Author Journey: Em Taylor

Hi Em,

To this date, you’ve published several books in a few different genres. How did you get into publishing? Was becoming an author something that you wanted to be when you were younger?

I lived books when I was younger. I was the kind of kid that was always reading. Books, newspapers, magazines, the cereal packet, the little information booklet in my mum’s tampon box, you name it. And then I went to high school. Particularly the upper end of high school and I was forced to read George Orwell and F. Scott Fitzgerald. But worse than that, sit and dissect them. I hated that. I still love the Crucible though. It put me off reading for a long time. Though I still read some things. I got into Science fiction and particularly Star Trek Voyager when I was in my 30s. I discovered fan fiction and started reading it. I started to think of all the stories and think, I could do that. Some fan fiction writers are great, some not so much but it’s a hobby and if they enjoy then all power to their elbow. So, I started writing Fan Fiction for Star Trek Voyager. I wrote for about a year under the pen name Libby Kim. Then I decided I wanted to write my own stories and characters. I found out about NaNoWriMo. The National Novel Writing Month where you challenge yourself to write 50,000 words in 30 days in November. I did the challenge and wrote a terrible novel called When in Rodomir. It was an erotic sci fi book.

At that time, (early 2012) many small publishers were doing anthologies of short stories. Pink Petal Books was putting together one called Dangerous Men, Dangerous Places. I wrote a story called Bounty about a female bounty hunter who crash lands her space shuttle on the prison planet where a lot of the criminals she has caught have been imprisoned. She meets someone who she put away but he’s not really a baddie and is very cute. You can guess the rest. I sent it off, not expecting a reply, or a “Yeah, don’t give up the day job dear,” reply. But I received an offer from them. I used the pen name Krystal Brookes and I published 3 more short stories and 4 novellas (the Kilrigh Heat Series) with them. I now have all the rights reverted to me and am in the process of re-releasing. The kids at the school where I worked eventually found out about Krystal and I was outed. I then decided to hide in plain sight and reverted to Em Taylor. I started to self-published and I moved onto Regency. I also wrote the book I had always wanted to write about alien vampires. I’m all self-published. I just got rights back from one other pen name recently (Isla Munro)

What’s next for you? Do you have a new book releasing soon? I have three books on the go. A Cowgirl’s Scottish Hideout is the third book in the Stetsons and Kilts series. It’s Charlene’s story and you’ll find out her big secret and why she nearly missed Cole’s wedding. Revealed, the second book in the Forsaken Blood Series (sequel to Discovered) is also in the works and I am actually working on it, people will be pleased to know. I appreciate it’s been a long time. I’m also writing a Billionaire story set in Edinburgh. I don’t have dates for any of these books yet. But the next few months hopefully.

You self-published your books. Was this always the plan or did you submit your work to a publisher at any time? As I said, I was published by Pink Petal when I wrote as Krystal Brookes. I also had a book published by Etopia Press when I wrote as Isla Munro. I have sent a couple of books to other publishers but, to be honest, I can’t be bothered with the wait.

If you could get your work published by a traditional publisher, would you do it or do you prefer having full control over how your books are published? If I could get in with a big publisher I’d do it. I liked not having to worry about formatting and that nonsense and finding the cash for covers. A big publisher would also have the money to help market me. But smaller publishers aren’t worth the loss of earnings.

Do you have any advice for people that would like to publish a book but aren’t sure whether to self-publish or try and achieve success with a traditional publishing house?

I think if you’re going to self-publish you have to be confident with computers. That’s probably the only difference. It’s good to have some cash behind you too because sticking out from the crowd is very hard. Whichever you choose, don’t let people doing the opposite make you feel you’ve made the wrong choice. Both are equally valid ways to get your book on the market. Just one word of caution. If someone says they want £900 to put your book on the market, run like hell.

Thank you for joining us!

Thank you for having me.

Author Biography:

Em was born and brought up in the Central Belt of Scotland and still lives there. She was told as a child she had an overactive imagination--as if that is a bad thing. She's traded her dreams of owning her own island, just like George in the Famous Five to hoping to meet her own Mr Darcy one day. But her imagination remains the same.