I spent some time with a Harry Potter fan fiction writer known as shade. This author wrote two 150,000 word novels about the popular boy wizard, beating J.K. Rowling to the chase in a whirlwind of writing in 2004.
For all these reasons, I asked shade to participate in my deceptively simple feature: Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing.
Jason Boog:
This website has the biggest writing community I've ever seen. How can a new writer earn more readers on your site? How do popular writers become popular? Can you give me an example?
shade:
We certainly are a large site these days but it was not always so. Success did not come over night and patience proved to be a virtue. Jay, our site owner once told me that when he first began this site a big month was when he received 20 hits. Now we receive millions of hits monthly...
When you post a story on an archive like Harry Potter Fan Fiction, you’re not going to have an agent and publishing house with a big budget for advertising campaign to back you up. So you will have to promote your own work.
We’ve all heard the old adage of ‘you can’t judge a book by its cover,’ and yet we all do. When you browse in the library or book shop you look at the book jacket design and read the blurb on the back. Fanfiction is no different, readers scroll through a list looking at the banners and reading the summaries.
So get an attractive banner that reflects your story, you can make these yourself by using an image editor like Photoshop, you can find tutorials on The-Dark-Arts.net on how to do this, or if you ask nicely one of their talented banner makers will create one for you. Much like the blurb on the back of a book, your summary must capture a reader’s attention and make them want to read more.
If you are not sure how to do this Harry Potter fanfiction has the answers in an article called ‘A Lesson On Summaries.’ Make sure your story is formatted correctly, if you wish to use bold, italics or centred text you will need to learn how to use html tags and of course we have a handy tutorial to show you how to do this. In truth they are quite easy to manage.
Then you need to promote your stories and get your name out there. The Forums are a good place to start. For older authors that can afford it, you can pay to advertise your banner and a link to your story. Remember this is a community, authors often write excellent stories and then write to me asking why they aren’t getting any response or reviews on their stories. Invariably, I check their account and find they’ve not reviewed a single chapter of anyone else’s work.
I call it fanfic Karma, you’ve got to give a little to get something in return. I can’t tell you exactly how it works but I know that if I get a particularly thoughtful and well presented review I tend to follow the links and check out the author that wrote it. I also suspect that when people post reviews they look at the other reviews and if they see someone who liked the same story they did they may decide to check to see if that person has written anything themselves.
After that, it’s all word of mouth. Also, if you write a story and a reviewer responds positively then take the time and respond to them at length. Not only is it the polite thing to do, that reader is then much more likely to recommend your story to friends. We don’t allow review or recommendation begging but a polite “Please take the time to leave a review!” or “If you liked this story, tell your friends about it.” isn’t amiss.
Writers find it difficult to exist in a vacuum, so don’t be shy about letting a writer know that you’ve enjoyed a story. Again, patience really helps. We are a large site so it might take some time for readers to discover your story. The biggest mistake I see fledgling writers make is writing 500 word chapters over and over in an attempt to have his or her story stay on the recently updated list. Instead of worrying about trying to bump your fic on that list, concentrate on the quality of your story.
Jason Boog:
Your site also sponsors writing contests like the Writer's Duel. How does that work? How many writers participate? How do you choose the best stories?
shade:
The Writer's Duel is an opportunity for young writers to test their skills against others. First and foremost the contest entries are anonymous. This is done to make sure the contests are as fair and impartial as possible. Also, all stories are to be rated no higher than 15+.
The stories are voted on using a polling system and then judged by a panel on criteria such as spelling/grammar, plot, creativity and ability to keep characters in character. The contest is open to all members of HarryPotterFanFiction.com.
The Scavenger Hunts are also incredibly popular and the amount of work that LogicalRaven puts in to organizing those is astounding. Also, her ability to write clues and puzzles has left even the staff absolutely amazed. Now that I’ve said that she’ll probably start brewing up some idea about a contest involving a maze. She’s just that good and is assisted by a truly dedicated group.
Jason Boog:
Why do you personally write Harry Potter fan fiction, even though you can't make a living with these stories? Does it help you write your own fiction?
shade:
I took on a bet essentially. I found myself defending fanfic as legitimate genre for expression and was basically called upon to write a novel length fic within one month. That was one crazed, nearly sleepless month, because I’d never read a fanfic (much less written one). So, I ran a search and HPFF was the first site that caught my attention.
I knew the series well enough to meet the challenge laid down by my friends. I spent sleepless nights trying to work through believable story progressions; I jotted down character traits for every single character and kept extensive notes to make sure that I was not straying from my own plot.
I listened to music that fit with the story I was writing and I confess that I cheated slightly. I write original fiction for the most part so I immediately went for the James and Lily era where I could create more original characters. Then I had every intention of leaving the site.
Either [HPFF Founder] Jay fashioned a large enough butterfly net to contain me or I noticed that younger writers were learning the craft of writing here but I did not leave. The truth is actually the latter because whereas Jay created a wonderful playground for writers with the help of the staff, he really isn’t gifted at weaving nets.
Also, I had great reader feedback. I remember one reader from Canada specifically. He was a pre-med student and after a long day, he found that reading a fanfic was a really good way to relax. He later became an author on the site also. That’s part of the power of fanfic it helps inspire other writers to give it a shot also. That’s pretty far reaching.
I’ve personally watched writers of all ages increase in confidence and skill. That’s worth sticking around for as far as I’m concerned. Although I’m sure none of us would actually have our feelings hurt if a best selling novelist said that he or she got started here.
For me, it is about knowing that in an age where the average email is only a few sentences long, we participate in encouraging people, particular young people, to embrace the written word and find a voice in it. That’s something that once you find will never leave you entirely and it is an invaluable skill.
» Five Easy Questions, shade, Part Two from ThePublishingSpot
HarryPotterFanFiction.com turned five years old this year. Before most human beings graduate from kindergarden, this amazing site had become home base for almost twelve thousand fledgling writers. The site's visitor statistics would make mo... [Read More]
Tracked on: March 21, 2006 12:30 PM | Permalink to Trackback