A retrospective on "Tin Man", and a look forward at "Hiraeth"

[robling-t.livejournal.com]

Hi, I'm Sam (a Samantha, not a copperbadge ;) ), and I'm The Artist Currently Posting As robling_t here on LJ and over on DW. ysabetwordsmith suggested I come in on "Webserials Day" of Crowdfunding's turn in the LJ Spotlight to say a few words about both my current project, "Hiraeth", which has recently updated with installments seventeen and eighteen, and my previously serialized novel, Tin Man, so here goes nothing...



Tin Man was not originally conceived as a webserial. I'd written this novel between 2001 and 2003, and made the conventional-publishing rounds with it for a few years thereafter before deciding to trunk it and move on to other projects. But when I started following copperbadge and his efforts with original fiction as Extribulum, I thought, well, this manuscript isn't doing anyone any good sitting in a drawer, why not release it on my LJ, and see what I can learn about its flaws to improve my skills for the next time?

I broke it into installments of a size that LJ could cope with, which meant dividing two longer chapters into two parts, and announced a posting schedule of sixteen parts released on Mondays. Initial response was cautiously optimistic, and included suggestions that I put up a tipjar, 'cos, yanno. I'm not nearly as aggressive as I should be about self-promotion and following through on monetizing the things I do, but I did get a few bucks for my efforts, which was enough to make me file away the idea of maybe trying to learn that skill in a more organized way at some point.

Fast-forward to an idea that wandered in with the Muse over this past New Year's. Several characters showed up in media res of their weird lives, and I started jotting down scenes as they came to me, with the vague thought that the structure I was sensing might be a conventional novel, when the vignettes were collected after the action, but that there was also another storytelling form going on here, something that owed more to Dickens and comics. So when a scene that looked like a good introduction to the cast turned up, I posted it to my LJ as the first installment of an open-ended... whatever.

Response has been quite encouraging so far in terms of feedback. I'm still having my issues with the monetization part of the equation (I wonder if I could get an agent/advocate of some sort to cheerlead about it for me, to bypass the self-esteem hangups and the gawdawful ADHD oo-ice-cream-truck brain-thing :) ), but given the nature of "Hiraeth" as an ongoing project, there's more time to learn on the job with this than there was for the finite, pre-written Tin Man manuscript. (Maybe t-shirts, I totally need to design a "yeah, I was raised by wolves" t-shirt...) And I'm having fun feeling my way through the storyline as it develops, seeing the questions people are asking about the characters and their situations and considering how to answer them as I go, rather than trying to incorporate revisions to a completed manuscript towards the end of the process.

The catalyst for deciding that "Hiraeth" was in fact born to be a webserial rather than a conventional novel was WisCon 36, which I attended as the guest of a patron of my work. (Which is a pretty insanely cool thought, really. :) ) Between the writers' workshop and the panel-track on the current state of publishing, it became plain that there is an evolutionary niche (re)opening for the story as an experience, rather than the static presentation of here's your 300 pages, that's it of a published novel. After all, it's what we've got used to from growing up with TV these last few generations, isn't it? And the opportunities for cross-pollenization with other crowdfunded artists in real-time, such as meeksp's own project to illustrate scenes from original online fiction, in which she's done sketches for both Hiraeth and Tin Man, are intriguing as well. Someday I'd love to see how an artist might storyboard out this odd little prose serial as a visual serial comic, maybe...

I'm not sure where any of this is going, but I guess I'm in.

Comments

Re: Thoughts

[meeksp.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what Sam had in mind, but for my part, I loved your article on Un-slimy Marketing (http://haikujaguar.livejournal.com/841910.html), and would like to know more about un-slimy ways to get new people to participate in my project. I really appreciate how Elizabeth keeps sharing my work with her readers, and I'm wondering if there's more I can do to encourage more people to do the same. I'd also like to know how to introduce my project to new authors and communities without feeling like I'm sending spam. People who might be unable to contribute financially but are active commenters at various authors' sites could be extremely helpful by mentioning me to writers who already know them.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

You've really got me thinking about how I could reward my readers who tweet or link to my stuff, or how I could make it a regular thing rather than a whim. As you can see, I go both ways here too.

So, I'm thinking perks and conversations. We need to figure out what creators want and can offer vs. what barkers want and can offer.

Some projects, like yours, I watch closely enough that I'll hit most if not all of their updates. Others are more sporadic. But if I'd made an arrangement with someone, I'd probably be more consistent about linking their work. I know that's valuable because people thank me for stuff I post, sometimes; and I've people come back to me and say "Holy cow, you made this 200-person spike in my traffic!" Probably there are other bloggers whose readers treat them like a newsfeed too.

So, what kind of perks? Well, I like art. I have poetry. Anyone could add a "barkers" list to their "patrons" list when doing a public thank-you post of their supporters. Doubtless more ideas will emerge.

I'm planning to make a post, probably next week, about the need for agents/promoters/barkers in crowdfunding.