Kobo Writing Life Podcast

Clayton Noblit, a senior book marketing manager at Written Word Media with a rich background in digital marketing, shares invaluable insights for indie authors. He discusses the art of promo stacking to enhance book sales, the importance of email promotions, and effective strategies for marketing book series. Clayton also dives into audiobooks promotion, navigating Meta Ads, and building authentic connections with readers in an AI-driven world. His practical advice empowers authors to elevate their marketing game and focus on their craft.

In this episode, we are joined by Nora Decter, writing instructor and author of How Far We Go and How Fast, her debut YA novel that won the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize in 2019. Nora’s latest book, What’s Not Mine, is described as an "absorbing, darkly funny story of family, addiction, and survival." We spoke to Nora about her writing career, writing YA before transitioning to writing adult fiction, what it was like winning the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, what books and authors inspired her, reading and writing "voice-y" novels, balancing humour with difficult subject matter, and more! Nora had many great insights into writing (and thinking about writing), especially when it comes to first drafts. Emerging writers, take note! Learn more about Nora on her website. Content note: This episode contains discussions of the impact of the fentanyl crisis in North America. Please listen with caution and care if you are sensitive to this subject matter.  

In this episode, we spoke to indie author, writing craft expert, podcaster, and all-around talented rebel author Sacha Black! Sacha is the author of several writing craft books, host of The Rebel Author Podcast, and writer of adult sapphic fantasy fiction under the pen name Ruby Roe. Sacha is also a regular speaker at author conferences around the world, and offers writing craft courses with the goal of helping authors improve their descriptive writing, craft compelling villains, write amazing side characters, and more. We had such a great time chatting with Sacha about her career as an author, what being a rebel means to her, writing non-fiction, YA series, and, most recently, a spicy sapphic romantasy series, her podcast, her pen name, how she balances two author brands and much, much more! Be sure to listen to Sacha’s podcast, The Rebel Author Podcast, and learn more about her exciting new sapphic fantasy romance series, the Kingdom of Immortal Lovers Trilogy, written as Ruby Roe. Find Sacha Black on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube, and be sure to follow Ruby Roe on TikTok!

In this episode, we are joined by Malorie Cooper, author and co-founder of The Writing Wives, where Malorie and her wife Jill offer author coaching and author marketing services! Mal writes science fiction titles under M.D. Cooper and non-fiction titles under Mal Cooper, with a focus on Facebook advertising and helping indie authors market their books for the better. Check out Malorie and Jill’s marketing book series, Help! I’m An Author for more. We had a great chat with Malorie about everything from her writing career, writing a series that consists of over 120 books, co-writing with her wife Jill, developing the Writing Wives together with Jill, her best marketing advice, all about Facebook ads, and much more! If you’re interested in learning more about advertising and marketing, be sure to listen to this episode. To learn more, visit The Writing Wives' website or check out Mal's expansive sci-fi series, Aeon 14!  

In this episode, we are joined by author, conference organizer, and ghostwriter Jessie Kwak to discuss all things writing and publishing! Jessie is the author of over fifteen books, including series like The Nanshe Chronicles and The Bulari Saga, as well as standalone thrillers such as From Earth and Bone. Jessie’s expansive career has encompassed so many aspects of publishing and she had lots of amazing advice and insights to offer us. We chatted with Jessie about ghostwriting, writing sci-fi and paranormal thrillers, time management as an author, and what inspired her to start an author conference, as well as learned more about her career as an author and her experience being involved in multiple aspects of the publishing world. This was a great conversation (and Rachel got so many sci-fi book recs to add to her TBR) – don’t miss this listen! To learn more, visit Jessie's website and follow her on Instagram.

In this episode, we are joined by Vancouver-based Bal Khabra, debut author of hockey romance novel Collide! Bal started out as an avid reader of romance and reviewer of romance titles, and after reading over 150 romance novels in one year, decided she was ready to write one! That novel, Collide, was picked up and published by Penguin Random House after starting out as a self-published work. We can’t wait to see what Bal writes next! We talked about Bal’s writing journey, her beginnings on Wattpad, how she utilizes social media and what happened when her book went viral on TikTok, advice for using social media to market books, reader vs. author spaces, her interest in hockey (and found family, and friendship) and how these subjects fit into her novel, and much more! Learn more on Bal’s website, and follow her on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter/X.

In this episode, we spoke with Patrick E. Horrigan, academic and author of American Scholar, published by Lethe Press. Since recording this episode, American Scholar was shortlisted for the 2024 Lambda Literary Awards in the Gay Fiction category. Congratulations, Patrick! Patrick is also the author of two other novels, plays, essays, and more. He and taught literature for twenty-five years at LIU Brooklyn, and was a previous winner of Long Island University’s David Newton Award for Excellence in Teaching, among many other accolades. We had a great time talking to Patrick about his career as an author, his history in academia, his past experiences at Columbia and LIU Brooklyn that helped shape him, his latest novel, the inspiration behind it, and much, much more. This episode was informative, illuminating, and an all-around great interview! Don’t miss out on listening in. And learn more via Patrick’s website or follow him on Facebook and Instagram.

In this episode, we are joined by Jeff Adams and Michele Lucchini, online and digital accessibility experts who work at UsableNet, whose goal is to “make the digital world more accessible and usable.” Jeff and Michele recently wrote and published their first book together, an amazing guide to all things digital accessibility, Content for Everyone: A Practical Guide for Creative Entrepreneurs to Produce Accessible and Usable Web Content! Jeff is the Accessibility Operations Direct at UsableNet, as well as a queer romance author and podcaster. Michele is Vice President of Delivery and Accessibility Operations at UsableNet, and has over twenty-three years of experience working with accessibility projects in digital spaces. Together, these two authors and accessibility experts offer so much info in this episode for anyone (and everyone) interested in broadening their knowledge of accessibility online. We at KWL learned a lot, too! We discussed all things digital accessibility, their book “Content for Everyone,” how making small changes makes a big difference, how to think about accessibility, all about alternative text, headers, and images, and much, much more! This is a great episode for anyone wanting to learn more about accessibility online and in their own writing life. To learn more, visit Jeff’s website.  

Author Alison Cochrun, known for best-selling romance novels, discusses her journey from teaching to writing, balancing humor and emotion in rom-coms, writing queer characters authentically, and upcoming Sapphic romance novels. She shares insights on personal experiences inspiring her latest novel and the evolution of characters through dual POV narration.

Bestselling author J. L. Drake discusses writing dark romance, plotting novels with a 'murder board', and insights into being a series author. She shares experiences transitioning between publishing platforms, navigating social media, and building street teams. Also, explore her intriguing project 'Darkwater', a dark romance novel set in Vegas with themes of organized crime and billionaires.