About Linda Reyburn Shirey:
Linda has been an avid reader and (coffee) drinker for decades, and sees no reason to stop now. By day, she coordinates multi-faceted teams as a paralegal.
Her family nickname is a testimony to a general contrarian outlook in life. A pastor's son made a rhyming nickname, and she didn't like the familiar, sing-song tone of "Linder Pinder". (She also did not like Mr. Rogers or the CareBears, from age five onwards.) So of course, her loving family restored the Pynder moniker in her most difficult teen years to give her a chance at sanctification and character-building. Well, every little bit of adversity helps. Thanks, fam.
Her long-suffering husband prevents her from setting the world on fire (‘the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity’, James 3:6), which is his service to humanity. If she had a pet, it would be a big Maine Coon cat or possibly a team of grazing goats. She is open to podcast appearances because every conversation is an open door to learning.
If you don't like sarcasm or action movies, she may not be the author for you.
What inspires you to write?
I grew up in a words-based family. As in most parts of the United Kingdom, banter is held in high esteem.
My parents also read a lot of studies and McGuffey Readers about how to raise God-fearing, law-abiding citizens, so we didn't own a television until someone kindly offered it as a gift. (My parents are also deal-hunters and gift gatherers, so – they couldn't say no.) Dad extended the donation of the television 'until March Madness is over', and then there were the Olympics…and eventually the television stayed. But the books remained forever.
It's a very short step from book reading to book writing. Life inspires me, from the turtles wandering across our lawn to the weird social status jockeying in office life. Sometimes, it's as good entertainment as you can find in a Jane Austen novel.
Maybe that will be Book #5: 'Pride, Prejudice, and Sensibility at the Office'. Because sense makes occasional visits but doesn't take up residence in office life.
What authors do you read when you aren’t writing?
Too many to count! If I'm in a Russian mood, Tolstoy or Solzhenitsyn. If I'm in a British mood, there's a vast range from Shakespeare to Rowling, with possible forays into a biography of Winston Churchill. When I need solace, D.E. Stevenson or Josephine Tey. When I need some light romance, Rosamunde Pilcher or Mary Stewart. When I need business and leadership guidance, John Maxwell. For theological course-correction, John Calvin and Matthew Henry.
I could go on.
Tell us about your writing process.
An idea drives me crazy. I drive my family crazy, talking about it from all angles. I read about 5 to 25 books on that topic and other topics surrounding it, making notes in Goodreads and leaving reviews. I scribble lots of notes on legal pads and in notebooks.
Then I sit down and attempt to write an outline. I get inspired, and draft a few pages before I run out of steam. In the next month or two, I add more content into the Word document. Then I realize – I need to revisit this idea of an outline.
Eventually, I also realize that a Table of Contents would be good, so I sit down and create it. It takes another few months to do a read-aloud self-edit. I get horrified that I didn't follow a strict outline process, and rearrange content for better flow.
Feeling proud of myself for removing the glaring errors, I send off a final manuscript to a professional editor, who tears it to bits (in a nice way).
A few months later, something decent to read is born. By then, I'm sick of looking at it, so a little postpartum depression sets in. But I really am proud of the effort, so eventually I get another idea and start scribbling again.
What advice would you give other writers?
If an idea has been sitting in your inbox (or on your shelf) for 10 years, don't moan about life challenges. Open it up. Read it through once – fix the spelling errors. Get someone on Fiverr to put together a cover for it. Get someone else to format it. Open a KDP account and upload where they tell you to, and hit publish.
Yes, that whole process may take 30 to 90 days. So what? 10 years thinking about it has taken up brain space without paying rent. Get it to pay some rent.
If you want to build an author platform, start digging around on Kindlepreneur and Reedsy for tips on book promos and reviews. Or reach out to me for a cheat sheet on which sites to use and where to go for deals. (I was trained by deal-hunters. I am not shy about sharing – it's a big universe and there's room for good books we can all enjoy.)
How did you decide how to publish your books?
Selfpublishing.com had some great DIY options, and I signed up for their content. For a few years, I'd nibble at some of the application, but really, I just needed a shove in the right direction.
After about five years of procrastiworking, I signed up for a Do It For You program (Author Advantage Accelerator), got into a rhythm of meeting with a coach, and worked through cover issues and publication issues with various team members.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
In the same way that YouTube and other self-publishing options have mostly replaced traditional forms, I believe that self-publishing in books is the way forward. As many authors find out that there are tasks they'd like to outsource, I believe that the self-publishing explosion will move steadily toward more of a hybrid model.
In November 2024, Publishers Weekly indicated that by sheer volume, self-published titles are drowning out traditionally published titles 4 to 1 (2.6 Million to 560,000 or so). The leading platforms are still KDP, Draft2Digital (Smashwords merged with them), and IngramSpark. Indie authors used to be a joke. Now traditional publishers are courting contracts with them. That has been a definite marketplace shift within the last 10 years.
We live in interesting times.
What genres do you write?: Self-help, Christian Non-Fiction, Controversial Religious Knowledge
What formats are your books in?: eBook, Print, Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Linda Reyburn Shirey Home Page Link
Link To Linda Reyburn Shirey Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
Goodreads
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
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.
