C.S. Taylor is a former Marine and avid fencer (saber for
the most part, foil and epee are tolerable). He enjoys all things WWII,
especially perfecting his dogfighting skills inside virtual cockpits, and will
gladly accept any P-38 Lightnings anyone might wish to bestow upon him. He’s
also been known to run a kayak through whitewater now and again, as well give
people a run for their money in trap and skeet.
His latest book is the historical fiction, Nadya’s
War.
WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:
WEBSITE | TWITTER | FACEBOOK
About the Book:
Nadezdah "Little Boar" Buzina, a young pilot with
the Red Army's 586th all-female fighter regiment, dreams of becoming an ace.
Those dreams shatter when a dogfight leaves her severely burned and the sole
survivor from her flight.
For the latter half of 1942, she struggles against crack
Luftwaffe pilots, a vengeful political commissar, and a new addiction to
morphine, all the while questioning her worth and purpose in a world beyond her
control. It's not until the Soviet counter-offensive at Stalingrad
that she finds her unlikely answers, and they only come after she's saved the
life of her mortal enemy and fallen in love with the one who nearly kills her.
ORDER YOUR COPY:
Amazon
Before you started writing your book, what kind of research
did you do to prepare yourself?
Given that the book is historical fiction, I knew I had to
do a lot of research. I came away with a good hundred pages worth of notes when
it was all said and done. Since I knew avid readers of historical fiction knew
their stuff, I was paranoid I’d make some huge anachronism.
Did you pursue publishers or did you opt to self-pub?
I thought about both, for certain, as there are a lot of
benefits to doing both. Eventually I went with Tiny Fox Press.
If published by a publisher, what was your deciding factor
in going with them?
They loved the book and knew what they were doing. Wasn’t
much more to it than that.
Are you happy with the price
they chose?
Absolutely. Seems quite competitive, especially since there
are small presses out there that charge a few dollars (or more) extra to try
and recoup production costs. I can’t imagine this doesn’t hurt sales.
Did you purposefully choose a distinct month to release your
book? Why?
Not for any other reason than it was a good month for our
projected goals and timeline when it came to getting it out.
How did you choose your cover?
Tiny Fox Press hired a fantastic cover artist that we all
worked closely with. The cover was a product of lots of back and forth and
several mockups.
Did you write your book, then revise or revise as you went?
Both. You obviously have to revise after its written. No
first draft ever survives intact, especially when good beta readers (and then
editors) get a hold of it. But even as I was writing it the first time, my
characters decided to stop listening to what I wanted, stopped following my
carefully prepped outline and made a mess of things. Every time they did that,
I had to adjust the story.
Did you come up with special swag for your book and how are
you using it to help get the word out about your book?
We got word out with lots of networking, targeted swag,
however, was not part of that. One day, probably, when approaching certain
dates to revitalize interest, perhaps we will.
Did you consider making or hiring someone to make a book
trailer for your book? If so, what’s the
link?
No, I hadn’t.
What’s your opinion on giving your book away to sell other
copies of your book?
I’m all for doing whatever one needs to do to sell copies.
If giving away one sells more, that seems to be a simple choice. Obviously, you
don’t want to be only giving away copies and not selling any—or too few—and as
such, it’s good to keep an eye on the actual numbers.
As for what we did, we had a large number of ARCs that were
sent out to reviewers and editors leading up to launch, and gave maybe 15-20
away altogether through various giveaways to readers. As I type this, we have
one up on Goodreads as well where I’ve got 2 signed copies up for grabs. (https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/259323-nadya-s-war)
What are three of the most important things you believe an
author should do before their book is released?
Revise. Revise. Revise. You can never release too late, but
you can release too early. After that, working on getting the word out and
developing a solid game plan is crucial, in my humble opinion.
What are three of the most important things you believe an
author should do after their book is released?
Start working on whatever is next, writing wise. Devote some
time each week to continued marketing in some form, and don’t obsess over
reviews (probably the hardest for most writers 😊
).
What kind of pre-promotion did you do before the book came
out?
We did quite a bit for a small press. We had a lot going on
various social networks, worked on getting pre-release reviews on places such
as Hypable and The Historians podcast.
Do you have a long-term plan with your book?
I’m going to continue to support it as much as I can and
work what’s coming next. Gelling ideas now, but I’m leaning to a novella before
a knocking out another full-length novel.
What would you like to say to your readers and fans about
your book?
Hope you enjoy Nadya’s War, and feel free to drop by my
humble site and say hello (http://cs-taylor.com/).
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