#unless i go for specific authors and rec lists i trust

[regheart]

so, when you're writing a fanfic, would you look up other fics with similar plot/structure/themes/pairing/characters to see how other people handle it? or are you the type to avoid anything that resembles your work because you don't want to get influenced?

[mermaidsirennikita]

thoughts on vulture's "12 romantasy authors to know"? except for jacqueline carey, i feel like they missed the chance to include proper romance/erotica authors.

This list is so boring and lacks innovation or knowledge of romance novels... is my first thought.

My second thought is that it once again underscores how much romantasy is not a subgenre or genre and is in fact a bullshit marketing thing. When I tell y'all this... Trust me when I say I know what I'm talking about, lol. Even if we can trace back to BookTok or many years ago when some blogger coined the term. It's not as organic as it seems. (... very literal online marketing stuff is, but that's another deal).

My opinions on the authors specifically:

Anne McCaffrey. Never read, have honestly never wanted to read, am unimpressed with the author's squeamishness around the dragons getting it on influencing the riders getting it on (and the narration cutting away when the dragons start going at it...)? Anyway, Fourth Wing also does this, and does not cut away from the Violet and Xaden Feelin' The Dragon Love. The excerpt doesn't make me want to read these books, and frankly people I trust don't seem enthused about them; nor would those people classify them as romance.

Marion Zimmer Bradley. I have read The Mists of Avalon, and I liked parts of it (and had severe issues with others) until I found out that MZB was an absolute MONSTER. Like, straight to Hell, do not pass go, MONSTER. I recommend looking at her Wikipedia page for more, but proceed with caution if you're not familiar--CSA. So I find it pretty weird that this person even recommended her here. Like, the little note under "Controversies" is incredibly weird. Maybe just don't recommend MZB. She's not controversial--she is, was, a HIDEOUS, scum of the Earth, vile human being. We can discuss her work and its influence, but this list is positioned as a rec list, and I frankly find that pretty... questionable.

Anyway, for the rest: her books are absolutely not romance, and are actually not even really romantic...? Like, most of the physical relationships in the books are coercive, extremely taboo and forbidden, or physical without involving emotion.

Diana Gabaldon. I think Diana is a talented writer, I'll stand by the fact that Outlander is not a romance unless you stop reading at the first book (which you totally can lol it honestly stands alone), she has disdain for romance while profiting off it, and she is obsessed with SA in her work so. Probably one of the closest things to a romance author here. Also, can I say, I hate "Smut Factor". Smut is such a dumb word to me.

Jacqueline Carey. Haven't read, have heard mixed things about, every romance reader I've seen qualifies this as "it's not a romance, but" lol. Maybe I'll read someday....

Cassandra Clare. Having read a good number of Cassie's books (9, I think?) nope lol. Heavy romantic elements in her books. Not romance novels. Not even a bit.

SJM. I think SJM is again, pretty close to romance? I think she embraces it more (because she's if nothing else a smart businesswoman)? But I find her books not great, and I really do debate their status as romance novels. I mean, having just read a fantasy romance that really did feel like a ROMANCE to me... SJM doesn't seem to hit the same marks.

I will say lol. Still mad about the MZB thing. When you compare the thing under "Controversies" for her compared to Cassie Clare and SJM... I mean, they did bad things, I'm not excusing that. But when you compare them to the actual criminal acts of MZB... Lol why is she here???

Danielle L. Jensen. No complaints from me after A Fate Inked in Blood, she belongs here. Maybe someday I'll try Bridge Kingdom again? But right now, I'm on the Unfated train.

Jennifer L. Armentrout. These do sound like romances, but I've never read them so I can't judge. I hear bad things from one of my friends so I doubt I'll get into them. The one thing I do want to read about is the ritualistic hookup between the heroine and her boyfriend and his best friend...? Which is apparently straighter than it should be? I don't know, dude. That's always a disappointment for me. ALL OR NOTHING.

Scarlett St. Clair. I've read one book by her. She's romance, but I... did not like it.

Naomi Novik. I read Uprooted back in the day. Would not call it a romance, but a fantasy with a romance subplot. Wasn't into it.

Carissa Broadbent. Haven't read. Intrigued?

Rebecca Yarros. I've read Fourth Wing and Iron Flame. They don't reinvent the wheel, they have issues. They're also compulsively readable and I enjoyed them. I'm surprised there aren't any controversies listed here?

Of course. That may be a choice on Vulture's part.

[blueprint-han]

[Image ID: A black picture with the title “HOW TO SUPPORT FANFICTION AUTHORS” written in bold caps lock, colored with a winter forest picture. End ID.]

Well, this post has been made countless times, but I’m making one too because I’ve seen a lot of people say they’re new to tumblr and don’t know the whole “reblogging is better than liking” rule and other stuff. So without any further ado, here are ways YOU can support the fanfiction authors. Now keep in mind this applies to almost every author out there, not just the stayblr fandom, so if you’re a silent reader (or even if you aren’t), I advise you go through this post. Warning, this is a fairly long post going into detail, so yeah. I still expect you, the readers to read this, and if you’re a writer, feel free to lmk if i’ve written smth wrong or if you want me to add something! ^^

In this post I’ll go into thorough analysis of the pros and cons of each of the methods listed here and how YOU as a reader can show the authors whose fics you read more love and motivate them to produce content.

WARNING; LONG POST! GOES INTO A DECENT AMOUNT OF DETAIL. NOT EDITED, EXCUSE ANY TYPOS.

#1 : LIKING !

I think this is basic common knowledge, and a lot of people tend to do this. When you like the post, the author sees it, you see it, and if the author has their liked posts accessible (which majority of the time they don’t), and if someone deliberately goes to check it, then they see it. See why so many authors say just liking does nothing? Only liking says “Hey, I’m gonna tell you your story is not that good by simply liking it and not sharing it with other people. :D”

♯ PROS:

You’re telling the author that you've read their fic, and either you’ve enjoyed it to a certain extent, or you’re just saving it to read for later.

Likes are seen by you, the author and anyone who has access to your likes (which, most people don’t).

♯ CONS:

If you ONLY like, you’re not really helping the author’s work reach a wide audience because this site isn’t Instagram. Reblogging is the only way people can SEE our works. I’ll cover more on that in the next section.

In a nutshell, liking is good! But you should most likely use it in a combination with the other stuff I’ve listed below, because just the like itself doesn’t really do much in giving the author any feedback or interaction on their fics.

To clear shit up; I’m not talking about those people who don’t read the story or appreciate it in the first place. I’m talking about those who appreciate the fic, like it, but don’t leave any sort of feedback to show that.

#2 : REBLOGGING !

This is SO, SO important. I cannot stress on this enough. Let me explain WHY so many writers stress on reblogging content: 

Tumblr’s tag system is inherently fucked up, and has grown more so over the year. I’m not kidding, at first, the fic either used to show up in the tags or it didn’t, but now, sometimes your fic can be REMOVED from the tags because of,,, idk tumblr tag shit. Anyways, as you can see, it’s very demotivating for authors at that point, because the major way for people to find their content and expand their blogs has been blocked.  

Due to this reason, tumblr authors need to RELY on you, their followers to help spread their works to a wider audience. Now again, before you get me wrong, I’m not saying you ae forced to rb our works regardless of whether you like them or not. BUT, that being said, if you DO infact like the story, there’s no harm in reblogging, right? By doing this you’re indirectly telling the author — “hey! :D I liked your fic! Which is why I am gonna share it to my followers so they can read it too :D” Trust me, you’re doing nothing but helping the people who produce content for you to read. Seems like a worthy cause to hit the reblog button, right? It’s only a one, or maximum two step procedure.

Leave tags in your reblogs! Trust me, as an author myself and as much as I know from all my author friends, we oft check the tags of your reblogs to see if you found any part amazing or even if you have anything to say about the writing we put so much hard work into. Even a key smash or a “This was so [insert adjective] 🥺” is enough to leave a smile on your authors face. 

♯ PROS :

You’re !! Sharing !! Your authors !! Works !! This leads to them getting more recognition, so for the content they’re so graciously providing for free, you’re promoting their blog and helping them expand it.

If the tags are being a shit, which majority of the time they are, then you’re literally making an author’s day by reblogging! You’re showing them that you, a follower and appreciator of their works are willingly sharing their content because it deserves to be seen by more people. Again before any dumb people decide to attack me, i am talking about people who like the fic but don't bother reblogging and are silent/ghost readers. I am not forcing anyone to read anybody’s work.

YOU’RE MAKING YOUR AUTHOR SO HAPPY WHAT MORE REASONS COULD YOU POSSIBLY WANT !! 🥺

♯ CONS :

Literally none, because as far as I remember no author is against reblogging of their works. It’s quite literally the way this platform functions. Reblogging is IMPORTANT.

#3 : COMMENTING/SENDING FEEDBACK !

This kind of overlaps with the previous section, but THIS IS SUCH AN IMPORTANT STEP !! When you leave feedback, you are directly giving the author something so much more valuable to them than high follower/note counts or money. Your feedback is literally our serotonin. I kid you not the number of times I’ve received a positive comment and smiled and it has made my day. There’s a reason youtubers (though not the best example, bear with me here because it was the only one I could think of) ask people to subscribe, like and COMMENT. The subscription is like a follow, the like is ofc like a heart, and the comment is equivalent to an rb with comments in the tags. 

You might argue and tell me that a comment is basically like an ask so the reblogging step isn’t necessary, but I’m sure 99% of you use YouTube and you know that more comments leads to people’s videos boosted in the stream/trending charts. This is what reblogging does. Reblogging shares the piece with other people like minded, which leads to a boost in reads. You are literally helping your author grow.

It’s quite literally the same thing as youtubers. Youtubers NEED validation to keep their content creation going, so do writers, so do other ccs on this site. This post is however, focused on WRITERS, so keep that in mind.

♯ PROS :

By doing this, you’re giving author valuable feedback! It’s similar to what you do in rbing with tags. Interactivity with their fics boosts their note counts and helps expand their audience, so srsly, now think of it: your one comment is playing such a massive role to help ccs create more content.

Imagine how much of a difference the note counts will be in when every person who simply likes after reading the fic, reblogs, leaves a comment and sends an ask. the note counts would be high on each and every fic, which is validation in itself, but your comments would inspire the writer so much more! Please, don’t skip the commenting part. Even a simple one like: “this is so cute!” is wonderful. 

♯ CONS :

Remember, if you’re gonna give constructive criticism (which I’m sure you all are smart enough to know if different from hate), make sure the author is okay with it. Authors need to be in a specific mindset and must be ready to accept criticism, so if you’re gonna give constructive criticism to them when they’re at a low point, it may demotivate them.

Just commenting, instead of reblogging and commenting in the tags/ reblogging and then leaving an ask in their inbox, while it gives validation in plenty, will not lead to the author’s work being spread. Therefore I suggest either reblogging and commenting in the tags or reblog and then leave an ask, or comment under the fic!

!! reminder; I am not saying that if you don’t rb and just leave feedback, your feedback has no value. We authors truly appreciate every bit of feedback, but this post is aimed to help you learn how to interact with and support authors, and make them feel more motivated, because the current scenario of liking and scrolling is taking a toll on their creative abilities. Take it from a person who’s been writing for a year.

#4 : COMMSIONING VIA THEIR KO-FI/OTHER APPS !

Before any of you attack me, let me tell you that this is not a step that is 100% necessary to do. ONLY donate if you can and if you genuinely want to, and if anyone is forcing you to pay for something against your will, you need to get yourself out of there.

Regardless, if an author has a kofi and you’re able to and you want to donate, you definitely should! It’s also a valid form of support.

#5 : ADDING THEM ON REC LISTS/ RECOMMENDING THEM TO REC BLOGS

This is such an underrated option, to be honest. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen my fic was recommended onto some rec list and it’s made me smile so hard. If you like some fics, create a rec list! They’re oft very popular amongst the fans too. Making rec posts is such a great way to share your favorite stories with others. 

Rec blogs! I’ve seen a couple going around, and needless to say they are a great way to get someone else to read your favorite author’s work whilst also giving them your own feedback. These blogs oft accept recs via a form or ask box, and they leave your feedback along with their own, or else they’ll oft tag the author in the feedback post, so look! You’re basically helping your author share their fic to many more people, because you’ve given them feedback and a reblog.

♯ PROS :

Validation! Feedback! Reblogs! More exposure! Helping a blog grow! Spreading love! basically a run down of the stuff I’ve said before!

♯ CONS :

Literally no con of this. Unless, a one in a million case, this author says they don’t like receiving feedback/being tagged, and I’m sure NO person has said this before, at least none that I’ve heard of.

#6 : FINAL COMMENTS; MISC !

When an author points out about how the interactivity is drastically reducing, don’t just give them blind apologies. Yes, you feel sorry for not interacting as much, we understand, but rather show that you’ll become a better content consumer through your actions. We need to see that we’re not just throwing words into a void and that people are actually trying to be better content consumers. 

Understand the fact that authors don’t get paid for this, and 99% of the time, these authors don’t take commissions either. They’re giving you novel worthy writings for free. Take Percy Jackson: You think the author would have felt motivated to write the subsequent parts, let alone two whole series based off of it if literally no one showed that they were interested? Rick Riordan has sales, he is being paid, there are millions of people and big agencies who provide him feedback. Now take that huge amount and simmer it down to an audience of maybe 10000 people This is what fanfic authors want. They don’t want your money, nor are they telling you to risk your lives for them. All they want is, a reblog, some tags, some feedback, some INTERACTIVITY.  A sign that they aren’t throwing fics into the void and that people actually like them, some motivation to continue. Seems fairly easy to throw an rb with some tags, right?

Don’t bother to tell me that we do this for ourselves and we shouldn’t ask for likes and reblogs and feedback, because 1) you are consuming the content that we “write for ourselves” and 2) writers post their content here for interactivity and feedback. We could just not post and write and save our fics in our dungeon drafts for years. But we choose to post to entertain the readers, the consumers. And we aren’t even asking that much in return.

Don’t give me the whole “I’m scared that authors feel that comments are annoying” excuse either because seriously this has been DEBUNKED SO MANY TIMES. Istg, in the nicest way possible, if you still think writers are annoyed by interaction and feedback, after so many posts, long rants have been posted as to how we’re not, then you must truly be living under a rock. There, I said it. Please stop thinking this way, I’ll say it again, AUTHORS ARE NOT ANNOYED OF FEEDBACK, COMMENTS, TAGS, REBLOGS. WE LOVE IT. Saying this is like saying that the audience in a theatre play shouldn’t clap when the play ends because the actors would find it noisy. 🤡

I’ve seen some people saying they have anxiety issues and such, so pls note that I’m not invalidating your condition. If you’re trying to be more interactive, I really appreciate it! If you can’t, that’s fine too. You’re trying.

But for the people who have no reason other than feeling lazy to rb and comment, your lack of interactiveness is not excused. Please. Tumblr is a reblogging site. If you’re gonna consume content like authors are some sort of machines, I encourage you to go get some more perspective.

This site is not Instagram or the satan bird app. Your likes are appreciated but frankly speaking, they do nothing to the author except tell them “Hey i read ur fic but i'm not gonna support u :D” and honestly, that is detrimental to their creative capabilities and mental health. 

DON’T FOLLOW AN ACC JUST TO MINDLESS RB THEIR SIGNAL BOOST POSTS AND THEIR REBLOGS OF GIFS AND NOT INTERACT WITH THEIR WRITING AT ALL ! Trust me, authors prefer a lower amount of interactive followers than a high count that doesn’t even give them any feedback. Again your follows are appreciated, but when you’re following, you know the type of content the author creates, so the author expects that the more followers, the more interactivity. These days, this is just becoming the opposite. So don’t do it! If you’re gonna follow to read, interact with their works. I promise, this will make both you and the author happy. A win-win situation.

In conclusion: SUPPORT YOUR FUCKING AUTHORS! THEY ARE NOT MACHINES THAT HAVE NO FEELINGS TO PRODUCE CONTENT FOR YOU! FICS TAKE DAYS AND DAYS OF PLANNING, PLOTTING, OUTLINING, WRITING, EDITING, MAKING TEASERS. SO JUST SHOW THEM YOU APPRECIATE THEM WITH AN RB. IT’S THE L E A S T YOU CAN DO.

I will be liking this post here written by the lovely @chaninfused​ and @scriptura-delirus​ . Please take time to read it because if you weren’t convinced by my arguments, you will see how much frustration we as writers face on a daily basis. Please, just show support. Here is the post by @stayndays​ about how to get more people to read your work, because it also has a note on reblogging. Please educate yourself, and put an end to this mindless consuming culutre and bring up some interactivity.

If you’ve read this far, I want you to go to two of your favorite authors and leave some feedback in their inbox, and tag me in it (either tag me yourself or ask the author to do so, they won’t mind). Show your writers that our words are taking effect and you are becoming better consumers. I mean it. I’m serious. I want every single one who reads this post to do this. besides valid reasons, if you’re lazy to do this, you’re a part of the problem. PLEASE get more perspective.

Also, feel free to add to this post! I’d love to read your thoughts too, remember to be kind though. And, if I think your rb is somehow contradicting my points and is bringing down the reason I made this post, I will politely ask you to delete your comment, because this post is about being truthful about the harsh reality of tumblr consumers and how we can change it. I’m sure none of you will let it get to that point, though. <3 love you guys. 💓

And, just a reminder, don’t just blindly like this too. Do what I said before, and while I am not forcing you, I’d appreciate your reblog, because seriously, it took me 3 whole days to write this, plus, I’m sure this will help more of your followers understand the fault in consumer culture. haha, that’s it! This post was way too long uff.

also, this is ur cue to not be stupid in my inbox. You have something to say? Think I worded smth wrongly? I’m sure it wasn’t my intention to do so, point it out with manners. 

[deanwinchesterswitch]

Weekly Fic Recs

This week's list runs the gamut of emotions. Super fluffy and sweet, angst that will break your heart, to just flat out sexy smut. There's even something for you cardiophiles out there. 💝

There are so many fabulous writers with amazing stories; it makes me sad that I can't get to more of them. Winter break is fast approaching though, so I'm really hoping to read the many fics I have saved on my 'to read' list. 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

Many of these blogs and fics are NSFW-18+. Please honor any requests from a blog regarding no minors and heed the warnings for each fic.

All fics are from the SPN fandom unless otherwise noted.

Waiting ~ @thinkinghardhardlythinking. Author's Summary: Restaurant AU. Y/N and Dean are always at loggerheads regarding the restaurant, however, in a bid to reconcile their competing visions, Y/N agrees to give Dean one night to change her mind and convince her to come around to his way of thinking. One night that is supposed to be about food but ends up taking her down Memory Lane into the complicated history that the both of them share. A history that started when they were a lot younger, that took them all the way to Paris, and has somehow ended up here, tonight.

Don't Pull This Thread-Part 6 ~ @princessmisery666. Author's Summary: A case has a devastating effect on Lexie. Zak shows up to cause some trouble. What will Lexie do to protect the Winchester’s?

For the heartbeat lovers out there. (No Title or Summary) ~ @leatherandfrackles

Tell Me About... ~ @impala-dreamer. Author’s Summary: None (A master list of hot, sexy drabbles.) It's been updated.

"Yeah, I have a Great Dean"-Epilogue ~ @littlegreenplasticsoldier. Author's Summary: The curse leaves Dean with a specific itch…

"Yeah, I have a Great Dean"-Ch2 ~ @littlegreenplasticsoldier. Author's Summary: Dean is a good man, which is why he was a great dog.

"Yeah, I have a Great Dean" ~ @littlegreenplasticsoldier. Author's Summary: Dean is a good boy.

What It Tastes Like (MCU fandom) ~ @princessmisery666. Author's Summary: Bucky didn’t intentionally break her trust, but maybe Sam has the right idea of how he can make it up to her.

A Lucky Charm ~ @waywardbaby. Author's Summary: I’m terrible with summaries so just know that this is a love story.

Start Over ~ @luci-in-trenchcoats. Author's Summary: Jensen invites his old co-star down to Texas for the week and his soon to be ex-wife is not happy about it…

Home To You-Twenty-one ~ @smol-and-grumpy. Author's Summary: Dean enlisted in the hopes to help secure enough money for Sam to be able to go to college. Of course he didn’t tell Sam. Why would he? Sam would understand, right? Turns out, Sam didn’t get it, and is giving Dean the silent treatment for over a year. In Dean’s desperation to reconnect with Sam, Dean reaches out to his brother’s best friend. Little does he know that the hurricane named Y/N will turn out to be the reason he wants to stay alive and go back home for.

[shinelikethunder]

aftermarket hacks: a love letter

Not reblogging directly from @star-anise​ because the post is long e-fucking-nough already, but yeah, hey, let’s talk about actual useful things you can do with third-party code on AO3!

Simple stuff you could potentially do with the contents of the page, plus maybe some on-the-spot data-fetching:

Detect quotes from the fic text in comments, and float a little expandable comment marker next to that line in the text.

Make user links point to the user’s full works page. Or their profile.

Or auto-attach profile info to the default user-dashboard view.

On individual works, look for a “remix/reuse policy” paragraph in the author’s profile and display it after the notes section if found.

Set a work’s bookmarks page to only show the ones with tags/comments

Guilty Pleasure Ratio #1 on all work pages: anon kudos to logged-in kudos

More complicated stuff you could potentially do with local storage and periodic background fetches:

Guilty Pleasure Ratio #2 on your stats page and your works: private bookmarks to public bookmarks

Sticky / always-on “exclude” filters

Designate certain users as trusted bookmarkers, and whenever a fic they’ve bookmarked appears anywhere on the site, display the bookmark tags in a separate section below the work tags. I’ve seen this floated as a way to share warnings for, e.g., untagged racism while dodging the absolute shitshow of abuse potential you’d get with full crowdsourced tagging.

Not gonna venture into extensions that submit actions on the user’s behalf, because you really don’t want to fuck around with that lightly, but I do wonder if you could turn the “create bookmark” form into something along the lines of XKit’s one-click reblogs. Or pre-fill its tags/collections fields with ones you’ve used recently.

Stuff you can already do:

Floating Comment Box aka the best thing ever

Sticky / always-on filters - Exists as a userscript but I’m not sure whether it makes full use of the new “exclude” filters, someone should experiment with that... there’s also another one that lets you save searches and track them for updates

Bookmarking extras: star ratings, specific chapters, last-read date, update checking, track last reading position

“You might also like” recommendations (one userscript, in beta; note that it collects browsing data to crunch into recs; plenty of room for other people to post their versions of this too)

Filling localization gaps (translating menus into Chinese, adjusting typography and word counts)

Shortcuts: download buttons and “entire work”/”last chapter” links in work listings without having to click through, estimated reading time, tag ID on tag feeds, first/last chapter links on work pages, a subscribe button at the end of the work as well as the beginning, full user menu in the global dropdown, chapter navigation by arrow keys, quick links to more by this author in this fandom/pairing/etc

Highlighting (or hiding!) fics you’ve already read/kudosed

So many blacklisting options to go with your filters. So many. By user, including comments and kudos. By specific work. By pairing, character, freeform tag, whether it’s a crossover, whether your OTP is a secondary pairing, whether it’s a non-beginning part of a series. Hide works with too many tags, or just too many relationships. If you’ve got a blacklisting need that’s too fine-grained even for these, someone will probably write it for you just so it exists.

Selectively hiding parts of a work you don’t want to see: individual tags (or highlight ‘em!), lowercase tags, images, author’s notes, empty/double-spaced paragraphs...

Many, many options to display various ratios of kudos, bookmarks, hits, and hits-per-chapter. Although I haven’t seen any with the Guilty Pleasure ratios yet.

Most of these are userscripts; a handful are browser extensions. None of them are mobile apps because, well, any helpful AO3-related mobile apps just got nuked from orbit along with the scummy ones. That means custom functionality is mainly a desktop thing at the moment. AFAIK Firefox for Android allows extensions, including Tampermonkey, but I’m not actually running any userscripts on it so I can’t personally vouch for their availability. iOS users, to the best of my knowledge, are shit outta luck unless they’ve got a jailbroken iPhone.

[senlinyu]

Thank you so much for sharing all that you have about the writing process! How important is promotion of your work across different platforms? Is it important at all?

Sorry. I’ve been sitting on this ask for a while... but we were just having a discussion on the Dramione Fanfiction Server about promotion and I realised I should get to writing all this out.

This is sort of a follow up on my post about doing weekly updates and writing my fics in full prior to publishing them. Find it here.

Caveat, these are my personal observations only. I’ve been involved in the fandom for a little over 2 years, and at least tried most of the fandom platforms to some extent and followed a lot of discussions among writers and readers.

This is basically a rundown of things that I wish someone had told me about promotion when I started. It’s also an info dump, I’m sorry. You don’t need to do all these things, or any of these things. But if you’re trying to figure stuff out, this is what I’ve noticed. A lot of this is based on my experiences and the experiences I’ve heard from other writers.

Publishing

• The first step you’ll take in promotion is publishing your fic: The most active platforms for fic are archiveofourown.org (Ao3) and fanfiction.net (FFN). There’s also wattpad, but my experience there is limited, so I won’t comment on it. Older fandoms are still hanging out on FFN, but a lot of people are finally migrating to Ao3.

I cross-post most of my fic, with the exception of very sexually explicit content. FFN hasn’t enforced their content restrictions in years, but they have cracked down in the past and deleted fic without warning, and if you’re reported and they decide you violate their terms it’s extremely difficult to dispute based on everything I’ve heard from fandom olds.

Title: It’s ideal to find a title that doesn’t already have seventy fics attached to it for your fandom/ship. But there are a finite number of titles, this may not always work. However, if there’s a super popular fic already with that title, it may be advisable to choose something else because people will get confused about which fic it is and the other fic will tend to show up first in a google search.

If you choose a long title (more than five words), or a title with multiple words in a foreign language, people will have a harder time remembering it. One of my favorite fics has a long Latin quote for its title that isn’t a super common phrase. I cannot ever remember except that it starts with an ”a.” I have to refind it every time I want to rec it by googling one of the author’s other fics and then sorting through her listed works. Avoid this if possible.

Summary: Don’t say things like “story’s better. I suck at summaries.” If you can’t figure out what to put in the summary, put in an excerpt that you feel captures the tone and spirit of the story.

Smut sells. On ao3, a not overly-explicit excerpt of a scene will often garner more hits than anything else. Although I wouldn't promote a fic in that manner if there’s actually minimal smut in the story.

Rating: On FFN it’s unfortunately better to be safe than sorry. People will sometimes complain if T rated fics even allude to the existence of sex. But M ratings will create the expection of some level of smut. If you’re writing a M rated fic without sexual content, it can be a good idea to have an author’s note at the very beginning explaining what the rating is and isn’t for. (Many people never ever read author’s notes, but at least then it’s not on you anymore.)

Tagging: On Ao3, good tagging can make or break a fic. The balance is between under-tagging and over-tagging. Dramione is relatively chill about tags because a lot of readers are from FFN where there are no tags. However, newer readers, especially those coming over from other fandoms, can be very particular about tagging and complain in the comments if your tagging it insufficient or misleading.

Fandom etiquette dictates: use the archive warnings and always tag triggers. Even if it’s a plot twist. People who really care about not having plot elements spoiled can hide additional tags from their browsing. The main archive warnings are: graphic violence, character death, rape, underage. If you include any of those things without an archive warning or tags, people will not be inclined to trust you.

I know that’s not how published books are, but it’s a question of which hills you want to die on. I strongly discourage dying on this hill when you’re first starting out.

Additional tags. There’s a very tricky balance between over-tagging and under-tagging. People don’t like tag walls, but they do want some information. Tag the story’s main tropes: enemies to lovers, mutual pining, miscommunication, coworkers, Veela, etc. Tag the triggers. (A word of advice, if you’re writing a fic with rape/non-con that occurs but isn’t committed between the main pairing, specify that in your tags, e.g. ‘attempted sexual assault, not by Draco’ ) Tag kinks, especially if they’re not garden variety. Very, very few readers are going to be pleased to have a kink sprung on them, one person’s kink can be another person’s squick. People who want your fic may not find it if you haven’t tagged it, and people who don’t want that kink will not be pleased about tripping on it.

Don’t over-tag. If “explicit sexual content” is tagged, most people will assume the general explicit sex spectrum. Unless there’s a particularly heavy focus there’s no need to list every single basic aspect of sex in your tags: “vaginal sex, vaginal penetration, fingering, humping, groping, oral sex, breast worship, etc etc”. Nor should you tag every single character or subpairing who happens to appear unless they’re a significant element of the plot.

Promotion on other platforms:

Dramione and HP is an older fandom. The Hermione-centric parts of fandom are primarily here on Tumblr and on Facebook in the form of private groups, some that are ship specific and others that are slightly more general. Reddit is fairly inactive for dramione, and the HP subreddit is not particularly fond of dramione.

Dramione is beginning to establish itself on discord, but it's still a gradual process.

Some writers join the FB groups with their IRL accounts, but its a growing trend to create fandom pseuds for FB groups, which is what I do. Some Facebook groups require that new members privately provide the admins with a form of ID for age/identity verification. Whether or not you're comfortable/willing to out your pseud in that way is a matter of personal discretion.

Most groups do not require this... but it’s something to be aware of.

Tumblr: Posting about story updates on Tumblr is one the the best things to do for promotion beyond the basics of posting your fic. Since it’s a public platform unlike FB, it’s one of the most visible ways to boost your story and let people know about updates.

Cover art/aesthetics for your fic are a great way to catch attention. If you’re like me and very bad at making aesthetics and covers the @dark-arts-society-fbhp is a group specializing in covers and manips. If you’re not a member on FB, the admins say that writers can submit requests via the tumblr asks and they will be shared to the group. Send them:

Title:

Penname:

Characters/ships:

Tone:

Fancasts:

Other info:

Tumblr

Post a fic update on tumblr with cover art, links, and an excerpt of the chapter. Personally the fics that catch my attention have excerpts that are at least a couple paragraphs long.

You want to include enough content to pique reader curiosity and demonstrate your writing style. It makes you less an unknown to readers looking for something new. Every update is an opportunity to catch the attention of new readers and each new excerpt can do that.

A couple don’ts:

Don’t just keep reblogging the same post, adding a link to the latest chapter. Reblogs don’t show up in the tumblr tags. Make a new post for each chapter update and use the fandom tags every time. The first five tags you use are what can show up in tags, everything after the first five should just be for your tumblr’s personal organization.

Do not include triggering content in your excerpt. It’s rude and a way to get unfollowed or blocked.

Don’t use too many links on your update posts. If there are too many links, tumblr won’t have the post to show up in the tags. I’m not sure what the cut-off is because tumblr is an illogical beast. 2-3 links seems to be fine. Link to FFN and AO3 and nothing else.

Don’t use your tumblr solely as a personal house organ. If no one is interacting with your posts, tumblr is less likely to decide you’re a real blog and let your posts show up in the tags. Connect to other fandom blogs by reblogging and liking their content. I generally don't follow tumblrs that blog solely about their own content, because I'd just subscribe to the story or the writer. Reblog art, reblog aesthetics, reblog fandom memes, reblog drabbles, reblog updates from fics you’re following, etc.

However, even if you do all that, tumblr’s algorithm is a mysterious and illogical creature. Sometimes posts need to have a certain number of likes and reblogs to show up in the “Dramione” tag, although the algorithm is inconsistent there are many exceptions, but as a general rule this seems to be the case.

In my most recent Dramione update post, the post in question never showed up in the recent ”Dramione” tags, despite fairly high engagement. I have no idea why. That’s all the more reason to create a new post for every update, because tumblr will just randomly screw you over at times. 😑

If you write dramione, one of the best forms of exposure is by getting your fic updates reblogged by @dramioneasks, they have a very large following on Tumblr, and regularly go through recent posts under the dramione tag and reblog the story updates that show up there. A lot of writers have noticed a dramatic difference in engagement if their updates get reblogged by DramioneAsks.

Another way to promote your writing more generally is by accepting prompts and/or posting ficlets solely on Tumblr. Those will usually get more reblogs and likes than a story update will. In my observation, ficlets tend to do best when they’re between .5k to 2k words (longer than that and people will complain about huge walls of text in their feed.) DramioneAsks will also reblog those.

Facebook

The other main platform for the Dramione fandom is FB. It’s the place that a lot of the fests and comps are hosted and where a lot of writers will begin forming some fandom relationships. People will post recs for stories they like, and ask for recs with certain tropes, etc. You can also post story updates there.

However, it’s also a lot of individual ponds because the groups are all closed, and there’s only partial overlap between them in terms of membership. Different groups have different cultures and fic preferences and you only tend to start figuring them out after being there for a while.

They also all have different rules and policies about things, such as requiring members to provide identifying information to mods, file-sharing, fic update promotion etc. So you have to make sure you check the rules and keep track of which group requires what.

But it’s very active and the place where you’ll encounter more discussions of fics, start getting to know people more, and have more one on one interactions. It’s best to start in just one or two and then slowly branch out from there if you choose. I’d recommend starting in groups specific to your ship, or if you write rare-pairs, to join rare-pair oriented groups.

I’m currently a member of more than 25 groups, but I’m active in less than five of them.

Conclusion

Again, this is not intended to be a to-do list. You don’t need to do all of this, or any of it. It’s more a rundown of different elements and factors that can make a difference in my experience and observations.

The thing with fic promotion is that fics sometimes have a tipping point. My fic Manacled crept along with limited engagement for a long time (like more than 30 chapters) and then hit a point where I got a bunch of people who started it leaving comments saying “I’ve seen the updates for this so many times, I finally decide to click,” or “I started this but didn’t think it was for me, but then I saw some of the excerpts for later chapters and they made me curious so I jumped back in again.”

There are some readers who will check out everything regardless of stats, but particularly in Dramione where you have a lot of fics and authors, people are less likely to click every fic they see. You can build recognition through engagement with fandom and visibility.

My very first work-in-progress multichap got a lot more attention after I posted a one-shot that allowed readers to check out my writing in a “lower commitment” context. It wasn’t even a very popular one-shot, but it gave people a chance to read a completed work of mine without requiring the investment that a 90k word WIP did. Once they decided they liked my writing style and characterizations they decided to check out my other works.

Anyway. This ended up incredibly long. 🤦🏻‍♀️

If you read this and have a different opinion or feel like I’ve left anything out, feel free to chime in. Or if you disagree. I am happy to reblog additional and differing perspectives as long as the tone stays civil. 😊

[stargirlficrecs]

Stargirl222′s Favorite Stony Multi-Chapter Fics

Hello everyone! Thanks for following me! As promissed here is my first rec list. Now, for this first selection I have limited this to only finished multi-chapter fics that are not part of a series (unless its the main fic with lots of side stories or the only stony fic in the series). This unfortunatley excludes some of my favorites, but hey that just meant more content at some point. Again if you want to request a specific type of fic rec list just send me an ask either on anon or not. I’m already  super excited to have my first request which will be in the works right after I post my Stuckony multi-chapter fic post. Thanks so much everyone! 

Warning here, most of these are going to be rated E, becasue my personal favorite type of multi-chapter fic is lots of plot with a dash of smut so... sorry? Or not sorry, depending on how you feel about that.

A Higher Form of War by @sabrecmc: Tony is a King with a surprising number of people out to kill him. Steve and the rest of the Avengers are fighting for Pierce's rebellion and end up with Tony as their prisoner. Oops. Basically one of those bodice-ripping romance novels I don't read (ahem) but with far more gay.

Celestial Navigation by @sabrecmc: 18 year old Omega!Tony finds himself Bonded to Captain Steve Rogers. He isn't happy about it until he is.

Deep in the Heart of Me by Finely Honed (jaqen_hgar): There were days when the realization that he was someone’s father made Steve's head hurt, but mostly he was grateful that he could trust his instincts, because apparently Peter was what had been missing from his life. Yes, he still had lingering, unresolved issues from his time in the Army, and sure, he had what Bucky annoyingly referred to as a criminally untapped ass, and no life outside of work and Peter, but Steve was okay with how his life had turned out because of trusting his instincts.Unfortunately, those same instincts had straight up betrayed him by going absolutely haywire upon being exposed to Tony Stark. Veteran single dad Steve runs a tattoo shop. For his 40th birthday, Pepper arranges for Tony to get that tattoo he always wanted, and he winds up with the mother of all crushes instead. Jumping out of airplanes is one thing, but falling in love is something else entirely. Steve struggles with the idea of actually letting someone into his life. Tony is left trying to keep his heart from being broken while Steve figures things out.

Stetsons and Schoolteachers by @not-close-to-straight: Alpha Sheriff Steve Rogers doesn’t know what to think of the new school teacher in his small town. Omega Tony Carbonell is a quick witted, sharp tongued, sarcastic Omega with a butt that won’t quit– and a temper that won’t quit either. Every attempt the Sheriff makes to get close is met with rolled eyes and snarkiness, but finally Tony gives in a little bit and the pair spends a few moments together that leaves the Alpha panting, desperate for more. But there’s a layer of secrets beneath the Omega’s attitude, and the more Steve pushes, the more Tony pulls away. When Tony’s past comes back in a terrifying way, Steve learns more about the Omega than he ever thought he would, secrets that make him rage, stories that break his heart, and when Tony is kidnapped, the Sheriff saddles up to bring his Omega home. But Tony doesn’t consider Wildrock home, and he certainly doesn’t consider Steve his Alpha. How can the Stetson wearing Sheriff convince the stubborn Schoolteacher that they are meant to be?

In Trouble Deep by @festiveferret and SirSapling: "Whoever did this has a reason, and Stark needs to be with someone who can protect him. He won’t exactly be able to protect himself like this.” Fury looked at the baby consideringly. “No, it’s you, Steve. Besides, he likes you. Suck it up, soldier, you’re stuck with him.”

You’re Not Stubborn (Just Impossible) by Wordsplat: Steve's an alpha, Tony's an omega. Biology should take care of the rest, right? Except, Tony's not anything like TV taught Steve omegas were--or like anyone else Steve's ever met, actually--and Steve should really learn to just keep his mouth shut about that. Also, it doesn't help that Tony's not too keen on the idea of alphas. Or Steve. Yeah, this bonding thing looked a whole lot easier on TV.

Sorry to those authors who I don’t know the tumblr of.