*This is a guest post written by Sara Hantz, author of the new novel There’s Something About Nik, which is on sale today. If you would like to do a guest post for To Borrow or Buy, please email me at toborroworbuy@gmail.com*
Thank you for inviting me on To Borrow Or Buy to talk about my experience as an author. It’s been a long road which started about 14 years ago when I decided to write my first book. I’d always read a lot but up until that moment hadn’t thought about writing. I had no idea that normal people like me could actually write and sell books.
When I first started I wrote chick lit, and then quickly moved to writing young adult novels. The first book I sold, in 2007, was a book called The Second Virginity of Suzy Green, and I was very excited because it made the prestigious “New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age,” list. I still have a soft spot for that book today, even though I’ve published several since then.
I often get asked by aspiring authors if I have any tips for them. I have several:
- Join a writers’ group. I learned so much after joining the Romance Writers of America, which has a young adult chapter, and Romance Writers of New Zealand. Not only did I learn all about craft and storytelling, I also met so many awesome people and some have become my closest friends.
- If you want to write, don’t put it off. Just get your butt in the chair and start. There’s no time like the present!
- Find yourself some critique partners. People who you can trust with your work and who will help you make it better. It’s a two-way street. You send them your work to read and they send you theirs. I’m part of a small group, there are 3 of us, and we’ve been together for 12 years. We trust each other implicitly. And none of us will send out our work without passing it by the other two first. Our writing, has evolved over the years, and now we all write different things – well, all romance, but one of the group writes hot romance, I mainly write YA, and the other partner writes sweet romance, YA and middle grade.
Before I go, I’d like to talk about my future projects. I’m working on several things at the moment. In particular, I’m very excited about a young adult book I’m working on, that’s in its early planning stage, which is about a teenage girl and set during World War 2, in London.
To learn more about Sara you can read her bio and find her social media and website info below!
Bio: Sara Hantz has been a prolific reader all her life, but it wasn’t until she was an adult that she got the writing bug. She writes contemporary adult and young adult fiction and her debut book The Second Virginity of Suzy Green made the prestigious list ‘New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age’. Sara lectured for many years before deciding to devote more time to her writing and working in the family hospitality business. She has two grown-up children and when not writing, working, or online with her friends, she spends more time than most people she knows watching TV – in fact if TV watching was an Olympic sport she’d win gold.
Zakiya N. Jamal 