Well, it's that time of the week again for the latest episode of Author Ecke. This week's guest is Doug Weissman, a world traveler, writer, and author.

Hey everybody.

Welcome back to Author ett.

For y'all that don't know, ETT is Corner and German, so it's Author Corner.

And today we have Doug who is a world traveler and I'm very interested in

learning more about him and is endeavors.

So Doug, please introduce yourself and take it away.

Yeah, appreciate it.

Thanks for having me.

I started traveling actually when I was.

20 years old and I just never looked back.

I went around the states a lot with my parents.

But I did a trip to Costa Rica, which was my first trip out of North America,

and then immediately afterwards, just hitched it to Italy for a year and

traveled around, did some school.

Came back to finish college and was like, Oh, I'm just gonna go around again.

I just have that travel.

That's awesome.

It was right, It was 2008 as well.

So my prospects for finding a job after college wasn't really great, so

I was like, this is perfect timing.

So I just I write about it.

. Yeah, exactly.

And I, I started heading east.

I kept a travel blog just so my parents could keep up with it.

It wasn't something I thought about monetizing, I just was like, this is

the best way and only way at the time.

That I could really keep people abreast what I'm doing.

And then I came back, worked for a little bit, decided this is not fun.

Went to South America for six months, then got, Oh, that was fun.

Yeah, that was definitely a lot more fun than trying to, I

went for a week and loved it.

. Yeah.

Yeah.

I was, I of just hit what Columbia and just headed Southwest, Try and

make my way down to Argentina and.

Made my way up back up to Mexico I flew to Mexico.

I'm not gonna make it sound like I did a boat or drove . Yeah, so

flew to Mexico, did some time.

Then I got into grad school writing for writing.

So I did a mfa and that's really when I solidified becoming a writer

where for so long I fought it thinking there's no future there.

But really, It was the only thing I wanted to do.

Only thing I had skills in doing was like that or talking.

So then I could do both.

Why not?

You can talk into Word now, right?

At the same time.

It's amazing.

And I do that sometimes, especially dictating notes when I'm walking

around my block or something with my dog is such a godsend.

So I, I did grad school, then I went to Africa for six months and it was around

that time right before I left for Africa.

I actually found a job on Craigslist.

It was, Hey, have you ever been to these areas of the world?

Write like a paragraph or a page about your experience.

And so I just responded that using that travel blog that I

never used for anything else.

And they're like, Oh, great, you're hired.

Let's work with this.

So I freelanced with this company, this travel company for years.

So I was just traveling, writing for them.

I was able.

Make it a career for myself.

But I was always still writing novels.

In 2014, I wrote.

What was it?

It was between 2014 and 2015, I wrote seven novels for a book packaging company.

So they came up with the ideas, right?

Like the major idea they came up with, and then I came up

with the arc for every book.

I came up with the characters for every book.

So for six of those books, it's one series called Deep Freeze,

and the seventh Book was a part of a separate series called Fresh.

And I just hammered it out.

It was a very.

Great learning experience for writing for different markets

for how to write for a deadline.

Also understanding how much you might miss when only writing for a deadline.

Yes.

. And, but I've ever since, I've still been working on my thesis from my grad program,

which is Life Between Seconds, which is the book coming out in November 15th.

So it's my newest book.

Great.

Ever release.

Very excited, but I've been working on that.

Since 2013, so it's been 90.

Oh no, because no deadline . Exactly right.

It was that thing was a beast.

Just in terms of that taught me, the other books taught me how to write

for a deadline and write towards a certain audience where life between

Seconds taught me how to write.

For the publishing industry, right?

How to query things, how to take my time, how to wait for a response, how

to keep working while I'm waiting, and like the things I need to do to

make sure I'm not just twiddling my thumbs for response, waiting for, So

do you do you do a lot of research?

What I found is I do a lot of lookup of words to make sure that I'm

doing it right, and then I also do a lot of research to make sure that

what I wanna put in there, , even though fiction is somewhat factual

or based on something of fact.

So do you do a lot of research and how do you do that?

Hundred percent.

So life between seconds, part of it takes place during the Argentine dirty war.

So its 1970s, 1980s when the Hunter really was disappearing.

A lot of students and people who were attempting against the government

and really only learned about it when I was in Argentina and saw the

mother deposit mayo, the mothers of children who were disappeared.

And so every Thursday for decades, they would march silently, holding up

signs, holding up pictures of their children, trying to continuously call the

government to account, Where are my kids?

Where is my family, Where is my husband?

And it moved me so much that I wanted, I took a deep dive into

learning more about what happened.

The perspectives are all these things.

So I could instill fact into my fiction, right?

Yes.

It makes it your fiction.

I was at a book signing this weekend and this is twice as happened.

I tell me about your book.

So I started tell about the book and by the end the lady was like, Is that real?

Nope.

But it's good fiction . Exactly right.

The best is the best fiction.

The Best Lies are based on yes.

Fiction.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's great.

So you write for travel, but you also write your own novels.

Yep.

And then you're also writing a thesis.

Your hands have gotta have carpal.

You not yet taking a lot of Advil?

Not yet.

But I do think that they just always look like this no matter what.

But that's where you shake hands.

Hello?

Yeah, exactly.

Shake hands.

Like a shake hands like a woman in Regency England.

I'm just putting my, That's crazy.

So your book's gonna be out in November?

Yep.

Are you self-published or did you Publisher, if you're self-published,

Have you found the experience or even through a publisher?

Yeah, so I'm actually going through a indie publisher.

Okay.

My, my journey was I have nothing against self-publishing.

It's just not the journey I wanted to take at this time for this book.

So I was querying agents for years and a couple times I had a few bites and I

was really excited, but they weren't.

But they didn't pan out the way I wanted them to.

One wanted me to remove I love magical realism in all my work.

And one wanted me to remove that from this.

It's no, that's not, I'm not ready for that.

That's really important to me.

Another one just didn't have the same perception of what kind

of the book could or should be.

I just kept going at it until finally I thought I'm spending all this time

trying to sell my book to one person who's gonna try and sell it to a publisher.

So why don't I just try to sell it to the publisher on my own?

I know all the steps I have to take anyway.

Exactly.

And I found a few indie presses and one that sounded really good, and

I love indie presses for a lot of reasons, but one, I was able to.

lot of that artistic integrity, a lot of the things that I wanted

to, I have a very particular voice.

I love playing with punctuation and just like you looking up words,

but using words very specifically.

Even if it might not be the best word, but I like the way it sounds better.

I'll use it.

I do the same thing.

Like I hear a word, I'm going, I'm have to write that down.

I like that word.

Yeah.

Cause you don't hear it often.

I'm gonna, I need to put in the book somehow.

Exactly.

Said ok.

Now I just wanna make sure.

Oh no, I will take that word out on a date and I will just leave it for a while.

Cause that, but that's, and I'll do that.

So I was able to keep that in there.

And perfect example.

There's one chapter in life between seconds that's, it's about

three pages, give or take, but it's only two seconds as long.

So it's just all wrote on sentences.

But I love it.

It's like really?

Impactful and it's supposed to be right.

You're supposed to be reading it and just sucked in because you can't take a breath.

Where I've shown it to editors that work in larger publication

areas and they're Oh they tear it apart and this needs to be here.

This needs to be, It's no it's completely removed from context and

removed from what I wanted to do in that space where working with the

IND press gave me the power to say, Yes, this is exactly what I want.

They didn't even say boo about it.

What's your artistic expression, right?

That's how you want.

It's these little things.

These little things.

As an author, like whatever you're writing, whether I've had friends

that wrote romance or friends who wrote military, and there are just

little things that everybody connects with that they really want to keep.

And that was mine.

A two, a three page, two sentence chapter was mine, . I think that's

the way I talk Yeah, exactly.

But that's awesome.

So when do you find time?

You'd say you gotta, you have a wife, you have a dog when you

find time and a cat, so Oh my God.

Yeah.

So finding busy, It's, yeah, finding time is e I actually when things

shut down in Los Angeles and.

I was, so I'm a travel writer by day and yeah, for travel years, there was

no travel, there was nothing I could do.

So I'm piecemealing together jobs to keep my to pay rent, to pay exactly.

Utilities, whatever it is.

And at the end of the day, I was just so exhausted put my daughter to

bed She was an infant at the time.

Now she's three, which, so it's even harder.

And so I was exhausted and my wife and I wanna spend time together and it's what?

I don't have the energy to sit and write for an hour or two and finish a book.

But what I found was 10 minutes, I only needed 10 minutes a night.

And so for six nights a week, 10 minutes, I would sit at my computer and

just gamify, how many words can I do?

Can I get a complete chapter done?

Can I interest?

Piece all these chapters together to see what works best.

And I was able to complete revisions that way for life for 20 seconds.

And I was also able to complete a, another novel, like finish it in

Full and sell it just while doing 10 minutes, six nights a week.

And that's works for me.

And Now I have trouble if I do more than like 20 minutes, I'm

like, Oh, I can't concentrate, I can't focus for this long of time.

That's like me in the afternoon.

I have to do it in the morning.

Yeah.

Unless I really want to finish it up or finish a thought, I have to do that.

But what you've done, you've like the gamification, right?

Everything is gamified, right?

Business, everything.

So you've just internally gamified it and you wanna win every.

Oh yeah.

And luckily I do.

So that's . It's a game I can win.

It's done.

So evidently you won.

So have you started think of another one or, No?

Marketing is tough.

I would've to say marketing.

I heard yesterday I went to a local library writing group.

It's like over a million books a year, put on Amazon or some number like that.

I don't know.

I'm not for sure.

But that's a lot.

Though marketing it is tough.

Branding yourself is really what you've gotta be able to do and want to do.

Yeah.

That, that is, I'm finding to be the most difficult part.

Even with so many books under my belt with the previous books that I've done,

it was in such a way that I thought, Oh, I don't have to market these.

I will be very upfront now.

I have made every single mistake you can as a writer.

And I just learned from it.

Oh, me too.

. Yeah, there you go.

I've made it, I've done it.

Sending the same cut and paste query letter to agents and making it obvious.

Done that doing the same thing for grad schools.

Done it not marketing my books, thinking that the marketing department at the

publishing house is gonna take care of it.

Done.

It failed miserably.

Exactly.

Yes.

And you learn.

And so what I'm learning now is exactly what you said, the beast

of the marketing department.

And I work technically as a travel writer.

I work in the marketing department of the travel company I work for.

And I still sweet, but it is right.

So I know certain things, but still in like book marketing is so different

and I'm also finding it to be.

Super expensive.

Everybody just comes outta the woodwork saying, Oh pay me this,

or you need to pay for this.

And I'm just like, What is that?

I've had more people reach out to me that are experts in everything but related.

I'm like, there can't be this many.

Yeah.

I didn't even know there were that many departments.

I'm not gonna, I person.

Love, do it, love.

Some people pay.

I don't I try to, and a lot of authors are introverted, right?

Yeah.

Me, uhuh.

I am extroverted.

I will talk to anybody all the time.

Yeah.

But I, So I think that helps.

But you're right.

The market, the marketing is tough.

So how do you market?

Where are you gonna market?

Where are you gonna put your dollars?

How many dollars are you gonna put poor?

When do you know that's successful?

When do you not know successful?

When do you punt?

You didn't go through a rabbit hole and.

End up with a bunch of books at your house that handling basically.

Yeah.

That's in that case, which I'm sending to Europe, because they did, they

made bad decisions on their energy.

So I'm actually taking a bunch of books with me to Germany for Christmas

and I think I'm just gonna burn them.

Oh there, in a good way.

Not a bad way.

Not a bad way.

Tell em, sell them as kindling.

Yes.

Saying but read 'em first, then filming fire and read em, leave me a review.

Then Burn . You just retitle the book Burn After Reading.

Yeah, sure.

Put me on a plane right outta there.

But no, so I like how you do the 10 minute thing.

I think could all writers struggle I think with writing block

or when to write how to write.

So I like to write in the morning.

Cause I'm more creative.

I think I like just to hammer some stuff out.

And then if I have writer block, what I'll do is I will then do edits.

Oh, nice.

Cause I'm, because when you edit, Oh, I need to put something here.

Yeah, this would be cool.

So how do you edit?

Do you like all at one time or piecemeal or how did that inter Integr process go?

Yeah I edit.

All at one time, but I have to print everything out.

I cannot edit.

I'm the same way.

Are you?

Yes.

I got a bunch of paper.

I do too.

I have, if I can pull it out.

I have so much stuff in my desk, but like I have this is like my

latest, just this box of Oh yeah.

Paper.

And that's one book that I finish that I need to edit again.

I have I usually do probably between five and 10 rounds of edits.

Because the first one, I don't write linearly, I write modularly.

So I'll just be like, This chapter sounds interesting.

So I'll just write that chapter.

And then the next one that sounds interesting.

I'll write that chapter.

And then when I feel like I have enough chapters put together, then I printed.

Piece it together, like a puzzle.

This sounds like it goes here.

This sounds like it goes here, and then I look through, see what

I'm missing, and be like, Okay, now I have to fill in these gaps.

Then when it comes to revision, After the whole thing really is finished,

there's a beginning, middle, and end.

Then I'll go through and do the same thing setting character plot.

Is it all fitting together?

Is it threading, Oh, I have to, I mentioned this on page one 50, but I

actually need to put that on page three.

Or you need to follow up, you need to follow that, finish that whatever

the action that person does.

That's interesting.

I do the same thing.

I printed out and I had so much paper.

I'm lucky they picked up my trash.

What did this guy take?

That's to Germany with you only have five pounds.

You only have five pounds per luggage though.

Yeah, good point.

. So that's interesting.

Are you, do you write a outline or do you It I pants it?

I generally know where I'm going generally, but then if a ending

presents itself, I'll just write the ending and then I'll figure out,

okay, now how do I get from aid.

Z here, but when I, sometimes I might do an outline, like with those

seven books that I originally did.

Yes, I had to do an outline.

One, they required it, but two, I had to do so much so fast that

I needed to know where I was starting and where I was going.

But generally I don't really feel an outline helps me cuz I stray from it.

So yes, quickly, yes, I'm same.

I'll write.

I'll write the, I'll write the end first.

Oh, yeah.

And then, but I probably won't use it.

And because then I wanna do the first know, the first part of the book, the

introduction or the setting, the scene.

And then as a book progresses, I may use portions of the end that I did.

Or I may rewrite the whole thing.

Yeah.

But the book would work either way.

But how do I want to end it?

Do I want to kill off a character?

To me that's man, that's.

The hardest part.

I birthed these characters.

I'm not have to kill one of them, . That's all that fucked up.

Yeah.

I had to do that.

I had to do that with Life.

Between Seconds, there was a character.

I loved her, but after one third of the novel, she disappeared.

I didn't kill her off.

I didn't, I just did nothing with her.

She didn't show up, so I was like then there's no point for

her and I have to get rid of her.

But after losing her for maybe two or three drafts, I realized, She doesn't

need to be throughout the one third, she just needs to be in this one spot.

So I get to keep her in a small section, which made me feel better.

But still it was I you have to do it.

Otherwise the book's not gonna work or not gonna be as good.

Exactly.

Exactly.

Now I'm like that too.

I'm like, oh, okay.

Let's think of the most hideous way that I can back this person off.

Be a little bit of shock about

I also, I love what you said though, that you can even, but that you could even

use some of your ending sometimes, cuz I.

I feel like a lot of writers are afraid that they're either gonna have to scrap

something completely or use completely, and they don't realize that, Oh, I

can take bits and pieces of this and it works here where I do that all the time.

And I love that.

Yeah.

I do I'll like I like to walk in the morning, listen to music, and I'll

think of something and I'll get back and I have a section at the end of the

book in the Word document it's called.

And I'll just jot something down, like a phrase or a sentence or a scene,

a real a quick synopsis of a scene.

And then as I start writing again, I'll, Oh, I can use, let me go back here.

Oh, I can use that.

Let me put it in there.

Nice.

So it is a poor man's outline of some sort, or it's a free flow of.

They, I like that better than a poor man's outline.

Yeah.

. But yeah, so I, I do like to do that and I use that and then I've, when I'm

writing, like I'm writing my second book now, I like, wow, now I can spin this

character off and they can do something, and it becomes a different type of thing.

Yeah.

Is your second book related to your first book, or is it the same team?

Yeah, but different scenario that's actually.

Two plots that come into one at the end.

Nice.

Whoa.

. Let's see.

. Oh I'm not saying, I'm saying I'm already intrigued, but then the trick

is to make sure it all and and I already I can coalesce at the end.

I've got that, that figured out.

So what do you do in your spare time than travel?

But, So I like to travel myself.

I've been.

Oh, shoot.

All around Europe, Egypt.

I just came back from Egypt actually.

No, that is overwhelming.

It's absolutely when you go and you go, Oh you go on a vacation, you

go, I'm gonna relax and everything you get there you go, Oh my God.

This is just, the history is, and how old it is.

I can go to anywhere nice states and look at a building.

It's probably less than 200 years old.

Yeah.

Now you go to Egypt and you're seeing things that are 4,500 years old.

Now you can go to California and I think, look at General Samuel, right?

That big tree that's 4,500 years old.

And if that tree could talk, he could tell you everything that's happened

in the world since he was a seed and every significant thing in the world,

civilization based he can talk about.

Now, that would be interesting for a tree to talk about.

You might have your next book.

Oh man, I thought somebody likes Trees . Yeah.

There's a book I read, What is it called?

I think it's called Maybe A Brief, Not a Brief History of Trees, The Secret

Life of Trees, something like that.

I just read it recently, but it, there is a tree that has its own perspective and

kind of explains these really interesting.

Traditions from Cyprus, and so it was this whole Oh, that's cool.

Cyprus During the troubles.

So it was really, Yeah.

Yeah, that's, It was a beautiful book, but it was similar just in that idea

of a tree telling you the, Do you to put that in this bottom section

of my current book to see . Yeah.

No, there's, I love the thing about Egypt that fascinated me

other, the history itself, right?

Yeah.

But the perspective that was brought when they found a Roman villa, The ruins

of a Roman villa right in front of one of the temples and the, when the ruin

of the Roman, or when the Roman villa was built, the temple the Egyptian

temple was already 1500 years old.

So it was ruin, it was a ruin to the Roman.

So yeah, again, like there, just the enormity Yeah.

Of it is amazing, right?

It's, But the people are, Fantastic.

So when I found out I was in the army at the time when I found

out they liked to like to barter.

Oh yeah.

Cause money.

So when I found out they liked a ballpoint pins, it's something good to barter with.

So I had 200 of the US government skill crap pins, and what I

would do, I just give them out.

I'm guaranteeing some will probably still use somebody writing on an old

government skill crap pen, their name or something on a receipt or whatever

that, if I know that before and I would've been like looking out for it.

Yeah, it was crazy.

I dunno how my wife went before I did and she kinda, oh, they

like ballpoint pins and stuff.

Like I get some of those.

They're all the place.

That's great.

Great.

So your books, what's the title?

What's it coming out and where can we potentially.

Yeah, Life Between Seconds comes out November 15th.

It's all over the internet, which is nice.

So you could find it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target.

You could even find it on Target.

The publishing house is history of press, so H I S T R I a.com.

Small indie press.

Yeah.

So it's great.

Honestly, I was I think I ran around my.

Screaming so loud that my wife thought I was having a heart attack, and now that it

was available like on Target, it's whoa.

Right on target.

That is very cool.

When I told my wife I was writing a book in friends, they told me to stop drinking.

So

that would've come second afterwards, after the dying.

Oh, yeah.

But then you tell somebody you're writing a book and if you tell somebody,

then you gotta finish it up with it.

They, You're just BSing.

Yeah.

I had.

Yeah.

The accountability is real, right?

Yes.

That's why I tell when I told people I had one in one of the books, one of the

seven books I wrote the dedication to my friends, cuz I was like, see, I told

you I was writing a book, basically.

So what advice would you give an author or somebody just

attempting to start their novel?

What kind of bites would you give them to Kinda get 'em through the hurdles

and the pitfalls and some things that you've learned over the years.

Yeah it's been, When you say it like that, I was like, Oh man, I do have

to remember it has been years now,

Yeah.

I'm a good person for perspective . Yeah.

Honestly, I would say make it manageable.

I think that especially coming in as a new writer, people have these expectations.

Oh, if I.

10,000 words a day or 5,000 words a day, every day for X amount of days.

I'll have a novel ready.

But it's not manageable and it's not something sustainable where

the 10 minutes worked for me.

It might not work for everybody.

Maybe somebody has an hour.

But what I do know is, When I first started writing, and I could do four to

five hours at a time, that was great, but it wasn't sustainable in my current shape.

I evolved from that because of current circumstances.

Sure.

I made, I found what worked for me, and so what people have to do is they

have to find what works for them, what keeps them accountable, what gets their

button, the chair, and what keeps them focused rather than, Oh, I'll go on

Facebook for 10 minutes or let me.

Track my playlist.

Like I only have three songs that I listen to.

I only listen to them if I need to.

I have one on repeat the entire time I'm writing, so I'm not

sitting there shuffling things.

So you can write and listen to music or something, right?

It's not music with words, but usually it's the tone that I need.

So if I'm jumping in and I have 10 minutes and I gotta get a certain.

Feeling.

But I don't feel that way.

I have three diff like one's a happy song, one's a sad song, one's a fast paced song.

And so I'll put it on repeat, one of one of the three, and I'll just go, And that

just gets me in that feeling that I need to be for whatever scene I'm working on.

Interesting.

Yes.

But it's not words it's classical music or one of those intense

soundtracks from a movie or something.

Interesting.

Cause I can listen to music and write.

I watch TV and write.

Good.

Yeah.

Yeah, I do.

I've done it.

But I wouldn't say it was good.

I wouldn't say I did a good job.

No.

I go back and edit for, There you go.

I'll write something.

My, my brain's working so fast, I can't type that fast, so I go back and read it.

I'm like, I didn't know what I said.

Yeah.

I have those moments too.

Yeah.

It was, so apparently Hemingway didn't say this, but people say, You

said it so I say it anyway, but it was it was right drunk at its sober.

And he only did 500 words a day, supposedly.

Yeah.

But he, and he did it at what, four 30 or five o'clock in the morning.

So the truth is he was either he would not drink that early in the morning.

So he wasn't drunk when he wrote, But if he was probably still

drunk from the night before.

Yeah.

So he wrote and then later he edited before he went back out.

Yeah, exactly.

So what about writer's block?

What do you do for writer's Block?

I, Wow, you have.

Yeah I get it, but my two best things for writer's block is I take a walk.

I love walking anyway and then I was living in San Francisco for

a few years and then traveling so often that just walking is great.

You explore new places.

Yes, you find new things.

It gives you a chance to just be outside of that frenetic of I need

to check my email or check this.

Or someone's screaming for me.

So I love walking.

Or I'll also pick one paragraph.

From some book that I love that, and I'll just rewrite that paragraph over and

over again until I find my own words.

Oh, interesting.

Yeah.

Interesting.

Huh?

So that generally works for me, but I only give myself a few minutes.

Like I won't do that for a half hour.

I'll do it for Alright.

I have, especially if I'm only doing 10 minutes, it's like I have two

minutes to copy this down as much as possible and, but it works for me.

So Do you have a favorite.

I don't have a favorite author anymore.

I have a few authors that I love, but like when it comes to copying

down that paragraph, I always do the first paragraph of a farewell to arms.

Always.

I don't know why, but about 10 years ago, it just stuck with me.

I really like the rhythm of the sentences there, and it's familiar and the imagery

is the imagery is so present and atmospheric, even though it's so sparse.

So it helps me get into.

But I wouldn't say like Hemingway is my favorite author or anything.

Yeah.

How about you?

Me?

No

ler Tom Clancy, Dan Brown?

So I used to edit tech, edit Microsoft Series.

Technical books for Q Publishing back in the day.

Oh, wow.

That sounds be intense.

It was fun.

Sometimes I'd get a word document that was almost done.

Sometimes it would be just raw, so I'd have to in there and look at

the diagram and everything, and then they reached out to me one time.

I'd say, Hey, Travis, do you want to help write a book on the window of

2000 security handbook is what it's.

And I go, Yeah.

I go, What do you want me to write about?

And she goes, ero.

I go, Oh heck, I'll do that.

And I got off the phone, I was like, What the hell's

research?

Darn

out what?

It was kind the time, but it's interesting.

And then I didn't do anything for years and then all of a sudden, 1st of March

I had an idea and I decided to write it.

And that's what.

Yeah, so I like a lot and I like reading technical books.

Yeah.

As a matter of fact too, so I would hope so.

Given, given your years editing tech books, like that's important.

Yeah.

Just the technical part, not the written part, but the tech Cause

it was interesting cause it makes you ensure that when you do talk

about things, that it's correct.

Yeah, and I still have some of the books too with my name in there

and everything, that's awesome.

It was pretty interesting.

I'm sure it also gave you a really good foundation to you probably already

know this, going into that, but the foundation of how things work, how

things are connecting, making that things are building an appropriately

fitted where I don't have that, like my, I, I don't, my details are,

Even though I put it on my reserv.

Great attention to detail.

Yeah.

Not me.

. Oh I'm terrible about that.

When I wrote the book, first thing I did, I started looking

through all the contracts.

Cause I wanted to reach back out to the lady I was working with,

the publishing I didn't about publishing book up on, on LinkedIn

or I think I got rid of them all.

And, oh, I gotta start from beginning to figure out how I,

how am I gonna get this book out?

Cause like you, I just don't think I have the wherewithal

to do a self-published book.

Yeah, I wouldn't know.

So I got a publisher.

It's just easier for me to do that.

Cause now I can concentrate on other stuff.

But the marketing is key, right?

Yeah.

The marketing is key.

I tell everybody that if you look at a pie, divide the pie in three.

One third is a book, The other two thirds, That's the market.

That's, that is getting the book out there.

That figure you see all these events, you can go to the right event.

Just don't go to an event and be sitting there.

Cause you might get discouraged because that is not the demographics

that you're going after in your book.

Yeah.

Like you don't wanna go to the romance writer's retreat

when you're writing suspense.

Exactly, yeah.

You don't, you want to go to that.

Effective use of time and resources and money.

Is key because if you have something else you wanna write about, don't

get discouraged based on the first.

Hundred percent.

That's great advice, especially if I was discouraged about

the turnaround, the market and everything from my first seven books.

Granted, they were packaged together, but still I would not have continued writing.

But even since then, I've, I'm publishing one, I have another one

published that will be published either late next year, early 25.

Oh good.

Or, and then I.

Another book in progress or two other books in progress.

The writing just continues.

You just find that, yep.

Over speaking and roll with it.

Get getting a rhythm or a frame of mind or.

I'm not for sure what you call it, but Yeah, but just like you, you had an

idea for a story and it just you hadn't written a story before, but then all

of a sudden, boom, you had the idea.

No, tell a lot of them get it.

I tell.

There you go.

Feeling right?

I was like, So you should write a book.

I did.

So yeah, I'm gonna get a trench coat and carry 'em in there and say, book.

Anybody want a book?

Hard, hard cover, soft cover.

Who wants.

Yeah, . Doug's been great.

So tell us again the title and where we can get it and where people can reach

out to you to learn more about you.

All your social media.

So I said let's hear this.

Yeah.

So again, life between seconds.

And it's available wherever books are sold.

Amazon, Barnes and Noble.

Target again, Target.

All right.

And it comes out November 15th.

I am most active on LinkedIn and Instagram at Douglas Weisman,

so you can find me there.

If you type in Douglas Weisman travel writer on LinkedIn, easily find me.

And I will tell you that how we connected it through LinkedIn.

Yeah.

And if you've been to somewhere cool from a traveling perspective.

Reach out to dog tell him your experience because you never know.

You might not have been there.

Yeah.

I'm only at 48 countries trying to get 50 before I'm 40 and I still have

a lot more countries I wanna go to.

So that's 270 countries in the world.

Something like that.

Yeah.

I'm not interested in going to all of them, but I'm interested

in going to a lot of them.

Yeah, there's a couple I wouldn't.

Yeah, I have no interest in North Korea.

Oh yeah you probably shouldn't given your experience.

I probably given my experience, would wander over the border on accident because

that's just what happens to me sometimes.

, I've seen that happen in East Germany, West Germany.

So that's another story That's great.

Doug, I wanna thank you for taking the time today to be part of Author.

And again I'm excited about the book.

I love reading about your little travel stories too on LinkedIn when you start

talking about stuff that I think it helps people think that's the hope, right?

I'm trying to spark that idea and give people the how, not just the what.

Exactly.

Exactly.

Again, thank you very much and the most success, and again,

you get that book of target.

Yeah.

, thanks a lot.

Thank you so much.