Introducing Eva Pasco!

Earlier this month, author Eva Pasco and I had planned to discuss Indie publishing and her book, An Enlightening Quiche on my podcast, The White Room. Due to unforeseen technical difficulties, we had to cancel the show, but I really wanted to share some of Eva's advice with you all. Here's how the interview went:Welcome, Eva, why don't you tell us all about your book?Taking a little over 8 years to write and publish my recent release, AN ENLIGHTENING QUICHE, this Contemporary Women’s Fiction novel finally rose to the occasion, baked to perfection, according to my recipe!Two headstrong women in their forties coming from different moral directions clash within the confines of northern Rhode Island’s French-Canadian mill town, rife with secrets and scandals:Augusta Bergeron: Dysfunctional. Deceptive. Demure. More than meets the eye at face value and stuck in a holding pattern, the town siren engages in morally destructive behavior she attributes to maternal abandonment until she eggs-humes her mother’s quiche recipe.Lindsay Metcalfe: Pedigreed. Privileged. Proper. Mourning the recent death of her mother, the historian-in-residence hailing from Boston sets out to preserve the legacy of an impoverished mill, but gets more than she bargains for when taking a self-centered adolescent under her wing.Their first-person narratives relate how an heirloom quiche recipe and baking rivalry expose misconceptions, misdeeds, and malicious intent which wreak havoc in altering the lives of those affected from the fallout of a tragedy.I'm interested to learn about your book's pricing on Amazon. Can you tell us why you priced your book at both the Kindle and Paperback prices? How do you feel about giving books away for free or pricing them at $.99? Do you think lower prices hint at the books being self-publishing, and do you think there is a magic price range for selling more books?My publisher set pricing for the Paperback based on their “suggested list pricing guide” for books of comparable length (550 pages). Their authors were given the option to price eBooks between $3.95 - $9.95, with the suggestion for fiction books to have a “cover” price of $3.95—the price I had in mind anyway.For Indies, book cover design and editing can be stressful and expensive. When I looked at yours on Amazon I initially thought of a cookbook due to the cover, however then realized it was far from. Can you tell us a little bit about your cover design (choice of image, etc.) and whether this was outsourced externally? Also, how did you cope with your editing process and did this go to an editor following your own amendments? Do you think the cost of editing puts Indies off outsourcing? Do you feel Indies are capable of doing everything themselves? Do you think that covers should reflect the genre they are to sell books?Emma, you’re not the first to mention that my book cover made you think of a cookbook. The glossy cover design is entirely my doing, incorporating: a stock image; letter font, style, and color. I purposely avoided a “gendered” look, which, in my opinion, denigrates the genre of Contemporary Women’s Fiction treading on the territory of Literary Fiction rather than Nit Wit Chick Lit. (Slapping myself silly). Besides, the word “Novel” and the front cover blurb serve to dispel the notion ‘An Enlightening Quiche’ is a cookbook. Ever the optimist, I’m hoping its literary reputation will leave no doubt in anyone’s mind! It is a matter of preference for the author to have their covers reflect book genre as a lure to sell. While potential readers may judge a book by its cover, and I have received many compliments on mine, content is what holds the reader’s attention to the last page.I’m proud to divulge that I edited my own book in its entirety as I did my first novel published by an Independent Press in 2008. At the time I received my edited manuscript to implement suggestions, I noted edits which would have sorely compromised the integrity of my story. When I mentioned this to my publisher, he gave me carte blanche to proofread and edit my own work. I then went on to edit one of his works in progress. The experience served to make me even more proprietary of my work. Trust me, I can be my own harshest critic. For me, proofreading and editing are an ongoing part of writing both during and afterward. I’ve lost count of how many times I had poured over the manuscript prior to submitting it for publication, and then three more times before I gave my publisher the go ahead to print.Editing is a costly, but necessary expense for those who don’t have the stomach for it.Whether we Indies are capable of doing everything ourselves, it is the nature of the beast. Joining author groups on social media is one way of pooling our intellectual and creative resourcefulness to find ways to increase our visibility to targeted audiences. I find mutual the support and cooperation amongst my fellow Indies invaluable.Your book has a lot of reviews on Amazon, and a Reader's Favourite Review. Do you feel reviews help book sales, and would you say this matters only after you reach so many? Have you ever had a negative review and how did you cope? How would you advise Indies increase their reviews – what strategies have you used to tempt readers into actually leaving one and how has this affected your sales?Due to being a “hybrid published author,” one who self-published by outsourcing through a small independent publishing company, I don’t have access to daily sales reports at Amazon. My royalty statements will be received on a monthly basis. The royalty earnings period listed on the statement is always two months behind the royalty processing date. Even though the publication date for my Paperback is August 22, 2016, I didn’t launch its official release until after the Kindle Edition was published to Amazon on September 16th. So, I’ve yet to see the fruits of my hard labor.While I can’t say if reviews impact sales, garnering reviews is important to me. They provide validation of my work and I covet them as much as my ‘Readers’ Favorite Five-Star Seal for the time and effort every reader expends in writing them.While I try to steel myself for the day my second novel will receive a negative review, I have received a 1-Star, mean-spirited review for my first novel which I ignored.Other than asking a prospective reader to leave a review, I can’t say that I’ve engaged in any strategy to entice them to do so, other than posting ready-made ads which stress the importance of such on my Facebook Page from time to time. The best I can come up with is asking each reader to leave an honest review, reminding them it can entail a sentence or two.What are your thoughts on the indie vs self-publishing argument? Based on your experiences what would you advise new and aspiring authors to do when looking into the different options?Based on my personal experience for engaging an independent publisher to avoid interior formatting and acquiring an ISBN, I believe I made the right choice going this route. My publisher has been very responsive and accommodating. I’m pleased with the quality of my book. Contemplating the third time around, I’m leaning toward Createspace because I will have control over pricing the Paperback at a much more affordable price. For now, I’ve navigated the Matterhorn by offering signed copies of ‘An Enlightening Quiche’ at 40 per cent off suggested retail through my web page at Authors Den.My advice to aspiring authors looking into different options is to consider the best vantage points for “selling” your books.Please share a passage from your book.I’ve chosen this one to highlight my chief protagonist’s collision course to hit rock bottom by engaging in morally destructive behavior:“What are you drinking?”Way too early for calling the shots in the first round, I admit to overrating a preliminary social inquiry pertaining to lubrication, a libidinous Freudian quip uttered to pick up women at a bar. Accustomed to placing an emphasis on body language, innuendo, and the power of suggestion to hasten the likelihood of pulp friction with a handsome stranger who bought me a drink, I declined tipping the scale in my favor playing the aggressor with Gabe.About time emancipation from anticipation occurred gradually as ketchup oozing slowly from an upside-down bottle with just enough G-force applied to overcome resistance, reluctance, or reticence. Catsup as catsup can with no guarantees for how right the night might be, or how the following morn would simulate a Tequila Sunrise when one transitioned from a horizontal to an upright position.I could put the blame on Maine for altering my game plan from seduction to subduction, but the inconvenient truth lay in the acquisition of a whiskey-soured premonition of a lost soul past her prime groping in the darkness through the thicket of another decade, then another, ravished by the winds of change. A vision of myself as a ghoul from Christmases Yet to Come appeared in the guise of a long-in-the-tooth trollop flicking fried-dyed hair and wearing age-inappropriate, skintight attire tautly stretched over my butt of a joke. A comparable image satirized every night by Cohen at closing time inside the chamber of Chuggers put the fear of God in me.Where can people find you and your work online?Besides accessing my two novels, one can find everything else I’ve ever written (over 100 Memoirs; numerous Retro 60s Flashbacks; a slew of Rhode Island essays) at: http://www.authorsden.com/evapascoAma... http://www.amazon.com/author/evapasco... https://www.goodreads.com/EvaPascoIn closing, I want to thank you for your gracious invitation and hospitality.I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a shout out to the Indie Fab Five, a close-knit group of author pals who’ve defined 2016 for me: Aliya DalRae, R.M. Gauthier, J.B. Richards, and Lyra Shanti. Huzzah!Hugs to my family and longtime friends, Pam Bell and Peg Lueck, who’ve been with me from the start of my literary journey.Thanks to Eva for this fantastic interview and my apologies to the live viewers we did have during the podcast which unfortunately had to be cancelled. I have also gained some further information from Eva as part of my Authors Interview series, which you can read on my blog tomorrow (13/12/2016).