#the realities of publishing

[priestessamy]

genuine question, how do you have an official publisher, but not a single person took more than 5 minutes and 2$ worth of stock images to design the cover?

On the one hand, I appreciate you specifying this is a genuine question. On the other hand, that means you realize this was asked in kind of a shitty way, on anon. So you probably get that while we're not off on the wrong foot, we're not off on the right foot either. But I'm gonna take this in good faith regardless because I think it's worth being transparent.

Cool? Cool.

Bella Books doesn't have any artists on staff presently. That's the short answer.

The long answer is, predictably, longer. I had a whole concept for a cover that I wanted, with the two main characters standing back to back, hand in hand, each examining the instrument of destruction they can't seem to shake. It was poetic and cool. And Bella informed me it wasn't viable.

The best they can do on their mid-sized budget is manipulate stock photos.

[It should be noted at this point that I believe but have not confirmed that they will allow you to use art produced by an outsider artist. But! I didn't have anyone on speed dial nor any idea of who I could go with, I didn't have the money to commission, nor the confidence that after all our work would meet with approval.]

So I came up with a concept and cobbled together a selection of images that I felt would best convey the subject/tone of the book. You can still see that version in some places where the new cover hasn't been posted. Harper's knife, Esther's cross, some suggestive blood in the background. It was simple but good enough. I refused to use images of humans because no one really fit the bill and sometimes that can look even sloppier.

A few weeks before publication, the publisher came to me and said they had spoken with some store reps and gotten strong feedback that my original idea was a little too niche and wouldn't attract the broadest audience.

We were down to the wire and the new version they came up with was that dawn forest scene with the cross dangling off the title. I worries it looked a little too...A Walk to Remember-esque, and scoured the stock library for an appropriate wolf, one with black fur that looked relatively at ease, to give the reader the idea that "this werewolf isn't like other big scary werewolves".

So yes, they were rushed on their end, I was rushed on my end, and the cover ended up being uninspired. In a different universe, I would have just taken the hit and commissioned someone from the start.

But I'll say this much, and I know it's a massive cliche, but the old addage is true. Get past the cover, and I think the text speaks for itself. It's really really really good fucking text that I'm unbelievably proud of. I hope you read it. I hope you love it and tell other people to read it. Or maybe it won't be your thing. That's okay too.

Just, like... Be a little cooler about it next time? For me? Now that we're buddies and all?

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girl found dead in a hidden room.

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[nevermeyers]

There's absolutely no way people are now saying that all the gege-hate train is just an internal joke of the fandom. There's no way you're this out of touch with what has been happening.

I've been in the fandom since 2020 and it doesn't take a lot of smarts to see there's been a change in tone in the way some people say that in the last year. Since this new arc of history began, destructive criticism, massive hate and threats have overflowed into hundreds of profiles. It's no longer "oh, I hate Gege akutami" now and for a while now it's "I hate Gege akutami - his manga is horrible I'm gonna drop it (they never do) - he doesn't deserve popularity - he doesn't know how to write - he pretends to have an illness."

And yet, it's not normal to make jokes about wanting to kill someone, hon. Go check yourself if you find that funny, you're no better than let's-joke-about-sensitive-issues reddit incels

[jesncin]

Hi there!! I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about what the process of being published was like for Lunar Boy? Were there any struggles you faced trying to get it seen? Any tips for others trying to get their work published? Thank you in advance and I love your work! :)

Hullo there! Sure! Unfortunately things have changed a lot since I pitched years ago so I don't know how replicable my publishing journey is nowadays. But I'm willing to share!

So! I always knew I wanted to write for kids, but in art school we were trained to be cape comic artists. Back then (if you can believe it), making middle grade comics was considered something that would sink your career. At that point in history, American comics was trying so hard to prove "we're not for kids!" that they left a chasm in the market for children's comics. Then Raina Telgemeier's bestselling books proved there was a hungry readership of kids and suddenly the trad pub industry is excitedly picking up middle grade graphic novel pitches (ironically, including cape comics).

I was studying my Masters in the US as this was all happening, and decided to use my time in the program to generate as many middle grade pitches as possible! The first one I made was Lunar Boy, but the story was so well received that it ended up being the one we pushed forward as a pitch and develop the most across classes. On Twitter there was this event: #DVPit, which is a pitching event for marginalized authors looking to seek editor interest on their pitches but also! To get agented. In its heyday (before Melon Husk ruined everything. This event is no longer on twidder sadly. Many pitching events have ceased to happen or are on hiatus from how unusable that platform is now) it was a fantastic event. I got agented on my 2nd try of the event, and it got the industry an early look at Lunar Boy and made them excited to see it out on submission.

My agent, Britt Siess, was extremely helpful with giving us feedback on how to refine our pitch. Not only did she give us story feedback, but I was surprised also by her comics feedback- that was more nuanced than I expected (little did I know that she's a huge comics nerd). She had connections to all the editors I was interested in pitching Lunar Boy to, and we were out on submissions right as we graduated with our Masters degree (during the start of the pandemic lmao).

I already had early editor interest in Lunar Boy which I think helped a lot with getting it picked up. I've been told that it helps to meet editors in person and get chummy with them before pitching to heighten your chances, but that wasn't really the case for me. I've never met my editor (Carolina Ortiz, I love her she's amazing) in person, but she did actually reach out to me long before we went out to pitch- on a Simu Liu tweet trend of all things lmao.

(I didn't end up looking like evil boy band members in pastel clothes in the final book, I went for cultural clothes instead which I think is the more bespoke choice haha) Carolina reached out to me from this tweet and we actually talked back and forth about Lunar Boy, refining the pitch. I felt like she understood the story despite asking for big changes. I don't think she'd do something like this anymore, but I really appreciated it at the time (I wasn't even agented yet). All the editors I met in person for events like Editor's Day at school liked my art (and would even hire me for colorist work and the like) but they weren't interested in Lunar Boy. This was reflected when we finally went on submissions too.

We got a lot of rejections, vague language like "we don't know how to edit this" or "we already have a book like this" (??? press X to doubt). Compounded with all my interactions with editors in person, I felt like I was "marketable" as an artist but not as a storyteller because our stories were so unapologetically QPOC- with culturally specific queer identities to an already underrepresented identity. The editors that were interested in Lunar Boy had personal connection to the story (they were either also from blended families or QPOC themselves). But hey, you only need one yes to get a book deal. We ended up with Carolina as our editor and she's been our rock and champion for this book since the beginning. We were out of submissions in just a week (which is really fast in the industry).

My big tip for getting into the trad pub graphic novel industry is to study the market. A lot of people mistaken publishing as a vessel or platform for their untold story, when really it's a business we compromise with. Pay attention to trends, book deals, shifts in the industry, read your peers' books, everything. Research is key with getting your foot in. Lunar Boy may look like an out-there book, but at its heart it's a story about culture shock, trying to fit in, along with family and friendship problems. In trad pub especially, locking in to sellable tropes and trends is key. Find clever ways to innovate and work within those limitations at the same time. Be open to feedback and changes. I know so many people are held back from getting book deals because they're too attached to their story. It helps not to be phased by rejection and or take things personally. I've been very desensitized to talking about books like a business, since that's what it took for someone like me to make it out there.

I hope that was helpful!

[celestie0]

when ppl get too caught up in the accuracy of situations in fanfiction or if things are super realistic or as they should/would be in real life etc etc im like. my tumblr user in christ. it's fanfiction.

[umbraastaff]

There's something wrong with the planet.

I know, that sounds really dramatic. And probably exaggerated, knowing how much anxiety and paranoia is all but designed into my cheap fucking systems. It's not like I have much of a frame of reference, either: I only have linear memories of the last 160 hours of my life, barring the activation and maintenance between previous contracts. The rest is in bits and pieces, most of them ghosts of old feelings and reactions from my organic parts.

But that's how I know. There's a sense of wrongness in my organics, telling me things are different than how they should be -- how they used to be, at least. People keep bringing up the event from two months ago. I wasn't around for it, (or at least I don't remember it), but from my understanding, something fell from the sky, and now everyone's acting really weird.

They call it the Light of Creation, and yes, they capitalize it.

As far as I can tell, it isn't a power source, and nobody's considering selling it, but it's somehow helping with an important project. It's being held by the IPRE, the same entity that rented out my contract starting a week ago… for a two-month mission that's going to start ten months from now. They're paying for a year's worth of SecUnit for a mission a fraction of that time away.

I can't complain about that, exactly. Ten months of hanging around a bunch of boring researchers is a lot better than ten months of being a regular Murderbot, cycling between memory erasure and panic over the lives of various clients. It makes it easier not to get my brain painfully zapped by my governor module, too, when there are less crises. But it still feels highly unusual, and weird behavior is always going to make me uneasy.

"Let's run through this one more time," says Captain Davenport. Speaking of weird behavior.

READ MORE (AO3)

[yonpote]

it feels more fun to me to analyze dnp's videos as if they're a tv show, if that makes sense. and that can be difficult bc of how much of their reality they put into this tv show called dan and phil games, but i think it can make for a more productive discussion because then we don't have to get bogged down by their reality and force their reality to fit a narrative rather than just interpreting the narrative they have put on display for us and not worrying about whether or not it's real. not to say that this kinda thing couldn't also end up in more parasocial territory, i think the appeal of youtube is its parasocial nature, but FOR ME it's a way i can be a bit healthier about my parasocial feelings wrt dnp by splitting their real selves from their youtube selves in my mind.

[itsawritblr]

"How do I become a professional novelist?" (sound on).

You do the work.

If you don't know how to do the work, you find books that teach you how. Books. Written by real authors, real editors, real agents. Real professionals.

Not blogs by people who self-publish. Or who've "read a lot of stuff."

You go on hiatus from social media, go to the library, read, read, write, write, write, revise, revise, revise.

You make writing your priority. You don't spend time with people talking about writing and about how you're going to become a professional. You actively do the necessary work.

You can lounge online and meme and post about writing all you want.

But to be a traditionally published author you earn the part.

And you don't earn it by hanging out here.

[waveridden]

okay I'll bite. what's the deal with the life series. what's the lore. what's your favorite thing about it. I wanna understand the Posts

huge win for the me community let's go. okay. idk your minecraft knowledge level so i am going to explain as though it's zero bc mine was basically zero when i started watching.

so. the life series (also known as 3rd life, bc that's the first season) is a minecraft survival multiplayer series, which essentially means it's a server where you can die. in fact, it is a death game! everyone on the server has three lives; if you die three times, you're out of the series. your goal is to be the last one standing. additionally, when you're down to your last life, you are expected and honor-bound to engage in pvp and ruin your alliances. your goal is Murder.

there are five seasons out right now with different gimmicks, each one has the same core cast with some changes - essentially it's a bunch of friends who will take any excuse to kill each other, but with increasingly weird and complex political factions and interpersonal dynamics. people are out here swearing fealty. there are betrayals. there are team banners. there's a season where they build a complex net of paths in the sky and drop tnt on one another.

it's one of those things where there is some lore/plot and you can take it as seriously or not-seriously as you want! yay! i for one love to go the "let's take this to its logical horrifying conclusion" route but some people are here for the sillies and that's good too. the fanart game is insane, people are making renaissance paintings and stuff.

anyways, this explanation is a mess, so i will go on to reccing povs, because there are ~15 people in each season and they're all posting videos and that can get overwhelming! there's not really a "right" order but when i started, @charaznablescanontoyota gave me the excellent advice of "start with the winner of each season and then whenever you're curious about something watch that next" - if you like that route and don't mind knowing who wins,

er4df444444444444 sorry that's my cat. he's been watching along with me. he has a lot of opinions.

anyways here's the list of winners, the wiki is a pretty good reference to have on hand. HOWEVER. i will also add that everyone has a different style! some people edit things very short, some people do long videos, some people are builders and some are very into the roleplay - i bounced pretty hard off the first pov i watched but switching to someone else worked for me, so in a way having so many options is great bc it means you can shop around, so to speak.

and i will close this out with a few of my personal favorite seasons! just for funsies.

inthelittlewood 3rd life (s1) - probably my personal fave. in which an early game alliance becomes an intensely charged king/knight relationship that they both take WAY too seriously (honorific)

smallishbeans last life (s2) - have you ever wanted to watch someone do a very, very bad job at murdering a lot of people?

pearlescentmoon double life (s3) - in a season where everyone has canonical soulmates, pearl ends up the odd woman out because her soulmate doesn't want to be with her. it is an insane and compelling character arc

ldshadowlady secret life (s5) - diversity win! this woman is so so bad at "what if minecraft were taskmaster"

and as a side note i tend to prefer the tightly edited stuff, so if you know that you Do Not prefer that, i would point you towards ethoslab secret life or grian 3rd life! or tbh still towards pearl double life.

[rollercoasterwords]

You have probably answered this before, but have you ever considered becoming a published author ? Your writing style is soo good

sure lol i’ve considered it but the older i’ve gotten & the more i’ve learned abt how the publishing industry actually works the less it’s become a priority… “author” was like my dream job as a kid but it takes a lot of time & money & connections that i simply don’t have rn 2 write & publish novels so! maybe one day i’ll give it a go but 4 now i’m more focused on writing & publishing nonfiction articles/research as part of my work…of course that is not something i will make money from lol but it’s what i’ve gotta do if i want a shot at building a career in my desired field so. current priority lies there…

anyway appreciate the compliment glad u enjoy my writing <3 let’s all hold hands & enjoy it 4 free…

[lanternlightss]

i am itching to say something but it’s technically spoilers but siren venti Can talk, it’s just at. this moment in time they are trying to appear as nonthreatening as viably possible here (even if. this attempt didn’t go so well …)

[vapolis]

every time I watch a movie where rich ppl are awful to each other I want to write an IF inspired by it help

[southsidestory]

Currently imagining a future in which I filed the serial numbers off The Valley of the End or In Times of Peace and got a book deal.

The world of publishing is so damn grim now. The industry seems to have forgotten that part of its job is marketing debut authors!

Sometimes it feels like, if you don't bring an established audience to them, they don't want you. Simple as that.

[sapphire-weapon]

some of you guys are really having a hard time coping with the fact that RE wasn't made for you, huh

[mixelation]

i have reread plasticity and embarrassing number of times, staying up past 3am each time Despite Already Knowing What Happens. The plot, the characterizations, all of it is just a delight! Do you have any recommendations for isekai naruto fics? I simply cannot find another I love as much

Aaaaw thank you! I straight up haven't had time/energy to do much reading in 2023 so idk what the current fic scene is like at all? Two oldies but goodies featuring the Akatsuki are Chipped Mask (OC / Obito; like Plasticity, a fell-into-a-plothole premise rather than reincarnation) and Clearing Mist (OC/Kisame, reincarnation, starts in Kiri). For more recent stuff.... uh.... if you want a short read, @tozettastone recently posted a very charming isekai fic about soup. If you like a very, very long read, @electrasev5nwrites is currently doing a fun thing where they post a daily chapter to tumblr of their Deja Vu and Dreams series, the entirety of which is also on AO3 and has a whopping million+ word count.

Anyone else got other recs?

Also please remember to sleep <3