As a cool teen 1) you’re a better than average writer, fosho.
Maybe an average coder but you don’t even need to be good at coding-- Choice Scripture is easy and you make it look it.
For advertising, again as a hip, groovy (I feel like groovy is too old but ehh) you guys could create a business instagram page?
I’d say abother good thing would make a tumblr blog, link it to your forum profile, other media-- enough views, links, reshapes whatever when you get popular enough people can just search for “text based games” and you’ll be there.
Just use those words in title’'s (e g. If you have a youtube let’s play, Title of Tumblr (tbh I’m not about that noise but I guess once a kinda popular person reblogs ya on tumble you’ll consistently gain followers) blogs, get your friends to buy it and leave a review both on the app page but also on the forum and where ever else you mention your game-- a good review in a comment section (Imo) shows the game is worthwhile more than a good review in a review section. Maybe because the commenter seems more like a pepole than a consume/ critic.
Or go on reddit / tumblr writing prompts, or whatever, and if relevant be like "Hey you wanted a story about having to live with a demon inside you/ controlling time/ whatever? Hey look at this [small except of text] and you can see more (and buy the game) at [add more links]
That’s what I’ll do in 1-2 years, at least.
And if you guys get super popular hopefully a tiny bit of that can help me, since there’s some people I doubt I can reach (and even the people I can reach, easiest, aren’t likely to pay money. Gosh darn kids these days)
I think doing it before release is a good idea, within reason. You don’t want to be too early, or you run the risk of falling into the Snakes on a Plane trap (lots of press and momentum that slowly dried up over too many months between when it happened and the film’s actual release).
It’s a wonderful niche to be in. Yes, I think I’m an average writer. I’m not bad, but I’m not as good as many. As a math guy, most people I know in real life are amazed that I write at all.
I’m an okay coder. I feel that I’ve got Choicescript understood very well, but I never got a chance to learn C, Java, or HTML. But the concepts of programming are clear enough to me.
Good at both, but not super great at either. I’ve had great luck because I’m not bad at either … either. (Notice me good English!)
Hmmm…well the timing is tricky. I am including my current social media links at the end of CCH2 in the actual game files so hopefully people will click on them.
I can either just leave everything alone and tackle it later this year, or I can rebrand FB and Twitter right now (wouldn’t be super hard…would take just a few minutes) and worry about the website later. That’s probably the right call.
So “Eric Moser, Author” or “Fiction by Eric Moser” or “MoseTown Productions”…lemme think while I eat my sandwich and lima beans.
I think that it is also very beneficial for what you do that you use a pseudonym, too. The Lucidverse sounds a great deal better for describing the interconnected nature of your stories as opposed to, say, the Ericverse would be for our erstwhile CCH creator.
@Eric_Moser That probably is the best bet. It might not be the most popular sentiment these days, but I still tend to favor the notion of create first, promote later. The website is a big undertaking to worry about until after you have finished both CCH 2 and Talon, and can have a monent’s reprieve before moving on to the next thing.
Researching taglines, because while I will use my name, I think following it with just “author” or doing “fiction by Eric Moser” is too blah. Taglines, which I haven’t thought much about, seem to be a very cool way to convey the ‘theme’ of what you write while still keeping your actual name front-and-center.
Here are examples…
Cynthia Herron: Heartfelt, Homespun fiction
Heather Thurmeier: Heart, Humor, and a Happliy Ever After
I really like these. Not for me obviously, but just in general. They do the job. So now I’m brainstorming taglines.
I don’t know much about taglines, but both examples you used look like they’re from romance or maybe slice of life genres. Is that a coincidence, or would just the fact that you’re using a tagline instead of just “author” lead some people to have certain expectations of what genre you write in?
You’re right about those specific examples, of course, but any author can use a tagline.
An author of vampire or monster novels could be: David Dark: Stories with Bite
Brainstorming right now…I like writing underdog stories. CCH and TC have that in common. Underdogs. Overwhelming Odds. See, maybe the “over/under” contrast could help form a tagline…still thinking as I work
I considered using a pen name for a while when I first started writing gamebooks, but ultimately decided against it. The problem for me is that there are already a few Jeffrey Dean authors (albeit not authors of interactive fiction) so maybe I made a bad decision. What I ended up doing was starting a publishing imprint—Greek Winter Media—and putting out my gamebooks/IF under that banner.
I’m not all that great at self-promotion, but interactive fiction is niche enough that it’s easy to get at least a few hundred people to read even self-published work as long as you pass it around social media. My original gamebook was released as an Android app that I coded/wrote and I managed to get around 3000 buyers, which isn’t huge, but considering it was self-promoted it’s not bad. After that release I ran a Kickstarter campaign to fund a paperback release of my three gamebooks and that went well enough to publish all of them and increase visibility.
Anyway, I’d suggest getting on social media and joining groups of IF and gamebook fans in discussions, becoming a known quantity and mentioning your work every so often. Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, even Instagram are useful. Authors published through the Choice of/Hosted platforms have a good leg up from the get-go though, since this platform comes with a huge built-in fanbase.
3K sales from a self published story is great. I self-published a story a few years ago and sold 13 copies, whereas with a real publisher, CoG, I’ve sold a thousand times that. It’s still not much, but obviously far better.
I love taglines, personally. I think they really help brand yourself and your work. My tagline for my work as an author is “Feminine. Feminist. Fierce.” I have a separate tagline for website, which is “Fantasy starts here.”
I think making it witty or having some alliteration makes for a stronger, more memorable tagline.
Ooooo I like your taglines, especially the first one. It’s so…punchy (in a feminine way). I agree about trying to incorporate wit or alliteration. I’m also looking at syllables, rhyming, any other pattern I can incorporate.
So I’ve moved past “underdogs” and now I’m thinking about “bucking the system” or “challenging the status quo” or something like that, as both CCH and TC involve those themes, and as an atheist who’s very friendly to LGBT issues, humane animal treatment, ideas like universal income, I feel like my whole life is about questioning traditional thought.
I think I’m onto something…Hmmm… -eats another sandwich…his backup sandwich-
Would “Questioning Authority One Story at a Time” be too long? I sorta like it.
I definitely don’t think “not as good as many” makes you average. Everyone’s average if they only compare themselves to the best writers in the world. Keep in mind, there are 93 Hosted Games altogether, and you’re counted in the top five authors… That means that, at most, there are four Hosted Games authors that’re more successful than you… Four isn’t many.
Since no one replied to my post and I’m pretty curious, do any COG writers have a tumblr/ Instagram account?
And if you were to have a professional account what would ya call it? I can’t really use my name since it’s super common. Perhaps I’ll have a cool business shabang like
“Singh Studios- If you want to do what you like like what we do.”
We makes it sound more businessy, right?
But thats the first thing that came to my head, haha
@Seraphinite@Rohie@daydreamsincolor all have tumblrs.
Sera’s tumblr is for all her games, while Rohie and Daydreams’ are specifically for their specific games.
Ah thanks-- I don’t use tumblr myself but I know based upon research into different social media it would likely be a good avenue of exposure to potential consumers (y’know, people who’ll actually pay money) Just want to see if I can get of a part of tumblr’s community, but that’s another discussion haha.
I read a lot on marketing, and here is my list of basics to do for authors. I am no authority but these are guidelines based on my experiences/research.
As a writer, there are 3 factors we need to worry about: finding new readers, retaining those readers, and showing people we have X number of readers.
Finding new readers – referrals from CoG is our #1 source.
The more I write and produce, the more I am showcased by CoG (emails, on their site, on the app stores). This is still the most effective way to get new readers.
Outside of CoG, we have to keep track of return-on-investment (ROI). Our investment is mostly time and may be money. If I consider investing time into a marketing endeavor, I ask myself–will the activity generate enough new readers to warrant my time? Or should I just go write more instead?
The problem with spending money is tracking ROI. How do I know my AdWords or banner ad or sponsor message on a podcast leads to a download+purchase? Most times, I can’t.
Retention is where 95% of my effort goes. If someone finds my game, I want them to buy all my games, now and forever. How do I do that? I ask them to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or my Website.
Social Marketing is about consistency. Post a message once or twice a week at the least. Three times per week is really ideal. Let your readers know you are still there. Keep them interested. Ask questions of them, share their fan art, listen and interact.
When you have started to make a name for yourself and want to transition to traditional novels, your number of followers matters! I approached a traditional publisher a while back and told them I am interested in publishing a book based on my Zombie Exodus game. No reply for months. I followed up with an email telling them I have 2000 newsletter subscribers and 5000 social media followers and shared some basic sales data. I got a reply minutes later. Start gaining followers!
I usually devote 20 minutes per day on answering reader emails and checking my author social media. Once a week, I spend 1-2 on it in a more focused way. Otherwise, I write.
I hadn’t thought of viewing time as a scarce resource, nor the unreliability of ads and branching out (whilst actually writing the game could be safer as you know that’ll actually help.)
Maybe you should do the whole Tom Clancy format. Your name fits well as in terms of sound.
“Eric Moser’s Community College Hero” that kinda thing. Lead with your name as you transition to a new genre may make your name more memorable.
When I finish I intend on using social media but the how of if is still up i the air. Maybe draw up some art and create web posters of some sort to catch the eyes(and by extension the imaginations) of readers.
I also intend on using my own Name as my given full name isn’t nearly as catchy and people mangle the pronunciation… That stuff leaves a bad impression.
My Pen Name is Wynne Snoe, ambiguous and evocative (or so i think). I came up with it via nick names and a little research of name meanings. Wynne means “fair” or White and being called White Snoe or Snoe White seemed a fun and clever way to come off as a gentle and Wynnesical (Whimsical… forgive word play lol) .
Essentially I just chose a name based on how it made me feel when hearing it said and tagging on an nostalgic nickname that just fit right in place.
Just curious who told you that? When we were looking at facebook marketing for work, the consensus was once per day max unless you had something you really had to say. Any more and people start to find it spammy and turn off notifications or unsubscribe. Possibly books/games are different to businesses though. (Although it made sense to me, I’ve unsubscribed from pages that post multiple times daily even if the content is ok because it jams up my feed.)
