A word or two about indie author Carol Ervin

Another of the authors taking part in Saturday’s Indie Author Day is Carol Ervin. Her story is all too common. After years of writing, she had begun to doubt that success would come to her. And (as she wryly observes) she wasn’t getting any younger. So she decided after a lot of thought and deliberation to self-publish The Girl on the Mountain. “When I decided to publish on my own, I thought I’d learned enough from forums, blogs, and books to equal a bachelor’s degree in independent publishing,” said Carol. “Still, I felt I was exposing myself as an idiot that day in 2012 when I hit the ‘publish’ button on the Kindle Direct Publishing website. Three years later, I think I’ve surely accumulated enough knocks to equal a Ph.D.”

The Girl on the Mountain is historical fiction. It is set in 1900 in a mountain logging town. Although it does not feature significant events or important historical persons, Carol regards it as “period fiction” because it shows how people were affected by the economy, culture and setting of the time. It is both a character and plot-driven story, and judging from reader responses, those features and the historical setting are responsible for its appeal.

Carol published a sequel (Cold Comfort) the next year. Then in 2014, she published the third in the series (Midwinter Sun) plus something different, a science/fiction dystopian novel (Dell Zero). Her fifth publication was Ridgetop, the remake of a story that had been in the drawer for about ten years.

Carol chose to release her novels as ebooks. She’s had mixed results. But what she has a wealth of is knowledge about how to self-publish and self-market books. Come to Indie Author Day. Carol will be glad to talk shop with you or merely share her inspiration for her stories, which are really exceptional.

In addition to Carol, a number of other authors will be in the gallery celebrating Indie Author Day. Besides myself (I'm more of an illustrator than an author .... at least for now), Betty Freberg, Fran Thomas, Michael Silberg and Tom Hall will be on hand. They'll have books, signing pens and lots of knowledge and stories to share. So I hope to see you Saturday. Indie Author Day runs from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.