Episode Eleven of Quartz (in which Rafe has his first–and only–firedancing performance) went out to Inboxes and RSS feed readers all over the world today. This marks the end of the first month of running the serial (-ish, I’m too lazy to look up the exact date I started).
So, how’s it going?
The most awesome news is that I have subscribers and readers! Many have tweeted about the serial (many thanks for that!). Generous donors have covered episodes every Saturday so far (this upcoming Saturday is the first one with no episode scheduled).
The only wrinkle is that there’s little reader engagement in the comments section. Yes–even though it’s hard to tell, every episode *is* open to comments, and I am happy to receive any thoughts or feedback.
To those of you following the story, I hope you continue to enjoy it. There’s a lot of fun stuff coming your way, including more backstory on how Rafe’s weird sunless world got to be the way it is, the discovery of a resource that could change the political landscape, and a hint of what Isabella’s real agenda is.
Happy reading!
I find that unfortunate fact of serial writing is why I couldn’t keep it up for original fiction and why I’ve recently written up a storm of Kingdoms and Thorn shorts. I need comments when I’m writing this way. When I’d write on fanfiction.net, those serials got comments. You see those reader numbers told my brain people were reading and wanted to; comments told my heart that people were reading and wanted to. Haven’t solved that issue for myself yet.
I am glad Quartz is going so well. I do comment religiously (coming up through fandom, you comment, seriously) when I do read, unless I’m reading too many things and spread myself too thin. I find that the more I’m invested with a particular person’s community the more likely I am to comment, unless they post tons and tons of stories and I’m reading too much to want to stop and bother commenting. The one thing that was a lifesaver to me on Starwalker were the reaction buttons, and I find that even on my own work, a click on those buttons works just like a comment. It inspires me to keep going, but most people don’t use those either. Ah, well.
Just thinking out loud.
And for the record, yes, I’m still loving Quartz. I’ve got to play catchup on the other two episodes. Also, I find I prefer commenting wherever I read, so when I read in my email, I tend to hit reply. If you put a button in there for commenting that takes me to the comments at the end of the post, I’d be more likely to comment on the site instead when I’m reading via rss.
Thanks for your input, Liana!
Since Quartz is already written, I don’t need the motivation of comments to keep me working on it. At this point, I’m happy with a once-a-week reminder that people are reading and enjoying it–whether it’s an email, a comment, a donation or a tweet.
The reaction buttons are a good idea. I’ll have to see what I can do there!