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

Kevin J., looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

I have written numerous books, and I hope that people will keep reading my stories and adventuring with my characters, but even more so I have helped, taught, and mentored an entire generation of new writers, and my legacy continues in THEIR stories as well.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am an internationally bestselling writer, a Colorado-based publisher, a grad-level college professor (in Publishing) for Western Colorado University, and I run the popular Superstars Writing Seminars in Colorado Springs. I moved to Colorado 25 years ago with my wife, so we could become full-time writers, and since then we have become fully invested in the community and the inspiration the state offers. I write while on the trail, and I have dictated many novels while climbing all the 14ers and completing the entire Colorado Trail. I launched my own WordFire Press publishing house in 2009, and we have since published over 400 titles by more than 100 authors. My own books and books from our publishing house have won the Colorado Book Award. I write comics, I have written the lyrics for two rock CDs, I have edited dozens of anthologies, and I have worked in TV and film

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I made my career in traditional publishing, becoming a bestselling author with countless novels written in Star Wars, X-Files, Star Trek, Dune, and my own award-winning novels. I worked with all the major New York publishing houses, Bantam, St. Martins, Warner, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster. But starting around 2008, the entire industry went into complete upheaval, with ebooks appearing and mostly destroying the paperback-book market; Borders bookstore chain going bankrupt (and taking half of the bookstores in the country away), and more than a dozen large publishers consolidating down to only four. This was a seismic event for writers–everything I thought was stable in my career vanished almost overnight. So I scrambled for a Plan B. I kept writing for the big publishers, but the opportunities dwindled dramatically. I formed my own publishing house, WordFire Press, and began to release my own backlist, which then expanded into the backlist of other authors, and then original books. We learned how to do the publishing industry ourselves and have grown into a substantial new-model publisher. My desire to mentor other writers and indie publishers led to our formation of the legendary Superstars Writing Seminars, now in our 13th year, held annually in the Antlers Hotel in Colorado Springs. And from there, I also got hired to create, and become director of, the Publishing MA graduate program at Western Colorado University, where I have now taught full cohorts of grad students for four years now. There’s always a Plan B.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

For almost two decades as a writer in traditional publishing, I learned the “old” way of doing things, relying on someone else (the publishing company) to do all the marketing, editing, proofreading, and design. When I became an indie publisher, suddenly I was the captain of the ship, and I was in charge of knowing how to do all those things myself. It was a crash course in all aspects of publishing, and I had to get good in every area. Exhilarating but exhausting.

Contact Info:

• Website: wordfire.com
• Instagram: @TheRealKJA
• Facebook: Official Kevin J. Anderson Page
• Twitter: @TheKJA
• Other: also, wordfirepress.com