The Reader Is Your Co-Writer: Speculative Fiction with Heather Davis {ep. 230}
August 12, 2026
Heather Davis coaches speculative fiction writers and runs Worldshift, the conference built for the authors sci-fi and fantasy spaces keep overlooking. She and Alexa unpack why your reader is your co-writer, how genre-specific community protects a career, and what to do when your genre's sales cycle drops. For writers who want craft and business.
Check out our upcoming events at https://womeninpublishingsummit.com/events
In this episode Alexa talks with Heather Davis, speculative fiction writer coach and founder of the Worldshift Conference. Heather built the Worldshift Conference out of one uncomfortable observation: nearly every client she coached was a woman, BIPOC, neurodivergent, or LGBTQIA, and almost none of the big speculative fiction events on her screen reflected that. She launched Worldshift in 2025 on a whim, and it worked, so year two runs online August 17 to 22 with more than 50 speakers, nightly writing sprints, and an agent Q&A panel. Alexa and Heather get into why niche beats broad when you're choosing where to spend your conference money, why the reader is functionally your co-writer, and how to keep your head when middle grade, YA, or romantic comedy sales fall off a cliff. Alexa is speaking at Worldshift too, on how thinking like a marketer makes you a better storyteller. There's a free daily pass, and the All Access Pass jumps from $67 to $97 the day the conference opens, so grab the link below before August 17.
KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE
In this episode Alexa talks with Heather Davis, speculative fiction writer coach and founder of the Worldshift Conference. Heather built the Worldshift Conference out of one uncomfortable observation: nearly every client she coached was a woman, BIPOC, neurodivergent, or LGBTQIA, and almost none of the big speculative fiction events on her screen reflected that. She launched Worldshift in 2025 on a whim, and it worked, so year two runs online August 17 to 22 with more than 50 speakers, nightly writing sprints, and an agent Q&A panel. Alexa and Heather get into why niche beats broad when you're choosing where to spend your conference money, why the reader is functionally your co-writer, and how to keep your head when middle grade, YA, or romantic comedy sales fall off a cliff. Alexa is speaking at Worldshift too, on how thinking like a marketer makes you a better storyteller. There's a free daily pass, and the All Access Pass jumps from $67 to $97 the day the conference opens, so grab the link below before August 17.
KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE
- The reader writes half your book, so plan for it. Heather's framing is that a reader builds the other half of the story in their own head as they go. Your job is to write your half so it fits what they already crave, which turns "know your genre" from a marketing chore into a craft skill.
- Niche conferences teach you things broad ones structurally can't. A general writing conference has to pick six craft sessions for an audience that ranges from "thinking about a book" to "published 65 of them." A genre-specific event can run a whole session on info dumping in speculative fiction because that's a problem the room actually has.
- Marketing knowledge makes the manuscript better, not just the launch. Alexa's argument is that the more you understand your genre's readers and market, the better you can write for them. The caveat: if your only goal right now is pitching an agent, put your energy on the pages first.
- Your genre's slump is probably not about you. Romantic comedy sales dropped hard, and so did middle grade and YA across genres, with fewer debut deals to match. Heather and Alexa both name it out loud: it's cyclical, it comes back, and panicking mid-cycle is what actually costs you.
- A network of four writers in your exact genre beats 400 random ones. Newsletter swaps, cross-promos, and social support only work when the audiences overlap. Build that group while you're still drafting act one, not the week your book goes live.
- Writing to market is not a dirty word. If you already love the genre, you probably already love the tropes doing well in it. Heather reframes it from paint-by-numbers to "I get to write the fun thing everybody wants right now."
- Every writer gets better, and the receipts are public. Compare Stephen King's Carrie to Fairy Tale and the gap is obvious. The only version of you who improves is the one who keeps producing.
REFERENCES AND LINKS MENTIONED
- Worldshift 2026: The Speculative Fiction Writers' Conference, Heather's online conference, August 17 to 22, 2026. More than 50 speakers, nightly writing sprints, agent Q&A panel. Free daily pass available (24 hour access per day). All Access Pass $67 before Aug 17, $97 during, $127 after. Register here (affiliate link)
- Worldshift speaker lineup includes Jessica Brody, K.M. Weiland, Gabriela Pereira, Janice Hardy, Rachael Herron, and literary agents Amy Collins and Jackie Kruzie
- Many Worlds Writing, Heather's coaching home base, with links to her podcast and group coaching community: manyworldswriting.com
- Heather's speculative fiction podcast, Speculative Fiction Writing Made Simple
- Heather's group coaching community, ongoing coaching for speculative fiction writers, details on her site: manyworldswriting.com
- Alexa's Worldshift session, "The Plot Twist Nobody Tells New Authors: How Thinking Like a Marketer Makes You a Better Storyteller," included with Worldshift registration
- The Women in Publishing Summit, womeninpublishingsummit.com
- The Writing Gals, the romance-writer-specific conference Alexa names as her own example of a niche event worth attending.
- Stephen King, Carrie and Fairy Tale, Heather's side-by-side proof that every writer improves over a career
- Also named in passing: Ray Bradbury, Brandon Sanderson, Suzanne Collins
- Talk topics previewed from the Worldshift lineup: the psychology of world building, how to approach race in speculative fiction, critique partner best practices, transforming your manuscript with three levels of revision, targeting the messy middle, mastering the author newsletter, trauma-informed strategies for writing speculative fiction
Heather Davis is a speculative fiction author and book coach who works with writers across science fiction, fantasy, horror, romantasy, and magical realism. She founded the Worldshift Conference in 2025 after noticing her coaching roster was full of women, BIPOC, neurodivergent, and LGBTQIA writers who rarely saw themselves on a speculative fiction speaker lineup, and year two runs online August 17 to 22, 2026 with more than 50 speakers, nightly writing sprints, and an agent Q&A panel. She also hosts a podcast on speculative fiction and runs a group coaching community for writers who want ongoing support rather than a one-off course. Find her at manyworldswriting.com.
Publishing and book marketing advice.