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On marketing and tip jars
Aug. 19th, 2010 09:37 amThere's an interesting discussion on ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
haikujaguar's LJ on the subject of marketing, self-promotion, and how a freelancer might go about it without annoying potential customers or making themselves feel like a pushy sleaze. Which I can relate to quite strongly. Even though I've self-published a couple of books, I generally don't promote them beyond putting a link in to my storefront on my user page for LJ and DeviantArt. My nightmare job is be involved in Sales in any form. I don't like targeted ads, I don't like junk mail, I don't like spam and I don't like people calling my house to offer me something I have no interest in. [1]
Which leaves me the problem of how to make people aware of my work without demanding they pay attention to it. Insoluable from my POV, unless I want to start paying for banner ads.
As for making money,haikujagaur seems to do very well with PayPal donations, funding her serialized work chapter by chapter. I'm just wondering whether I should try that myself, funding further work on The Ship or Assassinating the Dead, since from a realistic viewpoint I'll probably never be able to professionally publish them.
But it's a scary possibility. Because for the first time since I'd started seriously writing I'd have a deadline, and an audience that would damned well expect me to meet it, because they paid for the privilege of reading what I'd been previously posting for free. And bluntly, I'm not even sure it would be worth it in the end, given that what I write is basically pulp (yummy pulp I'd like to think, but pulp nonetheless). I'm not a dedicated prose stylist likehaikujaguar (and I'm certainly not an artist like she is!). My stuff is workmanlike at best.
OTOH I've got 175 seperate people following my blog. Odds are at least a few would be willing to pay no matter what I wrote. And I can't deny that we could certainly use the money right now.
[1] One ofmoonshadowed's biggest beefs with me is the rather abrupt way I deal with phone solicitors. Which usually goes along this line:
Caller: Hello, Mr. Day? This is NAME from IRRITATING COMPANY. May I speak to you for a moment?
Me: No. (clicks OFF button)
haikujaguar's LJ on the subject of marketing, self-promotion, and how a freelancer might go about it without annoying potential customers or making themselves feel like a pushy sleaze. Which I can relate to quite strongly. Even though I've self-published a couple of books, I generally don't promote them beyond putting a link in to my storefront on my user page for LJ and DeviantArt. My nightmare job is be involved in Sales in any form. I don't like targeted ads, I don't like junk mail, I don't like spam and I don't like people calling my house to offer me something I have no interest in. [1]Which leaves me the problem of how to make people aware of my work without demanding they pay attention to it. Insoluable from my POV, unless I want to start paying for banner ads.
As for making money,
haikujagaur seems to do very well with PayPal donations, funding her serialized work chapter by chapter. I'm just wondering whether I should try that myself, funding further work on The Ship or Assassinating the Dead, since from a realistic viewpoint I'll probably never be able to professionally publish them. But it's a scary possibility. Because for the first time since I'd started seriously writing I'd have a deadline, and an audience that would damned well expect me to meet it, because they paid for the privilege of reading what I'd been previously posting for free. And bluntly, I'm not even sure it would be worth it in the end, given that what I write is basically pulp (yummy pulp I'd like to think, but pulp nonetheless). I'm not a dedicated prose stylist like
haikujaguar (and I'm certainly not an artist like she is!). My stuff is workmanlike at best.OTOH I've got 175 seperate people following my blog. Odds are at least a few would be willing to pay no matter what I wrote. And I can't deny that we could certainly use the money right now.
[1] One of
moonshadowed's biggest beefs with me is the rather abrupt way I deal with phone solicitors. Which usually goes along this line:Caller: Hello, Mr. Day? This is NAME from IRRITATING COMPANY. May I speak to you for a moment?
Me: No. (clicks OFF button)
