Meet New York Times and USA Today best-selling fantasy writers Terah Edun and Lola StVil. These two African-American women are taking the indie publishing world by storm. It sounds so simple. Write a book and upload it on Amazon for free, then wait for the money to roll in. Unfortunately, indie publishing isn’t the gold rush many thought it would be. In fact, in today’s overly saturated indie publishing market, less than 10 percent of writers can make a living crafting a story. Of that 10 percent, only a handful of them are writers of color.
Edun and StVil are not only defying the odds but these women are managing to thrive. In the past three years, they have sold over 500,000 copies of their respective fantasy series by being among the new group of indie authors: savvy, businesspeople with the goal to make their books as well-known as Amanda Hocking and Veronica Roth or, dare we say it, the next black J.K. Rowling.
Yet for these two women, what’s more important than ranking, or even royalties, is the satisfaction of knowing they are adding diversity to an otherwise homogenous landscape that is indie publishing. They insist on adding diversity throughout their fictional worlds and making sure that people of color are represented.
Often readers hear about the next big Black authors through word of mouth. If you ask your mother she might suggest you read one of Steve Harvey’s books or if she’s really into science fiction then Octavia Butler is the next name to come to her lips.
But what about the young, hip authors? Where do you find these authors when your shelves are dry? Goodreads! Amazon Bestsellers Lists! But word of mouth can also be gold. StVil and Edun are here to talk about their stories with diverse casts of characters and success as self-published authors with 500,000 books sold between them.
But before we get to the special one-on-one interview between these two authors, here’s a little more about these women and their journeys.
They’ve hit The New York Times and USA Today best-selling lists and managed to enrapture readers in the process. The idea of writing and publishing a book sounds so simple. But it’s not. Not anymore. Not with the advent of self-publishing where the author is either in charge of, or working with contractors to complete, cover design, formatting, editing, accounting, social media and publishing. Not to mention the primary task – WRITING.
After you upload the final production onto your retail distributor … well then comes the hard part. You can’t just wait for the money to roll in. Being a successful self-publishing author is about being a multi-faceted entrepreneur day-in and a day-out.
Read the interview and more at www.blackgirlnerds.com