Maryann Gestwicki

1. What is the easiest part of writing a book?
My Answer: the easiest part is coming up with the Title/Characters/Story Plot/Theme.

2. What is the hardest part of writing a book?
My Answer; the hardest part is coming up with the scenes/topics/subjects/dialogue- making sure the dialogue flows throughout the book.

3. How do you come up with your book titles?
It depends upon the theme or story idea that I am writing and what is the meaning behind each book title and if the title fits.

4. Where do you get your story ideas from?
I get my story ideas from songs, movies, tv shows, newspaper articles, social media websites, other books, from my imagination, daydreaming, dreams that I had. I get inspired by other author's works of writing then I add my twist and find a new plot to work with.

5. How do you pick out the characters for each book?
There are so many people, family, friends, neighbors, associates, colleagues, and I pick apart their personalities, including mine as well and make a whole new character that I get amused, inspired by. Its fun to see how each of my characters evolve in a book.

6. What are some ways you publish your writing? I am an avid writer but have never published and wouldn't even know where to begin. I downloaded your recent book set. Thank you!

Cool, Thanks. I had a couple of author friends who taught me everything I needed to know about self-publishing in 2015 in a chat room. It took me several months to read everything including all the legal rights of self-publishing. I went to sfwa.org, there is a section of FAQs all about it. Then I read all the privacy and conditions of use for all book platforms like Amazon, books, and Noble, There is a long list of book platforms where you can sell your books. It depends on which platform best fits you and your writing. Make sure you add a Goodreads.com profile for people to follow & if you plan on publishing your books on Amazon, make sure you have a Author Central profile for people to follow. There are Self-publishing handbooks you can order online to help understand the business & legal & publishing side. I highly recommend you order a few books on Amazon before you even publish. Two books: Self-publisher's Legal Handbook. Ready, Set, Novel, buy a bunch of thesaurus, dictionaries, The Gilded Tongue, Endangered Words, Phrases and Fables, Idiom books because you gonna need it. my advice: No Thes, Ands, Buts. That will help expand your writing. You can publish your work on Wattpad.com, CampNaNoWrimo.org, enter in contests ( buy the Market books online at amazon.com-Novels, novellas, poetry, short stories, etc. Keep a lookout on those contests, Keep a tracker submission on an Excel document on your flash drive. Some of those contests are not worth it. Anything over $20 fees some are scams. Anything under $20 fees is ok. It's not easy winning money or getting recognition for your work. Depending on what you write. Make sure to buy a bunch of legal pad paper and notebooks to write down your lines, stories, etc. Make sure to put a date on them. because your gonna need it the year you publish your book. Publishing your books online, it's harder than you think becoming #1 best seller. Depending on how much you price your books, you get half that money each year. Sometimes nothing at all. You get a royalty payment. It depends on how many people buy your book & how many units get sold and how much you get back wither it be 0.20 cents to $1 to $20,-$50, etc. per year. It's not easy selling your books and giving your books for free. make sure you join a few reading groups/pages on Facebook too. (BooksGoSocial, Writers & Authors promotions, Promote Yourself, etc) make you read their rules and follow them. As a self-publishing Author, you slowly gain traction, recognition & attention. That's why a lot of authors have Author pages & Reader groups. They are your support system. The more readers you gain, the more people like your books, the more rewarding it gets over time. Good Luck!!! & Happy Writing!!!!