Author Milton Davis reads excerpts from Muscadine Wine and Spacefunk. 6/18/2025

Author @Milton [ Milton Davis ] reads excerpts from Muscadine Wine and Spacefunk. 6/18/2025

transcript

0:09 [Music] welcome y'all thanks for coming um my 0:15 name is Milton Davis i am a author/publisher and I specialize in science fiction and fantasy based on 0:20 African African diaspora culture and traditions and so today I'm going to be uh talking about about a couple of books 0:26 that I have out right now um um I've been writing since um 2008 0:32 um I've written um about 30 novels since that time um I've published um about 0:40 12 anthologies um I've been a part of different I've been more recently I was 0:45 in the Black Panther Tales of Wakanda anthology i wrote a story for that um I also was part of a um an an editorial 0:52 group for um the best the 2022 best African spectative fiction stories which 0:57 got nominated for an award and stuff like that so I've been doing this for a minute um but today I wanted to to uh 1:03 really do something in the neighborhood i don't live far from here and this is a cool bookstore and I wanted to talk about a couple of books that I got out 1:09 right now that I want to highlight um when I first started writing I tried to stay away from incorporating my personal 1:17 life into a lot of stuff that I wrote right science fiction and fans i just didn't want to do that but as I got older and and I started thinking about a 1:25 lot about the time period that I grew up and stuff like that um I felt like I 1:30 needed to leave some kind of stories that kind of reflected on that i was born in 1960 um grew up during you know 1:35 the 60s and the 70s and stuff like that and then in in the South so and um I 1:42 guess as I got older those stories became more important to me it made me realize how unique it was um where we 1:49 grew up and how we grew up and stuff like that so um I wrote this book called Muskadine Wine it's a collection of 1:55 short stories and each of the stories are based on personal experiences and experiences in in general about um 2:02 growing up in the South and incorporating different things like that into it and um a matter of fact the uh 2:09 musketine wine story with the art here is loosely based on how my mother met my 2:15 father back in the 1930s and stuff so I kind of did it based on that but the um 2:21 I'm going to read an excerpt from one of the stories here and I also have another book that I have here it's called Space Funk and the use the unique thing about 2:28 that is as a black author especially a black science fiction author there's certain ways people want you to write um 2:34 and so I started a series of anthologies I call the funk anthologies and another indication that I grew up in the 70s but 2:42 what what I do with those anthologies that I give black authors the opportunity to write in genres the way 2:47 that they want to write in them um without the restrictions that you normally run into when you're dealing with mainstream publishers and we've got 2:55 um five different anthologies we've got um steam funk um diesel funk spy funk 3:02 cyber funk and the latest most recent one is space funk and that's actually the biggest one we've ever done we got 3:08 more authors than we ever had um because you know black folks want to write about space so So that's basic that's 3:14 basically what we did we got some of the um top um black science fiction authors in that um in that anthology we've got 3:21 authors from around the world we got authors from Brazil from Nigeria from Kenya um from um what's the other one um 3:28 in Central America I can't think of it right now but we were able to get a wide spectrum of authors and stuff and have them tell stories that are like you know 3:35 about space but also has influences from their cultures into cultures as well so I'm going to read a little short thing out that one but the first one I want to 3:42 start with is uh Musketine wine and um this particular story most most of them 3:48 are fantastic but this one is uh more uh conventional fiction and it's 3:54 based on the only conversation I ever had with my grandfather on my mother's 4:00 side um it wasn't because he was not a nice person it was just that he was a 4:05 person that um whenever we went out to the farm because my my mom and dad's farm they still had a farm now and we 4:11 would go out there and visit um he would go into his shed he'd give us a Coke a 4:19 piece of sugar cane a box of cracker jackacks and then he'd walk off and that's basically what he do we come out 4:25 there that's what he do so one day I was out on the farm i was older then i was a teenager then and um I was into hunting 4:32 and fishing and stuff like that country boy you know so and I was supposed to be going hunting with one of my uncles and 4:37 when I got out there my uncle had already gone and my grandfather came up to me and said "Uh you know what you what are you doing i said I'm supposed 4:43 to go hunting he said well he said well your my uncle my uncle Willie said he's he's already gone he said I'll take you 4:49 and so I was like okay and um I didn't hunt the entire time because we spent 4:56 the whole time just walking around the farm and he was just telling me these stories about different things and stuff 5:02 like that and so we didn't hunt at all and so this story is uh is loosely based 5:07 on that that and some other things that um I guess I've encountered growing up 5:13 in the south um different things like that and I wanted to kind of touch on so I'm just going to read the first part of 5:18 it just enough to tease y'all so you'll buy the book but just to give you just want to give 5:24 you some background on that story okay um Michael felt heat radiating from his 5:30 wood panel bedroom wall and sprang from his bed the smell of bacon waftda into 5:35 his room as he h heard into jeans and sweatshirt he set out the night before wrestling on his tennis shoes and 5:41 trotted through the narrow hallway into into the kitchen mama stood before the stove one hand holding the black iron 5:47 skillet in place while the other scrambled a pair of eggs in a hot pool of bacon grease 5:52 "what you doing up so early boy?" she asked without looking michael sat at the dinette holding his 5:59 eager hands under his chin "you going to grandma's?" Mama scrapped the scrambled eggs onto a 6:05 plate i go out there every Saturday morning you know that michael played 6:10 with the napkin holder rocking his head from side to side can I go mama was reaching for the grits 6:17 but stopped placing her hand on her broad hips now why in the world do you want to go with me 6:24 because I want to go hunting mama rolled her eyes you and that gun i told your 6:30 daddy not to buy you that thing unless he was ready to go hunting with you his tire behind ain't been out with you yet 6:36 she scooped a spoonful of grits on the plate to join the eggs and bacon you know you can't go by yourself and your 6:42 daddy ain't waking up no time soon michael smothered his grits with pepper uncle Willie would take me how you know 6:49 he going hunting today this close to harvest time he's probably got chores 6:55 michael piled his eggs on top of his grits with the with the pepper and crumbled bacon in his hands i called him 7:00 last night and he said he was going mama turned around and looked at him her eyes 7:06 wise you did what she shook her head lord Lord what am I 7:12 going to do with you she began to make her own plate and stopped what about that book report you supposed to be 7:17 working on you finished it yet no ma'am no and how you expect to go with me if 7:24 you ain't if you got homework to do i'll finish it as soon as I get home mama i promise mama turned to look at Michael 7:32 what you writing about michael spread apple jelly on his toast i'm supposed to 7:37 be writing about my hero i'm thinking about Frederick Douglas mama finished her plate before Michael finished his 7:44 plate before Mama sat down i guess you can go she said but we ain't leaving 7:49 till I'm ready to you hear me yes ma'am and I want to see that book report after church tomorrow yes ma'am michael jumped 7:57 from the table and ran to mama and daddy room to get his 22 rifle he hoarded his lawn cutting money all summer just about 8:03 as a birthday present to himself it was a Springfield Savage 22 semi-automatic long rifle the perfect gun for squirrel 8:10 and rabbit hunting or so the sales clerk at Sea said michael eased the door open 8:15 and crept close to and and crept to the closet behind the bed daddy was stretched out on top of the covers in 8:22 his boxes short and t-shirt snoring through his thick mustache the closet door creaked when Michael 8:28 slid it aside and daddy's hand came up to scratch his sideburns michael froze until he stopped scratching then slid 8:35 the door wide open the gun was hidden behind mama sun mama's Sunday dresses he 8:41 took it out then went to daddy's loose change drawer where he kept the bullets there was a brand new pack of 100 shells 8:46 that felt like money in the boy's hand michael strolled into the kitchen carrying the rifle the way daddy taught 8:53 him mama looked up from her cup of coffee and grinned despite herself "you look like your uncle Bo when he was your 8:59 age," she said she got up from the table and headed for the bedroom "guess I better get ready the day ain't getting 9:05 no longer." Michael washed his plate then went to the den he laid his gun down on the floor and turned on TV to 9:12 watch cartoons he'd almost forgotten about going with mama when she came in the den "cut that mess off and let's 9:19 go," she said michael scrambled to his feet turned off the TV and then grabbed the gun and bullets now remember what I 9:26 said we don't leave till I'm ready yes ma'am and if your uncle Willie ain't 9:31 can't take you hunting you don't go yes ma'am all right then let's go m michael 9:39 trailed mama out the door to the carport to the 67 sky blue Malibu in moments 9:44 they were zooming through the neighborhood down steep hills between the little water oaks of the city had planned to beautify the landscape mama 9:51 worked her way through the side streets and shortcuts with the seriousness of a NASCAR driver reaching Mon Road the 9:56 two-lane highway that ran to Grandma's farm the sky was a crisp autumn blue 10:01 empty of the gray haze that sagged low during the summer the summer morning spread its light across the pineinfested 10:07 hills it felt like hunting season and Michael was excited he watched the 10:12 familiar landmarks flash by from his backseat window until he saw the solidary shack that signaled the farm 10:18 wasn't far away mama finally slowed down as the roadside mailboxes came into view 10:24 she stood off the path highway and onto the dirt road she was creeping as they approached the railroad crossing only 10:30 the section crossing of the road was visible the rest blocked by a tangle of scrub pines and honey honeysuckle vines 10:37 mama turned left across the track she drove to the g through a gauntlet of blackberry vines that made Michael that 10:43 made Michael's mouth water as he remembered blackberry pie and ice cream they turned right at the hog pins the 10:49 house appeared flanked by the corn and peas and pea fields mama drove down the 10:54 road to the rear of the house parking between the house and the shed michael jumped out the car before mama came to a 11:00 complete stop his impatient eyes circling for Uncle Willie his euphoria was checked by a jerk of his arm that 11:06 almost lifted him off his feet boy don't you ever jump out of the car like that again mama's face would get me was get 11:13 me a switch angry don't go hitting on that boy a much older female voice 11:18 growled grandma stood at the screen door of the of the back patio michael blessed 11:23 her for saving him for what surely was going to be a whooping or at least a pinch on the arm she eased down the 11:29 concrete stairs wiping her hands on her apron did you see what he did mama said 11:34 he ain't hurt you'll know better next time won't you Michael yes ma'am michael 11:40 followed Mama and Grandma up the stairs since he made mama mad he sat beside the women in an old folding chair took his 11:47 share of the butter beans from the bushel and began shelling he kept his eyes low and peeled as they talked 11:53 waiting for the right moment to ask the question that was burning to get out of his throat mama stopped talking as she grabbed 11:59 another handful of beans michael cleared his throat and looked up at Grandma 12:04 grandma is Uncle Willie here shoot boy uncle Willie Uncle Willie went hunting 12:10 right about sun up he won't be back until dark michael slumped over like he'd been hit by a brick he looked at 12:16 Mama with pleading eyes i told you no hunting by yourself with that gun she reminded him 12:23 i'll take him grandpa shuffled in from the kitchen his hands deep in his overall pockets he smiled at Michael 12:31 flashing his gold tooth and Michael was filled with dread "you feel like hunting today Daddy?" Mama asked "you supposed 12:38 to be resting." "I don't want to go hunting no more," Michael whispered "i feel fine," Grandpa 12:45 replied pulling his right hand out of his pocket michael watched the gnawled scarred appendage rise out the old man's 12:51 ball head to the old man's ball head "it was hideous like something from a freak 12:56 show at the fair when he was small he always was careful to avoid touching or being touched by that hand and his 13:03 mirror twin he thought when he was older he'd get over the fear but it was still clinging to him as real as ever 13:10 i don't want to go hunting no more he said "is it all right?" Mama asked Grandpa grandpa concentrated on Grandma 13:18 concentrated on the peas the doctor said he needed to get some exercise 13:23 "i don't want to go hunting no more," Michael shouted boy can't you see grown folks talking mama nailed him stealed 13:30 her stare then returned to her conversation well Papa I guess it's okay but you keep 13:36 a close eye on him he can get wild sometimes what you mean you guess it's okay grandpa said i'll take this boy 13:43 anywhere I want to come on Michael let's go hunting michael watched the back of 13:48 Grandpa's head as he bounced down the stairs he looked at Mama in desperation what you waiting on go on now 13:56 michael turned and followed Grandpa down the stairs he could do this he was 12 14:01 going on 13 with two hairs on his chest and a start of a mustache on his upper lip his confidence had almost returned 14:08 until he caught a glimpse of those hands pull out a porch of red a pouch of red man chewing tobacco he jumped past 14:13 grandpa and tried to the car to get his 22 what you going to kill with that time 14:19 michael ignored the comment holding the gun toward the ground like daddy had taught him and making sure his safety was on squirrels 14:26 and rabbits sir," he said grandpa laughed like a laughed like a wet growl "can't kill no squirrels with that thing 14:33 ain't going to do nothing but make them mad should have brought my shotgun." Grandpa started walking and Michael 14:39 followed afraid to say where he wanted to hunt they followed the trail branching off the dirt road that cut 14:44 between the the barn and the and the old mule stables "no can't kill nothing with 14:50 that thing," Grandpa said "can't kill it right?" I mean you shoot a squirrel with that and they'll be running around mad 14:56 hurting and hiding shotgun a shotgun will put him down just like that grandpa 15:01 stopped walking and Michael almost ran into him "see this?" he asked pointing at a dent between his right thumb and 15:08 his finger "shot a squirrel one time and thought it was dead." "I guess I should have asked it before I went to picking 15:14 it up damn thing took a hold of me right there like a beaver trap took a half an hour to get it loose and it was dead 15:20 half that time michael looked at the spot and grimaced imagining how painful it must have felt 15:26 suddenly the scar and the hand were gone sinking back into grandpa's pocket 15:32 they walked to the second hog pin where the trail ended the air heavy with the stink of swamp and m swamp mud and hog 15:38 droppings before them was the turnup the turnup green field the fall planting full and ready for harvest grandpa 15:45 walked into the field and over the barb wire fence separating the field to the woods michael hadn't planned on going to 15:51 those trees it was a tangle of pine oaks and musketine vines that seemed per perpetually dark and it repulsed the 15:58 sun's attempt to penetrate his core blind obedience only went so far 16:04 grandpa where we going you want to shoot squirrels don't you michael reluctantly 16:10 nodded his head but this is the best spot for them at least it was a while back come over here and hold this wire 16:16 down for me michael sat the gun down on the opposite side of the fence then grabbed the wire 16:22 carefully pushing down with his weight grandpa stepped over his hand gripping Michael's shoulder for support michael 16:28 closed his eyes keeping his head away from that hand "got to be careful," 16:34 Grandpa said as he grunted his way over the fence "once he and Michael were settled," he showed him his left hand 16:40 "when I was about your uncle Willy's age I worked for a white man named Mr elias Burnside in his sawmill it was hard work 16:47 back then because a colored man did whatever the boss said do even if it wasn't your job well one day I was 16:54 putting up a fence like this like this one on Mr burnside's farm and before I knew it I was up to my ankles and fire 17:00 ants boy I got to jumping around and screaming and tore my hand on that barbwire took me a long time to get this 17:07 hand back right michael climbed over the fence the woods towered before him like in black silence 17:14 his stillness of final warning to all intruders michael eyes went to Grandpa waiting for him to lead the way instead 17:22 Grandpa reached into his pocket pulled out his red man chewing tobacco and leaned against the fence "we'll stay 17:28 here and wait," Grandpa said "they'll come to us." And that's a portion of Grandpa's hands 17:38 um there's a uh there's a thing about his 17:44 hands that if you read the rest of the story you will encounter 17:50 but uh but yeah that's uh that's part of that story right there um like I told y'all earlier this book is um it's a 17:56 collection of of space stories by black authors um they're from um different parts of um parts of the world we've got 18:03 poetry in here um some of the authors here like for instance uh uh Linda Addison and Sheree Renee Thomas Eugene 18:10 Bacon are some of the top black science fiction authors out today um I've had the opportunity to work with a lot of 18:15 them and when I put out the call for this book I was surprised at the response I got uh this is the biggest anthology that we've done so far um the 18:23 story that I want to read to you guys is I'm going to be selfish and actually read my story 18:30 a portion of my story and it's kind of it's a story I wrote a long time ago but 18:37 um um recently there's been a lot of talk about artificial intelligence and stuff 18:44 like that and in this story I was actually imagining um artificial 18:49 intelligence and how it would be used in space travel and it also came from uh u 18:55 part of the story came from the person that this book is uh dedicated to um author by the name of Valjan Jeffers um 19:02 Valjon is no longer with us um but she is was an amazing science fiction author and poet and um we used to hang out on 19:10 online together and I had never read anybody do any science fiction poetry before and so I put out a challenge i 19:16 said "Look I I if somebody will write a a science fiction poem I'll write a 19:22 story based on that poem." And Val Jean did and she sent this poem called 19:27 Leviathan and I'm like "Okay now I got to put my money where my mouth is i got 19:32 to write a story." So basically the the name of the story is Leviathan and it starts with the um poem and then um I go 19:41 into the story um you I don't talk so loud but yeah I feel the 19:49 fun and everything so I'll try to project more um so I'm going to read the poem first and then I'll read a I'll 19:55 read a portion of the story leviathan of flesh and steel racing 20:00 through streets soaring of technological genius his fist crush tons of debris to 20:07 dust his sight travels miles over designated horizons torn from his life 20:13 crushed disembowled by madness infernal and stone to be reconstructed by 20:19 humanoed hands and I'd rather be dead he remembers the whisper of a lover's 20:25 breath on his cheek the head he cradled so gently against his shoulder and he 20:30 has no tear ducts to give voice to his sorrow only the dreams of his hardwire 20:36 heart never forgotten imagineers of her soft caressed upon his 20:41 metal brow space marshal Balagon Babatunde posed be 20:48 posed before the view shield of launch station 5 his rugged brown face creased with a broad smile behind him United 20:56 Nations delegation gazed in awe at the sight beyond the platform jutting into the void 10 sleek vessels hovered in 21:04 zero gravity tethered to the hangar beam by a web of massive titanium cables from 21:10 a distance they remember they were resembled normal fighter craft minus the cockpit but the delegation knew each 21:17 ship was the size of Earth's moon an unbelievable example of human ingenuity effort and desperation 21:24 balogon turned to his colleagues and his smile grew wider well everyone what do 21:29 you think they're amazing and John Ratic replied a tall narrow man with a beak 21:35 nose and straw blonde hair Radic served as UN vice secretary he was a successful 21:40 American billionaire who paid for his position with the council and was easily impressed the space marshal dismissed 21:46 his comment focusing on the one person whose opinion mattered more the one who could make or break his project her 21:53 expression was less impressive the mechanics are simple fish ambeck 21:58 commented "I'm more concerned about the control system." Fish day the Nigerian 22:04 vice chairperson overseeing the Leviathan project was a striking woman with flawless brown skin and intense 22:09 amber eyes she held a PhD in space engineering and was not easily impressed 22:15 balagon's f smile faded the control system is fine fish day cut her eyes at 22:22 the space marshall the control system is untested yuenh how cleared his throat looking up 22:29 at both of them ai has proven technology you know this Fer the Taiwanese delegate 22:34 and AI specialist stood beside the space marshal he was as tall and broad as the space marshal with empathetic eyes that 22:42 revealed his that revealed his support for the for the project yes but only for military purposes she 22:48 answered i understand the gravity of the situation the signal from the tipc left no doubt that they intend to attack to 22:54 attack us so much for friendly first contact John whispered i'm not comfortable with 23:00 thinking weapons foolish your day finished that's why I insisted you come the space marshall broke from the group 23:07 crossing the room to a instrument panel opposite the view screen begin demonstration he ordered the titanium 23:14 cables separated from the ships floating to rest in the cold vacuum engine ports glowed white hot as the vehicles 23:20 prepared themselves for maneuvers balagon activated his earpiece leviathan 23:26 one commence cross check cross cross check are you talking to the ship fish 23:32 asked of course Balagon replied the Leviathans have been taught to recognize and respond to all Earth languages of 23:39 course they also interpret binary code and other basic speak this is Leviathan 23:44 1 the metallic voice responded cross check is complete fishete edged toward 23:50 the view screen how do they receive assignments we brief the pod leader and 23:55 he relays the orders to the team fisher should look confused the pod leader the 24:01 Leviathans are infused with part social behavior they work as a group adapting learned behavior to determine each 24:07 ship's responsibility leviathan one is the most intelligent of the 10 the others selected him to be the pod leader 24:13 so we don't expect any problems with the command structure ola stared and Bagum smiled you must 24:20 understand these are semi-scentient craft balagon explained they are designed to operate independently this 24:26 means they must be allowed to make their own decisions we give them an objective and an entire and a desired result it's 24:33 up to them to determine the course of action that's too much independence foolish 24:38 argued balagon frowned at the diplomat disappointed by their ignorance when 24:43 these ships reach their destinations we will be dead our children will be dead and our children childrens will be dead 24:50 in addition the nature of the threat may have drastically changed the Leviathans must be prepared to assess situations 24:56 and adjust the plan to obtain the objective how do you know they'll stick to the plan she asked balon's face became stern 25:05 some things aren't not left a chance it's the one command they cannot alter the ships remain motionless balagon 25:12 repeated the command leviathan one begin exercise 25:17 leviathan one didn't respond sweat reform sweat formed on Balagon's forehead jennings run a communication 25:24 sequence airman Jennings fingers ran across the LED board communications f 25:30 functionally normally sir fish today came face to face with Baligon 25:35 what seems to be the problem commander balagon cleared his throat 25:40 i don't know he swam in a sea of memories grasping 25:46 for schools of shimmering metaphors that scattered before him arms stroked that he could not see legs kicked that he 25:52 could not feel somehow he knew they were there the only sensations were the cold 25:58 of the water and the pain in his heart words formed a beat of consciousness that called him in the called him with 26:05 the rush of desire she was there she waited for him he had to see her she 26:11 needed to know he stepped out of the memories onto a beach of white silicone a cold wind tingling his surface he 26:19 gazed upward into the sensors eyes into an intense brightness that spoke to him 26:24 in a thousand languages each phrase issuing the same command program malfunction 26:31 return to standby await further instructions the brightness was too intense the 26:37 memories evaporated with the increasing light confusing him he turned and ran back into the sea fell in to get away 26:44 from the glare he dove deeper to escape the light and the memory surrounding him in a swirling dance images returned 26:52 faces formed and names appeared one name danced about his head just out of his 26:58 reach it was a good name a familiar name 27:03 his name and that's 27:10 But anyway um um I have these books here today and if 27:15 you want to purchase them you can purchase them up front i'll sign the stories and stuff like that i also brought a couple of other books with me 27:20 as well um if you have any um middle-rade people in your in middle grade readers in your family um I 27:26 brought a book that I wrote a few years ago called Amber in the Hidden City it's about a young African-American girl who 27:31 finds out she's the only person that can pick a the next king of an African kingdom that's been hidden from the rest 27:36 of the world for a thousand years and uh her grandmother is from that kingdom and would tell Amber these stories um 27:42 stories about her life which Amber thought were fairy tales but now she knows they were actually true so now she's on this adventure with her 27:48 grandmother to go back to this kingdom and um and fulfill her her her um prophecy i guess you can say that um I 27:55 have the first the book the first book and the second book here and for those of you who are into um cozy holiday 28:04 romance books because I write a little bit of everything I have another book here called Palmetal Christmas and it's 28:09 about a um an older couple um empty nesters kids are grown and gone who have 28:15 decided they want to take a vacation on during Christmas and go to they've always been at home every year but they 28:20 want to go to an aisle and hang out and stuff like that but then through a series of circumstances they find out that they're not going to be gone by 28:26 themselves all of their children somehow are going to end up with them on that same vacation and uh I guess you can say 28:33 hilarity ensues so but that's what I have with here with me today and um so um thank y'all for uh 28:40 taking your time to check me out and if y'all have any questions right now I'm I'd be more than happy to answer 28:51 well I started and I still am a self-publisher and and I did it because I wanted to be able to write my books 28:57 exactly the way I wanted to write them and at the time um and even now still 29:02 you know black authors have challenges in getting their work published because people have certain perceptions of what 29:08 we should be writing and how we should be writing it it's not as bad as it was when I first started but when I first started I kind of looked at the re I 29:14 researched the industry and I was like you know um nobody's going to accept my stories the way that I want to write them so I started writing them myself 29:21 started self-publishing myself and I also um published a few other authors that's why I started the anthologies 29:28 because I when I started doing it I said "Well I know there's other authors who probably have run into the same things 29:33 I've run into and they would you know be looking for an opportunity." So that's why I started doing it so um now 29:42 I'm here 20 years later and I'm what's called a hybrid publisher now because 29:48 now I get published in mainstream published works but I wouldn't that 29:54 wouldn't have happened if I had not self-published you know I was able to develop a reputation from about my 30:02 writing by doing it on my own and that kind of translated and now that's kind of the common thing now a lot of authors 30:08 now are like doing both they'll publish their own work and then they'll publish mainstream as well it just depends on 30:14 the situation they'll have they'll have an agent to promote themselves with the mainstream publishing but then they'll do their own personal work and publish 30:21 that themselves and what happens if there sometimes what happens when your self-published stuff gets really big 30:27 then the mainstream publishing people will come and say "Hey we want to publish that." And then then you could that way you can get an agent and go 30:33 through them and then uh and and access that market and stuff what platform you use to sell 30:39 i don't know anything about question sounds kind of but what platform do you use process the process 30:47 um I basically um now I use a a manuscript software to create my 30:53 manuscripts and stuff i do own use I use Word to do my stuff um once I make once I get my books formatted um there's a 31:00 company called um what they were called Lightning Source back in the day but now they they call themselves Ingram and 31:05 what Ingram will do is if you once you format everything and send it to them they will create your book for you and 31:12 you can get your book print on demand you can you can order one book from them you can order a 100 books from them and 31:17 they'll print them for you um as far as distribution is concerned if you want to get distribution they also are the 31:23 largest distri book distribution company in the country and they basically will 31:29 um um if they'll for a fee they will make your book available to bookstores 31:35 like this Barnes & Noble any place that sells books they'll make your book a book books available like that um so 31:40 that's what they'll do am*zon also will do it am*zon will also do have has a print on demand business as well um the 31:47 the advantage of using am*zon's print on demand is that if you sell your books on am*zon um they're cheaper for you to 31:55 print but just recently am*zon went up on their prices big time you know because of what we're going through with 32:01 the tariff situation and a lot of my friends that use am*zon are not very happy right now because that biting into 32:06 their profit margins and stuff like that you know so So there's a there's a number of ways to do it now there's there's um ebooks which are big um 32:14 there's actually a company called Draft to Digital that I use right now which they basically will distribute your ebook to different people so you go set 32:21 your ebook up with them and then they'll they'll make your ebook available for Kindle and all the other e-readers to 32:27 libraries and stuff like that you know so and this then this is just like a one-stop shop you know that's kind of thing you don't pay them what they do is 32:34 that they take a percentage when you sell um if you're getting if you're thinking about being an author and you're looking at doing something 32:40 anybody that tells you that you have to pay them to produce your book you know as far as like we're gonna we're going 32:47 to be your publisher and we're going to sell your book but you have to pay us to publish your book don't mess with them because a real publisher is not going to 32:53 charge you to sell your book they're not going to do that and with 32:59 um I would say I would take a look at Ingram LSI um now now understand that these people don't market your stuff all 33:07 they're gonna do is print your book for you and and and make it available to you when you need it but um they don't do 33:12 marketing they don't do anything like that that's all going talking about am*zon no um LSI Draft oh 33:20 Drafted Digital yeah Drafted Digital they do now ly they've they've they started exclusively as ebooks but now 33:27 recently they've gotten into print and they've also gotten into um audio books 33:32 and they make all that stuff available to you of course all that all that costs for you to do for them to do it for you and stuff but they they've kind of went 33:38 the opposite way where other people started with hard copy and went to ebooks they started exclusively ebooks 33:44 and then they now they've kind of drifted into the other area and stuff like that so trying to become like a one-stop shop type place you know 33:56 if it's if it's just you um you don't have to worry about all that stuff you know um you can just you 34:03 know if you can get the right setup the right room and stuff like that you can you can you can create your own audio 34:09 books um the um am*zon is probably one of the most popular popular people right now with Audible but a lot of people 34:16 don't like to use am*zon because they take the majority of the profit they take like about 60 60% something like 34:22 that you know and they used to it used to be the other way till they found out they had they thought they had a monopoly on the thing then they switch 34:27 it around and stuff like that you know so and with them basically you can they give you um uh voice actors you can pick 34:34 and select and stuff like that they give you the whole nine yards and all that kind of stuff you know but the but the the um the um the consequence is that 34:43 you don't get a lot of the profit stuff like that um but it does um the I know 34:48 some people that do it themselves but the more professionally you can do it in a studio setting you know to cut out the 34:54 noise and have somebody that can edit it for you you know when you make mistakes and stuff like Daryl here he he can edit 35:01 stuff like that you know the more professional you can do it the better it's going to be you know but uh and 35:06 some people I I I don't have the voice but I know some authors who have the voice to do their own audio books you 35:12 know me personally I'd rather find somebody that can do it themselves 35:22 i know a friend of mine who's an author who also has an audiobook company and he 35:28 basically you know he gets you know you send him the story he has a number of 35:33 voice people that he works with um he'll you know check with them and see which 35:38 ones because it is it is a thing audio a voice actor has to want to read your story sometimes they don't really like 35:44 your story so they don't want to read it you know it's like that and then based on how their pacing is he can figure out 35:50 how much it's going to cost you per hour to to pay that person how much you know how many how's how much it going to cost 35:56 you and that kind of stuff like that you know and then there are some country companies that that's all they do is audiobook stuff there's there's other 36:02 people other than Audible that can do audiobook stuff for you and they will tell you how much it's going to cost you 36:08 based on how long the work is and stuff like that now when you when you upload to Audible though Audible don't pay you 36:13 doesn't pay you as much if you upload your own audio book with them as if they were to do it but there is software out 36:21 there where because on my particular website I can do audio books and I can sell them from my website and there is 36:27 software out there where people can read can listen to my stuff you know and don't have to use Audible and stuff like 36:32 they can just listen to it straight from their stuff you know so so there there are there are ways around it and that's 36:37 the way I prefer to do it the only thing about doing it yourself is that audiobooks are expensive like this 36:43 particular book um we had our guy take a look at it cuz he's like he want he's "Oh man we got to do audio book of this 36:49 thing." You know it would cost me $6,000 to do this as a audio book you know i 36:55 mean that'll be my upfront cost just to get the Now once I pay that $6,000 now and I get the audio book then it's 37:01 straight profit because it's just electronic data you know so if I got the money to do it Yeah everything else 37:07 everything after that is gravy but see I'm kind of like you i I have some audio books but for the life of me I cannot 37:14 listen to an audio book i just can't I just can't do it 37:23 i had an author that I had one audio voice actor that did two of my books and it was interesting because um people 37:30 were like "Yeah I really I really love her on this And then somebody said but then somebody else said you know that 37:35 was a good book but I could not stand that voice actor i'm like I'm surprised they got to it 37:40 because what they were talking about so and that's a personal thing you know you really don't know who's you know but there are a lot of good voice actors out 37:47 there i' I've run into them just just from the fact that I'm out here selling my books sometimes one of them will read 37:52 a book of mine and they'll be like "Oh man i really want to do this for you man you know I I would love to do this." And stuff like that one of the curious 37:59 things about about doing um audio books especially through through um am*zon I'm just going to be honest with you that 38:05 sometimes the voice actors will ghost on you they they will start doing the work 38:10 for you and then all of a sudden you're not hearing from them anymore and I'm like you're like well what's going on and you can't find them or anything and 38:17 I've had it I've had it happen to me a couple of times there was one woman I was working with she was doing one of my books and she was amazing i mean she was 38:23 because my books are like a lot of my books are like Africanbased she was doing the African accents she was 38:28 hitting i like "Oh man this is gonna be a great book." I just couldn't wait for her to finish it and then she was gone 38:34 and and I wasn't able to find it 38:43 i have done them um not usually through something else like um like in October 38:50 um the the Atlanta writers club has a um has a indie author conference that they 38:56 do every year and actually I'm doing a uh seminar with them this year i'm going to be talking about selling and 39:02 marketing your books to beginning authors um and I've done that a couple of times there and the ironic thing 39:08 about this and I have to talk about this is that when I first started writing and I first went to the Atlanta Writers Club 39:15 um they didn't want to have anything to do with indie authors you know I like it was like I went there and I was like 39:21 wasting my time they had no time for indie authors and now here I am 20 years later and I'm doing presentations 39:27 at at the Atlanta Writers Club about indie author stuff because that's where most indie that's where most authors are 39:33 now that's the space that they're in now and that's the stuff that they want to know but at least they were I guess they 39:38 were um conscious enough to realize that their audience and the people that they're serving this is what they want 39:45 they do want to know about mainstream publishing but they also want to know about indie publishing and so they you know they responded to it and they've 39:51 been you know providing those resources and stuff you know 39:59 yeah I've done that on all levels i've been to elementary schools i've done high schools um I've done college 40:05 college stuff i do a lot of stuff with Georgia Tech um they've been supporting what we've been doing locally for a long 40:11 time and we've got a really good relationship with them and talking to their students and stuff like that and 40:16 and I think that's that's a big part of it because I know when I first started out there's so many pitfalls you can run 40:22 into as a writer trying to get into it there's so many people out there waiting to rip you off you know and there's so 40:27 many horror stories but I was lucky enough and I'm just going to say plain lucky because I didn't know what I was 40:33 doing to meet people who right off the bat were looking to help um one of the 40:39 first people that helped me was the the brother that owns Nubian Bookstore um I had no I knew nothing about making books 40:45 and creating books and I just walked into his store and my naive self I said "Hey man if I make a book will you sell 40:52 it?" And he said "Well do you have somebody do your manuscript?" I was like "Nope." He said "Do you have somebody to 40:58 do your cover?" I said "Nope." And then he went and he gave me the cards and said "You know get in contact with these 41:03 people and they'll help you put your book together and once you have your book together," he said "Bring it back to me i'll take a look at it if I like 41:09 it then I'll schedule a time where you can come in and sell your book." And so all the horror stories that I heard 41:15 other people talk about as trying to publish and self-publish I didn't run into any of that because of the fact 41:21 that he was just there and and there there were some other authors that were like mainstream published authors that I 41:28 encountered online and I was like these people have no reason to talk to me they're doing their thing and just for 41:33 the hell of it I just said look I'll ask them all they can do is say no and they were kind enough to say hey yeah I'll 41:38 write a review for your book I'll take a look at it and stuff and I kind of felt like because that happened with me I 41:44 felt like I'm obligated to do the same thing so when I run into new authors and stuff like that I kind of offer the same 41:50 thing i'm like "Yeah you know um you need to look at this person you need to talk to these people you need to go to this resource and stuff like that you 41:56 know and you need to check this out." That kind of thing you know so so I think that's part of it that's was I like to do that because of the fact that 42:02 um excuse me excuse me people did it for me and especially for black authors because you know it's everything for us 42:08 is always you know another a whole another angle and stuff like that it's gotten better but still you know you 42:14 still have to have those people who understand that who understand your journey you know and they they feel that 42:20 journey it's just not um going different steps you you know that you know the stuff that you're going to deal with so 42:26 you can give them that little extra push or that little extra information that they need in order to get them around those obstacles and stuff like that so 42:33 So I think that's that is part of it is being able to reach back and help other authors and talk to other authors about 42:38 stuff you're welcome those are some great 42:45 questions any any other questions comments curses 42:52 well I appreciate y'all appreciate y'all coming by you know like I said we got the books available here um um books 42:59 they can you can also order my books through this bookstore i do sell them directly from my website um the good thing about today though is if you buy 43:05 them today you get them signed by the

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