Assorted Pieces Of Literature @lily-writes-things - Tumblr Blog

Me: I wanna do a one-shot with a story and character concept I have planned.

Brain: That's what you say about most of your short story ideas, but then they turn into novellas.

Me: This one will be different.

Brain: It's about fantasy lesbian princesses at a finishing school, this is exactly the sort of thing you'd make a series about.

Me: *already plotting the story out* I already have a story like this, it'll be fine.

Brain: *beating me over the head with a rolled up newspaper* WHEN THE HELL HAS THAT STOPPED YOU BEFORE?

#writing #oneshot #sthort story #writeblr

frognonbinary-deactivated202412

i’ve been doing my homework on how to break into a writing career and honestly. there’s a Lot that i didn’t know about thats critical to a writing career in this day and age, and on the one hand, its understandable because we’re experiencing a massive cultural shift, but on the other hand, writers who do not have formal training in school or don’t have the connections to learn more via social osmosis end up extremely out of loop and working at a disadvantage.

frognonbinary-deactivated202412

like, i didnt know about twitter pitch parties!! i didnt know about literary agents and publishers tweeting their manuscript wishlist, in hopes that some poor soul out there has written the book they really want to read and publish!! this isnt some shit you learn about in school! you really need to know the ins and outs of the writing community to be successful!

frognonbinary-deactivated202412

for anyone interested, here’s what i’ve learned so far in my quest for more writing knowledge:

1. Writer’s Market 2019 is a great place to start– it gives you a list of magazines and journals that you can send your work to depending on the genre as well as lists a shit ton of literary agents that specify what genres they represent, how you can get in contact with them and how they accept query letters. this is a book that updates every year and tbh i only bought it this year so i dont know how critical it is to have an updated version

2. do your research. mostly on literary agents because if you listed on your site that you like to represent fluffy YA novels and some asshole sends you a 80k manuscript about like…gritty viking culture, you will be severely pissed off. always go in finding someone who you know will actually like your work because they’re the ones who will try to advocate for you in getting published.

3. learn how to write a query letter. there are slightly varying formulas to how you can write an effective query letter. you’re also going to want to get feedback on your query letter because its the first thing the literary agent will read and based on how well you do it, it could be the difference between them rejecting you outright and giving your manuscript a quick read

4. unfortunately, you’re gonna want to get a twitter. Twitter is where a lot of literary agents are nowadays, and they host things like twitter pitch parties, where you pitch your manuscript in a few sentences and hashtag it with #Pitmad #Pitdark, some version of pit. a lot of literary agents and publishers will ALSO post their manuscript wishlists, which is just the kind of books they’d like to represent/publish, and they hashtag this with #MSWL (it is NOT for writers to use, only for agents/publishers)

5. connect with other writers, literary agents, publishers at book events. you will absolutely need the connections if you want to get ahead as a writer. thats just kind of the state of the world.

promptsforthesoul

#writing help #advice

snreads

A Writing Cheat Sheet: for linking actions with emotions.

As always, click for HD.

#advice

typewriterwitch

Airtable for Novel Writing

Has anyone else discovered Airtable as a way to organize your wips? I love my Scrivener, but sometimes I just need a good ol’ Excel spreadsheet to keep organized.

Airtable is a beautiful hybrid of Google Sheets and Trello—and it’s totally free.

Airtable offers unlimited workspaces and the ability to view information in different ways. Want it just to a spreadsheet? Great, there’s Grid View and the ability to filter and sort a dozen different ways. Want some color? Use Gallery View—upload images to your heart’s content. Need to see a calendar? Insert some dates and boom, baby.

Airtable even has a bunch of templates for novel writing, screenwriting, etc. Go nuts.

I’m using it to organize my wips by universe:

If you’re like me and you get overwhelmed by your story ideas if you don’t stay on top of them—Airtable might be for you.

writing-prompt-s

All of the characters you have romanced in RPG’s have come to life and are all in love with you. Harem Hi-jinks ensue.

#aw hell yeah

inky-duchess

Fantasy Wardrobe: Fabrics

We often call clothes silk when they are satin, velvet where they are velveteen or we have no clue what we’re on about. So today let’s look at fabrics.

Laying down the law

Many renaissance/mediaeval societies governed over who could wear what. By adding these laws you had a layer of depth to your world.

Women and men could only be dressed n clothes benefiting their position

Female servants or their daughters could not wear veils costing more than twelve pence

Knightly families could not wear cloth of gold or sable fur or velvets

The wife or daughter of a labourer were not to wear clothes beyond a certain price or a girdle garnished with silver

Cloth of gold and purple silk only worn by the royal family. This goes for ermine.

The importation of silk and lace foreigners was prohibited when the kingdom produced those textiles.

Peasant Clothing (Beggars to Merchant classes)

Wool: This was the staple of much of the clothes owned by peasants. It was in supply and it wasn’t as costly as most fabrics when undyed. It was also warm.

Linen: Forget about softness. Peasant linen was made of coarser weaves and flax. It was heavier than noble linen.

Cotton: A lightweight fabric used in hotter climates. It was softer than the linen and airier.

Fustian: heavy cloth woven from cotton, for menswear.

Leather: Leather was used for boots and shoes rather than killer jackets.

Nobility & Royalty

Cloth of Gold: Cloth made from woven threads of gold (very expensive)

Cloth of silver: cloth made from woven silver strands (very expensive)

Samite: a rich silk fabric woven with gold and silver threads

Tulle: A netting sort of material

Brocade: rich silk fabric with raised patterns sewn on it.

Cambresine: fine, lightweight linen

Cambric: thin white cotton or linen

Cypress: gauze made of cotton or silk

Damask: like brocade but the patterns are flat

Delaine : light wool/mixed wool and cotton

Lawn: sheer plain-woven cotton or linen

Sarsenet: fine and soft silk

Sateen: glossy cotton or wool

Satin: closely woven silk, shiny

Taffeta: Thickly woven silk

Velvet : piled fabric of silk, cotton or synthetic material

Velvetine: cotton with silk pile

Saxony: fine, delicate woollen fabric

Alençon Lace: intricate floral lace with three-dimensional corded detail sewn onto a fine tulle backing

Chantilly Lace: lightest of lace

Charmeuse: smooth, flowing, silk, cotton,

Chiffon: sheer and lightweight fabric

Crepe de Chine: thicker, lightly textured silk

Dupioni: crisp lusturous silk

Organza: sheer and lightweight fabric of very fine weave silk

Georgette: sheer fabric of silk

Guipure Lace: heavier lace

Designs

Embroidery: Patterns sewn on the fabric by thread

Appliqué: decorative fabric, often lace or floral motifs, sewn onto the main material

Embellishment: details such as beads, crystals, sequins, pearls

Trim: a line of material or fur that finishes off a hem or cuff.

Piping: a cord lining the fabric creating a ribbed look.

Colours

Here are the colours that you will catch your people wearing. Keep in mind that dyes had to be sourced and could be very expensive.

Peasant: brown, red or gray.

Nobility: Gold, silver, crimson or scarlet, deep indigo blue, violet colors and even deep black and pure white colors

Royalty: Purple

Furs

Mink: Soft and lightweight, silkly and glossy furs

Fox: Long, lustrous, colourful and easy to dye.

Ermine: White fur streaked with black (ONLY FOR ROYALTY)

Sable: long, luxurious, dense but light.

Wolf: thick, tough, warm but has a bad smell

Vair: fur from a red squirrel really only used for trimming.

#advice

hallownest-archive-deactivated2

imo the best way to interpret those “real people don’t do x” writing advice posts is “most people don’t do x, so if a character does x, it should be a distinguishing trait.” human behavior is infinitely varied; for any x, there are real people who do x. we can’t make absolute statements. we can, however, make probabilistic ones.

for example, most people don’t address each other by name in the middle of a casual conversation. if all your characters do that, your dialogue will sound stilted and unnatural. but if just one character does that, then it tells us something about that character.

jauntylittlefrillyboy

#advice

ofdreamsanddoodles

anyways, here’s my hot comic take: if you don’t want to use a character, you don’t have to kill them off. You can just make them go do mental health stuff. Like you could say that literally any character in a superhero comic is busy because they went on a year long cruise to avoid having a mental breakdown from the stress the hero life brings and everyone would be like, “yeah, sounds legit.” and then the writer after you doesnt need to bring in some bogus reason why a cool character they want to write was actually alive this whole time. everyone wins!

rootbeergoddess

Or like they could be doing charity work or something! You don’t have to kill them off!

greater-than-the-sword

Open their next movie with a montage of them avoiding newspapers and turning off TVs and drinking tea before they finally get back into the game

celtic-pyro-deactivated20230725

This is called “put on a bus” and I think we should bring it back in fiction instead of shocking deaths.

#references #advice

bogleech

A new study shows that cuddling your baby (early and often!) has huge benefits when it comes to brain development, especially for preemies.

It’s so fucking sad that “western” parents are taught that it’s possible to “spoil” a baby and you have to be tougher on them when it goes completely against how they’re supposed to develop. They literally evolved to be carried and tended to 24/7 while their brains develop like lightning and their bodies catch up.

We aren’t even supposed to make them sleep separately from the adults but that’s been so normalized in our culture that Baby Monitors were invented to compensate. How fucked up is that? People put babies in their own separate room and then use gadgetry to constantly listen in on them anyway. Why the hell isn’t it just in your room then.

solitarelee

Ok there’s a very valid point in there about the importance and necessity of holding your baby as much as humanly possible but that’s super not why people use baby monitors. Babies sleep REAL damn light sometimes and it can be hell on earth to get them to sleep in the first place… And they need to sleep, desperately! It’s important for their lil brains to have time to catch up to all the craziness that is existing! A separate room for the baby is extremely helpful to let them sleep peacefully, and baby monitors create a one-way video/audio feedback so parents can know instantly once their baby is awake and needs to be held and fed and all those good baby things, without risking the parents waking the baby up early by trying to wash dishes while holding a whole ass tiny person.

gaphic

Re: put them in your room? A specific room for your baby to sleep in is COMPLETELY unnecessary, and many babies aren’t as light sleepers as you’re thinking. All of my nieces grew up taking naps in their papoose (which also had the benefit of them being in constant contact). As long as there aren’t any loud, sudden sounds, most babies can nap perfectly well in a room with light ambient noise like people talking or dish washing. And unless you’re using your bed 24/7, there’s no reason you can’t put your baby there to sleep, which lets them keep smelling you

The big one is sleeping at night, though- watching your baby through a monitor is great during the daytime, but at night it takes time to wake you up. There’s critical latency where your baby is alone, in the dark, and doesn’t know where you are when they need you. Sleeping with your baby in your own bed makes it way easier for them to wake you up, and you’re physically there immediately so they never have to be alone

Not to say that people are bad parents for keeping their baby in a crib or anything, but a baby bedroom is just kind of an unnecessary waste of space

politicalkayj

Ok I totally agree with you on all things but one thing scares the hell out of me and that’s letting your baby sleep in your bed with you. What’s gonna stop you from rolling over on top of them tho? If you’re asleep and on top of them and suffocating them they’re not gonna be able to cry and scream to let you know and I dont think babies have enough strength that their flailing would do any good.

How would one let their child sleep with them safely? That’s always been something that gave me anxiety to even think abt. If I had a baby and let them sleep in my bed with me instead of a crib, I would definitely kill them. Is there some device parents use that stops them?

gaphic

Humans evolved for millions of years sleeping with our babies right next to us.

Unless you are on a sleep medication or extremely overweight, the likelihood of you suffocating your child is very, very low. Babies are a pretty noticeable, firm lump to lie on. There are other factors of course, such as the size and firmness of your mattress, the blankets you use, or having unusually long hair, and smoking during pregnancy/infant care is a massive risk factor. Equally relevant, however, is the fact that bed-sharing objectively has benefits, especially for breastfeeding mothers; infants who bedshare get fed more times per night on average, and parents who bedshare get better sleep.

If you still have anxiety about it (understandable), your baby can sleep on a separate surface immediately next to your bed, which is pretty much the best of both worlds, but the horror stories that your baby will DEFINITELY DIE OF SIDS if you so much as have your arm over them are fearmongering nonsense.

For me personally, if I had a child, they would sleep either immediately next to my bed or in my bed in a snuggle nest. Because I like very soft mattresses and I’m an unusually deep sleeper, the conditions wouldn’t be ideal for safe bedsharing until the child was at least 6 months old. On the other hand, me being a deep sleeper is exactly why I wouldn’t even CONSIDER putting my baby in a separate room, or even a crib too far away- they could be crying for hours and I’d never know

scumbagsblog

Liam wins

glasscows-deactivated20221223

Liam said trans rights

depsidase

#YEET

doctorfiction

Is it actually useful to dig bullets out of your own arm in a public restroom in an emergency situation, or is that something that just happens in movies?

About self-surgery in the bathroom of the local Exxon Station… Psychologically we all feel that getting the bullet out will help the problem but generally speaking it is best to let sleeping dogs lie and to bastardize Hamlet, “Get thee to a surgery.” The greatest concerns immediately post gunshot are circulation and airway. You are probably not going to have a breathing problem other than hyperventilation from fear, if you are shot in the arm. Your big concerns are bleeding and nerve damage. Have your character dorsiflex (hyper extend) his wrist, make an “O” with his thumb and index finger, spread his fingers apart, and then smile when he realizes everything is still hooked up. He flexes his arm a few times to see if blood is spurting or just oozing. If its just oozing, cover with a wad of moist paper towels, tear of a shirt sleeve and wrap tight enough to apply pressure to the wad of paper towel, but not tight enough to constrict. Have the character check the pulse at his wrist and note the color and temperature of his arm. If the arm is cold, pale white, numb or the nerve check is bad, your character has problems and needs to find his/her buddy who is an EMT.

The only indication for digging out the bullet would be if the bleeding is uncontrollable, otherwise, the bullet may actually be tamponading the tissue and slowing the bleeding at this point. Infection is later concern. The wound will ultimately need attention and the character will need antibiotics, but he has a few hours to worry about that.

If the bullet does need to come out, no probing with a pocket knife. Consider having him pour rubbing alcohol over a pair of “needle nose” pliers (from the nearest convenience store,) and then gently probe the wound path until he feels the metallic click of the plier’s tip on the bullet. He can then try to open the pliers, grasp the bullet and retrieve it. Apply firm pressure for 5 minutes and observe. If no bleeding he can do the towel and shirtsleeve thing. If significant bleeding, have him apply as much direct pressure as necessary to stanch the bleeding.

If your character is in the habit of being shot, he may carry a “Bloodstopper” product. They are small, useful, and I have them nearby all the time. The powder can be sprinkled on and will help with clotting. There is a product that you can insert directly into the wound track, “ouch,” that has the same chemical. They can buy your character some time.

maggie-stiefvater-deactivated20

Writers, here’s a fun resource: a real life doctor helping writers with medical details in their novels-in-progress.

#references #advice #medical

jenny-dreadful

a couple days ago i saw someone raise the question of why Pacific Rim only seems to be resonating with millennials, and i didn’t know the answer, but i’ve been thinking about it a lot and suddenly i understand

it’s because it’s a movie about young people who are smart and capable but nonetheless handed a broken and nightmarish dying world, which is hurting everybody but especially them because they’re the ones who have to live their whole lives in it

and maybe it’s somebody’s fault but maybe it’s nobody’s fault, it doesn’t matter, but

there is a solution—which is literally to allow those young people to connect with and lean on each other and to give them the resources to take care of it themselves—but those in power refuse to take that solution seriously, so all the money and resources and power that should be going to fixing the problem are going into useless holes that aren’t going to save anybody

and everyone knows there’s no chance that things will get better. they know that everything is going to be terrible for the rest of time

and these young people take that world and the pathetic bottom of the barrel that’s been left for them and they spit and rebel in the faces of all of that, screaming that they won’t let it take them down after all

it’s a story about young people, together, exercising hope and power when they are afforded none and the stakes are so high

and it’s your story, too, if you make it be

peardita

H O L Y S H I T. Why does this not have a million notes?? I can’t comment on the part about Pacific Rim only resonating with Millennials, but as for the rest … I have seen a lot of AMAZING meta on Pacific Rim already, but—and I’m about to get stupidly fucking sappy over a goddamn movie about giant fucking robots fighting giant fucking sea monsters, because this is probably the realest fucking metaon this movie that I have seen—

We are Mako Mori.

We are Raleigh, Aleksis, Sasha, Cheung, Hu, Jin, Chuck, Newt, Hermann, and Tendo.

We are the PPDC and we have to figure out how to solve this shit and we have no money and no resources, but we have each other.

And that’s why stories matter and that’s why proper representation matters, because we’re all in this together, and that’s amazing.

sonneillonv-deactivated20220218

We want to address the root of the problem, but the people in charge just want to build a wall.

heywriters

I recently ran into this problem while writing and when I did some google searches for a solution I wasn't able to find a lot. My story is written in first person and I don't know how to introduce my character's name without sounding cheesy or cliche. The "My name is [character] is so cringey but I'm not sure how to introduce my character to the reader in a way that sounds natural. Any advice?

Have someone they talk to call them by their name.

Have a stranger ask them their name for a good reason (e.g. a barista or nurse).

Have them feel annoyed at seeing their name misspelled or hearing it mispronounced.

Have them fill out forms and whoever receives the form comments on the name (e.g. ”Oh, that’s a pretty name” or “Nice, that’s my cousin’s name” etc.).

Have them respond to hearing their name or one similar to it when it isn’t them someone is trying to communicate with (e.g. Kara hears someone call out “Karen” on the street, and turns her head).

Have them mention that another person in their social group has their name (e.g. ”The other Rachel in our book club said…”).

If they primarily go by a nickname, have someone who calls them by their full name make an appearance (e.g. a sudden phone call from their mother, who insists on calling them by their birth name).

Have someone make a joke/pun with their name (e.g. a rival calling them “Dick” when their name is Richard).

Have something associated with them carry their name (e.g. a family business called “Bob Howard & Sons” or a vanity plate on their vehicle).

They like searching through personalized keychain racks and magnet displays to see if their unusual name is in there this time.

Have it mentioned in roll call (this one’s a bit common in a school setting, but roll calls can happen in certain other settings too).

Have them read a letter, email, or something else addressed to them.

There must be a dozen other ways. Use these to brainstorm and find one that fits your story better.

+ Please review my Ask Policy before sending in your ask. Thank you!

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+ HEY, Writers! other social media: Wattpad - AO3 - Pinterest - Goodreads

#advice

amberstarlights

Why do people listen to the advice of those wannabe ‘writers’. I mean they are not even published?

skeleskeeller

Excuse you? People can still give out valuable writing advice even if they are not published. Besides, not being published does not mean someone is a bad writer.

amberstarlights

Explain?

skeleskeeller

I assume by being “published” you mean through a publisher and not through self-publishing. Most publishers are for-profit. Meaning they want to make money. However, they don’t like taking chances and spend money on publishing a book that might not sell well. No matter how good of a writer you are, the chances of hearing “Sorry, there is no market for your book”, are extremely high unless you have something to show for it:

Followers on social media, success of your self-published book, email subscribers, website traffic, etc. Anything that shows the publisher that your book will sell increases your chances of being published dramatically. Many times, writers are approached by the publisher!

I have had this conversation with many of my writer friends, and some of them think this is unfair. What you often see is famous people writing a mediocre book and using their fame to have it become a best-seller. Except I don’t think it’s unfair. It’s business. As a writer, you are your own business. Many writers seem to forget this fact!

Let’s take Lang Leav as an example. You might have heard of her as she was dominating the poetry section on Tumblr in ‘13 and ‘14. She amassed many followers on Tumblr by sharing her poetry. She then self-published her book ‘Love & Misadventure” and promoted it on Tumblr.

“How did you get published?

I self-published my first book, Love & Misadventure. As soon as it was listed for sale, my book began to top best-seller charts and caught the attention of two literary agents in New York. I signed up with Writers House and was promptly offered a publishing deal by Andrews McMeel.” (source)

My honest opinion about her work is that it’s poetry for the masses and that she is not necessarily an astounding or great poet. However, her first book has 38,943 ratings on Goodreads (source)

Key to success? Posting her work online, good branding, nice poetry, building a loyal following.

Let’s take fifty shades for example. (YES)

E.L. James used to write twilight fanfiction. Many people loved her Twilight fanfiction so a publisher called The Writer’s Coffee House contacted her, they changed all the names in her work, and the rest is history.

I hope this explains it a little. Publishers mitigate the risk of their investment not being profitable by publishing books that have a high chance of being successful. There are many great, unpublished writers out there sharing valuable advice. Those people not being published has more to do with them not knowing how to increase their chances of being published, rather than being a bad writer.

skeleskeeller

Currently on a bus from Nice to Paris. It’s a 13 hour drive so I am going to dump a lot of information for people who want to sell a book right now or ten years from now. The sooner you start using this strategy, the more successful you will be.

First of all, if you have a lot of reach (audience), meaning that you have a few thousands of followers on social media, and a publisher contacts you, you always want to ask them if you can self-publish first! Always! If they refuse, you really want to think twice about signing their contract. Why? Because publishers are using your followers to sell your own book to. Self-publishing gives you around ~70% profits. Publishers often offer you a contract giving you 20%. Shady af. I don’t like that shit and I so often see small authors being used like that. Yes, publishers do help with editing etc., but depending on your reach, it’s up to you to decide if hiring an editor yourself isn’t a much better option. So, always SELL to your own fans first self-published if you can. THEN, if the publisher thinks your book has potential beyond your followers, work with them and sign the contract. Don’t let them profit off your fanbase and then leave you hanging.

If you are going to write a book, you need to talk about it! A lot. At least 6 months in advance. Preferably two years. You need to build up some anticipation among your followers. You need people to be aware of it and WANT it. It’s like a book. You don’t just tell your readers the plot in 5 sentences and that’s the book. You need to build up the story. And then BOOM, Karen just turned page 170 and she doesn’t know what’s coming for her, but she’s gonna be shook and love it. Same with promoting your book. Nobody is gonna give a shit if you say: “oh hi, you didn’t know but I wrote a book. You can buy it here”. You gotta talk about it long before you publish it.

Chances are, you don’t have a following at all. In this day and age, social media is all the hype. There is this misconception that you need millions of followers to make a living online. Not true. Let me introduce you to 1,000 True Fans, an article written by Kevin Kelly in 2008. Read it. It’s eye-opening and practical!

“A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author – in other words, anyone producing works of art – needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.”

How to get 1000 fans as a writer (also works for artists)

Your main focus should be on creating content and growing your reach (audience). Focus on building an email list and a simple website. Why an email list? For the same reasons everyone else always asks for your email: so they can reach you.

Many content creators struggle with two things: algorithms and platforms dying. Instagram’s algorithm makes it so that if someone doesn’t hit ‘like’ on your content for a while, your content gets pushed all the way to the bottom of their feed. Why? Because IG wants you to stay on their app as long as possible and thus shows people the content they interact with the most first. The second reason is, at some point people are not going to use their Myspace, Tumblr, Wattpad, or Instagram account anymore. Someone might have a million followers on Myspace, but right now, if they update their profile, maybe a thousand people will see it if they are lucky. So, how do you keep reaching the people who followed you in the first place? EMAIL.

Email is fantastic for two reasons:

There are no algorithms. People see your email based on the time you sent it.

People do not change their email as much as they do social media.

So, if you ever shoutout your book or art store, you are guaranteed that everyone on your email list sees it.

I recommend MailChimp for sending batch emails. It’s free for up to 1,200 email subscribers, and that’s plenty for small businesses.

But how do you get people to sign up for your email list? Well, there are a million ways to that, but first, we need our website and we need to actually reach people!

Let’s first focus on reaching people

Create a social media account on each platform that makes sense to you. Opt for the same username everywhere to strengthen your brand. Then post your content to each and every single one of these platforms, but add in a call to action. Write a personal caption on Instagram, or write things in the tags on Tumblr. The best advice I can give to writers on Tumblr is to reblog writing prompts and write a story and include a ‘READ MORE’.

Many people don’t like to make the commitment to read something long without knowing what it’s about. A writing prompt is the perfect intro and increases the number of people reading your story.

By including a ‘read more’ people have to visit your Tumblr blog. Have a nice bio, and end your story with something personal and a call to action, this skyrockets the number of followers you will get.

Now the problem is: getting people to reblog your story. You could try DMing bigger blogs, but chances of them reblogging your story are slim. DM your followers instead and ask them to reblog your story if they want. If you don’t have followers, go through a tag of your choosing. Filter on ‘recent’ and DM those. You need to hustle a bit. It doesn’t matter if you wrote the story today or two years ago. If you think it’s good content, then you can self-promote it until it gains traction.

For Instagram: Never use popular tags. Avoid them like the plague. I would even go as far as to not use tags at all. But if you use them, only choose niche tags. Why? Bots. There are so many of them. You NEVER want bots following you on Instagram. Every time you post something new, your post gets ‘tested’ in batches of followers. 20% (this is not proven, but I feel pretty confident about this number) out of the first few people who see your post need to like it, or else Instagram stops pushing your content out to more people. Bots never like your posts. If your post fares well and stays above the 20% it gets pushed out to more people, and it will eventually land on the explore page. I don’t have much experience using tags, but if you use them, make sure bots do not target them.

Post your content everywhere. Writing on Wattpad. Art on DeviantArt etc., and always link to your website! All your socials must link to your website, this is key to build your email list.

Also, quick tip for IG, if you want to grow really fast, make sure your content is well received. Most of your post should have a like/follower rate of 20%. In the beginning, the increase in followers is barely noticeable. But once you have 1k followers, it snowballs! Furthermore, some Instagram pages, often businesses, have a terrible like/follower ratio. Less than 1% of their followers like their content. Why do they even bother with Instagram? Only a small portion of their followers see their content since so few people like it, and so it doesn’t get pushed to the feeds of the rest of their followers. Why do they bother? Email. Many businesses, big or small, use their Instagram account as a funnel to get email subscribers. Email is always more important to a business than followers for email lasts much longer and isn’t subject to algorithms, except the spam filter. However, if you are on Instagram as an artist or writer, strive for both: high engagement and collecting emails.

Now that you are having your email list, website, and your social media accounts are growing, it is time to promote your newsletter (email list) beyond the links to your website on social media. We are striving for 1k email subscribers. It’s not a lot. My advice is to message all your followers. Copy paste the same message asking them if they want to subscribe. Make it personal. I want to know who the artist or writer is. I always enjoy someone’s content more if I know the person behind it. I want to know who you are.

But, at this point, you might be wondering: why would people subscribe to my email list? What to send emails about in the first place? Think long and hard, put yourself in your follower’s shoes. If you asked me:

If you are a writer, I would love to have some bonus material send to my inbox.

Updates about your WIP.

An occasional blog post about your life.

Early bird discount on your book when it comes out.

If you are an artist:

I would love to know about the art process and what inspires you.

Read your blog and learn more about you.

Know when you are open for commissions again.

Get updates about your art store.

Obviously, not everyone is going to sign up for your email list. But try your best to make something special. The goal is to:

Build an email list. You will always reach those people. No algorithms or platforms dying (unless email dies, but not in the foreseeable future)

You can build a relationship with your email subscribers. This is important. By reading about your life, I will become more invested in your writing or art.

You are not selling the cheapest shoes or pens in the world. You sell art and books. Build a relationship with your audience!

I am against using extra incentives that have nothing to do with what you do to have people subscribe to your list. If you do giveaways, then make sure it’s something you sell yourself. Don’t give away a bunch of books you didn’t write or a laptop. You will get people signing up because they want the laptop, not because they are interested in you. Instead, as an artist, do a commission giveaway (people who want your art will sign up) or give a discount for your Esty shop etc., Writers: out of the people who sign up, one person can give you a prompt for a short story, for example. Or give away your book if you have already written one!

(By the way, I see some artists doing amazingly well with commissions on Tumblr already! My advice would be, if you want to keep doing this for a long time, go start your website and email asap. So that ‘if’ Tumblr dies, (at this point I am wondering if it’s even possible for this site to die) you can still reach your audience and keep doing commissions.)

Prioritize your website and email list over your Patreon

Patreon is great. As a creator I love it. However, when does someone become a Patreon? For me: first, the rewards need to be good. But second, I need to care about you as a person. You can’t promote everything at the same time. It’s best to focus on one thing for a period of time. I suggest you first build up relationships with your email subscribers, so they get to know you better and give an f, then plug your Patreon.

Email subscribers are more likely to become Patrons compared to the rest of your audience because they already showed you they want to hear more from you by signing up to your newsletter/email list.

You get to collect VALUABLE email addresses first. Those are easier to obtain then having someone become a Patron. People need to pay to become a Patron, your newsletter is free.

This might look a bit counterproductive to some of you. After all, you want to go from A (content) to B ($$$) as fast as possible. But I highly recommend you implement this extra step if Patreon is one of your sources of income. You will end up with more Patrons.

Starting a website and collecting emails

You need a domain name. Preferably a .com. Name it after yourself or your brand/store. There are many ways to go about starting your website.

Here are three:

Bluehost: Bluehost uses WordPress. Take the cheapest package. You don’t need more than that yet. Might be difficult to set up for computer illiterate folks. Though GEN Y and Z should have no problems with it.

FastComet: Also uses WordPress. They claim to be the fastest. Might be hard to set up but it’s very cheap.

Wix: You probably have heard of this one. I suggest you choose the Combo package. It’s free to use, but you do want to upgrade in order to get rid of the blabla.wixsite.com at the end of your domain name. Also, do not buy straight away. They send you a ‘50% discount’ by email after you created a website within 2-14 days. Easiest to use in my opinion.

There are plenty of others out there, but these I have used and are reputable. Feel free to add your hosts to this post.

For email marketing automatization I recommend MailChimp. There are many options, but MailChimp is by far one of the most used and has therefore many one-click-install website integrations, making it is easy to set up. By the way, sending 2-4 emails a month to your list is more than enough.

Hope this helps some of you out. It’s simple but not easy. Also, give it time. You don’t get 1000 email subscribers overnight. The sooner you start the better. And, yeh, you have to put in some time and energy. In my opinion, it’s worth it. Spend 90% of your time creating, the other 10% doing the less fun stuff. If you want to increase your chances of success, being published etc, this is a good way to start. My advice would be: Don’t rely on being discovered or going viral. Rather, increase your chances of being discovered or going viral by strengthening your foundation for success.

Reading material

https://optinmonster.com/email-marketing-vs-social-media-performance-2016-2019-statistics/

https://www.lyfemarketing.com/blog/why-email-marketing/

https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/

https://www.theme-junkie.com/add-read-more-link-tumblr-post/

#references #advice