Dressed to impress

I always struggle with this question because Chicken contains a fairly sizable surprise that I studiously avoid ruining for my readers. It’s not the usual kind of surprise a story delivers because it comes closer to the beginning than the end but it’s a surprise none the less.

Q: How did the story come to you?

I gleaned several sentences, all previously written, from my journals, each of which I loved. I started with those sentences and let the story grow from there.

My writing style is frequently referred to as unique though you’ll also hear wide spectrum of adjectives that include witty, imaginative, intricate, haunting, whimsical and deep. I think readers use the word unique because I blend an unusually intimate kind of storytelling with a decreasingly disjointed and highly imaginative narrative.

Q: What do you think of literary fiction’s place in the status quo?

Some people say literary fiction is dying but I disagree. I do think the literary market is under-served by the traditional publishing industry but this doesn’t speak to a shrinking market – only a shrinking vision of an industry that has become more passionate about profits than literature. The same thing happened in the film and music industries and it was the artists themselves that filled the void. The same thing is happening with literary fiction albeit maybe a little overdue.

Q: What are you reading now? Who are your favorite authors?

My all-time favorite authors are Ernest Hemingway, Tom Robbins, and John Irving. I’ve loved many authors before and since but these three caught me at influential times and impacted me deeply.

I’m currently reading The Whuffie Factor: Using the Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business by Tara Hunt. I’m in a very non-fiction heavy reading phase given my various new roles in life and everything I need to learn to wear each of those hats. This particular book was recommended by a Twitter-savvy friend who I reached out to for some advice.

Q: Any advice for new writers?

Every new writer is different. We write for different reasons and we have different goals in life but whatever you set out to do in life, don’t do it half-way. It’s going to take a lot of work, no matter how your book gets to market and a good measure of patience will be necessary along the way. Weigh all the advice you get carefully, and when in doubt, trust that little voice only you can hear.

Promoting Chicken is pretty much a full time job at this point (and I have a full time day job as well). But somehow I’m managing to make tiny bits of incremental progress on both my second and third novels. My second novel, already written, is in the design and editing phase. I’ve started having conversations with my cover designer and I think we’ve agreed on a cover image. My third novel is waiting anxiously to be written and I am beginning my research in small ways. It’s a very research intensive project with a violin theme so I have ordered my first book to read and bought a lot of violin music that I listen to on my ipod.

Q: How can we purchase Sometimes That Happens With Chicken?

You can buy Chicken online, order it in your local bookstore, or download it for free. Here’s a link to my website for all the links and details – Get Chicken

Between the technology available and the current state of the traditional publishing industry I was forced to make a very difficult decision. There was a time when I thought successfully self-publishing fiction was impossible but one cannot make assumptions based purely on other people’s past failures. In the end, it came down to the math – cutting out the middle men is very compelling if you can keep your own overhead low and produce a quality product.

Q: What is your marketing strategy? Blog tours? Readings?

When it comes to literary fiction, marketing is all about word of mouth so I’m doing anything I can to spread the word. I stay active online, participate in various communities and I am starting to reach out to more journalists across more media regarding my plan. I am currently planning a series of events on the East Coast and one here in Los Angeles. I will have firm dates and venues soon.

Q: How do you differentiate you and your book from the thousands of other self-published works?

I set out to provide a higher quality product than is generally seen in the self-publishing sphere which is often derided for inadequately edited books with low production values. I also took time to plan a well orchestrated launch even though self-publishing is often touted for its speed to market.

In a way I was not trying to differentiate myself and my book from other self-published books so much as I was trying to match the quality and production values of traditionally published books.

Q: What portion of your marketing strategy has shown the most benefit? Reviews? Radio?

I’m still in the early stages of everything, including marketing and publicity but what I have found most successful are good old fashioned conversations. I have conversations with people I know and conversations with complete strangers and amazing things come from those conversations – like this interview.

I wrote an article recently on this exact topic for StartupPrincess.com – a great community of female entrepreneurs. It’s called from Hello To PR and it explains some of the simple online tools I use to start conversations.

Q: Have you experienced any instances of the self publishing stigma?

I’ve actually experienced an overwhelming amount of support for my business model, but I did have one friend who thought I was crazy. He insisted that you should only self-publish a book when you can’t publish it any other way. He thought I should submit my manuscript widely to publishers before “settling” for self-publishing, but I insisted I wasn’t settling for anything. I don’t think I ever convinced him, but he didn’t convince me either.

Q: Why did you choose to formally create a publishing company versus a more informal approach?

In general, I’m a DIY kind of girl and by forming my own publishing company I was able to cut out all the middlemen. Though publishing services like Lulu.com and Amazon CreateSpace might make it marginally easier to sell your book, I don’t think they are necessary.

Q: Are you on the POD model or did you use an offset printer?

POD technology is at the heart of my business model. Without it, it would be impossible to be an indie author.

Q: You have a very professional cover and your website is also very well done. What portions of the process did you farm out to friends and freelancers?

Q: The average self-published book sells less than a hundred copies. Have you crossed that threshold?

My sales statistics for May aren’t final yet (so I haven’t looked at them) but I know I sold 36 books between 4/15 and 4/30 – my first two weeks of sales. I have no doubt that I will cross this threshold and many others beyond it, but at this stage, it’s hard to say how long it will take.

Q: Do you think self-publishing is financially viable? Were there any unexpected costs?

I haven’t proven it yet, but I do believe self-publishing is financially viable. And I’ll go so far as to say that self-publishing might be the only financially viable option available to authors of literary fiction.

My costs were low and spent a piece at a time over the course of many months. I did enough planning to anticipate most of my expenses but there were things like printed copies of the manuscript that were needed for the editing process which could easily be overlooked. This process doesn’t entail any large single expenditure but things that cost $20 or $25 or $100 dollars start to add up. For example, I bought a lot of books for research purposes. I could have saved several hundred dollars going to the library for these books, but I wanted them readily available for long periods and I marked up many of them for future reference.

One of these days I’ll have to break down all my expenses on my blog but the majority of money I spent (approximately $2000) was not for the cost of actually publishing my book. That only cost about $350 when you add up my file setup costs with the printer and the purchase of my ISBN (and I could have saved $100 if I had not made a small change to my file production files).

Q: I see you’re giving away the ebook version of your book away for free online with the “print books for sales, ebooks for fans approach.” Do you think the model works?

I think the concept of “free sells” has been proven and documented widely. The concept of hiding content behind pay-only walls is an old-school business model that has outlived its usefulness. Technology has turned all the old models on their heads and giving away content creates a foundation of trust with your audience that fearfully guarded intellectual property cannot.

For three great resources that touch on this topic check out the following three books:

• What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis
• An Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and other Goliaths by Glenn Reynolds
• Small Is The New Big by Seth Godin

Thanks Wanda!