S. 4, Ep. 14: Interview with Crime Writer K’Anne Meinel

The Crime Cafe

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer K'Anne Meinel on the Crime Cafe podcast. Check out the show notes below. Or, if you’re in a rush, click here to download the transcript! Debbi: [00:00:13] Hi, everyone. This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense, and thriller writing. I'm your host Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest, I'll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two ebooks for sale: the nine-book boxed set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my website debbimack[dot]com under the "Crime Cafe" link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You'll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. [00:01:03] It's my pleasure today to have on an author with more than 100 published works including short stories, novels, and novellas. She works in a variety of genres, including crime fiction of course, and she's a USA TODAY bestselling author. She is also owner of Shadoe Publishing, amongst her other accomplishments. So it's my great pleasure to introduce K'Anne Meinel. Thanks for being here today, K'Anne. K'Anne: [00:01:38] Thank you for having me. Debbi: [00:01:41] It's my pleasure to have you on. Glad you're able to be here. So you've written an impressive number of works. How long have you written and published fiction? K'Anne: [00:01:55] I've written all my life but I've actually only published about eight years. But I had books waiting. I wrote my very first complete novel in 2003 and I did it in two weeks. Debbi: [00:02:12] Wow. K'Anne: [00:02:13] Yeah. Debbi: [00:02:13] That's impressive. Was that your completed draft or did you have to amend? K'Anne: [00:02:21] I played with it for eight years before I actually sought out publishers. Got 20 rejection letters, and something told me to go with self-publishing which has worked for me. Debbi: [00:02:34] That's excellent. Yeah. K'Anne: [00:02:35] Once I published it, I did get approached by a publisher, and I should have read more of the reviews because they turned out to be con artists. I've never received any residuals. Debbi: [00:02:49] Oh my gosh. K'Anne: [00:02:49] They stole it, and then I got my rights back. Using my lawyers. And they've never stopped publishing it. They keep stealing. Debbi: [00:03:03] Oh, my gosh. That's awful. K'Anne: [00:03:05] Yeah, it was a horrible experience. That's why you know I caution people. Yeah. Anybody can call themself a publisher but watch what they do. Debbi: [00:03:15] Right. Absolutely. And self-publishing ... you have your own imprint. I also have my own imprint and I think that's very important. K'Anne: [00:03:23] Yeah. Because a lot of self-published authors, if they don't have a so-called publisher behind them, some stores won't even consider them. Debbi: [00:03:34] Yes, exactly. Exactly right. It gives you a more professional image. K'Anne: [00:03:41] It does. It does. And I've compared my paperback books to some of the so-called professional books. Some people that I may compete with or whatever, and I'm very pleased with what we've produced. And it was a learning curve. You know I didn't walk into this knowing anything, but I really enjoy learning. It's a challenge. I absolutely love formatting my books. Once the story is written, then tweaking all the little fine details like putting in a doodad here that most people wouldn't notice. But when you're looking at a paperback and it feels different, accordingly, and you don't know why, it's because of those details. Debbi: [00:04:29] Yes. Yeah I really like self-publishing and the flexibility that it gives you. K'Anne: [00:04:40] Well, they're trying to make it a little harder. I notice with CreateSpace going away, because Amazon is bringing it back under their umbrella and it's no longer going to be a separate company.