An Interview with Denise Gasta
Author of ‘Danny’, the ‘Monarch Kingdom’ and ‘Butterfly Garden’ published by Writer’s Exchange E-Publishing.
THE BUTTERFLY GARDEN
“The Butterfly Garden” features Nettie, a young girl who loves being outdoors, and a host of beautiful Monarch butterflies. Nettie learns about nature and conservation during one warm and unforgettable summer. Nettie and her parents learn about Monarchs and preserving their habitat. 58 full-color illustrations, drawn in a child-like manner, encourage young readers to try new activities, such as drawing and storytelling. Self-Reader Age = 7 – 9. Please Read With Me Age = 3 up.
DANNY
Danny the Dandelion lives in Kai’s front yard. Kai and Danny develop a strong friendship as each learns that being different isn’t bad, it’s just different. Follow their journey in this delightful children’s book. “Danny” hopes to teach young readers that it is OK, and wonderful, to be a unique individual. 54 full-color illustrations, drawn in a child-like manner, encourage young readers to try new activities, such as drawing and storytelling. The child-friendly format of “Danny” allows even very young children to read books by themselves. Self-Reader Age = 7 – 9. Please Read With Me Age = 3 up.
AUTHOR NETWORK: What have you published, both by yourself and with your husband?
DENISE: The book, “Danny,” was originally published by DenMark Publishing Corporation. It is a young children’s illustrated book. I wrote it and Greg did the illustrations.
The book, “Monarch Kingdom,” a symphonic poem, was originally published by DenMark Publishing Corporation. Greg wrote the poems, I did the graphics.
The book, “The Butterfly Garden,” is currently available from Writer’s Exchange E-Publishing (3rd link in my signature). It is a young children’s illustrated book. I wrote the story, Greg did the illustrations.
We are currently working on a children’s series called, “There’s a Dinosaur…,” which we are co-writing and co-illustrating. We both have poetry published through International Society of Poets, in the books, “Between Darkness and Light,” and “Poetry Elite” The Best Poets of 2000.”
AUTHOR NETWORK: What drew you into this business, Denise?
DENISE: Greg and I are writers. We write. To make it as a writer, one needs to be published. I have worked in both print and electronic publishing. We are developing our own publishing company, Wolf Dragon Publishing. It is, as thE website says, a company which publishes books and web sites. We design web sites, too, in case I didn’t mention it before… :~}
What drew us to this business was a desire to see our books published, give kids (in the case of the children’s books) a sense of wonder from our books, and basically, do our best to write something worth reading.
AUTHOR NETWORK: Could you please discuss how hard or how easy it is to sell writing online? One sale would require about how many ‘hits’?
DENISE: For us, because we know very little about marketing and promoting, it is harder to sell online. We are relatively new at that part of the business. For other writers, those who have more experience, it is a bit easier. Luckily, writers like Leta Nolan Childers and Karen Weisner have written definitive books for all us newbies in the online world. And thank God they did! :=~}
I have no idea how many hits it takes to make a sale. That, I would need to ask my publisher… :~}
AUTHOR NETWORK: Have you seen any of your authors move into hard-copy publishing?
DENISE: We recently submitted three manuscripts for print consideration (last week, in fact). No word yet on their acceptance. WDP is not technically open for business, although we do have the appropriate business licenses. We are researching funding right now, so we can afford to pay our staff and writers, once we have them.
AUTHOR NETWORK: What is your relationship to other epublishers? Competitive? Cooperative?
DENISE: Greg and I firmly believe in cooperation. If what we do can help another e-publisher, we will gladly share. Our competition is against bias, plain and simple. When I am explaining how viable e-publishing is, I always point to the e-publishers currently open and doing a thriving business. I also provide URL’s so people can go check them out. It is important that we do all we can for the entire industry, not just for ourselves. In the long run, it will help all of us. And that, to us, is a very good thing.
If you would like to contact us about an interview please email: beth@author-network.com