Thursday, May 27, 2010

Interview with Nick Spaulding


Next up in our author interviews is Nick Spaulding, author of "Life With No Breaks."

Welcome Nick!

1. Briefly describe your journey in writing your first book.

Not much of a journey with this one to be honest! Anyone who reads it will see it wasn't a book I planned in the slightest. I just woke up with the idea of writing a book in one sitting and actually started it that evening. I guess the plan was just to write all about some of the more interesting anecdotes from my life that I thought would make people laugh. It's something anyone could do really...I refuse to believe anyone has lived a boring life!

2. Did you query agents or traditional publishers before publishing on Amazon?

No. Such was the odd nature of this book, I knew going to traditional publishers would be largely a waste of time. An anecdotal comedy book written by an unknown author is a risk at the best of times. I knew if this book was going to be successful it would have to come from a different perspective. Amazon self-pubbing seemed perfect for that.

3. What factors influenced your decision to self-publish?

Honestly? Because it was pretty easy to do. I'm in the middle of drafting a fictional novel and needed a change of pace for a while, so Life...With No Breaks became the side-project. Self-publishing seemed like a straightforward and easy thing to do, so I went ahead with it.

4. Will you try to garner a traditional publishing contract for any future books?

Yep. My other stuff will go via regualr publishers. Anything else written like LWNB I will still self publish though.

5. Did you design your cover art? If not, would you care to share your graphic designer’s information?

Yep, it was me...with a little help from a buddy at work who's a whizz with photoshop. As he actually works for me, I'm not encouraging work for him outside our company!

6. If you used a graphic designer, how involved were you during the creative process for your cover?

Three beers, a packet of pork scratchings and a game of darts in the local pub was all we needed to thrash out what the cover should look like :)

7. How did you feel when you got your first sale? Are you pleased with sales so far?

Very pleased indeed :) Quite a strange feeling to be honest. The idea that a complete stranger is actually reading your work! As for sales so far, last week I peaked at 497 on Amazon's sales rankings, which was fantastic. The sales are a bit erratic though...it all depends on how pro-active I'm being on the forums. I'm hoping to get sales onto an independent roll without my constantly bumping threads at some point!

8. What kinds of social media [twitter, facebook, webpage, blog, writing forums] are you involved with trying to garner attention for your book(s)?

I'm on Twitter (Spalding_Author), but I'm not currently using a blog or website. This is because I'm not the greatest of PC experts, but will probably give it a go if I feel I need more promotion for the book.

9. Besides Amazon, are there any other sites where your books are for sale?

Yep, it's also at Smashwords. This is for other e-readers and for international people (I'm in the UK, after all) Address is http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/13551

10. What’s next for you?

A bite of tea, a quick lie down and then I'm off down the pub...

...oh, did you mean as a writer? :)

I'm going to keep working on the novel and monitoring how Life...With No Breaks does.

Thanks for letting me contribute and I hope everyone who buys the book will enjoy it :)

Best wishes,

Nick


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