C.L. Peache currently lives in Newark-On-Trent. In her spare time she enjoys reading, travelling, walking, kayaking, watching motorbike racing, socialising and drinking coffee.She loves writing, but the characters decide which story she’s going tell and she doesn’t have much say in it! She writes many different genres including: chick-lit, fantasy, cosy fiction, horror, thrillers and travel books.In this episode, you’ll learn:
- How publishing through an app differs to other publishing methods
- How reading on an app changes the readers’ experience
- What C.L. Peache’s writing process is like
Listen to C.L. Peache talk about app publishing:
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Transcript
[00:00:00] Ellie: Hello. And welcome back to season five of The Writer’s Mindset Podcast with me, Ellie Betts. We’re here to create a community of authors who persevere, are their most productive selves and published at a speed that they are comfortable with.
[00:00:14] Ellie: Kristina is still hiding away, hard at work editing The Witch’s Sacrifice, her upcoming release, and working on our new patron exclusive series Healthy Habits.
[00:00:27] Ellie: This week, Kristina connected with C L Peache to discuss writing for a fiction app.
[00:00:33]
[00:00:45] Ellie: C L Peache currently lives in Newark-on-Trent. In her spare time she enjoys reading, traveling, walking, kayaking, watching motorbike racing, socializing, and drinking coffee. She loves writing, but the characters decide which story she’s going to tell, and she doesn’t have much say in it. She writes many different genres, including chick lit, fantasy, cosy fiction, horror, thrillers, and travel books. And of course this includes writing for fiction apps.
[00:01:12] Ellie: Firstly though, I do want to say a big thank you to all of our supporters on Patreon. We couldn’t do this without you. As a Patron, you get early access to all of our episodes, bonus content, and our undying gratitude for supporting all the work that goes into creating these episodes to inspire and motivate you.
[00:01:28] Ellie: And as mentioned, Kristina has been working on a patreon exclusive series called HEALTHY HABITS.
[00:01:36] Kristina: Don’t tell Ellie I’m here, but I just wanted to let you know about our new bonus series, HEALTHY HABITS. It’s full of tips, help you improve your quality of life so that you can write more.
[00:01:46] Kristina: The first episode is out now for everyone to watch, so you can get a taste of what’s to come, while the rest of the series is exclusively for podcast patrons.
[00:01:53] Kristina: We’ve just done an episode of neuro-plasticity and chronic pain, the next episode is on how exercise affects our brains’ ability to learn, and coming up, we have stuff on things like nutrition, getting into a state of flow, and how our friendships affect our writing.
[00:02:06] Kristina: Because all of these things that sound related to writing, what’s happening outside of your writing often has the biggest impact on the end result. Or if you can even create something to begin with.
[00:02:16] Kristina: These are all techniques I use to manage my fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, ADHD, and more. And they’re all backed by the latest scientific research.
[00:02:24] Kristina: I’m not a doctor, but I am obsessed with improving my quality of life because I refuse to let my diagnoses stop me from living a happy, productive life. And now I’m sharing my findings with you.
[00:02:32] Kristina: Come join us over on Patreon to find out more. Doesn’t your health deserve it?
[00:02:36] Ellie: I’ll allow the interruption this time, but only because I know how good the content is and more people need to go and check it out. If you do want to find out more head to patreon.com/writersmindset.
[00:02:50]
[00:02:54] Kristina: With me today is C L Peache. Welcome to The Writer’s Mindset!
[00:02:58] C.L.Peache: Thank you for having me. I’m excited to be here.
[00:03:00] Kristina: Thank you. So can you just tell our lovely writers who are tuning in who you are and a little bit about what you do.
[00:03:07] C.L.Peache: Okay. So as I say, my name is C L Peache. Um, and I basically write anything my characters make me write. So, um, I’m not one of these people who stick to one genre, because it just depends what I feel like writing and what they make write. So I’ve written fantasy, I’ve just published a second in my series. I write, um, horror, thrillers, romance, yeah, anything else. I enjoy writing whatever comes comes to the fore and just be creative a bit.
[00:03:45] Kristina: Awesome. Some of your books are published through the Saga Fiction app, right?
[00:03:49] C.L.Peache: Yes. That’s correct. Yeah.
[00:03:51] Kristina: So how does publishing via Saga Fiction differ from other forms of publication?
[00:03:57] C.L.Peache: So I would say it’s more immediate. I mean, obviously nowadays with Kindle and everything, you, you can, Kobo, you can publish straight away. So, but I would say that the process from you writing your book, editing your book, and getting it out to readers is a lot quicker.
[00:04:15] C.L.Peache: Um, so I would say that’s the difference. So it’s more immediate on the app and, um, because I don’t really have much patience with waiting years to get published. Once I’ve written a story I like it just to be out there. So, yeah. So that is the difference with having the app.
[00:04:34] Kristina: How do you find actually working with them as the publisher? Um, what’s your relationship like?
[00:04:41] C.L.Peache: Brilliant, really good. From the first point we were sort of introduced and I had a Zoom call with them to discuss them buying a couple of, cause I’d already published a couple of stories myself on Kindle. And then they decided to buy the rights to them to share on the app.
[00:04:59] C.L.Peache: And we’re, we have a fabulous relationship. They’re so lovely, we always have a really good giggle uh, when we’re on zoom calls, and I feel really comfortable with them as a, as a publisher, because I know they’re going to look after my work, which is really important. And they’re really passionate about my stories. Um, so yeah, it’s great.
[00:05:21] Kristina: That’s really lovely. Um, do they publish it all at once or is it a bit like something like Radish where the reader can get access to a chapter and then they pay a bit more for the next chapter and they pay a bit more for the next chapter, et cetera.
[00:05:33] C.L.Peache: Yeah. Uh, they do a selection of those. So they do do some full length novels , they do do some episodes, which like you say, some, sometimes they release them all at once, Sometimes it’s each week. It just depends on the story. Um, so that’s something I’d never written for before. Um, because obviously you’d then have to think about your chapter lengths and things like that when you’re doing releasing an episode rather than one whole novel or a short story.
[00:05:59] Kristina: Has it changed your writing process in any way because of things like that?
[00:06:03] C.L.Peache: I would say so, yeah, because you, you do have to think more. Um, I mean, obviously, I don’t know, you, you try and keep a certain chapter length in mind anyway, I think when you’re writing. Well, I do. Um, but so with that, definitely I had to make sure, more than the editing process I suppose, I had to make sure that there were a certain length.
[00:06:25] C.L.Peache: Obviously you can go slightly over slightly under. But if people are paying for an episode, they’ll have an expectation of a length. So we do try and, and even one of the books we went over slightly. So we just created more episodes for that story.
[00:06:40] Kristina: What’s the editorial process like? How much of a say, do they get, how much creative control do you get?
[00:06:46] C.L.Peache: I got a lot. I mean, I know some people don’t get quite as much, but I get a say on, on everything really. And so generally what we do is I will send them the first copy, Uh, they will then read through, they’ll make, um, uh, edits on the storyline, et cetera. Um, and then we’ll go back and forth with comments and things like that.
[00:07:08] C.L.Peache: Um, but I always get a say on the title. They will then email me copies of the covers that they’ve done and I’ll, I’ll get a say on what I like, what I don’t like. So it’s a really nice process because I feel like I’m involved in all of it.
[00:07:22] C.L.Peache: So far, we haven’t fallen out. So that’s really good when someone said that don’t like something or they do like something, we generally say, ‘Why?’ You know, because obviously they’re come, coming from it from maybe a slightly different angle to me, because they’ve got their, their whole Saga Fiction publishing house to think of. And generally they have a certain style. Um, so that’s something I have to keep in mind if I don’t like something that they might be doing it for a reason.
[00:07:53] Kristina: Yeah. When it comes to actually publishing through an app, then are the stories, um, exclusive to the app or are they also available on other platforms? How does that work and how do you feel about it?
[00:08:06] C.L.Peache: So, so far, uh, All the stories that they’ve had have always been exclusively on their app, but they have recently, uh, oh, well are going to branch out into, um, Kindle versions. So there will, by the time this podcast goes out, I think the first two or three will be available now, um, on Kindle.
[00:08:27] C.L.Peache: So that that’s just something they’re going to try as well as having the, um, the app. Um, I mean, I love new projects. So for me to get on board with like, you know, they’re both really strong female, you know, um, entrepreneurs creating their own app and, have a real passion for books and readers. So it was really exciting to be involved with the project right from the beginning.
[00:08:51] C.L.Peache: But equally that’s a lot of work because, you know, getting your name out there when you’re up against you know, and Kindle, Kobo, everyone knows them, everyone uses them. Um, so it’s nice to be having a story on both really.
[00:09:06] C.L.Peache: And, and generally, because I am self-published we, we talk about options for new stories. So, um, if I’ve got a new one, I will basically send them a draft idea for it. And they will say whether they want to publish it or not. And then equally we have had talks about, because I love ebooks,, but I, you know, paperbacks. It’s, you know, Everyone loves a paperback. And, and currently, you know, obviously that’s not available on their app. Um, but I hope, maybe in the future, they’ll do that through Kindle. Um, so, and some of my books, I just want the paperback version for them. So, um, at the moment, there’s a possibility with future books that I might have the option to self-publish a paperback, but they might option, the ebook version.
[00:09:54] Kristina: Cool. So what’s your favourite part of publishing through an app?
[00:09:59] C.L.Peache: I think, as we said earlier, it’s just how immediate is. It’s how quick it’s, it’s available and it’s quite exciting having your stories on, like, your own app, you know, so, yeah. And, and there’s a lot of development going on with the app in terms of, they want it to be really reader focused so that you’ll be able, so at the moment, you can comment on there and, and, and, you know, say what you think of the book. But then the idea is that the author can comment back. So you get a bit more of an experience rather than, so say, I’m wonder if the other online ones you’ll just leave a review, you know. Where as this, hopefully they’ll develop the interaction, which I think will be quite nice.
[00:10:40] Kristina: Yeah. I think that kind of interaction can’t really be overstated because regardless of whether it’s on an app or on social media or email, or even in person, it makes you feel more human to the reader, which creates that attachment, makes them want to come back, makes them want to recommend there books.
[00:10:58] C.L.Peache: Yeah, exactly. It really does make a difference. Cause I’m the same. You know, I, I, watched and been to loads of, um, you know, events with authors, and you might look at the book and you might think, oh, well, I’m not sure. I don’t know for fancy that. But then when you get to know them as a person, oh yeah, I’m definitely going to buy the book just because I really liked the author.
[00:11:18] C.L.Peache: So, you know, it is important to have that, you know, connection with the reader because, you know, they’re just as important as the writer.
[00:11:27] Kristina: Definitely. How much marketing do you do compared to your publisher? And what sorts of marketing do you do and find works the best?
[00:11:38] C.L.Peache: I do, basically whatever I can fit in, because like most writers, I also work and have a couple of jobs, so it’s very tricky. The, the marketing is the part that I think is the hardest. Because it’s so time-consuming. And to learn how to market yourself, what looks right and which platform you use, and, you know, there’s so many options, um. So, I’m really grateful to my publisher because they do an amazing job with all the publishing that they do on Instagram, on Facebook, on Twitter. Um, so they make we generally what we’ll do before a book’s due to be published, we’ll have a Zoom call and we’ll talk through the options of what they’re planning to do, when they’re going to launch, et cetera, and their ideas around marketing. They keep trying to talk me into doing a vlog, which I’m resisting.
[00:12:25] Kristina: Why are you resisting?
[00:12:27] C.L.Peache: It’s not my thing being in front of the camera. So we’ve compromised by me doing some audio things on Instagram. Um, so yeah, so I’ve been resisting that just because they find me really entertaining. So they just want me to make them laugh, I think really. But…,
[00:12:45] Kristina: Hey that’s good marketing. People have launched careers on TikTok from being funny on there.
[00:12:49] C.L.Peache: I know, I know. So, and I say, yeah, the keep talk him into doing that.
[00:12:53] C.L.Peache: But yeah, so the market is very different and, um, when they do it, it’s really… I must admit with self publishing as well is so much easier and having someone doing your marketing for you. Because on busy days, um, when I’m at work and I don’t have time, at least I can just share some things that they’ve put out there.
[00:13:13] C.L.Peache: Um, so that it all helps, doesn’t it? You know, what ever you can do, uh, makes a difference. Cause hopefully someone will see it and be interested.
[00:13:23] Kristina: Yeah, definitely. What types of marketing do you personally like or find effective?
[00:13:30] C.L.Peache: I liked, well, liked them all really, for different reasons. I suppose. Instagram obviously, for the pictures and the reels and things like that. Um, that I like the visual of it, but also I like the interaction you can get on Twitter because you can talk to people, et cetera. I think I’ve come away from Facebook a little bit. I still use that, but I would, I would say, and at one point I use Twitter loads and then I moved to Instagram. So I think it sort of depends really, but, um, I mean you have different readers and different people you talk to, I find, on each platform as well. So you can get support from different people on different platforms. Um, but I mean, I’m certainly no expert in marketing and mine generally is just right, okay, I’ve got five minutes. Let’s just put a post on Instagram. I’ve tried spreadsheets and I’ve tried planning and it doesn’t work for me.
[00:14:27] C.L.Peache: Um, because as well, I think when I put something on social media, I want to be able to respond. So it, because we’re all used to getting immediate feedback. So I don’t want to just schedule a post out there. Five hours later, I can look, and reply to someone. Um, so yeah, I haven’t really got a marketing strategy.
[00:14:48] Kristina: Yeah, I’m quite bad at having one, but I try, like, I’ve got, um, my Janet Murray content planner next to me, and I’m going to get someone on board to help me with it. Just because I want to be more organized and having so many social media accounts, it gets a bit much.
[00:15:04] C.L.Peache: Oh yeah. It is, it can be really draining. I think that, uh, I find myself getting a bit overwhelmed, you know? I mean, I love lists, I love spreadsheets, I love all that kind of thing. But then I do it and then I found I didn’t, something happened, I didn’t have time to do it. And then I felt anxious about it. And, um, I thought social media should be fun, you know. At the end of the day, if, if I don’t get a book sale because I’ve not done a right Twitter thing, well, I don’t. And I’ve just got to accept that, you know, and you know, you’ve just got to do, it’s all about enjoying it for me. I want to enjoy the process. I don’t want it to feel like a job.
[00:15:45] Kristina: Yeah. I think one of the things I’ve noticed from engaging with other authors and also from some of the client work that I do is that as soon as people think that they’re marketing themselves or their business on social media, they lose sight of the social aspect of it.
[00:16:00] C.L.Peache: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:16:02] Kristina: Just start talking at people instead of to people.
[00:16:05] C.L.Peache: Yeah. Yeah. That’s uh, I mean, like I’ve said earlier to you, I am very guilty of sometimes just thinking, oh, I’ve not advertised my book for a week, let’s put a post on. But that doesn’t really get you any sales. Because you need to interact with people and make friends with people and, and build that connection with them.
[00:16:23] Kristina: Yeah, I get more sales from sharing Millie pictures than anything else.
[00:16:28] C.L.Peache: I haven’t got dog or something. I’ve got a dragon, I could use a dragon, or something like that maybe. I’ll try it. Talking dragon instead of talking to myself.
[00:16:44] Kristina: How is the experience of reading through an app different for readers compared to if they sit down with a physical book, or an audio book, or they’re reading on an eReader?
[00:16:56] C.L.Peache: Well, I think in terms of the app, because they’ve developed it quite a lot, you can do all the things you can do with like a Kindle or Kobo in terms of changing the size and all that kind of thing. And what you read it on. So, I mean, I must admit, I, I, and I read, I love paperbacks. I think paperbacks are probably my first love, if I had to choose one. But I always have a couple of ebooks, something on the saga fiction app. Cause I’m usually reading one of the other authors and books. Um, but then I listen to audio books as well.
[00:17:30] C.L.Peache: So I think you get a different experience from each one. In an e-book you can’t always tell what, where you are in the book. Um, whereas you can in a paper book. And I think that sometimes you get more a sense of urgency when you come into the end of a paperback, because you can feel the thin pages are getting less. Um, but yeah, I, I sort of know some people say well never, you know, listen to any, you know, um, read any book, I’ll never do this. But you get something different from all of them, you know? And also we are, in the early stages of selling our house and planning to live on a canal boat. So a Kindle, and a, and an app, will be very useful for books because I won’t, I won’t be able to have as many paperbacks.
[00:18:24] C.L.Peache: So you, if you live in a small space, an app is brilliant.
[00:18:30] Kristina: It is. And I think also it see immediacy of it sometimes, you don’t have to wait for delivery, or when you can go to the book shop.
[00:18:37] C.L.Peache: Exactly.
[00:18:38] C.L.Peache: Like you pay, it’s there, you can read it.
[00:18:41] C.L.Peache: Yeah. Yeah. That’s right. Yeah, because let’s face it, none of us like waiting, especially when you see a book that you’re really want. I want it now.
[00:18:49] Kristina: Yeah. I switched to reading more digitally when I was traveling a lot. Like to and from work because I was worried about a book getting damaged in my bag, but also they can be quite heavy.
[00:19:03] C.L.Peache: Definitely
[00:19:04] Kristina: When you’re already carrying around your medication, and your work laptop, and your purse, your lunch, and whatever else you, put a book on top of that it can get quite a lot.
[00:19:16] C.L.Peache: Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Okay. And then often if I go on a train journey, sometimes just want to stare out the window, so you can listen to an audio book. So there’s, you know, there’s, there’s plenty of, you know. Uh, I, I like say I like all forms of reading. At the end of the day you’re reading. Yeah. Whichever platform you use.
[00:19:37] Kristina: Yeah. A story is a story, but we do process them differently depending on the type of story. Like I got to admit I can’t do audio books. No. Um, Ellie absolutely loves them and listens to them more than she reads, but like I daydream and then miss things because I need visual cues. I just need something to look at.
[00:19:58] Kristina: And like, if I’m listening to a podcast, I’ll usually be doing that like when I’m cleaning or out with the dog, but an audio book just feels like a massive undertaking to my brain and it can’t like finish a chapter or an episode while I’m out or busy. So a podcast is easier for me cause it’s shorter.
[00:20:16] Kristina: Like I’ve tried audio books and I think I did, I think I finished two.
[00:20:20] C.L.Peache: Oh, wow.
[00:20:21] Kristina: I just, I never finished the others.
[00:20:23] C.L.Peache: I think I’m just about to, I’ve just got my latest credit and I’m just about to download it. And I’ve been my two hundredth audio book.
[00:20:33] Kristina: Look, I understand that great. My, I used to get them from my Nan because she was blind. And although she wouldn’t listen to them on CD, she wanted them on cassette, which kind of limited me, because she was stuck in the nineties. I actually said to her like, oh, I can get you this book on audio. Do you want to try it? Yeah. Yeah. It said it’s on CD and she’s like, no, I don’t want it. Yeah.
[00:20:57] C.L.Peache: Oh bless. But yeah. Audiobooks are, I think, um, as well, it’s interesting in a book group, when you have a discussion, if someone’s listened to the audio, someone’s read their ebook and someone’s read the paperback, people can get a really different feeling and sometimes think, oh, I wish I had, I wish I’d listened to that. I wish I’d read it. Because I think I would have got a better experience, but equally that’s in reverse as well for some things.
[00:21:26] Kristina: Yeah. Or if you get the wrong narrator, it can make or break a book. Like I remember my boyfriend downloaded a nonfiction book once thinking it’d be kind of cool that it was read by the author. It was like, I couldn’t get past like the first few sentences because he read it in a monotone.
[00:21:40] C.L.Peache: Oh, no.
[00:21:41] Kristina: But then like, Ellie’s been listening to the Dresden Files in audiobook and it’s narrated by James Marsters. So she gets to picture Spike from Buffy as the main character. And he’s got a really animated voice.
[00:21:53] C.L.Peache: Yeah. Yeah. I always listen to a little snippet before I buy it.
[00:21:56] Kristina: You never know. All right. One question we ask everyone is what’s one book that changed your life.
[00:22:03] C.L.Peache: I’d have to go with The Hobbit. My very battered, yellow copy that I’ve had for about, I don’t know. I won’t even confess how many decades I’ve owned this book. Seeing if it’s got a date in it. Bought in 1986 it says. Um, so I think that’s obviously where my love of fantasy comes from.
[00:22:30] C.L.Peache: Um, but this was the book, our form tutor at school, uh, read to us. Um, so we were allowed to lie on our table, we could lie on the floor, we could lie on the window ledge, we could take our socks off. You could literally, you could do whatever you want and you just read the Hobbit to us. And it was, yeah, it was so amazing. It was so like, it’s always stayed with me. Um, yeah. And it’s just, well, it’s just amazing.
[00:23:02] Kristina: That sounds like just a really good way to enjoy the book. Yeah,
[00:23:07] C.L.Peache: Yeah, yeah. And it, cause it wasn’t like sit at your desk and listen to me read. And um, you know, it was really an experience. Because how many, normally, you know, you’re going class and you get told off, you’ve got to sit properly on your chair. Don’t know if they still do that nowadays. But they did in my day. And, yeah, so that that’s always stayed with me, that memory of listening to that. And then I went, because at school we used to go, if you did well, we used to get commendations and then you could take those to the school library and buy a book.
[00:23:44] C.L.Peache: Yeah. So they had like a little shop attached to the library where you could go and buy. And so I went and bought The Hobbit.
[00:23:50] Kristina: We didn’t really have any sort of reading time where I was at school. They tried to encourage you to read, but didn’t really give you any guidance to find certain things. And we had story time, like a couple of times, I think when I was in year three, so it was about seven or eight and the teacher read The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, but she never finished reading it to us. And I never finished it. So still haven’t finished it now.
[00:24:15] C.L.Peache: That was one of the my early books as well. Sort of around this time, and then I moved on to the Dragonlance series and read all of those. So yeah, lot of fantasy influence early on.
[00:24:26] Kristina: Where can our listeners go if they want to find out more about you?
[00:24:29] C.L.Peache: So I have a website, erm, clpeache.com. Um, I’m usually hanging around on Instagram, same handle, @clpeache, and Twitter and Facebook. So I always love chatting with people. I’m a bit of a big networker. I say network because it sounds more serious than just gossiping and chatting
[00:24:56] C.L.Peache: So, yeah. I love chatting with people, anything to do with reading, writing, books. I like encouraging new people. So, uh, it’s, it’s quite funny with Saga Fiction because anyone who has approached them about being, you know, on their app, they usually message me and say, oh, what are they like? So I said to Saga the need to sort of, you know, I need like a commission or something at some point for telling them how nice they are.
[00:25:25] Kristina: Definitely. Thank you so much for joining us. This has been a really fun chat.
[00:25:30] C.L.Peache: Um, lovely to see you. And thanks for having me.
[00:25:32]
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