We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dl Hammons. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with DL below.

DL, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to start by getting your thoughts on what you are seeing as some the biggest trends emerging in your industry.

When I began my writing journey 15+ years ago, I had every intention of becoming a traditionally published author. That meant securing a literary agent and submitting my manuscript to possible publishers. I landed the agent (twice – as a matter of fact), but we could never stir enough interest from publishers to bring the books to market. Back then, self-publishing wasn’t a viable option as the practice had a bad reputation and wasn’t well respected. After finally publishing two of my books through a small independent publisher that had very little money to devote to marketing efforts, I took a step back and revisited my choices. I realized that over time, the concept of Indie Authors and self-publishing had gradually gained more and more acceptance. Scores of authors were choosing to bypass the whole gatekeeping regime ingrained in the traditional publishing industry to retain creative control and, at the same time, reap the rewards. Self-publishing had grown to such a point that it seemed like an option worth pursuing. So that’s what I did, and it has been a revelation.

Today, the market for indie books is growing exponentially for various reasons, and the great thing is that it’s happened organically. Passionate readers know how to find quality literature even without the marketing machine traditional publishers employ. I’m happy to be part of that movement.

DL, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

The first piece of fiction I ever wrote was in tenth grade… and it was to impress a girl. I wrote a script for a 15-minute audiotape in the style of old radio shows (i.e., Little Orphan Annie, Dick Tracy), for which my group received an A+, and I was praised for the originality of the story. The girl was only semi-impressed, but I was hooked. I later joined the school newspaper and made a name for myself, writing sports articles and feature pieces.

Unfortunately, the seed planted in high school would lay dormant for decades while I faced the realities of adult life: college exams, school loans, early morning alarms and late-night dinners, business trips, heart-stopping love, dirty diapers, mortgages, coaching clinics, scholarship applications, and everything else that tends to induce follicle disembarkation and enlarged prostates. It wasn’t until my children had flown the coop that “the itch” returned, and I had the time to give it the attention it deserved.

With time and the opportunity to explore my interests, I wrote my first short story in 30+ years. I had such a great time writing it that I began contemplating turning it into a full-length book. Me…write a book? That was crazy…wasn’t it? How do you even go about doing that, I thought? How many words would that be? How many words per chapter…and how many chapters in a typical book? Could I even develop a plot to envelop my short story and hold a reader’s interest for the entire novel? I decided to find out.

My first intelligent move in my writing journey was embracing the blogosphere. It was chock full of writers at all levels of literary achievement, and each one was more than willing to pass along what they had learned along the way. I read and absorbed the knowledge of aspiring and successful writers. I learned the ropes…so to speak. I also expanded his presence in the sphere, becoming a semi-popular blogger in my own right. I came up with such inventive blogging scenarios as WRiTE CLUB, the BLOG BLITZ, the Déjà vu Blogfest, Blogging Buddies Around the Globe, the Significant Other Blogfest, and the Origins Blogfest, just to mention a few. I intended to give back to the writing community that had given me so much, which I did in spades.

My first two mystery/suspense novels (KNIGHT RISE & FALLEN KNIGHT) were published in 2021 by a small independent publisher (since defunct). The first two books of my self-published YA mystery/thriller series (PRICK & JERK) have only been out for less than a year.

I reside in Central Arkansas with my wife Kim, where I have spent the last fifteen years perfecting my voice. I split my writing time between YA and adult Mystery/Suspense.

Even though I now self-publish my novels, I’m still represented by Tina P. Schwartz of the Purcell Agency.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

My recently released YA mystery/thriller, PRICK, was first written in 2015. It is with that book that I signed with a literary agent. The following year, we went on submission to numerous publishers, and it garnered a lot of attention. However, despite serious interest, even to the point that a sequel (JERK) was written in anticipation of signing a contract, nothing ever came of it. I endured the ups and downs that so many other authors go through as they wait to see if their creations will spark someone’s interest. Unfortunately, I finally had to shelve the books and move on to other writing projects.

Even though I was focusing my attention on other manuscripts, PRICK was always in my mind. I felt strongly about the story, the characters, and the probable market appeal. Six years later, when I had no other ideas to explore, my thoughts returned to PRICK. I still felt confident in its appeal, even to the point that I began to consider self-publishing, as daunting as that seemed. After consulting a couple of industry professionals whose opinions I trusted, I made the decision to become an Independent Author. It is a decision that I will always be thankful for.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

My social media presence is a two-headed story. Let me explain.

When I first began my writing journey fifteen years ago, I started writing a blog. A character in the book I was writing was a blogger, so I felt it would be good research/experience if I wrote one myself. It was slow going for the first six months, but then I fell into a community of fellow writers. That’s when things exploded. I used the blog to document my writing journey while creating posts that would be entertaining for the community. One of the things I came up with was a contest called WRITE CLUB. Through that contest, writers would anonymously submit a 500-word story, and blog readers would vote for their favorite. The contest was a HUGE success, running for nine years straight. I garnered thousands of followers and over a million page views through the blog.

The downside of running a popular blog was that it took a lot of time and energy, which was detracting from my writing. So, in the end, I had to let the blog fade into the background.

When I made the decision to self-publish, I knew I needed to re-establish a media presence to help with book sales. I created an author page on Facebook and beefed up my presence on Instagram, but the game changer happened when I joined TikTok.

To say that I was apprehensive about joining a “young persons” app (I was 66 when I joined) would be a massive understatement. I am an extremely shy introvert, so the thought of stepping in front of the camera and being relatable was overwhelming. However, all my research pointed to the fact that for an Indie Author to be successful, he/she needs to engage with that community. I bit the bullet and dove in head-first.

I discovered that TikTok (or, more specifically, BookTok) is a misunderstood medium. Despite my age, I was welcomed with open arms and, through a bit of trial and error, quickly found my footing. In less than a year, I have created a sizeable following and leveraged the app to talk about my books and drive book sales. My media presence is still in its infancy, but I have a positive feeling about the direction it is heading.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://dlhammons.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dl_1956/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DLHammonsauthor
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dl-hammons-abb33015/
• Other: TikTok – dl_books4us