Interview with author Apryl Baker

Author Apryl Baker has stopped by to answer a few questions about writing and her soon to be released novel, The Promise.


Tell us a little about your road to publication. Was it a long one? Do you have an agent? In your opinion are they even necessary?

It has been a long and tiring road, but I made a lot of good friends along the way. I started out looking for an agent for my shiny new novel, but agents are the elusive white whale, almost impossible to land. After about thirty rejections, I started looking at small publishers and found a home for my novel, The Promise, book one of “The Coven Series,” with an independent publisher. The smaller publishers have both pros and cons. Because they are small, you aren’t going to get a big fat royalty check up front, but you will get the time and attention a bigger house wouldn’t be able to give you. You also get a bigger cut of the sales than you would with one of the larger houses. So are agents necessary? Honestly, they probably still are if you plan on getting the attention of a larger publisher. They won’t look at anything that isn’t represented by an authorized agent. If you chose to go the route of the smaller publisher, then no, an agent isn’t necessary.

What are you working on right now? Tell us a little about it.

I am working on an old favourite of mine, Awakening, book one of The Bloodlines series. It’s about a girl who has believed she’s certifiably insane her entire life, but soon finds out her night terrors are very much a reality and she and her brother are now being hunted because of the secrets her family has killed to protect.

How much of the marketing do you do?

I do my fair share of marketing. It’s one of the things you get used to if you do decide to go with a small publisher. They don’t have the staff or the budget for a large campaign, but being able to market the book myself has given me a greater appreciation for the work put into getting your name and your book out there for all to see. Twitter and Facebook are an excellent source for getting the word out and I’ve networked with several other authors through Twitter.

Anything you’ve found to be particularly helpful in marketing your book?

Twitter and Facebook are an excellent source for getting the word out and I’ve networked with several other authors through Twitter. If you do a shout out to say you are looking for bloggers who will review your book, it gets retweeted by several and you get a good response back from people willing to peek at your book.

Are your books available as eBooks? If so what was your experience of that process?

The Promise will be released soon in both ebook and trade paperback, so I am still waiting to see how well it does in both formats.

As a writer we all face rejection, any advice on how to deal with it?

Each rejection I got, I learned from it. I used the rejections to rework my query until I was able to write one that got attention and most agents if they request your work will give you feedback. Use the feedback you get to tweak the weak spots in your writing and adjust your work as needed. You have to develop thick skin and be able to take criticism with a grain of salt. They only make you stronger in the end.

What’s your writing schedule like?

I work insane hours, but I try to take at least one hour a day to sit down in a quiet place and just write. You need to make sure you set aside time to do this every day and get into the habit of it.

What’s your favorite / least favourite thing about writing?

My favourite thing is being able to create stories that grab the imagination and hold the reader from start to finish. One of the girls who read The Promise for me called to say she almost threw the copy I gave her across the room and then ran to pick it up because she just had to know what happened. That was the best compliment that I could have gotten because I knew that I did my job as a writer.

My least favourite thing is the line edits. I love to write, but I write like I think so I am constantly going back and forth fixing tense issues, missing words, etc. Thankfully, I have a wonderful reading group at The Next Big Writer http://www.thenextbigwriter.com/index.html who never fail to shred my work and make it stronger.

What are your favorite books?

Hands down it’s a tie between Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files and Kim Harrison’s The Hollows series. Both those series inspire me daily.

Where do you hope to be in 5 years?

Writing for a living and entertaining millions both in written format and on the big screen.

Where can readers find you?

Twitter: @AprylBaker
Blog: http://apryl-baker.blogspot.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Apryl-Baker/259303074080181
Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO2zTiuXzao


Thanks, Apryl for stopping by and good luck with The Promise.