Q&A with Lindsay de Feliz, author of Life After My Saucepans

Springtime Books author Lindsay de Feliz talks about her latest memoir, Life After My Saucepans. 

Q: Tell us about your book, Life After My Saucepans. What is it about? Could you describe it in just a few sentences?

A:  It is about my life in the mountains in the Dominican Republic. It is about the day to day challenges and laughs, about the people and my family who live here. 

Q: What made you did you decide to write it?

A: Demand from readers of my first book, What About Your Saucepans? who kept nagging me to write a second one.
 
Q: Why do you think your book needed to be written?

A: It shows a different side of the country and explains more about the culture of the Dominican people. It also shows that however tough things may be, and whatever fears you have, you can get over them.
 
Q: Who do you think will read your book? Who would you like to read it? Did you have a target audience in mind before you wrote it?

A: My target audiences are those who read my first memoir, people married to Dominicans who want to understand more about their culture and their country, those expats who live here, and those who visit here, and anyone who likes the country, or wants to learn more about it.

Q: What steps have you taken or are planning to take to promote your book? Which methods do you think will work best to meet your target audience?

A: I am still in stage one, which is reaching out to all of the Facebook groups I belong to who are linked to the Dominican Republic. I am continuing with the methods which worked last time, which was blogging regularly and tweeting good reviews. I also have a book FB page which I constantly post on, as well as other forums about the DR. I have some books here and will go around the country doing signing sessions and selling them as well. Stage 2 will be to reach a wider audience and I have been talking to the owner of ThatsDominicanTV who has promised to promote the book, which has an audience of Dominicans abroad of around 250,000.
 
Q: How did you choose your publisher and method of publishing? Did you do much research did you do before you made your choice? And what made you chose this route?

A: This was easy, same one I used last time! Well almost. Last time I used Summertime, as Jo Parfitt had published books about the DR writing by two of my friends. This time she directed me to sister company Springtime. No way could I do all that publishing lark myself! 

Q: What was your biggest challenge once you decided to write your book and how did you overcome it?

A: Writing it really. Feeling inspired to write and actually getting down to doing it. I set a target of a chapter a week and worked out a framework using the blog I had written over the years. Then I just did it. 

Q: Now you have written your book how has writing it impacted you, your family, your self-esteem or your business?

A: I think my family is proud that I am a published writer, and it has given me confidence that I can actually write. It certainly helps give me credibility in the business sense as people believe that I really do know about the DR. 

Q: What were the highlights of the writing and publishing process from starting to write your book to it being sent to print?

A: The highlights of the process were those three words: “It’s a wrap”. Plus Jo Parfitt telling me that my writing had improved so much, and the pre-publications reviews, as I was concerned the book would not be as good as the first one.
 
Q: If you were to give advice to someone thinking about writing a book, what would be your number one tip?

A: Just do it. And always stop when you are desperate to write more, never when you are stuck. 

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