Michaela Savell is a new, up-and-coming, soon-to-be self-published author! Her new novel Earthen will soon be available for sale on Amazon. She is a senior in high school and will be going to college in the Fall. Thankfully she took some time out of her busy schedule to answer some questions for us about her novel and her writing process!
How did you decide to self-publish instead of traditionally publish?
Well, I tried the traditional publishing route and wasn’t getting many bites. I figured that self-publishing was a less stressful route for a first-time author, so I did that. From there, I printed a few rough copies for family and friends. However, I didn’t decide to post Earthen on Amazon until the sudden influx of demand for the novel. One of my friends brought her copy of Earthen to school and word got around. Since then, I’ve been working my butt off to get Earthen to a more professional level. I feel that self-publishing is a good start for me in this respect, and will give the experience I need to prepare for traditional publishing in the future.
How long did it take you to write Earthen?
It took me about five months to write the first draft of Earthen. Editing and rewriting took two years, and it is still being worked on for final touches.
How many rounds of edits did have with Earthen before you decided it was done?
In my mind, Earthen is never "done." There will always be something that doesn’t feel right about a sentence, or a quirk I can’t capture in a certain character. I’ve gone completely through Earthen twice, although if we’re looking at specific chapters, the rounds vary. Some of the middle chapters only got the two edits and were fine, but chapter one got edited over thirty times (and rewritten five or six). I have a bit of an obsession with editing—or in chapter one’s case, over-editing—which is something I need to work on in future novels.
Are there any sequels to Earthen?
Yes, there will be! I am currently halfway through writing the sequel to Earthen, which is called Leaden. While I originally planned for Earthen to be a trilogy, I’m reworking later plot ideas to allow for more books. The biggest reason for this is that everyone seems to have a trilogy nowadays, and I want to take a different route. My prediction is that there will be five total books, if I can get enough plot to get me there.
Did you make any attempts to publish Earthen traditionally?
Yes I have! I’m actually waiting on responses from my last agent query. Since the rejections I’ve received in previous attempts, I’ve tightened up my query letter and improved chapter one. Most agents are fine with you having your novel self-published, so I haven’t found it to be a disadvantage to pursue both.
Thank you for the interview, Michaela! What do you think? Are you excited to read Earthen? Leave your thoughts in the comments!
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