Jeffrey Wilson Interview

Jeffrey Wilson Interview

Author of

THE TRAITEUR’S RING

Studio E Publishing

ISBN 978-1-58755-052-2

Copyright © 2009 by Jeffrey S. Wilson

All Rights Reserved.

Learn more at jeffreywilsonfiction.com

1: What is the most productive time of the day for you to write?

I am most productive in the morning. I try and write from mid morning to early afternoon. Often times schedules don’t allow your ideal and I have found that early afternoon is good for me as well. I am useless at night, except for the rare night where an important idea sneaks into my dreams and wakes me. Then I can work a short time to get the idea going.

When is not really important—everyone is different. The frequency is way more important. A writer needs to write as close to every day as possible, even if for only a short period of time.

2: Do you start your projects writing with paper and pen or is it all on the computer?

My projects evolve in my head and once they start to gel I sit at the computer and get started. I have no idea if other writer’s are like this, but I almost never know how my stories or books will end (or even what will happen in the middle). I rarely have more than the next few chapters really well developed in my head and I am always excited to see where the story will take me next.

3: What do you draw inspiration from?

Like all writers, my own life experience is a huge factor in my writing in terms of both stories and characters. My stories tend to be more about the characters and how they react to whatever bizarre circumstance I thrust them in and I think having a diverse life experience is what allows me to bring those characters really to life. I write supernatural thrillers so the setting of the stories—well, you decide if that could possibly be inspired by real life or not.

4: Do you set yourself goals when you sit down to write such as word count?

I try and write about 3-4 hours a day 4-5 days a week when I am working on a novel. I find that setting arbitrary goals of pages, words, chapters etc make the writing stale. What comes out, comes out and it can’t really be forced. I have written 5 pages in a writing “work day” and I have written 30. You know when you’re done, I think.

5: Being a self published author how do you come up with your cover art?

I am actually not self published. My first novel is published by Studio E Publishing in Pacific Palisades, CA. I have a standard royalty contract for my book “The Traiteur’s Ring” which was initially released as an eBook.

Whether you are self published or royalty published, the cover art is tremendously important. It is also very expensive. Professional quality cover art can cost $3000-$6000 for slick art. I was VERY fortunate to have found Joey Adams. Joey is extremely talented as both an artist (he did the illustrations for my 9 year old son’s children’s book which is how we started our business relationship) and as an incredible web designer. Joey charges less than half of what the big name folks charge for cover art and my cover is as good or better than anything you’ll find in Barnes and Noble. He also did my web site and is my webmaster and for that charged a fraction of the best price offered by a web design firm.

Anyone looking for cover art or website design absolutely has to at least contact him for an estimate. Check out his work on my website (jeffreywilsonfiction.com) or email him directly at joey@jeffreywilsonfiction.com

6: What drives you to chose the career of being a writer?

I started writing and sharing short stories when I was in the sixth grade and never remember a time when I didn’t write. I started to consider writing for a living when the idea of my first novel woke me from a sound sleep while deployed in Iraq. I had a few successful short stories and the idea of making a living doing something that I have always done for the sheer enjoyment of the process tempted me from my other interests. When my short story “Calling Home” led me to my now editor and agent who asked to represent my novels I started to allow myself to believe that maybe I really could do it. Now my first published novel is doing well in the eBook market, I have another that will come out as an eBook next year, and I am working on my fourth novel as we speak.

7: Do you own an ebook reading devise?

Yes. I resisted it for a long time—I still love the smell and feel of a book—but when “The Traiteur’s Ring” came out my wife bought me an eReader. Guess what? I love it! To my surprise it is my preferred way to read now. I wish I had known how easy and familiar reading on these devices is because I would definitely have gotten one sooner. They read like a “real” book but with the convenience of carrying a thousand titles or more in something as light as a magazine. Especially when travelling there is just nothing like it.

8: Who are some of your favorite authors and What are you reading now?

I love Joe Hill’s first two novels (Heart Shaped Box and his new bestseller Horns). Horns was the first novel I read on my eReader. I enjoy thriller writers like Vince Flynn. Stephen King is one of the greatest writers ever and I swear he could write a 600 page book about someone reading the yellow pages and his character development would still make the book riveting.

9: What do you think of book trailers and do you have any plans to have any?

I have no immediate plans for this but in our e world it is a marketing technique that you have to take seriously.

10: What are you working on now that you can talk about?

I am working on a new novel that will follow the ones I have completed but are not yet released. I am a little weird (like a lot of authors) about talking about things I am working on. Sorry.