something that i think gets looked over a lot in the “why aren’t fanfiction writers appreciated as much as fan artists?” debate is the difference in commitment that’s required on the consumer’s end

to be clear: i absolutely believe in supporting ALL forms of content creation in fandom, and i loathe pitting one against the other because i think that Misses The Point

but i think sometimes this debate lacks some nuance.

asking someone to read even a micro fic (< 500 words) is asking for the consumer to engage more with a piece than they have to when looking at a single fanart.

some people will engage with fanart on a deeper level than just viewership, but it’s not required to enjoy the art.

writing fanfiction and creating fanart both require time and effort on the creators’ part—neither is INHERENTLY more challenging.

but there’s a big difference in how much a consumer has to do to take in and appreciate the final product. reading demands time, energy, and focus.

so part of being a fanfiction writer is trying to promote our content in a way that makes potential readers think, “yes, i wanna give my time to this.”

our titles, tags, and summaries do this on AO3. social media posts—including fic images, moodboards, and playlists —also help.

fanart can (and usually does) exist successfully, entirely on a social media platform. a single tweet can contain up to four images.

fanfiction is (usually—twtfic and stories designed for social media are the exception) different. it lives somewhere else (AO3) and we link to it.

that means the engagement fanfiction authors see is often split between what we post on social media and the posting on AO3.

so we often have 5 replies to a tweet and 6 comments on AO3, which on the surface level can look and feel like it’s less than the 11 comments that it is.

here’s where this gets tricky: potential readers who are looking for a story that will make their commitment to read it worthwhile will oftentimes look two places first:

1. recommendations from people they know & trust
2. what’s already popular in the fandom

fandom is a social experience, and it’s flawed in all the same ways any social space is—the things that are already popular will get more popular and the things that are not popular may go unrecognized, regardless of their merits.

it’s easy to say, “stats don’t matter,” but there’s a reason why AO3 allows users to sort their search results by kudos, bookmarks, comments and hits. these things turn the search results into a sort of crowd sourced rec list.

these are confusing and concerning waters for new fandom writers to navigate. how do i package my fic so it’s appealing to AO3 browsers? how (if at all) do i promote it on social media? what can i do to convince people to give their time, energy, and focus to this thing i made?

here’s the truth of it—something that i really believe and have personally experienced: a lot of it comes down to (1) luck and (2) people recommending your content to their friends and followers

sure, i think it’s important that writers not tear themselves down in their summaries by saying things like, “i’m not good at summaries.”

but if someone i know and trust recommends me a fic and says, “i really loved this!” i won’t care about the summary—i’m reading the fic.

so here’s the point of this thread:

fanart will ALWAYS see higher engagement on social media because it can comfortably live here in full, and it doesn’t require as much of a commitment from consumers.

this makes the engagement fanfiction writers DO get all the more important.

recommend fanfiction you love to your friends and followers. please. QRTs are actually GOOD for fanfiction authors because when you tell people in your own words that you LOVE a fic, people who share or trust your taste are more likely to follow the link to the full story.

you recommending our content to others is the #1 best way to help us promote our work.

next, please help us boost our stats. AO3 will let users sort by kudos, comments, bookmarks, and hits. when those numbers go up, there’s a higher chance our content will be found organically.

the same is true for any social media posts we make. when you like, reply to, or retweet the posts we make promoting our work, you’re increasing the chances other people will see our content.

your kindness, enthusiasm, and positivity won’t go unnoticed.

many writers are fueled in one way or another by your engagement. the more engagement we get, the more encouraged we are to continue writing and continue sharing our work.

i know this is a little rambly, but i hope this thread has been at least a little inspiring.

please take some time to make a few fanfiction recommendations today. the more you do it, the more comfortable it’ll feel. and it’s always, always appreciated.

last notes: there are a lot of ways that fandom writers ARE mistreated in fandom.

i don’t want to take away from those very real issues. i just wanted to explain i don’t think it’s totally reasonable to EXPECT fanart and fanfiction posts to see the same engagement on twitter.