thechaoscryptid

[thechaoscryptid]

sometimes you reblog something because you personally want it on your blog. and some other times you reblog something as if you were scattering bird feed on ur porch and hiding behind the window to look out for the beautiful bird (beloved mutual) who will no doubt come peck at it

[thechaoscryptid]

"I am going to get a good grade in ___________, a thing that is both normal to want and possible to achieve" drifts through my brain with positively alarming regularity.

[thechaoscryptid]

People know that the whole "don't portray [harmful action] because viewers might recreate it" thing is a rule for children's shows right? It's supposed to be shit like "don't show peppa pig playing with fire so we don't get sued if a kid watches it and burns their house down." Not like, fanfiction for adults.

[thechaoscryptid]

bol

[thechaoscryptid]

BEING AN ASSHOLE AS A BRAND

lots of authors have been posting great pieces of advice for up and coming buckaroos and i agree with so much of it. GREAT RESOURCES right now so i thought i would add my own. usually i use words like scoundrel but for meanings sake i will just be direct: dont make being an asshole your brand

let me preface this by saying it should be taken with HUGE grain of salt, you can do whatever you want buckaroo its YOUR art and your personal expression. to be honest i often refrain from ‘advice’ because id rather simply tell what works for me, but i feel like this one is pretty universal.

i am in incredibly rare position to have come up in TWO MAJOR CREATIVE INDUSTRIES and reached ‘traditionally published’ or ‘major film studio contract’ level completely separate from each other, without connections between, and this is ABSOLUTELY a massive factor in the buckaroos who trot long term

there is always a sort of incoming class of buds who rise up, and inevitably a few of them will seem to WANT to make enemies with everyone around them the second they have even the smallest voice. i UNDERSTAND in the sense that we have these legendary jerk artists in our culture. HOWEVER

1 those artists generally let their asshole flag fly AFTER they reached the top and 2 if not, it was a different time, there is simply not enough money in the creative fields for major creative entities to tolerate talented up and coming assholes. it is FINANCIALLY a different timeline now

EVEN SO you can point to a few old big timers who are notorious assholes but i would say its important to consider JUST HOW BIG WOULD THEY BE IF THEY WERE ALSO KIND. what if they were that talented AND watched out for their buds? heres what happened to the 'jerk brands' i trotted up with personally

every single one of them got intoxicated by the identity of being mean or ‘just tellin it like it is’ and then fell directly onto their face. the only ones who escaped were those who started that way on the trot up and IMMEDIATELY pulled it together and stopped and changed course

i know it might seem obvious to many reading this but you would be SHOCKED how many buds thinks it is a COOL IDENTITY to cultivate. some will probably subtweet this haha but listen bud, the directors you trash SEE IT. publishers DONT NEED TO TOLERATE TALENTED ASSHOLES ANYMORE THERES NOT ENOUGH MONEY

important reminder that i am talkin on artists who are PUBLICLY assholes, who trash talk their classmates or their fans. the ones who EMBRACE THIS IDENTITY as a sort of flag to wave because it gets them attention. theres plenty of SECRET assholes who find success, unfortunately. that is other topic

it is also important to say that FIGHTING THE POWERS THAT BE or protesting the scoundrels of the world is not being an asshole. KINDNESS CAN BE STRONG AND DIRECT AND POWERFUL. we need kind, strong buckaroos these days. it is not a weakness to love, and you should speak up for those who need it

so what can be done? what happens if you are reading this post and thinking ‘oh heck i can feel myself falling into asshole trap?’ well as a first reminder you can do anything you want bud, HAVE AT IT because i am not telling you this for MY sake, but if you want some actual advice id say this:

just being kind is MUCH easier than it seems, it only takes a little effort to reach out to your buds, to help, to encourage, to assistant, to talk about how much you liked someones film or song or book. jealousy or frustration are NATURAL feelings, but you dont have to let them run the show.

you MAY have to mourn the times an author couldve reached out for a book event that never happened because you turned them into an enemy. or a record executive read the stuff you said in some interview and pulled the soundtrack slot that was waiting for you on their desk. but IT IS NEVER TOO LATE

YOU can turn those feelings into fuel instead of venom, and GUESS WHAT it will genuinely be great for your art. LOVE is such an incredible driver, even when its manifested from anger or darkness. it takes some work, but i believe its worth it for your heart AND your prospects as an artist. LETS TROT

[thechaoscryptid]

Just got a new knight! I sure hope his unwavering loyalty, mindless devotion, and tendency to kneel before me to kiss the palm of my hand before he commits atrocities in my name doesn't awaken anything in me.

[thechaoscryptid]

Discussing sales and booksellers and how too many insist indie authors stop using the big ones because 'they're evil' but refuse to actually buy anything from the smaller ones... has me pondering things.

I am, of course, going to make this your problem.

The complaint I've been seeing is 'where do we go if Amazon is crap but no one will buy our books anywhere else (because they don't, there's enough numbers to prove this)?'

Now, I love itch.io. To fucking pieces. I will stand on mountain tops and I will sing their praises until I am hoarse. I used them when I was trying to make games, I still use them to buy indie games and follow devs, and I adore them for books.

I've sold more through them in months than I have in years on Amazon. I love itch because they love us. 'Us' being the creatives making and selling our stuffs. It is obvious in the way they run their site, how they interact when there's problems, how they promote people (because they actually do). They love having us there and want us to succeed. No matter what we make.

Problem is... Amazon readers don't love itch. They look at it and see little games and 'weird' books and miss their shiny store that they already trust. I would love if we could break them of this and show them how, with itch, they would actually own what they purchase. No chance of it being taken back or suddenly deleted from their kindle. It's theirs forever.

I don't know how to do that.

So instead, I propose more of us go to itch. Take your books off Amazon. Starve them of the indie titles they insist they want and make them come to where they are.

If you are afraid of the site, there's guides (this one is literally itch's) and also I am here and willing to share whatever I can and will always share your links when I see them. //I encourage you to actually use the site and the tags and try to find things through those, because that's how your readers are navigating and you need to understand it.

No one's going to help us, clearly, and readers can't really be trusted to find our books organically (the big sellers seem hellbent on assuring this) so we have to do this ourselves... and help each other in it.

We're not in competition.

We're in a community.

So get out there and promote your frens, rate the books you read on itch, put them on lists of favorites. Link them to others you think might like them.

For your own stuff: SALES, GIVEAWAYS, do them.

If you're on itch and you're not running these things every so often you are letting your books rot. Yes, I know it's scary to give things away for free but a lot of people tip when something is free and even if they don't... they might rate it or list it or remember you for later. They'll come back, buy your new release because you've proven to be something they like.

And, AND, when you have things up for free and people are downloading them it puts you higher on the genre pages. This can last weeks. That's weeks of top attention for a day of freebies. Do you see why this is important?

Have faith in your words, the goal is to get them out there and get people interested and a place like itch is honestly the safest one to do that in. You can even link a tipjar site like 'ko-fi' or 'buy me a coffee' if you want a way for someone to download it for free and pay you later if they love it. They'll do it! I've seen it happen! It is awesome.

[thechaoscryptid]

[thechaoscryptid]

they kick ass together ☝🏼 (based on the re:wind mv here!)

[ID: Redraws from the RE:WIND MV, where Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi look disheveled, as if they just got out of a fight. Lu Guang is wincing and pulling at his glove with his teeth, while Cheng Xiaoshi is pulling at his tie and exposing his collarbone in the process. There’s blood and dirt on both of them. END ID]

[thechaoscryptid]

Will you teach me when he’s not watching? It could be our secret.

[thechaoscryptid]

“Death first to vultures and scavengers”

Harrowhark Nonagesimus you were made in a lab for me

[thechaoscryptid]

[thechaoscryptid]

Jean saying “I am sorry about your dog” was wild work. Jean thinking about the loss of Barkbark BEFORE Jeremy did was wild work. Jer trying to hide his sadness and saying “are you? I thought you hated him” only for Jean to come back immediately and say “you didn’t” like it was all that mattered was WILD WORK!

mister b gave jean a bit of comfort whenever jeremy wasn’t present you cannot convince me otherwise

[thechaoscryptid]

✨her bitches✨

I just love pink hair your honor💅

[thechaoscryptid]

~ fit check for my Napalm Era ~

[thechaoscryptid]

huntrix x saja photoshoot

[thechaoscryptid]

I'm sure the world needs Tiger inspired by Vanessa Stockard's style