We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful H. L. Walsh. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with H. L. below.

Hi H. L., thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?

I would say one of the biggest challenges for a new author would be not only getting your name out there but convincing the customer to buy your book/story over the 200 others out there in the same genre. You need to find that thing which sets you apart or convinces them they will enjoy your story. I think reviews and word of mouth are a huge boon to the business since people are much more likely to buy a book after it is recommended by a friend than if I were to talk about my book to them. Many readers are unwilling to pick up a book from an author they don’t know unless something convinces them. And many times, that is someone who has previously enjoyed the story.

I remember one of my friends telling me they had recommended my book to a coworker. While they talked, that person looked up my first book on amazon. They were surprised at how many positive reviews I had gotten for a new author. It had been less than a year since my first book released and I had yet to recieve my award, or hit the amazon best seller list. Because of the endorsement of my friend and the positive reviews they found, they purchased my book. To further prove my point about reviews. At events I’ve noticed many people after looking at my books on the table, pull up amazon and other book sights to read reviews before deciding whether to purchase.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m a self-published author with two award-winning novels and a third on the way. I started writing stories when I was in highschool and always dreamed of being a published author. I decided going into college that would never happen since I’m dyslexic and I didn’t believe I could write well enough for that to happen. Of course, my parents believed in me and believed I could write well if I wanted to, but hey their parents. What good parent doesn’t believe in their child? One of my professors in college told me that I was a gifted writer and helped me work through my short comings with my dyslexia.

After college, I had the idea from my first book sitting through a sermon one Sunday morning. I had thought it was be a stand-alone book but I quickly realize it was too large of a story to be a single book. So naturally, I worked it into a trilogy. Four years after that fateful day in church, I published “From Men and Angels: The Deliverance Trilogy: Book One”. It has been a wild ride since then. A little over a year after it was published, it hit the Amazon Best Sellers list in Christian Fantasy. Shortly after that, it received the Firebird Award from Speakup Talk Radio. The same month, Book One received its award, “To Ash and Dust: The Deliverance Trilogy: Book Two” released, and a year later it had received the same award. Book Three is well on its way to being finished, but my writing process has slowed since the birth of my daughter.

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

There are quite a few recourse I’ve found along the way. ProWritingAid has got to be a huge one. If you are a writer or aspiring writer and you haven’t heard of them, please go check them out. ProWritingAid is an application much like Grammarly but much more powerful. It also endeavors to teach you along the way so that you become a better writer over all. It gives you metrics on how you pacing is throughout your book and you can pick different categories and genres of writing and it will give you metrics pertaining to that specific genre so you know how you stack up. You can also pick your favorite author and it will run your writing against theirs and show you the differences.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I love talking with people who have read my books. It is so much fun to “fan out” with fans of my series. To hear their favorite scenes and characters and to give more insight into those scenes that can’t be conveyed within the book itself. One goal in my carrier as an author is to talk with a fan about my book as a fan with them having no knowledge that I’m the author. That to me would be so much fun to have a pure fan to fan conversation about the book or series. I don’t think I would even tell them after our conversation that I am the author.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.hlwalshbooks.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hlwalshauthor
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HLWalshbooks
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/HLWalshAuthor
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCidRGKQzrUdTlIFY-_mQGuA