#how do i market a book

[marsadler]

Hello! I wrote a book and I think y'all will like it. It's for fans of Good Omens, Hannibal, Angels Before Man, and all the queer people who deserve financial compensation from the catholic church.

I present to you:

FIRST CREATION, a high heat queer horror novella with a trans angel MC and a queer demon LI!

FIRST CREATION is a love letter to fallen angels, to finding your place in the world, to connecting to religion in a way that works for you. To touch and peaches, and surviving horrible things, to finding a place to be holy if God won't give it to you. (it's also nasty, and about cannibalism and shame and guilt, too)

It's a 22k word (98 page) novella that you can read in one (or two, or three) sittings.

You can find it on Amazon and itch.io here to read an actual synopsis and look at reviews. You can also find content warnings at the bottom of my website: (I definitely encourage you to read them before you buy!)

Here's also some unhinged ao3 tags for fun

[bonefall]

it is healing to come onto this blog and see basic respect for diasbility after being in other corners of the fandom and reading the words “snowkit could never be a warrior because he wouldnt know what anything is. he wouldnt even know what a clan is because nobody could explain it to him” said in full seriousness

Im..... That statement is so ableist I cannot even imagine the worldview you'd need to have in order to come up with that.

They really think the only way anyone learns anything is through verbal-speaking-words-noises? No one has ever observed something before? Not even once?

This is beyond touching grass, this person just fell out of the fucking Jurassic Period when all they had was ferns and stegosaurs.

I just...

OH YES. I remember my first day of Society Lessons as a hearing person, where the everything was explained to me. Via Audiobook. FIRST they spoke and said, "you are standing on the ground." It was a life changing revelation, and the world began to spin.

But it did not stop.

THEN they said, "there are fingers on your hands." The sensation of flesh and bone crackling into existence is indescribable, but I did not yet know pain, until they told me, "that hurts." I began screaming immediately.

And yet... it continued.

They explained so much. Chairs. Tables. Walls. The sky. Frogs. Ionizing radiation. Breathing. I was told all of it, in one sitting, and only then did I understand. Only when my ears were bursting with normal hearing knowledges, did they begin... my final test.

A strange wall-chair-finger emerged from the sky-of-the-wall, stood on the ground several times, until it was in front of me. A second one came behind it, this one slimmer. The audiobook gave these things names;

Human. Father. Mother. Door. Walking. It was completely impossible to know what these things were until that very moment.

I watch a human dip a hook into water and produce a fish, and I recall my Society Lessons where they called that "fishing." I am decked in the face by a nefarious hooligan, and I have only the audiobook to thank when I know I have been "punched" by a "bad guy." It was only the magic of verbal-speaking-words-noise that made me understand that there are "other people" and that they "do stuff."

Sometimes, even, in "groups."

Before the Society Lessons Audiobook, I knew nothing. I was pure, innocent, uncorrupted by concepts such as "parents" and "door." I am grateful every day that there is no such concept as "being shown things" or "simple logical reasoning" or "looking."

Blessed be those amongst us who escape the horrors of the Society Lessons Audiobook. I pray that you never learn what anything is. Be free! Free as a bird, which also knows nothing and famously cannot learn. 🤗

DEAF/HOH FOLLOWERS I'm losing my mind do you want me to bump a 'Hearing Disabilities Herb Guide' to the top of my priorities? Something you can use to bludgeon whackadoodles like that. This is ridiculous

Obviously not a MEDICINE guide but like; common causes of hearing disability in clan cats. Accommodations for hearing loss vs congenital deafness. Actual difficulties of not having that sense Clan-by-Clan. Debunking of misconceptions like... not being able to learn APPARENTLY.

[crimeronan]

i keep reading thinkpieces and critiques of current mainstream fiction & how fandom has influenced mainstream lit and vice versa, n some of them make salient points about how fanfic does and doesn't prime a person for writing original fiction, etc. and some of them are very "fanfic has poisoned and corrupted the youths" and "we are rotting our brains" and "old man yells at cloud." and throughout all of this i just have the unshakable feeling that no matter what side of the "culture war" (if.... it can even be called that....) u fall on, these thinkpieces are typically missing two of the most important explanations for Why The Mainstream Market Is How It Is. which have very little to do with fanfic.

1. publishers are looking for books that are easy to read, easy to hype, and easy to mass produce. great insightful well-crafted works of subversive literature are not this. cute romcom tropey fluff IS this.

and perhaps most importantly,

2. most professional writers are not very good.

[untimelyambition]

now that we’re on the topic i would fucking love to read through the sheet music for nerdy prudes must die… not even to play or try and put on my own performance but just so i could read it and follow along with the show to try and work out all the harmonies

[chronicallydragons]

There are just so many books I want to read and shows I want to watch and stories I want to write and pictures I want to draw and crafts I want to make and treats I want to bake but I CAN’T DO IT ALL AT THE SAME TIME

[dyrewrites]

Amazon is awful, but I am forced to use it

Who sends someone an email to inform them they're getting a payout of less than a dollar this month? Amazon, apparently.

So, in the interest of not curling into a tight little ball and wondering why I tried to do all of this in the first place as I slowly sink into deep, dark, squelching dread...

Here is a link to short stories what you can purchase!

If that is indeed a thing you are into.

They are quite spooky, most are bloody, one has a horrible thing happen to a generally nice dude (that one is Don't Look, and if you're not comfortable reading about assault of the sexual variety then I insist you obey the title).

I apologize for my face, it has no excuse to exist, but it does and I was told to put it up...so it is there.

[lazywitchling]

I keep screaming at Weave the Liminal but also agreeing with it. Reading this book feels like having a loud and shouty discussion with someone you ideally agree with, but vehemently disagree with their application of their ideas.

Like, every time Laura presents a question and asks me to draw my own conclusions, I’m like “oh hell yeah, that’s such a good question!” And then she presents her own conclusions and I’m like “how the FUCK did you arrive there???”

I mean, she gives me this: “Using black and white in terms of magick is a practice that needs to die out, immediately.” There’s a whole section about why “black and white” is a stupid classification for magic, why it’s racist and gross, why magic that’s well-intentioned can harm, and why “harmful” magic can make the world better. I’m right there with her, nodding along and taking notes. And then her example of this????? Is that “a healing spell can kill bacteria or cancer”????????? Like, to show that a “good” healing spell will “harm” bacteria and cancer??? I’m??????????

I am enjoying this book. I want to throw it out the window. I don’t like this book. I recommend it. I want to shake Laura’s hand. I want to shake her by the shoulders.

[renstrapp]

I love zines, I love my local community, I love friendship. I love waving to people who I know! Wah! Yay!

[sirenascelestiales]

Honestly, considering the show/writers never acknowledged Daphne’s marital rape of her husband, and they only had a slight acknowledgment of Edwina’s feelings on Kate x Anthony, like I don’t think there will be a satisfactory resolution to Pen’s betrayal of the Bridgertons (Marina/Colin and Eloise/Theo) or of Eloise’s “friendship” with Cressida (and anything else she might do as “revenge”).

I think they’ll blow over the latter “I said I’d rather die than be her friend and I still mean it” and hugs all around or some other scene like that (which I know is simple and that’s my point). And Pen will apologize and confess that cause she’s so in love with Colin and she wanted to be noticed and she’ll be forgiven without much else from Colin. And maybe a little more for Eloise, if that.

(Spoiler’s for the books in case people care about that).

They forgive her for Whistledown in the books, Colin is worried more about her being revealed as Whistledown than her writing shit about him (tho nothing she writes is like Marina/Colin is not in the books. Daphne basically forgives her for anything she wrote about that but tbh she doesn’t seem to mind anyway). And, they like sorta acknowledge it as “wtf” thing, but it’s blown over quickly imo. “Oh well that’s nice dear” sorta reaction. And Eloise does have even more of a backbone than in the books but idk I just don’t see why and what people seem to want out of Bridgerton.

Eloise is going to somehow befriend and fall in love with Crane! You’re telling me the girl running around with Theo and “radicals” will suddenly fall for the guy boring the fuck out of Marina?

Like, I’m sorry but Bridgerton is pretty people hooking up with a regency background. They will not “do right” by most people’s standards of how the characters should act and how to apologize (Daphne and Simon make up after professing deep love in the rain! Anthony is shocked into confessing for real cause Kate fell of a horse! It’s for DRAMA, and then it’s resolved kinda easily?)

I’ve seen some more of nuanced takes against Pen, at least these people aren’t reducing her to a fat villain (cause when they did that I could not take them seriously 😒). And honestly a lot of it is fair, that’s good! The writers don’t care.

But now I keep seeing people hating Eloise to the point that they want a comeuppance that is not proportional to her “revenge”…and like… it won’t be as serious as y’all are making it to be. This “revenge”. Like please, the writers aren’t going to suddenly take this world seriously. See above and those are just 1 example for each season!

If they wanted to acknowledge all the hurt Pen put people through and make her work to become a better person, they could! I just don’t think they will because it’s 8 episodes per season and in this season they’re trying to find a way to get Colin and Pen together and Eloise and Pen as friends again by end of season. I don’t think they’ll extend a conflict into Ben’s season (I actually hope they don’t, I like Ben and Sophie’s story for the most part and while I love Anthony and Kate they shouldn’t be the focus either).

Idk what people expect I guess. if you’re watching it for Pen to be taken down a notch… might not be the season for you. If you’re hate watching I guess tag it with “anti” whatever and not the regular tags?

I’m sorry if you think she does not deserve an happy ending, I don’t necessarily disagree that she’s undeserving of some crow eating for what she’s done. However, I don’t think the writers care to make her go through that. And I don’t watch Bridgerton for brilliant character development that I think some of y’all want.

That being said I’m curious about how they’ll manage LW post Colin x Penelope marriage. In the books it basically disappears, and maybe they can use that to have a build up to Pen! However that means to me making their relationship last longer than as season and I do not want that for any of the couples.

[manderleyfire]

I suppose the real reason Ginny Weasley’s like this is because she opened her heart and spilled all her secrets to an invisible stranger.

happy valentine’s day, doc

[deanmarywinchester]

finally finished the death and life of great american cities after carrying it around for months not reading it and was reminded of an essay I wanted to write months ago about the actual star (the novel about a radically open/democratically surveilled utopia) and times square red times square blue, which embroiders on some of the death and life’s ideas about benevolent social surveillance. and the point of the essay, which I’m not writing at least until I read more people responding to jacobs, was basically: who is social surveillance good for?

both delany and jacobs paint a pretty utopian picture of city streets in which order is kept by constant eyes on the street and a duty of care felt by the community. delany specifically includes unhoused and sex worker communities in his idea of the fabric of a neighborhood, and although I was already suspicious of how his ideal social surveillance interacts with marginalized communities, I was even more surprised at how much the death and life relies on the idea of creating an ideal environment for spending money to make a neighborhood function.

it frequently invokes small shopkeepers as goods in that they keep peace over the streets to ensure that customers feel safe there. so if you’re not a customer and your presence makes customers feel unsafe, die I guess? sometimes the book also conflates unvisited (+ therefore dangerous) spaces with uneconomically productive spaces. this can make intuitive sense; if people don’t frequently pass something like a library or park on their way to engage in the economy in some way (work, shop), it can become a dead zone with easy opportunities for crime

but this feels so cynical! ‘if you’re not making and spending money there’s no need to go places’ is so bleak. I don’t know. maybe this made more sense in jacobs’ time because there was more of a culture of eating your meals at cafeterias and patronizing your local pub and drinks weren’t $14 and people weren’t constantly warned that eating out was what was keeping them in debt. because right now I would kill for more places where I could go hang out for free but in jacobs’ mind those places would become dead zones. and maybe they would! if my neighborhood had a free community center I can easily see nobody going because there’s nothing to be gained by it.

this post got away from me but the point is “how do we create a community that includes people on the margins and places with noneconomic uses when everyone is living in atomized units and spending all their time surviving.” also “why don’t we live in the dispossessed.”

[mishkakagehishka]

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

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

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

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

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

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

[kcrabb88]

The e-book version of Sailing by Orion's Star (The Constellation Trilogy, #1) is on sale for $0.99 through mid-April! If you like Black Sails, Les Mis, Robin Hood tales, historical pirates, queer characters (including ace rep!), stories about taking down empires, and messy families of all kinds, it might be for you. You can get it here!

You can also catch the newly released audiobook! It's available on Audible and other major retailers.

Love the sound of this so much that you want to know if there are more books out already? You're in luck! Book #2 in the trilogy just released.

[gailynovelry]

We have a brilliant idea for rewriting the summaries that we hate. That idea is called "what if we just completely ignored the old summaries and opened up a blank document to write entirely new ones instead of struggling to rewrite the old ones for the billionth time."

[lovethistoomuch]

expectation when watching master and commander for the first time last night: a gritty revenge story à la captain ahab chasig the unattainable object of selfish desire where the captain slowly descends into madness.

reality: a story of men on a boat loving each other oh so much.

especially these two:

[july-19th-club]

went down to get some norbond (repair glue) at work today and on my coworker in Young Adult's cataloging cart there was. a young adult novel by cs pacat. already falling apart at the spine of course because the state of bookbinding today is abysmal and is the reason i go through ezbind So Fast just trying to preemptively reinforce every single thing that comes across my desk but ANYWAY. like. i have got to find out how mellowed down this novel is compared to her usual fare. like. some YA novels contain some racy bits for sure but i dont think the general pacat content could possibly be distilled into teen-friendly material and retain literally any of its x-ratedness. like. almost interested in finding out what a non-horny book by this woman would be like but also im sure i wouldnt enjoy it as much. like that would just be. a book. which is fine and i'm sure it's not bad! but i dont read pacat to read a book. i read her to read A...Book.....