Where oh where does this go? · 11:46pm Mar 29th, 2019
I should like to get more readers for my latest story "The Party at Molly's House" but I don't quite know where to go to do that. I'm not entirely pleased with the story itself, but I am pleased by the creative use of colors and the way it is depicted in the story.
Particularly prose when Mixtape is hallucinating Neon Lights speaking in blue tones, and the coloring of that passage is blue to indicate that, but the moment it reads 'he left' the passage turns to black to indicate such. I'm so very amused by my own idiocy. I should like to see more stories using such a...what would you even call that? Narrative gimmick? Color trick? Surely there's a word for it. I digress. Again.
Anyway, here is my issue, I should like more readers for it. Writing a story where your OC is a main character is doomed from the start. Writing a story about narcotics immediately turns some readers away as does a T rating. To that end, I don't exactly know where to advertise this tale. I would put it in the OC groups, but the story doesn't so much focus on Mixtape as it does her experience. I would slip it into groups about narcotics and alcohol (two very prominent story points) but the story itself isn't about doing those, it's about Mixtape's reaction to having done those. I would put it into a group about rape, but the story doesn't so much focus on rape as it happens in a split second. A single line of text.
I don't know where to put this! It slips through all the cracks!!
Would you object if I added it to the Knights In Rusty Armor group library?
5034900
I wouldn't object, but my question is would it fit?
5034901
There is a folder for generally anything you would want to try to make a buzz for :P
5034912
I suppose tis worth a shot
5034914
Indeed
How about ‘OC life stories group.
Or ‘'Creators of on line pony fiction ( CLOP) ’ group.
5034936
OC life stories group you say? Hmmmm, tempting. But the story itself still does not particularly speak of Mixtape specifically. Heck, Mixtape's name only appears twice in the entire story. Once at the beginning, and when I realized it only spoke of her once, I added a second paragraph using her name again.
5034963
!
That is true, but you do don't mention the other OC ponies names at all, as I recall. Yet your descriptions of them are vivid and compelling that one can see how different they are, in color and character
Doop de doop, time to drop hard truths:
Some stories just ain't destined to do well. When prospective readers look at a story page, they're looking for something that appeals to their self-interest. Something that they're a fan of, or that appeals to them, which will draw their attention and encourage them to click.
Molly doesn't really have that. I read it because, well, I've had some experiences on ecstasy in the past and was curious to see how you handled it, but that makes me part of a very small niche in this fandom. If I hadn't, what I might have seen is a reference I didn't understand if I didn't know the slang already (who's Molly?), a cover image that again might not have made sense to me for the same reason, and again, as you said, a story about an original character that does contain reference to drugs and non-con.
But I don't think those things are what turned people away from your story. It's the cover image and the description that will get people invested, and unless you, like me, are part of that small niche that this story might resonate with, the only way you're pulling in more viewers is to make the story more accessible in the first place.
And it is a in the first place thing. With the way the heat system works on this site, you've missed your shot at the feature box by now. Heat on stories deteriorates based upon time, and this story's been out for days now without enough 'heat' to push it into the popular box, let alone the feature. Finding extra viewers after the fact by putting it in groups? You might pick up a few, but nothing that'll really turn the tide.
What you need here is some retrospective learning to show you how to market a story like this in future. Relying on an audience that (with no offence intended) are often more introverted to catch drug references is a bit of a fragile hope, and it doesn't seem to have panned out in this case. If I were to offer as an example a story I wrote recently that didn't do very well: My Battery is Low, I can almost certainly say it suffered for similar reasons. The reference the story makes is very oblique, and only those who are caught up on current events/interested in the Mars Rover are going to have clicked on it. It doesn't make any effort to sell itself beyond that, and as such, fails to be a captivating premise.
And then sometimes, I'll put effort into writing a story such as this NSFW one and it won't pay off. Why? It's too vague. It's a sad story. It's a solo masturbation story, and those don't really sell. It's humanised. There are a variety of factors inherent to its failure, regardless of the fact I think it's a good story, albeit with flaws.
And then there's THIS BULLSHIT with 1500 likes. Can't win 'em all.
I won't and wouldn't try to re-release ANY of these stories, or relaunch them, or whatever. I know from both experience and gleaning from other places that the return isn't worth the time investment, and that I'd increase viewership by a minimal amount at best. The best thing YOU can do going forwards, rather than stressing or being upset that a story didn't do well, is focus on the next one. Think about why your last story didn't get popular. Don't blame the concept. Think about your sales copy, and how you can use that INITIAL advertising to maximise viewership. That's when it matters, after all, ESPECIALLY for one-shots.
Writing a sequel won't get it more than a little more exposure either, due to the poor initial showing. I'm sorry to say it, as that was a good story and fun to read, but I really doubt you can expose it much more. What I'd recommend is to write another story in a similar vein one day, if you enjoyed the concepts you used but weren't too happy with the execution. Work to improve the issues you personally had with the story, and then refine those into a new version that is distinguishable enough from the original that you can give it another shot.
Make the description of said story PUNCHY and IMPACTING. Make readers want to click on it.
And reap the rewards of exposure.
But hey, what do I know? I'm a fucking hack.
Good luck going forwards, I'm sorry this story didn't do how you wanted it to, but understand you're better off chasing the next project than ruminating over past failures.
With love!
5035575
I was never too attached to the story, despite my request for more readership in this journal. T'was simply an experiment, you see. But that's it then, isn't it? I suppose there's nothing for it and there's really only one thing I can do at this point: keep writing.
5035577
Write until your fingers fall off.