Write a Better Book By Changing ONE Thing In Your Writing | Live Replay

All right. Hello, welcome, welcome. It's so good to be back. I'm so very excited now. I hope that technology is treating us well today because I have had fun just getting logged on. So hopefully you're hearing me and seeing me and everything is fantastic. Let me know if you have any sound issues because we had some technical troubles getting this thing going live. So please let me know that you've got sound and we're good to go. So welcome. It's so back. It's so great to be with you again today. Today we're going to be diving in to a subject that will help you be a better writer, and this is going to help you whether you're writing a book, you're writing an article, you're writing, emails, whatever it might be. This is really all about active versus passive in your writing. And if you're not familiar with it, I've got lots of examples for you. This is going to be fun. So, yeah, thanks, Benjamin. Good to see you. Aubrey efren. Hey. Kevin McGuire. Fantastic. Thanks so much for letting me know that you're here and saying hello. So, yeah, it's been a while. I think our last livestream was six or seven weeks ago, so it's great to hang out with you again. I wish I could tell you that I had a fabulous vacation away, but it's 2020. Let's be real. This year has been tough. I'm sure it's been tough for you. It's been tough for me. And, you know, even if it weren't for Covid, this has been a tough year. There's. We're dealing with a lot as a family, but you know what I say about challenges. They make fabulous chapters in your book. Stories, especially stories that get their energy from negative events or negative emotions. They're often the most gripping. So embrace the challenges. Embrace what 2020 has in store for us. Because you know what? Going to have some awesome material for our books in the very near future. I always like to look at it. I don't know if any of you are poker players. You know, you can say, hey, I play poker. I'm going to give you a secret from my poker while we're letting everybody join. So say hello when you're joining and let us know you're here. And, you know, for fun, let's know. You know, let us know where you're tuning in from. I guess you could say that. Let us know where you're watching from in the world, because I know we have folks from all over the World watching. So please let us know where in the world you are when you're watching. But, yeah, back to poker, just as a quick example, and then we'll dive into active reverse is passive voice with some examples, but I play. I play Texas hold'. Em. It's. It's my game of choice. And it's one of those things where you. You don't always have to play the hands you're dealt. You can fold some of them. Unlike life, you have to play the hands you're dealt. But I like to play. Okay, so if any of you ever play me, you're gonna know my secret. I like to play Ace 10. Like, I've got aces in the hand, and I win way more money with Ace10 than I do with aces. And I think it's really a mindset thing. I feel like I'm winning and I'm going to win. I've got a strong hand and I play it like it's a winner. And then, lo and behold, I often win, whereas when I have aces, I'm often afraid of them losing. And so I go into it with a different mindset. And I think that's how we have to approach 2020. Frankly. We've been dealt kind of a raw hand, but it's how we play it and what we make of it that I think is really gonna matter in the end. All right, if you're writing about these tough stories, this is really, really important, because a lot of us will write about the tough experiences with passive voice because either we don't wanna take responsibility, we're afraid of what people will think if we just say how we feel or what we experienced. And passive voice is boring, my friends. And what are we all about here? Hopefully you guys can see this. We're all about no boring books. So passive writing equals boring writing. So we don't want passive writing. So I'm really excited that you're here because we're going to dive into this today and really eradicate passive voice, hopefully from your writing. And again, this will make you a better writer in all aspects of your life. So it's not just about your book, that this will help you, but let's just see who's here. Let's say hello to all of you folks. It's so good to see you. Oh, we've got somebody from Croatia. That's great. I'm not even sure how to say your name. Mattea is how I would tackle it, but I don't know if that's right. Leslie. It's so great to see you. Jacqueline's in the house from inside. And Angela Jones. So we've got Jacqueline and Angela here from the Book Launchers team. So thank you guys for joining us. And let's see who else is here. We've got from Florida, poetry from the heart. Leslie is from Texas. Vending guy 47. Hello. So good to see you. And we've got Pastor Rafael Valera Bello. God bless you and everybody. Thank you. Okay, Kevin says I got a royal flush once. Went all in at the end, and the guy said, you have it, don't you? Then he went all in, and I took all his money. Hey, I love that. It's my dream come true. I haven't. I haven't had a royal flush yet. I played a lot of poker, and I've not had a royal flush yet. Lara's here from Canada. Awesome. Fantastic. I'm hiding on Vancouver island right now. I'm not in Los Angeles, which is where I call home. So I, too, am in Canada. All right, folks, let's dive in. And we got lots to cover, so do if you've got questions, you want to say hello, you want to hit the thumbs up button, all of that is welcome and encouraged. There will be prizes for participation, so do ask questions and chat along as we go through this. And Jacqueline and Angela are both there, so they might be able to answer the questions while I'm covering some of the material. But let's dive into it. Okay, so ultimately, this is about gauging writing, and I'll give you some examples so you can see what I'm talking about. One thing I want to mention is if you're not familiar with passive voice and active voice, I want you to know passive voice is grammatically correct. In fact, I think in many cases, English, especially in high school, we're taught to write sentences using passive voice in many cases, and that's because it is grammatically correct. And so if you send your book off to an editor, depending on the kind of editor and the quality of editorial, they may send it back to you grammatically correct with that passive voice. But you're wondering or your readers are wondering why it's so boring. They're snoozing, they're falling asleep at the wheel or at the word. And it's because passive voice is general. And in many ways, I think authors use it because it feels safer to write in passive voice. It leaves out information and opinions and feelings that people care about, and that actually makes what you're writing interesting. So here's one example and some of these I have written on a, on the screen in front of me and others I'll just make up as we go, just for examples and so chime in and join in. So the new software was used in the investigation. Things were discussed on the porch. After that, the flag of concern was raised. Grammatically correct, that is a very short paragraph. But really the thing that's missing, it's fairly obvious, I hope, is who did it and why it matters. Right? The new software was used in the investigation. Things were discussed on the port, lag of concern was raised. So that's not very interesting writing at all. And it can be easily fixed by just adding some details. So the new software was used in the investigation. Well, who used it and what were they using it for? So instead you'd say what I wrote here. The new rookie detective pored over software that evaluates evidence during the investigation. Standing on the blood covered porch outside, she had a long discussion with the officer that was first on scene. That conversation raised a flag in her mind. This officer was hiding something. So of course I added some story, some storytelling in there, which I want you to do when you write your nonfiction book anyway. But really you can just see the big difference was just details. It was details, who did what and why. Those things were missing from the first example. And that's passive voice versus active voice. So again, grammatically correct. But you may think because it's grammatically correct that it's okay to use, but it's really something to try to avoid. Another situation is when you're cutting back or when you're again holding back because you're a little worried. So not worried. Or maybe you don't even know the answer. So maybe you don't know who actually did something and so you say it generically. But there's still a way to handle that, you know, even if you don't know who. So well a lot. There's a lot of cutbacks these days, right, at companies. So what if you just said, you just said they were cutting back for unknown reasons, right? Grammatically that's totally fine. So they were cutting back for unknown reasons, but that's not really going to engage anybody. But you're thinking, okay, well, I don't actually know who made the decision to cut back and I don't even really know why they're cutting back. Well, you can still change that sense. So you could make it something like the decision to cut staff, remove benefits and stop all travel came from the top management of the company. Right. That's a fair assumption. It's very unlikely that cuts like that came from somebody who's, you know, at the front lines serving the customer. So. And so it's really just being general. And I hope you don't ask me to tell you those examples again because I just made it up and I don't know. Oh, good times. All right, Molly. Hey, welcome. We're just getting started. We're talking active versus passive voice. Kevin 2.0. Welcome. Welcome. Derek Silksky, great to have you in the house. Vending guy already smashed that thumbs up button. It feels good, right? Try it. Let's see. Just checking your guys's comments here. Molly's publishing a book this month. That's fantastic. Good luck, Molly. The flag of concern was raised is what I'm going to say when I'm at work. See how my team reacts. I think, I think that's probably going to come up in a few workplaces this week. Right? That's great. I love that example. Thanks, Ben. Okay, so hopefully you guys are getting. Nobody's asking me for further clarification. I'll give you a couple more examples on the cutting back, which again, I don't remember. Don't remember exactly what I said. So that boring passive sentence that I don't remember about cutbacks, they cut back for unknown reasons, I think was something like what I said. So a couple more ways to tackle that. Because it's an unknown thing. So again, you may think it's safe or better to not be specific, but there's plenty of ways to tackle it. Right. So what details? What do you include? So you could even say someone at the top decided 20% of expenses had to get cut starting immediately. So that's already more interesting. Someone at the top, Right. Even someone at the specific company. Whatever you want to say. Someone at XYZ. XYZ Travel. So someone at XYZ Travel decided to cut 20% of expenses to try to save their company. That's maybe a reach because you don't know if it was trying to save the company. But it's a fair. I think it's a fair reach. What about someone, he made the decision that all benefits, including vacation pay and bonuses were cut immediately. So those are just examples to just further explain. Like if you don't know the details, the specifics, and so you're going passive because of that. There's still a way for you to take whatever details you do know and, and turn it into a more active sentences. Active sentence. And that's really what I personally do. And I am not a writing grammar expert. I have people on my team and I always have hired editors. Even when I was doing papers in school, I had someone editing my work because I am not a grammatical expert and but I do know, and I've learned this in working with many editors over the years, is specifics, just adding specifics. And the more details you add, the better and more interesting things get. Now, of course you can go to the other side where some novel novels I read describe ad nauseam the entire scene and it's four pages of just scene. And that bores me too. So I think there's a limit to this. But in a sentence, if it's very general, just add specifics and it will make it better. So let's take one more example of how you could do this. So author bios and company bios and descriptions, they often have details like this. And this is one that I thought of that we could talk about. As another example, the company began in 2017. That seems totally fine. And again, as a single sentence, it's not a big deal. If you only have one sentence like that and the rest is active and full of details and specifics and storytelling elements, it's going to be fine. But as a sentence, it's passive. And if you have a bunch of those, it becomes what I like to call a snooze fest. You can take that, you know. And also some people have trouble getting their book to a decent size and maybe it's because you have a bunch of passive sentences and you're missing details. So maybe you can just bulk it up with some storytelling and some details. So 2017, let's take this as a book launcher's example. So six years after publishing her Amazon overall number one best selling book, More Than Cash Flow, top 20 under 40 award winning entrepreneur Julie Broad launched her new company, Book Launchers. Just another way to take it. It's a little bit longer. Another example I wrote for you guys in 2017. After extensive research, a business plan that was closely evaluated by US Immigration and after the birth of her son, Julie Broad moved from Canada to the United States and launched Book Launchers. So again, more details, more story. But if you want a short sentence or shorter sentence to take that the company was launched in 2017 or the company began in 2017, you could say number one, Amazon best selling author and entrepreneur Julie Broad launched book launchers in 2017. So those are just some different ways to take that boring, short, passive sentence and make it More interesting and engaging. Now, I want to touch on research, because research, when you include research, this is one area, and this is where I think this is. I learned this in school. So if you learned this in school, it's not your fault, it's your teachers. But I do want to help you with this, including research in your book or in your article. Remember, you're writing for the reader. A lot of people will kind of regurgitate facts and forget that they're writing this book to have an impact. And you may forget the hook of your book. You're like, I've got all this cool research. I need to share all this research. So I'm going to make up something totally, probably not totally untrue, but it's not. I didn't do research for this. This is just an example of how research can go so wrong and make your book so boring. So let's go with. Sugar was discovered to speed up tumor growth by 40% of. By 40%. Let's just say that sugar was discovered to speed up tumor growth in, let's say in 40% of patients. That's what we'll say. Okay. Sugar was discovered to speed up tumor growth in 40% of patients. Sentence seems harmless enough. I'm presenting research. You put your little source on there, and you're like, boom, good, good to go. Right? But it's not interesting and it's not engaging. And guess who's forgot? And all of that sugar becomes the most important piece of that sentence when who should be the most important piece? The reader. Your reader. So we don't want to be harmless. We want to be impactful in a good way, of course. But we want that reader to know that we're thinking of them with every single sentence. So let's think about how we could change this. I mean, we can take that research and really present it in a way that goes, hey, reader, this is why you need to pay attention to that. So maybe you even go boldly stop. What are you drinking or eating right now? Does it have sugar in it? If you have a tumor, that very thing you're about to eat or drink could be making your tumor grow faster. Maybe you should put that pumpkin spice latte down. I just got a notification from Starbucks today that they're starting to roll out the fall lineup. But that's a side note. So pumpkin spice. I don't even drink them, but they have great marketing. Anyways, so maybe you should put that pumpkin spice latte down and rethink your sugar intake, because 40% of tumors are growing faster based on the study done by a Harvard researcher. Okay, sorry, I distracted myself during that sentence. Which really, really. It takes talent, doesn't it? So let's try a new example. Okay. That sugar in your coffee may seem harmless, but if you have a tumor, it could be growing faster as a result of that sugar consumption. That's what Harvard. That's what researchers at Harvard University discovered to be true in 40% of their cases. Okay, hopefully you get the point that I'm really trying to speak directly to the reader, tell them what they need to hear and. Well, you know what? I'll. I have one more point on this and. And then we'll. We'll. I'll see if you guys have questions. But, you know, I think now is a great time for a prize. So let's see. And yet we got. Oh, there's questions over here. Okay, cool. So from a prize. Angela. Let's go from. Let's go from the top. Let's go. Who was number. What's the date today? 25. Okay, who was 25 from the top? Saying hello today. Let's see who it was. And we will give you either our fabulous hashtag, no boring books mug, of course. Or. Or our oh, so soft journal if you're new to the live stream. Oops. There you go. And it's really soft. This one's full, so I can't. I can't. I can't share that one with you. But Angela has a good stock of them and she can share them with you. So if you're number 25 from the top, let's see where we are at. Hey, Nelson, great to see you here. Katie. Katie, it's great to see you. Who else? I saw a few other names, so lose the verb to be. Stuff was cut by management versus management cut the staff. Great example. Staff was cut by management. Management cut the staff. That's great. It's a good example. Martha, welcome. Good to have you here. Let's see. Okay. Yep. Silver linings. Yeah. Ending guy. Yeah. Sorry to hear that. But there I always. That's what I say. It's always the dark times are always. A great chapter in your future book. Not so fun to go through them sometimes. I wish I could have a few less chapters to write about. But anyways, that is life. Okay, so let me see. Who's our winner? Number 25 was. Oh, Angela on my team. Who is the one that has the entire. Well, I think her home has a lot of book launchers, mugs and journals. In it, so she doesn't need another one. So. So her. She said the person before her was Anga Bolter. I'm sorry if I'm saying your name wrong. So what you need to do is email us at team T E A M booklaunchers.com and let us know if you want the journal or the mug. And then please provide your mailing address. Unstable. Oh, no. Can you guys still see me? Hear me? I'm getting a warning. I'm hard. I'm going to hardwire in this computer. I'm just waiting for the adapter, just so you know, for future live streams. So hopefully you guys are still seeing me, still hearing me. And that was just a temporary little glitch that we've got. And we're back. Okay, cool. Thank you very much. All right, so back to my examples. So one more thing. So talking about active versus passive voice, for those of you who are just joining us, this is really all about engaging your reader. This is all about writing a hashtag, no boring book. We want to write an engaging, interesting, impactful book. And the more you write in active voice, the better. And I did see somebody's question, sorry, I didn't make note of who is asking, but how do you identify active versus passive? And I'm definitely going to touch on that. And if anybody is listening and you have advice on how to identify it, that's great. One of the things is what we just touched on though, so I'll recap is if your sentence doesn't explain who did what or why, then that could be a sign that it is passive. And we had some general examples. You know, the funding was cut. That's a very general example. Who cut the funding? Who cut what funding? You know, you can really see how that was a really general sentence. And the more general, often that really indicates passive. And you know, even if it isn't passive because it doesn't have any details, why do you care? Why does it matter to the reader? So that's one really, really good indicator that it's a passive sentence. It's really lacking that who did what. And then the other thing, the other example I gave you was about sugar. You know, sugar was shown to cause a 40% increase in tumors or whatever. I made it up. Sorry, I can't repeat it because I made it up. But you know, that's really just is so general and to the reader either. So you got to put it in more active voice. One of the other things I'll talk about briefly is because we're sharing our stories and, you know, the better the book, you know, talking about the challenges of 2020 and how it's kind of sticking it to all of us. We. We all have a role to play in what's happening and a choice to make. And that's why I use poker as an example, because you can be dealt the worst hand and still win at a poker table because it's all in how you play it. And I think ultimately you have to take responsibility for that. It's really easy to walk away from a poker table and go, just, I just didn't get the cards. But it. Yeah. And to some degree, there is definitely luck in poker. You know, I'm not under the illusion that there's no luck involved, but there's luck involved in life, too. So it's really how you play the cards and really what you do with what you're given in life. And when you write your book, you can't just blame everything. You have to take responsibility. You have to really, you know, just take ownership. So one way to look at this or one. One way to spot this is if you're talking about things without really saying, this is what I did. This was my fault. This is why this happened. So going to my real estate days talking about this, you know, in my first book, More Than Cash Flow, I could have said tenants started to complain, rent was late. Property managers were not filing the paperwork. Right now, let's be real. Sure, the property managers, I had some shady guys. I had some people that didn't do their job, but is it their fault completely? No, it's not. Is my responsibility as the real estate owner to be overseeing things, and the fact that tenants are complaining and rent was getting paid late, you might want to blame that on your tenants. But ultimately, I can tell you from experience that the right processes in place can often reduce to almost eradicate a lot of these problems. So when you're writing, those are all passive sentences. The tenants started to complain, rent was getting paid late. The property managers weren't filing the paperwork. Right. Passive, passive, passive sentence. So let's turn it into active. And while doing that, also take ownership for this, because, again, you know, in this case, the example is real estate. It's your business, it's your responsibility. So when you're sharing this and you want to have an impact, share what. What role you played in this happening to you in your life. So let's take it. I did write a note on here. So I believed owning rental property was going to Create passive income. I bought properties, hired property owners, and then kicked back and cashed my checks. I didn't set up systems or processes or organize the leases and property management agreements. When the month was over, I only reviewed cash flow if there was no money deposited in my account. I didn't even know there was all these problems until the properties were run down and everything was a total disaster. So I whipped these up as examples. But I'm starting to take responsibility for everything. I'm basically saying, like, I thought real estate was passive income, and I let my property managers run my properties down, and I let my tenants get away with a lot of things which resulted in tenants destroying the properties and paying the rent late. The other thing you could say, or the other thing you can kind of think of, is if you're not. If you're trying to present something without taking ownership or responsibility for it, you're probably going to be writing it in a passive voice. And that's tricky. And a lot of people do this to play it safe. They don't want their opinion to be known. They don't want people to know that they made a mistake. But when you do that and you try to hide behind passive language, you really ultimately lose the opportunity to share what's really going on with you and share that opportunity. Or you miss that opportunity to connect with your reader. Because when ultimately you say, man, I screwed up. I didn't know what I was doing, and this is what happened, people go, oh. And they listen. They listen way more than if you try to be like, my tenants didn't pay their rent on time. You know, that's. That's not as interesting as saying, I really didn't know how to screen my tenants. And then I let them. I let them pay their rent whenever they wanted and wondered why they were always paying late, those kind of things. So, again, kind of summarizing what you need to do is be specific, add details, speak directly to your reader. Why should they care about this fact that you've uncovered the research that you have? Why should they care? Speak to them directly about that and take ownership of your opinions, your experience, and your advice. And when you do that, you, for the most part, will naturally get rid of your passive voice. And you'll also engage your readers a lot more. The. The final thing I want to give you as a tip, and this is how I help myself spot passive voice, is I'll read something out loud and think about whether that's actually how I would tell my friend. And if you hear Something, and you go, oh, I'd never say that. Then you probably have it written in passive voice, or it's just something you need to edit anyways, so you might, you know, so read it out loud. And because I think most of us, when we speak, we actually speak in a much more active way. We also don't say things in general, in general terms. And, you know, if you. If you can. If you say something and you imagine your friend looking at you and going, so what? Like, who cares? Then you haven't said it in a way that it actually matters to them. I mean, just imagine telling your friend that. That example about sugar just sitting down and going, sugar. Sugar is sugar was shown to cause tumors to grow 40% faster in patience. Be like, what? Who cares? But, you know, if you said to your friend, hey, that. That latte that you're drinking, does it have sugar in it? Because if it does and you have a tumor, it could be growing 40% faster. Right? So just. That's just another way to test it out. Ultimately, if I can give you one more piece of advice, think about your hook. Go back to your reader. That's really the foundation of your no boring books. And just look at what you've written and go, does my reader need to know this? And why do they need to know it? And then you can look at it through that lens and decide. And I think when you do that, you'll say goodbye to a lot of your passive voice. All right, so I'm just trying to think if there's anything else. Well, I'll see what you guys have to say if you have any questions. And then there's one more point I think I'll make. Let's see. Pumpkin spice latte. I distracted you guys with the pumpkin spice latte, too. Okay, let's see. The fence was jumped over by the boy. Yes. The subject is the actor. And that's a great way to put it. Thank you. Kevin 2.0. So this is a classic example. He says the fence was jumped over by the boy versus the boy jumped over the fence. The subject is the actor. The boy who does the active thing. The fence just sat there. That's a very, very literal example. Thank you. Maybe I went to, like, right into the weeds with this for you guys. I hope not. Hope my examples were useful. Kevin says, eliminate is B, R was and were who? That's a. That's a challenge. That's a good one. Okay. That's a great guideline. Okay, Wattpad junkie, Can you keep this Video up after you're done this live stream. Because my interconnect Internet connection is lagging. Absolutely. Unless the quality of this video is terrible. When I watch the live stream, I always leave up the live stream so that everybody can catch the replay that couldn't be here live. All right, so I have one more point, but we're going to do a skill testing question, and then we're going to do our YouTube draws. So let's see. What's our skill testing question? I think we should test out who was paying attention. Let's take an example. And I want you to take this passive sentence and turn it active. Okay. So was published during COVID Go give us an active version of that sentence. The book was published during COVID I need the. The Jeopardy. Music. I can hear it in my head right now. Now while. While you guys are coming up with that. For those of you who aren't playing along. Tsk, tsk. But passive voice can be hard to spot sometimes. So my. And my mission here isn't for you to question everything that you're writing while you're writing it. Really. I just want. When you're writing, I want you to just write. If you catch yourself being general, not taking responsibility, you know, if you catch yourself writing in passive voice while you're writing, cool. Fix it. But generally speaking, I'm really looking for you to use this when you're editing, when you're reading it. Oh, no one heard the question. Oh, man, my Internet connection is such a challenge for me. We have done everything. We've got boosters. Yeah. I will spare you the drama. That is my Internet. I am so sorry. I'm trying hard wiring. Next week, we'll see if that fixes it. The question. The book was published during COVID and I will right into the comments. So I want you to take that passive sentence and turn it into an active sentence. Oh, it looks like some people. Here we go. Yeah, so some people are getting it. I published the book during COVID Oh, this is going to be a hard one to draw a name. We're going to have to. Angela's going to have to randomly pick somebody from this. I think I published my book during the COVID pandemic. Yes, that's. That's one way to change it. I'm looking for, like, somebody who really, really hammers it here. So, yeah, sorry about that Internet. Thank you, Angela, for letting me know. I can't believe that. That's so funny. All right, so what was I saying? Let's see I was basically saying, don't edit your work while you're writing. Just write. I'm not trying to give you guys analysis paralysis by sharing this with you. I want you to ultimately just write your first draft, but then work on this while you're editing and make sure that when you talk with your editor, if you've got a copy editor working on your book, that you discuss this and say, you know, help me get rid of my passive voice. They'll know what you're talking about. And a lot of good editors are going to do this naturally anyways. Okay, cool. Sorry about my Internet. Thank you. Here we go. In the middle of the pandemic, the book was published. We still got. The book was published is still generic. Still passive. I should say the book launcher still. The Book Launchers published their book in the middle of a global pandemic. Okay. Book launchers published their book in the middle of a global pandemic. That is definitely getting active. All right, vending guy 47. Julie published the book during COVID outbreak in 2020. Yes, those are all you guys are getting it. Cool. Okay, so vending guy 47 and I think you need a little lift. Anyways, it's been a tough month, so congratulations, you are the winner of the book launcher swag. So let us know@teamoklaunchers.com whether you want the mug or the journal. And be sure to include your mailing address so we'll. We can send it off to you. All right. We published our first book during the COVID pandemic, which boosted our spirits as well as our immune systems. Yes, excellent. Thank you. You got it. I already awarded a winner, but just. You nailed it, Efren. All right, fantastic. Thanks for playing along despite our Internet lag. Okay, let's do our YouTube bestie draw. And for those of you who aren't familiar with what that is, it's not necessarily a YouTube bestie. YouTube bestie status requires that you comment on a whole lot of videos, and, you know, quite likely, as a result, you've won the swag. But to win our swag, or be entered to win, you just need to comment the day a video is released. And there's new videos every Tuesday and Friday. So if you're watching this replay, you can still comment and say hello and play along with us. So I've entered it all into a random name picker online. Everybody who's commented on the last. I think there was four videos that have been out where we haven't done a draw on them. Yet. And we need our fake drum roll. So drumroll. And our first winner is. It's spinning. It's spinning and choosing. And that'll probably make my Internet lag because I made it. Pick a name. And the winner is. Kevin 2.0. I think you've won everything, haven't you, Kevin, do you want to pick somebody to win? I think you won last time, too. It's like you have the lucky name of this is drawn to your 2.0, I think. So, Kevin, let us know who you would like to see win your swag. So here we go. Name number two. Drawing. It's spinning. It's spinning. It's thinking about it and it's thinking and it is literally like the people who have won everything. Congratulations, Ben Preston. You too can choose someone else. Oh, yeah. Thankfully you guys are both here live today, so thank you for that. So you designate a winner in your place. So, yeah, congratulations, Kevin. And congratulations, Ben. And yeah, I know, I agree. Right, Kevin, go. Go buy a lottery ticket. So, yeah, I mean, and if you want it, go ahead. If you've got somebody you want to give it to or you've used your journal and you want a new one, you can let us know that too. But I know last time both of you wanted to give it away to someone else, so you go ahead. So, yeah, Ben, do you want to pick somebody? Or if you want Angela to randomly pick somebody, you can ask her to do that, too. All right, so our next live stream, folks, is going to be on September 8th. I've lost my notes, but I'm pretty sure that's the right date. I can't find it in front of my screen here. For some reason, I managed to get myself totally into the wrong place of notes that I had. But yeah, September 8th is our next live stream and we have deep dive trainings coming back. So if you're not getting book launchers newsletter, make sure you're getting it because the invite's going to go out there. I'll also post it on the community tab. But the deep dive trainings, for those of you who are new, when Covid hit, we started doing a two, two hour, two and a half hour training session every other Saturday. We did book marketing, writing. We did writing, kind of a mini writing retreat where we did writing sprints and writing time. And it was great. We were just. I was just getting really tired doing it every other week. So back by popular demand, we're going to do them. I think it's going to be every third Saturday in the month or not. Every third Saturday, the third Saturday of each month, we will be doing a new deep dive. So subscribe to make sure you subscribe to the Launchletter newsletter, which you can get@book launchers.com and we'll be sending out dates and registration for that. It's free to join. And we'll be doing a different topic every month, so you can always send in a request for that, too. We're prepping topics as we speak. Okay, so let's see who our other lucky winners are. Let's see. Oh, Leslie, Leslie, congratulations. Thank you, Ben. She laughed at her ear jokes. See, this is. This is why participation is so grand. So thank you. So, Leslie, email us@book launchers.com so you can collect your prize. And maybe Kevin 2.0 snuck out on us. Oh, Angela, you're supposed to ask you about how you set the price for Pre orders to 99 cents for advanced readers. That's coming from Erin Crowley. So, Jacqueline, if Jacqueline is still here, she is the person to ask on that. So, Jacqueline, if you're here, maybe you can answer Aaron quickly. Otherwise, you can post it in the comments after this. Replay gets whatever YouTube does on their side before it goes live again. And that would be great. Kevin 2.0. Oh, he wants me to pick again. Okay, I'll run it again. Here we go. I will run the draw again. Let's go back to my little draw screen. Here we go. Pick a random name. Take two. Here goes. It's like blue, yellow, red, little thing that spins in front of me in case you guys are wondering what I see. And the winner this time is Mike Herd. He's not here live, but I know he'll be watching the replay. So thank you, Mike, for commenting on pretty much every video. Definitely a YouTube bestie. So I'm so glad that you are able to get a mug or a journal. Guys, this was a great live stream. You guys were really, really smart. You know, you're active versus passive. That was a lot of fun. And I. So 99 cents for what? So, Jacqueline, you guys might have to take this reply after. I think it's a 99 cent deal. So how you set it for 99 cent deal? All right, so thank you so much for being here. We'll see you on September 8th. We have some really cool videos coming up. I'm super excited for you to see them. I have one on Tuesday next week, which is kind of a funny. It is. What is? A publishing imprint, but man, there's some. I actually laughed out loud watching my own video, so I hope you guys enjoy it. I really do a lot of things just for your entertainment value, so I hope. I hope you appreciate it. But be sure to tune in every Tuesday and Friday with your new video comment the day a video is released so that you can get entered to win your own Booklanders swag. All right, thanks you guys. So great to be back with you. Can't wait to hang out with you again in two weeks. Bye.