About Susan Hobbs:
Susan was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She is a military brat and has lived in many places. She presently lives in Missouri, but has also been a resident of California, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, and Virginia.
She has worked in a wide variety of jobs, but now works from home as a freelance graphic designer and writer. Her current series of books focus on selling digital products using platforms like Etsy, Sellfy, CafePress, and more.
She is active on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+. She is always looking for new ideas and wants to share her experiences with other people.
Susan’s literary influences include Robert Heinlein, Nora Roberts, Anne McCaffrey, Diana Gabaldon, Janet Evanovich, Robert B. Parker, James Patterson, Rick Riordan, and oh, so many more.
Susan currently lives in Missouri (USA) with her husband, Robert, and their pet — Blaze the Wonder Dog, a very smart Rat Terrier! When she isn’t writing or designing, Susan enjoys knitting and working in her garden.
What inspires you to write?
I love to read — anything and everything. If it has words on it… it’s fair game. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have a book in my hand. I have always said that I wanted to be a writer. Sadly, I buried that goal for too many years. My first book happened because the one and only book I found on the subject wasn’t, in my humble opinion, written well. I got frustrated and said, “I could write a better book than this one.” “Write it,” I answered. And I did.
Is it better? That’s for readers to decide. The end result is that I accomplished my goal of writing a book. Now I’m hooked! The floodgate is open and all I can do it think about the next one.
Tell us about your writing process.
I’m mainly a plotter. I’ve got to know where it begins and where it will end. A well planned outline speeds up the writing process. This is true for fiction and non-fiction.
I’m pretty new on the writing scene. I’m pretty sure I’m not the best person to listen to about the writing process, let me get back to you on the subject after I have a few more books under my belt.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
My first officially published book is non-fiction. But… I have several fiction books in the rough draft phase. Understanding your characters is essential to writing. I’m still learning this process. Creating character profiles has really helped me develop better characters. This is a new process for me and I’m working on it everyday.
What advice would you give other writers?
Still learning.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I think that the thought of working with a traditional publisher kept me from pursuing writing earlier in my life. Call me a control freak, but self-publishing is the way to go for me.
I am a graphic designer. I made the decision several years ago to go 100% freelance. I started working with indie authors and small presses creating book covers, page layouts, ebook conversions, and then I added proofreading and copyediting services. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew learning these skills were going to make it easier for me when I finally wrote that first book.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
Anyone can write a book. Notice I didn’t say a good book or a great book. As with almost everything in life, this falls into the good news/bad news category.
Bad news first. There are a lot of poorly written books on the market. I get so frustrated when I have to wade through misspelled words, bad grammar, and crappy formatting time after time after time.
The good news is this creates a fabulous opportunity for writers. Write the best book you can. Have it proofread. Have it professionally designed. Find people whose opinions you trust to be your test readers. Develop a thick skin when it comes to critiques. Stick to your guns when you know you’re right. Do this and deliver consistently good books and your readers will love you and be loyal.
What genres do you write?: how to, romance, science fiction, suspense
What formats are your books in?: eBook
Website(s)
Susan Hobbs Home Page Link
Link To Susan Hobbs 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.
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