Thursday, March 28, 2024

The novel route

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Talk about reinventing yourself. Donna Every, an accountant and finance person has published her second book, The Merger Mogul, this time as an e-book. She shares the inspiration behind this book, and why she loves her new role as an author.
1. This was a different style of writing than your previous book. What prompted you to go the route of a novel?
My husband was encouraging me to write a novel for a long time but I never thought that I’d be able to do it. However, two years ago, someone prophesied to me and said that he saw me with two books in my hands, one was a novel and one was a how-to book, so that prompted me to try my hand at the novel.
2. Was this more difficult to write or was it something that you had been working on for a while?
It took longer to write because I also had to do research, but it was not more difficult. In fact, I really enjoyed witing it. I kept changing things and refining it, especially after I had it reviewed by several people. One person said that it had too much business in it, so I took out some. Another said that the ending was too abrupt, so I changed that. Then, I felt that the hero was getting off too easy, so I made his life a bit harder, but I enjoyed every minute.  I actually finished it last summer and put it down for a few months then picked it up again earlier in the year and added some more to it and finally finished it last month.
3. What made you decide to choose to write an e-book as opposed to a traditional paperback? Or did you do both?
I didn’t specifically write it as an e-book. I can publish it as a paperback as well. After sending out numerous query letters to literary agents and either getting no response or rejections, I decided to publish it myself, mainly because everyone who read it said that they enjoyed it.?Some said that they couldn’t put it down and that it was a page turner and they encouraged me to publish it, so I decided to go the Kindle Direct Publishing route on Amazon.
4. Many authors say that they write books when they’re ready, when they’re at specific stages in their life. Was this something that applied to you as well?
The book does not reflect my life at all, so it wasn’’t written because I was [at] any particular stage in my life. To tell the truth, I wrote it to share some business principles that I am passionate about, but in the form of a novel and along the way it evolved into various other things such as a romance, the redemption of the hero, living according to principles and sticking to them …
5. Your background has been originally in finance and accounting. Did you always know that you wanted to pen your own books?
If someone had told me that I would be writing, especially a novel, I would never have believed it. Although this novel is not such a departure from my background, because it does have a business theme, I’ve tried to weave what I hope is an interesting story around the theme. One person who reviewed it told me that she found principles that she could use in her business and her life and that was my objective as well as to provide entertainment.
6. How has the feedback been so far from readers on Amazon or is it too early to tell?
It’s still a little early to tell, but I’ve got one five-star review which was very encouraging and I’ve already sold over 100 books in the two weeks it’s been published. Also if you search for the book using some of the key words I’ve assigned to it, then it seems to be doing quite well in terms of popularity. For example, under “mergers” it’s ranked No.2 in popularity, under “business romance” it’s ranked No. 14, Under “Barbados” it’s ranked No.1.   However, I still have a long way to go.
I plan to run promotions locally and in the United States to increase book sales. I’ve been speaking to some of the attractions and restaurants mentioned in the book to offer prizes for a competition where the reader will be asked to give the answer to a clue which is found in the book. So, for example (in the novel), “Daniel” and “KT” went on Jammin’ when they were in Barbados.?So Jammin’ has offered me two tickets for a cruise as one of the prizes for the competition.
7. Now that you have one novel under your belt, does this mean that more books are in the works?
Yes, I’ve definitely got the writing bug. I’ve started research for a historical novel which will be set in Barbados and South Carolina in the post-emancipation period. I’ve also ended The Merger Mogul in such a way that I can do a sequel if I want to, but that will depend on the response to it. So readers can stay tuned for more books from me.

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