Today I had the honor of interviewing Mary Ann Nusbaum. It took a trip across the world and an inspiring teacher to help her see what was missing the novel she and her husband, Dan, worked on. But once those missing pieces were found, everything began to fall into place. Discover why they choose to self-publish and how it's helped them discover success...

What steps did you take towards getting published?

In the 70's while practicing medicine, Daniel wrote this book, found an agent and rejected an unsatisfactory offer to publish it. It sat in a box until we were married seven years ago.

After scanning and editing, we sent thirty-nine query letters to agents, some of whom were kind enough to send rejections while others did not answer at all. Again it sat, this time in a computer file, while we sold our house, refurbished a yacht, and sailed from Los Angeles to the Fiji Islands. There I attended a one day writing workshop which revolutionized my understanding.

Moored in the sweltering tropics, I once again tackled the book, beginning with an Indiana blizzard on page one-changing narrative to dialogue and action, eliminating adverbs, deleting some characters and developing others. Each day, Daniel listened to the changes, and then we argued it out until we were both satisfied. After returning to the US, we decided not to revisit the tedious search for an agent. Instead, we chose to publish with iUniverse.com (on-demand printing) and spend time enjoying promotional activities.

It's been said that real life is boring in comparison to fiction. How can a writer take an idea from real life and spice it up enough to become a publishable piece?

I smile at your phrase, "real life is boring." I like the adage "truth is stranger than fiction." In fiction, a writer can take the strangeness and excitement of real life, frame it so their relatives can't quite say "Why were you writing such and such about me?" and leave out the boring parts. One writer said he owed his success to leaving out the parts people skip over. I think for me, as a people-pleaser and consensus builder, it is easier to tell the truth when writing fiction than when writing non-fiction.

What was the best writing-related advice you ever received?

I said to Delia Rothie-Jones, the teacher of our one-day workshop at Daku Resort in Fiji, "Your teaching changed my life. What's next?" and she said, "Get Stephen King, On Writing."

I found his book reiterated what she had taught. Daniel also studied it-things like "show, don't tell", use "said" rather than other types of verbs to identify dialogue, use adverbs and adjectives sparsely, and select the best single word for each need. We hope our novel reflects this advice. (The Last Reunion, ISBN: 0-595-39614-3) Daniel adds, "My agent in the ‘70's, Herb Schlosberg, who also represented Leon Uris, said, ‘Each character in a story has to be three-dimensional, and must appeal or relate to some aspect of each reader's personality. If the reader identifies with the characters, you've sold the book.'"

Visit them at http://www.authorsnusbaum.com/

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Mary Ann made some good points regarding why an author might seek self-publishing. What are some other reasons to self-publish your book?

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