Today we’d like to introduce you to Kimberly Belle.
Kimberly, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I wasn’t one of those authors who penned their first story in crayon. I worked for years in fundraising for nonprofits and though the work was fulfilling, something about it always felt off, like there was something else I was supposed to be doing. In 2008, when the market crashed, so did my job. I chose to see it as a now-or-never moment. I could either go find another job, or I could write that novel I’d always dreamed of writing.
There are many ways to become published these days, but I did it the traditional way — I signed with an agent, who sold my books to a publisher. My first novel was released in 2014 and since then, I’ve been cranking out a book each year. My fourth, Three Days Missing, releases in June.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Nothing in publishing is ever smooth. My editor left around the time my second book came out, and without someone pushing the marketing and sales department to get things done, it didn’t do as well as I would have liked. By that time my third novel, The Marriage Lie, was already in the publisher’s pipeline, but my new editor wanted to wait and see what the sales numbers would be before offering me another contract. That book did really well, so when it came time to negotiate, my agent and I had the upper hand. I guess that would be my biggest piece of advice. Buckle down and produce the best work you can, and success will come.
what should we know about your business? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I write suspense that’s been described as “taut” and “emotional searing.” My stories are about women and their relationships — parent-child, husband-wife, siblings. I love exploring the emotions that come along with these kinds of bonds, mostly because they’re so universally recognizable. Toss in the suspense angle — a lying spouse, a child gone missing — and it’s a what-if scenario everyone can imagine themselves in. That’s the appeal of the genre, actually, that people will read it and think, that could have been me.
For good reason, society often focuses more on the problems rather than the opportunities that exist, because the problems need to be solved. However, we’d probably also benefit from looking for and recognizing the opportunities that women are better positioned to capitalize on. Have you discovered such opportunities?
Women are writing some of the best suspense these days. Gillian Flynn and Karin Slaughter and Tana French and Laura Lippman, to name just a few. They’re writing stories for and about women and they’re some of the finest fiction out there.
Pricing:
- The Marriage Lie, $7.99 (ebook) and $10 (paperback)
- Three Days Missing, $7.99 (ebook) and $15.99 (paperback)
- The Last Breath, $6.99 (ebook) and $12.50 (paperback)
- The Ones We Trust, $6.99 (ebook) and $12.50 (paperback)
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kimberlybellebooks.com
- Email: kimberly@kimberlybellebooks.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kimberlysbelle
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KimberlyBelleBooks/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/KimberlySBelle
- Other: https://www.goodreads.com/KimberlyBelle
Image Credit:
Sherri Innis, Harper Collins
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