Author Bio:
Darla DeMorrow is a Certified Professional Organizer® and owner of HeartWork Organizing (HeartWorkOrg.com) since 2004. Based near Philadelphia, PA, she is mom of 2, international speaker, and author of the best-selling book series SORT and Succeed, which outlines five simple steps to help you organize stuff, time, paperwork, money, and photos.
The Upbeat, Organized Home Office is the third book in the series.
What inspires you to write?
I truly believe that everyone has a gift to give in this world. I have always loved to read, sometimes a book a day. I often am elbow-deep in several books at a time. When I realized that I was sharing the same nuggets with my clients over and over and over again, it dawned on me that there must be many more people in the world I would never have a chance to meet who also needed to hear those same nuggets. I finally put together my love for books and my love for my chosen profession, professional organizing, and started writing books. The response has been amazing. To know that people all over the world are becoming their best selves because of a few words that I wrote is very humbling and energizing.
Tell us about your writing process.
I have been blogging for about ten years at this point. I write between one and three articles each week. Some of those articles get picked up in other media to be shared beyond my blog. I started following Nina Amir who talks about blogging your book. Although I started blogging just for me and my clients, my blog started to organize itself into themes, such as organizing your kitchen and organizing your home office. I pulled together some of my favorite articles, arranged them into an outline, and revised the content into an entirely new book. I'm especially excited to release my fourth book, The Upbeat, Organized Home Office, because so many of us (more than 40% of US professionals) now work from home, including me! I want each of us to have a home office that we LOVE being in, since we spend so much of our time there.
Who are your favorite authors?
I read about 60% fiction and 40% non-fiction. I read so much that I can't say I have a favorite author anymore! Just recently I keep falling into excellent novels centered on WWII, although I would never, ever say that was a topic that interested me. I can't decide if I'm changing or the writers about that era are so wonderful. The books are about the stories of everyday people, not just the battles and military strategy. I'm also captivated by anything about the brain and new findings from neuroscience and behavioral economy. Richard Thaler is an economist I've quoted in all of my books. Malcolm Gladwell's books, starting with Blink, are like mile markers on my journey to being a writer: solid and recognizable by so many of my friends. I also read other books on organizing. So many of my colleagues are whip-smart and funny, and I love to meet them in person after having read their works.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
It all started out of necessity with my first book. I had built my business for just three years before becoming pregnant with my first daughter, and I went searching for a book to help me navigate the tricky business of owning my own business while pregnant. The book didn't exist. Two years later, it still didn't exist. If it was going to exist to help other women, apparently I was going to have to write it. Although it didn't seem like a book about organizing, I see now that it was very much about staying organized during a specific season in a woman's life. Once that book was out of the way, I started thinking about writing more generally in my topic, and once I get an idea in my head, sometimes it just has to come out. Three books on organizing later, I still have more to share.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
It's an exciting time to be a writer or publisher. There are few barriers to getting your brilliance out there. Since everyone has something to share with the world, those who want to do it through a book should let nothing stop them. I encourage everyone to learn as much as you can about the publishing industry, use all the tools at your disposal, and be as professional as you can be, whether you are with a publisher or not. I'm not a futurist, so it's hard to say what the crystal ball will say about the publishing industry in five, ten or fifty years. I'm just grateful that I have books that are archived in the Library of Congress. My work has already inspired others to bring their great ideas to the page, and that's something I could not have predicted ten years ago.
What genres do you write?
non-fiction, self-help, home and garden, business
What formats are your books in?
eBook, Print
Website(s)
Darla DeMorrow Home Page Link
Follow Darla DeMorrow On Amazon
Author’s Social Media Links
Goodreads
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
All information is provided by the author and is presented as it was submitted so you the reader get to hear the author’s own “voice” in their interview.
