First and foremost, please tell
us a little bit about yourself. I've been a storyteller since before I could write, so writing books
full-time is a dream come true for me. It all started when I would
draw elaborate graphic novels telling stories in the universe of
"Spot the Dog." When I got older I started writing fan fiction,
and then was finally introduced to the world of self-publishing. I live in New
England with my husband and I currently have bright blue hair.
You tend to write various types
of genres. What's your favorite to write and why? What are you most
comfortable to write and why? Right
away, when I'm thinking about writing a certain genre, I get a sense
of whether I "get it" or whether it merits further research. Romance
is something that's always made sense to me, so I enjoy it. Right now I am working
on a New Adult romance where the rules are slightly different, but I also feel
comfortable that I can give people what they're looking for. You never want to
feel like you're letting someone down, as a writer.
Are you a plotter or
a pantser? My instinct is to pants it, but
I've found that's not really doable for a professional writer. So,
I force myself to outline. I can't really do traditional outlining,
but for my current book I just sat down and started free-form writing out
different things that I wanted to happen. I ended up with pages and pages of
material, more or less in chronological order. It's not pretty, but it works
for me!
What is your writing routine? This is a little personal, but I think it's important to mention - I
have ADD, so it's hard for me to stick to "routines" just now. I
wanted to share this because I think it can be a very hopeful message for my
fellow ADDers out there - I have been more successful than I dreamed, and you
can to! The trick is to be realistic and allow yourself as much time as
you truly need to finish a project. I can't write as fast as many of my
colleagues, and that frustrates me. But I try to sit down and write at least a
few hundred words every day. Sometimes it's a matter of forcing myself to close
my internet browser and JUST WRITE! If I'm lucky, I'll get sucked in to the
story and am able to continue for a while. But if all I get done is a
few paragraphs, that's a few paragraphs more than I had when I started. I
usually try to sneak in some writing time whenever I'm not feeling too tired,
stressed, or distracted, because I know it's a matter of little bits
adding up to something big.
Where do you find your
inspiration? Anywhere and everywhere. I know
everyone says that, but it's true! My upcoming NA novel is based on the
environment and culture that I grew up in, and I was actually inspired to come
up with the plot when I was browsing Facebook, looking at the profiles of
people I used to know. Nearly all of them got married very, very young, due to
the culture we were all raised in. ("True love waits," promise rings,
and no dating allowed unless it was Seriously Heading to Marriage, and then it
was called courting.) I happened across an interaction between two people, one
of whom had a pretty serious crush on the other when we were teenagers. They're
now each married to other people, and it made me wonder - what if they still
had feelings for each other? And then I realized there was a book in that!
What is it about billionaires
that attract us to them? I think it's a combination of mystery, glamour, power and isolation.
Most of us don't really know that much about how the very rich live their
day-to-day lives, so it's enticing (and, we imagine, glamorous). And of course,
as we all know in one way or another - money is power. It's hard not to feel a
little bit materialistic when you're truly in need of something, and the idea
of never having to worry about finances again is very enticing. Not to mention
how flattering it is when a man who could have anyone chooses you.
Finally, there's the sense of loneliness we imagine billionaires must
feel. They never know who their true friends are, and they can't necessarily
trust anyone. Nobody loves the feeling of being crowded out by, or ignored in
favor of, their S.O.'s friends and family. So the idea of a very isolated man
can be quite appealing.
How do you take a popular
plotline (a marriage of convenience) and make it stand out? In these situations, it's about creating interesting characters and
having a compelling voice. Popular plot lines are popular for a reason - people
want to keep reading them, over and over. And you can't deviate too far from
the formula or it's not really what readers are looking for. So you exercise
your originality in other ways. I like to add little tidbits from my own life,
and design characters after interesting people I've known.
How was it writing a sequel with
the same couple? How do you ensure that the chemistry is still sizzling
now that a good amount of time has passed? The
direct sequel romance is a strange animal, certainly. It lacks that "new
relationship energy" that I think a lot of people are looking for in a
romance novel, which really makes the subsequent books "family saga"
more than anything. I think it's necessary to inject a major plot event that
threatens to shake the foundations of the relationship. Otherwise, you'd end up
writing about people arguing over who loads the dishwasher. I've found in my
own life that marriage can be a constant journey of rediscovery and falling in
love again and again - so I tried to capture a little bit of that in my books.
What was it like writing a female
character who didn't initially want children when our society's norm still
falls under "Women SHOULD have children unless they CAN'T"? Did
you receive any backlash? I didn't - and I think it helps to write the characters in a way where
people relate to them and understand the choices that they make. For Maddy it's
a matter of personal growth, but that just applies to her. Plenty of women will
decide early on that they don't want children, and will stick with that
decision forever and be happy about it. I think readers catch on to the
fact that Maddy's personal journey isn't meant to be a mandate on how all women
should behave. I don't pretend that my writing exists in a vacuum, and my
personal feminism is important to me, but in this particular case I just wanted
to tell an authentic, compelling story.
What type of relationship is your
favorite to explore and develop? I prefer
relationships where there is some kind of conflict, confusion, or hesitation at
the outset. Love at first sight just isn't that interesting to me - unless, of
course, there is some MAJOR obstacle keeping the people apart. I'll be
exploring the possibilities with that in my upcoming New Adult novel Shelter
Me, under my alternate identity of Mina Bennett. Although the protagonists
Jacob and Marissa have feelings for each other as soon as they meet, their
circumstances get in the way of them being together and they're forced to deny
their feelings for a long time.
How did you go about publishing
your stories?I publish independently on all
the major platforms available to me, including Amazon's Kindle Direct
Publishing, Barnes & Noble's Nook Press, Kobo's Writing Life, iTunes
Connect, and some other, smaller venues. I learned about self-publishing last
year and I've never looked back.
Do you have any advice for
aspiring novelists? WRITE! The only thing that
separates an "aspiring" novelist from a novelist is
- you guessed it - writing a novel. Once that's done, get it edited, figure out
how to market it, and publish! It's really that simple. Notice I said
"simple," not "easy," because none of those things are
necessarily easy to do. But they are possible, and they're much more accessible
than they used to be. If your biggest goal is to get into the hands of readers,
there's no reason to query publishers and sit on your hands, unless you really
want to. I think a lot of people hesitate at this step because they're afraid
of what they're going to find out. But what's the worst that can happen? People
don't like your book, you learn from it and apply it to your next book. It
flops? Same story - learn from your mistakes and try again. Self-publishing
creates the purest possible relationship between reader and writer. You can
find out EXACTLY what people want, and give them EXACTLY that. No one stands in
the way. It's kinda beautiful.
Would you recommend
advertisements or did you market your books through a different venue? My experience has been that marketing makes, at best, a negligible
difference. If you have a book people want to read, and you make it attractive
and make it easy to find, you've done your due diligence. Anything on top of that
is icing on the cake. If you haven't done those things, no amount of marketing
will help much. That said, I know some very smart, experienced people who've
crafted excellent marketing strategies that helped turn a bestselling book into
a CRAZY bestselling book. But another person might try the exact same technique
and have lackluster results. The absolute best thing you can do is write,
publish, and write some more.
How involved are you in terms of
editing/book cover/release date/marketing process? I'm a one-woman show. Well, except for my critique partner. But I do
extensively self-edit as well, make my own cover art with stock photos, and
decide on my own release dates and marketing plans. The variety is actually a
lot of fun, and I'm kind of a control freak, so I wouldn't have it any other
way! There are a few exceptions; I worked with Tantor Audio to put out my first
audiobook and I'm very pleased with having it all handled for me. There is a
platform called Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX) where people can negotiate
their own deals directly with voice actors and all that, but I hate listening
to auditions, dealing with people not meeting their deadlines, et cetera. I'm
also in the process of negotiating some foreign paperback translation rights,
which is clearly something I can't do on my own. Generally, though, for ebook
translations, I pay a freelance translator and handle the publishing myself.
But I do have to be confident beforehand that there's a robust enough ebook
market amongst readers of that language, because it's a significant investment
upfront.
Are you working on anything now? I'm limping towards the finish line on my New Adult novel Shelter Me,
which you can shelve on Goodreads here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18113006-shelter-me I
hope to have it out by mid-September.
And it's been a long time coming, but the audiobook version of my first
novel, I Married a Billionaire, is finally out! http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_1?asin=B00ENJ1B5C&qid=1378133258&sr=1-1 I'm
really excited for people to be able to enjoy the book in a whole new
way.
Social Media/Contact:
Email: melaniemarchande@gmail.com
Website: melaniemarchande.com
Twitter: @MellieMarchande
Facebook: facebook.com/MelanieMarchande
Make sure to join my mailing list for special offers and exclusive sneak
peaks and giveaways: eepurl.com/srHcH
Thanks so much for this opportunity, Heather! Very happy to be featured on your blog. :)
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