# Help with a story/art and viewership?



## H-Falcon (Jul 25, 2019)

Hello. This is my first time posting here and if I'm doing something frowned upon please let me know and where I can go for some possible help and feedback.

The major issue is regarding my GF's wonderful story, characters and art. I really think if people in the community here was more aware of the story or the art that more people could be exposed to it and enjoy it and it could finally get the viewership I think it deserves. The problem is not matter how much she seems to try at posting it in various places it doesn't seem to reach a lot of people.

Is there something we could do to fix this? Is there something we are doing wrong?

I really think a lot of people would enjoy her story and art but it always seems like she gets stuck in the shadows...

Could people here check out the art and the story and see what they think about them?

Here is a recent piece of art from her story. www.furaffinity.net: EUTS: Propaganda by Lady-Owl

The story as well as more art from the story can be found on Deviantart. Original Story: Everything Under the Stars by Lady-Owl on DeviantArt

Please if you can check it out and or let others know who might be interested in this and also get back to me here or on furafinity and let me know your thoughts on the matter? 

Thank you very much for reading this and if possibly checking it out and offering any help/suggestions.

--Falcon.


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## reptile logic (Jul 26, 2019)

Hello. The short, brutal answer is that any submission is one of thousands submitted per day. The art world, including literature, is living under a constant rain of new, and re-hashed, material.

Keep making your presence known, keep making your presence known... If enough people start paying attention to the work, you'll have a following. Word of mouth then spreads the word.

This is not expert advice, that's what people pay marketing professionals for. It is a start.


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## Render (Jul 26, 2019)

To expand on the previous, you/she needs to be out there to be noticed. Become a frequent commenter on writing threads across different sites/fandoms, offer advise and help to other writers and artists, post updates on your progress or ask for advise and help, find someone who does youtube readings of fandom material, do commissions or stroke the ego of a prominent member of the fandom with really good fanart for a shoutout, etc etc.

Sadly it's not enough to be great, you have to be seen as well. In my experience, the greater someone is the less able they are to self promote, and those who endlessly self promote are often the least capable at anything else.


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## larigot (Jul 26, 2019)

Render said:


> In my experience, the greater someone is the less able they are to self promote, and those who endlessly self promote are often the least capable at anything else.


That's a shame, cos her artwork looks really good.

But yeah, its all about marketing, as much as it is about creating content.


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## H-Falcon (Jul 26, 2019)

reptile logic said:


> Hello. The short, brutal answer is that any submission is one of thousands submitted per day. The art world, including literature, is living under a constant rain of new, and re-hashed, material.
> 
> Keep making your presence known, keep making your presence known... If enough people start paying attention to the work, you'll have a following. Word of mouth then spreads the word.
> 
> This is not expert advice, that's what people pay marketing professionals for. It is a start.



That is just it though. it isn't like this is new. The Story has been going on for more then 11 years. She has amazing art of all kinds up and yet in the earlier years there seemed to me more viewership then now. I realise there is a lot more out there but at the same time in the case of her story for example it doesn't seem to be a type I see everywhere. Granted I'm not familiar with all the sites on the possible internet but it doesn't seem like it's an over-saturated market as much as others could be?

I do realise the the only places we have tended to make our presence known are the sites like DA and FA and other then social media like tumblr,twitter  etc not really any other places. But at the same time when we do post on such sites it doesn't seem to reach the right people? I just am at a loss of what to do and were to go at this point...

Any suggestions of direction to an actual path would be appreciated.

Thank you for responding to this though. Many just ignored it.


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## H-Falcon (Jul 26, 2019)

Render said:


> To expand on the previous, you/she needs to be out there to be noticed. Become a frequent commenter on writing threads across different sites/fandoms, offer advise and help to other writers and artists, post updates on your progress or ask for advise and help, find someone who does youtube readings of fandom material, do commissions or stroke the ego of a prominent member of the fandom with really good fanart for a shoutout, etc etc.
> 
> Sadly it's not enough to be great, you have to be seen as well. In my experience, the greater someone is the less able they are to self promote, and those who endlessly self promote are often the least capable at anything else.



Yes this is another issue. It seems no matter how much we post or show off stuff promoting it it doesn't really help. The other problem is this story structure is set. We are not looking for advise on the actual story or plot or characters at all. This is not something that is something we want critique on or corrections. It's a story in progress and we are more so looking to get people exposed to it rather then asking for help in creating it.

as for self promoting that is just it. It seems to not be enough or we aren't targeting the right places. That is definitely the areas we do need help in. If anyone has specific areas we could target that could be helpful. But we have already tried the normal places like twitter, tumblr etc. And other then those and DA and FA not sure were else we could target. 

As mentioned in another reply this isn't like this is new either. The story has been around for over 11 years. It seemed a lot more popular in the past, and I'm not sure how to try and get it to that level again. The thing is I know it's good enough to get to that level again. It's just like over the years as online media has changed and so did the people that it's now harder then ever.  

Thank you for replying. So many didn't...


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## H-Falcon (Jul 26, 2019)

larigot said:


> That's a shame, cos her artwork looks really good.
> 
> But yeah, its all about marketing, as much as it is about creating content.



Thank you for the nice compliment on her art.


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## Z-ro (Jul 28, 2019)

...weird,.


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## Render (Jul 28, 2019)

H-Falcon said:


> It seems no matter how much we post or show off stuff promoting it it doesn't really help. [...] We are not looking for advise on the actual story or plot or characters at all. This is not something that is something we want critique on or corrections. It's a story in progress and we are more so looking to get people exposed to it rather then asking for help in creating it.
> 
> The story has been around for over 11 years.


You can't force people to like something.  Bluntly, if you've got a story nobody reads maybe its not very good. 

11 years of writing will make it very hard to be objective in self-assessments; perhaps an outside critique is exactly what you need...


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## Z-ro (Jul 28, 2019)

Render said:


> You can't force people to like something.  Bluntly, if you've got a story nobody reads maybe its not very good.
> 
> 11 years of writing will make it very hard to be objective in self-assessments; perhaps an outside critique is exactly what you need...


True


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## Z-ro (Jul 28, 2019)

Render said:


> You can't force people to like something.  Bluntly, if you've got a story nobody reads maybe its not very good.
> 
> 11 years of writing will make it very hard to be objective in self-assessments; perhaps an outside critique is exactly what you need...


By the way..what's your Main fursona?


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## Render (Jul 28, 2019)

curiositywontkill said:


> By the way..what's your Main fursona?


Jackal, why?


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## Z-ro (Jul 28, 2019)

Render said:


> Jackal, why?


Hah, I thought it was Anubis for some reason


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## Render (Jul 28, 2019)

Close, Anubis is a jackal. The association is intentionally, the eye accent calls to mind the Eye of Horus, an Egyptian symbol, which hopefully brings jackals to mind... Otherwise I'm just a long eared wolf lol


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## Z-ro (Jul 28, 2019)

Render said:


> Close, Anubis is a jackal. The association is intentionally, the eye accent calls to mind the Eye of Horus, an Egyptian symbol, which hopefully brings jackals to mind... Otherwise I'm just a long eared wolf lol


I wonder...Anubis vs Fenrir
Jackal, doberman vs Wolf, coyote


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## H-Falcon (Jul 29, 2019)

Render said:


> You can't force people to like something.  Bluntly, if you've got a story nobody reads maybe its not very good.
> 
> 11 years of writing will make it very hard to be objective in self-assessments; perhaps an outside critique is exactly what you need...




See that isn't it at all. We have readers, readers that have read it tend to really like it. At one time it seemed we had even more readers but seemed to have just disappeared completely. I'm not talking about normal reader drop off here and there. I'm talking people who leave the sites completely. A lot of the accounts of people who used to be a part of the readership are just gone from the site. It really seems like more stuff has moved to social media then the dedicated art sites etc. 

In all fairness how you worded that doesn't seem right at all? How would someone know they don't like it if they didn't even read a part of it?

The problem really isn't in the fact that people don't like the story. Of course many people might not like it or it might not be to their likes or taste content wise. That isn't the issue. The issue really is in getting it more known, more out there. It's the fact we aren't getting as many views. If people aren't even reading it there is no way to tell if it indeed would be a issue of the story not being good/enjoyed.

One of the main issues is the story is only up on DA. That place is knowingly dying out. And with the site changing update I can't see that getting better anytime soon.

That is another area we need to get help. Where else to put it? Are there other fairly good/popular websites that this kind of content would even be good at? It is of course more of a niche genre. That in itself is an issue. But although a niche subject/genre it was still gaining a fair following. That doesn't seem to be the case anymore. Perhaps it's going down with a sinking ship and we need to put our anchor somewhere else...


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## TallmanClay (Jul 29, 2019)

It might be the fact that it's been so long? In regards to the fact that old readers are disappearing and new readers aren't coming. Starting a 22 chapter story that has been going on for a decade with no telling when it will end or whether it will end is a lot. There are a lot of comics I absolutely loved but never finished because they just drag on so much. The drag is even worse with books. I have a friend who is writing a story on DA that's even longer and older. Love her, but I had to give up.

Perhaps when you're closer to ending, you could repost the story on a different site with regular updates and go full force with your advertising. If that does well, you could repost an "edited/updated" version to your DA.


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## LadySajani (Aug 1, 2019)

Well… that format is awful. It’s hard to navigate and not very easy on the eyes either. That was Eclipse? I’d suggest something like WordPress. Link the story to the art when she posts it. I actually post a formatted Word Doc similar to how the print book looks. My following here is pretty small, but I’ve only been here a couple of months, I don’t advertise, and tbh, I avoid this forum.


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