Literature Tips for DeviantART.com
WWW #89: Literature Tips for DeviantART.com
Posting and sharing your work online can be scary but what happens when you post it and after all that work, build up, and effort… no one sees it? Posting can be a crap shoot. While I cannot recommend a “get thousands of views on your deviations!” kind of tip, I want to share some ways you can potentially get more eyes on your work and how your current posting habits might be hurting your chances.
This article is for my fellow deviants and writers on DeviantArt.com, but when it comes to posting your work anywhere, I think some of these points might help you!
Break Up Large Posts
I wish there was some magical way to get our work out there and noticed by a lot of people. If you post your story all at once, then you have only one chance for your followers to see it. But what if you consider breaking it up into multiple parts or chapters to be uploaded on different days?
Most posts are viewed the day you originally upload them. That is a crucial moment. But if you are uploading a 10,000 word-long story, post that huge work all at once, and then only get minimal responses... you might feel like all that work isn’t paying off.
I recommend breaking up your stories into bite-sized pieces and posting them in parts! This allows you to share your story multiple times (always linking back to the other parts in the description) and get more views than a single large post would.
Pace Your Literature Uploads
Whether you are posting many different stories, or a large one made up of many different parts, you will want to pace them out. I would plan to post just one or two a week. This will spread out your story. If everything is dumped at once on the same day or quickly in the same week, that story disappears fast. Really milk these out if you can! After putting so much work into a longer story, this can help get more activity.
Announce New Stories
Make journals or status posts to announce new stories. Share updates about your stories in posts and even on other websites like social media, linking back to your DA page. DA has many different ways to show people you've made something new. Your post is one way, but if you shout it out in journals or polls, someone who might have missed your original upload might catch your journal and realize they want to read your new story!
Post Round Ups
If you are looking for more ways to get the word out there about your story, post a round-up journal or status update. At the end of a month, make a journal or status update listing all the stories you posted that month. This is another great way to get some eyes on posts that are older now.
Table of Contents
To ensure your readers can find your work easily, create a table of contents! This can be a journal that easily lists every story in your gallery with each part and series in order. Then include hyperlinks to the original deviation page. This way people can easily find and read your works, rather than stumbling through your gallery.
Conclusion
There are many ways to share your work online. After being a member of DeviantART for over ten years, I’ve seen different waves of best practices for sharing and uploading your art come and go. Recently, it’s been difficult getting any eyes on my work and I’ve been hearing the same thing from fellow writers who reach out to me to ask, “What do I do?!” But these above tips help give my work more opportunities and I hope they can do the same for you!