Not sure I have much to add in terms of marketing -- I agree with the general idea of making sure the story and its hooks have the spotlight. I'm just impressed that you're tackling an issue that inspires a LOT of instant polarization, but with a fairly even keel.
IIRC you do a bunch of reviews on the Discord too, right? Wish you luck rebuilding your audience 
Well, you probably won't like the answer, but because at this point they're linked, for better or worse.
Here's how this should work (and how, 10 years ago, it would have worked) - I'd have talked about identifying your selling points, how to priortize and order them, and left it at that. No discussion of how to avoid PR seppuku, no discussion of diversity marketing one way or the other. And then, I'd end by saying that if you want to see good examples in action, look at Disney, and Marvel, and CBS, and the BBC, and so on..
You might be starting to see the problem here. Every single exemplar that comes to mind to give seems to be in a race to find the fastest way to alienate their own fanbases. There's a massive negative example that stands as the elephant in the room, and it has to get addressed somehow. I honestly don't like having to do it, but I'm also REALLY tired of watching it play out, and if just one person reads this, goes on to get big, and DOESN'T make these mistakes, I'll call it a win.
Because YOU literally asked ME "If I wrote a story about a trans person to be read by other transpeople and allies, would that make me woke?"
If you don't think that I am qualified to give you an answer, then don't ask me the question. I'll answer any question as best I can, and I can't promise I'll be right every time, but I'll always try my best - particularly in a matter as complex and controversial as this - but asking somebody a question like that and then complaining that they're not qualified to give you an answer is a pretty dick move.
And I would point out just how much uncertainty was baked into my answer...as well as the fact that I only ventured to talk about the story, and not the person writing it.
I think the main reason people reacted as they did during this topic, is because many folks here make content that genuinely appeals to said audiences these big companies clumsily tried to aim to.
I guess you probably didn't want to put them in the same sack as Disney, Marvel, etc........but without a clarification, a misunderstanding was kinda bound to happen.
Yeah, I realize they are. You said diversity marketing, I got that much.
You don't have to, you owe no one the grace of advice on the topic. It seems like you just wanted to. I was just thinking it seems like the type of discussion that would thrive more if it wasn't attached to general marketing advice. There's plenty that could be said about the topic all on it's own.
I don't think there's much to misunderstand here, I just found it off putting when I wanted to read about general marketing and advice about it, and instead faced a discussion about marketing based on "superficial" traits of characters. Though, the fault is on my part; I assumed the discussion would go into the technical aspects of marketing not the philosophical or political.
Well, I am not a far left activist (whatever that means) but I have also had people call me a leftie (probably because I am LGBT and I like diversity). Maybe by what you told me so far, I need to embrace the wokeness and make it my whole identity. Maybe it will fill the void of my lack of political alignment.
Well...personally i prefer more technical advice too.........if i had a summary of OP's points:
-Find your selling points: Focus on the main selling of your story. (premise, genre and what sets it apart from other stories of said genre) then as it's name says, complement it with your secondary selling points. (characters, world building, and what makes these things special)
-make a blurb with your selling points mentioning first the key selling points and then the secondary ones......
-don't be toxic, don't guilt trip your audience and don't get in unneccesary online conflicts.
-diversity by itself is not a selling point. It can help, but would be more like a tertiary selling point. (I would say this can be secondary depending of the genre and the topics it handles.)
-Alienating your main audience to pander to a new one is a poor choice. Specially if done in a mediocre way......
Well it's a quick guide, so I didn't expect him to go into too much detail (or any more detail than he already has). I just assumed the discussion would branch out into the nitty gritty details of marketing and not what did happen. But that was my wrong assumption.
And I just want to mention, not that anyone asked, it's not as though I don't think it can or should not be discussed, just that it would be more productive isolated in it's own topic in my opinion.
Okay, so to summarize the opinion of literally everyone here: diversity good, shallow tokenism bad
/thread
Hi ya'll --
Kinda noticed the thread was escalating just a bit, so I wanted to jump in and remind peeps to keep chill and vibe. If need be, there's never a wrong time to get up and come back to the convos at a later time or reread replies before sending.
Don't wanna close the thread since marketing (especially in terms of demographics) is a good convo to have, but just wanted to send out that reminder.
Have a night evening everyone!
Jenny
@NickRowler As an American in California, the word "woke" is a little different. Honestly the word is slightly different wherever you may be, but out here it's a word that means you are trying to cover up for your ignorance basically. It's not really a compliment to be called woke.
And, when used in the context of a large company, where it's most often used, it means that a company is trying to save face for all of the neglect they have done to their minority workers over the years by having an outward charity or maybe they'll spotlight minority workers for a bit (or maybe for an entire month in June)--while ignoring the fact that they still hire significantly less and pay significantly less to those workers and are not actually improving their lives where it matters.
Dunno if that explanation helps, it is a somewhat contextual term where it really depends on what you're talking about.
Where I live, there has been issues with teachers being harassed and books are being banned from school for being "too woke". Teachers don't want to work in the schools anymore because they don't want to deal with the death threats. I feel like if my work was published in print form, it would probably also be on the banned list for being "too woke". I think in some ways I want to just accept it and say "Yeah I'm woke, go cry about it". I don't think there is anything I could do to appease these people because me just existing is "too political" for some people even if I am not a political person.
Or, you could just write good stories that speak to you with well-developed characters, and ignore the idiots who would call you "woke" for exploring the subjects that are dear to you. Just sayin'.
Take the advice of an mental abuse survivor: don't ever let anybody else define you but YOU.
Right, I think I can understand where you're coming from a bit better with that context. Things are a lot worse where you live than what I'm familiar with, so your reactions to some people on these forums sometimes feel overblown to me to the point that I'm a bit scared of you sometimes. But reading your actual comics, you don't seem like a very political person at all.
Quick correction: for a blurb, it should often be the other way around. For everything else, key selling point first.
I think the discussion of how representation and marketing intersect is an interesting one. It seems like a lot of the frustration around how it's handled stems from how large companies do it. They run the risk of doing it in a way that comes off hollow and superficial, even for the people who benefit from being represented (like the LeFou example mentioned earlier.) In some cases, it's intentionally done to stir up controversy, which I feel like is really disrespectful to marginalized groups who already experience hate just by existing.
But it still works, and that's what matters here.
There's been a really big push to make corporate-produced media more diverse in the past 10 years or so, but no matter how many diverse stories are pumped out in the next few years, it's not going to compare to the decades of stories where certain types of characters were not included for one reason or another. (I don't think any individual stories are to blame here, or that they're even bad for not being diverse, but when there's an overarching pattern where some people are only represented in 'lesser' roles or not at all, that's where I can see people having an issue.)
This mainstream focus on diversity is still seen as fresh, and there's a section of the audience who will be content just knowing that there's a lead character like them for once. Even if they don't like the story, they may continue supporting it because if it's not popular, media makers could decide that "No one wants to read a story with a [insert identity here] character." I'm sure some very savvy marketers know this fear and capitalize on it to generate the most response with minimal effort.
I do agree that only advertising what marginalized identities are in your cast and saying nothing else about your work isn't the most effective way to advertise. In written advertisement, like what's often done on the forums, it matters a little more to give extra details, even if you're responding to a thread that's only asking for "Hey, show me some series with [identity] characters." Marginalized or not, people are going to want to know about the tone, the plot, genre etc.
But heavily advertising them is different.
In visual forms of marketing like commercials, you can get a lot of information without it really having to be said, especially if the thing being advertised is a pre-existing property (ex. In Jurassic Park, you know they're gonna be running from some dinosaurs.)
Most of what I've said so far has been in the context of bigtime corporate media. Two very important differences about Tapas are the creators and the readers. A large portion of both creators and readers here are marginalized in some way. It's less likely that a Tapas creator is going to use diversity as just a quick way to get readers. They're more likely to have diverse stories simply because they want to see more of them. Readers know this and want the same thing, and because of this, adding diversity is less likely to generate conflict here. Tapas creators tend to have a smaller reach anyway, so they're unlikely to start discourse big enough to gain the amount of readers for it to be worth it.
The identities themselves are very important to marginalized people in their daily lives. It affects how they're seen by others, which affects how they get depicted in media, and that creates a feedback loop even if it's not the only factor contributing to why they're discriminated against. So even if the identity itself doesn't influence much, and the story is just advertised as "Hey, this is sci-fi with a black main character," just that alone could be important to draw in a reader who really likes sci-fi, but never got to see someone like them be the protagonist.
In a different world, there would be enough stories for everyone to go around and factors like this would be too vague to hook people, but that's not the world we live in right now.
...I think that's all I had to say. Hopefully, this didn't come off too antagonistic to anyone. I just think it's an interesting topic, and it seemed like everyone was kind of on the same page and just saying it in different ways. So that's it.
I'm sorry if I come across as scary. I honestly don't think I am as intense as some people on the internet, heck look at my Twitter. I don't really go into my deep political views, because that isn't anyone's business. But yes, I do not align myself with a political party or group, I just do my own thing.
I do get a bit upset when people are unable to realize POCs, LGBTQ, and disabled people are just people living their lives. A lot of these types of people may want to write about themselves or the friends and family. Sometimes these people are judged more or labelled as being "too political" even if it is something as simple as two girls just holding hands.
I don't hate you, if that is what you are worried about. I am not really a spiteful person unless you are sending death threats or assaulting people. I do believe people can change for the good and part of that is challenging their views on the world.
Ohh yeah you're definitely not nearly as intense as some people out there (I wouldn't even be talking to them 
) I guess what I'm worried about is you thinking that I 'don't realize POCs, LGBTQ, and disabled people are just people living their lives' when I very much do, because from my perspective, the people who seem to upset you clearly do recognize that POCs, LGBTQ, and disabled people are just people living their lives but you think they don't because they used the wrong words. I do trust you're not a spiteful person; you're never really the initiator of any drama that happens and your comics are honestly less incendiary than mine XD
Huh, that might be why I tend not to get hooked on blurbs that feel like they follow 'standard blurb format' I've always found I get into stories easier if the author just gave me their vision straight - I can't tell you how many creators from these forums whose blurbs didn't catch my interest at all, yet I felt compelled to check out their work again after hearing them straight up talk about their vision in discussion threads 
