There’s a twist at the end of this post. Will you look ahead, or is knowing there’s a twist already too much of a spoiler?
In today’s ocean of entertainment options, raising awareness of a blog, novel, song, picture, film, game, etc. is like trying to get the attention of a sugared-up toddler on a trolley dash in a toyshop. The expensive and therefore risk-averse movie business deals with this by basing more and more films on an existing property – not just sequels and reboots and “reimaginings” of existing films, but books, comics, toys, computer games, board games… anything that will spark familiarity and save them the trouble and overheads of marketing something fresh.
And the studios are getting increasingly desperate. Who ever played Tetris and thought, “This would make a great movie!”?
It’s in production, folks.
A familiar name is a start, but one attention-grabber really isn’t enough. You’d want to know what this Tetris movie was about before going, wouldn’t you? Maybe know who was in it? See a trailer, or at least a poster, to get an idea of what to expect?
The competing big boys drip-drip details to hook you in. Their thunderstorm of information is designed to be broad, a scattershot – once we’ve seen the second, third, fourth item that piques our interest, we’re far more likely to buy what they’re selling. We like to feel confident we’ll enjoy what we’re paying for, and the more we know, the more confident we can be. Because when was the last time you paid for a film/book/song/game that you knew nothing about? Picked one at random, on a whim? Have you ever done that?
The drip-dripping of selling points is a torrent by the time the news websites split it down into as many stories as they can get away with (an interview is no longer a story: now each answer gets its own link, each click contributing to advertising revenue), and it drowns independents who don’t have the built-in audience to warrant clickbait.
As if grabbing attention wasn’t hard enough (resorting to a cheap trick like using a Star Wars picture on our post is a little embarrassing but, hey, if it worked), holding that attention is completely different.
New novelists don’t have star-wattage to wield, or a trailer to tout. Jokes, surprises, mysteries and twists are the currency of a writer, and funds are tough to come by: the combination of savvy audiences and over-supply makes every original idea hard-earned, and choosing which of these babies to sacrifice to Darth Advertising is heart-breaking because each idea that’s paid out during promotion – each surprise teased or joke shared – won’t have the carefully-designed impact in the story. Once spent, it’s gone. Many films, especially comedies and action flicks, don’t live up to their trailers and TV spots because they’ve exhausted all their capital on enticing you to watch.
Stories rely on the element of surprise to remain interesting. If you can guess what’s going to happen next, or have already heard about it, then the suspense, anticipation and excitement is removed, and it becomes boring.
Can you imagine seeing [REDACTED] if you knew beforehand that [REDACTED] was [REDACTED]? (We did promise no spoilers). There are some films and TV shows that can be seen from a completely different perspective once you know the twist – and if you knew the reversal before you saw it the first time, you’ve missed out on the intended experience.
So, we want to keep our jokes, surprises and mysteries back so they can be enjoyed as intended; yet if we don’t use any of them to spread the word, we’ll be saving the spoilers from a readership of about 5 people.
Like a see-saw with a twin at either end, it’s about balance.
To give you an idea what our debut novel is about, we’re going to post pieces on the general themes of the story:
Technology. Responsibility. Bullying. Cause and effect. Awareness. Unrequited love.
We’ll be exploring these and how they relate to The Spike Volume 1 over the coming weeks, so stay tuned.
Or don’t. The easiest way to avoid spoilers is to avoid all adverts/articles/blogs/reviews etc until after you’ve read the book.
Yes, that’s right, we’ve just warned you against reading the very post you’re reading now. [Twist] Did you look ahead?
Do you hate spoilers, or do you prefer to know as much as possible before shelling out? Let us know in the comments, or on Twitter or Facebook.
Arrowmaker Books 