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thewriteblrlibrary · 3 months

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A Step-by-Step Marketing Guide so we can spite traditional publishers (and make people cry).

~ This is a guide specific for fiction/writeblr. All of this is for free and there is little social media posting/ads involved (unless you want to venture into that). ~

Within the writeblr spheres, there's this underlying hope that our stories will find their audience. Perhaps we'll have a fandom full of fanart and video essays, or maybe we'll be an instant classic and sit on collectors' beloved bookshelves. Our stories could sit within the deepest corners of someone's heart and maybe they never tell a soul about what's so special to them. Maybe our stories become those 'underrated masterpieces'.

Or we just want to see people ugly cry over our writing.

Whatever your hope may be, marketing is an important path to venture on (especially because traditional publishers are rejecting diverse books in favor of ones that are already famous + the whole sub-par machine thing they seem obsessed with.)

And thus, my childhood marketing obsession will hopefully be of use to you. This is all for free (unless you want to spend money) and you don't need to figure out social media platforms (unless you want to, and this guide works if you decide to take that route too.)

Step One: Characters

Marketing spheres will define these fictious people as 'avatars' or 'the target audience'. You could also call them characters. Because that's what they are: fictional people.

For this step, you shall create characters that would love your story.

And here's some great news: You've already done this.

Perhaps you wrote your story to comfort a prior version of yourself. Perhaps each character in your story holds an aspect of your personality. Perhaps you were ridiculously self-indulgent and made the story you would've loved to read. These are all possible characters you can reuse for marketing.

Write down 2-4 quick archetypes for these characters. You'll chose an aspect of your story (characters, themes, or the younger-self that you wrote it for) and write a thumbnail sketch. (Main issue, fears, wants, personality traits if they relate to the main issue.)

I'll do it for my story (the Land of the Fallen Fairies) down below:

Anuli-like (my MC): Overthinking and aloof. Wants a happy ending but thinks their current personality/character isn't good enough for one. The present stales in comparison to the past/the childhood they lost. The 'gifted theater kids'. Kamari-like (side character): Postpones happiness in favor of creating a perfect schedule/getting accomplishments. Heavy masking. Creative but doesn't create anymore. Promises themself they'll enjoy themselves later, when they've earned it. Workaholics. My younger self: Wanting a fantasy escapism to embody the traits they wish they had in real life. Dissatisfied and worried about reality. Perfectionists. Self-indulgent: People who love plants and forests and fantasy worlds far away from reality/humanity.

Great! Now it's time to find these characters.

Step Two: Setting.

(Let's assume you're using the internet for your marketing. But a similar method works for real life too.)

Where do the characters live?

In order to figure that out, we need to discover the characters' interests, what they watch to solve their problems, and who they find #relatable.

(You can do this for each character or for all the characters at once.)

For example:

Anuli-like -

interests: Stories. Analysis videos. Fantasy escapism. Things that remind them of their childhood. (so nature, warmth, comfort, play, imagination and the times they would actually enjoy learning.)

Places to look: Nature quotes, ambience videos, children's shows and fairytales (comfort shows). Fandom culture - fanfic video essays, fan art.

Solving problems (the problem being wanting a 'happy ending' but feeling that their personality/lifestyle/characteristics aren't right for one): Mindfulness things. Self-healing. Quotes and meditations and candles galore. Slow living. Nature vlogs. Self care. All that 'live in the moment' culture.

Places to look: Slow living. Nature vlogs. The 'softer self-help' (spirituality stuff. Magic/ overnight answers). Witchcraft. 'aesthetic nature' places. Guided meditations.

#relatable: Burnt out gifted kids. People who think so much that their life passes them by. Storytellers and creative who create to make sense of the world. People who like dark, gory things in spite of who they want to be. People who don't like reality.

Places to look: Those 'learn better and remember everything' places. (The 'burnt-out gifted kid' recovery places.) Stop overthinking spots. Those quotes on Pinterest from poetic people who think too much /aff. Storyteller places. Dark academia. Classical music. One off quotes/ poetry.

Okie dokie. Once you have this, find channels, social media accounts, blogs, songs, books, etc. that fit with the categories you wrote down. (They should appeal to the characters) You can search up some of the terms you listed into searches and see who pops up. Bonus points if you find people that overlap with multiple sections.

I know I didn't include booktube or booktok in here. You can if you want too. But those can be a bit... 'consume these 500 books'. You also want to find other places where people who would like you story live, even if they don't follow booktube or booktok.

Congrats! Now you know where your characters live!

Step Three: the scary part

Take everyone you found on your search for the settings and write them down a list. Make sure you get an email/contact info. (they usually list them somewhere under 'for business inquires') Also feel free to watch their content and get to know what attributes these settings have.

And now... we talk to them. about our stories. You can do it. I believe in you.

This called 'pitching your product' in marketing spheres. But you can be informal about it.

I know it can be difficult to talk about your work, so here's a tone to have:

'I made this thing I like and I think you'll like it too'.

What you'll do is send an email (or dm) that goes like this (inspired by Creative Hive on youtube):

Hi [name],

[Genuine compliment]

[Quick sentence or two about your story. Include the themes and who it appeals to. If you have a logline/sentence summary, include that. But I find that the underlying themes and 'who's it's for' is more engaging.

For my story, I might say something like.

I've written a story you might enjoy, since you like [interest]. It's called the Land of the Fallen Fairies. It's a nature-themed commentary on the pursuit of happiness and fixing yourself to deserve that happiness, told by an overthinking, unreliable, houseplant narrator. It was supposed to comfort me when I got frustrated with myself and my happiness chasing, and I hope it can comfort others too.

(That's probably a bit long and I can trim it down a bit.)

You can phrase it like a gift if you want too.]

[Call to action.

'If you like it, I'd appreciate a mention on your [platform].

I know this part may be difficult to mention (imposter syndrome is not fun.) But I promise that if they do like it, they'll be happy to mention it.]

If they don't respond within... four-ish days? (A week at most). then you can include a follow up. For this you can include a template with info about your story. This way it's easy for them to talk about your story.

The template:

title

genre

blurb

Author

where to find the book

Bonus points if you have an additional, physical thing to send them.

Congrats! Now do this pitching process a few times until you've covered most of your bases. (Pitch to as many people as you can. It will get more comfortable as you do it. Play your favorite song and don't let yourself think too hard about it.)

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The benefits of this process are that you find people that are already interested in the themes and vibes of your story (in comparison to to ads, which get shoved in everyone's faces.). Someone your audience already trusts will talk about it, which means you don't need to do all this trial and error to find your audience and make content for them.

It's basically a bunch of people talking about something they like!

AND you diversify your audience across niches, but with an underlying theme/interests. Booktok/booktube must appeal to everyone, so it's a hit or miss for recommendations. (Unless there is someone that specifically does one genre/type of story.)

From here you can do fun little things to build up hype and make the book launch feel like this fun event. (I love it when that happens so here's my thoughts about trying to create an event with your story... although that may require another post entirely.)

preorder goals

charity goals

Arg's and puzzles

fund with side plushies and trinkets

Book blog tour

book boxes

as many memes as you can make

rewards (like bookmarks or posters or smth) that people can get for supporting

Talk about the process of creating your story. I know this one channel called 'Dead Sound' that creates 'making of' videos for his short films and they are some of the best videos on youtube.

Okay dear storyteller! Now go forth and share your story with the world!

Additional resources:

Creative Hive <-- a youtube channel that goes through the pitching process.

This video is also very good <-- Haven't watched the rest of the channel but I assume it's also good.

One of the best marketing channels on the internet (the videos are actually entertianing to watch.

Seth Goldin <-- I read his book and took the parts I liked and modified for storytelling marketing.

Dead Sound <-- propaganda to watch the short film series he has (he did the whole 2-d 3-d style wayyyy before spiderverse did... and he's one person making these. One person. It's amazing.

Glitch <--- If someone can figure out how The Amazing Digital Circus was marketed then I will pay you money. It seems to be a lot of memes and funny things.

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roach-works · 4 months

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So... This 100k of superhero romance... Is it original fiction 👀

yep! after about a year of work i finished the rough draft of Red Knight and Rook in early november! now im editing and working on queries to lit agents. self publishing is great and ill probably keep on doing it for a lot of stories, but this one was always intended for a trad publisher. here's my pitch:

"Red Knight and Rook: a fast-paced and irreverent romantic comedy about a midwest superhero team in serious trouble. Although they've been best friends for years, Rook's been in love with the half-alien Red Knight for just as long, and it's only getting harder to keep his secret desire for his partner under control. The unstoppable duo can face down the apocalypse any night of the week, but facing up to the truth of what they really want from each other might just be their final issue!"

if anyone has an agent in their back pocket, let me know.

#writing #pitching #sigh

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mattaytchtaylor · 23 days

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my pitch is done and my agent has begun sending it off to editors

#personal #blog stuff i guess #pitching #publishing #comics #making comics #im very nervous

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severitus-big-bang · 4 months

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Pitching is now OPEN!!!

Pitching is now OPEN!!! (thanks to one particular mod's impatience XD)

We can’t believe it is 2024 already and that means: Pitching for the Severitus Big Bang is now open!

You can submit your pitches via the form up until January 28th, your bedtime.

Please read the rules and FAQ carefully before doing so.

If you decide that you want to change your pitch, you can also do so until Jan 28th, your bedtime. You have time until Feb 3rd, 10:59 AM UTC ( <t:1706961540:F> [Unix timestamp, can be converted to local time] ; 1h before claiming starts), to withdraw your pitch should you wish to do so.

In this document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ut4FXs3kWwQrmc2hcKcp07x-FrCFLiyqvomym-1WqgU/edit

you will find the link to the pitching form, a detailed explanation as to how pitching works and what you have to look out for.

If you have any further questions feel free to contact us.

Pitches will be published as soon as possible in THIS presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1xX2jJkPTTT6GbNI6pP5RGK2emHF5DiSspsUVQ_NCwQM/edit?usp=sharing

So you, potential claimers, have plenty of time to think about your own pitch before you can see the other ones.

Please shoot us a quick message if any of the links fail, or if you have any questions, and we’ll see what we can do!

Quick reminder that Rules and FAQ can be found here: https://www.tumblr.com/severitus-big-bang/733978446406008832/rules-and-faq?source=share

We can’t wait for your pitches!!!

#severitus big bang 2024 #pitching #has begun #so excited!#severitus #severus snape #harry potter #pro snape

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dozydawn · 6 months

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more batters getting hit by pitches♡

#i mean i’m not a sadist but who knows #it’s more about the reactions afterwards & degrees of sportsmanship. whatever the hell that is #pitching #baseball #mlb #joe kelly #tyler austin #ramón laureano #humberto castellanos #bobby miller #zach mckinstry #shohei ohtani #mark canha #lip reading #whump #jomboy #jomboy media

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reimenaashelyee · 1 year

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ok, I've read your article on your website about creating a gn pitch. did you have to pitch Alexander to hiveworks to get it printed? also, was seance published thru hiveworks or another publisher?? how difficult is it to get a publisher to actually pick up your book and have it printed + distributed? sorry for so many questions lol. I have a lot more but I'll refrain for now

Feel free to send your questions but please do separate asks if they are somewhat different subtopics

Alexander

Alexander is a special circumstance because Hiveworks is actually where I work as a dayjob. Staff members and creators already part of Hiveworks can get their webcomics hosted/printed with no barrier should they choose to be picked up by the studio - though they still need to make a pitch document to check whether the content matches the editorial catalogue.

Before this though, I had shopped Alexander out to other traditional graphic novel publishers. Which didn't work out because 1) there is still no viable market for adult graphic novels that isn't political, educational or memoir, 2) Alexander is a risky book, cost-wise and content-wise, 3) I wanted it to be webcomic too, 4) pandemic

Seance Tea Party

Seance Tea Party (and My Aunt is a Monster) is through Random House Graphic, a kids/young adult graphic novel imprint of Penguin Random House - the largest traditional publisher globally. I am only stating this to situate the difference between Alexander and Seance's homes. Hiveworks is absurdly tiny, hyper-independent and almost entirely digital. Random House Graphic is part of a big ecosystem that almost all your favourite authors past and present are part of: bookstores, libraries Hollywood, TV adaptations, ads on the bus or magazines or radio, Oprah's book club, worldwide distribution...

About the difficulty, it really depends on your specific situation.

For starters, you really need to have some kind of record of being able to finish something (mini-comics, a decently sized (100 paged) webcomic)... or in the case of long, ongoing webcomics, the ability to maintain it.

This should be enough to get you to make an attempt for Hiveworks (or Webtoons/Tapas...). But then you also have to consider the genre, subject matter, "representation", length, style of the work you're pitching... all the things I talked about in my GN Pitch article. As I have hinted at Alexander failing at being picked up by traditional publishers, some comics are just not able to break in to certain markets due to a variety of factors. Adult graphic novels are still seen as risky by traditional large imprints, so you tend to see them more in indie publications - like Fantagraphics, D&Q, Selfmade Hero, First Second, Silver Sprocket... or webcomics. However, if you're pitching a kids or young adult book - especially in the memoir, queer contemporary romance, POC (tailored to Western lens, RIP) fantasy, educational genres - then you'll have a way better time.

You still have to look at the publishers and see if your vibes match theirs. Then if you're interested in opening up the option to pitch to traditional imprints (and add more credibility to your submission), you really really really NEED an agent. Some GN imprints like Ballantine or Alfred A Knopf do not accept submissions at all except through agents and known contacts. Pitching to an agent is a whole other barrier... though once you get that agent, you can almost entirely hand over the grueling work of shopping pitches to them.

I think, on average, breaking into publishing is moderately hard. But I cannot guarantee it. I know for myself and a friend of mine, we broke into it easy: we got our agents quickly and secured our first book deals through major traditional publishers - though we had almost a decade of webcomics experience and community presence to back that up. Then for most of my peers/friends, it's months and months of rejection, no answers, editors/agents telling them their work is not for the market etc. Some of them overcome those troubles. Some of them become sick of it and go full independent self-published. Speaking of, there are still options outside of the mainstream. You can engage specialised, single-purpose services like White Squirrel to distribute, or Mixam to print your comics. You can host your work online and gain your own readership through updates, festival appearances, etc.

Again, it really depends on what you want to do, what your work is about, and the fallbacks you have. Please do your research, and prepare your strategies, and approach pitching with a realistic, pragmatic lens. Hope for the best, expect the worst. Everything above your must-have is a bonus.

#publishing #pitching #comics

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jhsharman · 10 months

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Excised line

The line at the bottom is dumped from reprints. Naturally, all of this period added quips are, but this does strike me as one with a dark tone that Archie Comics is no longer apt to abide. Ever.

Okay, fine. But everybody hates Reggie.

Okay. But that one ends just fine for Miss Beazly.

Squirrel Hill -- originating out of Skunk Hill in Haverhill, MA of Bob Montana's youth -- the source for the letter 'S' on Jughead's sweater -- here dropped in as the location Archie beats Jughead senselessly.

My favorite "everyone mistakenly thinks a major character offed themself" story from Archie Comics has to be 1988's "The Prints of Wails". Very beachy and sunshiny.

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secular-jew · 5 months

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Sandy Koufax in LA Dodger stadium -- pointing at the scoreboard after his 2nd no hitter against the Giants

#jewish history #Jewish sports figures #Jewish baseball players #baseball #no hitter #sandy koufax #giants #dodgers #American Jewry #secular-jew #jewish #judaism #diaspora #secular jew #secularjew #pitcher #pitching #pitching great #baseball great

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flickingthebillybeane · 1 year

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#he has the funkiest motion I’ve ever seen #baseball #mlb #oakland athletics #pitching

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writingwithfolklore · 2 years

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Creating and Using a Logline

I talked a little bit about loglines in my character creation post, but I figured I should go a bit more in-depth into it because I swear it is THE MOST USEFUL THING EVER FOR CHARACTERS.

Loglines are a tool commonly taught in screenwriting because screenwriters often work as a team and have to keep characters relatively consistent over the course of a series or show—especially important if writers are coming and going. To keep things straight, they’ll create a character profile that has everything you need to know about a character in order to write them.

This profile will have the basics like: appearance, voice (with examples), basic characteristics, name, age, background, etc.

And to sum up their arc throughout the story or series, they’ll write a logline. It’s a few sentences that show how the character begins, the conflict they go through, and then how they change because of it. Loglines go A but B so C:

A – Character and their flaw

B – Conflict they go through

C – How they change

I’ll give you the same example as last time from an old project of mine:

A – Private/avoidant

B – He has been predicted to die soon

C – Accepts the support of others, recognizes he only has a little bit of time left and should spend it with the people he loves

Private Mark Jackson obsesses over an unproven myth that promises the escape of his small life, but when his untimely death is foretold and every day drives him closer to his fate, he finally reaches out to his friends, discovering he can be content in a slightly different life than he had imagined for himself.

It has everything one would need to know about Mark’s arc:

Private (disrupting characteristic/flaw) Mark Jackson obsesses (secondary characteristic) over an unproven myth (objective) that promises the escape of his small life (goal), but when his untimely death is foretold and every day drives him closer to his fate (conflict), he finally reaches out to his friends (need), discovering he can be content in a slightly different life than he had imagined for himself (change).

It’s at most three sentences, the shorter you can condense it the better. I use loglines for every character that has an arc, as it helps me tell if the arc I planned will work or if it needs a bit more time on the drawing board, and I can peek at it to make sure I’m still on track during writing.

(Oh and also, if you're ever in a position where you need to quick pitch your story to someone important, a logline is a perfect pitch! It's always good to have something like this prepared just in case.)

Good luck!

#writing #writers #writing tips #writing advice #writing inspiration #creative writing #writing community #books #film #filmmaking #screenwriting #novel writing #logline #elevator pitch #pitching #wip #creating and using a logline

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