CLICKBAIT 2

More thoughts regarding issues with creators and online marketing

Following on from my (almost) viral post of last week regarding the increasing issues we are challenged with online (see my earlier ‘CLICKBAIT’ post) I'd like to drill into some specifics slightly more here:

One thing a few people said is (more or less) 'don't worry about online reach. Your fans will always support you by buying your actual printed work'. I lightly pushed back on that by suggesting that no they won't if they don't know it's out there. But it's more complicated than just that!

On mainstream titles we can count on some support from the publisher - which will vary depending on what the marketing dept. deems worth their money. Sadly they tend to waste it on propping up the titles that are already guaranteed sales generally - which creators tend to agree is extremely short-sighted, but about which we have had little to no impact over the decades. Creators, of course should stay in their lanes (except that we are also expected to use part of our precious time to act as unpaid marketing people ourselves! Editors can also be frustrated by these same issues, before we think it's just us creators feeling persecuted as usual!)

But when it comes to independent work - and I'll use my latest book 'ORE' as an example (which is out right now, folks!) - it gets increasingly tough. To address the first point, about people knowing a book is out, here's the other thing: Retailers ALSO have to know it's out, and they'll often get their info the same way everybody else does. Sure, there's also Previews, and other ways publishers push books, but it's hard to stay on top of the vast quantity of new material coming out weekly, and decisions have to be made. They rely, to a large extent, on customers telling them what they want. Otherwise they may order a bare minimal of something new to try it, but no demand has been created. There's no hype, no excitement, and the books vanish, never to be seen.

In the past, when we COULD actually reach our hard-won online audiences, we could build a little excitement as solo creators. Our previews would be seen. Our sneaky peeks would create a little buzz. Reviewers would pick up the news, as would podcasters, and so on. Our personal eco-systems actually worked. Not so now!

Going back to 'ORE' - I've had it up on my banner for literally months and months. I've posted previews for over a year. When 'StarHenge' started winning awards, I mentioned the follow-up 'ORE'. Every opportunity, on every platform I'm on, I mentioned it whenever I could without (I hope!) becoming a stuck record, and highly annoying!

And here's another thing - I'm solo on that book, even down to the lettering. No big name writer to plug it through their channels. No colorist, no letterer. It's all just had to come from me, which is potentially a significantly smaller reach (and that's another less-known reason we do the variants, which foolishly, it seems now, I DIDN'T do with 'ORE' - much more reach through other creators.)

But despite my best efforts, I'm being told on a fairly daily basis, that people didn't even know it was coming. Even amongst my most ardent supporters there are a significant number that just didn't know about 'ORE" at all.

So, circling back again, it's not just about online reach in isolation. If people don't know, they won't let their retailers know they want it. If the retailers don't know, then the orders end up small, or non-existent (remember, retailers have to be very careful about what they are prepared to take a risk on.) If the orders are too small, books like 'ORE' can't sustain themselves, make no money, and subsequently disappear without trace. Potentially long-form works like my 'StarHenge' saga can end up dead in the water simply because their already-established fanbases had no idea they existed, despite our ongoing and extensive attempts to inform them.

The question we ALL face is - what can we do about that? But I'll save that for another day, as I'm still not 100% sure, but I 'think' it's about getting old-school, and utilizing the old analog techniques and a bit of the actual human touch...

All reactions:

4Eduardo Merlo and 3 others