Well, I guess there is some wisdom in going where the readers are. I've only posted three pages so far of Scary Mary to Fictionpress.com, and I have gotten a couple comments.
Now I know some may sneer at posting work at a place like FictionPress. But one has to wonder what the goal is of posting online if not to get read. I will continue to try and funnel people to the blog, but I think it may be frowned upon by fictionpress, though I haven't found anything explicitly stating that on their website.
What is my goal by posting Scary Mary on the web?
I don't know. I mean I have outrageous dreams, but realistic expectations? I'm don't know what those are. How low should I set the bar? And by doing this, am I actually lowering my standards?
This is all so new to me. I don't know what to expect. What is the yardstick of success with this stuff? A few readers? A few links? And is any of this sustainable?
That's one thing I've been wondering about: Sustaining a fiction writing career on the web. One has to keep cranking stuff out to keep being noticed on the web. Going stagnant, not updating, not generating content is a sure fire way to land in the internet graveyard.
So how does one keep moving? I have another book I think I'll post after Scary Mary is done, but it is rather different from SM. The story is geared to an older audience, and I don't think siphoning teens to it is all that smart, but maybe I should. It's not X-rated. Not even a hard R by MPAA standards.
At any rate, I'm gonna keep going and see where this rabbit hole leads.
Getting Read cont'd
Trying to Get Read
I've posted a few pages of Scary Mary over at Fictionpress.com. FictionPress is the sister site to fanfiction.net, but FictionPress is for only original work. I have no hard figures, but I believe the median age of FictionPress is somewhere in the thirteen-fifteen age range, which is the age range of readers I would like to attract, and since these are all young writers posting on the internet, I believe they should be quite willing to read work over the internet. We will see.
I will have to be pretty involved with the FictionPress to get any sort of audience. Stuff there gets buried pretty quickly if it isn't updated often. I will be posting roughly a page a day there to try and stay on people's radar. We'll see what happens. I'll also post a few reviews there to get noticed some. If this works out, I'll hopefully get some feedback and maybe attract some readers over to SM's blogspot site.
Novelog?
I know I don't have any regular readers, but for anyone who stumbles onto this site or clicks on one of the links that are scattered about looking for Scary Mary, it now has its own blog.
I'm hoping that the new blog will be more palpable to surfers. I do like the design of the new site, though I am hoping to spruce it up more. Make it more Web 2.0
Windvein's Writings will become a place for me to ruminate on electronic writing and post news about my project(s).
I've been reading a bit about all things blook. There are quite a few wonderful blook focused blogs out there (and I'm going to link to them in the sidebar), and I've come to the realization that Scary Mary is not a blook, not yet at least. A blook is a blog that has been gathered, edited, and traditionally published. What I have is a novelog.
Novelogs are novels published using the blog format. Novelogs are not packaged into single files like ebooks, and commenting, linking, and other e-content is possible. Novelogs never have to be final drafts. Prose can be edited and easily changed. I don't plan on blooking Scary Mary for a while. I want feedback, and I will be making revisions. Even when the final chapter is blogged, SM will still be a work-in-progress.
How am I making my novel better by making it into a novelog? Well for now, I'm going link crazy with it. I have a ton of pop culture references in Scary Mary, and many readers have told me that they are a little dated. Well, I still like the references, so instead of trying to shoehorn a new pop reference into the text, I am linking pages that will allow readers to quickly go and understand the reference. I'm trying to make all links open in a new window with the target="_blank" addition. This is in hopes that once the reader has glanced at the site, s/he can think, "Oh right," close the window, and come back. Though some of my links may keep the reader for a bit while s/he explores, which could be problematic, but I'm not going to worry about that right now.
Well, please click over to Scary Mary and read what's up. I will continue to publish new content there every Friday, though I don't have many chapters left.
Once that's done, my marketing campaign will begin. Be afraid.
