Bookcast Episode 62: A Quickie

DL White [00:00:03]:

Well, hello. Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. Whatever time you may be listening to this podcast. Hi, how are you? Welcome. I hope this mic is working cause I don't feel like testing it. So we're just gonna roll with whatever comes out on the recording.

DL White [00:00:23]:

It has already been a Spicy morning on bookstagram. Let me tell y'all, I really really love my bookish family. Y'all are hilarious. We have been laughing at Kay the reader since last night. She had a big reveal that I am not gonna talk about on the podcast, but I'm just gonna let Cade know we need our reel. And that's all I have to say about that. But it has been A fun few hours. Like I said, I really love love love my bookish family.

DL White [00:00:59]:

Y'all make this book thing really, really fun. So, welcome welcome to episode 62 of The Book Cast. This is my platform for sharing short fiction that I haven't shared in forever. And updates on what I'm reading and writing. I'm d l l lite. I'm an author of 12 contemporary southern and romantic fiction novels featuring black men and women. I am also a big fan of books. So we usually begin with a book report.

DL White [00:01:25]:

And then we talk about writing. I am currently working on a dessert project. That is a project I'm doing just for fun, just for the love of writing. It's not something I can sell. It's probably terrible, but it doesn't matter. For me, that's fan fiction. And I'm working on a story called, the story of Kate, which is a thriller ish piece for a writing challenge at the fan fiction archive that I run. Y'all, This is giving me anxiety, and I'll talk about that more in the writing update.

DL White [00:01:54]:

Thank you so much for your support of this podcast. Whether it's a message in inbox, a tweet, a retweet, a comment on my YouTube channel, when y'all have a fit when I don't post an episode. I actually actively love it. It does not go unnoticed. If you'd like to offer more support, head to buy me a coffee.com/booksbyd l white. There you can offer a one time or recurring monthly gift, And I would be most grateful for that. I currently have 1 constant supporter, I love her to pieces, xox0. The other way you can support is to buy my books, books by d l white.com/books.

DL White [00:02:30]:

Has all of my titles available in whatever platform I have them in. Purchasing directly from me at my store puts the money directly into my pocket, like, the next day instead of waiting 60 days for Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, what have you to pay me. But if you prefer to buy them retail, all my titles are available wherever ebooks are sold. They're available in print at bookshop.org and resist booksellers. I also have them, some of them, most of them in print here at my home. But it's actually less of a pain in my butt if you buy them at bookshop or resist. If you buy them from me, you get them sold, but they're it I I ship slow, y'all. I ship slow.

DL White [00:03:12]:

They're also available via subscription sites like Everand, which is the new name for Scribd, and Kobold Plus. Let me tell y'all all of the ebooks, all of the audiobooks I have are on Kobold Plus. Get on the train. I'm just telling y'all. They're also available to request at your local library through Libby or Hoopla, so snatch them up. Ebooks and audio are available to borrow through your local library. If you don't see them in circulation, request them. They are available.

DL White [00:03:41]:

Once you see them pop up, Borrow them, read them, return them, talk them up, that's all. Books on sale this week I published a newsletter. If you're on my list Look out for it. I might be in your spam inbox. If you're not on my newsletter I'll post a link in the show notes. You can subscribe at booksbydallwhite.com/ Newsletter, I post about once a month. I do a newsletter. If I participate in a sale, part of the deal is I have to send it out to my newsletter list.

DL White [00:04:11]:

So, typically, I only send out a newsletter when I have something big going on, like a big sale, a big happening, etcetera. So I did send one out this week. I linked the indie audiobook deals promotion that's running November 2nd through November 5th. Those are audiobooks that are on heckin' discount. Heckin' discount. I, of course, have a book in that promotion. That's why Leslie's curl and die is 99¢ on audio. I'm telling you, if you don't have it on audio, snatch it up, send it to your friends, your family, your enemies, your coworkers, Your aunt, your uncle, your neighbors, send it to everybody to stash it up because it goes back up to regular price in December to, like, I think it's 11.99.

DL White [00:04:52]:

I like it to be cheaper than an audio audible credit. Head to indie audiobookdeals.com For audiobooks on the cheap, I will put a link in the show notes to that and also to the most recent newsletter that I I sent out. I also talked about a nice benefit versus I also talked about a nice benefit for Spotify premium members who like audiobooks. And I was a guest at author Delaney Diamond's Reader Lounge. It was a delightful good time. I talked about Elysium. It's a text only chat, so you can just read it at your leisure. I posted a link to run that back.

DL White [00:05:30]:

It was it It was a really good time. Thank you so much, Delaney, for having me. She has always been such a good supportive friend to me and, in return, I gobble up her books on the day they are released and send her lots of texts about them. Stay tuned, because I will have a few sales, I think in November Remember in December there are things kind of shaking out, so I will of course let you know on this podcast, and on my blog, and in my newsletter. You will not miss it. I promise. So this coming week I'm headed back to New York for the day job, and I will be gone from Monday to Friday, so there will be no So next Saturday, November 11th, I won't have time to prep, and I don't think I'll have many updates that require me to be on the mic to share. Next weekend is also the Kate and Ray 7 to 7 readathon, so use the hashtag 727 readathon from November 10, 2023, 7 AM Eastern time to November 12, 2023, 7 PM EST.

DL White [00:06:28]:

There's a live to kick off the readathon Friday night at 6:30 and alive to wrap it up Sunday night at 6:30. A couple check ins will probably be posted throughout the weekend. Stack up them books and get ready to read all weekend. I'm very, very excited about it because I have a lot of writing to do, but also I wanna get in some reading time because reading is like my dessert. So today, I'm hoping to keep this short and sweet, quick and dirty. I have a lot of writing to get into, which I'll I'll talk about in the writing update. We'll start with the book report though as always, and then I'm talking about my dessert project, which is going very well, but now I have stressed myself I'm out today is Saturday, November 4th. It is 9:23 AM.

DL White [00:07:08]:

I am late because I was, sitting in a live with my Bookstagram friends And it was it was shenanigans, joyful shenanigans. There's not a better way to start a Saturday, but I had to log off so I could do this podcast. It's sunny in Atlanta. I have a mic. I am ready to dig in, but first, let's have coffee. The coffee is jammin' today, and it's very warm. And I think I've talked about this before, but, I have a surgically smaller stomach. And once the coffee hits that stomach, it's like I have new nerves in my stomach.

DL White [00:08:02]:

And I, Like, I don't know if y'all can feel, like, when the coffee is really hot, can you feel it in your stomach? I feel it in my stomach. When it hit that warmth hits my belly, like, It's still 10 years out. I'll be 11 years out in December, and still when I drink hot coffee, I feel it in my stomach. It is the oddest sensation. I keep losing Internet in the middle of my broadcast, and I don't know where it cuts off. So we begin as always with the book report, Because I am a book head, then we'll talk about writing. I have read 147 of my challenge to read 175 books this year. So doctor Raymond, I am on track.

DL White [00:08:47]:

I am 84% to my Goodreads challenge and we go make a do what it do. We are not really not too far to, to my goal. I'm on track. I'm committed to staying on track, maybe a little. I don't know. We'll see. I'm not too worried about it. I usually hit or exceed my challenge.

DL White [00:09:07]:

And sometimes I change my goal so that I beat the challenge. I mean, I've been doing the Goodreads challenge since like 2008, so I'm not new to this. I'm true to this people. This week, I read, some really good books, A Welcome Reunion by Lucinda Barry. This was the last of my shorts that I was trying to get in because I was behind On my Goodreads challenge, this one was okay. It was a little boring. Like, I just was listening to it while I was doing some stuff. But, you know, passable.

DL White [00:09:36]:

I read Broken, which is Will Trent number 4 by Karen Slaughter. This was the last book I needed to read to fill my Will Trent holds. I have read, the rest I believe I read the rest of the books in the Will Trent series. It was nice to roll back and get the beginnings of the Will Trent story and the beginnings of the Will Trent Sara relationship. I'm interested to see if the show Will Trent is going to follow the book because will does it stay with Angie who's a former police officer, in the books. Sorry if that's a spoiler, but these books are like literally 15 years old. Catch up. So I I want to see where the show goes and cross your fingers, we have an end to the SAG strikes so we can actually find out.

DL White [00:10:27]:

I also read her last goodbye, which is Morgan Dane number 2 by Melinda Lee. I think I read Morgan Day number 1 at some point, like, maybe last week or whatever. So I was just trying to, Kinda catch up with this series. I like to just, like, pick a random crime fiction book and these, like, Melinda Lee and Kendra Elliott just Literally just kick these out, once every few months. And so they're they're always a good listen. Like, they're very simple. They're not Intricate and it helps me get in my goal. Lastly, I read Eats For Free by Danielle Allen.

DL White [00:11:02]:

This is the latest in her hot holiday hookups. These are some of my favorites because they're short. They are steamy. Danielle cracks me up. I am always up in her Instagram DM site. Girl, you did not. You did not. So, yes, this one is based on, Veterans Day, so it's it's a good read.

DL White [00:11:26]:

It's reading. This week, I'm not reading anything. Not a darn thing. I'm not currently reading anything. And that's a weird feeling for me because I've been shoving books in my face for so long. I read 19 books in October. I should do my October, wrap up, but it will not be this week. It may never be because by the time I get back on the mic it'll who cares about October? But I read 19 books.

DL White [00:11:48]:

19 or 20? I think I read 19 books in October. My brain is tired. I did see that ACR 3rd's December release, Leave It TO Us, is in Amazon First Reads. That's So awesome for a luck author to be an Amazon first read. And I grabbed that so I may read that. I also have the new blessings novel by Beverly Jenkins. It's it's called A Christmas to Remember. I actually had an arc but I didn't get to it so I'm also going to read that.

DL White [00:12:12]:

I might just snatch up the audio if it's available, and maybe listen to that On the plane or while I am traveling. In book news, super, super quick here, Amazon is launching AI narrated books And I'm not all anti AI or anything. This could really open up audio for a lot of authors. Probably not black authors because I don't feel like the voices are good enough to compete with the quality voices we have. Like, if it's a Robin Miles, Adrienne Marelli, Ojo, Bonnie Turpin, I'm always going for a real voice sound. If I want a robot to read a book, I can get, You know Alexa or Siri or the accessibility function on my book to read that for me, I don't need to pay for that, but there are a lot of authors who can't afford to pay 2.50 to 500 an hour for a good narrator, and I'm seeing a lot of people protesting this, and making their caps caps cap posts real voices, and let me just say this buy the audiobooks direct from the author. If they're available direct, buy them direct because that is how the author is recouping what it costs to to record an audiobook. Y'all want your Jacoby DMs and your Sean Christens and your Ron Butlers and your your your Emmanuels and your your Wesley Chavannes, You're adrenaline, Ojo.

DL White [00:13:39]:

You want them, but y'all don't know how much it costs to actually get them. It's hard to get on their schedules. There are people that have audiobooks, you know, stacked up just waiting to get on schedule for an audiobook narrator. It's an investment. It's expensive. And, you know, when you have readers that will snatch them up and read them, you can recoup your money, But there are a lot of people I just heard like Mark Leslie Lefebvre, who is a very popular, I think he writes like thriller or fantasy or something. I don't know what he writes, but he's a very popular author. He told me he didn't tell me.

DL White [00:14:17]:

I heard him say on a podcast that he spent about $4,000 on an audiobook and he has only made about 500 back on it. It it's expensive. And when we have Amazon telling readers that they can just return a book if they don't like it and get their credit back, that comes right out of the author's pocket. If it's an indie author, it comes out of my pocket. Amazon already has their money. All they're doing is exchanging, you know, electronic credits. They already have your money. But when you buy an audio audiobook, when you use your credit for an audiobook and then you return it, they take that money from us.

DL White [00:14:53]:

That's ebook, that's audiobook. Anywhere. Amazon really is the only platform that will let you return ebooks And audio, the other platforms don't let you do that because they realize that it shorts, publishers, it shorts authors. Amazon does not care. I'm telling y'all right now, they don't give a flying rip. You buy an audiobook, or you use your credit for an audiobook and you don't like it and you return it, you get your credit back for another book, that money, that paltry sum that they paid us, we get, like, maybe 20%. Like, if you spend 9.99, let's say if you Spend 9.99 on an audiobook where you use a credit. If it's 9.99, we get, I don't know, 2.50, something like that.

DL White [00:15:41]:

It's sick, and that's why authors are publishing them direct. So if you see them direct, buy them direct. Yes. We all hate BookFunnel, But we don't all hate BookFunnel. I actually really like BookFunnel. They're delivered by BookFunnel because it makes it easier for authors to self publish their audiobooks and sell them direct and actually make a profit. Because there are a lot of people that will get an audiobook and listen to the whole thing and return it and get their credit back, and that money comes out of my pocket. It comes directly from what Amazon says they're gonna pay me at the end of the in the end of the period.

DL White [00:16:19]:

There are some months where I have started at a negative, because someone bought my book on the 30th and then returned it on the first, and Amazon has already taken those earnings from me. So now I gotta make up what I lost, so I can start at 0 and then go forward. I don't like for readers to be an author finance business because There's a lot of intricacies that don't make sense to readers. We do what we do because we have to and not necessarily because it's what readers want. But if I see readers making protests, I'm a tell them how they can really help. And now I've learned my lesson from being in reader comments suggesting what readers can do. I'm not going to nobody's post to suggest what anybody can do. This is my platform and this is how I am speaking my piece.

DL White [00:17:04]:

Don't suggest that I tell nobody nothing. I'm just saying to y'all, To the listeners of this podcast, if authors are selling their audiobooks direct from their site, buy them direct. If you're getting them from the retailer, don't return them. That comes out of our pocket. I mean, low key, even if it's a trad author, it comes out of the publisher's pocket, and they subtract that from what they owe that author. Trad authors only get paid once a year. So if they have so many returns that takes away from what it it well, actually takes away from the advance. Chat authors first have to earn back their advance.

DL White [00:17:45]:

Once they have earned out their advance, then they start making profit, and now it starts to cut into what that publisher is paying that author. So if you wanna take a stand against AI and you want Real Voices, Support authors that are using Real Voices on their audiobooks. Buy them direct if they're being sold direct. If you get them from a retailer, don't return it because that comes out of our pocket. That doesn't help us at all. And if you are if you are returning audiobooks that are recorded via royalty share, you are also hurting those narrators. This is why narrators now don't wanna do royalty share because a lot of, Amazon listeners are returning audiobooks. And when you do royalty share you split profit 50.50 with your narrator.

DL White [00:18:33]:

If I earn $5, they earn $5. So if I lose $5, they lose $5 on that audiobook. It's not worth it. It is it is not worth it. So That's my spiel on that. Onto the writing update, I have I have I have painted myself into a corner, backed myself into a predicament. And so the deal is that when I do challenges, an official InSync fiction challenge. Anybody can post a challenge if they wanna say, hey, let's do stories based on this theme.

DL White [00:19:06]:

Anybody can post a challenge. But when I, the Owner of the archive do an official sitewide challenge. It has official sitewide rules. My rules are In order for the book to stay in the challenge, it has to be complete at the end of the challenge. Because when people go back and they read all the stories in a challenge, they can binge. They can go from 1 to the other and they are not reading incomplete stories. It's kind of it's just it's it's a let down to come upon a story that's not complete. So in order for the book to stay in the challenge it has to be complete.

DL White [00:19:40]:

This challenge ran from October 17th, which was Chris Kirkpatrick's birthday, it runs for a month to November 17th, so by November 17th my story needs to be complete. So I'm not taking my time rolling out this story. I posted I think up to like chapter 7 or 8, I don't know. And I have written up to chapter 11, so I'm kinda piecemealing posting this out. It's a serial. So people are gonna come back to the archive over and over and over to pick up updates. So I have gone through to map out the rest of the story chapter by chapter to see how many chapters I have left to write and how many times a week I need to post in order to be finished by 17th. Y'all I am about to start chapter 12.

DL White [00:20:30]:

We'll have the prologue and 12 chapters. I'm about to start chapter 12 which is really like chapter 13. I will have the prologue and an epilogue and 20 chapters in between. I'm on chapter 12, So I got it right from basically 13 through the epilogue before November 17th. This thing ain't gonna be done by November 17th. But am I going to give it the old college try? Yes, I am. So, I work really well under pressure, but what might happen is that I have to remove this story from the challenge and add it back when I finish it. All I want is for when people pull up this challenge that they have complete stories to read.

DL White [00:21:20]:

So, I don't wanna stress myself out about it, but I also wanna get as far as I possibly can, make every effort to finish by 17th, without shortchanging the story at all. I do have it all panned out. I have built up I've got the story a lot. I don't foresee the rest of the chapters being long and drawn out, but the writing takes the most time. The writing is the hardest part, And so, so I'm hoping to keep this short and sweet because I do need to get in my doc and get to writing, and Really just kinda jam through and then go, you know, go back and, like, flesh it out, fluff it up. Just really trying to remind myself this does not have to be perfect. But it does need to be good. I do I do want it to be good.

DL White [00:22:12]:

It is starting to get really good. The action is is ramping up. I am enjoying writing a Person who is not all there mentally, and I don't know what that says about me, but, Kate is, Kate is not well, and she's kind of mean. I don't know what it says to me that I am enjoying writing her, but it's interesting kind of sitting in her brain and developing her side of the story, she truly believes this man is in love with her, and he is trapped in a marriage he doesn't wanna be in. And the stakes are high because his wife is pregnant, and she feels like she needs to get him away from her before that baby is born. So, writing the interaction between Kate and his wife, and Kate and this singer, Kate and her husband. Like, she is a whole married woman. She has a whole husband, and she really she is only with Mark because Mark takes care of her.

DL White [00:23:15]:

She doesn't work. And so, and Mark has, you know, Mark has done very good for himself, but he's wrapped up in his job and not really Paying attention to his wife, he makes sure she takes her meds, quote unquote takes her meds because she is sneaking and not really taking it, which is how she's really kind of spiraling and devolving into this manic situation. And so the story is really ramping very well. It's going fantastic. I'm just I'm getting to a part where we're kinda hitting the climax of the story, where action, really has to build. And in the next few chapters, Kate begins to lay out her plan to rescue JC from his situation. In her mind she really feels like she's doing a good thing. So that's kinda where I am and where I have to I've got to get into my doc and get, you know, really Lay out the bare bones and then kinda go back and flesh it out, fluff it up.

DL White [00:24:14]:

Make it good so that I can post. I really really wanna be done by 17th, but I have a lot of chapters that I need to write. Both my beta and I will be in New York next week. I'm hoping that I will actually meet her for the 1st time this week. I'll let you know how that goes. If we do get to meet, hopefully we'll have a good some good face to face time to, like, talk it out, and, and just I'm just really hoping to like blow through what I have, kind of bang it out, and then convince myself that I can go back and fix it before before I have to post it up. So That's where I'm at. That is the update for, this week.

DL White [00:24:55]:

I am trying to keep this Really short this week so I can edit this and get it up and then, like, get back on my Mac and Get into my doc because I have a lot of writing to do. I need to pick out a good book to read because I will definitely be treating as dessert after I finish each chapter. So that is what is going on over here at Books by D. L. White. And that brings us to the end of today's episode. Thank you for joining me for another episode of The Bookcast. I will not be back next week.

DL White [00:25:26]:

Remember, I will not be back on Saturday, November 11th with a reading update or a writing update. I will be reading. I will be writing. We will catch back up with each other the weekend after. So please enjoy this week, next weekend, the weekend after that, have a superlative week, and we'll chat again soon. I promise.