Book Shop Chats:
Welcome to Book Shop Chats, your go to podcast for indie authors and learning insight into what it takes to write a book (HINT: You can do it too!!)
Join authors as they share their personal journeys, successes, and challenges, providing you with unique insights into the writing process. The discussions explore into various aspects of storytelling, from character development to plot structuring, ensuring you have a well-rounded understanding of the craft.
Whether you're just starting out or have published multiple works, this podcast is your companion in the pursuit of storytelling excellence. Tune in, gather inspiration, and let your passion for writing flourish alongside a community that celebrates the art of the written word.
Book Shop Chats:
Transformative Storytelling and Genre Exploration with Adam Bassett
Victoria chats with Adam Bassett about his latest book release, focusing on the importance of community within the indie author space and the journey from short stories to full novels. Adam shares valuable insights on marketing, creative exploration, and the unique challenges indie authors face in the publishing world.
• Adam shares the evolution of his latest book from a short story collection
• The significance of community and author connections
• Creative experimentation in exploring various genres
• Insights on effective marketing strategies for indie authors
• Reflections on personal growth through reading and writing
• Encouragement for new authors to grow from feedback and experience
• Community-building as a pathway to reader engagement
AUTHOR BIO
Adam (he/him) is a UX / UI designer, illustrator and the author of Digital Extremities and Animus Paradox. Other short fiction of his has been published in Nature Erupts, Blooms of Dawn, and select issues of Worldbuilding Magazine.
More information available on my website.
BOOK BLURB
There's a thief on the loose. The Tigres excel at tipping the scales in their favor, be it through bribes, politics, or blood. They unofficially run Viterbo, Italy—and somebody stole from them.
Private investigators David and Mafalda De Campo have been hired to help find the thief. They're in it for the money, but the Tigres just want to make a statement.
Meanwhile, the Heredes have returned: ruthless idealists and revolutionaries. It’s not clear what they’re up to, but they keep getting in the way.
The De Campos will need to decide how far they're willing to go for this job and the Tigres. Viterbo may soon become a battlefield, and one wrong move could set it aflame.
More information available on Goodreads.
About Victoria:
Hey there, I’m Victoria! As a writer and developmental editor, I specialize in helping busy writers bring their publishing dreams to life without the overwhelm. Editing doesn’t have to feel like pulling teeth—it's the magic that transforms your story from “meh” to masterpiece!
Here’s how I can help:
📖 FREE Manuscript Prep Workbook: Take the stress out of editing with simple steps to organize your revisions.
Grab it HERE
📝 Developmental Editing: Get expert feedback that elevates your manuscript, strengthens your story, and polishes your characters.
✍️ 1:1 monthly support Writer's Haven: Revitalize your creativity, map out your novel, and unleash your authentic voice.
Your story deserves to shine, and I’m here to make it happen. Let’s turn your writing dreams into a reality!
📱 IG: @editsbyvictoria
🌐 Website: https://www.victoriajaneeditorial.com/links
Oh hey, it's Victoria from Victoria Jane Editorial and your host of Bookshop Chats. This podcast is all about authors, writing and the magic that goes into storytelling. We cover all of the things that go into writing a book, from the creative process, from taking your idea to a first draft, creating and cultivating community within the author space, marketing all of the fun things. If you are a reader, a wannabe writer or an author, you will find tips and tricks that suit whatever level you are at. So I hope that you enjoy and you are unfortunately, or fortunately going to find many more books to add to your TBR, so I will invite you to sit back and listen to the episode. Welcome back to Bookshop Chats. In today's episode, I am chatting with Adam Bassett. Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2:Hey, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Hey, I'm so glad that we get to chat again. I feel like it's been years since we chatted the last time. I couldn't stay away. It's been too long but no, seriously, yeah, I just want to say thank you again for having me.
Speaker 2:It is, you know, I think you were just about to say this and I accidentally cut you off. But like I did just release a book at time of recording yesterday and it is just so helpful to have these outlets to chat with people about it and it's also just so much fun, Like I genuinely enjoy moments like this where we get to just not necessarily even talk about the book. But like you know, being in publishing now, I'm so interested in how other people are doing it, how everybody's feeling about it. You know, all that kind of stuff is just so interesting to me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, me too. This has been such a fun journey. I'm so glad that I took the leap and decided to do this podcast. Just like learning about, yeah, authors, their processes and some of the authors I've connected with are just like about yeah, authors, their processes and some of the authors I've connected with are just like like wildly interesting. They have like such like unique backgrounds. I was chatting with someone a few weeks ago where, uh, she's like into like an anthropology, like major, and talking about how, like every like book that's published is like an actual piece of history and it's just so.
Speaker 1:I'm like I never thought of it like that, but it makes so much sense of like a little snapshot of like life, and that you are almost doing a disservice not to share your history with the world.
Speaker 2:It's the stuff that like I get surprised by that I get the most excitement out of.
Speaker 2:Like I did a text interview with Emma Wong around the time that her the like special edition of her new book Blood Over Bright Haven came out back in like October-ish, and we had a chat about that and how like that story originally began as like a novella I think it was supposed to be, but then it of course expanded into a standalone novel and one of the things that stuck with me was like how much she does not like that setting.
Speaker 2:Like not even remotely Everyone I see who reads the book absolutely gushes over it. But to have that chat with her like she's like I am never going back there again. It's just so it's so cool and, like you, I totally get that like being on the other side of it as a writer, like you spend so much time in a place and if you're not like absolutely in love with that place, even if it's like conceptually interesting or has a lot of good things going for it, like you know, for the reader's point of view and everything, if you personally are not in love with that like, I could see that absolutely being such like a rough experience right it's.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's wild, it's, but it's been. Yeah, it's so interesting just learning all of these like background things that you wouldn't otherwise know, um about, like the writing process and, yeah, just how sometimes the weirdest ideas come to you in the strangest of ways. So let's talk about your book. You said it just came out yesterday, which is super, super exciting. So I would love to hear all about this one.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I mean, last time I was on the show we were talking about digital extremities. That was my short story collection, which was basically like what if cyberpunk, but rural and remote spaces talking about kind of regular people. So this is kind of a sequel to one of those stories, but it's also a standalone. Like I'm kind of been approaching it as a series of standalone books is sort of my best way to explain it. So basically the story ends and there's a thread in there that never fully gets resolved because that story isn't really about the thing that like it was a a kind of a thing that happens and then it's dropped because it's not important for that particular story.
Speaker 2:But my editor at the time like really was interested in what becomes of it, and the more I thought about it, the more I was interested in it and people who had read that collection were like, oh, we love these characters, we want to see more of them, and so one thing kind of led to another and over last summer I was working on similar to ML Wong. Weirdly enough it was originally going to be a novella and then it became a short novel. It's still very, very short. It's like 45,000 words. It's total pages, still a little bit smaller than my collection, but yeah, so it is a cyberpunk thriller.
Speaker 2:This time it's not like there's slice of life moments, but it very much is not a slice of life story it is. When you think of cyberpunk and thrillers, you're gonna get those things. You're gonna get, uh, shootouts and car chases and sword fights and, uh, you know, we're gonna get like a scene of somebody making some food and enjoying that and then we're gonna go back to the sword fights. Um, so it's very different tonally. It's very different with, like, its goals and everything. The the collection it had some things to say, whereas this is. It is also saying something, but really, at the end of the day, I just want people to have fun with it. Um, and so far, from the early reviews from people who have been talking to me about it, that seems to be what the general consensus is. It's just like it's a fun action romp through cyberpunk central Italy where people are just just having a real bad couple of days.
Speaker 1:I love that. That's so. That's so interesting. So this how did you find this, this journey like writing, compared to like your first go around?
Speaker 2:This book was easier to write and I think I owe a lot of that to the fact that I'd already fleshed out so much of the world through those short stories I already. This picks up with some of the same characters. It introduces a few new ones, of course, but you know, the core cast of the point of view character and the people that they're directly working with are generally all the same people that are in the final story in that collection. So I kind of already had a lot of that early work done for me when I started writing this and it was just a matter of like putting to the pieces. I knew the story was going to be about chasing down this thief who had stolen from the wrong crime syndicate and how do I get from that to, you know, finding them. And so because I kind of knew all the pieces and just had to fit it all together, this book was much more planned than probably anything else that I've written. I sat down and got a spreadsheet out and really tried to plan for what I wanted to happen and how long each of those scenes would be and everything. It worked out very well for this particular book, I think because of that reason. But I've also talked to some people recently about how there are other stories that I've written, from the collection in particular, where it was like I need to hit a vibe and I don't know how to hit it until I start writing. To hit a vibe and I don't know how to hit it until I start writing. So I mean, in that sense it was very different in the planning of it and the writing was all very, I think, quick because I was able to plan it so well. There were very few things that I had to change along the way. My editors, when they got a chance to look at it, really didn't push for too much change. There was a little bit of restructuring, a little bit of like fine tuning here and there, but like, generally there wasn't a ton to change at that point. So it all went very smoothly. And I think you know, when it came to publishing somewhat similarly, you know I had that experience of publishing digital extremities on my own for the first time.
Speaker 2:Now I'm doing it a second time, self-publishing this, and you know it wasn't easy, obviously, but I was able to look back at those things that worked, things that didn't work, things that just took too much time to make sense and was able to sort of adjust those plans a little bit. Adjust those plans a little bit. You know, the one thing I wasn't able to foresee was that I had to push back the print version a few weeks. That one actually isn't out yet at time of recording. It'll be out on February 17th.
Speaker 2:That one, just like I had planned, right after I was going to leave my parents from the holidays I was going to get back to my place, touch up a few things and then order a proof, and if all that worked out perfectly, it was going to arrive on time and I'd be able to approve it so that it would be ready when the ebook was also ready. And then that didn't happen because my fuel pump cracked in my car. So I was stuck in my parents' hometown for an extra week and I was like all right, this isn't going to work.
Speaker 1:Just rolling with it. I feel like that's just the nature of like self-publishing any sort of creative uh, you know anything, right, like there's always something you're like seriously, this is okay, we're just gonna figure it out and and speaking on that note of like rolling with it and everything, I was talking to somebody else about it who, uh, he had also had to do something similar.
Speaker 2:He didn't have quite as long a delay, but he also had an issue getting the physical version finished. But, um, he and I were talking and I was like, yeah, I think I'm just gonna like use this as an opportunity now to test, like a not simultaneous release, like, does it make sense to release the ebook early, when it's ready, and then hold off maybe two or three weeks to finalize the print version and then put that out? And you kind of get like this second wind. Almost. I'm sure it won't be as big because it's not like a new release exactly, but it does allow me to feel out the waters. For, like you know, is this a good way to remind people the book exists? Will people remember that they are interested in the book when it comes out in a few weeks? You know, does that carry through? Um, I don't know they're gonna find out right.
Speaker 1:I think that's a lot of what I feel like marketing is all about, especially with. So I mean, I know that there's psychology to marketing and all of that, but like I just I don't have the time to like really do it. Like a certain way, like I have to figure out what's gonna work for me, what's gonna work for like right.
Speaker 1:So I think that's a really cool way of just like exploring it, cause I know often a lot of I mean it's hard not to, but, yeah, a lot of authors will get down on the fact that things aren't like moving as fast as they want or like that.
Speaker 1:so like really, trying to like yeah, right like it's, it's hard and I think that that of like, but like looking at it as just like, okay, this is an experiment and I'm playing the long game here, right like I, and this is going to be something that I'm going to get better at each time I do it and I feel like it's better than social media, though Like you could get great at it and then the algorithm changes and you're like hey what am I doing you really like?
Speaker 2:if anything I've learned about socials recently is like you just cannot rely on it. I've been trying to build up a newsletter because of that and then like it's, even though it is still small, it is at least something that I can control, at least more so than you know, like a blue sky or threads or whatever you're using. You know you also don't quite as easily run the risk of you know anything pulling a Twitter and going full salute on you.
Speaker 1:Right, and I feel like too, just with social like, social media is really rented space, right. So you're kind of at the whim of, yeah, whoever owns it, or going dark or whatever right.
Speaker 2:And that's not to say it's not important. I think it's been like vital to me being able to talk about and spread the word and meet new people you know, such as yourself and everything Like. I owe a lot to my time on social media in a lot of ways, but once you have that relationship, once you have somebody who's interested in your book I think it is it is so important to get them on something you control better, whether it's like a newsletter I know some people do like a Discord server. There's a lot of different ways to bring those people into a space that you know you are not 100% at the whim of someone else. Obviously, with a MailChimp or a Substack or a Discord like, there are other people who control those, but it's not. It's not so algorithm based like these other social media platforms where, like you know, your stuff may just never get seen. It's like no, if they follow you, if they are part of your community, they will be in a space where they can see it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel like that's a great point that you make up about like community and I think that that's a really important thing for just building like your, your network, right, like even if you're connecting with authors that maybe you know it's not your preferred genre or whatever, like there's something to be said about like building that up.
Speaker 1:So what have you found to be like the most helpful this time around, outside of that social media? You mentioned like the newsletter thing, but have you done anything else for promotion that you found like a really kind of unique and different that you enjoy?
Speaker 2:I'm still holding off on ads for the moment because I just don't have a lot of work. I have two books out right now. I've got a couple of like stories in anthologies and stuff which are kind of mostly out of my hands at this point. I might get into ads later on, once I have more to offer. I've heard generally the advice seems to be like once you have at least three books, you can start to consider doing something with ads. But at the same time I've also heard people talk about how like and these are like folks who are accomplished authors saying that they don't get anything from you know an Amazon ad, for example. So it's like I'm very conflicted about that, so I haven't gotten into there at all yet. So it's like I'm very conflicted about that, so I haven't gotten into there at all yet.
Speaker 2:I have been just trying to reach out to you know podcasting platforms and you know people who are doing live events on YouTube and stuff, trying a few different people. This time around. Some of the folks who I spoke to last time were not available or wanted to give other people space, which is totally fine. I think this time around has been very much like let's do it again, but let's do it a little bit smarter. Where you know, I've reached out to people, sometimes sooner. I've reached out to people in different ways sometimes, like especially if we're talking about social media. You know, I did. I did the first book. I did like this eight day countdown which in my head, was like a really good idea for consistent posting and engagement. It gave me something to talk about, give people something to look forward to, but in reality they would see it during like the wrong days and out of order and because, because the algorithm doesn't work that way.
Speaker 1:No, it doesn't yeah.
Speaker 2:So, like they didn't get a good experience, they were getting stuff like in a weird order or like sometimes, like I know, uh, instagram will show like the middle of a of a gallery instead of the first post or something, um, and at the end of the day, like those took some time to put together and they just didn't do much, uh, and so I just completely cut those out of this uh release and I just focused more on asking people who were ARC readers to share stuff and I would reshare that. I asked people for reviews a little more forcefully and most of them were very kind and did so. We actually just hit 11 reviews on the new book, uh today and we're at 41 total reviews on the whole series at the moment, which is, like you know, it's lower on the end of things in the grand scheme. But like my first book came out last uh september and this one just came out yesterday, like 41 total among those two books right now feels pretty good. I'm extremely pleased with that and, just like the way you know, people have connected with these books in some way, which I'm just so proud of, with these books in some way which I'm just so proud of, um, and I'm so thankful for uh, and so you know when, when we talk about marketing, it's like, you know, let's use that, those personal reactions and reviews and, uh, all that kind of stuff. Because I think you know, if I say, you know, come and read my book, great.
Speaker 2:But. But if, uh, you know, come and read my book, great, yes, but but if, uh, you know amber says that, or, uh, luke says that, or maybe you, maybe you never heard one of them or read one of their books or something it's like you know even if you've never heard of them, if, if you see me recommend you know Amber's book, then suddenly it's like, oh well, why is that? What's so good about it? Why are you going out of your way to talk about this other person's thing? And so I think about that a lot and that's a big part of, I think, this release is like I've tried to sort of block out some time where it's just kind of about me, me, me.
Speaker 2:But like this morning I was recommending some other people's books alongside mine, because I do strongly believe that, you know, if you can help other people get seen, they are more likely to help you get seen, you build stronger relationships and, at the end of the day, the reader needs to read what is going to be most interesting to them, and if that's not my book and it's my friend's book instead, that's awesome. I'm glad I helped get my friend a sale. I'm glad I helped get my friend seen. So that is more. The approach that I've gone with this time is just like that kind of trying to enter into it through the community and instead of like this pre-scheduled list of posts or something like that, I love that.
Speaker 1:I think that's a great way of doing it and like also celebrating like 41 reviews is freaking amazing Right, Like I know that it's like yeah, it seems small, but like also like that's like, it's that like starting like this is where it begins and I think that that's an amazing like I don't know. I think I would be stoked with one, like we're getting one, we're on the right track and it can only go up from there, so I love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I'm, I'm thrilled with that and it's it's somewhat, yeah, proof to me that what I'm doing is working, which is amazing. I've purposely been releasing shorter books because I personally know how stacked the TBR is. It is like there's a friend of mine, lamia wrote this book that everybody is just freaking out about. They're gushing about how good it is and everything, and then I see like the 650 page count or something and I'm just like I want to read it so badly. But I have like a stack of other books back here that are between like 150 to 400 pages that I still haven't gotten to yet. And it's like the the way that, like my brain organizes all that stuff is like the things that I can finish quickly and engage with more different stories. Just right now, at least comes to the surface. But I did add it on my goodreads. I'm gonna try and get to it at some point.
Speaker 2:Um, but yeah, like that I think has been a big part of the reviews thing is like I am purposely making my books as accessible as possible. Not only are they short, they're also all standalones. You can read whichever thing you're interested in unrelated to the series. It's going to be like a nonfiction reference guide about maps and everything. But then after that I have some more sci-fi that I'm interested in, and I think the next one that I'm going to write is again totally different than these first two, have been much more suspenseful. I think we'll see. I haven't actually put pen to paper yet, but that's the idea we'll see.
Speaker 1:I haven't actually put pen to paper yet, but that's the idea. So I love that. I I think that's amazing and it just keeps things interesting. And I feel like, especially as somebody with ADHD, it's easy to um get bored. So I love that, like just being able to try different things, and I mean, that's what makes the story magical is when you've got that, like you're, you're in it and that's, you're just consumed by it, and then when you're done with that sort of genre, you get to move on and try something else, and I think it makes you grow as a writer too, of just like kind of pushing your comfort zone and doing things differently a reader because as I get into different genres I'm not always super well versed in them.
Speaker 2:I need to go and do research, and research in a lot of cases means what are some books that have emotions and themes and stuff similar to what I want to do? There's a component in the next sci-fi thing that I'm interested in writing which deals with memory loss, and so a friend of mine recommended a book, red River 7 by AJ. I'm going to look it up real quick. Hold on Red River 7. Aj Ryan. Red River 7 by A Ryan has a large component in it which is all just like people who have lost their memory, who are unable to access it, but kind of like deducing things about why they are where they are and who they used to be and all that kind of stuff. And he does it really well and it was a fun way to learn about how to represent that situation and also just a new story for me to enjoy. So that's also been a really fun part of it too.
Speaker 1:That's such a great point. I feel like that's a like. The power reading has when it comes to making you like a better writer is is wild of like you get to see, especially challenging yourself to read outside of like your preferred genre. It's really interesting to see how, how authors structure things and what engages you as a reader and how they capture certain emotions and stuff. I find that really cool.
Speaker 2:As unsexy as that is. That has also been like my impetus for getting my feet wet with a little bit of like romantic scene stuff recently. A few of my friends write those books and I have never been interested in that really, but I want to support them and I know that it has become such a thing recently and so every now and then I'll work one of those books in and it genuinely like is such a different way of characterization, of building suspense and relationships and all that kind of stuff. I strongly believe that has helped me become a better writer and it's exposed me to this whole genre. That was very nebulous in my mind beforehand. It still kind of is. I haven't read that many only, but um, it's. It's been a fun way to mix things up every now and then yeah, I think that that's such a great.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, just a challenge. I find that really I've tried to like dip my toes into, like you know, thriller and mystery and just the whole different way a novel is structured for. That, versus like the romance or like the, the light reads that you can finish in a weekend, right, like it's a different, it's a different vibe, absolutely teaches you so much I also recently did that with um.
Speaker 2:Uh, I'll occasionally pick up books that are just written by people from other cultures or something, just not necessarily for any specific purpose, but just because it's like you know. I don't know if it's going to be any different, any more challenging, have anything that I can learn from it. It's not really like with a specific mindset going into it, but just like you know it's, it's there. I would like to diversify my TBR a little bit here and there. So I recently picked up the Dry Heart by Natalia Ginsberg. It's a classic Italian novel, novella, I think. It's like 80 pages or something and it's very heavy. It's about this woman who is trapped in a terrible marriage and is just kind of barely getting by. She's dealing with her child and everything it starts with a bang. Let me say that much Very good hook. If you just go read, like the preview on amazon or whatever it is, you'll understand.
Speaker 2:I love it that was another fun one that's amazing, that like.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, all the my wheels are turning. I love, I love this and I feel like, um, even just yeah, connecting with other authors, uh, is such a great way of like, oh like, helping with the creative process and just yeah, learning about what works and what they tried and that kind of thing, and I find that that's always. I'm always open to learning more. Well, I did ask you this the last time, but I feel like I wonder if it has changed or you have other advice. But, like, what would you suggest for someone who is maybe like, like they're just starting out writing or they're diving into writing their second book, uh, and things that maybe you found to be the most helpful for you?
Speaker 2:um, well, if you're getting into your second book, I suppose there's two ways to approach that, because if you're just building upon what you've already made, then I think you have a really good basis to begin with and you need to find a new way to use that. So for me, um, the setting of animus paradox was already previously explored in the short story collection. In the final short story there, uh, fireworks above the badlands, um, in that we stay pretty much within this fictional city of miro atroosh and, uh, a little bit of time spent on the spent on the ancient Etruscan town in the center of it, civita di Bagnoregio. I'm so sorry to Italian speakers, I'm sure I screwed all of that up. I work in text, not in words, so we stayed in that one space for the most part and didn't really go beyond it there.
Speaker 2:In animus paradox we still spend a lot of time there, but we spend it in different parts. Like um, the main characters are taken to an itameshi restaurant, kind of a fusion of italian and japanese food, where we get to sort of see those cultures mingle a little bit and there's like a little you know, behind the counter armory in the building, which is super fun to write about and play in and so like we get to explore that a little bit a little more, like the crime scene a little bit, we get to see a little bit more of this neighborhood that we saw briefly in the short story and what lies kind of beyond it, sort of in this wealthy neighborhood where there's a bunch of villas and everything, and into nearby city Montefiascone, montefiascone, something like that something, yes, I yeah, that's as good as it's gonna get.
Speaker 2:Um, it's which, which itself, like Miroitrush, is a fictional place built around a real ancient town. Montefiascone is a real city, and so it was really fun to write about because it's like, how might it have changed in the like? This story takes place in the mid to late 22nd century, so how has it changed in 150-ish years? What landmarks can I mention that might still be around, might have been preserved? All of that kind of stuff which was really fun.
Speaker 2:Now, if you're writing your second book and you're doing it all from scratch again, I would kind of, like we've talked about previously in terms of marketing, go back and look at what worked, what didn't, what would people have wanted more of, and not necessarily expand on what they wanted. But like, if you had, let's say, uh, this magic system that was very light and not heavily explained and you had people wishing it was more detailed than maybe in the second book, second setting, you create a new magic system that does have more granular, like a hard magic system kind of detail. Um, if you know you, know you, you can. Basically, what I'm saying is like you can use whatever feedback that you got, whatever you felt about the first book to inform how you approach the next one, even if it's not in the same setting.
Speaker 1:Um and just you know, whatever you end up doing, make it make sense in the plot and with the characters, uh, because at the end of the day, they are what matters I love that, I think that's great, and I I have, uh, chatted with some other authors that utilize their negative reviews if they have anything helpful in there of like, oh this is what didn't quite work in this first book, and just have it as a tool rather than a soul.
Speaker 2:Soul crushing, yes, but to that but but to that end, be be mindful that there are constructive negative reviews and there are unconstructive negative reviews. Um, it will probably take some time to be able to sort out the two from each other. Um, it's not just based on rudeness. You could have somebody who is very rude but has a point. Or you know, vice versa, somebody who is very respectful but just kind of word salad. So you know, if you're going to read reviews which you know is a choice you don't have to do that. It's more or less a reader space, you don't have to go into it. But if you choose to definitely take it all with a grain of salt, think about what your goals were, because that's not necessarily what the reader's goals were. You know, I've had there was an interesting example.
Speaker 2:A friend of mine, el Lyons, wrote this dark fantasy story. It's the start of a series, but the front cover had two people in silhouette that were kind of facing each other and there were a bunch of readers who went into it thinking that it was a romance book and it's not. Those people are the main character and I that it was a romance book and it's not. Like. Those people are the main character and I think it was her father, so like that would have been real bad if it was what you thought. Um, so she like completely redid the cover to make it look more like the book that it is.
Speaker 2:Uh, and so that's something to consider as well. Like if people gave you negative reviews about something, maybe they just went in with the wrong expectations. Maybe you need to tighten up the blurb next time. Maybe you need to think about the cover a little bit more or something. Do a little bit more research onto what covers of that genre look like. So, yeah, like there's a lot that goes into it, a lot of things to consider. Uh, just, you know, take it step by step.
Speaker 1:I think that's definitely solid, just like one step at a time, like we can't do it all, um, even though sometimes you're like, but why not? So I love that Amazing. Well, finally, how can people get in touch with you and grab your book?
Speaker 2:with you and grab your book. Yeah, so you can find me on Blue Sky, instagram and threads. For the most part, I'm at Adam C Bassett and you can find me on my website as well adamcbassettcom. There is a newsletter linked there. There is a shop linked there if you want signed copies of either the short story collection or the thriller novel, and I will post news to the newsletter and keep everyone updated on what's coming next as soon as I have something to share.
Speaker 1:I love it Amazing. Well, it was lovely chatting with you and, yeah, super fascinating.
Speaker 2:I learned a lot, thank you for having me back and, yeah, super fascinating. I learned a lot.
Speaker 1:Thank you for having me back. I appreciate it. Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. I would love if you would leave a review and also, if you loved the author that we chatted with, go find them on social media and hype them up, comment on their stuff, share their work, even if you can't buy the book, these kinds of things are great ways of supporting indie authors and getting their book in front of new readers. And if you are a writer or author in need of a developmental editor, please reach out. I would love to chat. Everything is linked in the show notes and it would be an absolute honor to be able to get eyes on your novel. So thanks again and listen to the next episode.
