An E-mail
So, I got this e-mail today, filtered to my junk, but it has the subject line: Your Fan Fiction & A Brighter Fan Fiction Future
I immediately think FanLib and what-the-hell-I'm-curious, so I open it.
This is what it says:
Hi Rosa :) [Nobody calls me that. It's only in my e-mail - it's not in my pseudonym and it's not my real name, which I don't make a secret of. Hence - no research done here]
My name is [blah] and I'm affiliated with The L-word.com. You may be familiar with their fan fic area on their site and the wonderful software--or maybe not. But if you take a look, you'll see we have about 1000 authors and over 22,000 stories. The software that powers our fan fic is a home grown product that we developed over the past 4+ years based on the feedback of fan fic writers and readers. It's called FanFicFan.
[I am not familiar with this software, nor have I heard of this venture...]
We are now making an improved version of that same software available for free to other web sites, like (thisisyoursitename.myfandoms.com.) This does not replace your existing site; in fact, all you'd have to do is create a shortcut to the FanFicFan page where you host your Fan Fiction. So you can have all the fodder you want on your site, but we host your fan fiction. It's a win-win situation.
[So...what exactly does this software do?]
You've got many fabulous fics on your site, and this would give you a better infrastructure to make the stories more readable and searchable. This does not replace your existing site; in fact, all you'd have to do is create a shortcut to the FanFicFan page where you host your Fan Fiction. So you can have all the fodder you want on your site, but we host your fan fiction. It's a win-win situation. [repeated from the paragraph above]
[Okay...apart from making my fics searchable, which I could presumably just do with a Googly sponsorship, what exactly does this thing do?]
You can customize the software to have whatever "look" you'd like. See what we did with it...
http://fanfiction.myfandoms.com/?site_id=22
http://fanfiction.myfandoms.com/awardwinningauthors
And we're about to provide our software to soapdom.com. They will put their page template around it so it looks exactly like their site.
You can do the same thing.
So, obviously there are *many* benefits to you, but you must wonder what's in it for us. One is that we will have a maximum of 3 ad spots. Right now, we're only running two.
Writers will also have the option of having their stories auto-uploaded to our myFandoms.com site. This means you have the potential of reaching twice as many readers and getting twice as many hits. However, they can easily opt out of this with a simple check box when they upload their stories on your site.
[They want to use my fics to get them advertising dollars/pounds/euros/latinum. And the benefit to me is...more readers and a search engine?]
From the admin perspective, you will be able to choose "open" registration, totally closed, or admin approval. Then, you'll have the tools you will need if someone is a problem or posts stuff that you don't want on your site.
Please let me know if you have any questions. Your site is exactly what we designed FanFicFan for -- bringing a super easy fan fic tool to an already great site.
Thanks so much for your time!
-------------------------------------------
Right, what on earth is this actually about? Has anybody heard of it? And why on earth are they contacting me, of all people?
Admittedly, I haven't clicked on any of the links, because I'm not really interested, but it's still a little 'whuh?'.
I am so confused.
I immediately think FanLib and what-the-hell-I'm-curious, so I open it.
This is what it says:
Hi Rosa :) [Nobody calls me that. It's only in my e-mail - it's not in my pseudonym and it's not my real name, which I don't make a secret of. Hence - no research done here]
My name is [blah] and I'm affiliated with The L-word.com. You may be familiar with their fan fic area on their site and the wonderful software--or maybe not. But if you take a look, you'll see we have about 1000 authors and over 22,000 stories. The software that powers our fan fic is a home grown product that we developed over the past 4+ years based on the feedback of fan fic writers and readers. It's called FanFicFan.
[I am not familiar with this software, nor have I heard of this venture...]
We are now making an improved version of that same software available for free to other web sites, like (thisisyoursitename.myfandoms.com.) This does not replace your existing site; in fact, all you'd have to do is create a shortcut to the FanFicFan page where you host your Fan Fiction. So you can have all the fodder you want on your site, but we host your fan fiction. It's a win-win situation.
[So...what exactly does this software do?]
You've got many fabulous fics on your site, and this would give you a better infrastructure to make the stories more readable and searchable. This does not replace your existing site; in fact, all you'd have to do is create a shortcut to the FanFicFan page where you host your Fan Fiction. So you can have all the fodder you want on your site, but we host your fan fiction. It's a win-win situation. [repeated from the paragraph above]
[Okay...apart from making my fics searchable, which I could presumably just do with a Googly sponsorship, what exactly does this thing do?]
You can customize the software to have whatever "look" you'd like. See what we did with it...
http://fanfiction.myfandoms.com/?site_id=22
http://fanfiction.myfandoms.com/awardwinningauthors
And we're about to provide our software to soapdom.com. They will put their page template around it so it looks exactly like their site.
You can do the same thing.
So, obviously there are *many* benefits to you, but you must wonder what's in it for us. One is that we will have a maximum of 3 ad spots. Right now, we're only running two.
Writers will also have the option of having their stories auto-uploaded to our myFandoms.com site. This means you have the potential of reaching twice as many readers and getting twice as many hits. However, they can easily opt out of this with a simple check box when they upload their stories on your site.
[They want to use my fics to get them advertising dollars/pounds/euros/latinum. And the benefit to me is...more readers and a search engine?]
From the admin perspective, you will be able to choose "open" registration, totally closed, or admin approval. Then, you'll have the tools you will need if someone is a problem or posts stuff that you don't want on your site.
Please let me know if you have any questions. Your site is exactly what we designed FanFicFan for -- bringing a super easy fan fic tool to an already great site.
Thanks so much for your time!
-------------------------------------------
Right, what on earth is this actually about? Has anybody heard of it? And why on earth are they contacting me, of all people?
Admittedly, I haven't clicked on any of the links, because I'm not really interested, but it's still a little 'whuh?'.
I am so confused.