Mods, I hope this is an okay topic. It’s not a commercial site and self-pimping to my fellow Dopers isn’t the purpose of the thread. (I’m not even mentioning it here, for that matter!) I’m really interested in others’ experiences and POV on what works for them and what doesn’t.
So: Just like the title says. If you write stories or publish a blook or a nonfiction blog or a webseries or whatever, what methods do you use to spread the word to readers?
I have a serial that’s been online for nearly eleven years. At the beginning I did a lot of promotion, such as was available back in '97, and the site was recognized and relatively popular-ish (for a noncommercial, unadvertised venture). But after several stops and starts over the years, readership has fallen off. Quite understandable, since no one is likely to hang around when you’re not producing material for long periods of time. Still now that I have returned to writing I’d like to build up my audience again, and I’m looking for ways to promote that don’t involve too much money expenditure. (Aren’t we all? :)) Also I’m busy redesigning it so the site’s less 1999ish, and once I relaunch I want to start the promotional activity.
Mind you, I know how commercial sites promote themselves … heck, I’m a web designer and I’m up on various search engine techniques and so on. But online entertainment is a different ballgame, and I’ve been out of the loop for too long so I know I’ve missed the emergence of sites like FictionPress and Project Wonderful and so on. So what communities, reasonably-priced ad networks, viral techniques et al. do you use to put your writing “out there”?
BTW guys, I hope you’ll feel free to mention your sites in this thread! Assuming it’s okay with the moderators, I think it’d be cool to have a one-stop shop for SDMB talents to toot their horns.
Well, what’s the site? It would help to see before offering any advice.
As for me, I’m involved in two video game sites that have two different focuses and levels of readership. For the mainstream site I post to Digg a little bit, submit stuff to various game-related blogs and news link sites. The smaller site (a blog devoted to games in libraries) has the same stuff and I also belong to various discussion groups that talk gaming and libraries where my site gets exposure through my postings.
I’d imagine serial story stuff would have similar communities that you could get involved with. You’d just have to find them.
Ah. Well, I was putting that off for a couple of reasons - first 'cause I don’t want to seem like this was a backdoor method of hyping the site; second and more lamely, because y’all are tough customers and this series is a decidedly non-literary effort. I’m not embarrassed of it (I wouldn’t continue it under my RL name if I were, and we got a nice batch of reviews and awards way back when), but it’ll probably just seem silly and trashy to people here. Oh, and third, the site’s old-fashioned, dating from '01, and in dire need of a revamp as I mentioned in the OP … I wasn’t planning on doing much promoting until after the redesign.
But you make sense, so what the hell. It’s here. If knowing the genre helps, it’s a mystery/soap opera, heavy on the mystery, light on romance, mostly a darkish, sometimes OTT look at an intertwined group of generally screwed-up people.
That’s helpful, thank you! Topic-specific stuff like that seems like it would be easier to promote – finding your target audience, that is; OTOH, there’s so much competition for gaming content that I’d imagine finding new eyes for your work is quite tough too. Sounds like you have a good networking strategy going on for you.
Yep, that’s the sticking point, innit? I actually co-founded what’s still the main community for this tiny subset of online writing. I’m hoping to find other venues in this thread. Other authors must post at the SDMB, in any genre, and I hope they’ll share their sites, communities and promo ideas.
Thank you very much for responding and your ideas!
