Books in this episode:
For links to the books discussed in this episode, click the link here to take you to the Google Doc to view the list.
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For more, follow along on Instagram @whereileftoffpod.
Books in this episode:
For links to the books discussed in this episode, click the link here to take you to the Google Doc to view the list.
For episode feedback, future reading and author recommendations, you can text the podcast by clicking the "Send us a message button" above.
For more, follow along on Instagram @whereileftoffpod.
Welcome back. I'm Kristen Bahls and you're listening to Where I Left Off a bookish podcast, and today I'm joined by the author of the Tides of Darkness series and soon to be romance author, Sarah Blair thanks for coming on, Sarah.
Sarah Blair:I'm so excited to be joining you. I love your podcast. Long time fan, first time guest, you know.
Kristen Bahls:Thank you so much. That is so nice to hear. So something that I always ask every author that comes on is what are you currently reading? I'm always dying to know.
Sarah Blair:Okay, so my current physical uh list. I'm a mood reader so I skip around a lot and don't even get me started once on my kindle. Um, I think I downloaded like five new books today on my kindle. So, um, I've got a butcher and blackbird by Brynn Weaver. That's on perpetual reread. I read it kind of when it first came out this year and can't stop rereading it. I'm obsessed with it. Sarah Adams' Practice Makes Perfect. Just started that one and I know you're a big fan.
Kristen Bahls:Could you tell by my face.
Sarah Blair:Yeah, I've listened to the podcast more than once. So yeah, I know, oh yeah, yeah, true, Meg Cabot, Enchanted to Meet you, is a fun it's. I think it's her latest. I want to say it's her latest. It came out recently, anyway, fun it's. I think it's her latest.
Kristen Bahls:I want to say it's her latest. It came out recently anyway, um it's cute.
Sarah Blair:I need to add that to my tbr. It's a adult uh rom-com about a witch and chaos and it's hilarious. So I mean, you can't go wrong with Meg Cabot, right exactly.
Kristen Bahls:Oh my gosh, I have so many favorites from hers I think we were talking about Airhead as, like our ultimate favorite series you're the only person I know who's read that book and I'm like it's the best. I love it so much and I think I read that around the time when, like, Drop Dead Diva came out. I don't know if you've ever seen that show, but there are a lot of similarities, um, with Drop Dead Diva to Airhead, and so that was perfection for me.
Sarah Blair:Mm. Hmm, yeah, yeah, and I actually I got the idea to put Demetrius's headquarters in the police building on Center Street from the Airhead books, because she has a lot of departments there and I actually text. I it was like when Twitter was pretty new and all like everybody was just talking to everybody. So I actually messaged Meg Cabot to ask her about it. I was like have you ever been inside? What's it like inside? She's like oh no, I've never been inside, but I want to go. And I was like cool, she actually like responded and it was. It was awesome, oh my gosh, that is amazing.
Kristen Bahls:Yeah, you'll have to tell her. Hey, if you want to go inside, just read. Just read my books, and then you can see what it's like. And then there you go, yeah.
Sarah Blair:So, um, yeah, I've never been inside either. I just, you know, googled photos and stocked um like real estate websites and did a bunch of research. So yeah, and then another one I'm reading is the Launch Party by my friend, Lauren Forey, and it's like space and mystery and fun stuff.
Kristen Bahls:And what is it?
Sarah Blair:called and then it's called the launch party. Um, yeah and uh, my friend lauren wrote that, so she's really good. She's got um a bunch of really fun. She does mysteries oh, I love a mystery she did a historical one, that's it's modern, but it's about like this group of friends who they there was like a party one night and somebody ended up murdered and they, they end up growing up and it was in college and it's like this whole mystery that unravels and it's really good too that sounds amazing she's really really fun, fun, uh, mystery writer.
Sarah Blair:So yeah, and I've got Padma Lakshmi's memoir love loss and what we ate uh, that's.
Kristen Bahls:I'm reading that one for research for my new book which we will definitely get into a lot more about your new book. I can't wait.
Sarah Blair:So those are just a. That's a small sampling of what I've got going on.
Kristen Bahls:So what is the best book that you have read this year, and I know that that's hard to pick, because you're reading a lot right now, so you read a lot. A lot to choose from.
Sarah Blair:I am, but I'm sorry I know I'm gonna have to go back to Butcher and Blackbird because it's yeah, it's a lot of fun. I and also, um, another really great one is what's the one that you and I just buddy, read the Love and Ink.
Kristen Bahls:Uh, love and ink.
Sarah Blair:Yeah, the Trouble With Love and Ink yes, there it is The Trouble with Love and Ink by Harriet Ashford, and we read the arc, uh, recently, you and I, and that was so much fun. That's been a really good one too. So, yeah, lots of fun ones. Yeah, very different in tone those two, but yeah um, oh my gosh, I'm so proud of Harriet.
Kristen Bahls:The trouble of love and ink was really, really, really cute.
Sarah Blair:It was it was so fun. It was just a sweet, fun little read and she did such a good job with it and I'm so excited for all the things she's got coming up because she's great. So how did you and Harriet meet? Just on Instagram. I just saw one of her reels one day and I was like that girl is so cute.
Kristen Bahls:She's like really got it going on, I got to follow her.
Kristen Bahls:And so I did and we just kind of started chatting and you know bookstagram, so yeah, kind of how you and I met, really like we just started, started talking about books and fangirling over each other and you know that's the best part, and especially whenever you can find other writers that you can um talk to, because I'm sure it's kind of hard like just in everyday life to find other writing buddies to like kind of run stuff by for sure. So can you tell us more about the X-Files podcast that you kind of okay, so you kind of like produce some and you host a little bit and you kind of like do everything? How did you find that and get into that?
Sarah Blair:Actually, it was in 2016 when Darkness Shifting came out and I was trying to look for ways where I could talk about it. And I wrote it for fans of the X-Files, because I'm a fan of the X-Files and I wanted to write a book that I wanted to read. So I was looking around and I thought, well, maybe I could go on an X-Files podcast and talk about my favorite show and also, kind of like, slip my book promo in there. So there were only two X-Files podcasts at the time and it was Kamil Nanjiani's X-Files Files. And then there was the X-Cast podcast and I was like, well, kamil only talks to, like his friends, so I'm not in that circle at all, so he's not going to talk to me.
Sarah Blair:But then I emailed Tony, who is who is the creator and producer of the X cast, and I think they were still doing season one or almost finished with season one and he got back to me and he said, well, since you're an author and you want to do like, talk about your book and stuff, we'd love to have you and let's talk about the x-files novel tie-ins. So I reread the x-files book and, uh, one of them and we did an episode and I guess I did a good job, because he asked me back. He's he's like do you want to come back for a real episode? And I was like cool. And so I did. And then after that he's like would you like to host some episodes?
Sarah Blair:and I was like yeah, wow and so it just sort of like snowballed into this thing and we've been doing it for seven, eight years now.
Sarah Blair:I'm one of the showrunners, so we've got Tony, who's like the executive producer, and then, um, I'm a showrunner alongside Kurt and Carl, and then we've got a bunch of guest hosts that come on sometimes and we sort of, you know, produce that and, uh, right now we're working on I Want to Believe Minute, so we're going through the second X-Files movie one minute at a time.
Sarah Blair:Oh, wow, that is a task and it's fun. It is. It is a huge task but it works out great because we all split it up and we split it up into about five minute chunks, so we record a block of about five minutes at a time and each episode is around 15 minutes. So it turns out pretty good and, yeah, it's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun to do and to go back and then listen to everyone else's episodes, because some of the minutes don't have a lot of stuff going on, so you kind of have to fill the time and you know, we we get really creative with filling the time on some of those episodes. So it's it's really hilarious and just a lot of fun that is such a cool experience, oh my gosh, wow.
Kristen Bahls:And now you can really say that you're an X-Files expert, because after having to like do all sides of that podcast and working through it and watching the shows, reading the novels, the movies, all that, oh my gosh, that man, yeah, dreams really do come true.
Sarah Blair:I remember when I was younger and just completely obsessed with the show and hoping that one day I could just, you know, make it my job to talk about the X-Files and people would listen to me. And now it's happening and I'm like, why is anybody listening to me? It's like the imposter syndrome is real. And then last September we got to do the 30th anniversary in Minnesota. There was a big X-Files convention and we got to sit down with Chris Carter and Frank Spottnitz in this room and like talk to them and interview them, and it was just like the best thing ever. It was so cool. So, yeah, dreams really do come true.
Kristen Bahls:I know I met Sarah Adams this year, so we both met our heroes.
Sarah Blair:It's amazing yeah.
Kristen Bahls:Oh my gosh, that is awesome. With your newest novel, you're switching from the Tides of Darkness series, which is an urban fantasy series that has three books, and now you're kind of going over into contemporary romance. So tell us a little bit more about what's going on in Love Creek.
Sarah Blair:Well, lots of stuff. I'm still working on the first book. Love Creek is a fun place to be. I just am having so much fun discovering the town and all the people as they come up. I'm kind of a discovery writer, so I'm getting some surprises along the way. I did sort of hash out the basic arc, the story arc of how I want the first book to kind of go and some of the conflict and you know the basic stuff so that I could have something to write towards. But as I'm going along like so much is happening and I'm right around 30,000 words, I just this is going to be a long book. I was not expecting it to be. I was like how am I ever going to make this book long enough? But it's turning out to like be a really fun to spend time and I'm just having so much fun with it and getting to know the characters and all that. So, yeah, it's been great.
Kristen Bahls:Hey, so is it going to be. Are you thinking like 60,000 words or more than that?
Sarah Blair:I think it's going to be at least 80, probably. Yeah, I wasn't expecting this at all, but I mean, I'm at 30,000 words and they just held hands. They haven't even kissed yet, so it's going to be a minute. And I was not expecting a slow burn either. But here we are. It's like they're being really shy about it.
Kristen Bahls:So I was going to say they just held hands the other day, so you know you have a ways to go.
Sarah Blair:Yeah, yeah, it was so exciting too. I was like they finally held hands, like smashing their faces together, like I did with my Barbie dolls.
Kristen Bahls:As a kid, you know, just kiss already so um what can you tell us, without spoiling anything about Mia and Jackson?
Sarah Blair:Yeah, mia is a chef and she's a celebrity chef and she's in town working on her show and it's called Taste the Lyrics and it's where it's kind of like Top Chef meets I don't know, a music show where musicians pair up with chefs and the chefs create dishes based on their music. Yeah, it's kind of fun. And Mia's ex is a rock star. She's dating him for a while but he turned out to be a real sleazeball so she had to ditch him. A real sleazeball, so she had to ditch him. And um, now she won. The premise is that she wins a weekend uh getaway at the farm in a silent auction for a charity and um goes up to love creek pastures to um spend this weekend and will she ever leave? I don't know tbd, but yeah, I don't know TBD, but yeah you really don't know what's going to happen.
Kristen Bahls:Oh my gosh, I love that plot, and I mean with contemporary romance in general, sometimes I feel like it can just feel like all of the tropes are already done and all of the ideas are already kind of taken. So this just sounds really unique and different and just fun. Sounds like a little movie already to me.
Sarah Blair:It is. It's so cute and you know Jackson is the farmer and he's really shy and he doesn't watch TV because he's so busy doing farm farming and you know his mom and his sister are like big fans and um, so you know, they know who Mia is, but they're really sweet and it's it's a fun place to be because there's, you know, bickering. Like Hank is Jackson's best friend and he bickers with Jackson's sister and you know things might happen in book two between them.
Kristen Bahls:I was about to say, are you? Are you placing that on purpose?
Sarah Blair:I might be, yeah, so I'm definitely planting a lot of fun seeds as I go along. Yeah, it's gonna be fun Hoping to make it a three book series at least, and maybe like a holiday novella at the end. So just to kind of top everything off. Yeah.
Kristen Bahls:Oh, I love a novella Okay.
Sarah Blair:That sounds amazing. You gotta have that holiday novella. I feel like at this point, if you're a contemporary romance author, that's kind of a must.
Kristen Bahls:I know I I know I need to read more of those. I don't feel like I've read that many. I know that Jessica Joyce has one that I've been meaning to check off my list for sure. Have you read Jessica Joyce?
Sarah Blair:um, no, I haven't yet, but now I need to add her to my list. I think you with the view yeah, nice, nice, I will definitely add that.
Kristen Bahls:It's really, really cute. I was going to ask so what made you want to pivot to romance? Because it is so completely different from urban fantasy? I mean, there is some romance in your book, so it's not like there's not but it's totally different.
Sarah Blair:It really is. I love my Tides of Darkness series and I love everything supernatural and I was always like I will never write contemporary, I will never write anything without magic in it, and it's like we'll never say never, because apparently I just got this idea and as much as I love Tides of Darkness, it's kind of a dark place to spend a lot of time like in my head and so I thought you know I've always been a rom-com fan. I'm obsessed with You've Got Mail. It's my favorite movie ever.
Kristen Bahls:I just watched it the other day. I just watched it the other day.
Sarah Blair:It's so good. Like it holds up, it's so sweet.
Kristen Bahls:Yeah.
Sarah Blair:And you know I love all those movies. I love, I love, love. So it's like, well, I'm really good at romance and I'm really good at banter and it's fun, and why not just give myself a break from having all the dark stuff in my head and thinking about monsters and demons and angst and you know the mysteries are a lot to try to like work out. And you know not that romance is easier, because writing a book is hard, no matter what. But, um, just something that could be light and fun. Give myself a little bit of a break from the darkness.
Kristen Bahls:Oh, I love that, yeah, because I mean Sydney is fantastic. But you know you wouldn't actually want to be in Sydney's shoes, so I can't imagine trying to write from her point of view all the time. That would be very different, for sure.
Sarah Blair:Yeah, it's tough. She's got a lot going on and Demetrius has a lot going on in his head and you know it's. There's just a lot of stuff that they're dealing with, a lot of trauma and that's a lot to handle. So, you know, even though there is banter and fun times and things happen, that's light and and funny. I tried to mix it up a little bit. Williams is kind of the comic relief, I think, of the series. He always brings the laughs.
Kristen Bahls:yes, he's one of my favorites, for sure yeah, he's.
Sarah Blair:He's sort of the one that we're all. He's, he's all the readers, I feel like he's all of us. Um, he's like what is happening and where are we and why is this? And I'm just, you know, he's like the only human around.
Kristen Bahls:He's like guys like really I know what everyone else is like keep up, keep up, yeah he's just like what if I, you know, get unalived or whatever?
Sarah Blair:like what are you gonna do? I was like I can't do anything. I don't have a sword, I don't have the supernatural powers, I'm just a guy in a meat suit, you know.
Kristen Bahls:So he's funny, he cracks me up speaking of, uh, tides of darkness a little bit. So okay, a I start. I started with Darkness Shifting, which technically is book one, and then you have a prequel next and then you have book two. So I saw on your Instagram that you could read it either way, like starting with the prequel, going book one and then book two, or you could do book one, prequel book two. Which one would you recommend if someone was just getting into the tides of darkness series?
Sarah Blair:I feel like I tried very hard to write it so that both ways would work, and I think they do. It just depends on the type of reader you are. I think if you prefer to have things in chronological order and you know as you go you don't want any spoilers of what's coming up then you should probably start with the prequel.
Sarah Blair:Um, because there's a big thing that happens at the end of darkness, shifting that, um, you know you know, I know, I know we won't, we won't say it, but, um, yeah, so I think that if you read Darkness Shifting first, you're going to get the more emotional impact probably, and that you go back and read the prequel and then kind of have that bridge between the two. I think it works pretty well. But yeah, if you don't want any spoilers, if you just want to read the story as it happens, chronologically, then start with darkness loves company. Um, I think it's the best way to go.
Kristen Bahls:So okay, good, good to know, good to know. Um, I mean, I will say that a lot of books you know they'll say that they're standalone, but then they're not actually standalone. But Tides of Darkness, so far, starting with Darkness Shifting, I did not have any problems at all. I understood everything that was going on, like there's enough background to where you really can just fully jump in. And I never. I didn't even realize that there was a prequel until I went to download the second book. So, if that says anything, it was really easy to follow and, yeah, there you will not be confused if you start, well, if you start with that. But they were, they were really good. Um, would you ever consider, even though it is kind of dark, possibly going back to Tides of Darkness, or is it done? Book three, completely done?
Sarah Blair:no, um, I have big plans for it. I just it's kind of in a place where, um, I actually have 120,000 words written on a book four but I don't know what to do with it because it's such a hot mess right now. There's so much story that I feel like is still left to tell. I just have to kind of untangle it all and figure out how to best approach it. Because if I had it to do over again and I knew how it was going to turn out, I would just say Darkness Loves Company is book one, darkness Shifting book two, and then Erin Darkness, book three.
Sarah Blair:Because Darkness Loves Company came about because I was trying to come up with a newsletter incentive. It was only supposed to be like about 10 to 20,000 words and it was just going to be Mitch and Sydney at the cabin and like their story of how they got together and it just kind of snowballed. And I was just going to be Mitch and Sydney at the cabin and like their story of how they got together and it just kind of snowballed and I was like, wow, so Mitch really has a whole story to tell that I didn't know about and, um, it's kind of his book, I think I'm trying to be a little bit more careful with how the rest of the series unfolds and try to plan it out a little bit further so that I can, you know, make sure I get everything instead of having to go back again and that's really hard to do, I'm sure, trying to think like series books in the series ahead and trying to figure all that out.
Kristen Bahls:so you are working on another book, for Tides of Darkness and Love Creek is going to be a series, but are you just going to kind of like bounce back and forth between fantasy and rom-com kind of like, depending on your mood and what ideas you have?
Sarah Blair:I think. So I would love to build up my backlist a little bit more and have kind of a little bit of a variety of different genres and sort of you know, explore. I have so many ideas and I love supernatural stuff, so I'd really like to kind of explore different genres. But you know, romance is so fun that I feel like I have a lot of ideas for it and yeah, so I would love to do a lighter, fun, contemporary, something with magic. So, yeah, I I don't, I think I'm gonna focus on trying to get Love Creek done and out and then see about the rest. But yeah, I definitely would like to explore a lot of different genres and I love Regency romance too, so maybe I'll do Regency. I don't know, I'm just.
Sarah Blair:You know that was kind of my first. My first foray into writing was regency vampires. So I just, you know it got to be really epic and I didn't really know what to do with it. I didn't have much of a plot, it was just vampires being vampire-ish, but in regency time. So you know, but yeah, I have so many ideas it's hard to keep track.
Kristen Bahls:I haven't a lot. I haven't read a lot of Regency, but I know that Sarah Adams has some Regency novels too and, um, julia London, at one of the panels I went to, is there and I know she has a huge. She's like 70 novels that are all, uh, regency romances. So there's, there's a huge like subset of that, for sure. So, without spoiling love creek, what are some romance tropes that readers can look forward to? Because we, we just love a good trope.
Sarah Blair:We do. Um, I don't know a whole lot about the tropes just yet because I'm still kind of getting into it, but like definitely grumpy sunshine. Um, we're gonna have a lot of like farmer cowboy tropes, so like calloused palms and like pushed up sleeves, lots of dirt and mud and grit and yeah, uh, I definitely am gonna work. Uh, yes, chef, into it at some point, somehow. That would be adorable because we can't miss that one. I'm really looking forward to a scene um, um, yeah, oh, we got a darcy hand flex recently.
Kristen Bahls:That happened, so yeah, you really cannot go wrong with anything Pride and Prejudice related at all.
Sarah Blair:I feel like that's a good trope. Everybody loves the Darcy hand flex right.
Kristen Bahls:Are there any tropes that you? What's your favorite one? Do you have a favorite?
Sarah Blair:Enemies to lovers. Hands down always. I love a good. Enemies to lovers. I love forced proximity, yep, good enemies to lovers. Um, I love forced proximity, yep, yeah. Uh, one bed, uh, accidentally falling on top of each other does that count as a trope? It should. Falling down and like landing on top of each other and be like, oh no, my body is like magically pressed against yours. Oops, oh, there's so many. I'm not good with tropes.
Sarah Blair:I always, you know like I know them when I see them and then I forget because there's so many there are and there's so many tropes that you wouldn't imagine are tropes, until somebody calls them a trope and you're like, oh yeah, that is a thing.
Kristen Bahls:I know there's some really weird, weird tropes for sure. Like one time I looked up a list of all of them I was like, oh okay, yeah, no, I'm definitely enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, forced proximity, like those are probably my, my top three. A lot of people kind of hate on friends to lovers, but I don't know why I like it.
Kristen Bahls:Cause you know they already have like that built-in connection and so it's not like do you like me, do I like you? You know you already have that connection kind of. I mean kind of like with enemies to lovers, like they already have that connection because they're enemies or rivals of some kind. So you don't have all that, you know, like waiting in the water to kind of like meet each other and all that stuff. So I don't know. I think that's why both of those um resonate well with me oh, I also love a good fake dating.
Sarah Blair:Yeah, fake dating is really fun too.
Kristen Bahls:Yes, fake dating. How did I forget fake dating? That's Paige's favorite all the time and I like it too. I like it the more I read it uh, yeah it.
Sarah Blair:It's so fun Because you know, like you know, they're going to get together and it's, but it's so fun to find out how it happens, you know.
Kristen Bahls:I know I think Catherine Sinter kind of like summed it up best whenever she was talking about how just romance has hope. And yes, you know that they're going to get together. But you know, with all these cute tropes, and especially with Love Creek, and how they're going to be on a farm and how there's a competition in it, and you know, you, you know that they're going to get together, but it's just so fun along the way and it just gives you hope whenever you're, you know, tired from a day of all the things that you do, like homeschooling and being a mom and trying to get all your writing in, and you just get to relax and enjoy with a good rom-com. Exactly, Exactly. So what inspired the farm setting of Love Creek? How did you come up with that?
Sarah Blair:Well, I actually got the idea for the chef first and so I was kind of thinking like what would be good to pair with a chef and I was like, well, farmer, because they make the food that you cook. So if you love food already, you're going to love the people who grow the food. I guess it just seemed to make sense and so that's kind of how that came about. And I live in Georgia and there's just a lot of farms around and I love I kind of grew up on a farm in Tennessee so I've always loved being around animals and gardening and growing things and like there's nothing better than fresh tomato you go pick off out of the backyard and bring it in and cook it and it's so good. So, yeah, um, it's. It just seemed like a perfect kind of pairing to go together chef and farmer.
Kristen Bahls:I love that. That's so. It's so logical, but it just works. It works, works so well and it sounds so cute. I really cannot wait to read this book whenever it comes out Yay. And I wanted to ask you some writing questions, because you've been, you've been at this for a little bit, you, this will be your fourth, fourth novel, right?
Sarah Blair:Yep, yeah, I've been writing, uh, been publishing for 10 years.
Kristen Bahls:So if you decide that you want to write a novel, at what point should you really kind of start making the decision of whether you want to go traditionally published or indie or just completely go self-published, like as soon as you come up with the idea, should you start working on it, or do you wait until you pretty much have your manuscript and kind of figure it out after that, what would you recommend?
Sarah Blair:I mean you can't do anything until you have a finished manuscript.
Sarah Blair:So I think that's the most important part is like finish your book, get it polished, make it the best you are able to If you're able to get an editor best you are able to um, if you're able to get an editor, get an editor, um, and if not, get a great friend or your mom or somebody to help help you with it, um, it's always good to have fresh eyes on something, um, but yeah, I think it's. I don't think there's ever a point where you would say like this is it? You know, like there's always choices that you can make. You know I could, even though I'm self-published, I could query if I wanted to, and try to go the trad pub route or be hybrid or whatever.
Sarah Blair:There's a lot of authors who are doing hybrid or, you know, a lot of authors who are indie, are finding really big success and getting agents to help them with foreign rights and audio rights and things like that. So it's such a dynamic and ever changing atmosphere that, you know I don't think it would be too late to change your mind at any point either way. So it's not something that you have to really, you know, choose a path and stick to it, which is really cool, I think.
Kristen Bahls:That's good to know. And so if you were self-published and you decided like, let's say, you decided to take um tides of darkness, like you said, the traditional route, would you have to pull it from, like, from kindle, unlimited and everywhere that it is, to be able to then query an agent to then go traditionally published?
Sarah Blair:well, since tides of darkness is already published, that's kind of its own thing. Um, but if I wanted to query love creek, for example, if I wanted to polish that up and get a list of agents and try to query that for traditional publishing, since it hasn't been published yet, I could have that option. It's a little bit more difficult to do once the book is published and out there, but you know, if you have a book that you believe would fit the traditionally published world, then you know it's.
Kristen Bahls:you can always try for it and see what happens. That makes sense, and I've heard that self-publishing is just way quicker because it's all the timeline that you want to be. Versus traditional publishing can take years, and what takes so long about traditional publishing Is it just having to query and wait for an agent publishing? Is it just having to query and wait for an agent and then, once you have an agent, trying to wait for a house to actually take your manuscript and run with it?
Sarah Blair:Yes, yes, so you know you. There's so many more processes that you have to go through in traditional publishing and so many more people involved that it's like you know you have an agent. You're not their only client. They have lots of other clients and lots of other things happening. So you know they've got a lot of things going on. Plus, then, once you submit to different editors at different houses, they've got stuff going on and lots of different projects in different places. So it's a lot slower because you have to go through so many steps and you know, once you get submitted to an editor, if that editor really likes your book and they want to pick it. You know, to publish they have to take it to acquisitions and then acquisitions have to examine everything about the book and say how much marketing would we spend on this? Is it gonna fit in these holes to like market with? And they have to. It's it's all business and um. There's just so much more processes that you have to go through before a book gets published and you know, once they acquire the book, you've got to edit it. You go through so many different back and forths of edits and then you know you've got covers and marketing and PR and all of that. It's just, it's a lot, and having more people involved slows the process way down.
Sarah Blair:So, you know, for example, if I wanted to publish Love Creek, I am all of those people, so I don't have to wait. The only person I'm waiting on is me to do all those things so I can format it. I can, you know, have a cover designer or design the cover myself, um, like I did for Tides of Darkness, um, I did all that in Canva. So I am the cover designer, I am, you know, the editor, and I'm really lucky to have a great writing partner who helps me edit. And so, you know, I've got Vellum that I format with and I put everything together. So I do all of my promos, do everything. So I don't have to wait on people to acquire things and decide things. I am the decider as an independent publisher.
Kristen Bahls:That's amazing, but a lot of pressure and, I'm sure, a lot of research goes into figuring out every single part of the process.
Sarah Blair:Yeah, and it's funny because so many things change along the way and I have to learn new things and things get updated and you know it's it's a lot, but it's fun. I like being able to do it and I like being able to work on my own timeline and make my own decisions about that. I think I would probably be really frustrated if I was in the traditional publishing world and they were like all right, so your book's gonna come out in two years, and like knowing that I could just do it myself so much faster and just get it out there and get it going. I feel like would be very frustrating for me because I'm an Aries and I like to get things done. You know how that is?
Kristen Bahls:yep what aspect of the self-publishing process has been the biggest learning curve for you?
Sarah Blair:so many things. Oh, my goodness. I think probably the marketing has been the hardest. Um, yeah, and the first I did darkness shifting. I had to format that without help. I had to just do it in word and figure it out and I was ready to be, I was ready to quit, um, as far as all that went. I just almost didn't survive that. But now I have vellum and it's so much better. Um, it just does everything for you and it's really intuitive and it's really easy to figure out. So that made a huge difference, just finding the tools that can help me do it better and faster. I use Canva like every five minutes. I've got like so many Canva tabs open, like all the time. I had to learn how to do my own covers and, you know, update those and it's yeah, it's been a lot, it's been a lot. So I do everything. I'm tired, kristen.
Kristen Bahls:I get it. I would be too, but your books are fantastic, so it really is.
Sarah Blair:Thank you, it's worth it.
Kristen Bahls:Completely worth it. I've really enjoyed them. But man, that is just crazy to have to do do everything. It's like a blessing and a curse to be able to, you know, get everything the way that you want it. But of course you know, then the burden's kind of on you. I was going to ask what writing software or tool has been the best investment for you so far that you're just so glad that you have now.
Sarah Blair:Definitely. Vellum like hands down Love it, I love Canva. Vellum like hands down, love it, I love Canva. Um, as far as like the actual writing programs, I use pages and I use Google docs. Um, I tried to use Scrivener and my brain just doesn't, doesn't work with Scrivener. So I know I know so many people just love it and I'm happy that they love it. It just is not for me. There's just too much there and I always do it wrong. I think I like set up the document wrong or something and I ended up. It was just such a pain. So I just stick to pages and it makes it a lot easier to pages and, um, it makes a lot easier. And then I use google docs to share with my writing partner and we can, you know, edit together and it makes a lot easier. But, um, I'm trying to think of anything else. Those are probably the top three that I really use the most as far as writing goes. Um, and book stuff is canva and vellum and you know the actual writing part.
Sarah Blair:So, yeah, nice nice good to know yeah, because I've been hearing a lot about um atticus lately as well yeah, atticus, I would love to have that, um, but I I had already purchased vellum before atticus came out and I really don't have any reason at this point. They do vellum does enough, and it was so expensive that I don't really have a reason to switch at this point. But, um, I I've heard great things about atticus and if I was, if I was going at it for the first time and I didn't have either one of them yet, I would definitely choose Atticus because it's more dynamic, you can do more with it and it's cheaper and it works on Mac and PC.
Kristen Bahls:So true, I like the one-time fee. Yeah, exactly, and I like the one-time fee instead of like a constant, um constant, like subscription Adobe yeah, exactly, exactly, yeah.
Sarah Blair:Like I was really lucky to be able to get vellum the unlimited like lifetime, whatever I mean it was. It was expensive, but I was lucky enough to be able to get it.
Kristen Bahls:So how has your experience on Kindle unlimited been? I feel I feel like I've heard just authors either love it or they want to not go that way. What are your alternatives to kindle unlimited and how have you liked it so far?
Sarah Blair:I am still in kindle unlimited because I was wide for the first year that I was out with darkness shifting and I literally did not make a single penny on any other platform not one.
Sarah Blair:So I went to KU and I get most of my sales through KU, or most of my royalties, sorry through KU, and it's fine. However, I've definitely noticed within at least the past year to six months, especially for a long time I was making about even on, like if I sold an ebook, my royalties would be about even for somebody reading through, and they'd be, it would. It would be close to the same amount that I would get, and now it's it's slipping in KU. I'm not getting my money's worth out of it, like it's definitely. You know, I would get the question a lot like what's better for you if I buy the paperback? Do you get more royalties from paperback or ebook sales or KU? And I would always say it's. I definitely get the best royalties from ebook sales now and I know that Kobo has an unlimited reading that you can do now it's kind of like KU, you don't have to be exclusive with it.
Kristen Bahls:I've heard a little bit about that, yep.
Sarah Blair:Um, I've been considering it, but I know that so many romance readers are with KU and that's how they try out new authors. Yeah, I think I would like to build up my readership a little bit more before I think about leaving KU. I think it's a really good way to hook readers if you have KU, because they're more willing to try out a new author. But that's just been my experience.
Kristen Bahls:I know everybody's different, so I was gonna say there's so many books that I've downloaded on KU and just decided to try, and then fell in love with um, with that author and followed them on Instagram and yeah, but it is really frustrating that it's not equating what it used to be. And I know that Melissa Diamond was talking on her Instagram the other day and she was saying that I totally didn't realize that authors are paid on KU based on the pages read, not just if you download the book. You don't get a specific like set royalty, it's all on pages read, which I found I thought that was really interesting. I had absolutely no idea.
Sarah Blair:Yeah, and I do know that it matters if you are reading a book and you don't want to finish it but you still feel like you want to get the author money. I know sometimes people like flip through really quick, but don't do that because they can track your reading speed and if it tracks that you're reading too fast or thinks you're not reading and you're just going through for page flips, then like you get knocked down for that. Like the authors get in trouble for bots and things like that. So if you, if you don't, if you're not enjoying a book in ku, just return it. It's fine.
Kristen Bahls:It's not a big deal, that is so frustrating because, yeah, I would think, oh, I'm just doing them a favor, I'm gonna go to the end of their book and they'll make a little bit more from it.
Sarah Blair:But wow, that that is really frustrating it's never happened to me, but I've heard of other authors saying that it's happened to them. So in you know, it's the internet. So who knows what is totally true and what's not? But I mean I don't want to risk it.
Kristen Bahls:So very, very true, oh my gosh. Well, thank you so much for joining me today, sarah, and that's it for where I left off a bookish podcast and you can sign up for Sarah's newsletter and you can purchase her novels through the link in the show notes or you can always find them on Kindle Unlimited and be on the lookout for her newest romance novel called Love Creek.