Unleash Your Story

An invitation to aspiring authors from a best-selling author

What would you talk about if you had two hours to chat with a bestselling author . . . like me?

My first novel was published by HarperCollins and hit the bookshelves way back in 1994. Yep, almost 30 years ago. Needless to say, much about the publishing industry has changed since then. 

Back when I started out, there was no Amazon, There were no e-readers or audiobooks. We had audio cassettes. For those too young to remember–they were little audio tapes that we listened to on players and had to flip over halfway through. Later came the audio CDs and finally MP3 players, vast improvements in terms of storage. 

And get this. We sent manuscripts back and forth to agents and editors via postal service or Fedex. Email was in its infancy if I remember correctly, or at best the toddler stage, and big, bulky manuscripts hundreds of pages long were much too large to send electronically. Yep, it was that long ago that I was first published.

I’ve also had a novel published recently, after a 10-year hiatus, and have another nonfiction book coming out later in 2023. So I’ve been through it all publishing wise over the past three decades. I’ve had several best-sellers, traveled to dozens of cities on book tours, done countless interviews, and have had as many as 300 people show up at my book signings. I’ve been published by HarperCollins, Doubleday, Random House, and several other publishers. Sadly, so many publishing houses and books stores have come and gone and merged since my early days that I’ve lost count. Remember Borders, anyone?

Hmm. I’m starting to feel like a dinosaur just typing all this. But there’s a purpose. I want you to understand that I have a lot of experience in the writing world so that you feel assured, even eager, to tell me exactly what you’d like to hear from me related to writing or publishing. How can I help you reach your writing dreams?

If you had an hour or two with me, what would you want to talk about? A, B, C or D? 

A) How to stay creative, motivated, and inspired. I’ve already written lots on this here at Writing Creatively, but there is so much more I can say. This is one of our biggest challenges as writers.

B) The fundamentals of writing - plot, character development, setting. Working with agents and editors. And on and on. I’ve only touched on these topics since so much is already out there. But now I’m thinking, you haven’t heard much of MY take on these topics. Would you want to? If so, I’m ready to fire it up and get going.

C) My personal adventures and experiences in the writing world such as all the usual–and not so usual–stuff that has happened while I was on book tours. Or maybe how I found my agent.

D) The tools of the trade. What I use to help me write my books and market them in the way of software, apps and the best books for writers.

Just because you pick one of the items listed above doesn’t mean I’ll never cover the others. I will. This is just to help me understand what you’d most like to hear from me now or in the near future.

So go ahead. Simply hit to reply to this email or comment on this post. Don’t hold back. I really want to hear from you so I can help you get your stories told.

xoxo,
Connie Briscoe