It’s Meet the Author Monday! Each week we meet a new author and get to know a little about them, their writing process, publishing experience, and tips for other writers. Today we’re talking to Greg Smith, author of “Fast Cash (The Reluctant Hustler, Book 4)”.
About Greg Smith:
Greg Smith is the bestselling author of the thrillers, A Noble Cause and the Flamekeepers as well as the Paul Chang Mystery series including his breakthrough novel, Final Price and the sequels, Legacy of the Dragon and Send in the Clowns all published by Thomas & Mercer.
Prior to writing fiction full time, Greg worked in public relations in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware. He has an MBA from the College of William & Mary and a BA in English from Skidmore College.
His debut novel, Final Price, was first released as a self-published work before being signed to Thomas & Mercer and re-released.
Greg is now working on a new thriller series (The Reluctant Hustler) starting with Quick Fix, released in 2018, as well as short stories.
Greg currently lives in Wilmington, Delaware with his wife and son.
About Fast Cash (The Reluctant Hustler, Book 4):
Hustlers Without Borders
Overseas scammers swindle an elderly Philadelphia woman out of her life’s savings. Soon after, the crooks use her stolen information to target her friends and neighbors in a relentless plague of cons. After getting nowhere with the local authorities, she takes her case to Kyle Logan and his crew of misfits who look after the neighborhood by operating outside the law with their own code of justice.
They’ve never gone after criminals outside of the country before and Kyle knows they’ll need to enlist help on the ground if they’re going to have a chance to recover any stolen funds. What he doesn’t realize is that their new allies may be more dangerous than their foes.
Meanwhile, closer to home, Kyle sees a disturbing invasion of cut-rate home contractors who sell themselves with the zeal of a cult. Called Sweat Equity, the business has formed a partnership with the city government amid glowing praise from the media. When Kyle digs deeper, he learns why the group refuses to take no for an answer and that the group is more than willing to add blood to the sweat.
Author Interview with Greg Smith:
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- Does writing energize or exhaust you?
Yes! But in a good way in both respects. Writing releases pent-up energy of ideas and emotions and gives my imagination a coherent, productive outlet. Like a good workout, it can be both satisfying and tiring.
- Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly?
I think I have seen as many different writing approaches as I have individual writers. Everyone has a unique way of tapping into their muse and shaping the ideas into an accessible form. I’m always pleased when a reader can’t distinguish between parts of my books that came right to me and those I struggled to create.
That said, I know I need to feel all the emotions the characters go through in the stories and that if I don’t believe them, the readers won’t either.
- Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?
I have done both one-off novels and a couple series but even in the series I try hard to make each book distinct such that it could be read and enjoyed on its own. That’s always a challenge to bring new readers up to speed without punishing loyal readers with a boring rehash.
- How do you balance making demands on the reader with taking care of the reader?
I often say that writing is a partnership between the author and reader. One of the reasons a good book is better than the film version is that the characters look and sound just right to the reader. The readers play a vital role in completing the images in their own mind.
If I have done my job as a writer, I’ve given just enough detail for readers to make the rest of the image perfect for them. Too much detail forces my own vision on them like a paint by numbers project and bogs down the pacing of the scenes. Likewise, too little information and a reader has nothing to work with.
- Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?
I do read them and try not to take any of them too personally. That applies equally to the good and bad ones. I’ve had them range from “changed my life” to “worst thing I ever read” for the same novel. I always appreciate that the person read the book and took the time to leave feedback. Of course, I’m human and hope the readers like it. For the most part, I get more positive than negative but I try to write something that holds my own interest and that won’t always be someone else’s cup of tea.
Thoughtful, specific, negative reviews (as opposed to, “This sucked!”) can be very helpful, especially if multiple readers point out the same thing. That’s a strong signal for me to pay attention.
- What is your favorite childhood book?
The Hobbit. My father had a first edition copy he received as a boy and he read it to me when I was a kid. I got to read that same copy to my son when he was old enough.
- What advice would you give a new writer, someone just starting out?
I always think of that old joke, “How do you eat an elephant? A bite at a time.” That’s a novel. It’s really lots and lots of little things.
My biggest advice is if you have your idea for a book, start writing and push it through until you have a complete manuscript. It might stink (mine sure did!) but you have accomplished the all-important first step.
Next is the rewriting process, but that is another discussion. Remember, you can’t re-write until you have something written. I know writers who got stuck for years trying for that perfect opening chapter.
The industry itself is always changing but the one constant is a need for quality content. As it turns out, it is also the only thing a writer can control.
- How many books have you written? Which is your favorite?
I’ve written eleven novels and am currently working on my twelfth. It’s hard to pick a favorite but I guess I’ll say Final Price, which was my breakthrough novel and led to all the rest. It was a blast to write and when it came out had my neighbors asking if they should be worried about me!
- Where can readers find out more about you and your books?
I’m a bit of a social media hermit these days so the easiest way is to check out my author page on Amazon. Just go to the site and search for author J. Gregory Smith and it will pull up lots of my books all which have links to my author page.
- Tell us about your first published book? What was the journey like?
Final Price wasn’t my first completed manuscript but it is the book where I learned how to pull everything together. To start, I drew inspiration from my nine-month experience selling new cars. I came up with the idea for a serial-killing car salesman and then built the detectives tasked with stopping him. From there I worked with a skilled editor and rewrote the book at least ten times. Despite coming up with a polished, fast-paced novel, I still couldn’t land it with a publisher.
So, I decided to put it out myself and slowly the book began to sell on Kindle and started getting good reviews and word of mouth. Then one day out of the blue I was contacted by someone from the fledgling Amazon Publishing. The editor enjoyed the book and they offered to republish Final Price under their label. Later it became Thomas & Mercer and they went on to publish a total of five of my books. One of them, A Noble Cause, became a best seller, hitting #2 in the US and UK and #1 in Germany.
Now, like a lot of authors today, I have a mixture of offerings from regular publishers and books I put out under my own label, RedAcre Press.
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