Hi @macchiata, how are you? I thought of you yesterday when I was ordering my new Moleskine diary for next year.
Your idea sounds exciting ๐
What I've been thinking about is how we bring more readers (content consumers) to Hive. I wrote a Manifesto for The Ink Well community a couple of years ago and I have been thinking again recently how to go about it.
My idea now is to attract, say, ten, published writers - authors who already have an audience and whose names are known to the (book-buying) public. I would ask them to come and write for Hive and, importantly, to aim to bring their audiences, the people who already buy their books, with them. I'm basing my ideas on the multi-media approach that the Wachowskis interwove with The Matrix films (fan fiction, graphic novels, games, back stories etc).
The idea would need publicising (I'm looking at the UK). I'm thinking about approaching Oggadoon who worked with xigxag an independent audio-book provider as a literary promoter. If you look at the Oggadoon link, you'll see the campaign they ran for xigxag and the results.
I'm leaving this until 2025 now when I have more time to attend to it. It will need support from the DHF to cover the marketing campaign, and I'm wondering whether it is something that will fit with the @valueplan programme, but I haven't investigated yet.
Is there any overlap with your ideas? ๐ It's really kind of you to think of me as a judge, but I'm not sure I'm the best person. Maybe the people at The Inkwell could help. I'm tagging @agmoore and @jayna, perhaps you could advise?
Happy to chat about ideas on Discord ๐.
Oh wow! the idea definitely overlaps. We need more readers/consumers and also content writers that actually could trend this site all around with a good SEO.
For me, it's mostly indonesian based writers who write in English and Indonesian. We do have a few published authors here as well and I will be connecting with them soon. I'd be happy to chat as well so we could combine our ideas and expand them more. I know that these days AI reigns but honestly, there's still market for people who enjoys to read/reading from human's work. We just need the space to do that and more support for that hehe ๐
I am currently working on the manifesto and will be happy to chat as today I am going to hear back and discuss with the potential collaborators.
~ see you around and looking forward to be talking with you ๐
๐ - AI has its place, but creative writing and the human connection is something different. From what I've seen, fans love being able to interact with their favourite writers. Getting back stories about favourite characters, supporting writers they like (and it costs them nothing other than their original stake).
I feel that we need some professional marketing help, though, if we want to succeed.
yes!
Hi @shanibeer,
Thanks for tagging me. I'm not good at marketing, but I am good at grunt work. If there is any hands-on writing, etc that needs to be done, I volunteer. @jayna is far more polished and savvy than I am, but I do know her plate is full (whose isn't?). Great initiative. Getting published authors to join is potentially fruitful.
Let me know how I can help. My husband is looking at some serious health issues in the future (let's hope not). If these materialize, I will have to pull back. Otherwise, you can count me in for grunt work.
Hello @agmoore ๐
Sorry to hear about your husband, I hope that works out well.
Although grunt work is a necessary part of life, I was thinking more about @macchiata's request for a judge or judges for the contest. The folks involved with The Ink Well are all much more skilled than me.
I think you are skilled, but yeah, we do judging I guess all the time.
The Inkwell team is certainly practiced in this, and I would certainly be part of that if you thought it would help.
๐
@guiltyparties - is the above idea for attracting readers and writers to Hive something that valueplan would be interested in? The Manifesto has the fundamental idea, in the comment above I'm talking about using a specialist agency to get the media exposure.
Many thanks.