We were lucky to catch up with Cris Burl recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Cris thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?

As an independent published author, the biggest challenge so far is getting my work to grow with popularity. The world of writing is a large one and I, along with many other independent authors, tend to get lost in the growing business. I find that I personally tend to be more popular and sell more books by attending signings and author conventions, however the costs to travel and attend these shows can be a loss compared to the amount of books being sold. I am currently only found on Amazon as an online presence, however I am planning to start promoting my work on all book seller websites soon with hope to gain a higher following in the book world

Cris, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have always been a writer. As a young teen, I would write short stories as an outlet. I never knew that being an author was in the cards for me because at that time, publishers were the only way to get your work seen. Even as independent publishing began to grow in popularity, I never felt that I was good enough of a writer to join the club. It was after the birth of my second son, I was diagnosed with post partem depression. My therapist offered the suggestion to write in a journal to help combat the mental demons that afflicted my yearning for happiness. In a moment of weakness, I showed my husband my journal with the hope that he could understand what was going on in my head. He read it and thought that I was so inspiring, funny, and that I needed to get my journal out in the hands of other mothers suffering with depression. That is how Musings of a Deranged Mom became born. It snowballed from there and I discovered that I could publish all my stories, not just my journals. Now I am a multi-genre author with no plans of slowing down. I also decided to start writing horror under a different pen name, Evilyn Reigns.

The best part of my writing, in my opinion, is my ability to take nearly every negative situation and turn it into comedy. I have had readers laughing at the lowest point in my life and they can relate and learn to laugh at themselves. I always found it was better to laugh at myself, move on rather than cry and mope. Comedy can be healing and cathartic.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

I nearly gave up writing completely but not for the reason most people think. I have personal horses on my property and I even wrote a series, Hill Country Desires (a cowboy romance series) that featured some of my favorite horse pets that I have had over the years. The summer that I was working on this project, I lost a close friend and one of my favorite horses. The sadness overwhelmed me and my depression began to close in on me, taking over my mind and I could not get out of that funk to finish my writing. I thought about giving up. Then another close friend told me to put it in my book. I didn’t realize how healing it was to write out the events that led to my morose feelings at the time. This helped me move on and heal from a double broken heart. When the memories begin to overwhelm me once again, I will write it into the story. I do write a lot of comedy but I also will compose trauma in my books. Nobody’s life is perfect. Something bad will always happen to everyone, but how you move on from trauma will be the deciding factor on how you spend the rest of your life. My characters reflect this strength and they rise out of the ashes to become the people they were meant to be.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I wish I knew how small the writing world could be. When I first started, I felt alone in a big sea of authors, another fish to be ignored by fishermen. I always felt that bigger was always better and I thought that I would always be thrown back or ignored for the bigger name, the bigger author. Over the last four years that I have been writing and publishing, I have gained an author friend group that is amazing. We support each other, help each other when needed, even bounce ideas off one another. The once big ocean of authors is now a small pool and I feel so much better about myself and my writing, thanks to the friendships that I have made and the connections that we provided one another over the years. Being an author isn’t as lonely as I thought it was going to be and if I would have known how much of a close knit community the independent author world was, I would have opened myself up a lot sooner. I sometimes kick myself for thinking that I wasn’t deserving of having a piece of this community. Having author friends can be the biggest and the best resources in the business.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.crisburl.com
• Instagram: cris_burl_author
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100033385383148
• Other: Tiktok Cris Burl Author @musingsofaderangedmom

Image Credits
Dark Water Covers for creating the covers of my books