#author tips

Consistency:

I post fics daily.

I try to stick to one a day, and then I reblog it at selective times over a 24/36 hour period so it hits the Tumblr busy times and also so that my friends in other time zones get the chance to read it.

I add any additional fics to a schedule for the next week so it doesn’t oversaturate the feed and people don’t become overwhelmed by seeing so many different fics on their dashboards. It also means I don’t have to worry about the  days I don’t get to writing. < like in the middle of a heatwave.

Now I know not everyone posts a fic daily. I have ADHD and writing is my hyperfocus. However posting fics regularly (every 2/3 days or once a week) matters especially in fast-moving fandoms because it keeps you in near the top of the latest tag so people are constantly finding your content.

Also, if people keep see you showing up for a character, they’re more likely to follow you, as it shows you can give them more of what they want. It develops a trust between reader and author.

Timing is Everything:

The time you choose to post your fics can really affect how many people get eyes on them. If you’re posting in the middle of the night or at three in the morning, it’s unlikely to get a lot of eyes on it and you’ve missed that initial impact. However, if you’re posting at key social media times (breakfast, lunch time, 6pm-8pm – when people finish work) you’re likely to get more hits on your fics because that’s when people are checking their phones and have the time to interact. – it pays to know your audience (predominantly US in my genre and the times they’re online.)

I personally also find that my posts get less interaction on weekends. I think that’s because people are out of the Mon -Fri grind so their routines aren’t the same. Does it stop me posting? No. But it does allow me to be a little easier on myself when a fic doesn’t do as well as the others.

There is also a seasonal element to fics in general. Some of your older fics may see a resurge of life when a new season starts of a show so in my case. I recently had a flurry of people reading my Mikey fics from The Bear because the new season started and my work for him is very passionate and visceral.

This also plays into your current writing. You’re more likely to get hits/follows on fics when a season is airing because fans are engaged on a week to week basis. You will see a drop off a few weeks after it ends because a massive group of people are now moving onto other things. That’s nothing to worry about, but it is good to be aware of this for your scheduling.

An example for me is this: When The Pitt first aired I was one of the first people writing for Jack Abbot. We saw two mins of him and we were all hooked but… no one was writing him. My fics from around that time were hitting 1000+ on interactions because people craved more. After the Pitt ended we saw a huge drop in interaction and for me that was fine, I still enjoyed writing for Jack regardless.

Backmatter Is Key

Like in actual publishing, backmatter is key. What is back matter? It’s the fics that link to the one you’re posting. Making sure they are available on the same post to read is crucial because it addresses several different issues for the reader.

If they like that fic, they can read the rest with just one click (it is proven people are notoriously lazy so the more clicks they have to do, the less likely they are to do it.)

It shows you’re consistently writing for this character so they have more reason to follow you because they know they’ll get more of the stuff they like.

People can join the journey at any point. For example if they come across that post 5 months after it was posted, they’ll still have all these great fics to read and they can seek you out for your most recent post on that character– usually resulting in a follow.

Also if they are picking your post up 5 months down the line, it draws their attention to your profile, and they have a nose and see what other things you write for that they follow.

Engagement:

I engage with 95% of the comments that people post on my work with the exception of those annoying ‘I really need to talk to you’ bots and the odd one I miss. Why do I do this? Firstly I really enjoy talking to people, if they’ve taken the time to comment it’s really meaningful to me and I should be able to make the time to say thanks for doing that. You’re also strengthening your relationships and building a community.

On a different note, if people think they’re talking to a brick wall they’ll stop engaging and truly I don’t blame them. Its how you lose followers and readers.

The Series Aspect

I have ADHD which means I write small bitesize fics that usually become a series. This is not planned, it just happens because my brain can’t focus on anything bigger than 2000 words at once.

But the magic of a series is… it keeps people coming back for more, they want to find out what happens. It’s what starts conversations in your inbox, what gets people excited for the next post. Hence why you tend to gain more followers when you have a consistent series running because people can jump on at any point (and read that backmatter).

When I wrote The Call for Brendon Park, every single person was tuning into the fics following it because they wanted to know... is he really going to have to cut off his finacee's leg???

I see some people writing long form fics and that is fine but you’re only getting one bite of the apple with those fics, you’re not really giving anyone a reason to return because they’ve had the whole meal already. If you published them chapter by chapter however… you’d probably see a boost in engagement/follows. There’s a reason serialised fiction does well.

The Pivot

Sometimes you fall out of love writing a character because they’ve got their happy ending, and that’s ok! This happened to me with Jack and Robby from The Pitt. I went through a long period of time not writing them, but I didn’t want to take them off the character list because I still really liked them… I was just bored with the series, there wasn’t any conflict anymore.

And then I read King of Greed by Ana Huang, and I thought what if Robby has an ex wife, what if she surprises him by turning up at an event in Pittsburgh and suddenly a new series was born because I pivoted away from the old series and played with a different concept and guess what??? People love it because it’s deliciously angsty but heartfelt too.

The same thing happened with Jack. We’ve all listened to Yes Chef, but I don’t know if anyone has listened to any of the other Quinn Originals. I have and comparatively Shawn is actually very good as a voice actor compared to some of the others, and that got me thinking… what if Jack wanted to step out of his own life for a bit… what if he decided to become a voice actor for Quinn because he got to be other people for a while. The Mafia Princess’s bodyguard/The Naughty Professor/The Grumpy Billionaire.

Again, people loved this concept, and it gave me the idea to post the episodes of what Jack’s recording as a VA as well as his own storyline around the mysterious Red Velvet.

Pivots can be great for challenging yourself as an author, but they can give a new, fresh spin for your audience.

A word of warning though if you’ve been out of that character tag for a while, it can feel like starting all over again as there’s a fresh set of people who have never met you. However, the more you post in that tag (remember what I said about consistency) the more likely people are to see and engage/follow you because you develop that trust.

If you’ve managed to stick with me until this point, good job! I hope this has been useful for you. These are just some of the things I’ve picked up on my fanfiction/publishing journey.

If you have any questions, feel free to pop them in my inbox!

All my love