Book Publishing Secrets with Evy Journey @eholychair #books #bookpublishing

Evy Journey, SPR (Self Publishing Review) Independent Woman Author awardee, is a writer, a wannabe artist, and a flâneuse who, wishes she lives in Paris where people have perfected the art of aimless roaming. Armed with a Ph.D., she used to research and help develop mental health programs.

She’s a writer because beautiful prose seduces her and existential angst continues to plague her despite such preoccupations having gone out of fashion. She takes occasional refuge by invoking the spirit of Jane Austen to spin tales of love, loss, and finding one’s way—stories into which she weaves mystery or intrigue.

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After two heartbreaking losses, Luna wants adventure. Something and somewhere very different from the affluent, sheltered home in California and Hawaii where she grew up. An adventure in which she can also make some difference. She ends up in place where she gets more than she bargained for.

Lucien, a worldly, well-traveled young architect, finds a stranger’s journal at a café. He has qualms and pangs of guilt about reading it. But they don’t stop him. His decision to go on reading changes his life.

Months later, they meet at a bookstore where Luna works and which Lucien frequents. Fascinated by his stories and his adventurous spirit, Luna volunteers for the Peace Corps. Assigned to Cambodia, she lives with a family whose parents are survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide forty years earlier. What she goes through in a rural rice-growing village defies anything she could have imagined. Will she leave this world unscathed?

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Thank you for your time in answering our questions about getting published.  Let’s begin by having you explain to us why you decided to become an author and pen this book?

Evy: I did a lot of “academic” writing as a social science researcher. I guess I needed a respite from the rigid rules of that type of writing. Fiction-writing has been an antidote. The Shade Under the Mango Tree is my sixth novel.

Is this your first book?

Evy: It’s my sixth novel and my seventh fiction book. I have a short collection of my short stories and a short story in a collection some other authors put together.

With this particular book, how did you publish – traditional, small press, Indie, etc. – and why did you choose this method?

Evy: In the beginning, I submitted to trad publishing. But it seemed to me they had “rules” I couldn’t follow since I usually write cross-genre. I wanted to maintain my independence, to some extent anyway. So: self-publishing. Still, I pay good, thoughtful attention to what my developmental editors tell me. They and beta readers have been a great help in shaping my stories.

Can you tell us a little about your publishing journey?  The pros and cons?

Evy: For me, independence means an awful lot of work in the writing and publishing process. Part of it is because I’m obsessive-compulsive about my writing. But publishing doesn’t equate to getting read. Promotion and marketing is where I fall apart. But I keep trying.

What lessons do you feel you learned about your particular publishing journey and about the publishing industry as a whole?

Evy: As I’ve said above—publishing  doesn’t equate to getting read.-If someone out there will take on the bigger chunk of promoting my books and charge me a reasonable fee for it, let’s connect.

My view on the publishing industry? It’s a business. Money is their be-all and end-all. It’s fortunate for us, readers, that there are great writers they do publish.

Would you recommend this method of publishing to other authors?

Evy: If you like to be independent, are willing to work, and take the boring with the exciting, go for it. If you love or are adept at promoting, much better.

What’s the best advice you can give to aspiring authors?

Evy: Money-wise, prepare to be disappointed. By that criterion, maybe 10% or less of the thousands upon thousands of books published every year make it. If you publish because you have to write, then you’ve won half the battle of fulfilling your dreams. Enjoy that book in your hand with your name on it. The feeling can be quite heady.


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