Meet Samantha Fury

We were lucky to catch up with Samantha Fury recently and have shared our conversation below.

Samantha , looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

Hello! It’s great to be here with you and your wonderful readers. Thank you for including me.

I am a Christian author writing under the names of Samantha Fury and Samantha Lovern. I have eleven published novels in various genres. There is one western, one fantasy and a few are contemporary. There is one Christian drama and suspense, the Street Justice Series, which has four books … so far. All of my fiction novels include some romance.

I grew up, and live in Coal Country in Eastern Kentucky. My dad was a coal miner, and my mother, a homemaker. My grandparents farmed and my grandmother even made some of my clothes. We all worked together … in the home, on the farm and in the garden.

I was raised in a family who believes in God, hard work and being a good neighbor. My work ethics come from my parents. Dad, after a hard day in the mines, would do repairs and upkeep to our home and yard. Mom took care of the household, and cared for me and Dad.

Even though she didn’t foresee it, Mom was teaching me, even in play time, the basic groundwork for what I do today. This includes; illustrating children’s books, creating book covers and matching colors and themes, to name a few.

Before online shopping, companies would send catalogs in the mail. Mom and I would cut families out of the catalogs. We would design new clothes and place our characters in homes. All the while, we made up stories and lives for the families we had cut out of that old catalog. I’m grateful for this time with my mother, for more than one reason.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

What do I do? I write novels. I format books, and I design book covers, Newsletters and marketing images. I create videos, websites, and assist other authors with publishing their books. I own and operate over 25 websites and/or groups for Christian and Indie Authors.

One of the exciting things I do is creating new worlds, stories and characters. It’s hard to explain, but my stories flow from the inner workings of a very active mind, whether awake or asleep. And, I can’t help but put a little bit of everything my family has taught me into the various characters who are woven into the stories I am privileged to write.

I enjoy helping authors turn their visions into reality. It could be publishing a book, creating a book cover, a website or even a video. I work with covers and formatting more than anything. I help authors decide the best images, colors, and settings for their covers. Selecting the perfect models, with the appropriate clothing, hairstyle, theme, etc., is generally not an easy task.

I have firsthand knowledge that finding the perfect image is not always possible. I looked at hundreds of redheads before I found Charlie, one of the characters from my Street Justice Series. The image I used is still not the vision I see in my mind’s eye when I think of Charlie, but it works.

The book cover is a visual blurb. We have only seconds to pull in readers, to convince them to buy our book as they scroll across sites and storefronts. So, a cover needs to pop! It needs to look professional, explain the genre, give a plot preview, have fonts that are proportional, and accolades, if you have any. And, yes, that’s a lot, but it may be what sells the book!

As I said, I’ve been working with images, colors and design since I was a child, but I didn’t start publishing, and working with authors, until 2010. Since then, I have learned so much about what works and what doesn’t. I help authors in any way I can to create a cover that gets noticed but is still affordable.

I want my clients to succeed. I work with them long after the cover is completed. I give tips on marketing … ideas for what works and what doesn’t. I help with the release and promotions. I love return clients; they are a measure of my success. Also, along with the readers, authors can join my Reader’s Group.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

• Imagination
• The love and knowledge of design, images and colors.
• Determination

I think we are born with a gift, something we are good at that we love. You need to figure out what that is and do what it takes to accomplish that goal. Writers are born with a different way of thinking. Ever since I was little, I have told myself stories. I made up great adventures. When I was eight, I wrote a book, The Day the Sky Turned Green. It was a sci-fi novel, though at the time, I had no idea what the term sci-fi meant.

If you want to write, read a lot in the genre in which you wish to write. In my lifetime, I have read hundreds of romance novels and listened to hours and hours of audiobooks. And, it was very helpful.

I didn’t know it at the time, but I was doing exactly what I needed to do to help my future occupation. By the way, I don’t think that was an accident. God was helping to train me, even when I was a child.

Aspiring authors should join a writer’s forum, ask a lot of questions, talk to other authors. You may have the desire to write but there are so many things to learn. One example is POV (Point of View – who is doing or talking or thinking). You need to learn which POV to use and how to stay in POV, showing not telling, and proper punctuation. And, when you have written your first few chapters, have a seasoned author read it.

It’s best not to finish your book before you learn what you are doing wrong. It will save you time. Later, you will need beta readers, an editor and a cover artist. And, join Facebook groups, too. There are so many things to learn from your fellow authors.

We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?

I think it’s best to focus on what you love – what you’re good at. You should hone your talent, polish it until it shines! If you want to write, spend time writing, don’t go off in so many directions that you lose focus.

Why, you may ask?
Many new authors, after writing a book, try to do everything on their own. They want to make the cover, edit the book, format the book … it’s just so much to take on. It’s easy to get discouraged.

Maybe ask yourself, “Can I do these things? Will the cover I create represent the content? Will my formatting be precise and flow over the many devices used for eBooks?” Everyone who is good at writing is not going to be good at design or editing. You want your book to look great on the inside and outside.

So many authors come to me after weeks of trying to make a cover, or find the right image. When they see how quickly I can do it, and how good it looks, many of them say, “I should have hired someone to help me and saved all of that time.”

Focus on your strengths … on the stories you want to tell. I’m not saying that because I’ll get your business. Most of you who read this article won’t even remember my name, but I hope you will remember some of what I said.

I truly want to save you time, hardships and give your book the best fighting chance it can have. In a world where there are so many new books every day, trust me, you’ll need all the advantages you can get.

I sincerely hope you found something useful in this article. I love writing, and I love helping authors. If you want to know more, or have questions, or would like to join one of my groups, just give me a shout out!

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Author Photo’s Taken by Lisa S.

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