Side Quests and Finding an Audience

 by Jeanette O'Hagan

Brisbane Supanova 2025

A couple of weekends ago, Rendered Realms, aka, Jeanette O'Hagan, Lynne Stringer and Adele Jones had a table our seventh (or eighth) Brisbane Supanova (since our first one in 2017 & Covid in between).  In many ways, it's rinse and repeat  - we dress as characters in our story, we display our ever-expanding stock/inventory of books, we put up banners and posters, we hand brochures and bookmarks to interested patrons, we enjoy the creative display of cosplayers prarading past our table, we thrill at return customers and the friends we'd made over the years at the different pop-culture cons. 

This years had a different vibe for one reason only. As some excited customers exclaimed - they loved a sidequest. Those smaller filler quests that branch off the main quest line in a RPL (roleplaying) game. They also love bling.  Talking of side quests - let me backtrack :) 

To diverge - Finding an Audience

I started telling stories a long time ago. 

For many years they had an audience of one (me). Well, two, to inclule God who knows our thoughts before we do. At any stray moment, my characters would clamour in my head, telling me their adventures, suprising me with twists and turns along the way. Villains with backstories and redemptive arcs, new lands and new peoples, family dynamics and farflung journeys - which only I was privy to. I drew maps, invented an alphabet, made extensie genealogies, drew and painted pictures of different aspects of my world and its peoples. 

Until one day, a family friend challenged me to write the stories down for others to read. Soon, I was in search of an audience - readers who I hoped would love my world and characters as much as I did. 

Broadening my audience gave my stories more substance and structure. Instead of a rambling ever-branching, ongoing adventures, they started taking the form of short stories and novels. And instead of pleasing myself and allowing my daydreaming mind to roam where and when it will, I had to think seriously about audience expectations - target audience (Young Adult, Adult), genre (Fantasy, Science Fiction), story structure and style (point of view, show don't tell, strong prose, pacing etc).  

Writing the stories is the fun part. 

Editing them is necessary. I enjoy editing,  though I wish it didn't take five times longer than the actual writing. 

Getting the stories published has it's own challenges - finding a publisher, deciding between traditioanal publishing or Indie publishing, Hybrid etc, 

But the hardest thing about seeking an audience - is being noticed in the crowd. In other words, promotion and marketing. And whether we are trad published or  indie (self) published, we need to market our books so people can find them. 

Each year, 2.7 million books are added to Amazon.  And once a book is electroncially published, it's generally stays published. So in the hustle to find our readers, we are not just competing with all the new books out there, but everyone else's backlist - including all the republished classics from decades to centuries ago. 

When we look at the figures, it can be disheartening. 

There are various ways to find an audience - connecting with groups, schools, libraries, book clubs, social media, etc, collaborating with othe authors, competitions, giveaways, promotions, advertising, newsletters, street teams, etc 

One way, Adele, Lynne and I have found to connect with our potential readers is though Pop culture festivals like Supanova, Oz Comic Con, Fraser Pop, Comicgeddon. The people in cosplay streaming past our table are interested in our genres - science fiction and fantasy - and a good proportion of them are avid readers. Many of love supporting local and small arists and authors in artist alley. 

Even though many others are more interested in merch and art than books, these events attract crowds of people - tens of thousands with Supanova. If the book lovers are ten or even five perscent - that's a lot of people.  Enough to make the event worth while. And certainly, I know I  sell far more books through such events than through Amazon or Draft2Digital.

But each event,  I find I have to fight against the temptation to funnel down on how many sales I am making (have I covered costs). Each sale means either a new reader or someone who  has returned for the next book (both are fantastic). Having someone relieved to find our table after seraching for it beause they are desparate to buy book 2 (Rasel's Song), is magical. But it's not just the sales - it's the real connection we make with fans and other authors ,and being a presence, that is just as important.

A Wayward Dragon

So, back to sidequests,  what was different about Supanova this year?

Last November at Supanova, one of the authors had the birght idea to do a charity anthology open to all the authors at Supanova, to be launched at the 2025 Brisbane Supanova. Many of us thought it was a great idea. 

Each author wrote a short story set in the author's world - my story, of course, was set in Nardva.

Each story would include a palm-size dragon with a single gold coin hoard, whereever the coin went, so did the dragon. The dragon connected the stories, changing as he went from world to world. 

The book itself was shiny - a special edition with foil and dragon scales on the edges. Each author also got a small green dragon and a golden coin to display on their table. More than one person commented on the fact that they kept seeing the same book seemingly everywhere.

The book was a limited edition - only sold in print, only available through the authors. 

The book had a uniform price with a portion going to charity - over $1000 raised. 

Most of the authors were at the event (over ten) & those buying the book were encouaged to look out for the little green dragon and make sure they got as many signatures from the authors as possible.  This was a hit - a number of people were excited about this 'side quest' or treasure hunt (to find the other authors). 

We even had one 'roving author' with the dragon on his shoulder. 

Supa Hoard of A Wayward Dragon was a complete success. The only possible drawbreak was it may gave overshadowed our other books to some extent  - but not complerely.  We still sold our own books. And the whole experience strengthened connections with the other authors, added a buzz to the event, as well as attracting people to our table.

I wonder - what is our main quest, what is a sidequest. Sometimes it can be easy to get caught up in a side-quest, and forget the main quest. 

For me, that's a reminder that, yes, I believe God has called me to write books so others might read and be blessed by them. And yes, I need to work towards gaining an audience through writing the best books I can and doing what I can to bring them to the attention of readers. Yet, in the end, it's not numbers or sales in themselvest that matter - but connecting with the audience God gives us and being a presence in a secular world. 

And now for a side quest, if you are up for it - how many times does the wayward dragon appear in the photos in this blog - answer in the comments below or on the FB page :) 

Jeanette O'Hagan has spun tales in the world of Nardva from the age of eight. She enjoys writing fantasy, sci-fi, poetry, and editing. Her Nardvan stories span continents, millennia and cultures. Some involve shapeshifters and magic. Others include space stations and cyborgs.

She has published over forty stories and poems, including the Under the Mountain Series (5 books), Ruhanna's Flight and Other Stories, Akrad's Children and Rasel's Song, the first two books in the Akrad’s Legacy series and more recently in Stepping Sideways and Supa Hoard of a Wayward Dragon. Her story in Stepping Sideways, 'In a League of Her Own' won the 2024 Aurealis Award for YA Short Stories.

Jeanette has practised medicine, studied communication, history, theology and writing. She loves reading, painting, travel, and pondering the meaning of life. She lives in Brisbane.

Find out more about Jeanette at:

My Website | Facebook Author Page | Amazon | Books2Read | Goodreads

The Rewards of Writing God’s Books

 

‘I’m reading your book to my grandchildren.’ My friend casually dropped this information into our conversation.

I blinked, taken aback. ‘Which book?’

She grinned. ‘El Roi.’

‘But…’ I was more than a little disturbed. I write books for adults, mature adults and I write about adult themes.

She laughed at my reaction. ‘They love it. Some of the scenes I adjust a little, but they are engrossed.’

I was still floored. I know these kids. They are under ten years old. But observant     enough to ask what my name was doing on the cover.

In my last blog I wrote about the high cost of writing. This time I want to talk about the immeasurable rewards to be reaped from writing, for walking in obedience without counting the cost.

God and I have an agreement about my books. He helps me write, yes, but promises that if I get them published, He will distribute them. It seems He’s more interested in getting a book in a particular person’s house or hand than selling them by the hundred!

Occasionally I get feedback about His unseen work. A stranger emailed to thank me for El Shaddai.

            Hi Jo,

Thank you so much for writing El Shaddai! I came across it in an Op Shop in Ipswich whilst visiting my daughter! Of course I was led by God as the title jumped out at me. What a blessing!

Please know how precious your writing is as the conversations with God in the story bring Him even closer. 

When I stood behind my novels at a stand in at the  Koorong bookstore in Toowoomba a few Saturdays ago, I was amazed by the number of people who stopped to tell me how much they had enjoyed “Though the Bud be Bruised”. We published that book thirteen years ago and it is still affecting lives. I know that for everyone who shares or comments, there are many who don’t.

A book is like a stealth bomber. It glides in through Kindle, a loan or a bookstore, looking innocent. But it can be an explosive weapon that helps set people free.

Let’s see what happened with my friend’s grandchildren who couldn’t wait to read more each night. When it was time for them to go home, the story wasn’t finished. One of them read aloud for the full hour’s drive to their house. to finish it.

‘We see demons like that coming through our window.’ They told their grandmother. This opened a conversation and my friend used the book to help them learn the power of Jesus and how to deal with demons.

In my ideal world, children don’t know about demons. But most kids today are not being raised in an ideal world. It would never enter my head to talk to my grandchildren about demons, but this book does and brings promise of a Light that the darkness can’t put out. It’s a message of hope that so many need to hear.

In the early hours of Saturday morning in Toowoomba a truth burst into my mind. ‘Your writing is not a business or a hobby. It’s a ministry.’

What perfect timing the Lord has. This was the morning I was preparing to sit in Koorong. I knew then that my job was to spread God’s love. It wasn’t about sales, but being God’s ears and mouth. During the day further understanding came. I worry about the finances when I perceive it as a business. Or even a hobby. But I don’t have any problem sinking cash into ministry. This understanding released me into a new freedom.

Monday morning we were still resting at the BNB in the suburbs. A truck, a loud, large truck rumbled past our little place and stopped. To understand the significance of this I need to explain that for about 15 years God has used OVERSIZE trucks to remind us of His plans for our lives. We see these beasts a lot. But on this particular morning the truck went past, stopped, ground back up the hill, kept backing and filling until he had parked in the cul de sac facing our bedroom. By then I was out the front taking pics.

I think God was yelling at me! Once again promising us OVERSIZE blessings in our lives, in this ministry.

As I said, the rewards of writing His words, publishing, and distributing them are beyond our imagination.

Do you have a similar story? Do you get abundantly blessed by this calling? 

Jo Wanmer is a story teller. But struggles to put those stories into accepable prose. She writes with the help of the Holy Spirit. Without His inspiration there would be no books. Though the Bud be Bruised was published thirteen years ago. Last year El Shaddai was released and it's prequel, El Roi, has just been published. 

She lives with her husband of fifty-three years just north of Brisbane. Family, God and writing are here three passions. Eleven great-grandchildren (under 6) now fill their home with love and chaos.