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The Pendant of Hyacinth
Project Summary
"The Pendant of Hyacinth" is my Young Adult fantasy novel trilogy, and the original base of my 318K+ Instagram following. This project was my first dive into managing my own marketing campaign, self-publishing, and team management. I led a team of four through merchandising, editing, publicity (done almost entirely on social media), and, of course, writing. I developed a unique advertising angle for "The Pendant of Hyacinth", creating a hook around the individual characters, rather than the whole project. Then, using the individual relatability of each character to a select portion of my intended audience, drawing them into the larger world of the story. Using my experience in animation, I created memorable designs for my lead cast that catch the eye of viewers across platforms, in a style that was notably mine, to assure return to my page and product. All of this was done while a full-time Dean's List student at my university.
The Novels
The original concept behind the story was an idea I had written down in high school, an amalgamation of all the other stories I was taking in with that characteristic teenage ferocity for media. However, I didn't revisit it until my sophomore year of college, when I self-published Book One: December 1st, 2021.
I had only been sharing concept work for the series online for a year, but amassed 32.8K followers by publication day. The first book was then picked up by Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, and Walmart, as well as several indie booksellers across the US, and thanks to a dedicated Instagram presence, also did well internationally. Book Two was published a little less than a year afterward, November 1st, 2022, and finally followed by Book Three on November 15th of 2023. The series has sold over 3,ooo copies, and has been adapted into e-book format, as well as audiobook format. I record all audiobooks with the assistance of a coworker who also runs the additional account for the series, @thependantofhyacinth, on my behalf.
Promotion
There is obvious inspiration from animated media in my novels, but I'm happy to say it went beyond the initial moodboard. Including animation in my social media promotion was a great way to catch eyes quickly, and leave people wanting to learn more about the moving, speaking characters on their screens. While the fun, silly shorts on my platforms caught initial interest, I was able to expand that intrigue with a series of animated trailers I made prior to each book release! Nowadays, they serve like time capsules of my artistic development over my time on the project, but they're a fun and quick watch all the same!
I also created an illustrated countdown schedule focused on Teaser Tuesdays, where I would illustrate short passages of the book and showcase quotes from exciting chapters of the coming installment prior to release. Within the final week, I would also release special poster-style illustrations to boost the hype!
Cast
The main three protagonists of this story are accompanied by a larger cast, one that varies as they travel to different locations throughout the course of the series. The side characters ended up being a lot of fun for the fanbase to fall in love with and speculate about, so through interaction with those interested in the franchise, many developed an additional level of complexity that seeped beyond the pages and into the bonus artwork. But the leads still steal the show!
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If You'd Like to Know More!
The official Instagram account for the series is here: https://www.instagram.com/thependantofhyacinth/
And the links to purchase the books are here: https://linktr.ee/thependantofhyacinth
Please enjoy! I am also delighted to talk more about the skills I gained from working on The Pendant of Hyacinth during interviews.
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