Amazon Author Interview

Steve Fitzsimmons, author of

‘Here and There, This and That’, a short story collection

 

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Congratulations on the publication of your book, Steve!

How does it feel to see your book on the Amazon bookstore?

Brilliant! I hope everyone gets as much pleasure out of reading it as I did writing it.

 

  

 

Can you tell us about your book and why you decided to write it?

It’s a non-themed short story collection that spans drama, crime, humour, horror, history, the near-future and surrealism. I wrote the book because it was in me and had to come out – to paraphrase John Lee Hooker!

 

 

 

Have you always been a writer/wanted to become an author?

Well, I’ve always been an avid reader, which helps. I remember winning a school magazine short story competition when I was 13 and still have the prize (it was a book). I wrote my next story 32 years later in a faraway place when I had nothing else to do and haven’t stopped since.

 

 

 

 

 

What made you take that leap and publish your book?

I’d had inclusions in several short story anthologies, but getting my own mixed genre collection published by the conventional route was never going to happen. I received one encouraging rejection from an agent suggesting a common theme was more likely to be considered and the rest of my twenty-or-so submissions weren’t answered.

I think there’s a partial vacuum in the market for books with bite-sized stories that can be read on train, plane and ferry trips. My book might help fill it.

 

 

 

Do you have any more books in the pipeline?

I have enough stories to fill another short story collection, a mass of ideas in the bank and I’m 30,000 words into a novel.

 

 

 

What advice would you offer other aspiring authors who are thinking of self-publishing? 

Go for it! There must be thousands of authors out there with something to say but can’t get past the ‘traditional’ publishing filter. A good editor is essential for revision, preparation and marketing and I thoroughly recommend Michelle.

 

 

 

Thanks so much, Steve.

And congratulations again on your fantastic book. 

 

 

 

Find out more about ‘Here and There, This and That’ here >>> https://amzn.to/3V3BIrj