Day 9: T.L. Clarke - The Brown Bookshelf

After reading T.L.. Clarke’s story of hard work and endurance, we’re so very proud to honor her in the spotlight of The Brown Bookshelf’s 28 Day Program. For every writer dreaming of the day when they’ll see their work published, here’s a story for you.

Tell Us About Your Journey

I started writing my debut Young Adult/Middle Grade novel “The Secret of the Scarlet Stone” a couple of years ago after looking around and not seeing a lot of paranormal and fantasy novels that had characters that were diverse, that’s when the seed for the concept of my novel was firmly planted in my mind.

After that, I just started writing the draft then stopped, then started again, really writing in spurts when I had some spare time. Everything restarted when I decided to take on the completion of my novel as a NaNo project, I wanted to challenge myself, expand my creativity and yes that’s right, finally complete my book. With my writing engine restarted and with the encouragement and support of my husband, before I knew it, finally I had my draft novel completed.

I was exhilarated with the momentous completion, but then I asked myself well, what’s next? Well publishing of course. I absolutely knew that I did not want to go through the finding a publisher route, frankly I never even entertained the thought and knew that being an independent author was definitely for me so I started doing some research and was excited to find the wealth of good information out there on successful independent authors like J.A. Konrath who has a list of what you need to become a successful independent author: “Write good books, with good descriptions, good formatting, and good cover art, sell them cheap, and keep at it until you get lucky.”

This list was my starting point; I hired an editor, got my book professionally formatted and hired a cover artist. I don’t have to add but I think I will that there was a lot of other things to consider along my journey like learning how to market my book, reaching out to book bloggers and diving into the whole social networking scene, all of which was (and will continue to be) integral to getting the word out about my book.

What or Who Inspired You?

First and foremost, I am a big fan of paranormal and fantasy novels that’s why I read it (lots of it) and that’s why I write it (Book #2, “Blood Oath” scheduled for release March 6, 2012). A few of the many young adult writers that inspire me are Richelle Mead, Samantha Young (independent author), and Andrea Cremer. I just love their creative play on the paranormal and fantasy theme and their knack for reaching their young adult target audience.

The Back Story

As I stated in my journey to publication, I definitely knew that I didn’t want to go through the finding a publisher route, I knew that being an independent author was definitely for me. I did a lot of research on publishing, marketing and found a lot of good information out there about successful independent authors.

I love being an independent author and every time I hear from readers saying that they love the fact that my book includes character diversity, something that’s sorely missing in the young adult paranormal and fantasy genre, it brings me joy.