Raise your hand if you’ve heard the term “parasocial relationship” before. Great, thanks. Since we are currently having a parasocial interaction, I couldn’t see whether or not you raised your hand, so if you did, bear with me while I explain it.
A parasocial relationship is that feeling of connection that you get to a character or a media personality. You think you know them, you feel a false camaraderie with them, but they don’t know you. Or can’t know you, in the case of a fictional character. A parasocial interaction can be as simple as the feeling that you’re participating in a conversation when you’re actually just reading a blog post, or as complex as feeling you’re in an intimate friendship with a media personality who doesn’t know you exist.
This often happens with the media heavyweights—Taylor Swift has built her massively successful fan base with this concept. Sports fans experience real emotional ups and downs based on athletes’ performance, and talk to their televisions as though they can be heard. Authors can foster this too, especially those who are active on social media and who interact with their readers regularly.
Parasocial relationships can lead to participation in a fandom, and while there’s often negativity around doing this, a lot of the time, this phenomenon is innocent and healthy. Participating in a community, whether global in size or not, can be socially and emotionally rewarding. Fandom is different than the deep parasocial relationship people can feel with celebrities, though, because it often includes reciprocal interaction with other fans instead of a one-sided false relationship with a media personality or a character. This reciprocity fosters a sense of belonging and connection around a shared enjoyment.
Similarly, when independent authors connect with their readers, it can lead into a fandom experience more than a parasocial relationship. Indie authors often enjoy conversations with readers, and connections made in the independent publishing world can be real and ongoing. There’s more opportunity for a direct pipeline of authentic interaction, as opposed to a one-sided parasocial interaction, when we intentionally lean into creating a community around us.
Independent authors rely on readers to recommend their work, to engage with them on social media, to stop by their book signings or vendor events, or to leave reviews. These connections can be rewarding for both the writer and the reader. We can move beyond the one-sided parasocial interaction, where we expect readers to bear the responsibility of connection, and instead we can foster community around our shared love of reading and stories.
Offline, the Hollow Oak team is involved in our local writing community. We run a local writing support group, we’re involved in artist spaces, and we work with other regional journals and groups. Online, we’re still building, and we never intend to stop. We want authenticity. We want to know our readers and our writers.
Our next step in making connections is a series of structured author interviews. This will be an ongoing series as we continue to publish the best new and emerging voices in our subgenre, because that means we continue to meet writers of all kinds. This interview series is our way of introducing them to you, the reader.
Now, I don’t pretend to be a journalist. I’ll leave the pretend-journalism to the Rory Gilmores of the world. These are not heavy-hitting exposes that examine strife or controversy in the publishing world. What I want to do here is foster connection and provide ways for readers who particularly liked a specific story to easily find ways to read more from that author’s body of work. Sign up for their newsletters. Interact with each other on social media.
Look for these interviews to start later this week and continue into December. We’ll revisit this series periodically as we grow, too. If you’re reading this and you want to know more about how to connect with us, drop me a line at [email protected]. That email will come directly to me, and I’ll personally respond.
In the meanwhile, I look forward to moving away from parasocial interactions and into a community with those of you who would like that too.