← The Creative Penn Podcast For Writers
The Creative Penn Podcast For Writers
Writing Cross-Genre, Selling Direct, And Serialising On SubStack With P.D. Alleva
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- [00:01]
A
Welcome to the Creative Penn Podcast. I'm Joanna Penn, thriller author and creative entrepreneur, bringing you interviews, inspiration and information on writing, craft and creative business. You can find the episode show notes, your free author blueprint and lots more@thecreativepenn.com and that's Pen with a double N. And here's the show hello creatives, I'm Johanna Penn and this is episode number 868 of the podcast and it is Sunday the 14th of June 2026. As I record this in today's show, I'm talking to psychotherapist and horror author P.D. aleva about how writing can help readers and writers work through psychological trauma. Why cross genre fiction takes longer to find an audience but might pay off in the long run whether running a direct sales store is actually worth the time and effort and how substack can work for fiction authors. So that's coming up in the interview section. A short introduction today and if I sound tired, that's because I am as I was in London last week and attended the Self Publishing show live conference run by James Blatch and the team. And as always it is an incredibly hard thing to pull off a conference and the team did a great job. But as an introvert who is increasingly sensitive to sound and light and noise and intensity, I did struggle and I still feel like I've been run over by a truck even a few days later. So I was thinking about this because I've been attending big conferences for like 20 years but it feels like I'm getting worse at dealing with them to be honest. So apologies if you talk to me and I was a bit out of it. I found the atmosphere pretty intense and if you are a highly sensitive person and find these things hard, is it even worth going to conferences? This is a difficult question because it is a challenge, but is it worth it? Well, yes, I still think it is. I found my time in London this week both very hard and very rewarding. I had some great one on one business meetings I think. I mean this is true for introverts. One on one conversations somewhere quiet are very beneficial. Trying to talk in very noisy environments is very hard, but I did my doubling down on being human thing and sometimes these meetings in person can make all the difference and can spark ideas that can change a direction or give you that missing piece of information you didn't have or that person you speak to might bring you up at a another interval with someone else that might open up a potential business opportunity. So there are things that are well worth doing in person that are just not the same on zoom, particularly with a sort of international business like we've all have these days. It was well worth it for the in person connection at the conference and I also went to a futurist exhibition alone at the Barbican Centre which was one that was very useful for my creative reborn project which is eco futurist, post apocalyptic green architecture kind of thing. It's still in process so one tip is to always book something that fills you up if you do these trips and that will help you reach up charge. I am going to a conference in la. It's not an author conference in September and I've already booked some other things around it that I I know will be sort of input and helping me before I go and do the conference and do the peopling. Also in London I went to a couple of book launches, had some lovely friend time. So going to conferences is yes worth it for the peopling and the connection, even if it is a challenge. Pushing your comfort zone is important for growth, but let's call it pushing your conference zone in this situation. And in fact James Blatch and co host Sissy Mekka did an episode on how to make the most of a conference on the self publishing show podcast. So definitely have a listen to that. It was like a week or so ago I think. They've also done an episode on the live show as well. They talk about identifying your goals and planning for that, choosing the right sessions for your level, booking meetings in advance if you want to connect with specific vendors or other people, other authors. And I absolutely second that. I arranged some of my meetings months ago for this week. What is it, June? Yeah, I was probably arranging mine in April for this session. So you definitely want to think about that well beforehand. They also say embrace the hallway track. So many people sort of put back to back sessions and really attending all of the training stuff. But if you are in the hallway during sessions you're going to get much more of a connection with say the vendors of various things or that's when it's much quieter. So being out in the not actually in the sessions, but sometimes missing them to go network can make a real difference. In the quieter bit. It's not all about learning inside of the sessions and I know when you're new to the business it can feel like learning from those sessions is just so important. And it is, but perhaps not back to back to back for the whole conference. Of course managing your energy. And I say that at the same time as knowing that I still cannot manage my own energy. But I do usually get a hotel room near or at the venue so I can escape if necessary and kind of takes away the stress of traveling to another part of the city for accommodation. Also following up on any conversations by email or social media within a few days while it's fresh and I've been doing that, I also make sure I go through my notes and expand anything that I want. I have thought more about say on the journey back. I often think about these things and also get rid of a whole load of stuff in my notes that I'd written down that I thought were going to be really useful and then I look at them again in the light of day after the sort of press of the conference and I realized that a lot of my short lived thoughts were short lived so I just get rid of them. But then I also focus on a couple of standout things to action as soon as possible and I have in fact started on one of my actions which I'll tell you about at some point. So have a listen to that episode on the Self Publishing show. It is episode 450 and they talk about what to do at conferences. If you're thinking about Author Nation or any of the other conferences, whether that's an author conference or something with your day job, they're all the same in terms of lessons that can help you manage them. So thanks for your emails and comments this week. Laura said you keep outdoing yourself with your excellent interviews. Thank you Laura. I loved learning more about Austin Kleon's creative process and his use of bibliomance Fancy. So inspiring. And Geraldine sent a picture of her Roget's Thesaurus. Your interview today with Austin Kleon was entertaining and enlightening. I was especially interested in what Austin had to say about Roget's thesaurus. I just pulled my dusty old copy off the shelf. It's the 1962 third edition. Sadly I stopped turning to the book once Google took the world by storm. I'm determined now to read the introductory pages and keep the thesaurus near my desk and actually use it. Love it. Okay, wonderful. Please leave a comment on the podcast show notes@thecreativepen.com or on the YouTube channel. You can email me, send me pictures of where you're listening or your favourite cemetery or churchyard. JoannaTheCreativePenn.com I love to hear from you. It makes this more of a conversation so today's show is sponsored by Draft2Digital, which I use for wide ebook publishing to Apple Books and Nook and Library services and for my co written books as they do payment splitting. They also do Print Are you an indie author in need of an easy and efficient print on demand service backed by a world class customer support team of humans? I should say look no further than D2D print from draft 2 digital D2D print is ideal for authors who've already published ebooks but haven't yet experimented with print. With D2D print, you can convert an ebook to a Print on demand file with just a few clicks. Turn an ebook cover image into a full wraparound print cover in seconds. Choose from dozens of beautiful interior layouts for a professional professional look. Choose from a variety of industry standard trim sizes and formatting options. Distribute your print on demand files worldwide. Order author copies within 32 countries and use free change tokens every 90 days to make updates to your published print books. Print on Demand is a game changer for indie authors because while brick and mortar bookstores can't physically stock every book, they can check for the print on demand availability of a book when a customer requests it. If you only publish digital books, you could be missing a huge opportunity to reach more readers. Let's Fix that with D2D print. That's Draft2Digital.com Draft2Digital.com this type of corporate sponsorship pays for the hosting, transcription and editing, but my time in creating the show is sponsored by my community@patreon.com TheCreativePen thanks to the 16 new patrons who've joined this week and thanks to everyone who's been supporting for months and years. If you join the community, you get access to all my backlist videos and audio covering writing, craft, author, business and AI tutorials. The Patreon is a monthly subscription, the equivalent of buying me a black coffee a month or a couple of coffees if you're feeling generous. So if you get value from the show and you want more, then come on over and join us at patreon.com thecreativepen that's P-T-R-E-O-N D right, let's get into the interview. PD Aliva is the award winning author of horror, sci fi, thrillers and fantasy books. He's also a psychotherapist, so welcome Paul, welcome.
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B
Thank you very much. Thank you for having me. This is a great opportunity. I love doing interviews and I love talking to great people.
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A
Oh good. Well first up, tell us a bit more about you and how you got into writing and being an indie Author.
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B
Okay. So I've been writing since I was a kid, at least second grade, and more than likely even before that. So I've always had that creative itch, right. And getting into indie author publishing, I'd say I published my first book in 2011, right. But at the time, I was also operating my own business, right. Which took up like 24 hours of my time every single day. And then I kind of like got through that and sold that in 2016. And then I'm like, you know what? The time has come. Now I've been running. I always wrote books, I always wrote poetry, short stories, but never really did anything with them because I just didn't have the time. So in 2017, that's when I really came up and said, all right, the time is now. Indie publishing is doing great. One good thing I do love about Amazon is they allowed us to kind of like come out there and start showing our craft to people. So in 2017, I just started, let's do this. You know, let's. Let's write full time, let's put books out there, let's be creative. Let's really get those juices flowing. Plus, I was getting a little bit old, and I was like, now is definitely the time to do this, so. And since then, I've been publishing consistently, and mostly most of my books are horror books, but I do. I dabble in. I have a sci fi series, and then I'm starting to get into psychological thrillers too. And I got a new psychological thriller that'll be published in early 2027 called Girl on a Mission. But for the most part, we are definitely into the horror genre. Right. So books, short stories, all that good fun stuff.
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A
Mm. Right. So a couple of. Just follow up there. So you said you're a bit old. Can you give us what. What decade are you in at least?
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B
I'm 51. Right, so born.
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A
Oh, there you go. Same age as me.
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B
All right, good. See, that's where I've seen head to head there. Right?
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A
Yeah. Like, that's not. I don't think that's old at all. But then also you mentioned you sold in 2016. So what was your business before? Because I think business experience is so important.
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B
1. Agreed 100%. So I'm a psychotherapist and I had owned a treatment center for mental health and addiction, and that was started in 2011, and then in 2016 is when it sold. And since then, my wife and I have started a private practice. Right. So I still, even to this day About a year and a half ago. Yeah, about a year and a half ago is when I stopped. So I specialize in trauma, PTSD and addiction. Trauma mostly. Most of my clientele, most of my patient load. My caseload has always been trauma, ptsd, sexual abuse, psychological abuse, war type trauma. So I was doing that mostly individually since 2016 in private practice. And then I'll still go into treatment centers and see patients there too, Right. Who are specifically for trauma. Now about a year and a half ago is when I started wanting to do writing like 100% full time. Right. So. And I thought about becoming a professor, maybe going to college, but then I wasn't sure if I wanted to get into that full time as far as like caseload in school and everything like that. So I decided to just do group therapy, group facilitation. And I've been doing that consistently since then. It's maybe like 15 hours a week. I do love to give back, and to me it's more what I teach. So this is. I specialize in neuro linguistic programming, bilateral stimulation or emdr. Hypnotherapy, science of mind concepts, psychopharmacology, biological bases of behavior, which is pretty much how your brain works. Ancient wisdom, quantum physics. Right. So when I am teaching the. I do this in a drug addiction treatment center mostly, also mental health and of course people. I mean, just living an addictive lifestyle is traumatic to and of itself, Right. So pretty much I'm teaching them. Behavior modification is a big part of what I'm teaching during that time. Right. And you'll see that too if you read my books. You know, there's two things you could figure out from my book. So you can figure out how to murder people and get away with it, and two, you can figure out how to overcome trauma as well. And the whole murder people get away with it comes from my upbringing. I have a very sordid past, let's put it that way. My upbringing bringing was very different than what most people grow up in.
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A
Can you give us any more than that? I mean, now everyone's like, oh, what's
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B
going on with this guy? Right? So I grew up, let's say I was quote, unquote, in an Italian New York family.
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A
Okay. So that might give people ideas, right?
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B
That's going to give people a lot of ideas, if you've ever seen the movie. Good, right? So I kind of grew up in that atmosphere and with even some of those people too. Right. My family had connections to those people in that movie, which I find very Funny, if you watch that movie with me, you get a very different perspective on what's going on in the movie.
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A
Wow. So you're, you're an interesting guy with an interesting background with a very interesting backstory job as well. So I mean, I guess some people are like, well of course he's writing horror because horror is just awfully bad and full of slasher gore and all that. And I, I often have to say to people who don't read horror, look, it's not like that. Like maybe some of it is, but it really most of it isn't. So could you maybe talk about how reading and writing horror can also be psychologically healthy and like how do these worlds intertwine for you?
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B
Well, well sure. It 100 can be healthy and trauma, especially over the last few years. There is a trend going on out there right now where people are taking their trauma and putting it into like a creat through poems, short stories and even novels where they're taking their trauma and they're giving it like a, like a face, like a monster, where people are overcoming that monster within the creative process now. And I always say that horror is the genre that puts on display better than any other genre out there, the human condition. And why is that? People are, when they are in a terrifying situation, you really see who they are. Where you get to the heart of the matter of who that person is by putting them in these horrific but undefinable like situations where it's like what are they going to come out? Right. That real true personality needs to come out and that courage comes up. That's hugely in horror. And I think horror gets such a bad name out there now. I know there's the extreme horror and the splatter punk and that has its kind of like the same of what I'm saying. But that's where the horror is getting its bad reputation out there with the over the top type of gore. But for the most part that's a small part of the horror genre. You know, it's a sub genre for a reason, as its readership. And that's fine, nothing wrong with it. I read it all the time. I find a lot of joy in it, a lot of excitement. However, for the most part any horror novel that not like it completely with the gore and stuff like water punk can be seen as like a psychological thriller. And a lot of psychological thrillers can be seen as a horror novel. Look at books like the Silence of the Lambs, right? Red Dragon, right. So that's horrific as well, but if you read the novel, it's in there, you know, so it just gets that bad rap right now. And it's not all gore, it's more. Most horror novels that I read today are psychological horror. So it's like team on the gore. And the psychological aspect is there. Always see that psychological aspect. It's like psychological trauma. Right. So most people, even in my industry, when people are out there and you mentioned trauma, ptsd, most people are thinking about the sexual abuse, physical abuse or like war type of trauma. Right. But the silent psychological. I once wrote an article called the emotional trauma, the silent psychological killer. The one that's out there is the psychological trauma. The emotional trauma that is widespread. Most people go through that and it could even be from like parent to child. And most people don't understand that that's a traumatic experience. It's like a distortion of reality that you're experiencing that then creates a belief system in your brain and you're constantly acting out that belief system. And that's where the psychological component of horror really comes out. People breaking through that, that psychological belief system that was created through a traumatic experience by reaching courage and coming out through in a horrific situation.
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A
Yeah, it really annoys me because like with romance, of course people understand that romance is a huge genre with and something like a small town sweet romance is a world away from the sort of bully romantasy dark or mafia. Mafia romance is a really big thing with very dark themes. And I'm like, well, how can you understand that romance is a huge, like all these different subgenres and not think that horror or thriller or fantasy, you know, sci fi, they all have so many different sub genres within them. I mean I personally read a lot of, I guess supernatural horror, but rarely the slasher gore kind of stuff. So I'm really glad you said that and hopefully more people will open up a bit more for that. But I did also want to ask you in terms of what you write, you write all these different things, you write standalone. I mean often horror is standalone, but you also have some series. So how do you balance it and what are the benefits of cross genre writing but also the challenges of, of it?
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B
Okay, so obviously I love cross genre writing. You know, to me I use fantasy to explain the supernatural elements, you know, and I think I blend mostly fantasy, a little bit of fantasy. I always say like a tad of fantasy to help explain the supernatural components in one of my supernatural novels. Right. When I write sci fi, specifically sci fi, that has the fantasy element in it too. But there's also like a tad of horror in there as well. And it's just who I am. When I grew up, I had obviously a lot of different influences, right? So I had Star wars on one side and then I'm watching B rated 80s slasher films on the other side, right? So those two mixes just kind of followed me throughout my life. And that's why I like putting them into my novels. And I don't like, as I tell my patients, don't limit yourself, right? Never limit yourself. If you're just limiting yourself to one genre, you're missing out on so much more that's out there. So I love the blend of mixing genres. It just gets my goat each and every time. It is a challenge though, because people do. I remember when I first started getting the indie publishing. Now I was never big into like Facebook and social media up until I started becoming an indie author. Right before that, with my type of upbringing. You don't advertise yourself, right? You don't advertise where you're going. Like, that's a big no, no. So I always had this like aversion to social media. It's like I had a Facebook account, but that was primarily for. I'll tell you a funny story. So it was the late 2000s, probably 2006, right? And I was a full time single father at that time and I was living in Florida. My family, you know, brothers and sister in laws were living in New York. And she's like, my sister in law. I said, get a Facebook account so we could see pictures of the kids. I said, oh, didn't want to do, but I said, okay. So I did it and I go on and I'm like thinking, I'm like looking at this Facebook thing, like, how do I put pictures on here, right? So I figured out how to put pictures in like folders. So I text or probably text her phone call or called her at that time. And I'm like, okay, so they're on there. And they're like, well, where are they? I'm like, I put them in these folders. You look at that. She's like, no, you gotta post them, right? And that to me was like, I'm not posting pictures of my kids. That was a big no, no. It's like, it's. It didn't click. And when I got on there finally in 2016, 2017, and I'm like, okay, so I need to figure out social media as an indie author. I need to be on there. So I need to get through this aversion and get on there. And I started noticing how people were so particular with their genre. You know, if they're reading a romance, it had to be very specific with that exact type of romance. And if you deviated from it, they're not going to like it. So that. That was the challenge. I was like, all right, so, number one, I'm not going to dilute myself, right, and say, all right, take things out of my writing or out of my novel just so I could cater to a certain, like, type of audience. I'm like, I'm not going to do that because I know with me, myself as a reader, I'll read everything. You know, I don't limit myself to specific genre. I'll read psychological thrillers. I'll read romance. I've been doing that all my life, right? So I don't limit myself in any way, shape, or form. So I'm like, if there's one. If there's a person like me out there, and look at this, I just met, like four other people who also read cross genres, then I know that there's at least another 30,000 people. And I know that at least. Then there's 300,000. Then there's 3 million people out there. So just write the books that you're writing and find your audience. Now, that takes longer, right? So you gotta, like, as I always said, chip away, chip away. You're gonna find readers here and there, and then that reader kind of tells a few people about you, and then you got a few more readers, and then you keep going and you go on these Facebook groups and you go here and you go do a whole bunch of different things, and then you gather a few more readers, right? And then they're telling some friends, and then you got more part if the process takes a lot longer. Yes, 100. Agreed. But I would say be true to yourself and you can never go wrong.
- [24:55]
A
Yeah, I agree. I like cross genre as well. And I've browsed your collection and I. I got Golem was the one I was like, oh, oh, yes, I like that one. And I haven't read it yet. It's on my list. But I think when you're cross genre, like, my people come to my store as well, and it's like, okay, so I. I'm interested in lots of things, but this is the one by this author that I'm interested in. Whereas with other authors who say, only write one type of thing, then I might not like any of their stuff. So I think there are Definitely pros and cons and different ways into our world in that way. So I also wanted to ask you about the differences in business. So obviously you ran this treatment center, and there were obviously physical humans on all sides, and now you've got a business as an author. So what did you learn? What have you learned in business from what you used to do and what you do now?
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B
Okay, so, I mean, you're right. Treatment center industry is very different from what I'm doing now, but it's still people, you know, treat those people right, have integrity. If you say you're going to do something, follow through with it. My word is my bond type of thing. That definitely has led into the writing and publishing industry that I'm in now in a huge way. Right. And just connecting with people is, to me, the biggest part of it. In treatment centers, you got to connect with people. If you're like, when I would market the treatment center, where would I go? I would go to, like, hospitals, residential facilities, detoxes, and talk to them about my program and why my program. They should be referring clients there. And it's the same thing here. Why should you be reading my books? Right? And that you get through interviews, like I'm doing here with you, right? Other podcasts, you get there by doing Facebook Lives. TikTok. I haven't started TikTok Lives yet, but I actually love that platform. I'm falling in love with it. IG lives, anything like that, where you're talking to people and you're making connection with those people. And through that, I've gathered so many different types of readers who are like, yeah, I'll give this book a shot, right? And then they read it and they're like, hey, this is really good. And I'm going to read another book. And then with my books, too, I always. I have very different books, right? So Golem, right? That's my psychological horror novel. It's my Slow Burn psychological horror novel, heavily inspired by Frankenstein and the Pygmalion myth, right? One of the first horror books, my first horror book that I truly published. But then there's Jiggly Spot and the Zero Intellect, which is inspired by B. Rady's 80s horror movies, right? And the old grindhouse movies of the 70s. And it's mind manipulation. It's just wild and bizarre. And then the Sleepy Hollow Incident is my gothic tale. And that's like a. Like a dark romance, right, Mixed in with gothic heart. So I always try to put something for everyone that's out there, right? And to me it's more. When I'm writing, it's got to be about depth, psychological depth. Right. I always refer to my books. It's like peeling layers off a Texas sized onion. Right. So. And the more you read, the more in depth you get into not only the characters but the story. It's just something that it like comes out of me. It's like my creativity. I. It's, it's, it's just part of me. Right. That's the way I always have to do it. I always have to put that depth in there. To me, that's good storytelling. Because when I grew up, I read a lot of classic literature. Yes, Edgar Allan Poe, but also Dante's Inferno, Milton's Paradise Lost, Hunchback of Notre Dame, the Bronte sisters, you know, keep going. Ray Bradbury, Anne Rand, Daphne D. Moray, Shirley Jackson, like those. To me, those are my books that I absolutely love. So to me, there's the sweet science in today's type of fast paced world, in social media type world in marrying the depth of the old classic literature and the entertainment value that that is required today for being an author. There's that sweet science behind it and I love hitting that nail on the head every time.
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A
So did you ever pitch traditional publishing or have you thought about going that way? Because I also find that a lot of horror actually sits very close, close to literary. Like I read a lot more literary horror than I do in some of the other genres.
- [29:13]
B
Correct. So in the beginning, yes. Not, not in a long time. I maybe went to a couple indie publishers. But as far as traditional, the big five publishers, I'm not. I have an aversion to them for a big reason. Right. I know people have worked in that industry. They've told me some pretty bad horror stories about those places. So I haven't sent anything to that type of place in a very, very long time. I'd say maybe close to 20 years. Indie publishers, the small presses. Yeah, here and there. But even then it's like I'm always moving at a fast pace. Right. So if I got a book and I'm sending it out as a query letter, by the time that query letter is even read, I'm almost getting done publishing. So, you know, and I love that, I love that aspect of it with the control of my story, where I know where this character is going. And listen, I got my beta readers, I got my arc readers, readers, they're there to tell me, hey, maybe you should change this or change that. Whether I take that Advice or not, of course, my editor too is really up to me. But I always put out the book that I know that's the one that I want to read. And to me, I haven't gone wrong in doing so. Right. So I know with those, the traditional publishing, yeah, you get sometimes too many thoughts in the pot there. Let's put it that way.
- [30:33]
A
Yeah. Okay, so coming back to being indie then. I mean, you mentioned Amazon earlier, but you have a store where you sell direct and many authors are doing this now, but it can be a challenge. So what have you found the sort of pros and cons of your direct store and what's working in any lessons there?
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B
Okay, so, all right, so I use a place called Big Cartel, right? So they're the platform where the books are on. They're Hosting my website, pdaleva.com right. The big, big challenge was actually just starting it, right. It was like, it's so overwhelming. It's like, how do I put this on there? And at the time, time I've got all these books, right. So how do I present them? You know, And I'm even going to be doing another revamp with it too, because it's like I want better pictures, right? You know, taking pictures of the book, stuff like that, instead of just having the covers on there. And then I also have a lot of shirts that I'm selling, things like that. So I think the challenge, biggest challenge is just getting on there and starting it, right? And then of course, it's like you got to learn a whole new platform and the mechanics and how people are going to be downloading and how that's done on an ebook versus is a print version of the book, right. So it's a huge learning curve that you've really got to put your focus on and give it time to. Right. So what most people like in indie publishing, right, is signed copies. It's a huge part of indie publishing is selling those signed copies. People love a signed copy. And that's what primarily what my website is for. You could order signed copies from me. And yes, I do have like with. So I use a place called Ingram Spark. IngramSpark. And they're more like a distributor, right. And they're used by everyone they've been around for a very long time. Traditional publishing uses them too, and they're just distributing your novel. But I'd say about a year ago, maybe two years ago, they started where you can sell your books on a discount, like through them as well. So I have that on my website Too where you're just clicking on the book and you're pretty much going directly to their site and you're buying print paperbacks and hardbacks at a, a discount. And that's going well too. But for the most part, people are definitely coming to my site because they want the signed copies. Right. And then you could also do a good thing with indie publishing is limited editions, first print copies, special editions, where people, that type of stuff really just takes off. People love to see that, especially in the indie community. And you could sell them too. I go to a few different book conventions during the year too, and the limited editions are there. Like I said, people love the Seinfeld copies. They love being a part of that and getting that signed copy. They treasure it. Just like I treasure my books too. Right. So books not referring to my books that I wrote, but books that I have as well. You know, I love, I love my E reader, don't get me wrong. Right. But I love. Still prefer the physical copy, the paperback, and even more so than the paperback, the hardback. So people love those signed copies and that's why I created the, the website site right there for them.
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A
Yeah. I mean. And we're getting to a point now though, where I think people are. Some people are questioning the pros and cons of it because, for example, you doing the signed copies, I don't do that from my Shopify store because I don't want to hold stock and I don't want to deal with postage. So I only do it when I do a Kickstarter. So I'm, I've just finished one recently, Bones of the deep. And I'm going up to the printer and I'm going to sign a couple of hundred copies and then they do the postage and then so that. But that's the only way I'm willing to do it because of the pain of getting books to your house, signing them, getting them in the post. So how do you manage that practically with that kind of thing?
- [34:18]
B
Okay, so the inventory is there. Right. So and then when I get. I don't go and sign everything right away. I just keep the inventory. Once somebody buys the book, they don't pull out the books, log it in, all that good fun stuff, sign it, and then ship it out immediately. Right. And I use here in my country. Right. So we're using. We get discounts at the post office, United States Post Office, because they're books. Right. So the shipping pass that shipping cost over to the reader too. So it's a little bit Cheaper for shipping. Right. So I'll just take books like once or twice a week, go over to the United States Postal Service and go ahead and ship those books out. But I don't sign them until I actually get that order.
- [35:03]
A
But how many do you have in your house? It's the holding stock of all the backlist. That is the problem.
- [35:08]
B
Oh, gotcha. All right. That's why I have a two car garage. Right. But here's the thing. I won't order like 500 at a time. Right. I'll order like 20 at a time.
- [35:17]
A
Okay.
- [35:18]
B
And then when I see that inventory is getting low, I'll order another 20 at a time.
- [35:22]
A
And you get those from Ingram Spark.
- [35:25]
B
And I get those from ingramspark.
- [35:27]
A
Right.
- [35:27]
B
And really has. Their quality is a lot better, I've noticed, than Amazon. Right. And also I noticed with Amazon, like IngramSpark takes care of the books. And I noticed like if I do like a bulk order through Amazon, it's kind of like they're just throwing the book. Oh my God, don't do that. Right. That's not good. Like take. It's a book. It's like, you know, it's precious. Right. Don't do that to the book. And I noticed IngramSpark maybe because they've been doing it for such a long period of time. I'm talking about decades at this point. Right. They just maybe handle with care type of philosophy for all the books that are in there. And the quality, the printing quality is quite nice with Ingram.
- [36:10]
A
Yeah. And I mean, this is the issue with the backlist though, right? Because every year we write more books. So I've got 50 individuals, let alone different sizes. So for example, large print versus hardback versus paperback. And then if you think, well, what if you let people order all of them to sign? So do you have a backlist front list plan where you only sign frontless books or do you literally keep everything?
- [36:36]
B
So, okay, so on the website there's a way to put down the order number. Right. Or like how many you have in stock. Right. So if all of a sudden the stock runs out, people won't be able to order that specific book at that time.
- [36:51]
A
Right. Okay. And then over time you'll just, maybe just stop stocking the books that don't. Yeah.
- [36:58]
B
Don't get signed correct when the new one comes out. And then maybe at that time I'm just selling those, like bringing those to like conventions that I go to. Right. Or maybe doing like a sale on those books at that time to get rid of the inventory. So it's not sitting around anymore.
- [37:14]
A
I think that's so important. And then like you mentioned, you do. I don't know, was it T shirts or shirts or something? And that is also really hard because of sizing. So is that all print on demand?
- [37:25]
B
Yes. Right. So I don't really hold the stock on the shirts, but what I do is when you get an order, whatever the size is at that time, I go directly to the place and go ahead. I use a place called Sublimation Station that's here in Orlando. They do great all over print T shirts. They're fantastic. Like, I just did one for the Sleepy Hollow Incident. So the Sleepy Hollow Incident is one long story. And it's. I broke it up into four books, right. So each book has its own. The covers are fantastic. I use a lady named Sherry Foxley. She's phenomenal cover designer. So the shirts are like book one is on the front of one shirt with book two on the back. And then the second shirt is book three on the COVID and book four on the back. Right. However, I could customize those. Right. I just did a giveaway in my Facebook group and I let people know I could customize them. And she wanted book one and book four. So I just got that and sent it out to her. And then now if people go ahead and order that on the website, I can go ahead and just order it right away from them. Boom. And that place will get it shipped right then and there.
- [38:29]
A
Right. So they do the shipping. Yeah. And these are, these are all sort of practical things that people need to answer. Because I, I feel like sometimes it's like, oh, yeah, having a direct store is great, but there's actually quite a lot of work that goes into it, isn't there?
- [38:42]
B
There is, there's a lot of work. You're pretty much, much opening almost like your own brick and mortar store at that point. Right. You just don't have walk in traffic coming in, but your traffic is all coming on online. So yeah, there is a lot to it, but it's worth it, you know? And if you're self published author, even a small indie press, it's good to have because like I said, people love to sign copies.
- [39:05]
A
And when you say it's worth it, is it worth it financially or just because you like to serve the customers in that way? Way?
- [39:12]
B
Both.
- [39:14]
A
Right. So it is. Yeah, it is financially worth it for you.
- [39:17]
B
Yes.
- [39:18]
A
Yeah, yeah. I was talking to a friend of mine and saying, are you valuing your time in terms of Things like taking the books to the post office and stuff like that. But do you find it eats into your writing at all or do you just manage it all separately?
- [39:33]
B
No, I manage it separately. So I'm an early morning riser, right. So I get up at 3 in the morning. Morning and I that's when I write my books or do editing or brainstorming. Like I'm about to write a new novella now called the Adam and Eve Story, which is actually based on a little known CIA shelved book from the 1990s called the Adam and Eve Story as well. Right. So I've been brainstorming that and I was doing that this morning. So I get up at 3am and I do my writing and by the time the kids get are up, right. And by the time the wife is up it's like 8am is rolling around and I'm pretty much done at that point. And then I have my days, right. So Tuesday I am completely working from home and I do my thing in the morning and then the rest of the day is. It's like marketing, right? Marketing. Fulfilling orders, stuff like that. On the days when I'm going to do group facilitation, I'll of course still get up 3 o' clock in the morning and then I'll plan out the day. You know, I got an hour between this group and I could go ahead and do that and I'm already there so it's not a problem. The post office is right around the corner, right. It's kind of like you figure out all the legit logistics for yourself. And then of course there's some days like on Monday I don't do groups or facilitate groups until the afternoon. So I got the whole morning to work on marketing and do other things and fulfillment and stuff like that. And then of course Saturday is a big day for that too.
- [40:54]
A
I know, that's good. I feel like people always need to know how to balance their time. But it sounds like you manage because 3am as you say, there's not much else to do other than other than. Right. But you mentioned marketing there and you have have a substack PD's alternative fiction.substack.com so talk about that and serializing fiction and how substack works because I feel like a load of people are jumping in but might not necessarily know how it works, especially for fiction.
- [41:25]
B
Correct, correct. It is becoming quite popular out there. I think the one before that was Patreon. Ryan Patreon is pretty big for that too. Kind of like the same thing. It was. I wanted to start something and just get the work out there, right? And I was very interested in when Amazon came out a few years ago. It's called Vela, I believe it was called. And they kind of started that. And I was like, this is kind of cool, right? So a couple chapters at a time. It's like, I'm writing the books anyway, so why don't we kind of like kick this off and see how it goes type of thing, the type of experiment, you know, And I had a lot of fun doing it. I started on October 4th 4th, 2024. And let's see, I did four novels so far. One is still going, which is volume three of my Dark Veil series. That's a sci fi series. And I wrote three other novels. So the Hypnotist, which is a thriller heavy on the sci fi and a tad of horror in there too. And then I wrote Girl on a Mission, which is my psychological thriller, and then Cat Fight, which is a horror novel, all within that time, I think I finished completing all three of those novels in January and then like first week of February, and then they were all pretty much done, right. And now what I'm doing is I went paid recently on the sub stack, right? So. And that's like, I find it's like everything else that's out there too. Chip away, chip away, right? And I fell into that hole where, hey, you know, we can promote you and get people to sign up for your newsletter and be honest with you, don't do it. It's not worth it. Yeah, money. And what happens is they're like what I refer to as like dead leads, right? So they don't click. They don't. They're just like, they're. It's like you wind up like shuffling them off after three to six months because they're just not clicking, right? Everybody gets a star rating. So, you know, are they clicking? Are they staying on? Are they not? Right? So. And I got rid of pretty much all of those people. Evil. And it's like, I'll never do that again. It's got to be done organically, you know, that's why when you read my books towards the. Especially the new books, towards the end of the books, it'll be like, sign up for my newsletter, right? But I do more with that newsletter too. So every. If you're on the free tier, right? Or free subscription, right? So every month I do like a monthly musing, which is just me talking about updates, things like that that are Going on the publishing industry that are going on with me. My daughter puts together a weekly horror and sci fi chronicles newslet which gives like, what's going on in new releases in the industry. Sci fi, horror books, movies, television. She does deep dives into industry tropes, historical tidbits, and a weekly quiz. I also do monthly, a Terrors and Tales newsletter. Now this I started last year and it was a quarterly newsletter. And what it is, it's other authors who are like, new, upcoming, never been published before, looking to get published. It's a chance for them to be on the newsletter where they have a flash fiction story or poem or even a short story that I published for them. It's called the Terrors and Tales newsletter. Now what happened is I would put out calls for submissions and a place called Duo Trope. I don't even know who these people are, but all of a sudden I got an email from them stating, hey, you know, we found that you're looking for submissions and we posted your link. We hope you don't mind. I'm like, no, of course I don't mind. I got so many submissions from that one link. I'm like, okay, so, so do I really want to deny people? It's like, I'm not like that. I want to help promote other authors especially. I know what it's like when you're new and upcoming, young or just getting into the industry, no matter what age you are, to say, hey, here's a platform for you to see your stuff in print. Obviously, I read through them just to make sure they're up to par to a certain standard. But for the most part, if you submit, you're getting in there with Duotrope. I'm like, I have enough here year to put out like one a month, right? And so in May 2026, first one goes out and I'll have one each month until December. And then who knows, in 2027, might go back to quarterly. I might get enough submissions to just keep it going for once a month. But that's the Terrorism Tales newsletter and usually comes out towards the end of the month, right? The last like two weeks. And that's just. And I have nothing to do with it. None of my stories on there, none of my poems are on there, none of my flash fiction. It's all other authors just for them to get. See their name in print, see their work in print, share with their friends and put something on their resume, you know, and kind of encourage people to keep reading and keep the craft going.
- [46:12]
A
And when you say imprint, you don't mean in physical.
- [46:15]
B
Well, I mean newsletter. I'm sorry.
- [46:16]
A
Yeah, I think that's important. Or you're going to get a lot more submissions and people will. You will need to do publishing contracts and all that kind of thing. I mean, I think that's the difficult thing with a sort of substack newsletter approach is that it's difficult to know where to categorize it. Is it marketing? Is it publishing? Is it. It's all of these things, I suppose, a bit like this podcast. It's all kinds of things. But in terms of substack actually making money on its own or leading to book sales that make money, do you think it does serve that purpose?
- [46:50]
B
I think I've gotten more book sales through it. And then also arc readers who are enjoying the books to give reviews. As far as the pay tiers, that's kind of a little bit slow. And that's where I'm saying, chip away at it. Keep it up there, keep it going. Right. And over time, you're going to build that type of audience where it's going to be like, hey, this is financially feasible for me to continue to do this. That's what I see. That's like the response that I'm getting out there.
- [47:16]
A
Yeah. And then I guess before you mentioned you were doing Facebook lives and you're looking at TikTok, but anything else working for you in book marketing? Like, what if people maybe they've got a few books and they're like, what is working for bookmark marketing right now? What do you recommend?
- [47:30]
B
Okay, so for me, the thing that has made the most sense is making sure the reader knows the book is out there through some sort of social media. I've had really good success on TikTok since the beginning of this year especially. I started it about a year ago, year and a half ago. But then my father got sick and passed away, and I kind of like it was a new venture and I kind of put it off to the side, but then really got the flavor going. Beginning of this year, I'd say like February, March of this year seems to be going really well. And I've noticed an uptick in sales from just getting the videos out there and getting in front of people's eyes. Right. There's a event I'm going to in August called shivercon, which is a pretty big event. And after that event, I'm going to look to see what type of inventory I have left over from the event and from just sitting around at that point, I'm going to start doing TikTok lives, right? I'm very comfortable being on camera, so I'm like, yeah, that seems like a good way to go. And I know there's a few other horror authors who are doing it and having good success with the TikTok lives as well. So a guy named Jason Davis is doing really well with TikTok lives and a few other authors too. So I'm like, yeah, I could definitely do that. I want to get up to a certain number of people and I want these events I'm going to one in July and then that one Shiver Con in August. Once those are done, I'm going to start having more time for me to do the TikTok lives. Now, as far as Facebook is concerned, what I've had really great success with Facebook is being on the groups and meeting other authors. And that's not always about my book per se, but whatever books I'm reading, posting my reviews about those books in those groups and meeting readers. And then obviously they always say like the three to one rule, right? So post about three different books and then kind of post about your own book, whether you're doing a sale or a new research or whatever. So. And I found success through that just by the interacting with readers, you know, and when they post a book, right? And I'm, hey, I've read that book, or hey, that book looks really cool. I like the review, commenting on it. So you start these relationships with people who are out there on the, in these Facebook groups. I've recently started my own Facebook reader group, right. And I kind of go with the same thing where like last night we did like a live reading for another. Another author, right? So I like other authors to be on there. I always like to, what, what does the reader need? What do I want to see as a reader, right? I would love to hear live readings from authors, right? So kind of learn about them, learn about the book and get a live reading. You know, to me, that's a good way to go. So I started that recently and it seems to be going well, right? So. And I got, I just put out. I got a new folk horror coming out soon and I put out a call for our readers and got a fantastic response from that. So. And that kind of like drives the sales anyway way because when you got those reviews and people gives credibility of the book and then other people see it and then they're buying it too, and that comes from the groups. It's kind of like there's so many, so many wheels to spin in this industry as an indie author. When you're doing this, especially when you're doing Most of it, 99% of it you're doing on your own, you know.
- [50:41]
A
Yeah.
- [50:42]
B
So you got to get out there, you know, no one's gonna know your book exists if you don't get out there and tell somebody about it.
- [50:51]
A
Brilliant. Well, tell us, where can people find you and your books online?
- [50:55]
B
All right, perfect. So obviously I'm on Amazon, like everyone. I'm also. Most of my books are worldwide, so you'll find them in Barnes and Noble as well. Right. So. And of course, if you want to sign copies or discount print books, I always lead people straight to my website. PD Aliva A L L E V A.com Pdaleva.com and of course, if you go to my sub stack, you'll be on there. You'll get all the updates and you'll get all the links to purchased all those or find out where they are on Amazon and Barnes and Noble and things like that too.
- [51:25]
A
Brilliant. Well, thanks so much for your time, Paul. That was great.
- [51:29]
B
Thank you very much for having me. It was great chatting with you.
- [51:35]
A
So I hope you found the interview with PD useful and that it gave you some ideas for your author business. Let me know what resonated from the interview or the introduction. Please leave a comment on the podcast Show Notes at the creative pen.com or on the YouTube channel. Or email me joannathecreativepenn.com and send me pictures of where you're listening or your favourite cemetery or churchyard next Monday. I'm talking about creative satisfaction in person, print book sales and author mindset with Marc Lefebvre. So happy writing and I'll see you next time. Thanks for listening today. I hope you found it helpful. You can find the backlist episodes and show notes@thecreativepen.com podcast and you can get your free Author blueprint@thecreativepen.com Blueprint. If you'd like to connect, you can find me on Facebook and X at the Creative Pen or on Instagram and Facebook fpenauthor. Happy writing and I'll see you next time.