We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Daniella Blechner. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Daniella below.

Daniella, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

My mission is to empower authors through the publishing process and amplify voices and stories often missing in literature.

Our goal at Conscious Dreams Publishing is to transform diverse writers into successful published authors and ensure the books we publish are diverse and inclusive. As a child, I loved reading and writing stories and always wanted to be an author. However, I could never find any books that represented characters that looked like me: big afro, brown skin, big feet, and gappy teeth. Subconsciously, this invisibility slowly began to weaken my dreams of becoming a successful published author as I grew older.

In 2014, I was on a mission to publish my first book, ‘Mr Wrong’. I began looking for agents who all praised my work but said that I didn’t have a marketing plan or much of a social media presence at the time. This rejection fuelled my mission to succeed even more. I set up Conscious Dreams Publishing and self-published. By hook or by crook, I was doing it!

I started to get radio interviews and the book did really well. I had many aspiring authors ask me for help with publishing their books. Mainly women with extraordinary stories who weren’t being heard or felt invisible in the elite publishing industry. Gradually it grew from there.

As an author, I know how much of a mine-field self-publishing can be. There are a lot of companies out there who simply print books, often low-quality, not edited correctly and then, on top of that, take enormous royalties benefiting from an author’s hard work. I wanted to create a nurturing and creative space for authors to work with professionals, develop their manuscripts and publish a book they can be proud of. A space where they can stay in control of their vision and own mission and be part of an author community.

We’ve published more than 200 authors from ages 7-84. What I love about my job is I get to work with some incredible people; people who have incredible life stories, young authors with bright minds, entrepreneurs and coaches with mountains of expertise to share, dyslexic and autistic authors who never thought writing and publishing a book was possible. This is incredibly meaningful to me because I know what it is like to face rejection, to feel invisible in an elite world and how important it is to hear and witness the stories of so many who may not have otherwise been heard.

My mission is to provide a platform for these voices to be heard whilst allowing our clients to grow and flourish as an author and impact the world.

Daniella, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

We are not just an indie publishing house; we are a community. We provide bespoke publishing and mentoring services to authors with powerful messages and stories to share with the world.

I’m an author. Writing has always been my passion. I know how important it is to get it right. I had never envisioned being a publisher. I always wanted to be an author. However, through navigating the industry myself and seeing how difficult it was for new writers to break into the industry, I wanted to provide a platform that nurtures and empowers self-published authors.

The publishing industry is a saturated market, with so many incredible writers struggling to make it. Not because they aren’t good enough, but because agents are receiving 300 submissions a week and publishing houses are inundated. Wouldn’t it be a tragedy if these stories were unheard? What about spaces for coaches and entrepreneurs with vast amounts of knowledge? Where can they share their expertise?

Conscious Dreams Publishing was born from a desire to want to serve these people.

What makes us different is that we don’t take royalties, we don’t just accept every submission and on some occasions, we help authors crowdfund to help them build an audience and finance their book. We mentor our author through the process and work collaboratively with the author to achieve their vision. We don’t just publish we offer Book Strategy Calls, Marketing and PR Assistance, Audiobook Services, Workshops and Retreats.

I’m a former English teacher and Mentor too, so I run Storytelling Sessions with young people and have a division of our company dedicated to developing young authors. Our youngest author, Tiana Akoh-Arrey wrote a book with us called ‘My Afro: Twin Best Friends’ which went viral after a media interview with us. She has since been on BBC, ITV, Channel 5, Good Morning America, Breakfast Television, Canada and The Kelly Clarkson Show!

As a child, Tiana would’ve definitely been my role model and is a role model to so many of our young aspiring authors!

Have you ever had to pivot?

Before I set Conscious Dreams Publishing, I always wanted to be a children’s author., In fact, the very first book I finished writing was a middle-grade fantasy novel. I thought this would be my first book. Instead, I published a relationship book, ‘Mr Wrong’ in 2014 and then went on to write 7 more nonfiction books. These books have served me very well and I’ve loved writing them. However, that burning desire for writing for children never went away.

I strongly believe that if we don’t pivot or make the change when we are meant to, something will happen to make that pivot absolutely HAVE to happen and here’s what happened to me.

I recently moved house and a few months later I decided to finally unpack some of my dad’s things. My dad passed away at the end of 2020, so I had a tribute table set up for him. This box was the last box I had left to unpack. I set up the table and put my dad’s photo on the windowsill. I went downstairs briefly and ten minutes later, came back upstairs. And what did I see?

A white pigeon standing boldly on my windowsill inside my office! In shock, my partner and I tried to get him out, but he was reluctant to leave.

Every day the pigeon visited and every day he’d try to squeeze himself through the window trying to come in! This started a game of ‘Whose house is it? between the pigeon (whom I’ve since named Piper and I.

Fascinated, I posted about this debacle on social media and people took great delight in following the story of Piper, who now has his own Instagram page @pipersnowthepigeon I looked up the meaning of white pigeons and they are symbols of messages from loved ones who have passed over, symbols of peace and new beginnings. Then one of my Facebook friends, Lilli Badcock mentioned that they symbolise starting that new project you’ve always wanted to do and fulfilling your own dreams and putting them first.

The lights went on and as I worked on my computer, pigeon watching on, I decided to revisit my fantasy novel and set up a crowdfunding campaign. This did really well and I’ve started the process of getting it edited and complete, But then I had a new idea, I’d always wanted to write for a younger audience and have a beautifully illustrated book. I was hit with a tonne of inspiration and within twenty minutes I’d written my first children’s book ‘9 Days of Piper Snow’ a heart-warming tale of friendship, grief, and the power of cherished memories written in verse. I worked with an extremely talented illustrator Victor Oynenobi and one of my team members Niya Davis narrated and animated the book.

I’m immensely proud of it and I’ve had amazing feedback from children and adults alike. Piper has visited daily for six months now and I’ve finally relented and built him a house!

One of the most outstanding and synchronistic parts about this story is that the Facebook friend, Lilli Badcock later told me she had a friend who’d passed away who had told her that when she passes to look out for white feathers. It turns out her friend has also written a book about grief and white feathers. Furthermore, Lilli had written a song called ‘Feathers’ in her honour! This was a huge goose pimple moment for both of us.

My belief and message of the story is if we have happy and precious memories of the people we love and lose, is anything ever really gone? In this case, this couldn’t be more true. I believe with a little guidance from above, I was able to make that change I needed and fulfil my dream of becoming a children’s author.

You can see the trailer for the book here featuring Lilli’s song. ‘Feathers’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2iCr1pPH0U

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Social media is key to building your audience. It’s been pivotal for my business and a great way to build connections. These are my top three tips.

1. Build connections: a lot of people think social media is just posting blindly once in a while, Relationships are key so engage in conversations, take an interest in others’ posts, stories and comment on them and create engaging content that people can connect with and share their perspectives on as opposed to just posting promotional posts.

2. Live stream: Live streaming is a great way for people to see and get to know you. People connect with people. They want to know you are real. Being able to see and engage with you and witness you giving value will steadily build your audience and build a sense of trust and connection.

3. Brand story: Create a brand story. Share some behind the scenes moments. Without intentionally meaning to, I posted my daily about my interactions with Piper and he steadily grew a following. People were asking for a children’s book about him because the story had already been built up. Create a story, engage your audience and make sure you convey your vision and mission.

Social media has been a great way for me to connect with people, gain new clients, and establish and foster so many amazing relationships.

Good luck!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://consciousdreamspublishing.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/consciousdreamspublishing
• Facebook: www.facebook.cm/consciousdreamspublishing
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/daniellablechner
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/DreamsConscious
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQCZrZT4qEGCHamNa5CUH-g
• Other: Get a copy of ‘9 Days of Piper Snow’ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Days-Piper-Snow-Daniella-Blechner/dp/B0CKY2TXWV Animated version of my children’s book ‘9 Days of Piper Snow’ https://tinyurl.com/pipersnowanimation
• Buy a signed copy of ‘9 Days of Piper Snow’ at www.consciousdreamsbookshop.com/products/9-days-of-piper-snow