The Heirachy of the Fan Community: From Lurking to Creating

   **Note: This blog post is representative of the author's experiences in the Once Upon a Time and The 100 fandoms on the following websites: Tumblr, Fanfiction.net, and AO3. This represents a very small sampling of the vast experiences and fannish activities available online.** 

     Sometimes, everything falls into place for a lesser known fanfiction writer: they get promoted or their work ends up on a recommendation list. Before they know it, their readership has doubled and they develop a following. But for most lesser known fanfiction writers, promoting their work takes much more effort.

    So, how does a writer become more accessible? They interact with their community. There are many ways to assert yourself as a creator and writer within a fandom:

     1. If at first you are uncomfortable with creating, you can assert yourself by interacting with other writers about their writing. In other words, lurk. 

This type of interaction can be accomplished in numerous ways. A reader might read and comment on fanfiction, PM an author about their fics (which can even be done anonymously on Tumblr), send requests for writers to fulfill writing prompts, etc..

     2. Engage with the fandom's community (including readers and potential readers) on social media sites like Tumblr.

A user can participate in asks, fulfill writing prompts and creation requests, hold fanfiction themed writing raffles where the winner wins a fanfiction of their choice written by the user, and participate in themed weeks/ months where writers write to a certain theme. I have also seen users post "get to know me" type questions that followers can interact with and "follower celebration" posts after they get to a certain number of followers.

Source

     3. After posting a story to a fanfiction site, a writer can interact with readers.

This can be accomplished by responding to reader comments and questions in the comment section of your fic and by posting author's notes on your fics. Author's often use AN to engage with their readership about their writing process and encourage interaction and response from readers.

   Writers encourage readers to "like" and interact with their fics because, on sites like AO3 and fanfiction.net, users can choose to sort by kudos, bookmarks, number of comments, favorites, and follows. The number of readers that interact with a fic affects it's visibility.

     4. Lastly, writers can promote their fics and themselves as writers on social media sites and within their fandom.

Many writers reblog praise that they receive from readers and rec lists that they end up on. This serves to thank their followers as well as promote their writing to attract new readers.