World of Writing - Children's Author Interview
Today we have Matthew James as our guest, here to share some of his experiences writing within the children's genre. I hope to have him back to discuss his amazing entrepreneur experiences as well.
When asked how he would describe himself, this is what he said:
"I am a self published author, entrepreneur, vegan and dog dad living in the North East of the UK with my husband. I have owned a sweet shop previously, as well as an escape room and recently a vegan takeaway. I am creative, self motivated and determined to succeed. I have studied a national diploma in journalism and have always been interested in writing from a young age. I have self published a business book along with 3 books in a series named Skin Crawlers. This year I aim to finish a book aimed at adults."
How cool is that?! Well we won't delay any longer, lets get right into the interivew with this fascinating author. Oh before we do, we'd like to encourage you to visit him on Instagram, his Website, or Author Central Page on Amazon.
Q: When browsing your Author Central Page I noticed the 4 books, with 3 of them within a children's series. I'm sure you have other projects on the go, but let's delve into the children's genre. When you started writing this project, did you plan on it being a series, or did it grow into one?
A: I have always been a huge fan of horror as a kid, although truth be told I was always scared of Freddy Kruegar from Nightmare On Elm Street! I first discovered my love of horror thanks to books by R.L Stine, the Goosebumps series. I was hooked right away - each book captured my imagination, I loved that each book was a different story and had a different theme.
My favourites were titles like One Day At Horrorland, The Haunted Mask and Night Of The Living Dummy. These books inspired me to write an updated version of Goosebumps, so I knew I wanted to write a series in the same way.
I came up with Skin Crawlers, a nod to Goosebumps but with a modern twist. I had three stories for books in mind and got them written quite quickly. I started with Monstrous Mobiles - as I read that R.L Stine famously said to rid of mobiles in a story, but what if mobiles (cell phones) were the story?
I also read that R.L Stine had written some of his stories in as little as six days - It gave me an aim, a purpose to write my story and try to beat his six days but I didn't manage it. Instead, I wrote Monstrous Mobiles in a few weeks and loved everything about it. Right away, I began writing the second in the series named Escape Room of Doom.
Q: I can totally feel the enthusiasm for the project that you had while writing it, and the childhood favorites sound like a great read! Did you find it difficult to choose the right language, images and writing style for reaching this age group?
A: As an adult, you would think you would know what children would like, but that's not always true. I used my experience of owning an escape room - as more often than not, children would be better at solving puzzles than the adults would.
I think it's important to understand that kids are much smarter than we realize; they are more receptive. I knew I wanted my books to emulate Goosebumps so I tried to match the same sort of level in a more modern way.
I also felt it was important for my books to be British and set in the North of England mainly. All of my books in the Skin Crawlers series are written by me and I designed all images for the book covers - each book has a specific colour to match the story and tone of the story.
Q: Are you serious? You designed those covers? They are fantastic, and impressive. Congratulations on that. Now I want to know more about your graphic skills... but don't distract me bunny rabbit lol So you have the series planned, you are getting the books out, they are on amazon, but now you have to drive the right audience to those landing pages.
Can you share a little about some of the promotion experiences that you have had, or plan to do, for this series?
A: This has been a bit of a struggle for me, to be honest.
I have run different businesses and thought I had a good understanding of marketing as each of my marketing campaigns for these businesses were successful for me. Promoting the Skin Crawlers series has been a learning curve.
Like most authors, I wanted reviews and word of mouth to promote the books, which hasn't happened. Instead, I have used advertising on Amazon, promoting on social media as well as in my local area. I thought the hardest part would be to write the books, but I have now discovered that marketing them as an independent author is the most difficult.
Q: That is true, it can be a pain point for sure. I too came from a business background and also felt I had a good handle on marketing, which I did. For some things. And then after 2000, the whole world of writing changed and that meant I had to evolve with it. Again. I feel like stepping into this career is like a lifetime membership at a University.
Is there anything in the children's series that is based on a real life experience?
A: Monstrous Mobiles is completely fictional, as is Creepy Christmas. For Escape Room of Doom, I used my experience of creating puzzles, running an escape room to setup the escape rooms in the book. At one point I was creating full rooms with puzzles and a story but I soon realized that escape rooms in book would be completely different than actually creating puzzles and rooms in real life.
I realized the puzzles in the book had to be easy to understand, so reader's could grasp what the puzzle was, what players needed to do and how they had to get there. I needed to create all of this without reams and reams of text and be entertaining all at the same time.
I try and make my characters seem real by inserting ideas and conversations I have had in real life.
Q: I know we touched on this earlier, but I would like to delve further into why did you feel such passion for this series, like you knew that this series needed to be written?
A: I've always wanted to write an updated version of Goosebumps. The books were some of the first ones I had ever read and I might not have realized it at the time, but it was these stories that made me want to be a writer.
Skin Crawlers came to me instantly with the 3 initial books in the series and I was able to get them completed quite quickly. I put a lot of effort into researching, writing and editing the books and proud of what I achieved. I want to write more stories in Skin Crawlers and have the next book in mind.
I am currently writing a different style of book, aimed at adults. Join Hexium is a comedy fantasy about three witches who mistakenly setup an MLM (multi level marketing) to gain souls. I feel this book needs to be written to warn others about the dangers of setting up this type of business that always ends up with people losing money.
I wanted to write books and see them in print. I tried approaching agents and publishers but did not get anywhere. So I decided to self publish using Amazon.
Q: That upcoming book sounds like a fun read :) and it is great to know that the series will continue to expand as time marches forward.
There are a lot of folks out there who daydream of writing but are not able to. I'm curious: if you didn't choose to write, what would you have done instead?
A: I have previously owned businesses and I own a small Etsy business I currently run named Carded. I specialize in greeting cards with themes based on movies, TV shows and games. Each card is unique in theme and allows me to be creative in what I make.
I would say I have always wanted to be a writer, but never believed I was good enough or had the right skills. Last year (2023) I decided that enough was enough, I needed to stop making excuses and just write. My first book on business, Let's Start A Business, was what I knew about. I was trying to help others start a business using this guide. It would help anyone who was wanting to start but didn't know where to begin.
Q: What was your personal favorite childhood book, and why does it retain a special place in your memory?
A: I would have to say the book which retains a special place in my memory is The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien. It wasn't the first book I had read, yet somehow it felt connected to other stories I had read, like Alice in Wonderland. It was funny and yet also grown up.
I loved reading about elves, dwarves and of course, the Hobbits themselves. It had that rare ability to take you away to another world, it felt so real. All of the characters were fully realized, the world was fun to explore and the story captured my imagination right away. I went on to read Lord Of The Rings, which I loved but it didn't compare to The Hobbit.
Q: One of my favorites too. :) How do you test out your books prior to publication?
A: I felt in writing the different books in Skin Crawlers that each needed their own mindset. Because each story was different, with new characters and settings I had to fully understand the story and what I wanted to achieve. It was difficult to get the level of horror right - too much and the books would not suit the market I was aiming at, and too little would make them boring.
I was able to test the books on family and friends, to gain their honest feedback and to make any changes before publication.
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Thank you, Matthew, for sharing your writing experiences with us :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for having me! Was great to read. Hope to speak with you again soon!
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