Welcome And Meet Stephen Joseph

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Well, traditional publishing is where I want to end up down the road. Uh and especially with my Snool's books. Now I have three books, so it's a real series, and we and my illustrator's working on a fourth book I already written. And it's it's just this incredible big world. And like we were thinking like it could be like a like it's something like a TV series. It really has has legs to it.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Hi friends, this is Read and Write with Natasha Podcast. My name is Natasha Tines, and I'm an author and a journalist. In this channel, I talk about the writing life, review books, and interview authors. Hope you enjoy the journal. Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of Read and Write with Natasha. I have with me today's author Stephen Joseph, who's a first generation American, the son of a Holocaust survivor, a masterful attorney, seasoned negotiator, engaging speaker, and award-winning author, and a long distance runner having completed 53 marathons. Wow. Steven's books include The Last Surviving Dinosaur, The Taranto Krankost Krankas Stories, I think, and The Kranka Stories Method, a grown-up guide to effective crankiness, and the Snoodle series which includes Snoodles, Kidoodles, Poodle, and lots and lots of noodles. His latest book, Cranky Superpowers, Life Lessons Learned from the common Crankastaurus Chronicles, delivers more of his signature wisdom as he continues to explore and celebrate the cranky corners of life. So, Steven, thank you for joining me today. Just wanna first check on your level of crankiness this morning. What where where do you stand? How cranky are you now?

SPEAKER_01 2:15

I don't feel cranky at all. It's early in the morning.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Okay, good.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Later in the day, I'll I'll get a little cranky. Even though computer issues, yeah, okay.

How Crankiness Became A Theme

SPEAKER_00 2:26

A little cranky then, but all right, good, good. Well, I'm I'm happy to. I'll I'll I'm I'm hoping that this half an hour is not gonna increase your level of crankiness. So I'll I'll be gentle, I'll be nice. Okay. So, Steven, thank you for joining me today. I think my first question is why did you focus on on the concept of crankiness? You know the the kind of cliche of men, the the older they get, the crankier they become. And is that true? And why are you focused on this topic specifically?

SPEAKER_01 3:02

So, so it all started, everything is like an accident. And I'm I'm an attorney by my my day job. That's what I do regularly. Um after this podcast, go back to that step. But I was in Italy, I was in Rome, Italy with my wife, and we had an Airbnb type department, and the electricity went out, and black dye was going in her in her eye, and she the and uh she was coloring her hair, and she got very angry. And I said, You're probably like uh the tyranta crankataurus, all the other you kept cranking out the source is a Yiddish word for problems. So so I said, You probably like there's one little dinosaur cop kept cranking out the source until all the other dinosaurs just dropped dead. And uh and that that got a laugh out of her, and I wrote the story last Survivor Dinosaur based on that kind of concept, how all human beings came from the smallest but most dangerous dinosaur in the planet of the tyrantic rankosaurus. So then I have the book out, and some reviewer said I didn't talk enough about overcoming crankiness, and I was all about embracing our crankiness.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

So I started writing a blog on crankiness, and then it I had enough stuff that it became a book, uh, a grown up guide to effective crankiness. And then I just kept writing more and more stuff. There is there's so many different forms of crankiness. And like I even still there's more. Like every time I think I'm done, oh yeah, there that's it. And and it's it's actually teaches myself as well, which is which is the best thing, trying to figure out things on my own.

Running Through Life Setbacks

SPEAKER_00 4:47

So let's talk a bit about overcoming crankiness. So you're a runner, you I guess you run a marathon a year, or how many marathons do you run in?

SPEAKER_01 4:58

Uh about two or three years.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Okay. Oh wow. So do you think you run because you're cranky and you run because you wanna overcome your crankiness? Is it why do you run?

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Well, the running actually, it's that that it started with crankiness. So so I used to be, this goes back to December 1987. I was I this is after law school, now I'm cooking more and I'm eating more and and going out at night more, and I I I blew up to like 240 pounds, which was like 40 waste. And on Christmas Eve, my girlfriend dumped me. Then on New Year's Eve, my brand new car got stolen, and then that Monday I got fired from my job. So I lost my girl, my car, my job within like 10 days, and I was cranky.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

Obviously. Understandably.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

Yeah. So I I said no matter how tired I was, I was gonna go to the gym. They started me out on level one life cycle for three minutes, three minutes, and I barely like dying for three minutes, and then by June of 88, five and a half months later, I was down to 155. So I I lost like 85 pounds in about and uh and then I also I found out running a year later I was running marathon. So so uh so I just kept running for that. And uh actually the book I wanted to write years ago was it's called like the pickled herring diet and other conversations on getting to normal. And when my daughter was young, I started gaining a little weight, and I noticed I was becoming the garbage kid. Like she doesn't finish the chicken, she doesn't eat the extra pizza pizza, I didn't want to throw it out, it went in my mouth, and I started gaining weight. So I said, Well, that's oh never because I never knew what was happening back when I lost all the weight. And I always talk about like finding normals, help like changing your normals, like people say like habits, like oh, like get get good habits. And I I always say habits are like a parking spot. You get a great parking spot in front of the building, but you might have to move the car sometime. And the normals you're building a house is more permanent. So so running became a normal for me. It's just what like wake up, I have a cup of coffee, wake up, I go for my run. So that that's what I normally do. And I've been doing it since 1980. 1980. Every single day? Almost, you know, sometimes you know, I'm traveling or doing something or the weather is lousy. But yeah, yeah, I'll try to get out every day if I can.

Writing Children’s Books With Heart

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Wow, good for you. So um you wrote like both children's books and adult books. Yes. Why why children's books? Let's start. Like what what were you trying to say in in your because you know kids can have tantrums, but we usually associate crankiness with middle-aged men, or okay, and women too, but why why children's books?

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Uh well the children's books just uh partly because it's something I loved too when I my daughter was young, reading her children's stories. I love that. And and then the the the thing of about the children's book, all of it has some cranky element, and some something to my book uh the uh stories uh end up in the adult books, and I might expand more on that. So so it get like so it gives me a thing to put the children's story around. So in Snoodles, cadoodles, poodles, you know, lots and lots of noodles, uh basically people were cranky because everybody was riding around in the Krautmobile, which ran on sauerkraut and made everybody stinky, and and it was replaced by the Snoodle, which runs on noodles, and you could go to the Romanolium and fill up your Snoodle with noodles, and then you could even have a bowl of noodles when you get home. It's very, very uh, you know, like a good invention. But even in that story, the uh an art museum is built, and I always have a museum or something like that in all my books. And and then sauerkraut was poured on one of the paintings, and the art restoration person, how he restores art is by scratching, and he cut I barely scratched the surface. And I was actually cranky around then, where I felt like whatever I needed to do, I was barely scratching the surface. So then like I like the idea, like a ridiculous idea became a story. So so I f I find the children's books really fun to be as ridiculous as possible, but believable as possible at the same time, which is is really, really fun when you get to do that. So you read the book and you really buy into it. Like, this is a different world you're entering. And that that is is like so much fun. And then just collaborating with my illustrator is is the best because I I do the story blocks, he and I tell him what I'm thinking, and then he has his thoughts, and he's British, and I'm I'm from the Bronx, I'm from I'm a New Yorker, and that kind of chemistry is like you know, that British sensibility and the the New York City kind of thing meshes in and creates something even crazier. So that that makes it even funner.

Self Publishing And Hybrid Paths

SPEAKER_00 10:53

Fun. So I want to ask a bit about the publishing journey. How did you self-publish? Did you find an agent? Did you go with a traditional publisher? What was your path and why did you make the choices that you made?

Printing Math From US To China

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Well, for a lot of the choices I made, I I had no idea what I was doing. So that that's probably uh what I was doing. So my first book, The Last Surviving Dinosaur, I went with mascot books, and they're like a hybrid publisher, and I just had the story knowing nothing. I just wrote out the story, I read it to people, people laughed, oh that's a good book. I sent it to Mascot Publishing and a couple others, and I I like the way they did it, and went with them. The next book was with Archway, published again, another hybrid publisher. But uh by my fourth book, my own illustrator set up his own publishing group. So everything is so good. So the last three books has been through Enagami Publishing, which is his kind of thing. And he does illustrating, he gets uh the uh ISBN numbers and all that stuff, and then we get it out out to uh out to the market. And then the complicated thing which I had to uh work on and figure out uh is is a kid's book of on my own, because uh my book is about like 60 pages, and uh that for illustrated book with the the print and the uh you want high quality printing, that would be expensive. So at first I went through some US printer, and it was like guess for me to get a book printed was like$25. And then and it was lousy quality. And then I went to Ingram Sparks and print on demand, and it was like$13 for me, lousy quality. And for me to sell a book, you have to discount everything. So you have to price it. I I call it print on no demand, not print on depend. Because you have the print, the cost is so high, no one's gonna buy it. So I had to look to China, and I got like a beautiful quality. I don't know if you could see it, so like a shiny, like it's just the colors pop out, it's like poster quality paper. And this book in China, way better quality than the$25 book that they would charge me here,$1.50.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

Oh wow. And how did you find the Chinese printing house?

SPEAKER_01 13:45

There was like I I checked with a few. There, there are a number of them. One, and you you, you know, they have you know, there's YouTube videos, people recommending you. You try to the I mean about it was a scary process because you you worry about, well, make it to the United States. You know, it just goes on a ship, and who are these people? And you know it's and you have to pay customs and you know that that the shipping costs. It all worked out, and then I had to find a warehouse to not only store the books, but they have to put it up on Amazon and their they have their own website. So I go work through Tosca Books in Bookmobile, and they warehouse it, they they they put it up on Ingram, whatever, so it's it's out in in the world. And every store could buy it, they could order it, you know, Walmart, well, you know, all wherever people buy books, Barnes and Nobles, they do all that stuff. And it's it's actually quite reasonable what they charge me. So then now I could price the book at a lower, like I sell the what I had to sell for$30 to make a dollar, I could sell for$16, make six dollars, seven dollars a book. So so the and it so it it really and it's a better quality book. So anybody buying the book saying, wow, this is really good, it really feels like something substantial. So I again I'm always learning, I'm always learning, and there's still so much I don't know. And yeah, it's it's it's a complicated business, especially when you're on your own.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

Yeah, which big takes me to the second question, is it seems like a lot of work, right? To do that on your own. Why why didn't you try to go with the traditional publisher and let them do all the work and you just enjoy the glory?

SPEAKER_01 16:33

Well, traditional publishing is where I want to end up.

SPEAKER_00 16:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Down the road. And especially with my Snoodles books. Now I have three books, so it's a real series, and we and my illustrator's working on a fourth book I already written. And it's it's just this incredible big world. And and like we we're thinking like it could be like like a like it's something like a TV series. It it really has legs to it. It is just so such a wonderful world. And with every book, the world gets bigger and bigger, and there's more amazing characters, and and it's it's a lot of fun. It's it's really, really like everybody loves it, which is it's great, especially the kids. And there's things that adults pick up on it as well.

Marketing A Book By Building Brand

SPEAKER_00 17:26

So going with China, you know how the US, you know, there's there's a push for like you know, American-made products by American, did did you get criticized for printing your book in China?

SPEAKER_01 17:40

I well, I guess if if uh uh no, I haven't gotten criticized because uh it's not like it's it's a big thing made in China. I don't I don't even know if it says made in China on the books.

SPEAKER_00 17:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

So nobody would even know.

SPEAKER_00 17:56

Okay. Well now they would.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

Yeah, now they would. So they won't. But uh anybody hearing saying like you pay$25 for lousy quality and you only pay you pay$1.50 for good quality, what were you thinking? No, I don't know if anybody would really criticize.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

Okay, okay. Yeah, just uh throwing it out there. Yeah, so okay, well, good to know. Good to know. All right, so so since you're a self-published author, marketing can become like a full-time job. And how are you doing? You how are you marketing your book? I know like podcasting is is one of these, but what other marketing efforts you've been doing that actually worked well? And for anyone who's who's listening or watching, what do you think they should focus on, especially if they're a self-published author, if they're in children's books and and on others, what would you tell them?

SPEAKER_01 18:51

Well, I I would tell them a few things. First of all, and there was a bunch of questions in there. So I work with a publicist, okay, and they will do like podcasts. I got to the and they get me interesting gigs. I got to perform live on stage on in on Broadway.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

That was really neat, where I was like, wow, I could do a be a setup comedian.

unknown 19:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

You really get the bug quickly. It was fun. It was outdoors and it was right by the ticks booth where I had all these people online. So I I already had a crowd. And and just before I went up, they had this video uh Ringo's birthday. So people talking about Earth and you know climate change and all that. So there's a video by with Ringo Starr. So Ringo Starr came right before me.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

So like I could say like Ringo Starr opened for you.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

Open for you, yeah, exactly. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

So I get like gigs like that, and uh like book festivals and and uh posting different things, you know, just on various uh social networks, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, you know, that that's and I I do that. And the but the the thing about about what I'm doing, I r I feel like I'm first of all, I'm patient. I think anybody has to be patient. And become I'm patient because I'm building a brand. So now whether it's crankiness or it's my Snoodles series, is one thing you should have a book. Oh, you have a book, oh that's nice. And now now I have I have six books out, and the seventh book is being worked on now. So now it's like oh, this this person uh like there's a Snoodles thing, there's gonna be four books, it's a series, you know, it's just people want what's gonna be next or crankiness is a brand. Like people, you know, I'm referred to as the cranky expert. Uh so it's that building a brand. So that's two things. But the biggest thing when I like my wife will say, Oh, you're not gonna make money on books, and I say, I make I make me. That's that's what I make myself. And I think anybody writing it's it's because they want it's making themselves. And if I just look at the dollar sign and that's it, I probably would not create all these things that I'm I'm usually proud of. So so that is I think that's the most important thing to focus in on when you begin writing. I I have like a story where I want to write because I want to know how it ends. That's what I I'm I'm an attorney writing a book on negotiation. I I've written stuff over the years and it's together in the book because it's what what screams out there. So I think for any writer that that is the the big thing uh to focus in on when you're decide what you want to do.

SPEAKER_00 22:03

Okay. So what moved the needle the most for your book sales? Was it podcasting, the live events? If if you want to look at the metrics, what do you think? How did you sell mo most books? What kind of activity?

Writing Habits And Creative Momentum

SPEAKER_01 22:20

I think uh it it's a combination it's a it's really uh a combination of very a bunch of things going together. So if I if I have a book ad and I get a great review, and I get the postset review, and then I like a a podcast where that wow, he was hilarious. I have like two podcasts that I can Last week that was posted on whatever social networks and and both podcasts had like hilarious interview with so and so and like it you got to do all my cranky stuff and you have all that put together and is it just it just gets starts getting out there and gets people curious. So I think when I ever have a few things going at the same time, then sales pick up.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

Okay, I see. So you you're still practicing attorney, correct?

SPEAKER_01 23:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

Okay, so how do you manage your time to write all these books? You know, your parents, your husband, you run marathons, you're at like you're a high performer. So what's what's your secret?

SPEAKER_01 23:35

So like my secret is I I actually run when I write. So I write when I write that's no, I write when I run I run when I write no, I because I'll be writing and writing. No, I I write in bed while I'm writing. So I see. So uh all of a sudden like I I have an idea, and it's like you know, dust gathering, and then like there's more stuff. And the the best is when I have characters talking and I go running, I listen to me, they're doing work, they're talking, they're having a conversation, and I just you know, watch them go. So that that's the best. That that's the best when when that happens. And once I start having like a forming a bunch of ideas with you know, there's there's a lightning bolt, and okay, that's the idea, and then it's it gets gains momentum and then becomes the story.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

Hmm. Wow. Have you read the Haruki Marikami's when I talk about when I talk about running?

SPEAKER_01 24:44

No, no, I have not run read that.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

Ah, you have to, because he come, you know, he's the famous Japanese author and he usually writes fiction. But he's a big runner, and he has a whole book about running and writing. And it's I like I I gifted this book to many people who run and write. So I would I would highly recommend I want to get this book. Haruki Marukami. He's he's like famous for his fiction novels, kind of mystical, surreal Japanese storytelling. Uh, like the Norwegian word that was won, Kafka on the shore. These are his famous. And I I think he was one of the people who are always recommended to win the Pulitzer Prize because of his work, but I I I don't think he has won it yet. Not the Pulitzer, the Nobel Prize, because the Pulitzer is for American authors. So, anyways, so that's that's a book that I would definitely highly recommend. So, all right, so uh Steve, for anyone who is listening or watching, and they, you know, they they wanna live the author life at least uh marginally by marginally by like writing books and publishing, what would you tell them? What would you be because you've been in that game for a while, what would you tell them? What are your like top lessons learned?

Final Lessons And Where To Connect

SPEAKER_01 26:15

Lessons learned is that you have to keep doing it. And you know knowing that you keep doing it and get better at it, that's the other thing. You keep doing it, you keep doing it, better stuff comes out a lot of times. And it it's fun, it's a fun ride. It's it's definitely a fun ride that uh it's worth taking. When you find the the creativity I have capture in my book called Can't Make This Make This Stuff Up Cran Source, where you know people say, like, oh, you can't make that stuff up, like, oh that's crazy, you can't make that stuff up. I turn it exactly around where this family has the basic rut, same routine, same thing day, and I say make stuff up and and I create the story where everybody's making stuff up. And and that's where the the fun comes in where you get to create and create quarrels and create different things that I I well I wasn't planning on. I was not planning on doing this, and that this is what I love the most.

SPEAKER_00 27:22

Yeah, yeah, I hear you. All right, so for for anyone who wants to get in touch with you, to buy your books, what is the best way to reach out to you?

SPEAKER_01 27:31

You there's I have a uh mailing list and the website website for the uh mailing emails, but uh website josepauthor.com, www.osefauthor.com. It has all my books, it has an award-winning blog on it where you could find all kinds of stuff on crankiness and how to be effectively pranky. And and yeah, I'm all over there. And and the last book had so much fun. So Noodles in Space Episode 2, the Noodle Strike Back. It's it's great. My my Illustrator is amazing.

SPEAKER_00 28:12

Great. So last question, when is your next marathon?

SPEAKER_01 28:16

New York City, my 20th uh New York City marathon on the first Sunday, November, whenever that is.

Closing And Listener Call To Action

SPEAKER_00 28:23

Oh wow. You have to qualify for this, right?

SPEAKER_01 28:26

Uh well if you do 15 or more, you're automatically.

SPEAKER_00 28:30

Ah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 28:31

So I don't have to qualify. I used to qualify, and uh, or you could do volunteer stuff, and I have to do that both, I did both over the years, and uh depending on how fast I was. But now I just sign up and they let me.

SPEAKER_00 28:49

Wow, good for you. Very inspiring. So, Steve, it was been wonderful talking to you, and I I wish you the best of luck. And for anyone who is listening or watching, thank you for joining us for another episode of Read and Write with Natasha, and until we meet again.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

Take care.

SPEAKER_00 29:12

Thank you for tuning in to Read and Write with Natasha. I'm your host, Natasha Time. If today's episode inspired you in any way, please take the time to review the podcast. Remember to subscribe and share this podcast with fellow book lovers. Until next time. Happy reading, happy writing!