Author Interview – Roger Gerald Scott
Here's an interview with myself that appeared recently on dhlbookreviews
Roger was born in 1964 in Surrey, England. After his education at Oundle School and Oxford, he embarked on careers in Music Publishing, Songwriting and Software Engineering before becoming a successful piano entertainer. He eventually settled in Norway where he now resides. After only six months, he has already received numerous awards for his short stories, most recently :”Clean Slate’s Most Promising Breakthrough Short Story 2013″ for “Social Media Anxiety Disorder and the Strange Case of Will Newman”.
Now, on to the interview:
Debra: Roger, why did you start writing?
Roger: I felt the time was right with the advent of eBook publishing. Not having to hawk around my work to book publishers was another major turning point; now the consumer gets to decide.
Debra: I couldn’t agree more, I got published the traditional way for my first book and it was brutal and took forever. I will be jumping on the eBook train going forward as well. It seems more readers are turning to Kindle and other such reader applications than they are picking up paper books these days! Let’s give them what they want, right?
Roger: Exactly, Debra, you have to publish where your audience is and they are definitely more tech based these days.
Debra: So, on that note, tell us about your latest book?
Roger: It’s called “Social Media Anxiety Disorder and the Strange Case of Will Newman” – it’s about social media (Facebook, Twitter etc.) and it’s growing influence on our lives.
Debra: I was honored to work as your editor on this piece and wrote a review for it as well on Amazon. It was quite moving to read about poor Will Newman and such a shame that his addictive personality wasn’t really dealt with by his family because of the overshadowing issue of social media. I think that’s an important point to expand on from the “growing influence on our lives” that you mentioned.
Roger: Absolutely, Debra and that’s a big point in the story as well, but we have to move on so we don’t spoil it for the readers!
Debra: Ok, ok, it’s just such a cutting edge topic these days! So, here we go, next question is what kind of reader do you think will enjoy your short story?
Roger: Hopefully everyone but especially the younger generation who have grown up in the shadow of social media. This generation won’t remember the days before Facebook and Twitter and text messaging and so on. In the big picture, I think everyone that is on any social media of any kind will be interested in this story.
Debra: I couldn’t agree more, I mentioned the story to some friends and family actually, a very diverse group you could say and they were all interested in reading it. From blue-collar worker that has a Facebook account but rarely uses it, never heard of Twitter to some corporate types that I talk to about editing stuff and they were all excited about reading it (hey do I get a commission for all the ones I sold yesterday bragging about it to friends and colleagues?). So I think diverse audience is really the keyword for potential audience on this piece.
Next question, Roger, is this a Standalone, or will it be part of a series? If it the latter, how long do you think the series will be and the time line for releasing more?
Roger: I will wait to see how it sells and what the demand is for another similar story to decide that I think. I have some ideas but if the demand isn’t there I’ll be less likely to spend time on them of course. I have to wait to answer that question about commission too, didn’t I pay you enough already for editing services? (laughs)
Debra: Understandable but I really think you should get started on part two, I think people are really going to want more after they read this! So, what influenced or inspired you to write this story?
Roger: Well, because I don’t see any stories out there in the market that reflect the influence of social media. If there are, they tend to be medical essays or fact sheets. There are no real to life stories out there that I was able to find.
Debra: What was the hardest part for you working on this one?
Roger: Well, it’s my longest short story so far, 15 thousand words, so I guess it was making it all work together. I always find the beginning and end of the story the hardest.
Debra: It certainly came together nicely, well done! Where can we find more about you and your short stories?
Roger: Well I publish on Smashwords and amazon which means all my 5 books are available on most formats. Most importantly they are on iBooks and Amazon Kindle.
Debra: For our readers, and you Roger, just a quick note here, when I publish this on the blog site, I will list the books as links to where you can read more about them and purchase them. Don’t forget to check out Roger’s author page on Amazon when you get there too. So, any last words for the readers today Roger?
Roger: Don’t become too addicted to your Facebook or twitter status! (laughs) Thank you to everyone that takes a moment to read one my stories, your support is appreciated and thank you Debra for the interview on your site! Have a great day!
Debra: You too, Roger, thanks for joining me. Roger is in Norway and I am in the US so we had a time getting synced up with a time slot that would work for us both with the huge time difference! Glad we could get this done today Roger and best of luck to you and your great stories!
To get on the list for Author Interviews, drop a line to mrsdlhartmann@gmail.com and say hello!
Thanks for joining us today, reader and I look forward to seeing you again! DLH
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