Meet Pamela Taylor | Novelist and Editor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Pamela Taylor and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Pamela, what is the most important factor behind your success?
Presence — in every sense of the word. Whether it’s the business of being a novelist (and yes, that’s very much a business) or my freelance editing business, you have to be seen to be discovered. And in today’s world, there are so many places that one needs to have presence: in person, online, in communities of your peers, in various media formats; in both traditional and emerging spaces; with advertising and promotions; and, of course, word of mouth.

But beyond mere presence is understanding the nuances of tone and volume that are best suited to your audience and your business goals. As a novelist, the challenge is how to be found among the millions of books available in the world. So you have to really turn up the volume — but you have to be careful of the tone. While readers may be “consumers” of your books, the best way to build loyalty is to give them more than just a book. Many readers thrive on getting to know more about the author as a person. And many like little extras, such as insight into the research that informed the stories they’re reading. Almost the opposite is true for my editing business. There’s a finite number of editing projects I can take on in any given year, so I keep the volume low. And while “getting to know me as a person” is still present in the tone, concrete evidence of my competence is an essential ingredient for someone to trust me with their treasured manuscript — so credentials and successful projects must be part of what I present to the world and referrals are often the most important method of discovery.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
After years of writing stuff in the corporate world — software documentation, technical papers, website content, marketing materials, product strategy proposals, you name it — I found myself wondering if I could actually write fiction. I had a couple of ideas for stories that might become novels, so I started playing with them. Both reached a point that I didn’t know what to do next, so they went into the proverbial desk drawer. Then, one night when I was wide awake at two in the morning and my brain just wouldn’t let me go back to sleep, that busy brain somehow came up with the first sentence of my first novel. And by the time it finally said “OK, you can go to sleep now,” I had the entire first paragraph — which hasn’t changed since that night. When that first book was “done,” it was rather rough around the edges, but my characters kept talking to me, so I kept writing — volumes 2, 3, and 4 of a series. That turned out to be a smart choice, because I was perfecting the novelist’s craft. Eventually, I tore the first book apart and put it back together, and the rest, as they say . . . Volume 8 of the Second Son Chronicles is scheduled for release on 22 December 2022.

For an author, perseverance is the key. Not everyone is going to be an immediate fan, so you have to be prepared for rejections and not take them personally. You also need to have reasonable expectations — not every book is going to become a New York Times or USA Today bestseller. But if your book is consistently near the top of its category on Amazon, you know you’re reaching the right audience and building your fan base. Same with reviews. Online reviews are your “word of mouth” recommendations and are essential to an author’s success. There’ll be some 1-star reviews — it’s as inevitable as those early rejections. But if your overall ratings continue to be high, it energizes sales — and it energizes you, personally, to keep telling the kinds of stories your fans like to read.

I’ve also discovered a delightful symbiosis between my writing and my editing.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’m not a Miamian, so what I need is an itinerary for myself. I’d turn to friend and fellow author Dana Swift (“Cast in Firelight” and “Bound by Firelight”) who is now a Miami resident. No doubt we’d start at Books & Books. I’m a huge fan of indie bookstores. And I hope the itinerary would also include an excursion up the coast a bit to visit some of the locations that have been settings in my clients’ novels.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Thinking about people who deserve recognition for helping me along the way is a little like trying to prepare an Oscar acceptance speech — how to you fit everyone into the allotted time and space? Family, of course, nurtured my reading habit. Leslie Lutz (author of the YA novel “Fractured Tide” and also a freelance editor) introduced me to the Editorial Freelancers Association and gave me the insight that it’s possible to be both author and editor — you don’t have to choose one or the other. Members of the DFW Writers Workshop offered insight on the craft of writing fiction. Gabriela Pereira of DIY MFA gave me the opportunity to extend my author platform as a columnist for the online component of her business. My editing clients have become a little family of sorts even though I’ve never met most of them in person, and they, along with my EFA peers, have given me great referrals. My wonderful editor, Linda Kirwin (who is a Floridian), has been with me on the journey through all my novels and is both my best critic and an ardent supporter. And, of course, my publisher — Black Rose Writing — believed in my series enough to bring my novels into the world and to continue to promote them and support me as a writer. To anyone I may have left out, I’ve no intent to diminish in any way how important you’ve been to this journey I’m on.

Website: https://pamela-taylor.com

Instagram: @PJTAuthor

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pamela-taylor-author/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheSecondSonChronicles

Other: The website for my editing business is https://www.editing4you.com