Update: February 23rd

[k_a_webb]

Waking up to a donation is always nice. It actually got me thinking about how much my currently sponsorable fiction is worth, so I worked it out. In total it’s worth £243.30 at the current rate I’m charging, with £92.45 of that being Donor House stories. All the other collections are much lower than that because I don’t write as much about them, which is something I do want to change.

That then leads me to wonder how much I could make if I charged for the stories I’m posting freely. If I take this month, so far, I’ve missed one day of the 500 word stories, but to make up for that I posted one metaconversation (which was great fun to write) and one World Walker story, which means I’ve posted about 13,000 words this month. If I’d charged for that it could have made me £19.50.

If I’m honest crowdfunding is working for me in one way – it makes me write a lot more than I would have done if I didn’t have an audience who like what I write. That is great, because I love writing, but at the same time I’m having trouble getting donations, which means a lot of it isn’t posted for everyone to read and that makes me sad. I write because I like people reading my stories, hence why I try to make it easy for those who lack in funds to have stories posted to them, so having the majority of them sitting there collecting virtual dust is disappointing.

I am hoping that posting more free stories is increasing my audience. My site stats are remaining pretty steady, so I can’t really tell if what I’m doing is making a difference, although I have been getting some new users that could be real or they might not be. I’m not certain how to find out.

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

Comments

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>> Waking up to a donation is always nice. <<

Hee! It's my favorite way to wake up too. Glad I could do that for someone else.

>>All the other collections are much lower than that because I don’t write as much about them, which is something I do want to change.<<

I'm really enjoying World Walkers, and "The Case of the Counterfeit Enchantments" is pulling in more comments and clicks from other people too. So that might be a good collection to develop further.

>>That is great, because I love writing, but at the same time I’m having trouble getting donations, which means a lot of it isn’t posted for everyone to read and that makes me sad.<<

It can take a while to figure out a model that works for you. First couple things I tried, didn't pan out. I still have much less success selling fiction than poetry, which is something I'd like to change, but only seems to grow in response to very oblique changes. That does get frustrating.

>>I write because I like people reading my stories, hence why I try to make it easy for those who lack in funds to have stories posted to them, so having the majority of them sitting there collecting virtual dust is disappointing.<<

Maybe look for ways to cycle the unsold stuff into publication. You might try a half-price sale.

You might also submit some items to magazines. Plunge is a possibility if you have any girl/girl stuff that fits the themes. With "chase" as the current theme, and Nadia being a vampire, that surely ought to lead somewhere interesting. And a few magazine publications might help attract new readers too.

>>I am hoping that posting more free stories is increasing my audience. My site stats are remaining pretty steady, so I can’t really tell if what I’m doing is making a difference, although I have been getting some new users that could be real or they might not be. I’m not certain how to find out.<<

I'm looking at the audience feedback, actually: comments, and clicks on your Like/Favorite/Write More buttons. When we started, I was almost the only person who ever used those. But now you've got a handful of other folks doing so at least intermittently. That's an improvement.