Dori Durbin: Welcome to, that's Good Parenting, the podcast that searches for simple steps to reduce your parenting stress. I'm your host, Dory Durbin Children's book illustrator, book coach, ghost writer, and podcaster listeners. Are you a parent who has witnessed maybe a funny kid incident, maybe you survived a troublesome parenting moment, or you really, really wanted to give some parenting advice to someone else?

If so, then maybe you also thought, wow, that actually would make a great book. Yes. Then this episode is for you. Today we're exploring the realities of becoming a published author and how it could create new opportunities for your family. And it's actually more accessible than you actually think. Our guest today is Mila Johansen.

Mila is a writing, publishing, and public speaking coach who helps people write, publish in any genre. Mila guides her authors through every writing step from idea to [00:01:00] advertising on Amazon. Welcome, Mila. 

Mila Johansen: I'm so honored to be here. Thanks for inviting me. 

Dori Durbin: Oh, it's so good to have you. I'm so glad that you're here and I know that this is a, a love for both of us. Talking about books is awesome. So as a children's book illustrator and book coach, I know that you love to talk about writing.

I love to talk about writing, and that writing is this huge journey that you go through. In the end though, you end up with a book and that book is simply magical to holding your hands. So before we devi dive into how parents can become published authors, could you share with our listeners what made you so passionate about helping your authors get started on the books to begin with?

Mila Johansen: Well, it's a funny story. When I was a little girl, I went to see Mary Poppins, the original one, which states me and I came home and I went in my room and I shut the door and I did some Jo Chalk drawings. They're probably crayons. I still can't even draw stick people, so they probably weren't very good.

And I [00:02:00] closed my eyes. And I jumped in thinking I would be transported to the world of Merry-go-round and penguins and I wasn't. And then I tried eight times. But it's funny, I still believed I could and I still believe I can. 'cause I've had some, you know, spiritual experiences since. And so I said, well, if I.

Make the magical land that way. I'll write a book. And I was eight, right? So I started writing a book and I wrote a page and a half and I quit because I was eight. And then I always wanted to be a writer. And I, I was thinking Nancy Drew and all the Oz books, my mother read me all the Oz books. She had the hard bound ones from England.

And, so I grew up in Oz and later on I wrote three of the. First books into fabulous musicals that were performed, in our community and all over the us. And so I, that's how I became a writer. And then at 18, I do this to people. My mother tricked me into becoming a writer. She said, [00:03:00] you know me, I, I, she's a teacher.

I know you've always wanted to be a writer, so why don't you write one sentence a day? And I thought, well, I could write one sentence a day. Dora, you can't because it's like potato chips. They you have to write more. So I would write a page and a half, and by the end of the month I was a writer and she tricked me.

So I do that to people. I teach a lot and I, I have, um, a lot of clients and I say, okay, just write 20 minutes a day is all we ask on the street now. Toni Morrison, the famous author, she wrote 15 minutes a day for her first novel because that's all the time she had between raising children and working.

And then she became a famous novelist. And so I tell people, even five minutes a day, add up to a book and then people come back and they go, you tricked me. I can't just write five minutes a day. So my mother did it to me and I do it to you. 

Dori Durbin: I love that. I love the story too about your fantasy of like leaping into that world because you create [00:04:00] that world all the time when you're working with your authors or with in your own works.

That is awesome. So, when I work with experts, one of the funny things that happens is I realize all of a sudden that these experts are also parents, right? And what's funny about that is that they have these great stories from their own parenting experiences. They realize things that they didn't realize that they were doing, and they're watching these, um, these antics that happen with their kids.

So, but even as these brilliant, well-spoken professional people. Have the pen in their hand. They struggle with self doubt and it keeps them from moving ahead. So when you work with your authors, do you find a lot of times that imposter syndrome is something that's holding them back? And if so, what do you do to knock them out of that?

Mila Johansen: I, I tell everyone not to write perfect. We're supposed to blather it down a huge mess and then fix it later. And a lot of people say no, but I'm a perfectionist. I [00:05:00] go, well, then you won't be able to write your book. You won't be able to finish it probably. So Barbara King solver, the famous novelist, says, to give yourself permission to write a bad book.

And then work on it until it's a good book. And she, and she explained that is blather it down. Don't use any grammar, don't use any, um, you know, spelling. Don't worry about that. And you, later on you'll read it and you'll be, you'll go, oh, that was a mess. You'll go back and most times you'll go. Well, it's not so bad.

I, it, it's, it's pretty good. And then I met a man at Comic-Con. I've been going to Comic-Con for years with my daughter and I go to all the writing workshops and agent workshops, all the agents there. It's a good place to meet agents because they all say, you can, if you were in this room with us, you can send your manuscript to me and I'll read it at least 10 pages.

So anyway, he was a great guy because he was writing a book a month, if you can believe it. And he had this huge. Whiteboard behind him, like two or three of 'em. And he would write his plot. He was a plotter, you know, are you a pot plotter [00:06:00] or a panther? But he would write it and he, you know, subject to change, but here's what his role that he taught me, and I'm helping so many people with this, and it really helped me.

Give yourself a dedicated writing time, whether it's 20 minutes or four hours, like he did. He wrote eight to 12. He didn't say it, but that's what Isaac Asimov did. I know he, that's where he got the idea. But anyway, so he would write eight to 12 and he wouldn't allow himself in those writing hours to do hide behind, which I do research or editing.

Only new writing and that's how we'd get a book done a month. So I taken that on. Even if I just have a little while, I don't allow myself to go into editing or research until night when I'm tired or, or something, you know? And so you can't hide behind that because I did. I was doing that before I met him, and this was about 12 years ago.

So I'm very strict with myself, and now I tell everyone else to do the same thing. So just make sure if it's only 20 minutes, it's all new writing. [00:07:00] If it's two hours. Okay, but no hiding behind research and editing. 

Dori Durbin: That's great advice. I think that messy middle is so hard for people to be okay with too, especially like you said, the perfectionist.

Um, I do acrylic art sometimes for people, and when I start it looks kind of good and I get into the middle and I'm like, I hate this. Yeah, yeah. I pull this thing away, this is awful. Should I start over? And my husband, uh, in his wisdom and I'll give him these kudos. Um, you're hearing it now. Um, he'll say, give it 10 more minutes.

Give it 10 more minutes. Uhhuh, keep working on it for it. 10 minutes walk away, come back 10 minutes. And somehow, and I think writing is the same way, all of a sudden you start to pick out things that you actually like and you're like, oh, I actually, like you said, I like this part. Okay, there's other parts.

And that. It's that messy middle though that stops a little people because it doesn't look like anything. 

Mila Johansen: That happened to me. I used to make collages and [00:08:00] like, here's when I made a, about a book I'm writing. I just made a cover. I kind of wanna make and I make collages still, but when I made 'em, when I was young I would make 'em for people, like a sports one for my father.

And, and they were, and I'd get into 'em, oh yeah, it's great. And right in the middle, I would hate it. And then after I got over that hump. It would turn out really good and I'd love it. And I writing's the same way. You're right. That messy metal, we don't talk about that enough.

Dori Durbin: No. And everybody faces it.

Everybody, you know, whether or not you get through it or not. Yeah. No. And most people just abandon it at that point and say, well, it's not gonna turn out. So that 

Mila Johansen: is exactly right. And so if you push through, and that's like also writing. Like I, I teach a class, write your short book in a day. And right in the middle, some people get a little defeated like, oh, is it turning out?

But I tell 'em. When you get give it a few days and then come back and read it, it will be better than you thought. Oh, I go back and read my old writings and I'm like, I guess I was as good of a writer then as I am now. All these, these are my 22 plays and musicals behind me, [00:09:00] and I wrote 'em for a theater company and I'm prolific.

So I wrote all of those and, and I, I did this book and this is a book about my grandmother. Then this book, the more books you put on Amazon, the more you build your algorithms. So write as many as you can. And this is a short book, but I'm making it into a long book, the Bible of Self-Publishing now. So you can make, I, I teach just one thing where write your 36 page book first.

'cause that's the shortest book you can put on Amazon Self-publishing that has a little bit of a spine. And then you can take that book and expand it to your longer book. Like a lot of people are. Opting to do the comfortable 120 page book. That's what most people are doing now, if it's like nonfiction business book or something.

And then you, um, can take that and make it into the 200 page book or 300. We're not doing missionary anymore. We're not doing 500 page books. But you can take the same book and get like five books out of it. And the way I learned that was I had these long plays and we would do 'em in our theater 'cause we had time to rehearse it with 40 kids.[00:10:00]

And then I sold them to other theater companies, but they didn't have time to rehearse an hour and a half long player and musical. So I cut 'em to medium and short, but now I'm teaching people to go the other way, write the short, and then expand it to the medium and long later and get more books out of one book.

Dori Durbin: That's awesome. I love that idea too. That was actually one of my questions was next was, you know, I, I use like a five phase process when I, I take people through children's books, like when we're actually doing, uh, picture books. They, and we start with the character. We move into the story editing, the formatting, and then the publishing.

But you actually have that short book, and so it's, it sounds like it's 32 pages and they start there, 36. Three, six pages and they start there with their simple idea. How, how do you, let's say I wanted to write a book like that. How would you start me off? Doing 

Mila Johansen: that? Well, I would say like in the class, we just start writing and we do like, um, it's a five hour class and [00:11:00] most people, uh, don't finish their book.

They wanna make it longer. But if they do my formula, they do this book I wrote in that class, write into a template from KDP. KDP has so many attributes and one of 'em is that they have templates. So you wanna join before you're ready to publish and take the tutorials, get a template. Six by nine is industry standard.

So you, but you wanna put a lot of. Value into that 36 page book because this book by itself has garnered me 7,000 emails because I speak on a lot of summits and podcasts and I give it away and, and then I get their emails because I have it set up in a, you know, a CRM program. And so a lot of people are working with me to write that little giveaway.

Uh. Book that shows what they know. And then when people read this, they go, oh my God, she really knows what she's talking about, and they sign up to be my client, even though this book barely scratches the surface. But so, so you, that's what you do is you write, but don't write just a fluffy book. Like make sure it has value.

Like I, I need a five more pages [00:12:00] in this book for a certain number that I wanted that was beyond 36. So I added value to the end. I added like writer's, conferences, um, key shortcuts on your computer and things of value at the end. And I got five more pages where I, I wanted to be for this particular book.

Dori Durbin: That's amazing. I love that whole idea. How, how long do you think it takes the average person? You said five hours. They get pretty close. How much more time would it take them today? Yeah. 

Mila Johansen: I, I always say anybody can write a 36 page book, um, in a day or two about something they know, like just blather it down and we start, you know, we have a secret way of starting.

This is really cool. You start with a bullet list, like, here's. I still, I'm still editing this book, but you see the bullet list? Yeah. And then you just write down 10, 20 things that you wanna make sure you talk about. Like if you're talking about a beach day of the family, the beach, the ball, the water was cold, just write anything.

But once in a while, the titles will come to you. Like for me, it came to me, um, the blog, or not to blog, you [00:13:00] know, after Shakespeare, uh, your author website. Use fiber or hire an expert. And so I, and then you can rearrange 'em, but you just wanna put a bullet list fast and then that'll be your outline. We don't need big outlines, we don't need those.

So you just, you just, and I used to be a total pants and I turned into an outline and a pants. It's called something, I can't remember. Do you know what it's called? A pants and an outline. 

Dori Durbin: I know what you're talking about, but I don't know the term 

Mila Johansen: yet. I can, I gotta memorize that something. But anyway, so, so then you've got this bullet list and you write the easiest one first, whether it's middle.

And whatever, we don't write it in order. Never write your book in order unless you, it's really just happening for you. So then you write the easiest one first and that's what we do in the class. Then the next easiest one, then the next easy, and pretty soon you're going, well, I'm getting the book done.

I'm doing really well. And then you can tackle the whole thing, but blather down what you know, just blather it down and fix it later. You won't have much to fix, really. And then there is one other. That I would suggest getting an editor because we don't need more bad [00:14:00] books, but anybody can write a 36 page book in a day or two about something they know.

Could be a memoir, it could be a short memoir, and then you can, um, get it edited and get it up on Amazon in a week or two. Join KDP today, everybody, because then you'll be there. And for mothers and parents, just think about this. Write your memoir, even if your kids won't wanna read it now or even in the next decade, they will wanna read it someday and everybody should write their memoir.

Everyone. And then, and then another easy way to, to get published is just be in a anthology. Like we just did the Cinderella Monologues and this is a third edition. And then all these women told their stories from struggle to success. So being in a, but don't pay a lot to be in an anthology, do the cheaper ones.

'cause some people are charging like 2000, $7,000. That's not gonna get you anywhere really. But just being in one that for, under a thousand or something. But, but, so. So any way you do it is, it's so [00:15:00] easy to publish, self publish on Amazon right now. They, they make the process really easy. It's just three pages you gotta fill in and they have tutorials for everything there.

Or on YouTube, you can find a tutorial for everything. Most people want me to hold their hands, so I go, okay, click this, click this. And we go through the whole process. And I was just helping someone today finish their book up on Amazon. Then it takes about three to five days for it to appear.

And then you wanna do a book launch. So there's a little bit planning in, in that part. But anybody can self-publish on Amazon. Oh, here's the thing. Most people don't know, it's completely free. 

Dori Durbin: Yeah. Yeah. And that's the beauty of Amazon. It really is. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay, you, you kind of hinted at this. I'm gonna ask it directly.

One of the things I notice when I coach people is that not only is imposter syndrome an obstacle, but they also start thinking way ahead to the end of the book. So for instance, as you were talking about being on Amazon and, and putting everything on, [00:16:00] one of the fears I hear is, what if my book isn't an Amazon bestseller?

What if nobody buys my book? What if this, what if that? And so when you have somebody who's finished a book. Or even somebody who's thinking about starting a book and already looking at that direction, what is the likelihood, first of all, that they'll be on Amazon as a bestseller? And secondly, what can they do to promote their book to the best ability 

Mila Johansen: there?

There's a lot. And this book goes through a lot of that, you know, hundred one Surprising Tips. We're probably giving it away today, right? Anyway, you won't give it off. Well, anyway, um. Um, what, okay, so here's the secret, but I'm only gonna say it here. Don't tell everybody, okay. People are selling these huge programs that they're gonna help you become a bestseller.

And what they're not telling you is it really only takes 10 or 20 people buying your book on Amazon to become an Amazon bestseller. Then you take a screenshot and everything, and you use it for your advertising. So a lot of people are writing their books to teach from, so [00:17:00] they're really not making their money right on Amazon.

They're making enough. To pay for what they just did, but they're really making their money from selling their programs. Like, um, PE when PE people read my book, they wanna sign up with me 'cause they can see, I really know what I'm talking about and you'd really know what you're talking about. And so you can become a bestseller on Amazon.

Very easily do not sign up for those huge programs. They're saying that to sell you in the program. And then here's the problem, Dori, they're telling everyone to do their ebook first. That is a huge myth. They, they say, you can only become an Amazon bestseller that way. No, I make all of my people a bestseller on, oh, this book just came out today, actually today.

Stories about. Life choices. This is a great, funny book that's great for kids too, um, about her cat and so. All of them. She's become a bestseller. I think if I looked right now, he'd be a bestseller by now because he just, uh, it came out yesterday and, and we, we've had everybody buying books today. All your friends [00:18:00] and family will be buying your book at the beginning.

Then you wanna tell other people, and there's a lot to that advertising thing. But the main thing is the myth about doing your ebook first. Your ebook can become a bestseller a month down the road. Three months down the road, three years down the road that we can ha make happen all the time. That's very easy.

But to make your paperback a bestseller is another thing. You wanna get 'em all sold on the same day or in the same week. And I have a slow burn method that keeps some of my books up on the top 100 forever. And so, but the thing is, what they're selling you right now, everybody is, oh, you've gotta do your ebook first.

Don't do that. Do your paperback first. And the main reason is I want my book in people's hands and on their shelves. And the next best reason is that's where you're gonna make your money. You're not gonna make it with the ebook, and you're going to make a lot of the money back from whatever you spent on editing or maybe a book coach.

And so do that first, and then wait a month and then do the ebook, and then you got [00:19:00] another chance to advertise and then you wanna do this thing that's in my book called. Fussy Librarian. Have you ever heard of Fussy Librarian? 

Dori Durbin: I have. 

Mila Johansen: I have. Tell 'em about it though. Well, I love Fussy Librarian because it's a newsletter and they have like, I don't know, a hundred thousand, 400,000 on it.

I can't remember the number now. It keeps growing and I've done Fussy Librarian for most of my books. I do most of my books one to two times a year. Because every single time when I did my grandmother's book, the first time it came out, by the way, this is every woman's story of winning the right to vote.

She was there until story no one else knows. She was the first woman lobbyist. Oh. And she guess what? Oh, she, she created the school of journalism at Columbia. I know. With one other guy. Yeah. So anyway, so, so you wanna do that because then, um, wait, what was I saying? I'm sorry. I lost my, 

Dori Durbin: uh, release it a month later 

Mila Johansen: on eBooks, yes, do the ebook and then that way you can get on Fussy Librarian and do the free.

Now, a lot of people say, well, I don't wanna give my book away, but you do because you're [00:20:00] going to get 500 to 1500, 2000 readers. Mm-hmm. And often they'll buy your other books if you have other books. And then also they'll tell their friends, and here's something most people don't know. You get one third a penny for every ebook page read.

And one of my colleagues has a series but series sell more murder mysteries really sell in romance. Um, so he gets one third a penny, and he makes three to $500 a month just from people reading his eBooks. 

Dori Durbin: That's awesome. 

Mila Johansen: Wow. So do your paperback. Wait a month, do your ebook, and then do your hardcover.

You don't wanna do your hardcover. And I say do it all because it's real estate. You don't wanna do your hardcover when you do your paperback because they'll compete for bestseller. Most people buy the paperback 'cause it's cheaper. Hardcover is about twice as much. But then when you're all done with that, go to a thing called Write this down, a CX, [00:21:00] that is the audio book maker.

Associated with KDP and you can get your book done completely free if you do a royalty share. But it's hard to find good readers sometimes. But you will find I found a really good reader and she's willing to do royalty share. She did her cat book. She did my Cinderella monologue. She's working on the new one now and one man I know.

He had 20 books and he had never done anything with him. And he's getting all his books done on a CX for free or a very small fee, like maybe $50 a book or something. So that's do it all I say, because it's real estate. So do your paperback, then wait, then do your hard cover and your ebook around the same time, and then get going on that audiobook.

You don't even have to wait for the audiobook because it will take three months or so. So you could start that right away. Interesting. Oh, it has to be an ebook though. It has to be an ebook before. It has to connect to the two companies. Okay. 

Dori Durbin: That's awesome. Yeah, I've heard, I've heard so many different things.

It's good to [00:22:00] hear that you can space them out and that there's a reason to space them out. Yes. I think there's a lot of, um, a lot of information out there that is saying, release everything at one time. Push really hard, get as many people to buy as you can. But you're right, it's in competition with itself because.

Again, if your ebook is much cheaper than your paperback, people are gonna pick up the ebook first. What's your thought on doing free reviews? Oh, what do you specifically, I should expand that. Um, so some people will send, uh, a PDF of the book and say, I will send you this PDF in return. You do a review for me on Amazon.

So what is your thought on that? 

Mila Johansen: That's a great idea. You know, and I ask everyone constantly, like when you're giving out your little blurb on Facebook or whatever, put in there somewhere and please wait. You have to say this. Wait till the book arrives at your house. Mm-hmm. And leave a review. So it'll be certified.

It won't be certified unless they receive it at their house. [00:23:00] They, and then tell 'em it's only a sentence or two. You don't even have to read the book. Um, and then have them leave a review and because. If you get 20 reviews, your book's on the map, 50 really on the map a hundred, you've got it made. But most of us don't get that because everyone says they'll leave me a review and they don't.

So what I'll do is I'll ask everyone to do it in all my advertising, but then I'll email certain people I know who bought the book and say, could you leave a review? It would really, really help. I'm always harping on 'em, but it's not on people's radar to do a review. So make sure you tell 'em it's at the very bottom left.

Whatever your left is, very bottom left. Tell 'em where it is because people can't find 'em. 'cause it's way at the bottom of your webpage, which is another wonderful attribute that Amazon gives us as our own webpage. 

Dori Durbin: Mm-hmm. I love their author webpage. It's fabulous. That's actually something that a lot of people don't even realize they have That's on there.

I know. Yeah. Yeah. I try to look people up on that and I get disappointed because of like, there's nothing on here. I don't know anything [00:24:00] about this person. So then I'm getting on perplexity and all the other things, trying to find out about them where it's right there. It could be super stupid. 

Mila Johansen: Well, I use, I use my webpage and I, I taught a guy today, um, one of, he's from Boston, I'm from California, and he, uh, I said, now use your webpage as your information page.

So let's say you need your ISBN for something else, or your bio, just go to your webpage and grab 'em. And it's like a storage place. 

Dori Durbin: Yes. Yes. That's brilliant for 

Mila Johansen: your description. 

Dori Durbin: Yeah. Yes. Great advice. Let me ask you also, um, we're talking about all these adults who write books. Um, one thing that I think we both know and love is that kids can do this.

Yes. And so when we have authors who are parents who write books, hopefully there's some inspiration for these kids as well. So what's your experience with that And kids being, uh, writers. 

Mila Johansen: Well, you know, um, I had a mentor and she, uh. Toured the world. They, they did house sitting all over the world. They didn't wanna live in England anymore 'cause it was cold.

And so she, and she was [00:25:00] homeschooling her children and she was helping people publish their books and she helped them publish their books. They've each published like two or three books now when they're, when they were eight and 10 years old. I think they're older now. And so it doesn't matter how old you are and it's such self-esteem for a child to put out a book, whatever it's about.

And then they, um, also one woman has me come and teach at her. Summits all the time because she's doing college prep and teaching people how to get all that money left on the table for college. In fact, I helped her write a book here. We did this book it's available, you should get it. Parents. It's really, really good about getting into college and she has me come and speak to the parents about having their kids write a book, any book, because that will separate them in the college.

Uh. Process of getting in because most kids haven't written a book. 

Dori Durbin: Wow. I wouldn't have ever thought about that either. Does it give them special, um, scholarships or just like entrance? [00:26:00] What, how does it help them? 

Mila Johansen: It separates them from the crowd. So, oh, this kid wrote a book and this one didn't, when they're having so many people and she said they're, she this quite a book because she, I think every parent should have this book because, um, and she was gonna write some other ones and then she didn't.

But anyway, it's a great book because there's so many. Grants, small, big and large and medium that are left on the table. She says, no one's going for them. And so she got, she was homeschooling her kids and didn't have a lot of money, so she got the, she learned how to do the grants and she got them each so much money that they each had like 10, $20,000 they still got to use after college for their own homes.

Dori Durbin: Wow, that's amazing. Totally worth the effort. She, she 

Mila Johansen: got excited about me because I was teaching people to write the short book and the kids could do that and it would separate them in the college entrance process. 

Dori Durbin: Yeah. That's actually, that's I'm both my kids are, well, one kid's out of college, but one is still in, and I know she filled out, I think she said 30 [00:27:00] scholarship applications.

And I'm wondering like, what would it looked like for her? Had she had a book on the shelf that she could. You know, in my book, you know, well, 

Mila Johansen: she, she did workshops, training the parents how to really facilitate that. Mm-hmm. 

Dori Durbin: That's awesome. I love that. I love the fact too, that you had young ones, I had some young, um, authors that I illustrated for and my, my favorite moments were seeing them on social media, reading to kids who are actually almost their age and young.

Yeah. Yeah. I think that's so exciting. Such a gift to them and a gift to the other kids to know.

Mila Johansen: Know, another idea is 'cause you know, I do the Cinderella anthologies. And what I did one time with a cloud, because I've done this for like 40 years off and on with people before Amazon. I've only done for like seven, eight years.

But because we were just doing other kinds of publishing back then, but I. Took a class, I taught of homeschoolers and they, there was like 12 kids and we wrote an anthology. Back then, it was about [00:28:00] probably 30, no, 40 years ago, way before my daughter was born. And we did one called Dear Peter Rabbit, and it was, um, like letters to the people in the, the, it came from another idea of another book.

I was reading to my daughter and they go, dear Mr. McGregor, we don't like that you're trying to kill the rabbit. We like the rabbit. And they all wrote letters to different characters in the book, and then we published it and they each got a copy or two. And so that's something you can do in a classroom as a teacher, is you could do an anthology, you could give them a theme to write about.

Like I, I read that whole other book to them. Then they all got ideas and they wrote to a different character. And then, um, and, and, or you could do a theme like what I like about Christmas or my grandmother or, just different things. And you could do that with any age group. I mean, once they can write, I mean, probably starting at third grade and then you could do it in high school and you could do it with parenting.

You could, parents could put, you could start putting these Anth. I, I do anthologies for people and we've done all kind, we did [00:29:00] two anthology cookbooks, which are very exciting. So, you know, there's. A lot of opportunities for everybody and the kids. Nobody's too young and nobody's too old. And remember, everybody should write their memoir, everybody.

Dori Durbin: I think that's awesome. Uh, I love these ideas, Mila. They're awesome. Well, we're winding down to the last few minutes and I have loved every moment of this. This is great information. I think. I think they should probably pay for this particular episode, but we're not gonna charge. And I really love how accessible you've made.

Authoring for people like anyone can do this. So one thing that I definitely want is for our listeners to know where they can find you, how they can get ahold of you and work with you. 

Mila Johansen: Yes, you can find me on mila johanson.com. And you'll see my different programs that I offer. And then, um, write, your short book will be coming up again, you know, and then, but most people sign up with me to work for three months.

I'm very reasonable. I'm like, what? Everybody's telling [00:30:00] me I should charge more, but what I'm charging is what I could afford. And so, and so pe most people sign up with me for three months. I'm working with 10 people right now. I have plenty more time. And, um, and then I can help you get through the whole process.

And then most people sign up again 'cause they wanna make another book. Once people, uh, warning, once you work with me, you'll probably get many ideas for many books. And, and so, um, so I do that. And then if you wanna really get ahold of me my, it's my name backwards is my email. Johanson Mila. gmail.com and then we can set up a meeting and see what your project's about and you'll get very excited and you'll wanna sign up with me, or we could just have a meeting, that's fine too.

Dori Durbin: Well, I think our listeners will sign up or meet with you at some point for sure. At once. They get all inspired by this. So as we wrap up, Mila, um, there are so many free resources on writing. Now all of them are very helpful or truthful. So we want our listeners to feel [00:31:00] empowered to take a leap of faith and get the book going.

So thinking back to your own journey as an author before you ever published, how and what would be the best advice that you could give them to get their book started? 

Mila Johansen: Just start, put that pin on the paper, fingers on the keyboard. Start and don't let anything stop you and blather it down. That is the best advice because, you know, Minnie Pearl, I, I've gotta memorize her quote, but something like Done is better than perfect, right?

Just do it. I mean, don't wait and don't wait because when are you going to do it? And most people go, well, I'll do it when? La, la, la, la, la la la. But no, let's start today. There's always five minutes in a day. You could do it when you first wake up. You could do it right before bed. You could do it after lunch.

You know, you could do it anytime you think of. Just do it. I love it. 

Dori Durbin: I love no excuses. They can blather on all they want and nothing is going to need to stop [00:32:00] them. 

Mila Johansen: Well, there's one more. There's one more thing. You may have material already that it would make a great book. Like I've helped many people take their college papers and.

Copy 'em, put 'em into a template. Boom. Three minutes. They've got a book. They may have to go back in format. A lot of other people were doing, um, te um, you know, transcripts from podcasts and from Zoom and all kinds. You diary, you may have material already that you can just pop into, you know, join KDP, get the template, pop it in there and fix it up.

You may not have to write from scratch. 

Dori Durbin: Oh, that's great advice. I think all of us have something lying around that we think, well, that could make a good book. Yeah. Even if it's sticky notes, some people keep sticky notes all over and they could be a, an inspirational 

Mila Johansen: book of some kind. 

Dori Durbin: Oh, this book came from her 

Mila Johansen: memes.

Uh, she, she was in my classes for five years and she, she said, I'm writing all these memes about my cat, and I'm, and I go, well, those would make a book. So she took all her memes and then she filled everything in and she made a cat out of the, all the blurbs she wrote on Facebook. [00:33:00]

Dori Durbin: Oh, that's so smart.

Amazing. I love it. Okay, so we've given listeners no excuses. If they've ever thought about writing a book, they can start. We've got several ways for them to start. If they wanna contact you, they should start with mila johansen.com. And if all us fails, contact one of us. After this episode, you'll be able to look at all of the stats and information.

So Mila, thank you so much for your time today. This has been awesome. 

Mila Johansen: Thank you.