Hi there. My name is Liz, and I write horror. That sounds like the beginning of an AA\u00a0meeting, and maybe it should. I also write science fiction and fantasy, but nothing\u00a0escapes having a dark tinge and a scary scene or two.<\/p>\n
So, on to the questions! As someone with a non-traditional publishing experience, the\u00a0topics I find the most fascinating that I get to talk about the least are the ways in which\u00a0my unorthodox journey has given me insight into my profession and a unique set of skills.<\/p>\n
I love this question because it acknowledges that my journey as a self-publisher and small\u00a0press owner had value and is an integral part of the artistic professional I am today.\u00a0I am headstrong, a bit impatient and a self-starter, and that has served me well in writing, although it has not always led to me taking the most traditional paths. I attended the\u00a0Odyssey Fantasy Writing Workshop<\/a> in 2006, and from there I racked up a few short story\u00a0sales, but eventually life (and the search for a meaningful day job) got in the way and my progress stalled. I took a chance, got a government grant and struck out on my own as a\u00a0self-publisher.<\/p>\n Soon, when I felt confident in my ability to produce quality books, I started publishing\u00a0other people too. Together with these amazing authors, Pop Seagull Publishing<\/a> released\u00a0two anthologies that I am incredibly proud of to this day. I love publishing other people, and wanted to be able to focus solely on outside work as a publisher. Plus, I had\u00a0discovered that for a variety of reasons, I just wasn\u2019t able to put as much effort into\u00a0honing and promoting my own work when I was self-publishing. I made the difficult decision to put Pop Seagull on an indefinite hiatus while I pursued traditional publishing.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t easy going from being a publisher to being a relatively obscure author, but I\u00a0persevered, and I am happy to report that my supernatural horror novel\u00a0The Face in the\u00a0Marsh<\/em> will debut from Renaissance Press<\/a> in 2019.<\/p>\n I learned a lot of hard skill sets through becoming a publisher, including layout, cover\u00a0and interior design and so much more, but it was the life lessons that were the most\u00a0valuable. I learned, for instance, that perseverance pays off in dollars and cents. That not only do authors who submit more create positive relationships with editors, but authors\u00a0who put out more books actually make more due to higher discoverability and people\u00a0binge-reading their series. I learned that editors are people, with good reasons behind their decisions that 90% of the time have nothing to do with your story\u2019s potential. I also\u00a0learned about my own strengths and weaknesses. For instance, I am very good at\u00a0charming folks in person and handing them a business card, and abominably bad at thinking up abstract marketing strategies and cold-calling promotional venues, to the point that hiring someone is a budgeting must.<\/p>\n These little things, and ten thousand more, sent me off into the traditional publishing world armed with experience and knowledge. I would encourage anyone to try self-publishing as long as they are willing to put in the work and do their homework on what it takes to put out a quality product. Which brings me to\u2026<\/p>\n Question #2: There are so many indie published books out there. How do I know\u00a0which ones to give a chance? Should I give any of them a chance?<\/strong><\/p>\n I would love to hear this question come out of people\u2019s mouths because it would mean\u00a0that they are seeking out new voices in publishing, and not judging a book\u2019s worth by\u00a0\u2018Can I buy it at Chapters?\u2019 or \u2018Were you on Oprah?\u2019. I really wish more people would\u00a0give indie books a chance and support small creators, but I do admit that the marketplace\u00a0right now does not make discerning between indie books easy. I have a few rules of\u00a0thumb of my own when picking out indie books to try. My first piece of advice would be\u00a0to pick up indie books at conventions. You can meet the author, see if they resonate with\u00a0you as a person, and best of all, you can get a look at the physical book, peek inside, and\u00a0maybe even hear a reading to decide if you like it. This gives you more data than\u00a0browsing on Amazon or other sites where things are just kind of piled in front of you.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve got a title you think you might be interested in, open it up. Read a bit. See if\u00a0the style works for you. I would also recommend looking at the cover and interior layout.\u00a0I know it seems superficial, but it isn\u2019t. It indicates how much time and effort the author\u00a0has put into making sure they have a quality product, and that extends to writing just as\u00a0much as technical stuff. Also, bad layout can make a book just as unreadable as poor\u00a0prose.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve read and liked an indie book, please review it and push it to your social\u00a0media contacts. This makes a difference to all authors, but it can make the difference\u00a0between making a living or languishing in obscurity to indie authors. Okay, PSA over.\u00a0That\u2019s all folks! Thanks for reading!<\/p>\n Follow Liz on Twitter<\/a> or on her blog<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “I am headstrong, a bit impatient and a self-starter, and that has served me well in writing, although it has not always led to me taking the most traditional paths.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6,46],"tags":[161],"class_list":["post-612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-guests","category-party-questions","tag-liz-hirst"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":996,"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612\/revisions\/996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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