Welcome to Find Your Colors!

This is the publication and podcast where we are discussing the Shards of Color Trilogy and more specifically the first book of the trilogy titled BLUSH BORN.

I am Jeff B. White and I am the writer and creator of these stories. Find Your Colors allows me to provide the full chapters of BLUSH BORN in a serialized format, along with breakdowns of the psychological concepts that are present within the narrative. I also explain how I translated my own story of struggle and survival into this dark fairy tale.

Recap

Previously, I shared “Chapter 17 Whispered Color” in which Jethran and Fable met Winley Knowles and the Coloristas. We saw Jethran finally find a place where he is accepted and sees that living in freedom is actually possible.

We will pick back up with the narrative later this week. Today I have some exciting news to share, alongside a few thoughts about making it in the literary world and how we put ourselves out there as professionals.

Growing and Showing

The landscape of publishing shifted a long time ago and we're no longer in an era where a manuscript alone opens every door. Writing a great story remains the priority, but building a conversation around that story is what invites the people to stay.

Through the building of a conversation around BLUSH BORN here on Substack, I have been able to secure a domain and I have built a new central hub for my work.

Thank you to all of my subscribers who signed up for both monthly and yearly subscriptions. And especially, those of you who have signed up on the Prism Tier.

You not only have allowed me to see what it feels like to start getting paid for my actual writing, but you've allowed the writing to pay for itself. That's massive!

Substack has been a beautiful way for me to begin sharing the story behind the story, breaking down exactly what all went into crafting my series. Now my new site is providing me with the opportunity to share the full depth of what exists inside that story as I set myself on the path toward realizing my publishing goals.

Having a dedicated author website remains absolutely crucial because your website acts as your true home base on the internet. It's the platform that you own entirely. While Substack is a powerful tool for content distribution, the personal website offers long-term stability, control, and searchability that third-party platforms simply cannot match.

It's the perfect place for a permanent biography, a professional press kit, your book portfolio, or a “work with me” page. Those elements just feel clunky inside a standard newsletter feed.

On your own website, you decide exactly how your work is presented. You can have full control over your design and overall feel. You get complete control over the brand and user experience.

I have crafted a fully immersive experience that allows visitors to feel the weight of the narrative before you even start the first sentence. I've created a place where you can explore the full depth of the world that's been created in my stories. You can learn about the locations and discover the cast of characters.

I'm building a section detailing the full magic systems and explaining the different cosmologies that go into the belief structures of my characters. There's even radio broadcasts that play the in-world news updates from the narrative, providing added details from the world itself to facilitate a deeper dive into the Kingdom of Evenhere.

Quite possibly, my favorite feature about this new site is that I am able to share full chapters of my memoir with the world for the first time ever. These chapters will not be available anywhere else.

Obviously, this is an extremely personal project for me and it was not easy to sit down and write about all the things that I have included in the memoir. It was important to me that I was allowed to have full ownership and full control over the ways in which it is shared and presented to potential readers.

Having my own domain and my own site makes that ownership possible. So now instead of only telling my readers about my memoir, I finally get to show it to them. On my terms.

Substack is fantastic and I’m not going anywhere any time soon. The fact remains that building a portfolio solely on rented land comes with risks that could be detrimental to your progress. Platforms can change their terms, they can increase their fees, or they can lock you out of your account which could erase thousands of subscribers or years of content. Your website ensures that you own your content, your subscriber data, and brand identity permanently. It serves as a permanent hub for your career, regardless of which social media platforms rise or fall.

It also removes the dependence upon the algorithm whichever algorithm that is. We've all already experienced the Instagram algorithm crunch and we all know exactly how difficult it is to get properly seen by the people you're trying to reach on Facebook. Plus, not everyone is built for tiktok and not everyone wants to be posting videos of themselves all the time or relying on competition with the influencer crowd for clicks in order to ensure our careers get off the ground.

One really big deal is that Substack has limited SEO optimization whereas content on your own website ranks much better on Google. This makes it easier for new readers to find you organically. Plus, a website allows you to structure evergreen content that brings in traffic for years. Newsletter posts, on the other hand, eventually get buried in inboxes.

The website becomes a place where you can sell your books, merchandise, or services directly from your own site without sharing a commission. A dedicated website also lets you set up marketing funnels, like giving away a free story in exchange for an email address, which is much harder to execute on a newsletter platform.

It's a Miley vs Hannah situation because you literally can have the best of both worlds. These platforms work perfectly together and the best approach is to treat them as complementary tools. You can use the website as your foundation and let Substack be the engine that drives the traffic and connection.

Your website can house the archive and shop as the permanent place for your content and your books while serving as your main intake hub. While Substack is still there holding space as the newsletter and housing the community so you have easy access for updates, essays, and direct conversations.

Personalized and Professional Value

There's another extremely important reason why having dedicated author website is vital.

The three key components to successfully becoming a published author are to have a great idea, a great story, and a platform. It used to be that you only had to have two of those. A great story and a great idea were fine even if you didn't have a platform. But, the days of that being true are seeming to be moving away. It's undeniable that the digital world has taken over everything and content creators are a dime a dozen.

While there are still people who are able to get in the door without this, it is naive to still believe that having a professional digital footprint isn't a necessity. As the world continues to conduct more and more of its life and business in the online world it is slowly becoming more and more difficult to ensure that your work gets seen and is treated with the value that it deserves unless you place yourself in the market where the majority is existing.

While having a dedicated author landing page does serve as a marketing tool and a place to directly sell your work, it also provides a point of presence in the digital world. Presence matters. From what I have come to learn, it matters a lot more today than it did only six months ago.

Things have changed in the publishing world and not everyone is talking about it, but they are noticing it. Across the entire literary realm, agencies and publishing houses are closing and filing bankruptcy. Big publishing houses are having to eat the massive debt left behind by some of the smaller organizations, and that is causing a tightening of risk-taking in picking up new authors.

It has always been that agents, editors, and publishers want to see that a new author they are interested in will be able to carry part of the load in getting the word out about their work. Now more than ever, that has gone from a bonus to an absolute necessity.

We must show that we have the ability to attract, engage, and convert would-be readers into dedicated and active communities.

If we want our work to be picked up and remembered, we have to show that we are invested in the presentation as much as the punctuation. We have to make it apparent that we can craft skilled prose and it is vital that we show that we are skilled pros.

A dedicated site tells the industry and the reader that our work has merit and already has its own home. It shows the ones who need to see it that the author is ready to not only participate in the conversation, but that they have already started it.

Plus, a really cool aspect of being able to acquire your own domain and website for the use of marketing and raising awareness around your work is that it comes with a business email that looks extremely professional.

This obviously isn’t a necessity, as people get published every single day with just a regular Gmail account. That being said, it undeniably gives your queries and outreach that added punch that shows a level of professionalism that not all people have when they enter the conversation.

For example, I was able to acquire [email protected] which if you excuse me for saying this is completely badass and honestly has made me fully emotional.

It's on brand. It's on theme. It's unexpected, but not in a way that is unprofessional. Personally, I believe it is a another layer of proof that I know what I'm doing and I'm acting with intention.

Finally, and overall, this entire process is an act of validation you can provide to yourself. In my situation, it's testament to how far I've come in my life and how far I'm going to go. There's a scared little white boy right now back in the 1990’s Mississippi who would be so happy and impressed to see where I’ve brought us today. Everything else is… additive.

But despite all of this, the fact remains that you can take the combination of all of these things together and still never get published or find your platform. In the same train of thought you could go out in the world without any one of these components and send one query letter and get picked up by an agent right then. If that happens, congratulations. But please don't tell me about it.

This is all simply the nature of the career path that we have chosen. Real talk, I am so grateful to be a writer and to share my stories. I would not willingly choose to be doing anything else.

🌈You can explore the immersive portal as you step into the Kingdom of Evenhere, meet its residents, and discover why emotional intelligence and radical vulnerability aren’t weaknesses. They are the most dangerous weapons in the spectrum. 🌈

www.jeffbwhite.com

The True Story Behind the Fantasy

The first chapter of my memoir is available now on my website and the following chapters are coming soon. So there's no turning back. Feel free to go begin the story now! I promise it is not your typical recovery story.

Shards of Hope

A Tweaker Witch's Journey

Let's Discuss

* If you're a writer or an author have you created your site yet?

* If you have, how has it helped you in raising your platform?

* If you happen to be an agent, editor, or publisher what is it exactly that you're looking for when you go exploring the websites created by your potential clients?

Feel free to answer these questions in the comment section below or take them with you as you go or email me about it at [email protected]

Subscribe Today

Find Your Colors is a reader supported publication and listener supported podcast. If you appreciate what you've read here today and you would like more or you're interested in following along as I drop my fantasy chapters, then please consider joining as a free or paid subscriber today.

Free subscribers matter so much. They let me know that I am sharing a story that people want to read. By subscribing you'll get access to the chapters that are published here on Substack and any bonus content, like this essay, when it becomes available.

Paid subscribers also matter. They let me know that they want to know more than just the story.

By becoming a paid member, you can access all of the chapters as they are published along with all of the bonus content and access to the chapter breakdowns explaining the story behind the story.

Prism Tier subscriptions are available for people who want to provide the level of support that ensures I cross the finish line and achieve the goals that I have regarding my work. I'm so proud and grateful for the subscribers who have chosen to join that level of support.

They will receive:

* The full Shards Collection audio library

* Signed hardback copies of the full collection.

* A place in the acknowledgment sections of all the books in my series.

* And more…

The support that I've received from my subscribers has allowed me to build my website and it's allowed me to acquire the cover art for my written books. All of my subscribers are allowing me to get closer and closer each day to finally publishing and printing my work.

Any support that you're able to give is absolutely an honor and I cannot even express how much I appreciate each of you. Click below to receive 25% off for your first year as a thank you from me.

Oops, My Colors Are On Everything

Not only is Find Your Colors on Substack and jeffbwhite.com, but also the Find Your Colors Podcast is available on Spotify, YouTube Podcasts, and now on Apple Podcasts. You can listen to the chapters and bonus content there. So click the button below or follow the links in the description to subscribe and follow so you never miss an episode.

Thanks

As always if you read this all the way to the end or if you listened to this all the way through, then you are absolutely my hero and I just want to take a moment to say thank you for allowing me the time out of your day and the space in your brain to share my story with you.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit findyourcolors.substack.com/subscribe