Kathleen Stone interview

AUTHOR INTERVIEW 

A little introduction:

Hello, and thank you for this opportunity! I have been a freelance writer since 1999 and I am now blessed to write full time. My work has appeared in Doll World Magazine, Apolloslyre.com, The Lake County Journals, Trails.com; USA Today (travel), Livestrong.com (lifestyle), Essortment, eHow, Answerbag, Examiner.com, Suite101 and YahooVoices. I am the author of six novels, including the award-winning Tell Me You Love Me and Whispers On A String. I also have short stories published in the Secrets: Fact or Fiction I & II anthologies.

When did your love of books begin?

My parents instilled a love of reading from a very young age, reading to us as early as I can remember. I didn’t sleep with dolls or stuffed animals as a child; I slept with my books. I still have a few of the first books from my childhood! Books have always been my favorite thing in the world.

When did you start to have the wish to become an author?

I remember writing my own books as a kid and then writing stories for my friends as I got older. I always knew it was something I wanted to do, but the reality of being an author didn’t really register until I was in my early thirties. I published my first book in 2002 when I was thirty-nine.

How have you found the process for becoming an author?

The process can be quite daunting, especially when just starting out. When I began there was no internet, so querying agents and publishers was your only option, unless you had a lot of money to self-publish. I queried for years and thinking back, it was a long process that took months or even years to complete the cycle, if you were lucky enough to get a response. After my divorce I decided to take my name and career back, getting the rights to my first two books returned to me and rereleasing them under my current name with new covers. I decided to self-publish this time around because I wanted complete freedom, ownership and rights to my work. I can also work at my own pace, set my own deadlines, and easily fix mistakes found after publication as soon as I’m aware of them. With traditional publishers it can take up to two or three years before a book is finally released, and I simply don’t want to wait that long. That being said, while self-publishing through a platform like Amazon is easy, being a self-published author is a twenty-four hour a day job. You can’t just slap your manuscript up, throw out a book, and think it ends there. You need to concentrate on proofreading, editing, book cover design, formatting, marketing and myriad other things that go into publishing a book. Once your book is published it doesn’t end there; you have to work to get yourself noticed, and to find readers. You have to work hard because readers don’t fall into your lap out of the sky, you have to find them. You have to woo them and get them excited about your work, and hopefully you will have a reader for life. As indie authors we are responsible for every step of the writing and publishing process, and whether we do it ourselves or hire someone to help us, we are ultimately responsible for the final product and should always put out nothing but our best work.

What would you say to those wanting to become an author?

My first bit of advice is to never give up. If becoming an author is your dream, you will find a way to do it. The road isn’t always easy, but if you persevere and seek out like-minded people who are willing to help and guide you along this chosen path, listen to what their experience tells you. Never think you know it all — even with my experience I am learning new things every day. I think the most important thing to becoming an author is you must put your best work out there. You cannot slap together a book, slide by with subpar editing practices, and expect readers to accept it, especially if you’re an indie author. Nobody is perfect; every writer makes mistakes. Even traditionally published books have mistakes in them. That doesn’t justify laziness. If you want to be taken seriously, you absolutely must put your best work out there.

Tell us about your book/books:

I currently have six books published. The first three are part of the Head Case rock novel series, about a fictional rock band from the 80s hair/glam era. Their titles are Head Case, Whiplash and Haven. My fourth book is Whispers On A String, a story about best friends who meet at the beginning of high school and how their lives separate and intertwine back together as Lonny becomes a famous rock guitarist and Ruby gets left behind. My fifth book is Tell Me You Love Me, which is a family saga and coming of age novel about step-siblings April and Auggie, who are thrown into the Hollywood life at a very young age and how the people who are supposed to be guiding their careers are manipulating and exploiting them at every turn. My brand new book, and my sixth, is Hey Jude, which is about a young girl who is one bad decision away from ending up in rehab until she is hired as a live-in nanny for a violent and uncontrollable four-old-deaf boy; a mismatch so extraordinary they manage to save each other.

What do you love about the writing/reading community?

The writing community I am involved with is extremely supportive and will go out of their way to help just by asking, whether it’s writing related or a personal crisis. I have met some wonderful writers that I now consider friends, who are not only fabulously talented, but class acts as well. I couldn’t do this without their constant support. The reading community is one that I will always cherish — without them authors will surely fail. We need readers to keep us going, to keep us motivated and that yes, we need to write that next book. That we need to continue with the manuscript we’re struggling with, because there are people out there who actually want to read it. The reading community is our life blood, and important to a writer’s very existence.

If you could say anything to your readers what would it be?

I have the best readers in the world! Without them I am nothing, and it’s because of their continued support that I continue to thrive in a sea of much bigger names. I wish I could give each of my readers a loving hug because they are the most important people in my career.

Where can people connect with you?

People can reach me at the following:

Website — www.kathleenstone.org

Twitter — @kstonewriter

Facebook — @kathleenstonewriter