~ Zara West’s ~
Awesome Romance Author Guest Post Directions
Thank you for your interest in becoming one of my Awesome Romance Authors. I love sharing new authors and their works with my readers and followers. I welcome all genres of romance writers except erotica.
My guest posts usually appear once a month on Wednesdays. To keep it simple for busy writers, I use a very basic format. Below is a list of questions. Choose 5 of them to answer as you wish – serious, tongue-in-cheek, anything that fits your author persona. Travels and writing tips are very popular. Please give more than a 1 sentence answer so readers can get a deeper view of you as a writer. If you wish to create questions of your own, anything goes as long it will intrigue readers.
In addition to the answers to the questions, send me:
__A photo of the cover of your book web-ready if possible
__The blurb
__The buy links
__ Your web page, and social media links.
__A photo of yourself or your logo, an illustrative photo if you wish as well. Note: Photos are subject to being cropped to better fit the layout.
Zara’s Awesome Romance Authors Questions (Choose 5)
- Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
- Is there an event in your life that affected you as a writer?
- Is writing something that comes easy to you or not?
- What do you do when you are not writing?
- Do you have an unusual hobby?
- What are some of your favorite things? Foods. Flowers. Books. Whatever.
- What interesting jobs have you had? How have those jobs affected your writing?
- What was the most interesting place you ever visited?
- Do your travels influence your writing?
- Where is your favorite place to write?
- When did you first start writing and when did you finish your first book?
- How did you choose the genre you write in?
- Where do you get your ideas?
- How much research do you do for each book you write?
- Do you ever experience writer’s block?
- Is there any particular author or book that influenced you in any way either growing up or as an adult?
- What other genres of novel would you love to write?
- Can you tell us about your challenges in getting your first book published?
- If you had to go back and do it all over, is there any aspect of your novel or getting it published that you would change?
- How do you market your work? What avenues have you found to work best for your genre?
- Have you written a book you love that you have not been able to get published?
- Can you tell us about any other upcoming books, series, or writing plans?
- Is anything in your book based on real life experiences or purely all imagination?
- What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?
- What would one of your characters say about your writing/book?
- How did you come up with the title?
- What project are you working on now or what book will be next?
- Will you have a new book coming out soon? Do you know the release dat?
- Are there certain characters you would like to go back to, or is there a theme or idea you’d love to work with?
- What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? What has been the best compliment?
- Do you have any advice to give to aspiring writers?
- Do you have a writing tip that has really helped you get published?
- Have you written non-fiction or children’s books? How has that influenced your fiction writing?
- Do you have any websites, blogs, or books about writing that you would recommend?
- Is there anything special that you would like to say to your readers and fans?
Media Blitz
On the day of your interview, I will do a media blitz on Facebook – my page and at least 5 book groups, Instagram, and a number of romance listserves I belong to.
Chance to Interact with Readers
You, in turn, need to check the interview post and answer any comments that come your way. Comments will post automatically. You should also send out tweets and posts advertising your appearance. Interviews typically get between 100-200 hits.
Book reviews
I do occasional book reviews that I post on my site under Zara Reads and on Goodreads, Bookbub, and Amazon. I try to read books by my guest authors as much as possible. I read all genres except erotica. If you would like a book review, talk to me about it.
I make no promises as I have a busy writing schedule, but will consider your book. Reviews will come out after the interview and link back to it to give you double exposure.