luminescent-writer

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You meet god and she's mostly dead fish. You ask her why and she says most of the world is dead fish, and she's made herself to appeal to the most common denominator, the everyman funnyman comedy show that runs for eleven seasons but with the entire universe in mind. You ask her how much of the dead fish is your fault, she says it's far less than you'd think, in the grand scheme of things. You ask her if you matter at all. If you can do anything. She shrugs her rotting shoulders and says mattering is a made-up concept, like life, but sure, you can matter if you want to, on some scale. She has many scales. She doesn't know what you mean by 'anything', but you can do everything you can. You ask her if it's enough. She says there's no base requirement for deserving to exist. She's smoking a joint and the smoke filtering out of her gills gathers and forms gas giants and red dwarfs. You ask her if there's any hidden secrets of the universe you should know and she says it's not a secret if she tells, plus it's fun to let you figure it out yourself. You ask her if any of your questions were right questions and she says you worry about being right so much it might keep you from fucking around, which is as close to meaning of life as she ever bothered to make. You don't ask but she says she loves your hair, also your whole being, also your planet. She says she figured out what love is yesterday and is trying it out, which explains the ten thousand rainbows and sudden influx in rains of fish. She offers you a drag of her joint and you wake up half past midnight behind a chain restaurant clutching a smoked salmon. The new stars are winking like they're in on some joke and you're sure if you try hard enough you'll remember what it is.

[luminescent-writer]

generally not super into shapeshifter characters being revealed to have like a singular True Form. isnt it much more interesting to imagine a creature so fluid and ever-changing that even they cant identify any one body as the "true" self, or simply dont see the need to?

is this you? yes. this one too? yes. but then which one is the real you? define "real" define "you" theyre all me. even the ones that are someone else? especially those.

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werewolves are the intersection between victim and perpetrator to me. like, something bad happened to them and now it lives under their skin and reshapes who they are and from time to time they are the one doing the bad thing to others 🥺🤲🏻

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guy who’s like “i need to be creative i need to write or my brain will rot i am going to die i have to create right now” and then he

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just another day stanning libraries

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Currently thinking about non-English translations of Jabberwocky, because it has to be so hard translating a nonsense poem.

And it’s not just making the nonsense words fit the translated language’s morphology, you have to have most of the nonsense words mean something for a later chapter in the book where Humpty Dumpty explains the portmanteau words. So in one Japanese translation, “frumious,” which is a portmanteau of “fuming” and “furious,” is translated as “takeburu,” which draws on the words “takeru,” fierce, and “keburu”, to smoke.

But I also just love the names of the Jabberwock in other languages. In French he’s le Jaseroque, der Jammerwoch in German, Barmaglot in Russian, and at least one Danish translation named him Kloppervok. It’s the one word you could very justifiably keep untranslated, but everyone wants to make the name fit, make it feel at home in the translation.

I have no point here, I just think it’s neat.

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After all… I’m just a girl writer, standing sitting in front of a boy their novel, asking him it to love her finish itself.

- Notting Hill Plotting Still

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a stats report on the rk ashwick books (as of April 2023)

some folks responded positively to the idea of seeing data on how my books have done (for indie author research and benchmark purposes), so here you go!

I'll put everything under the cut:

📚 What do I write?

Cozy fantasy romance under the pen name R.K. Ashwick.

📚 Why do I write?

Because I love it. I have a full-time job that isn't related to writing, so I write in my spare time. I should also note that I do not have dependents, am not a caregiver, and I do have anxiety and ADHD. I am not certain that I want to be a full-time writer, given the financial instability and the joy it could take away from writing. However, I want my books to be and perform the best they can, so I try to be professional about my product and methods.

(To me, this is all important context to be up-front about. Finances, family size, and health all have a huge impact on an author's goals and strategies.)

📚 How many books do I have out?

The Stray Spirit: released August 2022. First in a planned trilogy.

A Rival Most Vial: released March 2023. First in a planned trilogy.

📚 Online Visibility

Here's what I have going on:

Paid:

Website (requires $ for hosting)

BookFunnel for newsletter promos, sales promos, and ARC distribution (site requires $ to join)

Unpaid:

Newsletter (currently managing on free version of Mailerlite, since I'm under 1000 followers)

Facebook page (not consistently maintained, mostly for SEO)

Instagram, posting 5x/wk

TikTok, posting 5k/wk

Tumblr- hi!

using things like LibraryThing, GoodReads forums, Reddit, and FB pages to find more ARC readers

I was doing Amazon ads, but recently nixed them, as I didn't feel they were really getting me anything. I'll likely return to them once I have more books out.

A Note on Follower Count: I have, like 10 FB followers, 400-ish Insta followers, 1500 TikTok folders, and almost 1600 Tumblr followers. I've been on Tumblr the longest and TikTok second longest. TikTok had the fastest growth, Insta the slowest. However, general advice is that engagement rate is more important than follower count. I'll be real, I'm not doing that hot on that front. I'll consistently get around 20 likes on Insta posts and TikTok often caps my video views at around 200 or 300. The videos that do the best on TT often aren't the ones related to my books. Fun times.

A Note on Newsletter Stats: I have a pretty consistent open rate of 25-30%, which I think is okay. I'd like for it to be closer to 40%. (It's also hard to actually track open rates, so that number isn't entirely reliable.)

A Note on ARC Reader Stats: I got 100 readers for TSS and almost 200 for ARMV. This resulted in a ballpark count of 20 reviews for TSS and 30 reviews for ARMV around release time.

📚 Other Marketing Strategies

What you see above under Visibility is my ongoing work. I also do more limited-run strategies, like:

occasional free book giveaways on social media

pre-order gifts for my book

I sent out around 20 pre-order gift envelopes for TSS and 45 for ARMV. I operate the pre-order gifts at a loss, but I really enjoy doing it, so I'm okay with it. I also have lots of leftover stickers and bookmarks that I can bundle with giveaways.

📚 Distribution

I distribute wide through:

Amazon: both ebook and paperback

IngramSpark: paperback only

Draft2Digital: ebook only

📚 Orders & Royalties

So, what did all this work and shennanery get me?

From July 2022-April 2023 (10 months):

Books Sold: 575

Total Royalties, paid and unpaid: $1543.49 ($2.68 per book)

📚 Is that good or bad?

I have no idea!! And I think in the end, it all depends on your goals.

If my goal was to make a living: welp, it's def not enough.

If my goal was to break even: between website set up, DBA set up, cover cost, editing cost, illustrator cost: nah. I'd have to make about $4,000 more to safely say I've broken even.

If my goal was to get strangers, and not just family and friends, to read my books: oh hey, I did that!!

I hope this information helps you set a goal, so you're not mentally wandering around like I am.

📚 Other Notes

A big factor in having a financially successful indie book is fitting genre conventions in your chosen subgenre, or 'writing to market.' I will say that A Rival Most Vial is more written to market than The Stray Spirit is. The Stray Spirit sort of straddles cozy, historical, and academic fantasy without actually leaning in to any of those things, so it's a little harder to market.

I also spent a lot on cover, editing, and illustration. That makes it harder to be a financially viable business, but it's what I wanted to do to have a strong finished product. I am lucky in that my full-time job can cover these expenses.

I'm not very good at social media. I've never had anything go viral on any of the sites.

The most rewarding part of all this is seeing how people react to the book: reviews, videos where they're almost crying over the book, podcast invitations, and [something a bit bigger than I'll announce in the summer.] At the end of the day, if I have a small group of buyers who are vocal in engaging with my books, that's far more rewarding than a large group of buyers who don't engage.

📚 Parting Thoughts

I'm happy to talk about any and all aspects of my self-publishing experience. If you have more questions or want more details, feel free to reply, send an ask, or DM me!

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A Rival Most Vial is out!!

It’s here! It’s here it’s here it’s here!!

[ID: meme of Daisy Ridley pointing at the screen with a paper in her other hand. the text reads “you want to read about gay potion rivals.” end ID]

great yeah me too buddy that’s why I wrote this whole-ass book for you:

[ID: a purple and gold book cover. the text reads: “A Rival Most Vial: Potioneering for Love and Profit by RK Ashwick.” The artwork includes silhouettes of two men with little hearts over their heads, along with filigree and icons of potion bottles, cauldrons, swords, wands, and gems. end ID]

Two potion shops, one heated rivalry…until hate bubbles over into something else.

Any adventurer worth their sword knows about Ambrose Beake. The proud, quiet half-elf sells the best, and only, potions in the city—until a handsome new shopkeeper named Eli opens another potion shop across the street, throwing Ambrose’s peace and ledgers far off balance. 

Within weeks, they’re locked in a war of price tags and products—Ambrose’s expertise against Eli’s effortless charm. Toil leads to trouble, the safety gloves come off, and right as their rivalry reaches a boiling point…

The mayor commissions them to brew a potion together.

The task is as complex as it is lucrative, pushing both men to the limits of their abilities and patience. Yet as the fires burn and cauldrons bubble…they find a different sort of chemistry brewing.

🌟 You can buy it in ebook or paperback here! 🌟

Thanks for all your support over the past few years!! This book wouldn’t be here without you!

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stop trying to make every single drawing a magnum opus. you cannot unleash your art ult until you charge it up with a bunch of shitty little doodles first.

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Hey

Do you like unhinged, angry women?

Do you like mad science?

Do you like the exquisite homoerotic tension of two Victorian ladies just barely brushing hands?

Do you think that Frankenstein would have gone a lot better if only Victor had been less of an absolute weenie?

Do you look at the story of the Loch Ness Monster and think “...but what if a dinosaur got in the lake”

THEN BOY, DO I HAVE THE BOOK FOR YOU!

Move over, chemists, it’s time for mad paleontologists to shine!

Years ago, Mary’s great uncle Victor Frankenstein mysteriously disappeared in the Arctic; now, in 1853, Mary and her reckless husband Henry are struggling to make a name for themselves as paleontologists in the old-boys'-club that is the world of Victorian science. But when Mary discovers her great-uncle's old notes, detailing his gruesome attempts at creating life, she comes up with a plan — one that will finally make them some money, prove Henry's radical paleontological theories right, and get Mary some of the respect she goddamn deserves...

Our Hideous Progeny comes out in May of next year; you can pre-order it now wherever books are sold! Or, if you want a copy NOW: you can request an ARC on Netgalley (if you're registered) or, if you're a book reviewer/bookstagrammer/etc., DM me for publicist info.

Thanks all, byeee!

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wait, I'm curious - I feel like most writers feel pretty comfortable with a little bit of genre swapping and mixing, but are there any sort of stories/genres that you'd never write? And, importantly, not because of any ideological/moral stance against them, but purely because they're not to your taste?

For instance - you'd nevvveeer catch me writing puppy love/first crush or teen/college coming of age stories. I have no issue with them at all they're just not my thing!

I'd love to know what everyone else's is!

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We all got that homie whose air of silliness doesnt hide the haunted look in their eyes😂👆