Avoid mistakes and learn from authors who have already self-published incredible nonfiction books! Join me as I chat with Julie Glynn, publisher/author of the If My Ass Were Smaller Life Would be Perfect: And Other Lies the Mean Girl In Your Head Tells You in this episode of the Story of a Book.
How did Julie come up with such an incredible title for her book?
“I wanted something that had some ‘oomph’ in it – an attention getter–but I also wanted it to reflect who I am and how my personality is… Something that just grabbed people.”
What significant unexpected surprises did Julie get from writing and self-publishing her book?
Find out at 2:54!
Find out how her accidental book tour went? And, what is an accidental book tour?
If My Ass Were Smaller Life Would be Perfect: And Other Lies the Mean Girl In Your Head Tells You by Julie Glynn is available here.
Transcription Text
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Andrea Schmidt 0:04
You're listening to the story of a book, a podcast celebrating the work of self publishing authors and the lessons they've learned. My name is Andrea Schmidt. And I'm a book designer and author of Almost Done Writing: Now What? So I'm here today, very happy to be here with Julie Glenn, author of If My Ass Were Smaller Life Would Be Perfect: and Other Lies the Mean Girl in Your Head Tells You. And since I'm starting off with the name of your book, I'd love to hear, I guess how you came up with that amazing book title.
Julie Glynn 0:42
I think I you know, I get so many comments on my title. And recently, now that the pandemic is starting to lighten up a little bit, we have been we when I say we, my husband, who helps me. We've been doing some live events, some women's expos, and book fairs and stuff. And so we set up a little booth. And we laugh a lot, because I'm like, if I had 10 cents for every time somebody laughed or commented on my title, we would be multi billion. But people will ask me about it a lot. And I said, I wanted something that had some in it. There's like an attention getter had some old, but I also wanted it to reflect kind of like, who I am and how my personality is. And then people will ask about the content of the book. And I said, Well, I don't think that it drops after the title. I think it stays that the the level of relatability and vulnerability and humor stays throughout the book. It's not like Wow, really crazy title. And then a really dry, boring book. Yeah. So that's what I was trying to grab, get something that just grabbed people.
Andrea Schmidt 2:00
Yeah, that's great. I mean, the title of the book is the headline for the book. And it's definitely such an attention grabbing title. It's unusual to have such a funny title. And you know what it reminds me bet that every single time I talk to an author, I always find out some unexpected benefits they get from writing their book, and I feel like maybe making people laugh. Like, that's bringing so much joy to people, even to all people that just look at your book or encounter your book, you're bringing them like a movie of laughter. And that's so cool. Because that's sort of even bigger than the people that buy your book. Of course, they're getting all the benefits of your book. But do you have any thoughts on like things, unexpected things having to do with your book surprises?
Julie Glynn 2:50
Well, one of the surprises and I think you already know, this is I just won an award, National Indie Excellence Award, which is kind of weird, because sometimes I would think to myself, you know, it's like, when everybody thinks their baby is cute. And, but but we don't always expect everybody else to think our baby is cute. I mean, we kind of hope that everybody does, but we kind of know deep down that it's our baby. And of course, we think it's cute. And I think that's my about my book. It's like, well, I really like it. But that doesn't mean other people are going to like it. And so when I got the award, it was like, Oh my gosh, maybe other people actually do like it. So that was kind of like a super unexpected surprise. That was kind of cool.
Andrea Schmidt 3:45
That is so cool. Yeah. Congratulations on that on that. Because that's quite a great award National indie Excellence Award. Did you have a list? Did I give you a list? How did it come about?
Julie Glynn 3:57
How did I end up winning? One, I didn't even place in that one. And they had like, they have like one winner. And then like 10 finalists in each category. I didn't even place in that one at all. And then the other one, I got for flex. So it's like, well, that's where, but because you gave me the one. It prompted me to do a search and see what else is out there. What else can I try for?
Andrea Schmidt 4:27
Yeah, and that's such a great marketing boost. I mean, I found myself perusing that site and looking at all the other winners. It's so cool to find out what interesting indie authors are doing behind the scenes that we just don't necessarily see in the mainstream. But did you use Are you on a book? Are you on book tour right now? Not now. I went on a book tour and then now you're home.
Julie Glynn 4:53
But it was a self created book tour. Yeah, exactly.
Andrea Schmidt 4:56
They're all created by somebody. I want to hear about your book tour because that is such a creative cool idea to promote your book, I would love to hear about your book tour if you feel like talking about it.
Julie Glynn 5:07
We had a blast. But I will say we didn't - we didn't say, oh, hey, let's go out and do a book tour, we had a little situation where we have two homes. And we were kind of between the two of them. And so it was like, well, and my husband just retired. So we were like, Well, you know, let's, let's do something. And so we decided to take we were going from Florida to New Hampshire. And so we decided, well, let's take the long way around, and see what we can do. And the whole thing started was because I wanted to go to a women's Expo in Atlanta. It scared me to death is a big it is called the ultimate women's Expo. And they say that they get like 30,000 people through the doors, and I was like, terrified at the thought of him. And I said, let's do it. Let's do this. And just kind of see what we can fit. The timing was terrible. They ended up canceling that event. voted. I think I had four events scheduled in Atlanta. We never even ended up in Atlanta at all, because of things being canceled.
Actually talked about my book title twice. I got denied access, because my book title has the word "ass" in it, you know, twice, not just once or twice, we got denied one of them. I found out on Thursday. We were supposed to be there on Saturday for the event. We found out on Thursday, that I couldn't go I already paid for it. I was already you know. And then they were like, oh, wait now sorry, no vulgarity or profanity.
Andrea Schmidt 6:57
That's an unexpected turn of events because you think of all popular book titles right now with different swear words or whateve.
Julie Glynn 7:06
I know. So I was like, That's crazy. So it was really fun. We tried to combine vacation with it. Like I said, we had to pivot a lot. We found out we were supposed to go. We were in North Carolina. We were going to we're gonna go to Jackson, Mississippi. And then from there, we were going up to Memphis the following weekend. We found out like on Tuesday, those two events were canceled because the one of the coordinators got COVID. So I mean, we're really pivoting you know, and it's like, we kind of had a tentative setup before we even left but then we're like, we were in East Tennessee in the Smoky Mountains. And that's when we found out we couldn't do the one event because of the swear word. And so my husband are like, what are we going to do this weekend? You know, we got nothing. And we found a flea market in Knoxville, Tennessee, which I wasn't really sure. flea markets are my thing. But we went and it was okay. We I think I sold four books. I've actually since then sold another one because the person that was there got in touch with me later. We ended up selling five. But we had such a great time. We were there. Wouldn't have days. And we met the people around us and the guy that was across from us. I mean, it was like he's like next time you come to East Tennessee. We'll go out we'll have lunch. Well, you know, like he gave me He gave me some Tennessee swag. One of the things I posted on my Facebook page is I've never been to a state that has more school pride than Tennessee. I mean, everybody's wearing orange, everybody. And I made a comment and he had some orange swag. And he's like, I want you to pick a shirt. I want you to pick up your visit to East Tennessee. And so you knew it was great. We combined with amazing experience with a little bit of book sales.
Andrea Schmidt 9:13
Yeah, I love that. I think that's amazing that you tried. You tried so hard, but it was also fun.
Julie Glynn 9:23
We had we slept in a tent for 17 nights in a row. And my husband and I have never attend camp for oh my god did your dog with you. We had our dog. We're very well we were able to do because you We can't leave our dog and attend. But I mean, oh, we had such a great time. We met the most amazing people ever. And we had a book tour at the same time. But we discovered things that work and things that don't work like we won't. We won't do flea markets anymore. It was fun. And we met some great people. But flea markets aren't the space for my book.
We did some women's expos. Totally different story. I mean, it was, yeah, totally different. I mean, we were selling books as fast as we could, to the markets were sitting there like, okay, you sit here have a walk around the look, you know? Yeah, my husband read a whole book while we were at one of the flea markets, you know, it's like, really super quiet and that to me. But like I said, we didn't set out paillettes plan to close everything up and take 45 days and go do a book tour. It was kind of like, well, let's, let's take a trip, you just retired, you know, let's do this. And kind of in the process of trying to do it again, this time, it will be planned out. And I'm hoping that now that COVID starting to lighten up a little bit, that we won't have as many setbacks as we did.
Andrea Schmidt 11:00
Yeah, that's great. I was gonna ask you that whether you were going to try to revisit that large women's Expo, that got canceled.
Julie Glynn 11:07
They did not offer me a refund when they canceled that they offered me another location. Okay, so we're scheduled to do the New Jersey one, early November. Okay. That could work out really well. Yeah, it's and that's closer to home. I mean, that's like six or seven hours away. So that's not you know, that's not like Atlanta. Um, but yeah, I would like to I would probably do a couple more. They have one in Chicago, I'd really like to go to but that one's booked because they had to cancel so many that everybody just pushed over. There's one in Arizona and October. And I'm like, so intrigued by that. I've been to Arizona once in October. And I think that would be so cool to go back. And we only drive like three or four hours a day. So it's like, Huh, if we keep up that plan, it'll take us two weeks to get. Oh, we're not 100% sure about the Arizona thing. And then like with this trip we just did. We went from Florida to New Hampshire. So it was a one way so any other trip we do it's gonna have to be an Outback. And that's kind of different, you know, and you have to Yeah, you mustn't travel. Right? That's part of what you're Yeah. Yeah. And then like with the books and stuff, it's really hard to fly. That invited to an event in Vegas, early August, which I thought, well, that might be kind of fun. And if we do Southwest, they allow two bags. But like, seriously was like $1,000 a person round trip? And I'm like, I always fly Southwest. Never cost that much. Yeah, so but I thought that might be kind of fun to take a long weekend. Go to Vegas, and yeah, amazing. Wow. I love your your energy and your, your enthusiasm. Books. So did books that digit. And it was like we were stuffed to the gills in the car. And I'm a master Packer My husband is not. So he's not allowed to put anything in the car, I have to do all the packing myself. And every time we sell a book, we were like, it would kind of get to the point where it's like, well, are you more excited? Because we made money? Because we sold a book? Are we more excited because there's one less book that we get to schlep with us in the car.
Andrea Schmidt 13:33
So getting printing the books did you do another short? Are you had the books that you printed? The short run in the lead up to? that Amazon? Yeah, I've ordered them through Amazon. Oh, my god, they're copies. Okay, author copies? And is that? Didn't you also use a local printer to print your first run?
Julie Glynn 13:53
Yes, out of desperation? Because? Because I did pre orders before my Yes, came out. And I wanted to those in the hands of my pre order people. And so I use a local printer. Actually. The benefit of the local printer is that the books are ready in like two days. The downside is honestly, the quality isn't as good as what I got from Amazon. And they cost twice as much.
Andrea Schmidt 14:22
Oh yeah, I find to that. Unfortunately, the local vendors in my area, they cost twice as much. And I have no confidence in how the quality will end up being or not
Julie Glynn 14:31
So yeah, the quality was good, but I liked the Amazon quality better. Yeah, I like paper quality is a it was a brighter white, and a glossy your cover. And I like that better. I don't think anybody would ever be able to say Oh, I think I got the lower quality one because even now I still have to sometimes look really close to see which ones which. But I can tell you, they're my babies. I can tell when I've asked them but if you just give me one without the other one side by side, I can't tell which ones which.
Andrea Schmidt 15:06
Wow, good for you. Wow. So let's see how long has it been? So you launched your book in the pandemic? And then you have all this excitement? Yeah, so it's been like six months since I launched my book. Amazing. Did would you Is there anything you would do differently for your next book, probably lots of things.
Julie Glynn 15:32
I'm not 100% sure what I would do differently for my next book, I would not do a book tour during COVID. That's one thing for sure I wouldn't do differently. I'm not really sure that there's anything I would have done any differently than what we did. I, I mean, I did things. I did things my way, the way I wanted to do them. I would feel in integrity with myself, which isn't always in line with what everyone else does. I felt really strongly I was never, I was not giving my book away, I was not doing a free ebook week, I was not doing a 99 cent Kindle edition. I felt like, my book has a lot of value. And I put a lot of work into it. And if you want it, you have to pay for it. And so I think that when I look at other people's books, and the reviews and stuff, I know I have fewer reviews, but every one I have was a full price paying purchase, as opposed to a 99 cent or a free. And they feel good about that. I feel like when I look at it, I'm like I'd rather I'd rather have few are, but know that they were really genuine purchases. I didn't give I gave like I gave my parents a book, I gave my kids a book. And we used a book to do. When we were at the women's Expo, we had a drawing, and I gave a look away. But otherwise, I didn't give them. I mean, I don't need to went to the library when we were on our trip. Because we were in a little town again, East Tennessee, we were in a little town there. I just loved that town so much. On our last day, we ended up spending 11 days in this little town. Because we got canceled and we had to stay longer. But um, I loved them so much. And it was just like, even people who live there said when we came in moved here, we felt like we went back 30 years and a time warp. So I donated a book to the library there. And then I told the people that I knew, you know, at the post office and at the store. And so it was like all my books in the library, you can get it. So I mean, I've donated to the library and things like that. But otherwise, I never did those things in and that was my preference, my choice and how I wanted to do, which I think is important that I mean, I got a lot of help, you helped me, my content editor helped me I got input. But ultimately it was what felt right for me.
Andrea Schmidt 18:19
It's amazing, it's so cool to watch. It's what to watch out the way that you did it your way and has had an impact on your business. Because I tend to feel as though it's impossible for when you're writing a book that relates to your business that it would necessarily somehow have residual effects, like whether it's just you got your marketing, stronger in the lead up to the book or whatever it may be. But I'm curious to see how the book has impacted your business.
Julie Glynn 18:50
One of the things I think more than anything is that it increased my level of confidence. Like, I feel justifiable in being like, Yes, I can help you and justifying but yet, there's a fee for that. A lot of times women are like, oh, I'll just help you. I can't I can't ask you for money I can help you. And, and I'm one of those. It's like I feel bad as we were money to help them. But now I feel a little bit stronger. Like No, I really do. I really do know what I'm talking about. Whereas before the book, I was kind of like I could easily be challenged and question myself and my ability. Hmm.
Andrea Schmidt 19:35
That's neat. That's cool. I have a friend who published a book and she found that the process of writing her book kind of forced her to reflect and take her own advice more. And I'm noticing that too as I'm writing a book, that it's it's kind of without intention, it's it's helping me to just take my own advice more and like, like internalize my own wisdom in a in a in a stronger way. Did you know I've been
Julie Glynn 20:00
Yes, I've been pulling out little like, pieces of my book and trying to do like Facebook posts or Instagram posts and, and I read them and I'm like, Oh my gosh, if people who are really close to me saw that I'm promoting this thought process. They'd be like, maybe you should read it.
You wrote it, or maybe you should read it. And so I do read it sometimes some of this stuff I wrote and thought, oh, take my own medicine. Oh my gosh, it's amazing. The Hawaii's we really are. Yeah, like, Oh, this seems so simple to recommend yet. kind of forgot about.
Andrea Schmidt 20:44
Oh, my gosh. Well, that's amazing. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me. Oh, I love it. Yeah. Do you have any questions for me? I sometimes ask that at the end of the interior, just so it's a little bit more two sided?
Julie Glynn 20:59
I don't think so. The only thing is, I didn't know you're doing a podcast or just so cool. Which How many have you done so far?
Andrea Schmidt 21:10
really spontaneous. You know, I met a woman randomly who wrote a book. And as I was talking to her about her book, I realized that what she had to say about her process would help all my clients. And so I was so excited about, so I just offered like, Can I interview you? And she said, Yes. And so that's how the ball started getting rolling, because I'm not, I've never planned to have a podcast. I never aspired for that I'm not, you know, it's just very, was just very spontaneous and totally based on my desire to help my clients. So I did the first one with her. And we did exactly like in this setup, we just recorded a zoom session. And then I realized that my website was really set up really easily. I use Squarespace to, to link it to a podcast. So it just kind of all unfolded this way. So you're I talked to my friend, Lily, I talked to Diane about a project and up and coming project, and you're my fourth person that I talked to, so I'm gonna try to do once a month. And just I mean, oh, gosh, it's it's, it's so I think what like, it brings me to a question, what advice would you give to someone that is reading similar book to yours? They have a business and they want to help people?
Julie Glynn 22:18
It funny as I was watching Jeopardy last night, and they said something to one of the contestants. And she's like, well, if I didn't have to work full time, I'd like to write a book. I'm like, no, no, no, you can still write a book, just because you're working full time. Just write a little bit every day. You don't have to be like, Oh, I can't do it. Because of this. I can't do it. Because of that. Just put a little bit down every day. And pretty soon, you're gonna have a whole book. Yeah. Not it's not that hard. I sometimes feel like when people are like, oh, congratulations, you wrote a book. It's like, anybody can do it if you want to. Yeah, it's I mean, it was hard when I was doing it. And there was times I wanted to quit and times I wanted to scream and things like that. But once you plow through it, yeah, and it's not, it's just baby steps. It's just a little bit at a time a little bit at a time. I mean, I set my own. And, you know, I set my own pretty aggressive goals, which meant then that sometimes it wasn't baby steps. Sometimes it was a sprint, and sometimes it was, you know, really full force. You don't have to do that yourself. And, you know, just a little bit at a time adds up, totally adds up.
Andrea Schmidt 23:29
That's great advice. That's such good advice. And also, I love the way you've fully committed to it. Even though you were still in process of writing, you hired me before you were done writing. So you were kind of like, way before, right, but you had the title. And that was really what I needed to kind of go with it. And you were committed, and you just knew there was no chance that it wasn't happening. It was definitely happening.
Julie Glynn 23:55
One of the biggest things about my book that was like, Yes, about surprises. And I know you remember this is that when I came to you, I totally had an image in my head of my book cover totally had that image. And then you're like, well, I'll send you three mock ups. And I'm like, but why? I just need that one. And it's so funny, because that image I had in my head, we didn't use
Andrea Schmidt 24:23
Yeah, I don't think it's bad to start off with it in an image in your head that goes in a way that's motivating to, to cover I think the cover design, it's something that makes the project real for authors a lot of the time so having in mind is always good, but I like people to, to explore
Julie Glynn 24:39
Yeah, and that would be my other piece of advice is to be open to considering something. Another point of view another perspective, because I totally had I mean, I had hired that person to do all those hedge those pictures of me, because I was gonna have my picture on the front of my book. Yeah. And no, I didn't go that direction at all. And I'm super happy with that. I love what I ended up doing what we ended up doing.
Andrea Schmidt 25:05
Yeah. It wasn't a bad idea for you though. That could be something. I mean, there's a lot of good ways in which you you as a person are really tied into your book and your business. So it's, it would have been a terrible idea. I think that we could have made that work too. But this is kind of more fun and clever. Maybe your next book will put you up when you're super famous <3.
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