7 Things I've Learned Since Getting Published

author Jill Williamson

Posted by Michelle Griep for JILL WILLIAMSON

1. I need time to write a great book. 

I’m a pleaser, so when I got my first chance to sell books off a proposal, I agreed to tight deadlines, wanting to make my publisher happy. I had to write faster to meet those deadlines, and I believe the books suffered for it. I now know that it’s okay to ask for the time I need to write a book. And it’s also okay to say no to selling off proposals. Some authors thrive by selling off proposals. But I’d rather write the book first, then sell it. I need a certain amount of time to do my best work.

2. I’m not the next J.K. Rowling. 

When I started writing, I wanted so badly to be the next J.K. Rowling. But after years of rejections, then years of mid-list authoring, I’ve learned that I’m not her. (Duh.) I’ve also learned that there is already one J.K. Rowling. The world does not need two. There is also only one Jill Williamson. And I have lived a pretty cool life, thus far. If I spend all my efforts trying to be someone else, who will be me? No one. And I will be leaving a void in God’s creation. I have a purpose that only I can achieve. So I must stay true to me, my life, and the stories I have to tell. I must be the best me I can be.

3. Word-of-mouth is what sells books. 

I can pour all my effort and money into marketing and promotion, but in the end, my bestselling books are the ones people talk about. They’re the ones that “avid” readers read, “sometimes” readers read, and the “I never read” readers read. People often say that controversy sells. But that hasn’t been true for my books. I’ve learned that there is no formula to get people talking about my books except to write the very best book I can write.

4. I’ve got a slow start. 

These days, readers are easily bored. They want instant entertainment. And if you spend too much time setting up your story, you might lose readers. I’m guilty of this in my books. I’ve always liked the “zoom in” beginning, where the “camera” shows my character living his life before the inciting incident upsets everything. But I’ve learned this isn’t the best way to grip readers, especially if they decide not to hang around long enough to get to the good part or give me a second chance. So I’m working on trying new things to hook readers. It’s important to always be learning.

5. I need to get better at pitching books. 

 When people ask me about my books, I tend to stumble my way through the answer. I’m never prepared. And I always feel like I’m bragging and want to change the subject. And if they ask more questions, I end up babbling through my old story pitch that was never the greatest. This is no way to sell books! I have been working on developing a simple way to explain what I write and a short high concept statement/logline for each of my books/series. I’m an introvert and pitching doesn’t come easy, but if I’m prepared, I can do my best.

6. Don’t read reviews. 

This is different for every author, but because of my personality, reading my book reviews does one of two things. 1) I either become happy because the review was good, or I 2) become depressed because the review was negative. This is a pride issue for me. I want everyone to love me and my books. I’m happiest when I am liked by others. And I have a difficult time separating my books from who I am as a person. So a negative review feels personal, even though it isn’t. It’s better for me to focus on writing and ignore reviews. I can learn my weaknesses in other ways—from beta readers, editors, and my agent. I don’t need to walk into trouble on purpose. It’s best to steer clear.

7. Things will go wrong, but that’s okay. 

I’ve had typos in final books (some that were my fault, some that were made in typesetting). I’ve had wrong covers. I’ve had edits done on the wrong versions of my books. I’ve had spoilers posted in online store descriptions. And I’ve had books printed with the wrong stories inside. In the beginning I panicked. I felt as if these things would ruin my career. I now know better. Mistakes happen. Always. I’ve never had a book go perfectly from start to bookstore sale. Yet people keep buying my books and leaving positive reviews. Readers continue to email me kind messages. All is well, even with a mistake here and there. So when mistakes happen, I try to stay calm and remind myself that it will get fixed and forgotten.

Bonus: Here's Michelle Griep's review of Jill's latest, REBELS . . .

Ahhh. Hear that? It's a satisfied sigh. Rebels ties up all the loose ends into a tidy little bow on a gift of a story. There are a few plot twists and turns I didn't see coming, but thankfully no characters that I adored were killed in the process. If you know of a teen or young adult who loves dystopian, I recommend this trilogy.

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How I Came Up With My Story World by Jill Williamson

My son and I were walking along the streets of Burbank, California, and we saw a burned-down house. There was a tree in the yard that had partially burned. It was half charred and half leafy green. I thought it was the coolest image. So I ran home and Photoshopped it. It’s the same image that’s the header on my blog. I knew I had to write a story about a land half cursed in darkness.

While I was working to think up a plot, I started to think about this medieval land in which my story would take place. I knew one thing for certain. I wanted to draw a map first. I love when there are maps in the front of fantasy novels.

My map turned out a bit bigger than I was going for. And it looked an awful lot like Africa. So I scaled some of the shores down a bit until I was satisfied with the shape. Since I wanted half my land cursed in Darkness, I shaded the western half of the land gray. I liked the idea of some natural barriers that separated Darkness from Light, so I added some mountains. And where there were no mountains in the south, I drew in a manmade wall.

I also added dots to depict cities.

Way too may dots.

It totally overwhelmed me to think about coming up with names for all of those dots! So I erased a few. But there were still plenty that needed names.

So I stole a trick that J. K. Rowling used in her Harry Potter books. She used Latin for many of her character names and magic spells. I thought that was clever. So I looked on my bookshelf and saw a French dictionary and a Hebrew/Greek concordance. Hebrew/Greek sounded much more fantasy-like. Plus, I liked the idea of using words from the Bible.

So I used Hebrew words to name many of my cities. For example, “allown” is Hebrew for “oak” or “tree,” so Allowntown—in the very center of my map—is where my half dead-half living tree is. Mahanaim is a city from the Bible, but I used it too because it means “two camps” and Mahanaim is another city that is built over the border of Darkness. Er’Rets, the name of my medieval land, is the word used for “earth” in Genesis when it says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

I used this proves to name many cities, mountains, lakes, rivers, and characters.

The next thing I did was make a character chart for each city with blanks for Lord of the manor, his wife, their children, what idol they worshiped, what did they eat, produce, what was the weather like, what kind of climate was it, what ethnicity were the people, things like that. I used a set of encyclopedias and looked up similar places. For example, Barth Duchy is supposed to be a desert, similar to northern Africa. So I looked up some countries in northern Africa and filled in whatever I could on my city chart. I did this for every town in my land.

I didn’t want to name everything and everyone Hebrew words. I wanted some variation so that it would sound like there were different languages.

So I came up with some tricks of my own. Allowntown, for example, happens to be an orchard town. So I brainstormed a list of types of apples on the back of my city chart for Allowntown. Gala, Pippin, Cortland, Concord, Crab, Ginger, Fuji, etc. And when I needed a new character from Allowntown, I picked a name from the list and cross it off.

I gave each town a theme. Carmine is filled with vineyards, so I brainstormed a list of things having to do with wine: Rioja, Flint, Terra, Keuper, Pinot, Concord, Malbec, etc. I used Inupiat names for Berland: Koyukuk, Yumikak, Arluk. I used Gaelic names for Magos. Stars for Cherem. Hawaiian names for Nesos. It was a lot of fun.

One project in particular that took me a long time was designing a banner for each city in Er’Rets. You can see the shields here. This was very time consuming, but it instantly gave each city some more character. They now had a mascot and colors. So I knew generally what their flags, uniforms, and shields would look like. Last December I sewed several of these banners as thank you gifts for the teens who acted and produced the book trailer for To Darkness Fled.

I also sketched out castles in cities where major parts of the story took place. That helped me when I needed to describe buildings or the characters’ movements around them. I sketched some of my main characters. I wrote a history of my land with a detailed timeline of who was king when, what major events took place, wars, births, deaths, etc. I wrote family trees so that I knew who married whom. I created character charts for my top twenty main characters. And I brainstormed idols for many of the cities in Er’Rets.

I ended up with so many piles of paper that I put everything into a 3-ring binder with tabs for each city to keep myself organized. My “Er’Rets bible” has been a really helpful tool as I wrote this series.

From Darkness Won
Achan steps into his role as Crown Prince and prepares for war. But war against whom? Could Esek still be alive? Has Lord Nathak taken Esek’s place? Or is the mysterious Hadad the true enemy Achan must confront?

Vrell has her own agenda of serving Prince Oren as a healer, but when she is stormed and lost to the Veil, Achan does all he can to bring her back. His conversations with her are strange, though, as if she has no memory of who he is.

In a land consumed by Darkness, the fate of Er’Rets hangs in the balance as Achan endeavors to take the throne and end the reign of Darkness

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