Safe Marketing Practices + linguistic tools, subgenres, & op-eds
5 tips for feeling protected while marketing; spec fic workshop; sub genres; lang generator; how to write op-eds; book blurbs; A.I.; book mystery; bookstore love is love; banning bans; elderberry tea
Greetings readers & writers,
I’ve just joined BlueSky (come say hi!!) to experiment with replacing Twitter in my social media ecosphere. So far, it seems pretty chill. But as I’m formulating how to approach a new account, I’m reflecting on privacy concerns when it comes to personal marketing. It isn’t easy and it isn’t perfect; the internet can often feel like the wild west when it comes to controlling what information is out there about you. So I thought I’d share the approach I use to feel more protected when marketing myself online (and elsewhere):
Be selective and establish boundaries. Marketing can open us up to vulnerability. Especially if our creative work feels personal, either in it’s writing or it’s subject matter, it can feel difficult (or even dangerous) to talk about in a public setting. So I am extremely selective about the information I choose to share online (and where I share it) when it comes to my personal life and my writing. Establishing boundaries like this allows you to create an authorial persona authentic to who you are (as relevant to your work), but isn’t everything that you are.
Consider: What spaces do you feel safest in? Knowing the flexibility of privacy settings, data collection, moderation tools, etc. can help inform this choice. What topics are you comfortable discussing? Which are off-limits?
The value of you vs. the value of your work. If you’ve taken one of my marketing classes, you know I like to draw the distinction between marketing yourself and marketing the value of the work you bring to the reader. This line of thinking adds another layer of distance between your self and the personal nature of your work.
Consider: How might your writing experience add value to the reader’s reading experience? What value does your work offer it’s readers to be willing to invest time and money to read it?
Anonymize your personal contact information. If you’re trying to sell or market your creative work, that makes it a business. So get yourself some business tools: a marketing-specific email, a free Google Voice number, a PO Box, a logo instead of a profile pic, a small business account, an author Facebook page, whatever makes sense for your situation. If privacy is of extra concern (and you have the $$), you could look into an online data removal service.
Consider: What business or privacy tools might be useful to you at this stage in your career? How might you use them as a buffer between you and your reading public?
Nom de plume. Want to distinguish your authorial persona for one book from another? Switching genres? Really need to anonymize your work? Consider a pen name. A lot of writers use them, for a variety of reasons. {Book Riot} Just make sure you are consistent across your branded spaces (e.g. use the same pen name on your website as your social media handle). You can decide how secretive you want to be, but know that being entirely secretive may limit some of your marketing opportunities.
Consider: How might a pen name affect your privacy and branding choices?
Don’t hesitate to block or step away. As safe as we try to be as a public figure, there will always be trolls and haters. I wish I had something truly prescriptive here, but there’s no one-shot fix until social media platforms and moderators get better about protecting the victims of online abuse. Sometimes not feeding the trolls will work, other times speaking up is the best course of action. No matter what, there is nothing wrong with blocking or reporting people who are causing you harm, locking down your accounts, or stepping away from a space for a while.
Consider: What content/words/accounts or social media sites might you want to preemptively block or avoid to improve your interactions online?
Back at Grub Street!
Where the Literary & the Speculative Meet: Re-defining Genre
December 9th | 10:30 AM Eastern | Zoom | Register here
“Fantasy is a tool of the storyteller,” says Neil Gaiman. Whether it’s a touch of time travel or an interstellar war, “speculative” writing is storytelling that breaks the rules of our world. But it also breaks down genre definitions and builds bestsellers: like N.K. Jemisin using the highly literary second person in her award-winning high fantasy, The Broken Earth trilogy, or Carmen Maria Machado’s In The Dream House incorporating fairytale elements into memoir. Where are these genre lines drawn? And by whom? Together we’ll explore definitions and examples of speculative and literary writing and how they overlap; how publishers uses these terms to classify books and authors; and the perils of genre gatekeeping.
Writing/Marketing Resources
You know I love talking about genre (see my upcoming workshop!) I really enjoyed this exploration of authors who’ve defined their own subgenres. {BookRiot}
Check out how to successfully pitch op-eds {Jane Friedman’s blog} in this excerpt from Estelle Erasmus’s Writing That Gets Noticed.*
If you’re looking to add some linguistic magic to your work, check out this free fantasy language generator as well as C. E. Covington’s Kickstarter for a writer's guide to linguistic worldbuilding (only one more day to back!)
A deep dive into the importance and flaws of book blurb culture. {Esquire}
Check out the sequel, The Dane of My Existence,* out now!
Reading Corner
“ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web” by Ted Chiang {The New Yorker}
This article by SFF writer Ted Chiang (author of the story the movie Arrival was based on!) kinda blew my mind. I know it’s only one way of looking at A.I. and it’s influence on the internet and how we take in information, but the analogy is clear and kind of mind boggling.
Industry News
Ban the book bans! Judge Blocks Texas Book Ban Law {Publisher’s Weekly}
Investigative journalism at it finest (but without murder): The Mystery Behind ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ Cover Art Is Solved {New York Times— free link}
Love to see it: Nation's Oldest LGBTQ+ Bookstore is Ready for 50 More Years {The Advocate}
Amazon has announced a new policy requiring those who post content to its KDP platform to disclose to Amazon if the content contains AI-generated content. {Author’s Guild}
Paths to publishing: From Friends to Lovers: The Fanfic-to-Romance Pipeline Goes Mainstream {Vulture}
Tea
Cooler weather is coming some day soon… probably… and with it all the illnesses. So I’ve been guzzling Buddha Tea’s Organic Elderberry Tea in preparation. It steeps to a gorgeous reddish-purple color, has the slightly-sweet pucker of berries, and lots of immunity-boosting properties. Great hot or iced, with a big spoonful of honey to chase the germs away.
Take care of yourself. Curl up with a good book. Work on that story you’ve been meaning to write.
~Allison
Writer & Marketing Coach
Keep Writing, Keep Connecting! Substack | Facebook | Website | BlueSky
*Bookshop.org affiliate links. Proceeds go to a rotating list of book-related charities
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