Hi, everyone. We're glad you're here. This is the Three Lesbians and a Pen podcast. Get ready to have your world rocked. As we dive into the wild and sometimes wacky world of self publishing. We are three fabulous bestselling authors. I'm your host, Kimberly Todd with my best friends.

K. C. Luck

and Jamey Moody. 

Join us as we discuss the joys of writing, challenges of self publishing, and anything else that tickles our fancy. 

 Hey there. Welcome to episode 18 of the Three Lesbians and a Pen podcast. I'm Kimberly Todd, and I'm here with my fabulous friends, KC Luck and Jamey Moody. Today, we're talking about planning for 2025 and wishing everybody a very Happy New Year. We're excited to start season two, so let's get to it.

But before we start, how is everyone's time off? KC?

Oh, it was great. I just really enjoyed taking some time off, spending time with my girlfriend, with my family. We went out for New Year's Eve, went out to Portland, went to a couple of different clubs and enjoyed starting the new year. it just was a really wonderful break. I didn't do much writing, which pretty much was the theme for 2024 as I looked back over, which I did not produce. But yeah, so it was just a really nice break and I hope everybody else who's listening had the same opportunity to recharge the batteries. Jamey?

Well, that's good. Yeah, I didn't do much. We did have a big baptism for my little four month old nephew, Giuseppe.

Aww.

I'm getting to where I say his name better because the priest that did his baptism, it's Italian. And, He was pronouncing it like that.

My brother and I decided, Hey, we'd like the way he says that. So we're working on saying it like that. So where it's just not a Texan Giuseppe, you know, same as Giuseppe, Giuseppe, and that's what we call him now, which, uh, that's a long name. And it's Joe. in Italian, so that may be what he ends up being with us, who knows.

Yeah.

 We did that right before Christmas, and then I had Christmas with my family, and no big New Year's Eve celebration, but I did go to a New Year's Day party, and that was a lot of fun with a lot of food. Here's a question for you listeners a big thing in my family is you have black eyed peas on New Year's Day, because that means you'll have luck for the coming year.

And I just wondered do y'all have any things that y'all do on New Year's day for good luck for the coming year? So black eyed peas for me.

Nice.

Never heard that.

We don't have that up here. 

y'all don't do that.

No. Uh Uh

come on.

Never heard of that in New England, but...

can't

Kimberly, your wife doesn't do that.

She's a Texan.

If she does, she has not told me to cook them yet. So

Oh, we have to ask about that then.

 Anyway. I have been writing a little bit, not a lot, but a little bit because I'm at a point, does this ever happen to y'all? I'm at a point in the book that, I know everything that's going to happen cause I'm probably 80 percent done.

And then, I'm ready to write the scene and I'm like, wait a minute, maybe I need to introduce so and so in here, we'll talk about this in just a little while. 

I'll save that for the podcast part. So Kimberly, how about you? What were you up to over the holiday? 

Yeah. I have been so excited. I have been doing a lot of writing. I've been producing a lot of words. So over the holiday, I still wrote a lot, but I spent, a big chunk of time which we don't usually do with my mom and my family and my wife came with me and she kept us very busy.

So we cooked a lot. We did a lot of things and then we did a lot of house chores, which was fun Some of it some of it not so much. But yeah, it was really relaxing. It was just nice to take a step back and be out in nature, we went for some walks on the beach and it was just a really nice Christmas Holiday season.

But besides that, I have one other thing that I'd like to bring up. If you remember when we left off in 2024, we talked about possibly creating a dating profile for Miss Jamey Moody. And I wanted to bring that back up because we're not letting it go, people. So those of you out there that have been using dating apps, we really want to know which ones are the coolest and the hottest right now for the sapphic world so that KC and I can start working on Jamey's profile. Oh boy! Look out world, here she comes.

Yeah, please listeners. They are determined to do this. So please tell us what apps would be the best.

And then with that said, before we jump into our planning for 2025, KC, do we get any texts or Jamey, did we get any emails from our listeners?

 Yeah, we did get one text from Los Angeles wishing us all of course, a very happy new year. But no questions, for our, ask us anything. So hopefully people will remember if we are looking for those.

Right. I did get one email that, gave us several questions for our ask us anything episode. So yeah, feel free to email us any questions you might have if we haven't, covered it yet And, I did have several emails to different people saying they missed us. So here we are, we're 

back. 

 Those are the best. 

Yay. Okay, KC, you want to kick off 2025 planning?

Okay. So let's talk a little bit about planning for 2025. And I just want to let you know that I have heard, or my mom has always told me through the years that if you want to make the universe laugh. Tell them your plan. So I, make a plan every year and then basically immediately throw it out the window.

But today we'll talk about the plan that I'm going to make and hopefully it will work when it comes to planning for me. There's a big opportunity. A window opens, whatever you want to call it. When I retire in April, 

So that's going to modify my plan a little bit, because once I do that, I'm going to set up a real tight schedule where I write a little bit every day, market a little bit every day, and then do other creative activities. Ideas. So, let's start with my plan. First item of my plan, of course, is to, as you would've guess, plan to write books.

And right now I'm hoping to, release three books. One of them is already written, so ideally I can write two more between now and the end of the year. I don't know. Last year was pretty, I looked back at last year and I wrote it in my newsletter that I had written all of, one book. Basically from scratch.

Published that one. Published another one that was basically a rewrite of my Vela story, so it wasn't even from scratch. And that was it. So, and a novella.

Can I just point out though, that you were busy doing other things like maybe falling 

in love. 

Wining and dining!

yeah, so that kind of takes up time. So it may be different once you retire and.

 Yeah. Well, hopefully the honeymoon's not over, but, yeah.

oh, well, no, don't give yourself grief is all I'm saying 

 that was a nice trade off.

I agree. It was a very nice trade off, and the readers were very supportive, being patient when the books came out very slowly. So hopefully next year will be a little bit faster, but as I look at the fact that it's already, the first week, or it's almost the second week of January, actually, and I haven't done, DiddlySquat.

Is that a word? DiddlySquat. Yeah.

Yeah. 

Y'all know what that means, right?

I haven't done a fucking thing, basically, when it comes to writing.

Okay, you're using Jamey language now.

Yeah. So anyway, How about you? Are you getting some writing done this year?

 Yes. I have been getting a little bit of writing done. I like to plan these things out each year. I don't necessarily have deadlines, that I go by, but I like to plan on how many books I want to write and, kind of plan on when I want to release them.

So that gives me a sort of deadline. So I want to try to release four books, this year. The first three will be a series that, takes place with astronomers. So we get to, look at a lot of stars. isn't that romantic? We are romance writers. So, and the fourth book, I will let you know what it's going to be when I know.

So it's one of those things, but what I was talking about earlier in the podcast, 

that I've got the first book written and it's with my editor and I hope that it will be out in February. The second book I'm about 80 percent through with, and I know, what I'm going to do to get to the end of it, but then it just occurred to me this morning before we decided to record that I thought, Hmm, maybe I need to introduce this person in and maybe that's who book three needs to be about because I've already got in my head what I wanted to do with book three.

But then this is what happens to you as an author. All of a sudden some other little character will come in, side character and say, Hey, what about me? I could be interesting. So now I'm going to have to stop and think about this. before I write the next scene, because this might be where to introduce this person back into book two so that I could carry it on to book three.

So that's kind of what happens. And it's just, does that happen to y'all?

Yes.

Um, not so much because you plan stuff out a little more than that. So I kind of already know what my three books are going to be, but yes, there are occasionally characters who just come wandering in from left field. And they're like, wow. And then of course all the readers are like, wow, we love that character.

What you need to write more about the character. And you're like, who, what, what character 

I know. I know.

And what if you don't like the

character and they were just a side smidgen and then they're like, we want that. And you're like, no, please. No.

That person was not entertaining to me, but anyway.

I know all weekend. I've been thinking, okay, I could put this person back in here just to mention them. I didn't think about them being the third book until this morning. And I was like, Oh, wait. So great. Great. So now I've got to do that.

Nice. 

But anyway, how about your, uh, your books, Kimberly, 

Oh, I'm definitely on track I think for three books. And I want to have reader magnets with all of mine because I'm trying to build my reader list. So I'll do three books, two of them will have reader magnets and I'm about 80 percent done with one of them, 10 percent done with the other. 

I want to ask you, explain what you mean by doing a reader magnet for the first two

Well, I like to have a separate thing that I write, whether it's a epilogue or an additional couple of chapters or something like that, that the readers can go to book funnel and download as a special, like the book ends, but then there's this fun... 

After the book ends. I just thought that would be helpful. I didn't know exactly what you meant and I thought there might be some listeners out there that didn't 

 And then usually if there's something that can be standalone that if it's like a prequel or something like that, I can also use it, to send out to my readers if I want to, through my mailing list. Yeah, so I'm 80 percent done with one, I'm 10 percent on the other. And then I have this idea that I've been 

kicking around for a year now about a third book that I want to do, but it's going to be in a completely different genre. It's not going to be sapphic and it's not going to be romance. 

Whoa.

Yeah, so it's kicking that around and we'll see what happens. 

That's interesting. Interesting. Would you publish it under the same name then if it wasn't sapphic?

No.

Okay. So, Oh, well, good.

Yeah. Well, curious to see how that goes. You got to keep us informed on that one.

Yep. Mixing it up a little bit.

Right on. Why not? I thought about that sometimes too. 

Been pulling at me for a year. So I, it keeps coming back in my ear. I'm like, all right, all right, all right. Let me, let me think about it. Yeah.

Yeah. Cool. I plan on writing a reader magnet as well, because I never have really had an official reader magnet like you would use to grow your mailing list. So that is a big, item for me my plan is to, improve my automation a lot, which basically is the emails that come out after you subscribe to an email and list or a newsletter.

 You get those automatically and then also having a reader magnet so that people who do sign up for my newsletter will get something as a reward. But yeah, I love the idea of doing, continuing chapters and things like that. Those are great. I was thinking more like a short story, but those are maybe even easier.

Yeah. They work too.

Yeah. I know I mentioned, um, I've got a new website.

I don't think you did. I think you mentioned it to us, but I don't, I'm not sure that it 

Okay. Well, hey, go, I know I mentioned it in my newsletter, go to jameymoodyauthor. com and you'll see a bright, beautiful new 

 website. And when I first, set it up and everything, I didn't quite have everything done. And now that you're talking about reader magnets, that's what I was going to bring up.

There's a section on there where you can get a three free short stories on my website. All you have to do is click and download. So

Nice.

those are my reader magnets. And I do have one automation through my email. List when you sign up for my newsletter. I

 so I've got a new website folks Please go look at it because I'm pretty proud of

Yeah, I gotta fix mine too. My website needs some love. I'm thinking about transferring it over like you did to the different platforms. So we'll see. I'm still in the middle of trying to decide what to do with that, but it's on my list too. It's on my plan.

Yeah. And me too because if I do this new pen name, it needs a website.

Oh yeah. number two. Yahoo. I cannot wait.

Stab me in the eye now. I'm not sure I would. Yeah. Well for those of you who are familiar with BookBub as an author they have a new beta plan and thank you KC because she's the one that told me about it and it is very author user friendly as far as setting it up and It's very user friendly. I think for readers too and it just looks so professional and so I've got to say yay BookBub so far so good. 

Not super expensive either. I think it's going to be $5 a month for the first six months and then only $10 a month going forward, which is a little higher than maybe some website platforms that are free. Depends on what you're using. Kimberly's looking at me like, uh, no, 

mine's more than that.

I am definitely being screwed by mine because mine is like $300 something and everything is ala carte.

Oh, well, I didn't 

just 

Mine's 

done.

Yeah.

Mine is on Wix and I liked Wix in the beginning. but it's gotten more expensive and it's harder to manipulate. And that's what I was just so surprised with this book bub and it just looks so good. go look listeners or listener. And

We have more than

Go go look, Cheryl, Jules, and Evie. and just tell me what you think. It is beautiful. It is pristine and you can get free short stories.

Exactly. JameyMoody. com. Okay.

No, jameymoodyauthor.com

jameyMoodyAuthor. com. There you go. 

 I kind of got us off on a tangent there, but it has reader magnets. 

that's right. Speaking of reader magnets, 

So let me get y'all back on track. Sorry about 

Can you see my T-Shirt? 

Just. 

I've worn this to gay pride a couple times.

gee, I'm about to tell everybody, listeners, she has on a t shirt that says eat fish. 

You guys are pervs because it's a tackle box. It's from a tackle

store. 

going to say, are you

can I just 

say, can I just say, fuck yeah.

That's why we're getting her a dating profile. I mean, let's be honest. This all comes back to that

take a good laugh out of that one. Oh my god. What are we talking about? Okay, back to my plan. You guys are... 

 We are the universe laughing because we're planning.

All I can say is, you can tell we took a couple weeks off, so,

Everyone focus now.

 focus, the plan, 

Okay. KC, what is this next one? I want to know about this next one. I thought the next one was double your email list.

Well, yeah, that's what I'm using the reader magnet for.

You think that's going to double your email list?

Well, there's other things, you know, you can do, promotions where emails are collected. You can do collaboration, things like that, where you try to get people to, to join your mailing list. So yeah, that's on it. But I'm going to talk next about marketing And by the way, let's be honest. Now we do have one more listener that has occasionally reached out to us and let us know she's listening. And that's Jae. 

Oh yeah. 

yes. 

Jae. 

Hi Jae, happy new year.

And I'm sure Jae is thinking you're going to try to double your mailing list. Good luck with that. Cause if anybody could do it exactly, if anybody could do that, it'd be Jae. And I'm pretty sure even she would be like, that's going to be really hard to do.

So a little bit about marketing. once I'm retired, spending some time on kind of book trailer teasers and putting those on reels. So, I mean, everybody talks about BookTok and how much you can get as far as readership through BookTok.

Well, TikTok is on the chopping block and everybody wants to get rid of it except for people I won't name, so I might go more with reels, but I want to try it out. I want to see if I can, I'll measure it. I'll measure the hell out of it cause I like to do a key performance indicators on everything and make sure there's a return on investment.

 So I want to make sure that whatever I spend time on actually makes me some sales, but I will have fun with that.

So are you gonna create the Videos yourself through Canva or what

Yeah, yeah, definitely. So I think what I'm going to do is there's a lot of stock video that's out there So I'm going to do that we can have an episode on this of course about all about me and how I'm making my trailers But yeah using stock video using stock photos voiceover things like that So I'm gonna try to come up with some stuff and of course research what everybody else is doing and copy them

And Jamey, they also have really

good things that you can use a BookBrush. Yeah.

 Okay. That sounds good.

I am going to back off my Amazon advertising because someone on this podcast said it didn't work so well for them and I thought that maybe. Anyway, so I'm going to back off my amazon advertising At least for this first month and I’m going to go with Written Word Media and do several promos on that side.

I've dabbled a little bit with them because they have several sites that they'll post, they're like giveaways or price reductions and things like that. And you can look them up and see a heads up for our listeners. One way I'm going to do that is you have a chance to get the, Sloan's sisters romance series for free this month, because I'm going to offer each one of those books for free on a certain day and.

If you join my newsletter, I'm going to send a newsletter out so you'll know when it is. Also on social media. And then I'm also going to try, a Kindle Countdown Deal. I've never done those before. And, I'm going to see how that goes. And what that does is you set a, however many days you want to run the deal and it will start at $.99 cents and count your book up.

 back to its regular price

and it has a specific, list that it emails out to readers and things like that. So I'm going to try that.

And, for me. Everything that I'm going to be doing this year besides writing books is about growing my readership. So of course the reader magnets, like we already talked about, but I also, I'm going to try some BookFunnel promotions, which I haven't done before. And unlike my pals here, I am going to kick ass on Amazon Ads because I do really well with them. I see, great return and I would never give them up. That's like my baby, but I'm also gonna try BookBub andof course giveaways that we always do with I Heart Sapphic and Jae.

Yeah, ads, maybe try facebook ads, thinking about it a little bit Probably won't go with Amazon ads. Just don't see them like Kimberly sees them.

 I'm in the middle on Amazon ads and I'm not doing away with them. I'm just not going to spend all of my marketing, dollars, marketing budget on Amazon. I'm going to try to spread it around a little bit and try 

others.

Gotcha, so we're like the three little bears now. So it's like

That's us.

One of us really likes them. One of us is in the middle and one of us is like, I don't know I don't know so 

Yeah, 

so you be the bratty baby you be the bratty 

baby

That's it you heard it here folks.

 So here's one for you that I'm kind of throwing around as an idea, and I want to know your thoughts on Patreon. So when I'm retired and I have more time, cause right now it would just be impossible cause it seems like it's a big effort. I'm thinking about getting a Patreon account and see if I can get some subscribers, but I have really mixed feelings about if that's even feasible or worthwhile or whatever.

So what are your thoughts? I have,

thought about patreon too. I just for me I wonder if trying to produce content to put on patreon will take away from time that I have to write books, which is why I am in this. You know, I don't want to take away writing time for to do that. Here's my question for our listeners though what kind of extra content would you like to see from an author?

 What would you pay for to see on a Patreon account? Maybe that's what the question needs to be.

Yeah. And I'm, with KC. for me, I think there are some successful authors that do really well with a Patreon and it depends on your drive and what your goal is. So like, Jamey was just saying for me, that would take time away from writing. And I've seen a couple of authors over the past couple of years that tried it and they were successful authors.

And they found that they spend a lot of time. They were trying to post new content, two to three times a week, and they just found it exhausting and hard to keep up with, their personal life, plus their writing life, and then this Patreon thing. And the, amount of time it took did not reap the rewards financially.

So they all pulled back from it. But then again, other authors on the flip side do amazing with Patreon.

Right, yeah. You'd have to find a kind of a balance, a happy medium between, you know, how much you put into it as opposed to how much you put into your other efforts in marketing and writing as well. And with, with my, as you say, personal life, maybe this is not the year to do that while we're still building that, but yeah.

Well, and I wonder, what does the reader want to see? Do they want short stories? Do they want, now y'all know our love for short stories and 

novellas.

And 

Speak for yourself. 

so 

that just feels horrible. Yeah, that it feels horrible to me. However, if you're writing bonus scenes for characters that are in my books now, that, that could be fun.

You could write an extra scene or two for them and offer that on Patreon. That could be fun if it's an established couple.

That's what I do with my books. I try to do at the end of my books, and I find that a lot of people love it. And they write me and tell me, keep doing it. They find it exciting. And they just like that little, cause the book ends and they're kind of sad, but then there's that little tidbit that they can go off and get if they want.

Not everyone goes to get it, but a lot of people do.

Yeah. 

So you'd be doing that every week then to put it on Patreon or something like that, or maybe not. I mean, did they do weekly? I mean, I'm not sure.

Well, the people that I listened to before and some authors that I knew they were trying to make content every week, which the content can vary. It doesn't have to be a short story. It could just be a little something that happened to them personally in their life or, you know, what they're thinking about their next book, like asking questions 

I need talk to some people that have them that are willing to be candid with me about it, I think. And you kind of get a feel for it. because I know some people are, well, I don't know. they seem to be putting a lot of effort into it. I just don't know what their return on investment is.

 Are they successful enough to warrant the hours? So when I write my books every once in a while, I like to torture myself and figure out the hourly rate.

Don't do that.

God, really?

Oh my God, people don't do that. If you're starting off, please do not 

do that. Exactly. Uh, so it's usually pretty, pretty much I should be just working at McDonald's, but instead of writing books, but, they make a hell of a lot more than I do per hour, I'd have to figure it out for Patreon too, you know, if I put in this many hours, how much money do I make that week sort of thing.

I think if you can make it methodical and you can make a format that you know that the readers like and you can do it as part of your routine, like you were saying, you're going to set up your plan once you retire. Maybe that's it. If you offer that one thing and then it does well, and then you could add another as you go.

Just start off small and 

then 

branch out. 

Mm hmm. 

Yeah, for sure. I just need to do more research. But, anyway, so that's kind of what I have for my plan. What about, in person events?

Oh yeah. Well, that's, that's also on the maybe to do list. I would love to do more in person events and start getting the marketing out there that But, it's going to depend on retirement a little bit. Cause retirement is going to be paid for by books, partially paid for by books. And if the books don't sell, 

 then KC will not be going anywhere.

 One of the things for me, it's still on marketing, I guess, is for social media. I've decided, because I didn't engage on social media at all during our break, except for when I needed to do something that I, agreed to for a giveaway or something. But I found that being, off social media, is more very helpful.

So I'm going to reduce my social media presence except for one or two that I really like doing. And then the other ones I will keep specifically because I know readers enjoy Sapphic Book Bingo or the I Heart Sapphic Reader Challenge. I'll make sure to post on all my social media for those because I know that the readers enjoy it.

But I think stepping away from social media just like the little test that I did over the holiday, I really produced a lot more words because I wasn't focused on looking at all of the different apps all day long and it just was so helpful. So I'm going to try that for 2025 and see how it does.

Mm hmm. Yep. Kind of the same. I'm gonna get a schedule together about what to post on social media on what days and try to maybe stick to that instead of just randomly going there and then getting sucked in for an hour and blah, blah, blah. Just make it a schedule. Make it a plan.

 How about you, Jamey?

Well, let's go back to, author in person events, I'm looking forward to in May going to, Queers and Quills, in Portland with K. C.

 We wish Kimberly would come too, but she's still on the fence about it. But, haha, and, I think author in person events, and especially this one because it's, gonna be reader based.

Will be awesome because, to me that's the best part of writing anyway is connecting with readers. So I'm looking forward to that and I may I'm thinking about going to GCLS in Albany this year. I think it's in June or July. That's more of an author event because they don't have a lot of readers there.

So that's why I'm just thinking about it. I love seeing everybody, but I wish there were more readers that could attend.

Yeah, and I agree with you, both of you. I wish there were more reader events, reader centric events so that you could interact more with them. And I find that sometimes going to just author events for me gets a little boring. But, I don't mind going once in a while, like take a time off and then go another year.

Like GCLS, I did enjoy the times that I was there, but I think I would like to find more, events that are reader focused.

hmm. For sure. 

Mm hmm.

 The only other thing I had is, I mentioned it as one of my goals, but I just wanted to give an update. I've been working on producing more words every day in hopes of producing more books. And so I planned, a special time each day to write. And it's been going really well.

 So again, taking more classes, learning more, craft, reading more books and things like that will also be part of my plan for 2025. 

sounds like a plan.

Good 

Okay, so I think that's it for this week. Next week we're going to be talking about 2025 writing trends. And KC, do we have a question of the week?

What are you looking forward to trying or seeing in 2025? So when it comes to trends, what are you going to try? What trend are you looking for and hope to pick up and make work for you as an author and as a reader, what are you looking forward to just seeing?

So that's the question. Please answer.

Oh, and don't forget about the dating apps.

I'm, we, we gotta know. And I'm putting that in there because I'm afraid where these people are gonna put me. So, please. Please, my friends out there.

Don't forget, we need a bunch of pictures too, 

Yeah. 

Get those bathing suit pictures ready. Yes. Right. 

Oh, me oh my. 

Okay everyone, thank you for listening. Have a good week.

Thank you. Talk to you next week. Bye.

Happy New Year and bye. 

Thanks for listening. If you'd like to reach out to us, you can contact us by email at contact@threelesbiansandapen.com with the number three spelled out or on Instagram, Facebook and X at Three Lesbians and a Pen using the number three. And finally on our website, at threelesbiansandapen.com, we look forward to hearing from you, see you next week.