Author Spotlight August 2022
Bio
Hi! I’m Sybrina.
I have been writing since I was a little girl. My Dad was my main influence. He
could tell a story like nobody’s business. He would hold an entire room
enthralled, wildly recounting his youthful adventures. I could never tell
stories like that, but I found that I could write them down pretty well. A
little aside about my dad that you might find interesting...he thought he made
up my name, Sybrina, and he was proud of it. Once I made the mistake of asking
him if I could have a nickname because Sybrina (Si [rhymes with Hi]-Bree-Nuh)
is awkward name to pronounce. No one ever got it right. Well, that was the
angriest He ever was at me. His answer was unequivocally “NO!” He said, “I gave
you that name for a reason. Someday the world is going to know who you are, and
you need a name they will remember.” I scoffed at such a notion at the time but
maybe that little lecture is what has motivated me to keep writing and sharing
my stories. The hardest thing about being a writer these days is realizing that
you must also be your own publisher and publicist. The truth is that over one
thousand new books are released for sale in this country alone every single
day. So, the hard work begins after the book has been made available to the
public. It is then, you realize you must set your feet on the long hard path of
marketing because, with so many other books calling for people’s attention,
it’s up to you to ensure they know yours is out there and that is it something
they’ll be happy to read. I like to refer to myself as an authorpreneur because
part of my marketing process involves online bookstores related to themes in my
books. Two of my online bookstores include the Girls Love Bows Gift Shop and
The Rabbit and The Fox Book
Store.https://sybrina.com/girls-love-bows-gift-shop-glbgs-1/andhttps://sybrina.com/the-rabbit-and-the-fox-book-store/These
stores bring exposure to my own books and since I believe in authors helping
other authors, I’m happy to promote other “learn to tie” book authors there as well.
They “Learn to Tie” series of books started off with “Learn to Tie with The
Rabbit and The Fox.” It is currently available in English, Spanish and Tagalog
at all online bookstores. “Nellie Knows How to Knot a Neck Scarf” and “Ned
Knows How to Knot a Necktie “finish out the “Learn to Tie a Tie” books. “Cleo
Can Tie a Bow “and “Boo’s Shoes–Learn to Tie Shoelaces “round out the series.
Boo’s Shoes, starts out with a young bunny who doesn’t want to learn to tie his
shoelaces. He has lots of shoes and none of them need to be tied so he doesn’t
think he needs to know how to do it. But his friend, Farah Fox, shows him that it
is a skill he can use for many things.
Interview
1)
What or who inspired you to be a writer? That
would be my dad – God rest his soul. His love of telling stories is what
interested me in writing things down for the enjoyment of others.
2)
Do you do your own illustrations? Oh,
no…I do Autocad drafting for a living and am very good at that but I cannot
create beautiful artwork. For that, I must hire people and I have been
very fortunate to find some amazing illustrators for my books.
3)
What is your typical process to write a book,
please share it with us? I am what they call a “plotter”. I go to great
extremes preparing to write my books. I use everything from outlines, to
summaries, to index cards and spreadsheets to keep track of everything from the
progress of the storyline to the personality traits of the characters.
4)
Do you have any advice for new authors? If
you have a story in you, then you must let it out. But know this…the
competition to get eyes on your book is astronomical. Begin with getting
attention from your immediate sphere of influence and keep trying for the
concentric outer circles from there. It is not easy but if you are a writer and
you really want to find some success in your genre, you will do whatever it
takes to let people know your book exists.
5)
With your unique name, do people sometimes mess
up when they address you? LOL No one pronounces it correctly. That
would be Sy (long I sound) bri (bree) na (nuh). Everyone automatically assumes
my name should be Sabrina. That’s the popular name that everyone
knows. I’d prefer to hear it the way my parent’s intended but I don’t
fret over it. It makes me happy when anyone is interested enough to call
out to me.
6)
Where do you get you story ideas? I
mainly write for children. My writing path has gone off on 2
directions. The first path took me on a journey with a tribe of
anthropomorphic metal horn unicorns. I still write variations of them
today. My next book to feature them will be called “All the Metals in The
Alphabet – The Periodic Table Elements Presented by The Metal Horn Unicorns”.
I’m just waiting on the illustrations to be completed. I love the idea of
animals (especially fantasy creatures with human characteristics). That
love was derived from books like Water ship Down by Richard Adams and Piers
Anthony’s unicorn books from way back in the late 70’s. Around the same time
period, I also discovered a need to learn to tie a necktie. I got the
idea to create a picture book showing youngsters how to do it through mnemonics
(the act of learning through a poem or song). That book evolved into several
“Learn to Tie with The Rabbit and The Fox Books”. My most recent is Boo’s Shoes
– Learn to Tie Shoelaces.”
7)
Like your dad, do you consider yourself not only
a writer but a storyteller? I have found that
you must be a storyteller when marketing and promoting books. People are
interested in the back story of the main story, so to speak. I have found
many ways to make it more interesting every time I speak or write about my journey.
8)
Where did you work or do you still work, or do
you consider yourself a full time a writer? Thank God I still
work in the Engineering world! It helps pay for everything involved in
the self-published writing process. Unfortunately, a writer is the one
cog in the wheel who doesn’t get paid up front for their efforts. I have found
that the self-publishing industry is a big money maker for everyone but the
author. The author must pay everyone involved in getting the book to the
public - up front. That includes but is not limited to the illustrator (for
picture book pages or any other type of book cover), the editors (yes, that is
plural on purpose), sometimes the beta readers, the book formatters (for epub
or anything else you can’t figure out how to do yourself), and for all of the
promoting and marketing (of which there is a never-ending supply of vendors
contacting your email inbox). To answer your question, no, I’m not a full-time
writer but even though I have a full-time job elsewhere, I’m still a full time
marketer for the books I currently have.
9)
How do you market your books, and do you find
this process hard to do? Marketing is a very hard process. Sure, you
can post to all of your social media (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter,
Pinterest) on a regular basis for free but to achieve more, you must be willing
to spend money. I schedule several months of daily posts to all of my social
media through a service called Postfity. That is very time consuming and you
must pay for the scheduling service. I have a daily blog at Sybrina.com
to which I also auto-schedule blog posts. To offset the cost of running the
blog, I offer a Fiverr service to promote other author’s children’s books on my
blog. My blog is hosted by Wordpress. I use it because it is very user friendly
but once again, you must pay to use it. One of the main things I use my blog
for is to set up book stores featuring books by other authors who have books in
the same category as mine. I have a unicorn book store with over 1000
books. I have a learn to tie book store with tons of books, games and
toys for learning to tie. Since, I am an Amazon Affiliate, I find items that I
feel are appropriate for my needs and link to them from my blog stores. I
also have a bi-weekly newsletter on which I post about unicorn books by other
authors. I also have a membership with StoryOrigin to find other fantasy
authors to share newsletter posts about. Both are fairly costly services. And
where would you be without graphics? They are what draw people eye to posts. I
have yearly memberships with Placeit.net and Bookbrush.com for that. I can
literally go on and on about this but I think you get the gist. Time consuming
and expensive are the key take aways from this. But you can do little things to
help make up for the costs, such as my Fiverr Gig and the lesson plans I offer
on TeachersPayTeachers.com.
10) Do
you have any wise advise to the community, or young children? Being
the creator of something that others love is the best feeling in the world. I
recommend everyone follow their dream. But don’t get too down, if you come to
the realization that you will still need a day job to keep the lights on. You
can still do what you love on the side. Never give up.
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