An Interview with Tina Folsom, author of The Scanguards Vampires Series

The last thing vampire bodyguard Zane wants to do is to guard a hybrid, a half-vampire, half-human, whose father wants to keep her a virgin. Known for his violent temper and callous lack of compassion, Zane's out-of-control rage, born of the cruelty he suffered during the Holocaust, drives him to focus only on revenge. Trying to find the last of his torturers is his only goal in life.

Portia is a young hybrid with a serious dilemma: in a few weeks, her body will be set in its final vampire form. If she is to avoid having to live out her immortal life as a virgin, she must find a lover in that short time--something her father hires Zane to prevent.

The moment Portia and Zane meet, rules begin to bend, and a forbidden attraction bursts into flames hotter than the hell of Zane's past. But that past threatens to pull them apart unless they can overcome their prejudice, forsake hate for love, and revenge for forgiveness.
I'd like to introduce Tina Folsom. Tina has had fabulous success at publishing her Scansguards Vampires series on Amazon Kindle, as well as various other mediums. Tina was kind enough to take the time out from working on her next release to answer a few questions about her independent publishing experience.Thank you in advance, Tina.Taylor
1.      Thoughyou don't write erotic romance, per say, you do write incredibly hot paranormalromances and happen to be an extremely successful independent author. Can youplease tell us a little about how you decided to go 'indie' and publishyourself, forgoing the traditional publishing route?
The decision to goindie was easy for me: no agent or editor wanted to read my books. So, when Iheard of Kindle Publishing in 2010, I figured I had nothing to lose. That sameyear, B&N started Pubit! and I uploaded my books there too. Soon, my bookswere available at various different retailers, in the US as well as abroad. Idon't think a publisher could have done it any better for me.


2.      Whatwould your best advice be to authors/writers who are considering wading intothe waters of independent publishing?
Do your research andfind a mentor who's willing to help you with all the technical stuff. There areseveral yahoo groups out there for self-publishing authors and there's alsolots of info about it on Kindleboards. But keep one thing in mind, your work isnot over as soon as you've uploaded your book to Amazon: self-publishing is aconstant process. You can't expect to upload one book and then wait for themoney to roll in. You need to promote and adapt to new market conditions.Experiment with price and covers. Watch what others are doing. Imitate. There'sno need to reinvent the wheel, just see what will work in your case.Experiment.


3.      Doyou have a professional editor you work with? Do you create your own covers ordo you hire out? They are fabulous, by the way!
I have a great editor,and he's the funniest guy ever - totally dry humor. You can read some of thecomments he made on my latest book here: http://authortinafolsom.blogspot.com/...
My Scanguards and Outof Olympus covers are made by the lovely Elaina Lee from For the Muse Designs.I just love what she does. I do the Venice Vampyr covers myself, but I mightjust have them redone one day when I get around to it. The covers for my shortstories I also did myself, but they are very simple. I know basic Photoshop,but I don't really have much time to play around with it.


4.      Howlong did it take you to begin to build up momentum as an indie author?
It took about sixmonths for my books to take off. I think it was a combination of having morebooks in one series available of sale and the e-book market growing. At thetime my books took off, more retailers opened their doors to indies, and thatcertainly helped.


5.      Howdo you manage marketing? Do you engage in social media, if so, what forum doyou use most? Facebook, Twitter, etc.
I really likeFacebook. It's easy to get into real conversations with readers and engagethem. That's where I do most of my social media interactions. I have a twitteraccount, but I find it hard to actually connect to people on Twitter. It feelstoo scattered.


6.      Didyou opt in and make your books available to the lending library for the KindleDirect Publishing Select Program?
No, and I won't.Amazon requires exclusivity for this deal and I can't agree to that. I makeonly 50% of my income on Amazon, the rest comes from B&N, Apple, Kobo, andother retailers. I would lose a lot of money if I went exclusively with Amazon,not to speak of how many fans I'd piss off. Personally, I don't think thiswould be a good business decision for me.


7.      Inclosing, are you happy with the decision you made to go indie? In other words,do you have any regrets in wishing you'd have hung on and waited for atraditional publishing deal?
Happy? I'm ecstatic.I never imagined I'd make the money I'm making now, knowing how little othermidlist authors in my genre who are traditionally published are making. Apublisher could never even come close to offering me the income I'm making frommy self-published books. So if a publisher came along now and wanted to offerme a deal, I would have to turn them down. The only thing I would consider is aprint-only deal so my books would be in bookstores, but no publisher in theirright mind would offer a print-only deal today. The money is in e-publishing,and print will eventually become more insignificant in terms of profits.