Hope Tarr interview with David Alan Binder

Post date: May 12, 2016 1:04:35 PM

Hope Tarr interview with David Alan Binder

She has a contest periodically on her blog and has every social media listed below.

Her bio from her website:

Hope Tarr is the award-winning author of more than twenty historical and contemporary romances, including OPERATION CINDERELLA, optioned by Twentieth Century Fox. Her books have been translated into thirty languages including French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Korean, Japanese and Slovene! Hope has been featured in numerous national and regional print and online publications, including Time Out New York. RT BOOK Reviews, and The New York Post. She is also a co-founder and curator of Lady Jane's Salon®, New York City's first—and still only—monthly romance fiction reading series, now in its seventh year with six satellites nationwide. Prior to launching her writing career, she earned a Master’s Degree in Developmental Psychology and a Ph.D. in Education, both from the Catholic University of America. Hope lives in Manhattan with her real-life romance hero and their rescue cats.

Website: http://www.HopeTarr.com

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Hope-Tarr/e/B001HD1EU4

Good Reads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/254454.Hope_Tarr

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hopetarr/

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/hopectarr

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HopeC.Tarr

Twitter: http://www.Twitter.com/HopeTarr

1. Where are you currently living?

I am blessed to have lived for the past eight years (and counting) in Manhattan, NYC.

2. What is the most important lesson you have learned in your writing experience, so far?

Talent is great but talent + tenacity is unstoppable.

3. What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?

Though I always start out with a complete synopsis, I write all my books out of sequence, not by choice but because that’s the only way my Muse works. It makes for an “interesting” final few weeks of editing, to say the least! (Thank goodness for word processors generally and “cut-and-paste” functionality specifically).

4. Tell us your insights on self-publish or use a publisher?

I have written for multiple publishers over the years, from big New York houses to boutique indies. I’ve also self-published two books, TEMPTING, a single-title historical romance formerly published by Berkley, and SCRIBBLING WOMEN & THE REAL-LIFE ROMANCE HEROES WHO LOVE THEM, an original nonfiction anthology of essays by bestselling romance novelists, including Yours Truly—net sales of the anthology support the NYC charity, Women in Need.

Not unlike global warming, the climate of publishing is changing—constantly. Technology, notably the digitalization of books and reading, has amplified and accelerated that evolution—exponentially. The offshoot is that conventional wisdom, or any industry ‘wisdom,’ for that matter, gets dated—quickly. Currently (as in these next five minutes or so), I would say that some books lend themselves to big publishing whereas others, for whatever reason (uniqueness of setting, quirky characters, you name it), may be better suited to a smaller house or self-publication. The good—actually great—news is that as authors today, we have choices. Lots and lots of choices in how we bring our books to market. And if one way doesn’t bring us the result we want, we can always try another.

5. Any insights eBooks vs. print books and alternative vs. conventional publishing?

The bottom line is that books are books, regardless of the medium or mechanism of delivery. Whether e-book or print book, conventional publisher, indie pub, or self-pub, content is indeed king. In the end, the reader experience always comes down to Story—capital “S” intended. J

6. Do you have any secret tips for writers on getting a book published?

How I wish that I did! Unfortunately, there’s no secret sauce, at least no recipe that I’m privy too. Work ethic, persistence, the drive to constantly improve one’s craft, the ability to park one’s ego and listen to (if not always accept) feedback – these are just some of the “ingredients” of career authors vs. dabblers.

7. How did you or would you suggest acquire an agent? Any tips for new writers on getting one?

A good agent who believes in not only your book but YOU is pure gold, absolutely invaluable. That said, a bad agent (or one that is a bad fit-for-you) is far worse than no agent. As to how to find the right agent for you, do your research. Check out the Acknowledgements of books you’ve read that you a) like/love and b) find similar to yours in genre, setting, and so forth. The author will almost always credit his or her agent. Sign up for Publisher’s Lunch, a daily e-newsletter of industry deals and forthcoming books and start tracking not only who represents what but who’s selling what, and to whom and at what level. Join writers’ organizations that fit with whatever you write such as Romance Writers of America, Mystery Writers of America, The Authors Guild and Novelists Inc. (if you’ve already published). Along with holding an annual conference, these national trade groups have chapters across the country (and often overseas) that host craft workshops, lectures by guest speakers, in-person networking functions, online discussion forums, Facebook groups etc., etc.

8. Do you have any suggestions or helps for new writers (please be specific and informational as possible)?

See above.

9. What was one of the most surprising things you learned your creative process with your books?

Even after 25 books and 16 years, it still surprises me just where my writer’s imagination takes me, from super dark, to envelope pushing sensual and sexy, to whimsical and laugh-out-funny—and back again.

10. How many books have you written?

I have twenty-five published historical and contemporary novels with multiple publishers—Berkley, Harlequin, Entangled, Medallion Media Group, etc. I am currently finishing up my first work of women’s fiction, an historical saga set in New York from the Gilded Age through the Jazz Age.

11. Do you have any tricks or tips to help others become a better writer?

Writing is like physical exercise—if you don’t do it regularly, the muscles grow stiff. Write every day even if it’s for just fifteen minutes to keep your muse svelte and supple. ;)

12. What makes yours or any book stand out from the crowd?

“Voice” and compelling characters.

13. What are some ways in which you promote your work?

I maintain a website at www.HopeTarr.com and am active on social media—the Usual Suspects (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, GoodReads etc.—see above for links). And readers in NYC can meet me in-person at Lady Jane’s Salon®, the romance reading series that I cofounded in 2009 and continue to curate.

14. What is the one thing you would do differently now (concerning writing or and why)?

My first few books I wrote as stand-alone reads, not as series. But when readers fall in love, they fall hard—and want the experience to continue. Now I make certain to give all my heroes and heroines attractive siblings and or friends. For example, my Men of Roxbury House trilogy: VANQUISHED, ENSLAVED, and UNTAMED, all set in Victorian England and Scotland, features four friends who first meet as children in a Quaker run orphanage and then meet again as adults, their lives having taken *very* different paths. Likewise, my Suddenly Cinderella contemporary series revolves around four friends who pass along a pair of vintage ruby red slippers. It’s a structure that seems to pack considerable reader appeal—OPERATION CINDERELLA, the first book in that series, was optioned by FOX for feature film!

15. What saying or mantra do you live by?

I have several I shuffle through. Regarding writing and career overall, I offer up this quote from silent screen star, Mary Pickford, who reinvented herself many times as technology—notably, “talkies”—altered the film industry.

“You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call ‘failure’ isn’t the falling down but the staying down.”