Diana Laurence talks writing, publishing and erotica

May 10, 9:18 PMRomance Novel ExaminerMaddie James

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Diana Lawrence

You have to admire a woman who goes after what she wants with gusto. Although I've not met Diana Laurence face to face, it's evident from our email correspondence, and the following interview, that she works hard at her craft and dream--in both traditional, and untraditional, ways. And guess what? It works! So without delay, let's here more from this talented author and publisher.

Maddie: I know you’re working on an exciting new project at the moment. Can you tell us about it?

Diana: In April I was contacted by the publishing director of Sellers Publishing, a very successful mid-sized publisher. She said they were working on a new book idea and she had found my work online and thought I'd be the perfect person to write it. I know, it was a little like the old story of Lana Turner being discovered at a soda fountain! We brainstormed, I did an outline, the project was greenlit and they offered me a superb contract. I'm writing the book now for an early 2010 release and the working title is How to Catch and Keep a Vampire: A Step-by-Step Guide to Loving the Bad and the Beautiful. It's half humor, half a self-help book about self-actualization and relationships. The idea is brilliant and I feel like I was born to write this book. And I'm looking forward to the new experience of seeing a title of mine on the shelves of brick-and-mortar stores for the first time. Being sought out and "courted" by a successful publisher was an incredible experience and I still wonder if I'm dreaming.

Maddie: I'd love to hear more about your "erotica with soul" style of writing.

Diana: Well, Maddie, I'm sort of an unusual hybrid in that I really love writing about sex, but I've never been turned on by coarse language. I have no trouble being really graphic in my sex scenes, but I look at the sex act as something that can be quite transcendent. So while I spare no details, my love scenes are more about the emotional and spiritual impact of the act.

Ever since I was a teenager, I wrote about sex this way for my own enjoyment. Then back in 2004 I wrote some sexually graphic Star Wars fan fiction and posted it online. All of a sudden I was getting email from readers who just loved the combination of sensuality and sweetness in my style. And they said they had never encountered anything like it.

I'd been freelance writing for thirty years by this time, and it had never occurred to me to write erotic romance. But I thought, "What if there are other readers like me, and they just can't find enough of this sort of material to read?" I rewrote my Star Wars tale without the stuff that would get me sued by George Lucas. And I found a publisher on my second submission. Then I found a second publisher interested in a whole collection of my "soulful sex" stories, which was called Soulful Sex: Erotic Tales of Fantasy and Romance. And I was off!

Maddie: You've taken a different approach to publishing. Can you tell us more about that?

Diana: Be delighted to! After my happy start--my first volume of Soulful Sex tales became my publisher's best seller and won several awards--I kept going like gangbusters. I published a novel next, Souls' Embrace and then Soulful Sex Volume II  and a combined paperback. Things went great with that publisher, but the other one I was working with turned out to be less than scrupulous, so I withdrew my titles from them. And then, I was about to publish Soulful Sex III when my good publisher closed its doors.

They say it's always darkest before the dawn and that sure proved true for me. My publisher suggested I consider publishing my books myself. I don't mean self-publishing as it is usually thought of today, using a company like Lulu or IUniverse. I mean actually doing it all myself. I realized I knew enough about the business to try it, and in fact I had a little publishing house already set up, called Living Beyond Reality Press, which I had used for my first two titles back in 1998.

Needless to say, technology had really changed. I truly had all the tools I needed to turn out absolutely professional print books and ebooks at a very low initial investment. I set myself up with Lightning Source, Inc. for printing and distribution. I hired an illustrator and an editor. I did the typesetting and file prep and all the business jazz. It took me only a month (while still having a full time "day job") to republish my back list as well as my new title.

I also published a traditionally-printed press run of a set of romance fortune telling cards I called "Diana's Deck." It was something I really wanted to do, but my publisher had not been keen on. I wrote and illustrated the cards, based on my story characters, and it was just a blast doing something so different. They were even featured in a card collector's magazine.

By the way, I also wrote a book detailing step-by-step the processes I use as a publisher. It's available as an ebook (pdf) and is called Do-It-YourSelf-Publishing.

Maddie: What do you feel is your biggest success pursuing this publishing route?

Diana: I think you're getting a sense of what I find most beneficial about being my own publisher: I have all the control. I can take risks and do things no one else has done before. I have a marvelous editor who reports right to me. I am blessed to have a daughter who is an amazing photographer, artist, and graphic designer so I get to have gorgeous covers exactly how I want them to be. I do the book blocks myself so I know they are practically perfect (hey, nobody's totally perfect!). I love the security of knowing no one else can pull my titles from availability.

Most aspiring authors know that unless you're an elite writer, you have to do all your own marketing. My day job is in marketing, especially on the web, so that's fortuitous too. So in short, I lost nothing and gained everything in becoming my own publisher. You can't put a price on this kind of freedom and control. Oh, and in case people are wondering, I sure do make a lot more money this way too! :-)

Maddie: You now have ten books in print and a couple dozen ebooks. Is there a favorite among them? Why?

Diana: I'm really happy with all of them, but the past four paperbacks have all been really special and I'll tell you about those!

In 2007 I thought of the idea of writing a romance book with a team of reader/fans. I didn't think a book had ever been done that way. So I ended up recruiting 63 people to assist with the project. They chose the genre, point of view, etc., and named the main characters, and gave me input and suggestions throughout the writing process. A smaller group of six served as advance readers and helped edit the entire book. It was a wonderful experience!

The resulting novel was my vampire romance Bloodchained, which is on track to be my bestselling title very soon. Bloodchained is about rather untraditional blood-drinkers, whose origins are actually based in love rather than evil, so it's unique and rather fun that way. Anyway, the response of my readers to this book prompted me to write a sequel, which I'm working on right now and should come out in fall 2009.

After BC, I decided to go back to short stories and write my seventh collection of erotic romance tales. But again, due to my editorial freedom, I was able to make the choice to write some stories that didn't necessary have the HEA ending every time. I wrote some darker tales for a change...and although they are still true to my style, they explore some thrilling new territory. I was delighted with the 12 tales that came out of this experiment; Soulful Sex: The Darker Side was released in February 2009, and is my favorite of the collections.

Almost simultaneously I fulfilled a lifelong dream and wrote a comic book! Yes, I am a total geek, and I've always wanted more than anything to have a comic book with my characters in it. I made the acquaintance of a wonderful fan of mine named CC Rogers who had a similar dream and adored Bloodchained. So we collaborated on a spinoff story called Sign of the Bloodletters which actually introduces two main characters in the upcoming BC sequel. She did an absolutely amazing job. I published the comic as both a free online ebook and in print--both in full color. And we are thrilled to find it is really very popular!

My most recent release (April 2009) is another departure in that it is not a romance. It's called Looking on Darkness and is a mainstream novel about what I call "psychological vampirism." The story follows four characters in 1991 Milwaukee who come together, resulting in love, sex, danger, miracles and disaster, not necessarily in that order! LOL I happen to be a great devotee of Carl Jung, and this book explores a number of his theories in a way I have always wanted to do. I don't know that any romance publisher on the planet would have been willing to take a chance on this book, but it is the most "literary" of my works and I'm thrilled to have it in print at last. (I wrote the first draft in 1991!)

Maddie: Can you tell us about the LBR Press READ FREE Project?

Diana: Since 2005 I have been offering free ebooks via this project through my publishing house. I currently have seven titles that readers can read online, or download in Adobe pdf or Microsoft Reader lit formats.

I just felt as a new, unknown writer back then, I wanted to give people a chance to try me out before they laid their money down for my books. And the excerpts I offered on my Web site didn't seem like quite enough. The other factor is that honestly, I'd rather have readers than wealth! And thousands of people have discovered my work this way.

I get fan mail for all the free stories but three of them are really special. I have a full length novel of Star Wars fan fiction there called The Golden Padawan, which I can't legally sell of course. I also have a novella called Gift of Flesh about a concubine and the man who must deliver her to a foreign king. It's a favorite! I also have a very popular story called "The Scarlet Shackle" about a woman made into a love slave by an intriguing man who is rather Mr. Rochester-esque. It's mild BDSM but focuses mostly on the emotional aspects of the Dominance/submission theme.

Offering these titles free has been a lot of fun and is definitely a great marketing tool!

Maddie: Nowadays authors do need to be great promoters as well as writers. What other kinds of things do you do to promote your books?

Diana: I do the usual stuff all authors do, so I'm trying to think of the more interesting stuff. Well, I think I'm the only author who likes to do portraits of her characters. For almost all my heroes and heroines up until the last couple of books, I did portraits that you can see on my Character Gallery. It's just another fun thing on my Web site I hope will draw people in and entertain them.

I also spend a lot of time blogging. My blog, Erotica with Soul has brought in many new fans. I write about anything related to love, sex and romance, often in connection with pop culture. There's quite a bit of psychology on the blog too. One of my most popular posts is on how to get over a crush. And a lot of people discover the blog by finding my posts about the wonders of their favorite TV and movie characters, like Jim on "The Office" and the gang from "Lost." I've also raved endlessly about my personal inspirations, like Les "Survivorman" Stroud and author Neil Gaiman.

What I love about today's marketing is the emphasis on "pull" rather than "push." Instead of annoying people with banner ads or promos on Yahoo groups, I prefer to just put out there anything I can that might be interesting and entertaining to readers. If they like my work, they will get my books. It's all about "pull," and to my mind it's a much happier way of doing promotion--everyone wins!

Maddie: I love that pull, rather than push, advice. Now, here is the totally off-writing subject question. What's the coolest, wackiest, most risk-taking thing you've ever done?

Diana: This is just such an awesome question! Here's what I have in response. As another hobby of mine, I write and maintain possibly the largest Web site for any pro athlete, a tribute to a former NHL player named Guy Carbonneau. Because he is from Quebec, most of the site is in French as well as English. And because he is hugely famous in Canada, I have been asked to appear both on Quebec radio and TV in the past, speaking in French. It was absolutely terrifying to me, but just such an off-the-wall thing I simply had to do it.

Yeah, I've had an interesting life! And I just want to keep writing and sharing my characters with new readers for decades to come. Thanks for letting me meet your readers, Maddie!