Episode 2 of this season of 53 Ganymede is out now (click the above image to find it!)
This month’s episode was a bit of a challenge — sleepless nights with a teething baby, a cold, a bout of mastitis — but we made it. Let me know what you think in the comments and don’t forget to leave a review at Web Fiction Guide to help other people find the series. It means a lot!
The next episode will be released Friday, March 15th.
53 Ganymede season 3 has officially begun! This season will be the final season in the series and will run the usual 12 episodes. For now I’m sticking with the one episode a month schedule (on the third Friday) but I will be sure to release an update if anything changes!
Speaking of updates — I apologize greatly for not having a blog post about the season finale of Season 2. Apparently when I post “pages” on WordPress — the way I format my episodes — it does not send out updates to my blog followers the way that it does when I make an actual “blog post.” It also doesn’t update the series’ Web Fiction Guide page. What this means is that, if you follow the blog or 53 Ganymede’s WFG page for story updates, you might not be notified of new installments. (If anyone knows a way around this that allows me to organize my writing neatly and have it notify my followers that would be great! I find posting episodes as blog posts a bit chaotic and messy.) For now I’m going to be more careful to release a blog post letting you know whenever there’s anything new being released! Also, I should probably be blogging more in general so I’ll work on that!
Anyway, thanks to everyone who has followed 53 Ganymede this far, and… without further ado… click below for Episode 1 of Season 3!
Hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think in the comments.
Being a writer poses a unique challenge — getting people to read your work.
That’s not to say being a musician, a visual artist, or any other kind of creator doesn’t entail its own obstacles (obviously recording a song or creating a film require a lot more teamwork and resources, for example), but in catching the attention of an audience they seem to have the upperhand. The investment required of a potential consumer to judge the media is fairly small — listening to a two minute song, skimming through a DeviantArt gallery, watching a movie trailer — and the time it takes to form their opinion is minimal.
This is because other forms of media elicit an initial sensory response, but writing doesn’t.
Sure, you can say reading is a sensory experience in so far as you use your eyes to read the words and your fingers to turn a page (or click a mouse button) but the majority of the experience actually takes place in your imagination. Judging whether a book or story suits your tastes requires work. Not to mention time.
So how do you convince someone that your story is worth the effort?
Book covers are important, yes, but they still don’t do for a writer what a song clip does for a band or a digital gallery does for an artist. A cover isn’t the writer’s work. It is symbolic of the story they have created but it isn’t an actual “sample” of their creation. Hell, most of the time it isn’t even made by the same person.
Synopses are a little closer to a true sample, but they still cannot be consumed “at a glance”or passively.
So what can we do?
Very often we let someone else do the work for us. The easiest way to get people to invest in reading something is by having someone who is not the author say to a probable audience: read this. Publishers do this when they publish a book, market it, and stick it on a store shelf under its appropriate genre. Potential readers see that someone somewhere thought the book was good enough and that it’s categorized under something they like. By then they’re more than happy to read the synopsis and there you are!
For short stories and serials we see this happen with magazines and online markets. Readers know they publish work in tune with their tastes and can be certain that the stories are of a certain quality.
So what about the rest of us? Those of us writing fiction that haven’t been able to/ don’t want to take the traditional publishing route? The ones who want to carve out their own digital space or connect directly with their readers? The ones who aren’t sure what they want but hey maybe they have something people might like here and where can they just share it for people to enjoy?
Good news! There are some great places online where you can present your work to an interested audience:
Wattpad is an online community that hosts a variety of written content. It is organized by genres and lends itself very well to serialized content. If you’re a writer, it’s a good place to post your work and garner some feedback. If you’re a reader, there are some amazing stories there and, with such a diverse community of writers, you can probably find something that suits your tastes. (Though you may have to sift through some grammatical errors).
Now that said, Wattpad does have some drawbacks. As many other users have noted, it tends to cater to trends. Paranormal romance and chick lit were hot faves last I checked, but it does shift from time to time. It doesn’t mean that your historical fantasy won’t build a following, but you will probably have to work harder for it. Generally, if you want to succeed on Wattpad you need to dedicate some serious time connecting with other writers and potential readers on the forums and joining some book clubs. And if your book happens to be mature rated (e.g. overly violent, strong language, themes of self-harm) it can really hamper your ability to get your story discovered.
This is by far my favourite site for promoting serials and web fiction. As its name suggests, it is an online catalogue of web fiction where users can rate, review, and recommend entries. Most of my traffic comes from there and I’ve heard other people say the same. If you’re looking for a new serial to read, this is the place to look.
There is a submission process for getting your work listed and it can take a while (I believe I waited almost two months), but it is definitely worth it. Just make sure you read the submission guidelines first so that you don’t get rejected when you submit. (The guidelines are mainly about site navigation and accessibility, not content).
Oh, and while you’re there, make sure to pop on over and review Secrets and Skin. kthx.
TuesdaySerial is both a Twitter hashtag and an actual site that shares links to serialized web fiction. This one is easy… the collector opens up every Tuesday and you enter the link to the latest chapter of your serial along with the title, chapter number/name, author, and some info. Usually by Thursday they publish a report including all of the updated serials for that week. Plus you’ll get a special mention if it’s your debut or final chapter. Don’t forget to tweet out your link with the hashtag!
@SerFicDigest is a Twitter account dedicated to sharing all things serial and web fic. Tag them in your tweets and they will usually retweet.
Which brings me to:
Look, I’m terrible at social media. I’m a busy mom that gets anxious when she has to check her phone for updates, but there is a real community of web fic writers on there and it really helps to connect. Even if you don’t find new readers, by using the right hashtags you can find other writers who are more than happy to share their advice or will trade read-for-reads or even retweet your stuff to their followers. It takes some dedication and it’s a whole world of distraction, but definitely give it a shot.
#amwriting and #webfiction are great hashtags when you’re just starting out.
Now this is by no means a definitive list. There are other (albeit smaller) writing communities like Wattpad, including: Figment, Fiction Press, and Writer’s Cafe (which focuses more on improving your writing with an ultimate goal of traditional publishing). And other catalogues such as Muse’s Success.
I have tried to included the sites and communities that I have personally found worth the amount of time and dedication required for each, but if one of the others works for you please let us know in the comments below! If you’re a regular web fic reader, where do you usually go to find new stories? And if you’re writer, what tips and tricks have you found to get people to give your story a chance? I’d love to hear what you have to say!
Alright, so things are really busy over here (hence the scarce updates). Secrets is almost done and I found out not long ago that I’m doing a book launch this weekend for Winter’s Child. I’ve been busy preparing for a children’s story time for that event and doing last minute Secrets edits so I apologize if there hasn’t been much else going on lately.
Over the past two weeks I have released 6 chapters of Secrets (Chapter 37 – 42) and you can find links to all of the chapters by clicking on the below image:
Or find them on Wattpad.
I have also added a Contact page up there on the menu where you can drop me a line if you’d like. (Like to complain about this week’s cliffhanger for instance. Sorry.)
I apologize for the brief update and hopefully I’ll have some more posts and content once the holiday rush comes to a close. Thanks to everyone who has been reading so far, I’m so excited to be finishing up this story.
So what happened this week?
A new story came out yesterday, and with it an entire new option up there on the menu bar. In my last post I described the Iyashikei genre, mentioning that my husband had challenged me to write something with similar qualities. While writing this story I realized that it would not be complete in one installment. And so, I’ve accidentally started a new web serial.
The name of the series is 53 Ganymede. It follows Claire Brown — a young woman who finds herself moving to a big city and renting an apartment in a beautiful, if eccentric,Victorian house. Unlike Secrets and Skin, 53 Ganymede is episodic and not a serialized novel (think discrete tales instead of chapters). Like its inspiration, these stories are intended to be calming and immersive — a safe haven for those just looking to relax, meditate, or heal. The also have a touch of magic, mystery, and mischief… just to keep things interesting.
You can find the first episode below:
Aside from this, Secrets and Skin Chapters 24 and 25 released Wednesday and today respectively. You can read them below:
Or read it on Wattpad
Or read it on Wattpad
Lastly, my short story Host is still up for an award on Wattpad and could use your votes! You can find it by clicking HERE.
If you don’t have Wattpad but would still like to read it, check out the link below:
Thanks for all of your support!
I’m back! Yes, I took the past week off (hence the lack of updates) and I wanted to talk about my reasons, because it’s something I’ve been struggling with a lot recently.
In case you don’t know, Secrets and Skin is a novel that I’ve already written and which I’m editing as I post. And promoting. And cross-posting.
Anyway… what this means is that, while I am frequently posting “new content,” I am doing very little actual writing. Which, as a writer, is obviously not a desirable situation. I WANT to write. Instead I’ve been spending a lot of time editing and focusing on building a platform. And let me tell you something, building a platform takes a lot of time and energy (building a website, creating a twitter audience, chumming it up on Wattpad). Particularly if you’re an introvert that struggles with anxiety and depression. Cause nothin’ gets you down like social media.
Don’t get me wrong, I love connecting with other writers and reading their work – there’s seriously some amazing content out there and I wish I had time to read it all – but I’m also struggling to find a balance. Connecting and sharing while also giving myself space to enjoy the act of just writing a story. Taking time to read and be creative so that I can foster inspiration and learn. Not to mention taking care of my mental health.
So what does this mean for me? The truth is that I don’t know. And that’s pretty much what I’m here to say. Yes, I am building a platform. Yes, I am aiming for professionalism. But I’m also a human being who is floundering about, trying to find their place in this crazy world. And I don’t want to hide that part. It’s disorienting and intimidating sharing your work (art, writing, gluten-free paleo dessert recipes, whatever) and it takes some figuring out. Some trial and error.
So here I am. For now, I’m pulling back a bit on social media. As nice as it is to see my reads rise from Wattpad book clubs and to find really neat titles I’d like to read some day, I’m done with them for now. I don’t have time to read the titles I have on hold right now, let alone adding more. Hopefully that will change as time goes on, but for now it would be an injustice to add to my “To Read” list.
Secrets will still release on Wednesdays and Fridays, for the time being. I will be somewhat active on Twitter and definitely respond to comments and such on Wattpad. But from now on, I want to put a concerted effort toward taking time to write or just be creative.
And seeing as my 2 year old just woke up a couple hours after going to bed… I’m out. Let me know in the comments how you balance your writing and promotion (not to mention your responsibilities). Or let me know what you like to see from the writers/ artists you follow online.
Chapter 12 of Secrets and Skin is out today!
For those who haven’t read it yet, Secrets and Skin tells the story of Selene Kondo, a university drop out who finds herself caught in a supernatural conflict after a deadly attack at her friend’s going away party. It’s story about the implications of modern magic, but also of mental health, trust and the importance of choice. Of having agency over one’s life when everyone else would use it for their own goals – both mundane and magical.
You can also read it over at Wattpad.
Chapter 13 will be out on Friday and hopefully it will be accompanied by an updated short story.
I’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to leave a comment or some feedback below or on my work. Thanks for reading!
Amy Notdorft 