The plight of being a bilingual writer

Hi Dreamers,

Since setting up my social media, I have noticed just how difficult it was for me to reach out to my target audience. I first believed that I should be posting in English, as a bid to reach a broader audience, so I did. I posted in English regularly for about two weeks. It made sense to promote my first published book “The Misadventures of Eros and Thanatos” in English since the book was written in English. However, I quickly realized that I should also write in French, so I started doing so. I translated my posts into French, and then it became second nature to post in both languages, but to be honest, it is grueling and complicated.

But here’s the thing. You do have to reach all of your audiences. Your native one, because when you write in your native language, of course you want to reach out to the language speakers. You want them to know that your work is available, and you want it to be seen. You also need to expand your audience and make sure that it can reach out overseas because someone might be interested in your work and not be able to understand the language unless it is in English. So, motivated to advertise my work across the globe, I decided to do promo in both languages.

However, I will be honest with you. If marketing is not your cup of tea, this is going to feel like yet another task to do. You have to remember to translate, pay attention to your hashtags, make sure you use the right ones, and make sure your posts are seen. It can be disheartening, especially when you start, and believe me, I have just recently started. So for me, it is all new and scary. And honestly, I was not sure I had it in me to do all of this. I knew it was hard work, but I did not realize just how hard it could be. However, after a moment, I decided that I could simply not be afraid. I could not stop dead in my tracks after just a couple of weeks, so I decided to keep going. I just hope to be able to connect with you, Dreamers.

I am also going to add something. Your branding. For a long time, I did not understand why I would need branding, but it is necessary to consider having a brand so you can distinguish yourself from other authors. Now, how do you do that as a bilingual author/artist? Do you do your branding twice, one in English and the other in your native language? It's quite expensive, to be honest, and now that I am tackling branding on the side, I had to make a decision. Most of the logo + typography doesn't need a peculiar approach, but when it comes to text. You will have to adapt, especially when you have a tagline. I will prioritize English to reach the maximum of my audience, but then will make adjustments for the French audience. I think it would be easier to think like this: think International and then adjust little things to fit the national market. We'll see how it goes.

Stay lively, Dreamers. ⭐