Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kristen Bales. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Kristen , thanks for joining us today. Let’s jump back to the first dollar you earned as a creative? What can you share with us about how it happened?

The first show I played at as a young artist was a jazz guitar event, ironically at a local bookstore. Even at fourteen, I was deeply entrenched in reading and crafting my own work, and enthralled to be playing at my personal refuge, a bookstore. Creatives tend to gravitate to the places that bring them joy; I was hoping, as naive as I felt about it, that if I stuck around long enough in the spaces that charged and inspired me as a creative, that the money would somehow manifest. In a way, it did. Amidst the stacks of a local bookstore in my childhood hometown, which I believe at the time was a Books&Co., I had my first tipping audience. Growing up, I was taught by an avid and incredibly gifted local jazz guitar player, who often took me along on his gigs to play with him. We settled in the back of the bookstore in a semicircle of folding chairs, playing guitar arrangements of Coltrane and Charlie Parkers, “Scrapple From the Apple,” for the books and paying customers that chose to sit and listen. I remember the thrill of having an engaged audience-the minimal years of my fledging jazz skills paying off to a captive crowd. There were ten people total, and I’m positive that 75% of those people were related to me. No matter, I still remember the shock of walking away with a nominal amount of money in the tip jar, which my teacher generously gave me the full cut of. If it was this simple to bridge something I loved with the reward of earning something tangible along with it, I wanted in. I spent the summer playing gigs with my teacher, and that experience drove me to continue writing music, performing, and finding audiences in unique, beautiful environments.

Kristen , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am writer, musician, and songwriter based out of Indianapolis, IN. My work as a whole delves into both the music and publishing industry, and my complex background in music gave me a foundation and passion for the art of storytelling. Story is the art that drives me, whether I’m in a classroom setting teaching songwriting to a batch of musicians or walking into a room of close author friends to dive into a critique group. Every setting is full of story, and I’ve been very intentional to surround my time with things that fill the deep well of story that overflows into the work that I create.

I began my journey as a singer songwriter back in high school, and that journey led me to live in Nashville for a brief stint as a booking agent and a tour manager, working alongside a slew of blues artists. That was a pivotal moment in my professional career, as I was completely overwhelmed by the brutal pace of working on and off the road, managing tour dates and gigs, and keeping up with the changing tides of a very fluid music industry. This was back in the 2010’s, as labels were beginning to go defunct and the idea of independent musicians gaining ground through grass roots social media marketing and viral songs began to be more or less an industry cleaving situation. Though I was grateful for all the grit and experience I gained during my time in music city, I was dissatisfied with the toxic balance I had pouring into my own creative endeavors. I hadn’t written a song or touched my guitar in years, much less, played a show. I decided to make the move from Nashville to Indianapolis back in the spring of 2016 to pursue my own music, in a familiar community of musicians that I grown alongside for years.

2016-2020 was a very sweet re-kindling of writing, releasing my own songs, and touring/playing out my own music in the Midwest Circuit. I busted my way through releasing music working full-time as a music director and instructor, which ignited my love of pouring into the next generation of musicians. I spent my weekdays teaching and the weekends as many singer songwriters do, playing music into the early hours of morning. It was a whirlwind of a time, and a very sweet reunion of re-discovering my creative self, tapping into my roots as a jazz artist, lyricist, and avid performer.

2020, as it did for most creatives, put a complete dent in the momentum I had created. As shows were halted, music lessons were moved to a virtual setting, and touring was no longer a viable option, I spent the quiet hours turning to something I had always wanted to do: poetry. The art form of poetry is so similar to lyric writing, that the process of it felt so innately soothing and fluid to my creative interests. After many weeks of subbing and successfully landing some of this work in international lit mags and printed anthologies, I was encouraged by a mentor to try and monetize my poetry. Spurned on by this mentor, I began a business that created art prints derived from my poems. I took these to a local farmer’s market, briefly distributed them to wholesale, and found an entirely new community of people who resonated with something more than just my music, they were intrigued with my words.

As the music industry began to open back up in 2022, my creative side felt opportunity fizzling beneath. I found my music more accessible as ever, grateful to be finding it on local airplay, recording new singles, and continuing to dabble in shows again. Furthermore, I began working in the fine arts industry in educational programming, which still to this day, has been an incredible bridge between my history as an educator and my background in the music industry. In the spring of 2022 Indy Maven named me among several cherished colleagues as, “10 Local Women in the Music Scene That You Should Know in 2022.” My poetry was being featured in collections such as Allegory Ridge’s Anthology Aurora, Beyond Words International Magazine, and The Silent World in Her Vase. Feeling a pull toward something new, in the fall of 2022 I began writing my first full-length fantasy novel. In 2023 I joined a local group of authors, and began to invest in my bookstagram account, @kristenbalesbooks.

Just a few months ago, I signed my first publishing deal with Little Lion Press, of which I’ll be releasing my debut full-length fantasy poetry book, “The Forest Had Teeth.” This summer my poetry has been featured in two of my favorite presses, the Heartland Society of Women Writer’s anthology, “(W)holes” and my poem, “Chew on that, why don’t you?” was featured in Sad Girl’s Diaries online zine. Finally, I recently sold my short story, “Death Wears a Feathered Coat,” to a debut romantasy anthology, forthcoming under the imprint Astronaut Publishing.

Currently, I’m immersed in writing my debut fantasy novel, the first of a romantasy trilogy. Beyond that, I work weekly in a group of local authors, teach numerous writing workshops in the Indianapolis area, and continue to seek opportunities to cultivate an open and growing community of local authors, creatives, and musicians.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I don’t have a massive social media presence, but I have a loyal, active community online. I treasure those who engage in my online platforms and I’m grateful for the many opportunities that exchange has brought me. I’m still learning–the algorithm can be pretty ruthless at times in that sense, but I cherish the space I get to share with other creatives, writers, authors, and musicians online. While I think a lot of audience engagement on a post takes a slice of luck and established clout, I do think that there’s a knack and a gift for understanding social trends, creating viable content, and understanding your audience via the brand you’re engaging and promoting to others. First and foremost, unless you’re an overnight viral sensation, creating a long-standing audience online has always begun with building something slow and steady. Have a conversation with people at your in-person engagements. Take notice of those who take the extra minute to give you a follow on your socials, or take the time to ask you where they can find you. Those small bids matter tremendously.

It’s been so important for me to work with my audience right now, meeting them right where they’re at. At the most basic level, I had to identify who my audience was-whether that audience was a smidgen larger on a specific platform, and discover exactly how I could serve them.

What was my audience curious about? How could I spark their own creativity and inspire them to continue on with whatever pursuits they enjoy? Usually, like gravitates to like-and the things that my readership adores will naturally be synonymous with what my day-to-day interests align with.

It was also so important (and wildly difficult) for me to have a balance, especially as a creative, between creating content for my socials and focusing on my personal work. Drafting a book and simultaneously crafting a marketing plan of planned posts, stocked content, and a timeline of announcements via social media is exhaustive! It’s a huge ask to ask creatives to keep a balance between their focus work and the creating content that engages the audience they’re searching for. I had to give myself grace for the weeks I was on deadline, honing in on the edits, proofing, etc. Your follower-ship won’t abandon you because of two missed posts. In fact, we all appreciate the vulnerability of addressing a deadline while trying to balance your brand-it’s a daunting job!

I also think it’s important to create content that you personally enjoy. Otherwise, I would question how the work you’re doing is sustainable in the long run, especially if it’s more or less a chore to post it. Posting should be the easy part-the content should be fluid. The presentation should be mindful of the audience you seek to reach. What accounts are the fans you want engaging with? What sort of content do they post? What accounts do you gravitate towards, and how can you cultivate your feed to fit in the same sphere?

Everyone is different, no two social media accounts work the same. Don’t be discouraged if you have a small social media presence, be diligent about what you’re creating and cling to the mission and the people that drive it.

And finally, we’re all still out here staying curious and learning! No one has social media pinned down to an acute science.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron shifted my entire outlook on the creative process, and connecting spiritually with my creative self. It’s been a huge tool for how I approach any creative work, big or small. I still sit down to hash out some sort of variation of her practice of “morning pages,” every single day. Cameron’s book gave me the understanding of keeping a creative rhythm, and a clear place to land when I felt writer’s block creeping up on me. There are various other books I would recommend to an aspiring musician or author, but The Artist’s Way is the first book I’ll pull off my shelf and insistently throw into a friend’s hands.

Contact Info:

• Website: kristenbales.com (author website) kristen.band (musician website)
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristenbalesbooks (author Instagram) https://www.instagram.com/kristentheband (music instagram)
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kristentheband (music Facebook)
• Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/43HCNExPc3x3QMvNjWKxss?si=pFrHSlUjSU-piMk_wzPx8Q
  Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/balesofk
  Threads: https://www.threads.net/@kristenbalesbooks
  Tiktok: @kristentheband (music) @kristenbalesbooks (books/writing)