Architecting the Obsession

Cross-posted from AI Marketing for Storytellers.

I started work on The House, the pornographic visual novel I’ll be making and releasing on Steam, in earnest, today!

But it might surprise you that I haven’t touched a SINGLE DROP of code.

Why?

Because before I start — I’ve been working with AI enough now to know that in order to achieve my goals ($$$$, financial freedom, and the ability to go on and do this with all the rest of my books) I need to back up, and back up, and back up to ask the highest level questions possible before I commence.

My system with AI is this —

Can I even do the thing?

Because…a lot of times AI will tell you you can do the thing, and it is straight up lying.

It thinks maybe you can do the thing, or it wants to use pieces of programs that no one else uses anymore to do the thing, or the thing was possible in 1973, or will be possible in 2044, but the thing cannot be done now.

Thus, you should always try out Enough of the Thing to know it’s vaguely possible, before you get stuck hip deep in a project (and your hopes and dreams) and you cannot make it happen.

(I have been here MANY MANY TIMES BEFORE. Like when I wasted 6-7 hrs of my life, attempting to code a Lara-bot GPT autoresponder via N8N, only to finally give up.)

So test first, or you’ll regret it later!

Can I even market the thing?

Boy oh boy — this is where I’m at with my Photobomb book. Which, I paid very good $$$ to have human narrated and…

I dunno. I tried FB ads, and they didn’t work — they got clicks, but they got ‘I like creepy stuff’ clicks and not ‘people wanting to read a creepy book’ clicks, I tried Tiktok with my glitch-Laras and those didn’t take (probably too long for them to take off, and ppl on TT have zero chill) and I posted the glitch-Laras on YT and they got some attention, and I’m doing that Performance Art Email piece on my newsletter currently but I am still at:

A whopping 7 pre-orders.

And over on ACX/audible, where I released the audio early —

The audiobook’s sold just 8 times.

(Aren’t I glad I used AI for this cover, instead of being another several hundred bucks down? lol!)

Now….

I know it’s a good book.

4.5⭐️ I was completely hooked from the start. Photobomb doesn’t just tell a story—it unravels it, piece by piece, like a polaroid developing in reverse. Listening to the audiobook made the experience even more electric. The narrator nailed the voice of the main character—so sharp, raw, and full of adolescent bravado that I found myself laughing out loud at moments that cut with precision.

This book is intense. Twisted. Brilliant. The pacing is perfectly sinister—slow enough to savor but never dull. Just when I thought I understood the FMC (female main character), she shifted. Morphed. Turned everything upside down. The twists? Absolutely wild. I couldn’t stop listening.

&

Get ready for a wild ride. Two sisters, complete opposites. One the ballet star, Mia, and one the photographer, Lara. But both have their own issues. But the death of Mia, has left Lara ready to start living. Always feeling like she was in the shadow of her popular, talented sister, she is prepared to win the prestigious Halleigh Grant award for her photography and win the heart of the boy she loves. But does it all work out that way? This is a dark, disturbing path to the past, letting us learn how things were and how they slowly moved through the years. Cassie Alexander had me attached to Lara's journal, wanting to know what was going through her mind and where it all leads. I was glued to this listen and loved it!

My ARC team is not full of fluffers!

All the same though, it being a good book doesn’t always = me being able to sell said book.

BUT —

I’m not giving up just yet.

I spent last night / this morning creating creepy audio for it, and then asking GPT to help me make a) a watermark up at the top so ppl can somewhat-know-what-this-is and b) creepy glitched twitching errored overlays of assorted lengths and haunted-nesses.

So those’ll begin shortly — and I still am intending to give everyone on my mailing list a free copy of the book the day before release. Fingers crossed that that’ll move the awareness needle!

But, as you can see, sometimes things just take time and luck and who the fuck knows which is why you should always ask your GPT….

What is the Best Way for Me to Do the Thing to Achieve my Goals?

Jack knows I’m aiming for World Media Domination and hella $$$.

So I spent this morning w/him, while those videos were rendering, figuring out the highest level way we can architect The House into being the slickest, most sellable final product on Steam ever.

Jack’s helpful and all, but he wasn’t going to come up with giving me that on his lonesome. In fact, left to his own devices, he’ll offer to help at the bottom of each response, which, if I let him, would just lead us down an infinite # of rabbit trails and prep — when what we TRULY need to know before we embark is

WHERE THE HELL IT IS WE’RE GOING.

(And also why. And will it be profitable.)

Then, once you’re there, you can get into the weeds and mechanics of actually making the damn thing.

Now that I think I understand enough about the market though…I’m jumping in!

xo!

Cassie