Self-promotion

[Mickie]

These are some ideas I’ve had on how to attract an audience that would be friendly to the kinds of stories any individual would write. Hopefully, it would increase the number of positive votes and feedback on a story. I’ll be trying it on my next one (if I ever get it written!) and I’ll let you all know if it seems to make any difference. What I’d like to do is invite other authors to try it and post the results here so we can all get a less limited picture of what works and what doesn’t. I’ll thank you in advance for helping me out with this.

An author has a vision when they create a story. They attempt, through the medium of words, to paint a picture of the vision so other people can see what they see. Or so they can go back in time and re-visit the vision. This last idea is rare with authors who are bent on publishing, but common with the more amateur writers on a site like this. But -- the main purpose of putting a story out there to be read by others is to SHARE it.

The basic fact is that you cannot please everyone, nor should you try. That would create something false and unbelievable -- something that betrays the author’s vision. However, we can search out those who think like we do. Market it accurately to the audience. First, decide who your audience is. Bored housewives looking for a romantic tale? The guy at work during his 9-5 stint who’s staring at his secretary and wants something to get him off before he compromises himself by making a pass at her? Or the college kid who’s into a lot of kink and little emotion?

The next step is to put the story on the site. Pick a title that will attract the kind of people you want to read this. Bored housewives could go for a title that describes beautiful wonders, or perhaps something ‘windswept’. Keep in mind the titles of popular romance fiction. The 9-5 guy goes for something to the point and hurried. ‘Fucking Jane in the Office’ might pull him in. The kinky college kid might go for ‘Great Cocks and What To Do With Them’. And, in the blurb that tells about the story, do the same thing. Use language that’s appropriate for your chosen audience. If it’s a romance, then use words like desire and passion, not fuck. If it’s the 9-5 guy, use fuck and suck, all those pornographic words. If it’s the kinky college kid, use fuck and experiment and variety, all those kinds of words -- sort of a mixed bag.

Now for the actual marketing. The feedback section here is a wonderful place. Use it to your advantage. Invite the readers to read your story, and tell them why they would like it. You don’t want a guy interested only in incest to click on your romantic tale of star-crossed lovers who have absolutely no relation to each other. State the title, and include a paragraph blurb on what the story is about, including what category it’s posted in. Promote your story to your audience. Invite feedback to be left on the feedback thread. Good feedback will promote more readers. More readers mean more votes. And, because you’ve done your job in marketing, you’ve attracted those people who will lean toward liking the story, itself, because of the content.

One other thing -- at the end of the story, where some authors leave thank you’s, put in a thanks for reading, and request a vote and ask the reader to take a look at the feedback section on the forum. You might get a few people who will leave feedback as an unregistered guest if they don’t want to leave names, plus you might pull in a few people just because of the invite. Even one extra vote or feedback will mean something.

Mickie

 

[cymbidia]

This is good stuff, Mick.
You ought to write this into a Writer's Resources submission.

 

[Laurel]

What cymbidia said.

 

[Mickie]

Thanks! But I'd like to have more information on how effective it is before I run around proclaiming it to be useful.

Laurel -- would it be appropriate to re-submit my own stories with this in mind? (the little blurb on the end about asking for votes and looking at the feedback section would have to be added.) If anyone else is interested in doing this, would it be appropriate for them as well?

Thanks again

Mick

 

[Mikelh]

Thanks, there's good stuff here. I've tried some and will try the others. I just thought the 'one liner' might encourage readers in general. (Less work for lazy guys like me)

 

[Mickie]

Ah, the lazy writer. Personally, I'm as lazy as you can get. I don't like to work. I do as little of it as possible. However, I like to complain even less, so I try to minimize the reasons I might have for complaining.

Low votes (most of them, anyway) are from people who don't care much for the story an author has told. To gain better votes, it only makes sense to target the readers who have a predisposition toward liking your story. This system is set up pretty well, but it's up to the author to fine tune it if he/she cares about the feedback and votes.

The amount of effort one might put into it is relative to how much one wants the feedback. If you've already done the creative writing, the editing, and all of the thought that goes into creating a good story, how much more is it to put in a few extras to attract the reader response?

Mickie

 

[Mickie]

Did it!

Now don't yell at me for posting a feedback thread too early. I wanted to make sure there was a thread when it posted since I never got an answer from Laurel about being able to put actual links in the story text.

But, I managed. All is in place, and we'll see if the idea has any merit at all.

This is for chapter five of Virgin Princess, for those of you who might have read the first four chapters. It'll be posted soon, I'm sure.

Any other thoughts or ideas to go along with this is appreciated and very, very welcome. This also goes along with that voter problem of having just a single low vote really count when you hit the top lists. The more votes we can garner, the less a single vote will count as torture!

Mickie

 

[Mickie]

First day success!

I have posted the link, and the voting is running about three times faster than it did with the other chapter of the same story that was in the same category. And, it's up high again in the numbers. We'll see what happens tomorrow when it gets to the top list (it's already there, but seems only to update once a day.) Feedback is better too. I have some in email form.

More waiting now, and I'll update this tomorrow for those of you who might be interested. (although I do feel a little like I'm talking to myself here )

I'd like to get other data on other categories and stories if anyone is willing to try this on a new one. Thanks.

Mickie

 

[Mickie]

update

Virgin Princess Ch. 5 has hit the top lists. Yes, it suffered a little dropsy, but there seems to be enough votes to handle it without much problem. All and all, I'm thinking the success is because of the author's note at the end of the story, reminding the reader to vote. All feedback has been anonymous and sent by email. It is definitely doing much better in the voting and feedback than the other chapter in the same category.

The thread idea might have worked better if there were a direct link to the thread in the story. We might have lazy authors around her , but I think readers are even lazier. (As they should be, of course. . Never insult your readers, you know. Without them, you'd be lost in cyber-space.)

If anyone wants to help me out by doing this with a story of their own, please let me know.


Mickie

 

[Larissa]

Mickie I love your work. The virgin Princess series is well written and not just the usual grope. Do you write other strands of fiction? Keep writing I want to see how this story pans out.

 

[cymbidia]

I'll definitely do this with the next story i post, Mickie, whenever that occurs. Seems pretty exciting.

 

[Mickie]

Thanks, Larissa! I'm going to be putting this in the feedback section to boost the thread there, in keeping with my attempts at marketing. And I'll put in an answer there as well.

Cym!! Yes, please! Could you share with me the numbers on your scores as they change when you post the story? I haven't anything in the BDSM category, and the readership is a bit lower than the one I'm working on, so this would be an interesting contrast to see if it helps lower voting in the lesser known categories.

An update on Princess -- the voting is climbing, and the scores are dropping, but not enough to erase that little 'h' next to it! So far, I have more votes on this chapter than any of the preceding chapters. I believe this is working, and now I need to think of ways to keep it moving. I'm calling it 'aftercare'.

Thanks for the interest.
Mickie

 

[Debbie]

I think it's a great idea too! And would love to try it. I should be finished my next story in a day or so

 

[Mickie]

debbiexxx

Great! Let me know how those numbers do for you.

Mick

 

[Mickie]

update on voting numbers

Well, it's been a while, but I've gotten three chapters of Virgin Princess up with these ideas implimented. Strangely enough, although I expected the number of votes to be higher than those chapters that came before, I didn't expect the actual scores to be higher. Either my writing has changed enough to promote this (and I don't think it has) or these ideas are actually promoting higher voting. Everything chapter I've put in with these ideas are over the 4.5 mark. All the others are under. Has anyone else who's used this gotten higher scores than normal, or am I an odd duck?

Mickie