How much of my project should I show?
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Hey yall... I know this question has been asked and answered loads of times probably, but...
When working on a personal project, with plans to make a finished and published work (a middle grade novel in my case), how much should one be sharing the work on social media? By "sharing the work" I mean showing images of the characters and little hints of the world, for the sake of drumming up a bit of interest without giving too much away. I have heard the SVS Learn guys talk about this quite a bit, and the answer seems to be "Yes you should share" in order to get people's attention and interest before you publish, and it's a way to market your work well in advance.
I'm working on a story and am pretty immersed in the world and characters, I draw them a ton and feel this itch to share it with people because it is giving me a lot of joy, but I am still drafting the story and I know it needs work, it might be a year or two before it's done. The answer to my question is probably a matter of personal preference. Some people like to keep projects totally under their hat and only start sharing it up when it's close to done, while others seem to have no problem sharing it up early and use that as marketing.
Anywho, any thoughts or stories would be helpful. Thanks!
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@mcoxart Hi! That’s awesome and congrats on the project! Is there anything in your contract that addresses sharing on social media? If not, then I would say do what’s most comfortable with you. I was just in the same situation but it was specifically written in the contract that I prohibited from sharing on socials until the book went public for preorder. I was itching to share and wanted to drum up interest but had to wait. All the best to you, and can’t wait to see your work!
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@Maureen-Henry-Artist
Thank you for your response, Maureen! Actually it's a self-directed project I'm doing, so I get to determine how much I'm comfortable with sharing. I mainly don't want to get ahead of myself too much before the project is done, but I'm aware that it can be hard to sell the product if you haven't already marketed the crap out of it before it's done. It's a bit of a tricky territory, and I'm new to it. I appreciate your feedback
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If you do share, maybe not share the title or book cover until you’re ready to start selling the book. That way no one else copies your book title and people interested in your book can immediately purchase it right when they see it (they may not see your future posts due to algorithms).
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@danielerossi Good advice. I have neither cover nor title currently, will bear this in mind!
