Women in Entrepreneurship Volume 1: Self Publishing of The Chaebol's Wife with Dei Araujo

“Follow your passion — and if you don’t know what it is, realize that one reason for your existence on earth is to find it.” —Oprah Winfrey

The inspiration to begin the journey of entrepreneurship is typically rooted in the passions and dreams of the owner wanting to offer their creative service or product(s) to a market and industry. In this series of Women in Entrepreneurship, I focus on speaking to different women of color who are living and working in their purpose. Today, we are focusing on the publishing industry with author Dei Araujo, where she gives insights on her writing background and tips on how other writers can start self-publishing their own books in this industry.

I’m human, and life isn’t perfect. I love writing but first and foremost I’m a mom. I have four boys and one of my sons is autistic with a terminal neurodegenerative disease. My life experiences have aided me and influenced the characters I write about in my novels allowing me to celebrate those experiences.

• What inspired you to start writing?

DA: I started writing at the age of 11. My mom used to take me to a bookstore where she would save the covers of old books and that got me into reading and writing. If I read a book I really liked I would write a screenplay for the book because I wanted to see how it would look on TV. My writing confidence in myself came later in life. It wasn’t until my forties I was confident enough to publish my stories. A lot of writers struggle with not feeling good enough to tell a specific story.

• How did you get over the fear of writing and taking the first step to self-publishing?

DA: In addition to being an author/mother/freelance editor, I am an adjunct professor for public speaking. One of the things my students ask me about is “what do you do about fear & anxiety (public speaking)?” Feelings of fear and anxiety will never go away, we are human. I knew if I stayed in that fear & anxiety I was never going to be published and I saw so many other people younger than me … good reviews or not they were getting their books out there. This allows them to grow and progress as writers. That’s helping them move forward in their career, that’s what I admire about the younger generation. Even if you get one reader, you have the potential to connect to your niche market who wants to read your story.

• How do you self publish?

DA: Beware of the “vanity presses”, they’re companies asking for money ($$$) and they can get your book published. That's the wrong route. The best platforms for self publishing are Amazon, Ingramspark, and LuLu. I’ve done LuLu and Ingramspark. In my opinion Amazon is the best and it has a lot of options for indie authors and you get a lot of foot traffic from across the globe (Australia, France, etc.). But remember the first step in self publishing is to write the book. As an indie author, you are putting forth your money but you have a lot of control over marketing, design, and royalties. With traditional publishing there is a little less flexibility in control and input from the author.

• Speaking of the Chaebol’s Wife, what inspired you to write about these characters: Camille/Seng-Ghu?

DA: Back in 2014, I moved to Miami and I was very optimistic about what the area had to offer but unfortunately I experienced one bad thing after another. One of the biggest things for me was a miscarriage. It was really hard for me to get over that. I found myself constantly in the bed and somehow I found myself bingeing Korean-dramas on Netflix. I don’t know how but Korean-dramas helped me during that difficult time. It was the simplicity in their love stories, and of course you have the evil step mom or something like that but the love stories are like anything that I’ve seen. Not something you see a lot in the U.S. and it focuses on all the things leading up to the two characters getting together and it was refreshing to see. The Chaebol’s Wife came about right before Covid hit and at the time it was a little plot bunny, I knew how I wanted to start it. I came out slinging. Even though Korean-dramas are very PG or rated G, especially those romances. I knew I wanted to come out the gate with the steaminess, ok. That scene was in my head and I just had to write it. The pandemic allowed me the opportunity to sit down and really write that book. What took me 10 years to write my first book, it took me 9 months to write the Chaebol’s Wife.

**Click here to listen to the full interview.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuOcL_Hy8g0