A little update about my Smutpunk project.
I mailed my pulp-savvy friend and we arranged a Skype thing.
He's quite the nice guy, but what with the sound of rain in the background and all, the whole thing felt like that scene in Casablanca...
But we had a long talk and I came away much wiser.
My basic question, of course, was: how do I become a pulp goddess in a weekend, so that I can start writing kickass Smutpunk?
And my friend (let's call him Rick, like Bogart in Casablanca) actually suggested a sort of ultrashort handbook for writing pulp stories, a thing called The Lester Dent Pulp Paper Master Fiction Plot.
Rick also suggested a nice reading list (both books and comics) and a list of movies and TV series.Some of the stuff I knew, some was quite new to me.
Like: check out the Yasmini stories by Talbot Mundy, you could do a sexier version quite easily.
A sexy-er version? Sounds like a fun already!
And anyone that gets underboobs in a 1930s magazine cover is my kind of guy...
And the Yasmini character was portrayed by Myrna Loy on the screen.And Loy was hot!
Now this is a Pulp Goddess.
So I'll have to do some fun reading. Great!
And then Rick goes, ... and of course you'll have to rebrand.
And then Rick goes, ... and of course you'll have to rebrand.
Say what?
Turns out a good strategy would be to use a different name for my Smutpunk stories, so that by the name alone my readers will be able to tell my standard, sex, fetish and corruption stories from my Smutpunk outings.
Tamara: But but but, I hope, no I know my fans will read both stories.Rick (laughs): Sure, babe, and what about the new fans? Those that decide to pay the ticket for the Nazi domme fucking a werewolf among the Mayan ruins, but actually don't care about your fixation with cigarettes? Or vice versa, I guess. Your old readers might decide to stick with the smoking fetish...Tamara: But but but...Rick: Rebrand, honey. New genre, new name. It does not have to be a secret identity, you ain't no Black Canary. Just a flag for your readers, so they can choose. Just put a letter in between. What's your second name again?
He always gets me with that Black Canary thing.
So, I'll think about it, but I will dream up a new name, to brand my new stories.
It will be public, and I think I'll have some fun (watch this space for an announcement).
But it's not all...
So, I'll think about it, but I will dream up a new name, to brand my new stories.
It will be public, and I think I'll have some fun (watch this space for an announcement).
But it's not all...
Rick: ... and then set up a new website.Tamara: C'mon, it's a drag!Rick: A static page on your blog is enough. And a Twitter account. You gotta have a something somewhere, for them to find you.
Tamara: But it's a fucking drag!
Rick (chuckles): So now you know how you will spend your Christmas vacations.
And Rick basically laid down a complete plan for me. Because he's a pro, and a nice guy. Then we talked a bit more about personal matters, and we said goodbye it was really like the final scene in Casablanca.
Tamara: do you despise me because I write smut?
Rick: babe, as long as you don't write dinoporn, I'm cool.
Rick: babe, as long as you don't write dinoporn, I'm cool.
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ReplyDeletestupid blogger and its inability to edit a published comment...
DeleteYou should rebrand if you want to disassociate from the other works. Like say you're an author who writes porn, but then you decide to write some incredibly deep story with romance(maybe), action(perhaps), fantasy(possibly) and not an ounce of sex(definitely). You know for certain that people who read your stories for the porn in them won't want to read the deep drama story that you wrote, and you also know that people who usually like reading deep drama stories will not read the porn you write. In that case it's a very good idea to rebrand. You don't want your porn fans to boo your book for lack of porn and for deep drama fans to not read it because they looked at what else you wrote and found that it's all porn and they think your deep drama story is actually going to be another shallow porn story. In other words you should rebrand if you cater to two very different audiences. If you don't (cater to different audiences), rebranding is likely to hurt your sales more than help them.
I have no idea what it is you're actually going to write about, so I'm not going to say what you should do. And you probably shouldn't think about it until you finish writing the story.