We might be living in the Golden Age of Authors on BC.
But - do we have enough readers?
And - what percentage of readers are total takers, downloading the stories with no intent of ever commenting or leaving a kudos?
There has NEVER been a high correlation between the number of kudos and comments and the quality of a story. That said. . .there have been some mighty fine stories posted lately that have gone relatively unnoticed. And - it seems to me the number of hits for stories seems to have gone down lately as well.
The other day Erin made a comment about Big Closet being open to a very eclectic group of people.
She has made this statement hundreds of times. She lives this statement every day.
Running a site that is opened to a huge variety of ideas is a recipe for disaster. Asking people who don't unanimously agree on everything to feel welcome under her tent is like begging for dispute, especially in today's world.
Erin knew this the day she opened her doors. She had watched the debacles in the mosh pit on another similar site.
A few days ago, I read a story on Big Closet that left me feeling a bit perplexed.
The story was well-written and the author has every right to explore the genre as she wishes.
Yet – I wish she had picked another premise or I had not read her story,
which shoved me back into the old argument as to whether cross-dressing is a mental disorder.
Next year will mark my fiftieth year in business. The first fifteen years I worked for large corporations. The last thirty-five years I've owned my own business.
Owning a business is a lot like home ownership. You say "you" own the business as if that is first person singular -- when, in fact, the pronoun is almost always PLURAL.
It has become a matter of personal pride to complete reading the Mueller Report.
I've put in about three long hours, so far, and have completed about 75 pages.
Now -- back in grade school, I scored off the charts in reading comprehension test and vocabulary. I scored in the 99th percentile on most of the main scholastic exams.
All those politicians who look in the camera and talk about what the Mueller Report says, have they actually read it? Did one of their aides read it and give them Cliff Notes?
One night, about a decade ago, I was having an enjoyable dinner out with another insurance executive. He was the founder of several large insurance organizations including two large reinsurance companies. He was a serious-minded person who had a solid reputation.
Good golly Miss Molly -- depression seems to be quite common within our ranks.
Yesterday, I had to have an eye exam to please the State of Minnesota so that I can drive the two or three thousand miles a year I put on my relic VW. On a whim, I asked the optometrist if there was anything to the "myth" of blue light impacting sleep.
Wow! He went from Mr. Quiet Conservative to Son-of-a Preacher-Man in a nano-second. The next ten minutes was a steady stream of melatonin-talk.
In a world where its users are under harsh political attack Big Closet steadfastly refuses to engage. The logic behind that decision is anything but foolish.
Yet this is a silly place. Defying all economic logic – Big Closet continues to try to exist on donations, knowing full well that a large share of its users are indigent. Big Closet knows that BECAUSE a large share of its users are indigent it MUST exist on donations because a fee-based site would not be able to serve them.
A few months ago, a friend who has read several of my non-TG books asked me to write a screenplay for a seven-minute film.
It was quite an adventure culminating a few days ago when we shot the film.
The film was about a high school girl and her male coach. She had learned that he was considering a job opportunity. He had coached her for five years and would be leaving before her senior year. She was feeling sorry for herself and upset with him. They meet in a gym by themselves.
It was an amazing experience to see actors bring my words to life.
Rasufelle has done a tremendous amount of good for this site with her contests. If you doubt that, just take a look at the current smorgasbord of offerings. Through her efforts, it appears that we have twice as many stories as usual.
No . . . this site should never change its mission. But Erin needs help and I thought that blog title would get you to open this.
A few days ago, I posted a blog that suggested people could support Big Closet by serving on committees to help the site.
Okay . . . so people either don’t like committees (which proves they’re sane) or they didn’t care for the ideas I presented. The response was lukewarm, maybe even COLD!
But . . . out of that blog came a PM from Melanie that got me thinking that maybe the better answer is to concentrate on one area.
I rarely read serials because of the high percentage that are never completed. If I do read a serial, it's after the entire story has been posted.
That's just my preference after two decades of being left hanging out to dry by well-meaning authors who either got bored with the story, or wrote themselves into a corner, or simply had better things to do.
Just today a blog indicated frustration for a story on FM that was apparently quite good but never completed.
For years I had this itch and didn't know how to scratch it. . .or even what it was.
I had to write quite a bit, in my business. People frequently told me that I had a real talent for writing. Some close friends said I should write a book.
It wasn't until I started to read TG fiction that I said, "I can do that. Writing is my itch and I'm going to take care of it."
Big Closet is true to its mission to be A friendly place to read, write and discuss Transgender Fiction. However, in order to execute that mission, Big Closet must fiscally sound.
Every month Erin sounds the alarm – and every month the same small group gives financial support. Relying on so few for so much is a recipe for disaster.
Nothing is going to change, unless change is provoked.
I know how crazy this is going to sound, but maybe it’s time to start charging people to post their fiction.
Someone said the other day that in the current political climate it is becoming harder and harder to say anything that doesn’t sound like a slur against one party or the other.
I sat down this morning to write a blog about contributions. I’d decided to base the blog on the question, “What could Erin be doing if she wasn’t constantly forced to spend her time fund-raising?”
In the near future, DOPPLERPRESS will publish Baseball Annie.
This will be the fiftieth title published by DOPPLERPRESS.
Baseball Annie will be the sixth book they have published that I’ve authored. Only two other authors have had more books published by them than I have, which means I have an opinion based on multiple interractions.
As you might expect from an Erin-driven operation, DOPPLERPRESS has been extremely author-friendly. I’m especially pleased by the covers they’ve created for my novels.
A filmmaker friend has asked me to write a seven-minute script. He's won several local festivals and once worked for me so I know he's making a valid offer. I've often thought about trying a script.
1.) Can anyone suggest a good inexpensive software for scripts?
2.) Can anyone suggest a good book on script-writing?
You stated, “This is an excellent story by Angela that wastes a lot of potential by not giving us even more. We get vignettes of the protagonist's life when we could have had stories. What's here is very good. What's missing would have made this book gold medal quality.”
How are new readers and authors attracted to Big Closet?
Maybe the financial problems could be solved through an increased user base? It would seem likely that the more users BC has the more contributions Erin would receive.
I came to BC many years ago (probably over two decades ago) when Erin sent me an invitation to post here after reading one of my stories on FM.
How did you find BC?
Do you have ideas for attracting more readers and authors?
Checks can be made out & sent to:
Joyce Melton
1001 Third St.
Space 80
Calimesa, CA 92320
USA
Note: $6000 is the operating, maintenance and upgrade budget. Amounts received in excess of the $6000 will be applied to long term debt accrued over the last 19 years.
