W
ho is Leslie Lee Sanders?
I am first and foremost a writer of fiction, but I am also a mother, a wife, a student, and a creative force to be reckoned with. If I can create it then I enjoy it and that includes oil painting, music, and short stories. Most of the fiction I enjoy writing is fiction that pulls a reader in and never lets them go until the very last sentence. It ranges from horror to erotica.
Why write fiction?
It feels good. The feeling of accomplishing something that's important to me feels great. It's important to me because I put a lot of effort into writing for other's knowledge and enjoyment, and who doesn't like to make others feel good?
Why are book sales important to you?
It's not, at least in the sense of getting rich. Making money isn't the first thing I think of when writing. But sales are important to a writer because that's where you get your name. To a publisher and everyone else that gets a percentage of the earnings, the more books you sale, the more important you are and the more they'll get paid. To consumers, the more important you are the more they'll care about you and your service.
But to me, the more you sale the more you are known, the more you're known the more people you'll reach, the more people you reach the more satisfied you become knowing your work has touched lives in one way or the other.
Every writer knows that if you want to make big money, writing is the wrong business to be in. An author gets a percentage of the price of their book. No matter if the book is $20 or 99 cents, you can't make an impressive living selling books alone unless you're Stephen King.
Why write Three's A Crowd the online serial if you don't charge for it?
First, I love my TAC characters and their world. Second, I want others to feel the excitement I feel when reading it. Third, people want to read the erotic genre and I want to be one of the authors to produce it. I simply don't charge for it because a reader's time is payment enough. Later if they feel the need to support it, they can buy the novels.
Why is readership important to you?
Every artist needs an audience, right? I need to share my work with others in order for it to exist. When you think about it, you can compare it to that old saying, If a tree falls and no ones around to hear it, did it make a sound? If no one reads my work it might as well not exist at all. To a true writer of fiction, that's all you really want for yourself.
What is your ultimate goal in writing?
To inspire. If someone tells me that a book I wrote helped them become a better person either by inspiring them to read more, to write themselves, or even identify an abusive relationship, I've done my job.
If writing to inspire is your ultimate goal, then why not write for free?
The money an author receives is usually put back into the writing to pay for things like publishing, marketing, (for self-published authors) websites, and the little things like paper, pens, ink, and computer maintenance. At the very least, their time and craft.
Interviews
Interview by Freeman Semons, Jr
Interview by TeensReadToo.com