I draw on personal experience all the time, although I may adjust it to fit the scene, characters, or story. I love being able to use special anecdotes from my travels, include cities and overseas or local locations that I enjoyed and I happily mine my memories to help bring a scene to life. Hopefully, it adds a touch of realism but it also makes writing more pleasurable.
I am an independently published author, but I paid a professional to design the cover. I devised the title myself (and find it quite hard) but I got a lot of feedback. As a reader, I'm attracted by a cover and title generally although my final decision is based on the blurb. With so many books published every day, the cover and title need to stand out, be consistent with the genre and attract readers.
I do. I'm like most authors, I love reading that someone has enjoyed my book. I also try to rationalise the bad reviews, not everyone can love my book, but it's hard. After the amount of time, energy and self that I put into my novel, I want everyone to love it. I know that's not possible, but I do love to read a good review.
Start, don't wait.
I let life get in the way of writing and didn't take it up seriously until later in life. I wish I'd started earlier.
I'd also say, Keep learning and practising until you're happy with the result, don't give up. There's no shame in writing a bad first draft, everyone has to rewrite and edit to shape the story.
