The K-Pop Scandal Campaign is Officially LIVE!

I’ve been working on The K-Pop Scandal for a few years now. It started as one of my lockdown projects. This was initially named Taegong, but I felt a new title would make it stand out. Looking around at other opportunities and places to submit my work I came across this site called Publishizer. It is like a Kickstarter for books. The testimonies looked great and I could see a handful of the books became successful. If you can get enough pre-orders, your book is pitched to publishing houses.

I have somewhat of a marketing plan in mind. I do have a lot of ideas. I believe I will be doing a lot of the marketing and promotion on my own. I think even if I just get one pre-order, then I think it would have been worth it.

It’s also free, so I thought I had nothing to lose. I plan to enter The K-Pop Scandal in some writing competitions such as The Wattys in the on-going category. I think publishing a portion of the book online can help attract people into eventually checking out the crowdfunding page. I’ve seen it work for some Wattpad authors there.

I saw an email about Honeyfeed having a contest as well. If The K-Pop Scandal is eligible I will submit it.

I am very active on Twitter, and I can use the hashtags and promo threads there to show my crowdfunding page there. So far I’ve had a lot of congratulations given to me by other members of those groups.

I also had a lot of good feedback about the campaign from Publishizer staff along with some very useful comments. They didn’t approve the campaign straight away, which made me trust them. I also have regular emails and contacts.

I am a member of some private groups on WhatsApp and Discord and I can share as some of them do have threads dedicated to self-promotion.

As promised, here is a snippet of The K-Pop Scandal.

The music mogul went by many names. To her close friends, she was Song Mun-Hee, an entrepreneur living the dream. To the western world, she was Flo Glitz, a ruthless manager in a big coat. With a passion for music and an eye for profit, she was branded the mean queen of K-pop. Tabloids preferred to call her the wicked witch of the music industry.

Flo Glitz had imagined a homoerotic pop duo causing chaos in the music industry. In the depths of her mind, she could envision screaming crowds pining over another two young men. The band’s schedule had been set for months. All she needed was the band members, and she already had two in mind: her godson and her ex-boyfriend.

Flo Glitz never recovered from her ex’s dabbling. After many violent fantasies about revenge, she opted for a creative route. She couldn’t choose between saving her godson or exacting revenge on her ex. In the end, she thought: why not both?

Sipping tea with Gang Ja-Lee, she snoots around at the beige furniture and wilting orchids. She waited for the right opportunity to make her a deal. She was the godmother to Gang-Ja’s youngest son, Taeyang. Flo Glitz wanted to give him a job. Ja-Lee was obsessed with her eldest son’s achievements like he was her only child. Fruitful words came to mind when she noticed Taeyang had been cropped out of almost every family photo.

Now, Flo Glitz may have been heartless, but she could not see how her best friend could not see the greatness her other child had. Biting her lip in discretion, she dug her fists into her lap. For the time being, she listened to Ja-Lee's boasts about Lee. Oh, what a glorious doctor Lee is! If only Taeyang could be the same. Lee is perfect in every single way.

Please shut up before I slap you, she thought to herself, but since she mentioned the word perfection, she took the chance to change the topic.

“You know, when it comes to my company, I will only accept perfection.” Sharp should have been her middle name. Flo Glitz knew perfection was hard to come by, but every time she thought of her godson, her own little precious cinnamon roll, she knew it existed.

“What if your staff have a bad day?” Ja-Lee asked.

“No such thing as a bad day.” Flo Glitz shrugged her shoulders. “One mistake always leaves to another. I don't want them if they can’t give me over 100% 24/7.”

Ja-Lee gasped, leaning over as her hands jittered. “You’ll kill your idols doing that.”

“Do the research. I am kinder to my idols than other idol institutions. You need to be rough in this business,” Flo Glitz said, “ or any business for that matter. I’m harsh because I believe in them. I want to push them until their minds break. Then they’re reborn stronger.”

Ja-Lee crossed her legs as her teacup quivered in her hands. “I’m so glad my sons didn’t want to become idols.”

“You know, I like the way Japan hones their idols…They start off flawed and they’re then polished so their true beauty shines.”

“How are you going to do that?” Ja-Lee asked. “You’re going to take somebody from Japan for your project.”

“Why would I do that?” Flo Glitz asked, staring at the canvas with two boys. With her eye on the younger one. “I’m looking for somebody local with the right looks for my project right here in Seoul.”

“Who do you have in mind?”

“I want somebody that comes across as delinquent. You know, American girls drool over bad boys. Somebody who’s always late for school and has had more detentions than hot dinners.”

Ja-Lee stared at her. “Like my boy?”

“Yes!”

“So this is why you’re here?” Ja-Lee stood up. To that, Flo Glitz nodded. With trembling fingers, Ja-lee circulated around the sofa. “You want to turn my son into an idol?” She gasped and sat down again. “He can’t even tie his own shoelaces.”