DL White [00:00:14]:
Hello everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. Full disclosure, I came home last Sunday and before I even sat down, I put down my bags and my suitcase and I pulled out the microphone on my laptop and I said I'm gonna down and I'm going to record my Black Romance Book Fest thoughts. And I did my mic test and then I was just staring at the computer and I was like, girl, what are you doing? No, no, get up from here, have some food and sit your tail down. And that is what I did. I ordered some wings, I did a little unpacking. I was like, no, this is not happening. But I'm here.

DL White [00:01:02]:
I am back. Hello. Hi. How are you? I missed you so much. Not really, but I did kind of miss being on the podcast. I am here. Welcome back to the Bookcast. This is my platform for sharing short fiction and where I talk about reading, writing, black love and real life as a self published author A black romance.

DL White [00:01:24]:
I am D.L. white. Hi. Hello there. I'm an Atlanta based author, reader, storyteller, podcaster, substacker, all the good stuff. If you like this podcast, the very best way to support me is to buy my books. Buy the books, man. You can get them from booksbydlwhite.com shop.

DL White [00:01:45]:
You'll find print editions also on my bookshop.org shelf and you get the link to that on my links page. It's booksbydlwhite.com links. You are supporting indie bookstore and me at the same time instead of millionaires who uselessly want to go to space. We've already been up there. We know what's up there. Ain't nothing for us up there. Thank you so much. Anyhow, so I'm here.

DL White [00:02:11]:
I am back from Blackroom Ass Book Fest. I have a lot to catch up on. In fact, some things I'm gonna shove to next week because I just have so much to talk about and there's nothing I hate more than editing an hour of me yapping. So let's kick it. Today is Sunday, June 8th. I am here on my bed in Atlanta with a mic, a drink and a whole lot of thoughts. So let's get into it. Let's have a.

DL White [00:02:38]:
A teeny beverage. All right, friends and lovers, booze and bros, books to people. We're back. Today's beverage is actually just coffee. It's still Sunday morning for me, just barely. And I decided I'm gonna get up, I'm gonna do my little book thing that I do on Sunday mornings with my always fully booked planner. I love that Planner down. I need a smaller version that doesn' have like the, the weekly layout because I don't be using it.

DL White [00:03:29]:
I. I'm not into it that deep. But I do my monthly layout and I do like my monthly list of the books that I read and what format I read them in. Because every month Raymond does a live where he talks about the books that he read and then we all report on what we read. It's our nice little habit. Ritual. Anyway, what am I talking about? Coffee. It's not working.

DL White [00:03:54]:
I am having coffee with sugar free caramel syrup and half because I am recording this morning. Anyway, I said I was gonna get up and do my book thing and then I'm gonna record this morning because I have writing to do and I have like a. Just a couple things I wanna get to this afternoon before we jump back into the work week. So I'm recording early on a Sunday. Yay. Let's begin with the book report because if I'm gonna do anything, I'm gonna. What? Read a book. I am at 80 of 175 books of my challenge to read 175 books this year.

DL White [00:04:29]:
I'm 46% toward my goal and I'm five books ahead of schedule. So you know your girl ain't worrying about much of nothing. I know I have been spotty on podcasts lately. So I'll go through what I read for May and then what I have read for June and what I am currently reading and what I've got in the hopper because the hopper is actually looking a little scary to me for a person that doesn't have a tbr. I have a lot of books in the hopper, So I read 12 books in May. Fuck with your boy. Nicole Falls. People of Means by Nancy Johnson.

DL White [00:05:06]:
A Dead Draw by Robert Dugoni. Night Wherever We Go by Tracy Rose Peyton. Ignacio by Delaney Diamond, Can't Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan, this side of Beautiful by Ty, Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Moseley, Father of the Bride by Shea Sanders, the Boomerang by Robert Bailey, Hunted Through Italy by Delaney diamond, and lastly King of Ashes by SA Cosby, which is quite literally the best book I have read lately. Like honestly, I mean really outside of Can't Get Enough and like a couple of other books I've read earlier this year, King of Ashes was simply the best. It comes out Tuesday. I can't wait for you guys to read it. Also coming out Tuesday is my girl Danielle Allen's Plus Size Player. And that book I can't Stop Talking about it.

DL White [00:06:01]:
It's so. It's so freaking good. So for June, of course. Plus Size Player by my girl Danielle Allen. Small Things by my other girl, Wanda M. Morris. I did really, really enjoy this. It's an audible short, so it's about two hours.

DL White [00:06:17]:
Fantastic Sinful Chains by Shea Sanders and Sinful Restraint by Sherrell Green. There's a third book. I don't remember the title, but it's sinful something. It's a trilogy. It's a dark romance trilogy by Shay Cherelle and Stephanie Nicole Norris. I don't know why they have me reading these books because I am chaste and innocent. But also I haven't been really enjoying them. They're really good.

DL White [00:06:45]:
So I'm about to get into Stephanie's book today or tomorrow hopefully so I can put a bow on that little series right there. But that's been some good reading. That's been, that's been some good reading if you're into that. You know what I'm saying? They're not vanilla. They're not vanilla. And I am not a White shoes person. I don't really be liking Paulie like that. So that's how you know them.

DL White [00:07:08]:
Books is good. Anyway. Currently reading, of course, Still August Lane by Regina Black. It's a small town romance about black women's voices and country music. It's very Beyonce meets. The literary world I've heard is very good, but I do not have an audio version of it and I can't get my machine to do the text to speech thing. And I really do better with thinking, not thinking, hearing versus looking. So I still got it on my list.

DL White [00:07:39]:
I'm still making progress. It's just when all I can do is read, my mind starts to drift. What really keeps me centered in it is being able to hear it. So I got to find a way to read it aloud. I can get like my phone to do the accessibility thing and so I might, I might, I might resort to that. Anyway, I've heard it's good. I do want to hear the audio though, so I may like just kind of slow roll it and snag the audio on release day so that I am ready to post a review. And then of course, Sinful Submission by Stephanie Nicole Norris.

DL White [00:08:18]:
This is the continuing the Dark Wide Shoes trilogy. So what's on deck? It's time for some read or release action. Trademark Bridget Bianca. I got a pile of books that I need to read or get gone. They're just like sitting in my Kindle and I'm like, oh, I'm gonna read that. Oh, I'm gonna read that. I'm very much a mood reader and I was in the mood to read them. I've got just a bunch of stuff.

DL White [00:08:44]:
Sounds like Trouble, which is an arc I have. That is Pamela Sanders. No, Pamela. I don't know. I didn't write down the titles to these books, but I got a bunch. I've got a bunch of books that I need to get read. I didn't even count them. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 books.

DL White [00:09:10]:
I don't know if I'm going to read them or if I am going to chuck them. There's a bunch that are Kindle Unlimited and at least one where I have the audio. So that should be like an easy yes for me. Let's see what I have here. Sounds like Trouble, which is the Pamela Samuels young Dwayne Alexander duo. This is the follow up to Sounds like a Plan from last year that was so much fun. I really, really enjoyed it. So looking forward to that.

DL White [00:09:42]:
I have a new Charlie Donnelly book which which I really enjoyed called Guess Again. Not really enjoyed. I really enjoy Charlie Donnelly. I've read all of his books and he has a new thriller coming out called Guess Again. I don't know. When it comes out, I have an arc. Most of these are arcs. Icing on the murder by Valerie Burns.

DL White [00:10:03]:
Something called in the Dark. I can't see the Chris Patchel maybe. Yes, Chris Patchel who I found this year and really enjoy. And now I close my page. Good Gracious High Season by Kate Bishop. I don't. I don't know. A lot of these are.

DL White [00:10:23]:
A lot of these are arcs, so I don't know what they're about. The road before me. This looks like a Neo Forester. No Embassy Susbury have. There's a lot going on here. How to kill your neighbors which I have seen all over TikTok and it looks really fun. J.R. mason.

DL White [00:10:44]:
I might dig into that. A book called Sweet Like Honey. I think this is Jackie Lau who I enjoy. The Divorce Taunt by Mia Henselman. A really funny story I have from Black Romance Book Fest is Saturday morning. I'm just chilling in the cafe at the hotel. Kind of the calm before the storm. It's like 8:15am I'm signing at 9, but we can't get into the room until like 8:30, 8:45.

DL White [00:11:11]:
So I'm just chilling. Karen, the reader came with me to help me with my table and she's getting coffee. I'm just sitting there kind of like disassociating. And the door opens. The lobby door opens and this woman rushes in and she's got suitcases and boxes, et cetera. And she looks over and across the lobby yells, is that TL White? Oh, my God. Hi, it's Mia. This woman has endless, boundless energy.

DL White [00:11:47]:
It's 8:15am on a Saturday now. I'm like, hey, I've never met her in person before, but she is uber social, very friendly. She just comes right over. Can I leave my stuff here? I'm gonna go get coffee and I need water and where do we sign in? And blah, blah, blah. Like just a mil a minute. Go, go, go. I mean, what like a warm, warm person. If you've ever met Mia, you know what I'm talking about.

DL White [00:12:15]:
Just a warm personality. I adored her. She was signing. I signed 9 to 11. I think she was 11 to 1. And so I popped into the room while she was signing. It was an absolute madhouse because Jaquel's table was behind her and it was hot in there. And Tasha was.

DL White [00:12:32]:
Tasha L. Harrison was there to help Mia. And she's like, it's so hot in here. I just need some water. I'm like, I'll bet. I'll be right back. That's. Here's what I can do.

DL White [00:12:40]:
I can go get you some water. So I went down and bought them both bottles of water and brought them back. And we'll talk about Black Romance Fest later. But that was an experience. Finding youg by Sharon C. Cooper. Enigma. I can't see the title of that book.

DL White [00:12:57]:
Teachers of Hardwood High by Nina High is a new release two steps ahead. A Sky Full of Love, which I think I also have audio with that one that need to get written. Creative Differences, which is a. A debut by DH Renfro. So I'm looking forward to that. I think I met her at Black Romance Book Fest. So excited. And then CM Barnes.

DL White [00:13:23]:
I know I have her book somewhere in here. I think I just haven't downloaded it in my Kindle. But gotta get her read because that's my lit library podcast. Boo. So all of those ladies were at my table at Black Romance Book Fest. Super enjoyed having them at my table. Love them down. Love their support.

DL White [00:13:44]:
Thank you so much. So moving on to streaming. Super quick rundown of what's been on my screen. I've been watching. I don't know why. The Duggar Siblings podcast. Ginger and Jeremy Volo in specific. Their pot is surprisingly good.

DL White [00:13:59]:
Not surprisingly good. It's actually. It's pretty good. Especially the recent episode with Zach and Tori Roloff from. I forgot the name of their show, but it was about this family of little people, the Roloffs. I can't. I can never remember anything right off the cuff anymore. I have to look everything up.

DL White [00:14:19]:
My brain is Swiss cheese lately. This is 51. Anyway, their podcast is really good. They have had a few of the Duggar siblings on. They've had a lot of people on talking about leaving cults and overcoming being a part of a strict religious order. So I really enjoy their podcast. I think it's good. And then there's another podcast called Unplanned.

DL White [00:14:46]:
Unplanned. Something might just be called Unplanned. I don't know. They've had a lot of the Duggars on as well. And like a lot of other people on. And then there's a couple other podcasts I've been watching. Of course, I can't remember the name of it, so I'm gonna have to look it up. And I didn't write it down because it's just coming to mind.

DL White [00:15:05]:
I thought I looked through my history before I did this, but apparently I didn't. I see lots of good things, and then I just add it to my Watch later tab. And that tab is getting scary. I don't know what it's called, but it's a. It's a podcast about people who have, like, overcome drug addiction. It's a lot like Locked up with Ian Bick, but it's not really about going to prison. It's more about, like, people who've been caught up in, like, opioid addiction, drug addiction. You know, you've lived a difficult life and you've overcome.

DL White [00:15:43]:
It's hosted by a previous addiction. I can't find it. I will find it the second I am not concentrating on it. Then, of course, the reliving single podcast, really Enjoying that is hosted by Erica Alexander and Kim something. My goodness, Kim Coles. Hi. So that's really good. House guest with Scott Evans, of course, watching that.

DL White [00:16:08]:
His Keke Palmer interview was solid. Quite good. Quite good. And then Romance Unleashed has a video podcast. And I have twice watched this episode with the creator of the Bad Bitch Book club. Really, really good knowledge, especially if you are looking at creating your own book club. And then, of course, I am catching up with reading, writing and Rain with Rain Coleman. His debut, Loving Ashley drops Friday, June 13th.

DL White [00:16:34]:
I'm so excited about this, about him. This is his debut. I Believe. And he is chronicling literally every second of writing and editing and printing and publishing his debut novel, Loving Ashley. It's so good to have this. And I wish for a lot of debut authors that they would have the sense of self enough to do something like that, to chronicle it somehow. Because a year from now, two years from now, 10 years from now, you might not remember what you went through to get here, what you had to go through to bring your book to the front stage and then continue to chronicle and really continue to commemorate and memorialize the things that you're doing to keep your book in the forefront, the things you're doing to make improvements to your author business, the things that you have learned because people are watching. Even like, you know, older authors like me, I've been out here 10 years and like there might be things that you are discovering that I don't know because I'm not paying attention.

DL White [00:17:48]:
Like I don't publish books through KDP print anymore. I only do ebook there. I do all my, all my print books through Draft 2 Digital. So there are things in that process that I might not be aware of, things that might change, things that are different that I might not be aware of. And if I'm giving advice to people based off of thing, I don't know what I'm talking about, it could be wrong. So I'm going to say, hey, I want you to go dig into rain Coleman's YouTube channel because he just went through this and he could probably explain it to you better than I can. So continue to document, continue to talk about it. Don't worry about what you look like.

DL White [00:18:26]:
Coming from somebody who don't ever put her face on the Internet because I'm always worried about what I look like. But like, at least blog it, you know, continue to document what you're going through as a first time author, putting out your sophomore book after your indie book after your debut has hit. Because the second one is like usually way different than the first. So those are good. And then I saw that Straw has launched on Netflix. I think this is a Tyler Perry joint. I don't know, we'll see. But it's on my list.

DL White [00:18:58]:
The Tylenol Murders documentary dropped. It's surprisingly boring. Like maybe I was just distracted, but I was not interested in it at all. I like daydreamed and played a game all the way through it. Like I would look up something on YouTube and I would watch that. But the Tylenol Murders doc on Netflix was like, I won't say it was trash but it wasn't. It wasn't good to me. And then I'm still behind on Will Trent.

DL White [00:19:26]:
I don't know why, but I just don't feel like watching it. I will eventually. I do need to catch up on Poker Face. Just not feeling either of those lately. But I will get into them. I just need a week where like, I just need like, like a good six to 12 months of time to just read books and watch TV. That's all I need while still making a full time paycheck anyway. So I, I want to check out the Paul Rubens documentary on Max.

DL White [00:19:53]:
I haven't got to that, but I heard it was good. And then I just, I mean my Just Watch app is trash. So I gotta go through all that catch up with all the stuff I'm supposed to be watching and haven't all the stuff I have watched and haven't reported on just so like get that up to date so it can start alerting me in real time of things I need to be watching. So moving on to the writing and publishing update, I finally have a current project. I'm so proud of me, girl. I'm so proud of me. It is let's write a book time. Sort of.

DL White [00:20:31]:
So Missing Persons is my next project, which I have talked about this before. It was a thing. I wanted to be out in the summer. It's probably going to be late summer, like August, September. Ish. Hopefully before like fall officially. And I feel like I've been writing this book for eight years because I have. It's been like very piecemeal since I released Dinner at Sam's and the original story just wasn't suspenseful enough.

DL White [00:21:00]:
I wanted it to be a romantic suspense, but my plot just was not suspenseful. So I have been kind of piecemealing it over the past few years and I had to read more thrillers and more mysteries and let it marinate. And now what I have is, I feel is a strong romantic mystery with thriller elements. It's not really a thrilling suspenseful novel and it's got way more romance than anything else in it. But I'm excited to have it. So I have a complex external plot wrapped around a slow burn, longing friends to lovers, romance between Wesley Payne and Yvette Young. And yes, you recognize Yvette from a previous novel. She's the PI from Dinner at Sam's.

DL White [00:21:42]:
So if you want to meet Yvette early or you need a refresher, go grab that book. She is a brief blip in the book like if you blink, you'll miss her. But she is in that book. Gibson Kincaid in Dinner at Sam's uses Yvette to track Vanessa's ex husband and figure out where he's living so she can serve him with divorce. And so the blurb is in progress, but here is what I have so far. Atlanta attorney Wesley Payne takes on a case that's messier than it looks. His client, Angelica Foster, insists her husband Edward isn't dead, even after three years missing and pressure from his sister to declare him legally dead and collect his inheritance. Wesley hires private investigator Yvette Young, a former army detective with a sharp eye and a guarded heart.

DL White [00:22:33]:
What starts as a paper chase turns into a dangerous hunt involving fraud, cover ups, and a man determined to keep Edward's secrets buried. As the case heats up, so does the passion between Wesley and Yvette. They've worked together before, but this time it's personal. And neither is ready for what they'll uncover. Not just about the case, but about each other. So that's the bare bones, of course. I'll, I'll zhuzh it up a little bit more, but I just needed to get something on paper so I could tell y' all about it. So I'm writing, editing, revising, rewriting really.

DL White [00:23:07]:
I had a basic, basic draft that I finished late last year, like earlier this year, but I could not possibly publish it. It was very bare bones, draft zero. So now I'm going through to add voice, passion, detail. I'm quite happy with where I am right now, but I know it is not done. Just know there's more kissing than danger in this book. You know, I'm not a thriller writer. I've been dabbling just enough to get this book palatable to romantic suspense readers. So it's heavy on the rom, light on the suspense, heavy on the rom, light on the mystery, but we gonna make it.

DL White [00:23:46]:
So I'm going chapter by chapter, mostly to ground the reader in location. This is another Atlanta heavy book and I want people to recognize places, neighborhoods, freeways, thoroughfares. I just wanna be very specific when into this novel because I think a thing that people enjoy when they read my books is recognizing names of places. And one thing that Karen, the reader, she's my most ardent, dedicated reader, she tells me all the time, Atlanta people read your books and they recognize the places, so you can't be making things up because they're going to look it up and they're going to realize it doesn't exist and they're going to Be ticked off. So use real names, use real streets, use real places, because your Atlanta readers like that little Easter egg. So. So I'm trying real hard to place Wesley's business and his home, Yvette's business and her home, and the places that they go, the mystery takes them out of town, and so I'm less so concentrated about that area, but still trying to be realistic. They stay at a real hotel, they eat at a real restaurant, et cetera.

DL White [00:24:54]:
So I also, like. I want. I want people to recognize places. I want each chapter to be cinematic and. Which means, like, they see it playing out in their head are the. All the sensory details there. It means extreme attention to detail and making sure each action, each sentence of dialogue, each piece of exposition between your dialogue and your action, make sure it's vivid. Do you see it playing out in your mind? Do you hear the door opening? Do you sense the footsteps coming down the hall? Can you picture the belt line as Wesley is staring out of his office? Like, that's, like, the level of detail I want to bring to the book.

DL White [00:25:39]:
And that's hard work. That's. It's not just. It's not just crapping out a book and publishing it like, here. Like a here damn book. It's hard work for me. So it's going to take a few turns of revision before it's even remotely ready for betas and especially for my editor. And I hope she listens to this podcast because I want her to know the widths and lengths that I have gone to to make this book good.

DL White [00:26:07]:
I'm not gonna give her swinging from the chandeliers as she demanded that I give her after I made her edit brunch at Ruby's. And there was so much infidelity in that book, but we gonna make it. You're getting some juiciness, I think, in here. And, like, I always think my books are, like, sexy. They're like. I think they're steamy, but, like, sometimes I'll be reading stuff out here, and I'm like, I am like Disney compared to y' all. Y' all are filthy. My goodness.

DL White [00:26:41]:
So I don't think this book is going to be filthy, but I'm working hard to like, make the romance scenes romance. Y. And for my slow burn haters, like, I gotta build. I gotta. I gotta build. There's a reason it's been. There's a reason it's gonna be a minute until they get together, but there is some getting together. It's a romance by D.L.

DL White [00:27:08]:
white. There's some getting together, you know what I'm saying? So I got time. I'm an indie author. I do things the way I want to do them in the time it takes to get it done. You know what I'm saying? It's done when it's done, not a second earlier. When this is done, I'm gonna get to work on Potter Lake 4, which is titled Still I Rise. I'm also very excited about that one. That one isn't even at draft zero.

DL White [00:27:32]:
I have not even done with it yet. I'm on like chapter 10. I hit a wall. I think I was working on two things at once and I was like, something's gotta give and I'm putting down. Still I Rise for right now. I've been trying to write Still I Rise for a couple of years. So, you know, as usual, I need to work on that. I want it to be out this fall.

DL White [00:27:50]:
It might be late date, late fall, like early winter. Then I think I probably won't do a hol short. But also in the parentheses, these are things I say. But then I'll feel fomo because everyone is releasing their cute little holiday books and I will feel left out. I'll think on it. But like, that's what happened last year with Festival. Holiday Falls Festival at Holiday Falls Festival at Something Falls. I.

DL White [00:28:13]:
I do not remember the names of my books. And then again with Grumpy Valentine, I just. I wanted to put out something cute and holiday ish that could be like rebound every year. Evergreen Falls Festival. Evergreen Falls. I didn't even have to look that up. Aren't you proud? I'm proud. So rolling down on my.

DL White [00:28:33]:
On my. On my rundown here. So if you want a sneak peek of missing persons, I sent one out to my newsletter subscribers yesterday. So check your email if you're on my list. If you're on my list and you didn't get one, check your junk mail. And if you check your junk mail and it's still not there, shout me out a holler because I may have removed you. Because if you don't be opening my newsletters, I don't be paying for you to be on my list. You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? Because this costs money.

DL White [00:29:05]:
Now you in my pocket. You know what I mean? So there's also a sample Sunday up on my substack blog. Today, June 8th, it's authordl white.substack.com It's a sample Sunday. You should be able to find it Easily. I am excited for everyone to meet Wesley and Yvette. I love them so far. I don't have a Pinterest board for them yet, but that is the next thing on my list. I'm very stressed out by not having visuals for these people, but I've got to work on that.

DL White [00:29:32]:
And also possibly a, A, possibly a, a soundtrack. What do they call that? Like a soundtrack? I don't know. But I'm not really very music motivated, so I don't know. Maybe not. I'll. I'll, I'll. I'll put together a list. I'll put together a list.

DL White [00:29:51]:
Fan fiction wise. Music of My Heart is updated. This one picks up right after Zoe learns that one of her EP songs leaked and she rightly freaks out. She's raw, she's rattled, she is not ready. But her real, the real version of her song is dropping to kind of combat the leaks and ain't nobody got time for a breakdown. So I gave like a fictional behind the scenes my interpretation of what it feels like to go public with something very personal. She records a really quick, imperfect, perfect video posted up on TikTok and then she sits next to her man waiting for the public to react. I have too much fun, too much fun writing comments for her both in person and online.

DL White [00:30:35]:
Because I have seen the wide variety of fandom in person and in person and online. I wanted to visualize what it's like to be on the other side of that. JC is nearby, being very supportive without being overbearing. In my mind. This is why I write JC Chaseze fanfic because everybody writes him as like a, like a, a morose, very serious, driven person. Which, which isn't false. He is a very dedicated. He's very much into craft.

DL White [00:31:09]:
He is a very quiet, introverted individual. But also like once you get to know him, I feel like he is a very lovable sarcastic and he loves being that way. A super nice guy. Like you'll never meet anybody more loving and supportive, but also very much a smart ass who also does not understand jokes. In this chapter I make the 30 minutes. Did you know you have 30 minutes joke? And he doesn't get it. And you know Zoe is like 15 years younger than him and he doesn't understand. He doesn't understand, understand.

DL White [00:31:44]:
This is very peak jc. He does not. He gets the jokes last and you have to explain that to him. But I think it's really funny. It's very JC and I like to get my characterization just right. So I had fun with this one. So as the numbers on her music and her page start to climb, so does Zoe's anxiety. So this chapter, to me, wasn't about perfection.

DL White [00:32:11]:
Her first song is dropping because someone leaked it, not because she was ready. There's no label telling her where to be, how to do things, pushing things along, rolling things out the way they want to see them. It's just Joey. It's just Zoe, jc, her manager and her new publicist against the world. And like, sometimes it's not a big old sparkly fantasy ball. Sometimes things like don't roll out the way you want them to roll out. And that is what Zoe is dealing with right now. So I am writing slash, revising missing persons right now, which means I'm heavy into that.

DL White [00:32:48]:
So chapters on the fanfic might be chaotically updated or delayed, but I mean, or they might be run on time. I don't know. I don't plan these things. I just feel like writing and I, like, sit down and bang out a chapter and like, let it sit and then I go back and revise it and then I post it. It's a very low stakes, like, you'll see a lot. You'll see a lot of, like, weird things that. I mean, it's very low stakes writing right here. I just be writing.

DL White [00:33:17]:
I write to be writing. You know, I like having something to disappear into when I'm tired of whatever I am working on. And fan fiction always takes. Fanfiction always does it for me. So let's move on to our main topic this week, which is, of course, Black Romance Book Fest. Are you guys tired of hearing about Black Romance Book Fest yet? I hope not, because I'm about to talk about Black Romance Book Fest, but I'm gonna talk about it from the perspective of an author. From pre orders to table sales. I wanna talk about being an author at a big event.

DL White [00:33:50]:
Like, this is the biggest event I have ever been a part of. And it was truly, truly wonderful. All of the pictures and recaps that you're seeing, those are all realistic. There was zero drama. There's a little bit of drama at the end because there was a couple of white readers that attended. As far as I saw, they were buying books, they bought merch, they were decked out with their. Their big old carts and whatever. One of them bought books at my table.

DL White [00:34:20]:
She actually pre ordered books at my table. We had a long conversation. She listens to the podcast. Hey there. She brought me a gift. She reads the substack. She listens to my Audiobooks. She is like, anyway, there was a white author that won one of the raffles at the very, very, very, very end.

DL White [00:34:40]:
Like I didn't, I wasn't at the raffle because once I finished my signing at 4, I packed up to get my friend to the airport. It was like, so, so at the end of the festival that I was not there for the raffle. Anyway, some of the readers felt like the white reader should have given the basket that she won back so that a black reader could have, could win it. But also the organizers weren't telling her to give it back. So like, those are your personal thoughts. I'm the wrong person to talk to about that because those readers paid to be in that room just like anybody else. They read the books, they visited tables, they were there both days. They were enthusiastic, they were giving out hugs, they were high fiving folks.

DL White [00:35:28]:
They watched the videos, they read the books, they write reviews. Like books is books, is books is books, readers are readers. And quite honestly, a thing I talked about with one of my friends was like, sometimes once you start reading black fiction, you cannot go back to that other stuff, especially black romance, especially indie black romance. It's just different. And I think about this all the time. It's just, it's, it's full, it's realistic, it is what that author wanted on the page, the way that author wanted it on the page. We are not pandering to people who are not going to read these books anyway. We're not pandering to anybody in these books.

DL White [00:36:15]:
We are writing it what we want to write, the way we want to write it, the way we want you to read it. And once you are exposed to that, it's real hard to go back to like the bland, formulaic type stuff. So anyway, it was a fabulous, fabulous weekend. But I want to talk about this process from the perspective of being an author because I don't see a whole lot of that. The whole process from pre orders to fulfillment to handing those bags to the readers at the table. And I want to talk money because transparency matters and because I know there are authors that are hoping to be in the building next year. And if you've never done a book event, here's how it go. Now I know they're going to start announcing authors in July and the second, the second you find out that you are going to be in that room, I want you to start getting ready.

DL White [00:37:07]:
Are you going to have a new book out? What books do you want to start promoting right now? What books do you Want to start looking at for editing? Do you want to change any covers? What bundles are you going to have together? Like start thinking about that now because Once we hit January 2026, it's going to be prime time. It's going to be like time to buckle down and get your things together. The time is going to pass faster than you think it will. Time from May 2024 to walking up to that hotel in May 2025 was like a snap. Like I really. It went fast. It went real fast. So, so here's how it go to know how many books I had to have at my table, I guess and it really started with the pre orders.

DL White [00:37:56]:
I waited until the pre orders closed and I did my pre orders through the eventi form which was super easy. You load up your, you know, all your books and your blurbs and your tropes and whatnot, you set your prices, you put your together your bundles, boom, Bob's your uncle. You have a nice pre order form. People can. You can enable PayPal and what's the other one stripe they pay. You can have them pay ahead of time or you can have them pay at your table. It just will load up everything for you to tell you how many books you have to fulfill, what books, how many of each book, who prepaid, who's gonna. And then you can start checking them off as you fulfill them and you can check them off as they pick them up.

DL White [00:38:41]:
I didn't do any of that. I did all of that like post festival. But I did use that form to note what books I needed to order and who needed to pick up what, how to pack my pre orders and have those ready for people to pick up. So I wait until pre orders close to know how many books I was committed to bringing. And if I had to order books based off of what I had in stock, I would know how many I needed to order to fulfill my pre orders and then how many I would need to order to have 5 to 10 copies to have on hand to sell. So now let me tell you something. Let me tell you something. And this isn't imposter syndrome.

DL White [00:39:21]:
This is reality. Being at a big book event with big authors can be nerve wracking. There is a reason I don't travel for book events. I am my publisher. So I have to purchase and ship my books wherever I'm going. And that means money out of my pocket. And I know y' all see how much I'd be making monthly. Like if I make $100 a month, that's a good month.

DL White [00:39:45]:
Month. And out of that comes any, any subscriptions that I pay for to be an author. Like prowritingaid, like book funnel, like Buzzsprout. Well, Buzzsprout kind of pays for itself but you know, like this is it. It costs money to be an author. They say it's quote unquote free, but there are things I subscribe to to make my life easier as an author and I am pretty much subsidizing my author business with my full time paycheck. So I'm going in the red to print books. I think I spent almost 500 bucks on books.

DL White [00:40:30]:
3 to 500. I can't remember how much I would, I would have to look it up. But I spent a pretty penny, pretty penny on books to ship. Of course I buy books at author prices and then my retail is maybe two to three times that. So hopefully there's a big delta between what it costs me to print and ship a book and what I sell it for. If I sell out of books, I'm probably breaking even on the flight, hotel, printing, shipping. So the benefit there, when you're meeting readers in person, you're doing book events unless you just keep them books in stock, is getting signups on my newsletter list, possibly getting digital orders and meeting readers in person. There's nothing like meeting your readers in person and signing books.

DL White [00:41:15]:
So if it's local, I will try to get on that author list. Like I'm doing indie love later this year. If it's local, I'm gonna try to be on that list. I do not travel for book events except for special occasions. Like I'll always travel to resist booksellers. And also he buys my books off of Ingram so I don't have to bring books. So all the profit goes to him. I will have made money off of the sale of books when he bought them from Ingram.

DL White [00:41:46]:
So being at a book event where readers are content to stand in a four hour line to get their fave to sign a book and take a photo means that there are people who aren't going to look around. They're not here for me. They're here for so and so and they might glance at my table as they walk past and I hope the nevertheless catches their eye when they walk walk past. Like there might be a few people that are there for me but for the most part people are there for big author A, big author B, big author C, big author D. And I know like there was a person that was concerned that her table was right next to Kennedy Ryan's because you know her line is going to be out of control and you're just going to get swallowed up. Like there was a couple of authors that were between big authors at Black Romance Book Fest and they kind of got swallowed up and I don't know if they made any sales at all because you couldn't see their table between the people trying to line up for this author and that author on at the Saturday midday signing, the 11 to 1 signing they had at the same time. Kennedy Ryan, Tia Williams, Danielle Allen, Jaquel and Ms. Bev, Beverly Jenkins at the same time.

DL White [00:43:03]:
And then those, they were kind of around the perimeter and then in the middle of a room were, you know, other like, you know, mid list smaller indie authors. But you couldn't even get in that room at one point because Ms. Bev's line was kind of blocking one entrance. And then people were lined up down the hall and around the corner for Kennedy Ryan. Danielle Allen had her own line and then there was a line out front for Tia Williams. And then Jaquel's line I don't think ever got short. Like people were standing in that line literally for hours. For Jaquel, she signed 9am to 1pm both days.

DL White [00:43:46]:
Kennedy signed 9am to one p.m. both days. I think Ms. Bev only had one signing, 9 to 11am or 11 to 1pm on Saturday. And then I think Tia Williams signed both days. It was just a lot. And that room looks big until you get, get 500 people in there. And so add to that, you know, everybody.

DL White [00:44:12]:
I don't think the planning team was ready for everybody to have those big rolling carts, big bags. Every author, not every author, but a lot of author had those stand up banners, those, unless they're right behind you, right behind your table. They take up so much space and people can't get past. It was a madhouse. I mean it was a blessed, happy madhouse. It was loud in there, it was warm in there. People were just happy to get in there and get in line and talk about books. It was exciting.

DL White [00:44:45]:
But also it was a madhouse. So like I showed up on Saturday morning and I didn't have a table and so they had forgot to set my table. And I was so frustrated. I was so. That was like one of the only snafus of the weekend. I didn't have like table and so they had to come real super quick, give me a table. I had to set up my books with like two and a half minutes to the doors open. Karen and I were like Rushing around and then people like started showing up.

DL White [00:45:19]:
So anyway, it can be nerve wracking to try to be pushing books at the same time as quote unquote big authors. And so that's why I kind of guessed at how many books to have at my table. I did want to have like 5 to 10 on hand and if I sell, I sell out. I would rather sell out than have 20 books I have to lug back home. So like I suppose it could be lucrative to do in person sales if I could keep up on the inventory and also be local. But like I have FOMO real bad when it comes to a book event. So I want to be on site so I don't miss things. I remember the first event I attended was Girl have youe Red in Houston and watching everybody go hang out together because they were all staying at the same hotel while I went back to my room to to like, you know, eat shrimp and watch Discovery TV was not it.

DL White [00:46:11]:
I felt really left out. So anyway, yes, I'm staying on site for Indie Love. Yes, I stayed on site for Black Romance Book Fest because I live 45 minutes away from the JW and I was not driving back and forth every day. Let's talk numbers though. Black Romance Book Fest pre orders I had 12 books ordered and that came to 215 31. And then at the festival over the two days I sold 35 books and I made $520. The 9am to 10am hour on day one was my strongest sales period with all of my five top titles were selling during that window. The 2pm period 2 to 4pm signing slowed considerably, had much lower activity.

DL White [00:47:02]:
Only two titles really. Sol Brunette, Ruby's and Neverless. But I know I sold one set of the Black diamond books to Bridget Bianca and it's just not, it's not showing up in my numbers here. But anyway. I will say though that Black Romance Book Fest has brought me my biggest sales ever. That's about $700 in sales compared to, I don't know, I would have to look it up but I think I spent about, about about $400 on books. So I didn't quite break even because then I had you know, the two days of hotel on site that I needed to pay for. But like it's pretty dang close sort of because I did have some books on hand.

DL White [00:47:51]:
I just ordered more to make sure I could fulfill my pre orders and then I ordered more to have a like you know, five to seven on hand to spend sell. So going into Indie love. I've got five pre orders. A 153, 24 in earnings from those pre orders so I can fulfill my pre orders. I have already placed an order for books to fulfill my pre orders and to have some leftover. I might look at ordering more books because my signing time is going to be longer. 11:00am to 4:00pm I don't know, we'll see. If I order too many books, I'll do a paperback sale to get rid of them because I do not have room to store them on.

DL White [00:48:30]:
My books are currently in the trunk of my car. So over the two days my top sellers at Black Romance Book Festival were Brunchet Ruiz hardcover. I sold four of those. The Never List, I sold five of those. Hey Lover, I sold five of those. And then the Black Diamond Bay series dominated with 16 total units sold. People were really into the Black Diamond Bay, but Black Black Romance Book Fest was a top tier event. Top tier.

DL White [00:48:59]:
I'm really excited to see how they do next year in a bigger venue. We're at the Omni next year. I honestly hope they don't get too big. I wouldn't want it to get huge and impersonal and corporate. The little touches that I'm sure you've seen from everyone's recap videos and video photos were real. So, so nice. As an author, I felt seen. I felt celebrated in a way we aren't often seen and celebrated.

DL White [00:49:23]:
I also really find it heartwarming how popular book influencers and authors really become rock stars. Like to see Ms. Bev come down the hall and people cheer for her. Like Jucwell came down the hall and it was like, it was like she was Prince. Like she almost had to have security to see like Kennedy Ryan or Tia Williams walking around like, those are big famous New York Times best selling authors in the room. Vanessa Riley is just the most personable New York Times bestselling author you have ever met. Everyone was like just so friendly and personable. It was like a big family reunion.

DL White [00:50:02]:
Just meeting so many people you haven't met in person. Authors become rock stars at these kinds of events and it's really ego boosting to me to have several people come to my table and be like, I loved Never List. I love this cover. It's so pretty. Or Rubies or Hey Lover. Several bought the print edition of Calculated Risk, which isn't even widely available. It's only available through the Prolific Works giveaway. And also, what is that black? I forget.

DL White [00:50:34]:
But it's a black imprint that distributes through Kensington. They came to my table and they bought a copy of Neverlist. Don't know if they'll read it, but they did come by one of my books. I can't remember the name of it because I have to look up everything. Anyway, that is my brief recap of Black Romance Book Fest from the author's side. I said it wasn't new and play by play, I don't think I did. But suffice it to say, had a really, really wonderful time. Minimal snafus, hardly any drama.

DL White [00:51:02]:
Everyone was so wonderful in person. I have never been prouder to be a black indie romance author. That's enough talking for me. I think I'm done talking. I've been talking for at least 45 minutes straight. I'm gonna hate editing this, but whatever. Thank you so much for spending time with me today. If you enjoyed this episode, please don't forget to share it.

DL White [00:51:25]:
Rate it Leave a comment wherever you're listening. Apple, Spotify, Substack, YouTube throw down. Let me know you're listening. You'll find full show notes, a transcript and links@booksbydlwhite.com bookcast121 and on my substack@authord substack.com don't forget you can support this podcast by shopping my books. Books by DL White.com shop. You can buy me a coffee at buymeacoffee.com Books by DL White. You can share the podcast or join the newsletter@booksbydl White.com links Big Me. Big ups.

DL White [00:51:57]:
Big thanks to my monthly supporters and everyone who has sent a coffee. You keep this mic turned on. The mic is on. That's a lot of links, but you can also go to booksbydlwhite.com links everything will be there for you. The book cast is written, produced and edited by me, D.L. white. Any theme music and sound effects are provided by Pixabay. I will be back next week.

DL White [00:52:20]:
Whatever date that is. June something. June 14th? Maybe, maybe. Maybe June 15th. I don't know. Possibly. My mother is coming next next week, so any plans with her are going to supersede podcast recording, but I think I will be back. My cousin is turning 70 and so we are going to her birthday party, but I think that's Saturday night and we're not party animals so you know, we'll see how that goes.

DL White [00:52:47]:
But the plan is to be back next week. Until then, be well. Read something good. Put it into your face. I'll talk to you soon. Bye bye. Sa Sam.