Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I live in the UK with my wife and family. I have two daughters (married) and now have five grandchildren after the appearance of twins in June this year! I’ve been writing for many years and have been published traditionally and independently. Some of my books were published and used in schools in the UK and other countries. I currently have seven children’s books published.
I love sitting with my grandkids and telling them about the planet I visited in a spaceship or the peculiar animals I found at the bottom of my garden. Kids are a great gauge; either they think your story is funny or you know instantly that it’s rubbish!
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is called Animal Alphabet Search: Learn your ABCs & 123s. It’s a book for kids up to the age of 5 years and makes great bedtime reading for babies.
It’s had some fantastic reviews and a 5 star review from ReadersFavorite.com that I am very proud of. It’s a book I’ve wanted to complete for years and now it’s finally here.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I like to think of a story idea and let it germinate and grow in my head first. When it’s ready to burst out I start the actual writing process.
If I’m thinking about writing a lengthy book and not a picture book, I like to use pen and ink. I have a few fountain pens and for each new story I like to buy a colourful notebook. I then settle down with my pen and start writing on my nice, clean notebook. It just gives me that feeling of a new, fresh start and I seem to get more done. Once the novel is more or less completed I then start typing it up on my laptop.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I still love J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan and any Roald Dahl books. When I started getting into adult horror novels my favourite author was James Herbert. I’m reading one of his novels now actually, it’s called ‘Ash’. I read a lot of books, some for enjoyment and some for studying. You can learn an awful lot from other professional authors. I remember writing and completing my first horror and when I read it, I realised I’d written it as I personally read a book, which was ignoring description! I obviously skimmed descriptive passages and so my full-length book was all of about 80 pages, just speech, action and no description! So these days I take a deep breath and grit my teeth and try and read the entire book – descriptions too!
It might be interesting for yourselves to think about that one – how do you read a book? Do you read every single word or do you skim some of it as well?
What are you working on now?
I have several other children’s books that will be available shortly but I would really like volunteers to read them and give me their honest and constructive feedback. Anyone interested can go to my website and leave me a message. I will always answer personally. All volunteers will receive a free copy of any book they would like to read. If readers then decide to join my ‘pre-launch’ team, they can choose any of my e-books to download free. It’s just my way of thanking them for their help – without feedback we never know if our books are being enjoyed or not. That’s why it’s vital for readers to leave reviews after reading books, it allows the author the chance to improve their writing skills and write better books, and that’s what we all want at the end of the day, happy readers and happy writers.
I’ve recently completed a sci-fi screenplay and just about to start writing a sci-fi thriller, both are for adult readers, so it will be a change from my children’s books. I will write these under my name ‘John A. Priest’ and keep ‘John Priest’ specifically for my children’s books.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I use Amazon, Draft2Digital and Smashwords amongst others.
I’ve been publishing my books independently for a few years and have tried many ways of promotion, both free and paid. I believe that you have to plan and promote as an ongoing part of your author’s tasks and it can take years for it to come to fruition.
I use several personal websites and also Twitter and Facebook, but it is very difficult to get ‘noticed’. I have been in the Top 100 free e-books on Amazon for my children’s book category, Peter Challenge Time Surfer, a Time Travel Adventure series, but this has taken a lot of hard work to achieve, so even offering a book for free doesn’t guarantee anything.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Read, read and read. Read anything and everything. Don’t expect to make money overnight. If you enjoy writing then just write and if money follows then this will be the icing on the cake.
Above all, don’t run down other authors, don’t be nasty or criticise other authors. We should be helping each other as much as we can. This job is already tough – don’t make it tougher.
If you don’t use a spreadsheet, start learning how to use one. You will visit 100’s of websites each month and meet some wonderful people, so you’ll need to store this information somewhere.
The best thing about online books is that once they’re uploaded, you don’t really have to do much more. That means that its price can change, from say, $3.00 to zero without it really affecting you (unless you’re wanting loads of sales and money) and so you can try various prices without losing anything really.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Give everyone more in service value than you receive in money value. In other words, give your readers value, give them free books, give them that little bit extra. Make friends with your readers and hopefully they will stay with you for a long time.
What are you reading now?
A book by the late James Herbert called Ash, a paranormal horror.
What’s next for you as a writer?
As well as writing the sci-fi thriller, I’m putting all my efforts into studying marketing and promotion. I think I have reached the point now where I need to be looking at this more than writing at the moment. For me personally, this is the important part that I seem to be lacking.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Remembering titles of books is always difficult for me as I seem to forget one and move onto the next, so I would take the following:
The first book would be blank so that I could write my own 😉
The other 3 would be ‘How To’ books:
How to promote and market your book.
How to improve your grammar, descriptions and characters.
The fourth would be, How to build a boat out of coconut shells and sand and get off a desert island…
Author Websites and Profiles
John Priest Website
John Priest Amazon Profile
John Priest Author Profile on Smashwords
John Priest’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account