The Publishing Performance Show

O'Cyrus - How to Find Your Book's True Message (And Why It Matters More Than Genre)

• Teddy Smith • Episode 101

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O'Cyrus Ink is a multi-genre author and publisher who specializes in poetry, children's fiction, young adult horror, and middle grade horror. Currently serving in the military while building his publishing career, he founded O'Cyrus Ink Publishing to help authors, particularly teenagers and young adults, navigate the publishing world. His approach focuses on finding the core message behind every story and helping authors connect authentically with their target audience. He also hosts "The Authors Lounge" podcast, dedicated to educating younger generations of writers and creators.


In this episode:

  • Balancing military service with a growing publishing career
  • Why he chose not to wait 20 years to pursue his publishing dreams
  • Writing across multiple genres: poetry, children's books, and horror
  • The importance of having a specific message and target audience
  • How his first book "Sacred" taught him valuable marketing lessons
  • A powerful personal story behind his poetry about saving his son's life
  • Research strategies for different genres and demographics
  • Working with authors to develop authentic stories and illustrations
  • The book award submission process and how awards open doors
  • Building a publishing business focused on helping younger authors
  • Using social media algorithms to research your genre and audience


Resources mentioned:


Book Recommendations:


Connect with O'Cyrus Ink:


Connect with Teddy Smith:

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[00:00:00] Teddy Smith: Hi everyone, and welcome to the Publishing Performance Show. Today I'm really happy to be joined by O'Cyrus, who's a 17 times award-winning author. He's an indie publisher. He's a podcast host of the Author Lounge, so he's a really big name in the heat self-publishing world. So thank you for joining us Osirus.

[00:00:21] O'Cyrus: Of course, man, it's crazy to be on the opposite side sometimes, so I'm so grateful. You have me back on here, Teddy. Yeah. You had me on your show last time we met. You were on mine, so thank you as well. 

[00:00:32] Teddy Smith: Yeah, I said exactly the same thing after coming, coming off your show. It's nice to be interviewed for a change rather than having to Yeah, and like stay really focused the whole time.

[00:00:40] O'Cyrus: Yes sir. 

[00:00:42] Teddy Smith: So your books, your 17 time award-winning author. So tell us a bit about your books and the style of those books. 

[00:00:48] O'Cyrus: Oh yeah. So, I have a variety of genres that I write in with some of them being it's poet, poetry, children's fiction, also young adult horror and middle grade horror. So those are the main ones that I write in.

[00:01:01] I also have a graphic novel, hasn't been published yet, but, that one set to publish later this year, or at the start of 2026, since that's gonna be broken into a few volumes. But yeah. The genres, man, they, they, they somehow keep coming. I feel like I'm more attached to the idea of telling stories versus being locked into a specific genre, but I just so happened to be, more comfortable in those genres.

[00:01:29] Teddy Smith: Yeah. So before this talk, we were just chatting and how used to be in the military, but so how did you, this is, so the authoring is kind of your second career, so what made you stop after the military? What made you want to go into write it? 

[00:01:42] O'Cyrus: Oh yeah. So ironically enough, right? I feel like sometimes I'm not in the military, but I'm currently serving, actually I'm going in, in about two hours, but I You're currently 

[00:01:53] Teddy Smith: in the military?

[00:01:53] O'Cyrus: I'm currently, yeah. Yeah. Oh, sorry. No, you're good. You're good. But, I, I decided to do it because. I just felt like I didn't wanna wait. Most people that I've met when it comes to any career is they just, especially when they have a family, and I have people. That I've met, they tend to wait until it's done.

[00:02:13] Their kids are graduated outta high school in college or whatever they're doing. And the member themselves, meaning like somebody in my position wait until they retire and they have all of this free time. And I realize like, man, time is precious dude, and I really don't want to wait 20 years. To just get started, why not do it now?

[00:02:34] My wife was a proponent of just do both, and focus, you know, prioritize and just do both. And having her support helped immensely. But I, I just have to urge to tell these stories and an even bigger urge to help people through my stories. And I just, I just didn't wanna wait. I'm sure you can relate to, yeah.

[00:02:52] Imagine you waiting 20 years to get this show started, you know? 

[00:02:55] Teddy Smith: So when you, so did you always think you had a book in you, like the whole time? Or is this something that hints you relatively recently? 

[00:03:02] O'Cyrus: Oh, no, no. I've been writing since I was, I think five or six and nothing professional of course, but just writing and different, forms of art.

[00:03:09] I think when I was a child I just, I wrote these skits out from what my mom was, would tell me. I wrote skits. My siblings and I would play these skits out using little toys and stuffed animals and, action figures. And then when I was a teenager, I kind of got into the habit of trying to write screenplays.

[00:03:27] I didn't present it any to anyone. I just wrote it because I had a, a love for it. And I started writing articles and blogs and then, I didn't start writing books until 2021. Yeah, 20, 20 20 is when I was into the business. I intro, I got introduced into the business, but I spent the year. Of solid research and then that following year is when I decided to actually, let's go and let's write the book.

[00:03:54] Teddy Smith: And which was the first book that you released as more as a writer rather than just as something as a child? 

[00:04:01] O'Cyrus: Yeah. The first one I actually launched was titled, sacred is a was a poetry book and it was based on motivation and. And love and mental health issues. What I learned about that book versus every other one that, you know, really subsequently was that I didn't have a specific like, specific.

[00:04:22] Message behind it. It had various messages in it. It was a collection of poetry, but I didn't have a specific audience member to like direct it to. But at the time, you know, you're releasing something, you're thinking, hell, we got this, it's gonna be nice, we're gonna have a great time. But hey, you might want to have a target audience.

[00:04:38] And I didn't have one at the time. So my sales, as you would imagine for a first time author, especially self-published author, you just. Trial and error. I've since learned how to market and how to be specific, but at the time I did not. 

[00:04:52] Teddy Smith: Yeah. So that first book, you didn't really do any research onto it, it was just something that you really wanted to write in the first place.

[00:04:57] O'Cyrus: Yeah, like my research consisted of traditional publishing versus self-publishing. And then how about independent, being independent, published, independently published and what goes into it and who, and I would research people who were, who were trapped published versus self-published, and kind of just did it in, in that facet.

[00:05:18] But, with the book, I just didn't necessarily know, and I thought that I did, but I had no clue. 

[00:05:25] Teddy Smith: And so that first book, what was, I know you inspired by like, love and all those sort of things. Was there any particular things that inspired that, that first book's written? Because I know in your, when I read the bio for the book, it, it starts with have you ever watched your 7-year-old newborn child nearly die now?

[00:05:40] Yeah. Is that something that happened to you? And was that what sort of inspired the book? 

[00:05:43] O'Cyrus: Oh yeah, man, like with that, my, my son, my youngest son, he, so. The quick story behind that is that, my wife, so I have preemies, I have three, three children, but my twins, Sebastian, Noah, my oldest one, his name is Abel, but Sebastian Noah, they were in the nicu.

[00:06:01] And for those who don't know what the NICU is, I don't necessarily know how to define it. I just know when a baby isn't quite ready. Two. Come home, they have to stay there for additional time and, you know, get prepped up. This, I noticed an entire medical process be behind it, but Yep. My twins were in the NICU and they were, apparently after about a week, they were good to go and ready to come home.

[00:06:25] And the night that my, my children came home, my youngest son, Noah of the, of the two twin of the twins, I remember just lying down in my bed and my wife. We had the bassinet next to us and my wife said, Hey, you know, some, I don't know what it was, maybe it was an intuition because I had no clue, but she said, check Noah.

[00:06:44] And I like turned the light on. I looked, I was like, he looks, he, he looks off. So I, but I was scared, so I picked him up and didn't say anything. She said, is everything okay? I said, he looks purple and. She like, got up, rushed up and grabbed him. We realized he was choking and we didn't even know how. He was just choking.

[00:07:06] And I just see him doing this and like just fighting and fighting and she's like freaking out. And I was, you know, certified with CPR doesn't take much to be certified, but now I was certified to be, to do CPR, but. I wasn't doing anything at the time 'cause I was letting her, she just said, call 9 1 1.

[00:07:27] And, and I got them on the line. I just took over when I realized what she was doing wasn't working. And so I just took him and then I ended up doing CPR on him. And by the time the police, by the time the ambulance showed up in their fire department showed up, he was good. But we were still freaking out.

[00:07:44] They still did the procedure and did everything that they needed to do. But I, I ended up saving his life. But it, it, man, it was, this was day one of him coming home of both and we're all starting this new life together of my, of the five of us. And it was just a scary night and it stuck with me so much that I wrote about it and it became more about just the message of, of just healing.

[00:08:12] Um, I decided to put that one in the book just because I felt like it could, it could. It, it was just helpful for me, but like I, as I was mentioning, I didn't have a target, like I thought, like with the following book, I had a Target and every other book afterwards, but that one I didn't. So it was just more like a, Hey, here's a collection.

[00:08:30] I hope everyone likes the message, the different messages and it, but yeah, that, that was probably the, not even, probably that was the hardest poem I, I wrote in that book. 

[00:08:41] Teddy Smith: Yeah. Easily 

[00:08:42] O'Cyrus: the hardest one. 

[00:08:43] Teddy Smith: Yeah, that is an amazing story. That is so scary. I've got two kids. I can't imagine how scary that must have been.

[00:08:48] Um, what now you mentioned with your second books, like you've mentioned, a lot more research goes into maybe the process or like choosing how you're gonna decide which books to launch, so mm-hmm. Talk me through that process. What, what's it look like when you're deciding maybe, are you doing keyword research or you looking for a type of book?

[00:09:03] Like how does that whole process look? 

[00:09:05] O'Cyrus: Oh yeah, so I guess, so first, like, it depends, right? So I'll go with this perfect example of the, um, this book I just launched for one of my authors. It's titled, audience Wish is, um, is a story of a young girl who, you know, unfortunately lost a couple of, um, people in her life, a couple of family members.

[00:09:23] Um, they passed away and it happened because, you know, it, there was one was an accidental. You know, death and the other one came through miscarriage. It wasn't written that, it wasn't written in that way because it's a children's book. Kind of had to keep it. How can I cover up the idea to children that, oh my goodness, mommy actually had a miscarriage.

[00:09:46] What is that? Versus, okay, let's, let's research. What are some terminologies that's used that doesn't actually say. That she actually had a miscarriage. And the same with the grandfather, how he passed away. He, he, he fell and, but in the book, it just, it was written as he, he had a, he got terribly, he was terribly sick.

[00:10:05] But, so some research went into that of what's the genre that we wanna write in and what are some of the, like, how do we market this book? Because on the cover, the, the representative, the representation of that book. Is of a, Hispanic female, it becomes more of, okay, how do we actually like market this book?

[00:10:27] What research needs to go into it to where we know which areas are gonna be more effective, and how are we going to even, you know, do it with keywords and. It to, to differentiate it. And one of those was English as a second language, because in the book she, she's bilingual and English was literally her second language.

[00:10:45] And, I didn't necessarily even know that that was a category through Amazon. I know there's other, you know, platforms, but specifically with Amazon, I didn't realize that that was a thing until I did some research and learned that that's actually quite literally down to the t. Category and that's what she ended up hitting, bestseller in and getting top rated, number one, new release in that specific category.

[00:11:10] And so, a lot of that research, it comes into me trying to figure out what's the message behind the book? How do we market it, and who are we going to pro and, and how do we promote it overall? 

[00:11:23] Teddy Smith: Yeah, I think that that, that second part of what you said is quite important. 'cause a lot of people forget about, I call it buyer's intent.

[00:11:29] So you can just do keyword research and you find a keyword and you think, okay, this has got some searches, let's go for it. But I think you've gotta think, what are the buyers actually looking to buy? You know? Especially if they're looking for a nonfiction book. I, I feel like people are usually, they've got problem solved, they want to fix it.

[00:11:46] So working that buyer's intent around into your queue research and how you title the book, how you position it, I think is really important. Is that something you look as well? 

[00:11:55] O'Cyrus: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. That buyer's intent is a real thing because some people look at it, okay, if I just put it in this category, it should do well, but like, no, but what's the actual, does the category match the intent of the story they do?

[00:12:09] Is there a parallel between the two? Now I get it. You know, it's a business and some people put particular categories in to kind of boost the visibility of their book and hope that people buy it so there's more eyes on it. For me, when I was doing that, it was really specific. Like I, I didn't want to have a, any sort of false advertisement in a sense.

[00:12:30] I wanted it to be. Very specific, like I think one of the categories was Mexican books because the character is Mexican and, or another category I think was along the lines of like, multicultural, I'm just kind of shooting it out, but there was a specific words for it. But to answer your question, yes.

[00:12:46] I, I do believe that to be effective, like the, the buyer's intent matters greatly. I'm not going to be able to accurately target an audience that will specifically go towards that book. If, I don't know, like what the intent behind a story is. 

[00:13:03] Teddy Smith: Yeah, definitely. Now, alongside your books, you've got, OSI Sink Publishing, which is your own publishing house where you work with indie authors now, who are the sorts of authors you work with, and also how do you help them to become successful?

[00:13:16] O'Cyrus: Oh yeah. So you said the source of the authors? 

[00:13:19] Teddy Smith: Yes, exactly. Yeah. 

[00:13:20] O'Cyrus: The types. Oh yeah. So, so I ironically, what I've learned recently, and by recently, I mean this recent as February, was that a lot of teenagers seem to gravitate towards me. People who I've helped out have either been some, some relatives, or I.

[00:13:35] Teenagers and my audience generally consists of like the 18 to 25-year-old demographic, but I also have like a 12 to 17 and a 26 to 20 to 30 5-year-old demographic. But that primary is, 

[00:13:49] Teddy Smith: mine's a bit older, so between the two of us, we can cover everyone. 

[00:13:52] O'Cyrus: Yeah, no, for sure. Oh yeah, no, for sure man. But, but with the, with the teenagers, one of the reasons why I like helping out like the younger generation is to, to help set them up.

[00:14:02] Most people don't realize that hey, you know, going into to to to publishing is a business move as well, especially if you're doing it on your own. You have to look at it from the standpoint as if you're an entrepreneur and you should learn, focus on different like methods that can help. But a lot of teenagers going, like graduating school, they don't know and a lot of them are lost.

[00:14:24] But in my time of going to different high schools or middle schools or elementary schools and just talking out, there's just. It countless amounts of people who are storytellers and they, their path becomes, um, derailed to continuing to be a storyteller because parents or teachers or society says that there's no room for people like us.

[00:14:47] Um. People that are creative or people in this space, there's no room for it. You need to go to school and be a doctor. You need to be a judge. You need to be somebody in law enforcement or go and join the military. Go get an office job, go to school, get a degree and apply that. And that's it. And just like my wife was saying, you could do both.

[00:15:06] But I was really keyed in on wanting to help out teenagers because when I was a teenager myself, I didn't know exactly what it would be like getting out of school. I knew I wanted to be in entertainment business and wanted to be an actor and be go to Hollywood and make movies, but I knew I was, I was attached to creative work and for my teenagers that I have on board.

[00:15:31] I want to catch them before, before life does and, and, and snatches their souls out of their body and says, you know what? That creative side, there's no room for it. AI is gonna take over anyway, so why do you matter? And my logic is that's true with ai, but that's always been a thing, you know, like,

[00:15:51] people who are mathematicians don't allow a calculator to prohibit them to be a mathematician. So the same can be said for people who are writers that don't allow these AI programs to steal your joy. And so that's what I help out with my teenagers, and that's pretty much like my dreams come true. You know, like making your dreams come true, never giving up on yourself.

[00:16:14] And to celebrate life is are some things that I live off on, and that's what I encourage for my younger authors and readers as well. 

[00:16:21] Teddy Smith: Yeah. Amazing. And for, so for young adults and teenagers who are listening to this and they think, okay, I want to get into, I want to be a writer. I feel quite creative. I've got a lot to say.

[00:16:30] how do you suggest they start? 'cause there's a lot of different ways to approach. We've already covered a couple of ways of approaching writing, like doing a period research first, or just writing whatever you want. And I think they're two different method. But if you are speaking to young people and you say, okay, I want, they wanna get into spicy here.

[00:16:45] How would you get 'em start? What advice would you give them? 

[00:16:48] O'Cyrus: Ooh. Yeah. That's, it's such a, it is such a great question and it could go so many different ways. I think the best way is to, one, know what you want to talk about. Like some people say, I wanna write this story, I wanna write this story. And they have all of these ideas and their creativity is just not stopping.

[00:17:06] But I really think what I would tell them is, what's your message? Like, know what you want to talk about and if there's still, I don't know what I want to talk about, and now they're stuck and four years later they still don't have a message. The best way to go about it is just to, look up people who are doing, something that you're doing.

[00:17:26] A lot of people, especially now that this, this day and age, a lot of. People, especially teenagers, are using social media. So use social media to your advantage. And so I would suggest to these writers, Hey, go to places like YouTube or maybe TikTok and type in, you know, something that you're interested in that aligns with storytelling.

[00:17:46] Like for example, he like horror books. Yeah, well, hey, maybe look up Stephen King and, and, and read some of his work or Neil Gaman and, and check out some of, maybe check out core line, you know, or maybe look at some people who are in, within your genre five nights at Freddy's. If you kind of like the kid, like, but still horror like style, maybe look into that and start to let your algorithm reflect what you want to become.

[00:18:15] Because it's going to, those algorithms will feed whatever you're researching. And so that's how I would say start to kind of, because many people, don't have that social circle full of people who they want to surround themselves with. And so using the internet to their advantage in that regard is a excellent way to get started.

[00:18:35] Teddy Smith: Yeah. And so with, with your, with your publishing house, with Publish Osiris Inc. You work with these young authors to try and get their. Books seen by as many people as possible. So what does that process look like from when they come to see you with an idea, or maybe even some kind of manuscript to getting it published and being successful?

[00:18:53] O'Cyrus: Oh yeah. So the first thing is to me is, okay, hey, what's the message behind it? Because I've had people approach me saying, Hey, you know, this is my book, and I also need to be realistic in the notion that, am I gonna actually have. The, the time allotted to read their manuscript depending on what it is. And so right now I'm working with a guy who lives out in Pakistan, and his name is Donny, but he's a poet as well.

[00:19:18] But his message was that, and where he's from, you know, it's frowned upon to do that, but he's gone through so much, so much trauma that he wants to be able to, to express to the world that, hey. You can be trapped. You know, you, you can be trapped. Not that you, if you are feeling trapped in a society where you want to get your voice out, do it through a book under a completely different name and share it with the world, not just for their healing, but for your own healing.

[00:19:48] And that resonated with me. I love the idea that. Maybe not so much that, that he's trapped, but that he's trying to think of a way to help people through it. Like, Hey, I'm not the only one who feels like I can't do it. You know, many third world countries, I'm sure people have a, you know, they're, they're not a, a slave to society.

[00:20:07] They're trapped in a world where they have to abide by the rules of their country, um, but they still have that artistry or that artist in them. And so with him, he had that message of wanting to. People who feel stuck, trapped where they are. I want to be able to talk to them, and I like the idea. So I hopped on board with that, and that's what we're pressing for.

[00:20:30] So it, it starts first with the let's talk. Okay. What are your, what's your idea? What are our, or what are some ideas that you have? This is the main message that I have. I love the message. Okay. Do you have a manuscript drafted? I have, I have it finished. Yeah. Send it to me and I'll read it through. Okay. Do you have an editor?

[00:20:49] Nope. Cool. I'll have an editor. I'll send it to an editor. Okay. Comes back. Now we're we're squared away. Now let's get creative and think about what do you want the book cover to look like? Because I like the title to represent some part of the book. Like if they read the title, it should have some sort of a message to the book.

[00:21:09] At least that's my mindset. Right? But I also want the book cover. If the title wasn't on the book cover and they just looked at the book cover. Does it tell the message? And so we get creative in that, and then from there we push. And so for me, I treat my like promotions like it's a movie. I did it for, for a couple of my authors already, where, okay, I do these catchy, nice promotional, um, posters, and then we take pieces from the book and we put it in there and we put it in like a trailer form and then there's an actual book trailer reminiscent to a movie trailer.

[00:21:42] And then the book launches. And then we get a whole team together of people who are kind enough to help spread the word on top of the marketing strategy. To push it out and then everything is good. And that's where social media has been relatively well. So that's kind of what my process looks like from start to finish.

[00:21:59] Teddy Smith: Yeah. So it is like fully end to end. And you, I know you've got a book, there's a book that's just come out that Ari's Wish was one of the people who are in your publishing house. So what was the process like from them coming to you and getting that live? Like, let's walk through our process. We've got a live example.

[00:22:14] O'Cyrus: Oh yeah. So, so, von Von not I'm thinking's. Well, fuck Flocka, Flocka m and when I was talking to her, she was talking to me about, Hey, you know, I have all these ideas, but I have a message. She wanted to be able to help out children who specifically like the, the young, the pre-teens up to like the 15, 16-year-old.

[00:22:39] She wanted to be able to put out a message that, hey, if you, have, you know, loved ones. You unfortunately lose and you want to help the world find a way that can help you not only like feel like you, you can heal, but you can heal others. For her, she wanted to become a nurse. Real life. She wants to become a nurse.

[00:23:00] In the book, she made that message, be reflective of that because she wanted to become a nurse because she lost some relatives. Right. And the story kind of similar. Some of it is, you know, it, it is, some of it is fiction for sure. But she ultimately wanted that. And so for the audience wish, she came to me with the idea of, Hey, this is kind of what I'm going through, but I want to be able to help out children and, and, and, and young teenagers.

[00:23:24] Okay. So the message behind that is just this very simple sentence of I want to, I don't want people to feel what I felt. So she feels like being a nurse is gonna help people not feel that way. So when she came to me, we did that. We talked and then, and then I said, okay, write me something then. So she, she wrote, she wrote the story, and then we went the same process, went through, got the editor, and then we got the illustrators.

[00:23:49] For the difference is, with, with hers, with Childress books versus a poetry book, depending on the direction, is gonna really determine. How the book is going to be created. So for the children's book, of course there's illustrations involved and what do we want the illustrations to look like, and is that an accurate representation of what you want the story to look like?

[00:24:14] It's hard for people who are not a woman to draw features of a woman with, like intricate parts. It's not hard for artists, like if they are skilled, they can draw a woman, right? But if you, they say for example. You write a you write a, like a romance novel and you write a scene for a woman who's going through, like, you know, these intimate scenes.

[00:24:37] I believe that a woman who is a writer and skilled versus a man that is equally as skilled as a writer will not be able to write the, feelings and the intimate, you know, responses that a woman goes through. In a way that a woman can write it because a woman knows what women go through, specifically the types that men can't necessarily research that women can write it in those scenes, but a man trying to write those same scenes probably could do it really well.

[00:25:11] But I don't think from a, from a genuine, authentic standpoint, that as a man, we can truly understand what women experience without being a woman themselves. And so that's why I'm saying so like for, so for ATI's Wish we were looking at, okay, who can accurately like represent the story as an illustrator?

[00:25:31] The illustrator also was pregnant at the time as well, and so she understood the connection of how exactly the draw. Like if I lose, if I were to lose somebody, you know I'm pregnant and I'm gonna have a miscarriage, how would I feel? And it just translates so well in, in a genuine manner of, I didn't go and research, Hey, who's a pregnant illustrator?

[00:25:52] She just happened to be a pregnant illustrator. But it's to that point, finding somebody who can actively represent it. So I know that's a bit of a long-winded answer, but I just kind of wanted to give you that process. 

[00:26:01] Teddy Smith: Yeah, being a pregnant illustrator, that's quite a niche, isn't it? You'd have to, you have to stay pregnant with your entire career in order to keep it going.

[00:26:07] Mm-hmm. Yeah. 

[00:26:09] O'Cyrus: Yeah. No, for sure. 

[00:26:11] Teddy Smith: Now, for the sort of people that, that you are looking to represent as at O'Cyrus, Inc. The sort of books you're looking for, who, who the, who's your ideal like writer? Like what, what would be an ideal book that would come to you? 

[00:26:23] O'Cyrus: That, that one, I think to me it just becomes more about the message.

[00:26:27] I know that, like, for example, fantasy, I don't have anybody who does fantasy with, with me. I also know that I don't read fantasy, but I'm not against the idea of if a fantasy author came to me. So I'm just looking for people who have a message, a, a direct message that can target an audience. That can be helpful to them and society.

[00:26:52] I, I, you know, people who have great imaginations, they tell all these wonderful and lovely stories and it's good. It can be like a stress reliever or you just take them out of your world. But like, what does the story represent? They, if is it is a hero that wants to, you know, save the world, like, but why?

[00:27:09] Like why do they want to save the world? What exactly is it about them that wants to save the world? I, I get behind messages and depending on the genre, you know, that's kind of still to be determined. But as of right now, it seems that the genres that have fallen into my lap happen to be poetry and children's books, which is not a coincidence because I write children and poetry books as well.

[00:27:33] But again, I'm not, uh, I know that like my truth, I wouldn't get behind erotica. Because that's just not like a, a accurate representation of me. If you wanna write 50 Shades of Gray, the remix times two, do your thing, I, I wouldn't necessarily be able to promote it because my audience doesn't consist of people who match, match that.

[00:27:52] So I look for people one who have a specific message, but does it lay true to me? I'm not somebody who. Even like even being like African American, I'm not somebody who's like pro-black. You know, I'm somebody who's equal opportunity. Even though those opportunities aren't necessarily equal, it's a matter of make your own opportunity.

[00:28:11] Create your own opportunity. I don't care what you look like, I don't care what your ethnicity is or what your background, your cultural background or I care, but I don't mean I don't care for it as a, Hey, you know, you we're, we're, we're, we're, we're each other. You know, you're black, I'm black. Let's help each other out.

[00:28:26] Like, nah, it's not about that. It's about what's your message and how can we reach a certain demographic of people. The race thing? No, I grew up around diversity. Being a military child, my, my family, we moved around a lot. And so I was exposed at a young age to different races, to cultures from Hispanics to to Caucasian, to people from Australia and, and the UK people who are Asian to different, the different forms of Asian and, and African American.

[00:28:54] And so I was brought around that. So my truth is already by default. Culturally based, not locked into one type of race. And so, I just look for the message and if that message I feel I connect with and I can, I can get it going, let's do it. 

[00:29:12] Teddy Smith: Yeah, definitely. Now, one of the other things in your books, uh, like you personally and also in some of the books you've represent, you've won lots of awards and, uh, people won awards.

[00:29:21] Tell me about some of those awards. Like how did you apply for them? Uh. What, how, what effects has it had on like your overall publishing career? Like, because and awards are quite new to me, apart from some of the big ones. So like tell me a bit about that. 

[00:29:34] O'Cyrus: Oh yeah, no, that's a wonderful question too because, awards.

[00:29:38] Awards help immensely, but it depends on the type of an award as well. Like do, can you submit for a particular book competition that necessarily doesn't have any weight behind it? Not to knock any of these competitions 'cause everyone has to get their start somewhere, but certainly certain, certain awards have more weight than the others.

[00:29:56] But for me, I ended up just, I think it was Dale at the time. Dale Roberts on his channel. He had. He was doing, like with Book Award Pro and I, I researched Book Award Pro to kind of see what goes into it because, you know, you could type in on Google, do a quick Google search and put in book, book award submissions, and it gives you just a variety of places to submit to, or people, or websites to go through.

[00:30:22] And I, I, I didn't know what was true and what wasn't. Especially at the time, even with research and all these reviews, you don't know how genuinely, how genuine it is. And so it can be a cash grab and these submissions cost money. So Dale's video had book award Pro, CEO on it, Hannah, and she just seemed trustworthy just in her approach.

[00:30:45] And Dale doesn't deal with people who are, who, who are, who pretend, you know, at least not upfront. Maybe he doesn't know, if they are like that, but I would imagine that none of the people that, the people that he's dealt with, none of them are like that. And so I looked into her website, I checked it out, and I, I went the free route.

[00:31:02] I'm like, let me just test the free route and due the research based off of what they send me. And that's what happened. And I submitted to, to the, outstanding creators, and won, won some awards there and their awards. Actually opened up doors for other ones. And then someone saw my book Sacred with the Award seal in it on Amazon, and they happened to represent a different, book awards, program.

[00:31:26] And that book award, I can't recall it from the top of my head, but I think it was, excellence, book Excellence or something like that. And Kobe Bryant had actually won one of their awards. And Kobe Bryant was actually, yeah, he was, he was my all time favorite athlete. Even up to his, his unfortunate passing was a guy who I always admired.

[00:31:46] And so I said he won this award too. Okay, cool. So I became a believer and they reached out to me and they said we would, you know, we loved your book, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I kind of looked at it as a, do I submit to them because they reached out to me. And obviously it's a cash, it's it's business, but.

[00:32:04] They're reaching out to me because there's a chance that if I submit to them I could win based off of who re who, who reached out to me. And then that opened up another door to me winning another award where I was invited to an award show. And it just, it, it's, it is, it is a big circle of life, but it's, it's a door that opens another door that opens another door.

[00:32:23] But it's all started with me doing my research on book Award Pro. And this is not an endorsement, by the way. They're good people. Then I'm not sponsored by them. This is just kind of how I got started. I went through Book Award Pro and I used their free, their free, account. And they sent me things either weekly, biweekly, or monthly, however you set it up.

[00:32:44] And then I researched the category that they had me in or the people who they put me, in contact with. And then I just submitted on my own and everything else was history. 

[00:32:54] Teddy Smith: Yeah. Amazing. Well, brilliant. Thank you so much coming, Iris, it's been great chatting to you. I, you know, I think you are doing a really cool thing with your podcast.

[00:33:01] I think the Author Lounge. I love being on it and we've had some really cool guests, so I'd really recommend everyone go and check that out. If, if people could I, oh, sorry. Go. Yeah, go. 

[00:33:11] O'Cyrus: Sorry. I was gonna say, could I, could I actually make a message, for, for the authors lounge as well? Like why I'm doing that one?

[00:33:16] Yeah, of course. Before, before it looks, yeah. So like, the reason behind my podcast, the authors lounge is because I much like earlier when I was talking about the younger generation, that platform is really specifically geared, I. Towards helping educate the younger generations of writers and creators. And then I get guests on the show who are much like, like, like Teddy, who are experts or they have a wealth of knowledge that can help as a, as come as a benefit to them.

[00:33:40] And it's an interview format. But it's more, it's also a conversation we're having just a great time and just answering questions, asking questions specifically that I feel. Could be helpful for those who are listening. And it's, it is, it's crazy because, you know, I've, I've had a, I've had a quite a bit of people on already and the younger authors that I've had on the show have.

[00:34:05] Gared the most, viewership, which I don't think that's by accident because my audience are, are younger. But it, it is helpful. It's showing that, you know, that that, that demographic, they're paying attention just so people like yourself, Teddy or Dale, or other guests who have come onto the show have really helped spread the message.

[00:34:23] And so, yeah, I just wanted to say thank you for letting me do that little plug. 

[00:34:27] Teddy Smith: Yeah, no problem. Yeah, it's a really good podcast. I, I love being on, so I really recommend everyone check it out. If, if people wanna find, uh, the ultrasound and also like, get in touch with you, what's the best place to do that?

[00:34:38] O'Cyrus: Yeah, they can, they can, they can either go through my website, which this might be a little lengthy, but it's osirus inc publishing.com and O-C-Y-R-U-S-I-N-K-P-U-B-L-I-S-H-I-G osiris inc publishing.com. Or you can just type in Osiris in Google, like OCYE. C-C-Y-A-O-A-C-Y-R-U-S and a quick Google search.

[00:35:02] And just put, I don't know, author or the author's lounge. And I, I, I, I, I should pop up hopefully pushing my fingers crossed, hopefully I think I made it, you know, and, but no, honestly, on my website there's a email, if you subscribe to it. No, no price tag. There's a popup. You just put your email there.

[00:35:20] Then, I can reach out to you or you can just contact me through Social media Osirus Inc. Publishing for Instagram or, Osirus Inc. Publishing for LinkedIn. And I'm also on X at, at s at o Ccyr U Sre Osiris and on YouTube just put in s osirus author in it. I should pop up. 

[00:35:43] Teddy Smith: Brilliant. Well, thank you so much.

[00:35:44] We'll put links to those in the show notes so that. Find them 'cause you've got like weird spellings. 

[00:35:49] O'Cyrus: Thank you so much. Yeah, 

[00:35:50] Teddy Smith: yeah. Thank you O'Cyrus, and it's great chatting. We'll speak soon. 

[00:35:53] O'Cyrus: Of course. Thank you all for having me on. 

[00:35:56] Teddy Smith: Thank you so much for tuning into the Publishing performance podcast. I really hope you found today's episode inspiring.

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