About Vlad Zachary:
First-time author Vlad Zachary, grew up in Sofia, Bulgaria. During his college years, he built a name as a journalist for pro-democracy periodicals. As a student, Vlad also made his way onto the national TV scene in Bulgaria, where he anchored a leading, live news show. A few years later, he came to the United States, earned a Babson College MBA, and made a career in e-commerce, software, and marketing. Along the way, Vlad produced the Mastering The Job Interview DVD, and wrote The Excellence Habit.
The Excellence Habit, was launched in January, 2016 and became an instant Amazon best-seller in Business & Money, Applied Psychology, and Leadership. Next Generation Indie Book Awards, named it a 2016 Winner in the Motivational books category. The book was also named finalist for non-fiction by the Eric Hoffer Award.
What inspires you to write?
The need to share all that I learn. About a year ago, as I was looking for the right inspiration, I came across many books, that covered subjects somewhat peripheral to what I was looking for. At some point I realized that the best way to get the book that I needed was to write it myself.
Tell us about your writing process.
Having a good structure and outline is very important for my process. The outline is something fluid and will change over the course of a project. Yet having it there to guide me is really helpful in keeping my focus on the big picture. Since I’ve only dabbled in non-fiction so far, I try to tell a good story, even when the story had been told before.
What advice would you give other writers?
Just keep writing, re-writing, and learning about the craft. The books that helped me a great deal were all by Steven Pressfield: Gates of Fire, The War of Art, and Turning Pro. His blog, and the blog of his editor, Shawn Coyne are also full of super-helpful posts. Shawn Coyne is also the author of The Story Grid – the most comprehensive work on editing for writers.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
Time was of the essence. I couldn’t afford to wait for the traditional model to work. Finding an agent, and pitching a book project to a publisher, before even knowing that I could write one, made no sense. On the other hand, having a self-published book, which goes to #1 in Business & Money on Amazon and gets a couple of awards within six months of launch – now that’s excellent.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
It is evolving. More power to authors is also coming with more competition among a larger number of super talented new names.
What do you use?: Professional Editor, Beta Readers
What genres do you write?: Big-idea non-fiction
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print, Audiobook
Website(s)
Vlad Zachary Home Page Link
Link To Vlad Zachary 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.
