Where are the readers?

[TeenageAngst]

Actually, I find SoFurry to be a fantastic site with an excellent, responsive readership.

If I write erotica that gets adults off, who am I to complain? Adults like sex. I never understood the general theme of "ugh" towards erotica on this site (well, in forum threads). Diverging from the topic at hand: why the hate?

Beats me. I write elf smut almost exclusively now and aside from being by far my most popular work, it's also the highest quality art I've ever produced. And people tell me so. They just don't tell me on Weasyl because the people here don't read. I think the reason most people hate erotica is 99% of it is written with one hand on the keyboard. It's usually sloppy, poorly thought-out, and with no regard for the reader in any terms other than getting them off. Which is why I like to separate erotica and outright porn. The latter is what usually comes to mind. The former requires characterization, plot arcs, style, and multiple chapters without fucking involved.

[grassfed]

[Oly]

[Viciviser]

Oh man! I want to read "Teaming With Microbes"! I like that is a pun too in that teaming can mean a proliferation or increase to where there are many. But it can also read here as if "teaming (up)" with microbes to increase your garden's yield.

And to note, I agree with what TeenageAngst said involving porn versus erotica.

[Sylver]

I'm not a writer myself, but I have been reading 'furry' stories since the age of 12 (I'm 20). I must have read...christ...hundreds? Possibly thousands of stories over the years. At this point you could say that I owe it to the writing comunity to actually produce something for once. My imagination is overflowing at this point.

I'd just like to clarify something, I never started reading 'furry' stories for the porn. I actually had a very bad first experience with furry stories and I actively avoided any smut/porn for a year or two.


Something which I find a little bothersome is that writers are sort of forced into the same hole that artists are. An example of this is how their content is conveyed to users. When you go browsing for art, you look at the thumbnail and it shows you a preview of the artwork. Writers should, in theory, be showing a small section of text that describes their story; i.e. a blurb. Although they're stuck with a thumbnail, and it's laborious to try force a preview of your literature into the form of an image. Most writers just add thier avatar or a few key words into their thumbnail, some people don't even bother with one. Users aren't getting an actual preview of their content.

So basically, I think that writers should have a blurb instead of a thumbnail, or perhaps both? Both would be nice.

Edit: I'll try think of more suggestions =/

[Frank LeRenard]

Just wanted to say, I like the suggestions so far (Getta's and Sylver's posts). Part of the problem may just be presentation, after all. I wonder how hard it would be to get a lit section on a site that feels more like a bookstore. Never actually used SoFurry, so I don't know what their format is, but I do hear it praised frequently for being a very writer-friendly site.

[Uluri]

As a "browser" who enjoys browsing through the Many random things I find in the New Feed,
I would like to say that I don't "See" literature in the feed. I would Suggest along side some
random, attention grabbing image, that there be Text on it in bold "STORY" so that viewers know
that said submission is a Story.

When people put an image alone as the preview, I have no idea that that image is a Story
until I were to maybe, possibly click on it by chance. (This is the same issue with Multimedia
that are videos or Music without a Play button, or in big words saying 'VIDEO/Music' on it)

Weasyl doesn't have a very good indicator of what art type is which when browsing.
(I'm glad Weasyl allows text formatting, though. XD It has a strange presentation for stories, though)

[Poetigress]

As far as online sites go, it's hard to come up with good ideas for increasing readership because I find that in recent years most furry readers aren't looking online as much anymore for their fiction. They don't want stories online; they want books -- novels, anthologies -- and they're looking to furry publishers like FurPlanet and Rabbit Valley and Sofawolf for their reading material more than browsing sites like FA or Weasyl or even SoFurry. (I would say the main exception is with very niche stuff like fetish erotica, which still can find a good readership online.)

Stories online have, of course, the advantage of being free, but I think a lot of readers might be in the same position I am -- with little time to read, I have no interest in wading through tons of material to find what's worth that time, and the published work is at least somewhat vetted for quality (at varying levels depending on the publisher). At this point, the only writers I read online are ones I'm familiar with either from previous years or from reading their stories in anthologies or the like.

Again, that doesn't offer any answers, I know, but just another perspective on where those potential readers might be instead.

[Frank LeRenard]

Interesting you're seeing interest pick up for published works. From what I've seen it's real hit or miss. And certainly very few writers or possibly no one seems able to make a real living publishing just through furry fandom publishers.

I'm admittedly out of the loop at this point, though. Spending too much time trying to make my own work as difficult as I can to ensure I don't get a solid reader base until years after I'm dead.

[Sylver]

As PoeTigress brought up, not many people want to wade through a lot of, for lack of a better word, 'crap'.

Part of the reason I suggested adding blurbs to stories is because that way I can quickly and easily determine what a story is about. It would allow people like me to more easily filter through the stories much more quickly and efficiently. It would also be nice if there were a word count, or something similar. Just making suggestions anyway