I’m religious. I have not been quiet about that. I market my book as a dark fantasy adventure story written by a Christian author.
The reason that paragraph is related to this post is that I never understood why I ended up in marketing when I am, quite literally, a journalist.
I still don’t know how I got here. I just did what my sky daddy told me to do. (This is our relationship. I’m very straightforward with that dude. I call Him “bruh” all the time.)
But I think I know why I’m in marketing now.
God knew I’d eventually be in the position I’m in today: advertising my own book.
And I’m telling you now, being in marketing has given me an advantage on that side of creation. I know what works. More importantly, I know what doesn’t work.
Right now, some people might think the smart thing for me to do is run ads.
I will not be running ads.
Yes, ads would put The Tome of Talula in front of more people. But it’s the first book in a series, and most people—including me—aren’t eager to start a series from an independent author when only one book in that series exists.
I know that.
Realistically, I probably won’t see a return that’s worth the cost of advertising until The Tome of Boon is out. And that book is coming. It’s already halfway written. I just took a break from writing it because, apparently, launching a 150,000-word dark fantasy novel requires me to do approximately 7,000 other things.
So I’m not buying ads right now.
Instead?
I’m going to come up with my own ridiculous ways to advertise this book and hope they convince people to give Amblem a chance.
And that’s how we arrived at the 8-bit video game simulations.
My artist, friend, and illustrator for Book One—and, hopefully, the rest of the series—created these tiny 8-bit pixel versions of my characters.
We joked about creating a video game.
I shelved the idea.
Until I got bored one day.
I have absolutely no experience in coding or video game creation.
What I do have is experience in photography, graphic design, and stop motion.
And then I made the terrible mistake of thinking:
“Well, how hard can it be?”
It’s my toxic trait. I think I can do anything.
Blame my parents. They believe in me.
So I figured out how to create videos that simulate the video games I grew up playing.
Yes, I am that old.
I know what a Game Boy is.
Maybe God had a point all along.
The actual videos are on my tiktok under therealluxmvale.
