Straight From the Mouth of 'Aberration' Lisa Regan

Lisa Regan is a suspense novelist.  She has a Bachelor’s Degree in English and Master of Education Degree from Bloomsburg University.  She is a member of Sisters In Crime. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and daughter.

Her latest book is the crime thriller, Aberration.

Visit her website at www.LisaRegan.com.

Thanks for letting us interrogate interview you!  Can you give us a go-for-the-gut answer as to why you wanted to be an author?

Writing is how I make sense of my world, and writing stories has always been a great escape for me.

Tell us (we won’t tell promise!) is it all it’s cracked up to be?  I mean what are the perks and what are the demands?

Well I knew what I was getting into but I find that most new authors are terribly disappointed by the low earnings and at how difficult it is to sell books.  Authors don’t make very much money and making your book stand out amongst hundreds of thousands of other books is very, very hard.  So the demands are that authors are required to do a lot of marketing, especially online which takes a great deal of time away from writing.  But the perks are the act of creating something special from your own imagination and getting to share that with other people—some of whom might actually like it.  Plus writers by nature are pretty nice people, I think, and you’ll make a lot of great friends.

Which route did you take – traditional or self-published – and can you give us the nitty gritty low down on what’s that like?

I went traditional and it was grueling and demoralizing!  It took me 6 and a half years to get an agent and then I spent 18 months on submissions before I found a publisher.  The whole process is like a bad amusement park ride that should be called Bitter Disappointment.  Of course, I’m the exception.  Most writers find agents or publishers much, much quicker than I did.  But I won’t lie.  The traditional route entails a great deal of rejection.  You have to have extremely thick skin and a persistence that borders on mental illness.

Tell us for real what your family feels about you spending so much time getting your book written, polished, edited, formatted, published, what have you?

They are super proud and so very excited.  I think sometimes my husband and daughter wish for more time with me—especially when I am in the throes of revisions--but they understand that the nature of the business is me putting a lot of time into the book(s).  Everyone in my life has been fabulous.  They couldn’t wait to hold my book in their hands for the first time.  It was pretty incredible to share that with so many wonderful people.

This is for pet lovers.  If you don’t own a pet, skip this question, but do your pets actually get their food on time or do they have to wait until you type just one more word?

We only have Mary the fish and she gets her food on time—mostly.  Well okay, at least within 6 hours of when she was supposed to!

This is for plant lovers.  If you don’t own a plant, skip this question, but if you do, are they actually still alive?

Yeah but they’re barely hanging on!

In writing your book, how did you deal with the phone ringing, your family needing dinner or your boss calling you saying you’re late?

I went without sleep and played a lot of the Disney Channel for my daughter!  LOL. 

What was the craziest or insane thing that happened to you in the book publishing process?

Before my first novel came out, we actually found the ebook on some free download site.  My publisher took care of it but yeah, basically my ebook got hijacked!

How about the social networks?  Which ones do you believe help and which ones do you wish you could avoid?

Facebook seems to be where it’s at.  I’m lucky that I love Facebook.  To me, it’s much more personal.  I’ve sold a lot of books just by connecting with people through Facebook.  I have a really hard time with Twitter and I’m not sure it sells books at all.  Although I’ve connected with some really cool readers on Twitter.  I haven’t even attempted Pinterest other than opening an account I don’t know how to use.

Book sales.  Don’t you just love them (or lack of?)?  How are you making the sales happen for you?

Having an online presence and trying to keep up with social media obligations.

What is one thing you’d like to jump on the rooftop and scream about?

Right now it’s the Cleveland Courage Fund which was created to raise money for the three women who escaped ten years in captivity in Cleveland, Ohio.  My first book, Finding Claire Fletcher closely parallels their story and it’s a cause close to my heart.  After what these women have been through, the last thing they should have to worry about is medical bills and stuff like that.  They should be focused on healing and taking their lives back.

http://www.clevelandfoundation.org/about/cleveland-courage-fund/

Okay, too much sugar for you today!  Here’s a nice cup of Chamomile tea and come on over and sit under the cabana and watch the waves roll in.  Now…can you tell us what you love about being a published author and how all those things above doesn’t matter because it’s all part of the whole scheme of things and you wouldn’t have it any other way?

I just love connecting with readers.  I got the most beautiful email from a reader talking about how my book had really resonated with him on a personal level.  That meant so much to me.