Writing is Hard! - New Youtube Channel and Podcast!

One of the things that I've really enjoyed about my work as a historian has been the opportunity to interview people and collect oral testimonies. My first time interviewing anyone was during my PhD, and I didn't receive much training at the time on how to do it right. A quick conversation with my advisor and an instruction to "just do it, you need it!" turned into a slow and gradual process of figuring out tips and tricks. Even without that solid training though, I slowly built up the confidence in doing these interviews, and found that I genuinely enjoyed the experience.

I confess, I'm not the best with social media! I struggle with it, and don't really like talking about myself or filming myself just to say "come buy my book" or "look at me." I fully respect everyone who does - I think they're incredibly talent and brave. But I never quite know what to say in a way that feels genuine and honest.

For over a year now, I've thought about what it might be like to do a Youtube channel where I could interview folks about their experiences in writing and publishing. Everyone has their own unique experience whether that's someone from Indie Publishing or Self-Publishing or Trad Publishing. There are fanfiction authors who never want to publish anything at all, but who pour their love into writing as a craft. There are artists who design book covers, and audiobook narrators who read these books out loud. Marketers and influencers who all have a say in what publishing is like to them.

I'm currently on break at the moment, in that precious period between when my dissertation has been submitted, but I'm waiting for defense and the start of my next career pathway. So with the time to actually start settling in and start something new....I decided to finally give it a go!

I sent out the first round of invitations for people to be interviewed in the 2025 Debut Author discord, and I got a lot of positive feedback! At this time I have a lot of interviews planned, and a few already prepared for posting. My hope is to be able to publish one every week to my new channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TheLindseyByrd

And, at the advice of my brother in law, I've also set up a podcast for the audio versions of these interviews on: https://open.spotify.com/show/6JyRZNugijZEO3AvIUh52n .

I've also begun reaching outside of that network, and hope to be able to have interviews with agents, editors, and other members of the industry beyond just the author group. We're still very nascent at the moment, but overtime I hope to be able to have a very nice collection of interviews that I can share with the world, so that if anyone is ever curious about any part of both the writing process or the publishing process in general - they have a place to go and hear it directly from the people involved.

We're still early days! But I'm looking forward to getting this up off the ground.

If you like this idea - please do subscribe and share with others. And if you know anyone who might be interested in being interviewed, I'd be happy to have them on the docket!