Show Notes:
Today is part two of two where we are talking to AK Mulford about her novels. After today you will have heard about telling stories for yourself, spending 10 years researching HOW to write a book and self publish it, finding an agent, landing a 7 figure book deal, writing in the time available to you, taking care of your mental health, and focusing your energy on the people that enjoy the things you like and inviting them into your world.
Get Author’s Book or Audiobook
A.K. ‘s Website – A.K. ‘s Facebook group – @akmulford on Instagram – A.K. Mulford’s TikTok
A. K. Mulford is a bestselling fantasy author and former wildlife biologist who swapped rehabilitating monkeys for writing novels.
She/they are inspired to create diverse stories that transport readers to new realms, making them fall in love with fantasy for the first time or all over again.
She now lives in New Zealand with her husband and two young human primates, creating lovable fantasy characters and making ridiculous TikToks (@akmulfordauthor).
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Transcript:
Speaker A: Welcome to Frio S fairy Tales.
Speaker A: We believe fairy tales are both stories we enjoyed as children and something that we can achieve ourselves.
Speaker A: Each week, we will talk to authors about their favorite fairy tales when they were kids and their adventure to holding their very own fairy tale in their hands.
Speaker A: At the end of each episode, we will finish off with a fairy tale or short story read as close to the original author’s version as possible.
Speaker A: I am your host.
Speaker A: Freya victoria I’m an audiobook narrator that loves reading fairy tales, novels and bringing stories to life through narration.
Speaker A: I am also fascinated by talking to authors and learning about their why and how for creating their stories.
Speaker A: We have included all of the links for today’s author and our show in the show notes, today is part two of two, where we are talking to A.
Speaker A: K mulford about her novels.
Speaker A: After today, you will have heard about telling stories for yourself, spending ten years researching how to write a book and selfpublish it, finding an agent, landing a sevenfigure book deal, writing in the time available to you, taking care of your mental health, and focusing your energy on the people that enjoy the things you like and inviting them into your world.
Speaker A: The rogue crown.
Speaker A: A novel.
Speaker A: The Five Crowns of Ocruth.
Speaker A: Book three, the Action Moves West and a K Malford’s romantic actionpacked epic fantasy series the Five Crowns of Awkwardth.
Speaker A: As young fi warrior Brie investigates the murder of her queen while protecting the beautiful princess she may be falling for.
Speaker A: Determined to uncover who killed the Western queen, faye warrior Briotic catalyst sets out on a mission to defeat the witch hunters and safeguard her princess.
Speaker A: But when she arrives at the Western court, things are even worse than she feared.
Speaker A: The icy reception from the FAI is the least of her problems.
Speaker A: They’ve heard the prophecy that Brie will seize the crown from its sovereign, and the last thing they want is for her to usurp the throne.
Speaker A: No.
Speaker A: The witch hunters are out for royal blood, and it will take everything Brie has to keep them at bay.
Speaker A: It doesn’t help that still grieving the loss of her mother, princess Abelina Thorne is reluctant to allow Brie into her confidence, only agreeing to let her serve as one of her guards at the behest of the princess’s cousin.
Speaker A: As the threat of the witch hunters grows, they find themselves thrown together, working closely to uncover the secret plot of their enemies.
Speaker A: Along the way, the princess realizes that Brie is one of the few people she can trust.
Speaker A: But Brie is determined to forge her own path and prove the prophecy wrong, not letting the beautiful Lena distract her from defeating the witch hunters.
Speaker A: She has a duty to the princess, a duty to the Western court, and a duty to her own destiny.
Speaker A: But what about the duty to her heart?
Speaker B: Now, I talked to Ann Kemp a couple of months ago at this point, and she says, you guys oddly figured out that you are in the same country.
Speaker B: How did that happen?
Speaker C: Yeah, we’re practically neighbors.
Speaker C: So she made a TikTok and we were TikTok friends.
Speaker C: And she was walking around and I saw the coastline and I was like, that’s like Wellington.
Speaker C: That’s New Zealand.
Speaker C: And I was like, Are you in New Zealand?
Speaker C: And she said, yeah.
Speaker C: And I’m like, I am too.
Speaker C: And so then we like messaged each other with like, the towns we lived in.
Speaker C: And she’s like 10 minutes down the road from me, and I thought she was just my American friend on TikTok.
Speaker C: And she thought the same as me because of our accents.
Speaker B: And that’s weird because both of you are from the US.
Speaker B: Both of you met your husband in a different country from the US.
Speaker B: And then both of you move to New York.
Speaker C: Both of your husbands are named Glenn.
Speaker C: Yeah, it’s crazy.
Speaker C: It’s so similar, and we have so much in common.
Speaker C: And yeah, she was one of those people like, I think before, I was like, walking to meet her at this outdoor cafe cause, like, no COVID.
Speaker C: And I think before I even reached the table she was sad at, we’d already decided we’re going to be like friends.
Speaker C: Those people.
Speaker C: We have this gorgeous little writing group of friends who are just these.
Speaker C: Like they’re the soul food people.
Speaker C: You know.
Speaker C: The people that you meet and you just hang on to and because.
Speaker C: You know.
Speaker C: Like.
Speaker C: They just like.
Speaker C: Fill you up with so much joy and yes.
Speaker C: It’s just really.
Speaker C: Really awesome to have people that I can share my career with and who get it.
Speaker C: She was one of those, and I met her through TikTok.
Speaker B: What are some of the biggest things that have helped you get from no books published at all to where you are now?
Speaker B: What are big things that you think helped you get to where you are now?
Speaker C: Do you know the Clifton strengths at all?
Speaker C: I’m number one input, which is just like, I just want to know all the things.
Speaker B: Well, ten years researching, self publishing.
Speaker C: There you go.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker C: So, I mean, I definitely think researching helps.
Speaker C: I think reading books about publishing helps.
Speaker C: I think getting involved in the community helps and starting to do your own research into your genre and what you want to write and what other people are writing that’s successful and why is it successful and starting to think critically about all those things.
Speaker C: Like from the kind of metadata side of.
Speaker C: Like.
Speaker C: You know.
Speaker C: Everything from craft and how to write a good story to how to produce a good quality book.
Speaker C: I think all of that super important.
Speaker C: But then also, I think there’s also like a mental health side of things that also needs to be kind of acknowledged and catered for and just sticking with this career because so many people get burnt out.
Speaker C: It’s kind of a never ending cycle.
Speaker C: I think a lot of people just get stalled out somewhere along the way and forget to keep going and kind of lose that momentum.
Speaker C: And so that perseverance energy and finding ways and mental health strategies, self care strategies, so that you feel good about continuing on, I think is a really important thing.
Speaker C: For me, it was I have a gratitude journal that I have, like, just one, just for being an author that I write all the little joyful moments and then I can go and reflect back on because I think we’re all so forward focused.
Speaker C: Like, who do I need to call?
Speaker C: What do I need to do?
Speaker C: I need to email this person that we forget to appreciate all the successes and all the little joyful moments, or when somebody emails you and tells you how much your book means to them, we appreciate it so much in the moment, but then we’re onto the next thing and forget to hold onto those moments of joy.
Speaker C: And so all of those things are huge to me and really help me keep going when I’m feeling, like, stuck or I don’t think it matters what level of success you get to.
Speaker C: I know some pretty famous authors who have terrible imposter syndrome, and you’re like, how is that possible?
Speaker C: But it happens to everyone.
Speaker C: And so I think narrators too.
Speaker C: Yeah, being protective of that mental health and finding a way that you can keep going at things even when you’re feeling down or, you know, like, we all have tons of failures along the way to success, too.
Speaker C: And so finding ways to keep going and make this a sustainable career, I think is really important.
Speaker C: Too.
Speaker B: So while you’re writing, because you talked about, like, not getting burned out or whatever, so while you write your books, are you constantly thinking of, like, what do I want to do next?
Speaker C: Yes, I’m a very futuristic person.
Speaker C: I like to think into the future and have a plan.
Speaker C: And even if that plan completely changes from month to month, I like to have one.
Speaker C: So I have the rest of this series, the rest of the next series, another series planned out in my head, possibly other genres and pen names in the future, all kind of, like, planned out.
Speaker B: What reason?
Speaker C: I’ve got a lot of plans.
Speaker B: I know, like, I’ve heard quite a few authors use different, like, different genres will have different pin names.
Speaker B: Is that kind of what you plan?
Speaker B: Keep the fantasy under?
Speaker C: If I do it, yeah, there’s still, like, a whole bunch more fantasy theories I want to write, so those will probably happen first.
Speaker C: But yeah, while I’m doing that, it might be fun to do something else, and I’d probably use another pen name now.
Speaker B: Do you and your publisher have kind of a set release date schedule that you’re planning yeah.
Speaker C: So we’re going to have the Rogue Crown comes out in October, october 25.
Speaker C: And then the next book in this series, Evergreen Air, comes out in the spring of next year.
Speaker C: And the first book in the new trilogy comes out next year to River Bone Bones in the fall.
Speaker C: So you’re going to get a book from the new trilogy and a book from the current series each year for the next couple of years.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker C: I’m excited.
Speaker B: And now, how many because you said you were planning like, novellas and stuff.
Speaker B: How many novels do you plan on doing in the five Crown series?
Speaker C: Originally I had planned five, but there might be six now because I can’t help myself and there could be more in the future, too.
Speaker C: All of the novellas are kind of these little flashback moments from characters in the main series.
Speaker C: So it all takes place in the past.
Speaker C: And I think a lot of people just really enjoy being able to kind of hear stories, characters, where they came from, what they were like is when they were younger, what kind of informed the person that they became in the story.
Speaker C: And so I’ve had a lot of different readers ask for different people.
Speaker C: So there might be no villas coming for a long time.
Speaker C: Who knows?
Speaker C: It will just depend.
Speaker B: Yes, I’ve done the first series.
Speaker B: I remember reading that had like these novellas planned in.
Speaker B: There was the Shatter Me series.
Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
Speaker B: And she would do between each book, she had a novella and it was usually from another person’s perspective for some particular scene that happened during the book or between the books or whatever.
Speaker B: But that was like the first series.
Speaker B: I remember having that.
Speaker B: But then I also read the Cinder is the name of the book.
Speaker B: I don’t remember the name of the series.
Speaker B: It’s Marissa something cinder.
Speaker B: It’s like classic fairy tales, but they’re all robotic characters are robotic.
Speaker B: And like that series, she has these little, like, short stories, not even novellas, they’re like short stories that are in her mixed in there that to my understanding, she released on a blog and then did a book, like combined them and then added a couple later on in a book together.
Speaker B: Yeah, I like the idea to do.
Speaker C: That one day, add all the novellas together into one book.
Speaker C: The last book in the series, like.
Speaker B: Tahara, her books, she I think that’s how you say her name, hers.
Speaker B: She does the combined.
Speaker B: So each series will have three main books and then two novellas.
Speaker B: And so she’ll release the two novellas together once, like, the series is finished.
Speaker B: So now there’s six books because she did a spin off secondary continuation series that has the same thing, three main books.
Speaker B: And then I think there’s actually two novellas and then one that’s essentially another full length.
Speaker B: I think it’s like a hair shy of fulllength novel length.
Speaker B: It’s a big boy.
Speaker B: Still.
Speaker C: I love that.
Speaker C: I mean, I think that most authors, especially in the authors, we just want to give people what they want, and some people want more of something.
Speaker C: We’re like, okay, I’ll read it.
Speaker B: So are you finding out what these people want through reviews or through Tick Tock or like, how are you?
Speaker B: Do you read your reviews?
Speaker C: I don’t really read my reviews because I get tagged in enough reviews that I see enough of it anyway, you know what I mean?
Speaker C: And I also usually have big arc teams, so I get quite a wide variety of opinions just before the book even comes out, which is great because by the time it goes out, it kind of, like, doesn’t really belong to me anymore.
Speaker C: It belongs to the readers.
Speaker C: And so it’s not really my place anymore to read those reviews, I think, and it doesn’t affect what I’m going to write, so it’s not really informative to my writing process by that point, because usually the people who are really invested have already read it by the end anyway.
Speaker C: I’m writing for them.
Speaker C: I’m writing for the people who love these books and want more of them.
Speaker C: I want to kind of cater my stories towards the people who are super invested in the series.
Speaker C: But I have a Facebook group, and I have a street team, and I have my Tik Tok, and so I have a lot of different places where I have my newsletter, where I’ll do, like, polls and things.
Speaker C: So I get, like, a lot of feedback that way from people who are invested in my stories and want to participate in who they want to see more of, what parts of my world they want to be in more of, and things like that.
Speaker C: I still get a lot of good feedback on what people are looking for.
Speaker B: Okay.
Speaker B: I imagine the only time, at least when I’m like reading through which my audiobooks don’t get a ton of reviews, but I’m always looking for things that I need to fix.
Speaker B: Is there any major issue that I need?
Speaker B: I mean, I’ve had a couple that are, like, didn’t like my voice.
Speaker B: I can’t change my voice.
Speaker B: Like, my voice is my voice.
Speaker B: Yeah, that’s not helpful.
Speaker B: But there are other things that could be said for Narrating.
Speaker B: There are things that you would want to fix.
Speaker B: Same for writing.
Speaker B: Like, if you knew ahead of time, go to editors and beta readers and all of that.
Speaker B: Some authors don’t, and they get the feedback of it needs to see an editor.
Speaker C: Right?
Speaker C: They get the feedback in the reviews.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker B: I imagine sometimes there’s a certain point where it’s like, if you’re getting contradicting reviews, it doesn’t make sense to pay attention to them if they contradict each other.
Speaker B: But I don’t know.
Speaker B: I don’t know what I plan on doing, working on my own books and thinking ahead.
Speaker C: Probably like, the first 200 reviews.
Speaker C: I think it’s good to read the first few, but then at some point, it’s just you can’t keep up with them.
Speaker C: And it starts to be like I think there’s nearly like 40 reviews on the board or something.
Speaker C: And it’s just like, why would I subject myself to that well and spend.
Speaker B: All that time too?
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker C: In your brain, you always give the negative reviews more weight.
Speaker C: Right?
Speaker C: And I think that it’s just I don’t know.
Speaker C: I mean, some people can do it completely objectively, but for me, it’s like, why ruin my day?
Speaker C: Why do that?
Speaker C: Like, I could read ten, five star reviews that are like, this book means so much to me.
Speaker C: It’s my favorite book in the whole world.
Speaker C: And one, two star review that’s like meh, and that would do it.
Speaker C: I just like, fine, you know, it’s terrible.
Speaker C: Everything I do is terrible.
Speaker C: It doesn’t really do anything for me at that point.
Speaker C: And by then, I’ve had hundreds of.
Speaker B: People go through it specifically to reader.
Speaker C: Side things and say, this was really confusing.
Speaker C: I didn’t understand what was happening here, and all that stuff.
Speaker C: So hopefully by then, it’s kind of in a good shape.
Speaker C: At least it’s never going to be everyone’s cup of tea.
Speaker B: That’s the thing.
Speaker C: I think a lot of authors get so overwhelmed by all of the feedback that they forget how to write their own stories and speak in their own author voice.
Speaker C: And so if it’s going to even positive reviews can stall people out from writing because they’ll be like, this is the greatest book ever.
Speaker C: And you’re like, well, crap, no, I don’t write another book after that.
Speaker C: So it’s just like it just gets in your head.
Speaker C: And it’s not something that I find really helpful at that point.
Speaker C: Yeah, it just kind of sells you out.
Speaker C: And you’ll have people who like part that they hated.
Speaker C: The reason that they hated the book is the reason that somebody else loves it and it’s their favorite book.
Speaker C: You know what I mean?
Speaker C: So how can you write to please both of those people?
Speaker C: You can.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker C: And so that’s when you have to go, these are the stories I want to tell.
Speaker C: If there’s any, like, useful feedback, take it, but like, otherwise, you know, you gotta just keep telling you.
Speaker C: There’s lots of tropes, especially in romance, that some people love and some people hate, like faded mates, for example.
Speaker C: And so you’re never going to convince everybody to like that thing.
Speaker C: You shouldn’t try.
Speaker C: It’s their opinion, and they absolutely have the right to not like that.
Speaker C: And so it’s more about trying to just focus your energy on finding the people who do like the things that you write and kind of invite them into your world.
Speaker C: And that’s kind of just the people I put my energy towards.
Speaker B: Right?
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker B: So I just hit where I can do lives now on TikTok and so this week I did my first like, I got permission to do like live narrations with like a couple of books.
Speaker B: And so I’ve been like, doing those.
Speaker B: And so I’ve gotten my first journey into blocking idiots that get onto these and are like so many.
Speaker B: My husband’s basically like, you’ve just got trolls.
Speaker B: And I’m like, it doesn’t even like faze me at all because I’m like, really?
Speaker B: Like, the first one was like, you’re fat, you need to lose weight.
Speaker B: And I’m like, and what’s your body fat percentage?
Speaker B: Like, all these other questions.
Speaker B: And I’m like, really?
Speaker B: Like, the thing that comes out of my mouth is you think I don’t know this?
Speaker B: Like, OK, what are you.
Speaker C: And you.
Speaker B: Coming on here and saying this helps me.
Speaker C: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker C: My size 22 pants tell me that every day.
Speaker C: And I.
Speaker B: Was like, I don’t even know now.
Speaker B: There was one person on there that stuck up for me or whatever.
Speaker B: And afterwards we followed each other and I thanked them for thank you.
Speaker B: And she was like, oh my god.
Speaker B: I don’t know how you did that with so much grace and it didn’t even faze you at all.
Speaker B: And I’m just like, you can’t if you entertain them, it’s going to be worse.
Speaker B: So yeah, I figured out how to block on a live yesterday.
Speaker C: You get trolls in every form of social media, but I think that doing it in lives just because they want to see that instant reaction.
Speaker C: And you think about the sort of person who does that and how sad they must be.
Speaker B: Need I want to get yelled at?
Speaker C: This is the only time I’ll be acknowledged as being like a living human being in my day is by smiling people up and getting them mad at me.
Speaker C: I’m not going to give them tease them as like, toddlers, I know what you’re doing.
Speaker B: Well, another one was like, you sound like a newscaster as I’m, like, narrating this book.
Speaker B: And so I said, what does that mean?
Speaker B: Because that’s the second time I’ve gotten that comment.
Speaker B: You sound like a newscaster.
Speaker B: I’m like, is that a good like for you?
Speaker B: Because I’m going to talk the way that I talk.
Speaker B: But for you, is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Speaker B: Because it’s a weird comment.
Speaker C: People who don’t listen to audiobooks don’t understand that there’s a key to it because it’s different.
Speaker C: It’s storytelling.
Speaker C: And I think that it’s like when you have like a hip hop dancer and a ballet dancer and it’s different.
Speaker C: Well, this is how I speak when I’m making this kind of content.
Speaker C: And this is how I speak making this art form.
Speaker C: And they’re like two different forms of art.
Speaker C: And so you can’t compare.
Speaker C: I think that I’d be surprised if there are people who listen to audiobooks who are making those comments.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker B: And what was funny was someone said that.
Speaker B: And then I guess they thought I don’t know, I thought I said it nicely.
Speaker B: Like, what do you mean by that?
Speaker B: And they were like, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you mad.
Speaker B: And I’m like, I’m not mad.
Speaker B: I just genuinely want to know is that a good thing or a bad thing for you?
Speaker B: Because you’re my second person to say that.
Speaker B: And then someone else comments and is like, I listen to you say the news all the time.
Speaker B: They would love to listen to that.
Speaker C: I’m like I feel like a lot of narration kind of has this almost like masseuse voice to it soothing and it feels like you’re being told a bedtime story.
Speaker C: You just want to lie down and listen to someone tell you a story and take you with and then it gets into the characters or the action and stuff and then all of sudden A, you’re like you’re totally pulled in.
Speaker B: No, I do have to say the best audiobooks.
Speaker B: I typically read my books.
Speaker B: I have a hard time focusing, which is funny since I’m an audiobook narrator.
Speaker B: But I have a hard time opposite.
Speaker C: Which is so funny because I write books.
Speaker B: The best audiobooks I’ve ever heard is The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings series was done by the actor that plays Golem Andy Circus Circus and like he is so good in those.
Speaker B: Oh my God, how did that happen?
Speaker C: Well.
Speaker C: My husband works for Wedding and so works on The Hobbit films and stuff and so we’ve gotten to go to a few of the premieres and premiers and we’ve had a lot of the people who work on the films come when I used to work at the zoo and so they’d have like private tours for the celebrities and kids working on the films and stuff and so we’d get to meet a lot of them and things.
Speaker B: I remember hearing because he’s a big deal in narrator groups because he does all these voices himself and there’s this video that would go around of him talking on I think it’s Letterman.
Speaker B: It might be Kim a lot.
Speaker B: He’s talking on one of those big talk shows and they’re like here and they hand him this narrating mic and they’re like, I’m told you’ll know what to do with this.
Speaker B: And he shows how he gets into all these different positions to do these different characters and I’m like, I got to listen to this book.
Speaker B: And then I found I saw some other thing, him talking about how he was like live narrating on YouTube during COVID to entertain kids and that’s how he ended up on the audiobooks.
Speaker B: Like they found out that he had done the live read and they were like hey, we want you to do the audio books.
Speaker B: So he did it’s like the dream.
Speaker B: You put out these books same with authoring, you put out these books and you just hope that one day one of these things that you do you hope will get discovered by someone that not that nobody matters, but like, somebody that’s going to matter at one of these big companies that will take off.
Speaker B: It’s like the dream in the art.
Speaker C: Someone call them Netflix.
Speaker C: Yeah, well, it’s funny.
Speaker B: So I have two authors that have said one author said I will do anything to have my books made into a TV series or whatever.
Speaker B: And then I’m interviewing another one, which she found my podcast on social media.
Speaker B: And I, like, pitched her to narrate her book.
Speaker B: And I’m talking to her on this podcast, which is a separate one from the one she found me on.
Speaker B: And she’s like, oh, yeah, we have an old family friend who used to be the booksearcher for TV networks, and she loves my book and wants to pitch the series to her old boss.
Speaker B: That might happen.
Speaker C: That’s amazing.
Speaker B: Crazy stuff happens.
Speaker B: But you never know what one person is going to stumble across your tick tock or your book in the bookstore if you get it.
Speaker B: I know, like, Barnes and Noble you can get as an indie author, you can get into your local Barnes and Noble stores.
Speaker C: My books weren’t really stocked here in New Zealand, but in the States there were stocks in quite a few bars.
Speaker C: Noble on the booktock tables.
Speaker C: But they don’t tell you they don’t tell you stores.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker C: So you don’t know.
Speaker C: People will just be like, oh, hey, it’s your book here in Florida or wherever.
Speaker C: And like, okay, cool.
Speaker C: There’s like a few stores in different places that were carrying them, but now it’ll be a lot easier to find them, hopefully.
Speaker B: Have you seen the authors that will go in and find their books in the bookstore?
Speaker B: You can’t exactly do that from New Zealand.
Speaker C: Yeah, well, I mean, they will be hopefully in stores here soon and will be in Australia when they come out, but in Australia, too, because Harper Voyager UK is also doing a release of them as well.
Speaker C: So there’s Harper Voyager US and the UK.
Speaker C: And the UK one is doing all the Commonwealth countries and so they should be there.
Speaker C: But I still don’t think I could I’d have to go with a friend or someone to say because I could go up to them and be like, oh, hey, I’m not vandalizing these.
Speaker B: On the back.
Speaker B: Isn’t that standard face on the book?
Speaker B: It’s me.
Speaker C: But I don’t know, it feels very, like, weird to just be like, oh, hey, can I just go find these books?
Speaker C: That kiwi.
Speaker C: Modesty thing.
Speaker B: I think that’s awkward for anybody in any country.
Speaker B: Like, unless you’ve been doing it for, like years and years and years.
Speaker B: It’s just I mean, it’s that imposter syndrome.
Speaker B: Like, it’s just weird.
Speaker C: I saw a tik tok of Colleen Hoover and El James going into a bookstore and they signed each other’s books and then sign them themselves too.
Speaker B: Like, what?
Speaker C: Wow.
Speaker C: Colleen whoever signed by 50 Shades of.
Speaker B: Gray.
Speaker C: I was like, that’s so cool.
Speaker C: What a power couple.
Speaker C: How cool is that?
Speaker C: Getting extra signature from an awesome author.
Speaker B: I ask all of the authors that I narrate for to send me signed copies.
Speaker B: I’m, like, totally willing to pay for them, but they always don’t make me.
Speaker B: But I just, like, want this collection of like, these are the books that I’ve narrated.
Speaker B: Even though I narrate under not my legal name.
Speaker B: I’m like, I just want this collection of one day.
Speaker B: Some family would be like, what are all these random books here?
Speaker B: I narrated all those.
Speaker C: This whole shelf is all books?
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker C: I love that.
Speaker B: So I have forgotten for the last couple of months.
Speaker B: But I’m always like, hey, what would I need to do to get a signed copy?
Speaker B: Like, do you have them on your website?
Speaker C: Right?
Speaker C: Mostly, yeah.
Speaker C: I’m terrible with that.
Speaker C: I don’t really do signed copies because it costs like $100 to send a book from.
Speaker C: And so it’s just like people are like, oh, well, I’ll pay thinking that it’ll be like $20 shipping.
Speaker C: Like $100 shipping plus the cost of printing the book.
Speaker C: They don’t print them here, so I have to ship them internationally to me to sign.
Speaker C: So it ends up being like 200.
Speaker B: Ridiculous.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker C: So it’s just way too expensive.
Speaker C: I do it for my top tier patrons on Patreon, like a signed book from New Zealand.
Speaker C: But it’s really not something that I do.
Speaker C: But with Harper Voyager now, I’ll be able to do a lot more signed copies.
Speaker C: So I’m super excited about that because I’ve felt bad for the last year just being like, one day one day I’ll see them when I come to the States or something.
Speaker C: But I just can’t sell and send signed copies from here.
Speaker B: Yes.
Speaker B: I have one author from the UK.
Speaker B: That she was like, it’s going to cost a lot.
Speaker B: And so I go look at the car.
Speaker B: And it was like $20 to get from the UK to here.
Speaker B: And she was like, I want to do a US.
Speaker B: Tour and all this stuff.
Speaker B: And I was like, if I have to pay for it, that’s fine.
Speaker B: But I’m going to wait till the trilogy is done and then have them all sent at once.
Speaker B: So I’m paying one shipping instead of three.
Speaker C: Yes.
Speaker C: Good call.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker B: So I’m like, I’m just waiting.
Speaker B: And she’s still like she’s working on book two right now, so she’s almost done with book two.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker B: I’m just like, I’m just going to wait on the trilogy, and then I’ll order them all to come here.
Speaker B: So one shipping cost of really high instead of three really high shipping costs.
Speaker C: Exactly.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker C: Well, and I hope in the next couple of years I’ll be able to go to the States and things and do a few book tours around there as well.
Speaker C: Next.
Speaker C: Year I’m doing some signings in Australia.
Speaker C: So that’ll be fun to be able to actually go meet people and do signings.
Speaker C: But yeah, I think some people will probably have to wait to see I come to the stage just too far.
Speaker B: So what kind of advice do you have for we talked about the mental health and protecting your mental health, but what kind of tips, tricks, advice do you have for I mean, you’re still relatively new yourself, but what kind of tips and tricks do you have for someone just starting out or researching or whatever?
Speaker C: I came from a visitor engagement background, like conservation engagement.
Speaker C: So basically teaching people how to deliver conservation messaging, which actually comes in handy in all forms of media and marketing.
Speaker C: But I think the kind of main principle of engagement is treating people like people, right, and valuing them, not calling.
Speaker B: Them that on TikTok.
Speaker C: Well, first of all, yeah, just being kind to people in general.
Speaker C: But something especially on TikTok I see a lot is people who are kind of like number chasing of like they start to feel really down if they don’t have a viral video or they don’t have a certain number of followers or they don’t have like and they’re just constantly searching for more like more numbers.
Speaker C: But these very abstract numbers.
Speaker C: Not really even thinking of the numbers as people.
Speaker C: Right?
Speaker C: Like as readers, as potential people who might be your super fans who want to celebrate your books and cheer them on in the world.
Speaker C: They don’t engage with the people on their profile and are just looking for the next hit of 100 followers or something, right?
Speaker C: And so for me, my advice to people is to remember that there’s real people are reading your books and to value them because they’re the ones who go out in the world and recommend your books to other people and champion them and share them on other forms of social media and like, you never know.
Speaker C: Like I’ve had so many stories of people emailing me these really intimate moments that my stories have helped them with and you just never know who those people are.
Speaker C: Like they might just leave an emoji on your video but they’ve had this whole massive story and relationship with your book and so like, treat them with that level of kindness.
Speaker C: And I think that really investing and valuing in the people who already want to be there and welcoming more people into that space is going to do way more for you than getting another like 50,000 people who are just kind of like there but don’t really care.
Speaker C: Right, so that kind of quality over quantity and really investing in your readers.
Speaker B: Yes.
Speaker B: I mean.
Speaker B: You are way more likely to have someone recommend you to a friend if you’re that really nice author that always says when you posted you had a crummy day video.
Speaker B: That author that reaches out and says whatever the nice thing you may say may be.
Speaker B: As opposed to.
Speaker B: Like.
Speaker B: I’ve never heard any person ever say.
Speaker B: Oh.
Speaker B: You should go check out this author that has 50,000 followers.
Speaker C: Right?
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker C: It always surprises me when people will reply to a comment on a video and people be like, I can’t believe you replied to me, or, thank you so much for replying, or, I really appreciate that, like, you cheering me on or telling me I can do it.
Speaker C: And I’m always surprised.
Speaker C: Like, of course I’m going to, you know, of course I’m going to cheer you on.
Speaker C: I think it’s awesome that you took the time to be here and watch this video and interact with me, and I want to support you too.
Speaker B: I was trying not to fan girl too much when, like so I had watched you on Tik Toks, but it wasn’t until recently that you followed me back.
Speaker B: Oh, my God.
Speaker B: AK followed me back.
Speaker B: That happens with everyone that I, like, watch their videos and comment or whatever.
Speaker B: And not that I do this for them to follow me back, but I’ve noticed the more that you interact with people in their videos, the more likely they are to do that because it’s like, oh, they’re not just following me, so I’ll follow them back.
Speaker B: They’re actually here to care.
Speaker C: That’s usually when I follow people back, it’s like when they’ve commented on a video or something like that, because I do have, like, for a while, I would just basically immediately follow back any book related account.
Speaker C: And quite often I would either have them immediately unfriendly or unfollow me after I followed them back, or they would immediately message me, being like, can you promote my book doing this thing?
Speaker C: And I’m like, we’ve never talked to each other before.
Speaker C: You don’t even know me.
Speaker C: But you’re instantly messaged me being like, what can you do for me?
Speaker C: How can you do this stuff for me?
Speaker C: And so I just stopped doing that.
Speaker C: And so now it’s usually like, if somebody is, like, commenting or engaging with me that I’ll follow them back because I’m like, oh, they really want to be friends with each other.
Speaker C: That’s what I’m like.
Speaker B: Okay, cool.
Speaker C: Yeah, awesome.
Speaker B: It was weird, too.
Speaker B: So we did the big Fem narration day, right?
Speaker B: And this has been a couple of weeks ago now, but, like, some of those authors my video got my call out video for, like, hey, authors messaged me got way more views.
Speaker B: I had, like, five times more views on that video than any other narrator had on theirs.
Speaker B: And so the quantity of narratives or authors that were reaching out to me, but most of them I wasn’t friends with.
Speaker B: It was like because that video got over a thousand views, which was big for my videos to get over a thousand views.
Speaker B: And I’m just like, what do I do?
Speaker B: Basically, I think in the video.
Speaker B: I said, reach out to me on other and you don’t want to say click the link in my bio because then that will get suppressed.
Speaker B: But go to the thing in the thing because I have my Instagram on there and my link tree.
Speaker B: Well, my links are on my own website, but it’s like a link tree on there just for like, here’s how to reach out to me.
Speaker B: But yeah, it’s weird because same thing.
Speaker B: Like, authors now, I haven’t had a whole lot.
Speaker B: I had a few that want me to go read their book.
Speaker B: Like, they’ll immediately send me a, hey, go buy my book kind of thing.
Speaker B: But then occasionally I’ll put up videos that are like, hey, I want a book that has a twist I’m never going to see coming in it because I’m very rarely surprised by a book.
Speaker B: And so I appreciate books with good twists.
Speaker B: And so those ones if you comment on one of those, I’m literally asking you to recommend rebooks to go buy.
Speaker C: Yeah, you want that?
Speaker B: Yeah, I do.
Speaker C: Lots of videos where I’m like, what’s your favorite list?
Speaker C: Or what do you like about that?
Speaker C: And I love when people, like, comment their books, and then there’s other times where I’m just like, it’s a video of my dog, and they’re just, like, copying and pasting links to their books in it.
Speaker C: And I’m like, what are you doing?
Speaker C: Do you think this is going to this is not a strategy that you think is going to get you somewhere?
Speaker C: I don’t get it.
Speaker C: I had so many videos that I’m like, authors, please tell me about your book.
Speaker C: It’s like people are hungry for it.
Speaker C: They’re asking for it.
Speaker C: Like, go comment on those videos.
Speaker B: Talk about it on your own social media.
Speaker B: Don’t spam people on other social media.
Speaker B: I had the funniest call out thing that I’ve had.
Speaker B: They put up a book for audition.
Speaker B: So I go and audition for it, and then they come back and they’re like, I didn’t like your audition, but I’m a coach.
Speaker B: And it was, like, very rude.
Speaker B: Like, the whole thing was very rude.
Speaker B: I didn’t like your audition, but I’m a coach, so I can help you make it better.
Speaker B: And I’m like and I would never hire you because of this approach.
Speaker C: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker C: Is this what you’re doing?
Speaker C: You’re just, like, trolling through these things?
Speaker C: When people use these kind of, like, sketchy marketing tactics to try and get people’s attention, it has to work.
Speaker C: Shut down.
Speaker C: Well, yeah, it does.
Speaker C: It’s a numbers game of like, if I hit 10,000 people so I have this other tik tok account that’s just animal videos of animals.
Speaker C: And this one author dude who keeps following and unfollowing me, like every other week trying to, I guess, get me to follow him back.
Speaker C: And I’m like, not interested because you act like this.
Speaker C: Why would I walk so weird?
Speaker C: But then he followed my animal account, and I realized he’d just gone through all of my followers and just followed everyone on the entire list of people to try and get some of them.
Speaker C: And I was just like, this is just so gross.
Speaker B: At this point, I remove marketing.
Speaker B: I remove anyone that follows me that I go look at their thing, and they’re following an astronomical amount of people, and they only have ten people following them back.
Speaker B: I immediately remove them because I’m like, you are being sketchy.
Speaker B: You are intentionally going out and trying to get people to follow you just for so you can get to do lives and be creep.
Speaker B: I don’t know.
Speaker C: Yeah, they’ll tag me in videos about their books.
Speaker C: It has nothing to do with me.
Speaker C: And they’re just like, we’re not friends.
Speaker C: I’ve never interacted with their videos.
Speaker C: They’ve never interacted with my videos.
Speaker C: And they’ll just tag me in videos going like, look at my book cover thing.
Speaker C: You can buy it here and go buy this book now.
Speaker C: And it tags ten random authors.
Speaker C: And I’m like, Why are you doing this?
Speaker C: This is the fastest way to like you’re really missing out on the whole community.
Speaker C: Because if you’re actually, like, friends with other authors, they might give you tips and tricks for good marketing.
Speaker B: Be friends with people, and they will help you later.
Speaker C: Exactly.
Speaker B: You have to build the relationship.
Speaker C: Author friends.
Speaker C: You have author friends to be like, where did you get your cover designer from?
Speaker C: Or what editing software do you use?
Speaker C: Or how did you do this thing?
Speaker C: And you ask each other questions and cheer each other on.
Speaker C: You don’t market to other authors.
Speaker C: You market to your readers, which could.
Speaker B: Be other authors, but it could be.
Speaker C: But they’ll be in the acting in the reader capacity at the time.
Speaker C: You don’t hit up authors, especially if they don’t even write in the same genre as you.
Speaker C: People who write horror or thrillers hit me up for stuff, and I’m like, I don’t know how much of our readership is not a craft.
Speaker C: I’d love to talk to you about craft because I love talking about writing, and I’d love to help you with this stuff, but I don’t think that this is the way I did mortise a relationship.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker B: When I’ve had, like, narration wise, I’ll say I prefer fantasy to narrate, but I’ll do other stuff.
Speaker B: But like, I prefer fantasy, which means what?
Speaker B: That means that my best books, my easiest to do, my ones that are probably going to come out the best are going to be fantasy ones because that’s like, my favorite.
Speaker B: That’s what I like.
Speaker B: Not that I do a bad job on the other ones.
Speaker B: It’s just those are going to be extra good because that’s what I like.
Speaker B: The best authors are going to be the same way.
Speaker B: If you are a fantasy author, you’re probably going to read a lot of fantasy books to be like in that genre, to know what is happening, what’s going on, what other people have done.
Speaker B: You’re not going to randomly go read a detective book to see how can I better do my fantasy book using this book.
Speaker C: Exactly.
Speaker C: I mean, I love reading every genre and I get ideas and like things from everything, but it is that, you know, I’m not marketing towards, like, mystery readers.
Speaker B: You’re not going to go into your Facebook ads and put people who like mystery books.
Speaker C: Exactly.
Speaker C: Dan Brown people will love my books.
Speaker B: I guess your tips and tricks are know your market.
Speaker B: Don’t be weird with your treat people.
Speaker C: With kindness, like door to door salesman of the Internet.
Speaker B: So Icky, do you have any parting words or words of wisdom before we go?
Speaker C: No, I think that’s it.
Speaker C: Yes.
Speaker C: Just take care of yourself, take care of your mental health and be kind to your readers and write the book.
Speaker B: That you want to write.
Speaker C: Yes, exactly.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker B: Well, thank you so much for this doover day and for taking another Saturday.
Speaker C: No worries.
Speaker B: I’ll eventually get to reading your books because I do love fantasy books.
Speaker B: I just have to get a little bit ahead on my narration stuff before I can do fun readings.
Speaker C: I totally understand.
Speaker C: People in the industry are like the ones that we take the longest to get to other people’s work.
Speaker C: We have so many author friends and we’re like, it’ll probably be a year or more before I read your book because I have to read my own book.
Speaker B: Well, like I said, I posted a video, like, wanting good twist things.
Speaker B: And then I had authors that were like, I’ll send you a free copy.
Speaker B: And I’m like, no, no, no, because it’s going to take me forever to get to you.
Speaker B: Like, I’m going to buy your book because I know it’s going to take me.
Speaker B: Which is funny because one of the ones that was like, you’ll never guess what’s coming.
Speaker B: I’m now narrating her books at the beginning of the year.
Speaker B: So now I have to read your books.
Speaker C: There you go.
Speaker B: But yeah, I don’t expect free copies from anybody.
Speaker B: Like, people who are that way are just driving me nuts.
Speaker C: Yeah, I have people who like, really be adamant.
Speaker C: They want to send me stuff.
Speaker C: And I’m like, please don’t.
Speaker C: And I always say thank you, but I won’t have time to read it.
Speaker C: And like, I had someone recently just be like, no, no, I’ll send it to you.
Speaker C: And I’m like, I probably won’t be able to read it.
Speaker C: And they’re like, that’s okay.
Speaker C: I just want to send it to you.
Speaker C: And I’m like, okay.
Speaker C: And then I get this super crumpled box.
Speaker C: It’s completely reined in the books, all like, barely showed, but there’s a note on top that’s like, this isn’t a PR package, but if you could show it on your TikTok you’re like, you.
Speaker B: Don’T want me to show this.
Speaker C: I’m like, nobody wants to see this like really jacked up book.
Speaker C: But also like I kept telling you I don’t have time to read this book and then you sent me this thing anyway saying show this on your TikTok.
Speaker C: And I’m like, that is so gross.
Speaker B: I’m not going to talk about a book on my TikTok that I haven’t actually read myself.
Speaker B: I’m not just going to talk about it.
Speaker B: One of the authors that I did the video clip things for, she sent me, which now I’m narrating her books too, but she sent me her trilogy all signed.
Speaker B: Like she was like, give me your address.
Speaker B: And I’m like, what for?
Speaker B: So I’m going to send you the books.
Speaker B: I was like, at this point we already had the contracts on the books but I’m like, I typically ask for signed copies.
Speaker B: Like at the end she’s like, I’m just going to send them to you now.
Speaker B: I’m like, okay, yeah, super sweet.
Speaker B: And yeah, I usually send authors gifts after interviews but because you’re all the way there, I have no idea how to I had to tell ane this too.
Speaker B: I’m like, I don’t know how to get it to you.
Speaker B: And then I send like a Starbucks I send like a Starbucks gift card and so I’m like researching if I send an American Starbucks gift card, does it work over there?
Speaker B: And it was like, no, it has to be.
Speaker B: And we don’t really think even amazon too.
Speaker B: Amazon too.
Speaker B: I couldn’t do Amazon gift cards because it’s specific to the country which is weird.
Speaker C: But I’m like, no, I can’t help you here with the gift being here twice.
Speaker B: Thank you so much.
Speaker B: You go get your kids breakfast and I’m going to go with air conditioning with you.
Speaker C: Get cool, have a good time.
Speaker B: Is it Saturday there?
Speaker B: It’s Saturday for you guys, right?
Speaker C: It’s Sunday here.
Speaker B: Okay.
Speaker C: We’re a day ahead.
Speaker B: Alright, well have a good Sunday.
Speaker B: I’m gonna have a good rest of my Saturday.
Speaker B: Bye.
Speaker C: Bye.
Speaker A: As she got older.
Speaker A: A K mulford liked fantasy books like The Hobbit.
Speaker A: The hobbit or there and back again is a children’s fantasy novel by English Arthur J-R-R.
Speaker A: Tolkien.
Speaker A: It was published in 1937 to wide critical acclaim.
Speaker A: Being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald Tribune for best juvenile fiction.
Speaker A: The book remains popular and is recognized as a classic in children’s literature.
Speaker A: The Hobbit is set within Tolkien’s fictional universe and follows the quest of home loving Bilbo Baggins, the titular hobbit, to win a share of the treasure.
Speaker A: Guarded by a dragon named Smog, bilbo’s journey takes him from his lighthearted rural surroundings into more sinister territory.
Speaker A: The story is told in the form of an episodic quest and most chapters introduce a specific creature or type of creature of Tolkien’s geography.
Speaker A: Bilbo gains a new level of maturity, competence, and wisdom by accepting the disreputable romantic, fae and adventurous sides of his nature and applying his wits and common sense.
Speaker A: The story reaches its climax in the Battle of Five Armies, where many of the characters and creatures from earlier chapters reemerge to engage in conflict.
Speaker A: Personal growth and forms of heroism are central themes of the story, along with motifs of warfare.
Speaker A: These themes have led critics to view Tolkien’s own experiences during World War I as instrumental in shaping the story.
Speaker A: The author’s scholarly knowledge of the Germanic philology and interest in mythology and fairy tales are often noted as influences.
Speaker A: The publisher was encouraged by the book’s critical and financial success and therefore requested a sequel.
Speaker A: As Tolkien’s work progressed on its successor, The Lord of the Rings, he made retrospective accommodations for it in The Hobbit.
Speaker A: These few but significant changes were integrated into the second edition.
Speaker A: Further additions followed with minor inundations, including those reflecting Tolkien’s changing concept of the world into which Bilbo stumbled.
Speaker A: The work has never been out of print.
Speaker A: Its ongoing legacy encompasses many adaptations for stage, screen, radio, board games, and video games.
Speaker A: Several of these adaptations have received critical recognition on their own merits.
Speaker A: Today we’ll be reading the first chapter of The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald, which was one of Tolkien’s favorite stories and helped inspire some of the fantasy creatures in his books.
Speaker A: Don’t forget we’re reading LaMorte de Arthur, the story of King Arthur and his noble Knights of the Round Table on our patreon.
Speaker A: You can find the link in the show notes why the princess has a story about her there was once a little princess who but author why do you always write about princesses?
Speaker A: Because every little girl is a princess.
Speaker A: You’ll make them vain if you tell them that, not if they understand what I mean.
Speaker A: And what do you mean?
Speaker A: What do you mean by a princess?
Speaker A: The daughter of a king.
Speaker A: Very well, then.
Speaker A: Every little girl is a princess, and there would be no need to say anything about it, except that she is always in danger of forgetting her rank and behaving as if she had grown out of the mud.
Speaker A: I’ve seen little princesses behave like the children of thieves and lying beggars, and that is why they need to be told they are princesses.
Speaker A: And that is why when I tell a story of this kind, I like to tell it about a princess.
Speaker A: Then I can say better what I mean, because I can then give her every beautiful thing I want her to have.
Speaker A: Please go on.
Speaker A: There was once a little princess whose father was king over a great country full of mountains and valleys.
Speaker A: His palace was built upon one of the mountains and was very grand and beautiful.
Speaker A: The princess, whose name was Irene, was born there, but she was sent soon after her birth because her mother was not very strong to be brought up by country people in a large house, half castle, half farmhouse, on the side of another mountain, about halfway between its base and its peak.
Speaker A: The princess was a sweet little creature, and at the time my story begins was about eight years old, I think.
Speaker A: But she got older very fast.
Speaker A: Her face was fair and pretty, with eyes like two bits of night sky, each with a star dissolved in the blue.
Speaker A: Those eyes, you would have thought, must have known they came from there.
Speaker A: So often were they turned up in that direction.
Speaker A: The ceiling of her nursery was blue with stars in it, as like the sky as they could make it.
Speaker A: But I doubt if ever she saw the real sky with the stars in it for a reason which I had better mention at once.
Speaker A: These mountains were full of hollow places underneath huge caverns and winding ways, some with water running through them and some shining with all colors of the rainbow when a light was taken in.
Speaker A: There would not have been much known about them had there not been mines there, great deep pits with long galleries and passages running off from them which had been dug to get at the ore of which the mountains were full.
Speaker A: In the course of digging, the miners came upon many of these natural caverns.
Speaker A: A few of them had far off openings out on the side of a mountain or into a ravine.
Speaker A: Now, in these subterranean caverns lived a strange race of beings called by some gnomes, by some cobols, by some goblins.
Speaker A: There was a legend current in the country that at one time they lived above ground and were very like other people, but for some reason or other concerning which there were different legendary theories, the king had laid what they thought too severe taxes upon them or had required observances of them.
Speaker A: They did not like, or had begun to treat them with more severity in some way or other, and impose stricter laws.
Speaker A: And the consequence was that they had all disappeared from the face of the country.
Speaker A: According to the legend, however, instead of going to some other country, they had all taken refuge in the subterranean caverns whence they never came out but at night, and then seldom showed themselves in any numbers and never too many people at once.
Speaker A: It was only in the least frequented and most difficult parts of the mountains that they were set to gather, even at night in the open air.
Speaker A: Those who had caught sight of any of them said that they had greatly altered in the course of generations, and no wonder, seeing they lived away from the sun in cold and wet and dark places, they were now not ordinarily ugly, but either absolutely hideous or ludicrously grotesque, both in face and form.
Speaker A: There was no invention, they said, of the most lawless imagination expressed by pen or pencil, that could surpass the extravagance of their appearance.
Speaker A: And as they grew misshapen in body, they had grown in knowledge and cleverness and now were able to do things no mortal could see the possibility of.
Speaker A: But as they grew in cunning, they grew in mischief.
Speaker A: And their great delight was in every way they could think of to annoy the people who lived in the open air story above them.
Speaker A: They had enough of affection left for each other to preserve them from being absolutely cruel for cruelty’s sake to those that came in their way.
Speaker A: But still they so heartily cherished the ancestral grudge against those who occupied their former possession and especially against the descendants of the king who had caused their expulsion, that they sought every opportunity of tormenting them in ways that were as odd as their inventors.
Speaker A: And although dwarfed in the shape and they had strength equal to their cunning, in the process of time they had got a king and a government of their own whose chief business beyond their own simple affairs was to devise trouble for their neighbors.
Speaker A: It will now be pretty evident why the little princess had never seen the sky at night.
Speaker A: There were much too afraid of the goblins to let her out of the house then, even in company with ever so many attendants.
Speaker A: And they had good reason, as we shall see by and by.
Speaker A: Thank you for joining Freya’s fairy tales.
Speaker A: Be sure to come back next week to hear Marie’s journey to holding her own fairy tale in her hands.
Speaker A: And to hear one of her favorite fairy tales.
