The Lexical Funk!

The following is a short interview with Libby Heily.

Libby is the author of an excellent book entitled "Tough Girl"

You can read my review of that book here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/522834706

What does being an indie author mean to you?

Hmmm. Let's see. It means doing a lot of work and research and learning about book promotion and finding your audience. It also means putting out work that you're proud of and not compromising.

Being indie, I can explore and experiment and I have no one to answer to other than my readers. Right now, I'm taking a chance by publishing my first ever serial, "Our Beloved Dictator." It's a darkly comedic somewhat satirical story that will take place over the course of 26 weeks. Each episode is roughly 1000 words. The story follows George, a hapless twenty-something, as he encounters a dictatorship in a small town in VA but it also branches off into the lives of the people living in the town. I think of it as story set up like a flak cloud. I don't think I could do publish my own serial on my website if I were with a big publishing house.

What’s your favorite sentence or paragraph from one of your books? What does it mean to you?

I'm not sure about favorite, but the first sentence that came to mind is from Tough Girl. Tough Girl is the name of Reggie's imaginary friend who is a sci-fi hero and comes from an extremely rough background. When anther character references her he says, "Tough Girl. It's not a name, it's a warning."

The reason I like that sentence is because it's actually about Reggie. When it's said about TG, the warning part is meant to say that she's such a badass, you better watch your back. When it's the tagline of the novel, it means that Reggie is in trouble and people need to look out for her.

What advice would you give other indie authors starting out?

Write as much as you can and put your work out for critique. Learn to write and write well. Read a ton. Start googling book promotion now, because it takes a long time to learn.

What are your writing quirks and habits?

I keep tons of notebooks. Every project has it's notebook and I take notes, sketch out scenes and plan the plot. I am addicted to notebooks.

What's children's cartoon best represents your personality?

I get told all the time that I'm either Peppermint Patty from the Peanuts (I'm a tomboy) or Daria from Daria–I'm sarcastic and generally underwhelmed.

How do you see the indie scene in 50 years time?

I think it depends on the tech. My guess, we'll see a rise of small pockets of readers that are incredibly devoted to certain authors. It might be possible to have several hundred incredibly loyal fans with only a handful of writers really being well known.

Thank you Libby for letting me interview you.