Zoe E. Whitten is the first ebook author being featured for the super special July Ebook Author Month here at Feral Intensity. She’s written 24 ebooks, with Sandy Morrison and the Pack of Pussies, also her first ever YA title, as her most recent release.
Red haired authoress.
Let’s jump right in!
GL: Zoe, you mentioned to me that you’ve updated several of your ebooks. What are the details there?
Zoe: I never consider any writing project as a completed assignment, so if I find even minor mistakes after publishing, I fix the problem and upload a new edition. As of May, I’ve begun a new conversion project to make all of my current ebooks and my older web serial archives into
print editions, and as I do the interior layouts in InDesign, I spot the occasional typo or missing period. So I fix those mistakes in the print editions and go over to the ebook source files to fix them too. In this way, readers can be sure they get a clean read whether they go with print or ebooks.
GL: And fixing typos, etc, is important. We all know that!
I’ve read at least two of your stories (Zombie Punter and Sandy Morrison). I may have read more that were available on your site, but I’m operating on only half a pot of coffee today.
Uh, where was I? Oh…moving on!
So you write what I’d call non-typical characters – not that they totally are, but they’re not the kind of characters I’ve previously encountered much. Sandy is…
Zoe: Sandy is unique, yeah. I’ve often heard folks talk about how we need more diverse casts and main characters in our fiction, so I’m always striving to find challenging or unique perspectives. In particular, I’ve often heard that there aren’t enough trans characters in regular or YA fiction.
With Sandy’s story, I wanted to make Sandy’s perspective work for normal readers, showing them a positive transsexual portrayal without
getting preachy, but I also wanted it to ring true as a YA story. To this end, I recruited a lovely and talented teen writer from Inkpop and had her read and critique my story. She had a lot of great things to say, but the best compliment she paid was over the “gutsy” writing. So I think because of Sandy’s uniqueness, it’s a good YA fantasy adventure that doesn’t “use kid gloves.”
GL: Nice peek behind the scenes, and for the record, I think Sandy’s an awesome character. So, what’s up next for you? What plans have you laid for the future?
Zoe: My main goal besides converting my old archives by August is, I want go back through my writing queue and edit like a mofo to release one new title per month, in ebook and print, for the next 13 months. If I succeed, then by this time next year, I will have 40 ebooks published. (I’ll have slightly fewer print editions, as many print books have two or three stories in the same edition to save money for readers.)
I’m currently trying to tempt people into picking up Belfire Press’ second Dueling Novellas series, The Life and Death of a Sex Doll.
Despite the seemingly shocking name, these two coming of age sci-fi stories are an almost whimsical look at an artificially dysfunctional family. But it is a fairly weird tale, as one might expect from me, and it includes the ubiquitous Sensu-Dolls, talking bus adverts, and electronic zombies. It should be a fun read for whoever picks it up.
Beyond that, my only other goal is figuring out how to get new readers to look over my growing library of older titles. With books in almost every flavor of speculative and fantasy fiction, I’m sure I can interest new readers if they just knew my work was out there. But like most writers, sorting out how to promote both ethically and effectively is a struggling pursuit with no clear paths to writing success. I’m consistently getting good reviews, so that should help eventually. But for now, positive reviews don’t seem to be the “silver bullet” for making readers beat a virtual path to my electric storefront.
GL: Ambitious, but I bet you’ll meet that new title a month goal. And OMG, Zoe! I thought I was a prolific writer. 0_o Okay, I am. It’s the finishing part that I have trouble with. Anyway…moving on!
Yeah, I think finding readers is the hardest part of being an author, especially if you’re self-pubbing or going the Indie press route. Having been at this for over three years, I’m still flailing wildly about when it comes to promotion. What are some things you’ve done that have given results?
Zoe: I hope I can pull it off, but at least all the books are already written and past the second draft stage. So the real trick is getting everything polished in time for each release.
I really wish I could understand what I did right with my biggest successes, The Lesser of Two Evils and Blood Relations, but I haven’t changed much about my strategy with any releases. The Lesser of Two Evils got a lot of great reviews, and I want to say that helped. But Blood Relations has almost no reviews anywhere, and it made the top 100 for Horror titles on the Kindle store. I’ve had a lot of positive emails about Vicky the vampire and her later stories, but nobody has yet reviewed the book. And yet, it continues to sell well. I have no idea how that works.
I’ve worked with Project Wonderful and some banner exchanges on a couple of releases, Blind Rage and The Sole Survivor’s Club, but while some web sites were able to bring in “clicks,” people who clicked the ad and read the book blurbs, none of those clickers ever converted into a sale. I wouldn’t fault Project Wonderful for this, as their site and services did exactly what they said it would. They gave me traffic, but for whatever reason, I could not convert traffic into buyers.
I have noted that successful indie efforts make it because the early readers begin to generate “buzz” about the projects. The successes of many indie books lies in how many people the writer can get involved in that initial push. It goes beyond getting early reviews or links. If a writer is the only one talking up a project, it’s almost assuredly doomed to low sales. But as for how to generate buzz is concerned, I have no clue. My only comfort is, I don’t think many of the pros do either. So technically this is a level playing field.
GL: That’s a very good point, about it being a level playing field. And yeah, same boat here.
Pretty sure you know I’m all about Team Furry because I love the shape shifter types. You have cat shape shifters in Sandy Morrison and the Pack of Pussies. Does that mean you’re Team Pussy?
Zoe: Bwahahaha! Team Pussy. I love that! But I’m not really an advocate for any one species of werecritter. In Blind Rage, I have two
werebears, a werefox, a werepanther, a weredog, and a wereliger. I have plans to introduce a yeti who transforms into a human, making a
“werehuman.” And in my next dark fantasy release in July, Peter the Wolf, the lycanthropes in that world need skins to transform. Later stories in Peter’s series (I’ve already written three books for Peter) there’s a pack of weredogs making trouble for Peter, and a felinthrope romantic interest, a werecat who transforms into a Siamese cat using a tanned hide much like Peter uses a tanned wolf pelt. So I wouldn’t say I have any preference for furry critters.
I love them all equally.
GL: Heh, I thought you’d like that. And hey, looks like I’ll be buying more of your ebooks! Thanks for dropping by, Zoe.
Zoe: Thanks very much for having me as a guest. ^_^
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Zoe’s ebooks can be found at Smashwords. Many are also available in print (link that to right spot), if that’s your preferred reading poison.
You can find Zoe on Twitter, or drop by her blog.
As a giveaway, she’s chosen to offer a print sampler of Sandy Morrison and the Pack of Pussies, and a dual novella, Wake Up With the Kimellians/Haunting Sins. Comment for your chance to win, and keep an eye out for Peter the Wolf!
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