Thank you so much for the heads up and for all the magic you put into the fandom all these years. You don’t know it, but Pull Me Under is what inspired me to write fic of my own, and I’ve never been happier. 🩷 thank you so much for that push!
Any advice for a fic writer wanting to turn it into a career? How do you get brave enough to take the leap? 😅
Oh, I have SO MANY thoughts and not enough time to get them into proper shape, so here’s a rough and dirty version. And keep in mind that I’m not there yet either—halfway, maybe.
Also, my focus is on self-publishing because that’s what I know best. (I did only one book with a professional publisher. In hindsight, it was my worst, there wasn’t really anything they did that I couldn’t have done myself, plus I prefer being in full control of my books.)
Here are the things I wish I’d known upfront:
It is bloody scary, putting yourself out there. Leaving your comfort zone always is—but that’s how we grow.
Make your first book as good as it can be—edit, get feedback, all that jazz—but don’t treat it as this one masterpiece that will determine your fate. At some point, you have to let it go and just publish it. (Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited is … sigh. But it does make it easy for indie authors to reach a potentially large readership.)
Quantity leads to quality. By that, I mean that the more you write, the better you’ll get, and the higher the chance that there’s a masterpiece somewhere in there. It’s like throwing darts—if you spend hours lining up that one perfect shot, chances are it won’t go craaaaazy off-target. But you’re far better off throwing as many darts as you can because the more you practise, the better you’ll get—and one or two may just hit the bull.
Do the legwork. Research what kind of cover people expect in your genre, what keywords fit your book and aren’t so competitive that it won’t ever show up in searches, polish your blurb. Experiment with what works and doesn’t. Play. Always remember that you have one second, if that, to convince people to click on a tiny preview of your book and read more about it.
Marketing is inevitable. I used to publish a book, announce it to my tiny newsletter (that I didn’t really promote so readers had to actively seek it out), and then forget about it. It’s only recently that I’ve come to understand that nope, not good enough. You need to get the word out—build a review team upfront to get those early reviews, drum up some excitement on social media so people know that something’s coming. Attention is a rare commodity, and you need to work for your slice of it. (I’m admittedly still terrible at this.)
It takes time. There is the odd author who lands one insta-hit and that defines their writing career—but especially in the world of indie publishing, that’s super rare. Most successful indie authors have at least fifteen books out. Building a readership doesn’t happen overnight. It doesn’t happen in a year either.
Don’t take bad reviews to heart. Yes, our writing is personal and it hurts when someone doesn’t like it. But tastes differ—yay diversity. Seek out constructive criticism before you publish something, but once the book is out there, it’s kinda out of your hands. Some people enjoy pointing out flaws, and Goodreads can be a double-edged sword. If there’s something constructive in a negative review, great, maybe learn from it. But if it’s simply a matter of taste—“not steamy enough” or “I only read first-person”—try to remember that people are different and move on.
Be part of a community. (This is something I wish I’d known much sooner.) Whatever your genre, there will be other authors struggling with the same questions and problems. Find them. Find groups that connect authors and readers. Facebook managed to reinvent itself with all those dedicated niche groups, and there’s one for everything—be it authors who take their MM romances out of the Amazon corset, or readers recommending books to other readers. It’s so nice to feel like you’re not alone in this.
Good luck! And thank you. ❤️
