Creating an Author Universe with Penny Reid
The Kobo Writing Life team is excited to announce our latest Live Q&A on May 26th, 2022, from 12:00 PM-1:00 PM EST. KWL Director Tara will be chatting with Penny Reid. If you can’t make the takeover, feel free to comment on this post with your questions and we can ask them for you!
Hi authors!
This month I’m talking to the wonderful author of smart romances, Penny Reid. You might know Penny for her Winston Brothers books with their fun cross stitch themed covers. Her latest release Ten Trends to Seduce Your Best Friend is a standalone rom com with a premise around social media that will make you want to like, star, swipe right on or whatever you do on TikTok 😊
The universe that Penny has created, the “Pennyverse”, is hugely popular with readers but also with writers. After several authors expressed interest in writing in her worlds, Penny opened it up and created the collaborative universe Smartpants Romance.
I’ll be chatting to Penny about the following:
- How she got started, moving from the biotech world to becoming such a prolific indie author
- Why authenticity is so important in writing
- The origins of Smartypants Romance and everything an author needs to know about opening up their own universe
- Her charity work with books and what drives her to keep writing
As authors and creators, your IP is the key to what you do, especially in this creator economy, and I’m excited to chat to Penny about this.
And you may have heard that KWL is turning 10 this year! To commemorate this, I’m also going to be asking all of our guests about where they were 10 years ago and what they wish they knew.
Be sure to join live and bring your questions! It’s an event not to be missed.
Happy writing,
Tara
Director, KWL

Tara runs Kobo Writing Life (KWL), Kobo’s independent publishing platform. As a subject matter expert in all aspects of indie publishing, her aim is to make KWL the greatest and most user-friendly self-publishing platform available and always looking for ways for indies to reach a new audience of readers.

Penny Reid is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author of the Winston Brothers and Knitting in the City series. She used to spend her days writing federal grant proposals as a biomedical researcher, but now she writes kissing books. Penny is an obsessive knitter and manages the #OwnVoices-focused mentorship incubator / publishing imprint, Smartypants Romance. She lives in Seattle Washington with her husband, three kids, and dog named Hazel.