Transform Your Book Dreams into Reality with Michele DeFilippo

Rich Bennett 0:00
I am sitting here. I have a young lady along with me who is well. All you aspiring authors are not just aspiring authors. All you authors out there as well. You're going to want to listen to this. You've heard me talk to other authors and we always talk about the publishing. You you're trying to find a publisher, whether your self-published hybrid, you know, whatever, and even the agents and all that. And you're going to really want to listen to this. I have Michele de Filippo on. And she is with 1106 Design. And we're going to find out more about Illuminations design in a minute. But first we got to find out about Michele. How are you doing, Michele? Who is Michele? 

Michele Defilippo 0:45
Oh, well, I'm still trying to figure that out. I'm not a young woman anymore, but that's a work in progress that I've been. I've been in the publishing industry in one way or another for 53 years now. 

Rich Bennett 0:59
What? 

Michele Defilippo 1:00
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:02
Now, how can that be if you're only 30? 

Michele Defilippo 1:06
Well, I'm 71. 

Rich Bennett 1:08
No way. Are you really? 

Michele Defilippo 1:12
Yes, sir. 

Rich Bennett 1:13
You're. No. You're messing with me. Are you serious? You do not look 71. Well, you know what I think 70. 71 is the new 41, right? 

Michele Defilippo 1:22
Well, I'm blessed to be healthy, and I'm busy, so. Yeah, that works. 

Rich Bennett 1:27
So. Yeah. So you've been in the publishing field for, would you say, 53 years? 

Michele Defilippo 1:32
Something like 53 years in different aspects of it. Okay. Starting out. Starting out in designer jobs. And then I opened my own typesetting business, and then now I'm serving authors through 1106 design. 

Rich Bennett 1:45
Wow. Now, I take it you're an author yourself as well. 

Michele Defilippo 1:50
I wrote a little booklet which is posted for free on my website for anybody who wants to download it. It's just a survey of today's self-publishing industry. 

Rich Bennett 2:00
Okay. So when you got into the publishing field 53 years ago, what was it that you were actually doing? 

Michele Defilippo 2:06
My first job was with Crown Publishers in New York, which is where I grew up, and that's before they were famous. They they had this little hole on the wall office on Park Avenue, South in Manhattan. Right. Yeah. My job at that time was helping to put out what they calls their Publisher's Central Bureau catalog, which was a remainder catalog. They used to buy books on the cheap from publishers who couldn't sell them and offer them to the public. And that was my entry level job right out of school. 

Rich Bennett 2:39
Huh. Okay. So, Michelle, you're I want to say it's a guide that you wrote, right? Yes, I published the prose. Okay. That offers a wealth of knowledge for aspiring authors. What inspired you to create this comprehensive guide, and what do you hope readers take away from it? 

Michele Defilippo 2:57
Well, self-publishing started about 20 something years ago, which maybe 20, 25 years ago, with with when Amazon started. All of a sudden it became possible for authors to distribute their own books to the public without the need of working with a publisher. And that is what self-publishing was originally intended to be. Over the years, it's gotten more complicated, and so I wanted to in 2012, I wanted to explain, just remind everybody what self-publishing was meant to be originally, and that is that the author is the publisher. Now, authors still generally need services such as editing and design. And so forth, should prepare a market quality book. But over the years, self-publishing has become defined from lack of a better word. It became do it yourself publishing on it one way, which you know is completely silly, and then in the other, and then on the other side, we started seeing self-publishing companies, hybrid publishers, all kinds of other entities who took the place of traditional publishers except that they were. Now, let me back up a minute. Traditional publishers would buy the rights to to publish a book. Right. They would. They would pay all the expenses to produce the book. They would hire the editors, designers and so forth and distribute the book through their network of physical bookstores. That that was the old model. Mm hmm. So the author paid nothing. And but the author also controlled nothing. The publisher was in charge. And and that was fair because they were investing their money. 

Rich Bennett 4:42
Right. 

Michele Defilippo 4:43
So they wanted to produce the book that they wanted to produce. That left a lot of authors dissatisfied. And so when self-publishing came around, it was really a terrific opportunity for authors to put out the book that they wanted to put out. Mm hmm. Of course, that that came with them having to pay the expenses for all the professionals that they would need, but then they would also get all the revenue they were sharing. They were sharing their revenue with anyone else. So except. Except the retailers, but. And so that was the best thing since sliced bread. But like I said, over over time, it became misunderstood. 

People who knew better started telling authors, you can design your own book cover issue, you can format your own book pages. And we've all seen the results of that. 

Rich Bennett 5:38
Mm hmm. 

Michele Defilippo 5:40
And then and then it became even more confused because, of course, many authors didn't want to do that. They and they they rightfully recognized that they didn't have the skills to do that. Right. And so these and so these intermediate companies came in, self-publishing companies, hybrid publishers, whatever. And they would charge the author to produce the book. Charge for those services. And then they would take revenue out of the author's pocket when whenever a book is sold. So 

the question to ask there is if you if you don't have any investment in the book, why are you taking some some of my revenue every time? Right, right, right. But that's the question a lot of authors don't don't ask because they're familiar with the term royalty that publishers pay royalties. And so they don't just connect those two dots so that the that's what I wrote the book, my little booklet about. And that's what I'm currently trying to remind people of in these podcasts and in everything else. I do. 

Rich Bennett 6:43
Yeah, it's just talking to different authors that went to self-publishing route and they didn't realize that it's it's more work. But as far as the money comes coming in, yeah, that's different. But they did realize also they still got to put more money in for marketing and stuff like that. So it's like it's 

what's the old phrase? Damned if you do and damned if you don't. 

Michele Defilippo 7:14
Well, publishing is a business, right? It is. It is truly a business. You're putting out that book and you and you are in charge. 

Rich Bennett 7:22
I thank you for saying that because this is something I've always told authors. If you wrote a book and you're trying to sell that book, your business journal. I like to say an author preneur and I can't tell you how many different people I've talked to that have written a book and they're not worried about selling it. 

Michele Defilippo 7:45
We we talk to those authors, too now. But to be fair, a book can also be a hobby. Yeah, sometimes people just want to do it for their own satisfaction or to leave a legacy behind for their family. And that that's that's fine. But but as a hobbyist, you can cheat a little, let's say. Right? Maybe you can format your own pages, right? If if it's only meant for yourself or your friends, your family, you know, that's an okay approach because you don't intend to sell the book. But if you do intend to sell the book, can you take the hobbyist approach to production values then? Then you're going to get in trouble because buyers are smart. They say they deserve value for their money. Mm hmm. And now on Amazon and everywhere else, if they don't get value for their money, they're going to post a bad review. Yeah, and nobody wants that. 

Rich Bennett 8:43
Yeah. And that's another thing I'm always pushing to do is 

after I finish talking to an author, I always end with, you know, telling my listeners when they purchased a book narrative, when they purchased the book to make sure they leave a good review because or a review in general, whether it's good or bad, because it's going to help. Yeah, it's going to change the algorithms and push it up further on the list because, you know, when somebody goes on Amazon, they could search for the title of your book, but it's going to bring up a lot of other books as well. You know, which which brings me to my next question. Mm hmm. Because in your guide, you emphasize the importance of professional editing and design. So could you share a particular success story where these elements significantly transformed a self-published book? 

Michele Defilippo 9:39
Oh, well, I mean, a designer, a professional editor and a professional designer are absolutely going to improve the book. There's no question about them. It we work at a different level then than you could do it yourself no matter how good you are or how good you think you are, you're not going to get the same results as a professional who was trained and experienced and does a day in and day out. So that and what you just talked about as far as Amazon showing other books alongside your book, if you adhere to professional production values, your book is going to look incredible. It's going to look just as credible as those bestsellers and so on. Buyers may say to themselves, Look, I never heard of of Richmond, but I'm going to try his book because that cover looks decent in the description is literate. Right. It sounds like a good book, and I'm going to give it a try. But if you do the book yourself or you don't get the help of professionals, it's going to stand out for all the wrong reasons. People are going to look at that and they're going to say, I don't know that looks risky to me. I better stick with the I better stick with the well-known author instead. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 10:55
Yeah, yeah. Okay. Now, and with that, too, because, you know, when we were younger, we were always told, you don't judge a book by its cover. Do you think that's changed? 

Michele Defilippo 11:09
Oh, everybody judges the book by its cover. 

Rich Bennett 11:13
Especially now. 

Michele Defilippo 11:15
And and it's actually terrifying because the judge in about 3 to 7 seconds, whether or not that whether or not they want to learn more about the book. So not only the design of the cover, but the cover text has to really grab it and make them stop and say, oh, I want to learn more. Tell me more. Mm hmm. And if your cover doesn't do that, you're doomed. 

Rich Bennett 11:39
Yeah. Oh, yeah. And that's one of the things. Like I said, I talked to a lot of authors on here and some of these ones that have come on, they're self-published. The covers are amazing. And of course, they're either using somebody like you, I take it, or they're I know a couple local authors are hiring local artists to do their covers, which to me that's great. Another way of supporting each other as well. So, you know, I'm going to complain about that. I like that. Right. So. 

Michele Defilippo 12:14
I mean, I and I don't I don't know why design is considered something that everyone can do. It's really not logical, right? Because there's training and experience involved. And, you know, designers think of so many things as they're putting that cover together. It's not just that we're grabbing our crayons and fooling around where we're trying to meet meet the author's goal of communicating what that book is about. 

Rich Bennett 12:40
Yeah. Oh yeah, definitely. So the landscape of publishing is constantly evolving. Well, we've seen that with the rise of Amazon. How do you see the role of self-publishing change in, let's say, in the next decade? What advice do you have for authors to stay ahead? 

Michele Defilippo 13:00
Well, I think I will always say that putting out a good book is the single most important thing you can do, right? Because and then marketed, of course. But putting out that good book well-edited well-designed is is the product you're offering to the public. So why not give yourself the greatest chance to succeed by putting out something that people will admire? Post a good review, tell their friends about brag about on social media. That way you can magnify what what you're out there saying about your book, which only has a limited reach. Let's be honest. Yeah. What you want is other people saying good things about your book, and that's how you get the message out. And books begin to sell to the people who do best. In in my experience, all the business owners who use a book to promote their business or their coaching practice or whatever it is, because then they have the opportunity not only to make money on the sale of the book, but on their services as well. 

Rich Bennett 14:04
Which that's why I love, you know, what you're doing, you know, with the guide book, even though that's free for people. But you see, for example, in the podcasting world, you're seeing more and more books come out about podcast. 

But what I really love is there are a few out there where they're putting out like a little guidebook, you know, whether it be strictly owing on interview techniques or looking for guests, looking for hosts, all these different things. So they're narrowed down to guides, which I think is 

to me that's a smart move because when you buy a whole book on one subject that everybody's doing, then you get lost. And as I okay, somebody else has written more about that. Oh, wait a minute. There's one on Interview and Techniques. Let me grab that. 

Michele Defilippo 14:58
Yeah. More specialized. 

Rich Bennett 15:00
And I think, you know, which is helping the business and I would love to see more businesses, you know, do that. Write a book. I'm just going to grab something out of the air. All right. Like one of my sponsors, which is a roofing company. I think if he wrote a book like a guidebook on roofing, what to look for, what to stay away from, that would just even help his business even more, Maybe even get other roofing companies to contact him, say, hey, we'd like to have, you know, hire you as a consultant or something. I do agree with that, that it definitely helps businesses. 

Michele Defilippo 15:41
Absolutely. My my little booklet was was actually I hired my editor to take 60 or 70 incoherent blog posts and put it in a more organized publication for me. But that has that has gotten us more customers than I can count. Yeah, I think and I think the reason behind that is, is that when you go to a website, all of us for any product or service, you're not looking for a sales pitch at that moment, right? You're looking for information. So if a business offers a free download of any kind, it doesn't have to be a 200 page book. My book is 88 pages. It lets people download it, read it at their leisure, and then decide if the business is a good fit for them. 

Rich Bennett 16:27
Right? Yeah. Every business doesn't need to be a novel. 

Michele Defilippo 16:31
No, no. You don't have to tell them everything about self-publishing. 

Rich Bennett 16:35
Yeah. 

Michele Defilippo 16:35
Just. Just, you know, boil down to the essentials, and then when you do get on, I find when I do get on the phone with them and they've already read the book, get the conversation in is much different than if they're just calling and saying, What will you charge to produce my book? 

Rich Bennett 16:51
Oh, God, yes. 

Michele Defilippo 16:52
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 16:55
I. Oh, they always hate that. My other business. Well, we just need a price. Well, no, I need them. We have more information about you first, so. 

Michele Defilippo 17:04
Well, yeah, because. Because it has to be a good fit. I can help you. I don't. It's not just. What am I going to charge? Can I help you? What's your book about? What do you want to do with it? 

Rich Bennett 17:14
Exactly. So actually, what are what are the most, I guess, common misconceptions about self self-publishing that you encounter? And how does your work help dispel them? 

Michele Defilippo 17:27
Well, the thing that bothers me most is that there are entities in the space that take advantage of authors ignorance, and that offends me. No, and I think it's just wrong on every level. But there are people out there who will say, you know, give me $297 and I'll get your book into libraries or, you know, yeah, give me give me $75 and I'll give you a template and you can make your own book. You don't need to hire those greedy designers. Right? And I guess they make money. I don't know, because it's selling the free lunch, basically. And so but I so I think I feel sorry for authors because if you go online, that's the information you will find first. You may never you may never learn that there are people who spend 20 or 30 hours on a book cover to make it just so. 

Rich Bennett 18:25
Oh, yeah, Yeah. 

Michele Defilippo 18:28
It's difficult to sell what I always thought of as professional services and minimum. The minimum that is required to produce a book. A good book. 

Rich Bennett 18:38
Yeah. So it just. And that's something else I hate to see is more not just authors, people in general get taken advantage of. 

Yeah, you're see, I think you're seeing a rise of that, of people being so called experts and all trying to take advantage of some of these authors, especially as the, you know, the rise of self-publishing. And it's just I mean, ha I know it's it's something that can't that you can't stop. 

But I do believe it's something that aspiring authors need to be aware of. 

Michele Defilippo 19:21
Right. 

Rich Bennett 19:22
You know, they need to find a company like 1106 design that is going to help them because you've already helped 

a ton of other authors, you know, and this is this is something that that I believe other young aspiring authors need to, you know, definitely look for actually collaboration between authors and designers and even editors is very crucial in the self-publishing process. How do you recommend authors navigate these relationships to ensure that their vision comes to life while still maintaining a high quality standards? 

Michele Defilippo 20:01
Well, there's a lot of ways the authors could choose to go about it, right? It depends on their personal preference. They can they can hire freelance writers and manage the the whole process themselves and and communicate with five or six different people and get the work done that way. But but that's difficult because how do you recognize that good editor or that good designer if you don't have any experience in the business? So what we do, I guess we would be called a 

self-publishing assistant. Right. We we have the team all in place. We have the process in place and we help authors from manuscript all the way through distribution setup. And we walk them through the process from from the beginning to the end. And I even hear from them long after the book is published. It's it's a relationship. It's not a book factory where every author is given the same solution, and every book that pops out is looks exactly the same. So we're we're providing custom services and we spend the time to do that. And it's not cheap. And I think everyone but I and I think everyone enjoys the process, though. Yeah. And it and it is a true collaborative situation and the book that results is a better book. 

Rich Bennett 21:22
And you just mentioned that from the manuscript to the published book. What are. I guess the first three steps that you recommend to someone at the very beginning of their self-publishing journey? 

Michele Defilippo 21:36
Well, the first step, of course, is editing them. And we start with an editorial evaluation to determine what level of editing is needed. Almost always, that's copy editing, especially for nonfiction books. Those tend to be pretty well structured and logical and just requires some some polishing. Novels may require a little bit higher level of editing. Some people call it developmental editing. Sometimes it's called substantive editing, but that's where the editor will take a deeper look and make sure the story makes sense. Make sure the characters are well defined, and making sure that everything from the readers perspective is going to flow smoothly. 

Rich Bennett 22:21
Right. 

Michele Defilippo 22:21
And that that's a big job. 

Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 22:26
Actually. And this is another pet peeve of mine. I don't know why, but because I've talked to people that see, they have written a book or they've written books, but nothing's ever been published. So technically, isn't that still just a manuscript? 

Michele Defilippo 22:48
I would say so, yes. 

Rich Bennett 22:49
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Because I've tried to try to explain it to only a few people. Not a lot, but they said, Oh no, if you go and they'll bring it to me, it's like they say it's a book because it's in book form and all it is is stapled together. Binder. It's like, No, Nate, that's that's still your manuscript. It's like a screenplay. 

Michele Defilippo 23:10
Well, but do you remember that Harry Chapman song about. About the guy who was a great singer and he loved he loved singing opera. But then, yeah, his life, he got destroyed when everyone convinced him to go pro. So I think there is a I think there's something to be said, too. Just enjoying your writing, too, if that's. If that's what works. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 23:34
So sustainability in publishing is a growing concern. From your perspective, what can self-published authors do to ensure their publishing practices are environmentally friendly? 

Michele Defilippo 23:49
Well, when e-books are at least three times in the last 20 years, everyone predicted that e-books were going to replace print books, and it hasn't happened. 

Rich Bennett 24:00
Nope. 

Michele Defilippo 24:01
And I think even now, even e-books are popular. You know, if you're traveling, they're undoubtedly convenient to read that way on a device. But I think after sitting at a computer all day, a lot of us still like to open up a print book. Mm hmm. You know, audiobooks, audiobooks are making great inroads. That's another relief from looking at a screen all day. Just. Just kick back and have someone read to you. I think that's why they're popular. 

Rich Bennett 24:32
Oh, I heard. My God. I want to say probably back in the. Yeah, the nineties, because it was an audio book. It was books on tape, but I always loved listening to them. Nowadays, most of the time I sit there, I'll listen to the audiobook version with my daughter and I know a bunch of her friends now. I mean, she's 22 now, but even when they were in middle school because I thought the same thing, well, they're all they're all going to want the e-books. They all want to know they want the actual book. And here's the best part about it that I really love, Michelle. They don't get rid of them. They let them keep their books. That's I mean, I don't go back and read them again. 

Michele Defilippo 25:20
I think, Well, it's not 

it doesn't it's not good for sustainability to print a book. Right. But. 

Rich Bennett 25:30
Right. 

Michele Defilippo 25:31
But in this digital world that's coming at us from 100 different directions, a book is real or print is real. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 25:39
Well, and even with that, because yeah, they'll say it's not so. But what about printing it on recycled paper? 

Michele Defilippo 25:48
Oh, yeah. There's I believe most of the major printers, including the pod printers, do that. Oh, really? Just as a matter of course. But. But you don't have if you're if you're printing your book print on demand, that's one way to stay sustainable, right? Not printing by thousand. You're not printing 5000 books and storing them in your garage before they're sold. Right. You're only you're only printing it when someone wants it. So that's good. And and I think papers are always going to be with us, honestly. 

Rich Bennett 26:19
Oh, absolutely. 

Michele Defilippo 26:21
And I think, you know, we have tree farms. It's not like we're we're cutting down trees and not replacing them. 

Rich Bennett 26:28
Well, I was going to say we need paper. I mean. 

Michele Defilippo 26:31
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 26:32
Paper towels, toilet paper. I mean, w what else do you go to use? I should not have just asked that question because somebody is going to come back with a comment and say, oh, everybody can get a bit de rich. No, I'm sorry. 

With 1106 decide, we just talked about this briefly. 

Audiobooks do those 1106 design offer that as well to publishers? 

Michele Defilippo 26:59
Oh yeah. Yeah. Really great. We work with a great producer who has a, a large selection of narrators and we can take care of that as well. 

Rich Bennett 27:10
Ah, okay. Got you. Just made me happy. Yeah. So I didn't I didn't realize that. What other services does a live in? Okemos can you offer? 

Michele Defilippo 27:22
We have the whole spectrum we go from In a typical project, we would start with editing, then we move on to a cover design. And then and here's an issue I'd like to talk about a little bit because you hear about the word formatting online all the time for format your book. Well, no, you need a typeset or not a formatter. You need a book designer to design the book first and then someone, a typesetter to massage that text for back, for lack of a better word, so that it's readable and it doesn't distract the reader. And there's a whole science. There's a whole science behind that too. A typesetter is going to eliminate distractions that you wouldn't even think about. And so in the finished book, they're not visible. And it looks simple, but it looks simple and it looks good because somebody already fixed all the problems that would have distracted you if someone hadn't fixed them. So that's what typesetting is all about. Book typesetting 

then after typesetting, will proofread the book every word, and then we'll make an e-book. And then at that point, most people go on to distribution set up. We take care of uploading the files to the authors, print on demand accounts and helping them through the proof approval process and the distribution distribution option, pricing options and all of that. Right? But the accounts are always in the with us, the accounts are always in the author's name, so that when a book is sold, the money gets sent straight to their bank account, never to ours. No charge only for yeah, we're not publishers. We charge only for our only for our services. 

Rich Bennett 29:03
Okay, now I have to ask you this. And if you don't offer this, I think maybe you should. Somebody like myself who wants to write a book that is stuck like I don't. I've never written one. I don't know where to go. I've written songs before, but never a book. And it's different. Do you guys offer a service where whether be coaching or webinars, whatever, to help somebody wants to write a book, get on that path to learn how to write. 

Michele Defilippo 29:37
I don't know so much about learning how to write, but I know several writing coaches who write their book collaboratively. You know, this is what this is the weak spot. This is what you need to do and work back and forth with them. I also know ghostwriters who will interview the author multiple times and and actually write the book for them if they don't have the time or the inclination to do it. I mean, you know, people are busy. If if you're an executive or a business owner, you don't have all those hours to write a book. You got to sleep some time. So, yeah, true. So I can I can refer people out for, for that, for those types of services. 

Rich Bennett 30:20
Which is still good. That's something that you can still offer. Yeah. Which is important as well. And even today I just spoke to another gentleman actually yesterday and you know, because he mentioned everybody's got time. You just got to find that time because a lot of time people will procrastinate throughout the day. But I think writing has now graded We had something like this back in the day, but it just wasn't on a computer. We were talking to a dictation machine. 

Nowadays, if I want your input on this, whether you agree or not, but let's say like Microsoft Word, you could talk it to a microphone and put everything on word. And then or even if you don't want to talk it to the microphone, you can actually type it on word and then have it read it back to you. Because as you're reading a book, it sounds as you're reading it aloud, it sounds a lot different than when you're just reading it or when somebody else is reading it. Did. I mean, do you believe that that that would help or help some writers? 

Michele Defilippo 31:29
I know, I don't know. It sounds like to me that it could also be a big waste of time, right? Because then you then you go back over and over and over again to try to make it sound better to your ears. But that's not necessarily what the read better when someone's holding a book in their hand. So I think I think what authors should do is just do the best job they can if they want to write the manuscript themselves. Do the best they can. And that's and then hand it over to a professional. Does this day in and day out, knows what a book, how a book should be crafted and how the text should read. I mean, when I've had people come to us and say, I don't need much editing, I've done a lot of writing in my career. And that that I'm sure was true. But then they saw then they saw what the editor found and they were just blown away by it. Editors are magic. 

Rich Bennett 32:22
Yes. 

Michele Defilippo 32:23
Because we don't see our own mistakes. What we write, nobody does. 

Rich Bennett 32:28
Yeah. A friend of mine has edited hundreds of books, and I think that's something where a lot of authors are missing. Missing out as well. But. Well, you see it where I think you could tell the ones that really don't use I want to say a professional editor, because when you're reading a book, it's like you get there, you got to go Basic lame. Is it is that special? Now, wait a minute. That's definitely a typo or something. That's not right. 

Michele Defilippo 32:57
Well, what time are you off? I'll tell you the answer one time. Our editor. We were working on a chicken cookbook, and it was all about making dinner with rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. So in the very front of the book, the author mentioned that all of the recipes in this book start with rotisserie cooked chicken. Right? Okay. But each rib but in each recipe, she didn't repeat that. She just said 

£5 of chicken. And our editor caught that. She said, Oh, you have to make sure you say cooked chicken in every recipe. Otherwise, a lot of people are going to get sick. 

Rich Bennett 33:43
Yeah. 

Michele Defilippo 33:44
And an editor is invaluable actually. 

Rich Bennett 33:48
With said you edit books. I'm sure you've I mean, you probably read the novels and everything, right? 

Michele Defilippo 33:55
Oh, yeah. We've done every kind of book you can think of. We, we just finished a 850 page biography of Winston Churchill. 

Rich Bennett 34:04
Oh, really? 

Michele Defilippo 34:05
Yeah. With something like 2000 footnotes. Yeah, it was massive. 

Rich Bennett 34:12
Ooh, I would love to get that book. I just love the history books like that. 

Michele Defilippo 34:16
Well, I'll give you the title. It's called No Peace with Hitler. 

Rich Bennett 34:20
Oh, really? 

Michele Defilippo 34:22
Yeah, it was. It was focused on World War Two, obviously. And why Churchill did what he did based on his background in the current situation. And very interesting book. 

Rich Bennett 34:33
And here's the author. 

Michele Defilippo 34:35
Alan Saltman. 

Rich Bennett 34:37
Oh, I'm going to have yeah, because I just went to the National World War Two Museum in New Orleans and fell in love with something like that. Yeah, I'm definitely going to have to get that without a doubt. You said that it just my my next question just went right out of my head because now I got a Guinness book. Oh, that's what it was with everything and especially novels. How many times? One, you probably can even give me a number. But have you ever come across 

manuscripts that you're doing that's a novel. And you can clearly tell that the author did not do the research then? If so, how do you go back to the author and tell them that they need to change this? Because, you know, let's just say, well, back then, Jack, the Ripper wasn't walking down a hard street. They were cobblestone streets or something like that. 

Michele Defilippo 35:34
Well, that's where our editors will or can be very blunt sometimes. Right. And they'll say, Are you sure about this? But then but then you're depending on whether or not the editor knows every detail that that you should have know or you should have researched before you write the book. So so the actual research is the author's responsibility. You know, we might catch some things, but you really can't expect the editor to catch everything in that, right? 

Rich Bennett 36:03
Yeah. Okay. So 

you ready for this? This is your elevator pitch. Michelle, Tell aspiring we're not just aspiring authors, even current authors. Why they need to use 1106 design. 

Michele Defilippo 36:23
Okay, authors should use 1106 design because we do everything for them that a publisher will do except take money out of their pocket when a book is sold. 

Rich Bennett 36:36
Man, that was good. That was good. And tell everybody something very important. Tell everybody the website and how they can get in touch with you. 

Michele Defilippo 36:45
Okay. My website is 1106 design dot com and you can I have I believe in transparency completely so you will find every one of our services, every price for every service you'll find about 200 blog posts, educational articles, you'll see more than 60 book covers and interior samples. And you can reach out there and tell us a little bit about your book on our contact form. And we'll get back to you right away. Or you can email me directly at M.G. at 1106 design dot com. But I do suggest you use the contact form so that we can be prepared for the conversation. 

Rich Bennett 37:26
And 11 six is the numbers 1106 it's not 1106 spelled out right correct. 

Michele Defilippo 37:33
Okay so 706 design dot com. 

Rich Bennett 37:37
Before I get to my last question, is there anything you like to add? 

Michele Defilippo 37:42
No, I think gosh, this is this has been great, Dave. Nice questions. Nice nice interview and. I thank you for the opportunity. 

Rich Bennett 37:50
You know what I would love to do in the future because we've done a couple authors roundtable podcast, but they've been in person and we're talking about doing some virtual ones. And I would love, love to have you on one of those, especially with the other authors on their. 

Michele Defilippo 38:08
I'll be happy to that. That's great. 

Rich Bennett 38:11
Yeah because you're you're the first actually you are you are the first publisher that I've talked to to help, you know, to help authors so. Well, yeah, it just makes sense for me to have you on one of these. 

Michele Defilippo 38:26
So I'll be happy to. 

Rich Bennett 38:28
Do you know how many interviews you've been on now so far? 

Michele Defilippo 38:31
I'm just getting started in podcasting. I think your number eight. 

Rich Bennett 38:35
Number eight. Okay, well, then I can ask this question. So out of the other seven, 

is there anything a host has never asked you that you wish they would have asked you? And if so, what would be that question? What would be your answer? 

Michele Defilippo 38:53
I can't think of anything. Right. You know, I think for the I'm starting to relax into the podcasting now, but I think in the first seven interviews, I was so freaked out and stressed out, I was barely listening to anything. 

Rich Bennett 39:08
But it's did good. And this is something this is I love this because as you being the publisher you have in the company and this is something I tell authors all the time you need, I like to see the podcast circuit. You need to get on several podcasts and promote the book because it's free marketing, first of all. And you know, podcasts are around the world that you can get on other podcasts in other countries. It doesn't matter. I had a gentleman on his name is Marshall Powell. He he runs a thing called new new books network dot com, which has several podcasts and they cover all different genres and I even tell people I a you need to authors you need to go on that website, look up the podcast of your genre, and then if you find one, pitch it to the host pod match. Yeah. Which is yeah, how we connect it is a godsend, especially to authors. I believe if you're looking to get on podcast, 

if you're not using pod match, you're missing the boat. Well, no, I do not get paid for saying that. I do not get paid. Alex, if you want to follow my. 

Michele Defilippo 40:27
But no, I'm. I'm actually a big fan of them as well because I had thought about podcasting for a long time, but I couldn't figure out how to get from point A to point B. How do you find guests? How do you find. Yeah, the podcast that would want to have you ask them as a guest and they have just made that happen? 

Rich Bennett 40:48
Oh yeah, it's it's crazy. And, and when I thanks to a friend of mine, she told me to rebrand my podcast because I was just talking to local people. That's all I was doing. And I went ahead and rebrand it and I came across pod image. I think when Alex first started it and then I got an email how they were changing everything. And it basically I think it's when he went to a paid platform and if I didn't respond more, I think it's like my account can't be deleted or whatever. So of course I responded back because I had rebrand is I need to get there and I'm glad I did ignore that email because now I'm just talking to people from all over the world and it drove the podcast up even more. 

Michele Defilippo 41:35
And that's great. 

Rich Bennett 41:37
Every time I talk to my friend Christy, she reminds you it's because of me. You changed it. Yes, it is. Christy. It's why I love you so much. 

Michele Defilippo 41:45
So. Well, I figure it's the best thing I could do with an hour of my time, you know, to go to reach people. So social media does work? 

Rich Bennett 41:53
No, no. But. And the other thing is to now you're getting the experience from doing it. So when you get these other authors on that, you are using your service, you get tells a lot. You need to do this, you need to get on podcast because it's just going to help you promote your book even more. It's going to get it out there and you know it's in other podcasters are well, at least I know I am. I'm always willing to suggest other podcasts to the authors I come on well, just like I do of good you know new books networking hard match because it's helping the authors grow. Like I said, they're all the preneur is their business. And if I can help them sell more books, if I can help you get more aspiring authors or current authors, then that's my goal. That's what I want to do. And I know my listeners because I know a lot of a lot of my listeners are are in that category. They're aspiring authors or want to write their own book. Now they know where to go to. They need to go to 1196 designed to help them. Right? 

Michele Defilippo 42:59
Thank you. Yes, we would love to help them. 

Rich Bennett 43:02
Michelle, I want to thank you so much. And when I do that virtual roundtable podcast with authors, I'm going to get in touch with you and we'll get you on again. Of course, by then you'll probably be on your hundredth episode that you recorded with another podcast. 

Michele Defilippo 43:18
No, I'll be happy to do it. That's great. 

Rich Bennett 43:21
Sounds good. Thanks so much. 

Michele Defilippo 43:23
Thank you, Rich.