Lizzie Blackwood

Quick artwork of Jude and Kye. Jude is pulling her shirt off, showing off her biceps. Her long auburn hair with an undercut is loose from its usual braid, she’s pale with freckles, a long scrape over her nose and a pock marking of old scars over her skin here and there. She’s wearing a bandeau bra and pants. She’s looking over her shoulder to grin at Kye, who is blushing and staring at her. Kye has a robe loose around her shoulders that she’s holding up. Her skin is tan and covered with light scars that spread upward over her chest, shoulders and neck. She has dark brown short hair and dark brown eyes. In her hand hangs a token of Anja.

Listen, not one of the bath scenes in book two look anything like this, but working through the emotionally heavy drafting requires a drawing just for fun soooo

but if your friend gets theirs and goes "oh no, they still made it with onions" and looks sad, you have no problem marching up to the counter/server on their behalf to go "they can't have onions, please fix this pronto." (2/2)

It's basically when a chill introvert suddenly gets confident extravert powers when their friend is in need.

For example, you and a friend are getting lunch. If they gave you entirely the wrong order, you might just eat it anyway because it's not worth the hassle to you to fix it, (1/2)

Omg I love that though 🤣

#pretendpanel

So I'm a weirdo who loves marketing 😅 Most authors and editors hate it. I don't.

I've actually applied for marketing jobs in publishing but uh... Well the job market sucks so 🤷 no luck.

Marketing is a mixture of storytelling, creativity, and psychology. That's why I like it.

#PretendPanel Mar 6: I loathe it, and that has a lot to do with the current avenues of marketing. Talking about my book, making graphics, hyping it all up, that's all fine, but trying to beat the ever-changing algorithms on different platforms is just fucking maddening. 🧵

Yep, that old double standard, I know it well. 😅 When everyone else does the thing, it's fine. Me, though ... 💀

Marketing is easily my least favorite part of being an author.

I don’t exactly dislike making marketing graphics & dumb memes, but I feel annoying when I make posts asking people to buy my books, which is funny bc I don’t find other authors’ marketing posts annoying. Only mine. 💀
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#PretendPanel Marketing is so hard! I run out of creative ways to talk about my projects. Still trying to be loud. I think I'm okay at it, but I hate doing it lol.

Marketing is EXHAUSTING. I can make graphics and illustrations and eye-catching stuff, but the constant posting and planning and blah blah blah makes me feel like the most annoying person on the planet.

Can I just beam my book into everyone’s collective consciousness? No? Fine…

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And online, even people who do a fresh boost of all their promo once a week, after I'm familiar with those books I know those posts just kind of blend into the background for me. I don't find them annoying, and surely there are others who feel the same and would feel the same toward me.

I have to imagine in both our cases, it's our own brains being mean. Anytime I've encountered someone who TRULY monopolizes a social space demanding constant attention for themselves, they don't seem to doubt themselves for even a second. 🤣

I feel you on the worries about sounding obnoxious. Online and irl, every time I spend a while being talkative and social it's inevitably followed by a period where I'm withdrawn feeling like everyone must surely despise my presence by now. 😅

It's not awful but I don't always enjoy it. Partially bc of how much work and time it takes to pull off something top tier and consistently engaging & partially bc I feel so awkward about sharing my writing. Like I didn't publish it because I wanted people to read it or anything 🙄😂

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That balance is really important. Gotta have that ebb and flow so you can keep telling new stories. 💜

I like talking about my work, but it can also get old really quick when you only have a handful of releases. I just get bored talking about the same stuff all the time. So rn focusing more on writing and building that backlist #pretendpanel

I'm so excited to do a book fair one day! 💜

Depends. In person, at a book fair? Sign. Me. Up. I love talking to readers about my stories. Online? Ugh. Though, Bluesky is a great place, tbh, and maybe I need to think about marketing here just like irl. It's just talking to readers/writers in a different format.
#WriteSky #PretendPanel

I share that feeling. 😅 I think for me, it helps to distance myself from what I'm promoting, focus on the book, the characters, the things I love about both in the hopes that that love resonates with others. Utilize the Mom Friend Override on behalf of my brain children. 🤣

H-A-T-E it! 😬

I've never been good about marketing myself. Every time, I feel like it's a shout for attention (which I also don't like).

I never know what to say without coming across as needy. 😮‍💨

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I hate marketing. I hate coming up with elevator pitches & hooks. I hate chasing algorithms & SEO. I hate studying analytics & deciding which evil overlord to give my ad $.

I hate feeling I'm just releasing doves in the blind hope they bring back evidence of dry land. #pretendpanel

Not my favorite bit of writing! I get that feeling I'm pestering/overdoing it a times (got to beef up the confidence!) Marketing for other's is much easier with that little distance between creator vs work!

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Keeping yourself informed even if you ultimately decide not to employ all the "best practices" is an excellent way to go about it. It's kinda like how an artist who's learned all the traditional representational techniques can then go on to do more interesting things with abstraction.

neither? marketing leaves me mostly confused and self-conscious.

I DID buy a self pub guide i'm going to study. even if i inevitably decide NOT to market hard and to write/pub strictly as a hobby, it will be an informed decision from a place of confidence. #pretendpanel

Yes! That's one of my favorite aspects of online communities is that even a low effort show of support spread among a large group can have tremendous effect. Don't like talking about your own books all the time? Hype up other people's books too and you all benefit!

I used to worry about 'taking up space' to mention my books online & off, but I got past it. Always enjoyed graphic design & writing teasers

Its encouraging when people like or repost book posts & collectively marketing Itch bundles has been great; sharing the load, support & sales!
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But the fun part about that is that those artists can also make YOU pictures and then you both have beautiful stuff to put on your timelines. 💜

Trying to market prose online looks like an uphill battle. At least artists have pictures to show you! People like pictures! I have some words which, um, it feels like it will be hard to make stand out amongst everyone else's words. Kinda dreading trying! #pretendpanel

It's hard, even something as basic as defining the right genre to market in can be a whole can of worms. But even if it takes a bunch of trial and error, I'm sure you'll figure out what works best for you in time! 💜

Mostly I feel lost. I've never been particularly good about selling myself, but as this is going to become a necessity now that WIP 1 is mostly ready to go out into the world, I'm stuck trying to figure out how the heck I do that.

#pretendpanel #WritingCommunity #Writers #Authors #WritingPrompts