Press Page For Tiara King
Thanks for your interest in interest in Tiara. The following information may help, but of course, please do reach out on the Contact Page if you need anything further.
Looking for an Author, Publisher, Designer, Stylist, and full-time Carer who has such a broad experience across so many subjects?
– As a carer for her mother, Tiara King knows what it’s like to struggle with simple every day decisions. A monumental task in its own right, many don’t understand the physical, emotional, and psychological burdens caring can bring, and how it can take a toll on a carer’s mental and physical health. Now suffering with her own health issues, including arthritis in her hands, she’s had to take steps to eliminate certain parts of her life she no longer needs and keep what she does.
– As a jewellery designer and wardrobe stylist, Tiara King has knowledge of setting up and running a business, with her jewellery label, Jewel Divas, being founded in 2008. With dreams of becoming a successful jewellery empire, she’s one of many who know the struggle to maintain a business on one’s own. Because she became the long-term carer to her mother early on in life, she created jewels as a way of living a life unfulfilled. Until her growing writing regime meant her jewellery label took a back seat to everything else and Tiara turned to writing with a vengeance, producing most of her work since 2016. And sadly, the decision to close Jewel Divas happened in late 2021.
– As an author, Tiara King has the knowledge of what it takes to survive the gamut of rejection letters from traditional publishing houses and agents. Deciding not to leave it up to them to tell her she was good enough to be in print, she took her publishing career into her own hands and founded her publishing company, Royal Star Publishing. Tiara King retains all of the control over her content and rights, and keeps ALL of the profits worldwide.
– Tiara King understands the enormity of being consistent and uniform through all of her brands and personas, Tiara King, Jewel Divas, Jewel Divas Style, L.J. Diva, T.K. Wrathbone, and Royal Star Publishing and their web pages. It’s important to keep a brand even and recognisable, and Tiara started her branding long before she became a published author or jewellery designer, going through many steps to have the online presence she has today. She also trade marks her names for that extra added branding purpose.
Questions & Answers for Articles
WRITING
1 – When did you first start writing? – It was way back in 1986 in year seven at primary school. It was a class project and we wrote, illustrated, and made physical books to go into the school library. I did it again in high school for German class, so I self-published early on.
2 – How did your first novel come about? – In my 20s I’d read a Jackie Collins book and remembered a scene so vividly I kept going, yeah, I wanna write a book with a character like that. I have no idea of the year or how old I was, and I’d also had a few dreams where I was given great ideas for scenes and I wrote them down on scraps of paper. But it wasn’t until July 2006 that my muse gave me that physical push to actually write the book.
3 – Why do you write your novels under a pseudonym? – It’s much easier to use a different name for your writing if you do other things. It’s also for privacy issues. I write adult novels full of saucy, sexy scenes with hot men under one name, and kid’s stories under another. You want to keep them separate.
4 – You write young adult & children’s books, as well? – Yes. I’d had a thought in 2014 about finding my old school stories and using them, but the idea took a year to germinate properly and in 2015 I found them and got serious about it. I used another pseudonym so I could keep my adult novels and children’s stories apart. It’s extra work, but they’re separate purely because it’s better to keep adult books away from kids’ books.
5 – You’ve also written non-fiction books under your own name, including song lyrics you wrote as a teenager, as well as a book for teens on the perils of social media. – I have. I’d seen a few blog posts about people turning their posts into books and thought, yeah; I have a lot of expertise and knowledge on many subjects, so I could write non-fiction books, too. I’m a jewellery designer as well as a wardrobe stylist. I have expertise in those areas and so published my jewellery book, then my style guide. I wrote a book about self-publishing, because I know how to do that too, and then my song lyrics that I wrote. And #teenblogger came along in 2015, and was going to be a Wrathbone story, but it didn’t fit in. When I was getting set to release more Wrathbone stories in 2016, the thought came to me to release it under my own name. So I did.
6 – How do you write your books? – Longhand for my novels and young adult stories, with blue pens and spiral bound 200+ page A4 notebooks. My non-fiction books were written straight into Word docs or from partially handwritten manuscripts and then added to once typed up. And it’s easier for me to pull out a notebook and pen than to turn on a pc. And I can read what I wrote previously, edit it and get back into the story. Plus it doesn’t need power or batteries, so it won’t run out or freeze up.
7 – How long does it take to write a book? – It depends. The non-fictions took about four months each to get the final drafts as they were works in progress. With Hollywood Dreams and London they took three weeks to write the first draft working nine hours a day. Vegas took a little longer as I wrote at night and it took years to edit. Billionaire’s took months because I only wrote on Sundays. My young adults take 2-10 hours, Porn Stars took anywhere from four days to thirty-nine days.
8 – Where do your ideas come from? – My non-fictions are from real life. I’m a jewellery designer, creator, collector, and trained stylist. For my novels, what or who takes my fancy, which was Michael Weatherly from NCIS and Carmine Giovinazzo from CSI New York for The Road To Vegas and Hollywood Dreams. Falling for London was off the back of English TV show The Bill finishing up which is why some of the actors are in it and I stole the name of Sgt Callum Stone. Billionaire’s was inspired by an Aussie actor, a dream, and the murdered Russian royal family. My kid’s books are from old school stories or inspired by what’s currently on tv or happening in the world. Porn Stars was inspired by an Aussie TV show host and his brothers.
9 – You’ve dedicated your novels to the men who inspired you. Why? – Why not, I say! The men are insanely gorgeous hot hunks of sizzling man meat and should have hot steamy novels dedicated to them. They should know they inspire the fantasies women, and men, have about them.
PUBLISHING
1 – How did you come across self-publishing? – In 2011 I read a blog post by an agent I followed, about self-publishing millionaire author Amanda Hocking. I didn’t even know self-publishing existed and from what I know, Amazon only started helping authors self-publish in 2008. Since it’s American we clearly didn’t know about it here in Australia, so I’d never heard of it and definitely didn’t know it was a way for authors to get their books published without all the hassle of agents, editors and big publishers leaning over our shoulders ripping us off by taking all the money and not giving us any in return.
2 – For those who want to know, how do you self-publish? – Google as much information as possible, read as many books from the library as you can, join your local writing centre or group. When you find the self-publishing websites, download their free guides and read through them, read any blog posts from people who have already done it, which is very helpful as well, as it can be confusing and overwhelming at first, but if you take the time to learn and not rush things, you’ll get there.
3 – Do you do all the work yourself? – Not quite. I do the handwriting and typing up, plus the usual editing. I do get an edit and assessment from my editor who’s done all of my books since I started publishing in 2011. I do the interior formatting for my electronic and print books, and some of the covers for my e-books, but I also do mock-up covers for the company who do my print covers so they’re professionally done. Then there’s the business side of it all once it’s published. It really is two jobs in one. The work doesn’t stop once the book is published.
4 – How long does the whole process of writing and releasing a book take? – It depends. From the first to the last draft, then editing, assessing, formatting, covers, more editing, making sure everything is up to date and working for each company takes time. I estimated that it took six months for each of my e-books from start to finish. Novels can be six months to a year.
5 – You set up your own publishing house to release all of your books. Why? – Because I ended up writing under three names. In 2015 when I decided to write kid’s stories I thought, here’s another name I’m writing under, it’s getting ridiculous, how many more. Maybe I should set up my own company? Then life happened, and that thought was left by the wayside until 2016 when it came up again, and in 2017 I bit the bullet and bought a name and set up a website. Then I changed the name and set up another website. Looking back, it was the best decision and so many other authors were doing it because at the end of the day, writing as much as many of us do, it does become a business.
6 – So what happens if a publishing house wants to print your books? – There’s not much need to give my books to anyone else. Besides, they rejected me years ago, why would I give them anything now? I own my rights, covers and books, plus all the profit. Why would I give that up?
7 – Which sites do you suggest most for authors when it comes to selling books and being on social media? – A website and/or blog is a must. It’s your landing site, your social face to the world so to speak. A Facebook author page, and Instagram and Pinterest accounts are what I veer towards now. Twitter if short conversations interest you more. As for book sellers, iTunes, Kobo, Smashwords or Draft2Digital for e-books to name a few as they all distribute to many countries, stores and even libraries. Amazon’s KDP is print and e-book and they own Book Depository and Goodreads as well. And then there’s Ingram Spark for worldwide print books. There are so many the list could go on…and on…and on.
JEWELLERY
1 – Where do you get all of your amazing jewellery from? – I’ve bought it from many places, markets, discount variety shops, chain stores and eBay. It’s funny; the jewellery I bought on eBay years ago keeps popping up in chain stores. I seem to be ahead of the trends. I also make a lot. And I mean A LOT.
2 – How many pieces of jewellery do you own, and how do you store it? – Last audit it was 2000 plus pieces, and I store them in clear ziplock bags away from dust and dirt, and at the moment they’re stored in two large 5 drawer roller cabinets and three glass chests. Ziplock bags are great as they keep the jewellery for much longer than if it was sitting out in the air tarnishing. And if you lose a stone, it might be in the bottom of the bag and you can glue it back on.
3 – What was your first piece of jewellery and do you still have it? – Not sure. I got a pair of Avon Bluebird studs when I was little which I have somewhere. It was probably something plastic from the one and two cent machines outside Coles Supermarkets.
4 – When did you start making jewellery and accessories? And what made you want to then sell them? – I was jewellery mad from birth, and as a teenager I found more things to buy or remake. There were some bead stores and markets around then too, so it was easy to do. And that kept going through my 20s and 30s. People were seeing my jewellery on me and saying I should sell it. I started with altered art bracelets on eBay in 2007/08 and it was a natural progression.
5 – How do you be a Jewel Diva and how do you wear your Jewel Divas jewellery? – By having a love for jewellery. You need to love the way it looks and sparkles. The way it makes you want to wear it all the time and play with it in the sun to see it shine. You have to pile it on and wear oodles of it all of the time. I pile it on. The more the merrier, the bigger the better. You need to shine and sparkle your own way through this world. I’m known in my area for my jewellery, they see me with big sparkly earrings, tonnes of bracelets, rings and necklaces.
STYLE
1 – When did you become a stylist and what type are you? – I did my styling course in 2013. I’m a wardrobe stylist mainly. That means I clean it out, audit and organise the clothes back into the closet in a nice neat fashion all while deciding what to throw, what to keep, and what looks good, of course.
2 – Where do you buy your clothes and accessories from? – I buy gorgeous kaftans or kimonos on eBay. I’ve bought from markets, discount variety and chain stores. Most of my clothing has come from Millers and Kmart as they have great stuff at low prices. Shoes are from the usual chain or online stores. Bags and jewels are the best things to get on eBay. My Cancer Council sunglasses came from Kmart. I would love to design a line with them. They would be big, blingy and sparkly!
3 – Do you follow the trends? – God No! I buy what I like when I like, and wear it when and how I like. Trends are a stupid thing to follow as it costs too much money to keep up with something that changes every month, if not week or fortnight. Wear something because you love it and be an individual instead of a clone. Who wants to look like a million other people? I don’t!
4 – Who And What Inspires You? – People don’t really inspire me, but things do. Anything that sparkles, is colourful, or looks pretty. I love seeing how rooms are decorated and plain neutral ones bore me. I love colour, big, bright and beautiful. Swizzles, swirls and rainbows of colour. How books are stacked, chairs are placed, and decorations are laid out around a room. If a room is boring, I’m bored. Plain and boring white or grey means you’re the same, plain and boring. It means you have no idea how to get colour into your life because you lack it in your life. Neutral does not equal classic or clean in my book.
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Tiara’s Career Timeline
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