Please welcome Tammara Webber author of Easy and Rebecca Donovan author of Reason to Breathe to the blog as part of the Love Hurts blog tour which has been organised to celebrate the publication of their books in the UK!
Below you'll find Q&A's with Tammara and Rebecca. You can follow the rest of the tour (which includes some great giveaways) by checking out the sidebar widget.
Tammara Webber talks Easy, Self-Publishing and New Adult Fiction...
I read Easy when it was first self-published and since then it has become a phenomenal success. Talk me through the journey you’ve taken with Easy – from initial inspirations to self-publication and onto when the book started attracting interest from publishers the world over. I was brainstorming storylines and scenes for the fourth installment of my Between the Lines series while promoting the third. And then, I began waking up with Jacqueline and Lucas in my head. Her story was very clear; his was less so. But the fact that they wanted their story written next, period, was too strong to ignore. University life isn’t something distant to me; it’s been a part of my entire adult life. I worked at a university putting my husband through school, went back to finish my own degree after we began a family and the kids were in school, and worked as an academic advisor until I began writing full-time. I know too well how prevalent the issue of acquaintance rape is. It was both the easiest and most difficult book I’ve written.
I’d already self-pubbed three books that were successful on a small scale; there was no question in my mind that I would do the same with Easy. Interest from foreign editors and publishers was the reason I acquired an agent, thanks to a recently traditionally-published friend. Traditional domestic publication came later. At the moment, Easy is set to be translated into fifteen languages, and I’ve had emails from girls and women all over the globe, telling me their stories, and how they were like or differed from Jacqueline’s (and Mindi’s). It’s been a very humbling experience; I’m grateful for any tiny bit of help or healing the book brought to any of them.
Personally, I find the idea of Self-Publishing appealing for a number of reasons, but I can imagine that it must be very time consuming and a ton of hard work. What, for you, have been the main perks of moving to traditional publishing? There was only one reason to do it, for me – wider distribution of Easy. I began receiving orders from libraries and school bookstores in my PO box last summer. I was in over my head with the ability to get it into the hands of the young women I most wanted to have it. I have to admit that while I like the idea of “having a book on a bookshelf” – I thought it would feel more moving than it actually felt.
As for the differences between the two – there’s more personal responsibility in self-publishing, but also more personal authority and power over the end product, the labeling of it, and the promotion of it. Also, the work load didn’t lessen when I obtained a domestic publisher; anyone who tells an author that one or the other is “easier” is… let’s say… mistaken. Both come with plenty of hard work.
So many people loved the relationship between Lucas and Jacqueline in Easy(and other people just wanted Lucas all for themselves!). What was your favourite scene to write involving those two characters? I don’t want to get spoilery of my own book ;) – but there’s a point where Jacqueline applies what Lucas taught her to him – a point where she repeats his words back to him. That was my favorite L&J scene.
New Adult fiction is really enjoying a moment right now. Can you recommend some other NA reads to anyone who loved Easy? From Colleen Hoover: Hopeless and Slammed; from Rebecca Donovan: Reason to Breathe
What are you working on now? I’m working on that fourth installment of my Between the Lines series – the one I promised the readers who patiently (or impatiently) allowed me to put it aside to write Easy, and then I’ll be working on another stand-alone novel.
Tammara Webber Online: Website || Twitter || Facebook
Rebecca Donovan talks Reason to Breathe, inspirations and favourite reads...
Can you introduce Reason to Breathe to UK readers by describing it in a tweet? (140 characters or less): Emma is hiding a terrible secret, and she will do anything to protect it, even keeping it from those who only want to love her.
Rebecca Donovan Online: Website || Twitter || Facebook
Next stop on the Love Hurts Blog Tour: Jess Hearts Books.
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Rebecca Donovan talks Reason to Breathe, inspirations and favourite reads...
Talk me through the journey you’ve taken with Reason to Breathe – from initial inspirations, right through your self-publishing journey and up to when you first attracted interest from traditional publishers. It all sounds so exciting! The concept of Reason to Breathe came to me during a night of insomnia. I was forcing a dream,hoping it would help me fall asleep, but five hours later, the sun was about to come up and I had a story. I typed out the main elements that captured the essence of the story and began writing the next day. I was unemployed for the winter, allowing time to get lost in this new world. Six weeks later I emerged with a first draft. I worked on it on and off for two years, submitting query letters to agents in hopes of traditional publishing. After reading several articles about the rising eBooks sales, I decided to self-publish. The success was amazing over the first year, but I continued to work full-time within the eventindustry while writing the sequel. When I self-published the next installment, Barely Breathing, a year later, it felt like the series exploded. I was contacted by my agent and within a few weeks we were contacted by publishers. It was a surreal and exciting experience. I’m still floating.
What are your top tips for any aspiring authors out there? Also, do you have any tips on getting that first draft down? (Something I constantly struggle with!) Write because it's who you are, a part of you. And don't give up no matter the challenge. As a writer, your craft can continue to strengthen and grow with guidance, but it starts with the inner desire to share a story. I don't begin typing before I know the ending of the story. I may not know every turn the story will take, which makes it an exhilarating process, but I know the dots that need to be connected. I know my characters inside and out, as if they truly existed. I understand their backstories, even the parts that may never make the pages but give them their personalities and make them who they are. Then write. And keep writing until all the dots are connected and the ending is as you intended.
Can you name three other books that anyone who loved Reason to Breathe might also enjoy?
Slammedby Colleen Hoover
The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Name your favourite books of 2012 and the book/s you are most excited to read in 2013: I sat staring at the blinking cursor for a long time trying to come up with my favorite of 2012. I don't know if I could name just one. It's just too much pressure.
I am absolutely looking forward to Requiem by Lauren Oliver!
What are you working on now? I'm about to start the editing process for Out of Breath, and I'm so very excited about it. And I've also started my next novel about the average guy-next-door who has this fascination with the unattainable girl, until he gets to know her and has to come to terms with whether he could ever truly love her..
Rebecca Donovan Online: Website || Twitter || Facebook
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Next stop on the Love Hurts Blog Tour: Jess Hearts Books.
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