So that’s web fiction: put fiction on the web, add comments, and respond to those comments, and before you know it you’ll have a community clustered around your writing. That’s all there is to it. Success doesn’t even enter the picture (and I’m not sure why you keep insisting on trying to connect success to whether a piece of web fiction has community or no – it doesn’t matter).

There are communities clustered around the best web fiction, of course. They tend to appear in the comments within hours of a chapter posting, arguing about this character and that character and so on so forth. And I’ve had formerly-published writers come up to me and tell me that they’re doing this web fiction thing for fun … and then a couple months down the road tell me that they can’t imagine writing any other way now, because of their reader community. It’s very fulfilling to have people comment/talk to you about your work, especially if it’s a couple of hours right after you put up a chapter.

Want the best web fiction? Go to Web Fiction Guide and surf around.

Are you saying the actual ‘digital structure’ of web fiction (the fact that it’s in a file, on the web) is what makes it have a community? So in other words if you took a book like DFW’s Infinite Jest and published it in a file, on a web-server, that too would attract an online community? And is it a rule, then, that all web-fiction (successful or otherwise) must have some kind of online community?

Finally, since I’m new to your site, I’d love to see what you & others believe are the best writers publishing web fiction today (or in the past decade, or past 20 years, or whenever).

Thanks again.

LH

What’s so different about an online or web novel and a print novel that makes the former demand a ‘community’? Thousands of successful novels are published in print each year, and none have a community about them. We buy them and read them alone, and that is enough. Truly great books we talk about, we read reviews in magazines or newspapers and we talk about them with likeminded friends. But no print books need a ‘community’ to be successful. Why does it seem different for online books? Is it because these novels are so much less successful (ie have so few readers that they do need to connect online, being the only way for them to reach each other)?

As a musician, I know all too well the importance of building a community and I have managed to do it – slowly but surely.

But as a writer, I wasn’t too sure about how to do this because it seems to be a subject less discussed, at least in the online circles I move, and most writers I know offline are totally clueless about blooks. This article, and your whole blog in general, is so helpful so a big thank you for this Eli.

thanks for all the advice – i can use every drop i get!

I try to friend Readers who I notice have LiveJournals, but yeah. I suppose I could add a wordpress blog onto my site to talk more about the writing process and some personal things that aren’t “too” personal. I used to not want a forum of any kind though I’ve sort of started to consider it. Basically it seems like too much work to maintain, esp. as I’ve got NovLounge, WebFictionGuide, writing, and real life to worry about. It’s like… wow, a forum for srsuleski.com too? Madness!

Drupal is only hell for coding amateurs if you want to write a module. Otherwise it’s gotten so easy to install I would recommend it for anyone who knows enough to do the following:

–Create a MySQL database via phpmyadmin or some other tool

–Create and change permissions on directories

–Upload files to your webspace

If you can do those things, you can work with Drupal 5 or 6. It installs itself once the files are uploaded and the MySQL database is made (but not populated–it populates itself now). Modules now install themselves. Themes are simply a matter of uploading files.

But if you want to customize Drupal beyond what its (many, many) modules already offer, it’s a tricky thing to code for a beginner. I don’t write modules unless I have no other choice, and I almost always do; there are modules now (CCK, Views) that allow you to do things that you used to have to write a module to do.

Back when I first started using Drupal, about five years ago, I was proud that I could roll out a basic install in about ten minutes with a bunch of routines and protocols that I worked out for speed. Now anyone can do it in less than half that amount of time.

I will say one thing: Don’t go to drupal.org to try to figure out how to use Drupal. Sadly, the site is written for professionals. If anyone ever does want to give it a shot, ping me and I’m happy to answer questions.

(Sorry to go all off-topic, but I’m a Drupal evangelist. :) )

The way I see it, a forum’s not worth it if you don’t have the time/commitment/energy to make one succeed.

PS: that Drupal idea is really cool. I won’t dare to touch it, not at my current skill level (heard it’s hell for coding amateurs – and the templating engine is clunky), but … yeah. =)

@Allan: oops. Fixed (hopefully for the last time).

With regards to MeiLin’s comment:
Speaking only personally, I don’t have a loathing of forums due to flamefests (I’ve never recieved an intentionally nasty comment so far) so much as a fear of putting one in and having one that’s more or less empty.

I’ve seen a few of those out there on sites that get more traffic than I do.

Good article. Although the lolcat link still isn’t working for some reason. I get 404d.

I have a personal blog, but it hasn’t been updated much until recently, and I guess I need to work on more cross promotion on my stories. For some reason, my comments seem to have dried up lately, though the readers are still there. Must just be one of those swings you mentioned.

I have run online communities now for 13 years and never have they descended into the flame fests you all seem so worried about–at least not for long. You must set the tone YOURSELF. If you indulge yourself in defensive flames of criticism, you’ll let people know it’s that kind of place. If you respond differently (and you must respond), you’ll let people know you intend to keep your “home” a safe and happy one. YOU SET THE TONE.

I also think it helps to have the story blog integrated with the forum and the writing blog (for lack of a better term) in the same site. It’s why I use Drupal. When I finish this hiatus (I got a paying gig I couldn’t turn down), I intend to get back on the Drupal for Digital Novelists thing I was working on and work with one of you as an example. (I think it was Gavin that expressed interest, and if you’re out there I apologize publicly, Gavin, I didn’t mean to drop you on your head. :) )

If it plays out the way I think it will, it’ll be more money than most of you will want to pay for set-up and hosting. But it’ll offer a serious turn-key set of open source tools for building both your web novel and your community–and thus, your audience. In other words, it’s money you’ll get back if your work pulls the initial readers. I’m okay with it only being a few people; I have writing of my own to do. :)

@MeiLin: That was a wonderful addition to the post, and you’re absolutely right. I didn’t consider your site while I was writing this post, but looking back I realize you’ve actually got a better community thing going on than AE. By the way, giving your husband his own section in the forum is pure genius, as is the point collecting. I can see the draw of that already!

@Windvein: Huge rocks don’t make very good picnic places. ;P

@Sonja, Jim: I’m actually quite scared of forums now. Novlounge’s left open, but I’m not actively promoting or creating discussions in it, so it’s left to dry. I ran a forum for the good part of 4 years, but now I’m forced to let it rot. The community still exists, though, I just have to reopen the site.

I prefer blogs. They take less constant work compared to forums, and they’re easier to navigate.

PS: @all: you may want to check out anything Matthew Haughey’s written on creating and maintaining web communities (like this, for instance) – in many circles he’s regarded as the single most qualified authority on community creation.

I do have a personal blog that, oddly enough, I haven’t been writing much in since starting my serial (and is mostly read by friends anyway). I’ve linked to it, but haven’t done much cross promotion.

At the moment, oddly enough, it’s actually got an article about the current state of web fiction. Normally it tends to have random observations about my life, children, and (occasionally) my cats.

Sonja: I’ve always had rather mixed feelings about forums too. It seems like up until you pass a certain number of readers they end up being very empty. Personally, I’m not sure if I’m up to the point where forums would be useful (and/or embarrassingly underused).

And I had no idea about the personal blog. Interesting.

Thanks for this, Eli.