What's your influece on the world of written fiction?

I think it's a general assumption that there are more people writing short fiction than there are consumers reading it (and if that's not a universally held assumption, I'd love to be corrected).

I just set up a little poll with vizu to try and get a feel for what the actual statistic might be, within the realm of people I can reach (which admittedly is skewed more towards writers of short fiction than readers of short fiction). So on that note, the more you could share the poll, I'd appreciate it.

http://www.gudmagazine.com/blog/archive/2007/11/13/your-influence-on-the-world-of-written-fiction/

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Shweta said:

1) I'm glad you can choose more than one answer, since hopefully all writers are also readers.

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That's primarily what I aim to see. So far the numbers say otherwise.

I don't, however, see how I can hit "yes" or whatever after having selected my answers. How does one actually vote, as opposed to clicking on boxes and then... sitting there?

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There should be a big "VOTE" button right under the various options.

But it may have been getting cut off due to my adding the "none of the above" option, and having some size issues... if you give the page a reload, it may work better?

Oh and, with a 21-post history, you might want to introduce yourself to give people context

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I've been here almost as long as you! I'm just quieter is all. And anyone that wants to can see my posting history. ((Hello anonymous person I probably don't know who happens to be reading this who isn't Shweta... yes, Shweta and I have known each other for a very, very long time))

Would you believe imaginaries (formerly "The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Co-operative") is still limping along? :sigh:

And (other than being on GUD's site, so sort of being GUD promotion), it's relatively irrelevant who or what I am. I think it's an interesting poll. If others think it's an interesting poll, cool. I'm hoping for something on the order of a thousand responses. Up to 51 last check.

And now that I've got my grumping and harrumphing out of the way, if someone's here and really does care who I am, doesn't know me, doesn't want to look at previous posts, and doesn't remember my "welcome" post from a year and a half ago...

Hmm.

My name is Kaolin Fire. I write short fiction, novels, poetry, etc. I haven't been writing so much the last year and a half or so because GUD Magazine (and to an extent, web development, which is my day job) have sucked away all available time.

For a sample of my (short short) fiction, you can see "Pockmarked Cement" on Strange Horizons. For a sample of GUD, just ask.

And hey, now I'm at 22 posts! Or wait, this'll be 23! EEP!

I really appreciate the feedback. Trying to keep track of public discussions (up to 140 votes on the poll, with a goal of roughly 1000).

Some other good discussion is happening on Mary Robinette Kowal's blog directly in response to the poll.

I like that.

I think the number of people who try to write novels and don't buy them is much smaller than the number of people who try to write short fiction and don't buy it. I think a large part of that is novels have huge marketing behind them, and for some reason short fiction publishers... do not.