Bookcast Episode 72: A Domino Effect- Books I read, Books I'm Writing & a Review Rant

I'm still not happy with the sound... but it's leaps better than last week! We'll get it figured out before next week.  This week I talked about the usual suspect- Books I read, and plant to read,  books I'm (not) writing and plan to write, and a bitty rant about reviews from an author perspectve- namely, where you can put opinions about my books. I was nice, promise!
I talked about the following books in today's episode:

Alone by Lisa Gardner
If She Knew by Blake Pierce
King: The Life of Martin Luther King by Jonathan Eig
The American Queen by Vanessa Miller
The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon
The Love That Remains by Tasha L. Harrison
Mrs Soul Crusher by Jessica Terry

The author I referenced in my review rant : Natalia Hernandez
The app I referenced to track my writeoffs and expenses: KeeperTax

Transcript

DL White [00:00:15]:
Well hello there and welcome back. It's book cast day. I can't tell you the joy it brings me to actually have something to do when I get up on Saturdays. It is A tiny bit annoying because I would love to have a Saturday free, but this is the day that works best to record and so this is what we do. I am Running very late today. I'm in the I'm in the struggle sedan. It's not quite a bus. I'm not quite driving it, but I'm in the struggle sedan this morning.

DL White [00:00:47]:
I, Emma, I'm running late because I was up at 3 AM eating a baked potato. I ate very early yesterday and then fell asleep kind of early, and I woke up at 3 AM absolutely ravenous, And I cannot sleep if I am hungry, and, what happens if I am hungry for too long because I get a headache and then the headache will make me physically ill. So I have To eat if I am that hungry, I think it's a blood sugar thing. If if it drops too low, I get a headache and then that is just It's a domino effect. So I got up to warm up the baked potato that I had leftover from dinner, And my roommate was still awake for some interesting reason, and she's a talker. So you know how that goes. Like, half hour later, I'm headed back upstairs to my room Take my baked potato and watch American Dad and then pass out, and I woke up at 9:30, which is I'm usually, like, halfway through my recording at 9:30, but it's fine. It's fiane.

DL White [00:01:45]:
It's fine. My deadline is only mine, and we're up. We have coffee. We have a microphone. We're on track. So welcome back to the book cast. This is my platform for sharing short fiction. Pardon pardon the frog in my throat.

DL White [00:02:01]:
I literally woke up at 9:38, and it is 10:28 right now. It's my platform for sharing short fiction and updates on what I'm reading and writing. I haven't shared shared short fiction in a while. I haven't written anything that I could really share in a while. So Perhaps the short term goal should be to write something to share on the book cast. I like this goal. This is episode 70 2. I am d l White.

DL White [00:02:29]:
I'm author of contemporary southern and romantic fiction novels that center black love and relationships. How do you like my new tagline? I remembered my tagline now. I'm also a big fan of books. So we usually begin with the book report and then we talk about writing and topics of the day. I am currently not really writing. I was supposed to be writing the epilogue to Home For Holidays, but, I said last week, I'm not really Feeling like writing it, and so I'm gonna put it off. I may write it later, but right now, I don't feel like it. So, Again, apologies if you were waiting with bated breath to read that.

DL White [00:03:03]:
It will eventually come, I'm sure, because, you know, I do wanna, like, explore, read, and Sabrina's future. It just might be folded into the next other leak Update or it may be like a prequel to the next part of the update. That sounds like a good idea. That sounds like a good idea. Like a little 3a half. No. Hopefully, the holidays is three and a half. I don't know.

DL White [00:03:27]:
Some. The book cast is a production of books by d l whites written, edited, produced, Supported by me. If you would love to back me up, I would be most grateful. My podcast website, bookcast.bussprout.com, Has opportunities to offer a one time or recurring monthly gift, whichever is most appropriate for your financial situation. Thank you so much to my Order Karen the reader. I appreciate you so much, and, your monthly deal helps immensely. The other way you can support is to buy my books, Books by d l white.com/books has all of the good stuff at ebook, print, or audio. And let me just tell you, I'm Twisting my chair over so I can look at this person sized stack of print books that I have to ship out next week, thank you so much to everybody who patronized me, who shopped my, get the stuff out of my house paperback sale.

DL White [00:04:23]:
It is still ongoing through Monday, books by dlwhite.com/booksorpahipp.com/booksbydlwhite. The paperbacks are mostly 50% off the previous covers. I've updated my covers. So all my old covers, are at a deep discount and then get 50% off of that. And then any new covers that I have or, you know, any Covers that are gonna stay standard are 50% off. That sale ends Monday, and I'm probably going to ship books out like Wednesday or Thursday. So you still have time to get in. I'm looking at the stack of books I have left.

DL White [00:04:59]:
I have some beach thing in the new cover and in the old cover. I have, like, 1 copy of Neverlist. I have 1 copy of Burnette Rubies. I have a few copies of the old cover of Leslie's and die. So, if you are interested in some books by the all white, snatch them up. Again, my my new, I guess, mode of operation is to not keep stock here at home. I am only gonna have, paperback books for a new release, like, maybe 20 signed copies, and when they're gone, they're gone. I don't wanna keep stock here at home.

DL White [00:05:34]:
I just don't I don't sell books like that. That could change, but I just Find that I'm spending 100 in books for them to sit here, and then I changed the covers, and now these books that are here are obsolete. So booksbydlwhite.com/booksorpayhip.com/booksbydlwhite has all the good stuff in ebook, print, or audio. Buying direct puts money directly into my pocket the next day, not 60 days from now with less middleman interference. But if you prefer to buy your books retail, that is not problem, my books are not for sale. Anywhere, I don't want them to be for sale. All my titles are available in ebook wherever they're sold. Amazon, Barnes and Noble Nook, Apple Books, Kobo Books, Google Play.

DL White [00:06:16]:
They're also available via subscription sites like Evergrand and Kobo Plus, And they're available to request at your local library. You can also find a lot of my audiobooks at your local library and at Hoopla. A few of my books are now, Ebook and audio are on Hoopla, so that's great. You can also find print copies at resist booksellers or bookshop.org. You want me to sign a book, just reach out to me, we'll arrange for it to be sent to me and I'll ship it back or, you know, something like that. We'll figure it out. So today, we will Start with the book report as always, little author chitchat. Today is Saturday, January 20th.

DL White [00:06:53]:
It is 10:33 AM. It is sunny but ice Cold in ATL. When is the sun well, the sun is actually out. It's sunny. It's just not warm. When is summer coming back? I moved to Atlanta for the heat. How can it be 17 degrees in the south? I have a mic, and I am ready to dig in, but first, I kid you not. I have not yet had a sip of this coffee, and I am very much looking forward to it.

DL White [00:07:19]:
Let's have some Alright. Alright. Alright. Oh, that was good. Is good. The coffee is good today. We begin as always with the book report because I am a book head. If I'm gonna do anything, I'm gonna read a Book.

DL White [00:07:51]:
New year, new challenge. I have read 7 books of my challenge to read 150 books this year. I am on track to hit my Goodreads goal challenge. Can't stop. Will stop. I do not think I will have any issues hitting that goal because I am ripping through these books. This week, I read 3 books I read alone by Lisa Gardner. This is book 1 in the D.

DL White [00:08:11]:
D. Warren series, and it was, twisty turny, a lot of characters, A story I couldn't really figure out, a lot of a lot of twists, some surprises. It was a Dede Warren book in the sense that Dede Warren is in the book, But, we didn't see a whole lot of Dede Warren. I I have read the rest of the Dede Warren series, and now I know why I haven't read book 1. But It wasn't bad. Just Didi isn't hardly in the book except to yell at people. So she is, an investigator, I think, with the FBI or Detective. No.

DL White [00:08:45]:
She's with the police department. I love a Dede Warren book, so I read book 1 in that series. I read If She Knew by Blake Pierce, which was a darn good. I used my Audible not Audible, my Spotify credits To listen to this book, pretty good. Blake Pierce has a lot of books out, so I might, take a romp Through, that author's catalog, I don't know if Blake is a man or a woman. I'm assuming a man. It was like book 1 in a detective series. Wasn't bad.

DL White [00:09:15]:
Wasn't bad. I also finished King, the Life of Martin Luther King, my Jonathan Ige, and I told y'all again I gave it 5 stars. Excellent novel. Not it's not a novel, excellent biography. It was really, really well done. This week, I am reading, The American Queen by Vanessa Miller. I am about 40% and it is very good so far, but here's here's here's my beef. It's an advanced reader copy, which I'm so grateful to have.

DL White [00:09:42]:
The formatting is so terrible. It's really throwing off my reader experience. Like, it's formatted so terribly that the sentences are broken. There are some sentences where it's just 1 line. It's like 1 word Her line and not really it doesn't flow for me. It's very hard to follow for me, so I made the decision to stop at 45%. This book comes out January 31st, and I'm going to pick this book up when it is complete and released and get a finished copy and finish reading it, with a real copy in the book. Being honest, I'm probably just gonna get it in audio if I can, And I will finish that and then offer my review.

DL White [00:10:23]:
And I did send a note to NetGalley and the publisher that I cannot Read this copy because the formatting is awful. I absolutely absolutely hate reading a PDF art. I'm also gonna read Why attendants by Clements McCallon. I saw this on the list somewhere, and it looked good. And, I put a hold on it at my library, so I guess I should read it. Gonna start it. If it's not good, then I'm returning it. You know how I am.

DL White [00:10:46]:
I just I'm not gonna drag myself through a book I don't feel like reading. So, But a book I do feel like reading is The Love That Remains by Tasha l Harrison. This book is so good. So far, I'm half I'm halfway through. It is, a book about a widow and it just it dives so, deeply and Passionately and emotionally about dealing with her grief and her husband since her on a trip for their 10th wedding anniversary, and, you can just, like, feel the just the love that he had for her. You know, you all know I'm a big Tasha l Harrison fan. Her writing is just so Decadent and, like, she just digs so deep the way that I wish that I could. I'm just I'm not a deep person, and I'm always reading her books.

DL White [00:11:32]:
I ain't never gonna be this good, like, between Tasha and Kennedy Ryan. I don't know how I still write books because, like, I just read books and I'm like, I am not this good. So I'm really enjoying it. I'll probably finish it today and then, I Found, like, a stack of thriller novels that I wanna dig into. I wanna get real deep into my thriller bag this week because, after that, I need to, like, Scoot on back to romance and, get in the mood to write Black Diamond book number 3. This week, I put down Missus Soul Crusher by Jessica Terry, and I know she listens to the podcast. I want to know this is not a bad book at all. I think I'm at, like, 30%, with the work week, I fell out of sync reading it, and I just could not jump back into it.

DL White [00:12:19]:
And, I wanted to be fair and Give it my attention. I will, I'll jump back into it. I'll finish it at some point. Probably when I roll back to romance, this will be on my list to finish. Just could not, could not get back into it. I'm very much a mood reader mood reader and books new books are so shiny. Moving on to our writing update, which isn't a writing update. I said last week I was not planning to jump right into a home for the holidays epilogue, and my my mind is Slowly turning toward my next book, which I need to start writing by at least early February in order to finish by the spring And released in summer, the editor that I have been using is, she posted her, Annual wrap up, of books that she edited, and there was quite a stack of books.

DL White [00:13:10]:
So she'd be busy. So, I wanna be sure to book her time and give her sufficient time to give, my babies the attention they deserve. So I don't wanna rush like I did with Home for the Holidays. I did not plan to write that book. It just popped up in my mind, and I was like, hey. If I Write a holiday short, and I get it to you on this date, and you charge me a rush rush fee. How would that work? She has been ever so gracious in squeezing me into her schedule. So, I'm very very excited to get something to her in the spring so it can be released in the summer.

DL White [00:13:43]:
You know, I have a couple shorts ideas I wanna bang out and I just said earlier, I would love to write something short just for the podcast and like, you know, just something short I could put out there. I'm like I'm kind of envious of authors that, like, just be putting out these little, you know, these little shorts and or, like, you know, the cold falls, but just drop something for, like, know, $2.22. I wanna do that and not be on some me too kind of stuff, but it's like it's things that I think of doing that I then I tell myself I have time, but it's really because, like, I had to watch, you know, 8 series of This is Life with Lisa Ling Instead of writing, but also not making myself feel bad about not writing because I do take breaks for a reason. The life of a writer. I really wish that I could do more than 2 books a year, but I don't feel like I give writing my full effort when I try to be fast. I end up really with really surface where I wish I would have gone deeper. And even though I'm not a deep person, I do feel like I, you know, I I try to at least get a little bit below the surface in my novels. So, I ain't as deep as Tasha, But I try to get I try to get up in there.

DL White [00:14:54]:
This week, I don't have a plan to write. I might try to, like, You know, shoot out something short, that would be fun. We'll see. So I talked last week about my efforts To market my books in a more planned manner, so I'm spending my Sundays going through and creating Promotion materials, quotes, images, memes, like using capcut templates, and I'm finding that I'm spending a few hours doing things that aren't making an impact. A lot of things that I am planning out well ahead of time just aren't hitting. Like, they seem like they're planned out well ahead of time. They're scheduled to run, and they just don't make an impact on on TikTok. I'm not getting More than 200, 300 views on anything.

DL White [00:15:45]:
But if I post an image, Beverly Jenkins I've mentioned one of my novels this weekend. I did a screenshot of it and posted it on TikTok. They got, like, 800 views. So the stuff that I'm doing, like, off And that's just an image that's kind of hitting the stuff I'm preparing ahead of time and, like, going through a lot of effort To prepare, it's just not doing much. Like TikTok and YouTube, it's just not hitting. So, I'm plunking away. I didn't have A good week numbers wise. A lot of 0 watches, no comments, no movement on platforms where I don't have relationships or an audience.

DL White [00:16:23]:
I eat TikTok and YouTube. I just can't make a dent in whatever is going on there and, I'm really on a road just not wasting my time with them anymore. I'm gaining followers and getting engagement on platforms where I have community and relationships, so Twitter and Instagram, And that's where I'm comfortable. So to me, that seems to be the key building. A network on TikTok and YouTube seems really daunting considering both of those platforms It seems to involve giving a lot of yourself, being, vulnerable and open, putting your face on there, talking about, like, not just your books, but your life. And that's not a place, like, those aren't just places I wanna do that. Like, I do share parts of my life on, Instagram, like, in my stories and Occasionally on my feed, I'll see in my stories with people that, like, engage with that, so I just, You know, I just I like and I don't I don't wanna duplicate what I'm doing on TikTok with what I'm doing on Instagram, but I also like when I see someone on TikTok, I immediately go to their Instagram and see if they put the same stuff on their IG that they are putting on their TikTok and they don't. Like, they just You know, we just don't duplicate that kind of work.

DL White [00:17:34]:
It's it's difficult to jump back and forth between platforms. So I don't know what my approach is really gonna be, but I think that I'm just Gonna focus on Twitter and Instagram and do what I can to post on TikTok what I'm putting on Twitter and Instagram, if it if it if it hits here, it might hit there. You know what I'm saying? But also be, like, more, I guess, more casual about it. Know, I don't I don't know if I'm gonna continue with YouTube shorts, but, you know, we'll see. I also know I can't be everywhere. I can't be all things to all people. What works for me on IG might not work for me on other platforms. So this week, I'm gonna plan out what I'm gonna do on IG and Twitter.

DL White [00:18:13]:
And if I feel like it, post to other platforms. I'm, you know, going through I love, like, a funny bookish meme. So, like, I'm probably like, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I was trying to post something like, you know, chit chatting, say hi, check-in, get some engagement, post something Funny to bring people to my page so that they can see my book post in between slices of life and funny stuff. Then I'm just gonna try to, you know, post what I think might hit on other platforms. Posting 6 to 7 days a week isn't doing a thing for me, and I don't like my time. I'm also spending, like, 3 hours on a Sunday while watching, you know, documentaries or whatever, putting together all this social media For it to not really hit. Like, this whole week on YouTube has been, like, a 0 views, 0 likes. I got 1 new subscriber, and I think that was the person I Follow so they followed me back.

DL White [00:19:11]:
So I'm watching a lot of videos and, like, reading articles and doing research on, like, how to How to get engagement on YouTube and TikTok. It's a lot of work that I I don't feel like doing to be really quite honest with you. So last week when I tried to explain the change in my schedule, I lost my mic and I had to cut out a huge part of the episode. So I apologies for that. We hope this week goes better. Although this week, I left My headphones on the entire week, and so I put them on today and they're dead. So they are charging, and I'm using my earbuds. We hope this mic is working.

DL White [00:19:44]:
I did do a test, so hopefully, we don't sound funny this week. Hope this week goes better. So, Basically, a beverage giant has people in Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday of every week. The goal is to be in somebody's space 3 days a week. If you're meeting with customers, cool. If you're meeting with, bottlers, cool. If you're meeting with coworkers, cool. But you need to be, like, interacting with, Your with your team, your customers, your bottlers, people, 3 times a week.

DL White [00:20:15]:
And so, I've been getting up and going to work Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and it is seriously cutting into my reading time. So, It it's not gonna stop this show. I'm still gonna read books, but I'm trying to fall into a new cadence with reading. Normally, I would be here at my desk with, Tanjie Mae, Kendall. Maybe reading something aloud to me or listening to an audiobook. I find that I listen to podcasts usually at work during the day, And then I might, you know, come home and listen to a book for an hour or listen to an audiobook on my commute, to and from and then listen to a podcast. You know, I I listen to a lot of podcasts during the day, so that's like my my my daily schedule. So, still Really trying to fold books into that.

DL White [00:21:00]:
It's not a problem yet, but I've got my eye on it. My brain doesn't really get a chance to rest. You know, when I get home, and I I lose I've I've lost time to do random personal tasks that I could do, like, during the day. Like, If I have a low in my schedule, I can't, like, get up and throw some laundry in. I can't, you know, do a grocery order and put groceries away In between meetings or whatever, so it's it's it's interesting. It's it's definitely throwing a wrench into, my work schedule, but, you know, we'll we'll We're gonna see how Q1 goes, and maybe in Q2, we'll be able to back off a day. I would love to do, like, Monday, Tuesday at home, Wednesday, Thursday in the office, and then Friday at home. You know, we'll we'll see if we can if we can back off a day.

DL White [00:21:49]:
It is almost tax season tax. How did why why did I say that so funny? It's almost tax season. So IG got me. Yeah. I download this app called Keeper and I this is not an affiliate ad, But it analyzes your account and it pulls out your potential write offs and I needed that because If I could tell y'all the process that I go through every year to identify my expenses or my CPA so she can file my taxes, is painful, and so I really needed that. This has made it so much easier and, every transaction that I make, it asks See, is this a write off? You spent this much at Blah Store. Is this a write off? Is that a write off? And so now I can mark it. Yes to write off.

DL White [00:22:36]:
No. It's not. And So it will make it that much easier to turn my taxes into my CPA. So I'm only waiting on, like, w twos and my, w nine forms from all the platforms where I publish my books, on my tax forms from, like, my, HSA, My health insurance, all that good stuff. So, I could be ready to file my taxes, Like, eons earlier than normal. So my CPA is gonna be so proud of me. I'm very excited. So, Today's plans, reading, reading, reading.

DL White [00:23:13]:
I just want to read, maybe folding laundry. I mean, I don't wanna be too ambitious, But I may pull some laundry. I'm reading a lot of thrillers and historical fiction. I wanna get it out of my system before I leap back into romance. I'm also pulling up my notes on the pearl at Black Diamond. I need to, like, pull what I have into Dabble Writer, which is the app that I use to write my books. So I can start thinking about what changes I wanna make to David Scott as a character before he meets his heroine, Carrie Savoy. I'm Kind of excited about this one.

DL White [00:23:46]:
I did start it. I have about 8 chapters as as usual before I hit a wall and, put a book away. I usually get about 6 to 8 chapters before I had to put it away and then I need to think about it. And so, hopefully, the the time away has been a few years since I tried to write I feel like I tried to write it. I tried to write it right after I published the speech thing in 2016, and then I feel like in 2020, maybe I tried So I distinctly remember talking with the wordmakers about trying to write The Pearl, like, maybe 2021, and it just just didn't work. And, In in previous iterations of this novel, Davis was on the autism spectrum, and, I decided that I just did not wanna write him that way because I did not wanna fight with autism mamas and Like now making edits to how Davis thinks and acts, It's gonna be Paramount. He's still a little persnickety in his real life, but I don't, you know, like Like, how do you write autism? You know, it's a spectrum. So some are high functioning and, you know, some have very, you know, different manners and behaviors and Patterns of thought and behavior and, I don't wanna get stereotypical and I, you know, I I Honestly, Joel, I don't wanna fight with autism mamas.

DL White [00:25:14]:
So backing away from that as, A part of Davis, but he is a little bit, he's Davis is, He's a runner. He's running. He's definitely running. So, Kari is a very, open person. This is gonna be a place romance, and so there's gonna be a built in conflict there that I'm excited to get to. So, know, we'll see we'll see how it goes. We'll send it into it, but I do need to pull it out and get it into dabble and, figure out which direction I'm going in so I can get started on On that book, writer life. This popped up, actually a few days ago and then resurfaced last night while I was surfing TikTok.

DL White [00:26:03]:
There was an author. I don't know her name, but she is a Latin fantasy author. I'll probably have to dig up and reference it in the show notes. She recently took a reader to task for coming to her author page on TikTok To express that she did not enjoy her latest novel. It happens, you know, it happens, but this reader was Actually quite quite rude in expressing her opinion on the novel. And you know where you can be rude about a novel, in a review space. Your own social media page, your story graph, Your Google not Google, your, Goodreads, any retail site. I mean, Anywhere you've been talking about books is your reviewer space.

DL White [00:26:57]:
That's where you can be rude about not liking the book. You may not tag the author In your rudeness, because it's none of our business. Reviews are for readers. Reviews are for readers. And so here's the deal. Readers want authors to stay out of review spaces so that they can be honest about the books without feeling like the author is watching over them because it makes readers feel a little bit weird. A few readers really like the attention that they get and they wanna come dance in the author's front yard and scream about how they didn't like that book because they know good and well authors can't respond. And those are the readers that cause an Those are the readers that will tag an author in an unfavorable review and then throw a fit when that author chooses to respond.

DL White [00:27:50]:
If readers want authors to stay out of review spaces, then authors have to have a space Where readers don't come to express their opinion. That's my page, my Twitter page, my Instagram page, My TikTok page, my author website, that's not where you come to express your opinion on a book. Reviews are for readers. If reviews are for readers, then express your opinion to readers. Like this author said, I have already read the book several times, And I like the book, otherwise it wouldn't be out. I am not your audience. So if readers think that by offering an unfavorable opinion that you're quote Teaching and quote the author something that your opinion somehow Changes something about the book or, like, I think I think that a lot of readers feel like, authors seek out reader opinion to improve on their work. And I think maybe in the past that used to be true, but it isn't really.

DL White [00:28:58]:
Like, I don't seek out random opinions on my book. If you say, hey, I'm reading your book, I'm gonna say that's fantastic. I hope you love it. I am never gonna ask you how you liked it. Never. Never. It's not that I don't care, and it's not that I don't hear how you liked it. Like, by this point, I'm not really just bought my books.

DL White [00:29:17]:
If you didn't enjoy my books, awesome. That's cool. Thanks for reading it. I mean, I I already have your money, so Not to be crass about it. And it's not that I don't care about opinions, but my writing process does not involve the random opinions of Readers who gobbled down something I spent 3, 6, 9, 18 Months, 4 years writing, you gobbled that down in 2 hours, 4 hours, 6 hours, I don't know, a week or so, And distilled your opinion about the book into 7 harsh, crass opinions about my books. That's not what I base my writing around. Y'all gonna get these books. You might like them.

DL White [00:30:03]:
You might not. Like, I don't know. But I don't base My writing around the opinions of, like, unsolicited opinions of readers. I have an editor. I have Betas. I have advanced copy, you know, advanced reader opinions. Those are the ones that I'm gonna solicit. And when I put a book out, I already know probably what I'm gonna hear from readers.

DL White [00:30:28]:
They're not gonna like this. They are gonna like this. They're probably gonna have an issue with that, and I know that. So I don't go seeking out reviews looking for that kind of feedback because I already have it. So if you were coming to me, to my face, to express that you don't like my books, It's kind of falling on deaf ears and I'm not your audience for that. I am not the audience for that and my page is not the place for that. That is my page to talk about my work, my books, to market my books, to put my books in the best light, and to give readers the chance to explore them. Your place to express your opinion about those books is your review spaces.

DL White [00:31:10]:
You can't turn every Space into a review space. I have to have a space for me and mine, me and my stuff, And Myspace is not the place to put those opinions. I hope readers don't get their knickers in a bunch over this. It's not like, you know, it's not like I'm gonna be rude if someone comes to my page to say, hey, I hated your book, it was trash, It was terribly written, it was riddled with errors, it didn't make any sense and I hate these people. I mean, okay, It's just ineffective. I'm not the audience for that. You needed to go to your reviews and say, I hated this book. It was trash.

DL White [00:31:55]:
It was riddled with errors. These people are stupid and this author can't write. I have already read the book. So I am I'm just can I say it, like another time? I am not the audience for that. You want to be talking to readers now. If your goal was to hurt my feelings, if your goal was to come at me like I'm some kind of robot and not a human and not a real person, well, you've accomplished that. You have accomplished that. And so if that was your goal, You hit the mark.

DL White [00:32:30]:
If that wasn't your goal, my page is not the place for that. And I'll tell you, you don't honestly have to tell me Anything about your feelings about my book, I'm never gonna ask. If you again, if you tell me you're reading my book, I'm gonna say that's awesome. I hope you love it. I am never gonna ask how you liked it Unless you invite me to ask how you liked it. You don't have to share any opinions with me about my books, good or bad. Do I love a good review? Yes. They still make me kinda nervous? Yes.

DL White [00:33:01]:
I don't read any of them. Five star, Four star, 3 star. I don't read any of them because even the good reviews give me heartburn and anxiety. Do I welcome them? Sure. You can tell me you like my books. I love it. It means so much to me deep in my heart because I don't read reviews. I like hearing that from readers that they like my books.

DL White [00:33:27]:
It does tell me that I'm doing what I set out to do. If I hear Enough of that. It does give me that feedback. Taking in a negative opinion, I have to be ready for that. I have to be, like, guarded for that. And for the most part, when I'm on my page, I'm unguarded. I'm I'm open. I am supple As it were, and I am not ready for somebody to come at me with a battering ram of opinion.

DL White [00:33:57]:
Feel any way you want to about my book in any space except mine. You can be in your house and feel how you want about them. You cannot come to my house and shout your opinion through my mail slot. You can't come stand outside my window and scream at me Your opinion about the book and that's what it's like when you come to my page, to my space in, you know, in in my orbit and shout your opinion about it. That's my little rant for today. It's not that reviews don't mean anything to me. They mean a great deal to me Because your good reviews and even your bad reviews, quite honestly, bring people to my books. So next week, I wanna chat about When y'all clap back at people who ask about books and whether it's doing what you think it's doing.

DL White [00:34:48]:
But that's for another chat. My earbuds are dying and she's screaming at me to please charge, so I'm gonna bring us To a close, that brings us to the end of today's episode. Thank you so much for joining me for today's chat. I'll be back next week with a reading and a writing update. Please enjoy this weekend. Have a superlative week, and we'll chat again next