We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Matty Dalrymple. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Matty below.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Matty Dalrymple is the author of the Lizzy Ballard Thrillers, beginning with ROCK PAPER SCISSORS; the Ann Kinnear Suspense Novels, beginning with THE SENSE OF DEATH; and the Ann Kinnear Suspense Shorts. She is a member of International Thriller Writers and Sisters in Crime. Matty also writes, speaks, and consults on the writing craft and the publishing voyage, and shares what she’s learned on THE INDY AUTHOR PODCAST. She has written books on the business of short fiction and podcasting for authors; her articles have appeared in Writer’s Digest magazine. She is a member of the Alliance of Independent Authors.
Learn more at and find links to her other points of contact at:
https://www.mattydalrymple.com/
https://www.theindyauthor.com/
Hi Matty, thanks for joining us today. Can you share an important lesson you learned in a prior job that’s helped you in your career afterwards?
In 2019, the company I worked for went through an organizational restructuring and gave me the choice of interviewing for a job I didn’t want or of taking a severance package. The choice wasn’t difficult. I took the package and left behind my decades-long career as a project manager in the corporate world.
I felt confident that I’d continue to put that experience to good use in my new full-time career: writing my suspense, mystery, and thriller novels as Matty Dalrymple; publishing them via my imprint, William Kingsfield Publishers; and writing, speaking, and consulting on the writing craft and the publishing voyage as The Indy Author, and sharing what I learned on The Indy Author Podcast. But even I didn’t fully appreciate the extent to which that would be the case. I also didn’t fully anticipate the important way in which my new career would differ from my old.
Some of the skills I carried forward were obvious. I still needed to manage a schedule to hit publication dates I had promised my readers, podcast episodes I had promised my listeners, and deliverables I had promised my freelance book industry clients. I needed to manage a rotating marketing task list. I needed to coordinate interviews with podcast guests. I needed to ensure price drops happened on time to coincide with promotions and ensure the prices (and royalty percentages) returned to normal levels afterwards.
Risk management was another skill I carried forward from my project management career. I needed to set metrics for assessing the success of an ad campaign for my books … to determine how I would respond if the ads weren’t performing … to decide how long I would let them run to get traction with my target audience and how I would recognize when I was tapping out that audience … to plan for which platforms or approaches to switch to when the criteria for making a switch were met. These types of questions were ones I was accustomed to answering for my corporate projects, and they were just as applicable to my author projects.
Some of the skills I carried forward might be unexpected to others. For example, those who think of the process of publishing one’s own books as “self-publishing” might be surprised at the extent to which managing a team applies to an author career. No one would refer to a “self-produced movie” and, as with indie movies, an indie publishing business requires a team to produce professional-grade content and manage it successfully. In my case, the team included the vital triumvirate of editor, proofreader, and cover designer. It also included an audio and video expert to help me with the production of my podcast, a professional actor to narrate my audiobooks, and a finance pro to act as CFO of William Kingsfield Publishers, tasks to which I didn’t bring special value by performing them myself.
But the greatest difference between my project management career and my career as an indie author-publisher and podcaster surprised even me. In my corporate life, I had done my best to “manage upward,” but at the end of the day, setting goals and strategies was the purview of management. As my own boss at William Kingsfield Publishers, I was the one setting those goals and strategies. Having a team is wonderful; being the master of one’s fate is even better.
What’s the most important lesson I learned based on my experience in both phases of my professional career? That the thrill of applying the skills learned during my first career to my second career—and to my own business—ruined me for the corporate world, and that the idea that I alone was responsible for my success is the best reward of all.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
After seeing the effectiveness of my Facebook ads tank in 2022, I had to unlearn the mantra that social media platforms were effective sales platforms. Social media is for building a community of fans and followers, not for overt selling. That said, focusing on the social of social media doesn’t mean forgoing financial benefits: committed fans and followers are your most faithful purchasers of the products and services you offer, and are the most likely to help spread the word to others who will enjoy or benefit from them!
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
As someone who works better with structure, I struggled to get my mind around all the facets of my author business—that is, until I spoke with Orna Ross, founder of The Alliance of Independent Authors, about The Seven Processes of Publishing: Editing, Design, Production, Distribution, Marketing, Promotion, and Selective Rights Licensing.
Framing my business around The Seven Processes ensures that I have thought through every aspect for every book. For example, it ensures that I don’t focus only on promotion (the time-bound activities to encourage sales, such as offering price discounts) and overlook marketing (the ongoing and foundational activities that constitute the hand you extend to your current and potential readers, such as a well-organized and up-to-date website and a compelling email newsletter).
For anyone interested in learning more about The Seven Processes of Publishing, check out the podcast episode series I did with Orna Ross, 101-107 of The Indy Author Podcast (https://www.theindyauthor.com/podcast.html).
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.theindyauthor.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheIndyAuthor/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matty-dalrymple/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheIndyAuthor
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheIndyAuthorPodcast
- Other: https://www.mattydalrymple.com/
Image Credits
Lindsay Heider Diamond (“The Sense of Death” cover) Juan Padron (“Rock Paper Scissors” cover) Lance Buckley (“Taking the Short Tack” cover) S.M.Shamim-Ur- Rashid (“Podcasting for Authors” cover)