Interview with Billie A. Williams, US thriller writer

BOB Today, I am joined by Billie A. Williams, the American thriller writer. Firstly, Billie, congratulations on launching your book!


BILLIE Thank You Bob. And thank you for inviting me to visit you and your readers on your blog. But sorry I got your name wrong! I put Bob Blackburn on my site, not Bob Blackman!

BOB No worries, Billie, it happens all the time! Anyway, you've fixed it now. I reckon this horrible cold I've got may even have affected my typing. When I can speak it's very dasal - I mean nasal. It's a good job this is a virtual book tour, otherwise you'd've had a very long and very wasted journey.
So, for a book like Small Town Secrets, how much of the process did you do yourself and how much did you farm out?

BILLIE I wrote the novel. Wings ePress, did the rest. Edits - I had to go through approve, fix or deny, line edits/copy edits same scene. Cover art – I fill out a form they supply of what I see on the cover - I happen to have been blessed with a great cover Richard Stroud – he called me we talked about the book and my ideas for a cover — then he created one that captured the essence of the book. I also could have approved or disapproved — of course I approved the cover speaks for the reason. The Wings authors all have web pages on the Wings publishing site – books are available in several e-book/electronic formats and also print. Each author has a reviews page, interview page and more. Wings also hosts several groups for authors to help each other, a readers group to connect with your potential readers, a blog for our use, and tons of information in the files to help us manoeuver the process. The do everything but take us by the hand and visit the bookstores with us to sell our wares, though there is a wealth of information in the files on how to do it.

BOB Is Wings E-press your publisher or is it more of a co-operative?

BILLIE Wings epress, Inc is my publisher it is not a vanity or subsidiary publisher. They are a small, independent publisher with over two hundred authors at last count. They handle acquisitions, editing, cover art, formatting, the whole enchilada. The author can have their choice of print, electronic in several forms or both. It’s a wonderful small press to work with. The handle most genres of fiction including Young Adult, but do not handle erotic, or poetry, or non-fiction at this time.
I've recently launched my book, too, but have already realised there are some things I could have benefitted from doing prior to launch.

BOB What do you consider are the three most important pre-launch prerequisites? (I could ask what would you do differently but want to maximise the positive)

BILLIE 1. For sure you should have a website.
2. You should belong to several writing or specialized lists that suit your topic or your genre.
3. Along with the website and in today’s climate you’ll want to have a blog
4. Then there is the matter of getting together an armload of promotional tools. A great investment, and one that doesn’t need to cost a lot from business cards, to brochures and postcards ( a great marketing tool by the way) is through Vista Print. They have very professional quality items that will cost you nothing more than the postage to ship them. You can use their designs for free or upload your own for a small fee. I have used them for several years and have never been disappointed, I have ordered from them and not taken just the freebies but you don’t have to.
I guess that’s more than three but the blog is a new tool that is becoming increasingly popular and important as a marketing source.
I believe that you need to be known, by writing articles, contribute to a column for some ezine in your area of interest, or anyway you can build a list of regular contacts — do lists on Amazon, or Barnes and Nobel’s, post reviews of other author’s books on both sites, take classes on line and contribute to discussions so that people will begin to recognize you or your name. Go to chats and participate.

BOB Did you get any reviews in mainstream media? If so, how did you get 'em?

BILLIE I have had some. Mostly I solicit them. I have a list – a very long long list of places that accept both print and electronic books for review. Some times as in the case of Writing Wide, Exercises in Creative Writing my publisher submitted my book to Midwest Book Reviews — one of the key places to get reviewed if you want your book to appear in the library catalog here in the US. However you can submit there yourself. They prefer you send a query letter first as do some of the other review sites so they can canvas their reviewing staff for an interested reviewer. No point in wasting time and money mailing a copy of your book if no one is interested in reviewing it.
You can find review sites by Googling “Reviewers”, or “Book Reviews” sites You will get many pages of places to try.

BOB How do you find your potential readers?

BILLIE This is a time consumer, but a necessary part of the process. You chat on the lists that echo your theme from your book or your life. Find these by doing a Google search for your topic or theme.
You join groups and support other authors when they have chats, blog tours, or like Wings does a Get to Know The Author weekend the first of the month. Where the authors who are having books that release that month get together and ask, answer/questions, hold contests, interact with visitors and each other. Pretty much like chat rooms do only through emails so that no author needs to spend the entire time on line and involved in just that.
I also write articles to submit to other places. I write a column for Mystery Fiction, Voice in the Dark titled “Whodunit?” I blog, I participate in list serves, I have several websites and I own a writer’s group called Word Mage where I interact with other writers and readers.
This month I began something new. I have a bookclub where I post a chapter of my Works in Progress novel The Capricorn Goat ~ ~ January Flannel where I email to the member list a chapter every week until the book is finished.
New this month also is a new venture — I also have a free writing class available on my site or at Pens In Motion. I am taking chapters from my completed and nearly completed series of books on writing. Whenever possible I participate in other author anthologies to reach a wider audience.

BOB Your book club sounds a great idea. How do you find members? Or how do they find you?

BILLIE The bookclub is not a new idea – Douglas Clegg and Stephen King both offered their readers a chapter a week of a novel in progress a couple years ago (Stephen King never finished his and that cost him a few reader/fans) To get started I just posted to my Word Mage group and the authors lists I belong to and as word spread I started to get more and more signed up. I have 68 members now and I’m archiving the chapters so that if someone joins at chapter 20 they will still be able to go back and read all the previous ones. I am doing this through Constant Contact. You can try their free 60-day trial. They keep the list, it’s an opt in list — so if people want out they just say so and they get no more chapters. That way there is no spam, no extra junk mail attached to the sign up. I use the pay version so that I can archive chapters, but I could have sent out chapters with the free version

BOB What author anthologies have featured you? (Go on boast!)

BILLIE {grin} Do you know? Bragging about what I do is the hardest part of being in this business. If I could just write and let people stumble over me I would be immensely satisfied. However, it doesn’t work that way, unfortunately. I have been in several anthologies several were with a now defunct publisher Triskelion They were mostly seasonal shorts Be My Valentine, Shadows From Beyond, The Island of Mistfits , There was a Halloween one that I can’t remember the title of anymore. I do not think any of these are still available.
Dallas Franklin used to have a Marketing Tips and Tricks anthology that she updated regularly as an electronic book I am in that.
I am in Sherry Ma Belle Arietta Russ’s Write Sparks, a book of writing prompts and those we used successfully.
Writing Tips Galore, Blueberry Press, under the editorship of Linda Davis Kyle.
I have contributed to poetry anthologies with other authors over the years, Oh yes, I’ve been published in several of Poetry.com’s books though I never bought them after the first one. I’m still not sure they aren’t just a scam. But they give new poets a chance to see their work in a book, so I guess they serve some purpose.

BOB What e-marketing tips do you have for people following a similar path?

BILLIE There are many things to try, many I’ve already listed above but here are a few more:
>Use a signature line in all your emails to promote yourself, your book, your website
>Get to Amazon and join Amazon Connect – if you have a book out and it’s listed there, you can do many things with Amazon to make it stand out – from tags, to lists, to reviews, to the short stories on Amazon Connect. Go there and see all the opportunities.
>Take on line classes, take classes that interest you offered by various writing groups – you will learn, but you will also meet potential readers. (Barnes and Nobel University offers a ton of classes some free, others low cost) but so do other places Earthly Charms, Books We Love, World Romance Writers, are just the tip of the ice burg. Once you start looking you’ll find many places. Each group you are involved with increases your potential to connect with more readers – some of them may be other authors don’t forget that. Authors are usually voracious readers.
>Send letters to the editor of online e-zines or newsletters, offer to send them articles to use for free, you’ll probably get a resource box where you can place your contact information.

BOB How would you describe the niche you're aiming your book at? Maybe that should read "how would you describe the niche at which you are aiming your book" if the grammar police are watching. I've just been reading about the growing importance of niche marketing in The Long Tail by Chris Anderson and found it fascinating.

BILLIE {smile} Grammar is a fascinating subject and the English Language has to be the most ridiculous language ever. “Anguished English” for sure, thank you Richard Lederer
I write in many genres, but Small Town Secrets is aimed at Mr. and Mrs. John Q Ordinary citizen. Middle aged, middle income, middle of the road politics, the person who wants to escape into a book where they can recognize the characters that may, at some point, have lived next door to them. Or someone who waits on them at the local café, maybe drives the bus their kids take to school, or kicks sand in their face on the beach. Chaneeta Morgan (my protagonist) is a little out of the ordinary, but not so out of the ordinary she couldn’t be you.
Some of my books aim at the chick lit crowd from an angle of the adventurous protagonist. A couple are aimed at the women in peril. So it really does depend on the book where the target market is.

BOB There's been a discussion on certain sites in the UK about branding within the publishing industry, principally about how it isn't being addressed. See Danuta Kean's excellent article on the subject - It's the brand stupid What are your views about the importance of branding?

BILLIE That is an excellent article, thank you for pointing me toward it. Especially, as a small independent published author I understand the branding part. You need to build a you that readers can find despite the cover of your latest book. They need to know that inside that book is the author that they followed, through a series, through a genre jump, and back.
How do you do that? By being consistent. By becoming an expert in what you write about. By always projecting the image you want to sustain. You write around a theme. Whether you believe it or not, your readers see the similarity of your work and that is what they identify you with.
My brand isn’t about being a mystery suspense author, creating twists and turns. My brand is about what my books deliver, realistic characters, accidental sleuths who solve crimes with wit, wisdom and chutzpah — not violence, not trickery but like a woman would do and does daily when it comes to rearing children and pleasing a mate. This theme, this brand I believe follows me through even my young adult book. The protagonist is a young boy, but he uses the same methods his mother taught him and would use if she were still alive. My characters don’t use muscle they use verve and intelligence to out wit their obstacles. Don’t get me wrong they occasionally need to get into a scuffle or a knock down drag out battle, but not before they have plotted the course they need to follow.

BOB What advice do you have for overseas authors in penetrating the North American market?

BILLIE With the internet, the world is truly connected. Some publishers make it easy having bases in both places, so that a printer is ready to send whatever is ordered from the nearest one. The term “We Are One” has never been more true. You can use the same channels we do – join the groups. Wings’ has many authors from the UK, Great Britain, Australia, everywhere it seems.
Don’t let thoughts of where you live limit your reach. You are as close as your key board.
Sorry about that!

BB No need to apologise Billie. Or maybe I should say apologize? Anyway. What's the next project you're working on?

BILLIE Currently I’m working on the book club book selection The Capricorn Goat~ ~ January Flannel, which is only about ¾ finished. I also have another mystery Tracker, nearing completion, and a book to follow Small Town Secrets about one of the characters in the first of this series Valentine Azusa from Knapsack Secrets. Some of my fans are demanding she deserves her own book. I also need to finish my next book in my writing series Mystery, Muse and Manuscript. Then I will begin working on the next in the Zodiac Series – February.

BOB Thanks for your insights, Billie. Hope the virtual smell of Vick didn't put you off.