Interview: Agay Llanera (author of Vintage Love)

Cover designed by Gerry Isaac

Is this your first published book ever? What took you so long?
It's my first published novella! I have three published children's books, but I've always wanted to finish a long-ish story, and the romance novella was the perfect format to achieve this goal.

What made you decide to finally write something and publish it?
Romance class with Mina Esguerra! I had actually submitted the story to a publisher last year but I never heard from them. When I heard about #romanceclass, I readily joined with the finished manuscript. I gained a lot of helpful feedback about it, which was crucial in improving the story. I decided to publish it because I was inspired by Mina and my classmates, who are such fearless, good writers.

Did/do you have any fears about going indie?
Yes. I've always shunned technical stuff, and self-publishing means following certain technical rules so you can publish on on online book distributors such as Kindle and Smashwords. Right now, I'm figuring out how to create the PDF file so I can have the book printed in paperback.

What was the most surprisingly pleasant part of the process of writing and publishing your book?
It was nice being totally hands-on with the whole process--finding an editor, a cover artist, conceptualizing the cover, and formatting the manuscript so it'd be fit for publication.

What's the part that you'd prefer someone else do for you?
Marketing! I'm still in the process of learning how to sell my book without spamming people.

What has been the most awesome response to your book (by a stranger) so far?
When I posted the first two chapters at Wattpad, someone commented that she was blown away, and that she was definitely going to buy my book. *kilig*

What's the next book going to be about?
I'm deciding between writing about a collegiate volleyball varsity player or a girl obsessed with Paris (the city, not the person).

Buy Vintage Love! 
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/336762
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Vintage-Love-ebook/dp/B00DWO33UA