For Anyone Wondering How to Get More Readers... · 11:40pm Mar 11th, 2019
...I thought I'd compare my two most recent stories, and see if I couldn't offer some advice.
See, if you've been on the site in the past week, you probably saw Artistic License floating around near the top of the feature box; it was in the top spot (mature and non-) for about two days, and just fell off of the non-mature version last night. During that time, it's racked up 3,300 views (making it my third most-read story, ahead of a couple of fics published during the height of ponyfic engagement which have had half a decade to soak up ever more views), 515 likes (second-most on one of my stories, again ahead of a fic half a decade its senior), and has accomplished the most important thing any story can do: get people arguing about a tangential issue in the comments.
So, that was nice!
Now, compare that to my second most-recent story, ...That Counts. If it's not ringing a bell, I'm not surprised; over the past two and a half months, it's only garnered 157 views, or about 1/20th the attention Artistic License has gotten.
Both Artistic License and ...That Counts are similar enough in tone (E-rated SoL/Comedy) and length (both between 1500 and 3000 words) to make the comparison feel valid to me. But, although I didn't specifically set out to do so, I ended up doing a lot of things which would maximize the attention the former would get, and minimize that which the latter got. So, what can we learn from comparing the two?
(a caveat: none of the advice here will actually make your story any good. This is just about how to get people to read your story. Please also make it good, if you have time)
1. Publish Seasonal Fics Seasonally
This is the obvious one, so I'm getting it out of the way first. ...That Counts is a Hearth's Warming fic, and was published on December 29th. In terms of finding readers, that ain't ideal.
More broadly, one can maximize their likely readership by slightly leading any time associated with it; if your story isn't temporally locked (as is the case with Artistic License), then that's not a concern, but you probably want to avoid anytime when you would publish a seasonal story. Leave the week before Christmas for the holiday crew, and leave the holiday fics at the door once the big day has passed.
2. Character Matters
...That Counts has two character tags. One of them is Twilight Sparkle, which is good! She's the protagonist of the show, and lots of people want to (or at least, are willing to) read stories about her.
The other character is Star Tracker, whose name, statistically speaking, probably means nothing to you.
If a reader doesn't recognize the character in a story... well, for a lot of people, that's a deal breaker. I came to FiMFiction to read about my favorite ponies, and if Star Tracker isn't one of them, then I don't need to read that. Even if I specifically do want to read about Twilight, I don't need to read about her and some wheezy hanger-on; at least a quarter of the stories in the Popular Stories list are likely to include her, and I can find one more to my tastes without even bothering to leave FiMFic's main page. Sorry Star Tracker; I don't regret writing about you one bit (there are things other than view count in this world, or so I've been told), but you're not great for bringing in an audience.
Artistic License also has two character tags: Celestia and Luna. Those are two great tags, reader-draw-wise! Celestia and Luna are among the most popular characters in the show, and there are a lot of readers who enjoy reading not just about them individually, but the two of them together; as tags go, this pair has great and obvious synergy.
3. Watch Out for the Competition
Beside being released shortly after the right time of year; ...That Counts faced another difficulty; because I published it at about the same amount of time as most of the other Jinglemas authors published their stories, it was competing for reading time with a bunch of other stories. This is not good for readership numbers, because readers have finite time; they can't read everything, even if some try. Moreover, there were a good number of very popular (i.e. high follower count) authors who participated in Jinglemas, and they're going to disproportionately draw eyeballs to their stories just by virtue of having more people be instantly notified that they've published something; when your news post tells you that six new stories have come out by authors you follow, you're much less likely to stop by the front page and gander around that day, so the potential for finding new readers via front page mechanics (new stories, popular box, etc.) shrinks.
Artistic License had the good fortune not to find itself up against anything by the most followed (active) authors on FiMFiction, and that breathing space is part of what let it get some attention. Granted, you can't control whether one of said authors will drop their latest fic right after you publish yours, but if you happen to see that someone from, say, the first hundred or so names on the "most followers" list (don't worry, only like half of them are active) has just come out with a new story, maybe give yourself a better chance of not getting overlooked by taking an extra day or two to edit.
4. Cover Art Matters
...That Counts has fine cover art. It's colorful, it's easy to tell what it is even in a thumbnail, and it's generally coherent. It's held back by being a big ol' Star Tracker face (see point 2.; if I were out to maximize readership, I really should have gone with a Twilight pic), but with that handicap in mind, I think it's basically okay.
Artistic License has a really, really good cover, though. Rocket Lawn Chair's art is funny, whether you're looking at it small or full-sized. In thumbnail, the black of space makes it pop, catches your attention; when you see it in larger form, Celestia's befuddled expression is an instant selling point.
The moral of the story is that Rocket Lawn Chair is great and I'm a remorah, gleefully feeding vicariously off his talent.
5. Time Timing
We already talked, in a couple of regards, about when to publish your story in order to maximize readership. Now let's talk about the specific time of day.
...That Counts was published on Saturday morning, I want to say around 10 or so US Central. I'm using US Central time from here on partly because that's where I live, but also because it's the most important time for FiMFic purposes. Just like TV programmers use Central time to triangulate between "Are people on the east coast still awake?" and "are people on the west coast home from work?," you should use Central time as a convenient guide to who's likely to be around and doing what when you publish your story. Most FiMFic users are Americans, and most Americans live within two hours of Central time.
Anyway, Saturday morning is a bad day for publication, because people do stuff on Saturdays. Yes, yes, "fanfic readers have no lives..." but actually, they do, and even within that community, there aren't a huge number of people whose prefered fanfic selection time is 10 am on Saturday.
By contrast, Artistic License was published shortly after I got home from work on Tuesday. Since I work in a school, that meant it was probably around 4 o'clock or so... which matches up nicely with the large student contingent of FiMFic, who are also getting home around then and who might, reasonably, want to read a story after they get home from school. And that meant that it was still fresh as Americans on the east coast, and later across the country, started getting home from work, on a day which doesn't traditionally have a lot of strong TV programming, and who might reasonably want to read some fanfic at some point that evening.
6. Attention Draws Attention
And of course, the big one: Artistic License got to the top of the feature box, which meant a lot of people saw it, which meant it stayed on top of the feature box. So, if at first you don't succeed, you're doomed.
...At least, until you publish your next story, and then you can try again. Going from 157 to 3,300 in two and half months: with a few auspicious decisions and whole heap of luck, it could happen to you, too!
Thanks, Chris!
I’m not a writer, but it’s very generous of you to point these things out. It’s also still very interesting for me to read.
Related to point #2: ...That Counts is a spinoff of one particular episode. If someone hasn't seen it, or didn't like it, they're less likely to read the story.
i already know all of this things in Wattpad in my early days but, it's good to know that someone is helping everyone.
I'll never understand:
How this popularity stuff works. Take the two most recently posted stories over on my Baal Bunny account. Both took 1st place in their respective Writeoffs, but "Fall Back" rode to the top of featured box after I published it on Saturday, Jan. 9th while "Under an Orange-Colored Sky," published this past Wednesday, March 6th, never even reached the bottom slot as far as I know....
So mysterious!
Mike
Good to hear your thoughts - thank you
Or, to put it concisely...
1. Do what all companies do on Christmas, Valentine's, and Hallowe'en: jump on the bandwagon once every holiday.
2. Jump on Twilight's/Celestia's/Luna's bandwagon.
3. Other people have bigger bandwagons. Deal with it.
4. Your bandwagon better look like a Ferrari.
5. Bandwagon after school/work, when people are tired and want their bandwagon fix.
6. If all else fails, just hope people jump on the bandwagon.
5027201
Well, you could also follow the "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" model and succeed beyond anyone's wildest expectations for absolutely no discernible reason.
But yeah, when it comes to getting people to read your stuff, "bandwagon" is a, perhaps the, keyword.