An Interview with Yvonne Perry

How did you get into writing? At what age did you know you wanted to be a writer?

I started writing as any child would in first grade. I loved reading and writing, but didn’t do anything special with it until I was in high school. In my senior year, I had a teacher who believed in me and my writing abilities. While that gave me confidence, I still didn’t do anything for the public eye. Instead, I wrote in my private journal, and wrote some stories about the cute things my kids did when they were little. I never attempted to publish anything (other than the music I had written) until I was 43.

What was your first book or story that you completed? Did you ever get it published?

I was almost 40 when I started writing my first book, but I didn’t know I was writing a book. I was simply writing emails to my friends. In these emails, I used humor to disguise my frustration with my life. I was raising teenagers, headed toward a divorce, and in the process of leaving organized religion. The recipients of my emails kept encouraging me to compile the emails into a book, so I did. Email Episodes, A Hilariously Honest Look at Life was my first self-published book.

How did you get published? How were you able to write full time? What is your success story?

I self-published my first book, Email Episodes, A Hilariously Honest Look at Life. I laid the book out (formatted it), created the cover, and had a local printing company print and bind about 25 copies so I could give them away to the friends who had encouraged me to write the book. Other than a few used copies I still have here at home (they are listed on Amazon.com), there are no more copies available. I do have a blog (click here to view Yvonne Perry's blog) featuring excerpts of the book. To date, I’ve written 15 books/e-books of my own. I’ve self-published most of them, but I’ve also used Booksurge and Nightengale Press to bring my books to market.

Writers in the Sky Creative Writing Services, also known as WITS, is my Nashville-based writing and editing services company. I started this company in 2003 with a strong belief that I could create the career I wanted by learning as much as I could about the craft and business of writing, focusing on the positive goals I had set, and doing the work necessary to reach these goals.

How do you stay motivated to finish a novel?

The few novels I have worked on have been for clients, which means I have a contracted finish date that I must adhere to. I think having a goal is a good way to keep focus on any project. I use a daily planner to log and mark off my daily to-do list. Without organizational skills and some strong “stick-to-it” work practices, my team and I would not have been able to writ/edit the 40+ books for authors. Most of these books are now on the market. There’s a list at writer's in the sky.

How do you get your ideas?

Since I haven’t written a novel of my own, I can relate this question to the writing I’ve done for children. The Sid Series ~ A Collection of Holistic Stories for Children is my latest published work.

I look for everyday occurrences in the world around me and take notes to give me the base of a story. I find this type of inspiration is like a dream.

If I don’t write it down while it’s fresh on my mind, I’ll probably forget it. So, I have paper and pen all around my house, in my purse, and my car in case an idea spontaneously comes to me. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten out of my warm comfy bed to jot down an idea in the middle of the night. Then, when I get free time that is not dedicated to working for clients, I work on polishing the stories.

When writing children’s books for the younger audience, I need an illustrator. That is what slows me down from publishing more stories in The Sid Series. I either have to take time to illustrate them myself or pay someone else to do it.

When an author self-publishes, she carries all the financial or time expense of formatting, setting up the files, designing the cover, and marketing the book.

What would you tell people who are interested in writing creatively? Where can people start?

I spent a year planning and arranging my finances in a manner that would allow me to break away from my day job and give business ownership a try.

I paid off every possible debt, saved money to start the business, got my Web site up and running, and even refinanced the house to get a better interest rate so that my income wouldn't be needed. These steps gave me the financial freedom to try this new venture.

Today, six year later, WITS is flourishing. I started the business as a solo entrepreneur, but since then, I have put together a team to diversify the types of writing services we offer.

We provide writing and editing for books, professional biographies, blogging services, résumés, articles, memoirs, media releases, Web text, and marketing pieces to individuals and businesses.

We can help with internal book formatting, cover design, query letters, proposals, company newsletters, and manuscript evaluations.

We also offer author publicity packages that include book reviews, blogging services, author interviews, bios, back cover blurbs, media releases, article marketing, media kits, sell sheets, and interviews on our weekly podcast. With our blog, podcast, and newsletter, we are dedicated to helping writers who are trying to get started with their writing career.

How do you get over writer's block?

Writer’s block? What is that? Really, I don’t have this problem. If I don’t want to work on a particular project one day, I work on something else. That’s not hard to do since I typically work for multiple clients simultaneously. I’m always marketing my business or the books I’ve published, and that is a creative writing process in itself. Overcoming writer’s block is about keeping the creative flow consistently going and that means writing something everyday regardless of whether I ever plan to publish it.

To find out more about Yvonne Perry, check out her website Writer's in the Sky.