Interview with Kerry Dwyer

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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Can you
give us a brief overview of your latest book?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Certainly. The book is called ‘Ramblings in Ireland’. It
isn’t a book about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">rambling</i> in
Ireland.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>It is the story of one
particular walking trip and the memories and musings it inspired.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">British ex-patriate Kerry Dwyer leads Bertrand, her trusting
French husband, astray on a walking holiday in South West Ireland. She can’t
read maps and he insists that she leads the way. As they have so much time in
each other’s company they reminisce and reflect upon accents and accidents,
family and friends, love and what it means to be alive. Bertrand doesn’t mind
getting lost - he loves Kerry all the more for going off the beaten track.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This is a book about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ramblings</i>
in Ireland. Walk with Kerry and Bertrand and follow where your thoughts lead
you. This book was inspired by the beauty of Ireland and the wonderful people
we met when we were there. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Did you
try the traditional route to publishing, i.e. querying agents/publishers?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Yes I did. It was very disheartening to receive all those
standard rejection letters and emails. Some of them didn’t reply at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>I had all but given up the idea of
being published before I was convinced by Joel Canfield of Someday Box that my
work should be published and that I should have enough confidence in it to self
publish. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Do you
belong to a critique group? Have they helped improve your writing?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Yes I do. We are a small circle of friends and each write
very differently. We use a private blog to post our most recent efforts and the
others comment on it. We are all very positive about each others’ work whilst
trying to help the others improve their work. It has helped me a great deal.
Sometimes it is difficult to stand back and evaluate your own work. With <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ramblings In Ireland</i> I eventually took
out the whole of the first chapter and re wrote it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>The original one just didn’t do the job but it took someone
else telling me that to change it. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What
factors influenced your decision to self-publish to Amazon?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A number of things. Firstly Amazon is where <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I</i> always look for books if I want
one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>I know a lot of people look
there first certainly all my family do. Several of my family and friends have a
Kindle and it’s the most popular of e-book reader. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So a logical place to increase visibility.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Amazon have a very easy and free system to upload a book for
Kindle and it’s partner Createspace have an equally easy one for print books.
As they are print on demand that means I didn’t have to come up with any money
to do this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>You have to format
them correctly in order for this to work and for them to look professional. I
had help from Someday Box to do that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> 
</span>Having the two selling from the same place makes life easier for me. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The Amazon review system is also easy to use and once you
have enough reviews and sales the Amazon system starts to promote your book
though the ‘spotlight’ and ‘also bought’ systems. This is very good publicity
for any indie author who can’t afford to pay for advertising.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What is
your writing process?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I find it very difficult to write without a deadline. For <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ramblings In Ireland</i> I had the deadline
of a competition. I wrote every evening until it was finished and sent it off
for the competition. It wasn’t really ready for the competition and not
surprisingly didn’t get a mention. I hadn’t had any beta readers or proof
readers do their work on it at that time but it got the bulk of the work
finished. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">For my second novel I wrote the first 50k words for
NaNoWriMo in 2011 and it hasn’t progressed very much since then. I don’t have a
deadline for it. I may use this year’s WriMo to edit and finish it but I am
very busy promoting my first book. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Do you
outline your story or just go where your muse takes you.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Ramblings of course already had the main story that of our
walking holiday. The tangents are what seamed to me logically placed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Some of them were things we actually
talked about when we were there and others I just went where the fancy took me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">For my second novel I have a story board and a plan. The
back story changes a little every time I come back to it. When I was first
writing it the story just poured out for the whole of November. I did the story
board afterwards in order to try to put some shape to the story. It was quite a
mess. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Did you
hire an editor to review your manuscript before publishing?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I used Joel Canfield at Someday Box for that as well. He
found several people to read through proofread, edit and suggest. I really
liked working with Joel. He allowed me to tell the story I wanted to tell in
the way I wanted to tell it. He would make suggestions and point out parts that
didn’t really work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>I would then
rewrite them and get more feedback. It was a long process but I really like the
finished book. It is still very much me.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What have
you’ve learned during your self-publishing journey?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I have learned that it is important to listen to your
critics with an open mind. They give criticism for your benefit and it is not
personal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>I am very lucky that the
group I belong to are friends that I can trust. I’ve learned that no matter how
long you worked on something and how much you love it, if it doesn’t work it
needs to come out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>I’ve learned
that I am totally incapable of proofreading my own work. I couldn’t believe the
number of spelling, punctuation and even grammar errors in my manuscript. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Besides
Amazon, are there any other sites where your books are for sale?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Yes. My book is for sale in Nook format by Barnes and Noble
and for all other e-book readers and PCs at Smashwords. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What kinds
of marketing [twitter, facebook, blog, forums] are you involved with for
promoting your book(s)?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This blog tour is my first concentrated marketing
effort.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>I can also be found on
various sites: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Facebook, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/KerryDwyerAu... style="mso-field-code: "HYPERLINK \0022https\:\/\/www\.facebook\.com\/KerryDwyerAuthor\0022 \\t \0022_blank\0022";">https://www.facebook.com/KerryDwyerAu...
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Twitter, <a href="https://twitter.com/DwyerKerry"&... style="mso-field-code: "HYPERLINK \0022https\:\/\/twitter\.com\/DwyerKerry\0022 \\t \0022_blank\0022";">https://twitter.com/DwyerKerry</sp...
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Blog, <a href="http://kerrydwyer.net/"> <span style="mso-field-code: "HYPERLINK \0022http\:\/\/kerrydwyer\.net\/\0022 \\t \0022_blank\0022";">http://kerrydwyer.net/</span>&l...
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">You tube:  <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIHJpR... style="mso-field-code: "HYPERLINK \0022http\:\/\/www\.youtube\.com\/watch?v=sIHJpRFdIGg\0022 \\t \0022_blank\0022";">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIHJpR...
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The Independent author index:
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://indaindex.com/kerry-dwyer/&quo... lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Do you
find it difficult to juggle your time between marketing your current book and
writing your next book?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Absolutely. I work full time and have a family so the time I
have available to do either marketing or writing is precious and has to be
shared. I am hoping that I can get back to writing again more seriously after
this tour. As fun as it is it takes a lot of time to organize and to give
followers something new to look at with each stop. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What
advice would you give a new author just entering into the self-publishing arena</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I think getting yourself known is very difficult for indie
authors. It requires a lot of work and you can’t just sit back and expect the
readers to come and find you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>A
blog tour like this one is a great opportunity to spotlight you as an author and
your work. Be polite to your blog host and put some effort in. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Another essential thing to do is to get your worked reviewed
on Goodreads and Amazon and anywhere else you can. There are lists of people
who review independent authors and you can just google them. They will not all
respond so write to all of them that review your genre and don’t forget to read
their review policies. Nothing annoys a reviewer more than their policy being
ignored. Remember that they are doing this for you, often for nothing except a
free copy of your book and they are all very inundated with requests. If yours
doesn’t follow the policy it will not be selected for review. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Besides
writing, do you have any other passions?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">My biggest passion is my family. I love my husband and my
daughter and love spending time with them when we can just be a family. This
happens less and less frequently as my daughter is away at Lycee and she likes
to spend a lot of time with her friends, which is normal. My parents live quite
close and I like to see them as well. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The other thing that I love to do is walk. I walk a lot. I
like to walk every day if I can for about an hour, just around where I live.
The countryside changes so much and I take a lot of pictures for my blog. At
the weekends and on holiday I walk further and explore different areas. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Music particularly live Jazz in the winter and socializing
with friends are two other things that I enjoy doing. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What’s
next for you?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">My second book has the working title ‘The Book Exchange’. It
is a work of fiction following the lives of four women connected by monthly
visits to a book exchange.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>The
idea for this book came from the book exchange that I visit. I prefer to read
English books for leisure and so do a lot of expats. We all get together in the
back of a local shop once a month and swap the books that we have read.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>I am hoping to finish the book this
year but that will very much depend on the time I have available. I am not in a
hurry to finish it, it’s more important that I enjoy the process and that it is
worthy of being read. </span></div>
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