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RE: Dwarfish Numerical Runes 24-27

in #fantasy6 years ago

So, after going to your profile, I see that you started this little Dwarven Rune series about a month ago. You haven't posted much else in that time, so it got me wondering...

How important is this Dwarven language to the plot of your books? I'm a big believer in minimalistic narrative design, leaving things that aren't important to the immediate plot as ambiguous and available to be explored later on if necessary. Sure, you can go the J. R. R. Tolkien route and have some planned out deep lore that isn't pivotal to know for the main story, but isn't the main story more important? How much time have you spent on the characters, plot lines, descriptions, pacing, and everything else in comparison to this little side project of the narrative?

These are honest questions(and rhetorical ones, at that), I'm not looking to call you out or anything of the sort. I'm just not sure this content is really garnering public interest in your future novel when the numbers themselves may or may not be central to the plot.

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Hello there!

Thank you for the attention.

You are quite right, there is not all that much value to these little post right away. I do plan on letting it run though. With the SP/rep/followers that I have, trying to make a shout-out about my book with more valuable content is probably less effective than me handing out pamphlets about my writing at the local drug store.

This post garnered a whole 3 votes so yeah, there is not much attention. Perhaps in time there will be more?

As for the rest... This is not even language really, just the numeracy. It has been developed to a certain extent. The language has also been developed.

Characters, plotlines, descriptions, lore... yes. These have been done.

An example is Tahacardor Hadurem Duran which means roughly Stronghelm Three-Axes of the Dhurka Clan. Say "Tahacardor Hadurem Duran" in the most bass and gruff voice you can! Feels Dwarfy does it not? Hahaha!

The language and numeracy comes up with a unique and engineered result that is a result of the dwarfs culture, nature and physiology.

There will be much more content at least. You make me think... Perhaps I can mix some of these posts with other stuff eventually?

So, here is what I've been doing for my book. Time will tell if it's effective.

I have the main novel that I completed, but I've also been writing short stories and even some longer ones I've made available for free. I include a link to my novel at the bottom of most of my posts, and even occasionally post announcements directly about my book.

The main thing is to realize marketing a book is one of the most difficult things about self-publishing(which I assume is what you are doing, correct me if I'm wrong). When self marketing, you can't mail it in and expect people to line up to see your book. One of the best methods of generating interest is a teaser, which brings me to my original point. These graphics about dwarven numerals, they don't really get me interested in your universe. That's just me, I'm not much of a language buff, though I am familiar with non standard base number systems. Your few sentences here:

An example is Tahacardor Hadurem Duran which means roughly Stronghelm Three-Axes of the Dhurka Clan. Say "Tahacardor Hadurem Duran" in the most bass and gruff voice you can! Feels Dwarfy does it not? Hahaha!"

That goes much further in generating my interest, at least speaking anecdotally. Creating promotional material that actually gives people a mental image of your fictional world will likely have better results in generating interest than explaining a minute detail of the likely much larger world.

While creating this promotional material, I would also recommend commenting as often as possible. It's hard to do routinely, leaving thoughtful comments on other people's posts, but it really helps people notice your channel and swing by to check your stuff out.

After writing my previous comment, I went back to your feed and saw you did indeed do some promotional material. I would recommend picking that back up, but more importantly I would recommend commenting on other people's posts to integrate yourself into a community. That is probably more important than the actual type of promotional material you create.

Just don't blatantly self advertise on other people's posts. Make relevant comments, and if people like them they are more likely to check out your channel.

I see. I will try it out. Thanks for the input and feedback!