I recently interviewed
Savannah Rose, a contemporary romance author from Southside, Alabama. She's written two romance novels --
And That, My Dear, Is What Love Is and
Whistle Creek -- and shared some great insights about being a Southern writer.
Please
tell us briefly about yourself—when you first began writing and a little bit about
your novels.
I was born in Alabama and I have
always lived in Alabama. I am an identical twin; my other half will tell
you she is the baby. We are eleven minutes apart. I write and she draws. I’ve
always been interested in writing ever since I was old enough to remember. My
mother spent her hard earned money keeping me and my twinsy stocked in notebooks
and pencils.
About the time I turned twenty-five
or so, I discovered an author by the name of Kaye Gibbons. When I read her
first book Ellen Foster, I fell in
love with the way she wrote. So Southernly, so normal. I guess I can say normal because she wrote like I spoke.
And that was what I wanted to do. I’d struggled to find a voice, but after
reading her novel(s), I realized I had a voice. My Southern voice. And so that
was how it all started. My novels are always based in the South. And you will
always find a set (or two) of twins somewhere in the characters. Just a little
tribute to my wonderful twinsy, Pam.
Your first novel, And That,
My Dear, Is What Love Is, is available as a paperback, and your second, Whistle Creek, is
available only on Kindle. Why did you decide to only use Kindle the second
time around?
Well, just to be frank, I had, and
continue to have, a bad experience with my publisher. I knew when I began the
Whistle Creek s
eries I didn’t want to go back to this particular publisher. In
fact, I’m waiting out my contract duration to buy my rights back on And That, My Dear, Is What Love Is
. Let
me clarify: I believe other people may have a wonderful experience with this
particular publisher; however, it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for.
Okay, so as I was saying, I decided
when I began the Whistle Creek
series that I wanted to try something different
while I searched for another publisher. I researched many eBook publishers and
found Kindle to be the easiest and offered a great percentage to the
author/publisher. (By the way, Whistle
Creek
is also available on the Barnes & Nobles website for Nook users.) I will
definitely use the eBook option with each book I finish because it’s easy,
profitable, and it gets your name out there for others to see.
What are the advantages/disadvantages to also having print copies
of your novel?
I have to say, even though I love
the ease for readers when it comes to eBooks, there’s nothing like seeing your
name and your words in print. I will always be a traditional book reader and
writer. It just seems so difficult to get a book printed these days without the
publisher demanding money for everything. Hence, the situation I’m in now with
my first book.
The Advantages: The advantages are more traditional reasons
to me than anything else. Most collectors would prefer a novel, short story, documentary, or
poem collection in print. That’s something to hand down to the kids and
grandchildren. I have books that my Mom and my Grandmother bought for me when I
was a child and I enjoyed reading with my children and now my grandchildren
those same books. Those are moments that you can’t experience with an eReader,
in my opinion. Another advantage would be I can donate copies to the local
libraries. I haven’t quite figured out how to do this for an eBook.
The Disadvantages: The
disadvantages of having print copies? Well, I personally can’t think of a
reason other than it’s difficult getting books in print. With so many POD
publishers out there, it’s like a shark feeding frenzy. I’m not saying they are
all bad, but the ones I’ve reviewed didn’t get very high marks with other
authors. And my own experience with the current publisher on And That, My Dear, Is What Love Is
expects the authors to pay for EVERYTHING. And not at a very low rate, mind
you. I believe an author should be paid and not expect to pay others to print
their books. Again, just my opinion.
You live in Alabama and your novels are set in Alabama and
Tennessee—do you consider yourself a Southern writer?
Yes, I do. I not only write in a
Southern voice, but being from the South, I can honestly say I’m a “Southern
Writer.” I love Southern slang. My husband, who was born in Ohio and raised by
Northern parents (his father is actually from Scotland), didn’t have the
privilege of learning the proper Southern slang and their meanings. I kid him
because he can’t hear his father’s accent. It’s a Scottish/Northern accent with
a “Y’all” at the end. Quite cute.
My Southern upbringing has a great
deal of influence on my writing. I create characters based on my country
grandparents and my city grandparents, my cousins, friends, siblings, and my
parents. In the South we are exposed to many wonderful sights such as decked-out
lawnmowers, four-wheelers, trailers (that would be mobile homes or manufactured
homes to others), huge hair, and lots of camouflage (mostly on women in the off
seasons). Really, I love living in the South. And even though I’ve dreamt of
moving off after I retire, it will be to another Southern state such as
Tennessee or Florida. I think the mountains or the beach would be a great place
to draw in inspiration for my craft.
What has been the biggest challenge in becoming a professional
writer?
Again, I hate to keep going back to
the same answer, getting read. It’s difficult when an aspiring author pours
her/his heart into their work, then studies how to write the perfect query
letter only to send out the perfect query letter never to receive a reply.
That’s very difficult and heartbreaking. But I won’t give up and neither should
any of you out there. Keep writing, keep sending those perfect query letters,
keep researching publishers, and keep publishing through eBook publishers. The
bottom line is this: If don’t keep trying, I will never have a chance of
succeeding.
What’s been the most rewarding part?
The most rewarding part of writing,
for me, is having my friends come up to me and say they can’t wait to read my
next book. Whistle Creek
is the first
book of the Whistle Creek s
eries. This series will include two more books: Christmas By The Creek
scheduled to be
released December 2011 for Kindle and Nook and Whistle Creek Wedding
scheduled to be released Spring 2012 for
Kindle and Nook.
I love to hear readers’ feedback.
In fact, I encourage them to contact me through email, Facebook, MySpace,
Twitter, or just face to face. I welcome positive and negative feedback. One of
my friends, a student from work, came bouncing into my office. I work at the
local Community College as an Administrative Assistant for the Technical
Division. Anyway, she informed me she checked my book And That, My Dear, Is What Love Is
, from the local library and took
it to the beach with her on an unexpected weekend getaway. She informed me she
never, NEVER, reads Romance. However, she said she couldn’t put it down. She
now is waiting for Whistle Creek
to
come out in paperback J.
What sort of publicity have you done for your novels—obviously,
social networking, but any local readings? Has it been hard to do your own
marketing?
Word of mouth is always a great
publicity tool. Tell a friend, they tell a friend, they tell a friend and so
forth. I have created business cards that have all my contact info, publishing
info, and the titles of my books on them and I leave them at random places
wherever I may go. I could one day be eating lunch out with the hubs and I
leave a business card with the tip. That’s always a great trick.
I’ve also talked to the local
library about participating in the April 2012 Local Authors Book Fair. I hope
to be able to purchase enough And That,
My Dear, Is What Love Is
copies for that event. See, there’s a con for
eBooks right there. How do you sell your eBook at a Book Fair? Well, there’s no
guarantee sell, but I plan to promote Whistle
Creek
by handing out small postcards I created with the blurb, websites for
downloading, and price per download. And another thought that crossed my mind
while I was creating these postcards, if someone wants a signed copy of Whistle Creek
or any of the upcoming Whistle Creek
series books, I will sign the postcard. Gotta think outside the
box.
The larger bookstores won’t allow
me to have book signings or book readings from And That, My Dear, Is What Love Is
, because the publisher is a POD
and does not distribute to the larger bookstores. I’m still researching how to
promote an eBook.
So far, it has been difficult to
promote the books through other channels besides social networking. But I plan
to be able to accomplish more sales once I have the series completed. And who
knows? By then, I may even have a publisher on my side.
Who are some of your favorite Southern authors?
Kaye Gibbons, as I mentioned
earlier. She writes lovely books such as Ellen
Foster
, A Virtuous Woman
, and Charms
for the Easy Life
. Ms. Gibbons was born in Nash County, NC.
Another Southern author I’ve
recently discovered doesn’t really write Southern novels per say. He is a
Southern writer in the sense he lives in Huntsville, AL. Austin Boyd's Nobody's Child
was a prize I won from a
blogger bud's site. It is a Christian based novel about a topic that could be
controversial to this genre. However, his writing is similar to Kaye Gibbons in
the sense he writes with a Southern voice.
And I can't complete this interview
without throwing out a piece of trivia. Linda Howard (Linda Howington) is from
Alabama. In fact, she lives in Hokes Bluff, AL which is only a short fifteen to
twenty minutes from my home. I have also had the privilege to work with her daughter-in-law,
Donna Howington, at our local college. I hope to one day get the courage up to
ask Donna if her mother-in-law might have the time to read one of my novels.
But for now, the dream of her being from my area and breaking through the big
house publishing business, keeps my dream of doing the very same thing alive.
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