Author Spotlight – TW Robinson

In an effort to introduce my readers to other authors and their work, every week I run an Author Spotlight, sharing information about an author, their work, and how they go about writing their books.

A retired police officer with the City of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, with 25 years of law enforcement experience, TW Robinson has always loved reading and writing but never dreamed of doing it as a profession until after he retired.

TW lives in Tuscaloosa with Amy, his wife of 30 years, and the most awesome long-haired cat on the planet. Amy is a professional editor by trade, with degrees in English, Journalism, and Communications. He says Amy has been his best friend since they met in middle school, when he was 14 years old and she was 13. They started dating about two years after they met. In speaking of Amy, he says, “She’s amazing. When people like my books, she’s the reason why. It’s my stories and her presentation that make them what they are. She’s the silent partner in my writing career. I couldn’t do it without her.”

A conversation with TW:

When did you decide to become an author and why?

After I retired, I found myself bored and started writing for entertainment. I wrote down everything that had happened to me and my police co-workers over the years. I thought it would be fun to read it all when I got old. I had no intention of ever publishing it or anyone other than me ever reading it. I decided to put in an application at the University of Alabama to be a security guard in 2020. They wanted a resume.

I decided to turn what I had written into a fiction novel based on real-life police stories and experiences. I rewrote it, making up characters to do what my co-workers and I had done in real life. I also added a twist ending. I thought it would look good on that resume. That’s the whole reason I published my first book. I published it, and it (surprisingly) did very well, even going to a #1 bestseller in multiple categories. I had a blast. I decided to write books for a living instead of being a security guard. So I actually stumbled rear-end backwards into this career. Sorry. I know that’s not the inspiring story many have, but it’s the truth.

How long have you been writing, and what was your first book?

I’ve been writing since I was in the fourth grade, so since I was about nine years old. I never considered publishing anything. I just wrote for the fun of it. My first book was called The Retirement. That’s the one I started writing just for fun… the one I decided to publish for my resume.

How many books do you have out?

Three. The Retirement was my first. After that, I took a ton of classes on writing, publishing, and marketing books. During my training, I learned that most of what was on the internet about self-publishing was completely wrong. I wrote my second book to share everything I learned from those classes. That book is titled How to Self-Publish Your Book for Free and Not Get Conned. I didn’t write that book for profit. I wrote it for new authors so they could avoid all the wild scams and cons from people all over the internet making a living conning us. It’s available on Amazon. However, I will send anyone who wants it a PDF copy of the self-edited version for free.

It’s not the same polished, professionally edited, and covered copy that’s available for purchase, but it contains the same information. Anyone who wants one can email me, and I’ll gladly send it to them along with everything else I’ve learned since 2022.

After all that, I decided to write romance novels in a series for the rest of my career. The first book in my new dark, spicy romance series is titled His Private Diaries Begin. That’s my third published book. Again, many characters and storylines from this series, much like The Retirement, were inspired by true stories and real people.

Are you trade published, independent, or a combo?

Self-published all the way. I love being my own boss and making all the decisions.

What is your writing style? Panster, plotter, or both?

Plotter. 100% plotter. I envy authors (like you) who can pants a novel in their sleep. I wish I could do that so badly. But I can’t. I need to have a clear beginning, middle, and ending to my stories before I write anything. I also love adding Easter eggs and foreshadowing to my writing. It’s extremely difficult for me to do that without an outline. I’ve tried. I’ll never publish anything I’ve pantsed.

There’s a huge twist at the end of The Retirement. I actually alluded to how that book was going to end 167 times before the big reveal. To this day, I don’t think any readers have caught it without rereading it.

I once heard George RR Martin say he always wrote the first and the last sentence in a book first, before anything else. He said it gave him a starting and ending point that he could easily see. All he had to do then was connect the dots. I loved that and adopted it for my work.

My new series will be told in a total of twelve novels. The first thing I did after months of outlining was write the first and last sentence to the entire series. I then wrote the first and last sentence in each book of the series. In Book One, the series starts with the sentence, “God, my life is a mess.” The final sentence of the series will be, “I have faith in it.” All I’m doing now is connecting the dots.

Do you write more than one book at a time?

No way. I don’t think I could keep everything straight if I did. I need to focus on my plot and characters. Some authors are great at it. But I doubt I’ll ever try it.

How much research is involved in your writing?

Tons. I probably spend more time doing research than actually writing a book. I want everything to be as realistic as possible. In fact, I created a huge problem for myself by doing so much research before writing the Private Diaries series. I made two of my characters far more intelligent than me. One character is a cardiologist, and one is both a stripper and an independent escort. The doctor has more education than I do. The stripper has far more street smarts than me. When I realized my dilemma, I continued on with both characters. But I’ll never write another one smarter than I am. They’re both a pain to write.

Where do you write? Do you have a home office, write in a coffee shop, or what?

When I decided to write for a living, I made one of our guest bedrooms into a home office. That’s where I write, usually while drinking coffee.

Do you use any programs like ProWritingAid, Grammarly, or ?

I do all my writing in a free program that came with my Mac computer called TextEdit. It’s very similar to Scrivener. It’s how I wrote my first novel, so I stuck with it. I do use the free versions of ProWritingAid and Grammarly to self-edit my stories before giving them to my professional editor. I plan to purchase the professional version of ProWritingAid before giving the second book in my series to my editor. I really like the way it works.

How do you promote your books?

Currently, I don’t. I only promoted the first two books I wrote on social media, doing all the free stuff. I’ve done almost no promoting on my new romance series. However, I do have plans to promote with BookBub, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and Amazon Ads when I publish the sixth book of the series. All of those options are paid advertising. Until then, readers will just have to find it on their own. I don’t want to promote until at least half of the series is available for purchase. I have yet to spend a dime on advertisements.

What are your writing goals, long and short term?

To write the best stories I possibly can for my readers. I refuse to publish a book until it’s the absolute best my wife and I can make it. I plan to write romance novels until I die or can’t write anymore, whichever comes first. I love what I do.

Any advice to new authors or someone who wants to become an author?

Plenty. First of all, keep updated on all the scams that plague our community. Vet everyone and everything. I was a cop for over two decades in the fifth-largest city in Alabama. I’ve been assigned to areas that were completely crime-ridden. I’ve never seen more crooks, scammers, con artists, or criminals anywhere than in the author community. Someone is always after your money. They disguise themselves as publishers, agents, marketers, and editors every day. If you have to pay someone, know who you’re paying and what you’re paying for. I’ve seen new authors get scammed out of tens of thousands of dollars.

Second of all, train yourself in your craft. This is something I didn’t do when I wrote The Retirement. There are all kinds of things you can do to make your books better and keep readers happy. There are ways to write things that will definitely keep your readers engaged and turning those pages. Also, follow me on Facebook. Every time I learn something new, I post about it. My profile pages are filled with advice for new authors to keep them at their best and from getting conned.

You can contact TW through his Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/tw.robinson.161 and learn more about him on his Amazon Author’s Page.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed. – Ernest Hemingway