#publishing tag: marketing

[wehavekookies]

In love with these reverses with atelier signatures found on old family photographs I dug out this weekend when visiting home.

#putting them here cos they are pretty #but also to give a sign of life #cos no publishable art recently #and in general i'm not feeling like social media much #not actively at least #but you know #sharing various sorts of vintage odds and ends also became a theme of this blog #so there you go #vintage photography #giving it also the #flea market #tag #for sorting #kooks talks

[dyrewrites]

What are plans -- In Fog is out!

It is on kindle only for the moment, because Amazon is clingy, but it'll be on Gumroad as well when the kdp thing runs out. And a print version will be available before the end of the month (I am waiting for my proof)

In Fog is a Horror Romance with a focus on existential dread, identity and emotional worth. It gets a bit intense and there are some naughty bits and a lot of blood. So be prepared and please enjoy. ^.-

Excerpt (you can also hit up the tag and find the entire rough draft in there somewhere, do it, it'll be fun)--

You were to leave after our final year at university, on the heels of your father, ferried to another city–another world for all the pain it caused me–while I remained in our sleepy town, living the same sleepy life. I would have accepted it, you know. I would have cried and wailed and gnashed my teeth…but I would have accepted it. Perhaps not until filial responsibilities forced me into a business I had no head for and social mores locked me into a marriage of convenience, of expectation. Yet, I would. I am certain that I would…eventually, had I been given the option, had that night not ruined it all; ruined us both.

#writeblr #self publishing #publishing #novella #ebook #horror #romance #in fog #amazon #kindle #i dunno what else to tag this #new release #maybe #how does marketing work again

[agenttexsflippedshit]

I have this thing that happens with longer personal writing projects where I go, “what would the query letter to an agent look like” - partially bc I’m a creature of habit and want to publish everything, partially because fits about focusing on the through line and can help me figure out the core of the project.

And right now it’s very much like, why should anyone care about my lil guys? What are their journeys and what is compelling enough to encourage people to go beyond the first paragraph, let alone the first page?

Which in turn leads to the question of like, why am I compelled by these stupid guys?

And honestly, it’s because I sat them down and gave them my issues and pushed them to the point of absurdity and said “go live with that for a while and get back to me” and now they’re fucked up in some pretty fun ways and I like writing about the hopes and fears that it inspires

But I’m still like, questioning why anyone else would care about this, beyond the queer rep

#I live in fear of writing a book for publication and the marketing resting solely on the queer rep #like yeah nothing I touch is straight obvi #but also this isn’t going to be for people that expect family values #there’s a lot of myself in this which isn’t Great but also not the bits you’d expect #I love by the ‘art should disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed’ mantra and this really hits that #but it’s also very sad and I can already picture the kind of drama this is going to inspire #I hope this is what gets published. I hope it blows up booktok. I hope breadtubers make videos on this work because no one knows #what the real takeaway is #bc tbf there is no good takeaway beyond the fact that people can love you #with all of their hearts even #but it’s not enough to save you or prevent bad things from happening. #the love is there and casts its hue to the world but a knife is still a knife and bloody hands are still bloody #huh. talking in the tags just helped me figure this out. #thanks for the help everyone

[mishkakagehishka]

Idc anymore i think i'm a good enough writer that i can say that when i noticed the pattern in what exactly makes a book "good" on booktok (and, bc of that, what makes it popular and top bestseller lists), it feels almost demeaning and denigrating to the entire craft. Idk if i should blame the way tiktok-esque social media has utterly rotted everyone's ability to concentrate and read more than three sentences, but literally none of those books are objectively good.

(Yes, yes, art is subjective. HOWEVER. Art is subjective when you look at style, at themes, at motifs, at plots and characters. Art is still a craft, it still requires skill. I've seen beyond the tiktok quotes of these books. Not even their editors are good given the amount of typos/spelling mistakes. That is not something that you should find in a traditionally published book.)

You look at these books, and you know the only reason for their existence is to make money. I cannot and will not accept that as art.

(I'm on Tumblr, of course I have to explain every point. Artists who make money off their art =/= people who only create art meant to be profitable. There is a difference between an artist who hopes to monetise doing what they love, who creates what they wish to see more of and who happens to then create something that other people wish to see more of, and a person who looks at what's trending and decides that making an unholy frankenstein's monster of a book that mashes all those trending tropes and motifs together would get them rich quick. The fact that a lot of these booktok books become popular because of nepotism is just the cherry on top. It's soulless.)

And to finally say what I wanted to say, it's because none of these books have any deeper message or even artistic value to them. You will find a few out of context quotes or paragraphs, ones written specifically so they'd look deep and beautiful when taken out of context, so that people would post them, so that people would buy the books. Entire books written just so those few lines could become viral and make cash. It cannot even be compared to a hook line writers would post to get people interested in their works, because in booktok's case, those are the only lines of quality and in the context itself, they are often out of place and forced.

I just hate booktok, i hate what modern social media has done to art. It's all created to be quickly consumed, for the few ☆aesthetic☆ glances, and then discarded. Just to make more money for those who are already nepo babies. As if artists needed more obstacles to jump over.

#of course historically it's always been the same #people with free time to create (rich powerful) created #very rarely did you see someone from a humble bg make it as an artist #which is why killing maiming everyone saying Shakespeare was actually a rich guy btw #but like it makes me angry personally #before you call me just jealous - i don't have any wish to monetise my art #my career ambitions lie in a different field (tho adjacent i suppose since i'm a linguist) #i'm saying it makes me angry for other writers who want to make money doing what they love most #it's always been hard. you've always had to have connections or fight tooth and nail for a chance at being published #why? because of how SUBJECTIVE it is #but at least if your skills distinct you and if you bring a truly unique concept you'd have better chances #then modern social media rolled around and no longer can we just publish and disappear no no #WE have to market our works. on twitter on instagram on podcasts on the radio and tv it's up to the authors #i already found that demeaning enough as an introvert #but now it's not even that. publishers no longer look for unique and distinct #they found out booktok is the real cash cow. they look for colleen hoovers who publish fifty books a year #all of poor quality but with enough aesthetic lines that they can easily be marketed thru #the youth who uses AO3 tags and ''omg it's so girlboss!'' and ''it has representation! (not really it's always piss poor rep)'' to market #it to others. who take the same line over and over and go ''omg... this is so deep'' but the lines never look good in context

[coffeeandcalligraphy]

some days you’re just going through your typical routine and bam you are once again 30% through a reread of cleanness by garth greenwell

#at this point publishers don’t need marketing teams just get one single autistic gay person to love your work so much & #we will never shut up abt it #but like this book is so good he didn’t need to go so hard for the audiobook either #I need to actually physically read this book with my eyes tho bc the effect of not using paragraph breaks all that much and #not using dialogue tags??? oooooh learning sm #like I forgot there aren’t dialogue tags until I read a good chunk of chapter 1 LOL I am ABSORBING this material again #like this is the girls by Emma cline all over again #lifetimes of literary knowledge revealing itself to me

[kicksnscribs]

...

#so like #this has been bothering me for years now and i have to get it out now #but i don't want it to really be /out/ there so im just gonna ramble in the tags for a sec #but im so confused as to how ppl will look at my art style and ask me #hey can you do me a commission in [insert style that is a complete 180 from what i draw]? #and i just sit there thinking to myself #where did you get this connection from? #why do you think i'm capable of pulling off this style when i have posted nothing that would even remotely resemble the style that you want #are other artists just better than i am? #am i missing something? should i be able to draw like that despite my love for my current style? #i want to be angry but i know i cant be bc i don't have all of the info #well maybe angry is a bit much more like upset #bc it pulls my confidence down into the gutter #AND ITS ALWAYS LIKE THAT #everybody thats seen my art is always like hey can you draw something cuter/simpler/more like this style #and i just have to sit there and stew in my own depression bc no??? i literally cannot???? why would you ask me this???? #idk im giving up on being a marketable artist #im just gonna sit here and draw my stuff #im not too pressed to publish anything anymore bc its just not what ppl like #and im starting to become ok with that #but man it sucks bc i like sharing ideas #but interaction is next to nothing so i feel like im just wasting time #this isn't directed at anyone specific just me pointing out the patterns of my life from grade school to adulthood #tag rambling #i had to get it out im sorry its just been getting too much lately and cant keep shit in anymore #so fuck it lol

[kellshaw]

Make Me Write Tag

Thanks @mthollowell-writes for the tag! You can see their original here.

Gently Tagging: @sam-glade, @liv-is, @fatexweaver, and everyone else who would like to participate!

These are my current projects—I'll get round to most of them eventually in the next few months. What's the most interesting thing i should focus on?

[Something] Night. Lukie and Tamlyn check into a hotel haunted by an evil spirit that forces close friends to kill each other by filling their hearts full of spite. No one is safe.... (The first draft of book 3, which is at the arrgh my writing is like pulling teeth stage)

2. Fiery Night. A girl trapped in an institution must uncover why people are disappearing before the same fate befalls her. (A free short story that serves as an introduction to the series).

3. Glossary for the world and recaps book 1 (this was based on beta feedback where people needed a reminder after reading the last book a year ag0.)

4. What Remains of Her. Tamlyn struggles whether the revenant that came back from the dead after twenty years is really the girl he knew in high school.

5. Time to Live. A young woman, restricted for most of her life by her conservative mother, leaves her house, attempting to go to her first party. Unfortunately, she's picked the worst night of the year, as the world goes mad around her....

6. Website update. Need to do some landing pages to explain the series and so forth and set up links.

#worldbuilding #writeblr #tag games #polls #vestiges of magic #marketing #indie publishing #indie author

[bloody-wonder]

First of all, thanks so much for sharing your books recs and reviews. I love reading your blog (especially since I did not find many books blog that as good as you in tumblr). 💐🥰

Can I ask your opinion on something? So, I saw some discussion on why shounen series (or series with strong bromance vibes) have more romantic vibes than BL manga/mahwa (MLM books). (Sorry, do you like any BL manga/manhwa or shounen series?) And I kinda agree. But what do you think?

Sorry for this random ask, feel free if you want to ignore this ask....

wow thank you! i love sending my bookish posts into the void and i love it even more when the void expresses its appreciation haha

i didn't know about this discourse but in general i agree with the controversial (?) opinion that non-canon queer-coded or homosocial relationships oftentimes make for more compelling ships than their canon counterparts. one could argue that it's bc something that is just out of reach feels more appealing than something that you already have but in regards to my personal frustrations when reading romance stories and plotlines it often comes down to how the relationship of characters who the author already decided are going to fall in love has little room to breathe beyond that - the sword of damocles of romance is constantly hanging over them and determining their entire narrative. there's little intrigue in that bc when you're an experience reader or a genre-savvy media consumer you know exactly how it's gonna go, bit by bit.

furthermore, i think it's interesting that women and people who used to identify as women when they were young are likelier to write an explicit romance or a canon queer relationship bc they have been socialized to value that type of fiction and in doing that they will, whether by intention or not, regurgitate all the possible tropes and clichées which doesn't necessarily make their original story a compelling romance. by contrast, people who grew up socialized as men have been taught to suppress emotions and value no homo male bonds with their bros which is why a stereotypical cishet male sff author will 1) write an absolutely yucky romance for his male lead and his female love interest, 2) rather die than acknowledge that queerness exists and 3) pour all the most profound and intense feelings his conscious and subconscious mind is capable of into the depiction of the male lead's relationship with his male sidekick. ambiguity tends to make things more interesting so no wonder people will feel more drawn to a ship that is ambiguously homosocial in eve kosofsky sedgwick's sense rather than to a ship that is merely a love story between two people of the same gender.

which brings me to my last (more personal) point: as someone who has been socialized as a woman i am slightly obsessed with romance. however, as someone who identifies as aroace i don't find most romance books or even romance subplots relatable or compelling. this contradiction is a source of constant frustration that accompanies my reading experience - i often seek out romance books bc i do so enjoy a good love story and end up disappointed and alienated most of the time bc of this built in failure to connect with fiction that is written by allos for allos. for example, i have tried to take refuge in historical mm romance bc i figured that neither comphet nor modern identity politics would spoil the magic of two people falling in love for me in this case. however, having read quite a few of those, i have noticed this compulsion the authors have to 1) let the reader know by any means necessary and as soon as possible that the characters in question are in fact into men and 2) state explicitly that these men find each other attractive - a compulsion that speaks to the allo experience of being aware (most of the time) what type of person you're attracted to and being able to interpret a perceived connection as romantic or sexual attraction almost immediately. a compulsion which i, as an aroace reader, find utterly bizarre and terribly frustrating. not to shame allos for how their sexuality works or anything, but i think trying to convince the reader that two characters are into each other without relying on these two conveniences would be a good writing exercise.

by comparison, a relationship that is just allowed to develop without its participants interpreting it as a romance (bc the author who wrote it didn't intend them to at all) feels like freedom. yes, it's unfortunate that they won't kiss or fuck in the end of all that quality time but ah well, i can go to ao3 for that. and yes, if they're not canonically queer it's not real rep etc etc but i think that by now we have all understood that media consumption is not activism and queer rep in your favorite tv show will not bring about the age of tolerance. what i'm talking about in this post is why it sometimes feels like queer fiction fails to depict queerness and romance in a compelling way.

#asks #book tag #sometimes it's just like #no no THIS is queer #THAT is just two people of the same gender in a relationship #the specific examples i have in mind rn are empire of the vampire and the winnowing flame #the banter between gabriel and jean-françois is just inherently better queer content #than that what's his name side character's storyline #that one tentacle harness scene in the bitter twins is queerer than all the canon queer love stories of the series combined #something else i didn't discuss here is how diversity being used as a marketing tool in publishing instantly kills the mood #it's like that one oglaf strip - if we both know what's happening it ruins it #hashtag gaystream ig

[spellscribe]

I've been trying really hard to get a handle on promoting my books. As an indie author, and even as a published author whose books are getting older and selling less, it's one of those things I can't avoid.

Anyway, I found this fun little app that is basically a digital flip book. It took me a while to set this up but I figure most marketing stuff is spendy with either money or time.

Do you think it's worth it? Is it going to work, or is it too boring and plain?

#writeblr #booklr #writing #writers on tumblr #authorslife #indie author #indie #publishing #marketing #tiktok #booktok #tiktok marketing #facebook marketing #reelsinstagram #cheesus what was that first tag suggest for reels

[ladsofsorrow24]

book reviewer: you can't make this mistake and get published

the book they reviewed: is published

#i think its less about the grammatical or writing errors #and moreso on how much money and influence the creators had to publish their work and market it to the public #if the entire reason why a book won't get through is because of its mistakes #then there would be less books in the world than it already is now #so nope i think it's all about money and influence #if you got people supporting you it'll be easier to break through no matter how 'boring' people say your story is #tmi tag

[aldieb]

i’ve failed gentle nanowrimo btw :/ if i don’t want to write then i don’t want to write i guess. i have a lot of time in a human lifespan to write novels and am creating a lot of other nice things and i cannot undervalue how very burnt out my job makes me in this area

#text tag #the only thing that makes me regret is the fact that the market is so attuned to exactly the type of stuff i write rn and i am actively #missing the boat. but we must disconnect the artist-self from the wants-to-be-a-commercially-published-author self

[crimeronan]

why don’t you think you could make a living writing fiction?? your fics are so good, you’re so talented!!!

oh thank you this is sweet 🥺 basically it's just about return on investment! fiction takes me a long time to write -- even short stories can take upwards of a 40-hour work week equivalent if i fuss with the editing enough -- and there's not a lot of demand for it. most of the people who really like my stories don't have a ton of disposable income; there are even fewer who'd want to actually SPEND disposable income on my original work. i know there's a handful of people who would like to! but a handful does not a successful career make

this, combined with the extremely low royalties that authors get thru places like amazon, means that if i DID want to make a living with fiction, i'd have to speedwrite short novellas that align with market trends, put as many out as fast as possible, and hope for the best in terms of landing on Hot Trends lists. this is the method i use with my nonfiction professional writing for clients, and it sacrifices a LOT of quality. you can't edit as much if your edits eat into your hourly rate

part of why i'm generally proud of my fics is bc i put a lot of time into telling the story Right. the way i want to. and i don't have the time to do that if i'm working for money :(

i do still intend to publish original fiction, it just probably won't ever be my full day job. i talked to a guy with a moderately successful sci-fi series years ago (i WISH i could remember his name or the title of the series) and his summary has stuck with me since: "i mean, it pays, but it's pizza-and-beer money. it's not paying-your-mortgage money"

that's pretty much how being an author is for everyone except some Extreme and Very Lucky outliers.

hope this clarifies!

#i've got two or three finished short stories that i could feasibly publish if i could be assed to figure out the self-publishing market #and theoretically i intend to query the long original fiction project traditionally (finding an agent who finds a publisher) #but it's just not. practical. to bank on it as a career #replies #work tag

[susandsnell]

Would genuinely love to see critiques of The Song of Achilles and the Choices ™️ therein that are not as facile and offensive as what’s showing up in tumblr tags, but this is perhaps not the site for nuance

#Not tagging because I value my hide #Ultimately I think a lot of the most questionable decisions Miller makes are for marketability’s sake #Since writing is an art and publishing is a business and I am interested in the business aspect as well wrt Intended Audiences #But that kind of makes these missteps worse in a way? Because it says a lot about our culture which elements of the Iliad get sanitized #And which are kept honest #In order to make these figures sympathetic to a YA-level audience #And I’m not certain there’s a clear answer on where to draw the lines when retelling the story for a younger audience #But all the criticisms on here are like ‘the writing used words that were too big )))): Patroclus is too feminine ))))):’ jdkdnfnfng #And not nearly enough talk about the bs with Thetis and especially Briseis

[maybebabyplease]

6, 8, 15 <333

hi hi hi! lovely to see you here!

6. Sunrise or sunset?

sunset. i will not be getting up for a sunrise. no thank you. i will be doing the evening one!

8. What is your favorite board game?

ooh i'm such a big board game person! i think i have to go with the classic: settlers of catan

15. What profession did you dream about when you were a child?

i always wanted to be a fiction writer! and i am, even though it's not the only way i make money (yet), so...50% success?

(ask game)

#ask game #hope tag #i have lost friends over uno so that's def not the game for me #but i love to beat my partner at catan #what a thrill #those lit mags sure don't pay do they!!! #and sometimes they SHUT DOWN before publishing your story #rip #shoutout to my marketing job for holding down the rent payments

[iheardyourprayer]

Hate targeted ads and im just realizing im essentially getting into marketing.. and will be taking user data for targeted ads probably...

#started my first publishing classes and was smacked in the face about how thats just (partially) marketing. #oh the information industry why why ew #anyway #personal? #ems grad school arc #hehe new tag #complained abt this in the introduction discussion board haha oops

[centi-pedve]

annoyed forever & always by people who ask for "more woman authors" like !! women have very consistently been in the majority for the last decade at the very least when it comes to author demographics. what you need to show us is some sort of proof that women get worse offers or less readership on average or something! because raw author demographics are very obviously not the issue!

#or at the very least maybe you could focus on demographic disparities within certain genres #or. other demographics. such as ones pertaining to race or queerness or disability or class #and honestly one thing when it comes to demographics that we feel people miss out on #is how many people in that demographic actually SUBMIT #'there are more X authors than Y authors so publishing is discriminatory towards Y authors' is inherently flawed & annoying #there could totally be something if like 80% of submissions are from women but only 55% of authors are women #thats hard data to get most likely but without it we dont really feel any reason to be alarmed over the matter of demographics #for example - there are less poor authors. this is not because publishers hates poor people #but because poor people have less free time and don't have the same resources to market #or get help like paid editors #while higher class writers have a lot of free time and resources so they have an inherent edge #thats not necessarily the fault of publishers... thats the fault of our economic system #there needs to be more context in order to make certain points. incomplete data borders on meaningless #and we're not saying that there hasn't been research or points made with full data we're saying that there are too many people who #get lazy with their activism #publishing is not fair and we need to understand why. it is not the same for every group and the issue does not always start with publisher #pedve 'pinions #sorry for putting all this shit in tha tags we realize now this prolly shoulda been main post stuff #but no time to transfer 😋