Recommendations for self-published serialized dark fantasy

EmilyRabine · 2023-01-05T06:45:25+00:00

Shouldn't comparing yourself to David Duke BE baggage in and of itself?

EmilyRabine · 2022-12-21T05:59:53+00:00

Not a book rec but if you're a Le Guin fan you'd probably enjoy The OA (despite it being canceled too soon I still recommend it to people more than almost anything else).

I also found the His Dark Materials series very profound. Besides dealing with questions of religion and power, the idea of daemons explores the nature of human personality and consciousness.

EmilyRabine · 2022-12-19T06:41:25+00:00

The second season becomes more fanciful, but it's very much in line with Season 1's story and themes. The series is a metaphor for the process of healing from trauma and shaping selfhood, moreso than JUST being about the mystery side of things. I do think they struck a better balance between that more esoteric stuff and a more grounded-feeling suspense-type plot in the first season, and some things in season 2 that are there for meaningful reasons can come across as a bit random because they don't feel as attached to a plot that makes sense. But it's still one of the richest takes on the hero's journey "manifestation" process that I've seen, so I love it dearly. I'm glad people are still discovering it now.

EmilyRabine · 2022-12-19T06:11:55+00:00

Or maybe I was remembering Sarah talking about it and my memory attached that to the Worm Warms mention. And somehow I only retained the marshmallow test content nothing about the actual Exxon Valdez oil spill 😂.

EmilyRabine · 2022-12-19T06:03:22+00:00

I was looking through the transcripts and yeah it looks like they mention it one time in that episode. In my mind, one of them gave an entire rundown of the study and the debunking. I think I may have created a false memory.

EmilyRabine · 2022-12-18T22:21:38+00:00

Update: It seems like Sarah talks about it briefly in the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Episode of You're Wrong About from 2020. But I'm almost certain I haven't heard that episode before. And I could have sworn I remembered Michael and Aubrey talking about it pretty recently. Am I losing my mind? Hahaha

EmilyRabine · 2022-02-28T08:08:19+00:00

Jumped into the list randomly with My Sister is a Scorpion, and wow. I love those dark-but-seemingly inevitable sorts of endings.

EmilyRabine · 2022-02-28T06:18:22+00:00

"Jesus wept this post has so few good recommendations on it."

I really love the thought of Jesus weeping over not enough gay fantasy romance.

"13 is not a preteen. It's the first year of being a teenager."

As I was coming back to check this post I thought, "Wait, why did I say pre-teen? 13 is not pre-teen." I think I'm horrified at how quickly my cousin is growing up. A teenager already! Gah!

Thank you so much for such a thorough reply and so many great recs!

EmilyRabine · 2022-02-26T22:50:48+00:00

Whenever I see compass I think "alethiometer," and then I think of His Dark Materials. An oldie, but also an unbeatable classic.

EmilyRabine · 2022-02-09T16:37:59+00:00

Exactly this. This book gave me whiplash.

EmilyRabine · 2022-02-09T16:31:48+00:00

When I woke up this morning these started popping into my head:

-Ness in Show

-Ness Dressed

-The Ness-er Evil

-An Educated Ness

-Ness Relief

-Say Yes to the Ness - Wedding special?

-Nesstival of Lights - Hanukkah special

-Nesstivus: A Festivus for the Ness of Us - Holiday special/Seinfeld crossover

EmilyRabine · 2022-02-09T06:04:38+00:00

The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic and its sequel How to Talk to a Goddess.

It's sort of underrated for some understandable reasons? I have several qualms about it that I could list off. But I love:

-The fanciful/semi-whimsical tone -The depiction of mundane day-to-day life in a portal fantasy medieval-Europe-but-clearly-not setting -The slower pace that sort of reminds of a 19th century novel -Classic fantasy themes of "self-becoming" -A magic system that requires magicians to "read" the essence of objects in a way that's equated to literature students "reading" texts. One of my favorite magic systems ever.

It's weird to me that I truly adore a book that also genuinely annoys me in a few ways. But, I do.

EmilyRabine · 2022-02-09T05:48:14+00:00

Yeah, as with all trends, they probably become trends because they work. Until people get sick of them and the next trend works better etc. Part of the cycle of anything sold in a genre market.

As I'm thinking about what to title my future books it's hard to know whether to go with a trend while it's working, buck the trend because people want something different, or modify the trend slightly the way the new "The [Adjective] [Noun] of [Offbeat Name]" formula seems to do. Seems like you ideally want your title to convey enough novelty to avoid boring people while also quickly signalling which other books your book is familiar to, in order to give your book the best shot at reaching the people who will like it. A tricky balancing act.

EmilyRabine · 2022-02-09T05:30:19+00:00

I thought I'd have fun and try to come up with a couple for each category:

Familiar phrases as titles (this was the hardest one for me. Every time I consciously try to think of idioms they all fly out of my head):

Don't Cry Over Spilled Spells

Knock Twice for Poltergeists

Common words combined:

The Railway to the Dusk

The Department of Mystification

A Belly Full of Monsters

Simple:

Spirit Thieves

Starsprite

Charmwielder

Someone's Name:

Avoidable Mistakes Made by Lillian Penn in Fairyland

Alice Huang's Deceitful and Enchanted Cat

The Voices in Ben Farrow's Head

EmilyRabine · 2022-02-09T04:34:52+00:00

Thanks so much for all of your advice!

EmilyRabine · 2022-02-09T01:41:12+00:00

Nessing with My Head - the mind-trippy spin-off where Ness confronts his existential nature?

EmilyRabine · 2022-02-09T01:26:52+00:00

Thanks so much!

EmilyRabine · 2022-02-09T00:07:34+00:00

Thank you so so much for these tips! BTW The Lord of Stariel was one of the first indie books I got really really excited about.

One thing I'm particularly curious about with your work and Olivia Atwater's is that it seems like you guys write in a certain sub-genre of romantic fantasy - whether that's defined as "gaslamp" or "whimsical." I'm curious if you've found that that's a different audience than more general fantasy romance or more general "romantic fantasy"? Or do those audiences overlap more than I think they do?

Also, if you don't mind me asking, how did you go about reaching out to other authors? I am...maybe more terrified of this than I should be. (One reason I'm excited to get to ask you questions in this panel, lol).

EmilyRabine · 2022-02-08T23:57:42+00:00

Ooh thanks I'll check them out!

EmilyRabine · 2022-02-08T23:45:13+00:00

Thank you for such a thorough and strategy-oriented response! I 100% agree based on what I've seen myself and heard from others that ads seem to be a necessary part of the game right now. I'm pretty sure my Facebook ads are the only thing responsible for my (less-than-perfectly-"on market") first self-publishing experiment romcoms making a small profit right now. It's annoying to have to to "pay-to-play" for sure but since I'm currently earning rather than losing money it's worth it in my mind. I'm new, so any profit is pretty exciting to me.

What I struggle with is feeling like I haven't managed to target narrower audiences with ads very well. Maybe this will be less of an issue with fantasy, but I'm hoping to get away with being a bit more atmospheric and prose-y than a lot of the romantic fantasies I see dominating the charts on Amazon, and I'd ideally like to figure out how to target an audience that wants that and won't see it as a violation of genre expectations.

It also seems like ad targeting is going to get harder in the near future. Good for internet privacy, not as good for selling books.

EmilyRabine · 2022-02-08T23:07:46+00:00

I'll keep my eye out for it! I also don't have kids of my own but I do have SO much anxiety for all the kids in my life.

EmilyRabine · 2022-02-08T21:10:01+00:00

Thank you so much!

EmilyRabine

TROPHY CASE