In this conversation, Ryan George interviews author Kaylin Applewhite about her creative journey, the influence of Dungeons & Dragons on her writing, her writing process, and her experiences with Kickstarter campaigns for her books. Kaylin shares insights into her paranormal mystery series, the White Crow series, set in Edwardian New York City, and discusses the importance of research and understanding historical context in her writing. She also provides valuable tips for aspiring writers and reflects on the challenges and successes of her Kickstarter campaigns. In this conversation, Kalynn Applewhite shares her insights on running successful Kickstarter campaigns for authors, the advantages of indie publishing over traditional routes, and effective strategies for engaging with readers. She emphasizes the importance of early bird specials, maintaining communication with backers, and the value of personal connections at events. Kalynn also discusses her approach to post-Kickstarter marketing and the significance of securing early reviews to boost book visibility.
You can follow Kalynn here https://linktr.ee/kalynnapplewhite
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Ryan George (00:00)
Hey everyone, I am here with Kaylin Applewhite. Kaylin, how are you doing? So Kaylin’s an author and the next book in her series, so it’s the White Crow series, right? And you see you’re running a Kickstarter for the third book in that campaign or third, the third book in that series, which comes out on April 8th, right?
Kalynn Applewhite (00:05)
Doing good.
Yeah, so that’s the Kickstarter pre-sale, which predates the actual release of the book on retailers like Barnes & Noble and Amazon. It’ll be on Kickstarter with exclusive deals, signed copies and special editions, and lots of exclusive opportunities.
Ryan George (00:40)
So, I’m gonna get into when to talk definitely about the book, about the campaign and everything. first up, I always like to ask when I’m to any creative, what’s your kind of creative origin story? Like how’d you get into writing?
Kalynn Applewhite (00:57)
well, I think that I’ve always lived in a world of fantasy in my own head. I’ve always liked coming up with stories. and like, you know, when I was very young, being very imaginative and creating worlds and that sort of thing. but really I’ve wanted to be a writer, but interested in writing since I physically could. I was in middle school with composition notebooks of, you know, stories, the first, book.
Ryan George (01:03)
Mm-hmm.
Kalynn Applewhite (01:27)
if we can call it that, that I completed was in like seventh grade. And I think it was a glorified Pirates of the Caribbean fanfic, basically. But I finished it and it was probably like 20,000 words, which for a seventh grader is not so bad.
Ryan George (01:34)
Yeah.
Yeah. So, what, so what made you decide to, let’s say, take the plunge from, you know, just writing for yourself to actually saying, you know what, I want to put this out in the world. I want people to read my stuff. I feel like, you know, there’s something there that people can take.
Kalynn Applewhite (02:01)
Well, I think it’s something I always wanted. And then a lot of adults in my life are like, well, that’s not very practical. And so by the time I got into college, I was like, well, that’s not very practical. And then I met my husband and he was like, well, that’s dumb. You’re awesome. Do it. And so he’s been a huge supporter and really just gave me permission to have confidence in myself, which sometimes I think we need.
Ryan George (02:16)
Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (02:27)
And so I started writing then and I had my kids young. And so basically in my mind, I spent the time when they were like really needing a lot of my time, just getting better, getting good enough to publish. And, you know, now that my oldest is started school, I’ve really started to lean more into my career. And I have now the experience, you know, artistically to actually.
story craft and I know how my process works and how to be productive and meet deadlines and that sort of thing.
Ryan George (02:57)
Yeah. So now we were talking before we started a little bit about your background with D &D. How do you feel? Do you feel like D &D have had a big influence on your storytelling? And if it did, what aspects of playing it influenced your own kind of storytelling and writing?
Kalynn Applewhite (03:12)
Well, I’ve always enjoyed role playing and you know, it’s just an extension of world building, you know, it’s storycraft through play. I enjoy being a dungeon master very much. D &D is one of my great loves. I started out on Kickstarter producing Dungeons and Dragons materials and a actual print version of everything I’ve ever done is going to be coming out in fall. And we’re all very excited about that. We’ve been talking about doing that for years.
But how does it work into my writing process? That was the question. I would say that writing for role playing games and writing for books is very, different. Writing for role playing games, you’re setting up tableaus, I like to call it. Like here’s the scene, but the characters haven’t entered it yet. And that’s of course very different than writing a novel where I get to control all the characters and what they do.
Ryan George (04:04)
Mm.
Kalynn Applewhite (04:09)
I do think that it did give me some strengths in outlining, know, because when we were outlining a campaign, you know, you have to kind of string these tableaus together, which helps me with kind of these like pillar moments in my books, you know, I like to plot those out, and then just kind of wing it on how to get there. You know, so that way I can have some planning and some spontaneity, which I think it’s really good to have a balance of those two things and not lean too heavily one way or the other.
Ryan George (04:39)
Yeah. Now, do you feel like you can do both at the same, like, let’s say, do you feel like you can prep, do prep work for DMing on a big campaign and also write your novel or do you have to kind of separate the two? you know, some people can kind of compartmentalize creatively and others can’t. So do you feel like because they are, they are different. I’ve never heard anyone kind of articulate it like that. Are you able to do both at the same time or do you often need to kind of separate the two?
Kalynn Applewhite (05:07)
I have been working through material, like with my own personal Dungeons & Dragons party that I wrote years ago for a while now. So usually I’m just digging things out of a drawer. Also, I’ve been DMing long enough where I can usually just pull something out if I’ve got to, like, all right, what’s the monster of the week? And throw in an unexpected twist and here we go. And then just kind of wing it during the session. I’m not a big prep work person.
Ryan George (05:14)
Mm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (05:35)
when I’m not writing material that other people will have to run in a game that I’m actually going to produce and sell.
Ryan George (05:42)
Yeah. So I guess tell me a little bit about the about what first talk a little bit about your writing process. Like how do you how long does it take for you? Do you do procrastinate? Do have to up a schedule? Give me some insight into your own process for writing a novel.
Kalynn Applewhite (05:56)
So my first advice to anyone who’s trying to write a novel is set aside an hour every day. I think trying to write for hours and hours and hours all in one sitting, you’ve got to kind of like work up to that. It’s almost like working out at the gym is how I like to equate it. Like you’re not going to go to the gym the first day and work out for four hours. It’s not going to happen. I find that when I haven’t.
written in a long time, just like not going to the gym, I can only really focus my brain creatively for maybe 45 minutes. You know, I usually like to chunk it like that the time, you know, like 45 minutes of writing and then a little time off for a brain break. And then maybe I can do reps, right of that. If I’m really in a flow. So I think having consistency and routine is huge.
As far as how long it takes me to write a book, that varies drastically between how complex the storylines are, how long the book itself is. The one I’m working on right now is the final book in the White Crow series, and it has taken me so much longer than I imagined it would because it’s the closing of the series. It’s incredibly complicated, and I’m dealing with a lot of very emotional arcs.
you know, that I want to get just right. So it’s been very arduous. Whereas the Widow’s Tear that’s about to come out, which is book three, I think I wrote in three or four months, the first draft. That being said, my books usually go through about two and a half years of development. And that’s not constant hands-on every single day. There’s resting periods built into that. Usually I write it,
Ryan George (07:20)
Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (07:45)
I let it sit for a few months. That’s super important. I think that you can’t, well, you shouldn’t, you can’t, you should not write your first draft and then immediately turn around and edit it because you’re not gonna have a new perspective yet. You’re gonna go back with the same headspace you wrote at the first time and you’re really not gonna have anything new to think about it. I like to let it sit for a couple months.
Ryan George (07:51)
Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (08:09)
then read it again with fresh eyes and I’m gonna have a lot of new ideas. might even, you know what that chapter I had no idea what I wanted to do with, now I’ve got the full thing figured out, you know. So I take that resting time, then I do what I like to call the story edit where I read through and I’m just really making sure the story’s there, the characters are coming across the way that I want, I’ve written the whole thing. There’s no gaps.
Then I give it to beta readers, ideally, who will read through, catch things I haven’t caught in the story, you know, like, this character isn’t coming off the way I want them to, or this isn’t making sense. And then I will incorporate their critique and take it through like the final text editing.
Ryan George (08:51)
you
So how do you how how does someone go about finding beta readers and getting people that are going to be that are going to genuinely read the book with a critical eye and give them real good feedback?
Kalynn Applewhite (09:11)
I can tell you how I did it. I actually like unqualified betas. I don’t like giving my book to other writers or editors.
Ryan George (09:12)
Yeah.
Mm.
Kalynn Applewhite (09:24)
Because that’s really not what I’m looking for. I’m not looking for someone to line edit my book I’m not looking for a writer to tell me how to solve the problems that they find because that’s what writers will invariably do myself absolutely included I want a reader to come in and say
Ryan George (09:36)
Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (09:43)
I don’t really get this or I don’t really like that or this is really great. I’m really vibing with this. And then I can take those. Usually I can isolate whatever their problem was and then I can come up with my solution to it.
So yeah, I networked through friends, people I knew, people I trusted, who were willing to read and give me just their ideas and thoughts and feelings.
Ryan George (10:15)
Yeah. So now, so tell me about the White Crow series.
Kalynn Applewhite (10:19)
So it is a paranormal mystery series set in Edwardian New York City. So it’s like early 1900s World War I era. The main character is Maggie, who’s a psychic medium.
Ryan George (10:35)
Sorry about that, one second.
Sorry, I’m in this room with a timer and the lights will go off if I don’t move. So you can just, I’ll edit this so you could just start over again with the description. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, sorry about
Kalynn Applewhite (10:52)
Mm-hmm. Just from the very beginning. Okay.
So it’s a paranormal mystery series set in Edwardian New York City. So that’s like early 1900s, World War I era. The main character, Maggie, is a psychic medium. So she does like seances with ghosts, which brings in kind of a horror element. I began this series in, I think, 2013. I wrote the first draft. It was terrible.
It was just one book. It ended in the most predictable, awful way possible. But I was still able to salvage some real gold from it. where was I? But this was before I really had a grasp on like, ooh, I’m writing for this genre and this is my target audience. So it ended up being a paranormal mystery horror romance.
Ryan George (11:25)
Hmm.
Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (11:49)
historical fiction. So just trying like I fill out these forums for like events and it’s like categorize your book and I’m like, oh boy. You know, just spin the wheel. I did find early on that the readers that enjoyed it the most were paranormal mystery and horror fans.
Ryan George (11:49)
Mm-hmm. Okay, interesting.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (12:14)
not when I marketed it as historical fiction or romance. I don’t think I found my target market quite as well. Romance, it’s a subplot. It’s not as romantic as a romance reader is going to want where, you know, the love arc is front and center. And for historical fiction, I do, think, kind of a unique take. don’t do, it’s almost like in sci-fi, there is crunchy sci-fi like Star Trek.
Ryan George (12:33)
Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (12:44)
where they explain all the science and everything super accurate. And then there’s kind of like soft sci-fi like Star Wars where it’s almost more magical. I’m like that with historical fiction. I’m a little softer. I like to create the feel of 1910, but I’m not going to go into petticoats and every single detail of the automobiles. You know, I’m just creating the atmosphere to tell the story. Really.
Ryan George (12:44)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. So
are you from New York?
Kalynn Applewhite (13:13)
I was born in New York. I’ve been to New York City. I’ve obviously not been to New York City in 1916.
Ryan George (13:14)
Okay, cool. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, well, what made you
decide to set the story in New York City at that time period?
Kalynn Applewhite (13:25)
it was a really active place that I thought Maggie being from a socialite background made a lot of sense. I also liked that there were a lot of different cultures mixing at the time, which allowed me to get a great diversity to the cast, which I tried really, really hard to do. It being a period piece, you are kind of constrained.
Ryan George (13:43)
Mm-hmm.
Kalynn Applewhite (13:52)
by the logics of the time, it pains me still that in my mind, Maggie and her brother and another member of the cast, Walter, are all autistic and on the spectrum as I am myself. Really, whenever I have a character, I roll the dice and they either end up autistic or not. But anyway, autism hadn’t been introduced into the lexicon during that time. It wouldn’t have made any sense for her to…
Ryan George (13:55)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Kalynn Applewhite (14:21)
identify as autistic, have a diagnosis or even consider it at all, you know, because it had just entered medical discussion during the time period of the stories, not even during your childhood. So anyway, so you’re kind of constrained by the time, but I did like that I could introduce that kind of diversity through the urban setting.
Ryan George (14:26)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Kalynn Applewhite (14:47)
Also, one of the elements I bring into play is the American Society for Psychical Research, which is a real thing that exists in New York City to this day. They are funded by the government to find ghosts. I kid you not. One of my favorite moments from Awakening Anne, which is book one, is that Walter, who works with this society of government funded
Ryan George (14:56)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm. wow, okay.
No, really? Wow, okay. Wow.
Kalynn Applewhite (15:16)
ghost hunters comes to investigate Maggie’s claim of being a medium. And her brother who really doesn’t believe in ghosts or her powers or anything is just astonished that this person is affiliated with anything that upstanding her official.
Ryan George (15:31)
Yeah
That’s funny. had no idea there was an organization like that at all. I mean, I could believe it for the time, but shocking that it still exists.
Kalynn Applewhite (15:44)
They have a website that has not been updated, I believe, since my birth, but they exist, I promise.
Ryan George (15:50)
Yeah. Yeah.
Wow. So now did you do much research? Like how was the research process into like getting it, you getting, you know, I know you mentioned that you’re not kind of going for like hard, 100 % accurate with everything, not necessarily accurate, but just kind of as detailed as some historical fiction can be. But did you do a decent amount or a lot of research like to, to into New York City and into, you know, what was going on at that time?
Kalynn Applewhite (16:14)
Yeah, so I’ve always been historically minded. The only other thing in my life I’ve ever wanted to be besides an author was an archaeologist when I was seven. I love studying different times, different cultures. I’ve actually surprised myself. A lot of my stories that I come up with are in alternate times because I like to take women’s issues and, you know, think of a time that’s like particularly emblematic of that issue and then right in that setting.
Ryan George (16:24)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Kalynn Applewhite (16:44)
So I’ve done a lot of research on a lot of like here and there eras, a lot on the fashion and the technology and you know the critical periods of the time. I chose 1916 like the late 1910s particularly because it’s as late as I could set a book about psychic medium holding seances. The seance craze was really tapering down by that time. I wanted to include what
Ryan George (17:12)
Mm.
Kalynn Applewhite (17:14)
War I and I definitely wanted to include the suffragette movement which I am really excited to do because I feel like that’s horribly underrepresented in fiction.
Ryan George (17:24)
Yeah. Yeah. So.
Kalynn Applewhite (17:27)
I do very spotty research, you so I have like this background of knowledge. And then every now and again, like I used a metaphor when I was writing recently about like she was thinking like burst like a balloon. I’m like, wait, do they have balloons? And we’re Googling. You know, usually that’s how it goes. Is it a refrigerator or an icebox? You know, do they have cars or horses, you know, etc, etc.
Ryan George (17:30)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, I that would be my issue with writing anything. Well, I had to do that because my first comic that I released last year is a Western set, like kind of post Civil War. So there were a lot of things when it comes to like how people speak, you know, and just things at the time that it’s like, wait, did this exist? There was one major thing that like, I was like, wait, I just barely kind of got the time period right.
for it and it’s still kind of sketchy, yeah, it’s of, it’s a little tricky, you know, A, having an eye for it and just not missing those things altogether and then having to do the research. As a little sidebar, I was actually in a seance room recently. There was a, there’s a, in New Orleans, there’s this restaurant and I’m forgetting the name of it now, but they kind of, we were doing like a ghost tour and one of the stops in the ghost tour is like this restaurant and basically the story is like a guy.
Kalynn Applewhite (18:26)
Okay.
Ryan George (18:48)
basically lost his house gambling and kills himself. I don’t know, it’s 1800 or something. And so he supposedly haunts this restaurant. And so, you know, apparently the servers and staff all claim that they hear noises and things get messed up. So they built a seance room for him. And so they have this really cool, interesting lounge that’s up there that we got to go to. But then what’s even more interesting is there’s a table set up for this ghost that every day they fill
they set the table, they put wine and bread and that’s supposed to calm the ghosts. And supposedly the ghost is a little bit less crazy now that since they’ve had the table and wine and everything. Yeah, but it’s actually a really good meal. that was kind of cool. It’s a really good restaurant, great meal. And then you got to go and see, hang out with the ghost. So a little sidebar.
Kalynn Applewhite (19:29)
such great accommodations.
That is fun.
Ryan George (19:41)
So this book, so you’ve run several successful Kickstarter campaigns and as someone who’s done it once so far and has a few other things kind of cooking, did you learn from your very first Kickstarter campaign? What was the things that you learned, right? Like as somebody who knew that you were able to take moving forward into your other campaigns.
Kalynn Applewhite (20:07)
I would say our first one actually went really well. And other than me accidentally hitting the launch button, because I didn’t know what it did. And so if you look on our Kickstarter account, you’ll see that we have one failed project, because we had to cancel this part, this false start that I made. Anyway, that was, I think, back in 2020.
Ryan George (20:12)
Okay, yeah.
Yeah.
really? Okay. wow, that’s funny.
Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (20:33)
But anyway, so our first project did really really well and I think here’s why Firstly we started out with only digital materials which on the fulfillment end made everything super easy It was just a PDF. We emailed it to all our backers The pledge levels were insanely simple. think our funding goal was like a hundred dollars It was very low We kind of started in the kiddie pool
Ryan George (20:46)
Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (21:03)
as what I would say. And it went really, really well. And then we did a few more and they snowballed add-ons were definitely our friend, you know, because we would start getting people to back for multiple items, which would increase our pledge total. Guilds of Arrogath was our most popular.
Ryan George (21:03)
Okay. Yeah.
Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (21:25)
campaign for the Dungeons and Dragons materials and it raised over a thousand dollars on just e-rewards, which I was quite proud of. And I think the material for that one is honestly our best. So anyway, we did years, at least like three years of just digital kickstarters before we started doing my books, which obviously we ship in physical form.
Ryan George (21:31)
Okay.
Kalynn Applewhite (21:53)
And that has been a lot more work, particularly on the fulfillment end. It’s a lot more moving parts because, you know, there’s multiple pledge levels and a variety of add-ons. Our input costs, like the cost for the cover art and to buy the materials to fulfill is a lot higher. And then managing orders and, you know, all of the backers, because we’ve had significantly
Ryan George (21:57)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (22:22)
higher yields in that as well. I’m very glad that we kind of had that warm up and that experience before getting here. And even then it’s been a bit of a journey.
Ryan George (22:32)
Yeah, well, I guess
what and what tips do you have for because I’m used to the comics, but what tips do you have for people doing kind of traditional writing or authors? Like what advice would you have for them as far as like setting up their first Kickstarter campaign?
Kalynn Applewhite (22:47)
Setting up your first campaign, expect a huge rush in the beginning and it will taper off and you’ll have this huge trough in the middle. I would suggest 21 days maximum. That’s pretty an ideal number. Going longer than that, you can get just burnt out really, you know? And you can’t fight the trough too much. It’s just gonna happen.
Ryan George (23:03)
Mm-hmm, really? Yeah.
Yeah, idiot.
Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (23:16)
really angled to get people before the Kickstarter starts, get everyone in the door. I like to do early bird specials where I price down my signed paperbacks to the price of just a regular paperback. And then I do a really, really good deal on my hardcover special editions to kind of like reward the people who are really following along, you know, throughout the year, you know, with the special pricing.
Ryan George (23:24)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (23:43)
So I think early birds are your friends because it really creates a sense of urgency for your backers and rewards them too. I mean, they’re getting a good deal. And then keeping in contact, posting regular updates, you know, so that your backers have confidence because you will lose some backers in the last couple of days. In the last 48 hours, people will jump ship.
Ryan George (23:51)
Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (24:08)
and that’s okay, you know, but keeping in contact with them and reassuring them that you know what you’re doing and that, we’re doing so great and kind of being a cheerleader and a community leader is really important. Almost seeing it like a community too, I think. I would also say don’t get too ambitious. You’re like your first time out. Like I think like running into things with we’re gonna raise $10,000 and please, no, no.
Ryan George (24:09)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (24:38)
don’t do that to yourself.
You know, I don’t buy stock before the Kickstarter. I buy it once I know the volume I need. That way I don’t need to have a ridiculous funding goal. I think we’re doing $1,000 has been our standard for the books, which almost pays for just like the cover art and those kinds of costs and our time putting the project together.
Ryan George (24:46)
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (25:06)
And then of course we expect to significantly over that. But your funding goal shouldn’t be what you expect to actually go home with, is what I would say. Yeah, my goal is always to fund in the first 48 hours.
Ryan George (25:15)
Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah.
Yeah, so now with comics, typically I think there’s a, you know, have a situation, obviously comics are a little bit more involved as far as the hands in the pot, right? You’ve gotta have your writer, you have the artists, colorists, lettering, all that stuff. And it can be pricey if you wanna get the book done up front, which it can be as well as an author, because you if you’re paying for editing, cover art and everything, you’re still spending a lot of money up front. But typically with a comic,
especially early on to keep people’s confidence you want to have as close to a finished product as you can before launching. Is it the same with a book? when you’re ready to launch your book, are you pretty much done and it’s just, you know, figuring out what you’re doing for shipping or do you still have some work left to finish the book itself?
Kalynn Applewhite (26:10)
Before I launched a Kickstarter, the text is definitely finalized for the final work. I was kind of down to the wire on a widow’s tier this time around, but it is done. I got the final text edit done last month. And so it is ready to go. I’m still working on the author sketches that’ll go in the book. And I’ll probably be working on those throughout the campaign and revealing them as we go, which I’m really excited about. I’ll do the final formatting.
Ryan George (26:20)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Kalynn Applewhite (26:40)
right after the campaign ends because in the acknowledgments page, our top tier backers, the people who back for our number one copy and then like numbers two through 10 will all be mentioned in the acknowledgments. So I can’t actually order prints of the book until it’s over. But I’m definitely not still in the process of editing the actual text.
Ryan George (26:56)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, okay, that makes sense. So now, what made you decide to go the, let’s say, indie route versus trying to do the traditional route? Or maybe you did try, like what made you go choose the route of, I’m gonna do it myself and make this work?
Kalynn Applewhite (27:18)
So back when I decided that I was gonna release Awakening Anne, I was thinking, well, you know, we have such a ball rolling on Kickstarter. We really know what we’re doing there. Awakening Anne is a tiny little book and I didn’t think it would be appealing to publishers simply for word count reasons. It’s a little snack.
Ryan George (27:37)
Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (27:42)
And so I was like, you know what, this is just gonna kind of be my test book. I’m gonna put it out there, you know, just indie and kind of like get my feet wet. And that has gone super well. I’ve been really just impressed, amazed, ecstatic about.
Ryan George (27:54)
Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (28:01)
how fast things have built up, you know. I’m starting to kind of refine my like appearances and author events. We’re selling out at events. The Kickstarters are growing super well. And I’m just, very, very happy and very thankful to my readers for the reception. But nowadays I don’t really think that I’m looking very hard at
Ryan George (28:18)
Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (28:30)
traditional publishing. I like being able to create on my own schedule. I like being able to create what I want to create. I know that there’s a lot of headaches when you have a publishing body about, is my next book going to be approved? And writing a book to make sure, that there’s a cliffhanger good enough.
Ryan George (28:50)
Mm-hmm.
Kalynn Applewhite (28:55)
you know, but it also resolves well enough just in case I don’t get approved for my next book and I couldn’t live with that anxiety. I typically don’t trust smaller printing houses. I’ve known some people who have gotten into deals I do not envy and they’ve gotten some real, real perks. I’m not gonna say they don’t help, you know, but I value my freedom, my ownership of my works.
Ryan George (29:01)
Yeah.
Mm.
Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (29:24)
more than that like small leg up. I think at this point if I was going to take a publishing deal it would be like at a major house like Penguin and that’s a big if.
Ryan George (29:37)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. So no, it makes sense. I think it’s and it’s great. We have this opportunity with something like Kickstarter to kind of take ownership and give ourselves. Well, I guess this leads into the next question for you. Now that you’ve kind of now you’ve reached level success with the with the crowdfunding, do you see Kickstarter for yourself as more of a for funding or more for marketing? Or is it kind of 50 50? Like, how do you how do you see Kickstarter, you know, in your own?
Kalynn Applewhite (29:47)
Yes.
Ryan George (30:07)
kind of career as an artist or as a creator.
Kalynn Applewhite (30:11)
I see it as a great way to deliver one-on-one to my readers. The only other opportunity I get for that is events and I rarely, well, I have never done an event outside Ohio. So for people in Ireland or Texas or California or Australia who are reading my book, you know, they rarely get to like interact or per…
from me directly and get signed copies and special editions. So I like that transparency that that offers that, you know, I’m more accessible and it does feel like a community. I typically, I mean, just from a money standpoint, I do get more back from a Kickstarter because I’m not using like a third party like Amazon or anything like that.
So that’s nice. And I think that it just kind of kickstarts the new release.
It immediately goes out to a whole bunch of people who are usually more invested in active readers who are very likely to review it. And that is so, so, so immensely valuable, immensely, especially for indie creators. You know, I can’t just afford to send out 300 copies of my book, you know, to people who are then paid to give it a review.
Ryan George (31:25)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (31:40)
So securing those early reviewers is another huge perk, you know, of Kickstarter. So yeah, the pre-sales have been really important.
Ryan George (31:51)
Yeah, now as a so as an author, right? If you finish Kickstarter, you know, the book is now out in the world. What do you what’s next? Like how do you then? Kind of jump on the momentum that you’ve built from a Kickstarter for a book.
Kalynn Applewhite (32:06)
So I…
Focus on fulfilling the Kickstarter. Generally what I like to do is I have the Kickstarter in April and the book will officially release in June. That way giving my Kickstarter people a bit of a head start to enjoy the book before it hits the presses. And then I’ll talk about it on social media. the book is out, it’s available. I like to make the earlier books in the series available on Kindle Unlimited to help my readership catch up to the most recent release and not
feel like there’s a huge paywall to get to it. what else is there? I like to do release events. My local Barnes & Noble in Mentor, Ohio is amazing. And I’ve worked with them for the past two books. And I will be doing another release signing with them, I think on May 13th, which I’m really, really excited about.
which kind of like also like creates a buzz about the release. But I would say that like the buzz of release day has not historically been as big as the Kickstarter.
Ryan George (33:18)
Yeah, that makes sense. So now, tell me about tabling at events. what’s your approach to Well, I guess question is, do you table at larger events with other authors or do you typically do things where it’s just yourself?
Kalynn Applewhite (33:34)
So my first year was very experimental and so I did do a few like just solo appearances. I don’t do that anymore except for Barnes and Noble.
because Barnes and Noble has natural foot traffic and so people are going to come in. Unless you’re a huge name that people are going to like recognize when they like walk by and be like super excited about, it’s not worth doing a you alone signing. It’s really, really not. You don’t have the pull and I think it’s really, really just disheartening. You know, I’m really glad my first event was a Book Fest in Akron.
that was well attended. I did super well. I didn’t even have Awakening Anne yet. It was right before the release and I still did great. Just selling my book of TTRPG short stories. And so that was a much better first experience. I would highly recommend events that are hosted by libraries and you know, like that sort of thing.
Ryan George (34:31)
Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (34:45)
with multiple authors, particularly when you’re starting out.
Ryan George (34:50)
Yeah. And what advice would you give to somebody who is tabling at an event like
Kalynn Applewhite (34:55)
like how to set up your table.
Ryan George (34:56)
Yeah, how to set up your table, to, you know, interacting with guests. Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (35:01)
Okay,
I’ll try to keep it to bullet points. So firstly, before you even get there, I recommend they will tell you how big your table is and they’ll tell you if you’re sharing it. I recommend setting up your table the night before. I like to think vertically.
Ryan George (35:04)
Yeah, sure.
Kalynn Applewhite (35:22)
when I’m placing, I think the worst possible thing you could do for tabling is to have your book lying flat on the table.
Ryan George (35:31)
Mm.
Kalynn Applewhite (35:31)
and nothing else because no one is going to like crane their necks to like look down at a table when they’re walking through an event. You want it to be on eye level. You want it maybe angled like cheated out so that they’ll see it as they’re walking by. I, being a horror paranormal writer, I just raided the Target Halloween aisle when it was clearance day and bought crows and creepy trees and made a floral arrangement of feathers and black
Ryan George (35:55)
Yeah
Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (36:01)
roses and such, you know, and really gave it that kind of vibe right away that they kind of knew what to expect. So using those kind of trinkets, you don’t want it to be too crowded, but you do want it to be eye catching and maybe even fun.
Whenever I bring my D &D materials, I like to put out some dice because people cannot resist touching dice. They can’t. And so making your table fun, you know, being approachable. As far as dressing yourself, I think that’s incredibly important for an event. I think you want to be somewhere between like, you want to be fun and approachable, but also professional. I think if you were to like…
Ryan George (36:24)
Hmm.
Yeah. Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (36:49)
look like a lawyer or something, you know, like in business attire, that’s not very approachable. But I also think if you go to the other extreme, where you’re like wearing a costume, that might be a little like daunting for people to come and talk to you. My typical go to look is like a printed button down with like, it’s got a collar. So it’s kind of nice. I mean, sometimes I’ll wear like some gold earrings for it to be like a little bit polished.
Ryan George (36:54)
Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (37:16)
you know, and then it’ll have like a fun pattern. Like I have a shirt with crows all over it or, you know, magic stuff, you know, something that’s a little bit fun, but not like cost to me, you know, right in the middle. Then when I’m actually there and I’ve set up my table, getting people to stop, you have to understand that not everybody who walks past your table is your reader. You have to not take that as a rejection. They’re just.
Ryan George (37:25)
Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense.
Kalynn Applewhite (37:44)
not going to buy your book and that’s fine. You know, the worst thing you can do to sell books is to get bitter about everybody who’s walking past your table. Most people will walk past your table. It’s, for me, it’s all about reading the eyes. If you catch someone and they’re like glancing at your table and you get like a one, two of lingered attention, I usually throw out a hi or hello.
Ryan George (37:45)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (38:13)
or something like that, just opening a dialogue. And sometimes they will give me the small little, yeah, hi, and then run away. Or sometimes they’ll then drift like a ghost closer to your table to see what you have going on there. And then you can start to give your pitch and whatnot. But doing kind of the social legwork.
Ryan George (38:17)
Yeah.
Mmm, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Kalynn Applewhite (38:37)
of opening the dialogue, if they’re feeling a little socially anxious can be a really helpful tool. And it can help you weed out the people who are interested, you know, without like attacking people, you know, because nobody wants to feel like they’re being accosted or sold to, you know, when you’re actually explaining what your book is, because you’re going to have to do that. I think
Ryan George (38:55)
Absolutely.
Kalynn Applewhite (39:05)
think it’s a mistake to start just summarizing the plot of your book, because that’s not really what they want. I start with, like I did earlier in this podcast, I start with the genre. It’s a paranormal mystery with flavors of horror and romance. And if they’re still looking at me and they’re still interested, then I continue to talk. And I’m like, and the main character is a psychic medium in New York City.
Ryan George (39:26)
Yeah
Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (39:34)
Usually by this time, they’ve given me a signal of interest, like, ooh, or okay, or something like that. And then I can continue, like, this is the first book, this is the second book, these are the pricing, you know, et cetera, et cetera. And just kind of like opening a dialogue, you know, and connecting them with the reader. I try not to bring up price too quickly, you know, because again, you don’t want to be like rushing them through the process. I think people at book events want to dialogue.
Ryan George (39:39)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Kalynn Applewhite (40:04)
you, you know, particularly if your book is interesting to them, because that means you’re probably interesting to them, you know, being the person who wrote it.
Ryan George (40:05)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, that makes sense. I had my first experience tabling at a comic convention and one of the couple things stood out. One is I need a better, need to work on my own pitch for the book, which is something I did not think about. But also that the people that I had, like there were people who really just wanted to talk about like the creative process about writing. And those are the best conversations. And strangely enough, like I can think of like, you know, three easiest sales were the ones where we were just talking about writing and then I thought they were just gonna like head out and like, all right, how much is the book?
Kalynn Applewhite (40:24)
Mm-hmm.
Ryan George (40:44)
And I wasn’t trying to sell it, we were just talking about stuff and that worked.
Kalynn Applewhite (40:50)
never undervalue that personal connection because that’s really why people are there. These people are going out of their way to go to an event to meet local authors and creators. You know, if they just wanted to buy a book, they’d go to a bookstore, you know. So engaging with them is a lot of the value. And if you reciprocate, like they’ll often reciprocate, you know, that value.
Ryan George (40:54)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, no, that’s fair.
Yeah,
absolutely. Well, Kaylyn, this has been great. Can you give our, so share with our listeners again the info on the Kickstarter and how people can get in touch with you.
Kalynn Applewhite (41:28)
yeah, great. So I am on Facebook, Kaylyn Applewhite author. I’m also on Instagram and Blue Sky under Applewhite right. And all of those will be updated with updates on the Kickstarter. It launches on April 8.
The early birds are only available for the first two days. They end at April 9th, midnight with EDT, Ohio time. It will launch on the 8th at 9 a.m. Barring apocalypse. And I’m super excited. It’s going to be a really good time. I think it might be our biggest one yet. Who knows? We spent a lot of time preparing for this one and I’m really excited.
Ryan George (41:54)
Mm-hmm.
You
Awesome. Well, thanks so much. I would love to have you back on when the next book is coming out.
Kalynn Applewhite (42:20)
Yeah, thank you for having me.
Ryan George (42:21)
Awesome.