Shannon Alder is our Momtrepreneur of November. You might feel like her name sounds familiar. That’s right. She is a writer. You might have her book on your bookshelf!
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1. Tell us about yourself:
I wrote a LDS church book titled, 300 Questions LDS Couples Should Ask Before Marriage. It was published by Cedar Fort Publishing in Utah. I consider my love of writing more of a hobby rather than a business. I have sold 40,000 copies so far. My book is sold in some Wal-Mart stores in Provo, Utah, on Amazon.com and at all the LDS bookstores in the U.S and abroad.
2. How did you come up with that name:
My editor at Cedar Fort Publishing came up with it. The second book he wanted me to write was titled by him also. It is titled, 1001 Questions Parents Ask to Keep Kids Happy, Healthy and Safe. When it debuts is a mystery. I am currently looking for a larger publishing house so I can sell to the mass market instead of the just the LDS market.
3. How long have you been doing this?
I have been writing off and on for four years. Currently, I am a Licensed Physical Therapist and work only two days a week. I just recently applied to medical school to become a Primary Care Physician Associate. So my love of writing might take a two year hold starting next June….but we will see. God has a way of making everything work out.
4. Please explain a little bit about your product/business and how you developed the concept behind it:
Five words. OPRAH. There are lots of reasons why I wrote the book. But the piece that brought it all together was OPRAH. I was watching an Oprah episode on “What To Do Before You Get Married”. An author was pitching her book about questions you should ask before marriage. I thought that was a pretty simple book to write and a great idea. She had no credentials, no celebrity status and no degree. Yet, here she was on Oprah as a key guest speaker and making a killing on the book sales from the free televised marketing. Wow! How easy. The wheels in my head started turning. It made sense to do a Mormon version of it but also add all the missing spiritual questions that pertain to our religion. And WAHMO! That is how it all came to be. I wrote the book in two weeks then learned how to write a book proposal. Within four weeks I was ready to mail it out. Then four months later the president of Cedar Fort called me with an offer to publish my book. Seven months later I received my first royalty check.
5. What makes your product/business so unique?
It really took me by surprise how many books I sold in the first year. The average LDS author sells less than 10,000 copies of their book before the publishing company stops sending it to print. I kept making the bestseller list at Cedar Fort. The best part of my book was that it sold itself. People look for “how to books” rather than fiction titles from unknown authors. The marketing was not as intense compared to other genres. Occasionally, I will write an article for LDSSingles.org to keep up sales. However, Deseret Books continues to run it in their flyers around holidays without my effort. It’s a relief.
6. Do you have a store front/website/etsy? (please include URL)
No. People don’t usually go to websites of author’s unless they are well known so I never made one. But you can view my LDSSingles.org article at the following link:
http://www.ldssingles.com/ask_these_questions.html
7. What is your best memory of your first year in business for yourself?
The best memory is the multitude of members that have actually read the book and wrote me reviews on Amazon.com saying that it helped them. Honestly, that is all I really wanted when I wrote the book. I don’t believe that you should blindly marry someone without great consideration and understanding of what an eternity means–FOREVER. Mistakes because of lack of communication is too devastating to a family.
8. What was one of the most unexpected twists in the road during the first few years of beginning your own business?
The book signings they wanted me to do. I couldn’t travel from city to city in Utah every weekend. I already had a medical career and was committed to working two weekend days each month. I couldn’t leave my job and use up my vacations for the task they wanted. But I did go to a few book signings.
Also, I expected all this money to come rolling in a month after my book hit the stores. That’s not exactly how it works. You can’t make a living on one book unless you sell millions. You write only because you love it.
9. Since becoming a business owner, what has been one or more of your most exciting pay- offs?
Deseret Books ran my book in it’s Christmas 2004 flyer next to Dr. Phil’s book. I couldn’t believe my book was next to Dr. Phil’s. What a funny thing to see.
10. What do you love the most about being your own boss? What do you dislike the most?
When you write you set your own hours. However, when you write fiction you can get too self absorbed into your own story that it’s difficult to stop and pay attention to the kids when your in the middle of a chapter. This happened to me a few years ago when I wrote a screenplay for Matt Damon’s Project Green Light Screenplay Contest. I was deep in the trenches writing to meet a deadline for the contest and it took too much concentration. I overlooked my kids and will never do that again. I switched to writing nonfiction which was easier to disengage from. When you write fiction you can get lost in the lives and emotions of your characters— that equals time.
11. What is the hardest part or have been some of your struggles starting your own business?
The rejection letters. I sent my book to every LDS publishing company. There are only ten. When Deseret rejected me I was annoyed. But Cedar Fort is larger than Deseret so I was thrilled when I got the call.
12. How do you balance your business and your family?
Very carefully. With tender care like fine china.
13. What or whom have you found to be the greatest support to you and to your business over the years? Your greatest drain?
My husband. I dedicated the book to him. We have been married 20 years and he knows how to calm my Type A personality. Without him nothing I want to accomplish in life would come true easily.
14. What are some of your short and long term goals with your business?
I realized I could make more money if I write a college textbook. So I have been working on a physical therapy college book. Also, I am kicking the idea around about writing an LDS children’s picture book series but I am looking for an illustrators to be my sidekick. In the words of Bilbo Baggins, “I feel like butter scraped over too much bread”. Eventually, I will get it all done but I don’t know when.
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Photos provided by Shannon.
Till next time.
Gloria
