Discussion: Some Popular Authors

Sometimes they turn the fan mail off because they’ll know they get hate comments a lot or negativity.

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No ones obligated to listen to fan mail. It’s not something every author is forced to have or like. Some people do like it, some don’t. It’s their decision in the end. It just matters if the author is rude or not or just their reasonings to why.

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I know, but I think fan mail is nice. Me, as an author, wouldn’t turn my fan mail off. However, there are mean readers that give negative comments towards authors, but authors can’t stop because there are some really disrespectful people in the world.

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I’d just like to offer some perspective from the other side because I don’t think people really understand the amount of time some of these demands make.
When FLTL first got featured, I was flooded with fanmail. And I was very appreciative of that fanmail. I tried to answer every single question, but here’s the problem. We’re not talking about 10 “when’s the next chapter coming out?” We’re talking about HUNDREDS of these in a row. Sprinkle that in with “Our story names sound alike so you must have copied my story!” and “You’re dumb!” and “oF cOursE yOur MC is a wEaK fEmaLe!” and tons of questions asking for directing help, and it can get extremely overwhelming. I remember the moment I gave up trying to keep fanmail up. My fanmails had racked up to around 1000 in a span of less than a day (while I was sleeping and working). I sat down at my computer and spent an entire half hour answering over two pages worth of fanmail, which is I believe around 100 or so fanmails. When I went back to check the numbers on fanmail to see if I’d made a dent in the fanmail, I had gone from 1000 fanmails to 1200, DESPITE answering around 100. That’s the moment I realized it would be impossible to answer every single fanmail, no matter how much I wanted to, and I only started answering a few at a time.
For stories with over a certain amount of reads, there is no possible or physical way that authors can answer every single fanmail. It’s so easy to say they can quickly answer a fanmail, and that’s true if we’re talking about a handful of fanmails. But answering 1,000s of fanmail, with repetitive questions, including DMs, all of these fanmails and DMs are demanding chapter updates RIGHT NOW, fanmails and DMS asking for basic directing help that could easily be found in the guides, and the numerous fanmails and DMs asking for them to check out people’s stories is extremely time consuming. Add that on top of how long it actually takes to write and direct one chapter. It’s not that you’re being ignored, it is just literally impossible to keep up with it all. And it is also extremely draining mentally when you’re constantly getting beaten down and being pulled in a thousand different directions. The more followers an author has, the higher their number of DMs and fanmails.
I’ll admit though I’ve lost patience before with my fanmail :joy: The option to turn fanmail was a blessing and gives one time to just enjoy the silence for a minute and regroup.
A lot of times you’re not being ignored on purpose, and turning off fanmail or not answering a repetitive question doesn’t automatically mean an author isn’t appreciative of their readers. I just don’t think people realize how time consuming and literally impossible it can be when you hit a certain number of readers.
Just wanted to give insight from another perspective :slight_smile:

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This exactly.

I got featured twice, and I had to turn my fanmail off starting from that point on because I was barraged with repetitive questions - many of which I had answered and quite frankly did not have the time to answer again.

It got so distracting especially when I was trying to direct and write lol.

Fanmail being turned off def. doesn’t mean authors don’t appreciate their readers or are ignoring them.

I always tell readers they can DM me or talk to me on IG, and plenty have.

I love love my readers, but no author can owe readers their entire day answering questions. Even if you get paid for this, a lot of us have lives outside of Episode.

No one has time to sit there all day answering the same questions that are probably answered in a FAQ, or IG highlight, or answer directing questions that can be easily found in guides.

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I think that big authors mostly only following each other might have something to do with the “fame hounds” they have to deal with.
Yes, for some reason they exist even in the Episode community :joy:

I’m not even that popular and I still get my fair share. Like… people make nice with you for a couple of days, and then suddenly it’s like, “btw, can you read my story/can you shout me out/can you follow me back?”
And you go, oh, okay, you’re not interested in being friends. You just want something from me.
It’s disappointing, it’s rude and you end up feeling used and saying “no” makes you anxious because you don’t want to be accused of being stuck up.

When someone is as popular or even more popular than you, you know you don’t have to worry about that kind of behavior. You know they’re following you because they either like your personality, your work, or both.

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Yep I can confirm this bc I definitely notice the difference in treatment from having one account with over 12k followers and going to one with under 1k. And it’s quite refreshing to not be used by clout chasers anymore.
Nobody wants to be used and after awhile you start to notice a pattern. It’s really obvious when it’s being done.

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People do this with editors who get popular / are close to popular just so they can get stuff in return, so I can only imagine what it’s like for authors.

I tend to only follow authors I know (who may or may not be popular) because we can talk, and like you said, I know they don’t want anything from me except friendship and that’s it.

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Wasn’t going to jump in, but the way conversation is going is extremly bothering me.

I don’t care if the fanmail is closed, or they don’t take criticism in fanmails. I don’t send fanmail, I don’t want it either. I’m not gonna sit around and teach someone what they should do with their story. Unless they request a review from me. Which is where I only judge directing mostly, since it’s not fully subjective.

But, there are some people. -Hence why the title is SOME popular authors, no one’s generalising (:- Me saying “hey, I think you should check the layering here, the background characters are on top of main characters” shouldn’t be taken same as “hey, your layering sucks”.

I don’t think anyone is even saying “your layering sucks”, and if they do, that’s a minority, not majority -talking forum wise- but some popular authors really, really get mad when you just say “you should check the layering”.

Wording is important, look of @EpisodeShadow worded her post, “Some Popular Authors”, she’s not generalising, but if you have criticism at the slightest, some people generalise you. And that’s why this post is mainly created. Popular authors aren’t the problem, some popular authors are.

MHMMMM speak sister speak!!! :speaking_head:

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Yeah, unfortunately because I’ve experienced them🤦🏽‍♀️

Oh well I’ve never experienced that :frowning: That is why I said authors should like getting fan mail because I do. I don’t get a lot of fan mail or authors contacting me through DMs. I wouldn’t understand the struggle of answering over 100 fan mails because I’ve never experienced it​:disappointed: I don’t know why either.

I don’t even get that many and I have to admit I’ve dropped the ball a bit lol but 9 times out of 10 it’s either “c0nt1nuE” or “Your character is naked” (Stupid glitch ahahhahhaha)
I personally find it much easier to be responsive in DMs. With fanmail, you can’t actually speak to your readers. They don’t get a notification when you respond so you just have to hope they see it.

But I have seen some authors show that they have thousands that rack up really quickly and understandably, that’s really hard to get through.

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I know it’s easy to say everyone should be grateful for fanmails… But the thing is that just because someone sends you a fanmail, it doesn’t actually mean it’s a fanmail. Some people get harassed and name called in their fanmails. Like, direct attacks. I don’t think anyone needs to be grateful that someone’s sent them an attack. I think everyone can say that they’re thrilled to get fanmail that are actually proper fanmails.

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Clover, may I just say, of all the featured stories I think FLTL was one of the best!
I played through the different endings and I was SO proud of you for making the Stinson ending a “bad” one!

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I’m just going to shamelessly share a meme I made …

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Like Arden Cole :frowning: People were so vicious to her and I think that’s why she stopped writing. Which is such a shame.

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I know of authors who get threats (about updating) when they post sneak peeks so they don’t even do that.

It can be overwhelming.

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I see what you’re saying.

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Thank you so much!

Also @Briana_M I know you really would appreciate some fanmail, but I would be careful not to assume that authors are being ungrateful or unappreciative if they’re overwhelmed by the volume and/or content and I think that’s all we’re trying to say.

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Being famous in Episode, is like being rich in Monopoly.

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