Bonus: She Couldn't Type Her Book, So She Spoke It Instead: Tiffany Yu's Author Journey
What if the tool everyone else uses isn’t the only way in?
Tiffany Yu is the author of The Anti-Ableist Manifesto and the founder of Diversability, an organization she built to help disabled people move through what she calls their shame-to-pride transformation.
She was in a car accident at nine years old where her arm became permanently paralyzed. And she lived a decade feeling like there was no community built for someone like her. So she built one.
In this conversation, Tiffany talks about how a literary agent found her through a fifteen-second TikTok, why she recorded her entire first draft instead of typing it, and how a book that almost didn’t get written on time ended up shaping a movement she never expected to be part of.
Highlights
She’s building the thing she wished existed.
Tiffany didn’t come into disability advocacy through a career plan. She came into it through a decade of isolation, watching nine-year-old Tiffany go without the community she needed most.
“I’m building and funding the things I wish existed when I was younger.”
That’s the whole engine behind Diversability, the book, the TikTok series, all of it. It’s a memory of what was missing, turned into a mission to make sure the next person doesn’t have to go without it too.
She didn’t write the book. She spoke it.
Tiffany types with one hand. She knew from watching other writers develop injuries from overuse that typing an entire manuscript wasn’t sustainable for her body. So instead of forcing herself into the process everyone else uses, she built her own.
“What are some creative ways that I can continue to write this book, lean into my strengths?”
She recorded every chapter using a speech-to-text tool called Otter.ai, turned the transcripts into a rough skeleton, and edited from there. When she shared this publicly, she heard from people with hand injuries, arthritis, and their own barriers to writing, people who’d quietly given up on the idea of ever finishing a book.
“Essentially, what I’m doing is you want a book, the way I’m going to do it may look different, but eventually you will get the book, right? I’m just doing it a little bit differently.”
You don’t have to follow the same road everyone else takes, just the one that actually works for you.
The book found her before she went looking for it.
Tiffany wrote a letter to her high school guidance counselor once, mentioning that maybe someday she’d write a book. She forgot about it for fifteen years. Then a literary agent found her through a short-form TikTok series she’d started almost by accident, and a few months later, a publisher reached out directly before she’d even finished her book proposal.
“Hachette at that particular point in time had also published books from a lot of my fellow disability advocate friends.”
She got the book deal on November 11th, 2022.
“I don’t know about you, 11.11 is meaningful if you are someone who views repeating numbers as what I like to call gentle nudges from the universe or messages that you’re moving in the right direction.”
Nobody plans for a book deal to arrive before the proposal is finished. But sometimes the work you’ve already been doing publicly is the proposal, whether you meant it to be or not.
Structure the book so people can find what they need.
Tiffany built her book around a framework called Me-We-Us: what you need to understand about yourself, what you need to understand in relationship with others, and what all of us need to build together to create real change.
“I think too often we jump to part three because we’re like, okay, policy change, let’s get to it. But if you haven’t done the internal work, the me, like why do I care so much about this particular topic, then you’re actually gonna jump to a place and it’s gonna feel performative.”
Every chapter title is the takeaway of that chapter, on purpose. Because unlike fiction, where mystery pulls the reader forward, a book meant to create change has one job: help someone find exactly what they need, exactly when they need it.
Make yourself impossible to forget.
Tiffany’s book cover is orange. It almost wasn’t. And she leaned into that color so hard it became part of her.
“I made my whole personality an orange book cover.”
She kept her title short enough to include both roles that mattered to her, author and founder of Diversability, so that even a passing glance could spark curiosity in someone who didn’t know her yet.
Standing out doesn’t require being the loudest voice in the room. All it takes is being unmistakably you.
The book creates connections you never planned for.
Tiffany didn’t expect her favorite part of the whole process to be the book events. But she learned to love the rooms full of strangers who showed up because of something she wrote.
“There are two people who were on my launch team, who one lives in Los Angeles, the other lives in New York. They met through the launch team, kind of stayed connected, had a lot of other points of connection... and they just met in person for the first time in New York, like maybe a month ago. And that’s pretty cool.”
A book doesn’t just reach a reader. Sometimes it introduces two people who never would have found each other otherwise, and gives them a reason to build something together long after they’ve turned the last page.
Purpose makes it last.
Tiffany doesn’t measure the success of her book by a single launch day. She measures it by whether the message is still doing something, still reaching people, long after the initial noise has faded.
“I want people to feel hopeful that creating an accessible, disability inclusive society is possible. And I want people to not only feel hope, but know that their action in collective action is what is gonna create change.”
That’s the difference between writing something for the moment and writing something built to outlast it.
Closing Reflection
Tiffany Yu didn’t write her book the way anyone told her to. She spoke it instead of typing it. She structured it so a reader could skip straight to the chapter they needed. She picked an orange cover and made it part of who she is. None of it followed the rulebook, and all of it worked.
“You are gonna be the one who is the most excited about your book.”
Tiffany reminds us that you’re allowed to build the process that fits you, and still end up with something that changes the room.
If you’re an author with a story worth sharing, leave a comment and tell us about your work. You deserve the spotlight too.
Transcript
In a lot of ways, I still can't believe that I have a book that you can find at Barnes and Noble with my name on it.
Speaker A:It is the most surreal experience from someone who was made to feel small because I'm Asian, was made to feel invisible because people just assume we don't exist as disabled people.
Speaker A:That feels really cool.
Speaker A:From the journey of the first draft to seeing it out in the world, I had a hard time really envisioning how me talking and writing a bunch of stuff in a Google Doc was going to turn into a book.
Speaker B:Welcome to Standout Authors Unbound, a space for writers who refuse to disappear.
Speaker B:This is where you can share your work without shrinking, softening, or polishing yourself into something safer.
Speaker B:I'm your host, Kevin Chung and I created this series for authors writing from lived experience, from the margins, and from places the system often overlooks.
Speaker B:We'll talk about voice, visibility, and building a writing life that honors who you are, not just what sells.
Speaker B:Let's get into it.
Speaker C:Hey, and welcome back to another episode of Standout Authors Unbound.
Speaker C:And today, I'm happy to have on Tiffany Yu.
Speaker C:Tiffany, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, your book, and how you got into the work that you're doing?
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker A:Hi everyone, it's Tiffany Yu here.
Speaker A:I'm the author of this book, the Anti Ableist, Smashing Stereotypes, Forging Change and Building a Disability Inclusive World.
Speaker A:And I came into this work, or at least for the last 17 years, I've been the founder of an organization called Diversability, which is really about helping to support disabled people on what we call their shame to pride, transformation.
Speaker A:So essentially becoming proud of who you are and all the different facets of who you are as a disabled person.
Speaker A:And I came into this work based off of my own personal experience.
Speaker A:I was involved in a car accident when I was 9.
Speaker A:My dad was driving.
Speaker A:He unfortunately passed away and I acquired a handful of injuries and disabilities, including permanently paralyzing one of my arms.
Speaker A:I was diagnosed with PTSD or post Traumatic stress disorder, which is a type of mental health disability.
Speaker A:Much later, and also in the car accident, I had broken a couple bones in one of my legs.
Speaker A:So I was a temporary wheelchair user for about four months after the accident and for the first decade plus after I became disabled, I didn't really have community.
Speaker A:I felt really isolated and excluded in my experience.
Speaker A:And nine year old Tiffany and my late dad I think really inspired a lot of the work that I'm doing to help elevate the visibility and respect of the Disability community.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:It's amazing that you're helping to build the thing that you needed when it happened to you, because we all, we're all in search of something that can make us feel like part of a bigger whole.
Speaker C:And I think when you have such an important and great mission, it helps not only yourself, but all the people around you.
Speaker C:Especially since you know what this feeling is like not to have this sort of community, or what do I do once this happens, if it happens later, or if I did grow up with it, how do I deal with it as I'm learning more about dealing with this situation?
Speaker C:So that's amazing that you decided to make this part of your mission.
Speaker A:Yeah, I have.
Speaker A:I think maybe it's on my LinkedIn.
Speaker A:I said, I'm.
Speaker A:I'm building and funding the things I wish existed when I was younger.
Speaker C:Oh, yeah, that's how I feel.
Speaker C:Like a lot of people who get involved in like, important work like this get into it because I don't see it.
Speaker C:So why don't I do it?
Speaker C:Because we're all waiting for somebody or something or some organization to help us.
Speaker C:But I think it's one of the most important lessons I think we can all learn is sometimes we have to be the people to make the change that we want to see.
Speaker C:Can you talk a little bit about your writing journey?
Speaker C:When did you decide to write this book and how did you go about writing it?
Speaker A:My writing journey was a little unconventional.
Speaker A:I do have a distinct memory my senior year of high school where I had to write a letter to my guidance counselor about what my dreams and aspirations were.
Speaker A:And I remember writing in that letter, and this is before Tiffany became a disability advocate, but I remember writing somewhere in there that maybe one day I'd write a book.
Speaker A:And I essentially, I forgot about it.
Speaker A: Until: Speaker A:I had been posting on TikTok and Instagram a short form video series I had started called the Anti Ableism series.
Speaker A:And essentially what that series was was in response to the question, you know, I want to show up better for the disability community, but I'm not sure how to start.
Speaker A:And so I said, oh, you know, I can record, you know, 15 to 30 second videos that really just highlight the broader context and landscape of the disability community.
Speaker A:So one part of the series could be, did you know that there are over a billion people globally who live with a disability?
Speaker A:Or did you know that Accenture research shows that companies that prioritize disability employment are actually more profitable?
Speaker A:So just little bite sized things like that and about six months, or about five to six months after I started posting that series, I got a note from a literary agent.
Speaker A:His name's Charles.
Speaker A:And he said, hey, I. I'm representing one of your mutual contacts.
Speaker A:Have you ever thought about writing a book?
Speaker A:And I hopped onto a call with Charles and I would later learn that he is very passionate about elevating AAPI stories.
Speaker A:And, and so he said, he said, hey, have you thought about writing a book?
Speaker A:And I said, oh, wrote this letter to my guidance counselor 15 years ago, but haven't really thought about it.
Speaker A:And he said, I want to represent you for a book that you're going to write.
Speaker A:And I was like, oh, have fun with that because in the current attention economy that we're in, I can make a 15 second video.
Speaker A:Can I write an 85,000 word book?
Speaker A:And I also had a lot of imposter syndrome about.
Speaker A:It's very easy for me.
Speaker A:I can talk all day long about disability inclusion.
Speaker A:I've done presentations, I've done over 100 podcasts talking about this.
Speaker A:But could I package it together into something succinct, like a book that would exist in perpetuity?
Speaker A:So the next thing that happened was a couple months after that, I got a note directly from a publisher.
Speaker A:Not one of the big tradition, not one of the top, the big five, but kind of on the next tier year.
Speaker A:And this was an editor who was also Asian.
Speaker A:And she said, hey, I've been seeing some of the things that you've been posting on LinkedIn.
Speaker A:Have you thought about writing a book?
Speaker A:Now, she didn't know about that.
Speaker A:I had a literary agent.
Speaker A:I connected them.
Speaker A:And at the time, Diversability is a nonprofit.
Speaker A:And part of how I was supporting myself was doing kind of being this bridge between this corporate background that I had and this disability advocacy world that I was now a part of.
Speaker A:And how could I bring some of the learnings around disability inclusion into some of these corporate spaces that I used to work at?
Speaker A:So I ended up.
Speaker A:That became the beginning of the book proposal.
Speaker A:And the book proposal is kind of like a business plan for your book if you want to get traditionally published.
Speaker A:So we started working on that and everyone was waiting for, for my writing sample or the finished book proposal, which includes this writing sample, which, you know, could be a couple chapters.
Speaker A:And I remember Charles came to me and he goes, tiffany, can I introduce you to my writer friend who you can hire to help you finish this proposal?
Speaker A:Because I want to go share it with all these different editors at the publisher.
Speaker A:Now, my background is in finance.
Speaker A:And so I always think about every project as its own income statement, like profit and loss.
Speaker A:And if I thought about the book project, it had made no money.
Speaker A:So I don't know if I was willing to make an investment.
Speaker A:And, you know, you'll hear all different sorts of prices of how much, you know, how much it costs to hire a book coach or maybe someone to help you with your proposal.
Speaker A:And so I believe I connected with his writer friend, but I don't know if I was willing to.
Speaker A:Willing to make that investment at that particular point in time.
Speaker A:So a couple months after that, Charles was kind of floating the idea to these different editors.
Speaker A:We end up getting something called a preempt, which means that a publisher, in this case Hachette, wanted to buy the book before the proposal was finished, before anyone had this package together of the book proposal and the writing sample.
Speaker A:And at that point in time, I said, and even with deciding to work with Charles, I said, oh, I could go maybe interview other literary agents, But Charles already sees something in me without even a book.
Speaker A:And then Hachette is already willing to want to invest in, you know, what will become the anti ableist manifesto.
Speaker A:Do I want to go back and finish the book proposal in hopes that maybe we'll get a better offer?
Speaker A:Hachette, at that particular point in time, had also published books from a lot of my fellow disability advocate friends.
Speaker A:So I knew that this was something that they were championing internally.
Speaker A:You know, five, 10 years ago, we could probably only find, like, a handful of books who are written by disabled authors, so decided to take the preempt.
Speaker A: iming of that was from May of: Speaker A: y, sometime winter, like late: Speaker A:That's when this other publisher reached out.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A:I don't know about you, but I.
Speaker A:1111 Is meaningful if you are someone who views repeating numbers as what I like to call gentle nudges from the universe or messages that you're moving in the right direction.
Speaker A:So it all kind of felt meaningful.
Speaker A: the book came out October of: Speaker A:So a little bit less than two years later, the book came out.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Wow, that's such a.
Speaker C:Interesting journey because a lot of authors are just trying to go.
Speaker C:Go for it.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:And they don't ever find somebody to represent them.
Speaker C:But yes.
Speaker A:And I will say I noticed that I felt I haven't been as open about Sharing that journey because I do have writer friends who are working on so many different book ideas or book proposals.
Speaker A:But it is my journey.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And so I feel so grateful.
Speaker A:And perhaps we're starting to see a trend where as you continue to share your voice and build your thought leadership and build a platform for yourself, maybe the right people will take notice and provide you opportunities you may have never even dreamed of.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I think it's so important to.
Speaker C:To know once you just make the decision to put yourself out there, there does become the possibility of.
Speaker C:I think that's why a lot of people try to build their social media following or whatever it may be.
Speaker C:But you know, it.
Speaker C:Sometimes it's just luck.
Speaker C:It could just be the people that you know or the people that they know, because sometimes you only pop up on their feed because you either commented or liked something that somebody else did and you don't know which of your actions is going to lead to the thing that breaks through.
Speaker C:And I think what you did was just take the opportunity that came to you.
Speaker C:You could have decided to go back and make changes and see what else was available.
Speaker C:But I think intuition sometimes comes into play.
Speaker C:Like you're looking at that number, like, oh, this is a sign that I should probably take this.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:What was it like to write the book?
Speaker C:So you had all this material that you had done on short form and other places.
Speaker C:What was it like to compile and actually write the book?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:I will say you may hear from other authors that marketing the book was the hardest part for them.
Speaker A:I think the hardest part for me was writing the book.
Speaker A:I'm not someone who sees myself as a natural writer and I'll share that.
Speaker A:I have a friend, Nicole Cardoza, who started the Anti Racism Daily and it was a daily newsletter she was writing.
Speaker A:You know, writing is her preferred medium.
Speaker A:Part of how I created the Anti ableism series on TikTok is because talking and making a 15 second video just came more easily to me than kind of writing out a whole newsletter every single day.
Speaker A:On top of that, there were also the logistics.
Speaker A:I have friends who have written books who end up with carpal tunnel or other lingering injuries on their hands from typing it all out.
Speaker A:And I type with one hand.
Speaker A:And so I thought about this and I was like my.
Speaker A:A lot of people who have paralyzed arms, we develop secondary injuries on our non injured arm because of overuse.
Speaker A:We're essentially using our one arm to do two arm things.
Speaker A:So I said, what are some creative ways that I can continue to write this book lean into my strengths.
Speaker A:And so the first draft of the book, I actually recorded every chapter using speech to text and using a tool called Otter AI.
Speaker A:And Otter is this tool where it will record the audio, come up with a rough transcript.
Speaker A:Now, I think there are even more evolved options where it'll summarize it and other things like that.
Speaker A:But at the very least, I had the skeleton of a large amount of text that I could then go in and edit and refine.
Speaker A:One of the other things is that every single chapter of my book is about seven to eight pages.
Speaker A:So I also made it digestible for me to make every chapter manageable for me to write, but also for the reader, too.
Speaker A:And then one of the things you'll notice is that all of the chapters are actually structured very similarly.
Speaker A:It's got maybe a story, some data, some perspectives from other people within the community, and then an outline box of different tips and tricks or suggestions, followed by a shaded box at the end of reflection questions.
Speaker A:So once I feel like I had that structure down, I knew that as I was recording these chapters, I could then be like.
Speaker A:And I will say the first draft of the book, the second iteration of the draft, was when I started to go out and incorporate all of the interviews or the people within the community whose stories I wanted to incorporate.
Speaker A:These were relatively unfinished chapters at that particular point in time.
Speaker A:And I actually wrote the last chapter first.
Speaker A:The last chapter is about, here's how to show up at City hall and make a public comment, or maybe you want to write a letter to elected officials about some something you deeply care about in your community that you would like to see them support.
Speaker A:That was a lot of the work that I was doing at the time.
Speaker A:Around that time, I had just finished serving on the San Francisco Mayor's Disability Council.
Speaker A:And so it was fresh on my mind around kind of the process of doing all of that.
Speaker A:And the other thing, you know, if I could go back and do it all over again.
Speaker A:One thing that was not in my proposal that most people look for is what's called a detailed table of content contents.
Speaker A:Now, I did not have one when my book was submitted.
Speaker A:I had a general idea of how I wanted the flow of the book to go.
Speaker A:But once I actually sat down and said, okay, here is all of the chapters I'm going to have, that became the blueprint to be like, okay, I'm going to sit down today and I'm going to work on chapter eight.
Speaker A:And here's the topic for chapter eight.
Speaker A:Let me do A bunch of research.
Speaker A:Here's how I'm going to package it together.
Speaker A:Hit record on Otter.
Speaker A:AI let me get all the stuff in.
Speaker A:And then there were a couple times where I'd have a thought afterward and I'd record a five minute.
Speaker A:So I was on the free plan.
Speaker A:I think you have like, I don't know, maybe like two to three hours.
Speaker A:I'm, I'm a big fan of When Things are Free and.
Speaker A:Or I'd, you know, after I recorded the chapter, maybe I had another idea that was like just five minutes.
Speaker A:So I'd record that five minute thing onto Otter and then I'd have both transcripts and I could just put it all together in a Google Doc.
Speaker A:The other thing I learned is that my editor did not like Google Docs.
Speaker A:So there was a period of time where I had to transition all of these ideas that I had that, you know, I could write on my phone and edit on my phone or, you know, across these different tools.
Speaker A:Would have to transfer that over to Microsoft Word, which I actually think does have some collaborative tools, but not that I've kind of dove into that much.
Speaker C:Yeah, I think it's important to know that you can do things in whatever way fits your capacity and abilities.
Speaker C:You don't have to do.
Speaker C:Oh, I read this book by Stephen King on how to write.
Speaker C:That's the definitive way and everybody needs to do it that way.
Speaker C:That's just not like a reality for most people.
Speaker C:A lot of people can't write for, I don't know, three hours a day or whatever it is that he says that he does.
Speaker C:So I think it's important for anyone who does go upon the journey of wanting to write a book to know it doesn't need to be the way that you've heard or people say or whatever it is.
Speaker C:It only works if it works for you.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:And I think what's so fascinating is that when I shared that I pretty much spoke the first draft of the book, the number of people that I shared about that on social media and the number of people who reached out or commented who said, oh, I had this hand injury or I loved writing growing up, but I stopped because I developed arthritis.
Speaker A:Like, you're giving me hope that, you know, and this is like, to me, this is accessibility for the win.
Speaker A:Essentially what I'm doing is you want a book the way I'm going to do it may look different, but eventually you will get the book.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:I'm just doing it a little bit differently.
Speaker A:And how can we.
Speaker A:And so much of even my own personal journey is I may.
Speaker A:I may do things in a way that looks different from how you do it, but this is how it works for me.
Speaker A:The work product or the final product at the end is going to be the same.
Speaker A:But how can we also just respect that people have very different ways for how they'll do it?
Speaker A:The other thing I'll share about my writing journey is, you know, I have a couple friends who will take like a couple months sabbatical to really work on their book.
Speaker A:And the space I work in, disability inclusion, you know, ebbs and flows depending on the type of, I don't know, political environment that we're in.
Speaker A:And so I didn't feel like I had the privilege to be able to take time off.
Speaker A:And I'm not the type of person who can wake up at 5am right until 8 or 8:30 and then go and work, work at 9.
Speaker A:So what I did was I dedicated one weekend day per weekend, probably like 10 hours to just sit in front of my computer and maybe the first three hours I was doing whatever or, you know, and then a spark of inspiration would come.
Speaker A:Like, I'm.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:It was hard for me, or it's hard for me to just sit and write.
Speaker A:I need.
Speaker A:And I worked with some.
Speaker A:A couple different writing coaches during my writing time.
Speaker A:And one of the coaches I had was a sanctuary coach.
Speaker A:And essentially a lot of what I worked with her on is what does my writing environment look like.
Speaker A:And for me it was like, anytime I reached a milestone of writing, maybe I finished a chapter, I would treat myself to Boba or, you know, I live in Los Angeles.
Speaker A:Once I submitted a third of my book, I went to In N Out, you know, like.
Speaker A:And so it was like, let me find.
Speaker A:And those are very specific to me, you know, and maybe you find the things that are your sanctuary.
Speaker A:But if you're not the type of person who can like, wake up out of bed at 5am While you're still working full time and then go.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And then, you know, transition very seamlessly.
Speaker A:I was like, I need to be in the right mental state.
Speaker A:It may take me a couple hours to even get.
Speaker A:Get there.
Speaker A:But I will say, yeah, I mean, I appreciate that you have this podcast because I don't get.
Speaker A:I don't get to talk about my writing journey that much because people are always interested in, like, the content of the book, which is, which is great too.
Speaker A:There's an avenue for all of it.
Speaker C:Yeah, I think it's important, especially if you have somebody within your community that also wants to write a book.
Speaker C:Maybe it's about their memoir or their story.
Speaker C:It's good to know these things.
Speaker C:I can also do this, right?
Speaker C:She's not special because she did this.
Speaker C:This is like a way that anyone can do it.
Speaker C:And I think the.
Speaker C:Your ability to write the book in itself is like a positive message for anyone in your community.
Speaker C:It, like, reinforces itself as like, both.
Speaker C:I'm advocating for you, but also I'm showing you here's what's possible if you put your time and effort into the right places.
Speaker C:Can you talk about the structure of your book and why you decided to structure it that way?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:So I didn't realize this at the time, but 10 years ago, I learned about a framework called Me We Us.
Speaker A:This is a framework around how we can create transformative change.
Speaker A:Here's what I need to know about this topic.
Speaker A:Here's what we need to know in relationship with each other or in community with each other.
Speaker A:And here's what all of us need to know.
Speaker A:Policies, processes, systems we can implement so that we can create the change.
Speaker A:I think too often we jump to part three because we're like, okay, policy change, let's get to it.
Speaker A:But if you haven't done the internal work, the me, like, why do I care so much about this particular topic, then?
Speaker A:Then you're actually going to jump to a place and it's going to feel performative.
Speaker A:You're actually not going to execute the things that are presented to you in part three.
Speaker A:So we decided pretty early on that the book was going to be structured in this Me, We Us format.
Speaker A:And as I looked at the corporate presentations that I was doing, I was like, oh, my presentations.
Speaker A:I never called it Me We Us, but it actually is in this similar format as well, where part one is like, okay, let's talk about the context, the current landscape of the disability community.
Speaker A:Here's what you need to know about disability and ableism.
Speaker A:Then part two, the we part, is, what are some common microaggressions we might experience in relationship with each other?
Speaker A:This could be making assumptions about someone's disabilities, giving them unsolicited advice.
Speaker A:And then part three is, you know, how do we build psychological.
Speaker A:How do we improve our hiring practices?
Speaker A:How do we build psychological safety?
Speaker A:How do we show up at city hall if that's the type of advocacy that we want to do?
Speaker A:And then as I was so we knew it was going to be in those three parts, we renamed it from Me We, Us to Anti Ableism and you anti ableism in your community and then anti ableism and societal change.
Speaker A:Just to make it a little bit more.
Speaker A:If you were just looking at the table of contents, you would understand what each part was going to be then within.
Speaker A:There we go.
Speaker A:You know, we kind of threw in the chapters and one thing you'll notice about my book is that the title of most of the chapters is the Takeaway from the Chapter.
Speaker A:Again, I wanted to make it as digestible as possible.
Speaker A:So if you are someone who is listening to this, you can go on and view like a preview of the first couple of pages of the book and you'll see the table of contents there and you can better understand because yes, the book kind of takes you on a journey through me.
Speaker A:We usually.
Speaker A:But at the same time, after you finish the book, I want you to be able to grab it and be like, okay, now we're going to work on our job descriptions.
Speaker A:Let me go to that chapter called Hire disabled people and go dive in and see what the tips and tricks are.
Speaker A:Or maybe we're hosting an event.
Speaker A:Let me go to the chapter about making our in person and digital events more accessible or making in person and digital spaces more accessible.
Speaker A:And then there's some guidance there.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So that ended up be being the structure of the book.
Speaker A:I believe when we first started it it was 35 chapters.
Speaker A:Like that felt like clean to me.
Speaker A:But then we ended up combining two of the chapters so it ended up at 34.
Speaker C:Almost working with the numbers.
Speaker A:But it was interesting because my original, the original book deal was for a book that was going to be 60,000 words.
Speaker A:And I think when I submitted the first draft it was 89,000.
Speaker A:And there was a period of time where I was going to miss my manuscript deadline date.
Speaker A:So I let my editor know, I said hey, I'm going to miss this.
Speaker A:And she goes, oh, we actually already set your publication date.
Speaker A:Which I have heard is, is sometimes they've said it and sometimes they wait until, you know, because sometimes life stuff happens and you have to push deadlines back.
Speaker A:But she had already said it and, and then, and then because the book was longer than we anticipated it was going to be, the pre order price of it changed from $29 to $30 like just because of those, you know, whatever additional tens of thousands.
Speaker A:So I hadn't anticipated that like oh, because there's additional cost of the pages.
Speaker A:But yeah, yeah, it, it and, and it's always better.
Speaker A:The advice I got was to write for forward.
Speaker A:So rather than get caught up in the edits and like, oh, my gosh, I'm already over the word count.
Speaker A:It was like, let me put out all the information.
Speaker A:And then it's much easier to cut than it is to go back and try to add something in later.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I think the editing is probably one of the tougher parts because you said everything you needed to say, but now you have to figure out, oh, it needs to be more compact, more, you know, it has to have a stronger message in certain parts.
Speaker C:And just figuring out the best way to do it, you feel like you're done, and then you're like, oh, no, I got to do some stuff to make it the best that it can possibly be.
Speaker C:And I think if we don't concentrate on edits making improvements, we can say, oh, no, I wanted my original version, but I think to best serve everyone, it needs to be the best version of it that it can be.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:And this is also part of the reason why I went with traditional publishing, because I don't know if I trusted myself to put the best book out there.
Speaker A:And, you know, of course, pros and cons, depending on which publishing path you decide.
Speaker A:And for me, it was, yes, I'm losing a little bit of control, but I have an editor, I have a copy editor person.
Speaker A:We have a permissions team.
Speaker A:It was so many different eyeballs on this, so that by the time it came out in print, it, you know, even as I was reading the audiobook, I remember getting a note from my editor being like, you may find mistakes.
Speaker A:Just note the page.
Speaker A:And when I did it, I only found one mistake.
Speaker A:And actually the mistake is still in the book.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A:But you may glaze over it so quickly that you might not even realize.
Speaker A:And then I was like, oh, I. I actually feel really good about this because so many of us read this over and over again, including myself, and that we made it, that there was literally only.
Speaker A:And I don't even know if anyone has even found the mistake.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I mean, just the way that our brain processes words, it's so easy to make mistakes.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker C:You could miss a comma.
Speaker C:You could, you know, have an extra word in there that you forgot to take out.
Speaker C:Like, there's so many different ways that mistakes can be met.
Speaker C:And since our brains aren't computers, they.
Speaker C:They're not going to find the thing automatically.
Speaker C:So I think one mistake throughout an 80,000 plus word book is, like, a great accomplishment.
Speaker C:Maybe there's more.
Speaker C:Who knows?
Speaker C:And I also love the point of, like, the way that you set up the chapters to describe exactly what it is about.
Speaker C:Because I think there's one thing for fiction, you want it to be as mysterious as possible because you don't want to give away the thing.
Speaker C:But in nonfiction, I think it's so important that it is as easy to figure out where to go if you need to find out where to go.
Speaker C:Because otherwise you're like scanning through.
Speaker C:Is this.
Speaker C:Nope, this is not the right one.
Speaker C:I need to find the other place.
Speaker C:What was it like to go from the original draft into the published version?
Speaker C:What was your feeling once you actually got to see the book in person?
Speaker A:In a lot of ways, I still can't believe that I have a book that you can find at Barnes and Noble with my name on it.
Speaker A:It is the most surreal experience from someone who was made to feel small because I'm Asian, was made to feel invisible because people just assume we don't exist as disabled people.
Speaker A:That feels really cool.
Speaker A:From the journey of the first draft to seeing it out in the world, I, I had a hard time really envisioning how me talking and writing a bunch of stuff in a Google document was going to turn into a book.
Speaker A:But as I.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A:And I hopped onto a call with her and I said, are you really going to spend the holidays reading my book?
Speaker A:She said, yeah, because, you know, so December 1st was so close to the holidays.
Speaker A:And I told her I was going to miss it.
Speaker A:And then I was like, why do you need 10 months between me turning in the book and the book coming out in the world?
Speaker A:And now I understand there's so much that happens and if I could do it all over again, I, I would not have missed my manuscript deadline date.
Speaker A:It squeezed all of the other deadlines.
Speaker A:And I remember there would be some things where I'm like, oh, I have this idea.
Speaker A:And they're like, oh, we already submitted it to print.
Speaker A:Or it was like, oh, what about this?
Speaker A:And I was like, there's no time to incorporate that.
Speaker A:So I think if I, if I had known as a first time author, you know, at the publishers, they are churning out books and I, I would have appreciated, I think, a little more handholding.
Speaker A:But I think if you are an editor who, you know, maybe I don't know how many projects they're working on at any one point in time, maybe you're not aware of how Much a first time author doesn't know about much.
Speaker A:Like, when does a book launch start?
Speaker A:When do you start reaching out for press?
Speaker A:Like, when do you get those reviews?
Speaker A:How does a book event work?
Speaker A:But I, I will say that so after I better understood, kind of everything that happens from December 1st until October 8th, every single time I forget what we, I forget what it was called.
Speaker A:But the manuscript, we then went through, I think maybe two more drafts of the manuscript and then it was sent into production or layout.
Speaker A:Then you would review that and you're drawing on a PDF, whatever your changes are.
Speaker A:And I will say with each iteration that I went through, I would oscillate between, ooh, I wrote this.
Speaker A:This is pretty good to, no one's going to read this.
Speaker A:Like, I can't believe this.
Speaker A:But I do really trust that I put out the best book that I could with the knowledge that I have.
Speaker A:And, you know, as we're recording this, the book has been out for a year and a half.
Speaker A:It's now on its fifth printing and it's going to be coming out in paperback in October.
Speaker A:And the reason why I found that one mistake is because I used the same process to like, meticulously review the paperback.
Speaker A:And again, you're still in the PDF, like drawing on it.
Speaker A:And then I found, and then I found the mistake.
Speaker A:But it was fun because this time I listened to my audiobook while I was reviewing the.
Speaker A:While I was reviewing the draft as a way to like, okay, you're auditorial.
Speaker A:Auditorily.
Speaker A:Auditorily.
Speaker A:You get on.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:You understand what I'm trying to say while I'm looking at it too, right?
Speaker A:Because like you said, our eyes really glaze over.
Speaker A:Our eyes can like, turn.
Speaker A:Like, I think there's that exercise where, like, something is.
Speaker A:It's all jumbled together, but you're able to distinguish what the word is, even though it's like not, not spelled in the, in the correct way.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So yeah, that was kind of the journey, which, with, with each iteration, I just knew I had an editorial team that was behind me.
Speaker A:And I also started to feel more confident, um, because one thing I did do that I think some authors do and some don't, is I decided to submit my book in thirds.
Speaker A:Um, so even by the time December 1st had come around, I had already submitted 2/3 of the book.
Speaker A:Uh, so even though the last third was going to be late or a little late, my editor already had a good idea of how I wrote and where the direction of the book was going.
Speaker A:And I would get that early feedback, because I will say that the editing part of it, I did not have to do massive rewrites.
Speaker A:And I do hear that from some of my other friends that they like, totally had to rewrite part two or like, you know, everything got changed during the editing process.
Speaker A:And I feel really lucky.
Speaker A:Maybe it's because each chapter was seven to eight pages, but I feel really lucky that like, there were, there were up until that particular point in time, no massive rewrites, because I think I had already trickled out the majority of what the book was going to be, that by the time I submitted part three, there were no new surprises that of how.
Speaker A:How that part of the book was going to look.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:And I think it's important to know that every editor is different.
Speaker C:So just because your experience with major re edits wasn't that bad doesn't mean when somebody else goes to do their own version of the writing.
Speaker C:It all depends on who obviously you're writing itself, plus whoever's editing it, their experience level and all those things.
Speaker C:So there's so many factors.
Speaker C:If you would have had a different editor, who knows, it could have been different.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker A:For sure.
Speaker A:And I'll also share.
Speaker A:I. I'm sure there's an updated term for this, but I'm.
Speaker A:I'm known as what's called an orphaned author.
Speaker A:So the editor that I had who offered me the book deal, she actually left, left the publisher about two months after, after the deal was announced.
Speaker A:I got a new editor and was a little nervous, right, because you're building an entirely new relationship with someone who hadn't championed the book initially and so worked with her.
Speaker A: my imprint, closed in July of: Speaker A:So this is three months before my book was to come out.
Speaker A:And I, at that point in time, the book had already been sent to print.
Speaker A:But I have author friends who were with the same imprint who kind of were earlier on in their author journey where the new editor potentially wasn't aligned with the direction.
Speaker A:I've also heard stories of potentially like a new editor or not even a new editor, just like the direction of the book, not going in, going, having that alignment with the vision.
Speaker A:And I think I watched like a YouTube video of someone having to pay their advance back.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So yeah, there are all different types.
Speaker A:And this is why you have this podcast, right?
Speaker A:To hear all these different stories.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A: g where, you know, in July of: Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:I was disappointed that the editor I had worked with, who.
Speaker A:Who took on this project and then championed it all the way through print, didn't necessarily get to be there to celebrate launch with me.
Speaker A:And then at that point in time, does the new editor really have that much of a role to play, or are you spending more time with marketing and publicity to really get them onboarded to the launch?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Because that's three.
Speaker A:Three months away.
Speaker A:Like, at that particular point in time, the editor.
Speaker A:The editor doesn't have much.
Speaker A:Much needed to do at that point.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I think it just goes to show that there's no way to know what's going to happen.
Speaker C:Expectations can be one thing, but you will never know.
Speaker C:Like, like you said, the imprint goes away.
Speaker C:It's like no one expects that to happen.
Speaker C:So the best that you can do is, like, work with what you're dealt with, the hand that you're dealt with, and figure out the best way forward because you can let that changing of editors affect you negatively.
Speaker C:But if you keep the attitude of, okay, no, let me see how I can work best with this new person and see how the path forward changes for the best, for better or for worse, Right?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A:And so not to say that I'm like an expert when things just change.
Speaker A:Very sudd.
Speaker A:But I think because I went through something so drastic like that, like, it was interesting.
Speaker A:I had another friend, another author friend who was with the imprint who sent me a note.
Speaker A:She's like, hey, I just wanted to check in.
Speaker A:Like, I know you might have some feelings about all of this.
Speaker A:Like, I'm here if you ever want to chat.
Speaker A:And I. I don't know.
Speaker A:I don't know if I was just like overworked, that I didn't feel anything, or I just trusted that at that particular point in time.
Speaker A:I did everything I could to make sure we sent the best book to print.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker A:And now it was just transition to the next part of this writing process.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:What was it like to.
Speaker C:Leading up to the launch, what did you do for the launch and how did you prepare for this book to come out?
Speaker C:Because everyone has a different process of marketing and having it come out.
Speaker A:I think I had heard a piece of advice that to maybe pick one or two things you want to focus on.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So the two things I focused on were podcasts and having a launch team.
Speaker A:And so the only ask from my launch team was that in exchange for getting an early copy of the book, and I did, like, one or two virtual calls with them to answer any questions or ideate around the launch was to write a review of the book.
Speaker A:And, of course, there were a couple other extra things you could share on social media or other things like that, and then the podcast.
Speaker A:So, you know, what was interesting was I got a piece of advice from another author friend who said, on your launch day, you're gonna have so many interviews.
Speaker A:Make sure you drink a lot of water and take a lot of breaks between your interviews.
Speaker A:And I had no interviews on my launch day.
Speaker A:I was actually, like, kind of sat.
Speaker A:My one other author friend did do an Instagram live with me on my launch day, but it was crickets.
Speaker A:I went out to an event that was not related to my book and then grabbed dinner with them and went home.
Speaker A:And I don't know if I only looked at that as the barometer for my success for the launch.
Speaker A:It was not successful.
Speaker A:Since then, I was just on the Jennifer Hudson Show.
Speaker C:Huge.
Speaker A:That may have been probably one of the biggest pieces of visibility I've been on PBS NewsHour.
Speaker A:It then came, but it came later.
Speaker A:And it reminded me that sometimes the universe has its own timing.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A:That's when my book came out.
Speaker A:But it was a month before the presidential election, so there was just a lot of other things that were happening in the news cycle that perhaps.
Speaker A:Perhaps that wasn't the time, but.
Speaker A:But, yeah, I focused on kind of, you know, having conversations with people like you.
Speaker A:You know, I. I have heard from other.
Speaker A:I'm in or.
Speaker A:I joined two author communities.
Speaker A:One is called the Unicorn Authors Club.
Speaker A:They're currently on hiatus, but it was.
Speaker A:It was like a writing community for.
Speaker A:For activists who were thinking about writing books.
Speaker A:So we're among people who are, you know, doing social impact work in their spaces.
Speaker A:And again, maybe not all of us are writers, but we're doing.
Speaker A:We're making change.
Speaker A:And how do we translate that into narrative change, into book form?
Speaker A:So that was the first writing community I had.
Speaker A:And then I had another one called Authoress, which is a group of women authors.
Speaker A:And I think having those two communities were Unicorn Authors Club.
Speaker A:Super helpful for the writing process.
Speaker A:I probably cried on almost every call we had.
Speaker A:Whether you call it Body doubling or co working.
Speaker A:We would have sessions a couple times each week where you just show up and write.
Speaker A:And I think that kind of helped.
Speaker A:And even, you know, again, I mentioned, not the type of person I can just show up for an hour and write.
Speaker A:But maybe I was like, oh, I'll use this for podcast outreach or I'll get organized with, you know, this launch part of it.
Speaker A:And then the authoress community was just helpful around thinking about launch strategies and they do calls every single month.
Speaker A:And, and one of someone on one of the calls said, said that her only strategy was doing podcasts and she had sold, you know, a couple tens of thousands of books just by doing podcasts.
Speaker A:And, and so I kind of.
Speaker A:That kind of like planted a seed.
Speaker A:And, and also the authoress community gave me the idea to not make my book launch team so complicated.
Speaker A:You know, some people will like put together these books and like put all these different goodies in there and to each their own.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:I think you'll figure out with what you want to do.
Speaker A:Maybe you want to lean into influencer strategy or like, you know, think about social posting and other things like that.
Speaker A:But, but don't spread yourself too thin.
Speaker A:Which is why for me, I was like, okay, launch team and podcasts as the main press.
Speaker A:And then yeah, it has been cool that in the past year and a half, I think some of the pieces of press that I would have dreamed about a year and a half ago just happened a little bit later.
Speaker C:Oh yeah.
Speaker C:How has.
Speaker C:Thanks for joining us.
Speaker B:If you're an author thinking about voice visibility or how to show up without losing yourself, you can Learn more at standout authors.com to listen to past episodes of Standout Authors, head to standout authors.com Unbound.
Speaker B:Yeah, if you know someone whose story deserves more room the same share this episode.
Speaker A:But here we're all share and if.
Speaker B:You want to keep the conversation going, you can find me on Instagram @tedx.
Speaker A:And then I did one until next time as part of like a digital Keep writing everyone.
Speaker A:And I have heard from other friends that giving a TEDx talk changed their whole life.
Speaker A:Like launch their speaking career and other things like that.
Speaker A:And I don't know if I have felt any change.
Speaker A:And before the book came out, you know, I was already doing these corporate.
Speaker A:Corporate talks or educating in this space, but now I have a book but still doing the same thing and still talking like the.
Speaker A:Even the format of my presentation.
Speaker A:Now I just say, hey, this is me, we, us.
Speaker A:But it has been that this whole time.
Speaker A:And so I remember talking to a friend because I was like, oh, I don't know if my life is any different now that the book has come out.
Speaker A:And what she said is, like, maybe I've just been incrementally or gradually up leveling that I don't notice the change.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And maybe that's the best way to go about it because some people, like, become super viral and then, like, don't really know how to deal with that transition.
Speaker A:So maybe if it's like a slow burn.
Speaker A:Because I will also get a question.
Speaker A: platforms started to grow in: Speaker A:And I remember getting a piece of press for my TikTok platform, and they said, oh, did you start Diversability, your nonprofit?
Speaker A:Because your TikTok following got big.
Speaker A:And I said, I've been doing.
Speaker A:I've been running.
Speaker A:I've been.
Speaker A: We started this nonprofit in: Speaker A:I've been saying the exact same thing.
Speaker A:But it's so fascinating.
Speaker A:I guess it comes back again to the timing where, like, the message hasn't changed.
Speaker A:It's just maybe it wasn't the right time for someone to pick it up and think, oh, this is something that people need.
Speaker A:But I guess the biggest change, I guess I'll say is I have always been, I don't know, a struggle is the right word.
Speaker A:But I've always been curious about how does this work?
Speaker A:Schedule, scale?
Speaker A:How does this work reach people beyond my first degree of people who know Tiffany?
Speaker A:How does it reach beyond, you know, a social media post which, you know, given the algorithms are changing all the time?
Speaker A:And I do talk about some of the research in the book that, like, a lot of disability content is intentionally suppressed.
Speaker A:And the reason they say is they want to prevent cyberbullying.
Speaker A:But it means that our messages aren't.
Speaker A:Aren't you understand?
Speaker C:Show it to more people.
Speaker C:Yeah, correct.
Speaker A:Correct.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A:But yeah, I, I, every once in a while, I will do a search for the name of my book or my name, and I'll see people who I have never met before and may never meet having conversations about some of the concepts in the book.
Speaker A:And that's pretty cool.
Speaker A:I don't know if it has directly changed my life.
Speaker A:It has also made me think about if this is the legacy that I leave behind in this space.
Speaker A:I feel pretty good about it because I wrote the best book that I Could with the knowledge.
Speaker A:Sometimes I say this, this book is my whole brain in a book.
Speaker A:It's everything I know.
Speaker A:All the research out there combined with stories, depending on, you know, how, how that creates change for you the most.
Speaker A:But I guess the other change is, well, I can be in a podcast like this and before I had a book, I couldn't have been right.
Speaker A:But it's also introduced me to a wonderful author community in so many ways.
Speaker A:And I feel like us authors, I joke that we have the same weary look in our eyes because we know everything that went in the ways we fought to try to, you know, maintain some autonomy over our book if we felt like we lost a little control or how much effort we had to put into, especially if you're a first time author and not a celebrity, to try to get this book out to the people who needed it.
Speaker A:And, and yeah, I think, I think one fun part of, I think I've done probably like a little over 20 book events and these were all DIY of me emailing a bookstore and saying, hey, you know, you're a feminist bookstore or social impact Asian owned, would you be interested?
Speaker A:And I think I have done seven sold out book events, sold out, you know, some of these bookstores.
Speaker A:But I don't need to qualify it still, you know, we went to capacity and that's pretty cool too that there continues to be momentum around this topic.
Speaker A:And if it's my book that brings people together, great.
Speaker A:That's actually my favorite part of this whole process was getting to host these book events.
Speaker A:And it's not people get to meet Tiffany, it's you all get to meet each other because you're here in this city and you can figure out the things you care about and collaborate and become co conspirators together.
Speaker A:And if it's my book, great.
Speaker A:But I'm also so excited to be part of a movement of so many other disabled authors getting book deals.
Speaker A:The publishing industry did not see our community as marketable.
Speaker A:There's research that shows we control $18 trillion globally of disposable income if you include our family and friends.
Speaker A:And we talk about family and friends because like you'll go to the concert with your friends, we'll go to the restaurant with your friends.
Speaker A:You know, a lot of activities are communal, so it's not just you going out.
Speaker A:But yeah, to be part of that movement is really cool.
Speaker C:Yeah, I think sometimes the biggest impact that we can make is not to ourselves, but to the people that we're actually trying to affect.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:So not necessarily that your life has changed, although it, like you said, it might have been incremental, but the fact that you can have people meet each other who probably would not have previously is just a gift in itself.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:We just need to appreciate whatever gifts come our way.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And actually, I love that you said that, because there are two people who were on my launch team who.
Speaker A:One lives in Los Angeles, the other lives in New York.
Speaker A:They met through the launch team.
Speaker A:They kind of stayed connected, had a lot of other points of connection within not only their disability journeys, but other aspects of their identity.
Speaker A:And they just met in person for the first time in New York, like maybe a month ago.
Speaker A:And that's pretty cool.
Speaker A:And then there's another story where I met these two.
Speaker A:Uh, actually, one was on my book team, one was on my book launch team, and then another one kind of came to my Sacramento book event.
Speaker A:But together they've teamed up, and what they do is they help provide accessibility information for book festivals.
Speaker A:Uh, oh, and.
Speaker A:Or they'll even, you know, they started a separate social media account where they'll share accessibility features of some of their favorite independent bookstores.
Speaker A:And to me, I think that not only is the collaboration cool, but it's also that something in the book really sparked something in you to say you are a book lover, you are going to these festivals, you're a wheelchair user, you're finding they're not accessible.
Speaker A:Now you feel empowered enough to say, I'm going to do something about it so that other people who are like me can get to show up at these spaces and not experience as much friction as I did.
Speaker C:Yeah, that's incredible.
Speaker C:A couple more questions left.
Speaker C:What do you.
Speaker C:What advice would you give to somebody that wants to stand out as an author?
Speaker A:Oh, that wants to stand out.
Speaker A:That's a good question.
Speaker A:I don't know if I have the best answer, but I guess what I'll say is you are going to be the one who is the most excited about your book.
Speaker A:I got to a point where I did feel like an orange book cover was kind of annoying, but I knew that if you didn't see an orange book cover, and I mentioned the orange book cover because that's the color of my book.
Speaker A:If I wasn't really celebrating myself, then how is that going to.
Speaker A:How is that going to trickle out to my community as well?
Speaker A:So, yeah, I will say I made my whole personality an orange book cover.
Speaker A:But also, I think I made sure that, you know, even when I.
Speaker A:Even in My title, you know, most people know me as the founder of Diversability.
Speaker A:And actually it's, it's actually like right here on the book cover too.
Speaker A:But I then changed it to author and founder of Diversability.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So I also just wanted, even if I couldn't say author of the Anti ableist Manifesto and founder of Diversability, maybe that was too long.
Speaker A:I could at least just include like, hey, I'm an author.
Speaker A:So then maybe it could spark some curiosity in someone to be like, okay, we know about diversity.
Speaker A:Maybe I'll go dig in to see what she's the author of.
Speaker C:Yeah, just that little bit of recognition in any way that you can.
Speaker A:Just including it anywhere.
Speaker A:And I have friends and actually I do have it right here.
Speaker A:I have a friend, she wrote the book Personal Branding for Introverts.
Speaker A:Her hair is green.
Speaker A:Goldie Chan is her name.
Speaker A:She made little keychains and she had all this little stuff and I think she was able to.
Speaker A:She made her book a green book cover.
Speaker A:Her personality, but did it in a different way.
Speaker A:So depending on how you want to stand out is like, how can you, not only, how can you be proud of the book cover because that's going to be everywhere, but then how can you make sure that it's like top of mind?
Speaker A:Because I've definitely overheard a couple conversations where maybe people don't know Tiffany Yu, but if someone mentions the book, the second follow up question will be like, is that the book with the orange book cover?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So that it's recognizable.
Speaker A:And I think I really appreciated.
Speaker A:We actually changed originally the book cover was going to be navy blue, which is diverse abilities color.
Speaker A:Last second we changed it to orange.
Speaker A:And I'm so glad we did because I think it really stood out and it really stood out to me too, that like, I mean, today I'm wearing navy blue, but orange on navy blue looks good.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:And I've got so much blue.
Speaker A:So it's like, okay, maybe we needed a complimentary color to Diversability's color for it to work.
Speaker C:But.
Speaker A:But yeah, just, just making.
Speaker A:And I think there's a lot around color theory, but like whatever your book is, make your whole personality or figure out ways that it just continues to become memorable and top of mind for other people.
Speaker C:Amazing.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I did have a question about a challenge that you give to people, but I guess that could be what can you do to make your thing brandable?
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker A:Oh, you know what?
Speaker A:Her name is escaping me.
Speaker A:Her first name is Kelly and she recently wrote a book called the Take and she went around the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books with a sign of her book cover around her.
Speaker A:And I think she was interviewing people.
Speaker A:And she's a New York Times bestselling author.
Speaker A:She's written like a couple of books.
Speaker A:But to watch her book promo, I would go check out her social media.
Speaker A:You check out like Kelly the Take and then maybe you can get her full name because she was, I don't know if unhinged is the right word.
Speaker A:She was unapologetic about trying to get the word out about her book.
Speaker A:And I, I don't know if I'm that bold, but I wish, I wish I was.
Speaker A:But maybe that can give you some inspiration for really even as a New York Times bestselling author already, how you have to continue to get the word out about your books.
Speaker C:Yeah, you've written it.
Speaker C:Why as well talk about and try to get as many people on board as you can because otherwise, like you're doing yourself a disservice and your book a disservice, I think.
Speaker C:What message do you want people to take away from your book?
Speaker A:I want people to, I want people to know that I want people to feel hopeful that creating an accessible, disability inclusive society is possible.
Speaker A:And I want people to not only feel hope, but know that their action in collective action is what is going to create change.
Speaker A:And there are such small things that we can do, whether it's an update on language to more substantive things around, you know, like hiring or workplace culture or supporting disabled entrepreneurs.
Speaker A:So no matter what, there is a way that you can support and if you are a book lover who is listening to this, one of the things that I did was I tried to host a lot of my book events at disability owned bookstores or let's say I'm doing a corporate talk and they want to buy some books.
Speaker A:We this month as we're recording, this is Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we actually funneled one of our corporate book orders to an AAPI owned bookstore.
Speaker A:And these are ways that we can help support indies.
Speaker A:But it's also like, yeah, every single book purchase goes to support, depending on where you decide, not only supports the author, but also supports the place that you're, that you're purchasing from.
Speaker A:So I want you to feel hope.
Speaker A:I want you to know that there is action that you can take even if it feels small, but it's probably extremely meaningful for, for the person who is positively affected by it.
Speaker C:Amazing.
Speaker C:Well, Tiffany, this has been really great talking to you.
Speaker C:I think people can get a lot, not only from your journey, but like your message and all the beautiful things that you're trying to do to make the world a better place.
Speaker C:Where can people keep up to date with you?
Speaker C:Get your book, all that kind of stuff?
Speaker A:Yeah, the best place is tiffanyu.combook and while you're there, you'll see all of my upcoming book events.
Speaker A:You can purchase your book at your favorite retailer and you can also find all my social links there.
Speaker A:And then if you want to connect with diversability, you can also find ways to get connected in our disability centered community there too.
Speaker B:Awesome.
Speaker C:Well, yeah, thanks again for coming on.
Speaker C:It's been a pleasure chatting.
Speaker A:Thanks.
Speaker C:All right, bye.
Speaker B:Thanks for joining us.
Speaker B:If you're an author thinking about voice visibility or how to show up without losing yourself, you can learn more@standoutauthors.com to listen to past episodes of Standout Authors Unbound, head to standout authors.com unbound.
Speaker B:If you know someone whose story deserves more room, share this episode with them.
Speaker B:And if you want to keep the conversation going, you can find me on Instagram andoutcreativebusiness.
Speaker B:Until next time, keep writing, everyone.
