Interview: Author Rob Costelloe

Each month I interview an author on my website for the Reading page. I find these interviews compelling so I decided to share them with the Sling Words audience too.

Rob Costelloe is the author of Coinage of Commitment. His book was a finalist in the 2008 National Indie Excellence Book Awards.

How To Get The Book

Here are the details on Rob's book so you can request it at your local library or purchase it at your favorite online bookstore.

Coinage of Commitment
ISBN: 978-1-894936-83-5
Available from Amazon.com, and BarnesandNoble.com
To purchase from Waldenbooks, with free shipping, call 1-281-469-1901
For a free excerpt from the book, go to Rob's website. He invites you to visit Rob's Blog also.

Q & A

Joan: How many years from your first manuscript to your first sale?

Rob: 1.2, that is, 14 months

Joan: What has been your best experience as a published author?

Rob: Finalist honors in the National Indie Excellence 2008 Book Awards.

Joan: What has been your worst experience as a published author?

Rob: Still can't get an agent or a major publisher!

Joan: What has surprised you most as a professional writer?

Rob: How few dollars there are in Internet sales (of fiction)!

Joan: If you could write any story, without regard to it selling or any of those other business issues, what would you write?

Rob: COINAGE OF COMMITMENT is the love story I always dreamed of writing as great literature. At one point, I even pulled it off the market for a rewrite because I realized that it was not yet good enough to fulfill the dream. Even the cover image had to be perfect before going to press. Much of the reader feedback has been what I had hoped for, but is an author ever satisfied with sales?

Joan: What do you love about your career?

Rob: I love reader feedback jubilant enough about what my book gave them that it makes me forget the despair over making it good enough. I love the way my imagination crackles with energy when I rise at 4:30 a.m. I love editing a ms with multiple passes until very word sings.

Joan: What do you hate about your career?

Rob: I hate the feeling that there's probably some promo angle that I've overlooked and should be working on, that I'm not doing enough.

Joan: If you got a big 6-figure advance for a book, what's the first thing you'd buy for yourself?

Rob: I'd buy a vacation in London as a treat for my wife (and me).

Joan: What is the best advice you can give beginning writers?

Rob: Don't even think about writing fiction unless you have another source of income.

Final Thoughts

Joan: What would you like readers to know?

Rob: I'm flattered that many readers insist that COINAGE OF COMMITMENT is so vividly written that it must be autobiographical. But it isn't.