Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Born in Vienna, Austria, I am now living in the paradise of Perth, Australia with my wife, two married children and three grandchildren. I worked many years in the printing industry and later for the United Nations in Vienna. After an eventful life, now retired, I began to write children’s stories, had them illustrated through Upwork, and finally published the ebooks on most platforms. My dream is to see “Oliver and Jumpy” animated as a TV series.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
There are lots of fairy tales and bedtime stories around and many of them quite violent. This made me decide to write something different. On a flight from Europe to Australia I watched the movie Magic on Belle Island with Morgan Freeman, where Freeman teaches a little girl to have imagination and write her first story. This inspired me as well and the first stories with the two characters Oliver, the elegant tomcat, and Jumpy, his kangaroo lady friend, made their appearance. Some very capable illustrators have helped to create this picture book series.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I got most of the ideas for all stories in the swimming pool. The mind is free during exercise to contemplate plots.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Walt Disney for the style of the illustrations.
What are you working on now?
Promoting the series and creating other language versions. We are currently working on Chinese and German.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Promotions are all encompassing. There is no one thing that works by itself. I spend a lot of time finding reviewers. Now I try to get into local papers, TV stations, podcasts, author interviews. My aggregator helps to get the books into promotions on all ebook platforms. The social media is important. Currently I am saturating Quora, with great results.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Treat your writing as a business right from the beginning. There are tax benefits! Start building a relevant social media presence to build your own audience. You can feed them the progress of your work and they may be receptive when you finally have a finished product!
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Create a series. Your possibilities become greater with more books in a series. There has to be quality in your story, but quantity comes a very close next.
What are you reading now?
Nora Roberts and JB Robb, which are the same person. Nora wrote 200 novels. She is the grand lady of romance. I have gone through about half of her novels and will take another year to finish them.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Another series with an emu and a koala. I love Australian animals.
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?
You guessed it! Nora Roberts.
Author Websites and Profiles
Werner Stejskal Website
Werner Stejskal Amazon Profile
Werner Stejskal’s Social Media Links
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