This blog is to help us disclose information to our stakeholders: our writers, our sponsors, and other interested parties. We like transparency, especially when you’re asking good writers to believe in you and sign over some of their rights.
But if this is your first visit, we realize that it’s difficult to know exactly where to start. The blog format is great for showing new content to people who know us, but overwhelming for those who don’t.
So we’ve set up the pages to help you navigate the info. Each page reflects a portion of the business plan. Periodically we update this blog with essays expanding about these concepts in practice, so each page will also direct you to the right tags to look for more information.
So for example the mission page looks like this:
Our mission is to create digital publish models that integrates the interactive nature of the internet rather than just shoving novels into “e-formats” as is. Our goal is to make digital publishing a lively medium for quality storytelling and to give writers a sustainable source of revenue.
First part is a clear and simple explanation of our mission, the second part provides the tags to help you find the details about our mission and how we implement it. A good business plans are essential to build strong businesses but they change over time as some assumptions prove incorrect and some unforeseen elements come into play.
Admin, President and all around person in-charge of fluffy-seme. Doesn't like writing bios, but likes writing pretty much everything else. Can be reached at seme@fluffy-seme.net 
FYI – on the front page of the sponsors / business section, it says “$2000 is $100 from 2 people.” You should probably fix that.
That's actually not math fail XD It's a funding pyramid:
$20 from 70 people = $1,400
$50 from 8 people = $400
$100 from 2 people = $200
Add it all together and you get $2,000
LOL. It's a my math fail. Sorry. When I read it, I didn't realize it was a pyramid thingy.
That's actually not math fail XD It's a funding pyramid:
$20 from 70 people = $1,400
$50 from 8 people = $400
$100 from 2 people = $200
Add it all together and you get $2,000
LOL. It's a my math fail. Sorry. When I read it, I didn't realize it was a pyramid thingy.
Off record: MCM said day 1 gave him 4 times more pageviews than normal.
This is also the first adspace on 1889ca ever.
I have a strong suspision the Rick Rolling ad will have had most clicks. I might ask MCM for some data afterwards
(ugh this comment got lost in the SEA of email that flooded me during this #3D1D chaos) If he gives it to you, do share!
Incidentally, the stats for #3D1D advertising (at least on my end) has gotten BETTER now that #3D1D is over (85% more hits and 69% bounce) … so this article will be updated or followed up at some point.
(ugh this comment got lost in the SEA of email that flooded me during this #3D1D chaos) If he gives it to you, do share!
Incidentally, the stats for #3D1D advertising (at least on my end) has gotten BETTER now that #3D1D is over (85% more hits and 69% bounce) … so this article will be updated or followed up at some point.
My brain will take days to fully process this, but I just want to say how bloody genius it all is. Thank you for putting it into actual words. This very much reflects my experience of the last year, but I've never been able to express it… and now I don't have to!
Oh, and I guess secondarily: if donations are ineffective (which I think they may be, even though I've had some success with them), what is a better alternative? Do you have a crazy idea that might work be efficiently profitable? I'd love to try something, even if it could flop badly. My brain is far too limited to think up truly mind-altering new business plans…
Thanks so much for this! Gives me ideas for my own online fiction.
Interesting – like MCM it will take a while to sink in!
I've never been interested in going down the donation route myself but if I ever did…
Well, in a way, this whole site here is all about my crazy idea on how to make web serials profitable
But basically I think it comes down to economies of scale. No one writer is going to be able to build a writing business large enough to make a profit, regardless of method, but throw a whole bunch of writers together under one site and it becomes possible to generate revenue just from the sheer volume of readers attracted.
That being said, I prefer a blended revenue model: first access subscriptions (at fluffy-seme members get the new content a full two weeks before visitors … at some point this access will be for a small fee), traditional ad revenue, affiliates (but only the RIGHT ones), and special merch opportunities. None of these things separately could sustain a business, but blended as part of an overall strategic plan can. Again, this gets much easier when you have more than one writer working under the same site “roof”
And I am the most awesome 1/19th of a person that ever existed, clearly.
The readership graph doesn't pick up those crazy types who bookmark where they got up to and continue from there, does it? Those are an elusive bunch ¬_¬
True …. those sneaky sneaky people go uncounted :3 As well as sneaky people who bookmark the New Chapter section and simply by pass the main section page that way … but I think these are just complications specific to fluffy-seme. We'll catch them eventually >D
Dary pointed out something I missed. You can have Google Analytics graph “by week” therefore giving you a pretty accurate look at your readership without restriction the date range (duh! XD)
Dary pointed out something I missed. You can have Google Analytics graph “by week” therefore giving you a pretty accurate look at your readership without restriction the date range (duh! XD)
How the heck did I miss this? Got it now, thanks… very thought-provoking, especially the idea that the number one motivator of donations is anger. (Whoda thunk?) I wonder, though: do people donate to authors producing something they enjoy and consider of value for the same reason they donate to charities, which do not benefit them directly?
How the heck did I miss this? Got it now, thanks… very thought-provoking, especially the idea that the number one motivator of donations is anger. (Whoda thunk?) I wonder, though: do people donate to authors producing something they enjoy and consider of value for the same reason they donate to charities, which do not benefit them directly?
Yay! Seme! <3
Where can I see the full agreement so my husband can help me to understand it too?
Since I manage my husband's blog and forum, which use Project Wonderful, it's interesting to see this from the advertiser's perspective. Currently we have a small “ad quilt” but from your description (and from sites I've visited where I clicked an ad..) I see that the Leaderboard, Skyscraper, and Rectangle do grab my attention as a reader (I visit lots of web comics with Project Wonderful ads) more than the tiny button quilts.
Woah! That looks really cool. I really like the breaking up into scenes bit, that seems like it would appeal to readers. The like function is a good idea too. And the sign up screens look quite clear!
I think the problem with fluffy seme at the moment is also to do with the layout of the chapter posts — the design could be better there. I think what you're mentioning could address this issue.
Well there are lots of problems with the current f-s XD Most concerning the user navigation and stuff. But I assume by chapter layout you mean how the text goes almost full screen?
Hmmm… that was supposed to come through as a reply XD
Yes — it's tiring on the eye to have that full screen block-o-text. Also the new format could make the blog and character accounts have more spotlight no?
One of the unfortunate things that I'm realizing is that in order to make this work I will have to cut back on a lot of functions (some of them popular), build a core reader base, and re-roll them out at a later time
So character blogs will be temporarily discontinued
I figured as much, but when they're re-rolled they'll be even better so yay!
So now the real question: It's prettier … but would this be something you would use? Or should I expect to work outside the webfic community with author recruiting because everyone is going to stay ensconced in their own little Wordpress installs anyway? :3
I don't know. I like my independence to be honest. I know that digital novelists offers a kind of community under Mei Lin, but again there's still a sense of independence between author sites.
I think that your format would be better suited to those not already established — those that don't have tech savvy and want things all ready for them with none of the set up effort. As you said, webfic writers aren't early adopters — I imagine the already established crowd would only *consider* moving over if your changes prove successful.
I love this! I especially like “hiding” how many stories are on the site, and the ratings feature. I think the sign-up pages for writers and readers are better too. Really, my only quibble is that the ratings icons as pictured here are kinda ugly, to me, and don't quite mesh with the aesthetic of the rest of the site. Having either the colors or the images be more subtle would help a lot, I think.
I do think it makes sense to build up f-s as a webfiction site before pushing the fan participation. The ratings buttons could be a preliminary step here, too… will readers be able to see how many other readers “liked” or “disliked” etc? I think that would be really helpful. Writers aren't the only ones who like to get a sense of how many people are reading a story and how they feel about it. A reader who sees, “Oh, 87 other people also liked this bit!” will already feel more like part of a community. And seeing that a bunch of people liked a scene they hated, or vice-versa, should prompt some comment from the rabble-rouser types.
Well the images here are just mock-ups so I will take this feedback into account and make sure the like buttons are not ugly (lol)
Given what Anna said below about webfic community probably going to ignore this until I go and make someone a famous author anyway ^o^ … I think I might go with my instincts here and give the reader a comment option under the Follow button but not attached to every single part.
I go back and forth about this because on one hand we all LOVE getting comments … on the other I really feel like from the reader's point of view, you generally don't have anything to say after reading a new part……. yet I'm worried that not having a comment function on the bottom of each post would cause a writer revolt ^o^
I like the idea of making the ratings on each part visible. That IS a great way to encourage people to actually give feedback to the author when they see something they LOVE getting no rating love
neatos! I for one, love to browse and spend time reading things online, but yes, when confronted with a huge wall of text, my eyes tend to blurr just a bit.
awesomeness, I cant wait to see it fo'realz.
Hi Isa,
I didn't know what to say for a bit because we're currently building the web fiction platform for Pandamian (like you, we quickly realized that the tech was necessary before we could even consider doing the publishing), and Chris suggested that perhaps we could join up with you for a working web fiction platform.
I told him that our needs are rather different from yours, and I thought that you'd be better off building (and controlling!) the stuff you needed. Pandamian's software will be very simple and general as compared to FS's, and since we're building it in Python – it's also likely that we won't be able to share the same codebases.
I'm not sure if your observations are true, though. We're currently building our software according to the specs outline in Novelr's Format for Online Fiction spec, and we're keeping it at that, for the moment.
Full speed ahead, Isa! =) Here's to a better web fiction future.