Interview with Tom Blubaugh

"Look for one thing, no matter how small, that will
change your perception, improve your writing, open another door."

Tom Blubaugh

 
This month we celebrate "Learn Something New" week — and as writers, this is a key part of becoming and staying successful. Even if the genre you are engaged in has been good to you in the past, it is always a good idea to get out of your writing rut and try something new. It's a form of stretching, of exercising, a way to energize your spirit and perhaps even find another type of writing that you are good at or enjoy.

And you also need to learn something new about marketing yourself, since this industry requires that you stay front and center if you want to catch the attention of editors, publishers, agents and, of course, readers. Tom Blubaugh knows all about exploring new fields and staying visible, and in this interview, he shares his experiences. A Kansas native, he has focused on nonfiction writer for most of his adult life, but in 2011 made his first foray into fiction with Night of the Cossack. (For more about Blubaugh, visit his website.)

Tom Blubaugh

Tell us a little about yourself. How long have you been writing? What type of writing do you do?
I burned out as an entrepreneur of 25 years in financial planning in 1995. This will surprise your readers—I was homeless in 1998. I learned how quickly a lifetime of hard work can disintegrate in a very short amount of time and how a life can morph into a more meaningful life than one has ever experienced in an equally short time span.

I began writing poetry when I was fourteen (1956)—mainly because I was too shy to share my feelings with girls. My next step was to convert some of my poetry into song lyrics for rock and roll artists, where I was sure would make tons of money. This didn’t materialize. I didn’t write any more, other than business letters, until I became a Christian in 1970. I began writing nonfiction articles for denominational and business magazines.

You self-published your first book, Behind the Scenes of the Bus Ministry, in 1974, but your subsequent books have been published by traditional publishers. Why did you choose to not self-publish these books?
I did not intend to market this book outside of seminars I was holding for churches. It was a compilation of two term papers I wrote in an evangelism class I attended at a Bible college.

Actually, I did try to get it published by a denomination. I made a trip to their headquarters and hand delivered it to a person I knew. Long story short—he lost my manuscript. This was back in the days before copy machines and computers so I didn’t have a backup. I did have the two term papers, but I would have to redo the work of combining them. I was too busy, so I put this on the back burner. In the meantime my manuscript showed up in the mail with a note attached that basically said, “not interested.” I wasn’t willing to take another risk so I had 150 copies printed. 

A funny story—I, for whatever reason, didn’t keep a copy for myself. After my latest book was published, my publisher found a lone copy of it on Amazon. I paid $10 plus shipping for a book I sold originally for $1.75. It was fun reading it again.

I found out through a post on an online writers group that Barbour Publishing was looking for writers of devotionals for The Great Adventure. I sent them a sample writing and they contracted me to write twenty devotionals. This was a joint effort with fourteen other writers around the country.

Do you have an agent?
I don’t have an agent. I looked for one for a children’s book and had no success. I looked for those who accepted submissions via email. After sixty rejections, I decided it wasn’t worth the effort and placed that book on hold for a while.

How long did it take for you to get a publisher for Night of the Cossack?
I didn’t intend to publish this book when I first started writing it in 2005. My intent was to create a grandfather with a little information I had. Both grandfathers died before I was born. I was filling a gap in my life and developing a legacy for my children/grandchildren. Somewhere along the way I thought I might have something worth publishing. I ran it by a published writer I met online, Michelle Buckman (Maggie Come Lately, My Beautiful Disaster and others). She did a little critiquing of the first chapter and agreed that it was worth pursuing. I joined a local critique group. 

When the manuscript was nearly finished, a friend came to me for help with setting up a website for an Christian independent publishing company he and his wife were starting (Bound by Faith Publishers). My story wasn’t a Christian story so I didn’t think anything about it. During the process of talking with them, I shared my own site where I had a link to the first chapter. They took note of it and when the went home they read the chapter. They called me and asked to read the manuscript and when finished, asked me if they could publish it. Not your normal publishing story.

The PR/marketing aspect can be so challenging for even the best writers. How do you promote your books? Of the different tactics you use, is there one that has really brought great results?

I have spent most of my adult life in marketing so I knew many tactics. I will tell you that marketing a book, as a relative unknown author, is the hardest thing I’ve done. I do a huge amount of marketing on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. I have The Write Trail blog, which is equally as hard to establish with followers (about 200 at present). I sell books fairly steadily, but in very small numbers. 

The tactic that works best is getting in front of people. Great results is a relative term. Compared to John Grisham, my results are minimal. Compared to some other writers I’ve talked to, I’m not doing too bad. I don’t think I’ve begun to scratch the surface yet.

You are connected with a number of writing sites plus use social media to promote yourself and your work. How do you keep a strong visible profile without letting it consume all your writing time? 

Now here’s a question! I don’t. I have been working hard for the past month to get myself organized so I can get back to writing. When I say writing, I mean beyond blog posts and interviews. I was a guest writer for a book Unshackled and Free: True Stories of Forgiveness by C. J. Hitz, Shelley Hitz and Heather Hart published in February of this year. I have many short articles I’ve written over the year that I’m combining into a book. But — actual BOB writing? Oh! BOB means butt on bench. I picked that up for a piano teach when I had big ideas of learning to play. Not!

I’ve just started writing a sequel for Night of the Cossack — actually I have about 60k words written as a narrative. I rejoined my local critique group as well as an online group to transform it into a novel. I’ve started another book about my life—The Four Books (the title might change). I’m excited about this since I think I have enough name recognition that it will sell.

Among the presentations you offer, you have one on “How to develop an author platform using social media and other tools.” Can you give us three top tips for maximizing social media?
This presentation is a WIP. As I learn things and see them work I write about them and send them to a young lady who develops them into quality PowerPoint presentations. No one has contacted me about this, so it is untested.

Three tips:

• Numbers attract numbers. The more friends; connections, followers, interviews, blog articles you have on the net, the more connections, followers, interviews, blog articles will come to you. 
• The deeper one drives a relationship, the more it will grow. Meaning, numbers are just numbers. To make them meaningful, it is necessary to turn them into quality relationships. Not all of them will develop, but many will. The number 200 is significant. There are an average of 200 at a wedding, a funeral, etc. 200 x 200 equals 40,000. It’s called exponential growth. 
• What goes around comes around. If one shares a writer’s blog article on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn—you will see your articles shared on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Do you do many personal appearances?
As many as I can. I speak to school writing classes, homeschool, church and social groups, and libraries.  

When you first started doing media events (interviews, book signings, talks, etc.) to promote a book, did you find it harder than you expected? 

Definitely. Not so much the interviews—blog, radio, talks—but book signings are tough. First, for some reason, they are difficult for me to obtain. Second, the ones I’ve done haven’t been very productive. I think that comes back to name recognition.

Looking back to your early days of being interviewed, is there anything you wish you had done differently?

No. It’s like everything else, you start shallow and go deep. It seems the interviewers are asking more in-depth questions now and my answers are deeper. I do have to be careful. Due to forty years of public speaking, I’m verbose. 

Your latest book,Night of the Cossack, is also your first foray into fiction. Why did you decide to try your hand at the historical fiction genre?

Night of the Cossack

Going back to an earlier question — I didn’t intend to publish what I was writing.

Did you find the writing process different for fiction than for non-fiction?
Very much—harder and it took a huge amount of research.

What inspired this book? What do you hope readers will gain from reading it?
My maternal grandfather—three facts: he was a Cossack soldier, he lived in Russian and he was a Jew. Knowing your ancestors is important—it’s belonging. We are all, at least my age, within two generations of being immigrants. Take time to know your ancestors. Get their history direct from then whenever possible. 

Where do you do most of your writing? Are there elements in your workspace that you feel add to your creativity?

I have pictures all over the wall of my time in the Navy, world globes, books, eagles, and other things that inspire me.

In keeping with the theme for the month — “Learn Something New” — what did you have to learn either in the process of writing this book or promoting it?

To not allow the presence of authors in the room to intimidate me. We all started in the same place—a blank sheet of paper.

Any last words of advice for writers to mark “Learn Something New Week”? 

Learn from every meeting and every speaker. Look for one thing, no matter how small, that will change your perception, improve your writing, open another door.

Thanks so much for sharing your experience with us here at The Writer's Place!