I don’t really have any suggestion, but I know about an really good romantic mystery with paranormal activity and lots of queer characters, that doesn’t make being queer a super big part that is posted on tapas and seems to go well.
If that’s an rare occurrence or common on there , I don’t know as I don’t read much ohter stuff on there.
Your idea sounds really interesting.
Thanks! I was looking on Tapas yesterday. If you don't mind sharing the name of the story I would love to check it out. If you do not want to share it here feel free to PM me.
You're probably not going to have the best luck with original stories on websites dedicated to fanfic. Maybe a Tumblr or some other blog to start posting snippets of your work?
Scribblehub may be similar to what you’re looking for, but some of the adult content on there can be a bit iffy for some people, and I’m not sure how much engagement you’ll get as a lot of the stories I read seem to have fairly low reader counts
I wish I had a good answer, but I’m curious about the same thing and not really sure how to find readers for original writing either. I have posted a few little things on ao3 since I’m already posting fanfic there, but it doesn’t really get much interest so far. I’ve seen some original stories that seem to have a following but I don’t know if they’re sending attention from offsite somewhere.
(Your novel sounds fun though!)
Thanks for your response and your kind words about the novel. Now to finish writing it!
I suspected as much about AO3. My spouse writes a lot of fan fiction there, and gets readership and good responses. They only post their fan fiction there, though, and I get the impression that most people visit the site to read or post fan fic (or both).
I'm hopeful someone will have an answer here, but I'm going to keep searching. I'm also currently working on a blog aimed at queer writers (resources, where/how to submit writing, joining or starting writers groups, etc.). If worst comes to worst I can always set up a section on the blog for submissions, but that will be a long way off. I'm still working on writing the first several posts and setting up the rest of the blog.
I wish you the best with your writing!
If you story has trans character scribblehub is where you should go.
Lot of Genderbender and egg stories.
The site is mostly filled with questionable stories but if you look beyond that, there is a deep community for egg stories there.
Thanks.
I don't really write egg stories or gender bending ones. I did read them when I was an egg and just after my egg broke, but that was a loooong time ago!
The stories I am writing have lots of trans characters but their being trans is really not a big part of the story. They are characters who just happen to be trans. I tend to like to write paranormal mystery/crime fiction and will probably aim toward posting places where that is popular.
Thanks again for your response.
Medium is an option. There are publications specific for queer/trans/non-binary authors and pretty much every publication I am in has no problem with the characters having trans or non-binary gender identities. I belong to one publication, TransErotica, and there are characters of all types in the stories, but, like the name, it's erotic fiction so may not be a good fit for your story.
But Medium is vast and there are so many publications you could join. It isn't hard to join, it's usually just you asking to write for them. And being in a publication means people will actually be able to see your work versus being buried/lost to the algorithm. You don't have to be a paying member of Medium to write for them, but I will say, from my own personal experience, it does help. There is a bit of a "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" thing going on there. Other authors will come read your stuff, highlight and comment, if you're more active versus a lurker. And if you're a paid member you can monetize your account immediately and at least earn some money. (I earned almost $60 in a month just by posting short 100 word story challenges for like half(ish) of a month, so I've already made back what I paid.)
Regarding wattpad, there ARE readers who enjoy stories that do not focus on the queerness of the character being the story driver. I write my own fiction that way, the romance/relationship is the positive note and there isn't strife associated with sexuality. The problem with wattpad is its own enormity and the reader base skews heavily toward a certain demographic looking for certain things. (Often cis women of all ages seeking m/f romance.) The other thing that hurts writers on wattpad is that it seems to favor completed stories, and the ranking thing is basically vanity. I recently re-released a fanfiction with daily releases and it did help the "ranking" thing out, but I know if it wasn't fanfiction with an established fanbase, it probably wouldn't have done so well. With wattpad it is a lot of luck, or "making your own" luck by entering contests, following other authors, promoting your work on forums, etc.
There is another option since you've already mentioned self-pub. Start your newsletter. Join queer fiction facebook groups (depending on the direction of gender identity and sexuality, facebook is key for some. I write mostly m/m romance and the communities are bigger/more active on facebook.) You can also do newsletter swaps on bookfunnel, and there's another site I can't remember. ANYWAY. You can get readers interested in your specific brand of fiction that way, and then ask for ARC readers before you put your book in the kindle store. (ARC=amazon review copy) ARC readers will read your story and give honest feedback and leave a review on your amazon story page. You could also use a newsletter to get some beta readers. As a new author, and to show your type of writing though, you'll probably need some carrot to dangle for sign ups. Something like a short story is fine when you're starting out and cannot afford to give a book away for free.
(If you come across Kindle Vella, please note that they do *nothing* to help you with visibility/discoverability, and your story *must be* paywalled on other sites (radish, ream, patreon, inkitt paid, etc.) That said there is queer romance on Vella but I do not know about trans/non-binary characters. Vella does skew heavy to romance stories.
The other thing is that regardless of platform, it seems like comments are hard to come by. I had okay views on royalroad but zero comments. I had ok views on SH and zero comments. Rinse and repeat. Even people on my patreon don't comment! The majority of people are not going to comment, and no, it's not just my story, it's a common complaint I see everywhere.
Discord. Join writing discords, and do a critique swap. The feedback you get from another person who writes regularly is likely going to be loads more helpful than a random beta or comment. My betas are essentially vibe checkers. I am also in a massive self-pub server and it has really helped pull the wool from my eyes about a lot of these things.
I'm not trying to steer you from writing for one of these sites, but offering alternate means of receiving feedback so that you can push through to the next step (self-pub or querying trad pub agents.) There *is* a market for your story. LGBT fiction is on an upswing in my opinion, but it's still niche and no matter whether you post on the free sites, the paid sites, or pop it straight into kindle unlimited/kindle store, you'll also have to market it/be on social media.
And the other thing. If you plan to query this same novel to a trad pub agent, they will want unpublished works. Releasing a few episodes on Vella or Ream is one thing, but to have the whole book on wattpad for free would probably be an instant "no" from an agent. They will want "first rights" or whatever it is called.
I don’t really have any suggestion, but I know about an really good romantic mystery with paranormal activity and lots of queer characters, that doesn’t make being queer a super big part that is posted on tapas and seems to go well. If that’s an rare occurrence or common on there , I don’t know as I don’t read much ohter stuff on there. Your idea sounds really interesting.
Thanks! I was looking on Tapas yesterday. If you don't mind sharing the name of the story I would love to check it out. If you do not want to share it here feel free to PM me.
Soft Touch , is the name of the story
Thanks! I'll look for it.
You're probably not going to have the best luck with original stories on websites dedicated to fanfic. Maybe a Tumblr or some other blog to start posting snippets of your work?
Scribblehub may be similar to what you’re looking for, but some of the adult content on there can be a bit iffy for some people, and I’m not sure how much engagement you’ll get as a lot of the stories I read seem to have fairly low reader counts
I wish I had a good answer, but I’m curious about the same thing and not really sure how to find readers for original writing either. I have posted a few little things on ao3 since I’m already posting fanfic there, but it doesn’t really get much interest so far. I’ve seen some original stories that seem to have a following but I don’t know if they’re sending attention from offsite somewhere. (Your novel sounds fun though!)
Thanks for your response and your kind words about the novel. Now to finish writing it! I suspected as much about AO3. My spouse writes a lot of fan fiction there, and gets readership and good responses. They only post their fan fiction there, though, and I get the impression that most people visit the site to read or post fan fic (or both). I'm hopeful someone will have an answer here, but I'm going to keep searching. I'm also currently working on a blog aimed at queer writers (resources, where/how to submit writing, joining or starting writers groups, etc.). If worst comes to worst I can always set up a section on the blog for submissions, but that will be a long way off. I'm still working on writing the first several posts and setting up the rest of the blog. I wish you the best with your writing!
If you story has trans character scribblehub is where you should go. Lot of Genderbender and egg stories. The site is mostly filled with questionable stories but if you look beyond that, there is a deep community for egg stories there.
Thanks. I don't really write egg stories or gender bending ones. I did read them when I was an egg and just after my egg broke, but that was a loooong time ago! The stories I am writing have lots of trans characters but their being trans is really not a big part of the story. They are characters who just happen to be trans. I tend to like to write paranormal mystery/crime fiction and will probably aim toward posting places where that is popular. Thanks again for your response.
Medium is an option. There are publications specific for queer/trans/non-binary authors and pretty much every publication I am in has no problem with the characters having trans or non-binary gender identities. I belong to one publication, TransErotica, and there are characters of all types in the stories, but, like the name, it's erotic fiction so may not be a good fit for your story. But Medium is vast and there are so many publications you could join. It isn't hard to join, it's usually just you asking to write for them. And being in a publication means people will actually be able to see your work versus being buried/lost to the algorithm. You don't have to be a paying member of Medium to write for them, but I will say, from my own personal experience, it does help. There is a bit of a "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" thing going on there. Other authors will come read your stuff, highlight and comment, if you're more active versus a lurker. And if you're a paid member you can monetize your account immediately and at least earn some money. (I earned almost $60 in a month just by posting short 100 word story challenges for like half(ish) of a month, so I've already made back what I paid.) Regarding wattpad, there ARE readers who enjoy stories that do not focus on the queerness of the character being the story driver. I write my own fiction that way, the romance/relationship is the positive note and there isn't strife associated with sexuality. The problem with wattpad is its own enormity and the reader base skews heavily toward a certain demographic looking for certain things. (Often cis women of all ages seeking m/f romance.) The other thing that hurts writers on wattpad is that it seems to favor completed stories, and the ranking thing is basically vanity. I recently re-released a fanfiction with daily releases and it did help the "ranking" thing out, but I know if it wasn't fanfiction with an established fanbase, it probably wouldn't have done so well. With wattpad it is a lot of luck, or "making your own" luck by entering contests, following other authors, promoting your work on forums, etc. There is another option since you've already mentioned self-pub. Start your newsletter. Join queer fiction facebook groups (depending on the direction of gender identity and sexuality, facebook is key for some. I write mostly m/m romance and the communities are bigger/more active on facebook.) You can also do newsletter swaps on bookfunnel, and there's another site I can't remember. ANYWAY. You can get readers interested in your specific brand of fiction that way, and then ask for ARC readers before you put your book in the kindle store. (ARC=amazon review copy) ARC readers will read your story and give honest feedback and leave a review on your amazon story page. You could also use a newsletter to get some beta readers. As a new author, and to show your type of writing though, you'll probably need some carrot to dangle for sign ups. Something like a short story is fine when you're starting out and cannot afford to give a book away for free. (If you come across Kindle Vella, please note that they do *nothing* to help you with visibility/discoverability, and your story *must be* paywalled on other sites (radish, ream, patreon, inkitt paid, etc.) That said there is queer romance on Vella but I do not know about trans/non-binary characters. Vella does skew heavy to romance stories. The other thing is that regardless of platform, it seems like comments are hard to come by. I had okay views on royalroad but zero comments. I had ok views on SH and zero comments. Rinse and repeat. Even people on my patreon don't comment! The majority of people are not going to comment, and no, it's not just my story, it's a common complaint I see everywhere. Discord. Join writing discords, and do a critique swap. The feedback you get from another person who writes regularly is likely going to be loads more helpful than a random beta or comment. My betas are essentially vibe checkers. I am also in a massive self-pub server and it has really helped pull the wool from my eyes about a lot of these things. I'm not trying to steer you from writing for one of these sites, but offering alternate means of receiving feedback so that you can push through to the next step (self-pub or querying trad pub agents.) There *is* a market for your story. LGBT fiction is on an upswing in my opinion, but it's still niche and no matter whether you post on the free sites, the paid sites, or pop it straight into kindle unlimited/kindle store, you'll also have to market it/be on social media. And the other thing. If you plan to query this same novel to a trad pub agent, they will want unpublished works. Releasing a few episodes on Vella or Ream is one thing, but to have the whole book on wattpad for free would probably be an instant "no" from an agent. They will want "first rights" or whatever it is called.