I’ve probably missed your explanation before this but can you explain why your fics aren’t on ao3? You’re such a good author and the community is so big there, plus I’ve wanted to re read Gilded Butterly for a while now but if it was on ao3 you wouldn’t have to worry about reposting. Is there a rule with one of your networks that you’re not allowed to? Do you not like it?
first of all, thank you so much for uh calling me an author 😳 I don’t think of myself as one, but wow, the way the word alone just gives me the biggest confidence boost and makes me want to write.
but actually, no one’s ever asked me before about ao3. at least, I don’t remember and I can’t check because I cleared my old blog. I’ve never thought about it because honestly, I don’t think I’m
I don’t think I’m good enough to be on ao3. like, ao3 is IT, ao3 is where authors who post literal gold for free are and I know it sounds stupid because it’s a platform that’s free to join, it does have such a huge community. but I’m afraid of posting there because I’m worried that no one will read my stuff. and I read on ao3, there are some massively talented, insanely creative authors there. I love ao3 because their tagging system is just brilliant, it’s cohesive, it’s a great place for fanfic writers. I’d love to post there. I’ve always wanted to post there because they’re so liberal when it comes to fanfic but at the same time, they do treat it as a legitimate art form. so the short answer: I’ve never thought about posting on ao3 because I have no confidence in my content.
but yes, the network I’m currently affiliated with does not reblog links to other sites. which is a shame because I see other fanfic writers across all fandoms making cool edits/banners to post on tumblr and they’re links to works on ao3.
here’s the thing though, and I don’t know if this can get me into trouble (I doubt it would and I don’t really care), the community on tumblr is not the way it used to be. so many blogs have been flagged, I’ve heard from writers who’ve moved on to ao3 or just flat out quit because of how tumblr has censored blogs. at the same time, I think a lot of my readers who were around 2-3 years ago when I first started writing have also moved on from tumblr. and as much as I love writing, tumblr doesn’t have a great algorithm system now. I don’t get nearly as much traffic on this blog as I used to and honestly, I don’t give a shit anymore what anybody says; nothing kills a fanfic writer’s motivation to write more than getting paid dust. I can’t speak for everyone, but I know for a fact that it’s very easy for fanfic writers to leave tumblr because even before the algorithm changed, writers really don’t get shit. besides obviously not getting paid, meme ass posts like chat posts and short little things like imagines/reactions type posts always get more notes. and it makes sense because they’re short and sweet, I’m not downplaying the efforts of anyone who creates this kind of content. but as a full-length fanfic writer, that’s discouraging. I didn’t even realize how much I’ve written in the 2-3 years I’ve been on tumblr until I started this new one, but unless you’re doing numbers like, thousands of notes on your posts and having tens of thousands, hundreds of thousand followers, there’s so little feedback. there’s little to no reaction and as much as I love to write, I also get discouraged if I’m posting something that took me days, weeks, months to write only for no one to read it or to have nothing to show for the fact that someone read it. so, to summarize: maybe I will start posting on ao3 because if I’m writing fanfic for free, I may as well post it on a platform that exists specifically for it.
by the way lmao thanks again for calling me an author and sending this ask, it really let me vent and I feel great.