Author Sylvia Hubbard

Author Sylvia Hubbard

Sylvia Hubbard, whom I met through Fabulosity Reads, has written this week’s guest post, Someone is Telling me a Story.  She has also agreed to an interview:

Hi Sylvia, please tell us about yourself.

I am first and foremost a person deeply and devoted to words – a writer and a reader, always wanting more. Words are my drugs. Words are my life. Words are my Everything. Being a mother, a woman and a human being becomes secondary in my life.

How did you get started writing?

When I was six years old. I used to lie to my mother a lot and after she would give me punishment I would have to write my lies down. My pain became my pleasure. My lies looked so good on paper and I could make them longer and longer. The only bad thing is that I can’t lie verbally anymore, so I have very little friends.

What genres do you write in and why?

I started writing first historical romance because that is the genre I started reading in. I was a little paranormal fan, but I didn’t want to make up new worlds. Although I love history, I found that I couldn’t find my voice because it was a lot of research and I didn’t want to keep facts so straight and accurate. By the age of seventeen I realized I wanted to be a contemporary suspense romance novelist and the first book I ever finished was Stone’s Revenge, my psychological thriller, which actually became my 2nd independent work I published.

How many books have you written? Do you have a favorite?

I have over thirty published works since 2000 and to ask me which is my favorite is to ask me which is my favorite child. My books are so hard to choose from and I actually try to re-read them every once in a while not just to pass the time or look for new characters to bring into other stories, but just because they are that enjoyable. I write because I can’t find what I want to read and I still have that challenge as a reader. I love really all my books. Now my favorite character, and most challenging one, would be Lethal Heart. I’ve woven him throughout a lot of my books. He’s dangerous, sexy and crazy. Just the way I love my men.

Tell us about your current series/WIP.

My current book series is His Substitute Wife (two books as eBooks but one whole paperback book). Bringing Charisse to life with her problems and past was difficult and hard. I could feel her inner emotional pain. Dealing with her family, especially her sisters, the frustration grew to a tipping where she had nothing to live for. Parker Mills was a man who knew he wasn’t perfect, but he craved a family. Doomed to be in a loveless marriage he tries to make the most of his situation by allowing his wife to convince him to let Charisse have his baby. Getting Charisse pregnant with Parker’s baby was the easy part. Filled with drama, suspense and romance, The His Substitute Wife… My Sister Series has given me a great joy to bring to my readers.

What inspired your latest book?

Studying other phobias, I found Charisse condition and wondered if I could actually write a romance with a woman who hates to be touched? It was a challenge and I’m proud of the story.

What is your next project and when will it be released?

Betrayed is my current Work In Progress. Cons, Revenge, Deceit and Love can’t mix, but I’m going to try.

Where do you get the ideas for your stories?

Life, living and observing the world around me. My mind is an open syringe looking for the unique, strange and ominous.

What is your favorite part of writing?

The initial process itself. When an idea hits and you must go to write it down. Once I start I can’t stop. It’s addictive. I sleep with my kindle with a keyboard right by me or under my pillow in case I wake up in the middle of the night and get the urge.

What is your least favorite part of writing?

The marketing of my work, but I’m glad I earned a degree at it, so it comes a little bit easy to me.

What is your typical day like?

I get the kids off to school, answer emails/fanmails, chk my socials and then I try to write the majority part of the day while catching up on all entertainment on Netflix’s and playing my music loud to inspire me more. By the afternoon, I work on marketing and promoting. I network offline in the evening or take a class I found on meetup and then I’m back home. I blog, update my website, fix any issues and then I write more by the end of the night before I go to sleep.

How does your family feel about your writing career?

A lot of them just thought it was a hobby ten years ago, but at least now they call it my gig. I guess it might take ten more years to see that I’m “really serious” about it and call it my career.

How much time do you spend promoting your books? I try to spend at least four hours a day marketing, two hours blogging and one hour working on websites I manage in order to make my books sells work for me. I look at promoting like a real business. If I opened a store, I’d dedicate at least twelve to sixteen hours a day to my business. I do that for my writing career tirelessly promoting and tirelessly writing more for the upcoming year.

What works best for you? Blogging on my website always has worked best for me or being on other bloggers. I’m an avid tweeter and FB’er, but I use those as breadcrumbs to get more people to the website.

How has your experience with self-publishing been?

Awesome. Since I’m a control freak I love it.

What advice do you have for other authors wanting to self-publish?

Research and learn what you have to do before you do it.

What was the deciding factor in self-publishing your books? Did you decide on ebook or print only or both?

Before printing a book, I usually wait until the ebook has sold at least five thousand downloads. Initially I printed books first (back in 2000) but when that expense was way too costly for a single mom with three mouths to feed, I feel into ebooks by accident and once I knew I could profit from them, I have never looked back.

About Sylvia Hubbard

His Substitute Wife by Sylvia Hubbard

Sylvia Hubbard has written over thirty books todate.

She can be found on her website at https://sylviahubbard.com, FB: https://facebook.com/SylviaHubbard & Twittter: https://twitter.com/sylviahubbard1.

Her current book series is His Substitute Wife, available on Amazon and Smashwords.

You can also read Sylvia Hubbard’s guest post, “Someone is telling me a story” here.