Writing Industry Interview: Lemon Friday

Happy Friday, Writing Desk Readers! 

It's time to share the chat I had with Lara & Laura of Lemon Friday!

In case you missed them, the Get to Know the Guests post and Lemon Friday Giveaway post are both live as well. Entries for the giveaway will be accepted until Wednesday, 19 May 2021 - See the post for how to enter.

Lara & Laura of Lemon Friday

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Writing Desk Blog: Welcome Lara and Laura, the creators of Lemon Friday, to the Writing Desk Blog! Thank you for joining me today. To start with, can you give us a brief description of what Lemon Friday is and why you chose that name for your business?

Lemon Friday: Hi! Thanks so much for having us on the blog! 

Lemon Friday is an absolute passion project for us. It’s a membership community for authors who want to show up on social media and grow their following of readers – without sacrificing all their writing time. So to help them do that, every month we put together these super fun toolkits that have everything authors need to connect with their ideal readers, get more engagement and build an army of super fans – from video masterclasses and workbooks to bookish photos, caption prompts and design templates. 

As for the name ‘Lemon Friday’… our dream was to build a business that combined the best of both of us while honoring the creativity of the authors in our community. So we knew it had to combine an ‘L’ and an ‘F’ because those are our initials, but the authors of Instagram deserve the credit for coming up with Lemon Friday! We asked them to use their imaginations and they did not disappoint. Lemon was an immediate winner for us: fresh, zingy, full of sunshine and optimism. And Friday... well, it’s a day for dreamers! We just feel like anything seems possible on a Friday. We love Fridays!

‘Llama Fiesta’ was a near thing though… 

 

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WDB: What made you decide to team up for this venture and why did you specifically want to help writers? 

Lemon Friday: Oh this has been a shared dream of ours for so long! For one, we’re best friends – and who doesn’t want to work with their bestie?! 

We’re also both really personally invested in helping authors. It’s kind of selfish to be honest: if more authors are able get their books into the world, we’ll have more books to read! We know how much time and energy goes into writing a novel and we know how many steps are involved in getting that book into the hands of readers. But a lot of writers don’t have the confidence, expertise or passion for the marketing side of the business. And they shouldn’t have to! 

Authors already work so hard and pour so much of themselves into their stories. We knew we could at least help them with the reader side of things. With Lara’s experience as a fiction editor (and general cheerleader for writers on Instagram) and Laura’s expertise in marketing and publishing, we could help make it so that authors don’t have to be expert marketers on top of everything else. We give them all the social media support and guidance they need… so they can focus on writing their books! 

 

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WDB: What would you say has been the Lemon Friday feature most members have utilized so far? How has the overall response been to the monthly toolkits?

Lemon Friday: As much as we LOVE seeing members use our bookish photos and caption prompts on Instagram, the most rewarding thing for us has been listening to writers share their success stories during our members-only cocktail parties. Because we focus on a specific topic every month, we can get really personal with our support and advice… and then celebrate their results together! It’s just the best.

 

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WDB: It looks like the members of Lemon Friday have built an encouraging and active online community! Did you expect the founding members would connect and support each other so quickly? (#lemongoblins)

Lemon Friday: Oh gosh, we don't even have the words for how inspired and humbled we are when we see all the ways our lovely lemon goblins (their term, not ours!) support, uplift and empower each other. It makes us all warm and fuzzy! It also makes perfect sense. Authors don’t need to be in competition with one another; they’re so much stronger together. Every single author in our community brings something unique and special and they’re all able to benefit from that in our Facebook group.

 

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WDB: Laura, I know that you were already in marketing before Lemon Friday, and Lara, you offer additional services for writers at Writing Lara Ferrari. If you can tell us, what projects are you working on outside of Lemon Friday? Anything exciting coming soon?

Lara: I actually run an online worldbuilding course for YA Fantasy, Sci-fi and Dystopian writers! I am a total worldbuilding geek and (outside of Lemon Friday) it really is my happy place. For anyone who can relate, I created a free ‘Worldbuilding for YA’ checklist that you can grab right here.

Laura: I run a marketing business as my ‘day job’ so that keeps me pretty busy! Although Lara is always trying to convince me that I need to create a marketing course specifically for authors. So, we’ll see about that!

 

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WDB: Now, let's have a few rapid-fire questions!

Lara: Plotter or pantser? Ummm… I’m going to have to go with Plantser! I LOVE planning and I dream of being super organized. But when the muse takes me, I just gotta follow her lead.

Laura: Planned or spontaneous photo-shoots? I’ll often plan a few days at a time to completely immerse myself in photography, with my husband tripping over books and tripods every time he comes downstairs! It’s also fun to just grab my camera when I’m in the mood and head outside, not knowing what I might find. 

 

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WDB: Physical books or ebooks? And, what are you currently reading?

Lara: Ohhh I do love a colorful shelf of books but it’s gotta be the convenience of ebooks for me. I’m just too impatient to wait for books to be delivered. Right now, I’m finishing up House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland which is giving me all the chills and making me want to get back into writing myself!

Laura: eBooks for me too – I read so fast I love having my whole book library to hand when I finish one. I also have to re-read books regularly in an attempt to manage my book spending! I’m reading Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo at the moment and I don’t want it to end! 

 

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WDB: Favorite workspace?

Lara: I actually designed the office in my house for both me and Laura. There are two desks, two stylish chairs… but for the last year, only one Lemon. I can’t wait for us to be able to work in the same room again. We are going to create such magic.

Laura: Pre-pandemic, I loved working at my old university library. I’d go find an obscure desk on a high floor, surrounded by overflowing book stacks. I can’t wait to go back – on the days I’m not at Lara’s, obviously!

 

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WDB: Working with music/background noise or silence?

Lara: I just can’t work with music. I’m way too easily distracted, so I compromise with nature sounds. I also love ambient-mixer.com – working in the Hufflepuff common room is my favorite!

 

Laura: I love having music on. I’ll usually go for movie/game soundtracks or or lofi/chillhop.

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WDB: I always ask this question at the end of each Writing Desk Blog interview: What's something about each of you that people may be surprised to know?

Lara: I’ve lived in nine countries on four continents. Does that qualify as surprising? Also my dream is to create a sanctuary for farm animals! Nothing would make me happier than being surrounded by goats all day.   

Laura: Umm… I am a Grade 8 pianist. And I studied English at Cambridge University. But probably the most surprising thing about me is that I’m a Ravenclaw – because Lara keeps telling everyone I’m a Hufflepuff!

 

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A big thank you again to Lara and Laura for joining me today, and for sponsoring an awesome giveaway! If you're a writer looking for personalized feedback and assistance with improving your social media presence, check this one out!