This week’s author is Julia Knight, who’s latest novel The Wicked Lady came out with Samhain on September 14th.

Nice girls love a sailor. Naughty girls are quite partial, too.

When a man she thought she loved offered Lady Catherine Harcourt a life wrapped in a velvet bow, she took it. That life wrapped her in velvet chains. Now her status as a respectable widow allows her virginal alter ego, Cecily, to relieve milksop-for-blood dandies of their riches and go back where she belongs. The sea—aboard her pirate ship.

The one knot in her sail is Paul Ambury. Daring, irresistible, and a lieutenant in the Royal Navy. Yet the temptation to indulge in his gorgeous body—all in the name of the plan, of course—is too much to resist.

Paul has known his share of empty-headed society women, and fiercely intelligent Catherine doesn’t fit. When he wakes up adrift in a longboat after a blazing night together, he knows why. She took him for a fool—and took his ship.

Plus, the evil little genius has him neatly trapped. If he reveals why he lost his ship, he faces court martial. If he does his duty, he must find her and hang her—the one woman with whom he’s fallen in love. Damn it…

Shall we get we get started with an easy one? Tell me a little about the first book you had published.

Oooh well, where to start? It was also the first book I wrote, as it happens. Ilfayne appeared in my head one day and wouldn’t shut up – I blame Johnny Depp 😀 – and the story just kind of fell out. Obviously I had a lot to learn about the process and craft of writing (I still do!) but I had so much fun. It was only when a couple of my friends who’d read it said I should try and get published, I decided to start being serious about it. Three months later, my editor at Samhain took a chance because she liked my voice and gave me my  first ‘please revise and resub’ and Ilfayne’s Bane was released a year later.

That’s great! How did you find out about Samhain? Were you a customer, was they a recommendation from your friends, or did you find them yourself?

Actually I found out about them at AW! There was a thread there in the Bewares forum, and they seemed well respected in the ebook industry and they were after the exact genre (fantasy romance) that I’d written so I thought, hey why not? 😀

How did you feel about them being an ePublisher? Did you know much about epublishing before you sought them out?

Actually I was quite excited about the e-book thing. Seems to me it will be a growing market, because of the general rise of tech and such, though it’s only just starting to catch on over here. E-book sales have grown even during the credit crunch – they’re cheaper for a start! If you don’t like a book you’ve only wasted say £3 instead of £8. Now for sure, at the moment it’s most popular in romance/erotica, but I think that’s mainly due to the fact that romance readers are voracious. I know some Samhain fans will buy every book that’s released each week. But with Carina now taking all genres, even those with no romance, I think that will change. How many SFF fans love their gadgets? Lol.

Of course having a print book in your hand with your name on is nice – I look lovingly at mine quite often – and booksignings are a good way to get yourself out there, but it’s a growing market and I think it will keep growing. Even bigger publishers are starting to bring out e-versions now, and that can only be because they see the potential. Plus, it’s environmentally friendly!

I think maybe some of the concerns of the bigger houses was the quality, but with the expertise of the editors at Samhain and other e-publishers, that’s not an issue. Both my editors at Samhain have been both top notch – they’ve taught me so much – and exceptionally friendly and approachable.

You’ve pretty much covered the pros of epublishing; have you encountered any cons so far?

One or two, and that’s more because of people’s perceptions, particularly in the UK. There’s a lot of ‘Oh well it’s only “really” published if it’s in print’. That’s starting to change now though as more people in the UK get e-readers and become aware of the vast array of books available. I for one know that say Waterstone’s don’t really class fantasy romance as a genre – the discussions I’ve had with the lovely staff at my local branch! – but would maybe lump it in with General Fiction where it gets lost from the fantasy fans (although the advent of Paranormal Romance has changed that more now). Online, all it takes is a few clicks and precisely the sort of book you’re after is on your screen. The latest sales figures I saw showed Waterstone’s alone is selling one e-book reader every two minutes. Plus the Kindle is available over here now, so I think it’ll really start to take off. Shaking off the ‘It’s only a book if I can hold it’ attitude may take a little longer!

Ilfayne is part of a series, so I’m assuming you’re planning to stick  with Samhain throughout. Do you think you’ll stay with ebooks in future, or move on to print presses?

I don’t know to be honest. Not everything I write fits Samhain’s audience – for instance I’ve just finished an MS with no romantic happy ending, so it’s not for their readers. Whether I’ll stay e-book or not depends on what sort of market there is for what I write. Not everything is mainstream enough, or will appeal to enough people, for a print publisher, but e-books are great for niche genres or styles.

Who would you recommend epublishing to ,and who would you suggest look elsewhere?

Recommend? Me? Lawks! It’s not for me to say, if I’m honest. It’ll be different for each writer depending on what their goals are and what they hope to get out of it, as well as of course the market for what they’ve written or plan to write. However, when looking at whether to go for an agent/big publisher or smaller/epubisher, there are always the same things to consider: Are they offering me a good deal? Is a print version important to me for this story or not? Is my book a fit for what they already handle? Are they reputable? Are their other authors happy with them? (email and find out!). And last but not least, is this the place I would be happy? Is it giving me what I personally want from my writing?

How long did the whole process take, and what were your personal milestones?

From submission to release? Almost exactly a year – but that includes revising after a ‘revise and resub’ request (because I had no clue about word count requirements lol). I was accepted in the August and the book was released in January. Considering I’d only decided to ‘get serious about this writing malarky’ the October before I subbed, it all happened pretty quick! Personal milestones, um, well the best was when I got my cover through. To see it there with my name on. That was something special. Writing-wise, it was the edits. My editor taught me soooo much about the genre I was writing in, about pacing etc. Editting was a joy because I could see the book getting better before my eyes under the hand of someone who knew what they were doing!

Well, that’s everything I was going to ask. Do you have anything  you want to add?

Nothing else to add, I don’t think.

Julia Knight’s books are available to purchase from Samhain in a variety of formats.