Anna J Walner On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Successful Author or Writer
One of the first keys to becoming successful is to define what success means to you. Is it touching someone in a profound way with your words and craft, or is it sales? Could it be a specific award, or maybe even making a prestigious list? Defining what success means to you as an Author is tough, a delicate blend of reaching for the stars and staying realistic. Start small and keep reaching further next time. Keeping things in perspective is essential. For me, it’s seeing how passionate people are when reviewing and talking about the things I work so hard to create.
Some writers and authors have a knack for using language that can really move people. Some writers and authors have been able to influence millions with their words alone. What does it take to become an effective and successful author or writer?
In this interview series, called “5 Things You Need To Be A Successful Author or Writer” we are talking to successful authors and writers who can share lessons from their experiences.
As part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Anna J Walner. Anna is an International Bestseller, a Barnes and Noble Bestseller, and an Amazon.com Bestseller. She is also a multi-award-winning author, a public speaker, Publisher, and Executive Producer of The Author Library Network. She has been featured in File 770, The Nerd Daily, NBC Radio, 104.1 KRBE Radio, and on the cover of Books and Buzz Magazine.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
I have always had a love of literature. When other children were getting bedtime stories, my father would read poetry from Keats, Byron, Coleridge, and others. I began reading voraciously at a young age and have always dreamt of writing myself. After years of self-doubt, I finished my first book, then published it. I was hooked on writing after that.
Can you share the most interesting story that occurred to you in the course of your career?
There are so many to choose from! I think one of the best is becoming an International Bestseller by accident. I ran a promotion, not realizing that I’d become a bestseller on Amazon in India with Garkain, the first book in The Uluru Legacy Series. One of my friends sent me a screenshot of it, I had no idea. I’d never thought to check!
What was the biggest challenge you faced in your journey to becoming a writer? How did you overcome it? Can you share a story about that that other aspiring writers can learn from?
The fear of putting something out there you’ve worked so hard on. Negative reviews are going to come, and it’s scary to have someone dislike something you’ve worked hard on. That self-doubt is powerful, but I finally pushed the button and uploaded the first manuscript. There’s always the ‘what-if’ that will nag at me if I don’t just try it, so I did, and I can’t go back now. The stories won’t let me!
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I had to learn the hard way about formatting. The first book I ever published was originally published with no header or footer, oops! It took less than an hour to realize and fix the mistake, but lesson learned! You’ll make tons of mistakes in the beginning, it’s how you overcome them and avoid them in the future that matters.
In your opinion, were you a “natural born writer” or did you develop that aptitude later on? Can you explain what you mean?
I would say that having a genuine love of the written word and wanting to create my own stories so early on, would suggest a natural ability, an inherent aptitude for it. It’s absolutely something that can be practiced and learned. Even with a natural aptitude for writing, you can always improve, always learn, and always adjust your technique, style and flow. It’s really a constant process of improving.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
I’m currently writing under another pen name, Vanessa Morris. It’s a dark romance that centers around a topic that I always try to incorporate in those books, which is the need to understand and de-stigmatize mental health. Through Vanessa Morris’s books, I try to bring to light some of the more uncomfortable human truths that people don’t always want to examine. It’s exciting to be able to write for both adult and young adult audiences.
Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your experience, what are the “5 Things You Need To Be A Successful Author or Writer”? Please share a story or example for each.
One of the first keys to becoming successful is to define what success means to you. Is it touching someone in a profound way with your words and craft, or is it sales? Could it be a specific award, or maybe even making a prestigious list? Defining what success means to you as an Author is tough, a delicate blend of reaching for the stars and staying realistic. Start small and keep reaching further next time. Keeping things in perspective is essential. For me, it’s seeing how passionate people are when reviewing and talking about the things I work so hard to create.
Understand that not everyone will love your work. As tough as it is to admit, I have to understand that my books won’t be loved by every reader. I’m insanely blessed to have so many people who love my writing, and it’s tough when someone doesn’t click with a book. With that said, taste in books is subjective, just like taste in music, clothing, and food. Spicy food may not appeal to everyone, but it does to me. Books are a lot like that. Embrace the good feedback and learn what you can improve on from the negative ones. Look at them as a cheat sheet on what to work on in the future. Positivity goes along way when dealing with negativity.
Take your time! It’s not a race to publish twenty books in a year, burnout is a real thing. All Authors work at different paces, use different techniques when writing. Some are plotters, some are pantsers. Whatever the case may be, the process is entirely your own, and that means stepping away at times and coming back to the idea, working on something else for a bit, taking a drive to clear your head. It’s not a race to the finish, take your time and follow the story.
Compete with yourself and no one else. Of course, it’s easy to say “I wish I was an NYT Bestseller like . . .” And you may be, someday. Measuring your abilities next to someone else’s is rarely beneficial. Focus on how far you’ve come as an Author, challenge yourself to go further and reach higher with every new work and over time it will pay off. Try new ways of writing, new ways of marketing, and new ways of thinking.
Don’t give up! I’ve recently seen many Authors unpublish or completely give up on their dreams. As people return to work the market for books has diminished. Not seeing the sales they once did, they give up on writing. Writing for sales alone, or writing to market, isn’t always fulfilling. Writing for the love of storytelling and sharing your work with the world is the best reason to keep writing one more sentence, one more paragraph, one more chapter, and eventually, one more book. Your voice and your story matters, it counts, it impacts, and it leaves a mark. Keep writing!
What is the one habit you believe contributed the most to you becoming a great writer? (i.e. perseverance, discipline, play, craft study). Can you share a story or example?
Learning to take my time has been a tough one for me to accept. I get frustrated when the story doesn’t materialize for me. Saltwater and Driftwood was the toughest one for me. A historical novel is not without challenges, and the writing was slower for me because of the research required. In the end it was absolutely worth it, and once I finished the book, I knew all the arduous hours were one hundred percent worth it!
Which literature do you draw inspiration from? Why?
I typically don’t read while I work on my own stories. That’s not to say I haven’t been inspired by other Authors, on the contrary, I am constantly surprised and inspired by Independent Authors the most. But my first inspiration, my first loves, would have to be the classics. Proust, Balzac, Nobokov, and of course the great poets I read when I was young. The first initial sparks of creativity that eventually bloomed into the fire inside now.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
The Nyphetamine Girls is one of those books that brings to light topics we don’t often talk about but should. Topics that are triggering and uncomfortable, and yet they happen far too often. Domestic Abuse Awareness is another huge topic that I’m working up the courage to explore in a Vanessa Morris work. Having been through that experience myself, I’d love to spread the hope that you can get out, you can overcome, you can heal. There’s hope, there’s help. That’s the message I would love to spread.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
I’m very active on all social media, Instagram and TikTok especially. All of my works are published widely and available through my website as well. www.AnnaJWalner.com
Thank you so much for this. This was very inspiring!
