#Building An Audience | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

author-a-holmes · 1 year

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Obviously ignore this if you want but I saw you mention that you recently got published (congrats!!!) and I had a question. I'm still far out from that, but I know how to write and can research how to publish but I don't know how to market. Not only am I autistic and not charismatic, I want to solely use my pen name and distance my writing from my face because of my professional life. Do you know how to actually get people who might like your book to notice that it exists as an indie author with no previous following? Thank you if you have any advice!

Hello Moshke!

Thank you so much for the congratulations! It's taken longer than I expected but the realisation that I'm published is finally beginning to sink in! It's very surreal ^_^

I honestly don't know if I'm the right person to give advice on marketing as, at the moment, my book's been out just over a month and I feel like I'm stumbling around in the dark, but I wanted to give your ask due consideration and, despite my hesitation, I think I still have some tips that could hopefully help.

The reason I think I might have at least some relevant tidbits is that I'm also writing under a penname and most people don't seem to realise that.

Now, in my case, it's not about privacy it's just that don't like my given name enough to see it on book covers :D So I don't mind talking about it, but marketing your book under a penname isn't that much different to how you would market the book under your legal name.

Tip No. 1

Establish your pen name as a functional pseudonym now. Don't wait until you're ready to publish.

So, this stage was a little backwards for me. I come from the age of internet use where you did not give your real name online, under any circumstances, so I've always used various "online names".

By the time I decided that I was going to use "Arista Holmes" to publish under, anyone who knew me online already knew me as Ari. Even my best friend offline will sometimes call me Ari when we're chatting, so it had become as much an actual nickname as an online pseudonym.

But that's exactly what I'm getting at. I'm not pretending to be "Arista Holmes", I am Ari. A writer in her 30's based in the south east of England. The same way I'm Josie to my mum, or Jo-jo to my Godmother.

Tip No. 2

Don't think about it as marketing your book, but as creating an author "brand".

I'm using "Brand" here in the absence of a better term, because I absolutely hate thinking about this as a "brand", but what I mean is think of your Penname as something people will google search.

In fact, Google search your pen name.

As I mentioned, I'd been using "Arista Holmes" online for a while, and I had accounts all over the place that I didn't necessarily want coming up when people looked up my books.

(I will deny spending my youth on Neopets, it's just TOO embarrassing!)

But jokes aside; Google your pen name. See what comes up. Scroll through all 20, 30, 50 pages of google. Some asshole looking for some embarrassing post from your teen years won't stop at page five, and neither should you.

Shut down any accounts you find, or if you want to keep them, change the username to something else. The only non-publishing related account linked to Arista Holmes now is my AO3. I figure it's still writing, so no harm in leaving that one up.

Tip No. 3

Set up social media accounts now; Be as consistent as possible across all platforms.

Now, and I want to put this in big bold letters:

Having accounts on all the socials does not mean you will be active on all of them.

Or use them at all, in fact.

Having accounts on Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter, Tiktok, Youtube, etc etc etc, just means that if, by some miracle, you make it big and draw in fans you'll also inevitably draw trolls and by making the account with your pen name; it stops them claiming that username and pretending to be you.

It's a form of pre-emptive protection.

On that note; Be consistent across your accounts. Use the same profile picture, use the same header or banner, use the same colour scheme, use the same "About Me/About Author" description, and (as much as possible) use the same username format.

That last one won't be possible on all platforms. Some of them don't like periods/full stops. Some don't like underscores, but try to be as consistent as possible.

For example my account on here is author.a.holmes, most other places I'm aristaholmes. I'd change it, but at this point, I don't want to break all my links.

Tip No. 4

Author Pictures Are Not Required.

I'm adding this point here because I mentioned profile pictures in the previous tip. Author Pictures Are Not Required.

Don't get me wrong, they're often highly encouraged, and I can't deny that they give a humanising effect to the author, but that doesn't mean you actually have to show your face.

I've chosen to put my face on my "About The Author" page in the back of my book, but that's a personal choice. You don't have to add one at all! It's only more recently that I've seen fiction author photos in the back of books.

Until about... 15 years ago? Ish? I wouldn't have expected to see an author photo unless the book was non-fiction.

If you want to add a picture of you, but don't feel comfortable or can't because of real world problems, consider an artist's caricature instead. Go one step further than a pen-name and give yourself a pen-picture! Jenna Moreci uses an artist's interpretation as her profile picture/logo, and Lemony Snicket only had pictures of the back of his head for ages.

If you do decide to commission an artist though, do explain to them that it will be included in your books, that you'll be selling, as they will probably want to add a commercial licence price to the artwork; But if you explain why you're having the caricature done I imagine most artists would be very reasonable about it.

***

That's all my tips for setting up and marketing yourself, as the author, under a pen name... but I can already hear the voices in my head muttering that I've not really touched on how to get people to find you once you've set up the pen name, and the socials, and your website etc.

And it's because I personally think that if you're writing under a pen name you need to establish it as an entity in its own right before beginning to try marketing it.

So, moving on…

Tip No. 5

Find your place on the great, wide, interwebs...

I mentioned I'd been online as Arista Holmes for about 8-10 years prior to deciding to publish under this name, but once I did decide to publish I went and made all my author socials (just like I mentioned in Tip No. 3)

That was in 2020 and it was part experimentation, and part letting people find me. I knew I wasn't going to be able to keep up with multiple social media's, and I also knew I didn't WANT to, so I made the socials and I started posting on each platform and figuring out which platforms I liked. Which ones were easy to use, and which ones got me the most engagement with other people.

For me, this turned out to be Tumblr and Instagram. Twitter and Facebook are like graveyards for me, and Tiktok is only a little better, but your mileage may vary.

I cross post consistently with Tumblr, Instagram, because those are the places I get the most engagement... but I also maintain a blog on my website and any big pieces of news (such as asking for ARC readers, or publishing my book) gets posted across ALL platforms because, well, I live in hope that one day my tiktok will go viral lol.

But honestly, the multiple socials literally eat up so much of the time I could spend writing; I highly recommend picking two, three at most, and focusing on them.

But what do you post? I can almost hear you yelling <3

Tip No. 6

How to market when you're shy/introverted/not-charismatic/or any other thing you feel is holding you back.

You're going to want to throw something at me but lean on your strengths. It sounds so simple, and I know it's not, I'm sorry, but here's what I mean by that.

When I was still experimenting with all the socials to find the ones I liked, I stumbled across an image. I want to say it was here on tumblr but, honestly, I don't remember and at the time I was neck deep in every marketing and promotional blog or article I could find trying to figure this shit out.

It was called "The Periodic Table of Content Marketing".

I don't know why this helped me wrap my head around marketing, but it did.

I read over each of the types of marketing and I started getting idea's.

Ebooks... I'd heard about people doing reader magnets for newsletter lists.

Interviews... I've seen authors on podcasts. I'd seen people on tumblr interviewing their characters. I could do that.

Trends... What are popular tropes if not trends of the moment?

And I suddenly realised that this silly little graph was all the different types of marketing I could do, broken down simply, and laid out neatly, and I could pick and choose not only the bits I was comfortable doing, but the bits that I was confident with.

I'm never going to put my face on a tiktok video and lipsync to popular songs, but I could write a 12,000 words short story prequel to my series and make it exclusive to newsletter subscribers.

That was something I could do, because it leaned on my strengths; My writing.

Because I haven't said it yet, but two years ago I'd have described myself very similarly to you.

I'm not charismatic. While I'm not autistic, I am painfully introverted. I have severe social anxiety. I'm not funny, I can't talk with strangers casually or easily. Talking about my book more than once a week feels like I'm bragging or being pushy... But I can write.

So I started looking for opportunities to share my writing, and let it... not speak for itself, but let my words draw in the audience. It still took a bit of pushing on my part, I would look for tag games where the user had left an "Open Tag" and I'd hop on those and share some words.

This is part of the reason Tumblr is one of my favourite places to network with writers and readers, because the tag games let me share and tease content without having to push through my social anxiety all that hard.

It's a slower, organic, audience growth but it's definitely my preference.

The content I shared on here, produced to play tag games, I quickly realised that I could copy it onto a pretty image in canva, and share it on instagram easier than I could condense a paragraph into the twitter character limit, or make it look appealing on Facebook's janky system.

And the more writing I shared, the more people commented and followed. And the more they commented and followed, the easier it was to talk to them. And then I started getting asks. That was nerve wracking and sometimes they'll still sit there a couple of months before I can make myself answer them.

(Sorry Sleepy and Avra, if you're reading this! I'll reply soon, I promise!)

Have I gone off topic here? I kind of feel like I have but also... not really.

If you feel like your writing is your strength, lean on it. Let it do the heavy lifting for you. Show your hand with your words.

By the time I set up my mailing list and offered 'Whatever Happened To Madeline Hail?' for free, I got 12 people to sign up straight away. I don't know if that's a lot, but it was at least eight more than I was expecting.

When my book launched, I received 14 reviews, and sold 20 copies the first month. Again, I don't know if this is a lot, but it was a whole hecking lot more than I'd hoped for.

I don't know if I'm good at marketing, and maybe someone will reblog and reply to this with better advice, or tear apart what I've said, and if they do great! I really hope it helps you or someone else down the reblog chain because, as I said at the start, I'm really just stumbling around in the dark and hoping I somehow get it all to work out lol

But I do just have one more piece of advice, that isn't really my advice...

Tip No. 7

Fake it until you make it.

You're a writer. The beauty of the internet is that we have time to stop, and think about the words we're writing in response to someone.

I'm a shy, introvert, who doesn't know when to shut up when she gets started talking about writing (Or at least that's what it looks like based on the length of this post...)

But 99% of people I speak to online don't know I'm an introvert. They don't know that after sending an email I have to go back to bed for a few hours to recover my energy, or that I can't answer a phone without feeling nauseous for the rest of the day and it's because when I'm online I'm Arista Holmes, and I can write my responses in the same way I write my characters.

I'm not saying I'm not being me, I am, but I'm also being given the time and space to be the confident me I want to be, rather than the nervous wreck I actually am.

Write your socials, and market your book, as the you that you’d write if you were dropped into one of your own books.

Fake it until you make it.

Handy Resource List For Marketing:

Periodic Table of Content Marketing

Jenna Moreci's Youtube - I take her writing advice with a huge chunk of salt, but her marketing advice is top notch.

Bethany Atazedah Youtube - Co-wrote a Marketing For Authors Non-fiction series, but a lot of her youtube videos contain good, free, advice too.

Self-Publishing With Dale - If you want to market effectively, keeping on top of the current trends and changes in the market is important. Self Publishing with Dale is the best way I've found to do that; He really has his fingers on the pulse of the Self Publishing Market, and even if you're not publishing yet, checking out some of his videos can teach you loads about what to do, but more importantly, what NOT to do.

Michael Anderle's 20Bookto50k system - I didn't mention it as a tip but the BEST form of marketing a book is to write the next book. Michael Anderle talks about his theory that is you have 20 books published, your backlist of royalty income should net you around $50k a year. The hour and a half talk changed my whole marketing outlook and is why I'm focussed on a slow grown, more organically sourced, audience rather thank paid advertising.

Abbie Emmons Youtube - I'm not sure I should include Abbie in a list of marketing resources as she's often more about the writing side of the craft, but her videos have been invaluable to me, so she's just worth checking out in general.

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totaleditorial · 1 year

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TRANSCRIPT:

So, today’s episode, I am focusing on the number one most important thing when it comes to a book, as well as the number one thing that most people ignore. And that is that you need an audience, if you’re going to launch a book.

Take it from somebody who did six books without ever thinking about an audience. One, a novel based on my recovery, one a fictionalized version of a details magazine story I wrote about prostitution, one on reality shows, why not, one on less. There was no consistency, there was no thinking about, I did a book on reality TV without bothering to think, oh, hey, reality TV fans want to watch reality TV and not read books about it. And you know what, people who don’t watch reality to TV probably don’t want to read a book about something they don’t care about.

So, I cannot explain the importance of this, and if you’re familiar with Bernie, my cat, he certainly agrees because he’s crawling all around. He wants you to have readers. I often say without readers, you’ve written a journal. So, the delusion that we all suffer from in previous episode about rose colored glasses, I talked about how we all secretly think we’re going to be the exception, even though we hear, oh the average book sells 300 copies, we kind of just go well, but you know what, you know what? I’ve always kind of thought I was like going to do well, you know what I mean? And you know, she’s very fabulous. And Guido meets with Kamala Harris and sells millions of copies without someone to do it. I could do that, too. No, no.

You know, the very first agent I ever talked to who was a complete douchebag, and really, frankly, quite creepy, said something to me that has always stuck with me, which is... I said, I want to do a book of essays, because Sex in the City was both a very big book and big show at the time. And I said it could be like Sex in the City. And he said, never compare yourself to the exception. Compare yourself to the rule. You can always be pleasantly surprised if you are that lotto ticket that happens to win. But it’s probably not going to happen. So certainly go into it expecting that.

So how on earth do you find readers?

The bad news is that it’s all that stuff that you’re probably not comfortable doing, which is audience building. The good news is that you’re not alone. We all hate it at first...

So, it requires a lot of work at first to get anyone to care. And it’s very easy to compare and despair and say, oh, this person has 10,000 followers and I don’t have any. Well, everybody started with the same amount, which is one. So just start and the fewer people there are, the more you can experiment and take risks and not worry. So this whole concept of the riches are in the niches, is that you want a group of people who will feel like the book that you’ve created is just for them.

When I was writing, Make Your Mess Your Memoir, which is the last book I wrote before the one I’m currently writing, I thought about two people as I wrote. They’re married to each other. And I apologize if you’ve heard me talk about this on the show before, but they are my surrogate parents. Not really, they’re not old enough. And they haven’t totally agreed to this, but I know them from Genius Network, this Mastermind I’m a part of, and they’re just lovely. I’ve just always loved them. And years and years ago, they said, you know we need to, they’ve done a book, but we need to do another book. You know, maybe we’ll hire your company to do it. And I said that would be great. And then nothing happened. And then, you know, we were working with other clients, I forgot about it. But then when I sat down to write Make Your Mess Your Memoir, I thought about them. And I thought about them not once, not twice, but pretty much every page. I said, would that speak to them? Would that speak to Michael and Ros? Would they be offended by that? Would they understand that? And I thought about them on every page.

And when the book came out, you know, I was lucky enough to get on Good Morning America. And lots of people read the book and lots of people hired my company. Now when I say lots of people, I don’t mean hundreds, I mean that we have this very high-ticket expensive offer. So just 10 people hiring us as a result of reading that book, is a year’s worth of business.

Michael and Ros, they didn’t read it. They didn’t even know about it. Maybe two years later, no, I know exactly when it was, it was from the time I’m recording, a year ago, I run into them, at a Genius Network thing. And I say, oh my God, I have the funniest thing to tell you. I wrote a book for you guys. And they just go, what? And I said, I know, it’s crazy, but whenever I write a book, I try to think of one person or two people, and I just thought of you guys on every page. And they said, what is this book? And I said, oh, it’s over in the gifting suite. And they went and got a copy. And guess what, they hired us, we’re now working on their book. That’s really like a cute story and they’re adorable people.

But the point is, it’s so much easier to write for one person or a very small group of people. Because if there’s one of them, there’s many. I’ve also said before, I would rather have 100 people read my book and be completely moved by it, and hire my company than 10,000, who don’t really care. So, if you have 100 people, and they feel like it’s written for them, you know what happens when you feel like something, think of something that was the, you know, creative work that you liked so much, that you kind of felt like it was made just for you. I know, I felt that way about the show Girls, and the show White Lotus, and many books that I’ve read.

If you can write something that’s so specifically for a certain group of people, they will then become your salespeople. They will go out and start doing your work for you by telling everyone else they have to read it.

So, if you’re worried that the niche you’re writing to is too small, the example I like to use is there is a Facebook group that is called, A Group Where We All Pretend to Be Ants in an Ant Colony. And that has, as of this recording over 1.8 million members. So, your group is not too small. And think about your own experiences.

I think a lot of us are scarred a little bit by these English teachers who taught us these very rote ways to write papers. And we learned along the way that like we needed to sound smart. Sounding smart is great, but sounding “smart” can lead you to speaking writing cliches, and right in this very professorial language that doesn’t endear you to anybody, and is usually quite boring.

So, my favorite writers are the ones who have a voice. Lean into your voice and think about your own experiences. My favorite compliment I ever get from anyone who reads one of my books is, if it’s someone I know, I felt like I was hanging out with you for a week, it was like going on vacation with you. And I love that. And keep in mind that controversy. You can’t be too you, you know. Think of Mark Manson, the author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, who sold 12 million copies by telling people they shouldn’t give a fuck. So the advantage of being you in front of this audience that you’re building is that you’re finding out what they like. You’re finding out what they respond to.

And by building I’m talking about being on social media, I’m talking about creating a newsletter list and gathering people to it. I’m talking about joining groups, you know, whether that’s on Facebook or Reddit or Discord or frickin Mastodon, which I’ve never been on, don’t even know how to spell, but apparently, it’s a thing. Get out there. And you’ll find that some things people respond to, some things people don’t respond to at all, and some things people go crazy for. When you hit on that, you know, you’re finding your audience. Double down on that.

And I look at it as a creative thing rather than going, oh my God, what do you mean, I have to toast about building authority through a book if I want to establish my authority around it. How about it’s a creative exercise, I’m a creative person, I wouldn’t be writing books if I wasn’t. So why don’t I use some of my creativity in order to build my audience.

Now an example that I give in my book that’s On Good Authority, which you can sign up for a front row seat by going to www.annadbook.com. I talk about my friend Jennifer Keishin Armstrong. Now she’s a New York Times bestselling author of many books that are about entertainment. She worked at Entertainment Weekly. And her first book was about the Mickey Mouse Club. So, she writes this book, and she goes, and she tries to find like Boomer websites on Facebook, and she can’t summon up interest. Then she goes home to Chicago, and her dad takes her to one of his veteran organization meetings. And she finds her audience and they’re like, oh my God, Darlene tell me, I don’t know who any of these people are. I love it when I can say this, but Mickey Mouse Club was before my time. But so, she finally found her readers, and only realized the importance of finding her readers when the book was out.

So, Dave Chesson, previous podcast guest, all around the amazing person. When I had him on this podcast, he talked about how, go to the Amazon search box, type in your topic. The example he told me about is a woman he was helping with her book, and she was selling art. And she was writing a book about that. That was what she knew about. That’s where she was building her authority. So she goes to Amazon, she types in, how to sell art. What pops up is how to sell art online. She’s like that people care about, I didn’t know that. So, she not only adds a whole bunch to her book about how to sell art online, but she creates a lead magnet, about how to set up your accounts on online art sales platforms.

Now, Jay Abraham, who was both on the podcast and is quoted in the book, and is a genius, like the father of marketing, wrote an amazing book called Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got. What he recommends, is go to your competitors’ books, go to the books that are on topics like yours. Look at the five-star reviews. What did they say? Then go to the one-star reviews, the two star reviews. I actually find like a three, a two- or three-star review more useful because a one-star review, like I’m sorry, those are dicks, those are people who need to get out of basements or deal with whatever resentment it is that it’s making them take out their power on an author who’s put their work out there.

But look what people respond to very passionately, whether they’re very happy or unhappy with something. They use language, that as Jay Abraham says, penetrates right past the conscious mind. And you know how I was talking about people feeling like a book was written specifically for them? You’re using their language; they are going to feel that it’s really easy when you know a lot about something and you’re writing a book about it. We let expert blindness literally blind us. We know how something works. So, we assume that the people, the readers know our language, speak about it the same way. We assume they understand something they don’t, because it’s really hard, if not impossible to remember to break it down and remember when you learned something, and when you didn’t know it.

An example from publishing is in traditional publishing, people when they say blurbs, they’re talking about endorsements. A blurb is a recommendation from a luminary about your book. I noticed when I got more invested in the self and indie publishing world, that when people said the word blurb, they actually were using what they were calling book descriptions blurbs. I don’t know how it happened, but it started to happen. So rather than me sticking to what I know is “right,” I’m going to be better off using the language that my audience uses. And it’s really hard to break things down.

I’m always reminded of one of my favorite movies, Reality Bites. If you haven’t seen it, well, if you’re a Gen Xer, you know what I’m talking about, if you’re not a Gen Xer, it’s a frickin amazing movie. And if you ever want to understand the Gen Xer in your life, just go see that movie. But there’s a scene where Winona Ryder gets in the elevator with Anne Meara and she’s just interviewing for an internship, or a job and Anne Meara says define ironic. She’s like, oh, you know, it’s like when something’s ironic, you know. And then of course Ethan Hawke who plays Troy Dyer, this sanctimonious dick, who she’s in love with, he can of course, define it perfectly.

But the point is, it can be really, really hard, if not impossible to describe things that you’re so familiar with, that you don’t need to describe them. So that is what you can learn about from your audience. And from those one- and five-star reviews and from all the audience building that you’re doing.

So that is that. That is all about the importance of readers. I hope you got a lot out of this episode. Find out, you know, like I said, more about this book that this is from, get a front row seat, find out all the tips, tricks and techniques that I am using to launch this book and you can use for your own at www.annadbook.com and I will talk to you next week.

Find more at: https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/podcast

Follow me on IG: @AnnaBDavid

Get my free elevator book pitch template: https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/elevator-pitch

#audience building #building an audience #writing #self publishing #anna david #anna d #on writing #publishing tips

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men-of-progress · 1 year

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How to Make Passive Income Online While you Sleep:

Introduction:

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#Passive income #Building an audience #Passive income ideas #Online income streams #Building passive income online

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streamtipz · 10 months

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Collaborating and Networking with Other Streamers

Collaborating and networking with other streamers can be a powerful way to grow your channel and tap into new audiences. Look for streamers with similar content or overlapping interests. Reach out to them and propose collaboration ideas that benefit both parties.

#Building an Audience

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scribefindegil · 8 months

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As much as I adore conlangs, I really like how the Imperial Radch books handle language. The book is entirely in English but you're constantly aware that you're reading a "translation," both of the Radchaai language Breq speaks as default, and also the various other languages she encounters. We don't hear the words but we hear her fretting about terms of address (the beloathed gendering on Nilt) and concepts that do or don't translate (Awn switching out of Radchaai when she needs a language where "citizen," "civilized," and "Radchaai person" aren't all the same word) and noting people's registers and accents. The snatches of lyrics we hear don't scan or rhyme--even, and this is what sells it to me, the real-world songs with English lyrics, which get the same "literal translation" style as everything else--because we aren't hearing the actual words, we're hearing Breq's understanding of what they mean. I think it's a cool way to acknowledge linguistic complexity and some of the difficulties of multilingual/multicultural communication, which of course becomes a larger theme when we get to the plot with the Presgar Translators.

#imperial radch #also a great example of the 'you don't have to be Tolkien' phenomenon #if you want to think about linguistic differences by building all the languages in your setting #and being able to explain what those differences are through actual texts in the language in question #that's AWESOME #but it's not the only way to do it #it's also interesting because of course this style only works in book form #everyone's speaking different languages but in a written account they're all 'translated' for you #but of course if it was a TV series they would all have to be speaking a language the audience understands #(or you *would* have to go wild with conlangs)#and i think that's really cool as well--#how for a series where song is so central we don't actually hear any of the actual in-universe words or any of the music #it's all been filtered #and again you know this is happening but seeing the examples of how real songs--the shape hymns and 'L'homme Arme'--are presented #makes you a lot more viscerally aware of how limited your perspective is #it's good #ann leckie i love you

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shann-on · 2 years

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Shann-on - My New Tumblr

Shann-on – My New Tumblr

So, tonight, I decided to create a Tumblr for my blog. I hope that by having an account I will be able to connect with my readers, be able to find new content that inspires me, and be able to build my follower count. As ThoughtCo explains, “The more you use Tumblr, the more trends you’re able to identify on the platform, giving you clues about what users love to see and share.” This makes the…

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#blog writing #building an audience #finding a niche #networking #social media #tumblr #writing

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surfacage · 10 months

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yeah... twitter is down again.. . quite honestly the thing stopping me from posting here again is that i've switched fandoms (from pkmn) and im just real nervous about the reception, but anyway. just so yall know ! im into ffxiv and genshin impact mostly nowadays. sometimes other stuff too, yall know me. no hard feelings if you unfollow!

#looks into the sun #it would take so long to build another audience for other stuff #but im just like #tired...

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foldingfittedsheets · 2 months

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I used to worry people wouldn’t like my silly nsfw stories if they followed me for cute long gay comics and now that two of my sex shop stories are blowing up I’m fretting all the new followers will get annoyed about the long gay comics.

Repeating my mantra: this is my blog and I post what I want to.

#ramblies #had a friend tell me I’m trying to be famous and I was like ??? I don’t think wanting people to see my art or read my writing is the same #I’m happy I’m getting more followers because it means more people interact with my creative works #which feels objectively different to how I think of Fame #I want people to like the final product: the art or story. I’m not necessarily building a brand around who I am as a person #I did originally make this tumblr to post my funny sex shop stories then moved on when I switched jobs and didn’t have an audience #and now that I do I have such a better writing voice to share them with so I’m happy people are enjoying them finally

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chiricat · 2 years

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mizuena again⁉️

#aggie number one billion #mizuena #akiyama mizuki #shinonome ena #prsk #prsk fa #colorful stage #project sekai #cat’s art #niigo #25ji nightcord de #girl help i did not realize that deactivating twitter for a few days for personal sanity would kill engagement #i AM CRYING IN THE CLUB i feel like i just wiped my audience away but only on that platform #now i need to build it back methinks augh i hate past me what a nerd… anyways

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frankenbuggee · 5 days

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Pretty sure my art blog is now just becoming a Devious art blog.

Anyway have some old art from my phantom of the opera fixation time. With a redraw from the 1990 phantom of the opera of Devious.

Also big fan of drawing characters into pictures.

#people take photos of nice places and buildings when they go out #and I’m just ‘I could draw an oc there’#Also Devious would totally drop a chandelier on an audience that upset his person #anyway ✨badguys✨#watched this show twice so far once from shown in the picture #second at the bottom under the chandelier 😳#artists on tumblr #original character #character art #villain oc #poto #buggee art #phantom of the opera #poto art #poto 1990 #art redraw #fanart

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wakeupthemembersofbylernation · 2 months

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The idea of Mike “gently rejecting” Will in S5 is such a silly concept to me. It truly would make zero sense from a narrative perspective or from a character arc perspective. That’s why many Mlvn diehards don’t even really believe it will happen. They believe the show will move on without ever really addressing the Mike-shaped elephant in the room. They believe Will’s happy ending will simply consist of his friends and family accepting him and giving him a hug, and that’s it. And maybe he’ll get an unnamed bf in the finale. (That is, unless the show makes Will a secret villain and kills him off. Then at least he’d be interesting).

Some even take Will’s words at facevalue, believing that El truly commissioned the painting or at least that the intense romantic feelings Will described really belong to her. Now that Mike has confessed his love, they believe that S5 will finally consist of happy Mlvn couple moments, so there won’t be any time for Mike and Will to be together even as friends to talk about any lingering feelings. And why would there be time, since it’s the apocalypse after all, and Will is just a plot device and isn’t really relevant to anything? The Duffers must be exaggerating his importance to S5. The Core 4 is Mike, El, Lucas, and Dustin. Will’s romantic desires are meaningless.

They have to believe all this, cause if they don’t, and they still want to believe in Mlvn endgame, they have to conclude that Will’s emotional desires will be central to the plot of S5, Will’s feelings are the glue that put Mlvn back together, the painting will come up again because El didn’t actually commission it, Mike and Will will be close enough in S5 to have meaningful heart-to-hearts, AND Mike is 100% straight and will…. gently reject Will and promise to always be good pals; he just sadly doesn’t swing that way?

Silliness, objectively.

Anyway, Byler endgame.

#byler #will byers #mike wheeler #stranger things #stranger things 5 #‘but sometimes unrequited love just happens! didn’t robin lovingly/gently reject steve?’#okay but you see how that’s different right?#you see how a character we just met rejecting another character with a crush within the context of one season because they are a lesbian #is very different from a boy finally confessing his feelings to his childhood best friend #after 5 seasons of building up how special and distinct and different their bond is #and after devoting his entire arc in the penultimate season to making those feelings clear to the audience #without actually addressing it/directly having him confess in said season #only to finally confess his feelings (that he and most of the audience already believes are unrequited)#and get ‘gently rejected’ by that best friend who is straight and that’s all there is to it #you see how that’s completely different and makes no sense narratively right?#yes you do #that’s why you downplay will’s feelings #or you downplay will as a character #because that’s the only thing preventing your house of cards from crumbling

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casual--scare · 3 months

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Doodles...

#decided to post more of my art from now on. everything I make usually stays between me and my friends but #I feel like if I ever want to do anything with my art then I should probably start building an audience #I'll try to make more elaborate things on a regular schedule #but for now. them #robots am I right?#ultrakill #swordsmachine #inscryption #p03 #casual art

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garnetea · 10 months

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dream a little dream of me.

who roronoa zoro x fem black! y/n. length 715 words! warnings fluffy smut! nipple suckin. semi-wet dream. napping on a hammock. it's mostly fluff.

leman's letter! this's a little old, i just wanna get out some zoro stuff tbhhh. also, reader being chunky is implied a little but not as heavily as my last zoro piece; do with this as you will! and not super proof read..

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ★

A tranquil breeze provided by lingering nymphs sets Y/n and Zoro's shared hammock into a subtle rock, as the cool evening air tickles their necks and foreheads with delicate brushes. Zoro's mossy hued hair nestles against the bare warmth of Yn's chest, while dozing somewhat noisily, accompanying the forming pool of drool in his mouth with light exhales and snores.

It's a rare sight to see such an event as this; the typically stubborn and stoic swordsman being so vulnerable and adorable, finding comfort upon the plump breasts of his corpulent lover. The weight of his sleepy head is relaxed and trusting in your presence, though he'd never go as far as admitting that this is because you're beyond precious to him. Instead, he grants you with another arm full of sweetly softened breaths and incoherent mumbles.

Though, when Zoro's unconscious mumbles and grumbles grow audible to a noticeable degree, you worry that he'll wake up before he's truly rejuvenated, which will leave you with an unpleasantly grumpy boyfriend on your hands. Therefore, you place your foot on the grassy ground below, moving the comforting weight of your hand from Zoro's scarred back to his messy bundles of hair. Rocking your foot in place, ever so carefully, you breathe out a motherly, "Shhh." Smiling affectionately as you do so, all to lull the furrow-browed man back into uninterrupted rest.

However, before long, your smile slowly fades as the man's nap takes its own route of self satisfaction. Suddenly, he's leaking a pool of built up saliva from the confinements of his parted lips and onto your exposed chest. You watch tentatively and attentively with increasingly intrusive ideas, as the shimmering dribble graces the crevice separating your tits, and smears over the comfortable stiffness of your dark nipples. Due to Zoro shifting in his sleep.

"Dios mío, not now, Noa.."

Your hushed pleas of cessation to this evolving scenario went unheard and uncared for as Zoro shifts even more against his lover's mattress of a body, with a stiff knee pressed between your spread thighs as he finds himself in a more comfortable position. It's nothing a few inches backwards you can't fix, but the pressure from Zoro's knee on your lap becomes the least of your concerns as the sleepy swordsman's lips habitually latch onto the perkiness of your nipple.

The tip of your skin was brushing his lazily parted lips. A subtle gesture which — even if it holds little force, since he is in fact asleep — sends your nerves and self control into an uproar, tempting your excitement to run rampant in the blood stream riveting your quickened heart. The blood stream which is suddenly rushing its intensity downward to entice the arousal of your clit in the process.

Embarrassing as it may be in such a pure setting as this (being doused with the soft kisses from a loving sunset, along with the distant tunes of Sanji playing the acoustic guitar for another lovely woman), the sensation of Zoro's uncharacteristically needy lips against your skin rids you a necessary amount of sanity. You have to fight the urge to wake the swordsman from his hazy dreams and find pleasure in a more sensitive area than your sloppily abused chest, but that urge is quickly combated with the stirring of Zoro's facial expression as he rests.

Seemingly on cue, you drop the rocking movement on the ball of your foot and the height of your heel against the ground, leaving your body limp as you abruptly force your eyelashes to a close and rest your head correspondingly. A sleepy guise, of course.

In turn, Zoro lazily raises his head and yawns obnoxiously, only stopping his inconsiderate movements when he realizes your "sleeping" state. He'd smile softly at the serene sight if it weren't for the moist substance coated over his lover's chest, and the same substance being slickly fastened to his own rosy cheeked front. With noticeable fluster, he mumbles, "Sorry bout' that.. had a weird dream." Before laying himself in the same comfortable position and continuing his previously unconscious adventure, since by the heat and fattened pudge beneath your loose shorts, you seem to have been enjoying the scenario just as much as him. "Eh, I know you don't mind. Just stay there and be quiet a while longer, alright?"

#leman's art!#<3 #interact if you enjoyed! & i want to build an audience so reblogs mean the world!!#anime x black!reader #one piece #one piece x black!reader #anime fanfic #anime #roronoa zoro x reader #roronoa zoro x black!reader #roronoa zoro #zoro x reader #zoro smut #roronoa zoro x y/n #zoro fluff #one piece smut #one piece x reader #one piece x black reader #zoro x chubby reader

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