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| Julia Fellner, Author TO BE A HERO REVEALED SELF-PUBLISHING HANDBOOK |
Julia Fellner
recently released TO BE A HERO, described by one reviewer as “a fast-paced read that is
inspirational, touching, and humorous all at once.” In her story, Fellner says
she explores different ideas about heroes because characters define a “hero” in
different ways.
Fellner has learned to appreciate the process of
publishing and marketing, which led her to write a SELF-PUBLISHING HANDBOOK and
to create the concept of “authorpreneurship.”
She claims that authors who want to succeed must learn the business of
publishing, market their book even if traditionally published, and operate
story-production like any other business.
Fellner
currently lives in Austria. She is working on another book of short stories and a novella. When she isn’t writing or marketing her own
writings, she enjoys going for long walks with
friends, traveling, and baking. Although
German is her native language, she enjoys writing in English. She graduated
from Vienna University with a Bachelor in English
linguistics, literature and cultural studies and completed a Masters degree in
Management in the Creative Economy at Kingston University London.
Q: You have
written novels that include vampires and heroes. Are your novels directed at
young adults? Are they cross-genre?
Julia Fellner: My first two
novels are both written in the young adult genre because I was 16 and 19 years
old when I started writing them. So it made sense to write for other young
adults when I was one myself. However, now I’m looking at exploring different
genres. What I do also very much enjoy about the Young Adult genre is that,
while there are subgenres, you do not need to stick to certain genre norms
necessarily as long as it’s a story about young adults.
Q: You have
also written short stories. Do you prefer short stories over longer novels?
What is the key difference?
Julia Fellner: Since it is
quite a lot of work to develop the world, in which a story is set, I prefer
novel-length stories. Novels also allow for more words to explore the world and
the characters. However, I do also believe in the art of being concise and
leaving certain aspects to the imagination of the reader, so short stories
definitely also play an important part in honing my skills and experimenting.
Q: You have
written a novel TO BE A HERO. What are characteristics of a hero? Do you need a
villain to have a hero? What are the traits of an effective villain?
Julia Fellner: These are
questions I also very much explore in the book. Different characters have
different ideas but most of them are guilty of either belittling or
romanticizing people who are heroes in their opinion. Valerie, the protagonist,
struggles with the latter when she tries to be a hero like in the stories she reads
and her romanticized image clashes with real life. This is also why I decided
to tell the story as a young adult novel. Realizing that you have been
romanticizing certain people or ideas, and having to construct new meanings for
yourself is, in my experience, part of growing up. To find out how exactly
Valerie ends up defining what a hero is, and whether a hero always needs a
villain, you’ll have to read the book.
Q: In addition to writing fiction, you
have released an e-book on self-publishing and you also offer consulting
services for authors. Can you offer three to five tips for self-publishing
authors?
Julia Fellner:
1. Don’t rush into
anything. There are a lot of “publishing” companies that try to make money off
of people who are new to the industry. If someone asks you to pay money to
publish the book upfront, let alone to read the manuscript, you should research
their credibility very thoroughly and seriously consider saying no to the
offer.
2. Find a great
editor. Even if you are a Spelling Bee champion, as a writer you reach the
point where you’ve read your manuscript so many times you can’t even spot typos
anymore. Hence, definitely have someone professional make sure the manuscript
is in a mistake-free condition, before publishing it.
3. Invest in the
cover art. People do judge a book by its cover, so your book can have the
potential of bestseller but if the cover doesn’t reflect the quality of the
writing, customers won’t even bother to read your blurb.
4. The most
time-consuming task is marketing. There is so much to say about this topic I’m
currently working on another free eBook called the Writers’ Handbook to
Marketing, which should be finished soon.
Q: Can you
describe what you mean by “authorpreneurship?”
Julia Fellner: If you want to
have a sustainable career as a writer, you also need to be an entrepreneur. You
want to know the industry, so you are not dependent on any publishers or
agents. You need to do your own marketing, often even if your book is published
traditionally. You basically run your own business like any other entrepreneur.
Q: Do you write
your fiction strictly to entertain your readers, or do you also try to educate
or deliver a message?
Julia Fellner: I think
delivering a message in your writing mostly happens unconsciously. I often only
know what a book is really about once I’ve finished the first draft. For TO BE A HERO, for example, I realized that how fictional worlds and reality
intertwine was one of the big themes, so in successive drafts I worked on
making the main themes more prominent. However, ultimately I do agree with
Roland Barthes, in that the reader decides, which message the book delivers.
Q: How do you
create credibility for your fictional stories, specifically in the world of
vampires? Is credibility important to telling the story?
Julia Fellner: Good world
building, in my opinion, means that every world you build should be consistent
within itself. If the world and its characters are credible, the novel being
part of the vampire genre becomes less important. Personally, I actually tried
to steer away from using too much of vampire clichés and folklore. As an avid
reader of vampire novels at that time, I felt like I had read the same origin
stories too often and wanted to give my vampires a different angle, even if,
perhaps, this choice makes them less credible in some people’s eyes.
Q: What do you
recommend to develop characters that engage readers?
Julia Fellner: Usually, when
I start plotting I start with the characters. All my plot outlines begin with who
the main characters are, what their family background is. This way I know which
formative experiences in their lives have led them to where they enter the
first page of my story. Having pages about the character’s history and traits,
it feels more natural to develop the plot, knowing exactly who the character is
and how they would react in certain situations. I believe that if a writer can
achieve letting all these facets of the characters’ personality and back story
shine through, without ever having to mention those first few pages in the plot
outline explicitly, then readers will be engaged because the character becomes
three-dimensional and relatable.
Q: What’s next?
Julia Fellner: Currently, I’m
taking part in NaNoWriMo – the National Novel Writing Month, where writers try
to write 50,000 words in November. Based on what I write now, another short
story collection will be ready for publishing in the coming months. These short
stories have been inspired by conversations with my friends and us complaining
that there are not enough stories where there are lgtbqia+ characters, whose
sexual orientation or gender identity is represented realistically and they are
also not reduced to it.
I’m
also working on a novella, which is the prequel to the next novel I want to
write. It will be my first piece of writing that is set in Vienna, so I’m very
excited about getting to play with the city’s history and famous places.
Q: Tell us
about Julia Fellner. Is English your first language? What do you like to do when
you’re not writing?
Julia Fellner: Although
German is my first language, I started writing in English very early on, when I
was about fourteen. Languages have always fascinated me, and so I studied, like
many other writers, English. While this choice has certainly helped to hone my
writing skills, I decided I needed to learn more about being an entrepreneur
and went to London to study Management in the Creative Economy.
When
I’m not working, I’m often working on writing-related authorpreneurship tasks, which
mainly means marketing. But I also enjoy going for long walks in parks with my
friends, travelling and baking.
About Julia
Fellner
“I
wrote my debut novel, REVEALED,
at the age of sixteen. After this first experience with the publishing industry
I wanted to become more entrepreneurial than just writing.
“Therefore,
I self-published my second novel, TO BE A HERO; a short story collection, Adventure Stories of Pirates, Robots and Coconuts, also very
much enjoying the management side of the process. Based on my experiences as an
authorpreneur, I have also released two free eBooks, the SELF-PUBLISHING HANDBOOK and the Writers’ Handbook to Marketing.
“I
graduated from Vienna University with a Bachelor in English linguistics,
literature and cultural studies and completed a Master degree in Management in
the Creative Economy at Kingston University London. Currently, I live in
Austria, where I am working on exciting new projects.”
About
TO BE A HERO
Valerie has loved stories about heroes
ever since she was a child. Now it’s her chance to become one herself.
When a masked, self-proclaimed hero called Shadow appears in her
hometown, she decides to team up with him and become a hero herself. Valerie is
an unlikely adventurer. She can’t run fast and she is a little insecure. But
she is passionate about turning her life into an interesting story.
However, soon she has to learn that living a story is not as
easy as she had thought. In a small town with no big adventures, the person
underneath Shadow’s mask is the only mystery worth exploring. When Shadow’s
secrets pile up, she has to learn to face problems without her mask.
In a world that believes it no longer needs heroes, can Valerie
and Shadow prove it wrong?
About
REVEALED
Vampires, secret societies and first love – those
are things that Anne Watson missed during her first high school experience.
Panthera
Academy is not only a place for eccentric characters, but also the home of two
secret societies, the panthers and the rebels. There Anne has to deal with
midnight meetings, shocking confessions of dark secrets and mysterious deaths
as she experiences falling in love for the first time.
About
SELF-PUBLISHING HANDBOOK
Based on my own experience of self-publishing my
second novel TO BE A HERO, I have compiled a Handbook to guide you through the
self-publishing process. Originally a blog series, the Handbook starts, by
helping you decide whether self-publishing is for you.
In order to produce a quality
book, topics from editing, over cover design to typesetting are explained.
Next, legal considerations and different distribution channels, as well as
financial concerns are addressed. Finally, the biggest section focuses on
marketing - the bread and butter of any author, offering advice on how to build
up to the release and continue creating impactful marketing afterwards.
Links
Purchase Links
TO BE A HERO eBook (U.S.)
Freedownload of Self-publishing Handbook (Smashwords)
Author Links
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