# Advertising



## FelixBandercoot (May 1, 2010)

Writers, furs, assorted others; lend me your ears!

Okay, for a while now, I've been wondering on how to best advertise my works on FA, but really haven't come up with any ideas on how to accomplish this. I actually read a forum on here today suggesting that one might give a description of the story in the comments/description section above every work on FA. Another forum actually posted recommended authors/writers, which I found rather helpful. 

However, I'm still looking on how to best advertise my works in the best possible way. Any advice or suggestions are certainly welcome. Who knows; you might just learn a thing or two yourself!  

Thank you for your time!

-Felix Bandercoot


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## kitreshawn (May 1, 2010)

Best way to get readers is quite honestly to read other's stories and comment.  They will more than likely return the favor.

Get a simple thumbnail that you post with all your stories.  Some people bash this but it really does draw the eye.  Maybe just your avatar and you slap the story title on it (this is called branding!).

I agree that you should give a story outline in your description.  Just 2 or three sentences that gives an idea of the plot and type of story.  Think of it kind of like the little blurb you get on the back of a book, people like to read that before opening the book to make sure it is something they want to read!

PRONZ!  Honestly you will find that erotic fiction, or stories with erotic elements, get many more views.  However I have also found that simple yiff doesn't get you nearly as many readers as something that has something else behind it (a driving story, some emotional connection, what have you) that people can latch on to.  A simple sex scene won't get you repeat readers in general.

Series.  Not a book or anything but write a 2-3 story series.  If someone reads one of them and sees that there is a continuation, and they liked what they saw in the first story, they are likely to give the whole series a read.

Ask for critique.  There is a thread in here for it.  Since people have to critique stories in order to get critique this is a good way to attract some people who might not normally read your stuff.  If they like it they may become a regular reader.

Write a story for an artist's picture.  Get permission first, but after you write it give them the link (and link to their original image).  They may link back to you and as we all know artists get much more traffic.  In addition anyone who likes the picture very well might check out your story.


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## panzergulo (May 2, 2010)

kitreshawn said:


> Best way to get readers is quite honestly to read other's stories and comment.  They will more than likely return the favor.



Not always true. When I came to FA, I made a project myself out of the old Thursday Prompt responses. I read every single one of them. Some couple dozen writers watched me during my project, and about a dozen promised to read me in return. I haven't heard anything about them since then. So, reading a lot doesn't always return the favor.

Otherwise, kitreshawn has said pretty much everything I had in mind. Interacting with the community is important, and you're doing it already, here in the forums. Wouldn't do bad to take part to Poetigress' Thursday Prompt, for example, there's a lot of active writers/readers who do not take part to the forums but are active with the prompts. Prompt responses are usually short enough, so that the reader can get a feeling from your writing without spending too much time with it, and figure if they like it or not. I got a lot of watchers when I started writing prompt responses.

Yup. That's that. You'll get your readership. It will just take a lot of time. Writing isn't as popular form of art as visual arts in furry fandom or FA. Don't expect too much and be happy if you get maybe only one regular reader. I have only one reader who has read everything I have submitted in FA.


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## duroc (May 2, 2010)

FelixBandercoot said:


> However, I'm still looking on how to best advertise my works in the best possible way.



Can I ask exactly what you are looking for?

Are you looking for critique?  Are you simply looking for people to read your work? Or do you have another goal in mind?

I think panzer said it best one time, in that it ultimately comes down to networking.  You have to get to know and interact with more of the writers in the community, because more often than not, readers are also writers.  You can participate in the Thursday Prompt or the Writing Workshop here in the forums.  You have to put yourself out there and be seen, but you also need to know what you want as a writer.

And patience is a huge key.  It takes a lot of time and patience.


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## FelixBandercoot (May 2, 2010)

Thanks for all of your help. I really learned a lot on how to promote my works into the FA community, and how to attract potential readers. 

I'm thankful to have at least one regular reader (as far as I'm aware, at least, they've read every bit of my latest work [I gotta be more appreciative]). However, duroc, my main goal is to spread my work as much as possible throughout FA and have as many readers as possible. I'd like to start publishing in a few years, but before I begin, I'd like to know that I already have an audience who'd want to read and buy my books.

Yeah, I've tried getting into the FA community better as of recent. I've begun watching other artists and writers, and as far as I've concerned, my page views bumped up about ten more last night.  I'm hoping to get a lot of feedback from the forums here as well, and I'll try to make the Thursday Prompt when I get the chance.

kitreshawn's suggestions are very helpful, although I do agree with panzer that reading and commenting won't always get you readers. However, I found pretty much all of kitreshawn's suggestions and tips very helpful to me.

Well, if anyone else has something they'd like to add, feel free to.  And if you're just reading this, then I hope that you learned something that'll boost your number of readers within the FA community. 

-Felix


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## Poetigress (May 2, 2010)

One thing I noticed when I visited your page is that you have all of your writing in Scraps and nothing in your gallery. If you want more people to read your work, it might be a good idea to have it visible there in the gallery, right on the main page, and keep Scraps more for experimental pieces, works in progress, etc. (Even though you have a note about Scraps in your profile, people may still miss that if they're just glancing over the page.)

Another aspect is that, as far as I could tell, you're posting the chapters in .rtf format. That's your choice--there's nothing saying you have to post as plain text--but you might snag more readers if you post .txt files so that your work can be read onscreen instead of downloaded. For some people, that extra step of downloading is too much of a psychological barrier. (There are hopes that FA might display RTFs onscreen in the near future, but there's no clear timeframe for when that's going to happen.)

Other than what's already been mentioned, it's pretty much quality and quantity. Keep posting your best efforts on a fairly regular basis, keep interacting as much as you can with others on the site, and if your work is worth reading, you'll gradually build an audience. The key word there, though, is "gradually"--Duroc is definitely right about the patience. For a writer on FA, it takes time to build even a small following.


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## Tanzenlicht (May 2, 2010)

Plain text files wouldn't hurt either.  I won't read anything I have to download unless I'm already familiar with the author and know it's worth the extra couple of seconds.  I'm lazy.

I also hate reading in word processing programs.  That's not what they're for.  They're for writing.  So my usual reading on the internet scroll down shortcut of 'spacebar' not only inserts a new space in what I'm reading, it generally completely loses my place by popping me back up to the top of the document where I last clicked.

Now converting your file and adding any code tags for FA is a royal pain in your butt.  Not doing it is a pain in your readers' butts.  Guess who should be suffering for your art.


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## FelixBandercoot (May 2, 2010)

Huh. Interesting... So does that mean I'll have to redownload all the stories into FA for it to be shown in the gallery? I'm still really new to this, so I don't know how to work everything.

Yeah, I'd like to covert the .rtf to .txt, but once again, I don't have the faintest idea on how to do so. (It takes me a while to figure this stuff out; don't laugh! ) However, I do agree with you that it does create a psychological barrier, but I just need to know how to convert the formats. 

And yes, patience is very important. Recently, I told myself that fame and a great number of loyal readers wouldn't happen overnight, so I began worrying less on when to post; if the readers like the story, they'll wait. 

Thanks for your help, Poetigress!

Thank you for your comment, Tanzenlicht. To be honest, I feel the same as you do on the matter of downloading; I probably won't read something I have to download unless I know the writer. And if anyone could give me directions on how to convert .rtf files to .txt files, that'd be great, too. And I agree with you, Tanzenlicht, that most readers don't like having to suffer through reading. I don't like having to do that to readers, but really, it's incompetence with downloading on my part that this happens.   

-Felix


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## FelixBandercoot (May 2, 2010)

Yep, never mind. All of my entries of "Rogue" are now in the gallery, in txt. format. Pretty busy day!


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## GraemeLion (May 2, 2010)

The best way to advertise your work, bar none, is to get people talking about your work. 

An FA page is no different from any other FA page, really.  You should be quickly pulling your readers off FA, into your own environment, where you can show them things without any distraction.  You should be giving them a place to see what you're up to.  You should be suggesting your stories to others.

Podiobooks are a great way to do this.. and can be inexpensively done.  

The key to it all, though, is that the best marketing for your book will be done by your readers.  You need to give them the ability to do that, and on FA with all the graphical distractions, I doubt you'll find it possible.


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## FelixBandercoot (May 2, 2010)

Thank you for your suggestion, GraemeLion.  I'd like to create a website, but unfortunately, haven't the faintest idea on how to do so. In other words, FA is all I can do right now.  (Although I do admit that I need to start spreading word of my works, which I have done little to advance.) 

-Felix


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