Interview with Contemporary Romance Author Temba Magorimbo

Interview with Author Temba Magorimbo

July 29,2014

An inspiring interview with author Temba Magorimbo, the love of writing and trials and tribulations along the way

Look for book review,up and coming August17,2014 of Lake Of My Heart by Temba Magorimbo

Temba, thank you for taking part in this interview. Tell us a little about yourself and your background?

A: - I was born on the 9th of August 1966 in Gwelo [then now Gweru] in Rhodesia [now Zimbabwe]. My father was a police constable British South Africa Police] while my mother was a housewife. I grew up circulating the police residential camps of Gweru like Old Mkoba, Monomutapa, Senga and Old Camp. I went to junior school at Bumburwi in Mkoba first term before transferring to Senga until high school in 1980 at Ascot after a two week sojourn at Nashville High School. Between September 1977 and August 1980 we lived on a farm in Gweru’s south west. It was a challenge, there was no electricity. Reading was only possible during the day. There I horned my fiction writing skills from the age of eleven trying my hand at radio fiction. I was influenced by a radio series by Hilton Mambo about a Doctor Bobo (villain) and Jason Zonk & Pete (good guys). I listened to other radio stories too. When I went to Ascot Secondary School, there was the library. Enter these authors, Shimmer Chinodya [Farai’s Boys, Dew in The Morning etc.], Charles Mungoshi [Waiting for the Rain], Ngugo Wa Thio’go, Chinua Achebe [Things Fall Apart with Okonkwo], Paul Kahiga (Kenyan), Cyprien Ekwensi. Major Mwangi [Carcass for Wounds], Ngugi Wa Thiong’O [Matigari]. I had no reason not to fall in love with creative writing. I am a government accounting assistant since 1989. I have lived in places like KweKwe, Mufakose and now Chitungwiza. My sample reading is on timbooktu(dot) com and wattpad.

Question 1: What are your ambitions for your writing career?

Every writer desires to be read and read extensively. Yes, monetary benefits come in but I want to be read. I remember being a young man looking at titles in a bookshop or library most of which were by writers whose names were unknown. This means that a Zimbabwean author can be read as far afield as Iceland, Netherlands and at a peak in New Zealand.

Question 2: Which writers inspire you?

Wilbur Smith, Major Mwangi, Nadine Gordimer, Shimmer Chinodya, Charles Mungoshi from the African market and international, Collin Forbes, Jack London, Frederick Forsyth etc.

Question 3: What genre are your books?

Contemporary romance

Question 4: What draws you to this genre?

Simplicity. I tried crime fiction. I disbelieved my own writing but I have crime short stories. Besides life is about living and loving isn’t it?

Question 4: What inspired and/or was your inspiration for this particular story?

Which story? Let’s take my book Splash In The Loch. The idea came from a story my late brother Shepherd gave me. I converted it into a long fiction. I wanted to find out what would happen to a young man hopelessly lost who ands in the wrong place with his vehicles in a lake. He is rescued by a girl other than his date. His date is furious that her man is out there over Christmas being looked after by a foreign family. It’s like a forbidden love touch of a story. I wanted to see the reaction.

Question 5: Give us an insight into your main character. What does he/she do that is so special?

Hubert is intelligent. He works hard. He drives a great team of young minds who are engineering sleuths. Yet he is so forgetful of his dates with Muriel which rises her ire. He is a comedian when he forgets his dates. He has a junior at work with whom he is comrades in arms. While his junior parades every available female body, Hubert is laid down and decent. However his dates freaks out.

Question 6: How much research do you do before creating your characters and writing your books?

Research is paramount however over research can turn a fiction book into a ‘textbook’. That’s is bad. I like moderate research. I will always remember the words written on Wilbur Smith\’s novels where he thanked a team for teaching him about the technics and technicalities of Israeli Air Force combact. The book showed great research. I also research a great deal moreover with the advent of the internet.

Question 7: Where do your ideas come from?

If I tell you that I would have to shoot you. Okay, my ideas come from observations, reading or news. I remember two items, one day a man explained how his wife had died in a car accident where his son and him had survived. A week later, my cousin lost his youngest daughter who was working in Cape Town, South Africa. The first incident gave me an idea for the ending of one of my currently published books, I won’t tell you which. Are you taking notes?

Question 8: Do you work to an outline or plot or do you prefer just see where an idea takes you?

I use both outline and plot. A plot gives me an idea of where I am going while an outline spells out the work ahead. I continue to check with both as I grow the book. At times, the characters and events take over changing the plot/outline.

Question 9: How do you think you have evolved creatively?

I have grown experienced. I have seen the hard and heavy stuff. I started out in Gweru, going to Eighth Street, Mambo Bookshop to buy 80-page feint and margin 13-mm writing exercise books. The khaki bag I used as cover. I wrote in longhand. Then I bought a 2nd hand Hermes Baby Typewrite which had small font which replaced the long hand. In time I evolved to the computer and Word.

Question 10: What is the hardest thing about writing?

Writing is a tough game. It eats on the mind as you think and plan. Creating books is a healthy thing which allows a mind to expand but it is stressful and straining on the nerves.

Question 11: For your own reading, do you prefer eBooks or traditional paper/hard back books?

EBooks are okay but traditional books can still be shelved. Oh heck, who took my paperback?

Question 12: What book/s are you reading at present?

I am currently in between a siesta sort of time. I am not reading anything for the end of July 2014.

Question 13: Do you proofread/ edit all your own books or do you get someone to do that for you?

Funds permitting I would hire a professional proof reader, development editor and copy editor all in one. Currently I do it all. It allows me to redo everything all over again.

Question 14: Who edited your book and how did you select him/her?

Currently no one but I have a short list.

Question 15: Tell us about the cover/s and how it/they came about.

I selected the cover for Splash In The Loch from the same rich material found in the cover creator templates at CreateSpace. I want to believe it’s good to me for now. In time I plan to use either covers from a website where you subscribe then the artist just has to make templates or adjustments.

Question 16: Who designed your book cover/s?

As above I designed my covers (currently) using templates with CreateSpace or AmazonKDP.

Question 17: Do you think that the cover plays an important part in the buying process?

A cover does sell a book. Most romance books sell their stuff by creating illusions of love (sex) on the cover. Have you seen any horror book jacket with a normal person smiling at the camera? I have seen travel books in A-4 (210 x 397) formats with a double pages of mixed colourful pictures that tell you, “Come to Singapore/Malaysia, Victoria Falls, the Kalahari, Dubai or London.” If Barak Obama, Bill Gates or Tiger Woods were to write a book each, their pictures on the dust jackets would help sell their books.

Question 18: How are you publishing this book and why?

Indie. I don’t think I will ever go traditional. Indie allows an author to sell a book as low as 17 copies a month. Traditional publishers will never renew a contract on such low sales. Indie allows an author space to do what they want best. I can’t mix indie and traditional. I lost count of traditional publisher rejections at around 148. I won’t keep their tally or increase it again. They may come chasing me instead. Yet they will find it hard to compete with the royalty rates in Indies publishing.

(e.g. Indie, traditional or both)

Question 19: What would you say are the main advantages and disadvantages of self- publishing against being published or the other way around?

The main advantage of self-publishing is you can market your book as you go with sales starting at 1(one) while traditional publishers first create a print run which may or may not sell very well. With self-publishing you can publish what the major book publishers are rejecting. It is the reader who calls the shots not the stressed editors. The disadvantage is you do not have an advance to cocoon you when you need pay for some expenses. Traditional publishers at times pull authors into a sort of template writing. You just get to know what to expect when you hold a Harlequin Romance or Mills & Boon book. Authors have to fit into these schemes while with indie, it is free for all.

Question 20: How do you market your books?

I tried social media and free classified advertising. They just recorded huge followings and no sales. I think I will advertise in the correct market like book bogs with a romance following or magazines with that following too. I have tried reviews for now. They have started trickling in. I also have started scoring well on blog post interviews. I think I will check with blog guest posts too.

Question 21: Why did you choose this route?

I grew tired of rejection slips from big time publishers, great and small. Self-publishing stopped the letter box jamming with rejection slips or torn and tattered manuscripts recovered from the slush pile. Some rejections get so standard the editors/readers don’t even bother reading your book. Do you know how many times famous authors where rejected by traditional publishers.

Question 22: Would you or do you use a PR agency?

At some point these are the professionals of the trade who need be consulted when the bank balance is in blue with more than a figure about the magical 000s. PR agencies are the media think tanks. They have better muscle than an author on his own. They can make booking like live author signings, shows etc. They represent authors the same way sports agents represent sports personalities. How do you think soccer players from Africa found themselves in the English first division or Serie A?

Question 23: Do you have any advice for other authors on how to market their books?

If I had it to do I would first buy every book marketing tool on the internet, study and make notes. If and when I started writing or when I had reached maturity there had been CreateSpace, Lulu, Smashwords, Widbook, I would have become a published author ions ago. I do not subscribe to giving your written work for free or pricing it so low like $0 -99 cents. If holiday spots at the Great Barrier Reef or in Dubai where for free, what would happen there? Why do you think that Mercedes Benz produces the world‘s most expensive vehicles yet it remains afloat? Why doesn’t those car manufacturers producing cheap vehicles overtake Mercedes Benz in value, goodwill and reliability?

Question 24: What part of your writing time do you devote to marketing your book?

I spend more time and resources marketing than in writing. Marketing is more problematic than writing and publishing. I want to believe every Saturday when I am free and Sunday afternoon I pour my spirit over the internet working my way flat-out to market my books.

Question 25: What do you do to get book reviews?

I have searched the internet for these book reviewers. The largest percentage of them are on Amazon’s Top 1 000 reviewers but these are harder to deal with than traditional publishers or prancing agents. Their submission policies continue to read like a riot act changing daily. At times their contacts are changing as well. Their criteria reads like a Who is Who from the inhabitants of the Moon. They give so many clauses and points, it is a traffic jungle out there. You find odd ones who tell you, you are spamming them!

Question 26: How successful has your quest for reviews been so far?

One reviewer wrote, “Temba, where is the action? I only read up to page 20 and dropped the book. Sorry, no rating.” Another wrote differently. Reviews are a mixture. They have started coming in. The most arduous are those who don’t communicate, they don’t send links, they just publish.

Question 27: Do you have a strategy for finding reviewers?

I research on the internet on search engines using a combination of words. On a good day you hit gold, on another bad patch, you risk abrasion.

Question 28: What are your thoughts on good/bad reviews?

Politicians here have a habit of ‘categorically denying or refuting allegations’. I do not comment on reviews bad or good. I am yet to receive bad reviews. The first review was a 4.

Question 29: Any amusing story about marketing books that happened to you?

Rather on changing book covers where I uploaded the wrong cover for a different title. On marketing at times you quote the correct book like Splash In The Loch then you quote the wrong ISBN!

Question 30: What’s your views on social media for marketing?

I tried using social media. It doesn’t really work for me. Maybe it will work when an author has a huge following like musicians.

Question 31: Which social network worked best for you?

Facebook is what I sued, but I wouldn’t call it successful. You wouldn’t really expect me to market books on WhatsApp would you?

Question 32: Any tips on what to do and what not to do?

Never spam when marketing books. Don’t worry about your hundred relatives, court the readers who most certainly don’t know you.

Question 33: Did you do a press release, Goodreads book launch or anything else to promote your work and did it work?

No press release or book launch. I am from Africa and the best markets are in the west and in the east, including India.

Question 34: Did you get interviewed by local press/radio for your book launch?

No. My local newspaper (government run) and radio stations are currently either interviewing politicians or soccer stars who have a huge following.

Question 35: Did you format your own book?

The formatting was done by the conversion process by either CreateSpcae or Amazon KDP.

Question 36: In what formats is your book available?

That is a technical question which readers can find from CreateSpace and Amazon.com. The books are available in print (6 x 9) inches and kindle is all I know.

Question 37: If formatted by someone else, how did you select them and what was your experience?

If that were to be done, I would select them from the best and most experienced pool of experts.

Question 38: Where can you see yourself in 5 years’ time?

Between October 2013 and June 2014, I wrote Butterscotch and Lake Of My Heart. I can’t remember which was a challenge in the United States National Novel Writing [NaNoWrMo] Month of November. Then I remember going rural where to access cell phone coverage, I had to climb a knoll. I wrote ideas of short stories in my draft messages folder. I wrote three to four short stories within a week. In five years, I guess I will have enough short stories to create several anthologies. At that rate, if I write and publish two books per year at a least, in five (5) years, I should have more than (22) titles to my name and a huge twitter, Facebook and other followings.

Question 39: What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

Writing is therapeutic yet it requires guts. It’s an eat dog type of situation here. This is where the boys are separated from the men or the girls/women rather. It is great to write and be passionate. The hurdles are there. This craft requires people of steel who blaze through as pioneers so that others can be invigorated by their successes. Don’t quit your day job, yet persevere until the end. Add another title when the first refuses to rise its head. Remain vigilant, happy writing.

Question 40: Where do you see publishing going in the future?

Indie publishing requires a few refinements like large indie publishers like Smashwords, Amazon, CreateSpace, Lulu need to reinstall editing, proofreading and book jacket and interior design for free. The charges for these services are too exorbitant to the writer coming on stream for the first time. There is a need for those who know how to translate to do so and create synergies where upon a single English title can be available in Japan, China, Moscow, Helsinki, Oslo and in Greenland before the geysers or volcanoes explode. If that happens, my bank manager will know me by name, totem and 000 000s flowing in. Other than that, I don’t see any BIG FIVE Traditional Publishers ever coming close to the market outreach of the Indies.

Question 41: Is there anything else you would like to add that I haven’t included?

My kindle editions are on Kindle Matchbook, Kindle Unlimited and on Kindle Lending Library. So there is no way someone can say they are not affordable. Check the site timbooktu (dot) come for sample and free reading material from me. Check its recent short story selection then go to its archives and search by author surname for more of my work there. Otherwise have a happy day and thank you for reading/browsing. Oops, I am on Facebook too. When time is ripe, they will all be on Amazon’s audio system. I am buying time.

Question 42: How can readers discover more about you and you work?

They can go on any search engine, type Temba Magorimbo/CreateSpace or Temba Magorimbo/ Amazon and find out my books which are currently (8) eight on offer in both print and kindle. To name but a few available links. Borders, Barnes and Nobles all have these books.

http://amazon.com/Butterscotch-meet-me-Alberta-2/dp/1499345232

http://amazon.com/Lake-My-Heart-broken-hearts/dp/1499345399

http://amazon.com/Off-Eagles-Clas-Temba-Magorimbo/dp/1499345453

http://amazon.com/Splash-Loch-some-guys-have/dp/1499345488

http://createspace.com/Butterscotch

http://createspace.com/Lake-Of-My-Heart

http://createspace.com/Off-The-Eagles-Claws

http://createspace.com/Lake-Of-My-Heart