Interview with author DeAnna Knippling
Posted: April 17, 2017 | Author: kayelynnebooth | Filed under: Author Profile, Books, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Publishing, Science Fiction, Self-Publishing, Speculative Fiction, Writing | Tags: Author, DeAnna Knippling, Interview, Profile, Publishing, Self-Publishing, Writing |
This week, I’m interviewing Colorado freelance writer, editor, author and book designer, DeAnna Knippling. I first met DeAnna through the Pike’s Peak Writers when I was still serving as the Southern Colorado Literature Examiner. What struck me about her was her enthusiasm and willingness to help where ever she can. She treats her writing as a business and goes at it with a high degree of professionalism, yet she is personable and willing to share what she’s learned from her own writing experiences.
DeAnna Knippling writes science fiction, fantasy, horror, crime, and mystery for adults under her own name; adventurous and weird fiction for middle-grade (8-12 year old) kids under the pseudonym De Kenyon; and various thriller and suspense fiction for her ghostwriting clients under various and non-disclosable names. Her latest book, Alice’s Adventures in Underland: The Queen of Stilled Hearts, combines two of her favorite topics–zombies and Lewis Carroll. It’s the story of a tame zombie who told a little girl named Alice a story that got them both in more trouble than they could handle. Her short fiction has appeared in Black Static, Penumbra, Crossed Genres, Three-Lobed Burning Eye, and more.
Kaye: You created Wonderland Press to get your books out there. What all is involved in creating a press for your work and what are the advantages of doing so? I mean, why would an author do this rather than just throwing their book out on Amazon or Smashwords?
DeAnna: This isn’t one of the fun answers. It’s stupid easy to make a “press.” It involves no special equipment. You look online, make sure nobody else has one of that name in your state, register a business name with your state or county (look up, “How to register a business name in [name of state]”), and Bob’s your uncle. You might want to get more complex with an LLC or something–but I recommend leaving that for later, unless you already have experience doing that. I am, of course not a lawyer and can’t give legal advice. When you want to start looking at an LLC or corporation, I believe, is when you start having to worry about taxes and tax brackets.
I set up my press, “Wonderland Press,” because some publishing sites back in the day didn’t want you to publish books under multiple pen names under the same account without having a publisher name. Then I realized that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with multiple blogs for my pen names, and moved the names to the same website (for now). However, things are changing, and I may need to move back to multiple websites, mailing lists, etc. The thing about business is that everything changes based on the scale of what you’re doing and how much time has passed since you set things up. It seems like it’s more important to stick to a couple of core principles (bring customers back to a location you can control rather than social media–that kind of thing) and stay flexible in the details than it is to get wrapped up in questions like, “Should I set up a small press?”
Kaye: A lot of your books don’t fit neatly into a genre category or subcategory. How do you describe your books?
DeAnna: I’ve struggled with genre categories since I started publishing. Part of the reason for that is that my subconscious loves to smash incongruous things together. For example, I love puns and double entendres–two ways of seeing meaning at the same time–and I love stories that are really two things that don’t really go together being put together (like cowboys in space–Firefly). The kinds of stories that I tend to write are kind of the opposite of sitting firmly within a genre and therefore being easy to describe.
I’m both looking into ways to get around this (by sneaking more solidly into genres) and finding out what parts of my genres I’m missing out on. I recently finished up what I call “my cheesy ’80s genre novel.” When I did the research to try to find out where to put it, I found that…it actually fits pretty solidly into the current Occult subgenre of Horror. I keep trying to tell myself there’s nothing wrong with writing what feels cheesy (I certainly read it), but sometimes it takes a while for me to learn the obvious.
To actually answer your question? Since I can’t copy my competitors, I describe my books by putting on the silliest movie announcer voice I can come up with and reading the blurbs out loud. The more mock-serious the better. Somehow it works.
Kaye: What’s the most fun part of writing a novel or a story? What’s the least fun part?
DeAnna: Most fun: The fun parts. Least fun: The parts that stick the fun parts together.
I get really bored at the least fun parts. I think that’s where the books I write start getting weird. If I plan a book, then I plan something at least a little bit more genre-specific than what actually comes out. But then I get bored and jump the tracks. I feel like writing a book is a process of going “Ooooh, shiny” over and over until I step into the circle of rope hidden under the leaves in the jungle, and the ending jerks me upside down into the air.
I wish it were that quick to write the end–it’s the slowest part of the book for me as I wrap up all the shinies that I’ve picked up throughout the plot–but that’s what it feels like.
Kaye: If your writing suddenly made you rich and famous, what would you do?
DeAnna: More of the same. My major goal in life is to allow my wonderful spouse to become a pool boy at our eccentric castle in the mountains. Travel more. At least, I say those things. Probably I’d still just begrudge the time I wasn’t reading or writing. I’d go to exotic locations and just read a book.
Kaye: Why do you think some writers sell well, and others don’t?
DeAnna: Probably that stuff I mentioned about genre. A lot of writers will look at a successful writer’s book and go, “What a terrible writer! Why do they sell?!?”
But here’s my experience (based on ghostwriting so much):
The stuff that I’m forced to write to genre by my clients sells a lot better than the stuff I write for myself.
Granted, you still need to know what you’re doing. But writing a book isn’t just about pretty sentences–it’s about making the constant readers happy, feeding their addictions. The answer to why some books are massive successes when others aren’t is often, “Because they can see the forest for the trees–and you can’t.” Cold but true.
Kaye: Any advice for upcoming authors who are trying to get a foot in the door?
DeAnna: Just keep working. Everybody’s in a hurry to succeed. Success! Millions! Riches! Fame! But, in the end, it comes back to the basics. Did you read? Did you write? Did you learn something? Did you talk to other people in the writing community?
“A foot in the door” is just the feeling that the universe owes you something, or that you can sneak something past somebody. “How do I cut in line past the people who have been working their asses off for years?” And the only answers are: Write a good story, network, value your readers, don’t be stupid about genre, work your ass off, don’t fail on purpose. That last one is pretty significant. I’ve seen a lot of people give up or just put things off until they’re “ready.” The hell with waiting for “ready.” If you’re going to do that, you’ve already failed, because this is a bootstrap industry–nobody gets the magic green light. Even people who are going traditional start out by hustling for publishers and agents. Make someone else tell you no. Make them tell you no a lot.
I want to thank DeAnna for joining us here on
Writing to be Read, and for sharing her knowledge with us. If you’d like to learn more about Deanna or her books, her website and blog are at
www.WonderlandPress.com. You can also find her on
Facebook and
Twitter.
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