Fable & The Verbivore

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Episode 158: Finding Your Readers

Bethany Stedman

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Ep 158: Finding Your Readers Fable & The Verbivore

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Today, Fable and the Verbivore are diving into how to find your audience.

We cover a lot of tips and ideas for how to go about finding and building your audience, creating things that will connect with them, and getting your work into their hands. We both go into things we’ve learned from our own experiences as podcasters and creatives, but we also share about the writers we love and get introspective about what we’re connecting with

Here are some of our key takeaways:

  • Write a solid book with characters that invite connection - Give your characters strong opinions, make them particular and specific, give them details and nuances that your readers can potentially connect with, let them have something real or vulnerable of yours

  • Make your story hooks as interesting as possible - Write an intriguing blurb that boils down your story to its individual essence and flavors, work to ensure the cover captures the unique feel of the book, share posts that reflect the feel/tone/character/aesthetics/words in a variety of ways

  • Get vulnerable and honest with your audience - Include things in your book that are personally important and vital to you, write a heartfelt acknowledgement, include an intriguing bio that reflects parts of your distinctive self and personality, consider making a personal dedication that helps tell the story behind the story, share posts about the messy and reality based side of your writing life, and share about what you personally enjoy and feel passionate about

We also talk about lessons we’ve learned from specific authors about things to try from things that we’ve connected with. Here are a few of them:

  • Sherry Thomas, @writersherrythomas - Includes reality behind the story drafting and writing process in acknowledgements, Posts that go into real life - food and personal sketches, Artifacts like hand drawn map for her upcoming mystery

  • Hafsah Faizal, @hafsahfaizal & https://www.hafsahfaizal.com/ - Participates in Ask Me Anything (AMA) on Insta Stories, Shares writing struggles as she experienced with finishing We Free the Stars, Includes personal life details, Interactive website

  • Emily Henry, @emilyhenrywrites - Shares book recommendations, Participates in live stream interviews, Share bits of your writing life in Insta stories

Lastly, we talk about stories from authors whose work didn’t sell initially and some of the tips they have for taking a marathon view of your writing career. Dan Brown’s MasterClass especially digs into this idea of celebrating the milestone of writing and releasing a book, but not putting pressure on it to perform to a certain level. Take every opportunity to practice talking about the book and getting out there to book signings and readings. Reminding yourself that when your work finally does take off, there will be content for your readers to go back to and enjoy.

We hope you enjoy this episode. Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Notes:

The Verbivore shares a definition for the word engage. Here is that definition:

  • “Establish a meaningful contact or connection with; Occupy, attract, or involve someone’s interest or attention.”

Here are some articles and videos that we found helpful in preparation for this conversation:

MasterClass Mentioned:

We also mention words of wisdom, tips, and tools that authors have shared in our previous podcast episodes about connecting with readers. Those episodes are:

We also talk about lessons we’ve learned from specific authors about things to try. Here are a few of them:

  • Sherry Thomas, @writersherrythomas - Includes reality behind the story drafting and writing process in acknowledgements, Posts that go into real life - food and personal sketches, Artifacts like hand drawn map for her upcoming mystery

  • Hafsah Faizal, @hafsahfaizal & https://www.hafsahfaizal.com/ - Participates in Ask Me Anything (AMA) on Insta Stories, Shares writing struggles as she experienced with finishing We Free the Stars, Includes personal life details, Interactive website

  • Emily Henry, @emilyhenrywrites - Shares book recommendations, Participates in live stream interviews, Share bits of your writing life in Insta stories

Books Mentioned:

Music from: https://filmmusic.io
‘Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)