Author Interview:  Caitlin Galer-Unti

How would you describe the type of books/genre you write?

I write vegan travel guidebooks. My first book (The Essential Vegan Travel Guide), now in its third edition, is a general guide on how to travel as a vegan and my second, a vegan guide to Barcelona (The Barcelona Vegan Guide).

What motivated you to start writing?

I’ve always written, for as long as I can remember. As a very small child, before I learned to write, I used to watch my mother writing her PhD dissertation and mimic her by scribbling on a page. I’d apparently burst into her office every hour, shouting ‘I’ve finished another dissertation!’ When I was around seven, I started writing short stories, and later poetry. However, I didn’t start writing nonfiction (what I write now) until I was at university and became editor of the university’s travel and study abroad magazine.

Tell us the journey you went on to get your books published (e.g. direct on your website, self-published, assisted-publishing, traditional publisher)

I’d been writing my current blog (on vegan food and travel) for three or four years when I realised there was no published guide on how to travel as a vegan out. I decided to write it, and immediately started sneaking off to the bathroom at an old job to write it in secret. I didn’t think about how I’d publish it until I finished writing it, and then was faced with a choice.

A friend arranged for me to meet one her friends who owns a small publishing house, and oddly enough, the publisher encouraged me to self-publish rather than seek a publisher. It was through her advice that I decided against seeking a traditional publisher. She advised me to self-publish since I had previous experience in advertising and marketing, which is what I ended up doing. I published my first book through Amazon’s Createspace and the second via IngramSpark.

What publishing elements do you most enjoy and most like to avoid, and why? (e.g. design, marketing, formatting etc.)

Writing the books is by far the most fun and easiest part; editing less so. As for the part I tend to avoid…it’s the design. I made an attempt to design my own cover for my first book; it was so poorly done my friends still laugh when I remind them of my initial sketch. In the end, a friend helped me with the design of the first edition and I hired a designer for the cover of the second edition.

In the spirit of DIY, I also had a friend who publishes a magazine teach me how to use Adobe InDesign, thinking I could design the interior of the book. While she gave me some great pointers, one day spent with a laptop in a café is not sufficient in learning the ins and outs of designing, and again I ended up hiring a designer. However, I’m grateful to my friend for the pointers she gave me, because it means I have enough of a grasp of InDesign that I can make minor edits in it without having to consult my designer.

With the hindsight of being a published author, anything you would have done differently?

I would have wasted less of my time attempting to DIY my designs and hired a designer so I could get my first book out faster (and so I could have spent that time on marketing). I ended up launching it just before Christmas a few years ago, but not allowing enough time for most people to actually buy it as a Christmas present in its first year. It’s done very well around the holidays since, so now I know to allow time before the holiday season.

What tips or advice would you give an aspiring indie author who is looking to self-publish?

• DON’T be intimidated by how technical some aspects of it can sound; platforms like Createspace and Kindle Direct Publishing walk you through the process of publishing step-by-step.
• DO hire a designer, particularly for the cover, and for the interior if you’re publishing a print book.
• DON’T hire a formatter for Kindle if you have some technical know-how; it’s actually fairly easy to convert a Word document to a Kindle book and the instructions on Amazon are clear on how to do it.
• DO make sure your photos are high enough quality that they’ll look good in print (nothing’s more frustrating than getting a proof back and realising they’re blurry but not knowing why!). A designer can tell you if they’re the appropriate resolution.
• DON’T do the editing yourself. Hire a professional editor AND proofreader if possible (the proofreader will check for grammatical errors and typos; the editor may look at the flow of your book and how sections are arranged).

What marketing or promotional tools or techniques do you use to reach your readers?

As a blogger, I use my own site (and associated email list and social media) as my primary marketing tool. I’ve also found podcasts very helpful; most podcasters are always looking for guests so it’s easy to get on a show and talk about your book and/or the topic you write about. I find Amazon ads very effective too, although their reporting system is very confusing.

I’ve had some success in getting my book featured in magazines in my niche (by sending copies to vegan magazines) although it’s not guaranteed and sometimes I send copies with no response. Other times, my book appears listed in the magazine and I find out through a friend who reads the magazine! That’s always a nice surprise.

I speak at vegan conferences on travel too. Finally, since I know a lot of bloggers (and used to work in blogger marketing) I ran a blogger campaign for my first book when it came out, where each blogger wrote about a destination they’d visited and vegan food they’d found there, and talked about my book. I ran a book giveaway as part of that campaign (I run book giveaways every so often to build my email list).

What impact do you want your books to have on your readers?

My goal with my books (and site) is to show people it’s possible to eat vegan while travelling the world. I’ve met so many people who told me they stopped being vegan while travelling because they didn’t believe they could find vegan food on the road.

I’ve also met travellers who told me they wanted to go vegan, but thought they couldn’t because of their love of travel. This is what inspired me to write my books: to show people the two can coexist and ultimately, to make the world a more vegan-friendly place.

The more people eat vegan while they travel, request vegan food and support vegan restaurants, the more vegan restaurants will open around the world and the more restaurants will introduce vegan options…everywhere in the world.

You’ll spend 31,000 hours of your life eating. That’s 3.6 years. Eat with joy. (Never with guilt.)

What’s next on your writing journey?

Right now I’m focusing on my blog; I’m updating and adding a lot of information to old posts. I also recently became a columnist for Vegetarian Living magazine, and I write a monthly vegan travel column for them. Another book is on the horizon (once you start writing books, I don’t think you can stop!), but I don’t know what it will be yet…watch this space.

About the Author

Caitlin Galer-Unti is a vegan food and travel writer who runs The Vegan Word (http://theveganword.com/). Her books include The Essential Vegan Travel Guide (http://geni.us/evtg18) and the Barcelona Vegan Guide (http://geni.us/bcn18). She currently lives in London and has travelled to 30 countries (and counting!). She writes about the vegan food she finds and makes around the world.

Connect with Caitlin:

• Instagram:  @theveganword
• Facebook:  @theveganword
• Twitter @theveganword