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Not Posting Writing / A Mailing List by Televassi
Lately I've been growing increasingly disillusioned about writing in the fandom, in general. I'm not going to go into specifics, but you're free to hit me up on Telegram if you so wish.
At the moment, I'm considering putting together a mailing list (email in this case) of people who would either like to read my work, or give feedback on work that I'm emailing. In both cases, the works I'll be positing will be drafts in various stages, so the intention is for people to get an idea of what the piece is about, rather than technical feedback, unless they so wish!
The reason for this is that quite frankly, I'm tired of posting works on FA, Weasyl, SoFurry, and other sites. Often I hear nothing back in the way form it. I'm talking about reader participation. Part of what I love about writing from the very beginning was hearing back from people - the good and the bad.
The idea of the mailing list is a go-to record of people I know who are interested in seeing something I've written. I want to stress that it doesn't matter if say, I send something and you're too busy to read, or don't want to talk about it. That's fine. The idea is simply to have a list of people who are interested.
As for the content, it'll vary. I'm working on a lot of projects at once. The genres are the same - fantasy and science fiction. Some might be non-fiction articles I'm working on for [Adjective][Species]. There will also be poetry too, and experimental stuff too. Of course, it will feature anthropomorphism, as that's pretty much cornerstone of what I write - even the non-furry stuff. I can also promise bits of novels too!
So if you're interested, get hold of me. A note, DM on twitter, a message on Telegram.
I'll still continue to update my FA, Weasyl, and SoFurry, however it will be at the same sort of pace, and mostly commissions.
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I agree with what you say. Judging by the use of SoFurry, there are furries who do read, however I don't really post enough regularly to take advantage of that and build an audience. I may get back into the habit of doing a couple of shorter stories, around 1-2k perhaps as that seems to fit SoFurry. I've also found twitter to be helpful, too, which is a bonus as I enjoy using it. It's a pretty fun community.
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Your complaint is valid and a long-standing one. When FurRag was alive and active, I had posted almost half a million words there (excerpts, drafts, complete works.) Over a period of eight years or so I received less than ten comments. Worse, some of those were just complaints that there was no pornography in any of it.
On the other paw, there are some clear reasons for this. The general furry community is very young (as shown repeatedly by statistical examinations at Adjective Species and elsewhere.) Furry or not, that segment of the population spends much less time reading than older generations have and continue to do. The focus of those under age 30 is on performing arts, film, and music. As a long time librarian, I can tell you that most library users are older than that, and the few regular users under 30 tend to be there to borrow video and audio formats or to use the computers. This is a wide scale social shift compared to the past century or two. I can't say whether it is permanent or temporary, but I do think it is something that we, as writers, can do little about.
This is not to say that writing is futile or pointless. We still have an audience and always will have, but in order to retain that audience and cultivate it, publication in one form or another is essential. Whether you choose Weasyl, FA, SoFurry, or some other medium, it is important to share not only finished work but ideas and samples. Getting people to respond requires significant publicity effort, though. Merely posting things is a passive act, while campaigning for comments and responses requires active self-promotion. The latter is contrary to many of our writerly personalities, but the only way I can find to get responses back. We have to be visible, open, and chatty. I found that by announcing newly posted material with links on Twitter and Dreamwidth (and formerly on Livejournal) I received more responses and comments in those environments than ever came up on the archive sites (FurRag, FA, SF, and now Weasyl) themselves.