Saturday, March 12, 2011

Heather Massey's SFR Evolution

Heather, first of all, congratulations on your debut Science Fiction Romance novel, ONCE UPON A TIME IN SPACE and welcome to Spacefreighters Lounge!

You've probably done more to promote SFR than any other person on the planet through your SFR hub, The Galaxy Express. What are your plans to balance your blogging time at The Galaxy Express and your new author's life going forward?

Thanks for your kind words, Laurie. To answer your question, lots and lots of coffee, LOL! In all seriousness, blogging is priority number one. When I began The Galaxy Express, I planned on committing to it for a long time. I’ve always been an avid reader, and look forward to enjoying many more science fiction romances in the future.

That said, I might have a few more stories in the pipeline…

How do you think being published might change your role in the SFR community?

I view my book as one more way to entertain, so in a way, it’s partly an extension of my blog. Upon further reflection, niche subgenres tend to have a smaller fanbase, albeit a hardcore one. As a result, many science fiction romance fans are also authors or aspiring authors. In some ways, I don’t distinguish between the two. So even though my role as an entertainer has expanded, I still anticipate being associated with science fiction romance as a blogger—and now also as an author.

I see you have a shiny new author web site now. Can you provide the web address, and explain what sort of content readers might expect to find on your site?

Readers can expect my site to be informative and easy to navigate.

The URL is http://www.heathermassey.com/. Readers can download a free, three-chapter excerpt of ONCE UPON A TIME IN SPACE. Additionally, they can download Heroes Are Forever, a free sci-fi romance short available on the “Freebies” page. On my “News” page, I’ll share notable news and events as they happen.

Sounds like some cool things to discover on your site! 

Do you prefer Twitter or Facebook (or other) as a social networking medium? Do you think they're effective as promotion tools and how do you plan to use them now that you're a published author?

I think Twitter and Facebook can both be effective promotional tools—as long as they’re not abused in that regard. In the age of social networking, the hard sell is dead. Readers don’t like being bombarded with a constant stream of “Buy my book!” Used organically, these sites and others (such as Goodreads) are a great way to connect readers with books they might otherwise not have tried.

I’ve been using Twitter primarily as a supplement to my blog, but have recently set up a Facebook page for my book news.

Twitter: ThGalaxyExpress
Facebook: Heather Massey – Science Fiction Romance Author

In addition to your web presence, will you be making any public appearances or attending any events in the near future? RWA? RT? Cons?

I wish! Right now, circumstances prevent me from attending anything at the moment, but I hope that will change in the next year or two. At the very least, I am determined to attend Comic-Con San Diego in 2012.

Where do you see yourself in the publishing world in five years? Ten?

Blogging, reading, writing—science fiction romance, of course! Many people have predicted that the ebook market is going to experience substantial growth in the next few years and I couldn’t agree more. The potential of growth for science fiction romance ebooks is huge. I adore having a Kindle and am excited to discover what the future holds as far as innovative digital content.

If you have a magic wand (ok, a time-matter-space manipulator) and you could make any change to your career or the publishing world in general, what's the one thing you would make happen right now?

*Heather furiously enters commands into the time-matter-space manipulator*

I see it now…an image is forming…yes, it is good, very good…a hundred epublishers—no, a thousand—all releasing sci-fi romances as fast as readers can download them onto their devices of choice….science fiction romance authors are dominating the bestseller lists…Hollywood is cranking out film after film in this beloved subgenre…the crowds are cheering wildly…

Actually, a more realistic wish of mine includes making ebooks more consumer-friendly as well as the technology that supports them. Also, if just one reader a day would take a chance on science fiction romance, that would be awesome.

Ohh, I love your vision.  And wouldn’t a One Reader a Day campaign be awesome! Hm, must scheme think on that.

Thank you, Heather, for taking time out to discuss your new release and SFR in general, and provide your (uber cool) answers!

Laurie, thanks so much for having me!

You can see Heather Massey's bio HERE.

GIVEAWAY:  Heather Massey will be giving away an e-book copy of ONCE UPON A TIME IN SPACE to a random commenter on this post in either Adobe PDF or Mobi (Kindle) format.  Enter a comment below to be eligible.

7 comments:

  1. Huge congrats on your debut release, Heather! And also very pleased to hear you'll continue with TGE. Thanks for the web site link - now I know what you look like! :)

    Sure wish I'd known about that time-matter-space whatsijig a couple years ago. (Can you get them on Amazon?)

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  2. Great questions and answers, Laurie and Heather! I can see how being an SFR author will just expand TGE. Yes in our genre (as it seems it romance in general) many readers are writers as well.

    I love the idea of a time-matter-space manipulator. Ideas are forming now for stories...

    Thanks for sharing!

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  3. Congrats on Once Upon a Time in Space. You are so right about getting people to read science fiction romances. If they just tried it they would be pleasantly surprised. Thank you for the opportunity to enter for this e book. I'll be checking out your link to read your short. Thanks

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  4. Best of luck on your release, Heather, and thanks so much for stopping by! You have had such an impact on the growing popularity of SFR with TGE. It's wonderful to have you join the ranks of its writers, too. I'd love to see your vision come true. Say it with me everybody: ONE READER A DAY! ONE READER A DAY!

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  5. Sharon, thank you so much, and right back at you! Can't wait to see the roll out for GHOST PLANET.

    @Kaye The roles definitely overlap and why not? We're all in it together.

    @Dee thanks for entering!

    @Donna Thanks for your kind words. There's strength in numbers, and it's been awesome to see the SFR community grow. At this rate, one reader a day is in our grasp.

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  6. Congratulations, Dee! You're the winner of ONCE UPON A TIME IN SPACE. We've also posted a notice on your blog.

    Please contact me at Lgreen2162 (at) aol (dot) com in the usual format so I can put you in touch with Heather.

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  7. Congratulations, Dee! Thanks to all who entered!

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