Your website/blog: http://kaitnolan.com

Your bibliography:  I write action-packed paranormal romance that features a fresh and inventive mythology.  No sparklay vamps here!  My debut release, Forsaken By Shadow, is available at all primary ebook vendors.

1. What is your background? Like most writers, it feels like I always wanted to write. I started when I was 12, submitted my first book for publication at 15 (thank GOD it wasn’t accepted), and wrote like a banshee all through college. Then I graduated, got a job in the Real World (which sucked), and got married. The Real World sucked so bad, I jumped straight back in to graduate school, where I stopped writing for a while. By the time I graduated with my Masters in clinical psychology, I realized I didn’t want to be a therapist or a researcher or a teacher. I wanted to write professionally. So I do the latter two while pursuing my dream job.

2. What led you to self-publishing? I never planned to self publish. For years I’d heard about the evils of vanity presses and the like. And then I met Zoe Winters. She had, at that time, just released her novella Kept as an ebook on Amazon and assorted other sites. She was gung ho indie, and while I wasn’t at all interested in that route myself, I did think it was a smart way to start building a platform and a readership. So that’s how it started. I wrote Forsaken By Shadow as a novella introduction to my Mirus series and released it with the intention of building a little bit of a name for myself. Between then and now, the face of publishing has changed dramatically. More and more people are having success publishing as indies, from J. A. Konrath who has become our poster boy, to lesser-knowns like Karen McQuestion and Amanda Hocking.  
   It became an issue of time for me. I work two jobs and we’ll be starting a family in a few years. By going indie, I can have three to five titles out in that time frame and start building a backlist and a grassroots following. In the same three year span, IF I was lucky, I’d manage to get one book out the traditional way. Add to that the fact that agents and New York publishers are telling their authors, “don’t quit your day job,” and they’ve suddenly lost their attraction for me. If they can’t help me quit my assorted day jobs and write for a living, why on Earth would I be willing to give up control to them?

3. What have you found to be the biggest challenge in self-publishing?  The biggest challenge for me has been making the time—which was the biggest challenge with traditional publishing. It’s simply HARD to juggle two jobs, family, and writing. But the beauty of self-publishing is that even if it takes you longer to finish a book, you can still get it to readers faster with self-publishing than you can via the monolith of New York.

4. What has been the biggest surprise about self-publishing? Ha! How much I’ve become an advocate for it! I’m so enthusiastic about the opportunities available to indies, that I helped to found the Indie Book Collective as a means for helping other indies find their own success. That in itself has been its own surprise, and I’ve met such wonderful people.

5. What inspires you? Good books. Great movies. Movie scores. I’m a HUGE fan of those. Not stuff with words, just the orchestral pieces. I also love trolling through the Creative Commons Free Pool on Flickr. I’ve found some fantastic images that absolutely tell stories. They’re great to jump-start the imagination.

6. Describe your writing process. I used to be a hard-core pantser, but over the last three years or so, I’ve transitioned into plotter. I blame Larry Brooks. His story structure ebook changed my writing life and suddenly made me realize what was missing in my plots. It’s not that I plot out every single scene before I write a word, but there are pivotal scenes that I have to have in place, I have to know that they serve the right function in the story. Then I start connecting the dots from point to point. Beyond that, it’s straight up BICHOK method. Butt in chair, hands on keyboard. I make myself sit down every single day and write SOMETHING, preferably a minimum of 500 words.

7. How do you stay disciplined? I am freakishly organized. I have to be kind of obsessive and detail oriented in order to juggle my responsibilities between my two jobs, family, the Indie Book Collective, and writing. I’m addicted to the Intuition planner app on my iPhone and constantly have a ridiculous To Do list. I have to make sure the writing is ON the list—500 words a day minimum, every day.

8. What is your favorite self-marketing idea? I think one of my very favorites is running an event on Goodreads to give away free review copies. I like this for several reasons. One, Goodreads is a community of readers, so this is your target audience (provided you’ve taken time to cultivate friends who like to read your genre and build up some good reader karma). Two, other than sending out the coupon codes to Smashwords, it takes very little time on my part (which is a precious commodity). There are a lot of book bloggers floating around on Goodreads, and even though the event I’ve run was intended to garner reviews on Barnes and Noble and other purchase sites, I have lucked out in getting reviews on book blogger sites, which is the best form of free advertising because there’s nothing better than an enthusiastic reader telling their friends. Best of all, it’s free.

9. What advice do you have for burgeoning self-publishers?  Take it seriously, treat it with the respect that it deserves.  The indie publishing movement is still relatively young. We have not yet earned the respect that indie film makers and indie musicians have managed. There’s no room in this business for hobbyists who don’t believe in having things properly edited, well-formatted, and with professional cover art. You want to put out a professional product, you take the steps, do the work. And I can’t stress this enough—unless you are a Photoshop guru with graphic design experience, hire a professional cover artist. Your cover is the first (and with some readers often the ONLY) impression readers see. Make sure it’s a good one. I highly recommend Robin Ludwig of Robin Ludwig Design. She’s reasonably priced and incredibly talented.

10. When you’re not writing what do you do for fun? Sleep. LOL. Other than that, I cook. I spend my free time inventing in my kitchen for my food blog Pots and Plots.

11.   What project are you currently working on? At the moment I am finishing up Devil’s Eye, a short novella in the Mirus world that I plan on releasing during December as a freebie for readers. Once that’s done, I’m moving on to Red, an unrelated paranormal YA novel that takes the Red Riding Hood myth and turns it on its ear. I anticipate releasing in the spring. Anyone who’s interested can always visit my website for updates about how my projects are going.

The answer to the first questions is “yes”! Authors of fiction can certainly benefit their platforms by incorporating speaking into their repertoire. So this brings us to the next question: What should fiction writers talk about?

Well, how about…writing? Talk about writing your first novel. Talk about researching effectively. Talk about establishing your book’s theme. Talk about using fact versus fiction in your work. Talk about creating conflict. Talk about bringing fictional characters to life. Talk about where you draw your inspiration from.

Another topic you can cover is your genre. Are you a writer of paranormal fiction? Or maybe you pen thrillers? Or literary fiction? Talk about particulars or trends specific to your genre.

If you’re an indie, talk about your experience with independent publishing. What made you decide to go that route? Did you make any mistakes? What did you learn from the process? What are the pros and cons to publishing independently?

If you’ve published traditionally, talk about your experience with that. Did you have an agent? How did you find one? How long did the process take? What have you learned?

Every author has to market his or her book to some extent, and there is an endless supply of topics to speak about in that regard. Talk about building your platform. (Explain what a “platform” is!) There are dozens of topics alone related to social media, including blogging, tweeting, friending, and the like. What works for you and what doesn’t?

For those of you who do speak, I’ll offer much of the same advice I gave to nonfiction writers: Don’t forget to bring sales materials to your events—bookmarks or business cards with your book cover on it (as well as ordering information, of course). (Or books themselves to sell right on the spot, if that is practical.) Readers of fiction tend to want to buy books written by authors they like, and they will likely want to buy your book after hearing you speak. Some authors give a small discount—perhaps 10 percent—to induce immediate sales. In any event, be sure to weave into your presentation that personally autographed books will be available afterward.

So even if you don’t have a book that outlines your expertise, the mere fact that you’ve written a book makes you an expert the on the process itself. There’s plenty to talk about!

If you have or know of a website that would be of interest to my blog readers, please email it to me along with a description; don’t forget to include appropriate links.

Enjoy!

Online shoppers buy books. Internet users continue to buy books more than any other product and the number of book purchases is increasing, according to the June 2010 Nielsen Online survey. The current survey covered more than twenty-seven thousand Internet users in fifty-five countries and showed that 44 percent had bought books online. Compared with Nielsen’s February 2008 survey report, this number is up from 41 percent—and 34 percent in 2005. In 2008, the top book-buying countries, based on the percentage of Internet users in each country who bought books online, were surprising: (1) South Korea—58 percent, (2) Germany—55 percent, (3) Austria—54 percent, (4) Vietnam—54 percent, (5) Brazil—51 percent, (6) Egypt—49 percent, (7) China—48 percent, (8) India—46 percent, (9) Taiwan—45 percent, and (10) the United Kingdom—45 percent. Today, Asia Pacific consumers spend the most on online purchases with 89 percent of them intending to spend more in the next six months. Their most likely purchase will be books (52 percent). In Indonesia, 34 percent of males and 43 percent of females will be ordering books. The fact remains, books are the most likely online purchase around the world.

Are you tweeting effectively? When it comes to tweeting well, remember the 60/30/10 rule: 60 percent helpful content; 30 percent engagement with followers sharing insights, feedback, and opinions; and 10 percent personal posts. Read more on social media marketing here.

To Buy or not to Buy. The Authors Guild has set up a special site to monitor Amazon.com’s tactic of turning off the shopping cart function on books when they disapprove of the publisher’s pricing standards. The move was prompted by a January 2010 showdown between Amazon and Macmillan when the publishing giant requested to raise the price of many of its ebooks to $14.99 or higher. Amazon, who wanted to keep its ebook ceiling at $9.99, showed its disapproval by disabling the Buy buttons from almost all of Macmillan’s books and ebooks. The buttons returned within the week, and Amazon issued a disapproving statement in Macmillan’s favor. Macmillan was powerful enough to get its way in the end, but Amazon has employed this maneuver on UK publishing houses and smaller U.S. publishers with great success. Any publisher, large or small, who wants to keep up with the Buy button status of their titles may sign up for email alerts at whomovedmybuybutton.com.

I was surprised when I checked to find the book still there, thinking that certainly any company getting the negative press that soon went viral would certainly succumb to public pressure. The first time I looked, there were some 300 reviews…when I checked a few hours later—while watching the coverage on CNN’s AC360, there were nearly 2,000.  Most were an angry cry, calling for the immediate removal of this title from the website. Others were defending Amazon’s right to sell it, saying that to remove it would be “censorship.”

Do I think such a book is despicable? Yes, I do. Like most people — and especially parents — the subject matter makes me ill. Do I think such a book should be “allowed” to be published? Yes, I do. But that doesn’t mean stores have to carry it. That doesn’t mean printers have to print it. It simply gives the author the right to publish — however that might look. (And with self-publishing becoming easier and easier, I can’t help but wonder if we may see more these types of controversies in the future.)

Where Amazon erred, in my opinion, is in not maintaining a consistent policy with “questionable” works.  The company’s  statement yesterday was a generic one: “Amazon believes it is censorship not to sell certain books simply because we or others believe their message is objectionable.  Amazon does not support or promote hatred or criminal acts, however, we do support the right of every individual to make their own purchasing decisions.”

So then….why does this disclaimer appear on their website?

Offensive Material
What we deem offensive is probably about what you would expect. Amazon Digital Services, Inc. reserves the right to determine the appropriateness of Titles sold on our site.

Amazon deems “offensive,” for instance, pornography so it is not included on the site. Pornography is legal. Despite that, however, Amazon has the right as a company not to carry items of pornography. So then why were they defending their decision to carry a book aimed at guiding pedophiles? I would not have approved (inasmuch as I would have a right to do so) of their decision to carry such a book, but I would have understood that it was simply part of a policy decision. It really has nothing to do with censorship.

It’s a moot point, I suppose, since Amazon has indeed pulled the book from its website. But that was a business decision (probably best not to piss off the customers at the start of the busy holiday shopping season).

Ranging in age from 13 to 96, those who have already signed on represent a variety of races, religions, and nationalities. These diverse men are clergy and leaders from several major religions, health practitioners, coaches, authors, speakers, multimillionaire business men, an All-American and gold-medalist athlete, and a man serving a life sentence who was released after becoming a long-term model prisoner…just to name a few. Some of their stories include: chilling accounts of surviving in the thick of the Holocaust, a small-town teenager bullied and threatened for being gay, a professional man’s life lessons while homeless, and sports participation building self-esteem in the face of emotional and economic hardship.

Please visit Jim’s website if you are interested in learning more about this compelling project.

Your name: Belinda Kroll

Your website/blog: http://worderella.com

Your bibliography: Catching the Rose, Worderella on Writing

1. What is your background? Funny story: I’m actually a usability analyst. My degrees are in computer science engineering, human computer interaction, and a minor in English. My Masters degree was very open, and allowed me to take high-level creative fiction writing courses with published author Samrat Upadhyay, which was amazing. I’ve always been a writer, though, and confused my high school class when I announced I was going to be a computer programmer. I was voted most likely to win the Pulitzer!

2. What led you to self-publishing? I am part of an entrepreneurial family, and I’ve been subscribed to Writer’s Digest since I was sixteen, so I’ve known about self-publishing for a long time. As an entrepreneur, I like to know all aspects of the business and have creative control. Luckily, my undergrad and masters degrees allowed me to cater my studies to learning the industry software and practice page/cover design in a safe environment. Using the knowledge I’ve gathered, I maintain my website, I make my book trailers, I design my books, and I’ve opened my own micro-press, Bright Bird Press.

3. What have you found to be the biggest challenge in self-publishing? Marketing is something I have always had problems with. As much as I can be chatty in person, I’m still a bit confused how I can get people interested in my work without just putting it in front of them. I’m learning all the different paths for marketing online because I know that’s my best option. I’ve been experimenting, but I need to make a solid plan to follow.

4. What has been the biggest surprise about self-publishing? Even though I assume it would take a lot of work, it takes even more work than I expected sometimes. I think this is because I work full-time, and I also make websites for small companies on my free time. So I have a lot of responsibilities to juggle.

5. What inspires you? The little things in life that make me smile, such as an ant on the sidewalk dragging a leaf. I walk toward it and it stops, and starts to walk the other way. I walk around the ant, and it pauses before turning around to walk its original direction. I like to capture little moments like that in my writing.

6. Describe your writing process. I’m trying to be disciplined with this book. I try to write at least 750 words on the days I do write, usually after I come home from work. I sit at my desk in my bedroom, open the laptop, and start typing. Sometimes I feel a little stuck so I read the last page of the previous chapter. Sometimes I read a chapter from a book at my bedside to get my imagination flowing. Then I write as quickly as I can until I get 750 words. From that point, I slow down until I reach a good stopping point.

7. How do you stay disciplined? This online application I’ve been using, 750words.com, has been my lifesaver. It guilt-trips me into writing, but takes the pressure off because I know I only have to write 750 words, which is a relatively low-hanging-fruit sort of goal. Some days I focus on writing, other days I focus on marketing, websites, learning more about publishing, etc. The main goal is to “Keep moving forward,” like from the Disney movie Meet the Robinsons.

8. What is your favorite self-marketing idea? Tough question! Of course I like word-of-mouth, but really, I just like the idea that if I help you, you help me. I don’t want to be a spammer, I just want people to enjoy my writing. So if I help you with your website, or book trailer, maybe I won’t ask for monetary support, but that you spread the word about my book(s). I also like the idea of leaving bookmarks with my book information in the pages of similar books at the library/bookstore. I figure that’s one of the best ways to reach my readers.

9.  What advice do you have for burgeoning self-publishers? Take baby steps. I published my first book through a subsidy/vanity publisher, my second through Lulu, and a reprint through CreateSpace. I’m working my way up to Lightning Source, but maybe if I get enough funds, I’ll stick with CreateSpace and buy my own pack of ISBNs. So yeah. I know everyone says to avoid vanity publishers, but if you get a good one (like Aventine Press or Mill City Press), you can have a good experience and learn the ropes. My biggest advice is to not rush the process. Make mistakes you can afford. Don’t get ahead of yourself and burn out.

10. When you’re not writing what do you do for fun? I’m part of the local lindy hop community. Every Tuesday I swing dance and lindy hop all of my frustrations away. It’s the best sort of exercise ever.

11. What project are you currently working on? I’m in the middle of getting the word out about the second edition of my book, Catching the Rose. I’m writing my second novel, Haunting Miss Trentwood, and I’m trying to settle on the style of website I want for my micro-press, Bright Bird Press.

1. Stick to book topics that will appeal directly to your blog readers.

2. Ask for a review copy of the author’s book and read it ahead of time.

3. Decide whether you’d like the author to do a guest post, answer interview questions, or post a book excerpt. Let the author know if you have a word limit.

4. If you go with interview questions, develop a list of questions that will allow the author to discuss their book but which will also provide valuable content for your blog readers. Make sure you get these questions to the author so he or she has plenty of time to provide compelling responses.

5. Ask the author to provide a head shot, photo of their book cover, and a brief bio.

6. Add the author’s blog to your blog roll.

7. Decide when you’ll post the author’s “appearance,” and make sure he or she will be available that day to answer questions or respond to comments your readers post.

8. Find out whether the author has a web page listing all the stops on their virtual author book tour, along with the topics they’ll be discussing. If he or she does, post the link to this page.

9. Include a link to the book’s Amazon.com page; or if you are an Amazon affiliate, add a buy link for the book.

10. Remind the author to be sure to blog about the visit on his or her own blog—with a link back to your blog, of course.

11. Publicize the blog post once it’s up via social media groups you belong to, including any forums, discussion groups, and ListServs. If you’ve got an ezine, include a link there as well.

12. It’s recommended that you put the post up early in the morning—shoot for prior to 8 am Eastern time.

13. Check the post regularly so you can respond to comments and answer questions. (Your author should be doing that as well!)

A few final notes: Remember to thank your author for including your blog on his or her virtual tour. It’s also nice if you post a review of the book on sites such as Amazon and GoodReads.

Please let me know if you would like to be featured!

Your name:  Lillian Brummet

Your website/blog: www.brummet.ca; http://consciousdiscussions.blogspot.com

Your bibliography: Lillian Brummet is the co-author of the books Trash Talk and Purple Snowflake Marketing. She is the author of Towards Understanding, host of the Conscious Discussions Talk Radio Show, and manager of the award-winning Brummet’s Conscious Blog. She offers a bi-weekly newsletter as well. A quick Internet search will reveal just a few of the hundreds of articles she has written for publications around the globe, and thousands of interviews with Lillian. She has volunteered with many organizations over the years, is a member of Seeds of Diversity Canada and has a passion for rescuing animals and motivating people to be more proactive in leading a conscious and green lifestyle.

1. What is your background? I grew up in a broken home, was on my own at the age of 13, and yet was able to put myself through school, stay out of the system and pay my own way. I began writing very early in life, but used it as a healing tool during my early years to deal with the past. It was in ’99 that we (my husband Dave and I) decided to use this talent for writing as a way to pursue our passions in life and create positive change… leaving a lasting legacy.

2. What led you to self-publishing? I started out as a free-lance writer, later working for several different publications on assignment or as a staff member for a few years, and then branched off to write books… which is our main focus now. We have worked with a few different traditional publishers (in print, with royalties) and soon learned that there were very few benefits in dealing with publishers, as opposed to being on our own. Sure they find distributors, set up the ISBN and so forth, but everything else is left up to us, the writers. So now we are focusing on taking all our work into e-book format. Already 3 of our books have been updated, totally revised and released as e-books and we have numerous others coming out soon.

3. What have you found to be the biggest challenge in self-publishing? You absolutely must have self-discipline. You are the only person who will be communicating with anyone connected with your book so you must be prepared for that. The initial set-up for this can be daunting at first due to the draft email/letter creations and media kits and record keeping… Once all this is set up, the process becomes much more smooth. Keeping up to date with my records is a challenge due to communicating with a large number of media contacts every single day… Who was followed-up on? Who received the files they were looking for? When is the event happening and have I created the promotions for that event? Balancing all of this with the actual task of writing (she laughs) can be a challenge.

4. What has been the biggest surprise about self-publishing? The biggest surprise is how receptive people in the industry are for this genre. It used to be laden with a stigma but that is now fading. People are becoming more educated about the various formats and genres in the industry and the green benefits of alternative publishing options are catching on too. Even e-books and audio books, the newest entries in the world of writing, are getting great reception out there in the marketing sphere.

5. Describe your writing process. The writing itself starts with an idea and the consideration of who I am speaking to. Once I have those two items the rest just falls into place. If I know my audience, I am already aware what they are looking for, what will appeal to them. I then create a brief outline for larger non-fiction projects, and this outline is very flexible so that I can keep the creative level high as I work through the process. Research is a biggie for me I love to research the topics, issues, people involved in an issue contact them and then use this information in the writing process. I don’t worry about editing just yet and sometimes create a few pages just for notes that I can refer to. Once the writing piece has been created, then I become concerned with flow that one idea leads to the next, one paragraph leads to the next. Sentence structure and other editing like grammar is something I do relatively last. My husband is an exceptional editor and proofreader, so he will often work on the project at this point. After taking some time away from it, we will return and read it at least one more time before submitting.

6. How do you stay disciplined? The motivation behind staying on top of things is that I am not having to work for the man… that dreaded day job of drudgery. So that keeps me aware of my position, that by working for myself I do not have to answer to anyone but myself, yet I do find the hardest person to please IS myself! (She laughs). Keeping good records is key to my success in being on top of things. Who I’ve submitted to, where that communication is at and whether they need to hear from me again – these can all be seen at a glance just by using color codes. Green for contacts that are completed, blue to follow up on, pink is a confirmed event, but not yet made public purple lets me know that I’ve already dealt with that contact and it was a positive outcome. Excel is a great program that my husband taught me to use years ago. Every 6-8 months I go through the year’s contacts in that file and do any follow-ups necessary before moving on to new ones.

7. How are you financing your publishing project? With e-book publishing there is no cost, as long as one doesn’t have to outsource things like PDF or EPub (Electronic Publication) formats, image creation, website design, publicity and so on. One can learn how to do each of these tasks, however it can take a huge amount of time and if you cannot find the resources, than you are facing costs for educational courses. Luckily Dave and I work as a team he is really talented with graphics, art, writing copy (sales language), website design, and technical problems. So with my research, content creation and marketing skills we make a great team. He does well with public appearances, I prefer working online and enjoy working with the media, while Dave is comfortable setting up affiliate opportunities and putting our book cover images together. As such our costs are minimal only the advertising we choose to pay for, such as bookmarks and ad spots in a publication, are expenses for us; but most exposure can be had for free if one had the time and initiative. This doesn’t mean that writer’s services are not a necessary commodity, but for the financially constrained author one doesn’t HAVE to outsource, unless they want to.

8. What is your favorite self-marketing idea? Alley-cat marketing… which is really the basis of our e-book Purple Snowflake Marketing How to Make Your Book Stand Out In a Crowd. Simply put it is the difference between giving someone a pen with your information on it or cold-selling someone through an ad; which is what people are tired of… their eyes will just glaze over. It is a different approach, you are giving something away first, rather than asking them to buy. This could be a tangible or intangible gift, but something that benefits the recipient and creates a warm-fuzzy-feeling that motivates them to find out more about you or support you in some way.

9. What advice do you have for burgeoning self-publishers? If you are just starting out in the world of writing and do not already have a following of some kind than you will need to start from the very beginning and that means defining your niche (your writing style, the meaning behind your writing…) and whatever defines you as a person or as a writer. Starting with this you can then begin to develop you marketing platform and design a plan to gain name recognition. Name recognition can be developed in many different ways, which can be confusing and daunting if looked at in a certain light however if looked at in a positive light, these variables give you the opportunity to develop a plan that suits your unique situation and help you stand out in a crowd like a purple snowflake.

10. When you’re not writing what do you do for fun? I am really into gardening, I call it playing in the dirt – it is me time and a form of meditation for me. Dave is a great cook and we often work together, me being the prep-cook/cleaner-upper most of the time. Dave and I spend a lot of time together out of the office as well. We enjoy hiking, bicycle activities and camping. Our love of nature keeps us busy we can often be found cleaning up a beach site, or a river access site or trail… or pulling out invasive weeds. Our dogs help us keep fit as they certainly need their hour-long walk every day and other training or attention that they must have. They bring a lot of joy into our lives and keep us laughing.

11. What project are you currently working on? We are currently building our new e-book empire. Dave has been working for months behind the scenes getting things ready for a new website, and a new e-store offering a whole range of e-books and products. We are selling our books in e-format from now on, as well as many new things to come such as the long-awaited garden book, a series of how-to books, and sequels to Dave’s drum lesson projects. My blog (http://consciousdiscussions.blogspot.com) and our radio show (http://blogtalkradio.com/consciousdiscussions) keeps us busy as well. I start every day with a quick glance at what is happening for these two projects, who is appearing as a guest, what topic I’ll be covering that day… and so on. I love doing interviews and blog appearances, and am regularly appearing in the media whenever possible. There is not a day that goes by that I have not done some form of marketing except one of the three days that I do take off each month. I don’t even open the office door for three whole days in a row every single month and this allows me to refresh my mind and my relationships as well.

Please let me know if you would like to be featured!

Your name: Zoe Winters

Your website/blog: http://www.zoewinters.org http://zoewinters.wordpress.com

Your bibliography: Zoe Winters writes and publishes paranormal romances. Her independently published work includes three novellas: Kept, Claimed, and Mated, as well as an omnibus of the three in digital and print called Blood Lust.

1. What is your background? I don’t really “have” a background, lol. I wish I could say I was some big marketing guru or worked in some top level of publishing or at a graphic design firm. I actually did work from home for a guy who owned a small audiobook publishing company, once. But it was brief, so I’m not sure it counts. And I’ve owned a few small businesses (which I didn’t stick with because writing was what I “really” wanted to do the whole time.)

2. What led you to self-publishing? I don’t remember how I stumbled upon the idea but I found the books by Tom and Marilyn Ross on Amazon and I was curious. I don’t think I ever got taken in by the idea of “author services companies.” From the beginning I wanted to know how to take it seriously and run it like a business where I could turn a profit. I accumulated books and research on it for about four years while I waffled back and forth. I knew there was so much stigma, and I was afraid of not being taken seriously as an author. I care deeply about craft and quality, and it’s important to me that that comes through. If the predominant idea was that self-publishing authors are all naive and crappy writers, well, that’s why it took me so long to jump in and just do it.
                But because the traditional way of doing things was so depressing and uninspiring to me, I eventually overcame those fears. At the end of the day my work belongs to me, and I have the right to package, produce, and distribute it the way I want.

3. What have you found to be the biggest challenge in self-publishing? That I can’t do everything. I can never market enough, write fast enough, etc. etc. There is always something else to do. I go to bed every night, no matter how much I’ve accomplished feeling like my to do list will never slow down. I know a part of that is in my attitude, and that’s something I have to work on. I also have to learn not to take on too much. I push myself too hard and I need to know when it’s time to quit for the day, when to take a vacation, and when to do something that is totally unrelated to writing, publishing, or marketing.

4. What has been the biggest surprise about self-publishing? How much I love it. Despite the frustrations, I wouldn’t publish any other way. I LOVE being an indie author. I love having total creative control, and knowing that I can shift and adjust with the changing market. If something isn’t selling, I can adjust my marketing all the way down to my description pages on Amazon or my price. You don’t have that kind of control with a traditional publisher.

5. What inspires you? Other indies succeeding. Like recently Amanda Hocking got into the top 25 of the overall Amazon Kindle store after her newest indie release had been out about a day. She inspires me because she shows what can be done as an indie without any kind of traditional publisher behind you or behind you in your past publishing history. It’s just about you and the words. Success stories like that also inspire me to try to get less marketing done and more writing done because it really is true that building your backlist is the smartest thing you can do for your sales. Assuming you’re putting out quality work. Fifty crappy books will probably offer limited benefit.

6. Describe your writing process. I try to get through the rough draft as quickly as I can. I don’t edit as I go; I just write. I write with an outline, but I follow the story first. So if my outline goes in one direction and my story goes in another, I follow the story, then edit my outline. So I can make sure I can still get to my intended ending. Endings are really important to me, and I always know how it ends when I go in, otherwise I flounder too much in the writing process. Then I let it sit for about a week, reread it, and start editing. Once I do all I can do myself, I bring in my critique partners, beta readers, and editor.

7. How do you stay disciplined? I’m fueled I think almost entirely by my passion for this. The only thing that’s hard for me, is balancing how much energy I devote to each thing… like marketing vs. writing. It’s not hard to get me to work. I usually work about 10 hours a day and it’s not like I wake up thinking… “Oh man, I have to do that publishing stuff today.” I’m excited about it. So I think that helps me stay disciplined because when it’s something you really want, you don’t have to have that much self-control to keep doing it.

8. What is your favorite self-marketing idea? I like the idea of building the brand rather than the book. One of the most fun things I’ve done toward that end, is the Zoe Who? video web series on Youtube, which is a tongue-in-cheek cartoon series about my publishing journey. Each of the episodes is under 3 minutes. http://www.youtube.com/user/ZoeWinters1

9. What advice do you have for burgeoning self-publishers? Do your research. Learn everything you can before you jump in. There will be other indies willing to help you, but people are more willing to help if it looks like you’ve made some kind of effort to help yourself first. And don’t be afraid to experiment with writing, packaging, marketing. You might fail, but you might succeed wildly if you take a risk. And even if you fail, that’s just part of experimenting. Tweak it and keep going.

10. When you’re not writing what do you do for fun? Okay now, see, this is where my problem is. I’m working most of the time, so I don’t have a lot of “fun” activities outside of self-publishing right now. This is where I need to learn to step back and do something else besides just this. The side benefit of that is that it will make me more interesting in interviews, and I won’t look like such a crazy workaholic.

11. What project are you currently working on? I’m currently promoting my new release, Blood Lust, and I’m in edits for the next book in my series, Save My Soul.