a Pete vs Anxiety Special :

In this episode, Pete Fring interviews Michele DeFilippo, the owner of 1106 Design and an advocate for independent authors. They discuss the evolution of publishing, the importance of book covers, and the benefits of self-publishing. Michele shares insights on the costs associated with publishing, the rise of audiobooks, and offers valuable tips for aspiring authors. The conversation highlights the freedom and control that independent publishing provides to authors, as well as the importance of producing a quality book.



Takeaways
Independent publishing allows authors to maintain control over their work.
A professional book cover is crucial for attracting readers.
Amazon revolutionized the publishing industry by enabling self-publishing.
Authors should invest in professional editing and design services.
Audiobooks are a growing market and can reach a wider audience.
Non-fiction books tend to sell better than fiction.
The cost of professional publishing services can be significant but worthwhile.
Print books continue to coexist with digital formats.
Indie publishing is a significant advancement in the literary world.
Quality production is essential for author success.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Independent Publishing
02:47 The Importance of Book Covers
05:58 The Evolution of Publishing
08:59 Understanding the Self-Publishing Process
11:58 Cost Comparison: Traditional vs. Independent Publishing
15:00 The Role of Audiobooks in Modern Publishing
18:06 Common Tips for Aspiring Authors
20:52 The Future of Print vs. Digital
24:02 Notable Authors and Their Journey
27:01 Conclusion and Resources for Authors



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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Welcome to an exciting episode of petere p Anxiety. I
have a very special guest to day and a very
special episode for you. She's the owner of the eleven
oh six Design and an independent author advocate, the one,
the only Michelle the Philippo. Is that how you say, Michelle?

Speaker 2 (00:35):
I'm sorry, yeah, that's fine. D Philippo.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Okay, because I have a friend that's last name is
similar to yours almost except for his a D. Phillips.
And I'm like, I saw yours. I was like, okay, So,
but Michelle is actually here today because she wants to
talk to the young authors out there, or any author
out there is trying to be independent, you know, and
I thought this would be a great idea. She reached
out to me. I thought it'd be a fantastic idea.
So Michelle, take the floor a littno, a little bit

(01:00):
more about yourself.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Well, thank you, Pete first of all for having me.
I appreciate the opportunity. Basically, ours are my message, and
the work that eleven oh six Design does is to
help authors independently publish their book the way it was
originally intended. And what that means is that the author
is the publisher. You do not need to work with
a publisher in today's publishing world because print on demand

(01:25):
printing and worldwide distribution is available to you as an individual,
and so you don't have to get hooked up with
any publisher who is going to take more of your
money than they should when they when a book is
produced and distributed through them.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
That's awesome though, I mean, I think with Amazon and
everything else digital too, you have that other avenue now too,
So technically a lot of people can self publish that
way too. Man't that correct?

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, it's very it's very curious a lot of people. Well,
there's there's a whole spectrum in the publishing world, right.
Some people have missed construed self publishing as to as
being do it yourself publishing, meaning you should design your
own cover and types it your own interior pages and
so forth. That's not the correct approach. It doesn't lead

(02:12):
to a good book. But the good thing is that, yes,
you can distribute your book through Amazon through your own
KDP account, and you can distribute your book through Ingram's Park,
which is the other print on demand platform. But in between,
before you do that, you should get professional editing and
design services, and that's what companies like mine do.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
That's awesome though, because I'm thinking about doing a book.
I keep saying I'm going to do a book, So
this is gonna be a great conversation for me because
I can get some tips and things like that too,
you know, So where do you suggest people start? I mean,
I know everybody says, don't judge this book by its cover,
but the cover is the most important thing, when you say,
because that's the attention grabber to people, because that's what's
going to get people to come in. And I know
the back of the book is really good to the

(02:54):
little excerch you put it back there, that's how you
really grab their attention. So may let's start with that.
What do you suggests people do for like, you know,
the cover wise? You know, what are some tips that
maybe they can help? You know, obviously you guys offer
some services for that kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
The cover is absolutely essential. I think that slogan don't
judge judge a book by its cover was not literally
meant to be talking about books, but in today's publishing world,
that slogan was certainly written before Amazon, before people could
jump on their computer and scroll through fifty books in

(03:29):
less than a minute, right, So in today's publishing environment,
the cover is absolutely crucible, crucial. You've got about three
seconds to capture the buyer's attention, tell them what your
book is about, and encourage them to click through and
learn more by reading the description. If you fail in
those first three seconds, you're doomed. Once they click through,

(03:52):
when they read about the content of the book, they
may or may not be interested, and we can't control that.
But the cover has to be designed well, has to
be designed to look as good as a traditionally published book,
and it has to be informative, and that's what we
help people do.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Yeah, no, definitely. I've had many authors on the show,
and a lot of them tell me the same thing too, Like,
you know, your cover is really important. You want to
grab that attention because you think about it. That's how
you do anything. It's it's you know, everybody we eat
with our eyes basically essentially the same thing when it
comes to food, to the same thing as the same
principles that you want to make it attractive to somebody,
you know, because if you're not attracted and you're not interested,
you're just going to be passed by like, oh, okay,

(04:28):
this is whatever it is, you know.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
And even when people when people let's say you've got
your book uploaded and it's being sold on Amazon, even
when people search directly for your title, Amazon is going
to put up other books, typically the best sellers, next
to your title. So if your cover looks like it
was self published, that's that's going to raise a risk
in the buyer's mind and they may go if they

(04:53):
haven't heard of you, they may go with the with
the best selling book instead. But if your cover is
designed like a traditional publisher would do it, then people
might say, gee, that sounds like a good book. Even
though I've never heard of Pete, I'm going to give
it a try. I'm going to learn more. I'm going
to click through and learn more. And that's exactly what
we want them to do.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
Yeah, when you say typography is a big thing too,
that the texts that you use on your books are
very interesting too. You know, different fonts usually draw a
lot of tension as well.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
Yeah, you wouldn't believe how much time is spent on
the typography.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
Of a book. God, yes, I remember that because I
took some I took some multimedia classes in college, and
that was the one thing. Like typography was always fun
because there was a site I used. I can't remember
what it's called, like thousands fonds dot com or something
at the time, but you could go on and there
were just so many cool little things. You just wanted
to play with every single fond, you know, and it
was very creative the things you could do, and you'd

(05:43):
be amazed, like you were all used to like Aeriel
Black or Times New Roman, you know. And then everybody
has the hate for sance script out there, you know,
for anybody knows what I'm referring to, you know, but
there's so many different things out there, you know. So
have you always been into publishing? Is this this been
something that you've always been passionate about?

Speaker 2 (06:00):
Well, yeah, my first job in publishing was in nineteen
seventy two at Crown Publishers in New York City where
I grew up.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
Really okay, so this has been a lifelong passion of yours.
So what did you change to Like, what was that
moment you were like, well, I think I need to
help these guys be more independent, versus help dealing with
some of these other people taking their money.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
Well, it's funny. I found out about the Arizona Book
Publishers Association probably around nineteen ninety five ninety seven something
like that, and that's when indie publishing was first becoming possible.
Amazon made indie publishing possible. Before that, you had to
go to a publisher to get your book distributed. They
were the only ones who could do it. But Amazon

(06:40):
changed the publishing world. That was an earthquake in the
publishing industry and all of a sudden people could put
their own book up on Amazon without going to a publisher.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
And there were also was it Barnes and Noble had
your own thing, the nook or what it was called.
There's like, yeah, well little poorly designed honestly because it
was black and gray. But I mean the concept that
was still there. What they were trying to do is
try and get a piece of that market because they
still Amazon doing it said then they are like, well,
you know, let me get into too, because you know,
when you think of books, Barnes and Noble is one

(07:12):
of the biggest names you think of right there with you, Like,
there's books of billions and things like that too, and
then some other like other ones that you could think of,
But Barnes and Noble usually is the number one next
to Amazon when it comes to book a man.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
I correct, Yeah, and Amazon invented print on demand publishing
with their Their initial foray into that avenue was book Surge,
and then it became Createspace and now it's kdp dot
Com and it's just evolved over the last twenty years.
But they are the ones who actually invented print on
demand publishing, and everyone else has been second to the market.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
Oh yeah, somebody had to start it. You mean, somebody
always has that great idea that other people evolved on.
So I mean you wouldn't have you wouldn't have eleven
oh six if Amazon didn't do things. You're like, oh, hey,
this is a great idea. Let me jump in that
market too. And plus you have the experience though, so
you're already ahead of Amazon honestly if you think about it,
because you have the background. You've been doing it for
a long time, so you know how the insights and

(08:07):
outs of things work.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
Yeah, and really, and they can't expect it to have
the knowledge. But typically authors don't understand everything that goes
into the creation of a book the way a traditional
publisher would do it. It's a it's a completely different
process than people would typically think of. It's a very
labor intensive, very detailed, meticulous until everything is just perfect,

(08:30):
and then those files should be uploaded to your KDP account,
to your Ingram's Park account, so that you get all
of the money that's possible to get when book is
sold in a retail environment.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Yeah, yeah, you know. It's It's always interesting though, because
that is the way, Like, oh, I got to get
a polisher because a lot I think about the movies
that you see out there about people writing books. So
I got to get to the publisher. I have a
deadline the publisher. This way you break through that freedom.
You don't. You don't have that anymore. Now you could
publish it at your own time. Page, you take your time.
You make sure that do you guys offer editing services too?

(09:03):
I would think you guys know all that stuff in between,
like you send it to them, have you check it over,
and you know, tell them listen, hey, this doesn't make sense, you.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
Know, And yeah, we we have editing all the way
through to to cover design, interior design and layout ebooks,
audio books if you want one, and we help you
get Yeah, can we help you get established at your
own print on demand accounts in your name and also
answer all your questions about that along the way. We'll
probably answer three hundred messages back and forth before the

(09:34):
project is done.

Speaker 1 (09:35):
That sounds about right, I mean, think about it, because
you want to make sure you're putting out the best
thing possible, you know, and things that that's you. And
I didn't even think about audiobooks, man. Audiobooks change the
game too, because now you can listen where you go.
It's it's almost like you're podcasting, almost except for you're
reading a book to some of or you have somebody
reading that book for you, which is kind of cool too,
because now you could take it with you anywhere you go.
As soon as those were introduced, you know, you had

(09:57):
the what is that you have? The iTunes? You know
ca in with the the iPod, I'm thinking, you know,
with the iPod came in. iPod changed the game, man,
Like it gave you the ability to take your books
with you and you go and then you had somebody
read the book to you as well. Say, you know
a lot of times it was a lot easier for
people like myself who didn't really like reading text. It
was hard for me to focus, you know, and things

(10:17):
like that. So I can listen to this book, I
can read the same book you're reading, except for somebody's
reading it to me, which was really really interesting when
it first came out, because you know, then everybody tried
to do the same thing too, but except for Apple
dominated the market for a long time, and I don't
think anybody ever recovered after that because once they took it,
they ran with it. Then you had those other like
knockoff MP three and P four players that you could

(10:37):
download the files to and things like that, you know,
and it just blew people away, like the endless, boundless
things you can do. So for anyone starting a book
kind of thing, what do you think the best starting
point is for them? Obviously the cover, I would.

Speaker 2 (10:51):
Say, Well, the cover, as I said, is essential, right,
But what they should do is they should get the
manuscript ready to the best of their own ability, and then,
you know, even though it's going to be expensive, do
hire experts to take it from there, because the product
will be so much better than you can imagine, I promise.

Speaker 1 (11:13):
Right exactly, you know, And I think that's what people
don't realize it, you know, So the cost of going
to the publisher versus going independent, what do we looking at?
Maybe maybe break it down? Some people understand the difference
between them.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
Sure, well, a traditional When people think of a publisher,
they're thinking of traditional publishing as it used to be
and still is. Traditional publishers some some use the word
real publishers do not charge the author to produce the book,
to produce the book, and they also, okay, they hire

(11:50):
the experts to produce the book, and they buy the
rights to publish it from the author, right, so the
author doesn't have to pay a penny. The problem is
the author loses control. The publisher is going to shape
that book the way they want to shape it in
order for it to sell, because they are putting their
money at risk when they've hired all those experts. So

(12:11):
that's traditional publishing. And the publisher makes its money back
by paying the author a small royalty when a book
is sold.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
Okay, okay.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
Now, in today's publishing world, publishers are charging authors to
produce the book. They might call themselves hybrid publishers or
independent publishing companies, whatever they call themselves, they're charging the
producers the author to produce the book. They're uploading the
author's files onto their print on demand accounts. They get

(12:41):
the bank, they get the sales reports, they get the
bank deposits, and then they take some of that revenue
from sales and they pay the author a small royalty,
so that doesn't work out too well for the author.
Real independent publishing, real self publishing, as it was originally imagined,
means that you're the author, you control your print on

(13:01):
demand accounts, and when a book is sold, you get
the sales reports, you get the deposits to your bank account,
and you make every penny possible in the book world
when a book is sold.

Speaker 1 (13:12):
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Do you do you have an idea
like what kind of books sell better than others? I mean,
it's obviously kind of changes depending on what people are
wanting to, you know, partake at the time.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
All kinds of books sells. I would say in terms
of ease of sales, nonfiction books are easier to sell
because you can identify your market a little more closely
than you can with fiction. Let's say children's books are
always popular. It's difficult for authors to compete price wise
in the children's books market, So.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
It's got to be a war zone in there for
especially kids books. Man, I remember a kid, you walk
in that section. There's so many different books in there.
You know. When I was a kid, though, it was
doctor Seuss and you know a bunch of other people
that were dominating the market, so you had all these
own names. Now, I have no idea who's even in
that space city more Man, And I go in there
with my kids and you're just looking around and you
just see books galore. Just a little section has so

(14:05):
much jammed into it, but you know, so many different
things that you're trying to grab their attention with.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
Well, the economics are difficult for indie publishers and the
children's book arena because major publishers will will print maybe ten,
twenty thirty, one hundred thousand books, and so they can
get the printing for maybe a dollar a copy, but
the indie publisher doesn't have that opportunity. Print on demand
hardcover books are pretty expensive and the indie publisher would

(14:34):
have to charge about seventeen dollars for the book to
make a few dollars profit. So when consumers go on
Amazon and they see a children's book for six ninety
nine from the major publisher and seventeen ninety nine from
the indie publisher. You know which one they're going to buy.
So my advice to children's book authors is if you

(14:55):
have established your own sales channels directly in some way,
then go ahead and do it. But don't expect to
be competitive in the retail environment. It's just not going
to happen.

Speaker 1 (15:07):
Wasn't like fifteen dollars tally the price of books nowadays
almost it's almost similary unless you're doing like paperbacks. Back
send a little bit cheaper though, depending on what genre
you're into.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
Yeah, paperback is always cheaper because there's less manufacturing involved, right.

Speaker 1 (15:22):
I don't know, man, I prefer a good hardcover for
some of these books, you know, I mean it's just
a look to feel.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yeah, what I recommend my clients do if they if
they like hardcovers for themselves or they want to give
the book as a gift, to create a hardcover and
a soft cover and any book and you let the
buyer decide what format they like the best.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
Or the audiobook too. I can't leave the audio space
one now because that's always a great one too. For us,
for me, for people like me and don't like to
read things. Now, I like audiobooks.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
Audiobooks are selling like hotcakes, but the narrator is really important.
You want to make sure you hire a trained narrator.

Speaker 1 (15:56):
Yeah, I know, there's I got a friend that's what
she does. She's like, yeah, I got her audio, got
to narrate some books or something. I'm like, oh really,
I'm like, people really do that. She's like yeah, you know.
And you know, you got to think about it, Like
you can get paid to do anything nowadays, you know,
like these people pay you to do all these things.
I was like, listen, but I want Morgan Freeman to
read my book, man, if I haven't even reading. Morgan
Freeman just sounds like the kind of person I want

(16:16):
to narrating my life story, because that'd be so kind
of cool.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
Though, Well, there's a lot of narrators that work at
a better rate than Morgan Freeman. I'm sure.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
Well, you know, I just like the sound of his voice. Man.
He's like, you know, was it March of the Penguins
when you narrate it that movie? I was just like,
oh god, okay, Morgan, all right, okay, you know, but
you know, you meet people sometimes they just have that
voice and you're just like, oh, yeah, listen, hey, listen,
could you just narrate my death in your certificate when
it happens? Please? And they just laugh at me because
I'm just like that, I'm serious, like you're just a
sound of your voice is so easy. It's just soothing

(16:48):
for people.

Speaker 2 (16:49):
And especially in fiction, a trained narrator can bring that
text to life like you wouldn't believe. Now, a lot
of authors think they should narrate their own book, but
I can tell you for my own personal experience, I've
listened to audio books from from people who have TV
shows and other famous people. They're not trained narrators, and
it's really difficult to pay attention to the text if

(17:13):
the timing is not right. So you know, narration is
a real skill, a trained skill that really makes a
big difference.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
Do you have any tips out there for the young
authors listening right now? Uh?

Speaker 2 (17:25):
In what? In what regard? That's all I do is
give tips all day long.

Speaker 1 (17:29):
Oh, just anything, anything that you give on a lot
to people you know. Maybe maybe something like your most
common tips that you give a lot of people you know,
because I'm sure people ask you thousands of questions. What
are some of the ones that stick out to you
that most commonly come in?

Speaker 2 (17:41):
Okay, so my most my most common tip is is
to not work with a publisher, to indie publish the
way it was originally intended, and purchase the good services
that are going to give you a good quality book.
In that way, you you keep control of everything. You
never have a publisher saying that that they're going to
take over your phone files and not return the files

(18:01):
to you if you want to part ways. There's all
kinds of mischief going on in the industry right now.
The biggest myth is that you need a publisher. So
I would love to dispel that myth one hundred percent.

Speaker 1 (18:12):
Right, Yeah, you know it's it's funny because then you
think that's in a way. So let's look at the
costs of everything. So if I was to write a book,
what is my overall costs am I looking at? You know,
give them maybe give them the idea of what it
is it would cost them overall, so they have an
idea what they're getting into.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
Well, at a professional level, which is what we do,
and you hire an editor, We hire an editor that's
got decades of experience. The same thing with our designers
and ebook formatters. You're looking at for a two hundred
page book fiction, you're looking at about eight thousand dollars
for nonfiction, and it's one thousand dollars more because the
layout is usually a little more complicated. And that's full

(18:50):
service from editing all the way through the ebook formatting
file upload done for you service.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
So is ebook formatting different than public printed one? I
mean is there something?

Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yeah, that's a skill too. I mean you'll find ebook
conversion all over the place online. A lot of people
think that, so do it your self service as well.
But a real ebook format or will code that text
by hand, and they will put in commands so that
if the book is opened on a nook, do this,
if it's opened on a kindle, do this, and it

(19:23):
makes sure that the end product is very nice and readable,
regardless of which device the buyer may be using.

Speaker 1 (19:31):
You know, I never even thought about that until now
you said that. I was like, wait, people at the
convert them and I'm like, you know what, Michelle just
made some really great points there. She's like, you got
a format for everything else that you would be opening
this set file on yes, and I'm just like, I
didn't even think about that. Honestly, that's so cool. So,
you know, being in the publishing scene, do you have
some authors that you prefer? Are you? Are you a

(19:51):
big avid reader yourself?

Speaker 2 (19:52):
By chance, believe it or not, I spend so much
time on the business that my own reading falls by
the wayside. So I'm more likely to read a magazine
than a full length book.

Speaker 1 (20:03):
Right, She's like, I read enough books all day. I
think I'm tired of this. I'm good. Yeah, no, But
I do.

Speaker 2 (20:11):
Actually like audio books because if the staring at a
screen all day is kind of nice to kick back
in the recliner and close your eyes and let someone
read to.

Speaker 1 (20:19):
You anything, particularly like I know, I knew. I'm like
when my mom was reading books, she was doing Danielle
Steele was massive. I think my mom went crazy every
time that woman dropped the book. She was going in saying, well,
can I get to do Danielle Stale book? And I'm
like her. Her covers though, like if you looked at them,
they were so plain, but it just she just had
that grip when you already her story. Her writing was

(20:40):
so good that to me, like the covers are like, okay,
not really exciting to me. But you know, obviously it's
not appealing to a ten year old kid when you're
looking at it, you know, versus an adult. It's we're
looking at him, you know. And Danielle she dominated the market.
Her arrows sign was big with goosebumps and things like
that too, and you know, god, where were so many
other ones. There were some other ones that were out
there too, you know, we have we had Stephen King

(21:01):
back then. You know, these are all new books that
were coming out for us at the time. So like,
you know, nowadays, i'd like, you know, I don't really
know who's who's flooding the scene these days, but I
had like Matt what is it, Christopher Matt or I
think somebody's name was the guy reached for a lot
of those real young books for kids and things like
that too, you know. So it's changed a lot since
I've been there, you know, like the introduced of the
new came out, and then you have audio books and

(21:22):
now you have Amazon and everything else. It's it's so
interesting to see how publication has taken off, you know,
because now they say uh that, you know, printed formats
going away, and a lot of people are doing more
audio because you can do it on the go because
your phone you can access everything as you go. You know.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
Well, print books is still selling equally to ebooks, and
audiobooks are keeping up with that too. They're they're they're
growing exponentially audio books. But I think we will always
have print books. Like you said yourself, you'd like a
hardcover book. I don't think print they've been when ebook
When ebooks first came out, everybody predicted the demise of
print and it hasn't happened. People still like a real book.

Speaker 1 (22:01):
No, I agree, Like I said, I'm one of those
types of do because a lot of times when I
get authors on the show, they'll send me a copy
of their book and they'll sign it for me. And
I added to my archive of things. This is so
cool to have, you know, my eventual plans to have
the studio set up with the books back there you
can see and there'd just be people that've been on
the show, you know, and they each wrote them, I've
signed it and things, which is really cool because you know,
when you get to meet them, you have different topics

(22:22):
that come across, you know, and I've had some wild
stories come out here. I think I the last one
I had on the woman was writing about she did
one hundred interviews of people d id and you know,
she was like talking about the different common things that
they came up and you know, and things like that too.
So I love it when I get to talk about
books and things like that too, because books have always
been a big bart lives. You think about it, like
Penguin Publishing has been there forever. They wrote all the

(22:44):
books for those, like all those learning books we had
back in the nineties, you know, like the Highlight series
was big for us. You know, where was a Where's
Waldo was big for us. I Spy you know, things
like that, you know, and they're so simplistic though if
you think about like ice Spy, it's very carefully placed,
but think about it like everybody place I Spy. But
then they had the books. They dominated the market with
that because they were like, oh man, look clear this,

(23:05):
I got this book you can take and you can
read and you know, and it's it's easier to grab
the kids when you're younger because they're the future.

Speaker 2 (23:12):
You know what I'm saying, well, I think it's wonderful
that indie publisher has come on the scene. I think
history is going to look back on the invention of
indie publishing as being even more important than Gutenberg, what
Gutenberg did for printing and disseminating information. It's just it's great.
There's so many, so many great books out there from

(23:33):
author's and nobody's getting in the way anymore. You have
the freedom and the ability to get your message out
there without anyone else's permission. Now are our point of view,
of course, is that you really should make sure you
produce a good book though, and don't step.

Speaker 1 (23:48):
On your success. I mean, come on, now, you want
to make sure people want to read it. You can't
just but a bunch of words on the page. You go, well,
look at what I wrote, and you're like, yeah, but
that's not what you wrote. You wrote it, bis it
doesn't count. You know, you're not talking to someone who
doesn't understand what you're saying.

Speaker 2 (24:03):
Yeah, yeah, I guess with every great innovation there there's
a whole spectrum of behavior that happens before it shakes out, right.

Speaker 1 (24:11):
You know. It's hilarious though, so have you guys had
so listen, this is going to be an interesting question
for you, though. Have you had any big name authors
that we know come for yours self published, any anybody
we might recognize.

Speaker 2 (24:24):
Yes, you might. In fact, we're working on the third
edition of his book right now. You might have heard
of Bill Schleigh as C. H. L. E. Y. He
was published by Wiley, and he had a best seller
called The Microscript Rules, and he's now we're now doing
he left a traditional publishing and he's been with us
for a decade now and we're just putting out the

(24:45):
third edition of his book. And it's a great It's
a classic marketing book that has been a bestseller from
the day he wrote it.

Speaker 1 (24:53):
So that's so cool. Any any celebrities come through your
way that you could brag about a little bit for us?

Speaker 2 (24:59):
No, oh, I haven't. I haven't worked for any celebrities, unfortunately.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
Michelle's like, I've been counting. Anybody you would you would
like dye for, Like, if there was one person that
came across your desk you'd like go fangirl for, who
would it be?

Speaker 2 (25:10):
Well, I would love to do Dean Kotz's book, because
when I do pick up a book, it's likely to
be a Dean Koontz book.

Speaker 1 (25:17):
Yeah, no, I agree. Listen to you see Dean in
the scene too. And then what was the other guy
that wrote a lout of war filt books. I don't.
I can't think of his name. I've been trying to
think of it. There you go, Tom Clancy. There you go
Tom Clancy. Because he had those series of games for
a long time that always came out, you know, but
he had the really good military books that my uncle
used to My uncle used to read all the time
and things like that too, and they show them to

(25:38):
me like, oh, yeah, look at it, there's a Tom Clancy.
I'm like, oh, who the hell is Tom Clancy? Dude?
I know that is Yeah. Well, Michelle, I appreciate you
coming and hanging out with us though, you know, do
you have anything else for anything for the listeners at
home before we start wrapping up?

Speaker 2 (25:54):
Well, if people want more information, if if this is
the place to say it, I can tell them definitely.

Speaker 1 (25:59):
Oh yeah, definitely plug it for me.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
Our website is eleven oh six design dot com. That's
singular d sign and if you go there, I'll give
you my free book called Publish like call publish like
the pros. You just click in your email address and
we'll send you my free book, which which tells what
I've said here, but basically in a little bit more detail.

(26:21):
But it's still a quick read. It's only eighty eight pages.

Speaker 1 (26:24):
Yeah, so listen, let's catch out really quick. Thovervent so
published like the pros. When did you come up with it?
And when was that moment You're like, you know what,
I got some real great insight for people. Was it
like through your user experience? Obviously you have all this background.
You were like, you know what, maybe I should publish
my own book.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
Well, I had started blogging shortly, probably was around two
thousand and three. Whenever blogging began, everybody said you got
to do it, you got to do it. And I
had accumulated about sixty blog posts at that time. Now
it's up to two hundred and sixty. But my editor said,
you know, you should take those blog posts and publish
them as a book, and I said, okay. So she

(27:01):
took my blog posts and created published like the Pros
out of it, and that was published in twenty twelve
and I've been giving it away ever since. It's on Amazon.
If you want to buy the print version, but I
give away a PDF of it, and that has gotten
me more jobs than I can count. People people call
me and they say, I read your book. How do

(27:21):
I sign up?

Speaker 1 (27:23):
There? You go?

Speaker 2 (27:24):
So can I recommend that as a lead magnet for
any business? Actually, because people love to access the information
in a non threatening way, maybe before they're ready to
talk to anyone, and putting out a little book like
I said, mine's eighty eight pages. You put out a
little book like that for your business, and you're you're
going to see oodles of payback from the effort.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
Do you have anything else in the works? Me and
not know? I mean are you? Are you still blogging too?
That's the other question we asked, are you still out
there for Where can people find that? Though you know
you didn't plug that for them? Where can they find
that at as well? That'd be something interesting for people
to read.

Speaker 2 (27:59):
Our blog is that's right on eleven oh six design
dot com, thank yv. And so is our our newslet.
We have a newsletter on LinkedIn called published like the Pros.
We're on substack.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
Just gonna say, I was gonna ask if you're on substack,
because I know that's a big one for people that
I do a lot of publications and things.

Speaker 2 (28:15):
Yeah, we put out the same name published like the Prose,
that's our trademark, and it's on substack as a biweekly
a bi monthly newsletter.

Speaker 1 (28:24):
Well, there you go. That's that's really cool though. So Michelle,
thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it
coming and doing this little bite sized episode for this.
For this is gonna be a little special edition for
anybody that's listening. Guys, go check out Michelle's work man, listen,
if you're thinking I'll pulishing book, reach out to her.
She already told you where to find her. Check out
our blog posts, check out her substack. All that great
things like that, guys, And what that being said, we're
gonna wrap up this episode of Pete for Siety. Michelle,

(28:45):
thank you so much for coming by and doing this
with me. I really do appreciate this. I think that's
just gonna be really great. Oh definitely, listen. I love
having different topics on here because I get a lot
of authors on here, so a lot of times I
meet other people. So now like it'd be like, hey, listen,
I got a friend Michelle. She does a lot of publications.
You need you need something done, go reach out to
her sheet. This is where to find her, you know.
And I could plug this episode for him too.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
Well, thank you to your topic. We can save author's
a lot of stress. There's a lot of authors experience
an awful lot of stress and anxiety out there trying
to do things the hard way, and there is an
easy way and that's us.

Speaker 1 (29:18):
Right tell them Michelle. And with that being said, guys,
that's the wrapping this episode of Pete for Anxiety. I'm
Peter deciding on X all way on the TikTok, I'm
on Spotify all the way down. iHeart radio And as
always say, it costs nothing, absolutely nothing to be kind
of somebody. One kind of act you can do, say
so life for helly? Can you even you can even
make their day? I'm Pete for its anxiety center of
saying hey, don't ask how your days day, say hey,
how's it about to heal today? So I reckon the

(29:42):
design of respected that I redact, but no pretext that
got my secrety am I.

Speaker 2 (29:47):
Word whether think that, don't

Speaker 1 (29:48):
Learn I don't that, don't think that wouldn