Interview with author Danika Stone

This week on The Writing Piazza’s #fridayguestinterview we have the muy talented author Danika Stone author of the upcoming book All the Feels. You will have to forgive me my lovelies as I plan on fangirling rather hard throughout much of this interview. What can I say, Danika just knows how to bring the raging fangirl out in me! So my friend (Can I call you my friend? Cause I feel like I’ve known your soul my whole life.) why don’t you start by telling us a little about yourself.

Danika:
Hi, Kara! Thanks for inviting me to be part of your blog. For your readers who don’t know me yet: I’m Danika Stone, and I grew up in a picturesque part of Canada near the Rocky Mountains. I’ve always been a writer, but I didn’t start to think of it seriously until I took a creative writing course in my second year of university. Once I started writing, I just couldn’t stop.

The Writing Piazza:
The picturesque part of Canada, is it weird that whenever I think of Canada I think the whole country is picturesque? Sigh. It’s my writer’s imagination running away with me again. Gorgeous settings are such wonderful inspirations for book writing. I’ve often found myself inspired to write whenever I’m in picturesque places.

Speaking of inspired writing, let’s talk about your book the All the Feels, can you tell us a little about it?

Danika:
All the Feels is a YA romance, though at its heart, it is a love-letter to fandom. It involves two best friends, bent on bringing a dead character back from the dead (and falling in love along the way). Here’s the back cover description:

College freshman Liv is more than just a fangirl: The Starveil movies are her life…and her last tangible connection to her deceased father. Thus, when her favorite character, Captain Matt Spartan, is killed off at the end of the last movie, Liv Just. Can’t. Deal.

Tired of sitting in her room sobbing, Liv decides to launch an online campaign to bring her beloved hero back to life. With the help of her best friend, Xander, actor and steampunk cosplayer extraordinare, she creates #SpartanSurvived, a call that ignites the fandom. But as her online life succeeds beyond her wildest dreams, Liv is forced to balance that with the pressures of school, her (mostly nonexistent and entirely traumatic) romantic life, and her disapproving mother’s new boyfriend. A trip to DragonCon with Xander might be exactly what she needs to get away from it all… and figure out what (and who!) she really wants.

The Writing Piazza:
Thank you for including that cover blurb because reading that was what made me so obsessed with wanting to read your book. I know we spoke about it a time or two after you sent me an ARC. It was during NaNo so I was desperate to read it but I was so far behind in my writing that I had to put it off for as long as I could. I’ve been a fangirl since before there was a word for it (please don’t do the math on that, I don’t want you to think about how old I am!) so I was utterly intrigued by the books premise. If you’d like to read the review I wrote for the book, which I finished in two days because it was too good to put down, you can read that review HERE.

I’ll try to get back on track with the interview and not geek out so much from here on out but I can’t promise anything. Can you tell us about your journey to become a published author?

Danika:
I’ve always loved writing, but loving it and actually doing it are two different things. A few years ago, I made the leap. I wrote a book. I edited it. I queried it to agents… and I was turned down by all of them. LOL

Now, a lot of people would just walk away at that point. Not me. I’m stubborn. (Like, really, REALLY stubborn.) One of the agents I queried gave me some advice I never forgot. He told me he really liked my book, but that the publishing industry was changing, and I was an unknown. He couldn’t take a risk on me. His advice was to make a name for myself. Get out. Get known. Do the groundwork.

Rather than dwelling on my failure, I took his advice to heart.

I spent a couple years building friendships in the indie publishing community. I read / reviewed / promoted for anyone who asked. I learned how to do things alone. I entered manuscripts in contests, (and in 2013, had one make it all the way to Quarterfinalist for Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel of the Year Award.) Meanwhile, I kept writing. And when I had another book I loved, I queried a second time.

This time, I signed with an agent.

The Writing Piazza:
Great advice and even better news that you were signed! It’s what most new writers daydream about, yours truly included. Let’s talk a bit about your agent because this is something a lot of new writers want to know more about. You are being represented by Morty Mint of the Mint Literary Agency. Can you tell us how that came to be?

Danika:
Morty Mint – the one-time Vice President of Collins Canada, President of Penguin Canada and President and CEO of Penguin USA – was at the very top of my “If I could pick any agent in the WORLD list” when I started querying… and somehow we just clicked.

Querying Edge of Wild went much as all queries do. I sent a letter knowing it was unlikely I’d even hear back, but a few days later, Morty sent an email and asked for the full manuscript. When he phoned and made me an offer, I said I wanted to take the contract to a lawyer. Morty said: “That’s a good idea,” and I knew that he was exactly the right agent for me.

I can’t adequately describe what a massive difference a good agent has on a writer’s career. There are doors that simply don’t open without one. When contracts or trade agreements are involved, Morty’s the one who negotiates. I’m so incredibly grateful for his support and guidance. I keep telling him he isn’t allowed to retire… ever. (And so far, he’s humoring me.)

The Writing Piazza:
Thank you for sharing all that with us. It’s important to understand the role an agent plays and why it’s important to find just the right one. That’s some really great advice we can all take to heart!

Now, I checked out your book trailer for All the Feels it was so great, can you tell us where (or how) you had it made?

Danika:
Oh goodness – thank you! I love making trailers for my books, and for a novel like All the Feels, it seemed like it’s exactly the right medium for promotion. My twitter bio describes me as a “tech-savvy artist & writer” and that’s true! My “day job” involves teaching New Media, so I have all the technology at my fingertips. The only trick to making those trailers is a lot of Premiere and After Effect hours and loooooooong renders. LOL

The Writing Piazza:
I wish I had half your tech savvy! And for those of you who would like to see the book trailer, you can do so here: All the Feels book trailer: https://youtu.be/RsF3RrTNEjQ

But you’re right, having read the book, the trailer was the perfect thing to create for promotion.

While I’m picking your tech savvy brain, you also have an amazing following on Twitter where we “met,” any advice for new authors who are trying to build up their social media presence?

Danika:
My advice is to NOT try to aggressively sell your books to other writers. Be a person, not a non-stop marketing machine. That gets tiring fast.

Another idea is to get involved in author support forums. Early on, I connected with the ASMSG (Author’s Social Media Support Group) which is a great support if you’re an indie author. There are also specific author lists, like those for @SwoonReads. Most importantly, I’ve found that if you are genuinely willing to help out other writers – with promotions, with support, with beta-reading – others will help you out too.

Basically, make good content, retweet good content, and interact with those people who follow you. Before you know it, your numbers will surge!

The Writing Piazza:
I’m so glad you agreed to do this interview! Your book of course is perfection but you are also offering some kick-butt advice too! If you don’t mind continuing along the advice train, I have a question I like to ask pretty much everyone because I always get great answers. What’s something you know now that you wish you knew before you published your first book?

Danika:
I wish I’d known that getting turned down the first time I queried was the best possible thing that could happen to me. There’s such pressure to succeed that any sort of failure feels enormous. It’s not. In today’s changing publishing market, you can find success in various forums. In my years of writing, I’ve done indie publishing, small press, and (eventually) signed with one of the Big Five publishing houses. All of these experiences have made me a better writer.

The Writing Piazza:
Good stuff! And it’s exciting to see where you started and where you are now. It gives all us aspiring writers hope for our futures after the countless rejection letters we’ve all received. 🙂

How about one last piece of advice for the road, what would you say to writers who are writing and attempting to publish their work?

Danika:
Keep writing.

That sounds simple, but it’s not. It’s far too easy for life to sidetrack and derail your efforts. What starts as a few days off turns into seasonal downtime, turns into ‘where did I save that story…?’ The first draft of my first novel was written more than a decade before I actually settled down to finish it. If you’re always waiting for the “right time” to write, you’ll never get it done.

Here’s the secret: The right time is always NOW.

The Writing Piazza:
*shifts eyes nervously* Haha, guilty! I am all too familiar with putting off my writing and blaming life and time for my lack of progress. I will have to apply your words of advice for myself, for they are oh so true.

Now before I let you go (even though I’d keep you forever if you let me) are you currently working on another book?

Danika:
Several! At present, I have a complete draft of a new internet-focused story which – if everything works out – should be out sometime in 2017. I’m also in the middle of a new YA project which I started during NaNoWriMo. That one is still a mess. The characters are being completely bossy and the plot is in chaos, but that generally bodes well for my writing. It means my creative brain has bought in!

The Writing Piazza:
Well I hope you’ll keep us posted and if you ever need someone to read any of your future works you just let me know cause I volunteer as tribute! LOL

Thank you so much for your time and for being a guest on my blog!  Can you tell my readers where they can purchase your books?

All the Feels is available for pre-order on Amazon right now and print copies will be in bookstores everywhere June 7, 2016!  Edge of Wild (which is mystery, not YA) should be available for pre-order on Apple iBooks in a few weeks, and print copies will be in selected bookstores in May.

The Writing Piazza:
I don’t know if I could have made it until June to read All the Feels I feel so fortunate to have been able to read it already! I highly recommend all you fabulous TWP readers to order your copy now because it is such a great book. Again if you want to read my review, you can do that http://www.thewritingpiazza.com/blog/book-reviews/all-the-feels-review/
Danika, in case my TWPeeps (what I not-so-secretly call my blog readers) would like to stalk, er, get to know you and your writing better, do you have any sites they can visit?

Danika:
For more information about all my writing, my two websites are:

http://www.danikastone.com/ ß For all my YA / NA novels.

http://www.authordkstone.com/  ß For my contemporary fiction (for older audiences).

The Writing Piazza:
Thank you so much Danika for being a guest here on TWP I adored having you!

Danika:
Thank you so much for inviting me to be part of The Writing Piazza, Kara! It’s been so great to share this with your readers.

The Writing Piazza:
If anyone would like to connect with Danika on Goodreads, here’s her link:
Goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6574168.Danika_Stone

If you’d like to connect with her on Twitter, here’s her link:
Twitter link: https://twitter.com/Danika_Stone

That wraps up this week’s interview. Thanks for joining us. This was just too much fun! If you’d like to read some of our other fun interviews you can check those out HERE. And feel free to wander around the site and see all the other great stuff we have to offer. We work hard to offer some great content for you so we hope you’ll take a little time to check it all out and that you find it both entertaining and enlightening. But mostly we really love it when you spend time with us here on TWP!

Until we meet again.