What inspired you to write your book?
My love of writing, and sharing critter stories with fellow animal lovers, is what inspired me to write Crazy Critter Lady.
About your Book:
In a world where animals are often seen as impediments to progress or expendable pests, Crazy Critter Lady is the story of one woman’s determination to do the right thing for the creatures around her. Kelly Meister goes out on a limb – and sometimes a half-frozen pond – to help injured birds, mice and chipmunks, homeless “Aflac” ducks, cranky horses, lost frogs and a host of others.
Crazy Critter Lady takes readers on an emotional roller coaster ride, as Kelly discovers the hitherto-unknown delights of friendship with a band of flightless ducks, deals with Spanky the cat’s low self-esteem, and learns life lessons taught by an aged horse. The author spends money she can’t afford on creatures others are content to leave dying at the side of the road, and often risks rabies, and drowning, in the process. Sharing her life with a quirky cast of characters, Meister invites you to come along and meet the gang.
Book Genre: Memoir
What formats are your books in
Print, Both
How do you see writing a book in the Pet Genre as different from writing other genres of books?
Pets are a multi-billion dollar industry in the US. Pet spending in 2010 – at the height of the recession – was estimated to be $47.7 billion. From a financial standpoint, it makes sense to write about animals, and it also makes sense to publish books about animals. Clearly, critters are recession-proof! In addition, there is a huge potential readership, more so I think than some other genres like sci-fi: not everyone is a science fiction geek, but many, many people are animal lovers.
Advice to someone that is thinking about or currently working on a pet book
Make sure you have strong stories to tell! Also make sure you are scrupulous in your knowledge of the English language, grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure! There’s nothing more disappointing to a reader than poor writing!
How did you decide how to publish your book and where is it published through:
After countless rejections from literary agents and publishers, I decided that I could keep waiting for an acceptance letter that might never come, or I could self-publish – through Amazon – and get my book out there for people to buy. Marketing a book on your own is tough, but I had a lot of flexibility in the publishing process (such as designing my own book cover) that you don’t get with proper publishing houses. I would absolutely self-publish Book Two!
Author Bio:
I have a facebook friend who self-published an animal-themed book, and after asking her a lot of questions about the process, I decided to give it a try for myself. Amazon’s CreateSpace was as idiot-proof as you can get (and I need idiot-proof because I’m not computer-savvy!). I would urge new authors to try the traditional route of querying literary agents and publishers first (because you never know!), and if that doesn’t pan out, then consider self-publishing.
Website(s)
Author Home Page Link
Link To Book On Amazon
Link to Book on Barnes and Noble
