Author Interview: Janiera Eldridge

Happy Thursday, everyone! Today, I have the pleasure of bringing you an interview with Janiera Eldridge, the author of Soul Sisters. It's available on Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords for just $2.99 and in paperback on Amazon for $10 and CreateSpace for just $9.99.

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First, a little about Janiera:

Janiera enjoys feeding her book addiction when she not writing. She is also a book blogger at Beauty and Books where she mixes being a book nerd with keeping things chic. When not reading or writing she is freelance writing in the entertainment industry. Soul Sisters is her debut novel.






Now, a little about her new book Soul Sisters:

Synopsis:

Soul Sisters is an urban fantasy novel about African-American twin sisters Ani and Dana who have a rather unique secret: one sister is human while the other is a vampire. While the sisters have lived peacefully with each other for many years one fateful night will change both their lives forever. When a drunken man tries to attack Dana (the human sister) Ani (the vampire sister) protects her sister with all of her ferocious power.

However, when the vampire’s leader Donovan finds out about the public display he calls for the sisters to be assassinated for disobedience. Ani and Dana now are in for the fight of their lives to protect each other as well as the lives of their dedicated friends who have joined them on their mission for survival. If Dana and Ani can make it through this time of uncertainty, Ani can take her new place as vampire queen. Soul Sisters is expected to be a trilogy; The book also features a multicultural cast of characters that brings a new edge of chic to the vampire world.

Soul Sisters is published by Mystic Press and was released on August 18, 2012.

Hi, Janiera! I’m happy to have you here today and thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions about yourself and your new book Soul Sisters.

Jo: I’m a curious person by nature and am dying to know where the idea for Soul Sisters originated. Humor me?

Janiera:   I get this question a lot and it’s still really hard to answer because I’m never really sure. LOL.  I’ve loved vampires since I started reading and one day the idea just hit me- what if there were twins and one is a vampire and one is human? I know it hard to believe that his just popped into my head but it really did and I have no idea where it came from.

Jo: What does a good writing day look like for you?

Janiera: A good day of writing contains getting up in the morning, doing promotions and scheduling more promotions for about 2 hours, then writing for the rest of the day. Sometimes that works out a lot of times it doesn’t.  Promotions are a big part of being a writer but they’re not nearly as fun as writing itself.  With the release of my first book, I’m really just trying to slip in writing whenever I can.

Jo: I know you have a physical disorder. Can you tell us a little bit about your illness and how/if it affects your writing schedule?

Janiera: I have Fibromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and it makes it extremely hard to have a 9-5 job. Luckily, I have wonderful parents who believed in my goal to be published and tell stories for a living. When I left college after one semester, I know they were scared but I got published in less than a year and now they know I mean business. lol. Fibromyalgia is when over active nerves cause constant pain and lack of sleep.  Some days it totally changes my schedule and I can’t do anything because the pain is so severe. The CFS keeps me tired all day so it’s a double whammy. lol. I’m a work-a-holic so I’m still learning how to rest when I need to otherwise it just makes things worse. The people in my life are so understanding about how I can’t work some days and I feel so blessed to have them.

Jo: Tell me about your 100+ reading challenge list. What’s that about and how did it get started?

Janiera: I’d only read like 3 books last year because there was so much going on! However, I knew when I was opening my blog that I wanted to get back into reading again. A really cool book called Book Chick City had a 100+ reading challenge for 2012 and I knew it was a challenge I had to try! So far, I’ve read 41 out of 100 books and Goodreads keeps telling me I’m 22 books behind my goal. I don’t really worry about it though because I’ve read so many more than last year and quite a few of them have been 800-1,000 page books. I’m just glad to be deep back into reading again whenever I can scratch out the time.

Jo: I see you’ve had your Beauty and Books blog going since November of 2011. Why did you get started blogging?

Janiera: I stumbled across a book blog one time and just thought it was one of the best blogs I had ever seen! I loved the fact that I could help promote authors and review books on my blog.

Jo: Have you learned anything via the process you wish you’d known up front?

Janiera: That it would be like having a second job. There are perks to being a book blogger. Since I’m a book and beauty blogger I often get free books and beauty products. I work very hard for these things though and anyone wanting to be a book blogger should know you have to put in the hard work to stand out.

Jo: How much time would you say you spend every day on social networking? Do you think it helps sales? What organizational tools do you use (if any)?

Janiera: I spend about two hours a day on Social networking. That includes promotions for the book on blogs as well as Facebook and Twitter. It totally helps. An author should be doing AT LEAST 20 minutes a day of promos. My book started bringing in sales really fast when it was self-published following the 20 minutes a day rule. I use Excel to keep track of all of my blog promotion obligations and I use hootsuite.com to help me manage and schedule Tweets and Facebook posts. You can’t be on social media all day so, hootsuite really helps.

Jo: You’re an active blogger with over 400 posts. How do you keep up with posting so often and writing a novel?

Janiera: I only post once maybe twice every day. When I’m not reviewing, I’m promoting authors. I schedule all posts the night before so in the morning they’re ready to go. It’s a routine that was really easy for me to get into so I don’t even think about it now. I had no idea I had that many posts though, wow!

Jo: I see you’re an entertainment freelance writer as well. Do you have other blogs or places you write? Tell us about them.

Janiera: I’m currently not writing for any entertainment company but I have written for websites like Directorslive.com in the past. I currently do occasional posts for hersocialnetwork.com but it’s not a paid job. It’s a wonderful website for women to connect and share information. I love writing there.

Jo: You have over 4,000 followers on Twitter. Any secret formula there?

Janiera: No secret formula there, just hard work. I’ve spent time on Twitter interacting with people, sharing other people’s interesting information and posting my own quality info. When people know you’re a real person and you share others' work people naturally follow you because they want to hear what you will say next.

Jo: Tell me about your publisher, Mystic Press (I love their name, by the way). How did you hear about them?

Janiera: I heard about them because someone mentioned them on my Facebook profile. I submitted a query to them on Saturday night and on Sunday evening I got a response that they were interested in my book. I was so shocked and happy! They’re a small press but they work with us authors one on one to make sure everything is perfect for our books. Unlike other publishers they help us a lot in promoting my book.

Jo: Who designed your blog? Have you considered branding across all your platforms or having a logo?

Janiera: I designed my blog and as for branding I already do that. An author’s books are their brand and their logo their covers. I have my covers all over the place and they always lead back to a major platform.

Thanks for stopping by and giving me some of your time. I know a writer’s time is precious and I truly appreciate it!

If you’re interested in following Janiera, you can find her here:
@LazenBeauty
on her FaceBook page
on her blog Beauty & Books
on Pinterest
or on Goodreads

You can purchase a copy of Soul Sisters at the following fine ebook retailers:
Amazon Kindle - $2.99
Barnes & Noble - $2.99
Smashwords - $2.99
Amazon - $10
CreateSpace - $9.99

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo