Reach out to your fav authors
I found out through a mutual that I've got the nickname "Banger" from a fairly large group of readers on a discord server. The server is only discussing and sharing stories about a certain small pairing I like to write and read.
And they gave me this nickname because, apparently, I'm known as that one author who writes a really good story about this pairing, drops it on AO3 with a bang and then vanishes again for a few years until the next story suddenly drops.
My mutual told me that they had a huge discussion about a WIP I deleted earlier this year (due to self-esteem issues, depression, etc) because it is highly loved. Every now and then, someone asks if anyone knows if 'Banger' (me) comes back to reupload and finish the story in the future. Some are even mad at me for deleting most of my stories and vanishing into the void.
All these people talk about my stories and that they want to read more, love what I've written, etc and I'm very grateful for that, but.
And here comes the big but: only a few of them reached out to me through the comment section or DMs here or on twitter to tell me that.
I respect that readers want their own space to share, discuss and connect about stories and pairings and so on, and I would never want to intrude in these spaces, but why not tell me?
Or other authors, for that matter.
Why are you not connecting with the authors of the stories you love and tell them what and why and how much you enjoyed their passion projects they've worked hard for (sometimes months, even years, in the making)?
If you like something, why not tell the people who made it? You wouldn't sit at home with your favourite meal someone made for you and expect them to cook it over and over again when you haven't told them how delicious it is, would you? When you don't make an affirmative hum or nod or rub you belly after eating.
Fandom is a community, in this little analogy perhaps even a home. And fanworks such as art and writing and videos and gif sets and sometimes even music, is the food someone lovingly made for the family and put on the table. It's not a fastfood restaurant, not a high end restaurant where you can stroll in and demand to be fed, throwing money around and then going without thanking the server and the cook.
It's a home-made meal and if you want to eat more of that, you should tell the cook how much you liked it.
Thanks for the nickname, I guess. It would've been nice if someone called me by it to my face instead of hearing it from a friend, it's all.
