R.J.
Vickers is a fantasy author, photographer, and traveler who says with a laugh
that she enjoys juggling multiple projects at once. She’s currently hard at
work on a New Zealand adventure travel guide, the second and third books in her YA fantasy Natural Order series, and
an epic fantasy novel set in a new world she’s been developing for almost ten
years now. She’s here today to talk about Beauty’s Songbook, which, like Awash in Talent, is being published by Kindle Press.
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| Author R.J. Vickers |
RJV: It’s
a fairy tale with nods to Beauty and the
Beast and Into the Woods. I’ve
always been a huge fan
of fairy tales, especially retellings in the mode of Ella Enchanted (Gail Carson Levine) and Goose Girl (Shannon Hale), so this was my chance to take a stab at
the genre.
JK: Have you written many fantasy books?
RJV: Well,
I’ve written seven fantasy novels in all, but only two (The Natural Order and Beauty’s Songbook) have been published. Three more of those are in various
stages of revision, and the last two will never see the light of day!
I
love writing novels during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) every
November, and I see most of these as experiments where I try something I wouldn’t
ordinarily write in order to hone my craft. I’ve written a psychological
thriller, a futuristic dystopian novel, a contemporary romance, and a pirate
story within the confines of NaNoWriMo—and not a single one of them will ever
be published.
JK: How
do you draw readers into your fantasy world?
RJV: One
of my favorite parts of writing is creating a world and bringing it to life.
I love weaving all sorts of sensory details into my writing, and adding those
quirky details that really give a world character. For Beauty’s Songbook, I wrote a whole set of songs common
in the region, and added a set of folk legends to give the world flavor.
JK: What are your main inspirations?
RJV: As
I mentioned, I’m a huge traveler, and I love taking bits of the world that
inspire me and incorporating them into my stories. The setting of Beauty’s Songbook is modeled on Finland, where I happened to begin writing the
story, and another recent novel is set in a landscape resembling the fiords of
New Zealand. That particular idea came to me while hiking through those exact
fiords, and upon returning to the same trail, I was so inspired I had to write
the book.
JK: What nonfiction do you write?
RJV: I’m
sure you’ll be surprised to know that most of my nonfiction relates to travel.
My first nonfiction book was College Can Wait, a gap-year guidebook for reluctant students with a huge
emphasis on travel. And, of course, I’m hard at work on the New Zealand travel
guide. If that’s successful, I’ll follow it up with more travel guides to all
of my favorite places.
RJV: When
I originally submitted Beauty’s Songbook for
the Kindle Scout nomination process, I didn’t actually expect to be selected. I
was very curious, though. Kindle Scout is one of the newest entries to the
publishing scene, a model that combines the best parts of self-publishing and
traditional publishing. I’ve been blogging about the whole Kindle Scout
publishing process here.
You
get complete control over your cover (though the quality control kicks in
during the nomination process—you won’t get many votes with a bad cover), and
Kindle Press does a very thorough edit of your book—for content and conventions—before
publication. You get an advance, but you also get to keep a much larger
percentage of your royalties than you would in a traditional publishing deal
(50% compared to around 12%). You don’t get to decide on your book’s pricing,
but Kindle Press will drop your price for promotions and submit your book to a
number of promotion deals, circumventing the need for the author to pay for
these.
As
traditional publishers have had a very hard time competing in the ebook market,
due to bad pricing choices and a lack of marketing, models like Kindle Press
are starting to look very desirable.
Anyway, Beauty’s Songbook just came out on April 19 (you can check it out here), so I have
yet to see whether it performs better or worse than my three previous titles.
But it’s been exciting to learn more about Kindle Scout and Kindle Press along
the way!
JK: Exciting is an
apt word for this whirlwind process. Thanks so much for being here today, and
best of luck with Beauty’s Songbook.
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