Blog Tour/Giveaway: Kellie Sheridan - Mortality

Kellie Sheridan - Mortality

• Pub Date: March 19, 2013
• Publisher: Snarky Books
• Format: Paperback / Ebook, 244 pages
• Age Range: Young Adult

After surviving a deadly plague outbreak, sixteen-year-old Savannah thought she had lived through the very worst of human history. There was no way to know that the miracle vaccine would put everyone at risk for a fate worse than un-death.

Now, two very different kinds of infected walk the Earth, intent on nothing but feeding and destroying what little remains of civilization. When the inoculated are bitten, infection means watching on in silent horror as self-control disappears and the idea of feasting on loved ones becomes increasingly hard to ignore.

Starving and forced to live inside of the abandoned high school, all Savannah wants is the chance to fight back. When a strange boy arrives with a plan to set everything right, she gets her chance. Meeting Cole changes everything. Mere survival will never be enough.

Blogging and Beyond

by Kellie Sheridan and Mickey Reed

Kellie and I worked together to bring you this amazing novel. Kellie wrote the book and I provided editing services. She created the world of the novel while I corrected grammar, punctuation, and syntax. She's the obvious talent, and I worked behind the scenes. So while we do completely different things as professions, we both had to start somewhere: book blogging. Our book blogs helped give us the confidence to launch careers we thought we might only dream of. Please join us as we celebrate Kellie's debut novel by reminiscing on how we got involved in the publishing business!

How/when did you get into book blogging?

Kellie: I started blogging in February of 2011 while I was working at a local bookstore, where I had access to more titles than I could ever possibly read. I needed people to talk to about all those books, and blogging was exactly the right way to go about it, as the community is all kinds of awesome. I mainly read and review fantasy and young adult titles, but try to branch out from time to time.

Mickey: Book blogs were a totally foreign thing for me until April of 2011 when my husband asked me why I didn’t look into getting paid to write book reviews for a magazine or newspaper. I thought it was silly at first, but he was right to ask – I read 200+ books a year and review every single one of them. When I finally broke down and did a Google search about the subject, I discovered book blogs! I figured it could at least be a way for me to get my foot in the door, but I soon found that it was a lot of work with many great benefits. I completely dropped the idea of earning money for book reviews and threw all of my focus into my blog. I started meeting so many amazing bloggers who loved the same books I did, and I rediscovered my adoration for YA literature at the same time.

How did your book blog lead you to a career?

Kellie: Through blogging I gradually started to meet people within the book industry, which got me thinking… if I loved writing about books in my spare time, how could I turn this same passion into a career? I’d gone to school for event planning, and wanted to incorporate that somehow. I started trying my hand at book marketing (which involves book events both on and offline) and really enjoyed it. Still, becoming a published author had always been my ultimate goal, although I assumed it would take me a lot longer to get there.

Through both blogging and my other projects, I had opportunities to work with some incredibly talented self-published authors who were making their own dreams come true. Names like Amanda Hocking and Hugh Howey were popping up all over the place and my interest was piqued (thanks to Mickey, I’m now on my way to knowing the difference between piqued, peaked and peeked)! Seeing how much the book blogging community had begun to embrace indie authors was really inspiring, so I started doing some research and knew it was the right route for me.

I’ve always been a big worrier. I overthink absolutely everything, and had made progress towards getting my writing out into the world before, but always backed off at the last second to give myself more time. But once I decided to self-publish, I was able to take that option off the table. I hired an incredibly talented cover designer to design Mortality’s cover, and then contacted a few bloggers about a cover reveal.

Once cover reveal day came, there was no backing out. I’d told the blogging community (whose opinions I respect so, so much) about my book, and now I had to do it. The book was written, but still had some serious tweaks and editing it had to go through, but I got to work. Then I saw a tweet from Mickey about how she was breaking into the editing business. I didn’t really know her yet, but I loved the idea of working with another blogger who was headed down a similar road in their career. It’s been so reassuring to have an editor who looks at YA fiction the same way I do, so she was definitely the best choice for me and Mortality.

Mickey: Editing has always been an idea in the back of my head, but this blog really launched the possibility. In June of 2012, I slightly entertained the idea of going back to school for my Bachelor’s in English so I could start editing books. I received some very positive, inspiring messages from my fellow bloggers that really pushed me over the edge, and with the support from my husband, I enrolled in college again in my late twenties.

Not long after I’d decided to back to school, I applied for an internship with Entangled Publishing in their publicity department. It really gave me a great insight on how the publishing business works. I learned a whole lot from that position. Working closely with the higher-ups in the company, I saw some of the ins and outs, learned a bit of etiquette, and gained some assurance that my dream of becoming an editor could actually be possible.

After I’d returned to school for a couple months, I noticed a blog post by an author who was candidly discussing her choice to self-publish. I jokingly posted a comment about how, if she needed a cheap editor, I’d be a good choice. To my astonishment, she emailed me a sample of her work and ended up hiring me! The very next day I posted the editing services page on my blog with the confidence she gave me. Luckily Kellie found me, and two book bloggers worked together to make one incredible book! Kellie’s storytelling talent made my job as an editor so very easy. I can’t wait to work with her again.

What’s next?

Kellie: I very much hope that both writing and blogging will be a big part of my future. It was hard to balance the two while finishing up Mortality, but I think I’ve found a way to make it happen. As for writing, I’m planning to have the second book of The Hitchhiker Strain finished this year, while also working on a series of NA novellas. The best way to get your books noticed by the book world is to write more books!

I’m also going to continue working with Spencer Hill Press as their Joan of ARCs, as well as with Overlord Publishing and Brain Lag Publishing to help spread the love for their titles. So no matter how I look at it, books are going to be a constant presence in my life for a long time to come, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Mickey: More editing! I hope to work with more and more authors, have repeat customers, and edit a ton of books that make this world a more interesting place. I absolutely love my job, which I never thought was possible. I’ll continue on with school and follow my dream. My blog has been put on the backburner as of late, but I still post for blog tours and guest posts when I can. I also get asked quite often if I’ll ever write a book of my own. I always thought that I wouldn’t want to because I don’t have a fresh story to tell, but I’ve been thinking more and more about nonfiction. If it ever happens, I’ll work with some great bloggers to get the job done. For now, though, I think I’ll stick with what I’m good at.

I have been in love with stories in all of their forms for as long as I can remember. Admittedly, sometimes that means falling into places like Stars Hollow and Sunnydale, but books have always been my true love. In early 2011 I began writing a book blog in order to share my favorite reads with book lovers. From there, the bookish community encouraged me to stop sitting on my own stories and share them instead. Since then I’ve been madly devouring everything I can about digital publishing.

Find Kellie:

website | goodreads | twitter

Giveaway Alert!

I am giving away an ebook Kindle copy of Kellie Sheridan's Mortality! Please enter by using the Rafflecopter form below. Ends 3/25/13. Open internationally for anyone who can receive Amazon ebooks. Thanks and good luck!

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