Author Interview: Writing and Publishing Tips from Emily Shore

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. Kindle Vella, a 2021 NaNoWriMo sponsor, is a new way to tell a story, one episode at a time. Today, Emily Shore, a Top Faved Kindle Vella author, shares some writing and publishing tips:

Author Emily Shore met with Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and shared how she stays motivated when writing, along with tips about her writing and publishing processes. Emily started publishing The Uncaged Series with KDP in 2019 and in June 2021 found success publishing on Kindle Vella with the Bride of the Corpse King. Since June she regularly publishes episodes of Bride of the Corpse King which is a Top Faved Kindle Vella story.

Q: Hi, Emily! First things first, could you tell us a little about yourself and what genre you usually write?

A: I’m a cult survivor, a proud bisexual feminist, and my work is #1 in the Kindle Vella “Fantasy Romance” category out of 10,000 authors. My goal is to entertain and empower by featuring queer casts in my books. I’m currently building my publishing options through Kindle Vella as a Top Ten author for my Bride of the Corpse King: A Hades and Persephone Retelling fantasy romance. I am also a Top 100 Kindle Author of the YA anti-trafficking dystopian: The Uncaged Series. For the past decade, I’ve trained with international and local anti-trafficking organizations and worked as an awareness speaker all over Minnesota: churches, youth and retreat centers, and conferences attended by thousands of educators and librarians. My passion is to celebrate queer and empower female audiences, including my two daughters. 

Q: What is your typical writing process (although most writing processes are far from typical!)?

A: To be honest, I just sit down and do it. I’m a locomotive, and I am able to write 3,000–10,000 words in one sitting depending on my time and health issues. Then, I do a quick-and-dirty edit, a silent line-by-line edit, then I read my work out loud line-by-line to catch any errors. Finally, another quick-and-dirty edit to eliminate any filler words.

Q: You have paperback/hardcover, eBooks, and have recently starting publishing with Kindle Vella. Do you have any advice for authors looking to expand their publishing portfolio? How does the process differ between the three publishing options?

A: I have found a wonderful home with Kindle Vella for my Bride of the Corpse King: A Hades and Persephone Retelling. It requires a great amount of marketing, grassroots movement, building a loyal readership, offering giveaways and fun content, and most of all: time. It has required much hard work to balance writing consistent serialized content while juggling blogging and marketing on social media. I have done this under extremely stressful health circumstances, but I choose to believe my writing and my books are worthy of their place leading in multiple Vella categories. I also love the writing community there and have made friends with top-five author E.H. Blackwell, an indie bestie. I love Kindle Vella, which is supplementing our family’s cancer medical bills and gifting me a silver lining during my extreme health issues.

Q: How do you stay inspired?

A: Everything inspires me. This is my career. But it’s also been my dream since I was a budding author. It’s my passion. It’s who I am and what I do. A forever writer, I was born with an author’s heart and soul! I have a message, I have a voice, and that makes me worthy to share!

Q: If you could go back and tell your pre-published self one thing about the writing and publishing process, what would it be?

A: Channeling Dory from Finding Nemo: Just keep writing, just keep writing…Seriously, don’t listen to the haters. Growth will come. Resistance will come. But breakthroughs will also come. Despite how literary agents will hurt you, you will overcome and learn from trial and error. I am proud of you. I know you will never quit!

To find out more about Emily’s work, newsletter, and monthly giveaways, visit: www.emilybethshore.com.

To find out more about publishing on Kindle Direct Publishing visit: kdp.amazon.com

To find out more about publishing on Kindle Vella visit: https://www.amazon.com/kdp-kindle-vella/b?ie=UTF8&node=21613975011