Interview with Delyse Rodrigues-Trink

Available at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Wrapped-In-A-Rainbow-ebook/dp/B00313Q1JW

(5 customer reviews)

Welcome Delyse!

Briefly describe your journey in writing your first book.

Wrapped in a Rainbow had been a work in progress for many years. I completed the first draft about five years ago.

Did you query agents and traditional publishers?  How long before you got your offer of representation/your first contract?

I didn’t query agents but quite naively started sending out letters to some of the largest romance publishers such as Harlequin. The results were so disheartening that I ended up shelving away the book. All the major publishers would not even consider an unknown author or look at anyone’s work that wasn’t represented by an agent.

Last year, I read somewhere about many new opportunities opening up to be published in e-book format. I decided to edit my book and started to query smaller publishers. There was some interest and then rejection, but to my delight I got a positive response from a publisher in July!

What factors influenced your decision to go with a particular agent or publisher?

Club Lighthouse Publishing sent me such positive feedback after they sampled my first three chapters that I had to go with them. They are also a Canadian publisher that likes to publish local authors so that helped to cement my decision.

Are you currently under a traditional publishing contract for future books or do you have manuscripts that you will publish directly for Kindle?

My publisher only holds the rights to the digital book so I was free to go ahead and publish the paperback myself. I did this on Amazon in May of this year and I am so happy that I did. Although I have a good relationship with my editor and publisher I am leaning towards publishing any future books myself. (With the help of tech savvy family and friends!)

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

The cover for Wrapped in a Rainbow was designed by artist T.L.Davison through Club Lighthouse Publishing.

If you used a graphic designer/publisher’s designer, how involved were you during the creative process for your cover?

I looked over some of the other covers that were done and stated which style of cover I admired. I then gave the artist an idea of what the main characters should look like and she took it from there. I am quite pleased with the cover.

How did you feel when you got your first sale? 

Well, my husband wanted to be my first sale which was very sweet, but I was quite embarrassed when my editor emailed me to say that I didn’t have to buy my own book!

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

Again I was quite naïve thinking that once the book was placed out there in many different outlets then people would just be buying it up!   Months later I realized my folly and decided to promote. I was on Facebook and assumed that all my friends and family would buy it right away but there were only a few that did. I started learning from other authors where to promote and so I now have a web page and promote on different websites.

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

Yes, I am lucky in that way. My publisher has my book listed with Mobipocket, Fictionwise, Diesel ebooks, Cyberread and All Romance.

What’s next for you?

I am currently writing a teen/young adult mystery in a similar vein as the NancyDrew/Hardy Boys books that I read and enjoyed while growing up.  After that I had an inspiration to write a suspense/romance about working in the medical field which I did for many years.