Episode 61

Writing Q&A: Finding Your Writing Community

This week on the Writing Momentum podcast, we're playing our recent live Q&A on Finding Your Writing Community. It's so good! Looking for a way to find writing friends or build a reading audience? We cover all that and more!

Q’s include:

  1. How do I get back in the writing game when I’ve been away from it for a while?
  2. How do I build an audience for my book?
  3. What’s the best writing investment you’ve made?
  4. How do you network when it comes to publishing?

Links:

Transcript
Christopher:

Hello and welcome to the Writing Momentum Podcast.

Christopher:

I'm Christopher Maselli and I'm here with my wife Gena.

Christopher:

How's it going?

Christopher:

Gena?

Gena:

It's going great.

Christopher:

All right we have something very special for you today.

Christopher:

Every month we record a live q and a on Facebook where we

Christopher:

answer people's questions.

Christopher:

And this last month, on February 28th, we did one on finding your writing community.

Christopher:

We have questions about how do you find a writing community to sell your books?

Christopher:

How do you find a local writing community so that you can get your writing done?

Christopher:

And all sorts of questions like that, right?

Gena:

Yes.

Gena:

There were all sorts of questions about finding the writing community

Gena:

and I thought we, we tackled each one.

Gena:

We tried to make sure that each one was not just a repeat that our

Gena:

answers didn't repeat, but I think we gave some good resources that people

Gena:

can look for in some ways that they can find their writing community.

Christopher:

Yeah and so we thought you all would enjoy this listening to

Christopher:

the podcast, so next up we're gonna go ahead and just go ahead and play this.

Christopher:

It's a, it's about 45 minutes long, so you can play one at a time if you

Christopher:

want, or listen to the whole thing.

Christopher:

And then we'll be back next week with a regular episode like we normally do.

Christopher:

And then next month, on March 28th, we're having another q and

Christopher:

a on Facebook and we'd love to have you join us live there too.

Gena:

That's March 28th at 5:00 PM central time.

Gena:

So definitely tune in and if you've got questions between now and

Gena:

then, go ahead and send 'em to us.

Gena:

We'd love to stockpile 'em so that we have 'em for the q and a.

Gena:

But we wanna hear from you.

Gena:

Or tag, comment below, tag us, whatever.

Gena:

Send it to us, email us.

Gena:

We'd just love to hear from you.

Christopher:

So until next time, remember together we have writing

Christopher:

momentum, and here's that q and a.

Christopher:

We're just gonna jump right in.

Christopher:

So we have compiled a list of questions from Reddit.

Christopher:

On Reddit.

Christopher:

They have a writing subreddit that is quite active and it doesn't take

Christopher:

much to go there and find a whole list of questions that people are asking.

Christopher:

And so we just thought, oh, let's go there.

Christopher:

Let's find some questions.

Christopher:

And they're pretty universal, I think.

Christopher:

. And I think they'll be good.

Christopher:

So let me go ahead and pop the first one up on the screen here.

Christopher:

This is from Sapien oh 1 0 1, sapien oh 1 0 1, and they say

Christopher:

I have two issues right now.

Christopher:

I'm trying to get back into writing after a long hiatus during which

Christopher:

I've been raising small children.

Christopher:

Oh, I've been there, done that and also I am starved for adult companionship and

Christopher:

I'm trying to regain some semblance of a social life after the aforementioned

Christopher:

hiatus, I thought maybe I could tackle both these issues simultaneously.

Christopher:

I was hoping to find community through writing groups, either in

Christopher:

person or online, but so far my search has left me empty handed.

Christopher:

Have you been able to find friends social groups through writing?

Christopher:

Is it difficult to find?

Christopher:

Obviously writing by nature is a solitary activity.

Christopher:

Should I try to remedy these two issues separately?

Christopher:

i.e.

Christopher:

find time to write on my own and look for friends in some other context

Christopher:

? Good question.

Christopher:

So I have to jump on the one word there that you used sapien oh 1 0 1.

Christopher:

And that is that you said, obviously writing is by nature a solitary activity.

Christopher:

And I totally get what you're saying there because when we write, we

Christopher:

have to sit down on our computers.

Christopher:

We're usually alone.

Christopher:

But this is something that I have discovered over the last

Christopher:

few years and Gena has too.

Christopher:

That writing isn't as much of a solitary activity as a lot of people think.

Christopher:

In fact, we're writing a lot more now that we write with other writers, right?

Christopher:

We don't just try to make this a thing that we do on our own, in our office,

Christopher:

and then we have a almost separate life, right from our writing life.

Christopher:

We are trying to involve ourselves with other people in order to

Christopher:

help them and for them to help us.

Christopher:

And we have found that a really powerful thing to do, and you

Christopher:

can do that through local writing groups, through co-working spaces.

Christopher:

And of course, if you have heard us talk about this before.

Christopher:

We have our own writing group that we call Writing Moments.

Christopher:

You can go to writing moments.com to find out about that.

Christopher:

We meet every Wednesday at noon Central, online and we have a 15

Christopher:

minute teaching, and then we work together on our individual projects for

Christopher:

45 minutes for the rest of the time.

Christopher:

And what it does is it builds us accountability and helps us get

Christopher:

to know each other, get to know our projects, and to just really.

Christopher:

Keep ourselves accountable to one another and we love that don't we?

Gena:

We do.

Gena:

And I just wanna say, boy, do I understand your question?

Gena:

There were many years when I was back when I was first starting writing that

Gena:

there were different opportunities that would come up and I wouldn't be able

Gena:

to go to 'em because I had small kids.

Gena:

Chris and I have three children, and had them, pretty close together.

Gena:

Under five years of age.

Gena:

That was a very busy time in my life.

Gena:

So at first I applaud you for recognizing that you need companionship because

Gena:

you absolutely do and you need some friends, and I really hope that you

Gena:

have some good friends around you that are in that same time of life.

Gena:

So that's the one thing.

Gena:

And then the other thing that I will say is definitely have grace for yourself

Gena:

because you are in a difficult time where you have been raising young children

Gena:

and young humans, and even if they're not at that really pivotal can't, you

Gena:

can't let 'em out of your sight stage.

Gena:

It still takes a lot of mental and emotional effort to raise healthy,

Gena:

well adjusted, loved children.

Gena:

Have grace for yourself.

Gena:

There are a couple of groups that I do recommend.

Gena:

There's a really good Facebook group called Moms Who Write, and I recommend

Gena:

that it's grown very quickly cuz there are a lot of women on there who are in

Gena:

that stage of life and they have children.

Gena:

Whether they're married, whether they're single, whether they work outside of their

Gena:

writing, whether their writing is their full-time writing, just whatever it is.

Gena:

So I recommend that group because in addition, that group has, I have

Gena:

seen different times where they have offered someone will reach

Gena:

out and say, I live in this area.

Gena:

Does anybody else live here or near me where we could get together

Gena:

and meet for coffee or something to create those friendships that

Gena:

we're all looking for and need.

Gena:

And then I would also look at your local library.

Gena:

Sometimes there are writing groups that meet there and then just.

Gena:

You may even want to put it out there on Facebook to see.

Gena:

Are there any writers in this area that you know, look for the groups

Gena:

that are within your city or area and just say, are there any writers?

Gena:

This is who I am.

Gena:

I've got small kids.

Gena:

I write.

Gena:

I need friends.

Gena:

Be open, be vulnerable.

Gena:

Every time someone says that in the groups that I've been with or been a part of

Gena:

there are people who reach out to them.

Christopher:

I think this is, it's, it is really more common, I

Christopher:

think, than most people realize.

Christopher:

How many writers want to have people to do things with, right?

Christopher:

It doesn't have to be all that official, you can come to something like writing

Christopher:

moments or go to your local writing group, but you can also just find a friend who'd

Christopher:

also like to journal maybe during that time, and you guys can meet at Starbucks

Christopher:

and just sit and talk for a few minutes and then just sit quietly and journal,

Christopher:

they can journal and you can write right.

Christopher:

Whatever you want, if you're, whether you're journaling or something else.

Christopher:

And so there doesn't have to be this super structure around anything.

Christopher:

But absolutely it does take a bit of reaching out.

Christopher:

But there are a lot of different opportunities

Christopher:

nowadays and ways to do that.

Christopher:

Yeah.

Christopher:

But it does take, sometimes it takes a little bit of research, but you'll

Christopher:

find that most cities have some kind of writing group in the city.

Christopher:

So check out Facebook, search online, go meet up write.com, those different

Christopher:

places where people post events maybe next door and ask around and you might

Christopher:

be able to find something like that.

Gena:

Absolutely.

Christopher:

All right.

Christopher:

You ready for question number two?

Gena:

Yeah, let's go.

Christopher:

All right.

Christopher:

Okay.

Christopher:

Question number two.

Christopher:

That's number one.

Christopher:

Question number two, this is from educational outside five.

Christopher:

Do you have many writer friends in real life?

Christopher:

Such a honest question.

Christopher:

I love the honest question.

Christopher:

I feel like I, I feel like networking would benefit me, but I don't know much

Christopher:

about how to find network as a writer.

Christopher:

Do you have writer friends in real life?

Christopher:

So yes, I would say absolutely.

Christopher:

We have writer friends in real life.

Christopher:

In fact, some of the richest relationships we have in our lives are other writer

Christopher:

friends because they get us, they get not only the fact of how we do

Christopher:

things right how we do our vocation by sitting and writing all day.

Christopher:

But we just, you tend to have a lot in common when it comes

Christopher:

to those kind of things.

Christopher:

And Yeah it networking, it, it is a part of it, right?

Christopher:

As you have writer friends and you start to talk about this writing thing, if

Christopher:

you're both pursuing publication, what you'll find is you'll sharpen one another

Christopher:

and it is really great because you can share the things that you are doing.

Christopher:

In your own writing life.

Christopher:

And it will sharpen the other person and they'll go, oh, I should try that too.

Christopher:

. And so a lot of the times the things that we try, if we're gonna launch a

Christopher:

book, will ask our other writer friends how they launch their books, and it can

Christopher:

lead to some wonderful conversations.

Christopher:

So your writing life again, doesn't have to be solitary.

Christopher:

It can be something that you enjoy with other people, and not just for networking.

Christopher:

And I think that networking is a part of it.

Christopher:

It is something that will naturally happen, but don't.

Christopher:

Seek out writer friendships just for the networking.

Christopher:

Seek them out just for the friendships.

Christopher:

People who understand you and what you're doing.

Christopher:

And I think that you'll find that in the end it'll be a very fruitful friendship.

Christopher:

Yeah?

Gena:

I agree.

Gena:

And I would also encourage you, if you're looking for finding those friends, also

Gena:

don't discount writer's conferences.

Gena:

Those that are close enough that you can drive to.

Gena:

Because there will be other writers driving to them as well.

Gena:

And I would also say, don't discount people because they're not in your genre.

Gena:

I have there have been times when I have heard those stories where someone is a

Gena:

novelist and or a nonfiction self-help book writer and they find out somebody

Gena:

is a children's book writer and they and have actually said, oh, you're

Gena:

just a, you're just, a children's book writer and they pass by and I think

Gena:

that's such, that's so shortsighted.

Gena:

Definitely be open to making friends in all different genres because one, there's

Gena:

a lot of people that do crossover genres.

Gena:

People who write nonfiction for adults, but then they'll also write

Gena:

children's books or they might do non-fiction self-help, but then they

Gena:

also end up writing a novel as well.

Gena:

So don't discount people just because they're not in your genre.

Gena:

I also recommend just looking for writers' conferences in your area.

Gena:

We are part of one that we love, have been a part of it for several years now.

Gena:

We're a partner with them and that is WriterCon in Oklahoma

Gena:

City over Labor Day weekend.

Christopher:

That's WriterCon.com if you wanna look that up.

Gena:

Yes.

Gena:

I, we always bring in just some really fabulous writers in all different

Gena:

genres, and it's just a great time.

Gena:

It's a very warm writer's conference.

Gena:

You know that not all of them are.

Gena:

Really warm and welcoming.

Gena:

This one is, it really is.

Gena:

It doesn't matter if you're brand new to writing or you're very

Gena:

experienced at it, it's very welcoming.

Gena:

But I have found those to be a great place to make friends and to build

Gena:

those connections that then when I go home, I'm able to take those with

Gena:

me and reach out to them and find friendships, mastermind groups just

Gena:

connections, advice, all of that.

Christopher:

It's funny how sometimes we forget how much of the writing process

Christopher:

is the same across genres, right?

Christopher:

You might be writing a picture book, you might be writing a fiction book for

Christopher:

adults, you might be writing a nonfiction book for the religious market, right?

Christopher:

All three of those, though, are, in order to write those books, you've

Christopher:

gotta have time to research, you've gotta have time to write, you've

Christopher:

gotta have your material edited.

Christopher:

You've gotta have it formatted, you've gotta learn how to publish it or get

Christopher:

it published and get it to an editor.

Christopher:

All of those things are common across, no matter what kind of genre you write in.

Christopher:

Yeah, don't limit yourself by only wanting to write with people from a certain genre.

Christopher:

In fact, I love, there are conferences out there that are pretty great, that

Christopher:

are like, here's the Mystery Writer's Conference, or Here's the Romance Writer's

Christopher:

Conference, and you can learn things.

Christopher:

Directly about that genre in a conference like that, but through just attending a

Christopher:

general writer's conference or through making friends in those other areas,

Christopher:

like you'll learn things that you wouldn't have even thought you needed

Christopher:

to know just because you're associating yourself with other people across, not

Christopher:

across disciplines, but across genres.

Christopher:

Yeah, I think that's a really good thing.

Christopher:

So I hope that helped educational outside five.

Christopher:

Do you have any writer friends in real life?

Christopher:

Absolutely.

Christopher:

And I would encourage you to find some too.

Christopher:

It can be a bit of work, as we said in regard to the last question,

Christopher:

but, that's the way it is with friendships in any area of life, right?

Christopher:

You seek it out.

Christopher:

But when you do, I think you'll find it.

Christopher:

All right.

Christopher:

Here is the third question.

Christopher:

Gena, you wanna read this one?

Gena:

How do I build a community or find an audience for my book?

Gena:

I love writing and am new to getting things published.

Gena:

A year ago, I published my first book and I'm looking for a good place to

Gena:

share it and advertise it so I can get a following and talk to people.

Gena:

Excuse me.

Christopher:

This is from Brenkir Studios YT okay.

Christopher:

Brenkir Studios is saying, how do I build a community and

Christopher:

find an audience for my book?

Christopher:

Good question.

Christopher:

This is one of those questions that probably comes up time and again to us,

Christopher:

someone takes the time to write a book to get it out there, and then they say,

Christopher:

wait, no one knows that it's out there.

Christopher:

How do I build a community to find out about it?

Christopher:

How do I find an audience?

Christopher:

It's ironic in some ways cuz this is , the last two questions we answered in finding

Christopher:

a friend or finding other writers, right?

Christopher:

You've got to seek them out.

Christopher:

You gotta find out where they hang out.

Christopher:

So in this case, finding an audience for your book.

Christopher:

The first thing I would probably recommend is that you look for communities online

Christopher:

that are in that subject or that genre that they're interested in that.

Christopher:

So if you are writing a self-help book about confidence, find Facebook

Christopher:

groups built around confidence, other forums online, build around confidence.

Christopher:

You could find somewhere around productivity, right?

Christopher:

Cause usually that kind of blends with confidence.

Christopher:

You can go on Twitter, look for the hashtags that match and just

Christopher:

start to contribute to those groups.

Christopher:

. And that is such a big key.

Christopher:

We have a friend who actually he has an online course.

Christopher:

He sells a bunch of the online course to a bunch of people, but

Christopher:

the way that he markets the course is through not marketing it.

Christopher:

All he does is he goes online to all the communities that are interested

Christopher:

in the course that he's creating, that subject, and he contributes.

Christopher:

He answers questions.

Christopher:

He becomes the authority in those communities.

Christopher:

And when he does that, people find him and they start to build up a conversation

Christopher:

and he's able to say, oh yeah, if you wanna know about that, I got a course.

Christopher:

It's the same thing.

Christopher:

Yeah.

Christopher:

If you wanna know about that, I got a book.

Christopher:

So depending on what your genre is, you want to find that community and

Christopher:

then just start to reach out to them.

Christopher:

And then of course, there's the other common things, like you can do ads, right?

Christopher:

You can do ads on Amazon, you can do ads on Facebook, and you need to know what

Christopher:

your audience is before you do that.

Christopher:

So if you don't know what your audience is, go to writing momentum.com and

Christopher:

look for the ideal reader worksheet.

Christopher:

It's a free download we have on there.

Christopher:

Just go to the search up at the top and search for that, and you'll find that

Christopher:

and you can download it, and it has a list of questions that you can answer.

Christopher:

That help you determine who your audience is to help you narrow that down.

Gena:

That is so important.

Gena:

You'll hear us talk about that quite a bit, about really understanding who your

Gena:

audience is, because sometimes when we get so excited as writers, we put so much work

Gena:

into our books or into our message that then we think everybody's gonna love it.

Gena:

Everybody's gonna love what I have to say when the truth is no you are not.

Gena:

Or this is a real common one where they say, who's your audience?

Gena:

And the people say I'm speaking to women age 18 to 55.

Gena:

No 18 year olds, I have an 18 year old.

Gena:

She and I are not into the same things.

Gena:

We have different interests.

Gena:

We have different ways of thinking about things.

Gena:

We have different shows that we're interested in watching.

Gena:

We have different needs that we're trying to take care of.

Gena:

And that Ideal Reader worksheet really does help you narrow down and help you

Gena:

really think deeply about your audience.

Gena:

And the other thing that I would say about that is finding your audience is I would

Gena:

encourage you to learn about funnels, learn about marketing funnels, learn about

Gena:

offering, creating something for free that the people that your audience is looking

Gena:

for or that would be beneficial for them.

Gena:

That's called a lead magnet.

Gena:

Start building that newsletter.

Gena:

Your newsletter database.

Gena:

The people who have raised their hand and said, yes,

Gena:

you're talking about confidence.

Gena:

I wanna know about confidence.

Gena:

Sign me up and then you can start talking directly to them.

Gena:

And it doesn't matter if you start with just 10 people on that newsletter, it

Gena:

doesn't matter if you start with none.

Gena:

Start contributing and nurturing the people who do raise their

Gena:

hand to say, yes, I want that.

Gena:

I want that download on six ways that I can build confidence today, or six mindset

Gena:

shifts that can help me, go into my day with more confidence, something like that.

Gena:

You can learn about those what we mean by lead magnet, but find out

Gena:

about that because your greatest and most your, the audience who is

Gena:

going to really attach or love what

Christopher:

It'll resonate with them.

Gena:

Thank you, it will resonate with them are the people that are

Gena:

gonna be on your newsletter list.

Christopher:

Build up that newsletter list.

Christopher:

That's something we talk about a lot on our podcast.

Christopher:

If you look for the Writing Momentum podcast, we have several podcasts this

Christopher:

month that we're talking about emails.

Christopher:

And one of our favorite resources is one of our friends.

Christopher:

Her name is Liz Wilcox, and she has an entire, she has a whole course

Christopher:

and a regular club that you can join, where you can learn about how

Christopher:

to build that email newsletter, and here's a secret, it's dirt cheap.

Christopher:

She charges like $9 a month for it.

Christopher:

And so go to writing dot FYI slash Liz.

Christopher:

I'll put that here in the notes and you'll be able to find that landing

Christopher:

page where she talks about that.

Christopher:

And I think that you'll find that it is quite a good resource that

Christopher:

is we are getting in contact with Liz all the time because we love

Christopher:

making sure that we are nurturing our email list, building that community,

Christopher:

cuz remember nurturing the list.

Christopher:

When you're, it is marketing, right?

Christopher:

But marketing is about building relationships.

Christopher:

And so you're wanting to build that relationship, build that community,

Christopher:

and the newsletter is like one of the best ways you can do that.

Gena:

And I also think with, even though we're writers, we sometimes might need

Gena:

help with the strategy, and that's what I think that Liz does, even if we are

Gena:

writers and it's I can write a newsletter.

Gena:

You will.

Gena:

It is amazing how you can get about six weeks into writing a newsletter

Gena:

and feel completely tapped out.

Gena:

I have no idea what to talk about.

Gena:

What else I can talk about what else can I say?

Gena:

So it's nice to have that third party that's able to say, okay,

Gena:

you know what this week you're gonna give something away for free.

Gena:

This week you're gonna share a bit of advice.

Gena:

This week you're going to whatever.

Gena:

And Liz is a master at that.

Christopher:

Yeah, definitely a master at that.

Christopher:

So check her stuff out.

Christopher:

We always love getting stuff from her and learning from her.

Christopher:

So yeah, that, that's really good.

Christopher:

So I hope that helps Brenkir StudiosYT.

Christopher:

All right, the next one, this is someone who's wanting some advice

Christopher:

for building an author platform.

Christopher:

This is from a host Mo, I think I'm saying that I don't know, something like that.

Christopher:

They say, as a self-published author, I've been trying to build my author platform.

Christopher:

This is entirely new to me as I focus more on the craft of writing than

Christopher:

on the publicity or even networking.

Christopher:

I've also published in a really small journal, but it doesn't help me much

Christopher:

in having a platform for my novels.

Christopher:

Does anyone have any advice for newbies or things that were beneficial as they

Christopher:

were building their author platforms?

Christopher:

Good question.

Gena:

Fabulous question.

Christopher:

Yeah.

Christopher:

So do you wanna start?

Gena:

I just first want to applaud you for focusing on the craft of writing.

Gena:

There's so many people that neglect that side of it.

Gena:

Yeah.

Gena:

They think that comes naturally, and it's just this idea of if I say it

Gena:

somehow, everybody's gonna be able to sift through it and figure out

Gena:

what I'm trying to say, whether it's a novel, nonfiction, just whatever.

Gena:

There is a learning curve to all of.

Gena:

To any genre, to any type of writing that you do.

Gena:

And so I applaud you for really focusing on that side of it, first of all.

Gena:

So that, I wanna say just fabulous that you did that, but , I'll

Gena:

let you take it from there.

Gena:

I'll let you start.

Gena:

I've got some things that I wanna say.

Christopher:

I guess my first thought is, okay, again, this isn't a whole

Christopher:

lot different than what we've talked about as far as building that community,

Christopher:

having that newsletter finding that genre, going into those groups, right?

Christopher:

Starting to interact with people.

Christopher:

You want to do that?

Christopher:

Just take a moment here.

Christopher:

Think.

Christopher:

What are two or three groups that might be interested in this

Christopher:

topic that I'm talking about?

Christopher:

And when I say groups, you may not know the exact name of the group,

Christopher:

but what's the kind of group?

Christopher:

Write those down on a piece of paper and when we're done here, start

Christopher:

searching Facebook, search YouTube, search for online forums, and look

Christopher:

for people who have groups like that, they're already out there.

Christopher:

Yes, eventually you might create your own group, but why not start with

Christopher:

somewhere people are already gathering, because that's where the people are.

Christopher:

A lot of times people wanna bring other people to them.

Christopher:

That's much more difficult than going where people already are.

Christopher:

So find out where they are.

Christopher:

Once you do that, yeah, you wanna start in with the whole marketing funnel

Christopher:

all that kind of stuff, which there's a lot to learn about that, but also I

Christopher:

want to applaud you for realizing that yeah, you need to do the marketing too.

Christopher:

You have to go after that side of it.

Christopher:

Especially as more and more of us become self-published authors.

Christopher:

We've done regular publishing through traditional publishing, but we've also

Christopher:

done a lot of self-publishing, and when you do that, you realize, it's even

Christopher:

happening with traditional publishing.

Christopher:

But you are fully responsible for your marketing.

Christopher:

You are fully responsible as to whether those books sell or

Christopher:

not, right, it's all on you.

Christopher:

And that's the sad truth, but that also means, hey, it's all on you.

Christopher:

If you want this thing to be a success, all you have to do is

Christopher:

get out there and start working it, and you can make it happen.

Gena:

I would also encourage you to look for some, there are groups out

Gena:

there that are marketing groups.

Gena:

These are authors who have come together who are in the same genre that have

Gena:

said, oh, I have a small mailing list.

Gena:

You have a small mailing list.

Gena:

Let's get together.

Gena:

Let's offer each other's books.

Gena:

Or let's maybe even do some type of contest where the winner gets.

Gena:

All, or one of our books, each of us, so we get a package together.

Gena:

So I would look for either an existing group or think about maybe

Gena:

even reaching out to some authors if other independent authors.

Gena:

See if there's maybe a collaborative effort that you

Gena:

can put together with that.

Gena:

You can also look for podcasts that talk about that.

Christopher:

That's what I was just gonna say.

Christopher:

Podcasts are a huge way to market yourself today, right?

Gena:

It's very grassroots.

Gena:

Yeah.

Gena:

And it's a great way.

Gena:

So look for those podcasts that maybe focus on your area,

Gena:

don't discount the podcasts.

Gena:

Also look for podcasts for your state.

Gena:

So I know like in Oklahoma, Oklahoma has a great podcast

Gena:

that highlights Oklahoma authors.

Gena:

Yeah.

Gena:

And so look, there might be one wherever you are, there might be somebody who

Gena:

is looking for that looking for authors and they're always looking for content.

Gena:

Yeah.

Gena:

From my, what I understand.

Christopher:

That's the thing about podcasts is that people

Christopher:

who create podcasts we know, cause I, I do two of them.

Christopher:

Gena does one of 'em with me.

Christopher:

Every week you're sitting down going, okay, we gotta come up

Christopher:

with content for this, right?

Christopher:

Yeah.

Christopher:

It's a content game.

Christopher:

You have to constantly have content.

Christopher:

There are a lot of podcasts out there who are, like, this week, they don't

Christopher:

know what they're gonna put out there.

Christopher:

So contact them, let them know what you do, what you can talk about if you

Christopher:

have a sample of you talking about it.

Christopher:

You did say you had this you were published in a really small journal.

Christopher:

That's awesome.

Christopher:

Go ahead and submit that to them as an example of the kind of thing you

Christopher:

talk about and what you can do, and then also what your novels are about.

Christopher:

It's a nice transition and don't discount the fact that some of

Christopher:

the podcasts may be small, right?

Christopher:

Some of them may have small listenerships, 50 people may be a month.

Christopher:

That's okay.

Christopher:

, that's 50 people who are dedicated sitting in a room ready to hear from you.

Christopher:

If your local library invited you to come and speak on your topic and 20

Christopher:

people were there, you'd do that, right?

Christopher:

Most of us would.

Christopher:

This is even more people and it lives on, because that podcast doesn't go away.

Christopher:

It's there forevermore.

Christopher:

We've noticed with our podcast, it's amazing sometimes to look back each week

Christopher:

and see how many of your old podcasts the ones that are not the current podcast.

Christopher:

But the ones that were from last week, the week before, sometimes

Christopher:

months ago, people still listen to because when they find a podcast

Christopher:

they like, they'll usually binge it.

Christopher:

So yeah, check out the podcast.

Christopher:

That's a really good one.

Gena:

And the other thing that I wanted to recommend is look for people who can,

Gena:

look for those reviews from people, look for if you say you're a self-published,

Gena:

you're an independent author, see if you can start getting some reviews from people

Gena:

and asking for those reviews from your readership or from people who've written

Gena:

you and said, oh, I just loved your book.

Gena:

Or send your book out to someone and say, would you read this and give me a review?

Gena:

Look for those.

Gena:

Those are very powerful that you can use on social media.

Gena:

You can use them on your Amazon author page as well as Amazon itself.

Gena:

So look for those.

Gena:

And then the other thing I wanted to mention is just contests.

Gena:

. Look for contests.

Gena:

If this is your first novel, you are a first time novelist.

Gena:

There are contests strictly for first time novelists who are independent authors.

Gena:

So look for those as well.

Gena:

That can be another way to get your name out there.

Gena:

If you're able to win, you can, one, you can advertise

Gena:

that, put that on social media.

Gena:

Hey, I'm a, this is an award-winning novel, but also that contest is going

Gena:

to publish their winners as well.

Gena:

And if they have any kind of following, you're gonna be

Gena:

reaching new people there as well.

Christopher:

So a lot of this is just about getting the word out, right?

Christopher:

, it just means and sometimes it's not all that fun to do that.

Christopher:

It can be more fun to sit in your office and sit down and write your novel, right?

Christopher:

That's what I love doing.

Christopher:

But this is all part of it.

Christopher:

We're modern day writers, and the modern day writer needs to build a community.

Christopher:

Build an audience and let them know about it.

Christopher:

And so these are some ways we do that.

Gena:

Definitely, and Chris said modern day author, that's

Gena:

not just for the independent, that's also traditional as well.

Christopher:

It's also traditional.

Christopher:

Very much yeah.

Christopher:

All right, this is from Jazz G.

Christopher:

Jazz, grackle.

Gena:

Jazz Grackle.

Christopher:

Jazz Grackle.

Christopher:

All right, love the names.

Christopher:

What's this one say?

Christopher:

Gena.

Gena:

This one says Publishing and networking.

Gena:

I'm in the position now where I want to send my articles and queries to

Gena:

magazines, but there's so much assumed in submissions that I'm not sure what to do.

Gena:

There's that in just the obvious networking problems.

Gena:

For those of you who have been published in magazines, how do

Gena:

you contact and address editors?

Gena:

How do you network?

Christopher:

Yes.

Christopher:

Okay, so here's what you wanna do.

Christopher:

I want you to go to Amazon and search for the Writers Market Guide 2023.

Gena:

It's actually online now.

Christopher:

It's online now.

Gena:

You can get the physical copy, but you might as well just

Gena:

get the subscription to the website.

Christopher:

Yeah, search Google then for the Writers Market Guide, let me

Christopher:

put that in here, Writers Market Guide, and what you want to do is you want to

Christopher:

search for that on Amazon or on Google and what it is, this is a super handy guide.

Christopher:

It has in it, thousands of publications from around the world, who the editor

Christopher:

is and what they are looking for.

Christopher:

Exactly.

Christopher:

So you know exactly where to target those submissions.

Christopher:

And here's the thing, there are also writer's market guides

Christopher:

like that for different genres.

Christopher:

So there's a writer's market guide for the children's genre for the romance genre.

Christopher:

I think there's one for nonfiction books and there's one for the

Christopher:

inspirational market, right?

Christopher:

. So you can go ahead and find the one that pertains to you.

Christopher:

The general Writer's market guide is definitely one you want to look up.

Christopher:

And it will show you who to write to and what they're looking for.

Christopher:

And if you don't know how to do the query, they have articles

Christopher:

there on how to do that.

Christopher:

You can come to writing momentum.com and click on the training button, and we have

Christopher:

some trainings on it too, how we do that.

Christopher:

But it's, it is actually easy once you have that book because

Christopher:

you've got this huge list and.

Gena:

It's easy to query it.

Gena:

It may not be easy to get through, there may be a lot of people querying, right?

Gena:

So you know that this is gonna take work.

Christopher:

But the key is if you are one of the few who are actually

Christopher:

paying attention to what they're looking for, that puts you above

Christopher:

probably 95% of the submissions, right?

Christopher:

You really get through a lot of that red tape, where that sludge

Christopher:

pile when you're querying for exactly what they're looking for.

Christopher:

And so that's a big secret.

Christopher:

And I would definitely look at doing that.

Christopher:

As far as that goes.

Christopher:

They also have in there the guidelines, how they want you to submit the material.

Christopher:

If you are submitting, for instance, by mail and they only accept by email, or

Christopher:

if you're submitting in PDF format and they only accept the word format, like

Christopher:

those are big deals, you can have your material tossed out without even getting

Christopher:

a look if you don't follow their rules.

Christopher:

Whatever they set those up to be.

Christopher:

So that is all listed in that book.

Christopher:

And then I always recommend before you just follow what's in the book.

Christopher:

Also go to the website and see if maybe there's any additional

Christopher:

information or changes.

Christopher:

Because guidelines update all the time.

Christopher:

Editors move around to other houses all the time.

Christopher:

So you wanna make sure you're querying to the right person in the right place.

Christopher:

And then there's also writer's conferences, right?

Gena:

Definitely writer's conferences.

Gena:

A lot of times editors will come there specifically looking for new

Gena:

writers, especially if they've got a whole, they've got a group of writers

Gena:

that they'll work with, somebody moves on, somebody doesn't have time.

Gena:

They want to have a resource.

Gena:

This reservoir of writers that they can pull from.

Gena:

So definitely do that.

Gena:

I would also encourage you to definitely, if you were writing for a

Gena:

magazine, make sure you look at that magazine before you submit to them.

Gena:

Yeah.

Gena:

Because you wanna look for things like what point of view do they use?

Gena:

Do they use second person?

Gena:

Do they use third person?

Gena:

Is it really more academic or is it more casual?

Gena:

Don't waste your time.

Gena:

Don't waste the editor's time.

Gena:

Do your homework before you submit to 'em.

Gena:

And then I, some friends that I have known that have really made

Gena:

a living on magazine writing.

Gena:

They will have they will have 10 to 25 queries out there at once.

Christopher:

And when, and they were, when they received one

Christopher:

rejection back, another one goes out.

Christopher:

There's always 10 to 25 on any particular article at once.

Gena:

Yes.

Gena:

So definitely you are, I have been to writer's conferences, and Chris, you

Gena:

remember this from years ago, but where I would have they'd have a panel of

Gena:

editors and the editors would stand, sit up there and say if somebody wants to

Gena:

write for me, they will write only for me and they will wait until I respond

Gena:

to them before, which may take months, before they submit it to anywhere else.

Gena:

And y'all, that is not the way it works.

Christopher:

That's not reality.

Gena:

The writer, that is not reality.

Gena:

So I'm hoping that you're not gonna have to deal with any editors like that.

Gena:

I remember sitting there listening to that thinking, but I have to feed my family.

Gena:

So we're just gonna have to move on and find somebody.

Gena:

It's first come, first serve.

Gena:

We're gonna submit this out here.

Gena:

And there is a way to let them know that you are shopping your article to many

Gena:

places, but I think the best thing to do is to create that relationship with

Gena:

an editor so that the editor knows that I can always count on that person to

Gena:

do the work and do the work well, so that when that editor has a need and

Gena:

says, I want an article on x, Y, Z.

Gena:

Oh, I know that I can reach out to that person to do it.

Gena:

So that's your goal.

Gena:

It's not just for you to be constantly pitching to them, but to create that

Gena:

relationship where they're, they know they can count on you for what they need.

Christopher:

Yeah.

Christopher:

That's the other side of the magazine writing coin.

Christopher:

Editors are also always looking for content.

Christopher:

And they don't want to have to look for new writers every single time

Christopher:

they need to write another article.

Christopher:

If they have someone they can trust, whose writing is well done, who submits

Christopher:

it in the way they're looking for, who has the voice of their magazine?

Christopher:

Guarantee you they are gonna be asking that person that they

Christopher:

already have a relationship with to please can you do this for me?

Christopher:

And if not, then I will look outside the magazine.

Christopher:

So once you build a relationship with some editors, you could

Christopher:

have one that goes on for years.

Christopher:

I've been writing for some magazines for I think, well over 20 years now, right?

Christopher:

On a regular basis because I established that early and they liked me as a

Christopher:

writer, and so we have this great relationship going back and forth.

Christopher:

And so that's what you want.

Christopher:

You want to go ahead and build that, and you can make a career doing that.

Christopher:

It's not always an easy career.

Christopher:

But it is certainly fun if you like doing magazine writing.

Gena:

And I think also the thing to keep in mind is that there are a lot of

Gena:

websites, even though you wanna write for magazines, there are websites also that

Gena:

are, maybe there are, they used to be a magazine and now they're just strictly

Gena:

online or they may have a magazine, but they have a whole online component

Gena:

where they're looking for writers.

Gena:

While you are pitching for magazines, also be open to writing for websites as well.

Christopher:

The opportunities are out there for sure.

Christopher:

All right.

Christopher:

We hope that helps Jazz grackle.

Christopher:

All right.

Christopher:

The final question today is what is the best writing investment you've made?

Christopher:

They say, I've been thinking about my approach to writing and potential

Christopher:

steps I can start taking to improve it for a variety of reasons.

Christopher:

My question to you all is what do you think is the best investment

Christopher:

you've made in regards to writing?

Christopher:

Mostly in terms of finance, financial investments?

Christopher:

What purchase do you think really paid off.

Christopher:

I'm not looking for any kind of magic bullet or anything that would likely

Christopher:

dramatically change my writing.

Christopher:

I'm just curious about what purchases have impacted you in a positive way, or perhaps

Christopher:

what classes or courses do you feel have you've gotten the most value out of?

Christopher:

I tried searching, but I didn't find other threads like this.

Christopher:

Yeah, but that's a great question.

Christopher:

Really interesting, do you have one that comes to mind for you immediately?

Gena:

My MacBook Air.

Gena:

You guys.

Gena:

I used to be a PC girl and Chris finally went towards the light with the Apple

Gena:

world, and he dragged me with him, and that is just such a slick machine.

Gena:

I absolutely love it.

Gena:

I have a pretty scaled down model.

Gena:

Chris needs something a lot more robust because he does design

Gena:

websites a lot of times for authors.

Gena:

So if any of you are looking for an author website, hit him up.

Gena:

But he also, in addition to his writing, does a lot of technical type work.

Gena:

My MacBook Air is my first thing because I can take it anywhere.

Gena:

And I love, because I'm not super techy.

Gena:

I love that my talks to my phone and that they are working together.

Gena:

So my iPhone, I, I work with that.

Gena:

So that whole ecosystem.

Gena:

And I used to have a, an iPad and I could work on that.

Gena:

So that whole ecosystem has been a game changer for me.

Gena:

It's just made it easier.

Gena:

Yeah it's easier.

Gena:

I can take it wherever I go.

Gena:

It's got a long battery life.

Gena:

I can take it when I travel it's easy, so, that's my thing.

Christopher:

That's is a good answer.

Gena:

That was my first thing that I thought of.

Christopher:

And that would probably be the first thing I'd say too.

Christopher:

This is also, this is from dyde 21 D y d E 21.

Christopher:

Yeah, having a good computer is super important, right?

Christopher:

You want to have something that you can rely on that automatically

Christopher:

backs up your files for you.

Christopher:

That doesn't get you caught in that trouble of every time you wanna do

Christopher:

something, you're have to install drivers and updates and all that mess.

Christopher:

That's something that we just enjoy about our Macs is that it's it.

Christopher:

Macs versus pc.

Christopher:

I don't want to get into the whole debate but I used PCs for decades

Gena:

And let me just say, when Chris says that he used PCs, he would build PCs.

Christopher:

I built them from scratch.

Gena:

He built them from scratch.

Gena:

He was hardcore for years pc.

Christopher:

But the difference is that to me, I love doing that as a hobbyist, but

Christopher:

when I needed something to get my writing done, I just needed something that worked

Christopher:

that was more like an appliance, right?

Christopher:

I say sometimes that my Mac is like a toaster . It doesn't do

Christopher:

everything a PC does, like it does most of it if you wanna look for,

Christopher:

but it is a more of a closed system.

Christopher:

But it just works well for us.

Christopher:

And I know there are arguments out there about the cost of a PC versus a mac, but

Christopher:

the truth is our Macs lasts for years.

Christopher:

I used to have to upgrade my PC every couple years, the Mac.

Christopher:

I was working until about a year and a half ago I was working on a 2014 Mac.

Christopher:

It worked great and the only reason I upgraded was because we

Christopher:

wanted to start doing this stuff.

Christopher:

We wanted to start doing the broadcasting online and editing videos, and I needed

Christopher:

something faster for that cuz the, it was over seven years old at that

Christopher:

point, so they last a really long time.

Christopher:

Yeah, definitely invest in good computer hardware, software look for

Christopher:

some good writing books I'd recommend that we shared in our last q and a,

Christopher:

some of our favorite writing books.

Christopher:

Mine was 12 Master Plots by Ronald Tobias.

Christopher:

Really strong.

Christopher:

Good book if you're into fiction writing.

Christopher:

And then the last thing, I feel like we're a broken record with this, but invest

Christopher:

in a good writer's conference, right?

Gena:

Absolutely.

Gena:

I was gonna say that too.

Christopher:

Go and spend the hundred dollars, $200, $400,

Christopher:

$500, whatever it is to attend.

Christopher:

They're different prices, depending on the, how many speakers they

Christopher:

have, how many days they are.

Christopher:

But find a good writer's conference and you will find that you're

Christopher:

gonna make relationships there.

Christopher:

You're gonna learn things about the craft there.

Christopher:

You're gonna learn things about marketing there that you would not otherwise learn,

Christopher:

and that will change your writing life, which is why we're so big on Writer Con.

Christopher:

We're so big on some of the online conferences.

Christopher:

We'd love to have people as a part of writing moments, our writing group because

Christopher:

all of those things work together to build this writing life and help you so that

Christopher:

you're not doing this completely alone.

Gena:

I think a lot of times we've heard people say should I

Gena:

go back and get a master's degree?

Gena:

And I have even questioned that as well.

Gena:

, I don't have a master's degree in writing.

Gena:

Chris does.

Gena:

But I believe that you learned while your master's degree was very valuable

Gena:

and I take nothing away from that.

Gena:

The lessons that you have come back and shared with me from writer's

Gena:

conferences and the lessons that I have learned at writer's conferences

Gena:

have been really invaluable.

Gena:

Because you are learning from, you're not learning from a theoretical level.

Gena:

You're learning from a boots on the ground level.

Gena:

You're learning from, writers who have been in this, who have been published for

Gena:

years and they're sharing, this is how I do it, this is what I'm thinking of.

Gena:

This last year at WriterCon we were there and what was, who was there?

Gena:

It was oh, their name, their names are gonna, Steven James and Robert Dugoni.

Gena:

And they were there talking about how do you build tension.

Christopher:

How do you write a book?

Gena:

How do you write a book?

Gena:

And they're thriller writers, right?

Gena:

And they've been doing it for years, best sellers.

Gena:

And they're there talking about how do you build tension?

Gena:

Here are the different ways that I use to build tension.

Gena:

You know what?

Gena:

That you sit there in those classes and all of a sudden your

Gena:

mind starts going about your own book and oh, I could do that.

Gena:

Oh my gosh, I never even thought about that.

Gena:

. And all of a sudden you just like your creative juices are just flowing.

Gena:

So I am a huge fan of writer's conferences.

Gena:

I know that it's easy to look at them and think that's a lot of money, but it

Gena:

is way cheaper than a master's degree.

Gena:

And it is that practical application.

Gena:

Even this last year I got to speak with one of the writers after

Gena:

about her process afterwards.

Gena:

Just one-on-one.

Gena:

Here she is this award-winning author.

Gena:

That I've just got to talk to and ask her.

Gena:

And she, she shared about her.

Gena:

She was a lot of fun to listen to, but she got to share about just her

Gena:

writing process, which is fabulous.

Gena:

Because I love to hear about people's writing processes

Gena:

because they're all so different.

Gena:

You've got the strict outliner who spends, Just outlining, going through

Gena:

different phases of outlining all the way to the person who just sits down and

Gena:

wings it and just writes from the heart and or from the seat of their pants.

Gena:

Anyway I am a big fan of writer's conferences.

Gena:

I think they're a great way to really hear from people who are in the trenches

Gena:

doing the work day in and day out.

Christopher:

Absolutely.

Christopher:

All right, those are our questions for today.

Christopher:

This has been really good.

Christopher:

I love questions like these.

Christopher:

Next month, Rene will be back with us on the 28th.

Christopher:

On March 28th, we're gonna do another q and a.

Christopher:

We don't have the topic solidified for that yet.

Christopher:

So that's upcoming.

Christopher:

We'll let you know about it.

Christopher:

If you haven't subscribed to our newsletter, go to writing momentum.com.

Christopher:

We got some free goal setting downloads.

Christopher:

You can get there, eBooks, posters, all kinds of stuff.

Christopher:

Get those, get on our list.

Christopher:

You'll find about these q and as you'll find out about writing moments

Christopher:

where you can write with us, you'll also find out about a bunch of these

Christopher:

great resources that we shared today.

Christopher:

We just love helping writers.

Christopher:

We love to be in the trenches with you guys.

Christopher:

And so if you have any questions between now and the next q and a, send 'em to us.

Christopher:

We'll be happy to answer and we can add 'em to that.

Christopher:

But I think that's it for today.

Christopher:

Yeah, that's it.

Christopher:

And so don't forget this, what Gena?

Gena:

Together we have writing momentum.

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Writing Momentum
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About your host

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Christopher Maselli

Christopher P.N. Maselli is a Certified Digital Marketing Professional, an award-winning children’s author of more than 50 books, a direct mail writer, and a ghostwriter for many prominent, international speakers.

“I love sharing what I’ve learned over the past 25 years,” says Chris. “We’re all in this together and hopefully what I’ve learned can benefit beginners and veterans alike.”

Chris regularly speaks at writer’s conferences nationwide and on the training portion of WritingMomentum.com, he helps put other writers on the fast track to success. He holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Writing.