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[bigwipscholar]

[bigwipscholar]

Read this craigslist ad for a 1999 toyota corolla.

[bigwipscholar]

A Step-by-Step Marketing Guide so we can spite traditional publishers (and make people cry).

~ This is a guide specific for fiction/writeblr. All of this is for free and there is little social media posting/ads involved (unless you want to venture into that). ~

Within the writeblr spheres, there's this underlying hope that our stories will find their audience. Perhaps we'll have a fandom full of fanart and video essays, or maybe we'll be an instant classic and sit on collectors' beloved bookshelves. Our stories could sit within the deepest corners of someone's heart and maybe they never tell a soul about what's so special to them. Maybe our stories become those 'underrated masterpieces'.

Or we just want to see people ugly cry over our writing.

Whatever your hope may be, marketing is an important path to venture on (especially because traditional publishers are rejecting diverse books in favor of ones that are already famous + the whole sub-par machine thing they seem obsessed with.)

And thus, my childhood marketing obsession will hopefully be of use to you. This is all for free (unless you want to spend money) and you don't need to figure out social media platforms (unless you want to, and this guide works if you decide to take that route too.)

Step One: Characters

Marketing spheres will define these fictious people as 'avatars' or 'the target audience'. You could also call them characters. Because that's what they are: fictional people.

For this step, you shall create characters that would love your story.

And here's some great news: You've already done this.

Perhaps you wrote your story to comfort a prior version of yourself. Perhaps each character in your story holds an aspect of your personality. Perhaps you were ridiculously self-indulgent and made the story you would've loved to read. These are all possible characters you can reuse for marketing.

Write down 2-4 quick archetypes for these characters. You'll chose an aspect of your story (characters, themes, or the younger-self that you wrote it for) and write a thumbnail sketch. (Main issue, fears, wants, personality traits if they relate to the main issue.)

I'll do it for my story (the Land of the Fallen Fairies) down below:

Anuli-like (my MC): Overthinking and aloof. Wants a happy ending but thinks their current personality/character isn't good enough for one. The present stales in comparison to the past/the childhood they lost. The 'gifted theater kids'. Kamari-like (side character): Postpones happiness in favor of creating a perfect schedule/getting accomplishments. Heavy masking. Creative but doesn't create anymore. Promises themself they'll enjoy themselves later, when they've earned it. Workaholics. My younger self: Wanting a fantasy escapism to embody the traits they wish they had in real life. Dissatisfied and worried about reality. Perfectionists. Self-indulgent: People who love plants and forests and fantasy worlds far away from reality/humanity.

Great! Now it's time to find these characters.

Step Two: Setting.

(Let's assume you're using the internet for your marketing. But a similar method works for real life too.)

Where do the characters live?

In order to figure that out, we need to discover the characters' interests, what they watch to solve their problems, and who they find #relatable.

(You can do this for each character or for all the characters at once.)

For example:

Anuli-like -

interests: Stories. Analysis videos. Fantasy escapism. Things that remind them of their childhood. (so nature, warmth, comfort, play, imagination and the times they would actually enjoy learning.)

Places to look: Nature quotes, ambience videos, children's shows and fairytales (comfort shows). Fandom culture - fanfic video essays, fan art.

Solving problems (the problem being wanting a 'happy ending' but feeling that their personality/lifestyle/characteristics aren't right for one): Mindfulness things. Self-healing. Quotes and meditations and candles galore. Slow living. Nature vlogs. Self care. All that 'live in the moment' culture.

Places to look: Slow living. Nature vlogs. The 'softer self-help' (spirituality stuff. Magic/ overnight answers). Witchcraft. 'aesthetic nature' places. Guided meditations.

#relatable: Burnt out gifted kids. People who think so much that their life passes them by. Storytellers and creative who create to make sense of the world. People who like dark, gory things in spite of who they want to be. People who don't like reality.

Places to look: Those 'learn better and remember everything' places. (The 'burnt-out gifted kid' recovery places.) Stop overthinking spots. Those quotes on Pinterest from poetic people who think too much /aff. Storyteller places. Dark academia. Classical music. One off quotes/ poetry.

Okie dokie. Once you have this, find channels, social media accounts, blogs, songs, books, etc. that fit with the categories you wrote down. (They should appeal to the characters) You can search up some of the terms you listed into searches and see who pops up. Bonus points if you find people that overlap with multiple sections.

I know I didn't include booktube or booktok in here. You can if you want too. But those can be a bit... 'consume these 500 books'. You also want to find other places where people who would like you story live, even if they don't follow booktube or booktok.

Congrats! Now you know where your characters live!

Step Three: the scary part

Take everyone you found on your search for the settings and write them down a list. Make sure you get an email/contact info. (they usually list them somewhere under 'for business inquires') Also feel free to watch their content and get to know what attributes these settings have.

And now... we talk to them. about our stories. You can do it. I believe in you.

This called 'pitching your product' in marketing spheres. But you can be informal about it.

I know it can be difficult to talk about your work, so here's a tone to have:

'I made this thing I like and I think you'll like it too'.

What you'll do is send an email (or dm) that goes like this (inspired by Creative Hive on youtube):

Hi [name],

[Genuine compliment]

[Quick sentence or two about your story. Include the themes and who it appeals to. If you have a logline/sentence summary, include that. But I find that the underlying themes and 'who's it's for' is more engaging.

For my story, I might say something like.

I've written a story you might enjoy, since you like [interest]. It's called the Land of the Fallen Fairies. It's a nature-themed commentary on the pursuit of happiness and fixing yourself to deserve that happiness, told by an overthinking, unreliable, houseplant narrator. It was supposed to comfort me when I got frustrated with myself and my happiness chasing, and I hope it can comfort others too.

(That's probably a bit long and I can trim it down a bit.)

You can phrase it like a gift if you want too.]

[Call to action.

'If you like it, I'd appreciate a mention on your [platform].

I know this part may be difficult to mention (imposter syndrome is not fun.) But I promise that if they do like it, they'll be happy to mention it.]

If they don't respond within... four-ish days? (A week at most). then you can include a follow up. For this you can include a template with info about your story. This way it's easy for them to talk about your story.

The template:

title

genre

blurb

Author

where to find the book

Bonus points if you have an additional, physical thing to send them.

Congrats! Now do this pitching process a few times until you've covered most of your bases. (Pitch to as many people as you can. It will get more comfortable as you do it. Play your favorite song and don't let yourself think too hard about it.)

----------

The benefits of this process are that you find people that are already interested in the themes and vibes of your story (in comparison to to ads, which get shoved in everyone's faces.). Someone your audience already trusts will talk about it, which means you don't need to do all this trial and error to find your audience and make content for them.

It's basically a bunch of people talking about something they like!

AND you diversify your audience across niches, but with an underlying theme/interests. Booktok/booktube must appeal to everyone, so it's a hit or miss for recommendations. (Unless there is someone that specifically does one genre/type of story.)

From here you can do fun little things to build up hype and make the book launch feel like this fun event. (I love it when that happens so here's my thoughts about trying to create an event with your story... although that may require another post entirely.)

preorder goals

charity goals

Arg's and puzzles

fund with side plushies and trinkets

Book blog tour

book boxes

as many memes as you can make

rewards (like bookmarks or posters or smth) that people can get for supporting

Talk about the process of creating your story. I know this one channel called 'Dead Sound' that creates 'making of' videos for his short films and they are some of the best videos on youtube.

Okay dear storyteller! Now go forth and share your story with the world!

Additional resources:

Creative Hive <-- a youtube channel that goes through the pitching process.

This video is also very good <-- Haven't watched the rest of the channel but I assume it's also good.

One of the best marketing channels on the internet (the videos are actually entertianing to watch.

Seth Goldin <-- I read his book and took the parts I liked and modified for storytelling marketing.

Dead Sound <-- propaganda to watch the short film series he has (he did the whole 2-d 3-d style wayyyy before spiderverse did... and he's one person making these. One person. It's amazing.

Glitch <--- If someone can figure out how The Amazing Digital Circus was marketed then I will pay you money. It seems to be a lot of memes and funny things.

[bigwipscholar]

I've watched the people boosting this gofundme become more and more desperate as the Rafah invasion draws near:

This baby was born during this genocide and has only ever known this genocide. If you can donate to help her family evacuate, please do.

If you were thinking about donating to any evacuation, now is the time. They don't have much left.

[bigwipscholar]

Hey guys, I have a priority fundraiser rotation for you:

Fadi & Shahed: 5,885 USD out of 62.5k

Sana'a & Sujood: 15,049 £ out of 50k

Mahmoud Qassas: 12,466$ out of 200k

Ezzideen Shehab: 11,075€ out of 32.5k.

Hussam Aburamadan: 17,657€ out of 148k.

Hamdi Hijazi: 6,614$ out of 25k.

Suheir Hojok: 17,557 AUD out of 70k.

Madleen Abu Jayyab: 33,808$ out of 70k.

Hani Al-Hajjar: 2,536€ out of 50k.

Little Yusuf: 664€ out of 85k.

Nael Helles: 255$ out of 50k.

Alia's family: 516€ out of 30k.

Hala's family: 350 CAD out of 50k.

Mohammed Al Shaer: 150£ out of 50k

Mona Abu Hamda: 75k out of 150k.

Sahar El Tibi: 15€ out of 30k.

Youssef Munir: 596£ out of 50k.

Muhammad Munir: 1,528£ out of 45k.

Amal & Ruba A.S.: 0€ out of 50k.

I have personally verified every one of these campaigns listed here.

The invasion of Rafah grows nearer everyday. Please understand the urgency of this campaign.

Version date: April 30th 2024.

[bigwipscholar]

that's a nice king of bohemia you've got there. it would be a shame if he were to go blind, tie himself to his soldiers' horses, make all his soldiers tie their horses to one another, and charge into battle

[bigwipscholar]

People used to comment on web comics.

People used to comment on fanfiction.

People used to comment on fanart.

People used to comment on OCs.

I hate "content" culture.

I hate "consuming content" and scrolling immediately to the next thing.

People used to be excited about the art that other people created.

People used to want to share that excitement with creators.

I hate this future.

[bigwipscholar]

Ship dynamics

[bigwipscholar]

hey neil idk if you’re the best person to ask but i would like to think you have some sadge advice or something. as an introvert how do you deal with going to funerals and that whole interaction with people trying to support people and people trying to support you? It’s all strange and weird to me. thanks.

You remind yourself that this is not a usual thing for anyone, and that everyone is dealing with their own personal reactions to what's happened, with grief or loss or just the weirdness of it all. And you look after yourself.

And take refuge in things that people say. "I'm sorry for your loss", or "May their memory be a blessing" or "Thank you so much" when people offer their own condolences. It's formulaic but it works.

[bigwipscholar]

[bigwipscholar]

The Devil drives a good bargain.

"I'm a good salesman. I don't mean that I'm good at selling things. I'm ethical and I sell fairly. All the same, I have to make a profit, so I drive a good, fair bargain.

Your soul for your dreams.

I mean, you don't exactly need it after you die, right? So why not just hand it over then?" I looked hopefully at my customer. He seemed torn, uncertain. I needed to strike fast, hard. I needed to sell this now.

"Come on... You said you wanted to fall in love again, right? I can do that. I can make you and your wife feel as though you were both teenagers in the throes of passion. Or, if you want, I can get you to fall in love with someone else? And I'll throw in a clean divorce too. Or perhaps an open marriage? The possibilities are endless!" Still, the man hesitated. What was wrong with the bastard? I gritted my teeth. He had been standing there for weeks, quietly contemplating. Wasting my time.

"I've decided," he said. My hope soared. "I don't want any of that." My hope crashed into a tree and died. 

"Then, what do you want?" I asked, giving him a winning smile.

"I want to make a bet. If I win, I get a wish for free. If I lose, I'll give up my entire family's souls. Deal?" He suddenly seemed infinitely more confident. I was nonplussed. Some people tried to fake me out, trick me into giving them free wishes. 

"What's the bet?" I leaned on the countertop, bringing myself to his level. We stared each other in the eye.

"We swap places. I be the Devil, you be the everyman. First to give up loses. You in?" He smirked.

What was I to do? I could hardly resist a gamble. It was a deal.

Perhaps I was a fool, I thought, sitting at a desk. Overseeing a herd of imps was not fun. They drew markers everywhere, squelched mud, and somehow had the ability to cry on command. But as I was sitting there, rifling through unartistic crayon drawings, an idea struck me.

I did not have to stay in this job. I did not have to go home to a dumpy wife who was cheating on me and a pair of whiny teenagers. That fool lent me his body and by hell, I was going to get a good deal out of it.

I decided to think of it as a vacation. I took out all the cash from the accounts, including the kids' college funds and the retirement money. Then I borrowed an unthinkably large amount of money before disappearing off to the tropics.

I spent my days in luxury, traveling, seeing the world, gambling when I needed more cash (for the Devil always wins). I saw the world from the rose-tinted glasses of the rich, and enjoyed luxuries beyond imagination. After a while, I began to dread the end of the bet.

And then I grew old, and still the bet had not come to an end. My heart was on the verge of dying on me, and I lay bedridden with kidney failure. So I did what anyone who was not in their own body would do in that situation. 

I jumped off a 50 story building. The impact did not hurt that much. It all quickly faded to black.

I reappeared on the other side of my counter. The man whose body I occupied stood manning my shop. When he saw me, he laughed maniacally. "So you just couldn't stand the old missus, huh? Guess I beat the Devil at his own game," he said. I merely smiled, and got back on the right side of my shop. He hopped over the counter, grinning wildly.

"So… About my boon?" he asked. I steepled my fingers and sat down, leaning backwards.

"I'm afraid not. We only serve living customers. I'm afraid your body died while under my care. But thank you for the free vacation," I replied, allowing myself a satisfied smile. 

His face turned thunderous. "What do you mea-" He was whisked off to the afterlife in a flash of light before he could finish. Cheerfully, I waved at him as he went.

"Thank you for shopping with us. Have a nice day!" I called after him.

[bigwipscholar]

UMMMMMM THIS IS. HEART POUNDING DEVELOPMENT.

@dduane I have no idea how I came onto your radar but I'm extremely shook, I have so much respect for your work and love your blogging besides and uhhh just thank you?? I just clocked into work and I've just been walking around in circles, I literally want to be you when I grow up (and I'm not even embarrassed about the verklempt Transformers OC rant so I guess I AM growing up!) so a reboggle is utterly boggling

THANK YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY

[bigwipscholar]

[bigwipscholar]

It's funny how omegaverse started as this fringe weird as fuck thing some people did in fanfics, but the joke's on me because not only does its basic form completely appeal to my erotic tastes, actually, but it has truly become a very fascinating genre to me.

I'm sure someone in an American university doing gender studies is writing their thesis on this somewhere. Because it is such an interesting playfield for commentary, caricature and subversion on gender roles and on the position of potential child-bearing individuals in society, and how could this be structured if it were made 10 times more obvious, or how would we cope with it in a supposedly egalitarian society, and how can we make this man experience mysogyny, etc. And it reflects beautifully all of the fears, anxieties, and fantasies people with the potential to bear children, or perceived as such, can have. And the revolt, utopias, or reclamation that they want to express about it.

There is nothing inherently bad or even inherently anything about it as a whole, because people have created such unique things within the framing of this genre, and I find it incredibly entertaining and intellectually stimulating.

[bigwipscholar]

do you have any tips for writing characters who have a lot of difficulty identifying their own emotions (and other people's)? specifically if the work is from their POV. thank you very much!!

I'll start by saying you're in luck--literature's finest characters are defined by their difficulties identifying their emotions! You're in great company.

As a general rule, don't let your character figure out their emotions until you want some resolution in the narrative (climax, ending, or anywhere in between. Or if you have some second conflict in the narrative, feel free to resolve this one earlier). If your character has clarity about how they feel and what they should do about it, you don't have a compelling narrative but a successful therapy. The trick is in misguiding your characters.

You and I and everyone in the world are misguided about our emotions constantly. We want to feel everything on our terms. If we want a coffee, we want our favorite hazelnut latte, not the Americano. If we go through heartache, we still want to be happy, so we turn to coping mechanisms, often unhealthy, to achieve this. We are emotionally greedy.

Your characters also want to feel everything on their terms, and they don't like that they can't, so they turn to something unhealthy, something they think will solve the problem. In previous posts on my blog, I talk about this in terms of "want" and "need." Your character "needs" to handle the emotions as they are through healthy means, but your character "wants" to feel how they want to feel, which in a strong narrative won't make the character feel better. Ask yourself: if my character was real, how would they react to the situation they're in? When you think of anything unhealthy, write it.

As an example in one of my WIPs, a girl is bullied by the popular kids at her school, and she doesn't like that, but she's also friends with one of the popular kids. Instead of talking to this friend about the bullying, instead of talking to the counselor about it, instead of doing anything that would actually resolve her situation, she decides that if she wants people to stop bullying her, she herself needs to become popular. She notices all the popular kids have boyfriends, so she decides she's going to pursue someone. These are pretty steep leaps of logic, but we do it all the time. Has anyone tried to use romance to bandage emotional sores? Of course!

Macbeth is scared of the witches' prophecy. Does come to peace with it? No! He and his wife kill a lotta people!

Think of your favorite book: how do its characters try and fail to come to terms with their emotions?

As far as "how to write," it sounds like you're writing in first person, and if you are, I can't help too much--I have next to no experience there. But if you're narrating through your character's thoughts, never let them land on the right thought, the idea that will get them out of their bind. It might help to focus on physical sensations and the things people say and do around them--how is your character affected, and how do they interpret these things? Never let them interpret them well and correctly until you want resolution.