CARRIER is Book One of The Line Series. It takes place
approximately one hundred years from now, when the world governments have fallen
and corrupt corporations purchase territories of land. Inside the walled city
of Auberge, they have legalized human trafficking, and Naya, a girl who was
sold into slavery as a child, and now working as a sex slave, is released
because she is pregnant with twins. But there are terms to her release she
finds difficult to comply with, and for that, there are dire consequences.
Have you
ever had a minor character evolve into a major one? Did that change the
direction of the novel at all?
There’s a character named Shirel that served a small part in
the first quarter of the book in the earlier drafts. And then she just sort of
disappeared. During the editing process, and I can’t remember who gave me the
note – it was either my agent or my editor – sorry ladies! – one of them
suggested Shirel re-appear later on. So I wracked my brain and came up with a
way to weave her back into the story (sorry - no spoilers!) and I was so
pleased with the way it turned out I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t thought of that
myself. It really added so much depth.
Did you
try the traditional route to publishing, i.e. querying agents/publishers?
Yes. CARRIER is considered a traditionally published book
because it was represented by my agent and sold to Carina Press, an imprint of
Harlequin. This was the book I queried my agent with, so it was extremely
satisfying to have to sell in this way. Plus, Carina and my editor have been
great to work with, so I’m pleased with how everything has turned out.
This was not my first novel. CARRIER was my fourth, actually.
I queried it to over 70 agents and in the end received three offers of
representation. YAY! I was ecstatic because my previous three novels I had
queried and never gotten past a request for a partial. I went with my agent,
Bree Ogden at D4EO Literary, because she’s editorial, and I wanted that in an
agent, and we had similar ideas of what we wanted CARRIER to be. Plus, we got
along very well. That’s important. Presumably, you and your agent are going to work
together for a very long time, so it’s imperative that not only is your agent a
good agent, but someone you can communicate with easily and like on a personal
level. Although, some people might disagree with me on that – it’s important to
me. We shopped CARRIER for a year as an Upper Young Adult, but the sex slavery theme
was simply too graphic for Young Adult editors (and understandably so!), so we
decided to have me re-write the book as a New Adult and re-shopped it again. It
sold within a few months after that. In my mind, everything happens for a
reason. I believe CARRIER found exactly the right editor and publisher. It was
worth the wait.
Are you
currently under a traditional publishing contract for future books or do you
have manuscripts that you will self-publish? Are you doing both?
I am under contract with Carina Press to write the sequel to
CARRIER. WALLED is currently scheduled to be published in December of this
year. I am in the middle of edits for that now. Previously, I worked with an
ePublishing company to self-publish three other books, but I found that
although I was a good writer, I wasn’t necessarily equipped to handle the
rigors of self-publishing. I LIKE having an editor telling me what to fix, I
LIKE having professional graphic artists wow me with their cover art design and
I LIKE seeing my name associated with a publishing house. Mind you, I could
have done all those things myself, hired an editor and formatter and graphic
artist, etc. etc. etc. But the business aspect of publishing, for me, is better
left to the experts. I like concentrating my efforts on writing and connecting
with my readers. That said, I will not rule out self-publishing as a whole. I
may change my mind in a few years. But, for now, I’m not interested. We’ll see.
If you
used a graphic designer/publisher’s designer, how involved were you during the
creative process for your cover?
Every publisher is different, but Carina Press sent me a two-page
questionnaire, asking me to list themes, mood, important images and to give
samples of covers which I liked. What they came back with blew me away! I love
the haunted look of the CARRIER cover. I think they did a fabulous job.
Do you
belong to a critique group? Have they helped improve your writing?
I must confess I have never been a part of a formal critique
group. I have a couple writerly friends who sometimes reads my work and offers
notes – but we don’t meet regularly and we don’t always have time to read each
other’s work which is why we’ve kept the arrangement so informal. It’s also the
reason why I wanted an editorial agent. Honestly, my schedule is so crazy I’m
not sure I could be in a critique group. Sometimes I barely have time to handle
my own stuff, much less offer a critique of value on someone else’s baby. It deserves respect and time. I have
ample respect, but lack time at the moment. But as I always say, never say
never.
Do you
outline your story or just go where your muse takes you?
I’m an outliner, through and through. I wrote the first
fifty or so pages of CARRIER without an outline, just kind of flying by the
seat of my pants. But after that I was afraid the story would lag or wander
away from me, so I wrote an outline for the rest. It’s like a security blanket
for me.
What kinds
of marketing [twitter, facebook, blog, forums] are you involved with for
promoting your book(s)?
I’m all over the place, for better or worse. I Twitter:
@WriteforCoffee, probably too much. I have a professional Facebook page: www.facebook.com/AnneTibbetsAuthor, but I
could probably spend more time there. I have a blog that serves as a kind of
newsletter: http://writeforcoffee.blogspot.com,
a Tumblr: www.annetibbets.tumblr.com and I’ve just
started a formal newsletter as well – which I haven’t quite figured out yet.
Plus I belong to a New Adult Authors group on Facebook. Social media I’ve got
covered! But I try not to pester too much in those areas with marketing. I must
admit if I follow an author on Twitter, I don’t want to get bombarded with
links: “Buy my book! Buy my book!” It gets old really quickly, especially when
most of the people I follow are authors and they are ALL doing that. So I try
and keep it more social (it is SOCIAL media after all, not MARKETING media) and
market through networking, writer conferences, the book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0WkEt3VLOs
, cover reveals, and blog tours.
Some fun
facts about you, which do you prefer – dogs or cats? Chocolate or vanilla?
Coffee or Tea? Talk or Text? Day or Night?
Cats. Chocolate. Coffee. Text. Night.
Giveaway:
Tour wide giveaway
Open INTL - Ends July 22nd
--20 $ Amazon gift card
--3x eBook copies of Carrier
--20x Carrier t-shirts with Auberge pens.
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