The Content Byte

We are back after a short break - and we have a great episode to share today. This week, Rachel and Lynne chat with award-winning novelist Charlotte Wood about the ups and downs of writing literary fiction. Charlotte shares her early days as a writer, including how she supplemented her income before she found success. We chat about: What literary awards mean and if they help your career Choosing the right publishing team Working with difficult topics Going on the publicity trail for your books Social media for novelists Having her work adapted for the stage. It's a fascinating chat and a wonderful insight into life as a successful novelist. Charlotte's website is https://www.charlottewood.com.au/ or follow her on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/charlottewoodwriter/ Find Rachel www.rachelsmith.com.au Find Lynne www.lynnetestoni.com Rachel's List www.rachelslist.com.au Thanks (as always) to our sponsors Rounded (www.rounded.com.au ), an easy invoicing and accounting solution that helps freelancers run their businesses with confidence. Episode edited by Marker Creative Co www.markercreative.co

This week, Rachel and Lynne are recovering from our first-ever The Content Byte Summit. It was a whirlwind of two and a half days of learnings, connections and aha-moments. This week, before we both take a break, we are going through our favourite tips and tricks from all the speakers and panels - and what we are taking to our own freelance business. We talk about: Ed Gandia's keynote talking about how to charge for the value that you add to your clients - not strategy, but advising The panel with Lindy Alexander and Jennifer Goforth Gregory on escaping the low-pay cycle Hearing from editors and content chiefs about what they want from freelancers Racquel Collard's presentation that covered automating processes, along with Jac Taylor in the Business of Freelancing panel - how important it is to get the right systems and make them talk to one another. Susan Reoch in giving a personality to AI apps and making you think totally differently about incorporating AI into your workflow. We also loved the connections between the attendees and seeing our community catch up. Many people commented on how lovely everyone was, and how welcoming. We can highly recommend a detailed summary of the Summit through the excellent Melanie Padgett Powers, and her Deliberate Freelancer podcast. Melanie watched the Summit virtually from Washington DC and has some great thoughts and comments: https://meledits.com/166-smart-advice-from-the-content-byte-summit/ Lynne and Rachel are going to take a break for a couple of weeks now to recover, but the podcast will be back on 16 October. Find Rachel www.rachelsmith.com.au Find Lynne www.lynnetestoni.com Rachel's List www.rachelslist.com.au Thanks (as always) to our sponsors Rounded (www.rounded.com.au), an easy invoicing and accounting solution that helps freelancers run their businesses with confidence. Episode edited by Marker Creative Co www.markercreative.co

This week, in the midst of last-minute preparations for our exciting event - The Content Byte Summit – Lynne and Rachel take you behind-the-scenes for a sneak peek into some of the presentations and panel chats that are occuring during the two days of the Summit. The Summit will be held from September 14-16 at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney and we wanted to share some of the highlights that we are really excited about, including Keynote speaker Ed Gandia - moving up the value chain and not taking orders How skilled interviews give you nuances that AI can never match Jess Mudditt talking about high-paying journalism gigs Transferrable skills that journalists can take into government work with Nigel Bartlett How our second keynote speaker Jennifer Goforth Gregory hits revenue targets by breaking all the rules Racquel Collard's marketing presentation - no more panic marketing! AI tools in general… there are so many, what should we learn? Valerie Khoo's talk about microcredentials Ros Page's survey on how agencies are using AI and how that might be affecting their use of freelancers. Ways that you can diversify and add new income streams to your freelance business There are still a few tickets still available for The Content Byte Summit www.thecontentbytesummit.com.au Find Rachel www.rachelsmith.com.au Find Lynne www.lynnetestoni.com Rachel's List www.rachelslist.com.au Thanks (as always) to our sponsors Rounded (www.rounded.com.au), an easy invoicing and accounting solution that helps freelancers run their businesses with confidence. Episode edited by Marker Creative Co www.markercreative.co

This week on the podcast, Rachel and Lynne chat with award-winning creative business consultant Monica Davidson on building a successful creative business. Monica works with creatives of all types to help them build their businesses and gain confidence. We chat about: Practical business advice for creatives Common mistakes freelancers make Working with government departments and agencies Helping people convert a hobby into a professional business Working with and training mentors Managing staff and growing a business. About Monica + Creative Plus Business Find out more about Monica here: creativeplusbusiness.com Connect with her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monicadavidson/ ALSO! Creative Plus Business is kindly offering TCB listeners 30 percent off the course Creative Start-Up, with the code Content-Byte-comp-2023 (expires Nov 30). About us + The Content Byte Summit Only a few tickets still available for our conference in September, The Content Byte Summit www.thecontentbytesummit.com.au Find Rachel www.rachelsmith.com.au Find Lynne www.lynnetestoni.com Rachel's List www.rachelslist.com.au Thanks (as always) to our sponsors Rounded (www.rounded.com.au), an easy invoicing and accounting solution that helps freelancers run their businesses with confidence. Episode edited by Marker Creative Co www.markercreative.co

This week, Rachel and Lynne are chatting with writer Eagranie Yuh, who's had an interesting career journey (but isn't that all of us, really?). Eagranie chats about about how her background brought her to working on her own, writing white papers and doing branded podcasts for clients. She shares lots of fabulous ideas and tips, including: How a career coach helped her turn her passion for writing into a career What it's like to work for big international brands What white papers are and how to make them useful How she moved from Canada to Tasmania - and continued her successful freelance career Her side hustle of chocolate making What it's like juggling time zones and school pickup Why she loves conferences and making in-person connections. Connect with Eagranie via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/eagranieyuh/ or visit her website: https://eagranie.com/ Find out more about our upcoming conference, The Content Byte Summit www.thecontentbytesummit.com.au Find Rachel www.rachelsmith.com.au Find Lynne www.lynnetestoni.com Rachel's List www.rachelslist.com.au Thanks (as always) to our sponsors Rounded (www.rounded.com.au), an easy invoicing and accounting solution that helps freelancers run their businesses with confidence. Episode edited by Marker Creative Co www.markercreative.co

This week Rachel and Lynne chat with literary agent Lou Johnson, who has just launched her own agency, Key People Literary Management with agent, publisher, and author Jeanne Ryckmans. With more than 20 years in publishing, Lou shares her knowledge on all things book-related. In our discussion, she chats about: How publishing has changed over the years What agents do How to find one How to get a publishing deal How to market your book And whether you can really make money as a novelist in Australia Key People Literary Management is still setting up a website, but you can connect with Lou here: https://www.loujohnson.com.au/ Find out more about our upcoming conference, The Content Byte Summit www.thecontentbytesummit.com.au Find Rachel www.rachelsmith.com.au Find Lynne www.lynnetestoni.com Rachel's List www.rachelslist.com.au Thanks (as always) to our sponsors Rounded (www.rounded.com.au), an easy invoicing and accounting solution that helps freelancers run their businesses with confidence. Episode edited by Marker Creative Co www.markercreative.co

This week on the podcast, Lynne has been unwell so we thought it would be a great idea to re-release one of our favourite episodes from a few years ago. This episode, from June 2020 (so we chat about the pandemic a few times) is with content marketing queen Jennifer Goforth Gregory about moving from journalism to content marketing, why it's so important to have niches, positioning yourself to clients and agencies as a subject matter expert and her three-pronged approach to marketing yourself. She also shares a rough script on how to write an LOI (and why it's just a starting point and not the 'whole date'). Jennifer is one of the keynote speakers at the upcoming The Content Byte Summit - and this is a great way to hear her story and why we both find her inspiring. Jennifer's website is here: https://www.jennifergregorywriter.com/ Connect with her Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelanceCMW Find out more about our upcoming conference, The Content Byte Summit www.thecontentbytesummit.com.au Find Rachel www.rachelsmith.com.au Find Lynne www.lynnetestoni.com Rachel's List www.rachelslist.com.au Thanks (as always) to our sponsors Rounded (www.rounded.com.au), an easy invoicing and accounting solution that helps freelancers run their businesses with confidence. Episode edited by Marker Creative Co www.markercreative.co

This week on the podcast, Lynne and Rachel chat with one of our digital heroes - Rebecca Lowrey Boyd. Rebecca is the digital managing editor of Better Homes and Gardens, Australia's leading homes website. She also founded Wee Birdy in 2007, a London-based blog devoted to London shopping and design, an innovative site in the heyday of blogging that we both loved. Rebecca talks about working on the digital side of a large media brand and the move towards omnimedia channels of print, digital and TV - and how the print and digital teams now work together. She talks about her love of digital strategy and how working inhouse helps her to be at the forefront of the big projects. We loved hearing about how analytics informs the type of content these sites include and how SEO and EDMs still play a big part in driving organic traffic to the Better Homes website. Rebecca talks about some of the tools she uses and how that helps to keep the site top of mind - and on the front page of Google. It's a far-ranging and thoughtful discussion on the future of digital media. Connect with Rebecca via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-lowrey-boyd-84303698/ Find out more about our upcoming conference, The Content Byte Summit www.thecontentbytesummit.com.au Find Rachel www.rachelsmith.com.au Find Lynne www.lynnetestoni.com Rachel's List www.rachelslist.com.au Thanks (as always) to our sponsors Rounded (www.rounded.com.au), an easy invoicing and accounting solution that helps freelancers run their businesses with confidence. Episode edited by Marker Creative Co www.markercreative.co

Freelance writer Susan Horsburgh has an enviable CV and portfolio, writing for some of the country's most prestigious titles, including the Australian Women's Weekly, The Good Weekend (in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age) and Qantas magazines. She has written more than 30 Two of Us columns for The Good Weekend, which we know is a highly read and sought-after commission for freelancers. In her chat with Rachel and Lynne this week, she talks about: Her career to date (lots of great stories!) What she loves about writing profiles How to interview subjects to get the best story How to pitch to editors How to survive financially as a freelance writer Susan's Authory profile is here: https://authory.com/SusanHorsburgh Connect with her on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-horsburgh-freelance-content-writer/ But wait, that's not all! Find out more about our upcoming conference, The Content Byte Summit www.thecontentbytesummit.com.au Find Rachel www.rachelsmith.com.au Find Lynne www.lynnetestoni.com Rachel's List www.rachelslist.com.au Thanks (as always) to our sponsors Rounded (www.rounded.com.au), an easy invoicing and accounting solution that helps freelancers run their businesses with confidence. Episode edited by Marker Creative Co www.markercreative.co

This week, Rachel and Lynne are chatting to a different style of guest - Bec Derrington from Sourcebottle. Sourcebottle is a fabulous resource for journalists, writers and content creators and one we both use regularly. Bec shares the story behind Sourcebottle - why she started it and how it works. During our wide-ranging chat we talk about: Her background in PR and how she saw the gap in the market The challenges in running a small business The changing media landscape How she connects journalists with sources and industry experts Some of the weird and wonderful callout requests she's had How to craft a callout that will give you the experts you need for your story How she deals with the 'pick your brains' conversations The challenges of maintaining a huge mailout list Connect with Bec here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/becderrington/ Checkout Sourcebottle here: https://www.sourcebottle.com/ But wait, that's not all! Find out more about our upcoming conference, The Content Byte Summit www.thecontentbytesummit.com.au Find Rachel www.rachelsmith.com.au Find Lynne www.lynnetestoni.com Rachel's List www.rachelslist.com.au Thanks (as always) to our sponsors Rounded (www.rounded.com.au), an easy invoicing and accounting solution that helps freelancers run their businesses with confidence. Episode edited by Marker Creative Co www.markercreative.co