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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Welcome everyone welcome. It is our last regular webinar of premium day and a romance writers week. It's been such an exciting week.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: It's sad to see it come to a close, but we have a great session for you. If you can see and hear me drop your name and location in the chat as usual.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: and I'm going to drop some links for you.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: We will get started in just a moment. I would like to give a little bit of time for everyone to filter in. I see Pennsylvania, Norway, Norfolk, Texas, Indianapolis, Indiana, Idaho, Latvia, California, Braco, Nashville, awesome.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Welcome. Everyone and happy. Friday

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: looks like everything is working

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: fine. So we're going to get going here. So for your premium day replays those will be posted to the premium hub, and they will be there until March first.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: If you want to see the replays from earlier this week from our regular sessions you can go to the original hub, and you can view all of Monday through Thursday's replays until March first. After that they will all be migrating over to our pro writing a community page, and we will post more information and instructions about that soon. So keep an eye out on your email and in the community for that.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: if you would like to keep talking romance writing. And to view these replays as we just discussed, please join us in the writing community. We have a lot of fun over there. We're gonna be building it up and doing a lot of fun things. So you don't want to miss it. So the link is here. It's also in the chat, and it is also on the hub. And I'm gonna drop those links for you again in the chat right now.

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one of these links also is a link to our type form feedback form for romance writers Week. We would absolutely love it if you could take 5 min to share your thoughts on how you enjoyed this week.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: What you liked, what you loved, what what you think we can do better next time. We love getting your feedback. This really helps us to keep improving these events for you all, and to keep having them. You know we have to justify having these events, and if there's a lot of you saying that you love them, we can keep putting them on. So if you can take time to fill this out, we would really appreciate it

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: reminders for this session. As always, we will be using the QA. Box specifically for questions. If you have a pro writing in question for me, or if you have a question for Laura, please use the QA. Box, so we don't miss those as the chat does move quickly.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: If you'd like to chat with other viewers, please do so. You'll just wanna make sure that next to the word 2. There's a drop down menu there. Select everyone so that everyone can see your messages, otherwise by default they only come to the hosts and panelists, so make sure you do that, and you'll be good to go

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: links to any offers this week any slides will be on the hub so you can go ahead there today to see this replay, these slides, a special link from Laura that is also in the chat for you and all of the other sessions that we've had today.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: So thank you for joining us. I am so happy to introduce our speaker. Laura Ferrari is an Instagram marketing specialist who's helped over 100 authors grow an engaged community of readers online and help them have fun doing it.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: After a passion for marketing, landed her career in copywriting, and a love of books led to developmental editing. Laura eventually managed to combine both areas of expertise and find her true purpose. After successfully using Instagram to build her own business. She now channels all her energy into helping authors, turn social media algorithms and share their stories with their readers who will love them most.

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Welcome, Laura. We're so happy to have you.

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Lara Ferrari: Hi! Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: We're excited to have you? I'm going to go ahead and hand the rings over to you, and I will be back later for Q. And A.

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Hey? Awesome everybody. Please keep your fingers crossed that they have no tech issues. I'm gonna share my screen with you. Now let me know on the chat. If if there are any issues? Okay?

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Lara Ferrari: Alright. So here we go.

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Lara Ferrari: Alright.  Think.

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Lara Ferrari: is that all good? If someone could just let me know that you are seeing this screen that I'm sharing. That would be amazing. That's really strange. Okay, let's let me try that again.

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Share screen

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Lara Ferrari: to share.

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Lara Ferrari: Now, it's working. Yes, okay, great hopefully. That will be all of the tech little glitches out of the way out of my system, and we'll carry on, and it will be awesome

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all right, so

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Lara Ferrari: thank you so much for joining me. Welcome to skip the sales pitch now. Full disclosure.

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Lara Ferrari: I may have had a little bit too far too much fun creating this presentation for you. It started off, as I kind of plan to do, a fairly basic straightforward how to guide to writing captions for authors on Instagram.

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Lara Ferrari: at some point that turned into creating these 12 specific romance writer archetypes which are basically personality types which then turned into a personality quiz, obviously to help you discover which one you are, which then turned into a personalized guide to your romance writer archetype

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Lara Ferrari: also that you can create online content to promote your book in a way that aligns with your personality, your style, your interests, your passions, so that you can connect with the right readers, and they will not be able to help but fall in love with you.

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So how does this work? Why is knowing your romance writer archetype even useful?

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Lara Ferrari: Because I don't know if you know this, but it is really hard to know what to post online as a writer promoting a book, especially a book that may not even be published yet is very different from trying to sell

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Lara Ferrari: pretty much any other product it's like, Are you posting as a business? Are you a brand. Are you an influencer? I know. Probably most of you here are thinking

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Lara Ferrari: I'm a writer like, I'm not any of those things I just want to write right. Let me know in the chat. If you can relate, just type me into the chat. If you know what I'm talking about. If promoting your book on social media just feels really like awkward and unnatural. If you've ever sat down to write a caption for a post, you've just had like 0 ideas, or if you have been making an effort to post. But

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Lara Ferrari: it's just kind of really disappointing, because you're not getting the result that you hope for, and you don't really know why.

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Lara Ferrari: So just drop a me into the chat box. If any of this sounds like you can see a bunch of people. Yes, you're not alone. Obviously you're not alone. Yes, it can be frightening, Connie. I totally understand that feeling. I hope that you feel a little less frightened by the end of this session.

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Lara Ferrari:  it's great. We're all on the same page. If you want to be able to spread the word about your book, and entice people to read it, but without all of the stress and the overwhelm, and the confusion and and feeling frightened that so often comes along with creating posts for social media.

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Lara Ferrari: Well, in this presentation I am going to share how you can identify your own personal secret source, not by trying to copy what other authors are doing, but by discovering your own specific romance writer, archetype.

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Lara Ferrari: and how you can use that knowledge of what makes you special. What makes you interesting and super appealing to create posts that attract the right. Readers, start conversations, engagement, build relationships that lead to sales.

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Lara Ferrari: And then at the end, as we said, we're hopefully gonna have time for that. QA. Is that we can chat about how you specifically can show up on the social media in a really genuine and comfortable way for you.

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Lara Ferrari: Sound good.

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Lara Ferrari: Okay. Here's the thing.

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Lara Ferrari: Apart from a few very lucky authors, you get book. Big book deals with fancy publishers. Most authors do have to do some, if not all, of their own marketing, but

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Lara Ferrari: but it doesn't have to be complicated. So like I said at the beginning, we're gonna skip this sales pitch. We're not focusing on marketing today. We're simply gonna focus on building relationships with readers, and that is because authors who can connect and build genuine, strong, positive relationships with readers on social media, they have a much better chance of getting their books in front of a larger audience which can obviously lead to more sales.

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Lara Ferrari: because people simply hearing about your book, that is just step one. There are hundreds of thousands.

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Lara Ferrari: probably millions. My maths is not that great? But there are probably millions of books currently being promoted online. Right now, these books, let's just get this straight. They are not your direct competitors, but it does mean that you have to get strategic about making sure that your books just stand out from the crowd. And this is where that relationship comes in. That's what I'm talking about. When I say skip the sales pitch because

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Lara Ferrari: your readers they're not interested in being sold to. They don't want your pitch, they want

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Lara Ferrari: to be romanced.

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And how exactly do you charm them? How do you win them over. How do you romance? A reader?

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Lara Ferrari: You show yourself to be someone who shares the same interests, the same values as your reader, someone they can relate to someone they actually really quite like to be friends with.

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Lara Ferrari: because readers are a lot more likely to buy a book from a book sorry they're more likely to buy a book written by an author who they consider to be a friend who they like, who they trust, who they admire.

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Lara Ferrari: than a book by some random stranger on the Internet who's just constantly trying to sell to them. You don't want to be that person. I know you don't. So you need to build

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Lara Ferrari: the kind of relationships that are going to help to sell your books in natural, comfortable, and trust me on this even fun ways hopefully, I'll prove that to you by the end of this.

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Lara Ferrari: because that is where the 12 author archetypes come in. There are 2 main problems that I see author struggling with on Instagram. Firstly. so much of the social media advice out there. I don't know if you have noticed this, let me know in the chat if you have.

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Lara Ferrari: but it's been created for businesses.

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Lara Ferrari: It is not created for authors. So you're often gonna hear things like how to educate your audience or helping them overcome problems or addressing pain points. It's all about like selling a solution to a problem.

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Lara Ferrari: And obviously none of that applies to authors. None of that applies to your readers who just want to escape into a story world that just wanna get swept up in a romance for a few hours. Yeah. People saying, yes, totally mixed messages in research land. Exactly. So. That's kind of what I aim to do. I try to sort of. I listen to all of those mixed messages I take them on board, and then I kind of try to sift through them all, and just kind of find the stuff that's really gonna be relevant for you.

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Lara Ferrari: Secondly, the second problem, that I notice that authors struggle with on Instagram is that even if you do come across advice, that is, for authors. There are so many different types of authors out there. There are so many

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Lara Ferrari: types of authors writing different types of books, writing for different types of audiences. So what works for one author on social media? That's great. But that won't necessarily work for you.

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Lara Ferrari: On the other hand, these 12 author archetypes, they have been created specifically to help you as a romance author. First and foremost, promote your books.

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and they are highly personalized.

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Lara Ferrari: There are 12 to choose from. So each of these have their own specific strategies for connecting with readers online and forming personal, meaningful relationships that work with your areas of interest and in your zone of comfort.

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Lara Ferrari: Speaking of areas of interest, as you know, I am an author marketing specialist. That means that I spend pretty much all of my time, as I said, trying to figure out how to help authors like you spread the word about your books, and.

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Lara Ferrari: more importantly, actually, get those books into the hands of the readers who are going to love them.

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One way I do this is by creating caption kits for writers on Instagram. Now in each of these kits there are 150 caption prompts and personalizable caption templates to save you time and creative energy, so that you can build an audience online and generate bookbuzz among readers

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Lara Ferrari: without sacrificing all of your precious writing time. So I currently have kits for writers of all genres. I have kits at a kit for writers of fantasy and sci-fi.

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and one for writers of romance. Now, the reason I'm telling you. This is because

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Lara Ferrari: each kit is tailored to specific genre of books

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Lara Ferrari: and specific audiences. But what is the same across each kit is that the 150 captions are split into 3 caption categories that each serve a specific purpose.

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Lara Ferrari: There are captions to intrigue, these help you to talk about your book, your story, your characters in fun and creative ways. Ways that are going to pique your reader's curiosity and get them excited to read more.

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Then there are captions to cultivate community. These help you to get more eyes on your posts, help you to spread the word about your book more widely. and then, finally, there are captions to connect.

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Lara Ferrari: These are the captions that help your readers get to know the writer behind the books. These captions are more personal. They start conversation, they encourage engagement and interaction.

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Lara Ferrari: Now each of these categories are important, as I've just explained, they each have their own specific purpose. But if I had to choose just one.

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Lara Ferrari: It would be captions to connect every day, all day, every day, and I will tell you why.

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But first

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Lara Ferrari: let me ask you a question.

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Lara Ferrari: You ever been talking to a friend in real life about somebody? Follow online, maybe an account on Instagram. And have you ever and be honest here.

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Have you ever referred to that person you follow as something like

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Lara Ferrari: this girl I know, or even

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Lara Ferrari: this friend of mine, as in this girl I know has the coolest home library, or this friend of mine just published her first novel.

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Lara Ferrari: Yes, I love it. I was, gonna say, drop a big old cap. Yes, in the chat, so that no, it's not just me. I already knew it wasn't just me. I've had a lot of conversations with people who said the same thing. Yes, clearly

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Lara Ferrari: we are not alone. This is all of us. I love that.

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Lara Ferrari:  I just did see this 1 one little comment. I just wanted to address really quickly, John, saying that there are no male archetypes. these archetypes. They're not male, they're not female. Think of them as like Muses, they are just representations of different types of authors. 100. They can absolutely. You can relate to them whether you're a male, female, non-binary anything. They are just ideas. So please, please, you are fully included in this. I don't want anybody to feel excluded.

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Lara Ferrari:  yes.

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Lara Ferrari: So back to this this idea that we really do feel like we can connect with with people online and feel at their friends. Now, I'm gonna share an example for any of you who like

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lot of you, I know, get this. But a lot of you are like, I don't know if this would really work. So this is an example I created. Okay.

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Lara Ferrari: just imagine, this is somebody follow on on Instagram. And just by following her stories and her posts like we know all about her cute little dog right and see them in the photo. We know about her obsession with K dramas. We know that she likes to slip notes inside her favorite books at the library and create character theme cocktails for her book club you know that she lives in a big city, but she's a sucker for a small town romance. She takes the train to the country once a month, just to walk around with a a map in the hope that

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handsome farmer stops and gives her directions.

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Lara Ferrari: You know more about her like then some of her actual friends, when you know these kinds of details about somebody's life. So when you say something like this girl I know, or this friend of mine.

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Lara Ferrari: it's kind of true. and that is the kind of relationship that you want your readers to feel like they have with you.

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Lara Ferrari: That starts with letting them get to know who you are, beyond just the books that you write. So I'm talking about your opinions, your life experiences, your passions. These are the essence of captions that connect.

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Lara Ferrari: Now we're going to get into specifics of what that could look like for you, but just so that you know what to focus on. First, I want you to have a think about which type which of these 2 types of authors sound most like you? Okay.

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Lara Ferrari: alright. Get ready. Type an A into the chat box. If you find it difficult to talk about yourself online. If you're uncomfortable or awkward, sharing your personal thoughts or opinions or details of your life, maybe you think you have nothing interesting to say. Type an a. Maybe you worry about offending people.

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Lara Ferrari: It's also you'd be in this category. Maybe you just kind of think sharing your personal life is kind of irrelevant. That would also be an a okay, if that sounds like you. Yes, we've got a bunch of A's especially showing your face very common, not just for authors.

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Lara Ferrari: but for a lot of authors. A's A's, A's. a lot of A's all right.

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This is for you, then. But I said there were 2 types of authors right?

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Lara Ferrari: Type A, B, you're kind of the opposite. Maybe you share too much. Maybe you have 0 filter. You just say whatever pops into your head in that moment. In fact, maybe you share so many different aspects of your life that your followers sometimes forget that you're an author. Your Instagram has kind of started just to feel like it's a personal account for your friends and your family to follow, to keep them updated. It's not really a

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Lara Ferrari: strategic author account to connect with readers and promote your books.

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Lara Ferrari: If that is A. B, yes, okay, I'm not surprised that I think we have a few more A's and B's. But there are some B's in the chat. Okay, awesome.

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Lara Ferrari: because whether you are a type A or a type. B awkward author. It usually boils down to basically the same 3 problems. One. You don't have a clearly defined author personality that you feel comfortable and confident, sharing online

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Lara Ferrari: that sound like maybe you

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Lara Ferrari: 2, you doubt your own appeal as an author

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Lara Ferrari: that usually just means that you haven't yet worked out what it is that makes you special what it is that is going to draw the right readers to you and 3.

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Lara Ferrari: You just don't have time to figure this all out. You want to spend your creative brain power writing your books, not trying and testing marketing strategies that might not even work. So.

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Lara Ferrari: knowing all of that. seeing that a lot of you are relating to these now feels like the right time to introduce you to your 12 romance writer, archetypes.

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Lara Ferrari: So meet your new Muses.

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Lara Ferrari: Each of these cards represents a specific author personality with their own strengths and appeals, and, like, I said, a secret source for attracting the right readers. Now I know that it is sometimes hard to recognize these things in ourselves.

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Lara Ferrari: but they're so important to be aware of when you're building an author a brand, and thinking about how you want to show up, and what elements of your personality you want readers to see.

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Lara Ferrari: Now, when I say Author Brand.

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Lara Ferrari: don't get scared. Okay, don't freak out like I said, this is not like a super marketing type. Presentation. I want you to think of it this way. There's this really famous simple definition of a brand which you might have heard of before. Basically, it is just your brand is what people say about you. You're not in the room.

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Lara Ferrari: that's all. It is. So hopefully, by the end of this session. These Muses are going to give you a clearer idea of what that could be for you, what you want your readers to think and say about you. When you're not around.

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Lara Ferrari: So I made these as a fun and easy way to identify, like I said, what it is that you have to offer, and why readers should be following you.

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All you have to do is pick the one that you most identify with. Now, I'm gonna really quickly introduce you to each personality, so you can get a sense of it.

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Lara Ferrari: I have, as I said, I have already. I've also created a quiz to help you identify your romance writer. Octop actually can't remember if I if I've told you that already. But there is a link. Michelle dropped a link into the chat box.

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Lara Ferrari: And the link is here on the screen as well. It is a quiz that you can take to figure out which one of these most relates to you. And it's actually a full booklet, because it also comes with a written summary of every type of archetype. So you can go through them all in detail in your own time. All we have to do is put in your email address that I can send it to you, and I'll share the link like, I said again at the end of the presentation, and it's also in the chat.

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Lara Ferrari: So 12 romance writer archetypes that might seem like a lot. But I wanted to get really specific, so that each relationship building connection making strategy is as specific for you as possible. Now, I've also broken them down into 3 broader categories which might help you. So we have head, heart, and body types. Now, generally speaking.

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Lara Ferrari: head types are like the Brainiacs, the deep thinkers of the romance world happily, ever after. That's not enough for head types. They need to analyze love dissect relationships. Now, these writers, they don't shy away from complex relationship issues or even wider societal issues. They are all about the deep dive into love relationships.

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Lara Ferrari: Even the psychology behind it all. They love to twist tropes around, offer fresh takes

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and challenge traditional perspectives.

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Lara Ferrari: hot types. and are a little different. I've said that they're like, feel good fans. they're all about the emotions they write stories that target your heartstrings, that explore the depths of love, and

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Lara Ferrari: just leave you with all the feels like, whether it's like the warm and fuzzy fields, or how

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passion, or even like bittersweet emotions.

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Lara Ferrari: Heart types, are not afraid of vulnerability or raw emotions. They are all about the connection, whether it is slow burn or soul mates.

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Lara Ferrari: they always get their happy ending right.

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Lara Ferrari: And then we have the body types. Now they are the romance world's thrill. Seekers really like their romance, with a heavy dose of abruption, adventure, excitement. So think fast paced plots, daring missions, thrilling getaways a dash of danger.

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Lara Ferrari: these writers drag their readers straight into the action, so they're going to feel the heat of the passion. They are going to feel the rush of adrenaline, every thrill, every spark.

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Lara Ferrari: Now, before we dive any further into the specifics of all of these, just from these introductions.

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Lara Ferrari: I wonder if you instinctively feel a connection with any of these 3 broader categories. Will you just type, head, heart, or body into the chat? If you think you already know which category your author. Archetype might be an email without taking the quiz. So just let me know. Oh, my gosh, there are! I can't keep up with all of the messages.

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Lara Ferrari: I saw a lot of hearts come in, but I have a head, head, heart, and body that's interesting. We're gonna talk a little bit about that later, if you feel like you connect with more than one.

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Lara Ferrari: what was that? A few of them but body the strongest. Yeah, I've really tried to like. Put something in here for everybody, so I do believe that there will be at least at least one archetype that you will connect to but this is. This is very cool to know that. Yes, I'm on the right track.

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Lara Ferrari: and there is something for you.

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Lara Ferrari: So let's break those personality types down even further get into those specifics, because, although they do share these overarching similarities, as you're going to see

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Lara Ferrari: at some of the actual archetypes within each of these categories they're pretty different. And if you have questions as you go, as we said, Michelle said, drop them into the question. Box the QA. Box to answer at the end. If I do manage to spot anything in the actual chat, I will try to answer it, but, like I said, it goes pretty fast, and I might miss them.

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Lara Ferrari: So let's start with the head types

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Lara Ferrari: within this category. We have the stage, the commentator, the eccentric, and the scholar.

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Lara Ferrari: The sage likes to mix romance with deep thoughts. Their characters often go on really personal journeys and learn important lessons along the way.

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Lara Ferrari: So if you are a sage. I'm gonna guess that you're probably like the wise friend in your friend Group, who just always gives the best relationship advice.

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Lara Ferrari: The commentator is more like a relationship columnist. They use wit and sharp observations to spark debates and conversations, and they challenge the status quo. So

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Lara Ferrari: think of being a commentator, as being like your reader's, go to guide, for up-to-date takes on love.

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Lara Ferrari: The eccentric on your head is not afraid to just stray completely from the norm. Their love stories are as unconventional and unique as they are. They love to create quirky characters, follow unusual storylines that explore really deep, really interesting issues.

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Lara Ferrari: So if this is you.

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Lara Ferrari: this is a message. Listen up carefully. If this is you, I want you to embrace your weirdness and just know that that is exactly what is, gonna attract the right readers to you.

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Lara Ferrari: And then we have the scholar the last of the head types.

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Lara Ferrari: The scholar is the researcher, the fact checker the recreater of love in past times and lost civilizations and far fun places, and, like the what might have been type scenarios.

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Lara Ferrari: this scholar loves to blend fact with fiction, to create something new.

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Lara Ferrari: And if this sounds like you, if you like, geek out over details, I just want you to know your readers love this level of detail, too, so feel free to just

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Lara Ferrari: get your nerd on. Just geek out with your people. Now, as I said this presentation. It's an introduction to how you can use these archetypes to understand your own stri own style, your unique allure. For your readers in particular. You can get the full strategy in the Quiz Booklet when you download it. But let me give you a few examples right now, so you can get a kind of idea of the kind of content that you can create to entice the right readers

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once you know what archetype you align with.

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Lara Ferrari: So let's say I challenge you to write a caption that lets your readers get to know you better by discussing your take on a controversial romance trip.

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Lara Ferrari: If you identify as a sage, you're a deep thinker. You share good advice

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Lara Ferrari: you could. I discuss, you could discuss why, you think your chosen trope appeals to readers. Why, what's the psychology behind it? You could ask your readers if they agree, or if they have any other theories, if you're more of a commentator. On the other hand, though you could like list some problems that you have

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Lara Ferrari: observed with this trope, and you could invite your readers to weigh in on the debate. If you're an eccentric, you could suggest 3 other tropes that often get overlooked, but which, in your opinion, are just way better.

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Lara Ferrari: and if you're a scholar at heart. You could talk about why you think

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Lara Ferrari: these tropes that might not work now. actually kind of make more sense, say, like in a historical context. Does that make sense to see how you can kind of adapt the same prompt when you know your archetype? And you know, like what your particular strengths are, what your interests are, what your readers are interested in, and how you can like. Really, tailor it

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Lara Ferrari: cool. I love this makes ton of sense. I love that, great.

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Lara Ferrari: As I said.

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Lara Ferrari: knowing your archetype can help to guide your content and your caption themes in ways that align with your personality type and attract readers who care about the same thing. Instead of just trying to do what everybody else is doing, which is probably why you end up feeling like awkward, and it feels unnatural. It feels inauthentic. So just drop an emoji any emoji of your choice. Into the chat.

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Lara Ferrari: If you're following alarm, if this makes sense, if you can't use emojis, just just type a word.

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Lara Ferrari: People already already typing thumbs up hot. Yes, great. Just just a quick check in just to know that I'm on the right track. So I can get through to the other types and know that you're following along, and this makes sense love it. Gotcha.

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Lara Ferrari: Now, the next category is the heart type. So remember, these are the writers. A lot of you said that you are heart types.

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You are all about the feelings, but, as you'll see. pretty different ways.

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Lara Ferrari: because in this category we have the best friend, the empath, the dreamer, and the provocateur.

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The best friend, is the person who keeps it real. When it comes to romance. They write love stories that feel like they could happen to your next door neighbor

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Lara Ferrari: or your best friend.

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That is how relatable their stories are. They understand normal people just experiencing normal struggles.

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Lara Ferrari: they tackle real issues, real emotions.

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Before, of course, making sure that their characters get rewarded with the endings they deserve. Now you are probably a best friend type. If you are honest, you are down to Earth, and

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Lara Ferrari: you're probably your reader's most enthusiastic cheerleader. That's your type.

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Lara Ferrari: and perhaps a similar. but they get even deeper into the fuels. Their stories are really rich in emotion, they often delve into themes of intimacy and vulnerability, even heartache.

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Lara Ferrari: If friends come to you to unburden themselves because they know that they will be met with understanding, with a non-judgmental attitude from you. You're probably an empath

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Lara Ferrari: dreamers. On the other hand.

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Lara Ferrari: I mean they just have their head in the clouds, right? They live for love stories. They are all about the grand gestures the fairy tale endings their stories. They have elements of magic and wonder, and everything works out perfectly. They are the ultimate escape. Artists like

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Lara Ferrari: in the sense that they create these beautiful escapes for their readers.

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If you are a romantic day dreaming idealist.

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Lara Ferrari: the dreamer archetype is probably perfect for you.

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Lara Ferrari: and then we have the provocateur. Bold and daring. This writer type just loves to explore

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passion. Sensuality.

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Lara Ferrari: often in pretty, steamy ways, not always.

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Lara Ferrari: but often. provocative, says, tend to they push boundaries. They just they go where others might be nervous to go. Let's just say so. You might be a provocate if you are drawn to emotional intensity or even like

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Lara Ferrari: taboo desires that are

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Lara Ferrari: typically expressed in more physical ways. So I'd be interested to know if we have any any of these types in in the audience right now.

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Lara Ferrari: Total idealist, yes, empath, dreamer, empathetic dreamer, love, that best friend and dreamer. They go together really? Well.

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alright. So let's look at caption examples, because I know we have a bunch of hard types. So how can you apply this to your captions?

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Lara Ferrari: Let's say the caption prompt is to share a personal experience related to love or dating. Remember, the idea is to help your readers get to know you as a person behind the book you're writing. So, as my best friend, you could open up about it like a really bad first date that you had. Or you could share a like a list of just terrible dating like red flags. Turn offs that you have kind of gathered from your group of friends.

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Lara Ferrari: Then you could ask your readers to add their own to the list, as basically you can support each other through through the trauma of of all these first aid, terrible first date experiences.

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Lara Ferrari: If you're an empath, you could get vulnerable, you could share about a time that you had your heart broken.

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Lara Ferrari: Talk about how that felt. explain, share what helped to heal it.

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Lara Ferrari: and of course you can encourage your readers to share their own experiences with you in return.

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Lara Ferrari: If you know that you're a dreamer. You could just share your ideal date like, just let your emotion emotion, your imagination go wild. It's just the kind of like once in a lifetime. Money is no object date that would just tick all the boxes and make you immediately fall in love, and then you could ask your readers to let their imaginations loose and share their dream date. It's gonna lead to some very fun conversations. I guarantee it.

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and if you are a provocateur you could talk about

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Lara Ferrari: how you know that you have that like spark with someone. And there's secret things that get your blood pulsing, and maybe you could share a few sure fire ways or or signs that you look out for that. Let you know that

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Lara Ferrari: things are about to get interesting.

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Lara Ferrari: so same, prompt for different captions for 4 different kinds of readers who will try to appeal to different readers.

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So

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Lara Ferrari: Angie's pencil that Angie says my many personalities are undecided. It like, I said, we'll come to the end. And you. You'll realize that it's totally okay if you connect with more than one of these. But they're a really great starting point to try to sort of like focus you and help you to create, like I said that that brand which is really just kind of understanding what makes you special and how you want to come across to your readers.

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Lara Ferrari: So I should make it clear that when you really lean in and embrace your archetype and start creating content. In this really specific way. You will attract readers.

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Lara Ferrari: and you will put off readers. And that is okay, that's actually a really good thing, because the readers that you attract will be the right readers.

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Lara Ferrari: And I know I've used that term a few times today, your ideal readers, your right readers. I just simply mean the readers who are actually gonna buy and enjoy your books. That's all. So the readers that you lose.

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Lara Ferrari: They were the wrong readers, readers who were never gonna buy your books anyway, because your books are not for them. So we don't actually want them around. We don't want them just like scrolling past your posts, just dragging your engagement rates down, or even worse, coming into your comments and kind of bringing negativity with them.

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Lara Ferrari: so we don't want that.

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Lara Ferrari: Don't be afraid to lean into your archetype, and then just watch the makeup of your audience shift. But in the right direction. And then, finally, we have our body types. Now remember, these are the thrill seeking adventurous excitement lovers. So specifically we have the fun lover, the adventurer, the rebel, and the enchanter.

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Lara Ferrari: The fun lover

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is a total natural when it comes to sprinkling like levity and humor into their romances. Their stories tend to have, like light-hearted and uplifting themes.

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Lara Ferrari: Once again, just a different type of escapisms like pure entertainment. Does this sound like you? Okay? Fun lovers.

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Lara Ferrari: the other life of the Romance writers party, or like the Romance writers, book, Club. and they love to keep the mood up. They love to keep things like light and bouncy

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Lara Ferrari: adventurers thrive on creating fast-paced stories, and they usually have heroes who face like really high stakes challenges. They're full of exciting escapades with romantic twists.

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So if you love a good thrill, or if you write a lot of action scenes in amongst your romance.

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Lara Ferrari: you might be an adventurer. Then we have the rebel. Now the rebels take on. Romance

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Lara Ferrari: is unconventional.

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They love to break tropes, just flip them around. They love to challenge readers. Expectations of. You know what they're going to get.

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Lara Ferrari: So if you are daring, if you're independent, at least you know when you're writing, I don't know what you might be like in the rest of your life. But when you're writing. rebel could be the one for you.

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Lara Ferrari: And then finally, we have the enchanter. So a bit like the dreamer. The enchanter writes romance that is just woven with magic and wonder, but where the dreamer can like find magic in everyday situations, ordinary places.

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Lara Ferrari: The enchantor creates magic. the enchanters break the laws of physics, the laws of nature, they draw on mythology, folklore.

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Lara Ferrari: magical realism, science even, but like imaginary science.

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Lara Ferrari: In stories about adventure stories driven by curiosity and imagination.

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So you might be an enchanter if you, I mean, basically, you just feel limited by reality and natural laws. And you prefer your romances with an element of fantasy or the paranormal.

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Lara Ferrari: Okay.

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Lara Ferrari: okay, seeing a lot of of hybrids here. This is really great that you're connecting with at least one of these. But a lot of you, too.

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Lara Ferrari: So let's imagine that these body types, these adventurists were loving.

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Lara Ferrari: enchanting types. Let's imagine they all get given the same prompt of sharing some wisdom they have learned about love.

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The fun lover might talk about how to stop a relationship from getting stale, you know, from getting bored in your relationship, so they might suggest ways to inject some spontaneity into your love life.

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Lara Ferrari: And if you are a fun lover, you could even turn this post into like a game. You could create like a Bingo card of of ideas, things that you can do.

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Lara Ferrari: The adventurer might talk about how, in order to find love, you need to take risks, you need to step outside of your comfort zone, so you could compile like a list of out of the box waves to meet new people, and you could dare your readers to try a few.

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Lara Ferrari: The rebel wants to attract readers who, like them, challenge the status quo, and just kind of reject what might be seen as like mainstream. So if this is you could you could share a message about

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Lara Ferrari: acceptance or inclusion, or encourage your readers to join you in celebrating love that doesn't conform to traditional norms that embraces being different. So you could share stories you could share quotes from books or real life, and you could invite readers to add their own experiences.

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Lara Ferrari: And then, finally, if you're an enchanter this one, you could kind of take like a tongue in cheek. Approach to this this wisdom that you've learned from your stories about and applying it to love.

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Lara Ferrari: You could talk about how lovers from different worlds can come together and find common ground, so you could take examples from fantasy romances, and then compare those struggles to ones that we face in like the real world. So

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Lara Ferrari: like how 2 people on opposite sides of like a intergalactic war

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Lara Ferrari: is basically the same as how you and your partner feel on a Sunday when you support different sports teams. That kind of thing.

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Lara Ferrari: Okay, so do you see how none of these captions, none of the examples that I've given you have been talking directly about your book. None of them are pushy, none of them are salesy. Instead, they are just about connecting with readers on subjects that they are interested in things that they care about, and basically just getting them to say

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Lara Ferrari: me, too. And like we're the same. let's be friends.

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So I hope this has given you a few ideas, for how you can reveal more of who you are and what your approach to romance is.

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Lara Ferrari: Remember.

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Lara Ferrari: take the quiz, get the full breakdown of your archetype. And by going to this this link, it's on the screen. It's in the chat.

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Lara Ferrari: You can also mix archetypes. As I said, you guys are way ahead of me like you're already mixing up your archetypes. And I love that. So if you find, like most of you, that you are drawn to more than 1, 2, 3, and like multiple could accurately apply to you

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Lara Ferrari: that that's really great, like, it's just double the way that you'll be just gonna relate to you. So you've already come up with your own combination. But maybe some of these feel like you. So I've just said, like some of these go together really well. Adventures and scholars fast paced action romances. But in historical settings

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Lara Ferrari: commentator and fund lover.

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Lara Ferrari: hot takes on modern dating life adorably awkward dilemmas.

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Lara Ferrari: Ultimate Romcom.

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Lara Ferrari: In chanta and provocateur, I mean just super steamy, romantic, right?

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Lara Ferrari: You can use the guide like I said. You can use the content ideas, each

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Lara Ferrari: each kind of breakdown of the archetype. It has a description for you. It has a list of your strengths like I said, your secret source. It's got a description of the kind of readers that will be attracted to you. It's got connection, ideas for content that you can create for Instagram. It's also got some bonus engagement ideas to kind of. Get more interaction with your readers, and you can mix and match these from different archetypes if they make sense for you. Just to be like

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Lara Ferrari: like, I said, doubly relevant to your readers and really stand out

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Lara Ferrari: once you know your author archetype or archetypes, you can figure out what kind of content comes most naturally to you. That's key. So whether you're an idealistic dreamer, you're like a witty commentator or goofy eccentric. You can really focus on the topics that excite you and feel genuine to you, which means no more showing up in like really awkward and really uncomfortable ways, because you just think that that's what you should be doing, because other people are doing that.

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Lara Ferrari: knowing your specific archetypes is also going to boost your confidence when it comes to sharing your unique strengths and quirks. So all of you who at the beginning was like, well, I don't have any strengths. There is nothing interesting about me hopefully, when you go through this book that you'll realize that is just not true.

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Lara Ferrari: And when you are able to really lean into what makes you special more of the right. Readers are just gonna be drawn to you. It's gonna be like a magnet.

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Lara Ferrari: And then finally, once you have this kind of content compass guiding you, you can make sure that all of your posts, everything you create just feels like, aligned and connected, and moves your readers in the right direction, which is obviously

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Lara Ferrari: reward your books because they're gonna know that if this is the kind of stuff that you care about. If this is the sort of personality and style that you bring to your stories.

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Lara Ferrari: Well, they already know that they're then going to love those stories, because this is what appeals to them, too. which means.

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Lara Ferrari: but when it comes to it, you're not really going to have to work very hard to sell it in them. That was kind of key, right?

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Lara Ferrari: So wow, that wraps up like the presentation part of this session. We are like, I said, gonna open up the chat now for a QA. So I think gonna drop go through them in case you commented anything as we talked. Anything about author archetypes, how you can use them to create content, build relationships. Don't forget, like I said, to download that free author archetypes guide. And if you wanna continue this chat

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Lara Ferrari: after this session. Make sure you're following me on instagram@lemon.friday, where I share a ton of other tips and resources for growing your audience, readers, and building book buzz even like Way before your book is even published.

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Lara Ferrari: I'm going to stop sharing my screen now.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Thank you, Laura. This was such a great session. The chat is just blowing up with positive feedback, and we have so many questions about the beautiful cards that you shared

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first off, Angela says, Please, please, please, can we have copies of your cards? I can see myself putting them out shuffling them, and when I'm stuck on a character. Cut the deck, and there you are.

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Lara Ferrari: Oh, my gosh! That is such a brilliant idea! That is a genius idea. I love that

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Lara Ferrari: right? Yes, I'm going to think about that. I might actually create, maybe then a printable because, like I said, you've got your booklet. But they're not all the specific cards. So if anybody wants that, send me a message on Instagram at Lemon Friday, and I could make that happen because I think that's brilliant. I would love that. I'm going to go for myself.

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Wonderful!

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Laura asks. Do these ideas only work with Instagram, or can it help with threads. Youtube or Tiktok

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Lara Ferrari: 100% can work with any social media. I mean, it can work with your with your website. You can work with your email at list. I sort of focused on Instagram so I could give you a really specific example that arise like immediately actionable.

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But once you know your type. Once you like, you use these to really nail down like I said, just what it is that makes you special, what drives you what motivates you. What you wanna share with people is really just to help clarify that whole idea for you. So to give you that confidence, to show up knowing that you have something special to share, and that when you do, you're gonna attract the right readers. So once you're comfortable.

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and that maybe you start with Instagram, if that's what you're most comfortable with. But if it's somewhere else, start there. and then you can kind of expand and apply that more generally

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Lara Ferrari: we have an our next question, does your sci-fi and fantasy Kit relate to dystopia as well? Yes, yeah, absolutely definitely. I such a fan of dystopian fiction. So that was 100 in my mind when I created this kit. So yeah.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Angie asks, is the way to create your brand basically just choosing things you like, and repeating the elements in all your correspondence.

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Lara Ferrari: Pretty much. I mean, like, I said, when you go back to that bridge, your brand is just what people say about you when you're not in the room. So it's everything you do, every interaction that you have with people, and whether that is like your visuals. Whether it's your captions, whether it's how you speak when you're on camera. It's the topics that you talk about. All of these things like little breadcrumbs, little clues that help us to create this picture, so like that example that I gave you

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of that author that I totally made up. By the way, yeah, cause I didn't wanna like steal somebody else's Instagram photos. But you know, when we know about like a little dog, and how she spends her weekends, and where she lives, and what she's interested in, and what kind of motivates her and all of those things. It! They're all like little breadcrumbs, but they help to paint this overall picture, and that can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming, for people like it's just too big. And that's why I created these cards.

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Lara Ferrari: To really like, I said. Even if they don't, one of them doesn't specifically relate to you. You can take like elements from each. And you can kind of create almost your own little profile. So that when you do show up online you can almost like a checklist to be like. Is this gonna help them understand this about me? Is this gonna help them understand who I am and what I care about? And what excites me and what I'm passionate about that sort of thing?

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Beth asks, are your archetypes related to the enniogram?

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Lara Ferrari: No, they're not directly related to the enniogram but I am an enniogram super fan, so I have to say. I was probably just influenced by the general approach to it, because I have found that so helpful in my life, and also in terms of writing like, I don't know if any of you use the enogram to help you create your characters

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such a great resource for that. And I just wanted something that was specifically for writers. So they're not directly linked. But it's obviously a lot. It's the same kind of thing to help you understand your strengths and how to use them.

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We had a session earlier this week on Enneagram, so with Danielle Abernasa. If anyone hasn't seen that yet, check out the replay, and they are very closely related.

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Lara Ferrari: Oh, cool, awesome.

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Yes, it was a great session. Mary asks, can you slide between the sub archetypes and your reader connections?

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Lara Ferrari: Sorry, say that again.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: can you slide between the sub archetypes with your reader connections? Mary may maybe drop in the chat a little more. Context. With that I'm not sure what you are asking there.

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Lara Ferrari: No, not but there, like, I said, you can definitely mix archetypes. And there are none that are like opposing that don't work together. It's just a way to more fully understand yourself, and really kind of flesh out like I said, your whole

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Lara Ferrari: persona that you wanna share. And I wouldn't be really clear on that, like we're not creating this persona. This is a new person. I'll when we show up online. It's it's you choosing what aspects of yourself that you want to like. Get across to all complicated people. Right? We're all different with different people. I'm different with my mom than I am with my husband, you know all my friends. So we're really just thinking about. And that's why I've included a section in the booklet about your ideal readers. So you can really focus on them and think, okay, well, how can I connect with them?

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What do we have in common? What is what is the thing that kind of binds us? And how can I make sure that that's really emphasized?

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Thank you. That just answered Mary's question, and also Leisha's gail asks. I'm fairly new to Instagram. Thus far my followers are only people I know. As I create new content based on this and info from other workshops I've listened to. How do I reach those I ideal readers people outside my personal and author friends.

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Lara Ferrari:  so like, I said in my Caption kits for authors, I have a whole section on captions to connect, which is kind of what we've been talking about today, right? Getting to know you personally, so that anybody who does land on your page gets an idea of who you are and what they can expect from you. But obviously, you also want ways to kind of get in front of new people. So that's why I also have the captions to cultivate community.

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Lara Ferrari: And that's really about reaching out to other people partnerships actually, in these archetype booklets. I've also for most of the archives. I've included ideas of like partnerships and collaborations that you can do but it's really about being proactive about building those relationships with. So whether it's finding other people who are similar to you readers, other writers commenting on their posts. DM, reaching out

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Lara Ferrari: creating collaborations, sharing each other's content. There's so many ways that you can do that. But you really have to have to be a little bit brave, and you kind of have to take that first step. But I promise you can I just can I tell them, Michelle, like how I came to be on this summit.

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Lara Ferrari: So I saw that pro writing aide had promoted. They were advertising this amazing week long event for romance writers, and they had this whole speaker lineup like they were. They had their graphics, they had everything. They were clearly like organized and like at the last minute I feel I sent Michelle, A. DM, I was like, this looks amazing. I'm super excited about this.

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Lara Ferrari: I actually have resources for romance writers. I think about this a lot. And I think I could really help your your attendees. Could I speak your event? And I'm like, how like.

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Lara Ferrari: how rude and kind of out there, potentially like, could that be right like, you've already got this event plans? And I'm just being like, Hey, can I show up?

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Lara Ferrari: And Michelle was like, that would be great like. I was so nervous when I said that. Really nervous I was like, what's the worst that she could say should just say, We're full. We're busy, which I was fully expecting, but she didn't, and that has happened so many times to me like when I have reached out to somebody and said, like.

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Lara Ferrari: I love what you're doing. I'd love to share that your post with with my readers. Can I have a bit more context, you know, and that they're like obviously thrills. They they that's promo for them. It's it's flattering. Anybody would love that you start to build on those relationships. Then maybe we do an Instagram live together in the future, or we exchange posts, or we do a collaboration or I do a guest

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Lara Ferrari: blog post on their website, or they write for my newsletter all of these connections. I'm sorry. No, this is one question. I'm kind of like going on because I have so many ideas about this. Make sure you follow me@lemon.friday. You're on my email list, where I can really kind of go into detail about these things. But I know it's it's hard for authors. So I really try to help with that aspect.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: You putting yourself out there can be so intimidating. But if you hadn't, then we wouldn't have gotten this great presentation, and we're so happy that you did put yourself out there.

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Lara Ferrari: So it's a great lesson for everybody watching.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Our next question, Deanne asks, depending on what type of romance you want to write. Can you pretend to be one type that you aren't

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Lara Ferrari: well, I generally feel and like you're all romance writers. So you can tell me if you agree with this or not.

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Lara Ferrari: That you write the things that interest you. You write the things that you find entertaining that you find exciting so

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Lara Ferrari: like it's like, when I said I think it was about like the rebel or one of those ones where I was like. You are bold and you're courageous, and you're independent, and I made it like I was very clear, to say at least, when you're writing like, I'm not saying that you have to be this in all areas of your life. But clearly there is some part of you. That has that you express in your writing. So that's what I'm really trying to draw up, because

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Lara Ferrari: I know that I know that so many authors are like. There's nothing interesting about me. I have nothing relevant to say. Nobody cares about what I think, and it's really about kind of narrowing that down, finding your people, finding those connections and really thinking about what it is that drew you to your story. What it is that you love about it, what fires you up? What gets you passionate, what you could talk about for hours

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and really focusing on those things. So it's never about showing up inauthentic. It's never about pretending to be someone else. It's just really figuring out for yourself what those things actually are for you.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: We have an anonymous question, any suggestions for building connections with readers without showing your face on social media?

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Lara Ferrari: I have to say, this is it. It does make things trickier. Now I am a huge proponent of showing your face, having, like the personal touch

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Lara Ferrari: it really, really, it is like the quickest shortcut to making a connection with somebody like, just imagine, right now that my screen was just a blank screen. And you you couldn't even hear my voice. It was just words that appeared like you would still get the information, but you might not

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Lara Ferrari: connect with it in the same way. Now, having said that I fully appreciate that. I know a lot of authors are companies that it's just not possible. Maybe I know, for for a lot of teachers. I think, in the Us. Like, you're not allowed to have like social media presences, things like that. So you can't. It's difficult.

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Lara Ferrari: People like that. Having your own account, or maybe you write a particular type of of romance or fiction that you don't want people in your life to know about to use a pen name. So I've seen a few authors in my lemon community who've come to me and asked this. They've created like avatars. At least, you know, like little like cartoon pictures of themselves.

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Lara Ferrari: Now I'm that's not ever going to completely replace the face to face. But you're at least giving them some ideas such as something to like picture in their mind. And then again, just

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Lara Ferrari: in your in your captions, really making sure that you fill them with personality that you do share those personal stories. All of that. So 100%, I if you're just like nervous about sharing online, I fully fully encourage you to just take, bite the bullet and give it a go and step out of your comfort zone if it's just not an option for you. Then there are other ways. But yeah, you do need to be really intentional about making those connections.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Harlan asks any suggestions on how to start posting for someone who's not comfortable with sharing on social media. So this kind of builds off of what you were just saying. She says, I need. I hear that I need to just jump in. But I'm struggling to do that.

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Lara Ferrari: Well, hopefully, these author archetypes will help you. That's

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Lara Ferrari: kind of what they're there for.

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Lara Ferrari: obviously, if you're further on, and you're writing, Jenny, that they're still gonna be useful for you. But I like, I said those. Do you remember, I said, that there are 3 things that often get in the way of authors showing up online, and

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Lara Ferrari: one of them is just

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Lara Ferrari: being uncomfortable with like talking about yourself. Another is just not feeling like that. You have anything valuable, or you don't have any appeal to your to your readers.

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Lara Ferrari: So these cards are really to kind of dispel that myth cause they are myths. Everybody has something. And maybe it's just a bit easier to kind of read like, take the quiz, and then read about yourself like, here's somebody else almost saying this about yourself. It doesn't even be like Oh, well, I didn't say that about myself. All these lovely, nice things, all these super cool, like awesome things about myself. It's the card that says it. So it must be true.

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So if if you can derive that kind of confidence from that, that focus to show up

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Lara Ferrari: the confidence is only gonna build and I've actually noticed in if in the chat they kind of scroll past. But I've seen a few of my lemon Friday community members, and I've taught. I've seen them say the same things. That. And I know that they've talked about this with me in private as well

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Lara Ferrari: about having that fear of starting, and it's just the more you do it the more you put yourself out there and the easier it becomes. And can I just say that when you start, you're not gonna have many people following you. And that's actually a really good thing, because it kind of gives you that space to grow and get comfortable, because when there are, when you don't have thousands of followers, if you kind of, you know.

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Lara Ferrari: mess up, you've maybe say the wrong thing, or you put a bunch of typos in? I do that all the time, and I'm like, Oh, no, I'm posting for authors, and I'm putting typos. I feel very judged. I never am, but I just feel that way. But when you're right posting and you don't have many followers like

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Lara Ferrari: that's kind of the upside to. Not that many people seeing your posts.

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Lara Ferrari: just think of it as a chance to just practice to get comfortable with yourself. I have a lemon at the moment who started her account posted a bunch. And then it was like, listen, actually me, I've realized through posting this, what I'm actually excited about and what people really seem to engage with. I'm gonna shift. And I'm actually gonna start doing more of that. So just think of it as experimentation like, if you like. Nobody is judging you. Just just go for it and figure it out as you go, cause that's honestly what we're all doing.

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Well, thank thank you. So, unfortunately, we are out of time, and we do have more questions. But follow Laura on Instagram. You can message her there, and also we will have the replay, the slides, the links, everything on the premium hub this afternoon, so be sure to check all of that out. But thank you so much for being here. This was such a great session, and we're so glad you were part of our lineup.

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Lara Ferrari: Thank you so much was an honor to to close your week, and I'm sorry we didn't get to all the questions if anybody left a question, and, as Michelle said, if we didn't have a chance to answer it. Just DM me at Lemon Friday on Instagram, and I promise you I will get back to you

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Michelle @ ProWritingAid: lovely, and everyone we have one last networking session today, and just under an hour. So we hope to see you there and thank you for attending romance raiders week. This was such a great week, and we're just so pleased with how everything went, and that all of you were here and and gave us all of your time. So thank you so much, and until then we will see you next time. Bye, bye.