Kickstarter for Beginners: How to Start Small and Launch Successfully with Ember Mae

305 / Ember Mae shares lessons learned about starting small with crowdfunding as well as managing fulfillment. We also talk about marketing without succumbing to the pressure of conventional social media wisdom.

✨ This week’s sponsor is Vellum: http://tryvellum.com/wish

• Tips on setting up your first Kickstarter campaign and keeping it manageable
• Making marketing personal and connecting individually with readers
• Why ditching social media is freeing
• Intuitive storytelling
• In-person event strategies
• Neurodivergence as a writing superpower

💙 Become a supporter of the podcast https://wishidknownforwriters.com/support or https://wishidknownthenpodcast.substack.com/subscribe

• Access to backlist of exclusive supporter episodes
• Shoutout on a future episode

⚡Links:

• embpublishing.com
• https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/embermaeauthor/the-crowdfunded-author
• http://tryvellum.com/wish

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I think every time I write a book, I'm learning something new. Like this time I learned that if I go back and I answer where I've been in the plot, then I can find where I need to go. I don't know what I'm gonna learn next, but yeah, every book brings something new. Every series brings something new. This is my third series, and it's been a huge learning curve. I have realized that every book two I write ends up getting a rewrite. So like, is there a way to keep that from happening? I would love to know.

Jami 0:38

Welcome to the Wish I Demon podcast. I'm Sarah Rosette and I'm Jamie Albright. And this week on the show we have Ember May. We do. It was a real fun interview. And our first one from with someone from Guam. That's right.

Sara 0:52

Yeah. We talked to her about crowdfunding and starting small because she got a little overextended when she did her first crowdfunding thing of a Kickstarter.

Jami 1:03

Yeah, it's a real, yeah, it's a real wish I'd known then podcast.

Sara 1:07

Yes, yes. And it didn't sound like it would be that complicated, but when she started describing everything that was involved, I was like, yeah, that was that's a lot. And we also talked to her about she stopped using social media a whole lot and in-person events. She really enjoys in-person events and her neurodivergence as a writing superpower. So all that is coming up. Yeah, yeah, it was good. And we should mention quickly that this podcast is sponsored by Velen and we'll talk about them more in just a little bit.

Jami 1:36

So tell us what's been going on with you.

Sara 1:39

Back in the writing cave, good doing writing research. I cannot do a skinny, thin little draft. I have to fill it out a little bit. You were talking about the other day. You can go back later, you can put all this stuff on the wall. I have to have some stuff on the wall as I'm going on the first draft. So that means I had to do a little research to get certain details. But like I had this one scene I was writing, it was in the train station in Lexer in 1924. And I was like, what is around there? Where would they go? And it's so I did some research and I found out that they had little stalls, and it said, in every station, they sold these certain types of foods. And I was like, okay, they can be eating these foods while they're talking. And that just helped me get over that little hump. It's like I get stuck and I'm like, I need at least a detail or two. So yeah, so that's what I've been doing. That is about it. I've got some other projects on the back burner, but I really have nothing to talk about those yet because they're just brewing, nothing really exciting.

Jami 2:39

Yeah. So very good. How about you? I have been riding as well. I am been that part that I love about riding. Unfortunately, that part takes me a long time to get to, but it I feel you. I hate it. I hate it. Oh, this is fun. We have a long stretch of and then we love it at the end. But this is I'm close to being done, like done. And I guess it's maybe why I love it. But we love having written start coming, and you go, you're like, oh, or you're putting the pieces together. Like, I've just written this book, worked on this book, all of this, and I've just now really figured out her the main character's goal, motivation, and conflict. You know, I mean I had vague shadows of that. Now I've put it all together, and once you put it all together, it's like, oh hey, now I understand, you know, and part because then things, it's like dominoes, they just start falling into place. Yeah. So yeah, and that, and uh that's I'm just writing, you know, not much going on. Yeah, me either.

Sara 3:52

It's been pretty boring. Well, we're both writing, and that's all we've got to talk about. We don't have anything exciting.

Jami 3:58

Oh, I was gonna watch that new show. I think it's on PBS. Book.

Sara 4:02

Yeah, it's it's it's that's the name is Book.

Jami 4:06

Yeah. Oh, no. Sounds like I would like it after World War II, I think, in England. And um he's a shop owner, but he's not. He's more of a it's a mystery thing. But anyway, uh it's something you would like, and those of you who like that kind of thing, it's I like it, it's good.

Sara 4:26

Thank you. Awesome. I haven't started anything new lately, so that'll be good. Thank you to all our continuing supporters that support each week. We really appreciate you guys, and the consistency is amazing. And sometimes we have a corporate sponsor come along and also support to help keep things going. So this week that is Vellum.

Jami 4:47

I love how easy it is to go and find your previous book, change your previous book. I mean, everything is just right there, it's like all right there. It I for someone like me who if y'all saw my files, you would be appalled. And Vellum is so easy. And I actually did lose a book. I it might and it was on me. It was when I changed computers, I lost it out of Dropbox. Some I must not be backed up something. Right. And it was just so easy to go in, and I could find it was easy, and that's what I like.

Sara 5:23

Yeah, and I do love that it's all organized the way it's set up where you save it, it just saves it automatically, and you can go in and find things, and then and I actually do like that it overrides what you've done before, so you always have the current.

Jami 5:37

I mean, I'd have because I'm bad about it deleting things, and so like I'd have 48 versions.

Sara 5:43

I know you'd have the final, then final, then the real final doc doc.

Jami 5:50

So true, it's so true. But we do appreciate it. We should get on with the interview because it's great. Yes.

Sara 5:55

All right, here is Ember. Today we're excited to have Ember May with us today. How are you, Ember?

SPEAKER_00 6:02

I'm good. Thank you for having me.

Jami 6:04

Oh, we're so glad you're here. You're in Guam, correct?

SPEAKER_00 6:08

Yes.

Jami 6:09

So it's 8 a.m.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

Yeah, on Friday.

Jami 6:13

Friday. So that's what I thought. So you're we're you're in the starting TGI Friday for you.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Sara 6:21

Very cool. Let me read your bio so people can hear a bit more about you. Amber May writes books where Found Family Thrives, Pets Scheme, and Laughter is always off-leash. She writes in the cozy mystery and holiday rom-com genres, but expects to mix those two sometime soon. The complete 10 book series of Veronica Swift Mysteries can be found anywhere you buy books, including requesting them from your library.

Jami 6:43

Excellent. Excellent. Tell us how you got into writing.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

So I have been writing for a very long time. I decided when I was eight years old, to be a writer. And I have worked since that point, basically, to do that. So even when I was in like middle school and high school, I was studying the writing. The writing excuses was the very first podcast I ever.

Jami 7:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

And I would do the exercises that they told me to do and everything. And yeah, I've been so I wrote my first novel. I put that in quotation marks because it was definitely derivative of Vampire Academy. Um I was a huge fan of that. And but yeah, I finished that when I was like 14. And I published my first series under a different pen name back in 2018. And so I've been publishing for about eight years, I think. I think I've been here.

Sara 7:46

What is your definition of success?

SPEAKER_00 7:49

Putting out books that I'm proud of. I will not give readers stories that I do not think are correct. Like I have a very strong intuitive line on whether the story is correct. And if it's not correct, I will not put it out. I am currently in the middle of rewriting for the third time. Book two in the series I launched on Kickstarter back in September. I am in the middle of a third rewrite of that book.

Jami 8:20

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

Yeah.

Jami 8:23

You just know. Yeah, you just know. Yeah. And I think that I love that because I think a lot of authors get themselves in trouble because they they have a deadline or they feel like they have a deadline, and then they put a book out before it's really ready. And yeah. That doesn't help you at all. Yeah. No. Yeah. What do you wish you'd known about writing and craft when you started at eight?

SPEAKER_00 8:49

At eight?

Jami 8:50

No, I'm kidding. Just what do you wish you'd known about writing and craft?

SPEAKER_00 8:54

I so I struggled for many years trying to outline. And I did end up finding things to outline because it felt like so. Originally I was a pantser and I would pants through books, but I couldn't finish a book through pants. And so then I switched into like hardcore outlining, and that worked for the Ronnie mysteries because there's an actual external plot that I could follow along with. And I got to the point where I'm like, okay, I'll plot it and then I'll go off plot and then we'll replot because that also happens a lot. But what I wish I would have known is that I do know structure intuitively and I don't actually need the external plot. So as I've been writing this book two for the third time, I've realized that if I go back and I just figure out where I am in the story instead of trying to plot forward, I am able to then pick up the next plot point without having to actually plot it out. And the story can still tell me what it needs to be without me trying to force it into shape.

Sara 10:03

I love that. Yeah. Yeah. Just stages getting through each step to get to the end. And then when you get to the end, you're like, oh, okay, I did know where I was going. I just couldn't see the whole way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

Yeah. And a lot of times it's about asking the right question to the right character, for me at least, because most of my books are very character driven. So it's what does this character not know? Like one of the sticking points was my character didn't know what she wrote on a post-it note, and we were in the other character's POV. I need this information. What did you write?

Jami 10:38

Right, exactly. Ray Bradbury says, Your intuition knows what to write. Get out of its way. Actually, that's my screensaver every day. I sit down to write. It's right there.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Yeah, I love that. Becca Syme had to tell me that I'm a number one individualization then. So she had mentioned that in a workshop or a podcast that I was listening to. And I was like, oh.

Jami 11:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

So I'm screwing myself up when I'm plotting. Yeah. Okay, let's not do that.

Jami 11:11

Yeah. There's a good way not to do that. Let's just not do it.

Sara 11:18

What about marketing? What do you wish you had known about marketing?

SPEAKER_00 11:22

So much.

Sara 11:23

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

I do not believe that I market very well. Though recently Oriana Ross from her author Nation talk had said something about marketing being more than just like advertising and promos, which I didn't fully understand until she said it. And I was like, oh, okay. Then maybe I'm not as horrible at marketing as I think I am. I don't social media. I'm horribly inconsistent with my newsletter because I get into these phases where I'm just writing the book. And that's all I really have time for outside of like my day-to-day stuff. So I like will hyper focus on getting a book done. I will blitz social media and I'll blitz newsletters, which is all the things they tell you not to do.

Jami 12:13

And yet we do it anyway.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

And then I'll go back into my writing cave. I do try to make sure that I'm like, I'm going on a break, media, so you know I'm not gonna be here, but doesn't really uh pan out. So I have recently discovered that I really love podcasts. And doing like podcast interviews and stuff is one of the things that I am trying to do more of because I can do those and they bring me energy. That is part of the problem with social media.

Jami 12:44

Yeah, it's very joining. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

Podcast interviews. I've also Sarah, you actually influenced this when you talked about doing your reading your book on the podcast.

Sara 12:54

Oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

I've started one of those. There's cool an episode supposed to be coming out this week. But yeah, so I'm starting to do that. There's a lot of things I'm starting to do after deciding that like social media and trying to force myself to do stuff is not working.

Sara 13:14

That makes me happy. I'm happy about that.

SPEAKER_00 13:17

Yeah. What are you glad you know now? That my brand is more than like a logo or my influence on social media. It can also extend to the in-person events that bring me so much joy. I really love talking to readers about my books. I really love reading my books out loud and then seeing people's reactions to those books. And also giving people experiences is really important to me. Yeah. So I like if anybody ever emails me, I'm always emailing them back because I want them to feel seen. That's one of my core values, is making sure that people feel seen. And to learn that marketing includes that kind of stuff is really fun for me because I can definitely like a hundred percent jump on board with that, which is part of how I ended up doing Kickstarters, is I wanted to be able to give that experience to readers that were coming to buy my books. And you can't get that through retailers.

Sara 14:19

So, what sort of things did you do for your Kickstarter that made it more personal?

SPEAKER_00 14:24

So, my first Kickstarter, I made sure that I went and I talked to every single backer that came in and personally think it wasn't a ton of people, but it was enough, like it was awesome to have them just take a chance on me. I was contacting each backer that came into the Kickstarter, and some of them were friends and family, but some of them were new to me, and a lot of them were in the author community. So I was like, thank you for taking a chance on my books because you're giving time and money to this project when you back. So I was super grateful for that. And then for the last Kickstarter, I did an experience box, and so basically it was a book box that has a mug, a tote bag, an axolotl, squishy, a candle, and some postcards, I think. But basically, all of it was to help you experience Snowflake Falls, which is the town name. And so the tote bag is from the public library because one of my one of my main characters is a library or was a librarian. And so she has all of these snarky book-related tote bags that she carries around.

Jami 15:41

I love it.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

So the one that got put in the experience box was I'm bringing a book in case y'all are boring. Like I love it. And then the mug had Snowflake Falls on it. Yeah. It says I fell in love and Snowflake Falls. And so it was all of these things that I could give readers to help them feel more immersed in the story.

Jami 16:08

Yeah. That's fantastic. That is just now that was one of your levels.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

Yes. Yeah. It was the book box level.

Jami 16:15

Yeah. That is so great.

Sara 16:16

Yeah. I love it. I love that. What do you still need to figure out?

SPEAKER_00 16:21

I think every time I write a book, I'm learning something new. Like this time I learned that if I go back and I answer where I've been in the plot, then I can find where I need to go. I don't know what I'm gonna learn next, but yeah, every book brings something new. Every series brings something new. This is my third series, and it's been a huge learning curve. I have realized that every book two I write ends up getting a rewrite. Like, is there a way to keep that from happening? I would love to know.

Sara 16:58

Book twos are hard in a series.

Jami 17:00

It's a sophomore thing.

Sara 17:02

Yeah. Yeah. I feel like with book one, there's excitement and energy, and you're spending some time introducing things and setting things up, which kind of takes up some of the book. And then book two, you're like, oh my goodness. Yeah, what am I doing here? Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

No, and then book three always ends up being my favorite.

Jami 17:19

And I'm like, how does that work?

unknown 17:22

Yeah.

Jami 17:24

And you have so your first series has 10 books in it. Is that what you said?

SPEAKER_00 17:30

Or that's book that so under this pen name, it is a 10 book series. And so book two is Serento Glad I Made It. And I had to completely rewrite that book. I don't even remember what the problem was, but I had to scrap the whole thing.

Jami 17:46

That's painful. Yeah, I've had to do not a whole book, but a big chunk of a book before. That is very painful. What's the most unhelpful advice you've gotten?

SPEAKER_00 17:56

Ooh, so I did a minor in writing, and we read Stephen King's on writing. And he was like, cut 10% of your words. And I'm like, if I cut 10% of my words, I'm gonna lose story. I don't overwrite, I underwrite. And it took me a really long time to realize that. So when I was in college, I didn't know that I was an underwriter. I didn't even know that was a thing. I was just super confused about why you would cut 10% of your words.

Jami 18:27

Yeah. Like plot points just disappearing.

unknown 18:31

Yeah.

Jami 18:32

That's me too. I'm an I underwrite too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:35

So I'm like, if anything, I need to add more words, not less.

Sara 18:40

And there comes a point where you get enough experience that you realize, oh, I don't have to follow this rule. I can, you know, make my own rule that I need to add 10% of words or whatever it is when you're revising. Yeah. You fill it out. Yeah. Well, what's the biggest change you've had to make in your thinking?

SPEAKER_00 18:59

I think that it is having confidence in what I am producing, which I still struggle with a lot.

Jami 19:11

Please.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

Both of us be like, no, you can trust yourself. I really feel like that has been part of what the process, because I've been writing this book for six months, which typically I write a lot faster than that, just naturally, because I hyper focus on books. So I like get through the book. And so the last six months of writing this book has been painful. So you really have to slow down and be like, okay, trust yourself, trust the story. If you can only write a hundred words right now, do it. And then go do something else. So yeah, that's been the hardest part of this.

Jami 19:58

If you were starting over today, what would you do differently?

SPEAKER_00 20:03

I don't think I would bother with social media at all.

Jami 20:06

Just let it go.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

Yeah. I might have it as like a satellite space.

Jami 20:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:13

But I wouldn't try to or worry, I wouldn't use my brain power to worry about social media. Yeah. Because I think I've spent a lot of time worrying about not being there and not doing it right and not seeing results from it. Yeah. And it really is not a place I hang out personally ever, anyway. Pinterest is much more my speed. And so I don't think I would I yeah, I think I would just skip social media all too.

Jami 20:48

Just skip it. So are do you are you advertising your books or put it posting your books on Pinterest, or is that just a you just like Pinterest?

SPEAKER_00 20:58

I just like Pinterest. Okay. I've tried to figure out how to do it for business, but as far as I know, I just I don't think I've done it properly. It doesn't seem to work for Cozy Mysteries. Like when I look up Cozy Mysteries on Pinterest, it's a lot of trad published books. There's not like a whole lot of stuff there anyway. And then we go down the whole Gilmer girls route, but showing up and I'm like, I love Gilmer girls, but I don't need you in my feed.

Sara 21:30

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I hope to, I'm gonna try some Pinterest stuff this year and see if I can get that going. Because I feel like it's a really long tail type activity. But I was gonna go back to when earlier you mentioned like you hyper focus on books and you know you're doing these things that the conventional wisdom is not to do, like you leave social media or your newsletter for a while and go write on books. And I thought I've never and I do that too sometimes. I'm like, oh, I'm busy. This book, and I can't think about social media. But I've never had a reader be upset if I said, I'm taking a break, I'm gonna not be on social media for a while to go write a book. I've never had anybody say, Oh, I'm so mad at you. You you must come back to social media. They want the books, and so it's kind of like that's the trade-off sometimes for authors is we have to do, we have to cut certain things to be able to do the books. Like you said, just letting people know, hey, I'm gonna take a break, I'll be in my writing cave for a while, I'll be back soon. I think that's a great way to do it.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

Yeah.

Sara 22:31

If you're doing social media.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

I always am checking my email.

Jami 22:35

So if somebody would email if they really need you, they can get you. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:40

I would definitely answer an email. It's just spending the time, like because conventional wisdom is you spend time on the platform you're gonna be posting on if you're part of the community. So it's more than just posting.

Sara 22:54

Right.

SPEAKER_00 22:56

Go and comment on people's things and interact with people's posts, and it's just a lot more emotional and time than maybe you want to do something like that.

Sara 23:08

Yeah, it could be draining at times, I think.

Jami 23:10

And the fact is because I'm a I'm gonna, I was just telling Sarah earlier, I'm gonna take February uh off TikTok. I'm gonna not gonna, but I'm gonna make a post and people are gonna go, who are you again? Like they don't get in.

Sara 23:28

Yeah, they're not really keeping as close a track as we think they are. We feel like yeah.

Jami 23:34

Have you been on? Have you been on this app? I haven't seen you.

Sara 23:37

Yeah, they don't care. Yeah. Let's circle back to Kickstarter because one of the things that I thought was really interesting that you mentioned was learning to start small with Kickstarter and just do a simple first project. So, what did you learn and how was your setup so that it was small and manageable? And what did you learn about that?

SPEAKER_00 23:57

So I suggest it to people because I feel like mine was far more complex than it needed to be, and not at the small. So, like I said, I have a 10 book series, and I didn't do Kickstarter for that before the series was completed. Yeah. So the idea was to get those 10 books into special edition paperbacks, and basically all I did was gold foiling. Because this was right as Book Vault was coming out with Bespoke. I have always wanted my books to be pretty, so I was like, we're doing gold foiling. I don't care.

Sara 24:32

The plan. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

And they came out beautifully. I love them. But my first one had books one through five. So I had tiers that was book one, book one through three, or book one through five. And that got so convoluted. So and I had ebooks, regular paperbacks, and special edition paperbacks. Oh my goodness, yeah. I had nine different tiers that I had to parse out and make sure I was fulfilling. So it just gave a it gave me a fulfillment headache for sure. And I thought I was being smart and limiting it to things. I did not go to the book box that I my heart desired to make initially. And then I did my second one, which was the back half of the series now to make sure that people coming into that one wouldn't have to not have the first five. I did the first five included in that. So I ended up with almost the full alphabet of the word tiers in my second one. So when I say start small, I think that people, especially people who have an experience have a backlist, go in, do one book.

unknown 25:52

Yeah.

Sara 25:52

Don't do a whole or even half a series, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:55

Yeah. Do one book, do a paperback and a special edition hardback. If that's what you want to do, find your keystone offering, is what I call it. But make sure like the thing that you're bringing people to and your audience for that thing. That's what the Kickstarter is built around. But I did not know any of that when I started doing my Kickstarters. So I was just like, we're gonna give options for everybody.

Jami 26:21

Yeah, that's a lot, and that is a headache. It is a headache. Because that's really one of the reasons big reasons that I've not done one is because I just don't want to be on the hook for either creating new content or having to have just a ton of fulfillment. That just that is just overwhelming for me. What else do you what do you what else do you wish you'd known about doing a Kickstarter besides start start extra small?

SPEAKER_00 26:49

Yeah. So I also started with a whole lot of promo I was trying to do. So you have a YouTube channel. I am also not consistent there. And but I was trying to do like all of these things. So I was trying to do DIY bank with me's where we would make stuff for like digital rewards stuff that people could get for free on my website to go with the books. And then basically I was trying to use those videos to direct people to the Kickstarter. And then I also did a bunch of graphics and stuff for social media to try and drive people to Kickstarter. What I learned is that none of it was working. Most of the new people that came in were from Kickstarter. Like majority of the people that I've had back, any Kickstarter of mine, has been from the Kickstarter ecosystem.

Jami 27:44

Really?

SPEAKER_00 27:45

Yeah, it's been amazing to see how many people are like, I thought it would be way lower. I didn't think I would make my first goal, even though it was $500. Like I was like, we are probably not going to fund. I don't know enough people.

Jami 28:01

Right.

SPEAKER_00 28:02

The other thing I learned from my first one, and I mentioned in-person events before. I thrive in-person events.

Jami 28:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

So I started creating launch events for the day that the Kickstarter goes live. Yeah. So I there's a coffee shop here on Guam, and I would invite people to it, and we would do little games, I would do a QA, I would I do readings of the book and explain to them what Kickstarter is because nobody here knows what Kickstarter is. Right. And how it works and everything. And then I also had basically it started off as an accident because one of my family friends had the set of teacups that she didn't need anymore, sent them to me. And I was like, we can make these into raffle prizes. So I took these teacups and I put like tea bags and hot chocolate and cookies because my family bakes. So we made cookies that were related to the the series and we put them and wrapped them in these cute little gift basket baskets. And the first six people to back the Kickstarter project then got one of those things. Nice. Yeah. And that worked really well. Like it got people motivated to excitement, yeah.

Sara 29:19

Yes. How did you do this since you're in were you in Guam when you did these Kickstarters? So how did you handle the mailing and all that? Because I know people outside the US, it's a challenge for them at times.

SPEAKER_00 29:29

Yeah. So technically we are US. Sometimes the postal system gets confused, but like technically we are supposed to be US. So I can still use USPS to ship to the states.

Jami 29:42

Oh, that's great.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

One of the sticking points for Guam, though, is that because of something called the Jones Act, it has to go to a US port. So even if I'm ordering something from Australia, which is closer to me, it still has to go to the United States mainland. It can't even go to Hawaii. It has to go to the mainland and then get shipped here. Anything from China, even though we're right there, has to be shipped to the US and then brought here.

Sara 30:10

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

So what I did every time I've done is I drop ship the books from Book Vault.

Jami 30:18

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's so smart. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:21

Yeah. And then I'll send book plates for physical items, though I am considering doing a digital signature. Yeah. For this one, just because I believe it will be easier. Right. Yeah.

Sara 30:37

Yeah. That's what I did last two times. I've done special editions just on my store. I just let everybody know it's a digital signature. And no one's really been upset with that or said, oh, I would prefer maybe they would, but they haven't pushed back on it. So I think that's a good solution.

SPEAKER_00 30:52

Yeah, because otherwise we're paying shipping twice.

Sara 30:56

That's crazy. You have a Kickstarter that will go live soon, and it's for a retreat. So tell us about that because that's really interesting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:04

I am so excited about this. So this retreat is going to be open for five women. We will be in an Airbnb in Edinburgh. And the idea is that it's basically like an accelerator program. And I will take you from idea to Able to be launched. I wouldn't actually want you to launch it by the end of the accelerator because you're going to work on the project that you're going to you're going to launch, but conventional wisdom, and I've seen it happen where you need like a long pre-launch to gather followers so that there's momentum when you launch the project.

Jami 31:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:42

But basically, the the idea is to go from idea to launch by the end of a five-day retreat. We'll have working mornings where I'll teach the modules to get you familiar with Kickstarter and then go through my system for how to create a Kickstarter because I was actually smart when I started my first Kickstarter. And I had a list of questions and things that I needed answered. And then each time I've done a Kickstarter, I just tweak it to make it fit the next one. And so I'm never starting with a blank page when I start with my Kickstarter. Everything's in a template. And so one of the things that they'll be receiving is a hard copy version of this template where they can write it like a notebook.

Jami 32:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:31

And so it's going to be working mornings where I teach the model modules. We'll take a break in the afternoon and go explore Edinburgh because I think that's going to be a lot of fun. And then we're also going to do working evenings where we're specifically working on their projects and really putting into practice what they were taught that morning so that they're ready to hit launch by the end of the program.

Jami 32:57

That's great. Just kind of hand holding through that process is so beneficial. Plus, you get to do it in Edinburgh Edinburgh. So yeah.

unknown 33:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:07

I was super excited about the idea. And then it also goes really like strongly to my strengths because I I am anybody who does back aside and drink, I'm a number one individualistic and a number nine developer. So like I can look at your project, I can look at your audience. I can look like if you know these things, I can look at how you operate and be like, this may work for you, but it also might be a stretch for you and it's gonna drain you.

Sara 33:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:36

Let's focus here.

Sara 33:37

That's great. So customized and yeah, for the benefit. Yeah. Yeah. That is fantastic. I love that. I haven't heard of many Kickstarters that are for in-person events. No, I think that's a very cool idea.

Jami 33:51

In your email test, you mentioned that you're neurodivergent. And so tell me what your superpower is for being neurodivergent because I think that I have ADHD and was lately late diagnosis, only in the last couple of years. And uh yeah, I can give you a long list of the things that I think it hurts me on, but there are things that I think it helps me on. So tell me what your yours are.

SPEAKER_00 34:17

Definitely hyperfocus. I can lock into that hyperfocus real easy, also makes me inconsistent. Like that's one of the things.

Jami 34:26

The yin and the yang, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:30

Yeah, I also think that ADHD people in general are really like heart-centered people. It seems like they can see people, and so I think that's one of my superpowers is seeing people and knowing when they're not okay and trying to help them be okay. So that is another of my superpowers.

Jami 34:52

I think that it helps me with my characters in that way too. Like I really it I am high empathy, so that's number three for me, I think. And but yeah, it really helps me to dial in to write characters that have real feelings, I think. And not that other people can't. I'm just saying it help it helps me do that.

SPEAKER_00 35:16

It's your superpower.

Jami 35:18

Yeah, it's my superpower. That and using my skills and to fight crime, I do that as well.

SPEAKER_03 35:26

Awesome.

Jami 35:27

Yeah, I know. Neighborhood watch over here. Oh, this has been great, Jamie. Did you have any other questions? Did we hit everything? I think we hit everything. This has just been so fascinating. I just love how you did what you did. You thought you were going small, but then you thought, you know what, you can go smaller and it would still work. And I love that because again, the thing with Kickstarter is it overwhelms me. I think that for people like that, it would this is so great.

Sara 35:59

Some good tips there. We always like to ask everybody, what's the best thing you've done to set yourself up for success?

SPEAKER_00 36:05

I have an amazing support system around me, my family. I have a lot of author friends who are very helpful and will like be like, okay, you're being too hard on yourself.

Jami 36:21

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 36:23

So I really I don't think I would be where I'm at without that support system because I would have made myself crazy.

Jami 36:31

Yeah, that's great. Tell everybody where they can find out about you and your books and your retreat and Kickstarters, all that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 36:40

Okay, so if you're looking for my books, you can go to embpublishing.com. That's where everything is, including my other pen name, because I just put everything on one page.

Jami 36:50

Yeah. Don't blame me.

SPEAKER_00 36:54

And then the Kickstarter is up on it is up on Kickstarter for pre-launch. It is called the Crowdfunded Author Retreat. You can check it out there. And yeah, that's everything for now.

Sara 37:09

Okay. Perfect. Yeah. Fantastic. Yeah. We will have those links in the show notes so that people can go take a look at the Kickstarter and see your books. So thanks for being here. It's been great to talk to you. We appreciate it. All right. So you can find all those links at wish I know for writers.com slash support, or also you can support us there, and you can also support us on Substack. What was the name of that place we're on? Substack. And also don't forget our sponsor this week is Vellum. You can go to tryvellum.com forward slash wish, and we will see everybody next week. Bye.