marketing

Virality Banality

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

Over the years, the term “going viral” started to get on my nerves.  As I’m a writer, this nails-on-chalkboard-in-my-soul experience is common as “going viral” is oft a goal of writers.  We want tales of our books to “go viral” so they reach our audience – oh, and so we make money.  Despite the “positive” take on it, I kept finding it annoying.

I figured it out recently – and I’m glad to say three years of Covid-19 chaos was only a minor part of it for this hypochondriac.  However, it does involve viruses-as-metaphor – so let’s talk viruses.

A virus isn’t even a living thing; it’s a replication machine that uses living creatures to reproduce.  It has no reactions, no feelings, it’s not even a single-celled bacteria.  A virus is pointless – which is probably why they’re so scary – at least a bacterium is alive like you.

The idea of “going viral” as an author or artist gets to me as the idea is “you hijacked a bunch of people’s attention and got them to spread what you posted.”  The quality of your book or art doesn’t matter – at best, it’s an afterthought of whatever meme or clever marketing phrase you used.  Dross and brilliance, specialty work and mass appeal creations, the content doesn’t matter.

There’s a creepy implication to “going viral” that your work could be like a virus, and that’s laudable.  You can make your work perfectly calibrated to sell, create a perfect campaign, and get a bunch of attention – but there’s nothing there but a bunch of optimized math.  I’m unsettled by the idea of “virality” replacing creativity.

When you take a look at our media and social media landscape, you can see it’s gone in that direction.

What do I do with this knowledge of my opinions?  Mostly it tells me what I’m comfortable doing as an author to promote my works.  Partially it may tell me why some of my fellow creatives are unsettled by “going viral.”

But it also means I’m casting a far more jaundiced eye on marketing and social media, and I’m sure I’ll have more opinions to follow.

Steven Savage

Distribution Follows Purpose

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

As writers it’s easy to find a laundry list of advice on what you should do to reach people – have a Newsletter, have a Blog, use these formats, etc.  There’s so much common wisdom that we never ask if the common part is exceeding the wisdom part.

And no, this was not inspired by the latest Twitter drama.  It reflects on it, so I’m sorry.

I have several writing projects – and not all of them involve what you see here.  I write at work, have side projects, help people out in groups and clubs, etc.  I’m a writer, but I have many facets if you’ll indulge the metaphor – and those facets let me learn.

As of late one of my other writing projects spun up with an agonizingly slow speed, and I had to consider what forms this effort would take.  The old list mentioned above came into mind, but I stopped and asked a question that derailed me from doing “the usual.”

I asked, “How do I want to reach people with this project?” and my mind ground to a halt because we usually assume the audience is “as many people as possible.”  That book, that flyer, that business announcement, we all want it to be spread as far and wide, right?  It’s just what you do, right?

What you want to do is reach the right people and interact with them in a certain way.  You just need to know who the “right people” are and how you really want to interact with them – even if it’s to sell them a book.  The usual “do-this-as-a-writer” list is not universal.

For instance, a fellow author of mine was deep into Facebook marketing as a core way to reach people.  Sure they liked interacting with their audience, but they were so good at marketing they could reach a lot more than through a newsletter.  Their goal was to sell books first, and that worked for them.

For me socializing is a big part of writing.  Even though I have to juggle newsletters and blogs and such, I enjoy the human connection of being around writers and readers.  I’m juggling some wild ideas for my blog and newsletter where I merge some content and do regular zoom chats.  Trust me, I had some crazy ideas during covid I still might act on . . .

For one of my side projects, the goal is to build a newsletter for a group that may also involve outreach and adding new people to the project.  That’s a completely different world – a specified target audience where the goal is outreach but also building archival information.

Different goals.  Different forms of outreach.  None of them fit a checklist of “how to be a writer.”

So when you’re asking the question of all the tools you can use as  a writer, all the ways to distribute work?  Pause.  Ask yourself how you want to reach people and how you want to interact with them.  Find what fits your goals.

Also, at least now when people say “you must be on Twitter” you can just glare at them.  For multiple reasons.

Steven Savage

Creative Distribution

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr.  Find out more at my newsletter.)

“There’s no honor in an unread book” I once noted. A creative person, in general, wants people to experience their works. That’s the goal, be it to entertain or to inspire or to pass time.

In time, I have realized there is a greater reason to spread our works far and wide – people need creative works. People need to be inspired, frightened, to laugh, and to think new thoughts. This helps us grow, helps us be who we are – and it helps us make our own creative works. Creativity is like nutrition for our ever-growing mind.

Thus it is the responsibility of the creative person to spread their works as wide as possible, in as many forms as possible, and as accessible as possible. Yet this is daunting because there are many opportunities, and many competitors.

Let me give you some inspiration.

You’re a creative person – you write, draw, cosplay, or whatever. Turn that creativity into a way to spread your work far and wide. I don’t know what you should do because I’m NOT you, and you’ve got your own unique creative edge to spread your work.

You just need to figure what it is. I mean you were able to write, draw, or whatever? If you can dream up whatever you dreamed up you can figure out a way to spread your work around.

For instance, myself part of my creativity is planning, analysis, and so on. I seek patterns, build plans and structures, and can visualize workflows. So I have a marketing plan with reviews, budgets, and so on.

You might be a writer who makes great ad copy, so you’re buying and promoting ads. Or an artist that can make great giveaways. Or a social butterfly that can enthrall people with online talks and so on.

I don’t know what your ability to spread your work is – you just don’t yet

But then again once you didn’t have any creative work to spread around and somehow you got that . . .

Steven Savage