WEBVTT

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Hello everybody, and welcome to author
Boost. We are live with several of

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us here. We have several executives
from HCI or Health Communications, Inc.

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And then we have a couple of
best selling authors with us, Lisa McCourt

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and Kelly Brown, and they'll share
tips and tricks and trends and resources and

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all this good stuff here with us
as we take the next hour to be

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with you. This is for aspiring
authors, published authors, I don't know,

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writer whatever, all the words for
writing. If you're a poet,

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we come on in. We're here
to help, and we'll be here,

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like I said, for the next
hour. So I thought it would start.

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We're going to take turns talking with
you, our audience, and we're

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gonna kind of go but one by
one, and I thought I would start

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with Christian. Christian is the editorial
or no, he is not the editorial

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director, Christine, Sorry, just
get that up. They got our live.

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Christian is the executive vice president actually
of HCI. I ahead, you

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guys in the world, and I
would just love to just start with you

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Christian and talk about what HCI does, what HDI is, the history,

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give us a little bit of information
about HGN again, This is Christian Lonschhine.

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He's the executive vice president of HCI. Thanks Elizabeth, Yes I am.

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I am not the editorial director.
I couldn't and wouldn't even attempt to

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do what Christine can do. But
HDI is a nonfiction publishing house. I

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believe we are entering our forty seventh
year of publishing, which is really a

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significant feat that we're proud of.
Our roots stem from the addiction recovery market.

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We actually started out publishing pamphlets for
the US military, believe it or

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not, and segued into traditional book
publishing. In fact, the third book

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we ever published made its way onto
the New York Times bestseller list, a

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book called Adult Children Alcoholics. I
believe that was in nineteen eighty three.

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Then over the years we broadened our
reach to more generic or broad self help

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inspiration. Notably, we did the
Chicken suit for the Soul books, and

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that little craze served us quite well
through the nineties into the two thousands.

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We're continuing to publish books on addiction
and recovery issues, self help, inspiration,

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wellness. Our company motto is changing
lives, one book at a time.

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So I think essentially what you could
say we do is is publish any

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book that helps someone somehow. You
know, we try to do that and

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sell a lot of books. We
don't always, unfortunately do that, but

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you know, I think we can
really rest our head at night no that

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the people who do read our books
are benefiting from it somehow, someway.

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So yeah, love it. Anybody
have anything to add to that other than

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thank you, Christian. I'm sorry
I goofed that up a little bit at

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the beginning, but we're all good. So we also have Christine Belarus with

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us, and she's the exact editorial
director. I'm going to just goof that

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up all the time, I guess
today because I've got it written down wrong.

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Actually, So she's the editorial director
for HCI and so that's a wow.

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I've been working with you on my
new book and I don't know,

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I don't know how you do what
you do. You read so many books

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at a time when they're released,
and they're all perfect and punctuated and edited

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and boughts at it and everything.
But I just have a question for you.

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How long have you been with HCIH
Since I was a small child.

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It was the early nineties, when
I started at HCI, right after we

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published the first chicken Soup for the
Soul, and then I was there for

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ten years. Then I had my
kids and they were little, so I

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took a little hiatus, like a
ten year hiatus, and did freelance,

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and then I came back, and
I think I've been back twelve years now.

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I don't know, I've kind of
lost track of time, but decades.

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Tell us what you do other than
my my description, because that's just

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my version of it. But tell
us what you do, Yeah, I

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mean kind of. The first thing
I do is, you know, look

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through all the manuscripts of missions that
come in, you know, and do

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a first read through. We decide
as a group. We have meetings every

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other week, and we decided as
a group, you know, what we

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should publish, you know, in
any given season. But you know,

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and I have a fellow editor,
Darcy Bean, and she we both you

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know, do that first pass.
Then we send out a contract. So

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I send the contracts out to and
you know, generate and offer via with

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Christian. I write, there's copy
that goes on our online portal, which

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feeds to the you know, online
retailers. So I write that the descriptive

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copy. We kind of have to
decide, you know, how books are

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priced page count. I work with
our art director to you know, I

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give her cover ideas and then she
facilitates the ideas, you know, really

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flushes them out. Then I,
you know, edit the books all that

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we use freelancers. They are also
free because we can't possibly do everything,

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and it helps to have a number
of eyes on a book that I'll developmental

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edits. Then you know, the
books go to freelancers do proofreading, so

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you know, I kind of oversee
that. I write the back cover copy

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too for the books. So yeah, yeah, there's a lot going on

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at different times. But I you
know, I love it. I've always

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loved it. And you learn a
lot in this business. As I jokingly

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tell people, I get to go
to work and work on myself because of

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the kinds of books that we do. But you know, you made all

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kinds of fascinating people like you,
Elizabeth. You know, yeah, you

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learn a lot of new things every
day. Yeah, I want to ask

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you guys a question. Would you
like me to introduce you first? I

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think I think that might make sense
for all the audience for me to just

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go through and do little introductions like
that, and then we'll circle back.

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What we have planned for you,
guys is to leave here today with a

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bunch of tips, tricks and so
forth. So we'll go back to each

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person and ask for a resource,
a trend, and a tip, and

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so you'll leave here really with a
wealth of information and kind of knowing where

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to go, whether you decide to
self publish or submit to be traditionally published.

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I have an agent. Whatever it
is going on, I think we'll

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cover the round. Does that work
for everybody on the call? Yeah,

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okay, let's go to Lindsay next. Lindsay, I've been also saying your

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last name right, but we've got
it. It's Lindsay Treeball And tell us

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about what you do at ACI.
So I'm HCI as a PR marketing coordinator.

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I've been with the company for about
three years. Collectively, I have

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about fifteen years of book publishing experience. I work, you know, on

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the PR and marketing campaign, so
I implement anything that HCI is doing on

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behalf of books that I also work
with the authors to utilize their platforms for

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marketing and publicity purposes. Thank you, Yeah, it was good to meet

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you. The other day, hopefully
in the next month or so. So

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it's cool to meet everybody in person. Should we go with Lisa next?

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Thank you, Lindsay, Lisa tell
us all about you. You want to

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hold up your book too? Thank
you? Sure? Yeah, I have

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been here. We go there,
we're having We're here to have fun and

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make your day brighter. So you
know, we're all human here. That's

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right. He's in and out of
the HCI circle almost the same amount of

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time as Christine came in through the
Chicken Souper Little Souls books. I did

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the Little Little Souls, the kids
books that that Jack and Mark had created

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the series, and I've done ghost
writing for h C I and yeah,

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my most recently have an online joy
school. I'm a joy teacher and my

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most recent book is the one I
just kind of efficiently showed you. It's

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called Free Your Joy that I was
blessed to to create with my HCI family.

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Oh that's a great word. It
is family, isn't it all right?

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Kelly, you're up. Hey.
My name is Kelly Brown and I

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am a first time HDI author.
I did this book with Christine and Lindsey

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and Darcy, and this has been
a really healing experience for me. It's

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called one hundred and one Ways to
create Mindful Forgiveness. And I feel really

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blessed and honored that I was able
to bring this information to everybody around the

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world. So, yeah, thank
you. We have somebody missing, We

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have somebody would somebody like to talk
about Larissa? Larissa. Larissa is amazing.

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She's she's been with the company almost
as long as I actually started,

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I know, a few months six
months after I did. But she's our

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art director. But you know,
she facilitates the cover. She will give

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her an idea and she designs the
cover, She designs the insides of the

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books. She and type sets the
books and she has to actually make the

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corrections at that point because it's the
books are done in design, so I

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can't go in and make changes once
the book is typeset. So she does

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that too, and you know,
handles all the press work, and she

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does all the digital images, you
know, everything that all the marketing materials

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that Lindsey produces. You know,
she does that. So and she's just

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one human as well. It's one
human, but you know, five people

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in one and the nice person you'll
ever want to meet lovely. Yeah,

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and I'm Elizabeth Hamilton Careno, I
spared everybody my last name and just did

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Elizabeth high. I'm the author of
the Change Guidebook and then have a new

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one coming out called the Success Guidebook, both with HCI. And I'm so

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I have guidebooks and I kind of
go like this with my book. I

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don't know about you, guys,
Kelly and Lisa, but you know,

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sometimes it's under my pillow and I
can't believe that I get to do this

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and and things like that. And
I think a lot of authors feel that

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way. They're like, I can't
believe this is my life. This is

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so cool we get to do So
thank you Christine, Lindsay Christian for helping

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us live our dreams, because I
think a lot of people have the dream

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as I think that's Lisa and Kelly, don't a lot of people come up

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to you and go, how do
you do what you do? How do

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you become an author? You get
a lot of questions like that, I

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want to do what you do or
I've always I've always wanted to write a

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book. How do I do that? And so that's kind of people kept

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asking those questions to me, so
I'm like, let's do author boost and

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let's answer questions for people in a
format that might might answer some of those

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questions. So that's where this comes
from. All the questions we get as

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authors like can you help? And
then the other one you get is please

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can you help me? Like,
yes we can. So who would like

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to go first to talk about resources, trends and tips? You to want

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to take that, lindsay, do
want to? Sure? I'll go first?

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Okay, So my resource is really
looking at other authors and what they're

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doing, so using other authors as
resources. So as an example, like

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if you're writing a personal growth book, you might want to look at some

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other authors that have written personal growth
books and see like what they're doing on

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their website, on their social media
and you can get a lot of great

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ideas from them. You can also
get the ideas of like content you can

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post related to your book. So
just utilizing other authors and as ideas and

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inspiration. Yeah, other than us
on the call, because we know we

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know you well, Sarah, is
there someplace that you would recommend, like

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an author that you really love that
you would like us to go look at

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their website or anything like that,
you know, within the HCF family.

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Yeah. I mean, honestly,
I think all three of you are good,

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you know, good authors to check
out because you all three have social

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media following things. You're do a
great job. You've heard multiple books,

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so you have a lot of experience
with promoting the books on social media.

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So I would check out Elizabeth,
Lisa and Kelly's social media. Okay,

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And then how about what's a trend
that you see in terms of marketing and

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PR. A trend I see is
you know, authors are using TikTok as

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a platform. A lot of authors
have TikTok accounts now. In addition to

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Twitter and Facebook and the things that
everyone's had for years, there's also book

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talk, which is popular, although
I found that a lot of the book

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talk accounts focus on young adult romance
and books, but there is definitely some

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ways that self help authors can use
TikTok. And obviously having an account is

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you know a start. Yeah.
And how about a tip you have for

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us, a marketing tip or for
two or three, or four or five.

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I say, it's one thing to
write a book, it's another thing

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to market and find readers. Yes, exactly. So my tip is just

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to build yourself as an expert in
your genre or niche market, So especially

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if you haven't written a book yet, finding ways like writing articles, pubook,

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speaking, building a social media following, networking, maybe building an email

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list, but kind of building up
your platform in your area of expertise,

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and that could increase your chances of
getting a publishing deal, or if you're

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self publishing, and then also you'd
have those built in platforms for promotion in

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marketing, whether you're self publishing or
you're working with a publisher. We have

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a question for you about Amazon reviews. How important are Amazon reviews and is

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that something that you pay people to
do for you or or those genuinely people

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that go up there and post reviews, or how does that work? Amazon

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reviews are really important. The Amazon
guidelines asked that the Amazon reviews are verified

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purchases, so it wouldn't be something
I'd pay anyone to do. It'd be

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more like, you know, trying
to get them through verified purchases on the

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site. But they are really important. I know, when I'm purchasing a

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book or anything, honestly, and
on Amazon, I'm looking at the reviews

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before I make my purchase. And
does that carry over into all the other

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places where you can write reviews,
like Barnes and Noble and Books a Million.

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Like, it seems like each place
has a place where you can write

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reviews. Is Amazon the most important
for authors? I definitely think Amazon's really

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important. I know that you can
post reviews on Barnes and Noble and Books

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and Million. I don't think they
have to be verified purchases, so I

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think you can just post there.
But I do think a lot of people

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are looking to Amazon reviews. Good
Reads is another place to get reviews,

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and those don't have to be a
verified purchase, okay, And then well

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you actually have kind of a flood
of questions here. So another question is

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what does it mean to be on
the New York Times bestseller List? So

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the New York Times bestseller List has
a formula that they use for having accounts

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report to them, and so each
week there's a New York Times list that's

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used and books can end up on
it. It's very hard to get on

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the New York Times a seller list, but they're looking at and nobody here

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really knows the formula that they used
to select books. But what we do

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know is that it's a lot of
books that was required to get on the

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New York Times bestseller list, and
it's techniquely sales and also that they do

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keep in mind like sales from various
accounts depending on so you know, sales

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from Amazon, from dependent bookstores,
Hards and Noble, et cetera. Okay,

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I don't know if Christine or Christian
want to time in a New York

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Times. Yeah, I mean I
can just add to that that it is

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actually and if you if you google
it. It is a big mystery how

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that list is formulated, because we've
had instances over the years where books there

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is a traditional sales reporting outlet called
Nielsen book Scam that reports how many books

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sell on a weekly basis at approximately
seventy five percent of retail outlets. And

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we've had books that on a given
week have outsold some of the books on

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the New York Times list. But
it could be so heavily skewed, let's

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say, in favor of Amazon,
like a bulk of the sales were all

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on Amazon. The New York Times
doesn't necessarily count that they they what I

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believe they try to do is get
a representation of independent booksellers. The retail

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outlets outside of Amazon, and not
just you know, something that might have

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been skewed by a singular event,
a bulk purchase, something along those lines.

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I even believe there's there's an editorial
component to their review. So it

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really is like this trade secret as
to how you get onto the list.

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But one thing I can say is
if you if you do get on the

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list, it's it's a really significant
milestone. Obviously, Yeah, what what

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can we if we don't make a
list like that? What can we do

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to be successful? Like? Are
we successful? Are we failures? Are

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we you know? What are we
if we're not on that list? Or

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are we great authors? Are we? You know? How we've you know

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how we are, We've we've definitely
talk to ourselves a little bit here and

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there about what we are and what
we aren't and how we benchmark our success

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and things like that. So I
don't know if that let's choppy. But

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if you don't end up on that
list, does that mean you can't be

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an author anymore? I would say
no. I mean I would actually say

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it's the opposite, because I mean, there's what ten to fifteen I think,

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depending upon the list of the New
York times per week. And I'll

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get to this in some of my
tips, tools and trend but the number

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of books it's published every year is
staggering. So if you're going to say

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only the ten, top ten to
fifteen out of millions that are published every

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year are quote unquote successful authors,
then then no. I always like to

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say that publishing is a it's a
marathon, it's not a sprint. As

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a publisher ourselves, I would much
rather have a book that sells steady,

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consistent, decent quantities year in year
out, maybe never makes the bestseller list,

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but sells the same a dozen year
one as a dozen year ten,

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as opposed to a book and we've
had this before that'll hit the list first

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week out, sales drop off a
cliff, and you're done. So there's

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a lot of variables in it.
But I, by no means think that

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making the New York Times bestseller list
should obviously it should be everyone's goal.

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But if you don't ever sniff it, that doesn't mean you can't be a

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successful author. All right, we're
gonna Can we stay with you and just

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talk about what resource you wanted to
talk about today? Sure? So let

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me I want to start with the
tip because as Christine was talking about Larissa,

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I actually have two now because for
those on here, whether you're interested

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in self publishing or finding a traditional
publisher, I can't stress the importance of

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cover design. The way people buy
books nowadays is I mean, this is

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even true prior to but with so
much emphasis on online purchases, you got

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to remember probably seventy five percent of
the consumer audience of books is looking at

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a little thumbnail this big of your
book. It has to catch your eye

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enough that you want to start reading
the copy, you know, pursuing further.

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So if you don't have, you
know, an impactful cover, you're

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liable to move have that consumer move
on to the next one because because there's

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so much content out there available,
So that would be my first tip.

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My second tip is kind of touching
on what Lindsay said earlier and referencing our

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three authors here. You always have
to be promoting, no matter whether it's

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an audience of one or an audience
of a thousand, and I keep you're

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gonna probably hear me chime on this
repeatedly, particularly for us in the nonfiction

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world. It is such a competitive
industry, right, we are not only

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competing with the millions of books that
I said get released every year, but

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we're competing with TikTokers and content creators
and instagrammers and podcasters and bloggers and just

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regular internet articles and pieces. So
we have to You always have to be

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promoting. You always have to be
presenting your message so that you never know

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where that big opportunity might be paying
attention to you. So always be promoting

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that. That's my that's my tip. The tool was tricky for me,

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but I I did think that for
many watching they might not be aware of

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a relatively and expensive resource called Publishers
Weekly. Publishers Weekly started as Industry a

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magazine for the industry for industry professionals
authors, but it has evolved a little

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bit more. They have self publishing
tools, review sections where you can purchase

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reviews. But I really think that's
would be useful because it has evolved into

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again, whether you're looking to self
publish or find a traditional publisher, what

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00:22:47.079 --> 00:22:52.079
traditional publishers are acquiring, what types
of books are doing well. They have

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bestseller lists that they create that are
more curated instead of just maybe fiction versus

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00:22:57.359 --> 00:23:02.359
nonfiction. It breaks it down into
row Man sci fi, or children's or

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this or that, and it's and
it is a representation of just what is

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selling via book scan as opposed to
the Times, which you know, there's

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a little more involved in it.
So you and so you can just get

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a better sense of what you know, we as the industry folks, look

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at what people are acquiring, what's
doing well, and it's just a good

295
00:23:26.519 --> 00:23:30.759
it's a good resource. And it's
in print and in digital. They have

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emails, they have a lot of
different things that people can sign up for.

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Some of it's free, some of
it's paid. In the last in

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terms of like in terms of a
trend, I was researching this in preparation

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for this webinar, and I found
something that I hope is true for us

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for HCI as a trend for twenty
twenty four, and that's the importance of

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quality in terms of the content.
We have always prided ourselves on what we

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publish. As I mentioned in the
intro, you know, not every book,

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00:24:08.200 --> 00:24:11.839
unfortunately, can be you know,
a New York Times bestseller, but

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00:24:12.079 --> 00:24:18.039
our content is always good. The
really interesting piece that I read about this

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00:24:18.279 --> 00:24:26.160
was with the advent of AI and
artificial intelligence and them creating content. I

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00:24:26.160 --> 00:24:33.759
think now more than ever, I'm
hopeful that work with people like you all

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00:24:33.160 --> 00:24:37.920
behind it, standing behind it,
researching it, whatever the case may be,

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is going to be more important than
ever. And I think that for

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us that would be a great thing, and I hope it comes true in

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the coming years. Love it.
What do you think? You have questions?

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00:24:51.279 --> 00:24:52.880
Do you mind if I ask you
a few questions? Do you have

312
00:24:52.880 --> 00:24:56.839
time and everything? Okay? You
have a question about what is the Nonfiction

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00:24:56.000 --> 00:25:03.119
Authors Association? And if you don't
know, if somebody doesn't feel well versed

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00:25:03.160 --> 00:25:04.319
on that, does anybody know what
that is? Lindsay, do you know

315
00:25:04.359 --> 00:25:08.759
what that is? I've heard of
it, I don't know enough about it

316
00:25:08.759 --> 00:25:14.039
to speak to it. Okay,
So we'll we'll answer your question in the

317
00:25:14.039 --> 00:25:17.960
form of I'll get back to you
on that. How does that work?

318
00:25:18.359 --> 00:25:22.319
Sorry about that? So, but
Nonfiction Authors Association, somebody said that they

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00:25:22.319 --> 00:25:26.720
had found a good a good group
there, so I have I haven't.

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00:25:27.000 --> 00:25:30.480
I don't think I have much information
there so to share, So we'll get

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00:25:30.480 --> 00:25:37.039
back to on that one. You
also have a question about Publishers Weekly.

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00:25:37.119 --> 00:25:45.839
Christian is published week. We Publishers
Weekly the same as Book Life, So

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00:25:45.960 --> 00:25:53.160
book Life is a part of Publishers
Weekly. So they created book Life with

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00:25:53.240 --> 00:26:00.039
the rise of self publishing as a
way of providing as far as I know,

325
00:26:00.119 --> 00:26:06.880
it's paid reviews as opposed to what
they do on the trade publishing side,

326
00:26:06.880 --> 00:26:11.880
which they're not paid. But it
is a way to get books reviewed.

327
00:26:11.880 --> 00:26:17.359
And as I indicated, the readers
of this magazine or heavily book relate

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industry related, so librarians, booksellers. So if they're reading these reviews,

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that's a means of a self published
book getting in the hands of some traditional

330
00:26:26.839 --> 00:26:32.319
retail outlets, influencers, et cetera. Got it, Okay? So those

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00:26:32.319 --> 00:26:37.559
were the two that just came in
for you, Lindsey. Somebody just asked

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00:26:37.559 --> 00:26:38.839
about if I can go back to
you for a minute, if you don't

333
00:26:38.839 --> 00:26:44.799
mind. So I just asked about
awards. Does it matter if your book

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wins an award or not? Or
what are some of the awards that they

335
00:26:48.400 --> 00:26:49.279
asked? What are some of the
awards I could enter my book in.

336
00:26:52.160 --> 00:26:55.240
Well, at HCI, we have
a list of awards that we send out

337
00:26:55.240 --> 00:26:59.720
to the authors to have their book
considered. A few off the top of

338
00:26:59.720 --> 00:27:03.799
my head, or the Nautilus Award, the I v p A Award,

339
00:27:04.119 --> 00:27:08.799
there's the Independent Book Award. Elizabeth's
book in particular has won quite a few

340
00:27:08.839 --> 00:27:15.480
awards, the Change Guidebook. So
the awards are you know, something that

341
00:27:15.640 --> 00:27:22.079
authors like to enter their book into. Uh, and you know there's you

342
00:27:22.079 --> 00:27:23.720
know, I don't know have anything
else to say about them other than you

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00:27:23.759 --> 00:27:26.240
know, you entered the book and
see if it wins. And it's like

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00:27:26.279 --> 00:27:30.240
a nice marketing tool, you know, to be able to say that the

345
00:27:30.279 --> 00:27:34.400
book is award winning if you win. We we have had quite a few

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00:27:34.839 --> 00:27:40.200
authors who have won awards, so
we're really proud of that. Okay,

347
00:27:41.119 --> 00:27:45.039
again, I'm taking questions from people
on Twitter and Facebook and d MS,

348
00:27:45.079 --> 00:27:48.839
and there's they're coming at me in
different spots across So if I'm looking at

349
00:27:48.839 --> 00:27:52.119
different things, it's because I'm I'm
kind of looking at different screens while I'm

350
00:27:52.119 --> 00:27:55.640
talking. So sorry, I'm looking
away and stuff. You Christine, you

351
00:27:55.680 --> 00:27:57.920
have a question when I know we
haven't talked to you yet, but I'm

352
00:27:59.000 --> 00:28:02.559
just going to ask you the question. First. You have a question of

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00:28:03.599 --> 00:28:10.279
they're saying there's stack of rejection letters
is very hi. It's getting bigger and

354
00:28:10.279 --> 00:28:14.880
bigger as what they said which was
cute. I'm sorry, what do you

355
00:28:14.920 --> 00:28:17.000
do they they want to know,
do they give up? Do they keep

356
00:28:17.039 --> 00:28:18.680
going? What do you do when
your stackage is it? What do you

357
00:28:18.680 --> 00:28:22.599
do in your stack rejection letters?
Is? You know? I just yeah,

358
00:28:23.359 --> 00:28:27.440
you believe in yourself and your message, you know, just keep going.

359
00:28:27.480 --> 00:28:32.839
And sometimes, you know, maybe
they're just form rejection letters and they

360
00:28:32.839 --> 00:28:37.400
don't really tell you anything. But
you know, sometimes editors will give you

361
00:28:37.279 --> 00:28:41.160
a reason why they rejected it,
so you know, maybe if you could

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00:28:41.200 --> 00:28:48.359
include some of their suggestions, maybe
that would, yeah, you know,

363
00:28:48.720 --> 00:28:53.400
change someone's mind and you could always
resubmit. Yeah, Lisa, do you

364
00:28:53.400 --> 00:28:57.000
have rejection letters and you're a ninety
percent year at Stephen King? It might

365
00:28:57.039 --> 00:29:00.039
be someone else, but I think
Stephen King will pay or room with his

366
00:29:00.079 --> 00:29:04.400
early rejection. So there you go. Still visual, I mean, and

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00:29:04.519 --> 00:29:10.119
Jack Canfield was chicken Soup of the
Soul was turned down. The numbers been

368
00:29:10.160 --> 00:29:14.720
thrown out there a number of different
numbers. It's significant twenty five thirty times

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00:29:14.720 --> 00:29:19.039
before it came to our desk,
and we did it. So I think

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00:29:19.079 --> 00:29:25.359
that the metaphor of the marathon and
not the sprint that I referred to earlier

371
00:29:25.440 --> 00:29:29.759
could apply to the process of finding
a publisher too. You know, it

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00:29:29.880 --> 00:29:33.240
is competitive, but you got to
stay the course, Like Christine says,

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00:29:33.240 --> 00:29:37.519
if you believe in your message.
Yeah, it might just be the you

374
00:29:37.559 --> 00:29:41.240
know, we like what she wrote, it's just not what we're looking for

375
00:29:41.400 --> 00:29:45.519
right now. Yeah, you knows
there any number of things. Don't take

376
00:29:45.559 --> 00:29:52.000
it personally. Yeah, now that's
hard. But yeah. The follow up

377
00:29:52.079 --> 00:29:55.079
question there is what this is a
doozy? So I don't know who wants

378
00:29:55.160 --> 00:30:00.119
to take this, but what's the
difference between traditional hybrid and self publishing?

379
00:30:00.200 --> 00:30:03.400
And I know we answered this.
I think we answered this question last year

380
00:30:03.480 --> 00:30:07.960
on our first author boost, but
it doesn't hurt to repeat ourselves. I

381
00:30:07.960 --> 00:30:11.559
don't think does somebody want to take
that With the differences between the three things,

382
00:30:11.960 --> 00:30:15.680
I mean, I can say I'll
start and if anybody wants a time

383
00:30:15.720 --> 00:30:18.720
and they can. I mean,
I think the main difference with the traditional

384
00:30:18.839 --> 00:30:27.519
agreement is is the details of the
contract and the term. Most of the

385
00:30:27.559 --> 00:30:37.799
financial terms. Traditional publishers assume most
of the cost to manufacture, to distribute,

386
00:30:38.160 --> 00:30:44.799
to do all the front end the
editorial costs, and then therefore when

387
00:30:44.880 --> 00:30:49.440
they sell the books, they pay
a smaller royalty. And I'm not a

388
00:30:49.480 --> 00:30:55.000
self published machine company, so I'm
making some assumptions here, But I think

389
00:30:55.599 --> 00:31:00.599
on the self publishing end it's reversed. The author and cur the costs to

390
00:31:00.680 --> 00:31:07.480
produce, market promote, but they
get the lion's share of the royalties.

391
00:31:07.920 --> 00:31:14.440
I believe the hybrid is any form
in between. There are some companies I

392
00:31:14.440 --> 00:31:19.720
think that provide some of the stuff
that we do with the costs and the

393
00:31:19.720 --> 00:31:23.720
splits and all that stuff kind of
in between. So I mean, I

394
00:31:23.720 --> 00:31:30.359
think that's the gist of it.
It's where does the responsibility lie. In

395
00:31:30.200 --> 00:31:36.279
traditional it's mostly with the publisher.
In self publishing, that's predominantly with the

396
00:31:36.319 --> 00:31:40.200
author. Yeah, oh, here's
a good question. I like this one.

397
00:31:40.400 --> 00:31:45.160
Here's one. Do you think Amazon
should split them up into those three

398
00:31:45.160 --> 00:31:48.599
categories on Amazon so that these books
are here, these books are here,

399
00:31:48.640 --> 00:31:51.039
and these books are here, or
should they all just be mixed up like

400
00:31:51.079 --> 00:31:55.480
they are with ten million books.
It's an interesting question, it is.

401
00:31:56.880 --> 00:32:01.039
I don't really I can't really think
of a reason why they would be split,

402
00:32:01.160 --> 00:32:07.039
because I know I know a number
of really great authors that self publish.

403
00:32:07.119 --> 00:32:14.319
I know our authors are great.
I think there are circumstances for going

404
00:32:14.519 --> 00:32:19.519
like with each in each direction.
Like I sometimes authors are say to me,

405
00:32:19.559 --> 00:32:21.920
I'm going to self publish, and
I see why, like I might

406
00:32:21.960 --> 00:32:25.599
if I was in their shoes.
And conversely, I see why people want

407
00:32:25.599 --> 00:32:30.960
to come to a traditional publisher.
But at the end of the day,

408
00:32:30.079 --> 00:32:35.240
you know, it's still the same
product. I like. That's almost like

409
00:32:36.079 --> 00:32:38.119
saying you're going to go to a
store and the socks are going to be

410
00:32:38.200 --> 00:32:44.720
separated by manufacturer. I mean,
ultimately, some socks are better than other

411
00:32:44.759 --> 00:32:46.240
socks, but you still go to
the sock department for them. So,

412
00:32:47.640 --> 00:32:52.440
Okay, good, that didn't answer
your question. Just go ahead and type

413
00:32:52.480 --> 00:32:59.640
me another DM. Okay, Christine, you're right, and Christine is at

414
00:32:59.680 --> 00:33:02.960
a tour real director. I'm just
going to stress that again. Of hdi

415
00:33:04.400 --> 00:33:07.519
oh Man. There's a lot of
work involved there. I know I'm going

416
00:33:07.559 --> 00:33:09.480
through that process with you right now. So there's a lot of work that

417
00:33:09.519 --> 00:33:14.920
you do. Would you like to
start with a resource, a trip,

418
00:33:15.319 --> 00:33:17.400
a tim for a trend, or
how would you like I'll start with a

419
00:33:17.559 --> 00:33:22.839
resource writer's market. You know,
when you're researching where should I send my

420
00:33:22.880 --> 00:33:28.079
book to? There's a great resource
called writer's Market. It's in the bookstores

421
00:33:28.240 --> 00:33:30.119
or you could go to the library
and it gives uh, you know,

422
00:33:30.200 --> 00:33:37.000
every publisher in North America what exactly
they're looking for the person you should send

423
00:33:37.039 --> 00:33:43.000
your manuscript to. And they also
like have different they updated every year.

424
00:33:44.200 --> 00:33:47.599
And then they also have segmented versions
of this book. So the writer's market

425
00:33:47.640 --> 00:33:52.880
for children's books, you know,
you really want to target who you're going

426
00:33:52.960 --> 00:33:57.839
to send your proposal to, and
they'll tell you. You know, each

427
00:33:58.440 --> 00:34:02.839
publisher will tell you exactly what they're
looking for. So that's my resource.

428
00:34:04.559 --> 00:34:07.320
You know, another resource, just
your eyes and ears. Go into the

429
00:34:07.360 --> 00:34:12.039
bookstore, go into the library and
see what's out there. You know,

430
00:34:12.039 --> 00:34:14.719
it could be a little daunting,
but you can see, you know,

431
00:34:14.800 --> 00:34:21.000
what's selling, and you know what's
being recommended at our local librarian. Book

432
00:34:21.119 --> 00:34:28.079
atone there's always a table with referrals
from the librarians. You know, what

433
00:34:28.159 --> 00:34:34.480
are they recommending? So you want
to look at that. A tent that's

434
00:34:34.519 --> 00:34:37.679
happening right now. I think,
you know, there's a lot of distress

435
00:34:37.760 --> 00:34:45.159
in our world today, you know, wars and politics, and I think

436
00:34:45.280 --> 00:34:49.320
people are getting people are exhausted by
that. I mean, I'm kind of

437
00:34:49.320 --> 00:34:52.920
a political junkie. So I like
all those books, but a lot of

438
00:34:52.920 --> 00:34:58.119
people are going to are weary,
and I think, especially come November,

439
00:34:58.159 --> 00:35:00.440
people are going to be really tired
of that. So I think self care

440
00:35:00.679 --> 00:35:07.119
and mental health is still like it's
you know, getting more important. So

441
00:35:07.239 --> 00:35:10.239
books that focus on that, I
think, you know, that's a trend.

442
00:35:12.239 --> 00:35:17.519
You know specific kind of any within
that any anything specific or everything or

443
00:35:17.800 --> 00:35:21.519
I think just kind of everything.
So I mean, you know, as

444
00:35:21.559 --> 00:35:23.360
an author, you need to look
out there and say, well, what's

445
00:35:23.440 --> 00:35:30.400
my message and how does it differ
from what's already out there? You know,

446
00:35:30.480 --> 00:35:36.000
I know with self help readers,
especially self help readers like kind of

447
00:35:36.039 --> 00:35:40.920
formulaic sort of approaches seven steps to
blah blah blah, ten steps to blah

448
00:35:40.960 --> 00:35:45.159
blah blah. And I mean all
three of you have done a good job

449
00:35:45.239 --> 00:35:52.159
of including you know, interactive portions
in your books so that that keeps them

450
00:35:52.239 --> 00:35:55.199
relevant. People who read these types
of books like that. You know,

451
00:35:55.280 --> 00:36:02.000
they like to work on themselves,
and you know that also necessitates buying a

452
00:36:02.079 --> 00:36:07.800
book versus just going to the internet
and finding you know, a quick article.

453
00:36:07.159 --> 00:36:12.079
That's something we always say in our
editorial meetings that we have. You

454
00:36:12.079 --> 00:36:15.960
know, is this topic something that
I wanted to want a full book for?

455
00:36:15.079 --> 00:36:21.400
Am I going to, you know, shell out fifteen sixteen twenty dollars

456
00:36:21.440 --> 00:36:23.920
on this or can I find it
for free? I think a lot of

457
00:36:23.960 --> 00:36:29.079
people thought that ebooks would be the
demise of the print book, but that's

458
00:36:29.159 --> 00:36:34.760
not really it. It's all the
information that's out there. So why do

459
00:36:34.880 --> 00:36:38.280
I need a book about this?
What about? I knew I'm going to

460
00:36:38.760 --> 00:36:43.960
You're gonna get questions while we're talking, because just by the nature here,

461
00:36:44.440 --> 00:36:49.440
you have a question about audiobooks?
What about audiobooks? Are they Are they

462
00:36:49.480 --> 00:36:52.679
super popular? Are they a trend? Are they a thing? They're a

463
00:36:52.719 --> 00:36:55.639
big thing. Actually, that's the
fastest growing part of the market, isn't

464
00:36:55.639 --> 00:37:00.239
it. Christian. I think it's
set to overtake e books. Yeah,

465
00:37:00.320 --> 00:37:07.519
without a doubt. It's huge right
now, very very popular. Some cool

466
00:37:07.559 --> 00:37:13.960
technology over the last few years has
come about to where audiobooks can interact with

467
00:37:14.119 --> 00:37:17.639
ebooks, to as where you could
be reading your ebook and you get to

468
00:37:17.639 --> 00:37:21.360
page twenty five, and then you've
got to get in your car. You

469
00:37:21.400 --> 00:37:23.280
pick up where you left off on
the ebook on page twenty six of the

470
00:37:23.320 --> 00:37:30.320
audiobook, So there's some really cool
technology, mostly with Amazon and who owns

471
00:37:30.360 --> 00:37:35.519
Audible, But yeah, one hundred
percent audiobook is the fastest growing segment of

472
00:37:35.719 --> 00:37:42.360
the market right now. One of
our new authors, this book's coming out

473
00:37:42.880 --> 00:37:49.840
next month, and she tagged like
meditations that you can go to on her

474
00:37:49.920 --> 00:37:52.480
website. You know, so you
have to buy the book, but then

475
00:37:52.519 --> 00:37:55.679
you find the meditations and you go
to her website. She's you know,

476
00:37:55.920 --> 00:38:02.400
like you could constantly drive the traffic
back and forth. Love it. Do

477
00:38:02.400 --> 00:38:07.920
you mean by like codes like a
QR code. It's not a QR code,

478
00:38:07.960 --> 00:38:10.559
but she just has a symbol like
an ear with me. This is

479
00:38:10.599 --> 00:38:15.000
a meditation she hasn't printed in the
book, but if you don't, you

480
00:38:15.039 --> 00:38:19.199
know, it's hard to read this
meditation and then try to remember it while

481
00:38:19.199 --> 00:38:22.239
you're meditating. So you go to
you know, her website and then you

482
00:38:22.280 --> 00:38:27.360
can hear the meditation, yeah while
you're doing it. Yeah, I like

483
00:38:27.400 --> 00:38:30.320
that, and I like that.
Was one of my tips actually is to

484
00:38:30.400 --> 00:38:35.280
drive traffic to your website, like
post on social media and use social media

485
00:38:35.280 --> 00:38:38.159
and use hashtags and so forth and
so forth, but don't live there because

486
00:38:38.199 --> 00:38:43.199
if that platform goes obsolete or anything
like that, or is it popular?

487
00:38:43.280 --> 00:38:45.280
Like you don't see twenty year old
kids on Facebook and things like that.

488
00:38:45.480 --> 00:38:50.199
They're over on Snapchat or TikTok or
wherever they are. And so I like

489
00:38:50.239 --> 00:38:53.719
the fact that she's driving traffic back
to her website. That's what I try

490
00:38:53.760 --> 00:39:00.880
to do. And I always discourage
people from judge somebody's post by the number

491
00:39:00.920 --> 00:39:05.840
of likes and comments, because if
you're a traffic driver, you've sent them

492
00:39:05.840 --> 00:39:08.000
back to your website for the traffic, not for the traffic on Facebook.

493
00:39:08.000 --> 00:39:12.800
So it's kind of misleading because everybody
wants to have that engagement while the engagement's

494
00:39:12.800 --> 00:39:15.760
over here, not here. So
I think that's that's really cool that she

495
00:39:15.880 --> 00:39:21.480
did that. I like that,
all right, and how and what else

496
00:39:21.519 --> 00:39:27.239
do you have? Did? I
sorry for chiming in. We come on

497
00:39:30.079 --> 00:39:34.079
with all you guys. Make sure
that you well a couple tips. Make

498
00:39:34.119 --> 00:39:40.239
sure that you read and read and
edit times ten before you send something to

499
00:39:40.280 --> 00:39:45.039
a publisher, because if I see
a big type or a huge mistake on

500
00:39:45.079 --> 00:39:50.239
the first page, now, we
can't trust that what you've given us is

501
00:39:50.280 --> 00:39:54.840
going to be great because it's hundreds
of pages. So do your homework and

502
00:39:54.960 --> 00:40:00.320
my my other tip though, is
to use your friends. I mean,

503
00:40:00.480 --> 00:40:04.519
have other people read your book,
your proposal before you send it in.

504
00:40:05.559 --> 00:40:08.320
You know, I'm like one person
and I like to tell people and editors

505
00:40:08.440 --> 00:40:14.440
just a reader who can ask questions
of the author. But you know,

506
00:40:14.679 --> 00:40:19.599
you've got this whole world around you
of friends or if you're in a writer's

507
00:40:19.679 --> 00:40:23.679
group, you know they can give
you good critiques too. As many people

508
00:40:24.320 --> 00:40:28.800
as you can have read the book
before you even send it in, I

509
00:40:28.840 --> 00:40:35.000
think is helpful. That's a great
idea. Although, but although Lisa,

510
00:40:35.239 --> 00:40:37.599
Kelly and I are like and a
lot of people dug for cover. When

511
00:40:37.639 --> 00:40:45.320
you ask that, I tell yeah, anyway, all right, are you

512
00:40:45.440 --> 00:40:47.840
do you have anything else? Are
you good? I think that's it.

513
00:40:47.960 --> 00:40:52.039
Okay, we're about at one,
so we've been on for forty minutes.

514
00:40:52.239 --> 00:40:54.199
If you have any comments or questions
or anything like that, keep sending them

515
00:40:54.199 --> 00:41:00.360
in. We're going to go to
Kelly. How's that? Kelly? Hey,

516
00:41:00.400 --> 00:41:05.559
thank you so much. Okay.
So I would say that my resource

517
00:41:05.599 --> 00:41:10.920
would definitely be Google Trends, and
I've used it to see, like,

518
00:41:12.039 --> 00:41:16.719
for instance, picking a title I'll
put into the search engine, like the

519
00:41:16.719 --> 00:41:22.079
word like when we did this book, Mindful Forgiveness, I put in the

520
00:41:22.079 --> 00:41:24.360
word mindful, I put in the
word forgiveness, I put in the words

521
00:41:24.800 --> 00:41:30.079
I'm sorry, apologies to see how
it was ranking not only in the United

522
00:41:30.119 --> 00:41:36.679
States over thirty days over the last
five years, but worldwide. I found

523
00:41:36.800 --> 00:41:44.159
that there was such a high trend
during COVID that people were self reflecting on

524
00:41:44.760 --> 00:41:53.119
their lives in such an extraordinary way. So, which takes me to self

525
00:41:53.159 --> 00:41:59.480
awareness. That is really what people
are searching for. They're looking at how

526
00:41:59.519 --> 00:42:04.480
to be at her. They are
watching podcasts and Jay Shetty and you know,

527
00:42:04.599 --> 00:42:09.639
reaching for intuition books and trying to
understand like how can I evolve?

528
00:42:09.679 --> 00:42:16.960
How can I grow? And it's
really really interesting as we look at how

529
00:42:17.079 --> 00:42:23.519
artificial intelligence has taken over, how
how simultaneously people are reaching for self help.

530
00:42:23.599 --> 00:42:28.920
So it's kind of like a strange
dynamic, I think, But how

531
00:42:28.960 --> 00:42:34.280
wonderful that we are trying to be
more spiritual and be more aware as human

532
00:42:34.360 --> 00:42:40.920
beings. What next? Uh,
I'm sorry, I was going to say

533
00:42:40.960 --> 00:42:47.639
your resource, but that was my
resource. My tip would be don't be

534
00:42:47.719 --> 00:42:54.880
afraid of no I that that was
advice was given to me by Dorothea Johnson,

535
00:42:55.000 --> 00:43:00.480
who I called out of the blue. I had a publish sure tell

536
00:43:00.559 --> 00:43:04.960
me that they wouldn't that they weren't
interested in my thank You note book,

537
00:43:04.960 --> 00:43:07.800
which has now become a bestseller.
It's been published, there's four different versions

538
00:43:07.800 --> 00:43:14.679
of it. And they said that
if if Crane and Company was involved,

539
00:43:14.719 --> 00:43:20.039
then they would be interested. And
Dorothea said, Kelly, don't be afraid

540
00:43:20.079 --> 00:43:23.119
of no. Called them up.
Crane and Company offered to buy the book,

541
00:43:23.920 --> 00:43:29.440
and I ultimately went with a different
publisher, but they endorsed it and

542
00:43:29.480 --> 00:43:32.079
it was a game changer. And
if I had been afraid, how would

543
00:43:32.119 --> 00:43:37.440
that have turned out for me?
Taking me to this book Mindful of Forgiveness,

544
00:43:37.119 --> 00:43:44.519
I had had seen Desmond Tutoo's book
with his daughter called The Book of

545
00:43:44.559 --> 00:43:47.360
Forgiving. I was so moved by
it that I reached out to his daughter,

546
00:43:47.400 --> 00:43:53.159
who I didn't know, tracked her
down and gave me the endorsement on

547
00:43:53.840 --> 00:44:00.000
the cover of the book, which
I mean that for me was an extraordinary,

548
00:44:00.079 --> 00:44:04.440
very blessing. So don't be afraid
of no, because all someone can

549
00:44:04.480 --> 00:44:09.199
say is no, So ask ask
ask am I doing? Okay? So

550
00:44:09.280 --> 00:44:15.639
far? I hope? So perfect? Okay, TikTok trending. I'm gonna

551
00:44:15.679 --> 00:44:21.960
go with lindsay. You know I'm
seeing I am not as good as it

552
00:44:22.000 --> 00:44:25.840
as I could be, but uh, you have to feed the beast.

553
00:44:27.440 --> 00:44:32.280
You have to constantly be on social
media, and TikTok seems to be not

554
00:44:32.360 --> 00:44:38.440
only exploding for the younger generation but
for every generation. So as an author,

555
00:44:39.920 --> 00:44:45.119
I would say, doing research,
I would search the hashtags that is

556
00:44:45.159 --> 00:44:49.760
in your category of what you're interested
in writing about, so for me,

557
00:44:49.960 --> 00:44:54.880
forgiveness, intuition, romance, or
you know, whatever it is that that

558
00:44:54.920 --> 00:44:59.840
you're interested in, and start seeing
like who's trending and who's really popular and

559
00:44:59.840 --> 00:45:02.920
who has these big platforms. A
lot of people do go that way and

560
00:45:02.960 --> 00:45:08.639
then get a publishing deal. What
else? Uh, I think that's good.

561
00:45:09.079 --> 00:45:14.119
I think that's my my tips,
it's perfect. Thank you for that.

562
00:45:15.360 --> 00:45:19.480
Questions on your awesome books, So
yeah, I love I love your

563
00:45:19.480 --> 00:45:21.880
books so and I love you and
you're just such a great, sparky,

564
00:45:22.079 --> 00:45:27.639
smiley kind kind comes to mind.
So thank you for you always, uh,

565
00:45:28.639 --> 00:45:35.760
Lisa, see love, thank you. Yeah. Christine's resource reminded me

566
00:45:35.840 --> 00:45:39.880
of two similar resources. One is
Literary Marketplace, which is online. Now

567
00:45:39.880 --> 00:45:44.320
it used to be this like huge
directory that you had to go to the

568
00:45:44.360 --> 00:45:49.199
librarian, ask the reference librarian for
but now it's online, and it also

569
00:45:49.800 --> 00:45:52.239
is a great overview of who's looking
for what what kind of you know,

570
00:45:52.400 --> 00:45:57.840
like editors, we'll post what they're
what they're shopping for, so that's convenient.

571
00:45:58.159 --> 00:46:00.199
If there happened to be any children's
book authors here. One of my

572
00:46:00.400 --> 00:46:07.199
favorite resources was always SCBWI, the
Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

573
00:46:07.719 --> 00:46:13.000
That's SCBWI dot org online and they
have conferences where you can do like speed

574
00:46:13.079 --> 00:46:16.880
dating with editors and speed dating with
agents and pitch your book and they're just

575
00:46:16.920 --> 00:46:22.920
a really great, on top of
it organization. So those were inspired by

576
00:46:22.000 --> 00:46:28.719
Christine's recommendation of a writer's market,
So I'm going to come in a little

577
00:46:28.719 --> 00:46:32.599
bit different perspective. I loved hearing
the tips and trends and everything from the

578
00:46:32.639 --> 00:46:36.480
marketing perspective, but I thought,
since we have writers here, I'd come

579
00:46:36.639 --> 00:46:43.360
purely from a writing perspective on these
things, and in that respect, my

580
00:46:43.519 --> 00:46:49.559
tip would be don't write to trends. I feel like anything that's going to

581
00:46:49.639 --> 00:46:55.719
take you away from what is most
passionately alive for you that day when you

582
00:46:55.800 --> 00:47:00.880
wake up and want to get something
onto your computers, green onto paper.

583
00:47:00.400 --> 00:47:06.599
Any constraint like oh, but is
that what is trending? Or are enough

584
00:47:06.639 --> 00:47:09.280
people going to be interested in that? Any of that is going to muddy

585
00:47:09.320 --> 00:47:15.840
the energy that is going to create
your most powerful work. I truly believe

586
00:47:15.880 --> 00:47:22.320
that every single one of us has
a vibratory signature that will reach readers out

587
00:47:22.320 --> 00:47:25.400
there who are only going to really
respond to your signature or your energy that

588
00:47:25.440 --> 00:47:30.440
you imprint onto those pages and to
make it a powerful quality book. Like

589
00:47:30.519 --> 00:47:35.960
Christian was talking about, that means
you are all over it your most authentic

590
00:47:36.199 --> 00:47:38.199
energy. I don't believe in as
in chair. Every writer I used to

591
00:47:38.280 --> 00:47:42.679
coach writers, every writer I've ever
worked with, who said you have to

592
00:47:42.719 --> 00:47:45.280
just like put your butt in the
chair for a certain number of hours.

593
00:47:45.960 --> 00:47:50.639
It just creates garbage. You have
to see what's most passionately alive for you

594
00:47:50.800 --> 00:47:53.840
on that day and write it down, even if it doesn't tie in sequentially

595
00:47:53.880 --> 00:47:58.639
to what you wrote the day before. And in that way you gather all

596
00:47:58.719 --> 00:48:02.159
these beautiful, beautiful place pieces that
you can then spread out. We call

597
00:48:02.199 --> 00:48:07.280
it the clay you can mold the
clay so that it all runs together seamlessly

598
00:48:07.360 --> 00:48:09.360
and makes sense. And that's how
you're going to have a really, really

599
00:48:10.400 --> 00:48:15.159
powerful book, because your energy goes
into those pages, and then the reader

600
00:48:15.239 --> 00:48:19.920
is going to pick up the energy
that you're writing from. So in that

601
00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:22.840
respect, I felt like I didn't
want writers to worry about what the trends

602
00:48:22.840 --> 00:48:28.599
are great for promotion, though promotion
trends I think are super valuable. So

603
00:48:28.639 --> 00:48:31.960
another resource along those lines is my
dear, dear, dear friend Jacob nord

604
00:48:32.000 --> 00:48:37.440
Baby used to teach the stuff together. He guides writers. His company now

605
00:48:37.519 --> 00:48:40.159
is he'll create dot org. He
runs programs all the time to help you

606
00:48:40.239 --> 00:48:45.599
pull that kind of material out of
you what it's most uniquely yours to share

607
00:48:45.639 --> 00:48:50.000
with the world. So that was
another resource I wanted to share. I

608
00:48:50.039 --> 00:48:53.960
love it. How about what's another
trend that you're seeing? I'm just going

609
00:48:54.039 --> 00:48:58.199
to keep asking you a few questions, like, what's a what's a trend

610
00:48:58.519 --> 00:49:02.840
another trend that you see have in
the world. Okay, So I don't

611
00:49:04.119 --> 00:49:07.800
actually consider myself super tapped in to
that. For the reasons that I just

612
00:49:07.840 --> 00:49:13.039
spoke to I tried not to write
now I've felt moving away from it,

613
00:49:13.239 --> 00:49:16.119
but I feel like, at least
in my bubble that I exist in,

614
00:49:16.280 --> 00:49:20.599
like what I write about and my
friends and colleagues write about. I think

615
00:49:20.639 --> 00:49:27.280
it's about self compassion because we've all
seen the self help books for a gazillion

616
00:49:27.360 --> 00:49:30.440
years about be better, push yourself
to be better, push yourself to be

617
00:49:30.440 --> 00:49:32.440
better. There's no joy. There's
no joy there because none of us are

618
00:49:32.480 --> 00:49:37.280
going to be our best selves in
every aspect of life at any given moment

619
00:49:37.320 --> 00:49:39.280
in time. I feel like there's
a trend, at least in my little

620
00:49:39.320 --> 00:49:44.239
world of you know what. I
don't have to be the best at anything

621
00:49:44.519 --> 00:49:47.079
to have compassion for myself and love
for myself and have a joyful existence.

622
00:49:47.239 --> 00:49:52.599
I can be the best at finding
joy in my ordinary little life right here.

623
00:49:52.760 --> 00:49:55.599
And I hope that's a trend.
It's a trend on trying to start

624
00:49:57.599 --> 00:50:01.199
perfect. Do you, Kelly and
Lisa, do you mind telling us your

625
00:50:01.239 --> 00:50:07.199
websites so that people I know we
reference websites earlier. Mine's Elizabethgarino dot com.

626
00:50:07.199 --> 00:50:12.079
That's g U A R I n
Oh, Lisa, what's yours?

627
00:50:12.719 --> 00:50:15.519
It's my name right there on the
screen. Lisa McCourt mc c o U

628
00:50:15.639 --> 00:50:20.079
r T dot com. And what's
the number one thing that you would want

629
00:50:20.079 --> 00:50:22.559
people to look at when they hit
your website? Where do you want them

630
00:50:22.639 --> 00:50:28.119
to go? I have a brand
new three month intensive that takes takes I

631
00:50:28.519 --> 00:50:34.039
work one on one with the participant
through the book that I just released,

632
00:50:34.039 --> 00:50:37.320
and through my joy trainings that I've
done for twenty years. So that would

633
00:50:37.320 --> 00:50:39.199
be an exciting thing for them to
check out. Perfect. How about you,

634
00:50:39.280 --> 00:50:45.119
Kelly? That's my website is Kelly
Brown with an E dot net And

635
00:50:45.199 --> 00:50:52.000
I hope that people would check out
all the podcasts we've done I've done and

636
00:50:52.400 --> 00:50:58.960
buy the book by the Forgiveness Book
because there's so much you can information,

637
00:50:59.039 --> 00:51:02.000
you can learn to heal your life
and your relationships. And please get me

638
00:51:02.000 --> 00:51:07.639
a review on Amazon, and yeah, that's what I love. That would

639
00:51:07.639 --> 00:51:12.000
be the most amazing thing. And
it's a great gift to give to someone

640
00:51:12.079 --> 00:51:15.440
else, you know, I think
I think people don't realize that books are

641
00:51:15.679 --> 00:51:22.360
such a great gift. You know, it's really a gift. So what's

642
00:51:22.800 --> 00:51:29.239
everybody on here? Like, what's
what's a what's your writer's dream? What's

643
00:51:29.280 --> 00:51:31.000
your Yeah, I said, I
heard you say Amazon, Like if you

644
00:51:31.039 --> 00:51:32.840
if you were to walk up to
someone and say, you know, I

645
00:51:32.880 --> 00:51:36.440
really wish you would do this for
me, to help me out as a

646
00:51:36.480 --> 00:51:40.079
writer and in my career and so
forth. What is it go with Kelly?

647
00:51:40.119 --> 00:51:47.440
First me? I I just wish
that that people would take more time

648
00:51:47.480 --> 00:51:52.480
to say thank you and honor you
know, the material that they've read and

649
00:51:52.559 --> 00:51:55.599
let other people know. I think
there's you know, we're so busy in

650
00:51:55.639 --> 00:51:59.880
our lives and if something has made
a difference for you, acknowledge it,

651
00:52:00.039 --> 00:52:02.599
say hey, this book was really
great. Give them a five star rating.

652
00:52:04.119 --> 00:52:10.159
So you know, the reviews don't
reflect the sales. So my thank

653
00:52:10.199 --> 00:52:15.400
You book sold has sold like fifty
thousand copies, and you know there might

654
00:52:15.400 --> 00:52:21.199
be one hundred reviews, but it
doesn't reflect it's actually the marketplace, you

655
00:52:21.199 --> 00:52:24.760
know, So that would really be
life changing for all of us. I

656
00:52:24.800 --> 00:52:30.599
think, yes, yeah, that
I know with Amazon reviews, you do

657
00:52:30.719 --> 00:52:34.519
have to spend a certain amount before
you can leave somebody a review. You

658
00:52:34.519 --> 00:52:37.079
do have to spend fifty dollars before
you could ever leave somebody a review.

659
00:52:37.400 --> 00:52:40.239
I find that with new people,
to believe it or not, people are

660
00:52:40.280 --> 00:52:43.679
still new to Amazon, and so
you walk up and like, I don't

661
00:52:43.719 --> 00:52:45.840
really use Amazon, and they'll be
like, yeah, I'll leave you a

662
00:52:45.840 --> 00:52:49.639
review, and then they can't because
it blocks them because they haven't spent enough

663
00:52:49.679 --> 00:52:52.559
money yet. So that's that's one
thing with Amazon. I see the same

664
00:52:52.559 --> 00:52:54.559
thing you see where there. You
know, you might have one hundred and

665
00:52:54.599 --> 00:52:59.679
fifty reviews, but three thousand copies
of sold, so not everybody leaves a

666
00:52:59.719 --> 00:53:00.960
review you. So that's a good
point. How about you, Lisa,

667
00:53:01.039 --> 00:53:04.480
what do you what's on your author
wish list that you, you know,

668
00:53:04.599 --> 00:53:09.239
wished human beings would do to support
you. Yeah. I have to second

669
00:53:09.320 --> 00:53:14.639
Kelly there. I would love for
them to be self starters because I'm horrible

670
00:53:14.679 --> 00:53:16.599
at asking for reviews. I've never
done it. I don't know how to

671
00:53:16.760 --> 00:53:22.840
ask for reviews. So the people
who just just voluntarily come and share how

672
00:53:22.880 --> 00:53:27.239
their their experience with the book has
been on sites like Amazon or other review

673
00:53:27.280 --> 00:53:30.800
sites, that's so beautiful, so
wonderful. Pop into the author's website and

674
00:53:30.840 --> 00:53:34.000
write a note let them know.
You know, even if you don't want

675
00:53:34.039 --> 00:53:37.440
to do a review for the public, I think just having that connection.

676
00:53:37.000 --> 00:53:42.119
We're all in the business of connecting
with our readers, and when the readers,

677
00:53:42.360 --> 00:53:45.039
you know, will take the initiative
to make that feel real and like

678
00:53:45.079 --> 00:53:50.000
a two way connection. That's so
rewarding. Yeah, yeah, I agree

679
00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:53.159
with you. I like the word
of mouth, you know, tell somebody,

680
00:53:53.400 --> 00:53:55.639
That's what I always wish, Just
tell somebody about the book, or

681
00:53:55.639 --> 00:54:00.320
tell somebody about me or whatever it
is. Christian, how do you think

682
00:54:00.320 --> 00:54:08.320
books sell better through word of mouth? Absolutely in our experience, that's that's

683
00:54:08.360 --> 00:54:15.920
primarily the way books sell. It's
really really difficult to to just say a

684
00:54:15.920 --> 00:54:21.840
certain paid promotion is going to just
guarantee book sales. Years ago, Morning

685
00:54:22.119 --> 00:54:25.599
TV would be a guarantee of a
book selling in a given week, and

686
00:54:25.960 --> 00:54:30.960
that has even changed Now we'll get
authors on Good Morning America and you think

687
00:54:31.000 --> 00:54:36.800
you're golden, and it's not the
case. But when I think when people

688
00:54:36.880 --> 00:54:40.440
really start referring books to their friends
and others, that like, that's that's

689
00:54:40.559 --> 00:54:45.480
validation to the customer or potential customer
that that the book is worth reading.

690
00:54:47.000 --> 00:54:52.440
I know, and I think that
happens in a lot of different ways now.

691
00:54:52.119 --> 00:54:55.519
But even going back to our chicken
soup days, chicken soup came about

692
00:54:55.519 --> 00:55:01.360
through word of mouth. It wasn't
the success overnight. The authors were always

693
00:55:01.360 --> 00:55:06.199
promoting as I mentioned, and people
started saying, hey, have you read

694
00:55:06.199 --> 00:55:08.400
this book? Have you read this
book? And gradually steam picks up,

695
00:55:09.280 --> 00:55:14.239
and so one hundred percent that is
the best way to sell a book is

696
00:55:14.599 --> 00:55:16.360
word of mouth. Yeah, and
I think the three of us are like,

697
00:55:16.639 --> 00:55:22.800
please, word of mouth is so
important, and the reviews to christ.

698
00:55:22.519 --> 00:55:27.760
Yeah. One interesting thing that the
Chicken Soup guys did at the beginning

699
00:55:27.880 --> 00:55:31.199
of their whole process. They would
like lead the book the first, ask

700
00:55:31.360 --> 00:55:36.760
the owner, but like lead the
book in diners and in nail salons,

701
00:55:36.800 --> 00:55:40.960
beauty salons, so people waiting would
pick up these stories and read them.

702
00:55:42.079 --> 00:55:46.880
And you know, I thought that
was genius, which stems from Kelly's point

703
00:55:46.920 --> 00:55:52.920
about asking. Don't be afraid to
ask if you can have the book sold

704
00:55:52.960 --> 00:55:55.199
someplace, or if you can leave
a copy somewhere, And the doctors would

705
00:55:55.239 --> 00:56:01.519
like, don't be afraid. Yeah. I just handed out ten of the

706
00:56:01.599 --> 00:56:06.639
Change Guide books today to the person
fixing our car. They wanted books for

707
00:56:06.679 --> 00:56:10.920
their office, and that's what I
do. I'll leave books if I travel

708
00:56:10.960 --> 00:56:15.519
someplace like lindsay, there's copies in
New Jersey. Now there's I do that

709
00:56:15.559 --> 00:56:19.079
all the time. I'll leave a
copy here and there and I'll write on

710
00:56:19.079 --> 00:56:22.239
the inside like finders Keepers, you
know, love Elizabeth or something like that.

711
00:56:22.320 --> 00:56:24.079
I'll put them just scatter them,
like leave them in a coffee shop

712
00:56:24.199 --> 00:56:29.360
or whatever. So yeah, I
like doing that a lot. What do

713
00:56:29.400 --> 00:56:32.039
you think about libraries these days?
There's a question that we're getting are people

714
00:56:32.159 --> 00:56:37.119
using libraries? Are our books carried
in libraries? Can they go check it

715
00:56:37.119 --> 00:56:42.000
out? Does it have to be
a hardcover? What's the scoop with libraries

716
00:56:42.079 --> 00:56:46.159
these days? I don't know who
wants to answer that, I can jump

717
00:56:46.159 --> 00:56:51.840
in. I mean, so,
I do think libraries are still a very

718
00:56:51.920 --> 00:56:57.599
viable outlet for readers. I will
say, and I can only speak from

719
00:56:57.639 --> 00:57:05.159
our books. They are more specifically
hardback oriented. They do books lasts longer

720
00:57:05.199 --> 00:57:08.039
when they're in hardback. I do
think it's it's more fiction oriented. But

721
00:57:08.400 --> 00:57:15.920
you will find our books and libraries
you just it goes back to the choices

722
00:57:15.960 --> 00:57:20.400
that libraries have. They have a
big pool of books to choose from.

723
00:57:20.719 --> 00:57:22.719
But I think if you speak to
your local library and you have interest in

724
00:57:22.800 --> 00:57:30.800
books, they can help you with
that. And libraries have ebook options now

725
00:57:30.840 --> 00:57:34.199
too, So even if you don't
see it on a shelf. That doesn't

726
00:57:34.239 --> 00:57:38.960
mean the library isn't necessarily carrying it
in a in an ebook format. So

727
00:57:38.960 --> 00:57:45.559
so there is that and audio books. You can check out audiobooks, right,

728
00:57:45.119 --> 00:57:47.960
Yeah, and I wanted to add, I mean libraries have rudely evolved

729
00:57:47.960 --> 00:57:52.599
into community gathering places. I go
to the library all the time. It's

730
00:57:52.920 --> 00:57:58.840
like a walk from my office.
But they have events there. They have

731
00:57:59.039 --> 00:58:06.960
other presentations and signings and book clubs
through the library. I mean, yeah,

732
00:58:07.280 --> 00:58:09.079
libraries have grown more relevant. You
know. I think a lot of

733
00:58:09.079 --> 00:58:13.079
people that they were going to die
out, but they have not. They've

734
00:58:13.280 --> 00:58:16.920
they've evolved. Yeah, once they
loved Arslow's coffee, and so once that

735
00:58:17.039 --> 00:58:22.800
happens, the floodgates open coffee and
there's a cat. So it's a winner.

736
00:58:23.039 --> 00:58:27.920
Lindsay, what what kind of trends
are you seeing in social media for

737
00:58:28.119 --> 00:58:34.800
authors? Any anything specific that you're
seeing, any platform bigger than another other

738
00:58:34.880 --> 00:58:37.400
than TikTok. I know, we
talked about that. Yeah, I would

739
00:58:37.400 --> 00:58:40.960
say TikTok you guys mentioned before,
is like kind of the newest trending thing.

740
00:58:42.519 --> 00:58:45.440
A lot of the other platforms,
you know, it kind of depends

741
00:58:45.480 --> 00:58:47.639
on what kind of book you're writing. You know, Facebook kind of skews

742
00:58:47.679 --> 00:58:59.360
older, Twitter is or x uh
has a different you know, demographic,

743
00:58:59.480 --> 00:59:01.320
And I think all it depends on
what you're posting. Like, you know,

744
00:59:02.079 --> 00:59:06.239
if you're sharing a lot of articles, you might want to use like

745
00:59:06.320 --> 00:59:12.960
Facebook or Twitter, But if you're
posting like images or graphics or video right

746
00:59:13.199 --> 00:59:16.599
video, you can use any platform, but video and photographs are good for

747
00:59:16.639 --> 00:59:21.159
Instagram. So I think it depends
on what you're using, and then also

748
00:59:21.440 --> 00:59:24.719
thinking about your your market, like
what if there's a certain age bracket that

749
00:59:24.760 --> 00:59:30.159
your book's good for, Like a
children's book might be better on you know,

750
00:59:30.239 --> 00:59:34.199
certain platforms like Instagram. You know, children's books are popular on Instagram,

751
00:59:34.639 --> 00:59:37.599
so you know, kind of keeping
in mind like what your book is,

752
00:59:37.639 --> 00:59:40.239
what the topic is, and figuring
out like where your audience is on

753
00:59:40.360 --> 00:59:45.199
social media and then putting your efforts
that they're Yeah, do you want to

754
00:59:45.199 --> 00:59:51.760
talk about hashtags? Like how important
the use of hashtags is? Our?

755
00:59:52.320 --> 00:59:58.599
Sure? So hashtags are hashtags are
obviously really important. We have at EAHCI

756
00:59:58.679 --> 01:00:01.880
we have a bunch of like books, specific hashtags that we use that are

757
01:00:01.880 --> 01:00:07.159
popular. And then you know,
figuring out like, let's just say you

758
01:00:07.239 --> 01:00:08.840
have a book on happiness, you
want to try to figure out all the

759
01:00:08.840 --> 01:00:15.360
popular happiness hashtags, you know,
just by going on on search there.

760
01:00:15.719 --> 01:00:22.440
I've actually used the AI also to
look for hashtags. If you just put

761
01:00:22.480 --> 01:00:25.960
in orter some hashtags for a certain
topic, a bunch of hashtags will pop

762
01:00:27.039 --> 01:00:31.719
up. But also the same thing
looking at other authors and seeing what hashtags

763
01:00:31.719 --> 01:00:37.599
they're using. But there's a lot
of book specific hashtags on Instagram in particular.

764
01:00:38.079 --> 01:00:43.400
Yeah, and I always think that
when you're when you are website echoing,

765
01:00:43.480 --> 01:00:45.360
when you're an author, it's important
to use your name as your hashtag.

766
01:00:45.840 --> 01:00:51.440
So make sure you hashtag your own
name, and then hashtag something specific

767
01:00:51.440 --> 01:00:54.880
to your book, like what you're
saying, like a broader topic like happiness

768
01:00:54.920 --> 01:01:00.880
or peace or joy or change or
whatever it is forgiveness. But then also

769
01:01:00.079 --> 01:01:05.960
have more narrow So when I use
hashtags, I will do my name,

770
01:01:06.159 --> 01:01:09.679
something more narrow, and then something
bigger like self help or self help books

771
01:01:09.760 --> 01:01:15.960
or self help author or something like
that to bridge the different areas so that

772
01:01:15.039 --> 01:01:20.480
people can find it. But always
use something consistent and specific to you,

773
01:01:20.559 --> 01:01:25.400
like Elizabeth Garrino hashtag Elizabeth Garno Hashtag
Change Guidebook or success Guidebook, so that

774
01:01:25.480 --> 01:01:30.280
people know that those are your hashtags. Because you can use different programs too

775
01:01:30.320 --> 01:01:37.960
that will track your engagement and your
hashtag use personally, so that's kind of

776
01:01:37.000 --> 01:01:40.000
neat. You can click on the
hashtag and see how many people viewed your

777
01:01:40.000 --> 01:01:45.559
hashtag or following it or whatever.
So they work very much like a Google

778
01:01:45.599 --> 01:01:47.960
search almost. That's what people use
them for. They'll click on that,

779
01:01:49.039 --> 01:01:51.920
and then especially on Instagram, don't
you think, lindsay, it works really

780
01:01:51.920 --> 01:01:55.000
well on Instagram? Yeah, definitely. Instagram's where you have the most hashtags

781
01:01:55.000 --> 01:01:59.599
that are used. Yeah, definitely. And because you can click on a

782
01:01:59.639 --> 01:02:04.800
hashtag and click follow, and all
the contents of that hashtag, you then

783
01:02:04.840 --> 01:02:07.679
are following in your feed. So
I think that's pretty helpful for people.

784
01:02:08.079 --> 01:02:10.880
All Right, So we're at the
two o'clock mark and we promised to be

785
01:02:10.960 --> 01:02:15.000
cutted at an hour. Is there
anything that we haven't talked about that you

786
01:02:15.000 --> 01:02:21.840
guys want to talk about? Do
we cover everything? Any last comments?

787
01:02:22.480 --> 01:02:24.079
Like, I'll leave it with you
Christine to make the final comments. How

788
01:02:24.079 --> 01:02:30.800
does that sound? But ye on
the spot she's muted. She's like,

789
01:02:30.880 --> 01:02:35.079
ah, I'm good. You're muted, okay there, just yeah, believe

790
01:02:35.119 --> 01:02:42.639
in yourself, believe in your dream
and you know, just keep going forward.

791
01:02:43.039 --> 01:02:45.280
Yeah, never ever ever give up, ever, never ever ever,

792
01:02:45.480 --> 01:02:50.239
Right, Christian, do you have
any wise words for us to No,

793
01:02:50.280 --> 01:02:52.119
I just I think there was a
lot of really good advice given here,

794
01:02:52.679 --> 01:02:58.800
a lot of broad, broad advice, kind of covering all the facets.

795
01:02:59.599 --> 01:03:04.159
So I think it's really useful for
anyone who's either getting started in the process,

796
01:03:04.199 --> 01:03:08.559
but also someone that might be further
along. So I think everyone did

797
01:03:08.599 --> 01:03:12.280
a really great job here. Yeah, thank you guys for being here.

798
01:03:12.280 --> 01:03:15.760
Thank everybody for being here. And
I think I speak for you guys,

799
01:03:15.760 --> 01:03:19.400
and you guys aren't mute. It's
to chime in here. But gosh,

800
01:03:19.400 --> 01:03:22.719
we love you guys. At ACI. You are a family. You make

801
01:03:22.840 --> 01:03:28.000
dreams come true. I can't believe
that, you know, I personally,

802
01:03:28.000 --> 01:03:31.199
I'm in my mid fifties publishing a
book. It's just the support we have

803
01:03:31.320 --> 01:03:35.480
from you all is you know,
it used to be you know, like,

804
01:03:35.599 --> 01:03:38.800
oh you're forty and no more from
you And to be fifty almost fifty

805
01:03:38.800 --> 01:03:43.599
five and putting a book out into
the universe is just so cool. And

806
01:03:43.840 --> 01:03:46.239
you embrace us, you get behind
us, you make sure we're our best.

807
01:03:46.280 --> 01:03:50.840
And I'm almost in tears. I
just am so grateful for you all

808
01:03:50.880 --> 01:03:52.960
the time. I can't even tell
you so I just am, like I

809
01:03:52.960 --> 01:03:55.320
said, I just can't believe it's
my life. It's like a circle.

810
01:03:55.360 --> 01:04:01.239
I've been dreaming about being an author
since I was in kindergarten. Love you

811
01:04:01.280 --> 01:04:04.599
guys, so thank you. And
we have comments coming in seeing thank you

812
01:04:04.639 --> 01:04:08.039
to us, So thank you for
your comments. Thank you for being here.

813
01:04:08.360 --> 01:04:12.960
Where this goes from here? If
you if you you know talking to

814
01:04:12.960 --> 01:04:15.280
the people who missed the show,
So if you miss this, it's going

815
01:04:15.360 --> 01:04:18.760
up on which makes no sense,
but it's going up on free replay,

816
01:04:19.039 --> 01:04:23.559
and it will go on to YouTube
and various social media channels. It's always

817
01:04:23.559 --> 01:04:27.000
there and so forth. And we're
just grateful for your time and energy and

818
01:04:28.119 --> 01:04:30.880
supporting our books. Okay, three
authors, hold up your books one more

819
01:04:30.880 --> 01:04:34.079
time. Mine's doggared and written on. But here it is ready. Thank

820
01:04:34.119 --> 01:04:39.199
you. H C. I so
cool. But Lizzy, you can get

821
01:04:39.239 --> 01:04:45.000
a screenshot of us. Can you
do that? Got it? There?

822
01:04:45.039 --> 01:04:49.519
You go to get it? I
can. I can pause it too and

823
01:04:49.599 --> 01:04:53.679
get the screenshat all right, you
guys, Thank you all for being here

824
01:04:54.280 --> 01:05:01.119
so rightful, right, take care
of one. Thank you, thank you,