Saffina Desforges – 700 Book Sales a Day and in the UK Amazon Top Ten
Saffina Desforges is in an enviable position. Her book, Sugar and Spice, landed her in the UK Amazon Top Ten ebook list. What made her story even more amazing is that an agent could not be found to represent her novel because they felt ‘uncomfortable’ about the subject matter.
This is what Saffina had to say about her writing.
Darrell - How did you end up becoming a writer?
Saffina - I didn't choose writing, it chose me. It's the only way I can shut the voices up! Seriously though, I have always written, just never seriously. When I met Mark (my co-writer) on Youwriteon, he convinced me that I 'had something' and it kind of snowballed from there. And here we are.
Darrell - One article quotes you as saying that you're, "selling 500 copies a day of a book that agents feared would be 'too difficult to represent'." Can you tell us what the basic storyline is of the book and why agents shied away?
Saffina - We are now selling 700 plus books a day and are the only 'indie' book in the Top 10 on Amazon UK. The storyline is 'uncomfortable' as it deals with the inner-most workings of the mind of a man with paedophillic tendancies and also includes references to child murders. I HOPE that it has been handled sensitively. I guess that agents weren't sure that they could easily pitch the idea to publishers, so we decided to see for ourselves whether people would read it or not. I guess the fact that today, we are #2 in the UK store, proves that they will!
Darrell - Your book Sugar and Spice sold more than 15,000 copies in March alone. To what do you attribute your success?
Saffina - I was asked this question yesterday by a journalist writing for The Sunday Telegraph and I will give you the same, honest answer: I don't know! Don't get me wrong, we obviously thought it was a great story-line, or we wouldn't have written it and the work that has gone into it (and marketing it) deserves some reward, but I don't think we ever thought an indie, completely unknown, debut novel would do so well against well-established writers already selling thousands.
Darrell - What do you think are the best promotional things that a writer can do to market their book?
Saffina - Build a social network. Simple. ;-)
Darrell - What are you working on next?
Saffina - We have several big projects on the go. The US edition of Sugar & Spice has just been released and we are in the process of writing the first book of The Rose Red Crime Series, Snow White - for publication late summer. This a commercial crime thriller series, set in the modern day, based on fairy tales.
Autumn will see the release of Equilibrium: First Blood; the first of a dark, urban fantasy trilogy and we might even see another title before the end of the year!
Darrell - What advice would you give to someone about to publish their own book?
Saffina - Be prepared for some damn hard work and get out your bullet-proof vest!
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