Cozy Mystery author Laura Elizabeth talks with author Patrick Greenwood about the challenges of launching a book

The Challenges and the Fun of Creating a First Book

In 2024, podcasts are a very popular way for authors to enlarge their audiences—either by hosting their own podcast series like our author Howard Brown or by talking with some of the best podcast hosts on their online series.

What makes a great podcast host? Last year, Howard published his own Top 10 tips for building a great podcast. That list for hosts includes: preparing properly for the conversation, pre-interviewing your guest, asking the right questions and adding enthusiasm to the whole experience.

Click on this cover to visit the book’s Amazon page.

That wisdom certainly comes through in Laura Elizabeth’s recent video podcast appearance with Patrick Greenwood, author of the 2022 novel Sunrise in Saigon, whose main vocation is as a cyber security expert. His podcast series goes by a number of names, but mainly Writers on Espresso.

Before they talked, Patrick had done a pre-interview with Laura. He understands first-time publishing, because he is an author himself, and he had carefully selected key questions to ask to keep the whole conversation under 30 minutes.

You can see their conversation in the video, below:

Among the highlights: Patrick talks with Laura about the need to vividly and convincingly create a sense of place—for him, the streets of Saigon, and for her, an island off the Atlantic coast—the need to invite early readers to look at drafts while an author is still writing, the sometimes jarring challenges of first-time content editing, the need to develop many different avenues to reach readers after a book is published—and they also talk about the mystery within Laura’s very striking book cover.

Listen to the end and you’ll even get a little preview of Laura’s second volume in this popular cozy mystery series.

Thanks, Patrick, for a great interview!

All of us at Front Edge Publishing want to express our thanks to Patrick for a well-prepared, well-paced author interview. And, Patrick also included the most important final note in such podcasts:

How do you reach this author?

Laura explains that she responds to emails at [email protected] and, of course, you can learn much more about her work, her public appearances and can contact her through her website: www.TheIslandMysteries.com 

About David Crumm

David Crumm is founding Editor of Front Edge Publishing. Nationally, he is known as a veteran journalist—a top writer and editor—with experience both in the U.S. and overseas. He is based in Canton, Michigan, where he also serves as Editor of Read the Spirit online magazine. His columns on trends in media appear twice a month on our Front Edge Publishing website.

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