Clare Lydon talk with Kobo writing life team

[richardmurray]

The Kobo Writing Life team invites you to join us on June 27th from 12:00 PM-1:00 PM EST for an exciting Pride-filled live Q&A event with author Clare Lydon. KWL director Tara and author engagement manager Laura will chat with Clare for an hour filled with insightful conversation around writing queer love stories.

 

MY questions
I wonder what Clare's favorite representation of lesbians are in literature or movies?
0:43:00
jj arias, 
her own book
https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/before-you-say-i-do-10

Did you try university presses circa 2013? Did they reject them to?

what is the book goes against formula?
https://www.kobo.com/ww/en/ebook/it-started-with-a-kiss-33

Interview q and a
0:14:00  what are challenges for lesbian writers
she says many , she gets many homophobic 
0:15:00 she was part of a independent writers conference and met a group of women called, later life lesbians
They said they are reading characters they don't see anywhere else
0:16:00 It is important for people who are not queer to read these books, she has read many straight books

Your books having a happy ending seemed not normal
0:17:00 when I was growing up, the lesbians were all really said. They were good at motorbikes. 
They always had to be sad or struggling. She had emails from people age 15 to 19 that read her books and were amazed this is something that can happen. She always encourages people to write more queer stories. 

What makes a perfect kiss scene?
0:20:00 It is a challenge. For kissing for me is more important than the first sex scene, it is when the two characters make that first connection. IT is not only the physical barriers but the mental barriers. They are crucial to the plot like a fight scene in an action story. Romance novels do follow a formula. 

Are their any first kiss scenes you struggle with?
0:22:00 she struggles with sex scenes though she is with a friend who said she loves writing sex scenes, but it is strange that kiss scenes are harder

How do you structure your writing around a book?
0:23:00 from about book 4 or 5 I plan it out. It is not fixed, she plans out. I am quite unusual. Many research online. But she likes to talk to people. She wrote a book that involved a Christmas tree farm and talked to a guy who had a Christmas tree farm... and she sent him the book after.

What marketing do you think works best, what marketing works best for queer as opposed to mainstream?
0:26:00 my main marketing stuff is my newsletter. She started it 2003 , it is her core marketing, how she gets to her readers, every two weeks. what books she read, I ask them a question and they reply. Then everytime I release a book, it is a great form of marketing and connection.
I do facebook ads. In 2016 she signed up but putting lesbian didn't get the right readers to her book, but now that they changed their targeting, it changes, but she also gets a lot of homophobic comments from around the world. 
Social media can be good. She is active in Instagram, facebook and just started TikTok. 
In her view, the best marketing is to write the next book, more people find you every time you do. She does podcast. She did podcast for ten years in different guises and just stopped
Clare's newsletter
https://www.clarelydon.co.uk/newsletter-sign-up/

You were the cohost for lesbians who write fiction...the cool thing about podcast is ever green content but after 200 episodes why did it end
0:29:00 we did it for five years and they felt them repeating. But their time became more busy. She believes if you want something new you have to give space to it. And as she gets older she wants to do less but never wants to write less. I am not saying I will never do it again, but just having a break.
Lesbians who write podcast
https://lesbianswhowrite.com/

Is it deliberate or natural, do you market as a series or a coincidence that someone can read one book and stop right out
0:32:00 She has more standalone books than series. She had so many people asking for a kate story, she is a secondary character. She will start her own shopify store, but her books are standalone. She is a standalone author who happens to write series. 

Do you find it hard to balance fan request for what you want to write? 
0:35:00 You have to learn to stick up for what you want to do. You also have to look at the commercial. Some people may want but others may not. In 

LAurie, what are the common misconceptions straight writers should avoid or be wary when writing queer
0:36:00 I think people go into it thinking of it too complicated, think about it commonly, put yourself in their shoes. 

Is connecting with other writers important?
0:37:00 Yeah, in where she was recently, she met with other sapphic writers and they had a laugh. It is very important, work colleagues, people comprehending what you doing
It is a very non competitive space. 

How did hotshot come off, you you plan to write more sport romances?
0:38:00 She is a huge football fan. Seeing the rise of women's football has given her such joy. I didn't even know it would do that. I remember, in Canada. She remembers her nieces playing football, soccer for you guys. She is a Tottenham hotspurs ticket holder, she became a Tottenham womens season ticket holder and after she saw the womens euros with her wife when England won she was inspired. People have asked for 
She wrote a story where a bridesmaid falls in love with the bride

Are you really enjoying the genre, will you do others? 
0:42:00 she can't see herself writing other things. she enjoys writing romance, she can't see herself writing any other, her wife will like her to write detective. 

Would you like your books to go before the silver screen?
0:45:00 She thinks the book with the bridesmaid getting in love with the bride will make a great movie. She met someone. 
I kissed a girl, is a lesbian reality show. 
Before she was a novelist she wrote screenplays. She never had any done but she has written them.

Do you have any advice for an author starting out now and readers for queer stories?
0:46:00 now the market is hungry than ever for queer stories. It isn't too late. as more books enter the marker and more come to you. I am getting people coming to me who never found me before. If you are an inspiring writer. Don't get caught up in perfection. the book in my head is very shiny and the result is not that. They ideas always come out differently when they get to paper. and it does take courage for parts of you to come out into the world, and don't get caught into perfection. 
Find out what you want to write and find out what people want to read and the overlap is the sweet spot. 
She is going to up her TikTok game. 

Do you think social media should start before or after you have books written?
0:49:00 I wish she had started earlier on social media. You need a group of readers who want to buy your book. They give encouragement and cheerleaders. it is a solitary job. She has sixty or seventy people on her reading team

What are your thoughts on tropes , in marketing?
0:50:00 Tropes in show, she heard that before, she published "before you say i do" 
she heard about microtropes. If you love writing and you have readers you will have mini tropes, romantic walk on the beach. 
I always know the overarching trope
https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/before-you-say-i-do-10

Is your favorite one the fake dating?
0:53:00 She likes the fake dating trope. 

What are you currently writing and for the rest of the year?
0:54:00 She is writing Christmas book this year, every other year a Christmas book. She will go on safari, and she will go on to the football book. 

Where people can find you?
0:55:00 
https://www.clarelydon.co.uk/
free novella waiting for you , in the next newsletter

URL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlOEDRLgS-0