from Hong Kong to join them) I wonder if I'm perpetuating stereotypes. Does anyone else think about stuff like this? </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/some-guy-with-a-blog-vs-a-real-thing#post-6227 Sat, 12 Feb 2011 01:03:02 +0000 Alexandra Erin 6227@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>Soooooooooooooooooo I suggested in another thread that we should have social media buttons on this site, of the share/like/tweet variety. Probably just the big ones: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr. Maybe Digg, but the listings here just don't seem very diggable. This isn't the sort of thing to be dugg.</p> <p>Now, it might seem odd that we'd want people to share the listing here and not the actual story, but there's a matter of context. It's hard to make a weblit site look like anything other than "some person who put up a blog" to someone who doesn't grok weblit. There's the self-publishing stigma, there's the fact that it's not a familiar publishing medium to people, there's the sense that this is something that anyone could just do for themselves and therefore it doesn't count...</p> <p>On the other hand, web portals/directories are very common and well-known. They tell people "This is an established concept. This is a real thing. This is not just something somebody threw together."</p> <p>So, yeah. I think getting sharing buttons on the entries would be a good idea. I also think that a "Read From The Beginning" link that's more prominent on the listings would also be a good idea... we should all make it easy for people to jump to the beginning, but the fewer clicks it takes someone to get where they need to be, the better.</p> <p>(Actually, come to think of it, there needs to be a more prominent link in the listings in the first place... is it just the thumbnail? No matter how natural or intuitive it seems to one person to click on that to get the site, it's not going to be that way to everyone. Put the word "Link" or "Site Link" or "Click To Enter" under it and the listing becomes way more useful.)</p> <p>But, the long and the short of this is that I've been planning to do a big advertising push for Tales of MU in the near future, bigger than I've done in a while and possibly bigger than I've ever done... now that I've had the thought about social media, I'm planning on making half of the ads direct to the listing here instead of the Tales of MU page, at least initially. If I see no benefit I'll stop doing it, but I have an inkling that it will improve things. I'll get fewer hits from the ads that target the listing but I imagine it will result in more readers, because there's a gloss of legitimacy, there's a context, there's the message that says "Web Fiction: It's An Actual Thing!&trade;"</p> <p>And anyone who doesn't find the entry for Tales of MU appealing will still have discovered the WFG.</p> <p>I wonder if anyone else has any thoughts or any relevant experiences relating to this? Has anyone else tried advertising their listing? </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/new-reader-interaction-ideas#post-6011 Tue, 09 Nov 2010 17:15:14 +0000 Gavin Williams 6011@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>So I was surfing the net and a little while ago I came across this great Novelr guest article by Cecilia Tan:</p> <p><a href="http://www.novelr.com/2010/10/28/passing-the-hat" rel="nofollow">http://www.novelr.com/2010/10/28/passing-the-hat</a></p> <p>I really liked her idea for inspiring donations from her audience by setting targets for specific storylines and plot twists, so that readers got to get involved in shaping the details of the story itself. That's a lot cooler than just asking for random donations, or just having say a three update a week schedule and giving a bonus chapter. </p> <p>So for anyone who's following "The Surprising Life and Death of Diggory Franklin" I challenged my readers to submit storyline ideas, and after I've had a few I'll do a poll for what the audience finds the most interesting, and set donation goals for that target. The blog about it is here: <a href="http://gavinwilliams.digitalnovelists.com/node/805" rel="nofollow">http://gavinwilliams.digitalnovelists.com/node/805</a></p> <p>I think inviting your audience to tell you what they'd like to see in a plot is a little risky, but also fun for interaction -- especially since they're mainly asking for greater detail on things they've already seen hinted at. It gives me as a writer insight into the corners of the story world that I might have a blind spot for, but that readers want to see.</p> <p>Anyone else have their own ideas on reader interaction? What's working for you? </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/how-do-i-remove-a-review#post-3916 Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:51:01 +0000 killthewabbit 3916@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>Hello. I'm new to the site and just posted my first review. However, I made the mistake of reviewing it for the author's benefit, not the reader's benefit (that is, more like this was a writer's group). </p> <p>How does one remove a review and replace it?<br /> thanks for the help!<br /> killthewabbit </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/listings#post-3600 Fri, 07 Aug 2009 08:24:40 +0000 Paulgswanson 3600@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>I Was purusing the net today when I happened upon a site called<br /> <a href="http://novelsonline.info" rel="nofollow">http://novelsonline.info</a></p> <p>It' lists things fairly well and i took a gander at how to have mine listed, since unfortunetely WFG seems to be under the impression I abandoned my novel. So I scroll down for listing and I see this at the bottom.</p> <p>novels online is a service of the web fiction guide · to submit a story, please use our form</p> <p>It took me straight back the to WFG. &gt;&lt;<br /> My question is does anyone use this site? And Since its part of WFG why isn't my work listed under Science Fiction. </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/suggestion-for-the-reviews-page#post-2889 Thu, 26 Mar 2009 22:05:31 +0000 grantcravens 2889@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>Looking at the new reviews page, I realized as a reader, I would see the stars, but I wouldn't know what they meant to the editors. I know what two stars or three stars means to me, but I think it would be helpful for our readers to know why editors rate the way they do. It's true there's a page to find this information, but it's located in the About section, and nowhere to be found near the reviews. </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/navigation-question#post-686 Thu, 25 Sep 2008 23:42:33 +0000 Drew Daniels 686@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>As I browse through my site logs, I can't help but notice that most new readers tend to read my most recent post before reading anything else, and then click through several other pages before finding the first. I realized recently that this may be because there is only 1 direct link to the beginning of the story (which is on the main page.)</p> <p>So my question is this, should I put a link to the first segment in the infoboxes for each segment? It isn't difficult to do so that's not an issue, I would simply put it about the "previous" and "next" links. But I'm not honestly sure if that's why people are clicking around so much before settling down, or if it's simply the nature of individuals </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/online-novels-for-a-younger-audience-how-to-promote#post-408 Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:55:16 +0000 PC 408@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>One thing I've noticed in my time here is that most of the online novels I've seen are targeted mainly to an older demographic. Unfortunately, this means that novels like mine, which are targeted more towards a younger audience, don't really fit in.</p> <p>Thus, this makes promoting it fairly problematic. I've been searching, but for the life of me I can't find any other online novels skewed towards a younger demographic. It seems like they don't exist.</p> <p>I was thinking of trying to promote my serial via Project Wonderful on webcomic sites. Unlike web serials, it seems that there are plenty of webcomics out there for both young and old alike, but whether or not viewers that love reading webcomics would take the time and effort to read a chapter of an online novel is up to debate.</p> <p>So, I ask my fellow web serial writers: are there any sites out there that specialize in web serials for young readers? Any web serials you can think of? What method for promotion do you think would be best? Your input and advice is most appreciated. :) </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/bonus-story-incentive#post-418 Fri, 05 Sep 2008 06:18:34 +0000 Drew Daniels 418@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>Well, I've been wanting to have a bonus story incentive beyond a simple, "Pay me and you get one"</p> <p>I like the point system that MeiLin has, which encourages users to make less with the lurk, but I don't want to require people to have logins to my site. I suppose what I want is a way to allow readers to ask about a particular portion of James' or the supporting characters backstory.</p> <p>But I still want reviews and money...</p> <p>I was thinking having a donation target, and once it's met, putting up a poll or some-such asking who the audience wants backstory on. But I'm also curious as to what others do as far as reader-catering when it comes to bonus stories.</p> <p>Am I making any sense here? </p>