Podcasts about shaundra

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Play Episode Listen Later Jul 12, 2022 25:28

We are joined by Shaundra from Crave Beauty Lab at the end of the show talking about how you can get a sweet discount by saying Play 107 or our names at the door when you go in for any service!

Meet Shaundra Wood: Math Speaks...

STEMming in Stilettos with Dr. Toshia

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 19, 2022 35:42

Episode SummaryShe was introduced to math at age five and was hooked since then. She had amazing math teachers throughout her academic career. She wanted to be an engineer when she went to college. She struggled in calculus courses and with some of the engineering courses. She switched majors to mathematics. She learned how to study and how to be a student in college. She has used that experience and her love of math to influence students everywhere. Math Speaks, Inc. is her organization Math Speaks is a national non-profit organization that engages, empowers, and exposes middle school students of color from economically disadvantaged communities to STEM experiences and careers through the exploration of math topics. Through their culturally responsive after-school and professional development programs, we empower the next generation of innovators and leaders to change the world.Shuandra Woods BioShe is an 11- year experienced teacher with a demonstrated history of working in the education industry. I am Skilled in Staff Development, Educational Leadership, Teaching, Lesson Planning, and Curriculum Development. Strong education professional with a Bachelor of Science - BS focused in Computational and Applied Mathematics / Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is currently pursuing an Educational Doctorate in Math Education.Website: https://www.mathspeaksdc.orgLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaundranetta-wood/ Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched! Start for FREEDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/stemminginstilettos)

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March 16 2022: Feeling Old, Movie Lengths & What You're A Sucker For

City Place Church Audio Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 16, 2022 23:13

We are joined by Shaundra the owner of Crave Beauty and Wellness Lab at the end of the podcast. Listen to how you can get 15% off services!!! It's a sign that you need to go for a facial, honeyyyyy Listen weekdays from 5:30am – 10am

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Ready for More - Week 3 - Ready, Set, Go - February 20, 2022 - Shaundra Connelly

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 27, 2022 33:56

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Season 2 Episode 6: Period Jr. feat. Shaundra

Live From The Green Box

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 3, 2022 84:10

On this episode we get into the most random topics including a murder at our alma mater, lil Nas X vs. Boosie and everything in between. Shaundra, our good friend, decided to chop it up on The Green Box with us today. Enjoy! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/livefromthegreenbox/support

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44 - Knowing Your LAUNCH NUMBERS with Shaundra Howard

OMGrowth!

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 2, 2022 15:54

Launching is hard and stressful enough, but when you know your numbers, it can relieve a lot of the pressure and overwhelm. This is my conversation with Shaundra Howard as to what you should focus on when launching your digital product or service, and which conversion rates you want to know in order to improve your next launch results. You can reach Shaundra on instagram @shaundrahow or get her launch guide at shaundrahoward.com/launchguide

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44 - Knowing Your LAUNCH NUMBERS with Shaundra Howard

OMGrowth!

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 2, 2022 15:54

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Jan 10 2022: Lisa's Solo Show

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 10, 2022 7:23

Ryder will be back tomorrow morning! We are also joined by Shaundra from Crave Beauty & Wellness Lab to chat about their latest membership program and your chance to win a trip to Vegas! Listen weekdays from 5:30am – 10am

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Nov 29 2021: The Cyber Monday Bad Online Purchases Episode

Local Leaders Podcast with Jeff Z Johnson

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 29, 2021 13:41

We also chat with Shaundra from Crave Beauty & Wellness Lab on today's show! Enjoy. Listen weekdays from 5:30 – 10am

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Shaundra Hosier: Breaking the Mold in the Automotive Repair Industry

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 25, 2021 34:11

Today I had the pleasure of talking with Shaundra Hosier, owner of Complete Auto Repair in Lakeland, CO. In this episode, Shaundra discusses restorations with Dad, taking over the family business, overcoming stereotypes and much more … Enjoy! Check their website out -- https://local.firestonecompleteautocare.com/colorado/lakewood/575-s-vance-st/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=localmaps&lw_cmp=oloc_google_localmaps_maps Don't forget to subscribe if you enjoyed the show! Connect on LinkedIn -- www.linkedin.com/in/thesaleshead Follow me on Instagram -- https://www.instagram.com/thesaleshead/

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Wisdom for When the World is Closing In

Reflecting Light with April Rodgers

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 21, 2021 28:12

Are you feeling closed-in or claustrophobic, trying desperately to get out of a dark place? Or perhaps your marriage is broken and you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel. Before you give up hope, allow the wisdom of someone who has been where you are to enlighten you. April Rodgers welcomes Keith Rushing to discuss how we can thrive in our everyday lives, no matter if things are going well or if we find ourselves in a broken place. There is hope at every turn! Below are some of our favorite takeaways from today's show: ⭐️ When situations in life make us feel closed in, we can go to Scripture and know with certainty that God will bring us out of the darkness. ⭐️ From a male perspective, to love your wife as Christ loves the church requires a humble spirit, but it's the only way to have a lasting marriage. ⭐️ There is hope if you are in a broken marriage. First dive into God's Word and then seek counsel from a mature believer in Christ. ⭐️ Your relationship with your spouse will never be what it can be until your relationship with Jesus is what it ought to be. ⭐️The Bible is tried and true and can get us through every season of life. Ask Him for a supernatural love for it and He will be faithful to give it to you. About Our Guest: Keith Rushing is a self-proclaimed Jack of all trades, yet he is well-known in his community as a philanthropist, actor, filmmaker, and family man. Keith has been married to his wife, Shaundra, for 43 years and they have been instrumental in world of marriage ministry. They now have 3 grown children and 5 grandchildren. Please take a moment to subscribe and leave us a review!

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#19 Wine Glasses & Easter Eggs w/ Shaundra Kiser

#NoBibsBurpsBottles: The Stories of Childfree African American Women

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 5, 2021 46:43

Mrs. Shaundra Kiser currently resides in Texas with her husband. She is a high school counselor and recently won Counselor of the Year 2019- 2020. Shaundra is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio where she recieved a BA in Antrhopology, Sociology, and Black World Studies. She is also a graduate of an HBCU, Prairie View A & M University and received her Masters in School Counseling. Shaundra is an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., an entrepreneur of esssential oils, Young Living Company, and a Christian woman. In this episode, Shaundra shares her experience of being a stepmother, the support she receives from her parents, her relationship with her mommie friends, and how she found love again. If you have enjoyed listening to this podcast episode, please let us know on our social media handles below. We would love to hear your thoughts! Please SHARE this podcast with others and please do not forget to SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW. Thank you in advance for listening and for your continued support. Let's Be Social!!! Instagram: nobibsburpsbottles (Please follow our page as we are trying to grow our Instagram community!) Youtube: nobibsburpsbottles Twitter: nobibsburpsbott Facebook: DrAngelaLHarris Blog: blog.nobibsburpsbottles.com Website: www.nobibsburpsbottles.com Email: nobibsburpsbottles@gmail.com

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The AmWritingFantasy Podcast: Episode 140 – How to Get a Literary Agent for Your Book (with Jane Friedman)

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Play Episode Listen Later Aug 30, 2021 49:45

What kind of stories are agents interested in? How do you find an agent and how do you know if the person is any good? And what about your publishing contract? What should you be mindful about there? All these questions, and many more, are answered in this episode of the Am Writing Fantasy podcast by Jane Friedman. Links to what was mentioned in the episode: QueryTracker: http://querytracker.net Duotrope: http://duotrope.com Publishers Marketplace: http://publishersmarketplace.com Not discussed during the interview, but this one is interesting as well: http://mswishlist.com You can find Jane at: http://janefriedman.com Tune in for new episodes EVERY single Monday. SUPPORT THE AM WRITING FANTASY PODCAST! Please tell a fellow author about the show and visit us at Apple podcast and leave a rating and review. Join us at www.patreon.com/AmWritingFantasy. For as little as a dollar a month, you'll get awesome rewards and keep the Am Writing Fantasy podcast going. Read the full transcript below. (Please note that it's automatically generated and while the AI is super cool, it isn't perfect. There may be misspellings or incorrect words on occasion). Narrator (2s): You're listening to The Am Writing Fantasy Podcast. In today's publishing landscape, you can reach fans all over the world. Query letters are a thing of the past. You don't even need in literary agent. There is nothing standing in the way of making a living from writing. Join two best selling authors who have self published more than in 20 books between them. Now onto the show with your hosts, Autumn Birt and Jesper Schmidt. Jesper (30s): Hello, I'm Jesper. And this is episode 140 of the Am Writing fantasy podcast. Autumn is busy launching her brand new novel today, so I've instead brought someone else on, so I won't be all alone because that will be pretty boring on a podcast. Narrator (48s): But joking aside, I have to say that I really looked forward to this conversation, our little piece of intro music there to the podcast says that you don't really need a literary agent, or worry about gatekeepers and all that stuff, but that is all true if we are talking about self publishing, but not so much, if you want to get a traditional publishing contract and Autumn and I have actually started talking a bit about maybe trying to become hybrid authors, meaning that we will have both self published books and traditionally published titles. And so I guess in some ways you could say that it's a bit of, for selfish reasons as well, that I'm are joined by the very knowledgeable Jane Friedman today. Narrator (1m 31s): Welcome to The Am Writing Fantasy Podcast, Jane, and I hope you won't mind me picking your brain today. Jane (1m 38s): Not at all. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you. Jesper (1m 41s): Yeah. I have a sneaky suspicion that the quite a few of our listeners will already know who you are, Jane, but the, let me just, I'll try to give a short introduction, Jane, and then you can see if I miss out something important here. So Jane has more than 20 years of experience in the publishing industry. And in 2019, she was awarded what the publishing commentator of the year by digital digital book world. And Jane also has an incredibly popular, I guess I could say newsletter for authors with in 2020, it was awarded media outlet of the year. Jesper (2m 23s): And she also runs the award winning block for writers over@janefriedman.com and has been featured by New York times, Washington post publishers weekly. And the list just goes on and on. And that I miss anything that those are the important ones. Yeah. Yeah. And I think with those credentials, it's quite obvious why I want it to have a chat with you about traditional publishing, but maybe, maybe before we get into all of that, maybe you could just sort of share a bit about yourself that maybe has less to do with the business side, but more like who you are. So Jane (2m 58s): Yeah, I started in the business in the late 1990s, right out of college. So in some ways my, my life has been spent on nothing but publishing in one form or another. I did go full-time freelance in 2014. So I was traditionally employed out a book publishing company and a media company in the literary journal at a university. And then finally after, I guess it was 15 years, 15 years of, of working for other people. I decided to just embark on my own. So I've been very happy working independently. Jane (3m 40s): It's, it's a combination of doing the newsletter that you mentioned, which is for authors online teaching. And then I also do some consulting. So aside from that, you know, I do a lot, I do a lot of travel, but a lot of its because I go to the writing conferences. Mmm. So during the pandemic that certainly slowed down dramatically and I've spent a lot of time that my home office in the past year, but it's been good. I've been able to focus on things that I didn't have time for when I was traveling so much. Jesper (4m 11s): Yeah. W what, what drew you to publishing and writing original that, do you, do you do you know, it was more like some people stumbled out to collage and by coincidence they end up in some sort of industry, but I was there something in particular that drew in there. Jane (4m 26s): So it's, it's hard for me to say that I was drawn as much as it was the, maybe the process of elimination when I was growing up, I, I come from a very rural part of the United States. There wasn't a whole lot to do other than go to school and go to the library. My mother was a very bookish person. She was a librarian, in fact. So I spend a lot of hours in the library and I was just good at school. And I liked reading. And I dunno that I think this happens to many people who ultimately become English majors or they studied creative writing and they think, well, I I'd like books, I'll study literature. And so it just, I, but I think I'm fortunate in that I was able to turn that into something that actually pays the bills. Jane (5m 10s): Not everyone does that. Jesper (5m 12s): Oh, I know that. That's true. Yeah. I still have very fond memories myself of the library when I was a kid. I just, I don't know. I just love I could spend hours and hours in their well, but back then, it was the most comic books I was looking at. Of course. But yeah, you could just go out and take a new one and another one in another one in, and sit there for hours. Just go through all those pages. I don't know. There's something about it. Isn't that? I don't know what it is. Jane (5m 36s): Yeah. I I've always been drawn to bookstores and libraries from a young age, although I will admit now in the digital landscape it's I do a lot less of that. And I do have as much of a fascination with computers and with figuring things out from a digital media perspective. So I like bringing those two areas together. Jesper (5m 58s): Right, right. Yeah. OK. Well, in terms of, of talking about traditionally publishing contracts and how to get one, which is actually something that I'm, we are asked, but not all the time, but on a similar, a regular basis on them. And I, my cohost asked about how to, how to do that, how to get those kinds of contracts. And honestly, we're not the best one to advise on this because while autumn, they did have a contract like 10, 15 years ago, but I don't, we are not like the expert on this topic. And also, as I said, a bit earlier, 'cause we actually considering trying maybe to see if we can find an agent for ourself maybe in the years time or something, once we have a novel written for that particular purpose, I was thinking that maybe we could just try to structure our conversation in, in the same fashion light, sort of a bit of step-by-step where, where did we start and, and with what happens next to the next time. Jesper (6m 56s): So on, in the process, because then it might make a bit more sense for the listener. And obviously where we start is with the story of self, you know, and do you, do we need to sort of think about what kind of story or what kind of novel we are we right. If we want to get it traditionally published? Jane (7m 18s): Oh, a little bit, but not too much. So in other words, I think first and foremost, you need to write the story you feel called to riot, or that your interested in writing or, or that you are passionate about. And that's sort of cliched advice. You hear a lot, but its true that it takes far too much work, especially in my mind to go through the traditional publishing process, to try and write something that you think is going to just fit the market. To me, that's actually what self publishers do. There are always studying what's happening in the market and trying to jump on where the readers are going that happens in traditional publishing to, but I think there's also a concern for what's this writer doing that only they can do on, usually it comes out of your own obsessions or interest areas. Jane (8m 12s): So, but on the, on the other hand, you know, you do have to be aware of kind of the model that traditional publishing works under, which is the way, if you're a first time author for them, they want the book to be a certain length. You know, they're going to get dissuaded. If your book is say more than 150,000 words are more than 120,000 words, it's usually the, where things start to get rejected more often because it's just too long when they don't know you yet as an author, they haven't established an audience for you yet just costs more in terms of time and editing to do a longer book. And if you're writing something that is a real mashup or hybrid of lots of different things, if it's really too far out there that might also dissuade them. Jane (9m 3s): So they like things that are both familiar and fresh, which are, this is very frustrating to writers because what defines that? No one knows, you know that when you see it. Jesper (9m 15s): Yeah. Because, and I don't know if this is right or wrong, but I have this impression as well that traditional publishers and I guess therefore also agency, they don't like to, I mean maybe some agents do, but, but if we sort of just take it in the broader sense here, I have a feeling that they don't like to take meant to many chances, meaning that they probably prefer to have something that is at least fairly similar to what is generally on the market today. Do you think that's a correct assumption or am I just reading into things that I shouldn't no. Jane (9m 53s): And I think its true that they want something that fits the genre or sub genre. They like, they don't like things that are hard to categorize or that don't have good comparable titles or authors. So you should be able to usually imagine your book or yourself sitting alongside other books and authors, you know, you can say a free to use like ex they will like why if, if, if a publisher can't do that because your work is too odd or it's just, you know, it doesn't fit the model and yes, it's going to look risky. Oh Jesper (10m 27s): Yeah. So, so, so that also basically means I fully agree. What you said before about in the others are probably doing far more market research, then the traditional publishers as are bad. But if it doesn't mean though that you should be doing at least enough market research, then to be able to understand what are the true those tropes and what to do, what do I need to deliver upon? Because if you are getting too creative and maybe thinking that, let me write something they've never seen before, because then I'm going to blow their mind. They will probably think, well, I can't sell this stuff. Yeah, Jane (11m 4s): Exactly. Jesper (11m 7s): But what about stand alone versus series? And if you are trying to get an agent, would it be best to just write a complete standalone thing? Or do you give them like, here's this book one of the series and leave it open-ended or doesn't matter maybe. Oh yeah. Jane (11m 26s): Well there is of course a really strong tradition of series in science fiction and fantasy as well as some other genres like mystery or romance. So, but if it's safe or safer to propose a book that is the first and a potential series, so it can stand alone. But if it does really well, you're ready and it would make sense to continue it. Mmm. So I know that it's like a little dance that everyone is doing and, and the reason for this, his publishers or, you know, they like to see how things perform before they fully commit. Jane (12m 7s): So it's not that they're going to abandon you after the first book, but if, if, if the sales just don't go in the right direction, especially like after book to are booked, three of the sales get softer and softer instead of stronger, and you may find yourself getting dropped by the publisher. So in other words, what that would mean on a practical level as that you would never want to query a series saying this is a five books series and you have to take all five Jesper (12m 33s): It's something that Jane (12m 35s): Basically works to both, both of you and the publisher and to a corner. Jesper (12m 40s): Yeah. But I'm also thinking, and I don't know how often that happens, but I'm just, I'm, I'm, I'm just speculating a lot here. So do you have to correct me every time and say something incorrectly, but I'm assuming a lot of things I guess, but I would think that spending the time to right, like say the book 1, 2, 2, and three, and then give them big one and say, okay, here it is. I have two more books. If you are interested is probably not the best use of your time. I, I, I'm thinking it's probably a better to just write the first book, leave it in at least enough open-ended that you can continue and then just see if they want it before, because you couldn't, you just as risk spending a lot of time writing three books and they don't even want it. Jesper (13m 22s): Or even if they're want book one and then they will never buy books two and three. Jane (13m 25s): Yeah. Yeah. I, yeah, I would not, I would not write all 3, 4, 5, however many books there. I would not write the whole series and then start querying. I would write the first book and then have a really nice outline of how the series might unfold. And that doesn't take much, like it takes maybe a paragraph per book to show what direction you're going to take it in. Jesper (13m 49s): Yeah. Okay. So basically like a bit of a plot overview or something, so to do the age and can see what are your thoughts are. Jane (13m 56s): Right. And you wouldn't even submit that first. You, you have to sell the first book before you could have that conversation or at least interest them in the first book. Jesper (14m 4s): Yeah. Oh, okay. Well let's assume that we have a story written out there and at least we think that it is abiding to tropes and we believe that we have at least written something that is fairly common in of course it has a good cover and it has a good showing are trophy title and all that stuff. And we don't need to find an agent. And I think, I think the general advice is that you should not try to approach any of the big publishing houses without an agent. Is that right? Jane (14m 34s): That's correct. There are closed to authors'. So you're only weigh through the door is through an agent unless you happen to know someone on the inside or do you have a really good famous bestselling author friend who is going to make an introduction for you, even if that were the case though, you'd probably an agent to help you negotiate the contract, which I know we'll talk about. So yeah, I'd, I'd say when you're starting to query agents are step one and if the agent search doesn't go as intended, you can then start looking at publishers that are smaller, independent, that don't require you to have an agent they'll take your submission directly. Jane (15m 14s): Yeah. Jesper (15m 15s): Yeah. And I want to come back to that one about the smaller publishers, but I guess first, I mean, how do you find an agent? That's like the million dollar question that everybody asks? Probably yes. Jane (15m 28s): So it's actually not, it's not rocket science. There are a few recognized up to date databases that you can use. And you just filter down to the agents who would be interested in your work. You can do this at sites like QueryTracker dot nets, do a trope.com. There's also publishers marketplace, where you can look up deals that agents have maid and you can filter the deals by genre. You can also do keyword searches and those deals. So if you are, if you have some sort of EY space opera, let's say that you could actually search the deals for space opera and look for agents who seem to like those sorts of books. Jane (16m 11s): So if you use any, one of those are the best. If you use a combination that helps to consult different sources, you can then once you've got a working list and it might be, you know, for genre fiction, generally you can almost find a hundred agents just write off the bat without even working that hard. So then once you've got your list of a hundred or however many, you would want to go to that agency website, make sure that there are still open for submissions. Sometimes they'll close, you know, check out there guidelines, make sure its a good fit, look at their client lettuce. Do you think that this person is going to actually like what you send them and then you send off your query. Jesper (16m 54s): And can you sort of just assume that the people are the agents that are on the list like that are good agents or, or do you need to like vet the list yourself as well to Czech? Like do they actually know what they're doing? So yes. Yes. Jane (17m 10s): So the, the three sites that I mentioned are I think, quite reliable, it would be hard to find and unreputable agent threw one of those three sources. I'm not saying it can't happen, but the likelihood is greatly diminished. I think where you get into real trouble with bad agents, if you start Googling around very broadly, like if you go to Google and just type in and literary agent that has a terrible, terrible idea, you will get all sorts of scammers and people who have a financial interest in luring you in and charging you money. And who knows what? Now there are definitely good agents better agent's there are some who are more well-known and less well-known. Jane (17m 54s): Those are who, those who are still establishing their career and those who have been around for decades. And that's where you get into really subjective concerns. Like some people they want to get the biggest possible agent or they want an attack dog agent or they're like, actually I would like an agent. Who's still building their list and maybe they'll, they'll pay more attention to me if I'm one of their early clients and these are all legitimate reasons to choose one agent over another in the United States, there's the organization called the AA L a, which if you're a member of, of you have to abide by a certain code of ethics and it's also a place to go with complaints. Jane (18m 36s): So if you do have a bad experience, you can go to the AAL eye and say, you know, one of your members has treated me poorly or you, you tell them what happened and that they can help address it. Not all agents are going to belong to that, but a good number of them do. And there's a similar organization in the UK. And I have to imagine probably in Europe to Jesper (18m 59s): Yeah, because it it's, it's difficult. Right? And, and sometimes you see you on the internet, these really bad examples where you yeah. Almost like bordering on fraud almost right. Like from, from because the, the terrible thing is that the authors in this case are there sort of chasing a dream. And if somebody then says, okay, I'll take you on board. I guess a lot of people won't have there critical census M on God there. And, and then they jump in and say, well, regretted later. So the, oh Jane (19m 35s): Yes, you're absolutely right. A lot of people are preying on people's dreams, hopes and aspirations. You know, one of the first signs you may be dealing with a bad actor is that they praise you to this guy's and then ask for your money. So that's the sequence of events that should raise a red flag for you. People writers, especially to just get really taken in when someone says, oh, you're, you know, you're brilliant. You're a genius. And you know, it's what you've been hoping for all this time, for someone to select you and validate the hard work. But you know, the truth is that agents and publishers both tend to leave you feeling a little cold. Jane (20m 16s): There are not the most complementary people in the world. We tend to be very pragmatic, critical, well, you need to change this and this. And then, you know, maybe it will sell it. They just don't think they don't want to build up your hopes. In fact, there'll be very realistic. Jesper (20m 36s): Yeah. And I guess it's well, well, if, if, if they ask you for money that you should just run for the Hills, right? I mean, why would you, you, you shouldn't pay them anything unless they make a deal Jane (20m 48s): That's right. They only earn money when they sell your books. So they are in the U S agents get 15% of everything that the authors make. That's 15% of the advance, 15% of the royalties, 15% of, you know, an option sale. Or it can go as high as 20%. If there's a co-agent that gets into more complicated territory. But in other words, you're not paying them out of your pocket. There are like some rare cases where maybe the agent will say, look, you know, I really like what you've got, but there are these issues that need to be resolved. I can't resolve them for you, but maybe you should go hire this editor. Jane (21m 31s): And there are going to help you, you know, maybe, maybe in you, you would invest at that point, but just be super cautious because, you know, until you have an actual manuscript that the agent wants to represent, you could just be spending a lot of money for, for nothing. You'd have to agree with what they're saying, I guess is what the point I'd like to make. You have to see that there. Right? Jesper (21m 55s): Yeah. Quite recently here, I heard another example of M and agent, which again, of course it was fraught, but the agent was like saying, well, this, this is really good manuscript, but there is a lot of issues in it. And then lo and behold, I can fix them for you. You just need to pay me X amount of that. I can't remember how much it was, but something, and then I'll get my editor, which I have in house and they we'll fix it for you as well. That sounds nice. But again, don't pay them money. Jane (22m 24s): Oh yeah. I don't, I don't think it's a good idea too. If, if an agent does think, I mean, it's, it's true. There are many projects that need editorial work, but you have to be careful when the agent ha has a possible financial interest in you having that work done. That's not good. Jesper (22m 45s): But if you are then going off of these lists as human, and, but maybe by the way, maybe you can, you, maybe you can email me those lists that you mentioned earlier, then I can put them on the show notes for people. But if we're going off the list and let's say with, and sending out Query letters, which I'll come back to in a moment, because I want to ask about that as well. But let's say we are sending out hundreds of Query letters maybe. And then let's say some of them are a bit positive and they come back and say like, okay, this looks interested. But then I have heard examples of agents and saying like, they want to change something or this character doesn't work or this part of the plot doesn't work or whatever, but wouldn't, you sort of be chasing your own tail. Jesper (23m 29s): If you keep correcting things to every time one of those agents comes back and say something Jane (23m 34s): It's possible. So what you've described is called a revise and resubmit request. So this is where an agent has a phone call or sent an editorial letter saying, look, I'd like to represent this, but you need to change these things. And they'll go into sufficient detail that you, you get it, you know what their trying to get you to do. And then you go off and do it. But you have kind of going back to my earlier point, you have to agree with the work. Like you ha it should excite you like it. You should feel like, wow, yeah, this is going to make such a better book or yeah. I can see why they're making those suggestions and I can do it. Jane (24m 14s): Like I'm willing to compromise in that way. Usually what I tell people as if, I mean, it's like a revise and resubmit request's is great. Just neutral speaking. It means that they are really C something in the project or a new, and they, they would like to see it come to fruition. They don't issue those to just anyone. And there are probably testing to see if you have the ability to edit yourself, because that's really required when you begin working with the publisher, you know, the, the editor you work with is going to expect you to take revision suggestions. So this is like the first, you know, the first hurdle that you have to get over. Jane (24m 58s): But in any event, if you query several dozen agents and then, and you see a pattern in there, response, like there are all wanting you to do X, then, you know, okay, I'm getting a really strong message here. That X is a issue that has to be resolved. But if you get a bunch of feedback and it's all over the map, some people are like, we need to change the character. And others are all, you have to change the plot or no, you can't, you can't have this setting or your dialog sex. Like if there is no pattern, that's when I would really be reluctant to make changes. Jesper (25m 35s): Yeah. No, that makes sense. But what about those famous Query letters then? What, what do you, what, what you do you focus on there? Jane (25m 47s): It's almost all about this story promise. So the query is, were talking about as short, very short pitch are usually not more than 300 words, maybe 400 for some types of fantasy, where it might, you might have to do some set up are world-building to make sure that the whole thing makes sense, but very short. And we're talking about character problem setting. Those are the key elements. The rest of the query outside of that is really just housekeeping. So by housekeeping, I mean, there's, you know, maybe a hundred words of a bio. Jane (26m 27s): There might be an element of personalization there where you talk about I'm approaching you because I see you represent blah, blah, blah, which is similar to my book. And you'll of course I have the title and the word count. And you'll comment on the, the comparable titles, what you think is going to be similar. But the, like I said, the book of the query, though, that decision is made on this story, does the agent or editor think that this story has legs in the market, as it intrigue them, does it make them excited? And does it make them want to read or request the manuscript? Now there's a difference between sending a query by itself and sending a query with sample chapters. Jane (27m 8s): So if an agent or a publisher for that matter is asking for a query, plus the manuscript, they probably know from experience that a lot of writers are crap Jesper (27m 17s): Are writing their queries. So, Jane (27m 20s): You know, if they see the query in there, like, oh, this is a mess, they'll just flip to your first pages and see if there's something there. Yeah. So in those cases, I think the query holds less weight. And the agent's probably more interested in just reading the opening and seeing if you can write. So there is some reassurance there, but I hope, and that you're gonna be judged on the right thing rather than you're ability to pitch. But for those people that you're just sending the query, there are, those might be agents who are more concerned with things like, do you have a high concept? Can you write just to really snappy pitch, were the character are the voice really comes through? Does the book kind of sell itself when, you know, the general outline of the story? Jane (28m 4s): So it does put a lot of it puts more pressure on the writer to have something that just feels exciting, whether that's the character or that premise, or, you know, something about it, you know, that jumps out. Jesper (28m 16s): Yeah. And it's, it's just so much easier said than done to, to right. In, in an interesting M summary, I guess, of this story 'cause as well when you are, well, not even if it's not even in a blurb level. Right. But it's more like just the summary of what's happening. It's it's, it can be very difficult to actually make that sound interesting other than its just like, oh, well then there is this story about this guy who this guy does, blah, blah, blah. I mean, it's, it, it very easily becomes this sort of boring bland synopsis, Jane (28m 55s): Right? So that's precisely what you want to avoid in something that's really light kind of plot oriented and mechanical because that will be a turnoff. Even if the book is very plot driven, I think it's necessary in the query to be able to marry together that character and the plot M and in the case of fantasy, you need to probably have a couple sentences upfront that kind of establish the parameters, like our way on a ho in a whole other like a world or planets. What's the what's defining life in this world that you've created. You shouldn't assume too much about what the age and are editor may understand about the world that you've created. Jane (29m 39s): You have to be pretty direct. And you know, I think the thing that often gets left out of the queries icy is the relationship of tension. So most times we're really intrigued by stories where we see people in opposition or people are trying to preserve her relationship that matters to them, but there are forces getting in the way, are there personal motivations or what they need to achieve is in conflict with someone else in the story obviously, and you might have a village and it's really clearly in protagonist antagonist situation I'm. So I think, think about the relationship dynamics and what, what striving the story forward from that perspective, in addition to whatever interesting elements your fantasy world has in it, that's going to be, but hopefully these are whatever's magical or fantastical about your story is also built into what the characters want. Jane (30m 36s): What's giving them trouble rather than just, you know, window dressing. Jesper (30m 40s): Yeah. So in a, rather than just riding about the one on one ring, having to be carried to Mount doom, you also write about the relationship between Sam and Frodo and how the struggle and so on. Jane (30m 53s): It's like excellent example. Jesper (30m 55s): Yeah. Yeah. And why, while you were saying that, I just got to thinking, because you were talking about those sort of websites with lists of agents and so on. I, I just started wondering all of a sudden, if there wasn't like a repository of like, here are the examples of really good query letters or something that some people could look at it as examples, do you know if something like that exists? Jane (31m 19s): In fact, the query tracker site that I mentioned has a really robust set of resources and message boards and posts where they feature query is that actually worked in the, you know, there is even the potential for you to post your query in the message boards and get feedback from other people. Although you have to be careful or you can get a lot of different opinions. Yeah. You're left feeling more confused, but I think one of the best ways to write a better Query, I think to the point you're making is to actually see a lot of them. And you, you start to see what works. Jesper (31m 56s): Yeah. Yeah. Because it's often rather than trying to invent the wheel again, you know, it often works a lot better if you can. Just, the same thing goes for when we're writing blurbs, for example, the autumn. And I often do check out like, what are the, when this shop Shaundra, what our, like the bestselling books in the shop show on her. And it's, there are like some common elements that they use across those slopes. Because again, you will start seeing commonalities and you can start see, oh, oh, okay. I see. They always focus on something to do with this part or whatever. And then you can make your own version of that obviously, but then you are already like 10 steps ahead. Jane (32m 32s): Yes, yes. Jesper (32m 34s): Yeah. Okay. So let's, well now we have a book. We have found some Asians to send Query letters to, and we have written an awesome Query letters. Well, hopefully, so let's say that one of these agents then comes back to us and say, okay, this, this is great. I would like to represent you. What, what happens now? Jane (33m 1s): So they'll have a conversation with you where they talk about that, their strategy for submitting it, there is no right or wrong strategy here, but they, you know, they're going to hopefully be very open and transparent about what they want to see happen. And the approach they'll take. For instance, some agents will put things up for auction and they'll make editors bid against one another, but you have to feel like you have a pretty hot property because if no one that shows up to your auction, it's a little embarrassing. The more common approach that covers most projects is the agent will send it out to a select number of editor's that she thinks are going to be most likely to want the book. Jane (33m 45s): And then there will be some waiting and let's hope it's not that long. You know, maybe a month, maybe two months, you know, some of this depends on time of year. Like right now, it's a slower time because it's summer people in there away. And you can tell the agent, you know, I want to hear, I want to hear from you every time you get something from an editor, whether it's a rejection or whatever, or you can tell the agent, look, that would, it would be really hard on me to hear about every rejection that comes through. Can we, can we touch base on this state? Jane (34m 27s): And we'll talk about what's happened so far. Of course, if there's good news, the agent is going to call you right away. So if there is good news, the agent will bring you the offer and the offer starts off as it's not a contract, its usually a, they say, OK, this is the advance we're offering. These are the most important deal points. Like is it world rights or not? What's the royalty rate look like? And there'll be some other little details. Like, is it a one book deal, a two book deal? And then if you just have one offer, its kind of this very straightforward, do you take it or not? And it's not the agent's job, you know, to push you in one direction or the other. Jane (35m 7s): But to explain to you the merits of the deal, you know, the pros and cons and help you make a choice, that's right for you. If you have a competing interest, that's wonderful. And now you can decide where do you think is the best home for the book who is going to do the best job of bringing the book to market? Jesper (35m 26s): Yeah. And I'm also thinking that, I mean, just from a business perspective, I mean, if, if 'cause at this stage, you shouldn't be too much of the author wanting to get anymore, but you should more put your business hat on and say, okay, what makes sense here? And I'm almost because I, I'm not an expert on this, but I've heard like the advantage. They usually are pretty low when you are first starting out. And what I don't quite like about that to be honest is the fact that the publisher has absolutely zero skin in the game and it's so if they give you a very, very low, a advanced than well, they'll probably just leave it for you to figure out how to market and they're not going to throw as much money behind it. Jesper (36m 15s): So, and, but I guess that's more like common nowadays as well. 'cause the publishing houses probably also struggling a bit with finances and so on. So they put all the money on the big name authors and then everybody else gets us very small piece of the pie. But it is that right to you think. Yeah. 3 (36m 33s): I mean Jane (36m 35s): With the book publishing and sometimes it's hard to talk about it. Generally 'cause each publisher can operate so differently from another one in the us, for example, there's tour, which is really well known in the science fiction and fantasy space. And you know, if you had an offer from them, even if it were a low advance, it could be really helpful to be published by them just because of the really significant direct to consumer community that they have access to that you wouldn't. So there's a lot of this decision variables here. W I think its true that a low advance means the publisher isn't going to be as focused on getting a return on their investment. Jane (37m 21s): But I think people aren't as M there not as gracious with publishers as they might be of other businesses, like let's say Silicon valley startups have a 90% failure rate, but we don't go around criticizing them. Well maybe in recent years we do. But once upon a time we do, they go around criticizing them so much. We called them innovative and disruptive, even though the failure rate was high book publishing has always had a pretty high failure rate. I think the penguin random house CEO, Marcus Stoli recently said, it's a 50% failure rate. And by failure, meaning this book did not earn back the money that was invested into it, not just the advanced, but the time spent by the staff and the printing costs. Jane (38m 6s): But he doesn't see that as a failure of publishing. You just use it as, this is a very risky business that we engage in every book as a startup in his mind. And I think it's true. And it's like creating a new marketing plan from scratch every single time. Unless, you know, you have imprints that are devoted to a single genre, which is why I mentioned tour because I think those sorts of publishers, do you have an advantage in that they're going after a similar group of readers with a lot of the things that their publishing when you get so big five publishing where it's really random, like it's all sorts of books that are coming out. I think that's when it gets very, very, very difficult. Jesper (38m 50s): Yeah. And I want to return to something you said earlier about the publishing houses there, because if, if we're looking at the big five, w we have a chef HarperCollins, Macmillan, penguin, random house and Simon and Schuster, oh, that's probably the five very big one. But so if we haven't agent and where they probably gone on to these big five and nothing happens early on, you mentioned about maybe looking at the sort of next tier down kind of publishing houses. So in what is like the general view on doing something like that and having your agent ghost to go in to those, how do they age and just do that automatically, just you guys just go to everybody automatically or how, how do you approach that Jane (39m 43s): It's going to vary by agent, but most agents are gonna go to mid size houses and there really let's say prestigious or established smaller processes. So for example, in the U S there's a grey Wolf and Grove Atlantic, which were both independent publisher's on the literary ends of things. There are considered small by big five standards, but they punch way above their weight. You know, the, when the book of prizes and get on the bestseller lists and they tend to invest in there authors over many, many, many years. So even if your first book doesn't do well, even if your first five books don't do well, they're probably going to stand by you because they believe in what you're doing as, as an artist, because they believe in literature with a capital L. Jane (40m 31s): So I think that's the advantage you get. When you start working outside of the big five model, you get people who are in it for lots of different reasons, some are in it just for the commercial money, bit of it. And there has to be some focus on that or else the publisher won't stay in business, but many publishers, the smaller they get, the more mission-oriented they are, are they're in the business to bring attention and Lite to certain types of literature or stories. So it can be very satisfying. You could have a closer relationship with your editor and if they can be more agile, more experimental, more open to collaboration, easier to reach in communicate with than your big five publisher. Jesper (41m 10s): And you also need to have to trust the agent that he doesn't go out and query some sort of a very small press somewhere that actually has no, no mussels to, to, to use or whatever. And the market, right. I mean, I guess the agent needs to, he, he should know that, that kind of thing, right. Jane (41m 29s): They ought to, yes. I have seen some shocking sails from agents to really small presses or what I would even consider hybrid publishers where there might be no advanced or even the author is asked to pay some money. And I think of how you did not need an agent for that deal. And that, that was a total waste of everyone's time. So if you have a docent agent, at some point, there are going to say, look, I I've gone to everyone that I think you should publish with. There might be some other publishers out there that could be smaller, or maybe, you know, the places that offer very small advances. It's not worth my time to go to these places, but if you want to be my guest, so you might reach that point. Jane (42m 13s): Yeah. Jesper (42m 14s): Yeah. And at that point, I guess the new self-published that novel and you ride a new one on, and then you gave that one to B and say, okay, try this one instead of, I guess, Jane (42m 22s): Oh yes. Age agents, a good one should have a conversation with you about, okay. Let's what's next? What are you doing? What's your next book? Do you have anything else in the drawer? Like what do we think the next move is? Jesper (42m 33s): Oh yeah. Yeah, indeed. Okay. So, but let's assume that everything goes well, of course, because we want the success stories here and you then get that offer. And you mentioned it a bit earlier on as well, Jayne about the, the contract itself. And obviously the agent should be able to, to some extent advice you on, on the contract. But I, at the same time, I've heard some really like awful examples of what might be in those contracts. So what I mean, well, I guess what I'm getting at is I'm not a hundred percent convinced that you can just trust that the agent will understand everything and tell you everything you probably need to will read everything also to small letters yourselves. Jesper (43m 16s): And if you don't understand them, maybe even get a lawyer to look at it as something. But what, what, what's your view on that? I mean, usually Jane (43m 23s): You can trust the agent to take care of the contract in its entirety and explain to you what every claws means and what you are getting into. And where are you might be making compromises or thinks that where you're agreeing to something that's less than ideal. Usually some of the most important parts of the contract to negotiate are what would S what would be, what would be an unacceptable manuscripts scenario. So like where there is a difference of opinion between you and the publisher about what, what changes to make what's acceptable, what happens in those instances? So that should be carefully negotiated. As you know, most agents are going to try to ensure that you don't have to give back the advance. Jane (44m 6s): If there's some disagreement that would lead to no publication of the book, you don't want to be in that vulnerable position of having to give back money you've already spent. And there is, there are lots of ramifications of negotiating that well, and most agents are very focused on getting that part, right? The other big issue has to do with reversion of rights. So, and again, often, if things haven't gone well, but the publisher, you want to be able to sever that as cleanly in as quickly as possible. So the reversion of rights clause governs how that happens when it can happen, how long it takes, etcetera. You know, those are the areas that every agent knows about. You wouldn't have to have, I think, be concerned about what their doing on that front I'm. Jane (44m 52s): But of course there are lots of things like, oh, you know, what are the royalty escalators? Like? How does your royalty increase the sales increase? What are the different percentages for all sorts of sales, which are there, what are the rights sub rights situation's there is your agent going to be handling any of those sales and you could hire a lawyer to help, but they would have to know that publishing standards are, umm, 3 (45m 15s): Or you could also Jane (45m 17s): In the U S if you're a member of the authors Guild, they have a contract service where they'll review any contract at no charge. There might be something similar in other countries where if you go to your author society, they have something comparable. Right. So it doesn't, it doesn't hurt to get another set of eyes, but your age, I mean, that's your agent's job, but that's job number of one is Jesper (45m 38s): To go out. Oh, I understand. Yeah. Yeah. And maybe on just to skeptical, but because I'm, I'm also just thinking that the agent has he sort of playing he or she is sort of playing on to horses at the same time here. I know on one hand they, of course the one to have a good relationship with the author. 'cause the author is the client, but at the same time, they also want to close that deal with the publishing house, because that's the only way they're going to and earn some money on all the on hours they spend already. So I'm just a bit skeptical that you can a hundred percent just trust their word all the time. And maybe they sort of smooth out small things. He in there. Yeah. It's not a big deal that you can, you can access this. And because then we can close to deal kind of, I don't know, maybe I'm too skeptical. Jane (46m 23s): I think where those sorts of issues come more into play is when the books are already under contract. And, you know, there were differences of opinion or there is some tension between you and the publisher. I think there are the agent is I find them, there are going to try and smooth it over to as best they can because they don't want to lose the relationship with the editor or with the publisher because they have more books to sell presumably to those people. And they don't want to burn a bridge. So I think agents still do work. I don't use the word attack dog slightly, but you know, some of them are very aggressive on behalf of their clients and they have too much power to be pushed around by a publisher and they can, they could say, look, I'm not going to bring you my next book by whatever new, huge talent there is. Jane (47m 12s): So they have a lot of it depends on the agent, how much leverage they have in that regard, but they can, you know, give editors' the cold shoulder, uhm, with the contract or something that might offer a reassurance is that you usually agents deal with publishers multiple times over the years. And they end up having an negotiated boiler plate for their agency. So you're not starting from scratch each time you get the benefit of every other contract that agent has negotiated with that publisher. Right. And, and then they'd make some changes that are unique for you in your project. Jane (47m 51s): So anything that, you know, that would be of concern to the opp, to you, it's going to be of concern to the other clients. So that's why I'm less worried about the issue. Jesper (48m 4s): No. Okay. No, that's good to you clarify that because if it's probably in just me being to skeptical, but I'm also not in use to that kind of, that part of the publishing world a as you are. So it, so that was good too. You could clarify that, but, but Looker Jane we've already sort have been from the beginning to the end of the process and we could probably keep on from on our wire if we needed to hear, but you shared so much, very good and insightful information. So I was just wondering if, if people want to learn more about you and your advice and , do you want them to go? Jane (48m 45s): My website is the best place. That's Jane friedman.com. You can find out all the of courses I offer the book's, the newsletters it's all mentioned. They're Jesper (48m 55s): Excellent. And the thank you so much for your time, Jane. It was a pleasure talking to you today. Jane (48m 60s): Thank you so much. I really enjoyed it. Jesper (49m 3s): Alright. So next Monday, Autumn will be back in and we haven't quite decided what are we going to talk about yet? But I think it's going to be one out of funny top 10 lists. Narrator (49m 15s): If you like, what you just heard, there's a few things you can do to SUPPORT THE AM WRITING FANTASY PODCAST. Please tell a fellow author about the show and visit us at Apple podcast and leave a rating and review. You can also join Autumn and Jesper on patreon.com/AmWritingFantasy for as little as a dollar a month, you'll get awesome rewards and keep The Am Writing Fantasy Podcast, going. Stay safe out there and see you next Monday.

046. Overcoming the Lies of Satan

Called By God Podcast

Play Episode Play 31 sec Highlight Listen Later Jul 26, 2021 48:11

What does having a call on your life look like? The simple answer to this question is to follow our discussion with Shaundra Miller. Shaundra shared her journey in Christ and what it means to be called by God.When the devil came knockingBoth parents are in the churchShe was born and raised in the body of ChristThe enemy came for her family and her parents splitGetting baptized at 12Shaundra saw her older sister get baptized and she did not follow suit She began to feel the tug and asked herself the question if she was readyShe knew what was taught to her about being baptizedShaundra put the Lord on in baptism two weeks after her older sisterTeen and Young adulthood was tryingShaundra dealt with depression and suicidal thoughts in her teens As a young adult, she was promiscuous She dealt with other issues due to family struggles Finding healing in the Word of God and hearing sermonsShaundra knew she had to take her thoughts captive and recognize who is in control Her mom did not know that playing sermons in the home help Shaundra grow in strength She also connected with the youth group and used her voiceThe way to salvation:Hear: Romans 10:17Believe: Hebrews 11:6Repent: Acts 17:30-31Confess: Matthew 10:32Be Baptized: Mark 16:15-16Be faithful unto death: Revelation 2:10J3Days Apparel This apparel company seeks to lift up Christ for He is the Savior and the Redeemer! (John 12:32). A Call to SalvationSupport the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/CalledbyGod)

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Season 2 Episode 6: Dr. Shaundra Daily

After Office Hours

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 30, 2021 59:33

Our conversation with Dr. Shaundra Daily, Associate Professor of the Practice in the Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science departments. Tune in to hear about her passion for engineering better learning environments, promoting diversity in tech, and pursuing unique approaches to fostering a more inclusive and equitable world in STEM.

Episode 15: Shaundra Hyre Plant Medicine and Multidimensional Healer

Deeply Rooted Magic

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 25, 2021 60:30

In this episode we discuss the benefits and usage of plant medicine, Hapé, and touch on Bufo and Kambo as being a powerful mind and body detoxification. Shaundra discusses how she felt called to work with the spread the message of Hapé and why it is so powerful. Michele has been using Hapé for months and wanted to dedicate an episode fully to the power of the medicine so this was very meaningful to her. You can find Shaundra at the following links:https://www.hyreconsciousness.com/https://tribuspirit.com/https://instagram.com/tribuspirit

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How to Renovate a Vintage RV, Airstream, or Trailer

Tiny Home Tours

Play Episode Listen Later May 17, 2021 26:19

Shaundra and Jonathan Sanborn own a company dedicated to renovating vintage Airstream trailers, The Lot. After converting a used RV for themselves, they fell in love with the process of creating tiny homes on wheels. When a job shift came in 2020 due to the covid-19 pandemic, they took the leap and made their passion their full-time career. Show Notes: www.tinyhometours.com/renovate-airstream Sign up for our newsletter: bit.ly/THT-Newsletter

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Two Dope Girls Podcast Ep. 26 “Level Up ft Shaundra & Coco”

Two Dope Girls Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 27, 2021 102:49

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Episdoe 40 - What were WE talking about ep.3

City Place Church Audio Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 8, 2021 70:31

The end of season 1 is her Shaundra and i recap guest we've had and shows we've done. We also give you a sneak peak into the topics we will be diving into in season to and beyond. be on the look out for the paywall page we will be using as well as the reactivation of thismightmakeyoumad.net. and be on the look out for MADmerch coming soon too.

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Together - Week 2 - One Band. One Sound. - March 7, 2021 - Shaundra Connelly

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 7, 2021 28:06

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Imperceptible Blackness, Humanism Undone: An Interview with Shaundra Myers

Being Human

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 5, 2021 49:47

An interview with Shaundra Myers, professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh. The interview focuses on Professor Myers' research, teaching, and the way both have been affected by various crises in 2020. It was recorded on Friday, February 19, 2021. Professor Myers' essay on black anaesthetics can be found here: academic.oup.com/alh/article-abst…/31/1/47/5273610. Click here to listen to Backbone, a podcast about essential workers, hosted and recorded by Being Human producer Jacqui Sieber: www.spreaker.com/show/backbone.

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Plant and Energy Medicine with Tribuspirit

Conrad

Play Episode Play 60 sec Highlight Listen Later Feb 18, 2021 97:42

Aloha friends and welcome to another episode of “Conrad” where I interview medicine woman Shaundra Hyre the owner of Tribuspirit (IG @tribuspirit). Her product website is tribuspirit.com and if you’d like to work with her on energy clearing, healing, vibration raising etc her light worker website is hyreconsciousness.com. Check out some of her clearing and activation music for free on her soundcloud page.In this episode we discuss Soul callings and contracts, raising vibrations, energy medicine, plant medicines, ceremony, past-life regressions, Shamanic journeying, modeling, conscious businesses, Hape, fear programs, multi-dimensional bodies, root causes of illness, Combo, catching the virus, implants, sound healing, coming from both the earth and stars, crystal bodies, pineal gland, Starseeds, all things energy, share alien/ufo encounters, splitting timelines, Jesus Christ and Christ Consciousness, shadow work along with so much MORE.Make sure to follow Shaundra on IG @tribuspirit and consider taking the HAPE challenge alongside me coming soon.Lastly, here in the link to @heart.sen.se which is the Yoga studio where Tiffany Woods created this VIDEO for me thus helping restart my yoga journey. Follow her page and please Please join in!Intro/Outro music is a lifetime licensed product from soundstripe.com and is called “Prepare Yourself” by Moments.@conradg315 (Instagram)@powerofnow888 (Instagram)@conradguardipee (Twitter)Interactive EpisodeLucid Sacred Dreams

Using College Degrees in Non-Traditional Ways with Shaundra Connelly

Bliss with Chriss

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 28, 2021 14:18

In this episode, Shaundra talks about her career and how she is using her degrees in Hospitality and Mental Health Counseling in her own business - Life After. Shaundra is a life strategist coach and is passionate about helping women create their next chapter in life & business. To learn more about Shaundra and her work please visit her on social media: Website: www.shaundraconnelly.com/ Instagram: @shaundraconnelly Facebook: Life Coach Shaundra Connelly If you like this episode, please leave a rating and review. Keep in touch by either subscribing to the podcast or on Instagram and Twitter: @blisswithchriss . You may visit the website at blisswithchriss.com Check out my newly launched Mental Health Apparel: www.blisswithchriss.com/shop

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Episode 54: Shifting to our Passions with Shaundra Connelly

The Grapes and Gains Radio Show

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 22, 2021 34:18

Shaundra is a Certified Life Coach who coaches female entrepreneurs to drop the mind drama that gets in the way of them creating the life and business they want using her proven methodology. Instagram @shaundraconnely Margaret on Recess.tv - recess.tv/with/@Grapes-and-Gains Book Email List - https://mailchi.mp/b594462bd38b/fck-the-freshman-15 Margaret's Email - margaret@grapesandgains.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/margaret-steffie/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/margaret-steffie/support

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The AmWritingFantasy Podcast: Episode 106 – 5 Book Ideas I WON'T Write!

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 4, 2021 47:14

Welcome to the first episode of 2021. Autumn and Jesper each share 5 book ideas that they won't write. Some of those ideas are lighthearted - and perhaps outright silly (read: hilarious) - whereas others can prove to be excellent inspiration for your own stories. As promised here's the link to our new and free course on self-publishing: https://ultimatefantasywritersguide.com/self-publishing-success/ Tune in for new episodes EVERY single Monday. SUPPORT THE AM WRITING FANTASY PODCAST! Please tell a fellow author about the show and visit us at Apple podcast and leave a rating and review. Join us at www.patreon.com/AmWritingFantasy. For as little as a dollar a month, you'll get awesome rewards and keep the Am Writing Fantasy podcast going. Read the full transcript below. (Please note that it's automatically generated and while the AI is super cool, it isn't perfect. There may be misspellings or incorrect words on occasion). Narrator (2s): You're listening to the Am Writing Fantasy podcast. In today's publishing landscape, you can reach fans all over the world. Query letters are a thing of the past. You don't even need a literary agent. There is nothing standing in the way of making a living from writing. Join two best selling authors who have self published more than 20 books between them. Now onto the show with your hosts, Autumn Birt, and Jesper Schmidt. Jesper (30s): Hello, I am Jesper. And I'm Autumn. This is episode 106 of the am writing fantasy podcast. And welcome to 2021. I wish we're actually in 2021 when we're recording this, but that's okay. We're so we're getting close. We're getting very, very close. We, once again cheating with the time-traveling we can do with podcasting. Autumn (53s): We are so far future versions could come back, even if it's a dream. So just let me know how you know, the new year's and everything shaping up. That'd be really cool. Jesper (1m 3s): Yeah. And maybe, maybe a future selves could tell us a bit about if 2021 already looks better than 2020 or not. Autumn (1m 12s): I don't want to know. I just want to assume it's going to be better. And if it's not just don't tell me I can't handle another bad year. Jesper (1m 21s): Well, so today we are starting out this 2021 year with a bit of a light hearted and fun topic, because we're going to do an alternating list of five book ideas. I won't write. So this should be fun, Autumn. Autumn (1m 37s): I'm looking forward to it. I, like I said, I, I had, I have some comments on it later when we get there, but it was interesting. Cause I really did pull out my file by little folder. It dusted it off of ideas of things I'd picked that. And I have to say, I was like, Oh, I like that one. Ooh, I like that one. Oh, I forgot about that. So that's just home. I actually had a hard time finding five. I went to let go of, so this will be really interesting. And I went a bit of a different direction with my five list. So I just try to find some, some of the most gracious shit you can think of and say, this is definitely never going to be a story to hear what they are. They're going to inspire someone. Autumn (2m 18s): So where, which is going to be really awesome. And if they do, if it does, you have to let us know in the comments, if something we give you today, does it inspire something? Just, just let us know because that'd be so much fun. Jesper (2m 31s): Absolutely. Yeah. But how are things over at your place then? Autumn (2m 34s): Oh, it's pretty good. You know, right now it's December. It's a little snowy for long too, so pretty right now. And I'm still thrilled because I finished that massive website rebuild and I feel like, you know, life is maybe evening out though. I did realize because I kind of, I, you know, I'm writing this series that I'm hoping to release as soon as the first book as, as early or late February in 2021. We're just like, what two months away from when this is released very soon. And I realized like I had a missing piece I wanted to add, I woke up one morning going, Oh, I have, that's what I was missing. I have to add that and did this. Autumn (3m 15s): And another extra chapter kind of developed and I'm looking at it going, this is kind of big and this is the last book and I want to finish it by December 31st. So if my future self could come back and let me know if I managed to do that, please let, please do. So because I looked at it today and I'm like, I've got to write a chapter a day again, or I'm not going to finish this and maybe I should just go and edit book. What's actually book two and I don't know what to do, but I really want to finish writing this. And it's, it's definitely, I'm getting close to the climax, that final tension that's building towards a climax and I loving the storyline. I'm loving the characters, so I don't want to stop. No, I'll just finish it, finish it. Autumn (3m 56s): And so if I have to not, you know, published book to February, February 28th, I guess I can do that. But I really, really, really, really want to. So I don't know it's a lot going on in my head, but... Jesper (4m 11s): At least if you finished, then you can sort of tick that one off the list and then that's done a bit faster or something. Autumn (4m 22s): I will keep my fingers crossed. Cause I think that's the best plan and definitely why I've got the momentum going. I want to keep writing. So even if it's not quite a chapter a day, but with the colonies coming up and COVID locked down, I'm not going anywhere. I, you know, maybe my vacation will be writing to chapter. I did that over the weekend. I wrote 5,000 words on Saturday. I was just like, I want to write today. And I just wrote a small storm. So if I had to do that over vacation, you know, maybe that's what will be my holiday spent some time with my husband, go for a walk, write 5,000 words and that'll be my Christmas. Why not? Why not? So things are still exciting on your end. I mean, you've moved and you're with boxes. Autumn (5m 5s): How is everything over there? Jesper (5m 8s): Yeah, still pretty chaotic to be honest. And it probably will be for a couple of weeks, but I'm going tomorrow to the house to hand over the keys to the new owners. So they are probably very excited about that. I think this past weekend we took a trip. I was about to say was, it's not that far, it's like 15 kilometers. Right? But we went back to the house this weekend from the apartment where we live in now with the kids, just to say goodbye to the house. And the, the oldest suddenly he went around saying goodbye to everything from toilets to cupboards to everything, got a goodbye. Jesper (5m 48s): And my wife, she did find it a bit sad. And my youngest, he was just like, he could kill us. He was just walking around. Like he didn't care. He's main concern was the garden where he was like, Oh, I played football here. This is where I learned my tricks and stuff like that. But that was pretty much his only concern. So yeah. So that's going to be the ending of that chapter tomorrow, officially, but otherwise I've just been putting furniture together and the kits were starting to look a bit better now, but the rest of the apartment is still a complete mess. Jesper (6m 30s): You know, put some holiday decorations on the boxes and stack them in tree shapes and just go with it. Yeah. Maybe I'll have to do that. We'll see. Narrator (6m 40s): A week on the Internet with the Am Writing Fantasy podcast. Jesper (6m 48s): I'm quite pleased with the reception of the wealth building course Autumn (6m 51s): I am too. This was, I mean, especially we're launching it in 2020, which we already know is the doomed here of the planet. I enjoy talking with our special guest. Who's the interview that when this is released, it'll have been the last episode with Brian Cohen. And when I was talking to him, he called it a generational year. It's like, this is the one we will talk about for our kids. You know, so many people will talk about this year for so long and I'm like, wow, that is so impactful. I hadn't thought of it that way. So yes, we released a course in 2020, and I'm thrilled with how many people are interested in picking it up at the VIP launch. Autumn (7m 32s): It's a good feeling. Jesper (7m 35s): Yeah, because essentially we only did a very limited launch meaning that we only announced it to the podcast listeners as well to our email list, but that was it. I'm pretty happy to see that there's been quite some interest in a lot of new students joining as well, which I think is very, very good because imagine having spent two years building this course, and then nobody was interested, that would be so horrible. Autumn (7m 60s): It would have been the capstone to 2020, but it didn't go that way. So I'm not complaining, especially since the week before we launched the course, I realized that now is the time if there ever was a time to rebuild the website and spending a week doing that right before we launched a course, not one course, but two courses, because we also launched the self publishing success free course at the same time. And yeah, that was a whole, it was also much work for you and I over two years planning this and doing the videos and then building it and then rebuilding the website all of a sudden. So thank you, everyone who picked it up and said that they were interested, or even if they said it was, they were interested in, it's not the right time. Autumn (8m 43s): Just feedback. Feedback is just what keeps us going. The bread crumbs that feed us when in the, in these years of trying time. Jesper (8m 53s): Yeah. It's very nice to get the occasional emails from people who, who find something we said or wrote or whatever really helped them. So that's wonderful. And we're also starting to see a few signups for, for that free course already. So I'm pleased about that. I can't, I can't remember if it was episode 102 or maybe it was 101, I don't know. You can go back and check that if you missed it. But we did explain in, in a quite recent episode what this recourse entails, but, but don't maybe just as a service, I'll add the link to the free course, once again, in the show notes to this episode. So if you missed it, you can, you can go and check it out. Jesper (9m 33s): But Autumn (9m 34s): Yeah, it is definitely, I guess the courses, it feels so good to be really close to completing. Like we did in our, a recent, in our 21st on the 21st the podcast we released and we looked at our goals for 2020 and how we did and what we're planning on doing in 2021. And it felt good to not only say we're really close to hitting all of our goals in 2020, but we actually did a couple of other things that we didn't need to dissipate at the time. So it might have been a trying and difficult year, but I think we're coming through it doing pretty good. Jesper (10m 9s): Yeah. I don't, I don't think it's too bad. I mean for, well, it depends on how you look at it, right? I mean, from, from the sort of world health perspective and stuff like that, it's a terrible year. But, but I think from the business side of, of what we're doing ourselves, I think it's, it has been pretty good in the sense that we've gotten a lot of that. Well, what you and I, in our internal meetings call the platform building. We've gotten a lot of that sort of this year. So hopefully heading into next year, we can focus on writing. Autumn (10m 44s): I'm so excited. Jesper (10m 50s): So I, I think first of all, as we get into this, we also have to be honest and say that there are no bad story ideas because is all about execution quite recent. I wrote an email to my, to the email list where I said that, imagine Frank Herbert, so the author of the classic doom. So, but imagine him explaining his story. So he would say something like my story takes place on an alien planet where there are these giant sand worms, and then I've included this awesome drug that allows you to see into the future. And then the hero will unlock genetic memories and acquire all the knowledge of his ancestors. Jesper (11m 36s): I mean, that sounds stupid, right? Autumn (11m 37s): It sounds like, well, are you marketing to cipher or a new age? Who are you trying to target with this one? So yeah, it it's, you have to have faith in your own story idea. And like in, as you're saying, there's no bad story ideas and there's also no really stealing story ideas. There's a couple here that I'm just, like I mentioned the top of the show, I'm kind of still fond of, but as we've discovered when you were, and I were debating what we were going to write and the series that we're going to be writing together this year is that one of the ideas I actually was using in another story idea and they've come out so different. Autumn (12m 20s): I don't think you would ever realize that they sprouted from the same. See they're completely different. So I'm not that worried about giving away these ideas and someone being like writing the exact story that was in my heart and soul, because you just can't do it one, I'm already a little screwed up, but you know how I look at it, the characters I create the world I create, it's going to change any of these stories into something else. So something here is spark something in you, right? Take it, run with it. It'll be that's what 2021 is all about, follow your dreams. We just put a whole heck of a year behind us. So start off with something you're passionate about. If this is what works for you. Jesper (13m 3s): Oh yeah. I agree. I mean, just think about Tolkien as well, right. My story is about this little creature called a Hobbit. It carries a ring that has the power to rule the world. That also sounds incredibly stupid. But at the end of the day, that was an Epic tale that came out of that. Right. So, and as you say, if I sit down and write that story based on that, and you do the same or somebody else, I mean, it's going to be different stories, all of them. So Autumn (13m 26s): Absolutely. Have I ever told you, speaking of the Hobbit, the, one of my favorite stories about that is I know FA I think a father who wrote, read the story to his kids and he always changed Bilbo to a woman, a female character, because he said it made more sense. She was after this rain, I just died laughing. So there you go. Even while you're reading a classic, I wonder if his, when his kids will realize Bilbo's not a girl, what's she called? Hey, you know, some names are genderless. Jesper (14m 7s): Okay. Fair enough. Yeah, no, no. I mean, it is all about execution. So I'm going to make fun of some ideas here in my life, but, but please don't take it as trying to offend anybody. If you have a similar story or, or what do I know or thought about it, then you can certainly execute all my stuff as well. In the, in the manner of that. It'll probably, well, not maybe all of them are that good, but in one way or another anyway, but I think we needed to get that out of the way first. Autumn (14m 41s): Yeah, exactly. We are not trying to offend anyone story ideas. We're trying to make you laugh. And that's what I was going to say. Maybe they'll do some ideas here will make you chuckle. Maybe they'll free up in your head and you'll be like, ah, you'll be more willing to experiment with your own ideas. Or maybe it'll be something that just resonates and was the missing piece to a story you want to write. So, you know, we're starting off a new year, let's have some fun and inspire each other and see where it goes. Jesper (15m 8s): Yeah. So do you want to start with your number five or one depending on which order we, I, it doesn't matter. Why not? Autumn (15m 19s): It's just, it's just ideas. So we'll flip a coin. Do you want me to start with one that's very well developed or one that's pretty much a loose cannon, Jesper (15m 30s): A loose cannon first. Autumn (15m 31s): All right. So I'm going to start at the back of my list. I'm gonna start at number five and go to number one, which is definitely the most developed. Okay. So here we go. So this is an idea that I really like, but this one I haven't developed much at all. So this is one where you have a hero in, who is ultimately supremely good, like holier than Holy good. And she is up against an evil. That is the ultimate evil. And no matter how much it's tried to end or kill this evil, it can't be until it's realized that the heroin's wonderful goodness is the perfect prison for the ultimate evil. So she becomes his living jail. Autumn (16m 11s): And so I like this topic. I mean, I'll have a world setting characters, but I like this one because it explores the idea of what if you are good, but you were suddenly harboring evil inside of you. I mean, how does that affect who you are, how you act, how your friends or your loved ones perceive you. And even more than that, what happens if the evil corrupts you? If you're no longer, perfectly good, can that great evil, you're the prison for escape, but if you've been tainted by evil, hasn't the evil also tainted by good. So not to mention, you've had this guy in your head for like, who knows, how long will you secretly be friends? Autumn (16m 53s): Will you maybe be more than the friends when it's another free entity again? So I just think there's so many cool questions with this one that I've played around with it in my head for ages, but it's not gotten any further than those are some really flood funding. Cool questions. Yeah. Jesper (17m 10s): Yeah. I was curious. So is that why you put it on the list of things you would not write because you can't figure out what to do with it or what, because at, at the bottom of it, it sounds like a pretty good idea, to be honest, Autumn (17m 22s): Hey, believe it or not, it's one I shared when we were debating what to write together, but I just, yeah. I don't know where to go with it. And so someone else will, maybe they'll go somewhere with it. Maybe, you know, if I live forever, I will get to it eventually. But I mean, I have probably four or five that, I mean, we have already together. I have a series I'm writing. I have a series I'm going to write after that. I might write more, write one more series in my elemental fantasy world. So I wouldn't get to this one for probably three or four years. Maybe by then I'll have figured it out. So I'm putting it out there. So if someone else's inspired, let me know. I think it's a fun idea. And I think there's a lot of people who struggle with that idea of, you know, feeling good, but having evil inside of you or vice versa. Autumn (18m 10s): And how does that change? Who you are if people knew the secrets you kept inside? I think it's a great story idea. And if someone wants to write it, this is a good setup to try. Yeah. Jesper (18m 22s): Yeah. I don't think it's that bad either. Autumn (18m 25s): Keep that in mind if something comes to my mind. Yeah. Jesper (18m 30s): Okay. Well, I can start my list out very simple before I start going crazy. Autumn (18m 35s): Okay. Yeah. Jesper (18m 38s): This one is just very simple and straightforward, I guess, but this is like the most cliche-filled story idea I could think of and this is why it's on the list of things I will not write. So this is the heir to a throne who discovers that he is the heir, but his evil uncle wants to prevent him from getting into power and therefore get rid of him. Alright, right. That's it very simple. I mean, this being an heir to a throne stuff, I freaking hate it. Autumn (19m 13s): It's just always there. And then I really don't. I don't want to do anything coming up. Yes. I was gonna say, I have two of those coming up. So it's kind of, yeah. It's, it's something that, yeah. Maybe I think if we wrote it together, we'd have to try to find some other aspect of it, but it's well, it's, it's there because it's something that is just, it's a trope that people understand instantly so wrong with it. I suppose you no. Jesper (19m 43s): And it might also be that it's just me who is allergic to it, but I don't know about it. I just feel like I've seen it too many times. That it's it's well, like we said before, it's a trope because people like it and that's why it's repeated. But I think this particular one, at least in my mind, and this is only my opinion, of course, but in my mind it is overused. That's why I don't want to do anything with heirs. Autumn (20m 10s): It's true though. I mean, I think it's one reason game of Thrones was kind of fun because there were errors, but often the errors didn't end up on the throne, actually, most of the management dead, but all the women ended up claiming Airship and saying, screw you all. This is where I deserve to sit. And so it was a lot more chaotic and fun. And you also could see that there would have been a lot more, a lot less fighting in the world. Maybe if it was more clear who got to be the next ruler and people stopped trying to kill them off. Yeah. But also gamified Jesper (20m 42s): Thrones is it's about the politics. It is not about the air realizing, Oh, I'm the air. And I mean, that's a very different story, right? So it's not that you can't have errors in my view. I mean, in game of Thrones, it did not annoy me because that was not what the story was about. It was about the factions fighting each other and stuff like that. It was a war story. Whereas if the story is centered around, Oh, I'm the air. And now I want to take my seat at the power and then somebody tries to stop me or whatever. I mean, I'm already falling asleep. So you better move on before I, before I, Autumn (21m 21s): Yeah. Fair enough. That'll be interesting to see what you think of the two that the air is pop-up in on my ideas. Right? All right. So you already from my number four. Okay. All right. So this is one that I actually might use if I continue writing in my world of sun dark, which is where my next series that I'll be writing black throne black blood is set. So this is one about a heroine. You'll notice I have a lot of heroines. I just write that kind of story. But from an earlier time in the world that this is set. So she gets on the wrong side of a more powerful demigod and is accused of betraying him. So her punishment, one of her punishments is to be sent through time to the far future, which lands her in a world where a lot has changed. Autumn (22m 8s): She is now the only demigod big from the Dawn time of her world. And all of her friends are now miss and magic is diluted. So she needs to adapt while missing all the things that she once had and feeling unjustly accused of something that she probably, I never figured that out. Didn't do. And she's still constrained by some of the other punishments, which one of them is that she could no longer give her name or access or home. So all of these things that were how she identified herself were stripped from her. So it was kind of goes into the question of how do you seek justice when the one who punished you is long gone, or how do you reclaim a part of who you are that's been taken from you by someone that you can't ask for it to be returned from? Jesper (22m 58s): Hmm. Autumn (22m 60s): Yeah. You'll see. I like these philosophical questions. I think there's somehow I like they're buried in the heart of your stories. Jesper (23m 10s): I liked the kind of stories that also makes you think a bit about something that, you know, it, it has some, something that assess other than just introduce somebody fighting somebody else and then who they want. Right. I mean, I like the, especially like the well in as you know, already, but I like endings where it's a bit gray area, you know, sort of like maybe the hero wins, but then again, there was some stuff that like, yeah, this is not so good. I like those kinds of endings where it's a bit like th it's depends on almost how you see it. Yes. I Autumn (23m 46s): Like those kinds of stories. Yes. I mean, I definitely tend to Nobel bright, but I also like those tweaks where it's not perfect. It's not what you expect. There's a little bit of bitterness with the good, because I hate to say it in life. I think if you didn't know a little bit of sadness, you would never appreciate the wonderful, this it's. You got to have a little, you got to have that balance to understand how, when things are good, that they're really good because, you know, you know, it's gotta be good at some point because of some reason. No, I agree. I think for, Jesper (24m 19s): In terms of story ideas that you would never ride, you need to up your game a bit here, Autumn (24m 24s): You're coming up with good ideas. That was not the point to me. I don't know if I'll ever get to this one because I like the idea, but again, you know, I can only write, so this one would be three, four, five years out there. So I don't mind sharing some good ones. Maybe I misunderstood the concept, but I opened up, like I said, I, I dove into my, my dusty file of topics that I've filed away. And I pulled out ones that I just don't know if I'll get to, but I don't mind sharing. Oh, that's fair. Okay. All right. I want to hear the fun one, right? Jesper (24m 57s): So we'd like to have nations at war in our stories, right? Autumn (25m 1s): Absolutely. Yeah. So how about this one? This is, this is so stupid. So a story about a war, Jesper (25m 14s): The perspective of a mule, which has to pull, Autumn (25m 22s): I can already feel the characterization that mule is going to kick people a lot, listen to angry mules thoughts would be a challenge. I, to be at least a good short story, but that'd be really fun. And it's a good idea to just, you know, write a story from a very uncommon perspective that you wouldn't expect. I think it's adorable. Maybe it could be a children's book actually. Yeah. I'm certainly not going to write it, but maybe that could work. Autumn (26m 4s): I think so. I think there would definitely be something in it that would be adorable. And you could easily have some kind of redemption for the mule at the end, if it was a children, not quite a sour puss or gets a happy ending on a nice field. So maybe Jesper (26m 23s): Does some grandiose deed that the, even the warhorses couldn't manage, Autumn (26m 27s): That would be, Ooh, I like that. It seems like it's already a good story idea. I'm not gonna write it. Can I can see it now. So yeah, definitely. If it wasn't pick this one up, you have to let us know in the comments. I want to go read it. It sounds so sweet. Jesper (26m 50s): All Autumn (26m 50s): Right. You ready for my number three? This is another big one. Okay. Yep. All right. So this one, this is one of my early attempts to write face stories. And I actually wrote a short story called ELLs wood, which is a, it's a free, short story that you can go check out on my website if you wanted to, but maybe it'll see some ideas for you. But I think there's definitely something more that can be developed out of this one. But I doubt I'll ever get back to this one because bits might be pulled into the current story, the face stories I'm writing now in the tainted phase, but it's, I'm done with this one. So this one's free. Go for it. This is about a young girl whose grandmother discovers the garden around her cottage in Maine is actually a Haven for Pixies and fairies. Autumn (27m 37s): And the stream on the property actually marks a boundary between our world and the Fe. And that's all well and good until her granddaughter discovers this as well and meets the son of the fake queen. So, you know, afraid that her granddaughter will be stolen away to the world of the Fe. She manages to win a bargain from the queen that her son will never appear to her granddaughter as a young man, as long as she lives. So these two are still, they still managed to be best of friends because he takes the form of a run. And you know how fake promises go, especially considering yours, aren't really that long. So when she inherits the property, Def go have fun with that. Autumn (28m 20s): The son of the fake queen and the granddaughter of this old lady who has been secretly harboring ferries in her yard and, and you know, Jesper (28m 31s): Well, this is, I don't know why, but my mind always took turns to the dark side. But as soon as you said, as long as he's alive, then my, Oh, okay. Then I started thinking about, okay, well, how can we kill her? Autumn (28m 46s): So would it be a little cruel? And I never said if she was light or dark face, so this could totally go the evil step, either evil fade queen, but see, it's already inspired you. I feel very satisfied for SPE sending that one off into the world. I actually, I didn't expect that. I didn't expect to get expired. These kinds of things, but it's a 72 or three times now, already, Jesper (29m 13s): So. Okay. That's good. Good, good. Okay. Do you want another number three? Autumn (29m 18s): Yes. Let's go for yours. Jesper (29m 21s): Probably goes a bit crazy. Autumn (29m 23s): I can't wait so more off the rails. Jesper (29m 28s): So this is a story about an insane hypnotist. Okay. So stay with me. So this hypnotist is hell bent on mentally crushing the girl. He loves not quite sure why. And then somewhere in here in this story, there was a gigantic kite that is raised to rip the land of an unnatural infestation of birds. How does that sound Autumn (29m 53s): Hypnotist? A kite, maybe. I sounds very interesting. This sounds like an improv comedy skit, which Brian Cohen and I got into talking about improv a little bit. So this is definitely something that someone would throw up to you when you're doing improv and you would have to come up with something in five minutes. So I think there's possibilities here. Yeah. Do you know what? I actually have a secret? Oh, really? What, Jesper (30m 23s): Because this was a bit of a trick. It is actually a real story. Autumn (30m 26s): You're kidding. Jesper (30m 28s): No, I'm not. It is. And it's written by the author who more or less created the vampire genre. So maybe, you know, who? Autumn (30m 37s): Bram Stoker? Jesper (30m 39s): Yes. It is. Isn't that insane? The story is called the Lair of the White Worm and that it is about an incident hypnotist and there is like a gigantic Cate to rip the land of birds. Infestation could sound completely crazy. Autumn (30m 58s): Well, that's a good point. I have to go look this up when we're done now. And I, I had a little mouse tell him, tell me I might be getting a Kindle for the holidays for you all. So I will have to go see if I can find it and put it on my possibly future Kindle, even though I'm getting take going. No, no, you're not. That's what I said. Jesper (31m 18s): Yeah. I think it needs to go in there with very, very low expectations because this is what always just, it has been slaughtered than it is on list of the worst stories ever and stuff like that. So I think it's very bad. Autumn (31m 30s): Oh my goodness. Well, that makes me, you know, if I feel good, if someone like from stroke, Stoker can write a flops, Jesper (31m 42s): It should give the rest of us a bit of well hope. Right. Even if we might as well done. Well, the best of them can do that as well. So that's good. Autumn (31m 56s): Definitely. All right. So yes, I was, I think we all need to leak, loosen up occasionally, even if it's flash fiction, right. Something totally out there, because it makes you feel, remember writing can be fun and giggly and it doesn't always have to make logical sense. So it doesn't have to be very long go, right. The Jabber walkie, which is one of my favorite poems, by the way. So I used to actually have like half of it memorized. So go write, go write your own version of the Jabber walkie and, and just have fun with the boards for a little while. All right. So we're moving into my, definitely this is one that I actually plotted out kind of love story, but this is one that we mentioned the air. Autumn (32m 42s): So this is what you'll have to see how you feel about this one. We ready. So there's a more of a traditional medieval fantasy tale. That's almost our Thorin. And like I said, I picked away and there's actually two short stories. I've written called a bargains price and all his lantern light that are again on my website for free, if you would like to get inspired, feel free. But in this one, a noble has risen up and claimed the thrown away from the legitimate Royal family. The youngest child though, was allowed to live and grow as long as he swore fealty to the new King, which, you know, added legitimacy to his claim of his new throne. But the story really begins when the young Prince and his lover, who is his best friend and another noble household son, they begin to plot it to reclaim the throne that has been stolen. Autumn (33m 33s): And so there's, I've got a lots of notes in this one from the noble sons, orchestrated death, where the Prince actually stabs him to make it look real. And this frees the noble from watchful eyes so that he can go and learn to forge a King maker sword to give the Prince. And of course all the problems of loving another man while being the heir to the throne. And you're expected to become the King and marry a woman and produce heirs. So, you know, there's a little bit of a love entanglement that I thought it would be kind of a fresh take on the story. And I love the idea of sort of the Excalibur with the kingmaker store's sword. So it's kind of that kind of story. Jesper (34m 13s): Hm. You know what? That could work Autumn (34m 15s): Good. Like I said, I was intrigued enough that I wrote two short stories on it, but I haven't gone any further. I just, it didn't have enough magic. I think for me, maybe someone else can take it and add more magic, but I like the characters and that's what kept drawing me back to it. As I kind of really loves the main character is in the, I really actually liked the noble son. And he was really kind of pissed at his lover, the friends for step point so hard. I had that whole, I could hear them having the argument later, once he healed, which took several months, by the way. Right? Jesper (34m 52s): Yeah. No, no, no. I can see that. That's not too bad. Autumn (34m 57s): You forgive that it's an heir story. Thank you. Jesper (35m 0s): Yeah. Maybe we tweak it a bit, but otherwise yeah. Autumn (35m 5s): Fair enough. So what's your crazy one before, so I'm not, you know, Jesper (35m 12s): In which resources are very scarce, so people will naturally want to protect what they have. Right. Right. So far so good. That's that's sounds pretty normal up until this point. Then I think people are getting got docs to help them. Well, God, however, they probably go overboard in training the docs so that they become very vicious attack docs, all of them. So now you have a city Autumn (35m 40s): It's basically dangerous to go outside Jesper (35m 41s): Because there's just vicious stocks everywhere. I don't know Autumn (35m 46s): If there's really enough meat on that bone to very funny metaphor. I don't know if there's enough to go anywhere with that, to be honest. But I think I could definitely go somewhere. I mean, dog stories, I'd like to dog stories, there was a very good futuristic. One where dogs were intelligent enough that they were nannies, but they were like, you know, they were looking for rights of basically us citizens because they were, their intelligence had been upped that much. So I think there's always room for the people who like me love dogs as you might've heard him bark. And I touched him, sorry. Autumn (36m 26s): While we were podcasting. And some of my dogs had a bark at me. He was so indignant that I touched to the Royal hiked that, yeah, this could be a kick-ass world too. It really lives that. What if I tell you that Jesper (36m 47s): I was on board panda.com earlier today? I don't know why, but I was on there earlier today. And that was where I got this from. Autumn (36m 55s): Oh, this idea from, because it is actively sought. So that in Fort Jesper (37m 1s): Thomas, Kentucky is a state Autumn (37m 2s): Law that States, the following Jesper (37m 5s): Socks are prohibited from chasing people or other animals. Autumn (37m 11s): That's most of work. I just don't get it until you get the dog a ticket. If it chases somebody, how are you supposed to Jesper (37m 20s): I'll make sure that the dogs are chasing another animal. Don't Autumn (37m 24s): It's not just, I don't think I could understand that one. Well, yeah, that would to say my I've got a little small little thing and he used, still goes after squirrels. Like there's no tomorrow. So good luck training a dog, not to chase anything. I mean, Jesper (37m 41s): The article on bored Panda, that com is five years old. So I don't know if it's still the law there, but if we have any listeners from Kentucky, can you please let us know one why in the world was this law put in place in the first place? Autumn (37m 58s): I don't understand. I not having a dog speak. Cause that's about the only way to keep on that. Yeah. Oh goodness. I can't. Okay. All right. You ready for my final one? All right. So this one I like, but it's more of a space opera, which so even though I really liked the story and the character is I, if I wanted to write a space opera, this is not a Shaundra that I'm quite ready to branch into and I'd have to read a whole bunch of books. And I don't know if I'm going to take the time. I like fantasy space operas. I taught to find a way of putting in galactic dragons or something to make it worth it. Autumn (38m 42s): So this was my second air one. And you'll have to see what you think of this one, because it's one where I like to turn the tables on what is the common trope? So the heir of the galactic empire is a young woman, but her father would rather see her younger brother on the throne, but he can just name his son without breaking the hundreds of years of traditions. So officially, no air has been declared, even though it's assumed it will be his a daughter. So this of course leads to a lot of political maneuverings, as well as hurt family feelings, just what you want when you're the galactic empire. So until the daughter and presumed air says to hell with it and leave, she sneaks off, goes to a tiny far-flung world where she's just not known and they don't really care who the empire emperor is at all. Autumn (39m 33s): And of course, low, she discovers life without a family name is not as easy as she expected, but she earns a place eventually through probably an entire trilogy and skills and even manages to fall in love, of course, but even that idol can only last so long before the problems of an empire come calling. So this one, I do have, again, a short story written called the lost heir on my website, but I just, I did, I loved Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman did write a whole series. That was a galactic space opera. And it really, I loved it. It was one of my favorite stories for a very long time. And I think that's where the heart of this one comes from is like, I want to do that too, but space opera, star ships and worlds. Autumn (40m 21s): I don't know. Jesper (40m 26s): Mm yeah. The jury is still out. Autumn (40m 32s): I understand. But at least the one world where it's set was going to be more traditional fantasy medieval. And I still, I look at the overall story going. I wonder if I can just get rid of the whole space ship thing, so we'll have to see, and my pop-up someday, but it's so back-burnered, I'd rather write number five first and I'll even have characters or a world for that one. Jesper (40m 54s): No. Okay. Yeah. I see. Okay. I have a number five for years. Autumn (40m 59s): Will I want to hear this one? This will be fun. Jesper (41m 2s): Yeah. I might have been running out of steam here to watch the end. So I went to a plot generator dot Octa, UK, and came up with the most terrible story idea. So I thought I put that one. Yeah. Autumn (41m 15s): Excellent. I can't wait to hear it. So yeah, Jesper (41m 19s): Just generates a random plot. And this is what it says. So when a plumber from Madrid decides to start eating people, not everybody is supportive. I don't understand that part either. Then it goes on to say wherever his fortunes improve, when he's golf caddy opens the zoo the plumber remembers that he actually killed his golf caddy 10 years previously. Autumn (41m 56s): Yeah. Well one thank you for telling me there's plotgenerator.org, which I did not know. And now whenever I am bored is going to totally be there at website. I go and hang out with, but like, it makes no sense at all. Okay. Well, I mean, I guess put it into a fence, Jesper (42m 16s): You know, you can get rid of Madrid and then put some fantasy city in there and you can do some other things with the, maybe he's not golfing, he's doing something else, but it's like, first of all, why is people would they consider supporting somebody, eating people? I don't understand. And why is it that he's fortunate to prove because his golf caddy opens the zoo what has that to do? Autumn (42m 42s): Well, my mind went through well, he's, he's opening. Yeah. I don't DB. It's another way of eating people know, that's the only reason he'd be happy, easier access to dinner. Tiger. Maybe that's pretty bad. Right. Jesper (43m 12s): I also came across a post on Reddit where it was a thread about really bad story ideas. So I was just looking through to see what there was there. And somebody posted something that I read about bad story ideas, where I was like, I'm... I would actually like to read this. I don't think it's a bad idea, but if it was a book about middle earth from perspective, I think that would be cool. Autumn (43m 42s): I think it would be really cool too. It's it's the unwritten viewpoint of the entire series. I think that'd be fantastic. Yeah. Jesper (43m 50s): I don't know why that was on a list of bad ideas. Sounds cool to me. Autumn (43m 56s): I don't know. Maybe assume since it hadn't been written, it was a bad idea. Maybe he wanted someone to tell him that. No, it's actually a good idea because that would be kind of cool. Jesper (44m 5s): Yeah. I also find too really weird book titles. Autumn (44m 9s): Oh, we want to hear those. Definitely. Jesper (44m 13s): So the first one is, "do it yourself coffins!. Why you would do that, but that just really laugh so bad. Autumn (44m 30s): Another one. I also don't understand this one is knitting with dog hair. I just asked you, why would you do that? Jesper (44m 39s): I have actually seen a dog hair blanket, but I kind of agree. I was not tempted to wrap myself in it. It was one of those little arts craft things where at a, at a main festival that I was like, Oh, that's I hope did you just, you know, sit there and you have a dog that sheds a lot, and this is what your solution, I don't know. But you can't know that. I mean, some of this just made me laugh. So I, like I said, I think we all need to remember that writing. We take it serious. We, it doesn't have to be, we should remember that there are fun things. Autumn (45m 18s): You can go and have some fun stories and write to write a fun 500 word story and just be goofy and loose with it. Like I said, right? The Jabber walkie, which is all just nonsensical fun words to say, and clickety clack claws, and go ahead and do all those things that they tell you not to do with like a little ration. And it's not, it's fun. Go sing song with your five-year-old niece and remember languages. Just, you know, it's not all about being serious all the time. No, no, indeed. I mean, the main thing to take away from all of this is really that story ideas. They might sound dumb, but if we do our job as authors, really, really well, we can transform what sounds stupid into something magical, something that will sweep the reader off their feet and carry them into another realm. Jesper (46m 12s): So I think that's where we need to keep in mind. And that's really the takeaway from all of this. So I hope we at least let people laugh a bit. At least that was the intention and also inspired a few ideas as well. I don't know. That'd be great. Let us, so next Monday, we are going to share an alternative way to engage with your email list. One that autumn came up with. So see you there. Narrator (46m 46s): If you like, what you just heard, there's a few things you can do to support the Am Writing Fantasy podcast. Please tell a fellow author about the show and visit us at Apple podcast and leave a rating and review. You can also join Autumn and Jesper on patreon.com/amwritingfantasy for as little as a dollar a month. You'll get awesome rewards and keep the Am Writing Fantasy podcasts going. Stay safe out there and see you next Monday.

The AmWritingFantasy Podcast: Episode 102 – Find Self Publishing Success

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Play Episode Listen Later Dec 7, 2020 42:20

What do you really need to know to become a successful self published author? Well, not only do we have the tips for you ranging from mindset to marketing and covers to the cornerstone you won't find success without, but we have a whole course of advice, strategies, and steps ... and we are giving it to you for FREE! Plus there are a few other announcements in this episode like the release of our long-awaited worldbuilding course. So check out the episode and find the links you need below! Enroll in the brand new Crafting Incredible Fantasy Worlds worldbuilding course during its exclusive VIP launch from December 7 - 14 while it is at a super special VIP price at https://ultimatefantasywritersguide.com/worldbuilding/. And don't forget to pick up the newly released Self Publishing Success course for FREE at https://ultimatefantasywritersguide.com/self-publishing-success/! Tune in for new episodes EVERY single Monday. SUPPORT THE AM WRITING FANTASY PODCAST! Please tell a fellow author about the show and visit us at Apple podcast and leave a rating and review. Join us at www.patreon.com/AmWritingFantasy. For as little as a dollar a month, you'll get awesome rewards and keep the Am Writing Fantasy podcast going. Read the full transcript below. (Please note that it's automatically generated and while the AI is super cool, it isn't perfect. There may be misspellings or incorrect words on occasion). Narrator (2s): You're listening to The Am Writing Fantasy Podcast in today's Publishing landscape. You can reach fans all over the world. Query letters are a thing of the past. You don't even need a literary agent. There is nothing standing in the way of making a living from writing. Join two best selling authors who have self published more than 20 books between them now onto the show with your hosts. Autumn Bert and Jasper Schmidt. Jesper (30s): Hello, I'm Jesper Autumn (31s): and I'm Autumn. Jesper (33s): This is episode 102 of the Am Writing Fantasy podcast. And today we are going to talk about having success in self publishing and how to go about it. So this is something that many have been looking forward to, because it also means that when you are listening to this are brand new and a a hundred percent free self publishing Success course is available to you. People just do it. Autumn (1m 0s): We just talked about needing to celebrate, you know, we need to learn to celebrate Maura. So I'm celebrating those. I'm so excited that this course is ready and we can send it off to author's so that they can hopefully learn these things a lot straighter, faster than we ever did in FREE. And it's a fricking awesome. So I hopefully you got to check it out. Jesper (1m 21s): Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's, it's been a lot of work and is finally here. So we are going to go through some of that stuff today. And so you can get a feel for what's what's there and what, what it is that we are offering there. But, but before we get that far, how has life been Autumn? Oh, its been busy. Well, it doesn't help that I decided to work. You know, we are building these, of course I'm putting up the finishing touch. It touches on our self publishing course on the website. But I also, as I mentioned, I had joined a nano Ramo for the first time, but of course I joined at seven days late. So that was kind of a bit of a stumbling block. Autumn (1m 57s): But I, so we're recording this the week of the U S Thanksgiving. So guests I've got like what, four or five or six days that finish this up. But I guess what my current Writing I word count is a So I think right now, correct me if I'm wrong. But last time when you ask me what it was the 25. So I guess let's say you do it again because it was right at the middle of the month and you get 25 and it was at 20 like three. Okay. So six days left out of seven days left, approximately. So your probably at, let's say 35. Wow. I am so far ahead of that. Autumn (2m 37s): I am a 40k, 40,000. Jesper (2m 41s): Wow. You almost have it. Autumn (2m 43s): Yeah. I absolutely love my stats graph because you know, it shows like this is what you're supposed to be doing and mine starts off flat and then it like goes exponential. Like it hit the go button there, but I will, this week is a little busy, even though I'm going anywhere because of COVID in the us, it is an American Thanksgiving. So my husband and I were, well, it's supposed to rain, but we we're going to go to the top. We weren't going to cook her entire dinner over the campfire because we were just weird like that. But we think it sounds like fun, but we are going to have a day of eating and cooking. Some of my word count will be a little less, but nano tells me if I, as long as I keep writing a thousand words a day, I will hit my 50,000 so I can not wait to succeed. Autumn (3m 25s): Yeah, Jesper (3m 26s): Yeah. This should be no problems. Then you have almost a week left. So yeah, that should not be a problem. All right. Autumn (3m 30s): I have faith that it would, it would be, I think I can do it. So I'm, I'm excited to finish my first nano and get my badge. Yes. Congratulations to you early. Congrats. I know the next Monday is officially when we record, the next episode will be the last day so we can check in and you can see if I actually did it. I think I'm good at sabotaging myself. Occasionally just one. I think I'm going to do, you know, I've got an easy snow trip, but anyway, your, in the middle of moving and everything else, how are things over there? Yeah, Jesper (4m 6s): Yeah. At the moment we just keeping it really busy, trying to get the entire house packed up. We, we were making progress, but we're not quite there, but you know, as, as we are recording this episode, there is a little more than a week. Well, actually a week, it is the next Monday that we are going to get the keys to the new apartment. Oh. So it's getting really close now. Autumn (4m 29s): It's a yeah. Jesper (4m 31s): Well, yeah, it is. But at the same time, it also means that I feel pretty damn busy. We did play it smart. So we have, we have about three weeks on until we have to hand the house over to the new owners. So we do have some overlap, which is quite nice. If it goes completely crazy, then I guess we can manage this a bit. But yeah. But I think apart from that, all of the packing stuff, I've just been trying to put the outline together for a short story that we are going to use as a reader magnet. And I think we are on the, like the third version. Autumn (5m 5s): Yeah. Well, you know where we want this one to be special. So, you know, we're, we're working on it. Jesper (5m 14s): Yeah. It's, it's been a difficult one. You know what? I'm not going to spoil anything of course, for anybody here, but we aren't going to, or are we aiming to tell a story in a slightly different way than you would normally expect it, but you know, by having a main character who is actually trapped in one place from the beginning of the story to the end of the story, and I quite liked that, but it also poses some challenges and how we are making it interesting and engaging. So yeah. Yeah. But I think I finally figured it out. Yeah. Autumn (5m 42s): Yeah. I think So the little snippets who you are sharing with me. I can not wait to read the next versions. So, and of course its just the outline. I should say just the outline that's that's been enough, but eventually pretty soon I think we're going to get to the writing and I can not wait. Yeah. As Jesper (5m 58s): Soon as my moving activity's will allow it, then I will start dictating the first draft. Yeah. Autumn (6m 3s): Yeah. That'll be excellent. Narrator (6m 7s): Oh, a week on the internet with The Am Writing Fantasy Podcast Well Jesper (6m 13s): Fact we have not one but two courses to mention. Yeah. Autumn (6m 18s): Yeah. That's true. We have been busy bees having to weigh. Jesper (6m 23s): Yeah, I think so too. Yes. So apart from the self publish Success course, which we will come back to you shortly, it also happens that they're worldbuilding course, which we have been working for. Like, I don't know, two weeks, Autumn (6m 36s): Two years old, I think it has 22 years and it is it's the it's it's all that we have actually had one lucky winner student who is actually gone through the entire course. I think he's absolutely insane to have gone through everything that's in this course already, but he did and I give us feedback. That's kind of exciting. We already had our first student in there. Yeah, that is absolutely. Jesper (7m 2s): Okay, great. And we have everything set up, as you can imagine. Since the, our SUPPORT patron SUPPORT already went through it, all of the modules are available. Everything is ready. We did. However, the site that we want it to open the course up as a limited VIP launched only to start with. Yes. So that means that if you are listening to this episode, the day that this episode releases on the 7th of December, you will have one week, if you want in, on the heavily discounted VIP launch price. That's right. 'cause it's only going to be open until the 14th of December. And we mean that only until the 14th of December, then we are going to close it. Jesper (7m 45s): So if you wanted, you will need to be quick about it. Autumn (7m 48s): Yeah. So it's not even, it's not even that were going to just have it open for seven days. This is like a brand new course in a special price that we it's like doubling his. Once we go through this little additional stage where we're kind of still testing everything and working really closely with the students and getting feedback and tweaking things. So this is if you want this really special, awesome deal, it's only going to happen once. And it's only happening from the day. This is releasing to the 14th of December, 2020, right? Jesper (8m 22s): Yep. So we've added on the link in the show notes from where you can read about all the awesome content that is included in this course. So we can go and check that out, see if you are interested. And if you are, I would advise you to step in now because we are probably gonna launch it again in may be something like six, seven, eight months from now. But when we do, it's going to be at a much higher price point then now. So yeah, if you are listening to her, then price yourself, lucky that you know, you're listening to this podcast because it you're going to be able to save quite some money on this because if you want, Autumn (9m 1s): And it is definitely I I I did I tell you this? Because I have that little writing gig I'm doing for some of my little ghost fit in to see ghost writing gig with that sounds a little weird. I actually used the script from the worldbuilding course to develop the world and it is just perfect. It is amazing. It is so concise. Gets the job done. It makes it perfect. Developed as a story. So yeah, we did a good job. Can I get a good pet, a sinner head for this one? It is fantastic. So yes. Check it out if you like worldbuilding but you don't want to get lost or you don't know where to start with worldbuilding this is going to help you out, right? Jesper (9m 44s): Yeah. And I think it doesn't really matter if you are brand new to worldbuilding and you need to learn something or if you actually a seasoned writer who has built several Worlds that there will be some content in here that that will make you think about stuff you hadn't thought about before, because there is a lot of content. There was a reason why we worked on this for several years. Autumn (10m 6s): Yes, yes. And I can vouch for that. How many Worlds have I built buy now? And I still find this course is much more put together. It's so much more organized and it gets, it gets right to the core of what you need to do without getting lost in the details and developing stuff. You don't need to use So yeah. I am, you know, six or seven were a little Worlds under my belt and it was like, this course just changed my writing life. It's fantastic. So I guess on the first student, Jesper (10m 39s): Yeah. So Autumn, we might be crazy offering the self-publishing Success costs for free, but then they go, Autumn (10m 46s): Yeah. Yeah. You know, I, I can actually pretty much, I know I've often said from the last decade or two or three that I am definitely crazy. So no one who knows me is going to be surprised on this one. But this course is it is we could, I mean the other places that offer or something like this, its easily over a $500. This is a lot of information. It's not just like, Oh, here's a little tidbits that a lead you on is not a breadcrumb trail. This is the stuff you need to know if you want to have success. So Publishing, and I can't believe we put it together that we're going to give it, just give it away, but we're going to help out our fellow authors in this crazy. And we won't even think about this when we first started planning it, that we'd be in the middle of a pandemic in the world would be in chaos. Autumn (11m 32s): But Hey, that was a big city. Even better to get back to our Writing community and our fellow authors and say, Hey, this is what you need to know. Go do it. Jesper (11m 42s): Yeah. And I feel as well that it was only fair to be honest, to put it out for free because at the end of the day, the stuff that is in this course is stuff that it, you know, if you spend a lot of time, let's say you read a ton of blog posts, all kinds of different ones you listen to, I don't know what a million different Author podcasts like I do crazy in that way. Yes and you, you write a lot of books and you do your trial and error stuff. I mean that there is nothing in here that you can't figure out. All this stuff that is Here is best practice stuff. Jesper (12m 25s): And it is of course in tended to make sure that you don't walk in to the common pitfalls and, and you can see for yourself some time there, as I said up at the top of the episode, but at the end of the day, I felt like Y charts, I didn't quite feel that was fair to chat's money for it. Because honestly, the stuff that is in here is stuff that you can figure out that the problem that you would have then is one. You will need to wait through a ton of information and you need to figure out what of this stuff is actually something that is helpful versus what is just an old tactic that doesn't work anymore. That's one thing. And then the other thing is that you need to figure out how to structure everything so that it make sense. Jesper (13m 10s): And basically what we've done here is that we've done a whole of that for you. Right we read it out, all the stuff that you don't worry about that go on with that. Some of the stuff that is in this module, it's only the stuff that we feel like, this is what you need to know, and this is what you need to concern yourself with everything else you can ignore. And we've also Removed all the stuff that is more like a, yeah, this, this is what's, wasn't a tactic that you used to work. For example, we, we have a quite some time or in one of the models, we spent quite some time talking about a Permafree because that's also one of the things that has been very much up in the past, but like it used to work on this. Jesper (13m 50s): It's not that it doesn't work anymore, but it it's not as effective any more. So we also touch upon that and so on and so on. So I feel like this is a good thing to, to give people for FREE and of course it's well, we are also showing you can do it for free. Then we're doing it. We are taking our own medicine because we always talk about the importance of building email lists and for it to be able to build an email list, you need some reader magnets, and this is how reader magnet, all right. That's what it is at the end of the day. We are the only thing that you have to pay, quote unquote, is that it does require you to sign up a, with your e-mail to get access to the course. Jesper (14m 31s): And that is also not only because we use it as a read the magnet, but it is actually also because there is a lot of information in this course and we are going to drip, feed it to you. So you're not going to get a ton of a video course modules thrown in your face, the students as sign up, because I think it is more common or it's, that's not something that I think that's something that I know, but it it's more common than not that people sign up for courses, especially just like with the Permafree books, if we don't have to pay for it, most people won't go through it. That's true. And even people who pay for courses, don't go through the courses that they pay for. So the chances would be that if we just gave you, okay, here it is, eh, have access to it. Jesper (15m 14s): Here's the, here's your access to have fun with it. Chances are you would never go through it. So that's why we decided to drip feed it one session at a time and it's going to run approximately over months actually before you're going through. But then you can go through it slowly. Just one, one, one session every second day at your own pace there. And of course you could just save the emails if you don't have time now, and you can watch them later, that's up to you. But that's how we felt it would be best, but we have 10 modules ready for you. And there's also a bonus module, but I was thinking we could go through the 10 modules or some sort of explain what it is, but yeah. Now I've been talking. Autumn (15m 55s): Yeah, that's all right. I mean, you have to just have it and that's what that is, but yeah, that's, that's exactly what we wanted. Yeah. It goes out actually 30 to two days with two days between everything because, and I know that because I just set up all the rules, like we said, I was still building some of the back end stuff because that's part of my role in this and this thing we got going on. But yeah. So lets go through it. I think it will be exciting to let people get an idea of what we have jam-packed in this. And if it is it's free, the cost is your e-mail because we want you to have access to it and we are going to guide you through it so that you're not overwhelmed and that you actually do it is so easy to fall off the wagon and get frustrated. Autumn (16m 39s): So these are good reminders that, Hey, this next video is ready. Go ahead and give it a try and we'll make sure that we're there to help you out. And yeah, hopefully we get to know each other a little bit too. Yeah, yeah, Jesper (16m 50s): Yeah. And in truth, and this is the same thing that we preach. We've said it multiple times in the past episode, on this podcast as well. You know, if, if your readers and not willing to sign up for you, an email address to get a free story from you then, well, they probably wouldn't be interested in anything else you're going to say anyway. So I think the same thing applies to you or do you know if you're not willing to give you an e-mail address to get access to the course, fine. That's completely up to you, but that is the only requirement there is. And I promise you that it's going to be a ton of good stuff in there, but it's a completely up to you if you want to do it or not. Yes. Autumn (17m 25s): Yeah. And we do, once you sign up, you get the first module right away. So you don't have to wait two days to start. Yeah. So Jesper (17m 33s): Yeah, but what your one, lets just talk about that first. So as I said, it was 10 modules. So let's do them one by one here in module one. It is really about the, Well the lies that you are telling yourself. And so we are going to dispel some of the myths around publishing and we try to share our reflections on what it takes to be a professional writer. And a, I just thought that when we put this together, that was a good starting point from what your one. Yeah. Autumn (18m 3s): Yes. I agree. I I because the title of it even is why 2% of authors succeed in 98% don't so, you know, we talk about the myths of what people think writing is what the mindset is that's going to help you. And what, what is the reality of writing and self publishing? Because I know talking especially self publishing, you mean so many people that are determined to go to the traditional route or are you still think there's a stigma around self publishing and you know, we talk about what is really going on with all of that in today's world. Well, not COVID world, but you know what I mean? The reality is a famous author. It's a, it's a good foundation. You need to know kinda sets the tone for the rest of the course. Jesper (18m 44s): Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. And module two basically built on module one a because it's a mindset module. Yeah. And then you might ask why, why don't we put in a mindset module? Yeah. Autumn (18m 59s): Oh, I see you. That makes total sense to me. But yes, I will ask that. Why would we do a mindset module Yesper? Right. Jesper (19m 6s): Well, because it is actively so that nothing, absolutely nothing of the stuff that we teach in this course makes any difference whatsoever. Unless you approach your author career with the right mindset, that's probably the best answer I can do it. Yeah. Autumn (19m 24s): Yeah. I, I totally agree. I mean, I think I just saw something today, even about, Oh, something about making it into a best seller. It's like the one Oh one mindset that's different between successful authors and non-successful and if it was a mindset that was the key phrase, it was in believing at it and understanding the ropes, understanding what was required of you and not putting effort where you really don't need it or thinking that it's so impossible, you'll never achieve it. So we break that down and give you two sessions in module two, you know, we looked at what a professional writer is and what you're doing. And we talk about how to be built that into a career. Autumn (20m 6s): So whether or not you want a career, but at least the information is there because you know, I know most people that are kind of secretly it gets under your skin and you get a little addicted. I did just on Instagram admit when I listed my nano right. Mo word count that I might be addicted, but please don't send an intervention to me because it's going to interrupt my writing time. So Jesper (20m 30s): Is it the one mindset to write it? Autumn (20m 33s): Oh, it might be Well I at least rural. All your books are on the Hill. The strategies on the bookstore is that it would work. I couldn't help myself, but Jesper (20m 44s): We also introduced the concept of 1000 true fans and in this module and I absolutely love this concept. I came across in quite some years ago, but I really loved it ever since because it makes, you know, if you are thinking about, okay, I need to, I want to build a career and then I need to find a custodian readers out there to read my books. And, but this concept of 1000 true fans, once you start breaking it down, then everything doesn't feel as overwhelming anymore. It feels achievable. That's not to say that this is easy. It's not going to be in the short term a quick fix, a get rich scheme thing because it's not, it takes time to build through a true fans, but it's not about getting it 1000 people onto your email is to us about developing true fans. Jesper (21m 33s): That's not an easy, it takes time. Yeah. But still it's a lot more achievable than thinking. I need to get a a hundred thousand people onto my email list. Right. That does not feel achievable. Yeah. Autumn (21m 43s): No. And I you introduced me to this a thousand true fans and I know it was just spewed it to my husband, whatever he gets frustrated. Cause he's a crafter and building things with his hand. And so I've passed it on to him and saying you don't need a million people that are selling to you just need to build up these people that are going to be with you through thick and thin. And I think that's the important thing is that again, it teaches you that you can go and join some of these group organized where you're going to all, everyone's going to get 3000 or 5,000 or 10,000 emails out of this thing. Is that really the right method? You know, that's something to consider and you can weigh in or you're trying to build a relationship or are you going to get that? Autumn (22m 24s): If you split 5,000 readers between 20 different authors, I have to admit if I was one of those readers and I was suddenly getting 20 emails a day from different authors, it be hitting him and subscribe. Jesper (22m 35s): Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So we will dive deep into all of that stuff and module two. Yes. Then model three is where we sort of get your set up, meaning that we share information on building your author platform. We've actually touched upon that in a fairly recent episode on the podcast as well. We did, but we also talk about the reader magnet in module three, what it is and how to leverage it a reader magnet for your benefit. And I just a set in a short while ago here or a moment ago, rather than the courses are really active. So you get to see how that works. Autumn (23m 16s): Yes. Nothing like learning by doing or doing by learning. And one of the two. Jesper (23m 23s): Yeah, I know. So that's good. Yeah. Autumn (23m 25s): Session three, module three is a good, it has two different sessions. So we talk about the Author platform. We explain it in how to leverage it, to help build your Success. But also then the second one dives into the reader magnet. So you can turn on some of those browsers and to hopefully your first few true fans, hopefully. Jesper (23m 46s): And th there is a bit about social media in here as well on sort of where to focus in and where not to focus in and stuff like that. So a lot of good stuff in module three, a module four is all about understanding the market in which you operate as an author. So this means that if you're trying to sell books online, you also have to understand how the on-road online retailers actually work. So that, that sounds pretty important. Yeah, Autumn (24m 16s): It doesn't, it, it does. I was going to say, this is the one that when I was first published in 2012, I wish I had had this because there was a, well, there was so much, I mean, what Amazon eBooks had been out for a year or two when I first published. So it was still pretty much, no one had any instructions at all ever, but now there's instructions out there that are so confusing, but this is like, this is my go-to now about how it all works and how it affects sales, what you need to look like, what is the deal is selling books online and how does that work? Takes the mystery out of it. And it's very factual and easily understood. Autumn (24m 56s): So you get an idea of what is out there on what you're up against and what you need to know before you start doing all this. Jesper (25m 3s): And there was also some information about how to drive traffic to your books and also the factors that will affect your sales demote. So that also sounds pretty important. Autumn (25m 14s): Yes, absolutely. This is it. Like I said, this was the one module that if I could have had, if I can send this back in time, give it to one of my characters in my face story. I'm writing now who can travel in time. I want him to take this back to me, please. Jesper (25m 30s): I tell you. And I think if it, if it was me, I would more take module five back, you know? Autumn (25m 35s): Oh yeah. Modern five is fine. Jesper (25m 38s): Not that different, but from what you will for, because it is also about understanding the online retailers, but with module five, we actually went beyond what we are talking about in module four. And we dive deep into Amazon and you might have even asked why is that important? Autumn (25m 59s): Alright. So why is it important to understand Amazon? Well I simple to do with it. Yeah. Jesper (26m 7s): Well, 90% of sale, populists authors, all kidding aside Here but 90% of all authors, they make them a majority of the income from Amazon when it comes to book sales, most of it comes from Amazon. So we felt that it was important to cover this particular site in much more detail. So we give you information on the Amazon, a nine algorithm and how that worked. It actually is not one algorithm. It's like thousands of them that works together. But when we talk about that and how that algorithm works, we talk about keywords. We'll talk about categories, how to an Amazon bestseller and all of that. Good. Autumn (26m 46s): Yeah. And even if you should go exclusive with Amazon, there are some pluses and there are some medicines minuses. So we look into those two, but yeah, that's true. This is this one when I was, especially when I was building it, I thought of this one as sort of like the guts of the course. Not because it's a five out of 10, but just because of the information that's in, it, it, it just felt to me like, this is, this is the meat of the entire course. And when you get here, you're like, Oh, okay, I'm paying attention to this. Hopefully Jesper (27m 19s): It still requires people to actually go through the modules, but a Yes module six. That's one of your favorite so far. Autumn (27m 29s): That is, I love it because it's a book covers. I love book covers there. They make me happy. So this is all the advice you need on where to get book covers. What makes a good book cover. And the most important thing is how you can tell whether or not it's a good book cover or not, or you're being ripped off. So I think that is just, I don't know, to me, to me that it doesn't have to, it's not because I'm a graphic artist are that I've wanted it to be an artist since like my first earliest memory I think is of drawling. So it has nothing to do with those things. But as an author of a book cover is your number one marketing image. Autumn (28m 9s): This is going to represent your book your months and months of work to readers in like six seconds, two seconds. So as soon as they see it and it represents all of that work and love, and it should be the most amazing, powerful and marketing savvy image that you can get. So yeah, module six is, is definitely one of my favorites. Jesper (28m 34s): Yeah. Yeah. And then there was actually as well as a very, very nice short cut in module six for how you can almost add a glance, get to see the commonalities between covers in your Shaundra so that there is some nice, a quick cheat tricks in there that makes it just a ton more easy than going through an Amazon top a hundred list than clicking all the different book. So yeah, there's some nice stuff. And what you were six that you'll find very useful. Yeah, Autumn (29m 7s): Definitely. I highly recommend that one. Jesper (29m 11s): Yeah. So if we say that module six on book covers is probably the number one success factor when it comes to selling a book, it's probably its cover. Then module seven is the second most important success factor because here we discussed the book description. Yeah. Autumn (29m 28s): Yeah. So this is so important to get Right I I've even recently learned another trick en book descriptions. I, I think this is one thing that as the market changes, as you grow as an author, you, you still learn more about this, but this module really breaks down and only, you know, the important things that are out there that you can learn, but some of our own techniques and tactics, I mean, you've only written an entire book on how to write a fantasy book description. So you put a lot of that into this much. Like I know you did. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Jesper (30m 7s): Yeah. It's a, it's a good module. And I think it's, it's actually much harder to write a good book description. And then you think, well, everybody listening to this who have tried we'll know that is, that is true. I mean, one thing is writing a a hundred thousand word story where all of a sudden, when you have to put everything down into 200 words and it has to be really engaging well, then it becomes really difficult. Autumn (30m 30s): So even just your tagline can be agonizing for a days. As I know, because I'm trying to write three books descriptions in the next week or two. And I had been working on them for a week or two, and that's a hell of a nice thing. So this leaves breaks it down and it gives you tips and it helps you out so that, you know, like I do, when you haven't quite gotten to the level, you'd need your book description to be at, because it's got to be up there and it's got to be powerful and it's not easy to get to where you need to be. No I indeed. But yeah. Jesper (31m 5s): Yeah. I'm thinking module eight. Autumn I'm thinking that's probably not one of your favorite modules. Yeah. Autumn (31m 12s): I love spreadsheets or are you kidding? I don't think you do. You know, it's not that well, it's so important though. So advertising, but yeah, this is my wish list that as soon as I have enough spare money and I'm hiring a virtual assistant, this is what I'm hiring them for. Of course I have you. But yeah, even you shouldn't have to be doing a spreadsheets all day every day. So module eight is on advertising, which is so important. Jesper (31m 43s): Yeah. Well basically at the end of the day, we cannot have a course on self publishing without talking about advertising. That's just not possible. Autumn (31m 53s): No, not at all anymore. I mean, I do remember I still, I need to stop selling the, like the old, old widow in the room and say, Oh, I have ever done to her back in 2012 when I was young, when I was joking. And I knew that he published author, Oh my God, it was so easy to sell books on Amazon, your run, like a, KTP like five free days. And you get 10,000 downloads. I mean, it was like you could sneeze and a cell, a book because there was like less than a million on Amazon back then. It was fantastic. Now you need to advertise. Yeah. You just need to advertise whether it's paid ads or doing something through some of the major advertisers that sent it out to their reading list, you needed to run ads. Autumn (32m 36s): And so you need module eight because if you don't know where to start advertising, I won't say, I don't know where to start. I just know spreadsheets and it will help you get yourself organized and your head on straight in, you will not waste tons of money and tons of time, because time is your writing time. It's your fun time. It's your family time. You don't want to waste your time. And it it's, it's just a Jesper (33m 3s): Pay to play market nowadays. And that, that Autumn (33m 6s): Is just whether we like it or not. That's what it is. Jesper (33m 9s): Yeah. So obviously, Nope, no, maybe a few of us, or maybe none of it is maybe it's not true to say none of us, but right now, Autumn (33m 18s): Fewer of us has endless funds 2.2 ads. Right? So now what do we need? Some sort of a cost-effective Jesper (33m 24s): It's a good way of going about things and that's what we try to share with you. Autumn (33m 28s): Yes. It's a very good module. So I would say the module nine is one of the funnest ones in the entire course, right. Because who doesn't love launching a new book. So we actually tackled that as well in the self publishing course, because it's a lot more than just uploading your files to Amazon. I wish it was not easy, but it's not. Oh, when I was young that each year, really? I don't remember that. Was it that what you're saying? Jesper (33m 60s): So in 2012, if you just upload a book and then it sells, right. Do you don't want to worry about that? Yeah. Autumn (34m 4s): Oh, it did it, you know, you didn't have to worry about lunch. This is probably why I still sometimes go, Oh right. I am supposed to be putting time into this. I still eat struggle. I saw some places to do like a seven month, a month launch sequence. And we have consolidated. Ours is down a little bit less than that, but there are still times when I get, you know, I start booking out my calendar and my schedule and see when the next book comes out going, Oh shoot, I should've started this two weeks ago or so I would probably need to watch module nine. Again, myself. Jesper (34m 36s): It is. But at the end of the good thing is with, with this cost that it's going to be there forever. So once you have signed up for at least, at least as long as an internet exists. So if the internet internet is gone, then I can promise you you're access to the course of any more. But as long as there is an intimate, then you can always come back to these modules and what's them later on. If you need to revisit something, it it's just going to be there forever. Autumn (34m 58s): Yes. So it will be painful part is the fact that you have to wait two days between each session, the first time. But once you get through them all, there will always be there and we won't make you wait. EVERY I again, indeed. Yes. So yeah, Jesper (35m 14s): Once you've gone through much aligned and you have a right. Yeah. Autumn (35m 18s): Final module, 10 that's right. And this one, I like the title of it. The cornerstone you cannot succeed without, so yeah. What do you want to elaborate on this special, last module in our group? Yeah. Jesper (35m 33s): Yeah. I can. And I always feel like a, having like a, a two second pause here, allowing the listener too. Guess what it is, because if you have listened to this podcast for a longer while I think that you can guess, what is it, what can it be? What could be the cornerstone of your author career that you cannot live without? What could it be? Autumn (35m 54s): I can do the jeopardy dude, because I think I should have had something planned. I mean, 4 (36m 0s): Do you guessed it? Yes. The email list. Yeah. Autumn (36m 4s): Yeah. Congratulations yes. This is the important one where, you know, just to get the course, you'd join our email list. This is what it takes. Jesper (36m 16s): Yeah. And module 10, we'll go over the basics of a setting up e-mail list. And what do you need to be mindful about? And once you're done with that, you're basically good to go. But in addition, if you want a lot more help on email list building and know all the details of it, then we have to actively S will build an entire additional cost that covers everything you need to know about running an email list, how to set it up, what to do, how often to send emails, what to write about what you should be thinking about for your shop, that subject lines, AB testing, everything is in there that will be explained on the back. Jesper (36m 58s): End of module two, if you want to. But that one is one that you have, you we'll have to pay for that if you want that. Autumn (37m 5s): Yeah. But at the top of this record, this podcast, this episode, you said there was two courses we were talking about. So this was like a third, this, this number three. Yes, we are crazy. Jesper (37m 18s): Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And you wonder why we've said so many times that we are a bit busy. Yeah, Autumn (37m 23s): Yeah, yeah. Oh my goodness. And that's all happening in November, December in 2020. When's the asteroid coming. I mean really? Oh Well but yeah. So we go into, we talk about a special extra module, but we also link to a very amazing chorus called master mailing lists. And so that really, if you need help developing your mailing list, if you don't know where to start, if your stumbling, if your pause or having trouble with interaction's and turning those people who were downloading downloading, you're a reader magnet into true fans. If that's where really where your struggling, you want to take a look at this course, this is going to help you out, get everything organized, to give you some emails, to even start with and get you going to be building your fans and, you know, building your career. Jesper (38m 14s): Yeah. And it's going to have swipe, swipe copy as well. So you can basically take our stuff and copy and pasted all most and make it a tween, get a bit too, make it your own But. But it's going to have everything you need in here. So a that, that, but yeah, there is no reason to go on and on about that. You'll you will see that once you get to module seven and it's going to be explained there, so you should just enjoy the other nine modules. And then what else? Module tendency, if it's something for you or not afterwards. Autumn (38m 42s): Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think that's it, that's the 10 modules of the self publishing Success course that we're offering For did we mention FREE a Yeah even though it costs an e-mail list Jesper (38m 57s): Or e-mail address and I should just say Autumn (38m 59s): Yes. And if you want to actually, you know, get the link to the course, you have to provide a real email. You can say you can't do a fake one. Its kind of important to make sure that you actually get to the right website after your sign up. Yeah. Jesper (39m 12s): Yeah. Well otherwise the links to the individual modules will be sent to a fake one. So yeah. It's going to hurt yourself. Autumn (39m 20s): And that will be silly. Yeah. Jesper (39m 22s): But I think whether you are a beginner or you, if you are an author with a handful of books or a series, a puppet already, but do you find yourself struggling or you will get the advice that you need to get your own author career on the right track and, and keep it growing. It is not to say that this course in any way is a shortcut is not a short-term. I am going to figure it all out now and then everything will be wonderful. There is work involved in these modules and you need to do the work. And the only one who can do the work is you. If you don't do it, you won't see any results and it's not going to happen tomorrow, either. It is. It's a long term. Jesper (40m 4s): Let's say it's a long term activities that you need to take care of. It will pay off in the long run, but not tomorrow. And, and you need to understand that. Autumn (40m 13s): Yes, absolutely. And I think to me, even, you know, looking at this chorus as a published author, with 20 bucks out of our own, there's just so much with it. You have life and two things going on in your you're constantly juggling so many things. Whether you are a full time author or your working to become one and you start a job, its easy to not be up to speed on something or to let something fall by the wayside. So in this course, in this platform is a good layout to remind you of all of the things. If you feel like you've let something go on advertising, I'm me and or any other aspect that you need to work on, you can just go back and look at the module and look at it and say, all right, this is where I needed to get, you know, keep yourself reinvigorated and get it going and keep yourself focused. Autumn (40m 60s): And that's, to me, that's almost, that's a secondary benefit. Once you go through all at once, you were probably going to come back to it and remind yourself like annually going all right. That's where I need to work on this year. That's my goal. Jesper (41m 13s): Yeah. So the sign up link is in the show notes. So you can go ahead and sign up right now and get started right now. So the cost is available to them. Autumn (41m 24s): Yes. We got to die and I'm going to go, I'm going to jump ahead to the future where it's done and I don't have any more building to do now. It's all it's so close. Just a few more tweaks and we'll be set. I Jesper (41m 34s): Know we'll make it absolutely next Monday. It is all about renaming and rebranding it a series of what do we need to be mindful about and what can you expect in terms of results? So see you there. Yes Narrator (41m 50s): Like what you just heard. There's a few things you can do to SUPPORT THE AM WRITING FANTASY PODCAST please tell a fellow Author about the show and visit us at Apple podcast and leave a rating and review. You can also join Autumn in Jasper on patrion.com/am Writing Fantasy for as little as a dollar a month. You'll get awesome rewards and keep The Am Writing Fantasy Podcast going to stay safe out there and see you next Monday.

E110: Empowering Beliefs With Shaundra Connelly

Life Well Lived.

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 25, 2020 23:59

Our perception of things and our hidden negative beliefs bring exactly that experience to us. By changing your beliefs to positive and healthy, you will begin to recreate your reality. Life is short so make sure you choose the reality that is in line with your truth and highest good.Shaundra Connelly shares more on this profound truth on Life well lived by Omobola Stephen. Tune in.

business strategy mindset belief empower self improvement connelly morning mindset empowering beliefs shaundra enterpreneurs personaldevelopmentpodcast

What's up Wednesday with Life Coach Shaundra D.

Sunshine From Heaven

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 23, 2020 24:38

Hello and welcome to What's up Wednesday! Today's Episode the Sunshine welcomes my friend and Motivational speaker, life coach, host of the Podcast Do it Afraid and so much more Ms. Shaundra D. She talks about how God has favored her life and her hunger to love on God's people. I pray that this episode blesses you! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/melvin-j-nichols/message

What were WE talking about ep. 02

designers crm graphic designers business mindset website connect design business business show launch strategist shaundra

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 19, 2020 37:26

Shaundra and I sit down and talk about food,hysteria over masks and Jada and Wills entanglement issues

wills shaundra

The Design Business Show 099: From Designer to Launch Strategist with Shaundra Howard

The Design Business Show

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 29, 2020 19:42

Shaundra Howard is a graphic designer turned launch + operations manager for mission driven course creators and coaches. She takes the moving parts and pieces of a launch + business back end and puts them together in super easy roadmaps for the whole team to follow. Here's what we covered on the episode: How we originally met Shaundra on Episode 14 of the Design Business Show Shaundra shares how she went from doing everything graphic design to managing the business and operations side of her clients' businesses Why having a graphic design background has helped Shaundra with managing the business and operations side of things How Shaundra started learning more about how people run their businesses online The story of Shaundra's first client who needed help with her website, blog images, etc. and also needed help running the back end of her business which Shaundra helped with How Shaundra knew enough about CRM systems to get by and started helping her client with her course launches and membership launches Shaundra shares that she learned about sales funnels, generating leads and how to get people interested in your offer while helping her first client How it was hard for Shaundra to let go of design but decided to so she could create a clear message for her audience Shaundra explains how she finished up design projects for clients and then stop offering design services Shaundra's launch services include launch mapping and launch management The clients Shaundra works with and how she gets them through social media, client outreach or referrals Shaundra shares what she's learned over the years, such as making sure you work with people that you will work well with and understanding that there is room for everyone, we all have our place. How Shaundra priced her services when she first started out versus now How Shaundra struggled with asking for the amount of money she wanted to make What you get with Shaundra's $5,000 offer, where she'll create a launch map and manage for you What you get with Shaundra's intensive offer where she creates a detailed launch map for you and your team How Shaundra breaks down her launch maps in four phases Connect with Shaundra on her website or her Instagram Links mentioned Shaundra's Website Connect with Shaundra on Instagram Episode 14 of the Design Business Show Like what you heard? Click here to subscribe + leave a review on iTunes. Click here to join the free community! Let's connect on Instagram!

What were WE talking about ep. 01.

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 17, 2020 44:58

Shaundra and I talking about Whatever pops up.

women growth voice coaching confidence tips boss female corporate empowerment empower exclusion uninvited shirley chisholm embarassing shaundra

Being Uninvited to the Meeting

UnSilenceHer

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 9, 2020 40:12

Shirley Chisholm famously said..."If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair." No matter what level, we show up at our organizations bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, excited to bring value, make a difference and establish our seat at the table. But what happens when the seat that you've worked so hard to establish is jeopardized because you've excelled outside of the box that someone else has pre-defined for you? Chelsea and Shaundra discuss what it means to always bring your A+ game to your organization, but every now and then you encounter a situation where your intellect, drive, and VOICE appear to make others uncomfortable.

The AmWritingFantasy Podcast: Episode 63 – How much should you read while writing a book?

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 9, 2020 46:57

The advice goes "To be a writer, you need to read." That's great, but how much should you be reading while writing and exactly what sorts of things? Autumn and Jesper break down this sage advice with some practical tips, a bit of insight, and even a dose of statistics! Tune in for new episodes EVERY single Monday. SUPPORT THE AM WRITING FANTASY PODCAST! Please tell a fellow author about the show and visit us at Apple podcast and leave a rating and review. Join us at www.patreon.com/AmWritingFantasy. For as little as a dollar a month, you'll get awesome rewards and keep the Am Writing Fantasy podcast going. Read the full transcript below. (Please note that it's automatically generated and while the AI is super cool, it isn't perfect. There may be misspellings or incorrect words on occasion). Narrator (1s): You're listening to the amwritingfantasy podcast in today's publishing landscape, you can reach fans all over the world. Query letters are a thing of the past. You don't even need a literary agent. There is nothing standing in the way of making a living from writing join to best selling authors who have self published more than 20 books between them. Now onto the show with your hosts, Autumn Birt and Jesper Schmidt. Jesper (30s): Hello. I am Jesper and I'm Autumn. This is episode 63 of the amwritingfantasy podcast and we are going to discuss how Narrator (41s): much authors should read when Jesper (43s): writing and I think to should become quite interesting. It is. It's a, it'll be a fun one to debate because I know what they say, I know what I do and I know what I want to do. So this will be fun to try to figure out which is the proper thing to be doing. Yeah. If there is such a thing as a proper thing, because I think that's part of the conversation here as well. You know? Very true. Yeah. That's something we can, uh, we can discuss a bit here today. Absolutely. But first, how is your week here? You had a very busy weekend, you hinted out. Yeah. It, it almost feels like every weekend is busy at this eye, but, uh, but at least, uh, yeah, this, this past weekend was, uh, was quite a, quite busy in a alter, quite tiresome because am I went to take my certificate so that I could also function as a linesman in soccer games. Oh, that's exciting. So that's like an additional, yeah, it's like an additional referee cost that you need to take, uh, and you need to pass it. Um, so it took like, it took all day, so you meet at nine o'clock, uh, and the, and you're done in five, so it's like a normal work day. But um, but during that time you also have, you know, you sit for a couple of hours and do, doing, you know, repetition of the theory of, because of course, because I'm already a referee, I know the theory already. So you do like repetition of it with the linesman specific parts and, and go through all that once again. Um, and then we went to an actual game where we then were linesman, you know, so each of us had like 10, 10 minutes in each half, uh, where we were linesman in a proper game to practice, which was quite nice. But the thing was that it was like a, was the wind was howling and it was raining and it was nasty. So it was, yeah. And it was really cold, really raining and, and, and, and, and you only have 10 minutes, you know, and then the other guys who also took the certificate have their 10 minutes so far for like half an hour out of the 40 minutes and eat hot. Autumn (3m 1s): It needs half. You were just standing there in the freezing cold, raining, you know, it was not very pleasant, but that doesn't I, I mean I'm in Vermont, but you're in Denmark, so I'm thinking, I think your latitude is further North, Southern thing. Ah, that just rain in February. And so, yeah. Jesper (3m 22s): How are you feeling? Do you have a cold or he sounds like he doesn't use cell. Okay. No, no, I am no, no, I, I F I feel okay. I mean am okay. We did. God, we did get really wet and soaked because otherwise also afterwards, uh, you have to do, that's part of the certification that you have to, you had to pass a modified Cooper test. I don't know if you're familiar with those. And that was basically like, no, it's, it's Cooper test. It's like a run test that was, I don't remember if it's like from the sixties or seventies, but it was developed for the U S military. Um, so I think normally in a Cooper test, if I remember correctly, you're running 12 minutes and you, it's basically like a max test. So you just run as fast as you can in 12 minutes. And then it's used to, normally it's, it's then being used to that. You built your training schedule off of that, um, so that you can build up your stamina and become more fit and whatnot. That's how to use it in the military. But, but here we are doing in like a modified one. So instead we have to run a two kilometers in 10 minutes. So that means that you have to, you have to run fairly fast, otherwise you're not gonna make it. Um, and, and we did this of course we'd like in with the wind, you know, right in our faces. Like it was really strong headwind. Um, so it was a why I was, I was done for afterwards. Oh man. So, uh, yeah, so yeah, they, it was a, it was good. I passed everything so I also have that certificate, so that was nice. Uh, but uh, but other than that, then I must say when I got home Friday evening, I was very, very tight. So I was pleased to be honest at the, this morning or this week, the kids are off school for the winter holidays. So I was actually quite pleased about that because that meant that I could sleep in this morning, which was quite nice instead of doing an early school run. So that's good. That's good. Then hopefully they slept in and didn't like, decided to get up at the crack of Dawn and get into things. Now, you know, the kids a bit older now, sorts of data, they don't get, they don't get up late, but they don't get up early items. So it's like this eight o'clock, something like that at half past seven, something like that. So it's okay. It's enough that I can slip in as well, so, so that's good. So, but we're planning to, uh, to take them to the swim this Friday, Autumn (5m 59s): so, uh, yeah. And, and on Sunday as well, my youngest has, he ha he's attending a soccer tournament that it has to have to go with him for on this coming weekend. So it's like, yeah. You know, next weekend is specious. Well, yeah, sounds, uh, you definitely hear running around, but Hey, you're, you know, parents and plus you have other things you're working on with the soccer and so yes, that will keep you busy. Yeah. Yeah. But I think you, last time you, when we recorded, you were talking about doing the renovation and whatnot, so you probably been pretty busy too. Oh yeah. Just trying to, I think if, um, uh, if I ever have to pick up a pick ax again, I hope it's not to be lobbing at frozen ground and some big boulders. And we also had some concrete, uh, posts that were supporting the posts that were supporting the roof for the overhang where we're building a, a little room below it. And yeah, I just as a writer, as has anyone who likes to work with her and I actually anyone, no one wants to be sore but my elbows and my wrists and my hands, I just, I feel this, I feel this a lot so I'm, I'm tired but Hey, we're up to the point. I have the floor joists in its level. I think I'm done with the frozen ground on the pick axing and I have just one more sheet of a floorboard plywood to put down and then literally the subfloor is done and I can just worry about the walls and after frozen floor, um, February again, February outside yet frozen groundwork. I am, I'm ready for just would, but we have a storm coming tomorrow and then it's going to be nice for a little while. So we just have to cover up our, our lumber and stuff cause we don't need it coated in ice and then hopefully we'll get the upset the walls done and the sheeting done. So next week it's supposed to be really crappy and AC and rainy and you know like February, winter kind of stuff. But if we can at least have the outside sheeting on and the walls up then who cares? You know, we can worry about citing it when the weather's have decent. Well you can just work inside at that point. So it's very close. Very excited. It almost sounds actually like that you have it colder than we do here. To be honest. I don't know. We'll have snow and ice because we don't have that. Oh yeah, no, we have snow and ice. We had am the temperature the other day was zero degrees when we woke up and that's Fahrenheit here. Yeah. So that's, that was fair night. It's am just about freezing every day. Usually like in the afternoons it'll go above freezing, but most of the all night and most mornings and evenings are below freezing. So it's kind of cold. Yeah, it sounds like it. Well, once we get into talking the temperature Jesper (8m 56s): and the weather, maybe it's am Autumn (8m 59s): tend to move on. Jesper (9m 3s): Well, we go on the internet with the amwritingfantasy podcast, so we have a lot of new join us on Patrion. Uh, so I just wanted to give, each of the machines are out here. Uh, so we have a Autumn (9m 16s): Rena handwork, hand, Beck, something like that. Nina Jimson, Brian Jacob pits, and a fellow Dane. Do you want to try to pronounce her name? Autumn no, I'm not even, I don't want you to feel insulted. I've already seen you writing notes to each other in, in Danish. If so, I just, yeah, no, that's your side. You're good. I trust your pronunciation. So that was a Kasina fuck here. Oh, very nice. That's, that's what I'm going to have to work on. That's really good. So how do you say hello in Danish though? I want to know that one. Well, you, you just say hi. Hi. You don't have another word, like Hey, uh, almost like English, but you just say hi. Hi. Okay. Yeah, this is, it's not like French with bones or anything. All right. So I can say hi. Oh, no, no. Yeah. Excellent. Well, good. I quite easy. We should do a word every single week. I'll eventually catch on. Oh, maybe. Jesper (10m 15s): But, uh, but at least I wanted to on behalf of, of both myself and autumn of course to say, uh, thank you so much for the support that you're offering to the amwritingfantasy. Podcast you know, it's, it's this kind of support that helps us keep the lights on, uh, when it comes to this podcast. So please know that your pledge really makes a difference and it means a lot to us. Autumn (10m 36s): It does. It's, it's wonderful to be able to help and meet other people a lot more personally than we would. And just like the Facebook group and, and the support. Yeah. It keeps us going here. So, which is a really important, yup. Jesper (10m 51s): We offer a lot of rewards to those who join us. So I could also mention that, uh, just last week, uh, at the point of, uh, of this episode going out, we had the monthly Q and a session for for all those who support us at the adult dragon Tia, because you've got a name your tea or something. Autumn (11m 10s): Absolutely. All of ours are dragon tears and yeah, of course for fantasy authors, of course we have dragons in there. Jesper (11m 20s): Exactly. Yeah. So if you want to see what we watch, we are offering, you know, check the link in the show notes and a head on over to Patrion and consider to join the club and become one of our backers over. Autumn (11m 31s): Yeah. And I mean, it's really interesting. I mean, not only do you get into the podcast early, but to me sometimes it's the weekly, I mean, we're doing like weekly writing tips and blogs and answering questions over there. So there's quite a, it would be dirty now. I think there's over a year's worth of a backlog of blog post just to access that have tons of tips. So yeah, it's getting every day. It's getting more and more. Jesper (11m 59s): Yeah. Yeah. And we also try to post a bit, uh, kind of like publishing, marketing industry information slash tip show once a week as well. Uh, so only the patron supporters are getting those as well. So this is actually stuff with a winner posting elsewhere. So, uh, so it might be, might be good to get into that if you're interested. Autumn (12m 23s): Absolutely. Though I don't want to forget. I still absolutely love how the amwritingfantasy Facebook group is growing so fast by leaps and bounds. And how much conversation is going on? I just looked at like what are the top ones just from, Oh, yesterday someone asked like, how do you choose weapons for characters? Guess how many comments are on that one already? 20. Oh, you're so low. Oh really? 41 comments on that one. And it just still typing, um, people talking about how they choose their character weapons and it's just, it's a lot of fun. So it's really actually seeing all the different ways, especially the different types. So we have fantasy from medieval to someone mentioning their space opera and they had mentioned something about a dinosaur. So it's, they're just wondering. So that's another one that if you don't want to join if you can't join us on Patreon right now, come over at least to the amwritingfantasy Facebook group because it's just fine. Jesper (13m 31s): Yeah, it is. And, and I, I think, I don't, I don't remember if we talked about this on a past podcast episodes, if had just been conversations between you and me autumn but, but we have talked about in the past at least am that it feels like with Facebook groups that you sort of need to read some sort of critical mass and once you get that far, then then the interaction starts to flow more because they are just enough people that you will always get responses. And we've certainly passed that actually quite a while back, I think. But, but it, it's amazing. We, I mean every day I'm either myself or Luke and sometimes you autumn are letting in more people. It's like everyday there's join requests and everyday there is new posts from people who asking for help or advice and people pitching in. So I think that's absolutely excellent and it's a really nice, a free resource. Uh, so whether, whether you're sort of viewing Facebook the same way that I do and you don't quite like Facebook, this one is just enough that I'm going to go on Facebook anyway. Yeah, Autumn (14m 34s): I agree. It's definitely become that kind of group, which is awesome. Jesper (14m 43s): Ah, so how much should you read when writing this is something that is, yeah, but because there are so many opinions on this, I saw many people, I don't know, maybe for a start, maybe four-star on them before we even get started on this. Maybe we should just point out that whatever we say from this point onwards is just our opinions. Nothing right or wrong in this episode. It is. We just sharing what we think and you can feel absolutely free to disagree with us. That's fine. We have no problems with that. So we can only just say what we feel like, and I think this has gotta to be, that's kind of episode. Autumn (15m 25s): Yes, I think so. And you can happily comment, debate, criticized. They'll be kind in the comments. That's what they're there for. So this will be a fun one to maybe be a conversation with of, you know, do you, how much do you think are we right, are we wrong? Um, what do you think of the advice that's out there? And I think that might be also a really good place to start is what you've heard. What do they tell writers? Um, how much you should read while writing is always a good place to start. Jesper (15m 57s): Yeah, it is for sure. Uh, I also find, I actually found a 2014, 14 time magazine article about how much American treats, so we can just come cycled back to that as well. And I can tell you what peoples, well this is a, you know, self assessments stuff. So it's just what people believe themselves. So it's not like a, like a scientific study but, but it's still a bit interesting, but we can just cycle back to that. And I think the elephant in the room, maybe, maybe I can start with that. At least the, I see knowledge that, yeah, because there was a Stephen King quote out there, and I think this one influences quite a lot about how people believe, think, view the point about how much you should be reading when you're writing. And the quote goes like this. So quote, if you want to be a writer, you must do two things. Read a lot and write a lot unquote. All right, so that's what Stephen King set, right? So it doesn't tell you have to, it's not like write every day. It doesn't say read every day, just as a read a lot, read a lot and write a lot, which of course I'm not going to disagree with him yet, but I mean that, that, I think that is true. Uh, but, uh, I mean the man has sold more than 350 million copies of his work. Right? And the, I also looked up, according to Forbes, he yearns approximately $40 million per year. Right. So I'm not gonna argue with that guy. Autumn (17m 29s): That'd be like argue about if Neil Gaiman told me I had to read every day, I probably just go and do it so Jesper (17m 35s): well yeah, but this is exactly what I wanted to debate a bit here. Right. Because I think does this, this is part of the problem because the guy Stephen King and because he has the name me as him because he's like the, you know multi award winning highly author that everybody wants to be when he says something it is taking S gospel. Yes. And that is fair enough and I understand why. So I'm not sort of putting people down for, for doing that at all. I fully understand the logic behind but I do have some issues when what he said there about read a lot comes off as if now this is a requirement, you know, if you want to be something like a successful, not even like Stephen King because I think that's, that's the lightning in the bottle conversation again. But if you want to be successful at least then if you aren't reading a lot you will never become a good writer. And I think, I think to be honest at this is how that statement is often understood or that that that I mentioned before. Yeah, that definitely makes sense. And I don't like that. Autumn (18m 44s): I like to question everything. So I guess it probably wouldn't hit me that way where there definitely would have been a time where in my life where I would have tried to juggle more balls than I really should possibly be responsible for just because everyone said this, you need to do this, you need to do that, you need to do this. Um, it's probably why I say why at this point, but I do see, I think that might be a key component is why should you read when you're a writer and that is important and maybe what you should read when you're a writer because there's also a difference there. And so there's a lot of, there's a lot of wiggle room on the this question. There's a lot of things to unpack and try to figure out when they say you should read, if you want to be a writer. So what should you be reading? Should you be reading your genre? Should you be reading books on how to write? Should you just be reading the news? It doesn't say, well I read a lot of news stories every day. BBC is like, you know, my go-to if I have a five second break to see what's going on in the world. Jesper (19m 51s): Right. But that's not fiction though. It is not. But I guess this is part of the conversation does, it does, it's just, okay, what Autumn (19m 59s): are you supposed to be reading? Should it only be about writing or should it be in your genre? Jesper (20m 6s): Yeah. Uh, I mean for sure. I do think that a reading is important. Um, uh, and I, I've, I try to think before we went to record this, I was trying to think of things that, you know, what are the benefits of reading from a writer's perspective? And I tried to, to think of some stuff and I came up with four things to be honest. And one of them is also answering the question you just raised about what it is did you should be reading. So maybe I can go over them here and then you can see if you have some more to pitch in or maybe you disagree with some of them and then you can, uh, you can share your thoughts. We never disagree. So this will be fun and we'll see if we can get with something. Autumn (20m 49s): I'll, maybe I shouldn't call it problem, but it always ends up stone and we, we agree on your thing. So it doesn't become very, very like heated debates is podcast all to play devil's advocate just for the sake of it. Alright, so number one, uh, I put down that the more you read, the more words and sentence structures that you will gain exposure to. So this will inform and help you in your own writing. And I think that is true. That's very true. Because when you, when you see other, other, other authors writing and now we're talking fiction here of course, because then you're getting a sense of how do they, how do they use the words but also the sentence structures and how are they, especially with fantasy for example, how are they doing the world building elements, how are they sharing things about the world inside the narrative without info dumps like we talked about in past episodes and all that good stuff, you know, that's, that's something you do get a feeling for from reading. So, so, and it, it sort of broadens your understanding of how to write. So I think that's important. Yes, I agree, of course. But I think it's also important the quality of what you're reading because you're talking about, you know, learning and I've seen, um, you know, sometimes if you're not reading something that is well-written, you might be learning the wrong things. And I have definitely seen that at a few, few times that people are not reading, you know, maybe there it's more lightweight. It's not, you know, the high end, the, you know, the J K Rowling's or the George RR Martin. You're really seeing some really fantastic writing. I did read a really nice article from someone once who said, you know, when you're reading something and it really just moves you or takes you by surprise or you just does, it has an impact on you. That's when you should stop and really analyze it and look at it and see why. How did the author do this? That's a really great way of looking at writing. And again, if I've read stories where the dialogue was literally and other things like that, and that's probably not the inspiration and that I want to be unpacking. So you gotta watch the quality of what you're reading. But isn't that highly sort of subjective? I mean, what if I like to read something that where the, where the dialogue is we, that's what I like and I want to write like that. That's fine, right? That is fine. That is fine. If that's also what you want to write, I guess read something that is from an author who will inspire you. So if you go for someone who's writing that style you love and that you think is really an excellent writer and his writing things that you like and that'll help inspire you, teach you a lot about the genre and how to write whatever it is about their writing that you like, whether it's the characters of the world or just the sentence structure like you said. Jesper (23m 56s): Yeah. And it also, on the flip side, I would say for example, am it's probably probably a year ago, but I read the Brandon Sanderson's way of King of Kings. I think story, I think it's way of Kings, not King, but nevermind. But I read that I think about a year ago and, and well I think most of us are on, most of our listeners here know Brendan Sanders. Sanderson is a pretty big name within fantasy authors within the community of Francis you authors. But honestly, I, I didn't like those books. I think that's when somebody will kill me now. But, but honestly I didn't, but because you did not like a Brandon Sanderson story, probably. Probably, yes. Uh, I mean, but nevertheless, I still got something out of it. You know, I, I was certainly inspired with, I mean, the world building stuff, I mean, hands down, he is, he does an excellent job at we're building. Um, and so you can still pick up things about, for example, how he's am well, again, sharing the world details without doing info dumps and not because he does not do when for Dom's, it's all part of the story, which is really nice. Um, so you could still pick up information like that. Even though that the story itself, I didn't really care much for that. I didn't care much for the character either. Uh, but, but there are still things you can pick up from reading other people's books. I like, okay, I like this one element, but the rest I don't like. So you just ignore the rest and you pick up the elements that you do like. Right. I think that's fine. Autumn (25m 32s): I mean, I've, I've still never actually finished game of Thrones because I just, they're, the pacing sometimes was too slow and there's, I really could not get used to the fact that all the characters I cared about died. But at least now that I've watched the show, maybe I'll know which ones. Yeah. At least now that I've watched the show, I can only see which ones I know which ones will make it to the end. So I'll try to focus on those. But his writing it's the language and the, what it evokes and how he uses a different senses. Just, I mean, there's a couple paragraphs and pages of his writing that I keep as inspiration when I need, when I'm feeling stuck and like my writing's flat, I go read those and I'm like, right, this is what I'm trying to do. And so yeah, even though I've never finished the whole series, I've finished enough of it to know this is stellar. If I could do this, I'd be so thrilled. Right. Jesper (26m 27s): Okay. So that was only number one. Let's go for to. Yeah. So I'll do two and three here in quick succession because they're just short points. And then number four, I will then I'll get into answering the question you asked before about what you should be reading. Uh, so number is, uh, well when you're reading your PFOS to block all out all kinds of other stuff out and you're foster focus, uh, and so it helps to improve your concentration, which I think is a good skill to have as a writer. So that's just a quick one there. Uh, and eh, number three is in prolonged nation of, of the learning about words and sentence structures, but that's more like the fundamentals of story structure. Uh, you also, you also get a better understanding about how different authors are structuring their stories by reading a lot of books. Um, so again, you will, there will be some stuff you like and some, some stuff you don't like and that's fine and you pick and choose what you want to sort of bring forward into to inform your own writing and what you want to ignore. That's absolutely fine. But, but reading a lot of different stories does give you different perspective on how a story can be structured and what at least from your point of view works and what doesn't work. Autumn (27m 47s): Yes, both are very good points. I like the idea, I hadn't been considering it, but with focus, I think that's a really important that there's so much going on in the world that it's probably a good thing to learn to just get lost in something and then hopefully you can do the same thing in your book. And I have to admit, as a writer it's, we never, we never experience our own stories with that first level of discovery, not the complete thing. It's always, you know, we're discovering lots of bout our story as we write, but we're never going to experience as a reader. So it's also really fun to read just to remember what it's like to be led along. And so we can think about how we're doing that for the people reading our stories. Yeah, that's true. Okay. Should I get into my perspective on the question you asked that cause I think I'm saving up one of the reasons that, well I think it's going to be related to something I'm thinking of so let's go for it. Jesper (28m 47s): Okay, cool. Yeah. So in terms of what should you be reading, in my opinion it, well it's one of the typical answers where it depends a bit, but if you are not well versed within or well-read within this younger that you're writing already, then you have to write within the genre. Yes. Because the thing is that, Oh I did I say right. I meant I have to read within this younger. Yeah. Because the thing is that each Shaundra has its own kind of tropes within them. And I'm not trying to start saying here now that you need two copies tropes and you need to follow them, but, but if you don't have a sense of what they are and also how they do inform, read expectations of the stories, then you, your, your book are not going to resonate with that audience. So it's not about tropes, but it is about touching upon the troops. So do you at least delivering what readers of that particular show is expecting? And then of course the way that you deliver it, you have to be creative and try to find new ways, but still touching upon that those particular truck try to sugar. So, so that's the reason why I think you have to read within your, within the same genre as your writing. Um, if you are really well West within your shower already and you understand all of it already, I don't know, maybe for example, if you would like to write a fantasy story that has some thriller elements in it, maybe it could be worth reading a bit of thriller stories just to see how those stories are working and how the authors are going about that too. You know, give you a bit of an outside perspective almost if you can call it that. But for the majority I will probably say that you have to read within the genre and stays for the most part it's just in, Autumn (30m 45s): yeah. And I think, um, there's another one. Good thing. Yeah. Well I think there's a few reasons to why I guess it doesn't. Um, I like variety. So I think it's sometimes fun to just read, like read in your genre or read what you're writing in the genre you're writing, but sometimes it is fun to just go pick up a murder mystery and see how they do some layering in of clues and you can learn so much about that. And so it's really fun to kind of go for really good stories. But I do think it's really important to do that because you learn not only what we've been talking about, but the current trends. I think if, um, if I went, I just recently read an Anne McCaffrey when th the first book I ever picked up that was a fantasy story and is the reason I fell in love with fantasy and I read it again and I haven't actually finished my review for it on good reads because this is like, this is the most pivotal story of my entire life. And reading it now as an adult in 2020 versus, you know, a kid in 1980 where the sexism, it's more omniscient, just all the writing trends that have changed. Um, how this woman am her boyfriend slash lover treats her. Oh my gosh, if that happened today, but at the time it was fine, but reading it now like, Oh my gosh, I'd never let my kid read this if she thought, if I would not want another young child to think it's okay to be shaken and be almost afraid of the person who is supposed to be our partner. Holy crap. So I was, I think it's important to go read, but you know, try to read what's contemporary because you'll be surprised at the change in nuances, uh, characters. I remember the 80s there was a lot about you are born Dustin, you know, low, the big glowy signs and you shall go and be this. And nowadays it's like, I'm sorry, you're like the poor farm boy. You're going to have to earn this through some horrible trials and if you're lucky you will come out alive and be something better. It's a lot different. So if you're going to pick up something, it's to pick up those sorts of things. You what are the trends? How our characters being development, read the comments to see what readers like about the story, what they hated about the story and it's fascinating. It's all, every book I read now is become like a scientific study of what do I like? What did other readers like, what do people say about it? Because it's good to find the trends and you're always allowed to have your own views and opinions. But again, if you're writing for a mass audience, it's also interesting to see if you agree or disagree with what other people found. It's really fun and even little things like I realized I liked to write dystopian, but almost all dystopian is written in first person and I just, I don't know why it's like nails on a chalkboard to me. I don't really like reading, writing first person, so it's one reason I stay away. I have a little bit in the genre if that's also partially why I stay away from it because a third person is not that common and readers are not expect they're okay with it that some of them mentioned, you know, it's okay but it's not, it's not what they're looking for and those are important things. You only know by being curious and going in there and reading or picking up at least a whole bunch of am, the free downloads and the lease going through them a little bit to get to trends. Hmm. Jesper (34m 21s): Yeah. What your set just reminded me because uh, uh, quite recently I finished reading the first book in the dragon lands series with my sons and I was so afraid of going back to read that because of exactly what you will mention in here. Right. I was so afraid that this wonderful memory of dragon Lars was the one that put me on the, on the track of fantasy back back when I was a child and I, and I have so fun. Fond memories of that series is just like the best thing I ever read. And then I was like, Oh my God, I mean, I'm so afraid now I'm going to pick this up and I'm going to start reading and am I going to be like, what? What is this? You know, imagine, yeah, we got, and I was so concerned about having my fond memory completely spoiled. But, um, but to be honest, it was okay. It was, it was not as a, um, it was not as good as I remember it, but it would say it's okay. I mean, racially in the skill is still cool, so that's good. Those deaf. But I mentioned that I'm going to send that 2014 time magazine article before. Maybe I should just circle back to that for us. Let's, yeah, let's circle back Autumn (35m 35s): what it said. Yeah. Again, Jesper (35m 38s): it was, uh, you know, people's own estimation on how much they read. So there's no science in mold here, but, uh, but it's so excepted Americans read 19 minutes a day on average. So this is 2014. So mind you at 66 years old, right? But yeah, American sign minutes, younger Americans aged between 25 and 35 34 reads just four minutes a day. Wow. And those over 75 reach upwards of one hour each day. So, uh, yeah. And I, I'm pretty sure that the, in terms of the younger demographics there, it could even be less than four minutes nowadays, but I don't know. How much do you read on average a day? Autumn Autumn (36m 30s): I would say cause I would get in most of my reading right now is probably new stories and things like that. But I would say maybe I get an hour, but maybe I'm overestimating half an hour to an hour. And I would like that to be a fiction. And I do like, my problem is I try not to read while I'm writing because I'm task oriented and once I get involved in a novel I just want to read. I'm like addicted to reading. It's my biggest addiction. So I do not usually read while I'm writing because otherwise I'll just read. But I do do other am other types of, you know, readings, little short stories and yeah, some stuff. Jesper (37m 11s): So what do you think you read? Well, certainly less than I would like to. Um, I, uh, I don't have time during days and what not to read. So the time when I read this, when I go to bed in the evening before I need to sleep, so then I like to take my Kindle and read a bit, uh, before going to sleep. But it happens too often compared to what I would like that am I'm too tired when I get to bed, so I almost cannot read, so I just fall asleep and step. So I don't know, on average maybe like, mm. I probably pretty much aligned with that article there. Maybe 15, 20 minutes, something like that, which is far less than I want to. I would like really light to read more, but I feel it really difficult to find the necessary time to do so. But also because when you've been really busy all day, you know, when I get to bed on tired. Yeah. Uh, and I think that maybe, go ahead. Sorry, go ahead now. Well, I was just about to say, but maybe this is also why the Stephen King quote there re-ups me a bit the wrong way because it's, it's, I mean, not, not the quote itself, but more like the way that I think some people understand the quote because I don't know what exactly he meant by it when he said read a lot. Uh, I, I don't know if, if maybe maybe somebody can take out an article where he elaborated on it and I did read Stephen King's on writing that book he wrote. I did read that, but that's like a couple of years ago. So I can't quite remember if he elaborated on it in there, but maybe he means that you have to read a lot every day. Uh, or maybe he just means that you read, you read as much as you can. I, I'm not sure, but at least I, I just feel like it's important to be mindful that you don't end up dedicating so much time to reading that it basically ends up taking time away from writing. Exactly. We're not going to be authors unless we, right, exactly. That's why I tried it Autumn (39m 18s): to write a book and then read a book and then write a book and read a book. Cause if I do it any other way, it screws up everything and I would just be reading. But I do think it's important and I mean I also think it comes from, like I mentioned, the trends and all those things. You can only get by reading current stories, things that are out now. But before I became a writer, I thousand, I mean how many fantasy books did I think I used to fall off a book in two or three days. And so if I, if I estimated from the time I really started reading fantasy in seventh grade to when I started writing and slowed down on my reading activities, that's a lot of books. I mean it does like it has to count somewhere. I got all of that knowledge stored inside of me somewhere, even though sometimes it's, you know, not how I'd want to be writing now, but at least I, I can analyze that and they still get something from it because it's part of why I love the genre and why I became a writer. Jesper (40m 23s): Yeah, but don't you think that sometimes reading can end up for some people to be like a procrastination tool? Oh, absolutely. It's like the excuse that, Oh, I need to read some stuff so I don't have time to write today or something. I dunno. Autumn (40m 38s): The writing should definitely come first and it's one of the hard parts of being an author. I see some authors on good reads and they have like 20 some books they want to read. I'm like, damn, no, it's, it's been a long time since I read 20 books in a year or set myself that kind of coal. Jesper (40m 55s): I've never read 20 books in. He's three 20 bucks on a month. Are you kidding? Wow. That's amazing. I mean my wife always makes fun of me because whenever I start reading a new book it takes me like four or five months before I'm done with it. And in the meantime, so you'd read like 10 books. I get more done with one that does wake it up Autumn (41m 15s): or would your a slower reader. But it's still, again, it becomes an addiction for me so I have to stay away from it. I want to be writing I want to be creating my own stories. I yeah and it's funny cause I think to if you are reading and writing at the same time, there's definitely a trend where you kind of take on some of the aspects of what you've been reading and you might change your tone, which is also like if you're in the middle of the trilogy, the last thing you want to do is totally change up your tone just because you're influenced by someone. So those are all kind of the caveats. You know, you have to be careful about what you're reading because if you screw things up, you can screw up some big things. Jesper (42m 0s): Yeah. But don't you think that that's more like if you're in your really early stages of writing, I mean, once you've written enough, you're not going to change your style just because you are reading something. I would say maybe maybe differently Autumn (42m 16s): a subconscious change cause I've found myself using words that I would not normally or just the pacing's a little different. I can see things being influenced occasionally by what I'm reading. So I do watch that. If it's not, I don't want to read reading something post-apocalyptic on horror when I'm also writing Epic fantasy that's all. No Woolbright because I think, you know, you end up with darker terms and your characters are a little more melodramatic and you're like, no, that's not what I'm aiming for. Let's, it's like changing your entire mood. I'm very much effected by what I'm reading. Again, that's why I live myself. It's like being on a diet. I just want to pick up a book, but I can't, Jesper (42m 58s): no, that's the quite interesting actually because I think my mind sort of just come compartmentalizing everything so it doesn't matter what I read or watch. Uh, I mean, of course you're always going to get a somewhat of an influence for whatever you're reading or watching on Netflix or what, I mean, that's unavoidable, but I don't think that, I don't think that it really influences the way that I'm telling the story no matter what I'm watching. So I don't really think about that much. I just want so read whatever. I wasn't, Autumn (43m 27s): Hey, you're a much, uh, you're much more of a plotter. And I don't know if that has something to do with it where I'm more about the answer. So I'm more of a hybrid. I'm definitely, I straddled the line between the two, so, yeah. Yeah, it could be that. So I have a lot more wiggle room where things get influenced more than maybe sometimes I'm meaning for it to happen. Jesper (43m 46s): Oh, right. Yeah. But I don't know, may maybe if we are to if it's possible even to derive some sort of conclusion out of all this, uh, talking around, but I don't know. I, I'm sort of thinking that, I think we are both saying that if you should not like spend years reading other people's fiction, if it prevents you from doing any writing on your own, you know, at least I think that, you know, writing skills doesn't magically appear just because you are reading, you know, you'll have to be writing and that should be your priority. So at least in my view, if you are so busy in your day to day life, then prioritize your writing and then if you can get in like maybe 10 minutes of reading Autumn (44m 32s): before you fall asleep like me, then that's it. I think that sounds good as I'm tooting my own horn here. I know. Oh, that's all right. I think, I mean I tried to do it depending on how long a chapter was, just just one chapter is good. And then you know, then I never met the brakes come off when I start getting close to the climax. But reading is important, but yes. So you don't even know the questions of what to look for and the things to break down to see why you like this writing or why you don't like that writing until you've been writing. So reading should definitely come secondary. Hopefully you've read books that inspired you to become a writer. So you have that backlog, you have that, that you know you from foundation right first and then read. And it's amazing. It's just like, you know, going to the movies with an author, you want to strangle people because they are constantly pointing out the clues and the plots were horrible. But it's true. We all do it. Yeah. That's my wife next to me in the couch when we were watching something. She, she hates stuff. I think it just comes to us net. Once you start doing it, you just can't turn it off. It's so hard to sit there in silence. Yeah. Jesper (45m 46s): We see the force yet and we see the potholes miles away. Autumn (45m 50s): Oh yeah. Yeah. So, but you don't know that until you're writing and you're doing it yourself and then you and you struggle with something and then you read it, someone else do it and you're like, Oh, that's perfect. And you remember it from then on. So I agree. I think that's our take home message, right? First, you're already a reader, but you know, just just a little bit, there's a little bit of spice. Jesper (46m 14s): Perfect. So in episode 60 we share of the cost of editing, but how much does it cost to produce a novel when taking cover, design and everything else into account? That's the topic for next month. Narrator (46m 27s): If you like what you just heard, there's a few things you can do to support the amwritingfantasy podcast. Please tell a fellow author about the show and visit us at Apple podcast and leave a rating and review. You can also join autumn and Yesper on patrion.com/amwritingfantasy for as little as a dollar a month. You'll get awesome rewards and keep the amwritingfantasy podcast going. Stay safe out there and see you next Monday.

2 FwB or 2 not FWB that is the question

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 27, 2020 58:52

FWBs ( Friends with benefits) Can they actually work , or are they destined to fail ? Listen in as Shaundra ( @goddessofthickness) and Ketayma( @ketayma) debate on which is true. We even got scientific knowledge to back up our claim ( a nigga just posted a poll on ig .... das it but still good results) . Tune in

Mindful Birth Peaceful Earth Podcast

013: A Mother’s Blessing story - The importance of ceremony and ritual for the transformation to motherhood

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 13, 2019 49:26

Callie Blackwood, an acupuncturist and ceremony facilitator speaks with Shaundra Fontaine from Episode12 about the Mother’s Blessing ceremony that she did for Shaundra when she was pregnant. “The term Blessingway derives from the Diné (Navaho) culture and language, but such rituals are germane to peoples all over the world.” (Romm, Aviva Jill. The Natural Pregnancy Book. New York: Celestial Arts, 2003) Callie was first introduced to the ceremony of the Blessingway in 2007. She was immediately struck by the strength and healing power of the ritual. This episode is rich with details about the ceremony and the purpose and importance of ritual, how Callie tailored it to Shaundra’s unique desires and personality and how each detail was intentionally crafted. Shaundra tells how the ceremony affected her and how important it was to the positive birth experience that followed. Callie understands the importance of holding the space for this kind of healing ceremony and is honored and blessed to be able to hold this sacred space for herself and for others. She desires to honor these times with healing ceremonies so that many are offered the opportunity to be honored and to heal the grief and reunite with the wisdom and strength from within while being able to honor those who have gone before us and bettering this world for all who will come after us. Resources: www.radiantearthacupuncture.com Romm, Aviva Jill. The Natural Pregnancy Book Bio: My journey to find Chinese Medicine was led by my personal healing journey to find some answers to my chronic physical ailments. I was also looking to find tangible ways to help protect and restore our Planet and humans to a healthy state. My undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering set me up to understand complex systems and methods in which to gather and compile information and apply pattern recognition to these systems. For me, Chinese medicine includes understanding these complex living structures and it offers intricate treatment principles to help restore balance to the mind and body. My studies of Classical Chinese Medicine are weaved with Dancing, Shamanic Studies and spiritual practices that blend together creating a unique style that I bring to the treatment room. I graduated with a Master’s of Science in Oriental Medicine from the National University of Natural Medicine in Portland, OR. During this time of study I was immersed in Classical Chinese Medicine, learning Qigong, Herbs, Acupuncture, Japanese meridian therapy, Taiji, 5-Element style acupuncture, Shamanic healing ceremonies, dancing and more. My areas of interest include the treatment of trauma, mental / emotional instabilities, pediatrics, chronic and difficult diseases, autoimmune disorders and acute / chronic pain. In the treatment room I draw upon my toolbox to incorporate acupuncture, shiatsu, craniosacral therapy, non-needle shonishin acupuncture tools, aromatherapy, cupping, sound, herbs, nutrition / lifestyle guidance, and more. Inspired to improve health and bring radiance into the lives of all and for the earth, I am excited to be offering services to the community of Boise. Please come see me and experience the power of these healing modalities and find yourself in a greater state of health and radiance!

012 - Mindfulness during an unexpected delivery: A birth story

Mindful Birth Peaceful Earth Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 5, 2019 28:16

Shaundra Fontaine, a midwife who has worked as a midwife in rural Africa and at a birth center in Boise, Idaho talks about how she prepared for her pregnancy and delivering using mindfulness and yoga. Shaundra was planning a home birth, but her baby had other plans! She talks with Holly about how even though her labor took her by surprise, (at 36 weeks and on vacation in a cabin!) it was perfect for her and her family! Bio: When my mother asked me as a 3-year old child, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" I always replied, "A Mother." This is the most honest & sincere answer I could provide today. I can't think of a better way that I would like to be introduced than a mother & teacher to the future generations. I have had many other experiences in my life which have lead me to this dream which include becoming a Midwife, which ultimately helped me to birth myself & other woman into becoming a mother. I have had the privilege to witness & guide woman in several different cultures in the pregnancy, birthing process, and now through the challenges of motherhood as a co-owner & teacher at a local preschool. Resources: www.embryoga.com

mother africa birth mindfulness unexpected nurses idaho delivery doula boise newborn nicu midwife birth stories maternity hospital birth shaundra

The AmWritingFantasy Podcast: Episode 47 – Learn the Secrets to Showing Emotion in Characters (with author, editor and writing coach, C.S. Lakin)

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 18, 2019 51:35

Editor and writing coach C.S. Lakin joins the Am Writing Fantasy podcast. She shares great insights as to how an author can master the emotional craft of fiction. Readers want to feel with the character. Readers read to not only be entertained, but also to have the characters and the story affect them. Episode 47 of the Am Writing Fantasy podcast is full of advice and useful writing tips. Here's the links mentioned in the episode: https://www.livewritethrive.com/ https://cslakin.teachable.com/p/emotional-mastery-for-fiction-writers/ Tune in for new episodes EVERY single Monday. SUPPORT THE AM WRITING FANTASY PODCAST! Please tell a fellow author about the show and visit us at Apple podcast and leave a rating and review. Join us at www.patreon.com/AmWritingFantasy. For as little as a dollar a month, you'll get awesome rewards and keep the Am Writing Fantasy podcast going. Read the full transcript below. (Please note that it's automatically generated and while the AI is super cool, it isn't perfect. There may be misspellings or incorrect words on occasion). Narrator (2s): You're listening to the amwritingfantasy podcast. In today's publishing landscape, you can reach fans all over the world. Query letters are a thing of the past. You don't even need in literary agent. There is nothing standing in the way of making a living from writing join to best selling authors who have self-published more than 20 books between them. Now onto the show with your hosts, Autumn Birt and Jesper Schmidt. Jesper (30s): Hello. I am Jesper. And this is episode 47 of the amwritingfantasy podcast. And today I'm joined by Susanne Lakin, who knows some of the secrets about showing emotion in characters in order to evoke emotions in the reader. And I know that you are a novelist, a copy editor, writing coats, and you also teach workshops on the writing craft. So welcome to the amwritingfantasy podcast. Susanne (57s): Thank you for having me. Jesper (60s): I did a bit of stalking on the internet and I saw that, I saw that you live in California near San Francisco, but maybe you can tell us just a bit more about yourself. Susanne (1m 13s): Uh, sure. Yeah. I live South of San Francisco in California. Um, and I'm born and raised in California, but, uh, I've been writing pretty much my whole life. I was raised by a mother who was a top television screenwriter and then, um, my brother also went into that profession. So I am was around a lot of filming and reading scripts and movies and all that kind of stuff. So my early introduction, aside from reading books on my own was to read a lot of screenplays. So I have a different type of attitude or approach toward fiction writing sometimes than others because I think very cinematically and I think in terms of camera shots and, um, just a very cinematic, uh, visualization of my scenes and I tried to teach that method through a lot of my books and my blog posts. Um, I think the emotion topic is one that's really important. It's not discussed much. There isn't much out there. When I started researching online about that, I wanted to put something together because I feel of all the things that are tied in with reading and writing is the idea that we have an emotional response to what we read. And so all my life I've been reading and writing and loving books and wanting to figure out how I can move readers with my writing. So as far as, you know, that's kind of my whole upbringing in terms of my approach to writing and reading. Um, I also, I'm married, I have a couple of grown kids. Uh, I have a couple of grandkids actually and I have a dog who is old and needs a lot of attention, big that lab and I have a few cats. Um, I love to backpack and snowboard. I'm real outdoorsy kind of person. Um, I also am the, uh, yeah, I was going to say I'm also the fiction coordinator for the prestigious San Francisco writer's conference, which is a top writers conference in America. So I put that whole thing together every year and that's super fun. Jesper (3m 17s): Oh yeah. Cool. Yeah, it was funny you were talking about am at the out outdoorsy type of person and whatnot because autumn, my cohost TAC that she does a lot of, uh, of traveling around as well and seeing nature and all that. So, uh, that's something I'm sometimes quite envious when I see her pictures. You post on Facebook because I live in Denmark and he is just flat. We don't have any mountains. Only nice, nice nature like that. So yeah, it, there's some very beautiful areas around the, in the U S Susanne (3m 47s): yeah, I would think that Denmark would have some beautiful places too. I haven't been there, but I would love to go. Uh, I don't get out of my cage very often. So, um, you know, maybe one day I'll get over there when, you know, one thing about writing fantasy too, since you know, this is what your podcast is about, I really think it's important for writers to get out in nature and to just sort of explore the world with wonder because all the fantasy writing fantasy and creating fantasy worlds requires so much imagination and an immersion of our senses that I think sometimes if we just locked up in an office space or bedroom or wherever we work all the time, it's really hard for us to get in touch with that wonder and the imagination, you know, that comes from exploring the world outside. So that's just a thought that kind of popped into my head. But I know that for me, a lot of the inspiration for my fantasy books came from my time in nature, especially in the woods, like being alone in the woods, backpacking, um, grew up on fairy tales, which many of them were set in your part of the world in Europe. Uh, you know, where most of the fairy tales are about little cottages in the woods and there's like magic woods. And so because I'm a fairy tale writer, I really need to get into nature and feel that experience at the smells, the sounds, all of that. Jesper (5m 7s): Yeah. Yeah. There's also something about just the fact that when you're out outside, you know, moving, moving around and of course some, some good scenery will help but, but just the, just uh, the fact that you're walking about and get some wind in your face and whatnot, that that actually helps them on creativity as well. In my, in my view, yes. Yeah, it does. Yeah. But, uh, so now I know that you run the live write thrive.com website where you also actually have a course on showing character emotions. And that was really a topic that caught my eye and because basically we haven't really covered, you know, character emotions and how to show it and how to get evoke emotions in, in the readers well here on the podcast before. So I am really so glad that you agreed to come on for a conversation about this particular topic Susanne (5m 58s): here. Yeah, I'm happy to talk about it. As I mentioned, um, a lot of times when I read a book, I have about 10 nonfiction books, writing craft books in my writer's Roger toolbox series on novel writing. Mostly I think all of them are about in all of novel writing except crank it out, which is just about writing in general. But usually I get the idea for a book or a course because I can't find enough information out there, you know, on the internet or out in the ether to, um, really be instructive and deep for writers emotion is as a really good example because if you search online for information on how to evoke emotions and characters had to show emotion how to get readers to feel emotion, there's almost nothing out there. So it got me thinking about how I react to reading what, what moves me when I read a book and I spent, you know, quite a few weeks just exploring my own feelings in, in, um, thinking about the books that moved me, the scenes that move me, going back to chapters that I know would make me cry and try to analyze why I felt the way I felt or how the writer was able to accomplish that. It was like magic to me. And I talk about that a lot of my course, which is called emotional mastery for fiction writers because the whole idea is we want to capture that technique, that skill. And Hemingway said it best when he said that when you read something that moves you emotionally steady how it was done, study how that writer did it, then you copy it and you do it yourself so that you can create the same effect in your readers. Now that sounds a lot easier said than done and it is. But in the same sense, it's really not that hard because if you can tap into what moves you emotionally, generally we all are affected in pretty much the same ways. In other words, if something moves me in a big way, something I read, no doubt it's gonna move a lot of other people, it's not going to move everybody. Some people just aren't moved at all. They can read something that just everyone's sobbing away in a, in a room or we were even at a movie for instance, you know, you could go to a movie and there was like a really emotionally moving scene and everybody's, you know, teared up and there's always going to be a few people that go, eh, whatever. And there's just not moved at all. So you're not gonna please everybody. But the idea is that there are universal feelings, right? There are universal emotions that we all share. There's universal responses that we share. Um, you know, growing up in the film industry, you know, there was always this unwritten rule, or maybe it was written, I don't know. I think people break it now, but in the good old days when there were morals and ethics to things, um, the role was you never hurt or killed a child or an animal in a movie or a TV show because people got really mad, right? You don't kill a child. You don't, you know, hurt a child. I mean, you might, you might imply that a child's being hurt and then the good guys go stop the guys from doing that. But, um, you never, you know, show a child die or an animal die. Uh, and that rule is broken sometimes, but you get why, I mean, it's because it's so upsetting to people. And we all in general society in general, we react emotionally to certain things that we, um, you know, that we share those feelings. So that's part of the approach to become an emotional master in your fiction writing is if you mind your own feelings, you mind them, go deep into your own feelings and you analyze what moves you and how it moves you, then you can copy what the writer did. A, in a basic sense, you know, not word for word, but see what the writer did and how it moved you and then you try to do that yourself. So in my core site, use about 40 different passages from different genres of different novels. And I go through these passages, we read them and analyze them, break them down. And one of the main teaching techniques that I always emphasize, regardless of what I'm teaching, is for writers to grab bestseller books and there's genre and tear them apart. You know, get the highlighter pen out. If you don't want to use an ebook and highlight on your Kindle or whatever, I just say go to a used bookstore, find a whole bunch of old cheap paperbacks and get some highlighter pens out and Mark things up, Mark up the lines that move you, that move you emotionally like Mark up the lines that show emotion in the characters. So there's two types of elements we're talking about here. We're talking about showing, emotion and characters and then you know, evoking emotion and readers. So those are two completely different things. And most of the time, the emotion that the character is showing is not the emotion. You want the reader to feel right. You might have a character that is showing, you know, despair because she's, you know, been thrown by the wayside. A child that's been left abandoned or something and that child is feeling despair. But you want your reader to be angry, or you might want your reader to be outraged or, uh, scared for that child. You know? And a lot of times emotions are very complex, so you don't want to just sit down and name an emotion go, Oh, I want my character to feel scared. And so I'm going to say she's scared. Emotions are so complex that this is why it's so important to do what Hemingway said, which was to look at how the writer wrote a passage and then look at how you're feeling. A lot of times you can't name what you're feeling, you know? So our feelings are very difficult to pinpoint and to understand. And they're usually very layered. We might be angry on the surface, but underneath we're hurt or scared. Anger usually masks other emotions. So there's a lot to learn about the emotional landscape of ourselves and of our characters. And, um, one other thing that I talk about at length extensively, um, in the course is that emotions can be shown lots of different ways and characters but there's effective ways and there's not so effective ways. So when we read passages where, where a character is doing all this body language, you know, their throat is clenched and tears are pouring out there gasping and they're moaning and their heart is pounding on their chest and their palms are sweaty. Yeah. I mean it goes on and on and on. After while that stuff gets really tedious and it ends up being counter effective, you know, instead of making a reader feel emotion, they just, well, the emotion they feel is irritated but not the writer was hoping for. So the idea is that, um, you need to learn these tools and skills of how to show emotion and characters. There's, um, there's showing emotion by body language, right? Like I just mentioned, punching fish or whatever. And there's also am the emotion that your point of view character notices in other characters. So there's a different emotional, um, pallet that's being put together here in a scene. So we don't just see the character, the point of view character emoting by their body language. But we also, they're also noticing what other characters are feeling and they're assuming what those emotions are too. So you have that kind of dynamic going on. Um, you can also tell emotions and it can be very effective. I have a module that's all about how you can effectively tell an emotion or name and emotion there's nothing wrong with a character saying I am scared, but it has to be in the right moment and it has to be fit the character. Cause I'll tell you just honestly, you know, uh, there's a lot of people that aren't in touch with their emotions and you know, I don't mean to be sexist or anything, but you know, guys have like struggles a lot of times with naming their emotions. You know, they're not going to be, some guys I should say are not going to be quick to saying, gee, you know, I really am jealous and I'm not just jealous, but I'm kind of hurt right now. You know, they're not going to just come out and say that in a conversation. You know, maybe I have an example of a little passage I wrote with a friend that might come over to a guy saying, Hey, you're really jealous. I can tell, you know, and, and then he says, yeah, sure, I'm jealous. You know, you'd be jealous too. You know? So I mean, that's more, that's feels more believable than having a typical person, male or female. Just sit there and go, gee, I am feeling really jealous right now. And I think I'm also feeling hurt, you know? I mean, for the most part, we don't sit and stop and psychoanalyze ourselves, especially in the middle of action. Right? Jesper (14m 17s): Yeah, indeed. But, but there's also a huge difference between, I mean, w w what you just said that I, I fully agree with, but if the coater is seeing in as part of dialogue that I'm feeling hurt or I'm angry or whatever, that is perfectly fine. Um, but there was a huge difference between doing that as part of the dialogue versus you as the author telling the reader, now this guy's angry. You know, does that testing worked very well? Susanne (14m 47s): Right. And, and the other thing that's important to tie in with what you just said is that when we're writing in deep point of view, writers don't realize that the entire scene is in that character's mind and voice. So when you're writing a scene and D point of view, all the narrative, every word, every line has to sound like the character. It's exactly the characters thoughts, whether you're in first person or third person. So you know, if a character is going, if you're going to say in the, in the, in the running text, um, Joan was angry. That is really her thought at that moment. It has to feel like she's, you know, realizing that she's angry. Um, I don't know how better to put it, but there are exact, they are examples that I use to show how to do that well. Um, so in addition to showing, bodily emotion or physical tells to indicate emotion and the, and here's another thing that the character himself may not really be aware of the physical tells that he's displaying and what emotions that means. For instance, you can have a character in talking to somebody and he's, he, he's his clenched fists are clenched. Okay. So we see that as the reader and he's aware of it because you're in his point of view. So you can't really show anything that he's doing in his body if he's not aware of it. Right? Like you can't say he didn't realize it, but as physical clench, you know, obviously he has to know his fists are clenched, but we don't, he might not know why his fists are clenched. You know, the, he might be clenching his fists, but the reader can get a sense of what's going on with him and make those assumptions of what kind of emotion is being shown. But if I just show my fist clenched, you don't have any idea what that impetus is. You know what's behind that, right? Are you can kind of guess. Jesper (16m 36s): Yeah, yeah, I agree. And there was also some, some part of denial and this you know, is especially the anchor element comes into mind. Again here you know that somebody, you know, maybe he has that clenched fist, uh, but, and then somebody will tell him that you are angry and then he will be like, I'm not angry. You know, that, that, that sort of denial element is, is also then I think that can work quite effectively as well. Susanne (16m 59s): Yes. And so there's three basic ways that you can convey emotion in your characters and I mentioned two of them. One is the physical tells and then one is actually telling the emotion naming the emotion. But the best and most effective way to show emotion. And I reiterate this over and over and over with many, many passages. Samples is by using the characters spots, you can, you can write an entire scene that is so emotionally riveting and makes sure readers just anguished and you only show what their character is thinking. And you never once show their heart pounding or tears coming to their eyes or sighing or moaning or groaning or anything else physical. The thoughts are the most powerful way that we can convey emotion. And they're the, they're the best way because they generate all those complex emotional feelings that we can't name. So when you have a character that's thinking about how they did something long ago and because of it, somebody was hurt, you know, maybe they forgot to pick up their kid from school or whatever, and then the child, you know, kidnapped, I mean, whatever. Um, when you go through the thought process with the character, the reader starts feeling all these emotions because they're, they're visualizing what's being said. They're putting themselves in that character's shoes. And, um, it's the experience that creates the emotion. So if I'm reading about a character that's going through something and I'm hearing what they're thinking, I start going through that with them. And that's where the empathy, you know, connects where between reader and writer and character. So, um, you can use all three and I give lots of examples of passages, you know, we highlight these different passages and you can see, and you can do this too, again, with those paperback books that you pick up from your friendly use bookstore just to, um, highlight in one color for instance, all the examples are tells of body language that are in the scene, you know, so anytime a character, you know, his throat gets tight or you know, they um, they sigh, you can highlight that and you can see how often that's being used by this particular writer. Or maybe this is a bestselling writer in your Shaundra and you want to write the way they write. So this is how you can kind of get a feel for the distribution of these different lines and phrases and even words that can convey emotion. So you have that. Then you might have an instance where the character might name his emotion at the moment. Doesn't happen very often. It's very rare, but it is useful and it's good to know how to do it and win. But then when you look at the thoughts and you start highlighting in a different color, all the thoughts that evoke emotion in you as a reader, all the thoughts that imply the, an emotional feeling in the character, all of a sudden you start seeing this emotional landscape start coming to life. And it's really fantastic. It's a great exercise to do. Just grab one of your favorite books and just start highlighting, especially the thoughts with the characters thinking that makes you feel something and makes and shows that they're feeling something. Um, even just a word or a phrase can do that. And um, I think a lot of times writers, especially beginning writers, don't understand the power of thoughts. They, they feel that they must, right? Uh, at least every other line has to be some sort of body language to imply emotion. But you know, honestly, you don't need barely any of it. I like to throw in a few things here and there because I feel it's, it helps punch home an emotional feeling. But, um, you, you know, try as an exercise, just try writing a scene without using any of that, but using thoughts and seeing how much emotion you can convey from your character via that characters thoughts and also how much emotion you can, you know, affect into, in your reader or in yourself as you're writing. Um, it's a really eye opening exercise. Jesper (20m 58s): Hmm. Do you have any thoughts around how much or how little you should try to, you know, use to three different ones or do you think it really does matter? It completely depends on how you want to write or, or am I hearing that you're saying you should be most focusing on conveying emotions with the thoughts and then maybe sprinkle in a bit of the other ones or how do you see that? Susanne (21m 21s): Yeah. Yeah. I, I exactly, I think you should rely mostly on thoughts, but again, what you want to do is grab those best-selling novels that you love. I mean I have, my favorite fantasy writer is Patricia MacKillop and I just, she's just the most amazing writer in the world to me. And for years I've tried to copy how she writes, you know, my dream when I grow up is to be like her, right? So, um, I study her books, I tear them apart, I look at the language and the imagery and I think about how I feel emotionally as I react to her writing and her characters. And so for me, when I was writing my seven but fantasy series, I would always go back to her books and just study them. And I would make lists and lists of like for phrases, not because I wanted to take her phrases and put them in my books, but I wanted to just study how she put those together so that I could copy the idea and get the same effect. It's just, it really is helpful to, you know, if you've got those writers that you love and you want to have your book stand up right next to their books to do this type of exercise. Because maybe like for instance, if you're writing romance and maybe it's a fantasy romance, but romance will usually show a lot more body language for emotion and it will also be packed with a lot of thoughts that generate emotion, you know? And so, um, if you're writing a suspense thriller, you may go pages without any line at all that shows any emotion. You just might have a lot of action. Now the action also implies emotion. You know, if you know, if a person, you know, here's something behind a door, kicks in the door and runs over to somebody and grabs him by the throat and throttles them, you can guess that that person is feeling some sort of emotion. You don't have to hear their thoughts. You don't have to know that their fists are clenched or that their anger is welling up in their gut or their heart is pounding heart in their chest. You can just watch the action and you can tell. So keep that in mind. That action is a great way to show emotion. And so a lot of times you can just show what's going on in a scene between characters and you don't have to even get into the thoughts. You don't have to get into the body. Physical tells, um, you know, that tell the character or the reader that there's a specific emotion that's being experienced. So, you know, again, when you're reading through these books, when you're studying these bestsellers, look for those, look for those bits of action that some very specific emotion uh, you'll be amazed at what you find. Uh, it's at first, you know, sometimes readers say, well, I don't see anything. I'm not seeing any physical tells and I'm not really seeing an action. And then they start digging in deeper and they pull back and think, okay, what actually happened on this page? Um, if it's boring writing if you know, then you might not see anything that's really tapping into motion. Because to me, if you don't, if you don't show characters feeling inner conflict, because it's really all about conflict, you know, when we feel emotion we're conflicted about something and if we can't get our readers to feel some sort of emotion, then obviously we're failing. There's something that's just not coming across that tends to happen when we have scenes that are very predictable, boring, ordinary on the nose type of scenes where the characters are sitting around eating. You might be in a fantasy book. Okay. So they're in the woods and they're sitting around by the campfire and they're talking about, you know, that they're going to cook tomatoes or whatever it was that, um, salmon, uh, and um, Mary they were doing, they were doing up on whether top or whatever. Uh, yeah, I mean if that scene was just about, you know, here I have some cooked tomatoes and you know, it would be really boring. There wouldn't be any emotion. But instead we see Frodo freaking out. Like, Oh my goodness, what are you doing? You made a fire, don't do that. And all of a sudden the, the black writers come and there's a big, you know, attack and you know, that is packed full of emotion so that, you know, the, the action is, you know, it needs to be evoking that emotion or evoking that tension, creating tension between characters inner conflict, you know, inside a character, all of those different elements. So, um, yeah, this is covering a lot of stuff, but yeah. Jesper (25m 28s): Yeah. And dude, but I also think that there is an important point around that action part because it's not, it depends on depending on what happens in the particular scene, but if you are in the middle of some sort of action sequence, maybe the characters are fighting or whatever they are doing. I mean, I think there, it's also important as the writer, not to get too much into, uh, the, uh, OK. I should show emotions by thought because in the middle of the fight, the character will not start thinking about what, how they feel about it. They will just do stuff. So, so, so there is also that element to be mindful about that. You don't start showing the character thinking about emotions in situations where that just is not natural to do, Susanne (26m 14s): right? Yeah. There's usually like visceral, uh, brief thoughts that might pop in when somebody grabs you from behind or smacks you in the face. Like, ouch, that hurt. Yeah. I have a am I have a module on my course, which is, you can see it for free too. So if anybody's listening to this and they want to just go pop over to my online school and just watch a 38 minute free module, you can do that by just scrolling down and clicking on the preview. And I put this module up for free because it's one of the most important things that I teach that I never have heard anybody else teach about. But it's, I find it really essential and it's very eyeopening for a lot of writers and it's basically what I call the action reaction cycle. Um, what that entails to me is that everything we do all day long is done in this cycle, right? Something happens or we do something and then there's a reaction. So you have an action than a reaction. But what follows the reaction is the processing of that reaction. Okay. So, uh, I give the example of let's say there's, um, your character is in the kitchen and she hears a crash. Okay? So that's the action. Her immediate visceral reaction is, Oh no, what was that? Right. So there's always, there's two parts to reaction. When is the immediate visceral reaction, which, you know, you might get that in a high action scene with like fighting scene like we were just talking about where there's only time for the visceral, there's only time for that immediate quick action because quickly you have to make a decision and move on to another action. So, um, so the character, here's the vase fall over, a crash goes, Oh no, what is that? That's the first initial reaction. And then she runs into the room and she sees the cat has knocked the vase over from the table onto her laptop and all the water is just pouring all over the laptop. Okay. So now there's an extended reaction, right? Characters like, Oh my gosh, my laptop. Oh, you stupid cat. You know, so maybe whatever they're thinking, but this reaction now is more extensive because she's taking in this situation and that's leading to emotion, right? So she first she's shocked. Maybe you're a little bit startled by the sound. And then when she sees her, what really happened? Now she's feeling more emotions, uh, conflicted emotions. She's upset, she's angry, she's freaking out because her dissertation is on there and that she hasn't backed it up to the cloud. Right? So there's all these emotions going on. So you have action reaction. And then after the reaction you have the processing. So processing can take a second or it could take three weeks. It could take, you know, an hour. It really depends on the situation. Um, for instance, like a detective can find a clue and then the whole next chapter can be processing. Okay, what does that clue mean? What, you know, now we understand that, you know, Joe is actually in the, in the bar and he wasn't at the hotel, you know, blah, blah, blah. And there's all this processing that goes with that. So after the processing comes a decision, what am I going to do now with what I just processed? In the case of our character who's laptop is wet, she's going to act really quickly after that reaction. She's going to swoop down, grab her laptop, shake it out, grab a towel, wipe it off. All the while S swearing at her cat and her thoughts are going to be spinning like, Oh my gosh, my dissertation and if I have to write this again, I'm going to fail. Blah, blah, blah. So there's all these thoughts that are going on, which is part of the processing. Um, and then, um, of course then there's going to be a decision that comes after that. You know, part of the decision in response to the reaction was grabbing the laptop and wiping it off. Of course. So that's just a, again, a visceral decision, but there's usually going to be a more extended decision that happens. Like, what do I do now? I've, you know, if I've lost my dissertation now what now I'm going to be processing this and having to make a decision. And that decision leads to new action. So it's sort of a five prong step. You have an action reaction process, decision, new action. And if you're writing a high action type scene, like a fight scene, you've got like, you know, some dwarves run into some elves in the forest and they start fighting each other. You and your main character is, you know, trying to, you know, push away all these, you know, horrible creatures and you know, kill a few in the runaway escape. That action reaction decision thing is going to happen very, very quickly. Like in seconds after seconds after seconds, right? Your character isn't gonna like smash somebody with a sword and they'll sit down and think for five minutes, gee, I wonder what I should do next. Right? But there's other times when you have a low energy scene, right? Where your characters are sitting around talking or they're walking down the road and they are processing like, what are we going to do now? Where are we going to go? Well, if we go here, you know, it's gonna take five more days and we don't have time. This is going to happen. And you know, you need to have those low energy scenes where your characters are talking in their processing and their thinking, but that's going to lead to a decision. Okay, so now what do we do? Let's go here. Okay, let's go do it. And you know, whatever happens will happen and then you're seeing it. So you can have scenes, um, uh, scene in itself could have this process many, many, many, many times or a scene could be all action and even end inaction. You know, you can have a fight scene and some guy just falls off the side of a cliff and that's how the CNNs or you can end with your character, your point of view, character reacting, uh, where the, his friend falls off the cliff and he goes, Oh man, dude, better you than me. And just the scene ends right there. You know, um, we see this in a lot of suspense where the scene ends with a visceral reaction. You know, the character finds the dead body. Um, I mean, you might just end in action. Like the character just finds the dead body. And we don't see reaction. But for more emotional punch, you'll notice that really good writers will end a suspense scene with a tiny bit of reaction. You know, the character sees the dead body and gasps, you know, God. Jesper (32m 29s): Yeah, exactly. Because you also playing on, I mean, as providers, we are thinking about this stuff. So, you know, as right as we thinking about how do humans actually react then, and you're breaking it down nicely in these different, uh, sort of thesis or whatever we want to call it. But, but for, for the reader who doesn't think about these things, they will just pick up on it maybe, you know, so subconsciously they'll know, okay, there's gonna be some sort of a further reaction to this because it leaves in a strange place. So to beat the, the chapter cuts in a strange place, so, so they will be very inclined to read on just because they just know that there's going to be more, let's say, emotional impact for, from what just happened. Right. So, so that's sort of what you're, what you're playing at day, I think. Susanne (33m 14s): Yeah. And also, as I mentioned, um, in that example that you know, like let's say there's an avalanche and this guy sees his friend, you know, go off the cliff and the avalanche is going on in the scene right there. If the next scene shows him barreling down the mountain in his car, we, the, the decision is implied, right? He made a decision, I'm going to get the heck out of here before I died next. Right? You don't have to have the characters sit there and go, gee, I better leave the mountain because maybe I'm in a fall in a hole too. You know, if the mountain is falling apart. So, um, you might not show the processing and decision, but you'll show the effects or the results of the processing and the decision, right? So, um, that's, you know, what happens is if readers read a scene and one of those stages is missing, whether it's implicit or explicit, you are going to, they're gonna, they're gonna feel that something's off. And this is what happens with a lot of the manuscripts. I critique about 200 manuscripts a year. So I see this a lot, especially with the beginning writers where they're gonna show a scene. You know, somebody runs in and says, George, your, your mother was just hit by a car outside. Um, and George goes, Oh no, what am I going to do? I mean, how am I gonna live? I don't have somebody to earn a living and buy me food. It's like, what? You know, it's like, that's not how you're gonna react. I mean, right. It's their Holy Hubble. So we want to have our characters to act believably. So you have to put yourself in your shoes, in their shoes. If you had somebody run in and say, you know, Oh my gosh, your mom, your brother, or your mother or your best friend, or your kid was just hit by a car, what is your reaction going to be? Your immediate visceral reactions, just going to be this, this is what you're going to be like, slammed with the shock of it. And you might feel you're gonna feel some body emotion. You might like all of a sudden your, your breath might get caught in your chest or you might gasp, right? Um, you might get dizzy, whatever. You might fall down. I mean, a lot if you just even say to somebody, it's a mean trick. But if you say to somebody, am, you better sit down, I have some bad news for you. They will physically feel ill, they will fall down or fall into a chair if you'd, if you're a good actor. Right? I mean, it would be, it would be mean to say that to somebody, but this is how we, this is how our bodies react in that fight or flight, adrenaline, releasing hormone reacting, you know, physiology that we have as bodies, as human bodies. So, um, we have to remember that our characters need to have those types of bodies too. So if somebody is going to come running into the room and say, Hey, you know, your mom was just hit by a car, uh, and then they run back out. Your, your character has to, you know, immediately register some sort of shock, some visceral reaction. And then of course they're going to go run outside and, and their thoughts are going to start, you know, running through their head. What kind of thoughts will those be? You know, they're definitely not going to be planning like what I'm going to do next year if I don't have my mom earning a living and how am I going to get kicked out of my house? I mean that might come three weeks later, but it's not going to come right now. So am Jesper (36m 23s): yeah, I agree. And I think part of why that probably happens sometimes w in, in the writing is because the writer knows what story is supposed to be told here. So, so therefore you, you quickly jump to, okay, I need him to talk about how am I gonna live now? Because that's the sort of the next hurdle that he's going to be hit by an in this story here. So I need to start telling the reader that this is a huge issue, so therefore I'm jumping to that. But whereas I think that the main point is also to say that, you know, all those emotional faces that they have to go through. And if you really put yourself into coach's shoes and they're like you just said, and then what would you feel like if it happened to you that that is also the story, you know, was that we need to be careful. We don't get to plot-driven here. And we remember to, to know that the emotions that the characters are feeling, that's what the readers will connect to and the character is to story. Susanne (37m 22s): Yeah. I talk about too how to create beats because um, one of the main things that that happens with beginning writers is they can see the scene in their head, kind of like what you're talking about and they know what it's supposed to feel like and sound like. And so they'll do like rapid fire dialogue where they characters saying something in the next character saying something back and they're going back and forth and back and forth. But there's moments where certain things are being said that are unexpected or shocking or upsetting. And if you don't stop and give a beat, like have the character pause and process again, this is part of that action reaction cycle. You know, I can just be talking casually with you, but if you say something to me right now that, uh, I, I didn't expect and that can affect me is important or can affect me emotionally. I'm in a need to take a beat. I'm going to have to stop and process that. And so the way that we do that in our writing is we, we have the character pause, we have the character stop and process and think, you know, a thought will come in, a reaction will come in a S. there's lots of different techniques that you can use to slow down a scene. One of the techniques I like to use is to have a character notice little things and good writers do this very well. Little details. They might hear a clock ticking in the background or they might notice the bottom of their pants leg is frayed. Um, when we start noticing little things around us, it slows down time and it or stretches out time. However you want to think of it. And it helps to create that beat, that moment to let the character react and respond to what was just said or done. But also you need to let the reader do that. And one of the, one of the basic ways we do that as writers is we do a scene break or we do it, we end a chapter, right? That's why I was saying that suspense authors often will end, uh, a scene of high action with a big action moment or a visceral reaction to that moment and end it really quickly. And then there's an X, then there's a new chapter. And the purpose for that is that it gives the reader a chance to go, Oh, okay. Uh, and process that, I mean, oftentimes at the end of a chapter, if it's a great chapter, you know, we'll stop and not just start reading the next chapter. We'll kind of take a breath or get up and get a drink of water or something. Because we need, we need the moment to sink in. So as writers, we want to always write our scenes to build to a high moment. The high moments should come at the end, at the very last line or the last paragraph. And that high moment should pack a punch, whether it's an emotional punch to reveal a clue or move the plot forward in some way. But you want to end with that emotional punch at the end of your chapter because then you're creating, you're creating a beat. You're creating a way for the reader to breathe, to process, to absorb what they just read, get them ready to move into the next scene. And again, you can do it with a scene break too. You don't always have to have a chapter in, but you can have multiple scenes in a chapter, but you want to aim for that with every senior, right? You wanted to build to that high moment and then you want to stop it right there and give the reader a chance to react. And that's part of manipulating your readers so that they'll feel the emotions that you want them to feel. Okay. Jesper (40m 43s): Yeah. That's why I think it's important. What you talked about a bit earlier as well with the, with the, uh, what should we call them, like campfire scene. So you know, that, uh, the Maslow scenes, those are important because if you're writing, let's say a 300 page fantasy novel and every single chapter is this height intense stuff all the time, I think most, most readers will get pretty tired before they at the end of those 300 pages. And they probably will not enjoy it that much. So you need some of the slow pacing in-between just to take, get also give the reader a bit of beading boom here and there. I think that's important. Susanne (41m 19s): Yeah, it's really good to alternate. And again, this is all part of that action reaction cycle because if you have a lot of action going on, at some point the characters need a process which just happened. And um, as I said in a mystery, you might have a whole chapter where they characters the detectives talking or whatever. And uh, but in a fantasy, you know, it might just be a page. It really just depends on your writing style. And it depends on your plot. Um, there's nothing wrong with having lots and lots and lots of great action in a fantasy novel or any novel, but they readers aren't going to get engaged with the characters unless you can really get into their thoughts and into their inner conflict, you know, just show what they're struggling with. If our characters aren't struggling, you know, if they're not vulnerable, if they're not, you know, having, um, doubts if they're not, um, you know, finding the journey hard other than just, you know, I can't climb the mountain fast enough. Um, it's just not going to have enough meaning for the reader. You know, we want, we, we like to go on those heroes journeys and those heroes journeys are all about, uh, the internal journey, not so much the external journey. Jesper (42m 26s): Yeah. Yeah. We, in previous episodes we've actually talked about the character arc as well and how it's incredibly important that, that both, there is like a, a meaning behind why the character is feeling the way that they are feeling. So it's not just because they were slapped in the face and now they're feeling angry or something, you know, that that needs to be some sort of underlying driver that that also links in with the character too, to how they're going to transform over the course of the story. And then you use all of these different elements, uh, to, to basically push them to watch that transformation. Um, so, and I do think that that's important that, that you give with everything basically, that you have some sort of reason for why things are happening. Uh, and it's not just, uh, because you, I mean, of course you, in order to give all that suspense and that bad things needs to happen and it has to be difficult for the character, but it should not be random bad things just to show that the coaters struggling and they are feeling, you know, emotions so that you can, the reader can connect to that. But if the reader cannot see that there is some sort of purpose and we're going somewhere with all of this, then it becomes a bit like, yeah, Susanne (43m 37s): right. I always call, I always liken it to a string of scenes. If you have a character that just has ups and downs and has a good day and a bad day and things just keep happening to them, but there's no overarching purpose, there's no plot goal that they're striving for, there's no passion toward a goal, then, um, it's just kind of meaningless. It just feels like the characters just wandering around. I write a lot about that in my other books too. Um, so yeah, it just, I just feel that I'm becoming an emotional or emotion master in your fiction. Writing is one of the most important skills that you can learn, but nobody teaches it and nobody really talks about it. And so I hope that you know, by giving, and this course is six and a half hours of video, but I also have about 40 different assignments that I give out that you can download, which I think is really cool because what I'm hearing back from writers, I've got hundreds and hundreds of writers now that are taking this course or who have already taken it since I launched it September 1st I am I'm really excited to hear that they're enjoying doing these exercises. And part of these exercises as I mentioned, is getting these books and marking them up and studying passages and analyzing how good writers do this. Cause honestly, the only way that you can become great at anything is to emulate great people in that field. But you know, if you're a painter, you know you people go to the lube and they set up their easels and they copy the masters. They try to paint exactly like them, not so they can copycat, but so they can learn the technique, they learn the skills, they can see what colors go well together and create what kind of effects. And we really need to do that with our writing. And I never heard anybody ever give me that advice for the decades that I was writing novels. Nobody ever said, go study these great novels and tear them apart. See what kind of words they use. Sentence structure, paragraph structure. How long are the chapters, how much description do they use? What type of description? Um, when you study masterful writers, it's just amazing how incredible they write is that Toni Morrison said, easy reading is hard. Writing and that's so true. When we read a beautiful scene that just seems to just flow beautifully. Like everything is just perfect in it. That was not an easy scene to write. And we all should know that if we've struggled writing great scenes, you know, I mean, there's there scenes that I've read that I wrote years ago and I'll go back to a book that I wrote and I'll read a scene out of my book and I'll just go, I can't believe I wrote that scene. It was like a fantastic scene. Where did that come from? You know, and, uh, and I'm just amazed that that somehow came out of me and I don't ever feel like I did it. I always feel like somebody else wrote that scene through me somehow. But I know it's because of all the studying that I did. And I think that's how painting works or playing music or whatever. If you practice and practice and practice. My husband's a jazz sax player, so you know, every night like three hours hearing scales right in my bedroom because that's where are his studio is set up because we have a tiny house. So, uh, you know, we get that, but you have to, when you practice and practice year after year and you get really good at something and seeing with writing when you get really good at writing scenes and conveying characters and their emotions and describing them and bringing a scene to life, a lot of that can just start happening naturally. But at first it does take a lot of work. It takes, um, it takes intention. Like you can't just, just write and just write a lot. It's just sort of like giving, you know, giving a kid a three year old kid, a big bag full of airplane parts and say, well, just keep putting them together and eventually you'll have a working airplane. You know, it doesn't work that way with writing writing practices. Great. It's great to write every day. It's great to journal, whatever. And I highly encourage that. But you also have to write very deliberately, and that involves the studying of great writing and doing like read Hemingway said, study how other writers did this. And then you try to copy it so you can do it yourself and you can get the same results. Right? So just like anything else. And I, like I said, I rarely ever hear writing instructors tell writers to do this, but this is the number one thing I think writers should do. They should, as part of their discipline or their writing practice, they should beat, you know, reading widely and not just reading, but studying what they're reading. Um, I've heard people say, yeah, you should read a lot of books, great read books. It's fun to read books, but if you're not really paying attention, if you're just enjoying the book, which I like to do from time to time, just read a book for fun. Um, that's a different thing. But for the most part, when I read a book, I just tear it apart. You know, what's working, what's not? Why is this boring? Why do I hate this scene? Um, it's good to know why you hate something. It's good to know why you don't like a scene. It's good to know why your board or why you don't care about a character. It's good to know why you halfway through the book, you just give up. What was the point? What was that tipping point for you that said, okay, forget it. I'm not going to waste any more time reading this book that teaches you a lot and you should learn from it so that you don't do those same mistakes in your writing. Jesper (48m 33s): Yeah, I think that's, that's amazing. There. There's so much a GM Pactor good stuff in it. In this episode. He has a center, so thanks a lot for, for that. And, uh, I will also put a link in the show notes to the uh, live write thrive.com website where I think people can, there was like a one free session or something off the course. Is that right? Susanne (48m 54s): Well that's my blog. Um, my online school is that CS lakin.teachable.com and that's my writing, that's my writing for life workshops online school. So I have my video courses on that. Um, so yeah, I'll send you the link and then if you put that down there that good. And um, yeah, so I have a, I have a handful of courses. I'm working on a new course right now on your cast of characters which are really excited about because I'm going to be interviewing a dozen or so bestselling authors starting this week. I'm doing video interviews with them to ask them how do they come up with their characters, how many characters, how did they decide which characters they want. That's also another thing I've been trying to research online. I can't find any information on it. How do you know how to populate your story with how many characters and what are they, what are their roles? Uh, it's, so, it's a fascinating topic again when that I just feel writers should know and I'm, I'm excited to see what I'm going to learn in my exploration as I go through this. But yeah, so I hope, I hope people come check it out. And again, if you go to C us lakin.teachable.com and you click on the emotional mastery course, you can scroll down to the curriculum and you'll see the free preview. So if you want to just watch the one module for free on the action reaction cycle, do that. You don't have to commit or enroll or anything like that. Uh, I feel like the course take it, uh, if you don't like the course after you pay for it, you get a full refund. So there's no commitment. It's like 30 day money back guarantee. So, um, but I, I do think that you'll learn a lot from it and, um, check out my other courses. I think I have free previews on all my other courses too. So if you see something else that you need to learn, like what your 10 key scenes are or your four foundational pillars are. I have courses on those things too, um, based on my books. So, um, I hope you check them out. Yeah, thanks for having me here. I really appreciate being able to share all this information and I, I really love to help writers and I love to see writers improve in their writing so they write great books. That's what matters Jesper (50m 50s): indeed. Yeah. And thank you so much for joining us. So I hope you got a lot out of this. Uh, DLS snow and there was a lot of good, good, good stuff in here. So I will see you next Monday. And then autumn, we'll be back a posting with me Narrator (51m 5s): if you like what you just heard, there's a few things you can do to support the amwritingfantasy podcast. Please tell a fellow author about the show and visit us at Apple podcast and leave a rating and review. You can also join autumn and Yesper on patrion.com/amwritingfantasy for as little as a dollar a month. You'll get awesome rewards and keep the amwritingfantasy podcast going. Stay safe out there and see you next Monday.

The AmWritingFantasy Podcast: Episode 43 – Getting Your Book to Sell (with Stuart Thaman)

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Play Episode Listen Later Oct 21, 2019 37:23

What do you do when your book isn't selling? What changes can you make to make your book start selling? International bestselling author, Stuart Thaman, who works with traditional publishing companies to revive dead books that aren't selling. joins the Am Writing Fantasy podcast to share his insights. In this episode, the how-to guide book, "How to write a fantasy book description" is mentioned. You can find it here: https://www.jesperschmidt.com/books/how-to-write-a-fantasy-book-description/ You can find Stuart's helpful guides and articles here: http://www.stuartthamanbooks.com/marketing-series Tune in for new episodes EVERY single Monday. SUPPORT THE AM WRITING FANTASY PODCAST! Please tell a fellow author about the show and visit us at Apple podcast and leave a rating and review. Join us at www.patreon.com/AmWritingFantasy. For as little as a dollar a month, you'll get awesome rewards and keep the Am Writing Fantasy podcast going. Read the full transcript below. (Please note that it's automatically generated and while the AI is super cool, it isn't perfect. There may be misspellings or incorrect words on occasion). Jesper (1s): Hey there. Jesper just dropping in here up at the front of the episode. I have an excellent guest host on today, but I just wanted to drop in here quickly to let you know that we had a bit of audio quality issues, the internet on my guests and is not entirely stable and at one point about 18 and a half minute in it actually drops, which means that I cannot hear him and he keeps talking for a bit while I'm also talking on top of him to hoping, hoping that he's coming back online. So you're going to get about one and a half minute where we accidentally talk over one another. So my apologies for that. And also when it comes to his internet connection, there is a bit static on his end and uh, unfortunately I've done everything I can to try to clean it out, but, but it's not possible to get it any better than it is now, but you can hear everything he says. So I've decided to release this episode anyway, so I hope you will get a lot out of it. And the much, much apologies for the audio quality here. Thank you. Narrator (1m 7s): You're listening to the amwritingfantasy podcast. In today's publishing landscape, you can reach fans all over the world. Query letters are a thing of the past. You don't even need a literary agent. There is nothing standing in the way of making a living from writing join to best selling authors who have self published more than 20 books between them. Now onto the show with your hosts, Autumn Birt and Jesper Schmidt. Jesper (1m 35s): Hello, I am Jesper and this is episode 43 of the amwritingfantasy podcast. And we are going to talk about reviving dead books. Meaning, how do you get books that doesn't sell to start selling again? And as you've noticed, the autumn is not with me today, but instead I actually have a guest host and that's Stuart Thaman whose books have reached international international bestseller status in the U S Australia and Canada. So welcome to the amwritingfantasy podcast, Stuart. Stuart (2m 7s): Yeah, thanks for having me. Jesper (2m 10s): And I, I actually understood, uh, from a bit of our email conversations that they just spent a bit of time in I was about to say my part of the world, well I think it was in Germany and I'm in Denmark, but it's close. Stuart (2m 21s): Pretty close. Yeah. I was in central Germany, went to college and verts Berg, so been a decent amount of time in Europe. Oh, okay. What's bird what when Germany is, that is basically dead in the center of Germany. So it's a sort of a little bit to the East of Frankfurt. Probably the nearest a landmark, but not too far from you HC and yeah, honestly you can get anywhere from the center of the country, so it got to travel around a good amount as well. Oh, nice, nice, nice. So you were there for several years then. Yeah, for a good bit of time and really, really enjoyed it. I love the food. I love the climate. Uh, it's just a wonderful place to live. Jesper (2m 59s): Oh, cool. Very cool. But uh, but I think you're back in the U S now, right? Yup. Stuart (3m 4s): So living in Kentucky, which is a in the Midwest of the United States. Yeah. Jesper (3m 9s): Right. Okay. And actually before we get into the whole conversation about reviving dead books, which, ah, which I guess you've made a bit of a specialty out of, but before we get into that, I also noticed that you writing some lit RPG books and uh, I know that that's a, a Shaundra that has been a bit there. I don't know if we can call it hot, but, uh, I, I haven't understood that it's, it's something that, um, that is selling quite well in general, but, but it's also I think a bit of a special show to write. So I was just wondering if you could, you know, just yeah, a bit of insights about what is lit RPG and how do you go about writing it because I think it's a bit different, isn't it? Stuart (3m 50s): Yeah, it's a very niche, sort of a sub genre of fantasy and PSI Phi and, and really have any other genre you can sort of turn things into lit RPG. But, uh, it's been around for a while since ready. Player one came out quite some time ago, but really got big when the ready player one movie debuted a couple of years ago. And when that came out a lot of people started to get turned on the little RPG and a lot of people will call a game lit as well. And um, now the hardcore readers will, we'll put some designations between game lit and lit RPG, but typically, uh, the whole concept behind the sub genres, you have a fantasy, scifi horror world, whatever it might be, B. But in that world there exists the sort of mechanics of an actual video games. So, um, in I've got three different lid RPG series now that have done pretty well. Uh, it's uh, definitely a hot selling Shondra at the moment. Am it's really, uh, a lot of fun to write. And being a lifelong gamer, it's sort of like writing the video game that I wish I could play. And that adds a whole new dimension to the entire writing process, which is a ton of fun, but really starting to get popular am in the past year or so, just sort of a genre that's blown up. Jesper (5m 8s): Right? But am I right in understanding that you are actually writing out, that's for characters and stuff like that as well. Or Stuart (5m 15s): so there'll be a stats for the characters. They'll have like strength, agility, uh, this sort of traditional stats that you would expect from a video game. They go on quests, they go on dungeon runs, they get magic gear every time they level up and you know, gain experience points they need to pick new talents and they're sort of building their, their build more or less than kind of gives you that feeling of reading someone playing a really fun video game. Jesper (5m 41s): Right. So you're describing in the book itself what they're picking when delivering up and all that stuff. Yeah, Stuart (5m 47s): exactly. In and why they're making that decision and, and uh, what they anticipate that decision might mean in the future. Like if I get this talent now, it should unlock these future talents. And, uh, you can really mentally envision the video game aspect of it quite well. Jesper (6m 3s): Wow. That does different, yeah. And uh, and quite, it must also am I've never read a book like that, but it must be quite a different reading experience as well because I assume, I assume that's still a story in there, but, but a lot of it will then be broken up by these sort of well known story elements where you're just learning what skills they're picking for leveling up and stuff like that. Stuart (6m 27s): Yeah, it's very interesting because this story in some other PGS can honestly be secondary to the progression of the game and the progression of the character through the game. Uh, just depends on which kind of lit RPG you're reading. But I got turned on to it just on a recommendation from someone they told me I should read dungeon Lord by a Hugo who ESKA and the read that and just really, really, really liked it and just thought like, this is the kind of fantasy like I could write this, this is a lot of fun. And, uh, wrote my first one and took a while to really get it good and, and to really perfect it. But, uh, it's done really well. It's sold quite well and I'm really happy about that. So definitely a lot of fun to write. And uh, my, my first one only took me 20 days cover to cover to write it. So, um, very, very fast writing it because it was simply so much fun to do. Jesper (7m 18s): But how, how long are, uh, is IPG novel in general? How many words is Stuart (7m 23s): yeah, I mean typically the longer the better. So my very first one was right around 80,000 words. My, I've got two more that are coming out in November that are both over a hundred thousand words. So, um, the longer you can get them, the better. I'm just like normal, Epic fantasy people like to stay in that world as long as possible. Jesper (7m 40s): All right. Okay. Very cool. I was just curious about that. I know it's a complete detour versus what we're going to talk about. What I was just curious. Yeah, very new Stuart (7m 49s): stuff. Jesper (7m 50s): Yeah. Okay. But maybe we should get on topic, uh, for the sake of the listener here as well. Um, so yeah, I previously in the past I talked to Dave Chesson who, who was, uh, who was also on this podcast a while back. Uh, he's the guy who does the publisher rocket software and uh, he mentioned Stuart that I should contact you because you have made a bit of a specialty to revive that books. Uh, and you're also doing it for traditional publishing companies as far as I understood. But yeah, but where do we start this whole conversation about how to revive it? That book if the listener is in the situation where they have a book they published but it's just not selling. Stuart (8m 32s): Yeah. The first thing to do is just identify the quality of the product itself, which could be pretty difficult. And it kind of requires you to step back with an unbiased eye and try not to look at the book as, Oh, this is, you know, my baby that I've worked on for so long and my projects that I've had, you know, sort of putting in my heart for so long that I really want to succeed. And the first step is just to look at the product as just a product that you're selling to consumers. Like anything else, if you ran a pizza shop or whatever, you would look at the quality of the product that you're selling and see where you can improve that. So not every book is really, you know, ready to be revived or anything like that. I'm definitely not, there are a lot of books out there where the quality, you know, maybe it's something you wrote 10 years ago and it's just not that great. You know, if you can recognize that, it'll save you a lot of time and money and frustration. I've got books that I now call dead books where I've buried those books because the quality just wasn't that good and I'm not going to waste money trying to revive it myself. But then I've got other books that I wrote a long time ago released that did not do as well as I wanted that I have gone back and revive and then um, know working for different publishing companies. I've done exactly that. But the first step is really, especially if you have a big catalog, identify a good candidate. So you need something with good writing, unless you really want to drop another, a couple of hundred dollars or $1,000 into the editing costs as well. But you want to make sure you have something that's got a good enough backbone essentially to where you can improve it enough and revive it and it'll actually be worth it. Um, but figuring out which book that is in your catalog, it should really be step one. So really the thing that the strongest writing that didn't sell that, that the non-selling factor was a surprise. That's, that's probably step one for sure. Jesper (10m 28s): Right? Yeah. And that of course makes sense. But, but the thing or the question that popped up into my mind here, when you set that is like, but it's not, I don't think necessarily that every author can recognize that themselves. So, so, you know, of course, if you're doing it for a traditional author publisher and they give you some debt books that they could, you know, Stuart can you please revive these for us? Then you can approach this SD outside opinion that that takes a look at the book and say, okay, this is not up for that, you know, this is not good enough or whatever. Maybe that sounds a bit harsh but, but you know what I mean. Uh, but if it's the author who, who's supposed to do it on his or her own books, um, do you think that's possible to do or do you need somebody from outside to take a look? Stuart (11m 14s): It's definitely difficult and I, I think is, I have worked a little bit as a professional editor and proofreader as well and, uh, worked in acquisitions for a publisher for quite some time, reading through manuscripts in the slush pile and that kind of thing. So I think that gives me a little advantage and a little better perspective where no, I'm not attached to even my own writing as much as someone else might be. Yeah. I, I think that's a skill that people can develop if you look at something, especially if it's been awhile since you've actually sat down to write it, uh, you'll find oftentimes, at least in my experience, that even if I love the book and the moment I was writing it and I was really, really into it, thought it going to be fantastic. Going back and rereading it, I can look and say like, Oh, this just, you know, it's just not my best work. I've advanced as an author. I'm better than this now and this just doesn't really do it for me. Um, and I think that's a skill that people can develop. Okay. Honestly, I think there's a lot of editors out there that should be able to take a manuscript from someone if you send it and you know, maybe they charge you a hundred bucks or whatever, but just ask the editor, you know, for their outright opinions. Yeah. Do you think this is good enough for me to publish? You know, from the stuff you've seen that you've edited, um, you know, editors, a lot of times we'll follow how well their books do that they added, you know, look at it and say, Hey, if I were to try to revive this, do you think it's worthwhile? And, and just trying to get an honest answer that way. Jesper (12m 42s): Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Uh, and, and I think what I've often said before is that, uh, you need to be careful because what happens a lot of the time is that of course with every single book that we write, the better we become. So you see you, you need to be careful also that you, you don't step into this never ending spiral of, you know, because you can always go back and we write some older books and make them better, but you need to really ask yourself, is it worth it? Because the amount of time that you're spending rewriting is, is quite, uh, you know, it's, it's quite an investment of time to do that versus if it's just a cover that is off, you know, that's a much easier fix to, to see. So I was just wondering, because I was thinking that if I was going to approach it, rewriting was, unless I for sure knew, of course that this is just not good enough. Then it's, it's a given obviously that you need to do that. But I was just thinking from a time investment perspective, I think that we're rewriting part would probably be the last thing I would do. I would probably try out all the other elements first or, or what Stuart (13m 48s): yeah. If, if it's a book where you can simply pick flyer, like this is a book that needs rewritten, my recommendation would be just shelf it. And if you have that time later in the future, go for it from 90% of us. We're not gonna have that much time. So just, you know, pick a different book to try to revive. Or oftentimes I've found it's, it's even easier just to write the next one and just sort of forget about it and know leave that book as dead. But, um, really the, the best, you know, reviving the dead books is if you can go through that back catalog, maybe you've got four or five or six books that really aren't selling and just pick out, you know, find the one that has the strongest writing, the one that is the best that, you know, maybe it needs a proofread, something like that. But it doesn't need a whole lot of work to the actual manuscript in order to get it ready to go. Jesper (14m 39s): Right. And of course, well maybe they won't be many reviews on a day fee if it, if it is really a debt book and has always been a debt book, but, but if you do have some reviews, I think that's also a place where you could go to, to get some hints if, if it really needs another editing pass and you know, if there's complaints about too many typos and whatnot. Stuart (14m 58s): Yeah, exactly. I definitely agree with that. Yeah. Um, but I, I was also thinking in terms of Jesper (15m 9s): the look inside part, you know, from the Amazon, but how much attention are you, are you placing on making sure that those first, uh, I think, if I'm remember correctly, I might be a bit off on this, but I think it's 10% of the book Stuart (15m 23s): somewhere around there at least. Yeah. So Jesper (15m 27s): present, I think you, you can see from the look inside or the free sample on Amazon, but how much attention are you putting on making sure that those 10% are really engaging? Stuart (15m 36s): Yeah, it's definitely a part you need to hook the reader. So not every reader of course, is even going to look in on that feature or even know that feature exists. It's definitely a part, um, and that, that some people do pay attention to. And I think a lot of other authors, we'll start there if, you know, if you've written before and you're looking for new materials to read yourself, then it's an area where we're going to look, it's gotta be, of course, you know, professional formatting. And a lot of times, like when I worked for different presses, I'll go into their material. I'll see, okay, these books were made and you know, 2010 or 2014 and the formatting just back then wasn't as good. And they've gotten a professional format or now or whoever, there's, whoever is doing their formatting is simply gotten better. And so we just need to update this, run the manuscript through the formatting again as though it were brand new and get it updated, get it out there in the professional quality that the other more modern books are used to receiving. And, and that can be definitely a big thing, but I think just from a, okay, really from a story perspective, if you don't hook somebody in the first, you know, 10, 15 pages, if you don't get them absolutely invested, then there's so much other competition out there that readers will leave. And especially if you're trying to sell and Kindle unlimited, you have to be even more am sort of action heavy and really, uh, punching it up well upfront or you don't really have a chance cause somebody's pinhole unlimited. I mean, they didn't pay to download your book at all. If you don't get them committed and invested in the first 10 pages, they're just going to move on to the next book on their Kindle and you've lost them. So, uh, definitely very important from a story perspective to have a really, really strong active opening that introduces, you know, one or two characters, keeps the cast small, sets up the overarching conflict well and really attaches the reader to those characters right out of the gate. Yeah, fully agree. Um, Jesper (17m 36s): let, let's assume for now that that people sort of, they, they have the, they have the product itself, meaning meaning the book or the writing itself is, is up to par. So, so that, that stuff is good. They have a good to hook in the beginning. Uh, if, if Stuart (17m 50s): we assume that that is okay, then what about covers then? Yeah, so the cover of course is a huge aspect of writing and you know, we all know the old phrases of not judging books by their covers. And yet we all do it every single time we buy a book. It's the first step of marketing. It's the first thing you see when you approach a book, whether it be online on a bookshelf, and it doesn't matter. The first thing we see are first impression is always that book cover. And a lot of times what I've seen in some of the books that I have revived is that the cover just doesn't match the genre expectation. And if you're trying to sell a, a a really, you know, intense suspense thriller and your cover just doesn't speak to me as a thriller, it could be a beautiful gorgeous cover. But if it just doesn't meat the jhana expectations of a thriller, then it's not going to sell well no matter how good the cover is. So a lot of it is just looking at the top 100 covers in your genre or pick, you know, 10 or so competing authors that your book is most similar to, and you know, you write thrillers, look up Stephen King and Dean Koontz and look up those coppers and see what they look like. Because even if you don't like that style, that's what the reader expect. And that's what the reader wants to see because the reader is going to be coming from Dean Coons or Stephen King and they're going to be looking for more thrillers to read. And if they see, you know, a thriller that matches what they like, they're going to buy it versus seeing a thriller that could have a gorgeous professional, extremely good cover. But if the cover to them says, Oh, this is historical or horror or fantasy, this isn't a thriller like I like, then they're never going even to reach or blurb and they're not going to get any farther than glancing at your cover and ignoring it and you lose that reader forever. And that's an area where I see a lot of authors don't make sense. They spot on is that cover just doesn't really, really important and you have to have a cover that really explains what the show is about action and shows that it's not really about, uh, at the point in time when it comes to covers, it is not good. Me being original, which a lot of us authors can easily try to become a try to, to achieve. We tried to be so original and we try to, to make it so unique that nobody has seen this before and we believe it's, it's to be excellent, but in fact, that is not the case. Uh, and that's not what we're looking for because readers are looking for something similar to what they used to. And by giving them a cover that that shows them that this is the younger you are getting and it's on par with or similar to two other Jesper (20m 48s): best selling books in that younger, then that is how you are going to am to be successful from a, from a coverage perspective. Okay. So, so if that was all about covers then am I'm wondering the other element that also goes into whether another book will sell is uh, the uh, uh, book descriptions. So, so how do you or how do one yeah, consider or evaluate if once book description is good enough. Stuart (21m 20s): Yeah, I think in book descriptions and blurbs or a synopsis, it's a lot more difficult than with covers cause converse, you can compare to some of the top selling covers in your genre and get a good idea. But blurbs are so unique to the book that it makes it a lot more difficult. But with blurbs that very easy to change, especially on the electronic format, it's extremely easy to change. You can try out a different blurb every week until you get something that you really liked. But a big mistake at least that I see with lots and lots of blurbs is authors try to just sort of tell you the plot. Here's what my book is about. That seems logical, but it very, very rarely works. And really the goal of any sort of book blurb or synopsis is not to tell the reader what the book is going to be about, but it is to tell the reader instead why they should look at the book and what they're going to be excited about. And really what that comes down to is Shondra expectations, which is similar to the cover. And you want to just give them atmosphere and you want them to think like, Oh, this is going to be a really cool, you know, intense mystery thriller, not, Oh, this is a book about a guy who was framed for a crime and goes on the run and moves to Argentina. It should be a book, a description that gives them just the atmosphere and sort of builds up that expectation in their head and then leaves them wanting more. Because if they, if they get the plot from the, the book description, they don't need to read the book anymore. If they just get the atmosphere and the genre expectation, then they need to read the book in order to figure out what it's about. And I think that can be a, a, a really powerful selling tool. But again, since it's so easy to just change the blurb, essentially whenever you need to pick five or six that you like and you know, test them on a, a writing group and you know, on a sub Reddit or something like that, um, test them out in a Facebook group for authors. See what people like, pick the two or three that get the most votes, try one for a week with your marketing plan. If it works, great. If not, switch to a different one. And you can really am guess and check with them blurbs pretty easy. Jesper (23m 41s): Yeah, absolutely. And, and, uh, it's, it's sort of like thinking about the movie trailer. I mean, of course not all movies trailers does a good job at being a trail either. But yeah, it needs to just tease to stuff. You don't have to. Yeah, exactly. You don't have to tell bots. You just, you just tease it. Uh, and, and then, yeah, as you say, I mean, fortunately enough, eh, changing the blurb is quite easy. So, uh, you can just upload a new one and see how it performs. And of course, for you, dear listener, if you're struggling with that, don't forget that, uh, I actually have a guide book called how to write a fences. You put description so you can pick that one up and, uh, follow a step by step guide if you need some assistance on, on blurps. But, uh, but I do think blurbs are incredibly important because if people find, if, if you sort of have the writing on the control and you have the cover under control, meaning that it's sugar specific, like you talked about before, Stuart then people will then click, but then when they click and get to the book page on, for example, Amazon, then the blurb is the one that needs to close the deal, right? Yup. Definitely. Yeah. And if you don't have that sort of them, well, you're still gonna lose out at the problem. He, I guess in, in revising these books, reviving these books as a, that was what I was trying to say is that you have, so you have quite a lot of moving parts here, right? I mean, yeah, there's a lot of different elements that could be wrong that you need to evaluate. Yeah, there are a ton of variables and it can sometimes, especially when you're looking at your own work, it can be hard to pinpoint exactly what's wrong, but Amy and I think, uh, if people really take a diligent look, it's not as hard as it seems to figure out exactly where there's room to improve. Right? Yeah. And then, and sometimes it's probably also about of, uh, if, if you are really stuck, you know, maybe get some author friends to take a look for you or something like that. There's tons of groups out there full of authors that don't mind giving advice to everybody else. So there's, the resources exist. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. But, but I was just thinking when I said that, I also thought of a caveat right away. I guess that's, that's the problem if you're trying to give advice and been thinking about caveats right away. But, but the, the problem is also that sometimes the authors themselves are not the right people to justice stuff because we think as authors and, and it's difficult sometimes to put yourself in the mind of the reader because just like you said with the covers, uh, the readers are looking for, uh, something that signals to them that this is, I know what I'm getting and this is what I'm used to. They're not looking for, this is the most amazing original fats as you cover I've ever, ever seen. You know, that's not what they're looking for. And we can get, well, I think sometimes by asking other authors, you can get into the same trap that they will tell you their author opinion. Um, and, but of course, sometimes you're going to get good advice from people who know what they're talking about. It's just a word of caution, I guess. Stuart (26m 50s): I would agree. A lot of authors will make the same mistake as an author trying to revive their own work and then they look through it from the wrong perspective. Jesper (26m 59s): Right. But okay, so if we have the writing we have to cover, we have the book description than, than what. What else? Stuart (27m 7s): It really, once you've got all that your, you're pretty much ready to go. So, uh, you've, you've got everything more or less. All right. Seated correctly. Sometimes. I've actually, we've, we've changed titles on books as well, so we've had titles on that comes to mind that as probably the most successful book revival I've ever done. Um, and it, it was a really cool portal fantasy about a Japanese fighter pilot going back in time during world war II and going back to feudal Japan times and sort of becoming a sword and sorcery fantasy and that book had a cover that said historical fiction to me. It had a title that was in Japanese and I didn't even understand it even though the book was in English and the writing, we just needed a proofread. But, uh, we changed that title to one that was very in keeping with am with sort of expectations and whatnot. The book's called samurai wind by Nigel sellers. But, uh, we, we revive that and got the new title on it, got a new cover on it and everything. And then really from there, the bulk of your work is finished and all you need to do is just find that audience and figure out where those people live. And with a samurai themed portal fantasy with a little historical bend to it, honestly, that appeals to most fantasy readers already. That's something that a lot of fantasy readers are going to really enjoy. So all you need to do is, is, uh, then dive into your sort of traditional marketing approach. And for me that would be Facebook and Amazon ads testing key words, figuring out which keywords are getting your sales, and then am pumping really as much of your budget as you can afford into those valuable keywords until they stop working. And then re-evaluating once those keywords fall off a little bit. But, um, once you get to the point where you've got, you know, the title, the cover, the blurb and the writing that is pretty much everything. You're, you're more or less they're ready to market it again and really rebrand the novel and get people interested in it. Jesper (29m 12s): Yeah. Yeah, I would agree. Uh, and of course then once you are at that stage, then you have the same problem that everybody else has and that is to drive enough traffic there and, and when those bits and all that. But do you have any, any good advice when it comes to, to running some ads and getting, getting the traffic to that book that you now know it's good and you know what you're sell but you just need to get eyeballs, eyeballs on it. Do you have any advice on, on how to best go about that? Uh, the advertising part of this equation? Stuart (29m 41s): Yeah, it's definitely marketing books is tricky. And sort of the uh, pitfall I guess of almost every author out there that I talked to am on my website on stuartthamanbooks.com I've got a whole series of free articles about marketing that go into, in a lot more detail than a, just a quick podcast. But essentially the biggest advice is if you're using pay to click or right, yeah. Pay per click ads. That's it. So if you're using those paper click ads, which I recommend you just want to sort of start with the shotgun blast and hit as much as you possibly can right out of the gate and it's going to be expensive to test and it's going to be a pretty steep learning curve. You'll need to know what you're doing. Yeah. If you set up, you know, maybe three or 4,000 different keywords on Amazon, which am I use the publisher rocket as well, but, um, set up 4,000 keywords and run those for fast and keywords, which will be four different ads, but run them on, you know, three different ad copies and adjust your ad copy. You know, three different times, figure out which keywords are hitting. And the combination might be something that's surprising. It might be something that you don't expect and he might have, uh, you know, a key word with an ad copy that doesn't strike you as something that you would, you know, would work for you. But again, the author's not the customer. So it's hard to think like a customer and we don't always understand the customers. Um, but really just sort of testing as much as physically possible for as long as you can to get enough data to be meaningful. Then figuring out from that data, okay, what about this makes sense and where am I actually going to make money? Um, you know, kill those keywords that are just sucking down budget with no returns. Kill those off real quick. Figure it out. The ones that, the keywords that are giving you the best bang for your buck and then put more and more into those keywords. Or maybe try five or six different ad copies with each key word to see what works the best. And eventually, you know, might take you a month, but you'll pair it down to where you've got ads running that are going to be very profitable on either Facebook or Amazon, whatever it might be. B, you'll get ads that are, are churning out a high rate of return. Jesper (31m 57s): Yeah. Do you uh, tend to be it high to, to, to get those, uh, basically to revive the books so to speak, in order to get to get the Amazon algorithm to pay attention to you? Do, do you tend to bid high to make sure you're winning those bits or, or do you just bit sorta Jewish sure. That you're going to get a return on investment if you win the bid. So how do you, how do, how do you go about that? Stuart (32m 20s): It's setting is definitely difficult. I'm not gonna say I'm a master of that just yet. Honestly, in the beginning I like to set the bids higher just cause I'm, I'm kind of impatient when it comes to getting that data and figuring it out. So I'll last a lot of ads in the beginning that are going to cost a good bit of money and have pretty high bids just so I can get all that data and you know, run through my budget every single day to make sure I'm hitting it. And uh, once I get all that data, all tone it down. And most of the time, once I have an ad that's fairly refined, I'll just send it to the Amazon recommended bid and they do like the dynamic bidding where they'll adjust it for you up to like 50% of what you put in. So I'll put maybe 50 cents in and so that'll let it adjust up to 75 cents if it needs to. And that seems to work pretty well. So you're not getting, you know, prime time bids, you're not winning those, but you're still at least, you know, winning enough bids to get a decent amount of impressions, a few thousand impressions or whatever it might be on each ad and, and that's really what you need. But once you pare it down, I think that the bid matters maybe less and less. And it might be the case I've had a few times where reviving an old book, I've found that it wasn't any keyword that was even expensive that ends up being the winner. And it'll be something, you know, for sent keyword that nobody else is bidding on that I would've never thought in a thousand years of irrelevant. But it was something that publisher rocket pulled up in their list and I kept it in there and there it went. And so it'll be a really cheap, a keyword, which is fantastic. Jesper (34m 4s): Yeah, I know, I know Dave Chesson likes to share the example of, uh, of, uh, what was it? Book book book. I think that was the key word, who was using just three times the word book in a row, which makes absolutely no sense at all. Stuart (34m 18s): Who types that in on am I don't know what they're hoping to find when they search book book book but people do apparently, and that you weren't as typically cheap so you can grab it. Jesper (34m 30s): Yeah, yeah, indeed. Indeed. Okay. Well, I think that that is good in terms of revitalizing the book so, so you certainly need to drive the traffic there and, and all the usual stuff that we usually talk about is, is of course also relevant in the sense that, uh, if you make sure to write in series, then of course you can afford to spend a bit more on, on this, uh, book one in the series that is debt, uh, because hopefully people will now start reading through that and, and like it because you just made sure that the product itself is good and then they'll buy the other books and, and that will bring you back some revenue, meaning that you will cover some of your ads. Exactly. Stuart (35m 10s): Yeah. Jesper (35m 12s): Okay. Uh, Stuart uh, is there anything else that is important to know about reviving that books, uh, Stuart (35m 19s): that we haven't talked about? Covered just about everything? Um, I guess as a last bit of advice, I would say, uh, one of the biggest mistakes I see authors making is, is always with the cover. And just the concept is actually a line that I read I think like two or three days ago, just came up. Another author mentioned that your when you look at a cover, you should not be looking for some flawless work of art. You should consider your cover to just be your first marketing tool. And even if it's a cover that you personally don't like, if it fits in your genre, the offense, what readers want, use it. It doesn't matter if you like it or not because the paycheck is what, what the authors in it for. So, uh, it doesn't have to be some, you know, flawless work of art. You can always make a special edition later that's going to be your flawless work of art, but you need to sell books first before we can afford that special edition. Jesper (36m 13s): Yeah, absolutely. And you mentioned early on that, that you had some articles or blog posts or whatever that, uh, goes into some of this. So if you send me the links to that, the Stuart, then I'll add those links into the show notes. Can go and read it. Stuart (36m 29s): Yup. Yeah. Just Stuart Thaman books is where you can find it all and we'll get those links up there. Jesper (36m 34s): All right, perfect. Okay. Thanks so much for, for joining Stuart. Yeah, thank you. So next Monday autumn is back and we are going to talk about whether or not free books are worth it as a marketing strategy. Narrator (36m 53s): If you like what you just heard, there's a few things you can do to support the amwritingfantasy podcast. Please tell a fellow author about the show and visit us at Apple podcast and leave a rating and review. You can also join autumn and Jesper on patrion.com/amwritingfantasy for as little as a dollar a month. You'll get awesome rewards and keep the amwritingfantasy podcast going. Stay safe out there and see you next Monday.

Meet Shaundra Howard

Systems Saved Me

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 16, 2019 20:44

This season is all about the Ops Squad!You'll get to hear from the top operations folks in the industry who I'm fortunate enough to have creating incredible workflows in the shop for us.This week is Shaundra Howard, a South Carolina native now living in beautiful North Carolina with my Chihuahua named Nacho (she's a mess!). I take all the crazy moving parts and pieces that go into a launch or backend operations and make sure everything happens in the order it’s supposed to, how it’s supposed to, and on time. No more launch madness or ActiveCampaign dumpster fires.After spending over 10 years as a graphic designer for industries from real estate to plastic surgery, I realized that design that’s just pretty isn’t going to get someone’s Mastermind sold out. Metrics can’t be ignored. So I took my creative/analytic brain and switched gears to focus on launches, funnel results, and the tech.When I’m not helping course creators, coaches, and consultants transition from being the go-to person for everyone on their team to just being the expert, I’m probably hanging with my family, nerding out over new tech, or adding to my ever-growing list of DIY projects from Pinterest.Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stresslessops/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shaundrahow/Website: https://www.shaundrahoward.com/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Do you Submit, or NAh F*CK That ?

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 3, 2019 61:37

It has been a min, Shaundra was gone for her bday but we are back with another episode. This time we are talking about submission. Should women be more submissive or you think that shit is outdated? Shaundra and Ketayma have two completely perspectives on it. Listen in tell me what you think?

The AmWritingFantasy Podcast: Episode 37 – How to choose a title for your novel

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 9, 2019 34:14

You've got the story, but what do you title it? Is choosing a title for your novel pivotal? Are there any steps to pick the right title? Autumn and Jesper hash out why choosing a title is actually very important and how to go about doing it in episode 37 of the Am Writing Fantasy podcast. Check out the links we mention in the podcast: https://www.adazing.com/book-title-generator/ https://www.pickfu.com/books http://www.lulu.com/titlescorer/ https://publisherrocket.com/ Tune in for new episodes EVERY single Monday. SUPPORT THE AM WRITING FANTASY PODCAST! Please tell a fellow author about the show and visit us at Apple podcast and leave a rating and review. Join us at www.patreon.com/AmWritingFantasy. For as little as a dollar a month, you'll get awesome rewards and keep the Am Writing Fantasy podcast going. Read the full transcript below. (Please note that it's automatically generated and while the AI is super cool, it isn't perfect. There may be misspellings or incorrect words on occasion). Narrator (1s): You're listening to the amwritingfantasy podcast. In today's publishing landscape, you can reach fans all over the world. Query letters are a thing of the past. You don't even need a literary agent. There is nothing standing in the way of making a living from writing join to best selling authors who have self published more than 20 books between them. Now onto the show with your hosts, Autumn Birt and Jesper Schmidt. Jesper (30s): Hello, I'm Jesper. This is episode 37 of the amwritingfantasy and we're going to talk about how to choose a title for your novel. Autumn (43s): It should be an interesting one because I know you and I have very different techniques. Yes. For on how we choose our titles, which would make it really fun for our code books, but we'll get to that in a minute. For now it's a kind of a fun week, so for me, I've just actually gotten off the road, you know, I live like in a camper and we travel all over North America and we are finally landed back in Pennsylvania. I'm visiting my parents, which is always fun and I'm adjusting to waking up in a real bed and are better having family around and not just birds and squirrels. So that's my life right now that it's so far so good. It's always nice. I'm catching up on sleep for some reason even though we slept really well and I love sleeping in the camper. Am just been tired the last couple of days. So yeah. You said you fell asleep on the couch or something like that? Yeah, yeah. Which is not like me. I'm not a nap person. But yesterday I couldn't, especially just seeing my parents for the first time in months and months and months and, and you know, I'm supposed to be like talking and socializing and I just passed out on their couch. Jesper (1m 54s): How do you wear, when you're traveling around, how do you actually do laundry and stuff like that? Do you find like laundry, laundry mats? Is that Colton? Is that what you do or do you have any sort of, uh, laundry or possibility in the car? How do we actually do both? Autumn (2m 14s): So sometimes we'll actually, there's like three choices. Sometimes we go to a town with a laundromat and go there. We used to sometimes stay at a hotel and often they will have at least a washer and dryer and some campgrounds. Especially you're a Canadian, uh, campgrounds. So Canadian national parks, you guys, Canada, you guys are awesome. I don't, there can be, not say that, but uh, often the Canadian national parks, we'll actually have a washer and dryer, which American national parks often don't even have a shower. So I can't even tell you how awesome Canadian national parks are compared to the U S ones. Sorry guys. It's true. Why is that? Do you know what, why is that different? I don't know. I don't know if we just have more of them and they're very much, the U S ones are very much under funded. They cannot even keep up with the road upkeep where the Canadian, I've been to some of our national parks and they literally have these granite countertop wash stations with under counter lighting is where you just can go and do your dishes and they have hot showers. I mean there are nicer than someplace, some luxury resorts I've stayed in and this is just a little pavilion to do your dishes and hang out and talk. And they often have open fireplaces. I mean, they're just amazing, amazing places. And then the U S ones, they're often, you know, struggling to stay open, struggling to take care of their finances, don't even have enough interpreters and park Rangers. So mostly budget, uh, Canada seems to take their national parks really seriously. And they just had their anniversary. I can't remember if it was the Centennial or 150 years on their national parks. And they put a ton of money and made all the national parks in Canada free in 2018 and that was, I just can't imagine that U S doing that. There's one day a year that they am they last weekend, I think it was, or maybe it was Sunday, they actually opened up all national parks in the U S for free one day versus an entire year. So it's just a lot different approach. And I think there are maybe not as big visited. Um, the U S ones, there's a few that are really, I've never been to Yosemite. I'd love to see Yosemite. I don't know if I'll ever make it to Yosemite because there's a wait list to get in, but Oh yeah. So the last option I mentioned, I can do laundry in camp. We have something called a scrub, a bag, which I think might be out of Australia. I can't remember where the companies from, but it's this cute little plastic bag that looks like, um, you know, an airtight, watertight one and it has these little things in it. You put in, you know, a couple of shirts, waters and laundry detergent. You scrub, scrub it for like need it like as a loaf of DOE, uh, for like three minutes. And I cannot believe how well this thing works. When I went out and first got it, I'm like, you want me to do what? Are you kidding, kidding. And now it's just like, it's completely reversed. I'm like, you want me to go to town and sit there and, and nasty, you know, laundromat for flowers when I could just be here in camp. And go, you know, I'm done in 15 minutes and you hang up your laundry to dry and I'm still talking to the squirrels. So I actually really like it, but it doesn't help when United up with some really like a lot of laundry. It just doesn't work. You've gotta be on top of it pretty much weekly. Yeah, I can imagine. I mean, you don't want it to build up to a big pile of laundry to do. So, uh, we don't have much clothing with us. I mean, we are in our current camper. The area under the queen size bed is all closed storage and plus, you know, we have a few other notes and crannies where you can toss your jackets and things. But yeah. You we don't have a ton of clothes, so, well, you know, when you're getting down to your skivvies you've probably waited too. Jesper (6m 5s): Yeah, I can imagine. Um, and I also, um, well maybe it was while you were driving around. I don't know. But, uh, but at some point it was sort of leading up to summer, so it's a bit a while back, so to speak. But, um, so you told me to read a book, which I read over the summer holidays called StoryBrand, and it just, I just wanted to bring this up because it was quite funny in the, in the way when you, when you had read it then you S you said to me that, uh, I think actually maybe we should add like a attack line for the amwritingfantasy website, but we should probably also redesign it. And I was like, uh, attack line. Why I don't see any point in that. And then over the summer I read the book and I was like, Oh, I'm so with you now. I fully, you're coming from. But it's funny. So I just wanted to, to bring it up because actually I think am for those listening, it is actually a worthwhile book to read. Also just in the sense that narrowing down, you know, as an author, why is it that you're writing and what are you trying to achieve and how could you, you know, communicated to, I don't know, maybe your family or it could also be to readers why it is really that you are, um, writing I, I think in that regard that that StoryBrand book actually works pretty well too. So, um, yeah, so I just wanted to give that recommendation to listeners here. Autumn (7m 38s): Yeah. And a big shout out to Gail Scrivener who, uh, was the Scribner cut podcast the guest for your podcast. She, um, she turned me on to, I think it's Don Miller sent Daniel, so I'm pretty sure it's a Dawn Miller, his book StoryBrand and yes, to have read that from, you know, as a graphic artists but also to, I've read that as an author as well as the, what we teach with the amwritingfantasy and are YouTube and everything we do, you suddenly realize how to break down your targeting and your audience and how to say what you're doing and how to kind of figure out what you're trying to do with this, what you're currently marketing, um, even your books. And that was like, Oh, wow, yeah, I need to read. Is. I, and I ended up redesigning my personal website and now once I get some space and time on my hand and I recover more from the road, I want to, we went to tackle the amwritingfantasy website because yeah, it really, you suddenly realize how cluttered things are and how much more interesting it can be just to focus on some things. Sort of like, you know, no longer have to worry about all these crazy B-roll and stuff that you need to be to be doing the podcast. Jesper (8m 48s): Yeah, yeah, me too. Me too. Absolutely. And, and I think yeah, as if I don't have enough things to record already, but uh, I actually thinking about maybe making sort of a, a free, not a freeze, what am I talking about? A free, a free, that's what I'm trying to say. Free a free video course that people could get once they sign up via amwritingfantasy to just make things a lot more simple. Uh, we do have a, some freebies on amwritingfantasy today. Like for example, we have that am book price analysis. Um, but at the same time there are the resources out there that goes even into more depth. So, and I have some things on my list of things that I'm thinking that doesn't really fit into the other courses that we are going to create. They are still valuable. So I was actually thinking maybe once I'm done recording all the, all the stuff for the world building cost that I also have to do. But once I'm done with all that, may, maybe I could do some recording of a, a shorter free cause that people could get their hands on Autumn (9m 60s): you adding something else to your bottom of your never ending. Jesper (10m 6s): I can't help myself. That's the problem with the amwritingfantasy. Podcast yeah. So actually we, we've sort of been batch recording a bit here because, um, yeah, we've, we just started this new format of the podcast and just in case any of us ever get sick or something should prevent us, we don't want to miss a Monday release. So we've been best recording a bit. And why I'm bringing this up is because in the one of the previous episodes here, we actually asked you guys out there listening if am if it's possible to leave comments on the Google podcast app or in the native Apple podcast app. And of course, because we're batch recording, we don't know the answers yet. So I just wanted to reiterate that the, if you can please try to drop a comment and see if it's possible. And, uh, of course, and we have on our end, no idea if we actually gonna get notified if you do those comments. So if we don't respond to it, which I promise if I see a comment, I respond to it and then, you know as well that I saw it. But if we don't respond then I dunno, hit us up on Twitter or something and say that you left a comment because then at least we know that it's possible, but then we will also know that we can't see it or hear it. But uh, yeah, you actually, the link to both our Twitter profiles, I in the show notes, so check that out. But I'm still curious to know if it's possible to comment on podcasts episodes. Autumn (11m 36s): Absolutely. It, it'll be interesting and I, if we can't see the comments, if they don't come through automatically, I, there's gotta be a way that we can log in, you know, respond. It would just make a little note on our task list. Hey, you know, at least twice a week go over and see you comments. Jesper (11m 52s): Yeah, yeah. Something, yeah, yeah, that would be good. But, but I, yeah, as I said, I don't even know if it's possible for people to leave a comment. So I guess that's hurdle number one, but probably somebody out there could, uh, could be so kind to test it out for us and then shoot us a message on Twitter or something to say either I have left a comment or saying I have tried, but it's impossible. Autumn (12m 12s): And you said we know where we are with it and you definitely on Twitter, uh, me, I'm more on Instagram, but you know, I, I've been trying to be good now that I'm off the road that I've actually checking in on Twitter again. I used to be my main platform and was the last one I go to. I admit it, but ah, Instagram, if you're on Instagram you'll find me there. Yeah, absolutely. What, speaking of comments, so we actually had a really great one that just came through today that I thought was, it's so universally true because even with 16 books out actually happens to me too. And that's what I responded to. But, uh, Sam went in on our starter kit, which speaking of freebies, that is our current free mini course that could teach you some really good tips, especially if you're a newbie, is just starting out writing to make sure that you make it into and through your first novel. And he said on the second one that this helps so much. I have a tendency to get bored towards the middle of my manuscript. With that boredom comes a bright new shiny idea that and latch onto and the process repeats without me going back to a previous story, too many Chinese in migraine. So when I get bored again, I'm going to try to outline the next few chapters, interview or write a short story with some of my characters to get the boredom gap out. I really liked those ideas. Thanks. So that's cool. That is really cool. So want to thank you, Sam. I love the comment, but as I replied to him, it happens. I mean I'm currently in am. I was on a holding pattern. We talked about that before. I took a couple of weeks off from writing and now I'm getting back into it and I've just not what I want to go write something else because I got stuck in it. I got stuck in my life. I get stuck, I took a break from writing and I'm like, Oh, I don't like the current setup. I want to do something else. And yeah, you know, this is going to be my 17th or 18th book depending on which one I release first. Cause I've got two things going at once and it still hits me. You still have to be, you know, sometimes I told him you sometimes you just have to be the stubborn person in the room and be like, no, I am not going to, you know, get out of this. I'm not going to turn around and not do this. So I make sure that I stick to what I'm working on because I've made a promise to my readers, but, and it's my business. I'm, you know, professional. So I can't just go chasing rainbows and unicorns no matter how awesome and pretty and bright and shiny they are, Jesper (14m 35s): right. Yeah, indeed. Yeah. And I also liked how, um, how you asked in the, uh, in, in the amwritingfantasy Facebook group, if anyone had am put some, some time aside for him, like a mid summer update of updating any of their back catalog of books with the links to their new books. Um, because that's, that's really something that is often overlooked isn't it, you know, to go back and update those, uh, those back matters of, of our previous books. Autumn (15m 4s): Absolutely. And I really, uh, some of my first Epic fantasy series, I haven't, I need to go back and add mine to new releases from the summer. And I guess I'm just kind of putting it off because I've reformatted things a little bit and added a few new stuff, new pieces of back matter to my current novellas and I want to go back and put it in all the other ones. So it's not as simple as just adding a link. It's all gonna take a half an hour, then the upload time and yeah. Okay. This is my first day off the road. Jesper (15m 33s): Yeah. So with that. And I also wanted to be loved. Autumn (15m 38s): I know it's going to be so interesting. We have a interesting topic coming up, so let's Jesper (15m 44s): go ahead. Autumn (15m 47s): Okay. So how do you choose a title for your novel? That's always a tricky one for me. I, I've kind of go with a gut instinct feel, but I know there's other techniques and I know you do something completely different. Yes. For yes. Jesper (16m 3s): Yeah. Well it's not because I originally was very scientific about it either. I think, you know, of course for I start, one could ask, you know, how, how, how much does the title and the subtitle really matter? And at least I think it matters a great deal because it conveys the sugar to the reader and above anything else it has to convey the Shaundra. Uh, and I think it's what you just mentioned there is more common than, than you think, you know, that authors tried to come up with something clever or unique or something like that and think, ah, that, that, that'll be good. Right. But actually I would say no, it's, it's the opposite. Autumn (16m 46s): I don't disagree with you. I think what I'm going with, my gut instinct is to fit the genre and the book and you know, Oh, it was like, you know, if something's going to have dragons in it, that's great for fantasy. But I also, I do know that there's people even I've seen on websites, that's my favorite thing when you're looking through the website menu and there's something so clever there and you have no idea what it means. So I do think there's a tendency for folks to have really unique, interesting names and words. And sometimes that doesn't tell you anything about them. Jesper (17m 19s): No, exactly. I mean, I, and I'm guilty of this too, so I'm, I'm sort of, uh, uh, you know, acknowledging that fact completely. Um, when I, when I had to name the three books in my Keystone boom, true religion, for example, I thought that I was really smart and, uh, I, I wanted all the, all eats of the book titles to start with the letter D because then I thought that'll be cool. Right? So I named them desolation degradation and damnation, those three books. And I thought that was awesome. But if you weren't listening to the podcast and you knew that we are talking about fantasy from those titles, you will have no idea that it's a fantasy novel. And so yeah, it's, it's not a good, it's not good titles to be honest. And I think I actually, I should go back and change them and now should alter change the covers because I know a ton more today than I did back then. But yeah, you know, time, time is also an issue. Autumn (18m 15s): I say if we always keep retweaking what we did but not, you know, at the same time there are some, um, some reasons too, but I know with my first trilogy, it was born of water, rule of fire and spirit of life. And of course it was elemental magic. So I made sure I had that in there. But I remember telling somebody a couple times, like born of water and they actually asked if it was religious. And I was like, um, maybe I'm just really out of tune with some religions cause I didn't even Dawn on me and it still doesn't quite. Um, but again, that's just, it. That's the huge world. You're not going to be familiar with everything and you're not going to be able to control how other people will always interpret it. But I was thinking of the elemental magic, but again, I could have probably thrown something else in there. And I remember I was trying to be clever too, and also thinking, Oh gosh, I don't want to do this, is that there's five elements, uh, in my world and I should have five books and with a few other ones, like bones of earth and something else for the other are was missing as well. And I'm like, uh, no, it's a trilogy. So I'm skipping those two. What I did, the next trilogy, I, you know, I had a few things on there. I have Gates of fire and earth. I have spark of defiance and a new goddess. So only one of them actually mentioned elements and the taglines, uh, w was pretty straightforward. Tag, realize am Epic fantasy adventure and elemental magic. Something like, Jesper (19m 49s): yeah, that's good that that conveys this younger pretty clearly so people know what it is, right? When I think titles are more aligned with fantasy as well compared to mine. Um, but I, I think, you know, I, I went on to the top 100 bestseller lists in the fantasy category on Amazon, just to sort of check what people are saying there because that's always a a neat trick that you can apply is to go and say, look at the books that actually sells and what are they titling the books. And so I just pick three at random here just to give you and the listeners here in an example, you know of how you can use the book title to really show what that it is a fantasy book. And of course in the bestseller lists lists, there are a hugely popular ones, like the Handmaid's tale, which is cutting the number one. Then of course followed by Harry Potter. So I left, left those out because that's, I say it felt like it. Well we all know those books anyway, so, and then I picked some of the other ones from the top one and you get tired. This like magic fury that King and then chosen you. See you see what I mean? Yes. If I just told you those titles and you have no idea where, you know, what's younger we are talking about, and I mean that you didn't know that this is offensive. She podcast you would probably put it quickly guests that this is fantasy books. Right, right. Autumn (21m 11s): And I used to say, I know some of the ones I've read like arcane you, you know, that's the magic and fantasy easily. Jesper (21m 18s): Right, exactly. And that's exactly my point, right? I mean the title needs to clearly tell the reader that this is a book for you. And uh, if you being smart about it, like, like I was, then you're not telling them that. I mean, a book called desolation. What's that? It could be anything. Autumn (21m 35s): Yeah, it sounds posted. Co park elliptic to me. Jesper (21m 37s): Yeah. And then maybe a bit scifi could also be right. That's true. But yeah, so, so don't do that. The weird thing is I always end up repeating myself and do what I say don't do what I do because I, along the way, I always learn things too, to do them smarter. And then that's what I'm talking about. And of course I never did that myself. So, uh, yeah, learn from, Autumn (22m 3s): well I think that's am that's part of the reason though, at least it's part of the reason I started with amwritingfantasy and doing it and my first blogs to other authors was because I am such a tendency to do things the hard way and learn by mistakes and I'm trying to keep other people from necessarily following in my footsteps and maybe just, you know, taking the easy path. Jesper (22m 26s): Yeah. Hopefully that's at least the idea also also from, uh, from this podcast that we can, we can share our experience and then hopefully people can make a shortcut to not go through all the hurdles and hoops that we've gone through. Um, but I have quite a few tools that I wanted to share with people here as well that that can help with with all the titling. But I don't know if I should just jump into all that stuff. Autumn or, well, what do you think? Autumn (22m 51s): I think so. I mean, I, like I said, the only thing I've done other than, um, going and randomly, you know, choosing something that feels like it fits my book and it sounds a little fantasy or running it by other authors obviously can also help. But, you know, I do know some people who go into, there's a few websites that will give you some good suggestions for like blog post titles, things that are clickable and that people will like. And I do know some people who do run titles through that, kind of like a title generator to see what comes up. And if something sounds even better and more exciting. But those are the only three techniques I've thought of. So what do you have? Jesper (23m 27s): Okay, so hang on because I have a long star, a long list of stuff of what of things you can do. So, uh, uh, of course we were going to put links to these different things in, in the show notes. So you know, you don't have to make notes of this stuff if anything piques your interest. Um, so just check out the show notes here. But first of all, I would say route, write down at least five different titles for your book. And of course each one have to clearly communicate that this is fantasy. And you can also use your subtitle to get specific. For example, like if you want am autumn set gave an example before, but you could also just say like a tale of Epic fantasy or something like that, you know, just so that it's very clear. And if you are writing, for example a trilogy or a series, then the same logic applies to the series name. That's also needs to clearly communicate what this young race. So if you write down some different ideas, um, then that's a good start. But there was also some online tools that can actually help you out if you find it difficult to come up with something. And there is, for example, one called adazing.com/book title generator. And again there will be a link in the show notes, but this one will actually suggest you some possible title names. And the cool thing about this tool is that you pick your stronger as well. So we will try to give you titles that are based on the genre. So that's pretty cool. And uh, as far as I know it's free, but I, I think you do have to create an account with your email address, but, uh, but I think it's, you don't have to pay for it other than that. Oh, good. Um, and then there was also the possibility to use lulu.com/titlescorer which is pretty cool as well because it actually uses statistical research to give you a score for your title. So for example, as I said before, if you have five titles you came up with, you can type them into lulu.com uh, and then it will give you a score on how good it believes that the title is from a best seller perspective. And that's pretty damn cool. And it because of you, because it's useless statistical research to back it up. So that, that's, that's, that's good. It's a good indication at least. Autumn (25m 43s): Yeah. The scientist in me is like, Oh, I want to go try that. Jesper (25m 46s): Yeah, exactly. So I think that that is cool. Uh, and of course one should never back away from anything called split testing. Split testing is always good. So again, if you have your, uh, your different titles, you can, for example, use pickfu.com/books. Uh, and that w that website will actually put your dif, different titles. You can put in like your two different titles and you could pitch them against each other and then PickFu we'll put it in front of an audience and let people vote on which one they liked the most. So this one will cost you a bit of money to run that survey, but I think it will be well worth it. And um, and then basically you will get real people voting on which one they liked the most. And uh, yeah, that's always good. Autumn (26m 33s): I kinda like that. That sounds like a lot of fun, which does also make me realize that Hey, I could always just ask the readers in my newsletters to do something very similar and not have to spend them. Jesper (26m 44s): Yeah, exactly. That was where I was going next in that, that is absolutely right. So, of course, if you have an email list, you can just ask people or your email subscribers to vote. Uh, you know, you can even put it into like a, like a Google form or something and just ask them to vote and it will cost you nothing. Right. But, uh, I would say though that the, you need to have a certain amount of people voting down. I mean if you don't have at least a thousand responses, then it's not really statistically relevant. So you might end up, if you, for example, get let's say a hundred responses, you do run the risk that you might just have hit a very small subset of the market and they liked the particular title. But actually the broader audience wouldn't. So be mindful of that, that you need enough people on your email list if you actually kind of go by their boats, I would say. Uh, but of course if you are losing you or using your email list, it has the nice added benefit of it that the, you know, you're getting people invested in your upcoming release because they are allowed to start voting on the title and imagine that you then pick one of the ones that the people like, right. I mean then they already pretty invested in the book before you even release it. So, so that's an awesome benefit. Autumn (27m 56s): Yes. I mean I just asked my newsletters, uh, my readers, which series, cause I started too serious with tune at different novellas and a mailer Lite has this really cool survey form that gives you a lot of results and it's just part of their, you know, newsletter building. And so yeah, I, I did something very similar and said, which one do I write next? And Oh my gosh, it was like 40% to 60. It was a 10% difference between which one I should write next. So it's kind of exciting. The results come in and let readers know when the next email, which one they chose. Jesper (28m 32s): Yeah. And sometimes you actually am I would almost say more often than not, you get surprised about the results that you see because the one you think is the best is not the one people vote for. Autumn (28m 41s): That's true. But at least I like both of the ESL win-win. Jesper (28m 45s): Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And of course you also have an a yet another option a and I mean please don't get overwhelmed by all the different uh, tools that I'm mentioning here. And that's my purpose is not to overwhelm you, it's just to give you different possibilities and you don't, you don't have to use all of them. You can sort of pick and choose what you feel most for. But you could also use publisherrocket, which is formerly known as KDP rocket because there is possibilities inside that software to give you an idea on how well your title title will be performing on our YouTube channel, there is a, one of the older videos that actually giving a review of KDP rocket as it was called back then. So you can go and check that out if you're interested. But I think for the most part, I would say that this trick probably works the best for nonfiction titles more than fiction ones, but for nonfiction at least, if that's what you're writing and trying to make a title for then I would definitely say that you should try out publisherrocket because it's, it's really excellent at that. And actually we tweak it. We tweet one of our titles are on the future plotting book that we're going to release at some point later this year maybe. Um, we actually changed the title of that based on what KDP rocket told us or publisherrocket as it's called now. So. So it's definitely useful. Autumn (30m 8s): Definitely. And of course that one is a, you do have to buy it, but there's so many things you can do with it. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. I think it'll end up making your publishing life on a little bit better if you go for publisherrocket. Yeah. Jesper (30m 23s): Well, a bit off topic here, but there are so many other benefits of publisherrocket, like a collecting all your, uh, Amazon add keywords and stuff like that. It makes it a million times easier. And I think the nice, what I like with the KPD KDP rocket or publisherrocket is basically that it's a one time fee. It's not one of these monthly things that you have to pay for. So you pay for it once and then it's yours. And I really liked that. Autumn (30m 48s): Yes. Jesper (30m 50s): And I, and it's not that expensive on top of my head. I think it's $99. But I could be mistaken. But it's not that expensive. Autumn (30m 57s): No. I think, uh, if you're gonna publish multiple books, there's a few things out there and I love you publisherrocket I love it for the keyword feature, just helping me find which ones I want to use and which ones are going to really help. And undaunted, Jesper (31m 14s): that feature alone is worth the money. You know, you can spend ages collecting Amazon keywords, uh, but publisherrocket doesn't, does it in half a second. Autumn (31m 26s): Yeah. So it becomes more of a logic puzzle to me instead of a mind numbing tasks. Jesper (31m 33s): Do you remember when we were first collecting the keywords and we were sitting there copying and pasting out of Amazon? Jesus Christ. That was painful. Autumn (31m 41s): That was it. It was like, okay, I'm going to put side eight hours to spend on Amazon while I go through every single letter in the dictionary with are like 16 different keywords. Oh, it was horrible. It was so bad. It's incredible. We're totally off topic now. Jesper (31m 55s): Yeah, completely off topic. But I guess it's also because, uh, that was sort of a, my inputs on how you can pick your titles for your books and I think at bottom line here is basically you need to really make sure that you are conveying the genre without eh, straight of a doubt to the reader answer. So don't get clever and a then split test, split test, split test and let the data speak instead of your own biased opinion. Because honestly we, we usually wrong. We think that we know best I authors. Autumn (32m 29s): That's true. But it was interesting. It's like we say where it's like that I'm always wanting to question everything. I think I get it from my dad. So when you say conveying the genre, we have to, we should say is that because I know in some people are like the Chronicles of Valdor on and to them that is the, you know, conveying there's genre conveying their world. But I like the word Chronicles, but is that really, you know, nitty gritty, getting it down to what is in the genre. So what words do you think are going to come up with a really good intro? You know, things that really sound like they're going to be a good fantasy word. Like I would say dragons Chronicles magic. What other terms can you think of really quick that might help convey a good fantasy genre? And if you can think of anything, you know, let us know as you go through the listing to this, you know, we asked you for some comments. So if you happen to come up with some comments, that would be fantastic. Let us know what keywords you can go fantasy and women's view promo. Narrator (33m 44s): If you like what you just heard, there's a few things you can do to support the amwritingfantasy podcast. Please tell a fellow author about the show and visit us at Apple podcast and leave a rating and review. You can also join autumn and Yesper on patrion.com/amwritingfantasy for as little as a dollar a month. You'll get awesome rewards and keep the amwritingfantasy podcast going. Stay safe out there and see you next Monday.

The AmWritingFantasy Podcast: Episode 34 – Announcement: Major Change Coming

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 19, 2019 37:23

Sometimes you just have to face the facts and accept reality for what it is. Even when it hurts. We've decided to make a major change to the Am Writing Fantasy YouTube channel and Podcast. The reasons and what this change encompasses are shared in this announcement. Thank you so much for watching over the past three years. We sincerely hope that you'll continue supporting and find what we do helpful. New episodes EVERY single Monday. PATREON! Many bonus perks for those who become a patrons. https://www.patreon.com/AmWritingFantasy LET'S CONNECT! Closed Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/AmWritingFantasy/ Blog and Courses: https://www.amwritingfantasy.com/ Jesper on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SchmidtJesper Autumn on Twitter: https://twitter.com/weifarer Read the full transcript below. (Please note that it's automatically generated and while the AI is super cool, it isn't perfect. There may be misspellings or incorrect words on occasion) Jesper (1s): Hey there. Jesper just dropping in here, uh, up at the front of the episode. I have an excellent guest host on today, but I just wanted to drop in here quickly to let you know that we had a bit of audio quality issues, the internet on my guests and is not entirely stable and at one point about 18 and a half minute in it actually drops, which means that I cannot hear him and he keeps talking for a bit while I'm also talking on top of him to hoping, hoping that he's coming back online. So you're going to get about one and a half minute where we accidentally talk over one another. So my apologies for that. And also when it comes to his internet connection, there is a bit static on his end and uh, unfortunately I've done everything I can to try to clean it out, but, but it's not possible to get it any better than it is now, but you can hear everything he says. So I've decided to release this episode anyway, so I hope you will get a lot out of it. And the much, much apologies for the audio quality here. Thank you. Narrator (1m 7s): You're listening to the amwritingfantasy podcast. In today's publishing landscape, you can reach fans all over the world. Query letters are a thing of the past. You don't even need a literary agent. There is nothing standing in the way of making a living from writing. Join two best selling authors who have self published more than 20 books between them. Now onto the show with your hosts, autumn Bert and Jasper Schmidt. Jesper (1m 35s): Hello, I am Yesper and this is episode 43 of the amwritingfantasy podcast. And we are going to talk about reviving dead books. Meaning, how do you get books that doesn't sell to start selling again? And as you've noticed that autumn is not with me today, but instead I actually have a guest host and that's Stuart Peyman, whose books have reached international international bestseller status in the U S Australia and Canada. So we'll come to the amwritingfantasy podcast do it. Stuart (2m 7s): Yeah, thanks for having me. Jesper (2m 10s): And I, I actually understood, uh, from a bit of our email conversations that they just spent a bit of time in. I was about to say my part of the world, well I think it was in Germany and I'm in Denmark, but it's close. Stuart (2m 21s): Pretty close. Yeah. I was in central Germany, went to college and verts Berg, so been a decent amount of time in Europe. Oh, okay. What's bird? Where's when Germany is, that is basically dead in the center of Germany. So it's a sort of a little bit to the East of Frankfurt. Probably the nearest a landmark, but not too far from you hick and yeah, honestly you can get anywhere from the center of the country, so it got to travel around a good amount as well. Oh, nice. Nice. Nice. So you were there for several years then. Yeah, for a good bit of time and really, really enjoyed it. I love the food. I love the climate. Uh, it's just a wonderful place to live. Jesper (2m 59s): Oh, cool. Very cool. But uh, but I think you're back in the U S now, right? Yup. Stuart (3m 4s): So living in Kentucky, which is a in the Midwest of the United States. Yeah. Jesper (3m 9s): Right. Okay. And actually before we get into the whole conversation about reviving dead books, which, ah, which I guess you've made a bit of a specialty out of. But before we get into that, I also noticed that you writing some lit RPG books and uh, I know that that's a, a Shaundra that has been a bit there. I don't know if we can call it hot, but, uh, I, I haven't understood that it's, it's something that, um, that is selling quite well in general, but, but it's also I think a bit of a special show to write. So I was just wondering if you could, you know, just yeah, a bit of insights about what is lit RPG and how do you go about writing it because I think it's a bit different isn't it? Stuart (3m 50s): Yeah, it's a very niche, sort of a sub genre of fantasy and PSI Phi and, and really have any other genre you can sort of turn things into lit RPG. But, uh, it's been around for a while since ready. Player one came out quite some time ago, but really got big when the ready player one movie debuted a couple of years ago. And when that came out a lot of people started to get turned on the little RPG and a lot of people will call a game lit as well. And um, now the hardcore readers will, we'll put some designations between game lit and lit RPG, but typically, uh, the whole concept behind the sub genres, you have a fantasy, scifi horror world, whatever it might be, B. But in that world there exists the sort of mechanics of an actual video games. So, um, and I've got three different lid RPG series now that have done pretty well. Uh, it's uh, definitely a hot selling Shondra at the moment. Am it's really, uh, a lot of fun to write. And being a lifelong gamer, it's sort of like writing the video game that I wish I could play. And that adds a whole new dimension to the entire writing process, which is a ton of fun, but really starting to get popular am in the past year or so, just sort of a genre that's blown up. Jesper (5m 8s): Right? But am I right in understanding that you are actually writing out, that's for characters and stuff like that as well. Or Stuart (5m 15s): so there'll be a stats for the characters. They'll have like strength, agility, uh, this sort of traditional stats that you would expect from a video game. They go on quests, they go on dungeon runs, they get magic gear every time they level up and you know, gain experience points they need to pick new talents and they're sort of building their, their build more or less than kind of gives you that feeling of reading someone playing a really fun video game. Jesper (5m 41s): Right. So you're describing in the book itself what they're picking when delivering up and all that stuff. Yeah, Stuart (5m 47s): exactly. And, and why they're making that decision and, and uh, what they anticipate that decision might mean in the future. Like if I get this talent now, it should unlock these future talents. And, uh, you can really mentally envision the video game aspect of it quite well. Jesper (6m 3s): Wow. That does different, yeah. And uh, and quite, it must also am I've never read a book like that, but it must be quite a different reading experience as well because I assume, I assume that's still a story in there, but, but a lot of it will then be broken up by these sort of well known story elements where you're just learning what skills they're picking for leveling up and stuff like that. Stuart (6m 27s): Yeah, it's very interesting because this story in some other PGS can honestly be secondary to the progression of the game and the progression of the character through the game. Uh, just depends on which kind of lit RPG you're reading. But I got turned on to it just on a recommendation from someone they told me I should read dungeon Lord by a Hugo who ESKA and the read that and just really, really, really liked it and just thought like, this is the kind of fantasy like I could write this, this is a lot of fun. And, uh, wrote my first one and took a while to really get it good and, and to really perfect it. But, uh, it's done really well. It's sold quite well and I'm really happy about that. So definitely a lot of fun to write. And, uh, my, my first one only took me 20 days cover to cover, to write it. So, um, very, very fast writing it because it was simply so much fun to do. Jesper (7m 18s): But how, how long are, uh, is a lit IPG novel in general? How many words is, Stuart (7m 23s): yeah, I mean typically the longer the better. So my very first one was right around 80,000 words. My, I've got two more that are coming out in November that are both over a hundred thousand words. So, um, the longer you can get them, the better. I'm just like normal, Epic fantasy people like to stay in that world as long as possible. Jesper (7m 40s): All right. Okay. Very cool. I was just curious about that. I know it's a complete detour versus what we're going to talk about. What I was just curious. Yeah, very new Stuart (7m 49s): stuff. Jesper (7m 50s): Yeah. Okay. But maybe we should get on topic, uh, for the sake of the listener here as well. Um, so yeah, I previously in the past I talked to Dave Chesson who, who was, uh, who was also on this podcast a while back. Uh, he's the guy who does the publisher rocket software and uh, he mentioned Stuart that I should contact you because you have made a bit of a specialty to revive that books. Uh, and you're also doing it for traditional publishing companies as far as I understood. But yeah, but where do we start this whole conversation about how to revive it? That book, if the listener is in the situation where they have a book they published but it's just not selling. Stuart (8m 32s): Yeah. Thank the first thing to do is just identify the quality of the product itself, which could be pretty difficult and it kind of requires you to step back with an unbiased eye and try not to look at the book as, Oh, this is, you know, my baby that I've worked on for so long and my projects that I've had, you know, sort of putting in my heart for so long that I really want to succeed. And the first step is just to look at the product as just a product that you're selling to consumers. Like anything else, if you ran a pizza shop or whatever, you would look at the quality of the product that you're selling and see where you can improve that. So not every book is really, you know, ready to be revived or anything like that. I'm definitely not, there are a lot of books out there where the quality, you know, maybe it's something you wrote 10 years ago and it's just not that great. You know, if you can recognize that it'll save you a lot of time and money and frustration. I've got books that I now call dead books where I've buried those books because the quality just wasn't that good and I'm not going to waste money trying to revive it myself. But then I've got other books that I wrote a long time ago released that did not do as well as I wanted that I have gone back and revive and then um, know working for different publishing companies. I've done exactly that. But the first step is really, especially if you have a big catalog, identify a good candidate. So you need something with good writing, unless you really want to drop another, a couple of hundred dollars or $1,000 into the editing costs as well. But you want to make sure you have something that's got a good enough backbone essentially to where you can improve it enough and revive it and it'll actually be worth it. Um, but figuring out which book that is in your catalog, it should really be step one. So really the thing that the strongest writing that didn't sell that, that the non-selling factor was a surprise. That's, that's probably step one for sure. Jesper (10m 28s): Right? Yeah. And that of course makes sense. But, but the thing or the question that popped up into my mind here, when you set that is like, but it's not, I don't think necessarily that every author can recognize that themselves. So, so, you know, of course, if you're doing it for a traditional author publisher and they give you some debt books that they could, you know, Stuart, can you please revive these for us? Then you can approach this SD outside opinion that that takes a look at the book and say, okay, this is not up for that, you know, this is not good enough or whatever. Maybe that sounds a bit harsh but, but you know what I mean. Uh, but if it's the author who, who's supposed to do it on his or her own books, um, do you think that's possible to do or do you need somebody from outside to take a look? Stuart (11m 14s): It's definitely difficult and I, I think is, I have worked a little bit as a professional editor and proofreader as well and, uh, worked in acquisitions for a publisher for quite some time, reading through manuscripts in the slush pile and that kind of thing. So I think that gives me a little advantage and a little better perspective where no, I'm not attached to even my own writing as much as someone else might be. Yeah. I, I think that's a skill that people can develop if you look at something, especially if it's been awhile since you've actually sat down to write it, uh, you'll find oftentimes, at least in my experience, that even if I love the book and the moment I was writing it and I was really, really into it, thought it going to be fantastic. Going back and rereading it, I can look and say like, Oh, this just, you know, it's just not my best work. I've advanced as an author. I'm better than this now and this just doesn't really do it for me. Um, and I think that's a skill that people can develop. Okay. Honestly, I think there's a lot of editors out there that should be able to take a manuscript from someone if you send it and you know, maybe they charge you a hundred bucks or whatever, but just ask the editor, you know, for their outright opinions. Yeah. Do you think this is good enough for me to publish? You know, from the stuff you've seen that you've edited, um, you know, editors, a lot of times we'll follow how well their books do that they added, you know, look at it and say, Hey, if I were to try to revive this, do you think it's worthwhile? And, and just trying to get an honest answer that way. Jesper (12m 42s): Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Uh, and, and I think what I've often said before is that, uh, you need to be careful because what happens a lot of the time is that of course with every single book that we write, the better we become. So you see you, you need to be careful also that you, you don't step into this never ending spiral of, you know, because you can always go back and we write some older books and make them better, but you need to really ask yourself, is it worth it? Because the amount of time that you're spending rewriting is, is quite, uh, you know, it's, it's quite an investment of time to do that versus if it's just a cover that is off, you know, that's a much easier fix to, to see. So I was just wondering, because I was thinking that if I was going to approach it, rewriting was, unless I for sure knew, of course that this is just not good enough. Then it's, it's a given obviously that you need to do that. But I was just thinking from a time investment perspective, I think that we're rewriting part would probably be the last thing I would do. I would probably try out all the other elements first or, or what, Stuart (13m 48s): yeah. If, if it's a book where you can simply pick flyer, like this is a book that needs rewritten, my recommendation would be just shelf it. And if you have that time later in the future, go for it from 90% of us. We're not gonna have that much time. So Jesper you know, pick a different book to try to revive. Or oftentimes I've found it's, it's even easier just to write the next one and just sort of forget about it and know leave that book as dead. But, um, really the, the best, you know, reviving the dead books is if you can go through that back catalog, maybe you've got four or five or six books that really aren't selling and just pick out, you know, find the one that has the strongest writing, the one that is the best that, you know, maybe it needs a proofread, something like that. But it doesn't need a whole lot of work to the actual manuscript in order to get it ready to go. Jesper (14m 39s): Right. And of course, well maybe they won't be many reviews on a day fee if it, if it is really a debt book and has always been a debt book, but, but if you do have some reviews, I think that's also a place where you could go to, to get some hints if, if it really needs another editing pass and you know, if there's complaints about too many typos and whatnot. Stuart (14m 58s): Yeah, exactly. I definitely agree with that. Yeah. Um, but I, I was also thinking in terms of Jesper (15m 9s): the look inside part, you know, from the Amazon, but how much attention are you, are you placing on making sure that those first, uh, I think, if I'm remember correctly, I might be a bit off on this, but I think it's 10% of the book, Stuart (15m 23s): somewhere around there at least. Yeah. So Jesper (15m 27s): present, I think you, you can see from the look inside or the free sample on Amazon, but how much attention are you putting on making sure that those 10% are really engaging? Stuart (15m 36s): Yeah, it's definitely a part you need to hook the reader. So not every reader of course, is even going to look in on that feature or even know that feature exists. It's definitely a part, um, and that, that some people do pay attention to. And I think a lot of other authors, we'll start there if, you know, if you've written before and you're looking for new materials to read yourself, then it's an area where we're going to look, it's gotta be, of course, you know, professional formatting. And a lot of times, like when I worked for different presses, I'll go into their material. I'll see, okay, these books were made and you know, 2010 or 2014 and the formatting just back then wasn't as good. And they've gotten a professional format or now or whoever, there's, whoever is doing their formatting is simply gotten better. And so we just need to update this, run the manuscript through the formatting again as though it were brand new and get it updated, get it out there in the professional quality that the other more modern books are used to receiving. And, and that can be definitely a big thing, but I think just from a, okay, really from a story perspective, if you don't hook somebody in the first, you know, 10, 15 pages, if you don't get them absolutely invested, then there's so much other competition out there that readers will leave. And especially if you're trying to sell and Kindle unlimited, you have to be even more am sort of action heavy and really, uh, punching it up well upfront or you don't really have a chance cause somebody's pinhole unlimited. I mean, they didn't pay to download your book at all. If you don't get them committed and invested in the first 10 pages, they're just going to move on to the next book on their Kindle and you've lost them. So, uh, definitely very important from a story perspective to have a really, really strong active opening that introduces, you know, one or two characters, keeps the cast small, sets up the overarching conflict well and really attaches the reader to those characters right out of the gate. Yeah, fully agree. Um, Jesper (17m 36s): let, let's assume for now that that people sort of, they, they have the, they have the product itself, meaning meaning the book or the writing itself is, is up to par. So, so that, that stuff is good. They have a good to hook in the beginning. Uh, if, if Stuart (17m 50s): we assume that that is okay, then what about covers then? Yeah, so the cover of course is a huge aspect of writing and you know, we all know the old phrases of not judging books by their covers. And yet we all do it every single time we buy a book. It's the first step of marketing. It's the first thing you see when you approach a book, whether it be online on a bookshelf, and it doesn't matter. The first thing we see are first impression is always that book cover. And a lot of times what I've seen in some of the books that I have revived is that the cover just doesn't match the genre expectation. And if you're trying to sell a, a a really, you know, intense suspense thriller and your cover just doesn't speak to me as a thriller, it could be a beautiful gorgeous cover. But if it just doesn't meat the jhana expectations of a thriller, then it's not going to sell well no matter how good the cover is. So a lot of it is just looking at the top 100 covers in your genre or pick, you know, 10 or so competing authors that your book is most similar to. And you know, you write thrillers, look up Stephen King and Dean Koontz and look up those coppers and see what they look like. Because even if you don't like that style, that's what the reader expect. And that's what the reader wants to see because the reader is going to be coming from Dean Coons or Stephen King and they're going to be looking for more thrillers to read. And if they see, you know, a thriller that matches what they like, they're going to buy it versus seeing a thriller that could have a gorgeous professional, extremely good cover. But if the cover to them says, Oh, this is historical or horror or fantasy, this isn't a thriller like I like, then they're never going even to reach or blurb and they're not going to get any farther than glancing at your cover and ignoring it and you lose that reader forever. And that's an area where I see a lot of authors don't make sense. They spot on is that cover just doesn't really, really important and you have to have a cover that really explains what the show is about action and shows that it's not really about, uh, at the point in time when it comes to covers, it is not good many being original, which a lot of us authors can easily try to become a try to, to achieve. We tried to be so original and we try to, to make it so unique that nobody has seen this before and we believe it's, it's to be excellent, but in fact, that is not the case. Uh, and that's not what we're looking for because readers are looking for something similar to what they used to. And by giving them a cover that that shows them that this is the younger you are getting and it's on par with or similar to two other Jesper (20m 48s): best selling books in that younger, then that is how you are going to am to be successful from a, from a coverage perspective. Okay. So, so if that was all about covers then am I'm wondering the other element that also goes into whether another book will sell is the am book descriptions. So, so how do you or how do one yeah, consider or evaluate if once book description is good enough. Stuart (21m 20s): Yeah, I think in book descriptions and blurbs or a synopsis, it's a lot more difficult than with covers cause converse you can compare to some of the top selling covers in your genre and get a good idea. But blurbs are so unique to the book that it makes it a lot more difficult. But with blurbs that very easy to change, especially on the electronic format, it's extremely easy to change. You can try out a different blurb every week until you get something that you really liked. But a big mistake at least that I see with lots and lots of blurbs is authors try to just sort of tell you the plot. Here's what my book is about. That seems logical, but it very, very rarely works. And really the goal of any sort of book blurb or synopsis is not to tell the reader what the book is going to be about, but it is to tell the reader instead why they should look at the book and what they're going to be excited about. And really what that comes down to is Shondra expectations, which is similar to the cover. And you want to just give them atmosphere and you want them to think like, Oh, this is going to be a really cool, you know, intense mystery thriller, not, Oh, this is a book about a guy who was framed for a crime and goes on the run and moves to Argentina. It should be a book, a description that gives them just the atmosphere and sort of builds up that expectation in their head and then leaves them wanting more. Because if they, if they get the plot from the, the book description, they don't need to read the book anymore. If they just get the atmosphere and the genre expectation, then they need to read the book in order to figure out what it's about. And I think that can be a, a, a really powerful selling tool. But again, since it's so easy to just change the blurb, essentially whenever you need to pick five or six that you like and you know, test them on a, a writing group and you know, on a sub Reddit or something like that, um, test them out in a Facebook group for authors. See what people like, pick the two or three that get the most votes. Try one for a week with your marketing plan. If it works, great. If not, switch to a different one. And you can really am guess and check with them blurbs pretty easy. Jesper (23m 41s): Yeah, absolutely. And, and, uh, it's, it's sort of like thinking about the movie trailer. I mean, of course not all movies trailers does a good job at being a trail either. But yeah, it needs to just tease to stuff. You don't have to. Yeah, exactly. You don't have to tell bots. You just, you just tease it. Uh, and, and then, yeah, as you say, I mean, fortunately enough, eh, changing the blurb is quite easy. So, uh, you can just upload a new one and see how it performs. And of course, for you, dear listener, if you're struggling with that, don't forget that, uh, I actually have a guide book called how to write a fences. You put description so you can pick that one up and uh, follow a step by step guide if you need some assistance on, on blurps. But, uh, but I do think blurbs are incredibly important because if people find, if, if you sort of have the writing on the control and you have the cover under control, meaning that it's sugar specific, like you talked about before, stupid, then people will then click, but then when they click and get to the book page on, for example, Amazon, then the blurb is the one that needs to close the deal, right? Yup. Definitely. Yeah. And if you don't have that sort of them, well, you're still gonna lose out at the problem. He, I guess in, in revising these books, reviving these books as a, that was what I was trying to say is that you have, so you have quite a lot of moving parts here, right? I mean, yeah, there's a lot of different elements that could be wrong that you need to evaluate. Yeah, there are a ton of variables and it can sometimes, especially when you're looking at your own work, it can be hard to pinpoint exactly what's wrong, but Amy and I think, uh, if people really take a diligent look, it's not as hard as it seems to figure out exactly where there's room to improve. Right? Yeah. And then, and sometimes it's probably also about of, uh, if, if you are really stuck, you know, maybe get some author friends to take a look for you or something like that. There's tons of groups out there full of authors that don't mind giving advice to everybody else. So there's, the resources exist. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. But, but I was just thinking when I said that, I also thought of a caveat right away. I guess that's, that's the problem if you're trying to give advice and been thinking about caveats right away. But, but the, the problem is also that sometimes the authors themselves are not the right people to justice stuff because we think as authors and, and it's difficult sometimes to put yourself in the mind of the reader because just like you said with the covers, uh, the readers are looking for, uh, something that signals to them that this is, I know what I'm getting and this is what I'm used to. They're not looking for, this is the most amazing original fats as you cover I've ever, ever seen. You know, that's not what they're looking for. And we can get, well, I think sometimes by asking other authors, you can get into the same trap that they will tell you their author opinion. Um, and, but of course, sometimes you're going to get good advice from people who know what they're talking about. It's just a word of caution, I guess. Stuart (26m 50s): I would agree. A lot of authors will make the same mistake as an author trying to revive their own work and then they look through it from the wrong perspective. Jesper (26m 59s): Right. But okay, so if we have the writing we have to cover, we have the book description than, than what, what else? Stuart (27m 7s): It really, once you've got all that, you're, you're pretty much ready to go. So, uh, you've, you've got everything more or less. All right. Seated correctly. Sometimes. I've actually, we've, we've changed titles on books as well, so we've had titles on that comes to mind that as probably the most successful book revival I've ever done. Um, and it, it was a really cool portal fantasy about a Japanese fighter pilot going back in time during world war II and going back to feudal Japan times and sort of becoming a sword and sorcery. Fantasy and that book had a cover that said historical fiction to me. It had a title that was in Japanese and I didn't even understand it even though the book was in English and the writing, we just needed a proofread. But, uh, we changed that title to one that was very in keeping with am with sort of expectations and whatnot. The book's called samurai wind by Nigel sellers, but we we revive that and got the new title on it, got a new cover on it and everything. And then really from there, the bulk of your work is finished and all you need to do is just find that audience and figure out where those people live. And with a samurai themed portal fantasy with a little historical bend to it, honestly, that appeals to most fantasy readers already. That's something that a lot of fantasy readers are going to really enjoy. So all you need to do is, is, uh, then dive into your sort of traditional marketing approach. And for me that would be Facebook and Amazon ads testing key words, figuring out which keywords are getting your sales, and then am pumping really as much of your budget as you can afford into those valuable keywords until they stop working. And then re-evaluating once those keywords fall off a little bit. But, um, once you get to the point where you've got, you know, the title, the cover, the blurb and the writing that is pretty much everything. You're, you're more or less they're ready to market it again and really rebrand the novel and get people interested in it. Jesper (29m 12s): Yeah. Yeah, I would agree. Uh, and of course then once you are at that stage, then you have the same problem that everybody else has and that is to drive enough traffic there and, and when those bits and all that. But do you have any, any good advice when it comes to, to running some ads and getting, getting the traffic to that book that you now know it's good and you know what you sell, but you just need to get eyeballs, eyeballs on it. Do you have any advice on, on how to best go about that? Uh, the advertising part of this equation? Stuart (29m 41s): Yeah, it's definitely, marketing books is tricky and sort of the, uh, pitfall I guess of almost every author out there that I talked to am on my website on Stewart Feynman books.com. I've got a whole series of free articles about marketing that go into in a lot more detail than a, just a quick podcast. But essentially the biggest advice is if you're using pay to click or right, yeah. Pay per click ads. That's it. So if you're using those paper click ads, which I recommend you just want to sort of start with the shotgun blast and hit as much as you possibly can right out of the gate. And it's going to be expensive to test and it's going to be a pretty steep learning curve. You'll need to know what you're doing. Yeah. If you set up, you know, maybe three or 4,000 different keywords on Amazon, which am I use the publisher rocket as well, but, um, set up 4,000 keywords and run those for fast and keywords, which will be four different ads, but run them on, you know, three different ad copies and adjust your ad copy, you know, three different times. Figure out which keywords are hitting. And the combination might be something that's surprising. It might be something that you don't expect and he might have, uh, you know, a key word with an ad copy that doesn't strike you as something that you would, you know, would work for you. But again, the author's not the customer. So it's hard to think like a customer and we don't always understand the customers. Um, but really just sort of testing as much as physically possible for as long as you can to get enough data to be meaningful. Then figuring out from that data, okay, what about this makes sense and where am I actually going to make money? Um, you know, kill those keywords that are just sucking down budget with no returns. Kill those off real quick. Figure it out the ones that, the keywords that are giving you the best bang for your buck and then put more and more into those keywords. Or maybe try five or six different ad copies with each key word to see what works the best. And eventually, you know, might take you a month, but you'll pair it down to where you've got ads running that are going to be very profitable on either Facebook or Amazon, whatever it might be. B, you'll get ads that are, are churning out a high rate of return. Jesper (31m 57s): Yeah. Do you uh, tend to be it high to, to, to get those, uh, basically to revive the books so to speak, in order to get to get the Amazon algorithm to pay attention to you? Do, do you tend to bid high to make sure you're winning those bits or, or do you just bit sorta Jewish sure. That you're going to get a return on investment if you win the bid. So how do you, how do, how do you go about that? Stuart (32m 20s): It's setting is definitely difficult. I'm not gonna say I'm a master of that just yet. Honestly, in the beginning I like to set the bids higher just cause I'm, I'm kind of impatient when it comes to getting that data and figuring it out. So I'll last a lot of ads in the beginning that are going to cost a good bit of money and have pretty high bids just so I can get all that data and you know, run through my budget every single day to make sure I'm hitting it. And uh, once I get all that data, all tone it down. And most of the time, once I have an ad that's fairly refined, I'll just send it to the Amazon recommended bid and they do like the dynamic bidding where they'll adjust it for you up to like 50% of what you put in. So I'll put maybe 50 cents in and so that'll let it adjust up to 75 cents if it needs to. And that seems to work pretty well. So you're not getting, you know, prime time bids, you're not winning those, but you're still at least, you know, winning enough bids to get a decent amount of impressions, a few thousand impressions or whatever it might be on each ad and, and that's really what you need. But once you pare it down, I think that the bid matters many less and less. And it might be the case I've had a few times where reviving an old book, I found that it wasn't any keyword that was even expensive that ends up being the winner and it'll be something, you know, 4 cent keyword that nobody else is bidding on that I would've never thought in a thousand years of irrelevant. But it was something that publisher rocket pulled up in their list and I kept it in there and there it went. And so it'll be a really cheap, a keyword, which is fantastic. Jesper (34m 4s): Yeah, I know, I know Dave Chesson likes to share the example of, uh, of, uh, what was it? Book book book. I think that was the key word, who was using just three times the workbook in a row, which makes absolutely no sense at all Stuart (34m 18s): who types that in on am. I don't know what they're hoping to find when they search book book book, but people do apparently, and that you weren't as typically cheap so you can grab it. Jesper (34m 30s): Yeah, yeah, indeed. Indeed. Okay. Well, I think that that is good in terms of revitalizing the book. So, so you certainly need to drive the traffic there and, and all the usual stuff that we usually talk about is, is of course also relevant in the sense that, uh, if you make sure to write in series, then of course you can afford to spend a bit more on, on this, uh, book one in the series that is debt, uh, because hopefully people will now start reading through that and, and like it because you just made sure that the product itself is good and then they'll buy the other books and, and that will bring you back some revenue, meaning that you will cover some of your ads. Exactly. Stuart (35m 10s): Yeah. Jesper (35m 12s): Okay. Uh, Stewart, uh, is there anything else that is important to know about reviving that books, uh, Stuart (35m 19s): that we haven't talked about? Covered just about everything? Um, I guess as a last bit of advice, I would say, uh, one of the biggest mistakes I see authors making is, is always with the cover. And just the concept is actually a line that I read I think like two or three days ago, just came up. Another author mentioned that you're, when you look at a cover, you should not be looking for some flawless work of art. You should consider your cover to just be your first marketing tool. And even if it's a cover that you personally don't like, if it fits in your genre, the offense, what readers want, use it. It doesn't matter if you like it or not because the paycheck is what, what the authors in it for. So, uh, it doesn't have to be some, you know, flawless work of art. You can always make a special edition later that's going to be your flawless work of art, but you need to sell books first before we can afford that special edition. Jesper (36m 13s): Yeah, absolutely. And you mentioned early on that, that you had some articles or blog posts or whatever that, uh, goes into some of this. So if you send me the links to that, the Stewart, then I'll add those links into the show notes. Can go and read it. Stuart (36m 29s): Yup. Yeah. Just Stuart Feynman books is where you can find it all and we'll get those links up there. Jesper (36m 34s): All right, perfect. Okay. Thanks so much for, for joining steward. Yeah, thank you. So next Monday, autumn is back and we are going to talk about whether or not free books are worth it as a marketing strategy. Narrator (36m 53s): If you like what you just heard, there's a few things you can do to support the amwritingfantasy podcast. Please tell a fellow author about the show and visit us at Apple podcast and leave a rating and review. You can also join autumn and Yesper on patrion.com/amwritingfantasy for as little as a dollar a month. You'll get awesome rewards and keep the amwritingfantasy podcast going. Stay safe out there and see you next Monday.

Building w.o a Blueprint

blueprint theshaderoom shaundra

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 26, 2019 57:57

Recently the @theShadeRoom had a post the suggested that marriage license should be up renewal every few years. What do you think. Well Ketayma and Shaundra are given their two cents to that and why we think marriages dont work out in the first place ( with our single asses)

Episode 87: Mikado Hinson, Director of Player Development, Texas A&M University

All In Sports Outreach Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 21, 2019 56:15

Mikado Hinson is currently the Director of Player Development for the Texas A&M Aggies football program. He was previously on staff with FCA in the Houston, TX area. He has also served as the Team Chaplain for the Houston Rockets. He is a graduate of Norfolk State University. He is married to Shaundra and they […]

director texas tx houston rockets m university fca player development norfolk state university shaundra team chaplain mikado hinson

#ALLBlackLivesMAtter

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 11, 2019 72:26

While we continue to fight for equality as a people it is crucial that we understand that we can be free until we are all free. Often time black people who are members of the LGBTQ community aren't always welcome within our community. Today @ketayma and Shaundra @goddess_of_thickness00 have a deep and important conversation with Rakeem Lee a gay black man, on his jounrey and how we can as a commuity can better support him and make him feel like we care about his equality also

lgbtq shaundra

Episode 20 - Shaundra Lee

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 23, 2019 64:30

Shaundra. my girlfriend, my sidekick, Mother of my son, Love of my life and my Future Wife. Finally makes her way onto the show to hang out and "shoot the shit"

love mother shaundra

IDK Who need to Hear THis BUt

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 13, 2019 54:15

Sometimes you need to just vent. Let things out that been eating at you. You never know who can relate to your struggle or who you could be help. Listen in as @ketayma . and Shaundra @goddess_of_thickness00 get some shit off our chest.

Ghostin Season

Play Episode Listen Later May 31, 2019 45:40

It's getting hotter and people are wearing less so temptation is alllll around us. This when people turn into Casper Ass niggas and start to disappear. Listen in as @ketayma & Shaundra( @goodess_of_Thickness00) talk about why people "ghost" on you in the first place. Its Ghosting Season

Twilight Zone aka Social Media

social media twilight zone shaundra

Play Episode Listen Later May 23, 2019 48:24

Listen in as @ketayma & Shaundra (@goddess_of_thickness00 ) talk about the fake world of social media ( cuz u know ya life aint as poppin as your page is). How has it affected our everyday lives from communication to just people looking like completely different people in person. Is something so powerful a tool for good or evil.... lol ok im draggin it at this point ...but its a great convo...TUNE IN !

The AmWritingFantasy Podcast: Episode 2 – Why you HAVE to use paid ads in 2019