From what I have seen, people who offer advice or a type of ‘service’ or knowledge in their writing, get the biggest audience.

I don’t have any knowledge or service to offer. Just my stories and a place to escape.

How do I find an audience for that? It seem so abstract and impossible to me.

I just wanted to give you a word of encouragement–don’t get discouraged about being burnt out with things. It probably just means something more exciting is around the corner for you. 🙂

Mary

I don’t know if you’re free to ask them this, but I’d love it if your fan fiction friend would contact me so I could ask them questions.

And thank you for your comments on The Martian! That makes a great deal of sense–an “untried” writer posting a serial story online might have trouble getting the story published, but one with a proven following would definitely have an advantage.

Thank you again!

–Sarah

First, thank you for all your emails with links to freelancing opportunities and webinars. I have submitted some of my articles and poetry through them.

Though I started writing nearly 10 years ago, I have only just started looking out for paid freelancing work and lately book reviewing.

When I first started, my blog was just an avenue for readers to read my work/comment on my entry. I have put my websites out there on my social media accounts but I notice that though there are readers who read my work, they leave without any interaction. I am mostly disappointed by this because I really would like to know what the readers or writers have to say about my writing:) I feel feedback is very important and gets one to improve and it is very encouraging.

However, I do realize the vast talent and resources out there for writers and I do feel that I am at a disadvantage when it comes to getting freelancing work or having my books reviewed and the like because clients would always require experience as a pre-requisite.

Thank you for this article as I now have a clearer picture as to how to work with and create opportunities in the course of my writing career.

Regards
Shobana

Sarah,

I’m a big fan of email because it lets you have a direct relationship with people outside of any other platform, such as Tumblr, Twitter, Fan fiction sites, etc. This means you get to be in control of your communications — and can reach people directly. Email remains a very, very powerful form of communication.

On the topic of fiction and fan fiction, I am very close with someone who also writes fan fiction, and have been thinking about this question in those terms.

How do you build a relationship with readers of fiction?

I don’t have any direct experience with this, in terms of building an audience for reading fiction, but it’s something that’s been on my mind a lot. I don’t see why the marketing techniques that work very well in other fields wouldn’t work equally well in the field of fiction writing.

There are many possibilities, in terms of using email as a tool for fiction audiences. You could simply let them know when you’ve posted a story, or invite them to a special “beta reader” group, or give them special stories available only via email, etc. This type of thing takes experimentation with any kind of audience; even within the same general niche.

In terms of The Martian, I think this example shows that if you can prove you have a book with big potential, publishers will be interested. His self published Kindle edition sold 35,000 copies in three months!

If you have your own large audience and the proven ability to sell books, the tables are turned, so-to-speak, in negotiations with publishers.

Second question: You mentioned in another comment that the author of The Martian originally posted his work online in serials. This is similar to what I do with my fanfiction and I like this format, but I was under the impression publishers don’t like it if a work has been posted online before. Any advice/insights?

Thanks again for your article!

No worries — Freedom With Writing is going to continue! I’ve actually been adding people to the team, so that we can increase our offerings, while I can (at the same time), explore more opportunities, and write articles such as this one.

In terms of overwhelmity, well, I can say that you’re not alone. I think *a lot* of people get overwhelmed by the *many* possibilities, in terms of marketing tools, technology, etc.

I’m fortunate, because I’ve always been quite comfortable with technology; I’m even a self-taught computer programmer.

What I can say, which may be reassuring, is that you don’t need to do much, in terms of building funnels, etc. It just takes *one* very simple system to have massive success. For example, Freedom With Writing is able to succeed because of a few simple marketing techniques, which are focused on clearly offering something in exchange for an email address.

I’ve also noticed that there are people out there who are *not* intimidated by the many possibilities, then they go out and build endless funnels, squeeze pages, marketing templates, etc. But, guess what? That doesn’t usually work either. It’s much better to keep it simple — add one small thing at a time, get a sense of whether it is working or not (based on real numbers), and then move forward from there.