Welcome to your next step of the Self Publishing Mountain.

I'm Matilda Swift, author of Quintessentially British Cozy Mysteries.

And I'm Samantha Cummings, author of Young Adult Books about Magic, Myths and Monsters.

I've written the books, changed their covers, tweaked their blurbs, tried tools from a dozen ad courses, and I'm still not seeing success.

Now, we're working together to plot and plan our way from barely making ends meet to pulling in a living wage.

Join us on our journey where we'll be mastering the pen to snag that paycheck.

Hello and welcome to Pen to Paycheck Authors podcast.

I'm Matilda Swift, here with my co-host Samantha Cummings, and we're here to write our way to financial success.

We're two indie authors with over a dozen books between us, and still a long way to go toward to equip the day job dream.

If that sounds familiar, listen along for our mastery through missteps journey.

Each week, we cover a topic to help along the way.

This week's topic is audacity.

Before that, what are your wins and winges of the week?

Oh, so many wins.

I'll start with personal life wins.

I celebrated my 16th year anniversary with my boyfriend on Saturday, when was that yesterday, which is crazy because I'm so young.

I'm effectively a child bride and might report him to the authorities.

It's disgusting.

But that was really nice.

It's crazy how time flies.

I also spent the day outside basically all day yesterday in the glorious sun.

Still a bit cold for my liking, but I'll take the sunshine.

So that's a big win is that we're finally getting some nice weather.

And I went to the cinema this afternoon, did a little afternoon cinema trip to watch Six, the musical at the cinema.

Everyone's talking about that and I don't know why I'm not got organized to see it.

It's a recording of the play, right?

It's a recording of the show.

And it was fun, it wasn't really my thing.

And I didn't think it would be.

And it's really weird because I love musicals.

But I knew when like when it first came out, I kind of didn't think I'd like it and I'd had heard some of the songs.

And I wasn't like thrilled by it, but I thought I'll watch it at the cinema because it's cheaper than going elsewhere.

And yeah, it was okay.

I don't obviously loads of other people love it.

And I understand probably seeing it live, you get more of the atmosphere.

But I'm not really a fan of all of the songs.

And yeah, but it was still fun to be out.

I haven't heard any of the songs because I don't like to listen to musical songs before.

They're in context.

Oh yeah, I've listened to musicals just out of context.

But it was really nice.

I went with my sister, so it was just nice to hang out with her for a bit.

And then work-wise, I have been working on my finalizing edits for my release in May.

I got the book back from the editors at the start of this week or the weekend.

I forget, I don't know where I am in time, but I've been working on that all week.

And it's just been really nice.

And the editor left some really nice comments, which goes so far for me.

They're doing it to try and suck you into them again, because they're like, I'll only leave a really good feeling, but I appreciate it.

It works.

I really appreciate it.

And every like, like the comments at the start, which is like a little introduction to who was editing.

And that just some really nice words of encouragement.

And then a couple of things sprinkled through the document as well to say like, oh, I love this bit.

Oh, I just, I don't care if it's just blowing smoke.

I will take it.

Specific smoke though.

So it feels like, yeah, I'm glad you noticed that specific thing.

Yes, yeah, yeah.

So yeah, that's been really nice.

My whinge is, oh, this is, I wrote it down and scrawled it and couldn't read by hand writing.

But I thought yesterday, I was, all last week, I was really excited.

I thought I had a massage book for Saturday morning.

And the whole week, I was like, I can't wait.

Like, it's gonna be a two hour massage with a facial.

And it got to Friday night.

And I thought, hmm, I feel like it's not on Saturday.

I feel like I've like remembered the date wrong.

And I just know, like, I'm really bad at remembering dates and things.

Time is not my friend.

So I checked, and it's next Saturday instead.

So, prolonging the excitement.

I was like, oh no, but I'm glad I checked.

I mean, I always check before I go anywhere.

I checked before I went.

So I didn't have to show up looking like a fool.

I've been able to fit you in.

Well, now I just have the whole of this week to get excited about the massage.

And I do love delayed gratification.

Yeah, so we'll both be uber relaxed next week when we meet up for our mastermind.

Yeah, I'm sure.

But my whinge is that I'm very much in need of massage.

We had forgotten to plan a date for our next mastermind.

And the only reason why I remembered that was because I felt like my body is seizing up, like I'm the Tin Man in some rain.

And so we need a massage.

And it's just like unreasonable seizing up.

Like, you know, when you can't reliably reach or something, cause you think my neck's gonna really hurt, I don't know what it is.

I'm feeling like a little bit ill.

So it's like all my like muscles and joints are a bit achy.

But yeah, I think I'm just feeling like I need a rest, but I have got rest coming up.

I am very soon in the girl, a little bit every month heading off to a writing retreat in Naxos, which is a little blue island.

And before that, I've got a couple of public holidays off work cause I work on a different schedule to the UK.

So I've got like a few surprise public holidays, and I'm just eager for that to be here.

I do not want to delay the classification.

I wish I were there right now.

But still, that is fantastic.

My other win is that we have booked, or my only one, is that we have booked a writing retreat of our own with some other Cozy Mystery writers.

So by the end of it, I assume you'll be also a Cozy Mystery writer.

I know.

I've been adopted.

Yeah, they've adopted me into the group.

Like my first writing retreats, and I've just been like, you come with us.

We'll look after you, which is very nice.

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to it.

Yeah.

Yes.

September.

Seems so far away, but we'll be here in the blink of an eye.

Yeah.

Yes.

Do I have any other wins?

I did a little bit of baking this week to prep for my recipe for my next book.

I need to do more and I'm just a little bit behind schedule.

Yeah.

So I'm like, I'm getting things done.

My dictation is going so well that my voice is a little bit worn out.

But I also had to give a very long solo webinar for my day job this weekend as well.

Maybe I should have been too sociable.

Maybe I've charged too many people.

I don't know.

But my voice is definitely feeling it.

But the dictation is going really well.

So a real rollercoaster every week, I would say.

Very up and down.

You need to get like strepsils or specific throat lozenges, and a little steaming thing.

Because your voice is obviously now your money maker.

So yeah, you need to look after it.

We both do.

We both need to insure our voice boxes or something.

Okay.

So let's move on to the topic of the week.

We are talking about audacity.

Why are we talking about audacity today?

How does it fit into our author career?

Okay.

I don't entirely know how this came up when we talked about it on our mastermind day a couple of weeks ago, and it was like two, three weeks ago.

And we were just chatting about other authors.

And we do, we often talk about other authors and often other authors who are just doing things really publicly and visibly and confidently in a way that we feel like I could never do that.

And we know talk about a lot of things, like, oh, partly it's just being English, but partly it's, you know, maybe a generational thing, a gender thing, there's a lot of things going into it.

But there is, you know, especially see with like younger authors, just like advertising, and this is what I don't get, advertising on Instagram being like, come and follow me when they haven't written a book, they're just going to write a book, and I don't know what that's about.

But anyway, just people being so audacious, they're like, I don't look at them and think, how silly of you.

I look at them and think, gosh, that's, you know, you're amazing.

And I want to be more like that.

So then we started thinking about, we just need some more audacity.

And then we decided to make a list of 10 audacious things.

And it felt so good just to start making the list.

And I think, I'm remembering this correctly, but I've got to have a memory that we got halfway through and you're like, that's enough, actually, we've made a good list.

And I was like, no, let's do 10.

So I would say this is my advice, anyone doing is do 10.

Because I think actually the things that are at the end of the list are things that you wouldn't put on unless someone pushed you to do it, because 10 is quite a big number of things to put on that you think are bigger and bolder than you would easily let yourself do.

Yes.

So we had that 10.

And then we instantly took one off, so we had another one.

And then we said last week, we were doing so well, kind of getting towards it, we would add three stretch goals.

How did you feel about making your audacity list and your stretch audacity list before we get into the details?

It felt, it didn't feel scary.

It was, it's more like things that, you know, when you just, you kind of already know that you want to do these things.

So they're in your mind and they just exist in your head like everything does.

Because when you're a writer, like your imagination is your playground.

So it was just like having them there felt like that was enough.

But as soon as you start to write them down and like, I've got them printed off of my post-its because I write everything on post-its because I invented the post-it.

I invented post-its.

I know.

It was a joint effort.

Yeah, it made it like everything.

Like you write it down, it feels so much more concrete.

And it also makes you a little bit more like bold because I think like you said, we made a list and I think I stopped at seven and I thought that's like seven, like enough.

And then when I had to come up with more, I knew what the other things were.

But I might say like a whisper.

Yeah, like they were just a little extra, like push me over the edge to like put me out of my comfort zone a little bit more.

And writing them down, like it made it seem like it was so achievable.

Yeah, it's on the list now.

Yeah, yeah.

And I love crossing things off of this.

So yeah, writing them down, coming up with them feels like, it feels like it's like the stuff that we're supposed to be doing and not doing this and not writing them down and not talking about them is silly because the whole point of this podcast is the fact that we wanted to do something audacious in the first place.

And yeah, and to not kind of go back and revisit that is silly.

Yeah, I do think definitely this podcast has made me more audacious.

I think when we when we use the word audacious, you just mean like, things that feel bigger and bolder than than are in your comfort zone.

Things that feel like if you saw someone else that you would think, oh my goodness, who does she think she is?

She's really pushing herself out there.

And I might even feel like a bit judgmental.

That's my natural state towards someone who I think is maybe putting themselves out there more than they, quote unquote, like deserve to do.

And that is very much to do with like my, you know, academic background thinking that you only gain authority by like having achieved certain things.

And I think making this audacious list, it might not be something that's like necessary for everyone, but I think anyone who thinks that like, or who to do this just made up of like, you know, write the book, edit the book, put the book out there.

Like make yourself an audacity list of 10 things that you see the other authors doing and that you think I could never, but you could.

But you know, you have the skills to do it, but you just don't have the, you know, the chutzpah to push yourself to do it.

So yeah, it was interesting as well.

Like making that list, I think I got to about, yeah, five or seven and I was like, I've kind of run out of the ones that feel quick to come to mind.

And the rest of them on there, they seemed like I could never, but I can and why not?

And even just having a list doesn't say I have to do them in a certain time frame, it's saying these are things that I want to do.

And I definitely have a problem with articulating like wants and needs, I think because you only let yourself believe in the things that you think are available to you.

You know, I would never say something like I want to be a seven figure author because that to me sounds insane.

How could I possibly be a seven figure author?

I don't even know how to be a six figure author.

That just seems like I couldn't say that because in what world?

How could I?

And I think that's not something that I want to say now because it would feel like a lie to myself.

It wouldn't feel like something belongs on an audacity list.

But the audacity list is things that I know I could do, but I would never feel comfortable enough to be at the top of my to do list.

And having them in a list here feels fantastic.

And some of it is stuff we've already talked about as well.

It just is things that to me feel audacious that I want to tick off and say, I have done that and I feel audacious.

And I know it's the right thing because I was listening to a marketing podcast almost immediately after we talked about this.

And the person on it was someone who had written this book, which I'm going to show for the viewers on YouTube.

It is a book about advertising called Audacious.

The person who was on this podcast had written this book and he talked all about being audacious.

And it's, you know, just a really nice book to read and kind of get ideas and think, yeah, how could I bring that spirit of like, doing something unique to me and that conveys my message in the way I want to?

How could I do that in my own advertising and marketing?

And it's not necessarily something I'm going to do anything with straight away, like what I've read from the book, because it's about like big kind of global marketing campaigns.

And there are some small examples in there, but not necessarily anything that I think, oh, I could easily see how to apply that to my books.

And I don't necessarily even think it's worth the effort of putting a lot of thought into that right now.

I'd rather master some other basics, but I like having this in the back of my mind.

And like, I feel more confident and capable all round.

So this week, I had a chat with another Cozy author who I've never met in my life, haven't spoken to her.

She's in the Cozy Mystery Clubhouse.

And we had books out about the same time.

So she's in my also boards.

And we, you know, often comment on the same posts, but I had never had a conversation with her.

And we sort of got chatting in a comment of a Facebook thread in this group about a course that we did, the Nick and Sarah course I mentioned last week.

And then we just got in contact with Messenger, and I was like, let's have a Zoom, let's meet up, let's talk.

And we had a really nice chat on Friday.

I have been talking too much.

That's why I was like, but like a nice hour long chat on Friday.

And it just felt so easy and inside my comfort zone now to approach another author and say, can we have an hour long chat about like what you're doing for advertising, which I would never have done a year ago.

Just like it would have seemed impossible.

And I don't know why, just because it was a thing I hadn't done.

Yeah.

Yeah, obviously, like once you do one thing, the next thing doesn't seem as hard.

Yeah, I think the thing that we had on our list and immediately got to cross off, like which kickstarted us into like adding more and stuff.

Yeah.

Audacity was, we both thought that adding coffee, or co-fee, co-fi, however you want to pronounce it, to the podcast and setting up a payment method for people to support us felt audacious.

We actually, we thought that that was a huge step.

How could we dare ask people to donate?

And then we did it immediately.

I'd say we, obviously you, the tech side of the we.

But yeah, set it up.

And it didn't feel anything.

It just felt like, yeah, people can do it or not do it.

It's fine.

And then I was listening to the India Orphans Club this week and they've got a Patreon and there's, you know, quite expensive tiers and they're giving things for that.

So that, you know, it's a Patreon, there's service levels with it, which is different to the coffee, which just support the podcast.

I was like, yeah, why not?

What are we not deserving for?

And so yeah, anyone who wants to donate to support the podcast, please do, the link is in our show notes.

And if you just search coffee, KOFI and Pen to Paycheck, you'll find it as well.

Yeah, and why not?

So that felt really nice to take that off, and then instantly we added another thing to our list.

So do we want to go through the lists?

Yes, I will go through mine, because mine's probably, I feel like mine's always more boring than yours.

Like you're, I feel like you're great at being audacious and I'm just really Dullesville.

It's such a mindset thing.

One of, like the first thing that I had was to make business cards for my little side hustle so I could post them around to local businesses.

And I've designed, I have designed said business cards.

I just haven't printed them yet, or like obviously been out and posted them.

But I've been thinking about it, which feels like a nice, like I'm gonna slide into that at some point over the next couple of weeks, and we'll be able to cross that off, because that feels like, like I still feel like setting up that side business is audacious in itself.

It's quite a, like I saw one of my friends at the weekend, and she was just amazed that I'd set up yet another business.

I'm like, this is just me.

So yeah, that felt very...

Some side business are things that you can also participate in, because it is about setting up websites and tech support on whatever scale that you need.

She has got a website.

No, I have designed the website.

I need to set it live.

But I've got the URL.

So like I've got the domain.

You'll just get like nothing there.

But there is like, I have got a Instagram account and I do have like the services set up.

So like people can book through the services page.

Just like the front of the website isn't set up.

Do you want me to plug the name to be audacious anymore?

Yes.

Oh, yes.

Sorry.

Like, I'll be audacious.

It's the Bookhouse Creative.

So at Bookhouse Creative on Instagram.

It's yeah, just me helping people with website stuff, website admin.

I am a website nerd and I love website stuff.

So if you are struggling with websites and you want to ask questions or whatever, come straight to me and we'll see what we can do.

The next thing on my list is pitching to five podcasts because I've been putting this off for ages.

And I think this is just a, it's just difficult to put yourself out there to talk to people you don't know.

Like you said, as soon as you start doing it, it feels easier.

And I have been on somebody else's podcast, so it doesn't feel as scary now, but it's just trying to decide what podcasts I'd like to pitch to and try and get myself out there just talking about whatever, either whether this or about books.

So I need to think about it.

I'm thinking about it.

It's just all mulling.

The next thing on my list is something that I am going to do this week, actually, which is pitching to book reviewers because I want to send out another flurry of books to reviewers because I've got a new book coming out.

So I want to get a little bit of action going on the first books in the series.

I've had some people come to me to ask if they can receive books and I'm going to go to other people and ask if they would like them.

So that's all going.

It feels, even though I've done it before, it still feels a little bit scary to approach people I've never had any contact with, to say, do you want to read a book?

And then hope that they don't shoot you down immediately.

Scary but fun.

I have on the list, which is kind of something else skim over because we're going to come back to this in another episode, is about creating my narrative.

So I don't want to talk about that too much because we are going to do a full episode on that basically, but we'll move past that.

The next one on my list is to follow up with a bookshop.

So there's a couple of indie bookshops opening up near me.

I say near me, like an hour or so away.

And they are stocking fantasy slash romance books.

And I contacted one of them to see if I could get stocked.

She hasn't come back to me, which means maybe she doesn't want to.

That's fine.

But she had, so I can chase her up.

So I chase her up once, like just in like back and forth, a little bit of chit chat.

But yeah, I'm going to chase her up and also contact the other person because there's another one opening as well.

The next on my list is quite a fun big one.

I really want to do a launch party for my, the book that I'm publishing under my new pen name in September.

So I want to do like a big like splash with it.

And I have a friend who has a shop just down the road from me.

And I had actually contacted somebody else, I've spoken to somebody else about having a party in their like cafe shop.

And then when my friend who has their own shop heard that I did that, she said, I don't understand why you wouldn't come to my shop.

So you've got competing.

Now I have got two people who are interested in doing a book launch party.

I could do two launches.

So I'm like, that's kind of that sounds very scary.

I'm not a planner whatsoever when it comes to events.

So I might like get somebody else to plan.

Yeah, my sister is very good at planning.

So I don't want her to rope her into it.

And that's like a very big scary thing.

And I almost didn't want to talk to people about it.

But because I'm being audacious, I just ripped the bandaid off and spoke to people.

And now I think that's like, I can't, I can't stop that from happening now.

So that's going ahead.

If you want to feel like confident to become like, it's also not that far away from your birthday.

So you could say, I'm not going to have a massive, because you got a big birthday this year, I'm not going to have a massive birthday party.

But if you want to come and support me in something, come to my book launch.

Because I think that's the only thing for me about book launch is like, what if nobody came?

Yeah, it is scary to think that no one would come.

But at the same time, then more Prosecco for me.

So, oh well.

The next on my list is to do a box set once my series is complete.

Sounds easy enough.

I don't know.

I think, I don't know whether when I put this, I think what I meant was to actually have a physical box set designed on a Kickstarter.

I think that's probably what I meant.

I think I've not like put enough detail into that because I was scared, almost too scared to put that, but I would love to do an actual physical box set with like sprayed edges or something on a Kickstarter, like a special edition collection.

So that's really what that is.

And I just pulled myself back from putting that.

But that's what I meant.

Oh, you need to have like hundreds of fans for that, who are desperately getting special editions.

I don't know how you get from, like how you get to that level of, you know, a, like success, but be confident that you're gonna do something with that.

I mean, it's interesting though.

I know Sasha Black, she had her most recent Kickstarter, made six figures, past six figures.

And I think the actual funding goal was like 4,000 pounds.

Because I think you never get past that fear that like, no one's gonna bid, no one's gonna support it.

Yeah, so it does seem, at this point, it seems like almost impossible that I would fund a Kickstarter that would do that.

But then, who knows?

Who knows?

Well, this isn't for right now.

It's just like, this is what you want.

Yes, this is just what I want.

It's not about that you don't want it, but like, if you want it, you're saying that like what you want.

Another thing, where am I up to?

Here we go.

This is number nine, is that there is a local writing festival, and they haven't contacted me for some reason to go and do something.

So I am gonna contact them.

This is like an easy win for me.

I could just email them like this week and see if they need any help or anything.

So I think that I should probably do that sooner rather than later because it is coming up.

So that's like an easy win.

That's a good one that I know I'll cross off.

And it is quite a big deal because I'm not a forward facing person.

I would rather stand in the back and watch other people do things.

But I did go to it a couple of years ago when they first started.

And the people that were hosting the events and stuff, they were definitely less first, not as far along as they made out to be.

It felt like they were all, like I was at that point, like very floundery, but just like putting on a front.

So I thought if they could do that, yeah, exactly.

They were just a little bit older, so they didn't have any fear.

They just were doing what they were doing and they were talking about it.

They were doing a great thing.

I think I reached that age.

I think the age is 40.

Yes, I feel like I could do that.

So yeah, I'm going to get in touch with them.

I also really want to print off posters for my books and post them around my town.

Oh my goodness.

As if to say like, have you read this local author's books?

Yeah.

People love local author.

That feels, yeah, they do.

That feels really audacious.

That feels like teenagers would look at that and laugh.

But you know what, teenagers?

Hello.

Yeah, like, you're actually my target audience.

Please be nice to me.

So that is something that I really want to do.

It seems scary.

My number 11, which I added as like a last thing, was to, there's like a local women in business thing where I live, but they always do afternoon meetings, which is very annoying because they don't really take into account that a lot of us women in business have like day jobs and we're trying to like level up our side hustles.

So I really want to get in touch with them and try and arrange like an after work special for like side hustling people instead.

So that seems audacious, like why would they care?

But at the same time, why wouldn't they care?

They just have to maybe promote it and you could run it.

Yeah, so I'm going to, yeah, like I don't know at one point in the year, if it happens this year, I don't know, but that seems like something that would be like a really fun and useful thing to make me feel like a little bit more businessy because it'll help with writing stuff as well.

Yeah, I won't do my stretch goals just yet.

I think you should talk about your stuff.

Okay.

So some of these are similar because we made our list together and we were kind of sparking off each other.

But some of them are things that we have already discussed together.

So the first one is one that I can't really discuss because we need to pitch at someone else.

But we're both going to SPS and we want to do something there to do with the podcast.

So that feels audacious.

That feels like something that a much more established and well known podcast would do.

But that's just a mindset thing.

Like, we're people, we can do stuff.

The next one was one I've already ticked off, but I haven't done the next part of it.

So on here, it was just to ask a person about translations, because we've been talking about translations in the Cozy Mystery Group, and we kept not having the right people be there to have the actual full conversation.

Now, I'm not able to go to the group meetings for a few weeks.

So I put on my list, just ask for one-on-one conversation.

I have done that and we've not followed up yet with the chat, but that's happening.

So that felt like I'm asking someone to give me their time, to lend me some insight.

Why not?

We exchange insight now, so it feels really good.

My next one is similar to yours.

I have put on Pitch to Podcasts.

We've had this on our collective podcast promotion list for ages.

It's like make a list of 10 podcasts to go and pitch to.

I made the list at the start of the year.

I think it was maybe on our Q1 goals, maybe Q4 of last year.

But the actual pitching takes time.

You have to write the pitch and then craft it and then communicate about it and then organize it in the podcast.

So it just feels like as soon as I start this thing, it's going to add to my deduxt quite a lot.

So I think that's the only thing holding me back.

Not necessarily the nervousness about being on podcasts.

But I think it will have a good impact and be interesting and fun.

And then another one that is similar to yours is I want to pitch some Book Talkers.

I have got three books out in three months and the third one is out in just over a week.

And the paperbacks are all cute and small because they're kind of short Cozy's.

And I think I have been really inspired by your book boxes where you put in I think loads of just like really well selected, like cute little add ins that made people really enthusiastic to open them.

And also paper chase cards.

People love paper chase cards.

Yeah.

A little hack for you.

Paper chase is the best.

I've never seen people say they were paper chase so much as they did when they were opening your book boxes.

I know.

Where was my like money?

Where's my paycheck from paper chase?

That's what I want to know.

Yes.

So I'll be getting some paper chase cards, which is annoying because paper chase is shut down.

And where do you go now?

Is it Tesco?

Sainsbury's?

Next is where I think...

Okay.

That's where you can go to next.

No, Tesco's.

I think it might have closed in next, but Tesco's has a little section.

Sorry.

I will...

I'm used to being bored as everything's shut down.

I'm really disappointed in paper to scott.

Anyway, I will get some paper to scott because that is the key to success.

And then also, I love craft and I love baking and stuff, and I can easily think of some stuff to put in the book boxes.

So I think I might also try that.

Not even necessarily because I think it will have a big impact, but just because I've started doing ads recently, and the amount of money you put into ads every day, it's just like, oh, I could send out a couple of book boxes for this.

And it's worth trying, just to see what happens, to see what response is.

It's not something I particularly see down in Cozy.

There are a lot of like, you know, cozy influencers.

But why not?

It's not a lot of money, and I'll have these three cute paperbacks that I can jump out.

So I've made myself a short list already of some UK booktokers.

I could send it to you that do cozy things.

And I want to get a few more, and then maybe look at the prices to send overseas as well.

So we'll see.

Add Coffee, I feel the podcast was also on there, Tick.

I didn't do anything for that, but I was morally supportive.

The other one is the one that you mentioned, Create a Narrative, which is something we're doing an episode about soon, which just about really, you know, come back to the idea of like branding and, and having a really strong, well, like self chosen and audacious personality online, which I think I've previously been thinking really small with it, and I'm going to think really big.

Yeah, I feel excited.

One is not on your list because it's a very different demographic.

I want to contact the Women's Institute, the WI about my books.

Not really because I think it's going to be like a huge thing for sales or because it's something I massively want to do.

But I think it just feels like I want to explore and feel confident enough to explore different venues for trying to kind of put the word out there about my books.

And I want to see how I feel doing it and how, because I think doing it will make me feel more audacious, like going in as like a person of expertise.

Also, conveniently where I live, it's like a very cool hippie area.

I think the WI here is actually quite a cool WI.

So it won't be like me talking about scones, a lot of people who are much better making scones than me.

I'm pretty confident.

I want to develop a side hustle.

So like you've done with your extra business, I mean, I already have side hustle, but a side side hustle.

Yeah, like if we do a website business, I want to look at doing something to do with approaching local businesses for things like either copywriting or even workshops on like business copywriting, things like that.

And yeah, I think it's something that because all my friends are writers, I underappreciate how rubbish most people are at writing, like I rubbish at other things, but like, people are mostly really bad at writing, and I am really good at writing.

So why not see if I can make a little bit of extra money on that.

I also want to put my paperbacks in a local bookshop.

There are two local bookshops in town, but one is specifically focused on like paganism and crystals, and the other one is just a regular bookshop.

So I'm going for that one first.

And I used to work in a bookshop, so I might even try and like make some point of sale display for them, something to do with like local authors.

I think the concern about it would be like, paperbacks are expensive to order from Amazon, and I need to set a price.

Like the books are small, people order them from Amazon, even though they're, I would say, expensive for the size, they look it.

But I might also print like a three-in-one book and see how that looks.

I'm going to just take it in to see.

I also want to have a launch party when I've got books one to three out.

I don't know what it's going to be like.

It might just be like me and some friends, but I think I did a lot of like prepping of different baking ideas for the books, and I've got some like display things I thought of.

So I want to have at least something to make some social media content for it.

Yeah, I don't know.

I might even have it in Naxos and take some things along to have in Greece and celebrate that.

But who knows?

I need to think about that.

And then, like you, I also want to...

I stole this off you, I think.

Pitch my local literary festivals for teaching opportunities.

So locally, very locally, throughout the next really long, they have a...

I can't remember if it's a writing or a literature.

I think it's a literature festival.

But as part of it, I have attended a couple of writing workshops there.

And I teach, I have taught and like, tutored for a long time as my day job.

And I have a master's in creative writing and I write.

It's like, why would I not?

Why am I attending these classes?

Why am I not pitching myself to teach them?

I think part of it is that people who do that tend to be already in that space.

And they are trad authors who maybe have something already to do with like university.

And so they're used to kind of pitching that.

And, but maybe not, maybe I'm just understanding myself and I just don't feel confident about it.

I don't feel confident and I don't even know like, how much money would you ask for?

Do you need to have insurance, that sort of thing?

How do you go about it?

I've got so many questions that I instantly think, oh, I don't want to do it, but I absolutely do.

And I'm audacious and I will do it.

And I will approach them and get some side hustle going on that front.

And that is the end of my main list.

Should we go on to stretch calls?

Yes, let's do stretch calls.

I've added an extra one on to mine.

I did three and then I added four.

Yeah, I pressured you.

So at the end of last week's episode, I'm sure we talked about adding stretch calls because we've already made a progress on our list.

And I said, let's have three really audacious ones.

And then Sam had forgotten.

Or I laid it out.

It was probably more I had forgotten because I don't really hold on to things very well.

So I had written mine in advance.

I've been thinking about mine kind of for a few days.

And I gave Sam like three minutes warning.

So this is like from the deepest recesses of your panicked soul, these are your three.

And this has to feel like super audacious.

Like it's a bit scary to say out loud.

Yeah, well, I'll just say the first one, which I stole from you from YouTube, but it's like the ultimate one, which is to quit the day job.

So that is the ultimate audacious move, is to be making enough money doing all of the stuff that I don't need to keep going to the office and doing like random stuff for someone else.

So that feels like...

For me, it feels like the audacity is the quitting and like having to tell the people that you've quit.

Because I think I would quit even before having started making enough money because I have enough in savings that actually it's a waste of my time to go to the day job when I am on the path to make more money.

Just because I could put myself in another way.

But I'll have to have a conversation and make people say, are you not worried about money?

And I'll have to say, get out of my face.

Don't give me stupid questions that make me look bad.

Don't talk to me.

Yeah.

Take your worries elsewhere.

I am free and single and enjoying my life.

But I'll have to have that conversation over and over again.

Or I perceive that I will.

I'm not even sure.

I think I talk about this a lot with people.

I have started trying to be really vocal about my writing and about my desire to get my job.

So maybe when I do it, people are like, oh, you've been talking about this for ages.

Why haven't I done it yet?

I thought you'd quit.

Yeah, I thought you had thought you'd already quit.

The next thing on my audacious list, this is like a really like, not even a panic one, but I have always, this is like a really far in the future when I'm already making money, is that I've always wanted a really cool car.

Like I would just want, I just want a cool car.

I've always had such boring cars.

And that's fine because I just tootle around.

But I really want like a Mustang, like I want to be that cool person who just drives through town in a super cool 70s Mustang.

And I can see it, I can imagine myself sometimes when I'm driving my car, which is a Hyundai, I imagine that I'm in a Mustang.

Have you seen the film Young Adult?

Yes.

I feel like it gives Young Adult vibes.

But like in the good.

To be honest, I think she's really cool the whole way through the film.

And I know that's not what you meant.

I know.

That's a little more about me than about the film.

But I was like, yeah, she seems great.

She's living her best life.

She's a bit of a mess, but aren't we all?

I love that film.

She's fine.

But I think that's what she would do.

And I think she is my hero.

Yeah.

I want to be like the cool person just driving around in a Mustang for no reason.

And people will be like, oh, you're really into cars.

No?

Just this specific one?

I don't even like cars.

And I have got a dream car.

I like I don't drive and I have a dream car.

And I gave a version of my dream car to my main character in my first series.

Yeah.

I always have specific quite cool cars in my books.

It's like for no reason.

I don't like driving.

Because it's cool.

But if I did drive, it'd be a Jaguar.

Oh yeah.

I could see you in a Jaguar.

Yeah, no problem.

I'm not a modern Jaguar.

No, I'm never a modern car.

No, no.

Always an old car.

Yeah, I want to be that cool where it's like an original.

Yeah.

We all know that's coolest.

A vintage.

So the last official one on my list is to move into, I've written this, move into a damn house.

So I live in a flat, which is fine.

But I am forever just like, I want to have my own space, and I have such dreams of the sort of house that I would live in, and like the lifestyle I would have, being able to just have my own space and my own garden.

And it feels, I don't know why this feels audacious, but it just feels like I just really want, I don't even want a big house.

I just want a house that is like not next to anybody else.

I want a house in a field.

And when I tell people that, they just think that that's like the weirdest thing that anybody's ever said.

I want to live in the middle of like, I don't want neighbors.

I just want to like, I will, I'll go to this house and people will never see me again.

That feels, I don't know why it feels audacious to say it, I guess, because like, it feels weird to want something that, something that I don't have that seems like...

seems gettable.

Yeah, it's, yeah, it's like a weird thing.

And maybe it's just a me thing.

To be wanting something more than you've already got when what you've got is fine.

But yeah, it's...

But also I think, I think the audacious, like the audacious teaches you like where you're maybe holding yourself back, because you could own a house, right?

Like that is, that is within the realms of things that if you, if it was like, that was your main focus in life, you would have it.

But it's maybe like something else is holding you back that you don't want to maybe, you know, you might pick up a second job to get the house, but it's like, well, I don't want that much, and I don't want to make that lifestyle because it doesn't fit with the house or whatever it is.

But like there's things that you aren't doing, that are not just because you can't have them, it's because something about them is, doesn't feel...

I think it's, yeah, I think the audacity is like, yes, that, that, that as well, but also the, the, the wanting the house that everybody thinks is like a money pit or something, you know, that's probably the thing.

It's like, I want to buy like a rundown farmhouse or something, and people will say that that's ridiculous.

Why would you ever move into a house that maybe like you couldn't sell?

You know, something like that, but...

That's what my house is like, right?

Like my house, I needed a lot of work when I moved in, and I only saw a house that needed a lot of work because I was like, yeah, be fine.

I'll just make it fine.

Like, there's no concern about that.

There's no, I don't need a house that's perfect and resaleable because I'm living in it and I'll just figure it out.

Yeah, I got a quote this week for turning my attic into Narnia finally, because I will have someone do the whole thing.

And I got a quote for it and it is the remaining balance from the co written project that I had not set aside for ads.

I was like, that seems that seems like it's fake.

I'm going to buy Narnia with my co writing.

That is very exciting.

And that is the last big project I need to do in this house, apart from that second bit of decorating.

Yeah, but like, you know, this house, like it was ludicrous when I moved in, you could only access the bathroom through the second bedroom, which is insane.

Had no door between like my bed and the front door.

Yeah.

And I was like, I don't care.

It's fine.

I'll figure it out.

And I had to do it.

I put a corridor in.

I'm going to get Narnia put in.

I don't know.

And I think that is because I don't, that didn't feel audacious to me.

That felt like, yeah, of course.

I think it's interesting, like what feels audacious to you versus what would feel like anyone could do that.

And I think I might as well probably do feel really normal to other people.

Like the idea, you know, I mean, like even just like one of my things is just like approaching a person to ask a question.

But I am so like blocked around asking for help.

It just it feels like such a point of weakness that it's just like, and it's I've definitely come on really far with it.

Even with friends, like with very good friends, I have really felt like even expressing weakness with very good friends has felt uncomfortable.

And I feel better about that.

So that is positive or tragic to bring a hater to it.

But yes, so I think the stretch goals are good.

Was that the last of your stretch goals?

Did you have one more?

I had like a secret stretch goal, which is nothing not to do with anything other than I really want to go to a fantasy ball.

And that feels like, that's like, yeah, super stretch.

Cause now I've been hammered with adverts for one that's going on in Oxford.

And I'm like, oh, I would love to, absolutely love to, but like going there.

Yes, it's like such a fun thing.

And I think I've always wanted to go, like I've always wanted to go to a masquerade ball.

That's like the thing.

I mean, I'm always in for a ball.

Can I say that's like, that's one of the things I think we aren't talking about enough, whatever the ball is, I'm in.

I love the ball.

I've been to the balls, many balls I've liked.

I want to, I want to just ask, can we say balls podcast?

But yeah, I want to go to a fantasy ball or like just like a big masquerade ball or even like, I don't know if you've ever heard of the Anne Rice ball in New Orleans that they do, which is like...

No, but they have an Anne Lister ball near me, which is, you know, much less fun.

Yeah, less fantasy based.

Anne Lister, who was like very famous, woman from Halifax, from the area near me, and she lived as a man, just because she wanted to.

And she just had the money and the means, and she was like, yeah, I'm going to do that.

So I'm going to have a wife and I just live my life as I want.

And just like in a fantasy, and wrote diaries about her escapades, and in which she wrote very colorfully.

But they have a ball in celebration of her near here.

And I keep also seeing ads for it.

And it's like, I don't want to go to the unlisted ball, but I can see the appeal.

But I think the fantasy balls of people like dressed up in wings and amazing dresses.

Just astounding.

Yeah, I spent a while on the website and looking at the gowns that they were selling, because it was like four elements.

So it was, there was like five, you could be like a fire element.

And they had outfits for like, you could buy for all of these things.

And I just thought, oh, to just like drop a grand on one party.

Like, how fun, how frivolous is on the list?

Yeah, I though I would really want to like look through a fish tank and fall in love with someone in like two seconds flat.

Yeah, so with the wings, yeah.

Yeah, I would dress like that.

I'd be disappointed if I came back and I hadn't fallen in love with like a very young boy do a fish tank.

I don't know, it's still appropriate for me.

Yeah, it's interesting, I still want that, like there's loads of things that are on my like desire list, but not on my audacity list.

So we've talked about before, like, I really want to go on Meet or In Express.

That for me feels like a real big goal.

But it's not on my audacity list because like, it's just a plan for the future when I have stupid money.

But it's stupidly expensive.

It's like thousands of pounds for a night.

I was like, yeah, that's fine.

I will do that when I have the money.

But there's nothing blocking me from doing it now.

But I just don't...

I'm not throwing money away.

Yeah.

I'm converting my intake to Narnia as my throwing money away situation.

Not just spending one night aboard your own express, perhaps solving a murder, but you know, that will have to wait.

Well, you'd have to.

People would expect it.

You would hope so.

I took the sleeper down to Ben's house and I was so disappointed that nobody got murdered.

Like genuinely, I peeked out at that a couple of times, nothing happened.

You know, sadly, murderless.

Okay, so my stretch goals.

I do have quit my job on that because it feels audacious.

I said, not because I think it's not gonna happen.

It just feels like that's an audacious thing.

I was going to be a small thing on here, because I've talked about two things actually, I'd never think of the same.

So the one that's more specific is, I want to make some on camera baking videos.

And I really want to make, so we've got a book series, my current like new series, that's set in a book town.

And the main character is from this like long literary family, and she opens a tea room in the middle of the street, that's all bookshops and causes lots of, you know, uproar.

And she makes lots of things that are based on authors or books.

And it's like, what I really want to do, and I love, like, I've got lots of cookbooks about this.

It's like find recipes that are connected to books.

So like, I recently made like lots of Alice in Wonderland things.

I made like little toadstools out of brownies and straw and a strawberry base.

Yeah, they looked so cool.

Yeah.

But also like recipes that are in books, like Seed Cakes and the Hobbit.

So make those and do some like on camera filming of baking because, and that's part of my trying to find my narrative.

It's like, who am I?

And how am I like very big and confidently in my genre space?

And I would love to do that.

It just feels like, connects to my other thing on here.

My other thing was claim expertise in something.

It feels that feels so uncomfortable to me.

Like this podcast deliberately is a podcast about not being an expert.

It's a podcast about being a bit rubbish.

And hopefully one day get better.

Interestingly, when I read the intro today, I was thinking, one day we're gonna have to change this intro.

Because this intro says, we are long away from quit the day job dream.

I was like, one day we won't be.

And I had that feeling when I read it today, which I've never had before of like, we have to seriously think about what's going to be soon.

Which feels really good.

And not like soon soon, but as in on the horizon.

Yeah, don't let Act 2 fool you.

It's, you know, we can only enter Act 3, you have to keep progressing.

Yes, yeah.

Act 2, it's got me feeling enthusiastic.

I don't know, I'll be I'm ready for a downfall, perhaps I'll be fine with it.

But yeah, but anyway, so I want to claim expertise in something.

And that is an area where I think I'm really looking for things where I feel annoyed at someone's audacity.

And that's a real like trigger of what do you think you're incapable of doing?

Yeah, and I often find it annoying when people not annoying.

I find myself prickly when someone else like sets up a course or claims expertise in something, that I'm like, what?

I could do that.

I'm just as good as you.

And like, why am I resentful?

Because I didn't claim it, right?

It's not anything to do with that person at all.

It is that I feel small and insufficient in some way.

And that's assigned to me to say, like, I want to do that.

So I really want to have the feeling of claiming expertise in something.

And it could be doing something like setting up a course or writing a book or just becoming known as the person that does this.

I don't know what it would be.

But I think making those baking videos would be part of that.

That would be saying, like, I'm a person who...

Because I always joke, like, I'm not great at baking.

I'm just messing around.

Like, even when I make my recipes for my books, like, oh, they're always something simple.

But like, I am good at baking.

Yeah, you are really good at baking.

The things that you make are, like, so specific.

And, like, you put...

It's not even just, like, the baking.

Yeah, like, I'm sure they taste great, but you also, like, design them as well.

It's not just you, like, making a plain cake.

You're making, like, such cute things, like, your fat rascals the other day.

It looked so good.

I mean, so delicious.

But I think it's maybe, as I'm going to find excuses, right, because, like, that's what you do when you don't feel confident at something.

Like, you know, my grandma was a real baker.

Like, whenever you went to her house, she'd have, like, three tins of different bakes in.

And, like, a real home baker, like, a real grandma baker.

And I feel like that, to me, is an expert.

Because I think I never make stuff that goes wrong, really, because I can figure it out.

But not in the way that my grandma would, right?

Like, you could take her a cake and be like, oh, it's fallen here.

What's wrong with it?

She'd be like, oh, you've not done this.

And I couldn't do that.

And that's part of what makes me feel a bit underconfident about going to the WI, because that's saying, I'm a baker.

And it's like, I'm not, I'm someone who writes about baking because I can't really bake that well.

But actually, I am good at baking.

And I'm as good as other people.

Yeah, I would say, I used to really struggle with feeling like less than.

And in my old job, one of the things that one of my old managers used to say to me was that when people would ask me questions, like, and loads of people would ask me questions, because I'm obviously so approachable, and people would ask me questions all the time.

And I would always reply with, oh, I think it's this, but I'm not sure.

And she told me that when she used to hear me saying the answer, and she knew that I was right, but I would say that I wasn't sure.

And once she told me that, I realized, oh yeah, I can just say, this is the answer, and then not say, I'm not sure.

And basically just like also not care if I'm wrong, because they've asked me the question.

So either you take what I say, or you like, or you don't.

And that like clicked in my head, like when people ask me questions, and now like kind of to my detriment, I'm really like, if somebody asked me a question, I'll just tell them.

Yeah, like I just confidently say an answer, and then I'm just like, I actually don't know.

I'm like, you can't play, don't ever play a quiz with me, because I'll convince you of an answer that I have no clue.

You know, it's really terrible.

And the doubtful of every quiz team.

But it's only because somebody else pointed that out, that I developed that, like completely in the other direction.

So if you have that thought that you, you have like that negative thought about yourself, just imagine like, I'm telling you right now, you're right.

Like everything you do is great.

Don't doubt yourself.

I think you're the best person.

I have to, when I write emails at work, very conscious take out, I think, or perhaps, or maybe, because it's such an integral part of my like, self confidence that I'm a person who's always right and knows things and is very clever, right?

And it's like, that's decades of ingrained, right?

And that that's like, it's not something I necessarily feel great about about myself.

But it means that I, I, you know, I like look up the spellings of words that I text my friends, because I'm so precious about being correct.

And I know where it's not not a good way to be.

But like, to me, it would feel like such a, it would feel embarrassing.

And it would feel like a failure that I could not comfortably absorb to be incorrect in those ways.

And so I feel like I couldn't claim it.

And this is very much, you know, like, an extension of what people say about women, is that you wouldn't apply for the job unless you meet 100% of the criteria.

And like, I'd want to meet like 110% because I'm so good.

But like a lot of men would apply at like 80, 50%.

And I don't know how I get to that confidence.

And that's part of why I want to start, like offering the workshops, like creative writing workshops at a local festival.

Because I know that I've been to these sessions before, like I know that almost nobody in the room has ever really written before, they just kind of fancy doing a bit of writing, and there's nothing they could ask me where I wouldn't know the answer.

And I do some tuition as part of my day job.

And the things I tutor in, like they can be outside of my knowledge area, but I feel so confident researching.

So I'll have like a lot of GCSE students, you know, this time of year.

And they might be doing like a different board, or they might suddenly be asking about physics.

And I was like, it's fine.

I can find that information.

I can figure it out.

I haven't done, you know, necessary GCSE physics stuff for this board in 20 years, but like, I can Google that fine.

And I only want to put myself in fields where I feel that level of expertise, but that is excessive and pointless.

So I want to try and get myself past that and just claim a level of expertise that somebody else would easily attribute to me, but I don't feel it myself.

Yeah.

And also develop like the thick skin, that if you were questioned and you didn't know the answer or you were wrong...

I'd say I feel horrible, but I have to be...

I know, I know.

But to have...

I'm having like a panic attack.

To have the, like the ability to say, oh, oh yeah, I think that's probably wrong about that.

Like, I think that's probably...

I know.

That's gonna give me like an identity crisis, then who am I?

Right, but you don't have to...

This is the thing, like, you can probably be right, 99% of the time, but you will probably also come across that one person, like, sods law, that will be one person who will ask you something that stumps you, and you have to be okay with saying, oh yeah, oh well.

That doesn't feel like something I would do or say, but you know, maybe that's, I think that's a different issue.

That is a long side of lastly, that maybe we always need to ever think about, is like how to, like, maybe we need to have like an episode on blocks and mindset blocks, because I do think that's, there is a specific thing in like, that is holding back in a lot of ways.

Yeah.

It's really pending, but that's not the end of that.

Okay.

But I think, I think what you're asking is like, A, good to give you a push, but B, good to remind you of like, areas where you need to work on kind of deeper things that are not just, you know, excitement and positivity will brush it away, that you'd be like, why am I pushing back on this?

Why do I think this is a difficult thing for me?

Because for you, like you set up a website business, I would never, right, I would never set up a website business unless I knew like every single website platform, I could code all the languages.

And like, but I have talked about this before, and you are exactly the right amount of knowledgeable.

You like, you know enough to confident, like, I can look that up, I find that information.

Yeah, this is probably this.

And I think that is helping you jump into things a lot more.

Yeah, that's what I have.

I have a can do attitude.

That's what everyone needs.

Just Yeah, just assume that you can figure out.

You know, I could probably fly a plane if I had to.

Yeah, it's interesting because I think I could.

But I genuinely think I could.

I think it's not that I think I might do it and I'll probably probably be okay.

I 100% think I could.

Whereas I know in my head, factually, it's not true, but like I know about languages, so I wouldn't even try.

Whereas flying a plane, I think it's in my wheelhouse.

I genuinely think I'll be ready.

You see, audacity already lives in you.

Yeah, and how do I extend that to things that I have less than 100% confidence about?

Well, we'll find out.

The more that we do, the more audacious we'll get.

The more choice?

Yes.

That's a high note.

That's what I meant in the podcast.

Now you can end it.

Okay.

Nodding you along.

Yeah.

Before we end it, as I said in the show notes, there is a link to our coffee.

There's also a link to our Discord.

There is no fee for entry for that.

Just pop in, ask questions, ask stupid questions, you know, get audacious, ask something really that you think you should know by now, but you don't.

Next week, we are talking about personal narratives as we have, you know, slightly trailed today.

Do you have any thoughts on that already?

I always have thoughts.

Personal narrative is obviously like linked with brand and branding and all that jazz is like what I've been working on for the last 12 months.

So I feel like for me, this is like a really good next step is to actually become the person that I've been trying to insinuate that I am.

Yeah, I haven't really thought about how that's going to happen yet.

This is going to have a week of mulling things over and trying to come up with actionable stuff.

Yeah, and I do think it sort of follows on from modesty, because you can think like, Oh, I want to be, you know, this person.

So I've said before, like, Oh, I write quintessentially British mysteries.

But like, what am I doing to like, 1000% be that person?

Yeah, nothing.

I, and I, I've definitely had a lot of thoughts recently about this.

And so I think the kind of personal narrative idea, we've talked about it before in very, like, light generic ways.

I think we're talking about branding.

And I think what we're going to talk about next week is like how to be 1000% something, like how to be really yourself out loud in a way that people have feelings about you.

And I think people currently don't have feelings about me as a writer.

They either like have read my books, have read my books, like my books, who knows?

But like about me, nothing.

Yeah, don't care.

Like I'm not in a bad way, just like I'm not a person and I want to become a person out loud and on purpose.

Yeah, like you want to be, you want people to know or assume they know who you are and be memorable.

Like we want to be popular.

We want to be popular, okay?

Yeah, like cool, popular, little bit mysterious.

I want people to know who I am and if they see me in the street, either talk to me or run away.

One or the other, that's it.

Yeah.

I want to be like Veronica from Peathers.

Yes.

Yeah, unfortunately.

Yeah.

I want to be Nancy from The Craft.

So cool.

Yes, I hope that's going to be the ideas.

I really hope people make their own audacity lists.

We'll be posting about it in the podcast and I'll be asking, presenting the discord, I'll be asking people what is on their audacity list.

Go big, make a long list and see what is on at the end of it, because that is the stuff you're most scared to do.

And then think why you're scared to do it and then just do it anyway.

We can hold you accountable.

You know our lists now, so you can hold us accountable.

We'll be doing these things, not necessarily imminently.

I cannot imagine you're definitely out to get a Mustang next week, but one day.

Fingers crossed.

Yeah, fingers crossed for you.

Who knows?

But yes, thank you everyone.

We will be back next week.

Please like, subscribe, tell friends.

That is the best way to get us growing, ideally friends, into writing, but maybe they just like podcasts and they're interested in it.

But yes, get some friends who love writing, tell them about the podcast and how much you learn from it and feel more audacious after listening.

Thank you everyone and goodbye.

Goodbye.

You've been listening to Pen to Paycheck Authors.

Stay tuned for our next episode.

And don't forget to subscribe to learn how to write your way to financial success.

Samantha Cummings

S02E13: What Audacious Authors Do

S02E14: What We Do That AI Can't

S02E12: What We Achieved In Q1