Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
While I have ghostwritten at least a dozen books – mostly self-help, marketing and biography – for others, the first book under my real name has recently been published. After writing other people’s stories for so long, it feels nice to finally see something with my name on it.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Addiction Nobody Will Talk About: How I Let My Pornography Addiction Hurt People and Destroy Relationships
My battle with the cross-addictions of alcohol and pornography, along with how my mental illnesses of bipolar disorder and PTSD, were the impetus. When I fell, it was hard. The book details that fall with the hope that it shatters any stereotypes non-addicts may have about those with porn addiction and that those who might be in the early or ongoing stages of porn addiction can see where it leads and turn things around now, before it’s too late.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
The first draft of this book was written while I was in jail. I had to write it into four composition notebooks using those tiny eraser-less pencil you use to score mini-golf. It was the only writing instrument allowed.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein is a huge book in my life. I’ve read it three times, about 10 years apart and the lessons I take from it change every time. It’s a bit of a barometer of where my life is at any given moment. I’m also a big fan of Chuck Klosterman, Augusten Burroughs and just about anything on behavioral economics, like Thinking Fast and Slow or Freakonomics.
What are you working on now?
I’m doing a lot of publicity and promotion for the book right now, but in between I’ve started outlining the next book about pornography addiction, which will be less memoir and more self-help.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’ve found my website at www.RecoveringPornAddict.com has been nice because I control the message and medium 100% there. Social media is OK, depending on who is doing the talking. I think the best single piece of promotion I had was a story by the New England Cable News network.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write, write, write. You only get better by writing. It may take millions of words to get good, but you’ll get there. And never give up. I had 50 agents and 70 publishers say no, or want me to change things to my book I wasn’t comfortable with before I found the right publisher.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Put down the gun.
What are you reading now?
Sadly, nothing. I find that between my day job as a ghostwriter, interspersed with marketing my book and simply trying to be a decent father and husband, I needed to take a break from reading for pleasure.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Finding time to write the next book while still working on books for my clients as a ghostwriter.
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?
Siriona, Texas – It’s over a million words, and I’ve got the time
A guide to survival on a desert island
The biggest book of Sudoku and Crossword Puzzles I Could Find
I’d bring my book, to remind me where I came from.
Author Websites and Profiles
Joshua Shea Website
Joshua Shea Amazon Profile
Joshua Shea’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile