Author: Seth Werkheiser

Today, I want to talk about feelings. Specifically, the feeling that you want your people to have when they get an email from you or see something you wrote online.

When I got the idea to start posting metal trivia on Twitter in 2011, I knew I wanted people to feel stoked when answering metal trivia questions on Twitter.

See, I could ask a question like, “in what year did Metallica’s ‘… And Justice For All” come out?” and the answer would be 1988.

But I thought about it, and no one gets excited yelling “1988” in line at the grocery store or hitting reply while at a show.

Could you imagine a heavy metal trivia show on TV in the mid 90s and contestants yelling out 1988? No way.

So I asked, “This ‘bass-less’ Metallica album came out in 1988.”

And I could imagine people excitedly tapping their phones and replying, “AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!” This led to people talking about the production of that album, discussing their favorite song, or talking about Cliff Burton (sorry, non-metalheads, if I lost you here haha).

Now, reverse engineer all this for whatever creative project you’re producing.

How do you describe what you’re doing in a way that would make someone feel something?

Say you’ve got a book tour coming up.

• Instead of “BOOK TOUR ANNOUCEMENT,” your subject line could be “Will I see you in Boston? New Haven? What about Providence?”
  Wait, what? My favorite author is coming to Boston? The New England area?! That’s where I am – I better click!
• Instead of “I have a new course,” say, “If you want to learn how to write a month’s worth of newsletters in one sitting, sign up for my new course.”
  People want to save time and make money and make an impact – make them FEEL that.
• Instead of “join my sci-fi community,” say “we’re debating the best / worst sci-fi movies in our Discord and you should join us.”
  People have thoughts about sci-fi movies. I have a sci-fi tattoo. People don’t get tattoos that say COMMUNITY (unless they’re big fans of Dan Harmon, I guess).
• Instead of “come see me at the market next week,” maybe say “my favorite things about setting up at the local market.”
  Sure, you’ll be selling at the market. But talk about all the things people love about markets – the food, the smells, the people, the dogs!

You don’t have to outrun a bear; you just have to outrun your friends.

You need to outrun people writing bland subject lines and boring social media posts. You just need to get people to feel something when they get your emails or visit your website.

Stop being precious and “trust the wildness in your heart.” Get a little wild, or loud, or weird. It’s how you’ve built a following, an audience, an email list.

”Your readers have signed up to go on the ride you decide for them. Be bold and lead the way,” said Nishant Jain of The SneakyArt Post.

Be bold and lead the way, indeed.

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:: LIKES LIKES LIKES ::

Since we’re on social media less, we need to share the work of other artists and creative individuals in spaces like this. Enjoy.

“Creators talk about Instagram as a game, a conversation forever circling “gaming the algorithm.” But the game is less like monopoly and more like poker. The house always wins.”

From ‘Algorithm is Gonna’ Get You: How Instagram Failed the Creative Class’ by Danielle Evans.

“Every night after the house is quiet and our work is done for the day, we’ve been checking in to see the daily videos that photographer Noah Kalina has been creating since the start of January – have you seen any of them?”

From ‘Clearing the Snow and the Mind’ by PappasBland.

“Recently I was asked to do an interesting illustration job. I spend many hours cooking up a proper job proposal, as it was quite a project. I asked a really fair price for my work too. A week later I got an email saying they went with another illustrator, as my social media audience wasn’t big or fitting enough.”

From ‘Is Instagram holding me back?’ by Marloes De Vries.

“On my USB, I have a folder for mail. Friends leave files in the mailbox. And then I go through the front door. There’s the TV. I have videos in the TV folder. I can go out and continue to the table where some PDFs are lying around. I go to the closet. There’s a suitcase that’s a zip file. It goes on and on”

From ‘Yatú Espinosa: USB Club’ by Naive Weekly.

“What does it tell us about progress if the most influential technological innovation of the century is clearly destroying lives on a massive scale?”

From ‘I Ask Seven Heretical Questions About Progress’ by Ted Gioia.

• VIDEO: “Do you volunteer for big tech?”
• VIDEO: ”How Phil Edwards Handles Creative Compromise” via The Publish Press