An Easy Way to Increase Your Fictionpress Audience

"What this country needs is more free speech worth listening to."

Hansell B. Duckett

For the past few weeks, I've been fairly active on the 'Just In' section. I've read prose from all genres, be it science fiction, mystery, horror, humor, or drama (I don't really see any new thrillers around… why?). In all cases I've chosen the stories to read based on the title, and the accompanying summary. I'm sure most of you do the same. But what I have come to realize is that almost none of the titles/summaries are in fact, 'catchy.' Now if you are a rather popular writer on Fictionpress, that's fine. The fame of your name alone can carry a significant audience with it. But for the majority of you, that isn't the case. Most of the time, your stories will get off the 'Just In' page in a few minutes, and stay unread and unreviewed except by your friends. That's not the point of Fictionpress. Without the free and frequent exchange of stories among writers who had never met, Fictionpress would just be a place where writers temporarily store bits and pieces of their work. And in order to do so, there must be a 'hook' to the story. The first impression to a work by a stranger (or target audience) should be 'okay… let's read more!' I hope, with this work and maybe subsequent works, I can get writers started on the track to lure more people to read and review their works.

First and foremost is the title. This is the initial 'hook' I'm talking about. Do not, under any circumstance, revert to calling the story 'Nameless,' or 'Story with a Title,' or 'Blank' just because you cannot come up with a title good enough. I've seen probably half a dozen cases of that already; I've read none of them. By making the title an un-title, I get the image that a writer's too lazy to come up with an adequate summary of the whole story. And if a writer's too lazy to even come up with a title, how can I know if they spent enough time trying to get the story to have a plot, sense, ideas? I realize there's a common saying that goes, 'don't judge a book by its cover,' but you won't probably read it anyway if the spine of a book had a giant nothing where the title should be.

A title, especially on Fictionpress, should avoid long SAT words. While 'Esoteric Trepidations' might sum up a work perfectly, if people can't understand what it means, they probably won't read it. Although it may sound 'dumbed-down,' a title that people can read will vastly help readers understand your work. (Remember, none of my points refers to famous writers. They can have massively metaphoric titles such as 'The Catcher in the Rye,' but on Fictionpress, where really good writers are rarer than blue diamonds, I'll probably put it off as conceited and not read it.)

Second, this one only with Fictionpress, is the necessity of a good summary. I see numerous stories published without any kind of summary at all. Without a summary interesting enough to get a reader onto the story, how do you expect a reader to leave a review? Most people don't have a problem with taking an additional 30 seconds to write a review, but there's always a few. Just write one. Go through the story and make a rough summary of what the story's about. It's not much work at all, and shows that the author wasn't lazy.

A final point I can leave is the use of '…' in a title or a summary. In my opinion, it's a bad thing to use. A title should be definite, and show that the author spent some time thinking of the appropriate title. The '…' usually shows a fading train of thought. Sure it might work to give a mysterious tone, but not in the title/summary. When used in those places, it sounds as if the author tried to write something longer and more profound, but instead placed an ambiguous '…' on it and left. Just end it with a nice period.

Fictionpress is a great place. It allows writers either not confidant enough to get a work professionally published or unable to find an appropriate medium for their work an audience. But if all that's available to complete strangers is an ambiguous title and a nonexistent summary, how are the readers suppose to choose among the myriad of stories that flow through the databases? Sure this essay may only help a very limited amount of people. But if I can help my time at the 'Just In' boards easier, then the 30 minute work is more than paid for.