Reader’s Life Magazine Issue 9
Reader’s Life Magazine Interested in being a featured author? Or having a story featured Contact us by email at
Readerslifemag@gmail.com Editor-Trisha Ratliff
3-5: Eva Pohler 7-10: Mira Day 12-14: Jaci Wheeler 16-19: Jenna Elizabeth Johnson
Eva Pohler Eva Pohler recently
The Gatekeeper’s Sons that it
retired from a
was “sure to thrill Hunger
twenty-year position
Games fans.” A reader
teaching writing and
herself, Eva writes in
literature at a university
multiple genres, but all of
in San Antonio, where
her stories blur the line
she lives with her
between reality and fantasy,
husband and three kids.
truth and delusion, and
Now a full-time writer,
draw from Eva’s personal
she’s the author of The
philosophy that a reader
Mystery Book Collection
must be lured and abducted
and three series for
into complete captivity in
young adults: The
order to enjoy the reading
Gatekeeper’s Saga, The
experience.
Purgatorium Series, and The Vampires of Athens. Her books have been described as “thrilling” and “addictive.” A Kirkus reviewer said of
Eva Pohler has been interested in writing for 20 years and has been professionally writing for 8, her love for the written word started when she was in middle school and her uncle: who was in college at the time sent her an anthology. During her High school years she began writing more and more. While in college she took every writing class she could, but it wasn’t until after she married that she began writing seriously. After writing a few novels she set out to find an agent, after many rejections she decided to self-publish two of her novels:” Gate Keepers Son” and “The Mystery Box” At first nothing happened but after attending a marketing convention and applying what she learned into her marketing stratagy her numbers went from 30 a week to 30 novels a day.
Since publishing she has been able to retire from her job as a college professor and is able to write full time. Her advice for newly published authors is to start building a list of subscribers to your newsletter and to start building your own brand, you will need to be known for a certain idea. She also suggests utilizing Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to gain followers
She also suggests writing a series or collection, and she also suggests making the first novel in the series free. For writers attempting to publish she suggests taking an writing more than one novel before attempting to contact an agent. Before self publishing she advises you have a few different people read your novel. If you have more than one person reading.
Mira Day Mira first began writing in High School and started back up 5 years ago, but this time she was much more serious about it. She started back up writing after a friend encoraged her to write a novel while they were discussing a book. Day was living in a small basment apartment with no TV or internet, Day felt that writing just might cure her boredom, after writing her first chapter she sent it to her friend who told her to keep going, soon she fell in love with the characters and contenued to write.
Before writing and publishing, Day always wanted to be a chef and had worked in the food indestry for a long time, this is why her novels involve food in some way.
Day says that “Playing House” took a long time to write and that she writes by the seat of her pants, allowing the story to write at its own pace. After turning 30 she had plans to publish her novel as is not knowing the amount of work that goes into a novel before publishing it. “Luckily, my mentor/editor stopped me and got me to get it professionally looked at.” When asked about her journy to publishing this is what she had to say. “I'm still taking it :) Each day, you learn something new about publishing and how to get your name out there. As an Indie,
you're in control of all that. Learning the ends and outs of publishing is an ongoing thing. For me, I knew I wanted the ability to get my books into Barnes and Noble. It's not my end goal and doesn't lead to Random House picking you up. It's just something I wanted. Knowing this, I knew I had to find a print on demand company that works with Barnes and Noble. In comes IngramSpark. They have been great to work with.”
Day says that she has had a lot of positive feedback. “I've found that people want more. They want to know about Stacey and Lucas, along with anything else they didn't get an answer to. Stacey's story is in the making and I'm hoping to have it done by the middle of next year.” When asked about why she chose to write NA novels, she says she didn’t choose it she feels like it chose her “I think of New Adult as the transition you make between the every day to building your life. It's all new to you and it's confusing and hard. But you learn so much about yourself in this time frame that it grows you into the adult you want to be. And that's where I like
to begin my stories; right there on the brink of the big decision that changes the character.” After being asked if she had any advice for young writers this is the advice she gave. “ Do it because you love it and don't let anyone stop you. It shows an amazing act of courage to put your heart and soul out there for the world to see. Not everyone is going to dig your work. But that's okay. Let the naysayers be your fuel to keep learning. Take feedback as a learning opportunity, not personally. Stressing out over your lack of book sales or reviews makes you overwhelmed. And that only leads to burning
out and dropping something you love. Success is only in how you measure it and you're already succeeded just by writing "The End". Day has three projects she is currently working on. The next novel is “Runaway Road” which is due out in September. After that is a novella called “Mistletoe teases” Then she will be turning around and doing a story called “Burbon and the Midnight show”, which is based on songs by “The Killers”, it is going to be a dark love story that she is very excited about.
Jaci Wheeler Jaci Wheeler started writing n High School and hasn’t stopped since, Jaci says she began writing as a form of therpy and to get her mind off of lifes craziness,”I have two special needs kids who need a lot of therapy and so during their therapy instead of worrying how it was going I started writing. I made up my perfect world and lost myself in it.” Wheeler says she never liked to read as a child until she discoved the novel “The Giver” in jr high,
“It opened a whole new word for me and turned me on to the love of reading. The young adult age is such a turning point in someones life and if I can be even a small part of impacting someones life I can't pass up that opportunity. Plus it's just a fun age and I absolutely love the interaction I have with the readers.” The inseperation for United comes from a conversation she had with her husband.
“My husband and I were driving to Costco and he started talking about the election and Presidency. I'm normally very turned off by politics but something he said sparked my imagination and I started thinking about if I could pick a President how would I do it and what qualities would I look for? United literally just started flowing from my fingertips and one book turned into three. “ Wheeler has published a trilogy but due to requests for a follow up, she has been considering a spin off series. She says it took about 2 and half months to write all three novels and that the story came very easily for her.
“The United Series came so easily to me. It really just flowed out of me. Because I have two kids who have high demands I am really only able to write during their therapy hours and at night. I don't think I slept for two months straight. From start to finish It took me about two and a half months for the three books.” All though she always dreamnt of publishing she never intended to publish“United” “My husband however had another idea entirely. Once I wrote it and let him read it he decided it must be published so he published it on Amazon the next day. Obviously neither of us had any idea of the work that goes into self publishing and it was quite the experience.”
I Went to a book signing to raise money for Autism Speaks several months later where I met Author J.L. Drake and she took me under her wing. I submitted my trilogy to her publishers and within 6 days I was signed. “ Wheeler also has some advice for young writers, “My advice is pretty basic, just write. Don't try for perfection or the next best seller. If you love to write than write. Do what makes you happy, get inspired and let that inspiration move you. Don't try to stick to your story line or outline just let the story flow from you. I always get blocked when I try to dictate where to take my story, let the story take you where it will. “
Wheeler is currently working on a new series. “At the moment I am working on a Young Adult/ Crossover trilogy. It's called Operation Child Solider and is about a black ops group who raises child Agents.”
Jenna Elizabeth Johnson Jenna Elizabeth Johnson published the 10th novel in the OtherWorld series on December 23rd 2015. Johnson says her readers have liked this novel so far. “They like the new characters and the fact that this book is something fresh, yet familiar. I’ve even had a few of my readers claim there is something more poetic about this latest Otherworld novel. As a writer, that is always wonderful to hear.” Earlier this year she published a new novella which goes with her Otherworld series as well entitled “Faebound” “Faebound is a very short story
told from Aiden’s (Meghan’s little brother) perspective. It takes place during the same timeline as Faelorehn and stays entirely in the mortal world. I originally published it in sections on my blog, then uploaded it to Wattpad. Readers can now get it where ebooks are sold for $0.99.
It doesn’t have the romance the other books have, but for anyone who likes Aiden, it offers a glimpse into his own world.”
myself that a good portion of Faelorehn’s success is in the story itself. It still astounds me when I get emails or new reviews from readers who have really enjoyed While the Otherworld the first Otherworld series is not the first series novel, and I appreciate Johnson published it is every one of those more popular. “I always messages.” Johnson says hoped the Otherworld her readership hasn’t books would be more changed much since well-received than my publishing “Faelorhn” Oescienne books, and but rather she feels the that has definitely proven majority of consumers true. Of course, I’d love are people that have been to have an even wider with the series since the readership, but begining. considering the limited resources I have as an independent author, I am very pleased with where the series is now. I’ve had a lot of help along the way, and several situations where I’ve been in the right place at the right time, so I can’t take all the credit, but I have to keep reminding
She also says she is still planning more books for the series. “Currently, I’m working on a sequel trilogy to the original Otherworld trilogy (three novels I plan to tell from Cade’s perspective that pick up right where Luathara left off). I also have Robyn’s third book to work on as well, since it’s been a while since I wrote Lorehnin and Caelihn (and it would be nice to get a short story or a collection of scenes told from Devlin’s perspective written). Besides the Otherworld books, I would love to finish the fifth and final Oescienne book (since it took me so long to write the fourth one and get that out) within the next two years.”
Recently many authors have been posting on their social media platforms about a petition to stop returning e-books that consumers have already read. I was able to ask miss Johnson how she feels this affect authors. “here are many big business practices out there that hurt authors. What some readers might not understand about indie authors is that we don’t get paid advances like traditional authors do (and most advances for traditional authors aren’t that great anyway). When readers buy our books, it’s like paying for labor. Every book I sell, that goes toward my paycheck to help take care of bills, make my car payment, buy my groceries etc. I Johnson is also working on have no issue with a another series which she is reader purchasing a book, hoping to publish getting through a few traditionally, she says that chapters, then returning she is still world-building the book if it just isn’t their with it. thing.
But to return a book after reading the entire thing, especially when most indies charge $5.99 or less for their books, is cheating the system. If readers just can’t afford that, then they can always visit their library and if our books aren’t there, they can request them. If enough people request their local library carries a book, they’ll look into it.I personally will donate books to my local libraries, if they are willing to take them, and I make sure to let my readers know they can check them out. Fortunately, I don’t get too many returns of my ebooks, so I don’t think this is affecting me to terribly. Pirating, on the other hand, could be. There is no way to track how many sales
I lose to book pirating, but I’ve found my ebook files on many sites. It’s disheartening and frustrating, but impossible for us small indies to fight. I can only keep my fingers crossed that this will somehow draw more attention to my books and maybe eventually lead to more sales.” Johnson says although she doesn’t have any books coming out anytime soon she does have a handful of novels and two trilogies she is working on, and that if she can get a rough draft of one of the trilogies she would be happy.
http://amazon.com/author/jennaelizabethjohnson