The Marketing of Fanfiction

The Product
Part One

by AgiVega

I must admit I was very flattered when I was offered the opportunity to write an article a month for the Orion Awards fan zine. I asked my readers on fanfiction.net and the members of my yahoo group what they would most like to read about, and all of them replied that they were interested in tips in writing successful fanfics. Therefore, that’s what my articles are going to be about.

Since I’ve studied PR at Budapest Business School and Service Management at the Budapest Corvinus University, faculty of Business Administration, I decided to try and show you a new take on fanfiction – the marketing perspective. This is how an economist sees it…

The first thing you are taught in marketing class is the marketing-mix, the so-called ‘4P’s of McCarthy. The 4P’s mean Product, Price, Place and Promotion. In order to become author of a successful fanfic, you need to take the 4P’s into account.

I intend to devote at least two articles to the first and most important P – the Product.
In fanfiction the Product is the story itself. That is what you have to sell to your customers, the readers.

Decades ago, marketing was about finding customers for your already existent products. Today marketing is about figuring out what product the customers would want to buy, and then, only then producing it. In other words: try to think with the readers’ heads and write what you think they would be interested in reading.

In order to find out what the average reader would find worthy of reading, you need to look around among the already existing fanfics. Make sure you write something unique, something that others haven’t done before you. Certainly, in enormous fandoms like Harry Potter it is almost impossible to find out what topic has been written about and what not, but in smaller fandoms with only a few hundreds fics it is possible – and strongly advisable – to read through the summaries of the stories. Let me give you an example.

Recently I have become sucked into the Superman fandom and have read about a quarter of the stories (that means about fifty fics) uploaded into that section of fanfiction.net. At first, I was delighted to see fan-written sequels to Superman Returns – my heart fluttered whenever I read how Lois figured out Clark’s true identity, how her son found out who his real father was, or how Lois’s fiancé politely stepped aside to let the hero get the girl. Yes, it was nice to read five or six sappy fics handing these topics. Even ten. But not forty-five out of fifty. Soon I realised that the stories in the Superman section were ridiculously similar to each other, and after having read dozens, I got hopelessly confused in which fic Lois already knew that Clark was Superman and in which not. Why? Because most of these fics aren’t unique enough to make sure that the reader would be able to distinguish them from the rest.

An important rule in fanfiction writing: don’t produce ‘mass products’ because those tend to be ‘average’ in quality, or even worse, and sadly forgettable. If you want to write something more interesting than the average, something that the reader would remember even years after they’ve read it, then try something new. Make up a plot that no one you know of has ever done before. Don’t be afraid to be different and write differently. Don’t be afraid to shock your readers. You want them to remember your plot and not confuse it with the hundreds of other fics they have read before.

Therefore, the plot is very important. It provides at least seventy percent of the Product. Take your time building your plot. Think it over and over again to find out if it will really work. If you’re not a hundred percent sure of your plot, then don’t start to publish your fic before it’s fully written, or you will get confused, lost, and a writer’s block may even anger your readers who are eagerly waiting for the updates. Certainly, this way you will not get reviews that encourage you to write on, but keep in mind: if you write a story with an excellent plot and only start to publish it when it’s ready, polished and you are proud of it, you will see that the work has paid off. You will get lots of reviews when the readers see that you put loads of work into your fic, and the story itself is detailed and the plot mature.

What do I mean by ‘mature plot’? Well, it’s true that most fanfiction readers are 12-14-year-olds who will squeal “how gr8, update sooooon!” at anything that is vaguely romantic, but never forget that there are older readers as well. A twelve-year-old girl might find the idea of giving the main character a secret sibling wonderfully original, but anyone over fourteen will roll their eyes at it and think “hey, that was done in Star Wars already!” I have been unfortunate enough to stumble upon several fics in which Hermione Granger turned out to be Harry Potter’s twin-sister, or Artemis Fowl had a genius twin, and even Clark Kent had a sister who was secretly a Superwoman. Such stories make the readers who like quality fics grimace and click on the ‘back’ button.

All in all: no matter what your age, if you believe that people would love to read a fic about Voldemort being Harry’s father, it doesn’t hurt to ask someone older and wiser than you, to get an unbiased second opinion. In other words: a plot beta comes in handy.

Once you’ve asked the opinion of others, think it over. Their words may hurt if they say that your original plot idea is childish and stupid, but if you asked someone who loves you and cares for you, then you can be sure that they said what they said with the intention of helping you, not to ruin your self esteem. So listen to them. It’s better to get harsh words from your older sister or mother before you publish a story with a bad plot than getting flames from complete strangers on the web. Consider your plot beta as a tester who tastes your Product before you market it. If your product turns out to taste weird, you still have a chance to pull an ingredient out of it and add another flavour…

Next month: more on the Product - characterisation, Mary Sues, grammar/spelling, chapter-length, detailing and cliffhangers.