Carlyle Clark was raised in Poway, a city just north of San Diego,
but is now a proud Chicagolander working in the field of Corporate
Security and writing crime and fantasy fiction. He has flailed
ineffectually at performing the writer’s requisite myriad of random
jobs: pizza deliverer, curb address painter, sweatshop laborer, day
laborer, night laborer, security guard, campus police, Gallup pollster,
medical courier, vehicle procurer, and signature-for-petitions-getter.
He is a married man with two cats and a dog. He is also a martial arts enthusiast and a CrossFit endurer who enjoys fishing, sports, movies, TV series with continuing storylines, and of course, reading. Most inconsequentially, he holds the unrecognized distinction of being one of the few people in the world who have been paid to watch concrete dry in the dark. Tragically, that is a true statement.
His latest book is the mystery thriller, The Black Song Inside.
Visit his website at http://carlyleclark.wordpress.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?
Sure. I was driven
by the stories that I constantly make up in my head. Umpteen people had told me
I should be a writer and it finally occurred to me they may be right. So I gave
it a crack and people really enjoyed the stories I came up with. Since I enjoy
writing them I set about trying to become a professional.
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?
My experience with
Thomas & Mercer has been fantastic; Last year they hosted their first
annual On The Lam conference in Seattle and they paid for all the authors they
published that year to fly to Seattle for three days, all-expenses paid. There I
met several authors who had been traditionally published many times and they
said the trip as well as the speed with which T&M responds to authors and
the power they give authors in the publishing process is unheard of. So my
experience has been overwhelmingly positive. The demands are locking yourself
away form your loved ones to enter the world of make-believe.
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 started out small
press for the novel I co-wrote with my wife, Suki Michelle, then went
self-publishing for The Black Song Inside since there was only one publisher I
would have been interested in signing with and I had no agent or way to reach
them. Then, lo and behold, an editor from that publisher, Thomas & Mercer, discovered
my novel, loved it, and offered me a contract which I was thrilled to accept.
My experience was phenomenal. T&M is super fast, friendly, and
professional.
What’s the snarkiest
thing you can say about the publishing industry (e.g. rejections, the long
wait, etc.)?
Having experience with only one publisher and having that
experience be first-rate, I just don’t have anything snarky to say.
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?
Well, since I
moved far away from my family it’s just my wife, Suki, and me and but she is
not thrilled when I lock myself away and type for hours but fortunately she is
also a writer and she understands.
What was the
craziest or insane thing that happened to you in the book publishing process?
The craziest thing
was something I already mentioned which was having the only publisher I wanted
to sign with magically find me out of the thousands and thousands of
self-published novels on Amazon. Getting that email was one of the great
thrills of my life, even though at first I was sure it was scam. I checked it out
every which way I could before making the fateful phone call to the number in
the email. And then getting flown across country to stay in a great hotel and eat
at wonderful restaurants and given perks, and all of the wonderful things
T&M did that didn’t have anything to do with On The Lam like letting me
pick my book cover, etc . The whole process was unreal.
How about the
social networks? Which ones do you
believe help and which ones do you wish you could avoid?
I think most social
networks work as long as you aren’t trying to use them to sell things. What I
mean by that is I have seen established authors use them well to create a buzz
about an upcoming book and then to let fans know when the book is released. The
most important thing is you have to enjoy using them for their own sake because
just sending out tweets and posts constantly that basically say “Buy my Book”
is counter-productive because then you are a spammer. I sort of avoid Twitter
because I’m always afraid I’ll say something badly and it will go viral in a
bad way.
Book sales. Don’t you just love them (or lack of?)? How are you making the sales happen for you?
Fortunately,
T&M does a good job of promoting. They just got me into the 20 Kindle Books
for $2 for the month of January. I certainly loved that month because even
though the novel was half price I sold fifty times what I normally sell in a
month so I’m still basking in that afterglow. As for what I personally do it’s
blog tours and working on sequels.
What is one thing
you’d like to jump on the rooftop and scream about?
Just what a great
time it is for readers and writers! So many authors who had failed to break
into traditional publishing are having great success with self-publishing. Some
are sticking with that, others are switching to traditional and some are going
hybrid, publishing some traditional and some Indie. It’s great for readers and
writers because the more successful their favorite authors are the sooner they
can quit their day job and write more and thus churn out more good books.
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?
It’s a real thrill to get fan mail and reviews from
readers who enjoyed my novel the way I enjoy novels from my favorite authors.
So just getting confirmation that there are real people out there that I gave a
good read to is just immensely satisfying and it makes the whole struggle
worthwhile.
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