#writers don't ask for much
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
Text
readers getting genuinely excited about a fic and asking (not demanding) about it → gets the writer excited or re-excited about said fic → it boosts writers confidence, motivation and love for writing → which then helps writer to complete the story → which then leads to readers getting the free content they crave → in exchange reader leaves comment or a reblog for writer to let them their hard work hasn't gone unnoticed and is appreciated → writer reads said comments and hopefully the reblog ratio is higher than the likes ratio (it never is), leading them to feel like all the time, energy, stress and countless hours put into said fic has been worth it → which then boosts writers confidence, motivation/ love for writing once again → that then turns into more wonderful stories being made → and repeat
Reblog if you write fanfic and would be totally down with your followers coming into you askbox and talking to you about your fic
#writing#writers don't ask for much#what they do ask should not be that hard to give#especially when writers are giving free content#how many more fics you all could be getting if the reader to writer engagement was better and more consistent#and saying “omg part two please” or “can you write more chapters” is not it#people who do that i usually find don't even care about the next part despite them saying they want more
196K notes
·
View notes
Text
I just had a great idea: I'm gonna wait till my latest work gets at least 5 reblogs before posting the following work.
Let's see what happens 😋
#really hope this works#cause its so sad to see 100 likes#and barely even 10 reblogs#writers don't ask for much#just a reblog#or a comment#barely takes one minute
2 notes
·
View notes
Note
Do you get the impression the live action is treating us like utter morons?? Like I thought that making it aimed at an older audience would open the doors for more subtle story telling, but no, they're just using monologues to tell us eveything! Like in the second episode Katara's like 'oh his power isn't that he's the avatar, it's that he ~connects~ to people'. Girl we're not idiots we can see that!! And the first episode with Aang's goddawful 'I don't want this responsibility' monologue
THIS, YES. The word that keeps coming to mind is definitely "subtlety". The show for literal children? Had it. The remake for adults? Not so much.
#This is literally Storytelling 101: Show Don't Tell#I'm sorry scriptwriters I know you were working before your union won minimal staffing in writers' rooms and decent pay and all that#but You Know What You Did#Also cgi artists plz unionize#A few more hours on Momo would have maybe taken him further out of the nightmare monkey puppet category#I know some people are reporting him as cute#But all I can see is a creature from the Magnus Archives#that thing is the skin of Momo being worn by something that doesn't quite move right underneath#And maybe it is looking for a better fit#Don't let it touch you adorable child actor Aang#avatar the last airbender#atla#natla#Anyone looking to block the live action posts I'll be tagging all of these with that natla tag going forward#But yeah not going to post about it much#I came I saw I deemed it not worth the hours of my life it asked#I can literally write a better Avatar AU than this#Anyway back to Toph beating up Blind Zuko!#*write write write"#(their big budget fanfic can't hurt me it can only introduce more fans to the original)
516 notes
·
View notes
Text
— Lucas on the Line by Suyi Davies Okungbowa
#lucas sinclair#cinematv#tvedit#stranger things edit#lucas on the line#stedit#dailystrangerthings#caleb mclaughlin#strangerthingsedit#st4#st4edit#userbbelcher#chewieblog#*#pls don't ask how long this took me i don't wanna talk about it!!#anyway i wish one st writer cared as much about lucas as the author of this book did#i tried to make the blended ones as least headache inducing as i could#but idk lmao#st#stranger things
688 notes
·
View notes
Text
idk who needs to hear this but if you're a writer looking for a webcomic artist and the best offer you can come up with is a 50/50 split "after gaining revenue", then that's literally asking for free work just with extra steps.
like first of all (and i'm sure people are gonna fight me on this) writing a webcomic and drawing a webcomic is not a 50/50 split, a scene that took you a half hour to write will take them hours to draw so it's literally more like 30/70
but also even IF your comic gains revenue, it's still not gonna pay for that labor, there are comic projects out there that have been going on for upwards of 10 years and beyond who are still maybe only making like $30/month on their patreon... and you only wanna pay them $15 of that?
please just consider writing a novel or short stories, or doing tabletop campaigns, or pitching scripts to comic publishers, or learning to draw yourself (even if you're bad at it! webcomics are allowed to grow and evolve in their art!), or doing RP, or doing anything that will get your ideas and stories out there without being at the expense of a whole ass other human being doing the brunt of the labor for free
no matter how dedicated you are to an idea or how convinced you are that it's truly a unique one that's worth working on, none of that will pay for the labor and time and efforts of people who you're asking to work for free to make your dream a reality. They have their own dreams that they're working on too.
#sorry i know this is very curt but i see this all the time#pls just be aware of what you're asking for if you're looking for a webcomic artist#i know you prolly really like reading webcomics but there's so much that goes into them that a lot of ppl don't realize#you're asking a LOT for someone to just love your own idea enough to work on it for free#sorry but most of us already have our own babies that we love and care for#self post#rant post#artist tips#writer tips#writing tips#hot take
431 notes
·
View notes
Text
If we ever get Sydcarmy endgame I want to see them crack jokes with each other more, especially during a sex scene if we ever get one, and to see them make each other giggle and fall to pieces and shit. I want them to start sitting next to each other at family, holding hands after the meal or patting/rubbing each other's knees below the table. I want them to throw an arm over each other's shoulders as they brainstorm menu ideas. I want, before they get together, and after they've signed documents to give Sydney an official stake in the restaurant and she shakes the Berzattos' hands, I want Carmy's handshake with her to linger on a little too long and leave him awkward and red as a beet. I want Natalie, Richie, Tina, Ebra, Marcus, Sweeps, Manny, the new staff, Uncle Jimmy, Donna, Sydney's Dad, POTUS, the Vatican, Oprah, and the internet to clock the soft and loving looks that they furtively shoot each other. I want them to have full blown arguments where they don't hold anything back and see them compromise and kiss and make up. I want them to meet each other's families. I want-
*GUNSHOT SOUNDS- CAR SPEEDING OFF*
#sydcarmy#sydney x carmy#the bear fx#the bear hulu#the bear#carmen berzatto#jeremy allen white#sydney adamu#ayo edebiri#and i know it's not too much to ask for at LEAST SOME of the above because that table scene let me know the writers/showrunners are on ao3#watched the show because of gifsets of these two not even 5 days ago and it did not disappoint!#the early stages of the second coming of richonne i fear 🥴#chefs kiss#and for the folks who don't want a shift to romance between the two - this is a DRAMEDY; there's a ton of comic and dramatic potential in ❤#why can't we have a good time laughing at/with the neurotic cooking nerds grappling with growing feelings for each other#in the hella risky- high stress restaurant business that one of their mobster uncles helped them to open???#give me the two of them commiserating over the difficulties in each other's past#give me the two of them encouraging each other to open up more and get into therapy#give me carmy getting to see inside sydney's room for the 1st time- donning one of her headscarves#and him batting his eyelashes at her coquettishly like a besotted fool#let her cringe and screw up her face at him and beg him to stop but still have her double over in laughter#let my blorbos be in love goddamnit!#“give me love! love divine! please forgive me now i see that i've been-”*multiple gunshots and sustained rocket fire*#give me carmy admitting to syd that he thought-“oh no she's hot!” when she 1st came to stage at the beef#and syd being incredulous but cheesin' real hard saying-“bro so you mean like- i had you shaking like squidward?!”#give them squidward and squilliam fancyson couples tees-*collects a shovel to the head*#give me sydney roasting carm for forgetting what UPS meant when he met her-*gurgling noises as c storer pushes me into the atlantic*#give me carm finding out from syd's dad that he never visited the beef/ she lied in her 'interview' and let carm not let her live it down-#fuck it let richie be the best man at their wedding-*gets carpet bombed* - fin#storer & calo look me in the 👁👄👁 and tell me that under the table scene wasn't “pillow talk before pillow talk”-*tag limit reached*
1K notes
·
View notes
Note
So I l’ve been getting into your ko crisis story lately (it all sounds rlly awesome btw) and i was curious - you’ve said in the tags in a previous ask that ash is comphet, so is that gonna play a major role in her character arc/journey in any way?
Yeah, the story basically covers her journey of redefining her identity as a queer Asian-American disabled woman in a sports-entertainment industry, which is a media landscape that specifically targets, exploits, and fetishizes people like her.
#ask me#itsthequeercryptid#i don't have much more to say on this cuz as of right now it's in like. early early development process and i'm not a queer woman so#i don't have much authority to say how i want this part of the story to go. even if it's my story i don't wanna set anything in stone yknow#but like. ashley's arc is realizing that she's been performing to appease people both in and out of her life. as both a daughter and a#pro boxer. and that she shouldn't have to force herself to be someone she's not. which in the story continuously hurts her#she doesn't need to validate her existence and find worthiness as a disabled and queer woman#especially to other people#one story beat i drafted is that ashley nearly gets s/a'd by a potential agent (keep in mind the project's inspired by psychological dramas#thrillers like utena and perfect blue) and it's one of the first big moments that causes her to have a crisis of identity#growing less and less comfortable in her skin - both organic and nonorganic - as she realizes how her body is perceived/ exploited/#/objectified as a vehicle for inflicting and absorbing violence. both physical and sexual. especially by men#and near the end of the story the beat is reflected/flipped when she comes together with noora and it's gentle and intimate#but again this is all very iffy. i'm not sure how appropriate this would be as a male writer.#i'm waiting to work with other writers who are more knowledgable on this before moving forward with anything
108 notes
·
View notes
Text
Detroit Become Human and why does this game decide that the problem in society is individual people treating androids poorly because those androids are choking them out of the workforce and NOT the corporations and governments who deliberately designed the androids to do this
#AUGHHGHH#I promise you dbh is still one of my favourite games I really do#But ohhhhhhhjghh my GODDDD it makes me mad#Like ESPECIALLY this year. With artists and writers being so fucked by ai#Like the game has less than no sympathy for people who were screwed over by cyberlife deciding their labour wasn't worth anything#Like everybody has to be a strawman. Everybody has to be the violent 'android bad because (some vague reason that draws on the#'immigrants are stealing our jobs' line despite the fact that these things aren't equivalent at all)#Like yes. Robots being placed in positions where a real human would be paid a real wage to do that job is bad. This is a bad thing#But the game. Does not CARE#It's so morally neutral for cyberlife to be allowed to mass produce androids in the middle of a poverty epidemic that they created#It's fine! Says Detroit Become Human because everyone rendered homeless or struggling by this company's actions is a violent drug addict#Or something#It's like HUH#H U H#This game was so enamoured with it's weird bad civil rights allegory that it forgot that people do actually need jobs to uh. Pay to live#Because things are hell#And I think it could've been SO much better if the game acknowledged this AS WELL as acknowledging that no android chose this#Like a fresh deviant didn't ask to cause a real person to not have a job. The company who made them did#But dbh doesn't care. Cyberlife is morally neutral in this. I swear#Loses my mind this game is such a mess#Uhhh if anyone's reading this please don't get mad at me I promise I do really love this game. Like this game is the reason I#Met the love of my life. I am physically incapable of hating this game#I just think it's so worth discussing the ways it fails in (what I think is) a constructive manner#detroit become human#game analysis#I guess#If anyone has any contributions or disagrees with me I would LOVE love to hear. Genuinely I love talking about things like this#Essay in tags
38 notes
·
View notes
Text
Cosmic Love prompt:
Danny and Damian have been engaged since they were babies. The Fentons wanted access to Lazarus water, and they made a deal with the league of assassins to get it. Danny is trans. Danny and Damian haven't seen each other since Damian was 10 (I imagine Danny is anywhere from a few months to a year younger, so Danny was either 9 or 10 at the time). They had been seeing each other twice a year the last time they saw each other. They used to have more time scheduled to spend together before Damian started training to be an assassin. They weren't getting along when they last saw each other. Danny was upset/angry that his life had been planned out for him and that he was going to be in an arranged marriage. Damian was kind of a jerk at the time (because of trauma but he was still a jerk), and he thought Danny was being a jerk too because having his whole life planned for him was all Damian knew and it didn't make sense to him to get upset about it because that's his reality that he just had to accept. Damian does care about Danny, and cares about what he wants too. But they were kids. They were upset about their situation and frustrated and angry with each other and their families. They haven't had contact with each other at all since Damian came to Gotham.
Skip forward a few years and Damian has fallen in love with his best friend, Jon. He tells his family and Jon about the arranged marriage even though it's likely not going to be a thing anymore since he has cut ties with the league.
Damian and Jon start dating.
Danny is 16 and on the run from his parents and the GIW. He only managed to escape after he had already been captured and vivisected. He goes to Gotham because it'll be harder for his parents and the GIW to find him there. He runs into Damian and Jon at a park while he's at a point in his life where he's got nothing left an he's just sad, scared, angry, lonely, and he'd just about sell what's left of his life for a hug.
#dp x dc#dc comics#danny phantom#dp x dc prompt#danny fenton#damian wayne#jonathan kent#cosmic love#cosmic love ship#danny/damian/jon#danny is touch starved in this and has been for basically his whole life#because his parents always made him think he was being annoying/getting in the way when he asked them for hugs#and damian thought affection was a sign of weakness/made him weak#damian was touch starved when he arrived in gotham too#but it's up to the writer how much better that's gotten.#trans danny fenton#bad fenton parents#i usually hate arranged marriage because it toes the line of what is and isn't consentual#but in this danny and damian are both mad about being engaged to each other#and they don't fall in love until after the wedding is basically not a thing that the league can force them to do anymore#damian is going to FLIP OUT when he finds out that danny is running from people who are arguably worse than the league#at least for someone in his situation#dami and jon are BOTH going to FLIP OOOUT when they find out about the anti-ecto-acts
357 notes
·
View notes
Text
Don't mind me, just making a collection of Sonic and Knuckles being together because I want more of their sibling dynamic and I love them
If anybody is wondering, I took these pictures from YouTube, NOT Paramount+. The first full episode is out for free if you wanna check it out.
Please do not tag as ship.
EDIT: Okay so apparently I can't find the full episode on YouTube anymore lol. Just wanted to put that out there in case anyone didn't know.
#piko rambles#sonic wachowski#knuckles wachowski#brothers#sonic movie 2020#knuckles series#knuckles series spoilers#I don't care how many times I'm gonna say this but I WANT A WACHOWSKI FAMILY TV SHOW 😭#I want Sonic and his family and brothers go on misadventures together IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK??#Literally the first episode of Knuckles showed us how awesome this idea is. I wanted something like this since the first movie but still!#But you know what? With the power of writing I CAN MAKE THAT POSSIBLE. I just need to kick writer's block in the butt and somehow get AO3
92 notes
·
View notes
Note
1. for the choose violence ask game?
1. the character everyone gets wrong
ONE THOUSAND YEARS JAIL FOR TCW WRITERS for getting that absolutely GOLDEN layup in AotC and then NOT doing jack fuck with Dooku. They looked right at Christopher Lee's deliberately nuanced portrayal in that movie (within the script's and direction's limitations which were indeed very limiting. Have I ever mentioned that George wasn't too good at writing Dooku either?) and did NOTHING. They made him a Saturday evening cartoon guy in the Saturday evening cartoon and I am inconsolable
I cannot get over how they squandered his potential!! And Asajj's by extension, too. And why do I have to cling to CW 03 for any screentime of them both even just existing in the same room? Like genuinely do we ever see them physically next to each other? They're supposed to be master and apprentice bro something went terribly wrong here!!
Also to bend this back to the fandom and to beat a dead bloated decomposing horse: Obi-Wan. Novels have been written about his fanon alter-ego so I'll just say that most people actually write him just fine until any type of relationship emerges! Ppl want to swaddle this spiritual master and veteran shock formation leader in a blanket so bad they gotta nerf him to hell so someone can take loving care of the shadow of his former self lmao
#pros of being in a fandom like this is that i don't need to have actual beef with my fellow creators#i can just shoot at the official writers and possibly corporate meddling which is great :)c#anyway. the 212th being an attack battalion makes me wonder if they're the baseline for the future stormtroopers#because stormtroopers in the uh. german sense of the word. are exactly that#rapid assault troops. shock formation etc. which seems to be the 212th's bread and butter#i love how they put calm and kind obi-wan right into the republic's spearhead I ADORE CONTRAST#anyway. forever mad over what (wasn't) done with dooku and asajj. rip king and queen you deserve so much attention#ask#choose violence ask game
55 notes
·
View notes
Note
Could you write about Moon helping Y/N (who is stubborn about sleeping since they are afraid of nightmares) to sleep? Carrying them, putting them to bed, music box, blankets, cozy time, sleepy vibes. Since Moon is, well, Moon, he will probably stay awake and watch over y/n, making sure they have no bad dreams.
That was super specific, yeah... Just make my dreams come true and I'll give you this candy: 🍬 Deal?
(I'm super happy that you're super bubbly too! BUBBLY TEAM!!)
Hello! Welcome! I will be glad to fulfill your request hehe! thank you for the candy!!!
Enjoy this little drabble :] I liked writing it.
Another yawn escapes your lip. You catch Moon's flinch out of the corner of your eye. "You're tired," He grumbles. Shrugging, you go back to what you were doing before, putting pen to paper to express your creativity. You don't have any rebuttal, so you just give a noncommittal grunt.
A clawed blue hand gently plucks the pen from your hand and sets it aside. You groan and look up at the animatronic. Moon's faceplate rotates to look upright at you as he bends over you. "It's not even bedtime yet," you respond, nodding to the analogue clock on the wall.
6pm.
Moon gently traces a dark circle under your eye. "Dinner, then bed." He pulls your chair away from the desk you were sat at, making it clear that he was not going to argue. You begrudgingly stand and make your way to the kitchen.
You couldn't deny how exhausted you felt. It was difficult to walk. To even think. Of course you're tired. Yet, the mere thought of closing your eyes for even a second makes you sick to your stomach with anxiety. You could feel your chest constrict, making it harder to breathe.
Moon follows you to the kitchen, making sure you stay on task. You take a few deep breaths and rummage through the fridge. There are some leftovers that you don't really want to eat, but it's the best option for you at the moment. You open the microwave and place the food in, punching in the time to heat it up.
As you wait for your food to cook, you lean on the counter and try to ignore the way Moon watches your movements. You know you're tired and you know that your movements reflect that. You can't help the way that you yawn or how gravity seems to try to force your eyelids closed.
The beeps of the microwave make you jump, awake and aware. You pull your food out of the microwave and suck a sharp breath of air as you hold the hot dish in your hands. It wasn't your smartest move, but out of pure spite you stick to it. You can feel the way Moon rolls his eyes at your stubbornness.
You set your food down at the table and eat. Moon opts to clean the kitchen while he waits, letting you eat in peace. When you're finished, you take your dishes to the kitchen and clean them on the sink. You hesitate to leave.
"Are you ready?" Moon holds his hand out to you, and you stare at it before slowly shaking your head. Your nerves get the best of you. You know what's waiting for you when you go to sleep. You don't want to deal with that anymore. Not tonight. You can't handle it tonight.
Moon sighs, pinching where the bridge of his nose would be were he human. "C'mon, I'll carry you." He kneels to your level and holds his arms out to you. You know you're not getting away with refusing to sleep tonight, so you let out a sigh and hesitantly step into his arms. You hold onto him as he picks you up, securing you in his arms.
You rest your head on Moon's shoulder as he carries you to your room, feeling the anxiety bubble within you. He hums gently, rubbing your back to soothe you for a moment. When he gets to your room, he carries you in and gently shuts the door behind the two of you. It's dark.
Moon turns on the lamp that rests on your nightstand and pulls back the covers of your bed. You cling to him as he bends to set you down. "Come now, don't be like this," His raspy voice calls as he runs his fingers through your hair. "I know that you are scared, but it's okay. I am here. I won't leave your side." With his reassurance, you slowly let go of him and lay back on the bed.
Moon's optics brighten with delight now that you are cooperating. He covers you up with plenty of blankets, making sure you're nice and comfortable. You take a few breaths and let your eyes fall shut. The bed dips as Moon takes a seat right on the end of it where he usually sits.
The gentle lullaby of his internal music box begins, and you feel yourself slowly drifting off to sleep. It's comforting knowing that Moon is there to watch over you in your sleep. You feel... safe. He begins to quietly hum along to the music box and you finally drift off to sleep.
You don't have any nightmares that night, nor a hint of a bad dream. There's just warmth and comfort.
#Silas Writes Stuff#Slimes asks#complaintsconcepts#auughjghjhrtgherui I do not much like my own writing#As much as I enjoy writing- I am not a writer. I don't know how to write well.#But I hope you enjoy this regardless
59 notes
·
View notes
Text
is it just me or is there a recent(past few years) increase in people just. caring so much about what actors think ?
like, yes, sure, it can be interesting, but i don't actually give a flying fuck. their opinions don't matter more bc they're acting out the script.
actors are not writers. actors are not the source text. actors do not carry the correct answers to their character's future or inner life
#every day i open this app and tumblr opens 'for you' and i see takes and i scream on the inside#this is bear adjacent but also the weewoo show#they're gonna ask actors about ships and it doesn't fucking matter what the actor says#we cannot on tumblr. give this much energy to dissecting what that white man said about x#he doesn't write the scripts!!! he doesn't edit the scenes!!!#i feel so old but. jeeeeeeez#your ship might become canon#it might not#your ship is not something you can demand through interaction or expect simply bc there's support in the narrative#and the discussion 'should that be the case' is a different thing#but. the amount of 'if X doesn't happen...' that i see on here.... not as a joke#........ the writers don't care babes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#anyways. i miss the olden fandom days#can you tell my meds make me extra irritable or ? 🥴
17 notes
·
View notes
Text
I really don't buy the opinion that Louis hated becoming the "dom" + businessman in Paris. You can tell in that scene from 2x06 when he brings in the art piece to Armand's office he's entranced just talking about it and its potential. You all took Lestat's "All these roles you conform to and none of them your true nature" to mean he hates working/making money/providing for others in any capacity and just wants to be a submissive housewife (although we can see in Season 1 that the only thing keeping him happy in that role was Claudia- once she was gone or when Lestat became abusive towards her he hated it). Don't many housewives hate being housewives? Do businessmen always like the work? Louis likes being cared for and seen but he also likes having autonomy and projects to work on- money made by selling artwork fulfills that need. And Armand's supposed acceptance and submission in that 2x06 scene contrasts with Lestat's attitude towards Louis's work in New Orleans ("I have all the money we need" "This is Louis's hobby, not mine"), so that also plays into it. If Louis's making the money and taking charge in the bedroom, he can at least have the illusion of control.
Louis still doesn't know who he is at this point so saying he only likes being in certain roles (he's either a "violent pimp" or a passive wallflower who only likes to bottom, neither of which are true and the former being a really racist statement) contradicts his overall arc in Season 2. And the sad part is he still hasn't found it by the end of the season because he's found himself stuck with another abusive partner with his last tethers to humanity cut off. But saying he was forced into trying these new things out in Paris or has always despised playing the "Maitre" role throughout the duration of their relationship (for reasons other than when Armand tries to take back control while he's performing it, which is why it doesn't work in the first place), is a stretch in my opinion. The only conclusive thing we can make about Louis's preferences is that he hates when things grow stagnant. He can't play one role for too long, otherwise it gets boring.
#louis de pointe du lac#loumand#iwtv meta#iwtv#interview with the vampire#currently rewatching season 2 before the finale#people have already said this before in some capacity so this is probably a needless post#thinking about that one person a while ago who said 'i love louis but the reason i don't think about him that much#is because the characters around him are so much MORE you know?' and i'm just over here being like wow#everyone really overlooks louis's depth and reduce him to “one thing” while the writers actually wrote him in a very complex way#because do people irl life like being stuck being one thing? performing one role?#i don't remember jacob anderson's exact quote about louis but he said something about louis always trying to find and accept himself yet#will still never be happy in whatever role he's in and i found that really interesting and very human#a lot of dubai loumand's behaviour is more stomach-churning this time round because of what we know what armand did in san francisco#but they clearly were attracted to each other and liked having sex so#constantly saying loumand's sex life was terrible louis got the ick anytime armand initiated physical contact it's. um. yeah.#maybe ask yourself why you think so
21 notes
·
View notes
Note
Hi Pia
Feel free to ignore if this is unwelcome, but have you ever thought about publishing traditionally to sublimate your income and draw in new readers? I know you've self published two books already and that you didn't feel like they did very well, but maybe the experience would be different if someone else was in charge of marketing and all the other business stuff?
Obviously everyone's experience is different but as an author myself who's published both trad and self, traditional publishing has been a completely different experience and has allowed me to focus more on writing because I'm not the one responsible for advertising/marketing/financing anymore.
There are a ton of literary agents nowadays that want to represent diverse and lgbtqia+ fiction, some of them even in Australia.
Websites like Reedsy, AgentQuery and Jerichowriters have extensive directories to find literary agents.
(This is lengthy folks so I'm putting the other two parts (and my response) under a read more! Also putting it under a read more so the anon can skip my response since it's very 'here's all the reasons I can't do this' and they just might not want to read that, lmao)
(continued -> )
Trad publishing houses have better resources for marketing and helping authors get more attention than any self publishing website could.
Obviously most authors, unless they're really prolific, don't get a huge advance (the average is between $1000 - $5000) but getting your foot in the door or on the traditional publishing "ladder' so to speak can have a huge benefit for your serials. Because it gives you more exposure. Plus it's in the agent's best interest to find a publishing house that accepts stories that contain darker themes and negotiate the best deal for you.
For some reason places like Amazon and the like accept and keep up more "dark" books that are traditionally published than they do with self pub ones. Maybe because they have more respect or leniency for publishing houses? I have no idea. But you could use this to your advantage. I think I remember you mentioning that writing novels felt quite isolating to you? But you already have 2 completed novels (3 if you count the fae one) that you could potentially revisit or rewrite to your liking and get them represented by agents.
You already have a loyal readership and that's very attractive to trad pub houses and agents.
As well as trad publishing, you could also make s simple website that doesn't require much maintenance. It could be just a landing page that says something about you and then has links to your tumblr and patreon where you're more active. That way you increase the chances of getting your serials found by additional readers and also come across looking more "professional". Not that you're not professional now. You are and I admire you greatly, but the unfortunate reality is a lot of people still judge by appearances and some will be more drawn to an author's website than a tumblr page, at least at first. So I think having a simple landing page would open up another door for you to benefit from.
Trad publishing is work but definitely not as much as self publishing, and you can continue on with your serials. Getting an agent can be time consuming but I personally believe the pros outweigh the cons and I also believe that your stories would be a huge treasure to the growing lgbtqia+ market. Seriously there needs to be more!
These are just suggestions and thoughts and like I said before, feel free to ignore. But I know you've mentioned wanting to grow your career in the past and I genuinely believe you can do so with some of these pathways.
~
Okay, my response. Posting this because firstly I think the suggestions could work very well for other authors reading this! And I hope they take the advice to note, and secondly because I haven't talked about this for a hot minute so let's talk about it again.
So the TL;DR is yes I have considered traditional publishing. I have actually been traditionally published in short stories, poetry, and also had my art published on covers and re: interior illustrations. But my Fae Tales works got soundly rejected when I sent them to publishing houses that were doing open calls for that sort of material. I've never heard back from an agent and I never expect to, heh.
~
Now for a bit more detail
I have been traditionally published before (it's how I got my writing out there long before I ever wrote serials), and yes, I have approached publishers with my writing since then. In fact Tradewinds was written for the traditional publishing market, and it got soundly rejected, and then shelved. The reasons it was rejected ran the gamut from 'I don't like that these fae eat humans no one is going to relate to these people' (while the editor then went on to publish vampire books idk) to 'There's too much worldbuilding you can't expect readers to keep up with this' to 'Your stories are too long, no one wants to read characters talking all the time.'
Meanwhile in my online serials I was getting feedback like 'my favourite chapters are the ones where the characters just sit in a room and talk' lol.
The traditional publishing world is also not quite as utopian for most authors as you make it seem. I'm friends with a lot of authors who are traditionally published because that's the world I came from, and unless they're solely in KU and doing generic rapid release formula romances, none of them are making that much money. Certainly not enough to live off. It may have been that you were very fortunate, anon, but I know hundreds more traditionally published authors that left trad pub to make money, and I know about 5 in trad pub personally who are making enough to live off of.
Only one of those is really writing what she truly loves to write, and even then, publishing houses have refused to commit to her entire fantasy series (and she's regularly in 'Top 10/20 Women Fantasy Authors in the World' lists) and forced her to finish the series prematurely. Something I never ever have to worry about in self pub.
The reality is that in trad pub these days, you're still in charge of most of your marketing unless you're one of the big earners for the publishing house. In fact I'd be expected to keep even more of a social media and marketing presence than I do now. I don't do almost any of the things you're supposed to do as an author in marketing to be appealing. I don't have a Facebook author account. I don't have an Instagram author account. I don't maintain or regularly send out newsletters (which automatically puts me in the like 0.05% of authors who make money doing this lmao).
I don't know if you ever have looked that closely into what m/m publishing houses expect from most of their authors, but the newsletter swaps, cover releases, review circuits, interview circuits and more are fucking grueling. We're expected to be responsible for our advertising and our marketing to a fairly massive degree. Some traditionally published in m/m still have to pay for their release blitzes out of pocket. These publishing houses, by and large, do not offer advances. You say most authors don't get large advances. I don't think most authors in this arena get offered advances at all unless they're somehow miraculously acquired by a Big 4.
We're expected to have an already established social media presence because of that (that's why it's so appealing to publishers that we have social media presences already, anon, so we can market, they can save money, and we still see only a minimal cut from the royalties).
And you still have to focus on your finances, because publishing houses like Dreamspinner straight up didn't pay a whole bunch of authors for so long they destroyed careers. They still haven't paid some of their authors. And they're still running a business and people still buy their books.
Trad publishing houses have better resources for marketing and helping authors get more attention than any self publishing website could.
This is true if a) they're a big publishing house and not an indie publisher of which most LGBTQIA+ publishing houses are and b) they're willing to use them on you.
The authors that make the most money get the most resources. If they believe you're going to earn back your advance and move thousands or tens of thousands of units per book, then yes, you will get those resources.
I have been told so many times now - even from friends who run publishing houses, including one who works at HarperCollins - that my work will never be mainstream enough to have broad appeal. They literally told me not to keep trying re: trad pub, because that was my dream for a long time. These folks have given me rock solid advice in the past, it's one of the reasons I'm doing so well now via Patreon + Ream. But they were like (paraphrasing) 'you don't write 60-80k romances and you don't want to and that's not your strength anyway, you're multi-genre which makes you hard to market, you write psychological and literary trauma recovery which is hard to market, you write character studies which are hard to market, publishing houses often don't commit to series anymore if the first two don't move units and if they pulled the plug you'd be contractually obliged to never finish that series until your contract was up.' I could go on, but it was like yeah...actually. Fair.
For some reason places like Amazon and the like accept and keep up more "dark" books that are traditionally published than they do with self pub ones. Maybe because they have more respect or leniency for publishing houses?
They do, but most publishing houses want very formulaic dark romance which is not what I write.
I have a 300k omegaverse slowburn that still hasn't had any penetrative sex in it, anon. Publishing houses don't want that. They don't expect anyone will wait 4 full length novels to get to literally a single penetrative sex scene.
But you already have 2 completed novels (3 if you count the fae one) that you could potentially revisit or rewrite to your liking and get them represented by agents.
If I rewrote them to my liking, trad pub wouldn't want them. They'd be too long! I think agents etc. take one look at me and go 'oh god, no thank you!' I'm not an easy sell, by any means.
Plus I'm very e.e about all of that with the knowledge that they then give me only about 10-15% of the royalties on the sales, vs. self-pub where I get around 70%, or subscription where I around 80% of it. When someone subscribes to me, they don't have to worry about 85-90% of their subscription fee going to a publishing house. I don't have to think about how many thousands and thousands of books I'd have to sell to make the same amount that I do now via subscription.
As well as trad publishing, you could also make s simple website that doesn't require much maintenance.
If it was that simple, I'd be doing it. I don't mean this in a facetious way, I mean it in a: I've made a lot of websites, in fact I run one at the moment not connected to my writing (I've been running it for so long it's now in its 20s and can probably has a driver's license). I find it so tedious that I barely remember to check in on it. But forgetting about it means there's always maintenance to keep up with when I get back to it.
Running websites is simpler than it used to be, but it's still not simple. There's hosting and hosting costs, there's server changes, there's back-end maintenance etc. I'm considering it for down the track, but there's a reason I decided to go the route of Patreon over my own site. There are authors (like Christopher Hopper) who actually do subscription through their own domain, but it's a lot of work.
Even placeholder sites are still work. They need updating, details change, story titles changing etc. Maintaining my Patreon + Ream About pages is enough, they're always both a little out of date, lol.
Not that you're not professional now.
Oh no, I mean from a 'traditional publisher looking at me to see what kind of candidate I am' I'm really not though. Like I said, I don't have the newsletter (100 subscribers who get one newsletter a year is not really a newsletter), I don't have the Facebook/Tiktok/Insta/Twitter/Bluesky/Threads accounts, etc. I write multi-genre across multiple steam levels, and I'm allergic to writing serials shorter than 150k. One of my best performing original serials was an 800k contemporary story with no sex in it but a lot of BDSM. It can't be marketed as clean or sweet, it's not high steam, an entire chapter is 'boy saves snail from rain.' Also he was cruel to animals, so not exactly what I'd call a sympathetic main.
And yet that story did so well for me via Patreon + Ream, because people want the kinds of stories that publishing houses generally don't want and I happen to be writing them.
Trad publishing is work but definitely not as much as self publishing, and you can continue on with your serials. Getting an agent can be time consuming but I personally believe the pros outweigh the cons and I also believe that your stories would be a huge treasure to the growing lgbtqia+ market. Seriously there needs to be more!
Anon I just literally do not believe an agent would want to represent me. I have 0% belief in that. Not from a self-deprecating angle but from a 'I am not a good bet for the trad market' perspective. From a 'I have so many friends who are trad pubbed authors who stare at me like I'm insane for writing serials as long as I do' perspective. From a 'professionals in the industry have told me it's amazing I'm doing so well in serials because there's no way they'd take a risk on what I'm doing' perspective. From a 'just because it's queer and diverse doesn't mean it hits literally any other thing a trad pub is looking for' perspective. I've been doing this for 10 years. There are agents who represent work similar to mine who know what I'm doing and wouldn't touch me with a ten foot pole. They're not missing out on a trick, they know I'm not broad appeal, and they're right.
Also the only way I'd have the energy to manage trad pub is by quitting serials. And honestly, I never found trad pub all that much fun while I was doing it for non-novel stuff. It was fine, and it is nice to have my stuff out there, but it was a ton of admin and a lot of going back and forth between people who really only care about marketing a product, and that's great and what they excel at! But I'm too disabled to turn this job into something crushing just to potentially make more money, I'd rather just quit and go back onto a full Disability Pension. I can't see any way I still get to write the stories I want to write, in the way that I write them, and be remotely appealing to a single reputable trad pub or agent.
Also *gestures to everything in this article*
#asks and answers#pia on writing#pia on publishing#i appreciate your thoughts anon#and i'm so happy it's working out well for you#and that you're able to live off what you're doing#you are one of the rare outliers in the world of publishing#and i truly wish you all the success in the world#i do think a lot of your advice will go to help a lot of writers who sometimes check in#at my tumblr#but yeah no i don't even write that much 'dark' stuff in the classic sense#of what trad pub wants#right now the publishing world that i'm adjacent to#seems to view me as some kind of oddity#'i don't know how he's making an income off all this stuff that we know would never work for us'#'how odd and strange'#'best leave him alone'#most authors are thankfully not doing what i'm doing#in which case yes they should absolutely consider agent representation#and looking into trad pub#unfortunately i'm not like a CS Pacat#even though she's a role model for me#and when i tried to write for the more traditional market#which was perth shifters#i honestly really struggled
24 notes
·
View notes
Note
ghost!!!!
would it be a good thing or a bad thing to simp for zemorri? i feel like i should be conflicted about him, but i am instead simply biased.
anyways, use this as an excuse to give us zemorri lore pls.
thanks :)
Ayy!! My comfiest writer!!
Honestly I wake up everyday asking the same thing. He's not an outright evil character, but he does bring a lot of questions about morals and what is right and what is wrong. Specially in his case when there is no real winning for anyone, at least in book 1. How it unfolds in later books is honestly a mystery to even me. For once I don't have a clear definitive path with my writing, which is exciting!! For the most part. God Zemorri and Sciosa are going to give me a run for my money ripp
But on to some Zemorri lore!!
I was going to go on about some of the more light hearted things, his name, his dragon bond, etc. but I feel the need to dive a bit deeper. Let's go with his claim to the Vultis throne.
Zemorri was raised as a bastard, believed to be the son of a disgraced dragon rider who attempted to betray the Good Emperor Mikath, Zemorri's real father, and tip the odds to the Usurper Xorulth favor. Zevetta actually wasn't told who to claim was Zemorri's father, only that she was to protect him at all costs and prepare him for the day he would have to reclaim his throne. So Zevetta came up with that lie on her own. Knowing that Zemorri would be better received if the man who fathered him died fighting for the Usurper and also who Zevetta could've logically had the proximity to conceive with. So not only has Zemorri lived a lie his whole life, he's done so while being in close proximity to the Usurper.
Zemorri and his mom have played a very dangerous game. Zevetta getting her husband to talk to the Usurper and basically talk Zemorri up while Zemorri is off doing all these "great" deeds in the King's name. We're not even going to go into the fact that his stepfather let Zemorri be raised with his true born sisters.
I should also mention that Zemorri as the imperial champion ranks above the whole military, his stepfather included. He only has to answer to the Emperor. The crown prince too, but that's more of a case by case basis tbh. So him, already plotting and scheming from a young age to claim the throne, mixed with his rank in court, as well as going to Nivra? Simply put, shit's going down in Nivra.
Oh, and a bonus. Zemorri's dragon Indiss is actually a wild dragon. He doesn't listen to the Zrato like one bred, hatched, and raised dragon would. He's also bigger, like x2 the usual dragon Zrato's ride. Indiss also is just a little freak in general, being as his usual breed is quite colorful with patterns on them and are mean. Indiss however is white as snow and doesn't eat everyone and thing he comes into contact with.
Zemorri is going to be either well loved or absolutely despised by anyone who reads POTO and they'll be no in between honestly lmaooo
Tagging the POTO Tag List because yes.
@lord-fallen @inkingfireplace @rhikasa @leahnardo-da-veggie @satohqbanana
@real-fragments @the-inkwell-variable @tildeathiwillwrite @fromthenortheast @heycerulean
@sonnetery @wyked-ao3
#writing#creative writing#writer#writblr#writers on tumblr#ask#p: poto#oc: zemorri#oc: zevetta#oc: xorulth#oc: mikath#idk how much he'll ever be brought up but might as well#also can you just imagine mikath and the dragon rider in their after life?#the BEEF they must have#dragon rider has name#i just don't recall it off the top of my head#and he's not that important anyway#both in life and in death ❤️#i'm answering this at 2 am#whoops
13 notes
·
View notes