Kevin Jared Hosein is an award-winning writer from Trinidad. In 2015, he was the Caribbean regional winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Competition. In 2018 he won the prize with a story named Passage. It’s a compelling story written in Creole. To date, he’s published three books. His first novel The Repenters was long-listed for the 2017 OCM Bocas award. His upcoming novel, Hungry Ghosts, is slated for publication as a major lead title in 2023 by Bloomsbury Publishing. Bloomsbury is the same publishing house that published the Harry Potter Books.
We talk to content creators about the business of creativity, content creation and growing on social media in the Caribbean.
045: A course for writers who want to self-publish
byLyndon Baptiste
I'm working on a course that shows aspiring writers how to design and and self-publish a book as a paperback and ebook using print-on-demand companies like IngramSpark and Kindle Direct Publishing.
As far back as May 2019 I wanted to start a podcast, and although I bought an audio interface, I sat on the dream. I knew what I wanted the podcast to be about, and I invested in decent gear so it’s difficult to say why it never kicked off. I was busy, yes, but not so busy that I couldn’t find the time. It’s February 2023 and between November and today I’ve managed to pull off interviews with amazing guests, YouTubers, Trini Tiktokers, and musicians; creators like Trinbago Vibes, Stephon Felmine, and Sean Young Wing.
Playing All Fours with Trouble from Trini Out and About
Let’s backtrack. In August 2022, not long after Mr Bat died, quiet and feeling somewhat at sea, I eventually reached out to Trini Out and About and asked him if he’d help me with an idea I had. Without knowing the full details he agreed. We played All Fours, I learned his real name, and I learned how to cook the perfect curry chicken (or chicken curry). I’d go on to chat with Lance Baptiste about his book, The Ghost of Caura which is available on Amazon; and Kaleel, who has a YouTube channel that focuses on the art scene in Trinidad. I quickly learned (or rather was reminded) what a pleasure it is to speak to people with similar dreams and interests.
In a short time, I’ve learned a lot about life; the early days of comedy in Trinidad from Errol Fabien; and how businesses can create useful content from Juma Bannister who you can connect with on LinkedIn.
Juma BannisterErrol FabienLance BaptisteKaleel StudioKwasi HolderStephon FelmineKevin Jared HoseinTrinbago VibesReaping What You SowSean Young Wing
For me, podcasting is harder than vlogging and writing episodes of RedwallNews. It takes time to consume an interviewee’s content, but I’m enjoying listening and learning from talented people like Kwasi Holder, Errol Fabien, and Reaping What You Sow.
Caribbean Content Creators
We talk to content creators about the business of creativity, content creation and growing on social media in the Caribbean.
045: A course for writers who want to self-publish
byLyndon Baptiste
I'm working on a course that shows aspiring writers how to design and and self-publish a book as a paperback and ebook using print-on-demand companies like IngramSpark and Kindle Direct Publishing.
In November 2022 I started a podcast called Caribbean Content Creators, and after hitting 500 plays, I wanted to share what I’ve learned so far, in case you’re curious about podcasting.
1. You can use a free service like Anchor to upload your podcast episodes. I don’t know the pros and cons but as I learn I’ll share them with you.
2. While my content on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok is TOTALLY random I suspect a podcast has to be laser-focused. In this case, my target audience is primarily content creators. While I hardly think about who my target audience is on YouTube (to my detriment, of course), I realize, without knowing why, I’m thinking about my target audience for the podcast.
3. If you want to pull off a decent interview, you have to do at least “some” homework on your guests. Sure you could have a generic pool of questions but knowing “fine” details helps you process answers, and come up with random but meaningful questions during the interview.
4. For this point, I know what I want to say but I’m not sure how to say it. I’ll try… Apparently, listening really is an art. When you listen to people talk, particularly people who are passionate about their work or hobby, you learn “more” than technical details. Unfortunately, I can’t define “more” because I haven’t figured out exactly what “more” is. I’m tempted to say that “more” is “inspiration” but I suspect what I’m talking about is bigger than inspiration. I’ll come back to this sometime but in talking to people passionate about their work I’m developing a deeper appreciation for the work people do, and not just the interviewee but people I observe every day, the policeman, the taxi driver, the licensing officer (maybe I’m pushing it too far with the licensing officer).
5. Editing the episodes I’m now conscious of patterns in my speech that need attention: Fillers; unnecessarily long pauses in the middle of sentences; rambling on before getting to a question; overusing the word etcetera… etc.
Some of these points feel trivial, but I hope they help.
