Hello writers!
Maybe it’s the Leap Day talking, but Wayne Gretzky (and/or Michael Scott) had it right: Sometimes you just gotta shoot your shot. Or take the plunge. Or swing your pickleball paddle. Whatever sports metaphor you choose (and more on that below), great things can happen when writers just go for it and try new things. Whether it’s testing out a new format, experimenting with new technologies, exploring a new genre, or taking the first steps to write your first book, this issue is full of advice on how to channel your inner Great One. (No Stanley Cups, or Stanley cups, guaranteed.)
But first:
My Writing Life: Emily Austin on the role of research
It isn’t surprising that Emily Austin trained to be a librarian. Emily is a versatile author of novels (including the Everyone In This Room Will Soon Be Dead, which was longlisted for the 2022 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour), novellas, and poetry. Her work is wryly funny, carefully crafted, and chock-full of interesting information. She is, after all, an expert researcher.
As Emily told us on a recent episode of The KWL Podcast, she spends a lot of time going deep on the settings, traits, and interests featured in her work. This research process can be intense, and it can take her to some unexpected places. For example, when working to flesh out Enid, the true-crime obsessed protagonist of her latest novel, Interesting Facts About Space, Emily had to do some pretty questionable Googling:
“I was a bit worried about it! There were times where I was writing in the airport, for example, on the airport Wi-Fi. And I would think, ‘Ugh, hope I’m okay here.’ Every once in a while, I’d type in, ‘I’m writing something for a book, if anyone’s watching this.’”
Not only does research result in a stronger final product, it can also serve some valuable functions in the writing process—especially on the days when the words don’t flow so easily. Here’s a bit of what Emily had to say about the value of going deep on research when you’re writing a book:
- Pick an unfamiliar subject you’d like to become familiar with: “I like to think of something that I’m interested in, but that maybe I don’t know that much about.”
- Put things off productively: “It’s a good procrastination tip for writers to pick a topic you can develop a special interest in and fixate on it.”
- Research your way through writer’s block: “For this book, if I was struggling to write something, I could occupy myself and feel productive by reading about space. I had a document where I was tracking interesting facts about space, and I’d, sort of, rank them like, is this one interesting enough to put in the book? Does this one beat out this one? It was sort of a fun way to be productive and lean into my own interest in space when I wasn’t able to write actual content.”
Listen to our full podcast interview with Emily Austin
ICYMI, a few more recent KWL podcast interviews:
- Kiki Chatfield on indie author marketing
- Becka Mack on evolving from Wattpad to traditional publishing
- Elena Armas on writing small-town sports romance
Your Craft: Short(er) and sweet(er): Novella writing for novelists
Novellas occupy a unique space in literature. Longer than a short story, shorter than a long novel, they’re kind of the bookish equivalent of running a 10K race: You can’t sprint it, nor can you ease into a marathon pace. You have to find something in the middle.
If you’re a reader, novellas bring the promise of a complete story that goes down easy, maybe even in a single sitting. But if you’re a writer? Well, it’s a little more involved. If you’re used to writing stories that have at least 70,000 words to sprawl, keeping things contained to the 30,000-word range can feel strange, even uncomfortable. But novella writing can also be a fun, and rewarding, creative challenge—not to mention a great way to engage new readers.
We recently compiled a list of suggestions for novelists wanting to try their hands at shorter fiction. We’ve got advice on plotting (don’t over-complicate things!) and world-building (don’t forget about it!), along with some tough-but-fair real talk on the editing process:
“For most writers, it’s easier to write more than it is to write less. Prepare yourself mentally to leave a lot on the cutting room floor, especially if you want to keep your short novel very short—say, 30,000 words or less. Don’t completely throw out those sections and sentences, however! You might find they will spark another story one day.”
Read more: Important dos and don’ts when writing novellas
Even more: Want to write a novella? Read this
Three classic novellas by novelists
- The Silence by Don DeLillo
- Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
- The Body by Stephen King
Your Business: How to ace your introductory email
It’s been more than a quarter-century since Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan clickety-clacked their way to lit-world love in You’ve Got Mail, and email has never been more powerful—especially for authors, and especially especially for indie authors.
Take it from Kiki Chatfield, CEO and founder of The Next Step PR—who works with both indie and trad authors—who stopped by The KWL Podcast last week to talk about, among other things, the power of author newsletters. “You need a newsletter and a master list, because if the internet died tomorrow, you still have a collection of emails to send information out when you have something news or sale,” Kiki told us. “I feel like we’re so dependent on social media. You need to be collecting your own information.”
An effective strategy for author newsletters comprises many parts, from building a list of recipients to creating a consistent schedule. And, as Grant Shepherd writes in this handy Written Word Media guide at Written Word Media, it should also include a show-stopping “welcome” email—the first message a subscriber receives after signing up. “Your welcome email is the virtual handshake, the digital introduction to you as an author and your books,” Grant says. “Make it count!”
A well-crafted welcome email contains up to seven key elements, according to Grant: A personalized greeting, a message of gratitude, a snapshot of your writing journey, a bit of exclusive content, a heads-up about how regularly you’ll be reaching out, a prompt to connect on social and other relevant platforms and, finally—and perhaps most importantly—a specific call to action to keep the reader engaged. As Grant explains:
“When crafting your call to action (CTA), consider the highest value action a reader can take for you. Then, consider if it’s the best time to ask them to take the action. It can be OK to include a sales CTA in a welcome email, but many people prefer to ask for a free action, like a social media follow, or even give the reader something, like a free short story.”
Read more: A guide to welcome emails for authors
From the archives: Hear Holly Mortimer’s best email marketing advice
Your Tools: An easy way to launch your audiobook
We’re all about audiobooks here at KWL. OK, we’re admittedly a little biased—but don’t take our word for it.
Take it from novelist Gabriel Bump: “When I’m writing, I have a voice in my head. It’s close to my own voice, a little different, hard to explain. Hearing a professional read your work is one of the true joys of writing. That change in perspective is thrilling. Like, it’s not just my work any more: it belongs to the world.”
Or from Marie Hoy-Kenny, who writes YA thrillers: “The first time I listened to the audiobook, I cried happy tears. I was amazed at how much it brought the novel to life. It was so easy to picture the novel cinematically because of these narrators’ extraordinary ability to tell a story and make it so vivid.”
Or from sci-fi author C. M. Alongi: “[The most exciting part of having my work transformed into audiobooks is] being able to reach audiences that wouldn’t be able to access my stories otherwise. A lot of my audience is dyslexic, ADHD, or just doesn’t have time to actually sit down and flip pages. So I’m thrilled that they’re able to access it.”
Or from romance author Dominic Lim: “When [narrator Aaron J. Albano] sent me the audio clip of him recording the choral ‘finale’—with him singing all the choral and solo parts—I just broke down crying. It was so beautiful and beyond anything I’d ever envisioned for the audiobook.”
If you’re curious about giving audiobooks a try, did you know you can publish them directly using KWL? Because you can, and we think you should. And we’ll walk you through it. A few months back, we prepared a checklist for new audiobook authors, packed with info about technological specs, best practices, and tips to optimize your success after launch.
Read more: Ready to publish your audiobooks with Kobo Writing Life? Read this
ICYMI: Watch our KWL Live Q&A with audiobook expert Karen Grey
Your Community: Lessons in steam (and more)
Spice up your life: Our first KWL Live Q&A event of 2024 happens today (February 29th) at noon EST, and we’re heating things up with a roundtable of steamy romance writers. Hear from prolific purveyors of raciness Cynthia Eden, K.A. Linde, and Carly Phillips as they discuss the business of bawdy books. Tune in on Facebook or YouTube. (Rest assured: We will take you where you want to go.)
Hit up the conference circuit: KWL’s own Tara Cremin was in New Orleans for the The Future of Publishing Mastermind earlier this week, participating in the State of the Industry on Retailers panel. And our Dutch teammates will be at the Boekgerei festival in Woerden, The Netherlands, on March 2nd. Come by and say “hoi”!
Catch up on new features: In case you missed it, we published a round-up of new Kobo features and fixes back in December, including improvements to our search and sign-in functions. You can read it here.
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Your Next Genre: Sports romance
The best romcom of 2024 so far is one you almost couldn’t make up: A superstar tight end shoots his shot with the world’s most famous pop icon. They fall in love over chicken tenders and friendship bracelets over a series of extremely televised football games. He wins the Super Bowl mere days after she wins the Grammy for Album of the Year; they celebrate in the most literal way possible. It’s a love story; baby, just say yes.
The global fascination with the OTT relationship of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce points to the potent appeal of the sports romance, one of the hottest subgenres in contemporary fiction today. What’s not to love? Professional sport offers a stacked lineup of romance tropes: High stakes, big drama, rivalries, and entire teams of supporting oddballs (often with creative facial hair, if that’s your thing) to round things out. Oh, and sweat. Lots of sweat. It’s fertile ground—or freshly-Zambonied ice, if you prefer—for un-put-downable romance.
If you’re interested in taking a swing at sports romance, here are a few things to consider:
- Brush up on the basics: You don’t have to become a walking, talking rule book to write a sports-centred love story, but you should know enough about the on-field action to appear credible. Nothing takes readers out of the moment more than calling a hockey arena a stadium, or describing a tennis fault as a penalty. That’s why Becka Mack, author of the BookTok-favourite Playing for Keeps hockey romance series, sticks to hockey and baseball—two sports she knows and loves—in her storytelling. “I can’t do it otherwise. Or, if I were to do it, I’d have to do a wild amount of research to make sure it’s accurate,” she told us on a recent episode of The KWL Podcast. “I know that probably 90% of readers don’t care and won’t know if something is not right, but the people that do know will be sure to point it out.”
- Look beyond the rink: Hockey has dominated the subgenre for years, but as Alison Doherty predicts at Book Riot, readers are eager for love stories centred around other—perhaps less obvious—sports. “Tessa Bailey even has a golf romance coming out this year,” Alison points out. “And, if anyone can make golf sexy, it’s her.” So, a romance on the rugby pitch? Run with it! A second-chance romance on the pickleball court? Serve it up! A grumpy-sunshine story on the curling rink? Hurry hard! Any sport with stakes (which is all of them, really) is ripe for the romance treatment.
- Keep it fictional: Sports fans and romance fans are both known for their passion, which can be beautiful and fun—until it isn’t. Remember last summer, when things got weird between Seattle Kraken centre Alex Wennberg and the legions of BookTok fans who made him an unlikely ambassador for spicy book excerpts? Play it safe by writing fictional players on fictional teams and/or in fictional leagues. You’ll get all of the on-page drama, and less of the IRL stuff.
Listen: Becka Mack tells us about her experiences writing best-selling hockey romance
Four hot new (and upcoming) sports romances:
- The Long Game by Elena Armas ⚽️
- Fangirl Down by Tessa Bailey ⛳️
- Simply the Best by Susan Elizabeth Phillips 🏈
- Fall with Me by Becka Mack 🏒
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Your First Page: 101 days to a draft
Maybe the idea of writing your first novel feels exciting. Maybe it feels impossible. Maybe, if you’re like Neil Gaiman, it’s both. “This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until it’s done,” the renowned author of darkly funny fantasy books once advised. “It’s that easy, and that hard.”
If you need a hand, we’ve got one for you. We’ve partnered up with our pals at Reedsy Learning to offer their popular How to Write a Novel course to KWL authors. In this series of recorded video lessons, author, ghostwriter, editor, and instructor Tom Bromley will help you get from idea to first draft in 101 days. (Some of us have obsessed over single paragraphs for longer!) Want some interactivity, too? Students also get access to forums and live webinars.
The next cohort starts on April 8th. You can learn more, and find out how to sign up, here.
From the archives: Hear magical romance author Meg Smitherman talk about writing a first novel
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