Today I am pleased to present to you all the second in a series of Author Interviews. Recently I sat down with the sleep-deprived Paul Rice and our conversation went something like this:
Paul Rice: I have to have tea; I can barely write
without it. I also have to correct misspellings; I’m unable to leave them for
some other time.
Paul: What types of books do you
like to read? Who are your favorite authors? Why?
Paul Rice: I’ve always liked science fiction. I
didn’t know it a year ago, but after sampling other Indie authors’ works, I
found that I also like genres such as crime mysteries. I usually read ebooks on
my phone during my daily train commute. I stayed up late last night reading Fatal
Exchange by Russell Blake, because I couldn’t wait for the rest of the week
to find out how it ended! Other Indie authors I’ve recently read include Terri
Long, Daniel Adams, Suzie Carr, Nicholas Rose, Lissette Manning, Frederick
Brooke, Wodke Hawkinson, Lisa Stull, Philip Catshill, and many more.
Paul: If someone had the power to step into your
creative mind what would they see?
Paul Rice: I try to write with my feelings. What a
person stepping into my creative process would probably experience would be
extensions of my feelings as they interacted with ideas, images, sensations,
and beliefs.
Paul: What is a typical day for you?
Paul Rice: I’ve been a poor sleeper the past few
years. I get up somewhere between 2:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. after sleeping less
than eight hours. I write until 6:30 a.m., and then it’s time to get ready for
work. Ten or eleven hours later, I return, and run errands or do other
household necessities. I haven’t watched any television for two months.
Paul: In all the years you’ve been publishing your
work, what is the biggest mistake you made that you could share so others can
avoid making it?
Paul Rice: I published four short eBooks during the
past year. Each one had its own lesson to teach me. The first one’s lesson was
to use a copy editor. The second one was to use a graphic artist. The lesson of
the third eBook was to engage my audience. The latest eBook is trying to teach
me to see things as they are, and not to mistake reality for how I want things
to be. I’m stubbornly resisting, though. :)
Paul: How do you find the time to write?
Paul Rice: I exchange sleep for writing time. A side
effect of the exchange is that I’m less productive at my day job. After a
while, there just so much caffeine a person can drink before it doesn’t do any
good in the workplace.
Paul: What is one thing you hope I do not tell the readers?
Paul Rice: Three of my eBooks are essentially free,
because I’ve republished them as a series of blog posts.
Paul: What
led to you going your own way as a self-published author?
Paul Rice: I never considered any other method than
independently publishing. I don’t see how else I can say what I want to say
when I want to say it. It is fast, it is efficient, and my work can have a long
lifetime here in the Digital Age.
Paul: Do
you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?
Paul Rice: I
outline each work before I start. I try to keep the outline updated, especially
when I have a co-author. The outline remains broad, and allows my co-author and
myself plenty of room to write what we need to express.
Paul: Do
you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is
more fully-formed?
Paul Rice: I’m not at the point where I can write
well-formed sections of text that don’t require editing.
Paul Rice: My most recent work is Pimp ur Blog
Episode Two: Increase Search Results with Articles and Feeds. My co-author,
Messie Jessie, and I are in the middle of writing the Pimp ur Blog
series for authors and bloggers with the idea that discoverability is the key
here in the Digital Age. The first two episodes show many ways to get into
Google search results for relevant search terms so that people will discover
your book and blog. The third eBook in the series is due out in August, with
the title Pimp ur Blog Episode Three: Working with Amazon and Google.
Paul: What inspired you to write
this book?
Paul Rice: I was inspired by my co-author, Messie
Jessie, who makes an effort to put it all out there in her blog. She wasn’t
getting the recognition I thought her work deserved, so I ran a few experiments
with her permission to enhance her blog’s discoverability, at least to the
search engines. When the various methods worked, she and I teamed up to tell
others about the techniques via the Pimp ur Blog series.
Paul: How
much marketing do you do for your published works or for your ‘brand’?
Paul Rice: I am always on the lookout for different
marketing avenues. I came across one yesterday while reading a blog post where
a guy was complaining about Amazon’s take. One of the things he did about it
was to sell “direct” through Gumroad.com. You give them your PayPal email,
upload your eBook files, and Gumroad will provide a selling link to put
wherever you want. When your customers click that link on your blog, it looks
like the sale is made directly from your blog. And you, the author, get 95% of
the sales price instead of the much lower percentages offered by Amazon,
B&N, etc.!
Paul: What
do you do when you’re not writing? Do you have any hobbies or party tricks?
Paul Rice: My life is in a lot of turmoil this year.
I’ll publish a piece of fiction later this year that has a lot of my recent
factual experiences as its base. Though it hasn’t happened yet here at
mid-year, I still hold out the hope that this year will be a turnaround year
for me socially.
Paul: Well thank you, Paul. I hope it hasn't been too confusing for our readers with all the Pauls! I wish you every success for the future.
In 2012 so far, I have co-authored with Messie Jessie the
first two eBooks of the Pimp ur Blog series, Pimp ur Blog Episode
One: Boost Search Results with Social Bookmarking, and Pimp ur Blog
Episode Two: Increase Search Results with Articles and Feeds.
I used to have a lot of interest in consumer education
topics, as shown by the out-of-print titles that I wrote and marketed to
libraries in the late 1980s. With my two 2011 eBooks, Getting Well for the
First Time, and When Do I Get to Live My Own Life?, I'm now more
interested in human development and psychology.
Paul's Blog: PimpUrBlog
Paul on Facebook: facebook.com/PaulFRice
Paul on Twitter: @GettingWell4
Paul's latest book: Pimp ur Blog Episode Two (Amazon)
Thanks for the opportunity! I hope that authors will look at this easy way to sell direct, and add it to their marketing options.
ReplyDeleteWonderful! Best to you, Paul!
ReplyDelete