Boksburg author finds great success on Amazon
The Dragonian Series (published under Adrienne Woods) has been her top bestselling title so far.
An international diverse author of fantasy, mystery and romance has already achieved great success in our midst.
Erika Bester has lived in Sunward Park for the past six years.
Bester has decided to publish directly on Amazon, instead of trying to publish hard-copies to be distributed into a book retail store.
“Traditional publishing is extremely difficult to get accepted into if you don’t have credentials in the writing industry. “So, I guess I gave up after a long struggle with traditional publishing. But I discovered how easy it was to self-publish,” said Bester.
“I know a lot of readers think that everyone and anyone can publish, and that indie novels are no good at all; that they’re not up to the traditionally published novel standards, but I promise you that that’s far from the truth.
“More and more indie authors reach top Amazon lists as opposed to traditional authors. A book is a book, as long as it goes through a really good editing process, has a good cover that fits, and tells a brilliant story. Then it won’t and doesn’t make a difference if it’s traditional or indie published.”
She said the self-publishing route also gives an author all the perks of not having to change their story to suit a particular publishing house.
“I guess I always wanted to be an author, but it only became a reality at age 29 when I penned down my first novel, which I am rewriting at the moment,” said Bester.
Bester is categorised under the top 100 of Amazon authors.
The first novel in the he Dragonian Series is called Firebolt, followed by Thunderlight, Frostbite, Moonbreeze and Starlight.
“I have no idea how many copies I have sold to date, but I know I’m on five figures. My best month was when I released the third novel in the series, selling almost 2000 copies of each title in the series in one month.”
Pen names
Bester, who is also working on the Dream Casters series, writes under several pen names for each different genre.
“Adrienne Woods is for my young adult fans, while Isabella White is a still relatively new pen name, under which I write the 4Ever series.
“And then I have two other pen names; Kristin Ping, for my paranormal genre (Immortal: Guardian of Monsters), and a fourth, Judith Hollstrom, which will be used for my horror/thriller genres.”
Bester said during her research period she has discovered that if you are an author looking to adapt to multiple genres it’s best to use different pen names.
“I have seen how with authors are impacted negatively if they write different genres under one name. For example, when readers do not like a particular novel of the author, this might result in lowering ratings for other novels they wrote under the same name.
“This is why I write under different names, even though it’s hard work as you have to treat each pen name as an individual, meaning plenty of social media accounts, plenty of email addresses, plenty of websites.”
Bester refuses to work on a novel if she doesn’t know how it’s going to end.
“My outline is done to the tee in my head before I start writing the novel. It can take anything from two weeks to a month.
“Firebolt took me about two years to finish. The first few always takes the longest, or until a switch flip in your brain and it becomes easier to come up with plots and work out characters.”
Bester works on sever novels at the same time.
“I am a mood writer, so it all depends on what mood I’m waking up in. I struggle to write if I only have one novel to concentrate on, and on certain days I work on three at the same time.
“Since my stories are so well outlined, I can easily start writing where I left. At the moment I’m working on a boxed set called the ‘What If’ series that goes hand in hand with the 4Ever series by Isabella White, my romance pen name.”
- Advice to writers
To those in the Boksburg community who dream of being writers, Bester says: never give up.
“If you want to be a writer then be a writer. Be open to learn from other authors. Never think it’s too early to start getting your name out there.
“Belong to a writing community. Facebook has plenty of them and are full of authors that have made a success from their writing.
“Make Google your best friend. Everything you want to know is on the internet.
“The best part of being a writer is that I can experience so many things, journeys, and characters’ lives through all my stories. That is the part I’m addicted to. It goes without saying that I love to see how intense I can make that emotional roller coaster for the readers.”
Bester has a lot of plans for the future and is running a publishing company with South African author, Carlyle Labuschagne.
They hope to grow the company over the next five years, hoping to one day cover all the facets of publishing, such as designing.
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