Ashi's Gift Blog: Annie Eskeldson interviews Lillian Brummet

Hi! I'm Annie Eskeldson, author of the children's book, Ashi's Gift; our story about autism which can be found at http://www.authorannie.com/.

The next author I am showcasing on the Ashi's Gift Blog site is Lillian Brummet, coauthor of Trash Talk, Purple Snowflake Marketing, and author of Towards Understanding. Lillian is the host of Conscious Discussions talk show and the manager of 2 blogs. Whew! She is busy, busy. Thanks so much for letting me feature you on my blog Lillian!

Lillian Brummet is joining us today to share her thoughts on the world of electronic and audio publishing. She is the co-author of the books Trash Talk and Purple Snowflake Marketing, author of Towards Understanding; Host of the Conscious Discussions talk radio show, and manager of 2 blogs. (http://www.brummet.ca/) She is a passionate, proactive person who really believes in making a difference every single day. Whether donating books, household items, produce from the garden or time from her day - she gives back to her community in every way she can. Lillian and her husband Dave can often be seen cleaning up the banks along waterways (lakes, rivers, etc) and trails that they frequent, bagging the garbage and recyclables and pulling up invasive weeds. She calls herself a "fanatic recycler" who would willingly go the extra step for one tiny scrap of a recyclable item.

Why did you decide to write?

Back in ’98 I was involved in a 3-car pileup (I was in the middle car) and had the joy of experiencing over a year of full-time physiotherapy. Chronic depression settled in for a while due to the pain and losing a business I created and ran successfully for 6 years… I started to wonder what my life was about. Just why did I survive an abusive childhood, being on my own at 13 and all that came with that? I felt defeated, purposeless and empty - to have everything I worked for taken away from me was a huge blow. I have always been a writer, the pen has been a very good friend of mine and I have found great comfort there – just me and the pen. So upon reevaluating my life and looking for a reason for my existence I decided to pursue writing as a career.

Where did you find all the sources for your research?

Just 18 months after the accident, while I was still going to physiotherapy and massage therapy daily, I participated in a writing course that explained the behind the scenes activities involved in a writer’s career. From there I began writing as a freelancer, and continued studying writing. I gleaned the shelves of friends, family and library shelves for anything relating to a writer’s career. From there I started researching online and found hundreds of sites to learn from. Each stage of writing, every genre (freelance articles or journalism, feature articles, interviews… working as a staff member, poetry, nonfiction/fiction…) has a unique function that must be learned. Research has always been a strong point for me, and has come in quite handy for this career.

What do you think about electronic-publishing?

The environmentalist in me is cheering electronic and audio book formats. These require no paper, no inks, no shipping or handling, no warehousing… they cost no fossil fuels, and do not contribute to global warming. Both audio and e-books level the playing field for developing countries that may not otherwise have access to knowledge. One doesn’t even have to own a hand held device or a computer since many coffee shops, schools, groups and libraries offer computer access.

The expense of e-books is typically 30% less than print books, making them more affordable to a wider array of readers. They can be had in less than a few hours, from order to receipt. They can be put on CD and used at public events (i.e. book signings) or sold in this format (i.e. for people who want to buy as gifts). …This is what we will be doing next with our e-books.

Some readers, like myself, will print out the occasional e-book. I’ll do this for how-to books that I do not want on my computer screen but wish to access for office projects. These are printed, hole-punched and placed in a binder. Most e-books that I receive however are read and deleted from our files.

As an author, I benefit from e-book formats in the way of royalties. Traditional publishers only pay their authors less than 10% of the monies they receive from each book sold (minus the retailer’s commission). With e-books the author will receive anywhere between 60-100% of the royalties, depending on the publisher they use or whether they choose to use a publisher… since authors can release their own self-published products. Another bonus for authors is that they can update and release revised editions whenever they want. We’ve done this with our Purple Snowflake Marketing e-book, and have plans of updating every 2 years or so with a new revision.

What do you do when you are not writing?

I can often be found playing in the dirt, (a.k.a. “gardening”), rolling on the carpets or the grass with the dogs, hiking the lazy trails snaking along our Western-Canada mountains and driving out to lake country to gaze at the stars for an evening. These are my favorite activities. …My least favorite: doing dishes!

I understand you have several books out, what is your average day in the office like?

Yes, we have 3 books out at the moment. Trash Talk was originally released in 2004 as a paperback – and was revised in 2010 to be released as a 2-part e-book series. The first of this series will be released in a matter of days… and can be found at: http://www.brummet.ca/ Towards Understanding was the 2^nd book we released (2005; paperback format) and it too was released in e-book format back in 2009. Purple Snowflake Marketing – How to Make Your Book Stand Out in a Crowd is a book marketing plan guide for authors and offers nearly a thousand links to promotion opportunities. This last book was originally released in 2007, but a newly revised edition went out in 2009… we hope to release a new edition in 2011. I also have two blogs (one weekly, one daily) and a bi-weekly newsletter (Brummet’s Muse) along with the Conscious Discussions Talk Radio show that airs 3 times per week.

I’ll start the day anywhere between 5-7 AM and deal with the blog, schedule and important emails first – this usually takes up to 3 hours. Emails come in all day long, so that is a constant chore. Interviews, articles and guest blog appearances are then written and submitted whereever they are due, and the records will be updated to reflect this. Queries go out every day to various print, audio and online media and publications, so I’m constantly dealing with responses to those – keeping records of who needs something from me, what date they need it by, confirming their needs were met and then making sure the piece I provided was actually used. So, record keeping and follow-up takes a large amount of time. Writing is actually something I fit in, somehow, in between all the other things! (She laughs) In fact, I am currently working on the Trash Talk It’s Easy Being Green e-book series book #2 which we hope to have released by Nov/Dec time period.

My radio show airs at 10 AM, so I spend an hour three times a week doing live interviews there – yet there are at least 4 hours put in the behind-the-scenes work for each live broadcast. Setting up the guest, sending them the info they need, creating the outline for the show and advertising each event… this takes a lot of time. The bi-weekly newsletter only takes about 35 min to get ready to send out. Interviews with the media can have me in the office as early as 4 AM and as late as 10 PM – so I’ve learned to be flexible as far as office hours go. Balancing all of this with a life, the gardening, the dogs (our fur-kids), the house work and being a wife, etc can be a bit of a challenge and there are times when the dishes pile up or the dogs didn’t get walked that day – or we order pizza for supper… and I’ve had to learn that is OK. …That I don’t have to be everything, to everyone all the time. What a relief!!

Dave & Lillian Brummet -

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