School of the Ages

This time around, I welcome innovative astrologer and book author Suzanne White. Divination is a specialty at School of the Ages, but I am pleased to say that Suzanne is the first professional diviner to join us here at Schooloftheages dot com.

 Thanks for visiting Suzanne. To start, tell us where you're from and how that has influenced you.

I was born and grew up in Buffalo, New York. It influenced me to leave there are soon as I finished university. I taught for one year in New York City and then I moved to Paris and never came back (much).

So, what you do, professionally and personally, when you are not writing?

I run my web site business, upload books to Kindle and other e-book reader sellers and I go to the gym. But mostly I write.

Give us some information about your books and the growth of your career to the point that you became such a distinctive and innovative author.

I started writing articles for women's magazines. Then I was convinced by a friend to write a novel. That novel sold to a big NY publisher. My agent told me that writing novels would put a person in the poor house so I should write non fiction. She gave me a list of choices. Cooking, hairdressing, grooming pets, flower arranging, astrology, parenting etc. I hated them all but chose astrology. But only if I could do the Chinese Animal Signs. Agent agreed and sold a proposal I wrote in an hour. I knew nothing about Chinese Astrology. So I learned. Then I wrote my first Chinese astrology book. It was a huge best seller. The paperback sale advance was $110,000. After that no publisher wanted much more than Astrology from me. Now I (reluctantly) am known as the "High Priestess" of Chinese and Western Astrologies. I have written 4 best selling books on Astrology. I guess my most amazing achievement is THE NEW ASTROLOGY™. I invented a blend of western and Chinese Astrologies. 12 x 12 signs. 144 NEW Astrological signs. Capricorn/Dragon is no at all like a Capricorn/Goat. That book is a legend in its own time. A cult book really.

Tell a story about how your work has affected the lives of others.

Massively. I have 4000 friends on Facebook and a huge readership all around the world. People say that my work has profoundly affected their lives.

 Your website and your videos are very high-quality. How did you make that happen?

I worked at it and had a lot of help from fans. My first web sites were built by fans. The video? I think I discovered that videographer through Joe Konrath.

I've read a good amount of Joe Konrath's writing about the publishing field, and I learned a lot. Any hints or suggestions in the fields of promotion and marketing?

Oh gosh. Good question. I have had great luck with Facebook in that since I am there and my books are all there people can talk to me. I believe that makes them interested in my books. For three years I had a Facebook app for THE NEW ASTROLOGY™. It did very well. Then in October 2011 the developer who was my partner did not recode it (on purpose) and I lost it. (long story) With it, I lost a lot of traffic to the site. I do newsletters every month and I post horoscopes for all 24 signs every day. It's all very good. But I don't so nearly as much marketing as I should. It's always a choice between writing and marketing. I need a new partner with lots of marketing experience.

MORE ABOUT SUZANNE

At astrology.about.com:  http://astrology.about.com/od/guestauthorbios/qt/BioSuzWhite.htm

Suzanne sits down with Kipp Poe: http://kippoe.blogspot.com/2010/11/suzanne-white-interview.html

Suzanne at ofspirit.com:  http://www.ofspirit.com/suzannewhite1.htm

Suzanne's great video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNzKaVPUrbQ