Interview With Author and Editor Savanna Roberts

Savanna Roberts is a New-Adult author, freelance editor, wife, and proud mama of a spunky little girl and two sweet kitties.

She enjoys writing stories with complicated characters and hard situations, promising to never provide you with easy stories but ones full of hope. 

She’s been writing seriously since she was ten years old, and she currently has six books out and has written an article for Introvert, Dear, as well as collaborated on blog events with other writers. 

In her free time, she enjoys reading, adventuring with her husband and daughter, snuggling her cats, playing D&D, rooting for the Astros, and drinking chai.

---

1. When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer? 

I am one of those cliches where I started writing stories as soon as I possibly could, ha! But I first realized it was what I wanted to do when I hand-wrote a 136-page novel when I was ten years old. I was reading it to my siblings and my best friend, enjoying sharing what I had written even though it had terrible characterization and more plot holes than should ever be allowed in a story… But it was mine. And the people I loved most were interested in it. All of a sudden, I was like: “Hey… I want to do this forever.” It helped that, for me, writing was a way of expression. I’m not always great with speaking, but give me a page and a pen (or a computer with a working keyboard), and I can express myself in ways I’m normally unable to.

2. What was the biggest challenge you faced when you published your first book? How did you overcome it? 

My biggest challenge was marketing, ironically enough! I’d read a couple of marketing books and thought I knew everything I’d need to… Turns out, I initially missed the memo that says marketing is ever-changing and you have to adapt and change with it. 🙂 It was definitely discouraging at first, but once I made the commitment to learning and adapting, it was an easier pill to swallow! Now I read marketing books as often as I can to keep up-to-date, as well as pay attention to trends (you can tell a lot from the New Releases table at Barnes and Noble!), what people are talking about, etc. I wouldn’t call myself a master by any means, but now I at least know how to better change course when needed! And I’ve found some strategies that work really well for me regardless of a fluctuating system. 🙂

3. If you had to pick a favorite character from any of your books, who would it be and why? 

Eep, making me choose between my babies!!! This is so hard. I automatically want to say one of my Tales of Nottingham characters just since they’ve been with me for a few years now, but the characters in my debut novel, Smoke and Mirrors, are also very special to me. Would it be cheating to choose two? *hides* 

Miriam from Smoke and Mirrors. That girl’s been through hell and back, and it’s made her hard and closed-off from those around her. But over the course of the book, she starts learning to open up, and she wants that. She wants to find healing. And her transformation from the start of the book to the end of the book means a lot to me. I can’t say too much because of spoilers, but yes. She will be one of my forever favorites, no matter how many books I write.

Marion from Tales of Nottingham is the second. I see myself in her the most, and I both hate her and love her for it. I see myself in her people-pleasing. I see myself in her desire to be herself instead of how those around her want her to be. I see myself in the way she apologizes for existing sometimes, as she treads on eggshells because she doesn’t want people to get annoyed with her. And I see myself in her as she finds the group of people that show her she is worthy of being herself, and she is loved for who she is. There is so much more that I could go into, but those are just a few reasons why she holds my whole heart. 

4. You have an adorable little girl! Has becoming a mother influenced your writing in any way? 

In truth, it hasn’t influenced my writing yet! But perhaps that’s because none of my main characters are mothers. 🙂 A secret project I’m hoping to start soon follows a dual timeline of a mother and daughter, the mother in the past, the daughter in the present. I’m really interested to see how writing from the mother’s perspective of being pregnant and growing into her new role as a mom shines through from my own experience. I’ll have to write a blog post about this in the future!

5. You’re an independent author, businesswoman, editor, wife, and mother—wow! How do you find time for everything? 

Oh, man. Scheduling is a big one. I’m a huge scheduler. This was a bit trickier until I got my daughter on her nap schedule, but once I did, I was able to go, “Okay, she’s napping from 10-12 and 3-5. I’ll have an hour and a half to two hours to get things done, depending on if I have to go into her nursery to rock her back to sleep in the middle of her nap or not.” And I went from there, ha! Things like social media posts, networking, and occasionally emailing can be done on my phone while she’s playing with toys or watching a show. Then things like writing, editing, and working on publishing business stuff get done during her naps. 

It doesn’t always work. Sometimes her nap schedule will be thrown off because of errands or teething or things out of my control. Those days are hard because instead of feeling like I’m juggling everything accordingly, I feel like I’ve failed on multiple levels—mom-ing, editing, publishing, etc. I’m having to learn to have grace for myself and that things will get done when they’re able to! It helps that I have people that can babysit occasionally, or the clients I work with are incredibly understanding if I need a little extra time on something, or my husband will take care of our daughter during after-dinner playtime so I can wrap up work, as needed. 🙂 Sometimes it can mean some pretty late nights or weekends worked too.

Most of the time, I try to leave my evenings and weekends as free as possible, though! It’s important to have a healthy work/life balance, right? I do my best to make sure my evenings and weekends are as free as possible for time with my daughter and my husband!

6. Is there any writing advice you would like to give to a writer working on their first novel? 

I’ll paraphrase a bit, but this is some advice by a high-school writing instructor/author that has stuck with me for years: Write for yourself first! Not your friends, not your family, not your audience. Tell the story that’s in your soul, the version you were meant to tell, first. If you get caught up in what others might think, you’ll never get the words down on the page. Your story is YOURS before it is ever anyone else’s. 

I stopped writing for a year in high-school, convinced I’d have to give up my dream career as an author because I let what others said/thought about my writing get me down. It took me a while to get back into writing and learn that advice all over again. Please don’t make the same mistake I did. Your story is worth telling, so let it be solely yours for as long as it needs to be.

7. May we have some fiction and non-fiction book recommendations, please? 

Always!!! Hopefully I don’t get too long-winded here. 🙂 

Fiction: The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton, Wild Blue Wonder by Carlie Sorosiak.

Indie (Self-Published) Fiction: Daughter of the Deep by Lina C. Amarego, Rook Di Goo and Yesterday or Long Ago by Jenni Sauer, and the Under the Heavens series by Nicole E. Tawney.

Indie Nonfiction: literally ANYTHING by Joanna Penn! This woman is magic. She breaks down everything that goes into self-publishing, writing, marketing, public speaking, and more.

Nonfiction: The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey by Ian Cron (great for character development), It’s Not About the Coffee: Leadership Principles from a Life at Starbucks by Howard Behar (mine and my husband’s whole outlook on our careers is based off of some great insights we got from this book), Storyworld First by Jill Williamson (an easy-to-read deep-dive into creating a believable story world), and any of the Emotion/Character/Setting Thesaurasuses by Angela Ackerman!

8. Why did you choose to self-publish your books? 

I weighed the pros and cons of self-publishing versus querying/traditional publishing for a long time; I read books, learned more about each process, and finally decided that I’d self-publish my first novel to build a following of my own over social media and then query my next book. (At the time, this was the advice given to new authors for agents to take you seriously; such a thing has since been debunked as myth, and agents do not care as much whether you have a following or not beforehand as a fiction writer. Just wanted to clarify!) But then, I fell completely in love with self-publishing. Yes, it’s crazy hard work, and there’s a massive learning curve with it. It’s not for everyone—if you’re not willing to put in the work and constantly learn and adapt, it’s not for you. But I loved it. I am fiercely independent and loved how I had a hand in everything—cover design, synopsis, interior design, editing, etc. Even the marketing! And I got to connect with so many incredible indie authors, and we all try to lift one another up… It’s just a great community, and I’m so glad that I stuck with self-publishing in the end. Of course, never say never to me traditionally publishing! But indie publishing feels like home to my books and my brand now. 🙂

9. You and your husband are the co-founders of SR Press, Traditional Publishing for Independent Authors. Please tell us about the company. How do you help writers? 

Absolutely! So Bryce and I offer a variety of services to indie authors. Our most notable one is our publication services. Publishing your book is amazing, but it can also be overwhelming if you go the self-publishing route—there are so many steps from rough draft to publication, and it can be difficult to know what to do, where to go, and even what to pay. That’s where we come in—as someone who has published before, we can help authors navigate through it. We focus on Young-Adult and New-Adult Dystopian and Fantasy, and if your manuscript is accepted we’ll get you under contract, just like a traditional publishing house. From there, we’ll begin the process of editing, and we have a cover designer you will collaborate with (I’ve worked with her on all of my Tales of Nottingham covers!). Bryce handles the interior formatting, and I handle the majority of the marketing to help get your book seen. We also provide authors with a marketing pamphlet we created to guide you through some strategies as you begin marketing your novel alongside us.

And through it all, authors don’t pay us a penny. Just like traditional publishing, we earn royalties on actual sales of the book. We are firmly against publishing services that charge authors up front, especially when their fees can stretch into the realms of thousands of dollars. We know how hard you worked on your book, and that’s why we commit to working just as hard and not making anything until you do. We’re truly on your team because success for you means success for us!

If you’re an author committed to self-publishing on your own but still need some help, however, we also offer a la carte editing and formatting packages! Bryce handles e-book and paperback formatting, and as head of the SR Press editing department, I oversee the editing process, which can range all the way from a high-level overview of the story, down to the nitty-gritty details.

For more information about both our publishing and editing services, you can check out our website: www.sr-press.com.

10. You are almost finished with the third and final book in your Tales of Nottingham series—yay! What can you tell us about this series and the upcoming finale? Do you have a release date? 

Tales of Nottingham is a New-Adult dystopian Robin Hood retelling that follows Marion as the primary character. What if Marion was forced to go undercover by the Sheriff of Nottingham to locate the outlaw Robin Hood and turn him in? The trilogy follows that premise and what happens after, as a result. 

The final book in the series, Archeress, will be published on September 22nd, so a little under a month away! I’m excited to release this book because it was written/edited as I grew into my new role as a mom, and it feels like this book has been a long time coming; but also, it’s very bittersweet because these characters have been with me since 2019. They were with me through some very formative events in my life — being diagnosed with OCD/anxiety, moving from Utah to Texas after job loss due to COVID-19, and then my pregnancy/having my daughter. It’s been harder for me to let this series go than I expected. 🙂

11. Where can we find your books and follow you online? Which novel would you recommend to a first-time Savanna Roberts reader?   

You can find me at www.booksbysr.com, and I’m on Instagram as @booksbysr as well as Facebook.

I’d recommend Thief, the first book in my Tales of Nottingham series, to first-time readers! I think it holds a good glimpse of my writing style, as well as my love for character-driven plots and the found-family trope. 🙂

---

Tales of Nottingham: Book One

The outlaw Robin Hood wreaks havoc on the industrial city of Nottingham, but he doesn’t just steal riches. Bit by bit he takes away the Sheriff’s power and control, and none of the Sheriff’s advisors can stop the thief.

As the daughter of a nobleman and one of the Sheriff’s colleagues, Marion has always known her place – be a great hostess, but let the men do the work. Until a chance encounter with Robin Hood makes the Sheriff realize the outlaw has a weakness for damsels in distress.

After a threat made against her Father’s life, Marion is forced to play a part in the Sheriff’s scheme to go undercover, find Robin Hood, and get rid of him. But the thief and his companions are not what she expects, and she begins to doubt her mission.

In the first story in the Tales of Nottingham, Marion finds herself trapped between duty and love, where one false move could end her Father’s life or destroy the people she cares about most.

---

Thank you, writer, for reading this interview, and thank you Savanna for allowing me to ask you my list of questions—it was a joy! Drop your thoughts about the interview in the comments below, and be sure to check out Savanna’s books on her website. 🙂

Write your story,

Sarah