So, what is the future of Novel Feelings? What do you want it to be?

It’s been four years since we started working on Novel Feelings. But we’re not sure what the future looks like.

The inception of Novel Feelings

Flashback to mid-2020. COVID lockdowns. Dalgona coffee, Tiger King, sourdough starter, Animal Crossing. Elise has just started her PhD, looking at the use of podcasting for reducing stigma against mental health issues, and ropes in Priscilla to start a podcast – because sometimes the best way to learn is to do. We combine two of our interests – ranting about books and talking about mental health. See the very scientific diagram below (which never quite made it to Instagram):

We picked six diverse books involving mental health representation – including both popular and less well-known books, and authors located in Australia and internationally. We cobbled together some recording equipment, and Elise took a crash course in audio editing and Canva. Original concept art below, back when we were still brainstorming names (Mind Readers was a great option, but sadly already taken!):

A Timeline of Highs and Lows

On November 22, 2020, season one of Novel Feelings launched to the public. Since then, we have released 47 episodes. And things have certainly evolved. Here’s a bit of a transparent timeline:

• February, 2021: We release our first author interview and start doing bonus episodes
• March, 2021: We reach our first 1000 listens
• June, 2021: Season 2 releases – 8 review episodes, upgraded equipment, working with guests for the first time
• July, 2021: We guest star on another podcast for the first time
• October, 2021: After the end of Season 2, due to generally being very busy, we announce an indefinite hiatus from the podcast
• 2022: The podcast remains on hiatus, but we focus on Instagram content and written reviews. Initially, Instagram pushes out our content consistently – but soon, we start to have some early struggles with the algorithm. However, we start getting some opportunities for author interviews – and really enjoy these
• January 7, 2023: We launch Season 3, switching up our format: episodes every 2 months, non-spoilers first, book club discussion questions. We also extend our focus beyond fiction, rebrand our tagline to ‘Two psychologists take a deep dive into your favourite books’ and launch a Reading Challenge on The Storygraph
• The rest of 2023: We realise the new review format works well for us – but struggle to find an engaged, interactive audience. Instagram shows our content to fewer people than ever before, and it’s difficult to tell if anyone is following along to either the book club or the reading challenge. Our podcast listens remain consistent with past seasons. We continue to get author interview requests, and work with authors and publishers when we have capacity
• 2024: We take a break from the review episodes again due to very busy life events (weddings, PhD completions, etc!). We re-focus on author interviews, written reviews, and another Reading Challenge. On Instagram, we try to work with the algorithm by sharing more personal content and reels – but things are dire (e.g. Instagram typically shows our static content to less than 10% of our followers, and rarely promotes our reels widely – despite doing so in the past).

If you’ve made it this far, you’ve probably concluded that we’re a bit disenchanted with the marketing and promotion side of things. We started Novel Feelings as a passion project, and never expected it to be an extremely successful podcast – after all, we are quite niche. But it can be difficult to stay motivated when it feels like our platforms are working against us. We struggle to reach the lovely but small audience we have built over the last few years.

Also, we have never made any money at all from this podcast or blog. We do all our own recording, editing, social media, and other promo. Factoring in reading, recording, editing and promotion time, we estimate it takes 12-15 hours to produce a review episode, and slightly less for an interview episode. Regardless, we’ve produced hours of audio, written, and visual content for free, and never tried to sell anything. We recently started inserting one set of localised ads per episode, but to be perfectly transparent, we haven’t had enough listens yet to actually make money from these.

A Call to Action

So, where do we go from here?

We both still love Novel Feelings, and want to keep the project going. It’s never been about profit for us, but it’s hard to feel motivated to continue if we’re not even sure there’s an audience. We don’t want to release another book club season, only to realise we’re shouting into the void.

If we release Season 4 – another book club season, every two months – would you listen?

One idea we’re kicking around for 2025 is starting a Patreon or Substack, where paid subscribers will have access to Season 4 book club content. The idea here is that the payment might cover some of our basic running costs (like RSS hosting fees) while fostering a space for a smaller, interactive community of book club members. What do you think of this idea? If you’re interested in joining such a book club, how much would you be willing to pay per month for exclusive access? It wouldn’t be a lot – definitely under AUD $5 per month. There might be some freebies attached and possibly opportunities for online chats/meetups. Our backlog, plus any new bonus episodes, author interviews, and written reviews, would always remain free.

In any case, if you love our content, and want us to continue, please let us know in the comments!

Or, if you want to keep things entirely anonymous, please complete our short feedback survey – no signup or personal info required.

Thank you everyone – here’s hoping that we can keep Novel Feelings going in 2025.

Elise & Priscilla