00:00.60
jeffekennedy
Good morning, everyone! This is Jeffe Kennedy author of epic fantasy romance I'm here with my first cup of coffee today is Monday may sixth and if you're on video you will see that my first cup of coffee. Is not really, it's um, my strawbucks cup. So it's actually the very end of my second cup I always feel like it's important to confess these things to you all? So yeah I was up early and took poor Killian in for. Ah. Have is toxic masculinity removed. Um, apparently that was not Marcelo who said that I think maybe it was Kelly Robson anyway one of my clever friends said it and Marcella got the credit. But yeah so I dropped him off early and got. I had a cup of coffee before I went and then I stopped at Starbucks and down. It's all gone my um, my treat for having dropped off my kitty I know it's fine. It'll be fine I'm hoping it'll be fine. But it's just hard to leave them isn't that it's hard to leave them behind but they said that they would be texting me updates on him I'm going to put a photo of him on the show notes where I mean he doesn't look like mean Tom ah, it's so funny because he is so gentle and so loving.
01:32.80
jeffekennedy
And it's just like he loses his kitty mind when he sees Jackson and and I can tell that he's even kind of confused by it himself like he doesn't know why he can't stand the side of Jackson anymore. So everybody has been a little bit disrupted in our happy household. But hopefully we will get it handled so yes, keep crossing your fingers that the neutering will work I found over the weekend. My contract from the breeder and it doesn't say anything in there about him not being neutered There's like other stuff you know. Like vaccinations. All this kind of thing says nothing and it's her standard contract you know and it doesn't say anything about spying or neutering so there we are then thank you to all of you who listened in and sent me very nice notes. I. Got lovely notes and phone calls and so forth from people I don't even normally hear from so that was that was really nice and and all the sympathy. Ah I I feel much better now that like maybe I didn't.
02:45.70
jeffekennedy
I still feel like I screwed this up but like maybe it wasn't entirely my fault that I screwed this up. So um, so yeah there we are then I did get decent words done on Friday so maybe it kind of helped.
03:04.50
jeffekennedy
Talking about it and buckling down I got 1600 words so that was better and I know I've said this before um, those of you who listened to the podcast for a long time. Know that everything in my life is an iterative process which means slightly and maybe it is for everyone going back and trying new things and so I know I've said this before but I think I might actually be like embracing the concept that I think I'm not actually. Sustainably writing 3000 words a day. It just hasn't been that way for a long time over the weekend I went and looked at some of my actual numbers again and you know I think I'm just going to change it to shoot for 2000 words a day that's really. The level that I am writing at um, yeah at at best and so I don't know if it's me having changed a little bit trying to back off the intensity I think that's part of it. Um.
04:15.27
jeffekennedy
I don't know some of it might be age. But also I do know that a lot of it is trying not to stress my out so myself out so much I've had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine who has been self publishing and doing rapid release and she had started doing it because I was doing it. And I I guess I didn't realize that but there was that year what year was 2021 when I was trying to release a book every two months and I pretty much did ah 2021 and 2022 I've between those years I released 2 3 4 5 six seven I did 7 books in 2021 and in 2022 1 2 3 4 5 I did 5 um. But it's hard to do it. It does work it really bounces up the income when you need it which is fantastic but it is also hard it's hard to do its draining. Um and I have to realize that part of the reason I was able to do that. To write and release at that intensity is because it was still pandemic and I wasn't traveling anywhere and the travel has an impact but the travel is also partly necessary for my job and also something that I enjoy so um.
05:51.30
jeffekennedy
You know I'm not a big fan of the whole work life balance thing and I've been seeing some people commenting that um, that men never talk about work life balance that this is not a thing that's a problem for men because they have other people to balance for them right? You know that have a.
06:11.43
jeffekennedy
Wives to handle stuff.
06:16.80
jeffekennedy
And I I know a lot of you men listening that you are not doing this kind of thing but you know that when they ask about work life balance a lot of times they're asking women how they are handling a career and. Handling running everything for the home. Ah so that's interesting that I didn't realize that was part of my knee-jerk reaction to the whole you know like work life balan thing. Um, but for me, it has to do with um. Just trying not to push myself so hard. This is like my whole I'd like going to this whole emotional evolution review and all this kind of thing and realizing the ways in which I that I push myself that i. You know I I often joke that my boss is a bitch who does not give me any time off and it's been pointed out to me that like maybe that's not a thing. Um co figure. Um Jennifer Udden speaking of you know like. Ah, gender imbalance and work life imbalance. Ah, she had an interesting discussion in her substak newsletter I'll link to that. But she said that she read.
07:43.16
jeffekennedy
This Book. Cal Newport's slow productivity the lost art of accomplishment without burnout and she says um, she had some really interesting observations about it. But she said he puts forward suggestions on how you can arrange your work life and personal life to maximize creativity and productivity. Um, and she said she didn't take issue with the advice but that it assumes a basic level of privilege. You know because he suggests things like paying someone to take care of your laundry and clean your house. Um, but if it's a source of burnout and stress that you don't have the money. It's it's harder to to swallow that she says which I think is a really good Point. You know, um, like.
08:34.13
jeffekennedy
Ah, she gives this many of his historical examples of people who ruthlessly arrange their own lives to maximize creativity are laughably unrelatable I love jen she says I love her work. But Edith Wharton dropping completed pages to the ground for a maid to pick up as she writes from her bed. Is not a helpful example. Yeah, if only we could all have this. Um, so she said she also talks about another example, he gives of John Mcphee spending two weeks at his country home on top of a picnic table looking up at the sky. Sounds like a super romantic way to write one of the most laudted new yorker articles of the last century but Gen Kent helped but wonder who was doing his laundry and raising his kids during all of this pondering and you know it's it's a really great point. Ah you know and. Really, you know who among us gets to simply ah, soak in creativity right? I mean I'm incredibly privileged that I get to do this full time that I um am able to make a living doing this. I do have a lot of mental space to think about my stories to contemplate the flow of them and so forth a lot of mental silence that I've worked hard to establish so that I can hear the stories. But um.
10:04.47
jeffekennedy
You know there's also a lot of life to take care of and I appreciate all of you saying to me to give myself grace that I have been dealing with a lot of stuff I I love it. I appreciate all of you. Um I feel like I'm at this point where I'm like but I don't want to be dealing with a lot of stuff. Can we just make it so that I'm not having to do that I suppose none of us gets that right? I've talked often about being aware of authors as people and that they go through things and like can't always deliver stuff on time. Ah, because of health problems and you know it is one of those things like it's ah it's a cliche you know at least you have your health. Um I have my health and I'm reminded of you know I have writer friends who are struggling with health issues. So you know at least I'm not dealing with that. So. That's all a bit of rambling. Um, let's talk about industry I saw kind of a funny thing yesterday. Ah I I can't tell if it's like the way threads serves up content. It might be.
11:19.69
jeffekennedy
I've noticed a lot of people talking about it because I see a lot of really annoying things on threads about writing and publishing and it really seems to be fertile ground for people to be wrong on the internet. So. You know like I probably it's surfacing things for me that other people are jumping on and saying this was a stupid thing to say but I did see someone saying um like discovering discovering um saying what. Is it true that some people actually send out Arcs advance Review copies. Um, that aren't fully edited. This doesn't seem like a good practice and I kind of want to say I actually want to whip out the the F bomb and I will not do that because I'm trying to be good. Ah, but I want to say where the f have you been I mean did you learn anything about the business before you like fired off your stupid opinion. Ah, and of course the answer is is no um.
12:29.55
jeffekennedy
You know it's like people don't understand what the point of advance review copies are ah and just in case. Apparently there are like rampant ignorance out there right? Um, so for those of you who do not know what? ah.
12:47.54
jeffekennedy
What an advanced review copy is so it is a copy intended for reviewers that is sent out in advance of publication and it will say um, let me see if I can find what hold on.
13:05.98
jeffekennedy
Because remember traditional publishing came first like it or not traditional publishing is called traditional publishing for a reason so here is if you're on video here is an a an advanced review copy of the tears of the rose that Kensington put together. It has. Does not have the cover. It just has like a plain green cover with the title printed on it and up at the very top. It says uncorrected proof now uncorrected proof means that it's not fully edited. It's um. And inside it says things like dedication tk which means to come that's of acknowledgements tt that's because they weren't done yet so this went through developmental edits probably through line edits. I don't recall exactly but it had not gone through the final proofing and I had not turned in my dedication and acknowledgements. Um I just I feel like it's not hard to learn things right.
14:20.78
jeffekennedy
But you know here I am shaking my cane but it's so easy to Google stuff and and how do people not find out things. Um, you know it. It feels like willful ignorance at times right? ah. And advance review copy yeah is is supposed to be not the final It's not that you get a free book in return for reviewing which is you know how it works out a lot of the times but it's you don't get the. Fully finished final product. Maybe some people do. But anyway that is not a valid expectation. Ah yeah, so you know it's interesting because there are so many people entering writing and publishing. Without really knowing how how the whole profession works without knowing the correct terminology for things and sometimes when I talk about this like when I say things like what many. Indie authors refer to as the blurb which I think it's not on my yeah, this doesn't even have what is called the back cover copy and it's called that because it's usually what you see when you pick up a book and you look at the back and you read the back cover copy right.
15:48.89
jeffekennedy
Unless it's a hardback and then it's on the inside flight leaf but we still call it the back cover copy and a lot of the indie authors call this the blurb and I've talked about this before on here I know ah and people will push back on me and say well. But that's what we call it. We don't have to call it what traditional publishing calls it. But this comes back to the thing of that we are all in the same Profession. We are all in the same business. We are all trying to do the same thing. Why would you deliberately choose language that is not. What the established professor calls a thing right? Um, and I actually I know the answer to that. It's that indie authors very frequently. Don't want to have anything to do with traditional publishing right? It's we're doing our own thing. We don't need traditional publishing.
16:44.97
jeffekennedy
Traditionally published authors snubbed us therefore we will snub them and that's just not productive. That's not how we work together as a community. We need to be able to talk about things in a common language have a common understanding Of. Of the basics of the profession. A lot of people get into self- publishing or independent author publishing because they like the control and being able to do it themselves and everything but you know you're not necessarily a Lone wolf. Out there. You know, maybe you are sometimes but you know we I don't want to say safety in numbers I'm trying to think of what phrase I Want you know, really what it comes around to is working with other people right. I Think some people as writers think that they can do this and not have to work with other people but I have to tell you you're always going to have to work with other people that's just welcome to the way the world works and I advise you all to to polish those skills. Um. You know it was interesting when I was at a polyon I went to a dinner I'm going to be cageie even though you all could figure out what I'm talking about but I went to a dinner hosted by a publisher and it was a small group at a very nice restaurant.
18:17.87
jeffekennedy
And they had wisely ordered just a few dishes for the table to share instead of like having everyone order their own entree. They had ordered several different entrees and actually and they gave us a nice little tasting menu and it had the appetizers. And then the entrees and desserts and everything it was. It was beautifully done and there was 1 author who was invited who had recently been picked up by this publisher had started out in self-p publishing hit it big very um, you know that that instant success thing. Which is both a blessing and a curse we could all wish for that. But it's really hard on people who don't have experience in the profession in the industry because for many many reasons but this person did not show up for the dinner had. Been counted in for the the money the publisher was spending on this dinner but did not show and that it's not ah, not a good look. Um, you know people think that when they hit it big that they are.
19:34.50
jeffekennedy
Shit And yeah, you are for a little while but when you're no longer so hot people will remember how you treated them right? that comes back to that line. Um, it's one of the great greatest pieces of advice about being careful. How you treat people on the way up because you will surely see them away on see them again on the way back down. Um, you know it's great if you're at the top and you are getting all the attention and all the sales and all of this. But.
20:10.13
jeffekennedy
When you're not getting that anymore. You have to think about who is going to be your friend then who's going to want to talk to you who's going to want to support you who's going to send you lovely messages because you're struggling with your cats. So thank you all i. Value you being out there and listening to me and I will talk to you all on Friday you all take care bye bye.