Fumbling towards BookTok

Hello friends!

I just thought I’d write a quick update. I finished the Potion Dealers LATE last night, after some very rigorous line editing. It took much longer than I expected. I’ve been very MIA. Remind me never to assume I can edit a Hidden Lands book quickly!

I also have a line editing video upcoming, with the 15 things I look for in line edits!

Today I was so relieved, because I had recorded four Youtube videos the other day and all I needed to do today was edit one of them, post it, and take a day off! That was when I learned that the audio was unredeemably bad on TWO of these videos. Gyaaah. GYAAAH. The only ones left were the members-only video and a video scheduled for a sponsor in May, so no video today, except for members! But I am planning to drop three this upcoming week because there will be a bonus release-day video for the Potion Dealers with some final thoughts.

I also set myself a challenge to dip my toe into BookTok, Instagram Reels, and Youtube Shorts, for 30 days to promote the book. Today I spent 3 hours drawing and coloring five little sketches and making this teaser video. This is me operating on Stupid Ideas Challenge Mode, because there is ALMOST no way there will be a payoff even close to the time spent, especially since I have barely done art like this in 15+ years and I also have barely used TikTok, so I’m just making allll the mistakes.

But what is also true is that I just had fun making the sketches. My entire goal for this era of my life was to reclaim my playfulness and let marketing come secondary to that. Because I am having so much fun and everything is coming from such a place of fun, every little preorder and interaction just means 20x more.

Please enjoy 3 hours of my life in 30 seconds!

Anyway, remember to take some time out to have some fun with your art! It’s worth it!

xo,

Lidiya