why I lock my fics to subscribers only
I've seen this topic floating around from time to time here on AFF and decided to give my two cents.
I'm a fairly new writer (started to post here last 2015) and at the beginning, didn't really think about the options - 'members-only', 'subscribers-only', etc. - I just wanted to write and share what I had with the AFF community and hoped someone would be interested enough to read it. And people were (to my complete and utter disbelief) and they were so so nice, very supportive & encouraging.
And as a new writer, y'all remember that feeling of excitement, that thrill when your notif icon is red and you get new subs,new comments, upvotes. I will never forget that feeling even two years later, as I'm typing this post. And as a newbie, I got kinda obsessed, even looking at the views, the stats (pathetic, i know, but this was all so new to me XD) and what I noticed was this - the views for every chapter counted higher than the actual subs. That confused me and obsessed as I was, I started to put two and two together and came up with the conclusion: people were reading my stories but didn't comment or even subscribe to it.
And that did not sit well with me, tbh. Here I was, trying my hardest to come up with a good chapter every week and people couldn't even spend one second to click the subscribe button.
So, I locked it to 'subscribers-only' and lo and behold, the subs came.
What I'm trying to say is that as a writer, I work really hard and spend a ridiculous amount of time (on top of work, school and real life in general) to post a good story. Don't you think that would at least warrant a simple click of the sub button, just one second of your time to let me know that you're reading it?
I don't see it as payment or punishment or whatever else. I see it as common courtesy.
And I feel the need to stress this out - no, I am not doing it for karma. I have no use for them, tbqh. I spend them because I have them. Not the other way around.
Besides, it's not such a disadvantage to see 'subs-only' fics, in my opinion. You get to see the foreword and a snippet of the chapters to figure out for yourself if the story and the writing style is your cup o' tea. And if you do end up not liking it, you are free to unsub (democracy and all that good ).
I can honestly say I've grown enough as a person to not be that bothered by unsubs. I know I'm not that good of a writer and there will be people who won't like your writing or plot or characters for whatever reason and i've made my peace with that.
So yeah, i think i've said everything i needed to.
Peace out! ^^
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