#355 The Prolific Author: Aaron Ryan on Writing 43 Books and the Art of Indie Publishing

Welcome to the speaking podcast. Very interesting guest. And today he's just launched his 43rd book.

I mean, I thought I'm good with eight podcasts, but like 43 books and I've written one and I know the amount of time and effort it takes. So I take off my hat here. So you're a prolific author of the talisman series, bestselling dissonance, six book host apocalyptic alien invasion saga, the Christian end times dystopian fiction saga, the end, the sci-fi thrillers forecast, the Phoenix experiment, the slides, the children's books, the ring of truth, the sword of joy and the book of power.

And for those watching on bit. Shoot YouTube and rumble and even Spotify, you can see he's got a fantastic background and you see all the creative book covers that they've got, I mean, I think I have to stop because you've got so many different ones. But Aaron, please welcome to the show.

Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. I know it's, it's, I know it gets a little nauseating and dizzying because it's just stop with the, with the litany of books, but I've got to keep churning them out, that's just me.

So I was looking, um, you've an interesting story, how you kind of got into writing because sometimes it's later on in life, but I think it's a beautiful that you kind of found your calling very early. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's so funny because I was, I was given a calling.

You could say that everybody in Mrs. Walker's second grade class was given this calling of writing a book, a little mini novella. And so I wasn't an anomaly in any respect. I was just going with the flow.

And, you know, if you don't do the assignment, you get an F. Um, but I, I wrote a little book called the electric boy and college rule paper, three hole punch construction paper, front and back and crude stick figure drawings. And, um, I don't remember what grade I got it, but I just, I do remember a light bulb watershed epiphany moment of holding it in my hands and going. Wow.

I mean, look, I made this, you know, and it was just so cool. It was such, um, it was such an illuminating moment for me. And I, I look back now and go, of course I'm an author.

There's other things that attest to that, that origin story, but of course I'm an author. I just took great pride in it from the very beginning. And I don't suppose that you kept it, did you? Oh my gosh.

I'm so sorry. You asked that because my mom did, my mom did. And she gave it to me and she gave it to me in, uh, 2011 or rather she gave it to my wife.

Uh, as my wife and I were about to get married, she gave my wife like a, a big album of memories of me growing up, newspaper articles, uh, you know, certificates of achievement, report cards, pictures in there was the electric boy, and I don't know what I did with it. And it just kills me that I cannot find that because I would publish it straight away. I'm sure you would find it when you're looking for something else.

I'm sure in the Paris. So yes, I hope so. Knock on wood.

So I suppose like who inspires you? Because like, you've got so many different ones and it's not just kind of stuck to one topic. Like you've got all different, like who's inspiring, like what kind of stuff are you looking at that you kind of get creative or do you look at other people and just get creative yourself? Yeah. Well, mainly it's this mean lady right here, Helen.

No, I'm kidding. Um, I get inspiration from my sons. Uh, they're very creative, particularly my 10 year old.

Uh, I get inspiration and, uh, encouragement from my wife. Uh, but, but really honestly, the, the Genesis of being a writer really comes from inspiration from J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings. So big Lord of the Rings fan.

This is not the one ring. I just want to clarify. See, I'm still here.

Still here. Um, but I, I read that as a, as a young man and my mind was utterly blown. The world building is so exquisite.

The work is so robust. The character development is out of this world and it is so outlandishly rich and broad and deep. I love it.

And so I was, my mind was utterly blown from Lord of the Rings. Uh, but I get, I'm more cinematically inspired than literarily inspired these days. So I'll watch something and I'll get these nuggets of ideas for something.

I could write a case in point dissonance. The first volume of dissonance reality had its roots in us watching for the second time, I think I am legend. And I am legend with Will Smith.

It's, it's a vaccine gone wrong. It produces rabies over, you know, 80%, 90% of the world's population is turned into zombies. So I, in the opening of that movie is very, very cryptic and dark and mysterious and weeds are growing up through the cracks and lions roaming the street.

And I thought, well, the precedent is, is a zombie apocalypse. What if mine was an alien invasion? And so that is where dissonance was born. No, well, like, because, you know, it's a full-time part, do you kind of set aside, okay, I'm going to be writing from this time to this time, or do you just, when, when, when you get the feeling, what's your kind of structure? Both actually.

I mean, you have to ride that wave of creativity because if, if inspiration strikes, man, you've got to take advantage of it right away. Um, I have Pixar brain. I've got nine and six year old or 10 and six year olds.

I have Pixar brain. So that's what I remember. So anytime inspiration strikes for the grownup stuff, I better log on right away.

Uh, but I do have, I do have set times during the day. Um, both careers of mine are very reactive. So as an author, I'm, I'm reactive to these creative, uh, peaks of inspiration that strike at unawares.

And then as a voiceover artist, I am beholden to audition any given moment of the day when a mortgage paying audition comes in, I have to go, you know, record that audition and send it to the client. Uh, and if I get awarded the job, then I've got to record it in a timely manner and send it to the client. So they're both very reactive, like a doctor with a pager.

Um, do people still use pagers anymore? I don't know. Um, but very reactive and I just, you have to ride both waves. It's an interesting one, actually.

Cause when you said about the pager, I'm just thinking, did I see a pager for a way? Like most, most of the younger kids wouldn't even know what a pager is. No, they would not. I just dated myself.

Can you tell? Like what about the creative side? Because I, like, as I was kind of doing the research and everything, I was, you know, sometimes you see a book cover and you kind of go, but yours are like, Ooh, you know, it's kind of like you've really beautiful covers and how do you get into that? What's your kind of process for knowing what will work? Oh, thank you. Uh, it's so funny because it's just so subjective. Um, you like them, the next person doesn't.

Um, I posted a dissonance volume one reality, which is this one right here, which is volume one in the series, this greenish one. I posted that on net galley recently. I've, I'd never done net galley.

And net galley is a site where you can garner honest feedback of your books, usually before they're published. Um, and you know, people can vote on the cover. Well, right away I posted right away.

I got a thumbs down, you know, on the cover and it's just like, really? You know, you haven't even read the book yet. You have no idea. And that's clearly an alien.

It's clearly about sci-fi. Um, you put it on another site. Um, I forget the name of the site.

I always do, but I posted it there and many people said it's clearly about an alien and sci-fi, so you just can't please everyone. I do design my own covers for the most part. Now.

Um, blood echoes is my current work in progress. That's right here. If I can point properly.

And that one is, I needed to outsource that to a site called get covers. They do great work. And so they designed the individual elements and then I put them all together and then, you know, spiffed it up a little bit.

So, but I love creating them and you just try as hard as you can to differentiate yourself from the herd. And I think maybe in five years time, you'd have to have a magnifying glass cause there'll be so many books behind you that they'll be tiny. The funny thing is I just revised this yesterday, so they were bigger yesterday morning, but I had to add blood echoes and dagger fells and, uh, over here in the middle column, far, far left, my right, whatever is, um, uh, the darkness within, so I did have to add some more.

They continue to shrink. I guess it's a good problem. No, absolutely.

And have you a kind of internal goal or they want to get to at least a hundred or one that gets, I mean, the fact that, you know, you're, you're still a young man and you've got like 43 is incredible, but have you a target that, Oh, I can't wait till I hits, you know, whether it's 50 or a hundred, I mean, 50 is going to be a nice sweet spot anyway, but what's your own kind of goals? No, I'm, I don't, I'm not as young as I look. I may look young, but there are definitely grays in here. Uh, so I've got, um, uh, I want to close it on 50.

I'll put publishing 42 and 43 today. And then I'm working, I have a lineup, I think going up to 46, um, of my next three works planned and that's, um, the current work in progress and two beyond that, uh, I want to hit 50 and then just, you know, go from there, but I'd love to hit 100 someday. Uh, I am actually 53.

I'll be, or 52. I'll be 53 in May. And so, um, not quite as young as I look, but it's just one of those things where I, I latched onto my calling early on and then I forgot it, but I returned to my first love in 2017 partially and 2023 fully.

Uh, so I just, I'm trying to, I guess, make up for lost time perhaps. And are you self-publishing Amal or using going the publisher route? The traditional publisher route is, uh, is enviable. If you can score a traditional publisher, great.

Um, I don't shoot for that each one because it's a, it's a tremendous trade off. So with trad pubs, as they're called, um, you lose a lot, um, with an indie publishing mindset and approach, I get much quicker time to market. I can command higher royalties.

I can choose my own editing and marketing teams. I can choose my own branding. I retain all rights to my product.

I retain all creative control. Um, the list goes on. There's just, there's so many pluses for me.

My love language is giving my wife and my kids will tell you that every Christmas. And I, I love publishing a book and getting it out there and giving it to people. And the frustrating thing is that there's 50 or book, what a 40, uh, what did I say? 42 and three publishing today.

If I was traditionally published, I'd be maybe half that because they'd still be waiting in the, in the traditionally published system to be unleashed on the masses and I just can't wait that long. I'm too impatient. And the thing is, cause like I've read a few different books on the publishing and everything, and like what I've heard is sometimes the publisher can send, as you were saying, you have the rights, they can actually sell on books that they're going to have done with onto someone else.

And usually they don't kind of contact the author because they don't want to be given the royalties, even though sometimes, I don't know whether it's a buck, 50 cents is like a lot of the times it's not great. And also they expect you to do all the marketing where sometimes people think you come in and they'll do a load of it. So just, I mean, I know you have a book on that.

So maybe kind of touch on the pros and cons. Cause you know, it's yeah. You'd hear some stories where they get a big, uh, you know, check at the start.

Which is everyone's dream. But I mean, that's it. That's the, that's like the Joe Rogans of podcasting.

It's kind of rare. It is rare. Yeah.

Yeah. It's, um, well, there's so many incentives like, uh, in addition to the ones that I just listed. But yes, if you're talking about marketing, that's a huge issue and a huge specter for so many people.

Ooh, no, I've got a market, you know, and they're just, they're just scared. Um, let me ask you this though. It's, and I got some great advice, uh, from an author.

I wish I could remember her name. She, she did a video. I watched it a year ago and she said, if you want to get better at marketing, stop marketing.

And you, you hear that and you go, huh? And it was, but then she clarified instead, be an enthusiast. And it's so different and it's so much more effective. People love to buy.

They hate to be sold. No one wants to have their arm twisted into like, okay, okay. I'll buy your book.

But if you're just simply enthusiastic and why wouldn't you be, I'm going to hold this up, um, for your audio listeners. This is a box set of my all-in-one, uh, dissonance six book saga. And I, I, I made a box set of this.

So it's all six books in one in a box set. I designed the whole thing. I love this.

I love how this turned out. I love the story. I love the graphics.

I love the packaging. I love everything about it. Why wouldn't I be enthusiastic about something that I love? So if you go to vendor markets or craft fairs or book fairs, or you're just out there in the wild and people, you know, catch on that you're an author, why wouldn't you be naturally just so excited to talk about being an author and the work that you get to do? It's so exciting.

So stop focusing on marketing and just focus on being enthusiastic about what you do and then the chips will fall where they may after that. And I'm just curious, because I was looking at your website, seeing all the different things. And I saw you had like the box sets, but it was like the paperback.

And if you had the hardcover, you know, it was not a box set. So you had a really laid out exactly. There was no trickery, but I saw that as well, that you've got the whole combined.

And I was like, Ooh, cause I couldn't see, maybe they do. I don't know. Do publishers do that? But like, is there many people actually like to have the one big book, like you've just shown us? Oh, well, so I'm going to show you something that I rarely show people.

This is an all in one Lord of Lord of the Rings commemorative edition book that I actually made. Uh, so I took all three books and I put it in one and there's pictures from, from the movie, you know, appropriate to the narrative like that. And there's hidden, there's hidden sections and this and that.

I like the all in one. I do like the box sets where it's all three individual. I like that too.

But I do have people buying my all in ones, whether they're the hard cover all in one or the paperback box, that all in one. And it's kind of like the Apple. Um, you know, Steve jobs, well, he's deceased now, but Tim Cook's company, Apple philosophy.

It no one size fits all, you know, you've got one person who wants this nice big, big, big, never ending story, big book. And then you've got the people who just want to handle one nugget at a time and they can feel like they're making progress. And I, they each their own.

So I like to, I like to meet everyone where they're at. And I'm just curious about the actual text, because I'm not sure what you use, but I'm seeing some, especially, you know, when they're bigger books, it's like two millimeter or something like that. And unfortunately, like I've had books and I just, I like, I like that.

I can actually sit and read. I don't know what size you use, but is there like, because I forwarded for a few people, because I've even had a book that was hard covered, tiny writing, and I offered it to a few people. And it was kind of like Lord of the, the, the, the, the, the rings kind of style kind of that the guy had sent.

And I just couldn't, I wish I could, because I don't know what way you do it and how other people find that. Is there something that you've kind of researched? It's all formatting. I mean, it's trial and error.

So you have to print out pages and see how they're going to look and how is this legible just in a simple print format, like such as I'm doing right now. And then you get a proof copy and you see if it turned out as well as you thought it did, and is it still legible? I will say that I have all in one hardcover versions. Those are the hardest ones because there's a page limitation.

You can only do 550 pages through a Kindle direct publishing. So with 550 pages, six books is going to need to be squished in there a bit more than three books, right? So the end, my Christian dystopian trilogy, three books that fits in there just fine. It's Times New Roman 12.

And I think the the Dissonance Saga, I think I did like 10.5 Times New Roman 10.5 with a bit wider margins and a bit of a decrease on line spacing, right? So it's just, it's just kind of trying to work the formatting a little bit and play with it so that it plays nicely with your page limitation. Trial and error. But now I do have versions that will suit everybody.

And I love that. It took a while to get there, but I love it. But like you mentioned 12 and 10.5, like I can print stuff at 10, even nine, and I can read it grand.

It's okay. But yeah, people are doing stuff. I don't know, is it two or three, but it's, it's like, I, I don't know.

Does anybody actually like, I'd have to have a magnifying glass. I don't wear glasses, but it's like, it's not comfortable. So like, I don't, I don't understand that.

Like, do they, are they just trying to compress everything into it that they do that way? Is there, what's their thought behind it? Cause I can't imagine anybody actually enjoying when the text is magnifying stately. I can't either. I mean, and that's why you have to just really make it amenable to the reader.

Uh, ultimately, like, you know, I just, I read through a, uh, an aliens. I love the movie aliens, 1986, Sigourney Weaver, favorite movie of all time. I'm sure it is yours as well.

Yes. Uh, I love the movie. There's a, there's a book on it.

I forget what the book's title is, but it is essentially a commemorative book that has all kinds of photos and, uh, behind the scenes and exposes and articles and, you know, interviews with the actors involved and the producer and the director. And golly, some of those pages, there's the font is really, really small. And you have to do a magnifying glass thing.

I think that they've got, okay, we're going to, we're going to charge this much for the book. If we squish it down to this many pages though, then our, our cost of producing the book is this much and here's our profit margin, you know, it's just, I think that there's some logic behind that on the commercial side of it. But I don't want to do that.

No one will buy my book. I'm an indie author. No one will buy my book.

If I make it impossible to read, it doesn't work that way. And I believe you do the audio yourself of all your books. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I have not recorded all of the, of the nonfiction books, but I have recorded all of the fiction books.

Um, I I'm a voice actor. I absolutely detest doing audio books. They take way too long and they pay way too little.

And there's one client that I like. I enjoy doing his work, self-help, very easy narration, very conversational. Um, but I felt like at one point that if someone, if I hired someone to narrate my books and I have several voice actor colleagues who are very competent, no one is going to love the story as much as me.

No one's going to know the characters as much as me. No one's going to hear the story like I do. And so I, I would be so remiss if I hired someone and they did my book or books a disservice by not narrating them properly.

So I also love doing accents so I can do several. I can do them very competently. I cannot do an Irish accent no matter how I try, but I can do, I can do Scottish.

I can do British Caribbean, Australian, Latino, New York, deep South. And I, uh, I love doing them. So when I have characters in my books that are, that come from that ethnicity or that heritage, it's a true joy just to be able to narrate those and bring them to life.

So not everyone can do that. So maybe I'm more of an anomaly there as well. And I just, because I remember when I wrote mine, like I, if I read someone's book, I spot errors constantly.

My own, I didn't because I was reading it in my head. And I'm just curious when you are doing the audio, do you actually spot some errors? Oh, yes. Yeah.

Yeah. That, that is the final step of my own personal proofing. I give it to an editor, of course, but you're absolutely spot on.

You read slower than you read. You, you narrate slower than you read, I should say. So as I'm, as I'm narrating, you know, I want to bring the story to life and not rush through it.

No one wants a book that's narrated like this, cause it's just going to go too fast. So I narrate slowly and then you go, oh, wait, what? And I can't believe I didn't catch that in my own read through. Right.

So, uh, yeah, I have to, that's another reason why I have to narrate my own audio books because I, I catch a ton of errors that lingered, a missing closed quotation mark, for example. Um, or a double T O we went to, to the store. Um, you just read over it faster than you narrate over it.

So you can catch them. Has there ever been a situation where you kind of had to talk process and you decided to edit the book based on the audio as you're going through it? No, because at that point it's pretty much set and there usually are readers who have committed to it. And, uh, there's ARC readers as well.

And beta readers who have gotten it before publishing. And so, um, I, I would want their feedback too. And inadvertently you can create a plot hole by, by adding something later, because I'm no longer in the head space of writing and creating.

Um, and I may forget something. Um, the problem is there, there's two styles of writers. So one is a planner.

They plan everything out, bullet points, flow charts, index cards, you know, they're, they're very organized. And then there's others who are more fly by the seat of their pants, organic style writing. And I'm the latter.

I'm very organic of a writer. So I have painted myself into a corner. Rarely, but I have done it when, when writing a book and you have to control Z your way out of there or command Z if you're on a Mac and go, this doesn't work, you know, and, and it's hard to destroy what you just wrote.

But, um, fortunately it hasn't happened very often. And which are two kids, I believe you said six and 10. Yeah.

They kind of, do they have what you kind of do? Did you ever try to get them to write a little book or get into this or? Oh, Brandon is the most creative. Brandon, our oldest is, uh, is the right brain creative and Asher, our youngest is the left brain intellect. Um, they're both intellectual.

They're both creative, but they, you know, they're like this and like this. And so Brennan, man, little boy after my own heart last year, he created a monster. Uh, saga.

It was, it was actually, no, I'm sorry. It was an alien invasion saga. And you know, just like daddy, he created his own alien invasion saga.

It's all crudely put together and, you know, and, and un, um, unalignedly folded and re really like Scotch tape overload. And he made a spine. He put a spine on it and these colorful drawings.

And, and he made three of them and he made a box set. I couldn't believe I was just like, Oh buddy. It was just, it was so sweet and so cute.

And he put it all together. So he inspires me. That kid is just, uh, is a dynamo and he's going to make a lot of money someday for a creative agency.

And I want some of it. And just when you're in your own kind of zone, when you're writing, do you ever have music or do you need silence or do you have to have kind of noise canceling earphones on? No, I love hearing movie soundtracks. It's very exciting.

Uh, it's very stimulating. So I'll, I'll play movie soundtracks as I write. There's a scene in a dissonance volume two reckoning that, uh, has, that pays homage to a futile escape by James Horner from the aliens soundtrack.

And it's, they're desperately trying, they're in tanks on the highway and they're desperately trying to reverse course because here comes this flood of Gorgons at them. And they're saying evasive, evasive. And I can hear it in my head because I, as I'm writing, because I'm hearing through the speakers over here, uh, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, did, I'm hearing this, these rich, um, toms and military cadence drums.

And that's so inspired me to write a better scene. So yeah, that does work. No problem.

So maybe we just kind of touched on something like I saw one. I don't know. Was it forecast the one with the towers? Yeah.

Yeah. Just, yeah. What, what, maybe what exactly you're covering in that? What's in it? Yeah, I'm so I'm still impacted to this day, hugely.

So by the heroism and the bravery of, um, the fallen heroes and victims of nine 11, I always will be, uh, I was, I was a little distracted and going through a selfish, uh, process at the time when nine 11 happened. So I wasn't, it didn't quite impact me in the way that it may have impacted some others. But five years later, I just remember being, I was ripe for impacting and I wrote a, a multi stanza poem called whisper.

That was a tribute to the heroes and victims of nine 11. But I wasn't done. It turned into a song later and it just, it's beautiful, but I wasn't done.

I'd always wanted to really provide a fantastical situation, a catharsis where you could effectively prevent nine 11 and save all those lives. It's impossible to do. You can't go back in time, but I wanted some, you know, escape off ramp, um, from a crazy reality that we live in and allow people to read that and see a situation where nine 11 was actually prevented.

And all those lives were saved. So it was very, very therapeutic to write that. And it was some of my best work because it goes from first person to third person and back to first person.

And it's the same person narrating, um, or same person, you know, same person's viewpoint. There's also Easter eggs, a plenty throughout the book. And if you follow those, you can see where it's going and what what's being communicated to Roland Bishop, the protagonist and you, as you read.

So some of my most challenging work, it turned out really, really well. And what about feedback then from anyone that was affected by it? Cause I mean, like the cover would grab people's attention. Yeah, I I've received, I just have to read the reviews for forecasts, which I rarely do.

I try not to read reviews because you never know you could write, uh, you know, the most stirring piece of fiction ever. That is just a powerful piece of prose. And yet someone spilled milk on their suit.

They're going to a meeting. And so they leave you a one star review has nothing to do with your book. Or your name is Aaron and their, their fiance, their ex fiance cheated on them and his name was Aaron.

And so negative review and it's just, you can't, uh, hang your hat on those. They're, they're largely biased. I do have some, some good reviews.

I remember where people had said, uh, they were there when it happened. And so they'll never forget. And this, if only people have said, if only, you know, this, this existed.

Um, but yeah, it's, uh, I think it's just such, such a polarizing topic still. And it's frustrating because you can join groups and you can, you can see posts on Facebook about nine 11 and all the naysayers and the conspiracy theorists come out and they say that it was an inside job and the floors pancaked on themselves in a controlled demolition. And it was a plot of the international Jews.

And I'm like, dude, it's just, ah, people don't ever take things at face value. There has to be some kind of, uh, Illuminati behind everything, you know? So, uh, it's a polarizing topic still. So people aren't, some people aren't ready to deal with nine 11, even 25 years later.

Um, I think, uh, you know, when you kind of touched on comments, because it's not just that book at all, because it's the same with the podcasting, because they tell people, I've seen people just stop podcasting and I'm assuming it could happen to some authors as well, because people can be nasty. And if you take it in, if you don't take it in, it doesn't affect you. But unfortunately with the same thing, I mean, reviews, I get some reviews on the Polish one.

I mean, at one stage I had all fives and then I just got some abusive ones. I just look at it and I go, okay, there's something, you know, you can't take it to heart. And what I tell people as well is look at all the beautiful comments instead of giving energy to the nasty ones.

Cause unfortunately, you know, like 95% could say it's beautiful things about an author. And then you get the person, as you say, you know, they just had a bad day. They stood up, they stood on the cat and they just get angry.

And they write down, they vent on you. And like, you can't take it, you can't take it. It only hurts if you take it in and you have to be kind of.

Then the fact that you said, yeah, I don't really look at them because this time, I mean, when you see it, I mean, even me, I'm like, I'm, I'm hard skinned. And sometimes it's like, Ooh, no, you just look at some of them and you go, Ooh. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, but depending on where it is, I know in a say Amazon or something, you can't, I don't know. I don't think you can report delete, but with a lot of the different things you can actually report if it's on bit shooter or something like that, you can delete it, report it or, you know, just ignore it.

But, uh, yeah, I think, yeah. I mean, you've probably seen that as well with some people that, you know, cause you'd have your circle of authors as well. That's, and I know you coach people as well.

There must be some people, they just, you know, they're not as thick skinned and they just get, it gets deep within. It does. And, and you're absolutely right.

Is you have to have that, that spiritual fortitude. Um, I, I always loved telling the story of there was a, there was a plane in world war two called the lucky bill. And by all rights, it was just riddled with bullets as it was trying to deliver munitions or something.

And there's no, there's no logical reason why it should, why it stayed in the sky. There was no reason why it should have stayed in the sky. But when it landed, they just determined that it had more structural fortitude or structural integrity that, and it had bullets to bring it down.

Um, that's just, that was their conclusion. And you have to develop that structural integrity as you're a creative authors, any kind of creatives, you have to develop that structural integrity. I was given a quote by, um, a former voiceover casting agent, now entrepreneur one time many years ago.

And she said to me, someone's endorsement of you or lack thereof has very little to do with your trajectory. So their endorsement is a good review or people buying your books or you being invited to speak or, uh, being, you know, singled out and, and, and hailed in some kind of networking group or encouraged, whatever. The alternative, the lack thereof is crickets.

You're not getting any of that, but none of that, it doesn't determine your trajectory. My trajectory as an author is forward, regardless of the haters, regardless of the good or bad reviews, regardless, uh, of the, the, uh, people buying the books or not. I have to create, I have to write.

So it was a really, um, inspiring quote that she gave me. I had to actually have her repeat it when she said it to me in the phone call, but it makes absolute sense for a creative. It makes absolute sense.

That's like, I mean, I read lately, not as much, but I usually read like say a hundred books, but I don't go in and give reviews. I rarely give a review. And it's the same with the podcast because sometimes people would think like, I'm not getting, I don't think anyone's engaged.

And I'd say, all right, you were on TikTok or you were on whatever social media platform. You look through a hundred videos. How many did you like? And how many did you give a thumbs up to? And you just see their face gone.

So sometimes even if they're not giving you a five star or a thumbs up, it doesn't mean that they thoroughly enjoyed it. It just means that you going out and giving someone a review is not on the top of their mind. So, you know, people kind of beat themselves up because of that as well.

Yeah, it's hard. I mean, it's, it's hard as a creative, you are, you want people, you desperately, I'm going to add the word desperately, want people to receive and accept what you're creating and what you're offering out there. But a gift is still a gift, whether or not it's open.

You know, you put it under the tree and it's still a gift. It's, it means the world when they do open it and they do receive it and they do resound joy over it, but it's still a gift whether or not they've decided to receive it yet. So, um, I don't know, it's, there are times where I will just out of curiosity, I'll take a peek and some of the outlandish comments from people.

I remember I got a review for the audio book of the entire dissonance series, because I offer that as an all-in-one in the audio book format as well. And it's 51 hours of narration and someone got hung up. They said it was overacting and there's too much religion and you know, whatever.

I'm a voice actor, you know, I'm not going to read the book. I'm not going to read the book in a straightforward fashion and monotone, drab, uninteresting narration. I'm going to bring the story to life almost as if you were watching it on screen.

And I'm the only person who can do it the right way because I'm the author. So it's just, it's really weird just to see people that impulsively knee jerk, throw the baby out with the bathwater. And, you know, because I wrote it that way and I know I'm a good writer and I know I wrote it well, you know, there's good nuggets in there that they landed on and probably overlooked.

But the fact that they continue to overlook it and label it with a one star, like, man, you missed everything. You missed the point. I feel sorry for you.

I really do. Oh, wow. The latest book that you've just released today.

I mean, you might as well tell people because let's try to get some momentum on that one. What's the, what's the name of it? Yeah, it's the third, it's the finale in a series called Talisman or The Talisman. And it's called Halcyon.

Halcyon and its predecessor Nexus were the hardest books I have ever written. They absolutely stretched me. And I mean that by the way, I was like, what am I even writing? I found myself in the multiverse and I had no idea I was even going there.

So that's not what I planned. When I started Subterfuge, the first installment in the series, I wasn't heading for the multiverse. It just ended up there.

Oh my gosh. I'm talking with aliens from this planet over here. That's 33 light years away.

And this one over here, that's in the multiverse and we don't have a name for this planet. And I have to come up with all these wacky, you know, interstellar names and, and planet names and ship names. And it's like, oh my gosh, the beginning of Subterfuge, he's crawling around in the mud on earth as a sniper.

And it just, it, it, it went crazy, but it's got sorcery. It's got magic. It's got superheroes.

It's got the multiverse. It exploded it into an epic space opera. And absolutely, absolutely stretched me and pushed me and grew me as an author.

So 42 is Halcyon, the finale of the trilogy. And then the number 43 is the all-in-one version, paperback and hardcover. So you can, you can order all three books in one.

And I mean, this is a difficult one because it's like asking your kids, but I can see you love poetry kids equally, even though they've got a kind of, they're different, which is strange because my brother were totally different as well. But yeah, with Farky Tree, if you had to go, this is the one for my heart. If you had to just pick up one, what's your.

It's a tie. There are two. One is Forecast because it was just one of the most challenging, most beautiful, most therapeutic books I've ever written.

But the End Saga is near and dear to my heart. I love dissonance. It's, it's my first major, major work.

And it turned into six books when I only planned to write one, it exploded into a hexalogy before I knew it. But the End is, is really near and dear to my heart. It's loaded with redemption and thematic depth, scripture, heart, you will cry.

And I designed, you know, the box set for this one as well. So I'm, I'm holding up the, the end box set. But this, uh, the third installment in here, Omega is a, is a powerhouse finale to the series.

And I bawled at several points writing, um, Omega. I bawled narrating it and I bawled editing it and I bawled, uh, narrating it. So, uh, it's a powerful series.

It's, I would just say it's a tie between the End Omega and Forecast. And, uh, like you have 43 now and I mean, I'm looking at them and it's incredible. Is there maybe any chance of a movie being from honors or any talks? Because I presume that's the ultimate that you get and you get, you know, director, director on things there.

Have you looked into that? Oh, absolutely. Yes. Several times.

So I've got multiple irons in that fire. So, uh, volume one reality, this green one right here has been adapted for the screen. It's currently being pitched to streaming networks and no one has said no yet.

We have a fourth meeting coming up with a major studio. And I do mean major, um, who is genuinely considering Dissonance. And if they like one, they're going to go with two and three and four.

And the two prequels over here, there's a lot of material and story to mine. Um, so I'm so excited. That's every indie author's dream is to see their book on screen.

But in addition to that, the, um, uh, forecast and, um, the, the nine 11 historical fiction thriller and, uh, the end volume one alpha up here has been adapted for the screen as well. Those have been entered into film festivals. They've already garnered awards, um, many awards.

And then I've got the slide over here and the Phoenix experiment over here. And those also, uh, have are being adapted currently. And I'll enter those into the film festival circuit too.

So at the film festivals, you can get a lot of exposure on your screenplay and a producer can see that and go, no wonder this won an award. Um, or even if it didn't, this is a great screenplay and I want to produce this. So I'm where's my wood.

I want to knock on it. You know, I'm, I'm seriously hoping. Yeah.

But because I mean, like there's this momentum, then we'll build from that with all the exposure and just more and more we'll take because people go, okay, we like his style and this is, uh, yeah. So that's exciting. Uh, going forward.

Yeah. No, just like finally, because with the shop you've got, as I mentioned, I went through, but you, we, I think you did. I see a pain.

There's other things. And Paul says you might kind of touch on the different things here. Cause I was like that.

Some of them was like, okay, that's cool. QR code on the top and things like that. Yeah.

Different swag. I actually did that by necessity because I was running a Kickstarter at one point for a very special collector's edition of Dissonance and the End. And, um, and so you want to add goodies, you know, to each specific package.

So whether it's a signed glossy or it's a pen with a statement on it, uh, and the website, you know, shamelessly emblazoned on the pen, um, or stickers or bumper stickers or t-shirts in different sizes and denominations. Um, yeah, I wanted to be able to provide that. And I do want to be able to provide that.

That's the best form of marketing. When someone is out there using your pen, your bumper sticker, your t-shirt, and then you've got this, um, this guerrilla army of supporters out there sharing your work for you. Um, now I, excuse me, when I'm out in public, I've got vinyl lettering on the back window of my van.

I've got, I wear shirts like this, you know, I write stuff happens and don't annoy me or you'll be killed off in my next novel. You know, I have shirts like that and I, I just, I love the conversation starters that they are because people go, Oh, are you an author? And why? Yes, I am. You know, you get to talk about your books and your passion.

Why wouldn't you do that? It's, it's just, it's all part of being an enthusiast. I'm not sure if this exists or have you got it, but I know that for a lot of my businesses, I always had the pins that you just stick on, you know, a suit or whatever. And people have always go up to you and go, what's that for? So if there is one with a book and you're not, it's not a t-shirt kind of event or something like that, have the book and you go, why is that? Because people will always come up with it, with a pin and ask you why.

So it's, it's always about giving you the elevator pitch without you coming along, trying to, you know, push, push your, what you're at without him asking. Yeah, no, it's absolutely, it's, it's genius. It is one of those things where, um, going the extra mile, um, and getting these things that can work for you and, and you can share them with people.

They're all conversation starters. And it's just, it's always funny because we talked earlier about the marketing aspect of people going, oh no, I got a market, you know? And yeah, why wouldn't you? And there's so many creative ways that you can get your name and your book out there. And boy, do I take advantage of them because right now what pays our, our bills, what is our bread and butter is voice, voiceovers, voice acting.

So essentially I'm a voice actor who also does authoring, but that script is going to flip. I absolutely am sure of it. That's my trajectory.

That quote earlier, that script will flip. And one day I'll be an author who also does voice acting. Listen, totally enjoyed it.

And I wish that you find that book. I think you, you look for something else that it'll just pop out. And I think it'd be nice to have it.

And that'd be a good marketing one as well to have, uh, you know, the, the images of, of the book that you created when you were a child. And that'd be incredible. Yeah.

Thank you so much. It just, it burns my heart that I can't find that. I don't know what I would have done with it.

And I've looked in all the usual places, so I have to look in the unusual ones now. Yeah. I'm sure it'll appear, but listen, totally enjoyed it.

You might like the listeners know where they can find you. Yeah. And thank you for having me.

I appreciate it. Yeah. So, uh, author, aaronryan.com. Uh, I always like to say, just be clarified, be clear for the audio listeners.

It's author Aaron Ryan, not awful. Aaron Ryan, totally different, uh, author Aaron Ryan on a fluke. I did actually book that domain name once and made it just forward to my website just in case, but author, aaronryan.com and there's a Facebook group you can join.

Uh, it's private and exclusive. It's author, aaronryangroup.com. There are giveaways, there's discount codes. There's a news on the upcoming, uh, appearances that I have.

There's news on the screenplays that I'm having adapted and so on and so forth. So, and there's never any spam in that group. So there you go.

No. Excellent. Yeah.

I'll make sure I put all the links, both on the audio and the video. Thank you very much, Aaron. Yeah.

Thank you again for having me. I appreciate it. No problem.

So that's all for the speaking podcast. Find other episodes on speakingpodcast.com or scan the QR code, go to rycon.com. I make, you know, with all the pointing, you know, it's a super, and, uh, you find the, the, yeah, the eight podcasts at roycoughlan.com. If you're looking for virtual assistance, go to va.world. Sure to give us a thumbs up, five-star rating, maybe share with three friends. And when you check out Aaron's books, especially the new one, it'd be nice to kind of, you know, check it out and give a five-star rating, you know, don't, don't step on the cat this time of the day, write something nice, you know, he'd see it.

And until next week, take care.