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Interview with Author Andrea Campbell
© 2001 by Darlene Bishop
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While the goal for business writers and freelance/professional is different -- one typically writes to sell the writing, the other uses the writing to sell the business -- there are many similarities between the two. One of the most important being the need for creating a quality work. As in any venture, it helps to look at the success of others and learn from their advice, mistakes and experience.
This interview with published author Andrea Campbell can give both freelance/professional writers and business writers an insight into the world of publishing, understand how even those who don't start out to "write" can do it successfully, and understand an important key to writing success, whatever your goal. Enjoy!
We'll dispense with the niceties (the "Hi, How are ya's?" and get to the heart of the interview.
Q. How long have you been writing?
A. Officially I started in 1989.
Due to a health problem in 1986, I had to change both my life direction and mind set. I had four years of reconstructive jaw surgery for a tumor -- which left a singer without her resources -- so I toyed with the idea of writing. I wanted to do a children's picture book (don't we all start there?) I had read and memorized my boy's story books (if you have kids you understand reading the same favorite over and over) and thought it would be good for me.
Q. How did you get started?
A. That year I went to Chautauqua, New York, to participate in a Highlights for Children writer's conference. I met and mingled with the best in the children's industry and came home fired up. Breaking in with periodicals seemed the place to start, so in 1989 I wrote "career profiles" for Careers, Career World, and Educational Oasis. It was good training because it taught me the art of interviewing, how to pick a subject, and a couple other simple rules such as how to string cogent sentences together.
About the same time, four other things happened. I became a foster mom for a Helping Hands capuchin monkey, I started Village Writers Workshop in my community, I began a newspaper column for a "start-up" community paper, and I discovered my writer's voice was not geared toward children.
I had also been keeping a journal to help me deal with my little trauma and I got into the habit of keeping files on things that interested me: the monkey experience and how we adapted to her; collections of games and game-playing through my association in different clubs; etc. And I studied how-to-write books and reference material.
Q. What was your first published work?
A. Aside from my magazine career stories and the newspaper work, I really feel my first published work was (and is) my first book. It's called Great Games for Great Parties:
How to throw a perfect party. Published by Sterling in 1991, it is still selling and I call it my little perennial. It really has filled what I consider a "void" in the market. There were lots of children's party game books, but none geared toward adults. I still laugh to think I sold the book on a proposal that was written using a Roman numeral outline. The ideas must have hit home however, because Great Games has been on the Amazon.com bestseller's list for entertaining and party books for as long as I can remember. Since then I have had six other books published, and, soon, I will have seven books on the market. (One is still in the editing stage, another will be reissued.)
Q. What are your goals for your writing, what direction do
you plan to take with it?
A. I am a very goal-oriented person. I have never understood the term "writer's block" for the simple reason I have more ideas than I have time to get down on paper. I guess that is my formula for success. I get interested in something I don't know anything about, then I figure out how to become an "expert" in that subject whether it is primatology, criminal justice, party planning, or criminal law -- and finally, I am overcome with the passion to put it into book form. My passion must carry over, because I do eventually convince others its a worthy topic, too.
Q. Ever do any epublishing?
A. Not exactly. I have content for sale and other stuff, but I do so much research on the Internet that I can only handle so much digitized print. Plus, I teach online workshops on forensic science, crime, and law (eight different ones) for both the Romance Writers of America and Painted Rock Writers and Readers Colony. Then, too, I am the "Home Decor" host for BellaOnline.com. I refuse to read more than 9 to 10 hours a day from the computer. The format isn't friendly enough to my eyes quite yet. I guess you could say I am a "traditionalist" reader in transition.
Q. Do you market your books yourself, hire someone, wait for
the orders to fall from the sky?
A. I have a very comprehensive Website that I created and I use it as a kind of sales-tool-cum-virtual-resume. I'm sure it has gotten me work. The URL is: http://www.andreacampbell.com
The site has an easy to remember record locator, with brief copy, bright colors, and lots of optimized photos on a lot of different subjects. That is my first line of promotion.
Also, when a new book arrives, I don't count on the publisher pushing it for me. Those were the "good ole' days." If you do not have a prearranged blockbuster, publicity is not in the cards any longer. Why wait for a disappointment? So -- I make up sell sheets on a new book, send "press release" type copy to radio, print media, or to other outlets and people who may do me some good.
I am also listed on about fifty different sites because I have so many different areas of interest, i.e., monkey sites, forensic science sites, party planning sites, etc. I spend a few hours every couple weeks doing self-promotion or, if I'm working on a book, whenever I think of it.
Q. If you could offer only one piece of writing advice to
beginning writers, what would it be?
A. You're only allowing me one piece? It would have to be "persistence."
Now I would also like to qualify that by saying "persistence with improvement." And if you would grant me a little more description, I would say "persistence with improvement and a mature way to deal with rejection." And if we could turn this into a parlor game I would say, "persistence with improvement and a mature way to deal with rejection, alongside a passion for your subjects."
Q. What do you see as developing trends in publishing and
epublishing, in particular?
A. My membership in the American Society of Journalists and Authors, Inc. (ASJA) tells me what is developing in the world of publishing. That's why they get my member dues. In January's newsletter issue, besides the nice story about my Website, they also had an article about an ebook conference which was held in New York last November representing 48 speakers involved in book publishing and technology from around the world. When the question "Three years from now, how many books will be published as ebooks?" was asked, forty-two percent thought that only 10-19% of all books would be published as ebooks three years from now; 24% thought that 20-29% will be ebooks; while 28% thought that the proportion would be higher than 30%. Let's just say that signals its evolution.
Again, we'll dispense with the niceties...
As you can see, Andrea's experience is varied and offers a great deal of insight for ANYONE writing for ANY reason...even business writers.
Be sure to check out Andrea's books, which include:
BRINGING UP ZIGGY: What raising a Helping Hands monkey taught me about love, commitment and sacrifice (Renaissance Books)
FORENSIC SCIENCE: Evidence, Clues and Investigation
RIGHTS OF THE ACCUSED (both Chelsea House Pub.)
GREAT GAMES FOR GREAT PARTIES: How to throw a perfect party (Sterling Pub.)
New! YOUR CORNER OF THE UNIVERSE: A guide to self-therapy through journal writing (iUniverse.com)
New! LEGAL EASE: A writer's guide to criminal law, evidence and procedure (Chas. C. Thomas, Pub..)
New! PERFECT PARTY GAMES (Sterling Pub.)
You can see them all at her Website at http://www.andreacampbell.com
Thanks, Andrea!
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Darlene Bishop is a professional with nearly two decades of experience writing and editing ezines and newsletters, press releases and much more for both print and electronic media, and is the author of numerous magazine and newspaper articles on a variety of topics.
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PUBLISHER CONTACT INFORMATION
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Darlene Bishop, Publisher
mailto:dbishop@wahhteam.com
103 Fox Road
Knoxville, TN 37922
Phone: 865-694-5032
FAX: 865-531-6270
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