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I could really use someone interested in reading my original work. I've had no luck with 13 agents so far and one guy who was an absolute turd about it in amongst that. I'm starting to feel really down and as though I'm wasting my time. The only person so far who has read the full draft is the one I paid to look at it and her advice was an absolute "no do not self publish, get an agent and do it properly" so she seemed to think it was good enough. Yet how do I stand any chance selling it if I can't even get friends to read it, and not a single other person has come back. The person I paid to read it is literally the only other person other than me who's read the full draft and come back to me about it. People irl, at work, and online, nothing.
I don't know how to solve this. If I ask again I'm just giving it to more people that probably won't come back because its happened again and again. Its not slash, not erotica, not primarily a romance (though it does have a strong central m/f relationship) and it seems that makes it of no interest to the fandom crowd.
Does anyone know any groups or sites for this kind of thing that are reliable and safe from things like stealing work?
I just don't know what to do. I'm not looking for apologies from the people who'd said they'd read it and didn't. I'm just feeling shitty and hopeless and looking for a solution because I feel like I have no options and no chance and I'm writing in a void with no feedback encouragement or sounding board to judge what works and doesn't. My close family who i could've reasonably expected to read anything are dead. Most of the people in my life don't read fantasy. I have one close friend who does and who writes herself and she won't even read it, pleading bad concentration. And i really dont know what's up there because a few years ago we swapped short stories while on a trip: i read hers and talked about it, she never read mine, and its gone on from there.
I just absolutely feel like i can't get anywhere. I'm writing - I' m writing loads - but what's it for?
(Aaand I've just noticed a bloody stupid mistake in the thing, going over the draft again and amending the contents page into ebook format, because it's only really apparent from the chapter headers unless you're paying a lot of attention to what day it is. How did I not spot that before?)
I don't know how to solve this. If I ask again I'm just giving it to more people that probably won't come back because its happened again and again. Its not slash, not erotica, not primarily a romance (though it does have a strong central m/f relationship) and it seems that makes it of no interest to the fandom crowd.
Does anyone know any groups or sites for this kind of thing that are reliable and safe from things like stealing work?
I just don't know what to do. I'm not looking for apologies from the people who'd said they'd read it and didn't. I'm just feeling shitty and hopeless and looking for a solution because I feel like I have no options and no chance and I'm writing in a void with no feedback encouragement or sounding board to judge what works and doesn't. My close family who i could've reasonably expected to read anything are dead. Most of the people in my life don't read fantasy. I have one close friend who does and who writes herself and she won't even read it, pleading bad concentration. And i really dont know what's up there because a few years ago we swapped short stories while on a trip: i read hers and talked about it, she never read mine, and its gone on from there.
I just absolutely feel like i can't get anywhere. I'm writing - I' m writing loads - but what's it for?
(Aaand I've just noticed a bloody stupid mistake in the thing, going over the draft again and amending the contents page into ebook format, because it's only really apparent from the chapter headers unless you're paying a lot of attention to what day it is. How did I not spot that before?)
From:
no subject
It's funny, I've read your fic, but only in certain fandoms, so I'm not familiar with everything you've done, and assumed that because you wrote m/m original romance then you'd done it fic...
I've sent a PM with my email address and format queries in it.
From:
no subject
And yeah, I've actually gone in almost exact reverse from how most people in fandom do things, because I intentionally started writing (original M/M) romance in about 2012-ish to get better at doing character arcs, and then transitioned to writing the mostly-het romance I'm writing now, but prior to all of this, 99% of my fanfic was plotty action-adventure gen. I didn't start doing fanfic M/M (aside from an experiment here or there) until after I'd already been writing the original version for awhile.
I realize that's a highly unusual trajectory in fandom, though!