AC: Our plans for making the site better are endless. We want to make the site easier for people who are new to writing and new to self-publishing, without alienating those who are experts. Our whole purpose for being is to allow people the freedom to get their stories out into the world. It’s an exciting time for that. The next three years? It’s anyone’s guess, but we’d love to create a whole world of empowered writers.
KN: Writer.ly is fast becoming the go-to resource for finding talent. In the next year, we’ll add more tools to help guide writers through the entire publishing process. There’s a lot to consider and writers can’t possibly be expected to know it all!
Patricia: Magic bullet: If there was one thing you could immediately make happen for Writer.ly, what would that be?
AC: A million dollars to pay for a cracker-jack technical team who can build us exactly what we want, like tomorrow.
Patricia: Where do you see the future of writing going?
AC: I think the notion of the “book” is going to change. Books will come in a variety of lengths and formats and genres will become blurred. The quality of work out there will get better when writers realize they can’t get away with putting out unedited, badly designed work anymore.
KN: One of my favorite statistics is that in 2011, people were reading an average of 18 books a year. This is up from just SIX books a year in 2006. Technology has made the written word accessibly and pleasurable for a much bigger audience. Not only are there more readers, but people have a greater desire for more and more quality content. Writers who work on their craft and produce professional books will only experience more and more demand.
Patricia: What makes a good story?
AC: Well, as I’ve mentioned, I’m a big believer in authenticity. I’m a memoirist, so that is important to me. We have so much to learn from each other, and when I see people sharing even their most difficult stories, something magical happens. Lights go on in other people’s eyes. It’s about feeling a sense of belonging in an age when it’s so easy to be completely disconnected from the real world seeing it only from behind a screen. We live in Oz, it seems sometimes.
KN: I am drawn into stories with plots that lift and drop me, and nuanced, unexpected characters. I am a story addict. Give me clear prose, a conflict I care about and a character I find interesting, and I’ll be up all night finishing the story. Forget bookmarks! I have to read it all right away!
Patricia: What do you hope to gain by being a sponsor of the 3rd annual book summit?
AC: Our passion is writers. Any chance we have to tell writers about Writer.ly and see the light go on in their eyes is wonderful. We love to see writers succeed. It’s why we exist. Sponsoring the 3rd Annual Book Summit is a wonderful way to educate writers so that they can achieve success with their work. As I’ve said, we’re writers too, and are in the same boat with our own personal projects as most of the attendees will be. We’re all in this together, and when we pool our resources, we all succeed.
KN: We are in love with writers! Especially those who are striving and working towards some goal and dream. We hope to meet new writers and see how we may help them on their way.
Writer.ly is an online marketplace that connects writers directly with the vendors and freelancers they need to create their books and get them sold. By posting bid-able service requests in our online marketplace, content creators of all kinds may build
their own publishing team of copyeditors, book designers, marketing consultants. You may create your dream team of professionals that will help you launch your book and meet your publishing goals. For more information, please see http://www.writer.ly.