Bookcast 106: The shenanigans will continue until morale improves

I wasn't planning to do a year-in-review episode, but I do love analyzing my numbers, so here we are.I am starting the new year exactly how I like-- talking about books and writing. I'm just bringing you all into the conversation.

In episode 106 I share my reading and writing accomplishments through 2024, I discuss my top-earning titles, marketing efforts, and ad/marketing performance. I also discuss my plans for 2025, including upcoming releases Missing Persons and Calculated Risk, plus my goals for exploring short fiction and celebrating the 10th anniversary of Brunch at Ruby's.

Find full show notes at my website- Booksbydlwhite.com/bookcast/106 or my substack. 

Transcript

DL White [00:00:14]:
Hello, my friends, my book hearts, my friend of the written word, the spoken word, people. Hi. How are you? I'm Dale White, and I'm here. I don't even know how I open this podcast anymore. I didn't write anything down. I didn't plan anything. I just pulled up a bunch of stuff and said, hey. Let's record a podcast.

DL White [00:00:39]:
It's 10:29 AM on January 1st, so it is a new year. And I know that my voice is the first thing you want to hear here in this new year. I pushed recording a podcast to today because I wanted to have the full breadth of numbers from 2024 to review. I know a year in review hates to see me come in, and I'll tell you for real, if a podcast is doing a year in review, I'm a skip that because I'm here. I I was tuned in. I was logged in. I I am a steadfast podcast listener. I have a schedule.

DL White [00:01:18]:
On Mondays, I know which podcasts will will post Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. I have some that post on Saturday and a few that post on Sunday, and that's also my catch up day. So, like, I was here for the first time. I don't wanna hear you go over it again. So if you're gonna talk about everything you've talked about in 2024, I'm out. Like, save that for, like, the people who aren't big fans of your show. You know what I'm saying? Like, I have a list of podcasts I listen to. That's not what this is gonna be.

DL White [00:01:56]:
This is just gonna be because I like numbers. I wanna take a look at what I did in 2024, not on the podcast, really. I did publish 36 episodes of the book cast. Yay. But, also, like, I'm an author, and I run a little bitty author business. And my job is to write things that people want to buy and read and come back to. I wanna see how well I did. And so I was really anxious to, like, get up and pull the numbers and start analyzing things.

DL White [00:02:29]:
And so that's what I want to look at. I'm a numbers kinda gal. If you're not a numbers kinda person, I welcome you to go ahead and do something else. I am gonna, like, you know, chitty chat, about my books and about writing and whatever comes up because y'all know I ain't planned nothing. I haven't planned out a podcast in months. I don't I don't even know what I'm talking about. I don't know how to start the podcast. I don't know how to close the podcast.

DL White [00:02:56]:
I'm literally bringing up Notion so that I know how to close out this podcast. Oh, I'm a mess. I'm a mess y'all. I'm trying to bring up my there we go. Open. So, anyway, hi. Welcome back to the podcast. This is my platform for sharing short fiction and updates on life as a self published author of romantic fiction that centers black love.

DL White [00:03:20]:
We be black on black on black love. Well, not black on black on black because I don't write Polly. But we're black on black love over here, and we are just we're reading and we're writing, like, regular black romance that regular Negro knows black romance. And as I'd said before, if you didn't know I am d l white, I am an Atlanta based author of many because I lost count novels And numerous short stories and fan fiction works. By the way, I write in sync fan fiction and I almost exclusively write JC. And if you are a a subscriber on my sub stack, I am starting to post a little bit of my favorite fan fiction stories over there. I recently posted, revenge of the nerd herd, which is Christmas focused, and it's about JC, like, dropping into a bar and having to run into a gal he went to, like, high school with in, at doctor Phillips High School in Florida while he was recording the Mickey Mouse Club. And, you know, they they connect, if you know what I'm saying.

DL White [00:04:31]:
It's a really fun story. It's only 3 chapters, and it's free. So you should roll over there and take a look at it. And while you're there, you should subscribe to my short fiction substack because I have a story I'm posting there called same time next week, which is a, interracial rock star romance. It's a serial, so I'm posting a few chapters a week on Wednesdays Fridays. You get new chapters in theory because sometimes I forget, and I wake up on Thursday like, oh, I didn't post chapters yesterday. Oh, my. So I just have a few subscribers to that, and I'm actually nearing the end of the story.

DL White [00:05:06]:
So if you wanted to, like, join up, it's $5 a month. Log in. Catch up. It's like, it's kinda juicy. You know? It's my heroine is, Shelby. She's an Afro Latina. My hero is Jackson Sweeney. He's like a boy band or a former boy band guy that can you this used to be fan fiction.

DL White [00:05:28]:
Can you tell? I unfanficked it and wrote, like, a general commercial novel. And, so Jackson Sweeney is, kinda trying to find his footing because his group ended and he his solo career is kinda stale and his woman left him. It's very much a country song. So he's, like, kinda trying to find himself again. And his old friend, Rod, who was one of his friends from kid TV, quote, unquote, Disney Channel, kid TV calls him and says, hey. I need you to be a music director for my band. We got an album coming out. You need to take this job because we're we're good together.

DL White [00:06:08]:
So he takes a job working with Rod Phillips, who's very, I know people want Rod Phillips to be Justin, but he's not. He isn't. Rod Phillips is more like, who's the lead singer of Maroon 5? Adam, what's his face? He's really, in my mind, more that guy, like, more maroon 5 dude, more, I can never think of names when I want to think of them. Mark McGrath, more like he's like, he's a pretty boy. He's blonde. He's muscly. He's he's he's a real ladies man. He's very Leonardo DiCaprio about having several women around him all the time.

DL White [00:06:50]:
Like, I used to hear that Leo just ran with, like, a gaggle of 10 women, like, all the time. That's very Rod Phillips. So Rod and Jackson are kind of, like, hot and cold, black and white, in and out, but they're good friends, and they write great songs together. And Rod is like a darling. Rod has sort of Justin Timberlake's career. I don't know why I'm saying all of this right now at the top of the show, but go with me here. Just go with me because I did not plan the show. So same time next week is the story of Jackson kind of trying to find himself in his footing in the music business.

DL White [00:07:35]:
It's very I love I love I love a music book. Like, I love it, but also I don't I don't I don't read every music book, but I I love a rock star romance. So that's that's what this is. And this story did so well as a fan fiction that my friends were like, you should unfanfic this and make this an actual book, and so I made this an actual book. And I was, like, yeah. It's interracial interracial. It's hot. It's hot.

DL White [00:07:59]:
It's hot. And it flopped. I fell on my face. It did not do well, so I pulled it. Because I write black on black romance, and I just didn't want this interracial thing out there, like, mucking up my catalog. And so this is a serial. It's gonna live on my substack. You can get access to it for $5 a month.

DL White [00:08:24]:
I'll have other stuff I'm gonna be posting there that will be, under lock and key that you can only have access to if you subscribe to the short fiction substack, that short fiction by dlwhite.substack.com. I do have a main substack. It's author dlwhite.substack.com, and that one is free. A 100% free, all free all the time. It's like blog posts and book posts and navel gazing and here's what's happening and news. It's like it's like my newsletter, but not I my whole my newsletter is like separate. I've managed that with MailerLite, but, like, substack is just a whole it's a whole it's like a blog, really. It's like a blog.

DL White [00:09:04]:
It's a whole separate separate thing. It's more it's more blog than newsletter. So, yes. I didn't talk about Shelby, but Shelby is a woman who is running from a big old secret, big old secret. And I guess I can say this because it's a huge part of the story, and you learn it pretty early on. But Shelby's ex fiance is dead, and her ex fiance's daughter thinks Shelby is responsible. And in order to, like, get away from this scandal because he's a very well known man in global real estate, she leaves Miami in the dead of night and runs away to another city, but Shelby is haunted by what happened to her ex fiance, and she just does not sleep. She's insomniac.

DL White [00:09:57]:
She just wanders all night long. She sleeps fitfully. So one night she is she can't sleep and she gets up and she's like, I'm gonna go to the grocery store because what else do you do? Keep in mind, this was written probably 10 years ago, more than 10 years, like 12 years ago when grocery just grocery stores used to be open all night long. I miss those days because I used to love to go grocery shopping at 11 o'clock at night, and now they, like, close at 10, whatever. So she would just go wander the grocery store all night, and she ends up meeting this super hot bachelor rock star. 1st, she's shocked to see him there because he does his own shopping, first of all. 2nd, he lives in LA. Why is he here at this grocery store while I look like absolute trash? Like, my shirt's inside out, hair's messy, remnants of lipstick on my face.

DL White [00:10:52]:
I look like trash, but he does not seem to mind. So she goes home and she's like, I'm so embarrassed. I'm absolutely so embarrassed. But the next night, she goes back to the grocery store except she's looks hot, and she kinda hopes to see him. She wanders around for a bit, but then she realizes she sounds nuts. He's not gonna show up 2 nights in a row like she did, and she goes to get in her car, but he does see her. He happens to drive by on his way home from rehearsal, and he does see her. So he swerves on into the grocery store parking lot, and I think that's what you need to start the story.

DL White [00:11:36]:
It's cute. It's sexy. It's a romp. It's a I hope this rock star finds me cute, and we have a good old time. And then he can disappear, and I've got my ex fiancee out of my system, and we can move on with life. But, unfortunately, Shelby is delightful. She is just a delight to know. And Jackson can't help but ask questions that Shelby doesn't want to answer.

DL White [00:12:04]:
And then our story begins. So there's a lot there. We're on, like, chapter 67, I believe. I think they read kind of fast, though. So there you go. Short fiction by dlwhite.substack.com. If that interests you, you should pop right on in and listen to or read that serial because it's good. Anyway, I forget where I was before I jumped into that, but that's where that is.

DL White [00:12:33]:
I'm gonna hopefully start posting more fan fiction, and I'm gonna write or post another serial to the substack for your reading pleasure. But I'm a reader first, so we are going to talk about the 2024 book report. We We can talk about writing and topics of the day. I do wanna talk about what's gonna happen in 2025. News flash, I've not planned a single thing, but I do have a couple of ideas, and so I'll toss around a couple of things. Let me throw this back out there. Do you have a topic that you want me to cover on the book cast? Something you want me to talk about, something you want me to cover. Do you want my opinion on something? Do you want me to opine for 29 minutes on a random subject? Shout me out a holler.

DL White [00:13:20]:
I'm almost almost always on Instagram. Author_dlwhite. I am no longer on Twitter. Like, my name is there, but I don't post there except for my automated promo from all author. I'm just taking that and throwing it in buffer and distributing distributing those among my other accounts. Trying to decide if I'm gonna stay with all author because I don't post at Twitter anymore. So, I don't know. I'm also on blue sky, books by dlwhite.com.

DL White [00:13:48]:
Look me up. I am there. I am very prolific there. It's I'm I'm always there. You can visit the show notes of this episode at books by dlwhite.com/bookcast/whatever the episode number is. This is gonna be 106. You can also pop on over to my substack, author dlwhite.substack.com. And if all of that else fails, all that else fails, shout me out all over at my email.

DL White [00:14:10]:
It's author dl@booksbydlwhite.com. I am so happy to answer your questions. I love to talk about books. I love to talk about writing. I love to talk about writing topics and discourse, and I most of all, I love to talk about me. Thank you for any questions you may have in advance, but let's get going. Today is Wednesday, January 1, 2025. It is 10:43 AM.

DL White [00:14:36]:
It is sunny in Atlanta. I have a mic, and I'm ready to dig in. But first, I I've been talking, so I need some coffee. Okay, friends and lovers. Welcome back. Welcome back. Let's talk books, first of all, because books are literally why I exist, and I just like talking about them. I wanna talk about the 2024 in review.

DL White [00:15:18]:
I don't I don't wanna go through all 225, 225 books that I read in the year. If we are friends on Goodreads, you can look me up. I'm coffee and books. If you have any trouble finding me, shot me out of holler. I'm I'm considering posting a list of all the books I read, but I feel like I've I've I've posted a lot of that on social media already. I don't know if anybody's gonna read through a list of books I read. I don't I mean, I don't I don't know. I don't have any, like, analysis, really.

DL White [00:15:53]:
Like, I have a very cursory analysis, but, it's not anything deep. It's just a list of 225 books. I don't rank them. I actually rated very few of them, but here we go. Some interesting insights. My most active reading month was December. Of course, I read 39 books because I was on an amazing vacation, and I decided I was just gonna read my face off and read my face off. I did.

DL White [00:16:21]:
I think I read more than 39 books in December. I think I ended up with, like, 40, 41, 42. A couple of these books didn't get into the export. In May, I read 22 books. In July, I read 21 books. Again, I had long vacations those months and I was able to get in a good glut of reading. My lowest reading months were this is very funny because this is a lot of books for some people, but January September, I read 10 to 11 books each month, and that's a low month for me. That's hilarious.

DL White [00:16:53]:
That's actually hysterical. And then my reading ramped up in spring, peaked midsummer, and then dipped in early fall, which is usual for me. I hit a lull in early fall. And then in, in September, there's a lot of new books that come out and that I then I I get overwhelmed, and then I popped right back in. I searched again in December. Of course, I have a lot of downtime during the holidays. Authors, I read a lot in 20 24, Kendra Elliott and Melinda Lee. I finally gave in to Amazon shoving those books in my face.

DL White [00:17:28]:
I read a lot of those authors, 15 books each. I kind of free based them over the summer. Like, hey. Let me get into it. They're very easy to I and I did those on audio. Very easy to listen to. I think Mary Burton was the year before. Robert Dugoni was the year before.

DL White [00:17:44]:
I just I just love I love a police procedural. So, I am all about that. Mary Burton is more like a domestic or psychological suspense. I read through her whole catalog. The year before, I think, was Minka Kent. So, I read 15 books each, got them an audio. They're super easy to read while I was working or doing laundry or pretending to clean my room. Shay Sanders came in 3rd.

DL White [00:18:11]:
I discovered her last year and fell in love. If you just like like a petty, snarky, witty banter, her books are so good. The love scenes are immaculate. But the, like, the the dialogue, the story develop story development, the characters, like, I just I love her work. So I caught up with her. I got 10 of her books down. And then, Christina c Jones and Tay Russ, I read, like, 4 or 5 of their books last year. I know I had some CCJ rereads last year.

DL White [00:18:48]:
It was something about her work that makes me want to write. So I read her, and then whenever Tay Russ publishes a book, I pounce on it. So, romantic suspense and thrillers are definitely my go to genres, and then I like to pop in the occasional nonfiction, the occasional, literary fiction or women's fiction and romance in there to sorta cleanse the palate. My average, book rating this says my average is 1.83. That's because I didn't rate very many of the books, but I did have some 5 star reads. Winter, a love story by Nohrian Love. Let me just tell you people let me just tell you that book is so good. Noreen Love is the truth.

DL White [00:19:33]:
I gotta catch up on his entire catalog, but autumn and winter, boo. Boom. Let me just tell you, winter was good. I gave it 5 stars. Outstanding. Fantastic. If you are, like, a WNBA fan, I think you'll really love this. If you are like, I don't know if I want I don't know if I if I wanna invoke Kobe Bryant, but the male the the this this is a story about a a basketball great, his best friend who is the widow of his brother and his niece, Myracle.

DL White [00:20:14]:
And, there's just there's a lot to the story. I don't wanna spoil it. It's so, so good. Please just go get it and read it. Put it into your face. Inhale it. Digest it. I've been in chats with Isata, dear b love me.

DL White [00:20:29]:
We're gonna have a chat about this book hopefully somewhere toward, the end of January, whatever. Wanna give people a chance to read and, ingest it, but we're definitely gonna be talking about it. I don't feel like hiding spoilers, so read it so you're not spoiled. And then, the MLK MLK biography, King by, Jonathan I I think his name is. Really good. I really I so enjoyed it. It's long. It's a long book, but, you know, I ain't scared of long books.

DL White [00:21:01]:
Contrary to popular belief, I am not scared of a long book. I do wanna know how many African American pages are in that book, but I am not afraid of a long book. And then the extraordinary life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni also earned 5 stars from me. Fantastic book. I love love me some Robert Dugoni. And if you would not mind me bragging a little bit, I have received an advanced copy of his next Tracy Crosswhite novel. Of course, it's a police procedural. It comes out in May.

DL White [00:21:31]:
Is it already in my NetGalley account? Yes. It is. Thank you so much. You may you may commence being jealous of me now. So I read 225 books while writing 3 books, while working full time at beverage giant. Did I do anything else? No. I don't have any other hobbies. I read.

DL White [00:22:01]:
I don't watch a whole lot of TV. I have a couple shows I'm following. I love Papa's House with Damon Wayans and his son, Damon Wayans junior. I love Papa's House. I am not big on comedies, so that is big for me. I watch Equalizer, the new Matlock with Kathy Bates, which is excellent. Oh my goodness. Kathy Bates is so, so good.

DL White [00:22:24]:
And then I am watching Elspeth with, Wendell Pierce, which is also so, so good. Absolutely fantastic. I love it. I love it so much. Those are kind of the shows I'm keeping up on. I pop into a show here and there. I have some things in Netflix I wanna watch. I do wanna watch the 6 triple 8.

DL White [00:22:43]:
I heard that's very good. Oh, it is a Tyler Perry movie, so, you know, take that with a grain of salt. I do wanna watch the 6 triple 8, and I wanna watch Carry On with Jason Bateman because I I just love him. So that's kind of 2024 in a nutshell. I'm very happy with my reading year. I did the first thing I do every year on January 1 is I roll over, I grab my phone, I open Goodreads, and I set my 20 my new reading goal reading challenge goal for the year. So, of course, I did that. Set it at 100 as I always do, and then I reevaluate in June, and then I reevaluate in, like, October, kinda depends on, you know, how the year goes.

DL White [00:23:30]:
I think it's gonna be a really good banger year for reading. No idea what's coming out. I do have some advance, some arcs that I wanna get into. Some I need to have read by January 14th, so I'm gonna dig right into that. I know I have, more or less Maddie from Lisa Genova, who I absolutely absolutely love, but I want to listen to that in audio. So I'm gonna hold that, but I have, like, a Angela Henry that's coming up. I have some others that are due in January, so gonna get right on that. And, like, a thing for me for me, I do not like the blank slate of a new year.

DL White [00:24:07]:
I do not. So I like to go into the new year with some things to do, some tasks to accomplish. Like, I just I wanna keep the ball rolling. It doesn't feel like I have jumped into something brand new. It's just another day. Like, January 1 is just another day. I'm gonna do this, and I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna read. I'm sorry, doctor Raymond Williams.

DL White [00:24:29]:
I am gonna be doing laundry. I am not a superstitious person, so, I ain't doing no laundry yesterday. I do need to do laundry today because I am out of pajamas. Gotta do it. So, yeah, so I have some things I'm gonna be reading. I'm very excited about the year. Politically, I need to go back to not paying much attention because I don't want an ulcer. And that's all I have to say about that.

DL White [00:25:00]:
Let's talk about writing for the year. I am looking at 2024, comparing it to 2023. So let's talk about top earning titles in 2024. I released 3 2 books. I wrote 3 books. I released 2 books. I wrote a newsletter exclusive short story. I wrote a 4 part short for the podcast, and I am reposting a serial.

DL White [00:25:30]:
This is previously written, so I'm just, doing some light editing and posting that on the substack. Earnings wise, my top earning titles in 2024 were the pearl at Black Diamond Bay that came out in July. That is Black Diamond Bay book 3. The Neverlist, which is a standalone. The brunch at rubies, which is my debut still kicking it, 10 years later, and, dinner at Sam's, which is the follow-up to brunch at rubies, and then home for the holidays, which came out, late December 2023. The Black Diamond series continues to perform well. It was, of course, my highest earning, in 2024 because it was a brand new book. My Rubies series, continues to perform as well as the holiday themed series.

DL White [00:26:22]:
I pushed those really hard this year because I realized I have I actually I actually have, like, 5 holiday books out there. So I started pushing those and then audiobook versions of Leslie's Curl and Die, Brunch at Ruby's, and the guy next door brought in solid royalties. I've been participating in a lot of, like, stuff your e reader and indie audiobook deals for those books. Just trying to push my audiobooks, my self published audiobooks, and not really focusing on money I'm making at Audible or ACX because it's it's pennies. It's, honestly, I'm making, like, maybe $30 a month in, maybe. Like, that's a $30 is a good month at from Audible as opposed to making, entirely more when I push through, like, buy direct for authors, marketing audiobooks wide, book funnel promotions, indie audiobook deals. I'm definitely doing way more of that in 2025. And then print editions, did generate some royalties, but I just don't I don't make a lot in print.

DL White [00:27:31]:
So the only way I really do well in print is if I order it myself, and I sell copies here, like, on a special event. Like, I did a I did a Black Friday event for print. I didn't really actually sell a whole lot. Yeah. So I have some books I still need to get rid of, here in the house. I don't keep print here in the house anymore because I hate going to the post office. So most of my books have a have a book funnel link if you go to order for print, but I do have some here at the house that I do still need to get rid of. Maybe I'll do a New Year sale.

DL White [00:28:09]:
But I I do have some books I still need to ship out from my Black Friday sale. I am I am so sorry. They are gonna get out. So overall royalties from 2020 forward, $2,836.93. Now that's overall all the platforms plus self published sales. Compared to 2023, my royalties are down. I sold $35100 in ebooks, in 2023. Now the caveat to that is that I published, hey, lover, December 31, 2023.

DL White [00:28:43]:
So most of my sales for hey, lover happened in 2024. So there's a, like, a little bit of overlap. If I would have published that book a little bit earlier in the month, I think we would probably see an even spread. But some of my series continue to hold steady or even grow, like Black Diamond, The Holiday Romances, The Pearl Festival at Evergreen Falls sold pretty well. And hopefully, like, having a whole year now to push my holiday books, I think I'm gonna start pushing those early. Like, publishers start promoting their holiday books in September, which I think is really early, but I can start, like, dripping it in September and then, like, turning the faucet on high beginning early in November. So I have always said I am not I'm not a series gal, and here I am with 3 series. And, like, adding to those series, I still don't wanna say I'm a series gal, but I mean, I I'm I don't know.

DL White [00:29:52]:
I think I wanna I wanna take advantage of readers who wanna read books in series and but, also, I wanna release stand alones. Another thing I wanna do in 2025 is just start keep working on short fiction and exercise that muscle. I am not good at writing short because I feel like it should be a full story even though it's 10,000, 12,000, 20,000 words. Even like the festival at Evergreen Falls, I don't remember how I think that was, like, 20,000 words. And the note from my editor was like, I could feel you holding yourself back. And if you would have expanded to, like, 40,000 words, this could have been a fuller story. And, yes, it could have, but the point was to write a short. I didn't wanna write a 40,000 word novel.

DL White [00:30:46]:
You know? So I have I have a really hard time writing short because I feel like the story should be full. And, I I wanna keep working that muscle, writing it short, making it meaningful with fewer words. So that's gonna be kind of what I wanna work on, maybe a monthly short story that I just put up for sale, at my store. And then, like, you know, and then, like, do a do 2 collections of short stories to put on the retail sites. But I just like, I I wanna write for the fun of writing, but I also wanna make money writing. You know what I'm saying? Because your girl has audiobooks. She still wants to get out, and I can't, I I mean, I can't do that for free. It it costs at least at the very least about $5 to put one audiobook out, And I don't even make that in a year.

DL White [00:31:44]:
So I gotta find ways to be more prolific, to write more, to strengthen my muscle in things I'm not strong in, but want to be stronger in. Not that I wanna really focus on things I don't do well, but, also, I wanna focus on things I don't do well. Like, I because I don't think I'm terrible at writing short stories. I do wanna get better. I don't focus on things I don't, like, I absolutely suck at. Like, I don't I don't write horror because I can't I just can't do that. But I also wanna get, you know, closer to my goals in, writing things like like a romantic suspense or a a romantic mystery, which that is what is hopefully gonna be coming in 2025. I don't know when.

DL White [00:32:29]:
I don't have a date on it. I finished it, and I wanna, like, flush it out over Q1. But that is what missing persons is going to be, like a romantic mystery. I'm very excited about that. I don't know if you can tell. I also have calculated risk that is coming. That is a that's a, like, a romance, and it's part of a group project. They are due to the publisher, like February 1, and then they will come out over the course of the spring.

DL White [00:33:00]:
And then in the summer, I can put it on retail. So I'm also excited about calculated risk because it turned out it turned out very cute. A little bit of steam. A little bit of steam. My stories always have a little bit of steam. I don't think I could write closed door if I try. I complain about writing sex scenes, but I don't think I could write a closed door romance. I am just rambling.

DL White [00:33:19]:
Anyway, so ad spend for 2024 compared to 2023, I spent, like, $149 in 2023. So it's not really worth looking at, but I decided to, like, dive into Facebook ads in 2024. I invested a total of $626.42 in Facebook ads. This generated 467,939 ad impressions. I don't have I don't have a clear understanding of what that means, but I just it showed up 467,000 times to people. I reached 430,630 people, which isn't too bad considering I don't pay a whole lot for ads. Like, I I keep a very tight budget on my ads, very tight. 404,718 clicks to my book sales pages resulting in $1,440.78 in book royalties, though that's just strictly from my ad spend.

DL White [00:34:17]:
My top three highest ad spend months were October with a $160, July with a $150, and December with a $129. And then, like, I mean, looking at my revenue, Yeah. I'm I'm I'm trying to decide if it's worth it. I I feel like it brings more people to my page. If it resulted in sales and I made profit over that, which I clearly did, I'll take it. You know? I'll take it. 20 looking honestly, I'm gonna I was looking back at 2023. I'm just looking back here at my numbers because I did go and pull a whole bunch a whole bunch of stuff.

DL White [00:35:06]:
I think that's it. That's all that's really interesting to me. I'll pull together, of course, things in a a blog post somewhere maybe on my substack once I get, like, once I get everything all together. Just because I like to have some things to look back on, I can't know if I did better if I don't know how I did in the past. So 2025, I know I've already talked about stuff I wanna do in 2025, 10th anniversary of brunch at Ruby's. I am working on the cover for that. I wanna do a hardback special edition. Sorry.

DL White [00:35:45]:
I got an email. Also, short stories, also the 3 sisters trilogy, also missing persons, calculated risk, the next Powder Lake book. I do not have a Black Diamond book in mind. Those have to come in summer, and I almost have to start those the year before in order to get, like, a full story. And I I don't have an idea. So I think I'm gonna take the year off from from Black Diamond. I did not do a potter lake book this year, so maybe next year is a good year to add a potter lake book. I do have a story planned and about 6 chapters written.

DL White [00:36:29]:
I'm I'm interested in it. I just I hit a wall and then I get tired then I get frustrated and I go do, like, I go write something else I can actually write. So I may add to the Powder Lake, series this year, but also I'm really craving new people. I'm craving I just wanna do I wanna do something new. I wanna make things. I just I just watched, an interview, JC Chasez, one of my favorite, writers, entertainers. He was in NSYNC. I I write fan fiction almost exclusively, about, quote, unquote, JC.

DL White [00:37:10]:
He was on Lady Gang last year talking about playing with fire, which is the musical that he's writing, and he just is a person that likes to make things. I just he said, I just I just wanna make things. And, like, my brain will just jump from this to that to this to that. And whatever lights my brain on fire, that's what I wanna that's when I jump wanna jump into. And, I see a lot of people that are very excited about 2025, and I'll tell you what I am excited about is reading and writing. But because it is what's gonna keep me sane, it's what's gonna keep me off of the news blogs, it's what's gonna keep me off of Twitter, it's what's gonna keep me out of reading things that just make me roll my eyes or make me angry. I would say I am still not okay about the election. I'm, to be honest, dreading, this upcoming administration.

DL White [00:38:22]:
The last time that leader was in office was horrific to me. It's waking up every day wondering what happened overnight, what's going to happen today. I need an outlet, and I need a way to turn that off. I need something that's going to keep me busy. Work is gonna be very busy. So I am just gonna jump into the year with both feet. I'm gonna put my headphones on. I'm gonna be deep into podcasts, deep into books, deep into bookish content, celebrating my culture, celebrating my people, writing books, writing short stories, just just trying to dig in.

DL White [00:39:15]:
And that's how I am going to get through this upcoming administration. My thoughts and prayers are for a less tumultuous time than the last go around, and we'll we'll we'll see. But I'm my heart is heavy, and I'm troubled. And I know I'm not the only person. You know, I I'm around a lot of people that are able to, like, put it down, that are able to be like, you know, I just ignore all that stuff, and I'm just I'm not I'm not that kind of person. I'm very empathetic. I feel for people who are going to be in dire straits. I don't personally have anything to worry about.

DL White [00:40:11]:
Other people do, and I feel for those people. So, anyway, welcome to a new year, a new year of the podcast. We did hit a 100 episodes last year. I published 36 episodes. I wrote books live on this podcast. Because I was taking a little bit of a break in hiding last year, I did not write the festival of Evergreen Falls live on this podcast. I will tell you I have started writing a little Valentine's Day short that I will hope will be out on time. So, I don't know if I'm gonna write that live, but I will give you updates as they go.

DL White [00:40:56]:
I'm just kinda, like, putting my head down, just shove some words on the page and we can edit them into greatness later. You know what I'm saying? So I believe that's all the rambling I wanna do for the day. If I have anything else that I want to chat about, I will, bring it up on Saturday when we have our our official first podcast of 2025. Until then, that brings us to the end of today's show. I think it was a good one. Thank you so much for joining me for today's chat. I really, honestly, like, this is scripted, but I really enjoy having you here. I love the people that come in and comment.

DL White [00:41:40]:
Thank you so much, Kaye, for dropping in. The people that pop into my Instagram DMs. Like, hey. I listened to your podcast. It was really good. Thank you so much. I cherish that. I look forward to that.

DL White [00:41:53]:
I'm really grateful for the people that interact with me about the podcast. I do welcome your comments or your feedback. You can drop in at books by dlwhite.com/bookcast/106, I believe. I think I think that's the number of this episode. Is it 106 or 105? I don't know what my limit, because I don't know. Yeah. It's 106 because 105 was the last episode. You'll find any show links show notes, links to all the things I talked about, if relevant, and a transcript for today's show.

DL White [00:42:26]:
You'll find that also at buzzsprout.book bookcast.busssprout.com. You'll also find that there. Please share this podcast if you enjoyed it. And if you want your friends to know what the heck I am talking about, share this podcast. If you listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Substack, give a girl a a rating, a comment. I'd really, really appreciate it. You can support this podcast with your book purchases at payhip.com/booksbydiawhite by spreading the good word on any of your social media platforms, by joining my newsletter or the Substack. Links are on my website atbooksbydlwhite.com/linkinbio, or you can throw some coins in the hat at bookcast.bussprout.com.

DL White [00:43:12]:
Also, my buy me a coffee site is still open. If that interests you, buy me a coffee dot com slash books by d l white, where you can offer a one time or recurring, show of support for this podcast. I wanna thank my monthly supporters whose gift covers my bus buzzsprout subscription currently. I do so appreciate it, and I am adding people that have are supporting the podcast to the short fiction substack. So if you support the podcast, I will add you to the short fiction substack for free. If you haven't seen it yet, hang tight. I will get that taken care of. That will give you access to all of the paid posts over on the short fiction substack.

DL White [00:43:56]:
The main substack is free, always free, always gonna be free. I don't feel like charging for, like, my blog post. Every little bit really does help. The book cast is written, produced, and edited by me, D'yaa White. Our theme music and any sound effects are provided by Pixabay. I will be back next week, this Saturday, this Sunday. Until then, please enjoy your week. Have a superlative weekend.

DL White [00:44:23]:
We will chat again so very soon. Bye bye.