WHEN DID YOU FIRST KNOW YOU WANTED TO BE A WRITER AND WHY?
I inherited my Alaska historian aunt’s body of work after she died in 1993. When I saw the award-winning stories she wrote for national magazines and newspapers, I knew I had to share her stories and my own research about Alaska.
My career prior to that had been in management, and I knew I needed literary tools to create my dream – books about Alaska’s history that people age 9 to 99 would not want to put down. I returned to college and earned a degree in journalism, with a minor in history, from the University of Alaska Anchorage in 2003.
AS A CHILD, WHAT DID YOU ASPIRE TO BE WHEN YOU GREW UP?
The autobiography I wrote when I was 9 said I wanted to be a secretary to a millionaire. Back in those days (the 1950s) that was a lofty goal!
Once I grew up, I wanted to be of service to rural areas of Alaska so I became involved with a small telephone cooperative. I was instrumental in getting phone service into several remote communities of the state from 1980 until 1997. That’s when I moved from the tiny community of King Salmon (a village of 350 people located in southwest Alaska) to Anchorage (Alaska’s largest city).
After I found aunt Phyllis Downing Carlson’s stories, research and notes about Alaska history, I found my true passion was writing about Alaska’s past.
HOW DID YOU GET THE IDEA FOR YOUR AWARD WINNING TITLE?
I found my late aunt’s body of work in filing containers, cardboard boxes and manila envelopes at my sister’s house. After sorting through all the articles and research, I stored everything in an old trunk that had been in our family for years. It became known as “Aunt Phil’s Trunk.” That seemed like an appropriate name for the Alaska history series.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LINE FROM YOUR AWARD WINNING BOOK AND WHY?
One that comes to mind is from the fifth book, which features stories from 1960 to 1984. During this time the Native people and federal government settled the question of who owned what land in order to build an 800-mile oil pipeline from Alaska’s North Slope to the ocean port of Valdez.
Congress created 12 regional Native corporations and gave them 44 million acres of land and almost $1 billion. Alaska’s indigenous people became shareholders of those corporations and were told to go into business to earn money to support themselves.
“It’s like you and I never saw a baseball game in our lives,” Alaska Native leader John Hope later said. “We’d never seen mitts or bats or baseballs. All of a sudden you were told, ‘Here’s your mitts. Here’s your bats. Here’s your balls. Tomorrow you play the Yankees.’”
ARE THERE ANY CHARACTERS FROM YOUR BOOKS YOU BELIEVE ARE MOST LIKE YOU?
I relate to many of the women who came north during the great Klondike Gold Rush era of the late 1890s. They had tenacity, determination and grit in a man’s world. When an obstacle blocked their path, most considered it only as a challenge they had to overcome to move on.
WHAT MESSAGE DO YOU HOPE READERS WILL GLEAN FROM YOUR AWARD WINNING BOOK?
I want people to realize that history can be lots of fun to read. That’s why I wrote my series in short-story format and chose hundreds of historical photographs from museums, libraries and universities to accompany the stories.
TELL US SOMETHING INTERESTING ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE AS A WRITER:
Time stops. Once I organize my research and notes and sit down to craft a story, I honestly lose track of time. Hours pass and I think it’s only been a few minutes. Drives my husband crazy!
WHICH AUTHOR HAS MOST GREATLY INFLUENCED YOUR WRITING STYLE?
My late aunt, Phyllis Downing Carlson. She wrote many of her stories about Alaska during her career as a schoolteacher in rural Alaska. I have tried to emulate her style so readers won’t be jarred with a different style of writing in the Aunt Phil’s Trunk series.
WHAT BOOK HAS HAD THE GREATEST IMPACT ON YOUR LIFE?
Erma Bombeck’s Four of a Kind. Reading it made me realize that one can find laughter in most situations in life. And laughter can usually make one feel better about most things.
WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR GREATEST LITERARY ACCOMPLISHMENT?
Winning the 2016 Children’s Literary Classics awards for Best Historical Nonfiction and Best Nonfiction Series, of course!
I also earned sixth place in the nation in a William Randolph Hearst competition in 2003 for a story titled “Life or Meth” that appeared in the Anchorage Chronicle newspaper.
Two other accomplishments come to mind, as well. The University of Alaska Anchorage chose my story titled “The Last Dance,” about the unexpected deaths of my parents four months apart, for inclusion in its prestigious literary book Inklings in 2001. And the Alaska Professional Communicators awarded me first place in its 2004 contest for a four-part series I wrote for the Chronicle about prescription drug abuse in Alaska.
DO YOU HAVE ANY WRITING RITUALS?
No. Unless one counts what I do when I have a problem sorting information in order to start writing a story. I take a hot shower. There’s something about steaming hot water that clears my head and allows my mind to put all my thoughts in the proper order. Then I go into my “Aunt Phil” room, sit down in my La-Z-Boy recliner and dive into writing for hours on end.
HOW DID YOU FIND AN AGENT / GET PUBLISHED?
Initially I thought I only had one book. I found a print-on-demand press in 2005, sent my money and manuscript and received a proof just before Christmas that year. I took the proof to all the bookstores and gift shops in Anchorage.
Almost every store preordered six to 12 books. And each shop owner told me the $35 price tag for the 344-page book would be a hindrance to sales.
The commercial interest in my book led me to become my own publisher and spend some of my retirement funds on a large print run of Aunt Phil’s Trunk Volume One. In the spring of 2006, I ordered 2,000 copies. That amount lowered the per-book cost and allowed me to set a retail price of $19.95 per book.
Those 2,000 copies sold within the first four months – mostly due to word-of-mouth marketing. To date, Volume One has sold more than 20,000 copies. Now, with five volumes completing the Aunt Phil’s Trunk series, “the rest is history!”
WHAT DID YOU DO TO CELEBRATE THE COMPLETION/PUBLISH DATE/OR OTHER OF YOUR AWARD WINNING BOOK?
I made my husband his favorite meal – spaghetti. He has been my rock and has stood by me through good times and bad for 44 years. I then told him to get a tee time, because now I have time to join him in his favorite sport: golf.
CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE PROCESS OF BECOMING PUBLISHED AND ANY TIPS YOU MIGHT OFFER FOR OTHER ASPIRING AUTHORS?
I often have aspiring authors ask me for tips for publishing their work, and I have helped a few authors to become published. One of the first questions authors must ask themselves is whether they will be happy selling a few books or if they want to sell thousands.
If the goal is just to get published, then I usually suggest they start off with publishing through CreateSpace.com or a similar print-on-demand company. There is no heavy investment nor a huge inventory by going this route – and it gives authors a chance to test the literary waters to see if their books have a market.
If the goal is to become a best-selling author (or close), then I tell them that they have a lot of work ahead of them. Writing the book is about 10 percent of the work involved. The other 90 percent is marketing. Writers usually don’t want to be in the limelight, they prefer staying behind the scenes writing. But in order to become successful, they must get comfortable speaking about their books and push their products.
CAN YOU OFFER ANY ADVICE FOR WRITERS ON HOW BEST TO PROMOTE THEIR BOOK?
One can have the best book on the market, but if no one knows about it, you won’t have sales. I have found this to be the toughest part of becoming a writer.
Direct sales are the most profitable. I rent space at an outdoor market during the summers in Anchorage and sit in a tent on Saturdays and Sundays from mid-May to late August. I then have a tent at the Alaska State Fair where I spend 12 days selling my books. I do about a dozen holiday shows all around Alaska, too.
I also started a Facebook page, LaurelBillAuthor. I do not post “buy my book now” posts. Instead, I try to be helpful with Alaska history. Every morning I share an old photo from Alaska’s past with a short, entertaining paragraph explaining it. I respond to every comment made on my page. My page likes have grown from a few hundred to about 14,000 during the past three years. Sales from people who are engaged on that page are slow but steady.
I also made friends with a local reporter a few years ago, and offered up a few historical tidbits to be used when Anchorage celebrated its 100th birthday last year. She knew she could trust me and asked me to be part of one of her TV specials. I showed up in 1890s costume and caught the attention of a couple of producers.
Now I have a weekly segment on Monday mornings titled “Alaska Story Time with Aunt Phil.” That 3-minute CBS show is broadcast across most of Alaska between 6:30-7 a.m. and again (usually) on the 6 p.m. news slot. I then post the link to that show once a week on my Facebook author page. I’m seeing increased sales from that exposure.
I also offer to speak or do book signings at any venue or show I hear about – the more you are seen, the more chance you have to sell your book(s).
IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D LIKE TO SHARE WITH OUR READERS?
I’ve heard that everyone has a book inside, but most people have no clue how to go about starting the process of getting it out. My advice is to start writing one word, one sentence, one experience at a time. Keep at it. Those first drafts don’t have to be perfect. Just get the thought down on paper. Before you know it, you will have a lot of words, sentences and experiences to organize, edit and publish.
DO YOU HAVE ANY NEW BOOKS IN THE WORKS?
Since the fifth, and final, book in my Aunt Phil’s Trunk series just came out a few months ago, I am not working on another project … yet.
I have all of my Aunt Phil’s diaries. I think she wrote every day of her life from the time she started putting pen to paper. I have resisted opening these small books, as I did not want to get off track from sharing Alaska’s colorful past. Perhaps next year I will start reading, digesting and then writing “the rest of the Aunt Phil story.”
I do not know if, or when, the Aunt Phil Story will be completed. But if your readers want to keep track of Aunt Phil, they can go to my Website (http://www.AuntPhilsTrunk.com) and sign up for my biweekly newsletter to stay in touch.
LITERARY CLASSICS Book Awards & Reviews International Book Awards • Top Honors Youth Book Awards • Seal of Approval http://www.clcawards.org
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