Welcome to Checking In with Michelle Williams, a production of iHeartRadio and The Black Effect. Y'all, I've got to show some hometown love. I'm so excited to have Kimberla Laws and Robie as our special guest today. She is a New York Times bestselling author and she is currently giving back in this space of also mentorship with her writers Masterclass and her podcast. She's so amazing, super quiet, but such a force. And to know that she is still
living in Rockford, Illinois, author of thirty books. Y'all get into this, Get into it, Come on in, get some coffee. This is going to be a beautiful conversation. We are here for another amazing episode of Checking In. Of course, there can be no Checking In without y'all that keep downloading these episodes and being so engaging and checking in Today, I've got someone who is a hometown trailblazer, hometown hero
has done so much in the world of books. I'm humble today to have a New York Times best selling author also USA today helms her as a best selling author. Because she is a best selling author of twenty nine books. She got like eighty more of her sleeves I'm sure of it. Inspirational speaker and writing and publishing mentor, please welcome to checking in Kimberla Lawson Roby.
Thank you so much, Michelle, it's wonderful to be here.
Twenty nine books, ma'am. How do you keep writing? It's so much more in you as well?
I you know, I think so. And of course that always takes me back though, when I'm thinking about the twenty nine books, what it was like, first of all, to never have a dream of writing books. I had a dream of writing, and I always loved writing. But did I think I would write books? Definitely not. And so I didn't even write the first one until I was thirty years old. And you know, fast forwarding to today sometimes doing not just one book a year, but
two books every single year. And so it's just been an amazing journey.
It has, yes, yes, and you guys, I sprinkled in the intro hometown because she is from Rockford, Illinois, where I was born and raised, and you're still in Rockford. Knowing that you could move anywhere and be anywhere. What keeps you in Rockford?
That question comes up a lot, and I think you know sometimes too, I will see people that I've known most of my life, but I haven't seen in a number of years, and they'll say, so, how long are you going to be here? You know, can we get together? And so I thought, wow, I must not be out very much. And about you know, the.
Times that I've lived in Rockford, I haven't seen you, no, And about a lot of places, you know, unless it was some ticketity bents, I think I've seen you at one event or something, yet not knowing that you have still lived in Rockford, Illinois. Best selling author.
Yes, but it is it's home to me, you know, on my mom's side of the family, with the exception of two brothers, there were eleven of them. All the rest of my aunts and uncles and their children live in the Rockford area. So I think that's part of it. But it's absolutely home. And so I think once I started writing and the national tour started and we were traveling around city to city, then it became more of a joy for me to be at home, you know, in a smaller area. And you know, this is a
lot of a lot of the times. This is where I truly find my peace.
So what I love it. Yeah, And and y'all just give me a minute. These are two hometown girls talking now, your last name lost in Roby. Those are two huge families in the Rockford area. Yeah, so I'm assudent assuming maiden name Lawson, the very named Roby. Yes, and I know a lot of Lawson and I know a lot of Roby's, and I just think that is absolutely absolutely cool.
It is. It is a big big families. And it's interesting too in Rockford, you know, as you know, and as you were just saying, we know just about everybody here. You know, it's like we know the names of you know, if you attend certain churches here, it was certain families tended to gravitate toward the same churches, you know, as as some of their other family members. And so that's that's a little interesting when you're when you're living in a town that was under two hundred thousand.
So yes, yes, and y'all she's got this signature amazing skin hair like we we're going to get into. But I think when you live in a place where it's peaceful, that I'm sure that helps you being centered, looking good, feeling good. You know. Now you have been on a must read authorless that includes Maya Angelo, like, did you ever get that feeling that you knew that what you were right would be best selling?
Nope, I never did. And you know, I think sometimes it's it's fear. It's sometimes doing what you love, what you enjoy and living out your dreams, but still somewhere on the inside thinking maybe it won't be good enough. And and so then I remember when I was starting
out writing the first book. You know, I am thinking about the Maya Angelous of the Worlds and the Tony Morrisons and Terry McMillan and Walter Mosley, you know, all of the names you knew back then in the nineties when I started out, And so, yeah, there was fear of that. And did I think that I would make the New York Times bestseller list? Nope, didn't even think so much about that. Didn't even really know that I would write more than two or three books. So yeah,
it has it's been a dream come true. And what I share all the time is that you know, here, I didn't want to become a writer. And I don't know if you knew this, but I share this as much as I can because I'm hoping people don't make the mistake that I made. I did not go into writing right away out of high school and right out of college because I looked at the salaries of writers and they weren't earning very much, and so I thought, I love writing, but I'm definitely not going to be that,
you know, So let me figure out a career. Let me figure out a major in college that will allow me to end up in a job and working for someone who's going to pay me an above average income. So that was really my thinking, and I ended up miserable. You know, was moving from one job to the next. Sometimes as early as nine months. I would start a position and think, oh, this isn't going to work. I can see where I'm not going to move up the corporate ladder. It's time to move on to the next one.
And I would be on what I call this resume submitting campaign. And so from one job to the next to the next, work for all of the companies here just about that the names that anybody would know. Then worked for the state of Illinois, and then I worked for the city of Rockford. So the list just went on and on. And that made me take a step back to say, okay, lord, now you know, I've got to go into prayer because I'm not just miserable. I'm feeling depressed every day when I get up and in tears.
You know, I'm to the point where, no, I don't want to put the suit on. I'm pulling out of my closet the first thing I see to get dressed and go to work. And so my husband will he's watching this and thinking, you know this shouldn't be you. You do have to do something else. And I started thinking back to all of those teachers who said, you have a gift when it comes to writing, you have
a gift when it comes to storytelling. And so that led me into saying, you know what, I'm going to keep working for the City of Rockford, but every evening and weekend, I'm going to start writing. And I kept doing that for some months in nineteen ninety five until it was complete.
Wow, Now when you said you loved writing helped me, maybe even for those of us who might even be innur. So when you say I loved writing, did you know it was writing books or was it just going to be writing articles for people writing? What?
Yes, articles? I thought that I would either work for our local newspaper or write articles for magazines, and if it was fiction, maybe some short stories for magazines. But yeah, I never thought that it would be books.
So when you say for the paper, so is writing and journalism. It wasn't journalism though, was it that?
Yeah? I was thinking along the lines of journalism. And in fact, I wrote for the school newspaper when I was at Eisenhower Middle School here, so I loved loved writing in that respect. And so yeah, no, I never thought, Okay, I'm going to write fiction, I'm going to write a novel and I'm going to write a book, and you know, so it just ended up being that. But that was definitely not my lifelong dream.
So since nineteen ninety five, is that correct? You? Yes, published your first book thirty books later. That requires discipline. It's almost like if somebody started recording music in nineteen ninety five and they've got thirty albums out right. That means there is a not only a love and passion, but you can have passion and love for something but no discipline. Yes, Now, in order for you to have the results that you have the fruit of that is discipline.
Where do you find your discipline to write? Is it something you had to work at.
It is something that I have to work at, I would say more now than when I first started out, which is interesting. You know, you would think it would maybe be the other way around, but I think in the beginning, and sometimes I think this happens with no matter what industry you're in, you I want it really badly, and it's such a goal that you're trying to meet, and you have this dream that you want to see
come to pass. And so nothing could have stopped me from saying, this is what I'm going to do every single evening, every night, every weekend, every holiday until the book is complete. And so then when the next book came around, it was time to write that. So of course I ended up self publishing the first book because I couldn't find a literary agent. I was rejected by every single one that I submitted to, and the same thing when I went directly to publishers.
And you kept writing, So there's a word in there. Even though you were rejected by every literary publishing house, you kept writing.
Yes, I kept going, kept going, and even when I was ready to give up because it was disappointing and it was discouraging, and of course that rude awakening happens when you realize it's not going to be as easy as you thought. And so I thought, oh, you know what, this was a nice idea and I thought it might work out, but it's not, so maybe it's time to move on. And my mom, you know, I always say
God rest her soul. When she realized I was really ready to give up, she said, you know, I don't know anything about publishing writing books, but what I do know is we've passed around copies of your manuscript to a lot of women here locally, and many of them said they couldn't put it down until they finished it. And she said, I just think that means something, and
you shouldn't give up. And so then it was my husband Will who said, well, why can't you take your business background, start your own company and publish the book yourself. So that's how the whole idea of self publishing came about. It was not my plan, wasn't something I even considered. And then he offered to withdraw money borrow from his fuh one K account, so he believed in me at that time. I always say, you know, I have to give credit where credit is due he and my mom.
They believed a whole lot more in me than I believe in myself back in that period of time.
So you have the discipline and resilience, but it's also good to have one or two people like you beside you. Yes, you know, because a lot of us, I'm guilty of feeling like I can do this by myself. I can work quicker on my own, but it does get lonely when you feel like you are doing stuff by yourself where you're not supported. So two closest people to you who can be the most critical or supportive, which is
your mom and your husband. Mom could be like, you know, girl, if you don't go back and get your job, because we also have to tell people when you're working for corporations, you are obviously getting health insurance, yes, other benefits regarding retirement when you mentioned four on one case, So when you quit that quit your job there, you're also quitting security.
Yes, yes, and so with Will, that was my question to him, we're going to go from two incomes to one. You know, have you thought about that, because I thought, you know what, he's kind of lost it here. You know, that's nice. It's great to have the support, and it's
great to have him believe in me. But I was thinking ahead, and it's like, Okay, you know, we're not rich and wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, but we can pay our bills on time, we can save for a rainy day, we can save for retirement, and that was a good life as far as I was concerned. And so his response was, you know, I hear you and know we won't have money to do a lot
of extra things. We won't be able to just waste money on things that we don't need, you know, but we'll be able to pay our bills with my income. But I think that if you don't quit your job, and if you don't give this one hundred percent of your time, you're not going to be successful with it. And so I thought about it, prayed about it, talk
to my moms more about it. Now. What I learned later is from my mom's twin brother, my dear uncle Ben, was, you know, after she had passed away and gone, he said, now, when you did give your two week notice and you ended that, He's like, she supported everything you did, but that made her nervous. She just didn't tell you that he was like, just so you know, yeah, you know, that's it, he said, But I told her it's like, you know, let her do what she's going to do.
Because I did say to Will, I said, okay, but what if it doesn't work? So I still need you to answer that question. And he said, well, you know what, if it doesn't work, then you'll just move on to something else, you know, And but do you want to keep going years and years down the road wondering if you could have had some success with it? And so I moved forward with it and it started selling very well.
At that time, we had probably three hundred plus, if not more, independent black bookstores in the country, and so they really supported me and really just helped make my career, you know, much bigger than it would have been. They helped me in ways that I just wasn't counting on, and so it was just a blessing all around. Took those numbers, went back to agents, found one who said yes, she sold the second book to a publisher, and from there my traditional publishing career began.
Amazing. There's been so many stories about how you kept going even though you were rejected before then you said, I've got to follow my dream. But the other nugget is I want to go back to when your brother was telling you, yeah, mom was nervous, but she didn't project that onto you.
My uncle yep, her brother.
Oh yes, her brother told you, yeah, mama was nervous. Your mom was nervous, so she didn't project that onto you. And a lot of people my grandmother used to say, mean, well, but they it's best to have a concern maybe, but when you see somebody really want to go after something, maybe keep certain concerns to yourself. Yes, nine times out of ten, from what I'm seeing, it always works out. Yes,
it always works out. Yes, always works out. After all of these books, continuing to find inspiration, is it through conversations, something you ate, something you smell in the wind, like.
How so it a lot of times for me, And this really started in the very beginning without my intentionally doing this, But I started writing about very early on with the first book about real life social issues. So even though I was writing in a fictional format, I was writing about real life issues, sometimes controversial issues, sometimes taboo issues, but issues that I believed we should be
talking about that maybe we weren't talking about enough. And so I began with the first book, and then after that book was out and readers started reading it and I was getting feedback, I started specifically asking readers what kept you reading, what was interesting about the book to you,
what did you enjoy the most about it? And what I heard more often than that was that they could relate their own lives to the lives of the characters and the social issues and the problems and the obstacles that they were trying to overcome, or if they could not relate directly, they knew family members or friends who had experienced some of what those characters were dealing with. And so I decided from that point on that that's what I would do, that I would write fiction, but
I would base it on real life social issues. And so, of course, you know, my third book, which took my career to a whole other level, was Casting the First Stone. You know, it was the first book in my Reverend Curtis Black series about problems and scandal in the church,
and so, you know, talk about controversial. That that's when I really moved into the area of writing about, you know, stories that people were certainly talking about and they knew about, but maybe not talking about as publicly as you might see today. So and so, of course, then the question comes up, which kind of relates to your question, is you know where did where did you get him from? How did you create him? You know what inspired you?
And so I've always said I think Reverend Curtis Black was awful and flawed, and he was as terrible as he was because he is a mixture of a number of different pastors that I have known or heard about throughout many years.
Now. Has anybody ever thought the book was about them and they felt a way.
Well, I won't say whether they have or not, but what has happened is I have had pastors wives contact me either by email and in a couple of cases on the road at events to just lean in while I'm signing their book to say thank you so much for writing my story, thank you for saying what I'm not able to say because so many times are members of our congregation they see us in the nice suit or the nice hat on Sunday morning, they have no clue what we're dealing with the other six days in the week.
Wow. So that there has to give you ample inspiration to keep going and to keep writing, like you said stories for people who may feel like, yeah, I can't tell this, but Kim can tell yes, Kimberla can tell yes. The story one of your most recent book, Sister Friends Forever. It's very very, very very emotional story and it follows
four lifelong friends facing crisis and family and love. How much of these kinds of stories are based on Well, I guess you just you answer the question previously, But in this book, I'm assuming anything based on stories you know, people you follow, because I'm like, we can get off this podcast and I'm going to tell you a bunch of stories, and but like Kim can write it, I want, Well, you know.
That's the thing with Sister Friends Forever. I have two girlfriends, my best friends. One it's been you know, fifty two, fifty three years because we met in first grade and so we've been friends since we were six years old, and so we have moved beyond really being friends and best friends. We're no different than sisters. I mean, that's how close we are, that's how much we love each other, and we have each other back and we're there for
each other. And then she Kelly introduced me to a friend of hers, Laurie and she became my best friend. And so that's been nearly forty years of friendship. And so just the idea of me thinking about my sisterhood that I have with them and the relationship that I have with them, and I started thinking, you know what happens when women do meet. It might be in school at a young age. And in this case, these four women,
none of them go to the same elementary school. They meet because their parents are all members of the same church, and they build this relationship and they remain friends, and they go to four separate colleges when they graduate from high school, but they still come home and they spend their time together every summer. And then they eventually graduate and make the decision to make their home back in
their hometown together. And so now as the story opens, they're all forty years old, and they are as close as sisters can be. That has not changed, but they're living four different lives as it relates to their relationship statuses. And I had always wanted to write about the four of them. So Serena is still single, really wants to be married more than anything, and is wondering why she's not.
Michelle is finally engaged for the very first time, about to be married in three months, but now the true first love of her life is now back on the scene, so she's kind of got some issues with that. Kenya is married, has a husband and two beautiful children, but her husband's first wife, Well you'll kind of have to read the story to read what's going out with that.
And then Lynette, sadly is already divorced, is trying to navigate what it's like now to be a single mother and to get back out on the dating scene after not having done so for nearly twenty years.
Now, you just told four very real scenario circumstances that someone even listening to this podcast can relate to. You got to read the book because I want to know that, Michelle get back with the you know what happened there. But you know, now, there's one book of yours that I do have. The woman Got created you to be you guys, I've always known Kimberlad to be poised, seemingly centered, ground and anchored right. But in this book, you admit that for years you weren't being the real woman God
created you to be. You had an epiphany that brought that into focus. Can you share that because now you're writing about other people's stories. Now you're writing the woman God created you to be in your more autobiographical book.
Yes, and that's it. And you know, it's been interesting when I finished writing The Woman Got Created You to be and was sharing the manuscript with some of my beta readers, and then when the book was released, I started, you know, of course, right away receiving feedback from readers, and I was shocked, I guess to some degree, to
hear readers say I thought that I knew you. You know, I've loved your writing and I've enjoyed your storytelling, but now I feel like I have a connection with you on a whole other level.
You know.
It's almost like, I think you can have a certain amount of success and people just assume you don't have issues, you don't have problems, and that life is just great, and that's just not true. And so that was one of the reasons too. I think that of all the books that I've written, I was really terrified to write it. I wasn't sure, first of all, that I could write nonfiction because I had only written fiction. When it came to the books that I had written for so many years.
But I also knew that in order for me to write this book in the way I knew God was calling me to write it, I was going to have to be very transparent. And that did mean that I couldn't just talk about the happy times and the success and all of these great times and the blessings that
God has you know, favored me with. I was going to have to talk about the flaws and fears and how it you know, has sometimes consumed me, and failures, you know, where maybe I said some things that I absolutely should not have said to someone, and maybe I treated someone in a way that I'm not proud of but really wanted to write about. You know, this is what I did. This is how I made changes, This is how I worked on my relationship with God. And this is how you know you can do the same thing.
Or I'm hoping that it prevents you from making some of the mistakes that I've made throughout the years.
Now, y'all, you got to read that book The Woman God Created You to Be, because you've heard the saying this is just how I am. Yes, I think that's an easy way out or to wait for you to stay comfortable in who you are versus. No, we can all grow, we can all get better. Yes, you know, I don't think we were created to stay the same. I told someone the other day, as long as you are growing, you will be changing. But you've got to grow, You've got to grow. But I think that this is
just how I am. It's rooted in a lot of fear and pride.
It is definitely both of those. And you're right, it's like any of us. If we're doing some of the same not so nice things at forty fifty sixty years old that we were doing in our teens and in our twenties, you know what, shame on us? You know, you know, shame on us, because as you said, we can grow. And you know that old cliche. When you know better, you do better, you know, and I think we should so well.
The book helps break cycles because by the time you get forty and you're having some of the same results, some of the same relationship problems, whether it's business or work or with you can't keep you can't see them, maybe quite keep just regular friends. You gotta is this cyclical? What is it? You know? It could be trauma you haven't unpacked and healed from and We've got to understand too, that we deserve to be healed from stuff.
We we definitely do, definitely do. And you know, I talk about pretty early on in the book, you know what's probably been the most traumatic and devastating experience in my life, and it was when my mom became terminally ill. And my mom ended up passing away at the age of fifty seven. So you know, when you're in your thirties, your early thirties, you're not expecting that you're going to lose your mother. And so that became a time in my life where you know, I did what you know.
I used to hear my mom and my grandmother say you know, and I say, oh, I'll never do this or that could never happen with me, and you know, they would say, honey, just keep on living. You know, you know when you say never, you know, never say never.
But I did something that I thought I would never do and likely would have criticized someone else if they admitted that, And that is I became so angry with God that I literally just didn't want to hear anything about him, and because all I could see was I've been raised up to love you, to know who you are to honor you and to trust and believe in you, and now you're going to take the most important person in my life away from me. And so I just couldn't wrap my mind around that, and so I had
to grow. And so my mom she realized that she had overheard me having a conversation with Kelly. Kelly. It was the day I was on the phone with her telling her that the doctors we had just come back from Madison and they had said that they had done all they could do. And so Kelly's first response was, well, we know God has the final say. And my best friend, my best friend, who I never had spoken this way
too before. When she barely finished the last word, my response was, you know what, I am so tired of you and everybody else telling me what God is going to do, because the only thing I can see is that he's taking everything away from me. And so there was just silence on the phone with both of us.
And so my mom was at her house and she was in the guest bedroom and she told me, you know, a day or so later, she said, I heard you when you were having that conversation on the phone with Kelly, And she said, I started praying for you right then and there in that moment, and she said, the reason I started praying for you is because when I'm gone, He's going to be the only one you have to
bring you through what you're going to go through. And so I think about that now, because she was absolutely right. It is losing her. That's what helped me turn my life around and bring me closer to God than I had ever been.
Listen, I could see me being even mad at my mama. Thank you for praying. Mama, Yes, you can't be on Kelly's side too. Now I need you, I need you to console me. And here she is, yes, knowing she's going to pass away, Yeah, and she still has the strength to say, I'm praying for you.
That's right, That's exactly right. And because I guess in her mind she's you know, probably you think about a mom who's like, we've raised you up, and you know, you know, that's kind of a dangerous path to be sliding along saying you're angry and through with God, you know. So you know, I'm sure that mortified her. But I
was just so hurt and so angry. And then I talk about I talk about this in the book, and this was something that nobody knew, not my husband, not Kelly, not Loriie, not anybody, not my brothers, even was I was so devastated that I had finally pulled myself together and decided that I would carry out my mom's arrangements the way she had told me she wanted them to be handled, that I would be strong, I would handle her business, I would do what I needed to do,
and that while you know, I didn't think I had the courage to end my life, I definitely didn't think that. Somehow I decided, you know what, though, but when it's all over and I've handled everything, if I can just get in bed and if I never get up, I don't eat, drink or do anything again, then that'll be the end of it. Literally that crossed my mind. Wow, wow, because I couldn't imagine a life without her.
Yeah. Yeah, what year did she pass?
Two thousand and one, and so it'll be twenty two years this year, ten years. Yeah.
So I know that someone listening is mad grieving, and guess what, I'm not even judging someone for being mad, because guess what, Kim, that's an emotion and natural feeling that you know, comes somebody that's listening who is upset at God over the loss of someone or something. What will you tell them right now?
You know, I would tell them to stay prayerful, to know that God truly is who he says he is, and that you know the scripture and it says, you know, weeping mate, endure for a night. As many times as we have heard that joy truly does come in the morning, and that had I not allowed my faith to return, and had I not gotten myself back on track and just reconnected with God and worked on my relationship with him,
I would not have gotten through the grief. I'm not sure how I would have made it through the morning process had it not been for him. I mean, he carried me completely through and I went from having a relationship to him to having a relationship with him on a level that I had not even known before.
Thank you so much for sharing. I can imagine that experience alone inspired so many other portions of books. When you were saying that, I even just saw cinematography on your mother overhearing that conversation, like I could see that I see that I've been seeing the past few months or so this year about a master class, Yes, that you have. There is a waiting list though, apparently kimber La Laws and Roby Writing and Publishing master Class. Why have you decided to do that?
I finally decided to do it because, well, for a number of years, I've been asked by readers, will you ever do workshops? Will you ever do some sort of class on writing? Sometimes it's you know, I've already finished writing my book, but now I need to know what to do next. So can you talk about the different versions of publishing? How do I get a literary agent, and how do I go about promoting my work once
it is published? And so a lot of times I will talk to folks on the phone, you know, just depending on how much time I have, I'll talk to people in person at events. I'll respond with lengthy email messages if I have time. And so that was sort of it. But now fast forwarding to this year, I started receiving more questions than usual, And I think it
kind of has something to do. Even with the pandemic, I would say, I think so many people now things that they've wanted to do or had dreams about doing, They're moving forward with it much more frequently than we've probably seen in the past, and so I thought, you know, now, in this day of zoom and doing everything online, you know, maybe I should create something that I can offer in
that particular platform. And so from there both of the master classes were born, one for writing and then one for publishing and promoting your work.
And I think so many people have discovered purpose. And like you said during the pandemic, matter of fact, there's something you say in your book, so much of what you loved doing as a child has everything to do with your assigned purpose. Then you ask the question do you know your purpose? And you're so right? What were you passionate about? And that still even something that grinds your gears right now that you feel like if I could just get my hands in there, I could fix
this and some of the most life changing. A lot of people have found wealth, all types of wealth, emotional of course, financial wealth by being the solution to a problem that they felt. You know, And so I love that you pose that question and you have the answer. Well, so much of what you love doing as a child has everything to do with your assigned purpose. Now, Women who writes Books dot Com is where you can redister Sture for the online Writing or Publishing Masterclass. There is
still a waiting list. When will it go live again?
Well, either the first part of September. And actually I'm working on something now because I've had so many folks contact me over these last three months. I did it in May, and then June and then July, you know, saying, you know, is it possible that you could just create a recording that I could have access to because they've just not been able to work things out scheduling wise so that they can attend. I've done weekdays, I've done
the weekend, and so I'm thinking about doing that. But whether I make the recorded one available for registration or I do the live the next one will be in September.
Okay, amazing. All right, So y'all women who write books dot com. If you are a writer, y'all register now. Do have a question, and I know that's what the mass classes for. What is a common mistake that maybe self published authors do? Well?
That's like the easy one. I could almost barely wait for you to finish asking the question because I always tell this like, okay, please take this through you know the right way. Don't take it the wrong way to writers when I'm talking to them, but I'm trying to be honest because I want them to be the best that they can be. Sometimes I will read manuscripts or books that have already been self published, and the writing is better than I would ever be able to do.
That's how great the writing or the story is. But the editing is a whole other story. And so many times writers will finish writing their book, they will maybe have a proofreader take a quick look at it, looking for typos and spacing errors, and then that's where it ends. But you definitely want to hire three sets of editors. The first is a kind tent and developmental editor you want to go through your rewrites and your revisions. Then you want to hire a freelance copy editor that's sort
of the middle ground person for further fine tuning. And then you want to hire a freelance proofreader. And so the biggest mistake is that most self published writers do not hire the three separate editing professionals.
And you got to invest. Yes, you can't cut corners.
No, it's like save. If it takes a year, let it be a year. You know, I've seen instances where someone has contacted me asked me what they should do. I've given recommendations on some of the best freelancers that I know of that come highly recommended by lots of writers who have used them, and two or three weeks later their book is available on Amazon, and so that means they didn't think that advice was necessary.
Well, y'all, you have to take it from the best, someone that's been on the New York Times Best Selling List USA Today's List. Maya Angelou has definitely recommended her books as must read. Do you read other people's books? I do what has been what has been a read? What y'all like? Y'all of course read my books, but read this one right?
Wow? You know I have a number of different ones now, I have to say, over these last you know, three to four years, it's been more nonfiction. Yeah, and so believe bigger? Is I believe that Marshan. Yeah, it's just that's a book that it's been out now for a few years. But I love that book so much that if you went into my Amazon account, you'd see where I had that ship to five different people.
Isn't it amazing? It is?
Yes, amazing?
So funny you should she acts for my address today, Oh God, And I'm gonna make sure that I get yours and whatever she's sending me, I'm gonna tell her to send it to you please, because no matter what state you're in, like I started, what was that twenty twenty one, twenty twenty maybe, and you still have to pick that up because you'd be like, I'm believing bigger. It didn't season a change, and yes, your belief kind of waivers a little bit, and so you definitely want to, Yes,
believe bigger for sure. And if I'm also not mistaken, you do you have a podcast?
I do?
I do?
I'm in yes, you to be And so I have not started the next season. I'm planning to do that very soon. But yeah, based on the book.
So amazing, that's uh. Checking in This podcast was birthed from my book, but you know, weekly wanted to make sure to check in with people from various walks of life. And I'm so glad that you took some time to check in with us today.
Thank you, Thank you and telling.
Us about such an inspiring journey. I'm really glad and grateful that you've had a supportive family to help you and push you what if somebody My last question is what if somebody says, well, Kimberla, I think that's great. I'm excited and grateful. I'm not hating that you had your mom or husband to support you. But my family we hate on my dreams. What can I do?
You know? And I talk about that somewhere in the book too. It's like, make sure you eliminate and ignore the naysayers. They were around. I had a few here and there who kind of looked at me crazy when I said I was writing my first book. You know, you know, some of the looks were, you know, wow, you know that's nice, you know, and they move on to another conversation. Some people looked at me like, you know, you must be absolutely out of your mind. And so
I remember it. That's discouraging that that can really make you second guess yourself. And so I had to stop talking about it, you know, my dreams to those people. So you learn very quickly you need to figure out who that circle of friends and family members are, who's going to support you, who's going to make you accountable, who's going to tell you to keep going no matter what, And that's who you want to keep in your presence throughout that process.
Yes, yes, yes, y'all, Chamberla, Laws and Roby, thank you for checking in.
Thank you, thank you for having me. I appreciate it. It's an honor. I love you, and I'm just so grateful to have the opportunity.
We've been trying to get together, you know, and stuff going on. You know, please please please, I would love to partner with you and what you got going on in our hometown about a ready yes, all right, y'all, weren't y'all inspired and just motivated? I am so inspired and motivated to do some things that I've been kind
of holding on to out of fear. And I hope that this has given you the courage to kind of step out the boat and do what it is that you know that you are supposed to be doing and know that it's gonna work out, even if there's failure along the way, some hiccups, some frustration, but at the end of the day, you're going to be so glad. So while I encourage you, will you encourage me as well. All right, love y'all, Thank y'all so much for checking in.
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