FanStory

Please note: Fan Story does not provide a receipt for your purchase so I can't show one.
I accidentally subscribed to this when I was joining "Winning Writers," a free contest consortium. And even though I paid a full subscription that was supposed to cover all contest entry fees, they immediately ask for a small amount for "judges' fees" if you want to submit an entry. And they reveal that they don't actually cover all subscription fees. It's a scam. Beware. Very limited customer service.

I've been a member of FanStory for a while, and it's a great site with a nice writers. There's lots of good writing to read. People post all kinds of genres. But it's not a great feedback site It's more for posting your reading to be looked at by others, but not critiqued on a professional level. Still love it!

Very regulated and slanted towards religious viewpoints not shard by all. They have a leviathan like character in their matrix called, Tom. He simply rules in a very subjective and discretionary manner. Remember laws or rules enforced arbitrarily is the most insidious evil.

So there are word count limits on various submissions that are not properly labeled as limits rather they say "recommended". There will be an non-descriptive error, that will require you to contact support. The site itself is a technical nightmare, the banner reads "Since 2000" which is roughly the last time the site appears to have been updated. It wont let you try to submit until AFTER you have paid a significant subscription fee.

The site is unintuitive, technically faulty, and intentionally obstructive. I lost $100USD, DO NOT USE THIS SITE.

I have been a member of FanStory for twelve years and have found it to be a rich resource of expertise, knowledge and camaraderie. For a nominal fee, members are able to interact with a dynamic international community of writers endorsing a common goal: to share their writing, skills, and life experience.

The membership is diverse and comprised of many demographics some of which include students between school years, to seniors, to people learning English as a second or third language; all bringing their unique background and culture to the group.

Many activities are offered including class instruction, daily prompts, in addition to member-sponsored, and site contests. There is also a Lock and Key feature where like-minded members can work in a private room on group projects. There is a Quality Seal committee that offers their professional expertise if a member is seeking to publish, and monthly awards are made available for outstanding efforts.

The site is responsive to member requests and continuously makes improvements to ensure that features are user friendly and accessible on any device. In this time of massive competition to capture the attention of readers and writers around the world, FanStory is definitely a top contender in the arena.

Fanstory was recommended to me by a friend who has been a longtime member. Candidly, I always thought my family and friends would only give careful, filtered criticism of my written work, and I needed an objective perspective. With the combination of my friend's endorsement and reasonable pricing, I decided to give Fanstory a try.

I am more than happy with my investment, as there are many facets of Fanstory that I particularly appreciate. The wide array of contests challenge me to write about new things, in new formats (and be incentivized to do so!) The community has not only been welcoming and kind, but insightful and helpful with their feedback. I also love the free register copyright feature; the idea that if, one day, I'm ready to seek publication, I can make my account private and limit its access. The website is designed thoughtfully in this regard.

That is all to say, although I am a relatively new member, I have no regrets in trying the website out and do wish I started sooner. I'm looking forward to seeing how I can continue to improve.

The site itself is fine. However, my issues with Fanstory are how challenging (or more accurately, impossible) they make cancelling a subscription. I signed up directly with a credit card, not PayPal. While on PayPal, there are ways to individually cancel, there is no such option on credit card. The site does NOT have a mange subscription option or anything of the sortd. Naturally, I sent multiple emails over the months to try and get my money back; they have literally replied to none of them. I first contacted them about cancelling 5 months ago in September, and have frustratingly watched $10USD drain out of my account each month for a site I do not use. Unless you intend to sign up for life, I wouldn't recommend this website.

I was a member of FanStory for 3 years and have now joined the All Poetry website.
I found FanStory to be filled with cronyism and vote buying. They repeat the same contests over and over again, and the same people keep winning all the time.The reviews are carried out on a very friendly basis and you seldom find any constructive criticism that is really helpful. I won 16 contests during my time at Fanstory, all of which were blind i. E no one knows whose poem is being displayed, but as soon as the poets names were displayed against their poems I did not receive one single vote in 3 years. Numerous poems thar came last in FanStory have won multiple gold medals in All Poetry, which is free to join and all postings are free. They also have a far greater variety of contests to choose from and I have earned over 1900 awards in a little over 3 years,. And would never consider returning to Fanstory, which is a costly website as opposed to All Poetry, which is free.

A friend told me about Fanstory because I began creative writing as a form of stress relief over the past year. It's given me a space to do that and ideas for things to write about with all the contests. I don't really care if I win them, but it gives my writing more of a purpose. No complaints overall so far.

I have been a member of Fanstory for about 8 months now and it's been a nice experience. I usually find myself only writing casually; mostly to kill time as a hobby. I stumbled upon this website by chance and I have to say, my hobby has turned into a passion. I started off by joining cash prize contests just for the heck of it, and although I didn't win any to begin with, the feedback I received from other members really improved the overall quality of my work going forward. Beyond that, it was the praise I had received from said members that encouraged me to put more time and effort into writing. For all amateur writers out there, or even those with experience, Fanstory is a reasonably priced platform to help you not only improve your skills but also connect to fellow creative minds. Highly recommend

I think the majority of the five star reviews given to FanStory on this site were written by the guy who owns it. Either that, or by people who have not yet figured out what a scam it is, and are thrilled by the "fluff" reviews other members provide as a means of earning themselves points they can use to promote their own work. Please carefully read the post of those who rated FanStory three stars or less, because they tell the true story. In any case, don't waste any money joining this site or paying to have your work promoted. See how well the site works for you if you aren't pumping money into it, and make your own decision after figuring out how it really works.

I was excited to try out FanStory, especially for their competitions, quick feedback, and "great people"--as noted in several reviews on this forum. Long story short: the website is... not good. The writing on the website is... not good. I hate to say that any writing is bad, but the site encourages bland, dentist-office-poster poetry. I've attached some examples below of what poetry looks like on the site. (There are also short stories, novelettes, novellas, and novels). I do not mean to bash any writer--I just think it is important for potential clients to see what kind of community they're joining.

I might also note that there are lots of highly insensitive poems about current events. I have read several haikus about George Floyd's murder, and other's about Breonna Taylor's. They are badly done and highly insensitive. If this matters to you, the site also pumps out Christian content. Lots of poems about prayer, repentance, faith.

And more so, as many of these reviews have mentioned, the site is a total scam. I recommend reading Mike P.'s review, "The more you spend, the higher you rank as a 'writer'?". You have to pay at least fifty or sixty dollars to even be noticed, and the reviews you receive will be bland, overly general, and not at all critical. I have NEVER seen someone give less than five stars. I think, also, for a price as steep as sixty dollars, one might expect at least a semblance of a nice website. It seems like it hasn't been updated since 2010--links lead to blank pages, fonts never match, and the site in general functions badly.

As a young writer, FanStory has been discouraging. The site encourages writers to tuck away their individuality and pay for attention. It's a breeding ground for stupendously mediocre work, churned out over and over again. I recommend finding another site to publish your work: perhaps HelloPoetry, AllPoetry, Medium, or Scribophile.

Paid for a month to check out the site's features, and it was a sad experience. From what I gathered, the more you spend there, the more coverage your own writing pieces receive, thus the more reviews and rank, awards, etc come your way in return.

Plus strange activities go on that did not seem ethical or honest to me. For example, within minutes of a contest voting booth going live, you can see top"writers" pieces be chosen in seconds - note the reviewers supposedly read ALL the entries in that amount of time, which is literally not possible. Newbies who did not pay to promote their entries, of course, were not at the top in this type voting scheme.(For more on the points/ $$ and member $$, read other feedback//reviews all over the web on FanStory).

Often feedback is weird, too. Example: you need to write a minimum of 150 characters on poems of maybe 2 lines in order for it to"count" towards rank and earn you points, member $, etc. Not much to say, so you have to get creative and write more than the writer did, at times. See more in other reviews.

Not a serious site for writers at all, in my humble opinion. It's not fair that the more $$ you have to spend there, the "better" writer you are? Not.

I recommend this: if you seek $ and credits, write to publish, sending your work to publishers, both online and off.
A magazine, blog or other credit would be much more valuable, and wouldn't cost anything except your time writing, which you'd do anyway at FanStory.

You can join writers' groups for real critique, too, and not get the "fluff" here.

I have been a member for about a year now and I'm so glad I discovered it. Fanstory is a great community to be a part of and the contests are a lot of fun. If you're looking for a creative outlet/place to express yourself through your writing and get good feedback, I highly recommend.

Here's the good and the bad about FanStory. FS is a great place to post your poetry, short stories, novels, and scripts, and receive feedback from other members on the site. It also has numerous contests, both site-sponsored and member-sponsored, and these can be fun to enter. The cost to be a member allowed to post your writing is not prohibitive.

So what's the downside?

In order to have your writing reviewed, it needs to be "promoted". All your postings will have a free initial certificate which expires after two reviews. To give your work visibility, you must buy a certificate which will cost you between six and ten dollars. But wait! That will only get you a place far down on the list, where you might only get one or two more reviews. To move your work higher, you need to buy "pump" certificates that pump your work up the list. This costs another $3, but you may need several to move you piece up where it will get a lot of visibility.

You can either whip out your credit card to purchase certificates and pumps, or earn member dollars by reviewing the work of other writers. In order to avoid spending "real" money to promote their work, other writers review, review, review. Of course, the volume of reviews they need to do results in some reviews being virtually worthless "fluff".

Ratings are based on the volume of work you post, and the review ratings given them. The top-rated poets on FS are not by any means the best poets on the site, but they are the most prolific, some with literally hundreds of (sometimes remarkably) mundane works that get numerous "fluff" reviews, and therefore move them up the ranks. Some of the highest rated poets do have talent, but even again, the driver is volume, which of course requires - you guessed it - that people buy certificates to promote their volumes of work.

But here's the real danger to serious writers, and a well-kept secret that the owner doesn't want potential (or current) members to know. Many publications consider a work posted on FanStory as having been published online, which disqualifies it from being considered for publication elsewhere. FanStory will tell you that by making your profile "private" and setting "content sharing" to off, your work is only visible to members, and therefore that rule does not apply. This is not true in all cases, and reputable submission services may refuse to consider any work that has been posted on FanStory because it is considered "previously published".
If you are looking for a supportive writing community, recognition within that community, and fun contests that will inspire you to write, FanStory is a fine place to go.

If you are a serious writer looking to be published, DO NOT put your work in risk by posting it on FS and opening up the possibility that your opportunity to be published will be lost.

There are many testimonials about writers cuttting their teeth on FS and their experience there helping them to get published. But the opportunities to get published are, as we all know, hard to come by. If your goal is to publish, don't risk having your work disqualified from being accepted because it has appeared on FS.

This is a unique and fun platform for new to experienced writers. I enjoy the experience of sharing my writing with others for detailed feedback. Really nice people comment on my writing. The contests are fun and can be challenging. Support is good to answer questions as I was a little confused when I first joined. Overall highly recommend it.

A complete and total joke. I have to think that the ballot box was stuffed considering all the favorable reviews (C'mon, 5 stars that often?) As others have stated, it is not cost effective to belong to this site if you want constructive feedback... way too expensive.

By the way, I signed up -- and paid for -- for two years (as it was cheaper). When I reached my one year anniversary, Fanstory told me it was time to renew my membership. When I told them I had paid for two years (check their records) good old Tom basically told me to "prove it." Can you imagine that... they supposedly DON'T have the records of member transactions? I think it was simply a ploy to get me to pay again, if I couldn't provide proof that I had indeed paid for two years. I was able to prove I had paid for the second year, which really didn't matter at that point because I told them what they could do with their con-game disguised as a writing site.

There are many sites far more worthy of your hard earned dollars (and they will require far less of them too). Try writing.com, scribophile, and others. Just stay away from Fanstory. Your best interests are the LAST thing on their collective little minds!

Poorly maintained site designed over 20 years ago. Lots of favoritism and bullying, vote manipulation, selective interpretation of site rules, outright censorship. Back in its heyday Fanstory was perhaps the place to be at. It has a good system to help writers become prolific, and it provides plenty of tyranny to give the better writers something to fight back against. This could be a great place to get started. Use a good nom de plume and see how much trouble you can cause. Not a good place to stay and grow long-term. If I said more, it would likely give away my identity to those on the site likely perusing these reviews.

I just joined fanstory its very cool and exciting for me

I took a somewhat circuitous route to becoming an author.
I have been writing small poems since the late 1950's.
I wanted to be a songwriter like my idol Smokey Robinson.
Living in Detroit, I was well aware of his route to fame.
However, I never learned how to play an instrument so I opted instead to convert my lyrics into poems.
I never received any formal training in poetry writing so, although I received praise, my efforts were pretty much amateurish.
Then I discovered FanStory. The reviews, the suggestions, the examples I was able to avail myself of, turned me into an author.
I still have much to learn, but I am no longer embarrassed by the quality of my output or lack thereof.
My thanks go out to the site administrators of FanStory and all of its talented pool of author/members.
I have published several books of poetry since becoming a member of FanStory.

I found that some pieces needed serious editing rather than a few words of review, but the site is not set up for editing, so editing was painstakingly laborious. Sometimes I was thanked for my work and a few times told "to each his own," even though the writing read like sixth grade. I joined for a year hoping to get my money back at least, and I never won anything. I also found the emphasis on poetry a bit tiresome. Word of caution: Once you've submitted a story or poem to FanStory it is considered published, and most pubs don't accept already published material or, if they do, don't pay much if anything.

I joined for the contests. There are many contests to enter. But I
Stayed for the friendships that I made. When I first joined I was
Nervous about the feedback I'd receive from other writers. But I was
Pleasantly surprised. Everyone was welcoming and encouraged me. I
Expected mean reviews for some reason, but that wasn't the case. The
Writing contests encourage you to try new forms of writing especially
For poetry. They can be a challenge. The site offers a supportive
Place for you to share your writing. I recommend it to everyone.

I have come away feeling incredibly disillusioned with this website, and would warn anybody who thinks that they will 'improve' their writing and meet serious, professional people on this website to enrol in a writing course at an institute or university instead. I was primarily attracted to this website for its writing contests and the hope of encountering some good writing, but soon discovered its ugly side. Although the site claims that contests can be entered "for free", this is false and misleading. The site runs on a little capitalist system, where its members each have an account made up of a virtual currency - called "member dollars". These dollars can be earned by writing reviews on newly-posted stories or poems from other users, with new content paying a larger amount of currency to the reviewer (as an incentive for their input) in comparison to an older poem, which pays almost nothing and is thus pointless to review. This is how the 'five-minute feedback' promise by the website is achieved, but I find it utterly exploitative - reviewers of new content are motivated by the amount of currency they will be paid, and will hastily write a comment, often vague, positive and offering no real criticism, in order to earn the proffered amount of currency so they can pay the fees required to submit entries to contests or 'promote' their writing on the website. Thus, they are not actually reviewing the material for its merit, but for the virtual money it pays. The amount earned by a user in reviewing a piece, whether old or new, is disproportionately low in comparison to the fees required to enter a contest - a review will pay around 40-70 member cents, for example, but an entry fee for a contest will typically be around 5.00 member dollars for more. This means that you'll be reviewing other people's work more than what you'd paid your membership fee to do - writing and sharing your own work, and thus the membership becomes more of a job or responsibility than a source of fun or satisfaction. The only alternative to reviewing is to buy virtual currency over PayPal with real money, which should ring alarm bells about the nature this website.
The content I was made to review to earn a decent amount of currency was almost always poor or downright atrocious, and I often felt embarrassed and slightly sickened to be reading it. Many poems I read that had won contests were often clichéd and lame, and would not merit publication or praise in any decent or professional literary circle. The website also appeared largely composed of retirees or housewives who wanted to dabble in writing, rather than improve their craft or write on serious subjects, producing repetitive and boring poetry preoccupied with subjects such as fields of flowers, the ocean, loving embraces, ad infinitum... it is definitely not a place that will produce the next Sylvia Plath or Robert Frost! I made a comment on my profile complaining of the poor quality of the writing on the website and the positive reviews it got, only to be firmly reproved by one user who invoked the example of Dan Brown as proof that "one man's trash can be another's treasure". Be that as it may, it still provided no excuse as to why many writers on the website were using improper grammar and clichéd, sentimental themes. Other users agreed with thIS user's claims of the subjectivity of writing. However, I still think my concerns were founded and well-evidenced and that Dan Brown is complete rubbish, not serious literature.
To conclude, I must say that this website completely violates the creative spirit of writing - it will try to claim a profit from its users regardless of the quality or merit of their work. While FanStory sounds like a nice idea, it still has all the faults of a business firm - exploitation of its members (who effectively get sucked in to become workers), those who are willing to spend money have the most power and benefits etc. Even though you will pay quite a hefty membership fee considering what you get out of the website, it requires you to give back time and effort in doing something you didn't pay to do. As an example, it's like if YouTube suddenly required its users to review random videos from others, in order for us to be allowed to post our own videos. Wouldn't that encourage people to leave vacuous and pointless comments when reviewing, such as "This is good", as they are forced to watch content they are not interested in in order to make a personal gain? This is exactly what happens on FanStory - things are reviewed for the profit, not because a user likes a poem and wants to review it on its own merit.
All in all, it is a business designed to extract maximum profit from its users with little concern for creative merit or quality of writing. It's features may sound attractive and it may sound like a website genuinely interested in helping writers and making a collaborative community, but it completely hides the fact that it is a profit-making scheme.