Brave New Bookshelf

In this episode of Brave New Bookshelf, hosts Steph Pajonas and Danica Favorite sit down with Hannah Jacobson, the founder of Book Award Pro, to explore how AI is transforming the pursuit of book awards and accolades for authors. Hannah shares insights into the innovative ways Book Award Pro uses AI to match books with suitable awards, simplifying a complex process and saving authors valuable time. The conversation delves into the importance of originality in submissions, the evolving landscape of AI in publishing, and how authors can harness technology to amplify their creative voices. Discover how AI-driven tools like ProWritingAid and Book Brush are enhancing the publishing process for authors worldwide. Visit our website https://bravenewbookshelf.com to view the full episode notes, links and apps mentioned in the episode, and the full transcript.

[00:00:00] Welcome to Brave New Bookshelf, a podcast that explores the fascinating intersection of AI and authorship. Join hosts, Steph Pajonas and Danica Favorite, as they dive into thought provoking discussions, debunk myths, and highlight the transformative role of AI in the publishing industry.

**Steph Pajonas:** Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the Brave New Bookshelf. I'm Steph Pajonas, CTO and COO of the Future Fiction Academy and soon to be Future Fiction Press. By the time this goes live, the website will probably be up and we'll be talking about it more. But in the meantime, I'm here with my lovely co host.

As always, hi, Danica. How are you?

**Danica Favorite:** I'm good. Thanks. Hi everyone. I am Danica Favorite and I am the Community Manager at PublishDrive. And we help authors on every stage of their author journey, whether that is helping find the best description and metadata for their books using AI tools [00:01:00] or distributing their book to the widest markets or even splitting royalties with their co authors.

A lot of cool things and the best thing about my job is that I get to talk. About all things AI with my good friend here, Steph Pajonas. We're really happy to be here. Happy to get to talk to you today because when Steph and I were talking about what we were going to talk about, I am so excited because so much about me and who I am as an author, and even in the writing coaching that I do, is all about Mindfulness and finding joy in what you do.

And one of the things that Steph and I have been talking about, that's missing in the AI conversation sometimes, although to be fair, we have talked about this a little bit.

**Steph Pajonas:** Just a little. Yeah.

**Danica Favorite:** just a little, and it really is about finding joy in your writing and in your process. And the joy using AI tools brings, because I think ultimately we have to recognize that this is a [00:02:00] tool.

It's just a tool. And we would not we were just talking about how I recently got back into re watching Veronica Mars, because it's my favorite show because I found a friend who hasn't seen it yet. Of course, I have to spread the Veronica Mars love. And we were laughing because they were still using flip phones. And here I am with my giant cell phone that's got all this cool AI stuff. Like, Steph and I were talking about is how, Veronica Mars was a badass. Can you imagine what she could have done with a Smartphone? Seriously!

**Steph Pajonas:** She could have done some major damage, I think. Yeah.

**Danica Favorite:** yeah, and the thing is, is that none of us hate on her for that.

None of even like the different kinds of cameras and the camera technology they had back in. Right now we have, the reason I got my phone, I'll be really honest, is because at the time it was the very best camera that you could get in a phone. That was why I chose the Google Pixel. And now technology [00:03:00] has evolved so much.

I still think it's one of the better cameras, but I think I was reading something about a camera that beats it now. But here's the point. I get great pictures off of my phone and yet I know other people still prefer to use their telephoto lenses and all their other cool stuff on a regular camera camera.

And so my friend and I, as we're watching Veronica Mars, we're commenting. Do you remember how hard it used to be when you were waiting to get your photos back from the printer?

**Steph Pajonas:** My husband and I were just talking about that recently just think about where did all the photo developing places go, right? They went away at some point, now I think you can still get film developed by sending it away. And that's pretty much it. Mhm.

**Danica Favorite:** Yeah, and none of us say, oh, real photographers aren&

[00:00:00] Welcome to Brave New Bookshelf, a podcast that explores the fascinating intersection of AI and authorship. Join hosts, Steph Pajonas and Danica Favorite, as they dive into thought provoking discussions, debunk myths, and highlight the transformative role of AI in the publishing industry.

**Steph Pajonas:** Hello everyone and welcome back to the Brave New Bookshelf. I'm Steph, Pajonas, CTO and COO of Future Fiction Academy, where we teach authors how to use AI in any part of their process. We've been super busy at the FFA the last couple of months. We got some cool stuff coming out, which I'm totally excited about and I can't wait to tell everybody about it when the time comes. Hopefully in like late August or so, and I'm of course, joined by my lovely co host Danica Favorite. How are you doing today Danica?

**Danica Favorite:** I'm good. Thank you. So I'm Danica Favorite, and I am the community manager at PublishDrive. And at PublishDrive, we are here to help authors on every stage of their [00:01:00] publishing journey through distribution, royalty splitting, and obviously creating our new tool the metadata generator, which is an AI generator to help you create metadata and keywords and everything for your book, which is Amazing and awesome.

So yeah, we had kind of our exciting thing. And I know our team is working on the back end of also some more cool AI stuff. So I love that you and I both get to do for our day job, a little bit of AI fun. Development stuff. I'm not the developer person. I'm just the person with the ideas who says, yes, I like that idea.

No, I don't know. I don't even get to do that much. It's do you think authors would like this? And I say yes we would. Or no. Yeah.

**Steph Pajonas:** would. Not so much.

**Danica Favorite:** Yeah. And I think that's a good point. Obviously, you and I are very pro AI. We respect author's rights to use AI ethically and legally in any way they can to help improve their process.

And you and I were talking a little bit earlier [00:02:00] about how we've both seen a lot more of the online bullying for people who use AI or, oh no, this AI use is bad, this AI use is bad, et cetera. And I just wanted to take a few moments we've been on break for a little while. Take some summertime. So we're back from our break.

And I want to reiterate our position that it's not okay to bully an author or anyone in the publishing industry for using AI as an assistive tool to help make their jobs easier. Now, obviously, we do not support plagiarism. We do not support anything that's unethical or illegal. But when we're talking about generative AI, and as we've talked about it in the context of our podcast. We really are talking about legal and ethical ways of using it. And so if you ever have questions about that, please go back and listen to some of our episodes because we have experts sharing their opinions on that. And again, just want to reiterate that stance [00:03:00] because it's really important that even if I'm not using AI for one particular piece of my process, that doesn't mean that it's not okay for someone else to.

I want everyone to use AI in a way that's comfortable for them. If it's good for you to use it to write your blurbs, but not write your text of your book, you can do that. But please do not be down on someone who's going to use it for the text of their book. And so I'm going to send that back over to you, Steph, because I know you also are pretty passionate.

So I'll give you a chance to share some of that passion as well.

**Steph Pajonas:** yeah, it's interesting that we saw that a lot this past week or two. Very interesting. A lot of people coming into the AI safe spaces on Facebook and in other places and saying Oh, it's fin

In this episode of Brave New Bookshelf, co-hosts Steph Pajonas and Danica Favorite sit down with Macarena Luz Bianchi, the creative force behind the "Magical Mindset" podcast, to explore the transformative role of AI in authorship and filmmaking. Macarena shares her unique insights on how AI can enhance creativity, streamline workflows, and empower authors to focus on their strengths. From generating social media content to brainstorming illustration ideas for children's books, discover how AI can be a valuable collaborator in your creative process. Visit our website https://bravenewbookshelf.com to view the full episode notes, links and apps mentioned in the episode, and the full transcript. PLEASE NOTE: Brave New Bookshelf will be on vacation for most of July and August 2024.

In this episode of Brave New Bookshelf, hosts Steph Pajonas and Danica Favorite are joined by AI productivity expert Chelle Honiker to explore the transformative power of AI and automation in the publishing industry. Chelle, the co-founder and publisher of Indie Author Magazine, shares her invaluable insights on how authors can leverage AI tools to streamline their workflows, enhance content creation, and improve reader engagement. From automating mundane tasks to creating innovative platforms like Direct2Readers.com, this episode is a must-listen for any author looking to harness the potential of AI to elevate their writing career. Tune in to discover practical tips and inspiring ideas that can help you reclaim your time and focus on what you do best — writing. Visit our website https://bravenewbookshelf.com to view the full episode notes, links and apps mentioned in the episode, and the full transcript.

[00:00:00] Welcome to Brave New Bookshelf, a podcast that explores the fascinating intersection of AI and authorship. Join hosts, Steph Pajonas and Danica Favorite, as they dive into thought provoking discussions, debunk myths, and highlight the transformative role of AI in the publishing industry.

**Steph Pajonas:** Hello, everyone. And welcome back to another episode of Brave New Bookshelf. I'm one of your co hosts, Steph Pajonas. I'm the CTO and COO of the Future Fiction Academy, where we teach authors how to use AI in any part of their business. We're changing things up a little bit this morning. We usually do most of our podcast interviews in the afternoon, my time.

And this morning, I got everything up and ready to go because my lovely co host is in Europe. And she's with us today in the offices at Publish Drive. So I'm going to hand it over to Danica Favorite.

How are you today, Danica?

**Danica Favorite:** Thank you. It's very fun to be here and recording at Publish Drive in our office. And uh, fun to actually have my guests right [00:01:00] next to me too. So of you who don't know me, I'm Danica Favorite. I am the Community Manager at Publish Drive. And PublishDrive is a company that helps authors publishers distribute their books to a worldwide audience.

What's really cool is some of you have heard me teasing about our new AI metadata tool, which so fun. So today we're doing something a little differently. We're talking about the AI metadata tool and I have right here, this is Robert Csizmar, otherwise known as Joker. To tell us about it uh, is our CTO and the co founder of PublishDrive.

And has spent many hours working on the development of this tool. And really excited for him to tell us about that. 

But before I do that, I have to tell you something hilarious because was playing on ChatGPT today, and uh, want to share this. I hope everyone does this as an experiment because it's so fun.

So I asked ChatGPT, I said, who is Danica's Favorite? And uh, GPT said, Danica Favorite is an author known for her inspirational romance [00:02:00] novels, featuring themes of faith, hope, and love. Her books typically focus on historical and contemporary settings, offering heartwarming stories that explore the complexities of relationships and personal growth.

Danica Favorite's works are well received by readers who enjoy clean, uplifting romance. a strong sense of community and moral values. also known for her engagement with readers through social media and writing workshops, she shares insights and advice on writing and storytelling. So then, of course, I asked it, who is Steph Pajonas?

Pajonas is an author known for her diverse range of fiction, including contemporary romance, fiction, and cozy mysteries. She's particularly recognized for her Nogiku Series, I hope I said that right, which blends Japanese culture and dystopian science fiction. Pajonas writing often features strong female protagonists, intricate world building, and elements of Japanese traditions and language.

In addition to her novels, she is active in the writing community, sharing her experience and advice on writing, self publishing, and [00:03:00] marketing through her blog and social media channels. Pajonas work appeals to readers who enjoy genre crossing stories with rich cultural elements and dynamic characters.

So I think Chat GPT knows us pretty well.

**Steph Pajonas:** Yeah, I think it's got us nailed. It's good.

**Danica Favorite:** Yeah. Yeah. Right. I was just asking Chat GPT. 

So, um, did not ask it about Joker. I should have actually, now that I think about it, but I'm going to go ahead and introduce Joker. Like I said uh, Csizmar is his name, but we all call him Joker. is the co founder of Publish Drive and also th

[00:00:00] Welcome to Brave New Bookshelf, a podcast that explores the fascinating intersection of AI and authorship. Join hosts, Steph Pajonas and Danica Favorite, as they dive into thought provoking discussions, debunk myths, and highlight the transformative role of AI in the publishing industry.

**Steph Pajonas:** Okay. Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the Brave New Bookshelf. Once again, I'm your co host. I'm Steph Pajonas, COO and CTO of Future Fiction Academy, where we teach authors how to use AI in every part of our process. We're having a great time talking to all of our people who've been coming on for interviews and Danica especially has been so great about calling and emailing and doing all the stuff that she needs to do to bring these people on.

So Danica, hi, how are you?

**Danica Favorite:** Hey, I'm Danica Favorite. I'm the community manager at PublishDrive where we help people distribute their e books, audio books, and print on demand to the largest worldwide audience from one simple, little dashboard. And [00:01:00] also, I can announce this because by the time this goes live, it will be true, but we've also got a super cool new AI metadata tool. So be sure to check that out. Our links are all in our information.

Today I'm excited because we've got Cameron Sutter here from Plottr, and he also has a really great blog called Real Human Authors. Is that right? Real Human Authors? 

**Cameron Sutter:** Real human writers.

**Danica Favorite:** Real Human Writers. Thank you. 

**Cameron Sutter:** I doubted myself though. I might have to check that later.

**Danica Favorite:** I wrote it down and then I literally changed the page. Yes, Real Human Writers. So, we're here with Cameron Sutter from Real Human Writers and Plottr. Two super cool spaces, and so excited to have him. Yeah, Steph said I do all the inviting and finding people, but let me tell you something, she's the tech wizard behind.

As we have said multiple times, I am not techie. Do not ask me to do tech things because I don't understand them, but I'm learning with AI. And so I love that Steph and I have this great [00:02:00] partnership. I can do one thing that I'm really good at, and she can do the other thing that she's really good at. And so, as always, I think that's why we're such great partners. And that's something I hope our listeners take from that because you don't have to do everything. You just partner up with someone that can be a good partner for you. 

Love the fact that we get to have Cameron and his perspective on AI. So, Cameron, why don't you introduce yourself? Tell us a little bit about what you do, what you write about. I'd love to hear about both Plottr and Real Human Writers. I know that's a lot, but feel free to share because I do want our listeners to hear about the different tools that can help them and make them more successful as authors.

**Cameron Sutter:** All right. Well, thanks so much for having me. I have heard so much about both of you before. Meeting you today. I, I feel like we've probably talked at some point, but I know everybody I talked to is like, Oh yeah, you gotta, gotta talk to these two. They know what's going on with AI. And I just happened to meet the connection.

So thanks so much for having me. Really excited to be here. 

So yeah, I've been [00:03:00] working on Plottr for actually, it's been 10 years now that I started Plottr just in my basement for my own writing. And In 2020 is when I left my job and started doing this full time. And so I've been serving writers for a while. 

I do the code myself, which it's not to brag. It's to give a little bit of a background to me because I am a software engineer and I've been following ma

[00:00:00] Welcome to Brave New Bookshelf, a podcast that explores the fascinating intersection of AI and authorship. Join hosts, Steph Pajonas and Danica Favorite, as they dive into thought provoking discussions, debunk myths, and highlight the transformative role of AI in the publishing industry.

**Steph Pajonas:** All right, welcome back to the Brave New Bookshelf. I'm Steph Pajonas, CTO and COO of Future Fiction Academy, and I'm also an author of over 40 books. That's mostly science fiction romance, space opera romance, and you know, I love just, I love writing. So we'll see what new genre I will conquer next. And once again, I have my wonderful co host with me today.

Hi, Danica, how are you doing?

**Danica Favorite:** I'm good. How are you? I'm Danica Favorite, and I am the Community Manager at PublishDrive. I'm also an author. So at PublishDrive, we help authors distribute their books to a worldwide global audience, which is super fun and [00:01:00] fantastic. And also as an author, I'm hybrid, so I'm both traditionally and indie published.

I've got, I think, 27 books. I say that, and then I think, I think of a different book. So it's somewhere in there. But yeah, so I'm like Steph. I love to write. I love writing and we're here just to talk about AI and bring some new perspectives into AI and publishing because we hear a lot of them from people who, oh, the sky is falling to, oh, this is the best thing ever.

We're here to unravel some of the mysteries and let people know a little bit more about it. Today we are excited to have Ruth Ann Nelson here from Realm Chef. And I met Ruth, gosh, several months ago, actually, as she put in the AI for Authors group. She was talking about Realm Chef and their product, which I will let her talk about and I was super excited about it because It is literally the dream product for me.

It's something I've been wanting for a very long time and a [00:02:00] sadness Every time like I get the little email of new developments. They have I haven't been able to use it fully yet just because my life is so crazy. But I'm really excited to hear from Ruth and hear a little bit about Realm Chef and I hope you guys will find her just as charming as we do.

So Ruth, why don't you introduce yourself to us?

**Ruth Anne Nelson:** Hello. Thank you so much for having me here. I am just delighted. I think you're both so cool. So getting to be here and talk to you is awesome. Like Danica said, I'm the content and special projects coordinator at Realm Chef, but I am also an author. So I just wanted to start by giving a little bit about my author journey.

I'm sure it's one many can relate to. I, I signed a contract. Like, oh, years and years ago with a small press for my first book. Yay. It wasn't published until three years later. That's the business. And they recommended turning it into a trilogy. And I said, yay. So a couple years later, the next one was published.

But stop me if you've heard this one. [00:03:00] By the time book three was ready, the small press had vanished off the face of the earth. So I managed to track down the former managing editor on Twitter to get written confirmation that I had my rights back and I launched as an indie author with the complete trilogy in 2017.

Along the way, I discovered a love for editing and coaching as well. Authors have hired me to deep edit, proofread their books, format their manuscripts, just sort of walk them through the self publishing process. And I've also done some querying. So I've coached a few authors through that process as well.

I just love stories. I love reading them and watching them and writing them and helping others tell them, regardless of my job title or whatever hat I'm currently wearing. My aspiration in

[00:00:00] Welcome to Brave New Bookshelf, a podcast that explores the fascinating intersection of AI and authorship. Join hosts, Steph Pajonas and Danica Favorite, as they dive into thought provoking discussions, debunk myths, and highlight the transformative role of AI in the publishing industry.

**Steph Pajonas:** All right, everybody, welcome to the Brave New Bookshelf podcast. One of these days, I'm actually going to tell you what episode number this is, instead of just saying, hey, welcome, because I can't keep track of episode numbers. 

Once again, I'm Steph Pajonas. I'm CTO and COO of the Future Fiction Academy, where we teach authors how to use AI in every part of their process. And I'm joined by my lovely co host once again. Hi Danica. How's it going?

**Danica Favorite:** Good, good. Hi, everyone. I'm Danica Favorite, and I'm the Community Manager at PublishDrive, and we help authors and publishers distribute their books to a worldwide network. And we've also got a few cool AI tools [00:01:00] and some soon to be launching. You all missed our chit chat before we got on, but I was telling Steph about some of my testing stuff that we're doing with it, and it's kind of fun.

As I've always said, I am not very techie. And so I really encourage anyone who is listening or who starts to think they want to listen. Oh, I'm not very techie. Please do listen in because you get me and I don't really know a lot of tech stuff, which is super awesome because if I can do it, anyone can do it. 

So today our guest is Stuart Bache and I am so excited to have him. I got to listen to him speak last year at SPS live in London. And he was talking about using AI, and he's a cover designer, and I'll be really honest, up to that point, I was kind of on the fence about cover design and AI and all of that, because I really didn't know how cover designers felt or how it impacted them. 

And for those of you who haven't seen Stuart's [00:02:00] work, Stuart's a very talented artist in his own right. So how does someone like Stuart who has gotten this AI influx, how does he deal with it? And I was really impressed with his answers because, and I can't remember what he said. I tried to look through my notes to see like the one thing that really stood out to me, but I was just like, wow.

I love how he's approaching it and I think it's a really good view of how someone who makes his living off of art is taking a look at AI and art and how that's impacting us in publishing.

So, Stuart, why don't you introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about yourself, what you do, and we can take it from there.

**Stuart Bache:** Yeah. Great. Hi, I, I'm Stuart Bache. You've just heard, I'm a book cover designer. I've been doing it for almost 20 years now. I started in traditional publishing. I worked at Hodder and Stoughton and I was a design manager at Harper Collins. Worked on all sorts of different [00:03:00] things from Stephen King to John le Carré.

I worked on the Hobbit movie titles. That's where I met my wife, in fact, because she worked for the Tolkien estate. And yeah, so I worked on a bunch of different things. When I went freelance about 15 years ago, I started to work with a few authors indie authors just on one to one.

And I think it was about 2015. So that was, yeah, I was sort of growing and still wasn't really a thing. And so I was a very small part of my yearly work, my annual work, however, that sort of flipped over. So, suddenly it became my main source of income.

I left my job and I started working with indie authors, almost all the time. And I've worked with people like LJ Ross and Simon McCleave and people like that. And I've got to know a completely different world. And i

[00:00:00] Welcome to Brave New Bookshelf, a podcast that explores the fascinating intersection of AI and authorship. Join hosts, Steph Pajonas and Danica Favorite, as they dive into thought provoking discussions, debunk myths, and highlight the transformative role of AI in the publishing industry.

**Steph Pajonas:** Hi everyone. Welcome back to The Brave New Bookshelf. Once again, I'm Steph Pajonas. I'm the CTO and COO of Future Fiction Academy where we teach authors how to use AI in every part of their process. And with me today, I have my lovely co host as always, Danica Favorite. How are you Danica? 

**Danica Favorite:** I'm Danica Favorite and I'm an author and the community manager at PublishDrive. Together we're just here having our fun little AI adventure. I know by the time this podcast launches, it'll be a little bit older news, but I think we are all excited about the new Open AI developments. And so I'm

feeling pretty good. Like I am [00:01:00] glad that we're here talking about AI, but part of me is can I go play yet? 

I know you got to do some playing yesterday though, Steph. 

**Steph Pajonas:** Yeah, it did. Yeah, that this new, openAI model is called 4. 0 and it's actually an O, it's not a zero, which I had to look it up because it stands for Omni. It has all of these really cool like video and voice features. You can talk to it and it can talk back and it can look through your camera at things.

And then it's also doing a really good job with a lot of the fiction prompts I've been throwing at it. It's. doing a great job with outlining and coming up with better emotional beats within chapters and whatnot. So I'm, I'm excited to play around with it a little bit more. it'll definitely be fun to play with in the future.

**Danica Favorite:** Yeah, yeah. I think that's always the challenge is that the play is so much fun. So

**Steph Pajonas:** Yes.

**Danica Favorite:** So today we have our wonderful guest Sana and she is amazing. I met [00:02:00] her a little, gosh, what, like over a year ago now, I should say that because we were just talking before we started recording the first video series I did with her, she was teaching a class on using AI for marketing and she had a seven day old baby, which was amazing.

And now she was just saying her baby is 14 months old and walking around and it just goes to show how much time flies. We've been seeing you a lot in the AI space and all the cool things you're doing with AI and video and marketing.

And I know you have all kinds of cool tricks up your sleeve. Sana, why don't you tell us more about yourself and what you're doing with AI because we're here for it.

**Sana Choudary:** Thank you Danica for the introduction and thank you to both you Danica and Steph for inviting me to be on this podcast. It's a pleasure to be here and I love you two. And the things you've been doing in the AI space. So it's really awesome to be able to have this conversation about the things I think all of us are really excited about coming up in this space.

So what I do is I help authors do more [00:03:00] effective marketing online. And in the last. 14 months, give or take, I've been doing more and more of, Hey, let's use AI to help you guys get out there more. And in that process, I found my way people with their video marketing.

So a bit about me in terms of my career in which I've worked in a lot of industries, including a very long stint in the San Francisco Bay area and tech and games was all about helping people and brands tell better stories to connect with their ideal audiences.

And so in the process, I've done a lot of sales with development marketing. And, when it comes to books, I'm one of those people w