Bonus Episode with Kelly Esparza

Hey friends! Welcome to another Indie Author Spotlight Bonus Episode! Hopefully you read the feature interview I did with the very cool and hip Kelly Esparza, an author and editor-in-chief at FLARE Magazine. That interview is over on The Writer's Workout website. As you know, I'm a volunteer at WW and I love to help spread the word about new Indie Authors I meet.

Thanks again for doing this extra interview with me! I love learning more behind the scenes stuff. So, what does your writing ritual look like? 

Since joining some discord groups, Sprinto is my BFF. For real, it’s how I get any consistent writing done. It helps to have a set time to write, because if I don’t, I don’t write consistently. Since using Sprinto, that’s how I’ve been able to write a book a year. Plus, you can write with friends! 

What’s the worst advice you’ve ever received as an Indie Author? 

“Self-publishing is the only path if you want to publish poetry.” Nothing is wrong with self-publishing. I self-published two poetry collections in and right after college on Amazon because it was the right decision for a broke college student (and post). Self-publishing is a great path if that’s what you desire most! 

With poetry, yeah, publishing is even harder than it is for a novel because with a novel, you can look at self-pub, small presses, and/or getting an agent if you want trad publishing. 

But poetry is niche. I think it’s making a come-back, but when first exploring how to publish a collection/chapbook of poetry, I was told you don’t get an agent typically (I mean, there are always exceptions—publishing, right?) or get a big 5 publishing poetry unless you’re one of those insta poets with, like, 50k+ followers. But that’s not me.

Self-publishing is common with poetry, but it’s definitely common for small presses to publish poetry too. Sure, there are a lot of presses that host contests and they can be hard to win and often cost a fee to submit. It’s not great, for sure, but there are other presses, like Bottlecap Press, for example, that published my book, and they don’t make authors pay to submit. There are options for poetry—more than people think—and I also think a lot of people think poetry needs to read like Shakespeare or rhyme or have iambic pentameter. After all, that’s what they teach you in school, right? But honestly? Most poetry I’ve read post-school is free verse, and that’s what I write.

What’s your go-to book, movie or musical artist when you need some inspiration (or just a break from the keyboard)? Why? 

If I’m writing poetry, my go-to poetry book is anything written by Courtney Peppernell. She writes a lot of uplifting poetry, which I relate to a lot. For fiction, I turn to musical artists like Ruelle and Fleurie. They have such haunting types of tones and voices, and it gets me inspired for my mysteries!

If you could snap your fingers and be “known” for one piece of your writing, what would it be? Is it something already published? Or is it something in your heart you’ve not yet written? 

Oh, this is hard because of course, anything I write about chronic illnesses, but also, I think it’s the book I’m about to query. I think I grow with each work I write, and this is it. But who knows, book #5 could be it too. 

Any other tidbits you wanna share? 

I write a lot of different mediums. I write poetry books/chapbooks and novels, but a fun fact is I wrote a screenplay for a feature film for a film production company a few years ago, and that was so fun! I was actually hired to write!

Do you have a newsletter you want people to sign-up for? Link it here:

Yes, I do: https://substack.com/@kellyesparza. Currently, I have 34 subscribers but would love to keep growing! I don’t post too often, usually only when I have news to share, like I finished writing a book or got my poetry chapbook published, etc.

Additionally, I am on social media, such as:

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/kellyesparza.bsky.social

Twitter: https://x.com/Kelly_Esparza7

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kelwritesbooks2