Are fanfics overrated?

[Ytiamy]

I wrote a fanfic...on BTS and Kpop with all the right tags and all but it's not picking up. I know it's a little early for any expectations as I posted it only 14 hours ago. I hoped for at least one read. But none.

I researched a bit and it said that I need to write a catchy blurb. I did that. Then it said I need to put up a good picture that will pull the readers in immediately. I guess I did that too.

I don't know what's the issue. I check Scribble hub's fanfics and found that it doesn't have that kind of a big fanbase for fanfics unlike AO3 or wattpad.
Is that true? Should I remove the fanfic? I wouldn't want to keep posting if no one reads it.

Wildflower in Spring Day | Scribble Hub

 

[Arkus86]

Some fandoms are not as popular as others.
Different sites have different audiences (and SH presumably lost some fanfic readers after the recent crackdown on monetization).
14 hours is way too early for SH. Just approving your story can take a few days (there is only a single admin on the main site), and even if it was already approved, most readers wait until you have at least a certain number of chapters - common breakpoints are 20-50-100.

 

[Ytiamy]

Some fandoms are not as popular as others.
Different sites have different audiences (and SH presumably lost some fanfic readers after the recent crackdown on monetization).
14 hours is way too early for SH. Just approving your story can take a few days (there is only a single admin on the main site), and even if it was already approved, most readers wait until you have at least a certain number of chapters - common breakpoints are 20-50-100.

sighs. Thanks. I feel like fanfics, in general, lost their appeal.

 

[Alski]

Feels way to niche for this small indie site.

 

[Ytiamy]

Feels way to niche for this small indie site.

Right, so SH is not the right place to post fanfics.

 

[AliceMoonvale]

Right, so SH is not the right place to post fanfics.

Yes.
The unpopular ones.

If you were posting a naruto or harry potter fanfic, might of been better.
But niche shit like kpop ain't gonna work well outside like wattpad and A03.

 

[Ytiamy]

Makes sense.

Yes.
The unpopular ones.

If you were posting a naruto or harry potter fanfic, might of been better.
But niche shit like kpop ain't gonna work well outside like wattpad and A03.

 

[VanVeleca]

The thing with fanfic is that you can't write it with the idea that "I hope a lot of people will read it" because in order for someone to be interested in reading a fanfic, they have to be in the fandom or even just do the minimum of getting invested in the source material.

Then they also have to be interested in whatever ship you are writing for or whatever AU you have. Original work may get overlooked in favor of fanfic but it's way easier to hook people in because they're not going in looking for something very specific such as Character A x Character B (for example.)

You might get more views on AO3 if you want to continue fanfic writing, but keep in mind the numbers are completely unpredictable unless you're writing for a very popular and active fandom and/or ship. (My Hero Academia, Avatar, Harry Potter, Hazbin Hotel, Digital Circus, Voltron, MXTX novels, etc.)

 

[Makimaam]

sighs. Thanks. I feel like fanfics, in general, lost their appeal.

Not really. Fanfic is popular. But to be clear, SH isn’t the right platform for BTS fics.

The fanfiction that trends here is usually fantasy, and not linked to obscure fandoms. Your work would be more suitable for AO3. Also, since fandom tagging is no longer working on SHF, the chances of a BTS fan stumbling across your fic are almost nonexistent. Not to mention, most Kpop fanfic readers wouldn’t use this platform to read in the first place.

 

[FRWriter]

The Fanfic bonus has been lost entirely on SH. The site has lost a massive amount of readers. Fanfics don't have any more visibility than normal stories.

Frankly, I'm also playing with the thought of "moving." I will still post here, since it only takes me like 2 minutes a day, but I won't expect much. Much of the beloved interaction is gone; 5-10 comments a day turned to 1 or 2 at most.

The mods/owner also haven't addressed the issue of why the Fandom system has been removed. Fanfiction monetization got removed, fine, we can all agree, but why is the Fandom system still missing? It has nothing to do with monetization, but it was incredible for growing a small community of like-minded readers who could, for example, search for One Piece stories. It's still possible, but so unintuitive that most people simply won't bother.

I get the feeling the site is slowly but surely dying.

Others might argue this is perfect and Fanfics should be treated like original stories... but that ultimately comes at the cost of readers interested in fanfics, who by now have largely abandoned this site, which will also hurt original stories. I've seen a general decline in readership, a huge one.

 

[Ytiamy]

The Fanfic bonus has been lost entirely on SH. The site has lost a massive amount of readers. Fanfics don't have any more visibility than normal stories.

Frankly, I'm also playing with the thought of "moving." I will still post here, since it only takes me like 2 minutes a day, but I won't expect much. Much of the beloved interaction is gone; 5-10 comments a day turned to 1 or 2 at most.

The mods/owner also haven't addressed the issue of why the Fandom system has been removed. Fanfiction monetization got removed, fine, we can all agree, but why is the Fandom system still missing? It has nothing to do with monetization, but it was incredible for growing a small community of like-minded readers who could, for example, search for One Piece stories. It's still possible, but so unintuitive that most people simply won't bother.

I get the feeling the site is slowly but surely dying.

Others might argue this is perfect and Fanfics should be treated like original stories... but that ultimately comes at the cost of readers interested in fanfics, who by now have largely abandoned this site, which will also hurt original stories. I've seen a general decline in readership, a huge one.

I agree with you. The trend echoes much of what you said.

The reader count has gone down a lot. Guess this platform kinda lost its sparks.

Not really. Fanfic is popular. But to be clear, SH isn’t the right platform for BTS fics.

The fanfiction that trends here is usually fantasy, and not linked to obscure fandoms. Your work would be more suitable for AO3. Also, since fandom tagging is no longer working on SHF, the chances of a BTS fan stumbling across your fic are almost nonexistent. Not to mention, most Kpop fanfic readers wouldn’t use this platform to read in the first place.

I didn't know that you had to get invited to open an account on AO3.

So, now I am waiting for my invitation to open an account on AO3 so that I can delete my story from here and publish there.

The audience here is kinda dull ngl.

The thing with fanfic is that you can't write it with the idea that "I hope a lot of people will read it" because in order for someone to be interested in reading a fanfic, they have to be in the fandom or even just do the minimum of getting invested in the source material.

Then they also have to be interested in whatever ship you are writing for or whatever AU you have. Original work may get overlooked in favor of fanfic but it's way easier to hook people in because they're not going in looking for something very specific such as Character A x Character B (for example.)

You might get more views on AO3 if you want to continue fanfic writing, but keep in mind the numbers are completely unpredictable unless you're writing for a very popular and active fandom and/or ship. (My Hero Academia, Avatar, Harry Potter, Hazbin Hotel, Digital Circus, Voltron, MXTX novels, etc.)

Yep. Totally agree with you. Going to AO3.

 

[Lysander_Works]

The Fanfic bonus has been lost entirely on SH. The site has lost a massive amount of readers. Fanfics don't have any more visibility than normal stories.

Frankly, I'm also playing with the thought of "moving." I will still post here, since it only takes me like 2 minutes a day, but I won't expect much. Much of the beloved interaction is gone; 5-10 comments a day turned to 1 or 2 at most.

The mods/owner also haven't addressed the issue of why the Fandom system has been removed. Fanfiction monetization got removed, fine, we can all agree, but why is the Fandom system still missing? It has nothing to do with monetization, but it was incredible for growing a small community of like-minded readers who could, for example, search for One Piece stories. It's still possible, but so unintuitive that most people simply won't bother.

I get the feeling the site is slowly but surely dying.

Others might argue this is perfect and Fanfics should be treated like original stories... but that ultimately comes at the cost of readers interested in fanfics, who by now have largely abandoned this site, which will also hurt original stories. I've seen a general decline in readership, a huge one.

I think the decline in readers is coming from a different issue, though one uncontrollable for most of us. You know how many treat Isekai suspiciously now that the style is over-saturated? I think we can agree that the same applies on a more larger and general scale, regardless of the story/type and tag. More authors join but pump out content when they aren't fully ready to. Others try to use AI to write and pass it off as original. As for readers, some of us get hung up on the smaller details sometimes.

The barrier to enter as an author has been mostly eliminated, yet the bar we set for it is all the more higher. And thus, finding something good to read becomes a little harder each day, discouraging both readers and writers. I see this as a global issue, not a SH issue.