Interview with author, Angela Fristoe
Born in Northern Canada, Angela grew up in the Canadian prairies amid dreams of becoming the next Dian Fossey or a world famous flight attendant. Those, thank goodness, were never meant to be. Instead, she moved to Texas and then eventually beautiful Colorado where she divides her time between writing and her other job, teaching.
Tell us something about yourself and how you became a writer.
Writing is something that I truly just started one random day. I'd never really considered it a possible career for myself. My sister was always the writer in our family. Once I started, though, I fell in love with it.
Tell us about your novel and where readers can purchase a copy.
Songbird is Young Adult novel about a seventeen-year-old girl struggling to put her past behind her. Dani Mays wants to move on with her life, to put the murder of her brother at the hands of their father and the disintegration of their dysfunctional family behind her. But her memories are a controlling force in her life and she struggles to hold onto what little she is certain of. When she takes a chance on the love she feels for her best friend Reece, Dani abruptly finds herself alone again and staring into the face of her past.
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?
When I first finished Songbird, I wanted to go the traditional route the entire way and find an agent first. I spent a few months researching agents and sent out about 50 queries. I had a few nibbles, but none seemed as passionate about Dani's story as I was. I finally decided to skip the agent, and settled on self-publishing when I was contacted by Little Prince Publishing. I jumped at the opportunity to publish with them. I have complete control over my book, but tons of support I never would have had on my own. I do see agents as valuable, if you are wanting to get on with one of the larger publishers. It depends entirely on what your goal is.
How much of the marketing do you do?
Up to now, I have done almost all of my own marketing with some great advice from those at LPP on where to start. As LPP is really starting to grow, they are working on some new marketing strategies that will combine the efforts of all of their authors.
Anything you’ve found to be particularly helpful in marketing your book?
Social media, Twitter in particular, has been the most effective after word of mouth. It's amazing how one well timed, interesting, tweet can pull in new readers.
Are your books available as eBooks? If so what was your experience of that process?
Songbird is available as an eBook. Both Nook and Kindle were fairly easy to use, although I had a few glitches in the review process. Songbird has some unusual formatting that had to be adjusted for which took almost two weeks. For anyone not comfortable with formatting in word, I would recommend hiring someone to do it for you.
Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
For me Songbird is all about not letting the past prevent you from living in the present.
Where can readers find you?
I've been wanting to know more about this book and Angela; thank you very much, Jeanne, for this post. Angela, I love your advice "one well-timed, interesting tweet can pull in new readers" and your wisdom "(don't let) the past prevent you from living in the present."
ReplyDeleteHi Michelle, thanks for stopping by for a read and to comment. Have a lovely evening :)
ReplyDeleteI liked your blog, thanks for sharing this
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