Recruiting poster

I think it should have something to the effect of what we've been discussing here: that we're serious writers, we love what we do, and we're just as real as trad pubs.

I'll just spin them off as I think of them... I'm at a homeopathic conference right now, absolutely inspired by a huge research/treatment project with results that traditional medicine would simply think are too good to be true, so that's where my head's at right now... (the other part of my life)

A list of projects we've undertaken - e.g. the antholozine, learning by case studies, the resources we are amassing, shared fields of expertise and knowledge, acting as a support group, efforts towards professionalizing our packaging, etc.

"Join the community of weblit authors who are dedicated to true professionalism, reaching wider audiences for our work, and making web literature a force to be reckoned with in the literary world asap."

"Weblit: exploring the unlimited possibilities of imagination combined with Internet"

Suggest hitting the long-term visioning thread for ideas. "A weblit author wins the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2020? Why not?"

More later, perhaps...

I'm hoping for a militant approach with a pointed finger and "MeiLin wants YOU...for the Weblitista Brigade"

I did one thing already: put the t-shirt logo/slogan on the back of my new set of business cards, which are the main thing I hand out. So there's that. I have till Thanksgiving to poke at this before I have to go get a few hundred printed out.

Do I understand that you will have a booth at this con, MeiLin? How much to they cost?

No, I won't have a booth this year. Next year, when I KNOW I will have a book, I'll be tabling, possibly with Char and Irk since we're all three in town. More the merrier; if anyone's going to be at Orycon next year, we can throw in together on a table.

There's such a huge ocean of distance between us... *sniff*

A post card format works really well for recruiting. You know, those mini-flyers you see advertising clubs and gigs and such. You can stack em up on a freebies table and then pass out the rest. I got a couple of people to join a video game studio like that, and at a very small convention no less.

Do you want me to design something? I can also probably recommend some local printers. It's a cheap print job if it's all black and white, standard 100# card stock.

Bookmarks also work, by the way, but they have less space on them for information, and get lost in the shuffle if you leave them in a stack on a table.

By the way, I think before you distribute these we should have a front page up on the site instead of newest posts, that way it'll be easier to welcome an incoming wave of visitors - like what was discussed in that suggestions thread. Let us know if you need any help with it, I'm sure someone can lend a hand.

Yes to design help (I am barely adequate at best), yes to printing help, and yes to anyone who wants to help with the front page. We need pithy bullet points.

You want such stuff posted here or mailed to you? Irk is very right about the landing page thing. Designed for quick scan and visually attractive/welcoming.

Now I don't want to ruffle any feathers here (again) but that page should reflect a little "out of the envelope" thinking. What people find here at present is a little bit like stepping into a private club where everybody else knows what's going on already.

For instance, "we define weblit as" doesn't mention the concept of work written and presented online. Seems obbvious, but not if you just punched in some URL off a flyer. I would say:

"WebLit.Us focuses entirely on marketing, promotion and cross-promotion for web literature, which we define as essays, memoirs, short fiction, novels and serials written and presented online. Leave an idea, take an idea, and help spread the word about web literature!"

And again, I think it would be well to look at the structure of the forum itself from the eyes of an outsider.

One bullet/addition I'd suggest would be slanted at readers... a READ WEBLIT BY MEMBERS button going to a page that is strictly a list of links to work. It could be a forum page. "Showcase" or something, but with the understanding that it's solely for that purpose, quick blurb and link to your web serial.

I think the landing page should have a lot of graphics of member serials. The best of the images, maybe cut down to 250 x 125 thumbnails or something. Showing a variety of looks. Maybe decide on a size like 125x125 and let people submit their Project Wonderful ad in that format.

I think the way I'd approach a design, if I was doing it would be several short paragraphs, each with an image to the side of it.
And saying things like:
--Browse weblit by our growing group of members
--Join in our collective efforts to widen awareness and readership of all web literature--including YOURS
--Participate in flyer programs (and whatever else is being done here)
--Learn how to put your story online from people who are doing it
etc

And once there is a front page to show, I would run it by people who have no idea what you're talking about, see it they pick up on it or get stuck with some concept or another.