Questions for the list

[kellifer]

2 things that I have been wondering about... considering I'm never particularly up with the online etiquette and value opinions...

1. For the writers - do you post stories to multiple communities? I usually pick one and my journal or just my journal and that's it but I'm seriously considering cutting back the number of communities I'm a member of because it seems lately I'm scrolling through five or six entries of the same story over and over again... I have a non-community filter but I *like* finding new authors to read but this is just defeating me...

2. Why do people put for their story summaries like - "I would summarise but it will spoil the story" *or* "I suck at summaries. Just read." I'm paraphrasing... ;) I put an excerpt because that's what I like to see, but sometime it's like, help me out and give me an idea of what your story is. Otherwise, I just skip right over it.

What's people's preferred method?

Comments

[20thcenturyvole.livejournal.com]

I really don't know about #1, since I generally only join up to challenge communities - the fics there have to be tailor-made, and after they're up, I generally just post a link at my livejournal. I admit it's frustrating, seeing the same story, which didn't particularly blow you away the first time, posted over and over and over and over again...

On the other hand, re: #2 - I generally take the attitude that if the author sucks at summaries, the story's probably not all that hot either. Really, an excerpt is a great and simple way to draw someone in, and it's not rocket science either! Furthermore- gah. No. Nonono. If I go down this path it'll all be claws and ranting about FF.net and the apparent impossibility of using a spellchecker, which, no.

Oh dear. I get a bit ranty about these things - you see, I spent years at the Pit of Voles before I discovered Livejournal, and I have vowed that I will never go back there again.

[surreallis.livejournal.com]

1- Personally, I don't post much to my communities, although I suppose people join them because they *want* everyone to post fic there. So by me not doing it, I'm sort of defeating the purpose. On the other hand, most of people in a community for one specific pairing are probably in all of those comms, or most of them, so posting to every single comm seems a bit redundant. I've become incredibly protective of my fic these days. I'm not sure why.

2- Because they not only suck at summaries, they suck at writing. Usually. Not always, but in that case I feel they're not putting in enough effort if they can write an entire story but not a summary. Hell, just pick a good line from your story and put THAT as the summary. Eesh. I'm with you, I don't bother reading when I see that.

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

#1 I don't write a lot of fic, but I do read heaps and I'm a member of loads of comms for that purpose. In general, I post get annoyed when the same fic comes up more than twice on my friends list...sometimes up to six times...in a row.

I think two comms, maybe a specific comm and a general comm is plenty of postage. Also, I think it's not only good manners, but makes it more likely for people to see your fic, if you wait a few hours of even a few days between posting to different comms. That way, you can post to as many as you want and not spam people's friends list adn people logging on at different times will notice your fic. That makes everyone happy...no?

#2 Yeah, I tend to avoid fic with no summaries. I don't mind if they give an excerpt or a summary, but it gives an idea of whether it's something I want to read.

For my own fic, I use a summary or an excerpt depending on the story and my mood. :D

Anyway, as you well know, I've taken to friending people with good fic, so that I'm not always sifting through the comms, but it is fun to find new authors and every now and then I'm surprised by something that seems to come out of no where. I do love reading good fic. *big grin*

Cheers
Lizzie

[sp23.livejournal.com]

I only belong to a few sga communities for that reason. If the same stuff is going to show up in all the communities, there's no need to belong to so many. Plus the newsletter does a great job of gathering the new fic. I usually post to the appropriate community (sga_flashfic or mckay_sheppard) or just my lj and put a notice in the sga_noticeboard.

As for summaries, I think they're very important to help me determine whether or not I want to read a fic. The same with Ratings. If I'm in the mood for porn, I don't want to bother reading something 'G". I usually put in a small summary or pick an appropriate except, depending on the story.

[ldyanne.livejournal.com]

1) I don't belong to many LJ communities, just the ones with the fic I want to read, but I don't post my stories there for the most part because the LJ writers are so good they scare me. I stick with Wraithbait and FF.net to post my fic.

2) I won't read a story unless there's something to grab my interest, and "I suck at summaries," isn't going to grab my interest. Sometimes I get a little cutsie in my summaries, but I think it's very important to give the reader some indication of what they're getting into. There's too many stories out there to waste my time with one that won't even take the time and make the effort to write a summary. And yeah, I could rant about ff.net, too, but I won't ;-)

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

1. Usually just my lj, and if it's BSG, the 03 fic com. Er, and whatever mailing lists I happen to be on, though it's been a while. And, yeah, crossposting irritates me. My only suggestion? Take them off your flist.

2. Because I do suck at summaries, and a summary would spoil the story. Hence, yah, excerpts, or the first line or something.

[poisontaster]

1) I used to spam every relevant community that I belonged to, but it felt annoying for me and everyone who had to show up on their flist. So now I usually post fic on my LJ and put a link in no more than 2-3 relevant communities, usually the largest ones for that fandom.

2) Because people are programmed to think they HAVE to put a summary and are both lazy and unimaginative? A lot of times I don't put a SUMMARY per se; I'll take a line from the fic and make it my LJ cut text, or when I post the link on the community, I'll pull a couple sentences from the fic itself to act as a teaser. I think summaries are largely a waste of time.

[miera-c.livejournal.com]

1) I always post things to my own lj, lostcityfound because I run it (unless the story is slash, but I haven't written slash in a while), and if I remember to pairing or character specific communities if they are relevant. But I frequently don't remember to do that last one. But then, I have filters on my lj so that I only see communities when I want to, rather than my whole flist being inundated by comm posts.

2) The worst is "I suck at summeries." *headdesk* I'm a bit picky and I like as much meta info as possible, including a summary of the story, before I decide to read. Writing them can be a pain, I'll admit, but when in doubt, lift a sentence out of the story and use that for crying out loud!

[live-momma.livejournal.com]

1) Yes, it bothers me when I see the same story spammed in 5 different places. I understand wanting to find readers, but I think that posting to the two most relevant communities (3 tops) is enough.

2) I'll most likely skip a story if the intro doesn't catch my attention (and a story without a summary is likely to fall into that catagory). I don't particularly like excerpting, either, unless the excerpt is from the very beginning of the story. Otherwise, I sort of feel like I'm being spoiled. Authors & rec'ers often give away more than they realize with their excerpts. If you're quoting the punchline of a joke, the joke loses potency in the actual story, for example. Quotes should always come from the first 1/4 - 1/3 of the story and should never be the funniest line in the whole thing. So sayeth me. ;-)

Frankly, though, the best stories I've read have almost always been rec'ed by someone I already "knew" in the fandom. For example, I'm pretty sure I found you through surrealphantast.

[workerb.livejournal.com]

1. I haven't written a story in ages but when I write one, I post it on my LJ only. I rarely post it to a comm unless it's for a ficathon or challenge-related fic. I'm not that comfortable posting it in all sorts of places as I prefer a smaller audience for my fics.

I know some authors like pimping their fics in multiple places so more people can see it but I'll scroll past it if it's 'overexposed' (for lack of a better word).

2. I'm not sure why some authors do that either. Most of the time, it's the summary that makes me click on a fic link. Maybe the story is too complicated to boil down to a few sentences. However, I think the authors should make an attempt to do so.

[majorsamfan.livejournal.com]

I post to a comm only if it's a challenge response usually. I do post some to my eljay, but mostly I've been writing chalresps only lately.

No summary - no read. Unless the title is just *that* good or it's a known SUPERB author (such as venom69, surrealphantast, sjhw_tolerance, seldear, triciabyrne1978, skydiver119, rowan_d, ruralstar, nandamai, kellifer_fic, jellojuicejo, divinejoker, dietcokechic, and audrich), none of whom are likely to leave out a summary.

[trill100.livejournal.com]

#1- I never post to more than one com at a time (when I even post to a com, it's usually just in my journal)

#2- That drives me batty. At the very least, give a first line, people! Something to bait a reader is always helpful. An if a writer says they suck in the summary, I can't see it hooking much of anyone.

[c425cc33.livejournal.com]

Moderation in all things. I can manage scrolling through a few announcements of the same fic because some of the comms I subscribe to have overlapping subject matter. And lately I've seen people post !different! summary content for their fic announcement depending on the comm. It's interesting to get the author's take on who they think their audience is. *g*

True, sga_newsletter can be very helpful for some topics, but, hey, no summaries and often no ratings and I really need those. There's just too much to read; some wonderful and others not my cup of tea. I only know that I'm missing a lot.

One of my guilty pleasures is metafandom and a number of weeks ago there was a pointer to a heated discussion about summaries, spoilers, and warnings. Character death warnings were offensive to several writers because having that warning would affect the reader's experience of their work. Hmmm.

Thanks for good questions and too, for listening to this reader's rant...