August 13, 2024 • 50 mins
More and more authors are choosing to self publish for many reasons. Raspberry Press is a grass-roots publishing company that helps writers bring their creations into the world and make their literary dreams a reality. Listen to this episode to find out more about how this great company has supported award winning and bestselling authors and what it can do for you.
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The Language of Healing is broadcast live Tuesdays at 2PM ET on W4WN Radio - Women 4 Women Network (www.w4wn.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). The Language of Healing TV Show is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
The Language of Healing Podcast is also available on https://thelanguageofhealingpodcast.com/, Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The topics and opinions expressed on the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not
those of W four WN Radio It's employees or affiliates.
We make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability,
explicit or implied shall be extended to W four WN
Radio It's employees or affiliates. Any questions or comment should
be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing
(00:22):
W four WN Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Are you ready to take a journey. Let's connect with
the healers of the world. It's that time.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
It's time for the Language of Healing on W four
WN Radio and Talk for TV. Now here's your host,
doctor Nicole fort.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Hey. Everybody, thanks for tuning in to another episode on
the Language of Healing on the Women for Women Network
W four WN dot com. You can find us of
a Tuesday at two pm Eastern Standard Time here and
Talk for TV as well. And today we're I'm so
excited to welcome a friend of mine and just a
(01:07):
wonderful human being to talk about how to make your
dreams come true in regards to publishing books and well
effective communication. Storytelling that's so important in today's well in
all all types of life experiences, the ability to tell
(01:28):
story and to really you know, add extra life to life.
Use your imagination a little bit. We're all about having
fun and really embracing that youthful vitality to engage your
spirit in living a great life. That's what I stand
(01:50):
for and I strive for. And so let's welcome our
guest today, Cheryl Fountain. Let's have her on the stage
and co host the pipe Man. He might be coming
in a little late, but so we might have an invader.
He always invades the stage. He Nicholas going today is good? Good?
(02:14):
How are you? I'm good? Thank you? Yeah, what's what's coming?
What's been happening in your world lately? Well, oh, my goodness,
what's been happening in my world? It's grown.
Speaker 5 (02:27):
I started writing my and publishing my own books in
twenty twenty and from that created a publishing a business.
So we actually help people self published now under Raspberry Press.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
It's been really fun. Yeah. So you yeah, you might
as well have a publishing company because you were pumping
out books like nobody. I know you have like a
total gift for that. It's yeah, so tell tell us
a little bit. Well, I have one of your books
here actually Assertiveness life changing Communication skill, And yeah, I
(03:09):
love the cover because.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
I learned a lot through my own personal publishing experience
about covers and how important they are. And the first
time I published that book, I didn't know a lot
about publishing. I was just trying to get it out
there and just getting the.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Word out there.
Speaker 5 (03:27):
Because I used to teach assertiveness training classes, people really
benefited from the information, and my goal was, how do
I get this information more people so it's more accessible
instead of signing up for a ten week course, which
was you know, it's not that expensive, but still it
could be expensive for some people, where you could get
a book that has a lot of the same information
in it. And that's when I published that first book,
(03:49):
I realized how simple the publishing process could be and
that there's a lot of like I did a lot
of research after that and before that to like develop
my skill set and then to help other people do
the same like ways to get their imagination out there,
their creativity. Some of its nonfiction. We do a lot
of children's books. I've also published many children's books and
(04:12):
more on the way.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
It's been absolutely a joy. Yeah, I know, I have
purchased a few copies of your children's books, but it
did not keep any for myself, but I've given them
to many friends and yeah, so what are the skills? Then,
you mentioned you had some skill. You have to develop
some of those skills, like you mean in regards to publishing,
(04:34):
or I mean even just writing a book is a
mission on its own, so that's a muscle you have
to develop and strengthen.
Speaker 5 (04:44):
Yeah, So it depends on what type of book you're
writing or what genre you're writing. So the books for
adults or youth like the fiction books, so the nonfiction books,
they can they take a lot longer to write than
say a children's book.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
A children's book is super fun.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
You get the inspiration and then you write it down
like a really rough draft, and then you edit that
draft multiple times. But it's a lot less time writing
a children's book, say fiction book, or a nonfiction book
or a history book like multiple genres. But it took
me about three years to fully write and edit this book.
(05:22):
We did self edit with help from my mom, who
has a master's degree in English, so that really helped
having in house support. And then from that, I just
realized the amount of work that you put into your
manuscripts and then you go to submit it to a.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
Publisher and like a traditional publisher.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
For instance, might not even give you a response back,
and so it can be really disheartening for people after
they've put so much time and effort or they've allowed
their creativity to flourish, and then people aren't acknowledging it.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
And I thought that was just.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
Really heartbreaking because most of the literature that is submitted
to publishers is actually good and it's just that they
have a publication plan like traditional publishers, they have a
niche market, or they they're only picking a select few
because it's quite an investment for them to put time
and effort into making that book out there.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
So it doesn't mean the writing isn't good.
Speaker 5 (06:17):
So I wanted to make sure people knew that their
work was worth it, and that that that the traditional
publisher not acknowledging it.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
I don't think is kind, but they're busy, so I
get it.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
So trying to show people that they there is another
way to get your books out there and get your
creations manifested.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
M h. Yeah, there's so many options these days. We'll
talk about that a little more rebel. Do we have
dating in the house.
Speaker 6 (06:49):
No, he's not here yet. He did ask me to
hop on and put my two cents in so at
Raspberry Publishing. That's the name of your company.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
Correct, Cheryl Raspberry Press.
Speaker 6 (07:01):
Raspberry Press. Do they have to come with the manuscript
already edited or do y'all have an editing procedure?
Speaker 4 (07:10):
Yeah, we do.
Speaker 5 (07:10):
We have in house editors now of professional editors part
of the team, so it can also be previously edited,
but we would review the manuscript as part of our
intake process. But again it is self published, so we
just offer different levels of services to what the author
needs and they retain like the full rights of their
(07:32):
book and we suggest ideas and decisions like ideas for
them to make decisions on with their manuscripts, but ultimately
the final decision is theirs.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
After we do review the books.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
Also for being added to our publications listing, which just
gives more visibility to the book on our website we
promote on social media. Doesn't cost anything to the author.
We believe as the author grow, as we grow as
we grow, the authors grow. It is a service we offer,
but we do review each manuscript that crosses our our
inbox for being part of that publication listing.
Speaker 6 (08:10):
That sounds amazing. What genres? I mean, do you cover
all genres or are there any We're not going to
touch this book genres?
Speaker 4 (08:20):
We are open to all genres.
Speaker 5 (08:23):
I have not yet had a horror book, but I
believe horror is also a form of inspiration. We would
still assess it to have the Raspberry like being part
of the Raspberry Press publication listing though, Like we don't
really promote hate or anything that would work. Like our
goal is to add joy and inspiration into the world.
And I know it sounds weird, but horror can add
(08:43):
inspiration and joy because some people really like horror. But
there's there's a fine line we don't want. We don't
want to publish anything that's hateful or derogatory in nature.
There's history books that we've published though, and I know
in history there has been some very hateful things that
have happened. We do again review it just to make
sure it's it's showing an objective view.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
There's no like that negative stuff.
Speaker 5 (09:08):
We're kind of staying away from but moving towards bringing
that joint inspiration. However, it manifests and the genre presented
to us.
Speaker 6 (09:18):
That sounds amazing, absolutely amazing. Now I see you showed.
Can you show your book again for everyone to see
the new cover?
Speaker 4 (09:28):
Yeah, so that's the new cover. It is.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
Uh So again, as we learn, like, covers are really important.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
They're they're your sales ad for the book.
Speaker 5 (09:38):
So when there's millions and millions of books in bookstores
and on Amazon, people.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
Are often looking for a topic. How they find you.
Speaker 5 (09:47):
This catches their eye and they might this is what
is the first thing they decide to click on it
or pick it up from the bookshelf. And then the
next most important thing is the back blurb, so explaining
what it's about. And so this is also part of
the sales part of the book is describing what the
book entails, and it's to entice your reader to open.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
The pages and buy the book. Yeah, what's the process
like that? I always am fascinated by the synopsis of
a book, you know, like, what's like all these pages
condensed into such a it's really clear messaging. Yeah, and
that's what we help authors develop. The blurbs and so
(10:27):
someone could just you know, come to you with with
the what stage would someone come to you with their
like ready to publish? So honestly edited and yeah, any stage, any.
Speaker 5 (10:40):
Stage if you're writing it and you need help with
the visioning for the writing process. We've been trained like
myself and colleagues within Raspberry Press have been trained with
neural linguistic programming where you help ask questions. Uh, but
we ask questions to bring out the answers from the author,
and so it's coming from that person. We're not telling
them what to write or what to do. We're asking
(11:02):
questions to help bring out the individual's creativity.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Heydane there for.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
You, And I don't even know what I may have missed.
Sorry that I had technical difficulties. That's terrible too, as
the station owner to have technical difference.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
It happens. But yeah, we are in Mercury retrograde, you know.
Oh speaking speaking of which, though I woke up this
is side tangent but amazing because today I saw that
there's like a very special window of comets asteroids like meteorites.
You can look in the sky over the like the
(11:40):
next two days or yesterday and tonight or something like that,
and I woke up at four thirty to you know,
and I thought, oh, I'm going to check out the sky.
And it was a clear sky and there was Jupiter
and Mars like super bright just wind up. Wow, that's
so it's so pretty when you see like the sky
(12:02):
be dazzling, and you know, it's like such a source
of inspiration I think.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Anyways, Yeah, it wasn't Venus or Mercury.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
It was Mars.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Because usually we see Ye Jupiter Venus.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Right, those are the normal.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Rare we see mores like.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Ye Mars and Sjupiter. We're like right close together. It
was really awesome.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
They also just found out by the way that they
have more information that there might be really life on Mars,
that there's some water reservoir in the core of the planet.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
Well why do you think they're trying so hard to
get there?
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Well, because we're destroying this one.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
That's why.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
Well we might need an alternative for sure time to
it might take a while to get there and populate it.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
So we're out there trying to find another plan to
destroy because.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
See here's their next science fiction. You know, well, there's
so much exactly Yeah, future realistic speculum the next tune.
Speaker 5 (13:10):
Oh my goodness, Yeah, absolutely no, it's inspired Like that's
like inspired by life events is how I write and
where I'm where I come from.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
Some of my writers are inspired by dreams.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
Uh Whytt Trumbalay has a wonderful book called The Key
to Enna Skillen. It should be a movie, and I'm
putting it out there like somebody needs to make this
into a movie. We're going to be working towards trying
to find somebody who's willing to take a look at it.
And it was inspired by a dream, so I mean, like,
it's pretty cool where you can find inspiration. And I'm
a big like I love the universe. I love planets
(13:45):
and stars, so I totally appreciate your cot.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Well, was it a lot of creativity in writing a
book come from dreams? I would think anyway, because you know,
you have these dreams you wake up and like, wow,
that would be cool, and if you write it down
like immediately, you know, I think that is kind of
where a lot of it comes from, either dreams or
day dreaming.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
And exactly, and honestly, most people who have written a
book and wanting to publish it is a dream for
them to publish that book it's been a lifelong dream
or since they.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
Were a little child, or it's like you.
Speaker 5 (14:20):
Know what I mean, like not just a dream dream
or a daydream, but like a personal realization dream.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
I've always thought it's like every everybody should write a
book or have a book, like even just because everyone
has a story to share and to tell, and it's
almost like a legacy that you leave or like you know,
or just kids something you contribute.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
I think kids should write books because they're inhibited and
you know, like I used to do a lot of
creative writing while I was a kid that I don't
do now like, and it's because when you're a kid,
there's no inhibitions. You're totally creative, totally amass, genitive, and
adults like they almost sometimes feel silly doing those things
(15:06):
that kids would do, which I think creates the best
creativity there is.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
And that's one of the things that stop a lot
of people from publishing their book is that self doubt
or their writing and they're continuously stopping or editing as
their writing instead of allowing it to flow. And it's
one of the things that we do help people with
is helping them like get their writing out and like
helping build that confidence because to publish a book, it
(15:32):
takes courage to put yourself out there like that.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
And I one hundred percent agree with you.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
Children, Oh my goodness, the imaginations of children.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
They could publish books.
Speaker 5 (15:42):
And we are working on a program with Raspberry Press
to have a yearly contest to have children submit manuscripts
to help them publish a book each year.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
It hasn't let out right, but we're I read some
comic books when I was a kid. That was like
my jam It's like I forgot about.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
All that, remember too.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
I don't know if you guys remember, but when I
was a kid, you made comic books by taking pieces
of paper and drawing on them and then flipping them
like you know.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
Yeah, and then the motion the motion pictures.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
That's how comic strips were invented by exactly that.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
That's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
I think what's also interesting is, I'll bet you because
that's something they teach kids when I was a kid,
I'll bet you that's something they don't even teach today,
just like they don't teach penmanship because it's not like
really relative today, Like you don't really have comic strips
made like that. Like when you watch comics that say that, again.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
Do your grandkids do that those?
Speaker 3 (16:46):
No, they're too stuck on their devices. That's the problem,
you know. And because of the fact that you don't
have comics made that way anymore. If you looked at
the old cotton black and white comics on the TV,
even that's exactly how it was made. And you can
see it too, if you know about now and you
go watch one of those old ones, you can see
how the paper is flipping.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
Mm hmm. Yeah. Now like gold.
Speaker 5 (17:11):
Mickey Dizzy, it's digitalized. It's all the different skill set
and a different thing. So, like, I know, our kids
are on those devices a lot. There's a funny movie
I watched and one of the scenes was they were
in an old West and.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
There's this kid.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
I don't remember the name of the movie, but there
was this kid running down the street with this wooden
wheel and this wooden stick and he's pushing the wheel
with the stick, and the guys are saying, oh, that's
going to rot their brains. Oh yeah, it distracts the kids,
you know. And we say that about technology and our children,
but it does perform a creative outlet for them too.
(17:48):
Like I fully believe. I love printed books. I love them,
like love holding them. I love smelling books in the library.
I really love the paper books. But this technology thing,
we keep saying it's going to hurt our kids, hurt
our kids, but it is also the way that the
world's going, and it is a form of creativity. Digital
art is fantastic. One of my children's books has digital art.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
It helps, it helped, Yeah, it helps, it hurts, I believe,
because there's a lot of creativity you can do with
these devices. But then there's like, as an example, you know,
there's kids and families that they will not go out
with the family, even to family events because they just
want to stay on their device at home. And I
(18:32):
even have somebody in my family like that. It's like, nope,
I'm not going to that. I just want to stay
on my device at home. That's addiction, yeah, one hundred percent.
But these devices and social media, the people that design
them design them in mind with addiction, like it is.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
We're all addicted. Okay, yep.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
That And one thing I will say, like you were
talking about the books for me, and I'm a total
techie that has, you know, all kinds of technology toys.
I can't stand reading a book on like a kindle
or iPad or phone. I'd rather read an actual book.
(19:16):
Turn the actual Yeah, your book.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
If your book dies, you know, like you have to
recharge your book. Doesn't that the worst?
Speaker 5 (19:25):
Instead of being it on the beach just with your
yeah here, yeah, well.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
That's inter thing. If you're out on the beach, you
can read your book. You can't read your kindle too
easily because the sun in the screen, like you can't
look at it. So there again, beach book is a
better place.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
I love the physical books. Again, everyone's different. Everyone has
different different medias that they prefer. So we try to
get our books out on different medias like ebook, working
on We have one audiobook right now, working on getting
some of them on audio.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
It's a bit of a different process.
Speaker 5 (20:04):
I love audiobooks because I can be cleaning, I can
be jogging and I can't really it's hard to follow
the book when I'm jogging. But if I'm cleaning, I
can follow the book and it's kind of nice driving
you can listen to it. It helps relax you. Depending
on the story, if it's an adventure story. You might
need to pull over something if something too crazy happens.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
But I try to listen to audiobooks while i'm driving
because I'm on the road a lot and they just
kind of like put me in this trance. I need
something that keeps me alert, like you know, and.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
See, I'm totally aud audio book. I believe in Automobile University.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
Yeah, well, yeah, I mean it. I guess it depends right,
like I don't.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
I don't let's say fictional ones, but like any of
the self help stuff, I'd rather like.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
As a for And it depends on who the person is.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Okay, So if you're talking to Tony Robbins, I would
much rather listen to an audiobook than read his book
because the audio book will express his personality. If you're
talking Deepak Chopra, I'd rather read the book because I
love his ideas. But when he speaks like, I'm bored
to death because it's that very monotone. And it depends
(21:15):
on the personality. Like my personality, I prefer a more
animated like Tony Robbins. Some people don't, So it depends
on the person for sure.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
Yeah, absolutely, so you as a publisher Cheryl, You guys
have to kind of figure that that stuff out, like
you go through a process to me, like, what's what's
the personality of this book? What what do you do
for the voiceovers? Rebel does voiceovers? Have you ever done
an audiobook? Rebel, have you ever? Have you ever done
(21:46):
an audiobook? I don't know.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
See I literally meant a second cut.
Speaker 6 (21:54):
I have done auditions for audiobooks. I have to you
still in the possibility stage. It's it's really different, especially
if they want you to do different voices, and you know,
pipe Man says, I refer to one particular voice.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
No, Rebel has lots of little girl voices, but they're
all little girl voices.
Speaker 6 (22:23):
I've voiced a lot of cartoon characters that needed younger
voices because they're younger animated children.
Speaker 5 (22:37):
And a Raspberry Press, we have one voice. It's James's voice.
He does he could do children's books, and he wouldn't
be able to do My Assertiveness book because it's a
woman author. It's kind of a lot of women content.
But we can help people navigate the process. So as
Rebel has been on the side of additioning, you can
(23:00):
actually sign up to test like they do samples online
the different voices, and you can pick a couple and
ask for quotes, so we can help the authors navigate
that system under consultation.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
I want to go step further to what you're talking
about books. It's hard to see because of my virtual background. Yeah,
but that's my book. Yeah, focusing in doesn't help my
virtual background there, but.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
It put it on your chest or something.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
There we go, there we go.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Yeah, Hey, that worked, good job, Nicole, No wonder you're
the doctor of the show.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
I'm resourceful, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
So and one thing I bring up too.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Okay, so my book's available in paperback, hardcover, and ebook,
and I can tell you right now for me, I
also prefer a hardcover. So again, you know, going back
to like if you're doing kindle. You know there's a kindle,
but I like the idea of having different types and
I like having hardcover. And you know, it's just like
(24:07):
when you make vinyl records. There's different types of vinyl.
And I can tell you I have a storage place
that is half of it is just for my books
because I just can't get rid of books either. You're
not supposed to remember when we were younger like, it's like, no,
I regret it.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
I regret every book I've ever gift given the way
don't need it.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
I have a box.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
I was just like I should I should like share
the knowledge, but I'm like, that's that's rich and I don't.
And this is different for me.
Speaker 5 (24:40):
So children's book, yes, I keep them, I pass them down.
I've had a twenty three year old and an eight
year old, though they were very well used children's books.
Some of the ones I've given away I've regretted the
children's books, but books themselves, I've usually read them enough
where I don't need to read them again. Some I
keep that I do refer to over and over again,
mostly self healthy stuff. But I think if you pass
(25:03):
it on, like I usually donate to those. I don't
know if you have them everywhere in the world, but
they have these little free libraries and people in front
of people's houses where you can take and donate books too,
so I know it's getting in somebody else's hands, so
sharing it or use bookstores. And there's even a bookstore
in Saint Albert that when they when they sell the book,
(25:23):
they donate proceeds to the local hospital.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
So I love sharing books, and I don't mind rebuying them.
Speaker 5 (25:30):
I've reboughten a few books a number of times after
I've given it away.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
Yeah, supporting the author I love.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
I love huge books because I would go in like
I use when books were a thing, to go out
my I guarantee you in my collection of books, I
probably didn't even read yet, because I just would see
books and buy them. And especially I used bookstore because
it didn't cost that much. I'd buy a whole bunch
of them. My college textbooks I still have, like I
(26:03):
need rid of resources, you know, and it comes in
handy for when you got this younger generation that things
say no more and so, like something came up recently
where I was talking about one of my grandkids was
saying something about one plus one equals too. I'm like,
you know, when you get to really advance math, they're
(26:24):
going to teach you how one plus one equals three.
And then another adult there said I'm taking Calculus three.
And I never heard that, and I instead that to grandkid.
So I can go my storage bin and pull out
my calculus book and show that the first chapter is
where they teach you limits and how you can prove
(26:47):
that one plus one equals three, but maybe you forget
that when you get to calculus three.
Speaker 5 (26:53):
I do remember that, and I remember being blown away,
right turn upside down. But it is math is it's
so creative, Like there's people out there who apparently can
do equations to make flowers or something beyond me.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
Yeah, metaphysical mathematics like fibina like Fibonacci sequence or something like, well, okay,
so here's the here's something cool though, like speaking of numbers,
that we actually train children to be linear one, two, three,
four or five and actually in like babies or if
you didn't train people to be like that, you would
(27:31):
be very animalistic in nature. So one plus one equals
like more, like they don't they don't see one. It's
like you have one and then you take one more
and they'll take like a ton more, you know, like
there's no I don't know if that makes sense, but
I've thought that's like eleven.
Speaker 7 (27:53):
Yeah, and they can and they can and depends on
how your mind works, which is why anybody that's an
author and has an idea should write a book because
there's so much you know, you can think, well, that
book's already been written, but has it been written?
Speaker 3 (28:15):
And maybe it hasn't been written. You know that the
ideas change, things evolve, and you know even the fact
of like what we're talking about stuff Like a perfect
example is one of the books that I have in
storage and it's more to just blow my kids and
grandkids mind. Is my book from typing class. We're not
(28:38):
talking computer class because there it was not nobody had
a computer. Nobody had a computer was typing class. And
you literally it was required to take typing class while
I was in eighth grade. And you know, the funny
thing is is my youngest star, she's like when she
(29:01):
sees me on the laptop, she's like, dad, he type
really fast. Well, yeah, that's because I was taught something.
Kids today aren't taught, you know, like they're not taught
how to takemore. They don't do keyboarding either, Like that's
why you see so many of these kids. They'll be
like fingerpecking.
Speaker 4 (29:22):
It's just supposed to be intuitive or instinctual.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
I would like to let's do a show where you
get a whole bunch of kids, all different ages and
ask them to define to us what is home row.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
And I'll bet you zero.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
No my son knows is taught. He's read your Eye three,
he knows home row and nice.
Speaker 5 (29:45):
He did learn it. He learned it in grade one,
So they're learning in grade one, just.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Saying see, now that's good.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Well, maybe that's the difference between Alberta and Florida or something.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Well, I I don't know.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
I don't think it's a majority of everywhere or what
that does that anymore because if you say something like
that to my grandkids, well, I need to take a
typing class for I have a phone, you know, because
you know this younger generation that they won't even use
computers for anything most of the time.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
They use phone for everything.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
And me, I think there's a time and place to
use the computers still nowadays, even though I can do
everything on my phone. I think that's something that's missed too,
is that people are missing things. And I think they're
missing that in kindle books too and stuff like that,
Like there's some just like with albums, like you said,
there's something to holding that book and artwork on the book,
(30:44):
because listen, how many people that are reading kindles actually
pay attention to.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
The artwork of the book or the forward or.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
The summaries or any of that most of the time,
except to see if they want to download it, but
usually any kind of technology and they're just going right
for the meat and potatoes.
Speaker 5 (31:03):
Interestingly, so I have dyslexia, and so I still if
I'm taking a course, I still order a hard proof
book because I have a harder time retaining information from
a screen than I do physical. One of my workarounds
was underlining when I read things I think are important
to interpret the information.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
So when I do editing, I print.
Speaker 5 (31:25):
It out physically to do it because I catch more
things my editors do both. They can neither do it
on the screen and print it out. But I know trees.
We love trees. There are a lot we can replant
trees though, so they are renewable resource, so I do
love them. But I also appreciate that they give their
life so I can I can learn and I can
retain information. There's a lot of kids out there too,
(31:46):
who are now being taught with screens like they're allowed
to bring, like each kid has iPads in some of
these more well to do schools. It might be harder
for some of those students to learn off of the
screen because you don't interpret the information the same way
you're constantly getting flashes of lights, like I don't even
know how many times per second lights flashing at you,
and that's what your brain's interpreting.
Speaker 4 (32:08):
In one of my upcoming books, as a.
Speaker 5 (32:10):
Writer, so I'm a publisher, I help people publish, but
I'm also a writer.
Speaker 4 (32:13):
It's a sortiveness book for youth, and we go.
Speaker 5 (32:16):
There's a whole section on screens, the addiction to screens,
like ways to work, you know, to like stay off
of them two hours before bedtime. If you're noticing you're
getting more anxieties, try staying off with them for a
few days and see the difference. Things like that, because
it does affect your neurological like it EFFEXI with your
brain works. And it's similar to drugs where you get the
hits and the hits and you need more hits and
(32:38):
you can't sleep because you need the hits. So I
do see that both.
Speaker 4 (32:41):
Sides, like the career what you can use creatively, but
there's balance.
Speaker 5 (32:45):
You need balance on everything you do, your food like
and same with like writing and publishing.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
Like you know, you have lots of energy and there's ups.
Speaker 5 (32:54):
And downs, but it is making sure that like, it's
a balance process. You're not like throwing Like I don't
know how to explain it. You're not shutting off the
world to publish your book or setting off the world
to write your book. But at the same time you
need those parts of time where you are focused on it.
But you just need that overall balance and everything you do.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
Absolutely, and I think too with you know what you're
talking about for me, you know, going to college, going
to high school, how did you study for an exam?
Speaker 2 (33:28):
You highlighted, that's what you did, so, yeah.
Speaker 4 (33:33):
And rewrote it out like you know, well that's.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
Another thing too. They taught us when we were younger.
You know how much you retain by writing it, you know, always,
And so I don't think that holds true necessarily with
the typing as much as the writing. I could be wrong,
but I don't think that it's not the same physical
activity that you feel like.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
We're all kind of old school in the same way.
Like give me the hard by hand. It's a little different.
Speaker 5 (34:03):
I now type I used to only write by Yeah,
then you have to retype it out so ideas though
or already orientated yeah something, Yeah, we're doing a storyboard right,
I'll write that out by hand and I post different
things on the wall and then you can move things around
when you're planning out your manuscript. But typing out the
full manuscript is a lot more time efficient.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Oh I agree with millions percent, okay, because what happens
when you write handwriting and you still have to type
it anyway, and then you know you have a bunch
of crossouts and it's not knee and stuff like. To me,
what I love about typing a book is that it's
so easy to edit as you're going. And I want
(34:49):
to talk about editing for a second, because I think
that's important. Most people don't realize that ninety nine percent
of books that are on the bookshelves and bookstores still
all have copyright or s in them.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
Oh. Absolutely, So this is a living thing, so a book.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
And that's why I really appreciate what we help people
do with self publishing is you have you have full
control over that so if you catch a typo in
the future, you can change it because we make sure
people get their all their editable files for the book.
So every even traditional publishers, there's I read every time
I read the edit. Now I can't not read a
book and find errors, and that's just what I do.
(35:28):
Like if I'm reading for fun, I'm always I'm always
like it's interesting. It doesn't bug me, but I'll tell
you at the beginning of this publishing process, it used
to drive me nuts, and then I had to remind
myself that it's it's literally everywhere traditional publishers. When people
pay thousands and thousand dollars for an edit, or if
people only pay hundreds of dollars for an edit, it's
you're going to have a typo. And it's actually really
(35:50):
important because that's like our life. If you you're not perfect.
Nothing's perfect, but the beauty of it is, especially if
you're a self published author.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
You can fix it.
Speaker 5 (36:00):
If somebody tells you about it, you can go back,
fix your file, re upload it to your distributor, like
the distributor that you choose, and then your new copy,
like the old ones that have been printed previously, will
have that typo.
Speaker 4 (36:12):
But you can actually fix it.
Speaker 5 (36:14):
And it's kind of like when you grow in life
you have a little errors, you can constantly work on it,
improve it, find it, tweak it, and then put out
another best version of yourself.
Speaker 4 (36:25):
I was thinking of that when you had like the
original copy of the Sortiveness book, you know, and then
like you just oh, this works better. I'm just going
to change it, Like how the cover Yeah yeah, yeah yeah,
there's a life freedom And I think that actually, like
an image of you is like people want to see
you know, like to see you and your personality and
(36:47):
you know, oh there's that one behind this is.
Speaker 5 (36:49):
A human behind that, And that was the publishing team's decision.
I was not I at that point in time, was
not courageous enough to put avert. And they're like, it's
not like in nonfiction books, it's often either big words
or the writer on the cover, right, And I was
terrified and then I kind of realized, but it is
(37:11):
like it is me, Like this is like the knowledge
that I've gained, and I'm sharing with people. They don't
have to love it, they don't have to like it,
but I'm putting it out there. Might as well put
my face on it, and then people start to recognize
me too as the author. But also in like in
all the public like the publisher materials for Raspberry Press,
I try to put my face on there because it
(37:32):
was I was inspired to bring Raspberry Press the world
based on my own experiences trying working through the traditional
publishing process, working through the self publishing process and knowing
the emotional part of it and feeling like I wasn't
good enough and then realizing I was good enough, and
that wanting to show other people their writing and they
(37:54):
are good enough that they can do this too.
Speaker 4 (37:57):
Mm.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Yeah, I've never now that happens.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
That people shouldn't stress out about is how long it
takes you finish your book sometimes because that's that creative flow.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Like my book, I wrote half of.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
It in one night, twenty four hours, and then the
other half six months later, because after that first half,
I was like done and I really didn't get back
to it till six months later. But because of that,
you know, some people stress out at But then you're
(38:32):
letting the creative juices flow the way they're organically supposed
to flow instead of forcing it, And I think it
makes for better content.
Speaker 5 (38:41):
And that's exactly what we tell our writers. So when
you're writing, you can be like kind of self deprecating.
At the same time, writers are very We're all different,
but there's also there's some key similarities, and so that's
exactly it. Sometimes you just need a break from the
manuscript sometimes, so some writers get deadlines, especially with traditional publishers,
(39:01):
or they have self deadlines. So the self publishing process
is great because you can move yourself deadlines very easily.
With a traditional publisher not so much. I'm sure you
can negotiate if you need to, like, I really can't
do this, I need some more time, I'm sure. But
with self publishing you can set I do recommend setting
target lines for different stages of your writing process. However,
(39:22):
giving yourself that grace because sometimes you need to walk away,
Like if you're writing a fiction and your characters in
something and then you're like and you're stuck. Well, maybe
forcing the stuck isn't going to work, So maybe going
for a walk, or putting it down, working on another
section of your book, maybe developing a different character or
something like taking its pieces that come together, as you
(39:44):
had said Nicole earlier, that come together to build the book,
and you have to write it in one flow. You
can write chapter seven first, you can write chapter one
last after you.
Speaker 4 (39:57):
Storyboards for yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Yeah, a lot of writers do that too.
Speaker 6 (40:03):
Me.
Speaker 3 (40:03):
I started with as IF from college writing as IF,
I was writing an essay. I started with the chapter
names first, and then I filled in the blanks of
the chapters.
Speaker 5 (40:15):
That's really that is a technique that a lot of
people use. It's a really good one.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
Yeah, because it keeps you kind of like focused and organized.
Like I'm big into the organization part of it. So
like I when I used to write papers in school,
I would say probably most of them that I got
ason were a whole bunch of bullshit, to be blunt,
because it wasn't what I did exactly what they taught
(40:43):
me to do. I created an outline and then filled
in the blanks all the way down the line, so
I wasn't really writing it. I was just kind of
like answering my own questions.
Speaker 5 (40:53):
And that's why I do so well at publishing and
helping others publish. Is publishing is just that as a formula,
and you fill in the blanks. There's certain stuffs you
got to take in each stages of the like the process.
So similar to like a paper, you got you know,
your introduction, your thesis, your paragraph one, two three in
your conclusion kind of thing, It's the same with publishing.
(41:14):
You just you just need to know what to fill
in the spaces with, so the writer does the writing and.
Speaker 4 (41:20):
We help them fill out the rest of the formula.
Speaker 3 (41:24):
I love that too because I think it's a great
way for many people to write, because I think it
helps an avoiding writer's block, Because if you just have
a blank piece of paper and you're just trying to
think of what to write. But if you have set
up an outline and like having chapter names titles is
an outline, then you kind of like you create the
(41:48):
creativity by starting somewhere. You have a foundation to work on,
and that I think that's much easier. It's just like
you wouldn't have a debate without knowing what the topic
of the debate like, but once you know the topic,
it's a much easier to debate it.
Speaker 4 (42:05):
Yeah, synopsis of the book, it's like the condensed if
you started with the back of the book.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
Exactly.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
Sorry, Cheryl, you were going to say something, No, no,
that's that's lovely.
Speaker 5 (42:17):
I was just thinking the same thing with publishing, Like again,
there's just the different stages, but the titles, That's what
I was going to say. Even though you might start
with your outline and your titles.
Speaker 4 (42:28):
Those can change too.
Speaker 5 (42:29):
Yeah, like a book title of mind changed uh socksuit
two it was uh, it changed at the very end.
And I'll also help that with different authors. Like a
lot of people come with the title. The titles are
really important because it's also part of the sales of
the book, Like if it's a catchy title, it's memorable.
Speaker 4 (42:50):
So we do help authors with.
Speaker 5 (42:51):
That too, So they might have a really they're sold
on an idea of a title. Again, it's their book,
their final decision, but we do we have a mastermind
group that goes plays with the title, come up with
different things and come up with the best solution. You
can also actually take your titles options to focus groups.
So if you're a children's book author, you could ask
a friend who might be a teacher or a school
(43:13):
and it would be awesome. They would totally support you,
especially high schools and elementary schools would support you. You
could do a little bit of you know, you're part
of my writing process or my publishing process. Here's a
couple of titles, which one do you like best? So
you can do that kind of stuff as a self
published author too, And the schools are usually very eager
to support and also are like literary groups of people
(43:36):
who support literacy and have like groups of people where
they teach literacy too. They're also very eager to support
writers and publishers, like self publishers.
Speaker 3 (43:46):
I think the title is one of the most important
things for a few reasons. One is that's what's going
to catch somebody's attention to actually look at the book.
But more importantly, I think where you need to help
people right now on this show is it seems like
(44:07):
everybody is an author nowadays. But the one thing they
didn't teach all these authors is your title is not
supposed to be the synopsis of the book.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
Yes, oh my god.
Speaker 3 (44:18):
You know how many authors I deal with that? And
same with show hosts. They want to name their show
like like it's the whole description of the show, and
you know, leave nothing to them, to the imagination, and
it bores people, like what are some of the best books?
Speaker 4 (44:40):
It's like too long, didn't read? Isn't that like a thing?
Speaker 2 (44:45):
Books have a one word title.
Speaker 5 (44:48):
Dune, for instance, we talked about Dune Earlayer.
Speaker 4 (44:51):
That book.
Speaker 5 (44:52):
Oh, it's a thick book, but it's it's people love
it and it's just Dune.
Speaker 3 (44:58):
And let's talk about two the different styles of readers. Like,
for instance, one of my favorite fictional authors, and it's
not because of the content, even though I like the content,
is James Patterson. And the reason why is because every
chapter of his is one or two pages long, okay.
(45:22):
And so for me, for me, if a chapter's thirty pages,
forty pages, fifty pages, okay, I'm gonna read that chapter
before I start the next chapter. I gotta make sure
I have time for that. But when I read a
James Parrison book, it's like I finished a chapter and
it's like, oh, I'll do the next chapter because it
takes you two seconds. So it's like and then before
(45:43):
you know it, you finish the book. And I like
that breaking things down into the smallest compartments. So if
I could have twenty chapters or two pages long, a
post of one chapter that's twenty pages or forty pages long,
I'm gonna pick the and the twenty chapter one every
single time.
Speaker 5 (46:02):
And that's genre specific too, though, like how long your
book is, like how many pages or in a chapter
like it's I really believe in balance again, but different
genres like again, people are attracted to different genres for
different reasons everyone's different, but they do have similarities. So
of big si fi people, they go to conventions because
(46:23):
they like a lot of similar things, so they will
tolerate a different type of length of book or how
it's presented, even like the font, the artwork that might
be in it, the title headings, the type like all
that's really important and a genre specific. So like a
history reader, Oh my goodness, people who read history, my
(46:43):
heart goes out to them because like I do have
an author, David Moore who writes history, and he makes
it accessible to people. He's under Raspberry Press, like he
publishes with Websberry Press. But most history books I really
have a hard time reading because it's hard to keep
my attention. But the way he right to say, it's
like I don't know how he does it. But again
it's very lengthy, right, very lengthy, A.
Speaker 4 (47:04):
Lot of text, a lot of texts. So that's the genre.
Speaker 5 (47:07):
So people who enjoy history enjoy reading that. This gentleman
you mentioned who met who polished a book with two
pages of chapter, I've never seen it. I'm going to
look it up because I'm very curious.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
He's a very famous author.
Speaker 6 (47:20):
Yeah, he heard of it.
Speaker 2 (47:22):
It's a.
Speaker 3 (47:23):
It's one of those crime books. He's like one of
the most famous authors. But yeah, James Patterson, there's a
he has a character. It's a detective cross, okay, And
all these books every chapter is like one and a
half pages, two pages, And me personally, I love that
because I'd rather again. I feel too as a motivational person,
(47:48):
a goal person, so like I can set goals easier,
Like I believe in saying smaller goals because it makes
it easier to achieve that big goal by breaking it
down into small So to me, it's like reading the
next chapter. And his books are always a goal because
it's always so short.
Speaker 2 (48:06):
So I'm going to go to the next one. And
it does, yes, and it makes chid achieved, like.
Speaker 3 (48:15):
It makes you get to where you want to go
in the book quicker, I think. But everybody's different for
sure and what they like, and you have three different
types of people you have to appeal to, visual, auditory,
and kinesthetics. So that's inn our thing for maybe another
show should talk about how to write for those different people.
Speaker 4 (48:39):
I was just thinking about. I was thinking about Moby Dick.
You know that book. It's like such a timeless classic
and then you read it and you're like, oh my god,
I love it, just like yeah, no, I'm actually the
audiobook is really good too, if you're ever into that.
This guy that records it has like a real old
(49:00):
school voice. It's very nice. Good to fall asleep too. Okay,
we're dot we're we have to wrap up, Cheryl. Thank
you so much for joining us today. It was lovely. Okay,
tell us real quick. How can people reach out to you?
Speaker 5 (49:14):
Contact you forget more email info at Raspberry Press dot
d a and the website is www dot Raspberry Press
dot d a, So please reach out to me. I'd
be really happy to see your manuscripts, help you publish
your book, help you, you know, with your dream because
that's what I love to do.
Speaker 4 (49:33):
It's my favorite thing in the world. So awesome. Yeah,
thanks so much. Okay, well, well we'll sign off for
now and see you guys all next week.
Speaker 2 (49:48):
When next week?
Speaker 4 (49:50):
Yeah, well you missed the beginning, so it's Tuesdays at
two pm Eastern on W four w N dot com
and Top four TV. Thank you so much, Thank you
so much.
Speaker 2 (50:02):
Okay, thank you you Roy.
Speaker 4 (50:05):
Hey, all your dreams come true?
Speaker 3 (50:07):
Wow, what a show today and The journey does not
stop here. Come travel the world with Nicole every Tuesday
at two pm Eastern Time, as together we become more
fluent in the language of healing.
Speaker 2 (50:20):
On W four WN radio and talk for TV. See
you next week.
The topics and opinions expressed on the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not
those of W four WN Radio It's employees or affiliates.
We make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
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(00:22):
W four WN Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Are you ready to take a journey. Let's connect with
the healers of the world. It's that time.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
It's time for the Language of Healing on W four
WN Radio and Talk for TV. Now here's your host,
doctor Nicole fort.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Hey. Everybody, thanks for tuning in to another episode on
the Language of Healing on the Women for Women Network
W four WN dot com. You can find us of
a Tuesday at two pm Eastern Standard Time here and
Talk for TV as well. And today we're I'm so
excited to welcome a friend of mine and just a
(01:07):
wonderful human being to talk about how to make your
dreams come true in regards to publishing books and well
effective communication. Storytelling that's so important in today's well in
all all types of life experiences, the ability to tell
(01:28):
story and to really you know, add extra life to life.
Use your imagination a little bit. We're all about having
fun and really embracing that youthful vitality to engage your
spirit in living a great life. That's what I stand
(01:50):
for and I strive for. And so let's welcome our
guest today, Cheryl Fountain. Let's have her on the stage
and co host the pipe Man. He might be coming
in a little late, but so we might have an invader.
He always invades the stage. He Nicholas going today is good? Good?
(02:14):
How are you? I'm good? Thank you? Yeah, what's what's coming?
What's been happening in your world lately? Well, oh, my goodness,
what's been happening in my world? It's grown.
Speaker 5 (02:27):
I started writing my and publishing my own books in
twenty twenty and from that created a publishing a business.
So we actually help people self published now under Raspberry Press.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
It's been really fun. Yeah. So you yeah, you might
as well have a publishing company because you were pumping
out books like nobody. I know you have like a
total gift for that. It's yeah, so tell tell us
a little bit. Well, I have one of your books
here actually Assertiveness life changing Communication skill, And yeah, I
(03:09):
love the cover because.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
I learned a lot through my own personal publishing experience
about covers and how important they are. And the first
time I published that book, I didn't know a lot
about publishing. I was just trying to get it out
there and just getting the.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Word out there.
Speaker 5 (03:27):
Because I used to teach assertiveness training classes, people really
benefited from the information, and my goal was, how do
I get this information more people so it's more accessible
instead of signing up for a ten week course, which
was you know, it's not that expensive, but still it
could be expensive for some people, where you could get
a book that has a lot of the same information
in it. And that's when I published that first book,
(03:49):
I realized how simple the publishing process could be and
that there's a lot of like I did a lot
of research after that and before that to like develop
my skill set and then to help other people do
the same like ways to get their imagination out there,
their creativity. Some of its nonfiction. We do a lot
of children's books. I've also published many children's books and
(04:12):
more on the way.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
It's been absolutely a joy. Yeah, I know, I have
purchased a few copies of your children's books, but it
did not keep any for myself, but I've given them
to many friends and yeah, so what are the skills? Then,
you mentioned you had some skill. You have to develop
some of those skills, like you mean in regards to publishing,
(04:34):
or I mean even just writing a book is a
mission on its own, so that's a muscle you have
to develop and strengthen.
Speaker 5 (04:44):
Yeah, So it depends on what type of book you're
writing or what genre you're writing. So the books for
adults or youth like the fiction books, so the nonfiction books,
they can they take a lot longer to write than
say a children's book.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
A children's book is super fun.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
You get the inspiration and then you write it down
like a really rough draft, and then you edit that
draft multiple times. But it's a lot less time writing
a children's book, say fiction book, or a nonfiction book
or a history book like multiple genres. But it took
me about three years to fully write and edit this book.
(05:22):
We did self edit with help from my mom, who
has a master's degree in English, so that really helped
having in house support. And then from that, I just
realized the amount of work that you put into your
manuscripts and then you go to submit it to a.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
Publisher and like a traditional publisher.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
For instance, might not even give you a response back,
and so it can be really disheartening for people after
they've put so much time and effort or they've allowed
their creativity to flourish, and then people aren't acknowledging it.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
And I thought that was just.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
Really heartbreaking because most of the literature that is submitted
to publishers is actually good and it's just that they
have a publication plan like traditional publishers, they have a
niche market, or they they're only picking a select few
because it's quite an investment for them to put time
and effort into making that book out there.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
So it doesn't mean the writing isn't good.
Speaker 5 (06:17):
So I wanted to make sure people knew that their
work was worth it, and that that that the traditional
publisher not acknowledging it.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
I don't think is kind, but they're busy, so I
get it.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
So trying to show people that they there is another
way to get your books out there and get your
creations manifested.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
M h. Yeah, there's so many options these days. We'll
talk about that a little more rebel. Do we have
dating in the house.
Speaker 6 (06:49):
No, he's not here yet. He did ask me to
hop on and put my two cents in so at
Raspberry Publishing. That's the name of your company.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
Correct, Cheryl Raspberry Press.
Speaker 6 (07:01):
Raspberry Press. Do they have to come with the manuscript
already edited or do y'all have an editing procedure?
Speaker 4 (07:10):
Yeah, we do.
Speaker 5 (07:10):
We have in house editors now of professional editors part
of the team, so it can also be previously edited,
but we would review the manuscript as part of our
intake process. But again it is self published, so we
just offer different levels of services to what the author
needs and they retain like the full rights of their
(07:32):
book and we suggest ideas and decisions like ideas for
them to make decisions on with their manuscripts, but ultimately
the final decision is theirs.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
After we do review the books.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
Also for being added to our publications listing, which just
gives more visibility to the book on our website we
promote on social media. Doesn't cost anything to the author.
We believe as the author grow, as we grow as
we grow, the authors grow. It is a service we offer,
but we do review each manuscript that crosses our our
inbox for being part of that publication listing.
Speaker 6 (08:10):
That sounds amazing. What genres? I mean, do you cover
all genres or are there any We're not going to
touch this book genres?
Speaker 4 (08:20):
We are open to all genres.
Speaker 5 (08:23):
I have not yet had a horror book, but I
believe horror is also a form of inspiration. We would
still assess it to have the Raspberry like being part
of the Raspberry Press publication listing though, Like we don't
really promote hate or anything that would work. Like our
goal is to add joy and inspiration into the world.
And I know it sounds weird, but horror can add
(08:43):
inspiration and joy because some people really like horror. But
there's there's a fine line we don't want. We don't
want to publish anything that's hateful or derogatory in nature.
There's history books that we've published though, and I know
in history there has been some very hateful things that
have happened. We do again review it just to make
sure it's it's showing an objective view.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
There's no like that negative stuff.
Speaker 5 (09:08):
We're kind of staying away from but moving towards bringing
that joint inspiration. However, it manifests and the genre presented
to us.
Speaker 6 (09:18):
That sounds amazing, absolutely amazing. Now I see you showed.
Can you show your book again for everyone to see
the new cover?
Speaker 4 (09:28):
Yeah, so that's the new cover. It is.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
Uh So again, as we learn, like, covers are really important.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
They're they're your sales ad for the book.
Speaker 5 (09:38):
So when there's millions and millions of books in bookstores
and on Amazon, people.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
Are often looking for a topic. How they find you.
Speaker 5 (09:47):
This catches their eye and they might this is what
is the first thing they decide to click on it
or pick it up from the bookshelf. And then the
next most important thing is the back blurb, so explaining
what it's about. And so this is also part of
the sales part of the book is describing what the
book entails, and it's to entice your reader to open.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
The pages and buy the book. Yeah, what's the process
like that? I always am fascinated by the synopsis of
a book, you know, like, what's like all these pages
condensed into such a it's really clear messaging. Yeah, and
that's what we help authors develop. The blurbs and so
(10:27):
someone could just you know, come to you with with
the what stage would someone come to you with their
like ready to publish? So honestly edited and yeah, any stage, any.
Speaker 5 (10:40):
Stage if you're writing it and you need help with
the visioning for the writing process. We've been trained like
myself and colleagues within Raspberry Press have been trained with
neural linguistic programming where you help ask questions. Uh, but
we ask questions to bring out the answers from the author,
and so it's coming from that person. We're not telling
them what to write or what to do. We're asking
(11:02):
questions to help bring out the individual's creativity.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Heydane there for.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
You, And I don't even know what I may have missed.
Sorry that I had technical difficulties. That's terrible too, as
the station owner to have technical difference.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
It happens. But yeah, we are in Mercury retrograde, you know.
Oh speaking speaking of which, though I woke up this
is side tangent but amazing because today I saw that
there's like a very special window of comets asteroids like meteorites.
You can look in the sky over the like the
(11:40):
next two days or yesterday and tonight or something like that,
and I woke up at four thirty to you know,
and I thought, oh, I'm going to check out the sky.
And it was a clear sky and there was Jupiter
and Mars like super bright just wind up. Wow, that's
so it's so pretty when you see like the sky
(12:02):
be dazzling, and you know, it's like such a source
of inspiration I think.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Anyways, Yeah, it wasn't Venus or Mercury.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
It was Mars.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Because usually we see Ye Jupiter Venus.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Right, those are the normal.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Rare we see mores like.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Ye Mars and Sjupiter. We're like right close together. It
was really awesome.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
They also just found out by the way that they
have more information that there might be really life on Mars,
that there's some water reservoir in the core of the planet.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
Well why do you think they're trying so hard to
get there?
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Well, because we're destroying this one.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
That's why.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
Well we might need an alternative for sure time to
it might take a while to get there and populate it.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
So we're out there trying to find another plan to
destroy because.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
See here's their next science fiction. You know, well, there's
so much exactly Yeah, future realistic speculum the next tune.
Speaker 5 (13:10):
Oh my goodness, Yeah, absolutely no, it's inspired Like that's
like inspired by life events is how I write and
where I'm where I come from.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
Some of my writers are inspired by dreams.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
Uh Whytt Trumbalay has a wonderful book called The Key
to Enna Skillen. It should be a movie, and I'm
putting it out there like somebody needs to make this
into a movie. We're going to be working towards trying
to find somebody who's willing to take a look at it.
And it was inspired by a dream, so I mean, like,
it's pretty cool where you can find inspiration. And I'm
a big like I love the universe. I love planets
(13:45):
and stars, so I totally appreciate your cot.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Well, was it a lot of creativity in writing a
book come from dreams? I would think anyway, because you know,
you have these dreams you wake up and like, wow,
that would be cool, and if you write it down
like immediately, you know, I think that is kind of
where a lot of it comes from, either dreams or
day dreaming.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
And exactly, and honestly, most people who have written a
book and wanting to publish it is a dream for
them to publish that book it's been a lifelong dream
or since they.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
Were a little child, or it's like you.
Speaker 5 (14:20):
Know what I mean, like not just a dream dream
or a daydream, but like a personal realization dream.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
I've always thought it's like every everybody should write a
book or have a book, like even just because everyone
has a story to share and to tell, and it's
almost like a legacy that you leave or like you know,
or just kids something you contribute.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
I think kids should write books because they're inhibited and
you know, like I used to do a lot of
creative writing while I was a kid that I don't
do now like, and it's because when you're a kid,
there's no inhibitions. You're totally creative, totally amass, genitive, and
adults like they almost sometimes feel silly doing those things
(15:06):
that kids would do, which I think creates the best
creativity there is.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
And that's one of the things that stop a lot
of people from publishing their book is that self doubt
or their writing and they're continuously stopping or editing as
their writing instead of allowing it to flow. And it's
one of the things that we do help people with
is helping them like get their writing out and like
helping build that confidence because to publish a book, it
(15:32):
takes courage to put yourself out there like that.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
And I one hundred percent agree with you.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
Children, Oh my goodness, the imaginations of children.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
They could publish books.
Speaker 5 (15:42):
And we are working on a program with Raspberry Press
to have a yearly contest to have children submit manuscripts
to help them publish a book each year.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
It hasn't let out right, but we're I read some
comic books when I was a kid. That was like
my jam It's like I forgot about.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
All that, remember too.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
I don't know if you guys remember, but when I
was a kid, you made comic books by taking pieces
of paper and drawing on them and then flipping them
like you know.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
Yeah, and then the motion the motion pictures.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
That's how comic strips were invented by exactly that.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
That's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
I think what's also interesting is, I'll bet you because
that's something they teach kids when I was a kid,
I'll bet you that's something they don't even teach today,
just like they don't teach penmanship because it's not like
really relative today, Like you don't really have comic strips
made like that. Like when you watch comics that say that, again.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
Do your grandkids do that those?
Speaker 3 (16:46):
No, they're too stuck on their devices. That's the problem,
you know. And because of the fact that you don't
have comics made that way anymore. If you looked at
the old cotton black and white comics on the TV,
even that's exactly how it was made. And you can
see it too, if you know about now and you
go watch one of those old ones, you can see
how the paper is flipping.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
Mm hmm. Yeah. Now like gold.
Speaker 5 (17:11):
Mickey Dizzy, it's digitalized. It's all the different skill set
and a different thing. So, like, I know, our kids
are on those devices a lot. There's a funny movie
I watched and one of the scenes was they were
in an old West and.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
There's this kid.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
I don't remember the name of the movie, but there
was this kid running down the street with this wooden
wheel and this wooden stick and he's pushing the wheel
with the stick, and the guys are saying, oh, that's
going to rot their brains. Oh yeah, it distracts the kids,
you know. And we say that about technology and our children,
but it does perform a creative outlet for them too.
(17:48):
Like I fully believe. I love printed books. I love them,
like love holding them. I love smelling books in the library.
I really love the paper books. But this technology thing,
we keep saying it's going to hurt our kids, hurt
our kids, but it is also the way that the
world's going, and it is a form of creativity. Digital
art is fantastic. One of my children's books has digital art.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
It helps, it helped, Yeah, it helps, it hurts, I believe,
because there's a lot of creativity you can do with
these devices. But then there's like, as an example, you know,
there's kids and families that they will not go out
with the family, even to family events because they just
want to stay on their device at home. And I
(18:32):
even have somebody in my family like that. It's like, nope,
I'm not going to that. I just want to stay
on my device at home. That's addiction, yeah, one hundred percent.
But these devices and social media, the people that design
them design them in mind with addiction, like it is.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
We're all addicted. Okay, yep.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
That And one thing I will say, like you were
talking about the books for me, and I'm a total
techie that has, you know, all kinds of technology toys.
I can't stand reading a book on like a kindle
or iPad or phone. I'd rather read an actual book.
(19:16):
Turn the actual Yeah, your book.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
If your book dies, you know, like you have to
recharge your book. Doesn't that the worst?
Speaker 5 (19:25):
Instead of being it on the beach just with your
yeah here, yeah, well.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
That's inter thing. If you're out on the beach, you
can read your book. You can't read your kindle too
easily because the sun in the screen, like you can't
look at it. So there again, beach book is a
better place.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
I love the physical books. Again, everyone's different. Everyone has
different different medias that they prefer. So we try to
get our books out on different medias like ebook, working
on We have one audiobook right now, working on getting
some of them on audio.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
It's a bit of a different process.
Speaker 5 (20:04):
I love audiobooks because I can be cleaning, I can
be jogging and I can't really it's hard to follow
the book when I'm jogging. But if I'm cleaning, I
can follow the book and it's kind of nice driving
you can listen to it. It helps relax you. Depending
on the story, if it's an adventure story. You might
need to pull over something if something too crazy happens.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
But I try to listen to audiobooks while i'm driving
because I'm on the road a lot and they just
kind of like put me in this trance. I need
something that keeps me alert, like you know, and.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
See, I'm totally aud audio book. I believe in Automobile University.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
Yeah, well, yeah, I mean it. I guess it depends right,
like I don't.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
I don't let's say fictional ones, but like any of
the self help stuff, I'd rather like.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
As a for And it depends on who the person is.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Okay, So if you're talking to Tony Robbins, I would
much rather listen to an audiobook than read his book
because the audio book will express his personality. If you're
talking Deepak Chopra, I'd rather read the book because I
love his ideas. But when he speaks like, I'm bored
to death because it's that very monotone. And it depends
(21:15):
on the personality. Like my personality, I prefer a more
animated like Tony Robbins. Some people don't, So it depends
on the person for sure.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
Yeah, absolutely, so you as a publisher Cheryl, You guys
have to kind of figure that that stuff out, like
you go through a process to me, like, what's what's
the personality of this book? What what do you do
for the voiceovers? Rebel does voiceovers? Have you ever done
an audiobook? Rebel, have you ever? Have you ever done
(21:46):
an audiobook? I don't know.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
See I literally meant a second cut.
Speaker 6 (21:54):
I have done auditions for audiobooks. I have to you
still in the possibility stage. It's it's really different, especially
if they want you to do different voices, and you know,
pipe Man says, I refer to one particular voice.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
No, Rebel has lots of little girl voices, but they're
all little girl voices.
Speaker 6 (22:23):
I've voiced a lot of cartoon characters that needed younger
voices because they're younger animated children.
Speaker 5 (22:37):
And a Raspberry Press, we have one voice. It's James's voice.
He does he could do children's books, and he wouldn't
be able to do My Assertiveness book because it's a
woman author. It's kind of a lot of women content.
But we can help people navigate the process. So as
Rebel has been on the side of additioning, you can
(23:00):
actually sign up to test like they do samples online
the different voices, and you can pick a couple and
ask for quotes, so we can help the authors navigate
that system under consultation.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
I want to go step further to what you're talking
about books. It's hard to see because of my virtual background. Yeah,
but that's my book. Yeah, focusing in doesn't help my
virtual background there, but.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
It put it on your chest or something.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
There we go, there we go.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Yeah, Hey, that worked, good job, Nicole, No wonder you're
the doctor of the show.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
I'm resourceful, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
So and one thing I bring up too.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Okay, so my book's available in paperback, hardcover, and ebook,
and I can tell you right now for me, I
also prefer a hardcover. So again, you know, going back
to like if you're doing kindle. You know there's a kindle,
but I like the idea of having different types and
I like having hardcover. And you know, it's just like
(24:07):
when you make vinyl records. There's different types of vinyl.
And I can tell you I have a storage place
that is half of it is just for my books
because I just can't get rid of books either. You're
not supposed to remember when we were younger like, it's like, no,
I regret it.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
I regret every book I've ever gift given the way
don't need it.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
I have a box.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
I was just like I should I should like share
the knowledge, but I'm like, that's that's rich and I don't.
And this is different for me.
Speaker 5 (24:40):
So children's book, yes, I keep them, I pass them down.
I've had a twenty three year old and an eight
year old, though they were very well used children's books.
Some of the ones I've given away I've regretted the
children's books, but books themselves, I've usually read them enough
where I don't need to read them again. Some I
keep that I do refer to over and over again,
mostly self healthy stuff. But I think if you pass
(25:03):
it on, like I usually donate to those. I don't
know if you have them everywhere in the world, but
they have these little free libraries and people in front
of people's houses where you can take and donate books too,
so I know it's getting in somebody else's hands, so
sharing it or use bookstores. And there's even a bookstore
in Saint Albert that when they when they sell the book,
(25:23):
they donate proceeds to the local hospital.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
So I love sharing books, and I don't mind rebuying them.
Speaker 5 (25:30):
I've reboughten a few books a number of times after
I've given it away.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
Yeah, supporting the author I love.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
I love huge books because I would go in like
I use when books were a thing, to go out
my I guarantee you in my collection of books, I
probably didn't even read yet, because I just would see
books and buy them. And especially I used bookstore because
it didn't cost that much. I'd buy a whole bunch
of them. My college textbooks I still have, like I
(26:03):
need rid of resources, you know, and it comes in
handy for when you got this younger generation that things
say no more and so, like something came up recently
where I was talking about one of my grandkids was
saying something about one plus one equals too. I'm like,
you know, when you get to really advance math, they're
(26:24):
going to teach you how one plus one equals three.
And then another adult there said I'm taking Calculus three.
And I never heard that, and I instead that to grandkid.
So I can go my storage bin and pull out
my calculus book and show that the first chapter is
where they teach you limits and how you can prove
(26:47):
that one plus one equals three, but maybe you forget
that when you get to calculus three.
Speaker 5 (26:53):
I do remember that, and I remember being blown away,
right turn upside down. But it is math is it's
so creative, Like there's people out there who apparently can
do equations to make flowers or something beyond me.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
Yeah, metaphysical mathematics like fibina like Fibonacci sequence or something like, well, okay,
so here's the here's something cool though, like speaking of numbers,
that we actually train children to be linear one, two, three,
four or five and actually in like babies or if
you didn't train people to be like that, you would
(27:31):
be very animalistic in nature. So one plus one equals
like more, like they don't they don't see one. It's
like you have one and then you take one more
and they'll take like a ton more, you know, like
there's no I don't know if that makes sense, but
I've thought that's like eleven.
Speaker 7 (27:53):
Yeah, and they can and they can and depends on
how your mind works, which is why anybody that's an
author and has an idea should write a book because
there's so much you know, you can think, well, that
book's already been written, but has it been written?
Speaker 3 (28:15):
And maybe it hasn't been written. You know that the
ideas change, things evolve, and you know even the fact
of like what we're talking about stuff Like a perfect
example is one of the books that I have in
storage and it's more to just blow my kids and
grandkids mind. Is my book from typing class. We're not
(28:38):
talking computer class because there it was not nobody had
a computer. Nobody had a computer was typing class. And
you literally it was required to take typing class while
I was in eighth grade. And you know, the funny
thing is is my youngest star, she's like when she
(29:01):
sees me on the laptop, she's like, dad, he type
really fast. Well, yeah, that's because I was taught something.
Kids today aren't taught, you know, like they're not taught
how to takemore. They don't do keyboarding either, Like that's
why you see so many of these kids. They'll be
like fingerpecking.
Speaker 4 (29:22):
It's just supposed to be intuitive or instinctual.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
I would like to let's do a show where you
get a whole bunch of kids, all different ages and
ask them to define to us what is home row.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
And I'll bet you zero.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
No my son knows is taught. He's read your Eye three,
he knows home row and nice.
Speaker 5 (29:45):
He did learn it. He learned it in grade one,
So they're learning in grade one, just.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Saying see, now that's good.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Well, maybe that's the difference between Alberta and Florida or something.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Well, I I don't know.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
I don't think it's a majority of everywhere or what
that does that anymore because if you say something like
that to my grandkids, well, I need to take a
typing class for I have a phone, you know, because
you know this younger generation that they won't even use
computers for anything most of the time.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
They use phone for everything.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
And me, I think there's a time and place to
use the computers still nowadays, even though I can do
everything on my phone. I think that's something that's missed too,
is that people are missing things. And I think they're
missing that in kindle books too and stuff like that,
Like there's some just like with albums, like you said,
there's something to holding that book and artwork on the book,
(30:44):
because listen, how many people that are reading kindles actually
pay attention to.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
The artwork of the book or the forward or.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
The summaries or any of that most of the time,
except to see if they want to download it, but
usually any kind of technology and they're just going right
for the meat and potatoes.
Speaker 5 (31:03):
Interestingly, so I have dyslexia, and so I still if
I'm taking a course, I still order a hard proof
book because I have a harder time retaining information from
a screen than I do physical. One of my workarounds
was underlining when I read things I think are important
to interpret the information.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
So when I do editing, I print.
Speaker 5 (31:25):
It out physically to do it because I catch more
things my editors do both. They can neither do it
on the screen and print it out. But I know trees.
We love trees. There are a lot we can replant
trees though, so they are renewable resource, so I do
love them. But I also appreciate that they give their
life so I can I can learn and I can
retain information. There's a lot of kids out there too,
(31:46):
who are now being taught with screens like they're allowed
to bring, like each kid has iPads in some of
these more well to do schools. It might be harder
for some of those students to learn off of the
screen because you don't interpret the information the same way
you're constantly getting flashes of lights, like I don't even
know how many times per second lights flashing at you,
and that's what your brain's interpreting.
Speaker 4 (32:08):
In one of my upcoming books, as a.
Speaker 5 (32:10):
Writer, so I'm a publisher, I help people publish, but
I'm also a writer.
Speaker 4 (32:13):
It's a sortiveness book for youth, and we go.
Speaker 5 (32:16):
There's a whole section on screens, the addiction to screens,
like ways to work, you know, to like stay off
of them two hours before bedtime. If you're noticing you're
getting more anxieties, try staying off with them for a
few days and see the difference. Things like that, because
it does affect your neurological like it EFFEXI with your
brain works. And it's similar to drugs where you get the
hits and the hits and you need more hits and
(32:38):
you can't sleep because you need the hits. So I
do see that both.
Speaker 4 (32:41):
Sides, like the career what you can use creatively, but
there's balance.
Speaker 5 (32:45):
You need balance on everything you do, your food like
and same with like writing and publishing.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
Like you know, you have lots of energy and there's ups.
Speaker 5 (32:54):
And downs, but it is making sure that like, it's
a balance process. You're not like throwing Like I don't
know how to explain it. You're not shutting off the
world to publish your book or setting off the world
to write your book. But at the same time you
need those parts of time where you are focused on it.
But you just need that overall balance and everything you do.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
Absolutely, and I think too with you know what you're
talking about for me, you know, going to college, going
to high school, how did you study for an exam?
Speaker 2 (33:28):
You highlighted, that's what you did, so, yeah.
Speaker 4 (33:33):
And rewrote it out like you know, well that's.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
Another thing too. They taught us when we were younger.
You know how much you retain by writing it, you know, always,
And so I don't think that holds true necessarily with
the typing as much as the writing. I could be wrong,
but I don't think that it's not the same physical
activity that you feel like.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
We're all kind of old school in the same way.
Like give me the hard by hand. It's a little different.
Speaker 5 (34:03):
I now type I used to only write by Yeah,
then you have to retype it out so ideas though
or already orientated yeah something, Yeah, we're doing a storyboard right,
I'll write that out by hand and I post different
things on the wall and then you can move things around
when you're planning out your manuscript. But typing out the
full manuscript is a lot more time efficient.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Oh I agree with millions percent, okay, because what happens
when you write handwriting and you still have to type
it anyway, and then you know you have a bunch
of crossouts and it's not knee and stuff like. To me,
what I love about typing a book is that it's
so easy to edit as you're going. And I want
(34:49):
to talk about editing for a second, because I think
that's important. Most people don't realize that ninety nine percent
of books that are on the bookshelves and bookstores still
all have copyright or s in them.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
Oh. Absolutely, So this is a living thing, so a book.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
And that's why I really appreciate what we help people
do with self publishing is you have you have full
control over that so if you catch a typo in
the future, you can change it because we make sure
people get their all their editable files for the book.
So every even traditional publishers, there's I read every time
I read the edit. Now I can't not read a
book and find errors, and that's just what I do.
(35:28):
Like if I'm reading for fun, I'm always I'm always
like it's interesting. It doesn't bug me, but I'll tell
you at the beginning of this publishing process, it used
to drive me nuts, and then I had to remind
myself that it's it's literally everywhere traditional publishers. When people
pay thousands and thousand dollars for an edit, or if
people only pay hundreds of dollars for an edit, it's
you're going to have a typo. And it's actually really
(35:50):
important because that's like our life. If you you're not perfect.
Nothing's perfect, but the beauty of it is, especially if
you're a self published author.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
You can fix it.
Speaker 5 (36:00):
If somebody tells you about it, you can go back,
fix your file, re upload it to your distributor, like
the distributor that you choose, and then your new copy,
like the old ones that have been printed previously, will
have that typo.
Speaker 4 (36:12):
But you can actually fix it.
Speaker 5 (36:14):
And it's kind of like when you grow in life
you have a little errors, you can constantly work on it,
improve it, find it, tweak it, and then put out
another best version of yourself.
Speaker 4 (36:25):
I was thinking of that when you had like the
original copy of the Sortiveness book, you know, and then
like you just oh, this works better. I'm just going
to change it, Like how the cover Yeah yeah, yeah yeah,
there's a life freedom And I think that actually, like
an image of you is like people want to see
you know, like to see you and your personality and
(36:47):
you know, oh there's that one behind this is.
Speaker 5 (36:49):
A human behind that, And that was the publishing team's decision.
I was not I at that point in time, was
not courageous enough to put avert. And they're like, it's
not like in nonfiction books, it's often either big words
or the writer on the cover, right, And I was
terrified and then I kind of realized, but it is
(37:11):
like it is me, Like this is like the knowledge
that I've gained, and I'm sharing with people. They don't
have to love it, they don't have to like it,
but I'm putting it out there. Might as well put
my face on it, and then people start to recognize
me too as the author. But also in like in
all the public like the publisher materials for Raspberry Press,
I try to put my face on there because it
(37:32):
was I was inspired to bring Raspberry Press the world
based on my own experiences trying working through the traditional
publishing process, working through the self publishing process and knowing
the emotional part of it and feeling like I wasn't
good enough and then realizing I was good enough, and
that wanting to show other people their writing and they
(37:54):
are good enough that they can do this too.
Speaker 4 (37:57):
Mm.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Yeah, I've never now that happens.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
That people shouldn't stress out about is how long it
takes you finish your book sometimes because that's that creative flow.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Like my book, I wrote half of.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
It in one night, twenty four hours, and then the
other half six months later, because after that first half,
I was like done and I really didn't get back
to it till six months later. But because of that,
you know, some people stress out at But then you're
(38:32):
letting the creative juices flow the way they're organically supposed
to flow instead of forcing it, And I think it
makes for better content.
Speaker 5 (38:41):
And that's exactly what we tell our writers. So when
you're writing, you can be like kind of self deprecating.
At the same time, writers are very We're all different,
but there's also there's some key similarities, and so that's
exactly it. Sometimes you just need a break from the
manuscript sometimes, so some writers get deadlines, especially with traditional publishers,
(39:01):
or they have self deadlines. So the self publishing process
is great because you can move yourself deadlines very easily.
With a traditional publisher not so much. I'm sure you
can negotiate if you need to, like, I really can't
do this, I need some more time, I'm sure. But
with self publishing you can set I do recommend setting
target lines for different stages of your writing process. However,
(39:22):
giving yourself that grace because sometimes you need to walk away,
Like if you're writing a fiction and your characters in
something and then you're like and you're stuck. Well, maybe
forcing the stuck isn't going to work, So maybe going
for a walk, or putting it down, working on another
section of your book, maybe developing a different character or
something like taking its pieces that come together, as you
(39:44):
had said Nicole earlier, that come together to build the book,
and you have to write it in one flow. You
can write chapter seven first, you can write chapter one
last after you.
Speaker 4 (39:57):
Storyboards for yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Yeah, a lot of writers do that too.
Speaker 6 (40:03):
Me.
Speaker 3 (40:03):
I started with as IF from college writing as IF,
I was writing an essay. I started with the chapter
names first, and then I filled in the blanks of
the chapters.
Speaker 5 (40:15):
That's really that is a technique that a lot of
people use. It's a really good one.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
Yeah, because it keeps you kind of like focused and organized.
Like I'm big into the organization part of it. So
like I when I used to write papers in school,
I would say probably most of them that I got
ason were a whole bunch of bullshit, to be blunt,
because it wasn't what I did exactly what they taught
(40:43):
me to do. I created an outline and then filled
in the blanks all the way down the line, so
I wasn't really writing it. I was just kind of
like answering my own questions.
Speaker 5 (40:53):
And that's why I do so well at publishing and
helping others publish. Is publishing is just that as a formula,
and you fill in the blanks. There's certain stuffs you
got to take in each stages of the like the process.
So similar to like a paper, you got you know,
your introduction, your thesis, your paragraph one, two three in
your conclusion kind of thing, It's the same with publishing.
(41:14):
You just you just need to know what to fill
in the spaces with, so the writer does the writing and.
Speaker 4 (41:20):
We help them fill out the rest of the formula.
Speaker 3 (41:24):
I love that too because I think it's a great
way for many people to write, because I think it
helps an avoiding writer's block, Because if you just have
a blank piece of paper and you're just trying to
think of what to write. But if you have set
up an outline and like having chapter names titles is
an outline, then you kind of like you create the
(41:48):
creativity by starting somewhere. You have a foundation to work on,
and that I think that's much easier. It's just like
you wouldn't have a debate without knowing what the topic
of the debate like, but once you know the topic,
it's a much easier to debate it.
Speaker 4 (42:05):
Yeah, synopsis of the book, it's like the condensed if
you started with the back of the book.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
Exactly.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
Sorry, Cheryl, you were going to say something, No, no,
that's that's lovely.
Speaker 5 (42:17):
I was just thinking the same thing with publishing, Like again,
there's just the different stages, but the titles, That's what
I was going to say. Even though you might start
with your outline and your titles.
Speaker 4 (42:28):
Those can change too.
Speaker 5 (42:29):
Yeah, like a book title of mind changed uh socksuit
two it was uh, it changed at the very end.
And I'll also help that with different authors. Like a
lot of people come with the title. The titles are
really important because it's also part of the sales of
the book, Like if it's a catchy title, it's memorable.
Speaker 4 (42:50):
So we do help authors with.
Speaker 5 (42:51):
That too, So they might have a really they're sold
on an idea of a title. Again, it's their book,
their final decision, but we do we have a mastermind
group that goes plays with the title, come up with
different things and come up with the best solution. You
can also actually take your titles options to focus groups.
So if you're a children's book author, you could ask
a friend who might be a teacher or a school
(43:13):
and it would be awesome. They would totally support you,
especially high schools and elementary schools would support you. You
could do a little bit of you know, you're part
of my writing process or my publishing process. Here's a
couple of titles, which one do you like best? So
you can do that kind of stuff as a self
published author too, And the schools are usually very eager
to support and also are like literary groups of people
(43:36):
who support literacy and have like groups of people where
they teach literacy too. They're also very eager to support
writers and publishers, like self publishers.
Speaker 3 (43:46):
I think the title is one of the most important
things for a few reasons. One is that's what's going
to catch somebody's attention to actually look at the book.
But more importantly, I think where you need to help
people right now on this show is it seems like
(44:07):
everybody is an author nowadays. But the one thing they
didn't teach all these authors is your title is not
supposed to be the synopsis of the book.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
Yes, oh my god.
Speaker 3 (44:18):
You know how many authors I deal with that? And
same with show hosts. They want to name their show
like like it's the whole description of the show, and
you know, leave nothing to them, to the imagination, and
it bores people, like what are some of the best books?
Speaker 4 (44:40):
It's like too long, didn't read? Isn't that like a thing?
Speaker 2 (44:45):
Books have a one word title.
Speaker 5 (44:48):
Dune, for instance, we talked about Dune Earlayer.
Speaker 4 (44:51):
That book.
Speaker 5 (44:52):
Oh, it's a thick book, but it's it's people love
it and it's just Dune.
Speaker 3 (44:58):
And let's talk about two the different styles of readers. Like,
for instance, one of my favorite fictional authors, and it's
not because of the content, even though I like the content,
is James Patterson. And the reason why is because every
chapter of his is one or two pages long, okay.
(45:22):
And so for me, for me, if a chapter's thirty pages,
forty pages, fifty pages, okay, I'm gonna read that chapter
before I start the next chapter. I gotta make sure
I have time for that. But when I read a
James Parrison book, it's like I finished a chapter and
it's like, oh, I'll do the next chapter because it
takes you two seconds. So it's like and then before
(45:43):
you know it, you finish the book. And I like
that breaking things down into the smallest compartments. So if
I could have twenty chapters or two pages long, a
post of one chapter that's twenty pages or forty pages long,
I'm gonna pick the and the twenty chapter one every
single time.
Speaker 5 (46:02):
And that's genre specific too, though, like how long your
book is, like how many pages or in a chapter
like it's I really believe in balance again, but different
genres like again, people are attracted to different genres for
different reasons everyone's different, but they do have similarities. So
of big si fi people, they go to conventions because
(46:23):
they like a lot of similar things, so they will
tolerate a different type of length of book or how
it's presented, even like the font, the artwork that might
be in it, the title headings, the type like all
that's really important and a genre specific. So like a
history reader, Oh my goodness, people who read history, my
(46:43):
heart goes out to them because like I do have
an author, David Moore who writes history, and he makes
it accessible to people. He's under Raspberry Press, like he
publishes with Websberry Press. But most history books I really
have a hard time reading because it's hard to keep
my attention. But the way he right to say, it's
like I don't know how he does it. But again
it's very lengthy, right, very lengthy, A.
Speaker 4 (47:04):
Lot of text, a lot of texts. So that's the genre.
Speaker 5 (47:07):
So people who enjoy history enjoy reading that. This gentleman
you mentioned who met who polished a book with two
pages of chapter, I've never seen it. I'm going to
look it up because I'm very curious.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
He's a very famous author.
Speaker 6 (47:20):
Yeah, he heard of it.
Speaker 2 (47:22):
It's a.
Speaker 3 (47:23):
It's one of those crime books. He's like one of
the most famous authors. But yeah, James Patterson, there's a
he has a character. It's a detective cross, okay, And
all these books every chapter is like one and a
half pages, two pages, And me personally, I love that
because I'd rather again. I feel too as a motivational person,
(47:48):
a goal person, so like I can set goals easier,
Like I believe in saying smaller goals because it makes
it easier to achieve that big goal by breaking it
down into small So to me, it's like reading the
next chapter. And his books are always a goal because
it's always so short.
Speaker 2 (48:06):
So I'm going to go to the next one. And
it does, yes, and it makes chid achieved, like.
Speaker 3 (48:15):
It makes you get to where you want to go
in the book quicker, I think. But everybody's different for
sure and what they like, and you have three different
types of people you have to appeal to, visual, auditory,
and kinesthetics. So that's inn our thing for maybe another
show should talk about how to write for those different people.
Speaker 4 (48:39):
I was just thinking about. I was thinking about Moby Dick.
You know that book. It's like such a timeless classic
and then you read it and you're like, oh my god,
I love it, just like yeah, no, I'm actually the
audiobook is really good too, if you're ever into that.
This guy that records it has like a real old
(49:00):
school voice. It's very nice. Good to fall asleep too. Okay,
we're dot we're we have to wrap up, Cheryl. Thank
you so much for joining us today. It was lovely. Okay,
tell us real quick. How can people reach out to you?
Speaker 5 (49:14):
Contact you forget more email info at Raspberry Press dot
d a and the website is www dot Raspberry Press
dot d a, So please reach out to me. I'd
be really happy to see your manuscripts, help you publish
your book, help you, you know, with your dream because
that's what I love to do.
Speaker 4 (49:33):
It's my favorite thing in the world. So awesome. Yeah,
thanks so much. Okay, well, well we'll sign off for
now and see you guys all next week.
Speaker 2 (49:48):
When next week?
Speaker 4 (49:50):
Yeah, well you missed the beginning, so it's Tuesdays at
two pm Eastern on W four w N dot com
and Top four TV. Thank you so much, Thank you
so much.
Speaker 2 (50:02):
Okay, thank you you Roy.
Speaker 4 (50:05):
Hey, all your dreams come true?
Speaker 3 (50:07):
Wow, what a show today and The journey does not
stop here. Come travel the world with Nicole every Tuesday
at two pm Eastern Time, as together we become more
fluent in the language of healing.
Speaker 2 (50:20):
On W four WN radio and talk for TV. See
you next week.
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