Highlighting the best independent publications in fiction and non-fiction. Your new favorite author is right here.

The End Of Year Interviews – #2 Hans M Hirschi

Hans

Before we get stuck in, can you tell our readers a little about yourself?

Ah, the easy question. I’m a married with a kid, full-time author from Sweden.

If you’ve released new work in the past twelve months, can you tell us about it, and how you think it’s done, thus far?

I had my most productive publishing schedule this year. Not sure how that happened, but four titles are out and a fifth might just make it before the year is over. In terms of sales, I’m not complaining. The entire LGBT industry has seen a huge dip, and naturally, my sales have suffered, too, but not as badly as some others. Besides, I don’t necessarily define success in money.

Was there anything about your release(s) that you wish you’d done differently?

My publisher and I always look at new things to try. I’ve stopped doing book tours because they just don’t yield the results I expect. On the other hand, traditional PR seems to be working better, but it’s expensive. I don’t regret things, but constantly change and adapt (or at least I keep telling myself there’s a system to my madness).

How do you feel your writing style or process has changed this past year?

My latest WIP certainly needed a lot more research, and I’m still not done yet. I think that I’ll do on site research for the first time. Normally, I end up going to places long after I’ve written about them, but this book is different. So less pantsing, more planning for me, which isn’t easy for me.

Do you have a proudest moment of the year?

Several. Every time a reader takes the time to write to me. But also my nomination for the Stonewall literary award. That was quite a day…

Do you have a surprising fan/reader moment of 2016?

Yes, one of my fans surprised me with engraved pens at a conference. I totally lost it… Total raccoon moment

Do you have a favorite 2016 interaction with a reader or a favorite review?

I has one reader crying after a reading I did (the entire room was weeping, but she sat quietly at the back of the room at the end of the reading, when everyone else had already left, laughing, as the second half of my reading was funny). I had read from a book very dear to me, about losing a child, and she told me how it had been a cathartic moment, as she’d lost a nephew recently, to a disease. That was priceless, as painful as it was.

Has anything occurred that you’ve had to put down as a learning experience?

How easily people are offended these days. I’ll leave it there.

Do you have any advice for new authors or anything about the industry that’s changed that you think new authors should really know about?

Don’t read answers to questions like this one. Don’t buy books telling you how to do things. The industry is in a constant state of flux and today’s truth’s may be tomorrow’s old hats. Just do your thing and try different approaches. You’ll find what works for you. But the one thing that I always found working is word of mouth! That one is pretty constant. Get your readers to push your books.

Do you have a favorite book from the past year?

I do. Luchador by Erin Finnegan from Interlude Press. It’s a book Mexican wrestling and a group of people involved in that. It’s one of those books that just stays with you, asking the big questions in life.

What are you currently working on?

I’m almost (?) done with the first draft of a novel that looks at the LGBT community’s recent history through the lens of one couple who lives through all of it, from AIDS to marriage equality. It’s set in Sweden, which is another first for me.

What do you have planned for 2017?

The book above is scheduled for a spring release, and after that? I honestly have no clue! Hopefully I’ll be able to write another novel to fill my fall schedule.

Where is the best place to keep up to date with you and your work?

My website (www.hirschi.se) or social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or YouTube) Links are on my website.

Thank you for your time, and all the best for the year ahead.

Leave a Reply