January 17, 2024 • 52 mins
On this episode of Raising Rebeca Books, we meet the incomparable E. Danielle Butler, Acquisitions Editor for Rebeca Books. Listen in as Rebeca and Danielle have a fun discussion about Danielle's background, her role at Rebeca Books, and what kinds of stories she's looking to acquire.
Danielle is a truly lovely, wise soul and it’s an honor to have her aboard.
If you wish to have your work considered for publication by Rebeca Books, please follow the instructions for submission at https://rebecabooks.com or with the instructions below.
We accept submissions from both authors and agents. To submit your work for acquisition, please email us a book proposal containing five sections:
Please use the subject line: For Acquisition Consideration - WRITER LAST NAME
Email address: submissions - at - rebecabooks - dot - com
Danielle is a truly lovely, wise soul and it’s an honor to have her aboard.
If you wish to have your work considered for publication by Rebeca Books, please follow the instructions for submission at https://rebecabooks.com or with the instructions below.
We accept submissions from both authors and agents. To submit your work for acquisition, please email us a book proposal containing five sections:
- Book Summary (1 page or less)
- Author Bio (1 page or less, you're welcome to include a photo)
- Similar Works (name 3-5 other books/authors that are like yours/you, and tell us how yours/you are different)
- Reach Analysis (give us an overview of your relationships and presence in the world, which enables us to see how we can alert others to your book's launch)
- Sample Writing (1-3 chapters of the work you're pitching)
Please use the subject line: For Acquisition Consideration - WRITER LAST NAME
Email address: submissions - at - rebecabooks - dot - com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:21):
Welcome to the fourth episode of RaisingRebecca Books The Birth of a Publishing House.
This is the audio story of me, Rebecca Sites, building a traditional
royalty paying publishing house from the groundup, told to you as it unfolds.
Last week I shared that we havea new acquisitions editor here at Rebecca
Books. I am so excited thatthis week you get to hear directly from
(00:46):
E. Danielle Butler yourself. Wehit record on a conversation that I invite
you to listen to. Now you'relistening to Raising Rebecca Books The Birth of
a Publishing House on the One CeasedNetwork. One See is made possible in
part by the support of the followingsponsor. Okay, so let's start with
(01:21):
let's see where do I want tostart? I actually did give this thought.
I was professional about it and everything. I'd like to start with When
you first knew that you loved books? When did you first fall in love
with books? Ah, that's sucha wonderful question. The vivid memory.
I think I'm about four. Ihad to be four because I was in
(01:42):
pre K. Was marching in likepre k in kindergarten over to the fourth
and fifth grade halls in elementary schoolto read books to them. Now,
looking back, I'm like, whatis that a ploy to get me to
be a better reader? Right?What was the purpose behind that? But
that's when I knew, going overthere, like with a select group of
(02:04):
students to sit down and just readto these big kids, right, because
there's so much bigger I knew thenfor like, that's the memory, Like
that's knowing. And what were yourbooks of childhood? The ones you loved
that you remember? Oh? Man, that Doctor Seus's Go Dogs Go had
me in a why was it shecalled over that book? And then my
(02:30):
grandmother I spent a lot of timewith her, and she had this devotional
I own it now. She wasa nurse and it's called on Call.
And I was fascinated with that booktoo. That was my grown up book,
your grown up book, that's mygrown up book was on call devotion?
You you write as well? Sowhen did you know that you had
(02:52):
this ability to write that? Maybenot every human does. So I began
writing probably around that same time.I found recently some of my squabbles that
my mother had saved. But Idon't know that I didn't know that it
wasn't something that everybody could do.I didn't know that until much later.
(03:12):
I thought that we were all makingup fantastic stories and sharing them with the
world. Me too, Me too. I have to tell you so,
first time I ever made real moneyfor my writing, my brother in law
had deployed to Iraq, and Iwrote a piece about the day he deployed,
just sort of documenting it for thefamily. And then Moltnoma which is
(03:32):
now WaterBrook, Moltnomah was doing abook called Stories from a Soldier's Heart and
it was an anthology, and soI submitted it and they accepted it,
and a few months later I gota check and it wasn't it was like
three hundred dollars maybe or six hundreddollars. It was a few hundred dollars.
But I remember I was living ina condo in Nashville at the time,
(03:53):
and I had a roommate because Icouldn't afford a place on my own.
And I had gotten the mail,and I stopped under underneath the Bradford
pear tree in the front yard toopen my mail because there was this check
from Moltnomah, or there was thisenvelope for Maltnomah and I was like,
I wonder what this is if it'san update on the book. When the
book's coming out and I opened itand there was a check and I held
(04:14):
this check in my hands and Istared at it and I said, this
is actual money because I put wordson a screen. That makes no sense
to me. So that's probably whenit kicked in right, that it wasn't
for everybody. Was probably the firsttime that I like earned something for it.
Oh okay, well there's that.That's a thing. Let's let's just
(04:40):
let's do that. Let's do that. Yeah. I just thought, why
is everybody not doing this? Andthen it had to be explained to me,
well, everyone doesn't have the abilityto just sit down and put words
on a screen? And I thought, really, like, are you sure
like everybody can do this. That'sa truth that I am sitting with over
the last pro ten to fifteen years, that it's not an everybody got that
(05:03):
gift thing. Yeah, that's anew truth for me because I truly believed
like, of course you can't.Of course you can't. Who can't?
And now I'm like, ah,I see, I see. Now you
look at some of this stuff comingthrough of people who want to be published,
and you're like, I see,I see. Not everyone can do
(05:24):
that, that everyone can write.It is a gift, and so now
I try to honor that gift,recognizing that it's not freely and widely given
for sure. Exactly exactly Okay,So here at Rebecca Books, I have
explained in previous episodes to the audiencethat we are only publishing romance and business
written by and about women forty andover. But I'd love for you to
(05:46):
talk about what exactly draws your attentionor what you appreciate, whether that's about
content or the way the content isbrought to you. We are very clear
on the website about what needs tobe in your proposal, Yes, but
what exactly are you paying attention towhen those proposals come in? Now that
they are all landing on your desk, not mine, you're saying that with
(06:08):
such joy joy under there. Forthose of you listening, you can't see
Rebecca's face, but I can,and like her cheeks are rosy and she
is joyful that she said that.Ok So what am I looking for?
Number one? I think the firsttest is did you follow directions? Because
(06:28):
on our website everything is super clear, this is what we need to see.
These are the things that need tobe in your proposals. So that's
number one. Like, because somany are coming in, it's like,
okay, who can follow the directions? That's an easy bar. The second
thing I look for is a voicethat I haven't heard or seen before,
(06:50):
but that sounds so realistic. Thatis what I love. I love when
someone can bring me into a storythat I can see as being real,
even if it's totally imagined. Whenit comes to fiction writing, like,
I want to believe that this couldbe. If you're telling me that purple
(07:13):
aliens are coming down and fallen inlove, you know, with humans,
I wanted to be believable. Iwant this purple alien to fall in love
with this woman who is over forty, which means you know that her body's
gonna look a little bit different thana teeny bopper or someone in their earlier
years. I'm also looking for worksthat unfold, that give us some layers,
(07:41):
because I think that by the timewe are women, we have experienced
so many things from girlhood to teenagehoodto young adulthood that by the time we
hit this stage, I think fortyis like womanhood. I think by the
time we've hit that, there arejust some nuance is in some layers that
(08:01):
I think appear as a result ofour experiences and our existences. I like
to see those layers. So let'stalk about that a little bit. Because
whenever I'm talking to anybody about RebeccaBooks and I say we want writers who
are women forty and over writing aboutwomen forty and over, they ask,
well, what's the difference in aromance featuring a heroine who's forty five versus
(08:24):
twenty five or thirty five? What'sthe big difference? What's the big deal?
And I've explained it a million timesthat I feel like maybe it would
be good to have another explanation too, of what would you expect to see
in those stories that you don't necessarilysee in what is right now looks to
be ninety to ninety five percent ofromance out there, which is heroines in
their twenties and thirties. So thefirst part is that it exists right like
(08:48):
the first thing is at acknowledging thatromance exists at forty and over. And
I don't know about you, butI remember being in my twenties and feeling
like the forties so far apart oraway that I could barely wrap my mind
around it, let alone this ideaof being in love and loved. So
(09:09):
when I think about a heroine thatis forty, I think she knows some
things about herself that may cause herto make choices differently than one who's twenty
or twenty five. She may approachthis romance in a totally different way.
So I'm thinking about those things.She's bringing these life experiences with her,
(09:33):
and she's adding that into her selectionprocess. Right, love over forty is
definitely a choice. It is achoice to allow yourself to be loved.
To know what it is that romancefeels like to you. I have a
dear friend. I'm gonna use thisexample of romance because I feel like this
(09:56):
shows up in that have this dearfriend, and we were talking recently and
her husband brought her a snack anda drink and she looked at him and
she's like, you are the best, right, Like, I think you're
so amazing. That's romance, right, because he spoke her language in that
moment that was romantic to her versussomeone that doesn't necessarily have as much experience.
(10:22):
So she may be saying, Ah, I want the roses and the
quilt and the balloons and the teddybears and all of those things, and
there's nothing wrong with those things.But over forty, at forty and over
forty, you know that you canbring me the flowers. But if that
flower comes with something cold to drinkor something I wore favorite, okay,
you're gonna get a little bit furtherin this experience. There's one of my
(10:46):
favorites. There's some you know,we've talked a lot about. I love
Jennifer Cruzy and I study her novels. Yeah, and I cannot tell you
which title it is, but shedoes often point out that roses just don't
just don't. It's better for youto not send anything if you're going to
send my roses, unless I havetold you that I love red roses,
(11:09):
and then yes, absolutely, Butotherwise it feels so unspecific, non specific
to the heroine. And you know, in our forties we tend to not
put up with that as much.In our forties were like, if you're
not going to see me, ifI'm just going to be a woman and
not the woman that I am,then never mind you know, I need
this to be real. I seeyou and you see me as opposed to
(11:33):
it feels it even felt for me. I mean, my husband was my
thirteenth marriage proposal, and that partof that was because where I'm from,
what the girls do. I'm froma rural town in Tennessee, and so
at growing up at that time,I'm gen X. The purpose was to
get married and have kids and builda home, and that's what you did
as a female. And so Iwasn't alone in having all of those marriage
(11:54):
proposals. There's nothing especially about me, but it was. It all felt
very, very systematic instead of specific. And so in this phase of life
it I think there has to bemuch more specificity in seeing each other.
Also because at this age, awoman knows herself. Like what you're talking
(12:16):
about, We've taken the time toknow who we are and what flowers we
like and what ways of being,what snacks we like exactly exactly. No,
I feel that same way, right. I think we are learning ourselves,
we are meeting ourselves. We're understandingourselves for so much of our lives
that when we hit like this goldenera, right, we are headed towards
(12:39):
the golden days of life. Itis because we may not know all of
the things that we like, butwe've lived enough to know what we definitely
don't like to be able to putwords and articulation to that, and we
love differently as a result, andwe receive love differently as a result.
(13:00):
I see a lot online of womensaying at this age, the bar is
much higher for me to allow youentry into my life because if it's harder,
if my life is harder because you'rein it, than never mind,
don't need you, don't even needyou, Like, I've had enough life
lessons, complications and such without youadding to that, right, And I
(13:26):
think that is what we want tosee at Rebecca Books, in those heroines
that are choosing to love and beloved, Like, that's what we want
to know. We want to knowwhat is the choice that they are making,
not oh I bumped into the guyat the coffee shop and he was
so high to be with them,because but also, how dare he look
(13:46):
at me because I'm just a booknerd writing in the corner. Yes,
oh yeah, I love those stories, I really really do. But I
feel like Rebecca Books has a lotmore substance when you talk about that specificy
seccificity, you know what I'm saying, specicity. There we go, we
(14:07):
got it work, it exists,guys. I think about that. I
think that's what we're looking for.It's it's the layers and the nuance in
how the romance unfolds. And I'minterested to see the depth of those men
that they have to bring to theequation as opposed to I feel like they
(14:28):
can be a little more shallow intwenty year old romances as opposed to,
like I was saying, if youhave to bring something of value to the
equation at this age, or we'lljust say never mind, say never mind.
He you are handsome, yes,but can you also fix something?
(14:48):
You are handsome, but can youalso like what knows with it? You
know, there's this under lying conversationabout dating in like twenty twenty three,
twenty twenty four, about a man. Would you date a man with calloused
hands or not? Right? Yes? Absolutely? That means he's a work
(15:15):
he's got some work ethic about himself. Right. I think they too.
I mean, obviously I'm not aman, so I don't know the male
psyche as well as I know mine. But I think men too are bringing
different things at forty and fifty yearsold into their relationships, whether it's the
romantic relationships or their friendships or whatever. They too have been through some things,
(15:37):
right, maybe they've been harmed bywomen, or they've had layoffs,
and so their psyche is damaged andthings like that that they I think it
provides this opportunity that doesn't exist inromances featuring twenty year olds. Where when
I read romances that feature twenty yearolds, and you know, I've been
reading romance since I was twelve,it's they're shine. And so the woman
(16:03):
often is portrayed as she has thingsin her background already that have made her
broken in some way and he's comingin to heal that. But a forty
five year old man also is brokenin some ways. You know, he's
got a broken marriage, or he'sgot bad relationships stuff, or bad work
stuff or bad family stuff or whatever. And so I'm I'm excited to see
(16:26):
the layers of both sides and howthose layers come together to make some beautiful
romance story. I'm stoked about it. I am, however, very glad
that they're going to your desk first. And yes, yes, yes,
there are those rosy cheeks. Again, guys that she says it. But
I'm super excited to I'm just sograteful to have you on board because,
(16:51):
yeah, it's a lot to weighthrough, which is awesome. I love
that we have a lot to weighthrough. That's amazing. Please absolutely keep
sending in your sending them. Thisis mad us saying don't send them.
We want to read them. Ihave to read something at night, right,
so you might as well send itto me. Well. And we
was talking yesterday about how we reallyneed more indigenous stories, Yes, more
Hispanic stories. We really want awide cultural range of yes, police of
(17:19):
the basis for these stories. Sowe're not seeing enough of it. We've
got fantastic black stories, fantastic whitestories, but we need more color.
I think, yeah, we needsome more texture in these cultures. Come
on, we would love to hearfrom you. Because another thing that I
think about when I think about bringingwomen together, wise women, right with
(17:41):
these words, I think about somethingyou said. You talked about this idea
of growing up in a small townand what the expectation was. I think
there's a cultural conversation to be hadas well, right, what are other
cultures experiences when it comes to buildingromance? What are we taught as women
(18:03):
in other cultures versus what these womenat forty are facing. How have they
been groomed or kept or whatever inhow are they moving forward and choosing to
love and be loved in those spaces? I think that's going to be important
and I can't wait to see howthose unfold. Who is Snali dev I
(18:25):
love her romances? They are Indianbased, and I read one recently that
really kind of struck home for meas I thought about, like, when
you've been raised or groomed in specificcultures with expectations, what does that mean
for love later? M there's alot we can learn that from each other.
(18:45):
Right of I know how it's handledin a small southern town. I
know now how it's handled in acoastal town. Yes, But I don't
know. There's so much that Idon't know from so many other perspective of
If you're a forty five year oldCuban woman in California and you know your
(19:07):
second generation American or third generation,how what I'm sure your experience, your
romantic experience is coming with cultural ideasthat mine would not, and so I
would just oh, I'd love tosee those stories that would be So those
are the ones. Bring us yourstories, bring us your stories. Okay,
so let's switch gears a little bit, because we also are acquiring business
books here, and you know,you and I have talked about I just
(19:30):
feel like when you look at thebusiness space in the bookstore, when you
look on the shelves, there arenot a lot of words by women in
there between forty and sixty despite thefact that we own millions of small businesses
and medium sized businesses in this nation. And it's frustrating to me because we're
having to figure it out on thefly, despite the fact that there exists
(19:55):
a body of wisdom out there.It's just that the wisdom's not being packaged
and brought to to us so thatwe can learn from what the women before
us have done. I realize we'veonly been in the workplace for about five
minutes, but we've done some incrediblethings in those things, right right,
We've changed how business is being done. We have, and I would love
to be a place where that wisdomis captured and that history is captured and
(20:19):
transmitted so that the rest of uscan be learning from what else what these
other women have been doing in theircareers and in their businesses. So talk
to me specifically about what you're lookingat when it comes across the desk of
what kind of business stories are capturingyour attention? Which ones do you think
would be valuable to put into thatspace? Wonderful question. When I think
(20:41):
about women in business over forty,there are so many books, like you
said, that are out there forwomen under forty. You know, I
made this under forty list, thisunder thirty list, and here's how I
did it. There are certain considerationsthat come alongside with of being a working
woman of a certain age. Thereare things that we have to take into
(21:03):
consideration that other demographics don't. SoI'm looking for stories that bring those considerations
to the forefront. Right, wedon't have maternity leave policies in corporate until
someone ends up pregnant, right,Like somebody comes and they're pregnant, it's
like, ah, we need amaterney lead you out right, And so
(21:26):
I think that that body of wisdomthat you talk about when I'm looking at
these these stories, I want tohear relevant stories with feeling, because we
are emotional beings. Even when wewalk into our corporate offices, we can
put on our mask of stoicism,but there is feeling that's that's there and
(21:47):
the lessons that we learned in thosemoments. I want to know, as
a woman in business, how doI maintain authenticity. I want to learn
things about best practices for negotiating andshowing up at the table and going toe
to toe with the good old boysclub. I want to hear not just
how to do it, but howto do it well. I want to
(22:11):
read those stories that also are honestabout what your failures have been. What
are the mistakes that you have madethat turned into a lesson, What are
the oopses that have happened that becomeopportunities for you. That's what I'm looking
for when I read business books fromthese women that are coming to us,
because I want to be able toencourage the generations that are to come that
(22:37):
Number one, your feelings, theymatter, They're valid no matter what they
try to tell you. But here'sa way that we can deal and that's
helpful with those feelings and emotions whilestill being a credible source in your field,
while still being an industry leader.I find it fascinating that in twenty
twenty four, people are still showingup as the first right woman, for
(23:00):
the first woman of color in thisthe first female leader too, which says
that we still have a long wayto go. I don't know necessarily that
we're the first so much as we'rethe first documented. And I want us
to be able to document those stories, documenting the journey so that others a
(23:22):
can learn from them, be canavoid some of the mistakes, but can
also take it, learn it andadd on. We as women are good
for that, creating a snowball,right, taking something and making it our
own and then growing it to somethingmore. And so I want us to
be able to have those stories thatpeople can take, learn and grow from
and with. I think for me, there are two things that set a
(23:47):
woman's business story apart from a man'sbusiness story, at least in terms of
the stories that I know, interms of the books that I own and
the books that I've read. AndI was just talking about this yesterday with
one of our authors whose books werepubs. She's a banker and she is
a first in her field in somany ways, and we were actually talking
yesterday she was brought into the lastbank that she worked for to diversify the
(24:12):
staff at that bank, and thetown that she was brought to was like
ninety percent white, and she waslike, I didn't realize it also was
being brought to diversify the town.And that comes with its own challenges too,
because now she's got her professional life, but then when she leaves the
office, she's still walking into aplace where there's not a lot of representation.
So that brought its own challenges,right, and that it was just
(24:33):
a completely different mindset because that's notwhat she had been living in when she
left the location of the bank thatshe was at at their behest and came
to a new location. But forme anyway, what we were talking about
was that women tend to approach theirwork in a more holistic fashion than a
male. So, like what you'retalking about, we have considerations that males
(24:57):
don't because we also tend to bethe ones running our household and the ones
running the children and running all theextra curriculars and all of those things,
and so we have to fit inour careers with the rest of our lives
in ways that most males still inthe year of our Lord twenty twenty four
still did not, So it wasgetting vulnerable and showing you know, we're
(25:21):
brought into the workplace and we oftenhave male bosses, and therefore there is
rarely space given for us to behonest out loud about when you asked me
to stay late, or when youput this extra load on me. This
is the impact that's having not juston me but on my home. We
just were kind of taught not totalk about that because it's still so new
(25:44):
that we're even here and in thisworkforce. But in these books, I
would love to see that vulnerability,to see you know, I had to
stay till eight o'clock and so Imissed X Y Z. And here is
how I handled that in my houseor I knew that I couldn't miss that
in my family, and so hereis how I handled the conversation with that
coworker or with that supervisor to maintainthe balance between work and home. You
(26:08):
know, I just I quit andstarted my own business. That's how I
y And if you did that,you know, but having lived that myself,
that comes with its own challenges too. It takes over your life in
the beginning to get it up andrunning. So I'm hoping that we can
find memoirs and biographies and business booksthat are that women allow themselves to step
(26:33):
out of the corporate space where we'renot allowed to talk about that, and
really, when they're behind their screenswriting these books, that they will talk
about that, that they will becausethe rest of us can learn how to
do it well or how not todo it. If you tell us I
handled it in this way and thiswas the negative impact on me, I
feel like we can teach each otherand we can help each other handle this
(26:55):
better. And then so that vulnerabilityof how did it impact your home lik
I hope or the rest of yourlife, not just your home life,
but the rest of your life.I hope that we can put in there
because I don't see that in malewritten business books. And then also,
of course, now my ADHD brain'slike, what's the other thing you wanted
to see the home life? Oh, I would love to see the holistic
(27:19):
aspect of it in terms of wehave this one business book that we were
looking at from a woman who wenton a year long intense spiritual journey.
Yes, and as she was tellingme about this, she was saying,
I would love to publish with RebeccaBooks. I would love to be considered
by you guys. But my bookis mostly about my spiritual journey. And
(27:40):
I said, did it not impactyour business life? And she said,
oh, my gosh, my businesslife has completely taken off because I went
on this journey. And I said, that's a business book, you know,
for a woman. I don't knowof men who are writing business books
about I went on an intense spiritualjourney and now I'm killing it in my
field, right because I've come intothis awareness and come into this connection and
(28:00):
that sort of thing. So thosesorts of books showing us how something else
you did in your journey impacted negativelyor positively your business life, I feel
like that will help us build alibrary here of business books that authentically show
the difference in the experience of afemale in the workplace versus a male in
(28:25):
the workplace. Does that make sense? It absolutely does. The two words
that come up when I hear youdescribe those things are interconnection and intersectionality,
right, because we as women,we don't have we don't have the margins
to be able to separate all ofthe things. An example that I use
all the time is no matter whowe are as women. For me,
(28:48):
I'm a mom, you're a mom. I can be having this conversation with
you, this talk with you.We can be doing all of the things,
crunching numbers. We can be infull on business mode. If our
phone rings and it's the school calling, no matter what business we are doing,
our mind automatically goes to solving whateverthat call is about. Right,
(29:14):
we can silence it, we cansend them to voicemail. But the next
few minutes of our meeting is I'mnot going to wrap this up very quickly
to make sure everything is okay,what projects are outstanding, in case this
is a call that means that I'mnot coming back today, that I'm not
getting to do the next thing.So we don't have the leeway of compartmentalizing
(29:37):
all of the parts of our lives. We don't get to walk into the
office, put on our office clothes, be an office person, and then
go back home. And I thinkthat is a distinction that we have to
talk about. What is that mentalthe gymnastics piece of it that happens we
have to be both and all thetime and on our business journeys, and
(29:59):
then this pieces as we look atthe interconnection, is the true opportunity cost
of doing business? As a womandoing business? What is the true cost
of doing business with me? Forright, I'm thinking about you know,
am I choosing a job that iscompromising my spiritual beliefs and values which we
(30:22):
tend to I feel like we tendto have a more difficult time with that
than our male counterparts, at leastin my experience in the business. You
know, it's I have made somany of my own career decisions because if
I enter into that project with thosepeople, then I feel as if I
have to put on a front orI have to check some values at the
(30:45):
door, which means now I'm livingin authentically and I can't perform well right
in that space. We work instory spaces, and I can't create well
if I'm styming who I am andso. But then there's that fear,
right of especially if you're the breadwinner. If I don't say yes to this,
now, I'm not going to feedmy kids, what's gonna happen?
Yes, Yes, all of thosethings, all of those things. Those
(31:10):
are the stories women who are listening, Those are the stories we want to
want to hear. Your stories ofhow you're doing it, how you're making
it happen, the ways that itworked, in the ways that it didn't.
Yeah, I think it's just aspowerful to see the ways that it
didn't. Yeah. I don't.I don't want to in any way communicate
the message that you have to bekilling it right now for us to be
(31:32):
interested. I mean, if youtried and colossally failed. Actually, this
is funny. Not funny, thisis the wrong word, wrong descriptor.
This is appropriate. So I usedto write for Founder magazine. I did
CEO profiles for founder founders like FastCompany and Business Magazine, and I did
an article for So Founder does notallow you to pitch articles. They do
(31:52):
not take outside pitches for articles.All of the content ideas are generated within.
And then you are a as awriter. This is what you're writing
about, this is who you're writingabout, here's the interview. Whatever.
But one time I had a colossalcareer failure. It was I mean it
was it was a go big orgo home explosion career. And so I
(32:16):
went to my editor after months later, after I had you know, sifted
through it for the lessons that werethere, and started anew and things like
that. And I went to herand I said, I'm not seeing in
our magazine stories of failure, butthere are lessons to be learned here.
Would you mind me writing an articleabout this? And so she took it
to the powers that be and theysaid, yeah, okay, you know,
(32:37):
well she's been with us for awhile, we'll let her did the
article. So the article came out. And fast forward to just a few
weeks ago. So this article cameout several years ago, just a few
weeks ago. I happened to rememberthat on in Facebook messenger, there's a
section in those messages for people whoaren't connected to you. If they try
(32:57):
to message you, it'll go overthere. Yeah, and don't ever look
there. But I was like,oh, I haven't looked there in a
long time. I should see ifthere are any messages there. And there
was a message from a woman thatwas two years old. She had read
that article after having a career failure, and she was like, I was
ready to end life. I wasready to just be done with everything.
I was never going to come backfrom this. I had failed, I
(33:20):
had tried, I'd gone big andit failed, and I was done.
And she said but then I readyour article and so I've decided, you
know, lick my wounds a littlebit, and I'm going to try again
and find the lessons that there aredefined in this failure. And I read
it. It was so satisfying becauseI was like, was it fun to
put it out there to two pointone million readers that I'm massively right?
(33:40):
No, but like that's the realitypart of entrepreneur life. I can only
really speak to entrepreneur life because Ihaven't worked for a corporation for a long
time. But part of the lifeas as much a part of success.
As much that success is a partof this life, so is failure.
It's a legitimate part of the journey. Yes, And if we're not going
(34:04):
to talk about that part, thenwe can't find the lessons in that part.
So we're just going to keep makingthose same kinds of failures. So
I want those books too. Idon't know about you, but I want
the ones that I lude that Ineed, the books of failing forward,
right, failing flat, and failingforward, because there's sometimes that we we
I mean, we fail and thenwe get in our girlfriend group chats and
(34:27):
we will, right, we will, Yeah, failure. That's what I
want, right, like, whatwas what was the failure? What was
the wailing like? And then whatwas the other side of it? Or
if you are still trying to figureout what the other side, what does
that process look like of figuring outwhat happens next now that this has blown
(34:47):
up? Right? Is what isthe talk track that you walk yourself through
to say, ah, yeah,that was terrible, let's not ever do
that again. You say that wasair, Well, what's the what's the
next line of that script? Right, that internal script? And then what
is the action that motivates that ismotivated from there moving forward? I love
(35:12):
this. I feel like helping tocreate that body of knowledge where we can
help each other rise in the workforce. It just yeah, it makes me
grand wise women do it. It'sthat whole what's the it's my favorite line,
and run the world and the beyonceswe're in the world, she says,
(35:32):
strong enough to bear the children.Then get back to business. It's
my favorite line in business, that'sright. Yeah, yeah, but we're
not even going to go down thatrabbit hole. But that's a thing.
That thing, it's what we do. We all if you're in business,
and you have kids. Most ofus right now are just having to figure
(35:54):
it out in the moment. Andto me, the sad part is that
so many of us have figured itout that we shouldn't. The new ones
coming up shouldn't have to be figuringit out for themselves without any knowledge to
draw from, you know, absolutely. I was talking with a friend about
that yesterday. Her daughter is fourmonths old. She returned to work part
(36:15):
time and it's tearing her up.And I finally looked at her yesterday and
I said, it's okay to beupset about being back at work. Right
she just needed the permission to beupset, and she dropped a couple of
tears and was just like, okay, thank you. M hmm. That's
all she needed was someone to acknowledgeit is hard being here like it is.
(36:37):
It is hard, it's heart wrenching. And that's that I said.
Forget all your emotions being all overthe place like that's a whole other set
of things. I want to giveyou permission to acknowledge that this is hard,
this sucks in this moment and that'sokay, yep. And I think
that that gave her So if wecan put out books that say that that
it's okay to be like this partof life sucks, it's a business sets
(37:00):
or whatever it is. Then thewisdom will be shared, right, the
wisdom will come through us and givenpermission to be real. That that permission
to be real, that's the That'sthe thing is we're held to such a
male standard and it's so different,such a different experience career wise professionally for
(37:22):
females, and if we don't giveourselves that permission to be female at work,
it is okay, it's not goingto look like your male counterpart most
often. But there's a reason thatbusinesses that have women in leadership in the
leadership team outperform businesses with only males. We do it well. We just
(37:45):
have to give ourselves permission to doit the way that we do it.
I love that you gave her thatpermission. Be sad, be upset,
It's it's normal, it's natural,it's totally okay all of those things.
Yeah. Yeah, and it's wouldn'tit be wouldn't it be interesting in a
sad way if you were a momwho was like, let me just toss
(38:07):
my kid off and go back tobusiness. I think we all have some
do some sort of reaction to thatwhen we have to do it, we
do, we have lisceral reactions tothat. Yet that is also what's expected
of our male counterparts. Our malecounterparts are expected to be present for us
(38:30):
during this childbirth experience or whatever itis. But then we expect them to
a so just be like I'm outdayright. Yes, interesting on so many
levels. Yeah, in my ownhouse, it was an interesting experience in
that, you know, I wasin corporate life. I was working for
(38:52):
Thomas Nelson, which is HarperCollins whenI got pregnant with my first one,
and I knew that I put ina ton of hours in my work,
and I knew that I just mentallyI was like, I don't think I'm
going to be able to be uphere at this for fifty hours a week,
sixty hours a week with a babyat home. I don't think mentally
I'm going to be able to separate. So I went to my boss.
(39:13):
We tried to an act of flextime policy. She had been trying to
do it for years before me,before her own children, her own situation,
and it just was never going tohappen at that company. At that
time, and she let me knowpretty early on we'll make another run at
it, but you know, MAILSare in charge and they don't see a
need for this, and so Idon't think we're going to be able to
get the flex time policy. Weneed to get another situation in place for
(39:34):
you. And that's when I leftto start my own PR firm, and
it worked out really well for me. But when I started the firm,
my husband was our primary breadwinner withhis nice six figure income for his big
fortune five hundred company he worked for. And just a few weeks after I
gave birth, he was laid off. And so I was like, what
have I done? What have Idone? I do no longer work for
(39:55):
the corporation and I have a brandnew business and a brand new baby.
And I was and we had greatbenefits through his work, and what am
I going to do? And hespent He was given a severance package,
thank goodness, it was twelve weekseverance package, and so for all of
those weeks of the severance package hewould send his resume. And this was
(40:15):
at a year when the economy wasdoing very well. There was no reason
to think that someone in his field, with his track record would have any
difficulty finding another job. We wereliving in Nashville at the time, lots
of companies to choose from. Thisman week to week would start sending resumes
further and further out. He gotto the point where he was sending resumes
(40:35):
to companies on the other side ofthe country. Yeah, just trying to
find something. He would go in. He went in for an interview and
the guy said in Nashville. Theguy said, absolutely want you to come
work for us. And then ashe's exiting in the parking lot, he
gets the phone call from that mansaying, I've just been put on a
hiring freeze, so I can't hireyou. So it's like every door was
closing for him to stay in theworkforce. And I'll never forget the day
(40:57):
he turned to me, and wewere eight weeks into the twelve week severance
package, and he said, doyou think I'm supposed to stay at home
with our child while you built yourbusiness? And it was such a radical
idea for us, given our upbringings, for me to be the career and
him to be this stay at homeIt felt very wrong. It felt very
(41:19):
wrong to us, like we're doinglife wrong. And I said, I
don't know, let's think about that. Let's talk about that because my business
was doing well. And then,in the eleventh week of his twelve week
severance we've always called it the eleventhhour, I signed a contract with a
client that to the dollar replaced hisincome. Wow. And he looked at
me and he said, I thinkthis is what we're supposed to do.
(41:42):
I'm supposed to stay at home andtake care of him. We had a
son, and you work, youbuilt your business, and I'll help you.
Because he's an IT guy, andso he was able to handle the
it which I sense now no,was a massive value to my company to
have a cybersecurity guy right there,you know, with me and he so
he stayed home for the first threeand a half years of our son's life.
(42:06):
He stayed home and raised our son. He was the primary caregiver while
I was the primary bread winner andit. He and my son are ridiculously
close today in ways that I don'tsee other dads and sons. They just
bonded so hard. I mean notthat I didn't bond with my son.
I'm very close. I'm freakishly closewith both my children. It's very Gilmore
(42:27):
girls up in here, But Icredit that he was home with our kiddo
for the first three and a halfyears of his life. Every time that
child needed anything, his dad wasthere. But having that experience, when
I talk with that about other women, they're like, first of all,
being married to a man that wouldconsider it was a gift, you know,
they consider staying home. But thensecond, what does that look like?
(42:50):
How does that function you know inyour everyday life when it's the woman
who's working in the man who's stayinghome. Those are the kinds of stories
that I would love to put outthere in the world because there was we
had a lot of cultural pushback andwe're still dorn to this day of the
books. Once yes that that particularstory, we're not right. I'm not
(43:14):
writing this story. We're not publishingany of my stuff through this company,
but it was not a vanity press. But normalizing those kinds of situations and
those kinds of decisions, it isvery important, I think, to the
health of this society. We haveto normalize those kinds of decisions and those
kinds of situations. And I don'tthink we're going to make it. We
(43:37):
have to acknowledge that that is justas valid as it would have been for
us to move, for him togo work somewhere else and me to stay
at home, that both are justas valid. So that's my little soapbox
for the day. That was it. That was It was a good one.
It was a motivational one. I'mgonna have I have some friends.
Now she's the primary breadwinner. He'sthe the stay at home dead with some
(44:00):
flexibility and stuff. And so nowI'm curious about I've always been curious,
but now I'm more curious about whatthat decision making process was like for her,
right because, just like you said, we have this response to oh,
I'm going yes, and it impactsyour relationship at home too, Yes,
because he's getting pushed back from hisbuddies. Oh oh you're a kept
(44:23):
man now, and now you're andso it's there's so much. There are
just layers and layers of impact thathappen. And that's just one way that
our business adventures can look different fromour male counterparts, you know. And
I just we've got to normalize ourexperiences and we're going to do that,
right, Yes, Yes we are, Yes we are. If we do
(44:44):
nothing else that we will do thatwe will do. Okay, So I've
kept you on here and I toldher everybody. I told her that this
would be just a fifteen or twentyminute thing, and we're this is definitely
twice that. So let me roundensation, let me wrap this up. Is
there anything that you definitely want peopleto know about you, about your involvement
(45:06):
with Rebecca Books, about what you'relooking for or how to work with you,
or on any of those fronts,something you definitely want to say to
them, Not that you won't becoming back on. I'm just saying,
no, no, no, I'mgonna take this time right. Opportunity is
here, it may or may notnot twice, I'm gonna take it.
The one thing that I want tosay about working with me, about working
(45:30):
with Rebecca Books, is that Iwant you to be courageous. I want
you to be courageous enough to writestories that we haven't seen, to build
characters that we haven't met, havingexperiences that are very real to us.
And I want you to be courageousto share your journey in business. Your
(45:54):
journey's in business, the good,the bad, and the ugly. This
is a collective of wisdom. Weare making a root, keep adding to
it. We're going to keep addingto it, and it only becomes as
tasteful and as flavorful as the ingredientsthat we put in. So wise women,
(46:21):
right right on, right on,right on, with courage, and
this is a safe space. Thisis a safe space. This is a
safe space. Yeah, that bringsto mind. I haven't told everybody yet,
you know our future intentions to bringeverybody together once a year, our
(46:42):
content creators together once a year.We used to do that in one of
my other businesses where I managed artists, and it was such an incredible time
of sort of being able to letdown the walls that we have to put
up to keep ourselves safe out thereas creators and just be authentic selves with
each other. Oh, it's sucha good time. It was such a
good time to do those and I'mlooking forward to doing that with the content
(47:05):
creators here at Rebecca Books too.Sane fun. Okay, Well, if
you guys want to get in touchwith Danielle, it is Danielle at Rebecca
books dot com. And if youdon't know how to spell Rebecca by now,
it won't go to her, Sowill not it's only got one c,
one C and it gets to me. That's it. And it gets
to you one scene and it getsto me. I like that. And
(47:29):
if you want to see what needsto be in your proposal, go to
Rebecca books dot com scroll down.The five elements that need to be in
your proposal are listed and described there. You do not have to be represented
by an agency or an agent tobe considered here, not right now.
Anyway, We'll see, we shallsee. That's where we are today,
is that you can query us directlyif you're a writer, and we would
(47:52):
love to hear from you, rightand by we I mean her. Don't
worry, Rebecca's gonna see them too, these week the editorial review. That's
true. That's true. She's gonnahave to see them. I'll just get
to say, oh, this isthe juicy one to bump to the top
of the pile. That's true.Make your juicy one. That's true,
juicy one. Okay, thank youso much for taking the time to do
(48:14):
this. I know you're busy andyou have a million things going on,
so I appreciate you taking time outfrom all that to let everybody meet you
here. I appreciate you and thisopportunity. This has been fun. We
should do this again sometimes we shouldwe should do work together on something.
I don't know. We should gettogether, work on something together. You
have such good ideas, such greatideas. You feel so great like this.
(48:38):
That's like a little dance duo orsomething. It's real sad how serious
we are in this company. It'sjust so boring, just serious place buttoned
up. Okay, you guys haverecorded. I do have a jacket with
buttons on it. It's a cooljack record. I don't technically buttoned up,
(49:05):
which makes one of us, andreally it should be at least one
of us, right professional and buttonedup. I think it should be you
every time. That could be okay, every time. That's it, it's
happening. We're in trouble if wehave to be serious all the time.
Yeah, uh, that's not gonnawork. But we will be serious about
(49:27):
getting your book out there to themarket, because that's important. That is
true. That has to happen,is that your stories have to be told.
Yes, they have to be shepthey're made available, you know.
I'm so. I've said mentioned before. I'll mention it one more time and
then I'll hush is that the keyelement I needed to know that I could
make a traditional royalty paying publishing housework was having a contractual relationship with a
(49:52):
distribution company that could get my booksin Walmart and Target Costco and Sam's and
Airport Bookstores and Barnes and all ofthose places. So when we signed our
contract with APG, I was like, Okay, this will happen. Our
books will be available. All ofthese women's voices will be made available all
over the place. So let's dothis. Yeah, wisdom, wisdom them
(50:15):
out there, oh so excited.Okay, thanks for taking the time,
No, thank you. I hopeyou are as thrilled as I am that
Danielle is on the Rebecca Books team. She's a truly lovely why soul and
it's an honor to have her board. Thanks for listening and being a part
(50:36):
of this incredible journey to build atraditional royalty paying publishing house that honors women
forty and over by making space fortheir voices and compensating them well. If
you want to submit a project forconsideration, check out the show notes to
get the spelling for Danielle's email address. It's Danielle at Rebecca books dot com.
(50:58):
Until next week, you've been listeningto Raising Rebecca Books, the Birth
of a publishing House from the OneC Story Network. Subscribe to the show
wherever you get your podcasts, andlearn more at Rebecca books dot com.
That's r E B E c Abooks dot com, The One C Story
(51:54):
Network for the love of stories.
Welcome to the fourth episode of RaisingRebecca Books The Birth of a Publishing House.
This is the audio story of me, Rebecca Sites, building a traditional
royalty paying publishing house from the groundup, told to you as it unfolds.
Last week I shared that we havea new acquisitions editor here at Rebecca
Books. I am so excited thatthis week you get to hear directly from
(00:46):
E. Danielle Butler yourself. Wehit record on a conversation that I invite
you to listen to. Now you'relistening to Raising Rebecca Books The Birth of
a Publishing House on the One CeasedNetwork. One See is made possible in
part by the support of the followingsponsor. Okay, so let's start with
(01:21):
let's see where do I want tostart? I actually did give this thought.
I was professional about it and everything. I'd like to start with When
you first knew that you loved books? When did you first fall in love
with books? Ah, that's sucha wonderful question. The vivid memory.
I think I'm about four. Ihad to be four because I was in
(01:42):
pre K. Was marching in likepre k in kindergarten over to the fourth
and fifth grade halls in elementary schoolto read books to them. Now,
looking back, I'm like, whatis that a ploy to get me to
be a better reader? Right?What was the purpose behind that? But
that's when I knew, going overthere, like with a select group of
(02:04):
students to sit down and just readto these big kids, right, because
there's so much bigger I knew thenfor like, that's the memory, Like
that's knowing. And what were yourbooks of childhood? The ones you loved
that you remember? Oh? Man, that Doctor Seus's Go Dogs Go had
me in a why was it shecalled over that book? And then my
(02:30):
grandmother I spent a lot of timewith her, and she had this devotional
I own it now. She wasa nurse and it's called on Call.
And I was fascinated with that booktoo. That was my grown up book,
your grown up book, that's mygrown up book was on call devotion?
You you write as well? Sowhen did you know that you had
(02:52):
this ability to write that? Maybenot every human does. So I began
writing probably around that same time.I found recently some of my squabbles that
my mother had saved. But Idon't know that I didn't know that it
wasn't something that everybody could do.I didn't know that until much later.
(03:12):
I thought that we were all makingup fantastic stories and sharing them with the
world. Me too, Me too. I have to tell you so,
first time I ever made real moneyfor my writing, my brother in law
had deployed to Iraq, and Iwrote a piece about the day he deployed,
just sort of documenting it for thefamily. And then Moltnoma which is
(03:32):
now WaterBrook, Moltnomah was doing abook called Stories from a Soldier's Heart and
it was an anthology, and soI submitted it and they accepted it,
and a few months later I gota check and it wasn't it was like
three hundred dollars maybe or six hundreddollars. It was a few hundred dollars.
But I remember I was living ina condo in Nashville at the time,
(03:53):
and I had a roommate because Icouldn't afford a place on my own.
And I had gotten the mail,and I stopped under underneath the Bradford
pear tree in the front yard toopen my mail because there was this check
from Moltnomah, or there was thisenvelope for Maltnomah and I was like,
I wonder what this is if it'san update on the book. When the
book's coming out and I opened itand there was a check and I held
(04:14):
this check in my hands and Istared at it and I said, this
is actual money because I put wordson a screen. That makes no sense
to me. So that's probably whenit kicked in right, that it wasn't
for everybody. Was probably the firsttime that I like earned something for it.
Oh okay, well there's that.That's a thing. Let's let's just
(04:40):
let's do that. Let's do that. Yeah. I just thought, why
is everybody not doing this? Andthen it had to be explained to me,
well, everyone doesn't have the abilityto just sit down and put words
on a screen? And I thought, really, like, are you sure
like everybody can do this. That'sa truth that I am sitting with over
the last pro ten to fifteen years, that it's not an everybody got that
(05:03):
gift thing. Yeah, that's anew truth for me because I truly believed
like, of course you can't.Of course you can't. Who can't?
And now I'm like, ah,I see, I see. Now you
look at some of this stuff comingthrough of people who want to be published,
and you're like, I see,I see. Not everyone can do
(05:24):
that, that everyone can write.It is a gift, and so now
I try to honor that gift,recognizing that it's not freely and widely given
for sure. Exactly exactly Okay,So here at Rebecca Books, I have
explained in previous episodes to the audiencethat we are only publishing romance and business
written by and about women forty andover. But I'd love for you to
(05:46):
talk about what exactly draws your attentionor what you appreciate, whether that's about
content or the way the content isbrought to you. We are very clear
on the website about what needs tobe in your proposal, Yes, but
what exactly are you paying attention towhen those proposals come in? Now that
they are all landing on your desk, not mine, you're saying that with
(06:08):
such joy joy under there. Forthose of you listening, you can't see
Rebecca's face, but I can,and like her cheeks are rosy and she
is joyful that she said that.Ok So what am I looking for?
Number one? I think the firsttest is did you follow directions? Because
(06:28):
on our website everything is super clear, this is what we need to see.
These are the things that need tobe in your proposals. So that's
number one. Like, because somany are coming in, it's like,
okay, who can follow the directions? That's an easy bar. The second
thing I look for is a voicethat I haven't heard or seen before,
(06:50):
but that sounds so realistic. Thatis what I love. I love when
someone can bring me into a storythat I can see as being real,
even if it's totally imagined. Whenit comes to fiction writing, like,
I want to believe that this couldbe. If you're telling me that purple
(07:13):
aliens are coming down and fallen inlove, you know, with humans,
I wanted to be believable. Iwant this purple alien to fall in love
with this woman who is over forty, which means you know that her body's
gonna look a little bit different thana teeny bopper or someone in their earlier
years. I'm also looking for worksthat unfold, that give us some layers,
(07:41):
because I think that by the timewe are women, we have experienced
so many things from girlhood to teenagehoodto young adulthood that by the time we
hit this stage, I think fortyis like womanhood. I think by the
time we've hit that, there arejust some nuance is in some layers that
(08:01):
I think appear as a result ofour experiences and our existences. I like
to see those layers. So let'stalk about that a little bit. Because
whenever I'm talking to anybody about RebeccaBooks and I say we want writers who
are women forty and over writing aboutwomen forty and over, they ask,
well, what's the difference in aromance featuring a heroine who's forty five versus
(08:24):
twenty five or thirty five? What'sthe big difference? What's the big deal?
And I've explained it a million timesthat I feel like maybe it would
be good to have another explanation too, of what would you expect to see
in those stories that you don't necessarilysee in what is right now looks to
be ninety to ninety five percent ofromance out there, which is heroines in
their twenties and thirties. So thefirst part is that it exists right like
(08:48):
the first thing is at acknowledging thatromance exists at forty and over. And
I don't know about you, butI remember being in my twenties and feeling
like the forties so far apart oraway that I could barely wrap my mind
around it, let alone this ideaof being in love and loved. So
(09:09):
when I think about a heroine thatis forty, I think she knows some
things about herself that may cause herto make choices differently than one who's twenty
or twenty five. She may approachthis romance in a totally different way.
So I'm thinking about those things.She's bringing these life experiences with her,
(09:33):
and she's adding that into her selectionprocess. Right, love over forty is
definitely a choice. It is achoice to allow yourself to be loved.
To know what it is that romancefeels like to you. I have a
dear friend. I'm gonna use thisexample of romance because I feel like this
(09:56):
shows up in that have this dearfriend, and we were talking recently and
her husband brought her a snack anda drink and she looked at him and
she's like, you are the best, right, Like, I think you're
so amazing. That's romance, right, because he spoke her language in that
moment that was romantic to her versussomeone that doesn't necessarily have as much experience.
(10:22):
So she may be saying, Ah, I want the roses and the
quilt and the balloons and the teddybears and all of those things, and
there's nothing wrong with those things.But over forty, at forty and over
forty, you know that you canbring me the flowers. But if that
flower comes with something cold to drinkor something I wore favorite, okay,
you're gonna get a little bit furtherin this experience. There's one of my
(10:46):
favorites. There's some you know,we've talked a lot about. I love
Jennifer Cruzy and I study her novels. Yeah, and I cannot tell you
which title it is, but shedoes often point out that roses just don't
just don't. It's better for youto not send anything if you're going to
send my roses, unless I havetold you that I love red roses,
(11:09):
and then yes, absolutely, Butotherwise it feels so unspecific, non specific
to the heroine. And you know, in our forties we tend to not
put up with that as much.In our forties were like, if you're
not going to see me, ifI'm just going to be a woman and
not the woman that I am,then never mind you know, I need
this to be real. I seeyou and you see me as opposed to
(11:33):
it feels it even felt for me. I mean, my husband was my
thirteenth marriage proposal, and that partof that was because where I'm from,
what the girls do. I'm froma rural town in Tennessee, and so
at growing up at that time,I'm gen X. The purpose was to
get married and have kids and builda home, and that's what you did
as a female. And so Iwasn't alone in having all of those marriage
(11:54):
proposals. There's nothing especially about me, but it was. It all felt
very, very systematic instead of specific. And so in this phase of life
it I think there has to bemuch more specificity in seeing each other.
Also because at this age, awoman knows herself. Like what you're talking
(12:16):
about, We've taken the time toknow who we are and what flowers we
like and what ways of being,what snacks we like exactly exactly. No,
I feel that same way, right. I think we are learning ourselves,
we are meeting ourselves. We're understandingourselves for so much of our lives
that when we hit like this goldenera, right, we are headed towards
(12:39):
the golden days of life. Itis because we may not know all of
the things that we like, butwe've lived enough to know what we definitely
don't like to be able to putwords and articulation to that, and we
love differently as a result, andwe receive love differently as a result.
(13:00):
I see a lot online of womensaying at this age, the bar is
much higher for me to allow youentry into my life because if it's harder,
if my life is harder because you'rein it, than never mind,
don't need you, don't even needyou, Like, I've had enough life
lessons, complications and such without youadding to that, right, And I
(13:26):
think that is what we want tosee at Rebecca Books, in those heroines
that are choosing to love and beloved, Like, that's what we want
to know. We want to knowwhat is the choice that they are making,
not oh I bumped into the guyat the coffee shop and he was
so high to be with them,because but also, how dare he look
(13:46):
at me because I'm just a booknerd writing in the corner. Yes,
oh yeah, I love those stories, I really really do. But I
feel like Rebecca Books has a lotmore substance when you talk about that specificy
seccificity, you know what I'm saying, specicity. There we go, we
(14:07):
got it work, it exists,guys. I think about that. I
think that's what we're looking for.It's it's the layers and the nuance in
how the romance unfolds. And I'minterested to see the depth of those men
that they have to bring to theequation as opposed to I feel like they
(14:28):
can be a little more shallow intwenty year old romances as opposed to,
like I was saying, if youhave to bring something of value to the
equation at this age, or we'lljust say never mind, say never mind.
He you are handsome, yes,but can you also fix something?
(14:48):
You are handsome, but can youalso like what knows with it? You
know, there's this under lying conversationabout dating in like twenty twenty three,
twenty twenty four, about a man. Would you date a man with calloused
hands or not? Right? Yes? Absolutely? That means he's a work
(15:15):
he's got some work ethic about himself. Right. I think they too.
I mean, obviously I'm not aman, so I don't know the male
psyche as well as I know mine. But I think men too are bringing
different things at forty and fifty yearsold into their relationships, whether it's the
romantic relationships or their friendships or whatever. They too have been through some things,
(15:37):
right, maybe they've been harmed bywomen, or they've had layoffs,
and so their psyche is damaged andthings like that that they I think it
provides this opportunity that doesn't exist inromances featuring twenty year olds. Where when
I read romances that feature twenty yearolds, and you know, I've been
reading romance since I was twelve,it's they're shine. And so the woman
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often is portrayed as she has thingsin her background already that have made her
broken in some way and he's comingin to heal that. But a forty
five year old man also is brokenin some ways. You know, he's
got a broken marriage, or he'sgot bad relationships stuff, or bad work
stuff or bad family stuff or whatever. And so I'm I'm excited to see
(16:26):
the layers of both sides and howthose layers come together to make some beautiful
romance story. I'm stoked about it. I am, however, very glad
that they're going to your desk first. And yes, yes, yes,
there are those rosy cheeks. Again, guys that she says it. But
I'm super excited to I'm just sograteful to have you on board because,
(16:51):
yeah, it's a lot to weighthrough, which is awesome. I love
that we have a lot to weighthrough. That's amazing. Please absolutely keep
sending in your sending them. Thisis mad us saying don't send them.
We want to read them. Ihave to read something at night, right,
so you might as well send itto me. Well. And we
was talking yesterday about how we reallyneed more indigenous stories, Yes, more
Hispanic stories. We really want awide cultural range of yes, police of
(17:19):
the basis for these stories. Sowe're not seeing enough of it. We've
got fantastic black stories, fantastic whitestories, but we need more color.
I think, yeah, we needsome more texture in these cultures. Come
on, we would love to hearfrom you. Because another thing that I
think about when I think about bringingwomen together, wise women, right with
(17:41):
these words, I think about somethingyou said. You talked about this idea
of growing up in a small townand what the expectation was. I think
there's a cultural conversation to be hadas well, right, what are other
cultures experiences when it comes to buildingromance? What are we taught as women
(18:03):
in other cultures versus what these womenat forty are facing. How have they
been groomed or kept or whatever inhow are they moving forward and choosing to
love and be loved in those spaces? I think that's going to be important
and I can't wait to see howthose unfold. Who is Snali dev I
(18:25):
love her romances? They are Indianbased, and I read one recently that
really kind of struck home for meas I thought about, like, when
you've been raised or groomed in specificcultures with expectations, what does that mean
for love later? M there's alot we can learn that from each other.
(18:45):
Right of I know how it's handledin a small southern town. I
know now how it's handled in acoastal town. Yes, But I don't
know. There's so much that Idon't know from so many other perspective of
If you're a forty five year oldCuban woman in California and you know your
(19:07):
second generation American or third generation,how what I'm sure your experience, your
romantic experience is coming with cultural ideasthat mine would not, and so I
would just oh, I'd love tosee those stories that would be So those
are the ones. Bring us yourstories, bring us your stories. Okay,
so let's switch gears a little bit, because we also are acquiring business
books here, and you know,you and I have talked about I just
(19:30):
feel like when you look at thebusiness space in the bookstore, when you
look on the shelves, there arenot a lot of words by women in
there between forty and sixty despite thefact that we own millions of small businesses
and medium sized businesses in this nation. And it's frustrating to me because we're
having to figure it out on thefly, despite the fact that there exists
(19:55):
a body of wisdom out there.It's just that the wisdom's not being packaged
and brought to to us so thatwe can learn from what the women before
us have done. I realize we'veonly been in the workplace for about five
minutes, but we've done some incrediblethings in those things, right right,
We've changed how business is being done. We have, and I would love
to be a place where that wisdomis captured and that history is captured and
(20:19):
transmitted so that the rest of uscan be learning from what else what these
other women have been doing in theircareers and in their businesses. So talk
to me specifically about what you're lookingat when it comes across the desk of
what kind of business stories are capturingyour attention? Which ones do you think
would be valuable to put into thatspace? Wonderful question. When I think
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about women in business over forty,there are so many books, like you
said, that are out there forwomen under forty. You know, I
made this under forty list, thisunder thirty list, and here's how I
did it. There are certain considerationsthat come alongside with of being a working
woman of a certain age. Thereare things that we have to take into
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consideration that other demographics don't. SoI'm looking for stories that bring those considerations
to the forefront. Right, wedon't have maternity leave policies in corporate until
someone ends up pregnant, right,Like somebody comes and they're pregnant, it's
like, ah, we need amaterney lead you out right, And so
(21:26):
I think that that body of wisdomthat you talk about when I'm looking at
these these stories, I want tohear relevant stories with feeling, because we
are emotional beings. Even when wewalk into our corporate offices, we can
put on our mask of stoicism,but there is feeling that's that's there and
(21:47):
the lessons that we learned in thosemoments. I want to know, as
a woman in business, how doI maintain authenticity. I want to learn
things about best practices for negotiating andshowing up at the table and going toe
to toe with the good old boysclub. I want to hear not just
how to do it, but howto do it well. I want to
(22:11):
read those stories that also are honestabout what your failures have been. What
are the mistakes that you have madethat turned into a lesson, What are
the oopses that have happened that becomeopportunities for you. That's what I'm looking
for when I read business books fromthese women that are coming to us,
because I want to be able toencourage the generations that are to come that
(22:37):
Number one, your feelings, theymatter, They're valid no matter what they
try to tell you. But here'sa way that we can deal and that's
helpful with those feelings and emotions whilestill being a credible source in your field,
while still being an industry leader.I find it fascinating that in twenty
twenty four, people are still showingup as the first right woman, for
(23:00):
the first woman of color in thisthe first female leader too, which says
that we still have a long wayto go. I don't know necessarily that
we're the first so much as we'rethe first documented. And I want us
to be able to document those stories, documenting the journey so that others a
(23:22):
can learn from them, be canavoid some of the mistakes, but can
also take it, learn it andadd on. We as women are good
for that, creating a snowball,right, taking something and making it our
own and then growing it to somethingmore. And so I want us to
be able to have those stories thatpeople can take, learn and grow from
and with. I think for me, there are two things that set a
(23:47):
woman's business story apart from a man'sbusiness story, at least in terms of
the stories that I know, interms of the books that I own and
the books that I've read. AndI was just talking about this yesterday with
one of our authors whose books werepubs. She's a banker and she is
a first in her field in somany ways, and we were actually talking
yesterday she was brought into the lastbank that she worked for to diversify the
(24:12):
staff at that bank, and thetown that she was brought to was like
ninety percent white, and she waslike, I didn't realize it also was
being brought to diversify the town.And that comes with its own challenges too,
because now she's got her professional life, but then when she leaves the
office, she's still walking into aplace where there's not a lot of representation.
So that brought its own challenges,right, and that it was just
(24:33):
a completely different mindset because that's notwhat she had been living in when she
left the location of the bank thatshe was at at their behest and came
to a new location. But forme anyway, what we were talking about
was that women tend to approach theirwork in a more holistic fashion than a
male. So, like what you'retalking about, we have considerations that males
(24:57):
don't because we also tend to bethe ones running our household and the ones
running the children and running all theextra curriculars and all of those things,
and so we have to fit inour careers with the rest of our lives
in ways that most males still inthe year of our Lord twenty twenty four
still did not, So it wasgetting vulnerable and showing you know, we're
(25:21):
brought into the workplace and we oftenhave male bosses, and therefore there is
rarely space given for us to behonest out loud about when you asked me
to stay late, or when youput this extra load on me. This
is the impact that's having not juston me but on my home. We
just were kind of taught not totalk about that because it's still so new
(25:44):
that we're even here and in thisworkforce. But in these books, I
would love to see that vulnerability,to see you know, I had to
stay till eight o'clock and so Imissed X Y Z. And here is
how I handled that in my houseor I knew that I couldn't miss that
in my family, and so hereis how I handled the conversation with that
coworker or with that supervisor to maintainthe balance between work and home. You
(26:08):
know, I just I quit andstarted my own business. That's how I
y And if you did that,you know, but having lived that myself,
that comes with its own challenges too. It takes over your life in
the beginning to get it up andrunning. So I'm hoping that we can
find memoirs and biographies and business booksthat are that women allow themselves to step
(26:33):
out of the corporate space where we'renot allowed to talk about that, and
really, when they're behind their screenswriting these books, that they will talk
about that, that they will becausethe rest of us can learn how to
do it well or how not todo it. If you tell us I
handled it in this way and thiswas the negative impact on me, I
feel like we can teach each otherand we can help each other handle this
(26:55):
better. And then so that vulnerabilityof how did it impact your home lik
I hope or the rest of yourlife, not just your home life,
but the rest of your life.I hope that we can put in there
because I don't see that in malewritten business books. And then also,
of course, now my ADHD brain'slike, what's the other thing you wanted
to see the home life? Oh, I would love to see the holistic
(27:19):
aspect of it in terms of wehave this one business book that we were
looking at from a woman who wenton a year long intense spiritual journey.
Yes, and as she was tellingme about this, she was saying,
I would love to publish with RebeccaBooks. I would love to be considered
by you guys. But my bookis mostly about my spiritual journey. And
(27:40):
I said, did it not impactyour business life? And she said,
oh, my gosh, my businesslife has completely taken off because I went
on this journey. And I said, that's a business book, you know,
for a woman. I don't knowof men who are writing business books
about I went on an intense spiritualjourney and now I'm killing it in my
field, right because I've come intothis awareness and come into this connection and
(28:00):
that sort of thing. So thosesorts of books showing us how something else
you did in your journey impacted negativelyor positively your business life, I feel
like that will help us build alibrary here of business books that authentically show
the difference in the experience of afemale in the workplace versus a male in
(28:25):
the workplace. Does that make sense? It absolutely does. The two words
that come up when I hear youdescribe those things are interconnection and intersectionality,
right, because we as women,we don't have we don't have the margins
to be able to separate all ofthe things. An example that I use
all the time is no matter whowe are as women. For me,
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I'm a mom, you're a mom. I can be having this conversation with
you, this talk with you.We can be doing all of the things,
crunching numbers. We can be infull on business mode. If our
phone rings and it's the school calling, no matter what business we are doing,
our mind automatically goes to solving whateverthat call is about. Right,
(29:14):
we can silence it, we cansend them to voicemail. But the next
few minutes of our meeting is I'mnot going to wrap this up very quickly
to make sure everything is okay,what projects are outstanding, in case this
is a call that means that I'mnot coming back today, that I'm not
getting to do the next thing.So we don't have the leeway of compartmentalizing
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all of the parts of our lives. We don't get to walk into the
office, put on our office clothes, be an office person, and then
go back home. And I thinkthat is a distinction that we have to
talk about. What is that mentalthe gymnastics piece of it that happens we
have to be both and all thetime and on our business journeys, and
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then this pieces as we look atthe interconnection, is the true opportunity cost
of doing business? As a womandoing business? What is the true cost
of doing business with me? Forright, I'm thinking about you know,
am I choosing a job that iscompromising my spiritual beliefs and values which we
(30:22):
tend to I feel like we tendto have a more difficult time with that
than our male counterparts, at leastin my experience in the business. You
know, it's I have made somany of my own career decisions because if
I enter into that project with thosepeople, then I feel as if I
have to put on a front orI have to check some values at the
(30:45):
door, which means now I'm livingin authentically and I can't perform well right
in that space. We work instory spaces, and I can't create well
if I'm styming who I am andso. But then there's that fear,
right of especially if you're the breadwinner. If I don't say yes to this,
now, I'm not going to feedmy kids, what's gonna happen?
Yes, Yes, all of thosethings, all of those things. Those
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are the stories women who are listening, Those are the stories we want to
want to hear. Your stories ofhow you're doing it, how you're making
it happen, the ways that itworked, in the ways that it didn't.
Yeah, I think it's just aspowerful to see the ways that it
didn't. Yeah. I don't.I don't want to in any way communicate
the message that you have to bekilling it right now for us to be
(31:32):
interested. I mean, if youtried and colossally failed. Actually, this
is funny. Not funny, thisis the wrong word, wrong descriptor.
This is appropriate. So I usedto write for Founder magazine. I did
CEO profiles for founder founders like FastCompany and Business Magazine, and I did
an article for So Founder does notallow you to pitch articles. They do
(31:52):
not take outside pitches for articles.All of the content ideas are generated within.
And then you are a as awriter. This is what you're writing
about, this is who you're writingabout, here's the interview. Whatever.
But one time I had a colossalcareer failure. It was I mean it
was it was a go big orgo home explosion career. And so I
(32:16):
went to my editor after months later, after I had you know, sifted
through it for the lessons that werethere, and started anew and things like
that. And I went to herand I said, I'm not seeing in
our magazine stories of failure, butthere are lessons to be learned here.
Would you mind me writing an articleabout this? And so she took it
to the powers that be and theysaid, yeah, okay, you know,
(32:37):
well she's been with us for awhile, we'll let her did the
article. So the article came out. And fast forward to just a few
weeks ago. So this article cameout several years ago, just a few
weeks ago. I happened to rememberthat on in Facebook messenger, there's a
section in those messages for people whoaren't connected to you. If they try
(32:57):
to message you, it'll go overthere. Yeah, and don't ever look
there. But I was like,oh, I haven't looked there in a
long time. I should see ifthere are any messages there. And there
was a message from a woman thatwas two years old. She had read
that article after having a career failure, and she was like, I was
ready to end life. I wasready to just be done with everything.
I was never going to come backfrom this. I had failed, I
(33:20):
had tried, I'd gone big andit failed, and I was done.
And she said but then I readyour article and so I've decided, you
know, lick my wounds a littlebit, and I'm going to try again
and find the lessons that there aredefined in this failure. And I read
it. It was so satisfying becauseI was like, was it fun to
put it out there to two pointone million readers that I'm massively right?
(33:40):
No, but like that's the realitypart of entrepreneur life. I can only
really speak to entrepreneur life because Ihaven't worked for a corporation for a long
time. But part of the lifeas as much a part of success.
As much that success is a partof this life, so is failure.
It's a legitimate part of the journey. Yes, And if we're not going
(34:04):
to talk about that part, thenwe can't find the lessons in that part.
So we're just going to keep makingthose same kinds of failures. So
I want those books too. Idon't know about you, but I want
the ones that I lude that Ineed, the books of failing forward,
right, failing flat, and failingforward, because there's sometimes that we we
I mean, we fail and thenwe get in our girlfriend group chats and
(34:27):
we will, right, we will, Yeah, failure. That's what I
want, right, like, whatwas what was the failure? What was
the wailing like? And then whatwas the other side of it? Or
if you are still trying to figureout what the other side, what does
that process look like of figuring outwhat happens next now that this has blown
(34:47):
up? Right? Is what isthe talk track that you walk yourself through
to say, ah, yeah,that was terrible, let's not ever do
that again. You say that wasair, Well, what's the what's the
next line of that script? Right, that internal script? And then what
is the action that motivates that ismotivated from there moving forward? I love
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this. I feel like helping tocreate that body of knowledge where we can
help each other rise in the workforce. It just yeah, it makes me
grand wise women do it. It'sthat whole what's the it's my favorite line,
and run the world and the beyonceswe're in the world, she says,
(35:32):
strong enough to bear the children.Then get back to business. It's
my favorite line in business, that'sright. Yeah, yeah, but we're
not even going to go down thatrabbit hole. But that's a thing.
That thing, it's what we do. We all if you're in business,
and you have kids. Most ofus right now are just having to figure
(35:54):
it out in the moment. Andto me, the sad part is that
so many of us have figured itout that we shouldn't. The new ones
coming up shouldn't have to be figuringit out for themselves without any knowledge to
draw from, you know, absolutely. I was talking with a friend about
that yesterday. Her daughter is fourmonths old. She returned to work part
(36:15):
time and it's tearing her up.And I finally looked at her yesterday and
I said, it's okay to beupset about being back at work. Right
she just needed the permission to beupset, and she dropped a couple of
tears and was just like, okay, thank you. M hmm. That's
all she needed was someone to acknowledgeit is hard being here like it is.
(36:37):
It is hard, it's heart wrenching. And that's that I said.
Forget all your emotions being all overthe place like that's a whole other set
of things. I want to giveyou permission to acknowledge that this is hard,
this sucks in this moment and that'sokay, yep. And I think
that that gave her So if wecan put out books that say that that
it's okay to be like this partof life sucks, it's a business sets
(37:00):
or whatever it is. Then thewisdom will be shared, right, the
wisdom will come through us and givenpermission to be real. That that permission
to be real, that's the That'sthe thing is we're held to such a
male standard and it's so different,such a different experience career wise professionally for
(37:22):
females, and if we don't giveourselves that permission to be female at work,
it is okay, it's not goingto look like your male counterpart most
often. But there's a reason thatbusinesses that have women in leadership in the
leadership team outperform businesses with only males. We do it well. We just
(37:45):
have to give ourselves permission to doit the way that we do it.
I love that you gave her thatpermission. Be sad, be upset,
It's it's normal, it's natural,it's totally okay all of those things.
Yeah. Yeah, and it's wouldn'tit be wouldn't it be interesting in a
sad way if you were a momwho was like, let me just toss
(38:07):
my kid off and go back tobusiness. I think we all have some
do some sort of reaction to thatwhen we have to do it, we
do, we have lisceral reactions tothat. Yet that is also what's expected
of our male counterparts. Our malecounterparts are expected to be present for us
(38:30):
during this childbirth experience or whatever itis. But then we expect them to
a so just be like I'm outdayright. Yes, interesting on so many
levels. Yeah, in my ownhouse, it was an interesting experience in
that, you know, I wasin corporate life. I was working for
(38:52):
Thomas Nelson, which is HarperCollins whenI got pregnant with my first one,
and I knew that I put ina ton of hours in my work,
and I knew that I just mentallyI was like, I don't think I'm
going to be able to be uphere at this for fifty hours a week,
sixty hours a week with a babyat home. I don't think mentally
I'm going to be able to separate. So I went to my boss.
(39:13):
We tried to an act of flextime policy. She had been trying to
do it for years before me,before her own children, her own situation,
and it just was never going tohappen at that company. At that
time, and she let me knowpretty early on we'll make another run at
it, but you know, MAILSare in charge and they don't see a
need for this, and so Idon't think we're going to be able to
get the flex time policy. Weneed to get another situation in place for
(39:34):
you. And that's when I leftto start my own PR firm, and
it worked out really well for me. But when I started the firm,
my husband was our primary breadwinner withhis nice six figure income for his big
fortune five hundred company he worked for. And just a few weeks after I
gave birth, he was laid off. And so I was like, what
have I done? What have Idone? I do no longer work for
(39:55):
the corporation and I have a brandnew business and a brand new baby.
And I was and we had greatbenefits through his work, and what am
I going to do? And hespent He was given a severance package,
thank goodness, it was twelve weekseverance package, and so for all of
those weeks of the severance package hewould send his resume. And this was
(40:15):
at a year when the economy wasdoing very well. There was no reason
to think that someone in his field, with his track record would have any
difficulty finding another job. We wereliving in Nashville at the time, lots
of companies to choose from. Thisman week to week would start sending resumes
further and further out. He gotto the point where he was sending resumes
(40:35):
to companies on the other side ofthe country. Yeah, just trying to
find something. He would go in. He went in for an interview and
the guy said in Nashville. Theguy said, absolutely want you to come
work for us. And then ashe's exiting in the parking lot, he
gets the phone call from that mansaying, I've just been put on a
hiring freeze, so I can't hireyou. So it's like every door was
closing for him to stay in theworkforce. And I'll never forget the day
(40:57):
he turned to me, and wewere eight weeks into the twelve week severance
package, and he said, doyou think I'm supposed to stay at home
with our child while you built yourbusiness? And it was such a radical
idea for us, given our upbringings, for me to be the career and
him to be this stay at homeIt felt very wrong. It felt very
(41:19):
wrong to us, like we're doinglife wrong. And I said, I
don't know, let's think about that. Let's talk about that because my business
was doing well. And then,in the eleventh week of his twelve week
severance we've always called it the eleventhhour, I signed a contract with a
client that to the dollar replaced hisincome. Wow. And he looked at
me and he said, I thinkthis is what we're supposed to do.
(41:42):
I'm supposed to stay at home andtake care of him. We had a
son, and you work, youbuilt your business, and I'll help you.
Because he's an IT guy, andso he was able to handle the
it which I sense now no,was a massive value to my company to
have a cybersecurity guy right there,you know, with me and he so
he stayed home for the first threeand a half years of our son's life.
(42:06):
He stayed home and raised our son. He was the primary caregiver while
I was the primary bread winner andit. He and my son are ridiculously
close today in ways that I don'tsee other dads and sons. They just
bonded so hard. I mean notthat I didn't bond with my son.
I'm very close. I'm freakishly closewith both my children. It's very Gilmore
(42:27):
girls up in here, But Icredit that he was home with our kiddo
for the first three and a halfyears of his life. Every time that
child needed anything, his dad wasthere. But having that experience, when
I talk with that about other women, they're like, first of all,
being married to a man that wouldconsider it was a gift, you know,
they consider staying home. But thensecond, what does that look like?
(42:50):
How does that function you know inyour everyday life when it's the woman
who's working in the man who's stayinghome. Those are the kinds of stories
that I would love to put outthere in the world because there was we
had a lot of cultural pushback andwe're still dorn to this day of the
books. Once yes that that particularstory, we're not right. I'm not
(43:14):
writing this story. We're not publishingany of my stuff through this company,
but it was not a vanity press. But normalizing those kinds of situations and
those kinds of decisions, it isvery important, I think, to the
health of this society. We haveto normalize those kinds of decisions and those
kinds of situations. And I don'tthink we're going to make it. We
(43:37):
have to acknowledge that that is justas valid as it would have been for
us to move, for him togo work somewhere else and me to stay
at home, that both are justas valid. So that's my little soapbox
for the day. That was it. That was It was a good one.
It was a motivational one. I'mgonna have I have some friends.
Now she's the primary breadwinner. He'sthe the stay at home dead with some
(44:00):
flexibility and stuff. And so nowI'm curious about I've always been curious,
but now I'm more curious about whatthat decision making process was like for her,
right because, just like you said, we have this response to oh,
I'm going yes, and it impactsyour relationship at home too, Yes,
because he's getting pushed back from hisbuddies. Oh oh you're a kept
(44:23):
man now, and now you're andso it's there's so much. There are
just layers and layers of impact thathappen. And that's just one way that
our business adventures can look different fromour male counterparts, you know. And
I just we've got to normalize ourexperiences and we're going to do that,
right, Yes, Yes we are, Yes we are. If we do
(44:44):
nothing else that we will do thatwe will do. Okay, So I've
kept you on here and I toldher everybody. I told her that this
would be just a fifteen or twentyminute thing, and we're this is definitely
twice that. So let me roundensation, let me wrap this up. Is
there anything that you definitely want peopleto know about you, about your involvement
(45:06):
with Rebecca Books, about what you'relooking for or how to work with you,
or on any of those fronts,something you definitely want to say to
them, Not that you won't becoming back on. I'm just saying,
no, no, no, I'mgonna take this time right. Opportunity is
here, it may or may notnot twice, I'm gonna take it.
The one thing that I want tosay about working with me, about working
(45:30):
with Rebecca Books, is that Iwant you to be courageous. I want
you to be courageous enough to writestories that we haven't seen, to build
characters that we haven't met, havingexperiences that are very real to us.
And I want you to be courageousto share your journey in business. Your
(45:54):
journey's in business, the good,the bad, and the ugly. This
is a collective of wisdom. Weare making a root, keep adding to
it. We're going to keep addingto it, and it only becomes as
tasteful and as flavorful as the ingredientsthat we put in. So wise women,
(46:21):
right right on, right on,right on, with courage, and
this is a safe space. Thisis a safe space. This is a
safe space. Yeah, that bringsto mind. I haven't told everybody yet,
you know our future intentions to bringeverybody together once a year, our
(46:42):
content creators together once a year.We used to do that in one of
my other businesses where I managed artists, and it was such an incredible time
of sort of being able to letdown the walls that we have to put
up to keep ourselves safe out thereas creators and just be authentic selves with
each other. Oh, it's sucha good time. It was such a
good time to do those and I'mlooking forward to doing that with the content
(47:05):
creators here at Rebecca Books too.Sane fun. Okay, Well, if
you guys want to get in touchwith Danielle, it is Danielle at Rebecca
books dot com. And if youdon't know how to spell Rebecca by now,
it won't go to her, Sowill not it's only got one c,
one C and it gets to me. That's it. And it gets
to you one scene and it getsto me. I like that. And
(47:29):
if you want to see what needsto be in your proposal, go to
Rebecca books dot com scroll down.The five elements that need to be in
your proposal are listed and described there. You do not have to be represented
by an agency or an agent tobe considered here, not right now.
Anyway, We'll see, we shallsee. That's where we are today,
is that you can query us directlyif you're a writer, and we would
(47:52):
love to hear from you, rightand by we I mean her. Don't
worry, Rebecca's gonna see them too, these week the editorial review. That's
true. That's true. She's gonnahave to see them. I'll just get
to say, oh, this isthe juicy one to bump to the top
of the pile. That's true.Make your juicy one. That's true,
juicy one. Okay, thank youso much for taking the time to do
(48:14):
this. I know you're busy andyou have a million things going on,
so I appreciate you taking time outfrom all that to let everybody meet you
here. I appreciate you and thisopportunity. This has been fun. We
should do this again sometimes we shouldwe should do work together on something.
I don't know. We should gettogether, work on something together. You
have such good ideas, such greatideas. You feel so great like this.
(48:38):
That's like a little dance duo orsomething. It's real sad how serious
we are in this company. It'sjust so boring, just serious place buttoned
up. Okay, you guys haverecorded. I do have a jacket with
buttons on it. It's a cooljack record. I don't technically buttoned up,
(49:05):
which makes one of us, andreally it should be at least one
of us, right professional and buttonedup. I think it should be you
every time. That could be okay, every time. That's it, it's
happening. We're in trouble if wehave to be serious all the time.
Yeah, uh, that's not gonnawork. But we will be serious about
(49:27):
getting your book out there to themarket, because that's important. That is
true. That has to happen,is that your stories have to be told.
Yes, they have to be shepthey're made available, you know.
I'm so. I've said mentioned before. I'll mention it one more time and
then I'll hush is that the keyelement I needed to know that I could
make a traditional royalty paying publishing housework was having a contractual relationship with a
(49:52):
distribution company that could get my booksin Walmart and Target Costco and Sam's and
Airport Bookstores and Barnes and all ofthose places. So when we signed our
contract with APG, I was like, Okay, this will happen. Our
books will be available. All ofthese women's voices will be made available all
over the place. So let's dothis. Yeah, wisdom, wisdom them
(50:15):
out there, oh so excited.Okay, thanks for taking the time,
No, thank you. I hopeyou are as thrilled as I am that
Danielle is on the Rebecca Books team. She's a truly lovely why soul and
it's an honor to have her board. Thanks for listening and being a part
(50:36):
of this incredible journey to build atraditional royalty paying publishing house that honors women
forty and over by making space fortheir voices and compensating them well. If
you want to submit a project forconsideration, check out the show notes to
get the spelling for Danielle's email address. It's Danielle at Rebecca books dot com.
(50:58):
Until next week, you've been listeningto Raising Rebecca Books, the Birth
of a publishing House from the OneC Story Network. Subscribe to the show
wherever you get your podcasts, andlearn more at Rebecca books dot com.
That's r E B E c Abooks dot com, The One C Story
(51:54):
Network for the love of stories.
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