Let's Pretend

[mockingbird]

Let's pretend it takes about a week to come up with an idea, write 2-4000 words, send the story to an editor, get it back and make a final draft, and post it to DC3.

Let's pretend it takes about a week to take an offer for a cover, skim the issue, come up with an idea, do the pencilwork, talk it over witht he author, ink and color and do effects, and post a cover to DC3.

We post between 2 and 5 issues a week here. Hours and days and weeks and months worth of work, every week.

Now let's pretend it takes about 20 minutes to read an issue, admire the cover, and leave a comment.

Leave reviews on the issues you read. Read issues in the first place. None of us can read the entire site, and nobody is going to like every title. But give things a chance. And even if you don't love it, let us know you took a little bit of time to pay back all the work that goes into this community. The lack of readership here is unbelievably depressing. So many great stories and writers and covers and artists go completely unacknowledged.

Thank the writers. Thank the artists. Let people know that all this work isn't going into a black hole. Read. Review. Thanks.

[isketch29]

I agree with What u just wrote

I will do my part to leave more feedback.

Carlos

[Idlewilder]

I think your heart is in the right place, Sam, but I think you'd see better results if you solicited outside the site. I can, of course, only speak for myself, but I'm sure many others are in the same boat: I am at my capacity when it comes to what I already do here and at the DC2. I enjoy writing the titles I'm working on, and when I have free time, I usually try to bang out a couple of pages or respond to lettercol comments. When I am able to read the stuff on-site (an activity I truly do wish I had more time for), I gravitate towards first the characters and titles I'm most interested in.

So there are my personal priorities, agree or disagree with them as you will:

1) site work
2) responding to reader feedback
3) reading and feedbacking others' work

Pleas like this to staff, while justifiable, can sometime fall on deaf and'or resentful ears; I'm always reminded of Ramon's situation on the DC2--- the guy does like ten covers a month, where the heck would he find the time to read and feedback (plus, I'm not sure if he can read, so there's that, too ). So instead of devoting energy to drumming up internal business (which is limited at best, and may stress out an already possibly overstressed element), you might do better looking for traffic on other sites (Newsarama, the DC Message Boards, Legion World, Comic Bloc, Wingnuts, etc). In fact, if someone with more time and committment to site-promotion were to lead this effort, I'm sure all of our members (myself included) would be only too happy to help spread the word elsewhere! Why not connect with that internet fan fic review mag HEROES to work more closely with both sites? Why not solicit readers from those other, less vital fan fic sites (the Multiverse and DC Infinity to name two off the top of my head) to come over and be apart of the real leading DC fan fic sites (of course, you'd probably want to be more sensitive than I just was ;D).

That being said, I've got a lot of back issues of All-Stars to catch-up on, and promise to try to get to that ASAP!

[killerseamonkey]

A real concern Mockingbird and some great suggestions, David.

Early on with DC2 we promoted heavily in a few key spots and I think it worked out. I'd say that 85-90% of the early and now continuing staff at DC2 came from our efforts on the DC Boards I think.

David's right. We really are now one of the best established fan fiction/art communities and we should act that way. We are also one of the most successful, if not in readership than in organization, dedication, and execution. My suggestion would be to start thinking like a fanzine or official non-official publication and get a really nice main page going that showcases and portals to each segment of the community, and start promoting. Getting in good with Heroes is a good first step. Making up some nice shiny banners and tags to drop around would also be good.

I think it got easy to sit back and rest on what we'd established with a good internment support system, but that really led to the site becoming completely static. Time to shake things up right?

[zirron]

I agree with David. While the merits of Sam's post is good in theory...

But it should be directed to the outside rather in... I do know that I try and support titles that interest me, but I am not going to comment on something I loathe per se. (Not the writer but the characters.. there are some in DC I can't stand.)

Anyway... the only way you can beat stagnation is perseverance.

[UltimateDC]

I'm going to tell you guys the truth about writers: they're not people.

They seem like people. They do normal people things. They eat, they drink, they breathe, but this is not enough. They need something else to survive: criticism.

It's not enough for them to put their work out into the world. They have to know what people think of it; what's good, what's bad and everything in between. So please do tell them...tell us what you think of our writings.

Thank you.

-UDC

[impulseallen]

Aug 1, 2008 0:44:18 GMT -5 UltimateDC said:

I'm going to tell you guys the truth about writers: they're not people.

They seem like people. They do normal people things. They eat, they drink, they breathe, but this is not enough. They need something else to survive: criticism.

It's not enough for them to put their work out into the world. They have to know what people think of it; what's good, what's bad and everything in between. So please do tell them...tell us what you think of our writings.

Thank you.

-UDC

My thoughts exactly. ;D

[daelan]

As a now-resident (can I consider myself resident? Am I what the kids call a "regular" here?) pencil-jockey, lemme go on-record as saying artists are the same way. Only as a rule we whine about it more and cut off ears. Seriously. EARS, man!

So comments are important for the preservation of ears.

That said, I came upon the DC3 entirely by the efforts of Don posting on the Mutants and Masterminds Drawing Board. So I can say with certainty that posting to outside sources is a potentially viable method for attracting new traffic. And as a relative newbie, I can say I do read and comment on occasion. Sadly, I don't get time to do that as often as I'd like.

But one point that I think should be made: I love repeat comments from the same person. Particularly insightful comments that really seem to get what I'm going for visually, and how I can improve my work to get there... In fact, often my favorite commenters (is that a word?) are ones who've seen me grow and can speak objectively on my improvements/failures relative to growth.

Also, as an aside, I think comments from non-contributors are tougher to come by. People have to feel like they're part of the community before they'll put in the effort of commenting. And the people who ARE contributing and feel that way, often just don't have the time! It's a catch-22 that limits comments. I think the trick is to make new posters feel welcomed, which I certainly was!

I'd say we've got a great group here with good ideas and strong efforts. It's simply a matter of time and energy to increase on what we already have.

Of course, I get the most positive comments from the writers PM'ing me asking me to do their covers. No better compliment than asking someone to represent your hard work with their cover drawing! So far, my ears are happy.

So far. *THREATENING STARE!!*

Heh.