Today I'd like to introduce you to an author whom I've known 'virtually' for a number of years, first from an online forum and now via a Facebook group that we're both members of. You'd think with a name like Susanne O'Leary that she would be Irish but she's not. I'll hand you over to Susanne so that she can tell you about herself...
I’m a bit (or, actually, very) unusual among Irish authors as I’m not Irish and, having had four novels published, broke away from both publisher and agent and started to e-publish all my books myself in 2010, when the publishing industry started to decline. Since then, I have written four more books and, as a result, now have ten books out there in the e-book market worldwide. I write mainly in the women’s fiction genre, some chick-lit, some contemporary romance, with two historical novels and two detective stories thrown into the mix.
My books have sold very well with some spectacular months last year and now, I think I have sold close to 40000 books worldwide, counting all my titles. It has been amazing to get into the US, UK and all European markets through this new way of publishing and feel very lucky to have done so well.
Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?
Not really. But I have always loved reading. I started writing non-fiction and wrote two books about health and fitness (I am a trained fitness teacher). While writing these books, I discovered how much I loved the actual writing process. My then editor gave me the idea to write a fun novel based on my experiences as a diplomat’s wife. This became my debut novel, ‘Diplomatic Incidents’, published in 2001. Since then, I have written a further nine novels, most of them as e-books.
