Entry tags:
Ten Simple Ways To Get More Attention For Your Fanwork
I am still not ready for con.txt, so here is a completely unrelated thing that I clearly needed to finish RIGHT NOW.
Ten Simple Ways To Get More Attention For Your Fanwork
I figured I should share these since it took me a long time to figure some of them out. A few caveats before we start:
A few caveats:
1. Some of these are AO3-specific (but can be adapted elsewhere), some of them are pretty universal.
2. I said "simple", not "easy".
3. These techniques help to get work that is in the competent-to-good range, if you're lucky, solidly into the midlist when it comes to hits and kudos. They will not make you the most popular person in the fandom.
4. If the work is bad (poor grammar and spelling, no character logic at all, etc.), even this won't help. If your work is super-excellent, these will probably work as well as they do for competent-to-good stuff.
5. This is written from the deliberately cynical perspective that one's primary goal in fandom is maximum positive attention. There are other reasons to do fanwork, probably better reasons, as evidenced by the fact that I personally don't bother with most of these things most of the time.
6. Overdoing any of these may backfire spectacularly.
7. Results not guaranteed.
There is a sweet spot in any growing fandom where there's enough fic to draw in lots of readers, but little enough fic that many readers still try to read everything the fandom produces, and new fic still floats to the top of the sort-by-kudos page with little effort. Ideally, you're looking at a rapidly-growing fandom with, say, less than 500 fics on the AO3; for a movie-based fandom that's going to become large, that's the first week to the first month after the movie comes out; for other types of fandoms, it depends on when it starts to really take off.
People who get works posted in this timeframe have a huge advantage in terms of getting seen even without name recognition or recs. It's also the best time for gen fics and rare pairs to get seen, because people usually haven't started filtering by pairing as much yet; it's the best time to get fanon established; and it's the best time to post WIPs, since people will be so desperate that even non-WIP-readers can get accidentally sucked in, and that gets you long-term loyalty. The longer the first-week-of-the-fandom fic is, the better; quality is much less important than it will be later, because people are desperate for longfic, and not yet sick of fanon tropes. Early fics are likely to become steady long-term kudos producers as well, because of their head start in the rankings.
Ideally, you will have a novel-length WIP that's only a few chapters away from finished in a medium-sized fandom or pairing when it suddenly explodes in popularity due to new canon. Best shortcut to BNFdom that I know of. Got no advice on how to guess when this will happen though.
This one's kind of tricky, because if you post too often, and in chunks that are too small, people will get annoyed that you're spamming their fandom and start blocking you. However, someone who posts new, substantial content oh, 3-4 times a month, is far more likely to get a following than someone who finishes something twice a year. (Even the popular writers who currently post only rarely mostly gained their popularity when they were posting more often.) And a following means more kudos early on and more recs and bookmarks, which snowballs into more going forward. If all you've got is something that's looking to be epic, either figure out a way to parcel it into chunks you can post more often, or also write some lightweight ficlets so people remember you in the meantime. Plus, the more works, the more things people will kudos/feedback/comment on/etc. just numerically. And if you're in a tiny, tiny fandom, one good yet prolific writer is the best way to get momentum rolling, which will never happen if there's only fic once a year.
I have no opinion on whether this is a question of rudeness, nor do I care to develop one. But in terms of sheer utilitarianism, answering comments has several benefits. First, answering all your comments doubles your comment count just like that - most websites, including AO3, don't distinguish between comments left by readers and replies by the author - and many people are more likely to click on a work with more comments, since clearly a lot of people liked it. Second, answering comments, especially a day or so late, reminds people who already liked it that your work exists, and also makes them feel more kindly toward you, which doubles your chance of recs or bookmarks from them. Thirdly, comments breed comments - the more comments a work has, and the more of them are answered, the more comfortable people will be commenting on it. Fourthly, answering your reviews is possibly the simplest way to start social connections with other people who share your tastes in fic. "But I hate people, why would I want to make social connections?" Read on.
I get so many people lamenting their inability to make friends in fandom. And, for many of us, it's hard - it took me *mumblemumble* years before I had many people I'd consider close friends in fandom. But it's a lot easier to get your stuff noticed if you have people who care about you as a person and will kudos it as soon as you post it without waiting to read it; and despite all our daydreams of posting that one amazing fic that makes everyone want to be our friend, the reverse is far more likely.
The best way to make friends is to talk to people. Preferably people whose stuff you like or who like your stuff, but really, anyone is better than no-one. Review fic. Answer your reviews. Put prompts in stupid askbox memes even if you've never spoken to the person before. That doesn't mean everybody you reach out to is obligated to immediately become your friend - many people simply don't have the social energy for more interactions - but just remember that if we weren't all socially maladapted one way or another we wouldn't be in fandom. Even if they never reply, as long as you stay within people's boundaries and observe the fanspace's etiquette you're still reaching out constructively.
And if talking directly to people doesn't work for you, you can still follow/add them, and link and reblog, and you can speak up in your own social media space. Every time you decide not to lurk makes your name more familiar to people, and people are more likely to click on fic if the name sounds vaguely familiar, even if they're not sure why. And if you stop lurking, you will likely accrete a few followers eventually just from the passage of time. Maybe they won't be bosom companions who invite you into their family, but they'll at least read your stuff. (And if you can, go to local RL meetups. It helps with the "friends" thing.)
Here is a fable: My first online fandom was webcomics, back in the very early days. One of the comics I read, instead of a Sunday strip, would post mail she'd gotten from fans. I was really impressed that she was getting so much fan feedback, even when her strip was just starting! She must have been really popular. She must make great comics, I should read this. Later, as the strip got older and she posted more and more about her fans and friends, I realized that nearly all of her early "fanworks" were from her relatives and coworkers. She's now a professional comics writer.
Moral of the story: Exploit your dear ones mercilessly.
Less flippantly: the more attention something gets, the more it will get, because people use that to filter their reading. And people who already like you are the ones who will give you those early hits and kudos. That's how word of mouth publicity goes. I'm not saying beg your friends to rec your stuff - some people are uncomfortable posting recs, some people are uncomfortable reccing people they know, some people like you but not your pairings - you know your own friendships and how they work. But a lot of people want to magically become popular solely from strangers stumbling over their stuff, and believe me, that's not how most actual popular writers did it.
So you can't assume your friends will kudos/review your stuff, of course - they're not obligated, even if they love you - but, at minimum, tell them about it. If you have a venue where there are people who voluntarily listen to you - whether it's a tumblr or gchat or whatever - post the link to the new work at all of them and ask them to read it. Posting it in one place and just expecting people to notice is going to miss a lot of people, and these folks are following you because they want to know about what you make. Use that.
Also, as I learned from Tip O'Neill's memoirs, people like to be asked - I can tell you that if I get an AO3 notification, I'm way more likely to say "Eh, I'll read it later" and then forget than if a friend posts on a social network saying "Hey, I'm really proud of this one, I'd love if you all looked at it." And if someone who you know likes your stuff makes an open offer to fanart or podfic or commentary track or whatever, take them up on it. Ask. Point them to it. Don't be ashamed that the people like your stuff are the people who already like you, that's why. Lonely pride will get you nowhere.
Also, if you do get recs or fanart or podfic or whatever, enthuse about it everywhere you can. It's a chance to promote your fic again without looking like you're bragging, it makes you look super-popular even if it's just your kid sister drawing it, and it makes it clear that you'd love more fanworks, which makes it more likely you'll get them. (Also, getting fanwork is WONDERFUL, but that's off-topic.)
This one's going to be a bit controversial because there are a lot of strong opinions about tagging for minor/implied pairings. So this advice is solely based on "how to get more kudos", not based on any moral stance.
But here is what I have learned: In fandoms that have Large Slash Pairings (you know them if you see them) a lot of people filter their reading based entirely on one pairing. Some people will just go to that tag by default, and forget that there is anything else to the fandom. You want those readers; those are the readers that will give All The Kudos; but you don't write $largePairing. You write $tinyPairing, or perhaps gen with $canonLevelSubtext.
My baseline is that if I'm writing something that supports the spirit of $largePairing and I am in the mood for maximizing kudos, I tag it with $largePairing, even if $largePairing is only a background cameo, or even if it's mostly a friendship fic. It will still be a story that's friendly to $largePairing's view of canon, and $largePairing fans get so much fic that they don't mind something different once in awhile. (If it runs counter to the spirit of $largePairing, of course, don't do this.)
Then, even if only a tiny fraction of $largePairing fans kudos your work, that's still enough to drive it to the top of the stats for $smallPairing's tag, which gives you a nice steady dribble of kudos from $smallPairing fans for the rest of forever. This also works, to some extent, with character tags, and if you're a crossovery person, it definitely works for fandom tags.
Alternatively you could just exclusively write large pairings in popular fandoms, of course.
WARNING: Doing the reverse - tagging a fic that's mostly about $largePairing with $smallPairing as well - does not increase kudos. Fans of $smallPairing are not idly skimming a busy tag for something that looks fun - they are looking specifically for fic about $smallPairing, which they hardly ever get, and they are tired of it being drowned out by $largePairing, and they aren't actually grateful you threw them a bone. And their numbers are small enough that it has no measurable effect on your ranking in $largePairing's filter even if they do spite-read it. Don't do this for the kudos. It's not worth it.
Oh right. Tags.
So basically just look at your fic, and ask yourself "What are some things in this fic that people might be specifically looking for? If they're looking for that and get this fic, will they be happy?" Try to think like people who aren't you. Also remember that sometimes people will be looking for a particular element and not care what fandom it's in. Think about those people. Then tag for all those things. If it's in your fic but somebody looking for it specifically will probably not want to read your whole fic, don't tag for it.
Be as precise yet concise as possible, remember that words or phrases might have different meanings in different contexts, use canonical tags when you can, and put separate concepts in separate tags instead of combining them into one. But mostly think about what people might want to find in your fic, and tag for that. The smaller your fandom and pairing, the more relative importance your cross-fandom-relevant freeform tags have to your kudos count.
This is just a silly SEO trick: the basic search box on AO3, and a lot of other fandom-heavy sites, prioritizes words in the title over words in the tags; it's assuming people are searching by title. Nobody searches fandom archives by title. Power users know to filter by tags instead. Casual users and people new to fandom will just type $characterName in the search box and read the first fic that comes up. If your fic has the character name in the title, it very well might be that fic. Depending on the character in question, this gets you way disproportionate kudos numbers, which then drive the fic up in the filters for power users, too. This works especially well in fandoms with a lot of casual fans but only a moderate amount of fic.
This also works for fandom names, and kinks and stuff, and if you put two character names in the title, it'll come up for people searching on the pairing. Those are a little harder to pull off casually, though. (Also, like all SEO, if everyone is doing this the search results get spammed and it stops working. So use it judiciously.)
What I have noticed over time is that, while titles are hard, they also aren't all that important in terms of luring people into your fic, unless they're epically terrible. These days, anyone who's gotten as far as reading the title can also see the summary, and will probably read that too. That's what they'll base their decision on. So spend more time on your summary than your title.
First level: make sure your spelling, grammar, formatting, etc. are impeccable. Yes I know you came up with the summary at 3 AM in a panic but this is way more important than fixing typos in the actual fic, okay. Get the summary right.
Second level: So the key to a good summary is that it's not actually a summary. People aren't reading it to find out what the fic's about: that's what the tags are for. People are reading it to find out why they should read your fic. It should be much more like an advertising tagline: short, catchy, and leave 'em wanting more. A fic summary's usually a little longer than a movie tagline - more like what the industry calls a "logline" - most of the best strategies I've found for fic-summary-writing have come from screenwriting advice that talks about loglines. There's a fair amount online for screenwriters if you want to look at it - just replace the vague bits that describe a movie MC with a character name, since in fandom we don't need to be introduced to the character.
When I'm crafting a summary to draw readers (as opposed to going "fuck it" and using a random pull quote) I tend to think of it like writing the setup to a joke, without a punchline. "X and Y walk into a bar" is the classic here - and the thing is, I'll still click on fic that has that as a summary. Because I want to know what happens in the bar, dammit! Now, for more serious fic, you don't want it to be quite so joke-like, but the principle is the same - give them a setup that begs for a punchline, and then make them want to read the fic to find out what happens next. There's a lot of different ways of doing good summaries, of course - that's just the way I think about it if I'm stuck. Look at the summaries for the top few fics in your pairing, and really analyze what they're doing, and see if you can find your own strategies.
I'm not saying you have to write the same story over and over again. I'm just sayin' you'll probably get more readers if you do. :P Every time you make a drastic switch - in fandom, pairing, style, theme, whatever - you'll lose a few loyal readers. People don't read fanfic to be challenged, and they definitely don't go back to familiar authors to feel challenged.
You'll lose readers anyway as a popular fandom/pairing quiets down, at which point it's a balancing act between moving to the next popular fandom and accepting you'll lose people, or sticking with your old fandom through thick and thin, which could put you in an excellent position RE: "1. Post Early" if there's a sudden influx fans later.
Actually, if you just make whatever you feel like making, you'll probably find that your stuff settles into a few standard things you just really like, and you get better at those things with time. So this mostly comes down to first, don't switch it up just because you feel like you should, and second, don't be ashamed of having a niche. Act ashamed all you want - apologize for your trashy, trashy id, we like that here - but don't try to disguise it, and don't pretend you're writing something else. Own your shame, is what I guess I'm saying. That's what fandom's for.
"If you know all these good strategies,![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
melannen", you cry, "Why aren't you getting way more kudos than you are?"
"Because I'm lazy and I hate doing them," I say. "Also I decided that getting four or five kudos every single day was enough to keep me in buttpats with minumum effort, and I seem to have already managed that by accidentally doing 1, 4, 6, and 8 a few times. Lazy and midlist is where I've hung my hammock. You should try it."
Ten Simple Ways To Get More Attention For Your Fanwork
(On AO3 and Elsewhere)
I figured I should share these since it took me a long time to figure some of them out. A few caveats before we start:
A few caveats:
1. Some of these are AO3-specific (but can be adapted elsewhere), some of them are pretty universal.
2. I said "simple", not "easy".
3. These techniques help to get work that is in the competent-to-good range, if you're lucky, solidly into the midlist when it comes to hits and kudos. They will not make you the most popular person in the fandom.
4. If the work is bad (poor grammar and spelling, no character logic at all, etc.), even this won't help. If your work is super-excellent, these will probably work as well as they do for competent-to-good stuff.
5. This is written from the deliberately cynical perspective that one's primary goal in fandom is maximum positive attention. There are other reasons to do fanwork, probably better reasons, as evidenced by the fact that I personally don't bother with most of these things most of the time.
6. Overdoing any of these may backfire spectacularly.
7. Results not guaranteed.
1. Post Early
There is a sweet spot in any growing fandom where there's enough fic to draw in lots of readers, but little enough fic that many readers still try to read everything the fandom produces, and new fic still floats to the top of the sort-by-kudos page with little effort. Ideally, you're looking at a rapidly-growing fandom with, say, less than 500 fics on the AO3; for a movie-based fandom that's going to become large, that's the first week to the first month after the movie comes out; for other types of fandoms, it depends on when it starts to really take off.
People who get works posted in this timeframe have a huge advantage in terms of getting seen even without name recognition or recs. It's also the best time for gen fics and rare pairs to get seen, because people usually haven't started filtering by pairing as much yet; it's the best time to get fanon established; and it's the best time to post WIPs, since people will be so desperate that even non-WIP-readers can get accidentally sucked in, and that gets you long-term loyalty. The longer the first-week-of-the-fandom fic is, the better; quality is much less important than it will be later, because people are desperate for longfic, and not yet sick of fanon tropes. Early fics are likely to become steady long-term kudos producers as well, because of their head start in the rankings.
Ideally, you will have a novel-length WIP that's only a few chapters away from finished in a medium-sized fandom or pairing when it suddenly explodes in popularity due to new canon. Best shortcut to BNFdom that I know of. Got no advice on how to guess when this will happen though.
2. Post Often
This one's kind of tricky, because if you post too often, and in chunks that are too small, people will get annoyed that you're spamming their fandom and start blocking you. However, someone who posts new, substantial content oh, 3-4 times a month, is far more likely to get a following than someone who finishes something twice a year. (Even the popular writers who currently post only rarely mostly gained their popularity when they were posting more often.) And a following means more kudos early on and more recs and bookmarks, which snowballs into more going forward. If all you've got is something that's looking to be epic, either figure out a way to parcel it into chunks you can post more often, or also write some lightweight ficlets so people remember you in the meantime. Plus, the more works, the more things people will kudos/feedback/comment on/etc. just numerically. And if you're in a tiny, tiny fandom, one good yet prolific writer is the best way to get momentum rolling, which will never happen if there's only fic once a year.
3. Answer all your reviews.
I have no opinion on whether this is a question of rudeness, nor do I care to develop one. But in terms of sheer utilitarianism, answering comments has several benefits. First, answering all your comments doubles your comment count just like that - most websites, including AO3, don't distinguish between comments left by readers and replies by the author - and many people are more likely to click on a work with more comments, since clearly a lot of people liked it. Second, answering comments, especially a day or so late, reminds people who already liked it that your work exists, and also makes them feel more kindly toward you, which doubles your chance of recs or bookmarks from them. Thirdly, comments breed comments - the more comments a work has, and the more of them are answered, the more comfortable people will be commenting on it. Fourthly, answering your reviews is possibly the simplest way to start social connections with other people who share your tastes in fic. "But I hate people, why would I want to make social connections?" Read on.
4. Talk to people.
I get so many people lamenting their inability to make friends in fandom. And, for many of us, it's hard - it took me *mumblemumble* years before I had many people I'd consider close friends in fandom. But it's a lot easier to get your stuff noticed if you have people who care about you as a person and will kudos it as soon as you post it without waiting to read it; and despite all our daydreams of posting that one amazing fic that makes everyone want to be our friend, the reverse is far more likely.
The best way to make friends is to talk to people. Preferably people whose stuff you like or who like your stuff, but really, anyone is better than no-one. Review fic. Answer your reviews. Put prompts in stupid askbox memes even if you've never spoken to the person before. That doesn't mean everybody you reach out to is obligated to immediately become your friend - many people simply don't have the social energy for more interactions - but just remember that if we weren't all socially maladapted one way or another we wouldn't be in fandom. Even if they never reply, as long as you stay within people's boundaries and observe the fanspace's etiquette you're still reaching out constructively.
And if talking directly to people doesn't work for you, you can still follow/add them, and link and reblog, and you can speak up in your own social media space. Every time you decide not to lurk makes your name more familiar to people, and people are more likely to click on fic if the name sounds vaguely familiar, even if they're not sure why. And if you stop lurking, you will likely accrete a few followers eventually just from the passage of time. Maybe they won't be bosom companions who invite you into their family, but they'll at least read your stuff. (And if you can, go to local RL meetups. It helps with the "friends" thing.)
5. Bring in shills
Here is a fable: My first online fandom was webcomics, back in the very early days. One of the comics I read, instead of a Sunday strip, would post mail she'd gotten from fans. I was really impressed that she was getting so much fan feedback, even when her strip was just starting! She must have been really popular. She must make great comics, I should read this. Later, as the strip got older and she posted more and more about her fans and friends, I realized that nearly all of her early "fanworks" were from her relatives and coworkers. She's now a professional comics writer.
Moral of the story: Exploit your dear ones mercilessly.
Less flippantly: the more attention something gets, the more it will get, because people use that to filter their reading. And people who already like you are the ones who will give you those early hits and kudos. That's how word of mouth publicity goes. I'm not saying beg your friends to rec your stuff - some people are uncomfortable posting recs, some people are uncomfortable reccing people they know, some people like you but not your pairings - you know your own friendships and how they work. But a lot of people want to magically become popular solely from strangers stumbling over their stuff, and believe me, that's not how most actual popular writers did it.
So you can't assume your friends will kudos/review your stuff, of course - they're not obligated, even if they love you - but, at minimum, tell them about it. If you have a venue where there are people who voluntarily listen to you - whether it's a tumblr or gchat or whatever - post the link to the new work at all of them and ask them to read it. Posting it in one place and just expecting people to notice is going to miss a lot of people, and these folks are following you because they want to know about what you make. Use that.
Also, as I learned from Tip O'Neill's memoirs, people like to be asked - I can tell you that if I get an AO3 notification, I'm way more likely to say "Eh, I'll read it later" and then forget than if a friend posts on a social network saying "Hey, I'm really proud of this one, I'd love if you all looked at it." And if someone who you know likes your stuff makes an open offer to fanart or podfic or commentary track or whatever, take them up on it. Ask. Point them to it. Don't be ashamed that the people like your stuff are the people who already like you, that's why. Lonely pride will get you nowhere.
Also, if you do get recs or fanart or podfic or whatever, enthuse about it everywhere you can. It's a chance to promote your fic again without looking like you're bragging, it makes you look super-popular even if it's just your kid sister drawing it, and it makes it clear that you'd love more fanworks, which makes it more likely you'll get them. (Also, getting fanwork is WONDERFUL, but that's off-topic.)
6. Tag for popular pairings, fandoms, and characters at the least excuse
This one's going to be a bit controversial because there are a lot of strong opinions about tagging for minor/implied pairings. So this advice is solely based on "how to get more kudos", not based on any moral stance.
But here is what I have learned: In fandoms that have Large Slash Pairings (you know them if you see them) a lot of people filter their reading based entirely on one pairing. Some people will just go to that tag by default, and forget that there is anything else to the fandom. You want those readers; those are the readers that will give All The Kudos; but you don't write $largePairing. You write $tinyPairing, or perhaps gen with $canonLevelSubtext.
My baseline is that if I'm writing something that supports the spirit of $largePairing and I am in the mood for maximizing kudos, I tag it with $largePairing, even if $largePairing is only a background cameo, or even if it's mostly a friendship fic. It will still be a story that's friendly to $largePairing's view of canon, and $largePairing fans get so much fic that they don't mind something different once in awhile. (If it runs counter to the spirit of $largePairing, of course, don't do this.)
Then, even if only a tiny fraction of $largePairing fans kudos your work, that's still enough to drive it to the top of the stats for $smallPairing's tag, which gives you a nice steady dribble of kudos from $smallPairing fans for the rest of forever. This also works, to some extent, with character tags, and if you're a crossovery person, it definitely works for fandom tags.
Alternatively you could just exclusively write large pairings in popular fandoms, of course.
WARNING: Doing the reverse - tagging a fic that's mostly about $largePairing with $smallPairing as well - does not increase kudos. Fans of $smallPairing are not idly skimming a busy tag for something that looks fun - they are looking specifically for fic about $smallPairing, which they hardly ever get, and they are tired of it being drowned out by $largePairing, and they aren't actually grateful you threw them a bone. And their numbers are small enough that it has no measurable effect on your ranking in $largePairing's filter even if they do spite-read it. Don't do this for the kudos. It's not worth it.
7. Tag Lots
Oh right. Tags.
So basically just look at your fic, and ask yourself "What are some things in this fic that people might be specifically looking for? If they're looking for that and get this fic, will they be happy?" Try to think like people who aren't you. Also remember that sometimes people will be looking for a particular element and not care what fandom it's in. Think about those people. Then tag for all those things. If it's in your fic but somebody looking for it specifically will probably not want to read your whole fic, don't tag for it.
Be as precise yet concise as possible, remember that words or phrases might have different meanings in different contexts, use canonical tags when you can, and put separate concepts in separate tags instead of combining them into one. But mostly think about what people might want to find in your fic, and tag for that. The smaller your fandom and pairing, the more relative importance your cross-fandom-relevant freeform tags have to your kudos count.
8. Put the main character's name in the title
This is just a silly SEO trick: the basic search box on AO3, and a lot of other fandom-heavy sites, prioritizes words in the title over words in the tags; it's assuming people are searching by title. Nobody searches fandom archives by title. Power users know to filter by tags instead. Casual users and people new to fandom will just type $characterName in the search box and read the first fic that comes up. If your fic has the character name in the title, it very well might be that fic. Depending on the character in question, this gets you way disproportionate kudos numbers, which then drive the fic up in the filters for power users, too. This works especially well in fandoms with a lot of casual fans but only a moderate amount of fic.
This also works for fandom names, and kinks and stuff, and if you put two character names in the title, it'll come up for people searching on the pairing. Those are a little harder to pull off casually, though. (Also, like all SEO, if everyone is doing this the search results get spammed and it stops working. So use it judiciously.)
9. Craft your summary carefully
What I have noticed over time is that, while titles are hard, they also aren't all that important in terms of luring people into your fic, unless they're epically terrible. These days, anyone who's gotten as far as reading the title can also see the summary, and will probably read that too. That's what they'll base their decision on. So spend more time on your summary than your title.
First level: make sure your spelling, grammar, formatting, etc. are impeccable. Yes I know you came up with the summary at 3 AM in a panic but this is way more important than fixing typos in the actual fic, okay. Get the summary right.
Second level: So the key to a good summary is that it's not actually a summary. People aren't reading it to find out what the fic's about: that's what the tags are for. People are reading it to find out why they should read your fic. It should be much more like an advertising tagline: short, catchy, and leave 'em wanting more. A fic summary's usually a little longer than a movie tagline - more like what the industry calls a "logline" - most of the best strategies I've found for fic-summary-writing have come from screenwriting advice that talks about loglines. There's a fair amount online for screenwriters if you want to look at it - just replace the vague bits that describe a movie MC with a character name, since in fandom we don't need to be introduced to the character.
When I'm crafting a summary to draw readers (as opposed to going "fuck it" and using a random pull quote) I tend to think of it like writing the setup to a joke, without a punchline. "X and Y walk into a bar" is the classic here - and the thing is, I'll still click on fic that has that as a summary. Because I want to know what happens in the bar, dammit! Now, for more serious fic, you don't want it to be quite so joke-like, but the principle is the same - give them a setup that begs for a punchline, and then make them want to read the fic to find out what happens next. There's a lot of different ways of doing good summaries, of course - that's just the way I think about it if I'm stuck. Look at the summaries for the top few fics in your pairing, and really analyze what they're doing, and see if you can find your own strategies.
10. Find your niche and stick a flag in it.
I'm not saying you have to write the same story over and over again. I'm just sayin' you'll probably get more readers if you do. :P Every time you make a drastic switch - in fandom, pairing, style, theme, whatever - you'll lose a few loyal readers. People don't read fanfic to be challenged, and they definitely don't go back to familiar authors to feel challenged.
You'll lose readers anyway as a popular fandom/pairing quiets down, at which point it's a balancing act between moving to the next popular fandom and accepting you'll lose people, or sticking with your old fandom through thick and thin, which could put you in an excellent position RE: "1. Post Early" if there's a sudden influx fans later.
Actually, if you just make whatever you feel like making, you'll probably find that your stuff settles into a few standard things you just really like, and you get better at those things with time. So this mostly comes down to first, don't switch it up just because you feel like you should, and second, don't be ashamed of having a niche. Act ashamed all you want - apologize for your trashy, trashy id, we like that here - but don't try to disguise it, and don't pretend you're writing something else. Own your shame, is what I guess I'm saying. That's what fandom's for.
"If you know all these good strategies,
melannen", you cry, "Why aren't you getting way more kudos than you are?" "Because I'm lazy and I hate doing them," I say. "Also I decided that getting four or five kudos every single day was enough to keep me in buttpats with minumum effort, and I seem to have already managed that by accidentally doing 1, 4, 6, and 8 a few times. Lazy and midlist is where I've hung my hammock. You should try it."
no subject
In very small fandoms, there's a disadvantage even to reccing -- I'm by far the most prolific reccer in several small fandoms of my heart, and so my stuff hardly ever appears on recs lists... ETA: And never run judged awards; sure & speedy way to fannish suicide...
On tagging, I find mildly deceptive tagging of the type you mention under (6) can backfire -- I seem to get less feedback per hit where, say, I've invoked a crossover to a more popular source for something that's a fusion or where the crossover element is minor.
no subject
...I honor the people who are brave enough to run fanwork awards.
And invoking a popular pairing/fandom almost always reduces your feedback/hits ratio, because large pairings usually have a much lower ratio overall. (Especially if the comparison is teeny tiny fandoms where you might get three hits and three comments because that is the entire fandom. :P) But they usually get you higher *absolute* numbers on both hits and feedback.
no subject