When did you first start writing?
Unlike most authors who will tell you they have been writing since they were a kid, I didn't start writing until around 2005. I say 'around' because back then it wasn't anything serious. I just started writing the back story to my D&D (Dungeons & Dragons) character, Zarkina, who has been rattling around in my head for the last 31 years.
For over four years, the first three chapters of her story sat on my PC and every now and then I would add to it. It's wasn't until the economy tanked and I lost my job as a COO (Chief Operations Officer) in 2009, they I really started to write. After becoming miserable and frustrated searching for a job, my husband said, "Why don't you finish Zarkina's book?" I am sure he just was trying to give me a distraction so he wouldn't have to listen to my b*tching about my lack of success in finding a job.
I started writing more of Zarkina's tale and her voice kept growing louder and louder in my head with every page I wrote. I went to conventions and sat in on writing panels and joined writer's groups online to learn more. By the time the first half of Zarkina's story was written and I had investigated & learned about publishing, other voices made themselves known.
Since then, writing has become not only my full time job but also a compulsion... and it is all my husband's fault!
What motivated you to become an indie author instead of going with a traditional publishing house?
The more I learned about writing the more I wanted to be educated about the publishing aspects. Since I was a COO, I was familiar with contracts, distributors, vendors, and the such. I think this gave me an advantage when I was looking into my publishing options. I spoke with several authors and did my homework on the pros & cons of becoming self published. So much so, that I now speak every year at a convention about it and have put the information on my website.
This was in 2009 and self publishing wasn't even picking up speed yet. Most indie authors were looked down upon and comments about them 'not being a real author' were frequently tossed about.
However, the real deciding factor was cost. I looked into several different publishing house submission requirements and almost had a heart attack. They did not accept digital copies of a manuscript but wanted a hard copy, double spaced, bound manuscript mailed to them.
No big deal right? Well, Fates was 330 pages, over 150k words, and once I double spaced it, it was over 700 pages! To put that in perspective, that is almost a ream of copy paper for every printed manuscript I wanted to send out. Add to that the cost of binding the manuscript to the publishers specifications, around $70 a piece, at the time, and the shipping and I was looking at $150 or so per manuscript that I wanted to send out. And that did not even guarantee it would even be looked at!
Since I was unemployed at the time, I just didn't have the money to gamble on 'hopefully they will look at it." I wasn't writing to get rich anyways so self pub was the better option for me.
Read more of this interview.