Interview with Indie Author @WandaShapiro

This is an interview with Wanda Shapiro, an indie author whom The LA Independent has labeled, “the next avant-garde literary find.”

Why did you choose to be an “indie” author?

The indie business model is about individual artists and entrepreneurs leveraging available technology to bring products or services directly to audiences and markets.

Indie ventures are having success across a wide variety of industries because they bring a level of originality and quality to otherwise homogenous markets.

No matter what you’re doing, the human learning curve happens naturally over time and with repitition – and writing is no different.

For me, going indie was a business decision made after a good deal of research and soul searching. It was not a decision I made lightly, and it was not a simple decision, but in the end it was not a difficult decision.

There were four basic reasons why I decided to go indie: because I realized I could; because the publishing industry is in shambles; because big publishing isn’t selling literary fiction well; and because readers are ready for indie literature.

You can read more about my decision here.

Where did your love for writing develop?

Long before I loved to write, I loved to read and books were a big part of my life growing up.

It’s hard to tell what part of that is nurture and what part of that is nature, but writing feels like what I’m supposed to be doing.

What advice would you give to an aspiring author?

Take responsibility for your own writing career and work very hard.

Whether you self-publish or traditionally publish, a writing career does not simply materialize and many aspiring authors have frighteningly unrealistic expectations. If your goal is to get rich, you might want to rethink your plan. And if your goal is to get rich quick, you need a serious reality check.

Being an author is something you do because you love it, and no matter how your book gets to market, it’s a lot of work.

Are authors currently harnessing the power of social media and online marketing?

Some yes, some no.

Some absolutely despise social media while others of us are embracing it and mining it’s connectivity potential. I was recently invited to participate in a panel discussion regarding the intersection of social media and publishing.

I recommend taking a look at the highlights from that discussion if you’re interested in this topic.

How does an author improve their writing, each day?

No matter what you’re doing, the human learning curve happens naturally over time and with repitition – and writing is no different.

However, that being said, I think it’s important for writers to have intelligent, honest feedback from readers in their genre. And it’s important that your early feedback readers be in your genre. If you’re writing literary fiction, for example, it doesn’t help to get feedback from someone who only reads romance novels and the opposite is equally true.

How do you generate interest and traffic for your work online?

My publicity model revolves completely around word-of-mouth which is generated using a few of the various social media platforms available today.

I primarily leverage Facebook and Twitter though I have branched out into Triberr and Google+.

I have never paid for advertising or reviews and I can’t imagine ever doing that.

My plan is all about readers are the ones driving traffic and generating interest.

What’s your favorite food (dish) and why?

Watermelon. Because it’s just perfect.

Do you believe in happily ever after?

Not really. Life would be so boring if everything was happily ever after.

About Wanda

The LA Independent called Wanda Shapiro, “the next avant-garde literary find,” and since the debut of her first novel she has been compared to Hemingway, Salinger, Hitchcock, Burroughs, Marquez, and Calvino. The level of quality Shapiro is bringing to the literary fiction market combined with her indie business model has fans calling her a one-woman Random House and according to one reader, “Sometimes That Happens With Chicken…blazes beyond what we have come to expect from modern fiction…” For more information regarding Wanda Shapiro visit www.onegirlonenovel.com.

Wanda’s Work (from Chapter 1 of Sometimes That Happens With Chicken: A Novel)

Theirs was a well-planned and well-executed secret life that neither of them minded keeping a secret in the face of their love. And their secret life resulted in a rather happy childhood for Ignatious Gillard. By the age of twelve, for having rarely stepped foot out of the renovated fortress at Al-Kharj where he lived with his mother and was visited by his father, Ignatious was quite mature, rather well-educated, completely un-neurotic, and speaking English in a strange accent that he would never quite lose and that no one could ever place. Now, Ignatious Gillard dreams about the happy days of his childhood but doesn’t remember his dreams in the morning. He was properly well-educated after he left Arabia, but he is no longer what you’d call completely un-neurotic. And he still has an accent which is thoroughly unrecognizable.