First Cup of Coffee - March 29, 2024

I'm following up on the Thread I posted this week on the supposed "divide" between traditionally and self-published authors, how we're all in this business together, and why I think everyone will be hybrid eventually.

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Transcript

00:00.36
jeffekennedy
Um, good morning. Everyone this is Jeffe Kennedy author of romantasy I'm here with my first cup of coffee.

00:13.56
jeffekennedy
Ah, wonderful I needed that because today is say it with me people. It is Friday who who March Twenty Ninth last podcast of March and 2024 people I know you're gonna feel attacked with. A quarter done with this year it's a quarter over I just bring the news I I didn't make it. So um, yeah here we are then ah I've had a good week. It's been a slow ramp up. On my progress. Ah my progress count I can't even talk. Um on reluctant wizard it is on my progress count that is the name of my tracking sheet where I put in my daily numbers so it has not been filling up the way I would like.

01:09.10
jeffekennedy
But I have got almost six thousand words on this book so far and yeah and I'm I'm getting there at the beginning of the week I you know just I had a little bit of a crash I realized that maybe i. Was pushing myself too hard. Go figure so I had to take a little bit of downtime a little bit of being kind to myself which I think is always ah, a funny thing you know like what does that mean it's one of those things that I don't know what it means be kind to yourself. And I have friends who say that be gentle with yourself. Um, and I think that for me, it translates to um, not pushing myself so hard and that it's okay if I don't get any words today or if I don't work on stuff.

02:06.32
jeffekennedy
I am still feel like I'm a little bit behind from you know, like having that extra week away and I don't like feeling like I'm letting people down like I'm not keeping up with everything that I'm supposed to get done. Um, but. I know that's a me pressure some of it is of them pressure but mostly it's me and I think that's where the being kind to myself comes in being gentle with myself is it's like okay you know it's it's not the end of the world if you let this person down then you don't get this done on time. Um, I'm I I'm sure all of you achiever types out there feel me on this one. So I'm exciting things to show you? Um, let me show you this so I got the new covers for the sorcer's moon's books they finally came in and I want to show you that's. Book 6 lonan's rainign I'll show you all the covers if you're on video if you're not you're just gonna have to imagine but look at that if you put the spines if you put the 6 books together the spine makes this really great image isn't it beautiful and so here they are here's book one and. Book 2 if you can't if you're not on video. Um, they're just really cool. There are great colors and there's though the white fire lizard on there of her familiar and then with other components and that's the image that.

03:42.50
jeffekennedy
Shows up along the spines too is the the dragon this very small dragon. So I've beginning to show them so I'm so happy with how they turned out and you can order them at all your favorite we till I probably oops I held it up and now I've done it I put them back. Backwards oh well. But yeah, they're they're up everywhere now and if you order them for my website store. You can get them signed if you're gonna be a ah polyon. You can preorder them and get those. But yeah I really love these covers and speaking of covers I've been working on the cover for. Reluctant wizard going back and forth with my cover designer and I think that's gonna be great and oh and so this is exciting news I told you all that never the rosis is going to come out in hardback August Fifth 2025 Mark your calendars. Hopefully we'll all still be around them. Um, and then I got an email saying that the paperback version of it will release in July of 2026 they said before the release of the second. Hardcover so they're already planning to do hardcover for the second book and I am thrilled I'm thrilled ah, let's see so I have those pieces of news and then also I am participating in a giveaway.

05:17.59
jeffekennedy
Um, it's not really a giveaway. It is ah a promo, a free promo. Ah the lovely Meghan Ciana Doidge organized it and for well actually it started yesterday but for yesterday and through the long weekend. Ah, there are a bunch of us who will have the first in series free of totally glommable series tried to go grab the graphics. Um, it is going to be me I'm giving away the golden griffin and the bear prince. It is free right now. And then also Meghan Ciana Doidge TA White Hailey Edwards and Deoin Monk so you can check that out I will have a graphic on my show notes here so you can check that out and I will be showing these. Sharing these to social media as I was assigned to do and have not yet done one of those things Sam but um, but yeah I think it's really a fun idea. Meghan organized it. And yeah, so you can get these first and series free. And then go ahead and glum all really great authors. So um, the only other thing I want to talk about there was um I put up a ah thread on threads that.

06:52.24
jeffekennedy
Talking about this whole suppose a divide and I'm making air quotes around that between indie authors and traditionally published authors and I put it on there because I saw. This traditionally published author of young adult fantasy who has been tremendously successful successful at a young age. You know good for her I'd actually hadn't heard of her up until just recently. But I am also not someone who pays up. A lot of attention to the Y. A fantasy world. Um, and she's been I don't know if it's because people have called her to my attention or if she's been holding forth more lately. But.

07:43.63
jeffekennedy
She's got you know like her 40000 followers on threads and I think she feels ye like she's New York Times bestseller or whatever maybe she feels pretty insular but she put up this note saying that she really wanted to be able to curate her threads. Feed and looked forward to the day she would be able to do that because basically she was saying she wanted to well let me get the exact wording so she says what I'd already said. Um, she said she wants to curate because the overlap between indie and traditional publishing is just really hard for her to navigate right now she said she feels like a lot of us are speaking different languages from coming from completely different perspectives. And then no one gets the right advice or support so you can go look at my thread, you can see what I said although I'll probably recapitulate some of this here. First of all the right advice. And support. What even is that you know it it begs the idea that there is like some sort of 1 true path. 1 true way. The right advice the right support. Um, you know and i.

09:14.24
jeffekennedy
It's really hard to read that and not read it as they don't want to hear from self-p publishlishing authors that what traditional authors face is so totally different than what self-p publishlishers face and and what this does is this actually demonstrates ah a rather. Staggering amount of ignorance I think but I think this is also an author who um, hit big very early in her career traditionally published. Um, you know she got the brass ring. She got the the a ticket the Cinderella ride all of this stuff. And you know that's great, but it kind of comes around to this thing that we've been talking about a whole lot is like people being told no has anyone ever told you no and one of the great um downsides. Of early success is that in some ways you don't have that note you think that you are special that that happened because you were so special and not because you hit the right thing at the right time which is what it almost always is i. You know people have been so great to me about congratulating me on never the roses and um I was talking to my sister in law the other day and she said well this must be a really special book and I said it is a really special book. But it's also hitting the right thing at the right time you know I think I've had a lot of.

10:50.23
jeffekennedy
Good books, a lot of special books. Um, this one has a certain specialness to it just because it was that book that demanded to be written, but you know it's also that romanticy is really hot right now and I had this book ready to go right at the time as. Right Editor was looking for it. Um, and if you if you don't acknowledge that that so much of this business is outside of our control then you're just in for a world of hurt.

11:25.50
jeffekennedy
It The thing is if you think that you are successful because you are the shit because you're just so Amazing. Ah, then when the wheel rolls around. And you are not successful for some reason mostly because the wheel has rolled around and that's how this business is then you're much more likely to think it's because you are no longer the shit um or perhaps fail to recognize the ways in which you need to.

12:01.50
jeffekennedy
Improve what you're doing right? Um, yeah, so this this whole thing and I closed it again and I shouldn't to know I want to look at this I feel like a lot of us are speaking different languages from completely different perspectives and the. Overlap between indian traditional publishing is really hard for her to navigate right? now you know a whole lot of us exist in that overlap right? and more and more authors are existing in that overlap. It's um, it's the way of the world. You know when people ask me what I think is the future of self publishing what I think is the future of traditional publishing which people do ask me these things I say that. I think eventually all authors will be hybrid I think all creators will be hybrid. You look at the music industry where you see Taylor Swift and Amanda Palmer recording their own albums. Ah you look at. Other artists visual artists who have Etsy shops who can sell their things. Um the internet has been a great leveler that way and so has technology it allows creators to sell our creations directly to.

13:33.70
jeffekennedy
The consumers of those creations without having to go to a middleman. Um, now I you all know I've always just talking about my great traditional publishing deal how they're bringing those books out in hardcover. That's not something that's easy for someone to do unless you are like. Taylor Swift type Eclon Mass producing printed books is still something that the traditional publishers have have a grip on and and they can do that. They've got this team of people there to. Make sure it's done right? and they have access to the printing presses and they have access to the distribution. Um, but self publishing. Yeah lets me sell my books directly to my readers and gives me a much bigger cut. It gives me that monthly income. It gives me the ability to choose. Like what retailers I sell from it gives me more independence so this whole thing of her saying that you know she's finding that overlap difficult to navigate I'm sorry it just sounds like Bs to me. Um. I think it's that that she doesn't want to hear what the self-p publishing authors are saying because yeah it is different in some ways but there's also a lot of similarity because we are all trying to.

15:07.14
jeffekennedy
Make a living as writers we want to write stories. We want to get those stories to the readers. Um, there's much more overlap than there is not and I think sometimes. Authors who have only been traditionally published. Well there's factions on you know it's a spectrum of course because there's lots of ways to publish along the way you know like various kinds of small presses assistance that kind of thing you know so at the far end you have like big 5 traditional publishing and at the other end you have. Um, total diy iny but and there are people in each camp that are and and why do humans do this humans will human right? But this is like ah it reminds me of. Ah, my husband is a doctor of oriental medicine and there are those acupuncturists who kind of have fits about anyone using western medicine and they'll say oh you know don't get chemotherapy and you know don't have that gallbladder surgery and it's like It's this idea that you aren't really into oriental medicine or natural medicine if you go anywhere near the radioactive western medicine whereas. Of course there are western medicine practitioners who say that all of that eastern stuff or natural stuff is horseshit and that.

16:37.24
jeffekennedy
You shouldn't go near it whereas you should be able to take advantage of the best of all of them right? you know because we have you know, especially medicine. You know like what's our goal you know to be healthy and not die before we have to um in in publishing you know our goal is. Is to be able to sustain ourselves to to have a thriving business and I think that there are some traditionally published authors who still who still sneer at self-publishishing authors and think that they are doing that because they. They have to you know it's like well they their stuff wasn't good enough and and it's funny to me because how can they not realize at this point in time that a lot of self publishing authors are choosing to do that. Um and are choosing to do both and. Sometimes yeah, some authors are unable to get a traditional publishing deal and it has nothing to do with the quality of their book. Ah you know and I'm just going to raise my hand here because I feel like my books have been good quality for a long time. But. There was also a very long time where the cross genre romanticy thing that I write was not recognized and now it's hot which is great but ah Grace Dravin and I were talking about this the other day that it's really kind of funny after being kind of.

18:06.15
jeffekennedy
Publishing Pariahs for a long time. She and I had very similar paths coming up where the traditional publishing looked at what we were writing and said we don't know what this is. We don't know how to market it now they know and that's great, but it's also a little bit dizzying right? so. I Really feel like the answer to this is not to divide the camps more not to curate out. Um people who publish in a different path than you do because we can all learn from each other right? Um, we. We're all in this together and success is is very individual. It's all what we each are trying to do in our lives right? You know what? what brings you joy? Ah and you know. Being able to pay the mortgage. That's fair, you know like yeah, that brings me joy to have a house that I like living in um, you know there's there shouldn't be this battling where the you know there are Self-p publishing authors I've heard have told. Authors who have only ever traditionally published that they're being stupid and that they you know are leaving all this money on the table and that they're just crazy and then the traditionally published authors who've only done that tell the self-published authors that oh well, you know you just weren't good enough.

19:38.83
jeffekennedy
You couldn't make it through the gate and then there's most of us in the middle who are just quietly doing both and I pointed out on and the thread that I posted that ah it is now almost a decade since Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association admitted self-publishlished authors for membership time is going by people and this is just getting old and I I loved everybody who chimed in on the thread and a great. And there was 1 guy who did the well actually saying that he had actually never seen a traditionally published author say that we were like you. Okay, so on that note I hope you all have a fantastic Friday hope you have a wonderful weekend and I will talk to you all on Monday April fool's day. You all take care bye bye.