Self-Publishing Without Getting Scammed with Michele DeFilippo

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Created: 10/13/2026 12:27:35 AM
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And enjoy the show with Joe. Transpitting
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live
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from the Asumam Studios
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to the devals of Southwest Texas.
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It's the Joe Rue show.
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The show where we talk about anything and
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everything.
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Where nothing is sacred, nothing is watered down,
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and nothing is PC.
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Alrighty.
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Well, hey, folks. This is Joe Ruse, and it is great to be with you once again transmitting live at the asylum. And, of course, as always, doing the very best we can to bring you the best quality talk radio we could muster without all the bluster.
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Folks, question for you. Have you ever thought about writing a book?
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I have.
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Maybe you've got a story to tell, years of experience to share or an idea that you've always wanted to put into print, but you have no idea where to start.
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My guest tonight is Michelle DiFilippo,
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founder of eleven o six Design. For more than fifty years, she's helped thousands of authors navigate the publishing world while keeping control of their work, their rights, and their profits.
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Tonight, we're gonna separate fact from fiction, expose some of the biggest publishing myths, and help you avoid the costly mistakes that trip us up... That trip up so many us, trip up so many first time off... Authors. Michelle, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me, Joe. I appreciate it. This is exciting. I'm looking forward to this. You know, I I interview, I think we talked a little bit before the show started.
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I I interview a lot of authors, and,
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you know, everybody has a similar story in some aspect. Everybody has a different experience in other aspects. And
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when I saw your profile come up and I was looking it over, was like, you know what? This this could be really beneficial, especially to the authors that I've already interviewed and anybody else gonna be coming on that that have... That are working on a book or or looking to publish something first time publishers I think this would be a great conversation for them so I really do appreciate you taking the time out of your day to to join us well I hope to be helpful to them yeah I'm sure you will now now you didn't start
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in today's publishing world. You you you watched this this whole industry evolve.
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How did you first get into this business?
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My first job in publishing was in New York City at Crown Publishers,
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and
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it was... My entry into publishing was pretty much an accident. I had gotten out of school, and I was going on job interviews, and Crown was the first place that offered me a job. So I accepted,
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you know, Italian families, you know, get a job. Get a job. Yes. Job. All too well. So so that's what I did, and I did... It turned out for the best because I I loved book publishing from the very beginning because every project was different and unique, and every author was different and unique. And and so there was no boredom of doing the same thing every day over and over again.
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Yeah. I know what you mean. Yeah. Especially with the Italian family things, you know, it's like, hey, Joseph. What are you doing? Get up off your... Do something. You know? It's one of those things. I know. I know. I know. But what was publishing like when you when you first started compared to how it is today? Well, it's it's kind of funny because traditional publishing, which is the way that I started, still exists. It's the, you know, mostly from the big six publishers and from a lot of small independent presses that that you would call traditional publishing.
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And and in that in that model, the publisher
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buys the rights from the author to produce the manuscript,
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and they pay the author for that. And then
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they also pay all of the experts to produce the book. The author doesn't have to pay anything under that model. And when a book is sold, the the publishing company
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makes back its investment by keeping most of the revenue from sales. And so that's fair. Right? The author didn't pay any money. The publisher did.
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And so they get most of the revenue when a book is sold. Now
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that model
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actually was was the only model until around nineteen ninety five, two thousand
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when Amazon came on the scene and changed everything about the publishing business.
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All of a sudden, it was possible for authors to release their own book to the publisher without a middleman
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getting involved at all. It was understood at the beginning that the author should hire the experts to produce the book and then distribute that book worldwide through print on demand platforms
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such as IngramSpark
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and KDP.
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But over the last twenty years, it's it's become very misunderstood.
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Now we have publishers
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in the space
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who charge the author to produce the book,
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and they also take their revenue on the back end from sales. And that doesn't work out too well from... For authors. So I'm here doing these podcasts because many authors don't know that they don't have to work with a publisher in order to self publish their book. It's interesting. I I remember I was speaking with with with an author not
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too long ago. I it's maybe about a month or so ago, and they were saying they really don't even make a lot of money when they publish through places like Amazon and and things like that. They get very very little money
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for, for the books that they they they put out.
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Well, it... It's sort of interesting because
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Amazon
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and other platforms do take what's called a wholesale discount whenever a book is sold.
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So for example, on a $20 book,
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let's say,
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the the wholesale discount is 40% at Amazon, so they'll take $8 right off the top. Oh, wow. Right? And and then the author in the print on demand model has to pay for the printing of the book, which is about $4.
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But the author should wind up with about $8 from that transaction.
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You know?
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But if they're working with a publisher,
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the publisher, intermediate publisher, sometimes a publisher who charged them for every service
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is gonna take part of that money, and they might wind up with $1.02, or $3 per That's that's the number they gave me. Instead of instead of 8. So so that's that's why I'm doing these podcasts. Wow. That... That's... It's... What a racket.
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Really,
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know, when you think about that, this... On Amazon's end, especially.
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Well, yeah.
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And it's always the author's job to market the book and to drive people to Amazon to purchase it. So so the way I like to to phrase it is that Amazon makes your book available for sale,
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but it doesn't do anything to sell that book for you. Right. Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. So so at what at what point did you
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did you realize that self publishing wasn't
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real... Wasn't just like a like a niche thing. It it was becoming a legitimate business model. Oh, gosh. It started growing exponentially from the very beginning. Now now we're up to about 2,000,000 books that are self published a year,
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believe it or not. And that... That's not books printed. That's titles.
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2,000,000 titles.
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So so tons and tons of people are doing it. And
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I guess by my estimation, I would say that probably 50 to 60% of them are are not doing it correctly. They're working with publishers,
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and they're losing control of their book, they're losing money in that process.
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Now that self publishing, maybe this is this is a question I should have asked a long time ago, you know, when I started interviewing authors.
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But, you know, everybody hears about self publishing and hybrid publishing, traditional publishing.
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What exactly is the difference between self
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hybrid and traditional publishing? Can you break that down? Okay. Yeah. Sure. Well, like traditional publishing, like I said, the publisher pays all the expenses and pays the author a small royalty when a book is sold, which is fair. Now, self publishing when it first started,
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authors understood that they should hire their own experts, they should invest the money, and then in return they would get
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all of the revenue from sales when a book Okay. Was
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But now we have a middle ground where...
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Called hybrid publishing. Sometimes it's called hybrid publishers.
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Sometimes the... These firms just call themselves publishers without the hybrid in front of it. But
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the the key with them is that they're charging the author to produce the book,
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sometimes for some of the services, sometimes for all of the services,
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and they're still taking money out of the author's pocket whenever a book is sold. Now the good publishers, if they're... If... The good hybrid publishers, if they're participating
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financially in the book, let's say they're charging the author for production, but they're paying for the marketing,
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then they deserve a share of the back end revenue. Right? Because they're taking a risk right along you. But a lot of these firms are charging the author for everything all the way from editing all the way through to marketing and yet they're still taking $2.03, $45
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out of the author's pocket whenever a book is sold. So authors need to ask more questions, basically, is my message in a nutshell. You have to know what you're getting into before you sign that contract.
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Yeah. Looking back over the fifty years that you have been doing this, what's the biggest misconception that people still have about publishing?
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Well,
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self publishing, the word... The term self publishing has become misunderstood.
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A lot of people think self publishing means they have to do everything themselves.
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Mhmm. They they they try to format the manuscript themselves and design their own cover or or hire some, low cost freelancer to do those tasks. But that's
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really a mistake, and that has led to
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a lot of the bad self publishers... Published books that we've all seen. So it's still important if you're gonna publish a book to put out a a good quality product that the reader's going to enjoy and and leave good reviews for. So how so how do you know that... How do you know whether a publisher or a publishing company is actually helping you or just taking your money?
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Well, that... That's really...
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That's actually the key as well because
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authors don't necessarily recognize good work versus bad work. Mhmm. And why should they? Because it's not their field.
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Right? But a lot of these publishers are put... Are giving authors low level work,
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sometimes for a low price, and so they sign up. But the authors don't know that they're not they're not just paying that production
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price once on the front end. They're paying over and over and over again every time they sell a book. Okay.
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Alright. Yeah.
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AI, sensitive subject, especially when it comes to to to writing.
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AI has made it
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so much easier now just to to crank out books.
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Has it also made it easier to publish just, I I guess, lack of a better word, junk?
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Yes.
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The short answer is yes. But the platforms are getting wise to this, and they're scanning the books that are uploaded. And and if they recognize that that book was entirely written by AI, then they're not gonna public... They're not gonna release them for you.
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It's not a bad idea to use ad AI for research.
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Mhmm. Right? Maybe maybe you need a little help to figure out how to structure the book. It can be very useful for that.
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But but you should do your own writing because if you don't, you can't copyright the text either. Oh. Right? So you should use AI for what it's good at, but then rewrite the the material in your own words and in your own voice so that it is truly your book. And from your from your side of the business, roughly,
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what do you think the percentage of books that are purely AI?
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Oh, I have no idea.
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But it's like it's like any new technology, we have to find the comp... The the middle ground.
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I think I think we're way off to one side still with people thinking AI can do everyone's job, and and that's not a good thing. Yeah. No. Look. I I... And my audience knows this. I've said it many times. I use AI to do a lot of the stuff that I do with the shows, and it helps me write
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backgrounds,
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it helps me, you know, put together some ideas and thoughts and such, but that's it. It helps me put together the ideas and the thoughts. Everything else I have to do on my own. I don't... Because you you... I... To me personally, I can tell if I'm reading something that's AI generated. Oh, yeah. You know? It it stands out like a sore thumb. It... It's it's the it's the language. It's it's the the the way this... The the... It's structured.
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You you can you can tell. I can tell anyway. So I don't want that. I I want people to know that, hey, look. I... Yeah. This is him. This is me talking here. And
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so so I'll ask it to spit out something for me. Like, for example, I'll use it to do, like,
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the episode descriptions when when we run the shows.
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Okay. Great. So give... I'll ask it. Give me something that's SEO optimized.
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Mhmm. It'll give me that, and then I'll read it. And I'll say, okay. Well, I would never say this. I would never say that. This is not how I speak. And then I would rewrite it. Yes. And use my... Using my own way, like you just said, rewrite it using your own words and your own style. Yeah. And I think I...
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And I think that's great advice, I think that's the way it should be. Unfortunately, though, there are a lot of people out there that are are actually use... Letting AI
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throw it out. Yeah.
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Well, I think
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authors and everyone should remember that buyers are smart. Right? So if you're trying to pull the ball over their eyes, you're not gonna get away with it for long. Sooner or later. Yeah. Sooner or later. Yeah. It'll catch up with you. Like, I know in the music industry that there are some... There... There's a lot of,
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AI generated music,
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songs, performances,
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singers, you know. That's... Believe it or not, that's getting harder to to filter
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out.
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You know, there... I I heard something a couple of days ago. It was a it was a country western song that I thought was a legitimate,
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like, band until I really
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researched it and looked into it. So wait a second. Now this is AI?
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Holy cow.
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Yeah. I think I think we're we're learning the unintended consequences of what should have been a great technology.
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And I I saw something else too on social media. There was a post about
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how somebody
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uses AI to generate,
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like, crazy stunt videos
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and uploads those things and then gets paid
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for those things and makes like $23,000
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per post.
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Woah. I'm like, well, I'm in the wrong business, man. Yeah. I gotta start doing something different. Well, I don't know. I I think there's gonna be payback for that. Right? Eventually.
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Then none of us know what's real.
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Absolutely. And and that's really scary, actually. Is. Yeah.
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So let's let's get off AI. Let's get back into actually working with a book as a human being.
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So
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let's let's just say, like, I told you before that, you know, I I I have an outline floating around out there or a structure or something that I'm looking to do. And so let's say I I finished writing my book tonight.
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First book, done. What are the first three mistakes that I'm about to make?
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Well, the first... Kind of said it already. The first mistake you might make is to go online and hire somebody on Fiverr
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to design your book cover or edit your book or Okay. Or so forth. You're not gonna find and nothing against the people who work there, but you're not gonna find the high level people
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that can do a good job for your book on Fiverr. They can't compete
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with people that are charging 10¢ on the dollar. Right?
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So if your book is the... If your book is a hobby and it's only meant for your friends and family, that's that's perfectly okay solution. But if you intend to sell your book or impress people with it, maybe for your business or your speaking
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engagements or whatever purpose you want it for. It needs to be a high end job from people who have experience and know what they're doing. Most people don't know what that means because
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we'll hear all the time from our customers that when the editor gets through with the job, authors will say to us, gosh, I thought my manuscript was perfect. I can't I can't believe everything
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that the editor found and all the issues that the editor identified that I wouldn't have even thought of. So I guess my first
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bit of advice is is hire the experts. And if you can't afford it, wait until you can save up because you're offering a product to the public and you're asking them
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to exchange their hard earned money for your book. And so you have a responsibility
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there to give them the best book possible.
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Mhmm.
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Now then your book is published like prose, like the prose.
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Mhmm. What made you decide to write it?
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That that was also an accident. So many things in my life were an accident.
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But sometimes those those yield the best results. The things you don't plan for. And and that's the case here. My, around 2012, my... I I had just been blogging for a while. My editor said, you know, we should we should gather these posts into a book. And I said, okay. Why not? And so we did, and she made me look way better than I could have done it myself,
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as all editors do.
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And so I published it, and I started giving it away on my website. And
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people
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now
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come to us and they say, I read your book. How do I sign up? So it has it has been such a lead generator that I never ever expected to happen. So That's interesting. That Yeah. That's that's that's actually not a bad marketing strategy
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too. Yeah. You know? Yeah. You know, you give the way... You give the book away for free. Mhmm. And then people reach out to you, and they ask you about how you can get involved in that, and then that's cool. That's fantastic. That's a great reason not to sell it. Well, that's kind of going wrong in some ways too in today's business where, like, I mean, if you download
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a lead mat... What they call a lead magnet,
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a lot of companies follow that up and they start emailing you 10 times a day. You know? So we don't do that. You know? We... Well, thank you for for reading the book and answer your questions, but we still do business the old fashioned way. We don't we don't start harassing you just because you downloaded my book. That's good. That's good.
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Now, earlier you mentioned about authors not asking
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better questions.
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Mhmm. What what are the questions that almost nobody asks?
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Well, the first thing is that you don't need to work with a publisher
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Right. Just to self publish a book. Self publishing means you are the publisher.
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Now, you do need services.
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So
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there are companies like mine that are... That I guess you could categorize them as author services companies.
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And what we do, we're basically project managers. We have the editors and designers and team in place to make sure that you're gonna get quality services and the management help to work your way through all those services.
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People don't know that exists. They think they have to work with a publisher instead,
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and that's where things tend to go wrong.
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So what what
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is it what does it really take to to produce a book that looks like it came from a major publishing house? Probably about two hundred hours by the time we're done. Really?
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Yeah. And, you know, and that's a misunderstanding
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too. I think people think, oh, I can give you my manuscript and you're just gonna click a couple of buttons and it'll be formatted and and I'll be able to put it on Amazon and make a lot of money. And and that's not the case. It's a it's a meticulous process both for editing and for the typesetting.
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You know, people call
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the the the task of making the interior pages formatting,
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but that's not what real book typesetting is. Real book typesetting is much more
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meticulous and involved than that. And I have a whole webinar that I can do about that.
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It... It's different. The way a typesetter approaches your book design, the way a real book designer approaches the task is really different than just if you were to hire a formatter,
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somewhere else on Fiverr. I see. So... And act... Actually, I was gonna ask you something similar along those lines as well, and that that is a lot of people have the have the idea that when you say self publishing, you're also talking about printing the book. Mhmm. So those are two very different things.
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Yes.
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Yeah. Printing, today, we have print on demand. Amazon made that possible. So so that's really the... It was an avalanche in the publishing industry
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because it used to be when I first started in the business,
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an author who wanted to self publish a book would have to print 5,000 copies
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and hope to sell them. But with print on demand, the book isn't printed until it's sold.
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So the authors no have... No longer have that upfront expense to to print books.
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And some of these so called publishing companies will tell people you have to print 1,500
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books. No, you don't. That's a red flag. Okay. If anybody who tells you that is taking care of themselves, not you,
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print on demand is is... The only time you pay for a book is after someone has purchased it.
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Now,
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where would you say that authors waste the most money during the whole publishing process?
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Sometimes it's with revisions.
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Right? Now, some revisions are inevitable, and we include that in our in our fees, a certain number of hours of revisions. But a lot of times, I I always tell everyone who comes to us, please finish writing your book before you begin production.
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Because if you start rewriting
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passages and adding chapters and deleting chapters and doing major things like that after production begins, now you're you're triggering expenses that really should go to something else like marketing your book. Alright. And I'm glad you clarified because I was I was thinking to myself, how could you how could you
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start
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Does... How could you start working on the book without finishing writing the book? No. The author has to finish writing before
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we... Before the editor gets a hold of it. Right? That's what I'm... I was thinking. Was like, how how would they do that? And then you clarified that, so I appreciate it.
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So so I I wanna go back to AI for one second,
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You know,
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say
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twenty years from now, when when...
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Because ultimately, you know, this is gonna end up happening at some point. Twenty years from now, AI is gonna be writing, editing,
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designing covers.
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What do you think readers will will still
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value
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that only a human author can bring? Well, I think we should think about that a little bit and hopefully not go down that road because there won't be readers if everyone is unemployed.
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Yeah. This is this is... Yeah. It's gonna be true. It could be true. Well, no. Because everybody will get up through the AIs. Yeah.
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Well, I don't know. Somewhat... Somewhere along the line, the reality of of the cost of things is gonna meet
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Eventually. Eventually. I agree. Yeah. Now when you when you sat down and spoken with with authors, writers,
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has
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anybody ever approached
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you about an
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idea or a subject or shown you a manuscript or something and and you ended up having to talk them out of writing a book?
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There's been a few instances in in the last twenty five years. Yeah.
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The one that comes to mind is a poet who wrote a poetry book, and all of the poems were about killing his children and his mother-in-law.
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And, so we declined that job. Yeah. Yeah. Wait. Wait.
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Yeah. I'm not kidding.
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Well, that's guts.
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I... Yeah. I wasn't gonna have any part of that. I don't I don't blame you one bit. I mean, that... That's crazy.
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Yeah. And then another author came to us, he had written 50,000 words all in one paragraph.
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Yeah.
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Okay.
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If I if I remember
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when I when I was in school, they taught us that a paragraph consists of basically four sentences.
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Yeah. How do you One one thought. Right? One one subject.
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Right.
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50,000
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words in Oh, and it it it... It's unfortunate. I mean, I feel sorry for him in a way because it was just a rant. Right? And we looked at it, and we thought, there's there's no way we can help this guy. You know? That's
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crazy. Wow.
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I guess you've I guess I guess you've seen a lot over the over the time you've been working in this industry. We... We've produced... Those are exceptions and really the only two that comes to mind. Most most authors are great. They care deeply about their book, and and they've done a good job. Right? But it still needs to be polished by by a good editor. You know, that's... Everybody needs an editor. Stephen King has an editor.
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The Pope has an editor. You know? It is it's something that's just necessary because we don't see
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our own mistakes when we write. And and the
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fresh eyes of an editor will spot that, and they'll say,
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you didn't really explain yourself here or whatever the problem is. Right. Right. Absolutely.
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So what do you think is the most expensive mistake that you've ever seen
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an author make?
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Oh, gosh. That's hard to say. I... There have been a few instances where where the author doesn't accept the advice of the editor
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and sometimes the designer.
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And so I know they're gonna pay a price for that down the road. I can't put a number on it, but I know that it's,
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not not a good thing to do. Now there is... I I don't wanna mislead people. There is a collaboration between the author and the editor. We're not saying that you have to accept everything we suggest. Right? Okay. But but if you... If one
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case that comes to mind, an author wouldn't let us
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hyphenate compound adjectives.
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And that's for any reviewer who reads that, they're gonna they're gonna look at that book and say this was not edited at all. Mhmm.
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But her reason was I don't like them.
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You you know, grammar is grammar isn't optional. Yeah. I was I was I was exactly what I was gonna say next. Yeah. You know, there is a structure and a form to things you can't... You know, just because you don't like it.
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Yeah. That doesn't apply to you. So, you know, that's that's it's unfortunate,
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but, we try to do...
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We try to keep authors happy, and we try to put out a good product. And sometimes
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there's a blending of those two that has to happen. Yeah.
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Now,
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I guess if you had a one piece of publishing advice that you can give to somebody,
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what would it be?
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Put out a good product.
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Right?
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Because because everybody recognizes a poor
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self published book. Right? And the reason to do that also is because when when you tell people where to find your book on Amazon
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and they go there, Amazon is not just gonna show your book. They're gonna show the best selling titles that are similar.
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So
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if your book looks self published, if the cover is not designed well, and if the interior is not is not well written, they... Well, of course, now Amazon is no longer showing the interior of the books like they used to. They're only showing the covers. I I don't know why they made that choice. I think it's unfortunate.
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But if your book
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looks self published,
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then people,
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you know, will gravitate to the bestsellers instead. Right? If your book looks as good as the self... As the traditionally published books, then the authors might say to themselves, more likely to say to themselves,
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you know, I don't know that author, but that title intrigues me and that description sounds like it's a good book. I'm gonna buy it.
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So now with eleven o six design,
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you started this with the intention of helping folks self publish.
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So what are the services that that you offer them, and,
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what what makes eleven o six design unique?
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Well, I think what makes us unique is that we are sticking to the quality in in a world that doesn't seem to care about it.
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So it's not... That's not always the easiest thing to do, but we offer the full suite of services all the way from editing,
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cover design,
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interior design, interior layout,
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typesetting.
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Then at the end of that, we proofread the book one more time to make sure nothing got missed along the way. We'll make your ebook if you'd want one. We'll make your audiobook,
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and we'll help you get set up to publish your book
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on print on demand platforms that are in your name. Right? So when a book is sold, you will get the sales reports.
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You will get the revenue deposited directly to your bank account, a 100% of it. You won't... And we don't participate financially
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at the end of the project in any way whatsoever.
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So so they would they would
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they would pay you upfront and then whatever they earn after after
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they paid you to help them with this process, they would they would keep every penny they make. Correct. We we charge you for our services once and and answer all your questions and get you situated.
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But then after that, it's all on autopilot,
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and you get every penny
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that the retailers will pay you Well, that's fantastic. When a book is sold. That's fantastic. I mean, especially as earlier you were talking about how much money comes out from traditional publishers.
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And is that... I mean, that the reason why you decided to do it, to
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to to launch eleven o six design as opposed to going a traditional publisher route? I started eleven o six design just as being a a designer as the name kind of implies. It's kind of... And then we just grew into, you know, people started asking for more services and then they started asking for help to get themselves set up for print on demand and we just kept growing and growing until
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until we are what we are now. But we're not... The key point is we're not a publisher.
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Yeah. Okay. We're we're... We work for you instead of the other way around.
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Alright.
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Well, let me see.
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I think, Michelle, I... We we answered everything that you have for me already. This is
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this is probably the fastest we've ever gone through an interview before. I I can actually... I can add a few things. Yes. Please. Let's go. Okay. A a question I get all the time from from podcast host is authors might wanna know how can I identify
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a problem publisher?
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And there are, and there are a few red flags. The first one is that they call themselves a publisher. Right? If they're publishing your book and you're not publishing your own book yourself, that's that's a red flag right off the bat.
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But another red flag is a company that offers you a free ISBN.
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Now what's an ISBN?
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It's basically the model... The industry model number for your book. Right? And authors should always purchase ISBNs
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in their own name so that they become the registered publisher of the book.
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And that's what we help you do. But these publishers will give you one of their ISBNs
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for free.
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Of course. But they're not telling you that that makes them the publisher of your book. Right? So people see free and they think, that's good. I won't have to make That's how the ISBN...
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Ah, okay. See, I never knew that. Yeah. The ISBN identifies the publisher and the title.
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Okay. So so in almost every case, anybody who gives you a free ISBN is is is becoming the publisher of your book.
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Another red flag,
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with the exception of kdp.com,
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which uses the word royalties,
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anyone who offers you a royalty,
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that also means that they are getting the sales reports and they're getting the revenue first,
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and they're paying you a lesser amount called a royalty.
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Okay. Okay.
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You should get is full publisher compensation
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direct from
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KDP, which is owned by Amazon,
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and direct from IngramSpark,
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which is owned by the Ingram Book Company. Using those two platforms together
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will get you the widest distribution at the lowest possible cost.
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And that money should go directly into your bank account, not to a middleman first.
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Okay.
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K? Third red flag is anybody who promises to make your book a bestseller.
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It's not true.
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That's the kindest thing. I think a lot of authors fall
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for that.
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It's in... It's it's... It sounds wonderful. Right? Yeah. Of course. Who who doesn't wanna be a bestseller?
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But what's really happening...
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Okay. Let me start with the definition of a real bestseller that was given to me by a a literary agent that we work with. A real bestseller
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is a book that has sold 10,000
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copies or more in the last week.
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That's... When you see the New York Times bestseller list, that's the quantities they're talking about. K? K. So these are the companies that promises to make you a bestseller. They're they're tricking Amazon's
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algorithm
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to post a bestseller
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tag for about forty five minutes. It's... But... Okay. Question for you on that. Now Yeah.
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Things like the New York Times bestseller list and so on and so forth, do they... Are they counting also the fact that a lot of authors purchase
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tons of their own book for
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don't I don't know what distribution. Like Well, you can, but I I don't know too many authors who would purchase 10,000 copies. No. I'm not saying that many, but but I I... I've heard.
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I don't know personally, but this... I've heard from other authors that that a lot of a lot of times somebody will will write a book. They'll tell... They get this big advance to write the book. Mhmm. They write the book, and they use the money from the advance, and they buy
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a few 100 copies or a thousand copies or whatever number of copies,
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and that all goes to
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count towards book sales that gets them on bestseller lists.
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Well, it might. But but but the bestseller lists are looking at Nielsen BookData,
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which which aggregates all the bookstore sales,
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into one feed. Gotcha.
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So it's hard. I mean, unless you went to to 20 cities
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and purchased books. I gotcha. Okay. Which would be kinda silly. I don't I don't think that would really work. Okay. Alright. What
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what are vanity presses?
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A van... Well,
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vanity presses
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is kind of the umbrella term that meet... That
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means the publisher paid to produce the book. And that used to be a disparaging term. When when traditional publishing was the only model, anyone who vanity published was considered
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just a lesser person.
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Right? Oh, okay.
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But that's kind of gone by the wayside now,
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because so many people are self publishing and many of them are doing a great job of it and doing very well with it.
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But the key is who you who you decide to work with to to produce the book for you. You wanna make sure you're not paying both on the front end and the back end. I see. I see.
381
00:35:36.325 --> 00:35:38.565
Okay. So we covered ISBNs.
382
00:35:38.565 --> 00:35:39.605
What about copyright?
383
00:35:41.049 --> 00:35:42.569
Copyright is automatically
384
00:35:42.569 --> 00:35:49.450
the authors the minute they finish writing their book. But when it's all finished and edited and proofread and corrected,
385
00:35:49.609 --> 00:35:53.130
then you can copyright it at the US copyright office.
386
00:35:53.369 --> 00:35:55.210
Copyright.gov
387
00:35:54.825 --> 00:35:57.704
is the address. I think it's about $85,
388
00:35:57.704 --> 00:35:58.665
and you upload
389
00:35:58.905 --> 00:36:06.825
a a cover image and a and a PDF of the text. And that officially registers your book so that if an issue arises, you can say,
390
00:36:07.640 --> 00:36:16.360
this is my book as of this date. It was published and released. And you should do that within two two months or so after you release the book to the public.
391
00:36:16.680 --> 00:36:22.200
Alright. And, when it comes to contracts, what what are some of the things we should be looking for in in contracts?
392
00:36:22.965 --> 00:36:30.245
Well, some of the bad things would be any company that take... That that buys your rights for an extended period of time.
393
00:36:30.645 --> 00:36:34.645
I would... You know, I've seen some where, you know, you're giving up the rights to do...
394
00:36:35.360 --> 00:36:37.360
To your book for, like, seven years.
395
00:36:38.160 --> 00:36:49.440
And and that really ties your your hands because if that publisher doesn't come through and and the book doesn't sell, maybe you wanna take it back. You can get your rights back from most publishers
396
00:36:49.755 --> 00:36:57.515
and and then go ahead and republish the book under your own name. But if you're tied up in a contract for seven years, that would be more difficult.
397
00:36:57.595 --> 00:36:58.315
Yeah.
398
00:36:58.875 --> 00:37:00.955
So look for that. You know, again,
399
00:37:01.755 --> 00:37:05.035
ask the question, how are you calculating my royalties?
400
00:37:05.730 --> 00:37:08.370
And you can go and check that figure
401
00:37:08.530 --> 00:37:11.170
by going directly to kdp.com
402
00:37:11.170 --> 00:37:13.890
yourself and ingramspark.com
403
00:37:14.130 --> 00:37:20.155
and using their calculators to see, okay. Here's the retail price. Here's the wholesale discount,
404
00:37:20.234 --> 00:37:23.915
here's the printing cost, and here's what I should be getting when I...
405
00:37:24.315 --> 00:37:26.155
When a book is sold. Alright.
406
00:37:26.315 --> 00:37:29.435
So if we were making if we were making like a a published...
407
00:37:29.435 --> 00:37:30.315
A publishing
408
00:37:30.474 --> 00:37:31.195
FAQ,
409
00:37:31.790 --> 00:37:34.110
So Mhmm. We covered ISBNs.
410
00:37:34.190 --> 00:37:35.470
Mhmm. We covered
411
00:37:36.670 --> 00:37:38.030
we covered copyright
412
00:37:38.270 --> 00:37:38.510
Mhmm.
413
00:37:39.150 --> 00:37:39.790
Contracts
414
00:37:39.950 --> 00:37:40.510
Mhmm.
415
00:37:41.390 --> 00:37:42.110
Barcodes.
416
00:37:42.990 --> 00:37:47.150
Barcodes. You do not have to purchase your barcode. Okay? Most covered designers
417
00:37:47.815 --> 00:37:50.935
can make a barcode for free and include
418
00:37:50.935 --> 00:37:59.255
that with the cover design. That that kind of brings up another issue because sometimes people will hire a freelancer who doesn't include the barcode or doesn't know what a barcode is,
419
00:37:59.890 --> 00:38:09.730
where they will design only the front cover and not the back cover and the spine of the book. So, you know, you get what you pay for in the in the book cover design world too. Okay.
420
00:38:10.290 --> 00:38:11.490
Now distribution
421
00:38:11.490 --> 00:38:13.170
for for folks...
422
00:38:13.170 --> 00:38:15.570
For self publishers, how do how do we go about
423
00:38:15.945 --> 00:38:18.185
through distribution? Would Amazon be considered
424
00:38:18.425 --> 00:38:23.385
to be a distribution point? Yes. Amazon and all the other book retailers
425
00:38:23.385 --> 00:38:24.025
are
426
00:38:24.185 --> 00:38:36.230
distribution points. Right? They don't manufacture your book and they don't market your book. They just make it available to sale for sale to the public. So by signing up, opening an account at kdp.com
427
00:38:36.230 --> 00:38:38.070
and ingramspark.com,
428
00:38:38.310 --> 00:38:50.705
distribution is built right into that print on demand process. It will automatically generate your Amazon book page, your Barnes and Noble book page, wherever books are sold. And by working with Ingram,
429
00:38:51.585 --> 00:38:54.224
your book will be in the Ingram database,
430
00:38:54.224 --> 00:38:59.825
which is where physical bookstores and libraries and other distributors purchase books. Alright.
431
00:38:59.905 --> 00:39:02.065
Alright. And
432
00:39:05.610 --> 00:39:07.130
how could... What do authors...
433
00:39:07.850 --> 00:39:11.690
Or how can how can authors know exactly what a book buyer is looking for?
434
00:39:12.490 --> 00:39:17.290
That's easy. We we need to go to Amazon and and type in the word bestseller
435
00:39:17.454 --> 00:39:19.295
and the the the genre.
436
00:39:19.295 --> 00:39:26.655
Yep. And the genre you're writing in, and Amazon will will comply and give us all the top selling books in that genre.
437
00:39:26.815 --> 00:39:28.255
So you can see...
438
00:39:28.575 --> 00:39:37.580
And this is important to do, and it's what we do. You can see what the cover design should look like so that you don't get sidetracked into creating a cover that only you like.
439
00:39:37.980 --> 00:39:44.860
You know, it's it's good to have a cover that you like, but it also needs to conform to what people expect to see when they go to the retailers.
440
00:39:45.260 --> 00:39:50.495
Right? Alright. A really good software program is called Publisher Rocket,
441
00:39:51.215 --> 00:39:53.455
and it will allow you to...
442
00:39:54.095 --> 00:39:57.135
It it it picks up the Amazon feed somehow,
443
00:39:57.630 --> 00:40:01.390
and it will it will give you keywords. It'll give you categories.
444
00:40:01.390 --> 00:40:06.030
It'll show you which books are selling the most copies for what price.
445
00:40:06.269 --> 00:40:10.670
And so that's intelligence that is really crucial to help you make your plans,
446
00:40:11.225 --> 00:40:13.225
and it's really inexpensive.
447
00:40:13.545 --> 00:40:18.825
What's the, what's what's the the number one selling genre that you, that you help work with?
448
00:40:19.545 --> 00:40:26.825
Oh, gosh. We we we work in every genre, so I really can't answer. We've done memoirs. We do business books. We do
449
00:40:27.120 --> 00:40:28.000
family
450
00:40:28.000 --> 00:40:28.800
histories.
451
00:40:28.800 --> 00:40:31.440
We do fiction. We do children's books.
452
00:40:32.080 --> 00:40:32.960
You know, that
453
00:40:34.800 --> 00:40:45.685
Alright. Well, I I... What I what I meant was, I don't know if I phrased the question correct. So so, you know, we have all these different genres of books and and some sell better than others based on the style of writing and so on and so forth.
454
00:40:46.244 --> 00:40:46.805
And
455
00:40:47.045 --> 00:40:49.365
with all the different genres that you work with,
456
00:40:49.845 --> 00:40:53.765
in your experience in seeing what genre of book sells
457
00:40:55.220 --> 00:41:09.780
the most or the best or the fastest? I guess I would say nonfiction. Right? I don't actually know how many books my authors sell Oh, okay. Because we we don't get involved in that. We we set them up on their own print on demand accounts, so I don't get their sales reports
458
00:41:10.125 --> 00:41:17.565
like a publisher would. So I really don't know how much any individual author sells after we're done. Okay. But but non fiction
459
00:41:18.045 --> 00:41:29.880
is easier to sell than fiction, right, because it's easier to find the market. You know, you know whether you're going to a business person who needs a particular kind of problem solved or
460
00:41:30.280 --> 00:41:32.599
whatever the subject is. You can identify
461
00:41:32.599 --> 00:41:34.839
the audience easier than for fiction.
462
00:41:35.495 --> 00:41:39.895
Fiction has genres too, like science fiction or fantasy and
463
00:41:40.135 --> 00:41:45.975
the like, but it's really harder to find and pinpoint the audience for that. Okay.
464
00:41:46.135 --> 00:41:55.250
Well, Michelle, I'm gonna ask you one question very relevant to myself. Oh. If I if I if I came to you today and I handed you my manuscript and I said,
465
00:41:55.490 --> 00:41:57.570
don't let me waste money
466
00:41:57.970 --> 00:42:12.535
Mhmm. What are you gonna tell me? It was the first thing you're First thing I would say is make sure that you have made the manuscript as good as you know how to make it before we begin. Okay. And and don't... If you're still thinking about it, you know, you might want to set it aside
467
00:42:12.934 --> 00:42:22.430
for a period of time, then go back and read it because chances are you're gonna want to change something. There's an old joke in the publishing industry. You don't finish a book. You declare an ending.
468
00:42:23.710 --> 00:42:24.670
That's good.
469
00:42:25.550 --> 00:42:26.190
So...
470
00:42:26.350 --> 00:42:29.710
And and that's that's that's really true. But but
471
00:42:30.045 --> 00:42:36.285
the number one way that authors waste money is to keep on changing the book after production is underway.
472
00:42:36.605 --> 00:42:37.325
Alright.
473
00:42:37.405 --> 00:42:44.685
Yeah. Well, Michelle, give us the, give us the give us the elevator pitch for why we should be coming to eleven o six design.
474
00:42:45.380 --> 00:42:50.180
The the elevator pitch is that eleven o six design can help you publish
475
00:42:50.260 --> 00:42:56.020
a top quality book in your own name so that you get all of the revenue when a book is sold.
476
00:42:56.420 --> 00:42:59.460
And we are a small company. We're not a book factory.
477
00:43:00.155 --> 00:43:19.700
So when you come to us, you're gonna get personal attention and care and quality that you can't get anywhere else. Alright. Well, when I'm ready to publish my book, I'm definitely gonna check you out. Well, thank you, Joe. I hope I hope I've helped your author listeners too. I hope so too. Let... A couple more things before you go. Mhmm. Who is someone that you respect, and what are they doing, or what have they done that inspires you?
478
00:43:21.619 --> 00:43:25.780
It's not popular to say right now, but I think Elon Musk is just amazing.
479
00:43:26.660 --> 00:43:38.285
I agree. People people people like to to disparage him, but think of what he's done and doing every single day. Yeah. No. I agree with you. Amazing. A genius. Without a doubt, I I heard not
480
00:43:38.285 --> 00:43:49.140
too long ago, that they were complaining on, on a TV show. I'm not gonna mention the show, but I I I heard them complaining that, you know, he made his... He now officially the first trillionaire.
481
00:43:49.300 --> 00:43:54.020
Uh-huh. So what? Exactly. And they were and they were they were disparaging him for
482
00:43:54.180 --> 00:43:56.660
for for becoming the first trillionaire
483
00:43:56.740 --> 00:43:58.260
and questioning
484
00:43:58.820 --> 00:43:59.540
why
485
00:43:59.675 --> 00:44:01.275
he became a trillionaire.
486
00:44:01.275 --> 00:44:04.555
Like, well, look at what he's done. Why shouldn't he? You know?
487
00:44:05.275 --> 00:44:11.195
Well, I I don't understand this whole anti success narrative because doesn't every... Everyone wanna succeed?
488
00:44:11.690 --> 00:44:26.810
Of course. So it's like, are they saying that you can succeed but only to the amount that we think is acceptable? And if you exceed that amount, then we hate you? Right. But we can exceed you. That's okay. Yeah. I mean, it's just... It's not rational. No. Absolutely not. And I think he's done phenomenal
489
00:44:26.810 --> 00:44:27.130
work.
490
00:44:27.845 --> 00:44:41.205
Yeah. I mean, we all we all work hard. We all wanna see the the fruits of our labor. But look at what he's done. I mean, can you put us a rocket into space? And not only can you put a rocket into space, can you bring it back down in in one piece and and land it sideways?
491
00:44:41.365 --> 00:44:41.684
Yes.
492
00:44:42.740 --> 00:44:52.740
It's... Yeah. NASA can't even do that. Well, even even Amazon people like to disparage Jeff Bezos. But look at what he did. Mhmm. Did any of us think of that? No.
493
00:44:53.140 --> 00:44:57.380
No. I mean, yes. You could say he's he's doctor evil. You could say all that. Yeah. For sure. But,
494
00:44:57.945 --> 00:45:02.505
you know, look at look at the service that he's provided. Yes. I know he's... His
495
00:45:03.145 --> 00:45:07.705
his his model has pretty much wiped out the mom and pop bookstores.
496
00:45:09.545 --> 00:45:28.505
I get that. You know, there are a few here or there that you still see. Thank God for them. I love bookstores. I've always loved... One of my favorite things to do on a weekend when I was younger was go hang out in the bookstore and look for something, you know, and actually physically do it. I don't like ebooks. I don't like electronic books. I like physical hard copy book in my hand. Mhmm. So do I. You know, have...
497
00:45:28.744 --> 00:45:30.984
In the other room, have I have a wonderful
498
00:45:30.984 --> 00:45:31.785
library
499
00:45:31.944 --> 00:45:34.025
that I've been building over the years.
500
00:45:34.505 --> 00:45:46.480
I have a couple of bookshelves in there that are loaded right now. Still have more books in boxes that I have not put out yet. You know, I love a physical book. I love to read. I love... It's just... To me, that's that's the...
501
00:45:47.280 --> 00:46:27.145
No better way to spend your time. Well, e ebooks are in about their... They're third generation right now, and every time, they always predict that they're gonna put print books out of existence, and it never happens. No. And I think especially now, at least for me, I... After looking at a screen all day, I don't wanna look at another screen when I'm trying to relax. I agree. So, you know, I love print books. And there's some... There's something about holding the book in your hand, though. You know? And you could smell the pages, especially an old book. I love older books. You know? But but, you know, ebooks are great, though, because they make it possible for people with with impaired vision to to read where they otherwise might not be able to. So so every
502
00:46:27.145 --> 00:46:30.984
every format has a place, and I tell that to all my authors. You should
503
00:46:31.305 --> 00:46:37.785
produce a print book and an ebook at least just to let the buyer make the choice. Yeah. And audiobooks are actually very,
504
00:46:38.105 --> 00:46:40.530
hot right now. They're selling like crazy.
505
00:46:40.850 --> 00:46:47.730
So if you can afford it, then you should release it in that format too. Yeah. And see, I have an issue with audiobooks too. Why?
506
00:46:47.730 --> 00:46:48.690
Alright. So
507
00:46:49.170 --> 00:46:50.050
audiobooks,
508
00:46:50.050 --> 00:46:57.435
to me... For me, personally, if you... If somebody's listening, watching, likes an audio, that's great. Enjoy it. Do your thing. For me,
509
00:46:58.714 --> 00:47:01.435
I get more out of actually reading it myself
510
00:47:01.674 --> 00:47:03.755
than having somebody read it to me.
511
00:47:04.394 --> 00:47:12.280
I I retain it longer. I think it might... I mean, some people learn visually. I'm one of them. Maybe you are too. Some people return,
512
00:47:12.520 --> 00:47:13.960
learn audibly.
513
00:47:13.960 --> 00:47:15.480
Yeah. Right? So I think I
514
00:47:15.720 --> 00:47:18.280
think it depends on on the person.
515
00:47:18.920 --> 00:47:22.040
When I listen to an audiobook, my mind starts wandering,
516
00:47:22.280 --> 00:47:24.440
and then I realize I missed a whole page.
517
00:47:24.680 --> 00:47:36.945
Yes. I know. More or more. Same thing with me. So... But I don't... In print, can focus, and I can stay focused better. Yeah. Another thing that that ebooks bug me with, and this is... You could say this is just my, you know,
518
00:47:37.745 --> 00:47:39.185
deranged thinking on things.
519
00:47:39.585 --> 00:47:39.825
But,
520
00:47:40.420 --> 00:47:41.940
you know, you
521
00:47:41.940 --> 00:47:43.060
don't really own it.
522
00:47:43.780 --> 00:47:49.940
It's not Yeah. It's not yours. Problem. It's not yours. So if if the powers that be decide, hey. You know what?
523
00:47:50.260 --> 00:47:57.595
We don't like this topic of this subject or or or this particular writer or or or or so, they can just
524
00:47:58.875 --> 00:47:59.995
disappear it.
525
00:48:00.315 --> 00:48:07.035
Yeah. That's not good. And it disappears from your and disappears from your little electronic ebook list that you have. Yeah.
526
00:48:07.275 --> 00:48:14.390
A lot of people don't know that that you're licensing an ebook. You're not purchasing it. Right. The same thing with music and and nowadays. I mean
527
00:48:14.790 --> 00:48:26.155
And software. Yes. Exactly. You used to be able to go and actually physically buy the the the software, install it on your computer, and it was yours. You can always go back and reinstall it. Now, you have to subscribe to
528
00:48:26.635 --> 00:48:28.795
things like like Microsoft.
529
00:48:28.795 --> 00:48:42.670
You have to subscribe to Microsoft three sixty to get Word and Outlook and Excel and all that stuff and all these other subscription services. You don't own that. That's that's licensed to you, and they can I I used to I used to spend $600
530
00:48:42.670 --> 00:48:47.550
a year for the design software we use? Now I'm spending 1,200.
531
00:48:47.550 --> 00:48:54.005
Wow. It double... It doubled our cost. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. And then and then and then people wonder why
532
00:48:54.805 --> 00:49:01.765
their charge increases because Oh, yeah. You have to cover it. Right? Exactly. Because you'll go out of business if you keep paying for everything.
533
00:49:02.085 --> 00:49:10.099
Yeah. It's it's it's it's like taxes. I I know this isn't a political podcast. I get it. I understand. But it's like taxes. People say, you know, tax the corporations.
534
00:49:10.099 --> 00:49:17.940
Corporations don't pay taxes. That's right. Remember, it was Ross Perot who said that. Yes. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Corporations are Taxes
535
00:49:17.940 --> 00:49:26.025
are just another line item in your expense report. Yeah. Exactly. Corporation then just increases the cost of the services to you, the customer. You're paying the tax
536
00:49:26.265 --> 00:49:27.464
Mhmm. Twice.
537
00:49:27.785 --> 00:49:34.265
Mhmm. So it's it's... You know, people understand that. But we are way off the subject of publishing. Yes. So so, Michelle,
538
00:49:35.090 --> 00:49:45.570
this was great. Thank you so much. I I really do appreciate it. So where can where can people go to find out more about you and about your work and about eleven o six? People can go to 11o6design.com,
539
00:49:45.810 --> 00:49:59.985
and you'll see it there right at the top. You can download my book published like the pros for free, and you can book a consultation if you'd like, and a human being will call you back, and we won't spam your inbox. You mean a real human being and not an AI A real human
540
00:50:00.465 --> 00:50:03.425
being, and and every service we provide is with real human beings.
541
00:50:04.150 --> 00:50:08.150
That's great. And and and, unfortunately, that's becoming a rarity these days. Right?
542
00:50:08.470 --> 00:50:15.430
Well, I'm starting to get complaints about that. People are sending in our contact form, and they're they're saying, I wanna speak to someone. Yeah.
543
00:50:15.750 --> 00:50:33.770
And I think there's gonna be... I think the pendulum's gonna swing back a little bit. I do. I think there's gonna be enough resistance where it's gonna slow it down a little bit at least, not necessarily get rid of it. Yep. Alright. Michelle, I'm gonna put you backstage. I'm gonna wrap this thing up, and I'm gonna come back to you momentarily. So just hang out there, then we'll Thank you. Tie up any loose ends. Folks, Michelle DiFilippo,
544
00:50:33.770 --> 00:50:41.690
thank you so much. Eleven o six designs, please check it out. All the links information will be in the show notes and we'll be right back with you. Alright.
545
00:50:42.650 --> 00:50:59.184
Alright, folks. Wow. Great stuff. Important stuff. Alright. Really, really important stuff. Make sure you check out the website eleven o six. If you're an author, you're a you're a writer, and you're looking to publish your first book, I learned a lesson tonight. I did. I learned. Difference between author and writer, so to make sure I get it right.
546
00:50:59.920 --> 00:51:07.920
But if you are a writer looking to publish or you weren't already an author looking to continue on publishing more books, please check out eleven o six design.
547
00:51:08.240 --> 00:51:10.640
All... Again, all the links will be in the show notes below.
548
00:51:11.615 --> 00:51:12.335
Alright.
549
00:51:12.415 --> 00:51:21.135
Let's take care of some of the housekeeping, get this stuff out of the way, and then we will wrap this baby up for the night. Alright. So folks, please do me a favor. Head over to our website, joeroos.com.
550
00:51:21.135 --> 00:51:22.015
Joeroos.com.
551
00:51:22.015 --> 00:51:51.205
When you get there, look for the contact form. It's hidden in that little pancake in the upper right corner. Open up the web form fill that thing out send it on back to us let us know whatever's on your heart what is on your mind any questions comments cares or concerns you might have maybe have a complaint you shouldn't but you might send it on over to us maybe you have a suggestion for a guest or a particular topic you like to discuss discuss on the show, send it on over to us, we would love to hear from you. Now, if you're like me, you don't like using the web forms. Why? Captcha. Hate the captcha stuff, drives me crazy.
552
00:51:51.525 --> 00:51:56.010
So if you want to avoid that, email me directly info@joeruse.com.
553
00:51:56.010 --> 00:51:58.810
That's info@joeruse.com.
554
00:51:58.810 --> 00:52:16.375
I would love to hear from you or you can leave a comment down below if you're watching on Rumble or on YouTube. Love to hear from you guys. Also, please don't forget that this is a live show weeknight 7PM Central Time, 8PM Eastern, and then our Sunday show every Sunday at 2PM central time. Make sure you check those out. You can find it on Rumble at rumble.com/joeruse
555
00:52:16.375 --> 00:52:20.934
or on YouTube at Joe Ruse there as well and of course the audio wherever you get your podcast.
556
00:52:21.350 --> 00:52:30.310
And also very important folks, please don't forget to like, subscribe, and share the show with your friends, your family, and your followers. Really, really would appreciate that.
557
00:52:30.710 --> 00:52:38.325
Alright. Now, shout outs to our producing team, executive producers Wayne Rankin, Rosanna Rankin, Carolina Jim Angela Witowski, and John Seeley.
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00:52:38.485 --> 00:52:54.190
These folks donate their time, their talent, and their treasure to help put this show together, and we greatly greatly appreciate them. Really couldn't do a lot of the stuff that we do without them. And if you'd like to find out more about how you could join up and help us out, just head over to joeruse.com/support.
559
00:52:54.190 --> 00:52:56.430
That's joeruse.com/support.
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00:52:56.670 --> 00:52:57.310
And
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00:52:58.029 --> 00:53:01.710
on that page, you'll see all the ways you can help us out. One time donations,
562
00:53:01.710 --> 00:53:02.990
recurring donations.
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00:53:03.630 --> 00:53:08.095
You can sign up as a producer, as an associate producer, producer, or executive producer.
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00:53:08.494 --> 00:53:23.990
All of the producers get the same thing. They get the shout out on every show included in all of our show notes, emails, everything that goes out from the show. Why? Because as a producer, you were helping put all this stuff together so you get the credit for it. And on top of that, you now get an imdb.com
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00:53:23.990 --> 00:53:24.630
credit.
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00:53:25.350 --> 00:53:28.790
Professional credit, you can add to your resume through imdb
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00:53:28.950 --> 00:53:37.565
and as a host, as a as a producer of a podcast. So check it out. You can do that all on our website at joeruse.com/support.
568
00:53:37.565 --> 00:53:40.285
That's joeruse.com/support.
569
00:53:40.445 --> 00:53:41.245
Alright.
570
00:53:41.965 --> 00:53:43.245
Final thoughts here.
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00:53:46.205 --> 00:53:48.605
Writing a book has never been easier,
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00:53:50.030 --> 00:53:51.390
but publishing one
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00:53:52.430 --> 00:53:54.110
has never required
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00:53:54.510 --> 00:53:55.230
more
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00:53:55.390 --> 00:53:56.910
informed decisions.
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00:53:57.310 --> 00:54:03.790
One of the biggest takeaways that I've gotten from tonight's conversation is is that authors today have more opportunities than ever before.
577
00:54:04.445 --> 00:54:07.725
At the same time, they also face more choices, more misinformation,
578
00:54:07.725 --> 00:54:10.845
and really, unfortunately, you know, more people willing to profit
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00:54:11.165 --> 00:54:11.725
from,
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00:54:12.765 --> 00:54:14.045
I guess, the confusion
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00:54:15.005 --> 00:54:16.525
that surrounds publishing.
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00:54:16.605 --> 00:54:18.925
Now whether you're looking at writing your first book,
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00:54:19.859 --> 00:54:21.619
preserving a family history,
584
00:54:22.819 --> 00:54:23.859
documenting
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00:54:24.019 --> 00:54:25.220
professional experience
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00:54:25.460 --> 00:54:26.820
like I'm looking to do,
587
00:54:27.460 --> 00:54:29.859
or just maybe just exploring an idea,
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00:54:30.500 --> 00:54:37.615
I hope that tonight's conversation reminded you that knowledge is one of the best investments that you can make before you publish a single page.
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00:54:38.095 --> 00:54:45.215
My thanks to Michelle DiFilippo for sharing more than five decades of publishing experience and and helping us better understand
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00:54:45.295 --> 00:55:08.065
the process behind bringing a quality book to life. And folks, look, if you if you received any value from the conversation that we've had here tonight, please take a moment, like, subscribe, share the show with someone who has maybe always talked about writing a book or maybe who has written a book. It just might be the conversation that gives them the confidence that they need to
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00:55:08.705 --> 00:55:12.305
either finally get started or continue on with their professional
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00:55:12.305 --> 00:55:13.665
author journey.
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00:55:14.145 --> 00:55:16.545
Folks, you can head over to our website, joeruse.com.
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00:55:16.545 --> 00:55:22.540
You can find out all find all of our archived episodes there on Rumble as well, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts.
595
00:55:22.860 --> 00:55:28.620
And, with that, I wanna say again thank you to everybody for joining us. Thank you to Michelle. Really do appreciate
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00:55:29.020 --> 00:55:35.275
all of the information that we got tonight. And, folks, until we see you next time, remember, very, very important,
597
00:55:35.515 --> 00:55:38.875
make Texas independent again. Go podcasting.
598
00:55:39.115 --> 00:55:40.635
Keep a steady stride.
599
00:55:41.194 --> 00:55:44.715
More importantly, folks, keep the conversation going.
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00:55:44.875 --> 00:55:48.790
Keep talking. We will see you next time. Good night,
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00:55:49.110 --> 00:55:50.150
and goodbye.