I write short stories, thoughts, and poems on Louder Words. The idea behind it is to have an all-text blog to put the focus back on writing as well as produce poems and stories that are thought-provoking and short enough for people to easily read on their smartphones and tablets while travelling, or during any downtime such as sitting in a waiting room.
I'm not very good at marketing/publicizing my own stuff, so I was wondering if anybody has some advice for me to share this work with those who would be interested without being annoying about it.
I don't think there's a way to share your work without getting into social networking. Don't worry though! By social networking, I don't mean "pushing product by spamming accumulated channels" which is probably the most result-driven and cynical way to look at it. Come to think of it, all the terms people use like, "leveraging a platform" just feel slimey. I don't mean that you have to do that. Take hubski. If thenewgreen posted a submission tomorrow that said hey, I'm launching a podcast -- I would listen. That's because I recognize him, he's a familiar presence, I like his perspective, he's really active here. I would read and share his work because he's invested in this community in a way I appreciate so I know I would be likely to find value in his work. Hear that, thenewgreen? Seriously, do it. Art needs a community to receive it. Established institutions have that community baked in already. We aren't backed by institutions, so we need to be directly involved in making the community and the less cynical, the more generous that involvement is the better. There's better and worse ecosystems for what you want to do. Facebook is not it. Reddit can be OK, but lacks a robust follow feature in a big anonymous sea. Hubski is good, but it's small. I don't know much about tumblr or wordpress or goodreads social features, although I hear goodreads is good. I've been diving into Google+ lately and... it's actually really good. I wanna write more about it soon in it's own thread, but I'm incredibly impressed. I think it might be the next big thing. Really very solid and seems to be the best of all worlds... plus, your posts become searchable throughout google. Really powerful stuff and worth a look into... the community Poets of G+ is well run, a diverse 3k strong and active from what I've seen at least.
Hey, thanks Floatbox I appreciate reading that. I will continue to podcast, check out the #tngpodcast tag. I've fallen away from it but I will return with vigor! One of the things that baffles me is that some communities discourage people sharing their own creations. I suppose the Hubski architecture makes it less "spammy". If you don't like what someone is posting, don't follow them. If you know any burgeoning authors, please let them know that they have a safe place here at Hubski. I love all of the short stories and poetry being posted of late. It's wonderful. Plus writers tend to have interests outside of writing and post other interesting content.
Woa... didn't even know you already had podcasts up! I'll definitely take a look. I agree about the original content. The writing here, as well as most things on hubski, is always interesting if not straight good. I think the size and architecture both work against the spam. Also, I'm trying to introduce a talented poet friend of mine lamenting a way to find content online... man I hope that happens. I'll start posting some of my work too!
That's great, I hope that your friend stops by, dips a toe in the water and decides to swim. That's the best way for Hubski to grow and stay interesting, by referral. I look forward to you posting your work. Enjoy those podcasts. I really like the space video cast that steve put together.
Can I just say, though, the Poetry community is G+ is active...but it's not necessarily great. At least, not the one I'm in. Also, thenewgreen totally do a podcast! I'm a podcast fangirl (got a couple friends who are really into them/produce their own) and I would absolutely add you to my list. It's the new free media, the new radio. I also agree with Floatbox about why he/I would listen; because tng is a familiar presence in the community I feel I have a sort of bond with, and so I want to check out his stuff, help him out. Honestly my personal connection to the community is partially why I'm willing to share poems here.
Thanks for the encouragement _refugee_, I appreciate it. You can checkout my past #tngpodcast's by following that link. I would recommend checking out the video casts that steve has put together for them, which are also in that tag. Enjoy!
Whicb one are you in?(Poets of G+) is really well run... though I wouldn't say the quality of actual poetry is of hubski standard, there are gems, but there have been some extraordinary discussions had. I know the structure of PoG+ has just changed to greatly limit the volume of poetry so it might be worth checking back if it was crap before.
yeahhhh.... no Poets of G+ is the only one that's moderated it looks like. And the moderation is the best I've seen online. People can only submit once to specific contests that then are curated into a flipboard newsletter. The (eight) mods are all hubski standard and active. I've met and discussed with many great people with broad expertise. That being said, I've lost interest currently. I want to jump back in... but it takes a lot of work still to power through the sludge. I wish G+ controls were a bit more fine grained so I could filter out specific categories. They've got 100 newcomers in the last week. That's a lot of enthusiastic newbies. But, if I had a poetry book to promote, it would be the best bet. All you have to do is give people the slightest of feedbacks and you're in their good graces. The community is good about keeping spam off though, so you have to circle pretty aggressively and then let them know outside of the community. Also, if the mods like you they will give you a shoutout in their own (sometimes impressively big) sphere. louderwords -- maybe you might have success promoting Hool this way?
They've set it up so you don't have to. They've got communities that function as better subreddits, then architecture similar to hubski with tags and circles (although it would be great to have something like a badge), most people are using real names and photos so it's got a more intimate feel, but the privacy controls aren't built to emphasize voyeurism (looking at you facebook), so it feels safe enough to minimize posturing (looking at your again facebook). They've got hangouts built in so you can live cast or conference really easily. And everybody seems eager to interact and circle ya back. Plus (lol), the more you use it, the better the whole google platform gets for you. Worth a shot I'm telling ya.
I enjoy what I have read so far, particularly the subway "where do I look" piece. Who hasn't been there? I think there is a lot of value in short, stream of consciousness writing because it can be a good mirror in to the mind and many people can relate with that style in a way that they can't others. As for your question about how to organically spread your writing, I would say that you are doing that right now. All you can really do "organically" is to take advantage of any and all avenues to share what you've created. Perhaps the writers of Hubski can help kleinbl00, maynard,_refugee_, onehunna, Becoming_Betty, humanodon, lil, Floatbox, AshShields, cW or theadvancedapes, any advice as to how to "organically" spread your writing? (I'm sure I've missed some of the many writers..sorry) I find the question particularly intriguing given that I am in the process of thinking about starting a podcast on the topic of "writing." If anyone of you would be willing to participate, please let me know. theadvancedapes and kleinbl00 have committed to participating. edit: Also, seatraveler, you can create a "LouderWords" account on Hubski and submit your work. If people like the content they can follow your account, if they don't they won't. We encourage people posting original content.
I'm by no means an established writer. So take this opinion with a grain of salt. But I think the time of fast turn-around blogging with the use of a single news source as primary to support an obvious opinion is coming to an end. The reason for this is because too many people do it and the process doesn't offer much additional content to entice readers. This is a somewhat obvious opinion, yet there are piles of people who want to start blogs doing just this. If you want to pull in readers, go get sources that aren't easily available on the Internet. Go to books. Interview someone on your own. Take your own photographs. Pull it all together in a crafted piece and take the time necessary to get it right. That also means revise the work before publication. Sure, pass a rough around among friends or in a small community to get critique. But don't publish initial rough drafts. They always suck. You know what drives hits? Recipes. Self-help advice. Pop trivia. Extreme opinions that piss people off. And completely original content. Put together something that goes beyond topics on the 24 hour news cycle and write for the Google search market. Create something that has staying power. Prepare to write longer pieces beyond just a thousand or two thousand words. And screw all those people who say you have to post a short piece every day. Even if that's true, it doesn't teach you how to write long form for newspapers and magazines professionally; much less books. Finally, if you want to write fiction and are new to the craft, consider going to Literotica under a pen name and posting pr0n. There are a pile of readers there. You'll get thousands of hits off the bat, and the rating system will quickly show you piece by piece what works and what doesn't. Use the place as a means to test technique and craftsmanship, then walk away and move on to more traditional venues. Hope this helped. Again, JMO. And I'm sure there are other folks better able to give a pro opinion on the site. I'll poke my head in here again and to see what others have to say.
All those me-too blogs I think are symptomatic of result-orientation, as if content were merely a means to gain hits, as if the real interest was popularity, money. No, we are breathers and feelers and thinkers and makers damnit! We are looking to connect in the most basic sense with other people! We are looking to see our babies exist in the world. To find home. Money is the root of all of this. Capitalism is bad for culture. Yeah, I said it!But I think the time of fast turn-around blogging with the use of a single news source as primary to support an obvious opinion is coming to an end. The reason for this is because too many people do it and the process doesn't offer much additional content to entice readers. This is a somewhat obvious opinion, yet there are piles of people who want to start blogs doing just this.
I'm not totally sure what "organically spreading" really means. People organically coming across your work happens occasionally, but it's going to happen a lot more if you put it out there. I have a (really average) modicum of success with my writing. I managed to live off it for a month or so after my book release, but that was about it. It's going to be a passion rather than a main source of income for a long time, and I'm okay with that. I've picked up writing jobs here and there, ones that get me actually published, but they're all pro-bono/volunteer, which I'm okay with because they hold the promise (well, one of them, at the very least) of paid work sometime in the future, and it's writing that I enjoy (I mean, reviewing albums I love is something I do anyway, the only difference is that the published works are slightly more formal/polished). But I guess it's not really about the money. The best way, I think, to get your work out there (aside from pandering to specific markets, etc... I'll stay out of that area...) is to maintain an online presence. It's something I write quite a bit about in relation to music, and working with live bands once a week means I see good and bad examples of it all the time. Some acts, the ones that tend to do well, are, at the very least, really active on Facebook. They post at least once a week. I see others who haven't posted in 6 months - not even the fact that they're going to be on live radio that very night. The link between activity and success isn't a totally solid one, and (at least, in the music biz) having a Facebook alone but no soundcloud/bandcamp etc isn't enough, but it certainly doesn't hurt. Having that presence is going to make you connections, too - something I owe a lot to. My small-time (again, volunteer) radio job I owe to knowing people, and now, knowing the boss I have here has helped so much. I got to go to a pretty darn big industry, invite-only event earlier in the year at which I met even more people. In terms of writing, I went along to an event/panel at the city library last month or so and did a really quick, shoddy write-up of it, posted it on twitter, Facebook, etc, and it got retweeted and commented on by the library, librarians, local writers, those who held the event. I'm friends with a few of them now (not close friends, to be sure, but the sort of friends who I enjoy talking to simply for talking to - and they have the benefit of being in the industry I want to be in). The publicity of that post brought in a few readers, and even a few who went back and read a bunch of older posts. Hell, I have a hubski-related example: after talking here about radio work etc, I got a message from ButterflyEffect asking if I could get an album on air here (I'm in the process of trying at the moment, and at the very least I expect to be able to pass it on to a few hosts) and he sent me a digital copy. After listening and enjoying, I spent literally five or ten minutes writing something really short about it (I was exhausted and had some time to kill in the middle of a really long day) and posted it to my blog, sent it to him, etc. His publicising that mini-review brought in a reasonable amount of traffic (thanks for that, by the way, BE). Social media is a huge advantage. I let slip every now and then, but I try to stay active at least on twitter, and to write and post something at least every other week, and it really is worth it. So, yeah, what TNG said: take advantage of any avenue you can find to share what you have. Alongside that, keep up a profile that isn't just your writing - there's no guarantee that people who enjoy what you as a person have to say will enjoy what you as a writer produce, but usually there's a lot of overlap, and people are obviously more likely to check out something if they know the person who made it (as Floatbox said).
Oh it did? That's awesome, glad it worked out to help you too! I was pumped to see anybody writing about it, and comparing that to a Flying Nuns release was a big upper for us. We love that label.
It is an absolutely fantastic label. So many of my favourite Kiwi acts are on it.
Really appreciate the advice! I want to reply to each comment, but am about to crash after working all day. I'm going to create a louderwords account and share with the hubski community, which I was hopeful would be receptive to my writing but the healthy response to my question and the other projects it seemed to help coagulate makes me feel even better.
As far as spreading your writing without shilling it around, it can be tough... No doubt. It's hard to get people to read things these days, but make no mistake--there's an audience for just about anything out there. The hard part is finding the audience. To be honest, I'm working my ass off to get published right now (while working through school), and while I have a blog, I don't update it much as I spend most of my time working on my novel. However my best advice is consistency. On the blog you have now, keep pushing out content on the regular. I have a few friends who started blogs from nothing, having no readers but me and their girlfriends and now have regular readers. It's mainly a matter of persistence and perseverance, keeping your site fresh is huge. Over time, people will start to recognize your work, although it may be very slow. Just gotta keep working hard to improve your craft and you will find an audience. Find what your 'niche' is, and cater to it. For example one of my buddies is a writer but he loves typewriters, collecting them as a hobby. So he posts pictures of his collection along with his work and he has gained a nice readership. And as thenewgreen has already mentioned, use the avenues available to you like reddit, Hubski, CritiqueCircle, Absolute Writer's Watercooler Forum... There's tons of sites out there. Hell, I just started posting my work to this site and have already gotten some good feedback. Also, I'd be down to participate in a podcast on writing. It's not just my passion, it's my life... And I love talking about it with others. And your podcasts are primo dude.
Have you considered the self-publishing route? It's what I've done with my first book (no idea if I'll do it with the one I'm currently working on, I'll see how it goes) and for the extreme lack of effort I put into publicising it outside of social media, it's done alright. I was never expecting hundreds of sales, but I've sold about 20-30 copies now, which I think isn't terrible for where I am and the effort it took. Self-publishing is a lot of work, but I really like the amount of control it gives me. I would seriously consider any publishing offer, for sure, and with the amount of work university etc gives me at the moment, I'd probably take it, but I can certainly see myself self-publishing other works in the future.
Have you linked to your blog? I'd like to check that out if I've not already. Sorry for the vague recolection, I'm two glasses in to a fun night of absinthe enjoyment. One thing I would suggest to you or anyone else out there with a blog that they think would be something the Hubski community is interested in is "Discussion Via Hubski." Take a look at this post from theadvancedapes site. Scroll down to the bottom and check out his comment section. You'll note that it's the hubski comments mirrored on his site. We've begun offering this to sites that we think our community would enjoy the content from. Let me know if you or anyone are interested. Its been a great symbiotic thing for the blogs and Hubski. onehunna, I'll reach out to you with the questions for the podcast and the process etc in the next couple of weeks. Thanks for agreeing!
Music for podcast on writing: Here's a song you can use 36 seconds of pure joy.
Also, damn, yes, I'd love that comment thing - though I'm currently using Disqus.
I haven't linked to my blog on here yet. Mainly because it... blows. Yeah. As I said, I very rarely update it. It was my New Year's Resolution to regularly update my shit and (surprise, surprise) I have failed miserably. I'm hoping my lack of attention to my blog will pay off in the future with a book deal. That comment thing is sweet for sure, though. I saw it used on lil's site as well. Will it work for Tumblr?
I'm not sure about Tumblr. mk or forwardslash, do you know if it is compatible? As for the blog, I know it's hard to be consistent with them. It's a lot of work for seemingly little reward at times. I'm off to check it out, it's all new to me.
It looks like you can edit the HTML of your tumblr so it's possible.
I saw this post last week but things have been really busy. I'm going to give it a thought and try to come up with a better response than what I have now. Also, thenewgreen I don't think my shoutouts are working. I haven't been getting notifications in my inbox for them. (Am I looking in the wrong place? Should I only get them via e-mail?)
When you go to your hubwheel to the right of your username in the top bar and click on it, it doesn't show the comments/posts where another user has "shouted out" to you?
_refugee_ did that work? Also, with the other shout outs, are you sure they spelled your name correctly? It would be easy to forget one of the _
Also, thenewgreen, I'd definitely in to participate with the podcast.
This is a question I'm curious about too. I think onehunna is right about it being hard to find the right audience. A piece of writing can be like a song in many ways, but one that comes to mind is that if a potential reader or listener isn't ready/in the mood to take it in, they either won't, or they won't like it. Writing can be tough for a lot of reasons, but it's also tough because the writer typically isn't there to get instant feedback from the reader's reactions. Right now I'm still trying to figure out how to manage the whole internet thing too. On my site (sites?) I mainly show drafts of stuff that I'm working on. What I am kind of stuck on though, is that I am also involved in a collaborative writing effort and I am undecided whether or not to use those drafts. Unfortunately, most of my recent output has been for that project. _refugee_ turned me on to Duotrope, which is a service that sorts various markets for writers to submit to. I haven't checked it out much, but it does look like a pretty useful tool. The other contests and publications I have been submitting to, I learned about by talking to friends who are also involved in writing.