#I hate sales and marketing but I know I have to do something to pay bills

[i-am-a-fish]

I have made a Patreon! Also a Ko-fi and Cash App! PLEASE only support if that's something you can do, I just like making things I don't want to sell content

Patreon

Ko-fi

Cashapp: $Womanbecomer

thank you for reading please enjoy your scroll!

[taylor-titmouse]

hey i want to talk about how you should be promoting your work as an erotic author/illustrator

i'm writing this up because the marketing aspect of my work as an erotic author/illustrator is a science to me, and also because i'm the guy who gets unreasonably annoyed when i see other creators not properly advertising their work. you presumably want to make money off your work. this post will be written under the assumption you want to make money off your work but are doing a bad job at it. it will be very confrontational. if you read this and feel attacked you're right and i am attacking you.

this is geared toward selling erotic comics/writing/books/art as products. i will probably write more than one post about this subject so if i didn't touch on something you want to know more about, comment/send me an ask and i'll keep it in mind for the next one.

i will start with my first and least specific but most important point:

DON'T GET FUCKING CUTE

hi are you paying attention. i'm gripping you by the sides of your face. do not get fucking cute with what you are trying to sell. you are not a big enough property to get cute, nobody LIKES it when big properties get cute, and you are selling porn. you have to own this. you have to be up front about this. don't be tongue in cheek, don't be all teehee i wonder what this could be~, don't be secretive. you are selling a product. you have to fucking act like it. you are an adult selling pornography to other adults. i am GRIPPING your HEAD you NEED to understand this.

and to be clear when i say 'cute' i mean coy. i don't mean cutesy, as in the aesthetic. you can be as hello kitty pastel ten emojis a post uwu as you like when you're building your audience and generating hype. but when you start trying to sell, don't be vague, don't be sarcastic, don't mislabel your work as a joke and assume everyone is on it. because they're not.

you must always assume 75% of the people seeing the thing you are advertising have no fucking idea who you are. and that includes a huge chunk of the people who already follow you. they do not know who you are or what you've been working on for two months or why they should care about it. they just got here. somebody just reposted it. they are seeing it for the first time. most people are only looking at social media for a tiny chunk of their day. they are not keeping up with you. you cannot get cute about what you are trying to sell because nobody knows what it is until you tell them.

okay are you still with me. we are going to talk about clarity now.

YOU GOTTA TELL ME WHAT IT IS

good lord the amount of times i have gone to buy somebody's comic or book and had no idea what's actually in it or what it's about. who are the characters? why should i care about them? what do they do in it? what is the premise of this thing you want me to spend $5 on? why would you not tell me? i'm shaking you again. please i have to know what i'm buying i only have so much money to spend on porn.

porn, arguably more than any other genre, relies on knowing exactly what is in it. you do not want to surprise your readers with a kink they were unaware of! and on the flip side, you do not want to miss out on your target audience! if your book contains a hot spider babe laying eggs in an elf, you have to say so. not just so people who don't want to read about eggs know it isn't for them, but so the people who are egg crazy can see that and go "oh fuck YES i love EGGS here is my $5 and an extra $2 tip for catering to me specifically". a contents/features list is as much an advertisement as it is a warning!

as for re: who the characters are and why should i care, i'm sorry but you need to learn how to write sales copy. you have to write blurbs. you have to get good at the shit that goes on the back of a book. we all hate it but we have to do it. i want to know who the characters are and what the context is. i, personally, am not interested in contemporary stories as much as fantasy and historical. please tell me what genre this porn exists in so i know if it aesthetically appeals to me. pull some books off your shelves and see how they do it. hell man go look at mine.

while you're there, note that every single book of mine has a sample of what's in it. this feels like such a no-brainer to me but again! the amount of times i have gone to buy somebody's work and they don't show me what their work looks like! you gotta give me the first page or two! just enough that i know if i like the way your writing sounds, or the way you draw your comics! i don't know you! i am not going to trust that you're good at what you do just based on a cover. the cover is to get me to this step, it is not the only step. you have to show me that you're worth spending my money on!

to put it less cynically, you want to catch my interest. you want me to go 'oh i want to see more of this', you want me to go 'ahh i want to know where this goes!' you need to get me invested and craving more. earn my $5!!!

YOU HAVE TO MAKE IT EASY TO GIVE YOU MONEY

hey go look at your bio right now. go look at your pinned post. do you have a link to your patreon there? do you have a link to your itchio/gumroad/whatever? do i have to click more than once to get to the places you want me to go to give you money? why? why are you making me click twice? have we learned nothing from every website making you click an extra time when they make some stupid UI update and how much it pisses us off? i have already given up, i have forgotten you, i am not giving you my $5 today. put your links in the easiest places to get to them.

god literally as i was writing this post i went to go find somebody's itchio to see how they described their work and it was not anywhere on their profile. grabbing you and shaking you PUT THE LINK WHERE I CAN FIND IT. don't make it hard! make it easy! i am a dickhead sitting on the toilet scrolling, saw your post, and was interested enough to read further. but you made me go to your bio to find your linktree and oops i have already gone back to my timeline to look at the boobies in the next post. stop wasting precious bio space on DNIs and put your fuckin links there!!!

this is more for the twitter people, but: just put the link in the damn post. just say the word commission. just say it's for patreon. "wuh wuh the algorithm" it is not the damn algorithm it's that everybody hates advertising and nobody wants to retweet ads. putting slashes in the words doesn't do anything and you look like a fool. i have posted so much art that says it's 'a commission for ___" and it did exactly as good as any other art despite having the word commission in it. and by doing the slashes you just made it impossible for anybody to search your account for your commission information (which should be at the VERY LEAST in a post under your pinned tweet if you're not actively posting about them being open).

okay that went on a tangent i'm going to back to the point of putting the link in the tweet. put it in the first post. not in the first reply. don't tell them to go to your bio. put it in the post people are actually going to share. it's fine to put more information in the thread but people are only ever going to share the first post. so put the link there. you have to make it easy. putting links in tweets can hurt you algorithmically, even in the replies. so you're better off having it in the post that actually gets seen and shared. i don't want to open the tweet and scroll to get to your sales page where i ASSUME you will have put all the information anyway. put it in the tweet that just got retweeted by itself onto my dash!

also you have to share it a ton of times. i repost my shit every few hours when i'm trying to push a new product. as i said before people are not 24/7 looking at their timelines. they missed it the first time. they missed it the second time. they didn't get paid yet that week but they were after the eighth time and you reminded them again so they finally bought it. that i will still get sales every time i repost a book ad weeks after release says there are always people who missed it, or who only just showed up.

abandon your pride and shill. shills pay their bills. anyone who gets annoyed about it isn't giving you money in the first place. don't worry about looking like a sell out. don't apologize for plugging your own work. post about it often, post about it in different ways. post about it. post about it. you are not going to make money if people don't know you have something to sell them. if you want to make a career out of it, you need to act like it.

I DON'T HAVE A FOURTH POINT

kisses your forehead. i'm sorry for yelling at you. i've been making and publishing and selling adult art for the past two-three years and have got myself to the point where it pays my rent, and i got there by paying attention to what does and does not work.

please do your best to make money. i want you to make money.

as i said above i plan to write more posts on this subject, such as cover design, how to actually write sales copy, and best practices with running a patreon, but if there's things you would want to hear more about leave a comment or send an ask! i will probably be less aggressive on future topics. these are just things that have grinded my gears for a grip.

[dwindlinghaze]

a flight to paris

(remus lupin x reader)

summary: you and remus have been in an established relationship for years but one day you received an unexpected break up call from him.

contents: she/her pronouns, modern!au, angst (?), break up, inspired by a barbie movie, my horrible english, i wrote this out of boredom, oh and this is a multipart :)

　 . • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆

on most days you enjoy your summer holiday. you have a part time job in which you worked for a magazine, having your own personal workspace in the office headquarters and all.

your days are mostly surrounded by the latest style, magazine covers, hollywood gossip, and beautiful photoshoots of women. it was fun, really. that is if mr. wellins wasn't your boss.

he's a walking patriarchal figure. hate is not enough to describe your feelings towards that man.

"i don't think that's a good idea to put in there," you spoke during one of the meetings.

"what do you mean? it's a good one, everybody will be intrigued!" he scoffed.

you shifted uncomfortably in your seat, glancing at the others but they just gave you a warning look. no one dared to go against mr. wellins. "it just doesn't feel right y'know- to put that in there considering it's just an allegation and not confirmed?"

"but we focus on marketing here! who will pay your wage if it weren't for these nosy people who read and buy our magazines? we have to find a way to get our sales higher!" he said sternly, glaring at you with cold eyes.

"look here, if you put that article, surely our reputation will be stained. you don't want that to happen do you? we just need to find something else- something more positive and harmless but still eye catching. like the new box office movie that everyone has been talking about lately. it doesn't harm anyone, in fact it's supporting them. what do you think?"

every one of your co-workers nodded in agreement, waiting for the boss to reply.

he looked bored. "you know that flapping thing you just did with your mouth?"

"you mean- expressing my opinion on what's better for the sake of your company?"

"yeah that," he rolled his eyes. "stop doing that."

"i think y/n's right, makes me wish she were the boss," one of your co-workers mumbled under her breath.

he looked sharply at the girl, "i can easily fire you."

"oh no no, i feel like we just- need to discuss about this more you know?" you defended.

"oh get off this place. end of discussion!"

"we can talk like in the coffee shop, or the commissary-"

"not me getting off, you getting off. get out you're fired!" he slammed his fist.

"wha- what? fired?" you said breathlessly, eyes widen in shock.

you got to your car, speeding to get home and just curl up in the arms of your boyfriend- remus lupin. you needed him. his constant whispering of sweet nothings, his warm embrace, his smile that can rip away all negativity.

just like magic, your phone started ringing with remus in the other line. screen lighting up, his pretty face on the screen. you smiled, so big and decided to stop at one of the parking lots nearby.

"hello?" you heard the sweet voice of remus lupin.

"oh rem! i'm so glad you called!" you exclaimed, heart warming at his comforting voice.

"things aren't right with us and you know it. they haven't been for a while," he said. his ever-lovely voice that makes you feel safe was nowhere to be heard. your heart dropped, chest hurting all of a sudden.

"what?" you choked on the verge of sobbing. "remus come on."

"i'm breaking up with you... right now." he said it like you don't matter to him at all. you clenched your phone, eyes already hurting from the incoming tears.

"you're not... are you serious? what are you saying?" you thought your day couldn't get worse, but the universe said otherwise.

"it's over. and if you're smart, you'll forget i exist."

and just like that, the line disconnected. you couldn't stop the tears from falling out of your eyes. not only have you lost your job, you also have lost your remus.

you never thought he would ever break up with you. especially since you both were in a strong relationship of four years. no matter what problems appeared on the surface, they always got resolved.

wiping your tears away, you tried to drive safely to lily's house. your best friend. you needed someone to talk to. someone to pour your heart out.

"i lost my job and he broke up with me," you said in shame when she opened the door to see you with red rimmed eyes.

"he broke up with you because you lost your job?" lily gasped.

"no... separately," you sobbed. then you told her the whole story of how you've had lost your job and how he broke up with you on the phone in your car just then.

"what kind of guy does that!" lily said in disbelief. it's so not remus to break up with you like that. knowing how much he loves you since forever ago. you two are perfect for each other. nothing could ever compare to the bond you both had.

"i guess a guy with no real emotions," you huffed, reaching for lily's tissue.

lily suggested for you to call remus again, 'cause no way is someone like him said something like that to you. there was no response though, he's not answering.

"maybe you misunderstood. what did he actually say?" lily asked once more.

"he said that it was over, and if i were smart i'd forget he ever existed," his words ringing in your ears.

"does he speak another language where it means 'i love you'," lily tried, you shook your head.

"that's it," she picked up your phone. "i'm blocking him from your cell, e-mail, everything! you do not break up with anyone like that! when i'm done, we're gonna go somewhere that you love. a place where you feel happy and good about yourself."

"i wanna go far away," you mumbled.

"that's right, you should go far away and clear your head! forget about them. men are getting harder to like these days," lily agreed, snapping her fingers.

"i'll go far away... like aunt milicent's!" you said.

"aunt millicents?" lily asked.

"yeah she's a designer in paris. has a fashion house and everything. i always loved being there. tons of people, energy, fabrics, and dresses... and my aunt in the middle of it all! oh how i want to be like her when i grow up. that's it i'm going there!"

"super fun!" lily exclaimed, truly happy for you. "when are you going?"

"right now! i can spend the last weeks of summer vacation with her," you managed to crack a smile, "i don't need remus. what i need is to book a flight to paris."

"remmy, you can't help me with our summer project if you're on the phone all the time," jessica said, snatching remus' phone out of his hand.

"i just don't get it, i can't get through y/n at all!" remus said in exasperation, brows furrowing in confusion and worry clouding up his head.

"i'm sure she's fine," jessica said, fluttering her lashes.

remus was unconvinced, he couldn't focus the whole time. "it has been since yesterday."

"y/n is a busy person. she'll call when she gets the chance... in the meantime...," she jerked her head towards the script.

"do we have to tape that again... i'm not an actor, i probably sounded stupid," remus scoffed.

"you sounded beautiful," she said, smiling flirtatiously at him.

remus was too fogged up on the thought of you to notice her behaviour. you never ignore him like this. no matter how busy your lives were, you two always made time for each other.

"lils look!" marlene gasped, pointing at remus and jessica sitting together on the table across the room.

"oh no. don't tell me that boy dumped y/n for jessica," lily said in annoyance and disbelief.

the two of them walked over, crossing their arms. "are you kidding?" lily said coldly, shooting daggers at remus.

"lily, marlene! where's y/n?" remus asked, sitting up from his chair. he didn't know why they looked upset.

"why do you want to know?" marlene questioned.

"i can't reach her! i've called, i've texted, i've emailed. nothing worked. is she okay?" remus said desperately.

"y/n's fine. she wants nothing to do with the twat who dumped her over the phone!" lily scolded.

"wha- huh- dumped her?" remus asked in shock. he would never dump you. you're everything to him. "i would never do that, c'mon you guys know how much she means to me!"

"you know what uhh i actually need to run, see you," jessica said, slipping away from the table. nobody paid attention to her though.

"don't play dumb! she told us what you said 'it's over and if you're smart you'll forget i exist'."

"wait what?" remus exclaimed, eyes travelling towards jessica who was chuckling guiltily. "that line... a part of the script i read yesterday. don't say you recorded it and play it back to y/n," he said, eyes closing painfully.

"i'd be happy to tell you that," jessica said, batting her lashes. oh what a nerve. "it was a joke. i never thought she'd actually believed it. she must have serious doubts about the relationship."

remus ignored her, turning towards lily and marlene. "where's y/n? i need to see her now," he said, heart racing at the thought of you.

"uh- she's kind of..." lily slowly replied, eyeing marlene, urging her to finish the sentence.

"in paris."

"paris? paris, france? since when was she going to paris?" remus was panicking. he knew he messed up and he's willing to make it right again.

"uh a long story..."

"what should i do? i need to talk to her as soon as possible," he scrunched his hair, brows knitting.

"y/n went through a lot yesterday... you know what you can do to make her feel better? a grand romantic gesture! don't just call her. go book yourself a flight to paris, show up to her aunt milicent's doorstep, and prove how much you love her!" lily said.

"she'll love it!" marlene agreed.

"i'm on it," he opened his phone to search for a plane ticket. "i'll book the next flight out of london."

[dnd-apothecary]

like i cannot stress enough that the ease of use that Etsy had is no longer enough to keep me on their platform. Even paying for Etsy plus, paying for etsy ads, and offering free shipping was not off setting my costs to ....do all of that. On top of that, Etsy takes 6.5% per transaction fee (per item sold) PLUS 6.5% of the shipping charge.

also the only reason I have gotten Star Seller status at ALL is because my traffic and sales were so slow that it was nearly impossible not to get it at that point.

It's a dying ecommerce platform for handmade stuff, and it has been for a long time, and it's going to only be dropshippers soon -- which dropshipping is not a bad thing! nor do I hate dropshippers! -- but on a platform that was and is marketed as a handmade platform, it is bad.

Like, even paying for etsy ads they were not bringing in the traffic they said they would. You know what brought in the traffic? Tumblr. Between me actively pushing my posts and you all being absolutely wonderful humans, you were the reason my traffic ever existed. So I think it's time for me to leave Etsy behind and we can move to something that works better for all of us.

I'm hoping that with my own website I can start to offer international shipping again. I really miss sending packages all over the world, but Etsy made it nigh impossible to ship to other countries with their fees.

anyway I feel strongly enough about my displeasure with Etsy that I am willing to go through the discomfort of growing pains to migrate to a new platform.

hash tag girl boss or whatever

[writingquestionsanswered]

Prompted by the anon who asked about becoming an author with little writing practice. What are your personal thoughts on writing with a goal to have a paycheck? Including a genuine interest in writing, of course. I've dabbled a little bit in writing, and I always wanted to be published, but I imagined this would happen later on in my life. I'm currently unemployed and have been ghosted and rejected everywhere for over a year now. I'm starting to get a little desperate, and I'm looking at publishing a book as the better option now... but I'm in no way practised enough to be thinking about that. What's your take on it?

The Realities of Making Money with Writing

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but writing--in any capacity--is not a viable solution for when you're unemployed and need a paycheck. It's actually very hard to make a living as a writer, and that's even more true for inexperienced writers...

Writing in a paid position, such as a staff writer for a magazine or newspaper, is the most viable way to make money as a writer. However, paid writing positions are limited in number and highly competitive. You typically need to have the writing experience and credentials to qualify for the position, and if you don't, you're probably not getting a position that pays the bills.

Traditional publishing is not a great goal if you're looking for a paycheck. Not only does it typically take years of writing, querying, and rejection before you get a publishing deal (if ever), once you get that deal it's not the cash cow you may think it is. First, advances for debut authors can be as low as a few thousand dollars and are rarely above $10k. While that may sound like a ton of money, especially when you're unemployed, remember you're paying taxes on that, so what you actually get to keep is significantly less. Then, whatever that amount is will be broken into two to four equal payments. So you're either getting a few grand that has to last you six months or so, or you're getting about $1500 that has to last you a few months or so. In today's economy, neither amount goes very far. It'd be like having a job where you make $500 a month. You'd likely do better with a job at a fast food place. And once you get a book deal, it's going to be at least a year before your book is published and for sale, so it's going to be a while before you're seeing royalties. Even then, most books (even traditionally published ones), don't sell enough copies for the author to make a living wage. Most authors who're able to make a living wage either have a wildly popular book or a backlog of reasonably popular books. Debut authors don't usually make much money.

Self-Publishing is a terrible goal if you're looking for a paycheck. First, self-publishing a book that sells well requires most people to invest a little in their book. Professional cover art, professional editing, and advertising are just a few of the places where self-published authors routinely invest in their own books. While it's possible to self-publish a book for free, you really have to know what you're doing in order to pull it off successfully. Self-published books are hard enough to sell with professional covers, excellent editing, and paid advertising. You won't get far with an amateur cover, bad editing, and inadequate advertising and promo. Self-publishing is also not something you should be considering if you describe yourself as someone who has "dabbled in writing" and "not practiced enough to think about publishing." Self-publishing is a serious industry composed primarily of serious authors who have put in the time, effort, and practice to hone their craft and create quality books. Every time someone half-asses a book in hopes of a windfall, it damages the collective reputation of serious self-published authors.

Furthermore: even if you are an experienced writer who writes an AMAZING professionally edited book with a gorgeous cover, and you put a ton of effort and money into marketing your book, you are still probably not going to make enough on one book to pay the bills. The way to make money via self-publishing is by writing a volume of great books that sell well so you can make money on your backlog. Many authors also do things to diversify their revenue stream, such as offering courses, workbooks, critique and editing services, etc., but these are not things inexperienced writers should be offering.

So, if you're someone who has "dabbled in writing" and are looking for a way to pay the bills right now, writing isn't it.

Instead, you need to look for another job right now and keep writing in your spare time. Read a lot of books, write a lot of stories and novels that will never be published. Hone your craft. Then, when you've got a lot of stories under your belt and have critique partners and beta readers swooning over your fiction--then you can self-publish your debut novel or try querying again. Just remember that, even then--even when you've put in the time to hone your craft--neither traditional publishing or self-publishing is guaranteed to be a windfall that pays the bills. Most authors have a day job.

Best of luck on your journey! ♥

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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[honeyjars-sims]

1.42 Honesty

Ambrose: Chanteeeeelllllll! It’s so good to see you, dear. I’m happy to report that both of your product reviews on Nota have helped bump up sales, which means you’ve earned a bonus! 

Nico: Readers love your viewpoint. It’s clear they trust your opinion–and your taste level. If you keep it up, there will be more incentives on the horizon.

Chantal: That’s great news! I’m having so much fun writing these. Thanks so much for taking my idea to create a profile on Nota into consideration.

Ambrose: No, thank you for breathing new life into our social media campaign! 

Nico: Our marketing research shows an uptick in customers from the 18-24 demographic and we think that’s largely in part to our social media presence in the last few months.

Chantal: Wow, that’s amazing! It’s so cool seeing all of our hard work paying off!

Ambrose: I’ve got my eye on you, Chantel. I see great things in your future. Now, Nico tells me you’re having some concerns about reviewing some of the products?

Chantal: Oh…well, not concerns exactly. I just wasn’t planning on reviewing some of the sexual health products since I’m not currently in a relationship. I wouldn’t want to put my stamp of approval on something I haven’t used.

Ambrose: I do understand that, honey, I honestly do. But I want to assure you that our products have to pass a very rigorous testing process. Everyone has their preferences, sure, but I’m not putting anything on the market that isn’t at the highest standards. You don’t have to worry about putting your name on a review of a low quality product, whether you’ve personally used it or not.

Chantal: I don’t understand. You want me to lie?

Ambrose: Of course not, no! I’m just saying, you could always do a spot test of the products, or maybe share them with a friend who could get use from them. You don’t have to use them exactly as directed to write an honest review.

Chantal: I guess not…

Ambrose: Of course, it’s up to you, dear. I just hate for you to miss out on earning money for reviewing more content. It would be a shame since you’re doing so well.

Chantal: Okay, I’ll think about it. I know a couple of people who might try some products out for me.

Ambrose: That’s great! Well, I have an interview to get ready for, but do keep me posted! Toodles!

Nico: I’m so sorry, Chantal, I wouldn’t have told her about your concerns if I thought she was going to pressure you about it. I thought she would be more understanding.

Chantal: It’s okay, I see her point of view. And I don’t want to stifle my success if I don’t have to.

Nico: Good. As long as you’re not upset. I was really just trying to look out for you.

Chantal: And I appreciate that. Really. I’m not upset at all, it’s really nice of you.

Nico: Well, you deserve it. And I’ll try to make it up to you. Hey, why don’t we go out tonight to celebrate your bonus? There’s a new nightclub downtown that I’ve heard good things about.

Chantal: A nightclub? Sounds fun, but I’m only 18, remember?

Nico: Oh God, that’s right! I keep forgetting. You’re so much more mature than I was at that age. Well, we could go somewhere else. Have any ideas?

Chantal: There’s a place near DSVU that doesn’t ID if you don’t mind hanging with college kids for the night.

Nico: Hmm, it would be fun to relive my college days. Count me in! 

Chantal: Great, I’ll text you the details later.

Nico: I’m looking forward to it.

Chantal: Me, too.

Previous | Beginning | Beginning of chapter | Next

[animentality]

I haven’t read your books yet, you know how it is, money~, but I bet they’re pretty good and I am planning to buy and read them, they’re on The List, and I hold you in high regards as a person I kinda vaguely barely know. I say this first to preface, because, from the kindest most adoring place of my heart okay, this reminded me of you, no offense: https://www.tumblr.com/pjackk/721300009283420160/whats-up-tunblr-basically-i-just-wrote-this-book

Ouch.

Glad you preceded this with a compliment...

But brutal.

For what it's worth, I also hate having to reduce my books to tropes...and I try not to, with any of my promotional posts...

But uh...good to know this is how I come across :S

But in my defense...and in defense of other authors... it's super easy for people to make fun of how we have to promote our books, but in this terrible digital economy...I mean.

It's hard to keep people's attention, and it's hard to sell books.

It's not like selling art, doing commissions, making animations, or well-edited videos. Books are inherently harder to sell and market and build an audience for, because they're an investment of time and focus.

They aren't as easy to dive into and enjoy. A webcomic chapter you could read in twenty minutes. A pretty picture you can reblog, and you can commission the artist if you love the style. A Youtube video can be ten minutes of investment. Maybe an hour, tops.

But a book?

Books will always struggle more than shows or animations, because it takes a certain kind of person to read books, and in this day and age, attention spans are shorter than ever.

You spend fucking years writing your books, and you edit, and you revise, and write some more, and edit some more, and revise some more, and then you have to promote.

All the time, in every way you can imagine. Using whatever tools you have... all the time, every way.

Otherwise, you don't see any sales at all, and then it's like you wasted three years of your life fiddling around, while everyone you know is making bank on crypto or whatever the fuck.

If I was good at fucking BookTok? I wouldn't be fucking here promoting at all.

I could leave my blog as the little meme machine it's always been.

But I'm bad at fucking TikTok.

And I mildly resent being compared to a TikTok author, because if I was any good at that, I WOULD NOT BE HERE promoting my books at all.

Tumblr is the worst place to promote anything, ever.

That's part of why I like it...but at the same time, that's why it's such a torturous practice, trying to promote my novels here.

No one here gives a fuck. And I'm fine with that.

I'm ok with that.

But I can't throw away hard work without at least trying.

I don't really get the criticisms of authors in those comments anyway.

What have those people tried to put out into the world?

You think self published authors are just jokes, or that they aren't marketing themselves well?

Maybe both are true, but someone who makes something, no matter how shit, has still MADE something.

It's easy to tear others down. It's not easy to make something that you care about, and put out into the world for others to see and judge.

And for those people in the comments too, I have to ask.

Is a book only good, if it's published by a company?

Because books that are self published are actually a LOT LESS likely to be made up of tropes and cliches.

People who self publish tend to write weirder and more out of the box things. They RESORT to tropes because they feel you won't pay attention to their books without them.

they feel you won't give their concept a try, unless they dumb it down for everyone.

They pretend the book is something it's not, out of sheer desperation.

I market 7 Deadly Habits like it's a fucking adventure action romance comedy...?

It's actually pretty fucking dark and grim and sad.

the main character is fucked up, and so are all his exes. So is the entire world they live in.

It's really not a funny book. It has dark humor, but it's hinged on an unhinged concept, one that I find darkly interesting.

But I lie and say it's a funny adventurous romp of sex and violence.

Because that's how I have to market it.

I try other things, of course, but I have found most people would rather read a romance than an anti-romance, which is more of what it is.

People don't want to try new things. They want more of the shit they already have.

to make something new, or different, or non-conventional, is to accept that you will have to water it down when you're trying to offer it to people.

So yeah.

I get it. Authors who blaze their book promotions are desperate losers and weirdo freaks with very bizarre interests and isn't it funny, how hard they're trying?

But you know.

What else can we be?

Leigh Bardugo?

Trust me. I wish I was a good writer. I wish I wrote straight YA fantasy books that kids and adults and everyone can enjoy. I wish I had a literary agent and five star publishing houses giving me 20 million dollars for my next book.

I wish I was a multi millionaire white woman, in an industry of rich white women, who write sexy murder mysteries and cozy thrillers and steamy vampire eroticas.

But I am what I am, and that's a queer self published POC author, who has no one in my corner, but me. Whose only means of promotion is my own efforts.

So no, I don't really look at other self published authors with disdain or wry detachment.

I know how they feel.

I know how much it sucks.

[blazehedgehog]

Isn't Steam a paradox from an economic point of view? They have the first mover adventage, they have a de facto monopoly, but they are not at all greedy -- not to the point of being anti-consumer, at least. And the innovations they bring to the table are actually useful stuff (Proton above all). Valve is just.. there, operating their business, making good money with nobody really complaining.

It depends on what economic values you subscribe to. A lot of guys like EA want to take the shortcut to easy money. EA even tried to compete with Steam, remember. They had their "Origin" client. They gave away free games for over a year and still nobody would use it. The hope was to give them something comparable to Valve's firehose of money. An easy profit stream where they could get a cut of every game sold on PC just by the simple fact they existed.

Rather than just do good work, they hoped to pry people off of Steam with the promise of regular freebies... except it was a client nobody wanted to use and in a lot of cases actively hated. It lacked most of the features of Steam, was a little bloated, and came at a time where EA was starting to push increasingly aggressive DRM that limited how many "activations" you were allowed per-game. So, it struggled.

The same thing happened with Uplay. Ubisoft thought they could make their own Steam, but the greed was too evident and annoying. It was a hassle to work with, added nothing of real value, and nobody wanted to use it. So most people didn't, unless they were forced to use it.

That's the thing with these corporations, right? Nothing is ever enough. They can't just sell well on Steam, they have to make their own platform so they can have all the money. And the profit lines must not only always go up, it has to go up faster. More and faster and more and faster and more and faster until the wheels come off and everything breaks.

Then these board of director weirdos, now among the richest 5% of people on earth, pull the ripcord and parachute over to the next corporation and start over. All the money, more and faster and more and faster...

What separates Valve is that Valve never seems to have treated it like much of a race. Like, sure, they do things to boost sales (even recently had a really ugly "capitalism celebration" sale event) but they seem pretty comfortable being themselves and not cranking all the dials until they break off.

Some of that is arguably down to the fact that Valve never became a publicly traded company. Once you get listed on the stock market, investors enter the picture, and the whole dynamic of how a company exists changes. Publicly traded companies rely on investors for some amount of operating costs, and the highest ranking investors can even legally control some part of your company as if they were employed there.

But there's never any guarantee that an investor knows what is good for your company. They just gave you a lot of money and expect you to pay it back at some point (by increasing shareholder value). And its created this culture of people who race to maximize everything at the expense of the structural integrity of the company and its employees. It's like (spoilers for one of the most famous movie trilogies of all time) the end of Back to the Future 3, right, where they need to get this old 1800's locomotive up to 88mph.

Feeding it that much fuel, getting the heat up that high, it builds up extreme pressure in the boiler and the train will eventually explode. Except for a lot of these business types, exploding the boiler is the point. Exploding the boiler is a successful operation. Like I said: more and faster and more and faster, right?

Some companies need investor money to survive. But... not all do. Many of them still go public anyway, because the race to explode the boiler matters more than just being comfortable. We're still in the era of people starting companies just to sell them.

Valve got lucky. They established an emerging market, gave people exactly what they wanted, and became the defacto home for PC gaming. Steam was such a comfortable, welcoming platform that nobody even thought about competing with them until they had already gained too much momentum to ever be slowed down.

And the only reasons most people can come up with to compete with Valve is "We want more money." Valve wants 30% of my earnings? A whole 30%??? Unreasonable! I'll start my own storefront! With blackjack! And etc.!

As someone who works with Youtube and gets a 55/45 split, I guess I don't have perspective on how 30% is some kind of horrible offense. Only in my wildest dreams would Youtube give me 70/30.

But really, that's all this is. Valve did good work and got themselves into a position where they now can't really be out-spent into obsolescence. I mean, Epic Games is currently trying to do that, and they're burning something in the realm of $275,000,000 a year (according to this website I am unfamiliar with and have never read before today). By Epic's own statistics, most people registered to the EGS client spend less than a dollar on the platform (723m users apparently spent $820m).

Valve has so much momentum with Steam that they can (and often do) just coast, granting them a reputation for taking a very long time fine-tuning most of their products until they are perfect. Gabe Newell is so rich he owns and operates multiple fully-staffed private yachts. Not by more and faster, but by getting to the race track before anyone even knew it was open and just doing the job so consistently they are now ten laps ahead.

To compare with what happened with Netflix, which also established an emerging market: Netflix also didn't want to just coast. Movie disc rentals by mail became streaming movies. That turned into streaming TV. That turned into Netflix wanting to make their own original content so they wouldn't have to pay to license anyone else's movies. That turned into Netflix wanting to offer games. And lest we forget, the founder of Netflix specifically has a vendetta against theatrical movies and continues to deliberately erode that market.

There is no "coasting" for Netflix. There is only more and faster. Netflix put out 17 original films in 2016. Last year, 2023, Netflix put out 153 original films, 49 original documentaries, 11 TV specials, 11 short films, 28 stand-up comedy shows, and at least 26 new original TV shows. The aim is not to maintain a good platform, the aim is to dominate and make all the money there is to make in multiple industries. The line must always goes up until the boiler explodes.

Anyone could just do what Valve did, but nobody wants to because it's too slow and takes too much actual work (and luck) making genuinely good products. It also theoretically leads to a "dead end" where growth slows or even stops. That means the line doesn't go up anymore, it just levels out and stays there. Outrageous! You mean the man who owns a fleet of yachts doesn't want make infinitely more money forever? The nerve of some people.

It's easier to crack the whip on someone else and crank up the heat until the boiler explodes. Especially when that's what all the competition is doing, too.

[taviokapudding]

This shouldn't come off controversial but given all of 2023 and the last 2 months I understand what I will say may piss off some but I gotta say it

Nijisanji shouldn't market their EN livers as idols when only very specific ones get to post covers and originals.

It actually pisses me off that Kyo Kaneko only got 1 original song outside of his debut (which was universally hated because the producer, disrector, or sound mixer chose to autotune the fuck outta everybody to a detriment) and the only other track is a bit of a joke with Enna. And tbh, if I can make a preemptive call, you can tell who is leaving next by how many songs and covers are out. Okay so hear me out.

As part of the audition process, not only are they not allowed to do other work but they can't be throwing their voice around (see Cyyu's audition experience) because of their status as contract workers; this is also why they didn't have to participate in any strikes last year on the technicality that all of them were under assumed yearly contracts that started before the strikes and would only get renewed after the strikes had ended.

But my issue with that, as someone who almost auditioned, is they prefer and encourage singers to join and almost everybody who's left immediately dropped (graduated or terminated) participated in something music related. Kyo releasing today's song as a goodbye when he won't be getting a cut after Feb fills me with r a g e as someone who knows how shit YouTube ad and view revenue + pay for songs can be.

And I cannot stress this enough, at the majority of live events, said livers do a shitton of covers, and that's fine & expected, but when you have the equivalent of a fucking choir in your ranks and the money to buy the rights to songs, why not give them more songs that can be monetized by both the liver & company? YouTube pays but not as much as a multi-platform release. Why are label based livers still doing indie level work with sometimes, having original tracks with worse than indie quality?

Now, Niji isn't the only company making this mistake to not utilize their whole choir consistently

*pauses to stare at VShojo & Holo for 5 seconds in a deeply tired and ○-○ face*

HOWEVER Niji is the only one who actively struggles to monetize their originals. After Tsunami dropped there was a several month period before it was put on Spotify + the producer for the track KIRA revealed he wasn't getting paid and opening donations within the same time span. That coincidence never sat right with me as a long time KIRA vocaloid producer fan- but it makes me wonder how many original songs have been scrapped because of management. Are livers doing mostly covers & not using 3D at live events last minute because somebody isn't getting paid? Because that's what it feels like. Iluna aren't bad singers- the sound mixer probably wasn't paid & said "fuck it" when it came to their debut song's autotuning due to management- let's be real about it.

So yeah in conclusion, stream Distant, because unless she gets the opportunity to say otherwise- I fear and genuinely don't believe Finana or any of the remaining livers are making/made enough money back from their original songs. I hope Kyo gets something, even if it's scraps, because it's unclear if original songs fall under voice pack sales. It will actually devastate me if he isn't paid at all since it's not a full month of streaming.

And hopefully all this public pressure makes investors ask the real questions because I cannot tolerate it anymore. I feel like I'm the only one voicing it right now but this isn't the first time the fans and the general public have wondered why AnyColor Inc doesn't fully commit to the idol shit for Niji EN. Let the livers sing, guarantee they're at least getting 40-50%, and pay all collaborators who participate in original tracks.

Okay I'ma shut up now- no more beating the hurting horse's owner for abuse from me until further notice,

[thedreadmachine]

We're here.

Hello Tumblr fam. I'm Alin (@allhailalin), the executive editor of an indie magazine you've probably never heard of (The Dread Machine). We've been publishing dark speculative short stories and poetry since 2020.

We mostly toil in obscurity. We've never won any awards, nor are we ever featured in reviewer blogs. Our marketing game apparently sucks, because nothing we've tried has worked.

As a niche-within-a-niche, we knew profitability was a pipe dream, but we hoped we'd be able to build a solid community and make something awesome together. We've succeeded in that respect. Our Discord server is considered one of the friendliest and most welcoming in the indie publishing space. Our web metrics are bonkers. However, our financial performance sucks, so we've had to stop publishing stories for free in an effort to boost print and digital subscription sales.

I fucking hate this change. I hate that our stories and poetry aren't being read and shared all over the internet. I hate having to "sell" what we're doing. Each quarterly issue costs us between $1,700 and $2,400 to make, so it's not even like it costs a fortune to do this. Our failure to cover even half of our expenses after three years is pretty upsetting, because we know people value what we're doing...they just don't value it enough to help ensure its continuation.

Indie publishers are being taken for granted, and this is why we're all dying off.

Currently, we pay $0.05/word for original fiction and $10 per poem. My goal was to increase our rates to $0.08/word in January of this year, but we're not in a position to increase our overhead any further.

So, I'm here to let you know we exist, and we'd love if you joined us. If you're into writing, science fiction, cyberpunk, slipstream, synthwave, pixel art, video games, and TTRPGs, you should come hang out with us in our Discord server. Maybe consider subscribing or supporting us on Patreon or Ko-fi. Follow us on Kickstarter so you can be alerted when we get desperate enough to run a campaign. You can also follow me on Tumblr, if you like Disco Elysium fan art and synthwave stuff.

Idk man. We're just a bunch of punk asses doing the best we can to keep written art alive. Join us if you're into it. Reblog this and we'll love you forever.

[grim-echoes]

the disconnect here is that you seem to be equating 'plays the game' with 'thinks the graphics are fine and not worth complaining about' which is a reach and you know it. you're upset that other people still get to enjoy it because it hurts that you can't anymore. you want to like it, I know, it sucks to see other people able to like it, but being mad at other fans accomplishes nothing when gamefreak is the one that made the game unplayable for you, not other people who chose to bite the bullet and make the most of a rushed product.

i know why i dislike it, anon, you don't need to try and tell me how i feel. you're talking to an adult.

the issue actually isn't "i hate that people are enjoying something i can't", it's that people are willing to let that enjoyment override the ability to recognize that these games are being made under sickening working conditions without the necessary resources that should be afforded to the highest grossing media franchise in the world. I PERSONALLY KNOW people who are so intensely impassioned about this franchise that they will have genuine mental breakdowns triggered by even the most menial of criticisms directed towards it, completely separate from them as people, because the idea of acknowledging that something they love is a subpar product made with extremely unethical labor causes them a level of discomfort they don't want to engage with because it means leaving their personal construction of paradise--which i am extremely familiar with as a metalhead who used to be a huge sonic fan as a kid--but when workplace ethics are involved, when real people's mental and physical health is involved, when your very limited money and self-respect are involved, it's a worthwhile and often necessary decision to make. fleeting entertainment from Product You Like is not more important than the labor that was involved in making it and the people who routinely exhaust themselves and sacrifice their personal lives just to make ends meet.

it's why i will in fact be angry at the fans more than gamefreak: because gamefreak are just the developers. their jobs are to make the game--they do not get to make decisions when it comes to how those games are made, the marketing, the publishing, or the financial backing that influences these games' release schedule and projected profits. i'm angry at management, i'm angry at shareholders, i'm angry at the pokemon company, and i'm angry at people who pay for subpar products made by breaking the backs of exploited and underpaid workers on a heinous release schedule who are fully capable of acknowledging that their money is being spent on supporting these practices, yet will downplay the collective impact of their decisions and prioritize their own comfort and entertainment over the suffering of the people who were overworked to the fucking bone to bring them these products and don't see a single goddamn penny from those millions of sales.

this is a topic i have extremely strong feelings about so if you're going to send me another patronizing ask telling me how you think i feel because it's clear you have no respect for my stance, take up in the inbox of someone with zero conviction.

[the-bjd-community-confess]

I don’t really like the term “pro-artist” you can be anti recasts all you want but most people who call themselves “pro artist” aren’t really pro artists. Most people don’t know the name of the artist who sculpts the dolls they like unless they’re a small artist only and not a company, and I’m not saying you need to know that to be a doll collector, I’m just saying you probably don’t know who they are or what they were paid. You just like the company. Also a lot of pro artists complain about what people want to price their art at, high or low it doesn’t matter.

My biggest issue with the term pro artist though is the second hand market. As an artist who has a business (specifically one geared towards lesser advantaged people who can’t pay “luxury” prices) I don’t sell art with the idea in mind that you will sell it on to someone else for a large profit, in fact, I discourage it. You, having not made the art in anyway, making more profit on my art than I made when I sold it to you is such a massive fuck you. I sell a whole host of things, all handmade by me (including dolls), and I sell them at a discounted price because I want people who are like me (disabled, queer, not born into wealth, and mentally ill in whatever combination) to be able to have quality art or home goods, accessories or children’s toys, at a price that still ensures you can pay your rent or eat that month. I don’t want you buying something from me at $50 and selling it secondhand for $150 or more. If I wanted it sold for $150 I would’ve sold it for that.

A guy approached me recently and offered to buy a bunch of my stock so that he could resell it on his site. I could really use that money, but I didn’t take the offer because I know he planned to turn my products around for like a few hundred dollar in markup. The most expensive thing I sell is $200. He was looking to sell something like that for $600, but I made it and I won’t ever see that money.

Buying from artists and liking them on social media is great, but that doesn’t make you pro artist. It just makes you a consumer of artist’s work. I don’t have issues with people selling an item for what they paid for it or even selling it at a slight markup to cover fees or inflation/conversion, but if you’re buying an item for $400 and you’re selling it for $800-1000 because you can that’s just fucked up. You probably wouldn’t have bought it for that price from the artist or if they changed their price to that after they noticed the popularity then you probably would’ve complained, but it’s not about appreciating the art or the artist, it’s about making a profit. That artist didn’t even make the $400 from the original sale, but you’ll make that or more secondhand. I hate that so much that it almost makes me not want to sell my art.

I don’t buy secondhand unless it’s being sold for less than new because I don’t see the point in paying new price for a used item, but I’d also rather give my money to the artist than to someone who didn’t make the item. Also if you really love an artists work, especially if they spent their free time helping you with an order, send them a tip and leave a review. Leaving an honest review is the least you can do. If you don’t review, you’re not pro artist, you’re pro “ I already paid you and I got what I wanted so not my problem” Also a review is not “5 stars” or “I love it so much”, a review is where you actually explain what you bought and how exactly you feel about it and any effort that the artist put in for you that wasn’t necessary. Nothing I hate more than people who leave a review that is just basically “yay thanks” because that tells me that 1) you don’t care , and 2) you don’t understand the purpose of reviews

~Anonymous

[theliterarywolf]

Published on amazon (have a whopping two books out, whoo) and they're about as cheap as i can make them. I make maybe $2 per sale of a paper back, and between .33 cents and 1.99 for an e book. My books are CHEAPER than stuff with a mass market paperback, and I spent... A lot of money upfront. (Cover, copyright, advertising) and of course the huge amount of time it took to write the darn thing. This is on top of having a day job.

I get that not everyone has money. I get that sometimes you don't want to take a chance on someone you've never heard of. But when you do the "buy/read/refund" I have to eat the cost and it sucks, because it's often money I don't have.

Honestly, invest in Kindle Unlimited if you don't want to spend an arm and a leg on amazon ebooks. It's like... $10 a month and you get access to a LOT of free books, or wait until black friday/cyber monday where it's dirt cheap. (And when you read pages the author makes pennies, but it's there)

I don't mean to be a shill for amazon (I don't use kindle unlimited because I don't read ebooks) , but a lot of authors are STRUGGLING on the platform, but usually have to use it because it's the only way they can get sales.

Sorry to dump on you, I just thought i could give some insight, being an author who uses the platform, but will likely take my business elsewhere.

First and foremost, I'd like to take the opportunity to commend you for publishing something for market-sales; even if its 'just two books', those two books represent a lot of time, effort, and organization of thoughts and ideas.

But, yes, thank you for this insight as someone who is actively in this industry that can be effected by this behavior. I'd also like to thank you for bringing up the matter of initial capital/expenses because, yeah, a lot of people whose sole exposure to online reading may be fanfiction or webcomics don't realize that indie writers have to fork up a significant amount of money for matters of copyright, self-promotion, and covers (at least those of us who don't want to just slap some crap-together).

Hell, I'll be frank with you guys: amongst all the rewrites and things that have had to go into this first volume of the light novel series that I've been trying to get out since... April? I have wasted money on cover art twice. Once because of miscommunication with the artist in question, which I just graciously ate the cost on because I'm not going to not pay someone for their work. And the second time because after I showed the final product from the artist to the person who has been financially investing in me getting this first volume out, they hated it and said 'keep it for the future, but find something else for the here and now'.

I keep hearing people mention that, if you HAVE to buy ebooks from Amazon and you're afraid of spending too much money on completely new voices, that Kindle Unlimted is the way to go. I personally haven't used the service (usually if I buy an ebook from Amazon, I'm going in knowing full well that it is a gamble), but that's just what I've been hearing.

I've also been consistently hearing that Amazon has just been... making things harder for indie writers who do try to publish with them. Whether its the unbalanced royalties, the ridiculous publishing restrictions, or even the fact that it almost feels like they want the indie writers who do publish with them to borderline cannibalize each other with how they keep trying to introduce things like Kindle Vella.

It's just... we as writers know that not everyone has money. Hell, a lot of us are being screwed out of money by the venues we publish on in the first place --

Suddenly reminded on how, no matter how much of my webfiction I put on InkSpired, they never verified me for monetization because the series centered around Teratophilia. Even though there were plenty of other erotica series on there.

-- Just try not to add to that headache, folks. That's all we ask.

[pbandjesse]

I had such a good day today. It wasn't perfect. But it was so good. We had the street fair and I'm so glad we did it.

I woke up today when James was leaving for work. They had made me and Jess egg sandwiches. And so I was looking forward to that. But I was also filled with anxiety.

We didn't have to be there until 10. And if I was alone I would have slept until 9 and left at 930. But I didn't want Jess to be alone all morning since she wakes up so much earlier then me. So I got up and got dressed. My hair felt bad but I looked so cute and my self esteem was very high. That was good, it was nice to feel positive about myself.

Because I was not feeling positive about much else!! I told Jess that thing about if you feel like you hate everyone: eat something, if you feel like you hate yourself: take a shower, if you feel everyone hates you: go to sleep. And somehow I was feeling all of these things. And my hands were a little shaky and my tummy hurt because I was just. Worried about everything. About the market. About Jess not being happy about it being an all day event. Like no one was mad at me and nothing was wrong but I was struggling.

But we would leave around 930 and I got a little confused but we drove over there and had to circle the block because I was confused about where we had to go in. But we figured it out and I had an excellent spot.

Me and Jess unloaded the whole car. James had done a great job packing the car. And after we got everything out I went to figure out where to park. This lead to some issues.

They told me to park at the lot down the street. I didn't realize it was a pay lot and I had left my whole bag with Jess. So I found street parking but I was very unsure if it was a 2 hour limit. So I figured I'd walk the 4 blocks back and set up and we could deal with it after.

I walked back to our spot and Jess was already setting up the tent. The tent is awesome. We definitely need to get weights for the bottom if we're going to be doing things in the parking lot still but the scent was perfect. While Jess had a little trouble setting it up by herself. Once I was there it went up really easily. Took us a few minutes to figure out exactly where to push what but honestly it was great. I'm so thankful that James got that for us because it really saved us. Because it was so sunny. For the first two hours while we were setting up and getting ready the sun was a little on top of us and that was pretty fine overall. Both of us got a little sunburn on our shoulders but the tent really helped.

I actually have two spots right next to each other but we really didn't need it. We ended up pulling all of the printing stuff into the tent area because the ink was drying incredibly fast and I didn't know how to deal with that because I didn't bring the spray bottle or anything. Eventually though we just moved the printing table itself in front of the tent so that it was visually better to pull people in. I'm really happy with the whole setup. Me and Jess decided that we should hang the tote bags on a string across and while I only sold one it really made the tent look good. I think if I was to do today over I would get more clips and tape. Completely forgot to bring tape.

It was slow at first. And I didn't make a ton of sales. But people were really into the printmaking and that felt awesome. The Lego briefing went really well but my bigger push was actually to use the letters I had made. Because the Legos take a while and so if someone just wanted to do something fast especially adults and they could just pick a word and we would lay it all out together. And people's face just lit up when they would do it. It was so cute.

Some of my favorites from today we're just young people. But specifically there were a lot of LGBT people who were clearly putting down their chosen names. And just the way their faces lit up when they had something with their name on it was just so beautiful. And I really loved the couples that came through and did each other's initials. Or they laid out each other's names. It was so sweet. I had some really wonderful conversations today and I just made a lot of really great connections.

Some of the connections I made are for future markets and some are for the museum and some are for my workshops. I also went and talked to the BMA table that they had I made a connection there. They suggested offering my workshops with them as well not that I think that the person I talked to has any poll but it was still nice to make that little connection and talk to someone who works in museums as well.

Just was such a big help. Honestly I don't know how I would have done today without her. I would have made it work but it would not have been very fun. Not only did she help me set everything up she made sales. She helped run the printing. She also allow me to just go and walk around and buy stuff. Like allowed me to feel comfortable that the table would be taken care of and everything would be good while I was gone. I'm just so thankful for her. She really is the best.

When I did take my break and walked around I did buy a couple things. I bought a couple little cards. But mostly I was focused on getting Christmas presents. I ended up buying three presents and I'm very happy about that. Because I was feeling a little stuck with the shopping that I am planning on doing. And I did buy myself one thing. A necklace. I did not need another necklace I know. But it was a ceramic necklace and it just felt so nice in my hand. It has a little snake painted into the glaze and then goldluster around the edges. And the artist was so kind. Jess ended up buying two pairs of earrings from her later on and one set looks like tiny little mugs and the other side looks like bread tags. Both clay. It was very cool.

I really got to see a lot of neat stuff today. I did a very bad job taking pictures of any of it but I was really having a wonderful time. It was a really nice little neighborhood. We were right around the corner from James's parents house and that is not really a place I've spent much time. Like yeah I've been in their neighborhood but not really anything around it. And I have a really really nice time and the buildings were so cute.

Did get to walk around the neighborhood a few times because right after we finish setting up I did go back down and move our car. And then that was a whole fiasco because while I moved it into the parking lot I had $3 in cash and the machine didn't take cash. So then Jess had to bring my wallet up so that I could use the credit card and that was very annoying. But if that was the biggest annoyance today honestly it's fine.

like I said though I didn't make a ton of sales. But what we didn't get were tips. We didn't get like $100 in tips but we did make tips and that was really cool. James had made a QR code scanner if someone wanted to tip us for doing the printmaking for free and a lot of people took us up on that. Some people even gave us cash. I split it with Jess at the end and it was just really neat. I didn't really know people were going to tip us. Like I hoped but it wasn't something I was going to beg for or have any expectations of.

I'm also going to apparently be in the Baltimore banner tomorrow with some pictures one of their photographers took while me and a child were printing. And from what he showed me it was a very cute picture. It's mostly my hands but the composition was really nice. I hope to find it tomorrow so I can post it.

James texted me when they were finishing up work and asked if we wanted them to come up to help clean up. And I didn't want to make them come all the way up here because I knew they were going to the theater after but they kind of insisted and I really did want to have them there. I kind of wanted to show off our setup and all that kind of stuff. And so James would show up a little after 4:00. Just went to get us ice cream. James would not eat any of the ice cream even though I tried to get them too. They just look so tired and I felt really bad. They pulled out their laptop and they started working on some work stuff and some of their podcast while they waited for us to finish the day.

We had a few adults finish up some prints. And a couple people make their names. I sold one tote bag. And more than one person thought that everything in my tent was free. That was weird. In the end though we did sell the white fluffy bear that we had holding the sign. This person just said they couldn't stop thinking about them and even though it wasn't actually going to be for sale because there was a hole in it I gave it to them at a discount and they just were so excited. And that felt really good.

We did a great job packing up. I wasn't sure about bringing the car back up because earlier in the day someone decided it was a great idea to move the barricade and drive through the street festival. The police were not happy with them. And I wasn't sure if they were going to do a second version of the children's parade they had done at the beginning. Kind of like a closing ceremony. But they didn't do that. Instead James walked down to the car to get the wagon. They brought down the tables and me and Jess packed everything up while they were gone. We did a really good job getting basically everything into the wagon. It was just the two purses that we had and the tables that didn't fit. And the 10th. But everything else all of the materials and all of the products were in the box and in the wagon. And we walked together making sure that nothing fell out. And once we got to the car James got everything inside. I think it was like playing Tetris for them.

James had their bike so they were going to bike home and meet us there. They ended up beating us by like 1 minute. And me and just drove back. when we got back here we only brought in the stuff for the printmaking because I wanted to wash all of it. The ink had gotten very very thick on all of my rollers and all of the letters. There wasn't really a great way for me to wash it off every single time so I did my best and I'm really glad I brought two extra rollers because halfway through the day I just swap them out because the other ones have been getting so thick. If I were to do this again I would definitely bring more rollers and a better way to wash things. Clorox wipes worked but it wasn't the most ideal situation.

We got everything upstairs that we were bringing up and James went to go cool off and watch some of the WNBA championship. I think that's what it was. Their favorite team was playing and after the Ravens lost their home opener today I think they really needed the win. And they did win and that was very exciting for them.

Me and Jess show James everything that we got. Just got the earrings like I said and she also got some other prints. I also got a bar of soap. It's oatmeal, goat milk, and honey which will be very good for my skin. And it smells nice too. And then just decided that traffic was good enough that it was time for her to go home. We weren't sure if she was going to stay another night but I think she really missed her cat. So I walked her down to her car with all of her stuff and we said goodbye.

When I got upstairs James was getting ready to leave again. And once they were gone I cleaned all of my printmaking stuff. Took a while. And I put some stuff away. I made something to eat. Jess and me had eaten an ice cream, a popsicle, and shared some of the best falafel I've ever had. But we didn't eat much else beyond that today. And I was very very hungry and if I wasn't so tired I might have gone and gotten like Chipotle or something. But instead I made a quesadilla. And that was good enough.

After I finished eating I took a bath. Because I felt disgusting. I had so much ink on me and I was very sweaty all day today. It felt very nice to be clean again. And the new soap was really nice. I washed my hair and watched a scary video. And once I was done that I put some stuff away and picked outfits for the week. And I basically just been chilling since then. Laying in bed and writing some emails. James is going to be home from the theater hopefully before midnight. They have the next two days off though so at least I'm hoping they can rest. James does too much.

I hope tomorrow is a really good day for all of you. I hope that you sleep well and that you just feel really positive about everything going on in the world. I know that's a lot to ask. But I hope that you can find a bright spot. Sleep well everyone.

[baekhvuns]

IM BACKKKKKK

Bestie, ateez ain't making it easy for me to live especially seonghwa. 😮‍💨 BCZ THOSE LONG HAIR AND THOSE POOL PICTURES AGHHHHHHHH GOD! Anyways, about my life 😃, so, i am taking like a drop year...i obviously had to as you know my whole situation BUT I'll be doing some certificate courses and you know learning something skill based while i...do a job, yes you heard tht right😞 I GOTTA MAKE SOME MONEYYY and honestly I've cancelled out going abroad for a few years at least, I'll solely would be focusing on living here and...yeah. I'm not completely giving up, but, focusing on some other things. Mhm. The only prblm is tht my mum thinks I'm, wasting a year and considering how much of an overthinker she is, she's worrying about what others would say and Quite honestly I don't give a shit...the universe wanted me to do this...like this is my life and it's going on how it was planned so I don't see why I should be bothered by a few relatives 🙄

And other than that I HV BEEN OBSESSED WITH CHALEYA 😭 like I sing tht song every 3 seconds fr i can't. And I've been getting obsessed with oneus, their new single baila conmigo 😮‍💨 oh my lord. Another controversial thing...i didn't like jungkook's new single 3D ..... like...what was even the point?? Bro- and i hv no idea who jack Harlow is..I've seen people obsessing over him BUT THT RAP 😭 NAUR THT DIDN'T DO IT FOR ME. and honestly, it's so weird how jungkook's basically singing abt doing the deed every damn time, like ok boi I get it, and I liked seven obviously BUT I HOPE HIS ALBUM DOESN'T HV EVERY SONG IN IT LIKE THIS!

Ok what're your opinions about this whole lisa situation tho? Her performance at tht one r-rated dance thingy? Honestly, ok hear me out, idfc what lisa or Jennie anyone does in general, it was her choice she did it...and people keep hating on her bcz tht what people do...what I want to say, is what if it was a bg member...like what if it was jk or taehyung doing something like this? I bet all these girls would go crazy and be obsessed over it or something like, "omg they're breaking the kpop standard" i genuinely despise this double standard thing.

Ok rmr i told you my cousin was getting married HER WEDDING IS SET IN JANUARY 😭 AND I'M THINKING ABT MY DRESSES AND ALL. And I've been a little crazy abt traditional and ethnic clothes rlly, like yesterday me and my mum were acting like besties on a girl's night fr, we took out so many clothes and tried em in, she made me wear a saree 😭 AND IT LOOKED SO GOOD LOKE SAREE TRULY GIVES AN ELEGANT AND RICH LOOK, i felt like those 1920s rich mistresses. I mostly wear Western clothing, like only ever rarely, you'll find me wearing a suit or something similar but as I'm growing up my feminine energy keeps on blossoming so i def wanna wear a suit.

Can you imagine it will be my first ever suit...my younger cousins hv worn those things so many times and I'm making my new one, progress ig.

But yeah and no my mackenyu obsession is not dying down 😃. OH ALSO ITS HOODIE SEASON FINALLY THE ONLY THING I LOKE ABT WINTERS! And forget about the present seonghwa...THE BABY SEONGHWA 😭😭 HES SO CUTE LOOL AT THOSE CHEEKS I WANNA NOM NOM 😭

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CwWTt1dgpk0/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

SOMEONE SAID IT WORKS BCZ HES 11 YRS OLDER THN ME?!?! GURL 11 YRS 😭😭?!?! HOW OLD R U???

HELLLOOO!!

the long hair and the pools pics omg no bc those has me screaming at night hfkwjdlw

oooo like a gap year??? but on certificates omg ok what certificates r u doing 👁👁 marketing, sales certifications r >>> I GET IT 😭😭 need to make money in this economy can’t even breathe without having to pay

omg not the what will others say, the brown parents and the “log kya kahenge” will NEVER leave their minds god damnit,,, tell ur mom gap years r a good decision 😭😭😭 !!!!! travel, live a little and idk start a small business or a job! no ur right, if it turned out this way it means it’s meant to be done this way <3 FUCK YOUR RELATIVES RESPECTFULLY i can’t believe it’s still the same mindset in every brown parent’s mind 😭😭

STOPPPP I HWVE BEEN TOO I WAS JUST HUMMING TO IT AND DOING THE DANCE STEP (have not watched jawan yet!) SUCH A CATCHY SONG???? SRK DOING IT AGAIN,,, omg oneus ive not heard abt them in a WHILE

ooooo ive only heard the part that replays on ig = the chorus so in that sense i grew to like it ive been doing the dance to it that “u know how i like it girrrrlll” part kdvwmcjclikc I DIDNT LISTEN TO JACKS PWRT IM AFRAID ITLL RUIN IT FOR ME FBWKDJKW LMFAOOOO honestly i don’t mind,, i do hope his album has lil different genres, pop, dance, r&b, reggaeton etc excited for it actually!!

hmm so i get the whole “ur a kpop idol pls maintain a image” but honestly it’s not that bad??? it’s a creative choice and it’s a form of dance that’s on the more provocative side?? but u know what i do dislike, those toilets they have in the men’s washroom at crazy house that are a WOMENS MOUTH STRUCTURE. if it’s seen as an empowering thing, i completely disagree with it

but again, idk the issue but i also get why knetizens r talking abt it bc asia is quite conservative to these things so they find it weird and all and prefer to keep it under wraps UNLIKE THEIR MEN THAT GO SEE IT SO FJWKDJKW ur right,, if any other man did it (they literally do it w the stage outfits some of them wear) they’d get 100k likes and praises but when it’s blackpink and blackpink esp it’s suddenly a big controversy

AAAAAAAAAAAAAA STOP THIS IS SO EXCITING I LOVE TALKING ABT TRADITIONALS FJWKDJKWHSKS stop the 10/10 mom daughter bonding moment omg i do this w my mom like thrice a week and get to wear her wedding clothes and jewelry!! STOP NOT HER BRINGING THE SAREES OUT AAAAAAAAAAAAA A 90’S MISTRESS??? 😩 UR MAKEUP BETTER BE THE UNAPPROACHABLE ONE W THOSE JHUMKASS STOP IT

omg ur turning into a women, i used to be like that too (partially bc we never have events for me to wear them at) but it’s so comforting and feminine-y to pick out fabrics and jewelries and matching outfits for weddings 😭😭😭 ur turning into a women omg <33333 but omf lmk i will rec u stores to buy clothes from and ur gonna gate keep them 🔫

STOP THOSE CHEEKS STOP IT IM GONNA BITE

link no.

11 YEARS?? ELEVEN YEARS???? WHAT THE FUCK????? ANON UR A CHILD WHY R U HERE …. he’s 4 years older than me 😭😭

[anonil88]

Why won't anyone hire me?

Why won't anyone hire me? Is that selfish to ask.

I hate that my finances are up and down month to month with no feeling of well at least I work x or I got something saved. I even kept some length to my hair so I dont look too harsh for interviews, hard time looking in the mirror cause of it. This is the normal and what being an adult is, I'm told but no one will say why that can't change. This thing millions of people experience before me and alongside me is just the way things are. Don't like that.

Making a mental list of all the things I need to change or seemingly change to make myself more hireable. I hate that hireable just means marketable. I don't like being considered a product in any sense. Promoting my art is easier cause I don't have to be the complete face but thats been changing with social media algorithms and needing to promote since no job. At least someone might wanna buy some art or commission a design. One commission will mean groceries or even paying off some bills.

Overwhelmed with everything you do can become a profit. I don't think that's what economist meant when they said diversify your skills and income.

I can make people's vision creatively come to life out of nothing but I can't create a path for myself, I can't create a job or resources to sustain myself or anyone else. Maybe I'm too confrontational with asking how in work places. Is it just me.

Put some stuff up on poshmark only sold a pair of shoes a few weeks ago despite being on there for years now. I don't really know what will see there right now. I kinda fell out of trend cycle. The biggest sale I will make which is private i can't sell until fall/winter.

I look at my hands and wonder when did I get it all so wrong. Tuck my thumbs under my fingers and close my eyes trying to manifest and hope something will occur. I dont know if i entirely believe it anymore or maybe anything really. I still hope somewhere its heard and something bounces back. My faith in human nature might fall faster though. Faith doesn't work with no do but it seems neither does doing.

I'm not depressed not yet no, but just in this state of I don't know what to do next.

I wonder if nepotism rich babies know how good they got it. Are they born knowing.

Ca: $Naniw13