Author Bio:
All my life I’ve been a storyteller. I wrote my first short story at six years old and I haven’t stopped writing and storytelling since.
I live my life as an adventure. I like to think that each day is just as magical as we make it and that life was meant to be enjoyed. I see life as a game that we are all playing, the better you play, the happier you are going to be.
The world of self-publishing combines my two greatest loves, being an entrepreneur and writing. As I take this journey I hope you will come along on this new adventure with me.
I live in Missouri with my Fiance and our six children where our house is never quiet but we still find time to laugh and love and enjoy the day.
What inspires you to write?
Miranda (my Fiancee/Editor/Co-Author) is my inspiration. She outlines my ideas for me, she edits my work, she also makes sure I get my writing time in each day.
She also does a lot of the promotional work and the behind the scenes stuff so I can focus on turning out words. She is my source of inspiration.
Tell us about your writing process.
All my books and stories start with a brainstorming session with Miranda. We just free range, usually while driving in the car. We talk, she notes things down, we just have this amazing free flowing ability to communicate and see where an idea can lead us.
This has been the case for our fiction and non-fiction. Once we do this, she has an amazing ability to organize all the random thoughts into an outline. Then I start writing.
I like the outline for when I go blank or have a touch of writers’ block. If I can’t think what to write, I just pick one part of the outline and I start writing. I may delete all of it later, but I write, just pushing through it and I always find (so far) that I not only push past the block, but I get some decent production done.
The biggest part of my process in writing is I consider my words to be my production. When I work for anyone, you have production you are expected to turn out. I approach my writing like this. I have to turn out a quota of words everyday. I average at least 2000 words a day, on a good day when I get more time I turn out up to 10,000 in a day.
I didn’t start out with those numbers, I built to them.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
I envision them, I hear them, I see them in the scenes I am creating. This makes it so much easier, I think, to write the scene. Then I am not creating it while writing so much as documenting the movie in my mind.
I’ve some characters that absolutely have lives of their own, I look in on them and see how they are doing from time to time and they aren’t where I left them.
What advice would you give other writers?
I highly recommend, if you are serious about writing, you track your daily word production then try to beat your previous day word count every day. It becomes like golf,a game against yourself.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I went self publishing route. I am a life long entrepreneur so it fit naturally for me. I like the control, I like the ability to get my work to market fast, I like the fact that at the end of the day it is on me to make it work.
I have Miranda to help me out so I can still do this route and get words out, which is very huge benefit, but I feel it is the best route and where we are going to see most publishing go.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I believe we are heading into a world based around self-publishing. I don’t think all will be successful in it anymore than they are in getting their work published by the big publishers.
I think as the industry grows and continues to mainstream that there will be more companies that assists in self-publishing, providing editing, marketing services, book covers and such which will replace or fill the void from traditional publishing. I do believe that in time use of such services will make a massive difference in those who find success and those who are still a vanity press.
What do you use?
Professional Editor, Professional Cover Designer, Beta Readers
What genres do you write?
Non-Fiction, Fiction, Paranormal Romance, Young Adult
What formats are your books in?
Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
James D Horton Home Page Link
Link To James D Horton Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8346206.James_D_Horton
https://twitter.com/JDHortonAuthor
