Nobody Gets Audience Attention Like a Heel!

A lot of writers out there focus on being liked. Often this leads to them trying to keep their actual thoughts and opinions behind the curtain, always presenting a pleasant, positive face to the audience. Other times it means writers just ignore negative elements that come their way, hoping that the trolls will stay silent if they don't feed them, and just keep on walking.

This led to an interesting comparison from a friend with a good sense of marketing. Writers who focus on being the good guy, taking the high road, etc., are a lot like the Faces in professional wrestling. Short for "Babyface," the term refers to the obvious heroes that the audience is supposed to root for.

Then there's the heels... which are basically the opposite of that.

Oh shit... who just dropped the bass?

It's a rough gig being a heel. Your persona is often abrasive, or at the very least doesn't give much of a damn whether the audience likes them or not. A lot of hate gets thrown your way, because after all, you're a contrast to the good guys. But there's a weird phenomenon there, too. Because a lot of people actively support heels. And even the people who absolutely hate them often end up boosting their earnings and signal in unintended ways.

 

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Rage Shares Still Put Money in Your Pocket

I had a recent incident involving this, so I thought I'd share it as an example.

About a month ago I wrote an article titled Captain America is Chaotic Good. It received the editor's pick when it first went up on Vocal, and as soon as I got some space in my promotions calendar I shared it around in all my usual groups for tabletop gaming and assorted geekery. I knew two things going in. First, that Cap is a very popular character thanks to the wide spread of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Second, I knew that discussions on pop culture characters through the lens of the alignment system used in tabletop games like Dungeons and Dragons often leads to pretty divisive conversations... which makes them fertile ground for an article that pays me based on how many people read it.

Brace yourself... the flame wars are coming!

It definitely got noticed. It didn't go viral by any stretch of the imagination, but there were quite a lot of reactions and comments, and more than a handful of shares to help drive up engagement. While I generally try to avoid stirring the pot personally as long as other people are taking care of the interacting, there was one person in particular whose behavior basically sums up exactly the sort of energy you can capture as a heel.

To paraphrase his opinion, he felt that opinion articles from random nobodies on the Internet discussing pop culture characters through the lens of gaming are a huge waste of time. However, stating this opinion in the comments section just meant there was more attention on the post. And then, just to prove how much he didn't care, he shared the link to his own Facebook wall to rant about it to his friends list about how useless he felt this sort of content was.

 

This is sort of like when conservatives, so outraged that Nike had partnered with an outspoken critic of police violence, bought new shoes for the express purpose of burning them in protest. It sends the opposite message you're intending if your protest actually increases the company's bottom line... but they didn't seem to realize that.

And if you find yourself in a situation like this, where someone absolutely rages against a thing you've written? Perhaps the best thing you can do is to simply tell them that if they don't like this kind of content, then maybe they should just scroll on by so that someone who is actually interested in it can take a look. Or, if you really want to shine them on, drop them a heart react and tell them thanks for the comment/share, because every little bit of attention really helps!

There Are Risks, Of Course

Before you go out there and start strutting around, loudly telling people booing you that you can't hear them so they increase their negative reactions to boost your signal, I'd like to add some caveats to this marketing strategy.

Firstly, unlike an actual wrestling heel, you're probably going to do more damage to yourself if you're legitimately rude and confrontational. Group mods don't care for it, and you can find yourself losing favor relatively quickly. Hence my suggestion of thanking folks slinging hate your way, because that will only increase the amount of attention they're giving you while you haven't said anything rude or insulting to them in the process. Sort of lets you have your dessert, and eat it too.

Not sure what else you do with a dessert, but whatever.

The other concern is that this strategy works better in some circumstances than in others. With the article I used as an example, it's perfect because the site only cares how many reads/views it gets when calculating my pay. There's no down vote on it, no place to leave angry comments or a 1-star review. If this same reaction was being had to my novel Marked Territory, then it's entirely possible that a lot of people would just leave it poor reviews to try to tank my score. Ideally they'd at least have to buy a copy to do that, but there's plenty of ways around that requirement as well.

Put simply, the more options the angry readers have to retaliate, the bigger the chance there is this could blow up in your face.

Additionally, I feel I should mention the simple caveat that I am not in the categories of folks who are most at risk from online harassment. I'm a big, white dude, so I don't present the same target as female-identifying individuals, creators of color, etc., etc. This is the sort of risk-reward proposal that I stand pretty good odds of coming out ahead on. So, before following in my footsteps on this one, make sure you're not putting yourself at serious risk in the hopes of earning a few extra bucks.

Like, Follow, and Stay Tuned!

That's all for this week's Business of Writing! If you'd like to see more of my work, take a look at my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my noir thriller Marked Territory, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife as well as my recent collection The Rejects!

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!