Sarah Woodbury Interview – Mystery and Romance in Medieval Wales

Maybe you think that novels set in Mediaeval Wales must be a minority interest? Sarah Woodbury would prove you wrong. With sales over a million books, she is a self-published phenomenon. Here she tells me how an American woman became so fascinated by ancient Wales – and how she turned that passion into a thriving publishing business…

Your books are set in mediaeval Wales. Given that you live in America, what even made you think of writing about Wales?

My family had always had the tradition that we had Welsh ancestry, but until I started researching it myself, I couldn’t have told you how I was Welsh. The name Woodbury is very traditionally Saxon, derived from the Saxon god ‘Woden’ and mean’s ‘Woden’s Fort’, but further research showed that one of my ancestors, William Woodbury, joined the church in Salem, Massachusetts in 1638 self-identifying as a Welshman. 

As it turns out, in addition to that tantalizing bit of information, I am also descended from a host of Morgans, Thomases, Kemries, Johns, Rhuns etc.  The line I’ve researched most successfully descends from Llywelyn ap Ifor born around 1300. Many generations later, Anna and Robert Morgan, sister and brother, married into my family line, again in Massachusetts in the 17th century. Through that family, I am descended from Gruffydd ap Cynan, the great 12th century King of Gwynedd and his grandson, the Lord Rhys, ruler of Deheubarth until his death in 1197.

All of this I discovered once I started researching my ancestry, initially as a homeschooling research project with my daughter in the late 1990s. Ten years earlier, I had attended University of Cambridge in England. During one holiday, I was able to visit Wales for the first time. I have particular memories of going to Conwy Castle and walking along the battlements, astounded to think that seven hundred years earlier men and women had lived and died within its walls. To say I fell in love with Wales at that point would not be an understatement. From Cambridge, I continued in academia, ultimately getting a Ph.D. in anthropology. Though my research wasn’t initially directed at Wales, because my focus was on ethnicity and nationalism, it was easy to pivot to Welsh history and culture once I started writing novels.

You must have to do a lot of research. How do you go about that? 

Because I have a Ph.D., I have an extensive background in research, and once I developed an interest in Wales, I read everything I could get my hands on, both fiction and nonfiction, about it. The internet has been a boon to access to obscure documents and books, and Google Earth can be a lifesaver if I can’t quite remember the dimensions of a place or a particular road or castle. We have also traveled to Wales for a research trip almost every year since 2012, though sadly it’s been over a year since we’ve been there due to the current pandemic.

Your Welsh pronunciation is remarkably good – even the difficult “Ll” and “Rh”. Have you learnt to speak Welsh? If so, how did you do that?

It’s really great to hear you say that! I have been learning Welsh since the fall of 2013, mostly through a website called ‘Say Something in Welsh’ but also during our trips there. Truly, I remain an abject beginner, but I try!

You make a lot of very interesting YouTube videos about the history of mediaeval Britain. Can you give me some idea of your video-making process?

My husband is the video taker and producer, and over the last eight years he has compiled an extraordinary amount of video. The idea of creating a series came from wanting to share all that research with my readers, above and beyond what can be culled from my novels themselves. I also wanted to give people the opportunity to delve a little more into British history, to understand the context of the books and why I love Wales and writing novels set in the medieval period. Procedurally, generally I write the script, we shoot me talking about the place, and then my husband shapes the footage around what I’m saying.

Do you know how most of your readers discover you? Is it by browsing Amazon, through your YouTube videos or some other way?

I don’t know for certain, but I think there are three primary ways: word of mouth from friends/family who’ve read my books, Facebook, and Bookbub featured deals. I would like to think that some people have found my books through the videos, but I don’t know how much that is true, and it isn’t their primary purpose.

Do you have a specific target audience in mind when you are writing? If so, how important is it to stick within the traditions of a certain ‘genre’?

When I first started writing, I had no notion of genre at all. The After Cilmeri series, in particular, crosses multiple genres. Honestly, I’m glad now I didn’t have any idea what I was doing when I started out, because I think that’s part of its appeal. That said, there’s something to the idea of giving readers what they expect, which is why we have genres in the first place. 

As to writing to a target audience, for my own work, I think it’s dangerous or can be the death of creativity to think too much about who’s going to read a book and if what you’re writing is what they expect. Clearly, there’s a balance here that every author has to navigate.

For a new reader, which of your books would you recommend reading first?

It depends! I have five series set in medieval Wales, so lots to choose from. Do you like mysteries? Start with The Good Knight or Crouchback. Time travel? Read Daughter of Time (the prequel) or Footsteps in Time (book 1) from the After Cilmeri series. Many of my books are appropriate for teens, and if they like historical fantasy, maybe they’d like The Last Pendragon Saga first. Or lovers of King Arthur should begin with Cold My Heart.

I’m not helping at all, am I? 

Can you recommend any books by other authors (either fact or fiction) that give an insight into mediaeval Wales?

The go-to books for me are first by Edith Pargeter (The Brothers Gwynedd) and writing as Ellis Peters, The Brother Cadfael series. Second, I would read Sharon Kay Penman’s Welsh Princes Trilogy which includes Here be Dragons, Falls the Shadow, and The Reckoning.

You obviously put in a lot of effort to keep in touch with your readers – not just the YouTube videos but also an active blog and a newsletter. If you only had time to do one of those activities which would it be? I’m interested to know which of those you think really helps most to attract new readers and build a solid fan base.

Only one? The newsletter is really important because it’s a definitive way to reach all the people who’ve read my books and asked to be notified when I have a new release. But Facebook is hugely important to me for community and to get to know readers personally, and for them to get to know me. I also can’t imagine functioning without a personal web page. And Youtube has become a big part of my non-novel content, and a way to engage readers.

If I was talking to a new author, I would say that at a bare minimum they need a personal website and newsletter, and then a Facebook author page as part of their outreach to readers.

Do you do anything else to promote or advertise your books?

I pay for ads at Facebook, Amazon, and Bookbub, plus various other small sites. It is an important aspect of my business plan. 

How well does Bookbub work for you? 

Very, very well. The first book in four of my series is free, and the Bookbub promotions for those free books bring in a significant percentage of my newest readers.

Your books have very striking covers. Can you explain the process you go through when getting covers designed?

How kind of you to say! Especially since I design them myself.

I started out the first year of indie publishing designing my covers myself, with ‘design’ hardly coming into it. I sold 30,000 books that year anyway, but that was because readers were desperate for content for their e-devices and overlooked how bad my covers really were. For several years, Flip City Media designed my covers, and thankfully when she stopped that part of her business, she gave me all my Photoshop files so I could learn on my own—which initially was just copying what she had done. But imitation is the purest form of flattery, right?

Since then, I have learned a lot and informed by the process of writing the book. At some point, usually about 1/3 of the way into the first draft, I start itching to create the cover, and start casting around for ideas. Some covers come quickly, and some have gone through a dozen permutations. I have also changed all my covers at least once, and some three or four times until I settle upon what I have now.

You also do audio books. Is that difficult (or expensive) to do?  How do you pick a narrator? And do the sales fully justify the costs?

My sales fully justify the costs, but I sell a great many audiobooks. I first started out in 2014 with a royalty share through ACX with my first narrator. I then switched to paying outright for them, which is a much better way to do it and has allowed me to convert to non-exclusive contracts with Amazon for three of my series, so my audiobooks are now available at all retailers as well as in libraries. My husband found my new narrator, who is Welsh, online, and I feel super lucky to have him narrating my books. 

Can you tell me why you decided to self-publish?

That is a very long story, but I decided to take the plunge in January 2011 because I had an agent who was unable to sell my books to a publisher. In fact, my books have, quite literally, been rejected by every publisher in New York!

What benefit is an agent to an independently published author? 

At this juncture for me, none. I no longer say on my website that I have an agent, though if I ever wanted to submit a book to him, he would look at it.

In your writing and publishing career to date, what has been your biggest mistake? 

Not viewing publishing as a business from the start in 2011 when I published my books myself. Earlier, I said it was good in a way that I didn’t understand genre when I first started writing, but that was five years earlier. Once I started publishing, I needed to understand better what readers expected in terms of covers and blurbs/summaries, and I spent years trying to get them right. Fortunately, they are something an indie author can change at will.

More recently, it was a huge mistake to enroll two of my series in Kindle Unlimited in the spring of 2019. It really damaged my sales worldwide.

If you had to start all over again, what would you do differently?

You can always wish you’d done things differently, but I am who I am and where I am today because of what I have done over the last fourteen years. So I can’t regret that.

What has been your greatest success?

Deciding to self-publish in the first place. In fact, I routinely say that having my books rejected by every publisher in New York was the best thing that ever happened to me.

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With over a million books sold to date, Sarah Woodbury is the author of more than forty novels, all set in medieval Wales. Although an anthropologist by training, and then a full-time homeschooling mom for twenty years, she began writing fiction when the stories in her head overflowed and demanded that she let them out. 

While her ancestry is Welsh, she only visited Wales for the first time at university. She has been in love with the country, language, and people ever since. She even convinced her husband to give all four of their children Welsh names. 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarahwoodburybooks/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/SarahWoodburyBooks
Website: https://www.sarahwoodbury.com/

Iain Rob Wright interview – Apocalyptic Fun!

If you enjoy apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction or just like to be scared by a good book, you will almost certainly be familiar with the name Iain Rob Wright. With dozens of best-selling books on Amazon, Iain has gained a loyal fan-base of readers eagerly awaiting his next chilling story. Here Iain tells me how he began writing and what is his secret of success…

How did you become a published novelist? Did you decide right away that you would go it alone? Or did you go the traditional route of papering your room with rejection slips?

I knew that traditional publishing would be a long slog filled with disappointment and resentment, so when I learned about KDP, that’s the route I went. I didn’t want someone else’s permission to be a writer and I also wanted things to be immediate.

Mankind is about to become extinct. The world’s best scientists are baffled when bizarre, immovable black stones appear across the globe. Society spirals into panic when the stones begin to ‘wake up’.

Has traditional publishing had its day now? I mean, is there any good reason why a writer should go through agents and get deals with publishers?

No. Traditional Publishing isn’t going anywhere, and they will continue to make their money from celebrity cookbooks, autobiographies, and massive IPs such as Harry Potter and Jack Reacher. Mainstream fiction is no longer theirs to control, however, and that’s a great thing for many reasons.

What has been the toughest challenge (apart from the writing itself!) in becoming successful author?

Staying power. Sales are in a constant state of decline, and it’s only willpower and ingenuity that lifts them. There are certainly good times in terms of sales, but the low points can take a lot out of you, and it always seems like a disaster when you’re there.

Why do you think apocalyptic (and post-apocalyptic) fiction is so popular?

Because it’s terrifying, and people like to be scared in a controlled environment such as reading.

Has COVID-19 changed that? I mean, don’t people want complete escapism when we are in the middle of a pandemic?

I don’t think the virus has changed what people enjoy reading, although it has given some people more time to read. If you liked apocalyptic fiction before COVID, then I’m guessing you'll still like it now. It’s make-believe, fun, and a great way to face fear head on, which is always healthy.

Grieving alcoholic Harry Jobson expected to end his night facedown in vomit like most nights down the pub. But when the body of a mangled teenager crashes through the pub’s front window, Harry is forced to sober up and be the man he used to be.

How did you go about publicising and marketing your first novel, ‘The Final Winter’?

I didn’t. I published it in 2011 with a homemade cover and that was enough. Things were a lot easier back then.

And how has your approach to publicising and marketing changed now?

I have spent over £150,000 on Facebook marketing now and my career has greatly benefited from that spending power. I was forced to learn online marketing in order to get people to find my books and buy them. I would prefer to focus on writing, but unfortunately the business is very competitive, and it takes many other skills to be successful.

What do you do when you can’t think what to write?

I can always write, and a little bit of thinking is all I need to get myself unstuck. Writer’s block usually comes from not having planned out your book well enough beforehand.

Cheryl is about to learn that the people she works with are keeping a secret. One they are willing to kill for. 

I read in one interview you did that Bookbub was (at that time) your number one sales promoter. I’ve just had a look at Bookbub’s charges. It looks incredibly expensive. Do you still use Bookbub much? Does it justify the cost?

Yes, I still use Bookbub. It isn’t as profitable as it once was, but I have never lost money on any of the two dozen deals I have had with them. For a writer starting out, it provides even more value as it provides a massive amount of new readers.

In your interview with Joanna Penn last year you said that Facebook advertising began as a disaster for you but ended up incredibly profitable. What did you change?

Honestly, I don’t know. It just worked the second time, and it’s never worked as well since. I remember targeting people with Kindles and that made a difference. I also chose to target other books than I did on my first attempt.

What about Amazon advertising? Some authors say it’s vital. Others don’t bother with it? What’s been your experience?

I have tried and tried, but it just doesn’t seem to do much for me. I still rely on Facebook ads.

Have you been able to figure out how most readers ‘discover’ you for the first time?

Facebook ads mostly, followed by personal recommendations between friends and families.

You give away a lot of your books? Why?

Because I can. I have over thirty now, so giving away books is a great way to entice people to buy the ones they don’t have. Also, it’s nice to give in such cut-throat times.

How important do you think a good cover is? And what do you think makes a good cover?

It’s vital. Vital. Look at traditional bestsellers and copy them. People look for designs they recognise and feel comfortable with, not fancy paintings or artwork. Each genre has certain conventions, and you ignore them at your peril.

Martin Gable is a boy becoming a man, but nothing can prepare him for the evil that has entered his home.

Have you ever changed a cover and, if so, did that have any impact on sales of the book?

Many times, and yes. My first covers were comic book style digital paintings – and awesome – but they were all wrong. My covers now are more in line with traditional publishing and sales have increased.

When someone is browsing for a book on Amazon, you somehow have to convince them that your book is one they’d want to read. What do you think is the most important way to grab a potential reader’s attention – the book title, cover, blurb or something else?

Book Cover > Book Title > Product Page/Blurb > Sample Chapter/Preview = Sale.
If at any point readers are not convinced by any of these items, you don’t get the sale. Therefore, all are important.

If you were starting out all over again in your writing career, what would you do differently?

I would start a mailing list from day 1. It’s never too early to start gathering your readers into a place where you can influence

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One of Horror's most respected authors, Iain Rob Wright is the writer of more than twenty books, many of them bestsellers.

Iain’s web site is : www.iainrobwright.com where you can get five of his books free!

 

Writers and Publishers, Let’s Get Together!

It’s been a while since I last updated this blog. An awful lot has changed in my writing and publishing business lately. The main thing that’s changed is that a business is now what it is. I used to think of myself as a writer. A writer publishes one book, maybe two or three or more and then sits back and looks at the total lack of sales.

A publisher, on the other hand, sells books: markets them, advertises them, publishers not just one or two individual books but one, two, three (or more) series of books. Publishing is not a ‘calling' or a ‘talent’, it’s a business. And to make a success as an independent writer you also need to be an independent publisher.

I’ve been a publisher once before – a magazine publisher in the conventional (that, is old-fashioned) way. I commissioned articles, had the magazine designed, got tens of thousands of copies printed, had them distributed to shops. And then waited to find out how much money I’d lost!

That was back in the 1990s. The idea that you could publish without paying huge sums of money to get all the salable copies printed in advance was not one that had even occurred to me. On-demand publishing didn’t exist back then. Nor did Kindle and iPad devices. Heck, Amazon didn’t even exist back then! Fortunately, the world has changed, and my approach to publishing has changed with it.

Anyway, it’s early days for me but this year I launched my publishing business (Dark Neon Books) with five programming books under the imprint (or ‘brand name’), Bitwise Books. There will be one more programming book published before the year is out. And I also redesigned and republished three novels via Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). They were previously published via Lulu.

Along the way, I’ve had to do all kinds of other stuff such as buy ISBNs so that they are shown to be published by my company (a free Amazon ISBN shows them to be ‘Independently Published’ which is not what I wanted) and I’ve had to start to learn the whole confusing, complicated business of advertising and marketing. To be frank, I am still in the early stages of this and I’m planning to become more professional about marketing during 2020.

If you are an independent publisher, a small publishing company or a self-published writer and you would be interested in sharing your experience, please get in touch. Maybe I can do a short interview (by e-mail is fine). From now on, I want this blog to be by writers and for writers. So let’s share our experiences to help one another!

E-Publishing, Print Publishing and T. rex

Joe Konrath is one of the best selling Kindle-published novelists in the world. That means he is also one of the best selling novelists in the world. According to his Wikipedia entry he spent twelve years “garnering close to five hundred rejections for nine unpublished novels”.

He is a passionate advocate of self-publishing. He has no time for the inferiority complex from which some self-published authors still suffer. Indeed, on the contrary, he holds the view that self-publishing is where the action is at and that traditional or ‘legacy’ publishing is hanging on the way that the T rex clung on after the meteor hit: “While ebooks may not be an extinction level event, they will become the most popular way to read books.”

Konrath posted a great article on his blog this week explaining is views. If you have any doubts about the merits of self-publishing I recommend you read that post. As one of the big self-publishing successes the man knows what he’s talking about!