Notices by Ruby Jones (rubyjones@smutlandia.com)

Too many writers are using generative 'AI' to make their book covers, so I've written a guide on how to make your own cover for free or cheap without turning to a machine.

If you can't afford to pay an artist, you CAN make your own!

I hope this is a helpful overview that covers the basics and points to some free resources.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/create-your-own-118846775 #covers #indie #writing #WritintCommunity #SelfPublishing

@skinnylatte this is about the UK, but I think there would be a lot of overlap: I've been trying to get everyone to read Daniel Lavelle's Down and Out: Surviving the Homelessness Crisis, released 2022. Lavelle talks about his own experiences of being unhoused and those of people he knew and interviewed over the course of years.

We* think we know these things, but own-voices accounts bring them into painfully sharp relief. The path to being unhoused is so tied to disability, MH, and abuse >

@skinnylatte >people often like to say that we're all only a few pay cheques from the streets, but some people have much less of a safety net than others, and once you slip through it's very, very much harder to get back on the other side.

Lavelle's book struck me with how similar his experiences were to my own, and how I just scraped by, clinging on to being housed, both as a teenager and when I became chronically ill my 30s.

Anyway, sex workers are great and you should respect them.

Thanks, Stormy!

>you just won't sell anything. And you have to promote a LOT. And your first few books just aren't gonna sell many copies.

I've literally seen people say 'I'm not going the trad publishing route because I'm not stereotypically pretty or good at self-promotion' and my mind boggles. This is opposite land. These do also seem to be the same people who are disappointed with the reality of self-pub sales numbers.

Like, respect for people self-pubbing for themselves who don't care if they sell>

Deeply confused by the number of writers on here who seem to think that you have to do MORE of your own promo if you traditionally publish. Especially as I have seen some of those same people complain about only getting a handful of sales.

Do not be fooled by the small numbers of trad published authors who are big on tiktok. That is not how it usually rolls, even if there is more pressure on trad published authors to self-promote.

The difference is with self-pub you HAVE to self-promote or>

@doot I don't know, but this feels like a question for Superman.

@AimeeMaroux @smutstodon I am always here for butts.

@AimeeMaroux @aleclake @smutstodon Seconded!

@AimeeMaroux @melofthevalley @aleclake @smutstodon Yes! I love Museum Bums. but I don't think they are here :( A hashtag would be great!

Do you like your erotica with a bucket load of feels? #RuinousAttraction has that in spades!

Two traumatised, pissy, hot boys stuck in an ancient enchanted sex dungeon, getting increasingly horny, forced to confront their issues. Completely falling for each other. Hating it. Working things out.

Like, there is a fuckton of sex, but the sex IS plot and the plot is feels, you feel me?

#erotica #bookstodon #gay #mlm #fiction

https://www.amazon.com/Ruinous-Attraction-Sussuran-Chronicles-Book-ebook/dp/B0C96ZCP6F