Life After College – Author Interview – ChaChanna Simpson

As a student you have been told what to do your entire life, first by your parents then your teachers, but what happens after the ink on the college diploma is dry? Our guest non-fiction author today, is ChaChanna Simpson and she is here to shed some light on life after college with her latest book, Life After College: What Your Parents and Professors Never Taught You.

 

 

About the Book:

Don’t know what your next step is now that college is over?
You’ve been in college for four years and finally it’s time for you to go out on your own into the real world. Now that you’ve graduated from college or are about to graduate, you are no doubt wondering:

“I’ve graduated from college, now what do I do?”
“How do I adjust to moving back home with my family?”
“Why is it taking so long for me to find a job?”
“How do I focus on what I want to do rather than what my parents want me to do?”
“How do I manage my finances?”
“What’s a 401k?”
“How do I get an apartment?”

And those questions are just the beginning. Life After College: What Your Parents and Professors Never Taught You answers these questions and provides solutions you can immediately use to help make your transition from college life into the real world easier. This informative no nonsense guide covers diverse topics from moving back home to money management to job etiquette to searching for your first apartment. Also included are stories and tips from recent college grads sharing their wisdom and experiences so you know you are not alone in trying to make it in the real world.

 

Hi ChaChanna

Welcome to Paperback Writer.

Would you share with us how you came up with the idea for your book?

Sure, the book is based off of my website, Twentity.com, which is an Internet magazine for recent college grads on what to expect after college. I really collected articles I had already written, updated them and put them together in print form. I really wanted to reach this audience to prevent those just graduating from making costly mistakes.

Was it a light bulb moment or something that you thought about for a very long time?

It really was. I had always wanted to write a book. But I could never think of a topic. Then one day it came to me that I have these articles on my site already, so why don’t I just take the ones relevant to just graduating from college and work from there.

How did you come up with the title?

That was a long process. I’m not even going to share some potential titles I had. Looking back I don’t know what I was thinking. It was just one day, while I was brainstorming I thought about what this book was really about and it just came to me.

How did you find an agent and publisher?

I don’t have an agent. I used Booklocker.com, a print-on-demand company. The owner of the company also has a newsletter that I receive and that is how I found out about it. I compared the cost of using other P.O.D. companies and selected the one who would give me the best bang for my buck, and let me retain all rights to my work.

Who reads your work in progress?

I have a friend who is an editor and she gets the pleasure of reading my works in progress.

Who made a difference in the book’s quality?
Both my editor and my marketing coach. My editor was good enough to tell me that I had to cut the content down and really pick topics that were relevant. My marketing coach told me to add stories from recent college grads and I know both suggestions made it a much better book.

How long did it take you to complete the first draft?

It took six months to get it all down and in order.

How long did it take from start to publication?

From the time I wrote the first word to when I had the first copy in my hand was about a year and two months.

Do you have any advice for new authors?

Yes, I have had plenty of people tell me that they want to write a book and ask me how do I did it. And to all those would-be authors, I want to say if you want to write a book, just start writing. You don’t have to write the whole book in one day. Commit to writing one sentence, paragraph or page a day. And after awhile you will have a manuscript. Take it one step at a time.

Thank you, ChaChanna for stopping by Paperback Writer on your virtual book tour. I wish you continued success through the rest of you tour.

Thank you for having me, it’s been stellar!

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Life After College: What Your Parents and Professors Never Taught You Virtual Book Tour ’08 officially began on August 4, 2008 and will continues all month. You can visit [name] tour stops at http://www.virtualbooktours.wordpress.com in August to find out more about (his/her) and (his/her) book.

As a special promotion for all our authors, Pump Up Your Book Promotion is giving away a FREE virtual book tour to a published author with a recent release or a $50 Amazon gift certificate to those not published who comment on our authors blog stops. More prizes will be announced as they come available. The winners will be announced on http://www.virtualbooktours.wordpress.com on August 31!

Please leave your comments along the tour stops and join us on August 31 to see if you are a winner.