We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ericka Evren a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Ericka, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

The biggest risk I took was summoning the courage to not only write the story I’ve wanted to tell since I was thirteen, but actually publishing it.

I spent several years writing and rewriting draft after draft, applying different knowledge as I went, trying to perfect my craft. I tried plotting and failed. Then I tried the pantsing method and found this gave me the most joy. I dug in and finally finished a draft that I felt was complete.

What I didn’t know was I had trained myself to excessively rewrite. I stopped trusting my author voice and allowed other people’s opinions to influence the story. I allowed fear to control my motives and derail the reason why I wanted to publish my story to begin with.

I spent the next two years second-guessing everything I’d written, afraid people would not enjoy my story. Finally one day, it hit me. I had to let go of the fear. I needed to move onto the next step and that was publishing.

I was petrified. Even after everything was submitted and ready to go, I still had to hit “publish.” I remember when I pressed the button. I’d stressed so much that I’d actually given myself hives.

It was the best thing I could have done. Is it perfect? No. Have I learned so much since then? Oh, yes! And even though I still doubt myself at times, there are countless readers who reach out saying how much they loved Mission of the Ro’arck and what Kaytrix means to them as a character. I’m so glad I pushed passed my fear, took the risk, and started this journey.

Ericka, 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?

I’m a born and raised Canadian who lives in the prairie province of Alberta. I have lived here all my life and I love it. I was raised on 12 acres of land with chickens, ducks, turkeys, cats, dogs, horses, bunnies… It was my paradise and I still remember it to this day with a fondness.

My dad homeschooled me and this has been the biggest blessing in my life. Not only was my creativity allowed to flourish, but it was encouraged and strengthened by my dad. I wrote my very first story at 10 years old. This is what sparked the love of story-telling.

I currently have written and published four sci-fi novels, and a short story for an anthology with 21 other authors called Honor. I sell my sci-fi stories on my website as well as on all other major platforms like Amazon.

I think what sets me apart from others is perhaps the way I write my characters, often challenging the deeper meaning of heroism and morality. As much as my story takes place in another galaxy, I write my characters to share with the reader the daily struggles that we all face, sometimes with higher stakes.

Each day I am grateful and excited to be on this journey, sharing these characters and connecting with readers on a level I may not have known if I’d given up. My community of readers are so supportive. They are one of the reasons I keep writing.

When my readers come across my books or my page, I want them to feel like they are one of the family, that they are welcome. I want them to know they are getting an authentic representation of who I am and it’s reflected in my work. Everything is grounded in honesty, authenticity, and morality. I want my readers to feel good after they’ve read my books, I want them to feel encouragement and hope.

How did you build your audience on social media?

When I first started posting on Instagram, it was in 2015. The app was still largely based on images without the ability to share stories. Connecting and finding other authors and readers was difficult. We had hashtags then, so I used them to build my community. At first I wasn’t sure what to post, but my page was about my writing so I posted images of my notebooks, computer, etc. It was pretty lame, haha. It also felt lonely, because there wasn’t anyone following me yet. I felt like I was posting to crickets.

Things didn’t get better until I started to follow people I wanted to engage with. Commenting was easy. I didn’t have to think about what to say because it was genuine. It was difficult getting people to follow me back, and for a while that mattered, until it didn’t.

Somehow ignoring those numbers led to them slowly building. Eventually I had my first 100 and I will forever remember how great that felt. I still have a “smaller” following, but I know almost every person that follows me and we have an organic connection.

My advice to people just starting out is, just show up. Post everyday. Share what you are excited about, connect with people who share common interests, and be honest. Don’t follow for follows. Comment, engage, be authentic, be positive, and as much as we may not like it, post your face. People grow a connection with you if they can see you smiling and see that sparkle in your eye.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

When I first started out self-publishing, I absolutely had no clue what I was doing, where I would go, what the plan was. All I’d done was wrote a book. Google was a plethora of confusion. I didn’t know what to do next. The turning point happened when I was reading comments on an Instagram post and someone mentioned the FB group 20Booksto50K. I was curious, and joined.

This group was for authors by authors with rich, detailed information regarding indie publishing, what was working, reliable resources, etc. It was a goldmine. Now, that’s not to say it was easy to learn. The group carried a slogan of a rising tide lifts all boats, but we still had to take initiative to learn and apply.

Next, David Gaughran’s website. Full of resources. Tammi Labrecque and her Newsletter Ninja book, so helpful. Bookfunnel is so good. Dave Chesson Kindleprenuer is another great site.

Not only were these resources helpful, but they helped narrow down reliable services for websites, website hosts, domains, email platforms, and the proper do’s and dont’s that helped new authors steer clear of the many mistakes they’d learned from.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://erickaevren.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erickaevrenauthor/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/erickaevrenauthor/
• Linkedin: https://linktr.ee/erickaevren
• Twitter: https://x.com/Ericka_E_Author
• Other: Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Ericka-Evren/author/B0B7FFBQ96
  BookBub https://www.bookbub.com/authors/ericka-evren