#for me it's not only the number of posts on the media page that's important but also *what* they're posting. the quality of posts | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

neolithicsheep · 4 months ago

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I've been meaning to write this down for some time because there are some fundamental errors that people keep making in crowdfunding/sales that shoot their campaigns in the foot. So here's a list of easy principles.

Who am I and why should you listen to me? I am a freelance chaos marketer who has raised well over $100,000 when totaling up various crowdfunding campaigns, mostly for aid to Afghanistan. In addition I've managed to successfully market everything from stuffed plush koalas to hydration salts. Why am I putting this out here for free? Because despite a years long track record of success in social media marketing no one will hire me because I don't have a college degree, so I might as well help people out who can't afford to hire full time marketing.

If you'd like to hire me to help you evaluate your marketing and sales and teach you better skills on a 1 to 1 basis then hit me up, I am often willing to barter, esp with artists in a variety of mediums!

Anyway on to HOW TO CONVINCE PEOPLE TO GIVE YOU MONEY:

TL;DR: use positive messaging that humanizes everyone involved and make it as easy as possible for people to give you money.

1. Shame and guilt are demotivators. They will not inspire people to give you money. “Why aren't people helping” “I guess people don't care” “This isn't getting enough shares/donations” etc etc. Online fundraising is often frustrating, heartbreaking, and will make you angry, especially when there's a humanitarian crisis involved. It is critical that if you are raising funds for someone else that you have a place to vent that is not the audience you would like to donate to the cause.

2. Use motivating messages instead! “You can help!” “Even a small donation is important because it tells Recipient they're not alone, and people care” “We can't fix the whole world, but we can make this one thing right, and that means something”. Emphasize that this is a problem that the reader can help fix with even a small effort. With items for sale, tell a story. "I drew this thinking about how safe I always felt under a tree in my childhood backyard". "I chose the colors in this shawl to remind me of sagebrush and piñon pine in my favorite place."

3. Make it easy for people to give you money. Never talk about your product or cause without a link that leads directly to where people can give you money. They should be able to click one link on your post and land at the fundraiser or your shop. Every required click is going to lose people, so minimize the number of them required. This also means if you have a list of fundraisers for people to choose from the ones at the bottom will be neglected - people will hit the ones at the top. Be sure to take those off when they're met or periodically shuffle the list around to make sure everyone gets a chance to be in the first 5 spots. In online stores people will often only look at the first page or two of items so be sure to shuffle things around and remove out of stock items that are taking up prime real estate.

4. Humanize the recipient - this can be tricksy when raising charitable aid because you don't want to be exploitative. But to use my last Afghan campaign as an example, “We need to raise $500 for an Afghan family” is less effective than “This Afghan family's home was damaged in heavy rains that caused extensive flooding. They only need $500 to repair and rebuild so they can stay in their home and not become displaced.” If possible, tell as much of the recipient's story as they consent to. Eg “Fred is seven and loves dinosaurs. His favorite is brontosaurus, and he carries a stuffed one with him everywhere. He wants to be a paleontologist when he grows up and discover a complete brontosaurus skeleton that he can give the same name as his stuffed friend. Unfortunately he's also a trans boy living in Texas and his family needs $1500 to rent a Uhaul and get to Colorado so he can grow up in safety and do that.”

5. If you're not the recipient, humanize yourself while you're at it! “I'd be really grateful if you all could share or donate” “This fundraiser really means a lot to me because…” “Thank you so much for any help, whether sharing or donating”

6. Treat the audience like humans. Speak to them like they are people you're having a conversation with, not ATMs. This ultimately is the goal of not using shame/guilt and humanizing yourself and the recipient.

7. Set low goals and bump them up when met. One of the weird things about people is they prefer to give to successful fundraisers. Yeah I don't know either. So you're more likely to get the full amount you need if you set a partial goal initially and then raise it when that's met. Raise it in small increments and raise it repeatedly as those goals are hit to keep momentum going. You can't always control this so if you're boosting someone else's fundraiser you can do it artificially via asks like “Hey y'all can we get together and put $500 on this?”

#marketing #fundraising #sales

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artichao · 10 months ago

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GLOBAL STRIKE FOR GAZA MARCH 2ND

Hey, if you didn't know there is a GLOBAL STRIKE AND MARCH tomorrow, March 2nd.

I'm not a big voice on here but I'm hoping I can at least let more people know, as I wasn't aware of this until now. I'm hoping to spread awareness before the strike, so we can get as many participants as possible.

Whilst marching your streets is the ideal, if you cannot (like me) PLEASE try to contribute in other ways. Here are some ways you can still help, based on our previous strikes:

Please only keep social media posting about Palestine. They are all that matters. Do not interact with anything else. Everything else can wait. Flood the pages with support.

Do not buy non-essentials. Luxury items aren't important.

Remember your daily clicks on arab.org.

If you're going out, try to make yourself visible. Wear the Palestinian flag. Wear something watermelon related. Wear something resembling the colours. Again, try to refrain from purchasing anything non-essential.

Try to donate to organisations such as http://gazaesims.com/. Please feel free to reply/reblog with more sites/organisations that directly aid survivors/the cause.

SPREAD THE MESSAGE. Use your platforms. Do not be afraid to lose followers; that does NOT matter. Your numbers DO NOT matter. These PEOPLE matter. Even if your reach isn't large, EVERY effort matters.

If you favour your interests more than human lives, please check yourself and your humanity. Talking about them does not matter more than real human lives.

If you have anything else to add please feel free to reblog with more links, ways to help, information etc.

Remember to keep yourself safe whilst marching.

Palestine will be free. From the river to the sea.

#palestine #strike for palestine #strike for gaza #ceasefire now #ceasefire #free gaza #gaza #free palestine #strike #march #march 2nd #shut it down for palestine

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roscoehamiltons · 3 months ago

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#most importantly the conspiracy/sabotage#the change in tone in socials have been pointed for a minute#and that has been slowly taking from the trust fans had#it doesn't help when podiums are ignored twice#when a pretty madly staged apology video is issued#when if we want to see Lewis coming up to a race we have to look elsewhere because only one driver is posted#when we need to beg to see them celebrating stats from their own history as a team#when we get news their drivers almost had a heat stroke and they put out a photo of a smiling Lewis

yes, all of this. i don't put 100% of the blame on the admin for what's being posted on their social media accounts (and i think fans underestimate the amount of planning and coordination involved that goes into what gets posted on social media), and it's also difficult to deal with people spamming insults and hate all the time. but when people see that there is more time and effort being put into posts about george, the admin fighting with lewis fans in the comments and following george fan accounts, what are they supposed to think? like you said, how the socials are perceived reflect directly on how fans see the team. our only way of seeing what goes on at the team and their dynamic with the drivers is through social media. so when we see one driver being shafted over and over and over again via social media, how can you blame fans for thinking that it's going on beyond social media? they have not been shown anything that would disprove it

something about this post that merc made bothered me initially and i have figured it out after some thought. when i first saw it on my feed, i legitimately thought it was damage control and i'm not sure if it was their intention (i'm inclined to think that it is after lewis posted on his stories this morning), but whatever their intentions, to me it reads as insincere and trite. it sounds nice in theory like oh we will make the best of what little time we have together, but at the end of the day it's an empty statement. like when i see the sentence 'our journey together started 12 years we couldn't have imagined where it would take us' i would think that were would be some kind of follow up about some of those accomplishments that happened in the past 12 years. instead all we got was 'we are going to give it everything in the next 6 races 💪' like ok?? lol. i would think that they would and should be giving it everything they have whether or not someone has been on their team for 1 year or 12 years.

i am not asking for merc to post an essay about lewis' accomplishments (yet 😉) but i am asking for some effort to be put in what they are posting about lewis. there has been a lack of effort put into what the team has been posting about lewis specifically in the past 3 years, and i would not be surprised if the next post that they post about his teammate has more thought and effort put into it than the post i'm talking about. it is this discrepancy that we are seeing that is bleeding into the perceptions of the team, and how they have handled things that have happened on track and off. i will say that merc have improved in the past couple months, but it should not have taken 3 years to finally take some initiative. they shouldn't need people to remind and harass them into posting about lewis' accomplishments and milestones. i should not be writing a rant about how i want more than a couple sentences written about lewis' last 6 races at mercedes. they should and need to do better. i would hope that no one would call me unfair or crazy by saying this or criticizing them. but at the end of the day, it is their job and they have failed at their job, and we are seeing the consequences of it now with how badly the relationship between the fans and the team has gotten.

#for me it's not only the number of posts on the media page that's important but also *what* they're posting. the quality of posts #like idk i don't think it's asking too much for them to put effort into what they're posting. or at least the same effort for both drivers #also i don't care if the admin likes george more than lewis or not lol they can like who they want. but it's a problem if their personal #feelings are affecting what's being posted and how the account is interacting with ppl. like if it was a fan account who cares but #the mercedes twitter and instagram belong to the brand not the individual. so when we see the account favouring george and beefing w lewis #fans then ofc the fans are going to think that the brand is favouring george? idk i feel like people think it's cuckoo bananas that the #team likes george more or would favour him over lewis but that's literally what ppl are seeing? so 🤷🏻‍♀️#it doesn't help that the team is also struggling with the car and the strategy as well. i think good results are the other thing #that might help w fan perception aside from socials but that is also incompetent atm smh

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aicosu · 1 year ago

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Guys, I hate to do this.

Any of you who know me in any circle know that I'm a very professional, very private lady who hates any sort of disc horse breeds that might give me a headache. But this one is important, and my goal here is the integrity and reputation of artists.

For my credentials: I have been a part of five zines in the past. Two I moderated, and one I ran, created, laid out, printed, and shipped in its entirety.

So anyway:

HELLCHEER ZINE BULLSHIT

I joined Hellcheer and the Kindred Freaks Zine very late. Well, after sign ups, check-ins, etc. I saw it was happening in april-ish and shot a DM to the twitter to join. I did both a full art page and a cosplay page.

At the time, the server was quiet but kind. We got updates on the number of orders and books being made.

@Lawless is the runner of the Zine. They created and organized it. They are in charge of the main emails, the selling website, the orders, the shipping, and the funds. (To be clear, this level of sole responsibility is not ABNORMAL in a zine. And is not always an issue.)

@Valerie is the 'social media' mod. They are in charge of managing announcements and answering questions on Twitter and Tumblr. Please keep in mind: No one wants anything but a fast and easy recovery for both Lawless and their mother. Medical emergencies, heck—LIFE happens. It's always okay to put a hiatus on anything, even product with money, in order to take care of yourself and family. Every single contributor only wants them to be clear in what they need and how we can help.

So lets break down what's happening.

Back in May, Lawless went radio silent on the status of books and merch coming in. Another contributor and I, @Toguchin, start dming Lawless to make sure everything is on track. They come back after a week and apologize for being MIA, explaining that their mom got sick. We thank them for all their hard work and wish them and their mom well.

On July 15th, after contributors and customers inquire on delays to meeting the announced shipping deadline, Lawless makes a twitter post saying shipping has started and contributor copies will be happening. They proceeded to go MIA from the server discord and have been since.

The following week, contributors and customers discover that shipping HAS NOT started. Labels have been created and printed, but nothing appears to be in transit at all.

Toguchin and I started getting reached out to by customers worrying their packages are lost. We report this to the zine server to NO RESPONSE. Except @Ashlee, the discord mod who also has heard nothing.

July 20th to 22nd with customers complaining and theorizing a scam in mind; Toguchin and I propose that PDFs be given out to assure and apologize for delays.

We as a server discover a few things: 1. We cannot access the list of buyers at all in order to email apology zines because Lawless did not share the account information with anyone. 2. We cannot access the main email for the same reason. 3. Valerie, the social media mod, deleted discord and distanced themselves from the Hellcheer fandom and has not been checking the Twitter or tumblr, or discord notifications since May.

Ashlee and Ichikun contact Valerie to sign on.

I made a new email and said fuck it, we need to do something to assuage fears, let them send receipts to honor their zines. Valerie didn't know what to post or say or how to answer everyone, so I gave them a copy paste.

Still no words from Lawless but hoping for the best knowing the have a medical emergency, Ashlee and I begin answering the new email for PDFs, but cant help people change addresses or give them any update!!!

Throughout the weeks mods and contributors ping Lawless constantly asking if they need any help! Any help at all, answering emails, changing order addresses, heck a few of us ask if we can pick up the books and packages and ship stuff for them so they can hands off the project and take care of their mom. No response.

We send message after message saying if Lawless can share picture proof, that would be great cause scam theories and chargebacks are starting. BUT ALSO, we let Lawless know we and customers will ABSOLUTELY UNDERSTAND delays if they just communicate it. That if they post in server and on Twitter that shipping needs to wait a month or two, no one will mind. No responses.

July 31, Lawless makes a Twitter update with comments disabled that they are shipping ALL packages that monday with a picture of packages. They also call Valerie privately and tell the issue that USPS refuses to pick up shipments from Lawless has, and they can't leave their mothers side from the post office. They also claim they can only deliver ten packages at a time at the post when they go. *USPS has no such rules. Me and other mutuals who run shops have never had such a problem.

A week later, we realize that customers and our packages are still not in transit. Labels printed only. Most of us assume all packages are just label printed and sitting at Lawless' house.

We beg for updates from Valerie or Lawless. Valerie doubles down on Lawless old reasonings and also officially goes MIA until present day.

Throughout August, USA packages get delivered. A few more updates are made straight to Twitter and Tumblr with comments off. Radio silence in server.

As packages arrive, we all become aware from people's posts and pictures that random Stranger Things Art Stickers are included. No credit to any artist is given? No contributor is responsible for this art. These are suspected to be BOUGHT from Amazon. STOLEN arts amazon sellers resell in packs. NO contributor is okay with this!!! Valerie responds with no response at all.

As of now:

No response to missing digital copies. Ashlee and I cannot give out any without receipts because we have no access to buyers list. Nor can we answer missing packages inquiries cause we have no info. International packages unaccounted for. SCRUNCHIES FREE OR OTHERWISE UNACCOUNTED FOR. Zero word on contributor copies. Zero word on donation status. Zero word on generated profit or book and shipping cost. No way to verify funds at all. No word from Lawless to contributors since July 15. From Valerie since the 31st.

Some notes:

Turning off twitter comments was NEVER what any one of us wanted. A ZINE LAYOUT was never shared. So until people had them in hand or in PDF none of us realized that the credits DO NOT POINT TO ANY SOCIAL MEDIA. All of our usernames are handle-less? This was extremely disappointing. This one matters to me: Our FanEdit artist was not aware their work was not getting a full page. Again no pre-layout was shared. So their work is tiny and in the margins of the front and back. That's not okay. All of us wanted to help in any way we could. NONE of us doubt Lawless intentions or emergencies. But lying, misleading, non-communicating and turning off comments are all things we did not consent to. All of us only wanted a cordial, honest response. None of us actually cared about delays as much as we did communications. There has been many noticeable times Lawless has been online, posting privately or otherwise, even active on Discord and has not reached out.

Why make a post:

Customers should know contributors fought for them. That we did everything we could and our reputation as artists in the fandom shouldn't be tarnished cause two creators decided to disappear. Contributors should get their copies. Many of us BOUGHT bundles. I've been in five zines and every single one gave out free contributor copies WITH merch!!

I'm also attaching all server screenshots for integrity. I'm in half a mind to release the zine PDF publicly, for free, for everyone at this point. I personally think it's only fair since many are still missing just that. But I do not want to insult anyone who paid for just the PDF regardless of the potential contribution to charity. But it's really up to customers, not me.

#hellcheer #hellcheer zine #kindred freaks #fucking sucky ass post to make

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sunniedesi · 2 months ago

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Searching for a Future Diary Crossover

Calling out to the Future Diary community 🗣🗣I’m asking for help once again.

In today’s installment of things that keep me up at night, we have yet another piece of Future Diary media that has yet to be translated. For context, the author of Future Diary, Sakae Esuno, has written four original mangas in the following order: Hanako and the Terror of Allegory, Future Diary, Big Order and Detective Akechi is Berserk. The latter of these is the only one that hasn’t had an official English translation, and the only fan translations available are for chapter 1 alone. With that out of the way, let's get into the subject of this post.

The Future Diary x Detective Akechi crossover is a side story that was written after the release of volume 1 and 2 of Detective Akechi. It features the main characters of not just the two aforementioned stories, but all of the four mangas created by Sakae Esuno, making this his second and biggest crossover work. I found out about it through this post a couple of years ago and kept it on the backburner, until I decided to add it to the list of future translations I wanted to tackle. I thought it wouldn’t be too big of an issue since it seems like a short story that will be easy to find… oh my naivety.

According to the post above, the story seems to be situated in chapter 10 of Detective Akechi is Berserk. However, when I go into that chapter of the manga… it is nowhere to be found. In fact, it is nowhere in the manga. So, we have two options here: either the story is in an updated version of the manga (one different from mine), or it was published somewhere else. The first crossover Sakae Esuno wrote, which involved Future Diary and his first manga (Hanako and the Terror of Allegory), was originally released as a standalone piece, so maybe that’s the case for this story as well. That theory seems to be backed up by this tweet I found from Shonen Ace’s account.

The photo in the post is the first page of the crossover, and the bubble on the top-left corner claims that this is a special project to celebrate the release of volumes 1 and 2. If we take a look at the bottom-left corner, we see that this is page 103… of what? This is clearly a digital scan, so it’s not a regular Shonen Ace magazine issue (since those aren’t released digitally). It’s also important to note that in each volume of Detective Akechi, the page numbered 103 does not have this story, and in fact, that page is always situated in the middle of a chapter. This means that we’re dealing with a digital release that isn’t in the original manga.

Another confusing thing is that chapter 10 is the first chapter of volume 3, which would not coincide with it being on page 103. It would also be a discrepancy for the dates, since that tweet was from January 31st, 2018, and volume 3 was released in September 2018, meaning that the crossover was released before volume 3 itself.

More evidence for this would be the fact that I found a blog from someone who owns a physical release of this crossover, as seen in the following pictures.

The blog entry was from February 2018, so the crossover had to be released, both digitally and physically, before volume 3. Another thing to note is that, while the blog doesn’t contain much information, it does say at the end that they “unexpectedly came across the crossover while thumbing through the pages.” Pages of what exactly? We don’t know. What we do know from this is that the crossover was released between January and February 2018, before Detective Akechi finished publication, and it was probably featured in an unrelated issue of something (like a magazine) according to the blog entry.

So my question is then… where was this released? Shonen Ace? Another magazine? An updated version of the manga? I can’t seem to find the answer anywhere, as there’s practically no information about it online. And I’m still confused as to why the original poster mentioned chapter 10. I feel like I’m probably missing some information here, and that’s why I wanted to ask the community: does anyone know where this crossover was originally published?

PD: While the blog had plenty of images, it’s missing a few pages and the picture quality leaves a lot to be desired. So even with those images, I can’t create a proper TL. Anyway, I’ll keep this project on the backburner until I find more information about this. And also… I’m not planning to translate all of Detective Akechi, just the crossover because of Future Diary. I’ll be honest, Detective Akechi is by far my least favorite series of Esuno’s. It is practically an ecchi with the sheer amount of fan service that it has. And while normally this wouldn’t upset me… there’s a lot of scenes where the female characters are being straight up assaulted. It’s so heavy-handed at times that it really takes away from the story. I’m not a puritan by any means, after all, Future Diary has some questionable scenes too, but not to the point where it’s basically softcore porn. When it comes to my work (whether it be art or translation), I like keeping it SFW. So, even if it’s Esuno’s, it’s not something I’m inclined to work on.

#future diary #mirai nikki #the future diary #yuno gasai #sakae esuno #manga #tantei akechi #detective akechi #detective akechi is berserk

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cyle · 1 year ago

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Hi, I love hearing about the scale and magnitude of Tumblr. Are there any numbers you could share with us nerds? Daily users, daily new posts, daily reblogs, whatever you're allowed to share. Because, yeah, even if there's always something new to discover, it does tend to feel like I'm in a bubble or some sort of echo chamber, and you have said that users like us (however you name the chatty, bloggy, unhinged type of user, you know what I'm talking about) are the lowest percent, so, like, what even IS going on at Tumblr day round? Are there a bajillion taylor swift and K-pop blogs just uploading GIFs without having conversations? A thousand Turkish users uploading pics of their day to no followers like it's Instagram?

It feels like we're the top of an iceberg made of an eldrich sized collection of isolated communities, light years away from one another, with completely unrelated cultures and uses.

Can you share numbers? Can you share what the average user/blog/post is like? Anything else you would like to share?

i don't feel comfortable sharing most numbers, but we do share posts created per day on our About page, along with a couple of other numbers, like the total number of blogs on tumblr and how many blogs are created per day. tumblr is still a bit distinct from other social media (and blogging) platforms in terms of average user behavior.

we have millions of daily active users, and most of them aren't posting anything at all. but the percentage of people posting is higher than the typical assumed 1% rule of creation-versus-consumption, which is nice. the reblog-to-original-post ratio is like... 8 to 1 last time i checked. and likes-to-reblogs is like 10 to 1 or higher, at certain parts of the day.

most people on tumblr are "lurkers" who use the like button a lot, and sporadically reblog. also, most people only see ~25 posts or so per day, even if they have hundreds to see in their Following feed, which is why "Best Stuff First" is actually an important and used setting for many people. and the For You feed is similarly used and enjoyed way, way more than the typical old school tumblr power user would believe.

and yes, most content being posted are images, and a lot of it is stuff like taylor swift and kpop. if you go to the Explore Trending page logged out (like in an incognito window), you do get a sense for what's circulating around the platform. same with the Popular Reblogs dashboard tab.

regardless, even for me, who can look at this data in aggregate all day, it's impossible to get a birds-eye view of what's truly happening across the platform, let alone make sense of it. it's like trying to look at a city full of people and make broad strokes generalizations about it; sure, you can, but there's so much missed nuance that the numbers can't tell a story about.

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chaos0pikachu · 10 months ago

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I am here actually to appreciate your post. I saw a blogger’s post saying The sign would have been ‘successful’ had it got filled with fantasy and romance and limit action to 10%. I wondered why that person, who says BL is all about romance, watched a show whose genre is action. Then I saw your post about people watching many shows to stay in fandom and I agree. Also you are right about dramas with a complex story receiving heavy criticism. Everything (even lack of proper plot or conflict) is exempted in a romance drama. No wonder most BLs are confined to ‘2 boys and their jealous & crying moments, routine conflicts enhanced by Escola or leads explaining how important Nikon printer is for their relationship’

Well damn hit me in the feels with this appreciation I'ma get all shy and shit.

I always wonder if by "successful" people mean in terms of critical acclaim, story telling, or monetarily. When it comes to Thai shows - and some please correct me if I'm wrong - it's difficult to tell how "successful" they are terms of audience reach/monetarily because there's no easily verifiable information. Like, there's Youtube numbers sure, but The Sign as an example, aired on Channel 3 what were it's ratings total on that channel? Idk, does anyone know that? Sincerely asking lol

Personally the way I like to judge a piece of media is what I call the Roger Ebert method; he often judged films based not solely on whether they were "good" or "bad but by how successfully they accomplished their goals.

If you read his review of Space Jam while it's clear Ebert doesn't think the movie is high art, "You can watch the movie on the sports and cartoon levels, and also appreciate the corporate strategy that's involved. [...] It is difficult for an actor to work in movies that combine live action with animation, because much of the time he cannot see the other characters in a scene with him. But Jordan has a natural ease and humor, an unforced charisma, that makes a good fit with the cartoon universe."

Ebert praises that the film, while filled with obvious product placement and banking on both nostalgia for the toons & star power of Jordan, accomplishes it's goal of being a family for that can be enjoyed by adults and children, and also the ability to blend techniques of live action, animation and 3D rendering.

I bring this up specifically b/c when I see "reviews" of shows in BL - the most common form of meta I see in BL fandom as a whole and that's not a knock just an observation - it's usually always about the narrative. Nothing about the filmmaking. And if there is discussion about he filmmaking it's usually misinformed or worse misinforming - no that's not what aperture means, yaoi framing isn't really a thing in film, the t-shirt is really just a t-shirt, etc, etc.

And like I get why. Fandom is more about story, what the words on a page or what the characters on screen are doing and saying. It's easier to talk about the amazing communication two characters have b/c you don't really need a film knowledge to discuss that. Which is a factor in why I think shows with lower stakes, more streamlined and straightforward plots get praised at a higher, less diligent and harsh level, than shows that are a bit more daring. They're less challenging in structure, they take less risks, so there's less to critique, and there's less room for a show to disappoint.

There comfort food, rather than trying something new at the restaurant. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, again, this is just a general observation.

To me, The Sign is miles better than Cooking Crush on a simple technical level. I only watched one episode of Cooking Crush and I found it pretty mediocre at best from all technical points: acting, editing, cinematography, directing, storytelling.

This isn't to say Cooking Crush is "bad" or that even if Cooking Crush was "bad" people shouldn't like it. I don't give a fuck if people like it, good for you chase the things that spark joy! I like lots of "bad" media, have y'all ever watched Jason Takes Manhattan?

For me, The Sign, like Space Jam, accomplishes it's goals and those were ambitious goals. An action fantasy BL that actually lives up to that premise and looks good?? The fight choreography looks great considering the obviously budget??

Like one of my issues with Laws of Attraction - aside from how painfully disinterested those kisses looked - was the fight choreography was bad.

The characters very rarely land hits in a way that looks real, or even marginally real. I can only speculate they didn't hire a stunt coordinator and/or couldn't hire stunt doubles so there was a worry of injury on set (for both reasons).

This isn't a disparagement on the actor(s) either, like stunt work is difficult and it's important to have professionals on set who can walk an actor through the steps so both them and others don't get hurt. Jackie Chan is probably one of the best known actors alive for stunt work, but watch how many times he fumbles and potentially hurts himself to the point where other actors are actively worried for him:

youtube

So yeah I'm going to give The Sign it's fucking gold star stickers b/c aside from some missteps in the gun handling - to many one handed gun fights but even then it wasn't all the time and bullets ran out of ammo! Y'all don't know how exciting for me that was to see - the fight scenes look damn good.

I understand the work that went into them, I understand the pre-production time that it took for the crew and cast to learn that and filming them well is another beast too.

There's a couple scenes with shaky cam that I dislike, but god do I love that first long take in The Sign. I love how good the CGI looks overall again, considering what is probably less budget than Black Christmas (2019).

I'm admittedly, fucking picky about what I watch b/c I'm really lazy and prefer watching films in general. I don't really like TV all that much, but if I am watching a tv show I wanna be impressed with more than just the characters talking to each other. Especially if said show is 12 hours or more.

When I'm looking at a piece of media - a comic, a novel, a film, a tv show - I'm thinking about stuff like "what were it's goals, and did it accomplish them? How was the filmmaking? How was the narrative structure? What is the time/place/culture this was made in?"

I'm not sure if people are arguing if The Sign was "successful" in terms of narratively, monetarily, or critically.

In reality we can only really speculate on how successful a Thai BL is based on data that's not not entirely accurate - social media, youtube stats, awards, etc - and even then most of that is based off international audience.

I can glean that 2gether was successful for gmmtv b/c it got a second season and a film, pretty much skyrocketed Bright and Win's individual careers but again, and created a cross country alliance for activism. But even all that is still speculation not facts (except the alliance that's a real thing that happened lol).

[This is all regardless of my own feelings regarding the show which is not kind. But feelings have nothing to do with individual discussion about how monetarily successful or accomplished a show is or isn't.]

Like it might be valid speculation on both shows but it should always come with a disclaimer of - these are not facts. Also, what is "popular" or "successful" can and will be dependent on individual countries too.

Take Cutie Pie for example, I would argue that it wasn't super "successful" here with American fans, but given how overwhelmingly popular Zee and NuNew are in both Thailand and Korea, I would then argue that the show was a success in Thailand and Korea. So was Cutie Pie "successful" or not? I would say yes!

Because "success" isn't and shouldn't be measured only by how western fans receive a piece of media.

In regards to The Sign, I'd argue it appears to be very successful with only the partial data I have at hand - social media which includes places like twitter, facebook, tumblr, the success of their sold out showing for the finale, a special episode, etc. If people argue it was unsuccessful in terms of narrative, well that's debatable and I have no interest in debating why the show is good except in terms of technical filmmaking and storytelling.

And even then it's a pointless debate like or dislike whatever just don't lie or mislead people regarding film terminology and techniques or harass people because they did like A Thing or clog up the tags with annoying posts about how you didn't like said Thing.

Overall, I don't give "reviews" on things I watch either positive or negative cause, well, I'm lazy lol, I don't believe putting how much I hate a show in it's tags and a thorough rating system would be to much work. I actually like how My Drama List rating system works, I just find most reviews on it to be Annoying lmao. Like giving Kinnporsche a 5 or below is absolutely bonkers to me but whatever es lo que es. But I also don't think my thoughts and opinions on shows are that valuable in terms of discussion.

These are mostly my general thoughts on fandom at large and it's not directly at any particular people its just observations at large across various social media platforms.

I think if you like more squeecore shows that's totally gucci, I just wish didn't proposite that 1) those are the only valid shows in terms of BL/queer media and 2) didn't overhype them to such sky high levels

#the sign the series #chaos pikachu speaks

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cindylouwho-2 · 5 months ago

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RECENT SEO & MARKETING NEWS FOR ECOMMERCE, JULY 2024

If you are new to my Tumblr, I usually do these summaries of SEO and marketing news once a month, picking out the pieces that are most likely to be useful to small and micro-businesses.

You can get notified of these updates plus my website blog posts via email: http://bit.ly/CindyLouWho2Blog or get all of the most timely updates plus exclusive content by supporting my Patreon: patreon.com/CindyLouWho2

Tags

Tags are essential but it is possible to both under and over utilize them and both can affect your reach. People tend to avoid fics with 100 tags that take up their entire screen, or fics that have like 2 tags where they don't know what's going to happen in there.

Popular tags get more traffic but people tend to be more picky: when you're looking in a tag with 15 fics, you may as well read them all even if it doesn't sound like exactly your thing. In a tag with 1500, you're a lot less likely to give every new fic a chance. If you only tag with fandom, character, and pairings, people may skip over since they don't know what they're getting into. That's why more specific tags are important.

If you have too many tags, such that they take up an entire phone screen or more, that may be a turnoff to some people. If you don't know where to start, choose your tags like this:

Fandom

Main characters (I go by "do they have more than one speaking role)

Main pairings (if a ship is mentioned in the background like once, I tend to not tag it)

Tone/genre (angst, fluff, smut, crack, etc)

Situation (café au, canon compliant, fix it fic, prison, pwp, etc)

Maybe a funny custom tag (eg "don't ask me how they got in prison ok just go with it")

Now when people are searching through bigger tags they can find yours more easily: in the qsmp tag, an angsty prison fic, with fitpac as the main pairing. That narrows it down a lot more than just using general tags.

Although ao3 does include people's real names in their character tags, it doesn't have to be this way. When entering a character or relationship tag, write it out the way you prefer and hit enter. It will still (eventually (ty tag wranglers)) be included in that main character tag, but it will not be displayed with their full name. I usually do something like FitMC (QSMP). Note that capitalization depends on the very first person to use that exact tag. If typing FitMC changes to fitmc every time you post, that's why. This same principle works for relationship tags as well.

User page:

The second way ppl might find your fics is via your user page.

A quick authors note at the end of your fic like "don't forget to check out my other works!" (and maybe even a link to one) can help you share your Fics with more people.

"But lev!" I hear you cry. "This is my first fic! Why would anyone visit my user page at all?"

Well, although ao3 is not specifically a social media, there is one place where users interact: comment sections.

"Uh, lev, I'm not going to go self promote in other people's fics?" I hear you say. Well first of all, thank GOD, and second of all, you don't have to.

When you're reading, esp in the fandom you write for, leave comments! Compliment people, give second kudos, point out lines you love and moments that move you. Fandom is a community and by participating positively in that community, the more likely people will engage positively with you in return. I've found some great authors just by looking in the comments on my own fics.

Linked on other websites:

The third main way ppl might find your fic is via links on other websites. As much as it is disrespectful to self promote in other people's spaces, don't let those feelings follow you to your own space. Your own account or blog is the PERFECT place to self promote. Post a link to your fic! Post MANY links to your fic! (over time, perhaps) Tag for qsmp fic, fic recs, pairing, and characters. You can also use a personal tag (mine is #levlies fic)

People might just scroll by a link, so make sure to add something to let people know that oh, this might be something they'd like to read. A short excerpt, a tag list, or a summary can all be good options although if it's getting to be long, consider paring down or adding a readmore.

If you're part of fandom discords that have a channel for fanfic or for self promo, don't hesitate to send a link there as well.

If you keep promoting your fics, people who like your fics will be more likely to stick around to see when new updates are posted. You can even make some friends!

*****

Part 2 will be about summaries and authors notes. Part 3 will be about comments. I'll edit this later to link them (or follow me 😶)

#Qsmp fic #Ao3 #Ao3 advice

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strvtill36kg · 2 months ago

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intro post

This page may be very triggering to those in recovery from an eating disorder. If you don't want to hear about ED behaviors, thoughts, numbers, etc.. please just leave now. This is the only warning I'll have up for my page, and I'm not responsible for you if you choose to view or follow me after reading this.

I'm a 20 year old living with anorexia. I have some symptoms of bulimia too at times, but I haven't purged (by vomiting) in years. I do exercise purging. I've been struggling with this for many years of my life now. My lowest weight was only 103 lbs.. I relapsed again last year but due to both medication and jumping back and forth between engaging in these behaviors or trying to be better, I'm still at a healthy weight.

Right now I'm just focused on losing the weight again.. I never feel okay in my life and my body unless I'm underweight and I've mostly accepted this. I don't want to live any other way. This illness feels like home for me. I just like having social media where I can be free to be what I am without having to hide it 24/7. That's what this is. I never promote these things, but I believe everyone deserves space to talk freely about their struggles and life experience.

If you're struggling with anorexia or another eating disorder, I encourage you to seek help if possible. You are sick enough and you deserve to be alive. While others and I may portray this stuff as fun or glamorous on the internet, that's because it's the only way we can cope internally with living this life. In reality, this is not a fun life. This illness will ruin your life, your health (in some ways permanently), your relationships, and so much more. If you can get out, do so before it's too late. A lot of us can never make it out of this addiction. If you're one of these people, I strongly encourage you to do some searching about harm reduction. It's so important. Stay safe.

#tw ana bløg #4nor3xia #4n0r3x!4 #4norexla #a4a diary #Youtube

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enbyhyena · 1 year ago

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Welcome to my Blog!

Hey there! Welcome to my page! This is a master post of my BYF information, other social medias, and what tags I tend to use a lot.

(I'm the creator of Entityverse! @entityverse-utmv Check it out! :D)

BYF: I'm plural (pro-endogenic, dx'd DID), autistic, queer, and disabled. I may occasionally reblog problematic content, and content surrounding the identities above. If any of this makes you uncomfortable or triggers you, please block me. I won't be offended. I'm an adult, but I won't post NSFW--the most I'll do is reblog something mildly suggestive. I'll do my best to use the #suggestive tag, so feel free to blacklist that if you need to.

DNI: You can find my thoughts on the concept of a DNI here. It's a bit preachy though, so here's a more TL;DR version written by someone else. And here's a collection of other posts saying similar things; such as this, this, and this. Also this and this.

The only exception to the above is my opinion on Shipcourse. Don't argue with me about it. I will not answer and will most likely block you for the sake of my own mental health.

Other Socials:

Twitch / Twitter (Main Account) (mostly abandoned) / Twitter (NSFW, Minors DNI) (mostly abandoned) / Discord Server / TikTok (infrequent) / YouTube (uploads Sundays)

Frequent Tags:

#nexysmusings: Rambles, intrusive thoughts, articulate responses to posts, etc. Generally just interacting with the site. :)

#nexysdraws: My personal art tag! Feel free to filter with this to see all of the artwork I've shared on this site.

#resources: If you need help with something, such as phone numbers to call and the like, check this tag! I compile information that seems handy here.

#important: Often tagged alongside #resources; anything that's serious or may need to be accessed quickly for any reason will have this tag! :)

#rant: I don't rant often because I try not to get too caught up in negativity. However, sometimes things about society might make me feel the need to speak up--so typically, when I'm "ranting", it's an articulate discussion opener about why I think something society does is dumb, and what we can/should do to fix it.

#posts that make me piss myself: Posts that had me laughing uncontrollably at some point or another. Feel free to use this tag if your sense of humor is broken like mine, and you need a good laugh!

#scribbles on main: Posts pertaining to my sideblog @the-scribbles-painter, that I respond to on my main account (I try to keep non-scribbles posts off my gimmick blog).

(PS: Frequently used tags are linked below for your convenience!)

I may update this post as needed! But for now I hope it helps you to navigate my page! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you have a fantastic day!

#masterpost #pinned post #nexysmusings #byf #important #resources #rant #nexysdraws #posts that make me piss myself #scribbles on main

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gellavonhamster · 2 months ago

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monthly media recap: october 2024

read:

Captain Fracasse by Théophile Gautier - an old novel mimicking an even older one, about an impoverished nobleman who joins a travelling acting troupe. A lot of fun if you enjoy pages-long descriptions (I do). Chiquita and Soubrette my beloveds <3

In the Flesh (Books of Blood Vol. 5) by Clive Barker - picked it up primarily for The Forbidden, the story Candyman is based on (which turned out very different from the movie), ended up enjoying all four stories if "enjoying" is the right word. Gotta check out the other volumes.

Gawain by Gwen Rowley - a cute and absorbing retelling of The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle, with good character development and sweet romance. I'm not big on Morgause as an evil sorceress but I get that sometimes the plot demands it. Loved that Dinadan was there, too.

Bliss & Blunder by Victoria Gosling - an Arthuriana modern AU where magic is tech, empire is business, but love is still love and war is still war. Kinda clumsy at times, but with much more soul than I expected. I couldn't put it down. More here.

Count Averin. The Sorcerer of the Russian Empire (Граф Аверин. Колдун Российской Империи) by Viktor Dashkevich - I was kind of misinformed about the setting before I picked it up, so it ended up being cringe not up my alley for a number of reasons. The plot is okay and both main characters are cute, but I don't think I'll continue with this series.

The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights by John Steinbeck - as you can guess by the number of quotes I posted, I really liked it, or, more precisely, didn't care much about the first three stories, but adored the last two. The author's letters at the end were also immensely interesting.

watched:

A Cure for Wellness (2016) - creepy, Gothic, long but gripping. The plot was confusing at times, but that's on me. Also, it had me worried I might have nightmares of those eels in the toilet (thankfully I didn't).

Duke Bluebeard’s Castle (1988) - Béla Bartók's eponymous opera as a beautiful TV movie. The costuming choices and not only... much to think about

The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) - it's not bad, but I wasn't too engrossed. Might be due to me not vibing with Poe's works in general for some reason, though.

One Piece Fan Letter (2024) - so cute! Also, really nails the importance of Nami being the kind of character she is, and highlights how devastating the Paramount War was for everyone. I adored the cameos of Perona and Usopp.

The Substance (2024) - the reviews didn't lie, it IS good. Quite simple but powerful, lots of stunning shots, both lead actresses killed it. Once again, I was worried I might have nightmares after this one, but it seems like I'm made of a tougher stuff than I thought after all.

#crazy fruitful month considering that i also travelled a little #i watched the new count of monte cristo yesterday too but that's for november's post already #talk talk talk #monthly media recap

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ontogen1 · 4 months ago

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You have a brand and you want it to be promoted all across the world. You know you have social media and nowadays it is the only platform where you can reach your brand to the audience swiftly. But, social media is not only for posting your perfect latte art or your backyard, having a strong presence can bring you exponential benefits. Through social media, you can easily reach more people and get customers by making your brand visible. Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, and Twitter are profitable ways to promote your brand since almost 4.2 billion people in the world are using them, it becomes more consistent for people to hang out on it most of the time . When people trust you with your brand, consider you win the race. You’ll get new leads that get converted to customers, and if your customers are happy and satisfied with your services or products, you'll get more deals later on. So let me introduce you to 10 benefits of having a strong social media presence if you choose to spend a few hours on social media per week.

1. Your trustworthy and effective customer service to keep retaining them:

While it is important that your brand needs a customer base, the most important thing is you also need to respond to your customers' queries about your brand. In that way, you can build a long-lasting relationship with your customers. You can respond to customers quickly in no time, as when it comes to social media, all it takes is a direct message to message your customers. Popular apps like Instagram, Twitter, and Linkedin all have direct message features that are very convenient for your business to flourish.

2. Being relatable with your audience

There are ‘n’ number of trends going on every day. From relatable office memes on Instagram reels to soft launching the brand like offering a sneak peek or showing behind the scenes which will build anticipation among the audience. Instagram has even started by adding music audio to carousel posts to make them more aesthetic. Creating posts that will make your audience go like, “Hey, that’s so relatable, that happened to me yesterday!” will make them connect with your brand immediately.

3. Promoting your brand without any third party:

Gone are the days when middlemen were there for literally anything. Startups can rely on themselves now, without any third party. You can post your brand on social media without any intermediary. Audiences will look at your brand through LinkedIn posts, Instagram reels, and even through Twitter.

4. New leads every day

Lead generations are vital and at the heart of creating any brand. Without any leads, your brand will be stranded in a desert. But if you use social media logically and attract more customers, 90% of the time those viewers convert into leads and boost up your business.

5.Get your network cycle

As a brand owner, you need to constantly look out for opportunities. Which only helps when you use your social media platform to connect with fellow brand owners. Collaboration with business owners can be greatly beneficial for the growth of your business. Especially collaborating through influencer marketing for brand exposure and fellow business owners will increase visibility.

6.Connect through SEO

Optimizing your social media page by adding relevant keywords will make your page appear when people search related to your brand. Adding a physical location will make your brand easily recognizable, Facebook and Google are prime examples of that. Sharing valuable and accurate content deserves recognition from your audience. When the audience trusts you, they boost your SEO by sharing your content.

7. Advertise your brand with effective costing

Compared to traditional advertising like banners and posters, you can just pay for cost-per-click, 1000 lead impressions and all, which are so effective yet cost less. By this, you can concentrate on your other tasks such as filtering out your target audience. By sponsored content, you can cover more audiences such as influencer marketing. You can also not spend any money and go on with your advertising. For example, you can choose to post carousels and video ads free of cost. But when it comes to organic advertising, you need to remember that consistently posting your content will help you to reach your audience. Don’t keep your brand page stale.

8. Withhold your reputation with your audience

Without any sense of trust, any brand will collapse. It is important to note that all brands, including well-established brands, need their reputation to hold in front of the audience to know about them. Startups have a great opportunity to build their reputation in the social media world as the reach is wide and fast. People when they start loving your brand, will automatically do the work of sharing your brand information everywhere.

9. Increased ROI & Sales

To increase Return On Investment and Sales, all you need to do is to know how different social media platforms work. Each one has a different purpose. For example, using hashtags on Twitter, using visual videos on Facebook, and Instagram reels with catchy content, and posting content on relevant pages on LinkedIn. Following these purposes will lead to more audience engagement and will convert your sales into money. Posting on social media is a great way to get more sales as people are always using social media, which you can take up to your advantage.

10.Make your business measurable

Social media allows your business to measure your success. Isn’t that great? To know where exactly you stand in terms of Return On Investment, or advertisement cost you can use Instagram analytics tools to measure your success. To help you with that, we as a digital marketing agency have the expertise to measure your metrics, calculate your ROI, and boost your sales. A digital marketing agency not only will service you with these, but also give you step by step on how to leverage your social media presence to get more leads. If you need our services, contact us at [email protected], and subscribe to our blog for more such updates.

#business #digitalmarketingtips #socialmedia #marketing #aivsmarketing #social media

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ashen-crest · 2 years ago

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a stats report on the rk ashwick books (as of April 2023)

some folks responded positively to the idea of seeing data on how my books have done (for indie author research and benchmark purposes), so here you go!

I'll put everything under the cut:

📚 What do I write?

Cozy fantasy romance under the pen name R.K. Ashwick.

📚 Why do I write?

Because I love it. I have a full-time job that isn't related to writing, so I write in my spare time. I should also note that I do not have dependents, am not a caregiver, and I do have anxiety and ADHD. I am not certain that I want to be a full-time writer, given the financial instability and the joy it could take away from writing. However, I want my books to be and perform the best they can, so I try to be professional about my product and methods.

(To me, this is all important context to be up-front about. Finances, family size, and health all have a huge impact on an author's goals and strategies.)

📚 How many books do I have out?

The Stray Spirit: released August 2022. First in a planned trilogy.

A Rival Most Vial: released March 2023. First in a planned trilogy.

📚 Online Visibility

Here's what I have going on:

Paid:

Website (requires $ for hosting)

BookFunnel for newsletter promos, sales promos, and ARC distribution (site requires $ to join)

Unpaid:

Newsletter (currently managing on free version of Mailerlite, since I'm under 1000 followers)

Facebook page (not consistently maintained, mostly for SEO)

Instagram, posting 5x/wk

TikTok, posting 5k/wk

Tumblr- hi!

using things like LibraryThing, GoodReads forums, Reddit, and FB pages to find more ARC readers

I was doing Amazon ads, but recently nixed them, as I didn't feel they were really getting me anything. I'll likely return to them once I have more books out.

A Note on Follower Count: I have, like 10 FB followers, 400-ish Insta followers, 1500 TikTok folders, and almost 1600 Tumblr followers. I've been on Tumblr the longest and TikTok second longest. TikTok had the fastest growth, Insta the slowest. However, general advice is that engagement rate is more important than follower count. I'll be real, I'm not doing that hot on that front. I'll consistently get around 20 likes on Insta posts and TikTok often caps my video views at around 200 or 300. The videos that do the best on TT often aren't the ones related to my books. Fun times.

A Note on Newsletter Stats: I have a pretty consistent open rate of 25-30%, which I think is okay. I'd like for it to be closer to 40%. (It's also hard to actually track open rates, so that number isn't entirely reliable.)

A Note on ARC Reader Stats: I got 100 readers for TSS and almost 200 for ARMV. This resulted in a ballpark count of 20 reviews for TSS and 30 reviews for ARMV around release time.

📚 Other Marketing Strategies

What you see above under Visibility is my ongoing work. I also do more limited-run strategies, like:

occasional free book giveaways on social media

pre-order gifts for my book

I sent out around 20 pre-order gift envelopes for TSS and 45 for ARMV. I operate the pre-order gifts at a loss, but I really enjoy doing it, so I'm okay with it. I also have lots of leftover stickers and bookmarks that I can bundle with giveaways.

📚 Distribution

I distribute wide through:

Amazon: both ebook and paperback

IngramSpark: paperback only

Draft2Digital: ebook only

📚 Orders & Royalties

So, what did all this work and shennanery get me?

From July 2022-April 2023 (10 months):

Books Sold: 575

Total Royalties, paid and unpaid: $1543.49 ($2.68 per book)

📚 Is that good or bad?

I have no idea!! And I think in the end, it all depends on your goals.

If my goal was to make a living: welp, it's def not enough.

If my goal was to break even: between website set up, DBA set up, cover cost, editing cost, illustrator cost: nah. I'd have to make about $4,000 more to safely say I've broken even.

If my goal was to get strangers, and not just family and friends, to read my books: oh hey, I did that!!

I hope this information helps you set a goal, so you're not mentally wandering around like I am.

📚 Other Notes

A big factor in having a financially successful indie book is fitting genre conventions in your chosen subgenre, or 'writing to market.' I will say that A Rival Most Vial is more written to market than The Stray Spirit is. The Stray Spirit sort of straddles cozy, historical, and academic fantasy without actually leaning in to any of those things, so it's a little harder to market.

I also spent a lot on cover, editing, and illustration. That makes it harder to be a financially viable business, but it's what I wanted to do to have a strong finished product. I am lucky in that my full-time job can cover these expenses.

I'm not very good at social media. I've never had anything go viral on any of the sites.

The most rewarding part of all this is seeing how people react to the book: reviews, videos where they're almost crying over the book, podcast invitations, and [something a bit bigger than I'll announce in the summer.] At the end of the day, if I have a small group of buyers who are vocal in engaging with my books, that's far more rewarding than a large group of buyers who don't engage.

📚 Parting Thoughts

I'm happy to talk about any and all aspects of my self-publishing experience. If you have more questions or want more details, feel free to reply, send an ask, or DM me!

#writeblr #writblr #indie authors #self publishing

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postguiltypleasures · 6 months ago

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My Peak TV Journey *Not Dead Yet*

In the interest of writing about every television series that I watch, I end up having a lot of pages in my Notes app for taking notes and preparing to somehow turn them into so a blog post. For whatever reason, I seem to have the most difficulty getting to things that air in broadcast television weekly. I guess a sense of always returning to it makes writing about it seem not urgent, and frequently likely to force me to regret something I’ve already posted. So these tend to only gain urgency when they are canceled (or have a major cast shake up and change their name.) Ergo, I gave decide to rush a finished post about Not Dead Yet, a show of which I watched every episode, but for which barely actually wrote notes, and was canceled after two seasons.

I watched the show for the cast. How could I not watch a show that included cast members of past favorites like Jane the Virgin (Gina Rodriguez as Nell), Superstore (Lauren Ash as Lexi), and New Girl (Hannah Simone as Sam). I still find them absolutely delight and I hope to see them in something with more staying power soon. Brad Garrett joined in the second season as Lexi’s father Duncan (owner of the newspaper where most of the characters work), and unfortunately his presence made me think “Single Parents used him better. I really miss that show.” Ultimately, I think Single Parents knew what it was, and how to play in its sandmbox in a way Not Dead Yet didn’t

I was surprised to find that Simone being on my screen again was the one who most delighted me. I am a fan of the whole cast. I really liked their previous series’s. But seeing as her character Sam, who was more similar to her previous character Cece than either of her female costars were to their previous roles, made me feel how much I missed her presence.

I have to say I admire how much Nell was not a new version of Jane Villanueva despite the things they have in common such as being professional writers and having a lot of plot dedicated to their romantic life. I have to credit Gina Rodriguez with this. Nell is more of a partier, less of a planner, pleased to be slovenly and gossipy in ways I don’t think Jane ever was. And yet it all felt natural with the performance.

I always like Lauren Ash, but Lexi never felt like as much of a real person as Dina on Superstore. She could be fun as an antagonist for Nell, but I never really believed in her friendship with Sam, and Sam being her friend is so important to plots, especially in the first season.

As someone who watched all of Jane the Virgin and iZombie the fact that the stars of those The CW shows ended up on shows on older, bigger networks starring as women who communicate with ghosts, (Not Dead Yet and Ghosts respectively), both of which I also have watched all of is really funny. What a coincidence! The craziest coincidence in my tv watching since I happened to watch two shows in which Paul F. Tompkins played a fictional version of himself about to launch a talk show! (These were The LA Complex and You’re the Worst.) Also both series are based on something of a British text, though Ghosts is based on another tv series while Not Dead Yet was based on the first novel in a series that thus far had two.

That book is call Confessions of a Forty Something F*****p and I liked the first season so much that I read it between seasons. I really liked it! I should get to the second book in the series. There are a lot of differences, there are a greater number characters in the novel, they are not so focused at working at the same newspaper. Book Nell is a freelancer writer, and only the first of the obituaries has any effect on the story, as it introduces her to Cricket, who in both versions is the widow of the first person for whom Nell writes an obituary. (Though Cricket and her late husband, Monty, have different careers from page to screen, fitting for the different media.) Both Nell’s have moved from their home country to be with a man only to return after that relationship ends, though in the book she’s returning from America to England and it’s reversed for the tv series. While reading the book I was surprised by how much of its plot actually was in the first season. This included how Nell’s last relationship ended with a miscarriage, Lexi’s divorce being announced after seeming so untouchable in many ways, as well a reunion and follow up between Nell and her ex, Philip, only to realize how much of life has changed and it’s better to move on. In the show the ex was played by Ed Weeks of The Mindy Project. I was glad to see him again too.

The biggest and weirdest change from book to screen is replacing Nell anonymously making a podcast with having her talk to the ghosts of people whose obituaries she writes. As I said, in the book only the obituaries of Monty has any effect on the plot. No one else is even named. In the book Nell’s podcast, which shares a title with the book, that becomes something of a phenomenon by the end of the year over which it takes place. I think some of the motivation for changing this was a feeling that too many shows have had podcast plots. The fact that they ended up in some weird coincidence with Ghosts seems like no one expected it. If anything, I think they liked the idea of the ghosts Nell speaks with opening the show up to fun guest stars. Which it did, sometimes. It also created a reason to isolate Nell from the rest of the cast. It created a tension between the show’s high concept and the need to develop dynamics in the ensemble. The first season leaned into the former and the second the latter. Both felt like they were missing something. But it was always generally enjoyable show.

I do want to talk about the other two main characters, Edward played by Rick Glassman, and Cricket played by Angela Elayne Gibbs. Both of their characters started close to the book counterparts, but had to change for the medium of television. Both Edwards similarly, he’s subleasing a room to Nell, environment activist (though in different careers), in a only-see-each-other-on-weekends relationship on its last legs, has a dog that he needs Nells help with and is a neatnick in contrast to Nell. In the end of book he and Nell become romantically involved. Surprisingly, in the second season he gets romantically involved with Lexi. Did that mean he and Nell were never going to happen? Were they setting up more conflict for future seasons? Either way, they were cute, but brought out each other’s more cartoonish qualities. For example there was a joke where Lexi was concerned someone fed him “a gluten.” (I seriously doubt the writers knew what gluten is.)

In the book Cricket helps Nell transfer her career from freelance obituary writer to playwrite by encouraging her to finish up her husband’s final play. This wouldn’t work in the series, partially because of the talking to ghosts aspect, partially because a lot of it is about working for a newspaper. So instead, Cricket runs a wine bar Nell and her friends visit semi regularly. It’s inconsistent. It frequently felt like they didn’t have something for Cricket to do and it was hard to see how she fit in the ensemble, the direction of the show, etc. Which is a shame because she was played well.

Finally I wanted to write about how Nell was wearing band shirts for the first season. They disappeared in the second season, which makes me think that they were deployed to hide Gina Rodriguez’s pregnancy. But in real life, when I walk around I am fascination with them too, and lately in the street I have been seeing the same kind of changes that I noticed on the show. Things starts either a proliferation of classic, British, male bands, mostly The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. There would occasionally be later, American bands, white male bands, like Nirvana and The Red Hot Chili Peppers (genuinely surprised by that one becoming a ubiquitous shirt people wear), and very occasionally anyone else. I find myself looking at these shirts wondering “is their music that popular now?” But lately I’m seeing the variety. More R&B, pop and country artists, things that feel more like a personal declarations of taste than a uniform type. Now, in breaking with a comparison to the show, ever since the Era’s tour began I have been seeing shirts from that everywhere, followed by more people wearing clothes and merchandise of contemporary act who they’ve likely seen recently. Even The Rolling Stones shirts I see now say Hackney Diamonds, their most recent album/current tour. Is a real change occurring with this aspect of fashion?

#what i'm watching #peak tv #my peak tv journey #Not Dead Yet #gina rodriguez #Lauren Ash #hannah simone #brad garrett #Rick Glassman #Angela Elayne Gibbs

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