Indie Author Spotlight: Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer
Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer
(C) Lynda Kay Sawyer
[A condensed version of this profile appeared in the Sept/Oct 2024 issue of Writer’s Digest.]
Anumpa Warrior: Choctaw Code Talkers of World War I, Touch My Tears: Tales From the Trail of Tears, Tushpa’s Story (Touch My Tears Collection), the Choctaw Tribune series (5 books of 6), the Doc Beck Westerns series (9 books of 12), Third Side of the Coin (A Short Story Collection). Upcoming 2024 release: Lost Legacy (Doc Beck Westerns Book 10) (Historical Fiction, RockHaven Publishing)
Writes from: I live in East Texas, but I experience a flood of inspiration when I cross the state line into Oklahoma. My papaw was born there, near his father’s original Choctaw allotment, and there’s so much about the terrain, the history, and the culture in the state that stirs my story juices. As tribal members of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, my mama and I find ourselves in Oklahoma several times a year.
Since I write by dictation, my actual writing may be at the sink while washing dishes, in my favorite comfy chair, or while walking on the treadmill.
Why self-publish?
For my Artist Leadership program with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, I proposed a book project that would capture and preserve Choctaw Trail of Tears stories through historical fiction. When I was accepted in 2012, I had an inkling of hope that they would publish the book project. I discovered they only did nonfiction, but the person I was working with encouraged me to publish the book myself.
Order a copy of Anumpa Warrior:
I’d studied indie publishing for years (my mama had directed me that way from the time of my first story), so I dug deep and we got it done, but it was the hardest project I could have started with of my entire indie career.
The anthology contained 10 authors with all their bios and notes … and I decided to make it harder by including a pencil illustration with each story. To say formatting was a nightmare … that was long before the days of Vellum or professional formatters available on every corner of the internet. I spent two weeks formatting the e-book. I studied traditional print book design for months.
But I couldn’t be prouder of how the project turned out because of everyone’s hard work. Touch My Tears: Tales From the Trail of Tears is a landmark book, and people are still shocked when they learn it was indie-published. (Readers can get a free e-copy of it on my website, SarahElisabethWrites.com.)
Order a copy of Touch My Tears:
Had you considered traditional publishing?
In the beginning of my writing journey, I was torn between the two paths. I studied author success stories on both sides. On the indie side, I found people either had a garage full of 5,000 horribly self-published books, or authors who experienced mega success in the gold rush of the e-book revolution. On the traditional side, I found high-quality books and prestigious authors who were struggling behind the scenes with fear that their current contract could be their last. Royalties were being squeezed, and the burden of marketing was being forced into their introverted personalities.
When I indie-published my first book, Touch My Tears, I realized I’d made my choice. I did pitch a series to an editor at a publishing house a few years later, just for the experience, and she was interested in my indie historical fiction projects, not the contemporary women’s fiction I was dabbling with. I also had an agent interested in representing me, but he wanted exclusive rights to anything I wrote—no room for indie projects on the side.
I declined both and kept indie publishing until 2022 when my proposal to Chickasaw Press for my first nonfiction book was accepted. I had worked with Chickasaw Press for years on smaller projects and trusted them to do this book right. They did.
What is the thing you like most about indie publishing?
Creative control.
Since I deal with so much culturally and spiritually sensitive material, having creative control is vital. I publish content I feel God has called me to create.
Plus, I can go at my own pace, fast or slow, and publish stories at whatever length fits them. I love writing novellas at 20,000–30,000 words. I write series. I write standalones. I set my own deadlines. When I realized we were approaching the anniversary of the ending of WWI, I set aside my other projects and spent two years focused on writing Anumpa Warrior: Choctaw Code Talkers of WWI. I published it in October 2018, two weeks before the 100-year anniversary of the war’s end.
There are no creative limits with my indie publishing (18 books and counting).
Writing advice:
Do your research. If you’re writing about another ethnic group, like American Indians, approach learning about them in the best ways you can. Make connections. Build relationships. Do your research. You are your own gatekeeper.
I teach this topic at conferences, summits, and through my digital course, Fiction Writing: American Indians. The course equips authors to write authentic stories that honor First American history and culture. (FictionCourses.com/americanindians)
Website and/or social media accounts
SarahElisabethWrites.com (author site)
FictionCourses.com (my teaching site)
ChoctawSpirit.com (to purchase my books directly)
Facebook.com/sarahelisabethsawyer
Awards or Recognition:
I haven’t entered my indie fiction for awards (just not a big thing for me), but I was awarded a place as a literary artist in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian Artist Leadership Program (2012) and a First Peoples Fund fellowship (2015).
My narrative biography of a Native WWI hero, Otis W. Leader: The Ideal American Doughboy, was awarded the 2024 Oklahoma Book Award for nonfiction and was also selected to represent the state of Oklahoma for the Library of Congress’s 2024 National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.
But the greatest reward for my work comes from readers when they tell me they learned things they wished they’d been taught in school, or how my books impact their lives for the good. Readers make the writing world go round.
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