My guest this week is Carissa Andrews, International Best-Selling author and creator of Author Revolution.
We talk about what she’s learned in the writing business in her years of being an Indie Author and why she’s focusing on author mindset in her podast and courses. Be sure to check then out!
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Transcript starts here:
Welcome to the Pencils and Lipstick Podcast, a weekly podcast for writers.
Grab a cup of coffee, perhaps some paper and pen, and enjoy an interview.
With an author, a chat with a.
Writing tool creator, perhaps a conversation with.
An editor or other publishing experts, as.
Well as cat thoughts on writing in her own creative journey. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry.
Well, hopefully not actually cry, but you will probably learn something. And I hope you’ll be inspired to write, because as I always say, you.
Have a story, you should write it down.
This is Pencils and Lipstick.
Kat (00:57)
Hello, creative writers. This is Kat Caldwell. Welcome to another episode of the Pencils and Lipstick podcast. We are on episode 136 and it is June 16 today, another rainy day in Virginia. Today I have a wonderful guest with me. I have Carissa Andrews. She is the hostess of the Author Revolution Podcast. I highly recommend that you go and find her. We are going to talk about her as a writer and her sort of switch into training authors on mindset, which I think is a very important thing. We need to have this sort of, yes, realistic, business minded mindset, but also we need to not have a poverty mindset. And as a person who struggles with that, I really enjoyed talking with Carissa about that. So I think that you’re going to have a great time listening to her. And then after this interview, you might want to become a subscriber of the Author Revolution Podcast. Speaking of subscribing, definitely hit the subscribe button on whatever app you are listening to this podcast. It really helps the show. It helps me get guests because I can show them how many people follow the show. It also helps in all the algorithm things.
Kat (02:24)
And it helps you because if you’re subscribed, usually the app that you listen to will let you know when a new episode goes up. And new episodes go up pretty much every Monday. Sometimes life gets in the way, but actually pretty rarely. But you’ll get a little reminder there, which will help, I guess, and you’ll be able to listen to all of the episodes. And I have quite a few really nice people coming in to talk to you besides Carissa. We talked to RJ next week about fantasy and how his experience with role playing games led him to writing this whole series, which is amazing. And CS Lakin comes in a couple of weeks after that and she has some really great advice and some really great courses if you are looking to hone your writing craft. So I think that you’re not going to want to miss any episode this summer at all. So this is the part one of the show when I sort of let you know what’s coming and I talk about my own writing. And just to remind you that in July, this part of the show will not be happening.
Kat (03:31)
So the episodes then will be either interviews or me. And there won’t be a first part because I will be in Spain with my kids. My husband’s family lives over there and so I take them every summer. And it’s just a lot to lug everything over to Spain, especially the way that travel is these days. If you don’t travel and you don’t follow the news about traveling, let me put you in on flights being canceled and luggage not making it, and luggage fees rising and all these things. So I don’t want to lose my microphone. And setting it up in my mother in law’s little apartment is difficult. It’s difficult to find a place where there isn’t a lot of noise and all that. So you will get a sort of prerecorded first part for the month of July and I guess we’ll all survive, right? So I’ll give you a rundown of how Spain was, how my travels are, what my plans are for the fall when I get back. So right now I am 730 words into this next book.
Kat (04:45)
So.
Kat (04:48)
At the same time of doing the book, I’ve decided to get officially certified as a book coach. And I chose to do it through author accelerator. I think if you have ever thought about being a book coach as a business or you really want sort of an indepth way to look at story structure and how to give advice back to people, it’s much cheaper than an MFA, just letting you know. And I think the program is really good. Jenny Nash is the one who set it up. She’s good friends with Lisa Crone, who you all know that I love her books and I wouldn’t be surprised if they sort of put this together, the two of them. I don’t know that. But the blueprint is very good. The whole course is very good. And the people in there are really nice. And I’m excited. I’m excited to get to dive a little bit deeper into the craft. I’m excited to get the vocabulary correct. On giving feedback to people in their books. A lot of times when you’re reading books or manuscripts, really, because it’s before they’re published, you know that things aren’t working. And you could sort of go through and painfully, line by line or paragraph by paragraph, sort of show them different things.
Kat (06:09)
But it would be a lot easier to be able to teach them things like dialogue or show Don’t Tell or the emotional resonance of characters and things like that and teach them the overall idea about it and then sort of give the book back and have them work on it instead of going paragraph by paragraph because that’s not very realistic. And it’s not also very realistic to just tell them, well, this isn’t working because that’s not what people want. That’s not helpful. So I’m looking to become a little more helpful and it is helping me look at my own writing which I think is fabulous. And so as I get through this book, I said all that to say part of the blueprint is to brainstorm book titles pretty much from the beginning, and I get the concept of that, but I just can’t come up with the book title. I’m really bad at titles and I just can’t come up with something yet.
Kat (07:07)
I don’t know.
Kat (07:08)
I’m going to have to take some time to peruse the bookstore next week or something and try to come up with a title. So I do know that the key scenes of the book are there at 73,000 words. We’re coming up to the last 15,000 of the book. Of course, this is the very roughest of rough drafts, so things will get deleted and things will get moved around, but I still have to write the climax and I still have to really nail the ending. So I think that will give me another $8,000. And then what is missing so far in this book, and I know it is, are some transitions from scene to scene. So I decided to really clunk out the key scenes of what I really wanted to have happen because I kept getting all these ideas of what I wanted to have happen. And I would write them down, yes, but they weren’t really getting like they were on my list of what to write, and yet it just didn’t seem to be getting there. And so I skipped the transitions altogether because I just seemed to get into like this hole of digging this whole deeper and deeper of things happening and not getting to the scenes that needed to be written.
Kat (08:31)
And so I went just straight away to the scenes. So I got those written. And so I do know that there are certain transitions that are missing. And I know that the girlfriend needs to be brought in a bit and the friend needs to be brought in a bit, and quite possibly the mother as well. So I’ve really focused on the main character, who I’ve decided to name, Tristan. And so I do know that the other characters need to be called out a little bit more. And I have to ride that line with the girlfriend of Likable, but not Likable enough that they want her to stick around. And why? Because there’s a sequel to this book and I need people to not care that he’s going to move on to meeting Scarlett. I love that name, Scarlett. So the second book is actually quite a lot plotted out. That is the book that I started last year, last summer I was working on. And that’s when I decided that Tristan, who formerly known as Tread, needed his own story. And so that’s kind of why I already have Scarlett’s novel or story sort of already plotted out.
Kat (09:48)
And I’m really looking forward to getting to her story. I like her story a lot, and I like how they are going to get together. So I need this current girlfriend to be likable enough that people don’t groan when she comes onto the page, but that they’re sort of like, yeah.
Kat (10:10)
She’s not right for you, Tristan. Just wait, you’re going to meet Scarlett. So this is kind of a fine line because it’s easy to write people as almost caricatures of the worst part of them when you kind of need to get rid of them. So I’m trying not to do that, but we are almost there. I was hoping to get it done before we leave for Spain. I think that I can get all the chunks done up in the climax, the last scene, so all those sort of everything filled in and have a good idea of how many words is going to be. And then my plan is to leave it alone for an entire month. And this will be new for me and it will be hard for me, I think, but I am going to completely leave it here. I am not going to allow it to be on my laptop and it’s going to stay here and it’s going to ferment. And the idea is that my brain forgets about it. And so when I open it again in August, I will have fresher eyes. I will also have gone through more of the author accelerator coaching course for the fiction coaching, and I will have spent more time reading a couple of books that I have coming in, reading a few books on short storytelling writing.
Kat (11:45)
And so I really think that I’ll have sort of different eyes and fresher eyes, and I’ll be able to dive into the book and really hone in on certain characters, really focus on them. My plan is to take one character and go through everything that they’re in and really focus on their reactions and what they add to the book, and then go sort of through the overall book, all that stuff. At that point, the year will be halfway over. My other plan for Spain while I’m there, is to research my historical fiction, which I’m also very excited to start writing. So it’s going to be this weird balance of trying not to write a whole lot. But I do need to do a little more research in Spain. It is not the historical novel in the sense that it’s going to be playing off of all the events that are happening in Spain. In fact, during those years, there is a sort of mini civil war in Spain and I won’t be talking too much about that because really what my focus is on at this point is the relationship between the characters. And so I’ll have to be doing a little bit of research, though, because I don’t want for it to come off as ignorant or too fantastical.
Kat (13:06)
So I will be doing that if you want to follow my sort of journey in spain. I will be putting up pictures at my author Instagram. Atkatcaldwell author. I’ll be putting up stories and pictures. I love the area that my husband’s family is from. He’s from Castillo, Leone, from a town called belitt. The main character is going to be from Samora, which is a beautiful little town in Castillo Leon. And so I really hope to catch a bus and get out there at least for one day and take a lot of pictures and go through the museums and remind myself of stuff and hopefully talk to a wine vendor. So that should be fun. As the thunder rolls in, maybe that’s not a good idea. This guy is thundering at me for wanting to go drink wine. So those are my plans. I told you I picked up a few short story books, books on short story writing. I’m going to be looking over those. It dawned on me the other day I was in a new writing group, meeting people and talking to them, and it dawned on me that very few of us write short stories.
Kat (14:27)
So I want to encourage you this summer to write at least one short story. It will really help you hone the craft because the short story is about one slice of time, like one thing happening and the protagonist’s reaction to it. Right. There are lots of ways in which you can do it. In fact, one of the most fun ways to write a short story is to get online, read a couple short stories, find one that you like, and then just try to copy the form of it.
Kat (15:02)
Right?
Kat (15:03)
So I read a short story the other day where it was 15 number, so one to 15, and then just like 15 beats of the theme. So you pick a theme summer and you go through and you sort of remember the main thing that happened in your summer. You could even go from like number one is the summer when you were twelve and you got to fly to your grandma for the first time. I don’t know. And then go maybe every year from there. Or maybe 15 things that have happened this summer. Like my daughter choking on her chicken. That’s one thing right there. You know, finding this structure, this form of a short story, and just trying to copy it, and it’s just you learning. It’s just you seeing what that writer is doing. If it’s published, more likely than not, they’re a little bit ahead of you on the short story writing. Right. So you can learn from them. But I encourage you to write a short story. It’s different than a blog post. It’s different than a chapter in a novel. A short story is one thing has happened, it has impacted somebody, and then there is this, like, coming to terms with it or this reaction to it.
Kat (16:27)
Yeah. Or this theme that has come through their life and this conclusion you can find a lot of short stories on the internet and I just encourage you to try it out. We will be talking a lot about short stories in August. I’ll have a couple of guests on to talk specifically about short stories and if you want to know even more of my thoughts, you can join my writer’s newsletter. The link is in the Show Notes and you will get more information about what my thoughts are during the summer on short stories and short story writing. So all the links will be in the Show Notes for myself, for Carissa, for her podcast The Author Revolution. All the links will be right in the Show Notes. You can also head over to Pencilsandlipstickall Spelled Out.com and you can find all the episodes there plus the transcripts. The link for the transcript should also be in The Show Notes. If you want to sponsor or support the show, you can buy me a coffee or you can become a patron. A patron really helps us continue the podcast. Christie and I, my editor, this takes a little bit of time, although we love it, but it definitely makes sure that we are caffeinated and we are ready to go with the podcast.
Kat (17:48)
And so if you want to make sure that pencils and lipstick keeps going, become patron or just support us by buying us a coffee and we super appreciate it. There are a couple of little gifts that you get if you become a patron monthly or buy me a coffee monthly. You get discounts on my courses. It’s a place to find my courses as well. You get a couple of different blog posts and things that are up there and it’s a nice place to put up what your book is about. And I will talk about your book on the show this week. I want to highlight Madison Michael. You can find her@madisonmichael.net. She is a steamy romance author. I talked to her a couple of weeks ago about her writing, but she has come out with the full set of her romance books. I want you to check them out. The links will be in the Show Notes. If you like romance, if you like steamy romance, you are going to love Madison Michael. Now with all that said, let’s get into the interview with Carissa. Carissa Andrews is shaking up the self publishing industry as the founder of Author Revolution, an online academy dedicated to helping indie authors break their poverty mindset and manifest their millionaire author destiny.
Kat (19:19)
As the award winning and international best selling author of more than 20 books and the host of the acclaimed Author Revolution podcast, she knows how to shift her students beliefs so they can achieve the massive success they’ve been creating since its creation in 2019. Her company has taught thousands of students how to supercharge their author careers by leveraging specific mindset and manifestation techniques as well as providing step by step strategies for writing and publishing their books faster. Carissa is a proponent of the law of attraction and practical manifestation, which she infuses into everything she teaches. Her highly anticipated Millionaire Author manifestation course comes out later this year, 2022, and will revolutionize the way authors actualize their careers.
Kat (20:10)
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Pencils&Lipstick. I am super excited to talk to Carissa Andrews because I have listened to her podcast for a while. Let’s just say I don’t want to age my doctor. How are you doing?
Carissa (20:25)
Hello. I’m so glad to be here, Kat.
Kat (20:28)
I might be putting my age out there. If I say that anyway, that’s fine.
Carissa (20:33)
I love it.
Kat (20:34)
So for anyone I don’t know who it would be who doesn’t know you, would you tell us just a little bit about yourself? Where are you from? And I don’t know something about you?
Carissa (20:43)
Absolutely. So my name is Karissa Andrews. Obviously, I write a combination of scifi, paranormal fantasy, and, I guess urban fantasy, but I also do a lot of nonfiction work. So I have one nonfiction title that’s out, one that’s in the works, and then I do a bunch of courses and coaching and a podcast.
Kat (21:02)
Oh, my gosh, you’re busier than me. Okay.
Carissa (21:05)
And you have kids.
Kat (21:06)
Oh, my gosh.
Carissa (21:07)
We’re busy with the kids house.
Kat (21:08)
Yeah, we could just keep adding ants on there. So let’s first of all get into, like, writing. Why did you start writing and why did you want to write books?
Carissa (21:21)
The short answer to that I first got into writing because my best friend told me, too, well, good for her.
Kat (21:27)
For him.
Carissa (21:29)
I’m so glad that you did. Like most kids, when you’re younger, you like the angsty poetry and you write a lot of stuff. And so I actually did write my first novel when I was 14 years old. I gave it to my teacher, my English teacher at the time, because I loved her and she was great and blessed the woman, because she actually read the whole thing and said it was good and encouraged me to continue to do what I was teaching. Yeah. But I kind of let it go by the wayside through my high school career and then obviously going into college. I have a background in ancient art history and literature, so it’s an interdisciplinary studies degree rather than writing. I was going to be an archeologist. I swear to God, I was going to be an archaeologist. My dad was like, you’re nuts. It all came in useful because I used it in all of my books. But I ended up going back to school, and my son was I guess he must have been a year and a half old and went to school for graphic design.
Kat (22:23)
Wow.
Carissa (22:23)
So my mom’s an artist. I’ve been surrounded by art my whole life, writers and artists alike. And so it was kind of natural for me to kind of just go into what felt right. My dad was a tech person, so he was working for IBM when I was a kid, so we’ve always been around technology. And so it kind of felt like a blending of like, my dad and my mom in a sense. But I hated the corporate realm of it. I hated it. And so that’s where my best friend came in. I was in a lunch date with her and I’m like, Sherry, oh my gosh, I hate this. I hate it so much. What do I do? And she was just like, Oh, you’re just why did you do that writing thing you like to do? Why don’t you start a blog? And so I started a blog and the next thing I know, I was like, I feel like I want to write a book. Well, you should write a book. And here’s an idea. And she wanted me to write some sort of romance story about a ghost falling in love with a woman.
Carissa (23:14)
And I kind of tinkered around with it and literally like a week later, I got the idea for Pandamas. It landed in my head like it was a download and I never looked back. And Sherry is still probably wondering where that ghost romance story is. Yeah, she’s like, by the way, you ended my story.
Kat (23:32)
Oh my goodness. So at what point did you quit working?
Carissa (23:37)
Oh, gosh, let’s see. I have been working from home since 2014. I was pregnant with my youngest son, so he’s now seven and a half, which is craziness. I did a lot of freelance in the beginning, though, so I don’t know if it’s considered completely quitting. It was more kind of everything worked from home and I was still doing writing and graphic design as a freelance package, but it evolved into author revolution. I would say probably right around 20 17, 20 18. OK. Is when I started getting the inklings of teaching others about indie authorship and what I was learning. Which is kind of funny because I was coming out with my second and third books in 2017 because I had written Pandamas. That was the first book, that one that landed in my head way back in 2010, actually. And it didn’t publish until 2013 because I went through a divorce, I went through a remarriage, then had moved houses, had the kid. There was a lot of craziness and upheaval in that life at the time. And so it was kind of like 2017. I’d been learning that entire time. I had gone through the motions of understanding how the industry had been changing, keeping up with this idea of keywords what the heck is this?
Carissa (24:50)
And promos and promo stack. I was trying to figure it all out just from the outside and yeah, and it was kind of me showing other authors how they were doing stuff and eventually there was a precipice where I’m like, no, okay, I’m done, I got to do my own writing and do my own books. So 2017 happened, and I started rapid releasing at the end of that year and haven’t looked back.
Kat (25:12)
So that whole time you were writing, you must have been writing the whole time.
Carissa (25:16)
Oh, yeah, I was still writing. It was kind of funny though. I was looking at trying to create online courses at the time, so I was following Amy Porterfield, like, even in 2015, when she was first transitioning from I think she was like the Facebook guru to becoming the digital course guru. I was following her at the time and I was looking at doing courses, online courses, and I was still teaching more in person at the time, like the writers club here in town or the library and things like that. And it kind of just expanded outward from there.
Kat (25:44)
Nice. You were ahead of Covet then. You knew that you were going.
Carissa (25:49)
Thankfully, yes.
Kat (25:51)
That’s cool. So what was this idea? I’ll have to say, like, I came out with mine in 2017. So you’re like seven years ahead of me where you knew right away that you wanted to do indie publishing.
Carissa (26:07)
That’s a tough one, I would say. No, actually, when I first started, I was really fascinated by it, and I was like, this is really cool. But it was 2010 and so there was still that kind of stigma at the time where people were like, why would you self publish? You should be going to these bigger conferences and trying to get an agent and whatever. And I did actually, as the only science fiction author, go to moonlight and Magnolias down in Georgia in 2011 because my critique group was all romance authors, and I was the only Sci-Fi nerd going to this romance conference, which was funny, but it was in talking with them, my critique group, where they were so adamant about how the India author industry was going to shift. And I actually come from a long line of understanding the print industry. So even before I started writing, my first jobs were in a bookstore. I worked for the local bookstore here in town. I ended up working for Walden Books in Duluth, Minnesota, which is a much larger town than I grew up in. I ended up going and working for publishers, for printers.
Carissa (27:10)
And so it’s like I’ve tap danced around the entire publishing industry since I was probably about 14 years old. And so once it clicked, once I thought, you know what, I could probably do this. I’m a tech person, I could learn this thing. But before Marie Forleo and her saying, everything is figure out about right, I kind of just bit the bullet and started doing it. And I fell in love with the process to the point where it was like I just couldn’t see myself ever trying to go back.
Kat (27:42)
Right, okay, that’s cool. So, I mean, that’s still early that’s like, ebooks are there, but it’s the mobi format. I’m not even sure if print on demand was really a thing. You still had to order a bunch of books.
Carissa (27:55)
Right?
Kat (27:55)
And then it was still there.
Carissa (27:59)
Yeah, it was crazy space back in the day.
Kat (28:00)
That’s right, it was crazy.
Carissa (28:02)
And it wasn’t like the best it was wonky. You could get yourself it was weird. It was a weird process, and it got better. But we didn’t have pre order options at first. And then we finally had, like, three months, but everyone else, like, the traditionally published authors had a year, and we’re like, what? Yeah. So there’s a lot of weird things that we kind of had to tinker around with or tap dance around. We didn’t have Amazon ads at first, and Facebook ads were just a pain in the butt. And so there was a lot of really trying to figure out how this is going to work. And I think that’s when Instafreeb came about. Now, prolific work. So it’s like there’s so many different things where authors were really trying to figure out how do they get the word out about their books back then?
Kat (28:45)
Yeah, that was the biggest problem because all the traditional publishers had still did, like, press releases and word of mouth, and they could get into the bookstore. And I remember going to a bookstore with my way back, and they were like, we don’t understand this bar code because it was like 2004 at the time.
Carissa (29:07)
Oh, sure.
Kat (29:08)
You have no idea what’s going on. Your Google was not that great. My kids don’t believe me. That Google was not that great.
Carissa (29:15)
Right.
Kat (29:17)
You didn’t have the formatting. Like, getting your formatted, your book formatted, was, like, mind blowing.
Carissa (29:25)
It has evolved so much since the beginning. I am so glad and grateful for whoever created Zelem. I don’t know the name of the individual, but I’m so glad that those developers do that. Vellum revolutionized everything. I mean, Scrutiny was a step up, too, don’t get me wrong, but it’s still a wonky process to try to use scriptner to format your books. But Vellum has been great, and then Atticus now is taking another step further. So it’s just been fun.
Kat (29:50)
Yes, it is fun to see those people who know how to do that stuff.
Carissa (29:54)
Yes.
Kat (29:54)
If you relied on me, we would all still be weighing.
Carissa (29:59)
In our stone tablets.
Kat (30:06)
How did it go with you? Get a download on your first book. Did that happen with your second and third book? How was that process?
Carissa (30:16)
No, I would say that the second and third books, so those were the next two books in that same series. It was so weird because the first book, I totally pants it. I was a panther completely. And I thought, no, this is the greatest way to do it. And then you spend three years when you’re moving houses and divorcing, and you got up and evil and you’re trying to remember, what in the heck did you actually write? Or what were you trying to write? And it’s like, I can’t pass this thing. I need a format or something because I have no clue what I’m doing. So the next two books I did skeletal outline for, and that helped just because I did so like myself. I actually did understand where I wanted to go with the books. So it was easier to create then the outline, or at least a loose outline for the two books. And they came out pretty quickly. I mean, I was able to write them almost as easily as the first book, but since that time frame, I’ve gotten faster at outlining and faster at almost hybrid creation. So rather than panting, rather than plotting, it’s kind of a combination of both.
Carissa (31:16)
And I really just kind of let fly whatever needs to fly. But I understand story structure so much better than I used to. So it’s so much easier. Even if I didn’t write down the outline, I understand the outline, what needs to happen.
Kat (31:29)
Sure.
Carissa (31:30)
Yeah.
Kat (31:30)
So did you know that you were.
Carissa (31:32)
Going to do a series for the first one? Yeah, I think it was probably it must have been like two chapters. And then this story is going to be bigger than one book. Interesting. I can tell.
Kat (31:44)
Is it because you had read series before? Like, you knew the fantasy job?
Carissa (31:49)
Yeah, I’ve always been a reader for me, obviously, that’s why I worked in a bookstore. My dad kept trying to get me to work in the grocery store. I’m like, no, it has to be the bookstore. I need the discount, dad, I need the discount. Which never works because I came home with less money than I ever got paid. That is just dangerous. It is. It’s horrible. If you’re ever a book lover, don’t work in a bookstore. It’s bad. It’s not a good thing in a library. That would be much better, but much better twice. But yeah, it was an interesting time. So you kind of knew what the.
Kat (32:26)
Fantasy Sci-Fi genre, like, the structure needed to be in order to know where to stop. That’s my thought. When you’re like a new writer, do you think that came from just having Red series and you sort of knew like, the natural endings to where Sci-Fi fantasy stops?
Carissa (32:46)
If I’m not totally honest, I would say I was a complete lost mess in that first one where I’m like, is it even right? Is this even a storyline? I was asking all those same questions, like, how do I know if I did this right? What is the arc? Like, what is the climax of this book? What is happening here?
Kat (33:04)
That’s a pretty big deal. Like, what’s the book arc? What’s the series arc?
Carissa (33:08)
Where are the characters?
Kat (33:09)
Can I just kill one off?
Carissa (33:11)
Absolutely. And I did that. Sorry. Guys. But yeah, it was one of those things where I think every author goes through that phase where you have no clue if you’re doing it right and you have to just push through it anyway and hope for the best. Because you do get better at it. You do learn it more and you don’t know what you don’t know. So until you do that full cycle of writing and publishing the entire book, you don’t understand the process. It’s like it’s there abstractly, yes, but it’s not really there until it’s done. And you go, Oh, that’s what I missed. Or Oh, that’s how I could have done that better. It’s so weird. But you’ve got to take that first step and just leave.
Kat (33:51)
Yeah, it’s true. And especially in the indie world, if you wait around to publish your book until it’s perfect.
Carissa (34:01)
Forever.
Kat (34:02)
So then how did you come up with rapid release? Was that a thing that was happening? Was that a name of it? Or did you just come out with them right away? Oh, got you. Or let’s actually tell people what is rapid release?
Carissa (34:16)
Sure. Well, rapid releasing is literally just the process of which you’re going to publish your books. So it’s rapid releasing your books, meaning you’re going to publish one book and between two and maybe six weeks, hypothetically, you’re going to be publishing your next book.
Kat (34:30)
Oh, weeks.
Carissa (34:32)
Yeah, it could be like one a month. It could be one every six weeks, it could be one every other month. You can actually space them out, though, to the point where you’re doing one a quarter. And that’s actually how I teach rapid releasing. When I started creating the course for Rapid Release Roadmap, it was kind of one of those weird things where it was me trying to teach myself, like, what is the best method of doing this where you’re not going to feel crazy doing it? Because I’ve been involved in the 20 books to 50K Facebook group, fantastic group, so inspirational. But I kept feeling like I was falling behind or I wasn’t doing it right if I wasn’t publishing a book a month. And when you have a lot of things, if you have a day job, or if you have clients, or if you have a bazillion kids running around your house, it’s hard to do a book a month without going completely formulaic. And that just wasn’t me. And so for me, I was trying to figure out how can you do this in a way that is sustainable and feels good and feels like something you can kind of repeat every single year without it being overwhelming.
Carissa (35:35)
And so that’s the way I teach rapid release, where it’s a book a quarter or you write it a book a quarter and you rapid release it, meaning a book a month, like at the end of the year you started in January, you’ll rapid release everything at the end of the year once a month, and then next year you’ll do the same thing. Writing in a series is definitely the best way to do that because now you’ve created the world once. You don’t have to recreate everything from the start. It’s not recreating the wheel and coming up with brand new characters, although you might have new characters in your series, but it’s definitely a lot faster than with the ideation and the generation of the words and the worlds than it is if you’re trying to go from scratch. Every single book.
Kat (36:15)
That is the biggest point, I think, that you have to realize all of those of us who messed up and.
Carissa (36:22)
Didn’T do series and series are so beneficial for readers, too, because, I mean, if you want to tap into, let’s say, the cumulon limited market, those readers are voracious and they want a series. And so even if you’re not great at rapid releasing in the beginning, or if it takes you some time to kind of get up to speed to be able to rapid release, maybe you start with a book a year and then you bump it up to two books a year, and then you bump it up to three books a year. However, you can do it as long as it gets to the point where you have that series of books. Now you’ve got this evergreen backlist that you can start promoting and new readers come into it. They don’t know that it took you four years to put out this series and they can just start, finish and blaze right on through it. And it’s fantastic for them. So a series is just really beneficial in so many ways. Absolutely, yes.
Kat (37:12)
And I think mental health for the author, it’s beneficial.
Carissa (37:15)
Yes. That is key. It is absolutely key. Yes.
Kat (37:20)
I had no idea about series, and I’m going back and building it out. But if you just think about, like, Marvel, how you have the side character stories, if you get bored with one thing, you can go, I’m a big Loki fan, so I’m like, I just want to know more about Loki.
Carissa (37:35)
I don’t care about the rest of you. Are you an antihero? I guess. What’s going on here?
Kat (37:41)
I guess I want them to win, which is terrible, right? But anyway, that’s okay.
Carissa (37:45)
I like deadpool. It’s all good.
Kat (37:49)
But if you think about it kind of like that and just like the business model of it, right, and just not having to create a new world except that you can, right? You can come up with that guy that listens to music all the time, the Galaxy Guardian guys. You can go and create another world if you get bored. But I do think that the hardest part of getting the gears up on a book is starting all new characters, all new place, all new story. It can be fun, but it might take a bit longer. So when people see the 20 books, the 50K, sometimes I warn them, like that usually means.
Carissa (38:36)
Absolutely. The really successful ones are probably romance authors or they’re probably mystery authors, one or the other, because those are the ones that are just blazing them out. And they’re, I think, probably the ones that are best to have that formula as well when it comes to their stories. Because readers don’t want you to deviate too far from that. They don’t want to read a romance that’s not a happily ever after. Right. They don’t want that. There are specific tropes. There are specific themes that are expected in those two genres that are key. And so if you know what those are and you understand the overall arc and how to implement it, you can knock those out pretty quickly. But when it comes to the 20 books to 50K, they can seem so daunting because they really do push that whole mentality that your next book is going to be the big thing that’s going to push your backlist and make that go forward. The next book keep going because you fail faster is basically their idea. Put the books out there, fail faster, move on to the next one. Fail faster so that you eventually get to the series or the book that will click and really catapult your author’s success.
Carissa (39:44)
That’s kind of the idea behind. But the problem that I found is that with high achievers, and I think many creatives are high achievers, they really take that to heart and then perfectionism kicks in and the next thing you know, they are burning out and they’re going crazy because they can’t keep up. And then they feel like they’re the failure because they’re not doing the thing that other people are saying is the.
Kat (40:11)
Best way to do it right?
Carissa (40:12)
And so that’s kind of like the opposite of everything that I stand for. That’s not what I want to teach. And so that’s kind of where I diverged. I think originally it was me trying to figure out how to do that thing, but that’s where I ended up diverging and going, you know what? This is insane. This isn’t healthy for an author’s mind. And you need that time to have, I don’t know, the mystery of life unfold in front of you. So you get inspired. So you see the world in different ways and have so many different new and unique concepts want to come through you. And you can’t do that if you’re in burnout. You’re just going through the motions.
Kat (40:53)
Yeah, that sounds a little bit like you’re just trying to get out. What does it take? I’m going to mess this up, but it takes so many hours to be an expert. What does he say?
Carissa (41:03)
Wanted to take 10,000 hours, right? Yes. I think it’s 10,000.
Kat (41:08)
So it’s almost like you’re just turning out words in order to really learn the structure of storytelling and get it right. And just publish the books, and then by the 20th, you’re better. And I don’t know if that’s really but that’s almost the mindset where you’re like, well, it could be different. You could learn what storytelling is.
Carissa (41:30)
It doesn’t have to be a struggle. It’s a process that you learn, and you learn it through understanding things by coaches courses, podcasts, obviously, YouTube videos, talking to friends, going to a writers group. There are all sorts of ways that you can up level, and it doesn’t have to just be the ideation. Part of it where I really think that we’re still social creatures, and that’s why we want that validation from our readers so that we know that we’re doing a good job. But you can get that validation too, by talking with your spouse about the latest book that you’re trying to write or by trying to go to your local writers group and do different things there, because some of them will have critique groups or they’ll have time for you to talk about your challenges or the things that you’re working on. I know that we do that in my Facebook groups as well, where we have a monthly call where we get in there and we’re like, okay, so what’s going on this month? What are you seeing? What’s been challenging? How can we help you get better at whatever it is you’re working on?
Carissa (42:31)
And that can really, I don’t know, drastically shift you without it having to be just go.
Kat (42:39)
Yes. Because I do think you’re right. I think creatives are high achievers and then just America in general.
Carissa (42:45)
Yes. Although I have people from all over the world who are in my courses, and it’s so crazy that it’s prevalent everywhere. I’m seeing that everywhere, which is not good. Don’t be like us. No, I mean, in some ways it’s good because you’re getting your backlift up. And I think there is validation in that because if you look at any of the studies by written word media, you’re seeing that if you want to earn a living from your writing, on average, it’s like 22 to 28 books in order to just hit a living, like 50,000 to 60,000 a year. And so if you want to push the envelope and get better, $100,000 to a million dollars a year, you probably will need to have more books in your backlist, but it’s only because you’re having more entry points then for readers to find you. So it’s just all these different avenues and all these different ways to be able to market different worlds, different books, different series, and it just gives you more options.
Kat (43:37)
Right. We just have to have that balance. Right. So you don’t want to spend ten years writing one book thinking that it’s going to catapult you into being a millionaire, which these days, I don’t know if that still happens.
Carissa (43:52)
It definitely could. Look at what Brandon Sanderson did with.
Kat (43:55)
His that was just very smart.
Carissa (44:00)
He did it.
Kat (44:01)
And he was really cool about going in to Kickstarter and then helping other people who are doing their books. But that just goes to show he wasn’t the only person trying to use Kickstarter to get their book going.
Carissa (44:16)
Yeah, he was just really knew how to do it.
Kat (44:19)
He did a really great job. Yeah, I would love to know how I would assume it.
Carissa (44:26)
Is it like an event? Yeah, he treated like the epic event it was. And he created the mystery around it. We all love and crave that mystery aspect of it. And so he nailed it, right? He did great.
Kat (44:36)
It wasn’t just like, oh, I’m going to start a Kickstarter and everybody donate. There’s a planning that goes into it. There’s all that. Yes, that is true. There’s like some of that, but the majority of us fall into that middle of there are some years, there’s some work, but we don’t want to burn out. So when you start it, you started with Rapid Release, 2017. When did you start with the podcast and teaching other so you’re teaching locally, but was that then the idea of, I’m going to make this part, like, I really want to share this with people outside of my locale. Was that happening in 2017 as well?
Carissa (45:15)
2017 is where I was still I think I was still teaching in the libraries and I was teaching for my local writers group. 2019 is when I officially established Author Revolution. And so I was doing it before then. I had created an online course, I think January of 2018, which would have been indie publishing fundamentals. And that was just kind of helping the indie author community understand the process of publishing from start to finish. Because especially in my local community, they had no idea that this was even a thing. They were still like, you have to wait for your words and you have to do the whole query thing. And was like, no, there’s other options. Let me show you how. And there were people that were like, okay, I wish I could go back and review it. And so that’s where the idea of doing a digital course actually this is going to happen. Even though I had the desire to do a digital course back in probably 2015, it didn’t actually happen until 2018 before it became a thing for me. And then Rapid Release Roadmap, I think came out early 2020. But I was in the process of working on that course for quite a while.
Carissa (46:19)
But because originally I had planned let’s do this, where I’m showing you all the different ways to rapid release, because there are a number of ways. Obviously, you can do it two weeks apart. You could drop them all in one go. You could drop them every other month. There’s all these different options and they all have different validations behind them. But the more I was looking at it, the more I’m like, no, I need to show them how to do this in a way that is going to keep and preserve their sanity and their creativity. Because, holy cow, the more that I was talking to, the more like, this is not working for anybody. And so why would I teach this? I need to show them how to do it without going crazy.
Kat (46:54)
So what did you do with your first rapid release? Were you doing it kind of every six months? How many books did you have come out after you had the first one? 2013, and then 2017, how many books did you have ready to go?
Carissa (47:06)
So when I released, I had the next two books in the Panama’s Chronicles ready to go by the time they released. So I had written in 2016, Nano, I had written book two and then gone straight into book three. In the beginning part of that 2017 year, I waited until September and October of 2017 to publish them. And even then, it was so weird. The books were done, and I still felt like I was a completely stressed laden, like, headless chicken trying to market both of those books at the same time. Because it literally was like, one is coming out, the next one is coming out next month. So you’re marketing both saying, guys, this is, like, happening. These two things are happening right now.
Kat (47:46)
But did it work out well? Was it worth it?
Carissa (47:50)
Oh, yeah.
Kat (47:50)
The idea is really because for anyone who might not know so you have the first one, so you’re kind of grabbing people. If you haven’t read the first one, you kind of got to start out that ramp up that marketing, right?
Carissa (48:01)
Like, you got to read the first.
Kat (48:02)
One because my second one’s coming. So how many months do you think you spent on just, like, marketing, just.
Carissa (48:08)
Getting oh, gosh, for that first series, I spent a lot. So 2017, as I was writing probably Revolutions at that point, that’s where I started teaching online. So Facebook lives became a thing in 2017. And so it was so funny because I was doing these Facebook lives thinking, I’m just getting my readers excited about my book, and I’m teaching about how to be an author. Like, I’m looking back at it going, how was I confused about this? But it was so funny. So I was doing kind of both where I was trying to ramp up the excitement for, finally, the next two books are coming out of this series. You won’t have to wait any longer, and it won’t be like three more years before book three comes, but it’s literally coming out the next month. And so, yeah, it was like the entire first part of 2017 was all dedicated to getting people back into book one to read it so that they were ready for book two and three. And then I actually had my next book come out in June of the following year. So even though those two books came out in September, October, june was when the next one came out.
Carissa (49:11)
And we knew that tightening and it wasn’t even written by that point, I had no idea what I didn’t even know what the next book was going to be when Revolution launched. So I’m like, there’s something I have no idea. But I pulled my audience through my newsletter and they were like, this is the one that sounds the best. And so that’s what I ran with. And it was done by June. Every year the books got tighter and I was able to do it faster. And 2018, I started adding in audiobooks into the mix and so it was just like more of the whole overall process started coming together and concretising. So yeah, it was quite interesting.
Kat (49:46)
That’s a lot of work. I mean, it’s a lot of okay, you still have to think about your writing and your marketing and now I need a break and it’s Christmas, but I actually have to write a book.
Carissa (49:56)
Yes, the book has to come out. I’m pretty sure I promised someone somewhere. Why not?
Kat (50:05)
And then you started a podcast at some point. When was that?
Carissa (50:08)
I did. I want to say it was the end of 2019. I just literally finished up episode 133, so whatever that makes that I’ve done a podcast every week, so whenever going backwards.
Kat (50:25)
Yeah. That’s amazing. See? Yeah, we were on the same wavelength.
Carissa (50:32)
Wavelength, that’s funny.
Kat (50:35)
So why did you then? Because I know. And then Covet hit. Right? I mean, it’s weird to think of it like that, like 2019, everything’s great and I was like, I’ve been learning all this stuff and I’m ready to tell everyone about it and I’m ready to learn from other people about what they’re doing. Everyone go home.
Carissa (50:56)
Stay in your house and don’t look out the window.
Kat (51:01)
Anyway, so it’s weird to think how quickly that happened because it feels like 2019 now. That’s a whole year. No, it’s like six months later. And I think I must have found you during Covet because I would go out and walk. I lived in Texas, so I was allowed to do that, unlike Spain. Anyway, right out there running or whatever. And I do remember you sort of had that shift on the podcast where.
Carissa (51:31)
Life obviously we had all these kids, it’s like they multiply and they came home and they wanted to be fed and they wanted to talk to all the time or you had to help them with their schoolwork and they’re like, what? What are you talking about? I have all this I know it’s nothing to do homework, but like all.
Kat (51:49)
Day school and mom, I think I have class and please put that camera away. I’m in the bathroom and all the time you’re trying not to go crazy. And I do think I don’t know about you, but I think at the beginning, because I didn’t believe it was going to be that long, I kind of got into some sort of content creating. Like, I’m really into journaling, so I was like, here, I’ll put up some journaling prompts and like, let’s get through this together.
Carissa (52:18)
It will probably be more than two.
Kat (52:19)
Weeks, but who knew it would be two years, right? You get into that content craziness and then you’re like, okay, so this is life and now I need to write a book. And I just remember you had the shift. So could you tell us a little bit about how did that happen? You had like, this mindset shift. You kind of did it on your podcast, which is great to see. And I was like, yeah, I’m not the only one.
Carissa (52:46)
Well, 2020 for me was really weird too, because I was right in the middle of my first solo listing. So I was trying to put out a title that I was hoping would be hitting New York Times USA Today Bestseller List. And while it didn’t happen, it was super close. And it was just one of those weird things, though, because I had so many in person events planned to promote the book as it came out, or as the series came out, because it rapid released. It came out September 15, and then every book after that was like three and a half weeks later. It was like four books had been written. And so the entire year was like, literally getting these four books written, ready to rock and roll come the end of the year. And in the middle of that, obviously covet hit, my father in law died. And so the timing of that was right when I was writing Haunted Legacy. And it was like the weird energy of that was going on. And it played actually really well into that particular book because it was Haunted Legacy and we’re dealing with death over here.
Carissa (53:45)
So it was like plus the whole, like, existential crisis. What happens with this? What happens if someone gets it? What happens if people here are getting sick? My husband has asthma. My kids were really stressed out about it because their dad is very anxious, so he takes anxiety to the Nth degree. And I think for them it was kind of weird because they’d oscillate between the two households and when they’d come back, they were just like, wrapped up in a ball. And so we really had to have some indepth conversations with them about life and death and explaining to them that you can’t be afraid of dying, you can’t be afraid of things ending because you don’t know when that will be. And so rather than creating stories about when it’s going to happen or how it’s going to happen, which may or may not ever come, you have to enjoy life as it is right now. And that was something that my mom taught me when I was much younger. I think it was five when we found out my brother was diagnosed with a terminal brain cancer. And so it was like my whole life I’ve kind of had that embedded in me, that you can’t fear the end just in case because you don’t know when that is.
Carissa (54:55)
People are dying. Yes, this is a scary concept. Yes. But it doesn’t have to own you and you don’t have to fall into it. And so I think from that, for me, I started, I guess, pivoting more towards that mindset, more towards the how do we bring joy in our life when things are dire, or how do we bring joy into our life anyway, or how do we enjoy things altogether. And I think I started falling into it was at the time, more of the money mindset. So I kind of started looking at denise Tuffel Thomas’s books, the chulpreneur and get rich lucky bitch. And then it was Amanda Francis and her crazy awesomeness. I mean, she’s just a neat lady. I love the way her energy is with riches buck and her podcast and her YouTube stuff and her courses. But from there it was like everything kind of kept pointing me back towards other things. So I got pointed back towards Abraham hicks and got pointed back towards Seth and started seeing more of the law of attraction aspects of things. And then I started putting things together in different ways. I’m actually a reiki master, and so for me, energy work has been really fascinating, and it put a lot of it into my magic systems, into my fantasy books.
Carissa (56:10)
And so it was like all of a sudden I started seeing this web of connection between law of attraction and everything that I’ve been doing, everything that’s been happening, how the in the author community is working and why the poverty mindset is so prevalent, why it’s so prevalent in not just authors, but in artists and people in general. So it was like it kind of started blooming outward and I started seeing more and more of how this is all connected and it kind of spiraled into doing more talks on law of attraction, more talks on manifestation, more talks on how to live your best life, how to aspire for more, how to reach for things that you may think are outside of your normal goal. And that’s kind of where the millionaire author destiny, the millionaire author coach, started coming from because it’s kind of that shock to the system where if people hear a millionaire author destiny, what does this check on about? She’s on crack or she’s completely cracked. I don’t know. What do they do? And the whole concept is to make them stop in their tracks and go, who does she think she is?
Carissa (57:11)
And the reason for it is because we are playing too small. All of us are reaching too small. We’re not reaching high enough to what we’re capable of pulling into our realities. And so I’m also a science person. My brother is a physicist, so we’ve got a lot of quantum physics talks and things like that that go on in our house. So it’s not just woo guys. But I’m seeing it from the science side. I’m seeing it from the law of attraction side. I’m seeing it from the woo side. And so there’s all these different aspects that are all kind of colliding in my brain. And it’s just been a really fascinating conversation to have with authors, and I’ve been so surprised at how many authors are interested in it. We had a Millionaire author challenge that went live in April, and I had like 250 people in this challenge, and of those people, 15 of them wanted to hop into me creating a full blown course. Literally, there was nothing built yet. I had just this idea, I’m like, should this thing be a thing? And 15 people paid as beta to come in and help me create it and help me design it.
Carissa (58:12)
And they’ve been just so instrumental as I’m building this thing out right now, it just blows my mind at how interested people are and how they’re reaching for feeling better and how they want to understand how to feel better. And that writing is completely a conduit for it.
Kat (58:30)
It’s just amazing.
Kat (58:31)
Yes, I’ve really enjoyed listening to you as you shifted on that and realizing that art has always taken the hit. I don’t know about you, but when I told my parents I wanted to be a writer when I was like, ten or something, they’re like, and for your real job, what will you do? Because it’s always been that idea of great, you know, write your poems or whatever, but that’s not going to make you any money.
Carissa (59:00)
And I do think that part of.
Kat (59:02)
How indie authors, we kind of got ourselves a little bit in a corner in which lots of people think that they should get our books for free.
Carissa (59:11)
I think there is some of that going on, although I think I had.
Kat (59:14)
A shift out of that.
Carissa (59:15)
Yeah, I think it is shifting, to be honest. I’m seeing it’s shifting where there are plenty of authors, especially indie authors, who are charging more for their books, who are realizing it’s okay to charge 499, 699 for their books. 999, some of them. You know what I mean? It just depends on the book and the genre and what they’re trying to accomplish, and readers are willing to pay for it. They’re starting to see. I think Kobe actually helped with that a lot because they realized that without authors, without the entertainers, their life is pretty meaningless when it comes to day to day stuff. Like, what do you do when you’re locked at home and you are being driven nuts by your kids? Like, what do you do, literally. And so people were reading and people were watching shows. Tik Tok came at the perfect time because everyone was stuck at home. People have realized there has been a shift. I’ve seen it where people are willing to pay more now for their entertainment. They’re understanding more why those books cost more. There is stuff going on there. And authors, they have to be willing to accept that for themselves, too.
Carissa (01:00:23)
So until they believe that their books are worth that, they won’t charge more. And if they don’t charge more, then they are kind of stuck in that energy of kind of feeling like, why am I not getting paid as much as other people are getting paid? But I know my books are just as good as their books, or feeling like, why am I not worthy enough of earning more than I am right now? Or feeling like they can’t do something that they feel inside they want to do. And so as we start to take a closer look at our choices, I would say our stories in our heads, what we blocked off, I think it was so weird. I was having a conversation with my husband this morning about how as we come in as kids, what’s the first thing that we did as kids? We were pretending, right? We had stories, we had Barbies. We had things that we do outside and play and we’d imagine, and we do all these creative things, and that’s how we come into the world. We come in telling all these stories and all these creative ideas and having all these neat things, and then eventually the adults in our life start to veer us towards now, you need to be practical.
Carissa (01:01:26)
You need to figure out how to do this thing. But we don’t realize that we’re coming in and everything around us, our needs were met when we were kids. I mean, yes, I understand the concept that you come in from your parents and they’re supposed to take care of you, but you come in and your needs are met. And so this can continue onward no matter where you go. Because when you think about it, you might have had moments where you’re like, oh, my God, this is like rock bottom. I’m going to die. This is like the most terrible thing ever. But it didn’t. Somehow, some way, the money from that yeah, somehow, some way, you’re here and things are okay. You survived and you did not die. And so we tell ourselves these stories, and it’s like, at a certain point, you have to tell yourself a different story. That’s literally the only shift that you have to do. As adults, we’re telling ourselves stories all the time. They’re just observing us.
Kat (01:02:16)
Right? So how much of it was a shift of, like, just mind? So it’s mindset and then work, right? We do have to have the right mindset because you do have to realize that your books are worthy of being pushed. I think one of our biggest problems with marketing is probably every author will say, I can market my friend’s book, no problem. I will push it. I will tell people they should buy it. I can’t do that for my own and that’s mindset, right?
Carissa (01:02:48)
Absolutely.
Kat (01:02:49)
You have to believe in your product, and we all struggle with it.
Carissa (01:02:54)
I think part of it is the fact that they think that they have to describe it in as much depth in detail as they know it. Yes. And the reason why it’s easier to talk about your friends and stuff is because you’re not as closely tied to it. You can disconnect your emotions from it and be like, this is amazing. Here’s why. And maybe it’s not the most amazing book in the world, but it’s pretty dang close, and so you’re willing to just share it to the world. And the rest of the readers can make their own minds up and they can decide for themselves what they want. But when it’s your own and you’re trying to go, this is the best book in the world, and you’re not quite sure it’s the best book in the world, but you think it’s kind of close, but you’re not quite sure, then it’s like you get locked up and you stop and you don’t do it because then it would be an attack on who you are. So we think you know what I mean. It’s your creative baby. It’s like, don’t you dare talk about my creative baby that way.
Carissa (01:03:42)
Yes. So we get stuck. It’s all limiting beliefs that are getting in the way and making things difficult. So it’s so weird. Manifestation, really. I’ve done this talk a couple of times now, too, for like, my challenge and other places. But manifestation is literally as simple as yes, you have to have the idea. So you have whatever it is, your goal is we’ll make it simple. Let’s say it’s spaghetti. You want spaghetti tonight, right? So you go to the cupboard to look for spaghetti. You get all your ingredients together. That’s the inspired action part of doing your spaghetti. You cook it, you do the work. Next thing you know, you’re sitting down, you’re eating spaghetti, right? What if? So you go to the cupboard and you don’t have spaghetti noodles or you don’t have tomato sauce. Now all of a sudden, there’s limiting beliefs in the way of being able to have your spaghetti, right? So you have choices. You either give up your spaghetti altogether, like some authors will do with their books, or you go to the store and you get the stuff to make spaghetti. And then you come home and you make spaghetti.
Carissa (01:04:42)
So you might require a couple of extra steps to do it, but you can still have your spaghetti at the end. Or you could just choose to have taco salad instead. Whatever you’ve got options. There’s always those options. But a manifestation. So your books, your marketing plan, whatever it is that you’re trying to do, it’s literally just have the goal, decide what it is you want, hold the vibe, knowing you can do it, knowing that you can figure it out, knowing that the correct steps are going to come to you. Knowing that everything that you need in order to make it happen is going to be there. And then taking the inspired action to get it done. And it’s literally that easy, right? We just get ourselves like crazy in the head.
Kat (01:05:22)
It’s funny, I think, because we’re creatives and we just take things too creatively too far.
Carissa (01:05:27)
We love a challenge. We love a challenge. I don’t know about you. My husband and I were talking about this. He writes stories as well and he was like, I don’t want them to be easy. I don’t want it to be easy. I want to figure it out. I want to be the guy that came up with a thing that was so crazy cool that people are like, how did he do that? And that’s how we are. We want to come up with that really crazy awesome idea that no one would have come up with before. And you can do that. You totally can do that. But you have to be open and willing to receive it.
Kat (01:05:55)
That’s true.
Kat (01:05:56)
That’s a good point.
Kat (01:05:58)
I like this. So yeah, just for people who think that manifestation is like you just sit in your corner and you expect it to just like happen.
Carissa (01:06:08)
You have to be a match to the thing you want. So the way it works is that you have the desire or whatever it is and you have to be a match for it coming. You know that the universe is going to give it to you no matter how or what it is you want, as long as you understand you can get it, you can find a way to match it, to bring it, to create it, to be open enough to a miracle happening. However it’s willing to come. You just have to be open and willing to receiving it. But if you start feeling like, okay, now I need to kind of I feel like I need to outline my book or I need to create a Facebook ad. If you start getting nudges towards something that is like your internal guidance system pointing you in the direction of what you’re supposed to do in order to make the thing you want to happen, happen.
Kat (01:06:53)
Interesting. I like this. So is the millionaire author manifestation course, which you can get on to. All the links will be in the show notes. But author revolution.org, you have kind of like a preliminary sign up, I’m interested thing there. Is that going to be mostly for writers? Only for writers. How is that going to work?
Carissa (01:07:10)
Oh yeah, only for writer. Absolutely. Okay, yeah, I think there’s enough manifestation courses out there. Maybe there isn’t, but I would think that there probably is. But for me, because of where I’m at and how I guess I’ve grown, I’m mostly interested in the author community at the moment. So this particular course, The Millionaire Author Manifestation, it’s just going to be for mostly fiction authors, but I do have nonfiction authors who are in the group as well. So it just depends on what you’re looking for. I mean, it really doesn’t matter, but I do talk in there about the other aspects, the inspired action stuff being like, do you want to create an editorial calendar? Do you want to be able to rapid release? Do you want to be doing certain aspects that will help you to get to your goal and being open to those inspired actions that are coming? So there’s a lot of different ways that it comes about, but it’s definitely going to be geared towards the author community in general.
Kat (01:08:01)
Yeah, I like that because then you kind of we learn from each other, right? So if you’re in a group, you sort of like, I don’t know what I should do. And then sometimes you’re like, what are you doing?
Carissa (01:08:12)
And if it’s a clothing salt, you’re.
Kat (01:08:14)
Like, well, that doesn’t work for me. Does this connect a little bit with your rapid release road map? Do you have to be a rapid releaser to get into this course? How do they sort of connect and diverge?
Carissa (01:08:28)
Sure, I would say rapid release. All of the courses that I’ve done prior to now, with the exception of The Millionaire Author Challenge, which is also available, it’s like a mini course. It’s like four days. People can get that on my website as well. But the other courses are going to be more I’m a double virgo. I am all about systems. So I do like the step by step process, teach you how to do it. I will hold your hand through the entire process of learning how to write, publish, promote your books, plan your books as well. So if you’re looking for the step by step guidance on how to do something, the prior courses, so things like any publishing fundamentals or the Story cure or record release roadmap, those are going to be very step by step oriented. If you want more mindset, if you want more getting into the manifestation stuff, right Frame of Mind, I would say, is probably my first course where I delved into it originally. That was the course I was trying to write way back in 2015. It was called Know Thyself Back in the Day, which was super weird.
Carissa (01:09:29)
But it’s evolved since then because I’ve included a lot of the author imposter archetypes and things like that that people are struggling with when it comes to getting stuck in those limiting beliefs and not wanting to get out. So Right Frame of Mind is probably closer related to the millionaire author coach stuff right now and then the challenge and then the millionaire author manifestation course. I’m not quite sure when it’s going to be available just yet. Literally, we just started this month creating it and so I’ve got the outline going right now. The content is going up. I’m creating some of the sheets that are going to be downloadable for it and videos are probably going to be recorded very soon, which I don’t know how that’s going to work with all the kids being home for summer, but we’ll see how it goes. My goal right now is to hopefully get it ready to launch by end of summer. It’s kind of my thought process right now and we’ll see. But when it comes to writing and whatnot I would say, the plan, your series challenge and rapid release, those two go together best.
Kat (01:10:25)
Okay?
Carissa (01:10:25)
So if you’re trying to learn how to write a series, the challenge will walk you straight through it and then go straight into rapid release. If you want to be able to next level, then that planning process, that’s awesome.
Kat (01:10:36)
So you kind of have all sides of it for the authors. I think that’s great. And in the meantime, everyone should go and listen to author revolution because that is really even like your backlift for a year. I loved how you kind of slowly introduced us to it as we were listening.
Carissa (01:10:54)
Then you’re like, listen up, guys. It wasn’t intentional, but it’s like, I’m not going to do this thing. Why not?
Kat (01:11:00)
It’s funny because if you start in the back, you’ll be like, oh, what is she talking about? That’s very interesting. That’s so true. You go through it. So if you want sort of like mindset and keep going with that, I mean, you have a huge backlist on the podcast to keep people busy through the summer, that’s for sure. And then the links will be in the show notes authorevolution.org and then for your books, it’s Carissaandrews.com, correct?
Carissa (01:11:26)
Okay, that is it.
Kat (01:11:29)
Show notes, guys. Show notes. It will all be in the show notes. All right.
Carissa (01:11:32)
Thank God for show notes.
Kat (01:11:34)
Exactly. Thank you so much, Carissa, for coming on. I’ve had a great time and I’m so excited to see where you go next with this.
Carissa (01:11:43)
Well, thank you so much for having me. I’m so thrilled that you asked me and I’m so glad to be here.
Kat (01:12:00)
Hey, you’re still listening?
Kat (01:12:02)
Since you are, could you do me a favor and head over to the.
Kat (01:12:05)
App that you’re listening to this episode.
Kat (01:12:07)
On and hit the subscribe button and then rate and review the show? It would really help the pencil Olympics podcast get out into the world. And if you’re enjoying the podcast, well, then there might be more people out there who would enjoy it as well.
Kat (01:12:22)
If you want to find out more.
Kat (01:12:23)
About me, you can head over to catcallwell.com I have my story over there, my book, my interactive journal, my one on one coaching information and information on my creative Writing Community Membership Group. If you’re looking to write a book or you are a writer and you just want to find out more about how to write, how to publish, how to format, how to market and all the things that go into being an author these days, check out the Membership Group. There is a 14 three day trial that you can try it out, get into the Masterminds, find out all the goodies that we are talking about in the group. I would love to see you there.