Interview with Sarah Elle Emm

AW: Which author wasn’t your greatest inspiration, but did make you think, “Maybe I could be an author”?

SEE: I wanted to be an author from the time I was seven-years-old. My mom was always writing short stories, and she inspired me so much. I often wrote poems and wrote in journals Mom gave to me. Off and on while I was growing up, I talked to her about how I really wanted to write a book. I remember revisiting the book conversation with her when I was twenty-two-years-old, and she told me how she had heard Stephen King penned the novel Carrie when he was in his early twenties. (By the way, while Mom was pregnant with yours truly, she read The Stand by Stephen King, which she attributes some of my weirdness to, ha ha ha). Anyhow, I don’t know if it was because I was around the same age at the time as he had been when he wrote his first novel, but I remember thinking, wow maybe I really can write a book. I tried to write one then, by the way, but I didn’t make it too far. I actually wrote my first novel when I was twenty-eight. Meanwhile, my mom wrote a middle grade children’s book when I was in college, which also inspired me. I guess my mom has always been my first inspiration. She’s always made me believe I could write if that’s what I wanted to do.

AW: Tell me about the first time you thought, “Wow. I’m a real author!”

SEE: Well, the e-book version of my first novel, Marrying Missy, had been up online for a few days, and that was incredible. But the WOW-I’m-a-real-author- feeling didn’t quite hit me until I held the paperback book in my hands for the first time.

AW: What are you currently reading?

SEE: Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey

AW: What’s the oddest part about your routine that you simply must do in order to sit down and write?

SEE: I must have on cozy sweatpants, socks, and a t-shirt-hoodie combination. Of course, my favorite robe works too. It is just absolutely necessary that I am totally comfortable.

AW: What is your biggest writing obstacle? 

SEE: My biggest obstacle is making time to write. I exercise every morning, and I spend a lot of time prepping healthy meals for the meal plan I follow for my autoimmune disease, (SLE Lupus). I also do laundry, clean up around the house, take the kids to all of their activities, help with their homework, volunteer at their school, and I like to garden. So, I easily get caught up in all of those activities. I feel like I have to get everything on my list done before I can write. But I think about writing all of the time, and each day I can’t wait to get to the part where I write.

AW: How do you prefer to network, and what impact do you think those avenues have had on your sales?

SEE: I think using Facebook to promote books on sale and other relevant information has been very helpful to reach a broader audience and generate sales. Of course, I am on many social media sites…Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and I also have a website.

AW: Have any super fans found you yet, and if so, what sort of things have they done that seem surreal to you!

SEE: I have had lots of thirteen-year-old and up girls email me. They love the series. One girl wanted to name some characters for me to write about in other books. Most of them ask when the books will be made into movies, which definitely feels surreal to me. I’d be so flattered if the Harmony Run Series became a movie series.

AW: When people read your books, what do you want their greatest take-away to be?

SEE: I want them to feel inspired to have hope, even in dark times. I want them to recognize, if they don’t already, that we are all just humans, regardless of our outward differences, and we should try to live in harmony.

AW: What is one mistake you’ve made in your publishing career that you’d like to warn other authors off of?

SEE: Make sure you are very thorough about checking into companies before purchasing marketing materials, like ads and blog tours, before you send them your money. I learned the hard way. Even when I thought it seemed like a legit site, the organizer just disappeared from the Internet. I won’t be seeing that money again.

AW: Is there any advice you’d like to give to a new writer?

SEE: Work with more than one editor. Listen to their feedback and really think about what they have to say. And just keep writing.