BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//InvisionCommunity Events 4.7.23//EN METHOD:PUBLISH CALSCALE:GREGORIAN REFRESH-INTERVAL:PT15M X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT15M X-WR-CALNAME:RMCommunityCalendar NAME:RMCommunityCalendar BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/London TZURL:http://tzurl.org/zoneinfo/Europe/London X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/London BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST DTSTART:20250330T020000Z RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=-1SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT DTSTART:20251026T020000Z RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=10;BYDAY=-1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:KWL Live Q&A: Music\, Love and Storytelling with Xio Axelrod 02/27/2025 DTSTAMP:20250227T220123Z SEQUENCE:0 UID:208-7-c3fe8195a3dde498d013e477e2142422@aalbc.com ORGANIZER;CN="richardmurray":troy@aalbc.com DESCRIPTION:\n KWL Live Q&\;A: Music\, Love and Storytelling with Xio Axelrod\n\n description\n\n The Kobo Writing Life team invites you to joi n us on February 27th from 12:00 PM-1:00 PM EST for a new Live Q&\;A.  KWL director Tara and KWL author engagement manager Laura will chat to b estselling author Xio Axelrod.\n\n uniform resource locator\n\n https://ww w.youtube.com/watch?v=ziAHLKI6wzU\n\n\n\n video\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n Xio Axelrod\n\n https://xioaxelrod.com/\n\n\n\n MY TRANSCRIPT\n\n\n\n 00:02:00 \nTara: how did music industry help you in the publishing?\nXio: Her dad i s a successful songwriter. She loves rock\, her father is in rhythm and bl ues. Brought guerilla marketing tactics from indie music publishing into l iterary publishing industry.\n00:04:00\nTara: What specifically did you br ing from the music industry?\nXio: She felt literary publishing was ahead of music space. In the music industry indie artist didn't have as much suc cess at the time.  She feels things like Boom going into indie writers ba cklist\, and feels that may occur in the music industry. Both have many si milarities.\n00:06:00 \nLaura: What has been different in the industries? \nXio: In music industry \, not alot of peer support. You usually don't se e musicians saying i like that album too but you see it in literature\n00: 07:00 \nTara: what was challenges when you started?\nXio: A huge learning curve to getting book out there. I needed cover art. She did her own cove rs/editing\, what you tell new authors not to do. She was building her web site and merch. Hardest part was reaching out to other people. She spent a bout a year\, she thought it would be a side gig\, watching other indie au thors do what they did\, cross promotion marketing.\n00:09:00 \nTara: Wha t did you think of with pen names and website\nXio: She had her pen name a nd website before she started. She interviewed authors on her blog and pro moting her work. And she had authors saying you shouldn't do that. \n00:1 0:00 \nTara from Mauritzio\nDo you have any advice for an author who has published his first book\, especially for promotion?\nXio: Promoting other s will get you known\, and then when it is your turn \, they will help.   She told another author Bluesky is where it is at. Cross promotion matters . Good luck out there.\nLaura: I think cross promotion with authors who do the same genre as you \n00:12:00\nLaura: can you explain what a hybrid a uthor is?\nXio: She made eight books as an author before she signed a cont ract. she wanted to expand out\, she spent her money on events\, not adver tisements. Source books approached her. She knew when you signed a traditi onal contract you have to give up some things. She thinks she is just find ing it now. From the pandemic doing event after event\, it is busier with success while still writing. She hasn't released a full indie in a few yea rs. For her it is taking the time to write the book.\n00:15:00\nTara: Did she think she will have influence once signed?\nXio: Growing up\, she knew \, that  a record label deal was not wise\, from various people in the in dustry. But when she hit the wall\, you can't get into bookshelves\, or th is or that store\, you need to sign a contract. IF she can get someone whe re she can do what she wants while also signed . She is fortunate.\n00:17: 00 \nTara: Readers don't follow the books\nXio: She tells readers the mor e recent books are not her first. She has to get some old books back to pr int. \n00:18:00 \nTara: Can you walk us through your writing process? \ nXio: She does a lot of daydreaming. Xiovision. All of her characters live with her all the time. The scene will play over and over in her head and then she will write. She knows authors who get up is four in the morning a nd then they write to six. She does it day to day. Some days marketing\, o ther days writing. She always consumes content. If she is on deadline\, sh e turns off the phone on certain days. Surrounds herself with the art that helps her. Everyone has their own process. Her's is haphazard\, no day is like the day before.\n00:20:00\nTara: YOu do alot of events\, do you writ e on the road?\nXio: No \, at an event she goes to an event mode. She thin ks how many stickers she has for the table. Until the pandemic\, she didn' t know what process she needs. Her husband took over her office. The girl with stars in her eyes\, was the hardest book. She knows now\, if she want s to write\, no package\, no deliveries\, so she can sink into her story.\ n00:22:00 \nLaura: What is your favorite film score to write to?\nXio: JA ne Eyre. She likes the soundtrack from the Piano. Any music with lyrics sh e can't use. But if love scene or fighting scene\, she has five hundred so unds on her playlist. She writes playlist for every book she writes. \n00 :24:00\nLaura: What are your thoughts to audiobooks\, does she have any?\n Xio: She does. 2015 she thinks she should do this audio thing. She looked at catalog but not alot of romance. And she put up the money and it earned out. She encourages people to do audio\, if you can get someone else to p ay for it better\, but she listens to audio exclusively now. \nLaura: her standards in audio are higher for background in music?\nXio: She finds au thors through the narrators. She asked who can she afford\, in the beginni ng. And then she started writing characters for various voices. \nGirls w ith Bad Reputations\, the characters were written with those voice authors in mind. A bad audio performance can ruin a book for her. \n00:27:00 \n Laura: how do you approach genre blending?\nXio: Write the book you want t o read? She was reading anne rice\, she didn't read romance into she actua lly wrote one. In \"girl's with bad reputations\" she wrote a scene that w as a little wild\, the editor questioned\, but she said\, it is alright. B ut throwing all the tropes and things she love in the blender\, she can do it. it took nine months and two hundred chapters on my blog and it happen ed\n00:29:00\nLAura: what are your favorite tropes?\nXio: Rivals to lovers . She doesn't approach books with tropes in mind? She had a book with many . Microtropes is having a big moment. Microtropes is the lifesblood of fa n fiction\n00:30:00\nTara: Your favorite microtrope?\nXio: hue falls\, she was a fanfic panel. Someone on the panel said she knows Xio writes fanfic tion cause she manages the buffy fanfic lbrary.\n00:32:00\nTara: Did you b uild this with your publisher?\nXio: Initially the Lilly was one book in h er head. When they approached about writing a series she can write a book for each girl. She was into this show called SKAN. It was very addictive\, they had clips \, like messages between characters. I can't do that with a book\, but she can make similar. They have their own websites\, book\, e social sites\, the Lilyverse. \n00:34:00\nTara: Do you write the esocial of the various characters?\nXio: Yes\, she does\, she doesn't sleep. If sh e let someone else control\, they would have more content. But it helps to write them to get inside their head.\n00:35:00 \nTara: would you let oth ers try to work in the universe?\nXio: We will see what source says. It ha s huge potential but we will see\, and she owns her earlier work that some one did something from. We will see. \n00:36:00\nTara: Would you need to compile a Lillyverse wiki\nXio: She was thinking about having a series bib le. A series bible will help but she will need to sit down.\n00:37:00\nTar a: Do you worry about easter eggs with having the various characters socia l?\nXio: I don't think she has posted anything that isn't outside the stor y. \n00:38:00\nTara: Any merchandise you have or most memorable?\nXio: Fo r the lilly series I have stickers. But she knew she would have alot of me rch for the lilies with shirts for the concerts\, album covers. She will s ell shirts at Philadlephia convention. She gets giddy when fans love the l ilies. She gets bracelets with the characters names and she gets magnets. She tells authors to find another point of contact with readers. Find a wa y to connect to another level\n00:40:00\nTara: Do you take advice from rea ders on how to write?\nXio: No\, she likes feedback from the fanfic times but don't like all the people telling you what to do. Fans killed her pass ion for a story with their demands or desires on where it should go. She w ants the lilies to be from where she wants. The training ground of fanfict ion teaches you to stray away from fans desires to the future. \n00:42:00 \nLaura: Any advice to indies for marketing their books\nXio: She knows ma ny indie authors do good work with advertisements but she likes events esp ecially reader events. Everything is so tied to social media\, and you nev er know what channel will work best. Figure out what is going on behind th e scene and in romance authors are not averse to share information. She be longs to the authors guild as well. Marketing is tough\, algorithm suppres s what isn't paid for. \n00:44:00\nTara: Do you focus on newsletters\nXio : It is a chore for her to do a newsletter. Whenever she sits down to do a newsletter it sounds like corporate speak. She turned the newsletter over to her publishers. Get started early with newsletter. She tries to make t he Lillies to independent. They have their own page on facebook. A fan sai d they would go to a place\, that wasn't real. The temptation is to make i t real. Sheet music exists on the back of the books. She can't wait to see people make covers\, of the lilies work. \n00:47:00\nTara: you mentioned the tenth anniversary of her book the callum\nXio: She has always struggl ed with imposter syndrome. You can feel a failure when others are celebrat ing huge deals. She wished she learned early on to celebrate the wins of p ublishing a book and having others read her work. Work with your emotions and then get back to work. Be healthy emotionally. She wished she had lear ned early. It is great to have authors around you\, have author friends. T hey will celebrate you and if they don't they are not your friends. People had said you did this or that and she had forgotten. And she remembered f or her tenth anniversary\n00:51:00\nTara: What was fans reaction to the se ries?\nXio: Fans were happy. Her neighbor was one of her first readers. Sh e got all teary with new stuff. She hopes fans of the lilly series\, and s he hopes they entertain her revisited book.\n00:52:00 \nLaura: any upcomi ng projects\nXio: Double deadline \, writing tiff's story\, the base playe r. Follow up to love on the Byeline\, comes out later this year. It isn't quite as heavy. It will be interesting to continue this story of two frien ds. \n00:53:00\nTara: any events in the future\nXio: A polycon in April\, doing romancecon this year\, She will be quite a few places. She will be traveling not as much as last year. She is doing London and Vancouver. In book three the Lillies will be doing their first world tour so she will do research.\n\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n UNANSWERED QUESTIONS FROM ME\n\ n SI she pusblished internationally\, has any of her books been translated ?\n\n Have you considered a character dying in the books and how would yo u handle their esocial?\n\n\n\n Xio Axelrod website [ https://xioaxelrod.c om/ ]\n\n Xio Axelrod on Kobo [ https://www.kobo.com/ww/en/search?query=xi o+axelrod&\;fclanguages=en ]\n\n Xio Axelrod merch [ https://xioverse-m erch.creator-spring.com/ ] \n\n Xio Axelrod book [ https://xioaxelrod.com /books ] \n\n Xio Axelrod appearances [ https://xioaxelrod.com/appearance s ] \n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n 03012026\n\n\n\n Citation\n\n\n\n https://aalbc.c om/tc/topic/12559-is-music-fading-as-a-storytelling-avenue-among-black-peo ple/#findComment-80484\n\n\n\n osted just now\n\n\n\n Thank you all:) \n \n\n\n @ProfD @aka Contrarian @Pioneer1 \n\n\n\n your all correct that the commercial aspect of the music industry has pushed music to be leisure ly heard or commonly known that fits the high frequency rate of modern com munication plus the boring \, as in grinded in not dull\, nature of modern communication\n\n\n\n While @Delano you are also correct and they concu r that while one may have to be more an aficianado or put more work into t he quality in which they listen\, storytelling will never be completely de ad in music and modern artists are still making storytelling songs with th e same intention of those musicians in the past who told stories that open ed imaginations with a tempo. \n\n DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250227 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;INTERVAL=1 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR