midwestern vampires who smoke clove cigs in church parking lots and try to ignore their hunger pains as they watch students from the college in the next town over stumbling out of local bar, alcohol in their bloodstream
midwestern demons with yellow eyes and bloody teeth walking along deserted highways in the early hours of the morning, their pupils reflecting the headlights of cars with passengers who feel fear grip their hearts as they pass by
midwestern witches who wear muddy boots and garage sale rings and who always carry salt in their bags, who drink river water and pour circles of whiskey on the underbrush and feel hundreds of hands on their skin
midwestern ghosts who dwell in the basements of abandonned farmhouses and rip old wallpaper from the decaying walls with misty fingers and trancelike eyes
I’ve been seeing a lot of posts lately about how fandom can
be better to its writers. They’re all
wonderful posts, with lots of good things to say about the importance of not
just leaving Kudos, but also comments.
And this might seem self-serving, but I’m going to say it
anyway. Right now, most of fandom is
located on Tumblr, and I think these posts are leaving out a very important
step that’s just as simple as hitting the Kudos button.
Reblogs.
I cannot tell you how many people who commented on Mise said
that the reason they read it was because they saw it appear so many times on
their dash. And I can’t tell you how
excited it makes me to see it appear on my dash because someone else is talking
about it. Honestly, sometimes I think I
get more thrill out of being on someone’s rec list or seeing someone else
promote my story than I do from getting that Kudos email.
(I do love that Kudos email, though, don’t get me wrong.)
I feel like this used to happen more often. Even a year ago – I’d see the reblogs of “New
Chapter” posts for stories I followed before I’d see the original post. And it was great, because I’d see the excited
squee of other readers and that would in turn get me excited to read, and then I’d jump in even more excited than I
would have been otherwise. These days…
yeah, not so much. I can’t tell you the
last time I saw a reblog of a story I followed.
Or a story I didn’t follow, honestly.
I’m not sure what changed.
Here’s the thing: just like with artists… if you “like” that
art post, only the artist will know. But if you reblog it, then you’re giving
someone else a chance to like it too.
Want to support your favorite fandom writers? Want to make sure they get all the love and
attention they deserve? Then reblog their story announcements. Share
their stories on Tumblr or Twitter. (AO3 even has a handy little button that lets you do it super easy.) It takes all of a minute to do – less, in some cases.
You don’t have to be a fic rec blog to tell your flist you like a fic, and that they should read it too.
YES. This is so, so true. I so appreciate reblogs of fic posts, and they tend to be rare. People will like a fic post and then sometimes go back and unlike it later, which always freaks me out. Did they decide they didn’t like the fic after all? (I’ve since learned people will sort of use likes as bookmarks.)
But yes, please reblog fic announcement and fic rec posts! It’s word-of-mouth advertising and we appreciate it so much.
Yes, THIS!! I can’t tell you how excited I get at reblogs, because then I know my fic will come in contact with a larger audience! Likes are awesome, too, but reblogs means (to me) that you like it–or my writing in general– enough to want others to read it (or maybe you just want to support me, and that’s brilliant, too)!!
This is especially important because in fandom we have a bit of a thing against self-promotion—especially outside of our own blogs, but even sometimes within them, too. We need you to reblog and rec and promote us, or our stories fizzle out and die in the sand. We need you to create buzz about our stories, because we can’t really do it ourselves without treading on some unspoken lines.
I-want-my-IWTV 
