Interview with fellow Indie Author, Aida Jacobs!
Aida is a passionate self-publishing fantasy writer. Please read on to find out more about Aida Jacobs work, her motivations and her experiences in the challenging world of crafting and publishing independently. Here’s a little synopsis of Aida’s latest story published this spring, ‘Darkest Dealings: A Primordyan Chronicles Prequel’
‘The dark elven realm of Umbra is home to many dangerous creatures…
And Nahga is the most vicious of them all. The youngest daughter of Queen Fi’endwren, Nahga was born with the rare and dark gift of necromancy. Yet, despite her gifts, she was sequestered away into a life of servitude in the temple of Umbryelle, Goddess of shadow and death. However, Nahga had much higher aspirations in mind, and she would not stop until she achieved them…every, single one…
No matter how much blood she had to spill in the process.’
Interview
Q1. What was your inspiration and drive behind your latest book?
The inspiration for my latest story, Darkest Dealings, was actually Nahga, the villain of my series. Nahga is just so wonderfully evil, spiteful, and sassy that it just felt wrong to not expand upon the backstory she was given within my core series. Darkest Dealings is a prequel novella to my Primordyan Chronicles, and it focuses entirely on Nahga’s rise to power. It essentially serves as her origin story, and acts as both an additional layer of lore for people who have read my series, as well as acting as a good starting point for those who have not read any of the books in my series.
Q2. What is your writing kryptonite?
A disorganized house. Nothing takes me out of “the zone” faster than when I see needless mess and clutter, because then it becomes a genuine effort for me to remain focused upon my writing instead of going on a cleaning spree throughout the house.
Q3. If you could tell your younger self anything, what would it be?
To start networking and talking about her first book before publishing it and setting it free upon the world. When I first self-published, I was just so eager to get my work out there after fourteen years of constant rejection, that it never even occurred to me to lay the groundwork by way of making connections with bloggers and reviewers. Here I am, now five years later after I published book 1 (Dragon Guardian: Fire), and I still feel like I’m playing catch-up and scrambling to develop a larger following.
Q4. Tell us about an early experience where you learned that words have power.
I was in third grade, and I had my very first exposure to Poe. I don’t remember exactly how I stumbled onto it. If memory serves correctly, I was spending my lunch in the school library (a common practice for me back then, since I didn’t really fit in with any of the cliques at my school…even at that age), and I was quietly perusing the shelves. I don’t know exactly what prompted me to select the book with “Poe” written on the spine, but I took it from the shelf and sat down in one of the corners of the small library, and I started flipping through it. Nothing really held my attention (again, I was only in third grade, so a lot of what was written in the pages was above my head); yet, for some reason that still remains unknown to me to this day, when I flipped to The Raven, I started to read the words that were on the page instead of simply glancing over them like I had done with the stories and other poems. While I still truly didn’t understand all of the subtleties and symbolism of what was written on the pages, the words themselves still resonated with me on a deep, subconscious level. After all, I, myself, was an outsider reading the words of one of literature’s ultimate outsiders. After that, I was a little more at peace with marching to the beat of my own drummer.
Q5. What is the most challenging aspect of being an Indie?
Actually getting people to take a chance on me and read my books…and then, getting them to actually leave reviews. It’s a vicious circle, really, because one directly connects to the other. When people contemplate buying a book, the first thing they do is either read the reviews, or simply look to see how many positive reviews the book has. As a whole, readers are more likely to take a chance on an unknown author if their book has a healthy amount of reviews (positive reviews, to be precise). I, as well as other indie authors, will go giveaways of certain books to try and trigger interest. We will briefly offer our books for free on Kindle in the hopes of drawing in new readers, and people will “buy” the free books, because they’re free (and everybody loves freebies)…only to then not read them, and instead simply let the books sit in their TBR pile. This, unfortunately, puts indie authors right back where they started when they did the giveaway. It is a frustration that we all endure. Being an indie author is a tough path that isn’t for the faint of heart. Because we lack the connections and deep pockets of publishing houses, we’re often limited as to what we’re able to do in terms of marketing and swag. As a result, our reach is that much smaller than that of one of the powerhouse authors within our genre who have the advantage of being represented by a publisher. To quote one of my least favorite plays, “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.” That pretty much sums up the life on an indie, because we truly do depend on strangers to kindly take a chance on us and buy our books; and, if they enjoyed what they read, we depend on those strangers to kindly leave us a kind review.
Q6. Tell us what we should look out for from you in the future.
I am currently in the midst of writing Dragon Guardian: Earth, the fourth (and final) book in my series. It will be the conclusion to the epic, fantasy saga that has taken up almost twenty years of my life. While I have been busy with rewrites, I am hoping to have the book finished by the end of the year.
Wow, I loved reading what Aida had to say, if like me you’re keen to watch out for more from this writer then check out her links below for updates on past and upcoming works:
Website: http://bookfairy1216.wixsite.com/aida-jacobs
Blog: https://primordyaforever.wordpress.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAidaJacobs/
Get your hands on a copy of ‘Darkest Dealings’ and other work by Aida Jacobs from Amazon, worldwide!
Clan Witch & Word Refinery 