Please welcome author Jill James to my blog today. Jill will give away a $5 Amazon certificate to one lucky commenter.
Tell us about yourself, Jill.
Great to be here. I've been writing seriously since 2004 once my baby was in high school and I finally had “me” time. I live in Northern California with my husband who is the inspiration for all my romance novel heroes. I write contemporary and paranormal romance.
How great to have such an inspirational husband. Have you had other careers before becoming a writer? If you can believe it, I was a junior tax accountant and went to college to become an accountant/computer programmer.
Quite a switch to writing then. How did you get started? I think I've always written stories. At ten I was writing plays and acting them out in my garage with sock puppets and charging the neighborhood kids a nickel to watch.
A born entrepreneur! Tell us about your current WIP. My upcoming release is an urban fantasy/horror; Love in the Time of Zombies. I love zombie books and movies and wanted to write one of my own. I have this theory of why they are so popular, especially the ones that have even a smidgen of romance. If in the middle of mayhem, zombies going for your brains, renegades going for everything else, limited resources, and death and destruction you can find true love, how hard can it be in real life? It should be available by the end of June.
Where do you get the ideas for your stories? Most of my books started as dreams. I dream in Technicolor Movie Vision. By the time I wake up I have a whole book in my head.
That's amazing! I dream about my books, but in bits at a time. What is your favorite part of writing? Taking something from my imagination and putting it down on paper.
What is your least favorite part of writing? Trying to take something from my imagination and put it down on paper.
LOL! Do you send out a newsletter? I love doing a newsletter. I only send it out if I have news, like a new release or a piece of my current work in progress. About once a month, sometimes I skip a month if I’m deep in the writing or editing cave.
How has your experience with self-publishing been? Slow, but steady. Kind of like the tortoise. I started with a small e-press, so I learned many lessons to take and carry over to self publishing.
What advice do you have for other authors wanting to self-publish? Know yourself. Can you set your own deadlines and keep them? Can you do all the work? Or do you know what you can’t do and you are willing and able to delegate?
All self-pubbed books are rumored to be shoddily edited. What do you say to that? Never speak in absolutes. You can’t say all traditionally published books are perfect or even necessary (hello Snooki), so don’t assume a self-published author hasn't done their homework and put their best out there. Some are great. Some are not. Just like those out of New York.
Find my books at http://www.jilljameswrites.com or http://www.amazon.com/author/jilljames
I have very weird dreams. I don't know how they would translate into stories anyone would want to read.
ReplyDeleteI think that self-publishing did have a very bad name, but I actually think that people don't feel this way as much anymore.
marypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com
Mary, thanks for stopping by. I hope that the stigma of self-publishing will just disappear. I've found some amazing self-pubbed stuff in the last year.
DeleteUp until a few months agao, I wouldn't think of "love" and "zombies" in the same title, but the movie Warm Bodies proved anything can happen.
ReplyDeleteBest of luck!
Charlotte, thanks for stopping by. I haven't seen Warm Bodies yet, but my lovers are "live" people. LOL
DeleteVery nice interview. And so true about favorite and least favorite parts of writing!
ReplyDeleteJudy, thanks. I enjoyed it. Yes, funny how the favorite and least favorite can be the same. Wish I had a machine that just took the dream and made it words. :)
DeleteWhat a great interview! I love your cover. Who knew Zombies would be such a hit!
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Melissa, thanks. I've been on a zombie watching/reading kick for about 18 months now. I'm really enjoying the ground-breaking stuff coming out Indie/Self. Really out-of-the-box thinking.
DeleteLove the book cover, Jill! Did you create it yourself?
ReplyDeleteI'm so envious that you can "dream a book"! That is amazing. I get snippets in my dreams and think, "that would work well in a story" but never more than a snippet at a time.
Good luck with sales!
Gemma, thanks. No, I'm a person who knows my limitations. Graphic design is not my forte. My cover artist is Elaina Lee of For The Muse Designs. She has done all my Indie covers.
DeleteIt is great to dream a book, but makes you very tired the next day, like being at the movies all night. LOL
Anna, thank you so much for having me on your blog. And thank you to the wonderful commenters who stopped by to visit.
ReplyDeleteGreat to have you, Jill. Good luck with your writing.
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