E9 - Neurodiverse Representation, the Adirondacks, & Traditional vs. Self-Publishing for Kids' Books

 Laura and Jess welcome author Kim Adams to talk about Bella and Nash: Our First Camping Trip, her chapter book inspired by her years working with nonverbal students and communication devices, plus her family's deep ties to the Adirondacks. Kim shares her publishing journey with Wilde Beast Publishing and what life as a published author really looks like. The duo also breaks down what to consider when choosing traditional vs. self-publishing for children's books, shares CNY Arts Center workshop updates (August 22nd, Fulton), spotlights author Valerie Cole's Old Witch's Home series, and introduces the newest Beastie Bestie, Jess's new pup, Frank. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Welcome to BC Bessies with JLO, the podcast where we share publishing updates, laughs, and all the new news in our world. Today we're going to interview Kim Adams. She's the author of Bella and Nash, our first camping trip, and she'll be joining us just a little bit later. Jess, you want to give us just like a quick rundown on her book?

SPEAKER_02 0:16

Oh, it's awesome. It's really it's about these two cousins that don't really know each other that go camping in the Adirondacks, and one is non-verbal, and the other is a little bit, we'll say, precocious, and just how they find empathy and understanding and learn a lot of lessons in the woods and have a great time.

SPEAKER_04 0:48

Awesome. And grateful for we have you first on the script, so why don't you go?

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Alright, y'all. I gotta tell you, it's gonna be a little dark this week. I'm sorry, but uh we've had a death in the family, so I'm out in Florida right now. But I am grateful for the show Widow's Bay on Apple TV. It's fantastic, just interesting. You know, it's nice finding some storytelling that you actually enjoy on the television these days. I am now the proud owner of a second dog who is sleeping here next to me. I'm sure he'll pop his cute little face up at some point and say hello to y'all. And you know, with loss sometimes comes some really beautiful things, and I've had a chance to reconnect with a lot of great people in my life that I haven't spoken to in quite a few years. So there's been a lot of love and just you know, laughs and tears and stories and good times. So it's you know, silver linings as we were talking about earlier, right, friend? Yep.

SPEAKER_04 1:39

There's there's gotta be a silver lining. Yeah. And and I'm glad you've had them, especially little Frank. Yeah, he is awesome. I am grateful for air conditioning because it feels like Florida in New York this week, uh as it does most of the East Coast. And you might be able to hear it in the background, sorry about that. But if I turn it off, I'm gonna be just moist. Nobody wants moist. I'm very grateful for our authors. Uh uh, with the loss and and having to uh take a break for a couple of them, uh we they've been very understanding and we're still, you know, making progress and getting them moving forward. But love our our group of authors are just awesome. Thank you, everyone.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

Thank you, truly. Like, I need it.

SPEAKER_04 2:17

Yeah, and I am grateful for having the courage to cancel things when they need to be cancelled. So whether that's uh people, opportunities, certain things, but just you know, I I think I'm not a people pleaser type of person, but it's still you want to say yes, and you get into some things that you're like, okay, maybe it's time to end this, and then you consider how long you've been had invested time or whatever. And there are just certain times where you have to say enough is enough. And yeah, so I'm just grateful for the courage to do that sometimes. And uh yeah, intentions. I think you know, we talked about uh we've been doing the intentions on the podcast, but I will be honest, we haven't been doing them so much uh as a daily practice as we used to. So, but we had talked about getting back to that after uh another thing that we had going on. So I think after this next thing that we have going on, I'm not making any promises. We're back and settled in Denver. It's time to get back on intentions, but we are at least one of our intentions was keeping this podcast going, so we are doing that.

SPEAKER_02 3:21

I mean, considering everything that's going on, we're sitting here right now today when I just got the news last week and had to drive out west, or where am I east?

SPEAKER_03 3:30

No, just who am I? What is my name? I don't even know. Florida is neither east, east nor west, it's just kind of dangling there. Straight down to hell.

SPEAKER_04 3:40

So I think that, you know. But that's that's a a great example of having intentions. We have this and we're doing it no matter what, you know. And uh yeah, so if you are following intentions and thinking about bringing it into your endeavors or your friendship, it's it's very important.

SPEAKER_02 3:57

You're so right though, and I mean to to piggyback off what you were just saying there is like I met with a coach last, I don't know, two weeks ago, three weeks ago, whatever it was, and they said, You gotta get intentional with these things, and like you need to make time for yourself every morning to do this, this, and this. And I was like, Okay, I'm gonna do it. And then everything got off track, and I should be doing this, this, and this, and I'd feel so much better. But it's just like it's it's so hard. You really do have to be intentional with doing it, right? Because it's so easy to fall off track and just be like, I'm tired, everything's crazy. This doesn't.

SPEAKER_04 4:30

So life happens, and I think that's also one of the benefits of doing it with your bestie, BC, whoever, someone, accountability buddy, whatever, someone who can you know, okay, cool, we've had some time off, let's go back to it. Or even during it, like, okay, well, one of our intentions was this, so how's that going during this episode or whatever?

SPEAKER_02 4:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:52

You know, stuff like that. So but uh let's see, let's get on to our news. The workshop is filling up. We are still making our last push to get this going, so we have vendor opportunities available. This is happening at the CNY Art Center in Fulton on August 22nd. It is uh Tiny called it a marketplace, which I think I like as well or better than Book Fair. So, because it is open to everyone outside of authors. If you have soap company or other type of art or craft, it's open to you. And you know, we've talked several times about the amazing speakers that we'll have there, Georgia Popoff. Uh, she is an amazing accomplished writer in the C the central New York area. Uh, Dr. Luisa Caprono, author of Push Then Breathed, which you know, we love her. And there's other videos of her on our YouTube channel giving her advice on how to just market your book. So I'm excited to have her there. And then Aldea Gerard is not gonna be able to make it live, so we are having a bonus where you get me instead. We're gonna do marketing and business plans, and Aldea is actually gonna record her part, which actually I think works out better because her part was to teach people how to use Canva to do their marketing and do social media posts, and you'd be able to hold on to it and have it live and like rewatch it.

SPEAKER_02 6:04

Yeah, that's really great because I know like I can take as copious notes as I think I, you know, it can and still miss one step. So if you have someone walking you through it, that's I mean, that's really valuable. Yeah, she's an awesome.

SPEAKER_04 6:17

Yeah. And so we are also, you know, a proud sponsor of the CNY Arts, the art scene at C and Y Arts new author spotlight club, and July 17th will be Valerie Cole, also known as Avian Swansong, who will be doing the Old Witch's Home and the Old Witches Camp just came out. So, Jess, how about a a recap on those two books?

SPEAKER_02 6:36

Man, they're really awesome because I remember when Valerie first joined on with us. I she I we were getting a book called The Old Witch's Home. I didn't know what it was about. I thought it was like some like cool cottage in the woods where an old witch lived, but no, it's a retirement community for witches, which the first book is awesome. They're all in their beautiful separate homes, you know, kind of subdivision that they live in. And something happens that kind of takes over the retirement community, so they need to like figure out who the bad guy is. It's like very like high-level Scooby-Doo, where it's like, you know, we gotta get this mystery solved and see what happens. Now the witches headed off to camp, and of course, you know, mischief followed them there as well. But this one involves like Gaia and the environment and earth and just you know, community. They're both really about community and they're fantastic books. Aviana is awesome.

SPEAKER_04 7:29

They're uh they're both uh LGBTQ type of reads too, right?

SPEAKER_02 7:33

Oh, yeah, definitely. I mean, there's you know, some non-binary characters, there's some and there's some uh senior romance in it and things like that too. So it's just it's it's different. It's a fun, cozy read that really gets the brain going, especially the old witches camp, because she touches on some subjects and you know, just she's got me thinking. You know, every time I pick up a plastic water bottle, I'm like, oof, you know. But in a in a very good summer camp, fun way. Right, right.

SPEAKER_04 8:00

Not and you know, it is uh we always have the community going and we meet once a week on Wednesdays, alternating days and evenings, and our challenge this month has been posted by now. I'm not sure what it is, but uh it's sure to be a fun one as usual. So we usually make a post about it on social media, so if you wanted to just do it on your own, you can. But if you want to take part in it, get the full description and report to the rest of the group, you can join us inside the community. And uh it looks like our friends are here.

SPEAKER_02 8:27

Oh, excellent. Can't wait to talk to Kim. It's been way too long since I've had a chat with her.

SPEAKER_04 8:32

Right. We have Kim Adams with us, as we said earlier, the author of Bella and Nash, our first camping trip. Welcome, Kim. Hello, thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 8:40

There it is. Tell us about the cover. So I wanted this cover, I wanted it to represent camping and one of the parts in the book. So this actually happens in the book, and so I wanted the that represented. So there's a picture inside and a picture on the cover. So that it represents awesome.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

And who who drew it?

SPEAKER_00 9:04

So my illustrator, Gina Noel, illustrated it, and just plain illustrations on a sketchpad. I didn't want anything fan, you know, fancy, I just want it plain, and then I want it black and white, except for the cover.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

It looks so cute, right? You know, and Laura and I were just talking about books and whatnot, and I just found a whole box of books from my childhood, and it reminds me of some of those ones, like the old How to Eat Fried Worms and Ramona Quimby and those things that so many of us grew up on. It's really it's so cute.

SPEAKER_04 9:37

Yeah, what inspired the book to begin with?

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Well, I'm a retired teacher, so I have the background to write the book. It's based on two cousins that go on a camping trip with their grandfather, and one of the cousins is a neurodiverse little boy who uses a communication device. And I actually worked with about 13 kids like him. Wow. And I worked with communication devices one-on-one, one-on-two. It it depended on that particular year. So, in one little boy, um, I actually started in kindergarten and he couldn't speak any words at all. And by the end of the year, he spoke a couple words, but we communicated through the device.

SPEAKER_02 10:22

So you know, and and reading and working with you on this book was the first time I was made aware of a communication device like that. So I also learned something from this. Plus, you have a lot of like camping and hiking and tips because you are a big lover of the Adirondacks as well. So you kind of have a little inspiration from those woods, if I'm not mistaken.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

That's correct. We love the Adirondacks. My husband Glenn actually was born in Saranac Lake. So we've gone, he's gone up as a child every summer. He actually used to spend a month with his grandmother up there. And then once I met him, we started dating, we started going up there together. Hotels, camping. So we just love it. It's beautiful. And anybody that's been up there, it's just it's inspiring to write a book, too.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I live in some different mountains, and people say, like, do you ever get sick of this? It's like, how can you get sick of something so beautiful? You know, even Florida, driving across a causeway for 30 years. That sparkly ocean, those sunsets, and that nature gets you every time.

SPEAKER_04 11:27

Absolutely. Yeah. So what are your hopes for the story? What do you hope people to get out of it?

SPEAKER_00 11:32

So, first of all, I'm a teacher, so I want the kids to learn it. It teaches about New York State, it teaches about the Adirondix, and actually about the fourth grade curriculum in New York State. If you're a student in New York State, you learn all about the state. That's your year, fourth grade. So this book will help that as well.

SPEAKER_02 11:53

And even a little unexpected, maybe understanding and empathy and whatnot can kind of snip from there.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

Yeah. No, it is.

SPEAKER_00 12:04

It does teach kids all of those empathy and tolerance. And actually, I met a little girl at one of my events, and she said, I don't really care for Bella. But once I kept reading, I liked her at the end. And Bella has her own journey. She learns a lot about herself. She learns a lot of empathy and tolerance. And she educates herself in this world like you did, Jess, of not even knowing that there's there's kids, there's adults that they can't speak. And this communication device helps them to speak.

SPEAKER_02 12:41

Precisely. I mean, and I've been Bella, where I haven't been as patient or tolerant as I should, even 20 minutes ago, we'll say. Nowhere is like like we can all just take a breath and understand that, you know, sometimes people see things differently or communicate differently, or you know, there are so many just children and adults alike, you know, just and I also want kids like Nash to read the book and to see themselves because kids like him have not been represented in in kids' books at all.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

This is a unique chapter book.

SPEAKER_02 13:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:17

And there's not characters like this out there.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

You know, and it's interesting too because I never got to watch the movie, but I've watched the trailer about five times. I want to say Life Animated, Life Illustrated. There was a movie about an Autistic boy that came out years back where he was nonverbal and then through Disney movies he like found his voice, and that's why you know these stories are so important for the representation or just for the like safety or the comfort or the inspiration or anything that it gives to, you know, any age person, really honestly. Like, you know, we all find things in our little brains that need us, you know, that we need to kind of help us along, you know. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:56

Well, we definitely want to talk to you about your author journey since publishing. So, what was your publishing experience like? Wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

It really was, and I'm not just saying that to your audience, right?

SPEAKER_02 14:07

Right.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

Just from the very beginning. So my husband published with Will De Beast first, and he was referred by John Simone, who wrote the book about Tech Simone, and exactly it just one refers to another, refers to let's face it, when you have a good experience, you're going to tell people, right?

SPEAKER_04 14:29

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

So John had a good experience. He referred to Glenn. Glenn had a wonderful experience, and then I did as well. So just from the very beginning, you two ladies and your team as well are very hands-on. And we loved that because we had zero experience. So it worked out so well. And the numerous emails and the text and the phone calls, and just being like, I've already looked at that, I've already which she never said, but I'm sure she was thinking that. And also, you give the author the choice of a suggestion. And the author has the say. Yes, I think your suggestion is perfect. Or you know what? No, I know the characters is the way I want to write it. And then you respected that, which was huge for us.

SPEAKER_02 15:32

That's so that is one of the main things that's very, very important to me because Laura and I are just two little drops in this wide ocean of people and opinions, right? And I always say, I don't want it to sound like you and I wrote the book. I wanted it to sound like you wrote the book, and so it is, where it's just like we'll put over some we like to call it the wall spaghetti, like see what sticks. And it's just we put it there for you to look at and go, maybe not. And I love it when people say, like, yeah, no, I don't think I like that so much, because it shows that they're thinking and they care and everything like that. And you were very like, you had such strong ideas and such good ones when you came in, and you're like, no, this is kind of how I want to do it. And like, once you explain it to me, I'm like, that's actually a really good idea. And so it is nice that collaborative process is really important for me. So I'm glad it works well for you as well. And I mean, we had a great time with Glenn and John, too. Those guys are, you know, it's just it's a fun little family thing we have going here, a herd, excuse me.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Your herd, and the herd is just getting larger. Even after the fact, you're approachable, you're still approachable. You have office hours. Glenn and I have office hours. You know, I'm sure there's not publishers that do that. Well, it's I don't know, but yeah, that are it was okay that are as approachable as YouTube. And it's perfect because you've helped us with so many questions, social media questions, website questions, and that's another thing. Glenn and I have never built a website, and you helped us with that as well. So and I want you to know too, Laura, that when we go to book events and book signings, we are asked from more than one person who published this. And some people that have self-published haven't had a good experience. Some people that published with another publisher haven't had a good experience. And Glenn and I are quick to just open our book and show them or hand them on the way out a book if they've not if they're not interested in buying our books. We hand them our bookmark and we say, we show them right on there. Will the base publishing? Here's how to get a hold of them. They were excellent. And so hopefully from this, yeah. And what actually surprised us is there were a few book festivals that there wasn't a publisher, and I've shared this with you, Laura, before, represented that really should have been, because there were people, there were authors. Well, why isn't there a publisher here? So yeah, that was. I did. Oh, I'll say that. I was not paid. No, it's just been a great experience. And you know, we don't have to think twice. We don't want to self-publish our future books. We're going to go to directly to Wilde Beats because it was such an excellent experience.

SPEAKER_04 18:32

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, we appreciate that. And that's everything when we started the company that we s were striving for. I didn't see the point of publishing an author publishing their book and then not helping them sell it. I do not understand that business model in this industry at all. It makes zero sense to me. So for better or worse, that's what we're here to do is to help people, you know, and and to make it so easy for you that that self-publishing your next one is not a question for you. Unless, like Caitlin, you are you're that kind of person who just wants to have control and do it yourself. She's done amazing that way. But we're even here to help her support doing that. She just sent me a question the other day about that book, you know, and it's like actually it was about our book, but if she had asked a question about her other one, we're here to help like everyone to succeed.

SPEAKER_02 19:16

Oh, for sure. I mean, I read uh I got an advanced copy of one of her books and read it and gave an opinion. It's just like it's not proprietary, and like you've always said, there's enough for everybody. You know, writing a book is such a personal and vulnerable experience, you know. I mean, I've got chapters of mine coming together a little bit, and it's like just saying, like, okay, cool, you did this big huge thing, like have fun out in the wilderness. I'll have fun out there camping without a tent or any tools or anything, like good luck, you know. It's just that's not our style.

SPEAKER_04 19:43

Yeah. And so, Kim, after publishing, what's life as a published author been like?

SPEAKER_00 19:49

So, well, I had to teach myself and I'm still teaching, and I'm still learning all about promotion.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

Oh, it's hard, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:58

Social media, website, just introducing myself, even just seeing like a family wherever they may be. So, anyway, yeah, so I'm learning all about that. And for somebody that's very private like myself, it's challenging. It is. And yeah, so and then we both think of different ways. We might have a conversation with somebody, contact, we might be uh just googling around and we find a festival somewhere, and then we get on the phone or we look for emails, or we're trying to get in touch with bookstores. So it's it's challenging, but it's exciting. You know, and Glenn, my husband Glenn Gomez Adams, who wrote your caller number seven, please try again. He actually put up a billboard on 690 two weeks before Father's Day about how it makes such a great Father's Day gift. So we we're just trying to think of different ways. Putting ourselves out there.

SPEAKER_04 21:06

Yeah, that's great. That's what it takes, just testing different things. Different things will work for different people and where your excitement and energy goes. I know you guys go to a lot of events and it looks like you're having a lot of fun doing that.

SPEAKER_00 21:16

It is. It's my favorite part, of course, because I'm a teacher, is meeting the kids. I like meeting the kids and talking to the kids. And then after a kid has read a book, then I like getting their opinion.

SPEAKER_02 21:31

I can't even imagine how fun that is. You have to just have some hilarious and heartwarming conversations with these little ones. Like just how much books mean to you when you're that age, too, right? And just how important. I mean, I still think of like the first books and movies I watched, and they'll be f I found a book in a box that I hadn't thought of in 30 years, and it's just like instantly it's right there.

SPEAKER_04 21:53

So sure.

SPEAKER_02 21:55

I can you imagine in 10 or 20 years from now when people find you and you're on book twenty or something and then they're like oh like the babysitters club books you know you remember god I love those books right yes so Kim what is what would you say has been your favorite part now of being a f published author well I've always wanted to write a book since I was ten years old I had this series in my mind nothing like this series actually but that's something I've always wanted to do so again I like going out I like meeting the kids but the neatest part of all is seeing your book on a bookshelf at Barnes and Oval It's like you've made it I can't even imagine I mean just like seeing your book on a bookshelf makes me feel like I made it too because I was like oh hey yes I know that book I know that author she's a friend of mine and to be honest Jess I wouldn't have been able to do this without you you polish this I wrote polished it takes a village you know I mean none of us can thank you thank you it's always easier with a team it was an honor yes truly so we're uh out of out of our friends are here time okay no we have one very important yes oh yes we're getting to the end that was my point yes go ahead okay so very serious question okay if you can invite anyone living or no longer on this earthly plane for s'mores by the campfire who would it be I'm gonna say my deceased father because he would be so proud of me and he'd want to talk all about the ideas of where they came from and and I miss him so much he's been with one 12 years so that that would be the person. I wish that my father and I could join you for those that would be awesome. Yeah they uh you know it's like you gotta you know they're looking down on us and they're proud of us regardless but it is tough that you can't actually just pick up the phone and give them a buzz.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

Mm-hmm got a kick out of it. He would have laughed and enjoyed it and and probably he would have actually he he was a great artist. He would have insisted upon drawing all the illustrations.

SPEAKER_02 24:11

That's so cute. My dad not so much it looked like he did everything with his non-dominant hand.

SPEAKER_04 24:16

No it's all good. Uh Kim what's next for you then? Or what's next for Bella Nash?

SPEAKER_00 24:21

So well there is a day two that is on my computer and it's not completely finished. It's one of those things I look at and then I stop looking at so hopefully day two and I've actually had some kids ask me what's next? What are you gonna do next with them?

SPEAKER_04 24:40

So well you left us kind of hanging on the end there I know so we're gonna purposely and lastly where can people find you okay they can find me on my website bella andash dot com Amazon Ingram Spark the shelves at Barnes Noble the I'm sorry I mentioned that earlier shelves at Barnes Noble well thank you Kim for joining us and you know we love having you in the herd thank you so much for all your kind words today and you know we're excited to see also we'll be on standby seeing where Bella and Nash head to next or what happens on day two.

SPEAKER_02 25:24

I mean you're an absolute delight it's it was so fun working with you and your husband and I mean John Simone like the whole group I don't know where y'all are coming from but like yeah we'll take all the authors from whatever group you guys are in.

SPEAKER_04 25:38

That little circle that little circle is amazing so yes well thank you ladies and thank you again for everything and thanks for the opportunity to be on your podcast love it thank you for my pleasure thank you yeah all right take care ladies all right bye all right in light of Kim having been here we're kind of taking a look at children's books right now and we get a lot of inquiries about children's books just kind of wanted to talk about you know children's books and young adult trade revenues are up right now as far as book reporting goes and uh there's a lot of people making children's books and a lot of people binge buying children's books. You know I think when we were younger we had you know a handful of all the same books that we read and now I think kids just have thousands of options, you know?

SPEAKER_02 26:28

I'm telling you you just like you know in clearing out my brother's house I found this box that said He-Man on the side of it and I opened it up and it's all these books of ours from our childhood with my name and whatnot written in them. And it's you know just looking back at like all the Beverly Cleary and like all these other just like Donald Duck and Jack and the Beanstalk pop-up books and things from 40 plus years ago. And then you know in meeting some of my mom's friends and things and whatnot being in town sitting in a pool and just this woman said I wrote a children's book during COVID and this is what it is and nobody wanted to pick it up and here's what it was about and it's it's a really cool story. It's not mine to share on here but we'll talk offline. But yeah they're they're fantastic. I love kids' books. I'm gonna get back into how to eat fried worms and everything out of that like celery stalks at midnight.

SPEAKER_04 27:16

Who doesn't want to see Bunicula again um so I wanted to chat just a little bit about you know like we have some children's books that we've done we're happy to do them but a lot of people do and should try to go for traditional publishing on that because there are a lot of agents that do look for because sales are up on children's books they are looking for that. But there are some things to consider like a lot of times they'll use their own illustrators so if you have your specific story or look that you want you may have to be willing to to give some of that up you know and obviously look at the the details very clearly on what they're giving you. I know some people who I know at least one author who her publisher does not allow her to go to events that she wants to she can't sell books out of her own hand. Everything that she does has to be approved by them so if there's a conference or something they either have to send her or she has to request to go and then I think the biggest drawback is like I I can't sell you my book right out of my hand. It has to go through the publisher. So just considering you know if if you are listening and you have a children's book and you're like what which avenue do I go self-publish or if I want to go with traditional publisher that's definitely something to look out for.

SPEAKER_02 28:24

Yeah no it's interesting in poking around and talking with people and kind of you know just seeing how things work now and how many more people are leaning towards a non-traditional whether you know whatever it is because of it's a little bit more control.

SPEAKER_04 28:37

Oh yeah it doesn't matter if it's film, music, writing or regular art. Like it's people are definitely making that decision in all of those industries whether they want to own the rights to what they do and keep control over the artistic creative side of it. And um you know the other thing is is like as a service publisher and our limitations on printing and stuff we have more of a focus on a little bit older we don't do like the toddler books that are that are you know what are they called board books. And if you want like gold leaf and that kind of stuff we can do it. Yeah it's just that it's going to cost you an arm and a leg. Yeah like minimum runs of five thousand books to be able to get it to the cost that you would need but but a one recommendation is if you are going to go that route or if you try traditional and you and you're not getting picked up and you still want to put it out there is to go ahead and just do it print on demand either on your own or with our help and see see what the reviews are. When I went to the New York City bookshow one of the things that the traditional publishers on the panels were talking about is that they are looking for already published, already established books people who have a following and already know what they're getting. So it's no longer like worry about well if I already put it out there no one's gonna want it. It's actually different now.

SPEAKER_02 29:51

Yeah you know I mean and even in just like with people asking about embossed covers and things like that too it's like well you know again there's some limitations with these things and whatnot.

SPEAKER_04 30:00

But yeah and again it can be done it's just like you should put it out there get the feedback get some reviews then see if you want to spend the extra money and the warehousing to do that because it's not just the books storage and everything else that you have to have like you think oh I could put 5,000 books in a closet just the weight of those alone is more than you probably would ever expect.

SPEAKER_02 30:21

Girl I have been driving around with one box of books in the trunk of my car forever and I am so sick of looking at this one box of books. Like I couldn't imagine you know I mean and just the the the extra weight like not the literal weight that comes with looking at those books in your house every day and wondering how you're gonna sell them and things like that. It's you know it's everything has its pros and cons. And my dad always said like write out a pros and cons list and see you know because what's right for me might not be right for you. What's right for Daddy might not be right for Frank. Y'all I got two dogs on here say hanging out with me right now. So apologies if things are a little shaky and noisy. There's a thunderstorm so but yeah I mean it's just there's so many paths and avenues and I just think like there's so much more access to creativity for people now. You know, with things like TikTok or being able to self-publish or self-promote or make your own movies and just kind of put them out there on whatever it's I'm I'm sure you learned some of that stuff too. You were at a film fest recently as well right like a film fest conference.

SPEAKER_04 31:20

Yeah it's yeah incredible and the same thing you know it's it's there's so many different avenues to get your work out there anymore.

SPEAKER_02 31:28

Again pros and cons. Yep yeah just what's what's the best fit for you.

SPEAKER_04 31:33

Yeah well you know we have speaking of beastie besties we're gonna replace today's Beastie Bestie story with the new beastie bestie who's joining our lives this little beastie here Frank he's awesome he's he's a new member of the family he's coming back to Colorado with me and he couldn't be cooler.

SPEAKER_03 31:51

Right.

SPEAKER_02 31:51

He sweet little boys he's yeah I don't know he's gonna have a great life yes I'm excited for him and Dottie's adventures and maybe one day they'll be a children's book too yeah they sh Frank and Dot I know we've already been making jokes about them going down to the bingo hall like ah Frank and Dot they're down there by the bingo hall they're having their old fashioned he's a good boy nice he's so so sweet though he's like 22 pounds of love right here and sneezes he's got he's got sneezes right Bubby yeah so I got my two beastie besties on the bed with me and I don't know what I'd do without these two fools I'm so proud of Dottie like for being a very spoiled only child she's doing excellent getting a stinky little brother in the mix so yeah that's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 32:32

Yeah they're good they're good babies I'm a lucky girl and if you have a beastie besti you and a best friend or you and a sibling wife husband wife team whatever dogs yeah you and a dog have gone on a cool adventure like we want to hear about it so go check out your llama got out the beastie besties story whatever fits beasties or besties and uh we would like to hear it and share it with everyone on our socials and on the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 32:58

So that's it for today so be yourself run wild and take leaps and don't forget to high five your homies and pen your pages for real I mean call your loved ones while you can y'all that too that too all right kisses