Yael K Miller Interview

Yael K. Miller (@MillerMosaicLLC) is a social media specialist and author. She is the co-founder of the Miller Mosaic LLC social media marketing company, which coaches clients how to use social media to attract business. She is also interested in code and design and she's a writer, occasionally contributing to the company blog at www.MillerMosaicSocialMediaMarketing.com

1. Thank you, Yael, for agreeing to interview with us. Can you start off by telling our readers just a little bit about you? How did you get into the marketing business?

I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2005 with an English degree, specializing in Medieval and Renaissance literature and with a minor in Classical Studies. I also was awarded the 2004-2005 Penn Playwriting Fellowship. In essence I studied story for four years.

But I've always been interested in marketing. From the time I was little I would play the billboard game with my mother as we drove around Los Angeles. We'd look at the messages on billboards and discuss whether these worked, did they convey the product or movie in an enticing way, what would make the billboard more effective.

2. You are the co-founder of Miller Mosaic Social Media Marketing, can you tell us about your business and why you do what you do?

Phyllis Zimbler Miller and I started Miller Mosaic almost three years ago. We work with clients including book authors to help them strategically use social media marketing to get in front of their target markets.

Right when Phyllis started to get into social media marketing I was involved in an internship at then William Morris talent agency using traditional marketing. I realized that the new methods Phyllis was talking about made much more sense than the traditional methods I was being exposed to.

3. If you had to narrow it down to one thing, what would you say the most important part of social media marketing is for an author?

Doing it. Actually, the most important part is to have a website that an author can easily update himself or herself. This is the home base to which an author's social media marketing activities drive traffic.

4. Besides being a great social media specialist, you are also an author. You got the idea for your children's fantasy series while working for a television production company. Had you been interested in writing in this genre before?

I was never not interested in doing this genre. While other kids were reading Baby-Sitters Club and Judy Blume books when they were young, I read C.S Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia" and Lloyd Alexander's "The Chronicles of Prydain."

When I was 10 I started to read adult fantasy and sci fi books.

And then to come full circle, in the last couple of years I started reading what used to be called children's and is now called Middle Grade or Young Adult or teen fantasy and sci fi.

To me having a 12-year-old protagonist in "Jack Strom and New Orleans Hoodoo" just seemed to work.

5. Do you have an estimated completion date for your first novel?

I'm in what I would consider my third cycle of writing/rewriting. I just paid for an editorial consultant to review my book and I made the easy changes. Now I have to sit down and write the complicated emotional family scenes.

6. Do you know what method you are going to pursue as far as publishing the Hurricane Hoodoo series? And if so, why are you choosing that method?

I started thinking I would try the traditional publishing route but now I'm not sure. We'll see how it goes when I have a really complete novel with all the holes filled in it.

But I am worried that mainstream publishers may never pick up the series up because the story is explicitly Catholic in some parts. And then there's the hoodoo part that takes folk magic and Catholicism and mixes these up. Some publishes may shy away from this.

7. Yael, thank you again for taking the time to interview with us. In closing can you tell our readers how they can learn more about you, your business, and your books?

To see what I do with the majority of my time, following me on Twitter is good - http://twitter.com/MillerMosaicLLC although I rarely talk about my writing there. You can learn more about "Jack Strom and New Orleans Hoodoo" as the first book in the proposed "Hurricane Hoodoo" series at the website www.HurricaneHoodoo.com

Keep in touch with Yael on Twitter and learn how to effectively use social media to market your books!