Today we’d like to introduce you to Summer Prescott.
Hi Summer, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I faced financial panic, post-divorce, five years ago, in my mid-forties. I sat at my kitchen table, surrounded by bills due and dreams crushed, and pondered the futility of my existence. It hurt. It was scary. It seemed hopeless…but little did I know, my dreams were about to start coming true. I’m no superwoman. I didn’t have a razzle-dazzle personality. I didn’t have connections. I was a barely-middle-class Midwestern mom, who reinvented my world by exploring options that didn’t exist when I first started working.
How did I find my niche? I clicked on an ad. Pretty glamorous, I know. Scrolling through Facebook, I saw an ad for freelance writers. Bored, and a tiny bit desperate, I went to the site and filled out a profile. I tossed out some low-ball bids, never dreaming that anyone would respond. If I wanted to have any hope of buying Christmas presents that year, I needed to make some cash, so I figured I’d give it a shot.
My first client tasked me with jazzing up book titles. Hundreds of book titles. I jumped at the chance to make a few bucks creatively, and ended up making roughly $3 an hour, BUT, I was making money using a long-dormant skill. Other jobs trickled in.
I used every bit of my spare time, staying up long into the night, writing. I worked four jobs, in addition to freelancing, and I was determined to get ahead. My assignments were turned in ahead of time and error-free, leading to rave reviews from my clients. Those reviews prompted a deluge of assignments, even after I significantly raised my prices several times. I was getting paid to write, and I was ecstatic.
Freelancing eventually led to a royalty contract, writing Cozy Mysteries, for a former client. Deciding to dive head-first into full-time writing, I quit my other jobs, trusted my new indie publisher, and hoped for the best. I was terrified.
My first Cozy Mystery, A Murder Moist Foul, shot up to the top ten in its genre almost immediately. Each subsequent book also hit the top ten, often landing at number one. I wrote forty-two books that first year, a book per week. I was working my heinie off, and having the time of my life.
My books have ranked alongside Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Janet Evanovich, and I’ve had the surreal experience of seeing my name on the bestseller lists in USA Today and the Wall Street Journal. Publishing my own books, and those of other aspiring writers in my genre just seemed to be the next logical step. I took it, and never looked back. I’m the boss now, I work with an epic team of dedicated and driven creatives. Life is good.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I think I’ve had some of the same struggles that anyone who has reinvented their life might have: self-doubt, impostor syndrome, fatigue, and struggling to stay focused on my goals and dreams while dealing with day-to-day life. Fortunately, usually what happens when I’m feeling down or overwhelmed, I receive sweet notes from fans letting me know that my books provided a respite for them when they were sick, or going through a divorce, or just needing an escape from life’s pressures. Those notes, and the fans who write them, are my lifeline. They are the reason that I do what I do.
I’m fortunate to have an amazingly supportive staff working with me, who are as dedicated to reaching out to readers as I am. They are the BEST!
I also draw inspiration from one of my Nashville heroines, Dolly Parton. To see where she started, what she’s been through, and how she chooses to use her brilliance and star power to help others is inspiring beyond words. My hope is that, even if it’s in some small way, I’ll be able to touch at least a fraction of the hearts and lives that she has with her generosity and kindness.
And when I really need a break, I have a Coke Zero and kick back to listen to the King of Rock and Roll, whom I wanted to marry when I was ten years old.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
From day one, my company has worked hard to establish a reputation for quality and integrity. In a time when literally anyone can publish a book online, my readers have known exactly what to expect from a book published by SPBP. Each book goes through at least seven sets of hands before publication, ensuring a level of quality that leads to an optimal reader experience. My amazing team not only endeavors to make the manuscripts as typo and error-free as they can be, but they also screen for adherence to Cozy Mystery guidelines. These down-home murder mysteries contain no vulgarity, foul language, gore, or shocking imagery. Controversy is minimal to nonexistent, and the subject matter is appropriate for pre-teens to grandmas.
Summer Prescott Books is a company that cares very deeply about our fans. I receive emails, cards and messages all the time, and I try to reply to each one, as soon as I possibly can.
Some of my readers may be going through a divorce or may have a loved one suffering with an illness, or worse. I’ve had several readers write to let me know that my books have gotten them through chemo, post-surgical recovery, or simply becoming empty nesters. I’ve offered free books to women who lost jobs or were having marital issues, or who struggled with significant health problems.
One such reader was a dear woman whom I’ll call Susan. Susan was diagnosed with breast cancer, at virtually the same time that my sweet mother received the same diagnosis. They were the same age and underwent similar treatments.
When Mom began her battle with cancer, I mentioned on Facebook how hard it was for me to see her suffering. Susan contacted me, showing gracious support, and providing valuable insight as to how my mom might be feeling throughout the process. We became friends, though our age difference is significant, and I loved hearing from her.
When Susan told me that my books provided the much-needed distraction that had gotten her through chemo, I pledged that she would receive every book I wrote, from that day on, for free. My company typically produces 2-3 books each week, and Susan received every one of them on their release day. She was delighted and so grateful. She continued to keep me updated on her progress, and I was thrilled that she powered toward recovery.
My mother, feisty full-of-life-and-love-fighter that she was, lost her battle. I cried, I raged, I couldn’t eat or sleep. Then I received a message from Susan.
“I won’t accept your books for free anymore, Summer. I’m going to buy each and every one of them as they come out. I’m recovered now, and they’re more than worth the money. Thank you for what you did for me, just when I needed it most.”
Her sweetness eased some of the darkness that I carried inside from the loss of my precious mother.
Grief is a strange animal. It’s always lurking, even when you think you have it conquered. There were moments, even a year or more after my mother’s death, where I’d stop in the aisle of the grocery store, where her favorite cookies sat innocently on the shelf, and I’d burst into tears. She was such a part of my life, I never knew when the memories were going to come flooding back in.
Fast forward to a few months after my mother passed. I’d had a bad day. One of those stress-filled, everything-and-everyone-annoys-me kind of days, and when the postman knocked on my front door, I sighed heavily, wondering what was about to annoy me all over again.
I pasted on a smile and thanked him for the package that he handed me, from an address that I didn’t recognize. I slit the oversized, padded envelope and a letter fell out. It was from Susan, and her kind words touched my heart profoundly. She thanked me for supporting her and told me that she had handmade something just for me, out of sheer gratitude and love.
I opened the package, and when I saw what was inside, I sank to my knees and bawled like a baby. This dear, precious woman had transferred my book cover designs to fabric and had handmade a stunning quilt for me. I clutched it to my chest, the colorful fabric absorbing the tears that I shed, prompted by her unexpected gesture of love.
The thing that I think about, that gets me to this very day – yes, I’m choking up even writing about it – is that when she painstakingly sewed and quilted that exquisite masterpiece of love…she was thinking about me. Who am I to be on the receiving end of such sweet generosity? Such a beautifully selfless thing, all brought about because I started writing mysteries. It blows my mind.
Susan and I still enjoy our friendship to this day. When her husband passed recently, I sent her a tiny tree. She planted it where her husband’s favorite tree used to be, and surrounded it with a white picket fence. There’s a memorial bench beside the tree, where she sits and remembers her beloved.
She credits my books with helping her to live to fight another day, and while I know that medical science helped to heal her body, the books helped to soothe her soul. This, and stories like it, are why we do what we do at SPBP.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I think that there are probably plenty of folks out there who are incredibly talented, but who haven’t necessarily been at the right place at the right time. There’s always a bit of luck, along with a heaping helping of hard work that goes into any endeavor that eventually becomes successful. We don’t necessarily know when or how our work is going to resonate with people, particularly large groups of people, but even with the best strategies, planning, and effort, there needs to be that little bit of magic that connects an author to a reader.
Reaching out to as many people as possible isn’t as easy as some might think. My books have to get into a reader’s hands before they can touch their hearts, and I’ve been presented with quite a few opportunities along the way that some might call luck. Others might call it fate, and still others might call it the result of dues paid, but whatever the case, I’ll take it.
My goal is to keep reaching out to get my books in the hands of as many people as I can so that they can find sweet escape in the small towns and sweet relationships that I’ve created, in Mysteries where the bad guys always lose and the good guys always win. Wish me luck 😉
Contact Info:
- Website: www.summerprescottbooks.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/summer.prescott.cozies
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/summer.prescott.58/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/SummerPrescott1
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCngKNUkDdWuQ5k7-Vkfrp6A
