Interview With Author S.B. Goncarova
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a children’s book author, screenwriter, performer, composer and animator. I’ve written 9 books now, and collaborated on a number of others.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is The Secret Code of the Heartbeat Drum – (2nd Edition.) My inspiration? I have two adorbous nieces and a nephew ages 8, 5, and 3. They call me Abba. I try to create for them a book, read-aloud video, or animation for their birthdays each year.
The stories for all the books in ‘The Adventures with Abba’ Series all stemmed from the imaginary adventures we came up with over zoom calls during the pandemic. We would make up our adventures as we go, and I would play on the piano some musical embellishments, which would always make them giggle.
In the read-aloud videos that goes with the books, I made sure to put in all those music motifs and ideas, and also threw in silly sound effects. The squishier the better!
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Because of the performance aspect to my books, I have a unique way of writing. I go back and forth between writing and performing it on camera, reworking and reworking a line until it’s perfect. Sometimes it takes a crazy amount of takes to get a line to land well, and sound natural. Other times a random blooper is funnier than the original, so I’ll just throw out what I’ve written and write the blooper right back into the manuscript.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
P.G. Wodehouse is my biggest influence, who’s often called the funniest writer in the English language for good reason. He was a master of his craft, and worked every day on his writing without fail, his entire life. Something to aspire to.
Gerard Durrell, also brilliant in such hilariously unexpected ways.
He wrote as he saw the world, through the eyes of a naturalist.
And Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I always loved the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, even as a kid. I was completely and utterly obsessed. The titles of each of my kids’ books are little nods to him.
What are you working on now?
I’m putting together a picture book from an animation that I made last year called Super Sleuth. It follows the dialogue word-for-word so kids can follow along to the animation if they’d like.
I’ve also been gearing up to animate this new 5 minute short for kids, about what happens when an orchestra forgets to tune up. Hint: Caruso the super-handsome but perpetually grumpy Tuxedo Cat (who’s conducting the orchestra) breaks his baton in two and ends off storming off the stage. I do all the animating myself, so it will probably take a few weeks.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
It’s a mix of a lot of little pieces. Like dominos that you have to put all in a line to make work.
I do have a website, which is cave-girl simple, pretty much just a landing page. But I’ve found that simpler is better. People don’t have much bandwidth these days.
For the launch of each book I reach out to bloggers and podcasters with a focus in children’s literacy, and see if we can do some sort of interview or collab.
For this book, I’d like to approach some public radio broadcasters in Europe because they have budget for kids’ educational content and there is growing demand from parents who want to get their kids off of screens. To get a morning slot while kids are having breakfast in the mornings, even for a 5-7 minute chapter a day. I think that would be really something special for the kids to look forward to.
My YouTube channel @Read Aloud with Abba is also doing some heavy lifting when it comes to building audience. It seems to be getting a huge surge of impressions and subscribers, so I guess I’m finally doing something right. These days subscriber numbers and views are your street cred. I just hope the algorithm will do its part to push my books out in front of kids, parents, teachers and librarians. Fingers crossed.
I’m also starting a workshop for schools that goes through all parts of the process of making their own read-aloud video– from writing and performing, to filming and editing, and then doing the foley work and music. Something for everyone! I want to make it fun and inspiring for kids. And plus I can tailor it to different age groups if there is enough interest.
So it’s a mix of online and offline, which I think is key for kid’s books like mine at least. You just have to have the patience of a gardener with the promotion and marketing of your books. Yes, there needs to be a real push at the beginning, to jump start amazon algorithms among other things, but you also need a slow drip to keep it out in front of eyeballs over time. It takes a while to get momentum sometimes. You just have to keep pushing doggedly until you have critical mass.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
My best piece of advice is to find (or create) a mastermind group with other new authors so you can help push each other along and keep each other accountable, and be each other’s sounding board. Build up your network of other writers and creatives as much as you can, whether it be online, or offline, or both. This is really invaluable.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Get busy. (From my late husband, Ian Ferrier, a few weeks before he passed.) He meant: get busy creatively, with always having a lot of different projects and collaborations going on; and also, be constantly connecting with people, reaching out, doing things for others. Really nurture those friendships.
What are you reading now?
“The Indomitable Hornblower” by C.S. Forester.
“Piece of Cake” by Derek Robinson.
W.S. Merwin’s Essential Works (a little bit at a time.)
What’s next for you as a writer?
I want to go on a huge months-long reading binge for a while before coming back and starting work on my next project. I’ll be a better writer for it.
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?
Just 4? Let’s see. “The Best of Jeeves” (Anthology) by P.G. Woodhouse. “My Family and Other Animals” by Gerard Durrell. “All the Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr. And “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame. I don’t think I’ll ever get bored; I’ll always be finding new nuggets of beauty that I hadn’t seen before.
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