Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Evie Black. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Evie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s talk about social media – do you manage your own or do you have someone or a company that handles it for you? Why did you make the choice you did?

I manage my own social media accounts. Part of the reason is that I don’t have the revenue to hire someone to do it for me. The other part is that I’m a bit of a control freak. Even though its stressful and takes time away from my writing, I would rather do it myself so I know exactly what is being put out. I want to make sure it accurately represents myself and my brand.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I didn’t grow up dreaming to be an author. It was just something that happened. I served almost ten years in the Army, and had planned on serving the full twenty. Unfortunately I was medically discharged after I was unable to sufficiently recover after a surgery. During my initial recovery period I had an idea for a book. I worked on it during my free time, but after I was released from the Army my husband encouraged me to publish.

I have built my platform on not only my books, but inclusivity, positivity, and quirky humor. Being an author, especially an Indie Author can be isolating and stressful. I wanted to make my platform a safe space where people know they’re not alone, where they can feel seen, and supported.

I write Paranormal Romance, but I am going to be branching out into other genres eventually. I currently have two books published with a third set to release in July. It is a series of stand-alones. While there is an over-arching storyline each book can be read separately from each other and still have a complete story (meet cute to happily ever after). There are new main characters in each book. I want each book to give you a better understanding of the world I am building, giving you different perspectives as we progress through the series.

One myth people have is think that self-published books means that the book will be sub-par, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Indie authors put months/years into their books to make it the best it can be, the only difference is we don’t have a publishing house fronting the cost to publish. We pay for everything ourselves, but that doesn’t make it less than. Some of my favorite books were self published.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Just be yourself. People respond well to honesty and transparency. I’ve built my platform on my books, positivity, inclusivity, and quirky humor. People respond because they can go “ha ha same”.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

The misconception that it’s “easy”. For those who have never written a book, or even tried, they think you just sit down and write and you can have a 100k book done in a few weeks. It doesn’t work like that.

And even when you get the first draft done, there is so much work that goes into drafts 1- 100. The process is long and grueling. It takes so much time.

You also need to market yourself and your books, which takes time and creativity. A lot of the time, you have to choose between using your time/creativity for your books or your marketing. There will always be something that suffers when you are focused on something else.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.evieblackbooks.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/evieblackbooks/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EvieBlackBooks
• Linkedin: N/A
• Twitter: N/A
• Youtube: N/A
• Yelp: N/A
• Soundcloud: N/A