📚 The Future of Book Publishing with Dave Sheets | The Traveling Saleslady Podcast 🎙️
"Every generation has their books." - Dave Sheets
In this episode of The Traveling Saleslady Podcast, hosts Syya Yasotornrat and the ever-present The Traveling Saleslady sit down with Dave Sheets, Founder of Believer Books, to explore the ever-changing world of book publishing.
📖✨ They dive into:
✅ How the pandemic reshaped reading habits 📉
✅ Why reading is essential for professionals 📚
✅ The rise of AI in writing and its impact 🤖
✅ Trends in nonfiction publishing and storytelling 📜
✅ Practical tips for aspiring authors ✍️
✅ How travel and life experiences shape great stories 🌍
Learn more about Believer Book Services: https://believersbookservices.com/
If you're an author, entrepreneur, or book lover, this episode is packed with valuable insights! 🚀
🔔 Like, subscribe, and hit the bell for more engaging discussions on sales, business, and publishing!
#BookPublishing #AuthorTips #AIWriting #Nonfiction #PublishingIndustry #Storytelling #SalesPodcast
Transcript
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening.
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:Welcome to the Traveling Saleslady podcast.
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:Guess what we're doing today?
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:We're talking about publishing authors, books, things that let's be honest as travelers,
we probably held a book or a million over time.
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:Traveling Saleslady, are you excited about today?
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:I am.
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:I want to just say welcome to everybody.
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:And I think we've got a very interesting guest.
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:Can I go ahead, see you and introduce him?
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:Spill the beans, girl, spill the beans.
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:All right.
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:But before I do that, I do want to say, how are you, Sia?
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:How's life in your world?
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:You're so very kind.
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:I'm doing great.
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:Good.
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:Glad to hear it.
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:I sound like Tony the Tiger.
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:He was going to actually say, I'm great.
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:Forgot my handkerchief.
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:But that's OK.
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:I am a tiger, by the way.
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:Rawr.
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:You are?
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:I am Chinese zodiac tiger.
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:OK.
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:All right.
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:All right.
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:We'll do another podcast in another day.
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:So welcome Dave Sheets, founder of Believer Books.
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:Absolutely.
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:Thank you.
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:It's great to be here.
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:We are glad to have you here.
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:You know, just as a way of getting started, do you mind sharing with our viewers a little
bit about your business and actually your journey of how do you become a founder of a book
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:publishing service?
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:Well, I've been in the industry for a long time, so it helps to have a lot of experience.
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:I've been in publishing 30 years.
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:I've done book printing.
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:I've done book retail.
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:I've done book distribution.
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:I've kind of done everything around the book industry itself and really always wanted to
have my own company.
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:And so about 11 years ago, 12 years ago, when I had the opportunity to come out of the
traditional publishing world and start working with independent authors, that's what I
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:did.
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:great.
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:And you work with people nationwide.
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:I do worldwide.
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:I've got clients that are outside the U S that have come in and we've helped them get
published.
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:And it's been, it's been a great journey.
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:That's awesome.
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:See ya.
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:I know you have a question for Dave that we talked about prior to this recording about
post pandemic life.
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:Do you want to jump in there as our next segment?
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:I have to, man.
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:That's the first thing I thought of when I think of like book publishing and I have a lot
of great friends that have published books as well.
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:But has it changed at all, Dave?
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:Like have you seen an increase, a decrease post pandemic with travel changing, et cetera,
or the behaviors change?
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:Yeah, absolutely.
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:I used to travel a lot prior to the pandemic.
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:And in fact, there were a couple of years in a row that I was flying over a hundred
thousand miles a year and
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:And that all changed.
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:mean, when things shut down and technology added things like zoom and the ability to
connect with clients, you know, online, it changed a lot.
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:You know, we were talking a little bit earlier about whether or not book reading has
changed.
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:I, actually, we, we, we have seen the numbers increase.
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:So whenever we talk with new clients, we always talk about this is the best time in the
history of,
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:books to be an author.
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:so more books are being printed today than ever.
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:You're seeing things like ebooks that are increasing.
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:Audio books are going crazy right now.
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:And so between all of the different, I think genres or vehicles for content, we're seeing
all of those things increase right now.
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:And do think that's because people have more time with more virtual
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:calls so they're in their homes longer or what do you think that's due to?
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:I don't think it's, it could be due to that.
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:think, you know, people are just hungry for information.
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:And I mean, we're an information society.
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:I think it's changed in terms of the length of books sometimes.
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:I mean, we're, you know, we're a little bit more of a soundbite culture today, but still
people are hungry to be entertained.
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:whether it's fiction or a novel, or they're hungry for new information.
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:I don't know exactly what to attribute it to, but reading has continued to accelerate.
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:Okay, I have to say, it pleases me to hear you say that.
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:I, as a kid, was a voracious reader.
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:I loved reading books.
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:And as you go into adulthood, you kind of sometimes pull away from it.
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:because of career, life, whatever.
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:But I've noticed maybe, is it an age thing that maybe we're embracing the books again?
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:Do you see the next generation of kids coming up or adults coming up, are they readers or
is it a generational thing?
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:I think it's, I think it's each generation kind of grabs a hold of reading in a new and
maybe an exciting way.
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:you know, some of the greatest releases, I think, and even in the last 10, 15 years have
been young adult books and young adult series.
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:think of, you know, Harry Potter, you think of some of the other series that are out there
and, these are young adult series that have been, you know, embraced by adults as well.
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:you know, every generation has their books, every generation has their, you know, the
authors that they get really interested in.
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:and I don't see that changing.
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:I think, think the, the, personality maybe that people follow will change a little bit,
but it just continues to happen, which I, I of course love.
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:love reading as well.
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:So, it's, it's an exciting time to be an author.
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:That's great.
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:Go ahead.
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:ya.
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:I was just going to say, you know, you're just reminding me of like each generation.
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:Like I could see, I can, travel quite a bit for, for business.
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:But I don't mind whipping out a Judy Blume book.
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:Like let's revisit these books and stories.
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:you know, what is it?
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:The, the Hardy boys first, another generation, right?
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:And, the choose your own adventures.
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:I can totally see that though.
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:Thanks for bringing that up, Dave.
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:Yeah, absolutely.
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:There's, know, there's a new genre right now that's called lit RPG, which is a role
playing game literature.
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:So it's just, it's a new take.
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:on some of the old genres that we've seen before.
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:I think each generation that comes up, each group of readers that comes up is now kind of
reinventing some of those types of things.
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:Wow.
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:I remember that as a kid, the, I'm not going to get it right with the title.
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:You folks may remember this as well.
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:Remember the big, was like the scholastic fairs in the schools.
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:I'd be curious, do we even know, do they still have those?
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:I think so.
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:think that still is a thing in schools.
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:I know that there are some really interesting things when people think of book retail, for
example, they think of the Barnes and Nobles of the world, but there are so many other
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:places where people can get books these days, whether it's on spinner racks in stores or
at through catalogs.
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:Catalogs are still a thing.
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:And you know, whether it's an online catalog with a paper catalog, sometimes you got both,
but
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:Yeah.
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:Books are being sold in lots of areas that you would never ever even imagine.
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:The more the merrier I say.
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:Yeah.
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:I feel it encourages creativity and curiosity, which as all sales professionals, I think
we have to kind of keep our minds sharp, right?
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:To prepare ourselves for that weird random, you know, something that happens with a
client.
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:mean, traveling sales lady, you have to like see this quite a bit as well.
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:in our community where someone throws something, what's that called when they throw you a
sideways pitch?
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:What's that called?
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:Yeah.
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:Curveball?
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:Curveball!
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:There you go, I mean, couldn't it be argued like the more you read, the more it opens up
your mind to the opportunity to think outside the box?
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:Do you guys agree with that?
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:Oh, I agree 100%.
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:Absolutely.
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:I believe knowledge is power and it also is fun.
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:Right?
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:So if you're a sales professional and you may go into an office to have a meeting with a
particular client and you may see a book on the shelf that maybe you've read or they're
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:just reading, or it could be something, a picture of horses.
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:For one example, you may have just read a book that's about horses or a particular horse.
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:mean, you could get down so many avenues to share common ground.
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:If, if you're knowledgeable about all different areas.
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:So I think reading is huge, huge.
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:It is, and there's an old saying that readers are leaders.
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:And so if you want to be a leader, if you want to be somebody that's making a difference,
reading is a great path to getting there.
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:it it expands our knowledge, of course, but it expands boundaries.
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:It expands the ability to interact with people in a whole different way.
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:Basically, unlike anything else that we, you know, I think we've ever seen culturally.
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:You know what really gets me about this conversation is yeah, the best managers and
leaders I've had the pleasure of working with, they are voracious readers.
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:And sometimes it's the most mundane thing, like where you learn like tactics, like to how
to do whatever leadership, know, decision-making, for example, right?
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:Or conflict management.
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:But really what gets me though is the stuff that is outside the quote,
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:coaching leadership books.
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:It's almost like like, you know, the traveling sales lady meets bedbugs, right?
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:There are experiences that we have that to me makes it more relatable that makes it feel
like yeah, the absurdity of life and careers like I can relate to that.
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:So what percentage of books that are you publishing are straightforward like business
books versus something that's maybe a great hybrid with traveling sales lady kudos to you.
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:You put together a book that's
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:a mix of both.
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:Well, and I'll put a plug in there for Dave before he speaks that Dave helped with that
book.
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:So his services are very, very helpful.
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:They were to help get that book packaged the way that it is.
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:So very professional.
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:The print quality is wonderful.
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:So a little plug there, Dave, with your services.
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:Well, that's great to hear.
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:it's always great to hear from clients that, you know, where the services have worked the
way that they're supposed to.
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:But yeah, the percentage of books that we publish tends to be the highest percentage is in
nonfiction.
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:It is in the business area, but it's also in areas where we are working with specific
clients, business leaders, entrepreneurs, you know, all of the people that number one want
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:to engage larger audiences.
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:They want to use the book as a marketing tool, all of those types of things.
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:And that's our core client.
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:And so some of them are business.
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:Some of them are.
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:you know, semi biographical, know, or autobiographical.
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:A lot of them, of course, bring their own, you know, experience into that as well.
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:But yeah, the vast majority of the projects that we're working on in terms of nonfiction
tend to be in those areas.
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:One of the things we love to do is children's books.
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:We love working on children's books and kind of going into that next generation and being
able to maybe
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:help the author teach a lesson to those kids, you know, through a fun, engaging story.
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:So we have fun with a lot of those things.
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:And again, it seems to be accelerating.
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:Our business gets bigger and bigger every year because of the number of authors who want
to be able to communicate with their audience.
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:to ask you a question.
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:I'm curious that I learned along the way of publishing.
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:Do you find that people are utilizing AI more and more and more to write a book?
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:That's part one.
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:And if they are, I'd be curious for you with all of your experience in the industry, do
you feel that that is complimentary or
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:cheating.
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:Oh, that's a great question.
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:AI.
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:So we use AI tools to enhance the ability to produce a better project.
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:We do not use AI tools.
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:At least this is where we're at.
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:And a lot of people in the industry are at.
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:We don't use AI tools to actually create the content.
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:know, AI is really, really good, for example, if we put a manuscript from one book into
ChatGPT, for example.
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:and ask it to give us a summary of that book because it's the quality of the input that
gives it the quality of the output.
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:so AI in those examples and in those situations are wonderful.
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:We don't see the level of AI yet being in a place where they can create a book that reads
like it came from a human.
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:It's just not there.
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:It's because again, it's the quality that's being put in that's going to give the quality
output.
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:Will it get there?
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:Probably.
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:Do we think it's cheating?
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:I wouldn't say that it's cheating.
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:think there's some maybe ethical issues around it because you're now taking works from
other people and it's being kind of coalesced into a project that you're producing.
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:So there's some ethical issues around that still have to be resolved.
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:But yeah, we don't do that.
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:Most people that we know in the industry don't do that.
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:But the tools are amazing.
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:mean, being able to use, you know, a tool that spell checks and gives you, know, that's
all AI.
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:And so, you know, that's important to be able to do that because it does speed up the
process.
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:can make the process a little bit less expensive for people to do.
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:but it's not there yet in terms of content, like pure content creation.
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:Gotcha.
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:Are there legal ramifications for those that have you ever had an author maybe less than,
you know, less integrity than they put forth, that have just pirated AI?
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:Have you guys been able to catch that and how do you address that?
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:We haven't had any buddy like that yet.
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:I'm imagining that day is coming.
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:And we would address it by just simply saying, we're not going to participate with a
project like that.
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:It's just for us, it's an ethical issue.
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:We love the AI tools.
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:We're not going to take somebody else's content that's been created off the back of
somebody, all of the other content that's out there from a full blown book standpoint.
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:So yeah, there's an ethical issue there that we haven't crossed that line yet.
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:And I think when we do get that person that comes in and wants to be able to do that same
thing with us, we're gonna probably just turn them down.
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:Okay, so I have to ask.
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:I'm excited because I do and I know who's paying the bills here, people, okay, I'm saying
it, but I really did enjoy the format, Traveling Saleslady, that book.
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:I just caught the vibe.
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:for those that maybe think that they want to create their own masterpiece, how could they
get ahold of you?
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:And what are the first steps to becoming an author that you suggest?
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:Yeah, I did.
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:Well, let's talk about the steps first.
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:mean, the steps first, you have to build a manuscript.
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:So you're either writing that as an author or if you're, you know, we have people that are
very, very good speakers, but they don't like to write.
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:They don't want to write.
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:They don't have time to write.
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:And so we will pair those people with a professional writer, for example.
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:And some people go, that's cheating.
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:Well, no, it's not.
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:mean, if you build a custom home, do you build it yourself or do you have a contractor
build it for you?
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:I mean, the answer is very obviously you have the contractor do it.
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:We're, we're custom book builders.
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:If we have a, an editor or a writer come alongside an author to build that book, there's
the, it's the same thing.
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:It's still their content.
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:It's still their thoughts.
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:It's still all of their information.
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:And so, you know, for some clients, we will do that.
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:With other clients who want to write and they've written the manuscript, they come into us
and we then help with the publishing process, the packaging process, you know, all of
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:those things that every author needs to have to get a book finished.
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:So it's kind of either or.
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:We can help both ways.
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:I think, you know, from a, you know,
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:you know, contact standpoint, you know, our website is indiauthorbookservices.com.
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:work with, yeah, indiauthorbookservices.com.
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:We work with authors kind of all across the spectrum.
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:We love having conversations.
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:Initial conversations are always free.
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:There's no, you know, there's no commitment until somebody says, yeah, that's what I want.
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:That's what I need.
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:So that's the biggest place to find us.
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:I'm on LinkedIn, Dave Sheets on LinkedIn.
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:I do a lot of work on LinkedIn.
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:We were talking about that earlier.
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:It's a great place to meet people and to find out what people do.
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:And so, you know, if somebody wants to contact me there, that's a great place as well.
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:Awesome.
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:Well, we are glad, I always like to ask, where is a really cool place that you've traveled
to?
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:I know you do, you mentioned some conferences and you do a lot of virtual meetings now.
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:But where's a really cool place that you've been to?
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:Well, I've been really blessed to be to travel all over the world.
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:So, um, I, of my favorite places that I went was to, I've been to Australia twice and I
went to the great ocean road, which is on the Southern coast of Australia, where the tour,
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:they have a rock formation called the 12 apostles.
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:And, um, that's where surfing, you know, started and all that, you know, billabong is
based there and all these different things.
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:This is most.
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:dramatic, amazing views off the coast.
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:so that would probably be one of the most coolest places that I've ever been.
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:Awesome.
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:I've not been there.
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:Have you been there, Sia?
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:I have not.
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:I'm kind of jealous.
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:In fact, you just reminded me, I met one of the guys that was in Endless Summer, if you
guys remember that movie.
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:yeah, yeah.
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:And so one of the surfers, I met him down in Costa Rica.
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:He's a cheeky little thing.
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:I forgot his name, but I'm going to remember it.
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:I'll put it down in show notes.
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:Cheeky young man.
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:And I'll tell that story maybe after hours because he was a cheeky young thing.
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:But the 12 apostles, I've heard nothing but great.
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:I can't imagine the views must have been just inspiring.
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:Stunning.
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:Yeah.
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:Awesome.
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:Very cool.
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:Well, thank you, Dave, for spending some time with us.
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:I think you share a lot of awesome insight.
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:See you.
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:You are a gem.
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:You are brilliant.
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:Thanks to you both.
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:You guys are awesome.
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:And hey, it's such a pleasure meeting you, Dave.
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:And anyone that's looking to write a book, get your manuscript together.
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:And I'm sure Dave's team can help, you know, put something together and make magic.
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:Don't be unethical, but hey, if you got something to share, everyone has a story to share.
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:Right guys?
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:100%.
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:Excellent.
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:Well, on that note then.
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:Let's just wrap up this great conversation of the traveling sales lady podcast.
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:Dave Sheets.
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:Thank you so much as always the traveling sales lady.
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:Thank you.
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:Thank you.
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:See you.
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:Appreciate you.
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:Thank you guys.
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:We'll see you soon.
