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, and welcome to Episode 33 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 other ways to keep readers engaged, but before we start, how was your week, KC?

My second week of retirement was awesome, as awesome as the first. Actually, more so I think because I went on this great hike, with lots of wild flowers and beautiful views of the Columbia River. So, if you follow me on social media, you definitely saw pictures of that and my big smile, how happy I was to not be at work on that day.

And your Indiana Jones hat.

Yes, and people liked the hat. So, for my author job, I was doing a lot of marketing 'cause I have a new book coming out May 1st it's called Mai Tais and Murder, and it is the mystery part of the Sapphic Suspense Collection which is nine novels that are all mystery based. And so, it's a mystery, that's my super-secret project that I was talking about before. So, it's finally coming to fruition.

Yay.

And it's the same characters that were in your release, what last month, I guess was when you released it?

Yes, it is the same two characters, Helen and Mel, who are over the age of 65, which is very popular with a lot of readers. I'm surprised how popular it is actually. So, we'll use the same two characters in the mystery. So, if you like the first one, grab the second one.

I finished it and it was just as cute as it could be. I meant to tell you that. Uhhuh.

The characters were awesome.

Uhhuh. I like 'em both. 

Thanks. 

I may have to check out that little mystery. Okay, so let's see. For me, really. My news is all book news because I'm really excited, I've got, book two in the Wishing Star Series, mostly ready to go to the ARC team. I am still working with my cover designer on that, but I've got it formatted and everything, which is nice. But what I'm really excited about is book three is the one that I'm working on right now, and you know, when, you're just working along and everything's good, and then all of a sudden, bam. It's like that book just takes off!

Mm-hmm.

It's like everything's starting to come together and you're just, your fingers are flying over the keyboard. You can't type fast enough to get to the next spot. That's where I am. 

That is the best.

I know about two thirds through, I guess, something like that. One of the things I love about writing, we were talking about where ideas come and things like that the other day. Well, my characters have to go on this big date, and I was like, hmm, I wonder what I'm gonna do for that date. So, this morning all of a sudden it came to me, what I'm gonna do for that date, just like right outta the blue. And I was like, oh, check that off. That's awesome. So now I get to create that. So anyway, when those things happen, it's just really fun and it makes me very happy that I'm doing this. 

Yeah. You feel proud of yourself.

Yeah. And I can't wait for everybody to read it because you just get so excited about it and everything, and you think this is gonna be good. People are gonna love this. So, you just wanna get after it.

Do you ever write a scene and you're like laughing to or something that is so freaking funny, and then you're like, oh, I hope people think it's funny.

Yeah, I know, exactly. You think it's funny but you're like, did I write that so they're gonna think it's funny? What were you up to, Kimberly? You took a trip this weekend?

Yeah, this weekend I went home for Easter to see mom. And I actually sat outside in the yard with the blooming magnolia tree and read a book, a physical book.

Whoa. 

So, I've been doing that and then, in between just doing so much stuff for book marketing behind the scenes, things that I need to get done. And just a lot of the stuff that you guys know I hate doing, but I'm getting it done. Little by little, they're pulling my fingernails off, but I'm doing it.

Good for you.

So, do we have any texts this week?

We had a couple texts from our regular texters, the first one's from Cheryl and she says, start a club for your readers, like a fan club, which is kind of cool 'cause we'll talk about it later. But I'm kind of thinking about starting a fan clubish thing and include some swag. Everybody likes swag. So that was her opinion. And then CeeJay also said swag, exclamation point. She was really into that idea, especially book t-shirts. Apparently, she has more than she wants to reveal, so yes. Swag. Mm-hmm.

Well, Cheryl emailed us and had several suggestions on what we could do, maybe offer a set of five books together. You could offer a T-shirt with books 'cause she's a fanatic about t-shirts too. So, things like that. Key rings, bookmarks, probably some things that we do, you know, stickers, things like that. 

So today we're talking about other ways to keep readers engaged and KC, I see you have a few great ideas. Did you wanna start us off?

So, one of my ideas is to come up with a street team, which I would take, individuals who are really close followers, who follow me on all the socials, who respond to every newsletter. People like Cheryl actually would be a good one, who follows this on this podcast. She'd be perfect in a street team, but I'm talking like a dozen people who I would then, give free copies to and other swag in exchange for their participation in different things that I come up with, aside from just shout outs on Facebook. But I have some other ideas. So that's kind of what I'm thinking it would be cool to engage with a few really close followers, I think would be a really powerful way to start getting the word out.

So, your biggest fans.

Yeah.

You know, to, piggyback off that, I think it might be cool if you could somehow, and certainly that street team would be candidates for this, because you know, a super fan, they're gonna buy every one of your books when they come out. And those are the people that you want to keep engaged. 

So, one thing that I do, and I probably should tell my newsletter and tell people more often, is if you buy one of my print books. I can't autograph it obviously if you've bought it off of Amazon or whatever, but I have book plates and I am happy to mail those anywhere and I'll sign it and you slap it in your book. Now you got an autographed, Jamey Moody book.

Yep. Those are cool.

And then maybe sometime in the future, after you built the street team as a reward or something, you could either do it with just your street team or make it even broader, depending on what you wanted to do, but have a meetup somewhere. Where you could meet at this pub or this bar for a night to hang out with the author kind of thing.

Mm-hmm. Or at least have a cocktail hour or something on a Zoom. But also you need to reach out to the larger audience. I'm not just talking about only the street team to engage with. 

But there are other ways to do that. And another one I've been throwing around is maybe a Facebook group, kind of like Jae did, where she has basically it started with just her fans who've created that reader list, and then she changed the title. But you know, that's another way to engage, a select group who would only join the group if they were truly a fan of yours. It's not like the overall reader groups. It'd really be just your a hundred people or 300 people or whatever it would be. So, I'm kind of thinking about doing that. Just a real selective Facebook group too.

Yeah. And didn't something happen with Jen Lyon when her book came out? She published a book and people liked it so much that they were asking to have a Facebook group.

Oh, to maybe to talk about it or something.

Anna Stone has a Facebook group. There's several authors that do, I'm trying to think who else.

I'm sure after that one group for that book they probably stayed her fans and her next book will probably be the same group. I'm guessing.

Yeah.

Would you make that group private? KC or public?

I'd make it private. By kind of invitation only sort of scenario.

That'd be cool. And just chat about books and things. 

Yeah. And maybe even more insight into my behind-the-scenes life. 

Yeah. 

Not just your everyday follower.

Your flower hikes.

You could do the same thing for behind the scenes. with video content about, your writing life. Things like that. Could be really short videos that you use. 

Yeah, that'd be fun. Definitely. 

You could post all kinds of things. Another thing that I had, an idea I've seen people do is Spotify playlists. So, you could release just in your Facebook group a playlist that goes along with that book.

I did that in my Lover's Landing series. One of the characters, sings as well as acts and there's one, book that she actually has this performance where she does several songs and I made a playlist that goes along with that book and it's on Spotify. Mm-hmm. It was fun to do.

And then another thing you could do is figure out additional ways to utilize your own website. Like I know a few authors already have blogs and I do follow a couple of them 'cause there's fun stuff in the blog. If you keep checking back, you know, the authors that, regularly publish content. And it's all there in one place so you can scan it when you're in the mood and see all the posts that they've done over a while.

I would love to probably reach out to my newsletter group. I guess, or even on social media and just ask readers, what is it you wanna hear from authors besides, you know, their writing process or something like that. What do you wanna hear? What would make you become a super fan, maybe something like that. So, then we'd have an idea of what they're looking for, to them engaged. 

Right. The other idea I have is maybe somehow connecting that Facebook group with Patreon. So, the core Street Team would not, pay for anything, but maybe people who get more information via Facebook, could sign up for like a $5 Patreon or something like that. So, I'm trying to work all this out. It's part of my authorpreneur stuff, and really fun to think about.

I think it's good for people to hear your thought process though, because they're gonna be struggling and sitting there, you know, at one point saying, what else can I do to engage so they see what we think and how we try to process, how to engage with other readers. 'cause usually there's just the standard things, Kick Starter or Patreon, Mm-hmm Et cetera. So, to have other out of the box ideas is probably helpful. 

Mm-hmm. 

Yeah. 

What about, do y'all remember when people used to do Instagram lives or Facebook lives? A lot of times it had to do with a new release or if they just wanted to talk about their books. I don't see many of those anymore, do y'all?

No. 

Why do you think that is?

 I know, I'm not really sure. There's a lot of different things.

I've seen some authors that schedule live Q and A, not all the time, but maybe one time when a new book is coming out you know, for a holiday. Just as like, hey, you want to chat with me live on Thursday for an hour. 

Okay, let me come out and just say this because I know there are other new authors out there thinking that. I could see me publicizing this and saying, "Hey, come, hang out and chat," and no one's showing up. 

Fear. 

Yeah, you might get a couple people. 

I see your feathers sprouting over there. 

Cheryl would come.

There you go.

And maybe Jules or CeeJay.

Yeah. 

Exactly. The people who follow our podcast might come. I'd have a group of three.

That's what I think about, you know, sometimes too though, when you see those live events. 

That's what I think about with Patreon. I don't wanna start Patreon for two reasons. One, I'm afraid no one would do it, and then I would be, and not to say that I'd be stuck, but let's say I have five people on there who pay me $5 a month. So, for $25 a month, I'm coming up with short stories and other content for those people. I would feel very obligated to keep doing that. I mean making nothing. So why would I do that? That's a big fear of mine. That's why I'm not really going down that path.

I get it. Then I think our question is, it's hard to identify your fans. How do we find our fans that would wanna engage in something more than just reading our books? And I think that's the big question. 

Yeah. I have a folder for every person that's ever responded to my newsletter.

Mm-hmm.

I have them in a special fan mail folder, and they're the first ones I'm gonna reach out to and be like, you know, I've interacted with you. You reached out. So how do you feel about this idea?

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I do that too. I definitely have a folder of the people that have responded, to the newsletters. They're usually the ones that will respond every time or most of the time if you have a question or whatever. 

But another thing that you could do, again, on your website is, you could have quizzes or polls to encourage reader participation or anything that you think they might be interested in.

Yeah. 

Yeah.

What do you think about my next book? I'm thinking about doing this... You can do it on social media too, but you could also do it as part of your blog or on your website.

Yeah, and maybe the website's the way to go because there are gonna be some people that email me back and stuff who don't do Facebook.

Mm.

You know. And I might wanna figure out a way to do all this through my website.

And like they always say, you never know what's gonna happen, when you could have your account shut down, all your followers and everything gone. So it's always smarter to back yourself up with your newsletter and your website.

Yeah. That's good. I'm glad we're having this conversation. I'm not sure we're helping anybody listening, but this is helping me a lot.

Well, I've got a newsletter coming out Thursday because, I Heart SapphFic is having a 99 cents sale. 

And I believe it's Thursday, Friday and Saturday. So, I'll have some books in there, so I'm sending out a newsletter so that I can tell all my, subscribers about it. So maybe I will just engage them in some kind of question and see what kind of response I get.

Yeah. 

Mm-hmm. 

You know? Mm-hmm. 

Yeah. Questions in the newsletter are always a good idea. 

Mm-hmm. But 99 cents starts Thursday, so I hope y'all will jump on that and fill up your TBRs. Oh, it's Lesbian Visibility Week! Oh my God. I forgot all about that. Big Lesbo here.

Go. Lesbos. 

And that's why we're having the 99 cents sale because we're fucking awesome.

So...Go Lesbians. 

Yes. 

That's right. Go Lesbos.

That's the T-shirt we should get made.

We should have led with that this week, y'all. It's Lesbian Visibility Week. Look at us, because we are three Lesbos.

We are on top of everything over here.

Yes, so that's the T-shirt that we're gonna send to Cheryl and CeeJay it's gonna say, I Heart Lesbos. 

Yeah, that's right. I Heart Lesbos. 

So going back to how I would engage my readers, who have joined the street team or joined my group on my website now, not on Facebook. I would, have some interactive stuff like, choose your own ending or choose what to write next. So that would be a cool, way to have people vote on what kind of switch we make, or what turn we make in the story, and then I write another 600 words to fill that spot.

I said that ideas always come to me when I'm writing the book that I'm currently on, and, like I said, I'm about two thirds through this one and know what's gonna happen and no new ideas have really popped up yet. So maybe that's what I need to throw out to my newsletter subscribers and say, Hey. What would you like to see? You know, in my next book?

I also think that idea, KC, that, people would get excited about that because if they do write in and you write that tangent that they're asking for and then for them to see it actually happen when they see the final completed book. I think that makes them really feel like part of the process, and even more invested in your books. 

Yeah, they are when they're doing that. So good idea.

Okay. So, I have one more that I think would be very cool, and I know some of my characters from my books are very popular. Like, Taylor Barnes from the Darkness Series. It's a very popular character, so I think it'd be kind of cool to either, write from their perspective if you did a Q and A. So, people would ask questions of Taylor about what was your past like in the military and things like that. And then answer as if I was that character. So, I think that would be kind of fun.

Yeah. What would Taylor say? Or something like that? 

I would like to do that too. I think that would be fun.

Mm-hmm. ' with your V.A.M.P. girls.

Uhhuh,

Mm-hmm.

I would love to respond to as someone.

You better be careful, if you responded as a Serena.

That could be naughty. Maybe I should not do that. 

Yeah. Maybe not.

And then I had a one other one, virtual book clubs.

Yeah.

That would be fun. 

Yeah. You don't see those much anymore. 

I guess you could do that on Zoom or something?

Yeah, I guess, I mean, you could do pretty much anything that you wanted to. I don't know how many people would, be interested in that, but it's another idea you could try. 

Mm-hmm. Yep. I'm gonna keep this cheat sheet and, start making some of this happen.

You could be the one that tries it out.

Yeah. We're gonna sit here and quietly watch what happens and then steal from you, as you always say to our readers. We'll wait for you and then we'll see what works and steal what you do.

Mm-hmm. 

Okay. Awesome. 

Well, I think that's it for this week. Next week we're talking about, how do you know when your book is done, which I think is really a good question.

And the question I have to ask the people listening is, have you ever written or read a book and later thought there's more here to say, like it ended too soon. So, if you have, speak up and if you wanna name the book, that would be kinda cool too. 

Okay, well I think that's it for this week. Thanks for listening.

Thanks everybody, Talk to you next week.

And don't forget Lesbian Visibility Week 99 cents Sale. 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.