Category Archives: Podcast

2020 Resolutions

December 29, 2019Living in the wilderness on Kodiak Island, Podcast, Writing2020 Resolutions, author, author promotion, bolg post, Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier, newsletter, Podcastadmin

It’s time once again to review last year and make resolutions for the new year. I hope you all had a great 2019, and I wish you an even better 2020!

I had a good 2019, and I’m pleased with what I accomplished. I went off track a bit and did not fulfill all my resolutions from last year, but I wandered down some new, exciting paths. I finished my fourth novel, Karluk Bones, and my publisher released it on September 1^st. I did not finish my wildlife book, but I am now busy editing it and hope to publish it in 2020. Meanwhile, I’ve started writing my next novel and am beginning to assemble my true-crime book. None of these things happen as quickly as I would like, but I’ve learned I dream up new ideas much faster than I complete the old ones.

I enjoy plotting and writing books, but selling books remains a puzzle I might never solve. I’ve worked hard over the last year promoting my books, but when nothing seemed to work, I decided to think “outside the box.” I needed to search for new places to find my ideal readers.

Paid Advertising: My publisher uses paid advertising to promote my books, but I rarely pay for advertisements. I’ve found I never make as much money from advertising as I spend on the ad, but perhaps this is because I don’t know what I’m doing.

My Blog: I started my blog when I built my website, and while I still love writing posts, I have learned this is not the best way to find people who want to read my books. A respectable number of people read my blog each week, but I think most are either friends or folks who stop by to learn about the specific topic of my post. I plan to keep writing blog posts as long as I have something to say. I learn a great deal from researching and writing my wildlife posts, but my blog posts are not yet useful promotional tools for my books.

My Monthly Murder and Mystery Newsletter: Many of the people who open and read my monthly newsletter buy and read my books, so my goal is always to find more individuals who want to sign up for my newsletter.

Medium: If you haven’t checked out Medium (https://medium.com) yet, you should. It’s a platform for writers, where you can find articles on every topic imaginable. I post some of my true crime articles and my wildlife content there. At the bottom of each true crime article, I include a sign-up form for my newsletter, and dozens of Medium readers have signed up for my mystery newsletter. When I found Medium and began posting my true crime articles, I felt I’d made progress. People who liked my writing and my subject matter opted to sign up for my newsletter.

Podcast: I took a stride forward with Medium, but I knew I needed to do more to find readers. I decided perhaps I should look for readers who also enjoy other types of entertainment. I didn’t know what to expect when I started my podcast, but for a low-budget production, it has done well, and I’ve found new readers.

My writing resolutions for 2020 are to finish and publish my wildlife book and to finish my next novel. I also hope to keep blogging, podcasting, and posting my newsletter on schedule. I’ll work with my publisher to try to think of new ways to reach readers, and I’ll keep doing the things that seem to work.

I’ve learned selling books is hard. It’s like a big puzzle where all the moving parts must fit together somehow. I think if I find the correct alignment, I’ll turn my fledgling writing hobby into a book business. I believe most authors are dreamers. Success is right around the corner, and next year it will happen. Maybe 2020 will be the year for me!

What are your resolutions for 2020, and have you made resolutions for the next decade? I hope 2020 is the year for you to make your dreams come true. I wish you health, wealth, and happiness!

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Robin Barefield is the author of four Alaska wilderness mystery novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, and The Fisherman’s Daughter, and Karluk Bones. You are invited to watch her webinar about how she became an author and why she writes Alaska wilderness mysteries. Also, sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska, and listen to her podcast, Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier.

Alaska Wilderness Mystery Novels by Author Robin Barefield: Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, The Fisherman's Daughter, and Karluk Bones. — Write caption…

Mystery Newsletter

Fatigue

November 10, 2019Living in the wilderness on Kodiak Island, Podcast, WritingAlaska, Karluk Bones, Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier Podcast, Podcast, Writingadmin

Fatigue looms front and center in my life right now. We have less than two weeks to go until the end of the season at our lodge. Mike and I will stay here until mid-January, and then we plan to take a vacation and return by mid-to-late February. I don’t care about a vacation; all I want to do is sleep!

I have so many projects I’m excited to start but no energy to begin them. Lately, I’ve been fighting to keep up with my weekly and monthly deadlines – my blog posts, podcasts, and newsletters. I’m disappointed I haven’t spent more time editing my wildlife book or writing on my next novel. My publisher is annoyed I haven’t put more effort into promoting my last book, Karluk Bones. Once our fall season ends and I sleep for 48-straight hours (just kidding – I think) and stamp out my fatigue, I will have the energy to write and edit my books, and yes, I will try to sell my latest novel.

I began my podcast, Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier, this past summer, producing two a month. At the same time, I cut back my blog posts to two a month. So far, I am happy with this arrangement. I think I was beginning to get bogged down by writing four blog posts a month, but I look forward to doing them every other week. Podcast episodes require a great deal of work, but I still find them fun to do, and I am reaching a new audience. The newsletter is still my most time-consuming project every month, but I’ve gotten faster at writing them, and I am slowly learning how to write non-fiction – It’s not easy!

I know many of my blog post readers have never listened to a podcast, so here’s an excerpt from a recent episode. Just hit the arrow to play it.

If you’d like to hear more, follow this link: https://murder-in-the-last-frontier.blubrry.net

Let me know what you think. I know a true-crime podcast is not for everyone, so I understand if you aren’t interested in it.

I haven’t had a chance to thank many of you for buying Karluk Bones. I appreciate you, and I hope you enjoyed the adventure.

In my next post, I will discuss tanner crabs, often called snow crabs. I hope you’ve found my crab posts informative. I’ve enjoyed writing them and have learned a great deal about king crabs, commercial king crab fishing, and the laws (or lack of) governing the fishing industry. It seemed as if every time I started a post, I realized I had enough information for two or three articles. The deeper I dug, the more fascinated I became about king crab and commercial king crab fishing industry.

As always, thanks for reading, and take a minute to leave a comment and say hi. Hearing from you will erase my fatigue in a flash.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Mysterious-Kodiak-Island-FB-3-1.png — Write caption…

Mystery Newsletter

True Crime Podcasts

June 10, 2019Podcast, WritingCriminal, Generation Why, Lore, Murder and Mystery Podcast, Murder in the Last Frontier, Sword and Scale, True Crime Historian, True Crime Podcastadmin

In my last post, I announced the premiere of my true crime podcast titled, Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier. One of the reasons I started a true crime podcast is because I am a fan of murder and mystery podcasts, so this week, I thought I’d tell you about some of my favorites and how they inspired me to begin my own podcast.

True crime podcasts take a variety of formats from a sleek sound production including interviews with those who had firsthand knowledge of the crime to dramatic recreations of events to a simple retelling of the facts of the crime. Some crime podcasts are seasonal with each season devoted to a particular murder or murderer. In these podcasts, the host breaks down the crime and the investigation. Other murder podcasts take an unsolved murder and attempt to solve it over the course of the season. Still, others involve a group of law enforcement experts discussing the pros and cons of the investigation of the crime.

The true crime genre is popular across all media formats. Take a look at the many true crime TV shows, including Dateline and 48 Hours. True crime books are immensely popular. I write a true crime newsletter, and you’ll find several true crime magazines at the newsstand. With its overwhelming popularity, it is no surprise true crime is also a major theme for podcasts.

I have not yet listened to a seasonal podcast devoted to a deep dive into one crime or one criminal, but several stand out in the rankings, including Someone Knows Something, Up and Vanished, and Accused.

If you like humor with your murder, check out White Wine True Crime or My Favorite Murder.

My favorite true crime podcasts are Sword and Scale, Criminal, Generation Why, True Crime Historian, and Casefile True Crime.

Sword and Scale is not for the squeamish. The polished, well-researched podcast takes a hard look at the most gruesome crimes.

Criminal simply does a great job of reporting well-researched crimes in a straight-forward manner.

Generation Why involves two hosts named Aaron and Justin who tell the listener the facts of a crime in a conversational manner. This is another podcast where a great deal of research is put into each episode.

True Crime Historian covers crimes from the past, and the listener not only learns about the crime but also learns a little history in the process.

Casefile True Crime is an addiction with its stellar narration and sleek production. You won’t be able to stop listening.

In the realm of “Mystery,” I highly recommend the podcast Lore. Lore looks at the creepy scary folklore legends of history to determine if there is any truth to these tales we first heard while sitting around the campfire. As the Lore website says, “Because sometimes the truth is more frightening than fiction.”

There are many more, great true crime and mystery podcasts out there, and once you hear one, you will want to hear them all. Try out the ones I’ve suggested, and while you’re at it, I hope you will give my podcast, Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier a listen.

Robin Barefield is the author of three Alaska wilderness mystery novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, and The Fisherman’s Daughter. To download a free copy of one of her novels, watch her webinar about how she became an author and why she writes Alaska wilderness mysteries. Also, sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska.

Mystery Newsletter

Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier

June 2, 2019Podcast, WritingMurder and Mystery in Alaska, Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier Podcast, Podcasting, Robin Barefieldadmin

I am excited this week to announce my new podcast: Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier. As many of you know, I have been writing a mystery newsletter for the past three years about murder and mysterious disappearances in Alaska. A few of my newsletter subscribers encouraged me to start a podcast, and while I initially laughed at the idea, the seed took root and began to grow no matter how hard I tried to stomp on it.

At first, I didn’t believe I could upload a podcast with our slow satellite internet, but once I learned I could upload from the middle of the wilderness, I began to research what was involved in producing a podcast. Would it be expensive? Was the technology learning-curve too steep, and were my vocal skills up to the challenge?

I read everything I could find about starting a podcast, I listened to podcasts about podcasting, and I joined podcast support groups where I could ask questions. I spent less than $200 on a microphone and other necessary gear, bought audio editing software for another $100, and I signed up for a site to host my podcast.

Everything I am learning from this venture is new and challenging, and I love it all so far. I carefully chose a good microphone and headset and bought reasonably priced audio editing software that has proven to be easy to use. I also like the Hindenburg Journalist software because if I decide to take my editing to the next level, I can easily upgrade to a pro version. I chose Blubrry.com to host my podcast, mainly because it offers a free website for my podcast and all the tools I needed to learn how to publish the podcast and upload it to Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, and other platforms.

Do I know what I am doing yet as a podcaster? Nope, not even close, but I am trying not to be hard on myself. My podcast is far from perfect, but I have plenty of room to grow and improve.

The big question is, why do I want to spend money and countless hours I don’t have to tackle yet another project? The answer to this question is simple. I hope to introduce myself and my writing to more people. If they like my podcast, perhaps they will want to sign up for my newsletter and read my books. Podcasting is an experiment for me, and I will try it for several months. If I find my podcast requires too much time with too few payoffs, I will quietly back away from the microphone and return to what works.

The downside to starting a podcast is time. As you know, there are only so many hours in the day, and I do have a hectic regular job. If I want to podcast, something must give, and unfortunately, for now, I have decided to cut back on my blog posts. Right now, I write one post a week, so for the next few weeks, I plan to scale back to two posts a month, and I will alternate weekly between a podcast and a post. Once I streamline my podcast editing, perhaps I will have time to return to a weekly post schedule.

I’ve published my first podcast episode, and you can find it here. I’m working on my second episode, and it will be available in a few days. If you enjoy my podcast, please go to Apple Podcasts and leave a comment so that other listeners can find me. If you would like to listen to all my podcast episodes, don’t forget to subscribe.

Please let me know what you think of my podcast. A few of my blog readers have been with me since I started this blog, and I appreciate you and value your opinions! Thank you for your support!