Empress High Council

So, You Want to Write A Book?

Empress High Council Season 5 Episode 1

Hey, Royal Family. As the New Year is upon us, you may decide to put Write My Book on your list of resolutions or intentions. So, we at the round table, decided to share the ins and outs of doing so, with you. Our resident numerologist and author, Jaz Afrodite, walks you through the entire book-writing process. Don’t you worry. She’s qualified to do it, and she’ll be sure to tell you so. Now, let’s get it. Goblets up!

Follow us @triempress on IG and Twitter.

00:08.64  - Thee Alchemist

Great day, royal family. Don't forget to hit the like subscribe and share Button. You can follow us @triempress on IG and Twitter or you can just google the Empress High Council we are everywhere. Before we get started. Let's introduce our cast this is the alchemist coming to and the frequency of energy to transmute your social spiritual and financial currency into abundance.

 

00:31.07  - Jaz Afrodite

And this is Jaz Afrodite coming to you on the three universal frequencies of love, music, and numbers.

 

00:37.10 - Dannie

And this is Dannie giving you positivity and providing you inspiration to become your authentic self.

 

00:44.03  - Thee Alchemist

So, guys before we get into setting the table Jaz has a special PSA announcement for you. Get your pens. Get your paper because this is gonna move you head and shoulders above where you already are you see I got my pen and my paper right here. Okay so guys get your pen and get your paper. So, I introduce you to Jaz Afrodite our astro numerologist. And resident empress.

 

01:22.41  - Jaz Afrodite

Thank you. Thank you, Alchemist. So, December 21st is the winter solstice, but it is not just any winter solstice remember last year we did an episode I think it's called the odds are in our favor. So, the sun will be at zero degrees on the twenty first and remember Jupiter and Saturn are still conjunct. So, the great conjunction is still in effect, and you have another year to set your intentions. So, if you did not get a chance last year to set your intentions and meditate and put what you wanted in the universe to manifest. I know many of you are waiting for superpowers to happen, but superpowers can come in multiple ways so now is your opportunities to do it again. So, on the twenty First you want to write your intentions out on paper you want to get your crystals. You want to set your tone remember the soul fetch to your frequencies 432 hertz you want to get your tuning forks ready meditate say your intentions after they've been written several times meditate on it. Talk about everything that you want to manifest. For this year that is coming and think big Jupiter is the planet of expansion and growth. So do not limit yourself to what it is that you're asking for think big think about what you want to accomplish for yourself and also think about what you want to accomplish for the world. Look at everything that's happening in the world put those energies and vibrations out as well. If you want to sit on it meditate with your clear quartz crystals definitely get involved and put all of your energy in vibration because the collective consciousness is not about us being in the same physical space. It's about us being in the same mind space. So, we don't have to be in the same room to make this happen. We can be wherever we are, and our vibrations will carry throughout the Universe so please be proactive about this after you finish meditating you want to fold that paper up and you want to fold it towards you. Fold it very small and folded towards you because you want all of those intentions coming to you and not away from you and once you folded it up, put it either in a cauldron or an incense pot and burn it to release it into the universe and so after you've done that this is not a set it and forget it situation. Saturn is the planet of hard work and labor and really putting your foot to the grind 10 toes down to make it happen, so you have to work hard. So, if you did this last year and you did not put any effort towards your goals nothing is going to manifest because Saturn is we reap what you sow. So, if you were not sowing. You definitely won't be reaping anything from last year so this year is your opportunity to put those intentions out and put the work behind it all right? This is our opportunity once again to manifest great things before we have this opportunity with these three planets coming around. Okay, so just wanted to say that.

 

04:27.16  - Thee Alchemist

[Applause] So there you have it. Jaz Afrodite has spoken. She let you know about the winter solstice and the Jupiter and Saturn is still in conjunction about writing your intentions down manifesting for the year ahead and what to do with that piece of paper. Fold it towards you guys folded towards you you want everything to come your way. So, with thank you for that I got my notes and you know I do my thing every year so guys make sure you set you up a ritual for prosperity and manifestation and the things that you want to come your way you heard it here First. At the empress high council. Don't forget to hit the like subscribe and share button and you can follow us on try empress on IG and Twitter or you can just google the empress high council we are everywhere. So, let's get started and setting the table guys. We got something grand planned for you. Thanks to Jaz and I am all here. got my paper I got my paper so for you guys I'm not gonna tell you what it is yet. But for you guys who are interested and making this happen. You're gonna have to go back and revisit this episode if you do not have your pen and paper ready. So let me set the table. Divine universe as we set out to remain forever young and live throughout eternity memorializing ourselves through publications of Literary works. We ask that you clear all roads open all doors and remove all obstacles in the literary. Fear of publication.

 

06:03.15  - Jaz Afrodite

Ase.

 

06:03.03  - Thee Alchemist

Ase. so, Jaz this is gonna be a wallop of an episode. So I'm gonna let you speak and then I'm gonna ask you? What makes you. The expert or credentialed on speaking on this particular topic. Okay, so yeah.

 

06:25.51  - Jaz Afrodite

Hmm. I'm so glad you asked me that that is a funny question but it's the truth, right? So, I did write my book and when I started writing my book, I knew nothing about it I Just knew I was going to write the book. But after I wrote the book, I signed up for every hay Horse Excuse Me Hay House workshop that they offered. Took their webinars signed up for their online class about publishing a book commercially versus publishing a book through yourself then I met with several editors who were laid off by Simon and Schuster back in 2018 and 19 many of them were laid off and they were looking for freelance work met with a lot of them who told me about the editing process. Signed up for workshops with the catapult writing group on query letter writing met with agents meant to book expos and book signings practicing my pitch pitching to agents as well and I've been doing the work as far as Self-publishing. So, I Know what that process looks like so I know what this process looks like from soup. To nuts whether you're writing fiction nonfiction, publishing or publishing by yourself. This is what makes me qualified to talk about it and I figured I share the knowledge because other people want to do this and it makes me laugh because I'm like all right, you want to do This is this a lot of hell of a work. So. I'll share the knowledge and you guys do the work like I said. So we'll see.

 

07:39.13  - Thee Alchemist

Wow. so you actually was blazing the pavement in order to get to this next step and phase in your life and you went through a number of channels to make sure that you were getting the right information and that you were correct and what it was that you were doing and and how you wanted to present yourself to the world on multiple platforms in the literary space. So yeah 

 

08:05.51  - Jaz Afrodite

That's correct. Okay.

 

08:07.49  - Thee Alchemist

So, my next question to you is tell us a little bit about the process you wanted to go through and then tell us about the process that you did go through fair enough. No? Okay. Okay.

 

08:21.38  - Jaz Afrodite

I'll tell you about the process that I went through and the process that other people may decide to go through because what I went through is what I wanted to go through so I'm very intentional about the way I think but just to start out if you're going to write a book. You need to make sure that you're going to channel your energy in the right way so writing a book means that you want to have dedicated writing time and if you had the time and the means like I did you want to go someplace away. Away from your house with no distractions. No connection to the internet unless it's for research. And you definitely want to be somewhere in nature. But if you don't have that luxury. You definitely want to be in a space where it is private. You have no distractions family is not harassing you every minute every hour because you need to think you need to channel you need to be in that writing zone. So as far as the writing process. What I did is I write sequentially so I don't have an outline a lot of writers outline their writing first and they would do like the middle, the climax or the conflict: What it is that they're trying to solve and then the end of the book I didn't do that. I sat and wrote it from the beginning to the end in order. That's the way my brain functioned and that's the way the information was coming to me. But what I noticed is that I get my downloads in the shower and also when I sleep and so it's important to have.

 

09:36.58  - Thee Alchemist

Wow.

 

09:45.15  - Jaz Afrodite

A Notebook at hand because when I was leaving I thought I knew how to do everything. My mother was like you sure you don't want to have a notebook to take notes and I'm like nah I type faster than I take notes so I didn't carry a notebook and when I got there I found myself writing on the back of my goal setting sheets and I had to start numbering them to keep them in order. And so I eventually had to go into town and find a notebook on where we were in Brazil was on top of a hill in a remote island on top of a mountain so it takes fifteen minutes to walk down and about twenty minutes to walk back up so when you go down the Hills another hour into town so I had to walk about an hour and a half to find a store in Brazil. But they had notebooks and thank god there was a girl who her whole business was just binding books and you can customize them all type of beautiful layouts and I was able to find 1 and walk back up the hill because she was gonna make me one specifically and I was like girl I cannot do that trek another day to come down this hill to get this book. So definitely have a book at the side of your bed because when those impressions come you want to capture that information and it may come for something that you're going to write about in the future but you want to put notes next to it to say when you get to this time you're going to put this insert into the book at this specific time. So that you can keep yourself writing in order. You don't want to go back and forth. But some people do do that they will say I want to write the middle of the book First then the end and then go back to the beginning. Everybody's process is different. So, I say you have those the outlining, writing sequentially, definitely writing by hand. There’sa magic with writing by hand and then transferring it over into your laptop, dedicated writing time I wrote every single day every day and I took one day off. So that was 6 days a week of writing and Tuesdays I did absolutely nothing.

 

11:37.38  - Thee Alchemist

Wow.

 

11:38.42 - Jaz Afrodite

And then you may want to be somebody who dictates. So if you're going to dictate your book that means that you're going to record it into your phone and it's recommended that people dictate w ho can speak well and it can really capture people's attention through the oral word. There are a lot of people who are not necessarily great writers but they're great speakers and if you're a great speaker and people gravitate to what you're saying, you might as well just dictate your book. That way because you can capture your thoughts as well with the oral dictation. But then you have to give it to somebody to write it for you and you want to make sure that whoever you give the book to write it for you that they're going to maintain the integrity of the words that you use and I'll go into that later. Because if they use words that you don't necessarily use or use language that you don't Use. You're going to find yourself being disconnected from what you've dictated and that happened to a client of mine because she decided that she wanted to write a book about herbs and healing. And she was moving in the process. She dictated her book into their phone or their app sent it to them. They're located in Australia so already. There's a difference in the way that they speak and the way that they put their words together. She sent it to them. They fancied up her words changed the order of the words in the way that we would normally say it. And when she had to record it for her online class. She felt so disconnected from it I'm like did you write this book because the way that you're speaking to it is like you almost are not even connected to the words and she's like I'm not because I didn't write this. So if you're going to dictate a book and hire somebody else to write it. Make sure that they are writing it in your voice because if they don't write it in your voice. You will not be able to read it.

 

13:27.66  - Dannie

On top of that. It's just it's not authentic. So there's, there's that part and you're speaking valid points just from an academic, scholarly standpoint. You know when you're writing your own papers and you're writing academic papers you want it to sound like yourself like and especially what what you wrote, Jaz which was, a recollection. And the retelling of your story. It has to have feeling it has to have depth. It has to the words have to convey your true essence and character. So.

 

14:12.31  - Jaz Afrodite

And that's absolutely right. Absolutely right. and I just want to say  when you start the writing process. You need to write what you love in the genre that you love most. Do not try to write in something that is brand new or that you have no experience in your love comes through if you're writing um about something that you're familiar writing about and in the genre that you're that you like reading and you have to be able to be an avid reader. If you're going to write a Book. You have to be an avid reader. If you don't read Books don't write a book. I'll be honest with you.

 

14:47.50  - Dannie

And if you don't read a book but you have a story to tell at least you you can dictate it. You know and release some type of audible or something if you like if you're not into the writing aspect because everyone has a story to tell. Um I love it. She said if you know we I Oh I Love me some Jaz. Facts.

 

 

14:49.74  - Thee Alchemist

Whoa.

 

 

15:09.90  - Jaz Afrodite

I’m speaking from experience if you don't read Books don't write 1 because after you write a book but people fail to realize and I'm going to go into this a little bit later because there's so much to cover in this process is that you have to read your own book like 5 or 6 times. Before it's even published. So. That's you reading 3 hundred pages or how many pages of your manuscript over and over and over again. So if you're not a person who can sit down and read a book that many times then you don't you have any business writing it because you're going to be reading it to yourself reading it at book signings. You’re gonna find yourself reading it many times.

 

 

15:45.47  - Dannie

Um, and then the whole editing process is brutal and especially if you have a good editor to go through the process with and and discuss any changes that need to occur with your manuscript. Um. It's it's It's a lot of work and you have to have the patience for it.

 

16:04.47  - Jaz Afrodite

You alchemist you've up in your head. What's going on with you?

 

16:06.58  - Dannie

She sure is she looked like she's conflicted.

 

16:07.19  - Thee Alchemist

And I'm rubbing my head and I'm not conflicted I'm rubbing my head because I do know someone who wrote a book and the book was very good. I don't know who their editor was or who they worked with the book was very good I know they have a stuttering problem but I know that they have definitely gotten better cause I've seen them on YouTube and stuff like that or not YouTube. What do you call this Facebook doing some mock. Whatever they're doing on Facebook. So they've gotten better. Um I cannot say that they are an avid reader and you know what I think I can actually look in their eyes and tell that they did not read their own book. Yeah yeah, you can look in their eyes and tell that they did not read their own book. It was pretty much the editor. Did everything for them. So the other thing we asked is how much did you make off that book. They was like oh I was supposed to make money off the book? Well we bought a couple of copies where did the money. Go.

 

 

16:56.58  - Dannie

Ooh.

 

17:13.45  - Dannie

Amen.

 

17:16.85  - Dannie

And what kind of contract they had going on in regards to percentage of share.

 

17:19.09  - Thee Alchemist

And that is why that's why Jaz Afrodite gone clear up all less shiesty business that be happening in the industry. Yeah.

 

17:25.78  - Jaz Afrodite

Yeah let's talk about it but before we even get into that we still got to jump into the process. So. That's your writing process. You talked about the dictating now the formatting of the manuscript Times New Roman twelve point double spaced. That's it no fanciness. 1-inch margins around the entire document on your front cover in the upper left corner. You just want to put your name your email the genre and the word count and you leave the word count for later until you finish writing the complete manuscript. On your manuscript yourself. You want to have in the upper left corner on every single page in the header your last name forward slash the title of the book and the page numbers so that will be Leveine forward Slash knocking from the inside page 1 every single page must have that because an editor will shoot you down if you don't have that. On your manuscript again. No fancy formatting. Don't make it pretty. They don't care about pretty. They want to see just the simple words on a white piece of paper and your manuscript should be 75000 to 100,000 words maximum for a first-time writer. Do not try to exceed that. For a first-time writer because the agents if you are looking to be commercially published will reject your manuscript based on the word count alone. So that's the formatting.

 

 

18:45.93  - Thee Alchemist

I need some popcorn and some potato chips right now. So guys all these folks that be calling you guys talk about ghost writer write your book all this stuff and they want to charge you a thousand dollars to give you what is it? Um, ah. Ah, hundred less than 100 pages and and and don't sound right? Do it so but Jaz please continue to enlighten us and.

 

19:15.01  - Jaz Afrodite

So after you've written that what you want to do is while you're writing your manuscript you want to have your punctuation book at the side because with all of this texting going on. We have lost track and lost sight of punctuation that was 1 of my major issues in my manuscript. And I just have a really bad habit even when I was working of leaving off the question marks after a question like it was just be like I know you can read it and see its question I don't even have to put the question Mark in like I was just getting really arrogant with my writing so make sure you have your punctuation book and make sure you're writing with a dictionary and a thesaurus because. Cannot repeat the same word twice in a sentence or in a paragraph and if you find yourself using the same word like at least 3 times or four times in your manuscript you want to find different ways of saying that. So, tap into your thesaurus Yes, the thesaurus is your friend. Dictionaries because sometimes we use words, and we just want to be sure of the real context so that when we're writing it and putting this word in it really speaks to what it whatever it is that you're trying to kind of a because sometimes we use words out of context. And sometimes words are just magical if you use it in a different way, but you really want to be sure how you're using that, so dictionaries and these sources as well and then have your writing goals. How many chapters? Do you want to write for the week I said I want to write 1 chapter a week I ended up writing 3 to four chapters a week because I was just so tapped in and at the end of the five days of writing I did my editing on the sixth day. So, the sixth day I went back and read everything that I had written prior to. And use my punctuation book and everything to make sure that I was checking it and I still had a lot of punctuation mistakes in my manuscript.

 

21:02.02  - Dannie

And in united states I would like to add for those you know as we all know there are good technical applications that you can add on into your Microsoft word. Um. Such as Grammarly which has been very helpful to catch punctuation at a high level and sentence structure and it has the mechanism to even check for plagiarism as well which has been I know I use Grammarly a lot for. My academic papers in ensuring that I am writing the right way and my train of thought is coming out clear. Um and I know Tisha the alchemist was laugh at that b. Because I had up on my APS seventh edition publication Manual obviously, I use this for school and it has all of the different strict formatting so Jaz some of the requirements that you put out just for writing a Book. Ah has a lot of the stipulations and formatting from APA American psychology associations formatting to do academic ah documents they've they've kind of given more flexibility of using other fonts. So, like Times New Roman, Calibri. But still eleven-point font. Ah so what? you've given at a very high level, but succinct level is is what people are looking for when you're writing your papers or you're writing a book I mean it through. Yeah.

 

 

22:46.66  - Jaz Afrodite

But remember it's 12-point font don't get them confused 12-point font and Times New Roman you don't want nothing else. They don't want to see anything else, and they want it. They're very, very Strict about that as well when you get your punctuation book. You want to make sure that you get one that speaks to writing fiction or nonfiction because there's different grammar rules for the different genres as well. So, I would say stay away from anything academic unless you're writing an academic book.

 

 

23:15.47  - Dannie

Yeah, but Grammarly also has the options too is to set it up. Um, depending on what you're writing ah and then I know a lot of writers in this heyday have used ah applications. Especially if they're not good typists. Whole dictation to speak and then have it type for you on your computer, but you still need to be mindful and read what's being typed based on what you're saying so here we go Again. It's essential that you that you should like to Read. It's because you got to read everything that's being put on the computer screen.

 

23:56.40  - Thee Alchemist

I'm just all engaged in taking my notes guys I Hope you guys take your notes so because when we follow up with the herb and the crystal to support what Jaz Afrodite is talking about it's gonna blow your Mind. So I'm just I'm just tuning in and I'm just listening go ahead. Jaz I don't want to be. You know, stop the flow.

 

24:14.62  - Jaz Afrodite

So, with the fiction writing there's a book that I want to recommend and it's not going to tell you how to write a book but what it does is tells you how to structure your book so that it's interesting and it was written by my editor is called the Prose Professional 2020. his name is Michael Garrett. He's a very great editor so you want to get that the prose professional because that will tell you how to start your book versus how to end it and it just gives you a lot of great tips. So that's something that you should read is a very, very short read as well. Now after you've written your manuscript you want to go back and look at your paragraphs. My editor Michael Garrett did not touch my manuscript until I went in and made my paragraphs small. They had to be no longer than 5 sentences if it was longer than that he was like it's too long and even after I went in and made it shorter and he. Corrected my manuscript I had paragraphs but he would write across it too long in big letters across the manuscript because you have to make it small so people can feel as if they're moving through the book quickly. So, one thing that we were taught in school was that the paragraph should be 5 to 7 sentences that is not the case when you're writing books. It needs to be shorter than that. So be mindful of that.

 

25:30.41  - Thee Alchemist

Exactly, Jaz. I was just getting remember to to touch on that because in school first of all in grammar school through high school. We found. We'd learned that the sentences needed to be at least five I mean the paragraphs needed to be at least five sentences. But then when you get to college they teach you something else. So now we gotta stick with the basics so that the average reader can continuously be engaged in wow that is great to know. Thank you, thank you.

 

25:54.57  - Jaz Afrodite

Then you want to find your editor please get a professional editor and there's different types of editors. The first 1 you want to get is a line editor and what they do is they go through your manuscript. Line by line looking for grammatical errors sentence structure structure of the stories and all of that and they make the corrections for you. You can find a professional editor on publishers marketplace it is a website that has all things Literary. So if you're looking for a publisher an agent an editor. Whatever it is. Called publishers marketplace they charge 25 dollars a month for the subscription but you can pay the money for the months that you need it and then just cancel them after you've done with using it because it does add up over time but that's where I found my editor Michael Garrett and he was like listen. I don't separate the line editing from the sentence structure from the plot. He's like I don't know how to do that I edit for everything, and I look for everything but what I wanted in an editor was somebody who would mark up my manuscript like an old English teacher and then give it back to me to correct for myself. Because I don't use software I don't use Grammarly. I don't use any of that because I'm just old school like that if I'm going to do it I'm want to do it right by myself and so he went through my manuscripts and marked it up I crossed things out big x's like whole thing and then sent it back to me. He was very adamant. Before I hired him he was like listen you're going to pay me all my money upfront. Don't ask me if I like your manuscript. You're not paying me to like your work. You're paying me to edit your work. My opinion doesn't matter. He's like I'm going to give you 30 pages of feedback at the end. So you will have to read through that before you even touched in manuscript and be prepared to have rewrites. He was up front. He was gangsta and that's just the way I like it and I was like you know what? me too. I.

 

27:45.09  - Thee Alchemist

I Love it. Yes, business just come in take care of Business. No one care about your own other pit opinions and stuff like that. Just do what I'm paying you to do edit That's it that is it and for you guys who want somebody to to write. For you So you put some gobbly gook on the page and then you want to buy them to write for you. You just you got to know what you want because and and get what you paid you gonna get what you pay for good.

 

28:14.51  - Jaz Afrodite

That's the truth. You said it right there.

 

28:17.42  - Dannie

You get what you pay for either. It's gonna be fabulous or it's gonna be sheer trash and it might be more so the latter sheer trash.

 

28:25.51  - Thee Alchemist

And, and this is a great timely episode because we have a lot of authors that are coming out right now and a lot of people who want to write and don't know the steps don't know what to do and where to go First. So guys. Jaz Afrodite is bringing it to you firsthand at the empress high council. We give you the truth. We give you our authentic selves and we give you our experiences so that you don't have to go through the same thing. So with this is the the blueprint you could you come here. You get the blueprint. Go ahead, Jaz. I'm so sorry, go ahead.

 

 

28:58.68  - Jaz Afrodite

No that's good. That's clear I'm glad that you guys said that because it's the truth. So, after you get your comments back I was very grateful I did not have a 30-page report mine was only 10 I was like okay good, Thank God, thank God. I know what I'm doing again. I had a lot of punctuation errors, things that I knew, but it was fine. But my major issue was that my manuscript was too long and so I had 140,000 words in my manuscript, and I had to go and cut out forty thousand which I knew I was not going to do so I cut out 30,000 because I knew there were some elements that I had to maintain in my story. And based on that I made the decision that I will try to get it commercially published but in in the event that I don't I'll be fine with self-publishing it because I did not want to damage the integrity of my story the way I wanted to tell it and so these are some decisions that you need to make but you have to go back. And do the rewrites like you said so I had to go back and incorporate all of the things that he said what he did tell me to do was add descriptive language and this is very important for anybody writing a book especially fiction. You want to place the characters in the scene. So what are they feeling What are they hearing What are they tasting what are they touching what are they sensing you want to be able to describe that whenever you change scenes or go to a new place. You want to describe it so that people can feel as if they are there, and I had left that out of my manuscript at first because I can't stand reading books where they spend five pages talking about the way the drapes hang like seriously a how. The bed is designed like who cares like just get to the meat and potatoes of the story where he was like I hear you I'm the same exact way but you need to put that in your manuscript so people can feel as if they were part of the story. So, I went back, and I added that in and made all of the corrections that he made because he did not go in. And make those corrections for me and like Dr. Dannie and the alchemist were staying early. You get what you pay for if you want an editor to do that for you be prepared to spend upwards of $20,000 dollars for an editor, I paid $2,000 which was fine for my budget knowing what I wanted. But if you want one who will go in and make all the changes structurally, put all the grammar changes, change your story up for you. That's a good $20,000 just for the line editing alone.

 

31:18.34  - Dannie

And that's just in the line editing is is is like the bare minimum like real talk because I'm already thinking about when I got to do my act my dissertation the type of editor I'm gonna have to bring on board. To review everything line editing is like basic so you have to mentally prepare yourself to get the right editor that you're comfortable with and can align with what the type of story that you're telling and. Is capable of making the appropriate edits that you're comfortable with.

 

31:57.60  - Jaz Afrodite

That is the absolute truth. The absolute truth.

 

32:00.87  - Thee Alchemist

And please know that you're gonna get what you pay for because I have a few friends that went on to do their PHD they finished now and they've gone through a few different editors so you have to know what you want up front. And you have to be able to discuss it with your editor up front. Don't think you're gonna pay 800 and fifty dollars because you're gonna get some crap you be prepared to pay up upwards from 2 grand and up depending on what you want I do want you to know that because I've spent countless hours reading dissertations. For friends over the last fifteen years I should have I should have my own doctorate by now. But um, yes, Jaz please continue to indulge us.

 

32:43.31  - Dannie

I just wonder. I just want to know what's being edited for $850 a page a chapter.

 

32:51.91  - Thee Alchemist

Listen, there's some people who are great writers and you meet them along the way and they're like oh I could do it for you for 800 and fifty Dollars. No Problem. You see the edits that they making it like oh I think the person's doing a great job. But it's not Ph D Work. It's not publication work I'm not even gonna say PHD Work. It's not publication work or publication worthy.

 

35:02.31  - Jaz Afrodite

And that's right so with that after you've gone and you've made all of your rewrites. This is your second draft you are happy with it I think the way that my editor described it is that your first draft is like your mold of clay. And you just want to get your chisel and start chiseling away and then you want to sculpt it into the statue that you ultimately want to have so that is your rewrite after you incorporate all of the edits so I was very blown away by that analogy because he's absolutely right? So when you're finished that you want to read your manuscript out loud. You want to read it out loud twice. You and you want to have somebody else. Do it as well and the reason why is because you want to read it for readability. How does it flow when you're reading you want to read it from the standpoint of your audience. How are they going to read it then you want to read it to catch any errors that you missed in the rewriting process and then you want to read it again because you want to get your voice. In terms of how you're going to read it if you do a book signing so you read it aloud to yourself. Not read it quietly but read it aloud so imagine sitting and reading 3 hundred pages of something out loud but it has to be done. That's the only way that you catch all of the errors in your manuscript. And then you want to get a librarian if you have friends who are librarians have them read your book to see 1 readability and 2 if it's something that they would put in the library because librarians choose the books that go into the library so you want to have them read it to stand behind your book so that they can either put it in their library or give you. Any information that they have about getting the book commercially published because librarians are tapped in more than we know and appreciate and then last copy editing. This is a step that I did not do that I wish I did copy editing a copy editor is somebody who goes into your manuscripts and checks for any of those outlying errors that you missed they check for facts to make sure that the facts are not conflicting. They check to see if what you're writing is valid and so they just make sure that. The manuscript reads well but also checks out factually and you want to make sure that that is done that I think is a worthy investment because I sometimes I read my manuscript of my book now and I'm like oh I forgot to cash this arrow. And when you catch those errors if you want to change them if you self-publish it costs you like 50 dollars every time you make an update to your print or your proofs. So that's like $100 to $200 or $300 every time you catch a mistake so it can add up so you definitely want to invest in that up top.

 

35:51.45  - Jaz Afrodite

So that is the fictional writing process that is just writing the book suppose you want to do nonfiction now nonfiction agents don't want to see your full manuscript. They just want a book proposal and so instead of you submitting something that is 3 hundred pages to them. You never submit your full manuscript to an agent upfront anyway, now I'll talk about that. But if you're doing a nonfiction book. They want to see like a forty-page proposal and that is another process. And nonfiction books are basically outlined because they're pretty formulaic, especially if it's a self-help book you kind of know the formula in terms of how you want to lay your book out. 1 thing I do say if you're doing something that has exercises for people to do in your Book. Do not put your exercises at the end of your book as an appendix. I can guarantee you nobody's going to the end of the book to do any exercises you want to put your exercises at the end of the chapter that it applies to so right after they finish reading that chapter they go through the exercise and move on so you want to think about the outline for your your nonfiction book. But the format for the proposal is you want to have the overview of the book think of your overview as your introduction to the book. Whatever the introduction is is your overview and 1 of the editors that I met with said what he told me to do was to go into Barnes and Noble. Find books that were similar to those that I had written or the one that I had written open up a jacket sleeve and that first insert that you read on the inside of the book. What that is essentially is each sentence. In the paragraphs outline a chapter so the first sentence would be chapter 1 the second sentence chapter 2 the third sentence is chapter 3 so I didn't know that so they summarize each chapter in a sentence and make it read. Fluently so that when you're reading it. You're getting the synopsis of the entire book but they sum it up in a sentence and you want to take that sentence and expound upon it to create your book proposal when he told me that I knew after I finished writing my manuscript that I had no intentions of writing a book proposal because I was like I'm just not doing it that just something I just was not interested in doing and so I was like ah okay I see it I'm happy for the knowledge. But I'm not doing it so overview. What is the book about just the introduction? Then it's about you. Where are you from? What makes you an expert to write about this topic? If you aren't expert, what fields are you in who do you work for? Do you have any articles that are published? They are looking for people who have articles published because that means that you already have a following. That means you already have a name in your industry. That means you already have a literary footprint somewhere. I want just give you guys a heads up writing a book is a very elitist task is a very elitist industry. they do not let you in easily and they do not get paid. Well. And so, it's a lot of ego stroking. So just be prepared that you have to stroke a lot of egos and if that's not your personality you may want to do the self-publishing route and I'll talk about that some more so after you write about yourself your credentials articles. Whether you've been published. You want to go into your marketing analysis and promotion who's your target market who is your marketing audience. How are you going to promote your book? Have you already started promoting your book? Do you have Instagram followers people want to know if you have a following on Instagram? Because that dictates all right now. No matter what industry you're in if you have a lot of followers on Instagram they will automatically take you on that.

 

39:37.99  - Thee Alchemist

This is ridiculous now now now this is ridiculous people were able to publish very very good pieces of literary work back in the day without being attached to social media because there was no social media Gen and you know how you. Gain These followers on social media. Some of it is not really holistic.

 

39:58.47  - Dannie

So That's true you you could utilize a service to get to get um your followers but prior to the boom of social media. What individuals relied on was doing so more speaking engagements. Um. Word of mouth very true like traditional ah route and as as as Jaz said, the book industry is very elitist very ego driven and unfortunately what you see.

 

40:20.52  - Thee Alchemist

Well.

 

40:21.52  - Dannie

Currently in this space are individuals who have a high following on social media. Be it Joe schmo celebrities that really didn't do anything of of of profound significance being being given a book deal.

 

40:49.41  - Thee Alchemist

Exactly.

 

40:51.43  - Dannie

There are things that I have seen we've all seen it in the space in the social media space in the whole entertainment world individuals acquiring a book deal and it's it's deemed easier. To get a deal for nonfiction because you're just telling your story. So, if you think about what Jaz just said in mapping out nonfiction. You're just writing a proposal. You don't even have the whole book written out in place. There are individuals who don't journal these days. Don't even don't use a pen to paper traditional or or using digital um apps on the phone to journal a lot There are a lot of people who who don't do that who don't take the pleasure in writing so it's easy. To be like you know what? I'm gonna write a book about my life because I got a story to tell we've all heard that as the catch line from from like I said Joe small celebrity celebrity saying I got a store it to tell and you're gonna read it.

 

42:01.22  - Thee Alchemist

Well.

 

42:06.85  - Thee Alchemist

I listen the book that I told you the book that I told you about this is Joe schmuel I have a story to tell I thought his life was you know bigger than life itself something that needs to be televised and wrote this book but had someone work with him greatly to be able to write this book. But not only that back in the days we had the big publishing houses and once you got an opportunity to align yourself with those major publishing houses back in the day that dictated where your book was gonna go how far it was gonna go. What libraries it was going to be and what school libraries is going to be in um, in addition to what recommend they? What? what? institutional educational institutions would actually promote your book as well. So. But for social media. That's what we had those major major major publishing houses. Okay.

 

43:02.93  - Dannie

But they but they've been but they've been struggling but they have been struggling as you know as of late because people don't read like they used to and for those that are so that are still Reading. You need the different avenues to access the book. Be it. Be it traditional hard or using Audible because you're always on the go. So you're listening to the book. Um, or your your kindles or what have you the the major publishing houses are struggling. And what if you've noticed for those that acquire book deals The Joe Schmo celebrities some of them are major publishing houses that are backing them and giving them the book deal because they are struggling to make revenue in in this space now.

 

43:49.09  - Thee Alchemist

Absolutely.

 

43:58.40  - Dannie

Um, so when you have quality literature that comes out these days. It's like a diamond and a rough. So. It's like oh my God You know?? Ah this is this is Phenomenal. You know, be it fiction or nonfiction and even more so when you look at fiction. Um, 1 thing that has been steady in the industry world is Sci-fi. Sci-fi stay steady because it it explores so many different things and it's not.. It's not real life. Everybody wants to escape so they they that. That type of genre has never been struggling um romance ah genre has struggled a little bit but um Sci fi reigns supreme because people want to escape but I also want to add. And we talk about like libraries librarians. There is a shortage of Librarians We don't have a lot of people going into library services these days in all different ah tiers be it ...

 

45:05.31  - Thee Alchemist

Well, why should they? Why should they?

 

45:08.86  - Dannie

To be honest with you. It is a hidden skill set and it's a untapped skill set as of late where it's not. It's not like you cannot make money in it People don't have the interest and it has not been.

 

45:23.98  - Thee Alchemist

So, Danielle you just said that that no one’s going into the libraries. No one’s really reading. People are not reading so …

 

45:29.85  - Dannie

No, but that's what I'm saying but that's but that's but that's what that's what I'm saying if if the narrative had changed if the narrative narrative could change and if there could be more of a respect for that type of work or being able to Shift. And provide. You know you have your electronic libraries as we all know but incorporating the use of of librarians in in that genre on ah on a digital Plane. It would be so helpful and beneficial to everyone young and old. I Really wish they could look into that because um, when you look at school Librarians. There's a severe shortage.

 

46:13.93  - Thee Alchemist

Well, I Just want to say this Jaz before I let you go on when it comes to the major publishing houses and how they were set up and writing is ah is for the elite or publishing is for the elite these major publishing house houses set themselves up where they were too big to Fail. And they were set up for failure. So, Jaz please continue.

 

46:38.60  - Jaz Afrodite

I like that a lot. That explains it succinctly. So, if you look in at your book proposal. You got the overview and please be sure to name the problem that the readers are having and the solution to it in your introduction and overview because. Mistake that people make is that they avoid naming the problem. What are you trying to solve in your book proposal the formatting Times New Roman twelve point font 1 and a half spacing not double but 1 and a half so the manuscript is double proposal is 1 and a half then you want to have with your marketing analysis. You also want to have your competitive analysis. So, this is where they want to see comp titles and comp titles are titles that are come in comparison to the 1 that you've written so they want to see 3 to 5 books that are similar to the 1 that you've written and they want you to stay away from books that are the outliers like. Eat pray love or Deepak Chopra book something that has gone on to a claim so much success because 1 they want you to be modest and 2 they think that those cannot be replicated in terms of the numbers that they did so you don't want to compare yourself to something that is too Astronomical. You want to find yourself somewhere in the midpoint. Definitely don't want to pick a book that is 10 years old and needs to be something that is 2 to 3 years, and it has to be relevant and timely so comp titles. What is similar to your book and why does your book stand out because even though it's similar to this book your book still has to offer something that currently is not being offered. Then you want to have the table of contents then you want to have chapter abstract for for each chapter you want to have a synopsis of what that chapter will propose to cover in the book and then you want to include your sample chapter and they make request that you include 2 sample chapters in your proposal so that is your full. Proposal that is your overview about you. The marketing analysis the competitive analysis the table of contents the chapter abstracts and the sample chapter or chapters that you want to include in your book proposal and that is what you will send. To the agents with your query letter. So, the querying process is by far the worst process…

 

48:55.53  - Thee Alchemist

But, but, but wait. I'm sorry I'm so sorry, Jacquii. After you said all that can I just say this woof that is a lot that is a lot I'm sorry, go ahead.

 

50:05.78  - Jaz Afrodite

It's it is a lot people sleep people think this is an easy thing. They think that oh you've written a book I can do that too. That's great that you're getting motivated to do this. But like I said. It is a lot of work and you got to be able to put that work in and you have to have thick skin because when those rejection letters come in after you send out your queries. It's going to really hit you hard when you see the number of rejections that you get so the querying writing process is the hardest process that there is finding an agent is not easy. And when you're looking at the querying process. You want to first look at your pitch the pitch is what you're pitching Basically if you're pitching a book if you're pitching a movie your pitch always has to be strong. So why is my book. Great. The second thing you want to answer is why does my book need to exist. And the third thing you want to answer is what will a reader get out of reading my book and the pitch should not be longer than 2 to 3 sentences, so you want to answer all of those questions in 2 to 3 sentences. Alchemist I see you're shaking.

 

50:06.03  - Thee Alchemist

Ah, to all it all of that in 2 to 3 sentences guys I hope you're listening. You'll be writing your pitch for 3 years okay so I really hope you're listening and understand that 3 sentences come on only that you can say.

 

50:24.49  - Jaz Afrodite

Three sentences.

 

50:25.62  - Thee Alchemist

Take your 1 sentence to say a name in another sense is to say you know where you live so get it get it. guys get it. get it get it get it

 

50:35.57  - Jaz Afrodite

If you want an example of what a good pitch should look like then I suggest you go to Barnes and Noble and get those takeaway manuals that they have where they advertise books that they sell and they give you the brief synopsis of what the book is. Read those because those are basically about 2 to 3 sentences and they really give you interesting ways of describing the book so that you can buy it Barnes and Noble probably has it digitally now. But I know that you used to be able to go into the store and get a pamphlet or a leaflet that had all of the books that they were advertising so that's 1 way to get that. So you want to have your query pitch. You want to be able to say it in thirty seconds or less and you want to practice that because if you go to a book expo and there are agents there and they're allowing you to pitch because a lot of book expos will give you an opportunity to meet with agents as a roundtable and you can go to the different ones pitching your book. Want to be able to get that pitch off quickly succinctly and get people interested now as far as the query letter you want to write your personal appeal. Why are you sending this book to this particular agent. So that means you need to research agents. You can find agents at the back of books that were already published that are similar to yours you can find agents at Book expos at Book signings. You can get a list of agents from the guide to Literary agents. You can find that book on amazon the guide to Literary agents. You can also find agents. Publisher’s Marketplace which I mentioned earlier when you're paying the $25 a month for that subscription, and you want to be able to follow that. Agent's career so if you write to them. You should be able to say oh the book that you published about blah blah blah speaks to my book in that it does blah. Or you should say I met you at this event and we shared a conversation over something so it requires heavy networking and heavy researching. So, the first part of your letter is why are you sending this book to this particular agent then the second part is to pitch you including the actual pitch with the sentences and then the last 1 is your bio. Your query letters should not be longer than 3 quarters of a page. It should not be longer than a page preferably 3 quarters of a page four hundred words max.

 

52:57.66  - Thee Alchemist

You know I'm laughing because we're talking about writing and publishing here and everything you send to these guys is kind of like it has to be strong but it's void of words, go ahead Jaz as just speaking.

 

53:14.76  - Jaz Afrodite

This is why I'm saying. It's a very elitist industry because when I took this workshop I took it with an agent and he and all helped me craft my pitch letter. So I knew it was good because my book had so many different legs and tentacles and it was spin in so many different directions and. Culminated but it was a lot to get in to 3 sentences and when we finally got it and I sent it to him as a matter of fact, he was like you know this is really great. The sample chapter. You sent me was excellent like I really can't say that there's anything inherently wrong with the manuscript but I can't. Sell the book so that let me know that 1 he didn't have the knowledge in what I was writing which a lot of agents will not and you have to be very careful too and you're picking an agent to find those that are similar to you or that you know you'll have chemistry with for instance, most agents. Caucasian just know that off the back you're gonna deal with somebody Caucasian most of the time and if they're younger and you're writing about something for a mature audience. They will not get what you're writing about unless you get a very special 1 who is older than their years I know from my personal experience I don't have good luck with. Caucasian females in their twenty s even when I was in my twenty s we just don't see eye to eye and it's nothing personal. We just don't they don't get me I don't get them and that's it. So I know I couldn't send it to them. But interestingly enough those were the ones saying that they were interested in the type of work that I was doing but when I sent it to them. Of course, you get the whole Karen syndrome oh I would never represent anything like this and they would be very nasty like that so be prepared for stuff like that my audience that I know I get along best with are the males and the older Caucasian women and the older Caucasian women were not covering the books that I was writing about. The black agents mostly female I didn't find too many males LGBTQIAPK and science fiction which also let me know that in the literary agent like any industry. There is a pecking order in terms of what it is that they have on their agenda. Not stated explicitly. But every industry has an agenda education There's an agenda something comes down from the top that everybody has to incorporate into their work stream whether it makes sense or not. It's the flavor of the day so the flavor of the day is  LGBTQIAPK and science fiction and so the black agents will adhere to that. So if your book is not young adult. It's just a new hot thing I can't get over why people are jumping my grown ass people are reading so much young adult books but they are young adults  LGBTQIAPK and science fiction. If You're writing about those things. Great. You will get picked up if your manuscript is good immediately. But if you're not be prepared to do the work in terms of sending it out to multiple agents and they recommend that you send it to 10 agents. At a time so you want to make sure that you're keeping a spreadsheet of the agents that you send it to So you're keeping track so you won't send it to the same agent twice if you don't hear from them after 3 months just mark that off as a no or a rejection and then just keep it moving. The Asian that I was working with said that after ninety rejections you should just quit but you don't really know what number is going to play for you if you have the tenacity to continue just keep pushing because I'm sure people got a 200 Nos before they got that one yes and all you need. Is that one yes.

 

56:56.95  - Thee Alchemist

I absolutely all you need is the 1 Yes, keep pushing. This is a lot of work guys. This is a lot of work I'm so thankful and thank you Jaz for breaking all this down I'm taking notes I know I know I'm listening. I'm listening. I'm listening.

 

57:06.56  - Jaz Afrodite

I'm still not going. I have a little bit left. A little bit left. it this is. It's a lot but I want to make sure you guys get it. So when you listen to it if you listen to this straight through. That's fine. But then you have it like the Alchemist said earlier you can just go back to the chapter that pertains to you and just listen back to that particular chapter and go through it now. Let's say you went through this process and you got yourself an agent woo hoof. You got an agent That's the major step all right congratulations. What does that mean for you. First you have to question that agent you have to ask that agent. What vision do you have for my book if my hopes and dreams are this can I write to my hopes and dreams. How do you work with your writers. What is your turnaround time for feedback. You want to make sure you get all of that down so that you can kind of solidify the working relationship with your agent because a book once it's accepted by an agent takes about 2 years to get published it does not get published immediately.

 

58:11.22  - Thee Alchemist

Oh damn. Oh.

 

58:13.14  - Jaz Afrodite

There is a process. There is a process and that process looks like this you send them the query they're like oh great I love the query send me a sample chapter. You send them the sample chapter then they request your full manuscript. After they read the full manuscript. They're like you know what? I really like it I want to work with you. You accept that then they start editing your manuscript, so you have to be willing to have them edit your manuscript and you guys are working together in a cyclical faction doing edits turn it back and around doing edits turning it back around. Then you create a pitch letter that's going to go out to the publishers. Once you get the publisher on board. You sign for negotiations. How much are they willing to buy your book for? So once that's negotiated you sign that is when. Your agent gets paid. They get paid anywhere between 10 to twenty percent of whatever it is that you negotiate so what you negotiate is broken down into payments. You don't get a lump sum at all so you get the first quarter or third of the payment once you sign the negotiation. Then it goes to edits again from the publishing house and they send you a delivery and acceptance then you get the second payment then that process takes 6 to twelve months from the edits in publishing and delivery acceptance to get a cover design after the cover design is another three month process before they get the galleys and the Galley is just the preliminary book that goes out to people to read so they can review it and give you reviews on the back of the book and once that's done then it goes to distribution and after distribution is when you get the last. Set of payments from the original amount that you negotiated so that is a 2-year process folks if you were thinking that this was going to be something quick. It is not. So, picking an agent. This is why you asked them those questions up front because you were going to have a long working relationship with them.

 

01:00:22.45  - Thee Alchemist

And I could just say Wow I Like we need a sound effect for Wow because that is just.

 

01:00:28.59  - Dannie

And this is why in essence this this industry is elitist. This is why you have to you have to have the stamina. Yeah yeah.

 

01:00:36.58  - Thee Alchemist

Yeah, yeah, well like I said too big to fail. Yeah too big to fail and set up for failure. That's what they're doing and that's why and that is why they're fighting for revenue now did it to themselves.

 

01:00:50.22  - Dannie

Yeah, and you also have that you have to have the Stamina for it too like you have to be all in and fully committed.

 

01:00:59.37  - Jaz Afrodite

You yes, you do so say you say you to yourself. You know what? this is some bullshit I'm not doing this I want to self-publish so you have to go through. All of the steps that I laid out in terms of the writing process the editing process the copy-editing process once you get to the copy-editing process. You're pretty much done with your own book and then you need to format it for book publishing so you can watch videos on YouTube and format your book in. Word some people use Adobe InDesign I was just not interested in doing InDesign so you can format it in word, the good thing about your proofs is that they convert it into a PDF document. So if you have adobe professional. You can do that and you can remove page numbers and do it in. Adobe professional, much easier than you can in word. So get videos from YouTube on formatting of Manuscripts in word, they definitely cover it and you want to change your font from 12 to like 11 eleven and a half something that's more reasonable for people to read. And you want to decide if your book is going to be 5 by eight five and a half by Eight or nine by 6 and this is important because your cover design matters and based on the size of your book determines the number of pages that your book will have and you need to be able to give that information to whoever is designing your book cover. So that they know the size of your book and the number of pages so that when they give you the book cover. It will fit the book in terms of the printout that they create will fit the entire size of the book and then once that's done you have your cover design. You have the size you have your proofs. You send it to whomever is going to publish it publishing on demand Amazon Amazon now does soft covered and hard covered books. You can do lulu.com you can also do Ingram spark you have to do Ingram spark. This is not something that you can decide or say I don't want to because if you want your books to be ordered through Barnes and Noble or any bookstore they go through Ingram spark so you have to have it up on Ingram spark I use forty 8 hour books because they have some beautiful cover designs that no 1 else does. And so, what you want to decide is if you're going to sell Hardcover. You can have forty 8 hour books through your hardcovers because you want those to be special and then have print on demand for your soft covers so kind of decide how you want to do that because you don't want to have a lot of inventory of books in your house to sell is preferred that they just print on demand. But that means that you have a very simple cover that doesn't have any special textures Forty Eight hour book has a lot of special textures that the others do not do not have so if you're going to do a special textured book make sure you treat it specially then you want to have your ISBN and your barcode that is necessary for your soft cover. Hardcover. You don't need an ISBN or a barcode for your Kindle books or for Nook, so you don't want to spend money that's unnecessary and. But you have that you're pretty much done with your Self-publishing. So Self-publishing is the route that a lot of people are taking right now because it's just less headache and you don't have anybody policing your stuff but you also have to have a heavy marketing game and that's a whole other episode. That we will save for another time, but this is the book writing process from soup to nuts.

 

01:04:30.69  - Dannie

Thank you Jaz very helpful, very helpful I have a friend who's self-published and she took the same Journey. It was stressful but in the end she was just happy that she was able to not deal with any haggling or. Any issues of having middle people involved and once her when she was able to publish and she's on Amazon and all those things is such a release in such a level of freedom.

 

01:05:01.63  - Thee Alchemist

Wow, this is amazing. You guys just went through a 1-hour freebie workshop that people spend hundreds of dollars to actually sit in and Jaz Afrodite explained this to you. You know. Within the hour on here on the empress high council just for you being a part of the Roundtable. Don't forget to hit the like subscribe and share Button. You can follow us on IG or Twitter @triempress. This was an amazing episode for you guys I encourage everyone to you know, listen to this episode multiple times take notes get you a book and take notes on the things that resonate with you. The next steps that you will have to do if you want to become an author as well as pick up Jaz Afrodite's book, Knocking from the Inside at jazafrodite.com. It is a great read. And in that book, it'll show you not only is it a great read an excellent read it it checks all the boxes but you can get to see yourself how she wrote this book. So now that you heard the story behind how the book came to fruition. You can actually feel the book in your hand you can read it. You can resonate with the Book. You'll be able to understand what the process is so guys pick up that book knocking from the inside jazafrodite.com, you can also order it on Amazon but I suggest you order it from her personal site because you'll get an autograph copy right? Jaz.

 

01:06:47.16  - Jaz Afrodite

Yes, they will get an autograph copy and I want to say I know you're about to get into the crystal you need to get the crystals from moonmanifestation.com because I wrote with crystals and I know that the Alchemist is going to go into which crystals you should use but I definitely had my crystals on when I was writing.

 

01:07:04.10  - Thee Alchemist

Yeah, so I'm gonna go into the crystals crystals more than 1 crystal of this episode and Dr. Dannie is going to explain to you give you the herb of the episode. So the crystals we're gonna have a couple of crystals of this episode The first crystal we're gonna talk about is sodalite. Okay. sodalite helps you access insights and ideas if you are stuck on an issue. This stone will bring the inspiration you need. Okay, so to light the next crystal I want to talk about is quartz. Quartz is 1 of the most useful crystals for writers. It is an amplifier of energy. So if you suddenly need to find your flow or you have found your flow quartz will ensure it continues it focuses the mind and brings clarity. So as you guys are writing you want to have all these crystals around you tiger's eye as well. Tigers eye is for focus and determination. It is a great crystal for writers in the following genres self-help empowerment self confidence. Public speaking leadership and positive thinking so you want to make sure you get those crystals I want to mention 1 more crystal which is blue lace agate this will stimulate communication and keep you calm and relax the blue lace agate is for writers. Who are writing nonfiction or for bloggers this stone helps you speak your truth should I give you 1 more I'm gonna give you 1 more 1 more labradorite? Okay, it stimulates the imagination and strokes your creativity. It is perfect for those writing in the science fiction or fantasy work. So guys there you have a plethora of crystals to be able to help you on your journey to becoming a published author. 

 

01:09:10.91  - Dannie

Thank you for those lovely descriptions of our crystals for today's episode the herb for this episode is one of my favorites rosemary. A top culinary herb and that's why I like it for the cooking you you know which is widely available is a great herb, amongst others. It’s great for writers rosemary supports cognition, memory, and alertness giving us that mental on. Feeling. There are many ways to incorporate rosemary into our daily routines rosemary essential oil can be diffused in your writing space are simply inhaled. It is great to have on your desk rub on your temples or ingested as a tea as a tea. It is quite delicious as an. Afternoon pick me up that is very true I love rosemary tea. It can be combined with lavender and peppermint when used in a diffuser rosemary can also be found as a tincture and capsule our herb for today's episode is rosemary.

 

01:10:21.86  - Thee Alchemist

Thank you, guys, for being with us and kings and queens and queens and kings here at the empress high council roundtable. Don't forget to hit the like subscribe and share button as usual, we enjoy you, as we hope that you enjoy. The information that we bring to you. You can follow us @triempress on IG and Twitter or you can just google us the Empress High Council. We're gonna leave you without one final thought: Know your worth.