The spotlight series brings to light authors’ approaches to
writing for young readers and the secrets to their success. For this edition, Stefan Bolz will tell us his secrets to self-publishing, an option that’s increasingly
common for both traditionally and independently published writers. Bolz is the
author of a children’s book, a middle grade fantasy, several young adult
novels, including the 2014 LYRA contest winner The Fourth Sage, and multiple
short stories, in addition to regular posts on his blog.
Welcome, Stefan! It’s great to speak with such an
enterprising author about the craft of writing for young adult readers.
SB: Thanks for having me, Chris.
You didn’t go the usual route of finding an agent or a small
publisher for your middle grade fantasy The Three Feathers. How did you come to the decision to self-publish?
SB: I sent my first book out to several agents and
publishers and got rejections from each one. However, a local 4th grade teacher
read the manuscript for The Three Feathers to her class, and the kids loved it.
So I decided to publish it myself. There is a lot of freedom in self-publishing.
I can be as creative as I want to be, while keeping full control over every
aspect of the process. On the flip side, self-publishing requires a lot of
knowledge, and the learning curve was and still is tremendous.

SB: Wonderment Media was the publisher for a project called
'Apocalypse Weird,' a world not unlike the Marvel Universe. They eventually ran
out of money, but it was an awesome experience. They took care of editing,
cover design, formatting, etc., and all the authors for the project collaborated
on marketing. Since the publisher
closed their doors, I have gotten the rights to the books back and self-published
book one and now book two.

SB: I have worked with two editors in the past, and I
learned a tremendous amount from each one. I worked with David Antrobus on Dark World and The Fourth Sage, and he is excellent. The same goes for Ellen Campbell, the head editor for the Apocalypse Weird books, and I have worked
with her on the second White Dragon book as well. I have also worked with
Crystal Watanabe on a few short stories. Editing is essential for self-publishing
authors. The better the book looks and feels, the better it reads, the more
people are going to buy it.
Distribution is a challenge for self-published authors. In
addition to Beacon Books, you also publish your novels using Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). What has been your greatest challenge and success with
distribution?
SB: It's hard to publish, period. Whether you self-publish
or you're with a major publisher, it's not easy to find your audience. KDP
gives me a lot of freedom. I can set my own price, or I can give away free
copies once in a while. But the best way to sell more books is to write more
books. There's no better way to get the word out than to have a nice catalog of
books under your belt. The more books you have, the more reviews you have for
them, the more your books come up in searches by readers.
In the last decade there has been a paradigm shift in how
books are marketed. Which social media tools have you used to let others know
about your latest work?
SB: I have a lot of friends on Facebook who share in my
writing journey and who are kind enough to help out once in a while. I also help
out fellow indie authors and in turn they help me with my own books. The other
major part is a mailing list where readers can sign up and follow me on my Amazon author page. That way, whenever a new title comes out, they get an email. One
other aspect is doing author days at schools. I've done many of them, especially
for The Three Feathers, and it's a lot of fun to read in front of classrooms
and interact directly with my readers.
As a sneak preview for our readers, please tell us about any
upcoming projects.
SB: I'm working on The White Dragon 03: Alchemy and hoping
to have that published by the end of the year. I'm also trying to make one of
my short stories, The Traveler, into a movie. The screenplay is done, and we
are now searching for producers. Finally, my short story The Night of the
Hunted will be published in July as part of an anthology called The
Shapeshifter Chronicles by Samuel Peralta.
Thanks for such an interesting interview, Stefan. We’ll keep
an eye out for your upcoming stories and wish you well on the film project, too.
They all sound very intriguing. All the best, Chris Brandon Whitaker.
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