Interviews

Scott Semegran - Keeping Readers Up into the Wee Hours of the Night

Originally posted by ManyBooks on January 3, 2018

When Scott Semegran isn't drawing cartoons, brewing beer, cooking, whistling or bending metal, he enjoys writing books. Evidently readers also enjoy reading them - Semegran is a Kindle bestselling author. As our Author of the Day, Semegran tells us about his latest book, Sammie & Budgie, talks about his characters and explains why humor is excellent subterfuge for finding the truth.

Please give us a short introduction to what Sammie & Budgie is about.

Sammie & Budgie is the third book in the Simon Adventures series. The first book, The Meteoric Rise of Simon Burchwood, delves into Simon's obsession with becoming a famous writer. The second, The Spectacular Simon Burchwood, dives into the aftermath of a failed writing career and divorce. Sammie & Budgie explores Simon's relationship with his children, particularly Sammie, who he discovers can see the future. I wanted to examine a realistic response to a single parent's discovery of this type of paranormal dilemma. When Sammie foretells that his grandfather is in some kind of trouble, it propels the family on a road trip to visit the prickly patriarch.

You are also a cartoonist - how much different was writing a book from creating comic strips?

Well, the inspiration comes from the same place but the mechanics and structure are obviously very different. The comic strips I created had weekly deadlines for newspapers and each one usually had a humorous premise to workaround or conclude with. Then there was the cartooning part. Writing a novel takes months and months of rough drafts and edits and rewrites and more edits. But Sammie & Budgie is an illustrated novel, so I was able to use both of my creative tool boxes to create this book. I illustrated the chapter title pages and gave my daughter and co-illustrator, Mia Ryan Semegran, art direction for Sammie's cartoons.

Which character in this book did you find the most challenging to create?

Sammie was, by far, the most challenging to execute. I wanted him to be cute and funny but also inquisitive and melancholy. His power to see the future overwhelms him and he has so many questions. He's embarrassed and ashamed by it, too.

The Spectacular Simon Burchwood book cover

Slow + Steady: Scott Semegran on His 25 Year Indie Journey

Originally posted by IndieReader.com on November 30, 2017

IR’s second AUTHOR 2 AUTHOR post stars multi-hyphenate author (novels, short-stories and comic books) Scott Semegran. Scott shares his (almost) 25 year journey from early indie (1995) to over 35,000 books sold (to-date!) in 2017.

IndieReader (IR): When did you start writing?

Scott Semegran (SS): I began writing in 1993, the week after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in English. In the years following, I garnered publication credits here and there: some poetry in journals (1996), a comic strip in a city paper (1999), and a short story in a literary journal (2002). I also began a career as a web developer.

IR: When did you decide to publish your first book?

SS: I completed two novels, one of which I self-published in 1995, back in the days when it was still called vanity publishing and was frowned upon. In 2003, I completed a draft of a novel but abandoned it after the death of my father. In 2004, I created a comic strip that eventually found its way into several alternative, weekly newspapers and I focused on that for many years. The money was meager but I was building a body of work: fiction and comic strips.

In the mid-2000s, I started reading articles about self-publishing paperbacks through the internet with companies like Lulu Press and the success some authors had dusting off their manuscripts and publishing them on their own. In 2008, I reread the draft of the novel I had shelved and discovered that I still loved it. I cleaned it up then published it but I didn’t know how to market it. I didn’t make much money but I loved the entire publishing process. I learned about typesetting and cover design. I later discovered Smashwords and Amazon KDP and learned about publishing eBooks as well. I continued to write fiction and create comic strips, building my body of work. I had one year I made a few thousand dollars in royalties. I had another year I made $12 in royalties.

Seven books later–four novels, two books of short stories, and one compilation book of comic strips (Simon Adventures Boxed Set, Sammie & Budgie, Boys, The Spectacular Simon Burchwood, The Meteoric Rise of Simon Burchwood, Modicum, Mr. Grieves)–I’ve learned to wear several hats: writer, graphic designer, typesetter, web developer, marketer, and publicist.