Holly Kelly Q&A plus Descending Giveaway 5

I’m super excited to share with you a Q&A with Holly Kelly, bestselling author of Rising and recently released sequel Descending. Both novels hit the #1 spot on Amazon in its category (Descending did so within the first week of its release!). After the Q&A, be sure to enter the giveaway for a signed copy of Descending. Rising is currently free on Amazon.

Bio from Holly’s website:

I’m a mom who writes books in her spare time: translation–I hide in the bathroom with my laptop and lock the door while the kids destroy the house and smear peanut butter on the walls. I was born in Utah but lived in Kansas until I was 13, in Texas until I was 18, and attended college in Hawaii—studying marine biology.  I’m now back in Utah–“happy valley”. I’m married to a wonderful husband, James, and we are currently raising 6 rambunctious children. My interests are reading, writing (of course), martial arts, visual arts, creating Halloween props, and spending time with family.

I signed with Clean Teen Publishing in 2013. My first published book Rising, quickly hit the best-seller lists and has maintained it’s status on those lists since it’s release in September 2013. The sequel in The Rising Series titled, Descending, was released in late March 2014. It also hit best-seller status–reaching all the way to #1 in Mythology on Amazon.

Now for the Q&A…

I’m imagining your childhood had something to do with the ocean. Am I right? Describe your childhood, and how you think it helped shape you as a writer. What books/authors influenced your writing style or subject matter?

I grew up in Kansas. There aren’t many beaches there, but it was the perfect place to foster an imagination. It’s so flat and monotonous, if I wanted a rich world, I had to create it in my head—which I did on a regular basis. However, my mother was from Portland Oregon, so we took trips to see my grandma and it always involved an outing to the beach. I fell in love with the ocean and that eventually led me to Hawaii where I attended college at Brigham Young University—Hawaii. And finding myself on a tropical island, I realized the lush world there was even more beautiful than my imagination.

So how did this shape me as a writer? Actually I only became a writer fairly recently—six or seven years ago. Before that, I was a dreamer. I continuously had scenes and fantasies going through my mind—playing like my own personal movie. When I wasn’t dreaming, I was drawing, painting, sculpting… When I wasn’t doing those other things, I was reading. My favorite author from childhood was Mary Stewart. I discovered her in my junior high school library and read every book she ever wrote. I’ve read a lot of different authors and genres over the years. My absolute favorite authors are JK Rowling, Amy Harmon, Julie Garwood, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Janet Evanovich, and Stephenie Meyer–just to name a few. You might notice I genre hop quite a bit. The genre doesn’t matter as much to me. I simply like good writing. So why do I write paranormal? It’s where my imagination goes.

I love Mary Stewart, too! When did you first want to become a novelist?

The first time I decided to try my hand at writing fiction was about seven years ago. I’d read something written by Stephenie Meyer. It was a chapter that got cut from Twilight. It was rough, unpolished and I was sure I could write better. Well, I found out quickly I overestimated my writing abilities. Six years and four full novels written later, I finally feel I’m a decent writer, and I found a publisher that thinks so too. They published my fourth book—Rising. (Don’t ask me about my other three, I call them my learning books.)

How did you train to be a novelist?

The best initial training I had was the fact that I was an avid reader. I read a lot—enough to know what a good book looked like. Second, I wrote, and I wrote often. Thirdly, I did a LOT of googling—things like: “Ten most common mistakes new writers make”, or “How to write a novel”. And then I read books about how to write. I also got with other writers and editors, I was able to ask questions, get critiques on my work (that one takes thick skin), and run ideas by them.

When and how did you decide to get serious about being a novelist? What helped you focus on that goal with everything else going on in your life?

I was pretty serious about it from the getgo. I think that’s why I was able to be published after only six years from the time I decided to write fiction. I simply found, once I started writing, I couldn’t stop.

Is Rising your first novel? If not, what was your first novel about and when did you finish it?

I told you not to ask me about it. 😉 But since you did, let’s just say it was a mish mash of everything I was reading at that time. And it was bad, really bad—you don’t want to read it, believe me.

As recent as May 2013 (I believe), I read on your author FB timeline that you had been feeling a bit nervous/uncertain about finishing/querying your first novel. Tell me how you overcame those self-doubts.

I’d actually queried several months before that, going through the entire list of agencies for my genre. I got quite a few nibbles, but no bites. That was pretty depressing. Then I went to a writer’s conference and attended a slush pile simulation class. It was there I realized my first chapter was not compelling enough. So I scrapped it and wrote a new one and then revamped my entire book. After that, I re-queried. It was scary, especially after the many, many rejections my book had already gotten. Regardless, I’d worked too hard to quit now. This time, I received an offer for publication within just a few weeks. My advice to those nervous about querying? First make sure your book is the best it can be—not perfect—but your best. Then just do it, forget your fear and move forward.

How did you finish Descending while promoting your first novel and other authorly tasks?

I made a word count goal—writing 4,000 words four times a week (this was actually during NaNoWriMo—National Novel Writing Month). And then once the first draft was finished, I would do different layers of editing—eliminating passive voice, fleshing out descriptions, finding and filling plot holes, cutting out dead wood, etc. Writing is and always should be a writer’s first priority. Promotion and other “authorly” tasks are important too, but they should not take precedence over writing your next book.

Where and when do you write? Describe your writing schedule.

The best time for me to write is after my kids are in school and my husband is at work. But sometimes that is not feasible. I just write whenever I can. When my kids were smaller, I’d get up at four in the morning and write before they got up. (Yes it was exhausting.) Now that my kids are older, I’m not so sleep deprived. Usually my day starts with getting my kids to school, then I do a little online networking (facebook, google+, wattpad). After that, I write—breaking for lunch. Depending on how things are going, I will stop at about three—when my kids get home. Then I do some more online stuff at night. All this keeps me really busy.

How do you balance writing time with family, etc.?

Spending most my time in an imaginary world, I have to make an effort to spend time in the real world, with my husband and kids. Basically, I have to divorce myself from my author duties for several hours a day and give them my complete attention—they can tell when my mind is elsewhere. I have to show them that they are my top priority and I am truly interested in what they have to say and I care about their wants and needs. But then they also know that when it’s my writing time, I have to have my space and they cannot interrupt me unless there is a true emergency—someone is bleeding, the house is on fire, or dinner is ready.

Name 1-3 things on your writing desk/writing space/office that best represent your personality.

My laptop is paramount to me, I write, I network, I connect with people—all via my laptop. I think the more telling thing is where I write. I write while sitting on my couch, at the kitchen table, dining room table, in bed, basically anywhere I want. One of my gifts is the ability to block out everything around me. When I write, I do it with six kids running around, neighbor kids coming and going, and I can do it without it being too distracting. The only thing that can break through my shell during this time, is the cry of a scared/injured child or the smell of chocolate.

How did you come up with the idea for Rising? Why mermaids?

The idea for Rising started with a picture of a mermaid. This picture was different from other mermaid pictures I’d seen—her tail was flesh colored, not scaly. This got me thinking. What if a mermaid was born on land, but she didn’t know she was a mermaid? She simply thought she was horribly deformed. It was at this point I started writing. I started writing even before I really thought about what I was doing. I didn’t go into it thinking I’m going to write a mermaid book. I just had a cool thought and ran with it.

Describe your creative process in writing Rising. Did you plot or not? How did you research mythology?

I didn’t plot, it was more like discovery writing. I started out with a concept, and just began to write. As I came to parts that required more knowledge about mythology, I’d google it to death until I was sure I was getting things right. When I found conflicting stories about Greek gods and Goddesses, I’d just choose the one that best fit with what I wanted for my book. If I wanted an aspect that wasn’t there, I’d make it up or in the case of Dagonians, I combined both Greek and Sumerian mythologies to create an entirely new race.

How about Descending?

I really liked Gretchen in the first book and wanted her to have her own story. And then with Kyros hating humans the way he did, I simply had to pair him up with one. I did worry about it being too cliché—best friends of the last book’s main characters falling for each other—but it just seemed right. So with Descending, I wrote a two paragraph synopsis and just went with it, writing it from beginning to end.

How did you query Rising? Share what worked for you and what didn’t. If you are able, feel free to share the query letter that got you noticed.

I started off going to www.queryshark.blogspot.com and reading some of the queries. I also googled how to write a good query. I ended up writing seventeen versions of the query blurb. I actually used several of them, tweaking the ones that didn’t get many responses. I queried five agents a week. It’s best to not do too many too fast. You’ll need some feedback into what they are looking for or what is turning them off, so you can tweak your query.

The query that got me published is the one below:

Dear Clean Teen Publishing,

In a war between the humans and the inhabitants of the sea—humans will lose. XANTHUS DIMITRIOU—the most lethal Dagonian to rise from the ocean—is on a mission to save mankind from annihilation. But first there’s one small thing he needs to do. Kill a young woman in a wheelchair. 

Killing her doesn’t start out as part of his plan. He entrenches himself deep in the human world. Aligning himself with his enemies, he prepares to send them to Triton to face their punishment. Then SARA TAYLOR rolls onto the scene. Xanthus knows at once she’s a criminal. And her crime? Being born. She’s a human/Dagonian half-breed, an abomination. Killing her should be an easy job. All he has to do is break into her apartment, slit her throat, and feed her body to the sharks. Simple, right? Wrong. If only she weren’t so beautiful, so innocent, so sweet… Saving the world may have to wait. It appears he has a woman to save. But protecting her may cost him his own life.

My name is Holly Kelly. I’m an avid reader turned writer. I read a wide variety of genres but my favorites are fantasy, dystopian fiction, and clean romance. As a writer, I write the kinds of stories I want to read but cannot find. RISING is a 76,000 word NA fantasy and it’s available upon request. Thank you for reading my query. I appreciate your consideration of my manuscript.

Sincerely,
Holly Kelly

This is actually not my favorite version, but it worked.

How did you choose your publisher, Clean Teen Publishing?

I got a tip from another author, that a publisher was accepting submissions. Although I was looking for an agent at the time, I thought, what the heck, I’ll give them a try. When they offered to publish my book, I was leery. I wasn’t familiar with them. I tracked down a couple of authors who published through them and drilled them with questions. I also had my attorney look at the contract. I got wonderful responses from everyone. So I took a leap of faith and signed, and it was the best decision I could have made for me and my book.

Did you ever consider self-publishing? Why or why not?

Not for my first published work. Being a new writer, I didn’t trust that I was any good. The American Idol episodes I’d seen kept playing in my mind every time I thought about it—you know, the ones where the singer is horrible, but believes he is brilliant. I didn’t want to be one of those people. I knew if I could find a publisher willing publish my book, that would prove to myself and the world, that I was a good writer.

Rising made it to the bestseller lists fairly quickly. I remember following your remarkable progress on FB. What do you think helped it rise to the top?

First of all, I think Rising is the kind of book that people want to read. Secondly, Rising has had a lot of readers who love it and refer it to their friends. The genre I wrote in seems to be a popular one that people want to read, this has been a lucky break for me. I’ve seen some of my friends write equally brilliant books that aren’t selling as well. It’s not because I’m a better writer than them, it’s because I caught the wake of a growing trend. But then I can’t give luck all the credit. I’ve worked hard at marketing my book. I post daily to book groups on facebook—members totaling about 300,000. I didn’t see much of a result for these promotions at first, but as downloads trickled down to the members, I’d have increasing numbers of people who have read Rising, seeing my promotions. And because of that, they’d like and comment about how much they liked my book—walla, the promotion just became that much more effective. I’ve also promoted my author facebook page—often paying for those promotions, I have a book blog, a google+ mermaid group, I’ve done numerous book giveaways, and I’ve even given away a kindle paperwhite to boost the number of reviews. Basically, I’m actively promoting Rising daily.

And then Descending came out, holy cow. What, like #1 in under a week? How did you pull that off?

I attribute Descending’s success to two things. First, it’s a good book. Second, I’ve laid the foundation with Rising’s promotion. Rising went free a couple of weeks before Descending came out. I promoted that like crazy, and offered entry in a drawing for a signed copy of Rising for everyone who shared the promotion. Tens of thousands of downloads occurred in the first week. And with all those downloads, there had to be an increase of readers. So when Descending came out, there was a bigger pool of people who had recently read Rising. Then I again promoted like crazy, once again offering a signed book to share the promotion. It’s amazing how readily people share when they might win something. My advice to others, be proactive daily. Don’t just promote when you feel like it, don’t wait until your numbers drop, do it consistently, to it often, and be creative about it. Don’t just say ‘buy my book’, people buy books from authors they like. If they’ve never read your books, let them get to know you. Celebrate your successes, voice your frustrations, share a piece of yourself with others. Once people get to know you, they will buy your books—and you just might make some friends along the way.

If you had advice for novelists wanting to be published, what would it be? What about making the bestseller lists?

Expand your circles now. Connect with other authors, connect with readers, blog, facebook, tweet, just get yourself out there even before you publish. It usually take a good nine months to get a strong enough presence to establish yourself as an author, and yes, you can do this before your book is in print. If you do this well, then the numbers will be there for you at your launch. But then, if you want to keep getting the big numbers, make sure your book is a good one.

Another side tip—be willing to promote the books of other authors you’ve connected with. When it’s time for your launch, they’ll return the favor. You’ll get much farther with other people going to bat along with you than you would by yourself—no author can be successful without outside help.

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Thank you Holly! I really appreciate your taking the time to answer my questions. For more information on Holly, check out her website or Facebook page.

And now, thanks to Holly, one lucky reader gets to win a signed copy of Descending! US residents only.

To enter, answer this in comments by April 24, 2014, midnight MST: “If you could be a sea creature, mythical or not, what would you be?” To get an extra entry, like my Facebook page and say so in the comments.Good luck!

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This contest is now CLOSED. Congratulations to our winner, Alyssa Faith!

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