Welcome and blessings. This is Ayn Cates Sullivan, host of the Wisdom of the Ages podcast show. I’m part of the SuperPower Up! Network, the number one network for personal and spiritual development, and you can find out many more episodes on wisdomoftheages.com. This episode theme, what we’re working on today, we’re going to call it the Good Knight Sage Guidance on Book Publishing.
I’m really excited to have my publishing coach with me. His name is Mike Daniels, and before I introduce him, and he is a good knight, by the way, I want to just tell a little story. Years ago, I think this was, gosh, we’re about 2013, I believe, I had a little story called The Story of Becoming. I had written it for my kids, and we had done some little sketches for it. I took it to Mike and I said, “I’ve got this little book, and I want to do it. Maybe just a tiny, little book, black and white book, maybe a four-by-six book.” We had lunch in Boulder, and he looked at the book and he said, “Nope, that wouldn’t sell at all. What you need is a nice, big, 8-by-11 book, full color.” I said, “What?” and he goes, “No, that will do really well.”
I decided to give it a shot, and all I can say is the book won 18 literary awards, and I think all of 2015 and part of 2016 was an Amazon bestseller, and still hits the best seller list now and again. It actually put me on the map as an author, so I have to thank Mike for his wisdom and everything. Welcome, Mike.
Thank you, Ayn. Thank you for having me.
I’m so glad you can hear, can come and be with us and just tell us more about how publishing can be creative and fun in this world where everything’s changing, especially the publishing world, it seems. You can give us some sage advice.
I hope to do just that.
So, okay. You’ve been in the book publishing business for a good quarter of a century, and you’ve helped people, all kinds of genres, all around the world. But, you know what? Before we get into all of this, because we’re going to have a nice conversation here, I know that you have a lovely book of poetry, and that in a way, you wanted to find out what independent publishing was like, and so you published your own book, and I’m wondering if you would just start out with maybe a poem from maybe your loving section.
Well, this is a poem that I think is a good way to start our conversation, because you and I began working together in a client relationship, and we’ve become friends over the years. we work together not only from a business perspective, but also as friends, and care about each other in more ways than just how well your books sell. I wrote a poem titled Friends that I’d like to just share with you now. I think we all need to think about where we are in the world, what’s going on in the world and how important our friends are through thick and thin.
Absolutely, Mike. And it’s one thing I want to say about creative and independent publishing, which is really different from the traditional world that I was involved in before, is that I have found so many friends in the indie business and people who care about each other’s work. It doesn’t seem competitive. It seems like we’re in there helping each other out, and I really appreciate that, and I appreciate your support over all the years. Thank you.
You’re very welcome. And so I’ll share friends with you now. Friends are our strength in body and soul. They stand by our side when years take their toll. They’re there to confide in. They’re there for the ride. They count on each other, no promise denied. Friends give us courage to fight the good fight. They help without asking when others take flight. They’re there when there’s sorrow. They’re there when we cry. True friends are a gift no money can buy. And so as your age continues to climb, rejoice in the friends you’ve gathered through time.
That’s lovely. It’s absolutely lovely. You know what it makes me think of is the night at the CIPA, at the awards, which maybe you can tell us a bit about, when Legends of the Grail won four literary awards, and you actually had to come up and help me hold them up for the photos.
Yes, I did, and I was quite pleased to see you do so well. And they were all first place awards, in each of the categories.
It was quite an amazing night. I kept jumping up and-
In a way, so that everyone who’s listening understands, CIPA, is the acronym for the Colorado Independent Publishers Association.
Tell us about the EVVY awards, too. Then we’ll have to take a break after that. But I really, actually like this organization. I think they’re great. Now they’re online. They’re virtual.
That’s right.
But tell us about the EVVY awards. Because I thought they were lovely.
Well, CIPA is one of the oldest and only one of the few state nonprofit independent publishing organizations. It’s not a business. It’s not an individual or a group of individuals trying to make money. It’s a group of individuals networking, and that’s how it was founded, all of whom have the same interest and goals in mind. And the Colorado Independent Publishers Association founded an awards program, a book awards program, which is called the EVVY awards, named after the founder and first president of the Colorado Independent Publishers Association. Her name is Evelyn Kay.
The EVVY awards recognizes the best in independent book publishing in a number of different categories. And each year people submit their titles for consideration for an EVVY award. There are judges for all the categories, and then titles are selected based on specific criteria that are scored so that a certain total point score is required to be considered for different award levels. And then the winners are selected and announced each year at the annual EVVY book awards banquet. This year that will be virtual, because of the COVID-19 social distancing requirements.
Absolutely. And what a lovely group of people. I mean, talk about a collection of good knights. You know? It is really wonderful. I’ve got to take a break. Where can people find you? What’s your website and your email address?
My website is publishercoach.com. And my email address is [email protected].
Okay. Excellent. When we come back, we’re going to really get into the indie publishing world. How, if you’re interested in publishing a book, there are lots and lots of options. We’re going to get into this over the next half an hour or so. Okay. Stay tuned. We’ll be right back.
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