What are the benefits and challenges of selling direct? How can you use limited edition merchandise to add more value to retailers and make more money on a launch? Alex Kava talks about her author business. In the intro, award-winning Japanese writer, Rie Kudan, used ChatGPT to write parts of her prize-winning novel and judges lauded the work as ‘flawless.’ [The Telegraph]; Personal news about my pivot, the Blueprint rewrite, and cleaning up the backlist; plus, I'm on The Alignment Show. Today's show is sponsored by Draft2Digital, self-publishing with support, where you can get free formatting, free distribution to multiple stores, and a host of other benefits. Just go to www.draft2digital to get started. This show is also sponsored by my community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn. Alex Kava is the multi-award-winning New York Times and USA Today bestselling thriller author of the FBI profiler Maggie O'Dell series and K-9 handler Ryder Creed series, amongst other books. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below.  Show Notes * The struggles that come with traditional publishing * Becoming an indie author and taking back control * Direct sales as part of the author business model * Sourcing and selling quality merchandise * Merchandise as an extension of the reader experience * The technical side of selling personalized books and merchandise * Building your newsletter and marketing your direct store You can find Alex at AlexKava.com. Transcript of Interview with Alex Kava Joanna: Alex Kava is the multi-award-winning New York Times and USA Today bestselling thriller author of the FBI Profiler Maggie O'Dell series and K-9 Handler Ryder Creed series, amongst other books. So welcome to the show, Alex.  Alex: Thanks, Jo. I'm so excited. Thank you for inviting me.  Joanna: Oh, yes, well, we have lots to talk about. But first up–  Tell us a bit more about you and how you got into writing and self-publishing. Alex: Well, I've been in the business now for over 20 years. So I guess as a kid, I was like all the other authors, but for me, I never dreamed that you could actually make a living by writing up stories and writing books.  Both my parents were children of Polish immigrants, and they instilled a very strong work ethic.