Episode 90: Catch up! New Release, EssenceFest, What’s Next and QTNA

This is a catch-up episode of the Bookcast, where I share updates on life and writing. I talke about EssenceFest, provide an update on the release of THE PEARL AT BLACKD IAMOND,  and plans for future projects. The I also mentions   thoughts on reader reviews and eploration of new platforms like Substack. 

Find show notes and transcript at my website- booksbydlwhite.com/bookcast/90. 

Transcript

DL White [00:00:14]:
Hello, everybody. Welcome, welcome, welcome back to the book cast This is my platform for sharing short fiction and updates on life as a self published author of romantic fiction that centers black love. I am d l White, an Atlanta based author of 14 novels, numerous short stories, and fan fiction works. I'm a reader first, So we usually begin with a book report that we talk about writing and topics of the day. Today is gonna be a little bit different because I've been off the mic for a minute. I wanna pause here to issue a very happy hello to my mother who has discovered the podcast. She listened to episode 89 and said she really enjoyed it, So my heart is full. My work here is done.

DL White [00:01:02]:
Just kidding. This is a catch up episode, so it'll probably be a quick one. I just need to get one in the can to, like, wrap things up and talk about where I've been and where I'm going. But I do like to talk. So every time I say it's gonna be a quick episode, I ramble for 27 minutes. So get your coffee, get your beverage of choice, and settle in. Do you have a topic you would like me to cover on the book cast? Shout me out a holler. I'm always on Instagram or Twitter at author_dlwhite, or you can visit the show notes in this here episode at books by dlwhite.com/bookcast/90.

DL White [00:01:40]:
I welcome your comments and questions, and I'll dedicate a part of the show to answering them. This week, I'm answering a question from Kaye the reader. She asks, who, if I had my choice, would I collab with as an author? Now let me just tell you. In a perfect world, I would love to sit next to one of my favorites, Tayari Jones. She's an Atlanta based, fiction author. I love the way she writes and how she brings a story to life. She just has a way about her that draws me in. I think her writing is beautiful, but also, like, deep and introspective and and vivid, and, I just really love her work.

DL White [00:02:18]:
I would love to sit at her knee and just soak in soak in all the learnings and kinda, like, dip my toe in the water there. In reality, I'm entirely too much of a control freak to share a writing project with someone. I feel like my voice is distinctive, and I would worry that it would sound disjointed if someone else were to be writing the same project. So, I'd be tempted to rewrite everything my partner wrote. I don't I don't see that working out well. I would write a book as a story or a part of a project, like, with a collab or a multi book project, with others. But cowriting the same book, that would not that could not be the move for me. I'm it's just not it's not a good idea for me.

DL White [00:03:03]:
Thank you for the question, Kaye. I do appreciate it. Again, drop me a line anywhere. Y'all know how to get at me. When you have a complaint, y'all can find me. So come find me when you have a question you want me to answer on the book cast. Okay? Okay. Today is gonna be a great show.

DL White [00:03:19]:
Very excited. It's the weekend. I have brunch plans with my friend I call my candle dealer. She hand makes wood wick candles, which are my favorites. I burn almost exclusively wood wick candles unless somebody buys me a a, what do they call those? The, the cotton wick, whatever whatever wicks are made of. Unless they buy me a regular candle, I'll wear I'll burn those, but I buy almost exclusively wood wick candles. I just love them. I think they burn better.

DL White [00:03:47]:
They also, like, crackle when you burn them. I think the the sounds permeate the the sounds the smells permeate the air better. I just prefer them, and I feel more high class when I burn a woodwork candle. We are meeting for brunch today, so she can deliver me some candles. She's also my work bestie. We started at beverage giant on the same day. We met in orientation, actually, and, we have been good friends ever since. But I can't get to brunch until the podcast is done and dusted.

DL White [00:04:15]:
So let's get to it. Today is Saturday, 13th. It is 9:0:9 AM. It's sunny and 74 in the ATL. I have a mic, and I am ready to dig in. But first, let's have some coffee. Alright. Let's dig in.

DL White [00:04:41]:
So I am skipping the book report this week because I've been off the mic for a month. I don't even know where I left off. I don't know what's happening. I don't know what's going on. We'll pick it back up next week because I cannot. I need to go through my, my book book planner and figure out what I haven't updated and where I'm at. I know I need to wrap up June still. It's about to be July 15th.

DL White [00:05:04]:
Things are going on. I do not have my life together. So we'll pick it back up next week. I will report that I hit 100 books books read on my annual challenge. I'm actually at 111 books read. I'm 18 books ahead, on that challenge. I think I'm gonna end up increasing my goal again, but we will see. I am also rereading the darkest child.

DL White [00:05:24]:
I actually finished rereading the darkest child by Dolores Phillips with my bookstagram friends, and, wow, it's been more than 10 years since I read that on the page. I read it on Kindle. It grabbed me by the eyeballs then. This time, I listened to it in audio. It's narrated by the great Bonnie Turpin. The audio makes it so vivid. Her voice for Roselle just nails just nails on a chalkboard. I just it's so vivid.

DL White [00:05:55]:
I forgot a lot of this book, so it was like reading it for the first time. It's very it's so well done. It's very traumatic. You will have a visceral reaction to this book. I am ready to talk about it. There's so much to it. It it just it goes way deeper than Roselle Quinn. I'm just, I'm ready.

DL White [00:06:17]:
Whoo. I'm ready to talk about Tianjin May and her siblings and her mother. Okay. Moving on. So let's get the Essence Fest update out of the way. 1st, I wanna say, thank you so much to Danielle Allen for inviting me to join in her celebration of Curvy Girl summer. I flew up to, Richmond, Virginia, joined in her launch party for curvy girl summer at resist book sellers. I also had books on sale, almost sold out.

DL White [00:06:49]:
That was a super good feeling. Loved it. Loved it. Loved it. I read a snippet of the Neverless, which which I feel is in conversation with Kirby Girl Summer. Esme is turning 40. There's a list of things she needs to get done by her 40th birthday. Aaliyah is turning 30.

DL White [00:07:06]:
She wants a boyfriend by her 30th birthday. So they're sisters. You say what I'm saying? They're sisters. Anyway, thank you to Danielle for inviting me to participate in her launch party. It was ever so much fun. I stayed over an extra day and had, lunch with one of my friends. I met on the Internet in, like, 2003 ish. We have been good friends for a long time.

DL White [00:07:34]:
I've only met her in person one time, and it was just great to, like, see her in person, share a meal, had a a great time. And then I did nerdy things and went over to the Richmond Science Center where I picked up a cold from, I am sure, somebody's child. So then I spent the next week, like, hacking and coughing and yeah. So, anyway, came back for a bit, and then I got on the plane for Essence Fest. And suffice it to say, I had the best time, the best time. It was a 100% better than the last time I went to Essence Fest. If you remember, I did that by myself. I was a featured author.

DL White [00:08:16]:
It was a lot. I will link in the show notes my blog post. I believe I made a blog post somewhere, where I, maybe it was a Facebook post. I don't know. But it was it was an okay experience being a featured author. The last time I was there was, like, 2018. It was managed by someone else. The bookstore was different.

DL White [00:08:37]:
It was just different. This time, the, group the collective curates have been doing the, Essence authors program for the last 2 years, and it has been just such a breath of fresh air. The minute they dropped the author lineup, I knew I would not be able to handle missing out. So I ponied up the money, requested the days off, booked my hotel room, thanked beverage giant for their Hilton hotel discount and their Southwest Airlines discount. Requested a days off. I got myself over to New Orleans, honey. I am not a concert girly, so I feel like my schedule was really well set up. I arrived on town when I arrived in town Wednesday 3rd.

DL White [00:09:21]:
I did not wanna be in the crowd of people trying to fly and check-in on 4th. I walked past the front desk on 4th, and I was like, nope. None of that. I like to have all the time in the world. I got up late on 4th. I had some breakfast in my room. I did one of those oh, I didn't have breakfast in my yeah. I did have breakfast in my room.

DL White [00:09:38]:
I did one of those double decker tours of the city. Had myself a great time. I was chilling. I was gonna eat at Dragos because it's actually in the hotel, but the line was too long. The menu is, to me, was not buried enough. I wanted a seafood platter, and I could get either shrimp or catfish, not both. And I was like, how do you not have a platter of seafood? So I ended up doing something else. I just had a great time.

DL White [00:10:05]:
So Friday, I got up, headed over to the convention center, went straight to the bookstore, which is a gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous space. It was like home. I spent most of my time at the office author's space because that's where most of the book people were hanging out. Immediately ran into Farah Roshan, New Orleans based author of so many series. And she has, I think, 3 Disney books out now. 2 Disney books and one coming in January. Gorgeous. Look her up.

DL White [00:10:37]:
Get into Farah Rishan. I spent a large part of my weekend hanging out with her and Danielle Allen. She is such a delight. I really, really enjoy her. Every time I go to New Orleans, I make it a point to have brunch with her. She's such a special person. I watched a few panels, first of which was my friend, Danielle Allen and Tasha Bishop. AE Valdez, 1 hybrid and 2 indie authors moderated by Robin Ryas, an award winning book influencer, slash personality on the internets, that I say for the session with Lacey Baker, and and there were 2 other people on the and then I headed off to look around at the convention center.

DL White [00:11:13]:
The space is huge while simultaneously not big enough. They also they have the karaoke stage near the author stage, and thankfully, there were mics and speakers because it was a lot to try to talk over that and try to hear over that. I feel like Essence really needs to plan where they put the stages where people will be speaking because somebody badly singing Keyshia Cole over an author I'm trying to hear was on my last nerve. Anyway, I headed up to the film festival around 4 o'clock, and I watched about 20 minutes of the new Beverly Hills Cop movie that just hit Netflix. But I it was freezing cold in that room, and it wasn't theater style. I was very uncomfortable. I wanted to, like, kick back, put my feet up like I was at an AMC theater, and I was not because I'm bougie now. So I was like, this is on Netflix, and I ran out of popcorn.

DL White [00:12:01]:
So I was like, I can just watch this on Netflix. So I went to my room. I got some food. I got comfy, and I watched the rest of that. It was really good. I really enjoyed it. I chilled in my room that night because I'm not a concert girly. I was back in my room by, like, 5:30, 6 o'clock, hung out on the Internet, updated some things, listened to an audiobook, whatever.

DL White [00:12:23]:
The next day, I got breakfast in my room, and then I met Danielle and her, partner at Cafe Du Monde for coffee before I went over to the convention center. We had a really good inspiring chat. Like, I'm so, I'm just so inspired by Danielle and things that are happening for her. I'm hoping I'll be able to be brave and stick a foot in some other waters in 2025 and beyond. Fingers crossed on that. So I went over to the convention center after I had coffee with Danielle. The author space was just full of people, and it was so so beautiful to see. It really made my heart smile to see so many people in this space looking at books and taking pictures.

DL White [00:13:06]:
And they have these, like, this big mural that says we love black books and everybody was taking pictures there. And on the wall as all of the influencers that make it possible for people to know about our work, all the people that were, like, doing interviews with the authors and members of the collective curates. So they're all up on the wall. That was like I it was just like just like a a space to be proud of, like our home. Like, that's where I was hanging out the the whole weekend. I immediately ran into Reggie reads, one of my books to gram friends, hashtag read Ann Petrie. Totally missed Jared Woods because he wasn't up till Sunday, and I was flying out that day. Next time next time, I got my picture with Reggie.

DL White [00:13:50]:
I met some readers, got my hug from JL Segars and Tori aka black romance connoisseur. Then I went to find some food because I was hungry. And I ended up getting some chicken wings because the lines were long, and I was stressed out. I ended up sitting at a table with Reggie and his family until it was almost time for the panel that I flew to New Orleans for. I was not missing this panel. The legends panel with Donna Hill, Beverly Jenkins, and the miss Brenda Jackson. I tell you, I was almost jumping out of my skin waiting for this panel to begin. At the same time that we were getting ready for the panel with the legends, Kennedy Ryan was doing a book signing, not a panel, just a signing.

DL White [00:14:33]:
And so the line that bookstore was so full of people. Half of it was people waiting for the legends. The legends panels begin, and then most of the other people were just people in line waiting for Kennedy Bryan to sign books. Like, it it was packed. The bookstore was the line was just all waved all the way around the bookcases. It was it was actually kinda funny. What's funny is that Kennedy was on Facebook one day talking about, hey. I'm doing book signing at Essence.

DL White [00:15:04]:
Like, 4 people might show up. I don't know. And I'm like, girl, you you know good and well. You know good and well. You go pack it out. That's just silly. So, the legends panel was so, so, so good. I'm so glad I could not deal with FOMO, and I got myself to Essence Fest.

DL White [00:15:24]:
It was definitely what my soul needed to see these authors that have been out here doing a thing for 30 years, rain or shine, good reviews, bad reviews, muddling through people who don't think black folks can read, To bring us these books and to pave the way for me to release my little books, I I had a ball. I had a ball. I got books to sign, so I whipped back around. I got pictures with miss Brenda. I got my hug and a little kiss on my cheek from miss Bev. And then, I ran up to the film festival where, a few of my author friends were gathering to support Kennedy Ryan. She was on a panel talking about adaptation from book to TV or film. Really, really great session.

DL White [00:16:04]:
Not really in my sights, but it was good to be in that room to follow people who wanna support authors who have their sights set beyond novels. I also love how Kennedy champions independent authors and encourages showrunners, writers, screenwriters, etcetera, to put their sights on us and our stories. We're out here. We are, I mean, busting the doors open and really writing stories that are, set apart. They're they really are set apart. So after that session, got a squeeze from Kennedy, and, I got to pick with all the authors that were there. And then we headed back down to the bookstore, and Bart and I walked back to my hotel since she had an event that night in the hotel. She needed to charge her phone and sit down for a second.

DL White [00:16:49]:
So she wasn't, like, gonna leave and then come back. So we gathered in my room to relax for a minute. Had another really great encouraging conversation for her as goals y'all. She's just goals. I'm just saying. I met, a few influencers that night. I saw the lovely gifts that the collective curates gave their team. And then I headed to my room.

DL White [00:17:10]:
I had some dinner. I passed out. My flight left at 10 AM the next morning. And once again, New Orleans didn't owe me a darn thing. I I I tell you, I now cannot wait for the Essence Fest authors program every year. If the collective curates is gonna do it every year, I'm in. I'm sold. I'm set.

DL White [00:17:31]:
Put me in coach. So that was excellent. That was lovely. I'm now sitting down until September. I have work travel in September. I don't think I know anybody in Park City, Utah, but if I do, shout me a holler. I don't I will have time to hang out, but, I will be in Utah in September, Charlotte in November. I might try to go somewhere for December, but, like, as far as, like, bookish fun travel, I don't have anything planned.

DL White [00:18:01]:
I really my bank account told me to sit down, so I'm sat. So writing writing update book update. Mhmm. I really should've I really should've led with this because it's very exciting. But when we were last together, I was expecting final edits on the pearl. I got them, of course. I edited the book, of course, and the pearl released early on my website around June 28th. I got a few sales before it was released to retail stores on July 2nd.

DL White [00:18:29]:
I am not patient enough to leave it up for, like, forever on my website before it hits retail stores because I know the majority of my readers want it on their Kindle. So I'm I'm not really good at holding out like that. Preorders were kind of anemic, but the preorder lead up was very short. It was really literally a few days, like 7 days. I mostly did that because I didn't wanna play the waiting game with Amazon, especially because I was trying to get ready to leave for essence. And, I didn't wanna be just doing that checking back and forth and, like, waiting to see when they publish it. I didn't want it to be a surprise. July 2nd, let's go.

DL White [00:19:07]:
Midnight July 2nd, it hit Kindles. Sales are okay. Not awesome, but better than 0. The other day, I went to look at sales overall, like, since I started publishing, and all of my books have made $1,000 through hey lover. Everything hey lover and back have made a $1,000. That came out late 2022. Really, 2023. I published it December 31, 2022.

DL White [00:19:36]:
Since then, I have been on the struggle bus. Home for the Holidays made a few $100. Elysium has made about $600, and that book has been out about a year. And The Pearl has made half of that, though it's only been out for a week or so. I've actually spent money on ads. I put the first two books in the Black Diamond Romance series on sale for 10 days. I did look at some reviews. I have a few reviews.

DL White [00:20:00]:
Most of them are good. One person mentioned that she did not finish it at 38%. Actually, didn't even get real good in in the book yet. Anyway, I can tell I've grown as an author because I kinda scrolled right past it. Like, okay. I I'd rather they didn't finish a book than hate read it than rate it low. You know what I'm saying? Just put it down. They did enjoy Elysium and made a point that Davis seemed, like he had more personality in that book, and he did.

DL White [00:20:26]:
She's not wrong. I did reread Elysium, and I tried to bridge the Davis in that book and the Davis in the pearl. And to me, I felt like Davis at work paired with the woman he didn't want to be attracted to who was also his employee with his job at stake was a different person than he was after hours with Vance and Jason. As you get further into the book, he does loosen up. That's why it's important to keep reading, keep reading, but that's okay. If it doesn't grab you, it doesn't grab you. Put it down. Put it down.

DL White [00:20:57]:
I like how his friends pick on him about how uptight he is around Kari. He is just the epitome of awkward around this vibrant woman. Maybe I didn't do a good job of bridging the 2 Davises, but the book is written. Okay? Okay? But I and so I did get it. I did the best I could. Davis at work to me was a much different person. It's almost like a code switch. Like, when he is at work, he has, like, responsibilities and and things going on, and he's got this dude in a, like, expensive gator skin boots and a white Stetson up his behind all day every day.

DL White [00:21:33]:
He's, like, much different than when he is, like, playing with his best friend. The reviewer said also says she didn't get why Kari was so pressed to have Davis call her by her first name when they just met. Calling her miss Soraya, first of all, was a turn on to her. Second of all, he called everyone else by their first name except her. She was singled out, and she was basically saying, don't single me out. I'm not the enemy. We're on the same side. I'm here to help you.

DL White [00:22:01]:
I also think she was just being very obstinate. She wanted her way, and he wasn't going to give it to her. And she wasn't going to be pleased unless he, like, relaxed and, like, started calling her by her first name. Let's be friendly. Let's be friends. We have to work together. It was just he was very stiff with her, and she wanted him to relax, and he refused to relax. Anyway, I'm not gonna battle every low rating here on the podcast.

DL White [00:22:28]:
This is why I don't be reading my reviews. You know what I'm saying? But one of the reasons I stopped reading reviews is because I already know I'm not gonna see anything new in them. I know from my pre publication process, my beta readers, my editor, how readers might see my characters, how they might critique my approach to the the story, how they might see, the story arc Davis' character from a super uptight dude to a man who finally learns to love again. His heart is open. His nose is open, like, that kind of thing. I kinda know from that pre publication process what I'm gonna see in the reviews. And by all means, if you did not like this book, first of all, put it down. Put it down and treat your face to something you love.

DL White [00:23:16]:
2nd, put that review up everywhere but in my face. I don't make it a practice to read my reviews, especially the low ones, so go forth and be truthful with tact. Please don't have my readers all up on you for talking out your behind. But, like, like, be truthful because that is what other readers need to know whether or not they should go into a book. If you loved it, though, get up in them reviews and tell the others readers why tell those other readers why you loved it. I also put the photograph up on my website in 4 parts. I I don't think anyone read it, but it is there. I do still need to format it in ebook and load it up on my previous page.

DL White [00:23:55]:
But, again, I had a lot going on. I'm not rushing to do things for, like, 9 people. It'll be up when it's up. It'll be up. It's time to plan my next 4 part series, but I'm honestly still on writing break. My brain needs to rest. It needs to lie foul out so I can it can produce a new crop of story ideas. I kinda have an idea for book 15, and I have a bit of a secret project that I wanna start, but I need to think about both of them way more.

DL White [00:24:24]:
And the more I think about them, I need to be excited by them. I've had a lot of ideas pop up, but the more I think about them, then I get bored. I'm like, I don't wanna do that. That's boring. That's that's boring. So we'll see. I have not only been reading, I have been writing stuff. So things that I watched and like bad boys 4, it was good.

DL White [00:24:43]:
I really, really enjoyed that. I did not watch Bad Boys 2 or 3, and I was able to follow the story. So there's that. Really enjoyed that. Beverly Hills Cop, Axel f, really enjoyed that. Was so good to see judge Reinhold again. I did not recognize Paul Reiser. Kevin Bacon.

DL White [00:25:06]:
Yes. So very, very good. I started a series called presumed innocent on Apple TV, and I watched, like, 2 episodes and I got stressed out. Jake Gyllenhaal is excellent in it. It's just one of those where it just things keep piling on a character, and I'm I'm I'm stressed out about how they're gonna make their way through it. Kinda felt the same way when I watched, defending Jacob a few summers ago. Chris Evans did that movie, Defending Jacob. It was a series actually on Apple TV, and it's just so stressful.

DL White [00:25:45]:
So I think I'm gonna wait for it to all load up and then, like, watch it, like, binge it because I can't do week to week. It just my my nerves is bad. Same with dark matter. I think dark matter is done, so I'm just gonna watch it all in one fell swoop. I read that book and really enjoyed it, so I know what's going to happen in this series, and still, I'm stressed out. I will finish them. The TV just it just stressed me out. I watched, the man with a 1,000 children on Netflix.

DL White [00:26:12]:
I didn't finish it. I was just kinda bored. I was like, okay. This guy has a he's just he, like, provides his sperm to a lot of people. It was not an interesting series to me. What was interesting to me was 6 schizophrenic brothers on max. It's a little long, but I found it wildly, wildly interesting. Really good watching.

DL White [00:26:38]:
So, lastly, I started a substack. I don't know why, and I don't know what to do with it. I have a newsletter. It has about 1,000 followers, and, honestly, I lose more every time I send a newsletter out. I have a blog that gets very few views. I hear very good things about discoverability on Substack. There's the ability for people to subscribe to it and have a paid component. I feel like nobody's paying for subscriber only content for me, but it's there.

DL White [00:27:08]:
The possibility is there, which is better than I'm getting from my blog on my website. I just I hate to be posting content away from the website where I pay for, where all my stuff lives. So, actually, I had posted a note on, like, I'm struggling with what to do with Substack. I don't want to blogs, and someone hipped me to a way to embed my Substack feed on my website. So you can go to books by dlwhite.com/substack, and you can see my Substack posts. So it'll automatically update when I make a new post. So now they don't live on my website. It will still redirect people to Substack, but it's an easy way for me to kinda keep all that content together.

DL White [00:27:56]:
So, yay. So my subset kinda lives on my website, so stay tuned while I muddle through and figure this out. Every time I figure out something really cool to do, like, with my website, I I just I'm so proud of me. I'm just I'm just so very proud of me. I also figured out my link in bio page. It was coming out really ugly looking. I figured out how to embed that. It's actually a Canva, website, but I figured out how to also embed that into my website.

DL White [00:28:25]:
So if you go to books by dlwhitecom books by dlwhite.com/linkinbio, It now shows up as an actual web page and not like a ugly I I can't even describe how ugly it was, but I figured it out. I got it. I got that embedded. So, yay. It's like it's like a landing page. So I'm very proud of myself. So, okay. So that brings us to the end of today's show.

DL White [00:28:50]:
I need to get ready for brunch with my friend. So I bid you adieu, but not before thanking you so much for joining me for today's chat. I truly enjoy having you here, and I welcome any comments or feedback at booksbydlwhite.com/bookcast/90. You will also find full show notes and links to all of the things I've talked about, if relevant, and a transcript for today's show. Well, probably not until later. I will do that when I get back from brunch. Please share the podcast if you enjoyed this episode. And if you listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, give a girl a rating.

DL White [00:29:26]:
I'd really appreciate it. Do not forget that you can support this podcast with your book purchases by spreading the good word or by throwing some coins in the hat at book cast dot buzzsprout.com. Thank you to my current supporters. The monthly gift covers my Buzzsprout subscription currently, and I really appreciate the support. The book cast is written, produced, and edited by me, DL White. Our theme music and any sound effects are provided by Pixabay. I will be back Saturday, July 20th, and we will be back on track. Until then, please enjoy this weekend.

DL White [00:29:57]:
Have a super positive week, and we'll chat again soon. Bye bye.