We were lucky to catch up with Rachel Carrera recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Rachel thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Any thoughts about whether to ask friends and family to support your business. What’s okay in your view?

I’ve never been comfortable doing the “Hey, look at me!” thing to get attention. In fact, the mere thought of even going to an auction where I might have to verbally compete for an item rather than silently raising a paddle makes my skin crawl. I don’t appreciate anyone giving me a “hard sell approach,” and I assume they wouldn’t appreciate the same from me. Needless to say, this has made it difficult and uncomfortable to get on my various social medium platforms and proclaim to the world that they ought to read my books and even pay money to do so.

As such, when I made the decision to start indie publishing my novels, I included a “nod” to various loved ones by naming characters after them. I felt that this way, I could tell them about “their” character and hope that this piqued their interest enough to want to check it out. Imagine my surprise when, at my last family reunion, the hosts set up a table for me and made it possible for every one of my wonderful cousins to purchase each of my novels and ask questions about the stories they contained! I think the lesson to be learned here is if you include others in your journey, they’ll automatically take more of an interest in the outcome.

Rachel, 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?

As an avid reader, I’ve written short stories most of my life, But it wasn’t until mid-2013 when I dreamed my first full-length manuscript three nights in a row. Each night, I dreamed more and more details of the same plot. When I woke after the first night, I thought, Wow, what a cool movie, but then I realized it wasn’t a movie I’d ever seen. After the second dream, I was impressed by the magnitude of details that returned. Following the third dream, I knew Divine Intervention was tapping me on the shoulder, urging me to write a full-length novel.

Initially, I wanted to seek traditional publishing. But the manuscripts I kept turning out were darker than what I wanted to share with the world, so I kept resisting doing anything with them. A few years later, I was diagnosed with Lupus SLE, and the world locked down with Covid-19. Something in me realized how fleeting life can be, and in looking over all the full-length manuscripts I’d written, There was no contest. I knew the one about the Holocaust was important.

When writing historical fiction, I like to have as much accuracy as possible surrounding the fictional protagonist and her inner circle of friends, family, and co-workers. This includes weather conditions, cost of living, slang and cultural vernacular, available technology, music and entertainment, hairstyles and fashion, current events that would affect the public’s day-to-day life, Jewish holidays, pop-culture, first names and surnames (both for the time period and for the country of origin), popular foods and beverages, and how World War II and the Vietnam War affected daily life. However, when writing about the Holocaust, it’s even more important to do reliable research and include only hard facts rather than hearsay or speculation.

The publishing industry has changed a lot over the past decade, and I happened to know numerous other indie authors who were very successful in their journey, so I jumped into the indie pool, feet first, and have never looked back. I hope this will inspire other insecure authors to take the plunge and let their stories get the attention they deserve.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I believe those who are creative will know what I mean when I say when you’re creative, you mind never stops creating. Therefore, you have all this pent-up creative energy that has to be released in the form of creating something. When I write, it’s so rewarding to see my characters come to life as they show me their personalities. I also love when a bit of times has passed since I looked at something I wrote earlier in my journey and then read it and it makes me cry or laugh or feel something along with the protagonist. But I believe the most rewarding aspect of being a writer is when a stranger reads my novels and then gets on Facebook to recommend them to a friend and they mention how much my stories have moved them. Knowing my words helped make someone else feel good makes my heart smile.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

When I’m not writing, I do a lot of cake decorating, soap making, and also home renovations. For a DIYer like myself, YouTube is a valuable tool for providing instruction. Therefore, YouTube was my first stop on my road to creating my social media platforms. In my case, I searched something like “best way to create a writer’s Facebook page”, etc., and watched what other authors have done and what worked and didn’t work for them. Once you get your platforms going, follow people with similar interests as yourself, and you’ll see from comments to their posts what kind of folks follow them. Those are the kind of people you might like to have following you as well.

Also, remember when you’re building your brand, you’re representing a business, even if the business is you. I’ve seen other businesses get slammed because they post inappropriate comments or photos or try to be funny at the expense of someone else. I think being professional is important if you want to keep growing your audience.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://rachelcarrera.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/novelistrachel/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rachel.carrera.novelist
• Twitter: https://x.com/NovelistRachel