#im so bad at self promo

[crlegge]

Hey TTRPG Tumblr! As I'm finishing up Lethe, I'm starting to look for reviewers, actual plays, and other TTRPG streamers to get the game in front of.

If you have any recommendations for who I should reach out to, I would love to hear them!

For those that don't know about Lethe, it's about rediscovering your past and choosing how much you will let it affect your future. It was inspired by things like Over the Garden Wall, Alice in Wonderland, The Divine Comedy, and various world mythologies.

All characters start with no knowledge of their past or what they can do, only their names. They must play to learn what skills and abilities they have and discover how they ended up in this place.

You can read more about it here:

https://crowdfundr.com/LetheTTRPG

[wishhero]

                                        chance to win your 50

   indie genshin impact & honkai star rail starring dottore, thoma, gepard and siobhan              created by rose

rules || muses

[mysimsyuri]

happy lesbian visibility day/week <33

hii im styx and im a big ol dyke who loves xyr wife!!

(dni and f/o list are in my carrd; i love to share!)

(divider, drawing)

[sgt-farron]

I've added my latest art to my Inprnt shop! They are doing a site wide up to 40% of your order this week. If you've been interested in any of my work in the past now is a great time.

Also, I made an promo code for an additional 10% off for the next week [10/7/23-10/14/23]: 4QSDH2RW

[cavswife]

˗ˏˋ IT'S OCTOBER BABY!!! ˎˊ˗

Hi there, I'm Rogue (irl, 20, they/them), your new favorite self-shipping disaster mutual! I post mainly about my darling husbands, but also quite a bit about my other loves and various silly things I find :) I promise I won't bite ( unless you're into it )! make sure to give my DNI and about a look over before following!

( spider divider credit! )

[bizarrescribblez]

HELLO EVERYBODY!! I’m Mia and I love all things sanrio, silly 2000’s nostalgia, new wave and metal music and ofc all things regarding a certain show with silly death metal band members! ^_^ I love making new self ship friends so don’t be afraid to send asks or anything like that I love interacting!! As you can see I pretty much have m.etalocalypse brain and ship with Skwisgaar, Nathan and Murderface! All of them are so special to me, but Skwisgaar is my main f/o rn!! ^_^ ����

[theaethernetconnection]

Hi uhhh I'll be streaming again tonight! Likely playing Tiny Tina's Wonderland from the Borderlands series!! Very excited for this one because I love borderlands sm. Anyway if you're free at around 9 pm EST I'll be live on twitch at Aeth3ryx_Gaming . See you there!!

[princeinsomniavoid]

Used a silly canva template by @kits-ships [if thats not the right url sorry for tagging you at random agdjshd i got it from my friend @corvosky/@corvoattanobignaturals] for my sans era afshaghdhsh

[amouramaryllis]

don't ask abt my career plans I'm literally just tryna have a cool chill time

[kissingarthurclaus]

Funny also how lines cross has said that used to make me roll my eyes make my heart squeeze now ._.

[withbeastsarc]

the boy was sure the finish line would be his father, with a knife in his hands.                    x. 

[whatmyface]

made an arcane side blog bc i cannot chill, go chat with me at https://jinxhexcoremedarda.tumblr.com/ !

[gotchibam]

INPRNT is having a sale so if anyone's up for grabbing some prints, now would be a good time! 👀

Just wanted to announce that I've finally set up my print shop at INPRNT! ✨

Only a few pieces are up for now but hopefully I'll be able to expand it more in the future!

[orcelito]

Eh. I'm too tired to try to make an Official Post.

I'll just make an official update post the next time ITNL updates for Sure (probably lying)

[bizarrescribblez]

ERM PROMO TIME??

Hi hello my name is Mia and erm I can be your silly Scream self ship mutual whehehe

🌸 - I am the one and only Roman Bridger self shipper so pls lmk if you also have scream ships id love to hear about them 😭

🌸 - Besides scream, I also have other horror related ships for IT, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Saw, Re Animator, and more!

🌸 - Erm I also have commissions, currently closed but I am in the process of making a new sheet so stick around for that! >_<

Anyways erm thats it heres me on my way to Roman Bridger station !!

[quicktimeeventfull]

how to make your fic easily findable

okay hello everyone! here is my somewhat solicited guide on how to make your fics easier for interested readers to find. 

please note that this is a guide to help you make your fics discoverable, not to make them popular(tm.) it’s also not a guide as to the best way to post fic. you do not need to do these things. doing these things will not make people like your fic more or less than they would otherwise. i do not do all these things, either. my aim here is purely to provide suggestions that will make your fic easier to search for and share.

where to post your fic

post it on ao3 as an individual fic. authors are often hesitant to post short fic on ao3, but readers simply cannot find it if it’s not there. multi-chapter drabble collections are a matter of preference and are absolutely fine to use, but in terms of findability they’re really hard for readers to pass around or put on rec lists. 

you can also post your fic on tumblr. ime fic posted in full is way more likely to be reblogged than an outward link. long fic posted on tumblr should use a read more cut, but at least a paragraph should be above the cut.

should i make a promo post? 

yes. ao3 does not have any features that facilitate promoting fic -- if you don't make a promo post, people will only see your fic if they regularly browse through newest fics or actively search for one of its tags.

what should i put in a tumblr promo post? 

a tumblr promo post should generally contain: 

title 

pairing

name of the fandom

summary of fic

link to fic 

your tags should contain

pairing 

name of all major characters

name of fandom 

the word ‘fic’ (so people who hate fic in the tags can filter it out. be polite!)

other optional inclusions: 

rating (explicit, teen, etc) 

word count 

major tropes

graphics (don’t forget alt text!) 

a sample of your writing (it’s common to grab a ‘best-of’ passage from within your fic, but personally i’ve found you get a way better response if you paste the first couple paragraphs then add a ‘continue’ link at the end.)

tumblr does remove posts with certain keywords from the tags, but honestly these keywords are very minimal. if you’re worried your post might not be added, double-check ‘latest’ and find an alternative phrase if necessary. don’t censor the word. you do not need to repost — tumblr will pop it back in as soon as you’ve removed the word. (it won’t push it back to the top, though, so it’s best to correct this asap.) 

a further note on tags

use the most commonly used tag. look at other people’s posts to find the fandom norms. it is fine to add multiple variations of the same tag. 

this is especially important if the tag is ambiguous. for example: ‘near’ is the most commonly used name for the death note character, but the full name ‘nate river’ should be included as well. take into account that a lot of people use plain searches rather than tag searches. an ambiguous name might be usable as a tag but not as a plain search. top vs latest searches will also give dramatically different results — ‘top’ searches tend to retrieve appropriate results with ambiguous names, but ‘latest’ results won’t.

what should i not put in my tumblr promo post? 

self-deprecating statements. this isn’t a moral statement. people just don’t like to read things if the author is telling them it’s bad

criticism of other people’s work, even if it’s really general. ‘i usually hate hurt/comfort but i wrote this anyway’ is obviously going to alienate the vast majority of your readerbase

anything unrelated to the fic. if people can’t tell whether or not something is a personal post, they’ll be hesitant to reblog. if you want to add commentary, put it in a second reblog. 

what should i include in my ao3 summary? 

this is a bit of a moving target. some readers like fairly detailed summaries. other readers look to tags for content information and prefer abstract vibes-based summaries. my suggestion would be to include the main selling points of your work — the characters, the tropes, and whatever factors make it unique.

at the end of the day, though, basically anything other than ‘i suck at summaries’ is fine.

what ao3 tags should i include?

any major pairings, any major characters, any major tropes. imagine your fic from a reader’s perspective — what tags would they look under if they were searching for something like it? 

also pay attention to whether or not an ao3 tag is canonical. only canonical tags can be filtered on. if it autocompletes, it’s canonical.

for more information on a specific tag, click into the tag to reach the ‘x works in TAG’ screen, then click it again. tags are often made synonyms of specific canonical tags, in which case filters will treat them as if they’re that tag. you can get pretty granular with all of this but basically if you use tags that autocomplete you’re good to go.

you can also use tags to clarify content. (ex. ‘this trope is only a minor aspect of the story.) ao3 used to ask people not to do this, but it’s now explicitly permitted. 

does posting time matter? 

yes. sorry. it does. quite a bit, frankly.  people often overthink this — there are so many variables trying to find the exact perfect time is a losing game — but it is absolutely worth taking into account. 

when should i post?

on ao3: do NOT post between 12AM and 5AM UTC. ao3 has a longstanding posting glitch that will backdate your work if it’s posted between these times. in general: broadly speaking fic tends to do best on sundays and worst on friday. posting on a holiday dramatically drives down traffic. fic should be posted on ao3 when most people would likely have time to read (ex. after the standard workday) and promo posts should be posted when people would likely be looking for fic (ex. commuting hours aka slightly before 9AM and at 5PM.) the majority of tumblr users operate in EST. 

the university semester also makes a massive difference to how much engagement a fic gets — views always shoot up during breaks and plummet during exams. honestly working around this would require delaying your fic so frequently that i can’t see it being worth it, but it’s good to be aware of in terms of the response you’re expecting. 

also the ‘best’ posting time does vary a lot genre by genre so you’ll have to experiment a bit. (personally i’ve found h/c tends to do better midweek, for example.) imagine your fic from a reader’s perspective: when would you likely be looking for this sort of thing? 

anyway don’t drive yourself crazy with this but also don’t shoot yourself in the foot by posting at 2AM EST on christmas morning. do you have a random piece of advice about posting on ao3? please be aware that if you write your fic as a draft, ao3 will backdate the fic to the day you saved the draft and index it accordingly -- it won't show up in the newest fics. multichapters initially posted as drafts will sometimes glitch and backdate every single new chapter. you can correct this by checking the 'set a different publication date' box and manually inputting it.

should i reblog my own promo posts? yes. do this. do it multiple times. make sure you do at least one reblog in the morning, one in the night, and one on the weekend.

i feel like authors are often embarrassed to reblog their own work because it feels self-important but the fact is most people are not reading your blog start to finish. no one will see all your reblogs. tbh you may lose followers for this but this is is a guide on fic visibility, not tumblr popularity. 

please conclude your post now

anyway!! i hope some of this is helpful. again, you don't need to do any or all of this, but i hope it can provide a bit of a framework and some suggestions.