On The Matter of Wikis...

[Carolyn]

I'd like to build a wiki to provide my readers with a more immersive and enjoyable experience.
Is it better to just build one on my own website, or on a free wiki website? Many thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Hmmm, that's a good question, and I'm not sure of the answer seeing as it depends on you. On the one hand, my advertising often sends people to my website, so having information there builds an experience. An outside Wiki adds another level of time commitment if you don't know all the ins and outs of construction, and much would depend on your size of following.

I've got a couple of fans interested in maybe building an "official" Wiki, so in the next couple of years, if things come together I might work with them. This would save me a lot of work and make it worthwhile.

 

[skip.knox]

There are at least a couple of layers here. One is the technical knowledge needed, not only to handle content creation but also to troubleshoot the inevitable challenges (how do I get a float left with extra margin on the right?) and problems (it was working on mobile yesterday!). Even if you go commercial, you'll need to find how how much support they'll provide.

The second layer is at once more subtle and more important: content architecture. There is an art and a science to creating an information space in such a way that it will draw readers in, keep them engaged and satisfied, and does a decent job of SEO. With anything web-based, there's more to writing than just the writing.

Nobody asked me, but my advice is, if you're on your first novel, don't bother with a wiki. Work on the novel. Finish the novel. Publish the novel. Market the novel. Get working on the next novel.

Meanwhile, do your worldbuilding and character sketches and speculations. Those can provide the bedrock for any future wiki. Once you have an actual readership, then revisit this question.

Also, it's worth stating that a wiki isn't the only alternative. You can just build a website. Lots of authors have that. Wikis come with their own peculiarities.

 

[prehistorickid]

On that last point, I dabbled with making my project completely web based and with its own website before I realized that I am not cut out for coding. Still, neocities is a pretty good place to start for making a website for your project.

 

[Rexenm]

I love wikis, and those questions answered websites - but unless you are in the know, you would never find them, and now you can’t. There is the digital space. AI. They draw those curious pictures, and answer all your questions. They simply must be the new thing.

 

[Prince of Spires]

I agree with skip.knox that the where you need a public wiki is well after having several books and a following out there. And I think plenty of writers do fine without one. You only rarely need it.

Having said that, if you want one (and have the time to maintain it), and you have sufficient knowledge to maintain it on a technical level, then on your own website is always preferrable to hosting it somewhere else.

The somewhere else doesn't belong to you. What happens if they go out of business? Or what if they're bought by a different platform who decides to monitize it and the free place suddenly isn't free anymore? Or they close your account for some perceived break of terms of service? Or they go in a technical direction which doesn't suit your needs at all? On your own site, you're the only one who controls all these things.

Similarly, on your own site, you can tie everything you have together. Maybe you want your own store where you sell your novels or art or related content, and you want to easily tie that into your wiki. Easy to do on your own site, hard to do somewhere else.

That said, you do need some technical knowledge, though less than you might think. A wordpress site is easy enough to set up (it's mostly just clicking next on an installer), and they have wiki plugins you can use. But you need a bit of knowledge to get there and do it good enough.

 

[Rexenm]

That said, you do need some technical knowledge, though less than you might think. A wordpress site is easy enough to set up (it's mostly just clicking next on an installer), and they have wiki plugins you can use. But you need a bit of knowledge to get there and do it good enough.

I used to do that all the time. I got sick of it. There is a lot of knowledge out there, just very little motivation to implement it. You have two choices, publish it, or don’t.