Rainbow Rowell’s book Fangirl was the first I ever read that had not only a college-age main character, but a character that wrote fanfiction. While I can’t remember exactly when I bought it, I do know that it must’ve been while I was writing fanfiction myself, given that I started posting it online in early 2016. Cather (known mostly as Cath) has always been relatable with her writing and why she writes. She gets joy from writing fanfiction; so do I.
So here’s my confession: I’ve always been jealous of Cath’s success in the fanfiction world.
Cath writes for a popular series that’s basically a different sort of magic Harry Potter—which is interesting, given that the Harry Potter series is mentioned in the book. While waiting for the eighth and final book to come out, her fic Carry On was updated very often, even after she arrived at college. That already earned a lot of my respect; it’s incredibly hard to write fanfiction so regularly that you can update every couple of days. I have to struggle sometimes to update one of my fics once a week, and that’s even with all of my free time this semester.
Here are some facts about Cath’s fic from page 50:
“She went from getting around five hundred hits per chapter to five thousand. Regularly. Then one of the heavies on the biggest fansite, Fic-sation, called Carry On “the eighth-year fic”—and Cath’s FanFixx page got thirty-five thousand hits in one day.”
Then, the next page:
“Everyone in fandom was writing eighth-year fics right now. Everyone wanted to take a crack at the big ending before the last Simon Snow book was released in May. But for thousands of people, Carry On was already it.”
Can you imagine having so many people hanging onto your writing’s every word that it even overshadows the original work? Having merch on other sites? Having people compliment wearing the merch of your work and having an entire conversation about your fic without knowing you’re the author? Yes, that happens to Cath in Fangirl. A lot of other fic writers and I will never know.
I’m going to break this down a little so it’s easier to follow for those who don’t read or write fanfiction on a regular basis. First, of course, is that the sites mentioned (Fic-sation and FanFixx) do not actually exist; rather, the most widely used fanfiction sites are Archive of Our Own, usually referred to as Ao3, and Fanfiction.net, referred to as FFN. I have accounts on both sites, though my only active account is on Ao3. Still, I’ll use my statistics from both.
First is hits. This is basically how many people have read the fic or chapter. 500 hits per chapter is already a large number; 5,000 is practically unheard of. For Cath’s fic to get 5,000 hits on a regular basis… Well, it’s out of this world, essentially. My most popular fic on FFN has 20,418 hits total—and that was published five years ago. My most popular fic on Ao3 doesn’t even compare; total hits on that add up to 2,508.
Cath mentions, never giving a specific number, that she has multiple comments on her page per day, even when she doesn’t upload a chapter. That’s also very unheard of, given how many times I see fic writers online begging for more comments. My most popular fic on FFN, while having so many hits, only has 24 reviews from the past five years. On the days I get a single comment on Ao3, that comment makes my day, even if it’s something as simple as “well damn,” which, yes, was an actual comment I’ve gotten.
As I was writing the above paragraph, I actually did get a new comment on a fic I updated earlier on the day I wrote this. It made me smile, despite only being one line long.
It’s a pretty common issue for fic writers nowadays to not garner many comments. I remember getting so many more back when I was starting out, but over the years they sort of died out. Even when I ask for comments in my notes, I hardly ever get them.
So many hits on a single story for Cath always blows my mind, especially considering that to this day my FFN profile has only gotten 2,855 views. I only have 85 author favorites and 80 author follows. It’s never mentioned, but I always wonder how many Cath has for her to have so many regular readers. Sometimes I can’t even get my friends in the same fandom to read my fics.
There could be a few reasons why Cath’s fic has so much fanfare surrounding it. Of course, the first is that Fangirl is a work of fiction itself; it bodes well to have the main character have special quirks about her, and in this case, that meant giving Cath a huge fanbase of her own.
Then there’s the matter of how big the fandom itself is. Simon Snow, what Cath writes about, is comparable to Harry Potter, which means the fandom is huge. Even though a large fandom will generally have more fics, it also means there will be more people reading the fics. Speaking from experience, smaller fandoms generally have authors who write more niche ideas, or only for specific characters. I’m one of those authors for one of my fandoms. Because each author writes for something specific, they’ll only get readers who want those specific things. Readers are just as picky no matter the fandom, but in larger fandoms, there’s more of a variety for them to choose from.
Every fic writer, no matter how large the fandom is, hopes that they’ll take off and have as many readers as possible. The amount of readers each fic gets also depends on the characters, the plot and a dozen or so other factors. Sometimes a reader might start reading a fic, but find their interest waning about halfway through the first chapter. You can never predict which of your fics will take off; I’m still surprised that my most popular on FFN is a crossover between Percy Jackson and Miraculous Ladybug that I wrote in eighth grade. My writing has improved so much since then, but that and a couple other of my old fics still get more attention than my newer fics.
So of course I’m jealous of Cath. I’ve read some fics that are at the same level as hers for a couple of my fandoms; they’re good, and they get a lot of attention both in hits and in comments. It’s hard to gain traction, though, unless you have the right combination of characters, plot and networking on other sites.
While I’m jealous, I think I’m fine with the amount of exposure my fics get. Sometimes having a lot of comments and readers will put pressure on the author, which can make their creativity and love for their fics deteriorate. It happens a lot, actually; my most-read fic on Ao3 has been put on hiatus by both me and my co-writer for the unforeseeable future. It’s why now I usually try to finish writing the fic in its entirety before I start posting, so I won’t hit creative burnout.
Cath is lucky. As a fictional character, she doesn’t really hit that burnout. She literally went on a writing sprint to the finish line to finish Carry On before the final Simon Snow book was released. Rainbow Rowell herself even wrote and published Carry On for us to read! I can’t get over Cath’s dedication to her writing, and while I feel like I have the same amount of dedication, I get the chance to reply to and be grateful for every single one of my readers and commenters. You don’t get to have that kind of online intimacy when you have more readers and commenters than you can count.
So for all you fic writers who have less than 100 readers, less than 100 comments and even the fic writers who have more than that: you’re doing amazing. As long as you like what you’re writing, you’re on the right track. Have fun and enjoy yourself!