Podcasts about ingramspark

Special podcast announcing my new Moon Tree children's book. Listen to our interview with the co-creator, and my sister, Miss Dee Dassen! I'm thrilled to introduce our new children's book: "Izzy and Dee – The Moon Trees" co-created with author and illustrator (and my sister!) - Miss Dee Dassen. She is my guest on this special episode. Hear about how we grew up to be creative and how we inspire to impact the world! This children's book about Moon trees is inspired by the real-life seeds taken to the Moon on the Apollo 14 mission. Izzy and Dee - The Moon Trees is a magical story that blends imagination, science, and adventure to inspire the next generation of space explorers and engineers. Alongside the book is the Moon Tree Companion Passport guide, filled with interactive activities, worksheets, and sticker pages to track real-life Moon Tree visits around the U.S. This is not our first adventure together—Dee and I also created Explore Space A to Z, and she's written several beloved children's books including Weird Animals A - Z, Weirdest Animals A to Z and the Skullie and Boop series. Our new book is available now on Amazon, IngramSpark, and at your local bookstore. Visit MissDeeDassen.com to learn more and subscribe for updates on upcoming books and products. Listen to this podcast on all of the major channels and at SpaceMarketingPodcast.com. Let's inspire the next generation to look up and reach for the stars! Links: Book information: MissDeeDassen.com Moon Trees locations - Apollo 14: nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/moon_tree.html Moon Trees locations - Artemis I: NASA.gov/learning-resources/artemis-i-moon-tree-stewards U.S. Forest Service: www.fs.usda.gov/learn/conservation-education/moon-trees #SpaceMarketingPodcast #IzzyAndDee #MoonTrees #STEMeducation #ChildrensBooks #ArtemisMission #Apollo14 #NASA #STEMforKids #ImaginationInspires #DeeDassenArt #ReadToInspire #SpaceBooks #TreeStewardship #CreativeSisters #MoonTrees #ExploreWithIzzyAndDee Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to the final episode of the Creativity Miniseries! In this conversation, Emily Sutherland and I open up our personal creativity toolkits and share the resources and strategies that help us bring our ideas to life. Working on this miniseries with Emily has been an absolute joy. She's not just an incredible creative and coach—she's also become a trusted friend and advisor throughout the development of Wrestling a Walrus, my first children's book. I truly could not imagine doing this without her. Interestingly, we didn't plan on recording another discussion on the creative process, but that's exactly where our behind-the scenes, warm-up conversation led us. So, we left it in. I think you might find some usefulness in this bonus material as we share our thoughts on the value of authenticity, the importance of differentiating yourself, and the surprising relationship between uncertainty and clarity.  A huge thank you to Emily for her wisdom and generosity, and to you for joining us as part of the creative community.  SPECIAL MENTIONS Emily Sutherland's Storytelling for Business (April 4, 2025) and Nurturing Your Creative Self (May 9, 2025) - https://www.emilysutherland.me/events Storytelling Community (Substack) - https://open.substack.com/pub/storytellingcommunity The Secret Lies Within by “Auntie Anne” Beiler and Emily H. Sutherland - http://bit.ly/3FmIxPT Betsy B. Murphy - https://substack.com/@betsybmurphy or http://betsybmurphy.com/ Vanessa Marin, sex therapist on IG @vanessaandxander PROCESS TOOLKIT Write it down when you feel it (and be prepared in the middle of the night). Be ready for the idea. Be discerning about what, when, and who to share your idea with.    When your idea is at a tender stage, who are your tender people? Do you need an editor or a cheerleader? Journaling. Let the creative juices flow without requiring an outcome. The more you write, the more ideas will come. Immerse yourself  and trust the process.  Try on new ideas to see if they go anywhere. “I make what I like, and they eat it how they want to eat it.” - Erykah Badu to Donald Glover ELECTRONIC TOOLS Manuscript Software - Scrivener - affiliate link: https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/overview?fpr=emilysuth Google Docs, YouTube, and Apps (e.g., voice memo, talk-to-text, notes) IngramSpark - https://www.ingramspark.com/  Kindle Direct Publishing - https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B008241EAQ Storytelling Workshops - https://www.emilysutherland.me/events PHYSICAL TOOLS  Fine Tip Sharpie Pen or The Pilot G2 (in multiple colors!) Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert - https://www.elizabethgilbert.com/books/big-magic/ Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott - https://writingforyourlife.com/bird-by-bird-some-instructions-on-writing-and-life/ The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron - https://juliacameronlive.com/books-by-julia/ Rifle Paper Company little notebooks (great for lefties!) - https://riflepaperco.com/ The Treasured Journal - https://danielleireland.com/journal DANIELLE IRELAND, LCSW Thank you for your support and engagement as part of the Don't Cut Your Own Bangs community. Feel free to reach out with questions, comments, or anything you'd like to share. You can connect with me at any of the links below. Website - https://danielleireland.com/ The Treasured Journal - https://danielleireland.com/journal Substack - https://danielleireland.substack.com/ Blog - https://danielleireland.com/blog/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/danielleireland_lcsw Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/danielleireland.LCSW Podcast on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@danielleireland8218/featured        

To set your books and audiobooks up for the best chance at success, you need to make your titles available to purchase in as many retail outlets as possible. Author and book publishing consultant Erin Wright joins “Inside Independent Publishing (with IBPA)” to share her expertise about the most effective methods to distribute books and audiobooks to as many retail sites as possible, including details about how to best use IngramSpark, Draft2Digital, PublishDrive, Author's Republic, Bookvault, and more for your publishing goals.PARTICIPANTSErin Wright is a full-time contemporary western romance author, but unless you're a fan of sexy cowboys, you've probably heard of her instead because of her work in the Wide for the Win Facebook group. She conned Suzie O'Connell (close writing friend and fellow cowboy romance author) into co-founding the Facebook group back in March of 2019, and has been avoiding writing books by posting in the group ever since. If you're thinking about going Wide, or if you're already Wide and just want to connect with other Widelings, be sure to come join Erin in the largest group on the internet for Wide authors. She'd be thrilled to have you!Independent Book Publishers Association is the largest trade association for independent publishers in the United States. As the IBPA Director of Membership & Member Services, Christopher Locke assists the 3,600 members as they travel along their publishing journeys. Major projects include managing the member benefits to curate the most advantageous services for independent publishers and author publishers; managing the Innovative Voices Program that supports publishers from marginalized communities; and hosting the IBPA podcast, “Inside Independent Publishing (with IBPA).” He's also passionate about indie publishing, because he's an author publisher himself, having published two novels so far in his YA trilogy, The Enlightenment Adventures.LINKSLearn more about the many benefits of becoming a member of Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) here: https://www.ibpa-online.org/page/membershipMake sure to connect with Erin for her consulting at work https://erinwright.net/consulting and https://erinwright.net/authors, as well as in the Wide for the Win Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/wideforthewinFollow IBPA on:Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/IBPAonlineX – https://twitter.com/ibpaInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/ibpalovesindies/Follow Erin on:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@erinwrightLVFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/AuthorErinWrightPinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/erinwrightbooksTwitter: https://twitter.com/erinwrightlvBookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/erin-wrightInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorerinwrightGoodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/erinwright

The Story of Jessie's Milkies is available from Amazon here: The Story of Jessie's MilkiesOr, if you prefer not to use Amazon, ask your local book shop to order from our other publisher, Ingram Spark, and libraries can order from them too. This podcast is presented by Emma Pickett IBCLC, and produced by Emily Crosby Media.

In this episode of the Thriving Authors Podcast, I'm giving you a behind-the-scenes look at the timeline of drafting, editing and submitting (and editing and submitting again) that led to finally getting a publication deal for my new novel BEFORE & AFTER YOU & ME.It has been quite a long journey filled with ups and downs to get here! And I think it's really important to hear the real stories behind others' success. In fact, many times books aren't published in the order in which the writer wrote them (which has certainly been true for me!)In this episode you'll hear:What inspired the idea for this story 12 years ago.How I played around with the structure, setting and POV.Ways I took feedback to make my book better while staying true to myself and my vision for the book.What I feared would happen if I made any big changes to the book.The discouragement after making it to an acquisitions meeting at a big publisher but not getting an offer… and how I was able to learn from that experience and later get a publication deal with my wonderful publisher Owl Hollow Press.The process of working with amazing editors to get the book to the next level, which helped me grow so much as a writer.So even if it's a long journey to get YOUR book out into the world, who knows what's around the next corner. Just keep moving forward, find that next stepping stone and don't give up on yourself. You never know what opportunities and excitement are waiting for you!BEFORE & AFTER YOU & ME is available now and recently won the 2024 Indies Today Book Award for Best Teen Contemporary! I am so thrilled and honored by this news, and am eternally grateful to the team at Owl Hollow Press for bringing the best version of my book to life, and to everyone who has supported and spread the word about this story I poured my heart into for twelve years.P.S. If you decide you want to take the reins (and timeline) into your own hands and self-publish your book — but you don't want to worry about getting all the moving pieces coordinated and getting your book up on Amazon and Ingram Spark — you're in luck. I have a Book Publishing Package where I can handle that all for you, in addition to editing and cover/interior design. Just reach out!

In this episode of Healthy Mind, Healthy Life, host Sana sits down with Stephen Huff, a dynamic storyteller, humanitarian, and recovering tech entrepreneur. With a career spanning Fortune 100 boardrooms to refugee camps, Stephen has faced chaos in its many forms. His new book, Life is Chaos, and All is Well, explores the paradox of finding joy and success in uncertainty. Together, they discuss how chaos isn't an obstacle but a necessary component of growth. Stephen shares how his personal experiences—from a failed tech startup to surviving cancer—shaped his philosophy on making powerful choices. He introduces three critical responses to chaos: accepting it, working to improve it, or leaving it behind. Through an inspiring story about his brother's journey from frustration to success as a teacher, Stephen illustrates the power of focusing on what you can control. Tune in to learn how to reframe adversity, cultivate joy amidst uncertainty, and take ownership of your choices for a more fulfilling life.   About the Guest:   Stephen Huff is a global speaker, entrepreneur, and author of Life is Chaos, and All is Well. With decades of experience in leadership, business, and humanitarian work, he helps individuals and organizations navigate uncertainty and turn challenges into opportunities.   Key Takeaways:   ✅ Chaos is necessary for growth – Without challenges, there's no opportunity.✅ Three powerful choices in chaos – Accept it, improve it, or leave it.✅ Reclaiming power – Focus on what you can control instead of dwelling on what you can't.✅ Joy in uncertainty – Stability isn't required for happiness; it's found in perspective and gratitude.✅ Authentic leadership – Leaders thrive when they communicate, take accountability, and lead with integrity.   Connect with Stephen Huff:  

Amazon is removing the ability to download and backup Kindle ebooks. And on the same day they roll out that change, Amazon will be closing down Kindle Vella. IngramSpark has a few marketing opportunities this month, as well as a giveaway for five free books. Findaway Voices by Spotify announced an agreement to distribute digitally-narrated audiobooks by Elevenlabs. And so much more in the self-publishing news this week! Book Award Pro - https://DaleLinks.com/BookAwardPro  (affiliate link) Subscribe to The Self-Publishing Hub - https://TheSelfPublishingHub.com  Subscribe to my email newsletter - https://DaleLinks.com/SignUp  Join Channel Memberships - https://DaleLinks.com/Memberships  Join Me on Discord - https://DaleLinks.com/Discord Check out my main YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@DaleLRoberts My Books - https://DaleLinks.com/MyBooks Wanna tip me? Visit https://dalelroberts.gumroad.com/coffee  Sources: Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books - https://www.theverge.com/news/612898/amazon-removing-kindle-book-download-transfer-usb Kindle Vella Announcement - https://www.kdpcommunity.com/s/article/Kindle-Vella-Announcement?language=en_US Amazon: We are winding down Kindle Vella - https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/a/faq Spotify Welcomes Digital Voice Narrated Audiobooks from ElevenLabs via Findaway Voices - https://blog.findawayvoices.com/spotify-welcomes-elevenlabs-audiobooks/ Amazon Ads - https://advertising.amazon.com Apple Books for Authors - https://authors.apple.com IngramSpark: Nominate Your Book Today - https://www.ingramspark.com/editorial-calendar IngramSpark: Mastering Metadata: Are Your a Book Marketing Pro? - https://ingramcontent.jotform.com/250495414855160 Get Authentic Book Reviews - https://GetAuthenticBookReviews.com ProWritingAid: Manuscript Analysis - https://DaleLinks.com/Analysis (affiliate link) PublishDrive: Audiobooks - technical requirements, easy fixes and FAQs - https://streamyard.com/watch/HNgSJGxZHf44 Why Cheap Promo is No Bargain: One Unusually Prolific Example - https://writerbeware.blog/2025/02/21/why-cheap-promo-is-no-bargain-one-unusually-prolific-example/ The Power of Reviews: What Every Author Needs to Know - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/power-reviews-what-every-author-needs-know-ross-brand-ho7ne Get More Book Reviews—Faster & Easier! (Book Bounty interview) - https://www.youtube.com/live/WFyyMPjJDXk?si=kwmWznhD8vrKz34T Join my ARC Team - https://DaleLinks.com/ARCTeam  Where noted, some outbound links financially benefit the channel through affiliate programs. I only endorse programs, products, or services I use and can stand confidently behind. These links do not affect your purchase price and greatly helps to building and growing this channel. Thanks in advance for understanding! - Dale L. Roberts

In this episode of the Self-Publishing with ALLi Member Q&A podcast, hosts Michael La Ronn and Sacha Black discuss whether authors should release print, e-book, and audiobook formats at the same time or stagger them to maximize visibility and sales. Other questions include: What are some affordable alternatives to NetGalley for getting book reviews? What should I do if someone is copying my work and publishing it as their own? How can I approach a museum gift shop to carry my book? Is it better to market a book's availability on IngramSpark, or should I focus on general book promotion? How can I distribute my free audiobook codes most effectively? What are the best strategies for marketing books without relying on social media? And More! Find more author advice, tips, and tools at our Self-Publishing Author Advice Center, with a huge archive of nearly 2,000 blog posts and a handy search box to find key info on the topic you need. And, if you haven't already, we invite you to join our organization and become a self-publishing ally. Sponsor The Member Q&A podcast is proudly sponsored by Bookvault. Sell high-quality, print-on-demand books directly to readers worldwide and earn maximum royalties selling directly. Automate fulfillment and create stunning special editions with BookvaultBespoke. Visit Bookvault.app today for an instant quote. About the Hosts Michael La Ronn is ALLi's Outreach Manager. He is the author of over 80 science fiction & fantasy books and self-help books for writers. He writes from the great plains of Iowa and has managed to write while raising a family, working a full-time job, and even attending law school classes in the evenings (now graduated!). You can find his fiction at www.michaellaronn.com and his videos and books for writers at www.authorlevelup.com. Sacha Black is a bestselling and competition winning author, rebel podcaster, speaker and casual rule breaker. She writes fiction under a secret pen name and other books about the art of writing. When Sacha isn't writing, she runs ALLi's blog. She lives in England, with her wife and genius, giant of a son. You can find her on her website, her podcast, and on Instagram.  

IngramSpark announced changes in print book pricing and an increase in their market access fee. Circana Bookscan shared stats on book sales in 2024 and it's looking things are improving. And, Overdrive announced that 2024 was a record-breaking year for digital lending. All that and more in the self-publishing news for Feb. 3, 2025. Book Award Pro - https://DaleLinks.com/BookAwardPro (affiliate) Subscribe to The Self-Publishing Hub - https://TheSelfPublishingHub.com Subscribe to my email newsletter - https://DaleLinks.com/SignUp Join Channel Memberships - https://DaleLinks.com/Memberships Join Me on Discord - https://DaleLinks.com/Discord Check out my main YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@DaleLRoberts My Books - https://DaleLinks.com/MyBooks  Source: USA Pen Press: The Ghostwriting Scam of a Thousand Websites - https://writerbeware.blog/2025/01/24/us-pen-press-the-ghostwriting-scam-of-a-thousand-websites/ IngramSpark: Service Alert - https://www.ingramspark.com/2025-price-change Circana Bookscan: “Book Sales 2024 Results: A Year of Fantasy, Thriller, and Romance. Data and Highlights” (Top Selling Books 2024) - https://www.infodocket.com/2025/01/22/circana-bookscan-book-sales-2024-results-a-year-of-fantasy-thriller-and-romance-data-and-highlights-top-selling-books-2024 Overdrive: Libraries Break Digital Lending Records in 2024 with Over 739 million Checkouts - https://company.overdrive.com/2025/01/27/libraries-break-digital-lending-records-in-2024-with-over-739-million-checkouts/ KDP: Kindle Vella Wind Down - https://www.kdpcommunity.com/s/article/Kindle-Vella-Announcement?language=en_US Kindle Vella Update FAQ - https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GUJHP3574Z3DLPZD  Laterpress - https://Laterpress.com Miblart: 5-Day Writing Journey - https://miblart.com/join-writing-challenge/?ref=daleroberts5 Get Authentic Book Reviews - https://getauthenticbookreviews.com  Publisher Rocket + Mastering Keywords & Categories Course (expires Feb. 9, 2025) - https://rocket.thrivecart.com/publisher-rocket-course/?affiliate=selfpubwithdale Book Brush: Platinum Academy: Set Your Intentions for 2025 & Plan to Level Up with Renee Rose and Lee Savino - https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/qL1JT8PzSrykRBsDJas5ZQ#/registration 6 Versus 1 Project - https://DaleLinks.com/6v1 The Power of LinkedIn for Book Promotion: The Self-Publishing with ALLi Podcast Featuring Dale L. Roberts - https://selfpublishingadvice.org/podcast-linkedin-for-book-promotion/ Dale L. Roberts joins The Author's Lounge to talk branding, book marketing, awards and much more! - https://youtu.be/6WGKS032We4?si=ehD9ZmOQpy3ocCbl Wide Publishing for Authors - https://DaleLinks.com/WideBook The Self-Publishing with Dale Book Series - https://dalelinks.com/selfpubwithdale  Credit: The Hot Sheet - https://hotsheetpub.com  Where noted, some outbound links financially benefit the channel through affiliate programs. I only endorse programs, products, or services I use and can stand confidently behind. These links do not affect your purchase price and greatly helps to building and growing this channel. Thanks in advance for understanding! - Dale L. Roberts

The Kindlepreneur Dave Chesson is on a roll lately, as he's updated his deep dive article about choosing the right categories for your book on Amazon. IngramSpark dropped an email this past week with a trifecta of opportunities. And, three people have been indicted in an alleged $44 million scam targeting elderly authors. Find out what you need to know and what you should do to prevent scams like this from happening ever again. All that and more in the self-publishing news. Subscribe to The Self-Publishing Hub - https://TheSelfPublishingHub.com Subscribe to my email newsletter - https://DaleLinks.com/SignUp Join Channel Memberships - https://DaleLinks.com/Memberships Join Me on Discord - https://DaleLinks.com/Discord Check out my main YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@DaleLRoberts My Books - https://DaleLinks.com/MyBooks Sources: Amazon Book Categories: My Secret Method to Choose Clear Winners - https://kindlepreneur.com/how-to-choose-the-best-kindle-ebook-kdp-category/ MOBI Support for eBooks Frequently Asked Questions - https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GULSQMHU5MNH4EZM Spoken Beta V0.7.5: Project Mastering And Email Account Creation. - https://www.spoken.press/the-spoken-chronicle/spoken-beta-v075-project-mastering-and-email-account-creation PROMOTE MY BOOK- INGRAMSPARK AUTHOR COMMUNITY - https://www.facebook.com/groups/402138132921961/ IngramSpark: Showcase Your Books - https://www.ingramspark.com/ala-2025 IngramSpark: Nominate Your Book Today! - https://www.ingramspark.com/editorial-calendar  Three Indicted and Internet Domain Seized in $44 Million Nationwide Book Publishing Scam Targeting Elderly Authors - https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/pr/three-indicted-and-internet-domain-seized-44-million-nationwide-book-publishing-scam Inkers Con: Author mistakes to avoid on Goodreads - https://inkerscon.com Resources for the Goodreads Author Program - https://www.goodreads.com/author/how_to  Publishing Industry AI Insights Survey - https://www.surveyol.com/r/AIInsightsSurvey Your Book Deserves Better Profits—Here's How! - https://www.youtube.com/live/_0qo1t6kBB0?si=j6PldLBTVNLMyokw Wide Publishing for Authors - https://DaleLinks.com/WideBook  Credit: Laterpress - https://Laterpress.com Where noted, some outbound links financially benefit the channel through affiliate programs. I only endorse programs, products, or services I use and can stand confidently behind. These links do not affect your purchase price and greatly helps to building and growing this channel. Thanks in advance for understanding! - Dale L. Roberts

In this episode, Jodi chats with self-publishing expert Monique Mensah about how business owners writing books and other self-publishing authors can achieve traditional publishing quality. They discuss essential steps like hiring genre-specific professional cover designers, understanding the various editing types available in the marketplace, and leveraging platforms beyond Amazon to maximize control and profit. Monique also shares practical tips on building an author's brand, maintaining design consistency, and the significance of owning your ISBN for true publishing independence.   Time Stamps: 00:00 Self-publishing doesn't mean doing everything yourself. 05:39 ISBN gives authors publishing rights and control. 08:41 Professional editing is essential for quality books. 10:03 Professional editor essential for high-quality manuscript. 15:10 Lack of developmental editing undermines memoir structure. 17:40 Subscribe to Coffee and Commas newsletter. 20:25 Use published books as benchmark for quality. 24:01 Book cover duplicated; not a custom design. 25:58 Interior design requires expertise and understanding. 30:16 Sell books via platform with profit-sharing costs. 35:32 Drive traffic to your site, not Amazon. 37:41 Define goals for writing or marketing books. 39:36 Sign up for Monique's list for insights. 42:38 Connect via my website for self-publishing insights. Keywords: self-publishing, traditional publishing, book quality, book benchmarks, genre alignment, DIY design platforms, professional cover designers, template covers, unique book design, professional typesetting, book interiors, developmental editing, line editing, copy editing, proofreading, editing misconceptions, book cover design, professional editing, Amazon KDP, IngramSpark, ISBN ownership, print-on-demand distribution, direct book sales, strategic marketing, building author brand, self-publishing pitfalls, customer data control, professional publishing assistance, high-quality self-publishing, authorpreneurs, Monique Mensah Resources Mentioned: Ready Set Write Challenge: www.jodibrandoneditorial.com/readysetwrite Mastery of Self by Don Miguel Ruiz Jr. The Last Party by A.R. Torre About Our Guest: Monique Mensah is a Personal Self-Publishing Assistant, who helps authors in all genres--fiction to nonfiction--take their books from Manuscript to Masterpiece. Through her signature done-for-you self-publishing service, Monique guides independent authors in producing professional, premium-quality books that don't look self-published and can stand out in a crowded market. Known for her straightforward, no-nonsense approach and deep understanding of the publishing process, Monique ensures authors maintain full ownership and control of their work so they can transform into Savvy Saelf-Publishers. Originally from Detroit, Michigan, and now living in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, she brings passion and strategic insight to every project, making self-publishing both achievable and rewarding for authors who are serious about success. Website: www.moniquemensah.com Free Self-Publishing Guide: www.moniquemensah.com/free-guide Book a Free Strategy Call: www.moniquemensah.com/book-a-call Instagram: instagram.com/theminiquemensah TikTok: tiktok.com/themoniquemensah LINK TO FULL EPISODE (RAW) TRANSCRIPT: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qG4utCiUNSY98O12Pc051ZeSKhBS8Ja_2DcHWSy-4cQ/edit?usp=sharing  

Thelema Now's Harper Feist talks with Barry William Hale about his latest work, Arcana Arcanorum by Robert C. Stein. The book is a comprehensive exploration of Aleister Crowley's holy book, Liber Arcanorum. In Arcana Arcanorum, Robert C. Stein presents an initiate's perspective into the system as a whole. He further explores in depth the significance of each individual sigil and its corresponding name. Complementing this analysis, Barry William Hale offers a series of 22 mesmerizing drawings, each piece ingeniously merging the upright and averse spirit of each tarot card into a single, unified form. Together, the engrossing artwork and penetrating analysis uniquely honors and unveils the mysteries of the holy book.     Now available for purchase at Ingram Spark.      Barry William Hale's 231 artwork from this book, along with a number of other pieces, will be featured in an upcoming VR title "Arcanorum 231" available to wishlist on steam here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/744690/ARCANORUM_231/

In this episode of the Self-Publishing with ALLi Member Q&A podcast, hosts Michael La Ronn and Sacha Black discuss what to look for in an editor, including recommendations for vetting, sample edits, and aligning editor styles with author needs. Other questions include: How can first-time authors set up profitable Amazon ads for fiction? What are the benefits and drawbacks of entering short story competitions? How can authors effectively market hardback books with dust jackets distributed via IngramSpark and Amazon? What are the best tools and strategies for using AI to assist with editing? What strategies can authors use to market books when attending an exhibition or conference? What are the considerations for translating books into foreign languages and finding reviewers for translated works? And More! Find more author advice, tips, and tools at our Self-Publishing Author Advice Center, with a huge archive of nearly 2,000 blog posts and a handy search box to find key info on the topic you need. And, if you haven't already, we invite you to join our organization and become a self-publishing ally. Now, go write and publish! Sponsor The Member Q&A podcast is proudly sponsored by Bookvault. Sell high-quality, print-on-demand books directly to readers worldwide and earn maximum royalties selling directly. Automate fulfillment and create stunning special editions with BookvaultBespoke. Visit Bookvault.app today for an instant quote. About the Hosts Michael La Ronn is ALLi's Outreach Manager. He is the author of over 80 science fiction & fantasy books and self-help books for writers. He writes from the great plains of Iowa and has managed to write while raising a family, working a full-time job, and even attending law school classes in the evenings (now graduated!). You can find his fiction at www.michaellaronn.com and his videos and books for writers at www.authorlevelup.com. Sacha Black is a bestselling and competition winning author, rebel podcaster, speaker and casual rule breaker. She writes fiction under a secret pen name and other books about the art of writing. When Sacha isn't writing, she runs ALLi's blog. She lives in England, with her wife and genius, giant of a son. You can find her on her website, her podcast, and on Instagram.

On today's episode of The Wholesome Fertility Podcast, Kelly Meehan of @spiritbabymedium discusses her new book,'Notes from a Spirit Baby Medium,' and explores the themes of intuition, spirit baby communication, and the importance of community in the healing process. She emphasizes the connection between past experiences and intuition, the mystical journey of conception, and how babies communicate with their parents. The discussion highlights the significance of understanding one's own energy and the role of community in fostering healing and connection. In this conversation, we explore the profound connection between emotions, consciousness, and the external world. We discuss the importance of self-awareness, the journey of awakening, and the challenges of navigating personal healing while supporting others. Our conversation also delves into the complexities of grief and loss, particularly in the context of miscarriage, and highlights the significance of spirit baby communication as a resource for healing.   Takeaways   Kelly's new book focuses on spirit baby communication. Intuition is a natural instinct that everyone possesses. Past experiences can hinder one's ability to trust intuition. Community plays a vital role in healing and connection. Babies are evolving and communicate with their parents. Frequency affects conception and the energy of babies. Meditation helps in understanding and connecting with intuition. Awareness of one's own energy is crucial for personal growth. Our consciousness can impact the world we perceive. Awakening can happen suddenly, like a light switch. Navigating personal healing requires setting boundaries. Grief and loss are unique experiences for everyone. Self-compassion is crucial during times of loss. Presence and connection are vital in supporting others. Emotions dictate much of our health and well-being. Meditation can aid in processing grief and loss. Spirit baby communication offers a unique healing perspective.     Guest Bio:   Kelly Meehan is a healing visionary, author of Notes From A Spirit Baby Medium - Everything you need to know about spirit baby communication, a birth advocate, and a holistic mother to her sons Rain and Forest. Her loving support and teachings focus on spirit baby communication in conception, energetic fertility wellness, intuitive health with medical intuition, pre-birth pregnancy communication, and sacred grief support in all areas of birth loss(miscarriage, stillbirth, termination & newborn to toddler). Kelly understands how to listen to the unseen and deeply felt world of spirit baby and conscious parenting.   Kelly shares her newest published book *Notes from A Spirit Baby Medium- Everything you need to know about spirit baby communication*This insightful book explores Spirit Baby Communication 101, testimonials and real messages from spirit baby, and how to bring intuition & psychic self awareness into your conception, pregnancy, and or healing birth loss. Available for purchase NOW! Amazon & Ingram Spark.   Kelly is the creator and host of SPIRIT BABY RADIO podcast with over 200 episodes by the end of 2024. She has been in the media on birth related and spiritual podcasts and radio shows as a guest expert, being invited and attending over 40 online global summits with topics such as: fertility, pregnancy, grief, and spirituality. She has been featured in Blogs and magazines, and articles.  She has been on a TV Show (Nighttime Prime) Nick MOMS sharing her work.     Websites:   https://www.newearthchildren.com https://www.spiritbabyacademy.com   Social Media:   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spiritbabymedium/ Facebook:Spirit Baby Medium/Medical Intuitive Facebook:  SPIRIT BABIES: Conscious Conception, Intuitive Pregnancy, & Motherhood Facebook: The After Life of Spirit Baby- Healing, Connections, & Love Twitter: @SPIRITBABYRADIO YouTube:www.youtube.com/@spiritbabycommunication   For more information about Michelle, visit: www.michelleoravitz.com   Check out Michelle's Latest Book: The Way of Fertility! https://www.michelleoravitz.com/thewayoffertility   The Wholesome FertilityFacebook group is where you can find free resources and support: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2149554308396504/   Instagram: @thewholesomelotusfertility   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewholesomelotus/     Transcript:     Michelle (00:00) Welcome back to the podcast, Kelly.   Kelly (00:03) Thank you for having me again.   Michelle (00:05) I'm so excited to have you back. first of all, congratulations on your new book.   Kelly (00:12) Yay, thank you. Do want me to tell you the title? Yes.   Michelle (00:15) Yes. Tell us the title and tell us all about it. You've been on the podcast before. If you want to give us kind of like a brief background for people who are hearing you for the first time and haven't heard the podcast before, I would love for you to share your background and then also talk about your new book.   Kelly (00:26) Yes.   Yeah, thank you. As always, I love Michelle and her work and yay. And I remember when you were writing your book, I was like, it was motivating me. was like, we're kind of like near each other, but then yours came out and it was awesome. And then I'm like, wait, where's my book? And so I'm Kelly. I go by Spirit Baby Media, medical intuitive and mentor. And I support that conception and pregnancy, birth loss in many different psychic energetic ways.   Michelle (00:37) I love Kelly!   you   Kelly (01:03) And my new book is called Notes from a Spirit Baby Medium, Everything You Need to Know About Spirit Baby Communication. And yeah, what else are we sharing? What do you want to know?   Michelle (01:15) Okay, let's talk about it all. Let's talk about first of all, what intuition is how you connect with it and how you've kind of like, figured out that you have that.   Kelly (01:27) Yeah, I love it. I actually I'm not going to divulge too much of this. I share a story in the beginning of the book on what brought me into the work. And it is a really fun story. And was like, Whoa, it's there. And so really, basically, I've always had extra sensory perception. I was born very different. Not only was it traumatic. I know we all have very traumatic, but sometimes in the trauma, you know, you work harder as the infant to be in the world. And sometimes it does open up other   levels of perceptions and abilities. And I didn't really fully discover that until I was a teenager. I feel like puberty is a very big time of expression. Puberty, you know, we can even go into like moon paws, I call it menopause, like these big, you know, shifts in our physiology, but also into our consciousness. And I just had feeling, perceptions, and it was nonstop after that until today. And I brought it.   my energetic psychological background, brought it into the energy of children and babies and supporting, again, the psychic, the energetic, the spiritual in therapeutic and loving ways. And the book has been written over a decade of my heart in the work. It's like, what have I seen? What have I known? And spirit baby communication is a term, but also,   There's not a lot of books now more after 2020. I feel like there's way more information. But before that, there really wasn't a lot about the before life. And I thought I've been writing the book for a long time and I go into the really the great mysteries because it's not like here is the here's the secrets of the before life, right? It's just like the afterlife of death. There's things that we feel and know because I do feel like it is inside us. There's a wisdom inside us that   Michelle (03:10) Mm-hmm.   Kelly (03:19) we are always in relationship with. my mission is to share that. And you just talk about intuition, it's all connected to that because we are naturally instinctually intuitive beings. And we can bring that in any part of our lives, whether in conception, outside of conception. And it's very valuable because we're all born too. We're all, my often joke is you were once a spirit baby being too. we don't, right?   Michelle (03:42) Mm-hmm.   I love that. That's great. It's true.   Kelly (03:49) Nobody thinks about that, but like, you know, let's say someone's on a fertility journey and they're struggling. Have you ever looked at your own birth into the world? Most people would say no. I don't know. My mom says it's good or she didn't like it or I wasn't breathing or she had birth loss before me or after and like, whoa, those are big things to the foundational formation of your reality and the consciousness of your parents in those times.   Michelle (03:59) Right.   Kelly (04:18) through loss, through struggle, through whatever, and they seep through, right? And so, yeah, remembering we were once all spirit baby beings and we come into this world and many of us, you know, looking to deepen that connection, like where are my children? I'm ready for that next level. And then I feel like then, know, Michelle, then the lessons begin. You know, there's, I don't think it's ever easy.   Michelle (04:35) Mm-hmm.   Yes.   Kelly (04:45) You know, like some people say, I guess it's all your perception of ease, right? Because having children is a huge heart commitment. It's not, you know, just, I don't think it's nonchalant. I think it's something powerful in in-between worlds that we bring life into this world. And that's something to reflect with too. It's incredible. And sometimes it takes longer for some people. And some people are still working towards it, you know?   Michelle (05:12) For sure. And I was thinking while you were talking, there's just so much we're not conscious of. I think about that, like when it comes to intuition, it's just that we all have it. It's built in. It's kind of part of our working. it's part of what made us. It's that connection to why we're here.   but we're so not conscious of so many things and we're not conscious of things that can actually provide us empowerment.   Kelly (05:43) No, and I blame culture, society, and subconscious programming. I have to laugh. We have to laugh sometimes because it could be very serious and there's a lot of fear. But I know me and Michelle, talked before, we're very optimistic, and even beyond that for the future that...   Michelle (05:51) Yeah.   Kelly (06:03) people will be intact with trusting their intuition more and more. And it's a really beautiful thing because your intuition is your own. It's not my intuition. Right? It's like, and that's the beautiful intelligence of just being alive and having a body is that we get to use our energy and connection with it in different ways. And sometimes we need to really slow down and be in the quiet, right?   Michelle (06:13) Yeah.   Kelly (06:27) through different practices to find our way, right? Especially when it's noisy, noisy life, noisy town, or maybe noisy city, noisy even upbringing, or maybe there's old energies that are noisy as well. But intuition is, to me, is a basic instinct. It's just like, yeah, like there, and you...   We do all use it all the time. Even if people feel like, I don't know if I use it. I'm like, you can distrust it and ignore it, but it's still there, right?   Michelle (06:57) Yeah, for sure. Without a doubt. I feel like we all remember a time where we didn't listen to it and it was something important. We all remember those times. We're like, I knew it. I knew it and I didn't listen. And of course we remember it it was such a strong lesson. We felt it and we're like, my God.   Kelly (07:07) Yes. Yes.   I think those are good when they happen. You know why? Because then it goes, you go, my gosh, like, see, like I told you so. And then you get to go, I feel like we get to stop and pause and have that awareness. And awareness is everything. And then almost to me is like creating a map of it, like a design.   Like, that's that connection and let's see what happens. And then you may be playing around with fear and intuition for a little bit to find the differences, which is very natural. But once we get really clear on ourselves, which is really through embodiment practices, through really healing our old traumas and our wounds, especially with parents, mother and father energies are so big because we get from that and we're like sifting through and finding where we are. And in that, you know,   Michelle (07:55) Mm-hmm.   Mm-hmm.   Kelly (08:02) I pride myself in my intuition and I say that with such my own reverence because I do feel like I'm very intuitive and there's no shame in that. And I feel like are there times where I'm unintuitive? There are times where I'm fearful, but not unintuitive. I'm always intuitive, but the fear, if I know, I know myself very well that when fear comes up and there's sometimes, you know, I've managed it where it's fleeing these days.   Michelle (08:18) Mm-hmm.   Kelly (08:32) But sometimes big things will come in and I'm like, that sucks. I have to say it. I'm going, ooh, that's an unwinding. was like, ooh, this is big. And sometimes it has a lot to do with our, actually all the time it has to do with our past. Because present time, there's nothing wrong in the present time. And so, you know, it's like, learning the difference. And I do talk about that in my book, On a Conception Journey, Pregnancy Journey.   Michelle (08:36) Yeah.   Yeah, right.   Kelly (08:59) healing through lost journey, but I just think basic human nature journey, you're born, you're in a body, you were a baby being, it's like, you know, we're coming into re-remembrance more than anything with it. And that's great. And again, like you were saying, like, yeah, like, I've had times growing up where I could have been in bad situations, you know, when you're like in your 20s, like.   let's go party or do this. then something always shifted me and then something weird would happen. And I was like, whoa, what is that? So it also is very automatic pilot too. Sometimes we're not getting that like loud sound. it's, when that happens, I go, wow, okay. I was like, wow, I'm an automatic intuitive pilot sometimes. And I love that because it just means I'm just connecting with nature and just being, right?   That feels important.   Michelle (09:54) Yeah, for sure. And also talk about connecting with your own intuition as a person who may not be used to doing that.   Kelly (10:03) So the biggest obstacle to trusting intuition is going to be your past, right? And the environment that you're in creation with. just like, you know, because think about it when we were little children, we were so pure and intuitive and everything was connected. But then we become a part of the world in a way where we take on our families loads and lessons and it can even go further back. And we do sometimes have to find our way back to it and move into what was always there.   Michelle (10:08) Mm-hmm. Like the memory.   Mm-hmm.   Kelly (10:33) Right? So I think if somebody's saying, well, I'm not intuitive and I don't know what I'm doing, I'd say, are you grounded in your body even? And where is your body? Like, what is this vessel? And where is your own heart energy? Right? There's so many different ways we can take it. And then I think that hanging out with other people of like heart, like mind is infectious. And it will change our frequency and vibration to be in those spaces.   Michelle (10:41) Mm-hmm.   Kelly (11:00) So communities, this is the future forward energy is all about community. Even I just presented on an energy lecture for fertility community and the women were just amazing because it's like they have that synergistic connection and they were more connected than they probably realize, right? Because that's what we do. We may not even realize it. And I love that because it makes life more spontaneous and but also we're relational. We want connection.   Michelle (11:02) Yeah, this is true, 100%.   Mm-hmm.   Right.   It's true. it, I feel like when you combine energies, just multiplies the vibe.   Kelly (11:38) Yes. Yes.   Michelle (11:40) And when you are going through, you know, I'm going to give you an example. have one of my patients and it happens sometimes where it takes a really long time for them to conceive and they struggle and they go through IVF and then that doesn't work. And I had one actually recently who after finally, after a year and then some of coming to me, she finally spontaneously got pregnant.   but she had connected with her spirit baby because she got these crazy signs that were insane. I'm going to eventually have her on the podcast once she gives birth because I want her to get through it and then have her come on so she could tell the story. but so I have people going through that, but like before you even get to that point,   It could be so daunting. And then you're just wondering why is this not happening? So I know for every individual, it's very unique, but I wanted to get your thoughts on that. Like why sometimes it gets derailed. It eventually happens, but why it can get derailed for so long. And is that something that connects with the spirit of baby's timing or what are your thoughts on that?   Kelly (12:52) There's probably a lot of different answers for that one, right? Because everybody has their own connection and journey. And it is quite baffling when you're like, deepening and working and then all of a sudden, wow, what just happened? And I think it's pretty even more profound that she actually received communication and that she listened. Yeah, you gotta tell me when this episode comes because I'm so curious.   Michelle (12:55) Yeah.   She got crazy communication. Some of the stuff was so insanely, it was crazy. She'd get bottle of wine. It was a name that she just knew that it was going to be the name and then she saw the name on TV and then she'd get a bottle of wine with that name and it's not a typical average name.   Kelly (13:29) Yeah.   Yeah, yeah, yeah.   Michelle (13:34) And it was a girl's name and she knew it was going to be a girl based on that. And even when she got pregnant, she was like, I know it's going to be a girl. She told even the doctors like, whatever, I know it's going to be a girl. And it was a girl. It was just so insane and like really amazing. she kept seeing that before she even conceived. And she kept seeing that also when she had her failed retrievals and she was going to do another retrieval. And that's when she conceived naturally, just spontaneously. But it's   Kelly (13:41) Bye.   Yeah.   I love that. Yeah.   Michelle (14:03) know, it kind of defies the odds because you're like, well, I don't have any proof right now. And I can base it on my history and say, how's, how's this possible? How would this happen? But then it does.   Kelly (14:17) This is where I'd say, yeah, this is where I'd say some things live in the realms of mysticism, right? Especially with baby. And I know I've seen stuff like this happen before where it's like the struggle, the struggle, the struggle, and then pushing with intervention and all of a sudden baby comes naturally. And I've seen this with a few different women over the years. And it's like, it blows them away and they're so confused and everything comes down to frequency.   Michelle (14:44) Mm-hmm.   Kelly (14:44) And when I use the term frequency, every single person is set in tone to a certain frequency. And we can even look at it as though we have a sound to us. And you know this because think about people that you meet and you're like, do not get along with them or they don't even see you because your frequencies are different radio stations. And there's nothing wrong with that. And babies are coming in, they are coming in more evolved.   Michelle (14:56) Yeah. Yeah.   Right.   Kelly (15:08) And I'm not saying that the mother or father are not evolved enough, but there's something in the energy field from the history, sometimes from ancestors and the past that is still in clearing. And sometimes it has nothing to do with the mother or the father in a sense, but also has to do with the baby. But also sometimes it's just one side of the lineage of the energy in the family without blaming anybody. There's a lot of parts to that. And I feel like   when we can build a communication practice that feels connected and sometimes babies will just come in as that. It's just like, I'm coming in, please listen to me. I'm gonna send you signs, I'm gonna like throw it in your face. And some people, by the way, you know this, some people would still ignore it, right? It's like, so I suspect a lot of the women that I meet, especially over the many, years, oftentimes miss the sign symbols.   Michelle (15:48) Mm-hmm. Yeah.   Right. Yes.   Kelly (16:04) that are coming through and they'll say something and I'm like, you literally just told me, I don't know if you realize that, that is your baby communicating. It was like, whoa, really? Because we're looking for something really big, right? And you can get those big signs, but you're gonna have to go deep into your multi-dimensional self. You're gonna have to really cut away this reality in a way that is gonna let your own energy grow and see the very many possibilities.   Michelle (16:34) Yes, key.   Kelly (16:34) And if you can't, it's okay. I have a friend who sometimes I talk to her and she's like, I don't know what you just said, right? So I'm like, yeah. I love her and it's just like, but it's so honest. Yeah. And this is the story of my life. I'm starting to get used to that because I just got into this massive rant yesterday with my husband and he's just like looking like, okay.   Michelle (16:46) I can relate to that.   Kelly (17:02) I was like, I know it doesn't make sense, but I was like, it's hard to put the energetic frequency vocabulary into this earth body and knowledge. It's almost like it feels a lot harder. I know many of you that are tuning in, are in communication more than you realize. Some will be very visual and feeling and auditory and others, it may be more dull. But what I do know is that babies do hear their parents. And so even if you're in...   I'm communicating one-sided or through a serenade, through song, poetry, through words, through journaling. Your baby hears you, 100%. And the whole part of trusting that is like, feel like babies are awakening parents to wake up to themselves, to know who they are. And so many women I see is like, especially when there's a miscarriage or later loss, right? You are literally being initiated into two worlds of energy. And there's a deep healing in that and it's...   It's not so scary. Yes, grief is just terrible and my heart goes out and we feel it, but something else is like cracking through. It's like people use the word bringing heaven to earth, right? How are we going to do that? How are we bringing the death space, the heaven space, the earth space all together in a way where there's a sense of understanding harmony and connection? Well, we are in many different ways and some would disagree, but you know, again,   the energy of the baby realms, not even babies, so much more advanced. They're in communication with us all the time and we just have to be open. I say listen, but I know listen is a challenging word, but it's true. It's like full on body-heart listening. How about that?   Michelle (18:41) It's like receiving really. That's how I see it. It's kind of like being in a receptive place where I feel like sometimes you can get really used to speaking rather than receiving. But I'm talking about the subtleties too, you know, I think the subtleties are things that we don't often hear. And that's why I think meditation is so powerful because it gets us quiet enough to be able to receive, to almost kind of improve our antenna.   to receiving something outside of this world.   Kelly (19:09) I feel like, yeah, I love that. The three things I wanna say when you said that came up in my mind is like, really to achieve really good kind of spirit baby, fertile energy connections, conception struggles, is number one is knowing yourself in meditation, but not doing it without two and three. So two I would say is, do you have a healer, a guide?   coach or somebody that can actually work in love space with you. It's not just, I'm going to give you these instructions. Like I'm holding energy and love and connection with you because the practitioners and the healers, if their frequency is more elevated, guess what? You're not going to come in their space unless your frequency wants to move into that. And the third one would be people. I feel like community togetherness. I feel like those three is like literally just the best equation.   for healing and being heard and moving into your psychic space because think about it. You meet, you know, I know you meet many women as I do where they feel like I call, I'll call it right now a psychic loneliness. They have these extra sensory perceptions. They feel like they're alone.   Michelle (20:16) Mm-hmm.   Kelly (20:21) what am I doing with it? I feel like I'm just, it's not worth anything. And then you see the light or at least I do in them, they just start sparking up like, my gosh, you see me, you hear me, you know me, I'm allowed to speak this way. And then it adds to the journey, adds to their up leveling of their own inner frequency of co-creation really with life and where you want it to, where they're wanting to go and build those next parts, you know?   Michelle (20:47) Definitely. Well, I don't know if you know this, you probably know this, that I'm like, really love Joda Spence's work and I just came back from a retreat and every time I go, I learned something new. And one of the things the big thing that he really talks about is that   we hold a frequency, our emotions hold a frequency. And so when we have certain emotions, what we typically do is we wait for the outside world, which really is our manifestation of whatever is going on inside internally. When we wait for the outside world to shift so that our inside can feel better, but it's actually the opposite. It's kind of holding a frequency that we want or an emotion or a vibration that we want, and that will influence the outside world.   Kelly (21:33) you   Michelle (21:33) there's a lot of science that is showing us that our thoughts and our consciousness and our controlled consciousness and kind of like lasered perspective and perception can impact matter. And they're seeing that with there's a show that I was watching on Gaia. I forget what it was called. I think it was like the creative universe or something like that. But   Kelly (21:47) Hmmmm   Michelle (21:56) I remember the exact name. And they were talking about these professors at major universities talking about quantum physics and how we are so attached to an old paradigm of reality, which is way more materialist, but that is such a small perspective in that whenever we see something that's outside of that, lot of times scientists will dismiss that because it doesn't fall under their   Kelly (22:10) you   Michelle (22:24) perspective and what they have solidified as real. And so it becomes very dogmatic and we're not really seeing the truth of reality and the truth of reality does not just consist of the matter. It also consists of consciousness and the interplay between the two. And it's really fascinating. So basically our consciousness can impact the world in which we're seeing this,   Kelly (22:32) Mm.   Michelle (22:51) that our consciousness is perceiving. And not only that, this is starting to become realized in science. So this is what's crazy about it is you were talking about us reawakening, but it's not just within ourselves. We're actually starting to see this in the world.   Kelly (23:11) And I think we're gonna start seeing more. I that there's gonna be more, I call it almost like a light switch. Like some of us will be in the trenches like waiting around like, what's happening? I always have to laugh like, what's happening? Like are people, yeah, yeah. So what's gonna happen with a lot of the sleepers? It's gonna be a light switch and so all of a sudden people are just gonna be on. It's some of the people that slow. I feel like for me it's like,   Michelle (23:23) Yeah, there are the people that are sleeping when you're sleeping. You don't want to wake up. It's too comfortable.   Mm-hmm.   Kelly (23:39) I felt, actually felt like an awakening at 15 years old. So I've had to go through the trenches for, along the trenches. I think more of the awakenings came in the 1950s even, but it's like, and then it's been a journey where it's like, am I allowed to speak this way in a dense world where they're like, no, I was like not allowed to speak this way. I was very shy, quiet, kept things very inward. And of course the, you know.   Michelle (23:42) Mm-hmm. You were one of the first early risers.   Kelly (24:06) as humanity keeps shifting, we have permission, right? It's like, all of a sudden we're allowed to own our own connections and we see it more and more, but it's gonna be like a light switch. But I love what you just shared. That's freaking amazing because when you said that, it made me think of like water. You know, people are doing these experiments again where they're like yelling at water and like, this like really, but like not just yelling at the water, but like giving your like dark energy to it and then connecting with, and you're just thinking.   Michelle (24:10) Mm-hmm.   Mm-hmm.   Yeah, you could see the crystals.   intention.   Kelly (24:35) my gosh, because when you think about we're made up of so much water, it's like, my gosh, like what is the impact on that? And you're right, there is the science spirit kind of, I always feel like they touch each other, but I still really feel they're supposed to be separate. They can intertwine with each other and science believes that they have to prove everything, but they can't, it's silly to me. And I feel like we're evolving out of that because everybody...   Michelle (24:39) Yep. Yeah.   Yes.   Kelly (25:04) has a different energetic perspective, but also we're in different frequencies. So we're not gonna have the same things. It's like medicine, it's like healing. Yeah.   Michelle (25:12) But it is a form of communication where it's going to awaken people who are very, or identify as more science-based minded. And so that it does include that group of people.   And I think that that's important as well, because for a while what happened was in this documentary, that one guy was saying that people used to believe in transcendence and they believed in this kind of like a, this spiritual world until science came along and then dismissed it. And then they said, well, that can't be true. And so that it kind of like took us away from that spiritual aspect. And it was kind of looked down upon from, an educational perspective. And then.   Kelly (25:25) Yeah.   Hmm.   Michelle (25:52) Now they're starting to see it. Now, of course, the idea is, that when consciousness is able to impact reality, there is no way you're going to fully be able to dissect that. It's just not going to be possible because it's constantly ever flowing, ever changing as much as your imagination. So you can never really that down. However, it still gives way to somebody who's completely asleep and does not.   Kelly (26:02) No.   Yes.   Michelle (26:19) look at the spiritual aspect naturally as we do to open up to it. So kind of like in some weird way, I believe that it's meant to be because it is one way to get everybody on the same page. And then eventually, of course, really awakened.   Kelly (26:30) Hmm.   Yeah, you say that I get this image of somebody wrapped up in their little blanket on the bed in their slumber. Like, hello, it's time to wake up. It's time to wake up. Let's shake things up. But some things do get really shaken up and other times you, you know, I've watched a lot of people involved and from afar and some more intimately. And it's quite fascinating because somebody that has future information at times or medical intuition, I want to fix everybody and heal them.   Michelle (26:46) Yes. Yes. It's like bright light.   Mm-hmm.   Yes. I totally understand you. I get you. I feel the same way.   Kelly (27:09) And then I have to step away and look and go, it's none of my business, right? Yeah. This is a good one. You tell yourself it's none of my business because we're not in charge of that. think that if we are evolving in our own space, then we ripple, right? And I know you know that it's like, that's the piece because I had to watch it. Yeah. Especially with family. Family is really hard, right? Family, you're just like,   Michelle (27:25) Yes. I think that's the hardest part of doing our work or being healers. It really is. Yes, that's the hardest part. I think that's the biggest challenge is like when you know what you know and you know that it can benefit somebody and you could be like, here, I'll give you the key. I know exactly what you need, but you can't say that. You can't until they're ready or they ask because   Kelly (27:47) It's very painful. I've even seen that with friends of friends and I'm like, just walk away Kelly, because you just, I'm like, can't, it's hard. We all have different levels of suffering. But then when you see people really suffering and you're like, ugh, like, yeah, it's like, okay. And then I have to go inward to my own suffering and go, what is that? What is the need?   Michelle (27:57) Mm-hmm.   Kelly (28:10) I know you want to help that person, but they are not there. They don't want that. And it's like, I just have to send that with love and just peace and not dwell on it. Right? Because it's like, that's all we can do.   Michelle (28:11) Right, exactly.   Yep, 100%. It's like, you're just aware of it. It's almost like being like a neat freak or like a personal organizer for a living and then going to a really messy place and you're like, okay, I just have to let go of that right now and just let it be.   Kelly (28:32) I wanna like, yeah, yeah.   Yeah, and then ground into our own self, create our own boundary and then just be like, okay, it is what it is. But I think I always wonder if that will be ongoing in my reality because of who I am. Like I just see things through a different lens and I know that and I've accept that. And I used to think it was really bad. And I used to think that something was wrong with me. And now I've moved into deeper levels of self love that I...   Michelle (28:42) Yeah.   Kelly (29:05) perceive things differently and it's okay if people don't understand it. It doesn't really matter. I say as long as we're just connecting with love and respect and presence with each other because we're not gonna all understand our own individual journey, especially in conception. know, some struggle, everybody struggles in a different way or even birth loss. Everybody miscarries in a different way. Yes, there's like, there's a topic, there's this, that, but the impact.   Michelle (29:10) Yeah.   Yeah, for sure.   That's true.   It's true.   Kelly (29:32) is gonna be very unique for each person. And it is a real deep spiritual calling when there's this conception struggle or there's loss. If we can just begin more to nourish it, even in the medical environments, to look at it, and I'm sure you do, from that more whole space, but also like, okay, you're a physical body, but how are you feeling in your emotions? Like, our emotions dictate so much of our health, you know?   Michelle (29:54) Yeah.   yeah, big time. And I think a big part of it is really not learning how to process them or having that shut down that aspect of it. know a lot of people, they go to the doctor, they miscarry in the hospital or the doctor says, just go home and go back to your life. And there's no, there's no in between. And I mean, their spouses aren't like,   skilled in therapy, like they don't know how to go through it either. And so it's kind of like, it's a really difficult thing because you're just like, now what, how do I process this? And part of it is really allowing yourself to digest emotions, just like you do food, you need to process it so that it doesn't sit and stagnate and then get stored in the body.   Kelly (30:42) I've had women speaking about miscarriage for a moment, because this is a very big topic I can get into because it's a lot of my specialty accidentally has come through in my work over decade. And what I noticed is that the biggest thing when a woman goes into has a miscarriage, the first thing I want them to go into is tenderness and self-compassion. And I say, you don't have to think about what the next step is. There's no plans. And women that don't slow down, I see they have a major   Michelle (30:50) Yeah.   Yeah.   Mm-hmm.   Kelly (31:12) traumatic energetic wounds to heal. And it's okay, that may or may not happen, but it's more of like addressing, can you slow, because I, you know, a woman has lost, there's pain, there's feeling, I don't want to slow down, right? Maybe that's even it too. And everybody says I'm okay, I'm moving forward, but then I hear, you know, I've many times where, well my partner, especially male partner,   Michelle (31:14) Mm-hmm.   Yeah.   Kelly (31:33) They don't understand. I don't know if they feel anything or sometimes they feel so wrecked inside. They don't know how to deal with it. And I'm like, what is this what we're doing to the world of like, know, miscarriages of birth loss. There's even if it's the tiniest spec, there's a connection there and the body feels the separation of light. And there is no respect and women need to intuitively, right, wake up.   Michelle (31:38) Mm-hmm.   Yeah.   Mm-hmm.   Kelly (31:58) to feel like they deserve that. But when we're in grief, we're not very clear when we're in literally the traumatic moment of grief. You're not like, okay, I'm gonna go, you know, do this, do that. I remember my recent deaths I've had to deal with. My friend was like, what do you need? And I said, I don't know. And she's like, well, let me do something. I'm like, I don't know. Because I was just so in the weeping.   Michelle (32:02) That's true. Yeah. It's true.   Yeah.   Kelly (32:25) the overwhelm, the visitation and the healing of it. And what she did was so communal, she brought me over homemade soup and bread. And I remember just not eating like at all because that's where I was in the beginning. And I'm just like, I guess I can try to eat. And it just lifted my spirits. I'm like, yeah, I need food. And just to have her there and just to share some memories and feelings. And it was like, this is what we're not taught, right? It's like, so.   Michelle (32:35) love that.   that's really beautiful. Yeah.   It's true.   Kelly (32:55) when there's a loss or birth loss, infant loss, child loss, and you're not in it, like maybe it's a friend or a family member, you have to step in. They're not gonna ask you anything. And I feel like, yeah.   Michelle (33:05) Right, that's true. And just really the presence. I think the presence is the medicine. That's the comfort.   Kelly (33:12) Yeah, and it's gonna happen. There's gonna be, know, loss is gonna happen, but it's again, I think addressing it. And I do have a whole chapter on miscarriage specific loss, but I also have something really cool in the book. I feel like I haven't shared this enough. I keep forgetting. There are seven QR code meditations in the book that you can actually click and listen live. Not live, but like it has music to it. And then they're made specifically through certain areas where one is pregnancy.   Michelle (33:30) Ooh, I love that.   Kelly (33:41) One is conception, I have a couples one you can use. I also have for fertility, like embryonic connection, miscarriage, I even have stillbirth, which is, know, later loss. I even have termination. There are specific meditations made that I feel like can just help provide that heart communication and just moving forward with spirit baby awareness. Yeah, I love that I was like, put that in there.   Michelle (34:02) Mm, I love that.   Kelly (34:07) And then it has a link too. if you can, you like, can't use the QR code. There's a link and it's like literally linked to my website and you'll have it forever and you can download them. And there are some favorites people are telling me right now, like, I really love this one. And I do it all the time. it's really fun to hear that because it was one of my favorite ones that I made like a long time ago. And it's interesting that people are so linked in and some are more visual feeling. It's a little bit of everything. Cause I know we have a little   you know, we all have different connections. And so that you get that in the book as well.   Michelle (34:36) It's true.   my God, I love that. Well, you guys got to check out her book. It is amazing. It is notes from a spirit baby medium, everything you need to know about spirit baby communication. It is an amazing book. I've read it myself.   I got to have an insider's peak before it came out. And and I just know Kelly comes and does her work from the heart, like fully full on from the heart and from the light. And really anything that she talks about, is aligned with light. So I highly recommend you guys check out her book.   Kelly (34:58) That's right.   Michelle (35:19) I highly recommend you guys check out her and for people actually who do want to check you out, how can they find you?   Kelly (35:28) So the best way to reach me is at newearthchildren.com or it's also spearbabymedium.com and my Instagram, a lot of people love connecting there is at Spear Baby Medium.   And you can, yeah, check it out. And there's even a book page so you can access the book. And it's offered through Amazon. It's offered through IngramSpark, which is global distribution Barnes and Noble. And you can get paperback or an ebook. And I just recently put on my website a PDF because I don't have ebooks. so if you're like, I want that PDF. There you go. I have everybody covered.   Michelle (35:59) Mm-hmm.   Perfect. And she also has an amazing podcast.   Kelly (36:09) Yes, thank you Spirit Baby Radio, which I'm coming up to 200. Yay. Thank you. Yay.   Michelle (36:13) Amazing. Congrats and congrats on the book and always amazing talking to you. And I'm so happy you got to come on today and thank you for joining us today.   Kelly (36:27) Yes, as always, Michelle, I love you. Thank you for having me. It's always fun. And I'm very excited to keep sharing the beautiful work, similar to what you do, bringing in that deep level of consciousness, healing. And I know you bring spirit baby energies into your space too. Thank you.   Michelle (36:44) Awesome. you.  

Discover the latest in self-publishing news! From Taylor Swift facing backlash over errors in her self-published book to Barnes & Noble Press warning about scams, and IngramSpark expanding distribution in Singapore, we've got you covered. Plus, other important updates every author needs to hear! Book Award Pro - https://DaleLinks.com/BookAwardPro (affiliate link) Subscribe to The Self-Publishing Hub - https://TheSelfPublishingHub.com Subscribe to my email newsletter - https://DaleLinks.com/SignUp  Join Channel Memberships - https://DaleLinks.com/Memberships Join Me on Discord - https://DaleLinks.com/Discord Check out my main YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@DaleLRoberts My Books - https://DaleLinks.com/MyBooks  Sources: Taylor Swift's Eras Tour book dubbed ‘errors tour' over spelling mistakes, ‘blurry photos, and design flaws' - https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/taylor-swift-eras-tour-book-typos-b2658821.html Barnes & Noble Press - https://press.barnesandnoble.com Book Distribution in Singapore - https://www.ingramspark.com/Singapore Final Call: 30% Off PublishDrive Plans Ends on January 8 - https://DaleLinks.com/PublishDrive (affiliate link)  Join my Discord community for access to free AI tools - https://DaleLinks.com/Discord  Unveiling 2025: Indie Authors Gear Up for AI Innovations and Craft Renaissance - https://indieauthormagazine.com/unveiling-2025-indie-authors-gear-up-for-ai-innovations-and-craft-renaissance/ Stop Missing Out: Monetize Your Writing with Audio | Spoken.Press - https://www.youtube.com/live/PgnK8ZnHC4M?si=1A62VesBIGWGOWPe Simplify Story Structure: Write Better, Faster Novels | Jason Hamilton - https://www.youtube.com/live/B4NKQspKEBg?si=Apv_D1ea4Q9vE0JB How to build an audience from scratch: Webinar with Russell Nohelty - https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_EaX7Nu_9QI26PwF60zvCWw#/registration  Authors Guild: Rights Reversion & Self-Publishing - https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Gyc8GDBWRl6aT5Z-V51vMA#/registration  Outstanding Creator Awards - https://www.outstandingcreator.com/winners--2024-clash-of-champions.html Global Book Awards - https://globalbookawards2024self.spread.name/?page=4 and https://globalbookawards2024self.spread.name/?page=5 My bookshelf - https://DaleLinks.com/Bookshelf  Million Dollar Mastermind with Larry Weidel - https://podcasts.fame.so/million-dollar-mastermind-with-larry-weidel  Credit: The Hot Sheet - https://hotsheetpub.com  Where noted, some outbound links financially benefit the channel through affiliate programs. I only endorse programs, products, or services I use and can stand confidently behind. These links do not affect your purchase price and greatly helps to building and growing this channel. Thanks in advance for understanding! - Dale L. Roberts

Many self-published authors treat paperbacks and hardcovers as an afterthought, assuming they're too hard to sell or less lucrative than eBooks. This week's guest, author Kevin G. Chapman, challenges that notion by sharing how indie authors can effectively market and sell their physical books. From leveraging platforms like IngramSpark to building relationships with bookstores and libraries, Kevin outlines the strategies he uses to get paperbacks and hardcovers into readers' hands and unlock new revenue streams. Kevin also shares his experience in producing and marketing audiobooks, an ever-expanding market with unique opportunities for indie authors. By utilizing platforms like BookFunnel and Gumroad, he demonstrates how to maintain greater control, boost profits, and broaden your reach. So if you're ready to expand your publishing strategy beyond eBooks and tap into the often overlooked potential of both physical and audiobooks, this episode offers the insights and inspiration you've been waiting for.   Kevin G. Chapman https://kevingchapman.com/   Hidden Gems Need our help publishing or marketing your book?  https://www.hiddengemsbooks.com/author-services/   All episode details and links:  https://www.hiddengemsbooks.com/podcast

In this episode of the Self-Publishing with ALLi Member Q&A podcast, hosts Michael La Ronn and Sacha Black discuss whether debut authors should focus their prelaunch efforts on Amazon or consider a wider approach, including using universal links. Other questions include: ·       How do I get free upload codes for IngramSpark, and what are the current restrictions? ·       Are there templates available for formatting books for multiple platforms, and which software is recommended? ·       What should I do if I find a typo in my published book, and when is it worth updating? ·       How do international tax processes work for authors selling in multiple countries, and when should professional advice be sought? ·       What are the key considerations for transitioning distribution from one platform to another, such as moving from IngramSpark to KDP? ·       How can authors ethically incentivize readers to leave reviews without violating platform rules?   And more! Find more author advice, tips, and tools at our Self-Publishing Author Advice Center, with a huge archive of nearly 2,000 blog posts and a handy search box to find key info on the topic you need. And, if you haven't already, we invite you to join our organization and become a self-publishing ally. Now, go write and publish! Sponsor The Member Q&A podcast is proudly sponsored by Bookvault. Sell high-quality, print-on-demand books directly to readers worldwide and earn maximum royalties selling directly. Automate fulfillment and create stunning special editions with BookvaultBespoke. Visit Bookvault.app today for an instant quote. About the Hosts Michael La Ronn is ALLi's Outreach Manager. He is the author of over 80 science fiction & fantasy books and self-help books for writers. He writes from the great plains of Iowa and has managed to write while raising a family, working a full-time job, and even attending law school classes in the evenings (now graduated!). You can find his fiction at www.michaellaronn.com and his videos and books for writers at www.authorlevelup.com. Sacha Black is a bestselling and competition winning author, rebel podcaster, speaker and casual rule breaker. She writes fiction under a secret pen name and other books about the art of writing. When Sacha isn't writing, she runs ALLi's blog. She lives in England, with her wife and genius, giant of a son. You can find her on her website, her podcast, and on Instagram.

The audiobook direct sales platform, StoryFair is available to buy. IngramSpark sent out a service alert to account holders. And, Dibbly Create just launched a new keyword research tool for Amazon called KIP Scout. Find out more details in this week's self-publishing news. Book Award Pro - https://DaleLinks.com/BookAwardPro (affiliate link) Wide Publishing for Authors - https://DaleLinks.com/WideBook Subscribe to The Self-Publishing Hub - https://TheSelfPublishingHub.com Subscribe to my email newsletter - https://DaleLinks.com/SignUp Join Channel Memberships - https://DaleLinks.com/Memberships Join Me on Discord - https://DaleLinks.com/Discord Check out my main YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@DaleLRoberts My Books - https://DaleLinks.com/MyBooks  Source: StoryFair Audiobooks - https://storyfair.net/. Contact: storyfairllc@gmail.com. IngramSpark - https://IngramSpark.com Apple Books for Authors - https://authors.apple.com/ Findaway Voices by Spotify - https://findawayvoices.com KIP Scout - https://DaleLinks.com/Scout (affiliate link)  Miblart: Email Marketing for Authors: How to Build an Author Email List - https://miblart.com/blog/how-to-build-author-email-list/?ref=daleroberts5 Miblart: Advent Calendar - https://miblart.com/advent-calendar-sign-up/?ref=daleroberts5  Mastering Author Branding with Andrea Jo DeWerd: The Self-Publishing with ALLi Podcast Featuring Dale L. Roberts - https://selfpublishingadvice.org/podcast-mastering-author-branding/  Where noted, some outbound links financially benefit the channel through affiliate programs. I only endorse programs, products, or services I use and can stand confidently behind. These links do not affect your purchase price and greatly helps to building and growing this channel. Thanks in advance for understanding! - Dale L. Roberts

The Amazon Community Guidelines updated their policies about reviews and this affects some review service sites like Pubby, Get Books Reviewed, Get Authentic Book Reviews, Book Bounty and more. Amazon Advertising rolled out two NEW features for account holders that can greatly improve book sales. And, self-publishing is on the rise, according to Publishers Weekly. All that and more in the self-publishing news this week! Book Award Pro - https://DaleLinks.com/BookAwardPro (affiliate link) Subscribe to The Self-Publishing Hub - https://TheSelfPublishingHub.com  Subscribe to my email newsletter - https://DaleLinks.com/SignUp Join Channel Memberships - https://DaleLinks.com/Memberships Join Me on Discord - https://DaleLinks.com/Discord Check out my main YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@DaleLRoberts My Books - https://DaleLinks.com/MyBooks  Sources: Kindle Vella Announcement - https://www.kdpcommunity.com/s/article/Kindle-Vella-Announcement?language=en_US Self-Publishing's Output and Influence Continue to Grow - https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/96468-self-publishing-s-output-and-infuence-continue-to-grow.html The Alliance of Independent Authors - https://DaleLinks.com/ALLi (affiliate link) Book Bounty - https://book-bounty.com/ Amazon Community: About Promotional Content - https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GDSRWWGGRA2JXSNZ Get Book Reviews on Amazon Without Violating Guidelines | Authentic Book Reviews - https://youtube.com/live/w0KxkSf6CMs Authentic Book Reviews - https://GetAuthenticBookReviews.com Amazon Advertising - https://advertising.amazon.com Draft2Digital - https://DaleLinks.com/D2D (referral link) Barnes & Noble Press - https://press.barnesandnoble.com/ Bookvault - https://bookvault.app. Use code BVDALE to waive your first three uploads.  IngramSpark - https://IngramSpark.com Earn Even More with IngramSpark (Share & Sell) - https://www.ingramspark.com/share-sell-promotion PublishDrive - https://DaleLinks.com/PublishDrive (affiliate link) PublishDrive: Holiday Content Deadlines and Instructions for 2024 - https://publishdrive.com/holiday-content-deadlines-and-instructions-for-2024.html  PublishDrive: Print Books - PDF creation, margins, how to use built in PD tools, and key strategies in distribution - https://streamyard.com/watch/Shn2bxiDagWU PublishDrive: Introducing PublishDrive's Cover Image Generator: Your Fast-Track to Stunning Ebook Covers - https://publishdrive.com/introducing-publishdrives-cover-image-generator.html PublishDrive: From Manuscript to Market: Your Fast-Track to Stunning Ebook Cover - https://streamyard.com/watch/uBY7XYXCmEYA Dibbly Create presents: Creator Q & A.I. - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ39eNz8xkmj0x7ELhrZW8l3lU7DqzslP More Reviews, More Readers: Hidden Gems' Founder Reveals All - https://www.youtube.com/live/yjYRPrpmDuM?si=z9p8h88sL-nTc-TJ Black Friday Deal Alerts (affiliate links)  Miblart (cover design) - https://DaleLinks.com/Miblart. Use MIBL20BLACK for 20% off your next order. Good till December 1, 2024. GetCovers (cover design) - https://DaleLinks.com/GetCovers. Use BLACKDEALS for up to 30% off your next order. Good till December 1, 2024. Press Ranger (AppSumo LTD) - https://DaleLinks.com/PressRanger. Good till Nov. 26, 2024 at 9:00am EDT. DepositPhotos (AppSumo LTD) - https://DaleLinks.com/DepositPhotosDeal. Good till Dec. 2, 2024. ProWritingAid - https://DaleLinks.com/ProWritingAid MailerLite - https://DaleLinks.com/MailerLite SiteGround - https://DaleLinks.com/SiteGround BLACK FRIDAY DEALS for Authors & Self-Publishers 2024 - https://www.youtube.com/live/yB57FnddsD4?si=a2KuvifR2v6PzfIA  Where noted, some outbound links financially benefit the channel through affiliate programs. I only endorse programs, products, or services I use and can stand confidently behind. These links do not affect your purchase price and greatly helps to building and growing this channel. Thanks in advance for understanding! - Dale L. Roberts

IngramSpark announced they're temporarily waiving all surcharge fees for their Share & Sell program. Black Friday deals are rolling out for AppSumo, DepositPhotos, ProWritingAid, and more. And the third book in my Self-Publishing with Dale series got a book award. All that and more in the self-publishing news this week! Book Award Pro - https://DaleLinks.com/BookAwardPro (affiliate link) Advanced Self-Publishing for Books - https://DaleLinks.com/AdvancedAuthors Subscribe to The Self-Publishing Hub - https://TheSelfPublishingHub.com  Subscribe to my email newsletter - https://DaleLinks.com/SignUp  Join Channel Memberships - https://DaleLinks.com/Memberships Join Me on Discord - https://DaleLinks.com/Discord Check out my main YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@DaleLRoberts My Books - https://DaleLinks.com/MyBooks  Sources: Earn Even More with IngramSpark - https://www.ingramspark.com/share-sell-promotion  ProWritingAid - https://DaleLinks.com/ProWritingAid DepositPhotos on AppSumo - https://DaleLinks.com/DepositPhotosDeal The Audiobook Narrator - https://books2read.com/The-Audiobook-Narrator Book Brush: Helping Hands, Happy Authors: How to Team Up with a Virtual Assistant - https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcpdeyvrjMqEtYjXyqz9aKPXG3bEmXWgG5o#/registration Get More Reviews, Fast: Booksprout's Proven Method for Authors - https://youtube.com/live/RmIumHTsS5I?feature=share Unlock the Secrets of Author Branding with Todd Fahnestock - https://selfpublishingadvice.org/todd-fahnestock/ 2024 Goody Business Book Awards - https://goodybusinessbookawards.com/new-2024-goody-business-book-awards/ Advertising for Books - https://DaleLinks.com/AdsBook How To Write a NonFiction Book in 24 hours Book Review| D.L. Tillery - https://youtu.be/S4kvSldcUh4?si=_VXxIlfew6OvURSl How to Write a Nonfiction Book in 24 Hours - https://DaleLinks.com/24HoursBook  Where noted, some outbound links financially benefit the channel through affiliate programs. I only endorse programs, products, or services I use and can stand confidently behind. These links do not affect your purchase price and greatly helps to building and growing this channel. Thanks in advance for understanding! - Dale L. Roberts

*Don't forget to pre-order my new book, It's Time to Talk to Your Kids About Porn: A Parent's Guide to Helping Children and Teens Develop Sexual Integrity. You can get your copy here! And would you consider leaving this podcast a rating and writing a quick little review? A sentence or two would be so great and helpful. You can leave one here. Both of these things would be so helpful to me in spreading the word about my mission to help families create connection in a disconnected world. Join me!  Today I am so excited to welcome homeschool grad and young author, the wonderful Millie Florence! This was my first time meeting Millie, but we share some friends and life experiences, so it felt like we were old friends right away. Millie has multiple middle grade novels out in the world, and her newest novel, Beyond Mulberry Glen comes out in January of 2025. I loved talking to Millie about this new book, about home schooling, about creativity, writing, publishing and more! I know you'll love this conversation too. Enjoy!  Where to find Millie: Her website here Her newest book here Her Instagram here  Resources mentioned in this episode: Pre-order goodies here Brave Writer (a home school writing program) here Honey Butter (Millie's first book) here Ingram Spark (self-publishing book distributor) here Waxwing Books (Millie's publisher) here   Some favorite quotes from this episode: “Home school is customizable.” Millie Florence “My mom wanted our home school to be directed by the things we delighted in.” Millie Florence “There was never a time in my life when I didn't want to be a writer.” Millie Florence “You're never going to be ready. You just have to do it.” Sarah Mackensie “Look at what you have and use that to the best of your ability.” Millie Florence 

Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing dropped two prominent features on their platform, one of which being Kindle Vella. Written Word Media published their findings in a recent indie author survey. The guys at Hidden Gems Books shared a recent post about how well AI-generated art faired against stock images for promoting books on Facebook. The findings are interesting to say the least. All that and more in the self-publishing news this week! - Book Award Pro - https://DaleLinks.com/BookAwardPro (affiliate link)

In this episode, Jodi talks about the inevitability of errors in published books, discussing why even meticulously edited and proofread books are not immune to typos and mistakes, and highlighting a 95% “acceptable” error rate in the publishing industry. The episode explains the roles of human and AI editors, the importance of multiple editing passes, and the potential pitfalls that sometimes come during the self-publishing process. Jodi emphasizes the significance of building time for self-editing and revisions into the production schedule and offers insights on different editorial styles and their impact on the final book. Time Stamps: 00:00 Rushed drafts contain more errors, require revisions. 04:42 Join "Ready Set Write" challenge to improve productivity. 10:07 Book creation is difficult; join my mentorship program. Keywords: book publishing, entrepreneurs, book writing, traditional publishing, self-publishing, hybrid publishing, typo, copy editing, proofreading, human error, editing process, manuscript, editing test, production schedule, self-editing, revision, Microsoft Word, Google Docs, track changes, suggested edits, typesetter, Amazon, IngramSpark, Lulu, unrealistic schedule, style guides, Chicago Manual of Style, AP style, grammar mechanics, casual language, clarity of message, book team Resources Mentioned: Write Publish Market episode 156: http://www.jodibrandoneditorial.com/write-publish-market-podcast/156 Ready Set Write Challenge: www.jodibrandoneditorial.com/readysetwrite LINK TO FULL EPISODE (RAW) TRANSCRIPT: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Zy4fZYPC5CedUXcBdPm01eWZWoN5vXK9ZStS3w2CPSM/edit?usp=sharing  

Olivia McCoy and Karen McNally Upson discussed the benefits of print on demand technology for authors, dispelling stigmas associated with self-publishing. Karen offers essential insights into the  importance of aligning distribution strategies with reader behavior to maximize book sales.Key PointsThe benefits of print on demand for authors, highlighting how it reduces the need for authors to carry books and prevents excess inventory costs. Traditional publishing houses are increasingly adopting this approach.The impact of timing - production delays and distribution challenges in the book industry.The importance of publishers focusing on acquiring and producing great books while leaving distribution to specialized companies like Ingram. The efficiency and global reach of Ingram's print on demand service (Ingramspark) are highlighted..How different genres have varying reader preferences for book formats, such as ebooks or physical copies, and importance of aligning distribution strategies with reader behavior to maximize book sales.A case study contrasting two publishing pathways: custom publishing under an author's imprint and hybrid publishing. The success stories of two authors with similar topics but different brand evolutions demonstrate the effectiveness of tailored distribution strategies.Setting authors up for success by aligning their distribution strategies with their brand development and readership. The discussion highlights the significance of choosing the right publishing pathway based on individual goals and brand maturity.Discover more about Smith Publicity at www.smithpublicity.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, YouTube, & LinkedIn.

What up, Beasts? Welcome back to the show. Today I am hanging out with Demarra West. Demarra, author of Me Too: A Therapist's Journey to Heal, Find Liberation, & Joy became a therapist more than a decade ago.  Although she knew that her attraction to therapy was rooted in the tumultuous childhood she had, she was convinced that was in the past, and never really saw that she too, had immense healing to do. She turned to holistic healing practices to support her work with Be Well Beautiful Woman, a global wellness company dedicated to helping all women heal and liberate, especially those most in need. Now she lives a full vibrant life on a mind, body, spirit level, and is tapping into the birth given joy, peace, and prosperity we were all meant to experience. As always, I hope something lands with you today. I hope something you hear tugs on your heart-strings and/or I hope you laugh. Music by Prymary: Sean Entrikin (my hot husband) on guitar, Chris Quirarte on drums, Smiley Sean on keyboards, Rob Young on bass, and Jaxon Duane on vocals Connect with Demarra! Book Website: www.demarrawest.com Be Well Beautiful Woman Website: www.bewellbeautifulwoman.com Be Well Beautiful Woman Podcast: https://bewellbeautifulwoman.podbean.com/ Her Book Me Too: A Therapist's Journey to Heal, Find Liberation, & Joy can be purchased via  Amazon, IngramSpark, Barnes & Noble Instagram: @bwellbeautiful Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bwellbeautiful/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/be-well-beautiful-woman Where can you find me? Website: beautifulbeastwithin.com Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/beautiful_beast_within/⁠ Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/BeautifulBeastWithin⁠ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4yNE6fXeDH9IsUoWfOf0pg Podcast: beautifulbeastwithin.com/unveilingthebeastpodcast To book a FREE 60 minute coaching session with me, go to ⁠beautifulbeastwithin.com⁠ Click on the big purple button, and book your appointment! Unveil the Beautiful Beast Within YOU! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beautiful-beast-within/support

In this episode of the AskALLi Member Q&A podcast, hosts Michael La Ronn and Sacha Black discuss when to seek permission for quotes in memoirs and when to paraphrase. They also share strategies for maximizing global distribution through various platforms and aggregators. Other questions include: Is it better to upload my print book to IngramSpark before Amazon to avoid issues? How do I navigate copyright concerns? Should I use the same ISBN for Draft2Digital and Amazon? Is self-publishing a 33,000-word historical romance on Kindle Unlimited a good idea? And more! Find more author advice, tips, and tools at our Self-Publishing Author Advice Center, with a huge archive of nearly 2,000 blog posts and a handy search box to find key info on the topic you need. And, if you haven't already, we invite you to join our organization and become a self-publishing ally. Now, go write and publish! Sponsor The Member Q&A podcast is proudly sponsored by Bookvault. Sell high-quality, print-on-demand books directly to readers worldwide and earn maximum royalties selling directly. Automate fulfillment and create stunning special editions with BookvaultBespoke. Visit Bookvault.app today for an instant quote. About the Hosts Michael La Ronn is ALLi's Outreach Manager. He is the author of over 80 science fiction & fantasy books and self-help books for writers. He writes from the great plains of Iowa and has managed to write while raising a family, working a full-time job, and even attending law school classes in the evenings (now graduated!). You can find his fiction at www.michaellaronn.com and his videos and books for writers at www.authorlevelup.com. Sacha Black is a bestselling and competition winning author, rebel podcaster, speaker and casual rule breaker. She writes fiction under a secret pen name and other books about the art of writing. When Sacha isn't writing, she runs ALLi's blog. She lives in England, with her wife and genius, giant of a son. You can find her on her website, her podcast, and on Instagram.

In this week's episode, we take a look at the pros and cons of KDP Print and Ingram Spark, and see which one works best for helping indie authors make excellent print books. TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 215 of the Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is August 23rd, 2024 and today we are looking at KDP Print and Ingram Spark and seeing which is the better choice for indie authors seeking to make print books. Before we get to our main topic, we will have an update on my current writing projects and the Question of the Week. My current main project is Shield of Conquest and I pleased to report I am 74,000 words into it, which puts me on Chapter 16 of 23. It helps that I had a 10,000 word day for it this week and another 10,000 word day for last week, which of course really moves the needle forward. I am also 37,000 words into Ghosts in the Tombs, which will be my next book after Shield of Conquest. Then after Shield of Conquest will come Cloak of Illusion and I am 7,000 words into that. So good progress all around. In audiobook news, recording for Half-Orc Paladin is almost done. Hopefully that should be wrapped up next week and then that will be available in audiobook before too much longer. So that's where I'm at with my current writing projects. 00:01:10 Question of the Week Now let's take a look at Question of the Week. I haven't had time to do Question of the Week since July, so let's do one now: If you enjoy reading about history, what is your favorite historical period to read about? No wrong answers, obviously. We had a range of responses to this one. Our first responses from Justin who says: My favorite historical periods are Roman (both Republic and The Empire) and American French and Indian War through The Civil War. The US was blessed to have the leaders that founded it. They were not perfect, but they were very good indeed. What's interesting about that is if you read any biographies about George Washington, you'll find out what he probably wanted more than anything in life was prestige and recognition and I think deep down, he very much would have liked to have been, you know, King George The First of The United States, but at the moment of crisis, he was able to refuse the crown and be only president, be only Mr. President, instead of a king. So that is probably one of the reasons the United States has lasted as long as it has. Our next response comes from AM who says: The 1964-965 World's Fair in New York is a moment when the American corporate optimism of the ‘50s came crashing into the aftermath of Kennedy's assassination and growing civil unrest (some of which was caused by the fair organizer's policies and decisions as an urban planner in New York City). It introduced both video calls and Belgian waffles to the General American public. It also had a massive impact on pop culture and several of the attractions Disney created for it still exist today: The Carousel of Progress, It's a Small World, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, and the pieces of Ford's Magic Skyway that are still viewable via Disneyland's railroad. Our next comment is from Sue, who says: for me, definitely Medieval/Tudor history, although I love all history. I was one of the few of my year at school who chose to study history rather than geography. Maybe that's why I get easily lost in a new place, lol. William says: I have had the feeling that I should read more on the Holy Roman Empire, but all those princedoms and rulers with complex family names makes it a bit daunting. He is entirely right about that. The history of the Holy Roman Empire is indeed quite complicated. Catriona says: I have two. The English Civil War and Medieval British history pre-Norman invasion. Although truth be told, I love history in all respects. I left the UK 20 years ago and have been in Asia ever since, and am in awe of Angkor Wat, the Great Wall of China, and the history here. Andrew says: The US Civil War. My dad bought a war game in the early ‘80s and got me hooked, followed by Napoleonic Wars. Jeanne says: I've been recently reading a lot on early British history, from the Roman period to the early Medieval period. The history of the British Isles is fascinating because it is made of so many different peoples, languages, and cultures that have all had an influence on modern Great Britain. Barbara says: early English history for me. Anything from William the Conqueror to Richard the Lionheart and Prince John. Richard was popular at the time because of the chivalry, but John was a much better ruler even though he was hated. And John says: Europe 1500 through 1700, also known as “Knights with Guns.” For myself, it's hard to pin down since it will be whatever catches my interest at any given time. Like when I visited the battlefield of Chickamauga in 2022, I went on a long reading spiral about the US Civil War. When I watched Season Four of The Crown, I wound up reading about Thatcher-era Britain to see all the many details that the show got wrong. When I recently read Ghost on the Throne about the Diadochi, the heirs of Alexander the Great, I did a lot of supplemental reading about Alexander the Great and the Wars of the Diadochi as well. Back in 2010, I beat Medieval 2: Total War as the Byzantine Empire faction, so after that I did kind of a deep dive on Byzantine history. All that said, I think two historical periods I read about the most are the second half of the Roman Republic, specifically from the 2nd Punic War to the victory of Augustus and the high Medieval period of Western Europe from about the Norman conquest to the Black Death. I had to laugh when the “how often does your boyfriend think about the Roman Empire?” meme was popular last year because I do actually think about the Roman Republic/Empire a lot, but mostly to mine it for inspiration for fantasy novels. Obviously, the High Medieval period also provides a lot of potential ideas for fantasy books. That said, those two historical periods offer a lot of examples of a fascinating riddle that has no answer: can a good person also be an effective leader who acts in the best interests of his people? Like, Caesar Augustus and King Henry I of England were in questionably very bad men who did a lot of very bad things, yet they're rated among the more effective Roman emperors and English kings because they brought peace and order to their respective realms, whether their realms wanted it or not. Monastic chroniclers at the time said that in King Henry's day, a virgin girl carrying a bag of gold could travel unharmed across England, and while this is obviously a political exaggeration, Henry did in fact impose peace and order on England during his reign. Of course, a bad man can often be a bad leader as well, but I'm afraid one of the unfortunate realities of the human condition is that effective leadership does require a good deal of ruthlessness, and you see a lot of that in both the Roman and in the Medieval periods- bad men who were good leaders and bad men who were also bad leaders. 00:06:33 Main Topic: KDP Print vs. Ingram Spark But this is not a history podcast. This is a podcast about writing and indie publishing, so let's move on over to our main topic, whether KDP Print or Ingram Spark would be better for indies to use to produce their print books. There's an obvious question to ask first: why have print books? There's a couple of different reasons. Some people prefer print books (not as many as they used to), but some people still read print books over ebooks whenever possible. Some people enjoy books both as physical objects and collectibles, and some people enjoy giving books as a gift. Giving a physical book to someone is generally a more satisfying experience than emailing them a code to download the book off their favorite ereader. It is also easier to share print books between people. That way you can read the book and give it to a family member or friend who wants to read it as well without having to purchase an additional copy. It is also an additional source of revenue for indie authors, not a huge source (with certain exceptions). Most indie authors will make more from their ebooks than they will from their print books, but there is potential revenue in print books as well. I checked right before I started recording this podcast and of the money I made from Amazon in 2024 so far this year, about 1.8% of it came from print books. You might say 1.8%, that's not that much. But in this economic climate, I don't think anyone who wants to stay in business should turn away an additional 1.8 percent of revenue. Both KDP Print and Ingram Spark use what's called on demand printing, and we should explain what that is before we go any further. Printing books for self-published writers used to be kind of a nightmarish experience. You might, if you're familiar with the publishing industry at all, might have heard the old joke about how that if you self-publish, you're going to end up with a garage full of books and that did in fact happen to many people. They decided in the 2000s and before that they wanted to self-publish their own books. So they had a contract with the printer and the printer would probably have like a minimum order of like 5,000 copies or something. So you'd have to buy that, and then you'd have your garage full of boxes of books and you'd have to hand sell or find a way to sell all those books one at a time. It was a very unpleasant experience and I'm glad I never tried it, and that I'm fortunate enough to live at a time when the technology has improved quite a bit. Print on demand works that basically it's like one copy is printed whenever you get one order; there's no inventory kept on hand. If you've bought indie books off Amazon, you might notice there's a bit of delay because the book first has to be printed and bound and then it gets shipped to you. This is by contrast to a traditional published book where if say, for example, Stephen King publishes a new novel, there will probably be an initial print round of like 100,000 copies or some equally large number, and then they'll only print more if those initial 100,000 copies sell out. This is a very inefficient and cumbersome system, so you can see why ebooks and print on demand are much more economical and environmentally friendly, if you are worried about that. That said, it doesn't actually have to be a choice of KDP Print versus Ingram Spark. They in some ways do different things, and as of today, August 23rd, 2024, you can use both essentially. They're not exclusive and you can do different kinds of print books through both. But we'll get to that in a little bit. Another important thing to be aware of as you're going to do print books is to have realistic expectations and mindset about it. I've noticed many new or younger authors have the dream they're going to get their book on a physical shelf in a physical store or library, but realistically that does not make a lot of financial sense for most people. Most authors (myself among them), will sell much more in ebooks than in the time it would take to chase down individual bookstores and individual libraries and try to sell print books to them. Bookstores and libraries are frequently overwhelmed with requests from indie authors, especially local indie authors, wanting to put their books in their stores. They may have created specific policies in response to that demand, and you may want to check their website before trying to get a local bookstore or a library to carry your book. If you do want to get your book into a physical store, it is an uphill battle, and frankly, it's probably not worth the time it would take you to sell to fight that battle. Shelf space in bookstores is both limited and shrinking, especially as bookstores sell more things like toys or stationery/lifestyle items which have a bigger profit margin than books, and you don't have the resources as an indie author to compete against the Big 5 for space on those shelves. Bookstores usually expect a discount of around 35 to 45% off retail as well, which means the higher cost of printing on demand makes this very difficult and gives indies the big disadvantage of getting a book into a bookstore. Now I know it sounds like I just was talking down print books quite a bit, but like I said, 1.8% extra revenue. So most of your print book sales will probably be online and probably from people who order directly, like your readers who most enjoy your book and want a physical copy for their collection or readers who will buy the physical book and give it as a gift to someone they want to give it as a present to. I should note that I've been talking about applies to fiction, but the rules are slightly different when it comes to nonfiction. I should note that my nonfiction book, the Linux Command Line Beginner's Guide across its entire lifetime, fully 25% of its sales have been in paperback. Because that is if people need specific nonfiction in print, especially if it's a technical nonfiction where they can refer back to it like my Linux book, then they will be more likely to order it in print. So that is something else to bear in mind as we now dive into the next section of the show, the difference between KDP Print and Ingram Spark. We will look at the pros and cons for both. For KDP Print (that is Amazon's program for selling print books on their site), the pros are it's obviously the best option for selling print books on Amazon, and it's not uncommon for people to use KDP Print for selling paper books on Amazon and then some other service for selling paper books at other online stores. There are no setup fees and there is a window where you can make changes without a fee. The reporting is either real time or real close to real time and you can see print sales next to ebook sales stats. Like when I was referencing various sales figures throughout the recording of the show, I just paused quickly to check on my KDP dashboard and was able to pull up the figures with a couple of clicks. Pricing is an advantage. Amazon offers the most favorable rate for selling directly on Amazon. In return, Amazon controls the minimum price for the book, kind of like they do for audiobooks, which is usually pretty similar to the cost of printing and shipping. When you set up a print book on KDP Print, Amazon will say based on its size, this is the minimum price. You have to sell at this price and you can't go any lower and then you can set the price however high you want. Usually it's best to set the price so that you get about $3 or so per copy or if you go into expand distribution, that you get dollar per copy of it sold. Expanded distribution, we're going to talk about right now in the con section of KDP Print. There are frequently issues with third party sellers. The problem is that KDP Print offers something called expanded distribution, where if you check that box, your book will be sold through Amazon on a variety of different sites like Barnes and Noble and other physical bookstores that have the online store for a reduced rate. So for example, if you sell a copy of your KDP Print book, you get $3 on Amazon, through expanded distribution you'd get like $1.00. The problem with that is it doesn't always work right. Many of the stores don't always integrate properly with Amazon, so the book will show up, but the cover will be missing or the book just won't show up at all, or some of the stores only update like every month or even quarterly sometimes. So that can be a problem as well. KDP Print, like many print on demand services, does not offer the ability to make books returnable, which is something bookstores expect and want, and most physical bookstores will not take a book that is not returnable. There's a cultural component there as well. Most physical bookstores, especially most independent physical bookstores, do not want to order books from their biggest enemy, Amazon, and will flatly refuse if you ask. Some and even a significant number of libraries are unable to order print books from Amazon or it requires more paperwork or effort for them to do so, and therefore they don't really want to bother. Now let's take a look at KDP Print's main rival Ingram Spark, which is another print on demand service. The premise for this is that Ingram Spark is much better at Amazon at selling books at non-Amazon bookstores, which of course makes a lot of sense. It's also easier to sell to libraries from Ingram Spark than it is from KDP Print. You do have more freedom in pricing the book, which you have to be careful for because it is possible to set things up so that you lose money with every book sale, which Amazon KDP Print does not let you do for obvious reasons. Opinions may differ, but some people do think the covers and interiors look nicer from Ingram Spark for than they do from KDP, and you can order bulk copies at wholesale prices, which you can't really do on KDP Print. You sort of can- you can order things at the author rates, but Ingram Spark has a bigger discount for that. You can also produce a bigger variety of books through Ingram Spark in different paperback sizes and different hardback sizes. So all that sounds good, but there is a pretty significant list of cons as well. There are set up fees for each title, which there are not for Amazon KDP Print. Additionally, if you make any change to the book whatsoever after it is published, any change at all, whether it's a new cover, fixing a typo in the text, whatever, you have to pay a fee for any change you make in the book after it is published. Unsurprisingly, it is harder to sell an Ingram Spark book on Amazon than it is anywhere else. Some people say (and I have no way of confirming this) that Amazon artificially increases the delivery times for these titles, but it's probably more likely is that Ingram Spark would have to print the book, ship it to Amazon, and then Amazon would have to ship it to the customer, which would add quite a bit of roundabout travel to the book, which is why some indie authors who are very into print sales tend to use KDB Print for any books that sell on Amazon, and they restrict those books to Amazon and sell their wide books at other bookstores using Ingram Spark. So what conclusion can we draw from this? If you only have time to pursue one, go with KDP Print since Amazon is the majority of print sales, especially in the US right now. That's what I do. If I wanted to do more elaborate paperback books, I would probably go through Ingram Spark, but KDP Print is pretty good at meeting my needs. Unless something changes drastically, I will probably keep doing that for the foreseeable future. However, if you have the time and the ability to do both, it is advantageous to do both. You will need separate ISBNs. You get an ISBN from Amazon and an ISBN from Ingram for the edition of the book you do through there. You could do books through KDP Print and have them just on Amazon and then have the books for the other stores, have those go through just Ingram Spark. This is a bit more work, but if you are an author who is very interested in print books or does a lot of business in print books, that may be advantageous for you to pursue. So to sum up, KDP Print is the simpler, easier option and is probably good enough for most indie authors, whereas Ingram Spark offers a lot more options but is more expensive to use and probably requires greater knowledge to use effectively. But remember, if you are an indie author, you probably will still be making most of your money on ebooks so don't stress out too much about the paper books. And as I mentioned before, my Linux Command Line Beginner's Guide, I got 25% of its revenue from its lifetime from the print book, but that means 75% of the revenue still came from the ebook. So that is it for this week. Thank you for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found the show useful. A reminder that you can listen to all the back episodes at https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave your review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe and stay healthy and see you all next week.

Send me your writing and publishing questions!Until somewhat recently, streamlined pre-orders were only possible for traditionally published authors. Now, indie authors can also benefit from pre-orders as well, helping them with:Building Excitement and Engagement: Pre-orders allow authors to generate buzz and excitement around their upcoming book, encouraging readers to take action before the release date.Community Building: Offering pre-orders helps authors build and nurture a community by gathering email addresses and establishing a direct connection with readers, which can lead to quicker reviews and word-of-mouth promotion.Data Collection: Through pre-orders, authors can collect valuable reader data (like email addresses) that is otherwise inaccessible when books are sold through platforms like Amazon. This data allows authors to maintain a relationship with their readers post-purchase and make future marketing efforts more effective.This episode of Write the Damn Book Already discusses not only the benefits and considerations of offering books for pre-order but also the potential hiccups (and how to avoid them!) such as unexpected costs due to Amazon's handling of pre-orders through IngramSpark.RESOURCES MENTIONEDPublish the Damn Book Already self-publishing course - 25% off with code AUTHOR25Jane Friedman's Hot Sheet bestseller listPre-Order Packages workshop with Mary Belle Follow Mary Belle on Instagram: @mary.belle.booksJenn Hanson-dePaula's website (author marketing/PR)Follow Jenn Hanson-dePaula on Instagram: @mixtusmedia MOCKUP SHOTS DEALI've used MockUp shots for years to create attention-grabbing images great for social media. It usually costs $207, but they're offering a 60% discount on lifetime access with lifetime updates. It's a great way to get an unheard-of price on a product that will make you money and that you will end up using all the time.Click Here for 60% off >>Write the Damn Book Already is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with authors as well as updates and insights on writing craft and the publishing industry. Available wherever podcasts are available: Apple PodcastsSpotify YouTube Let's Connect! InstagramWebsite Email the show: elizabeth [at] elizabethlyons [dot] comThe podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.To see all the ways we can work together to get your book written and published, visit publishaprofitablebook.com/work-with-elizabeth

Welcome to the Six Figure Author Experiment Podcast. Hosts Russell Nohelty and Lee Savino dive into a colorful mix of personal anecdotes, book marketing strategies, and insights on making book launches successful. This episode is packed with practical advice and lively discussions.Key Highlights:* The Art of Personal Style:* Russell kicked off the episode by showcasing his new Keith Haring jacket and Russell from "Up" hat, sharing a fun story about his Disneyland trip and how he ended up buying the jacket despite discouragement from his family.* Comic Projects and Marketing Ideas:* The hosts discussed their plans for a spicy comic, including potential cosplay marketing strategies. Although Russell vetoed the idea due to the comic's content, they highlighted the importance of creative marketing approaches.* Launch Strategies and Insights:* Lee shared her experiences with launching her series, including insights from Alana Johnson on rapid releasing and the different levels of book launches (soft, medium, and hard). They discussed the benefits of focusing on books later in the series for harder launches.* Optimal Series Length:* The hosts explored the concept of the perfect series length, referencing Alana Johnson's strategy of making book seven a must-read by seeding important plot points in earlier books. They discussed the sales dip after book six and how to overcome it.* Redemption Arcs and Villain Development:* Lee shared how she and her co-author plan redemption arcs for their villains, turning them into heroes in later books. This strategy keeps readers engaged and eager for future releases.* Analyzing Launch Numbers:* Lee revealed the launch numbers for her Bad Boy Alphas series, emphasizing the importance of pre-orders and strategic advertising to achieve USA Today bestseller status. She discussed the varying success of different books in the series.* Direct Sales and Ad Strategies:* Russell and Lee talked about their experiences with direct sales and the importance of ad spend. Lee mentioned her cautious approach with her new ad manager and the ongoing tests with discrete covers and branding.* Handling Technical Issues:* The hosts shared their frustrations with technical issues on platforms like IngramSpark and Amazon. They provided tips on managing these challenges, such as uploading to multiple platforms and seeking human support when necessary.* Overcoming Setbacks and Maintaining Perspective:* The episode emphasized the importance of resilience and perspective in the face of setbacks. The hosts encouraged authors to celebrate small wins and learn from every experience, no matter the outcome.FINAL THOUGHT: In this vibrant episode, Russell and Lee mixed personal flair with valuable marketing insights, illustrating the importance of creativity and perseverance in book launches. Their candid discussions about challenges and successes offer a realistic yet encouraging perspective for authors navigating the complex world of book publishing. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.sixfigureauthorexperiment.com

In this week's episode, we take a look back at one of our more popular episodes, which discusses three different methods for starting your novel and introducing the central conflict. The episode ends with a preview of the audiobook of WIZARD-THIEF, as excellently narrated by Leanne Woodward. TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates (August 2024) Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 213 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is August the 9th, 2024 and today we are looking back at one of our older episodes, specifically Episode 110: Three Techniques for Starting Your Novel and Introducing the Conflict (from way back in February of 2022). It was one of the more popular episodes, so it seems like a good one to replay. Next week, we will go back to recording new episodes, but I've had a lot to do in real life these past couple weeks, so it seems like a good time to rerun some old episodes. If you have 213 episodes of your podcast, what's the point unless you can dig into the archives and rerun an old episode every once in a while? We will return to new episodes next week. We'll also close out this episode with a short preview of the audiobook of Wizard-Thief (as excellently narrated by Leanne Woodward). So listen for that at the end of the show. Before we get back to our old episode, let's have an update on my current writing projects. Half-Orc Paladin is done and it is available. You can get it at Amazon and Kindle Unlimited. People have asked when it's going to come to the other stores and it will once the series is done and all six books are out, which should be sometime in 2025. Now that Half-Orc Paladin is done, I am working on Shield of Conquest as my main project. I am on Chapter 3 of 22, which puts me 11,000 words into it. After that, I shall write Ghost in the Tombs and I'm 31,000 words into that. And after Ghost in the Tombs is done, I will then start on Cloak of Illusion, and I am 1,000 words into that. So if all goes well, hopefully we will have Shield of Conquest in September, Ghost in the Tombs of October, and Cloak of Illusion in November, which pretty much takes us almost to the end of 2024. So that's where I'm at with my current writing projects and now we will flash back to February 2022 and talk about 3 techniques to start your novel/introducing the conflict, and then we'll close out the show with a preview of the audiobook of Wizard-Thief, as excellently narrated by Leanne Woodward.   00:02:06 Re-airing of Episode 110 Begins. Introduction and Writing Updates from February 2022   Hello. Welcome to Episode 110 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is February the 25th, 2022 and today we're going to talk about how to start your book and introduce your conflict. Before we get into that, let's have some updates on my current writing projects. Editing is underway for Dragonskull: Blade of the Elves, and I also wrote a tie-in short story to go with it called The First Warlock, which is an origin story for one the new villains introduced in Blade of the Elves. This week I finished Dragonskull: Blade of the Elves, started editing, and also finished The First Warlock, and so if editing goes well and all goes well, that should be out sometime in March. I also finished writing Chapter One of Cloak of Shards. That will be my next main project after Dragonskull: Blade of the Elves is published in March. In audiobook news, I am beginning to proof-listen to chapters for Frostborn: The Dragon Knight (as excellently narrated by Brad Wills). So if all goes well, we should be able to listen to Frostborn: The Dragon Knight on audiobook platforms before too much longer. 00:03:22 Reader Question on Services for Physical Book Publishing Before we get into our main topic, we have one question from a reader this week. Steve asks: who do you typically do your physical publishing through, if I may ask? I almost always use Kindle Direct Publishing Print. It's generally the easiest and the simplest to use and offers both paperback and hardback now. Other providers like Ingram Spark offer a lot more options and customization options, but Ingram Spark is definitely harder and more complicated to use than Kindle Direct Publishing Print. And it's also easier to lose money doing that, since you can accidentally set yourself up with a negative return rate, which Amazon doesn't let you do. Draft to Digital has a print service. I've heard good things about it, but I've never actually used it, so I can't attest to it one way or the other. So if you're just starting out with your first book like I believe Steve is, then probably Kindle Direct Publishing Print is your quickest and easiest option for getting your book in paperback and hardback. 00:04:23 Main Topic of the Week: How to Start Your Book and Introduce Conflict So our main topic this week will be how to start your book and how to introduce your conflict. And of course, there's only one sentence that can start out that topic: “It was a dark and stormy night.” That sentence is perhaps the most cliched opening line in English literature. Of course, the opposite of that is writers who try to make the opening line of their book as shocking and memorable as possible, like for example, something along the lines of “today was the day I died for the seventh time.” If you read websites and Internet groups where writers frequent, you will often see writers agonizing at length about the opening line of their novel. Generally, the agonizing is all unnecessary. The introduction to your story has three purposes, and if you keep those three functions in mind, it will be much easier to both write the opening mind and the rest of the introduction. First, the introduction should catch the reader's attention. Second, the introduction should introduce the protagonist and the leading characters. Third, it should set the stage for the story's conflict. Let's go through each of these purposes and then share three methods for getting your story off the ground. First, catch the reader's attention. As we mentioned above, the necessity of seizing the reader's attention and of crafting an interesting opening sentence is a source of much angst in various Internet writers' forums. That said, it's best not to overthink things. The key is to provide just a little mystery, enough to inspire your curiosity and encourage the reader to continue further into the book. The easiest way to be interesting is not to be boring. That's, you know, easy to say, but difficult to do. There are, alas, numerous boring ways to start a book, and you should avoid them. It is best to avoid descriptions of the weather, like the famous dark and stormy night. Likewise, it is a good idea to avoid starting your book with lengthy descriptions of the scenery or the setting. Writers who are good at writing lovely prose might pull that off. But I'm not one of those writers, and in my opinion, lovely prose is only useful as a vehicle to advance the plot. Like most advice, “don't be boring” is easy to say and harder to do. How do you provide a little mystery in your novel's introduction? You want to set up a situation where you've inspired just enough curiosity in your reader that they keep reading. The first sentence doesn't have to carry the entire load, but it does help. “After dropping my children off at daycare, I drove to the gas station, loaded my pistol, and walked inside.” This example of an opening sentence might be a bit overdramatic, but it serves to illustrate the point. The narrator is seemingly a responsible parent, dropping his or her children off at daycare before heading to work. Why, then, is the narrator walking into a gas station with a weapon? For many readers, this will inspire enough curiosity to keep reading. Here is the opening sentence from my urban fantasy novel, Cloak Games: Thief Trap (which as of this recording is available for free on all book all ebook platforms). “One of the earliest things I remember is watching the entire United States Congress commit suicide on national television.” Readers have emailed to tell me that this is one of the more effective opening sentences that I have written. It is both a bit of a shock and a mystery hook. Why is a small child watching in the government commit suicide on national TV? If the reader wants to find out why, they will have to read on. Second, introduce the characters. The introduction of the story must also present the main characters to the reader. Obviously, you don't need to introduce all the characters in the book to the reader right away, nor all the details about them. This, in fact, would be a bad idea. The easiest way to introduce any characters in the introduction is to have them engaged in something that reflects their personality and potential conflicts. For example, consider the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. The book opens with letters written by Jonathan Harker to his fiancée, Mina Murray. In the letters, we learn that Harker is a new solicitor on his way to Transylvania to conduct a real estate transaction with an eccentric rural nobleman named Count Dracula. This handily introduces the characters of Harker, Mina, and Dracula, and sets up the stakes. Harker wants to establish himself in his profession so he can marry Mina, and he just needs to conclude his business with Dracula. Unfortunately for Harker, Dracula turns out to be far more dangerous than he initially appears. Soon, both Harker and the reader realize that Dracula is in fact an ancient vampire and the book's conflict begins. Introducing the characters is a good way to segue into setting the stage for the story's conflict, which we will discuss next. Third, introducing the conflict. The third and final purpose of the introduction is to introduce the reader to the story's conflict or antagonist. There are lots of fun and exciting ways to introduce the conflict. And I say fun and exciting because this is often where the story starts getting quite energetic. In a fantasy novel, it might be when the hero's village is attacked by orcs. In a mystery story, it's when someone stumbles across a dead body. In a thriller novel, perhaps the hero finds a sinister terror plot that is already well underway. The conflict can also be introduced more sedately. In an action themed book, it is easy to introduce the conflict via sudden violence, the attack of orcs, or sudden murder. Other kinds of stories may not involve so much physical danger. The central conflict of most romance novels, for example, is whether or not the heroine and the love interest will get together and whether or not they can overcome the assorted obstacles preventing them from having a relationship. A romance novel might introduce the conflict by having the love interest antagonize the heroine in some way. Perhaps the love interest is a lawyer who represents the heroine's business rival or the heroine is a local law enforcement official and the love interest is an FBI agent who threatens to take over her case. Regardless of how the conflict is introduced, the most important part of the conflict is that it must compel the protagonist to take action. If the conflict or the antagonist isn't serious enough to force the protagonist to act, then nothing happens and you don't have a story. It is possible to have the protagonist refuse to engage with the conflict, only to be forced into it later. For example, take a detective story where the main character, a retired cop, refuses to look into an old case. The retired cop's former partner is murdered and the grief over his death drives the protagonist into investigating. Now that you're familiar with the three roles an introduction needs to fill, let's take a look at three different methods of writing an introduction: a prologue, Bildungsroman/a slow build, or in media res/in the middle of things. First, a prologue. A prologue is a short preamble before the main story where you introduce the situation and certain facts about the setting to the reader, facts that your protagonist may not discover until later in the novel. The disadvantage of the prologue is that you will probably need to continue the introduction within the main body of the story, since the prologue is usually not enough to introduce the reader to the protagonist and the main conflict in an interesting way. The advantage of a prologue is that you can show the reader vital facts about the story and obtaining those facts might be a central plot point for the main characters. One of the better examples of a good prologue I've read comes from the mystery novel Field of Prey by John Sanford. The novel revolves around Detective Lucas Davenport's efforts to find a pair of serial killers operating in rural Minnesota. The prologue introduces the two serial killers and shows how they stumble across their preferred method of capturing their victims. In terms of story structure, that means the reader immediately knows who the killers are, even though Davenport and the other detectives do not. The actual plot does not kick off until the first chapter, when a pair of teenagers accidentally discover where the serial killers have been hiding the bodies of their victims. But throughout the book, the reader's advance knowledge from the prologue adds an additional layer of tension to the story, especially when one of the investigators stumbles across the killers without realizing his mortal peril. Field of Prey had an effective prologue, but I have to admit, a prologue is my least favorite technique for an introduction. In the hands of a capable writer, a prologue works, but I've seen a lot of prologues used to dump information on the reader that the writer couldn't figure out how to reveal in the story or to introduce a character who doesn't turn up until 2/3 of the way through the book. If you do use a prologue, you will likely have to combine it with one of the other two introductory techniques we'll discuss during this podcast. That leads us to the second technique, Bildungsroman, which I think I pronounced correctly, but if I didn't, my apologies. The term Bildungsroman is a German word that means education novel and refers to a genre of fiction that revolves around the education and development of a young protagonist. Nowadays, in English, we tend to call these kind of books coming of age novels. As you might expect, books like this tend to be quite leisurely, following the protagonist from childhood to adulthood. I found that Bildungsroman is also a useful shorthand to describe a kind of introduction where the story slowly builds to the conflict. The Lord of the Rings is a good example of a story with a leisurely introduction to the conflict. Frodo doesn't learn that his uncle Bilbo's magic ring is in fact The One Ring until well into the story, and even more time passes before he leaves with the ring to keep it safe. For that matter, the central conflict isn't fully expressed, that the ring must be destroyed and Frodo is the one to do it, until well into the book. It can be tricky to hold the reader's interest during a long and leisurely introduction. A good way to keep the reader's interest is to introduce an element of mystery to a long introduction. In a fantasy novel, the protagonist might have a secret he has to keep from everyone. Perhaps he has magical abilities and is hiding them for fear of persecution, or he's secretly the heir to a deposed king and the current regime will kill him if they find him. A Study in Scarlet, the first Sherlock Holmes story, is a good example of a slow introduction, even though the entire book is relatively short. Doctor Watson needs a roommate to help cover his rent, so he moves in with the mysterious Sherlock Holmes. Holmes has many eccentricities, lending an air of mystery to him, and finally Watson learns that Holmes is consulting detective. The actual central conflict of the book (Holmes is brought in to solve a mysterious murder) does not take place until well into the story, but the mystery around Holmes himself helps hold the reader's interest. That leads to our third potential technique for starting a story, in media res. Now in media res is a Latin phrase that translates to “into the middle of things” in English and refers to the kind of introduction where you immediately thrust the reader into the plot without much in the way of build up. There are many different methods to do this, and in some ways, it is much easier to write than a slower introduction. In a fantasy novel, for example, the protagonist might wake up to find his village under attack by orcs. In a military science fiction novel, the book could start with the protagonist leading his platoon or squadron into battle against the space bugs. I have to admit, this story trope does seem quite common in military science fiction. A contemporary mystery novel could open with the detective standing over the murder victim and starting the investigation that will be the central conflict of the plot. A legal thriller might open in the middle of a high stakes trial, with the judge issuing a ruling that sets back the protagonist case and forces her to pursue a different strategy. The strength of starting the plot in media res is that you can immediately hook the reader with an action scene or some other kind of problem. It's easier to draw the reader's attention with a battle scene or some sort of dramatic sequence than it is with a slower introduction. You can then shift to the next phase of story structure and the conflict once you've gotten through the initial introduction. The weakness of starting in media res is that you're probably going to skip a lot of important information for the plot that you'll need to address later. To return to our previous examples, why are the orcs attacking the protagonist's village? Or why is the protagonist leading his platoon into battle against the space bugs? The danger is that you might be tempted to engage in massive info dumps later in the book, where characters state obvious things to each other that they already know, like for example, “as you know, Bob, we're both detectives engaged in a murder investigation.” Now people in real life generally do not talk that way, and using infodumps in dialogue or regular prose runs the risk of breaking the story's air of verisimilitude. The way to avoid info dumps is to use the release of new information as part of driving the plot. As always, the best way to do that is to keep an element of mystery in the story, allowing you to reveal information for maximum dramatic effect. To return to the example of the mystery novel that opens with the detective standing over the dead body, let's say that after the first few chapters, the detective's superior threatens to pull him off the case. There could be any number of reasons. Perhaps the detective botched a similar case, or the detective's partner was killed investigating the similar case, and the failure haunts our protagonist to this day or the murder has political implications and the detective superior is feeling pressure from his bosses to bury the case. Revealing this information as a complication in the plot rather than an infodump will improve the story. In our example of a fantasy novel where the protagonist's village is attacked by orcs and the villagers are taken captive, perhaps the human kingdom and the orcs have been at war for centuries. Perhaps the orcs were responding to a human attack, or maybe there is a traitor in the human kingdom who is working with the orcs. Either way, it is better for the protagonist to discover this during the plot rather than explaining it all in the introduction. Starting the story in media res is a great way to kick off the book, but it can be a challenge to not let things slacken after that. Retaining an element of mystery and, of course, complications for a protagonist to face, will keep things moving and interesting for the reader. As a final point, it is possible to open your book with a combination of prologue, Bildungsroman, and in media res, though you might want to wait until you have more experience writing novels before trying something complicated. The harsh advice of “keep it simple, stupid” applies to many areas of life and keeping things as simple as possible is often useful for writing novels as well. So, I hope you have found that helpful and that those techniques will be of use to you as you seek to start writing your own novels and short stories. So that is it for this week. Thank you all for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave a review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe and stay healthy and see you all next week.

Written Word Media published a deep dive piece about how to avoid an Amazon KDP termination or suspension. IngramSpark launched a new free tool for authors; is it any good? And, Barnes & Noble Press loads you up with their top tips for summer book marketing. All that and more in the self-publishing news. Book Award Pro - https://DaleLinks.com/BookAwardPro (affiliate link) Get my latest book at every major online retailer: - Self-Publishing for New Authors - https://DaleLinks.com/NewAuthors Subscribe to The Self-Publishing Hub - https://TheSelfPublishingHub.com Join Channel Memberships - https://DaleLinks.com/Memberships  Join Me on Discord - https://DaleLinks.com/Discord Check out my main YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@DaleLRoberts  Sources: Awards for Authors: Secrets from a Book Award Judge - https://bookawardpro.com/blog/secrets-from-a-book-award-judge/ Mastering Metadata: How to Avoid KDP Account Suspension - https://www.writtenwordmedia.com/how-to-avoid-kdp-account-suspension/  IngramSpark's Book-Building Tool - https://www.ingramspark.com/design-a-book Hot Summer Book Marketing Tips for Indie Authors - https://press.barnesandnoble.com/bnpress-blog/summer-book-marketing-tips-indie-authors/ Atticus: Customer Success Geek - https://www.atticus.io/join-our-team/ Reader Magnets and Growing Your Email List for Indie Author Success - https://selfpublishingadvice.org/podcast-reader-magnets/ PublishDrive - https://DaleLinks.com/PublishDrive (referral link) Selling Audiobooks: Production, Marketing, and Distribution - Q&A w/ Lindsay Senior @ Author's Republic - https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0kc--rrzguEtRiC-4Y-QCg6d1xiqLhcXFV#/registration Non Fiction Extravaganza July Part 2 - https://DaleLinks.com/VirtualFair Self Publishing for New Authors with Dale L. Roberts - https://youtu.be/Nsvu2Bth3Wg?si=Bxt7zAp_L6f6HGVo  Where noted, some outbound links financially benefit the channel through affiliate programs. I only endorse programs, products, or services I use and can stand confidently behind. These links do not affect your purchase price and greatly helps to building and growing this channel. Thanks in advance for understanding! - Dale L. Roberts

S.M. Sykes (Scott)Take a walk with me down Fascination Street as I get to know S.M. Sykes. Scott Sykes is an author in the young adult (YA) fiction genre. In this episode, we chat about what his career was before he started writing, and what led him to eventually start writing his first novel. After serving in the U.S. Navy, and settling down in Delaware, Scot got inspired to pick up the pen. In addition to his THREE novel series (The Blue Series), Scott has written tons of novellas and short stories. You better believe I ask him to explain the difference to me! We discuss several different writing forums including Medium, and NaNoWriMo, and even some of his social media strategies. The Blue Series consists of: Eyes of Blue, A Dim Blue, and Loss of Blue. Scott thought the series was done there, but the story won't be laid to rest! Expect more books in the series from this tireless indy writer. You can catch Scott at various writing & horror conventions around the country, and don't forget to check out his social media. He posts some pretty fun and inventive videos on Instagram & TikTok.

Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Alabama Short Stories Podcast! I'm your host, Shawn Wright. As always, it's a pleasure to have you with me. I want to take a moment to remind you about something you might already be familiar with: my books, "Alabama Short Stories, Volumes 1 and 2.""Volume 1" features stories from our first three seasons. It includes thirty tales about iconic statues, daring pilots, high school athletes, painters, and musicians. You'll also find intriguing stories about falling stars, aliens, and close encounters."Volume 2" continues with stories from seasons four to six. This collection includes another thirty stories about athletes and their fans, movie stars, and lives that have become movies. You'll meet beauty queens, devils, a Spider, and even the Beatles. These stories highlight builders, memorable moments, and extraordinary individuals who have helped shape Alabama into the state it is today.Both volumes are packed with photos to help bring these stories to life.If you've enjoyed the podcast, these books are perfect for you. They're also great for anyone interested in history – specifically Alabama's rich and diverse history and the American South. Growing up in Alabama, I had heard some of these stories, but during my research, I uncovered many more fascinating tales that I knew others would enjoy.You can get these books through online retailers like Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and Bookshop.org. If you own a bookstore and would like to stock these titles, you can find them through IngramSpark.If you prefer to listen, the stories are also available on Audible.com. However, these are the same stories you can enjoy for free on this podcast, just organized in book order. It's perfect for people who don't want to listen to individual stories on podcasts and prefer long-form audio.Thank you for your continued support of Alabama Short Stories. I hope you enjoy the books and find them to be a great addition to your collection. They also make fantastic gifts for those hard-to-buy-for family members. Take care, and happy reading!Purchase Volume 1AmazonBooks-A-Million Bookshop.org Purchase Volume 2AmazonBarnes & Noble Support the Show.Support the Podcast The podcast is free but it's not cheap. If you enjoy Alabama Short Stories, there are a few ways you can support us. Tell a friend about the podcast. Buy some merchandise from the Art Done Wright store at https://www.teepublic.com/user/wright-art Buy Volume 1 of the Book. https://a.co/d/9VhY9cO Buy the newly released Volume 2 of the Book. https://a.co/d/ef1yunC Want to support your local book store? You can do that by purchasing Volume 1 and Volume 2 through Bookshop.org, which gives back to local bookstores. You can listen to the podcast on the website or wherever you prefer to listen and subscribe to podcasts.

IngramSpark is launching a new book promotion package with a hefty price tag. Will the services be worthwhile? Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX) updated their sales report dashboard with some much-needed improvements. Is ACX still missing anything authors need beyond this update? And, the UK-based print on demand company Bookvault announced direct integration with the direct sales platform Payhip. All that and more in the self-publishing news! Book Award Pro - https://DaleLinks.com/BookAwardPro (affiliate link) Subscribe to The Self-Publishing Hub - https://TheSelfPublishingHub.com Join Channel Memberships - https://DaleLinks.com/Memberships  Join Me on Discord - https://DaleLinks.com/Discord  Check out my main YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@DaleLRoberts  Sources: Amazon Advertising - https://advertising.amazon.com/  Bookvault + Payhip Integration - https://bookvault.app/payhip/ ACX - https://www.acx.com/ Draft2Digital: Notification Regarding Weltbild - https://www.authoremail.com/email/campaigns/yd690y2ad6e9d/web-version/eq3389j0wvdc4 IngramSpark: Promote Your Book - https://www.ingramspark.com/title-discovery  IngramSpark Academy: Self-Publishing Essentials - https://www.ingramspark.com/book-metadata-course-description Spotify's New Basic Plan Strips Out Audiobooks - https://selfpublishingadvice.org/podcast-spotify-audiobook-plan/ How to analyze what book covers sell in your genre? - https://miblart.substack.com/p/how-to-analyze-what-book-covers-sell Streetlib: July and August Apple Promos - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd9wgHN_S8QYb6jyIq2suD6CbBw-WoKTOL_ApEHo9lrjVFYwQ/viewform PublishDrive - https://DaleLinks.com/PublishDrive (affiliate link) More Email Marketing Tips for Indie Authors - https://selfpublishingadvice.org/podcast-email-marketing-tips/ Book Brush presents: Level Up with the 5 Places You'll Make Money During a Kickstarter Campaign with Russell Nohelty - https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcsfu-hpjwtE9wZbalJOhDk8ovVeKUKEhLm#/registration Smashwords July Summer/Winter Sale - https://www.smashwords.com/shelves/promos/1/any/any  My Smashwords Profile - https://dalelinks.com/smashwords  Where noted, some outbound links financially benefit the channel through affiliate programs. I only endorse programs, products, or services I use and can stand confidently behind. These links do not affect your purchase price and greatly helps to building and growing this channel. Thanks in advance for understanding! - Dale L. Roberts

How can authors navigate the complexities of self-publishing to create a successful, high-quality book that stands out in the market?Unlock the secrets to self-publishing success with industry veteran Michele DeFilippo. Gain invaluable insights into maintaining creative control and maximising your revenues as Michelle shares her 50-year journey in book publishing. Learn why hiring experts for tasks like cover design and formatting is non-negotiable if you want to produce books that truly stand out. Michele's experience and passion for empowering authors will inspire you to take control of your publishing destiny.Navigating the complex world of traditional versus self-publishing, Michele outlines the challenges authors face with traditional publishers, such as the need for a large social media following and the sacrifice of creative control. In contrast, self-publishing offers more freedom but comes with its own set of hurdles. Michele stresses the importance of using professional services such as editing and proofreading to ensure your book meets market standards, and she clarifies Amazon's role as a platform rather than a publisher. This episode is packed with insights to help you make informed decisions about your publishing journey.Finally, get invaluable marketing advice tailored to self-published authors. Learn about the importance of using platforms like Amazon and IngramSpark for broad distribution and how to make your book stand out in a crowded marketplace. Explore two different marketing strategies: self-education through the resources available on our website, and professional guidance from trusted marketing experts. Learn about common pitfalls, such as the do-it-yourself mentality and reluctance to market, and get practical advice on how to overcome these obstacles. This episode is packed with insights to help you produce a quality book that will resonate with readers and stand the test of time.˚

Welcome to this episode of "Vicious Whispers with Mark Tullius," your source for horror, sci-fi, suspense, and all things violent. In this episode, Mark shares a unique tale from his collection, Morsels of Mayhem, which will be featured at the end of the episode. But first, he delves into his recent life events and mental health journey. Mark discusses his six-week follow-up with the Amen Clinics, detailing the transformative impact of their care on his mental and physical well-being. He shares his struggles with social media, balancing family life, and the pressures of his writing career. Despite these challenges, he finds joy in his passions, from playing guitar to practicing jiu-jitsu. He also talks about his various projects, including the development of Try Not to Die: In the UK with MJ Mars and the English version of the Abraxas series. Mark encourages listeners to support his work by requesting his books at libraries and bookstores, emphasizing the importance of spreading his and his co-authors' stories. On the business front, Mark has made strides in making his books more accessible through IngramSpark and offers discounts on paperbacks. He highlights the significant improvements in his mental health, attributing much of his progress to the Amen Clinic, HBOT, functional mushrooms, and cognitive behavioral therapy with his therapist. Finally, Mark leaves listeners with a gripping story from Morsels of Mayhem, titled "31 Others," a suspenseful and chilling tale set in a dystopian future. Tune in for an episode filled with personal insights, exciting projects, and a thrilling narrative.

Martin Oppenheimer has a new book out. It is entitled "The Rise And Fall Of The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee," published in April 2024. The book is an expert analysis of SNCC's history from its inception to now. With a deep understanding of protest movements in America, and his work as a Sociologist and Professor at Rutgers, Penn, and Lincoln University over the years, and his research and works on the State of Modern Society, he was able to provide an erudite analysis, combining history with reality. Recently, there have been several student protests on university campuses against the Israel-Palestinian War and the US support, calling for a ceasefire. Nevertheless, these actions are not as organized as they were in the 1960s and beyond, where student movements were institutional, strategic, and coordinated. Oppenheimer's new book makes this case by presenting his arguments using historical and sociological analysis in a novel and powerful way. Martin will be featured in The Neoliberal Round Podcast with host Renaldo McKenzie, talking about his new book in an upcoming episode to be released by the end of May 2024. Here is the Preface of his new book available at Ingram Spark, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and The Neoliberal Corporation Store, store.theneoliberal.com. The Preface: We were among the dozens of German-Jewish refugee families from Nazi Germany who ended up becoming chicken farmers in semi-rural South Jersey during the War. A school bus took me to a Middle School for my eighth grade. One day around Easter time, I heard a shout directed at me: “Christ killer.” Yes, the old libel from the Middle Ages from my neighbors' children while the war against the Nazi state was still underway. There were no Black people in the local town but one day the school bus stopped at a driveway leading to a large farm to pick up two Black kids maybe eight or nine years old. The white kids on the bus loudly erupted with the N word while the two Black kids hovered, frightened, in their seats. I got up and loudly over the noise said, “Why are you yelling at them, they've done nothing to you!” Some of the white kids then turned on me, calling me a “N-lover.” I had never heard that expression. I learned later in my college sociology class what I had done: I had “identified with the oppressed.” Sociology opened the door to learning more about both oppressors like the local kids on the bus and what they represented on a larger scale, and the oppressed, like the new kids and the millions who looked like them. I joined my University's National Association for the Advancement of Colored People club. In 1953, I was drafted into the tail-end of the Korean war and spent nine months stationed in Alabama. If you had eyes, you could see in the neighboring towns the realities of full-scale racial segregation, though as a Northern white soldier you should, for your safety, ignore it. A few years later, just as I was searching for a Ph.D. dissertation topic within the broad field of what was not yet called African-American studies, it dropped into my lap: The Sit-In Movement of “Negro” (not yet Black) students in the South had just begun. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.... Get a copy of the book and view the Preface at https://theneoliberal.com. Submitted by Prof. Renaldo C. McKenzie, Content Chief and Author of Neoliberalism book series. Martin Oppenheimer is the author of several books, including The State of Modern Society, and Contributing Author of Renaldo McKenzi's, "Neoliberal Globalization Reconsidered, Neo-Capitalism and The Death Of Nations," to be released in 2024. Martin Oppenheimer is also Dissertation Advisor and Mentor to Renaldo McKenzie. Support us at https://anchor.fm/theneoliberal.com Contact Renaldo McKenzie for audio book Narration at https://twitter.com/renaldomckenzie or emailing us at info@theneoliberal.com and renaldocmckenzie@gmail.com --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theneoliberal/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theneoliberal/support

The Alliance of Independent Authors reported a recent impersonation scam. Dibbly Create rolls out new token rates for Content Writer. And, IngramSpark is offering 99-cent shipping options till June 15, 2024. All that and more in the self-publishing news this week! Subscribe to The Self-Publishing Hub - https://TheSelfPublishingHub.com Join Channel Memberships - https://DaleLinks.com/Memberships Join Me on Discord - https://DaleLinks.com/Discord Check out my main YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@dalelroberts  Sources: ALLi - https://DaleLinks.com/ALLi (affiliate link) Alert: A Scammer is Impersonating the Alliance of Independent Authors - https://writerbeware.blog/2024/05/17/alert-a-scammer-is-impersonating-the-alliance-of-independent-authors/ IngramSpark - https://ingramspark.com - Use code SHIP99 till June 15th. Dibbly Create - https://dalelinks.com/dibblycreate (affiliate link) Book Power: Maximize your Ad Spend With Power Up Media - https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUlc-CprjMpH9yaL77Z15pLEPgBQyvQVvSI#/registration My email newsletter - https://DaleLinks.com/SignUp  Where noted, some outbound links financially benefit the channel through affiliate programs. I only endorse programs, products, or services I use and can stand confidently behind. These links do not affect your purchase price and greatly helps to building and growing this channel. Thanks in advance for understanding! - Dale L. Roberts

Episode 2: We're still covering the OG Six Figure Author Experiment: the launch of Russell's fantasy series, the Godsverse Chronicles. In this episode Russell updates us on his experience uploading four of his novels to book retailers. He and Lee discuss mindset and the fear that bubbles up on your author journey–fear of both failure and success. Fear is the mind killer but there are antidotes that don't involve riding a giant worm. Content warnings: discussion of depression, mental illness and suicidal ideation. * The busywork that's part of an indie author's life * “The Busy Mom” publishing option for authors who have no time* Boo to Ingram Spark, yay to PublishDrive and Draft to Digital  * Character-driven writing * How dysfunction in the mind is NORMAL * How to expand your comfort zone * How Russell caused the apocalypse* A useful approach to success or failure* “Every decision you make in writing is also a marketing decision” * The ideal number of books for a successful series * The advice Lee gave to a millionaire author * Russell's dog's happily ever after  * The #1 thing you can do to realize instant success Your Homework:* Make a list of things you're grateful for, especially regarding your books and your writing career so far. * Choose a book from your catalog and make a list of things that are holding that book back–the cover, the plot, the writing style, the audience and market you're targetingWe want to hear from you! Let us know how the homework goes and what was your favorite part of this episode. Resources: * Free Book Launch Checklist* The Secrets of Story: Innovative Tools for Perfecting Your Fiction and Captivating Readers by Matt Bird: https://amzn.to/4cuqC5P* Jim Butcher's Livejournal: https://jimbutcher.livejournal.com/969.html* An excellent resource for shifting your mindset and relieving anxiety: The Rapid Resolution Technique by Jon Connelly: https://www.rapidresolutiontherapy.com/* Author ecosystems: https://authorecosystem.com/overview/Gratitude StudiesWong Y J, et al. Does Gratitude Writing Improve the Mental Health of Psychotherapy Clients? Bartlett M, Condon P, et al. Gratitude: prompting behaviors that build relationships Yu H. Gao X, et al. Decomposing Gratitude: Representation and Integration of Cognitive Antecedents of Gratitude in the Brain Lúzie Fofonka Cunha, et al. Positive Psychology and Gratitude Interventions: A Randomized Clinical Trial Philip Watkins: Thieves of Thankfulness: Traits that inhibit gratitudePhilip Watkins: Grateful recounting enhances subjective well-being: The importance of grateful processingP. Kini, et al. The effects of gratitude expression on neural activityFor more, check out the excellent video “An Antidote to Dissatisfaction” by Kurzgesagt This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.sixfigureauthorexperiment.com

Curious about who offers the best royalties for self-publishing? Join us as we explore top platforms like Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), IngramSpark, and Draft2Digital. Discover which company offers the best deal for authors, whether you're publishing on Amazon, Apple Books, or other platforms like StreetLib and Lulu. 10 Best Places to Publish eBooks (2024) - https://youtu.be/bb6235uI4VY?si=t48EA0ELE7cbvyj8  The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) - https://DaleLinks.com/ALLi  (affiliate link) Mentioned services: Barnes & Noble Press - https://press.barnesandnoble.com/ Apple Books for Authors - https://authors.apple.com/ Google Play Books Partner Center - https://play.google.com/books/publish/u/0/ Kobo Writing Life - https://kobowritinglife.com/ Amazon KDP - https://kdp.amazon.com/ Smashwords - https://www.smashwords.com/ Gumroad - https://gumroad.com/ Lulu - https://lulu.com/ Payhip - https://payhip.com/ StoryOrigin - https://DaleLinks.com/StoryOrigin (affiliate link) Laterpress - https://laterpress.com/ Streetlib - https://www.streetlib.com/ XinXii - https://www.xinxii.com/ Draft2Digital - https://DaleLinks.com/D2D (referral link) PublishDrive - https://DaleLinks.com/PublishDrive (referral link) IngramSpark - https://ingramspark.com/. Use DALE2024 to waive one update fee in 2024. Bookvault - https://bookvault.app/ Use BVDALE to waive three upload fees. Blurb - https://blurb.com/   Subscribe to The Self-Publishing Hub - https://TheSelfPublishingHub.com  Join Channel Memberships - https://DaleLinks.com/Memberships Join Me on Discord - https://DaleLinks.com/Discord  Where noted, some outbound links financially benefit the channel through affiliate programs. I only endorse programs, products, or services I use and can stand confidently behind. These links do not affect your purchase price and greatly helps to building and growing this channel. Thanks in advance for understanding! - Dale L. Roberts

Continuing on with bringing authors to your ears, I was lucky enough to have Carolina Cardona aka TheTropicalEccentric, join me to talk about fandom and her work as an Author! We first kick things off with talk about Anime. Carolina talks about growing up in Puerto Rico and the anime that was shown there, and then her transition to living in New Orleans and her anime experiences there. We discuss some of the anime we both grew up on as kids, anime like Attack on Titan, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and what kind of anime she enjoys. We blend that conversation into a conversation about Japan as a whole. Carolina talks about her experiences in Japan, what draws her to visiting there, and why she thinks everyone should visit the country at least once. Then we get to talk about her work as an Author. Carolina talks about her writing and creative process, and we talk about her book, Andújar: The Robot Gentleman of San Juan. We talk about the plot and setting, and focus on the two main characters - Santos and Violeta, along with the historical backdrop that their story unfolds with. Violeta will surprise you! We also talk about some of her upcoming works in progress, and that Andújar will be translated/published in Spanish later this year! You can find Andújar: The Robot Gentleman of San Juan at Amazon, Kindle Unlimited, Barnes and Noble, and Ingram Spark. https://amzn.to/4aTlhUq You can find Carolina at: https://www.carolinacardona.com/ https://www.instagram.com/thetropicaleccentric/ https://www.threads.net/@thetropicaleccentric

Erik and Jeanne Anderson have been full-time RVing with their beloved “Hershey Pup” since hitting the road 2020. After their primary remote employment ended unexpectedly, Erik started writing RV related content and the couple did some workamping save on rent. Then they decided to publish a children's book based on Hershey Pup's RV adventures. Knowing nothing about self publishing at the time, they did extensive research and figured it out. They are now working on their second book in the series. And, they share their thoughts on the publishing process, working with editors and illustrators, marketing a book once it's launched, and what they'll do differently next time. They also discuss their best methods for finding remote writing gigs and workamping jobs. Spoiler alert: That boils down to direct outreach and relationship marketing. Learn More at www.HersheyPupAdventures.com GUEST BIO: Erik and his wife Jeanne have been living, remote-working, and traveling full-time around the U.S. and Canada in their mid-size Class A motorhome since July 2020. They love hiking, biking, kayaking, and adventuring with their beloved Cavalier King Charles spaniel, “Hershey Pup”. A well-traveled pup, Hershey has happily wagged his tail through all of the “Lower 48” U.S. states, 6 Canadian provinces, and 38 national parks to date. Erik enjoys contributing his writings to many RV-related magazines, blogs and social media groups. They have published their first children's book based on Hershey Pup's RV adventures. Connect With Erik: Facebook: erik.anderson.378 Instagram: erikvtmtb Facebook: Hershey Pup Adventures Instagram: hersheypupadventures RESOURCES MENTIONED Products: - K9 Sport Sack: https://amzn.to/3PyNgQF Publishing: - Kindle Direct Publishing: https://kdp.amazon.com/ - Ingram Spark: https://www.ingramspark.com/ - Fiverr: https://www.fiverr.com/ - Illustrator: https://kidsbookart.com/ - Be More Dog: htts://bemoredog.net Remote Work: - Indeed: https://indeed.com Workamping: - https://www.volunteer.gov/ - https://www.workamper.com/ - https://www.facebook.com/groups/weloveworkamping The RV Entrepreneur: - Mutliple Revenue Streams: https://therventrepreneur.com/multiple-revenue-streams/ - RVE #337 - Relationship Marketing: https://therventrepreneur.com/rve337/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE RV ENTREPRENEUR ⁠⁠https://therventrepreneur.com⁠ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Join the RVE community on Facebook! ⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/therventrepreneurcommunity⁠ Connect with RVE on all your favorite socials ⁠https://therventrepreneur.com/connect⁠⁠ Got questions or comments for our hosts? Leave us a voice message! ⁠⁠https://therventrepreneur.com/voicemail⁠⁠ (NOTE: Audio submitted may be published on the podcast unless specifically requested otherwise.) Got a great story or tips to share with RVE Listeners? Complete our Guest Intake Form: ⁠⁠https://therventrepreneur.com/guestform⁠ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/rve/message

The Kindlepreneur Dave Chesson released a new post highlighting the most search Amazon keywords and trends in 2024. IngramSpark has a WHOLE lot of news including a new publishing opportunity, a giveaway, a survey and more. Also, horror is seeing a HUGE boost in sales over the past couple years. All that and more in the self-publishing news! Subscribe to The Self-Publishing Hub - https://TheSelfPublishingHub.com  Join Channel Memberships - https://DaleLinks.com/Memberships Join Me on Discord - https://DaleLinks.com/Discord  Sources: IngramSpark - https://www.ingramspark.com. Use code: GIVEAWAY (promo ends May 5th) Lightning Source Sharjah - https://lp.ingramcontent.com/publishers/sharjah Nominate Your Book Today - https://www.ingramspark.com/editorial-calendar  IngramSpark Survey - https://www.ingramspark.com/sell-my-book-checklist-1?hs_preview=qxqQSwow-161643855391&utm_campaign=Ingram%20iD&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_uPVGdGWa8wAaagS5FQ9YeTVZ13T4WhQihSBAKU6gI11phTeAon1NpIfke-0wqcDtebCT51AIAdoGkETSbChVCxWfrdw&_hsmi=303467474&utm_content=303467474&utm_source=hs_email The Most Searched Amazon Keywords and Trends in 2024 - https://kindlepreneur.com/most-searched-amazon-keywords-trends-2024 Horror novel sales boomed during year of real-world anxieties - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/apr/04/horror-novel-sales-boomed-during-year-of-real-world-anxieties PublishDrive - https://DaleLinks.com/PublishDrive (referral link) Brave New Bookshelf - https://www.youtube.com/@BraveNewBookshelf Self-Publishing News: Fairly Trained Certifies First Ethical AI Platform - https://selfpublishingadvice.org/self-publishing-news-fairly-trained-certifies-ethical-ai/  What is BookTok: 4 TikTok Strategies for Authors - https://blog.bookbaby.com/how-to-promote-your-book/online-book-marketing/what-is-booktok How to Benefit From a Global Digital-First Book Publishing Strategy - https://streamyard.com/watch/2ssRKurFy9HF  Credit:  Laterpress - https://laterpress.com  Where noted, some outbound links financially benefit the channel through affiliate programs. I only endorse programs, products, or services I use and can stand confidently behind. These links do not affect your purchase price and greatly helps to building and growing this channel. Thanks in advance for understanding! - Dale L. Roberts

Introducing BookBaby.com—an alternative to KDP for your self publishing journey. Explore the world of BookBaby, its self-publishing services, costs, and reviews to make an informed decision. Uncover whether BookBaby is the right choice for your book and how it stacks up against KDP.  BookBaby - https://www.bookbaby.com/ ALLi Watchdog List - https://DaleLinks.com/Watchdog Publishing through BookBaby | Self-Publishing with Dale Behind the Scenes - https://youtu.be/YI6mXaaS070 Subscribe to The Self-Publishing Hub - https://TheSelfPublishingHub.com Join Channel Memberships - https://DaleLinks.com/Memberships Join Me on Discord - https://DaleLinks.com/Discord   Where noted, some outbound links financially benefit the channel through affiliate programs. I only endorse programs, products, or services I use and can stand confidently behind. These links do not affect your purchase price and greatly helps to building and growing this channel. Thanks in advance for understanding! - Dale L. Roberts ---  @BookBaby   @IngramSpark   @AmazonKDP 

Even though Amazon has been all the rage for book-buyers for much of the last twenty years, did you know there are many other outlets where readers can find your books? Well … of course you did! You're not just a writer, but a reader as well. If your life resembles mine, you probably buy books from Amazon all the time because of the price, speed, and convenience. But Amazon is only one of the many, many places where readers can find your books! My guest today, Susan Neal, is here to help us learn how to get our books into bookstores and libraries—two absolutely vital places our books need to be. Susan Neal, RN has a Masters in health science and an MBA. She lives her life with a passion to help others improve their health. After suffering a health crisis, she became an author and health coach to provide others with the tools they needed to heal their bodies and reclaim their ideal weight. Her award-winning #1 Amazon best-seller is 7 Steps to Get Off Sugar and Carbohydrates. The third book in her Healthy Living Series, The Healthy Living Journal, won the Golden Scrolls award “Best Inspirational Gift Book.” Her newest release is 12 Ways to Age Gracefully: How to Look and Feel Younger, which releases near the end of May. Susan has been featured in many media outlets including CTN's Bridges TV show, WATC-TV Atlanta Live and Friends & Neighbors, TCT's Julie and Friends, Charisma magazine, and numerous podcasts and radio shows. You can learn more about Susan at https://susanuneal.com. Susan is also the Director of the Christian Indie Publishing Association, an incredible resource for faith-based authors to grow your author platform, book sales, and much more. I'm a member myself and recommend it highly! Learn more about https://christianpublishers.net. In this conversation, Susan and I talk about several key topics related to getting your book into bookstores and libraries: Why get your book into those places when you can just Amazon? The importance of having your own imprint. Why you need to have the retail price printed on the back cover. Why your book should be available through a major distributor, not just IngramSpark. The value of speaking to a manager at local Barnes & Noble stores, or indie bookstores. Susan's thoughts on getting in libraries. * * * Today's episode is sponsored by Karen Hunsanger, an incredible editor known as “The Word Wizard.” I've worked with Karen many times, and she is your secret weapon for crafting the highest-quality book possible. Visit the link above for a free sample edit.

Victoria Strauss from Writer Beware shared a list of sites and services commonly impersonated, so you can watch out for these scams. PublishDrive has a number of ebook promotions rolling out in the coming weeks. And, I officially announced my presentation for the Authortube Writing Conference 2024 where I'll host a roundtable discussion about the future of self-publishing with some of the biggest names in the business including IngramSpark, Draft2Digital, Smashwords, Kobo Writing Life, PublishDrive, and BookVault with the potential of adding another platform to the list. All that and more in the self-publishing news for this week! Subscribe to The Self-Publishing Hub - https://TheSelfPublishingHub.com Join Channel Memberships - https://DaleLinks.com/Memberships Join Me on Discord - https://DaleLinks.com/Discord Check out my main YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@dalelroberts  News sources: The Impersonation List - https://writerbeware.blog/2024/03/15/the-impersonation-list/  KOBO Promo: Spring Reading Sale Alert! - https://community.streetlib.com/c/retail-promotions-hub/kobo-promo-spring-reading-sale-alert Live Editing with Tom Bromley | Reedsy Live - https://mailparrot.reedsy.com/subscriptions/new?list_id=1c30456135&utm_source=mailparrot_newsletter&utm_campaign=marketplace_htwan_live_editing_march_24&utm_medium=email Authortube Writing Conference - https://www.authortubewritingconference.com/ SPwD Podcast review - https://chartable.com/podcasts/selfpublishing-with-dale-l-roberts/reviews/b0TrB7QR  Where noted, some outbound links financially benefit the channel through affiliate programs. I only endorse programs, products, or services I use and can stand confidently behind. These links do not affect your purchase price and greatly helps to building and growing this channel. Thanks in advance for understanding! - Dale L. Roberts

Subscriber-only episodeEver faced technological setbacks that threw a wrench in your plans? That's exactly what happened with our podcast schedule, but like a phoenix rising, we've come back stronger, armed with a treasure trove of updates and gifts just for you. Get the behind-the-scenes look as I share the trials and triumphs of completing the audiobook for "Your Core Strength" and the meticulous dance of finalizing the book design, including the tricky spine measurement. But the real showstopper is Steve Kuhn's interior design, a masterpiece that perfectly captures the essence of a book meant to inspire young girls.This episode isn't just a journey through the creative process. It's also a strategic map to the upcoming release. I'm taking a new approach with preorders, navigating the waters of independent publishing through KDP and Ingram Spark to bring you physical copies with a cherry on top—preorder bonuses that will enrich your experience. Don't miss out on how to claim your free parents' guide, a heartfelt thank you from me to you, and a sneak peek into the invaluable resources that await anyone guiding young women towards their true potential.Receive my free monthly journal full of food, fitness, faith, fun & moreConnect with Amy: GracedHealth.comJoin the Graced Health community on Facebook! Instagram: @GracedHealthYouTube: @AmyConnellJoin GracedHealth+ for virtual community meetups and bonus episodesLeave a one-time tip of $5Check out my book Your Worthy Body and signature online class B.COMPLETE

Are you an aspiring author dreaming of self-publishing success and wondering how to navigate the publishing world without getting lost in the shuffle? We sit down with publishing guru Michele Defilippo, the mastermind behind 1106 Design and the author of "Published Like the Pros." With her treasure trove of industry knowledge she tells how to dodge predatory publishing practices, dissects the real costs of quality publishing and relays the truth behind bestseller lists. Listen in and learn why cutting out the middleman could be your ticket to financial freedom. It's your blueprint to write, publish, and thrive on your own terms.Plus, Michele's got a free gift for all our listeners! Don't miss this episode.Connect with Michele, Cathy, Merry, and the Late Boomers community through the links below, and remember to keep the conversation going!Michele DeFilippo Bio:Michele DeFilippo owns 1106 Design, a one-stop source that has helped over 4,000 authors produce traditional-publisher-quality books and distribute them without a publisher to earn more money. Special Offer:Authors can download Michele's free booklet, "Publish Like the Pros: A Brief Guide to Quality Self-Publishing", at https://1106design.comMichele's Email: MD@1106design.com1106 Design: www.1106design.comTwitter/ X Page: @1106DesignThank you for listening. Please check out @lateboomers on Instagram and our website lateboomers.biz. If you enjoyed this podcast and would like to watch it or listen to more of our episodes, you will find Late Boomers on your favorite podcast platform and on our new YouTube Late Boomers Podcast Channel. We hope we have inspired you and we look forward to your becoming a member of our Late Boomers family of subscribers. 

A few weeks ago, I had a fantastic conversation with Dr. Amy Divaraniya, CEO of Oova, a hormonal health testing company. We talked all about how very few women have regular 28-day cycles (only 13%, and maybe even closer to 5% according to Oova's latest data!) and what that means for those who are trying to conceive or who are hitting perimenopause.⁠⁠I love a good #femtech story where a woman brings a product to market to solve her own health issue. Congratulations to Dr. Amy for raising a whopping $ 10.3 million for their Series A. That's big money in femtech! ⁠Here's to taking our health into our hands, and I hope you enjoy the story! Listeners of Misseducated get 10% off Oova. Go to https://oova.life/misseducated and apply the promo code MISSOOVA10 when you checkout.Episode Transcript I apologize in advance for typos or misattribution of words. We'll gladly make any corrective updates that you identify. [Intro] [Dr. Amy Divaraniya] They say that if you have PCOS or irregular cycles, our data may not be reliable for you. And I was like, well, that's great because we know that 87 percent of women don't have a 28-day cycle. So, who are you trying to solve this problem for?[Tash Doherty] Hello everyone. And welcome back to Misseducated with me, your host, Tash Doherty. And today my guest is Dr. Amy Diverania, the founder and CEO of Oova. A personalized at-home test to help females understand their unique hormone profile. There's been a lot of talk of hormonal health in Femtech over the last couple of years, and Oova is leading the way in measuring LH, estrogen, and progesterone, three key hormones in the menstrual cycle.In 2023, Dr. Amy and her team raised a whopping $ 10.3 million Series A, which is big money in Femtech, so we're super excited to dive into all things hormonal health. So, Dr. Amy, welcome to Miseducated. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to talk to you today. You got your PhD from the Icahn School of Medicine in Mount Sinai in Genetics and Genomic Sciences.So what inspired you to get your PhD, and what did you discover in your thesis and your research?  [Dr. Amy Divaraniya] Before I did my Ph.D., I was actually working in the industry as a data scientist, and I've been really fortunate in my career to be surrounded by folks who are smarter than me and amazing mentors. I've never really disliked a boss; they've always pushed me.To be better and move forward. My director actually took me out to lunch one day and was like, Amy, he was so mad. Right. It's really weird to see your manager mad. And it's not directed towards you, but he's like, I want to give you a promotion, but I can't because you either need a PhD or ten years of experience.And at that point, I only had five years. So he was like, leave here. Go get your Ph.D., and then wherever you go, I'm coming, and I was like, all right, fine. Like, I'll invest in myself. Like, don't invest the time here invested in you and go and get your Ph.D., so I did, and I was really particular about where I wanted to go.Who I wanted to work with. I was kind of a groupie of my 2 Ph.D. advisors, who were at the time also leaders in the genomic space, very visionary, and I was always that person in the audience listening to the same talk over and over again, just inspired beyond belief. I wanted them to be my mentors, and they both accepted me.I got into the school. They agreed on my Ph.D. dissertation topic. We kind of hit the ground running from there. And believe it or not, my director that had advised me to do this actually came in as an investor in the company, too. So he did follow me, which is really exciting. But my Ph.D. work had nothing to do with what we're doing today.It was really looking at genetic networks and figuring out why women or not women, why people were developing certain diseases in the inflammatory. Like, why were you getting lupus over cardiovascular disease when they're so related? What's that trigger that says you're going to get this disease versus another?And we were able to actually model out various genetic networks by looking at different tissues and health records to validate everything, which is really cool. I had beautiful pictures throughout my dissertation. [Tash Doherty] Wow. So, you planned to go back to your industry job when you finished your PhD? [Dr. Amy Divaraniya] Well, yes and no, I wanted to go back to work. I wasn't really in this, like, I need to start my own company mentality at all, but I didn't really want to go back to big pharma because I felt like. Those companies are so big, and you have all these great ideas; you often get lost, and it takes so long for innovation to come to real life. At that point, it's not even innovative anymore.My plan was either to go into a biotech or startup and my PhD advisors were really well connected there. So they were like, what kind of company do you want to go into? And at that point, I was going through infertility myself. And I was experiencing the gaps in women's health and not understanding what my body was doing.And so what I unintentionally did was pitch Oova. I basically said, do you know any company that is monitoring hormones, helping women navigate various phases of life, and doing it in a nonblood form? And they both looked at me and were like, no, you need to build that. And I was like, okay, sure.They're like, I have an investor coming tomorrow, get a pitch deck together, and I'll put you in front of them. I was like, all right, fine. I happily walked back to my desk, Google, like a good student. What is a pitch deck? And I put together an 87-page deck to put in front of this investor. [Tash Doherty] 87-pages. That's quite extensive.I mean, I had just written a dissertation that was hundreds of pages long. So, 87 pages felt like nothing. He was very kind and tore that deck apart with so much grace and was like, you only need these seven slides, Amy. And I was like, Oh, okay. And that's really where it started. Wow. Well, I love the idea of having so many mentors that you can learn from, and he will just give you the honest truth.Like nobody needs that many pages. This is Silicon Valley. Like people do not have time to sit through hours and hours of research. So that's really amazing.[Tash Doherty] And so when you talk about your own experience with infertility, because you were trying to conceive like with your partner and was it like a question of like, Do you know anything about, you know, your unexplained infertility? Was it when you were cycling, or did you have PCOS or some other kind of like other condition that was affecting whether or not you could conceive? [Dr. Amy Divaraniya] Yeah. So, I've always had irregular cycles since my first period. It's always been a regular, and I've kind of tried everything like I was misdiagnosed with PCOS for multiple years.I was put on the hormone birth control, all of that to find out finally with like a sane OB that, okay, having an irregular period is just normal for you. So I kind of accepted that, and I let it go, but when it was time to start trying to conceive, I was doing everything right. I was using my fertility tracking apps.I was peeing on sticks. I was tracking every symptom like I was a data scientist by training. So like, give me data, and I will find that golden nugget. But there was no pattern to be found in this data. All I was learning was that I'm irregular, and it's so frustrating because my train ride to work every day was literally dissecting all my data.That's what I would do. Like, no one can sit on the seat. I have my stuff spread out. Like, this is my time to really dig in, and I couldn't find anything. The most frustrating part was when you were looking at the fine print of all these products. They say that if you have P. C. O. S. or irregular cycles, our data may not be reliable for you.And I was like, well, that's great because we know that 87 percent of women don't have a 28-day cycle. So, who are you trying to solve this problem for? And that's really where the light bulb started coming up. I don't know if I'm ovulating or not. I can't not be ovulating in the 18 months it took me to conceive.I have to be ovulating much more frequently than I am. And I just didn't have those answers. The breaking point for me was more so sitting on my bathroom floor. After getting another pregnancy test, it was four in the morning. I was bawling and crying, and I had my dad's magnifying glass in my hand, trying to find a double line on a pregnancy test, and I couldn't find it.And I was like, my Ph.D. work is so innovative, and I'm doing such crazy things, yet I'm sitting here with a 60-year-old magnifying glass, trying to figure out if I'm pregnant or not. It just didn't feel like real life. And there was such a broken piece of the puzzle that I wanted to fix. These are the kinds of stories that I love to feature on this podcast because it's amazing how we now have so many women in STEM, so many women, OBs, you know, women doing PhDs.There are nice, fancy things that we're all studying and researching. And yet, there's our lived experience of going to the doctor and trying to understand their own bodies. And we're so behind still on that. [Tash Doherty] I always get really excited and inspired when I'm like, okay, here's a person who is like STEM, literate, educated, and like enfranchised basically.Like when you have a Ph.D., or you're assigned as like, you can do all these things and study these things. So that's really great that, you know, unfortunately, you have to take one for the team and put your own body on the line for the greater good. [Dr. Amy Divaraniya] You bring up a really good point. Yes, there are a lot of women in STEM and making moves here, but it wasn't until I started this company that I actually felt like the only woman in a room.And I don't know if I was just oblivious to it, or I don't know what it was. Still, I didn't feel like I was actually treated like a woman until I started this company in an environment like a group setting; I felt like I was always treated like a person. And now I'm feeling like, oh my God, like I, everyone is looking at me like I am the only woman in a room because I am defending a woman's health issue for a woman's health company being run by women.[Tash Doherty] Yeah, it's crazy. I've had, um, Anna Lee as well from Lioness on the podcast, and she talks about like pitching sex toys to all male investor panels in Silicon Valley, and I'm like, oh wow, really respect for that girl. Yeah, to be a fly in the wall, right? Wow, and so did you end up discovering, you know, through your data and all your research, like, were you ovulating, or also it randomly, like, through your cycle?[Dr. Amy Divaraniya] So, no, I was ovulating every cycle, but the issue for me was that my luteinizing hormone search was just on the lower end. So when you look at these over-the-counter tests that are available, they're all threshold-based. So my LH just wasn't reaching their threshold. So, I was getting false negatives every month.So, literally, I was missing my window because the test wasn't reading it. [Tash Doherty] That's crazy. Yeah. I've also interviewed Dr. Amy from Proov, and I would love to get into a little bit of Proov as well because it's kind of a similar market. Still, parts of Oova's applications, but yeah, she was just talking again about how, like, even with COVID vaccines, it's like, they were only testing it on female bodies that were, like, not cycling.This is, again, of course, you're going to have outside effects on people who are cycling, which is the vast majority of people. Still, it's just like a really, a really difficult thing where I think, obviously, because so much of this medical history is like very patriarchal and like driven by men, it's like the added level of cycles is just too complicated, or women were assumed to be like too unintelligent, or we didn't have enough education to be able to figure out our cycles on our own.So it's kind of just this, You know, clusterfuck medical issues. And I think that's why it's really starting to unravel now. And we have a chance of getting really great gains in this generation of women and beyond, which is awesome. [Dr. Amy Divaraniya] Yeah, no, you bring up a great point. There are definitely those two aspects that you highlighted that women just aren't accepted to be able to handle this data and understand what's going on. But then you go to the other end of the spectrum, right? When your cycle stops. In science, there are very few things that you can say affect 100 percent of a population. Menopause is one. If a woman is to live to a certain age, 100 percent of those women will go through menopause. Yet we know nothing about it.It is a mystery. I don't understand that. Like, why do we not understand this transition that is inevitable and are able to guide women through that? I understand everyone's different and everyone's going to have different symptoms, but the fact that no one has, there's no holy grail. Like, if I experienced this, it could be X, Y, or Z. There's none of that. And after generations of women going through this. We still don't have any sort of answers there. I think it's completely a disservice to women. Totally. I think perimenopause is a huge area that we need a lot more advancements in.[Tash Doherty] And I think that's a great segue actually to some of the product questions that I was going to ask you about, and maybe we could give an example of a perimenopause user with Oova so far. So I think it's like digital urine tests; if I'm right, it's like the same test over and over again. So yeah, tell us a bit about the product and like how a woman who's experiencing perimenopause might want to use it.[Dr. Amy Divaraniya] Sure. So I'll explain the product a little bit so people understand what it looks like. I can show it to you, but, um, I can describe it for your listeners. It's a urine-based test, so every kit comes with 30 strips. There are 15 strips to measure luteinizing hormone and progesterone and 15 that measure estrogen.Each one of our cartridges has a QR code on it, so we know exactly what tests are measuring. You don't need to worry about, like, am I using LH or estrogen? Am I misrepresenting it? We work, we take care of all of it. But you basically provide a urine sample, and then you scan it with your phone. Very similar to how you would do a mobile deposit, right?You're not entering data in. We get the data directly from the test strip, and then we interpret it all for you and let you know exactly what your hormone levels are every day that you use a test. Now, for perimenopause, we expect you to use it for 15 consecutive days. So we can really understand what your hormone profile looks like.Oova's forte is not on a single time point measurement. We really value looking at the trend of your hormone over time. Because we're not robots. We don't stay stagnant. We have fluctuation. And you need to understand what that fluctuation is for every woman to really guide her. So what we're looking for on the perimenopause side is 1; how are the symptoms that you're experiencing relating to the hormone levels that you're having?Is there a hormonal imbalance there? Can we help navigate you by giving you lifestyle recommendations to alleviate those symptoms or not? And really, are you in perimenopause or not? We have so many women who are using our perimenopause kit right now, thinking they are. But when you look at the data, they're still cycling.It's just Irregular. And yeah, you could say that's a sign for perimenopause, but does that mean I've been in perimenopause for 20 years? No, it's just my norm. Right? So we're really trying to help navigate women through this transition because the biggest issue is that it's so unknown. And we just don't know what's going on.[Tash Doherty] Yeah. So they're basically maybe experiencing some symptoms, but then they're still cycling, but basically the, I don't know, the hormones are winding down or they're irregular. And so, yeah, that's just helping them to measure that. And so is that also something that you really focus on is not having a threshold for these different types of hormones, just saying like, this is your level.That doesn't mean you're over and above or below whatever; this is personalized to you as a kind of hormone package, in a way. [Dr. Amy Divaraniya] That's exactly it. So, we don't have a threshold on our test at all. You're getting an actual level of all your hormones every day. We really focus on understanding every woman's unique hormone baseline.So I get this question all the time. I understand these are my levels, but what's normal? And my answer is always, well, whatever is normal for you, like that 20-day cycle, which is not normal. We're not striving for that anymore. We're not 19, 18, 20, trying to get pregnant anymore. If that was great from the previous generation for us, now we're in our late 20s and early 30s, trying to get pregnant, and we're not following a 28-day cycle.For the most part. So, how do we really embrace your uniqueness and understand what's happening in your body? So our answer is always like, it may be normal for you. Let's look at your historical data. And then we help women educate themselves on what their body is actually saying. Yeah, and I think that's just so powerful, like, because there's so much, as you've talked about in your experience, like even my experience getting birth control, whatever, and like having painful periods, there's so much shame that is built into like, what is the normal female body doing?[Tash Doherty] And I just love that, you know, with personalized products like yours, you can just understand and be kind of proud and be like, yeah, I'm irregular and like, this is what happens to me. And like, this is how I deal with it. Or, you know, and then have more personalized, you know, recommendations around like health or nutrition or whatever it is.Cause you guys have quite a holistic look at the fertility windows and things there. Um, yeah, so that's pretty, pretty crazy. Less shame, less guilt for being a female. Yeah, absolutely. And what I love as well about the product is that, like, you can just tell from the, from how it's made that, like, you don't even have to input any data.You just scan the QR code. Like, that's kind of cool. I don't know if you can go into the details, but I like how that actually works. [Dr. Amy Divaraniya] Yeah, sure. I'll be honest with you. We had the QR code way before COVID. So when we were thinking about the product learning curve, I was like, people are going to not know how to use the QR code. Well, thank you. COVID everything. Everyone knows what these things are now, and it's not a learning curve anymore, but we basically print a QR code on every cartridge. And we know it's embedded with a lot of data. It's not just there for. Positioning. It actually has data in it that we use internally to help interpret your results.The test strip that's inside of that cartridge, it's designed to quantitatively measure your hormones. So, the intensities of the lines actually vary based on how much hormone is present in your sample. But I don't want a woman interpreting that by eye. So when she scans her test strip, not only do we understand what hormones she's testing, plus all of the backend information that we need.But we're able to use our AI and image processing to really fine tune and get to two levels, two decimal places of accuracy in our hormone levels on a daily basis. So there's a lot of going on in that test strip. It's not just meant for you to visually interpret it. Wow. Yeah, that's kind of exactly what we need, though, is that there's the variations of levels, obviously the different types of hormones, but yeah, just having that level of accuracy is super important.[Tash Doherty] And I mean, I'm also. I've studied a lot of statistics around birth control and stuff. And it's just like, if you're using something over a long period of time, it's like, we just want to remove human error and also make the user experience easier. That's super awesome. And maybe you can then tell us a little bit about the other daily action plan or like tips and recommendations that you include in the app experience. So, for nutritional, emotional, and physical health. Like what does that look like when you're in Oova? [Dr. Amy Divaraniya] Yeah. When you're going through any of these transitions, whether it's trying to get pregnant or going through debating if you're in perimenopause or not, you're already stressed out, right? Like there's some level of stress that is pushing you to buy this product to get some answers. So we're not trying to layer on more work for you or add more to your checklist of things to do every day. But what we are trying to do is, as we're seeing your hormone patterns and understanding what's going on with your body, there are some lifestyle changes that you can implement to reduce some of the discomfort that you're experiencing. So we will try to give it to you in bite-sized pieces. For example, let's look at PCOS, which is a very common and one of the most common diagnoses that we have in our platform. If you notice that you are showing signs of PCOS because your hormones look a little unbalanced.We're going to start implementing physical activity that is very lightweight. So giving you tips like, let's go for a 10-minute walk after a meal today, right? Or let's stand after eating our meal today for 5 minutes before we become sedentary because you want your insulin to be working; you need it to be like digesting your food properly.So we start giving you these little habits. That will actually have a long-term impact rather than, say, you need to exercise after every meal. That's not going to happen. So we're really just trying to embrace healthy living and long-term healthy living. Right. [Tash Doherty] And do you see any other use cases for Oova, apart from trying to conceive and perimenopause in the future? We can go more into the future unless it can translate in the conversation to more like the business model stuff as well. So, yeah, what are you thinking for more use cases? [Dr. Amy Divaraniya] So women aren't just like baby-making machines, right? Like our bodies are designed to have babies. Yes, but we go through so many transitions from our first period to the last, and it's all driven by hormones. So yes, Oova started with fertility. Yes, we moved into perimenopause, but we're really trying to scale across all the different sectors of a woman's life.Using the hormones that we have plus additional ones that we're thinking of adding as well. My goal as a company is to ensure that we're providing women and people in general just all the information they need so they can navigate every transition with information and not Google articles. Right. I want to be able to empower a woman to advocate for her own health and have that two-way conversation with her doctor, which kind of moves into our business model, but that's kind of the long-term plan of Oova, helping women navigate through every phase of life. [Tash Doherty] Totally. And we want more data, and we need more data in order to do that. So yeah, part of your business model, in addition to the kits and stuff that you have, is a membership. So, I didn't look too much into this, but I would love to know what the membership consists of. [Dr. Amy Divaraniya] Yeah. So it's kind of funny. What we ended up doing was we just had our one-time order and a subscription model for the longest time. And we always offered these free consults with our team. If you ever have any questions, feel free to reach out. It was always a console with either our support team or me, but it was a face-to-face Zoom call. Um, and the questions that we got were pretty similar. Can you just talk me through my data?Like, I understand everything that's happened, but I just need someone to verbalize it for me. So I was like, this is we're onto something because people are using this. Let's embed that into the product because it is so useful and it's such a distinguishing aspect of what we can offer. Since we have actual data, not just a bunch of yeses and nays or smiley faces like we have actual numbers to talk about.So, with our membership model, what we did was we embedded these consultations that are available to all of our members monthly. We also have events that are. Secure for our members to be able to talk to clinicians in our network about their own data. It's a really safe forum. So, of course, we're always HIPAA compliant, but oftentimes, you don't want to go to your regular doctor to ask certain questions.So, we offer these events where a patient can log in with one of our providers, and the provider can view their data once a patient gives them access and answer any specific questions they want. We also have office hours with these clinicians. So, if they want to talk to them one-on-one, don't feel comfortable in a group setting.That's always available too. It's so clear that women are hungry for this information, and they're just not able to get it elsewhere. So if we're able to provide that trusted circle for them, it's an honor to be able to do that. [Tash Doherty] Totally. And super cool. And so through your experience, like building the product, like scaling, um, exploring all these different use cases, uh, what are some interesting features or insights that surprised you as you were going through the process?[Dr. Amy Divaraniya]  Are you talking about building or just like after the product kind of got out there?[Tash Doherty] Um, let's do building and then one example of, like, an insight from users as well. [Dr. Amy Divaraniya] Okay, so building, I think, it was an assumption for me. So, like, my husband always makes fun of me when I'm like, I think we want to add this feature in here like, how do you know people want this?I'm like, well, I want it. And I'm assuming 10 other women want it. So I'm going to go with it. And so far, it's been right. So, one thing that I had a hunch about was. People are going to want to compare their data to normal, whatever is normal. So, we added this feature in our report where you can overlay a typical 28-day cycle on top of your own.But then all the messaging that's associated with that is that it's okay. You're different from this, but this is why, and it's okay, right? So, really trying to embrace the fact that you're not normal. You're normal for you. And I was floored by how many women appreciated that because they felt like they were spiraling and not knowing what was wrong.Yeah, and there's so many, like, undiagnosed people, even yourself, being misdiagnosed, and it's just like, without any understanding. I mean, the baselines are helpful. Um, but I think it's also the fact that we're not treating women, especially in the ways that you provide people with recommendations and stuff for their health.[Tash Doherty] It's like, you're not treating them as, you know, different or like, You're just saying this is, you're actually personalizing the experience more. [Dr. Amy Divaraniya]  Yeah, but it is a fine balance. [Tash Doherty] And then what was something that surprised you about either the data or something else that was interesting?[Dr. Amy Divaraniya] Well, I'll share two things. So one is we're so heavy on the data side and being sure that we're clear on research and backing all of our claims with doing the studies that we need to, um, there was a study that came out a couple of years ago saying that only 13 percent of women have a 28-day cycle. And I was like, let's, let's test that out.How many women on our platform actually have a 28-day cycle? We found it was 5%. [Tash Doherty] Oh my gosh. [Dr. Amy Divaraniya] And yet, everything is designed for a 28-day cycle. [Tash Doherty] Yeah. Well, it's also probably because, like, my grandmother, she's, like, 86, but she took part in the first nurses' health study, which was, again, only tested on, like, white women who were nurses in the 50s and 60s.So, you know, whatever data set they were working with is probably, like, 100 years old, and was only testing, like, women in Indiana who were white Christian churchgoers or something under the age of 30, like. [Dr. Amy Divaraniya] Yeah. So it's, it was amazing as we published that last year, and that's gotten a lot of traction, but then the, so I'm like, glad that we're starting to like myth bust some of the assumptions that we have about women's health and we're doing it with data.But the 2nd thing that really surprised me, I know women want this information. I didn't know how badly. So when we launched our perimenopause product or our 3 hormone tests, I should say, in December of last year, we obviously had projections. We were prepared for whatever we wanted. We sold out of 15 weeks of inventory in 2 weeks.[Tash Doherty] Oh, my God. That's crazy. [Dr. Amy Divaraniya]  And I was just like, what do we do now? Like this is a great problem, but it's not like it just really opened up my eyes to how badly women want this. Yeah. And we're solving a true need here. Yeah. I'm excited. There are other players that are really starting to navigate this.[Tash Doherty] I've had a lot of other friends on here as well. Kristina from Kegg Tech is one of my best friends, um, in the fertility tracking space, and the same thing. It's like HSA approved suddenly, you know, all the stocks are gone, and you've got to order. But they have physical devices. So it's like, you have to have a six-month delay or something. And it's incredibly difficult. So, yeah, it's, uh, I'm, I'm glad it's like people, it's more accessible and yeah, better ramp up production because now that we, as Cindy Gallop also says, there's a lot of money that you can make from like believing women. So, as soon as you make a product that people are willing to use, it's incredible in that sense. And so, in June of 2023, you raised 10. 3 million to Series A. Congratulations. That is huge. So, what was your fundraising journey like? [Dr. Amy Divaraniya] It was very interesting. Like I told you earlier, I've never felt like the only woman in a room. The first time, I felt that wasn't always fundraising, not specifically in this round, but just in general. I mean, the world is very different today than it was a year ago than it was a year before that. So it was a very unique experience of fundraising like the markets are crashing and whatnot. But what I had done.I'm a big believer because I'm a first-time founder. Let's caveat everything with that. So I don't have a network of investors to tap into, Hey, guys, I have this new effort. Believe in me, put money in. Like, I don't have that. So, um, what I've always been really adamant about is.Build a relationship with these people before you ask for money because. You never know. And what people are innately always willing to do is offer help and advice. If you're open to it. So I've always done that. So, when I closed my seed round, I actually started talking to Series A investors right away. The next day, I didn't even give myself a moment to celebrate that I closed my seed.[Tash Doherty] I feel like you at least have a moment to celebrate, like just an inch. [Dr. Amy Divaraniya] It was just, it was more of a breath of fresh air. It's like, all right, now what's next? Right. Um, but in that year and a half between our seed or whatever the time limit amount was, I spent so much time speaking with Series A investors and building relationships. So when it came time for our A. We were preempted, and then people jumped on very quickly, so it still took us time to close. But I had already built that trust with a lot of investors where we were able to bring in some amazing funds, and I'm just really proud of what we were able to build. Such a like, truncated amount of time.[Tash Doherty] Yeah, that's huge. And also, it seems like you're quite well connected because you're, like, living in New York, right? [Dr. Amy Divaraniya] The company's based in New York. I live in Connecticut, which is about 30 minutes north of New York City. But I think it's not so much about where you are physically. It's more so about being open to feedback, questions, and help. Because I've always been able to accept that. And I'm always hungry for it. And I feel like you can only grow when you surround yourself with folks that are smarter than you and more established and know things that you just haven't experienced before. Um, and I think that's really attractive to some of these people that just genuinely want to help founders. [Tash Doherty] Yeah, totally. That's actually something that I wrote down in my own journals recently. I'm doing all my own social media and platform building as an author as well. I had watched a talk about self publishing like over a year ago and then forgot about it. I didn't implement any action items from the talk. And then obviously the woman, I watched it again last week, and then she's like, yeah, you gotta go with like Ingram Spark. And I had gone with a different self-publishing platform, so I was like, oh man, if I had just actually taken these people's advice, you know, and again, it's a tricky balance because you wanna, you know, you have your own view of the product, right?Like you have the features that you wanna build that you think, uh, the user's gonna need. But then, when it comes to stuff that you have no idea about, or I'm seeing myself when I don't know something. That's exactly what I need: just take the best advice that I can and then keep going with my own vision and my own thing that I'm working on.Yeah, it's definitely an art, right? Like the advice is always out there. [Dr. Amy Divaraniya] And the thing that I've also learned is that people have so many ideas. It's all about the execution. So when you take a piece of advice, it is an idea. Now you have to go and execute on it, which is the hard part. So, if you do your diligence on all the ideas and advice that you're getting, you'll have a solid path forward.But if you're closed off to that great resource, you're only going to be moving forward with what you think is best. And that may not be necessarily the most important choice. [Tash Doherty] Right, exactly that. And also, I'm somebody who's struggled to ask for help for various reasons, you know, depending on your upbringing and how you've managed to survive as a woman in the world thus far. I mean, being a trailblazer and doing your own thing as much as possible. It's like sometimes you're trained not to ask for help. So that's a good skill we can all implement in 2024. Yes, let's finish with a couple of more personal questions as we're wrapping up today. Um, if you were going to do a PhD again today, what would you do it in?[Dr. Amy Divaraniya] I would probably do something in education but tailor it a little bit. Um, if I could start another company, it would be focused on redefining what sexual wellness means when you're learning about sex and sex ed. Like I want to redefine that entire program across the world. We should not be teaching girls that their period is something to be ashamed of.They need to understand what the biology of this is and why you're having a period. It is not true that if you have sex, you're going to get pregnant. That is absolutely not the case. And I'm living proof of that. What we do need to understand is why you have a cycle, that there are certain days that you can get pregnant, and what that means.Yes. Like you, you can make the argument that when the kid's minds aren't developed yet, they won't understand those nuances. That is feeding into that entire scope of women not needing or being able to handle data about their bodies. It's just not true. I gave my nine-month-old a phone, an iPhone. He grabbed my phone.He knew how to swipe. Yeah. Like, they know way more and are much more capable of handling information and knowledge than we give everyone credit for. And I'd want to redo what the entire program looks like. [Tash Doherty] Yeah, and I think an aspect of that is that, like, you know, it's kind of like when you're in that awkward puberty phase where you're like, am I going to sit at the adult's table or the kid's table at Thanksgiving?Um, but the reality is that we treat young girls, you know, like children; they're already fertile and have been cycling since I was like 11 when I got my period. So, I probably should feel equipped, empowered, and enfranchised with the data that I can understand about my body.So yeah, it's a very, it's a very strange, again I think that's like a patriarchal thing where it's like the infantilization of women, um, because that's what, you know, in our society people have historically found attractive. So changing that sounds like a great thing to do. And what are some other areas of research or women's health questions that you think people who are interested in STEM should be answering or trying to answer?[Dr. Amy Divaraniya] I would hope that anyone that's addressing any women's health issue is looking at objective data. I think a lot of the, like, conclusions that have been made or assumptions that have been made about women's health are based off of subjective things. Like, if you look at period tracking apps, it's all subjective data.We're one of the first actually to bring objectivity to those symptoms. I mean, I have years of data and all these apps, but if I look at it, there really aren't many patterns there that I can draw conclusions from. Now, when I look at my three years of data, that's powerful. Cause I'm seeing what the hormone trends were.I'm seeing the days that I was super stressed and that my cycle was completely off. And there are explanations that I can draw from looking at actual objective data. So, there are so many areas that are exciting right now. Like, I think menopause is having its moment finally, like, man, I guess women have started going through menopause, right?It's finally having its moment. There are companies that are looking at the microbiome, the vaginal microbiome. I think that's fantastic too. Like, let's understand what cervical mucus is and really get to the bottom of why you're having that and other issues there; Priyanka Jain (at Evvy) is wonderful. Like, I love the way that they're approaching the vaginal microbiome, they're really normalizing this as a body part, and it's not something to be ashamed of, like. There's a purpose to having a vagina, and we shouldn't be shy about that. Um, so I'm really excited about some of the innovation that's happening and the way the conversation is shifting.[Tash Doherty] Yes, exactly. And if you had any career advice for women interested in STEM and startups today, what would you tell them? [Dr. Amy Divaraniya] The number one thing that has helped me get to where I am today is always asking questions. And I think when you do a Ph.D., you're kind of trained to ask questions, but I was doing it before I even did a Ph.D. because the more questions that you ask, the more doors that are open.So if I'm talking to an investor about something, and I know this person isn't going to invest in us. We're not in there like round size or whatever, but they're going to know at least five other people that would be good fits for me. And that's how you build your network. And that's how you grow because you're going to have five more conversations that have so many more legs.And I've always been open to that across every aspect of my life. And it's never hurt me. It's only kind of paying it forward in a way by always having a network to tap into. [Tash Doherty] Well, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Great advice all around. And, uh, speaking of these kinds of questions, what do you wish that I had asked you, or what should I have asked you in this interview?[Dr. Amy Divaraniya] You asked really good questions. But I think the one thing would be, what is a big gap that I'm seeing in this space? Right now. Yeah. I think we asked what areas we could; it was exciting, but we didn't really see what the big oversight was. I think there are a lot of players in the fem tech or women's health side, but people enrolled, like going off to the same investors, we're all like trying to show growth and things like that.But I would hope that, especially when you're a female founder, that's like the companies that are really in the space, like all the female-founded ones, you know how you would want to get marketed to. And what information you would need to make, like, to be convinced to make this purchase. I would hope that companies just stay true to that and not do false advertising or bend the truth. Like, let's be honest and clear with our potential customers about what we're actually putting out there because I think we're just creating more noise and hurting our community so much by playing the marketing game. This should not be a marketing game. It should be providing value to a community that is desperately in need of it.[Tash Doherty]  Yeah, totally. I mean, that's if they can get their ads published at all, you know, with the Facebook and Instagram ads, you know, like the banana penis can go on the subway in New York. But, uh, and then, I think her name is Alex, but anyway, yeah, the Dame had this huge thing about that as well.Amazing and fascinating. Such a bummer because then you can't, even even if you raise a million dollars, it's like, well, if you can't advertise like you don't get any of that growth,[Dr. Amy Divaraniya] But we're still held to the same metrics that men are, right? [Tash Doherty]  So anyway, Dr. Amy, this has been an incredible conversation. I am so grateful that you could come and chat with us today, and yeah, best of luck with Oova and all of the great things in store for 2024.[Dr. Amy Divaraniya] Thank you so much. It's wonderful to speak with you. [Outro] [Tash Doherty] Thank you so much for joining us for another episode of Miseducated. If you'd like a special discount on Oova, I'm super excited to be able to share this promo code with you. You can go to Oova dot life slash miseducated, which is It's O O V A dot L I F E slash M I S S E D U C A T E D. And the discount code is, all caps, MissOova10, which is M I S S O O V A 1 0. Lots of love, everyone. Stay safe out there, and I hope that you'll join us for another episode of Miseducated again soon.Bye! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit misseducated.substack.com/subscribe

I am sharing this special bonus episode with you today because my novel, Handmade Murder, is available. Hooray! You have no idea how much excitement and anxiety I have living inside me right now as I type those words. I wanted to create a mini bonus episode for our podcast listeners so they could be the first to know. :) And I'm sharing all the details and links I have, as well as reading Chapter 1 in the episode. Purchase your copy on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3QvgfWs or Ingram Spark: https://www.ingramspark.com/