Join me today as I talk with Lis Shaughnessy, found of the Writing Retreat Sampler. Lisa has taken it upon herself to not only find the writing retreats offered around the world, but to interview the hosts and bring all the links to one place, WritingRetreatSampler.com so that writers can have a better way of discovering the writing retreat for them! You can find interviews from the past and sign up to hear interviews from future writing retreat hosts (including me in July!) at her website https://writingretreatsampler.com/
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TRANSCRIPTION STARTS HERE:
Kat
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Pencils & Lipstick. I am talking today with Lisa Shaughnessy. Hi, Lisa, how are you doing?
Lisa
Good, Kat. Thanks so much for having me here. I’m really excited to be talking to you today.
Kat
Me too. I’m glad that we’re not just on email. We’re talking, with voices. Semi see each other. So I will go into how I found you and how we set this up and what we’re going to talk about. But could you introduce yourself a little bit to everyone?
Lisa
Sure. So I am doing my current business. It’s been an interesting journey. So I was in the Air Force. I was military for 20 years. And then I joined the government after that, because that’s what people do in the DC area. So I’m in the DC area and you just naturally slide into that. Well, even when I was in the military and the government, I did my own thing. I didn’t realize at the time that I was entrepreneurial in this construct of ultra rigidness. So I try to do my own thing. And people let me for the most part, which was interesting. And then they stopped letting me do it. I got a new boss and she was like, no, no. So I said, well, maybe the government isn’t for me anymore. And I said, I’m going to start my own business. So in 2012, I started helping fitness professionals do their social media. It was all new. Everybody’s trying to figure out what to do social media stuff. And I did that. And then it segueed into where I’ve actually always been professionally, which is processes, process improvement, and customer relationships. So I started helping small businesses put their processes together, help them get their business in shape, and also help them with those important follow up messages that nobody does because that’s where the business is. It’s great to make connections, but if you don’t follow up with anybody, they’re not going to go anywhere. You’re not going to grow your business. So I did that for a couple of years until I really got burnt out on that. And in 2018, I decided to stop everything completely and write full-time. So I have been researching my family history for years, and I found some interesting stories along the way. So I started writing those. And yeah, that’s what led me into my current thing. But I really enjoyed writing and saw that there was… I had more ideas in my head. I had more stories, not just family stories, but it kind of sparked this creative juice I didn’t know I had.
Kat
That’s so cool.
Lisa
Yeah. And so I just started writing stories. And then I know we’ll get into it. But I did that for a couple of years until I realized I needed some help. And that’s what led me to where I am now.
Kat
Okay, that’s so cool. So I found you through a friend who found your Facebook ad. So I know I said this off recording, but I really want to put together writing retreats because I think that, I’m going to say especially women, because we’re always were working. A lot of women have the home life, the kids, whatever, and writing is very difficult to do. We all know that we can get our half an hour here, half an hour there, but wouldn’t it just be lovely to have a whole week? Isn’t that everyone’s dream where you don’t have to cook, you don’t have to do anything. And so that is my dream. And so a friend of mine found your Facebook ad for this writing retreat sampler. And so that was in March or February of this year, I think.
Lisa
February. Yeah, probably February.
Kat
So you put together all these speakers who run writing retreats. And I was like, There are so many. It’s amazing. So how did you fall into this writing retreat sampler? That’s the name of the blog, correct? WritingRetreatSampler.com, which the link will be in the show notes below. But how did you get into bringing people together to let writers know that this is a possibility we can have this time?
Lisa
Well, it came from my writing. So as I segued from creative nonfiction for the family stories, which the stories were written already, I just had to make them more like, readable. And I took courses. I don’t know if it exists anymore, but the creative nonfiction something had classes. So I was learning how to write true stories, but in a fiction way. And then when my other creative ideas came and I was writing actual books, stories, actually they ended up being novellas because I realized I can’t write a lot. I’m good at a novella, I said what I had to say.
Kat
That’s good. Lots of people only want to read a novella.
Lisa
But then I realized I didn’t understand the story structure. I didn’t understand how… My first writings, of course, everybody’s are crap, right? You just get everything down. They didn’t read very well. They weren’t very compelling. So I started looking around to find ways to help me with that. And there were some courses. I actually hired a book coach, which was great. She was wonderful. Actually, it was an author accelerator book coach. Yes. Years ago, this must have been… This was like 2018, 2019, and she was amazing. She helped me so much really understand the inside outline and all those things, how everything relates. But I needed a little bit more. I wanted, like you said, that concentrated time to really dig into this and learn from other people. And so I started looking for writing retreats, and this was fall of 2019.
Kat
Oh, no.
Lisa
I know, right? So the first problem was; I found all these blog posts that had lists and lists of the 80 best writing retreats. So I was a process person and I get out my spreadsheet and I’m plugging in the name, the website information, and then I’m trying to compare the ones that I liked, and it was still frustrating. I’m still looking at a spreadsheet and it’s not easy to compare or see which ones might be best for me. So I let that go a minute because then we’re coming into the holidays and everything. So I thought, okay, well, after we get back from vacation, I’ll start in the new year. I will find a writing retreat in the new year.
Kat
Well, we all had plans in 2020, to do so much.
Lisa
We did have plans. So I did find some and then March hit, everything shut down. So no writing retreat. But I still wanted to eventually go on one. And there was still the problem that it was really difficult to find one. There were a couple sites that had writing retreats, but they weren’t… I don’t know. To me, it wasn’t easy to use them, and there weren’t that many on there.
Kat
No, I agree, because when I was doing research to set one up, it was really difficult to just see, like, to find it, to Google it. And Google is like the number one search engine, right? So you’re just trying to find, I don’t know if we don’t care about SEO in the writing world or what, but I wanted to know, like, the veterans who have been doing it for years, what works, what doesn’t. I couldn’t find it. I found maybe five.
Lisa
So my first part of this was I decided to create a writing retreat directory, which is not up yet. It’s very close. It should be up, maybe even by the time this airs, it should be up. So I started working with a developer, website developer, and started going through that road. And it got delayed a couple of times for various things. But this past August, I was making connections with a few writing retreat hosts, but I was really ready to get ready. I wanted to connect people. I wanted writers to find these writing retreats. I wanted writing retreat hosts to be successful. So I was really frustrated that I had no way to do that. And I was talking to Kent Sanders, who was actually one of my retreat host speakers at the February Sampler. And back in September, I was talking to him and he suggested an online summit. And I was like, a summit? I’ve never heard of that. So I Googled it, like I said, I Googled it and found this online summit model. And I thought, well, maybe I could make it work for retreat hosts. Maybe I could do stuff that would help them with their business or something like that just to get started. And I was talking to one of my brothers who’s much more visually creative than I am. And he said, well, why don’t you not do that, but connect writers with the writing retreat hosts. Don’t connect the writing retreat hosts with people who can help in their business. Connect the writers. That’s what you want, right? And I was like, oh, yeah.
Kat
It’s always good to talk things through with another person.
Lisa
Yeah, the brainstorming. You get ideas that you’ll never think of on your own. I would never have thought of that in a million years. So after we got off the phone call, I immediately bought the website domain, WritingRetreatSampler.com, because that’s the only thing I could think of to name it.
Kat
Naming things is so hard, but I think it’s a good name. But it’s so hard. It’s so permanent.
Lisa
I know. I know. I was like, Well, that’s it. It’s done. And I made the website over the weekend. I just got some hosting and got a WordPress site going, threw up some general things, put a sign up box if you want to get notified. I’m doing the sampler thing. And then I just started cold calling, cold pitching retreat hosts. I didn’t know anybody. Kent Sanders was the only person in the whole writing retreat world I knew. But I was like, no, I’m going to do this. Okay.
Kat
You found 15, though? There were a lot of people in February. And there.
Lisa
Were more that were asking me if they could participate, but I had to keep it low because for one thing, I didn’t know what I was doing, and this was all very new.
Kat
And we all lose interest, unfortunately, life happens. You can’t.
Lisa
I contacted everybody in November. I had them lined up, and then I had the free event in February.
Kat
It was very good. It was really good. It was super informative. I was really excited about it because the lady that I’m putting together our retreat in Spain, we had been trying to find this information. And one of the biggest things that I learned on that one is we had a schedule set up for our writing retreat, and almost everyone that presented and had been doing it for years. It was like, no schedule, more than two things. And we were like, okay, scrap. It was so wonderful to listen and to learn from them. But it was also wonderful to hear how many retreats there are in different places in the world. And that to me, I was just like, oh, my gosh, I really want to go on one now. There are amazing places to go to.
Lisa
Yeah. And it was great because I had people who were present from all over the world and attendees. Well, not too much all over the world, basically North America and Europe. But yeah, I had somebody in France, somebody in the UK, somebody here, but her retreat was in Iceland. Yeah, it was amazing to bring all these people together. So that’s what I do. My whole career, my whole personal and professional life has been connecting and bringing people together. So it just comes natural to me. I find people who need to be together, I’m like, okay, you have to be together. Let’s introduce each other. Let’s build a community because that’s more what I’m doing, is I want to obviously help writers and help writing retreat hosts. But I really want to build this community where writers can get all the help that they need. They can find products and services that help them because I have sponsors. So for this next iteration, I’m having sponsors. And that way when people come to the event, they can visit the sponsor booths and they can interact with them. They can see what they offer, how that might help them, make them think of things they might not even know exist. Because we know there’s a ton of things out there for writers and it can be overwhelming.
Kat
It can be very overwhelming. And like you said, especially if we are learning to write or we’re starting a new genre or we just want that extra help. It’s amazing to me how many writers don’t… I don’t know if they have looked for help and they can’t find it. So then they just like, okay, never mind, I don’t need it. Or they think that they don’t need it. I think I need it. I think I need some help. But I think it would be lovely to be in a place where the atmosphere itself is writing. You know what I mean? The ideas are there already. And like you were brainstorming with your brother, even talking to another writer, What should my character do? I’m stuck here. And the ideas that they might come up with will lead you to what you need to do. That just sounds amazing.
Lisa
Yeah, I love that. And that’s why I like writing retreats. People ask me, Have you been to a writing retreat? Are you a writing retreat host? And I say, no, I haven’t managed to actually get to a writing retreat yet, but I understand the power of them. I know that, like you said, that in-person connection, that one on one time, or that alone time. Because like you said, even if you’re trying to get a 30 minutes in here, there, the way I write, that takes me 30 minutes to get back into the groove. What was my character doing? What was the setting? What was the scene? What happened? What happened up till now again, where you have to get back into that mindset. So by the time you’re back in the mindset, the laundry bell has gone off or you have to go to carpool.
Kat
You got to make dinner again.
Lisa
Again, right? Why do we have to do that every night?
Kat
Yes. And it’s lovely. I know when I started writing and I was with the kids and I finally got all three of them into school, all of them. I was daycare, every… And so I had four hours and I still had all the things but I could think about only my book because that’s all that I… The other thing that I was doing, all, it takes so much mental capacity. But now that I have a business and all the other things and then the book is in the middle, like you said, it’s difficult to spend all your mental energy on that book. So then when you sit down, you have to do it. And so what a retreat does is helps you just stay in that zone, I assume, because I also have not been to one yet.
Lisa
Because morning, noon, and night, you wake up and you’re surrounded by other writers, even at a breakfast table or lunch or just enough. Even if you go on an excursion, a lot of retreats have… Not a lot, but some retreats have local places where you can visit. Even going down some unfamiliar road in a town and talking about something can spark an idea. So you’re immersed in it, and that’s the difference. You’re immersed in this new environment with new people, different people getting just all these new experiences. And I think for a creative mind, that’s just like…
Kat
Yeah, it would be lovely, wouldn’t it? Yeah. So as you spoke to all the people for your first summit in February, was there anything that surprised you or that you learned or just kept you energized to keep going? But I guess that’s two different questions.
Lisa
No, it actually all ties in. Yeah. So having never done this and not knowing anybody in the field or the industry, I was very surprised that people said yes, they would do it, that they would speak, that they would not just put a presentation together and record it with me, but they would be there on the date and time of their presentation being shown and they would show up for the live chat. So just that commitment of time, because obviously they’re busy too, it was really nice. I just felt like such a generous community already. And then when writers, I know I’m going to… But when writers emailed me and said, Oh, this was so great. I’ve been looking for something like this. I had no idea that there were actually retreats out there. I didn’t know where else I could get help. Just putting this together has been really helpful for me. So that actually in some of these moments where I’m like, did I do the right thing? Because when you do something so completely brand new that there’s no frame of reference for and people don’t… Not that they don’t understand what it is, but they don’t have a set of frame of reference for it. They can’t compare it to something. So for them to say those really nice things, that keeps me going when I’m thinking, I don’t know, is this the right thing to do?
Kat
I think it’s lovely that you have a talent for bringing people together because I know in the writing world, lots of people have wonderful ideas. A writing retreat is a wonderful idea. You have to find the people. You have to get the word out there. And we’re writers and to be honest, we’re not awesome at marketing and we’re not awesome at business. That’s a whole new thing that has to be learned. And so to have you being able to like, let’s try to find this circle in this world to bring everyone together is an amazing idea. It’s very helpful for those who organize retreats and the writers, I would assume.
Lisa
Right. And that’s the thing. So what I like about the sampler is it’s not a pitch fest. It’s not retreat hosts giving up and just talking about their retreat. Obviously, that’s part of it because I want writers to see all the different kinds of retreats that are out there. But I have a specific format for the presentations, and their retreat information goes at the back. So the first thing I want them to do after telling a little bit about themselves is just tell the writers what a retreat will do for you. Why should they even attend a retreat? I want them to see the benefits and what they’ll get from it right off the bat. And then I ask them to talk about what to bring to a retreat because sometimes writers, they’re like, It’s new. I’ve never been there. What do I bring? What should I think about?
Kat
I always over pack.
Lisa
Right. And what’s nice about that is they talked about tangible and intangible things. So people are like, obviously bring weather appropriate clothes, but they’re also like, bring your imagination, bring an open mind. And if they have something specific to their retreat, we’re going to go hiking, so bring hiking shoes. It just gives writers more things to think about that they may not have. Then they described their retreat, the date location, all the things. And then I ask them to take the writers through a day. Take them through a sample day because, again, I want writers to get that feel for what it will be like. If they’re going to spend their time and money on something because retreats aren’t cheap.
Kat
They’re not cheap.
Lisa
I want them to know what they’re going to get. I want them to see that workshops are in the morning and hiking is in the afternoon. But if that’s not the retreat they want, then they should look at something else. So it gives them idea of what kinds of retreats are out there so they know what to look for when they’re looking for one for themselves. And then at the end, I ask them to tell writers how they can keep that momentum going. Great, you’ve got so much done at the retreat. You finished your manuscript. You’re all ready to do whatever. But then, of course, we go back to reality. Yes. So I want them to give them ideas and helpful hints and just all the tips they can about how to keep that momentum after they’re going. So whether you attend or are interested in the specific writing retreat at each Sampler event, you will still get something out of it because the retreat hosts are going to give you tips and ideas on before, during, and after a retreat. So it’ll just add to your list of things to think about and get in your mind what a retreat will do for you. So I would say even if you see the list of events and the specific retreat isn’t one you’re interested in, that you will still get a lot out of it and you will still get to visit the sponsor booths, which have a lot of good information as well.
Kat
Right. So you had one in February and now you’re having one again in May. So as this episode goes out, May 24th, so next week after the episode goes out, what prompted you to have one so quickly? Because that’s a lot of work. I know what work goes into all this and getting people and recording and putting it up. I mean, it’s a lot of work. So is there just that many retreats and many things to talk about?
Lisa
Well, what’s interesting is, talk about lessons learned. So when I did the one of February, like I said, it was the summit model. So I had, I think, five on Monday and six on Tuesday. And it was stack to stack and just bombarded. And if anyone’s not familiar with the summit model, you take away the replay pretty much after 48 hours unless people purchase your all access pass and they’ll get ongoing access to the videos and things like that. And that just didn’t sit well with me. I did it because I wanted to get this out the door, and it was a model that had information on how to put it together. So though I’m not overly technical, so I couldn’t have maybe figured it out. It would have taken me longer to do something different. So I went ahead and did the model. But the whole time I’m like, Oh, I hate asking for people to pay to just watch the dang replay. And also, as you said, it’s prerecorded. And then the live chat is underneath on the specific day. The prerecorded, I get it. It saves time and it’s not always easy to do live events. But again, the prerecorded, it just didn’t sit with me well. So these new iterations is it’s going to be one retreat host at a time. I’m going to do two a month and they’re going to be live. So we can do live Q&A.
Kat
Wow. Okay. So you’ve thrown away the summit model, which I think that we’re all moving away from summit model. Maybe not. Maybe I just don’t like it either. Very saturated. I don’t like it either because we all know what it is. And to be fair, you deserve to be paid. All these systems cost money, right? So I get it. People need to pay for things because systems cost money, software, time, all that. So you’ve thrown that away, though, and you’re going to just do every month do two live?
Lisa
Right. And I’m going to change out the timing. So I’m in the Eastern time. So I don’t remember if it’s the first. I have it somewhere. I don’t know where. So one Wednesday, I think the first Wednesday of every month, it’s going to be at 8:30 AM Eastern Time. And then the third Wednesday of every month, it’s going to be at 3 o’clock Eastern Time.
Kat
Okay. To sort of help out the world.
Lisa
Right. So the early morning ones, you can catch all the way up to through Europe. And then the later afternoon ones, we can go West Coast back. But the replays are always going to be available. They’re going to be available in Air Meet, which is the platform I’m using. They’re going to be on my website and they’re going to be on a YouTube channel. Nice. Yeah. So people will be able to go back. And even if the retreat’s over, like I said, you’ll still get a ton of information on how to prepare for a retreat and information. But again, you said things have to be paid for. So I’m getting sponsors.
Kat
Oh, wonderful.
Lisa
Yeah, which actually has been great. I love it so much because I’m now bringing another writing related businesses into the ecosystem. So I have three sponsors for the first one in May, and all of them are people I’ve either worked with or have researched and really love their mission. It aligns with helping authors and writers succeed, which is our mission, too.
Kat
Yeah, we all want to succeed.
Lisa
Right. So I cold pitch them. I obviously don’t have a long track record. I just have the one event. And I reached out to three different companies, three different businesses, and they all said yes.
Kat
Nice.
Lisa
So I have three sponsors for the first one, and I’ll be reaching out some more for the ongoing ones. So hey, if anybody out there has writing related businesses, services, hit me up. And if you want to be a sponsor on one of the events, just let me know because I always love to showcase more people who are helping writers.
Kat
Yeah. And I think that’s a wonderful place for those businesses, one more place for them to show because we can all do ads, but in that concentrated ecosystem, I feel like maybe they would have more success where writers would be like, Oh, this is sponsoring Lisa, and Lisa believes in them, and so I’m going to go and check them out, at least check them out because that’s what we all want.
Lisa
Yeah. And AirMeet has these great sponsor booths, so it’s a fun environment. It’s not just a static logo on a slide or something. So it’s actually, I think, more interesting.
Kat
Yeah, I think that’s a really interesting model. I do feel like it’s more work for you, though. I don’t know.
Lisa
Actually, it’s not because it’s one writing retreat host at a time. Instead of trying to get 13, 15 presentations, headshots, bio, all this stuff. That was a lot. And then I had to record them all before February. So having it spread out, it’s like you start one and then a couple of weeks later you start the next one because it’ll all be basically two weeks apart. So yeah, no, I’m finding it. And then, of course, I have my processes in place. So it’s just a matter of duplicating something I’ve already done. So once I got the first one down, it was just a matter of just repeating the process.
Kat
So you are getting some writing done outside of the business or not yet?
Lisa
I was. I am. So I do a cozy mystery on Kindle Vella, and I get episodes in. I try to get at least one episode in a week. So in the evening, I take my writing time. Our son’s out of the house. He’s gone and done and married and done his thing. So that’s my husband and me and the dog. So I just say, okay, I’m going to go into my office and write for a couple of hours in the evening and try to get that done. Because I still love to write. I still want to write. So it’s just a matter of thinking time for that.
Kat
Yes, it is. It’s like, we have these ideas and then, oh, yeah, I was supposed to be writing that. But I didn’t know you were doing Vella. How is that going? Do you like that model, the Kindle Vella? I do.
Lisa
I actually started it when it first came out. So I had episodes ready to go when it went live in was that 2021, April, June? I don’t remember. I feel.
Kat
It was during COVID.
Lisa
Which is a whole blur. I did like it. So I That’s where I put my family stories on under a pen name. And it was nice because you could write in chunks. You didn’t have to have a whole manuscript done before you had to put something out to the world. So I liked that I found an editor who did specifically Kindle Vella. So she was experienced in serial, that writing. So I’d send her my episode and she’d edit it and I’d get it up. So I did that for all my family stories. And then when I was thinking of something new to write, I always loved mystery. I always loved cozy mystery. I’m not a horror or thriller, blood and guts reader. But some ideas for a cozy mystery hit me. So I thought, Oh, you know what? I’ll just put that on Kindle Bella. And I have three seasons of that one up. So I’ve been writing that one for a couple of years off and on. Yeah, it’s fun.
Kat
So in the end with Kindle Vella, it’s almost like television. It’s a season. So there’s not… Do you have to finish it? Does there have to be an ending? How does that work?
Lisa
Some people do actually. For each episode, you mean? Or for the story?
Kat
For seasons? Is that technically a book? One season is one book?
Lisa
It is. Everybody does it differently, but it wraps up the initial whatever was going on the arc in that season. But you still have television. You wrap up whatever that season’s arc was, but there’s still going to be stuff in the next season that plays off of last season.
Kat
We still got to see if Ross and Rachel will ever get together.
Lisa
Right, exactly. So it flows through, which is why a series… And a lot of people use Kindle Vella for… I’ve seen poetry on there. People don’t necessarily use it for the serial, what it’s supposed to be. But I’m basically, every season is what would be like a book and it wraps up the mystery. But then stuff that’s going on in the protagonist’s life or the town or whatever, carry on throughout that. There’s a backdrop or a thread that goes through that they’re still working through.
Kat
And how are you plotting that? My biggest fear would I get out of first draft and then I completely tear it up, rearrange it and just mess it up. So I couldn’t put it out, like, episodically because it would end up being completely different by the end. So what is your process on how much do you know? How much plotting do you do?
Lisa
Very little.
Kat
This is very scary to me. Very little? Oh, my gosh. That’s so cool.
Lisa
Because it’s a mystery, right? I have to know the basics. So I know what the mystery is going to be, like who’s going to get killed. Well, actually, I don’t always know who’s going to get killed, but I know why.
Kat
Okay, why? That’s important.
Lisa
So what’s the mystery? What’s going on? Why is this going to happen? And what’s the outcome going to be? So I have to know the outcome sometimes. You’re going to laugh because I totally pantsed the whole thing. I have an idea, and then each episode I’ll make notes. And I use a story planner, an app called Story Planner, and you can do out scenes and you can do characters and you can do the plots and everything. And so I’ll plug my scenes into there. And if I had a character do something, I’ll write a note like, oh, make sure that I tie this up, that this comes back. And then sometimes I won’t know. I’ll be like, oh, man. Okay, have I box myself in the corner, what would happen now? So that’s what you lay back, you close your eyes and visualize. You’re like, okay, she’s walking down the street. Why would she do that? How would we get back to this plot point? And so I just make it up. And I’m like, Oh, okay. Well, they got together in the diner and talked it out. And I don’t know, next thing you know, they were in the cornfield.
Kat
Somehow. That’s awesome, though. Do you like that process where you use it? It sounds like you could stress yourself into a corner and then you’d get out of it. You brainstorm yourself out of it. I guess a little bit of pressure for the readers. Yeah, I do like it.
Lisa
I like it better than overly. And it cracks people up because I’m such a process person. I am a linear process person. But when it comes to writing, I think that’s why I like writing because it just allows this creative side that I don’t normally get to exercise. So I do like it because it makes me think. I like it. I’m like, oh, man, what would happen? Oh, why did that happen?
Kat
Yeah, you can’t really leave it. Yeah, you really have to get it done.
Lisa
Yeah. A lot of Google searching.
Kat
Your Google search is something the FBI would do.
Lisa
This latest episode, I ended up with… They were in the cornfield because this company was drilling for natural gas on this. It’s set in rural Pennsylvania, where it’s set and nobody knew. And so I had to Google, would there be equipment? Now that I’ve decided they’re going to be drilling for natural gas, okay, well, how would they do that?
Kat
Oh, my gosh. This lady is going to go out to Pennsylvania and drill for natural gas.
Lisa
Well, now she knows what equipment she needs.
Kat
That’s so like a writer. We think of these things and then we’re like, wait, how would that work? I got to not have it too fantastical. It’s got to have something…
Lisa
Right, a little bit grounded in reality. Yeah. So I have some general ideas, general things I want the plot to do and where I want my character’s arc to be. So I focus on her. Where is she going? What is happening in her life that moves her from more of an introverted shy person who hates her job to somebody maybe a little bit more risk taking, a little bit more outgoing, and she changes jobs and moves on with her life. So a lot of it that I do plan out more is how her life is going to be.
Kat
Her life, yeah. So you’re getting to know her really well if you have how many episodes? How many seasons?
Lisa
I’m in the middle of the third season.
Kat
Okay, yeah. So that’s fun. When Vella came out, it definitely was during COVID because I was moving to DC and I was in this tiny apartment and I was brainstorming and then I was like, no, I can’t do it. So I’m glad to hear it. I haven’t heard of anyone who is actually doing it. So how is marketing and things like that for it? Have you had time to do much? Does Kindle help you find readers or do people know what Vella is? How has that experience been?
Lisa
When I first started, I was more active on the groups and forums and things to promote it. I was all over Twitter and Facebook, and I have a website for my pen name, and it was just more active. And then once I got all the family stories out there and I just started writing, it’s Andy Schulbert cozy mysteries. Just do promos every once in a while through Free Booksy or Fuzzy Librarian. And those actually have a really good return. So Fuzzy Librarian.
Kat
So they have specifically Vella. Oh, that’s nice.
Lisa
Fuzzy Librarian does. And also every once in a while, Amazon will do a Kindle Vella thing. So if I get some spike… So I don’t advertise it at all. But if I get some spike in reads, I’ll be like, oh, okay, Kindle Vella must have been doing free token month or something. So it dribbles in. I just did a Fuzzy Librarian promo a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve had 350 downloads of my episodes this month without doing anything else. I haven’t mentioned it to anybody and people are finding it.
Kat
Maybe it’s like the beginnings of Kindle, basically, where there weren’t that many. So if you can write episodically, you might want to get in on it and see if you can find those readers. And it’s a fun idea. I just haven’t had time.
Lisa
Along with everything else, right? The podcast, the book coaching, the routine.
Kat
Add one more thing on there. No, but I can understand, especially city dwellers, your commute, especially if you’re using metro. Way back when, I would have definitely wouldn’t have to carry a book around if I could read a whole chapter. Anyway, well, that’s very cool. I’ll have the links in the show notes below so you guys can check out out. What is your pen name again?
Lisa
That’s Deena Bauer.
Kat
All right, we’ll have the links in the show notes if people want to check out your Kindle Vella. So let’s just get back to the writing retreat.
Lisa
Right. What were we talking about?
Kat
You could get three seasons on in a writing retreat. So this next May 24th is the kick off to this new set up where you’re going to have just one speaker.
Lisa
Yeah. So it’s going to be mainly memoir retreats. And this time it’s three women. They do, all three of them host the retreat. So it will be all three of them on there. But that will be the only time it’ll be a lot of speakers.
Kat
Very cool. And so how do people find the videos and sign up? And what is that process for you now?
Lisa
So on the WritingRetreatSampler.com, I have the events are on the front page, so they can just click on that and go through Eventbrite to sign up. And then from there they’ll get emails on how to enter the event once it starts and information from there. I’ll have the day before I’m going to open it up so people can visit the sponsor booths and get familiar with the platform because I think a lot of people haven’t used AirMeet. So it allows them to go in and get familiar with the platform before the day of the actual sampler.
Kat
Okay. And so then once they’re on your mailing list, will they get emails for every two weeks, like the new speakers?
Lisa
Yeah. So once they’ve signed up, they will be on my mailing list. And there’s options to opt into different types of email once you’re there. But I send out a weekly newsletter with blog posts, sampler updates. I try not to cram it too full of things, but I like to be able to be aware of sample updates, sponsor updates. I like to let people know about our sponsors and any blog posts that come up.
Kat
Right. And your blog is very nice. There’s quite a few blogs, not to brag, but I got to be on your blog.
Kat
That’s got a lot of hits, too. I was looking at my desk for it. Quite a few people have.
Kat
It’s nice, though. It’s another way that you’re bringing writers and their points of view and different things. So it’s nice to not have to do all the work, I’m sure, and to bring in other people’s expertise.
Lisa
Exactly. And that’s what I want. Like I said, the whole community, I want people to learn from each other. It’s not just me spouting from on high, like, this is it. This is it.
Kat
We run out of things to say if it’s just us, right?
Lisa
Yeah, but I do. I want people to get to know each other. I want they see you and your blog post, your guest post. Maybe they’ll visit your site and find out more about you or just your ideas. That’s my whole point. I want to bring as many writers, people in the writing ecosystem together. That’s my goal.
Kat
I love that goal. I am so on with that goal. So just to reiterate, everyone can find Lisa Shaughnessy at WritingRetreatSampler.com. We will have the links in the show notes. And we hope that you guys will sign up for the May 24th, Mainly Memoir. I assume that’s in May. That’s a very cute name. I like that. I highly encourage you guys to go to her blog. As I said, there’s lots of guest posts and Lisa posts there. Lots of information for writing. But thank you so much, Lisa, for coming on and sharing about the Writing Retreat Sampler with us.
Lisa
Well, thanks, Kat. Really appreciate you having me.