Bookcast Episode 71: Reading, Not Writing, and Marketing, oh my!

This week's episode is flawed and lightly edited. I lost my mic about 30 mins in so I cut out a part that was just me complaining about return to office. I had a brunch date, so I'm back to update with the usual info. 

This week I chatted about my reading progress toward my annual goal, what I read, what I plan to read and what I put down. I also gave an update on my writing (or NOT writing, as it were) and I talked about my efforts lately to increase social media postings and ongoing efforts to increase visibility for my work as an indie author. 

I talked about the following books this week:
King: The Life of Martin Luther King by Jonathan Eig
The Perfect Affair by Angela Henry
The American Queen by Vanessa Miller
Mrs. Soul Crusher by Jessica Terry 
The Amish Wife by Gregg Olsen

Transcript

DL White [00:00:17]:
Alright, Here we are back again. Hello. Hi. How are you? It is me I am back. Let me go ahead and turn off all of the things because things make noise. Welcome back to The Bookcast. This is my platform for sharing short fiction and updates on what I'm reading and writing. I started this podcast because I did not want to write a newsletter.

DL White [00:00:47]:
And here we are nearly 1 year later still talking about books, and reading and writing and author life and reader life and it's been fun, so we're just gonna keep doing it. Hope that's fine with you. This is Episode 71. I am D. L. White, author of contemporary Southern and romantic fiction novels featuring Black men and women. Y'all, I'm working on a new tagline but I keep forgetting it. I think it is, I forgot what it is.

DL White [00:01:19]:
Something about, bringing black love stories to life. I don't know. Clearly it doesn't work well because I keep forgetting what it is but, by next week I'm hoping to have a new tagline, because I forgot. I'm a big fan of books so we usually begin with the book report and then we talk about writing and topics of the day. It's just an opportunity for me to put a microphone phone in front of my mouth and Yammer for about 30 minutes. I do so hope you have a cup of coffee and or a snack and you are ready to sit back and enjoy some chat about books and writing. I'm currently not really writing. I'm supposed to be writing but I'm not and we'll talk about that in the writing update.

DL White [00:02:05]:
The Bookcast is a production of books by D. L. White written, edited, produced, and supported by me. I feel like Tyler Perry, the book cast by DL White, written by DL White, edited by DL White, produced And supported by D'ya White. If you'd love to back me up, I'd be most grateful. My podcast website, bookcast.buzzsprout dotcom has opportunities to offer a one time or recurring monthly gift, whichever is most appropriate for you or your financial situation. If you ain't got it, I understand sometimes I just don't have it. The other way you can support is to buy my books.

DL White [00:02:42]:
Books by dlwhite.com/books has all the good stuff in ebook, print, or audio, whatever format it's in. I'm I might could have it there. Buying direct Puts the monies directly into my pocket the next day, not 60 days from now. What's with that mess? With less middleman interference. However, However, if you prefer to buy the books retail, ain't no shame in your game my books are not for sale, Not and we're not talking about free. We're not talking about pirate sites. You know what I'm saying? If you know, you know. If you prefer to buy the books retail, all my books are available in ebook, wherever they're sold: Amazon, Barnes and Noble Nook, Apple Books, Kobo Books, Google Play, they are also available via subscription sites like Everand and Kobo Plus and are available to request at your local library.

DL White [00:03:33]:
You can find print copies at resist booksellers or bookshop.org. I feel like I didn't finish my statement. My books are not for sale anywhere. I don't want them to be for sale but if you find them on download sites for free, I ain't put that there. If you see it, say something because I am now paying for a site that will monitor and pull down pirated copies of my books because Being an author is hard and my books are not expensive so ain't no reason to be downloading them for free, you know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying. Today we will start with the book report as always then we'll have a little author chitchat. Today is Saturday, January 13th. It is 9:0:8 AM.

DL White [00:04:16]:
It is sunny in Atlanta. I have a mic, and I am ready to dig in, but first, Let's have some Alright. Alright. Alright. We are back. The coffee is hot and piping and delicious. It is perfect in every way. We start as always with the book report because I a book head.

DL White [00:04:55]:
If I'm gonna do anything I'm gonna read a book. New year, new challenge. I have read 5 books of my challenge to read 150 books this year So I am on track to hit my Goodreads challenge, Can't Stop Won't Stop. I know that's right. This, this week I read 2 books. I read The Perfect Affair by Angela Henry. Now this was a delightful romp. I have my knits with it But it was quite, delightful.

DL White [00:05:24]:
It's my 1st read by Angela Henry, who is a mystery suspense thriller author that I follow I have followed on TikTok for years and had just never read a book by her. The writing is darn good. This book, I I I recognize the attempt to be, super complex with this story. I just feel like the execution, it just ended up being, super jumbled with entirely too many characters and too many Storylines, you know, in the end, we get what we want. We get a conclusion to the story. It just, It took a long a long tiresome route to get there. There's just way too many characters, way too many storylines that did actually dovetail and Twist and tie in together, it just, it was too much. It could have been much simpler.

DL White [00:06:16]:
Let me tell you about this book. When Paige Nichols meets her husband's glamorous new colleague at a faculty mixer, she instantly knows they're having an affair. It's the way he looks at her. It's Like she's the only woman in the world. Erin used to look at her, Erin used to look at her like that too And with her beautiful knowing smile, Kara Martin seems to enjoy flaunting their romance right under her nose. Paige believes Erin when he says He'll break things off. What else can she do when she's determined to hold her family together? But then Kara makes a shocking accusation about Aaron that threatens to end his career as college professor, and shatter their barely patched up marriage. Paige stands by her husband, but doubt creeps in.

DL White [00:06:59]:
Is Kara telling the truth, or is this all part of her dangerous game? Then Kara Martin disappears without a trace. I'll stop reading the blurb there because I don't I don't want to, like, give anything away. This was a pretty good read, a very delightful romp if you don't take it too seriously which I Did not, it won't top any charts, but it was a good way to spend an afternoon. I did swallow it, whole, ate it ate it right up. And I feel like if I would've put it down and picked it back up, I would've had to read back a couple chapters to, like, pick up, you know, like reacquaint myself with the book. It was just entirely too complex to read in pieces. Another book that was entirely too complex to read in pieces simply because of its length and subject matter is King: The Life of Martin Luther King by Jonathan Ige, e I g, I think is how you pronounce his name. Fantastic book.

DL White [00:07:58]:
I listened to it in audio, but it's narrated by Deane Graham. Deane Graham, I cannot speak Today I perhaps need more coffee. Please forgive me. Also forgive me if you can hear the fan in the background. I'm 49 and so let That lead you where your imagination may, but I am sweating hot in this room. The window is open. The fan is on. That's what's going on in my life right now.

DL White [00:08:27]:
Anyhow, King. The Life of Martin Luther King by Jonathan. I such a fantastic, Fantastic read. It's a great listen. Dion Graham does a really spectacular job with this book. It really makes me wanna go back and read, the rest of Jonathan's books he, famously wrote about Muhammad Ali And, he's got a couple of books out there. He spent so many years doing research and talking to people who knew doctor King On a personal level this book really highlights, his flaws, some fatal flaws, his faults, his humanity, They just he just brings so much, humanness and real life, real man Personification to Doctor. King, I feel like his critics are going to use Some of the negative parts of this book to talk about why they didn't and still don't embody King in their, You know in in their their daily I don't know lives and their their edicts about what is wrong with America but I hope that people come away from this book knowing that Doctor.

DL White [00:09:45]:
King was a a a real person. He had faults. He had flaws. He had everyday life problems. He was just like you and just like me, but he picked up the mantle and did what he felt he was Called to do. And so if you feel like you're just an average everyday person and you can't do what you are supposed to do, just know that This man was also a real person and he just stepped up to the plate that was set in front of him. I gave this book 5 stars. I don't I don't know how.

DL White [00:10:15]:
I could have given it fewer. It was performed superbly by Deon Graham, a really, great voice with a lot of passion, Emotion, power, his imitations of Doctor. King are kind of funny to me. He sounds like he reminds me of Doctor. King but like nobody can do Doctor. King Like Doctor. King, perhaps his sons maybe. Really, really excellent read.

DL White [00:10:39]:
I enjoyed my reads this week despite Having limited time to to read, this week I have picked out a couple of books. I have a lot of books Kindle Unlimited that I need to, read or release as my good friend, Bridget Bianca would say, there's some I just need to rid of it like I grabbed them because they look good, but I'm I'm not actually going to read them. Let's let's let's be real. I have, Though on the list for this week, Missus Soul Crusher by Jessica Terry. I believe this is the follow-up to mister this is the follow-up To of course, this is the follow-up to Mr. Time Waster by Jessica Terry, which when I read that book, I think I was a little bit upset because I felt like the book wasn't Finished and did not know that it would have a follow-up. If you read that book, you know. So we're gonna read Missus Soul Crusher.

DL White [00:11:31]:
I also picked out The American Queen by Vanessa Miller. This book is an advanced reader copy. It publishes January 30th and I don't want to wait till the last minute to start it, I want to take my time with it, so I'm gonna pull that one up and probably start it tomorrow. This week I put down The Amish Wife by Greg Olsen, it just didn't do anything for me. Greg's not an investigative journalist or anything, he just writes nonfiction stories. It's supposed to be narrative nonfiction, but His writing just didn't grab me. I just I got 30% into the book and I'm I'm just I'm I was bored, so I put it back. Right now I just I don't mark books as DNF anymore.

DL White [00:12:16]:
I just remove it from my shelf. I don't feel like being that dramatic anymore. I think I'm just gonna get rid of my DNF shelf. The only issue is that I don't remember books that I've DNF'd and So sometimes I pick up a book that I stopped reading and then notice that it's on my DNF shelf and so then I save myself the trouble of starting over and getting frustrated all over again I don't know but these days I don't I just don't feel like being so dramatic with books that I just put down. Maybe I'll change the DNF shelf to not for now because sometimes I might go back to a book and, finish it because I just wasn't in the mood to read the book at that time. It wasn't terrible. It just wasn't for me at that time. I don't know, so I got some thinking to do about what to do about the DNF shelf and how I mark books that I started and did not finish and therefore did not review.

DL White [00:13:11]:
So that's it for the week. I'm sure I'll read more than that considering it's a holiday weekend. We do get Monday off to celebrate the birthday of Doctor. Martin Luther King, and I'm probably going to spend my day reading. Writing update this week Of course I, mentioned earlier that I am not writing. I'm supposed to be writing the epilogue for Home Full of Holidays and I will say in retrospect, I should have just immediately started writing the epilogue because I right now don't feel like writing the epilogue. I don't know why I said I I would write 1. My brain's tired.

DL White [00:13:48]:
The words that I have typed for the story are boring. There's no Magic, there's not, like, there's nothing there. I have plotted out the epilogue but it's boring. There's there's nothing, Like there's no there's no story to tell. It's just like here's their life months into the future. I don't see a purpose in that. It's not like this book hit hard and people are wondering what's happening. I'm not getting a ton of comments on man, this book ended at this point and I really wanna know what life looks like, so I feel like I'm not gonna borrow trouble.

DL White [00:14:21]:
I'm not gonna put myself out again. I'm not breaking my back to make people comfortable. I have always wanted to do an extended epilogue. Perhaps as an extended epilogue to a holiday short is not the way to go. Just feel like I need to be on my break right now so I can start the pearl instead of worrying about these 4 chapters. So if you wanted to know what was gonna happen, Send me a DM. I'll tell you it's not really all that exciting. I feel like the bulk of Sabrina and Reed's story have Been told and it was just gonna be like 4 chapters of mushy fluff with no conflict and no point.

DL White [00:14:58]:
That's boring to me, I don't want to write it. At some point, perhaps we'll get an epilogue or maybe I will fold in updates on their story in, the next Potter Lake book but that is again not coming until fall. My apologies if you were just drooling at the mouth to read that, but again I did not get feedback that indicated that that would be the case. So when I say I'm not a series writer it's that I- When I am done with a book, when I'm done with a couple, I'm done. I put them to bed. They don't have continuing storylines. Two works back to back about the same couple makes we wanna shove a hot needle into my eye. I don't the stories don't continue in my head, so I don't know, maybe it'll come eventually but not right now.

DL White [00:15:43]:
So I'm gonna take a break from writing. I am gonna be deep into my reader bag. I just need to give my brain a break and then the plan will be to start with planning and rebuilding The Pearl, which is the next Black Diamond romance novel and hopefully that will be out late spring, early summer when it's intended to be out and not early fall the way they have been coming out. Cross your fingers, wish me luck. Alright, moving on to chit chat. So I don't know how other Indie authors market their books. I think most of us are just doing a nice graphic, a nice quote, a link, and slapping it up Wherever some of us are, going very elaborate, some of us are doing, like, talking videos, some of us are doing Skits regarding our books I I mean, I just don't have the energy for all of that. You're doing good to get a picture of the book, a quote and a link and so I'm kind of building on that as my marketing style.

DL White [00:16:47]:
It doesn't seem to be hurting, I don't know if it's Helping. It it doesn't seem to be hurting but I have been doing a few things lately trying to increase views on my book and therefore get my book in front of more faces, get more people talking about my books and just try to get some engagement and interaction. And through years of resistance, I have finally jumped on the batch content train. I don't like my face on social media much. I don't think I'm ugly. It's just not what I wanna look at. Also, I feel like the Internet is a bully and it only takes me saying one thing the wrong way For people to dig up my videos and then start piling on about my hair, my big forehead, my teeth, my nose, my Skin color, the pimples on my face, my PCOS beard. I don't wanna make myself a Target.

DL White [00:17:38]:
I have 13 books that need their shine and so Those are what I put out to the public and then very occasionally I post a picture of myself because I am so proud that my hair turned out. So I've been editing, scheduling videos, making promo images, and then scheduling those out to post once or twice a day, Sometimes at the same time of day. And let me tell you, I can spend 12 hours a day on this stuff, quite honestly, Aside of writing, like, the marketing is a lot of work. The past few weeks I've been testing out times that work best on each platform based on when people seem to be online on that platform. So for TikTok, I took a long hiatus from TikTok because it wasn't anything for me and I felt like, that platform is and was racist. However, I just feel like People get a lot of attention there, books get a lot of shine there, and so I don't want to miss out on anything because I am just being lazy about putting stuff on TikTok. Again, I still don't put my face on there because it is the trolliest platform ever. Form ever but I do want my books there, between 3 and 5 PM seems to be a hotspot there.

DL White [00:18:52]:
So I'm really trying to get than 300 views per video, no matter what I post, I tap out at about 300 views. I have 1 video that has gotten over a 1000 views. It's like, I feel like it's like a, it's a video about a holiday short, so it's not an evergreen video. You know, does TikTok like photos? To like video, back when I hopped on they said 7 seconds. You 7 second videos. They don't need to be, you know, more than second sec seconds and now TikTok is telling me to post 1 minute videos and to post more photo videos so, you know, I'm just trying to roll with these changes and have fun with it so usually on Sundays I will go through and pick out some like videos, some transitions, some sounds that seem to be really popular and try to format my promo around those, and then I save that without the, you know, without the TikTok, whatcha thinker, With emblem, whatever, and then try to post that across my other platforms between so Instagram between 9 am and 6 pm. People are mostly online looking at videos, looking at reels, looking at photos. The hot spot for Instagram is between 3 and 6 pm.

DL White [00:20:09]:
I was posting things at midnight so that it would run throughout the course of a day but I just felt like I wasn't getting views and so now I'm trying to post during The hot spots between 3 and 6 pm I am posting more Reels but also, you know, static images to my feed. Copying Reels And images to stories doesn't really do much, but it does get people to, my regular feed. I'm really trying to be more authentic and personal in my stories. I've always used those as a way to post, like, funny stuff and, you know, book posts and reminders or whatever because it doesn't stick around longer than 24 hours. YouTube is a whole new frontier for me. I have had YouTube channels for many, many years. For those who don't know me, I am a weight loss surgery patient I just celebrated 11 years post op, I had a vertical sleeve gastrectomy in December of 2012 and that's, in late 2012 is when I started my, VSG YouTube channel. My entire VSG journey is over there.

DL White [00:21:17]:
It's under the Kirby Jones. If you're interested in looking at I think I have about 7 years of Videos. I think about about 3 years of weekly regular videos during my active weight loss phase and then all through maintenance until it just got to a point where I had nothing new to say and I sundowned content on that channel. I post Every once in a while, like maybe once a year on that channel it's about time for a yearly update, on that channel but again I just don't have anything new to share so I don't post over there. I started my author channel, I believe, when I started publishing, so maybe 2015, 2016, author Dale White on YouTube and when I, started the podcast I started, posting. I started well, you know, when I started the podcast I wasn't posting episodes on YouTube but recently, like last year in 2023, I started adding the podcast to YouTube. It is not a video podcast, so it's a static image with the audio, but a lot of people like listening to podcasts through YouTube, so I've had a YouTube channel for some time and I had like, I had 109 subscribers and then when I started posting the podcast to YouTube it climbed to like 112, And in the past couple of weeks, I have been adding shorts as well as clips of the podcast And then the videos that I am posting on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest, I am also, posting up on YouTube and no clue when's a good time to post on YouTube, not a clue, but I'm just posting shorts. I just try to post them between 8 PM and midnight so it runs all night and all day before the next video pops up.

DL White [00:23:06]:
Some do very well, the, Post I did for anonymous did really well because there's a very handsome bearded man on that one. Some get no views, very few likes and no comments, so no engagement really. I get the most engagement on the podcast posts from people who are, who aren't listening to the podcast. So, I'm seeing a few people try to make a return to YouTube and build up the community there. Didi from Brow Girl Reading has been updating her channel. I know Kay The Reader has been talking about updating her channel. We've moved our regular Friday Live Friday Reads Live back over to YouTube, it's so much less wonky than Instagram and the comments save. So I've also been uploading The extended samples of my audiobooks to YouTube, I don't see myself uploading whole audiobooks I just don't I don't I just I don't I don't see how that brings sales, but I do have extended samples which is like I basically picked 3 Really great chapters from different points of the book and cobbled them together into 1 sample from each of the audiobooks that I have so it's about 30 to 40 minutes of select chapters.

DL White [00:24:22]:
I have Ruby's and Sam's up right now with a few clips and shorts. I've added curl and die, the guy next door, and beach thing and those are those are there but they're hidden. And so I'll be rolling those out, over the next few weeks with, of course, shorts and clips, just trying to gather some attention. Subscribers are slowly climbing. I'm getting tons more views than I used to and of course on the podcast posts on Saturdays. So, I am seeing an increase. I'm at like a 126 subscribers now which isn't bad from the beginning of December to the middle of January to have increased Least like 10 subscribers so I'm just trying to grow my subscribers, trying to grow my views, trying to get more attention on my channel, Get more attention on my books, trying to like really be on authortube. Again, I just- I don't- I don't want to put my face on it and I feel like the authors that get a ton of attention have their face up there and they're offering like courses and tips and tricks and, insights and I am just I'm not that I'm not that deep.

DL White [00:25:31]:
I'm just not that deep, so I'll update with any good news or learnings that I come Pros, I am doing what I can for free, quote unquote free because I am paying for Buffer. I am paying for PromoRepublic. I am, you know, paying for Canva and anything that I'm using to edit videos, but I am not paying to post them. I feel like ads To me are just throwing away my money. I don't honestly know black authors that are running ads because this audience doesn't really respond to them. So that leads leaves me with Trying to make eye eye catching engaging posts across all the platforms without feeling like I'm just shoving My book's in people's faces all the time. I still need to be authentic, I still need to show up in those spaces, I still need to post, You know, the regular stuff that I would post, but in between, y'all go get these books. For Twitter, I don't really have a strategy for Twitter.

DL White [00:26:27]:
It just posts during a time when I feel like everybody's on sometime like late afternoon. I honestly I just send it to the Q and Go. It posts like the basically the same time it posts on Instagram somewhere between 3 and 6 pm, but I'm always always always always on Twitter, that's my main platform and so, I have like all my all author posts that go there and so Twitter is is is a heavy promotion channel, it works for me there. I just I feel I don't feel like I'm shoving my books in people's faces because again the the promo posts are automated and I'm just always there, like, posting, so I feel like In between my usual inane silliness about whatever I'm talking about are my book posts and those do seem to get, interaction, they get reposts, Retweets, comments, so I I mean, it's hard for me to tell when sales come from Twitter because I don't have a tracker on those I just use, you know, my landing page for each book or my book sale page. So, I'm just not tracking it that deep. But I do feel like posting books on social media does work for me. It's not I mean, I don't sell like gangbusters but, It does appear to be, you know, working to get me, views and attention and my sales are up. I have, have seen it how, I don't know if I wanna say an increase in sales, but I am selling books so whatever I can attribute Attribute that to whether it's, you know, an increase in promo or whatever.

DL White [00:28:06]:
I don't know because again, I don't put a tracker on anything. So this week I am working on publishing something funny or insightful that has nothing to do with my books. So we'll see what I come up with. I usually sit down on a Sunday afternoon after I update my bookish planner then, you know, I go through promo and try to get some things together, something, you know, 7 different videos or images or different concepts so once or twice a day I am posting that stuff on my socials. So I've been using Buffer which works great for me but I paid for a license for PromoRepublic that I hardly ever use. It literally does the same thing as buffer but the issue with PromoRepublic is that During the day, I operate via app. I am not always in front of my computer to see what's scheduled, but the Buffer app I can look up and I can see What's about to post? So I see when to schedule a retweet, a repost, an Instagram story, an Instagram reel. I can see what's about to post so I can post it and it doesn't seem like I'm about to post right on top of something else.

DL White [00:29:12]:
Twitter reposts, I usually schedule via the Buffer app, like I very Hardly ever instantly retweet something because if I see a lot of good stuff, I want to space that out so it doesn't look like I'm just slamming people with, Twitter reposts, that's something I wish everybody did. If I log on and I see you have retweeted 119 people, I'm muting you. I'm muting you because get yourself an app and schedule those retweets. I just add it to the queue and it posts at the most The next, like, scheduled time to post something. The promo republic app is just not nearly as handy. I like I don't even have it anymore. It's kind of useless for me. I forget what I have scheduled and then I schedule something else on top of something and then I have post something back to back.

DL White [00:30:00]:
My other issue with buffer is that for the all author posts, those are scheduled by all author. Like I never know when those are gonna post. And so I have to go to Twitter, see when's the last time something posts, go to all author, see how many hours I have left before the next promo schedules so that I kind of know when I can schedule that. It's very, very hard to see that with PromoRepublic and I'm just not going to log into that app. So One thing I probably can use it for though is Pinterest because I honestly rarely look at Pinterest, I am never going to be posting on top of something else on Pinterest, Nothing else automagically posts to Pinterest and so I can take what I have posting on TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter and just throw it up on Pinterest and it should all be good. Nothing really gets views over there anyway. I just honestly I post just to be posting on Pinterest just in case people are looking for good books over there. So what I'll be focusing on this week again is just looking for like funny stuff to post, like, in the morning to, like, say hi, good morning, something, you know, funny, relatable, authentic, Reel to post in the morning and then my promo post in late afternoon.

DL White [00:31:17]:
I put my hair up in twists. I did my hair last night. I, sincerely sincerely hope that it looks good, but if you see me in a crusty in pictures. My hair didn't turn out. So so am I 11? So because I need to get moving, I'm gonna go ahead and close. That brings us to the end of today's episode. Thank you so much for joining me for today's chat. I will be back next week with a reading and a writing update.

DL White [00:31:46]:
Please enjoy your holiday weekend if it is such for you. Have a superlative week, and we will chat again soon.