THURSDAY #HANGOUT WITH AprylBaker7

Hello wonderful folks of Wattpad!

*Walks into set. Lighting dims. Audience cheers*

Hope we've had a wonderful week so far. :-)

Today, we have a special guest with us and it was quite thrilling to us when she agreed to our request.

It's an honor to welcome one of the finest horror writers in the community and of course USA Today bestselling author, Apryl Baker.

Welcome to tonight's Thursday #Hangout Ms. Baker. For those who don't know you, who's Apryl Baker? :-)

Well, that's a good question, lol. One I sometimes don't even know the answer to. To put it simply, I'm just a small town girl with a huge imagination that never seems to shut up. That's me in a nutshell. I do my best to be a good person and hope my silly stories entertain a few people.

*When did you start writing, what's the journey been like?

Well, according to my dad, I've been writing since I could hold a crayon. He says I used to color squiggly lines everywhere and then make up these outlandish tales. On the serious side, I've been writing all my life. I used to create stories when I was younger, starring my friends and then as I got older, I did put writing on the backburner for college and then for adulting. Got to get a job and pay those bills! The journey itself has had its ups and downs. At one point, I almost quit writing altogether. I had just finished The Ghost Files and every agent I sent it to turned it down. I was on the ledge, ready to jump and delete the file forever, when a friend of mine told me to try Wattpad. When I did, guess what? The Ghost Files became wildly popular on Wattpad which in turn lead to a publishing deal and a movie deal. The journey has its ups and downs, moments of doubt and moments of triumph. It's been hard, but it's taught me a lot.

*Recognitions: a sign of acceptance and encouragement for writers. When did you begin getting traction, which of your works has been the most accepted?

I talk to a lot of new authors who get discouraged when they get their first paycheck, via through their publishers or if they self-publish, when they get paid from retailers. Unless you're lucky enough for your first book to go viral, it's not gonna make you rich. I didn't start to even see any kind of real progress until after my fifth book. The more books you have published, the more people will start to recognize you and your work. My most popular series is the internationally bestselling series, The Ghost Files.

My most popular book is Touch Me Not, a romance novel. Yes, I do write romance and not just horror, although horror is passion.

My advice to authors struggling right now is don't give up. Just keep writing, marketing, and eventually people will know who you are.

*What's been your most exciting and embarrassing moments?

My most exciting moments are when I get messages or emails from fans who tell me that my words touched them in some way. I got a letter from a teenager who told me they want to be a police officer because Dan Richards in The Ghost Files. I got another letter from a reader of Touch Me Not who told me that Lily spoke to their heart because they had a debilitating phobia and that book, that character, gave them the courage to go out and get help, to reclaim their life. It's the best feeling in the world when our words can touch people like that. God gave me the gift of words and I'm blessed to be able to use that gift.

Embarrassing? Hmm...well, I'm not really one to get embarrassed. I got pretty thick skin, which you need in the book world. I will tell you a funny story, though. When I was writing The Promise, book one of The Coven Series, I went to my local library to do some research. When I arrived, there was an elderly lady sitting at the information desk. Lovely woman, seventy if she was a day. I asked her if they had any books on Wiccan initiation ceremonies or just witchcraft initiations in general. She looks up and does a little gasp. She gives me a look that says I've just grown horns and a tail. In the softest voice I've ever heard, she informs me, no, they do not carry any such thing. It was awkward. Suffice to say, I did all my research online and ordered the books online I needed for that research. To this stay, she still gives me strange looks when I go in that particular library.

*You're amongst the few writers who've taken to writing as a full time job. If you couldn't be a writer, what'd your ideal career be?

A surgeon. They save lives every day and I think it's one of the most important jobs on the Earth. To be able to help people, whether a doctor or not, should be something we all aspire to.

*Talking about writing as a career, what path are you on? Self-publishing or Traditional?

Personally, I chose to go with a small press and I have self-published a steampunk novel with a co-writer, Jonathan Yanez. So I ended up as an Indie author.

*What considerations did you take before lunging in that path? What prompted your decision?

This is a question I get asked a lot and there were a lot factors involved. As I previously said, I did try the traditional route - get an agent and hopefully they can place your novel with one of the big six publishers. It's every author's dream. We all want to walk into a bookstore and see our books sitting on those shelves. However, the world of publishing is changing, and I for one am glad. When I wrote The Ghost Files, I tried the traditional route. I wrote up that shiny query letter and sent it out to a horde of agents. Some requested to read the novel, some just said flat out no. After I got turned down by everyone, some going as far as to say the book just wasn't good enough, I almost quit writing. If it hadn't been for Wattpad, I probably would never have tried to publish again. I accepted a publishing deal from Limitless Publishing and it was the best decision I ever made.

That small press works harder for me than some of the traditional publishers do for their authors. Everything I have done, everything that I have accomplished, I've done without an agent. Do I still want an agent? Sure. There are some things I just can't do myself no matter how hard I try. Like foreign rights. It's hard to get a foreign rights deal without an agent, but it hasn't stopped me from trying. I'm still working on that .

*It's no news that movie rights for Ghost Files have been sold already. How did that happen and how's it coming?

One of the things an Indie author does well is marketing. I work my butt daily to find new ways to market my books. LinkedIn was one of those ways. I set up a profile and made it all about my books, then I set out looking for contacts that might in some way help me. Within 48 hours I got dozens of requests to read the book from producers. Within about two weeks, those dozens of requests turned into requests for movie rights from over half of them. I was floundering at that point, overwhelmed by the response for a little book that over 50 agents declined to represent. I didn't have an agent to help me navigate the waters. There isn't a lot of research online about these types deals. So I went looking for an entertainment attorney and ended up with an exceptional one. He helped me to navigate the waters and get a solid contract from the producer I ultimately chose.

So how is that going now. Well, that was two years ago. The wheels turn even slower in Hollywood than in the publishing world. I think everyone thinks, wow, you got a movie deal. That's fantastic. You're rich now. Not true. You only get paid if the film goes into production and you have to have funding to make a movie. And my producer works hard every day trying to secure that funding. When he does the movie will go into production.

Like in publishing, you get a lot of false starts, but I believe in my work and in my producer, Rami Rank. The series has a massive following, both on Wattpad and in other outlets. If you guys want to help get the movie made, the best thing you can do is go to its page on ifList and support it. You can also vote for your favorite characters to play in the movie. If you guys can do this, it would be major. If we can show the massive support for it on that site, then we'll go a long way in jumping that final hurdle and I would personally be thankful to everyone who supports that movie.

Here is the link: http://www.iflist.com/stories/theghostfiles

Heard that? For y'all Netflix addicts...watch out for The Ghost Files movie

*USA Today bestselling author, now that's a reputation. What's helped you so far? Any do-s and don'ts?

A lot of hard work. When I tell people I'm a writer, I get this look that says, oh, what you don't have a real job? I've done the nine to five jobs. I've worked in Electronics on Black Friday for goodness sake and I'm telling you right now, writing is by far the hardest job I've ever had. No, it's not a tradition job where you go to work and do your job for a set number of hours. I work all the time. Breaks, lunch? What are those things? Some days we sit in that office chair or somewhere with a laptop for 12-14 hours a day. During that time, maybe a third of it is spent writing. The rest of it is dedicated to marketing. As an Indie author, we have to market our books, get our name out there any way that we can because we're not in those bookstores. We're online in a market flooded with self-published books. We have to make sure people know our name and thankfully, the Indie community is one of the best out there. We help each other, we support each other and I wouldn't be where I am today without the support of fellow authors. I do my best to pay that forward by helping other authors out.

For anyone out there trying to make those list, keep marketing, keep reaching out and meeting new readers, and keep it fun. In the end, no matter how much marketing we do, it's still about the story. If you can entertain just one person, move just one person, then you've done your job. I'm the first person to push marketing, but I'm also the first person to say that writing isn't about money. It's a plus if you can make a living doing what you love, but in the end, it's about the story. Don't forget that.

*What's next for Apryl Baker and the Ghost Files franchise?

Well, I just finished the first draft of Volume 4, hoping to release it around Halloween or early winter. Depends on how it goes in the second round. I'm a perfectionist when it comes to my work and I never release something unless I feel it's as good as or better than the last book and The Ghost Files is no different. I'll keep writing and my producer will keep fighting to find the funding to make the movie. I hope all y'all will help us by supporting the movie on ifList.

I would like to take a moment to say thank you to everyone at Wattpad, from the fans to the folks at HQ for all your support in my little book no one wanted. My Watty fans are awesome and I adore them. I'm grateful for their support and their comments on all my books. You guys make me giggle sometimes and without those people, I would have given up on writing. So thank you.

That's it for me. Everybody have a great day and keep reading. You never know when you'll find the next undiscovered gem of a story on Wattpad.

Feel free to follow me on Wattpad, Twitter, Facebook, wherever you want. I'll list my links below. I always love to hear from fans, so drop me a line any day.

Wattpad: http://www.wattpad.com/user/AprylBaker7

Newsletter Sign up: http://madmimi.com/signups/172503/join

Apryl Baker Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/AprylBakerStreetTeam/

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AprylBaker

Website: http://www.aprylbaker.com/

Blog: http://mycrazzycorner.blogspot.com/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5173683.Apryl_Baker

Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/april-baker/44/6b9/3a4

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apryl.baker

Authorgraph: https://www.authorgraph.com/authors/AprylBaker

It's been amazing having you on our page today Ms. Baker and we hope to see you around often. :-)

And to our wonderful readers, if you have any questions for Ms. Baker, feel free to leave a comment and she'll get back to you as soon as she can.

Till next Thursday folks. Stay Scheming.