Ergofiction’s Jan Oda has written a brilliant piece on being independent:

If you browse around webfiction stories you’ll see the same tricks and ideas almost everywhere. Donation buttons, incentives ranging from becoming a fan on Facebook to tweeting about the story and so on. If you’ve been around the block a while, like I have, that becomes repetitive. And it stops working.

That bit jumped out at me, and I think Jan’s right. MeiLin (of An Intimate History of the Greater Kingdom) chimes in at the comments – saying that it’s something she’s experienced as well.