Maritza Martínez Mejía, AWA: June Spotlight Interview with Author Lisa Waters

Lisa Waters on Luz Del Mes Spotlight Interview by Maritza Martinez Mejia

Welcome Lisa to Spotlight Interview! Tell me:

Q 1. What makes you proud to be a writer in The United States?

In the United States as an author, one can really stand out from the crowd. Taking a passion and love for writing coupled with the freedom of being able to pursue a dream and turn it into a successful reality is something to be more than proud. In the United States there are vast avenues in which to find education to continually increase knowledge and broaden areas in which to touch on many genres, subjects, and topics. Looking back deep in history, the opportunities available to writers, especially women, were scarce, since past women writers, were known mostly for keeping household diaries, corresponding, writing poetry and recipes. To be able to use our language as a persuasive tool, a way of reflecting, speaking to problems, and etching out the deepest, more meaningful, and most fascinating thoughts and dreams for all to read is a magnificent opportunity.

Reaching out to others teaching the craft of writing helps change not just each person individually, but whole communities. People open up. They talk about interests they never would have talked about before, and no longer feel shame or awkwardness that often comes with those scary words, freedom of expression. People of the creative arts are key to moving our culture forward. We often create wonderful ideas and spread them. An important aspect of life in the modern world among electronic technology is knowing that the love for the written word still exists.

Q 2. What or who inspired you to write

Get Fit & Healthy?

The inspiration to write Get Fit & Healthy: A Personal Journey stemmed from a challenge I set upon myself after attending a writing webinar, hosted by Donna Kozik, who is a writing coach. Her topic was based on writing a book in a weekend. Immediately afterwards I was entirely engrossed in wonder and compelled to learn for myself whether or not I too could write a book in a weekend. Surprisingly, as it turns out, it was a successful challenge. It was a rather thrilling experience, one I'm able to transfer the concepts I've learned and apply them to other projects in accomplishing quality products in the shortest span of time.

Q 3. Do you come up with your title before or after you write the manuscript?

In planning each manuscript it all starts with a vision of the concept or plot of the book. Automatically a title comes to mind and I find I almost always stick with that title for every book. It's rather fascinating as an author that at times I've noticed while sitting among friends and family, walking around, or in the midst of my day job words reveal themselves, come together, and a book title forms. In one situation, for a lovely story written in diary format called The Dance, it was a struggle among three titles, including Stacy's Diary, Stacy and the Winter Dance, and The Diary of the Dance before concluding the best title for the book would aptly be named The Dance. I often feel plagued by the third idea as a better choice, but feel often more may be said by saying less.

Q 4. What is your favorite writing style?

As an author I'm unsure whether my writing style is actually reflective of my true personality or who I really am, since I don't love just one type of writing. It's been my experience to try many forms and types of writing and with each a new type of voice may bare itself, attracting a whole new set of readers. In beginning any writing, picturing the audience for which the book is intended helps to focus and mold the characters, navigate the plot, or display concepts for those readers. I believe the way each author changes structure, adds diction, organizes thought in frameworks expresses us perfectly through our writing. It all depends on creativity and inspiration as to which category one writes. Writing fiction or touching on poetry has a purpose all its own, as the ability to reveal the beauty of language is exciting, though, for the most part I'm attracted to adding in a touch of humor to entertain my readers whenever possible. I'm guessing this style of writing tends to use more adverbs and adjectives, figurative, imaginative, and creative details allowing the reader to envision scenery, events and details in their very own minds. Although, I do tend to be more comfortable and drawn to an informative type of writing whether it be fact-based or how-to in nature, my first love is among fiction. The technical aspects involved in non-fiction has an attractive format and style that I find easy to produce, perhaps stemming from a background in journalism.

Q 5. What is your promotion strategy to promote your books?

I've been successful selling more books offline than on and believe I'll continue with that process until I learn additional strategies to boost sales by other means. I've recently released a book detailing strategies I've learned, put in place, and have been using. Quoting as an excerpt from Strategies To Sell More Books: How Authors Sell 50,000+ Books by Lisa Waters: “I’m no stranger to having sold many books with the print on demand process. I’ve been able to stock up on books when the company offers 75% off or even 50% during the year. This is when I take advantage of printing books in bulk that I wish to hand out free, but also stock up on my best sellers. If a book doesn’t sell as well I retire it to one of my freebies for the public. I’ve been able to develop a network of relatives, friends, professionals, and businesses, who find different ways for me to sell my hard cover books. These opportunities have been, for a simple example, among business acquaintances I’ve been able to provide books on procedures and instructions for their clientèle that were very helpful. As the author I provide a book-marker directing them to my website. Works every time! In addition, I’ve been very successful with the sales of these book titles: I Want to Write a Story: A Kid's Guide to Writing, Totally Twisted is Confused: Can You Help?, The Dance, and Dante the Dolphin, found online at Amazon; plus An Easy Step-By-Step Guide On Self-Publishing and Whisper Island: Short Stories, offline. All of these book I use for demonstration when giving workshops on writing for kids and has resulted in huge sales. Also, I do assist first-time authors to become self-published and have a number of books associated with that as part of their learning materials and part of my writers’ program.”

Thank you for your time to answer this question for LuzDelMes Spotlight Interview.