Making Someday Happen: Author Interview with Dawn Ford

What made you decide to write your YA novel?
Knee-high Lies is a reflection of my teen years growing up in a dysfunctional home. Both of my parents were alcoholics, and there was oodles of drama to draw from. And it was the story that kept trying to come out. I’d push it back into the recesses of my mind, and it would pop out to nag at me. This book just had to be written!

Was there any particular author you read that made you think, I could write like that? 

I don’t believe I ever thought that. I would read other authors and wish I could write like they could—pulling a complicated plot off or creating characters that stayed with you long after you finished reading them. That’s what I’ve always strived for.
How long did it take you to write your first book? 

Seven long, grueling years and three edits. 

Who helped you with the editing? 

My critique group, several beta reader friends, one Professional Writing college student, and a professional editor with Splickety Publishing Group all helped me polish this book. 

Who encouraged you along the way? 

My family and friends were all encouraging. Since I am part of several writer’s groups, there was always someone there to tell me I could do this. Without them I would’ve given up years ago. Are you active with any writing critique groups? I am actively involved with one critique group that I found through the SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writer’s and Illustrators). I’ve been lucky to be a member of this group since 2010. They are amazing!

You are the Operations Manager at Splickety Publishing Group, which publishes flash fiction magazines. How did you get involved with them? 

I found Ben Wolf, the founder of SPG, at a conference five years ago. Three years later I found out they were searching for an Operations Manager and I applied. The rest is history. 

I see they are the publishers for your first novel. Tell me about that process. 

It was a roller coaster ride! Two years ago SPG was going to change direction and start publishing books along with their flash fiction magazines. Submissions were open to staff before they were going to go public. I sent in two manuscripts to Sarah Grimm, their lead acquisitions editor, and she accepted one of them—Knee-high Lies. 

I received two professional edits from them before Splickety chose not to pursue publishing full-length novels. However, since we had come so far in the process, Ben Wolf was generous in allowing me to use their brand to publish the book, I just had to do the rest of the work to publish KHL. I contacted a friend who helps in formatting books, and a photographer friend who helped me create the cover. Together with another friend who did a final read-through to make sure we hadn’t missed any typos (hopefully we caught them all!), I hybrid published Knee-high Lies. (It pays to have friends in the right places!!)

Your first published novel is a contemporary YA, but your second one is fantasy fiction. What led you to write in a totally different genre? 

My first love is fantasy. It’s ironic that the first book that I published was in a genre I normally don’t write. But, like I said before, this book is the one that had to come out. So, like the strong-willed child it is, it got it’s way! 

That story won you the 2016 Genesis award for the best-unpublished novel, which is titled Kingdom Come. Do you have a publisher for it? 

Kingdom Come is yet to be published. Unfortunately several personal tragedies happened the year I was writing Kingdom Come—right in the middle of it. Now, though it’s finished, I feel there’s something still missing. But I haven’t given up! I love this story and continue to work on it with the hope one day it will be published. 

Can you give me a short synopsis of that story? 

Things come easily to orphaned scullery maid Tambrynn, literally. She has the gift of telekinesis. But every time she calls an object to her, trouble follows. When her ‘gift’ gets her kicked out of her job, and headed for the stockade, her carriage is wrecked in a dark forest and she has to find her way to safety. However, she’s never safe for long. The wolves who killed her mother to get to her are on her heels, and a familiar shape-shifter claims he’s come to take her home—to another kingdom. Who can Tambrynn trust when she doesn’t even believe she can trust herself? 

What is the hardest part of writing for you? Starting? Creating a scene? Dialog? Tension? The middle is always the hardest. I know how I want to start the story, and I can picture the end. It’s how to get there that’s the hardest for me. And I’m a panster, so plotting doesn’t come naturally to me.

What does your editor remind you to do most often? 

Oh, gosh! Several things!! However, commas are my kryptonite. Put them in, take them out. I detest them.

What’s the best encouragement you’ve had in your writing? 

After I published Knee-high Lies I received several messages from readers telling me they were only going to read one chapter and they ended up reading half the book before they could put it down. That’s huge for me. Especially since this book is so close to my heart it was like a part of me poured into every word I wrote. I’ve been so touched by so many positive comments.

We have all experienced rejection. Give me an example of one you’ve had, and how you learned to write past it. 

The worst rejection I had was not a rejection at all. I’d met with a publisher at a conference who loved two of my manuscripts and asked me to send him full proposals which included a genre analysis, marketing strategy, back book cover, chapter by chapter synopsis, and full polished manuscript for both books. 

I spent months working on them, and had my critique group take extra time to help polish them. I sent them in and waited patiently to hear back for three months. I then contacted the publisher to see if they’d received my proposals. Crickets. I never heard back from them. All that work and not even a real rejection! It was frustrating. The only consolation I had was that those proposals were ready for the next publisher. Luckily, it didn’t stop me. It just let me know which direction to never go down again.

What has surprised you the most in writing/publishing? 

When I tell people I’m a writer I often hear from them how someday they’re going to write a book. Someday, like when the more important things in their life are accomplished, they’ll sit down and write a book, just like that. What they don’t know, and what I didn’t know, was how much work it takes to get a book that is not just gibberish, but actually publishable. Readers want something that is worth their time and money. And it takes work. 

What frustrated you the most? 

Writing is so subjective. One person might love my writing and the next one thinks it’s garbage. You’ll never get everyone on board to love what you do.

What do you know now about writing that you wished you had known sooner? 

Just get the story written. I was always so worried about making it perfect as I wrote. You can do that once the story is down. I’ve learned to make my inner editor shut up. 

What is some of the best writing advice that you’ve received or could give? 

Keep writing. When you finish one manuscript, write the next one. Don’t waste your whole life on one manuscript that you think is the next revolutionary novel, or your defining work. It’s a book. You’re not going to die if it never gets published, but you will continue to hone your writing. So, keep writing! 

Are there any other points about writing that you would like to add? 

Write the hard stuff. Dig deep into your soul and pull out that thing that you don’t like to think about. Yeah, that awkward, humiliating thing. Because we all have those things. And your reader will identify with it. And they’ll remember it. And they’ll buy your book because it makes them feel and heal. Don’t fear the hard stuff. Embrace it. And then write it. 

That's all for today's interview. If you would like to learn more about Dawn's writing, here are some links to get you started.

website:   http://dawnfordauthor.com http://dawnfordauthor.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DawnFordAuthor/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/dawnfordauthor, Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dawn_ford_author/

The Long Process of Traditional Publishing: Author Interview with Bonnie Ferrante

Bonnie Ferrante is a multi-talented writer. She’d had three romance novels published and this year is unveiling a YA historical paranormal novel called Switch. But that’s not the end of her writing styles. She is also self-publishing her picture books which she has illustrated.
 

When  did you write your first book?

To be perfectly honest, I wrote my first book a long, long time ago. I sent it out to fantasy and science fiction publishers. Many, many publishers. It was rejected. Justifiably so, I think now. I had read several books on novel writing, attended a few workshops, belonged to a short story writing critique group, and had gone for a week long course at the University in Kingston. But, really, my work was not publishable standard. I just hadn't put in the 10,000 hours needed to develop a skill.

When did your writing start selling?

I continued to write small things over the years and had several short stories published. I was a newspaper columnist for three and a half years. When I stopped teaching, I decided to focus completely on my writing. I started taking in person and online workshops and classes. I steadily wrote and I read about writing. I saw a call for submissions from Noble Romance Publishing for a new young adult line of books. I dug out my old manuscript and ripped it apart. I submitted it, and it was accepted. Part of my original problem, I think, was that I was submitting it to the wrong type of publishers. It was too heavy on romance.

Who encouraged you?

No one encouraged me to keep trying. I think I've just inherited my family's trait of stubbornness. I wanted to be a writer my whole life but never felt confident enough to give it 100%. I always felt that I had to have a "real" job with security and a decent paycheck. Teaching took every bit of my energy and creative juice.

Have other novels been started and stopped along the way?

Yes, but I don't get very far into them. I have enough ideas that I'm not going to waste time on something that doesn't fuel my creative energy. The ones I have abandoned were still at the concept/outline stages. I may even get back to them someday.

What made you switch from romance to YA writing?

I discovered that YA was my voice. I just kept slipping naturally into that tone and perspective. Maybe I still have a teenage brain. I think I'm actually a perpetual new adult. I don't read romance books so it really isn't a genre I could become an expert in.

How hard was it to find a home for this historical paranormal story?

It's funny that you used the word switch, because that is the title of my historical paranormal novel. It has the strangest back story of all my books. I wrote it as a children's short story for magazine. It was rejected. I tweaked it a little and begin submitting it as a picture book, similar in style to "Tatterhood" by Robin Muller, which I love. I sent it to Tradewind Books, a small Canadian company, and the publisher telephoned me! He loved my voice and style and told me to change it into a young adult novel and he would look at it. He was interested in working with me!

 

How did you go about re-working it into a YA novel?

Working about six hours a day, it took me four months to prepare the outline. I had to do a lot of research because, although, I knew enough about Elizabethan times to write a short story, I did not know enough to write a book. I submitted it and begin writing the novel. I didn't hear anything back. After two months, the publisher called and said he had not received it. So I sent it again along with my completed first chapter.

What happened next? Did he like it

Three months after that, an editor contacted me. She had been given the manuscript by the publisher and was unable to open the file. A month later, she wrote back telling me what a wonderful writer I was and how much she loved the book, but unfortunately they weren't going to publish it because they felt it was a little too unusual for their market. She suggested I send it to another publisher. She also said she'd like to take a look at it when it was complete.I finished writing the novel, which took another year. I sent it to her only to learn she had moved to another publishing company. She sent it to Tradewind Books, thinking he had proprietorship I guess. He didn't remember having any contact with me before and expressed interest in publishing the book.

 

Since then, I have been working with a different part-time editor for three years on the novel. It takes several months to get my edits back. We planned to have it published in 2014, but I'm not sure if that will happen.. It has undergone two dramatic major plot rewrites and is barely recognizable from my first draft. We are on the final edits. In May, it will be four years since I sent the original short story. The lesson in all of this is, you must develop patience if you're going to go the traditional publishing route.

I’ve often seen notices for applying for writing grants, but haven’t applied. You've been successful. What does it take to win a grant?

No one was more surprised than I was, when I won the first and second grants I applied for. Since then I've applied for three more and been unsuccessful. Thoroughly research the types of grants and be sure you are applying for the correct one. Polish your submission to perfection, and that includes the grant application as well.

 

If you're planning on submitting for a grant in the future, it's a good idea to read the application well ahead of time so that you can start building up your portfolio. After that it's based on luck: how many people apply, how good their work is, tastes of the panel of judges, if there are similar applications, how much money is available, etc.

 

How did you use those grants?

My grants were used to provide me with time to write.

You’ve now moved into self-publishing.  Will you still try the traditional route?

I may still submit traditionally. The problem is time. I'm not a young woman anymore and I've recently developed Parkinson's disease so I can't take five years to get every novel published. I would still recommend traditional publishing for beginning writers. Working with an editor is an incredibly valuable learning experience. No matter how many classes or how many books you read, you'll never get the same personal attention to your work.

What do you think is the most common misconception about self-publishing?

The most common misconception is that you can a write decent book in a couple of months and then put it on the market. It's frustrating to see how the market is flooded with so-called writers who have not polished their craft to a professional level. I was horrified to see that someone had written the first draft of a novel in November for NaNoWriMo and actually published two weeks later. There is no way that book could be ready. The picture book market is even worse because it takes less time to complete a first draft.

You are currently doing picture books. I’ve heard non-writers say picture books should be easy to write. How would you respond to that?

I'd respond with a giant bull shit. I've had just about every kind of writing you can think of professionally published: magazine articles, newspaper columns, short stories, novels, even poetry. Picture books are as hard as anything else. If you are doing your own illustrations, I'd say even harder than most. It's that attitude that floods Amazon with amateur books that would've made lovely family keepsakes but are not good enough to be sold. BTW, I'm still writing young adult novels as well. I have three in the works.

What type of publicity do you do to promote your book? How does social media play into your promotions?

I have zero budget for publicity, so I do it all myself. I spent three or four hours a day on social media, press releases, interviews, requests for reviews, etc. It takes a tremendous amount of time and energy away from writing, but it's necessary. How else will anyone know my work exists?

What do you know now about writing/publishing you wished you had known sooner?

I wish I'd known how much online advice was available. I could've followed the advice of experienced individuals instead of finding out things alone, the hard way.

What is the best advice about writing you’ve learned that you would like to pass along?

Put your work in a drawer and don't look at it until it has become completely unfamiliar to you. When you reread it, you will realize things you never did before.

Thanks for your insight, Bonnie. Once again we're reminded that writing doesn't come as an overnight success. It takes years of hard work.

 

If you'd like to get a glimpse of all of Bonnie's writing styles, here's some of your options. With the links below you can see she is active with social media.

Website            Amazon         Linkedin         Goodreads          twitter - @BonnieFerrante

 

Pinterest - http://www.pinterest.com/bferrante0365/boards/

Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/user/Bonnie0904