Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello authors. I'm Joanne Morell, children's and young adult fiction writer and author of short nonfiction for Authors. Thanks for joining me for the Hybrid Author Podcast, sharing interviews from industry professionals to help you forge a career as a hybrid author both independently and traditionally publishing your books. You can get the show notes for each episode and sign up for your free Author pass over at the Hybrid Author website to discover your writing process, get tips on how to publish productively, and get comfortable promoting your books at ww.
Let's crack on with the episode.
[00:00:42] Speaker B: Hello authors.
I hope you're all keeping well in whatever part of the world you reside and listen to the podcast in Today's interview is with Dark Romance and Taboo author Leila Moon on book signings in America and connecting with Dark Romance readers. And we chat how the American atmosphere and readership differs from Australia, challenge challenges, traveling internationally for book signings, preparations made before and after the trip, Leila's advice for authors looking to attend overseas book signing events, her taboo work, and much more. Just a trigger warning before you listen any further, especially to the interview at hand, just to let you know that the interview between Leila and myself, we chat about taboo subjects. You know, her writing. That's the whole point. Taboo that some people might find offensive or disturbing. There's also also some course language used throughout the interview, so just a trigger warning that you can expect that it's not heaps, but you know, it's just a little bit. A little bit naughty.
So on my author adventure this week, I am continuing plotting the second in my contemporary women's fiction series, the Lawyer, the Singer and the Server. And it's much like my first three women's told from three women's perspectives and basically professional titles and how their story intertwines. These books all deal with friendship and this book is new friends, so the characters don't actually know each other. And I'm having. I'm enjoying discovering where the story is taking me and I'm looking forward to starting writing it soon. I'm almost I'm on the second last act, if you call it that. It's kind of broken up into four sections. I work off like a 24 chapter structure for these books. So yeah, really, really excited how that's going. I'm also catching up on the self Publishing Conference 2024 through the alliance of Independent Authors that was held from 12am Sunday morning. Last Sunday morning it was kicked off in the UK online conference and it went pretty much every session on the hour until I think it was midnight that night. I was actually at the Sandalford Winery estate the night before for Jimmy Barnes. It wasn't Jimmy Barnes, it was the cold his old 50 Years tour concert, which is not really someone a band that I would really go and see. But yeah, went with someone who does like it. And I had a really good time. It was a beautiful weather which was a shame for the people that the next night they played as well and I was absolutely pouring down so that was a shame for them. But yeah, it was nice, it was a real nice time. And so needless to say that was a bit of a late night so I didn't catch most of the conference and then the next day I had family commitments, kids, sports and whatnot. And yeah, just felt a little bit worse for wear after a couple of drinks. I'm lucky that I can still catch the conference. It's still recorded I think to members for a little short while and there were some fantastic sessions. So I'm really, really excited to be starting to watch those and so glad that I didn't miss out because I know I'm going to learn a lot. So hopefully I'll be able to share a little bit of that knowledge next week. Mostly I've just been preparing for upcoming events that I've got happening in November. Well this week I am launching Picture book for a very friend of mine, Jeanette Stampone and illustrator Novia Hiroanto and that is happening at the State Library this week in Perth. So if you are around make sure you get your tickets and come and say hello. Very excited to be doing that. And come November I have a couple of workshops, happening talks, sorry that I mentioned last time on the podcast there's Discovering Roblox and Writing which is on Wednesday 20th November in the blue Room, Amherst Village Library. And this is from 4:00. These are free writing events that are run through the city of Gosnells. So honestly if you're close by, well worth coming along. I'm also doing a Getting published session Friday 29th November and that's at Lesser Hall Mills Park Library and that event again is going from three to four so I hope to see you there. If not, you can't make it there. I'm also going to have a stall at the Perth upmarket on Sunday 17-11-10 till 4. Now that is a massive, massive event. I've never done a markets before so I'm quite looking forward to it. In my mind I thought it's not something I would do, you know, why not give it a go? I've got a banner, I've got stock to get rid of so you know, it's coming up to Christmas. This is all about Western Australian products that are made and obviously my books are especially the women's fiction one, you know, West Australian cover designer printed locally, all that sort of stuff. So yeah, really, really excited to be going there. I hope it's a good day. I'm excited to see all the other stalls as well. I think it'll be really cool.
[00:05:44] Speaker A: So if you love the podcast or.
[00:05:45] Speaker B: Any of the episodes has helped you further in your author career, you can now pay it forward by buying me a coffee over at buymeacoffee.com thehybrid author or you can buy my books over at hybridauthor.com books I've readjusted some pricing and really I've got some stock and all the print books I'm offering are signed copies. These print books that I got printed here in Australia, you can obviously get them worldwide. But in the process of uploading my books onto third, while uploading onto the third party retailers, let's all support each other.
[00:06:26] Speaker A: Leila Moon is an international best selling indie author. She resides in the Swan Valley, Western Australia with her morally gay husband and children. Leila's writing style is nothing short of dark and naughty. Where the darkness is always thrilling, the men are forever stupidly sexy for whatever reason. Then Hulu, why not? The women are absolute weapons and the spice is always spicing. Welcome to the Hybrid Author podcast. Leila.
[00:06:52] Speaker C: Hi. How are we?
[00:06:54] Speaker A: We're great. We're very honored and thrilled for you to join us.
[00:06:57] Speaker C: So happy to be here. Thank you.
[00:06:59] Speaker A: You're welcome. How did you come to be a writer and especially, you know, in the dark and naughty romance genre?
[00:07:05] Speaker C: Well, I mean, we're probably gonna start off with trauma.
I feel like everyone who has entered the dark side of romance or you know, horror or anything like that, they have some kind of trauma or relate to it in some way, shape or form. So for me, I have always dabbled in writing and people have always said, oh, you should, you should be a writer. And you know, I've gone up, why the heck would I do that? Like, that's just stupid. Like I don't have the guts to do something like that. And then last year I had a, like a bit of a mental breakdown and I said to my husband, you know what, fuck it, I'm going, going out, I'm going to do something for myself. And it was more of like a self discovery thing. And I flew all the way to Europe to go see a band that I really, really, really love.
[00:08:00] Speaker A: Oh, who was that?
[00:08:01] Speaker C: That was Sleep Token.
[00:08:02] Speaker A: Oh, okay. I don't know them.
[00:08:04] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:08:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:05] Speaker C: So they're a heavy metal band. And the girlies who have trauma will totally vouch for me when they say Sleep Token basically saves their life. And I can relate to that because they did exactly that. They saved my life.
[00:08:18] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:08:18] Speaker C: So when I went there and I watched the band and fell in love, even more so than I already was, I had started to write a book based on how they made me feel, which was very dark, traumatizing. So what. What Sleep Token sings about is a very emotional, very in depth, kind of spiritual. It's kind of. It's. I say it was a cult.
So when I did that, I obviously announced that I was writing a book that was inspired by Sleep Token. And then I found my people when I did that. And then I published this book and I said, oh, my God, it was the darkest book I've ever read. And I'm like, oh, really? Well, it was just my fucking trauma.
And then it got more dark after that. And yet, to be honest, I wasn't expecting it to kick off the way that it did because so many women related to the main female character or the main male character. In my case, I relate to the main male character and bits and pieces of the female character because of, you know, narcissistic abuse or some kind of trauma somewhere along the way. And then my second book that I did was a taboo romance. I just had that little bit in me that was like, I want to write something really fucking disgusting.
[00:09:43] Speaker A: Can you share, like, for. For people who don't know what taboo romance? Can you give, like a bit of a definition for that?
[00:09:50] Speaker C: Yes. So taboo would be anything that is not allowed. Like, it could be, you know, daddy daughter romance. It could be mommy son romance. It could be relation or no relation. It could be your uncle, it could be your brother, it could be something or other. So there's a fine line between where the kind of taboo wants to go, whether it's a full sibling or whether it's a step or whether it's a adopted sibling. Either, either. Or it's. You still technically call them brothers or sisters, et cetera, et cetera. So this book that I have, which is called Twisted Friction, they're brother and sister. And there's two editions of the book. The first one is they have no relation whatsoever. So the Mum and the dad are completely different, so technically they're not related, but one is founded. So like, I would say adopted, if that makes sense. So there's no blood relation, but they still grew up together as brother and sister, so that's. It's still borderline taboo. And then the other edition, which is. It's called an explicit addiction edition. Sorry. And that is full sibling edition. So same mom and same dad for the both of them.
So that's taboo, but it's also quite dark. So there's a lot of murdering and there's lots of blood and guts. There's lots of explicit sexual adult content that happen inside these books.
But for people who know me, know that. That I don't write anything else. I tried so fucking hard to write regular romance. I can't do it. I can't do the cutesy, oh, I'm gonna kiss him one day.
I can't do it. I tried, but my little journey on how I become to be an author has really only just begun. And that started in January this year. So I'm so new into the field and to be honest, it has blown me away with the achievements that I have done so far.
[00:11:45] Speaker A: Yeah, I know, it's incredible. Well, even all that. What you've just said is. Is absolutely mind blowing. Today's topic is on book signings in America and connecting with dark romance readers. So it sounds like you're. You're not a stranger to just jumping on a plane and then. And going overseas to, you know, do stuff, but you. You have recently.
[00:12:05] Speaker C: Wild.
[00:12:06] Speaker A: Yeah, it is. And that's. That's incredible. So you recently have had a trip to America for book signing specifically, which must have been absol. Insane. Can you share with us, you know, what was it like to meet, you know, readers in a new country and what was the atmosphere like for any sort of differences between Australia.
[00:12:23] Speaker C: Honestly, it was an incredible experience, whether you're flying over there on a holiday or whether it's for work purposes. Highly recommend to go and see Nashville because it is absolutely stunning. I don't even. I can't even comprehend how amazing it is to be able to achieve something like that. To be able to be in a position where I can say, I've got extra money aside now because I've sold X amount of books, I can fly to America to meet my American audience and I've made friendships over there and to actually get to meet them, honestly, I have to pinch myself a lot of the times because I'm like, this can't Be real. This. I only started this journey in January. How can I be here already? It's just incredible. But to fly there, I think it was about 15 hours there and about 16 and a half maybe, I think coming back.
And that was just on one plane because I live in, on the other side of Australia. I had to go from here to the eastern side of Australia, then from there to la, then from LA to Nashville and then back again. And to be able to do that with my husband was phenomenal. I don't even. I can't. I can't even. I can't put it to words. It's just insane.
[00:13:42] Speaker A: What was the event that you were going for and how did you. How did, how did the opportunity come about?
[00:13:46] Speaker C: I suppose I saw it pop up on Facebook. It was called the Black Hearts Masquerade Ball and Book Signing.
And I'm like, ooh, that's intriguing. Because of the type of books that I write, I have to be careful with what kind of book signings I turn up at. Because being a taboo author as well as a dark romance author, my books I already know are not going to be for everybody. And to be honest, I don't want to put myself in a position where I'm at a book signing where it's mostly contemporary romance or, you know, fairies and the fantasy type romance, because the right reader is not going to be there. And to be honest, I'm probably going to scare the absolute shit out of them. Yeah. So I don't want to put myself in that position where someone picks up my book that's not right for them.
[00:14:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:34] Speaker C: So finding a dark style genre of a book signing is where I need to go. And I already knew that I wanted to go to America to meet my American readers. And when this one popped up, I put in an expression of interest and I was like, I don't know if I'm going to be accepted or anything like that. And you know, she, the organizer was over the moon. She's like, I can't believe that you would even want to attend.
[00:15:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:01] Speaker C: So that was, I think about seven, six months in advance. And. Yeah. And the event was took place in August and I had a line the entire day. I. I did not stop.
[00:15:15] Speaker A: That's amazing.
[00:15:16] Speaker C: Were, yeah, we're back to back organizing our line, making sure that people were getting what they come in for. Unfortunately, I didn't get to meet any new readers that were actually, you know, walking through the event on the day because most of the people had already had their pre orders and they were coming to pick it up, up. So. So that was very interesting. And the photographer said, I can't get a word in with you because of how many people are here in your line. When is it my turn? Like he just wanted to come and see me and have a chat with me. But yeah, she couldn't even even do that. The line, it just, it never died. I think I got one toilet break in and I had to run really fast because I'm like, I don't want these poor people have been waiting in line for so long. And I'm like, I can't hold it any longer. I need to go to the table.
[00:16:02] Speaker A: So was it quite a massive event? Like how many authors were there?
[00:16:06] Speaker C: And it was, I think there was, I think about 60 in total.
[00:16:12] Speaker A: Wow, that's huge.
[00:16:12] Speaker C: Yeah, some of them were not able to attend, some were last minute. And because it was so big, I still didn't even get my chance to introduce myself and go meet everybody. That's how, how intense it was. Like there was that. That many authors and vendors that were there.
It was absolutely phenomenal. And the woman who ran it, she did an amazing job and that was her first event, so hats off to her. She did absolutely amazing. And I cannot wait to go back to America. It was dreary, the plane ride, but to be able to meet my readers that would move heaven and earth to actually meet me was. It was phenomenal. And I, yeah, like I said, I pinch myself because that's my reality and I actually was able to achieve that.
[00:17:02] Speaker A: That's amazing. Honestly, it's very inspiring. So you're a new author from like January this year and you know, you've just put your books up online and then you found a readership and you've. How have you stayed connected to them that you've known these, they're in the U.S. have they reached out to you and things like that?
[00:17:17] Speaker C: Yeah, so I, when I started writing, I posted my journey onto my personal TikTok account and people were like, oh my God, I want to know more. And I was like, oh, okay, well, I'll make an author account and I'll make a fake name and all that kind of stuff. And I did that. And I think honestly my first video that I did, when I started talking about this book that I was writing, like just giving them little teasers here along the way, it blew up and I had, I think about 10,000 followers on there. And then out of the blue, I got banned from TikTok. I mean, that's tick because TikTok doesn't like dark romance and naughty books, apparently. So. And that's. I had when I put it up on Amazon, because I put it up on Amazon for pre orders and I had over 700 pre orders.
[00:18:07] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:18:08] Speaker C: On. I know. It's. It was. I. It blew me away. I didn't realize that dark romance was a thing. I just thought I was just writing a book and people were like, oh, yep, this is a dark romance. Then I had my arc readers who were absolutely devouring it and wanted to know more. And it just went from there, to be honest, I connected with people from there. I even met one of my biggest fans. Her name's Rain.
And I met her and her. And I nearly were in tears because she's been with me from the very beginning. Her and another friend of mine, Diamond. She. We. When we all met, it was just. Just I pinching because it was like, how is this even real? But yeah, it just. Absolutely phenomenal.
It's just crazy.
[00:18:57] Speaker A: Yeah, that's. That's amazing. So pairing it back to before you even went on the trip, because even organizing yourself for that, I can't even imagine because you, you know, you were there for book signing. So did. How did. Did they get your books in there? Did you have to organize all that?
[00:19:14] Speaker B: How did you get all your set up there?
[00:19:16] Speaker C: And that was the bit that I didn't know at first because I. I had only been to two book signings before that and I had no idea what I was doing. So I had to order my books over there from Amazon America and have them sent to the event organizer and the event organizer would bring them to the table on the day.
And I obviously had to order enough to cover all of my pre orders. And then I had to bring some stuff from home, like my bookmarks, my not so for work prints, my, you know, lollies, like just little bits and pieces. So we had one luggage bag for all of that sort of stuff and like my banner business cards and all that kind of stuff. Like, I had. I had one luggage bag for that and then one luggage bag for our clothes. But yeah, I had to order everything over there. And obviously, unfortunately, I had ordered a little bit too much of one of the books in particular. So I ended up selling them the next day from our hotel because I'm like, I can't. We can't bring them back into Australia because it's going to cost us an absolute fortune. And there were some people that weren't able to meet me. So they threw their hands up straight away to get, to get the opportunity to have a signed copy without having to pay Australian postage.
[00:20:31] Speaker A: Oh, cool.
[00:20:32] Speaker C: Yeah, so it worked out really well. But yeah, it was relatively straightforward once I got the hang of it. And now I know what to prepare for next time. It's, it's very straightforward process. Yeah. Just ordering them over there and having them sent to someone over there when they can bring them and put them on the table for you, which was really helpful. But unfortunately, when you do have an overseas trip, you have to have that in the back of your head that you're probably going to come home with some stuff. Yeah. And you have to financially prepare to bring them back home.
[00:21:02] Speaker A: Yeah, that's it. Well, I think, I think it's amazing that you went across and done that without knowing what you were doing and just, you know, took a risk on the spur of the moment. Women. It's, it's something that you're probably going to remember for the rest of your life. You know, it's amazing.
[00:21:16] Speaker B: And was there any.
[00:21:17] Speaker A: Obviously, you know, that's a great tip. They are thinking of overstocking and things like that. Were there any other sort of unexpected moments or surprises like when you were in America, like in terms of the, like finding the event or, I don't know, anything that you're like, oh, not for next time.
[00:21:33] Speaker C: Yeah, for next time. I will make a note to try and think of a better way for people to pay because my little EFTPOS machine, I didn't know, won't work in America because they don't do the translating thing and obviously it just doesn't want to work over there because they obviously think it's a scam or something like that. Not the readers. I mean, the, the, the merchant little thing. So that didn't work. And the only option that I had was cash as well as PayPal. But sometimes the PayPal was a bit dicky because everyone's using the WI fi at the same time. So that's. Unfortunately, the downside of book signings is little teething errors that happen like that can cost you a fortune if you lose money or if someone can't pick up their pre order that they've already like half paid for and they've got no other way to pay you other than cash. Some people don't have cash.
That's the only, the only thing that I would consider for next time. But otherwise, yeah, everything is pretty straightforward. The organizer went above and beyond to make us comfortable and make sure that we had water, made sure that we had plenty of food. It was. Yeah, it was exceptional. And I, I could not have faulted anybody. And everybody was helping everybody, whether it was with cash or, or anything like that. But, yeah, for next time. Yeah, like I said, I think the only thing that I would do is have a better cash flow system.
[00:23:05] Speaker A: Yeah, no, fair enough. So I was coming to mind, like, when you were saying that, oh, gosh, I listened to a podcast the other day and they were talking about some app and honestly, for the life of me cannot remember what it was that you can just have on your phone now and you can take payments via your phone, so you don't need like the little square reader or anything like that to take payments. But the same thing is if you're saying if everybody's plugged onto the Internet, then you might get some issues there with that.
[00:23:28] Speaker C: But yeah, and because, you know, you're international, so what works for me won't work over in America. Like, I. I tried a few other different merchant opportunities that accept American payments, but they can't convert it back to Australia, so I'd lose all of the money.
[00:23:45] Speaker A: Oh, my God.
[00:23:46] Speaker C: It was a bit of a no end kind of thing. However, like some people, I guess, would assume if you had like an American friend, we could use their bank account and then they'd just send me the money kind of thing. But you'd have to know and trust someone to be able to do something like that.
[00:24:03] Speaker A: Well, I've got a stepbrother and some family in Utah, so there you go. Not stuck. Amazing.
Yeah. Did you. Were you in, like the other authors and things? Well, I suppose. Were you one of the only international authors there?
[00:24:18] Speaker C: There was one other that came from Australia and I think there was a girl that came from New Zealand, but I don't quote me on that because I have a feeling she would. Was one of the authors that I didn't get to meet, but the other Australian author was R.D. baker, and her and I knew each other from when we first started writing. So to be able to meet her because I hadn't actually met her yet, and lo and behold, I met her while we were in America. Yeah, she. She had an absolute blast. And she stayed there a little longer than I did. She did a couple of other book signings in America. I think she stayed there for nearly three months, I think.
[00:24:53] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:24:54] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah, she. She left home and traveled along with her. I think she went with her pa I think.
[00:25:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:01] Speaker C: And traveled along a couple of states in America. And did some book signings there. But unfortunately for me, we had, you know, left the, the kids at home.
Yes.
[00:25:12] Speaker A: Would you do something like that next time? Maybe tee up some more events?
[00:25:16] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:25:16] Speaker A: At the same time. Yep.
[00:25:17] Speaker C: Yes, yep. Definitely. And that was one of the hardest things is because I wanted to go and to do different states to be able to meet more people, but financially, like, it was a huge jump. Like, like it was a big chunk out of it, but it was so worth it even like we, we didn't lose any money, but we didn't make any money. Which obviously we don't go there to make money. No, but we, we were in a position where the money from selling books was able to cover the costs of flying over there. And, and that, that, that just made me happy and you know, having my husband there on the day with me was. Made my life, I think.
[00:25:55] Speaker A: Yeah, no, that's awesome.
[00:25:57] Speaker C: It was amazing.
[00:25:58] Speaker A: And. But even still, like you' yourself to. And I know you said it mainly was readers that you've accumulated already, but you don't know who else has taken notice and your name is one that is Layla Moon. Like you don't forget it, you know.
[00:26:13] Speaker C: Exactly. Yeah, yeah, it's a good name to stick to.
[00:26:17] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. So, no, that's all amazing. And did you stay on and have an extra holiday for a bit in Nashville or.
[00:26:24] Speaker C: Yeah, we did. So I think we stayed there for another five days after the event and I think that was probably the best. 5 days. Much preferred Nashville than LA. LA was very too fast paced. Like it was, it was very city, very intense. When we went to Nashville, the people there were absolutely wonderful and everyone was just chill and was very, very similar to Australia, like just really laid back and people would accommodate you really well. So we did a few tours. We did.
We stayed in the pool pretty much one of the whole days. It was great, great. And the weather was really good too. So. Yes. No, we, we definitely enjoyed having a work slash business holiday. It was great. And we were away from the kids, so it was so good.
No, yeah, that's.
[00:27:15] Speaker A: It is. What is it? So a workshop. So, you know, you should be able to claim part of your flights and all overhand really, you know, as a tax write off because yeah, it was part and parcel for that. So that's amazing.
[00:27:26] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:27:26] Speaker A: Yes. Well, you've already shared so much, Layla, but do you have any other, you know, mindset tips or business tip or even writing tips for authors or confidence tips or just anything for authors who are considering international book Signing events, even where to look online and things like that.
[00:27:43] Speaker C: So I would say depending on where you're at and for any, anyone out there who is listening that is contemplating on writing a book, write the fucking book. Do the damn thing. Do the damn thing. Get it. I don't care if you don't like it. Someone out there is going to absolutely devour your book. If I can write the most disgusting thing on the planet of earth and tell myself that no one's going to like it and have be bombarded with a ton of women who absolutely devour these types of books, there is a book out there for everybody, 100%. And I think once you get into the field, you meet the right people, you build your little community, you have nothing to worry about because the, the bookish community can be absolutely amazing. And more than likely they're there to support you and your journey. And when you do find your little family, you'll, you'll, you know, if you're having a bad day, you'll notice that, that there are a lot of people around you that pick you up and say, hey, look, she's having a day. Go buy her book. And people do, do that. People, you know, you know, they're just here to support you. So, so if, yeah, for anyone listening, just, just do, just do the thing, whatever it is that you're dreaming of, just go do it.
[00:29:01] Speaker A: Absolutely inspiring. Incredible advice there. And are you, what are you working on now?
[00:29:06] Speaker C: I actually, I actually pulled a book out of my ass in three days.
[00:29:13] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:29:14] Speaker C: I know. And I don't know how much I can say of it without getting in trouble, but it's actually called Soccer Mommy's Piss Flaps.
[00:29:22] Speaker B: Oh.
[00:29:23] Speaker A: I actually saw that on your website. I was like, what the hell?
[00:29:27] Speaker C: So it, it is totally unhinged. So my previous book that I have, that's releasing in two days, which I, by the time that this goes live, it will have already been live. It come out on the 10th of October. It's called written in Blood and it's a feminine rage anthology. So there's a lot of women getting back at the men who done bad things to her, et cetera, et cetera. So seven authors come together to make this outstanding, outstanding book. And we made a lot of women feel empowered by it because they felt that they could claim their voice back. And the dedication that I put on that book was, why choose the bear when you can be one.
[00:30:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:11] Speaker C: Because there was a lot of diversity when it comes to this man versus bear thing. And you know we would choose the bear over the man. Because, you know, I'm not going to go into it because everyone knows what I'm talking about when I talk about it. So this book, book absolutely phenomenal. And I have two characters from a previous book that do feature in this edition. So I'm really looking forward to that. To that, for that to drop. And then I decided my Halloween just isn't going to be Halloween enough unless I write my own little, little tiny novelette that has something to do with feminine rage and also some other disgusting dirty chicks. Like I said before, I write disgusting stuff.
Literally. This woman in Sakmami's piss flaps is extremely unhinged. She is an abomination. And the title alone is enough to deter the wrong type of readers. And if you're the right type of reader, you're going to absolutely giggle, cackle, kick your feet and you're just going to scream the whole time.
So if you think of Halloween and like all these girlies, come Halloween time, they love the masked man and they get chased in the cornfield, they have all of these delicious things. Well, imagine that, but reversed. So she's the killer, she's the one in the mask. She's the one out there chasing the men and making them do disgusting things. It's, it's, it's great. And it will absolutely make you question your sanity because it, it, it is probably.
I think I'm gonna go down in history for the most fucked up book. Like you're gonna question yourself and your sanity when you finish this book. You're gonna give it a one star rating because of how horrendous it is. But I did it with a good sense of humor. So like you know the scary movies, but like the funny versions. Yeah, it's like that. So they're not horror, they're not scary, but they do have funny bits and you're gonna laugh in it. I think a couple of my beta readers have responded with the weird emojis and the GIFs that are like, I, I need more. What is wrong with me? I absolutely love it that that comes out on the 24 October. And what was the. I think the subtitle was a. An erotic killer story or something because I had no idea what category this book falls into other than what the fuck. Yeah.
[00:32:50] Speaker A: Oh my gosh, that is absolutely hilarious. I'll put a trigger warning at the start of the.
[00:32:56] Speaker C: Many trigger warnings. Yeah, but.
[00:32:59] Speaker A: And your voice even like from your website and obviously you know the matter that you're writing and things, it just comes through, like supernatural. And I would say, you know, that's exactly how your readers connect to you. And as I say, we all have a dark side. Maybe not as dark, but yes. Yeah, Also sounds fantastic. How did you find your beta readers and things like that? Did you just put a call out or was it just. You noticed it was just fans, really.
[00:33:24] Speaker C: No. So a couple of girls who obviously I've gotten familiar with and have been on my arc team, you know, obviously gotten to know them and then I reached out to them and I'm like, you talk to me all the time and you do quite often give me feedback. Do you just want to be a beta reader for me? And, you know, obviously they were beside themselves and they were absolutely happy to do so. My beta, beta team, what I usually do with my beta team is they read for me, they respond and let me know if I. I have any issues that I need to fix and I send them the book. Like I send them a signed copy of the book as a thank you. Because I feel the beta team are very, very important before a book is published because they have brutally honest comments for you. And this is before sometimes before things go to the editor or in between and they're like, can you give us more information? Sometimes it's a bit more information that what an editor can. Can pull out of you, and especially when you have people who know your style of writing and the person who you are as an individual. So the relationship that I have with my beta team is absolutely amazing. And I. I couldn't live without them, period, because they're just absolutely amazing people. But, yeah, coming to find them, I reached out to them. Them because I trusted them.
[00:34:46] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, no, that's great. And is there any anybody, obviously who's listening that's keen to write, you know, in the genres that you do like, the dark romance and even the taboo stuff. Is there. Is there. Is there groups in Australia or mainly online for the. For this types of genres?
[00:35:02] Speaker C: Most of the dark and taboo side of things are American groups. However, with that being said, there's a couple of Australian ones, ones that do kick off quite a fair bit. I can't remember the names often off the top of my head because if I say the wrong word, then no one's going to find the group.
[00:35:19] Speaker A: Yeah, fair enough.
[00:35:21] Speaker C: But I do find that a lot of Australian groups are more fantasy based or contemporary based. So it kind of does depend, to be honest. Most of them are American based, but do have a lot of Australian authors in them. And it can be quite hard for Australian authors to kind of kick off because our pricing and our system is a lot different compared to Americans, however, and obviously our writing style. I, I write in US English. I've tried, I've done the UK English before and the US English does perform a lot better because they understand what I'm saying. When I write Australian, they don't understand what I'm saying.
[00:36:01] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that's right.
[00:36:02] Speaker C: The U.S. the U.S. performs better. But to be honest, out of all of the people who are listening and they do want to write a book, join absolutely all of the Australians groups because they, they welcome you like, you know, there's not an issue there at all. But for the darker side of things, if you want more of a heavier approach, then you would go to your American audience because that's, to be honest, mostly where they're at. Amazing.
[00:36:32] Speaker A: No, fair enough. Well, thank you so, so much, Leila. It was incredible talking to you and your adventures have just been fantastic and your books sound great. Can you share where our listener discover everything you do, you know on offline?
[00:36:46] Speaker C: Yes. So if you jump onto my website, which is laylamoon author.com absolutely everything is there, whether it's my newsletter and actually my newsletter currently has the free first chapter for both of my books if you sign up. So once you sign up, you get the link and that will take you to download the first chapter of both of my books just in case you may or may not like my style of writing or you want to know a little bit more. All the trigger warnings are on there. I do have signed copies. I have pre orders up there. I have the explicit ebook because that, that particular one, the taboo one, is not available on Amazon, the explicit version. So that one's available on there if you want the ebook. And obviously, you know, bits and pieces of what I have coming up, some sneak peeks, obviously the newsletter that's heavily important if you want behind the scenes and sneak sneak peeks of bits and pieces. But yeah, otherwise follow me on TikTok. I'm pretty funny, you know, add me on Facebook. I'm always happy to add people. I, you know, have, have a readers group if you want to ask questions. And for people who want to know more about writing or wanting to get into writing or editing or voice acting or something, reach out to me because chances are I'm probably going to point you in the right direction and I will give you the time of day because sometimes it's hard to find the time of day. Yeah.
[00:38:13] Speaker A: No, that's it. Well, thank you so much, Leila. That was fantastic.
[00:38:16] Speaker C: Very welcome. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. It's an absolute honor.
[00:38:27] Speaker B: Next time on the Habit Author podcast, we have Michael Bland chatting to us about the reality of technology in his books and the future and how, you know, the landscape's changing with technology and how we can incorporate it, you know, into our work. I wish you well on your author adventure this next week. That's it from me. Bye for now.
[00:38:45] Speaker A: That's the end for now, authors. I hope you are further forward in your author adventure after listening, and I hope you'll listen next time. Remember to head on over to the Hybrid Author website at www.hybridauthor.com to get your free author pass. It's bye for now.
