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

Hi Laura, thanks for joining us today. How do you feel about asking friends and family to support your business? What’s appropriate, what’s not? Where do you draw the line?

This is a very hot button topic with myself and my friends. I’m a writer, I have a couple of friends who write, and then I have others who are artists and sell their art. Asking friends and family for help in general is never easy. Asking them to support you in an endeavor that you’re hopeful of, but that may not be successful makes it infinitely harder.

In my personal instance, I actually find it hard to ask for support, to the point that I struggle to let people support me. My husband has had to remind me more than once to let people buy my book instead of giving it to friends and family. For the most part, I want people to enjoy my stories, and I forget that there’s a business aspect to it.

So, I’ve come up with a compromise. I do let family and friends support me and buy my books, but I ask more for their support not financially, but in spreading the word of my book. I have social media accounts under my author name that I manage, as well as an author website that I ask them to simply share, or go and like posts to help get traction to them. Word of mouth is one of the best ways that an independent author can get notice, and without the help of family and friends, you will never get it.

Asking for reviews is another way that I ask for support. I have given away several copies of my book, and have asked for honest reviews of it. The problem with this is that your friends and family don’t always want to give you the honest truth, thinking that they’re going to hurt your feelings. However, you need to have them give the honest truth in order to know how your book is going to be received. If they give white lies to save your feelings, they’re actually putting you in a worse spot than if they told the truth to begin with.

I have chosen non-financial support and assistance from friends and family because I have always been a self-starter. I have never wanted to ask for help, and have struggled to do so in the past. My family raised me on self-sufficiency, and it has stuck with me. I believe that by striking out on my own this way, if I do fail (and I hope that I don’t), only I will see the troubles that that will bring. I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with asking family and friends for financial support, especially if it’s just to buy your book, I just struggle asking personally.

Laura, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Laura Henning, and I am a romantasy and historical fiction author. I currently have one book published, “The Queen’s Lady,” which is a romantasy, and I have a couple of books in the works, including an historical fiction book set in Ancient Egypt, an historical fiction vampire romance, and a secret project that will be shelved under fantasy/romantasy once it is complete.

I have always written, ever since I was in elementary school. In one of my classes, we wrote our own books based on something that happened in our lives. From that moment, I was hooked. I never thought becoming a published author was really possible, and always questioned whether or not my writing was good enough to be read. However, I self-published my first book, and I’m going to keep publishing, either by seeking traditional publishing, or self-publishing.

I am a mother of two little girls. I’m married to my college sweetheart. I have 3 cats who think they own me. I have two BAs, one in History, and one in Organizational Leadership with a minor in Anthropology, and my MA in History. I currently am based in Indiana, but am in the process of moving back to Northwest Ohio, where I’m originally from. I’m in the process of learning multiple languages on the Duolingo platform (Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Scottish Gaelic, Irish Gaelic, Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish- I love learning new languages), and I love to travel.

I have had several friends and family who are instrumental in my becoming an author, including those who have edited/proofread my work, and those who helped push me to keep writing by helping me realize that my stories are good enough to tell, and are enjoyable to read.

As a new author, I’m excited to start doing author signings, and bringing out more books. I would love to be able to expand my social media as well as my author website. My oldest daughter (9 years old), keeps asking me to write a book for her, so, I might attempt to branch into young adult at some point as well.

My biggest thing I would like to share with aspiring artists and writers is that your dreams ARE worth pursuing. And, as a first-time published author who is 38 years old, it is never to late to follow those dreams. If you’re interested in learning more about me, you can find me on Instagram at LauraHenningAuthor, on Goodreads, on Amazon, and my book is for sale at all major ebook retailers currently.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being creative for me is being able to inspire those around me. As I mentioned, I love to travel, and I draw inspiration from the places that I travel (I have included images from The Bahamas when we’ve cruised, Mexico, and the Smoky Mountains), as well as the history of the places that I’ve traveled and learned about through my history and anthropology studies.

Through this inspiration, I try to blend words into images, and really paint pictures for my readers of what my characters are seeing and living through. In doing so, I’m able to inspire my reader to look into more history, or do research on the places I’m talking about so that they can step out of their comfort zone and experience something new.

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

When I completed my novel, I sent it off to literary agents. I used a website that lists pretty much every legit agent in the business, and I sent my pitch out to probably 200 agents. I only had ONE come back, and ask for the whole novel. She had some suggestions from the start, which I went ahead and took care of, but in the end, it didn’t work out for her to pick me up. This was pretty heartbreaking. This is the first novel that I’ve ever finished, and not one agent picked me up for it.

I have a friend who wrote and published a novel a couple of years ago. I reached out to her to find out how she published her novel. She used a self-publishing company that allowed her to not only publish her novel, but to distribute it to all of the major ebook retailers (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Smashwords, multiple library platforms, etc.), AND to publish it as a print on demand book.

So, I made the decision to power on. If I could get my story out there, in front of readers, I knew that readers would enjoy it. And so far, my decision has come to fruition. I’ve gotten several impartial parties to read my book and say that they loved it. It really just comes down to putting your self out there, being willing to experience no after no, until you are able to do what you set out to do. Take a chance, and make the decision to jump. That’s what I’ve done, and since finishing that book, I’m halfway through another, and have a couple other ideas started.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://laurahenning.my.canva.site/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurahenningauthor
• Other: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/53100593.Laura_Henning?from_search=true&from_srp=true

  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DDJJ8DBT/ref=x_gr_bb_kindle?caller=Goodreads&tag=x_gr_bb_kindle-20