I say that as someone who adores and loves and writes fanfiction.
You see, fanfiction fulfills a particular function: it corrects something. Maybe a scene of a television show cut off before a character announced some life-shattering news and it thus happened off-camera. The solution? Write fanfic explaining what happened, or find someone else who did and read theirs. The scene fades to black after a couple tumbles into bed but you want more? Write or read fanfic. Two characters never meet but you imagine they would have had amazing chemistry? Write or read fanfic. A show ends after two amazing seasons, but you wish you knew what had happened after? Write or read fanfic. (Or contribute to a Kickstarter campaign, for some lucky fandoms.)
In some (many) fandoms, fanfic isn't limited to canon pairings. If a couple's arc played out perfectly on screen or in canon in the fans' opinions, the fandom in general* feels less desire to read or write fanfic about that particular pairing.
*I'm aware that "general" is incredibly reductive, and of course specific cases may be different.
The Nancy Drew fandom is technically over eighty years old—the fandom itself, not the members, though I'm sure some elderly people would describe themselves as Nancy Drew fans. The canon pairing in the fandom is Nancy Drew/Ned Nickerson.
Fandom, according to my research (which may be a bit biased), actually prefers Nancy/Ned as the canon pairing.
The majority of the fanfic, however, is Nancy Drew/Frank Hardy.
Why does this matter? Partially because I hate that pairing, partially because a lot of people looking for fanfiction favor that pairing. This means that when I publish a story on a site like Fanfiction.net, few people are even looking for it, since it focuses on the nonpreferred Nancy/Ned pairing; few people read it; and fewer people comment on it. Granted, those who do read it are generally glad it exists, and I'm grateful for their readership.
I feel discouraged, though, when I see other stories on the site with many, many more reviews and hits. Sometimes I read one story, just to see what's going on... and it hasn't been spellchecked or edited, the content is abysmal, and some characterization is entirely incorrect. That depresses me more. What am I doing wrong? I wonder.
If I really wanted to make an experiment out of this, I would write a Nancy/Frank piece and see if that's the problem. I hate that idea, though. Nancy/Ned is the pairing I love, and writing Nancy/Frank would be like bashing nursery alphabet blocks together in a flaily manner. I wouldn't enjoy it, not at all. It would make me feel dirty. I understand how foolish that sounds, but it's true.
I have been very appreciative of the readers I do have, though, and when they tell me that they love my work or that I should consider professional writing, it really does make me happy. I just feel a little nervous about it, though. But I'll be able to tell soon enough, I suppose. And if my original writing doesn't sell, well, at least I tried.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Saturday, April 27, 2013
pay as you go
I've been a fanfiction author for quite a while now. Technically since I was a pre-teen, I guess, although I definitely haven't published anything I wrote before the age of probably eighteen or so. (My first story, what I can recall of it—it is lost somewhere in the attic, I think/hope—was hilariously bad. I can't imagine how much it would make me cringe to read it now.) I'm used to being "paid" in comments/feedback, and sometimes on FFN I'm paid with follows/favorites instead of comments, and sometimes on AO3 I'm paid with kudos/bookmarks instead of comments.
And because I love that form of payment so much, I try to reciprocate. If I take the time to read a story, I try to leave a comment, but sometimes it's very hard to know what to say. "That was great!" sounds so trite. "Awesome story!" Again, is there any way to be less original? "You fucking rock!" Hmm. Sounds almost stalker-esque, eh. So I'm sad to say that sometimes I have indeed paid with kudos instead of words.
Professional authors, though, are paid in money instead of comments or verbal appreciation from the readers, generally. But the money doesn't come after the book is read; instead, it comes before. And then, of course, a person might buy another book in the series to show appreciation for that first book, or as a gift to someone else... so in a way, that's appreciation. Kind of.
However, now that I'm thinking about publishing, and possibly getting paid for my work for the first time, I'm falling back on what others have discovered or are saying about digital publishing. But I wonder... if I gave my ebook to someone without asking that person to pay up front, and said, after she (or he? Are men real?) finished reading it, "So, how much would you pay for the experience you just had?" I wonder what would happen. After all, I pay a set amount of money for concert tickets, movie tickets, actual books themselves, and hope to be entertained at least equally. But what is five dollars' worth of entertainment? What about fifty? What about a hundred? What about that concert where I paid for a right-smack-in-front-of-the-stage pit area ticket and was only able to stay for four songs because I became incredibly sick? Bands don't pro-rate, and I'm not exactly saying they should.
And sometimes I pay $10 for a DVD that I think is easily worth $20, because I know how much I love it and how much it will continue to entertain me. (Anchorman? Yep.) On the other hand, no matter how much I enjoy watching Chopped, I still think paying $3 per episode to watch it via iTunes is ridiculous.
What about other people who have been reading my work for free all this time? I'm thinking about offering a coupon to them once I have ebooks available for sale, as a way to show my appreciation. After all, they didn't have to read what I wrote. They still don't. But they have, and I'm very grateful.
And because I love that form of payment so much, I try to reciprocate. If I take the time to read a story, I try to leave a comment, but sometimes it's very hard to know what to say. "That was great!" sounds so trite. "Awesome story!" Again, is there any way to be less original? "You fucking rock!" Hmm. Sounds almost stalker-esque, eh. So I'm sad to say that sometimes I have indeed paid with kudos instead of words.
Professional authors, though, are paid in money instead of comments or verbal appreciation from the readers, generally. But the money doesn't come after the book is read; instead, it comes before. And then, of course, a person might buy another book in the series to show appreciation for that first book, or as a gift to someone else... so in a way, that's appreciation. Kind of.
However, now that I'm thinking about publishing, and possibly getting paid for my work for the first time, I'm falling back on what others have discovered or are saying about digital publishing. But I wonder... if I gave my ebook to someone without asking that person to pay up front, and said, after she (or he? Are men real?) finished reading it, "So, how much would you pay for the experience you just had?" I wonder what would happen. After all, I pay a set amount of money for concert tickets, movie tickets, actual books themselves, and hope to be entertained at least equally. But what is five dollars' worth of entertainment? What about fifty? What about a hundred? What about that concert where I paid for a right-smack-in-front-of-the-stage pit area ticket and was only able to stay for four songs because I became incredibly sick? Bands don't pro-rate, and I'm not exactly saying they should.
And sometimes I pay $10 for a DVD that I think is easily worth $20, because I know how much I love it and how much it will continue to entertain me. (Anchorman? Yep.) On the other hand, no matter how much I enjoy watching Chopped, I still think paying $3 per episode to watch it via iTunes is ridiculous.
What about other people who have been reading my work for free all this time? I'm thinking about offering a coupon to them once I have ebooks available for sale, as a way to show my appreciation. After all, they didn't have to read what I wrote. They still don't. But they have, and I'm very grateful.
Friday, April 26, 2013
April 26, 2013 - counting chickens
Because I like to worry about things well ahead of time (or not at all), I did research today on paying taxes on royalties received from book self-publishing. (It looks like I'll be able to file my taxes using cheap tax prep software the way I always have, which is nice.) Then I did research on metadata. (I'm wondering how many terms or words I can put into metadata - and I wonder how hilarious that's going to get. Does anyone even search Amazon for "painplay"? Is "erotica with plot" even a thing yet, or is that considered "hardcore romance"?)
Now I'm really trying to tell myself not to a) convert the other book I have written, which I talked about in the last post, or b) start on an idea that has suddenly become very exciting. I've figured out how it starts, but I don't know where it will go after that. I think I had better have at least a vague game plan before I start, though, or else I feel it will ramble or get otherwise out of control.
Confession: I don't have much confidence in my own writing abilities, but I do love to write. I also write the kind of things I would like to read. Considering some of the topics I've written about, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
Oh, I wish I didn't have a weekend full of non-writing work in front of me.
Now I'm really trying to tell myself not to a) convert the other book I have written, which I talked about in the last post, or b) start on an idea that has suddenly become very exciting. I've figured out how it starts, but I don't know where it will go after that. I think I had better have at least a vague game plan before I start, though, or else I feel it will ramble or get otherwise out of control.
Confession: I don't have much confidence in my own writing abilities, but I do love to write. I also write the kind of things I would like to read. Considering some of the topics I've written about, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
Oh, I wish I didn't have a weekend full of non-writing work in front of me.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
April 25, 2013
Finished converting five stories into ebook format - practically. Now I'm just waiting on cover art. :D
Also had the idea yesterday to do another one, but I probably wouldn't publish it until the second book in that series was done.
Also had the idea yesterday to do another one, but I probably wouldn't publish it until the second book in that series was done.
Friday, April 19, 2013
April 19, 2013
I've decided to take a series of stories I've written and publish them via Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. I'm excited about it! I can't wait until I have them ready to publish. :)
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