Hi! I'm 24 and have my B.A. in Sociology from Meredith College. I currently sling coffee, watch an unhealthy amount of Supernatural and write sci-fi/fantasy. I grew up in eastern North Carolina, in a small town that you'd miss if you blinked your eye. I can still smell the collard greens and taste the yummy cheese biscuits I gobbled up on my way to school. I live in Sacramento now, and California's amazing but sometimes I miss living in the country and being away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
Literature has always played a big role in my life. When I was younger I spent most of my time with my nose stuck in a book, reading everything from Reader's Digest anthologies that I secreted away from my mother's office to The Babysitter's Club. I've read more "mature" reading, but I've always been drawn to young adult literature.
2. Since when do you write? What authors inspired you? What are some of your favorite books?
I've written, well, all of my life. From poems and letters to short stories and my first published novel, Wasteland, I've always had something to say. I've always expressed myself best in writing. When I speak in front of a group of people I get really nervous, but words come naturally to me when I have a piece of paper (or a keyboard). I feel relaxed and in my element.
Some of my favorite books are The Bell Jar, 1984, The Graveyard Book, A Series of Unfortunate Events novellas, The Twilight Saga, Interview With the Vampire, and Cell. Authors that inspire me are Anne Rice and Stephen King. They both have an incredible talent for creating suspense and an environment that you can picture as you read. I can pick up Interview with the Vampire and Cell and it feels like the first time. I'm still enraptured and on the edge of my seat.
3. How and when did you decide to publish?
I was always the weirdo that secretly loved it when the professor assigned papers. Combined with my love of reading, it was always my dream to write for a living and go on a book tour and have readers that really connected with my stories. After a networking event when I touched base with a Meredith alum who was a published author, I decided to finally do something with my writing and finish up one of the writing projects I was working on. That writing project became my first novel, Wasteland. 4. Did you try the traditional publishing way? How did that work out for you? For how long did you try?
My senior year of college (2009), after finishing up Wasteland, I decided I couldn't let it gather dust in my desk. At that point I had shared it with family and friends and they all loved it, so after another edit or two, I polished it up and started doing my research and gathering everything together to start shopping it around to literary agents. I started querying various lit. agents around the country in early 2010.
5. What made you consider self-publishing? When and how did you decide your work was ready for self-publishing?
I decided to self publish a few months ago after trying the traditional route for a little over a year. I sent out dozens of email and written queries and received form letter rejections in return. Every rejection was a punch in the gut, but I knew that I had a really solid story and that someone, somewhere would want to read it. A month ago I joined Inkpop and posted my story and after a few days I hit the 1100 mark. There I was, reaching out to my target audience and they loved it. I decided to stop waiting for a literary agent to take a chance on my novel and go it alone and put out my story myself. Wasteland went live on Smashwords a few weeks ago and is still going strong!
6. What self-publishing methods did you explore? Which did you end up using? Why?
I heard about Lulu from a friend, so originally I was going to publish through them. But through my research, I found out some of their terms were kind of restrictive and I wanted to have the ability to publish on a variety of platforms (print, Amazon, B&N etc.) without any binding legal requirements or regulations regarding who and where I could post. I found Smashwords and began there and they've been generally awesome. The only issue is the "Meat Grinder" they use to format your book is kind of wonky. Luckily they allow you to select what you want to post, so the formats that are crisp and clean are what's available. I got my boyfriend in all of his tech saviness to format my work in .epub and .mobi format so I could directly submit those on Kindle Direct Publishing and Pubit. Having my book look as professional as possible is very important to me.
Currently Wasteland is available on Amazon and Smashwords (soon on B&N) and I'm still looking at my options for print.
7. What have you self-published? Where can we buy your work?
I am self published on Smashwords and Amazon. You can find Wasteland at the following links:
Smashwords
Amazon
My author website
Thanks so much for sharing your experience! Wasteland sounds like a great read! If you guys want to know more about Wasteland or its writer head on over to her blog: http://www.triciatypes.blogspot.com/
After reading her book let her know what you think through GoodReads!
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