Bookcast Episode 57: I Need to Vent

DL White [00:00:02]:

And we're back. I have tested my mic, everything is looking good. Here we are. Welcome back to the BookCast. This is my platform for sharing short fiction and updates on what I'm reading and writing. This is episode 57, and I am D. L. White, your host.

DL White [00:00:22]:

I am an author of contemporary southern and romantic fiction novels featuring Black men and women. I'm also a big fan of books, so we usually begin with the book report and we talk about writing or not writing. I'm currently not writing and we'll talk about why that is today. And excuse me while I go ahead and close the programs that I Should have already closed so that they don't interrupt my podcast. Here we are. It's another episode. It's 57. See now I'm all discombobulated.

DL White [00:00:59]:

More things I need to check before I start recording. Is everything off, D. L? Here we go. I'd love your support of this podcast. If that's a thing you want to do, head to my support site at buymeacoffee.com/ Books by d l White, you can buy me 1 coffee, 3 coffees, what have you, all of that goes, right back into the podcast, Into my book business, you can offer a one time or recurring monthly gift. I thank you in advance for any support that you may be so generous as to for me, I do really appreciate the people who have supported me as an author and supported this podcast. I wanna say I couldn't do without you. I could, but Every little bit does help.

DL White [00:01:40]:

So the other way that you can support is to buy my books. Booksbydhallwhite.com/books Has all of the good stuff available in ebook, print, and audio where those formats are available. Buying direct from me at my Payhip store Instead of retail puts money directly into my pocket with virtually no middleman taking a percentage of the retail price, Another perk to that is that I get paid tomorrow. If you buy a book today, I get paid tomorrow. If you buy a book at Amazon, I don't get paid for 60 days. So that's another benefit if, like, you really really wanna help authors. Buying it on Payhip gets them paid today and not months from now. But if you prefer to buy them retail, go on with your bad self.

DL White [00:02:27]:

A reminder that my books are not for sale anywhere. I don't want them to be for sale. I want you to buy them there if that's where you want to buy them. That's why I put them there. All of my titles are available in ebook wherever they're sold. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Nook, Apple Books, Kobo Books, Google Play, they're also available via subscription like Scribd and Kobo Plus. Also available to request at your local library, so Libby and Hoopla should have, my ebook and audio. They're available to request, so if your library is not currently carrying me.

DL White [00:02:59]:

You can request it through Libbey and ask them to add me to your circulation. When it comes in, please borrow it, read it, Return it so I have some history with your library. I would deeply, deeply appreciate it because that affects how often that library will pick up new books by me. I need to show, like, circulation history, so if you request me and it pops up that they have fulfilled your request, please borrow it, Read it. Flip through it at least because I know you've already read it, but then, you know, return it. Give me some circulation history. I much much appreciate that. If you need the books in print and you want them signed, I have a very very limited inventory here at the house.

DL White [00:03:39]:

I'm actually, When I get back from my business trip next week, I'm gonna put all my paperbacks on sale like super cheap. I'm getting rid of all the old covers, The the little stash that I have here at the house, I'm gonna put them on, like, like, basement cheap, like, like, 3.99 each maybe, And just to get rid of them because I've recovered a lot of my books and I don't have the new covers here at the house, so, I'm gonna do a big paperback sale just to kinda get rid of those and, if you want them signed with a little bit of swag that I have, Order them, wait until I put them on sale but you can order them from me through Payhip. If you don't need it signed, don't particularly care about any of that, you can go to bookshop.org and order through there, that benefits your local indie bookshop. Mine is set to Resist Booksellers, or you can go directly to Resist Booksellers online or in the store in their Petersburg, Virginia And buy my books, he may still have some stock of the books that I signed when I was there for The grand opening in June, so you may still get a signed copy. So that's fabulous. Today, we will start with the book report. Mighty short. My reading has been super disjointed.

DL White [00:05:01]:

Still really trying to get back in the saddle after publishing Elysium. But I did get a little bit of reading And I'm currently reading so yay for being back on track. And then I'll talk a little bit of author life, some frustrations I'm having. We'll talk about book sales and all that kind of stuff. I have a little event session that I need to get in so that I can move on because something is It's bothering me. Today is Saturday, September 23, 2023. It is 8:52 AM. It's gonna be a sunny day in Atlanta.

DL White [00:05:31]:

I think the high is gonna be, like, 82. Let me just high is gonna be 84. I have a mic, and I am ready to dig in. But first, let's have some topic. The coffee coffee is pretty good today. It's bland. It's a little it's a little weak weaker than I usually make it but I I do Bustelo, which is technically espresso, and so I don't I don't want to make it too strong. I don't need to be able to see into next week, you know what I'm saying? But it's good.

DL White [00:06:17]:

It's a great temp so I can, like, take some big gulps, which is awesome. So I forgot to note how many books I had read so I'm clicking over to Goodreads super super quick because we can start with the book report because I am a book head. I have read a 126 Of my goal to read a 175 books this year, I am 1 book behind schedule. How did I go from 17 books ahead to 1 book behind? Like, I'm really like, my reading has been Off. Super off. I gotta get back in action. I actually decided last night, I'm like, I'm gonna turn off This TV, I'm gonna turn off YouTube, I'm gonna close Twitter and TikTok and open a book because I gotta get back in I gotta get back in action. So I did that last night.

DL White [00:07:17]:

I did some reading last night so I'll talk about that. Last week I got in 2 books. I read Call and Response which is, Heights book 3 by Christina c Jones. You know sometimes I just grab a book that I know I'm gonna be able to get through, and so I was like, oh new book. Got it. It popped up in Kindle Unlimited, so I snatched it up and I read it. It's about 89 pages. Easy way to jump back into, trying to get back into reading after a slump.

DL White [00:07:52]:

So I got that, I got that one read. That's it's a shorter one from Christina, not one of her longer novels. I'm not a huge fan of the short books, but they are, I mean, they are they are good for my Goodreads challenge counts. So I also read Reversible Error by Mia Forrester. This is book 2 in her Lainie Abbott series, and this is Mia's, jump from, romantic fiction to mystery, thriller, crime fiction. I'm loving it, just my issue is I could not concentrate on this book and so, like, I read it but I didn't read it, so I opted not to rate it because at this point, like, I just I couldn't follow so I I don't know what happened in the book, so I'm like, you know what, I need to reread this, because it's just it's not fair to a really good author If you're not in a headspace where you can read and give it a good review that, that you you rate it low because you couldn't pay attention or you, like, couldn't get into it because you just weren't in the headspace to give the book the attention that it deserved. So I'm gonna reread it at a point where I feel like I can concentrate. I do have a long flight coming up so I might reread it, but I am counting it as a book that I read for my, Goodreads challenge.

DL White [00:09:17]:

So, those are the 2 books that I got in. I think I recently, was on the Books Are Pop Culture discord and someone had asked me how I felt about A book. And, there there was a book that I read that I I didn't particularly enjoy but not for any, valid reason. I just, the the book was just like the book was written by a person Writing about a profession that they are very well versed in and sometimes that really comes through in the text. Like, Marcia Clark writes, an attorney, and her first books are heavy, like, I know what being an attorney is like, let me prove that I know All About Being an Attorney, and Tamron Hall's Debut novel is about, an investigative journalist and it's just heavy, let me prove to you that I know what I'm talking about. And that's what this book was as well. It's a debut Author and someone had asked me how I felt about that book and I said you know what I didn't really enjoy it because it was like it was a lot of what I wasn't looking for, but I'll tell you he wrote the crap out of that book. I gave it 4 stars.

DL White [00:10:34]:

I'm probably not ever gonna read it again. The writing was good, you know, he's super skilled, but I just Didn't care. But also it's not fair to that author that I did I just felt like it wasn't fair. Like, he wrote the crap out of that book. Is it well written? Yes. Beginning, middle, ending, you know, was it suspenseful, etcetera and so on? Yes. I just was like it like my personal Pet peeve and I think someone had mentioned that it was rather mature of me as a reader To not personally like the book to but to rate it based on the skill of writing. And so, I I took that as a compliment, I feel like I should have taken that as a compliment.

DL White [00:11:23]:

And, you know, I I just I really wanna be fair when I read and rate a book, especially since I write and I know how difficult it is to write and to connect with an audience and to bring words and plot points across in a a beautiful way that keeps the reader engaged. So, you know, maybe it's a little bit inside baseball when I read an author because I I don't I'm always reading as an author, like, I'm always reading to see how other authors bring their points across and recognizing how difficult it is to write certain genres. I think, you know, there's a little bit of a curve. So, I'm currently reading The Unsettled by Ayanna Mathis and I just need someone to tell me why I reread, her first book The 12 12 tribes of Hattie because I don't like I don't like short story collections, and I know they were kind of interconnected but like And I want 1 continuous story. I expected I expect each chapter to continue the story and not be a whole new story. The Unsettled is not a short story collection. I'm about 25 I percent in and I already just made myself start over because I was like, what is this book about? I'm confused. But it's starting to get a little it's Starting to get a little good.

DL White [00:12:52]:

So I'm gonna try to finish that this weekend because it does come out on Tuesday 26th. I wanna get it read. I wish I would have got an audio arc of it because I feel like the audio would be amazing, but that's where I'm currently reading right now. And I am still craving like thrillers, like I just want like a I want like a gritty, Gripping thriller like a Karen Slaughter or like, you know, somebody gritty like that. I do have the new Robert Dugoni that's coming out I think October 13th, so I might dig into that. But I really kind of want an audiobook and that book's not out in audio and I've already read all through his Tracy Crosswhite series and I don't like any books in his other series, so I think my goal The job for me today is to find a really good thriller to listen to, and, I have I got some tasks I need to do this weekend, I need to wash my hair, I need to do laundry and pack for my business trip, fly on Monday and so I just need, like, I need a good book to carry me through my housework so That's gonna be my job for today also and finishing The Unsettled by Ayanna Mathis which also comes out on Tuesday. Also coming out on Tuesday is a Patricia The Sargent book, I can't remember the title of it and I don't know that I'm gonna get to it, I will try, it is it's like a harlequin suspense Booking out the title completely escapes me. Let's see if I can look it up super quick.

DL White [00:14:29]:

It is going to be Down to the Wire by Patricia Sargent. It's a romantic suspense, it's a harlequin romantic suspense. So you know, it's not gonna be too long. It's not gonna be too deep. It's not gonna give me that that, thriller crime fiction grittiness that I'm craving, but it is a new book that's coming out on Tuesday. So, that's another thing that I want to get I wanna get read by Tuesday. We'll see if I get to it. There's probably not gonna be coming out in audio.

DL White [00:15:03]:

So my new trick is like, oh, I'll just wait for audio to come out and then I'll just listen to it. And That one's they don't typically put those in audio so there would be no sense in waiting. So that is what's going on with the book report. Hopefully, I will have some downtime this coming week, and I will be able to get some reading in. And, like, when I'm on the plane, I'm I almost never read on the plane. I'm I'm just too distracted by whatever is going on, but we'll see what I get to. I wanna pick out, You know some books and download some good stuff to read on the plane and maybe some things to watch on the plane. So, I do know, like, next Friday, September 29th, the new NSYNC single drops.

DL White [00:15:49]:

I promise I'm not gonna talk about NSYNC, this entire podcast like I did last week. I listened back and I was, like, wow. You talked way too much about work and you talked way too much about NSYNC and, that's just silly. But that's what's happening in my life. And also next Friday, Justin's new movie on Netflix drops called Reptile, and, so I'm gonna snatch that up and download it so I can maybe watch I don't know if I'll be able to concentrate but those 2 things will be exciting. So those are my tasks for the week. Alright, let's talk author life a little bit. Elysium sales as of This morning, I have sold 94 copies, and I have covered what I spent on editing this book.

DL White [00:16:40]:

We're kind of, moving closer to profit territory, I did not spend a ton on this book. I ran a couple of ads. I did I did my own cover but I did pay to have a full wrap cover created, and I mean that was so nominal. I don't even really Count it in the cost of what it cost of what it cost me to publish this book, but, I've sold 94 copies, Inching toward a 100 copies sold, this book came out August 26th I think, so it's been out almost a month. The reviews are good. Reviews are really really good. I've got one three star and the rest are Four and five stars. I've been so appreciative of the response that I'm getting on the book.

DL White [00:17:33]:

So, And I'm I'm only looking at Goodreads, and I only look so I can pull quotes for, the ads not the ads, but the promo that pops up 4 times a day on my Twitter, those are all automated, so I pull quotes from that, and that's what AllAuthor uses to publish those 4 times a day. So I've been super appreciative of the response to the book, I Wish Sales Were Better. It's officially my worst launch ever. My debut sold more copies in the 1st week than I had pushed in the 1st month of This novel, I just it kind of burns me up because I I put my foot in this book. I paid a professional editor for this book. I, you know, I know I didn't push it out the right way. I continue to be to point it with the with the results I got from the work I didn't do. And, nothing is showing me more the value of having a good launch plan than just dumping this book out and expecting it to sell like hotcakes, especially in this Time where the the algorithms aren't doing much for me, and it's also a testament to me trying to act like I am one of these authors out here that doesn't have to promote and doesn't have to run ads and, doesn't need a 973 Step plan for releasing, you know, a book.

DL White [00:19:06]:

I had said, you know, I don't do teasers because I'm really uncomfortable with things being out there that aren't gonna show up in the book because I edit so heavily right before I publish. You know, maybe I need like a I need a long lead up so that I can Tease a finished copy but I am too impatient for a long lead up. Like, the second the edits were done I was ready to publish. So, you know, I'm I am not one of these authors with a large readership and a huge following that couldn't carry a A release that doesn't have a promo plan behind it. I've got to be way less impatient about getting a book out, but Also this is a summer romance and I was already a month behind where I wanted to be when I published this book. I can't I don't wanna publish a summer romance in October. So this was a it's a it's a vacation romance. It's a book I promote in the summer and and the spring, and and I did not wanna hold it for 2024.

DL White [00:20:14]:

So I needed to get it out there, I pushed it out there, I did have a couple of blasts go I know AllAuthor put out a blast, I know, BookBub put out a blast, I sent out a newsletter, I did run, you know, some some Instagram ads and I'm doing, you know, the most promoting that I can right now. Can tell myself a bunch of things to make myself feel better but what it really boils down to is I didn't do what needed to be done to get this book out there to entice people to read it, to get people to at least buy it, and the people that have bought it to review it. Maybe they don't like it. Maybe there is too much sex in it. By the way, I did send a copy to my mom. I did not send her an edited copy, but I did include a little Hard to let her know, hey, don't be reading this book. Don't read past the title page. Just put it in the bookcase.

DL White [00:21:09]:

You don't need to be looking at it. So we'll see if I get a text that's like, my goodness. So that's what's happening with Elysium. We press on. I'm definitely gonna keep pushing it but right now my effort is on The stuff your reader event which was a 3 day event from 20th through 23rd, and I just realized that I did my count and I didn't count the 20th, I have 30 books sold, I gave away 3,770, but that number is actually from 21st and not from the 20th. And I actually need to maybe back that up to 19th. So I'm super quick gonna open scribe count which is a program that I use to track my sales and, like, what I can expect to to bring in. And I'm gonna go, from I am looking at a custom range From the 19th to today and I'm just trying to look at how many books the system says I have sold Between September 19th and 39 seconds ago, 37 units sold and I have pushed four 1,650 books.

DL White [00:22:40]:

Now that's just between September 19th and September 23rd. Curl and Die has been on sale most of the month, and so let me back up to January 1st And just see not January 1st, September 1st, and just see how many I have pushed 5,204 Free units, that's the only book I have out for free right now. So while I have given away 5,000 copies of that book, mostly in support of the Stuff Your Ereader event. Now the point of this event is to attract new readers. Right? It's it's a loss leader. It gives people an idea of your work. It wets the appetite, if you will, and introduces them to your work. And then you typically are kinda running sales while eyes are on your account.

DL White [00:23:38]:

I feel like I don't remember, but I feel like I put, the guy next door on sale as well. And of course, you know, my shorts are always 99¢, so those are always, you know, good buys from people that are looking for an introduction to my work. But, putting a free book as a limited time off offer is always like a, it's a loss leader, a free 1st in series it's the 1st book in the Potter Lake series so it introduces people to the cast of characters that will appear, In the books following, Potter Lake does need more books in it, so that I can continue to draw people to it but it's a really great fall book and it's a good introduction to, to my series or to My catalog so the Stuff Your Ereader event is basically meant to put a lot of eyes on your book and a lot of eyes on your work, and this leads me to the rant that I have and I've been thinking about this for days, because it really has gotten under my skin, and I'm gonna say some things that may be wrong, quote me, I don't care, I'm gonna listen back and cut out anything that I feel might be problematic, but let me just put this out there. Stuff Your Ereader is an event that runs 4 times a year. It has run 4 times a year since 2014. It was not always stuff your e reader, It's mostly stuff your Kindle. It's run by Zoe York who is a Canadian author. She had a book that was on sale and she was not ready to return it to print and so So she gathered a bunch of authors and said hey if you have free books let me know, I'm gonna put it up on this website and we'll do a newsletter blast.

DL White [00:25:28]:

That's how it started and it's been going since 2014, almost 10 years. It has been predominantly white because Zoe is a white Canadian author so she does not give a flying flip about black American I won't say she doesn't give a flying flip. That's an incorrect Assumption because Zoe is honestly one of the most caring, dedicated authors I've ever met. She does so much for the indie author community, so that is a misspoke. But she's a white Canadian author. She writes White romance like the majority of authors out there, like that's the whole point of saying there's a lot of us out here that don't get attention because we're not top of mind, We are not status quo. We have to bring attention to ourselves for people to even realize that we're out here. Every new podcast that I listen to, they're only reading white books or they're only reading, black indie, which is so watered down.

DL White [00:26:26]:

Not black indie, but black trad Pub authors which is so like bland and watered down because they are still trying to appeal to white authors who would be open to reading Black characters so the situations and the language and the characters are all like watered down and very bland and passable, very ambiguous. It's not anything that's gonna hit black culture, really heavily. It's not anything, and and apologies if this is stepping on toes and hurting feelings, but this is my opinion. It's not anything that's pulling the majority of black readers. It is mainly aimed at white authors who are willing to read outside of straight white fiction. The event is aimed at indie authors any indie authors, and in recent years I have looked at this event and said There are not really any black books in here, but not really wondered why. Not really wondered like how a person could be on this list. So probably in like the last few years Zoe has had a link on the romance bookworm site that says for authors, and it's a very brief rundown of how to get your books into this giveaway.

DL White [00:27:45]:

This is not a curated list. This is not Zooey and her minions of other white authors pulling together all their friends to create a list of free books 4 times a year. This is an event where there's a sign up sheet that comes out. You join the Facebook group. When the sign up sheet pops pops up, You sign up, you put your books for free during a certain amount of time, you send out a newsletter, you publicize the event, You sit back and enjoy the spoils of millions of people getting a gander at your books and maybe introducing yourself to, a new segment of of readers. There's gotta be some black people on these new newsletters newsletter lists, right? So 4 times a year this pops up, and 4 times a year black readers have asked black bloggers and influencers and book accounts, hey Where are the black books in this list? Are there any? And black bloggers and influencers, and, book talkers have been going through this list saying, hey, here's what I found. There's not very many. The selection has been paltry, a 100%, and that's something that I It was not okay with me that, a, we're not represented in this list, we're not a part of this event, We don't get any benefit from it and so let's change that.

DL White [00:29:18]:

So the event popped up again in June and I was like, look, let's figure this out. Let's figure this out because once again readers were asking black bloggers, influencers, booktokers, bookstagrammers, hey, what are the black books on this list because I don't see any? And they were going through every single book, all there were 24 100 books in the September event, And listing out all of the black authored books, the black romance books, the l g b t q books, the disability rep books, and it was It's a haul. It's a lot of work. It's unpaid labor. It is it's not fair to ask those people for that. Like, you can tap on that link And you can look through all those books yourself. It's unfair to ask people to do that for you for free. So I believe in the June event and in the September event I wasn't really paying attention to it before then.

DL White [00:30:10]:

There are now categories you can pop on. Black romance, BIPOC which is, you know, books authored by people who aren't white, LGBTQIA, Books, you know, authored by people who identify in that community, disability rep books, there are categories, you can tap right on that category. You choose what books you want. Do you Amazon, do you want Nook? Do you want Kobo? Do you want Google Play? Tap on the kind of book you want. Tap on the category and they're they're all listed stood out for you. You don't need somebody to do that free labor for you. Readers don't need to be bothering people to dig through that list anymore, to list all of the black authored books, list all of the black romance books, list all of the LGBTQIA books in that list. It's all category and we're back.

DL White [00:31:00]:

You don't need someone to perform that free labour for you and it's unfair to ask them to do that. I as an author put no. I'm sorry, y'all gonna have to go through that list yourselves. No. So what happened, the September event rolled around And there is a booktoker influencer that every event they ask her to do this unpaid labor, and this event she said, you know what, no I'm not doing it. No. There were 24 100 books in this event, and if they weren't already categorized out, that's a lot of work for free. Certainly a labor of love, but no.

DL White [00:31:42]:

No. So I saw that, and I said, first of all, it's ridiculous. You should not have to be doing that. Second of all, the books are all categorized now, so you don't have to do that. There is no need if readers would just click on that link and scroll down to the categories, all those books would be listed out for them and all you got to do is tap through and grab you some free books, but it seems like, it seems like some readers are still Entitled to free labor. That they are still coming to people to list these things out for them and basically hand these free books to them on a platter, and it don't have to be like that. So I had replied and I said, first of all, we did try to get black authors into this event, more black authors into this event because I did see a lot of grumbling about The June event and how I mean, there were maybe maybe 50 books in there by black authors that I saw. The list wasn't The list wasn't extensive, and that's something that Zooey was aware of.

DL White [00:32:49]:

And so after the June event, I myself and I know several others made a concerted effort to invite more black authors to this event so they could sign up and they can mark the books for free and get into this event. Right? September list comes out, we have like 280 as opposed to 50 that were in the June event of Black romance and like way more l l g b t q I a alphabet community groups, way more disability rep authors in this list, and still so much complaining, So much complaining. I saw people absolutely disparaging this event. I went on there and I looked at this, and it was just paltry, it was just pathetic, and it was ridiculous, and I feel like people don't understand how this event works and I, like, I don't I don't understand how y'all think it works. Do y'all think it's a curated list? Do you think it's a pick and choose? Do you think people apply and are interviewed? If you are in the group, and you sign up before sign ups close, and your book is free, and you submit your links, you are in the event. It's very simple. It's a 4 step process. So I'm not sure how people think This event works, and where the ire needs to sit on how to publicize this opportunity, but I take Severe offense at the comments that I saw where people basically called me a liar saying that I did not personally try to bring black authors into this event.

DL White [00:34:41]:

Did I go into every reader group that I'm a part of And post about this event and ask black authors to join it. Was I in diamonds? Was I in sip and read? Was I in, there's another reader group that I'm in that the name totally escapes me because I'm all riled up. I was in all those groups saying, hey, sign ups closed September 8th, if you're a black author and you have a book that you want to offer up, I was on Discord. I was in all of my author groups. I was In WhatsApp, I I went over to Blue Sky and ain't nothing happening over on Blue Sky. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, I was all over the place. I was friending authors and adding them to the group so they could sign up and get their books into this event. There's no gatekeeping.

DL White [00:35:29]:

Nobody's keeping anybody out. Authors have to sign up. So was it wrong of me to be in a reader's comments Talking about if y'all not seeing what you wanna see, either the authors don't know about it or the authors don't wanna put their books into it. So if you are like, hey, I don't see your books in here and I would like to get some for free. So, hey, here's this event. Anything that pops up that y'all see is good and, Like, you know, y'all are real good at tagging authors and, hey. This is a good event. This is a good event, but some something about this here event, People suddenly forget how to put authors on.

DL White [00:36:10]:

At the June event It got so big that we broke Amazon. That's how many eyes were on this event. We can't even do direct sales because it would absolutely break every author's website. The traffic would Kill your website. So we only do retail. We have to let retailers know that this event is running so that they are ready for the traffic. That's how many eyes are on this. And readers are real good at tipping off off this except this one particular event.

DL White [00:36:47]:

Four times a year, Four times a year you look at this list and you say, hey there's not enough black books in it, and then you close the page and you don't say anything about it. One person said this person said she tried to get a lot of black authors in here and that's bullshit because I could ask a 100 authors, and they don't know anything about it. And so ma'am, did you tell them? I'm just wondering I'm just wondering if you let them know that this event is out there and they are missing out on an event that is so big it broke Amazon. Did you tell them? Did you in fact inform them that this is happening and hey maybe I miss because I don't know every author out there. I am one of these cool girls. I'm not hanging out in these author spaces where y'all be hanging out and Kiki ing and being all cool, I am not in the clique, but I for sure told every black author I know about this. Ask somebody about me. I was all up in it.

DL White [00:37:46]:

Don't you dare call me a liar. Don't do it because I was doing it. I know several authors that were every black author that I told told others. Now here's the thing, Black authors don't be paying attention to nothing that ain't run by a black person. They see an event run by a white Canadian traditionally and independently published author and they skip it. They don't even read the instructions. They don't want nothing to do with it. So I hear the All Black Book Affair went last year, it went gangbusters, it went triple, double, platinum in my kindle, It was awesome, but we ain't seen the All Black Book Affair since last year.

DL White [00:38:28]:

This event happens 4 times a year, that's 4 times you could have had eyes on your book, but y'all be ignoring shit. I'm mad because a, somebody called me a liar and don't do it. The number one way to piss me off is to treat me like I'm dumb and call me a liar because I don't be lying. I don't be talking about shit I don't know. If I don't know, I'm a say, you know what, I don't know. I'll find out, but I don't know. I am not afraid to say I don't know. What business I got lying? Who am I trying to impress? So I'm just saying don't say I didn't because I did.

DL White [00:39:02]:

If your favorites aren't on it, they ignored all of the posts, or they didn't want to participate, And you can be as mad as you want to about that paltry little offering of black romance books, but there are authors out there that knew about it and decided they did not want to join, and that is just gonna have to be okay. Y'all just gonna have to be mad about not getting those free books. Y'all just gonna have to wait for the all black book affair to pop up, But see, like, oh, let's just do our own thing. That's great. That's awesome. Then it's all black books, and that's awesome, and it's all genres and not just romance. That's awesome, but we shouldn't have to build our own. You don't have to build your own.

DL White [00:39:40]:

You could just join this one. Black romance could take over the event if we could get people to join it. Kinnel unlimited authors can join it. Just set your free days to match The event, if you're wide you can join it. Set your book for free everywhere, then ask Amazon to match it. Is it a pain in the ass? Yes. Mhmm. Mhmm.

DL White [00:40:04]:

Amazon makes it a total pain in the ass to make your book free. Yes. But I did it. It can be done. Quiet as is kept. They did it in hours. My book is free in US, UK, Australia, and US, UK, Australia, and Canada. And if you're hearing this today, that link is still up.

DL White [00:40:24]:

Romance Bookworms, that link is still you should go check it out. If you if you don't own Leslie's Curl and Die, you can get it for free. I was in this booktoker's comments, just telling people, hey, if you're not seeing what you wanna see, reach out to authors and tell them to join the event, which ruffled some feathers, made Some people upset, my apologies, but when I crawl on TikTok to look at in sync videos and I see people saying things that aren't true and it could be easily cleared up with, hey actually here's What's going on? I'm a pop in because I can't help myself. Someone is wrong on the internet and I need to correct it. I'm working on it, but I need to correct it, especially when it comes to my authors. When it comes to author support, I'm unmatched, and I'm proud of that. I am unmatched. Ask somebody about me like I had said.

DL White [00:41:28]:

I get real excited about books. You got a book coming out? I done retweeted that. I joined the book blast. I joined the the blitzes. You know, I might include them in my newsletter if I feel like writing 1. I don't know. I never feel like writing a newsletter. I'd be talking about it on my podcast.

DL White [00:41:45]:

You got a book coming out and even if I don't read the genre, if you're a black author, I I'll be retweeting y'all. I don't play about mine. I can't write fast enough to keep readers happy, So I am happy to turn y'all on to authors that I really enjoy, the books that sound good. Hey. You like this genre. I'll be reading horror, but Tananarive Du has a book coming out in October. I sure sent her book out to people. I sure reposted that.

DL White [00:42:14]:

Ask somebody about me. I'm coming in to try to correct the misinformation and let people know, hey, y'all need to ask her to do this. It's already set out for you. Go here, get you some free books. Feathers were ruffled. I was told this is a reader space. I'm real uncomfortable Comfortable with authors coming in here to try to direct how this goes. If people don't know how it works, so be it.

DL White [00:42:40]:

They can figure it out, but this is not the space for that. Cool, I'm a admit I got my feelings hurt, I went on ahead and unfollowed, I deleted my comments, and I stepped way back. Readerspace, boom, you got it. I'm out. Not a problem. And it's a thing where I feel like I'm gonna have to go through the people that I follow and kinda roll step back from reader spaces. But if you are out there spreading misinformation, talking slick out the side of your face about authors, saying stuff that's wrong and misconstruing information so you can get some clicks and giggles, I'm a have to say something. And if that space where I say something is my podcast, welcome to the show.

DL White [00:43:33]:

And this is an author space, so this is what I'll be saying in my author space: The next event is in December, You need a member of the group to invite you, so if we are not Facebook friends shout me out a holler, get in the group, I don't care if you don't like I really just don't care. 1 person runs this event. 1 person programs the website, 1 person vets the books, One person runs this event. It's easier to run it off Facebook. We are not reinventing Zoey's wheel. If you don't wanna do that then don't be in it, but promote the event because your fellow authors are, and don't be talking slit out slick out the side your face about it, because we could bust this thing wide open if y'all would just pay attention. The next event's in December. The sign up list opens up in November.

DL White [00:44:30]:

Get on it set your books for free. Submit your links. Write a newsletter. Promote the event on day 1 of the event. You don't even have To pre promote Zoey said, hey y'all shut up. You don't have to promote it. No countdowns. We don't need any promotion.

DL White [00:44:52]:

We don't need any help. It's a surprise. Boom. Here's a whole bunch of free books. Then you have 24 100 other authors sending out that link to their newsletter list, and they're sharing it out. Remember we broke Amazon in June. Didn't do very well in September either. That's how many eyes get on this event, And if we are steady talking about how we don't have a seat at the table and we don't have an opportunity to be in in, promotion Side by side with these white authored books, this is a perfect opportunity to get up in there.

DL White [00:45:31]:

And we have our own category. It's a whole black romance category. It's a whole BIPOC category. If you write, like, any tangent of romance, romantic suspense, romantic Comedy, romantic thriller, romantic anything, romance fantasy, any kind of romance subgenre you're in. Submit your books y'all, let's stop acting silly, stop making D. L. Mad, Got her on the mic all just slobbering, mouth all dry, yelling into the ethos and the atmosphere About books, it's dumb. It's dumb and it just it pisses me off and it makes me mad because I feel like authors work hard to bend over backwards and make readers happy.

DL White [00:46:27]:

We we're doing the best we can. We publish the books. I operate at a loss. I don't know about the rest of y'all out here. I operate at a loss. This month I transferred money from my personal account to my books account so my checks didn't bounce for my website and book funnel and all the subscriptions that I subscribe to so that I can be a good author and have my books out here looking good and sounding good. It makes me not want to join events like this. It makes me not wanna take up for people.

DL White [00:46:56]:

It makes me not wanna do nice things for readers. It makes me, like, not wanna Seek out events. I'm supposed to be writing a book right now and I'm not. I don't feel like it. I'm not burnt out. I'm not tired. I just don't feel like I don't want to write it. I don't feel appreciated.

DL White [00:47:14]:

I don't feel like people it's me and 89 people. I can post on my blog. I don't need to publish books. This ain't my job. I'll be damned if I am going to stress out about a thing that costs me money and where I just might get, you know, so much There's so much complaining about, like, I'm trying to do a nice we're trying to do a nice thing for readers and there's so much complaining and People purposely misconstruing information and then I am not able to correct it because I'm in a reader space, like, where? Wouldn't wouldn't you like to be issuing the correct information? Even I told myself I was gonna give myself to October to decide if I'm even gonna write a book another book in 2023. I don't I don't know if I'm gonna write another book in 2023. I don't feel like it. I don't want to write right now.

DL White [00:48:17]:

I'm very disappointed in Elysium sales. I don't feel like I have any pull, I don't have any impact, ain't nobody looking for these books, and I am not going to Stressed myself out about me and 89 people. I'm just not. I put all of my effort and, my my my strength and my brainpower into making sure I can pay my rent and my car insurance, and pay for Hulu and Netflix, like that's what brings me money. From 4 p. M. To 8 a. M.

DL White [00:48:51]:

I am looking for joy. I am looking for peace, and this ain't it. I want to read books. I want to listen to NSYNC. I want to dream about a tour. This ain't it. Trying to chase down readers and corral authors into Realizing that this is an opportunity for them, I gotta figure out what I want to do going Forward. Do I wanna keep publishing books and not selling them? Do I wanna keep publishing books And just get myself to just not give a rip about how many books I sell and how much money I make, if I made my money back.

DL White [00:49:35]:

Because I I've sold 30 books, I guess. How much how many books did I say? 37 books. I'm looking at how much I made, I think, during the Stuff your e reader event. I did 2 events to stack on top of it. I did an event on the 19th with FreeBooksy And I did an event yesterday with Fussy Librarian both of those cost money. I haven't covered those costs with The amount of books that I would have sold during the stuff your e reader event. I am looking at authors talking about making 1,000 more because they put a free book in this event. I have maybe made 30 something dollars.

DL White [00:50:29]:

I'm definitely not yet seeing that that hit. Reporting's a little slow so it's still coming. I need more readers that read books I write to be in that kind of event. In order for it to make an impact for me, We need more of us, and we need our eyes on that website. I just sat here ranted for like 30 minutes, It's not clock watching deal. But you know what happens is I get mad and I need to vent, I need to get it all out of my system, and I need a really good sleep, I need a break, I need some good books, and then I need these people in in my head to sit down and start talking, and that's when I'll be able to move on. And who knows when that's gonna happen, but I am not in a hurry. I might have another book in 2023, I might not, and I just get the feeling that only me and 89 people care, and that is gonna have to be okay.

DL White [00:51:33]:

That is gonna have to do it, you know what I'm saying? Shout out to the 2 people who are always listening, 2 to 3 people who are always listening, always let me know that they listen. The Jason Graham is Always listening. He'd be asking me some really weird questions about Elysium and like I don't know where bro's head is at but He cracks me up. Jessica Terry, thank you for your recent order. I got it ready to if I hit the post office Before they close today, it'll go out. If not, it might go out next week when I get back from my trip. Audra Russell, who is my good good friend, Always such a good supporter. I toyed with not doing an an episode today, because I was in such a bad mood after being called a liar.

DL White [00:52:31]:

But then I was like, I I don't want to tell Audra I didn't record a podcast, so let me just get up and plug in this microphone. And doctor Raymond Williams, who is, Such a good friend. He's like family. He wanted me to try to do a North Carolina accent and I can't. I just I can't duplicate his accent, so, It's iconic. I love it. I I wish I could do it but it's terrible. I can't do it.

DL White [00:52:58]:

So, but I did wanna give my shout outs To my peeps, my people, and anybody who is listening to this podcast, who is offering a support and retweeting the post, thank you so much. This is basically like I love to talk about me so this is my way to do that. Don't forget next week there will not be an episode, I will be out of town all week, so I'm gonna try to read. I probably won't be writing, although I really should. I am gonna write a little short for the fan fiction challenge that's coming up in October. I need to get started on it so I can help other writers write theirs. Probably not an episode next week, but we'll see we'll see if I have more ranting to do. That brings us to the end of today's episode.

DL White [00:53:47]:

Thank you for joining me for this rant, this vent session. I feel better. I feel better. I got I got I laid I laid on the couch, the podcast virtual couch, if you will, and I got it all out. Let's let's see how long it takes me to get over this. I gotta do laundry, y'all. I gotta pack. I gotta do my hair.

DL White [00:54:07]:

I don't want too. I just want to put it up in a bun and not think about it. I hate my hair. It's so it's just it's so much. It's so much. Thank you for joining me. I will not be back next week. I'll probably be back the week after with a reading update and possibly a writing update maybe.

DL White [00:54:24]:

I don't know. I don't feel like it. I don't want to, so I'm not. Please enjoy this weekend and this upcoming week. Make it the best one yet. It's the last week in September. Why? How did that happen? I don't know. We will chat again soon.

DL White [00:54:43]:

Bye