I dunno, this just made me uncomfortable

[DokiDokiTsuna]

So recently I moved my latest novel to Royal Road, where it's doing particularly well, at least view-wise (I just realized the reason the daily views keep going up might just be because every day I add another chapter for a new reader to binge through...but on Tapas I wasn't even getting that, so)...

One of my first subscribers was really supportive: they commented every day, without fail, on every chapter (including the prologue). I still kinda appreciate them for that; it really helped encourage me to continue on this new site.

But then, something happened...it's been 6 days without a peep from them, and I'm pretty sure they dropped me.

But what bothers me about that is that they just happened to go AWOL right when I posted the chapter featuring the one (1) explicitly gay character in the story.

I CAN'T LET IT GO

...It's not actually knowing; that's the worst part. There are plenty of plausible non-bigoted explanations for why a dedicated reader might suddenly disappear: they could be...dead. Or on vacation. Or...something.

But then I'm like "Really...? After spending 18 days commenting reliably (including a comment saying that they were looking forward to this character's backstory...guess they didn't like what they saw?), they JUST happen to die/vacation on THAT day??"

It's beyond suspicious...but that's all I have, suspicion. I think I would've preferred it if they insulted me or something and then left; at least I'd have closure... >_<

Also...I know this is ridiculous, but the character in question is such a sensitive bean, and if my suspicions are correct this is exactly the kind of behavior that would really hurt his feelings if he were aware of it, so I'm kind of low-key angry on his behalf. I think this is the first time I've felt protective of a character. ^^;

EDIT: It was a false alarm, yay (can I delete this topic, though...? 6_6; )

[KRWright]

A few years ago I went on the Royal Road forums and saw a lot of threads specifically asking for works that did not have any gay characters in them as part of the requests. It seemed to be a common and accepted thing there. I can't say for sure this is what happened to you, and I know some authors with queer characters have done well there, but it always made me wary and uncomfortable the same as you which is why I chose not to platform my work there.

I hope there is another logical explanation though.

[Wocalich]

Feeling protective of a character is good. Thankfully he isn't real and he would never find out about what this person did. Just ignore them and keep doing what you like in my opinion

[Rubyleaf]

I don't know anything about Royal Road but I'd wait another while if I were you. Sometimes dedicated readers suddenly go MIA for completely story-unrelated reasons (busy and/or forgot) and come back just as suddenly days or weeks later catching up on everything with a flood of comments. So I wouldn't necessarily assume bigotry yet, but I get why you can suspect a connection. Wait it out and if they truly don't come back, they probably weren't the kind of audience you want to reach anyway.

[CommanderMarty]

Third explanation, they lost interest.

Sorry just wanted to say that, anyways.

I would ignore people like that, this reader was shit about the face that a gay character is in your work.

Edit: I didn't read into the post correctly, I thought they commented some bigoted stuff. They could be busy or hell just lost interest.

[lilithfairenwrites]

Yeah, Royal Road's readership tends to be pretty intolerant of gay characters—especially male gay characters. There's several threads on the forums about how stories featuring gay characters tend to get heavily downvoted, especially if a prominent character is later revealed to have any sort of same-sex attraction.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

A few years ago I went on the Royal Road forums and saw a lot of threads specifically asking for works that did not have any gay characters in them as part of the requests. It seemed to be a common and accepted thing there.

Yeah, Royal Road's readership tends to be pretty intolerant of gay characters—especially male gay characters.

O_O ...Okay. Coolcoolcoolcoolcool.

...Part of me wishes I had been even remotely aware of that much earlier...but tbh, I was probably better off not knowing; it would've just made me more anxious.

Now I can just save that anxiety for later, when I bring the character back at the end of the story... ...yay...

[DokiDokiTsuna]

Sometimes dedicated readers suddenly go MIA for completely story-unrelated reasons (busy and/or forgot) and come back just as suddenly days or weeks later catching up on everything with a flood of comments.

Update: ^This literally just happened. I'm so relieved...^^;

I think it was probably a good thing to get some context about RR, though. Knowledge is power.

[thedude3445]

I am pretty active on the forum there because I can't help myself, and I can say that over the past year or so, a few people including myself have basically flamed off anyone who makes threads like these. Anytime they appear there's a horde of people just waiting to pile on angrily. Which may not be the best tactic but still.

The site is FILLED TO THE BRIM with homophobes, I think because the site is quite popular in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia among young boys who are sadly culturally inclined to be jerks. I used to be upset about it, but at this point I just make my best effort to fill every story I write with queer characters so that readers are forced to confront their own feelings over and over. It cost me a lot of readers on my most popular satirical LitRPG story, but I think that that's the best way to slowly win over an entire community--just a war of attrition with positive queer content.

[KRWright]

just a war of attrition with positive queer content.

Unfortunately, this requires the creators involved a lot emotionally and just isn't something I can recommend people do. The onus is on the platform to eradicate bigotry from their site, not from users who just want to share their stories. While I'm sure some authors are "strong enough" to handle this kind of thing, at the end of the day, it's really bad for people's mental health to have to not only create but also justify the existence of their content or their identities in a space.

Also what are opportunities like on RR for these stories? Is the platform elevating stories with queer protagonists at all? If they are, are they also including support against harrassment when they do? Are they banning users who leave queerphobic comments on works?

Reclaiming a space is a long, hard, arduous journey. Tapas is literally one of two webserials websites I know of where queer content is celebrated, and the only one where queer content is centred regularly and prominently on the front page. When it comes down to it, I'd rather just post work where I know that I don't have to declare war to prove my own existence. I admire your strength in trying on RR, but I just think the labour isn't proportional to the gains that are made.

[Wocalich]

Glad to hear they stayed

[Wocalich]

I just saw your edit to the first post. You could ask ratique to close the thread

[DokiDokiTsuna]

You could ask ratique to close the thread

Oh that's right; thanks. @ratique, if you wouldn't mind...?

[ratique]