An Interview with Katie MacAlister—Part 2
Posted By Ann Charles on April 28, 2010
Ann Charles, 1st Turning Point Co-Captain & Author
by Ann Charles
1st Turning Point Co-Captain
Copyright © 2010 Ann Charles
(Note: This interview was originally published in the Guppies’ First Draft, February 2010)
To read the first part of this interview, see An Interview with Katie MacAlister—Part 1.
To learn more about New York Times bestselling author, Katie MacAlister, check out her mini-biography at the end of this interview.
Katie MacAlister
AC: You have said that it is important to think about career goals rather than single-book goals. How do career goals differ from single-book goals?
KM: I have a book coming out February 2nd. I have goals for this book, naturally enough. Because it’s breaking new ground (steampunk romance) not only in the romance world, but for my publisher, my goals for it are a bit different than for my other books. For this book, my goals are:
- Usual bestseller list hits
- 75% sell-thru after six months
- Healthy re-orders
- Excitement amongst my readers for something new and different.
Every single one of those goals focuses on the particular book, and while the book’s performance will affect my long run goals, they don’t take into consideration the big picture.
My career goals might look like:
- Top 5 on the NYT list in the next two years
- List longevity increased by two weeks each year
- Continued increase in print runs, ship numbers, and sell-thru
- Increase in cross-over readers
- $200K advances/book
- Increase in subsidiary rights sales
Pretty lofty goals, eh? They are, but lofty is OK so long as your goals aren’t so far out of your reach that you can’t reasonably expect to achieve them.
If you break down the career goals, you’ll see that they consist of:
- Improving sales velocity
- Improving staying power
- Better numbers (larger print runs indicate more advance orders, and thus more books in stores)
- Growing the audience
- Money! Lots of it!
- Diversification of market by publication of books in other countries, as well as in audio and other formats
You’ll notice that those goals have a broader reach that just how well an individual book does.
While new authors won’t have quite the same sort of goals, they may have ones with a similar basis, and can also include other aspects of the career plan, such as number and frequency of books published, genres, building name recognition, etc.
AC: You have managed to build a huge fan following since your first historical novel in 2002. What’s your secret? Writing thirty-plus novels? An active online presence?
KM: I believe that a good portion of my success comes from knowing what I wanted, what wasn’t going to work for me (i.e. turning down offers that didn’t fit into my career plan), and realizing what was important to me.
From the beginning, involving readers has been of primary importance. I noticed in fan letters a theme regarding the pleasure readers found in the worlds I’d created, and I set about making a way for those people to participate in the worlds, so they would feel like they were a part of it all.
Rather than focus on getting my name out to booksellers, I grew my audience by reaching out to readers, knowing that if they felt like they had an investment in the books (involvement), they would likely recommend them to their friends. That’s one reason why I have so many ways for readers to interact with me and the worlds I’ve created, via various memberships, an online community, and an active presence in the social networking sites.
AC: You have a multi-level, expansive forum filled with posts from your fans and a very active blog, both of which you visit often. Plus you write multiple books a year. How do you do it? What time management tips do you have to offer?
KM: Play World of Warcraft. Seriously. If you get addicted to WOW like I did, you’ll do anything to get your daily writing done, just so you can go play.
Or you can simply cut out of your life those things that aren’t in your career plan. If I know I’m going to be crunched for time on a fast-approaching deadline (or one that’s zipped past me), then I stop lolling around reading, watching movies, and eating bon-bons while having Raoul the masseuse attend to my many and varied needs. Instead I focus on the bare-bones important stuff: meeting the deadline, paying appropriate amounts of attention to my husband, and staying sane so I can write the following day.
AC: On this same note, in addition to the forum and blog, you also have a newsletter. What would you say has been your most effective promotional tool, besides writing fun, entertaining stories?
KM: I offer a number of memberships in which people can partake, and those are tremendously popular. People want to be involved in the worlds contained in my books, and I do my best to accommodate them with any number of freebies, and online rewards for participation in my online community.
AC: What compels you to take the time and energy to teach other authors about writing and getting published?
KM: I wish I could say I was just altruistic like that, but alas, my motivation has a baser source: I believe in paying it forward. I received no end of support and help from friends when I was just getting started, and I try to do the same for new authors whenever I can.
AC: What are your plans for the future? Any more workshops? More promotional heavy-hitters? More mysteries?
KM: I’m a solitary creature by nature, so I don’t have any more workshops planned. My future basically consists of a lot of writing, both in the paranormal and steampunk genres, including more mysteries. Later this year is my first conference, dubbed KatieCon by my readers, which should be a lot of fun, if somewhat scary to a shy little hermit like me. Beyond that, it’s pretty much business as usual: write, let my dogs in and out approximately five million times a day, and tease my husband by telling him he’s going to be the hero in my next book.
For as long as she can remember, Katie MacAlister has loved reading. Growing up in a family where a weekly visit to the library was a given, Katie spent much of her time with her nose buried in a book. Despite her love for novels, she didn’t think of writing them until she was contracted to write a non-fiction book about software. Since her editor refused to allow her to include either witty dialogue or love scenes in the software book, Katie swiftly resolved to switch to fiction, where she could indulge in world building, tormenting characters, and falling madly in love with all her heroes.
Two years after she started writing novels, Katie sold her first romance, Noble Intentions. More than thirty books later, her novels have been translated into numerous languages, been recorded as audiobooks, received several awards, and placed on the New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists. She also writes mysteries as Kate Marsh, as well as for the young adult audience as Katie Maxwell.
You can find her at http://www.katiemacalister.com/ or http://www.katiemaxwell.com/.
Love in the Time of Dragonsby Katie MacAlisterISBN 9780451229717 Buy it at Barnes & Noble.com If you found out you were a famous fire-breather, you’d be freaked out too. Tully Sullivan is just like any other suburban mom—unless you count the days every year that she zones out and turns base metals in to gold. Those are weird. And now she’s woken up in a strange place surrounded by strange people who keep insisting they’re dragons—and that she’s one too. But not just any dragon. She’s Ysolde de Bouchier, a famed figure from dragon history. Tully can’t shape-shift or breathe fire, and she’s definitely not happy being sentenced to death for the misdeeds of a dragon mate she can’t remember. All Tully knows is that she wants her son back. So she’ll have to find a way to solve the crimes of a past she has no memory of living… |
 Love in the Time of Dragons by Katie MacAlister |
About the author
I enjoyed the frankness Kate provided in her answers to your questions, Ann. Very insightful. Thank you for bringing this back for all of us to enjoy.
Well done interview, Ann. You certainly got to the heart of her ambitions.
j.
Thanks, Norman and John. Katie is one of my “role models” when it comes to running an author business. I love her stories, and I’m wowed by her business sense.
Ann Charles