Creative Crow: Five Thrilling Finalists

There are five finalists for the Kindle Book Review's Indie Thriller of 2012. I'm one of them and thought it'd be fun to ask the others a set of questions about their journey. I'm pleased to say they each agreed. On Monday we saw Rob Lowe's answers, today it's Stephen Woodfin.

Author Profile

Stephen Woodfin

Stephen has a BA in religion, is a Master of Divinity and has received the Cullen Midler Award in Theology. He took his law degree in 1985 and has practiced law continuously for the last 25 years, serving as class counsel in national cases that included millions of people. He is the author of five fast-paced legal thrillers, and hopes these books will not debunk the myth that he actually knows something about the law.

The Last One Chosen

Homeland Security agents raid a small East Texas town and arrest a humble blue-collar worker for domestic terrorism and espionage. When two country lawyers take on his defense and fight to prevent their client's execution, they learn he holds the secret of a doomsday device, a secret he will not divulge, even when tortured. As the trial reaches its astonishing conclusion, the two lawyers realize their struggle has not only been about justice, but also redemption.

Interview

JP: You wrote a book. You published it yourself and hoped others would love it in same way, as you do. You read in the press over 250,000 books were independently published in the last year. Then you get an email from Jeff Bennington, founder of the Kindle Book Review - you made the final five for their best Thriller, Mystery books of 2012. Now tell me:

Just how did that feel?

It made me feel great, but not because I think of writing as a competition with others authors. I don’t. I believe we are all in this together, trying to do the best job of writing we can on the project at hand, and pulling together for all authors to help them succeed. I was thrilled to become a finalist because authors live year in and year out dealing with rejection, yet plugging ahead. Every now and then, it’s nice when someone throws us a bone.

We have proof that writing is important to you, tell us what moved you to write in the first place and then how that became writing a book.

I suppose I have always sought refuge in writing. I can look at my bookshelf and see scraps of pieces I have put together at almost every stage of my life. About 8 or 10 years ago, I decided I was not getting any younger, so I started attended writing conferences, writing short stories and studying the craft of writing. I had worked on several novels, re-writing the first fifty pages or so. Finally I hired a professional writing coach, the great author Jory Sherman. Jory told me that everything I needed to write a book was already within me. Somehow that notion took root in me, and I finished my first novel, Last One Chosen.

In crafting this story and the characters, what part of you is reflected in the story creation and these so real fictional people.

I write legal thrillers, and I am a lawyer by trade. So, it is really impossible for me to separate myself from the attorney characters in the book. The courtroom drama is more or less a distilled form of the sorts of things I have seen play out in real life. By this I don’t mean that I have patterned any of my books around actual cases. But I believe it is important to get the details right about courtroom procedure in order to lend a layer of realism to the story.

As to Last One Chosen itself, I had thought about the basic theme of the book for years. My undergraduate and graduate training are in religion, and this caused me to consider a story of the one true person who maintains his integrity in the face of the brute force of government. It is really a parable about the undying power of love and loyalty in the face of hatred and betrayal.

How long did it take to write Last One Chosen? From page one to pressing “publish” on Amazon? Tell us a little about the process.

I piddled with the first fifty pages or so for quite a while. But then when I hired my writing coach as I described above, I got on a roll and wrote the last three hundred pages in about three months or so. After that, I did revisions, formatting, etc., which took another couple of months.

Did you ever lobby agents, had you been published traditionally, and what did you learn from this if you did?

I obtained an agent shortly after I completed the manuscript of Last One Chosen. As I continued to write, I submitted two more manuscripts to her and she presented these to a total of four major New York houses. I waited for close to two years for some word from these publishers. I never received anything, no rejections, no response, no nothing.

What I learned from this was that I didn’t have the time to wait for years to find out if my book was going to be published. I decided to take a different route.

At what point did you think: 'I could publish this myself?' And what made you do it?

I sort of backed into this. While my agent had my books under submission to the major houses, I was growing more and more impatient with the traditional publishing model. Through a stroke of good luck, I came in contact with the fine writer, Caleb Pirtle. Caleb and I decided to form a small press, not to publish our own stuff, but to publish the work of other independent writers. Over the course of a few months, we realized that it also made sense to include our own works in the process. I had written my fourth novel by then, so it was actually the first of my books to see the light of day. That novel now exists under the title of The Warrior With Alzheimers: The Battle for Justice. It was a real labor of love for me.

Once you made the leap, what drove you to produce a book of this quality? Tell me about typos, grammar, synopsis and the book's cover.

I have always been a believer in craft and attention to detail. Some of that may come from years of practicing law. Regardless, I never want to release something unless I believe it is as good as I can make it. Last One Chosen went through several important phases. As I wrote it, my coach read it and made suggestions about how I could improve the story. After it was finished, I went through the editing process of cleaning it up. Then, when my agent reviewed it, she made a few suggestions. When I decided to publish it myself, Caleb and his wife Linda edited it again and helped me refine it even more. Caleb is a fine editor and a person whose judgment I trust.

I used a cover artist that Caleb has worked with for years.

Do you publish outside of Amazon and what are your thoughts on the Amazon Select program?

Originally, I published through a distributor who put my titles up in all major etailers. However, over time, I decided that Amazon is where the action is in the ebook business, and I decided to go all in with KDP Select. This cut out one middle man and gave me a sense of greater control over my books. I find that the “borrows” I receive through the Select program account for more revenue than the sales I give up on the other sites by becoming exclusive to Amazon.

I am not sure how the free days will work out ultimately. I believe they are just a step along the way that may or may not last as part of the ebook business. But, I still think Amazon is the place to be. Most readers who use ereaders other than the Kindle (such as the iPad) still use the Kindle app to buy books.
If a writer can reach a sales ranking where Amazon’s algorithms kick in for him, he can sell a lot of books while Amazon drives his marketing.

The one thing I think I can say for sure about the current ebook climate is that the best thing for a writer is to have multiple titles available. And he needs to keep writing and keep building his inventory of books. If one title gets hot, his other titles will reap the benefit. I think the toughest situation is the one where a writer has only one book. This limits his opportunities to find a broader readership.

A journey that started a long time ago has led you to these characters and this book. You're already a finalist. Tell me what it would mean to have your book named as the Kindle Book Review's Best Indie Thriller 2012?

It would be an absolute hoot. I think it would lend a level of credibility to my writing, something like a seal of approval. As far as its impact on my writing career, I am uncertain. I certainly don’t believe that it would catapult my book to the top of the rankings, but it sure wouldn’t hurt.

The way I see Kindle Book Review’s Best Indie Books of 2012 Awards, they are a way to showcase the talent of indie writers and to give readers a chance to find some good books by authors that aren’t household names, yet. This is good for indie writers, but more than that it is good for readers. They get inexpensive, well-written books and for the most part access to the authors themselves. It’s a great deal all the way around.

Finally, I want to thank Jeff Bennington for having the vision to put these awards together. He is a real pioneer in the world of digital publishing and a great friend to indie writers.

Thank you so much, for this interview.

JP: My pleasure Stephen, it has been so interesting talking to each of you.

Last One Chosen on Amazon US

Last One Chosen on Amazon UK