The Author Interviews, Round 2: #2: Ivy Cirillo (Part 2)

Ivy Cirilloreturns with the second part of her author interview.Do you consider yourself to be a successful writer? If so, why? If not, what would make you successful?Not right now, however, I do think that I will get to that point. At the moment, I’m not aiming for success, I’m just aiming for published!What genre do you consider your books to be? Have you considered writing in another genre?Right now, I write mostly YA/NA fiction except for the one nonfiction book that I’m working on. Overall, I think a majority of my works will fall into this category, but I’ve definitely considered writing romance and children’s books before too! I know it’s a weird combination, which is exactly why I’ve stayed away from them for now.What do your friends and family think of your writing? Are they supportive?To be honest, I haven’t told that many people about it. It took a really long time for me to tell anyone that I had started a lifestyle blog and I don’t think anyone knows that I recently started an author site too. I think once I tell people they’d be supportive, but we’ll see :)Planner or pantser?I’m a little bit of both! When it comes to my prose novels, I like to plot all the way down to each chapter. However, when it comes to my verse novels, I just let the words flow through me and I don’t plan a thing!Do you do book tours?Since I don’t have any published books at the moment, I haven’t participated in any book tours. However, I do offer them on my blog for other authors!What do you find difficult about writing?I think my biggest difficulty with writing is trying to find the time to write. I have three fur babies that constantly require attention/supervision along with multiple jobs. I constantly want to write, I just know that I can’t.What is your opinion on the indie vs traditional publishing argument?Honestly, I struggle between the two myself. I’ve read a ridiculous amount of blog posts on the subject and I’ve written more than one pros and cons list. Nevertheless, I still don’t know which publishing route to go with.For me, I think there is a stigma against self-publishing, but what many readers don’t realize is that there are so many benefits for an author to go this route. However, I truly believe that a self-published author must treat their work the same as they would if they were sending it to a traditional publisher, if not harsher. They don’t have as many resources as they would with a traditional publisher, so they need to tighten up their book as much as they possibly can before publishing; otherwise, they fall into the category of the authors that helped form that stigma.Do you have a favourite genre to read?That’s a hard one! I rarely deviate from YA/NA fiction, but within that genre, I normally stick with fantasy books. Every now and then I like to read a couple psychological thrillers and contemporary romance novels too though!What would it take for you to leave a book review?Honestly, I try to write a book review for every book that I read. I then try to upload each of them to my blogs, Goodreads, and occasionally Amazon.Do you ever visit an author's website? If so, what do you look at?Yup! I look for advice for writers & I look to see if they blog about their writing. Personally, I love checking up on Samantha Shannon’s website for sneak peaks regarding her Bone Season series :)Do you use a bookmark or fold the pages?I either use a bookmark or I use the book jacket flaps. My books are my prized possessions and I would NEVER dare fold a page!Many thanks to Ivy for both parts of her interview - all the best with your writing!