#301 – Highlight the Possibilities: Writing Motivation from Jay Z, Creative Marketing, and Trust by Hernan Diaz (Free-Writing Session)
Welcome to another episode of Spun Today, where writing is both our anchor and our gateway to a universe of creativity. I’m Tony Ortiz, and in this episode, I take you deep into my own writing journey — breaking down my day-to-day habits, the victories and setbacks in sticking to a writing schedule, and the lessons learned along the way. I’ll share actionable tips, including a powerful insight from Jay Z’s creative process and how even a single well-chosen word can completely shift the meaning of a story.
We’ll dissect the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "Trust" by Hernan Diaz, looking closely at how form and structure themselves can reshape our understanding of narrative and character. From marketing your indie books with smarter tools to using AI for ad campaigns, I discuss how writers can leverage technology to grow their audience.
And as always, I’ll round things off with one of my free writing pieces—highlighting the importance of focusing on possibilities instead of limitations as fuel for both creative and personal growth. Whether you’re searching for inspiration, craft advice, or a creative lift, this episode is for every writer ready to push past the obstacles and chase the spark.
Check out all free-writing pieces at: spuntoday.com/freewriting.
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Links referenced in this episode:
Jay-Z: Lyrical Flow, ‘Reasonable Doubt,’ Biggie, & More (Exclusive Interview) https://youtu.be/PfMfwwHr8kM?si=XtKFvoDswiC7Ip95
Trust by Hernan Diaz: https://amzn.to/4wh7dPK
“Highlight the Possibilities. Not the Limitations.” https://www.spuntoday.com/freewriting/highlight-the-possibilities
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Transcript
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Transcript 〰️
Tony Ortiz [00:00:00]:
And from a writing perspective, I took away that structure isn't just formatting, it's storytelling in and of itself. And you can use form like that to challenge truth, to reframe events, and to expose bias. The way a story is told could be the story. What's up? What's up folks? What's going on? Welcome to the Spun Today Podcast, the only podcast that is anchored in writing but unlimited in scope. I'm your host Tony Ortiz, and I appreciate you listening. This is episode 301 of the Spun Today Podcast and it is a free writing session. Episode first I'll be telling you all what I've been up to from a writing perspective, getting down to the little nuanced details of days that I've actually written versus days that I haven't. Share those stats with you, as well as a few other things.
Tony Ortiz [00:01:13]:
I'm going to share a helpful writing tip that I picked up along the way. This episode's writing tip is coming from none other than Jay Z in his recent New York Times interview. Shout out to my brother David for the reco there and look out for it, by the way, as a video of the week in my completely free newsletter that you can subscribe to again for free at spun today.com forward/subscribe. But definitely some good advice from there. I'm also going to tell you a bit about what I've been reading and break it down as always from a writer's perspective on things that resonated with me, takeaways that I think we can all use in our own writing, so on and so forth. The book this time around is Pulitzer Prize winning Trust by Hernan Diaz, which by the way was on Obama's list of favorite books of all time. So definitely stay tuned for that. And last but certainly not least, I'll be sharing an old free writing piece of my own as I do each time to round off these episodes.
Tony Ortiz [00:02:12]:
Please stick around for all that good stuff. But first I wanted to tell you all about a great way to that you can help support this show if you so choose. And then we'll jump right into the episode.
Speaker B [00:02:25]:
A great way for my fellow writers and creatives out there to help support this show is by going to sponsor.com support and clicking on the Mock up Shots banner. When I first started writing and putting out content, I wanted to think of creative ways to help market my books. So I would take my own pictures, place the books in different places, take it to the beach with me, put it out in the snow, and I'd
Tony Ortiz [00:02:47]:
wind up with a couple good usable
Speaker B [00:02:49]:
images and a bunch more mediocre ones. And also in the case of the snow example, a completely soggy book. Then I found Mock Up Shots. In one click, Mockup Shots turns your book cover into thousands of images, videos, graphics, and more. If you follow me on social it's what I use to promote my books. You can check them out on Instagram at Spun Today to take a look at the professional creative quality of what Mockup Shots has to offer. And now for my listeners, you can get unlimited lifetime access to the largest instant book mockup archive for 50% off. That's right, that's 50% off.
Speaker B [00:03:32]:
And you can use it for any books that you currently have available or any books that you will write in the future. I highly recommend it. It's a great marketing tool. Go to spun today.com support and click on the banner for Mock Up Shots to claim your 50% off discount.
Tony Ortiz [00:03:50]:
My Writing Stats so I ended off the year strong I would say, but stronger than than usual for my recent track record of times that I've written versus times that I have written or days rather. I've kept that trend going for the most part in Q1 of this year with a dip in April for sure, which some traumatizing that my family and I went through, which not gonna bring you all down with but and not making excuses but there's a reason for it. But continuing on where I left off with sharing my writing stats, in the month of February 2026 I wrote 17 out of the 28 days of the month for a writing percentage of 60.7%. In March of 2026 I wrote 16 out of the 31 days of the month or writing percentage respectable 51.6%. And April, as mentioned there was a dip and I wrote 10 out of the out of the 30 days of the month for writing percentage of 33.3%. Now aside from continuing to write and plug away at my main goal for this year from a writing perspective, which is to complete a draft of my second novel, the continuation to Fractal, which is you're interested, you can definitely check out at sponsoring.com books what I have also begun to take more of an active role in is trying to market my books and figure out how to actually market properly. It's obviously a whole world in and of itself, but as a self published author you are not going to have someone doing it for you. So it's one of the many hats that you have to wear.
Tony Ortiz [00:05:30]:
And to date honestly the most I've done from an advertising perspective is, or a marketing perspective is this podcast and just postings of my book and books online on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter or X, so on and so forth. I have done actually spike ads which I have to go back and revisit or just put down on a quarterly schedule and do them again because they definitely are helpful from a visibility perspective. And what they are, what spike bet, what spike ads are are essentially companies that you would pay a fee for just blasting out your book to thousands of people in one shot while you have a book promotion going on. Meaning like I'll lower my price to, to free for example, during the period of these spike ads. Or I could lower it to like 99 cents, so on and so forth. I've done both and I've definitely gotten much more results from lowering the books to free. And you obviously don't make any money off of it. But the goal there is visibility and ratings and I've gotten hundreds and in some cases thousands of downloads of my books by doing those spike ad promotions which have led to additional ratings and reviews, so on and so forth.
Tony Ortiz [00:06:56]:
So I definitely do have to circle back to that. But what I've been doing actively over the past month or so are Amazon ads, which I tried long ago when I found out that it's something that existed first off and that it's something that self published authors, you know, do regularly, the ones that are successful at this. By successful I just mean from a financial perspective. Not that that's the only measure of success, but I digress. But like the Joanna pens of the world for example, where it's a setup and it's set and forget type of thing, it's an overhead item that you pay for constant, you know, on a monthly basis and you tweak here and there when need be. But it's a, an associated cost of doing business. And I remember trying it years ago, way back when it was so confusing and just so clunky the way the, the user interfaces for the Amazon ads, which it still is in my opinion, but now with the advent of AI, it becomes much more palatable and actually actionable. So I've been leveraging AI, in this case ChatGPT to help me one literally navigate the Amazon ads site and functionality by, you know, I would literally say things like where do I go to create an ad? Here is a copy of my book and its cover.
Tony Ortiz [00:08:23]:
What type of ads would you suggest? I don't see that dropdown in the main website, but I See this? Am I in the right place? You know, like literally having it hold my hand through, what do I click on, on the screen until you start getting the hang of it. And then also, for instance, its actual analysis of my ads and what price points I should target for the actual ads. What books are similar to mine that people shopping for a certain type of book might see in there. You may also like this book or people that purchased Steven Pressfield's the War of Art, for example, may also be interested in Tony Ortiz's Make Way for you, like that type of thing. And then there are different types of ads that you can set up. Like I have for example three different types, product placement, type of ad where you literally tell it, you know, when people search for this book, make my book come out or pop up for them. And this is my bid for, you know, because other authors and publishing houses are doing the same thing. This is my bid.
Tony Ortiz [00:09:32]:
I'm willing to pay X amount of cents for my book to appear. And if I win the bid, then my book will appear for those folks, so on and so forth. Then there are like keyword based ads that you set up, you know, like people just searching on Amazon for books about creativity, books about writing, so on and so forth. And you said you set it up the same way. And then there's like specifically targeted if people type in these exact same words. I want my book to come up. And it's been definitely a learning curve, but I feel like I'm getting more of the hang of it. It hasn't been as successful as I would want, obviously, because ideally you want pay the least possible, make the most possible.
Tony Ortiz [00:10:13]:
And I have made sales, so it's beginning to work. Definitely have gotten views and clicks, the ctr, they call it the click through rate. But the goal is to translate that into more, more sales, right? The point of all advertising and marketing. And it's an iterative process, right? Like I'll set something up based on the back and forth and the research with, with Chat GPT and then I'll download the results, feed it back to Chat GPT and be like Ted, you know, give me your insights on what you see here. I'm noticing X, Y and Z, is my understanding correct there, so on and so forth. And it's just like, like you're having a conversation with a marketing team that you have at your fingertips and then it makes suggestions. And part of its suggestions was pointing out early on when I wasn't getting the clicks and then we honed in on the COVID design. So my recently updated minimalist cover design and it highlighting the fact that folks are seeing my ads at a thumbnail level.
Tony Ortiz [00:11:17]:
So it's a nice clean minimalist cover in and of itself, but at a thumbnail like you can barely see, the title has no design on it whatsoever. Nothing eye catching. So then I worked on updating the COVID yet again. Made a new cover, new iteration, expanded the title, put it on two lines instead of just one. Kept the minimalist design, but also added an image that works well with the content of the book. And I definitely saw a big a big change, a big impact there. And then it's something that you set leave it as is for about a week or so, come back and say, okay, here are the updated stats from this past week and you continue going through the process and continue tweaking. I've been doing it with my nonfiction make way for you tips for getting out of your own way.
Tony Ortiz [00:12:02]:
Also available at swansea.com forward/books if you're interested. And once I get more of the hang of it, I'm gonna add my my other books as well and and begin to make it a regular part of the marketing umbrella of my writing process. But yeah, that's what I've been up to from a writing perspective. If you have any tips or tricks or advice when it comes to marketing, definitely feel free to reach out at Spun today on everything or hit me up in the comment section of this episode. The writing tip I'm sharing with you all this week comes from Jay Z during a recent New York Times interview where he sat down for an insightful interview into his writing process for a lot of his classic albums, songs, and just overall writing insight. It's a great interview that I definitely recommend. I'll leave it linked in the episode notes for you all to check out. But something that really stood out to me was when he was speaking about Biggie and an endearing quality that he had as a writer.
Tony Ortiz [00:13:08]:
And Jay Z says that a trick as a writer that we're all trying to accomplish. And then he kind of like walks it back there and he says, well, I can't say we all want to accomplish, but it's definitely something that that I strive for in my writing, which by the way, I can cosign myself because I've gone for consciously gone for that as well in some of my own writing. But he goes on to say that a trick as a writer that we're all trying to accomplish is just a word or a phrase that changes the framing of the thought in such a powerful way and in the shortest amount of time, because that's something that's really hard to do. And he says, for example, when you only have eight bars to convey your thoughts and to get your point across, that's much harder to do than in several verses, for example. And that part definitely stood out to me, that trying to find the word that changes the framing of a specific thought in a powerful way and in the shortest amount of time, with the shortest amount of words, which Jay Z, in my opinion, is one of the ghosts of, like, the economy of words. Like, he says so much with so little. And again, he's speaking to Biggie having that ability. But Jay definitely has that in spades.
Tony Ortiz [00:14:21]:
Then a few other takeaways from the interview that he touched on was certain writing challenges, one of which was writing the. The Still Dre song, which he did for. For Dre and Snoop Dogg. And he did it in their voice. He said that was like a great writing challenge to get into their headspace with what I know from my own experiences and with what they were attempting to do at that point in time in their careers and being able to write that for them in a way that, by the way, I think they both Dre and Snoop, if I recall correctly, almost verbatim, kept, like, all of Jay's references in there. And I thought that was pretty dope, creatively speaking. And then another challenge as a writer that he said he relishes was the approach that he took on the song lyrical exercise. And he said he was looking at it like a cooking show, for example, and like, he was cooking like he was a chef, where you take a bunch of references like bars and chin ups and biceps, and then you tell yourself, okay, these are my ingredients.
Tony Ortiz [00:15:23]:
This is all I have to work with. I'm making this type of meal, or in his case, literally, you know, this type of song. I can only make a song with these ingredients with these specific words. And he was like, it's a great writing challenge because it's like tying one arm behind your back and forcing you to use what you have available, which is what you know, you've confined yourself to with those specific words. And you still have to make it good and make sure it's not corny. I thought that was a pretty cool takeaway as well. An interesting insight into a lot of his songs came out of this interview and just like, his perspective on creativity and writing in general. But definitely those are a few of the ones that stood out to me.
Tony Ortiz [00:16:03]:
And that I thought may be helpful for you fine folks to hear and apply to your own creative pursuits. Again, the interview is Jay Z, lyrical flow, Reasonable Doubt, Biggie and more. Exclusive interview with New York Times and I'll link to that in the episode notes for you. Find folks to check out what I've been reading Pulitzer Prize Winning Trust by Hernandiaz what if the story you believed wasn't the real story? Trust is a novel told in layers, a book within a book, a memoir that contradicts it, a ghostwritten account, and finally a diary that reframes everything. At its surface, it's about wealth, power, and a Wall street titan that seems untouchable even through the crash of the 1920s. But underneath it's about authorship, control and the unsettling question who gets to tell the story and who gets erased from it. Let's speak a bit about character through absence and not desire. And by the way, aside from how creatively this novel was put together with being a book within a book and a memoir and a bunch of different perspectives telling the same story, which only starts to crystallize and make sense, at least it did for me.
Tony Ortiz [00:17:21]:
I'm a little dense, but towards the end of the read, one of the things that definitely stood out throughout are the prose themselves. Like the way Hernandia writes was was just so eloquent and beautiful at times. I don't know how else to say it, but a lot of what I took away from this book was that and this is one of those lines where a character speaking of the main character states those that accused him of being excessively frugal failed to understand that in truth he had no appetites to suppress. And this line does something subtle but powerful. It doesn't describe what the character wants, it defines him by what he lacks, which is an appetite for excesses. And as a writing takeaway, you don't always have to build characters through desire. Sometimes the most unsettling characters are those that are without hunger, without excess, without any visible need. Because it raises the question, what drives someone who wants nothing? And I love this next line.
Tony Ortiz [00:18:26]:
Helen, which is one of the characters, did not find her father's strictures more oppressive than her mother's gregariousness. I appreciate the juxtaposition of the parents, opposing personalities there. And the line hits because it balances two different kinds of suffocation, rigidity on the father side and overexposure on the mother side. And the writing takeaway for us there is that oppression doesn't have just one form you can create depth by contrasting in, for example, control versus chaos, silence versus noise, distance versus intrusion. You can let your reader feel the tension from both sides. Benjamin Rask was the Wall street tycoon which was at the center of the story, at least that's his name in one of the iterations of the story. And his power is pattern recognition. And he survives the 1920s Wall Street Crash by short selling failing companies and buying gold.
Tony Ortiz [00:19:29]:
And he didn't react to the market, he anticipates it. And a good, quick writing takeaway for us there is that powerful characters like his don't just act, they read systems, they understand cycles, and they move before others see the shift. And that, from a character perspective, creates an aura of inevitability around him. Now speak a bit about control disguised as care within this character. His wife becomes sick and he takes over her medical treatment. And it appears logical and even loving at first, but it winds up ending in her death. And from a writing perspective, some of the most compelling tensions come from actions that look like care but are actually control, like in this example. And we can let, as writers, intention and outcome conflict, because that's where moral ambiguity lives.
Tony Ortiz [00:20:23]:
Now, the structure of this book, like I mentioned earlier, is like one of the main characters, if you will. It's definitely a through line to the story. It's a theme which is that the novel shifts from a fictional account of a character, which was Benjamin Rask, then the memoir of that character. So from his perspective, which was Andrew Bevel, then a ghost, written perspective of the Bevels, and then which was told from the perspective of the. The ghostwriter that was hired to write this whitewashed story of Andrew Bevel and. And his wife and his life. And then ultimately the diary that she found many, many years later, decades later, of Andrew Beville's wife, Mildred. And each layer of the story rewrites the last or the previous one.
Tony Ortiz [00:21:15]:
And from a writing perspective I took away, that structure isn't just formatting, it's storytelling in and of itself. And you can use form like that to challenge truth, to reframe events, and to expose bias. The way a story is told could be the story. I love this next line here where Diaz writes in a reverse echo, questions that faded out of my mind returned. And this line reflected something cyclical about memory itself, which reinforces part of the theme of the book, with Andrew Bevel or Rask as being this anticipator of the cycles of the markets, whether the stock market, bond market, commodities, so on and so forth. And that's a cool tool from a writing perspective to use language to mirror the theme of your book. So if your story is about memory, for example, use repetition. If your story is about confusion, use fragmented phrasing within your dialogue, for example.
Tony Ortiz [00:22:19]:
If it's about obsession, return to ideas constantly. The style of your writing, not should, but could and would be interesting to, as a writing exercise, could reinforce the substance of it, of your theme. This next line is probably my favorite, and it's having to do with, like, time and memory and meaning. He writes, carving our lives out of the shapeless block of the future. And it's like, so simple, yet potent at the same time. And abstract concepts like that, which is the writing takeaway for us, land more profoundly, I think, when they're grounded in imagery like that, where in this line, for example, time is turned into something physical, like the shapeless block, and life itself is turned into the act of sculpting. And metaphors like that really gives philosophical thoughts and ideas, like, some heft to them, some weight. And there was a line, I think it came from, like, the ghostwriting section when Helen was working for Bevel and trying to write a book about his life.
Tony Ortiz [00:23:26]:
There's a scene where she says that she's walking around Wall street during the weekend and that the. The world feels settled and work feels over. Something along those lines, and I remember it made me think of like a post AI slash, like a UBI world, the conversation of which has become prevalent in the Zeitgeist. And I think that's mainly why. Why it stood out to me so much, just envisioning a place like that, like Wall street and how in a future, you know, AI quote, unquote, take over world, how desolate areas like that, which are major, mainly hubs of. Of work, would look. And I think that great writing like Hernandez is, invites projection like that, right? He writes that it feels still, it feels complete, it feels, quote, unquote, after work. Readers, such as myself in this case, will map that idea.
Tony Ortiz [00:24:24]:
Those words, it'll make them think, made me think of my own fears or visions of the future. So that was definitely a powerful takeaway there. And this next one is great, having to do with, like, silence and. And power. Essentially, he writes, he barricaded himself behind his hostile silence. That line is so dope and continues to say, silence between two is always shared, but one owns it. And a great writing takeaway for us there is that silence isn't empty. It's.
Tony Ortiz [00:24:59]:
Or it can be a weapon, a defense, negotiation Mechanism. And we as writers can try to write silence like we write dialogue, because it can communicate just as much. Then there were these little, like, micro details that I picked up on just creatively and from a writing perspective. He said things or his character said things, like I was looking down and started tracing the maze like carpet with my eyes. Or things like the summer was fading into autumn. And those little, like, seemingly throwaway lines like that. A writing takeaway for me was that small observations ground big emotions and a tactic we can use because in these situations, for example, she was, like, being interviewed, super nervous about getting this job. It meant a lot, had implications on her life and how she was living with her father, so on and so forth and respect.
Tony Ortiz [00:25:54]:
And there was a lot going on there. So it was like a heavy thing for her in these moments. And when things feel overwhelming, like in our stories, we can use a tactic like Hernan seems to do there, which is zoom in or slow down or let the character notice something specific and speak about it. It creates this sense of intimacy, which definitely made those scenes, at least for me, resonate that much more now. Spoiler alert if you haven't read the book. But in the section of Mildred's diary, she reveals, at least from her perspective, that she was the true mind behind the success of Andrew Bevel. But her voice was essentially erased with her being more of a behind the scenes type of person and all the credit always going to him. And there was an interesting line that she wrote in her diary, which was that while.
Tony Ortiz [00:26:49]:
While she was battling, I believe it was cancer that she had or some unknown disease, that the way it was described came off as cancer. But she says that nothing is more private than pain. But who is the eye and I hurt? And a powerful narrative device for us to use as writers is let a silenced character like Mildred, in this example, speak last. It reframes everything and forces the audience to reconsider what they believed and who they trusted all along. And in her diary also, there's a sense of, like, her coming to terms with her own mortality, where she writes a powerful line which was knowing that nothing from now on will become a memory. And that's just existential writing at its best. It doesn't just describe death. It describes the end of future meaning, the end of future meaning, the closing of narrative itself.
Tony Ortiz [00:27:50]:
And a good takeaway for us is that when writing about mortality, focus on what stops, not just what ends. And in closing, I'll just say that Trust by Hernandiaz isn't just about wealth. Or deception. It's about authorship, about who gets to tell the story, shape the narrative, and define reality. And as writers, that's the power that we're constantly playing with. It was a great read, definitely one that I want to go back and reread. Just with the knowledge of how the book is framed and set up. I think I'll get even more out of it.
Tony Ortiz [00:28:26]:
And if you want to check out Trust by Hernandez, I'll drop a link in the episode notes. And last, but certainly not least, I'm going to share an old free writing piece of my own. For the uninitiated, what I do is just grab one of my notebooks, where I've been, you know, free writing for years. For the uninitiated, it's literally just putting pen to paper, seeing what comes out. Most of it is trizash, and some of you may think that this is. But some of it does come out, at least to me, as, you know, palatable, actionable, practical advice that folks can try to use and implement in their own creative pursuits. I kind of see it as my, like, subconscious telling me, like, things that I should work on or have to work on or ways to work on, things that I want to work on, so on and so forth. And this is one of those pieces.
Tony Ortiz [00:29:15]:
If you want to read along, I'll link to it in the episode notes. You can check it out along with all other free writing pieces@ sponsidly.com forward/freewriting and this one in particular was posted on the website on May 3, 2026, and the title is Highlight the possibilities, not the Limitations. And I wrote highlight the possibilities, not the limitations. Be aware of your limitations and the limitations of the obstacle in your way, sure. But don't dwell on them. Instead, adjust your focus toward and highlight the possibilities. Let that be your driving force, your motivation. Be inspired by the potential, and as such, dwarf the focus on limitations.
Tony Ortiz [00:30:01]:
The conscious decision to make that distinction is the hard part. It is the magic. There's nothing truly mystical about it. Strive for capitalizing on your possibilities and you'll soon realize that making that decision is the only real obstacle in your path. And I wrote that on Thursday, January 7, 2016. Damn. 10 years ago at 8:06am and if you're wondering, yes, I do timestamp in my notebooks. Pretty much everything I write, definitely.
Tony Ortiz [00:30:37]:
All like free writing or anything like that. And I guess some, like when I'm working on like fiction, some of that I timestamp. But not, not deliberately, I guess, because sometimes I like working out like a short story or like a scene within a larger story that I'm working on. Just you know, like free write it and I might time stamp that. But yeah, I do timestamp everything else and you know, objectively speaking it is a little pie in the sky. This piece is a little glasses half full. Optimistic thinking there and I definitely don't want to minimize the the hard work that it takes, the dedication that it that it takes to go after some some sort of passion or creative pursuit. At least it's been my experience.
Tony Ortiz [00:31:24]:
But it's definitely worth highlighting trying to get out of your own way with things that are 1 out of your control or 2 just you focusing on the negative aspects of things versus focusing on the positives which could fuel you that much more. I think we could use some glasses half full type of motivation nowadays. But yeah, definitely check out that piece@spored.com freewriting again. It's titled Highlight the possibilities, not the limitations. If you check it out on the website, you can comment right there. Let me know what you think. Feel free to hit me up at Spun today on everything. That is all I have for you fine folks.
Tony Ortiz [00:32:04]:
Thank each and every one of you for taking the time to listen. I really truly appreciate it. Stick around for a few ways to help support the podcast if you so choose. What's up folks?
Speaker B [00:32:15]:
Tony here. I hope you're enjoying the Spun Today podcast as much as I enjoy producing it for you. Here are a few ways you can help support the show. For my fellow writers and creatives out
Tony Ortiz [00:32:26]:
there, a really cool way you can help support the show is by going
Speaker B [00:32:29]:
to spuntoday.com support and clicking on the ProWritingAid banner. If you're a listener of the show, you know that I use prowritingaid to pre edit all of my writing before
Tony Ortiz [00:32:40]:
I put it out or before I
Speaker B [00:32:41]:
ship it off to my editor so that it is in as pristine condition as I can probably get it. ProWritingAid offers a great toolkit that helps you polish your work with easy to use grammar checks and writing assistant that also looks into things like pacing improvements, typos, punctuations, and much more. Go to spontoday.com support click on the banner for ProWritingAid and check out their free option as well as their different
Tony Ortiz [00:33:10]:
tiers of paid options.
Speaker B [00:33:12]:
Spunterday.com support a great way for my fellow writers and creatives out there to help support this show is by going to sponsorday.com support and and clicking on the Mock up Shots banner when I first started writing and putting out content. I wanted to think of creative ways to help market my books. So I would take my own pictures, place the books in different places, take it to the beach with me, put it out in the snow, and I'd
Tony Ortiz [00:33:38]:
wind up with a couple good usable
Speaker B [00:33:40]:
images and a bunch more mediocre ones. And also in the case of the snow example, a completely soggy book. Then I found Mock Up Shots in one click, Mockup Shots turns your book cover into thousands of images, videos, graphics, and more. If you follow me on social it's what I use to promote my books. You can check them out on Instagram Punt Today to take a look at the professional creative quality of what Mockup
Tony Ortiz [00:34:09]:
Shots has to offer.
Speaker B [00:34:10]:
And now for my listeners, you can get unlimited lifetime access to the largest instant book mockup archive for 50% off. That's right, that's 5 0% off and you can use it for any books that you currently have available or any books that you will write in the future. I highly recommend it. It's a great marketing tool. Go to spun today.com support and click on the banner for Mock Up Shots to claim your 50% off discount. You can also support by checking out my writing. Go to spun today.com freewriting here you'll find a collection of freely written thoughts which is intended to be a cathartic meditative practice for myself, but also winds up doubling up as motivation and inspiration for myself and others. You can also go to spuntoday.com shortstories to check out my latest short stories and also listen to the free audiobook versions of those stories.
Speaker B [00:35:10]:
You can also support my writing by going to sponsor.combooks and check out what I have available for sale. Currently available is Make Way for your, which is a collection of tips for getting out of your own way. It's a great read for my fellow writers or creatives out there. Also available is Fractale, which is my debut time travel novel, and last but certainly not least, Melted Cold, which is a collection of short stories. Each of the books are available in all digital formats for your Kindle or Ibook or any other e reader, as well as paperback and hardcover options. Again, go to spuntery.com books and I'd love to hear what you chose to check out as well as your thoughts after reading spunterday.com book books.
Tony Ortiz [00:36:01]:
If you're a fellow creative, a cool way that you can help support the Spun Today podcast and actually be part of the podcast is by filling out my five question questionnaire located@spun today.com questionnaire here you'll find five open questions related to your craft, your art, what inspires you to create, what type of unrelated hobbies you're into, and what motivates you to get your work done. You can choose to remain anonymous or plug your website and your work. And once you submit your questionnaire, I
Speaker B [00:36:30]:
read your responses on a future episode
Tony Ortiz [00:36:32]:
of the Spun Today podcast. It's completely free at no cost to you. And what I like to say about it is that if your responses could potentially spark inspiration in someone else, why not share that spun today.com questionnaire? And as always, folks, substitute the mysticism
Speaker B [00:36:50]:
with hard work and start taking steps
Tony Ortiz [00:36:52]:
steps in the general direction of your dreams. Thanks for listening. I love you, Aiden. I love you daddy. I love you, Grayson. I love you daddy.