Do you ask your readers....

[GoldenMaia]

Do you ask your readers for requests?

If you do, what is the best way to do so?

I get a lot of anonymous remarks so I don't see a good way to offer out a call for 'requests'.

Maybe it's a bad idea in general to ask.

 

[NotWise]

Do you ask your readers for requests?

...

Maybe it's a bad idea in general to ask.

I don't. I did have a reader suggest a sequel to the first story I posted on Lit. I wrote a take on his suggestion and it turned out to be my least-favorite story.

I don't think it's a very good idea to invite reader involvement. You can't control what you might get, and they are the unwashed masses after all. If you do write a story based on someone else's suggestion than you don't entirely "own" that story (quotations, because I'm talking about creative ownership and I don't know what the law might say). If you simply take an anonymous suggestion then they may never know. If you solicit an idea and use it then they may know.

 

[sr71plt]

No, I sometimes take requests when the request inspires me, but I don't ask for requests. I don't write by committee.

 

[Areala-chan]

I'm with Pilot on this one. If the inspiration didn't come from within, I can't write the story for crap. If a suggestion kicks my mind into gear, then awesome. But I don't actively solicit for suggestions or story ideas.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

I no longer interact with readers.

 

[ChloeTzang]

I get suggestions and occassionally I ask for requests in comments but I'm not good at stories readers suggest. I have done one story for a reader so far and I run that one by him as I write. That story was my suggestiin tho and he helps me with background and authenticity but leaves the story to me. His suggestions are good tho. I think that's a one off tho.

 

[Blind_Justice]

Requests? I hardly get any comments. Besides, I have far too much planned already for my characters to churn out spin-offs.

 

[oggbashan]

I get requests for continuations of stories I think are finished.

I also get requests to totally rewrite a story to fit with the requester's personal preferences.

I can't do either. I have too many pending part completed stories to add more because people ask for them.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

I've gotten a few requests - it's very rare - and I ignore them. As far as I can tell, if you write what's popular you'll end up doing flimsy plots involving vampires, dom females, and rape.

Unless you are getting paid to do otherwise, follow your muse. Let the fans come to you, don't cater to them.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

True story.

Henry Fords board fired him because he wanted to make cars people wanted. He left and took the Ford name with him The company he left became Cadillac.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I get the innocuous "More, more." or "You can't end it here!"

I don't ask readers anything really.

 

[TxRad]

I get the innocuous "More, more." or "You can't end it here!"

I don't ask readers anything really.

Same here.

I have to many story already so requests would be a waste of time.

 

[Darkniciad]

I get them, but only take them on when they strike my fancy.

The biggest was with Blackhawk Hall. An anonymous reader gave me "challenge" words for a couple of chapters to include in the story and the idea tickled me. The words actually created a couple of locations, fun scenes, and backstory mythos for the characters. After I'd included a couple of them, he contacted me directly, and we talked via email for quite some time. He also inspired Ebon Genesis.

If you want to solicit them, you could do it in an end note of chapters/stories. You'll probably get more than you bargained for, though.

 

[Carnal_Flower]

I added a little blurb about please contact me with comments, suggestions, etc to my Profile and I don't regret it. I got a few really great responses.

Everyone wants happier endings, that's what I learned. Take it or leave it.

 

[Grobnar]

Yes, I do take requests. However, that's part of the nature of my subject matter. Everyone has a favorite celebrity they want to see as a 3C/shem/futanari. I get numerous messages from people about that.

However, they need to realize that just because they ask doesn't mean it's going to happen. As the author I ultimately have the final say in my writing. No yelling or cursing at me will change that

 

[Nezhul]

In one of my stories after every chapter I said in the afterword that if they have requests they may leave them in the comments. But I made sure to say that it is up to me if I use those ideas or not.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

No. I write what inspires me. Well, there was that one time when a reader made a specific request and I wrote a story more or less based on that request. But I spun that one into the framework of an idea that was aready gestating.

 

[PennLady]

No, I don't take requests. This is not to say that like Pilot said, I might not get some inspiration from a request, but I don't do that. I haven't written much lately, but even if someone sent a request, I don't think that'd change things.

I have had people, especially in light of the hockey romances I did, ask for stories about other athletes, but I haven't done it. For one thing, I think I'm just kind of done with that little sub-genre, and second, I don't know other sports as well.

 

[Voboy]

I did it once, just for fun and to see what it's like. The request was unsolicited, but I went with it; turned out to be a decent story, and very well-received here... but it never really felt like my own work, at a fiundamental level, since I'd have never written it without the request.

Same reader has since emailed me for sequels in increasingly detailed fashion; I've been polite but firm in refusing. His requested story, see, only "worked" because I could find something in his request that allowed me to do my own thing. The more detailed his requests for sequels, the less interested I am.