From Russia with Love

In case you haven't heard, I have a serious obsession with fanfiction. In fact, I am seriously considering writing a book on how to use fanfiction to help writers get published. I know that my work in fanfiction was instrumental in getting me over the hump with submitting my original works so that I have a book out right now with Musa Publishing--The Blacksmith's Daughter (in case you didn't know.)

One reason why I just love writing and reading fanfiction is its truly international audience. I have made all kinds of online writing friends from literally around the world. Right now, I'm writing a Lost fanfic called Grace Period that has readers in Australia and now in Russia. Yep, one of my wonderful readers, Natasha, like it so well she is translating it into Russian for her community of Russian Lost fans!

It never ceases to amaze me when I pull up the traffic stats and check out the number of countries represented. In the month of February, I have had visitors from 37 different countries, including sixteen different visitors from Nigeria. I wish to goodness I knew what they were reading and how well they like it!

Because sadly out of the 611 worldwide visitors and 2000+ hits to the site, only a handful left a review! However those few reviews were all positive and encouraging.

The internet is such an amazing creation. Only a few years ago, the only way to be read was to land a publishing contract with a traditional print publisher and hope somebody somewhere picked up the book in a store. Only a select few authors managed an international readership.

Now, anybody anywhere in the world can log onto this blog or check out my fanfic page or download a copy of The Blacksmith's Daughter. And if you are one of those people reading, please oh please let me know! Comment here! Review on my fanfic page! Review The Blacksmith's Daughter on Amazon or Goodreads, etc!

When I sit here in my living room, scraping together every second of my spare time to work on my various works in progress, it sometimes feels like I'm working in a vacuum. Sometimes I want to throw up my hands and despair that I'll ever truly reach my audience.

Thank goodness for fanfiction traffic stats. I know my readers are out there--literally around the world. And I hope to reach every one of them with my original works too. So if you are reading, thank you. That's the only reason I keep writing.