Indie Publishing in 2026: How to Navigate Changes and Thrive with Parker Finch (300 Episodes Special)

300 / In this 300th episode, we take a walk down memory lane, sharing behind-the-scenes stories from the early days of the podcast and reflecting on how far we’ve come—with over 500,000 downloads and listeners tuning in from all around the world. We chat about the most popular episode, our sometimes dodgy sound, and the connections we’ve made with authors and vendors in the indie publishing community.

Joining us is long-time listener and sports rom com author Parker Finch, who shares how staying reader-focused has helped her build a sustainable writing career. We discuss the ever-changing publishing landscape, creative fulfillment, and why mixing panic with positivity is totally normal for writers. 

In the next episode, we’ll hear more from listeners (thank you for the voicemails!) and have another special author interview. 

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⚡Links:

Parker Finch Parkerfinch.com

Melanie Harlow episode: https://wishidknownforwriters.com/209-2/

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

You can panic or you can stay positive.

SPEAKER_00 0:03

It's your choice. You can actually do both. That's what we specialize in.

Jami 0:12

Welcome to the Wish Tag podcast. I'm Sarah Rosette and I'm Jamie Albright. And y'all, it's our 300th episode.

Sara 0:21

If we have sound effects, we have a clap and a streamer pop sound and all that.

Jami 0:36

And Brian Cohen kept wanting to add all these sound effects. Yeah. And no, no, we don't have copy. Who's afraid to get taken down?

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Yeah, we've never gone down that route. I do have something I can put in editing. So I'll see what I can find in editing. So there may be more sounds in here. We'll see. We'll see when it's actually going to be just what we need. Yeah. That will be what pushes us over the edge into the Apple, whatever top most noted new and notable.

Jami 1:06

Yeah, watch out, crumb junkies and data coming for you with our sound effects.

Sara 1:12

300 episodes. So we're going to do a little celebration. We're going to look back and look at some of the most popular episodes, some of the places where the podcast has been downloaded the most. And then we're going to talk to a couple of people. But I was going to ask you, real quick, before we go into all this, do you what do you remember when we first started? What do you remember about those early episodes?

Jami 1:31

I don't know. I did them in my bedroom. And I don't know why because I have an office. But yeah, it was in there. It was dark. And I guess I felt like I needed to be in a more enclosed space in our bedroom. Yeah, our bedroom was more enclosed. My office is it's in a room, but it's a pass-through room. And I don't know. I don't know. I also remember thinking, is anyone gonna ever listen to this? Are we just like talking into the void? But I was excited. I was really excited to do it. I was too because we had talked about doing it for so long.

Sara 2:03

For so long, yeah. I remember being really excited, but really nervous. Yeah. Because it's public speaking of a sort. Yeah. Not really, but it is very strange because you and I talk, but at the same time, we know this is going out and it's gonna be on a feed. So it's very strange to have conversations that people are gonna listen to later. Yeah. But then I did get over my nervousness. You did, and that's one of the way more comfortable.

Jami 2:28

Yeah, that's one of the things I really love is that because here's the deal, y'all. Sarah is one of the smartest people I know as for as far as this industry goes and what she does well, and she does with excellence, and she cares about her readers so much, and really everything she does is for her readers and about her readers. But in the beginning, I don't think you spoke with the kind of authority that really you deserve. And she was nervous, and yeah, now you do, and I love that.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

I do remember being very nervous, and I vividly remember we had a podcast with David Gogren early on.

Sara 3:02

Yeah, and I was so excited because I really think he has good information, and I was like, this will be good for the podcast, will help us get the word out. And I had the time wrong. And I remember I came in, I'd gone to Sonic to get a Coke, and I came back, it was like 10:30, and I realized what had happened, and I ran upstairs in a panic, and I was like, ah, and he was like, it's fine, it happens all the time because he was in Europe, and yeah, I was like, Thank goodness he was nice, and he was still on, he was like, Yeah, we can do it now. So that was like my worst, almost ghosted somebody.

Jami 3:33

Yeah, and the thing is, we have never been known for our great sound. We're not winning. That's true. We try contests, but in the beginning it was not great.

Sara 3:44

But we've got tools, we've got so much better tools now, like the same thing with the industry. Yeah, when as time goes by, you look back and you think, Oh, yeah, remember when we didn't have this, but now we have this, and now we have sound editing that makes it so much easier. Yeah, and we have so many systems now behind the scenes things that just happen. Yeah, big shout out to Adriel because a lot of this would not, I don't think we would be able to keep going this long if we didn't have all the help that we have from her. Yes, yes, and the editing we had, absolutely from Alexa, yeah.

Jami 4:15

She really saved us in the beginning because we didn't know what we were doing, and she had been she had edited Michael Angela's uh the LMBP and all their podcasts, and so it was such a help to have that.

Sara 4:30

Because in the beginning, like everything, once you start doing it, you get better and you figure out little shortcuts and things. But in the beginning, like all we did was just record and do the show notes, and I think that was all we could handle. So that was it. That was it. Yeah, but anyway, so let's talk about some of our I went looked at the download stats. So for all of the episodes, we've got, we'll do a little countdown. The fifth most popular episode was How to Thrive in a Flooded Market. And that was we were discussing Becca Sims New Rules of Publishing in May 2023. Yeah. And then we have number four is the book launch plan, the mega episode, and that was the re-air. Just us, yeah. Yeah, just us. That was number four. That came out in September 2022. And then a number three was Tammy LeBrec about newsletter, what to email newsletter subscribers. And so now we're into November 2022, yeah. Yeah. And then we have Holly Darling on the power of email welcome sequences in May 2022. And number one, Zoe York on Secret Pin Names, March 2022. Yes. But asterisk, if you combine the book launch mega episode rear with the original episode that also aired, yeah, that's actually our most downloaded episode. Wow. So more people listen to that than anything else on the feed. That's crazy.

Jami 5:51

That's just crazy. Yeah, and y'all listen. This is gonna be an hour or so of us talking about us. We're gonna talk about it. We usually don't do. We try not to celebrate us, and we're unapologetic about it. So I'm just letting you know right up front, that's what this is gonna be. Yeah, I thought those were great episodes myself. I got a lot out of it. I think that there's a theme here: the email thing, the thing, how to thrive in a flooded market. Like we're just we're all just searching for ways to be visible and to reach readers.

Sara 6:26

And yeah, I was not at all surprised to see these are the most downloaded, partly because some of them have been on the feed the longest, but just the topics or things that are evergreen that people want to know about. Yeah, like the question of what do I email my readers, that's everybody and you need fresh ideas sometimes. Sometimes going back and listening to something again, you pick up something that you didn't get the first time. And then let's see, we were also gonna look at the we have stats. The podcast app we use gives us stats on the apps that people use in the countries, but we think the most interesting thing is the most downloaded cities. Yeah. So number one is Sydney. Yo, we love you, Sydney. Thank you. We love ya. Number two is Dallas, number three is Seattle, and number four is Melbourne.

Jami 7:11

That is crazy because if you look at the cities, Australia is we get four percent of our listeners in the countries. If you look at the countries, Australia is we get four, that's number four. We get four percent of our downloads from them. They are consistent and we love them. Thank you so much.

Sara 7:31

Yeah, it is really fun to go in and look at. There's a map you can see where everybody's downloaded, and it has been downloaded all over the world, which is crazy to think about it. It's crazy too, yeah, to think that we're being heard all over the place. Yeah, and then we had a little bit different stats on Spotify. Spotify stats are included in those other ones, but this is like a little piece of the pie. And it was interesting because the number one episode on Spotify is Melanie Harlow, lessons learned on the way to becoming a one-click author, another not surprising thing. And then Angel Lawson is number two on that one, that episode on learning to use tropes and universal fantasies. And then again, learning how to thrive in the flooded market. So yeah, yeah. So those are just some really good, solid episodes. I'll put links to those in the show notes. So if anybody's wants to go back and listen to those, there'll be links through there and there.

Jami 8:22

Yeah, and just again, toot toot, because we're tooting our own horn. We have over 500,000 downloads and 318 episodes when you look at regular episodes, supporter episodes, and highlight episodes. And then on Spotify, we have nearly 2,000 followers. From two little girls from Texas, that's a big deal for us. And we're just super grateful.

Sara 8:48

Super grateful. We really are. I think the best thing about the podcast has been seeing you every week and just chatting and catching up, absolutely meeting new people and talking about books and publishing and just all the connections we have in the writing community with the vendors. It's just been it's just like one of the things that I like the best about about my job. Yeah.

Jami 9:13

Exactly. And I would say, I would add to that and say just anytime we're out anywhere and we get to meet listeners, that has that's just been amazing. And I've told this story before, but I'll tell it again because it really because we tell the story. You know, after Joni died, and I decided to go to Author Nation. Literally, she died October 1st. I think Author Nation was at the beginning of November, and I decided the day before Author Nation started that I was gonna go. I called Craig and I said, Do you have our Miss Sims said, Do you have any tickets available? He said, Yes, I got a ticket and I bought a flight the day before and I went because I just needed to be around my friends and the people that came up to me weeping over what had happened to me and my sister. You'll just never know how much that meant to me and how much that touched me and how supported I felt. And yeah, not just that, but just anytime anybody tells us that they listen, that they love the podcast, and it's they've gotten value from it, is always just such a treat, and we appreciate it so much.

Sara 10:23

Just makes our day. It does. All right. So to continue this kind of theme of the podcast and looking back and looking forward, we talked to Parker Finch about her writing career and how it's changed over time and what she sees coming. And a lot of what we talked to her about was knowing her readers and writing for her readers and figuring out exactly how to write what makes her happy and also makes her readers happy.

Jami 10:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love that. I love that it was a great interview, and we should get on with it because you're gonna love it too.

Sara 10:56

Today we are really excited to talk to Parker Finch. Hi, Parker. How are you?

SPEAKER_04 11:01

I'm great. How are you, Sarah? We are good. We're so good to have you here. So happy you're here. Yeah. I'm excited to be here. I have been listening to your podcast since episode one. Oh my god. Oh my goodness. Wow.

Jami 11:13

Probably like our longest. We've come a long way, baby. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:17

You really have. I think I've literally listened to, I think I've listened to, I will have to say not 300 episodes because I don't think you've aired the 300th yet. But I think I've probably listened to at least 290 of them. I'm a little behind right now, but it's been amazing.

Jami 11:36

Thank you. Thank you.

Sara 11:37

Thank you. Yeah, we have loved doing it. But yeah, we want to get into how the podcast has impacted your writing and what you your some of your takeaways from it. But first, let me read your bio so people will know a little bit more about you. Parker Finch writes sports rom coms about characters who make terrible decisions that lead to great kisses, chemistry that won't stay in its lane, and heaps of emergency swoon. If you're into fake dating with real feelings, enemies to love or banter that bites, and stories that grab you by the messy little heartstrings, you're her people. I love it. When she's not writing Parker, who also answers to Shannon because she lives in sunny color, Denver, Colorado. Shannon spends her time talking craft, business, and publishing realities with other authors, moderating daily conversations in the author conference room on Clubhouse. And she occasionally takes screen breaks to walk in the Colorado Mountains and maintains a healthy respect for a few writing superstitions like never publish under a ladder.

SPEAKER_04 12:34

I've never done it, I swear.

Jami 12:38

Smart. Good to be cautious on things like that. Exactly. And if you don't know or haven't picked it up by now, that Shannon and I know each other. Well, we know each other from the 20 Books 50k conference. That's where we met first, right? Yes. And and then we saw each other at Anchor'sCon.

SPEAKER_04 12:55

Yes, but that's where I met Sarah.

Jami 12:58

But really, it's the clubhouse room where we hang out the most. So yeah, we're there every day.

SPEAKER_04 13:04

Yeah. It's crazy. I'm sorry, Sarah. Sorry to make you read that whole sentence. It's so awkward because there's so much the author conference room on Clubhouse. But it's it's it's been an amazing space for me. I would say like some of my touchstones through the whole crazy COVID pandemic were your podcast and that room, like that kind of kept me going.

Jami 13:26

Absolutely. Absolutely. Tell us how your author business has changed in the last few years.

SPEAKER_04 13:31

Oh my gosh. That is such a that's such a huge question for me personally, because like you, I've gone through some personal loss. I've been dealing with aging parents and everything that comes along with that. So my business has changed tons. It slowed down to the almost non-existent business for a while, but it's getting back on track. But beyond that, because that's its own little mess, I would say that I'm going from trying to shift from being more reactive to being more intentional about things, integrating craft and marketing and reader experience instead of having them in their own silos. So I just feel like we're moving into a phase where you really have to be thinking about reader experience before you think about even writing your next book. Or I just feel like that's everything right now. So I'm trying to, and especially because I have been going through all of this personal stuff as well, just designing my whole life and career around sustainability, long-term sustainability instead of short-term little marketing wins or distractions.

Jami 14:45

Yeah.

Sara 14:48

Sometimes, yeah.

Jami 14:49

Exactly. Yeah.

Sara 14:50

That's a great answer. Yeah. Yeah. Because we do have things that kind of sweep through the community and everybody is all on some bandwagon. And it makes sense to check it out and see if it works for you, but then to always keep in mind what your goals are. That's hard to do. It sounds like that you're trying to keep your focus where it needs to be. And maybe take things in as they come and maybe not.

Jami 15:12

Yes. And who your readers are. Sarah's such a great example of that because her readers are miss to readers. They're older. All of our readers are older because they have more time, they have more time and money. But things that would work for us don't work for Sarah's readers because they're just not interested in stuff like that. But then again, things that work for serious readers are harder for our readers because serious readers have taken to like Kickstarter and direct sales and things like that, which you would think may not happen, but ours don't because they have other places they can get easier places they can get their books and stuff. And so yeah, it's just you have to know that about your readers.

Sara 15:55

Absolutely.

Jami 15:56

Yeah.

Sara 15:56

Genre is so key in thinking about everything. Yeah. What's one wish I'd known then moment from your own writing life that you'd like to share?

SPEAKER_04 16:06

I think, I mean, it all this is going to overlap a whole bunch, I would say. But I think that probably that being reader focused in getting back to that integrating craft and all of that doesn't mean that you're losing your voice or you're selling out. And it doesn't mean you're necessarily writing to market. Like you don't have to write to market. I said that with air quotes that you can't see on the podcast. But I feel like, yeah, exactly. I feel like there was a big focus on writing to market, like when I started writing.

SPEAKER_03 16:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:38

And I don't think that that's a bad thing, but I also think that you can find a middle ground where you're you're appealing to the reader and you're giving them what they want, but you're also writing what you love. And so you I think finding that is, and this is gonna get into what episode or what parts of the podcast really impacted me. And it's the Melanie Harlow interview is the one that I would focus on of the 295 I've listened to. There are so many. But I think that Melanie's interview was amazing, and it's really spoke to me at a time where I needed to hear that. And that is just find what you love to write as opposed to forcing yourself to write something because it's on trend.

Jami 17:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:26

So I think that's pretty key for new authors to think about, especially if you're writing genre fiction, because I think genre fiction lends itself to jump in on those trends. So you just have to make sure that you're not losing what you love to write about, because it's really hard to write every day, or it's really hard to write as a career. Writing is hard. So you gotta love it.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

Yeah, writing is hard, Sarah. So you might as well love what you're writing, right?

Sara 17:52

Like you don't waste your time doing something that you hate. Right. You may it may be tolerable in the beginning, but if you do it for 10 years, that's a long time, or five years, that's a long time. Yeah.

Jami 18:03

Did you when the wide twos thing came out? I had this because I write funny, I had this hilarious idea about why twos. And I was telling friends, and they thought it was a great idea too. But one friend said, do not write that. She not because she was appalled, but because she was like, Jamie, that would take off, and then you're stuck writing that, and it's not what you want to write. And I'm like, You're absolutely right.

SPEAKER_04 18:29

That's funny. And I don't think people think about that. You might have a runaway success, and then uh you even a year in just regret that decision.

Sara 18:38

So that's kind of you know a few people that have done that, you know. And then it's hard to walk away because then you're in that choice of do I keep doing this thing I hate and making money? Just awful, right? An awful situation to be in. But if you write something you love and it takes off, you're so much better off. Absolutely.

Jami 18:54

Because we really want to talk about us. Tell us what the what's been the funniest or most relatable moments you've heard on the podcast?

SPEAKER_04 19:04

Oh, that was such a hard question. I wish I had one that I could pick out and be like, this was hilarious, because there have been so many individual moments where I've just cracked up. But I feel like the most relatable parts and also the funniest, but in a not always funny way, are when people share about things that didn't work or failed launches or just something where it's, oh my God, I cannot believe I did that. Because we all make those mistakes. One of our friends on in Clubhouse forgot to check the box to enroll the book in KDP Select. So like we all do little things all the time, but to hear people, to hear these really accomplished authors share these experiences is just it just makes you feel like you're a little less alone in the world of being human. And so I think that is one of the most relatable things that I hear content like consistently from your guests on your show.

Jami 20:01

And I think that was part of the goal, even if we weren't completely clear on it when we started, we did want, because I had been listening to the show How It How I Made This, I think that's what it's called, with Guy Ross. And then he did another show, and I don't remember the name of it, but basically he was asking people, what do you wish you'd know? That was the last question. What do you wish you'd known about what you do? And that's where the idea of the name came from, because we knew those were the sort of questions we wanted to ask, because we all make we all do those things. And we, if we can help somebody else not make that mistake or not or correct incorrect thinking before it happens, then that's really what we wanted to do with the podcast. I love that. And I it's I think it it's it keeps me coming back week after week, too.

Sara 20:54

Yeah. Do you remember the six-figure author podcast? Yeah. Yeah. I love that one too. One of the hosts always had a question he would ask people. I can't remember how it was worded, but it was basically about mistakes. And I remember every time I would listen to that, I would think, oh, I want to pay attention to this. Yeah. And I think that's why we interwove it into our questions because I thought that's something that people don't talk about their mistakes, but if you frame it as lessons learned, and this is what I learned from it, it's not quite as painful. And it's very helpful.

unknown 21:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:27

Yeah. The time I really screwed up. Yeah, that we all do it.

Sara 21:31

You mentioned Melanie's interview. Do you have a guest interview that surprised you or changed how you think about things? Or would you say that Melanie Harlow's interview is the one that stands out the most?

SPEAKER_04 21:42

Melanie Harlow's interview on a personal level really spoke to me at the time, too. I think. And I haven't even touched on really what there were two things that she said in that interview that really did it for me. And the first one was finding the overlap between what readers love to read and what you love to write, because that little vent. Diagram sweet spot is is where you want to live if you can help yourself to be there, but also baking the marketing into your story before you begin to write it. I think Jamie, you're really good at that because you've talked about how you'll work on your book description, your kind of your blurb before you write the book, unless I'm making that up right now.

Jami 22:21

I do, I don't write it down, but I do know it in your head. I had it in my head. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:27

I started writing as a pantser. And while that appealed, and I still am slightly a discovery writer, I'm working more from plot now because I feel like I just will have the goalposts. Like I'll have, like obviously, the HEA in writing romance is what you're writing to. But before then, there's also the Meat Cute, and there's several things, the touchstones of the dark night of the soul and all that stuff. If I know those things and then I have an idea of what trope I want to write and all of the little tiny things that Melanie was talking about, it it just gives you something to anchor your book in, and it makes it a lot easier to develop your ad copy or your book descriptions on the other side of having written the book.

Jami 23:16

So that's huge. And we've actually heard that from several of our very successful guests. Theodore Taylor, of course, does that. There are a lot of other authors that really think about that before they before they wrote the book and as they're writing the book.

SPEAKER_04 23:32

But I never thought about that as a beginning author. I just wrote the story needed to get out, and I just wrote it. So that was a huge reframe. And then the other guests that you've had on a few times, who, of course, everybody's gonna have to take a drink now, but Becca Sime and strengths, like exactly. Yeah, we've all got our water. I feel like Becca and her whole group of coaches have had such a huge impact on me understanding myself as an author and working from my strengths instead of trying to improve my weaknesses and also understanding why I'm doing certain things. And I feel like she's really had a really huge impact on me as well.

Jami 24:15

Absolutely. And we should say that this podcast would not be it, probably its 300th episode if it wasn't for Becca, because when we went to her, we went to her before we even recorded with the idea, and she liked the idea, but then she was like, You kind of have to have a hook, you have to have something. And we gave her the name, which I think what was it, the Indie Author podcast or something. It was something very generic.

SPEAKER_00 24:38

Maybe rethink that is what she said.

Sara 24:40

She lead was something a little more catchy, and she's so polite.

Jami 24:45

Yeah, had it not been for her, and then of course, she was our first guest. She just she brought her audience to us. It was really she was very gracious with her advice and with her support of us. So yeah, we really appreciate her.

Sara 24:57

Yeah, and I do feel like she has turned on a light in a dark room. Things I've learned about strengths and about myself and my personality have been so helpful, not just in writing, but also in normal interactions with feeling and things like that that I had no idea about. It's so true. She's done so much for the author community. It's just very, very cool.

Jami 25:18

Yeah, it is. How do you balance the advice you hear on podcasts with your own unique writing style and business goals? Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_04 25:28

I feel like if I touched on it a little bit earlier, but I think it's filtering everything through what readers want, yeah, first of all. And that's like a new way of thinking, which I it seems like such a basic thing, but I think it's really important. And to treat advice as input and not as instruction so that you can see in this crazy business, there's 50 million ways to do it. And everybody has their own path to success. And what works for one person isn't necessarily going to work for another person. So I think it's picking and choosing what's effective and sustainable for you as an author in your own life, because some people have found huge success on TikTok and making reels and doing social media. Other people can't stand social media and they're never on it. So you don't need one way, is not there is not one way.

Jami 26:28

There's not, there are best practices. If you are listening to podcasts or like in our clubhouse room, because it can be hard in there too, because there are a lot of really smart people saying a lot of really good things, but they may not be those things may not be for you. But if you're hearing the same things in different places within the community, then those generally are best practices. You might need to think newsletter's not a bad idea, or focusing my ad spend in one place, or my attention as far as social media in one place, or not at all. But there are best practices, but as it is really a very individual thing for each person. And it changes with the time. I mean, it changed what worked for you last year or two years ago, or in my case four years ago, isn't gonna work right now because you're different, the market's different, things like that. So you have to be flexible too.

SPEAKER_04 27:25

Absolutely. I'm I not to get back to strengths and talk about Becca for the remote rest of our time together, but I'm a number one strategic. And so I'm constantly silver bullet seeking and trying to find the best way for everything. And there is no best way, and there is no right way, and I have to check myself with that a lot and just know that if you're trying to be consistent and you're thinking about what readers want, I feel like I know I keep saying that, but I feel like that kind of gets you there.

Sara 27:57

Speaking of change, like we were talking about how things are always changing. What do you see coming in publishing? And are you making any changes in your business because of that?

SPEAKER_04 28:07

Oh, this is such a tough question. I feel like there's so much fear in the author space right now. I feel like there is a there's a lot of change. I think there's a lot of change in the world. And so having to adapt to that is can be challenging for people. It's challenging for me. There are days where I just want to watch feel-good TV and curl up in a blanket and drink hot cocoa or whatever. But I feel like I feel like the biggest change that that I'm focusing on, because it works for me and it suits my my my strengths and my personality, are focusing on readers. I feel like readers need consistency and clarity and they need the emotional payoff of what it is they're looking for from our books, whatever that is. If they want horror, make it the best horror. If they want romance, make sure you're giving them that happily ever after. And if they want mystery, make it a believable mystery that will surprise and delight them. So I feel like focusing on the reader experience is really what I'm doing to maybe offset all of the uncertainty right now in our marketplace and what's going on, and just trying to make sure that I appear as a real person and I have a distinguishable brand because I think that visibility is going to be is just going to be tougher and tougher with all these algorithmic changes and Facebook audience, Facebook choosing your audience for ads. There are so many, there's so many little things that challenge us that we have to adapt to. But I feel if we can give readers a strong sense of what we offer as an author and connect with them where they are, which is of course easier said than done. But I feel like that's what I'm going to be focusing on.

Jami 30:00

But I think what people forget is this business has always been challenging for me. It's always been challenging. There were things that worked, and things I think since the big indie revolution have been stacked in our favor in a lot of ways because we could reach readers easily, we could we're more nimble, we're more flexible, those sorts of things. And now the challenges have made things a little harder for us, but they've always been challenging. It's never been easy to do this. The new challenges are just that. They're challenges to to get over. And I'm trying to be as positive as possible. Because Sarah and I, before we get on with you, we're just talking about that, that there's so much fear right now, and we feel it too. But it's a huge disruption right now. This is the biggest disruption just in the world, I think, just with AI and everything. And but with every disruption, there's opportunity. And we are perfectly set up because of our flexibility and how nimble we can be, and how we kind of have cash on hand a lot of the time because of what we do, that we can make those changes faster than other people can. And I think if we consider keep our eye on our own work, consider the reader experience and focus on that, then we're gonna be okay. It's just gonna take, it's gonna take a little while, but we can still do it.

SPEAKER_04 31:32

I agree completely. I was sitting down with some of my author friends in kind of a local group that I meet with, and we they were comparing, like everybody pulled up their KDP dashboard where you see the revenues made. And I think that if you it's like I haven't been doing it as long as a couple of them, so that that means my graph looks a lot different than theirs. But there's the heyday of of e-readers and the gold rush that everybody talks about with all this like mythic reverence. But yeah, like then things spiked really high, and then it went down. And then there was COVID and things spiked because everyone was at home without anything to do except for read books and watch binge shows. So I feel like it is a cyclical thing. And right now we might be on that downslope again, but it's almost like a market correction for what we're doing. So instead of feeling like, oh, my income is lower than it was last year, so this is just the downside and it's gonna go up again. And I'm with you. You can panic or you can stay positive. It's your choice. You can actually do both.

SPEAKER_00 32:36

That's what we specialize in. Panic and then positivity.

Jami 32:43

For me, one of the big things is when I when things started really taking off for me 2018 into 2019, my friend Maria Lewis and I were, we were the ones doing ads, and we were in a group of people that had never really done ads, but they were they their names were more recognizable than ours because they had been in like the whole big book signing tour thing. They had done all the book signings. We had never done book signings. Maria and I were fortunate that we came up in the on this side of indie publishing where you listen to podcasts and you learn to make money and all of those things. And I remember several authors, not these authors, but there were some authors that were adjacent to this group that were very big authors at the time. And they were like, I don't want to change, I don't want things to change. I don't want to learn these, I don't want to learn ads, I don't want to have to run ads, all of those things. And I'm like, okay, don't, but you're gonna get left behind because this looks like where things are going. And I remember telling Maria, I am so glad that we've had to learn this because we would have been left. We there's no way as new authors, we would have been able to find a foothold had we not learned that. And so I think this is another one of those opportunities. And I don't want to be that old-timey author that says, I don't want to learn, get off my lawn, and I don't want to learn this. We just have to, we've got to figure out a way to move forward with the way things are. We can wish they were different all we want, but reality is reality. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

SPEAKER_04 34:30

But I feel like that's what your podcast, that's why your podcast is so great. And it and I think that's why it's been such an important part of my author journey. And I continue to listen and to support, which by the way, everybody should support you through through your podcast. Absolutely. But I feel like it gives me incredible perspective because of exactly what you just said, it's run every idea through your own lens. It's your voice, it's your book, it's your lead reader, it's your it's your own personal energy. But it because the goal isn't to do all the things. If you hate like that list that you just listed, it is funny because I feel like you have to do, you have to pick one thing to market yourself. You have to do something, but you don't have to do everything, you just have to do what's right for you.

Jami 35:18

Exactly.

Sara 35:19

Exactly.

Jami 35:19

Yes. I did want to ask about your your pivot in your Awesome career to your Parker Finch name, pin name, and brand. Why did you decide to make that that switch?

SPEAKER_04 35:31

Oh I started out writing Jane Austen fanfic and I loved it, and I'm I'm still obsessed with that. I feel like all my rom com male main characters are Mr. Darcy in one way or another. There's the it's the same-ish, but I wanted a bigger audience, and I also wanted my own voice more. So for me, it's fairly easy. I think it's, and I'm not saying anything, there's nothing wrong about fanfic. Like I I still think about Darcy and Elizabeth stories that I could write because it's fun. But I think after a while, I was like, oh, I kind of like my, I would like my own characters. And so I tried on some different things. I I started with, and the only book I've published under Parker Finch right now is is a new adult college football romance. And that didn't even speak to me quite enough. Like caught I didn't want to, I as it turns out, I don't want to live in the angst of my early 20s. Yeah. So the college vibe wasn't quite working for me. So then I've switched to an NFL player and professional women who actually know what they want out of life. And some people probably do in college. But anyway, so that pivot was all about finding my own author voice in what I want to write and where I want to live. And I don't think as much as I'd love to bury my head in the sand and live in the very polite world of Jane Austen, that's it is it's not sustainable for me personally. It is a smaller audience, yeah.

Jami 37:08

But it's still small.

SPEAKER_04 37:09

Yeah. So it was a financial decision and it was also an author voice decision. It's what you want to do with your time. Yeah. Because we don't have time to write all the books. Like we have millions of ideas and thoughts and stories, and you I can't write them all. I'm not that, I'm not that fast.

Jami 37:27

And time is precious. It's easy to forget how precious time is and how what a a scarce commodity it can be at times.

Sara 37:36

Yeah. And it's interesting that the industry is constantly changing, but we're also changing too in what we write. If you change genres, so I feel like it's a series of starting over. There we're constantly there's a constant wheel at motion, and we just we catch this wave of the industry and then it goes down, and then oh, I'll try this series and see how it does. And it's just a constant rebirth.

Jami 38:02

Yes, but that is what we're good at. That's what I really want this community to understand. We have been good at this from the beginning. We've been training for years for this. Yeah, exactly. But I just really feel that way. I feel really strongly that way, mostly about other people. I don't probably feel it as strongly about myself. I just look around at people in this industry who are so great at it and so smart and just they just know what works. And even when it's not working, they can figure out the next thing that works. And I'm so in awe of that. And I really feel like that hopefully our podcast showcases those people because we really want to give that to the community. See how I did that? I brought it back around like that.

SPEAKER_04 38:51

And I'm gonna just pile on to that, Jamie Albright, because Sarah Rosette sitting uh at her computer right now. You're such a shining example of that, Sarah. Like I haven't mentioned it yet, but my favorite episodes are the Jamie and Sarah episodes or the Sarah and Jamie episodes, where it's the two of you talking about what you've learned, what you've done. It can be in a recap of how your year has gone, or it can be in that that you know, five to 10 minute intro where you're talking about what you've worked on this week. But Sarah, holy pivot. You have done Kickstarters. You have done, you were like, I think it was two Christmases ago, you were creating your own special editions and taking snowflake stamps and stamping the edges of your books. You try so many different things and the letters that you're sending out now. I mean, you for people who follow the podcast, Sarah, give a two-second what tell me about the letters and how that was. Sorry. Oh, it's gone.

Sara 39:51

It's a story told through letters mailed to people. They signed up. I had a closed cart model. Here it's open, sign up, closed cart, then they go out for a year and they're illustrated and they have a mystery in them. And yeah, it's just a different way to tell a story. And I love experimenting with these things and trying these things. And the and part of it too, I think is because I started in traditional and I would never ever be able to do anything like that. Right. And so I think now I'm like, okay, let's see what we can do. We can we can other people are doing this in this other industry. Maybe we can do something kind of like that. I love it.

SPEAKER_04 40:29

But I love that you try all that.

Jami 40:30

She does. It's amazing. Yeah, it really is amazing. I think because she's more quiet, she doesn't get the recognition she deserves. That's okay. I don't really want that much recognition.

SPEAKER_03 40:42

But you deserve it all. Jamie's right. You do so many interesting things. Yes.

Sara 40:47

But this podcast like gives me an outlet to talk about it and hear about other people doing things and talk with people about oh, what are you doing? It's been really good. And I think it's inspired me because we'll talk to people and I'll be like, maybe I could do that. She does. Yeah.

Jami 41:00

I'll get a message like two days later. I think I'm gonna do what he said. And I'm like, what do you say again? I don't know. Are you sure? Sounds great though.

SPEAKER_04 41:09

I love that about you two, also, because on the podcast, Jamie, you're constantly like, oh, I have to sit on my hands because I'm an activator and I'm gonna just go out there and launch a Kickstarter. I'm just gonna jump in and do it. Where Sarah, you are like, I'm gonna think about the medical. Yes, I'm gonna literally, I want to do a Kickstarter. And at some point, because I that appeals to me, I think that'd be a fun way to try to find new readers. But I'm gonna go back and I'm going to listen to your interview that where Sarah, you talked about your Kickstarter because I think it's I think I it's just so informative.

Sara 41:44

Yeah, we try and document a little bit of what's going on and hope it's helpful.

Jami 41:48

Yeah, yeah. This has been great. Thank you so much for coming on and talking us up. We really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_04 41:55

I appreciate so much what you've done. I feel like you have taught me how to build a sustainable writing career. Seriously, by staying reader-focused, by looking for creative fulfillment and not burning out. Like you all have given me so much. I appreciate both of you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Tell everybody where they can find out more about you and your books. You can find me on my website, which is parkerfinch.com. And I am going to release my first book in the new series sometime at the end of February or March. So anyone who wants to pick up a funny, steamy sports rom-com, just stay tuned. There you go. There you go. Very good. Congrats on 300 episodes, ladies.

Sara 42:43

We're very happy to be here. We're really happy. And we have no plans on stopping. This isn't a hey, 300 and we're done. Yay. Yeah. Peace out.

SPEAKER_03 42:53

I'm glad to hear that too. Because I look forward to listening to you every week.

Sara 42:57

Thank you so much. All right. Well, we will have those links at wish I'd known for writers.com. And if you want to support the podcast, you can go to that same link slash support. And we will see everybody next week. Bye. Bye.

SPEAKER_03 43:10

Bye. Thank you, Jamie. Thank you, Sarah.