Field Dispatch

How a Pilot Turned Passion for Rescue Dogs into Children's Books

Interviews Published Children's Book Authors Nature & Animals

Trail notes

Erin also explores her goals for reaching school libraries across all 50 states and her innovative approach to fundraising through book sales and community engagement.

Listeners will gain valuable insights into the self-publishing journey, the significance of sharing personal stories, and the rewarding experience of connecting with readers and aspiring authors.

Erin Mariah Murphy opens up about her dual life as a commercial airline pilot and a children's book author, detailing how her passion for animal rescue led her to write *Halfway Home* and *Daring Dexter*.

The episode takes listeners through Erin's compelling narrative of how her rescue dog Zeke inspired her first book, which addresses themes of belonging and adoption through the eyes of animals.

Erin's storytelling is interwoven with her real-life experiences at animal shelters, showcasing the emotional depth of her writing and her desire to advocate for animal welfare through literature.

The discussion shifts to the practical aspects of her writing journey, highlighting the importance of education and feedback in her development as an author.

Erin reflects on her initial experiences of feeling overwhelmed but determined to share her stories.

She discusses the transformative power of writing workshops and the critical insights she gained from peers and mentors, which helped elevate her work.

The episode serves as a rich exploration of character development, mainly how Erin learned to give her characters more agency, ultimately making the narratives more engaging and relatable for children.

Erin's enthusiasm for her work is palpable as she shares her aspirations for the future, including her ambitious goal of placing her books in schools across all 50 states.

The episode wraps up with her thoughts on storytelling's impact as a tool for social change, particularly in promoting animal rescue and fostering compassion among young readers.

By the end of the conversation, it's clear that Erins's journey is not just about writing books but about making a meaningful difference in the lives of animals and inspiring the next generation to advocate for those in need.

Takeaways:

Erin Mariah Murphy discusses her journey from aviation to becoming a children's book author.
The importance of character development in children's literature is emphasized throughout the episode.
Erin's first book, Halfway Home, was inspired by her rescue dog, Zeke.
She experienced significant growth as a writer by taking specialized courses in children's book writing.
Networking with other authors has opened new opportunities for Erin's writing career.
Erin aims to have her book in every school library across the United States.

Links to Erin:

Website: https://www.erinmurphybooks.com/bookstore

Instagram: Threadserinmurphybooks

Facebook: profile.php

Email: [email protected]

Other podcasts mentioned + aviation books - see children's book section

https://literaryaviatrix.com/

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/literary-aviatrix-the-power-of-story-women-in-aviation/id1549742133?i=1000665190497

Nathan of Babooky offers al-a-cart self-publishing assistance, which is affordable, helpful, and knowledgeable.

https://babooky.com/

Where I studied:

https://journeytokidlit.com/

https://www.writingclasses.com/

Companies mentioned in this episode:

SPCA
United Airlines
American Airlines
Journey to Kidlit
Gotham Writers
IngramSpark
Vistaprint
Squarespace
Boki

<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:02:37</time>
Hello, I am Erin Mariah Murphy, and my two aviation Meets Animal Rescue children's books are Halfway Home and Daring Dexter.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:02:47</time>
Thanks, Aaron, for joining us today on the Adventures in the heart of Children's book authors.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:02:51</time>
I really appreciate you spending some time with us.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:02:55</time>
Yes.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:02:55</time>
I'm glad we were able to schedule so quickly.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:02:57</time>
I was anxious to do the interview with you.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:02:59</time>
Fantastic.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:03:00</time>
So I just want to remind the audience a little bit, the listening audience, that Aaron, spectacular all the things that you're doing.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:03:09</time>
Aaron's a commercial pilot and also volunteers for the spca and.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:03:16</time>
And we're and is involved through aviation in helping animal adoption.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:03:22</time>
We'll get into talking about that.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:03:24</time>
And on top of that, she's a children's book author.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:03:27</time>
Aaron, I.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:03:28</time>
I'd love to talk to you about the inspiration behind your books and the origin story.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:03:35</time>
Tell us a little bit about the inspiration behind your first book, Halfway Home.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:03:41</time>
Yes, the first book, Halfway Home, features my rescue dog, Z.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:03:45</time>
I began volunteering at my local SSBCA in about 2000, and I volunteered there for several years before we adopted.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:03:55</time>
My husband is also an airline pilot.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:03:57</time>
I fly for United Airlines out of Newark, New Jersey.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:04:00</time>
My husband flies for American Airlines out of one year junior on the totem pole, you don't have the best flying schedule.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:04:06</time>
For me, my experience, it took a good decade to be able to have more of a stabilized schedule, and then I moved up in status level as a volunteer.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:04:17</time>
So I was invited to take animals home for a night.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:04:19</time>
And you're given a questionnaire and you gather more information about these animals so the SBCA can use that to match them up with the right family.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:04:27</time>
As soon as I started to do that, I brought home Zeke.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:04:31</time>
At the time, he was Homer.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:04:33</time>
He wasn't in our house more than 10 minutes.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:04:35</time>
My husband said, I know this is nuts, but I think we should keep him.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:04:38</time>
So fast forward to us adopting him and then really fast forward to our very uncomfortable pandemic days.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:04:46</time>
I was grounded.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:04:47</time>
I wasn't flying.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:04:48</time>
So during that time, I had always done, as a family, a lot of hiking with our dogs.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:04:54</time>
And I was really doing it during that time when I wasn't flying.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:04:58</time>
I can't really tell you why, but I started to just think about his story and I started to take writing courses during my time that I was brown in.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:05:06</time>
And that was the very beginning for me, and I didn't know where I wanted it to go.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:05:10</time>
Writing courses, were those writing courses in general or was it specific to children's book writing?
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:05:17</time>
Tell us a little bit about that sure.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:05:19</time>
It was specific to children's book writing.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:05:21</time>
My dog Zeke has a face that I described that only a mother can love.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:05:25</time>
He has a very bold underbite.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:05:27</time>
And I just really him as being like a really great children's book character.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:05:32</time>
And then he was a really nervous and anxious guy and I thought that could be tied into his story that may be able to help children and young people coming of age that kind of struggle with those things.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:05:41</time>
So it was.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:05:42</time>
It was.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:05:43</time>
The company that I studied with was called Journey to Kidlit.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:05:46</time>
And I did go on traditional submissions.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:05:50</time>
And I'm green.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:05:51</time>
I don't know anything about publishing.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:05:52</time>
And I equate it to the getting higher down in a major airline.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:05:57</time>
It's like a decade, in my opinion.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:05:59</time>
There are some people who really hit it out of the park and there are a couple pilots that do that too.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:06:03</time>
And I always advise people to, when I say that, think about the image of the author on the back of most of your books.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:06:11</time>
Do they look like.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:06:12</time>
Do they look young?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:06:13</time>
No.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:06:13</time>
Right.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:06:13</time>
They look seasoned.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:06:14</time>
Reality set in.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:06:15</time>
I booked into hybrid publishing.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:06:18</time>
The neat thing about what you just said is I co authored our book called the Adventures of Caboose the Rocky Mountain Bear with my granddaughter.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:06:27</time>
Oh, that's right.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:06:28</time>
So I actually got to put a younger face on the book.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:06:32</time>
It's like grammar.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:06:33</time>
There's an exception to every rule, right?
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:06:35</time>
Absolutely.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:06:36</time>
She keeps me young at heart.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:06:38</time>
So you got yourself involved.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:06:41</time>
You took some writing lessons.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:06:42</time>
It started percolating in your mind.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:06:45</time>
You were out with Zeke and tell us how that all.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:06:49</time>
Did you have a eureka moment or did it just evolve into a children's book?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:06:54</time>
The actual idea of writing a book was a eureka moment.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:06:57</time>
I felt like I just pulled it out of left field and I did.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:07:01</time>
However, the evolution of it was like a lot of children's book authors, I was attracted to the playful language.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:07:09</time>
And this might have been like a coping mechanism for what we were all going through at that time.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:07:13</time>
Like, I wanted something light and playful, so I went with a rhyme.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:07:17</time>
I had a rhyme story.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:07:19</time>
And so when I first started to do my one on one critiques, the two things pivotal came from my critiques, which if you haven't done them before, they're.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:07:30</time>
Especially someone who's green.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:07:32</time>
It's a little sensitive of an experience because you're exposing this idea.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:07:36</time>
You have no idea if it's how it's going to be received.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:07:38</time>
And then you have all that inhibition and then someone's telling you something's wrong with it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:07:43</time>
So you have to just be able to be open to that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:07:46</time>
I did open up to that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:07:48</time>
And my experience was the two main takeaways were.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:07:51</time>
She said, jimmy, why did you write it in rhyme?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:07:54</time>
And I just said, I don't know.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:07:55</time>
I just thought most children's books are in rhyme and they're playful.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:07:58</time>
And she said, okay, if you want to go this avenue, you can, but the pitfall is in your head.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:08:05</time>
You will force it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:08:07</time>
You will force the number of beats and syllables to make it happen for your story.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:08:14</time>
If you want to learn the skill set, it's very much like being a musician who develops a harmony and a melody, and there are actual rules around it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:08:22</time>
And I was like, okay.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:08:24</time>
And I felt intimidated.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:08:25</time>
She goes, my suggestion would be go rewrite the whole thing into dialogue.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:08:29</time>
Now, that was the first major rewrite I did.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:08:31</time>
And I thought I was, like, aghast.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:08:33</time>
Like, what?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:08:34</time>
Rewrite it?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:08:36</time>
That I was going to rewrite the whole.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:08:37</time>
I rewrote the whole thing probably like four times halfway home.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:08:40</time>
And then the second part of the critique that she did with me, she criticized me on, and not in a bad way.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:08:48</time>
I received it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:08:49</time>
She said, so I just want you to invite this thought in.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:08:53</time>
If you are someone who likes animals and animal rescue and adoption in particular, what makes your book stand out?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:09:00</time>
Because right now, there's nothing wrong with it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:09:02</time>
It's fine.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:09:02</time>
It's cute.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:09:03</time>
Zeke is a adorable character, and I could see him going to illustration in a fun way.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:09:08</time>
And at this point, I had nothing to do with aviation in the book.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:09:12</time>
It was just Zeke.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:09:14</time>
And I was not volunteering in that capacity.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:09:16</time>
So I knew a little bit about animal air rescue.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:09:20</time>
So the way she posed it to me was this.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:09:23</time>
She said, if I'm a person who likes animal books, and specifically dog rescue in this case, and I have five books on my shelf about animal rescue, why am I going to buy yours?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:09:34</time>
Why am I going to buy a sixth one?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:09:35</time>
Or am I going to pick it up and say, oh, this is really cute, But, I mean, I already have it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:09:40</time>
And I mean, that real.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:09:41</time>
I received that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:09:42</time>
I was like, okay.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:09:43</time>
So then I started to think about the animal transports that I loosely heard about throughout my career.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:09:49</time>
Next thing I knew, I was on the phone with the manager at the sbca.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:09:52</time>
I loosely heard about animal transports.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:09:54</time>
They're clueless on how the magnitude of which they operate.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:09:59</time>
I began volunteering, and once I did my very first animal rescue flight, not as a pilot.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:10:06</time>
I'm just on the ground receiving the animals off the aircraft, getting them set on the shelter for check in and then ready for adoption.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:10:13</time>
I knew nothing about it, really.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:10:15</time>
I just, like I said, I just knew a little bit of hear.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:10:18</time>
Say, was that the trigger for the aha moment or when did that come?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:10:23</time>
That was it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:10:24</time>
Literally, when I left after volunteering for my first animal rescue flight, I honestly, my thought was, what was that?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:10:31</time>
Literally, as I shut the car door, I thought, this is incredible.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:10:35</time>
I just saw 200 dogs and cats unloaded off of an aircraft way larger than I was anticipating.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:10:42</time>
And just on such a grandiose scale.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:10:44</time>
And on the way home, I thought, I have to rewrite Halfway Home again.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:10:48</time>
It's interesting you should say that because my wife and I watch on CBS Sunday, it's called Sunday Morning.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:10:54</time>
I don't know if you'd ever watch that show.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:10:56</time>
And they actually had.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:10:57</time>
I don't, I can't remember because it's probably a couple of years now, but they had a story on a pilot who was doing that.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:11:03</time>
And my wife and I thought, wow, this is incredible.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:11:06</time>
I just think it's such a less popular side of aviation and animal rescue.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:11:12</time>
It gets glossed over, or at least it has for me.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:11:15</time>
I mean, I started.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:11:16</time>
I grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and I've been flying since I was 14 years old.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:11:20</time>
Even me, I had no idea.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:11:21</time>
And so when I go on trips at United, say we're doing a long haul trip all the way across the Atlantic to somewhere in the Far east, and we chat and all this, I tell them about my books and I tell them about the animal air rescue.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:11:34</time>
Nobody has any idea this is happening, but it is happening at a really pretty grand scale.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:11:39</time>
I rewrote Halfway Home and so that the role that aviation has in animal adoptions is the secondary portion of the story.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:11:47</time>
The dog Zeke, struggling to get adopted is the primary story.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:11:50</time>
And then when I burned my second book, Daring Dexter, it's more pronounced in there.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:11:56</time>
And then I also sought copyright approval from three of the larger air animal air rescues in the United States to use their logo and their exact aircraft with their logo in the book.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:12:08</time>
Wow.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:12:09</time>
Was just my jumping point.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:12:10</time>
And then Daring Dexter is a little bit more factual because I gained knowledge that I wanted to share.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:12:17</time>
And you know what?
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:12:18</time>
I love that.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:12:19</time>
Again, for people aspiring authors who are listening in, it's incredible.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:12:25</time>
You're the first children's book author that I've interviewed that has two books.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:12:31</time>
Every children's book author I've interviewed so far has one book and they have a second book coming out soon.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:12:38</time>
It's neat to have you on the show and talk about.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:12:42</time>
Here's how I started my first book and this is what happened with my second book.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:12:47</time>
Just how it evolved for you.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:12:49</time>
Yeah, I would agree with that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:12:50</time>
It definitely has evolved.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:12:52</time>
And then I.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:12:53</time>
My first edition books, I felt.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:12:55</time>
I just felt excited.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:12:56</time>
So excited that an actual book came to fruition.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:12:59</time>
I did continue doing educational courses after that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:13:03</time>
I have done some workshop educational stuff with Gotham writers.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:13:07</time>
They're based in New York City.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:13:08</time>
Okay.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:13:09</time>
They have really affordable, you know, depending on your budget, but within a couple hundred dollars of workshops where you can learn and branch off.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:13:16</time>
And they also have great critique services too, if someone is listening and looking for that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:13:21</time>
I was always taken back on the cost of those things.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:13:25</time>
However, I don't regret it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:13:27</time>
I think having a really great editor and someone to help you step outside yourself.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:13:31</time>
Like that very first critique I got me, not only got me to write about aviation in my books, but it got me to volunteer in Animal Air Rescue.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:13:42</time>
Right.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:13:42</time>
Just insert myself.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:13:44</time>
And it has blossomed in my life.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:13:46</time>
And so many avenues be open to a critique.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:13:49</time>
Absolutely.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:13:50</time>
And that's the neat thing about it is, as you've mentioned, how it expands.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:13:55</time>
Where you started your first book.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:13:57</time>
You didn't even have aviation as a thought.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:14:00</time>
And then all of a sudden with somebody making some suggestions.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:14:06</time>
I like to call them suggestions versus critique.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:14:09</time>
Critique always sounds so negative.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:14:11</time>
People have a lot of nice suggestions that kind of motivate you.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:14:15</time>
Right.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:14:15</time>
And that's what happens in your case.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:14:17</time>
Yes.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:14:18</time>
So just tell us a little bit more about your from your first book to your second book.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:14:24</time>
What was the biggest single difference in the development of the second book?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:14:29</time>
The second book felt more comfortable because I used the same illustrator in the same hybrid publishing house.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:14:35</time>
So I knew them and they knew me and that felt good and.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:14:40</time>
Right.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:14:41</time>
So I was comfortable with that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:14:42</time>
The challenge that I started to come across with the second book is, I guess the best way to say it is just to be really honest.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:14:51</time>
I felt like I got better as a writer and I wanted to change things in my first book.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:14:56</time>
So there is another evolution.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:14:58</time>
I just.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:14:58</time>
I could critique or give notes or suggestions to myself on my first book.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:15:03</time>
And that started to really gnaw at my craw a little bit.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:15:07</time>
I don't know, like you.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:15:08</time>
You hear something.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:15:10</time>
So an honest note, we'll say instead of critique.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:15:13</time>
Someone told me about Halfway Home, which I did receive, and I was a little frustrated when I first heard it because, you know, being a pilot, I tend to have a really pragmatic mind and so my books I like.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:15:25</time>
I could never write a magical book.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:15:26</time>
I mean, I little short stories that are magical, that are just for me, but I mean, they stink.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:15:31</time>
But it's just for fun.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:15:32</time>
If I'm on a layover, I'll just write a silly story.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:15:34</time>
That's what I'm trying to share with the audience is everybody, each of us as a children's book author has our own techniques and some of them are accidental.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:15:43</time>
I'll give you prime examples.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:15:45</time>
I, my, myself and my five grandchildren, we've written 38 books in our book series, the Adventures of Caboose, the Rocky Mountain Bear.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:15:56</time>
It's not inexpensive to bring a book to market, to publish a book, to market a book.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:16:02</time>
So one thing that we decided to do was do they still had their young voices was to do audiobooks of each of the story.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:16:12</time>
So when we actually started doing the audiobooks, my grandchildren were great because sometimes the words weren't right for their age category.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:16:22</time>
So they were the editors.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:16:24</time>
One of the things that I would offer out to the aspiring authors is have the children who are in your target range for who you would like to read the book actually read your story in advance the draft.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:16:39</time>
And you can learn a lot from that.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:16:42</time>
Anyways, it's interesting how you came about it and how you're developing.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:16:46</time>
I got connected to.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:16:48</time>
Through to a group of authors that are all in aviation.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:16:52</time>
So ever in all realms of aviation.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:16:54</time>
And so there is a woman, her name is Liz Booker.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:16:56</time>
She.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:16:57</time>
Her website is literary avh.com she has every genre of a book primarily featuring some character in.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:17:06</time>
There is a woman pilot.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:17:07</time>
But she had.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:17:08</time>
She's really open to sharing all books in general.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:17:11</time>
So I did a podcast interview with her and at the end of it again, she said to me, so Erin, I also have.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:17:17</time>
So she's a retired Coast Guard helicopter pilot and now she's just really fixated on education and book promotion and all genres of aviation.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:17:27</time>
So she said, I just want.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:17:28</time>
I also have a literary degree, Aaron.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:17:30</time>
And I just wanted to share a note with you about halfway home.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:17:33</time>
And I was like, okay.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:17:35</time>
She said, I don't think your character Zeke has enough agency.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:17:39</time>
And then I pushed back on that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:17:41</time>
I said rescue dogs really don't have agency.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:17:44</time>
They're in a shelter and kind of whatever's going to shake out is really totally out of their control.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:17:49</time>
But again, that was like my pragmatic brain.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:17:52</time>
She doesn't understand that nobody really insightful might they try.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:17:58</time>
But like they just.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:17:59</time>
Because, you know, you just.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:18:00</time>
I.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:18:00</time>
You still need to see something, some moment where he took charge of the situation and then helped, at least had a role in his life.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:18:09</time>
Turning around and getting adopted.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:18:10</time>
First edition of Halfway Home.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:18:12</time>
No one else has said anything to me about it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:18:14</time>
She is the only one and I do appreciate her saying that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:18:17</time>
So I sat with that for to give other authors.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:18:20</time>
If you're doing any kind of rewriting or another edition over a year and I would literally be in like the grocery store, not even thinking about it, and it would just pop in my head.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:18:30</time>
I'm like, I got to do something about that.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:18:33</time>
What I'd like to talk to you about also is that I found that there's generally three types of ways to publish.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:18:40</time>
There's self publishing, there's hybrid publishing, which you've talked about, and then there's traditional publishing.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:18:48</time>
So tell us why you lean towards hybrid publishing versus traditional.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:18:55</time>
You did mention a little bit about traditional or self publishing.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:18:59</time>
So tell us a little bit about why hybrid.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:19:02</time>
I liked hybrid because I still was able to weigh in on the illustrations and the text, but I was still guided.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:19:08</time>
Yes.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:19:09</time>
No, that's probably not in your best interest.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:19:12</time>
I could ultimately override them and say, I still want to do X, Y and Z.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:19:16</time>
But so like a small example would be for someone who's just starting out for me in what I've learned, there's a lot of language around word count of a picture book.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:19:27</time>
Right.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:19:28</time>
The second I open up a book, I can tell if it was totally self published without any editorial, which is fine.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:19:36</time>
You have a passion project and you just love it and your community loves it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:19:40</time>
Great.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:19:40</time>
That's awesome.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:19:41</time>
Again, because I'm a little pragmatic.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:19:43</time>
I was like.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:19:44</time>
But now that I've taken these courses, I've learned the structure of how a children's book and the rule of three and the hero's journey and a climax and a win, a partial win and then another win guy on the plot structure.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:19:59</time>
I couldn't really let go of that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:20:01</time>
I wanted to make sure someone kept me in check with that because I was new.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:20:04</time>
So I did not do a vanity publish hybrid publisher, which you can just submit your file and they will maybe run it through an editor in a copywriter and then have it ready to go.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:20:15</time>
Like I said, it really took some decent critiques on it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:20:18</time>
So I was.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:20:19</time>
I needed the guidance for the page layout.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:20:21</time>
I had no idea how to do that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:20:23</time>
Even as far as, like, where the text falls next to what illustration.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:20:28</time>
I did not have that skillset developed at all.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:20:31</time>
Even now I have Branched out.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:20:33</time>
I'll get there.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:20:34</time>
I have branched off from my hobby publishing house.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:20:36</time>
But things that made me have a visceral uncomfortable reaction if someone says where do you get an ISBN meltdown?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:20:44</time>
In my head.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:20:45</time>
How do you get a barcode?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:20:46</time>
I don't know.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:20:47</time>
I'm terrified.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:20:47</time>
And it wanted to so I wanted someone to help me do that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:20:51</time>
Everyone says to you is your book on Amazon and somehow if you say yes then you're credible how that happens?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:20:57</time>
I wanted nothing to do with it, so I just was green.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:21:01</time>
I didn't know how to do any of that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:21:02</time>
So once I went through Daring Dexter, two things happened and I let the first one slide and it's really nothing negative about the hybrid house that I published with.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:21:13</time>
I they have not had good luck with their printing houses.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:21:18</time>
I have had a ton of printing errors, as in like hundreds of books that I now have to take pictures of and prove there's an error.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:21:26</time>
Are you doing print on demand and also quantity printing?
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:21:31</time>
Are you doing both?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:21:32</time>
I order, yeah, I do print on demand.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:21:34</time>
If anyone orders from Amazon and such that just whatever book they print is what they will get.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:21:40</time>
I, I'm not totally wild about that quality.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:21:43</time>
It's okay.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:21:43</time>
And I understand it's a kid's book.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:21:45</time>
It's going to get drawn in and sat on and lost and okay.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:21:48</time>
But just for me, I just really like to have to give a nice presentation at the start.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:21:54</time>
And so I do I so I the hybrid house also order.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:21:57</time>
I order my own stock here at my house and then that's where you order from my website and that's where the offering is for custom packaging and messaging and things like that that I really take or pride in.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:22:08</time>
So when I was having these printing issues, they circ even though they made a change to the printing house, it did surface again with Daring Dexter.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:22:16</time>
So I started to think all the things that I did not want to learn.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:22:20</time>
The ISBN, the barcode, and having some more flexibility that invited oh then if you do that Aaron, you can make those changes in halfway home that you want because you'll have the file, you can re edit it, you can do as you want.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:22:33</time>
So that all just married up at this happened to marry up at the same time.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:22:36</time>
So I did exit my hybrid publishing house and I am slowly self publishing my second editions.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:22:42</time>
It's interesting you should say that because I know what you said about Amazon and the printing quality but I have to tell you, I of course gone through Amazon and I've also gone through ingramsparks to Reach other online book retailers like Barnes and Noble.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:22:58</time>
But what I found is we get just a ton of compliments on the printing of our book through Amazon to do with geographically.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:23:08</time>
I have one friend in Wisconsin, she's actually a retired Thunderbird pilot, and she.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:23:14</time>
She had to return thousands of books, and they were all from hunger.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:23:18</time>
And another friend of ours, she has an adult book about the women air force service pilots and a children's book.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:23:25</time>
She lived down in Maryland.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:23:26</time>
She said, I've had over like the last four years.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:23:28</time>
I've had to return like two books.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:23:31</time>
Interesting.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:23:32</time>
I just don't know.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:23:33</time>
But I do wish someone kind of told me a little bit about that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:23:36</time>
That's why I like to share it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:23:38</time>
Because, like, the.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:23:39</time>
For when it first happened, I was embarrassed and I thought someone thought I had a horrible product.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:23:44</time>
Right.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:23:44</time>
And, oh, why would you order that?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:23:46</time>
But secondly, it's out of the author's control a little.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:23:49</time>
You know, I mean, these things do happen.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:23:51</time>
And I equate it to, like, when you buy anything in bulk, like, if you go to the Gap, they have the clearance rack with.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:23:58</time>
With the weird sweater happen.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:24:00</time>
So if I ordered like 10,000 books and like 300 of them were terrible, that's really not the end of the world.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:24:07</time>
But it just gets frustrating when you're only ordering like 500 or so and you have to print 200.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:24:12</time>
It's something to consider if you don't want to play that game.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:24:15</time>
You can just do the print on demand.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:24:17</time>
But I just enjoy having the books and sending them out on my purse from my own personal space.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:24:22</time>
And I let sign.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:24:23</time>
And just so you know, as a self publisher, that's what we do.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:24:27</time>
That's the one thing that I loved, is having that control over making changes if we wanted to.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:24:36</time>
A prime example, and I've talked about this a couple of times now on our podcast shows, is I heard about adding a book plate to the front of your book, and I didn't even know what the heck that was, but it was a simple thing.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:24:51</time>
Generally, children's books are bought as gifts.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:24:53</time>
So they're bought by the parent, the grandparent, a family or friend.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:24:58</time>
And so they always say people want either the author to write a message, if they can, to the child, or the parent or grandparent wants to write a message to the child.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:25:11</time>
So I ended up in our first book.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:25:15</time>
I just want to show you in our first book, right at the front.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:25:19</time>
It's just the title of our book.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:25:22</time>
Yes.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:25:22</time>
Okay.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:25:23</time>
And then somebody gave me this idea about the book plate.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:25:28</time>
And so the nice thing about it is now.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:25:32</time>
Oh yeah.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:25:33</time>
So it says this book belongs to.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:25:36</time>
And then you can just write a.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:25:38</time>
A nice message in there.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:25:40</time>
It was nice because we self publish.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:25:42</time>
I made the change within a week that I turned it around and had it uploaded into ingramsparks and into Amazon.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:25:51</time>
Just that quick.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:25:52</time>
Exactly.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:25:53</time>
And to give our listeners a perspective, there's one dog in halfway home and all the dogs, end of story, are dogs in our life or in our family.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:26:03</time>
And I have no idea what happened because I know I approved the original script.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:26:09</time>
And so the dog's name is Millie.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:26:10</time>
M I L I E.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:26:12</time>
And when I opened up the book, I don't know when this happened.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:26:16</time>
It was M I L Y.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:26:17</time>
So no, this is like my sister in law's dog though.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:26:20</time>
And I know it's just a story and I know it just.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:26:22</time>
You can fill in all the.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:26:23</time>
No one knows.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:26:24</time>
And it's just.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:26:25</time>
But it bothered me.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:26:26</time>
This is our dog and I wanted her names.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:26:29</time>
Right?
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:26:29</time>
Absolutely.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:26:30</time>
And my hybrid publisher now because I had all that support, which was great and I paid for it, but you pay for it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:26:37</time>
So when I said I would like this to be changed for the next round of printing.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:26:42</time>
Now hold onto your hat, it's $500 now.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:26:45</time>
Why is it $500?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:26:46</time>
Because we have to contract the illustrator.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:26:48</time>
The page layout person has to reapprove it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:26:51</time>
The copyright folks need to look at it one more time and all those people need to get paid for their time.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:26:57</time>
That is also what started to nudge me towards the self publishing.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:27:01</time>
I just for me personally, mathematically the hybrid does serve for two books.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:27:07</time>
After two books you're just hemorrhaging money.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:27:10</time>
Unless you're selling like gangbusters.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:27:13</time>
But I'm not.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:27:14</time>
I just moderately sell.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:27:16</time>
Right.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:27:16</time>
Which is what makes I still.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:27:17</time>
I'm flying.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:27:18</time>
And when I come home, if I have a handful of book orders to do, that's great for me.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:27:22</time>
I don't want to happen 100%.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:27:24</time>
So let's pick up on that for a moment because you.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:27:27</time>
You were talking about and I'm really curious about this is second editions.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:27:34</time>
Tell the everybody what that is and what's different from a first edition to the second edition.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:27:43</time>
So I did a lot of research on this because I wasn't sure if I was just going to say I'm relaunching or I'm re releasing or am I making a second edition.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:27:52</time>
So I literally looked up even like tutorial videos on YouTube from professionals to see what they characterize as second edition.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:28:00</time>
So second edition is characterized by major illustration and text changes.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:28:06</time>
So I really did do that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:28:08</time>
So in Halfway Home, I the pilot in that storyline is not the main character.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:28:15</time>
Zeke the dog is.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:28:16</time>
However, she is a woman pilot in there.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:28:19</time>
And primarily because I got stuck so connected to other authors in aviation, they are all elevating pilots in general.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:28:26</time>
Doesn't matter the gender.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:28:28</time>
But I just thought I should highlight that a little more.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:28:32</time>
And then a little bit more thought came into it and I thought I'm not going to rewrite the whole story that all of a sudden this woman pilot is the main character in Zeke is secondary.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:28:42</time>
But what can I do?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:28:44</time>
I thought maybe I can get a nice picture of myself in my uniform in my bio and that will just support the aviation and pilot element a little more like through myself as a and a description of myself.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:28:58</time>
All of that is to say is I, without knowing this was going to happen in 2023, I was invited to be a part of a coffee table book about people and their dogs.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:29:08</time>
And so I did a photo shoot for it and I ended up with these like gorgeous photos of me and my dogs in my uniform.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:29:15</time>
And then that was when the wheels were turning.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:29:17</time>
I was leaving my hybrid house.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:29:19</time>
So I redesigned my whole entire bio page and there's probably maybe 10 sentences that I completely changed that specifically elevate the pilot.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:29:29</time>
Maeve is what we call her.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:29:31</time>
So in the story I just called her Maeve and I just something as simple as calling her pilot Maeve all the time.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:29:37</time>
Everyone's oh yeah, oh, she is flying.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:29:39</time>
Oh yeah.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:29:39</time>
I see her in the illustration instead of just glossing over it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:29:43</time>
Well, any major text in illustration changes, particularly a cover change.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:29:48</time>
And then both of my books I added subtitles.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:29:51</time>
And the reason behind the subtitles is two things.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:29:54</time>
It can those trigger words can help you get a little bit more traction on Amazon and ingramsparks when people are searching.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:30:01</time>
Also, just like you were saying and myself saying, not everyone really knows a whole lot about what animal air rescue is.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:30:08</time>
And that was a.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:30:10</time>
A reaction I saw for people that I thought I could when I was marinating.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:30:14</time>
Geez, I can improve upon Halfway Home I would see them look at the book and they're looking at a woman and a dog in like an abandoned house in a plane.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:30:23</time>
And with no subtitle, they didn't have context for what was happening.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:30:27</time>
Now I did because I'm doing all this volunteer work and so my volunteer pals but anyone outside of that realm had no I didn't really immediately link all the elements together in the sometime.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:30:39</time>
So do, do you have to change the ISBN?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:30:42</time>
Yes, I did.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:30:44</time>
Okay, so I changed got new ISB.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:30:47</time>
I.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:30:47</time>
I faced my demons, I tackled the ISBNs and I tackled the barcodes.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:30:54</time>
And then I did find another gentleman who I, you know, it took me this long in the podcast to bring him up, but he really didn't come into my life till the second edition.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:31:04</time>
So his name is Nathan and he runs a company called Boki B A B O K Y do he will do anything from copywriting to full plate page layouts to audiobooks, ebooks, whatever it is that your heart desires.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:31:20</time>
He is not a hybrid publishing house.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:31:22</time>
He is just provides service if you need help with an illustrator.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:31:25</time>
He has just been.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:31:27</time>
He is a very calm demeanored, intelligent guy.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:31:30</time>
So whenever I started to have one of these panics, I would reach out to him and tell him perspective.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:31:37</time>
I paid Tom $10,000 for my hybrid publishing journal, Nathan.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:31:44</time>
Now that was probably over.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:31:46</time>
So the contract is for a year now and they will give you continued support throughout your public even after your book is published.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:31:53</time>
But this gentleman, Nathan, four hours of his time, 220.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:31:58</time>
Like anything, it doesn't matter what it is, he just charges by his time, whether it's helping you with your ISBN or what have you.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:32:05</time>
So I leaned on him a lot with my second editions and I'm so proud of him.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:32:10</time>
I'm glad you mentioned that.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:32:11</time>
And we'll definitely link to all of this in the show notes, but thank you for sharing that because I haven't had quite the same journey as you as a self publisher, but we have actually put a team together almost by accident and so that team is serving us a la carte like you're saying.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:32:33</time>
And the nice thing about when I say a la carte, we're just paying for each job as it comes up and we've now got a big enough team that we know who to go to.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:32:44</time>
For example, the book plate I just showed you, I have a.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:32:48</time>
It's not my illustrator that did the book plate.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:32:51</time>
It's actually I have a graphics person who helped me do the layout of the book and he was able to do that.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:32:58</time>
What's interesting is you start to build these resources like you said, when you go through the first book or the second book and you get more comfortable and then you start developing these different resources.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:33:09</time>
So thank you for sharing that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:33:11</time>
Oh yeah, and I like to share the numbers too because when I first heard $10,000 I almost fell off my chair Again though.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:33:18</time>
But if I was an illustrator.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:33:19</time>
Now I'm going to work with you for the next six months.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:33:22</time>
Yeah, I want $2,500.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:33:25</time>
I'm giving you six months of work here and I'm free life.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:33:29</time>
So all the numbers are huge.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:33:31</time>
The page layout design person having self published and dabbled with InDesign and Adobe, I mean, I was like sweating trying to figure that out.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:33:40</time>
That is not easy.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:33:41</time>
And then of course you have your printing costs for at least your first round of books and etc.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:33:46</time>
So I again, I mean, I had to sit with the, with all the costs for, for some time and everybody does it a little bit differently.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:33:53</time>
But so for me, in the beginning all of that made sense until it didn't make sense anymore.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:33:58</time>
And then now the a la carte services are serving me perfectly.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:34:02</time>
I want everybody to understand that you can get illustrators a la carte too.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:34:07</time>
You don't have to come up with the whole, as Aaron talked about, you don't have to come up with the whole $2,500 at once.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:34:14</time>
Illustrators will work with you.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:34:16</time>
If you say, I need two or three illustrations and then I gotta take a break because I gotta go work part time at McDonald's or whatever to make enough money to pay for the next illustration, there's a lot of great illustrators that'll do that with you.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:34:32</time>
Absolutely.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:34:33</time>
And then just for folks to, you know, when I was first listening to people share about things like this when I was starting out, I'm like, yeah, but how do you know these people?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:34:42</time>
How does it work?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:34:43</time>
Just keep asking.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:34:44</time>
I honed in on, I really like to share other people's books as much as mine.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:34:49</time>
And the way that I do that is when I do, I do it a couple ways.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:34:52</time>
But one of the most popular ways and frequent ways that I do it is whenever I do a book event, I reach out to other people that I'm following on Instagram and whose books I have and that I really enjoyed, or if they're dog or aviation Saint.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:35:05</time>
I definitely hone in on that to try to keep some consistency with my events.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:35:09</time>
But I say, hey, do you want to send me one or two of your books?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:35:12</time>
And then I offer at my event, purchase my book.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:35:16</time>
And then I have a little free library and you can choose any one of these for free.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:35:20</time>
And I invite them to include their business card or discount code for their website.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:35:24</time>
Another way that I've done that is some folks get send me like a stack like 10 to 20 books and then they just print out something on Canva.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:35:32</time>
That includes a bit about them, their books, and the QR code for their Venmo.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:35:38</time>
So when I'm at the event, I just monitor that their Venmo goes through, and then I don't even have to deal with the money, but I'm like, selling on their behalf a little.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:35:46</time>
Nice.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:35:47</time>
But the books that I had become attracted to, when I knew that I wanted to leave my hybrid house and I wanted to see print and distribution on my own because that was my Achilles heel, I just started to really look at the authors whose books I really liked, and I thought they were a nice quality.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:36:02</time>
So I started to.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:36:03</time>
You didn't cut through.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:36:04</time>
What a great idea.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:36:05</time>
Yeah.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:36:05</time>
I was like, okay, I like this.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:36:07</time>
This looks great.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:36:08</time>
What did you do and how did you do?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:36:10</time>
And you can get sense of people's demographic a little.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:36:14</time>
Like, you might be in the same financial wheelhouse as them, or it looks like they did it way smarter than you.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:36:21</time>
Right.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:36:21</time>
Oh, wow.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:36:22</time>
You did this on your own.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:36:23</time>
So for me, when I started to have a little conversation with myself when I was having these printing problems, I thought, the amount of time that I'm putting into reshipping these back and submitting for new ones, I could just learn how to self publish and just do this on my own again.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:36:40</time>
To circle back to Nathan from bubuki, I am ordering from China, and I know that's a hot topic, but I am making the leap.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:36:48</time>
I done four printing houses in the United States and every one of them gave me problem.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:36:53</time>
So I'm making the leap and I'm doing them from China.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:36:57</time>
However, now, some folks who do that, you deal directly with China, so there's some challenges with time zone and language barrier.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:37:04</time>
Most people seem to motor through that just fine.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:37:07</time>
However, Nathan provides as a liaison for that, so he's ordering it for me and submitting the files for me.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:37:15</time>
Interesting.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:37:16</time>
Yeah.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:37:16</time>
So, I mean, if you want someone to still do it for you, you'll have the final approval.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:37:21</time>
And then he's super reassuring too, just like yourself.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:37:23</time>
You were saying, like, if you get your first order prints and there's still something that's off or God forbid, you missed a period, like, you don't need to go up the deep end.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:37:32</time>
We'll fix it and we'll do it for the next batch.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:37:34</time>
It's just like, really inviting for us.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:37:37</time>
I'd like to jump into your website.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:37:40</time>
Of course.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:37:41</time>
I've been on your website.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:37:42</time>
I have it in front of me, and I like how you've incorporated yourself in it, which is fantastic.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:37:49</time>
It's so fun and with the dogs and everything like that.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:37:53</time>
So again, when we first started and we wrote our first book, we were just about ready to bring it to market and somebody said, oh, have you got a home for your book?
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:38:04</time>
And I said, what do you mean a home for our book?
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:38:07</time>
They said, have you got a website?
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:38:09</time>
And I said, oh no, I don't have a website.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:38:11</time>
So we ended up developing our website after we launched our book.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:38:16</time>
So tell us your story about your website and did you launch it before your book?
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:38:23</time>
After your book?
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:38:24</time>
And what changes have you made to your website as you moved into your second book?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:38:29</time>
Okay, so the first is I was encouraged through my hybrid publishing house to create a website.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:38:36</time>
And so the way my hybrid publishing house worked, which I liked, we did some zoom meetings like this and they would say, hey, okay, so you're three months out from your launch.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:38:46</time>
This is a checklist of things that you might want to start considering doing.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:38:51</time>
You can do or not do whatever you want.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:38:52</time>
But we would recommend a website creating a launch team for the day and you know, trying to get as many reviews and other people to share about your book so it's not just all on you, etc.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:39:04</time>
I, I reached out to a friend of mine who I knew was an author, a completely different other genre and she told me who she had to help for her website.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:39:14</time>
So I knew I needed help.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:39:16</time>
I.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:39:17</time>
It was the same thing with the hybrid house.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:39:18</time>
At this point I'm back to flying out of.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:39:21</time>
I'm out of the COVID bubble and I thought there's no way I can sustain traveling and doing this website.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:39:27</time>
No, that's just me, right?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:39:30</time>
Tons of other author pilots that do it all.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:39:32</time>
But I also like sanity.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:39:34</time>
So I like to read and I like to relax and I like to hike with my dogs.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:39:38</time>
I try to balance all that and I just knew that it would afford me time.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:39:42</time>
I reached out to a woman who does website design and we did a lot of zoom meetings like this and she showed me how to do things.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:39:49</time>
However, do not take that as Erin knows what she's doing on her website because every time I have to do something, it's the same feeling as the ISBN and the barcodes.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:39:59</time>
I do have angst about it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:40:01</time>
I ultimately get it done.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:40:02</time>
It does take me a bananas amount of time to do it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:40:06</time>
I'm not efficient at it, so I don't really like it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:40:10</time>
And in fact, when I get my.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:40:11</time>
So my second edition books will be available towards the end of February.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:40:15</time>
So this Week is on my to do list to tackle some things about my website and some critiques I have for myself.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:40:23</time>
I feel like I have too many offerings.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:40:25</time>
Like I just want to offer.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:40:27</time>
I'm like.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:40:28</time>
And even my print form, I just want hardcover books.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:40:31</time>
And I know there's a lot of conversation about having some soft covers.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:40:34</time>
I do have the halfway home coloring book that also has the story text in it and that's my soft cover.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:40:40</time>
And I do have some leftover first edition soft covers.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:40:43</time>
But I just want the book and then the option.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:40:46</time>
I'm not going to upsell a charge anymore for signed copies and all honesty, I do that anyway.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:40:53</time>
I put a lot of.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:40:54</time>
In lack of a better word, I do put a lot of love and effort into my packaging and my presentation.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:41:00</time>
When people order from my website that it doesn't really matter if you want it signed, I'll just.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:41:06</time>
I'm just going to streamline it for sure.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:41:09</time>
Because sometimes I've seen people go on and they do get a little confused.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:41:12</time>
Wait, what book is this?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:41:13</time>
And this is a soft cover.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:41:15</time>
Okay, this is soft cover.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:41:16</time>
Hard.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:41:17</time>
This is a signed one.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:41:18</time>
It's just like too many options.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:41:20</time>
And we live in such a 32nd world, right?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:41:23</time>
We're all 30 seconds that no one really outside of someone like yourself who's going to do a podcast.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:41:30</time>
Most of us don't really comb over each other's websites like that anymore.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:41:33</time>
I just don't think that's how it's communicated.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:41:35</time>
So streamline mine.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:41:37</time>
Tell us because you said you were talking about your offerings and I want to share this with people is because some authors that I've interviewed, they've just had a straight website.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:41:49</time>
They don't have a store like you have a store on your website.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:41:53</time>
But I've also interviewed a couple authors who actually after I started reaching out to them, they went from no store to a store.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:42:04</time>
So tell us a little bit, because you talked about the offerings and I noticed you have a fairly comprehensive.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:42:10</time>
So tell us a little bit about that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:42:12</time>
That really is credited to the person who I have helped move my website.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:42:16</time>
When I really get stuck or stumped, I will probably pay her.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:42:20</time>
It's like an a la carte thing.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:42:21</time>
I might pay her two hours and say I'm looking to have X, Y and Z offered and just cleaned up.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:42:26</time>
But the way she has it set up now in the bookstore, I can go in.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:42:30</time>
So I use Squarespace to give folks a point of reference here.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:42:34</time>
So I go on to spare Squarespace and then I checked on Clicked on website and then I'm going to go to my bookstore and I'm going to hit edit.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:42:42</time>
And then in there it had all my items.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:42:44</time>
So right now I'm probably going to go in and you can either make them live or hide some of your items.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:42:51</time>
I'm probably going to hide my unsigned copies.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:42:54</time>
I'm just going to make everything a signed copy available option.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:42:58</time>
So that way that will, for those who don't know that from on my Squarespace website, it'll give the pop up that says, hey, do you want to have this signed to a specific individual.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:43:10</time>
That'S coming directly from you?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:43:12</time>
Correct.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:43:13</time>
Yeah.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:43:13</time>
The other merchandise that you have on your website, like I notice you have a cool Facebook cap and stuff like that.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:43:20</time>
Now how is that getting to the consumer?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:43:24</time>
Same.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:43:25</time>
I ship it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:43:26</time>
I just like those hats are ordered from.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:43:28</time>
There's a local company here in Pennsylvania that I met from a networking.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:43:31</time>
And then the other ones, they're just, I just ordered them on Vistaprint.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:43:35</time>
So you never thought about Printful or Spotify, Shopify those services.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:43:43</time>
And I guess the only reason why is because those hats are new within the last couple months on there.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:43:48</time>
And so I don't think they've gotten enough traction yet.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:43:51</time>
So once I start seeing them go and, and plus once I, if, and once I start to feel overwhelmed shipping them from home, I might look into that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:44:00</time>
But at the moment I don't mind shipping.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:44:02</time>
It's okay.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:44:03</time>
You're, you're actually buying the merchandise.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:44:06</time>
I am.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:44:06</time>
Wholesale.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:44:07</time>
And then you're shipping it out as the orders come in.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:44:10</time>
Correct.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:44:11</time>
Okay.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:44:11</time>
Okay, great.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:44:12</time>
Good to know.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:44:13</time>
And again to the listeners, there's all kinds of different options and you've got Shopify, you've got Printful, you've got exactly what Aaron's doing.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:44:22</time>
It's interesting how it develops.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:44:24</time>
Yes.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:44:24</time>
And what I also like about just having my own stock too is I, in my mind those hats are a little bit new and I'm going to test them out a little bit more this spring.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:44:33</time>
I have some events coming up to support my second editions.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:44:37</time>
I just like to sell them in, in person and that deletes the whole shipping information.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:44:42</time>
And people like to get their hands on them a little bit.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:44:44</time>
I do too.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:44:45</time>
I order things online all the time.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:44:47</time>
And then I've been also like, geez, I really should have looked at this first.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:44:51</time>
And if you can get things in people's hands too, it equates to a better chance of a sell rather than just like a picture of a hat.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:44:58</time>
I'm also interested.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:45:00</time>
I know you've talked about Zeke, I know you've talked about volunteering through the SPCA and then eventually helping unload the dogs and cats.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:45:11</time>
Is there other motivation in your life that is there like a person that motivated you to be, to want to be a children's book author or was there an event or have you already described that?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:45:25</time>
I guess it would really just be the dogs.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:45:28</time>
I mean it's silly and kind of cliche.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:45:30</time>
Like everyone said who rescued who and they really have become such an integral role in my husband's life.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:45:36</time>
And it had just adopting them lent itself to me volunteering more.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:45:42</time>
And then we started to foster dogs in between Zeke and then our current, our second current dog, who we've only had for a year, Dexter.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:45:49</time>
So we fostered about 10 dogs because I was seeing as we're unloading these animals, the shelter that I volunteer with is really a lovely facility.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:45:58</time>
However, I've also become to know part of the reason these transports are happening is some of these other shelters are understaffed and overwhelmed with numbers of animals.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:46:10</time>
I just thought, I really think that I wish someone told me this when I was younger kind of feeling.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:46:16</time>
I know a lot of middle aged people come to this.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:46:18</time>
Geez, I wish I knew this and I would love to impart it upon someone.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:46:21</time>
I would love for.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:46:22</time>
I tiptoe around like the overpopulation stuff a little bit because it's.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:46:28</time>
I personally feel like it's a conversation for parents to have, not for me.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:46:32</time>
So I always just say shelters that are overcrowded and I don't really touch euthanasia.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:46:37</time>
But ultimately that is what's happening.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:46:39</time>
So I just hope that the conversation can get bigger through my books.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:46:43</time>
And the one thing I noticed also that you've got a component of donation with purchases in packaging through your online bookstore.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:46:52</time>
So I forgot to ask you about that.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:46:54</time>
I don't want to really miss that a little bit about that donation component because you're already giving of your time, which is, I think if you asked most charities, like you said, they're generally understaffed.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:47:09</time>
So when someone gives up their time, it tends to be much more meaningful than somebody giving me five bucks and saying bye.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:47:17</time>
Tell us a little bit about you because you're doing both.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:47:20</time>
Tell us a little bit about that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:47:21</time>
I couldn't be more glad for you to ask that question because again, it's something else that has evolved.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:47:27</time>
So I was just so personally touched and moved.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:47:31</time>
Like literally the first time I volunteered at the airport with the animal Air Rescue flight, it was Covid so we had the masks on and I didn't really know anyone.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:47:39</time>
It was at least in this realm of this area of volunteerism, I was new, so we all kept to ourselves is my point.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:47:47</time>
But I have gotten to know some of the other volunteers and I'm not the only one that when they opened up that cargo door and I saw all those animals, I was seriously choked up.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:47:57</time>
I thought, what is happening here to these animals?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:48:00</time>
Oh my gosh, this is crazy, right?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:48:03</time>
And so I'm not the only one that got choked up the first time, like now that we've all shared.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:48:07</time>
Oh yeah, I remember my first flight.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:48:09</time>
I thought, oh my God, we gotta save these animals.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:48:11</time>
And you get really motivated.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:48:13</time>
So I felt like I wanted to give back more.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:48:16</time>
I.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:48:17</time>
My thoughts have graduated and evolved.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:48:20</time>
Two things I all the other authors that I really like to share and promote, I started to play with this year and it was really successful.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:48:28</time>
So starting this year, I'm going to stop the $2 donation and for the exact reason you just said.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:48:35</time>
I'm already giving of my time and I'm already sharing their message.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:48:39</time>
I have their a back matter sheet in both of my books that have the websites and how people can learn more and contribute to the air rescues and the shelter that hosts them in Pennsylvania.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:48:50</time>
So that I'm just learning to leave as my source of giving.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:48:54</time>
But what I'm going to switch it up to is, and I did it once this year, I ask other authors again to send me one or two copies of the books and I like auction sell them.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:49:05</time>
So I have this book and everyone who purchases these books that I'm trying to sell altogether, I use the funds to cover the adoption fee of a specific dog.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:49:16</time>
And then I take care of the dog.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:49:18</time>
I make up a little flyer.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:49:19</time>
So whoever adopts the dog sees the name of the book and the author and who supported this.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:49:25</time>
And I started to realize it ties people in more because they really see where their money is going and they get a book.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:49:33</time>
So people were really generous.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:49:35</time>
Some people bought a book for like a hundred bucks on average.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:49:38</time>
I'm looking for 350 to $400.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:49:41</time>
So I might have about five books.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:49:43</time>
And I just.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:49:44</time>
And some people say, you know what?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:49:45</time>
I really, no disrespect to the author, I don't mind just giving you 50 bucks.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:49:50</time>
But the whole energy and the presentation around covering the adoption fee is what invites people to think about a monetary donation or purchasing the book.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:50:00</time>
So when they do purchase the book and I mail it out.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:50:02</time>
I do put, like, a little note in there that the author gave this book and when they were done reading the book, if they would be so kind to leave a review, we'll call it even.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:50:12</time>
So that seems to have a little bit more traction and a little bit more.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:50:16</time>
So nice to hear that you have thought this out too, that you tried something and.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:50:23</time>
And then you thought, what, maybe I can do something a little bit different.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:50:28</time>
Still trying to do something monetarily, but just change it up a bit.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:50:33</time>
Congratulations on doing that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:50:35</time>
Yeah, it's.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:50:36</time>
It does take time.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:50:37</time>
Because I have to say, I would be lying if sometimes I thought, are my tiny little book sale donations really doing anything?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:50:44</time>
And it just feels like a little bit more is happening.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:50:47</time>
If we sponsor a dog's adoption fee that was transported by air or something like that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:50:53</time>
Seems to hold a little bit more weight than just everyone donates.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:50:58</time>
Two bucks and no one gets to release the where it goes for sure.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:51:01</time>
So I also want to talk to you a bit about your character development.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:51:05</time>
It's neat.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:51:06</time>
You talk about Zeke and he has that.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:51:08</time>
His overbite.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:51:10</time>
So talk to me about the character development of Zeke and then the character development Dexter and how did it evolve?
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:51:20</time>
So what's different from what you did with the first book to with the character development of Dexter?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:51:27</time>
Sure.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:51:27</time>
So for the character development, I learned through Journey to Kid lit and the courses I took at Gotham Writers to come up with character cards.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:51:35</time>
And that way, it helps you stay on track when you're writing your story, because sometimes you can unintentionally add qualities and characteristics that make the reader go, oh, I.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:51:44</time>
That doesn't really seem like something Zeke would do.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:51:46</time>
So Zeke's a really nervous guy.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:51:48</time>
If all of a sudden he was confident in doing a backflip in the play yard with the other dogs, everyone would say, what?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:51:54</time>
Like, why did we go from sad to totally happy?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:51:57</time>
What happened?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:51:58</time>
Everyone is guilty of doing that to some degree.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:52:00</time>
That kind of helps you stay on track.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:52:02</time>
Again, the pragmatic mind to Gobert.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:52:04</time>
So Zeke is an extraordinarily nervous dog, but he's also, like, extraordinarily intelligent.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:52:10</time>
He's just hyper aware of his surroundings.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:52:13</time>
So I really wanted to make sure I stay true to that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:52:17</time>
And also, he can be reactive.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:52:19</time>
So he does not like when people come into our home without warning.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:52:24</time>
So if someone knocks at the door, they no longer can come in.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:52:28</time>
Like, quite literally, like, I have to go out.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:52:30</time>
So if we have people come over, he has to meet them outside in the driveway for a Few minutes and warm up and see me talking to them before they come inside.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:52:38</time>
So I started to develop some empathy for people who have reactive dogs and some reactivity is shy or just like, nervous.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:52:46</time>
And then I also thought that could be communicated to children who go through those kinds of things.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:52:51</time>
So his story is more of a empathetic story and is emotional.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:52:56</time>
And it's true to him, too.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:52:57</time>
This Halfway Home does show him get adopted twice and returned.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:53:02</time>
And that is exactly what happened with him.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:53:04</time>
Because he was having a hard time for what I just described.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:53:07</time>
People would adopt, stopped him.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:53:09</time>
Their door would swing open with kids or whoever, and he just cannot handle a busy household or like a sudden entry like that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:53:16</time>
Whereas my husband and I do not have children.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:53:18</time>
And we live in a quiet area.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:53:20</time>
And so his body language and everything with us was pretty good.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:53:24</time>
So we knew that we were the right fit for him.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:53:26</time>
I kept that pretty true to him, character wise.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:53:29</time>
And so when he does get nervous, he does, like, significantly drool.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:53:33</time>
And that is like a boxer tendency.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:53:35</time>
They tell you that their jowls are a little saggy, so they.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:53:38</time>
When they're taking deep breaths, they create these little bubbles.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:53:40</time>
So I thought that would be somewhat entertaining for a kid and who can't raise their hand that said, yeah, when I was anxious, I did something that was really embarrassing.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:53:51</time>
Act out of character, saw that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:53:55</time>
So I just thought that might be something relatable.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:53:57</time>
And then as far as the character development of Dexter, Dexter was a foster of ours, and he's very shy and reactive in the shy way my father nicknamed him when we were fostering, because he's.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:54:10</time>
We started to identify the pattern.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:54:12</time>
He's intimidated by people he doesn't know walking towards him.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:54:16</time>
He quite literally turns around.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:54:17</time>
So my dad had nicknamed him U turn.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:54:20</time>
And so that U turn phrase is used in the book because whenever someone new comes around, he does a U turn.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:54:26</time>
But he was a street dog.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:54:28</time>
Um, he was found in Louisiana, and he does have some significant scars on him that tell some story that we don't really know.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:54:34</time>
Um, and so I just thought, I'm going to tap into the street dog element and keep that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:54:40</time>
I knew I wanted to do something with the U turn, which was a little inside joke for my family, but it still played into the actual character development of who he is.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:54:48</time>
And then what I missed in Halfway Home a little, I had literally had grown men, which I doesn't matter if it's a man, but we'll just go with that stereotype.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:54:58</time>
Tell me that they got emotional reading Halfway Home.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:55:00</time>
They were like, wow, that really actually choked me up.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:55:03</time>
So that is definitely received as a compliment that I'm able to tap into people like that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:55:08</time>
However, I'm a pretty jovial person in general, and I feel like I missed a little.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:55:14</time>
Missed having some humor.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:55:15</time>
I liked seeing little kids laugh at other people's books.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:55:19</time>
So Daring Dexter is funnier.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:55:20</time>
So he's a street dog and he intentionally hides from the animal air rescue crews, and he has decided that rescue is a downgrade, he'll lose his street swagger, and he's got nothing to do with it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:55:31</time>
And then as far as character development with Zeke and Daring Dexter, he does get adopted by one of the air rescue crews.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:55:39</time>
You see him again, he's a more confident Zeke.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:55:42</time>
He actually ends up being a role model for Dexter.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:55:44</time>
So you see his character evolve into his better self.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:55:47</time>
Nice.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:55:48</time>
So I really enjoyed that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:55:49</time>
And the only difference really, though, is even though Zeke and the pilot Maeve are also in.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:55:55</time>
They're both in Halfway Home and Daring Dexterity.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:55:57</time>
They aren't technically a true series by definition, because Halfway Home is told in a narrator's voice and Daring Dexter is told in Dexter's voice.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:56:08</time>
So that you should, tactically in a series should be consistent with that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:56:11</time>
But isn't that the beauty of self publishing?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:56:14</time>
Who cares?
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:56:15</time>
You know what?
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:56:15</time>
You've hit it right on the button.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:56:17</time>
I couldn't agree with you more.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:56:19</time>
Yeah.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:56:19</time>
Just who cares?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:56:20</time>
This is what I decided to do, and I don't feel like explaining it.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:56:23</time>
Yeah.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:56:24</time>
And you know what?
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:56:25</time>
Like you said, it sounds like Daring Dexter is more playful.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:56:30</time>
And that's what you had in.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:56:32</time>
In your mind.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:56:33</time>
And so why not?
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:56:34</time>
And most kids like to be playful.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:56:37</time>
And it's a children's book.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:56:39</time>
Not everything needs to be so.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:56:41</time>
So just.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:56:42</time>
So there's some phenomenal, traditionally published books that do follow every rule and check every box that everybody loves and adores.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:56:48</time>
But, um, again, that's the beauty of the self publishing.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:56:51</time>
Just.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:56:52</time>
I just want to show you that that's all there is to it.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:56:55</time>
So the theme now that you're going to second editions is has the theme changed at all or is it stayed pretty much the same?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:57:05</time>
I guess the biggest text changes happened in Halfway Home.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:57:09</time>
And that was.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:57:10</time>
I get.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:57:11</time>
I did find a way to manipulate him.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:57:14</time>
What we talked about earlier in the podcast, I gave Zeke more agency.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:57:18</time>
So in.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:57:18</time>
In Halfway Home, I just let him fall into the lap of one of the air rescue crews, and then she decides to take him home and adopt him, and that's it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:57:26</time>
And Then in the second edition, I have him leaning into her so when she walks by, he whimpers to get her attention.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:57:33</time>
And then the page that she finally takes him home, I added a sentence that says Zeke finally got her full attention.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:57:41</time>
And with Maeve Z.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:57:43</time>
So they're literally just sentence changes.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:57:45</time>
But it is pivotal in the whole determination, the whole layout of the story.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:57:51</time>
Did any of the your like the central teaching that you're trying to convey, did that change at all?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:57:57</time>
No, it's just the agency, the character's agency.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:58:00</time>
Okay.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:58:00</time>
Okay, Terrific, terrific.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:58:02</time>
I want to talk to you a bit about the writing process.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:58:05</time>
If you could share your writing process, how you started your development and what does it look like now.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:58:14</time>
Think.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:58:14</time>
I don't know if you can think back to when you first started and then think about your.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:58:18</time>
How your own development over these last few years has come about on the writing process.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:58:24</time>
Yeah, sure.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:58:25</time>
So I literally just started with a notebook and a pencil.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:58:28</time>
And literally pencil.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:58:29</time>
Because I kept changing things and I didn't know what I was doing.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:58:32</time>
And a big eraser, right?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:58:34</time>
A really big eraser.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:58:35</time>
Just like an area of the house that could get messy with the eraser graphs kept on redo.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:58:41</time>
I can't kept on handwriting it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:58:43</time>
And then now I tend to just write in Google Docs.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:58:47</time>
And I know there's a million different ways that you can write and store your documents, but this one seems to serve me just fine.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:58:54</time>
I like that you can change.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:58:55</time>
Some people have a specific request for it to be a word doc.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:58:59</time>
Some people like to be added as a contributor to the document to read and edit it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:59:03</time>
I just feel like it gives a lot of flexibility depending on who it is I'm sharing it with and what format they like.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:59:09</time>
And for me, I'm not an office novice.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:59:12</time>
Like, hence me go flying airplanes for a living.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:59:15</time>
Like it's not my skill set.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:59:17</time>
But it's easy for me to do that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:59:20</time>
So I just tend to write things in Google Docs.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:59:22</time>
And then at the moment, I do have a short story that I'm.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:59:25</time>
I guess I put it on pause because I wanted the second edition to get finalized before.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:59:30</time>
Absolutely, yeah.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:59:31</time>
It takes a lot of work.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:59:32</time>
Besides your own personal experiences, which are many, did you conduct any additional research when you were putting the second editions together?
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>00:59:43</time>
And if you did, why did you do that?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:59:46</time>
I guess in general, it's the simplest thing.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:59:48</time>
I just read more books.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:59:50</time>
I got more books.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:59:51</time>
I mean, it was even a joke with my husband.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:59:53</time>
He's like, Aaron, how many children's books exactly are we going to have here.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:59:57</time>
But I also have a great tip for that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>00:59:58</time>
When I'm done with them, I like to either take them to my events or I just deposit them at little free libraries, which actually could be my author.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:00:06</time>
I'll try to tag them on Instagram or something so they see their book going out in the world.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:00:11</time>
So I just read more books, and I just started to really, like I said, I really started to hone in on books that I thought were doing well, particularly in the self publishing.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:00:22</time>
Okay.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:00:23</time>
Yeah.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:00:24</time>
I want to talk to you about success because it's.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:00:28</time>
Everybody's got their own definitions of success.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:00:31</time>
I'd like to know what you had envisioned as your original goal for success with the first book.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:00:38</time>
Okay.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:00:39</time>
So I just wanted to break even.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:00:41</time>
That was my whole thing.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:00:42</time>
I thought what I put in, I want to put out.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:00:45</time>
And I gave myself five years to do that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:00:48</time>
I had no idea if that was a good number or a reasonable number.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:00:52</time>
And I guess, in fairness, what has evolved for me is I don't really know anymore, like, where I'm at.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:00:58</time>
Like, I used to really track, like, the numbers and how much I sell.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:01:02</time>
And I just settled into something that my sister told me, and she does work in the business world and in the art theater in New York City.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:01:11</time>
But she said to me not to minimize what you're doing, but as far as, like, a monetary gain and weighing a monetary gain versus just like, a personal enjoyment gain, she.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:01:23</time>
This is where she said she doesn't mean to minimize it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:01:25</time>
It's almost like a hobby that pays for itself a little.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:01:29</time>
So if I was a golfer and I spent X amount of dollars, thousands of dollars on clubs and thousands of dollars for the year on a couple tournaments, and at the end of the year, I won two grand in three tournaments that I participated in and got invited to a banquet that I didn't have to pay for, would we call that a success?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:01:48</time>
Yeah.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:01:49</time>
What if I was a skier and I paid seven grand for a chalet?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:01:53</time>
And then I did a couple skiing competitions when I was out there, and I won 500 bucks.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:01:57</time>
Awesome.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:01:57</time>
I'm gonna get my new.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:01:58</time>
Whatever, new ski element.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:02:01</time>
So that is the mindset that I've settled into.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:02:03</time>
I have a general idea.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:02:05</time>
Like, of course I'm not in, like, giant loads of debt, but again, I'm happy to be transparent.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:02:10</time>
Aaron Murphy books, like, I have a separate bank account, usually sits at $5 in there.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:02:16</time>
Like, I might get more, but the second I do, I'm buying stickers, I'm buying bookmarks.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:02:21</time>
I'm paying to be a vendor at an event.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:02:24</time>
What I'm paying for something that I printed out on Canva or VistaPrints or I'm buying.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:02:30</time>
I'm hoping people will eventually buy.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:02:32</time>
And that's what I say to people generally, it's not a path to fame and fortune.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:02:37</time>
You have to have a passion.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:02:38</time>
I mean, it's pretty cool.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:02:40</time>
When I listen to your story, your involvement has grown with you, the way I'm seeing it.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:02:48</time>
And I look at your books and I go, wow, that's just so neat how you've made it, turned it into something more.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:02:56</time>
Each stage you seem to be making it into more.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:02:59</time>
And that's gotta be very satisfying.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:03:01</time>
Yeah, it is.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:03:02</time>
And like, I'm starting to feel that satisfaction.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:03:05</time>
I admittedly, there's been a couple of times where I thought, all right, I have 50 more books to sell.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:03:11</time>
I'm just gonna wrap this up and I'm gonna be done.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:03:14</time>
Like, this was a cool, no pun intended, chapter.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:03:16</time>
And then I just end up getting like a new idea or like I said that I ended up being a part of that coffee table book.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:03:23</time>
And now I have these great images indeed.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:03:25</time>
How can I infiltrate that into my books?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:03:26</time>
If I self publish?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:03:28</time>
And stuff like that just seems to keep happening.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:03:31</time>
But no doubt, did I have, or, I mean, without question, did I not have doubts along the way where I thought, okay, how much money am I really gonna spend here?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:03:39</time>
But then I got introduced to the a la carte options versus strictly the hybrid publishing.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:03:44</time>
And I still felt supported that way for things.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:03:47</time>
People who go in green and totally self publish the first time, I mean, it really gives.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:03:53</time>
I think that's serious hats off.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:03:55</time>
You really just figure it out.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:03:57</time>
And it is extremely time consuming.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:03:59</time>
So, I mean, I'm always going to probably need some sort of support.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:04:03</time>
That's just my personality, though, is to try to be resourceful.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:04:06</time>
Whether it's for myself or for others like the dogs, I'm happy to be a resource for them, but I just.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:04:13</time>
All of it has just evolved, like, without me, really.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:04:16</time>
Not without me trying, but like those lulls that you have where you think maybe you felt like that you're like, how many books are we going to do here?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:04:22</time>
But then you get a new idea and something spawns from there.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:04:25</time>
I couldn't agree with you more.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:04:27</time>
And that leads me to.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:04:30</time>
I just wrote a blog on goal setting, believe it or not, tied into children's books.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:04:38</time>
And being a children's book author, one of the things I saw on your website and I Loved it is you said you posted your goal and I always find that one of the things if you write your goal down, the chances of you succeed seeding are much higher than if you just keep it in the back of your mind.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:04:57</time>
And in today's world you can make it public on your website.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:05:01</time>
You've made it very public.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:05:03</time>
So you say I'm just going to read what it says.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:05:05</time>
So the audience knows this.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:05:07</time>
My book goal is to land halfway home in a school library in all 50 states.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:05:16</time>
Tell us a little bit about that.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:05:17</time>
Seems quite lofty.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:05:19</time>
And also tell us about the lend a paw package.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:05:23</time>
Okay, sure.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:05:24</time>
The goal got a little.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:05:26</time>
I haven't promoted that goal other than the pop up window on the website in a while also because I knew I was going to do the second edition books and that's one of my launching strategies for the next book because people have a lot of people already have my book that are particularly in my world.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:05:44</time>
So this will be an invitation for them to buy a copy and put it somewhere.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:05:49</time>
So I put a lot of intention into that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:05:52</time>
So I have these little postcards so that when someone makes the donation I write the name of the school down that they're donating it to and I and the donor's name so that way they get recognition.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:06:01</time>
And when it arrives at the school, school people aren't just like what is this book?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:06:04</time>
Where did it come from?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:06:06</time>
And so I let them know that and then I also send a follow up postcard to the individual, not the school and just it's the same postcard and I just show them that this is what was delivered in your book and I might send them a bookmark as a thank you again.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:06:21</time>
So that's all that right there is why there's always only like 500 in Aaron Murphy box for buying cards and postage and you're doing extra mailing but that's okay.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:06:32</time>
Like I want people to know that I value their, their purchase.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:06:35</time>
I love it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:06:36</time>
Yeah.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:06:36</time>
So right behind me that you folks can't see it, this is my map tracker.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:06:40</time>
And so you can very lightly see probably from your perspective.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:06:43</time>
So you're down the west coast and you're down the east coast.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:06:47</time>
Middle America.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:06:48</time>
You're killing me.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:06:49</time>
Nobody in Minnesota, the Dakotas.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:06:52</time>
I have no idea how I'm going to get there.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:06:53</time>
Where I'm hoping to tap into it because I am connected to so many folks in aviation.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:06:58</time>
Not everyone lives locally like based in Newark.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:07:01</time>
We got to get you into the Midwest.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:07:03</time>
Yeah, we got to get me in the Midwest people.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:07:06</time>
But I have aviation people who live elsewhere.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:07:09</time>
I got relatives in Arizona.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:07:11</time>
Maybe I can help there.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:07:12</time>
And it can be fun though, because people are like, oh yeah.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:07:14</time>
And then I'll do some kind of a post where I put a pin in the map and I'll tag the person who made the purchase.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:07:19</time>
So I try to do a lot of follow through.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:07:21</time>
Wow.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:07:22</time>
Wow.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:07:23</time>
We talked about the writing process, but I'm also interested in the role of writing in your life because you got a very busy life being in a commercial air, airline pilot, helping with the spca, the aviation animal adoption.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:07:39</time>
That's a lot.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:07:41</time>
So tell me the role of writing.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:07:43</time>
How does that all fit into all of that?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:07:46</time>
Typically, I write the most on my work layovers because I'm alone can be distracting.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:07:52</time>
Or you think, geez, I should be doing X, Y and Z.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:07:55</time>
Which in reality I probably should.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:07:57</time>
Primarily happens on my layovers.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:07:59</time>
I really enjoy doing that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:08:01</time>
I like flying a cafe or snuggling up with Netflix in the background in my hotel room.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:08:07</time>
And now it doesn't dominate.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:08:08</time>
Like I still like to go out and about, but if I can give myself a good hour or two doing that, then I still have the.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:08:14</time>
So do you specifically set an amount of time or is it more Loosey goose?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:08:21</time>
Loosey goosey.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:08:22</time>
Okay, yeah, okay.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:08:23</time>
I do.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:08:23</time>
I will admit though too that I do feel like I get a fever for it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:08:28</time>
I just will go on four days where I almost can't even stop.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:08:32</time>
It goes in waves like that.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:08:34</time>
I'm interested in advice for aspiring authors because you're a treasure trove of so many different things that you've done and experimented with.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:08:45</time>
To an aspiring author, what kind of advice would you give to get them started?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:08:52</time>
I would initially just start taking writing courses.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:08:56</time>
So things that now let give me like two examples of things that were big game changers for me, especially speaking to picture books.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:09:06</time>
I had no idea that there were rules to a picture book that has some kind of merit.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:09:11</time>
Like we talked about elements called the Rule 3, the Hero's Journey and the number of words in a page or in the manuscript in general.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:09:21</time>
I had no clue about that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:09:24</time>
Some things that I did learn some really cool tools that might motivate someone to actually take courses or just do some kind of education on these books.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:09:33</time>
You don't have to, but this is just what helped me.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:09:36</time>
So I was told or invited to do two things to find some comparable picture books that I liked.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:09:43</time>
And I love Troy Cummings.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:09:45</time>
He's an author illustrator and he does like a Lot of dog and animal books.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:09:49</time>
So I was invited to write those books out.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:09:51</time>
Like literally type them out or write them out.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:09:54</time>
And I felt this word resistance when that was presented to me.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:09:57</time>
I'm like, I'm not going to sit down and write someone else's book.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:10:00</time>
I don't know why I didn't want to do that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:10:01</time>
I just thought it felt like a waste of time, basically, however I did it and the whole intention of the exercise is to show you how few words there are.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:10:11</time>
It's almost like even I can critique mine.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:10:13</time>
That, like, I probably could shave down probably in Darian Dexter, some of the language a little more.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:10:17</time>
I still hadn't quite figured out how to do it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:10:19</time>
But when you see someone who really masters it, like Troy Cummings is a great example.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:10:24</time>
Jory John is awesome.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:10:26</time>
He does like the Bad Seed, all the Good egg.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:10:29</time>
All his books are hilarious too.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:10:31</time>
Some pages that either have no words or there's three words, just thought, yeah, I arrived, or I went here and somehow it's hilarious.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:10:39</time>
It's really good.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:10:41</time>
So I would recommend people writing out comparative books that they are inspired by, whether it's someone well known like Jury John or Troy Cummings, or another indie author that you're really admiring, you feel attracted to at that time.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:10:53</time>
And the one also, it takes time, too.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:10:57</time>
I'm over it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:10:58</time>
I don't care what I sound like.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:10:59</time>
I'm over the.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:11:00</time>
You probably went through this too, doing your podcast, but I know what I sound like now.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:11:03</time>
It doesn't sound weird like it did in the beginning, but I do a voice recording of what I'm reading that will capture two things.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:11:11</time>
I will get tongue tied if I have too many words that begin with the letter S in a row.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:11:16</time>
Because I like alliteration.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:11:17</time>
I do that in both of the books.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:11:19</time>
But sometimes I get carried away with it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:11:21</time>
Like, I might have an alliteration set, pair of words, and then the third word down is another S word and you just can't say it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:11:30</time>
Catch that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:11:31</time>
And then also when you hear it back too, you'd be like, man, that took me a week to get that sentence.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:11:37</time>
But it stinks.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:11:38</time>
It doesn't tell.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:11:39</time>
It's still not conveying what I'm on it to.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:11:41</time>
So I would recommend.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:11:42</time>
And so when you listen to these, you can be alone.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:11:45</time>
I mean, no one could delete when you're.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:11:47</time>
And that's why I was saying out of the mouths of babes.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:11:49</time>
Like, when I have my grandchildren record the stories and then go this.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:11:55</time>
If they can't, they're all good readers.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:11:57</time>
But if they can't read a word or it doesn't make sense when they say to me this isn't for a 7 year old or 8 year old, this word.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:12:06</time>
Guess what?
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:12:07</time>
I ask them what kind of what word should I use?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:12:10</time>
I love that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:12:11</time>
Oh, that's great.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:12:11</time>
That's another great tool then too.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:12:13</time>
Absolutely.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:12:14</time>
And so when I listen back to my audio stuff, I'm just like running errands.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:12:18</time>
Like I'm going to the dry cleaners or the grocery store.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:12:20</time>
I just pop it in my car and I just listen to it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:12:22</time>
Then again, I could be alone.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:12:24</time>
So you don't have to feel self conscious about anything.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:12:27</time>
So those are the kind of things that I.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:12:29</time>
So I would really recommend people taking some kind of educational courses.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:12:34</time>
But for instance, if I published that first rhyme version of Halfway Home, I probably would want to crawl into a foxhole.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:12:42</time>
It wasn't the right story.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:12:43</time>
Like it's cute.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:12:44</time>
But as far as what it's evolved to, I would have missed that opportunity if I didn't educate myself.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:12:50</time>
But again, the thing I want to point out to everybody is Erin did it.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:12:56</time>
She had this story that had to get out of her.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:12:59</time>
She got it down and she brought it to life.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:13:01</time>
And Aaron, if you hadn't have done the first book, you wouldn't have done the second book and you wouldn't have come into the second edition.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:13:10</time>
So that's what I try for aspiring authors is, you know what?
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:13:14</time>
Just do it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:13:15</time>
Yeah, just do it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:13:16</time>
You'll figure you'll find your way.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:13:18</time>
And like we talked about the self publishing, the hybrid and the traditional.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:13:22</time>
So I can say for myself, I eventually wanted knew that I wanted to work at one of the three major legacy airlines.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:13:29</time>
That was important to me.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:13:30</time>
So if you feel that is important to you, I want to be represented by an agent and I want a traditional publisher and I want to do this in a very academic, professional way.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:13:39</time>
Go that course.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:13:41</time>
It will take time, but you go that way.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:13:43</time>
I just think eventually your instincts start to tell you what to do.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:13:46</time>
I recently too that she is has a contracting agent and she has a traditional publishing house and then she like self published two books.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:13:54</time>
So I would also keep in mind if you did traditional, make sure there's in the contract somewhere that you can also self publish.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:13:59</time>
Because it's like I just want to do this book and bang it out.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:14:02</time>
I don't want to wait four years and have my editor look at it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:14:05</time>
I know how to do it.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:14:07</time>
Agreed.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:14:08</time>
Encouragement for readers because without the readers that's our audience.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:14:12</time>
Tell me, why should children's book readers purchase your book?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:14:18</time>
Why should they purchase my book?
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:14:20</time>
I would say because it, what I circled back to earlier, it highlights things that are less popular.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:14:27</time>
So animal rescues are not completely absent.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:14:32</time>
But some things that have popped up for me that were extremely unexpected and really welcomed is more than I can count at this point.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:14:42</time>
People that have been fostered or children that are in foster or have experienced adoption or in adoptive families have reached out and said this book was really great because we weren't really ready for a human adoption story because we just adopted or we just started fostering.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:14:59</time>
But it was great to have the dog be the buffer, but we can still have conversation.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:15:04</time>
That was not my intention at all.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:15:06</time>
And that has also blossomed into me volunteering.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:15:10</time>
I started to think about how can I get involved with some kids in that demographic.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:15:14</time>
And I started to volunteer with a an organization in my town that has an outreach book club.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:15:19</time>
So some of the kids fall into that category.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:15:22</time>
But that was like really unexpected and I mean I love it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:15:25</time>
I had no idea that I was going to impact people.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:15:28</time>
I thought I was just talking about planes and dogs.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:15:30</time>
Right.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:15:31</time>
So I would say anyone, the people who are interested or any of that found family theme speaks to you.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:15:37</time>
I'd say my books are absolutely for you.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:15:39</time>
Even if you're not particularly a dog lover or animal rescue, not the thing that really speaks to you.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:15:45</time>
But if something about family found family, adoption and fostering, then my books are completely for you.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:15:51</time>
And if a reader wanted to purchase your book, look, I know we talked about Amazon, we've talked about on your website.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:16:00</time>
Tell us a little bit more about the best way to get your book.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:16:04</time>
Particularly right now, my books, the best place is to get them through my website.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:16:09</time>
And they are all my first editions are still currently available on Amazon.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:16:14</time>
Barnes and Noble and ingramsparks like they are still in there, but they do have a limited stock like they all know that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:16:20</time>
I'm getting ready to close out those initial ISBN numbers this month so you can order them like people who listen to this soon.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:16:29</time>
But my second editions will be available by the end of February.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:16:33</time>
I personally always encourage people to order from my website.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:16:36</time>
I know what the book looks like.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:16:38</time>
I can make sure it's not damaged.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:16:40</time>
I like to add a little extra into that.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:16:42</time>
It does support the author in that investment return that we're all trying to gain back.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:16:48</time>
Much more monetarily so than ingramsparks or Amazon.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:16:52</time>
Snag the book.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:16:53</time>
However your heart feels when I first learned this, I did a little kind of like hammering on the website.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:16:59</time>
And I mean, I'll still suggest it and tell everyone it's the best way to support any independent author if they offer it on their website or offer a sales to their website.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:17:09</time>
However, just however you get the book and you enjoy it, it makes me happy.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:17:13</time>
Final thoughts.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:17:14</time>
I.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:17:14</time>
This was a great interview.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:17:16</time>
I loved it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:17:17</time>
And that's what my final thought was.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:17:18</time>
I already had it.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:17:19</time>
I'm like, I'm going to start to.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:17:20</time>
I need to share some more authors with him or see what his schedule is because especially if you're interested in expanding upon some other authors in the aviation realm, I can, I have met some.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:17:30</time>
I'm wide open.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:17:32</time>
I got your name, as you know, from Terry Lindga, who was a guest on the show.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:17:36</time>
Yeah, I love that.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:17:38</time>
Yeah.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:17:39</time>
You know what?
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:17:39</time>
Terry's been great.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:17:40</time>
She's even asked if myself and my granddaughter, who's the co author of our book, would actually mind doing a podcast where we actually read her book in advance as part of the launch of her next book.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:17:55</time>
Oh, I love it.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:17:57</time>
My granddaughter and I are getting together on Wednesday to discuss it.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:18:01</time>
We.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:18:01</time>
We didn't think that opportunity would come.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:18:03</time>
But you know what?
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:18:04</time>
Love, love to support Terri.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:18:06</time>
So.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:18:07</time>
Yeah, yeah, I know she is.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:18:09</time>
It's so funny because she has complimented me so much on my website and I've heard her say that in her podcast, you know, name me.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:18:15</time>
But I knew who she said.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:18:16</time>
My, my husband's cousin's relative, et cetera.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:18:19</time>
That was me.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:18:20</time>
And she was like, oh, Aaron.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:18:22</time>
And she had messaged me several times like, you've really inspired my website.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:18:25</time>
My whatever.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:18:26</time>
And it's so funny because I just told you my website is like my Achilles is one of my challenges.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:18:31</time>
I can't say it's my Achilles heel, but it does cause me some angst.
<cite>Erin Mariah Murphy</cite>
<time>01:18:34</time>
So I appreciated that she's getting something out of it, but I will be cleaning it up this week, so I'm excited for it to get even better.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:18:40</time>
Good for you.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:18:41</time>
I want to thank you for being a guest on the Adventures in the Heart of Children's Book Authors podcast.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:18:47</time>
The generosity of time is wow.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:18:50</time>
The insights you're sharing.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:18:52</time>
It's nice to have someone come on and talk about going from their first book to their second book and bringing it to life.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:18:58</time>
I want to let the listeners know.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:19:00</time>
We promise to provide the audience with all the links that you've talked about, including all the social media links.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:19:07</time>
If you've enjoyed this podcast show, please hit the subscribe button and listen to future podcast episodes.
<cite>Aaron</cite>
<time>01:19:16</time>
Thank you.