Bookcast 109: Reading, Writing, Watching, Ranting

Welcome back to the Bookcast. Find full show notes on today's episode at my website- Booksbydlwhite.com/bookcast/109. 
I have a smattering of things I want to talk about today-

1. BookReport
2. Writing / Sales/ Publishing Update
3. Appearances
4. Pirating! ARRR! 

Thank you for your support of this podcast. Subscribe, rate, review and SHARE if you loved it!

Transcript

DL White [00:00:19]:
Hello, everybody, friends and family, boos and bros. Welcome back to The Bookest. This is my platform for sharing short fiction and updates on life as a self published author of romantic fiction that centers black love. This is episode 109, and I am d l White, an Atlanta based author of 15 novels, 16 and 17 are coming this year. Numerous short stories and fan fiction works, but I'm a reader first. So we always talk about the books. We always talk about the books. We begin with the book report, and then we talk about writing and topics of the day.

DL White [00:00:57]:
And I actually have topics of the day, people. I opened Notion, and I planned this episode. That's how together I am right now. I got tired of being raggedy on the mic, so here we are. Remember, as always, you can subscribe to this podcast via your favorite podcast app. I am partial to Overcast. Like, I was using Spotify, but I just got tired of them suggesting the most outlandish podcast to me, and I could not turn that off. And so I don't I don't listen at Spotify because I'm I'm not gonna listen to podcasts in various places.

DL White [00:01:40]:
I I have one place. I listen to podcasts. Like, I don't know what personality trait that is, but, like, I use overcast. If I have to listen to a specific podcast on a specific app, I am hardly ever gonna listen to it. So I throw everything into Overcast, and I like it that way. Or, so you can ask grab each episode directly at my website if you like. It's books by dlwhite.com/bookcast or at my Substack. It's author dlwhite.substack.com.

DL White [00:02:11]:
If you're having trouble keeping track of all the links, you can usually find any link you might need on my links page is books by dlwhite.com/linkinbio. You can, also follow my YouTube channel. It's mostly faceless because I can't I just can't be bothered to do my hair and put lipstick on and ramble at the camera for YouTube. But if YouTube is the kind of thing where you load up your subscriptions and just let them fly while you're getting ready or scrubbing the bathroom sink or folding clothes, a great way to listen to the podcast or catch up with interviews or listen to any live readings that I've done or some, support my promo efforts. I'm starting to post a little bit more on YouTube and also on Pinterest, which I hardly ever talk about. But if you're ever looking for, like, background information or you're wondering who my inspirations are for certain characters on Pinterest, the only thing I use Pinterest for is I have a board for each most of my books, for each of my books with, character inspirations, what they drive, what they wear, where I think they live. Just gathering up pieces. And I was just recently telling an author friend, like, that's how I make my characters three-dimensional.

DL White [00:03:28]:
That's how they seem real to me. I make them real because I gather little pieces of the life that I create for them, and I put that in Pinterest, anything that's, inspirational, anything that reminds me of the book or reminds me of the characters, a playlist if I create one. I'm not really a playlist kind of gal, but if I created 1, I try to link to it also in Pinterest. So YouTube and Pinterest are pretty good sites if you are looking for, like, background information and more stuff that than what I am posting on Instagram or blue sky. If you're a big fan of this show, you can show your undying love and support. And you happen to listen to Apple Podcasts or Spotify, please drop a nice fat 5 star rating because I deserve it. And because you want to give it to me. If you wanna go with the kind of want to show the kind of support that folds and increases my bank account, I'll take it.

DL White [00:04:30]:
My buy me a coffee page is still up. It's buy me a coffee.com/booksbydlwhite. You can also directly support this podcast at bookcast.bustbroad.com. You can also subscribe to my shorts short fiction substack at $5 a month at shortfictionbydlwhite.substack.com. Now at short fiction, I am doing serials. I occasionally do a drabble, which is like a 100 word story. I do fan fiction over there. I do, you know, the occasional, you know, like, random story.

DL White [00:05:03]:
Also, if you are, if you're a subscriber, you can read my newsletter exclusive story over on my short fiction substack, but you have to be a paid subscriber to access it. So I'm I'm trying to do a little a little a little VIP, a little inner circle, a little, kinda, I don't know what to call it. But, like, all my extra stuff that you have to work a little harder to get, it's over on my short fiction substack. Some of that stuff is free. Some of that stuff's behind a paywall. I have a serial behind a paywall. I'll talk about that in the writing and publishing update, but the short fiction substack is, is looking good. Then my regular substack is author dlwhite.substack.com, and everything on there is free.

DL White [00:05:55]:
And that's just like a cross between a blog and a newsletter, but, of course, I do send out a monthly loose monthly newsletter. I cannot speak this morning. I do send out a monthly newsletter and you can get on that list by going to books by dlwhite.com/newsletter. And I'm really working to make that, like, the inner circle, the VIP list, the people that get, the first link when a book goes up for sale, people that get the the first hint of a book cover, people that get the first hint of any news of any books coming. I want those readers to get that first. And in this day and time when we are losing social media sites like mad, if you want to stay in touch, I recommend that you follow me in any of those places, YouTube, Substack, my website, my mailing list, get on it, get in touch. You can also leave comments on my website, my Substack, any social media site you might see me lingering on. I'm mostly a blue sky gal these days, and I drop into Instagram with shenanigans daily.

DL White [00:07:04]:
Do find your way to the follow button and smash on it for me and say hi. Don't make it weird. I have a smattering of things I wanna talk about today. We'll talk about the book report. We'll talk about the writing, the sales, and the publishing update. We'll talk about appearances because I author DL White clocked in this week. And then we'll talk about a topic I may rant about actually, book pirating. So let's get it going.

DL White [00:07:34]:
Today is Sunday, January 26, 2025. It is 1:24 PM. It is a little bit overcast right now, but earlier today, the sun was actually blinding me. I don't know what happened to the sun. It went away, but, it's overcast right now in Atlanta. I have a mic and I'm ready to dig in. But first, join me for some cold coffee because it is 12:30 and assist has been busy today. Alright.

DL White [00:08:17]:
Welcome back. Hope you enjoyed that little break. I enjoyed some jelly beans, and they were delicious. Let us begin with the book report as always, because if I'm gonna do anything I'm gonna read a book. I have read 25 books in the month of January, and it's it's still not over. This is the longest month ever. I'm at 25 of my goal to read 100 books in January. I'm like 19 books ahead.

DL White [00:08:47]:
I do think I will end up increasing my goal because I just keep finding books I want to read, and when I find books I want to read, I make a way to read them. So y'all know my motto for this year is to read and write fiction, drink water, mind my business, and so I am, I'm on that. This week, I got 3 books down, out of the ashes by Kara Thomas. No idea where this came from. It just literally just, like, showed up. Like, I think I bought the ebook at some point, and then I was saying last week how, they were like, hey. You can have this audiobook for 199, and I was like, bet. And so I snatched that up.

DL White [00:09:30]:
The relationship mechanic by Carmen Lee is a new release that came out Tuesday, January 21, 2025. I was waiting for audio on this. I'm glad that I did, because it was very well performed. So I got that out of the way. And then Playing for Keeps by AC Arthur. I don't know if I reported this last week, but I did snatch that up. I read that, like, last Sunday. AC Arthur is another one that's just good.

DL White [00:09:54]:
The whole Donovan, series just, I just was eating it up. At some point, I was trying to read all of the books in the Donovan series, and I I, like, I got lost and I got distracted by something, but I gotta make my way back to that series because there's like it's like 3 series within a series. So it's a lot of books. And, I never used to be a series gal, but at this period in my life, I'm a serious gal. Give me a long series. I'll eat it up. This week, I am reading black and blues, how a color tells the story of my people by Imani Perry. This publishes on Tuesday 28th.

DL White [00:10:36]:
I got a audio arc, and so I gotta get that, finished. I gotta get that listened to so I can do my review, before pub day. Good dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson, also pubs on January 28th. And, I'm waiting on audio for this one. I don't know how it's going to go because I'm already a bit confused. A lot of characters, a lot of, like, stories that need stories to introduce them. If I'm remembering right, I was not a huge fan of black cake. But, like, the the book cover and the name recognition kinda drew me in.

DL White [00:11:17]:
I thought I would enjoy it. It's, yeah, we'll see. I'm gonna I'm gonna grab the audio and give it another shot. I'm just gonna start over on audio and hope it goes better. I also, snagged a copy of Savings and Trust, the rise and betrayal of the Freedman's Bank by Justine Hill Edwards. This is in anticipation of the March 1 event. It's a a virtual or a hybrid, I guess, event from resist booksellers. If you go to their Eventbrite page, you'll see they've got about 5 events listed in February March.

DL White [00:11:51]:
I'm really looking forward to this one because, like, this is my catnip. This is my kind of shenanigans. As far as TV, I forgot to write this down, but I went through my list of things I'm trying to watch. The pit has a new episode. The irrational has a new episode. Both were good. Will Trent has a new episode. Yeah.

DL White [00:12:15]:
And then I am I just found this series on Hulu called coroner. It's actually a Canadian TV series that ran from 2019 to 2022. And when I tell you I started it Friday and I'm only on season 3, I'm hooked. It's so good. This poor coroner, Jenny, in the first episode, her husband dies of an aneurysm, and she leaves her job, as an emergency room doctor and becomes a coroner, so she can better manage her schedule and be there for her teenage son. So many thing, like Jenny cannot catch a break. She just cannot catch a break. The series is really good, well written, really well acted, if you're following me on blue sky, I've been kind of like live posting it without revealing any spoilers.

DL White [00:13:07]:
I'm doing the same with Pitt. So I'm really getting into my TV era, and, I don't I'm not I'm not minding it. I also watched the first two episodes of, a documentary on, like, family vloggers called an update on our family. The new episode, I believe, drop drops Wednesday. So I'm kinda keeping up with that on Max. Also on Max, the curious case of Natalia Grace. I have decided I don't like any of these people. I like none of these people.

DL White [00:13:39]:
I want nothing to do with them. So, I'm done. I'm I don't know what's going on there. I'm all caught up, but, I'm done. The dad is such an overdramatic I can't. The dad and then the guy that ended up adopting Natalia is a a black pastor and he's just over the top. I just, there's so much of it is like it's so obviously over dramatized for TV and, I cannot anymore. I am done with Natalia Grace.

DL White [00:14:11]:
Best of luck to her, thoughts and prayers, etcetera and so on. So I have literally about 5 pages in my planner, 5 or more pages of things I have marked down I wanna watch and I'm just I'm gonna open it up and, pick something and watch it. When I find myself doomscrolling, I'm gonna pick up a book. I'm gonna open my laptop or I'm gonna open my planner and pick something to watch to, like I gotta, you know, I gotta get my mind off of it. I cannot I can't sit in outrage. I just can't do it. So, that is the book report on the writing and publishing update. Sales wise, I did, top a $100, so that's awesome for January.

DL White [00:14:55]:
If I make a $100 in a month, I'm feeling I feel like I'm I'm doing good. That's a $100 in sales. On certain platforms like on Amazon, I won't see that until I'll see January sales from Amazon in March, I believe, because it's 60 days in arrears. On other platforms, there are 30 days in arrears. So, and then, of course, if you buy direct, if you pay me today, I get paid tomorrow. That's why I really like direct. So if at any point at all you are wondering how you can best support an indie author, check to see if they have a direct store because it really, really does matter. I have ebook and I have audiobooks for sale.

DL White [00:15:39]:
You can always send that ebook to your Kindle and listen to it. Audiobooks sound great in the book funnel app. So I sell all that stuff, direct from me. I no longer sell print from my home because I'm tired of going to the post office, But you can always buy print at bookshop.org or, you can pick those up at resist booksellers.com, and Demetrius would be happy to ship those out to you. Publishing wise and writing wise, I did make some, headway on grumpy sunshine. I made it to chapter 4. I was stuck at chapter 3 for about 2 weeks. Made it to chapter 4.

DL White [00:16:19]:
I'm actually gonna start on chapter 5, this week. I'm targeting to publish this before the end of February, but if I kick it into high gear, I can have it around February 14th. I've got a 2 day event at work on 5th 6th, which is gonna run me down and take away any energy I have for writing. So I don't know about that goal, but I will make every effort. I'm seeing people already posting their February stuff, and I am on chapter 4 of mine, but you know what? You know, eyes on my own paper, Eyes on my own paper. My my project will be out when it's out, and I know the people that like my work will read it if it's Valentine's Day focused no matter when I put it out. So this will not be heavily edited. It is not going to editor Kai.

DL White [00:17:04]:
I just don't have time. I'm gonna finish. I'm gonna self edit it to the best of my ability. I'm a throw it up in my website for $2. Once I've had time to edit it, it might make it up to the retail sites, at some point, but for right now, I just want it up. I want folks to buy it, read it, love it. My goal is to publish more, publish more, have more projects available at my website for me and edification and benefit of me. And so that's what I'm doing.

DL White [00:17:32]:
I haven't really worked on anything else this week, but I do wanna get another chapter of music of my heart out. That's the fan fiction, that I am working on. I have not updated that fan fic since last week, and I'm just waiting on the reader that emails me every week to ask if they're getting a new chapter to email me, to ask if they're getting a new chapter. I wanna say, yes. I'm working on it. So actually right after I put up this episode, I'm probably gonna, slap open dabble and see what is going on with Zooey and our dude, JC. I should be getting calculated risk at some point this week for round 1 of edits. Side note, I need to learn how to spell calculated.

DL White [00:18:12]:
I always do calculated, and that will not do well if I register that book on the retail sites and it's spelled wrong. I've done that before, and it's hard to get it corrected. In the meantime, I should be working on front and back matter for that book so I can turn it in, but, am I actually doing that? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. It'll get done, though. It'll get done. I met with my writing group last week, and we set some audacious audacious goals for 2025. And, y'all know I'm a need to be busy.

DL White [00:18:44]:
So I I welcome it. 2 and a possible is, always usually my goal, 2 novels, 2 published works in a possible, so a short, a serial, a novella, something. So that's usually my goal. I am committing to at least 3 published projects this year, which I can say because 2 of them are already written. They just have to be edited. Knowing I already have some projects that aren't even on the stove yet. I did make a mention that book 4 in the potter lake series will be out at some point this year, and so I suppose I need to write that. Mhmm.

DL White [00:19:19]:
Yes. So, we have a few things we're working on in q one, and I'm just going quarter by quarter. I'm excited to be working it out, just being heads down in the work and, like, just trying to make it. This is what I'm doing to make it y'all. In, short form and serial news, same time next week is complete. So roll on over to the short fiction substack@shortfictionbydlwhite.substack.com. If you are a paid or a comped subscriber, if you support this podcast, I have added your email address over to the short fiction substack. You are more than welcome to unsubscribe if you ain't want all of that.

DL White [00:19:57]:
But I figure if you support the podcast, you should be able to read over there for free. And so I have I've added you to over there. Check it out, leave comments, questions, accolades. I take them all. I take them all. Also over there, as I said earlier, is fan fiction, writing exercises. You know, I have like a little 4 part serial. Anything good that I have written that I want to live somewhere else is on the short fiction sub stack.

DL White [00:20:28]:
So hop on over there. Speaking of accolades, I got the most wonderful review of Elysium this week. I think I linked to it in my Instagram. Y'all know I don't really read reviews unless I have to for promo purposes. Reviews are for readers, and I'd stay out of that. But sometimes readers gotta beat me upside the head with them, and did. I was so delighted, actually, because Elysium is a was a book that took me out of my comfort zone, especially for, like, the first two to three chapters. And I was really nervous to release that book, and I knew why I was nervous, and the sales upheld the reason that I was nervous.

DL White [00:21:13]:
All I can really hope is that it'll be as much of a sleeper and a slow but steady seller that beach thing has been. And the 3 book bundle also is on sale right now at my direct store. You can only get that bundle at my store. It's books by dlwhite.com/booksorpayhip.com/booksbydlwhite. For 6.99, you can get beach thing, Elysium, and the pearl, And that's, like, $2 off because it's almost $8 if you buy them individually. So go pick up the bundle. Speaking of bundles, you can also pick up the potter lake bundle for 5.99, and that bundle is priced lower because, book 1, curl and dye is free for a very long minute. Yeah.

DL White [00:21:56]:
I mean, it might be a perma free, very long minute. And so I had to make picking up the other 3 books in this series worth the cost of grabbing the bundle. And as I add books to those series, I will adjust the bundle price. But right now, book 1 is free. Book 2 is 99¢. Book 3 is 3.99. Book 4 is, I think, 2.99. And so making it 5.99 just makes it worth picking up the bundle.

DL White [00:22:20]:
And it helps my book sales. So I am I would be excited for you to go to my direct store. It's payhip.com/booksbydylwhite. You can also get to that from my website if you are looking at the series pages, books by dylwhite.com/series, and snatch up those bundles. I also have a couple of free reads out there. So, like, lots of good stuff if you're paying attention. This week, I was so so excited and happy to join author Sharon Blunt in the Java City literary lounge. She writes the Java City romance series.

DL White [00:22:56]:
I don't remember how many books are in this title. I have read a few of them. They are super cute, very romantic, super low angst. Like, I believe they're all set in, like, a coffee shop. Java City is like a is a is a, you know, a fictional, setting. Super cute books. Sharon is a delight. So grab her titles, eat them up.

DL White [00:23:18]:
The Jada City Lounge lives on Facebook. Just do a search for it, and you'll find the right spot. I dropped a link on my praise and appearances page on my website. It's books by dlwhite.com/praise. That's where I list, links to all my appearances and places where my books have been referenced. I haven't updated the praise section in a while, but the appearances page stays up pretty up to date. I also posted a copy of this interview, and I'm really I'm very sorry for the low quality. It's really hard to rip from Facebook on my YouTube channel.

DL White [00:23:50]:
And guess where you can get a link to that? Mhmm. Booksbydly.com/linkinbio. You can also just search author d l y on YouTube, and it will come up. Follow Sharon, follow the Java City literary lounge. She posts live interviews with authors at 8:30 PM every Friday. It is a romp. She also does book giveaways. So drop on by, give her a like, give her a comment, give her a follow.

DL White [00:24:17]:
We love us some Sharon Blunt over here at books by d l white. Last thing I wanna chat about is piracy. I'm going a little bit off script here because I feel like typing all that out. There is a, first of all, a YouTube channel that is reading audiobooks aloud, not reading audiobooks, but reading ebooks aloud by prominent indie published authors and making money off of it. She is picking up really popular indie published black author books, like Stephanie Norris, like Kimmy Pharrell, like a whole bunch of them, reading the ebooks all out on her YouTube channel. And she's got a Cash App in her bio. And people are starting to demand that she read certain books, and people are saying, I'm not even buying from the authors anymore. I just want you I'll just pay you to read them to me.

DL White [00:25:15]:
This is theft people. This is piracy. This is, copyright violation. Now let me tell you, it costs quite a bit of money to get a professional narrator to produce an audiobook for sale. My cheapest audiobook was 35100. I paid Leslie's I paid about about 35100 for Leslie's curl and die to be produced in audio. The other books I had to share revenue with my narrator, and I had to actually pay her to get out of the revenue share, agreement. And so now they all, like, belong to me, and I don't have to share, profit or revenue with her anymore.

DL White [00:26:04]:
But it's it's pricey to put books in an audio. So for somebody to take the ebook and sit on a YouTube channel and read it aloud as a person who is not a professional narrator and not backed or supported by any organization or, any, union. And to make money off of it is theft. And so understandably, some authors are very upset about it. There's also some websites that are hosting pirated in the authored books. This is a thing I don't think we're gonna be able to really get away from, but a lot of readers, especially those who subscribe to TikTok, feel like they just should not have to pay for books. They also, despite knowing that you can reach out to the author and ask for a copy of the book if you promise to give a review of it, they don't wanna do any work for the books. They wanna take the books for free and read them, and they're willing to steal them.

DL White [00:27:01]:
And the sad thing is there's not really a whole bunch we can do about it. I don't know what you should do. You do what you gotta do, but here is what I'm doing. I subscribe to a company called Muso, m u s o. It's an anti pirate anti pirating software for, indie filmmakers, indie authors, and you know, the the entire industry. So they are gonna have to go up against the site that hosts the book and scrape the Internet for material. Pirating is always going to exist, and we'll we're not ever gonna be rid of it. And the law has not really kept up with technology and between AI and pirating the law is not really on our side.

DL White [00:27:46]:
I think they we they we have to really prove damages, and there's just not really too many ways to prove, damages. But I just wanna encourage authors. Don't let these things keep you from moving your pen from tapping those keys and releasing the books. The world needs you, the world needs your art, the world needs your books, and you need to release that. You have, you know, you have you have a talent and you have a skill and you have a way with words and people deserve to hear that. You don't see Tom Cruise refusing to do more movies because people pirated mission impossible. Right? You know, stay woke. Be aware.

DL White [00:28:25]:
There's sites out there. People are mentioning those on, like, Facebook and Instagram. Get yourself something to protect you and your work if that is a thing that is within your realm of possibility. Do some research, pick a company to go to bat for you, you know, God bless. The deities bless. Alright. That brings us to the end of today's show. That was that was quick and dirty.

DL White [00:28:56]:
I bid you adieu, but not before thanking you so much for joining me for today's chat. I really do like having you all here. I welcome any comments or feedback you might have at books by dlwhite.bookcast/109. You'll also find full show notes, links to anything I talked about if they're relevant, and a transcript for today's show at my website and also at substack. Please share this podcast episode if you enjoyed it. And if you listen to Apple Podcasts or Spotify, once again, please give a girl a big fat 5 star rating. I'd really appreciate it and I think it would make you feel good. Don't forget you can support this podcast with your book purchases at payhip.com/booksbydlwhite by spreading the good word.

DL White [00:29:39]:
Join in the newsletter or the substack. Links are all on my website atbooksbydlwhite dotcom/linkinbio. You can throw some coins or some folding in the hat at book cast dot buzzsprout.com. Thank you all so much to my monthly subscribers. Your gift covers my buzzsprout subscription which is where my podcast is hosted, and I really appreciate your support. Every little bit really does help. The book cast is written, produced, and edited by me, the l white. Our theme music and any sound effects are provided by Pixabay.

DL White [00:30:10]:
I will be back next week. Until then, please enjoy your weekend. Have a superlative week and we'll chat again soon. Bye bye.