Bookcast Episode 69: The Rearview Mirror

 Join me for the final episode of 2023 for The Bookcast!
I reflect on my 2023 writing journey, share my reading accomplishments, and set intentions for 2024. Don't miss my plans for the upcoming year and a special audio message!

I talked about the following books in today's show:

Snowfall Over Serendipity by Stephanie Nicole Norris
Party Favors by Chris Stevens
The Resemblance by Lauren Nossett
The Christmas Auction: A Sexy Holiday Story by Té Russ
The Law of Karma by Pamela Samuels Young
The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson

My five-star reads of the year were:

His Favourite Graves by Paul Cleave
Just a Girl by Alyssa Cole
All The Sinners Bleed by SA Cosby
Her Deadly Game by Robert Dugoni
Jane Doe Black by Nia Forrester

Leave a audio or written note to share in the new year on my blog. 

Transcript

DL White [00:00:00]:
Well, hello, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, happy Saturday, or whatever day you might be listening. It is my pleasure to welcome you back to The Bookcast, my platform for sharing short fiction and updates on what I'm reading and writing. This is the final Episode of 2023. I have the final countdown running through my head, for no real reason. This is episode 69. I Actually thought it was episode 70 and I was like gonna be happy about ending up on an even number. Shout out to Kaye the reader, but alas, it is only episode 69, my deepest apologies to Kay for ending up on an odd number. But it is divisible, so there's, there's, there's that.

DL White [00:00:44]:
I am Dio White. I am the author of 13 contemporary southern romantic fiction novels featuring black men and women. I'm a fiction and fan fiction writer. I'm a big fan of Coffee, I love brunch and the beach, and most especially a good book. I'm currently not writing a thing. I'm supposed to be writing an epilogue, but it's the holidays, So I'm taking a bitty break. My recent release Home for the Holidays, a potter lake small town romance holiday novella, Such how long enough is out in the world and being enjoyed by you, I hope. Pick it up at booksbydlwhite.com/homedashforholidays Or bookstorread.com/homeforholidays, all one word.

DL White [00:01:25]:
If you have read it and loved it, please do drop a few lines at your favorite retail site, at Goodreads, The Storygraph, and your socials. I already love and appreciate you for it. Today's going to be a special show, So I won't go through the usual rundown, but I do want to mention that if you want to support this podcast outside of the comments and the shares and the harassments if I haven't updated an episode, Raymond, you can do so at bookcast. Buzzsprout .com. Thank you so much in advance for your support. Today I want to do a little bit of a retrospective. I personally skip over a year in review threads and posts. We don't we don't need to rehash it but along those same lines, I'm not going to relive my year here but I do want to hit the highlights so I have something to measure against.

DL White [00:02:12]:
So I'm going to chat about the podcast, the books I read, the books I wrote super simple then I'm gonna talk about my intentions for the upcoming year. All that will be coming up after the last book report of the year. I had to get up early and run the numbers because I wanted Credit for everything I read through midnight Friday. After today, I might get in a couple of new books, and I don't know if I'm gonna hold them for January 1 or pad my 2023 numbers. Honestly, I'm probably just gonna hold them because I'm I'm already way ahead for the year and I'm I'm like on an even number. Kay the reader has this thing where she doesn't like the book count to be an odd number or a number that's not divisible. So if you are ending your year at 57, it's really bothering her. So, I swear I'm not picking on her but now I notice it.

DL White [00:03:04]:
So, I also I have a listener voice note and I was most pleased to open my email to hear it. I'll share that after our coffee break. So today we will start with the book report as always and then we will celebrate a great year. Today is Saturday, December 30th. It is 9:35 AM. It is a cloudy day in Atlanta. Have a mic, and I am ready to dig in. But first, I think this is this is the fastest we have ever got to coffee.

DL White [00:03:44]:
Oh, it's hot. It's hot today. It's hot. So this week on the blog, I asked my audience to drop in with a voice note or a comment for this last show. I knew I should have done it earlier. I did not get very many responses but I I just could not get my mess together. I did receive 1 voice note, and I am so excited to have this voice on my podcast, if only for 90 seconds. I'll be back after the jump.

Robert Justice [00:04:13]:
Hello, DL White. This is Robert Justice, and let me begin first by saying We love your podcast to have a fellow writer speak honestly and openly about the writing life. And sometimes the best episodes are when you're just Shooting from the hip, it is refreshing and helpful to all of us. So thank you for the work that you put into this podcast. My question is simple. It just has to do with genre. You are mostly known for your romance writing And I'm wondering, do you see that long term? Are you a romance writer for life or a romance writer for now? Do you ever see yourself Switching genres or becoming as prolific in other genres as you are with romance. Alright.

Robert Justice [00:05:00]:
Thanks for all you do. Take care. Bye.

DL White [00:05:03]:
That was the voice of Robert Justice, who I love and adore. Robert Justice This is an author, a podcast host, and an advocate for the wrongfully convicted. I thoroughly enjoyed They Can't Take Your Name which is his debut novel, And I have got Dream in the Dark coming to us July 24th on my list of books that I am looking forward to. He also helms, the anchor of the host of the Crime Writers of Color podcast which is a never miss situation over here as a big fan of crime fiction, the podcast, and The Voice, RFA. Thank you so much for your kind words, Robert. In answer to your question, romance is my anchor. I don't see not ever doing romance, but I do hope to spread into maybe some romantic suspense at some point, maybe a romantic thriller. I've mentioned before I have a I have a PI character that I wrote into dinner at Sam's.

DL White [00:05:59]:
I have a great backstory for Yvette and a bit of a storyline, but the idea that I have for her book isn't very suspenseful. So I'm still workshopping the idea. Like, I don't know what to do with it, but it's not a suspense novel. It may just be like a regular old PI Oh, like a romance novel with a PI character. I mean, I would just would like to do something different with it and I would like to jump to something A little bit more edgy, I, experimented with writing edgy characters with my, fan fiction thriller ish piece that I did in October called The Story of Kate. That was really fun, wildly different from romance, though it did have some love scenes in it and I would love to do that in a forum where I could get paid for it. It would require so much more work and research and I'd rather not be filleted in reviews. So not off the plate at all, very much a possibility.

DL White [00:06:53]:
I really just need to get the story planned out and just really, like, have the guts to start writing it and, and put it out there. I just, I can't just sit down and write that genre. I need lots more planning. Thank you so much for your question. If you would like to offer up a comment, a question, a wish for the new year, I will leave that post up on my blog. You're able to just tap the button and record 90 seconds of a good word or you can just send me a note. There's a form Write on the blog page, send it on through. I'll add this, I'll add that post to the show notes and I will share your input in a future show.

DL White [00:07:29]:
Let's roll on with the book report. We begin as always with the book report because I am a book head. If I'm gonna do anything, I am gonna read a book. Just an aside here, we're nearing the end of the year and people are talking about did they or did they not hit their Goodreads goal and what's their goal for the new year. And I just want to remind people, nobody else is counting. It does not matter. It doesn't matter who's reading a 100 books. It doesn't matter who's reading 400 books.

DL White [00:07:57]:
It doesn't matter who's reading 12 books. Did you put a book into your face? Did your ears enjoy some fiction, non fiction, horror, fantasy, literary fiction. Did you read your face off this year? If yes, then you did a great job. It doesn't matter, I swear. Anyway, That said, I've read a 184 books this year. I've actually read a 185 books this year. I'm very excited about that. This was a really rough reading week, not for, like, time or anything, but since it was the last week of reading for the year, I wanted the books I read to matter and I didn't wanna drag myself through a book.

DL White [00:08:41]:
So picking my last book of the year has been so much drama. Actually, I think I tried several books yesterday and Books I would have, just sat through earlier in the year this week, I just can't I just can't do it. So I might I might just be done. I might just be done and I might to be catching up on shows until midnight tomorrow night because I'm tired of trying. 185. I'm good to go. This week I read 4 books. I read The Christmas Auction by, Tay See, holiday story.

DL White [00:09:14]:
This was really, really, really good. I am opposed to the idea of human auctions. As a black American, I don't like the idea of buying and selling people. Setting that aside, this was a Excellent story! Tay put her foot into this book. It's not that long at all, so you should definitely go pick it up and put it into your face if you're looking for, like one last ditch effort at a Christmas story. I also listened to The Resemblance by Lauren Nasid, this is one of my holdovers from NetGalley Audio Arcs. This came out like a long time ago and I had it downloaded and I was cleaning out, you know, my little NetGalley app. This was not good.

DL White [00:10:01]:
I did not enjoy it. I dragged myself through it because it was an arc, and I want to keep getting audio arcs but I can't I couldn't I couldn't tell you what this book was about. Didn't didn't enjoy it. I also read Party Favors by Chris Stevens. This is a New Year's Eve novelette. It is spicy, it is decadent, It is excellent and you should go read it right now. But, I'll wait. It's not very long.

DL White [00:10:27]:
Just go go read it and come back. I also read Snowfall Over Serendipity by Stephanie Nicole Norris. This lady is such a delight. She I can't keep up. I just send her messages all the time that I cannot keep up. This was a great, great, Great novel. It is set in, Sweden. It's delicious.

DL White [00:10:51]:
You should you should read this one while you're reading Party Favors. Just go ahead and pick up Snowfall Over Serendipity by Stephanie Nicole Norris. It's a great read. This was like a last minute, like, Beyonce drop. I'm not mad at it. I am reading and don't know I'm I'm don't know if I'm gonna finish before the new year begins. I'm thinking no. The Law of Karma by Pamela Samuels Young.

DL White [00:11:14]:
I don't know what I'd I don't I love Pamela and I don't know why I can't get back into this book. I'm so distracted by all the shiny, bow wrapped Christmas releases. I am going to get back into this to finish The Law of Karma by Pamela Samuels Young and The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson. This one has started off Great, in audio. It's got, a great audio voice on it that I enjoy. Kathleen Early, she reads all of Karen Slaughter's Novels, I'm a little bit lost and I it's feeling it's giving a little DNF y, but I'm gonna try to push through. I'm just gonna put it on hold until after the new year and I'm not, like, so stressed and not feeling like Like these last books of the year, they must matter. I'm just gonna chill out for a minute and try to pick it back up in January.

DL White [00:12:10]:
Alright. So in a moment of truth and transparency, moving into my 2023 wrap up. If you posted a 2023 wrap up, a year interview with clips and photos. I I haven't looked at it. I haven't looked at it. One thing about me, I keep a podcast and reading watching schedule. Like, I know who posts when. I got my days all mapped out.

DL White [00:12:34]:
Like, Tuesday and Wednesday are big podcast listening days for me, so I try not to plan a whole much because I know, like, especially on Wednesdays, I'm about to get up. I gotta download the stacks. That's the 1st podcast I'm gonna listen to on a Wednesday, and then I gotta bounce through, you know, all the ones that update on scheduled days. I haven't missed anything. I'm there. I was there, bruh. I wanna celebrate the good stuff and link arms with you on where we're going in the future, So I invite listeners to do the same thing with me and the book cast. As I mentioned in the intro, we'll talk about the pod, the books I read, the books I wrote, What I'm looking forward to in the coming year, spoiler alert, ain't nothing gonna change but my limp.

DL White [00:13:19]:
More of the same with passion. Let's check out the numbers though so I have something to compare to in 2024. Buzzsprout was so gracious to supply a little, podcast wrapped for 2023. So I pubbed, 39 episodes in this year. I started regularly publishing in February of 23. I have reached 26 countries. I had a total of 1,746 downloads. Not bad for a niche author podcast that started because I didn't feel like doing a newsletter.

DL White [00:13:54]:
Coming up in 2024 on the pod, I want to hit a 100 episodes. We are at episode 69, so 31, I believe, episodes to Epi 100. Don't know what I'm doing for my 100th episode, probably not anything special, just a regular episode but it'll be episode 100. I've developed a really good routine and a schedule for planning and recording. I really like my process so I don't have plans to change much behind the scenes. I want to streamline, make things much easier on the back end. I use Audacity to edit but maybe I want to try Garage Band. I'm using Cast Magic for transcripts and helping me write all of my posts and pick up the chapters.

DL White [00:14:39]:
I might, you know, try Descript or something like that. I'm, I I'm paying, I've already paid for cast magic, so I'll probably stick with it. But I like to try new things and see if I can make things a little bit easier for me. I also wanna continue making the show more appealing visually and audiolie, audie, audiolie what what what word am I I don't I don't know what word goes here. I need an editor. I want to make it more appealing to a wider audience whenever possible. I want to gain enough subscribers and Listen time to be eligible to run advertisements and, I want to build my listenership enough to make a private community necessary Siri, a must have, not a nice to have. Right now it would just be another thing to manage, so how am I gonna do that? No clue.

DL White [00:15:27]:
No clue. So I've joined some communities to see how I can improve the book cast, get it in more ears and faces. I don't ever plan to have a video podcast but we are of course up on YouTube podcast because a lot of people prefer to, run their podcasts through YouTube, and I'm down with that. Most of all, I want to focus on the work that matters most. I'm going to stop doing stuff because I think I need to do it. I'm gonna be doing the things the way I want to be doing them and I don't, like, I don't think my audience cares one way or another so long as I'm having a good time. So Enjoy the ride. My Year in Reading I'm very excited to talk about this because I like numbers, thanks to the good year Goodreads Year in Books for these stats.

DL White [00:16:14]:
At the time of my prep, I have read 185 books. The average book length was 241 pages, which isn't bad. Contrary to popular belief, I don't mind a long book. I mean, 400, 500 pages, bring it as long as it doesn't drag. I mean, if it reads fast, I'm good. Just don't make it a long rambling affair. I love an engaging thickem. My average rating for 2023 was 3.7.

DL White [00:16:42]:
How I get 3.7 when we don't have partial stars at Goodreads? I don't know Oh, here we go. My highest rated book on my read list this is not a plant, I swear it's not a plant Home for the Holidays by D. L. White It only has 2 ratings but they're both 5 stars, so the book has a 5 star rating. So I'll take it. That's sure to change but I'll take it. My year in books.com is a program that an engineer wrote to give you more of a wrapped theme but for books, So I plugged in my Goodreads URL and it said my top genres were mystery, mystery thriller and romance, which is not a surprise at all those are my mains. My top author this year was Robert Giugoni.

DL White [00:17:24]:
Not a surprise, I read 13 books by this author making me in the top 5% of fans, maybe allegedly. My biggest reading month so far has been December, 19 books and counting. And lastly, my 5 star reads of this year were His Favorite Graves by Paul Cleave. I absolutely love Paul Cleave. It's so hard for me to read a book of his and not and it not be like a drooling Complimentary word salad of good words about his books. Absolutely adore Paul Cleave. His favorite Graves was excellent. The twists Half twists.

DL White [00:18:05]:
Just a Girl by Alyssa Cole this was, an Audible original. So, so, so good. Just very good. All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby. Of course, I love me some Sean Cosby. This was an excellent book, Her Deadly Game by my fave, Robert Dugoni and Jane Doe Black by Nia Forester.

DL White [00:18:26]:
Those are all of my five Star reads for 2023. If there was one way to describe my taste in books this year it would be eclectic and I'm all about it. So fun. My goal for 2024 is to keep it simple. I'm doing just the Goodreads goal, nothing extra. I'm always reading women. I'm always reading black authors. I don't feel like I need to track them for 2024 so I'm not going to.

DL White [00:18:50]:
I just want to keep it simple. The only metric I really wanna track is to increase my reads of black male authors. Next year, Doctor Raymond is doing his annual Like every year, I guess for like the past 2 years, he has picked an author to focus on and, next year his focus is James Baldwin. I have only read, Beale Street, so I might try to jump in a few there. I find his writing to be thick. It's hard, I I don't cancel me. I find Toni Morrison hard to read. I find Zora Neale Hurston hard to read.

DL White [00:19:31]:
I find James Baldwin hard to read. I am not averse to them. It takes a lot of energy and concentration, and I need cliff notes to understand what they're talking about. I need, like, I need some background. I need some information so I can go into this and know what they are talking about. I definitely can't read Zohr without CliffNotes, so, I might try to be scholarly and, dig into some James Baldwin next year which will help my black male authors count for 2024. Alright, let's talk about my year in writing and how it was such a joy to get back to writing this year. I jumped back into the pool December of 2022 after 2 long years of burnout and writing nothing.

DL White [00:20:21]:
So yearly my goal is always 2 at a possible, 2 full length and, a short, a fanfic, I don't know, a poem, whatever, but 2 and a possible is usually my annual goal. I don't like to get fancier than that because my brain cells can't handle too many conditions. To Fole plus something else, a fanfic, a short, whatever else happens is gravy. This year I wrote and released Elysium, 65,000 words ish. I would have to look it up for the exact numbers but Elysium was about I think it was more like 69,000 but We're gonna say 65. Home for the Holidays was, 37,000 words. I also wrote a fanfic novella titled The Story of Kate that was 53,000 words about a woman that suffers from erotomania or the belief that a person, most times a celebrity, is in love with them. If you would like to read that, it's, you know, my 1st adventure into something that's not romance.

DL White [00:21:18]:
It is also a fan fiction, but if you like a no in sync and JC Chasez, you might enjoy it. Also, if you ever read All I Wanna Do, which was like my fan fiction magnum opus it was like my first really long Novel length fan fiction story. It picks up where All I Want to Do leaves off, but I don't I don't think it's necessary to read that to really get the gist of the story. Anyway, booksbydly.com/freebies has a bunch of my fanfic stories, formatted for ebook, so if you are interested they are there, they're just for fun. It was loads of fun and, I'm looking forward to doing lots more of that. So I wrote approximately 155,000 words this year from burnout to 155,000 words written in a year. That doesn't count blog posts. That doesn't count, like, Anything else that I might have written and put away, I call that success.

DL White [00:22:22]:
I think that's a really, really good year for anybody but especially for me. I remember like back when I was on LiveJournal, We used to have an annual challenge to write like a 100,000 or more words a year. I remember trying to jump back in years later, like after I left live journal and then I tried to come back, but just It wasn't the same and I can't remember I cannot remember the name of the challenge but, and, like, I've thought about bringing it back but I feel like that's just too much. Putting a number on it is just too much pressure. If I accidentally hit a 100 k words a year, I'm good with that. So It wouldn't be me though if I didn't have a couple sneaky goals, so let's see what I want 2024 to look like for books by D. L. White.

DL White [00:23:06]:
Of course, I begin with my to and a possible goal. That's where everything sits. I want to write The Pearl, and I wanna start that around the end of January. I need a break after Home for the Holidays. I need to write that epilogue. I'm working on it, Jessica. I'm working on it. But, in order to have a book I can push in the summer, I need to start it in January.

DL White [00:23:26]:
This is what I learned from releasing Elysium too late in the year, right? So the goal is to be mostly done and do the final push during the 20 ks in 5 days March challenge with the wordmakers. Still I Rise will come in the fall, which always seems to be the perfect time for a Powder Lake book. I don't know why I don't write them with spring or summer themes but Powder Lake books are fall books for me. I wanna work on the romantic suspense ish idea or the PI romance novel. I don't like I don't what are we calling that? There's a sisters' trilogy that pops up in my mind every so often. I really would like to get started on it. I do already have it planned out. It's just like getting like getting started is, you getting started and actually writing it.

DL White [00:24:15]:
That's the thing. And I of course want to write a few short fanfic pieces for Challenges that we run at the archive. We'll see where I get with extra projects, but that's currently what's keeping me awake at night. I wanna lean into writing what brings me joy. I don't wanna drag myself through projects. This is not my job. I do this for fun and spending money. It, of course, needs to support itself, but I work a full time job that pays, like, benefits and four zero one k and pension and whatnot.

DL White [00:24:46]:
That's where all my energy goes. I save energy for writing. This should be fun. I need want to force myself to relax. I want to be able to write shorter, more fun, less involved work. Not everything has to have, like, a big moral all lesson, not everything has to be 50,000 words, so, I would love to write some shorts and some serials. I really want I mean, I I would like to try Kindle Vella, but I I don't like the idea. The the exclusivity thing really chops my hide.

DL White [00:25:22]:
But I think, Like, after your story is done in Vella, I think you can then release it wide. I need to confirm that, but if so, that that could work that could work, but I I would really like to, like, do something serial. I think that would be fun. Publishing wise, I want to build up my sales so that Shopify and BookVault are a necessity. Right now I'm using Payhip and hand shipping books. Shopify is great. Like if you follow an author, they're probably using Shopify if they're selling books direct. I'm using Payhip, which is fine.

DL White [00:25:59]:
It's free, they take a percentage off the back end. Shopify is like $39 a month and right now my sales don't support a $39 hit to the cost column. It's super tempting though, it is super super tempting. Shopify just runs a whole lot simpler than pay him, you know, like I I can I can I can afford the monthly hit, but I don't want to? Sales don't support an additional cost, so I would like to build up my sales to a point where Shopify makes sense. BookVault is a spot where I could sell my books direct but I don't have to have them here at the house, it would mean that I don't sell, I don't sell autographed copies anymore, But I am looking at 2 stacks of books here that just sit here month after month. I'm going to run a paperback sale in January to try to get rid of these books in my house and then I want to stop stocking books at home because I don't, I don't need them. And then, like, if you want an autograph copy, we can arrange that, especially if you're local, but I just I don't I don't want to stock at home anymore, I don't think. But that's probably a long ways off.

DL White [00:27:17]:
I need sales to be able to support that. And I want to continue leveling up on my work. I've been using an editor for the last, 2 books which is much less frightening than I thought it would be. Full disclosure I was using an editor before. I had, a beta that was intense and pro writing aid. I had nightmares of getting my work back covered in red marks, but the relationship that I have with my current editor is more of a partnership. It lets us do what we can to make this pretty. So I really, you know, appreciated being able to level up my work, present material that is error free.

DL White [00:27:57]:
If you find an error, they're all mine. And using pre made pro covers and professional wrap covers for my print editions so that I'm proud for my books to stand next to those trad pub books that are out there. Audio remains a long ways off. I just, I don't have the funds. AI narration is not a possibility for me. Not only am I opposed to it, but the voices don't sound right. I'm not charging readers for what they can get for free if Alexa reads it out loud. I toyed again with recording myself, but I wore myself out just recording 2 chapters of Home for the Holidays.

DL White [00:28:34]:
So I don't I don't think it's a possibility for me. If audio was affordable, it would definitely be an option but it just Is it? I just I don't have I don't I don't have the money. I would have to go into debt, and there's not any guarantee that I would earn out the cost of recording those. I want to continue to observe the markets and pull books from markets that aren't serving me, in 2024. I'm probably going to be pulling ebooks from Everand and pushing readers toward Kobo Plus because the subscription model is more beneficial to not only readers, but me as an author. I'm tempted to pull audio as well because they like to play games about what's available. All of my books are never available at the same time on Everand. Despite all of them being eligible, they're always, always available on CobblePlus.

DL White [00:29:22]:
If you are a member of Kobo Plus, all of my audiobooks are there. If you have the Read Plus, Listen package, which I think is $11 a month, You can read or listen to all of my audiobooks. So it's like having it's, you know, like I have Kindle Unlimited, but you only get audio included when that author is, like, signed to an Amazon imprint. That's the only time you get the, ebook and the audiobook for, the Kindle Unlimited price, which is well worth it for me because apparently I read a lot of authors who are on the Amazon Imprint, but for your average reader, it's, I mean, you know, it's it's probably not worth it. But I feel like Kobo Plus is worth it. I actually canceled my Kobo Plus description because they're just there's not any black authors There's not really very many of us there and until we're we build that up, I don't, I mean, I'm just I'm not reading or listening there, so I don't want to keep spending that money there. I wanna continue selling direct first and then dropping to retail stores. That's working really well.

DL White [00:30:30]:
Home for the Holidays had a really Nice immediate push as a website exclusive. I think it was a website exclusive for like 3 or 4 days. I'm an impatient person, So I would really like to wait longer to put it up at retail this time of year. Once direct sales started slowing down, I got antsy and I wanted to put it up on Amazon at least because outside of Direct, that's my largest retail platform. When people get readers as e gifts, I want my books out there. I want my book easily available to add to your device for reading. So I have put that up at the retailers and it should be distributed to distributed to all the major retailers, Amazon, Barnes and Noble Amazon. Slow down, Theo.

DL White [00:31:15]:
Amazon, Barnes and Noble Nook, The Kobo reader, Google Play, Apple Books, should all be out there. Should also probably Home for the holidays, I did not put it on Everand, but it is on COBOL plus so, so it's out there. I want to continue participating in events like All Black Book Affair and Stuff Your Ereaders, although I have a tiny tiny tiny little rant A tiny little rant come close, come very, very close. Readers are getting entitled. The more often we do these, the more entitled readers are getting, and it's starting to tick me off. I saw a reader the other day on TikTok post something that said, I went to Stuff Your E Reader, and I was looking for free books, and I was like, I don't want these. I guess she thought she was gonna get free books by, like, Nora Roberts, JD Robb, Stephen King. Like, I, like, I don't I mean, what what part of stuff your e reader tells you that you're gonna actually get like free books from big authors.

DL White [00:32:37]:
Like she thought she was gonna get free books. She's like, this person was bragging that she got like a 100 and some Free books from Stuff Your E Reader and I was just reading through these and I don't want these it took everything in me to just scroll right past. Listen. These are independently published authors putting their books out there for free for you to read. My book has been free for a month. That is over 1 thou- I think I have given out like 1200 copies of Hey Lover. That is 1200 free books I have given out for readers to act entitled I am tired of doing things because I think it would be a nice thing for readers for readers to basically Slap us in the face. I'm tired.

DL White [00:33:33]:
Anyway, rant over. Outside of big events It's like that. I would love to do a few of those a year. They're really good for getting, my books and my name out there. Once again, if you love my books, Shout it from the rooftops. Word-of-mouth moves books. I'll do a few paid newsletters like, Ereader News Today, Free books, see if I have a free book. Fussy librarian, I do all the time.

DL White [00:33:58]:
I like to do that over running ads. Ads are a huge waste of money for me. Like I don't think black readers respond to them at all, so I rarely, rarely do an ad. So I'll, I want to do like more of those. I wish there were a few of those throughout the year, that I could participate in. And then we also have the Stuff Your Earbuds Day, which is like Stuff Your Ear Reader but for audiobooks. So, those I participate in as well because it does help put my audiobooks into new ears. I am right now, because I have time, trying out, shorts on TikTok and YouTube, posting, Like 1 a day, I might move up to 2 a day.

DL White [00:34:42]:
I don't know. Just checking the response to, look at the numbers and see if that is doing anything. So far my reach is very limited. I refuse to put my face on either platform because I just don't think anybody wanna be looking at me. So I'm pretty limited. I want to let the books sell themselves so I'm just trying to see what hits, what works, And then, once I find something that works, just ride that pony. Most of all, I want to continue to keep burnout at bay, by just reminding myself that author D. L.

DL White [00:35:15]:
White is a part time gig. Don't stress myself out about a few $100 a month. Have fun with it. Keep it simple, just keep writing, and keep helping other authors out as the opportunities to do so arise. I hope that was not a painful retrospective. I did want some hard numbers to measure against for the coming year. If I have supporters out there that want to partner with this podcast, I want everyone to see what we're aiming for. But have a few personal intentions as well, some that I saw from Tiffany Alish with the Brown Ambition podcast, Their recent episode was on navigating burnout which is an almost constant topic around here.

DL White [00:35:57]:
I took so much from their December 29th episode, Pick it up at brownambitionpodcast.com. A few of her points that I took for myself. Number 1, ask yourself to what end? What are you working toward? What do you like what are you doing, and will the end result be worth the work that you're putting in? If no, put it down. Put it down. Turn Rosolian Isles back on. Watch yourself a little Hallmark movie. Open a book. Do anything else but that.

DL White [00:36:26]:
To what end? Number 2, give your body and your brain a break, or your body or your brain will do it for you. This includes the socials Pick a day to disconnect and enjoy your break. I try to do that like Sunday morning. I get up and I update my bookish planner and I try to plan out my week and listen to an audiobook or a podcast and have some coffee and just, like, enjoy the day and try not to go into the week all stressed out about what is about to come up. When I'm off the pod, I don't miss it. I I don't. And when I'm not writing, I don't miss it. I don't stress myself out about not writing.

DL White [00:37:00]:
You will never see me on the socials talking about I should be writing because if I should have been writing, I would be writing. I see so many authors beating themselves up about, like, not writing 247. It's honestly fine if you don't. It's fine. I don't miss it when I'm not writing. I come back to it when it's time. When it's time to write, I put my butt in the seat and I write words. I mean, most of the time, not always, but most of the time, but what I'm definitely not doing is sit around beating myself up about not writing.

DL White [00:37:36]:
Never. I take long breaks. Yeah. A lot of people don't know me very personally. I try to be an open book, but there's a whole lot about that y'all don't know. Surprise, surprise. I am not a person that's able to be vulnerable. I can't do it.

DL White [00:37:51]:
I can't. It's just me. I like my walls. I can't afford to let them down. Standing in that has been a challenge for me recently. I see a lot of people like, I wanna live a soft life, and I wanna, like, you know, give everything over to someone. I wanna be in a position where I don't have to think. That is not me.

DL White [00:38:13]:
Not me. So I wanna keep reminding myself that nobody cares about me like I care about me. I can't put my mental health and well-being in the hands of anybody else. Number 4 I have a little corner of debt, not even really debt, but a bit I need to pay off in 2024. I wanna do a clean sweep of things I'm paying for so I can live the quote unquote soft life and enjoy myself. Do I need all that? If yes, rock on. If not, We need to drop it. Of course, I'm gonna celebrate my 50th in 2024.

DL White [00:38:46]:
I'm probably gonna move my trip to the summer. I think March is, much too early to lay out a lot of money on something extravagant. So a lot of people from my job will be attending the Summer Olympics in Paris, which I'm not going, but I think it's a perfect time to plan a personal trip because there will be nobody in the building. So I'm very excited about that. I don't want to break my back so that others can be okay. If others but let me drown so their face can see the sun, I don't want that person or connection anywhere in my sphere. I don't want them influencing me. I don't want them looking at me.

DL White [00:39:23]:
I don't want them I don't want to know They exist. Stop pricking your back so that others can be okay. Number 7, I'm really good at relaxing. I'm really good at it. I am not so good at not calling myself lazy for relaxing or taking a break. I do a lot. I do a lot. I work hard.

DL White [00:39:43]:
I do a great job. I write books. I publish myself. I produce this podcast. I do all my own self promo everything. Honestly, I get up, I spend hours on hours on book stuff, and then I relax. I make myself available when people ask for my wisdom. I deserve every bit of rest that I take, and reminding myself that I deserve the rest that I take as hard because I am good at calling myself lazy.

DL White [00:40:14]:
I'm really good at it, and I Robin, Bradford, my favorite Twitter librarian, recommended a book to me, something like something about, you're not lazy something something and I read it and, the people in that book aren't lazy, but sometimes I'm just like like I could I feel I always feel like I could do more and so then I try to do more but then moving back to number 1, to what end? Putting forth a lot of effort, like doing more with no return is wasted time, Wasted energy, wasted effort. Stop it. Stop. Number 8. Acknowledge and celebrate. When a book does well, let's acknowledge and celebrate it. I don't celebrate my book releases. I'm just too busy By the time the book comes out, I'm tired of these people.

DL White [00:41:09]:
I don't want to look at this blurb anymore. But I have retail sites I gotta upload. I have, I gotta update AllAuthor and BookBub so the new release email goes out, and then I gotta send out a newsletter, and then I Do a blog post and a sample Sunday and get my promo together and pick out tweets and, you know, make little promo posts and, get in Twitter and Instagram and TikTok and engage and encourage people that I'd sell, sell, sell, market, market, market. I'm not done when the book releases. Release Day is not the end of anything. Release Day is smack in the middle of the process, but I gotta set aside a time to celebrate an accomplishment. Every time I tell someone I write books, I get, I always wanted to write a book, you should do it, You should do it. It's a thing that everybody wants to do but few people that of the millions of authors we have out there, Few people who want to write a book actually write 1 and release it and do it again and again and again 13 times.

DL White [00:42:14]:
I am starting book number 14 in January. If you would have told 2014 me that I would have 14 books out in 2023, 2024. I would have probably said you were lying. Ain't no way. Because when I published my debut, I had no idea what what I was gonna do past that book. It was after that book release that I was like, well, I guess I need a backlist, so I guess I should probably post like publish another book, I guess? I don't know. Lastly, ask for help. I am the queen of not asking for help.

DL White [00:42:53]:
I got it. I I'd rather do it myself. There's a saying if you want to do it fast, do it yourself, and that's me. I want it done fast, I want it done right, I'll just do it, If you want to go far, ask for help. So I need to seek wise counsel, I don't take advice from just anybody, I need do you know what you're doing? Do you know what talking about dig into info that's going to push my books and my podcast and me as a person forward. I have learned from my Gallup slash Cliff Clifton strengths that, you know, my number one strength is, intellection. My number 2 is input. I am all about information.

DL White [00:43:31]:
So if I'm a do something, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be looking up a podcast on how to do this and how to do that and how to be better at another. So not worried about that at all, but, for 2024, definitely want to level up. Seeking help, asking for help, putting myself in a position not to be vulnerable because we don't do vulnerability over here, but to open myself up to people who know more than me, who are smarter than me, who are better at it than me so I can figure out what is going to work for me. So there we are, a little look back at 2023, a little look forward at 2024. Hopefully I have not, you know, made things difficult for myself by setting out a bunch of things I can't live up to. I think everything is doable, everything is possible, Everything is, you know, something I can really put my arms around. I am hoping for a great 2024. It's going to be a really, really good year.

DL White [00:44:33]:
That brings us to the end of today's episode. Thank you so much for joining me not only for today's chat but for all of our chats this year, the book cast is written and produced by me, D. L. White. This is an independent black woman owned and run podcast, So as I mentioned before, I appreciate everyone who offers their support of this work, whether you are a listener, a monetary supporter, a person that always you know, retweets or replies to the comments. I see you. I love you. Thank you so much for being here.

DL White [00:45:04]:
If you are a silent supporter, I love you too. I won't be back next week for the 1st show of the year. Until then, please enjoy this weekend. Have a very festive New Year's Eve. A happy, happy New Year. We'll chat again next weekend.