Idea Napkin

1) You. I'm a student who sometimes neglects polishing her gift of intellectual brainpower in favor of her knack for artistic stimulation, and vice versa. I love creating all forms of art: digital, painting, mixed media, music, writing, and crafting. For now I balance on a thin tightrope between my entrepreneurship goal and my "safe" career alternative for which I attend school. I've loved to write for a long time, and I always had the desire to publish my works in the back (and front, and every space in between, admittedly) of my mind without voicing it. It wasn't until I was churning out hundreds of pages in the span of days and practically fusing with my keyboard that it got hard to ignore. That's when I started juggling coursework, writing, and researching publishing houses and literary agents from the directory. I try not to let the rejections or roadblocks get to me, but I'm starting to think a method other than the traditional paperwork approach might be necessary to get me noticed. So here I am, marketing myself.

2) What are you offering to customers? I'm offering fresh new stories that aren't the same overused tropes we've been seeing get sickeningly over-commercialized and grotesquely franchised.

3) Who are you offering it to? Anyone and everyone who loves literature, commercial fiction, or "young-adult" theme related genres.

4) Why do they care? They're tired of reading the same exact plotlines, and this is evident by the fact that no book-turned-blockbuster has gone trending in years now--a really odd disturbance in the usual pattern of dispersed bursts of new fandoms being generated around whatever this year's best-seller is.

5) What are your core competencies? For starters, I'm actually a part of the demographic I'm marketing to. I'm a young adult myself; I know what's cool and trending way better than the corporate guessers who try to keep up with the teenage fandom-radar. I'm not some middle-aged suburban mom typing from her home office desk who has lost grasp of what young people actually want to read. I'm female, I'm a minority ethnically, and I'm about as young as they come.

I think these five elements work pretty well together. Perhaps if I devoted even more time to putting myself out there and rolling with the punches instead of juggling between school-career and entrepreneur-side-idea, I could be more productive? I'm not sure if it's an exact proportional correlation: double time spent working means double progress and faster success?

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 8, 2017 at 6:31 PM

    Hey Simoli, I definitely understand the artistic passion/schoolwork struggle. My sophomore year of uni, I actually almost transferred out of UF and into a toy design program in NYC because I was so unhappy putting all my effort into my major at the time (chemical engineering) that left no time for my art! In the end, I just ended up switching into a major that would give me both more time for art and applicable skills I could put towards that field someday (marketing major/entrepreneurship minor).

    While if you weren't in school right now, there would be more time to put towards your writing, it's a high risk for a not necessarily high reward. College is only a few years, and a degree is nice to fall back onto, as you're probably already well-aware! Keep writing, girl.

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    Replies
    1. Simoli POctober 8, 2017 at 6:50 PM

      Thanks Haley! I'm soooo glad someone else gets the struggle. As if switching between art mediums wasn't already demanding enough. Aside from the juggle of digital art, writing, and painting, I have to worry about time-consuming school assignment deadlines (tongue-in-cheek). Maybe when you get your website up and running I can have a place to branch out and show my work ;)

      Delete
  2. David SpreenOctober 8, 2017 at 8:50 PM

    Simoli,
    Your ability to relate directly to the group who has this need helps you identify the specifics of the topic. The passion and belief that you show towards the product also shows the strong need that some people have. Keep up the grinding and it will all pay off. The specific market you can hit is also helpful and probably the hardest part and for you it was able to come easy.

    ReplyDelete

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