EP 326 - Rebranding and Relaunching with E.L. Williams

10/05/23 • 49 min

1 Listener

Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

Mark interviews author E.L. Williams about her writing life, about her books, about rebranding one of the books in her series, and more.

Prior to the main content, Mark shares comments from recent episodes a brief personal update, welcomes new patron T. Thorn Coyle, and shares a word about this episode's sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by the Patrons of the Stark Reflections Podcast.

In their conversation, Mark and Emma talk about:

How it took Emma about ten years to write her first book
Getting slightly "bullied" into going to a writer conference from a fellow author
Publishing her first book during Halloween season in 2020
How the global pandemic changed enough things with her day job that allowed her the opportunity to get the book finished and published
The "Murphy's Law" events that piled up with the launch of book two, which led to a signifcant health issue that had to be dealt with
The decision to change the title and cover for book two after realizing it wasn't hitting the market properly
Being a great believer in learning by doing
Rolling back on the unrealistic expectations Emma set herself up with and learning to enjoy the process and take a more relaxed approach
Emma's ideas involving merchandise in relation to her book and how that led to collaborating with Deadweight Brewing
The book "relaunch" party Emma planned out including the beer and book cakes
The social media "long shot" that Emma took on Instagram asking if the beer book branding thing had ever been done before
How social media can be a bit like marmite
Beginning to check out experimenting with TikTok by doing a video a day
Advice Emma has for other writers who haven't taken the plunge yet
And more....

After the interview, Mark reflects back on a couple of things his conversation with Emma made him think about.

Links of Interest:

Mark interviews author E.L. Williams about her writing life, about her books, about rebranding one of the books in her series, and more.

Prior to the main content, Mark shares comments from recent episodes a brief personal update, welcomes new patron T. Thorn Coyle, and shares a word about this episode's sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by the Patrons of the Stark Reflections Podcast.

In their conversation, Mark and Emma talk about:

How it took Emma about ten years to write her first book
Getting slightly "bullied" into going to a writer conference from a fellow author
Publishing her first book during Halloween season in 2020
How the global pandemic changed enough things with her day job that allowed her the opportunity to get the book finished and published
The "Murphy's Law" events that piled up with the launch of book two, which led to a signifcant health issue that had to be dealt with
The decision to change the title and cover for book two after realizing it wasn't hitting the market properly
Being a great believer in learning by doing
Rolling back on the unrealistic expectations Emma set herself up with and learning to enjoy the process and take a more relaxed approach
Emma's ideas involving merchandise in relation to her book and how that led to collaborating with Deadweight Brewing
The book "relaunch" party Emma planned out including the beer and book cakes
The social media "long shot" that Emma took on Instagram asking if the beer book branding thing had ever been done before
How social media can be a bit like marmite
Beginning to check out experimenting with TikTok by doing a video a day
Advice Emma has for other writers who haven't taken the plunge yet
And more....

After the interview, Mark reflects back on a couple of things his conversation with Emma made him think about.

Links of Interest:

Previous Episode

EP 325 - Reflecting Back: 3 Things That Are Wrong With Indie Publishing

In this episode Mark reflects back to Episode 6 of this podcast, which was released on Feb 6, 2018.

He shares clips from that episode, in which he outlined three of the things that bothered him about the indie publishing world.

Reflecting back, he comments on a few things that have changed, and what is consistent more than 5 years after the initial broadcast.

This episode is sponsored by the Patrons of the Stark Reflections Podcast.

Links of Interest:

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Next Episode

EP 327 - Writing the Shadow with Joanna Penn

Mark interviews Joanna Penn about her new book Writing the Shadow: Turn Your Inner Darkness into Words, then associated Kickstarter she launched for it, plans she has to window its release, and much more.

Prior to the main content, Mark thanks Patrons of the Stark Reflections Podcast.

In their conversation, Mark and Joanna talk about:

How it has been a while since Joanna has been on Mark's podcast (she was in episode 212)
The number of years Joanna has been podcasting under The Creative Penn brand (March 2009)
How sometimes there's a book that you really want to write that you're not ready to write yet
The way we can often push the "shadows" down and repress them
The importance of writing the things that fascinate you
What happens when you push a balloon down underwater and try to hold it there
Plato's Chariot and the White and Dark horses and getting them to run together in harmony
The value of addressing what we're repressing and bringing it into the light particularly in your writing
How critical it is for successful fiction to have conflict, which is often derived from the shadow
The common themes in Joanna's writing about helping or saving the family or saving the world
The only way we're going to be able to stand out as human in a crowded market, and, in particular, a market with emerging AI-generated content
How Writing the Shadow and Pilgrimage are "mid-life" books for Joanna as she is addressing that part of her existence and Mememto Mori in those memoir-style books
Exploring how you're being held back by some of those things that you've allowed to be repressed
The shadows in both self-publishing and traditional publishing
How you don't need to be afraid to look into the shadow and perhaps find the gold in that shadow
The Kickstarter that Joanna has launched for Writing the Shadow
The way authors have long focused on the retail websites for sales but how that has slowly shifted into a new phase of direct selling and windowing strategies
Joanna's launch strategy for Writing the Shadow which starts with Kickstarter, migrates to direct selling on her personal websites, and then moves into broader retail and library distribution
The value of standing out as an author, particularly today
How Writing the Shadow is an optimistic book despite the topic and themes explored in it
Building a new author ecosystem and training existing and new readers to engage in that realm
The importance of remembering how the business model will keep changing but what doesn't change is writing the books of your heart and the books that will help you and others
Gifts of the shadow, finding the gold, and the idea of "after the curse comes the gift"
The spiral bound workbook
How thecreativepenn.com/shadowbook will redirect either to the Kickstarter or wherever the books are available in the future
The horror themed storybundle that Mark and Joanna are both in
And more...

After the interview Mark reflects on a few things from the conversation, announces a bonus for his patrons related to a reward from Joanna's Kickstarter, and invites listeners to share their own reflections on this topic.

Links of Interest: