Sometimes I feel like the only way to succeed as an author online is to reduce your book to its basest parts & make jokes of it. Flashy bullet points! Pithy punchlines! Queer rep! I am glad that approach works for folks, but it's...not who I am, and talking seriously about my book gets me nowhere. - ThreadSky

queerenigma.com • 120 days ago

Sometimes I feel like the only way to succeed as an author online is to reduce your book to its basest parts & make jokes of it.

Flashy bullet points! Pithy punchlines! Queer rep!

I am glad that approach works for folks, but it's...not who I am, and talking seriously about my book gets me nowhere.

Comments

mrsflowers.bsky.social•120 days ago

Follow you drum beat, you might change something for a lot of people

Its a jump but so is everything

Theres power within your own work, your own style

So why not crash down on this planet making something amazing!

pairofclaws.bsky.social•120 days ago

Like, I don't think any of us like it. It's reductive & cloying. But when I made an emojis & tropes post it got 10x more interactions & sales than any "evocative quote/theme/character study" post. I agree it's annoying, but also it seems to be what readers want & I have rent to pay, so...

queerenigma.com•120 days ago

No, I think that's totally fair! We have to do what we have to do, I think I'm just frustrated that we have to do it (and am just personally very bad at it)

queerenigma.com•120 days ago

I'm not trying to sound like a pick me or anything, I guess I'm just wondering if other people feel the same way?

And I'm wondering if I'm just writing a different kind of book than these people I see going viral?

queerenigma.com•120 days ago

To market Fractured Magic as "FREE GAY ROMANCE with STEAMY exes to lovers by TRANS AUTHOR" feels disingenuous?

It's also a complex political fantasy & gothic horror about loneliness and accountability, and to simplify it to just the romance pains me, but it seems like that's all that gets popular.

saranadosfiction.com•120 days ago

Oh fucking hells I feel this so damn hard.

Yes, trans author, serial has m/m romance with trans character but is only a small part of the story and it feels disingenuous to focus a whole lot on it (not least because it feels like straying into romance authors' space when I'm not writing a romance)

queerenigma.com•120 days ago

This is SUCH a good way to phrase it, yes!! I worry that if I do try to market it that way, people will just be upset when its not what they were expecting :/

saranadosfiction.com•120 days ago

Exactly! Like yes, there will eventually be kissing, but that's really not the main plot - and also, I have 3 other POV characters whose personal plots have entirely nothing to do with said romance (beyond getting slightly confused/eyerolly about what's going on there on occasion)

queerenigma.com•120 days ago

I think what bothers me so much is that the themes and politics and worldbuilding and lore are my FAVORITE parts. Obviously, I love my characters and their dynamics too, but when those dynamics are the only thing that'll please an algorithm it's really discouraging.

queerenigma.com•120 days ago

To be clear, I really do mean it when I say I'm glad it works for people. I'm ALWAYS happy to see other authors succeed and love the occasional trope post myself.

I think I just wish there was room online for other kinds of marketing, too. Maybe the blame is w/ socmed? Or publishing at large?

ljamberfantasy.com•120 days ago

Just quote tweeted a thread in response.

You know what sucks even worse? Having to quote tweet, rather than just reply in thread, because *how* we engage on social media affects visibility, and our social media presence as authors is *part of our marketing.*

Nothing interesting can go in replies.

queerenigma.com•120 days ago

Yeah!! I absolutely agree with everything you said, thank you for your addition!

ljamberfantasy.com•120 days ago

'Quote posted'? 'Quote skee-' no, no...

jaxwolffwrites.bsky.social•120 days ago

100%, you're not alone. A lot of modern book marketing feels messed up. Not just reduce your book, but also follow templates. Like, your book won't sell if it can't be described in a sentence that also makes it sound like Maas but gay and sexier.

queerenigma.com•120 days ago

Oof yeah, "like Maas but gay and sexier" is way too real 💀

jaxwolffwrites.bsky.social•120 days ago

It's very unsettling and discouraging, for sure. For a number of reasons.

queengwenevere.bsky.social•119 days ago

I find it frustrating as a reader when most marketing now is reduced to a bunch of Ao3 tags: “it’s queer WLW friends-to-lovers hurt-comfort, in space!!”

Like, OK, but what is it ABOUT? What’s the story? What’s the plot? IS there a plot? Is this mostly a romance? More of a drama? A mystery? What??

circuslollipop.bsky.social•120 days ago

I feel this as well; a lot of the time I'm like, what popular tropes can even describe this thing, aside from just queer rep and found family? And I also don't want to spoil any of my plot twists. Oftentimes I just find myself listing gothic genre conventions and misc lore details

goodmorningcrono.bsky.social•120 days ago

felt that. don't give up, the audience you seek is out there and you will permeate the membrane with enough persistence

impavid.us•120 days ago

Felt. Felt hard 😭 im really sorry you've been dealing with this feeling too, it's so hard to pour your heart into something and either be forced to debase it or else watch it languish

bmwillows.bsky.social•120 days ago

I won't lie, I have fun with the trope graphics and memes and stuff! But I agree wholeheartedly that it's being leaned on entirely too much as the be-all end-all of book marketing, and I hate that folks (me included, sometimes) feel pressured to participate in it in order to get their books seen 😔

earlronove.bsky.social•120 days ago

I really feel that! I was basically able to do it for one book because it was more lighthearted and leaned toward being punchy, but the others?? Brain just can't do it.

queerenigma.com•120 days ago

Yeah, that's interesting!! I really do think it varies by book! My other series, I have no trouble marketing (and the numbers reflect that, despite this main one being my baby 😭)

earlronove.bsky.social•120 days ago

And in this era of everything needing to be bite-sized and punchy to even get attention, it's a little demoralizing! :(

worldofmannon.bsky.social•120 days ago

I don't write novels myself but I get where you're coming from. One of my major goals is to make my setting into a published D&D guidebook for people to have, and to throw in concepts or try to appeal to audiences in the general sense gives a very disingenuous feeling to me with my approach.

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