From a Corporate Worker to a Self-Published Author: The Success Story of Donna B. McNicol

Social media trends are continuously evolving and changing and gone are the days when fictional writing was considered skepticism. Of course, it’s pretty challenging to put your all efforts in writing, editing and reviewing, it’s frustrating to receive negative comments.
Some writers have given up but still, there are some amazing fiction writers who have been working hard to achieve their goals.

And among the list of successful fictional writers, we are glad to have Donna B McNicol as our customer. Donna is a self-published author and she owns a blog ‘Donna B. McNicol’. After retiring from her IT career, she tried her hands on fiction writing and that’s where it all started.

Today, Social Champ asked her about her entire journey and this is what she has to say and how Social Champ helps her to skyrocket her blog.

HOW DID YOU GET STARTED AS A SELF-PUBLISHED AUTHOR, AND WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE GENRE? SHARE SOME OF YOUR WORK WITH OUR AUDIENCE.

I retired from a career in IT at age 50 and continued my non-fiction writing for print and websites. Soon after that, I decided to dabble with fiction writing. I started with children’s stories and sweet romance. Then my husband was diagnosed with cancer, and it all got put on the back burner.

Fast forward to 2007, my husband had succumbed to his cancer three years earlier; I had sold our home and hit the road as a full-time RVer. In 2008, I met my now-husband at an RV rally in Wyoming. In his 41′ toy hauler fifth-wheel trailer, we continued to travel the country and ride our Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

In 2012, after a friend and fellow RVer had successfully self-published his first fiction book, I decided to give it a try. I self-published three books that year: Home Again (a sweet romance) and the first two books in my Klondike Mystery series, Not a Whisper and Barely a Spark.

Since then, I have written and published several more books in the Klondike series, four books in the C’Mon Inn Mystery series, and started two new series in the cozy mystery genre. I also have short stories published in several anthologies.

While I have always loved reading Sci-Fi and Fantasy books, I also read mystery/thrillers. My current favorite genre is the one I am writing, cozy mysteries.

You can see all my books from this link. Stay up to date, sign up for my newsletter and follow my blog.

AS AN INDEPENDENT AUTHOR, HOW DOES SOCIAL CHAMP HELP YOU IN SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT AND AUTOMATION?

In the early days of self-publishing, Twitter was the champ of social media. I still have many friends from those days. As it grew, it got harder to handle, and the impact of Facebook grew rapidly.

I tried several free resources to schedule posts on both Twitter and Facebook. It took several resources to do everything I wanted and needed. That became quite unwieldy. In addition, they might stop working, go to pay mode, or even disappear.

I heard about Social Champ on AppSumo and was intrigued. I thought it might be the all-in-one solution I needed. By now, I had three websites, several Facebook pages, a Facebook group, along with two Twitter and two Instagram accounts.

Guess what? It was! Social Champ works flawlessly and continues to improve its interface. They have saved me countless hours. I can now schedule a whole month of posts in advance!

TELL US A BIT ABOUT THE COMMUNITY YOU HAVE BUILT, WHAT PLANNING AND EXECUTION STRATEGIES DO YOU USE, AND TOOLS THAT ASSIST YOU?

I manage a group of readers and fans on Facebook – my community. I post twice daily. The morning post is on a daily theme, and the afternoon is some type of question or game to play. Social Champ lets me get them scheduled in advance, saving me a lot of worry about whether I have done it or not. Yeah, for the calendar page!

I don’t know how long I will continue writing; I have enough stories in the backlog for another 4-5 years. I do know I will continue to use Social Champ.

We at Social Champ look forward to serving you and many others for the years to come. Thank you for taking out the time to respond to us.