Your Burning Writer Questions Answered—Scene Craft, Querying & More

Got writing questions? We've got answers. In this episode, The Tech Guy and I dig into the questions that land most in our inbox, starting with a great one from a writer, Matt, in Cleveland, about how to structure and set scenes in a cozy mystery. From there, we cover coaching availability, what makes the Mystery Series Masterclass work, plotting vs pantsing, traditional vs. indie publishing, querying agents, writing genre mashups, and whether authors really have to be on social media. The Tech Guy has some thoughts on that last one. Tune in, darlings, and keep those questions coming!

Mentioned in this episode:

Mystery Series Masterclass – https://courses.elliealexander.co/

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Transcript

Welcome And Today’s Writer Mail

Ellie Alexander 0:05

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of Reality Writes. I am author Ellie Alexander, and this is the podcast where we talk about all things bookish, writerish, and whatever else is on our minds. And I'm here today with the Tech Guy.

Tech Guy 0:20

Hello. I do in a podcast on writer topics this week.

Ellie Alexander 0:26

We're gonna talk writer-ish.

Tech Guy 0:29

No shortage of questions about writing topics for you either.

Ellie Alexander 0:33

No. In fact, that was one of our reasons for deciding to land on this topic today because I get um lots of emails and DMs from writers, new writers, established writers, you name it, with questions. And I try to answer as many as I can, but um, you know, I have limited time. So we thought this would be a great use of the podcast. These are some questions that tend to come up a lot. Hopefully, if you're a darling out there and this is a question that you've had burning for a long time, we can answer it for you today.

Tech Guy 1:03

Definitely. Uh, and we're gonna start off actually with um a question that came in via text via the send us a message link that I'm always promoting in each episode. And this one came in from Matt in Cleveland and it's writer-related.

Scene Structure For A Cozy Mystery

Tech Guy 1:20

So I thought it'd be good to start off uh uh this episode of Reality Writes with this question from Matt. Matt asks, I'm a brand new writer. I'm writing a cozy, slightly paranormal. Ooh, cozy murder with a gay man as a main character. I hear and read about writers talking about scenes. I have looked at YouTube and watched a few videos. I'm still unclear how to structure my scenes. Can give me some examples and tips.

Ellie Alexander 1:51

Ooh, that's such a great question. And Matt, I love that you're writing. We need more cozies in the world, we need more quosies in the world with representation. And so, like, also the paranormal piece, like that hits so many points right now that I think you've got a lot going on for your story. It's a very big question in terms of scenes. So I'll answer it in two ways. Sometimes writers struggle with how to line up scenes, as in the plotting piece of scene work, you know, and you can get really involved. There's software. Um, you know, I'm sure you've seen examples of writers who have index cards and they lay out their scenes all over their office. For me, I think if that's the piece that you're struggling with, Matt, it's going back to the beginning and making making sure you have a clear outline and a focus on who you want suspicion to fall on, and then shifting that every three to four chapters and giving us another little clue, another little thread that is going to make us suspicious of a different character. So that's one way that scene plays out a lot in writing. The other struggle I think that um writers have, especially when you're first, you know, working on a mystery or a novel in general, is the idea of how do I set the scene? Like how do I center my story in time and space? How do I bring in all of those sensory details? How do I make it feel real? So if that's a stumbling point for you, I recommend you get out in the real world and just be a careful observer. Bring a notebook, bring your laptop, your phone, like whatever you need, and just pay attention to the way people are moving and talking and sights and smells and sounds and take copious notes. The other piece of scene that can be really challenging, especially if you're new to writing, is how to center your scene and put your character in places that feel very real and tangible and livable. And so on that note, what I always recommend to the writing students who I coach and work with directly is to go be in those spaces, to take your laptop, a notebook, your iPhone, like whatever, it doesn't matter, but go and be out in some kind of public space. It doesn't even necessarily have to be the space that you're setting your story. But, you know, I'm thinking for Matt, you know, if you if you're doing something paranormal, I don't know, maybe you find like a creepy museum or a haunted space or whatever it is, like an apothecary. It can be your library, you can go to a park, you can go to a coffee shop. Just really pay attention to how people are engaging, interacting, eavesdrop on conversations. You want your dialogue within a scene to feel really normal. You want your scenes to feel like they're real life. You don't want dialogue that is just clunky. So any kind of sensory sights, smells, character movements, you know, you're I I'm always paying attention to like weird ticks that somebody might have, or the way somebody moves their hair, or the sound of a laugh, or a voice. Because the more real and grounded you can make your scenes and your stories, the more believable it's going to be to your future readers. Like they're they're gonna feel like they are completely in your world, even though there's gonna be a fictional murder and probably this paranormal element. So those are kind of my two big picture tips with not having, you know, many more specifics, but hopefully that helps and keep writing. I'm so excited.

Tech Guy 5:33

It also, every time I listen to you answer these questions, it makes me realize how much detail goes into writing. Um, it's just it's it's kind of bonkers sometimes. Um, all right. So let's move into some of the other questions that have come in. These you've gotten via email, via the contact form on the website and everything. But one more pitch for the send us a message link in the show notes. Uh, if you're listening to this on your favorite podcast app, go to the show notes, go read about that. You'll see a little send us a message link, and you can tap that and send us a text message with your burning questions or your thoughts on the show, uh, topics you want us to cover, whatever. Um, but you can even leave us a voicemail. No one's done it yet. I'm still waiting for that first person to leave us a voicemail so we can play it here on Reality Rights. Moving right along. Okay, this one comes in. I see a lot because I am the webmaster and I see a lot of the contact form uh information coming in. And I am unfortunately the one who had to take this service down from the website earlier this year uh due

Sensory Details That Ground A Scene

Tech Guy 6:40

to writing schedules. So the question is, Ellie, will you be taking on more coaching students or clients this year?

Ellie Alexander 6:48

Uh, yes. Uh well, yes, as in um yes, I'm sad about that question. Uh the short answer is I don't know. I've had to close my one-on-one coaching just because of the intensity of my own writing schedule this year. So I still have a few clients who I had already been working with that I'm continuing those relationships with, but I'm not able to take on new clients right now because I am writing around the clock. As I think most of you, darlings, already know. We've talked about my publishing schedule for this year and 2027. I am hopeful that there might be a slight window in late fall where I'll be able to open up like two spots. Um, so stay tuned potentially for that. But the thing I would love for you to know is there are so many resources out there. We over the years have shared so many videos and material on writing, on my process. So, you know, like go do a deep dive of my YouTube. I've shared a lot of free information and will always try to continue to do that. I also have lots of people who I can recommend too. There are tons of wonderful other writers and resources for you. So please don't feel like I am your one and only solution. I love coaching. Coaching is probably my favorite thing that I do out of everything, just because it feels so full circle. And I don't think I've ever had a coaching session that hasn't had some level of tears involved, which makes it sound like I'm a terrible coach and I'm like berating your work. But no, it's usually because the same sort of themes and patterns show up for a lot of writers, which is like, how do we get past those negative voices that are like deep in buried in your subconscious that you're not even aware of? Maybe it was your, you know, fifth grade teacher or some professor or a parent or a sibling, you know. So a lot of my coaching, even though we we do a lot of direct work on the mystery and the plotting and the suspects and, you know, creating red herrings and scene setting, I've worked with a lot of writers that aren't writing mysteries either. And when that first began happening when I launched my coaching, I was like, oh, I don't know that I'm the right coach for you because, you know, my lane has been mystery for so long. But it's been a total delight to have that kind of space with writing students. Um, and then I get so invested and excited and really connected to the stories that the writers who I'm working with are working on. And not in a way of wanting to own the story, but like I just want to read all of the finished products. I'm like, oh my gosh, this is the best idea. Darlings, you all are so creative. Like I have the most fun when I'm coaching, but unfortunately, I just don't have the time right now.

Tech Guy 9:46

I and I can attest to that. Um, seeing you ever you know working as hard as you do every day. For the darlings out there who don't know, though, I'll do a real quick catch-up here because the next question is related to this. But so you have your mystery series masterclass, which is a self-paced video, video-based course with downloadable materials and everything that walks people through how to write a mystery from soup to nuts, right? It covers the whole process. Like it's your process, how you write a book. And then you have your one-on-one coaching, which is separate. So, what you're talking about is the one-on-one coaching. The mystery series masterclass is open because it's self-paced and kind of growing a community there. So, speaking of the mystery series masterclass in your author academy, have you had any students in your mystery series masterclass who have published a book or had a book published?

Ellie Alexander 10:40

So many. I think I was trying to do a count a week or two ago. I think we're up to like 35 books that students have published and had published. It's incredible. I cannot own any piece of it because everyone who has taken the course, you have to do the work yourself. Like you and I laid out the course together. I came up with all the content in terms of going piece

Coaching Limits And Free Learning Options

Ellie Alexander 11:05

by piece through every single tiny baby step in my process from the start of an idea to past publication, you know, landing an agent, what it's like to work in traditional publishing, going independent. You then filmed, edited, put it all together in a beautiful package, made all of the notes that I have used over the years actually look like something that anyone might want to use.

Tech Guy 11:29

Yeah, those are due for an upgrade soon, too. Um, but uh yeah, I you you did all the content. I did not come up with the content. This is not the tech guy writers course by any stretch. But it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of work putting it together, but it was it was a lot of fun. And and uh it's been really, really fun to see uh the students that you've had who have been so successful and and gotten their books out there in the world.

Ellie Alexander 11:56

Yeah, and that's what I was gonna say. So it's like the course is designed to be self-paced, as you mentioned. So you can, I mean, you know, I've had students who have done it in just a few months and gotten a book done and sent it out on submission. And then I have had students who have, you know, worked over the course of a year, two, three years slowly building their story. There's no right or wrong answer. A lot of what I talk about in the course is it's designed to give you a blueprint, a structure. And then hopefully you're gonna find your own process and take pieces of it that work and don't work. Because when I was writing my first mystery, I had no idea what I was doing. And I just borrowed things from every resource that I could find. So this is a compilation of that. But yes, what I was gonna say is that over the years, we have had so many students get published and multiple paths to publication, students who have landed agents right out of the gate, students who have had multiple series and book deals with traditional publishing, indie authors who've seen great success, who've gone on to win awards and recognition. So it's it's the best feeling. I get more when I hear from anyone who's taken the course and then is like, hey, Ellie, you know, I'm out querying, or I just got a call from an agent, or I just landed a book deal, or I'm publishing my book, like whatever it is. I literally am dancing for joy in my office. Like it, it's the best feeling. And in saying that, I also want to be clear that all of these writers did the work themselves. Like you, it's not like by taking the course the books magically write themselves. Like, you know what I mean? Like, so um, I don't want to take any credit for it, but it is the best feeling to to see, like, oh, okay, the process works. And now they're all out there making it at their own, telling their own stories, figuring out their voice, all that kind of thing.

Tech Guy 13:49

Yeah, yeah. The books definitely don't write themselves, if only, right? Um, but uh uh no, uh, but that does remind me that we do we do have an upcoming episode of Reality Rice where we're gonna have some of the Mystery Series masterclass uh students on, and they're going to talk about their experience and their path to publication. And I'm super excited about that because these are just amazing success stories. Um, you know, it even the people who haven't published, the people who have written a book, who have started, you know, and and gone through the paces and you said it, done the work. That's the piece that every single time somebody asks you about, like, you know, I want to write a book, what do I need to do? You need to do the work. Like that's just it, it that's the base for anything you want to do. But that actually leads me to the next question that uh was submitted. And I this is interesting. You I think you might have you might have to answer this a couple of different ways because of the way they phrased it. They said, I uh I keep promising myself I'll write for two hours a day and I'm not getting anywhere. So I don't know if they mean that they're spending those two hours and they're not getting anywhere, or they keep promising that they're gonna spend the two hours, but they don't spend the two hours. I guess you could give two answers.

Ellie Alexander 15:13

Could be a bit of both, right? And I mean, I think one of the issues, especially early on in figuring out what your own process is gonna be, and I think I've said this a zillion times, but it and I've already said it twice on this podcast, but it is worth repeating. If you are working with um a writing teacher or a coach or another author or a friend or anyone who says there is only one way to do it, and it's my way, like you should run. That's not

Masterclass Results And Student Success

Ellie Alexander 15:40

true. Like it is about figuring out your own process. So that's the caveat there. But self-sabotage is really a universal issue because if you don't know what you're doing when you start, it's really easy to get distracted by like, well, you know, maybe I should spend another 15 days researching the West Indies trade because I'm writing a historical, you know, like whatever you can do these deep dives and research that is never going to see the light of day. Now, of course, it's important to do some research. There's that factor. You can find laundry suddenly very appealing. I think the key there, yeah, laundry, dishes, right.

Tech Guy 16:24

You know, it's bad when chores seem like the better of choice, right? Yeah. Right. Exactly.

Ellie Alexander 16:30

Um, so I think if that's the issue, then it's about setting some kind of goal for yourself. And it's probably also doing more work in terms of plotting your story. And you might end up, you know, we've had conversations multiple times on this podcast and uh in other places about plotting versus pantsing. Pantsing being the idea that you're just gonna start the story with no idea where it goes. And I definitely have colleagues and friends who do that. I think for a first book, it's important to have some kind of an outline. Now, an outline could be, you know, I don't know, 15 bullet points. It doesn't have to be a traditional outline like you used to have to submit in high school or college. But I think having some sense of like the key points, whether that's each of the three acts or, you know, how you're gonna kind of reach the climax of the story and wrap it all up, whatever it is, I think you really need something to start with uh for a first book. And then once you've written that first book, you're gonna have this muscle memory. And then writing the second book might look different. Okay. On the flip side, if you've set aside two-hour chunks, let's say you're gonna write for two hours a few days a week, and um, you're filling that time with the same thing, going down research rabbit holes, watching how to write videos, deciding that this is the moment you're gonna like weed the entire backyard. Or if you're just sitting there staring at a blank page, this is where I think you really need to set a word count goal. And we we cover this quite a bit in the course. And I talk a lot about this with students who I coach one-on-one. A word count goal for me is so much more tangible, especially when I was first writing, because it's so easy to spend two hours thinking and working on your story and just like being in your head or whatever, and then have nothing to show for it. You've written 20 words, you've written a perfect, beautiful sentence that is not is gonna get cut at the end anyway. Um, whereas if you have a word count goal, if I know, okay, I have to write 250 words, 500 words, whatever that goal is that you set for yourself in two hours, then at the end of two hours, you're gonna have 250 or 500 words. Now, look, are they gonna be the best words? Probably not, but you're gonna have to edit everything anyway, which is kind of the third point that I'll toss in here for this answer. And that is a first draft is just meant to be a draft. It is the draft where you are getting the story out. It is not a draft where you're editing. So I strongly believe that it's way more important to just get in the flow and get words on the page, knowing that you're gonna fix them in the second, third, fourth drafts. I think a lot of people get caught up in trying to get the perfect sentence and word choice and doing all that scene setting we were talking about with Matt. That's for later. The first draft is just get the story out.

Tech Guy 19:36

Well, and the first draft isn't gonna be 75,000 words, right? No, right. Right. And I think I think a lot of people get stuck in that trap too, where they think that their first draft has to be pretty close to what the final book is going to be. And I'm here to tell you, I haven't written a book, but I've seen a lot of books written. And none of the first drafts look like that. In fact, we've had some without messy first drafts, we wouldn't have had dozens at this point of hilarious dinner conversations where when once you go

Two Hours A Day Versus Word Goals

Tech Guy 20:10

back and you start working on layering and you're working into the second, third uh iterations of your draft, some hilarious stories that you've come up with where you're like, I can't believe I had this character doing that, or you know, whatever it is.

Ellie Alexander 20:23

Right, totally. Yeah, exactly. Uh-huh.

Tech Guy 20:25

It's just funny. All right, moving on. Um, this one is interesting. This one, uh, I there were actually a couple of people that had written in over the past couple of weeks with variations of this. And I hear people talk to you about this all the time. And I know there are hot takes on this all over the place, but is traditional publishing worth it these days?

Ellie Alexander 20:45

I mean, that's such a loaded question to answer. It really depends on your goals, on what you want in terms of like, is writing your future career path? Do you want to have one book published? What is your comfort level in terms of not only being a writer, but also doing everything that falls on the publishing end of the business? So that would be editorial, cover design, marketing, promotion, distribution. Um, traditional publishing, like any other industry, goes through shifts and swings and trends. And we've talked about that quite frequently. We just did a thing on book trends, you know, right now, everything's kind of hot in trade paperback, as we've discussed. You know, mass market is going away. Hardcover seals are are are not great unless you're just a giant name. So, you know, I think there are huge pros to every single path and equal cons to every single path. With traditional publishing, you're likely going to see your books distributed in bookstores because traditional publishers have relationships. They have entire sales teams that are going out. And it's much harder to get your books into bookstores if you go with a traditional path. You are also not going to have upfront expenses in that route. So, you know, the publisher is taking on the risk of you as a new author. So they are the ones that will front the cost of all of the editorial and the marketing support, getting your books out to trade magazines for reviews. They'll do all the cover art. You likely won't have a say in the world.

Tech Guy 22:34

I was going to say that's kind of a double-edged sword because they will do all of it, but you probably won't have much of a say in the end result. So Yeah.

Ellie Alexander 22:42

And if you're somebody who really, you know, like that you feel like, wow, I want my hands in everything or I have a vision, it might not be the right path for you. It moves a lot slower. Um so if you are also someone who is ready to go and you want to publish, you know, three, four books right out of the gate within a few months of each other, that's not going to happen in traditional publishing. And that really is the way that the industry has shifted, especially in the last five years. Um, so there's something to be said for that. With Indy, you have full control over every aspect, which is great. And also you have full control over every aspect, which means all of that falls on your shoulders. You know, so for some people, that's daunting to think about like, oh my gosh, how am I gonna find someone to do a developmental edit and then a copy edit and design the cover? And how am I gonna lay out the book and find beta readers and reviewers and get it up on all of the online sites? It's it's just so hard to answer because it's really an individual path. And sometimes it's both, you know, or that maybe you go indie first and then a traditional publisher comes and picks picks you up, or maybe you go traditional with your first couple books and then you decide you want to dabble in indie. I mean, I think I think the great thing is that the market is so open these days, but that's also sort of a blessing and a curse because it is kind of like, you know, it's a lot of choices.

Tech Guy 24:10

Yeah. I and that is such an important point because there are wildly successful indie authors, wildly successful. I mean, probably more so than uh a huge percentage of traditionally published authors. However, that just like with traditional publishing, it is a very small percentage. Um, and those they they had to start somewhere and they had to do all that work themselves. And so it is that kind of catch 22 where you've got all this freedom to do this stuff, but then you've got to find all the people to do it, right? And let's say you're somebody who can do it all yourself. I don't recommend that you edit your own book. Um you can design your own cover if you want to. If you're you know, there are wildly talented artistic people out there that that could do that. However, I will say, from a marketing perspective, book cover design is an art form in and of itself. And there are a lot of technical things that go into book cover design. I mean, having there are a lot of uh regulations in terms of having to leave space for UPC codes and all sorts of technical stuff that goes in that you know, you've got to get the spine width just right for the number of pages that your book is going to end up in print. It is there's a lot to it. So that's not to scare anyone, it's just to, you know, I think there is this prevailing attitude of like, well, I'm not gonna go traditional, you know, as though it's a choice. Like, I mean, it is it is not easy to just make that call, but but it is still going to be a significant amount of work to to do the indie side of things. Uh, you know, we've done both. Uh the indie part is actually really fun. I I liked it. It's just it is a lot of work. It is a lot of work.

Ellie Alexander 25:53

And um, then you also are fronting all that cost up yourself, right? So you're paying something out of pocket for that. Um so you know, in traditional publishing, you're likely to get a small advance, but that advance is

Traditional Publishing Or Indie Choice

Ellie Alexander 26:05

probably not gonna be enough to live on. And you get paid that to write the book over, you know, like a year or two, and publishers pay really slowly, and it takes a long time to start building up royalties, all of those sort of things. In indie publishing, though, you are gonna have to pay upfront for your cover design for good editorial support, all of those things. But it's an investment in yourself. So, you know.

Tech Guy 26:28

Well, this one is actually related uh to this. And um uh this person wrote in and they're struggling. They they said that they've queried dozens of agents, but they keep getting rejections. Like, where do they go from here?

Ellie Alexander 26:43

Aaron Powell Well, this is another question where you sort of have to break down what's happening with the query because are you have you sent out the same query letter and you're getting rejections across the board for that? That probably means that your query letter needs work. That means your query is not strong enough. And in that case, I would really recommend workshopping it, you know, with beta readers. Uh, you can go to conferences. A lot of conferences will do sessions where they'll read the first, I don't know, few paragraphs of a query letter and say, like, you know, they'll break down, like, oh, here's where I would already say no. The query letter itself is an art form. There are specific things you want and need to include on that. And you can go do research online. There's so much material out there. And it's all specific to the genre you're writing, but you want to make sure that you've done your research into the house, into the specific agent you're pitching. You want to include word count, you want to know where your book would land on the shelves, you'll want some comparable titles, you want to write it in the tone of the story, and then have a brief paragraph about you and your credentials and writing and everything like that. So if you're getting rejections on the query letter specifically, you've gotten no requests for any other read-throughs of the first three chapters of the first 50 pages or a full manuscript. That means your query letter needs work. If you are querying and you're getting requests and agents are reading, you know, your first 50 pages or sample chapters, and then you're getting rejected, then I think it's worth exploring that rejection. Hopefully, maybe with that feedback, you've gotten a little nugget from some of the agents. Maybe you can start to see a theme. You know, maybe you're hearing across the board like, it didn't hook me, or, you know, I really liked the premise, but it wasn't strong enough. Or, you know, if there's any kind of like little nugget of wisdom there and a through line that you can follow, then I would go back and do another look at the manuscript manuscript. And again, maybe then it's time for another set of eyes for some beta readers, for some editorial support. Yeah, I think those are the two key things to be on the lookout for. The third is then, you know, the market is tough right now. Sometimes you have a book that just it's a great idea. It's a premise, the writing shines, all of those things. And the agent you're querying already has something like that out in the world, or that it's at a point where, you know, maybe the market has shifted slightly and they're not looking for that particular genre right now. And so that's not necessarily a reflection of your writing. And in that case, unfortunately, like there's not a lot you can do about that. But on the pro side, like we just discussed, that means you're probably ready to go indie.

Tech Guy 29:40

Again, having all those resources available to you and just being able to push it forward yourself.

Ellie Alexander 29:45

Yeah, exactly. Especially if you're getting, you know, these lovely rejections, which sounds painful, and it is. Uh, but you know, I've I've had many friends and uh students even who have had experiences like that that have then gone on to publish indie and had huge success. So um, but I think if you're seeing the same kind of constructive feedback on a query letter, or if you're just getting straight no's, then it's probably time to do a refresh and just and see what else you can do to strengthen the query or your sample pages.

Tech Guy 30:21

Yeah, that makes sense. We have one more here.

Ellie Alexander 30:24

Um I have one for you.

Tech Guy 30:26

Oh, I get a question too. Okay. Well, we'll save save mine for last. Um because this this one is I think this is kind of related to the querying agents and and getting rejected. And that is, Ellie, what if my book doesn't fall in one specific genre? It's a mashup of a couple genres. So what what does somebody do in the in that situation? Because I noticed that like there are mashups happening now, right? I mean, those are pretty hot or have been for the last couple of years.

Ellie Alexander 31:00

So hot for the last few years. And I think, you know, if you're somebody who's paying attention to trends and you're writing what you want to write, at the end of the day, you should love. No one is gonna love your book more than you do. No one. So, like you, if you have a story that you feel good about and you know that it is the story of your heart that you wanted to tell and you've done the work, right? That you've gotten feedback and all of those other things. And it's just not meeting the market. I would strongly encourage you then to carve out your own path forward. I think about the arc of my career. And um, my first series was way ahead of

What Rejections Reveal About Your Query

Ellie Alexander 31:35

its time with Meg. Like the fact that she was drinking beer and she said, damn. And like my agent loved it, but he's like, Oh, this might be a little hard to sell. Like she said, damn, and she's going out for a beer. Like, I'm not even kidding. This was like 2011, and it was like, oh, it's cozy, but I don't think our cozy audience is gonna like that.

Tech Guy 31:54

Those were tame times. Yeah.

Ellie Alexander 31:56

Tame times. Gosh, she ought to go back now. Um, or with like Lost Coast Literary, same thing. Like, I was like, it's cozy, it's got a touch of fantasy, it's not a mystery, but it's in my world, it's my same kind of writing. I think that's almost like an aside because if you're somebody who has an established career and you're trying to go into a new genre, there is something about like, how do you take your style of writing and blend a couple worlds too, is another spinoff question. But if you are seeing something in the market that really feels like, no, it's meeting this, but maybe the industry hasn't quite caught up there, totally go for it completely. And in fact, I was on um a call with one of my publishing houses where, you know, they're just every six months they do a call with the whole team and they're kind of updating and they're talking about trends and what's happening in the book world. And this was one of them that like mashups are hot and they have been. And I suspect that's gonna continue for a while. The only thing that's tricky is you kind of have to know how you're gonna market it. You know, it's like it's this meets this, or like where in a bookstore is it gonna land? Like you, you do need to be like a little crafty um and and figure out kind of like where your lane is gonna be, or like is it gonna pull like cozy mystery fans and then rom-com fans? Um, or is it like, you know, like a legends and lattes, you know, like what or Ally Carter, where you've got like this fun romp with a mystery, like trying to make sure you know how to position it, I think is important.

Tech Guy 33:34

Yeah, that makes sense because you don't want to leave that up to everyone else to have to figure out. But but that's part of the mystery series masterclass, too, is thinking through that piece of it when you're going out and starting to query and then putting together a marketing plan and everything for your book. Um, so that is one of the components is knowing where where is your book going to sit in a bookstore. If you were to walk into a bookstore, where would you find your book and and start there? And you know, you you might need to change it up because maybe you've invented a new mashup that doesn't exist yet. And that could be cool. That could be cool. So cool.

Ellie Alexander 34:12

I'm here for it. I'm here for all the mashups. Okay. Well, I have a bonus question for you then, because a reader sent me this a week or so ago and said, um, hey Ellie, can you ask the tech guy this question? Oh no. Uh they said they hate social media. Do they have to do it to be an author? Is there any other any other thing they can do?

Tech Guy 34:42

Okay. So, all right. Everybody's gonna need to buckle up for a second because um the tech guy is gonna dish out some uh tough love here.

Ellie Alexander 34:50

Um okay, here we go.

Tech Guy 34:52

And and the reason I say this, I first of all, this is a wonderful question. I don't wanna I don't want the person who asked this to feel bad about asking this question. Um, it is a wonderful question. However, there is only one answer to this question, and that answer is yes, you need to be on social media. You absolutely have to be on social media. However, there is a caveat. Why are you writing your book? You need to ask yourself, why are you writing your book? Because there are many reasons. You could write a book just because you wanted to write a book and you don't care if it makes it out into the world, you don't care if anyone else reads it. You you your goal is to not have it in a bookstore. So for those people, I would say if you hate social media, stay away from social media. Yeah, social media is there's some bad, bad stuff out there, and it can really pull you down. You could have be having the best day of your life, and you could go on social media and five minutes later feel like you've been just like worked over. However, if you're a writer who wants to make a living writing, people need to be able to find you. And yeah, one of the number is it might not be the number one, but it's in the top two ways that people

Selling A Genre Mashup Book

Tech Guy 36:05

find writers, actors, artists, comedians, you name it. Anybody who's creating stuff, one of the top ways that people find you is through social media. Now, you do not need a million followers on social media, and you do not need to be on all 48 networks or whatever you know, platforms are out there. So start slow, pick one, maybe two, that you want to engage in and get an account set up and start sharing your journey. It doesn't have to be flashy, you don't need to be a professional photographer, you don't need to have sets, you don't need to do any of this stuff. Just start sharing your journey and start building your community. Because here's the secret that that um that uh nobody's gonna tell you, and that you're not you're not going to see anybody. You see a lot of people on social media are gonna tell you that if you give them 199.95, they can get you 20,000 followers. Um, and you know, it doesn't, and I'm I'm here to tell you it doesn't matter if you have 20,000 followers or 20 million followers, if you're not posting uh authentic, engageable content, it it it you're you're gonna get zero return. What you need to concentrate on is you need to start building your community and set a goal. Set a goal of getting 50 super fans. And once you reach 50 super fans, and a super fan is somebody who uh is going to share your stuff. The second they see it, they're gonna share it with their friend, they're gonna share it with their family, they're gonna, you know, whatever it is. It's a post, it's a book, it doesn't matter, whatever they're going to do. You need 50 super fans. You get 50 super fans, your network is just going to start growing authentically. And they will be authentic users that will be following you because they're they were recommended your content from somebody that they know and trust. And then once you get to a hundred superfans, it things just start growing exponentially. There is nobody, nobody famous that has millions of followers. They don't know millions of people. They don't like there's there's not there's no point in in generating uh and trying to grow a community that that is millions of people. First of all, that's a full-time job in and of itself. And those people have teams of people who are building their content for them. Maybe they're not filming it, the the influencer is filming to themselves, but then they've got people who edit the videos, who check the sound quality, who promote it, who clip it down into little bite-sized pieces, and then distribute all that stuff out there. So it is it is a full-time job. All that to say, if

Social Media And The 50 Superfans Rule

Tech Guy 38:55

your goal is to be a successful writer and success to you is you want to make a living writing, you need to be on social media. Uh, you just you just do. Until the next best thing comes along, it is a required part of being a published author if you if your goal is to sell books. Now, on top of that, there are other things you can do that that will generate content for that social media. And it's, I mean, it's all the things we talked about here on Reality Rights, like build those relationships with the Indie bookstore. Go in, do book signings, do book talks, get tons of photos, videos, everything. That is gold for social media content. Go and meet your local librarian, do a talk at a library. I mean, all of the all of the things that will help you generate content. You should not waste any time sitting around thinking about what you should post because your day-to-day life as a as a writer is what people want to see. That's your journey. That's that's what you that's what you need to share. And you will find your audience, you will find your community, and you just need to engage and grow it. There you have it. There you go. I mean, I I'm telling you, it is I I know it's scary. I know it's like, oh, social media, right? But yeah, it is, it's just a it's a it's a necessary evil of uh of being a successful writer. Again, if success means selling books. So right.

Ellie Alexander 40:27

And there are so many beautiful things that come out of it too. Right. I mean, I'm I've made lifelong friends, connections, like the are there terrible things about it? Yes. Are there also phenomenal, wonderful things? Also, yes. Probably more, yes. So it is just about like curating your own world and not paying attention to the rest.

Tech Guy 40:46

Yeah. But that being said, if there are writers out there, darlings out there who are worried about it, who have questions about it and everything, like let us know. Send those questions in. I'll do my best to answer them, uh, you know, as as best I can. And it should be it's part of your journey. It shouldn't, it shouldn't take over the journey, though.

Ellie Alexander 41:06

Totally. Yeah, definitely. All right. Well, hopefully we've answered a lot of your burning writer questions, darlings. I think that's all we've got for this episode of Reality Rights.

Tech Guy 41:18

That's right. Send

Final Takeaways And Stay In Touch

Tech Guy 41:20

us a message and let us know what you thought. Let us know what you're thinking, what are your burning questions, and um get out there on those socials.

Ellie Alexander 41:29

All right. Until next time.

Tech Guy 41:31

Till next time.