Working full-time as a care worker for disabled people and fed up of receiving rejection letters from publishers, she decided to start selling her work online as e-books. Soon, through Amazon and their popular Kindles, Hocking was selling around 9,000 e-books a day. Today though, despite her part in an online revolution for publishing, she’s currently promoting the paperback edition of Switched – the first in her hugely popular Trylle Trilogy.
How would you describe Switched to those that might not have heard about it?
The book is about Wendy Everly. When she was six her mother tried to kill her because she thought she was a monster. Now Wendy is 17 and she’s finding out what she actually is. She goes back to her people, who are Trylle – which is basically a fancy way of saying troll. She discovers the society and what it means, and she gets into some trouble and falls in love. The over-arching themes of the book are really about her growing up, learning how to stand up for herself and learning what’s important.
What inspired you to write about trolls?
I’m from Southern Minnesota, and a lot of the heritage there is Scandinavian. The story is based on Scandinavian folklore, which says that trolls are beautiful. They’re kind of mean, but they’re smart and they have the power to trick people into doing what they want. I basically build the world around that.
Terri Tatchell who co-wrote the screenplay for South African alien-thriller District 9 has optioned Switched to potentially be made into a movie, how involved are you in that?
She’s written the first draft of the screenplay and that’s what I know right now. I think she’s started the second draft. Whenever she does a dramatic change in adapting for the screenplay she’ll ask me what I think of it, but I always just say “go for it!” because she’s brilliant, she knows what she’s doing and I know whatever she does I’ll be ok with.
So Hollywood is beckoning – is that quite exciting?
Yes, it is! We started talking about it all over a year ago, and it still seems kind of bizarre. If it comes to the film being made, I think I would rather be hands-off about it, because I don’t know much about the film industry – I’ve never made a film, so I don’t want to come in there with opinions that are really ridiculous and horrible. I don’t know when it comes to the time how much they’ll talk to me, but I trust them and I’m sure they’ll do fine.
Do you have an idea of how you want the book to be adapted on screen?
Yeah, I think I did when I was writing it. When I write, in a way I guess it feels like I’m watching a movie and just writing it down. So for me they’re always kind of a movie.
You based your My Blood Approves series on vampires - why do you think blood-sucking creatures in particular are so popular at the moment?
Fantasy in a big way is popular. Folklore and stories about vampires go back centuries so it’s not really a new concept. A lot of the time they are quite allegorical for real life and it’s a nice way of digesting the world. I think fantasy is especially so popular right now because so much of what’s going on in the world is always so depressing. When you look at the news everything’s dreary – the economy is bad and everything is bad all the time. I think that fantasy allows you to escape, and even though there’s drama and danger, it’s fantastical and allows you to forget about all the stress and crap in real life.
Is that why you write about fantasy yourself?
Writing is definitely an escape. I probably write for the same reasons a lot of people read, and I write the kind of books I often like to read myself. But I don’t think I will just write the exact same thing forever. I’m sure I’ll write different books and different genres. I don’t think I’ll ever do a crime thriller, but I’m sure there are some different things I’ll try.
How do you feel about comparisons to other contemporary fantasy series such as the Twilight saga?
Obviously other series like Twilight and Harry Potter – they’re just so huge that everything in the genre gets compared to them because they are the most known. They’re also really successful, so getting comparisons to something that’s done really well isn’t a negative thing. But I do hope to eventually stand up on my own name, but until then I don’t mind the comparisons.
You self-published the Trylle Trilogy and many others of your novels online as e-books a couple of years ago – is it strange to only now be promoting Switched?
It’s a little strange. I think what’s weird is that I’m only promoting Switched and not the other two books, because they have both already been out. A lot of times it takes quite a while for books to print, so I suppose the wait is logical.
Do you think e-books are the future of publishing?
It’s roughly 25-30% of the market and I think e-books will definitely continue to gain ground, but I don’t think that paperbacks will ever die because they can never become outdated technology. Anybody can always read a book – it’s not like new models of iPhones. Also, what a lot of people forget when they say e-book sales take up 25-30% - a good share of those are from publishing houses. James Patterson, Stephen King and others still make up a huge market of the sales and they are at some of the most traditional publishers. I don’t really have a preference about what format it’s on myself. I think that e-books are great for travelling especially, and also with bigger books they are superior. But I always buy paperbacks of my favourite authors anyway, just because they are my favourites.
Are you reading anything at the moment?
The last book I read was Darrell Hammond’s (US comedian) biography and before that I was reading a book about Josef Mangele (Nazi physician at Auschwitz during World War Two).
Like many students working to essay deadlines, you’ve said that you stay up very late with energy drink when writing – have your writing habits changed lately at all?
I don’t write every day. A lot of writers say that they will write two or three hours every day. I still do a binge-and-purge kind of writing – that’s all I’ll do for two or four weeks, or however long it takes to get the book done. I’ll start writing at seven or eight at night and I’ll just write through the night until I get tired and then go to bed, get up and do it again.
How much do you plan out your work ahead of writing?
I always plan a lot. When you’re writing, if you stop it’s hard to start again. So if I know where I’m going and what’s going to happen in the next chapter then I can just keep going. I’ve always done it that way. I find writing with a publisher easier, because when I was on my own I was my own editor, so I was always questioning things and second-guessing myself. Whereas now I feel like I know there’s going to be another objective eyes on my work that can really help. Right now I’m working on the second book of a new series I have out (the Watersong series), so I’m just playing with ideas for that. Thinking about where it’s going to go for the last books.
Have you had to make many compromises with your work since signing with a proper publisher (St Martin’s Press)?
My publishers really haven’t asked me to change a whole lot. I’ve heard the horror stories where publishers say: “Hey this book is great, but instead of having a thirty-something, book-worm geek as the main character, make it a really strong, hot lady.” I’ve never had anyone say anything to me like that. The changes are mostly minor and probably strengthen the story, so my publishers are pretty accepting of anything I want to write.
You struggled to get noticed as a writer for a number of years until you began selling millions of e-books, and you have even kept hold of some of your rejection letters from publishers. How did you manage to stay positive in those days trying to make it as a writer?
At the beginning I wasn’t positive. I think I took it things very personally and very hard. But I think as I move on the best way is to not take things personally and just get back up. As long as you try your best – that’s the most important thing.
Did you go to university or college?
After I graduated from high school I took a year or two off. I went to school for a semester, but I was working full-time and I got pretty worked-out. A couple of years later I went back to school again for a semester and then I was working two full-time jobs and it didn’t work out. And I couldn’t afford to not work. I would have liked to have been able to finish college.
What would you have liked to study?
The first time I went to college it was just for my generals. If I had been allowed I probably would have taken more English and writing classes. The second time I was trying to get a degree in human services because I worked with people with disabilities and I wanted to move up in the company I was at. I loved the work, but it can be taxing at times when you’re trying to write and the pay is fairly terrible.
Do you have any advice for students trying to balance a job with their studies like you used to?
Part of my problem was that I worked overnights, so I would be working ten at night until 6am and then trying to go to school. So I would recommend trying not to work overnights if you can! I don’t know how kids do it now. There’s people that have kids and husbands and work full-time and then go to school too, and I just think that’s amazing – I couldn’t do that. There should be more support.
You used to play music - are you still in the band you used to play in with friends?
We didn’t break up so we’re still together, but we were never very good. We practiced but we never really played shows. We were kind of horrible. I played guitar - and I’m not the greatest guitarist -then we had a keyboardist and a synthesiser. We played our own badly written material.
Do you think you would ever sell your music online like you have with your books?
If it was any good I would, but I wouldn’t want to burden people with our terrible music.