Interview with Gary Corbin

Author of A Woman of Valor

Where are you from originally and where do you reside now?

I was born and raised in Agawam, MA. I currently live in Camas, WA, a suburb of Portland, OR.

If you currently reside somewhere besides where you were born, what’s the story that lead from there to here?

At the end of my junior year of high school, at age 16, my parents moved with the youngest three of their nine children (including me, #7 of 9) to Louisiana, just outside New Orleans. I finished high school in Metairie, LA and attended Louisiana State University, earning a B.A. in Political Science and Economics. Awarded a fellowship to Indiana University, I earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from IU in 1988. As part of my graduate education, I interned as a policy analyst at the US Department of Energy in 1984-85 and remained there to finish my degree. After nine years in DC, working as an IT consultant, I moved to Portland, OR to become an IT strategic planner and manager for the City of Portland. In 2005 I struck out on my own as a freelance writer and consultant and later moved to Vancouver, WA and then Camas, WA, where I currently reside.

What made you decide to write and publish your first book?

I was inspired to write *Lying in Judgment* when a friend at a D.C. cocktail party told me of his experience on jury duty, where the judge instructed the jury to disregard a witness’s very compelling testimony. “How can I do that?” he complained. That got me thinking: what if a judge couldn’t tell a juror to disregard evidence—because only that juror knew it? … Because he was there when the crime was committed…because he was the criminal! The story grew from there.

That was in 1990! At the time, I didn’t know how to write novels. I started sketching out the story then, adding details as I sorted out the details of how something like that could happen. I first pitched the story to agents and publishers in 2005 at a writer’s conference, and quickly discovered that I still had a lot to learn about writing novels. I also learned that traditional publishers are slow and conservative; many said they liked my story and writing but couldn’t sell the concept. Well, I knew that I could, and I woke up one morning in late 2015 and realized that if I died the next day, my only regret would be failing to publish that novel. So I went the self-publishing route, and the book sold even better than I’d hoped.

How would you describe your books to first time readers?

Character-driven mysteries and thrillers, with fairly complex plots and lots of misdirection, often spiced with wry humor and lots of emotion.

Who do you feel is most likely to connect with the topics you write about?

It depends on which series they’re reading. My Lying Injustice Thrillers will appeal to readers looking for a new take on the legal thriller – one written not from the perspective of a lawyer or judge, but an “everyman” with only a layman’s understanding of legalese and courtroom procedure. My Mountain Man Mysteries are lighter, with more comic relief, and will appeal to dog lovers. A Woman of Valor will appeal to fans of police procedurals, but also to women and men who root for the underdog and who yearn for a fairer system of justice, particularly for women who have suffered abuse, violence, and discrimination.

What unexpected or surprising thing did you learn during the process of writing and publishing?

How much work production, sales, and marketing would be! The work is only 1/3 done when I’ve finished writing. It’s tempted me to reconsider traditional publishing–except that my trad pub friends advise me that it’s not much different for them. The writer is the number one marketer of his/her work.

If you could, what advice would you give to your past self before embarking on this journey?

Get writing and publishing sooner. It took me almost 15 years to get a first draft written, mostly because I kept putting it off. If I’d started five or ten years sooner, I’d have experienced the joy of writing for a living that much earlier in life, and probably could have enjoyed a more stable book market.

How many people would you ideally like to reach with your books?

Everyone. I mean, come on, who wouldn’t?

What has been the biggest challenge and frustration during the process to date?

Again, it’s how much time I have to spend on the non-writing aspects. Even with the amazing tools and online markets that have sprung up to support writers over the last decade–or maybe because of the plethora of markets and options–the work is never-ending, and it’s not what any of us envisioned when we set out to become writers.

What’s your biggest strengths when it comes to book a) writing, b) publishing and c) marketing?

A) Writing – (i) coming up with strong characters and conflicts among them to drive plots, and (ii) dialog. I’m a playwright, too, so I get a lot of practice with that!

B) Publishing – I’ve put together a strong team and a fairly efficient system for getting the work into publishable form. My books come out clean and error-free, which is really important to me. And I love my cover designer! He’s amazing.

C) Marketing – I’m tireless, and my past experience in the business world helps me here with things like SEO, keywords, titles, cover concepts, copy, etc.

What’s your biggest weakness when it comes to book a) writing, b) publishing and c) marketing?

A) Writing – I’m not a legal professional, so I have to do a lot of research and work really hard to get the technical stuff right. Thankfully I have a lot of experts I can call on, who’ve been very generous with their time and expertise.

B) Publishing – I’m never sure if I’ve made the right call with my publishing channels. Should I have gone exclusively Amazon instead of going wide? Should I use Ingram, KDP, D2D, or Bookbaby? I always wish I knew more about this end of the business.

When do you think you will write your next book?

Already underway with both a prequel and a sequel to my latest release. I expect the prequel to be out around the first of the year (2020), and the sequel around mid-year.

Are you self published or did you use a hybrid publisher, or a traditional publisher?

I’m self-published, with my own imprint (Double Diamond Publishing).