Your Turn: SIX WORD SURF NOIR

Back when we were first trying to marketing CHUM and kicking around ideas, one of the best ideas Ryan K Lindsay and I came up with was to get our ‘Tribe involved early. The idea…

SIX WORD SURF NOIR.

Can you tell a compelling story in just six words? There’s a famous story of Ernest Hemingway supposedly winning a bet by doing just that, writing:

"For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn."

Apparently, this has always been misattributed to Hemingway, but the point is made that an evocative story of emotional weight can be spun with extreme brevity…

So why not add a genre prompt to the challenge?

Scrappy independent publishers don’t have a ton of advantages when it comes to marketing creator-owned stuff, so it’s important to lean into any and all advantages you DO have. And while a big marketing budget and or fancy PR team were not among them, we did have:

• A decent network of talented up-and-coming writer / creator pals who could spare six words when asked.

• A growing email list of fans who were attracted to both the comics we were putting out and the resources ComixTribe was creating for aspiring writers and creators.

• Social media feeds that were actually pretty functional and not so algorithmically hacked that a high concept like six word surf noir could get some traction and participation from peeps in your feed.

And so we leaned in…

And the results were pretty awesome! Ryan got us going with “Stolen hearts lead to salty graves.” And then we were off to the races!

Honestly, it’s awesome to look back now at how many future industry heavy hitters we got to participate in this little gem of a challenge.

And what I love about six word surf noir is that every single one of these entries could be a prompt for an awesome new story.

We’re bringing it back, friends!

As a fun little backer bonus contest, we’ve just opened up new solicited SIX WORD SURF NOIR entries as a part of our FINAL WEEK of the CHUM Die-Cut Oversized Hardcover Ultimate Collection Campaign.

SUBMIT YOUR 6-WORD SURF NOIR

We’re already getting some great submissions from backers:

And since we know that so many of the fine folks who follow us on Substack’s are talented scribes in their own write, we want to open it up to all of you!

We’ll be announcing a grand prize winner (chosen by RKL himself) and also doing a participant pull winner (chosen at random from all those who enter.)

More Details HERE.

Come join us. The water is bloody fine.