Open Question: Connecting with fans

By MCM

Posted July 21, 2009

103 words

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Open Question: Connecting with fans

All right! Brainstorming time! Put on your thinking caps, cause it’s time to use that noodle! The question is this: what can I be doing better to connect with my fans? And by fans, I mean people that read my books on purpose. Very broad definition, I know.

I already reply to tons of email every day, make fun of people on Twitter, and comment on other sites here and there. But is there something else I should be trying? Some otherwise obscure idea that might work?

Email, comment or twitter. I want to experiment with some new ideas. Nothing is too crazy.

About MCM

MCM is the creator of the animated series RollBots. He also writes books, such as The Vector, The Pig and the Box, and Typhoon. When not doing such things, he is coding sites like this one. He is also insane.

http://1889.ca MCM

I will kick this off with my own first post: I was thinking of some kind of pyramid scheme without the scheme. Make a family tree of some kind. Maybe 3 families. I would pick three people and add them to the tree, and write a one-line epitaph for their fictional selves. Then those people would say “well, I married X and had Y kids, and their epitaphs are…”, and so on. Then we could all refer to each other by our familial relations… you’re so-and-so’s third cousin, or great-grandfather etc.

I feel like there needs to be a trick to it to make it more fun. But anyway, it would create a silly artificial architecture for the site, and it might help bring some of the lurkers out too. Tho I somehow doubt it
http://depotwarehouse.net Ebonwumon

Forums. Some nice, security-hole-filled PHPBB install. Nowhere is complete without it, but most importantly comes the postwhoring and repwhoring that occurs on every forum ever.

There are plenty of mods, for karma or rep or w/e, and if those can be achieved by referrals, then people will do that and bring more people along.

And I’ve seen what you’ve done with the reader and whatnot, I know you’re more than capable of making it sexy and completely integrated with everything else. Plus, nothing spurs discussion like knowing you’ll be at the top of the highest posters list if you do

http://1889.ca MCM

Forums scare me, but I agree it tends to be a good magnet for people. I’ll see what I can figure out…

Thanks!

http://1889.ca MCM

I will kick this off with my own first post: I was thinking of some kind of pyramid scheme without the scheme. Make a family tree of some kind. Maybe 3 families. I would pick three people and add them to the tree, and write a one-line epitaph for their fictional selves. Then those people would say “well, I married X and had Y kids, and their epitaphs are…”, and so on. Then we could all refer to each other by our familial relations… you're so-and-so's third cousin, or great-grandfather etc.

I feel like there needs to be a trick to it to make it more fun. But anyway, it would create a silly artificial architecture for the site, and it might help bring some of the lurkers out too. Tho I somehow doubt it
http://depotwarehouse.net Ebonwumon

Also, contests are always fun, like say, torrentboy writing and/or drawing? Prizes can be worthless *cough* http://www.brian23.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/15-dollar-bill.jpg *cough* as long as they’re still awesome people will do it.

Hell, people would probably do it if the prize was front-page recognition, but gimme prizes darnit!

http://1889.ca MCM

I’m thinking I might try a contest or something, but I’m not sure what it’ll be yet. If I had any RollBots merchandise, I could make that a prize

BTW, the forums are up (and buggy) at http://vox.1889.ca

Still a long way to go on them (like setting them up), but it’s a start!

http://depotwarehouse.net Ebonwumon

Hurrah~

And I mean, if you harass the right people, I’m sure they ought to
give you free Rollbots merchandise. Just say you coded an ancient
Mayan incantation into one of the scripts, and that if they don’t do
what you say their hands and feet will fall off

http://1889.ca MCM

I used that exact same threat when I wanted donuts at a script meeting. Turns out, they have a shaman on staff to defend against black magic. Must be common in the animation biz…

http://brian23.com Brian

That is my worthless prize! lol

We got ten entries in on the first day, btw – I’m happy. Deadline is next Friday, and I put my “satisfied”number at 30. Will have to see where it goes from here, but looks good.

http://1889.ca MCM

I think if I could get 10 of my readers to participate in the light of day, I’d be very happy. After I post this, I’ll get about 54 emails saying: “Yeah, no kidding!”, but none of them will comment here

Ebonwumon

Forums. Some nice, security-hole-filled PHPBB install. Nowhere is complete without it, but most importantly comes the postwhoring and repwhoring that occurs on every forum ever.

There are plenty of mods, for karma or rep or w/e, and if those can be achieved by referrals, then people will do that and bring more people along.

And I've seen what you've done with the reader and whatnot, I know you're more than capable of making it sexy and completely integrated with everything else. Plus, nothing spurs discussion like knowing you'll be at the top of the highest posters list if you do
http://1889.ca MCM

Forums scare me, but I agree it tends to be a good magnet for people. I'll see what I can figure out…

Thanks!
http://depotwarehouse.net Ebonwumon

Also, contests are always fun, like say, torrentboy writing and/or drawing? Prizes can be worthless *cough* http://www.brian23.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/… *cough* as long as they're still awesome people will do it.

Hell, people would probably do it if the prize was front-page recognition, but gimme prizes darnit!
http://1889.ca MCM

I'm thinking I might try a contest or something, but I'm not sure what it'll be yet. If I had any RollBots merchandise, I could make that a prize

BTW, the forums are up (and buggy) at http://vox.1889.ca

Still a long way to go on them (like setting them up), but it's a start!
http://depotwarehouse.net Ebonwumon

Hurrah~

And I mean, if you harass the right people, I'm sure they ought to
give you free Rollbots merchandise. Just say you coded an ancient
Mayan incantation into one of the scripts, and that if they don't do
what you say their hands and feet will fall off
http://1889.ca MCM

I used that exact same threat when I wanted donuts at a script meeting. Turns out, they have a shaman on staff to defend against black magic. Must be common in the animation biz…
http://www.strangelittleband.com/ Nancy

Love the family tree idea.

How about starting an open-ended story that fans can contribute to? That could dovetail with the family tree. Kind of like a bizarro, web 2.0 version of the genealogy of Tolkien’s characters.

http://1889.ca MCM

I love that idea. So the family tree is like the genealogy, the foundation, and we write the guts on top of that. It would need to be 3 warring families, and skip around in time so we could cover multiple generations. Ooo, and as you add more fans, you’d have new generations to tie in!

That could be very cool. I will have to figure out the logistics and give it a try…

http://www.strangelittleband.com/ Nancy

Sounds like fun! As for logistics, maybe a wiki? I highly recommend http://www.dokuwiki.org . Easy to customize.

http://1889.ca MCM

I’m 50% done the logistics of the idea. Just have to finish programming a few things, and we’ll be set to go! Woo!

http://www.strangelittleband.com/ Nancy

Sweet! Are you programming something in PHP? MySQL back end? Just curious.
http://1889.ca MCM

Yup! It’s PHP with jQuery fanciness, connected to a MySQL back end. Hopefully it can be fun, and easy to use at the same time!

http://www.ergofiction.com Jan Oda

Ooooooh. Can I be the goddess of lust who made illegitimate babies with humans and thus created an offspring of Kings and Princes who then made war with the children of other gods?

And it’s still the same war in 4213 A.D.
I like this idea

http://www.ergofiction.com Jan Oda

I still want this :p

http://1889.ca MCM

I’m workin’ on it! Patience!
http://www.ergofiction.com Jan Oda

WEEEEEEYou must be the God of Multitasking!
http://1889.ca MCM

I dunno if any of it will make it out the door, but I’m tryin! Just wait till you see my new points/rewards system! It’s INSANE!
http://www.ergofiction.com Jan Oda

INSANE!!! My cup of tea!!! Does it involve badges? (I want even crazier than December the fangirl badge) And secret hidden treasures of short stories hidden in secret places? With no clues? And silly contests!! Like take pictures of you and a #2D1D tag you’ve written down somwhere on a not computer! And can we buy Screech with the points we earn?
http://1889.ca MCM

The scary part is, a few of those suggestions are actually in my plans. Now I have to re-think everything…
http://www.ergofiction.com Jan Oda

I hope I’m right about the points for drinks feature :p And no I’ll let you to your work. And get myself some sleep.

http://madpropstobakedpotatoes.com Brian

That is my worthless prize! lol

We got ten entries in on the first day, btw – I'm happy. Deadline is next Friday, and I put my “satisfied”number at 30. Will have to see where it goes from here, but looks good.
http://www.strangelittleband.com/ Nancy

Love the family tree idea.

How about starting an open-ended story that fans can contribute to? That could dovetail with the family tree. Kind of like a bizarro, web 2.0 version of the genealogy of Tolkien's characters.
http://1889.ca MCM

I think if I could get 10 of my readers to participate in the light of day, I'd be very happy. After I post this, I'll get about 54 emails saying: “Yeah, no kidding!”, but none of them will comment here
http://1889.ca MCM

I love that idea. So the family tree is like the genealogy, the foundation, and we write the guts on top of that. It would need to be 3 warring families, and skip around in time so we could cover multiple generations. Ooo, and as you add more fans, you'd have new generations to tie in!

That could be very cool. I will have to figure out the logistics and give it a try…
http://www.strangelittleband.com/ Nancy

Sounds like fun! As for logistics, maybe a wiki? I highly recommend http://www.dokuwiki.org . Easy to customize.
http://amharte.com a.m.harte

Was meaning to reply to this and forgot!

My random ideas:

-Facebook groups?
-Polls about the story / characters?
-Competitions? Winner gets to name a character/place in the story/etc. Actually that’s a good one, I want to do that!
-Have ‘guest fic’ days? Allow people to write fanfics of your work and showcase it on your website?

…that’s me done for now.

http://1889.ca MCM

- Facebook groups make perfect sense. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that one.
- Polls/competitions… I kinda merge those with the Chaos Book, but I suppose that’s not really “live” yet, so nobody knows. I should probably split things apart and try a bunch of smaller ideas for each title…
- Guest fic makes me very happy. I will try that very soon.

Thanks for the great ideas!

http://www.strangelittleband.com/ Nancy

Great ideas, Anna. I need to look into Facebook groups. I have a FB page for my online novel, but it’s rather stagnant. I’ll keep plugging away at it, though.

About guest fics, Anna and I were discussing them over here: http://qazyfiction.freeforums.org/post7.html I hereby volunteer to host and write guest fics. Sounds like fun!

http://1889.ca MCM

Guest fics are insanely cool, now that I really think about it. A few permutations:
- You can have something like a cross-over episode where characters from another story find their way into yours, and yours find their way into someone else’s. Cross-pollination. Harder to pull off in a lot of ways, but still fun.
- A guest writer for an entry in a story, basically just working within the established world without any cross-over. Easier to do, but probably a bit less fun.
- This is the doozy: how about a travelling web series? We come up with some “incident” that impacts a big part of the world, and then each writer can contribute a story in the evolution of the fallout. Thematically, they’re held together by the incident, but they can go in any direction the individual author likes, including cameos by existing characters etc. For instance (and to use a really cheap example): asteroid is going to destroy the planet. One writer can cover the actions of a family coming to terms with things. One writer can cover attempts to destroy the asteroid. One writer can cover the aftermath, showing how survivors get along. With a bit of planning you can tie the multiple threads together in subtle ways, but still play out each stream on its own. Easier and harder all at once. A massive, distributed story. Mwaha!

Imagine how cool any of those would be!

Now I just have to figure out how to apply them…

http://www.strangelittleband.com/ Nancy

Where do I sign up?

I especially like the idea of a traveling web series. Definitely the biggest challenge, but FUN! The logistics are kind of tricky, though. Maybe the traveling web series (TWS) would have one “home.” Home would have the inciting incident and a table of contents that link to the episodes/chapters on other writers’ sites. What do you think?
http://1889.ca MCM

I think it needs a home for sure. And at the end of every individual entry, it would say “read the next chapter at XYZ…”, pushing people through the chain. So it would require at least a little planning ahead of time. A private forum for the writers.

Yes, this definitely has promise… mwahaha!
http://www.ergofiction.com Jan Oda

If by December this idea hasn’t been worked out by anyone, I’m very willing to host it at the upcoming Big Plan website, which will have a division for authors and a division for readers anyway.
http://amharte.com a.m.harte

I am SO curious about your Big Plan website. It’s already driving me mad.

I think it’d take a while to organize this kind of thing anyway – I don’t see it happening at least for a couple months…?
http://1889.ca MCM

I know! I’m desperate to know about this website

I’m committed to another extensive project through August, so September is the earlier I could really move on the family tree idea. But I’ll have software ready to go, so we can still plan… somehow…
http://amharte.com a.m.harte

September is the earliest for me as well: I have my dissertation to finish (blah). Speaking of, if any of you could answer the qs in my blog post here I will love you forever.

Most of us know/follow each other on twitter: I assume we could reconvene via twitter in sept?
http://amharte.com a.m.harte

I like ALL of these ideas. Perhaps we should create some kind of place where we can plan these things better?

Oh: another idea for connecting with fans, which I have put into place today via shameless copying of Addergoole, Peacock King, and Intimate History, is the whole ‘points system’ reward thing: readers earn points for certain actions like making comments/posts/promoting the site, and then can spend them on bonus stories, cameos, etc.
http://1889.ca MCM

We definitely need a home base for this kind of stuff. Private coordination between writers, and public coordination for readers.

The points system is one that I really want to try, but the logistics are really hard for me to do. I have the same comment system running across all my sites, so manually determining which comment went with which story would be quite daunting. Still, I will find a way, someday…
http://depotwarehouse.net Ebonwumon

If only there was some sort of permission-rich, threaded discussion system with support for multiple topics in a single section that already had some headway and just needed a little confragulation to put it the extra mile and have it ready for use for big and great things like this.

But alas…
http://1889.ca MCM

Oh, droll! You witty cad, you.

http://vox.1889.ca

I will announce it tomorrow

http://qazyfiction.wordpress.com/ anna

Was meaning to reply to this and forgot!

My random ideas:

-Facebook groups?
-Polls about the story / characters?
-Competitions? Winner gets to name a character/place in the story/etc. Actually that's a good one, I want to do that!
-Have 'guest fic' days? Allow people to write fanfics of your work and showcase it on your website?

…that's me done for now.
http://1889.ca MCM

- Facebook groups make perfect sense. I can't believe I didn't think of that one.
- Polls/competitions… I kinda merge those with the Chaos Book, but I suppose that's not really “live” yet, so nobody knows. I should probably split things apart and try a bunch of smaller ideas for each title…
- Guest fic makes me very happy. I will try that very soon.

Thanks for the great ideas!
http://1889.ca MCM

I'm 50% done the logistics of the idea. Just have to finish programming a few things, and we'll be set to go! Woo!
http://www.strangelittleband.com/ Nancy

Sweet! Are you programming something in PHP? MySQL back end? Just curious.
http://www.strangelittleband.com/ Nancy

Great ideas, Anna. I need to look into Facebook groups. I have a FB page for my online novel, but it's rather stagnant. I'll keep plugging away at it, though.

About guest fics, Anna and I were discussing them over here: http://qazyfiction.freeforums.org/post7.html I hereby volunteer to host and write guest fics. Sounds like fun!
http://1889.ca MCM

Yup! It's PHP with jQuery fanciness, connected to a MySQL back end. Hopefully it can be fun, and easy to use at the same time!
http://1889.ca MCM

Guest fics are insanely cool, now that I really think about it. A few permutations:
- You can have something like a cross-over episode where characters from another story find their way into yours, and yours find their way into someone else's. Cross-pollination. Harder to pull off in a lot of ways, but still fun.
- A guest writer for an entry in a story, basically just working within the established world without any cross-over. Easier to do, but probably a bit less fun.
- This is the doozy: how about a travelling web series? We come up with some “incident” that impacts a big part of the world, and then each writer can contribute a story in the evolution of the fallout. Thematically, they're held together by the incident, but they can go in any direction the individual author likes, including cameos by existing characters etc. For instance (and to use a really cheap example): asteroid is going to destroy the planet. One writer can cover the actions of a family coming to terms with things. One writer can cover attempts to destroy the asteroid. One writer can cover the aftermath, showing how survivors get along. With a bit of planning you can tie the multiple threads together in subtle ways, but still play out each stream on its own. Easier and harder all at once. A massive, distributed story. Mwaha!

Imagine how cool any of those would be!

Now I just have to figure out how to apply them…
http://www.strangelittleband.com/ Nancy

Where do I sign up?

I especially like the idea of a traveling web series. Definitely the biggest challenge, but FUN! The logistics are kind of tricky, though. Maybe the traveling web series (TWS) would have one “home.” Home would have the inciting incident and a table of contents that link to the episodes/chapters on other writers' sites. What do you think?
http://qazyfiction.wordpress.com/ anna

I like ALL of these ideas. Perhaps we should create some kind of place where we can plan these things better?

Oh: another idea for connecting with fans, which I have put into place today via shameless copying of Addergoole, Peacock King, and Intimate History, is the whole 'points system' reward thing: readers earn points for certain actions like making comments/posts/promoting the site, and then can spend them on bonus stories, cameos, etc.
http://1889.ca MCM

I think it needs a home for sure. And at the end of every individual entry, it would say “read the next chapter at XYZ…”, pushing people through the chain. So it would require at least a little planning ahead of time. A private forum for the writers.

Yes, this definitely has promise… mwahaha!
http://1889.ca MCM

We definitely need a home base for this kind of stuff. Private coordination between writers, and public coordination for readers.

The points system is one that I really want to try, but the logistics are really hard for me to do. I have the same comment system running across all my sites, so manually determining which comment went with which story would be quite daunting. Still, I will find a way, someday…
Pingback: promoting your online fiction « quillsandzebras
Janoda

Ooooooh. Can I be the goddess of lust who made illegitimate babies with humans and thus created an offspring of Kings and Princes who then made war with the children of other gods?

And it's still the same war in 4213 A.D.
I like this idea
Janoda

If by December this idea hasn't been worked out by anyone, I'm very willing to host it at the upcoming Big Plan website, which will have a division for authors and a division for readers anyway.
http://qazyfiction.wordpress.com/ anna

I am SO curious about your Big Plan website. It's already driving me mad.

I think it'd take a while to organize this kind of thing anyway – I don't see it happening at least for a couple months…?
http://1889.ca MCM

I know! I'm desperate to know about this website

I'm committed to another extensive project through August, so September is the earlier I could really move on the family tree idea. But I'll have software ready to go, so we can still plan… somehow…
http://qazyfiction.wordpress.com/ anna

September is the earliest for me as well: I have my dissertation to finish (blah). Speaking of, if any of you could answer the qs in my blog post here I will love you forever.

Most of us know/follow each other on twitter: I assume we could reconvene via twitter in sept?
http://depotwarehouse.net Ebonwumon

If only there was some sort of permission-rich, threaded discussion system with support for multiple topics in a single section that already had some headway and just needed a little confragulation to put it the extra mile and have it ready for use for big and great things like this.

But alas…
http://1889.ca MCM

Oh, droll! You witty cad, you.

http://vox.1889.ca

I will announce it tomorrow
http://ergofiction.com Jan Oda

I still want this :p
http://1889.ca MCM

I'm workin' on it! Patience!
http://ergofiction.com Jan Oda

WEEEEEE

You must be the God of Multitasking!
http://1889.ca MCM

I dunno if any of it will make it out the door, but I'm tryin! Just wait till you see my new points/rewards system! It's INSANE!
http://ergofiction.com Jan Oda

INSANE!!! My cup of tea!!! Does it involve badges? (I want even crazier than December the fangirl badge) And secret hidden treasures of short stories hidden in secret places? With no clues? And silly contests!! Like take pictures of you and a #2D1D tag you've written down somwhere on a not computer! And can we buy Screech with the points we earn?
http://1889.ca MCM

The scary part is, a few of those suggestions are actually in my plans. Now I have to re-think everything…
http://ergofiction.com Jan Oda

I hope I'm right about the points for drinks feature :p And no I'll let you to your work. And get myself some sleep.
http://ergofiction.com Jan Oda

I still want this :p
http://1889.ca MCM

I'm workin' on it! Patience!
http://ergofiction.com Jan Oda

WEEEEEE

You must be the God of Multitasking!
http://1889.ca MCM

I dunno if any of it will make it out the door, but I'm tryin! Just wait till you see my new points/rewards system! It's INSANE!
http://ergofiction.com Jan Oda

INSANE!!! My cup of tea!!! Does it involve badges? (I want even crazier than December the fangirl badge) And secret hidden treasures of short stories hidden in secret places? With no clues? And silly contests!! Like take pictures of you and a #2D1D tag you've written down somwhere on a not computer! And can we buy Screech with the points we earn?
http://1889.ca MCM

The scary part is, a few of those suggestions are actually in my plans. Now I have to re-think everything…
http://ergofiction.com Jan Oda

I hope I'm right about the points for drinks feature :p And no I'll let you to your work. And get myself some sleep.

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