I wonder many things. I believe it is essential to get readers not on here, which is a problem because they are not on here. It seems not to be doing me any good to mostly advertise to folks who are very successful or trying to be, as they do not want to read the average story that is not about how to be successful. I use AI for pictures only, and I hope that is not a problem.
One of the frustrating things about fiction Substack is that your audience is almost exclusively other writers. While it's nice to be able to talk about writing without boring most people, it's pretty hard to grow with such a limited number of users.
I don't really want to write essays. It's a completely different art form than fiction, and would take away from my already limited writing time. But I've considered it if it's what gets my foot in the door.
I'd love to have another epiphany that lets you just keep to fiction. I mean, there are things we can do to increase our readability, things I'm planning for my romantic fantasy serial... but the potential... the "promise"... is that its easier to grab and hold a reader. There's no promise we're reaching beyond the writer pool. I'll probably write about it soon but... episodic serials where it doesn't matter if you read every episode... short "seasons"... audio recordings... unrelated short stories during the "off season". These are my thoughts for my fiction site.
To clarify, that last point had little to do with your comment. I'm just sharing stuff that's been on my mind. The audience frustration is the same on Twitter. The audience is in this part but we're in that. The efforts of people to move into the other part end up being spammy. Non-fiction seems like the way in that's not spammy, but it does require Essays and a fresh start. And even though you have followers this time, your followers are still writers. It's a long game, but 6 months from now, own in being is a different situation.... One thing about essays I've realized is that it's easier for me with certain types. History is time consuming because it requires more research. Philosophy takes less and I can talk about ideas that are sitting in my head anyway.
Oh and I meant to say I wish there was a place to write with editors and publishers around to see what you write.
I wonder many things. I believe it is essential to get readers not on here, which is a problem because they are not on here. It seems not to be doing me any good to mostly advertise to folks who are very successful or trying to be, as they do not want to read the average story that is not about how to be successful. I use AI for pictures only, and I hope that is not a problem.
One of the frustrating things about fiction Substack is that your audience is almost exclusively other writers. While it's nice to be able to talk about writing without boring most people, it's pretty hard to grow with such a limited number of users.
I don't really want to write essays. It's a completely different art form than fiction, and would take away from my already limited writing time. But I've considered it if it's what gets my foot in the door.
I'd love to have another epiphany that lets you just keep to fiction. I mean, there are things we can do to increase our readability, things I'm planning for my romantic fantasy serial... but the potential... the "promise"... is that its easier to grab and hold a reader. There's no promise we're reaching beyond the writer pool. I'll probably write about it soon but... episodic serials where it doesn't matter if you read every episode... short "seasons"... audio recordings... unrelated short stories during the "off season". These are my thoughts for my fiction site.
I also wonder how many of us have an end goal. When we have a given number of subscribers, then what?
To clarify, that last point had little to do with your comment. I'm just sharing stuff that's been on my mind. The audience frustration is the same on Twitter. The audience is in this part but we're in that. The efforts of people to move into the other part end up being spammy. Non-fiction seems like the way in that's not spammy, but it does require Essays and a fresh start. And even though you have followers this time, your followers are still writers. It's a long game, but 6 months from now, own in being is a different situation.... One thing about essays I've realized is that it's easier for me with certain types. History is time consuming because it requires more research. Philosophy takes less and I can talk about ideas that are sitting in my head anyway.
Thanks for the shout out! ☺️