Copy That Pops: Writing Tips and Psychology Hacks for Business Laura Petersen, M.A.E.D.

Have a children’s book in you? Ever read a kid’s book and thought, “I could do better than this!”? Then this episode is one you should listen to 3x! In this podcast, Laura interviews April Cox to reveal tips and advice for self-publishing a children’s book. Step by step children’s book creation!
Laura and April cover a range of topics, including the importance of having a clear concept, storyboard, and outline before starting to write, finding the right editor and illustrator, the benefits of joining a writing group, marketing strategies, and the role of graphic design and layout in producing a high-quality book.
Throughout the conversation, you will hear practical advice and personal anecdotes and experiences  in self-publishing to help with your goals of becoming a children’s book author.
A Few Children’s Book Creation Highlights: A Few Children’s Book Creation Highlights: April Cox was inspired to write her first children’s book when she had grandkids and spent time reading stories with them. Soon, they made up stories of their own. April’s passion for the project was driven by a desire to leave behind some values and virtues as a legacy for her future generations to read. April’s first children’s book creation, written for kids 4-8, was about her little labradoodle puppy and his journey to self-confidence Fiction books can lead to serendipitous events or opportunities that can touch, inspire or make a difference in someone’s life (her book resonated with a mother whose son is autistic and has a hard time with fine motor skills!) Writing your children’s book is very doable, but make sure you are aware of what different ages of kids you are writing for Laura wrote her first children’s book (called Duck Buddies) using a Google Sheet to keep track of the syllables on each line to ensure the rhyming was correct Write using the tool that makes you the most comfortable Aprile Cox created a self-publishing program that includes checklists, budget spreadsheets, and templates Pen names can be useful for authors who write in multiple genres, to keep their names and audiences separate. Using a pen name is a personal preference and some authors prefer to keep their personal information out of the public eye Authors can promote their work on social media, but it can be tricky when trying to promote a pen name Editing a kid’s book is important to turn a good story into a great story, especially if it has rhyming Bobby Hinman (fairybooklady@gmail.com) is recommended as a great editor for children’s books who specializes in rhyming Illustrating a children’s book is a very important part of the creation process Provide notes to the illustrator from the beginning to end of the book Before selecting an illustrator, send sample requests to three different illustrators Paying $50 for a full-color image is common It’s important to assess the illustrator’s communication style and ability to take direction Investing in quality illustrations for a 32-page children’s book can cost around $3,000, with $1,000 being the minimum for high-quality work Make sure to have a clear agreement in place with any illustrator you hire to avoid future misunderstandings or issues. There are resources available for authors to learn how to create illustrations themselves, but April recommends having a trusted coach or mentor provide honest feedback and help improve the quality of the work A client of Laura’s wrote a chapter book with black and white illustrations for each chapter to keep the cost of children’s book creation low Marketing is an important piece of the children’s book creation puzzle Getting the community involved in the illustration selection process can be a great marketing opportunity Building an email list and social media following is important for children’s book authors (social media platforms can change their algorithms or even ban authors, whereas an email list

Writers, ghostwriters, and business owners alike can use Open AI (aka ChatGPT) to write a book, ebook, kids book, memoir, how-to book, lead magnet, and more! Although you still need to edit and tweak the content to fully fit your tone and brand, using AI tools can give you a huge head start to book writing.
For nonfiction books:
You can use Open AI's ChatGPT in just seconds to conduct detailed research, write out a book outline, and craft the first draft of your book.
For fiction books:
You can use Open AI's ChatGPT to ideate on characters, research information for your book's setting, write a story outline, and craft the first draft of your fiction book.
In this podcast episode, my biz bestie Melissa Tucker and I record our screens as we enter in prompts and show you exactly how to use ChatGPT step-by-step to write a book.
This is the third installment of a three-part writing series. Want more?
• Check out episode 220 for more on how to use ChatGPT to write blog posts
• And see episode 221 for how to use ChatGPT to write social media posts
Can't wait to hear about the book you write with the power of AI tools!
Link Outs Mentioned: - Open AI's ChatGPT
- Hemingway Editor
- Zapier
Guest Bio: Melissa Tucker is the CEO and Founder of Blue Butterfly Digital. She is aa full-time Facebook ad, sales funnel, and chatbot strategist. She started her company so she could help business owners grow their businesses, while getting to do what she loves to do!
Today, she is helping businesses and entrepreneurs maximize their growth with the power of social media and online marketing. Her clientele is full of fun and exciting personalities, including wedding photographers, personal trainers, food bloggers, personal stylists, health coaches, business coaches, manufacturing companies, realtors, local businesses, and online marketing influencers.
Learn more at Blue Butterfly Digital and Business Women Group
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For full shownotes on Episode 222, visit CopyThatPops.com/222

Can we use ChatGPT to write social media posts in seconds? Yep, we sure can!
AI tools like ChatGPT are trending right now, so this is Part 2 of a series to help you use it as a writer or entrepreneur to create compelling written content that helps you make more money online.
Melissa Tucker and I sit down to record our screens as we enter in prompts and show you exactly how to use ChatGPT step-by-step to write great social media posts.
Using ChatGPT, we write social media posts for:
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram (with hashtags), scripts for TikTok videos, Pinterest, and more!
This is the second installment of a three-part series. Check out episode 220 for more on how to use ChatGPT to write blogs and episode 222 for how to use ChatGPT to write books!
Link Outs Mentioned: AI Content Detector Business Women Group Social media posts created by ChatGPT (and then cleaned up my Laura and Melissa) to promote the blog on Making Money Writing Online: Tips and Tricks for Maximizing Your Earnings (link coming soon) Canva (free and paid versions) ChatGPT Dall-E2 (AI tool to generate images) Gary Vee TikTok video about how to use LinkedIn  Gary Vee TikTok video showing that posting on LinkedIn can be amazing Gary Vee TikTok video about ChatGPT being banned from schools SEO Chrome = Keywords Everywhere (free version or extra tools for $10/year) SEO Youtube = Tube Buddy (as little as $4.80/month) Co-Host Bio: Melissa Tucker is the CEO and Founder of Blue Butterfly Digital. She is a full-time Facebook ad, sales funnel, and chatbot strategist. She started her company so she could help business owners grow their businesses, while getting to do what she loves to do!
Today, she is helping businesses and entrepreneurs maximize their growth with the power of social media and online marketing. Her clientele is full of fun and exciting personalities, including wedding photographers, personal trainers, food bloggers, personal stylists, health coaches, business coaches, manufacturing companies, realtors, local businesses, and online marketing influencers.
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To access full show notes, please click here (ChatGPT for writing social posts).

ChatGPT is all the rage these days -- but how do you use it and other AI tools as a writer or entrepreneur to create compelling written content that helps you make more money online?
This episode is all about how to use ChatGPT to write blogs that need just a bit of cleanup to be ready for sharing.
My biz bestie Melissa Tucker and I sit down to record our screens as we enter in prompts and show you exactly how to use ChatGPT step-by-step to map out and write blog posts.
This (#220) is the first installment of a three-part writing series.
- Check out episode 221 for more on how to use Open AI's ChatGPT to write social media posts
- And see episode 222 for how to use ChatGPT to write books
Link Outs Mentioned: AI Content Detector Business Women Group Blog post created by ChatGPT (and then cleaned up my Laura and Melissa): Making Money Writing Online: Tips and Tricks for Maximizing Your Earnings (link coming soon) Canva (free and paid versions) ChatGPT Hemingway Editor SEO Chrome = Keywords Everywhere (free version or extra tools for $10/year) SEO Youtube = Tube Buddy (as little as $4.80/month) Guest Bio:  Melissa Tucker is the CEO and Founder of Blue Butterfly Digital. She is a full-time Facebook ad, sales funnel, and chatbot strategist. She started her company so she could help business owners grow their businesses, while getting to do what she loves to do!
Today, she is helping businesses and entrepreneurs maximize their growth with the power of social media and online marketing. Her clientele is full of fun and exciting personalities, including wedding photographers, personal trainers, food bloggers, personal stylists, health coaches, business coaches, manufacturing companies, realtors, local businesses, and online marketing influencers.
Melissa's Links: - Blue Butterfly Digital (website)
- Business Women Group
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To access full show notes for Episode 220, please click here.

I have a confession to make.
Even though I love listening to audiobooks and I’ve been in the podcasting world since 2015, I’ve never actually created an audiobook for myself or for a client!
Did you know that: “In 2020, audiobook sales revenue in the United States reached 1.3 billion U.S. dollars, continuing the upward trend which began in 2018”? (according to Statista)
So, in today’s episode, I thought it would be fun to take you along for a new journey into the world of audiobook creation.
I have a client who has a series of 5 books for kids ages 8 to 12 and she just published them on Amazon as a Kindle boxset but wants to get the audiobook version up as well. I volunteered to jump in and help since I need to know the full process for myself too!
 

Here’s what we’ve done so far in the Audiobook making process:
STEP 1: 
We set up a free account at ACX.com  (Audiobook Creation Exchange)
STEP 2: 
On August 16, 2022, we uploaded a sample of the book and opened it up for voice actor auditions. 
STEP 3: 
As I prep for this podcast on September 1st, we have received a whooping 33 auditions! [Edit: now we have 37 as of Sept. 5, 2022]. Some are incredible. Others need to improve the sound quality around the set up they have. So, totally for free, we have received a range of what sounds like beginner voice actors to super professional.
As a side note, you may be wondering how the voice actors get paid.
You have two options:
1: You can pay upfront at a fixed price per finished audio hour (and no royalty sharing)
2: You can pay with a 50-50 royalty split on future sales (and no upfront cost for the work)
STEP 4: 
Review the auditions and pick someone to make an offer to. This is as far as we’ve gotten so far, and we need help choosing! We’ve starred 10 of our favorites, but that’s still too many to put forth when asking for feedback I think.
So, I’m narrowing them down to our top 5 and will play a short sample of each coming up next in this episode! 
It’d be so helpful if you’d share your favorite and feedback! Be a voice casting director with us!
You can send your votes and feedback by:
Emailing me Laura@CopyThatPops.com
Pinging me on social media – I’m all over @ LaptopLaura
And if you want to grab a copy of the full 5-book set of Kid Star Squad, check it out at CopyThatPops.com/KidStarSquad which will take you to it on Amazon (it’s free with Kindle Unlimited, by the way).
 

The 6 Auditions

Okay, let’s take a listen to our top 6 auditions and then I’ll tell you what’s next on the list of to-do’s for audiobook creation.

Audition 1 and 2 will be reading Chapter 1.
Audition 3 and 4 will be reading Chapter 2.
Audition 5 and 6 will be reading Chapter 3.
Listen now to the 6 auditions above or go here for the audio file with only the auditions and the book sample to read along: CopyThatPops.com/auditions
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Great voice actors, right? It’s so hard to pick! Part of me wants Emma to pick a female voice, but some of those male voiceover artists were fire. What should we do? Help!

Email me Laura@CopyThatPops.com
Ping me on social media – I’m all over @ LaptopLaura

And I’ll collect and tabulate the feedback to help advise Emma on the final choice.

Next up in the Audiobook process?
After we pick our favorite voice actor, we’ll make an offer for payment – we are thinking about the upfront payment way.
If he or she accepts, we have a deal and legally binding contract!
Then, the voice actor, called “producer” in ACX will record and upload a 15-minute checkpoint of the audiobook for us to listen to, give feedback, and approve. Once that’s done, the productor will keep going and record the full project.
We can ask for up to two rounds of corrections to the finished audiobook. Then, when we’re happy, we’ll approve it and pay the producer!
From there, it’s time to make the book live to the world. ACX distributes it through A

What is intrapreneurship? What psychological and practical skills can I develop to help me with any business, whether I’m in it or I own it? What did our guest, Dr. Mack Chapman, learn from working personally with legends like Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, and Jim Rohn? What are his best tips for writing and publishing your own book?
All this and more is covered in our conversation today with the incredible Mack Chapman who grew up on the South Side of Chicago before working as an investment banker on Wall Street, promoting speakers like Jim Rohn (and others mentioned above), rising in the ranks of academia, and hitting #1 bestseller in eight categories on Amazon with his new book.
Mack has done it all, is a lifelong learner, shares openly, and is one of my favorite humans on this planet.
You don’t want to miss this convo!
 
Video of Our Talk: See at shownotes: CopyThatPops.com/218
A Few Conversation Highlights: - What did you learn on Wall Street?
- What did you learn about human psychology working so closely with Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, and Jim Rohn?
- What is an intrapreneur?
- Why go the extra mile when you don’t own the company?
- What skills are needed to be successful?
- How did you write your book (even though you aren’t a writer and can’t type)?
- Best tips for becoming a new author?
Link Outs Mentioned: - ACX.com (for audiobook creation and publishing)
- KDP.Amazon.com (for Kindle, paperback, and hardcover book publishing)
- CopyThatPops.com/free (my full training course – 100% free)
- CopyThatPops.com/mack (Mack’s book on Amazon)
- mChapman@exsuitesolutions.com (Mack’s email)
Guest Bio: Dr. Chapman is best known for his extensive work in personal development through intrapreneurship and its effects on attracting and retaining middle managers in the highly competitive American high-tech industry. His research included some of the world’s most recognized logos, such as Facebook, Microsoft, 3M, and IBM.
Leveraging the discipline, tenacity, and resilience he learned as a United States Marine, Dr. Chapman has worked as an investment banker for a prestigious firm on Wall Street and presented to Fortune 500 companies on topics from coaching peak performance to effectively communicating your vision. He continues to further his formal and informal education as a passionate life-long learner.
He attributes much of his success to his legendary late mentor, Jim Rohn, and the iconic cast of superstars he promoted two decades ago, including Tony Robbins, the late Zig Ziglar, and Brian Tracy.
When not working in academia or conducting workshops on intrapreneurship, Dr. Chapman enjoys spending time with his family and friends and discussing germane topics of the day with a focus on solutions over finger-pointing.
“Statues and monuments are erected for individuals who solve problems, not those who create them or pontificate about them.” -- Dr. Mack Chapman
About the Book: Link: CopyThatPops.com/Mack
NOTE: Mack's book hit #1 in 8 categories on launch

What is intrapreneurship, and how do I become a successful intrapreneur?
First, here are a few famous examples of innovative ideas that came from within:
The personal computer was the derivative of an intrapreneurial idea from an IBM employee Frito-Lay's most successful product--Flamin' Hot Cheetos--was presented by a janitor at the company Amazon's "Prime membership," which generates over $19 billion in revenue each year, was an idea submitted to the employee suggestion box Fostering a culture of entrepreneurship from within is a growing priority for more and more of the world's leading companies. [Read more about the book on Amazon]
 
Mack's Links: - CopyThatPops.com/mack (Mack’s book on Amazon)
- mChapman@exsuitesolutions.com (Mack’s email)
 
See more back on the podcast shownotes page! The Psychology of Intrapreneurship and Writing Books: CopyThatPops.com/218