The life of an author?
Anywho, let's switch gears. I'm super psyched for today's interview and I hope you're all as eager for this as I am. Today, I present to all of you impressionable future author types, book-o-philes, and blog creepers, Nevin Martell, author of Freak Show Without a Tent: Swimming with Piranhas, Getting Stoned in Fiji and Other Family Vacations.
-Hi Nevin! So happy to have you with us today. What can you tell our readers about you and the kinds of books that you write?
NEVIN: I'm a Washington,
DC-based food, travel and lifestyle writer. I regularly contribute to the Washington
Post, Wine Enthusiast, the Travel Channel, NPR, and many others publications.
I've written five books, including The Founding FarmersCookbook: 100 Recipes for True Food & Drink and the small press smash Lookingfor Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and HisRevolutionary Comic Strip
-Any new works soon to hit shelves?
NEVIN: On June 24th, I'm
publishing my travelogue-memoir FreakShow Without a Tent: Swimming with Piranhas, Getting Stoned in Fiji and OtherFamily Vacations. It's a hilarious misadventure about my family's trips to
the South Pacific, South America and other exotic locales.
-At what point in your life did you realize, “Whoa, I’m an author?”
NEVIN: The day I quit my
secure job with benefits at a television production company in the middle of
the Great Recession. I had decided that I needed to write full-time again after
spending a decade away from being a full-time writer. During the intervening
years, I had done writing work on the side and published two books, but I
didn't solely devote myself to the craft. When I decided that I had to write,
it wasn't a decision that only affected me. If I failed, it would have
profoundly negative implications for my wife and the family we hoped to build
together. Needing to provide for us and wanting to make her proud was an
amazing inspiration that really helped me on the tough days – and there were a
lot of those in the beginning. Sometimes I'd find myself on the back porch
watching the grass grow - while no one returned my emails and there were no
assignments in the queue - thinking to myself, 'Did I make a monstrous
mistake?' However, I persevered and just kept pitching until I started building
up a client base, a portfolio and a reputation. Since reaching the tipping
point, I haven't looked back - but I also haven't stopped pitching or pushing
myself. Above my desk, I have a line that I scrawled on one of the tough days
that I never let myself forget - "Hunger makes you stronger."
-Our readers are mostly new authors, still learning to navigate and be seen in the publishing universe. What advice can you give to readers of this blog who are having trouble standing out in a crowded industry?
NEVIN: Just don't give up.
You will be rejected more than you will be accepted. Some of the worst
rejections will be the silent ones when you send a carefully crafted pitch and
just never hear back no matter how many times you follow up. If you do get an
actual rejection, use it as an opening to find out what the publication might
want from you or where they have holes that need filling. Once you do get an
assignment, do the best job you can, be professional and leave your precious
emotions out of your correspondences with them. You are selling yourself as a
colleague as much as you're selling a story. Don't ever forget that even though
you may never meet your editor face to face or even talk to them on the
phone.
-I often hear how important it is for authors
to have a strong "platform." Is it really essential to have a million
Twitter followers or can you still make it as an author without fully investing
in social media?
NEVIN: Social media can be a
cheap, fast way to get the word out on your projects. However, if you're going
to do it, you have to be fully invested in it. Get on a couple of platforms,
give your audience rich, rewarding content, and really devote yourself to
building up your followers. Don't do lots of platforms just to say you're on
them, while not doing anything to be engaged and engaging. I've picked Twitter and Facebook as my platforms of choice, so I make
sure to post good content on each of them at least once a day, while also
engaging with content from other users.
-What are you reading right now?
NEVIN: The Lost City of Z by David Grann. It traces the intriguing life
of Col. Percy Harrison Fawcett as he searches for a South American Shangri-La
and the author's own explorations for the long-missing explorer and the
legendary city he died trying to find.
-What kind of readers are most likely to be
drawn to your work?
NEVIN: I hope that fans of
David Sedaris, J. Maarten Troost, P.J. O'Rourke will enjoy "Freak Show
Without a Tent." Also, anyone who watches National Lampoon's
"Vacation" films on repeat like I do.
-Anything else that you’d like our readers to
know about you and or your books?
-Teaser for Freak Show Without a Tent: Swimming with Piranhas, Getting Stoned in Fiji and Other Family Vacations:
Fishing
for piranhas in the Amazon, getting stoned at Fijian kava ceremonies, and
witnessing the ancient ritual of land diving on Pentecost Island is the stuff
of National Geographic cover stories and Nevin Martell’s
childhood vacations. His family’s globetrotting took them from the South
Pacific to South America and many points nowhere in-between. Though their
lifestyle choices were eccentric, the locations they visited exotic, and the
people they met extraordinary, these escapades are firmly grounded in the
trials, tribulations, and tribal rivalries that plague all families. Freak
Show Without a Tent is a grandly hilarious memoir-misadventure that is
equal parts National Lampoon's Vacation, Romancing the Stone and Crocodile
Dundee. To paraphrase a family motto: buy the ticket, take the ride, and
hope you survive, so that you can tell your therapist all about it.
-Where can we buy your books?
NEVIN: All of my books are
available on Amazon. You can pre-order "Freak Show Without a Tent:
Swimming with Piranhas, Getting Stoned in Fiji and Other Family
Vacations" now.
Believe it or not, Nevin, I spent a year of my life living on a tiny island in the middle of the pacific. Majuro, Marshall Islands. Maybe you can spot me in this selfie that the island took of herself:
Aside from the amoeba and the fact that I am now terrified of pigeons and Spam, it was one of the best experiences of my life. I can't wait to read Freak Show Without a Tent: Swimming with Piranhas, Getting Stoned in Fiji and Other Family Vacations.
Well, thanks for joining us today, Nevin, and good luck!
Get out there and pre-order this one, everyone! And keep checking back for more awesomeness...
@RimerTom and @BookTalkGuy
No comments:
Post a Comment