Tag: new

Entire revamp level achieved.

Spearcarrier

You may have noticed, but the entire Apocalypse Writers website has been going through some major changes. As I’ve been talking about in the past week or two, I’ve been thinking about making a move towards making The Writers of the Apocalypse more official and just a very slight bit more professional.

So for starters, the OOAK Leaf store is no more. No one visited it anyway, and I hate wasted memory space. (Old habit from the days of smaller drives.) However, I found myself having to install a brand-new store. I attached it to a publisher imprint name, Wôks Print, and made it the hub of most things publishing. There you will find my books, my husband’s book, and hopefully some books by other people in the future. Step 1 achieved.

Next, I had to revamp the entry portal to this website itself. I could have installed an entire ecommerce solution like so many bigger publishers have done, but if I did that I would have lost a lot of things I worked to build over the years including this blog. So for now, the portal is old-fashioned html. I tried to make it look nice, at least? I invite you to take a look at it and tell me what you think.

Then I had to go through my databases and decide what stayed and what went away. I chose to close my music blog. Music is a hobby for me, and I rarely get to do it. (Although I’m working hard towards a change for the better.) Yes, I want to make more music. Yes, I love voice acting and want to go back to it. No, I’m too busy trying to survive at this time.

I’m not going to give music and voice acting up. Ever. So I merged that blog with this one. Those of you who never knew I did these things can now find the rare voice activity easily.

Last but not least, this blog needed my attention. It’s been a long while since I’ve done any major website management, so it was long overdue. The new theme is based on the old theme I had for the voice blog with a tiny foxy touch. I almost went with a Halloween theme, but decided against it. I’m good with this for now.

I think I’m done revamping this website. I hope you like it, and that it’s easier to navigate. If I start getting overwhelmed with spam through the contact portal again I’ll have to take it back down. But we’ll see how things go.

Onward and upward.

Marketing Market

Death

The past couple of days have been filled with working on my client’s marketing strategy, making contact with various areas, and getting really frustrated with Scribd. It appears that no matter how many times I hit send for my confirmation email – as I’d updated my information – the stupid email won’t send. “Check your spam folder” is their FAQ advice. And what if you don’t have a spam folder? What if your email box is spam free because you don’t use that particular email often and in public, so you don’t even run a filter? Then I guess you’re SOL because your emailed pleas for help to the email address they give go unanswered. It’s rather disheartening, because this means I can’t use Scribd as a full resource until they get their act together.

There are perks to having my time taken up by this, though. I’ve also managed to market some of my own things. (Because I’m evil like that.) And even though I originally had not planned to do it, I’ve taken a look at perhaps finding small distribution for 10 Confessions & A Kiss. I mean, other than going to Coldcut – who seem niced enough when they took on Akashik years ago even though I look at that comic and wince. From pain.

The kind of pain you get when your brain cramps because you need to fix that storytelling up, and you need it now. The kind of pain that sends nurses running for a liberal dose of morphine. The kind of pain…. yeah. You get it.

I just think my chances of getting 10 Confessions into Coldcut are slim. I also think those who get the Coldcut catalog would be sloughed with notices from a lot of other handmade comics (i.e. minicomics) around 10 Confessions… and it wouldn’t be noticed very well. That’s what happened before with other things.

So I happened across someone who seems to make a living at being a traditional door to door salesman. I think the proper term here is “agent”. I have emailed him, thinking to myself if I can just get him to take on 10 I will be content with 3 little stores. I’m not greedy when it comes to 10, although I should be being as I chose the more traditional route for its publication. But you see, I also don’t want to spend all my time handling a book that doesn’t pay my bills and having my bill time cut into. It’s a real problem.

Oh well, I’m terrible at making pitches anyway. So one or the other, we carry on and I’ll carry on. Chapter 2 is getting very close to getting done, and this means I’m very close to having another Kickstarter campaign. In the meantime, the printer told me the chapter one books will be on their way to me soon.

Yes, I know you’re supposed to make these by hand. Just typing this post is killing me. My days by the photocopier are sinking in the west, I’m afraid. C’est la print. 🙂