The Publishing Performance Show

H.H. Rune - Sending Books Across America: The 25-Year Journey of an Interactive Literary Experiment

• Teddy Smith • Episode 91

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0:00 | 28:45

H.H. Rune is the author of the "Find Me" series, a unique "fiction-ish" or autofiction work that blends real-life experiences with fictional storytelling. After conceiving the idea at age 30 while a stay-at-home mom, H.H. spent 25 years developing this five-book series before finally committing to publication during the pandemic. The series follows a creative social experiment where the author writes five books containing personal memories about people from her life, then sends them to random individuals across the country in hopes that someone she wrote about will recognize themselves and return a book to her.


In this episode:

  • The concept of "autofiction" and blending real memories with fictional narrative
  • Creating multiple storylines - the author's journal entries, memories of people, and the books' travels
  • Character development across multiple locations and perspectives
  • Writing process over a 25-year period before final publication
  • The pandemic as a catalyst for finally completing the project
  • Interactive elements including trackable books with QR codes
  • Creating an interactive reader experience with sign-in pages at the back
  • Working with a publicist to refine marketing messaging
  • TikTok as a primary marketing platform for indie authors
  • Breaking conventional writing rules about perspective and format


Resources mentioned:

  • Find Me Book One: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CZCFG8R4?&linkCode=ll1&tag=pubperf-20&linkId=400c65572fa1761b41f901ed6233057c&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl
  • Find Me Book Two: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DB8J1G3P?&linkCode=ll1&tag=pubperf-20&linkId=400c65572fa1761b41f901ed6233057c&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl
  • Find Me Book Three (coming soon) : https://www.amazon.com/Find-Me-Book-Three-Different-ebook/dp/B0F73BK11T?ref_=ast_author_dp
  • Limited edition trackable versions with QR codes
  • Interactive map on author's website (coming soon)
  • Instagram page for the Find Me series: https://www.instagram.com/h.h.rune/
  • BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/
  • Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/
  • Lauren Hathaway - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-hathaway-39a3588


Book Recommendations:

  • "The Anti-Rule: Navigating the Lies about Fiction Writing" by Christian Francis: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1916582052?&linkCode=ll1&tag=pubperf-20&linkId=400c65572fa1761b41f901ed6233057c&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl


Connect with H.H. Rune:


Connect with Teddy Smith:

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[00:00:00] Teddy Smith: Hi everyone, and welcome to the Publishing performance show. Stan delighted to be joined by H.H. Rune, who is an author of Fiction-ish. So welcome to the show, H.H. 

[00:00:14] H.H. Rune: Thanks. Thanks for having me, Teddy. 

[00:00:17] Teddy Smith: So Fiction-ish, what does that mean? 

[00:00:19] H.H. Rune: What it means is I've, I've written a book where some of it may be true and some of it is not true. 

[00:00:29] So it's up, it's up to the reader to try and determine what they think is, is fact and, and what is fiction. 

[00:00:37] Teddy Smith: So it's like a thinly based autobiography. 

[00:00:39] H.H. Rune: Yeah. I think, I think my, my book would be categorized auto fiction. Yeah. Because you know, it kind of pulls both. 

[00:00:47] Teddy Smith: Yeah. So, nice. So why tell us about, tell us about the book and tell us why you wrote it. 

[00:00:52] Yeah, 

[00:00:53] H.H. Rune: so I've been writing this book this book series for 25 years. So a long time, big, big chunk of my life, majority. And this idea came to me. I, at age 30, I decided that I wanted to lead an extraordinary life, and I was a stay-at-home mom and wife at the time, living on the cul-de-sac. And, you know, not a lot of ability to make huge changes. 

[00:01:22] And I, I started picking up my writing and I started doing more things to make my life bigger. So I joined an indoor women's soccer team became goalie, which was terrifying. But super fun at the same time. And we, we were lucky. We had a, this ref who taught us how to play the game. 'cause we were just, you know, a bunch of bumbler out there on the field. 

[00:01:44] It was fun. But this idea came to me to write up five books of my personal memories about other people that I'd known in my life. And write them up and publish them into five little books using the person's initial at the top of each excerpt. And then I would send those books out to. Seemingly random people in the United States asking with a note inside, asking that the books be passed along until one lands in the hands of someone that I wrote about, and that person would recognize me and bring it back to me. 

[00:02:23] So that was the concept originally. And then I really started looking at that and I started thinking, well, I could turn this into a novel where we get to read the memories of the author. I added that we get to read her journal entries over time as she waits for one of the books to come back to her. 

[00:02:44] And then I also got to write about the book travels. And all the characters and people that they come in contact with. So that's, that's kind of my, my book in a nutshell. 

[00:02:56] Teddy Smith: Yeah. So the book is, you say, sort of thinly based off things that have happened to your life but it is also, there's a narrative to it. 

[00:03:03] You've created a story and it it is a, a fiction in itself. So yes. Why, why did you write it like that? Like as a fiction, rather than just telling about the stories that you've been through in your life? 

[00:03:15] H.H. Rune: I think I really liked the idea that if somebody were to come upon a book, they would appreciate the vulnerability of somebody who wrote something like that and asked for help and that know we as humanity would look at that and go, I have an opportunity to help somebody. 

[00:03:35] I don't know. And. And kind of pay it forward in that way. A lot of these, these characters, they find this book and they realize, you know, the odds it's like one in 15 million or I, I ran the odds at one point, but I'd have to run 'em again. Of having something like this come into their life and they start to feel maybe a little special, or maybe they read some of the stories inside and start to think about people that they've known in their life and, you know, have maybe let go of or you know, just wanna remember. 

[00:04:08] So. I think, I think it kind of hits a lot of strands of, of what people think about. And it's also about the, the growth of the author over time. As she's finding herself really, I. 

[00:04:22] Teddy Smith: Interesting. So tell me about some of the characters in the book. 'cause the main character is based on you. So who are some of the characters that you come across during, in the, in the book? 

[00:04:31] H.H. Rune: Boy, there's there's a woman named Sarah who lives in Taos, New Mexico. She's an artist. Who had kind of a maiming accident, and so she had to pivot her artistry and switch gears. She's in a loveless marriage. She feels stuck and alone, and this book comes into her life and she's like. Well, I, I gotta stop this, you know, that this is not working for me. 

[00:04:59] She's, she's drinking her you know, singular packaged bottles of wine every night and, you know, tossing them in the recycle and dodging scorpions. So, I, that's, so, that's Sarah. There's another fellow whose name is Wayne, and he is, a psychiatrist and kind of, a lone wolf type of character. 

[00:05:22] Doesn't let a lot of people get close to him. And kind of so we get to hear more about his upbringing as a military brat and, yeah. I mean the characters are so fun. Yeah. It's, it's been just the best time to not only research all these different places because the books are traveling, you know, so there's history everywhere you go. 

[00:05:46] Mm-hmm. There's Hidden History, and so I try and pull out whatever history I can from the city that the book happens to be located in, and then. And then you have these diverse characters with, you know, from different walks of life and different experiences. So it's, it's been a blast. 

[00:06:03] Teddy Smith: Yeah. The, the reason I ask is just because obviously your book is slightly different to other fiction books, and I know we're gonna touch on this at the end with your book recommendation, but I. 

[00:06:13] There's a lot of tropes with a lot of books, with a lot of different types of characters that you kind of wanna get into your books in order to fulfill that nation. Get the what the customers are looking for, what the readers are looking for, sorry. Mm-hmm. So when you were basing your characters, some of 'em are based off real life, did you then have to try and think about other characters that you wanted to create to fill those gaps? 

[00:06:31] Or was it that the characters you already knew were filling those gaps for you? 

[00:06:36] H.H. Rune: I, the characters really have just come to me. Mm-hmm. And, and then, you know, with, with any little bit of research or just, I, sometimes I feel that there's just this download from another place that kind of sets me on a path to write a character. 

[00:06:53] So like, yeah, I mean, I see the tropes, but I have so many characters in my books. There's like 20 that you follow throughout the book, so it's kind of hard to. Do that. It's, it's more a story about oneness and togetherness and how we're much more alike than we are different. Mm-hmm. So yeah, I've been, I've been really lucky that these characters have just come and introduced themselves to me and, and we get along. 

[00:07:24] So, yeah. 

[00:07:25] Teddy Smith: Yeah. Interesting. Now, when you came to write this book, how, what was your process for getting your book written? Because you mentioned that you've been writing it sort of on and off over the last 20 years. Did you have any process for like, getting that information down and organized, or was there like a, a light bulb moment towards the end of the 20 years where you were like, well, actually let's just get this done now, and how did that work? 

[00:07:46] H.H. Rune: So, originally, so I have a spreadsheet, I have my master spreadsheets, and then I have the edited versions throughout that time period. So sometimes I would change it, sometimes I would add a character to fill, fill a hole or get to a word count. So staying on top of that, but the probably the big epiphany for me. 

[00:08:06] Came in 2023 when I had a consultation with a book coach Ellie Alexander. She's a cozy mystery author here in the States, and, and because I had written about five little books, it made the most sense to turn it into a series of five books where I could travel with each of the books and simplify my formatting, because originally I was writing. 

[00:08:34] All five books in addition to all of the author stuff, in addition to all the memory stuff. And it just would've been this thousand page tome, you know? And I. And it was confusing. It was more con, more confusing than it already is. I, I have added a cheat code to the front of my book that outlines, you know, I'm using different font styles to help the reader. 

[00:09:01] navigate Navigate. Okay. This is a journal entry by the author. It's in italics. I have the bolded font, which is the memories of the people that she's known. And then the regular type set is the book travels. So, and then I, for the book travels, I have the number on the top of each excerpt for whichever book it is. 

[00:09:23] So it's, it's a little confusing in that you're in the book and you see the, the number one. At, at a, you think it's a chapter, but it's actually the book one that you're in. So, it's, it's really been this evolution of trying to figure out how best to get the story out and not blend everybody's brain. 

[00:09:49] Teddy Smith: What was it about? Because if you, if you, if you're writing over 20 years, what was it that. Calls you to finally go, okay, now we're gonna, let's get this done. Now, was there like a, a moment where you think, okay, I've just gotta get this done? 

[00:10:00] H.H. Rune: Yeah, I think I'm, I would, I would set it all aside, you know, as often as I would pick it up. 

[00:10:06] It depended on what was going on in my life. If I was having, you know, a lot of turmoil or whatever it was. Boom. Harder, but I would keep my, my journals, so I'd have notes about it. The, the biggest I think my starter to really pushing for this was in 2020. I was working as an interior designer for a builder and pretty happy with my job. 

[00:10:29] You know, that was something I enjoyed doing. I liked the people that I worked with, but when the pandemic hit I, they. They let me go. And so, you know, suddenly I am, I'm what, 52 years old and looking at this thing that I've had in my heart for all of my life, basically. And, and it, it just really hit me, if not now, when mm-hmm. 

[00:10:57] You know, when am I gonna do it? Yeah. So it was, it was the pandemic and, you know, drawbacks and benefits abound. I think for people it just depends. 

[00:11:10] Teddy Smith: Yeah. You had two, you had two options. You know, get a lockdown dog or write a book, and you chose option two. Most, most of my friends bought dogs, and so as a result, they haven't got anything to show for their pandemic. 

[00:11:22] It's like. 

[00:11:24] H.H. Rune: But a loving companion or a, or a funny companion. 

[00:11:27] Teddy Smith: Yeah, maybe Now with your books, you've got a bit of an interesting way of marketing it, and one of them was to make a little note at the back so that people can then pass that book onto someone else. And you can see the history of that book a bit like when you pass down like children's clothes between different generations. 

[00:11:45] You can see the little name tags in the back. That made me think of that because that's what I've got on my daughter's coat. It's got the space of like five different names on there. Oh 

[00:11:53] H.H. Rune: yeah. I love that. 

[00:11:55] Teddy Smith: And it reminded me of your book. I was thinking about it the other day. So what made you come up with that idea? 

[00:12:01] H.H. Rune: Well, because, because the there's the implorable note at the beginning, you know? Please pass this on. I could read it if you want, but it's short, but it's, please pass this book along. So you put that in and you, you say, dear Reader, please pass this book along for these reasons. And it makes people want to get the book and pass it along. 

[00:12:23] Mm-hmm. Well, of course. So I just put in the back of my books some lines for people to write their name and location and date that they found the book, and then pass it along because it, it. Puts them as part of the story. They are now a part of the story, part of this global social literary experiment that. 

[00:12:47] That we all, you know, can have fun with. So yeah, I did, I did that. And it's gonna be fun. I'm, I'm excited to have one show up at an author event where I'm signing and have one, you know, have one show up with a bunch of names in it that I'll just tickled. 

[00:13:05] Teddy Smith: Yeah, yeah, that'll be great. You should get people to try and tag it on Instagram as well if they, if they get the book passed to them, that should maybe pass on a bit. 

[00:13:13] H.H. Rune: I, I do have, a specific Instagram page for the Find Me Series and. I haven't had people tag me so much yet. I think 'cause I'm, I'm still putting these out. I do have some limited edition trackable versions as well that I've set up with a QR code sticker in the front of it. It has like a, a code number that people can input into a Google form and document where they found it. 

[00:13:45] You know, if they have a. A funny story to share about it or, or some such thing. And then when we have more data, we're going to populate that on an interactive map on my website. So, I only did 20 I. Limited edition, trackable versions per volume. So there's, there's 40 of them out there. In fact, one one was left at the Victoria Station in, in London, so, you might find it, you know, I might find it. 

[00:14:16] Yeah. If you get to town. Yeah, you, you might. So 

[00:14:20] Teddy Smith: that's amazing. So with that, with your book, what other sorts of marketing did you do to try and get your book out there? 

[00:14:28] H.H. Rune: I've been a lot on TikTok. That's kind of been my mainstay. I'm comfortable with the videos. I found such good community there. A lot of other authors, a lot of readers. 

[00:14:40] I've done BookBub, I've done some giveaways on Good Reads. Yeah. 

[00:14:48] Teddy Smith: Those been the main ones. With the TikTok, I, I'd interviewed a lady called Shelby Lee, who she's amazing at TikTok. She's really good at doing this like content stuff on TikTok and like being part of book Talk and sharing her books there. 

[00:15:00] Okay. So definitely go back and check out that episode 'cause it was one of my favorite episodes. And she goes through, you know, her exact process really, that she uses for selling her books. And her books are in quite a. They're quite niche books. She does mental health poetry as her main thing apart from her marketing side. 

[00:15:16] So they're really interesting because she's taken quite a niche topic and made quite a big success of it, which I think is quite inspiring for a lot of people. But what's been your experience of TikTok? How have you been getting it to work? 

[00:15:28] H.H. Rune: Well, let's see, how have I been getting it to work? I, I just started following a lot of people that I thought had, you know, similar viewpoints, similar goals connecting with some different marketers that are on there. 

[00:15:43] All kinds of things. There's, there's just so many interesting people to find on there, I've found. And, even every day, every day there's more people. The, the algorithm. Everybody's talking about the algorithm. Well, I, I happen to, like the algorithm. I, I think it's putting me in touch with the people that I need to be in touch with. 

[00:16:03] And the, the book talkers are just riotous. Wonderful people and so supportive and very supportive of indie authors. You know, they do show a lot of the traditionally published books, you know, the big fantasy names and everything. But they do also celebrate the indie authors and appreciate what we go through to, to bring our books to market. 

[00:16:30] Teddy Smith: Amazing. That's very interesting. So what are your plans with the future of this book series? Both with writing new books and also how to get the, the word out there a bit more. 

[00:16:40] H.H. Rune: The so I have two books out now currently. Find me book one and book two. They have subtitles and then the third book is gonna come out in the next couple of months, I'm thinking March. 

[00:16:52] The fourth book I'm also hoping to bring out in 2025 and then the fifth book, final book will hopefully come out in 2026. There's something personally that I need to do in order for me to have the right ending for my book five. So I am, I'm working towards that. Oh, 

[00:17:12] Teddy Smith: of course. 'cause it's a bit more of a living thing. 

[00:17:14] Your books, 'cause they're based on you actually doing things. 

[00:17:18] H.H. Rune: Yeah, like right now I'm living in my book five, so stuff that's going on right now won't go in my book five. It's, it's, it's kind of fun. I, I send a lot of emails to myself, you know, in the night when my husband's sleeping, you know, just hanging over the bed, oh, I have to put this in, and I put this in and. 

[00:17:35] Yeah. So as far as marketing goes, I've, I've recently hired a, a publicist and she's helped me. She connected me with you? Yeah. And she connected me with some other podcasters and media outlets, and I think, I think that was kind of a game changer really for me because she's Lauren Hathaway, she's, she's helping me. 

[00:18:02] Fine tune my message, you know, because I've really been just writing the story and it's like, you know, you've probably heard this from a lot of authors, but it's the bane of our existence to try and write the blurb on the back of the book. We can't take this monumental thing that we have that we've made and turn it into like a 2000 word blurb. 

[00:18:31] It's. Impossible. So like she's really good at that kind of fine tuning the bio and the message and getting it in the hands of people that would be interested. 

[00:18:43] Teddy Smith: So what was that process like working with a publicist? I. 

[00:18:47] H.H. Rune: Really, really great so far. We connected really easily. I can imagine, you know, her being a friend, lifelong she, she wanted me to write some articles. 

[00:18:59] I. About different aspects, not necessarily about the book, but about kind of the process and my experience and send those out as an introduction to if somebody would want to interview me and hit other topics. So I mean it, you know, she gives really good updates. We're looking at this, we're looking at that. 

[00:19:22] This is a possible, so it's been really great and I recommend it. It's, you know, you have to invest in this, this thing that you're doing. 

[00:19:33] Teddy Smith: Yeah. 

[00:19:33] H.H. Rune: I, I am gonna start looking more at ads you know. I've just been head down in editing, you know, and as an indie, you have to do basically everything unless you have a team or, or people to help you. 

[00:19:48] So, and I'm interested in, in your, your product as well. So I, I'm open, I'm open to lots of different things and the things. They just keep coming towards me, so I'm finding them. It's good. 

[00:20:01] Teddy Smith: I think other people who are new would, would, would like to hear a bit more about that process of finding a publicist, because I think that's something that people maybe don't consider. 

[00:20:09] How, how did you decide which publicist to work with At first, I. And how did you find going? So it was actually, 

[00:20:14] H.H. Rune: yeah, it was actually another video on TikTok. I, following an author and she started documenting her experience with this publicist. And I reached out to her and asked her who it was and if, you know, what, if she was getting value, what she thought was value out of it. 

[00:20:33] And, and she was positive. And so I, I had the interview. With Lauren and immediately knew that, you know, this is my next step. 

[00:20:44] Teddy Smith: Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's very interesting. Yeah. Was it, how and how does it work working with a publicist? What's that process? Do, do, do they help you? You know, you mentioned Paul, that they help you craft that message, but, so it's not just a case of them emailing, you know, podcasts like mine to try and get you out there. 

[00:20:59] It, they, they're helping you to actually bring your message together as well. 

[00:21:04] H.H. Rune: Yeah, like she would, she, I would write an article. The first article was chucking the Rules of Writing and Finding Freedom in Indie Publishing. And so, you know, I wrote, I wrote it from my heart and she kind of fine tuned it based on what, what she thought the media outlets would, would want. 

[00:21:28] Teddy Smith: Yeah, 

[00:21:29] H.H. Rune: read. So yeah, it's, and, and it, and it helped really open my eyes too to. What is, what is typical, you know, for an article online, you know, and, and like, like all businesses, they all have a different viewpoint, so they're looking for different things to highlight. So 

[00:21:50] Teddy Smith: yeah, 

[00:21:50] H.H. Rune: it's, it's been, it's been really good. 

[00:21:52] I recommend it. Great. Well, 

[00:21:54] Teddy Smith: it's been really interesting chatting to you about your book journey and what, what your plans are. I think especially hearing that you've, you know, it's taken some of those big steps like hiring publicists, I think for other people who are just starting out. That's quite interesting. 

[00:22:04] 'cause. A lot of people are quite reticent to take those steps and to move their bit forward. But I think you've got to realize if you do want to book to start getting some success and start getting in front of people, you do have to invest in some of those extra parts, like publicity or advertising or something like that. 

[00:22:18] So that is really interesting. 

[00:22:20] H.H. Rune: Yeah, I mean the, the sticker shock was a little something, but you know, when you start to look at how much you've already spent. You know, editors and cover designers and all the things, it starts to make sense that you would want an absolute pro who's done this for 15 years or whatever. 

[00:22:40] They have something that you know you might need. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Brilliant. Well, it's been great chatting to you. Thank you so much for coming on. Looking forward to hearing what happens next to your books. If people wanna get in touch with you or to follow you, where's the best place to do that? 

[00:22:56] I'm on, I'm on TikTok for the foreseeable future. 

[00:22:59] I do have a website. It's hh run RUN e.com. That's a great place to get like signed books and my books are available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble need to get 'em in Waterstone, so that's something I'm gonna have to work on. Yeah. So yeah, I'd love to, I'd love to. Touch base with whoever you know, 

[00:23:23] Teddy Smith: and if anyone finds your book, they need to tag you on Instagram or TikTok so that you can see the, the back page 

[00:23:29] H.H. Rune: for sure. 

[00:23:30] Yes, please. 

[00:23:32] Teddy Smith: Great. Well thanks so much for coming on. Just before you go, we always have one question which we ask everybody, and that is, what's the book you recommend Everyone should be reading? 

[00:23:39] H.H. Rune: Okay. Yes. So I'm gonna recommend, this is for my writer, writer people. This book is called The Anti Rule, navigating the Lies About Fiction Writing by Christian Francis. 

[00:23:55] I connected with this gentleman on TikTok and he's a horror author. So different than my genre, but I really appreciated. How how he looks at things. This book is about what I was struggling with myself was because like my book is in first person, second person, third person scent. Like that is something that people don't do in books. 

[00:24:22] You can't, you have to pick one. So. I was looking for somebody to validate the fact that I was gonna break the rules with my book and, and he's put this book together and it's just marvelous. You know, the idea that we can't start a book with a dream or don't talk about the weather or things like that, or just these constraints that are. 

[00:24:49] Gonna make everybody write the same book. So we really need to open our eyes to what is possible and just write what's in our heart. And, and I, I appreciated his, his book. It's, it's short, it's, you know, I. It's written in, in a fun way. So, I, that's the one I recommend. 

[00:25:11] Teddy Smith: Nice. And stop people just doing paint by numbers books, which well, you know, the same as everyone else's. 

[00:25:15] That's very interesting. Well, thank you so much for coming on. It's been great chat to you and we'll speak again soon. 

[00:25:20] H.H. Rune: Thank 

[00:25:20] Teddy Smith: you 

[00:25:21] H.H. Rune: so much, Teddy. 

[00:25:22] Teddy Smith: Thank you so much for tuning into the Publishing performance podcast. I really hope you found today's episode inspiring. I love chatting to authors, writers, and people in the publishing world. 

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