TIPS FOR PROMOTING YOUR FICS

HELLO FELLOW AUTHORS... here's a thread of some simple things to help your fic reach interested readers.

You put in effort to write, why not put in just a tiny lil more to connect your fic to those who are looking for your content? [1/?]

Disclaimer: this isn’t actually about “growing your account” or “changing what you write to please others” it’s literally just about how authors can do some really simple things that go the extra mile. Some of these might be common sense to some of you!! [2/?]

Before we start with the promo side, let's look at the presentation of your fic on AO3! Because face it, title/tags/summary is your "in-built" resume for your fic. A reader is gonna make a split judgement decision from these alone. Let's do this! [3/?]

KEEP YOUR TAGS RELEVANT

Don’t try to “lure” ppl in with non relevant tags. That will just deter people who click in, and may confuse/push away people who want to read what you’ve actually written, who may think you haven't included what you're actually about [4/?]

If it's soft angst with unhappy ending? "Bittersweet" "Angst" "Unhappy ending" "Unreciprocated romance" etc.

It doesn't always have to be tropes/kinks, either, sometimes people really want to read about their favorite character with glasses, or anxiety. Tag it! [5/?]

Organisation of the tags is also important, even when some people don't read it. Personally, I like to start with the more out-there and contentious tags. This serves two purposes: those who dislike/have as squicks will avoid, and those who enjoy them will hone in. [6/?]

After that, random ramblings is good - if you start with these, unfortunately, people who skim will stop reading as soon as they see it.

Worried about spoilers? Tag "following tags are spoilers" or "cw/tw in afterword." [7/?]

MATCH YOUR TITLE WITH YOUR SUMMARY WITH YOUR STORY

No more "untitled" or "lol idk how to do summaries just read it I guess." No one minds if it's not a perfectly concise description, they just want a general idea of what's happening in the story... [8/?]

It's good to also link it all together somewhat thematically, even PWP. So what if it sounds like an AV title?! Even AV titles give viewers a general expectation, you know!!

Once we get to the fic promo tweet part of my thread you will understand [9/?]

HAVE A VISUALLY APPEALING FIC PROMO TWEET

And make it as easy for people to see what's in your fic and to get to your fic, as possible.

Somewhere in your tweet you need:
1. Title
2. Rating
3. General summary & some tags
4. Link to fic

[10/?]

Whether we like it or not, Twitter is a visual app, and people scrolling through are lazy (me included...) If you don't make it as easy as possible for people to see, at a glance, what you're about... they're gonna keep going about their day [11/?]

Even if it's the niche fic they've been looking for since forever!! That's why I think it's also nice to include a visual of some kind, whether it's a screenshot of the AO3 fic (including title/tags/summary), or a thematic image [12/?]

If you look through my fic promo tweets, I try to include a screenshot of the fic (including title, summary, tags) and a photo of some kind.

I get these pictures through Flickr Creative Commons (where permission to use is given as long as you credit in thread) [13/?]

And I try to thematically relate it to the story. Your story features a wedding? Close up photo of bridal gear. Murder? Knife. Florist AU? Easy. A character study of your fave's descent into insanity? A cliff at night. Things like that

[14/?]

EMBED THAT PROMO TWEET INTO YOUR FIC AFTER NOTE

Someone clicked in, finished reading it, decides "wow that was great!" and goes to RT the tweet... and now they've lost if because Tweeterapp refreshes and they can't find your link from your AO3 profile. Make it ez for them!

Or maybe someone who's never interacted with you on Twitter ever sees that you actually have a fic promo tweet and goes, "woah you know what? Yeah I think I *will* share it!"

Word of mouth is really important - esp for smaller authors!

[16/?]

Literally say "here's my fic promo tweet, share if you enjoyed!" at the end, it won't hurt. Not everyone wants to follow an author for their twitter because of diff interests, but people are much more likely to want to share a fic promo tweet.

[17/?]

To embed it, use this code (you can put it directly into the after note section)

<a href="www dot whatever link it is">The Text such as "here's my link!" which is what is shown to people who click through</a>

[18/?]

Don't be too fussed on how many RT/likes your fic promo tweet actually gets. The aim is to funnel RELEVANT/TRUSTED readers who have read the fic and enjoyed it, to the tweet. So process is AO3 -> Twitter -> AO3.

[19/?]

OH ALSO I tend to post the fic, post the fic promo tweet, then embed the link back into the AO3 afterword, which is the best process if you want to have a link in your fic promo tweet itself.

[20/?]

Don't be afraid to bump your fic promo tweet. Especially because of the link out which may nerf your reach.

I post my fic in the evening along with the fic promo tweet, then I like to bump in the morning & evening/afternoon the day after for time diffs. [21/?]

As a few have mentioned, what about multi-chaptered fics? YMMV because I focus more on PWPs/oneshots.

I personally think it's good to create a fic promo thread while you're writing it. I notice that some people do a post completion thread and actually - you can do that

[22/?]

Ppl do like to know if a fic has been completed, esp if it's long, so imo it's worth a new tweet. If you can spare effort, change the embedded links to this new fic promo tweet after. I know that's prob a lil painful tho so you prob can get away w/ just one at end of fic

[23/?]

BTW you don't have to do fic promo thread for multichaptered fics - that's just my pref to show there's continuation because I'm not good with updating frequently LMFAO. Regular writers may find that separate tweets are better favored by algo !

[24/?]

Another thing I like to do is when people QRT with something positive, is to RT their QRT. Why?

1. You show ppl that QRTs are okay & appreciated
2. QRT seem to bypass link nerfing - so ppl who follow you can see original tweet again, like a bump!

[25/?]

And another thing... If you have a manageable amount of reviews... I really recommend that you do reply, and ASAP. I know it may suck (?) but readers who see authors never replying may feel less motivated to comment because they're intimidated. But like, obv, YMMV [26/?]

I cannot believe I missed this when my drafts included it. SHAMEFUL. But it's good to have your fic word count somewhere in your fic promo tweet - if you screenshot it then it'll already be there (tho this may be a little less inaccessible), but it's good to be clear

[27/?]

Some of you might also not like this LOL but in my afterword I shamelessly say "don't forget to leave a kudos and maybe a comment teehee!" If you don't want to do that you don't have to lol BUT I DO BE DOING THAT :3c

[28/?]

(While it's not like, super necessary, imo in bigger fandoms that are saturated with more fics - readers will sort by kudos or comments. If people didn't enjoy the fic, they're probably not gonna leave one even if you ask, but if they did, they'll be like "oh ok, sure!")

[29/?]

If you get new followers it's also nice to bump your older fics, because more often than not they don't know about it. Heck, sometimes I don't even see older fic promo tweets from people who I've followed for a while...

[30/?]

I might add to this thread if I can think of any general things, but I hope overall this is more of an organic, achievable thing for writers to consider while maintaining their own style/content.

If you don't have the energy or time to do it, that's totally ok, but if you have some to spare & would like more people to connect with your work, please do these (and honestly your potential readers will be glad) cos there's so much content some of us don't know where to start