I have to say that I’m honestly surprised that this is still happening. I didn’t think it would work out for so long. anyway enough about me! Let’s talk about Chris Smolinski, an author who stumbled across me on twitter and seems to be a bit photo shy, considering a lack of photos for this post. But fear not! He might be shy but that doesn’t make him any less interesting!
Q: How did you decide to become an author? Did you have an idea for the book, or was it just “out of the blue”? 
I decided to become an author about a year and a half ago. I have always been a type of storyteller. When I was younger I wrote stories, terrible ones, then as I got older I put the pencil down and just told stories. Leading up to my 40th birthday I decided to give writing them a chance again. Davenports Raze was then born. I wrote most of it in the span of 6-8 months. I was on twitter one day and saw that a publisher was looking for submissions. I figured WTH let’s see what happens, I mean the worst that can happen is they say no, right? I got an email back almost immediately. She loved my style of writing, I do things very differently, and she also thought the story was really fun. So not knowing anything about the business I signed on and was soon going to be a published author.
The good vibes kind of stopped there. I asked over and over what I needed to do and all I got was, well just promote it and find beta readers to help boost it when it becomes available. Being new I had no idea how to do these things, so I googled like crazy and found some people, but not many takers or the ones that did couldn’t read it for a few months. I was panicking like crazy, but I kept it together, kind of and just let the time come.
Well, it did and it was awesome. I was published on Amazon and all was well. Then I got my first review. It was terrible. She hated everything about it, from the title to the cover, I mean A-Z she trashed it. Then I took a look at it and noticed it had typos, poor formatting, and a bunch of other things, that an editor should have fixed. I asked why the mistakes and she said, “I just figured that’s how you wanted the book.” I talked to some other authors from the same publisher and they had the same problems as I did. Three of us left that next day. So all in all my book was published for one whole week. woohoo, lol.
I was devastated. I lost my passion, so I stopped writing for about 3 months. I went back to searching the internet and finding things to help and eventually I got the spark back. I had ideas start popping up in my head and I had to get them down. So yeah that’s my horror story.
Q: What superhero do you like the most? Or better said what superhero do you like the most because your kids like him/her?
I’m a DC guy so just about any of them. My favorite superhero is Green Arrow., even though the show has killed him. My real passion is the baddies, though, lol. I love Joker and Harley Quinn. I can’t explain it but I just love the two of them. Of my three kids, only one is into superheroes right now and she loves Spiderman. I never cared for him but I can’t hate if my daughter likes him. lol
Q: You had an unpleasant experience with a publisher. Can you tell what happened and how?
I touched on it in answer one but basically, I didn’t do enough research and got burned. When you hear fluff publisher, these guys fall into that category. Unless you have a perfect book and you know how to promote and do all the magic of marketing, don’t go to GenZ Publishing.
Q: What would you suggest to the new authors so they would avoid what happened to you?
I’m still so new that I don’t know what to do but I would say to just be diligent in your research. Don’t jump on the first thing just because they say they want you. It may be too good to be true.
Q: What genre do you write? And what do you like about it?
My first book was YA but I don’t like the restrictions of it. When I write I want to write anything I want, no restrictions. Now I write Fantasy/Supernatural/Whatever I want, lol.
Q: What is in your opinion the best thing about being an author?
The best thing about being an author is just getting to write stories. The community is amazing as well. I have met so many awesome people in the community.
Q: Is there anything you’d like to add?
I guess I would just like to say, always keep writing. Every day, write, even if it’s for only a few minutes a day. Get up early, stay up late, just get you ideas down and finish that book. Everyone has a story, will you tell it to the world?
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Annie's Perception 