Today we’d like to introduce you to Ruth Anna Evans
Ruth Anna, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’ve written my whole life in one capacity. I remember my first story in first grade about a little girl who rescued a baby bird that had fallen out of his nest. But as an adult, I struggled to generate fiction. When the pandemic hit, I was so stressed and bored I needed a positive outlet, and I wrote my first book. It felt so good. And in discovering horror as a writer, I discovered a well of ideas that will never run dry. There is so much horror in our world. So many varieties of horror. My writing is about personal horrors, traumas, sorrows. Writing them is an outlet that helps me cope. As for art, it’s a passion. I’ve always wanted to be an artist, but didn’t have any skill or talent at drawing or painting or whatnot. But I was driven to create book covers for the books that I was writing. I realized how much fun it was, and then started making covers and posting them. I was overjoyed when people started buying them, and I haven’t looked back. Now I have a side business making book covers, and I am so happy about that. How many people get to say their passion and their art help sustain their family? I am so lucky.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Getting books to sell is really hard. I am on my ninth book release right now, and this is the first one that has “taken off” in a way that means lots of people I don’t know are reading it. That’s a lot of books that I released that didn’t make much of an impact. But each book has done a little better than the book before, and I’ve learned to be patient and not take it personally if something doesn’t do that well. I always encourage other writers to keep going even if it looks like you’re not being successful. Do it for the joy of it, promote your work with persistence and passion, study your craft and improve your work, and you will see results. You may not top the charts with every book, but you will get readers, and those readers will give you the feedback you need to keep going.
Art has been a smoother road, because making art is easier than writing for me. It’s like play, whereas writing is true work. For my cover design business, I work huge numbers of hours even outside of my regular job, but even when I’m tired, I never feel sick of it. And when people get book covers they love, or are inspired to write something solely from a cover I made, or publish their first novel and I made the cover, it is just so gratifying. I also have the joy of studying and improving constantly. Getting better at art is one of life’s truest joys, I think. I can’t wait to see where I am a year from now.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I write short horror–short story collections and novellas. I have a couple of spooky novellas, a body horror collection, a medical horror collection, and a medical horror novella. I also make professional book covers, mainly for horror authors but also for fantasy and poetry. I am most proud of how consistently I have grown as a writer and a designer. I aim to always be learning and improving; every day trying something new to make my books and my art better. Something that sets me apart from some is that I am not afraid to really promote myself. I am proud of what I do–truly proud–and I don’t mind sharing that with the world. I’m excited! I can’t believe I get to be an author and an artist and people like what I do. I hope I always feel that excitement. I can’t worry that people will get tired of me or that someone is sick of my promotion. To be successful, you have to market. So market I will.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I am not a huge risk-taker. I love security and stability. I don’t venture a lot of money on my projects: I barter for editing, keep my ad buys small, make my own covers, don’t do a lot of merch. I do reinvest my profits somewhat, but mostly I try to sock it away. Only the necessities: my art programs and stock photos, books for events, that kind of thing.
But when it comes to putting myself out there, I guess I don’t see that as a risk, because if I fail, what have I lost? A little ego, perhaps? I don’t have a huge ego, really. There are so many authors who are better writers than I am, so many artists who are more skilled than I am, so many marketers that are more savvy than I am. I’m just going to do my best and be happy when something goes well and try something else when it doesn’t.
Pricing:
- Custom book covers $200
- Premade book covers $70
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ruthannaevans.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Ruth-Anna-Evans-100081911623327/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ruthannaevans
