EP 360 - Foreign Rights Licensing with Roseanne Cheng of DropCap

Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

Mark interviews Roseanne Cheng, an award-winning author, ghostwriter, and book marketer who is passionate about educating authors and publishers about the power and opportunity of having their books elevated to the international market.

They talk about her writing life, her author mentoring life, and about how DropCap Marketplace is a great bridge between indie authors and the licensing foreign language rights through traditional agencies and book scouts.

Prior to the interview, Mark shares a personal update, comments from recent episodes, and a word from this episode's sponsor.

Learn more about this self-publishing/WIDE-publishing focused cruise.

In their interview Mark and Roseanne talk about:

• Roseanne's background and passion for helping writers
• The first book Roseanne published (The Take Back of Lincoln Junior High) back in 2013 when she was teaching full-time and how it will always have a special place in her heart
• Working with Wise Ink Creative Publishing and the great respect that Roseanne has for the women who run that business
• The various lessons learned with writing and publishing a book and how you can turn the things that you learned (via various mistakes you've made) into positives by helping others on their own journeys
• Taking on the role of Marketing Director at Wise Ink by leveraging her own experiences to help shepherd other writers through the process of releasing a new book
• Working with authors to create their own custom marketing plans based on their goals
• Meeting and connecting with a dear friend, Josie, and teaching one another things they were each good at
• Creating an online school with Josie called Evergreen Authors in about 2019
• How the pandemic ended up helping these courses and various other online teaching and Roseanne's ghostwriting business to really take off
• The genesis of her first book, The Take Back of Lincoln Junior High
• Reading the novel after taking a long break (focusing on the endless work and much sleeplessness of raising small children) and recognizing that it was really good
• How Roseanne's role as a teacher helped prepare her for the work she does in helping authors
• The co-authored book BUZZ: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO BOOK MARKETING
• Roseanne's books THE EVERYGREEN AUTHOR: MASTER THE ART OF BOOK MARKETING and PORTABLE MAGIC
• The importance of asking your readers: "Where do you buy books?"
• The WIDE FOR THE WIN message of being in as many places as possibly and opening as many doors as possible and how it really resonated with Roseanne
• Getting involved in the "Rights" side of publishing and the entire distribution network that she had not yet been tapped into
• A story about the first time Roseanne received an email from a foreign publisher who reached out because they were interested in the foreign language rights to her work
• The creation of DropCap Marketplace as a match-making service between indie authors/small publishers and agents and book scouts
• The various other marketing resources available for authors on the DropCap site
• How DropCap marries technology with relationship resources within the industry
• The special coupon code for Stark Reflections listeners. STARK20 - to get 20% off the listing at DropCap marketplace
• And more . . .

After the interview, Mark reflections on Roseanne's passion for helping writers and the importance for indie authors of recognizing where they can DIY and where they might be better off leveraging experts in a particular area of publishing.

Links of Interest:

• Roseanne Cheng's Website
  • Roseanne's Books
• Evergreen Authors Website
• DropCap Marketplace
  • Use coupon STARK20 to get 20% off
• Cruising Writers
• Stark Publishing Support for Authors Via Margins Agency
• ScribeCount (Mark's Affiliate Link)
• Mark's YouTube Channel
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
  • How to Access Patreon RSS Feeds
• An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries
• The Relaxed Author
  • Buy eBook Direct
  • Buy Audiobook Direct
• Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
• An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
• Wide for the Win
• Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  • This Time Around (Short Story)
  • A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  • Stowe Away (Novella)
  • Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  • Fright Nights, Big City
  • Lover's Moon
  • Hex and the City
  • Only Monsters in the Building
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

Roseanne Cheng is an award-winning author, ghostwriter, book marketer, and Director of Business Development DropCap Rights Agency. A lifelong reader and writer, she began her work in book publishing as a Marketing Director for an indie publishing house based in Minneapolis and eventually co-founded Evergreen Authors, an online school teaching authors the business of writing and marketing their creative work. In her current role with DropCap, she has the unique pleasure of matching global rights buyers with titles that have the potential to positively impact their communities. She is passionate about educating authors and publishers about the power and opportunity of having their books elevated to the international market.

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0