Episode 82
Are You Going to ReaderCon? ...with Lara Bernhardt
In this episode, we’re talking with Lara Bernhardt, a novelist and publisher and co-host of WriterCon writers' conference in Oklahoma City. This year’s WriterCon has a special event—ReaderCon on September 4. We learn what it is and why every reader and author in the Oklahoma City area should want to be there.
LINKS:
- ReaderCon: https://www.writercon.com
- Lara’s book, Red Rain: https://amzn.to/3KhfzjX
- Liz Wilcox's Email Marketing Membership at https://writing.fyi/liz
- Get your FREE Move the Needle goal-setting for authors ebook at https://www.writingmomentum.com
- Write with us! Join Chris, Gena, and Rene each Wednesday at noon Central and let's get our writing DONE! https://www.writingmoments.com
Transcript
Hello and welcome to the Writing Momentum Podcast.
Speaker:I'm Christopher Maselli.
Speaker:I'm here with my wife Gena.
Speaker:How you doing Gena?
Speaker:I'm doing great today.
Speaker:It's gonna be a fun day.
Speaker:This is gonna be good.
Speaker:We have with us Lara Bernhardt and she's the Pushcart nominated writer,
Speaker:editor, and audiobook narrator.
Speaker:She's the founder and acquiring editor for Admission Press, which
Speaker:publishes a wide variety of books, and she's written the Wantland Files.
Speaker:It is a supernatural suspense novels and two standalone women's novels
Speaker:including her latest, which is Red Rain.
Speaker:How are you doing today, Lara?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I'm so excited to be here.
Speaker:Thank you guys for inviting me.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:We recently talked to Bill, your husband about Writer Con, but we
Speaker:want to talk about Reader Con today.
Speaker:Because it's a whole nother new part of Writer Con that's happening
Speaker:actually like in conjunction with, but right after the Writer Con
Speaker:conference in Oklahoma City, right?
Speaker:Yes, that's exactly right.
Speaker:You summed it up perfectly.
Speaker:I am excited to have Lara here with us today because I have been
Speaker:to Lara's classes at Writer Con.
Speaker:I'm a big fan of Writer Con.
Speaker:We've talked about this, but I've been to Lara's classes and I love, she's got
Speaker:some great insight coming in just from a lot of different perspectives, a lot
Speaker:of different experience that she brings.
Speaker:And so when she speaks, you can tell she's speaking from not only from the writing
Speaker:side, but she has definitely some business aspects and she's got business information
Speaker:that she brings to the table too.
Speaker:So I always love that when I get to hear her speak.
Speaker:So I also am so excited you're here, Lara.
Speaker:So tell us about Reader Con.
Speaker:What is it?
Speaker:This is new, so what is it?
Speaker:It's brand new.
Speaker:This is our inaugural year and it is just going to be a
Speaker:celebration of books is what it is.
Speaker:This is going to be a book convention where book lovers can come and network
Speaker:and meet with authors and browse books and get author signatures.
Speaker:Just generally bask in the happy glow of spending time around
Speaker:books and other book lovers.
Speaker:We're gonna have bookish merch.
Speaker:There's gonna be a book character.
Speaker:Costume contest.
Speaker:We're gonna give a go.
Speaker:There'll be a whodunit mystery.
Speaker:Oh, I just got confirmation we're gonna be partnering with Safe Haven, which is
Speaker:an animal rescue group here in Oklahoma City, the hotel has confirmed it's okay.
Speaker:So they're gonna bring some friendly, furry friends for us to get to enjoy.
Speaker:And we're gonna set up a space where we can have reading to animals and
Speaker:we're gonna have a silent auction to support that wonderful cause because
Speaker:they are donation and volunteer supported and we love animals.
Speaker:I love animals and I'm so happy to try to support them.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:So I could be dressed up as my favorite book character.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I know.
Speaker:Holding one of these precious animals and reading a book to them.
Speaker:And reading a book to them.
Speaker:How often?
Speaker:I always need a good excuse to dress up.
Speaker:My undergraduate degree was in musical theater, and I like to say you can take
Speaker:the actress out of the theater, but you can't make her quit wearing costumes.
Speaker:And I love a good excuse to get to dress up and as a book character.
Speaker:Honestly, that's what my kids would often go as on Halloween.
Speaker:And the sad thing is a lot of the adults would just look really confused
Speaker:and ask what they were supposed to be.
Speaker:And I guess that's what happens when you come from a literary family.
Speaker:That's true.
Speaker:So Writer Con is September 1st through fourth, but this is actually
Speaker:what's happening on the fourth right?
Speaker:On Labor Day itself, which is the fourth.
Speaker:Same location there at the Renaissance Waterford, and we'll have it running
Speaker:from nine o'clock in the morning to five o'clock in the afternoon.
Speaker:And my understanding is there's no cost to be a part of Reader Con
Speaker:to come in to enjoy all the books, to get books signed and all that.
Speaker:It's a completely free event that you can come to.
Speaker:That absolutely is right open to the public free event.
Speaker:You've already referenced Writer Con, which we've been hosting for,
Speaker:I don't know, I think over a decade.
Speaker:At this point.
Speaker:I can't even keep track anymore.
Speaker:I'm getting old.
Speaker:But this year we are adding on the actual reader con to that as well.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And tell me how did this come about?
Speaker:'cause I love this idea and the one thing that I also just love about
Speaker:coming to Oklahoma is the thriving literary community that Oklahoma has.
Speaker:And it's always.
Speaker:It's shocking, isn't it?
Speaker:I know it's shouldn't be.
Speaker:It shouldn't be, but it is.
Speaker:There are just a lot of great authors that come out.
Speaker:We have so much talent here.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So how did it come about?
Speaker:What gave you the idea for this or, and I say you, I don't know.
Speaker:I think you were, I get the feeling like you were definitely
Speaker:in the mix of coming up with it.
Speaker:Definitely in the mix.
Speaker:So yeah, we've established, we've been running writer con already,
Speaker:that's for authors and of course aspiring and established both.
Speaker:We all come together.
Speaker:We learn from each other.
Speaker:We share little nuggets, whatever we've learned, so we can all stay up to date
Speaker:on what's going on, what the industry trends are, what's been happening.
Speaker:We keep each other informed.
Speaker:This is a group of people who just really support each other and want
Speaker:success for everyone involved.
Speaker:So I love it.
Speaker:But Bill and I love going to conventions in general.
Speaker:Like we like gaming conventions and we like comic book conventions.
Speaker:He's a little more of the comic book nerd, but there's
Speaker:something for everyone at these.
Speaker:But last year we went for the first time to GenCon in Indianapolis and it's
Speaker:a huge game convention board games.
Speaker:Not necessarily video games, although there may have been a little bit of
Speaker:that, but it's almost overwhelming.
Speaker:There's so much.
Speaker:But what I really liked was not just the great big giant producers with the
Speaker:big names, the stuff that you'll see everywhere online and on the shelves
Speaker:in Target or wherever you buy games.
Speaker:You could also go into some of the rooms there where they had little
Speaker:smaller tables and meet with people who had indie developed some games
Speaker:and maybe with a little publisher, but just as nice, just as fun.
Speaker:And I remember a moment where I was drawn to a small little card game
Speaker:because the artwork was so beautiful.
Speaker:Kind of forest and animal based plants and animals.
Speaker:I'm very nature centric.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:And I got to meet the guy who developed it and he signed my box.
Speaker:And that's something really special, a nice memory.
Speaker:And we enjoy that game.
Speaker:I think the very last day we went into the library for some quiet time
Speaker:and it was just shelf after shelf of games and you could check them
Speaker:out and try things before you buy.
Speaker:And it just, at one point we were just looking around and taking a
Speaker:deep breath and Bill said, we need something like this, but for books.
Speaker:And that was the inception of the idea.
Speaker:We started thinking and talking about that because a book convention just seems
Speaker:like a no brainer for us, and it took a lot to pull together, but I'm super
Speaker:excited and it's gonna be the same thing.
Speaker:There's gonna be lots of ways for you to interact with authors, get to
Speaker:listen to them, maybe meet some people that you wouldn't have otherwise,
Speaker:and maybe find a new favorite read.
Speaker:I think it's exciting and we'll have some merch and just lots of
Speaker:opportunities to hang around it.
Speaker:I can't wait.
Speaker:I'd love to add that's what I love about this moment in time for us as authors
Speaker:and writers, is that, even if you want to self-publish a book and you're not
Speaker:getting published through one of the, big New York publishers, that sort of
Speaker:thing, you can still get noticed by being a part of something like this, right?
Speaker:And people can find you and yeah you can make that connection, right?
Speaker:Where it's it's not just that you're you have some nameless person
Speaker:out there on a book, but like you can make a real life connection
Speaker:with someone over their material.
Speaker:We talk a lot, I think, as writers where you don't just
Speaker:want readers, you want fans.
Speaker:And I think.
Speaker:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker:When you can connect with someone on that emotional level and really have
Speaker:that special moment with them and create those memories, you will create, you
Speaker:will find fans, and you will find as fans, you will find new favorite authors.
Speaker:I love that too.
Speaker:And then fans of course wanna tell everybody they know about you.
Speaker:When someone is exactly a really a true fan of your work, they
Speaker:can't wait for the next one.
Speaker:But they also wanna tell their friends about it and spread the word and that
Speaker:can be the hard part when you're, especially with the debut book it's tough
Speaker:to make those first few connections.
Speaker:The marketing is the hard part.
Speaker:After writing the book, which is a hard part.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's the hard part too.
Speaker:So if you're a reader, of course you can show up on September 4th and you can
Speaker:just start, you can join in, come on.
Speaker:Have fun.
Speaker:What if you're an author and you want to be there to sign
Speaker:your book or promote your book?
Speaker:Do you have to sign up beforehand or do you just show up or what?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:If you want to come, if you want a table and you wanna come and be
Speaker:part of Book Expo, you would wanna arrange for that ahead of time.
Speaker:Book expo's going to span Sunday, I think it starts Sunday afternoon on writer Con.
Speaker:It could be all day.
Speaker:I might be getting that wrong, but it's on Sunday of Writer Con.
Speaker:But then it also continues on the full day of Reader Con.
Speaker:So you'll get to have it all set up and ready to go Sunday and then still be there
Speaker:when all the readers come flooding in.
Speaker:'cause we're just gonna go ahead and assume that's
Speaker:what's gonna happen on Monday.
Speaker:And there is a it's $79 for both dates for authors who want
Speaker:to participate in that, which.
Speaker:Oh, that's really not bad, huh?
Speaker:Is really not that much if you compare that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Those of us in the know, know that's a great deal.
Speaker:So Yeah, that is definitely, yeah.
Speaker:Especially because people are showing up to see your books.
Speaker:It's a built-in audience there.
Speaker:So that's the idea.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:So now in addition to you, 'cause I know that you're gonna be there,
Speaker:but who else is gonna be there?
Speaker:Who can people look forward to meeting?
Speaker:Spoilers!?
Speaker:Gena, of course I'll be there.
Speaker:Our featured authors this year will be Lisa Gardner and Tosca Lee, both fabulous.
Speaker:I've already seen and heard an interview with Lisa and she is delightful.
Speaker:I cannot wait to get to interact with her in person and I'll be
Speaker:sitting and listening to her.
Speaker:She sounds like a lot of fun and likewise for Tosca, and I know some people
Speaker:are excited to come just to see them.
Speaker:Who else?
Speaker:We'll also have bestselling author, William Bernhardt.
Speaker:I know that'll come as a shock.
Speaker:I honestly, I think there will be something like 60 authors so far.
Speaker:There will be a lot of people there.
Speaker:60.
Speaker:That's a lot of people!
Speaker:A lot of local, but also a lot of people coming in from out of state.
Speaker:So we'll have panels where you can come and hear about women's fiction, thrillers,
Speaker:mystery writers will be talking with us, just probably just by anything you might
Speaker:wanna talk about we will be able to cover.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:I love the different genres too, that you're hitting a
Speaker:lot of the different genres.
Speaker:So that's really, that's fabulous.
Speaker:Like this would be a good way just to make a connection
Speaker:with other authors too, right?
Speaker:Whether you're in the Oklahoma City area or outside it, this is to a good
Speaker:way to find others in your genre.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:You can talk about exchanging promotion, being on each other's email list,
Speaker:all that sort of thing, and really.
Speaker:Exactly right.
Speaker:Making connections.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly right.
Speaker:We are so excited and I'm going to ask you like, what's on the horizon for you?
Speaker:What's new for you coming up before we sign off for the day.
Speaker:So what am I working on?
Speaker:I'm working on too much.
Speaker:I like being busy though.
Speaker:I'd rather be busy than bored.
Speaker:I'm working on my next women's fiction.
Speaker:Which I am super excited about.
Speaker:I had hoped to have it to my agent by now, but I did have a little bit of a
Speaker:medical snag that slowed me down by, I hate to say it, but about six months.
Speaker:That was not fun, but but I'm good now.
Speaker:I'm over it.
Speaker:I said no thank you to cancer and sent it on its way.
Speaker:I'm over that, I'm just regaining that strength still,
Speaker:but I'm healthy no worries.
Speaker:So glad to hear that.
Speaker:But it did slow me down, so I'm working on women's fiction next.
Speaker:That is very personal and meaningful to me, so I'm excited to bring that one out.
Speaker:I wish that it was done, but next year, I think this time.
Speaker:And then I'm working on the next, in my series, and we haven't made like a
Speaker:full, major announcement, but Bill and I are actually writing a book together.
Speaker:Oh, wow.
Speaker:Because, 'cause it's something we haven't done yet and I needed more to write.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:And that's gonna be a fun process.
Speaker:Working together with a partner is always an interesting process,
Speaker:but working with your spouse.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:We think it's really fun to get to work together.
Speaker:And we've gotten to work together on some books together.
Speaker:We really like to enjoy that.
Speaker:We read each other's stuff.
Speaker:We read each other's books and we've been involved I hate to say edit.
Speaker:It's really more like a proofread and just stand in touch with each other.
Speaker:So we have a good feel for the other ones Writing and what it
Speaker:sounds like and feels like and, yes.
Speaker:So it's fun.
Speaker:We haven't had any, we haven't had any problems yet.
Speaker:We enjoy it when we sit down.
Speaker:That's, and start talking about it and working on the next bit.
Speaker:We're enjoying it.
Speaker:That's good.
Speaker:And it is really fun.
Speaker:It is, when it works, it's really, it really is fun, I think.
Speaker:We hadn't done it.
Speaker:We thought what else can we do?
Speaker:We've already both been three times I've been a finalist for the Oklahoma
Speaker:Book Award for best fiction, and I wanna say all three times he was one too.
Speaker:So we came, we keeping up against each other and we're like maybe
Speaker:we can just be on there together.
Speaker:I dunno, this just seemed like a new thing that we could try.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:So your latest novel is Red Rain, and you wanna just tell us, give a brief
Speaker:plug for that before we close out.
Speaker:Yeah, this is a story of female empowerment and friendship and working
Speaker:through the hard things that life throws at you, and finding meaning in
Speaker:them and moving beyond reclaiming that joy even when you've had struggles.
Speaker:So it is, it's poignant, but it's, I think, very uplifting.
Speaker:In the end, it was a finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award, and I don't think
Speaker:it's been, I don't think they've made a press release yet, but it's been nominated
Speaker:by the Oklahoma Center for the book, for the Dublin International literary Award.
Speaker:Oh, congratulations.
Speaker:That's awesome.
Speaker:I was very pleased to hear that.
Speaker:We'll have a direct link for that in the show notes.
Speaker:I'm sure you can find it on Amazon, wherever good books are sold.
Speaker:Everywhere and anywhere.
Speaker:Excellent.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:We'll also put a link to Reader Con in the show notes.
Speaker:And we hope everyone can join us that'll be september 4th, and Writer
Speaker:Con is September 1st through fourth.
Speaker:You can, sign up to still get tickets today at writercon.com.
Speaker:As well as you can find all of reader con.
Speaker:Be sure to put that on your calendar because it's free.
Speaker:You don't have to have tickets in advance, so you just want to be sure you show up.
Speaker:So put that on your calendar today.
Speaker:It's on September 4th in Oklahoma City.
Speaker:You'll find out more at the writer con website.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Thank you so much, Lara, for being with us today.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:If people have questions, they can just send some messages, reach out.
Speaker:Glad to answer them.
Speaker:Oh, that's great.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And if you have enjoyed this podcast, we just ask that you would rate, review,
Speaker:subscribe, and share it with your friends.
Speaker:Let other people know about Readercon that's coming up as well as about
Speaker:Lara and about her book Red Rain.
Speaker:And I would just invite you to check out all her books
Speaker:'cause she's a fabulous writer.
Speaker:And so check it out.
Speaker:Thank you for joining us.
Speaker:Remember, we're not doing all this alone.
Speaker:This is something that we do together, right?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And together we have writing momentum.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:See y'all later.
