Yeah.

Absolutely.

I think that publishers really want to see authors have a platform right now.

And so for me to have, not in any strategic way, but just to happen to have this platform that was all about books was such an advantage.

And I remember before we went out on submission, I asked my audience if they'd be willing to submit almost like testimonials of that they would want to read my book.

And I set up a little Google form and I posted about it on my Instagram stories very casually.

And I was absolutely bowled over that I think it was around a thousand people who submitted just a couple sentences saying that they would want to read this book.

okay so let's take a new author um and and they're asking you for advice let's say and they say i have 10 hours a week should they spend that 10 hours a week writing do they spend nine of it writing one hour of it working on their marketing their platform like how do you think authors today should be

And just talk a little bit about like your journey.

So I think my career only makes sense in retrospect and maybe even not then.

Okay.

But I started a podcast eight and a half years ago with one of my very best friends, Grace Atwood.

We met working together probably six years before that.

Okay.

I was very unhappy at my day job.

Like, how did you sort of know where to put all your little nods within the story?

And then it wasn't quite that smooth, was it?

No, no, not at all.

So I signed a two book deal for the Christmas Orphans Club and a theoretical second book.

And I pitched that book on probably like three paragraphs in a phone call conversation.

I had the idea for it that I knew I wanted what I wanted to write next.

And I finished up the Christmas Orphans Club.

And then in January of 2023, so before the Christmas Orphans Club came out, but after I was done working on it, I pivoted.

Yeah.