Interview with Author Sara Thomson
This is a transcript from an interview with author and our founder, Sara, was involved with.
Introduction
Sara Thomson is the Founder and Director of Home Front Books Publishing. With a background in marketing and as a published author herself, she understands what it takes to write a book and launch it to market.
Early Career
What kind of books inspired you as a child?
My mother was a great lover of literature and instilled in me a deep love and respect for stories and poems. She read widely to me, all of which inspired me in different ways, including things like; A Child’s Garden of Verse, The Railway Children, Anne of Green Gables, The Water Babies, A little Princess. As I got older I explored a wide variety of stories but found that modern historical fiction was my favourite.
Did you always want to write? Who or what encouraged you to write?
I always wanted to write. It was one of those things inside that calls for attention but you ignore, because schools and conventionality tell you that writing isn’t a real career choice. So, it is something I ignored for a lot of years and did in secret as my guilty pleasure. It was only getting older that got me thinking about how life is far too short to focus on what society expects of you and what you ‘should be doing’, rather it is much better to focus on what you really want.
Tell me about your career in marketing – how did you get into it? Were you freelance or did you work for an agency?
I got into marketing straight from finishing my BA degree in English with Creative Writing, and after doing a year of voluntary work with the university PR department. A small local company were expanding their marketing department and wanted to employ a professional writer to help with their website and marketing materials. As part of this role I wrote everything from website product descriptions, advertising materials, course material, information leaflets and flyers, catalogues, blogs, articles, PR pieces, social media marketing and even wrote a training script for a DVD learning course. Following this I worked freelance for a while before deciding to put that career on hold to focus on writing Anna’s Home Front. Over the years I’ve worked in many Marketing roles and done everything from creating programmes to building an entire marketing department.
Do you prefer content writing or copywriting? How did you gain confidence in your writing skills?
I like both, but if I was to choose I prefer copywriting. I love writing that is designed to sell, that has a particular purpose. However, I also love writing information content and researching long form articles. I like them each in different ways. The variety and the challenge of each piece is what is best about this kind of writing.
You gain in confidence in your writing the more you do. Writing as a professional really helps with this because you have to be good, someone is paying you to be good. But, I do still have confidence issues but that is related to me as a person rather than what I write. There’s also the confidence that there’s still more to learn. I don’t do much content or copywriting for clients anymore and I’m now focusing more on teaching business owners marketing and content.
Do you have any proofreading tips?
The best way I’ve found to proofread is to look at it with cold eyes, which is to say that if you try to proof work you’ve only just finished writing you’re more likely to miss things. However, if you look at your work a day or so later, or even just a few hours, you’ll find that mistakes are more easy to spot and any sentence structure issues will be glaringly obvious. Having said this, particularly when working in marketing, this isn’t always possible so in this instance, I would try to take a break from it then go back later. Ultimately, you need to train yourself to spot mistakes in your own work, which is much harder than proofing others work.
Are there any online tools you would recommend for writing?
For writing fiction, I use a writing programme called Scrivener, which is made for writing fiction, non fiction, scripts and can even be used for articles. It is a full service programme that even allows research to be collated in one place and formats for print, kindle and other ebooks.
For content and copywriting, I would advise anyone wanting to get into the career to begin familiarising themselves with the back end of websites. I have found that a number of companies use WordPress at least for their blogs; and WordPress is a really easy intuitive tool to use. Also anyone wanting to build a career in this area should have their own online presence and a WordPress website is a good way to showcase skills. Also, familiarising themselves with social media marketing tools such as Buffer, Social Bee, etc are a good idea, alongside how email marketing works and how to use programmes such as Convert Kit and Mailerlite. Also, all of this advice works equally for anyone wanting to build an author career, even traditional publishing houses expect authors to be able to market and have their own online presence to a certain degree.
For any kind of content or copywriting work, even if that’s just for an author website, it’s important to know how to use Google analytics. To keep up with content and marketing industry trends and best practice, I look to Moz, Marketing week and Copyblogger among others.
Present – Home Front Books Publishing
What inspired you to create HFB?
I’ve always wanted to write a book ‘one day’ but when I realised that ‘one day’ would never come unless I finally made the decision to change my outlook, the idea to turn writing just one book into a full publishing company came from my finally admitting that this truly was what I wanted to do with my life and if that was the case, I needed to embrace this decision and decide how I wanted to go forward. Did I want to write and have a publisher, or did I want control over my future? I ultimately decided that I wanted the control of being the publisher, so decided not to shop the manuscript to publishing houses and instead take the idea my own way. I was inspired by people like Joanna Penn of The Creative Penn, who has done just this and is now making a six figure income from her publishing company, and johnny, Sean and Dave from Sterling and Stone, who have done a similar thing to Joanna Penn but have since moved into a more collaborative, multi author publishing house. I realised that if they can do it, I can too.
The fiction branch of Home Front Books Publishing focuses on historical fiction set early in the 20th Century, particularly World War one and World War two, what sparked you interest in this period?
I was married very young at 18 and my husband was in the Army. I spent all of my 20s moving around the world following his career and bringing up children, never really having a career of my own and feeling extremely frustrated and unfulfilled intellectually. During this period I read a series of autobiographies by Helen Forrester about her life growing up in the depression of the 1930s and her life as a young woman in WWII. This series moved me beyond words and is still to this day one of my ultimate favourites. This sparked an interest in anything written about the period and I spent many years reading everything I could find set during the time. I found myself able to sympathise with these women because of my own difficult lifestyle as a military wife with my husband away a lot, and also admired their spirit of endurance and determination despite almost impossible circumstances. I devoured everything I could about the period, and even now remain fascinated by these women who went through so much. This meant that when I began to write Anna’s Home Front, I wrote the book I wanted to read – set during the period of WWI and WWII and with multiple protagonists and a mystery.
The publishing company simply focuses on this period as it’s where my main literary interest and experience lies.
Does writing energise your exhaust you?
It energises me, definitely. Although, I find writing content and copy, particularly for a business, can be quite exhausting as it takes a lot of concentration and reworking of every detail. Eight hours of this can be very stressful and exhausting, but satisfying when you see how you’ve done something well.
However, I find that I get very cranky and a bit depressed and fed up if I haven’t written anything for a while, I find I feel particularly energised if my fiction writing is going well and the words are flowing.
How do you overcome writer’s block?
I find that writer’s block can often be due to other things in my life that I’m worrying about, or is me not feeling confident in what I’m writing, or I don’t have enough information to write what I need to.
It can be difficult to work out what the issue is when you’re in the situation, but often going away, doing something else then coming back can help. I do find that trying to push through can make it worse and make you more frustrated. It’s often easier to go for a walk, or give yourself permission to do something else.
In copywriting, though, I’ve never had writer’s block. It only happens in fiction writing, possibly because it’s a different kind of creativity and with content and copywriting it’s more deadline driven.
How do you motivate yourself?
Motivation can be an issue when you’ve got family, work or other things demanding attention and the last thing you want to do is sit down and do more work, especially when you’re working from home and small children don’t understand why you need to sit at the computer rather than spending time with them. Guilt can be a big issue. Motivation tends to come from thinking of what I want to achieve, and how it will feel with the finished product. However, I do tend to be over ambitious with my timescales. Everything is a fluid process and I’m learning all the time new ways and systems.
Did you ever consider writing under a pseudonym?
Not really. However, having said that, I wrote under S. Thomson, when I wrote my content and copywriting non-fiction book, but this is purely to distinguish it from my fiction.
Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?
I wrote the Home Front Series as a duo series – Anna’s Home Front and The Prisoner, but I think I’m planning on writing some stand-alone books. I don’t much like writing in series and as a reader I’m a stand-alone fan rather than series, so it fits with me and what I like, which is a big part of what motivates me.
What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
I research lots of different aspects. So before beginning Anna’s Home Front, I read a lot of fiction set and written during the period to identify how others had handled the portrayal of the setting and characters. I also read a lot of non-fiction biographies and historian written text books on the period. I read widely about the setting, the way people talked, acted and how different it is from today. I also examined museums and places that focus on the period and visited stately homes to get an idea of the way they look, are run and then picked one in particular to base the house on.
I read letters, listened to oral history and the music of the period, even buying and examining clothing and the way people dressed to get a complete immersion of the time.
I also research as I’m going along as sometimes you can’t get a feel for what you need until you are in the process. One particular thing I got stuck on for ages was Anna’s lipstick. It took a lot of research to find one that was around at the time by a manufacturer that made lipstick in Britain and would have been available in 1940. It’s such a small detail in the story but one that enhances it.
Research is one of my favorite parts of the whole process.
How do you create your characters?
I start with a particular personality trait or a particular feature and develop it through the first draft. It’s only through writing the first draft that the characters reveal themselves and develop naturally into real people.
With Anna, I started with a strong personality trait of her being someone who hides from and runs away from problems, but has quite definite ideas of what and how things should be, I then put her in situations that challenged these beliefs and ideas.
How many hours a day do you write?
It depends on the day, I write much less on days I’m at work, and more on days I’m not, I have less time during school holidays when my daughter is off school, but in general I do try to write something every day. This isn’t always possible, but as long as something gets done each day, it’s ok.
Where do you prefer to write?
It depends on which draft I’m writing and the type of writing. If I’m writing the first draft of a fiction project, I prefer to sit on my armchair in my office on my iPad and keyboard, second drafts get done at my office desk on a computer and so does any business or marketing work.
What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?
Confidence crisis. I’ve learned that it’s just a part of the creative process and that most creatives have confidence issues, but there are days I wake up and wonder what on earth I’m doing and just feel overwhelmed by it all and other days I’m so motivated I feel I could just write all day. The hard part is when the bad days happen and there’s no one there to boost you. When I was in a job role, it’s much easier as the team around you are there to help, but with what I’m doing now, there’s just me so it’s harder to move through these points of crisis.
Stephen King says “The scariest moment is always just before you start.” ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, what advice would you give on how to start?
Starting is only scary if you allow yourself to look at the enormity of the project and how much work it will take. Instead, I find if you focus purely on what excites you about the project starting is easy. Think of it as a question – what can you do today to get you closer to your goal?- even if that is only a small thing, like beginning, it’s still a step closer than yesterday.
What advice would you give on how to proceed once you’ve started writing a book?
I believe in planning, you need to know where you’re going and what you want to achieve in the end, whether that’s fiction or non-fiction. This doesn’t have to be detailed, but an idea of where you’re going is a good idea. I plot out a plan for each chapter. This isn’t detailed but it just reminds me what particular scenes and events that need to happen in that chapter to move the story along. This acts as a reminder so that when I’m writing that chapter I have an idea of what I need to happen but isn’t rigid and still allows the words to flow naturally too. Inevitably, this is a fluid process and often changes, particularly towards the end when unexpected things happen or parts I thought weren’t going to be important turn out to need a bigger scene. I would definitely advise having a plan to follow in the beginning.
Is there a book on ‘how to write’ that has inspired you?
Gosh yes, loads. But most importantly, Natalie Goldberg Wild Mind, Stephen Pressfield The War of Art, Anne Lamott Bird by Bird, 2K to 10K Rachel Aaron, The Successful Author Mindset Joanna Penn, Write, Publish, Repeat Sean Platt Johnny B Truant.
What’s the best way to market your books?
It depends on the genre, some genres are easier to sell that others. Romance books and thrillers are the biggest sellers with the widest audience, these are easier to sell than others.
However, I believe in long term strategy rather than short term gain, so believe in building an online platform, using content, social media and information to build a brand alongside advertising and events, which are used much more sparingly, ultimately it’s best if all channels are used to focus towards one goal.
As a mother, author, and business owner, how do you juggle your time?
As best I can! In seriousness though, you have to be fluid with your time and be prepared to change plans and move things around depending on what is important. You can’t be rigid with your time, but equally it’s important to make sure family understand that work time is important.
Can you describe how it felt when you finished writing your first book?
I was slightly disbelieving and sat staring at the screen for a few moments, before thinking, wow, it’s done. It felt amazing to finish one of my lifetime goals. What was more surprising is how many people congratulated and wished me well.
Did success scare you?
Success is scary. As a writer you are scared to fail and scared to succeed, which sounds crazy. Ultimately us writers tend to be very introverted and external attention is a scary and tiring thought, but equally it’s something you have to embrace and understand that success is a good thing.
Did publishing your first book change your process of writing?
With my first book I was learning how to write a book, how to knit all the pieces together and what my processes were. I find that second time around, I can follow the processes I learned the first time and it has made things a little more streamlined.
What would say were significant milestones in your career?
First was finishing my degree, second was my career, third writing my first book and fourth finishing my MA and beginning my company.
If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
Believe in yourself and stop worrying what others think of you all the time, you can do what you really want if you just believe you can.
The Future
What are your future plans?
I’m writing another fiction book at the minute around a Land Girl and am building a course programme for business owners to learn marketing in my company.
Where do you hope to be in 10 years’ time?
With a whole body of work and some collaborative projects under my belt, able and willing to publish other authors. I’d like my company to be successful, whatever shape that develops into.
