4.0 KiB
Promoting Rational(ist) Fiction?
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Author: u/DataPacRat Amateur Immortalist*
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/2ke56g/promoting_rationalist_fiction/
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Score: 13
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Created: 2014-10-26T19:24:16
Post:
Given that, in general, raising the sanity waterline is a good idea... what methods, if any, of promoting rational and rationalist fiction are worth the effort?
Positive reviews on Amazon and Goodreads? Liking on Facebook? Creating or improving TVTropes or Wikipedia pages? Adding suggestion links to your email signature? Blogging reviews?
What comes to your mind?
Comments:
u/alexanderwales [+17] Time flies like an arrow (an hour later)
See this blog post. That's just for Goodreads, but I think a lot of what that data shows has wider application.
If you want people to read the stuff that gets posted to this sub, the biggest problem is that so much of it is fanfiction, and so much of what's not fanfiction isn't traditionally published. If you go look at the recommendation graph from that blog post, a whole lot of discovery methods aren't available: these books aren't in libraries, aren't on Amazon, and aren't in bookstores.
So if you want people to read the stuff that's already been written, put up reviews on Goodreads, make recommendations on Reddit, and tell the people that you personally know to read what you want them to. If you want to go bigger, find a blog with a large readership and get them to make a recommendation.
But ... I don't think that's the way to do it if you want to increase readership of rational fiction. I think what you'd want to do is write something original, get it published, get at least some token legitimacy and the support of a publishing company, and go from there. Ideally, get that book to have a free ebook version so that people have instant, free access (one of the only benefits to most of the current rational stories - and not entirely unheard of for traditional publishers to do, if they have some coaxing).
Until that point, rational fiction is going to be fighting for legitimacy, and a decent chunk of the audience is cut out before you've even begun.
u/Nepene [+6] (9 hours later)
The scientific method is about doing experiments in a reliable and repeatable manner and then communing with fellow scientists to see if they get the same results.
The best way to do this with authors is to find good ones who are popular and who explain their method and promote them to other authors.
/u/mistborn is a famous example. Many here have heard of his laws of magic. A lot of aspiring authors have followed in his footsteps. One way you can promote it is by linking authors to the teachings of rational authors. You can help them be rational at the source.
Reviews are important as are sales, but what you really need is some sort of force multiplier. A good author needs a lot of reviews and sales and publicity to do well.
You need a strong fanbase. They can do all of the reviews and wiking and such together to take the strain off any one person.
They need lots of random converts.
To do this you need to promote the author in various venues. This requires good selling skills and diplomacy to make the book seem exciting at an appropriate social context dependant time.
http://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/2kasjs/last_announcement_kickstarter_for_pay_attention/
Plus you can buy it.
u/None [+1] (a day later)
Given that, in general, raising the sanity waterline is a good idea...
It's also difficult.
what methods, if any, of promoting rational and rationalist fiction are worth the effort?
I'm very unsure promoting this kind of fiction is a good idea, as it tends to presuppose an explicitly LW-ian worldview rather than teach why having one is a good idea. Presuppositions of knowledge are smug and annoy people.