Post date: Mar 9, 2016 2:15:42 PM
Marilyn Anderson interview with David Alan Binder
Website: www.Marilyndanderson.com
Good Reads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/12635.Marilyn_D_Anderson
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Marilyn-D.-Anderson/e/B001K8D18E
1. Where are you currently living?
Bedford, Indiana
2. Where would you like to live?
I like it here, but I’ve always thought I’d like to live further west.
3. Why did you start writing?
I wanted to see if I could do it.
4. What is the most important thing that you have learned in your writing experience, so far?
If you come up with a good idea, try to use it. The marketing is incredibly hard, but eventually someone will want it.
5. What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?
I’ll try almost any topic, especially in nonfiction. The only job I ever turned down was writing about low-rider truck racing. I know nothing about it, and I’m not interested in learning.
6. Tell us your insights on self-publish or use a publisher?
a. Who is the name of your publisher and in what city are they?
If you can get a publisher, go with them.
They have marketing tools and people who know what the public wants to read. k
7. Any insights eBooks vs. print books and alternative vs. conventional publishing?
E-books are great, but you’d better be prepared to do lots of self promotion so someone can find your books at Amazon or Barnes & Noble or wherever you put the books.
8. Do you have any secret tips for writers on getting a book published?
No, if I did I’d have 50 books published instead of 25.
9. How did you acquire an agent? Any tips for new writers on getting one?
I don’t have one, and the two I used to have did me no good at all.
10. Where do you get your information or ideas for your books?
Either my ideas come from things that have happened to me or a publisher that wants a book on a certain topic. I’ve done just as much nonfiction as I’ve done fiction.
11. Do you have any suggestions or helps for new writers?
Try writing for magazines before you try to write a book, and study books about your craft.
12. What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?
Publishers want to use their own illustrators rather than let you pick one, and sometimes the illustrators haven’t even read your book.
13. How many books have you written?
I’ve probably written about 35, but only about 25 got published in various formats. For example, I’ve also had children’s plays published, and I’ve been published in several reading series.
14. Do you have any tricks or tips to help others become a better writer?
Don’t get stuck rewriting the beginning over and over. Come up with an outline, and try to follow it to some extent. The middle part is the toughest, although the ending can be a bear as well.
15. We’ve heard that it is good to provide twists in a good story. How do you do this?
Usually they just sort of happen. I’ll be writing along and I’m starting to bore myself. Then I think: what if this character took off in a completely weird direction?
16. What makes your book stand out from the crowd?
Most of my fiction is about horses and dogs. I know horses intimately, having trained and shown them for about 30 years.
17. What are some ways in which you promote your work?
Book marks, school visits, and I should have a blog, which I don’t.
18. What is the one thing you would do differently now (concerning writing) and why?
I can’t think of thing.
19. What would you like carved onto your tombstone? Or what saying or mantra do you live by?
Many kids learned to love reading because of her books.
This is not a question, but an observation by Marilyn: Children are NOT easier to writer for than adults, because children will not put up with a long boring beginning. Also, every Tom, Dick, and Harry has an idea for a picture book. Picture books are THE hardest kind of market to break into.
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