Ashley C Harris and in 2016 my dreams
since I was a child came true I’ve been
an author and have been putting out
books for years but I became in 2016 an
international best-selling novel or an
international best-selling author
through my book troll and I have prior
tonight I had nine other books out so
troll made my tenth novel and I have
another novel coming out the snake so
it’s with this experience and the
experience of two of my screenplays
being adopted it’s an independent
feature bones that I’d like to present
my own journey and idea to book to
publish so an idea every book and in
fact every object in this room that you
see really started with an idea in
someone’s mind my very first idea for
the first book that I ended up getting
published titled shock me it came to me
in the form of a dream I at 13 years old
had a very vivid exciting and I’d almost
say life dream only because I just
couldn’t shake it and the dream was
about a character that I had a girl that
I’ve never met before I just kind of
dreamed her up it was older than me but
she had an incredible secret power
so I dreamed the stream when I was 13
years old and I saw a whole adventure in
the stream that she had in my head and I
woke up I had to go to school but I was
so excited about what I had dream so I
went to school and I quickly while I was
in class during my free time I just
began taking notes on everything from my
dream from what my characters looked
like to what the main girl in my dreams
relationship was with everyone she had
interacted with and over the course of
the next three months I can post 40
short stories as a kid about this girl
and I could post short stories and
cut pictures on a magazine and I made
storyboards of what things that would be
in her life and I did comic book type
sketches and I created just a short
little series of my own and then I put
it in boxes and I put it away so that
years later when I was 18 I actually
dropped the same dream again and I
actually even before that jumped the
stream several times so this character
that I had created through the idea of
the dream she was literally haunting me
it’s like every once in a while I would
have the same dream over and over
so at 18 as a senior in high school I
thought I need to take all my short
stories make an outline and really write
a novel series about this character and
I did so I actually wrote a five-part
novel series a five-part novel series
and what you guys are actually seeing is
the finished product ten years later
after it had become a best-selling
series but in order to get it to the
best-selling story is really where my
journey of trying to get a book
published
well a few novels published began so I
was 18 and as I described I had an idea
I have made an outline and whatever I
make an outline for a book I really
think it’s important that you want to
hold and sharpen your outline to what
moves the plot you really want to take
the reader on a journey almost as if
they’re reading a book but almost as if
they’re watching a movie you want your
story to move so I hold it outline I
wrote my books but then I just I needed
to figure out how can I get these novels
published now keep in mind this is
before an e-book was ever created so we
only had the old publishing novel but he
came to getting a book out there so the
first thing I thought I need to do when
I was a teen was I wanted to research
the publishing industry but it was on it
just seems so difficult to try to get
your work into an agent’s hand and then
an agent within sell your novel I was
like I need to find a mentor I need to
find someone
that’s actually published a book before
through a company that could kind of
just give me some advice so and this I
just have the old publishing model here
before the invention of an e-reader
ebooks so when I was 18 I started my
freshman year at FAU and I ended up in a
glass with a woman that was a little bit
older than me she was going back for her
third degree and when we introduced
herself she said she was an honor so I
went home and I googled her and it turns
out she had written 30 plus romance
novels that had been published way
harlequin and some her young adult novel
silastic s– she was very successful and
I was so as a 18 year old I was so
excited I was like oh my gosh I’m in a
class with someone I want to be like so
I went to this woman and like I said she
was going back for her third degree and
she was the mother and she was very busy
but I said could you help me with the
second step in the old publishing model
process
I finished the Bible I wanted to write a
query letter to get it into an agent’s
hands and she was very nice but she said
you know I only she said during lunch
I’ll sit with you when I eat my lunch
and I’ll help you with a query letter
but she said after that you know she you
know she was busy which in life our
mentors can never do everything for you
they often have their own lives and
they’re accomplishing they’re only doing
it so keep in mind a mentor is not a
person who’s going to accomplish your
dream only you can do that with artwork
so she sat down and she wrote a query
letter with me and I sent that query
letter out and I got lots of rejections
but I did end up getting feedback from
agents from the singham agency that it
published huge what I consider Giants in
the industry I just did two examples I
heard back from the agency that well
from two agents actually in the agency
that had represented the Twilight series
The Fault in Our Stars and though I
didn’t what I wanted with those agents
instead you know I just I was 18 I was
like my novel to get published and I
wanted it to be successful but it was
through getting that Vikes
and mentorships with different people in
the industry that two of my screenplay
student I’m not getting adopted into
independent feature films and I ended up
by you know like octave college I was
getting working on projects and getting
credits and IMDB and I was working on
independent film sets when I was writing
and it was very exciting but I still
hadn’t accomplished what my original
goal was which was to get my books
published and if there were young adult
novels so into young adult and so I had
received a lot of rejections but I
always kept in mind that a lot of good
authors very successful authors had been
rejected so I just I believe migrating
was possible and I kept going in 2010
everyone changed the Apple launched
their iPad and ereader started to come
out now 2010 seems like a long time ago
but I almost feel like now that I’m
almost I’ve always had a good reader
even though I haven’t it’s like our
iPads and our technology and our phones
have become a normal part of everyday
life with um the invention of the iPad
first came out a lot of people in the
industry it was maxed with it was bad
with a lot of opposition they didn’t
know that he books would be popular but
this really worked for others a lot of
people had that were at the top of the
industry said if you’re at a book was a
success that really didn’t mean the same
thing as a physical book Venus success
what in 2012 ebooks started to gain
traction and authors that publishing
companies were only doing eBook releases
were becoming international bestsellers
and selling millions of copies so I want
to say even though the iPad came out in
2010 it was until 2012
but it really started to gain traction
people in the industry were like oh if
you put your book as an e-book it
actually can be a big deal in 2013 30%
of adults were reading on tablets and
when that number grew to 40 percent in
2014 and it varies now at 50 to 60
percent some months we’ll say it’s lower
people prefer physical books I still
prefer both I like to read an e-book but
also a physical book there’s like
there’s nothing like it so in 2013 we
will go back here in 2013 my parents and
my sister came to me and they said you
know you’re reading ebooks were reading
ebooks you ought to put one of your
novels out there and just see what
happens
and at first I said I didn’t want to do
that I just wanted to do the old
publishing novel and just achieve when I
first set out to achieve but they kept
telling you know they kept encouraging
me so I said well if we’re going to do
this as a professional and I was working
behind the scenes in live television I
thought I want to do this to the most
professional excellent degree that I
could do it if I was going to put a book
out there I wanted it to almost seem as
if it was being put out there by a big
publishing company so for eight months I
actually I didn’t put a book out right
away I just studied I started looking at
all books that had that were becoming
best-selling fun that we’re becoming
successful and I thought how can I
imitate this so I just kept studying and
studying the industry and I decided I
start to I decided that I was going to
put my book out there but I was going to
reach out to some of the people behind
the scenes that were helping books
become successful so I actually started
emailing and facebooking and trying to
connect with mentors online that had
helped other books become a success
behind the scenes and some of them
actually when they heard about the idea
for my novel they began partnering with
me and together we made an outline or a
plan so just like I outlined my book
he actually made an outline of how we
could put a book out there might for for
them I was the first independent author
to be working with but we wanted to do
it in a big way
so after it my first novel came out
titled shop that was based on that dream
that idea it took about eight or nine
months but it finally hit the amazon
bestsellers lists and what it was first
released i wanted to give the novel an
edge that made it different and I was
you know I was working in film and I was
noticing all the trailers that for books
that were coming out were just you know
just words kind of slowly moving across
the cover which with music which is so
good but I thought I’m going to create a
more like movie kind of book trailer and
I felt things myself I used stock
footage I cast actors and I put a
trailer out there and USA Today anything
about picking up my trailer and
featuring it right as my novel was on
release and this is usatoday.com
but that definitely gave my book of push
some of those people i’ve had partnered
and that networked when they helped set
my book shocked me when it first came
out a really big reading Club on
Goodreads that had hundreds of members
they picked my novel to be one of their
books in the month so that definitely
helped my novel to eventually become a
success and then I have seven other
bestselling novels independently coming
up after that that in 2015 I finally got
my first official book deal with the
novel troll it’s a young adult but young
adult novel and I got my first book deal
and I was so excited and the following
year it became an international
bestseller 2016 it the number one spot
in the Amazon paranormal and fantasies
storm that were winding the best-selling
book and then this is actually snapshot
from two days ago I saved it on my
computer because I’m so excited that
troll was actually next to Twilight
winters I have considered these like
industry giant books especially
Shadowhunters have been out I want to
say since I was 13
even when you go to Barton level now
there’s always a big display for
Shadowhunters
so as dorky as this is this is my
passion this is my industry and I just
continue to keep putting books out there
and believe that you should never give
up and that you should believe in your
dreams so I’m here to book to publish
this is just my outline but I believe
that you should believe in your idea
even if you think it seems silly tome
your outline to what moves the story
which is really important from what I
write screenplays also finish your novel
I find so many creative people who come
ask me you know what were my steps for
how I got my book out there but they
they haven’t finished their books yet
they just they have a lot of types that
aren’t done finishing your book is so
important you don’t have our product
until you actually finished it so even
if you think what you’re writing isn’t
good get from the beginning to the end I
had an editor which is something I
didn’t talk about but I think it’s very
important to have outside people look at
your work and hope you added it and hone
it find mentors who have achieved what
you desire and partner with them that’s
so important we all work together better
in groups we all have different talents
so when you create a creative team you
will all bring different things to it
make a goal for your book in yourself
and they get out like that you can
realistically achieve these goals and
then never give up you never know what’s
going to happen this is my novel it’s
coming out in May I want to thank
everybody for listening to this speech and have a wonderful thing