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Amanda M. Lee recently bought and moved into a four bedroom house, which she paid for with her writing. This prolific Amazon bestselling author currently has five series—with a sixth on the way—30 novels, 7 novellas, 8 bundles, 33 paperbacks, 21 audiobooks and 4 pre-orders out. Her release schedule is insane, alternating between four ongoing series and publishing at least one or two books a month. She’s both daunting and an inspiration to many authors and we got to interview her!
About our Guest
When Amanda M. Lee was a kid, she was torn between whether or not she was going to grow up and be the Incredible Hulk or Wonder Woman. She flirted with being a Jedi Knight for awhile, but she wasn’t up for the intense travel associated with the gig. In her teens, Amanda settled on being a writer — although she had no idea the effort that would entail.
Not only is Amanda a writer now, but she’s a writer in several different mediums. She’s a longtime newspaper reporter, an avid reader and a voracious science fiction fanatic.
Questions and topics discussed:
- After a quick word about how awesome sharks are… How did you get started in publishing?
- What do you think the initial readers were attracted to the witches?
- Do you think it’s that people wish they could say stuff like that?
- You’re known for writing roughly 13,000 words a day… how do you do that?
- Discussed her writing day
- How much of that is dictation and how much is that fingers on keys?
- Do you outline or doing it live?
- We talked about who the witches are based on and which character is based on her
- Did you plan to write cozies? Why did you start writing them?
- What does your production schedule look like for the rest of this year?
- Has anyone ever offered you a trad deal? What about Amazon?
- We talked about what’s in her basement (pics below – click to see larger)
- We chatted about cats for a brief moment =^.^=
- What is the difference between cozy mysteries and romance, is there a difference? Which led to her talk about her sexy romance books under another pen name
- What do you outsource and what do you do yourself when it comes to books?
- Amanda talked about social media and promotions including Amazon ads
- Do you think you write to market?
- How long does it take you to plan a series and what detail is it?
- Have you ever trashed or not finished a book?
- Do you have that magic financially secure I’m gonna retire number?
- Do you ever think you’ll slow down your output?
- How do you deal with criticism and self-doubt and worry?
- What does your usual launch look like? How do you release?
- Talked about readers requests and naming their pets after characters?
- A fan question: Have you planned out the ends for Avery Shaw, Bay Winchester and Aisling Grimlock or will they go on forever and ever?
- What writing tools / programs do you use?
- How do you track sales / promos? Do you even bother?
- How do you avoid burnout?
- Do you have a street team that can help you with promotions?
- What advice would you give to the newbies? What mistakes did you make that they should avoid?
- You didn’t have a mailing list for a long time, when did you set that up and how many subscribers are on it?
Links and mentions:
- Cozy Mystery Top 100
- Vellum – eBook creation software for Mac
- Star Trek pet bed
If you have a second, an iTunes review would be VERY appreciated!
