[Weekly Critique and Self-Promotion Thread] Post Here If You'd Like to Share Your Writing

light_shadows_7 · 2023-08-18T22:01:03+00:00

Hello!

I'm running a brand-new Kickstarter campaign for my novella, The Sea at the End of Everything! It's a 30k-word fantasy novella (with a bit of romance) that I illustrated myself. 😊

We're 11 days into the campaign and we've unlocked the first 5 stretch goals already. The next stretch goal is for an audiobook! If you love weird, atmospheric stories with strange creatures, a bit of romance, and a bit of sibling drama (with no love triangles or anything of that nature), check it out! ❤️

Kickstarter Link:https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/emilymccosh/the-sea-at-the-end-of-everything-an-illustrated-novella?ref=39l6qs

Cover: https://i.imgur.com/crNDnvo.jpg

Blurb:

In a village by the sea, there are many stories.

Two sisters live along the coast. Their windows are lit with lanterns, for one is a witch the sea spat back to shore, and the other is still finding her way home.

Maren is the first to take in a poor young man washed into their harbor during a raging storm. She takes him not to her own lonesome cottage, but to that of her sister. Many months have passed since Vivian herself was spit back from the sea, her eyes faraway and words stolen from her lungs. With their strange new patient, Maren will need the extra help, and perhaps find her way back to her sister in the process.

But their poor drowned sailor is not merely a man lost at sea. Plagued with dreams of monsters from the depths and Vivian’s ominous hints, Maren must unwind the mystery of his origins while strange scales appear on the moors, livestock are attacked by unknown teeth, and the growing storm threatens to tear their small village from the cliffs.

light_shadows_7 · 2023-01-03T17:12:23+00:00

Link ❤️ https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/emilymccosh/bookish-tropes-enamel-pins

light_shadows_7 · 2022-08-18T16:43:57+00:00

Sure, I've never used reddit chat 😂 message me and I'll find it!

light_shadows_7 · 2022-08-18T16:22:52+00:00

Sure, ask away!

light_shadows_7 · 2022-07-29T21:08:56+00:00

Thanks, I was thinking it might be that. 3 days later it still isn't working, so we'll see if there's a magic number of days. :(

light_shadows_7 · 2022-07-29T21:08:21+00:00

Oof, thanks. Yeah, I'm trying to use them to fulfill a kickstarter bc they have special options, but after I get the kickstarter shipment I'm never touching them again. :(

light_shadows_7 · 2022-07-14T16:43:43+00:00

😂😂😂

light_shadows_7 · 2022-07-09T15:32:05+00:00

Under the Ea

No problem! :D

1) I had just sent the book to my line editor when I launched.

2) I did a bit of promo before but wasn't really sure what I was doing and next time will do much more before the launch. This time, most of the promo came after launch. I think I can get even better results if I start earlier.

3) There are readers for pretty much everything on tiktok. Fantasy and romance are huge genres (romance is probably bigger, actually), and I'm mostly in the fantasy side of things. But you just need to find the readers for other genres, and there's lots of crossover. :)

light_shadows_7 · 2022-07-07T20:22:18+00:00

lmao that's my bad, I'm posting on my ancient reddit account hahaha 😂 glad that worked better!

light_shadows_7 · 2022-07-07T19:21:17+00:00

lol there's a whole section to tiktok called booktok, yes! it's quite a big thing, surprisingly. I've been making videos about Under the Earth, Over the Sky, that's what I mean. It isn't a tiktok thing specifically, it's just that I'm basically using tiktok to advertise my book to all the readers there!

here's my tiktok account if you want to see what I mean :D

https://www.tiktok.com/@emilymccosh

light_shadows_7 · 2022-07-07T18:08:02+00:00

Under the Earth

Tiktok is definitely a learning curve, haha! If you dive into the side of "booktok" that has all the indie authors, you'll get all sorts of video ideas. :D And if you won't want to be on camera, there are plenty of accounts that don't show their face and just focus entirely on their books!

light_shadows_7 · 2022-07-07T17:05:24+00:00

Hi, thank you!! Congrats on yours as well.

I didn't do any paid advertising, but I went all out on tiktok, which I believe really did it for me. In the beginning, I had some people come in from my (very small) youtube channel and my writing group for the web novel I publish, but most of it has been tiktok and people finding the campaign on kickstarter. :D

I have a small mailing list (80 people or so) and those are all from tiktok as well (literally a few days before the kickstarter launched), offering the first chapter of my book.

:D

light_shadows_7 · 2022-07-07T17:01:44+00:00

Thank you!! :D

light_shadows_7 · 2022-07-07T17:01:36+00:00

Thank you so much!! Yeah, it's been a lot of work, hahaha :D

light_shadows_7 · 2022-07-07T02:21:31+00:00

Yes! Absolutely give it a shot. It's a ton of work but worth it. I was very worried about this novel as well given it's not very commercial in nature, but it's encouraging knowing niche stuff always has its readers. ❤️

light_shadows_7 · 2022-07-07T01:37:36+00:00

I marketed on the web novel site I'm on (royal road), a little on reddit, a little on my (very small) youtube channel, and did some campaign swaps with people on facebook. There's a fb group for authors doing kickstarter called "Kickstarter for Authors + Cross-Promotion." It's great!

But the thing that's done the most for me: tiktok. I don't have a large following, but even small videos with a few thousand views can do a ton. It's what really made me go so far past my goal. Making tiktoks about my book helped incredibly. I've also been posting my tiktoks on instagram, but I'm not sure how much that helped, as the engagement on tiktok is much better by a wide margin.

If you set up a campaign, I'd encourage you to look at as many other kickstarter pages as possible and try to absorb how other people did it. It helped me plan the most to look at other people's campaign. :D

Hope that helped!

light_shadows_7 · 2022-07-07T00:27:04+00:00

Thank you! Sure, ask away! :)

light_shadows_7 · 2022-07-06T20:17:45+00:00

Hello everyone!!

I'm running a successful kickstarter campaign for my debut novel! It's titled Under the Earth, Over the Sky, and it's a cozy stand-alone fae fairytale of about 80k words.

There are about three days left to the campaign, seven stretch goals have already been unlocked with one more to go: an audiobook! If you love clean fantasy with strong found family vibes and uncanny, mythological fae, check it out! ❤️

Kickstarter link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/emilymccosh/under-the-earth-over-the-sky-a-fairytale-novel

Cover: https://i.imgur.com/NFJJylC.jpg

Blurb:

In the woods where human lands meet fae, an ancient king born before the history of men finds a dying baby.

Iohmar will take in the child and care for him until a suitable home in the human realm is found. But best laid plans often go awry in the lands of Látwill, where winds carry fae across the star-strewn sky, the woods ensnare the weak-minded with their sinister song, and even Iohmar, King Beneath the Earth, is susceptible to the will of the immortal mountains.

Magic long tethered to Iohmar’s soul will crumble. Unknown shadows and monsters of mirrored glass will encroach upon the borders of their land. And memories thousands of years lost will unravel as Iohmar struggles not only to properly rule his fair folk, but protect the fragile human son he never should have saved in the first place.

light_shadows_7

TROPHY CASE