There is no deadline to finding your passion. Today’s guest is transitioning from her 33 years of experience in IT to pursuing her love for writing cozy mysteries. Sue Hollowell is a wife and empty nester with a lot of mom left over. But, with newfound time on her hands and a love for mystery novels, she channeled this energy into telling the story of a character she made up in her head. Now, she is a published author with almost twenty cozy mysteries to her name. Get to know Sue, her story, and the writing process, which allowed her to write an average of one book a month for 15 months. Plus, get tips on creative ways to engage with your readers! Be inspired by her story and learn why it’s never too late to find your people and pursue your passion.
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Listen to the podcast here:
From IT To Writing Cozy Mysteries With Sue Hollowell
I am here with the lovely Sue Hollowell. Sue is a wife and empty nester with a lot of mom left over. Finding a lot of time on her hands and as a lover of mystery novels, she began telling the story of a character who appeared in her head. Through this experience, she’s discovered a love of writing stories and especially mysteries.
Her day job has been in IT for many years. As an organizer and problem solver, her work provides her with transferable skills to planning murders from cozy mysteries. She and her husband are on the search to adopt a dog, missing her Spaniels that passed a couple of years ago. Thank you so much for being here, Sue. I’m so glad you’re here.
Thank you, Ella. I’m happy to be here.
I would love for you to tell everybody about yourself and your author’s journey.
I am not the person who wanted to start writing when I was a kid. Throughout school, I did not enjoy writing at all. We had to create outlines. I got the structure part of it but I never knew what to put inside of the outline. I did come into writing at a time when both of our daughters had moved away from home and I was looking for something that could be my thing. When our daughters were home, I spent all of my time being a mom and didn’t have much of my separate interests, which was great. I loved it but I was not prepared for the empty nest syndrome that I had.
I’ve always loved reading mysteries. Sometimes I was reading and thought, “Maybe I could write something.” I started down that path around 2016. I went to a local writer’s conference, hooked up with an editor to edit the book that I was writing. I had no clue what I was doing when I started. I started typing the story that was in my head.
In the meantime, there was a middle-grade story that began to percolate with a couple of characters in my head. I deviated, wrote a couple of middle-grade books and enjoyed that thoroughly and thought, “This writing could be my thing.” I decided to move from the middle grade and back to writing mysteries. I decided specifically, cozy mysteries.
I love that they’re funny and clean. I love the problem-solving aspect of the mystery and creating the whole story outline. I am a lifelong learner, so I also enjoyed the process of researching all of the different things that you need to do to be a successful author. One of the things that I enjoy about this is that you can learn these things later in life. For me, a lot later. I feel like spending decades on the planet. I finally found my people with the indie publishing industry.
You’ve gone back to the cozy mysteries. What happened with the first book with the editor? What did you do with them?
The first book was not a cozy mystery. It was more of a police procedural. One of the things I learned about that is that even though I’ve caught some law enforcement family members, I needed to learn more about police procedurals before I was going to write that type of book. I still have remnants of those characters in my head and they’re finding their way in little portions of my cozies. I did publish the two middle-grade children’s books under a pen name. I’m using my name as my pen name for the cozy mysteries though. At this point, the first book is probably being reincarnated in bits and pieces throughout my cozies.
You’ve published several cozies and self-published on Amazon quite a few. You kept going, which I love because it sounds like you’re not a, “Let me think about it for a while.” You’re a, “I’m curious about writing. Let me go to a conference and find an editor.” You’re an action taker.
I love the learning aspect of it. When I see that there’s something that I can do, I’ll try it. It was in October of 2020 when I published my first cozy. When I decided I wanted to do that, one of the things that I knew was there was a lot that I didn’t know. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I wanted to accelerate as much as I could at that time. That’s when I discovered you and your coaching program. We began to work together to get me my foundation in my business for indie publishing.
I feel like for the year 2021, the major thing that I accomplished was getting a solid framework in place and a foundation to get me comfortable with the basics of publishing. To date, I’ve published 2 series of cozies with 16 novella-length books. It’s been quite a ride. On average, I was about 1 a month for about 14, 15 months. I found a great process that worked for me. The frequency worked for me. All of the steps that I put in place were a good rhythm for me for a while.
That accomplishment gave me the confidence to keep going. It’s not all roses and unicorns. I got bad reviews. You get feedback and comments that stab you in the heart. Where the community of indie publishing comes in, for the most part, is people are so willing to share and are incredibly supportive of wherever you’re at in your journey. That’s the piece that I’ve liked being a part of.
I love the indie community because the people are so generous. There’s a very much abundance mentality like, “The more you win, the more I win, the more we all win.” A very few people I find are like, “I don’t want to tell you.” I’m very curious though. How did you meet some of these people? Who are these indie community people? Writing can be very solitary at home by yourself process, so how are you interacting with them?
A few different ways. I’m a podcast junkie, so I listen to a lot of podcasts, primarily around being an author. It’s another way that I learn and try to keep up with what’s going on in the industry. With Facebook groups, there are a lot of cozy specific groups that are very helpful. There are a lot of opportunities to connect and collaborate with others, specifically in the cozy genre. There are anthologies. One of the things I’m doing is I’m trying to get better at networking.
I am submitting a short story to a cozy anthology. It will be published. I’m connecting through that means to other authors. That organization has also created a book club for cozy readers, where there are two authors a month that offer a free book. There’s a book chat that the author does on their free book after a couple of weeks.
One of my books is going to be part of the book club. I’m connecting with readers and authors through those mechanisms and Facebook groups. There are a couple of other programs that I’m part of that have office hours and also organize writing sprints that you can join, chat and then get to work. Those are the things that worked for me. I’m an introvert, and those are the things I’ve decided that are working for me.
With introverts, it can be hard to go find people, especially during a pandemic, because you have to only find people digitally. Once you meet your people as an introvert, is it easier? There are lots of writers. It’s a bunch of other people like you that are introverts. Once you get past, “I’m an introvert,” how has it been?
It does get easier. I had never done a newsletter swap with other authors directly. It required me to ask others to include my book for a promotion in their newsletter. It was baby steps. Some places are advertising newsletter swaps. I need to stick my toe in the water and start. I’ve done a couple and mutually swapped with others. I’ve found that it does get easier once you start and you continue taking baby steps. On the other side, people have requested me also to send out their books in my newsletter. It continues to build once you get going.
Once you start and continue taking little baby steps, things get easier. It just continues to build once you get going.
One thing I love because I have a similar story is I didn’t grow up writing. I had a lot of writing books because I’ve always loved reading. I was like, “I love books so maybe writing is something that might be my thing.” What is it that you love about writing? When did you discover it?
Pretty early on in writing the middle-grade novel, since those were first, I found that I was experiencing the same type of escape writing as when I was reading. With the middle grade, I’d be in the sixth-grade lunch room. I could feel and see that I was there. I loved that feeling. I’ve read mysteries forever and I enjoyed them. I realized I was getting that same escape in writing. I was reading a mystery novel. It clicked with me that I could write something like this.
I still didn’t know what I was doing at all. It took some study. I love to do research and analyze things. I would read a book and analyze, “What chapter did the dead body appear? How many characters do they have? What locations do they have? When did they appear? When did they introduce those things?” I read some cozies and analyzed the books to learn how they built the story, the mystery and the characters there. That was the beginning point for me to see that with that framework, that was something that I could do. I could start with it.
That is a brilliant way of learning to make stories and write. I was thinking about asking you, “What writing books have you read,” but studying stories that you enjoy is the best way to learn about how to write.
When I read mysteries, I still do that to see how people craft the language, especially for a series, how do they continue that on? I’d like to do a Christmas novella trilogy. I’m following an author who did one of those and I loved it. It’s a huge learning curve for me to start a new series because there are so many decisions to be made. I’m looking at her Christmas trilogy to learn, “How did she create that whole new world?” Hopefully, it’s not going to take me 6 months to create the world so I can write 3 books in there. I’m always looking at other authors and trying to learn from how they do it.
That’s a brilliant way of learning how to write, especially if you haven’t been writing and you don’t have your English degree. If it’s something you’re learning and passionate about, you’ll jump in 100%. You know me because we’ve worked together. For marketing as well, it’s like, “What should I do?” I’m like, “Let’s go see what everybody else is doing in the top 100. Let’s see what’s working and mimic that because that’s what’s working.”
I like this for writing because you get to find the books that you love, take stuff and learn from what you love. You’ve heard me say it, “I’m passionate about finding what the market wants, what you want, what you love and it overlaps.” If you are taking what you love and it’s something that other people are also enjoying, you automatically find the place that overlaps your writing. I love that. That’s brilliant. I’m curious about your writing process. You come up with a world, which sounds like a core part for you and the writing. You were writing 1 book in 1 month for 14 months. Are those related? I’m assuming they are. What’s your process for that? That’s a lot of books.
When I started the first series, I had concepts for four books in that series. As I wrote the first couple, more stories evolved through the relationships of the characters. I ended up with six in the first series. I have concepts for three more there. I don’t know if I’ll ever get back to writing those. I hope so one day because this is my first series and I love those characters. I try to take what I’ve learned from that first series and apply it to the next one as I’m building out the world there.
With the second series, I like to have enough stories where I could have at least six books. Very tactically, I will create a spreadsheet and put concepts together for each of the first six books. I’ll have a few core things identified for each book that I need to make sure that I include. For example, if the series includes an animal. Animals are big in cozies. What is the storyline that includes the animal? If it’s culinary and I’ve got a bakery, then what is the storyline for each of the books that include that key theme in there?
I’ll start by planning six books in the series at a very high level with some key themes, the core characters in there and then I’ll start flushing out details as I go along. The storyline evolves the more that I produce the books. I follow where the characters lead me to a degree in their relationships and how they developed. I don’t have all of that decisions in the beginning.
I would like to be much more sequential in my process because my brain thinks that way. I’ve learned that I need to go down the road a little bit to see further and be able to evolve the story. I need to be okay with not having every detail of the outline before I start writing. If I’ve got the first several chapters outlined, it’s more than enough to get started. I can go in a cycle a little bit as I go forward and things evolve.
Behind Sue are sticky whiteboards with Post-it notes in grids. She looks so organized. She’s got a different color. I’m assuming there is a color-coding system with the Post-it notes. You can tell from the background that there are a lot of comforts, which I want to know more about. You and I worked together and we made some outlines. I’ve done that before, so I love that you’re learning what works for you, there might be a lot of comfort in having the whole book outlined but maybe that’s not what works the best for you in terms of fun and creativity. Tell us more about what you are getting as you follow the characters. Give us an example.
In the series I have, the main character Tilly starts off the first couple of books with a little bit of flirtiness with the coffee shop owner, a place where she’s selling her baked goods. I thought they were going to develop that relationship into something but another character has come into the picture. He ended up being the one that she’s got a relationship with within book ten, a serious relationship at this point.
I’ve learned that I can flush the outline out with as much information as I have at the moment. Once I empty my brain of everything that’s there, I have to write for it to fill up again with more stories. I’ve learned that I can’t define the entire thing because I have to see how it goes first and then I’ll write some more after it evolves and shows itself.
I got tingles when you said that because we were together. That makes me so happy. That seems like a big thing to learn. “I have to write so that my mind can fill up with more story.”
It was a barrier to me for a while because I would try to force getting an entire outline created before I started doing any writing. It would delay my writing and I put pressure on that part of it. Finally, I discovered that once I started writing though, it was a cycle that evolved to allow me to do more outlines once I got partway into the story. Now I know that’s what works best for me and I’m okay with it.
Sue has a spreadsheet with the things that need to be in the story. You’re not pantsing because you still have the structure. You just haven’t necessarily filled out every aspect of what’s going to be in that part.
I have two spreadsheets. When I do it in that concept planning, I have a higher level one that is the story at a glance for each of the first few books. Once I have enough of an idea for a specific book, I have the same template for each book. I do the same number of chapters. I have the same general flow for each book. The dead body shows up at either the end of chapter 1 or somewhere in chapter 2. For my novellas, they’re each fifteen chapters. Starting in chapter 13, ending in 14, I wrap things up. Fifteen gets me set for the next book. I have that same framework for each book.
Sue still has a structure. I don’t want people to be intimidated by the idea of these spreadsheets. It’s like Sue’s notebook. What goes in there is what would go into a notebook or a doc but she happens to like it in columns and rows.
If you can see the details behind me, it’s the new series that I’m starting. My longer-length books are going to be 25 chapters, I’ve decided. I’ve split them into groups of five, so I have columns on the board behind me. For each of the five chapters, I’ve started brainstorming ideas and notes of what could happen in each of the groups of five chapters. It starts a bit messier and finds its way into the nice, neat rows of Excel.
Read some cozies and analyze the books to learn how they build the story, mystery, and characters.
I’m so glad for what you’ve learned. Many people who maybe haven’t published or finished their 1st book or maybe they’ve done a few books, there is so much that you learn from the process of doing it. The only way you can learn it is from the process of doing it. You can’t learn it ahead of time. I’m somebody who likes to know everything as much as possible ahead of time. There are some things you can’t. You have to do it to learn it.
My goal with the new series I’m developing, which is my third one, is to take what I’ve learned from the first two and improve the writing and my process for this one. My goal is continuous improvement.
That’s one of the things I love working with you and people like you. You’re writing a book a month. They were about 15 chapters and 25,000 words. You’re moving up. Do you have an editor? One book in one month, even at 25,000 words, is a lot. What is your day-to-day process? Is it going to be changing for these longer books?
It’s almost been a bit of a barrier for me thinking about writing books twice as long as the first ones because I’ve gotten to a pretty good comfort zone with my production schedule. It’s great for work-life balance. It’s worked well for me. It’s comfortable. I’m nervous about what it might mean to be writing some longer stories.
I do have an editor and I factor in the time that it takes her to complete her work before I will be able to publish it. That’s all built into my schedule. Same with the cover designer, I know how long it takes her to put things together. When a new series has been developed, it’s a bit more, in the beginning, to come up with concepts but not quite as much when we get things going. She’s already got a plan for themes of how it’s going to look.
I’ve gotten into a good routine in terms of scheduling them into the process to be able to maintain that monthly schedule. One of the things that I knew that I needed to improve to work toward the longer books was my writing time. I knew I could do a novella a month but given that I wanted to do, at least the first three books in the new series, publish one a month, I needed to figure out how can I improve the number of words that I was writing. I used to do it and I’m not sure why I got away from it but I got back to the Pomodoro method.
I set a timer for twenty minutes and I write. I have found that it has already improved the number of words per minute. I could do 500 words in 20 minutes. I’m already up to 600 words in 20 minutes. Introducing that back into my process has given me a little bit of comfort that I’ll be able to produce the longer books on the schedule that I want. The other thing that’s been a little bit surprising to me is that when I’ve written the short story for the anthology, my chapters were longer.
I was trying to figure out how I was going to get more words into the story. Practicing with that novella gave me the experience to know how I was going to get some extra words in there. One of the things I’ve focused on with this series is asking myself, “What if?” I’ve noticed this in a lot of TVs that I’ve watched. There are a lot of things that happen in the course of a story where they continue to escalate the conflict up. I cannot believe some of the things that happen.
It’s like, “This is it. Things are going to start settling down,” but it continues to escalate. One of the key strategies I’m using through writing these longer books is amping up the conflict and asking myself, “What if,” throughout the entire story and throwing in those extra twists and turns that are going to help me be able to flush it out some more.
I’ve had that same thought. I got this book. It’s about fantasy fiction but the concepts are easily applicable to any genre. There are core concepts with writing, which are, “How do you create conflict?” Whether it’s fantasy or not, you can change it a little bit. One of the things I love is the, “What if?” Once I know the characters in the setting and I have all the concepts pretty well in my mind or the world, ask like, “What is the absolute worst thing that could happen to this character? What’s the second worst?” I’m writing them down. That doesn’t mean I’ll use them but thinking about it, maybe I will.
You can do that for multiple characters, especially once you know who the character is and you’ve liked them. My way of what-iffing is, “How can I think of the worst things that could ever happen?” I read this book. It’s a reverse harem by Susanne Valenti and her coauthor. Spoiler alert for anybody, they have soulmates in the book but they don’t know their soulmates until the stars align and they would have a moment. At that moment, they can either kiss and they’re bound together for all time or reject each other and then never love each other or anyone else again. It’s bad. This whole series is building up.
It was a bully story. She’s been bullied by this one guy in the whole series, only to find out that they have that moment. It’s like, “Are they going to choose to love?” They’ve been in figuring things out in the last book. You can see why he’s bullying. He has his reasons for bullying. They’re good reasons but as a woman, I’m like, “Meh.” She had them reject each other. The woman rejected the bully.
I know the authors were like, “If we have fated mates who can have a moment and if they don’t, they can never love each other.” The series isn’t over. They have to figure it out because you do like both of them. You’re rooting for both of them, so you want them to be together. He was such a jerk. Reading that book was made me be like, “That’s what started it.” The fantasy fiction formula kept it going. I’m like, “What’s the worst thing that we could do?” The worst thing to happen to this character is for them to almost find each other but then not.
I feel like we should be taking notes when I’m watching TV because most of the shows that I watch are escalating conflict like, “I can’t believe they did that.” They kill off the main character.
I’ve been watching Ted Lasso because it was so big and I got Apple TV. It’s a cheerful, feel-good show, but they do the same thing. Even though it’s a feel-good show, they do it with the characters and their relationships with each other. You can see it. I love that strategy. I want to talk more about marketing because we’ve talked a bit about writing. You have your newsletter. Can you talk about how you build your newsletter? What are you sending in your newsletter typically? A lot of people have a lot of resistance around newsletters.
I started my newsletter by making the book one of my very first series. I subscribed to BookFunnel. I made book one of my first series available there for a month before I published it on Amazon. I got over 1,000 subscribers through that. It was maybe around 1,400. That worked well, and I’ve retained quite a few of those from the beginning.
I did that same strategy with my second series. I made book one free for a month before I published it on Amazon. I got quite a few of the same subscribers. I also got around 1,000 new subscribers from that. Those two things work well. I don’t have a prequel. I don’t have a reader magnet for either of my series yet. I have finally written a reader magnet for the second series, and that’s going to go live. That will be another way for me to get people onto my list, at least into the current series. That was the start-up for the newsletter.
I send my newsletter twice a week. Originally, I was doing it once a week. I primarily do updates on my writing. There was a general list of progress reports for what I was doing. When we had newsletter swaps or some swaps via BookFunnel, I would send those out. I’m an encourager, so I try to put positive things in there. Sometimes it was some encouraging quotes in my newsletter. Sometimes it’s personal updates about things going on with me. I keep mine pretty short and sweet. That’s the main that I have so far.
At some point, I decided to move twice a week. I do it on Thursdays and Sundays. I essentially do the same kinds of things. I do have a little bit more sharing that I do of other authors’ books in my newsletter but I try to keep it writing-focused and cozy-focused because that’s what people have joined. They like cozy newsletters. I’m sharing things about the anthology that I’m going to be in. There are a couple of fun things that I’ve done for my cover reveals. It’s called Jigsaw Planet.
Make your cover into a jigsaw puzzle. You can send a link out to people and they can put that puzzle together to see what your cover looks like. I’ve gotten such great feedback from people that have enjoyed that puzzle. In my first series, the main character and her companion Cocker Spaniel loved puzzles and do them together. I will send puzzles out to my group. I’ve done scavenger hunts to find the clues from the books. There’s a little prize. I do a $10 Amazon gift card every once in a while. I did a crossword puzzle for the last book that I launched that the clues were from the book. If you read the book, you could do the crossword puzzle.
You need to be okay with not having every detail of the outline before you start writing.
This is so creative. It sounds like you’re having almost as much fun by coming up with fun ways to interact with your readers and newsletter subscribers. I like that because people get so nervous like, “What am I going to say?” It can be fun. It doesn’t have to be a sales pitch every time you send a newsletter. It can be like, “I found these fun games for you.”
People like that. I get great feedback on all of the puzzles that I’ve sent out so far. Some of the feedback I get also is when I will complain about extreme weather we’re having here. I will get encouragement from people or others that say, “We’ve got the same thing.” I will hear feedback from readers about things they enjoyed about the book. I always reply to every single email I get. I don’t get a ton but I reply to them.
I’m so proud of you. I’ve seen Sue, not from the beginning. This is why I love what I do. Seeing the growth and how much you have accomplished since you started is amazing. Where you are, you’re like, “I’m doing all these fun things,” versus when you started, even not that long ago, you’re like, “Networking is my new goal.” You’re in an anthology and a book club. You’re doing it and it’s working.
I’ve got three main focus areas in 2022. Writing longer books is the writing goal. I have a goal to increase my newsletter list to 10,000. I’ve got some different strategies identified. One is getting the prequel going next month for my second series to increase that. A couple of other things that I’ve joined to grow my newsletter list and then get better, doing more promotion and marketing. I’ve had little glimpses that things improve when I do that. I’ve got a much more involved marketing plan for 2022.
That’s one of the things that I’ve wanted to do too. Having several books for people to read once they find you are a necessary part of making writing your day job. Some people will have their 1st book or 3rd book or they don’t have that many books, they’ll take off and then that’s it. Most of us writers need to have a backlist to make writing our full-time gig. You get one reader and if they like it, they read all of them and that’s where you get enough money.
I’ve had a similar thought because initially, the first push is to get the backlist. Writing takes time. You can take one year, maybe one and a half years, building the backlist depending on how fast you write. Some people write faster than others. You’ve got a good pace going on but take that time. What I’m wanting to do in 2022 is to focus on the marketing part.
You can build that into your schedule like, “I’m going to do a promo a month.” You have enough books to do that. You can be like, “I can make this one free. I can make a book a month free for the whole year.” You have more than twelve books. You can do a free book promo every month with a couple of paid newsletter promos to get in front of new people.
I have another marketing and promotion plan that goes January through September in 2022 and how I am doing those promotions every month.
I need to update my back matter in my books because when you have 15 books or more or 50 short romances like I do, that’s a project to go through in the first series. Updating the back matter, formatting the book or uploading it is a valuable project. I want to ask you about your book covers because you’ve learned some things. Do you find that certain book covers are working better for you than others? Being on brand, has that been something that you’ve learned?
It has. We talked about seeing what is selling in the genre. I have a recurring task every Friday to go out and look at the top 100 in several of the sub-genres to keep an eye on what’s going on there. I also purchased a K-lytics report that was specific to cozy mysteries, which was incredibly helpful. I need to keep going back through it because it covers every dimension of the genre, what’s selling and why. I’ve used that to help inform some of the decisions as well. The designer I have specializes in cozies. She designs for a lot of authors, many of them are bestsellers.
What’s the series name for the ones that are so dang cute?
It’s A Belle Harbor Cozy Mystery.
Go look at those covers. They are so adorable.
It’s the bakery and the antique shop together there. One of the funniest parts of this is I get to do my cover brief and send it to her. I give her the story information and a couple of basic things. I let her do her thing. She is good.
One thing that struck me is Sue spent many years in IT. I’m quite old but I didn’t do what I loved when I was younger. I want to point out, acknowledge or ask everything about women finding something that they’re passionate about when they’re older. A lot of us are like, “Am I too old? Is it too late to start something new and do that thing?” I’m starting a new chapter of my life coming up. I get very inspired when I hear or read about older women starting and doing something that they love.
Many of us spent a good portion of our younger years doing what we were expected to do and supposed to do. We get a little older and realize that we don’t have to anymore. We have to start over but then it feels almost like, “Is it too late?” I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced that but I have. I’d love for you to chat about how it’s been for you, whatever your thoughts are on that.
I talked about being the empty nester. Going through that experience for years is what I refer to as my dark decade. I searched for so many things. I was trying to figure out, “Is this my thing?” Until I came to writing a couple of years ago, I would never have thought in one million years that this would be it. When I was writing, I felt that same escape as when I’m reading.
That’s when it clicked for me, how much I enjoyed doing this. The thing that motivates me most is I love to learn. It’s a constant source of new things, improving and keeping my mind active. It’s something that I can do from anywhere. As I transitioned from my career, I have the opportunity to do it from whatever location I want and hopefully, that’s tropical.
I can see the benefits that it’s going to provide me as well. I can also see that the sky’s the limit here. I’m somewhat independent. I like doing my own thing. This serves very well that I can decide exactly how I want this to go. Frankly, I feel like if I keep learning and I’m persistent, I can do anything that I set my mind to. There are huge bumps along the way and a lot of things I would change but persistence is going to allow me to achieve my goals. I keep wondering, “How long will I do this?” I’m thinking of other years. I could see I’m doing it until I’m 80. Betty White, how long did she keep working? That woman is an inspiration. Maybe twenty years isn’t enough. I don’t know when I’ll stop because I enjoy it so much. This is my thing.
In this industry, you can learn and improve, watch what’s working and go take courses. You have the power to make the changes, learn what you need to know, do the tweaks and redo your covers. You have the control and the power to be able to keep adjusting your system, your writing or the blurbs until it’s working. There’s nobody stopping indie self-published authors. You might have personal things, your fears and financial issues, some things come up but in the end, your persistence and willingness to learn and adjust is the main factor.
Mindset is the main thing to be aware of. You will be tempted to compare yourself to others and learn from them, but you should only be comparing yourself with yourself.
Not everybody can see it because we all have fears but we both see things similarly in some ways like, “This is possible. That’s why I like doing this coaching.” It’s a certain level of skill, commitment and willingness to learn. It might take a while but I do think that if you’re willing to learn and keep going, anybody could make this their thing if they love it. You have to love it to be able to keep going. What is your best advice for somebody who’s not quite as far as you are in this process?
We talked a lot about mindset and that’s the main thing. Be aware of your thoughts going on. Understand your why. Why are you doing this? Keep that in the forefront because you will be tempted to compare yourself to others. You can learn from them but you should only be compared with yourself. It’s keeping a good handle on your mindset as you go forward. The other thing in addition to the learning is there are so many opportunities. Get onto TikTok or decide that you’re going to do this new, shiny thing that’s coming in.
Focus on the fundamentals, keep a few basic things, learn those, do them well and then start adding on and growing from there. If you try to do all the things and you’re going to get very frustrated, you may not be successful at any of them. Choose some of the basics that you need to be successful. Do those well. It doesn’t have to be perfect but get to a good comfort level and then take on some more things. Manage your growth through that type of cycle. That’s what’s worked for me.
I’ve said that to every person I coached because there are so many things. You’re like, “What about that?” There’s some new marketing website about tropes or something and you’re like, “What about that?” I’m like, “The core things work.” If you get good at them, then you can see, “Let me add more.” The mindset thing is very important because it’s not all going to be roses, rainbows or unicorns. It’s going to be a tough time sometimes but in the end, it’s awesome. Where is the best place for people to find you?
My books are exclusive to Amazon. My Amazon author page is Sue Hollowell. I do have a Facebook page, Sue Hollowell Author. Those are the two main areas.
Thank you so much for sharing your time and experiences with us.
You’re welcome, Ella. I’m happy to do it.
Thank you everybody for reading.
Important Links:
- Sue Hollowell – LinkedIn
- Susanne Valenti
- BookFunnel
- Jigsaw Planet
- K-lytics
- A Belle Harbor Cozy Mystery
- Amazon – Sue Hollowell
- Sue Hollowell Author – Facebook
About Sue Hollowell
Sue Hollowell is a wife and empty nester with a lot of mom left over. Finding a lot of time on her hands, and as a lover of mystery novels, she began telling the story of a character who appeared in her head. Through this experience she has discovered a love of writing stories, and especially mysteries. She has now published almost twenty cozy mysteries, and doesn’t see herself stopping anytime soon.
