About Kristen Twardowski:
Kristen Twardowski stumbled her way through working with wolves and libraries and found her professional home doing marketing and data analysis in the publishing industry. Though there will always be a place carved in her heart for numbers and graphs, the rest of her love is given to the craft of writing.
What inspires you to write?
Where the desire to write came from is a good question. I have always told myself stories. Stories that helped me make sense of the world. Stories that helped me make sense of myself. In that way, I couldn’t escape from writing. It wasn’t a conscious decision I ever made. I was never ‘inspired’. I simply had stories that needed a place to go.
Tell us about your writing process.
I wish that I had unusual writing habits – that always makes a better story – but the way I write is fairly mundane. I typically create a rough outline of a work, but instead of writing the tale chronologically, I write whichever scenes capture me the most. This means that near the end of a draft, I always have to go back and make sure that I haven’t left any glaring gaps. For the most part, it works.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
Oh, no. I typically don’t talk to the characters that I actually write into my books. The characters that exist only in my head receive a little more leeway, but in general, it has never been helpful to converse with my characters.
What advice would you give other writers?
My greatest advice for people new to the writing community is that they should interact with others. Talk to writers. Talk to publishers. Talk to agents, and marketing folks, and cover designers. Talk to everyone. There are so many facets of the book industry, and sometimes it can be hard to know what you don’t know. Asking questions and listening to the wisdom of others is extraordinarily helpful.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
Though I work in traditional publishing, I decided to self-publish my first book. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it, that I could write, and publish, and have nothing to fear. Traditional publishing would have extended the timeline of that proving ground just a little too long.
Self-publishing has certainly been a learning experience though, and it has taken a lot of dedication to be a one woman writing, formatting, and marketing show.
My first novel, “When We Go Missing” was also something of a test for me. I began this “Novel Experiment” as I called it on my blog in July of 2016 with the ridiculous goal of publishing it in December of 2016. I finished the rough draft in September and then spent October and November editing it. Though I don’t suggest anyone else use my schedule – I would have liked to spend more time on revisions for example – having a quick deadline meant that I had to get the book written and published. That was a great decision for me because if given free reign, I will edit a work to death and never complete it. I am extraordinarily excited that I was able to get past my perfectionist tendencies and complete the novel.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
The book industry is in flux. Though ebooks have been around for over a decade, the way that people consume reading materials is constantly changing. For the moment, print books are still the biggest sellers for publishers, but I don’t know if that will continue.
Another thing that interests me is the fact that the way books are portrayed on the internet doesn’t always accurately indicate how successful they really are. For example, even though the strongest digital book communities focus on genres like fantasy, young adult and romance, nonfiction is often a much larger revenue source for publishers. I’m curious to see whether or not internet communities will begin to shift the balance. It’s certainly something to watch!
What do you use?: Professional Cover Designer
What genres do you write?: thriller, fantasy
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Kristen Twardowski Home Page Link
Link To Kristen Twardowski Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
Goodreads
Facebook
All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
