Starting your author’s journey isn’t always the smoothest. You have to do a lot of pivoting until you find what works for you and your audience. In this episode, Lana Dash joins host Ella Barnard to talk about how she’s done the work of continually learning her craft and studying the market to achieve success in self-publishing. Lana is an indie Amazon bestselling author who has published over seventy short contemporary romances filled with curvy heroines, sexy heroes, and plenty of humor. She shares her start in writing short stories, the benefits of being in a writer’s group, and the importance of building your brand. If you’re an aspiring short story author, this is an episode you won’t want to miss.
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Pivoting & Learning Until It Works With Lana Dash
We are here with Lana Dash. Lana Dash was born and raised in the Suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, dreaming of the day she’d see her name printed on a book cover, but it wasn’t until she moved to Omaha, Nebraska and met a supportive group of author friends that her dream of publishing became a reality. Now, she’s an Indie Amazon best-selling author who has published over 70 short contemporary romances filled with curvy heroines, sexy heroes, and plenty of humor. Welcome to the show, Lana.
Thank you. It’s great to be here.
Thank you so much for being here.
I’m excited.
The first thing I’m going to ask you is, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your author’s journey?
The bio covered me. I’m very much a Midwest person. I’ve lived in a couple of different states. It’s given me a lot of good viewpoints from all over the country. My author journey happened overnight, in a sense like I started in high school. I would like to plot stories and create ideas but it was never until a couple of years ago that I started writing and completing stories. I met my friends here in Omaha. They were supportive and helped push and drag me across the finish line to make sure I got everything finished. I’m glad they did because I smell a full-time career for me. I’m happy.
I have a few questions. The first was because I don’t think you’re the only one who writes but doesn’t finish their stories or hasn’t at some point. You are now but a lot of people were where you were or are where you were, where they write but then they don’t finish. Do you have any idea about why or what was keeping you from finishing the stories or what was going on?
It may sound crazy or it may make a lot of sense to people but I like my characters a lot. Sometimes it’s hard to say goodbye and wrap it up. That was a hurdle that I had to push myself to be like, “It’s okay to let them go. They’ve had their story. I have other characters in my head who need to get their story out. It’s something you have to push yourself through.” I wish I had a magic formula to say, “Do this, and you’ll have a complete story.” It’s the only mindset. By having my writer group keeping me accountable, helped me because if it were up to me, I would still be plotting stories and not writing anything.
Accountability is huge but I’m very curious. You have this writer group of friends that you met in Nebraska. Where? How did you meet these writer friends? They sound pretty awesome.
They are amazing. They’re some of my best friends now. One of my first friends when I moved here, she was looking up stuff online. I don’t even know if Meetup is still an app that people use. She was like, “There’s a group of writers meeting at a coffee shop, and it’s open for people to come to visit. Why don’t you go?” I was like, “Why not meet some people.” I felt like we all clicked pretty quickly. A lot of the original members of that group I still talk to now. They’re all active writers as well.
It was something that every week, every Saturday morning, we would visit, go to a coffee shop, sit, do a couple of pages and critique each other. It’s nice to get that feedback of like, “We know where you’re going with this or what were you thinking writing this? This is crazy.” I always recommend a writer group to people because writing is such a lonely job. If you don’t have somebody to talk to, especially somebody who knows what you’re going through with writer’s block, deadlines and, “Will people like me? Will people like this?” It’s always nice to have somebody to bounce stuff off.
I’m very curious because I feel like a lot of writer’s groups don’t have a lot of people actively publishing. I feel like you landed into a special writers group. What happened? Where was the transition from writing and completing, let’s say, then putting it out onto Amazon?
There was only one of us that was actively publishing, and slowly, the other started adding it to it. They started publishing longer stories and I was like, “I’m here still but I’m not published.” We did the anthology project together. That was my first completed, first published short story. Not long after that, we all started seeing stuff about these short stories that were becoming more popular, which are brilliant because it’s like, “Who has time to sit and read an entire book?” Sometimes you want the feeling of like, “I’ve completed something.” I only took my lunch, shower. This is wonderful, and I get the full story. We all started doing that, and it took off for a lot of us where we’re all actively publishing now through the short stories.
Do the best you can because it’s the best that you can do.
I love that because it takes one person in a writer group to be published, then they’re leading the way like, “You can.”
It seems like such a daunting process to self-publish and it is. It’s not something you suddenly decide to do one day but when somebody is there to be like, “This can help you do this,” and guide you through it. There’s no way I would have figured it out on my own. At a certain point, I sat them down and I was like, “Tell me what I need to do. Give me a checklist. Give me the list, and I’ll get through it.” I did, and here we are.
I do have another follow-up question. The first was in the anthology. I wanted to say how much I love that because it’s a low risk because you’re like, 1) You’re not the only story. 2) Usually, for your first one, you’re not the one organizing it. That pressure is not there. They’re taking care of the covers and formatting and you’re like, “Here’s my story.” After that, when you were like, “It’s my turn.” You sat this friend down, then you’re like, “I’m going to do it.” It feels like and maybe there isn’t for you, but some people, there’s a big the next step of publishing is much bigger. It’s like, “I’m going. Next,” because you had that friend.
The group’s motto when we started doing these short stories was because a lot of people were like, “I have to do seventeen drafts of a story. I have to make it perfect. It has to be the shiniest, prettiest story I’ve ever completed.” Sometimes it’s like, “Sometimes no. Good is good enough. Let it down on paper.” Make it good but don’t spend so much time that you’re not writing other stories and making it happen. Taking that pressure off of my shoulders of saying, “It has to be perfect,” because we’ve all read big publishing house stories where there’s an error in there, and it’s not a deal-breaker. It’s like, “They’re not perfect. Good. I’m not either.” It happened.
Taking that pressure off of your shoulders of saying like, “Do the best that you can because it’s the best that you can do. You can’t compare yourself to so and so, and it needs to be exactly like this.” Even if, say, you and I were given the same writing prompt, we’re not going to write the same story. Usually, when it’s the best flow is when it’s coming from you organically as opposed to trying to sound like somebody else.
Only so everybody knows, I have known Lana for a little while and learning to these things is making me happy and my whole heart. My whole self is like, “Look at her. Girl, yes.” We haven’t chatted for a little while and I’m like, “Yes, girl.” I also want to ask you, now you’re publishing these contemporary short romances. What are some of the benefits? What are some of the challenges?
Some of the benefits are the satisfaction of feeling I’ve completed a story because, to me, it’s a lot easier to write a 10,000-word story than it is to write a 50,000-word story. I always get an adrenaline rush after finishing a story because I’m always like, “This is such a wonderful feeling. I wish I could bottle it up and keep it for whenever I’m feeling doubt and stuff.” I would say doing these shorter and releasing very quickly because for a while there, I was doing a story every week. It’s exhausting but it was nice to see my list on Amazon grow.
I say one of the cons is burnout. I hear a lot of other authors talk about burnout, and it’s a real thing. If you feel it come in, pay attention to it. Don’t push it away because I’ve had that flame out where I was like, “I don’t think I want to write anymore.” I took some time off. It was right before the holidays of 2020. I was like, “Let’s get through the holidays. Start new, start fresh, and come out with some new ideas.” As I did in January of 2021, that’s when I started, and that’s when it took off for me. Listening to yourself is very important because everybody wants to make money and make your business successful but not at the risk of your health, mental health, and everything like that.
I couldn’t agree with you anymore, which is why this show was halted for a few two years. Not that I didn’t want to do it but because I was like, “I can’t. My mental health has to come before everything else.”
It’s so important.
You were saying you were releasing once a week, a 10,000-word story. I think about NaNoWriMo and how people are writing 50,000 words in one month, and it’s a challenge. It’s this big challenge that so many people do. You’re writing at least 4,000 words and 40,000 words in one month, doing book covers, and plotting four stories with 8 different characters because you have 4 stories for people. All this stuff that you were putting out constantly. Are you releasing one a week? What’s your current releasing strategy now?
I’m slowing down a little bit because once a week, while ideal, is not for my sanity. It’s not something that is something that you can keep doing over and over again. If you can, good on you but I know I can’t.
Some people can.
I’m very impressed with those people but I went eight months of doing weekly releases straight, then I was like, “I got to slow down,” because I was feeling that burnout again. I at least recognized it at this time. I’m sorry, what was the question?
What is your strategy? It was once a week, and now you’re changing?
I’m trying to think of new ideas so that I can stretch a series out a little bit longer. It’s not like a deep dive in the one series for a couple, or 4 or 5 books, then moving on to something else. I have a couple of series that will stand over the year. I get a little bit of variety, which will also help but it would probably be down to three releases a month and not punish myself but I feel bad if I don’t reach that goal. Be like, “Do the best that you can.”
I’m at the point where I’m lucky enough that I have my name out there, so I don’t have to hustle like I did when I first started. That’s certainly a blessing and allowing me to take that little break and try different things. I’ve been trying different things where I do collections instead of multiple books series and do it all in one.
Can you talk a little bit about that? The collection versus multiple books? I saw something because I was spying on you. I was like, “That looks cute.” I can’t remember what it was, though.
It was a holiday collection that I did where I did four shorter-shorter books in one because I wanted to see if that would do any better. We live in such a binge TV, binge everything society. I get a lot of readers who are like, “Your new book is out this week. I can’t wait to sit down and read it.” It’s like, “I wonder if they’d be excited about a collection where they can sit down and read 4 different stories instead of 1 story.” I tried that out with our holiday collection, and it did pretty well.
What do you mean shorter-shorter?
I would say instead of my stories being 10,000, they were 6,000 or 7,000. They’re a little bit shorter but still have the full dynamic of the story.
You were able to charge more because it’s four. You were able to price more than $0.99.
Yes, because $0.99, you don’t get much.
It’s such a rough price point. For anybody who’s reading these short romances because I write short romances too, the standard is $0.99. With Amazon at that $0.99 price point, you get 35% royalties. Whereas, if you can be at a $2.99 price point, you can get 70% royalties, which is a huge difference. You’re $2.99, you can get $2 of $2.99. You can get $0.30 of $0.99, which is a very big difference. Did you do that instead of doing a series of four separate holiday stories?
They had a link. It was called Just A Dash of Holiday Magic. Each story had a little bit of an element where it was a little, not necessarily like, “That’s actual magic,” but it was like a little Hallmark nod magic. The dash was a play-on with my name but it also let them know that they’re a little bit shorter than my normal stories. You and I had talked about that in the past of trying new things. I was like, “I’ll give it a try. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work but if it does, I may have stumbled into something that might help me make more money.”
After you get to a certain point, and I don’t know about you but I’m not making tens of thousands of dollars a month. I’m making a good amount. I’m happy with where I’m at for now but I am now also experimenting on ways to best use my time and energy to make the most impact. Not only financially. That is an important part of it because it’s not something I do for fun only. It’s a business. I’m in making money.
Listening to yourself is very important. Everybody wants to make money and make a business successful, but not at the risk of your health.
I’m at the point where I want to utilize my backlist. Like, “Have I found all of the readers who are interested in this?” If they haven’t, how can I get new people coming in to look at all of the others because I have 50 books, and you have 70 books? I’m like, “Rather than only have the ones that are coming out now or only have the most recent ones making money. Is there’s some way to get all 50 of them making money every month?”
Work smarter. Not harder.
I feel very lucky and blessed to be at that point where I’m like, “Let me try something new,” because what I did worked, and it still works. Maybe I can do what works while also trying something else.
You never know what’s going to work and what won’t. I’ve tried things and had them fail. I was like, “That’ll happen.” There are times where I’ve tried something new, and it succeeded and exceeded my expectations. I’m like, “Great. That’s awesome. How can I capitalize more on that?”
I am curious about that because I was watching in 2020 around January. It felt to me that you had started doing stuff. You’d been writing, publishing for a while, then it seemed like something took off. Can you talk a little bit about what you were doing before? The moment that whatever changed, then what happened? Can you talk about that process of what happened?
What we do with these shorts is we write to market. It was February when that series took off. I was doing what everyone else was doing, and I was making money, not, technically, a livable wage on it. I was getting a little frustrated, and I had an idea. I was like, “I’m going to do this series because I want to do it. Not because I know it’s going to work. We’ll see where we’re at after that.” That was lucky because that’s the series that took off. I had only planned it to be a four-book series, and everyone kept going, “Where’s the next one?” I’m like, “There are no others. I don’t know what to tell you.”
I had to figure it out. Now, the series is up to twenty. It doesn’t seem like there’s much slowing down. I can keep writing in that series. It’s a little bit different. This is where I found my Lana feet as opposed to what everyone else was doing. I changed up my covers a little bit because a lot of the covers that most people were doing were good looking. They’re chestified. That’s fine. We all love looking at that.
When I was trying to study the market and look at things, I was like, “How can I stand out? How can I look a little bit different without being too wildly different?” You want to stay in your lane. Don’t go crazy. I decided to do brighter colors, and started focusing on the specific trope that was the story. If it was a brother’s best friend, if it was a billionaire boss or that way so that all they had to do was look at the cover, look at the guy who had clothes on. I know, scandalous. Like, you see a guy in a suit.
It’s hilarious that in this genre, scandal has the clothes on.
We’ll talk it off later but not on the cover. I was trying something else. There’s a little bit of a gimmick to the story. That also helped pull people in and bring in new readers who may not have noticed me in BC of man chest stories. Plus, luck. That luck factor, I can’t say that what I’ve done is a guarantee for anyone but it certainly is.
As an outside observer, I’m going to say, yes, luck. Also, you kept learning and trying and doing things. You learned from what people were doing before. You learned what they were doing and you were mimicking it. Now that I’m thinking about it, a lot of painters learn how to paint, and they go, and mimic. They repaint as much as they can stroke for stroke paint like the classic artists, then they go and do their own after. How many people say like, “Don’t break the rules until you follow them enough to know what rules can be broken and which ones can’t.”
This is funny because I don’t have a Master’s degree in Writing or anything like that. That’s how I taught myself to write and taught myself how to form a story, a complete story, what beats you need to hit, and everything. In high school, I would watch movie trailers. If it was a movie I liked or that looked good to me and a cool story, I would try to make my own version of that exact story to try and teach myself.
Nothing ever happened of it, obviously but it was always like, “How can I take this formula and make it my formula?” That helped me, as you said, here, where I learned what everyone was doing, hooked it, and made it my own. I have a unique enough voice that people would know. It comes through in my stories that it’s like, “We know this is a Lana story.”
It makes me very happy that you did. You looked at what was there, and you’re still similar but not the same but close enough. You’ve made a mark. Like, “I can look and see a Lana Dash book.” I’m like, “I know her. I see that’s hers. Not somebody else’s.” That was powerful.
That was something. You played a lot of part in that because you had told me, “You’re going to set the trend.” I was like, “No, I’m not.” I was fully waist-deep in my doubt. You’re like, “No, I think you will.” I was like, “I always said I was going to do this, so let’s do this.”
Here’s some transparency. Lana and I worked together for a little bit. She was generous enough and had enough faith and courage to work with me, which I appreciate because I don’t think she knew me from Adam. I did a little bit of coaching with her but before, she did her own takeoff, which is why I was so excited. I’m like, “Look at her.”
When I coach authors, I don’t want people to have to come work with me constantly. I want them to be like, “I can do this,” and go do it, and that’s what she did. It is awesome, so proud. Especially because you did it your own way, the way that worked for you and that series of twenty books, that’s crazy but it’s awesome.
That’s the voice that I was talking about where it’s like, “If you’re true to your own story and how you want to tell it.” There’s that lane but when you’re not trying to mimic somebody else and use your true voice, readers pick up on that. I get reviews where it’s like, “You seem off.” It’s like, “I was having a bad week that week.” They could tell my story.
It’s like, “I’m sorry. Not every book is going to be the greatest. I want to make it the best I can but sometimes, it’s like watching a season of a TV show. You’re not going to love every episode but you’ll keep watching.” It’s one of those things where it may not be the reader’s favorite story and that’s okay. It doesn’t stop me from focusing on that review where they’re like, “Nah.”
Let’s talk about that a little bit because I remember when I first started. I’d only been writing for a few months. My grandmother passed away then three weeks later, my grandfather passed away. They followed each other. We all knew that was going to happen but the story that I was working on at that point as the climax of the story happens at a funeral. That’s where his grand gesture is.
I was like, “Let me come up with an idea,” and the idea I was coming up with that week was completely based on what was happening in my life at that point. Afterward, when I was writing my thank you at the very end, I didn’t even think about this is a 10,000 word or whatever story with a funeral. That’s not necessarily what people are coming to these little short romances to get but people were fine with it. It was life.
People don’t want to only see the high-powered lawyer because it’s like, “I’m not a high-powered lawyer.” Sometimes you want to see little things like little imperfections in your characters to be able to go, “They’re not perfect because I’m not either.” It’s much more relatable. In some of my stories, you can tell what TV show I was watching that week because I’m like, “I need a character’s name, random.” Pull it off in whatever I’ve been watching. I’m lucky it wasn’t like Daenerys.
You can never please everybody. It’s never going to happen. Just know that some people may not like your story, and that’s fine. It’s not a reflection of not liking you. It’s just their preference.
“Where did this name come from?”
Life plays a big part in it, especially when you have to create as quickly and as much as we do. It’s going to happen.
I do have a question I want to come back to on the reviews. I do think one of the reasons there’s a lot of burnout specifically in this one is because you have to plot romance every week, have it be similar enough, have it still follow all the romantic things that people require in a romance but have it be different enough that it’s not the exact same romance that you wrote last week or the week before, or the other 70 romances that you’ve written, which is a challenge.
I was going to say having a formula is key to these because homework makes bank on the movies that they do but we’ve all seen those movies a thousand times but it’s set in a different place. Now it’s in a vineyard, in the Christmas tree lot. Now it’s Valentine’s Day. We’ve all seen it a bunch of times. It’s that familiarity that we like. If I were to say to somebody who wants to try and do short stories, finding a formula of beats is key. Also, so that you don’t go off the rails because with 10,000 words, there’s not enough word real estate for you to be like, “That was a weird tangent.”
There are no tangents. All of mine are seven chapters. Maybe an eight if it’s like the end of a series, and I want to include a scene with everybody from the series. Maybe I’ll include an eighth chapter. You have to keep that creativity going, though, to be able to make each one different. Not the same as the one previous, different but still similar enough, there’s a reason there’s burnout.
I do want to ask about reviews because I’ve gotten good reviews. I have the people that love all my stories or they love most of them, then they’re like, “What was that?” What have you learned about your one-star reviews? What’s different on a one-star review now than when you first started for you?
Not to read them because you’re never going to walk away going, “Yes. I agree.” Usually, with like a three-star or something, they’re like, “I didn’t hate it. I only didn’t like this one part.” It’s like, “That’s constructive.” I can take something away from it. One-stars are usually, “I hated this from my soul, and I can’t tell you why.” It’s like, “That’s not helping me to make a better story that you might like in the future.” Knowing me because you could hand me a hundred reviews, 99 of them positive, I will be like, “See this one? I have to focus on it.” I’ll get out my microscope and stare at it. It’s like, “That’s not healthy.”
“It sinks into every part of my psyche.” Usually, it’s something totally bogus that, if you were able to step away from it, have any objectivity. You’d be like, “It’s baloney.”
If you put yourself out there, know you will never please everybody. It’s never going to happen, so don’t try to make it happen. Know that some people may not like your story, and that’s fine. It’s not a reflection of not liking you. It’s their preference. It’s one of those things that’s like, we all love to torture ourselves, and we want to read those reviews to see if there’s something but you can’t change it. You can’t change somebody’s mind. It’s part of this job. It’s good and bad.
It is, and if you have your strategy, just don’t look at them. That’s, for a lot of authors have three stars, yes. Don’t look at the one-star reviews. I’ve done it on occasion, then I’m like, “Why did I do that? That was dumb. Remember self, you’re not supposed to do that.”
“You can never walk away skipping, so cut it out.”
I did want to ask you. It popped into my mind. It was from a little bit earlier in the conversation. You were saying that you have enough of an audience now to make, to play with, “Let me try this other collection. Let me try this,” because you have a name and an audience. What do you think were some of the key things in creating and getting that audience, or having that name or that confidence? What are some of the practical things that helped you get there?
It’s consistency. By taking the first eight months of 2021 and continually putting out a story each week, bringing people back. That certainly is something because if you’re going to be inconsistent and be like, “I’m doing 1 book this month and 7 books next month.” The market is too saturated. If you’re all over the place, they’re going to move on to somebody else, and forget you.
You have to keep yourself in front of them. To the point where they’re like, “I need this person. I need to go look at this person and see what they’re doing next.” Certainly, writing to market. Cultivating your brand also because if you’re all over the place where you’re like, “I write MC this week, and I write sweet romance next week.”
MC? I am not saying that I finished an MC and did a holiday romance. They’re completely in line with branding wise.
Holiday is always good for you. I’m only saying, if you’re all over the place and people don’t know what they’re going to get from you, they’re not going to keep coming back. Make sure that you understand your brand before you start jumping all over the place. Even I tried a couple of things where I did a series in summer where the guy was the virgin. I was like, “This is going to be so great. Everyone’s going to love it.” I got a lot of like, “This looks cool,” when I announced it. I think I asked a little too much of my readers, and that was a fail. I didn’t take it as a failure like, “I should beat myself up over it.”
I gave it a shot. It didn’t quite work the way I was hoping it would but that doesn’t mean it was a complete and utter failure. It was not my best. I would say building your brand and consistency is pretty big because I want somebody who looks at my covers or looks at like, “Here’s the name on a dash.” I want them to know that it’s going to be a complete story. You’re not going to have massive plot holes where people are like, “What happened with this person?” I completely forgot them. There’s going to be humor in it.
Not always a lot of it but like sassy talk and funny situations. The covers, I want people to look at covers and automatically know this looks like a lot a dash cover, even though it’s a different series from what I’ve previously done, focusing on that because readers don’t want to put a lot of effort into it, which is why I started putting tropes on the cover so that people didn’t have to read the blurb. They could look at it and go, “I love Dear Brother’s Best Friend. I’m going to click on this.”
We went and looked at it, and I hadn’t announced my pen name on the show. I haven’t decided if I’m going to, but you know me. I am all for the like, “Let’s say what it is.” Very pro. I’m not clever with my titling.
That’s genius. You don’t have to be. There’s nothing wrong if this is somebody’s title like it happened to you. “That what? I don’t know.” That doesn’t tell me anything. If I’m only searching over my lunch period for something quick to read, I want to look at the cover of having a fair idea of what I’m getting.
Like, The Naughty Professor. “What’s that going to be about?” The naughty professor.
That gives you a good idea of what you’re going to get. You’re not like reading it and going, “I’m scandalized. This is a naughty professor in here.”
One of my one-star reviews was about the main character was like a thief or a bad guy, like was breaking the law, somebody who broke the law. I can’t remember the lingo that she used. It was like, “I can’t believe you’re glorifying bad guys.” I was like, “Did you look at the cover? Did you read the blurb?” It says in the very beginning, it’s like, “These guys are shady.”
Building you brand and consistency is pretty big.
Your covers are very clear and that’s good.
It’s not clean. You can tell it’s not clean. They’re dark and steamy and sexy.
He’s not skipping through a field of flowers to make you think, “This is going to be something completely different.” That’s one of those people that you’re never going to please them because this is not what she wants.
Like, “Please don’t read any of the rest of my books. You’re not going to like them.”
You’re like going, “I’m not going to like your one-star reviews, so let’s part ways.”
I like your consistency. I also like that you know. How did you come to know what you wanted to include in a Lana Dash book? You’re like, “I have humor. I have a story.” Was that something you knew from the get-go? Did you grow into your brand?
I grew into my brand. I may have had humor. It’s going to sound bad but I like making jokes. I think I’m a funny person.
It doesn’t sound bad. I would say the exact same thing. I’m like, “I’m very funny.” That’s why I laugh at all my own jokes, people.
I think I’m the funniest person at all.
It’s something that I always put in. I don’t know if I could write a completely serious story. I probably could but the urge to throw in a joke here or there. It’s part of me. You expect that, to me, coming through in my writing to make it more organic for readers to notice that.
It’s important to note that when you start out, you might not know what your brand is.
You’ll start with one idea, and it’ll completely change.
You do the research. You try and write on the market, you tried it but then it’s going to change as you figure out what your strengths are as a writer. Not only as a writer but in your plotting, cover making, blurb writing or whatever it is and in what people like from you.
I would get a lot before where they’d be like, “This is funny.” I’m like, “You like the funny? I can turn that up.” Not a lot of other people were doing romantic comedy more. I was trying to tap into that market because I was like, “I know I can do that.” Why not make that also part of my brand where you need a little chuckle while you’re reading. I can deliver on that.
That’s awesome. My brand, the women, are always strong women. I couldn’t even if I wanted to write like a simpering woman. I would be terrible at that but they’re very popular. A lot of romance readers love the simpering like being rescued type of woman. The woman who gets rescued, and I can’t. The guy can help but she’s going to rescue herself. He might be there backing her up but, in my books, she’s going to rescue herself.
One of my favorite ones was she gets lost in the woods, and he goes out to rescue her. He gets into more trouble than she is, and she ends up saving him. I was like, “Yes.”
I did ask you a little bit ahead of time, if they gave you $1,000, what would you spend it on to sell more books?
My response was playing into what we had talked about it’s doing what we do. It’s not only writing a book, publishing it, and letting the money come to us. There are many other things that you have to do. I had said that, honestly, I would want to hire a PA and help me. As you said, there’s doing covers, writing blurbs, being active on social media, growing your newsletter list, networking with other authors because that’s critical too, and dealing with Amazon, which is always the funniest thing in the world. Finding art greeters, studying the market. There are so many plates that you’re spinning. You’re not only doing one and taking the business aspect out of it. That would be something that could help me with potential burnout but until that day comes, I’m just going to carry that.
Some of those things are repeatable. You like making graphics for your social media. It’s going to be the same. You have to keep making them every week but it’s not the original content. You take some quotes from your book and put them in.
I’ve started to learn to do it in bundles. I make my covers. Not everybody makes their own covers but when I make my covers, I’ll make all my coming soon graphics, then I will make all of my now live graphics so that it’s all ready. Instead of going like, “Now that I finished the book, it’s uploaded. Now I have to remake all this stuff.” Do it once, get it done, have it all there. That does take some time out because I don’t mind doing it. It’s very time-consuming. When you only have so many days between you and your next book, you upload, the countdown clock starts over again and you’re like, “Here we go.”
“It feels like I’m doing this fricking every week.” It feels like as soon as I upload, I’m like, “Next one,” then I’m like, “It is. I am doing it every week.” That’s okay.
I wouldn’t trade it for an office job. Let me tell you that.
I want to ask you a little bit more about what it’s like because it’s not like you’ve been doing since 2013 or some of these authors are doing very well. It’s only been a couple of years. If you were to be able to tell people who have not yet taken the jump, what’s life now? Pros, mostly the benefits. We’ve talked a lot about what you’re doing but what’s that look like?
If you enjoy setting your own schedule, this is the job for you because I would love to be able to say, “It’s 8:00 in the morning. I’m going to sit down at my desk, work for eight hours, be done and have a normal day.” My brain doesn’t work that way. I am a night owl. I write at night. That’s when I get my best stories done.
By being my own boss for this job, in this business, I’m able to set my time for when I want. Mobility, if I need to go out of town for something, I don’t have to be like, “Boss, can I get some time off?” It’s, pack up your laptop. You can work from anywhere. You can have the privacy of your home. You can go to a coffee shop, all that type of thing.
Those are huge. If I have a day where I’m not feeling as well, for a day or if I’m on my period, I cannot work that day and then work a little bit extra the next day.
Work in bed.
I haven’t worn real clothes in two years and it’s not because of COVID. It’s because I’m working from home. I’m in yoga pants and a sweater or yoga pants and a tank top every day. I don’t even have real clothes anymore.
Find your community and study the market.
We normalized our clothes.
Those are huge because I forget. I’ve been working from home long enough now that I forget that other people have to take time off of work before they can commit to something. I’m like, “Why don’t we go do that next year? Let’s do a writer’s retreat next year.” Not everybody can say, “Yes.” Not for the financial reasons but for the time and being able to take time off the aspect of it. What’s the best advice that you would give to a new author?
I would say as much as we want this to be an overnight thing, only because you start publishing doesn’t mean you’re automatically going to become a success. In a roundabout way saying, you get back what you put in. If you want to do this, you want to want to do this. This is what we’ve talked about with the list of things. There’s a lot more to it than only writing, but the benefits far outweigh.
I’m trying to be realistic in the sense that this is hard. You’re starting a small business but it’s not so hard that it’s impossible. You only have to want to do it. If you have that motivation and reach out and meet other people, which is so nice because with all this Zoom stuff happening now. Not everyone’s going to be lucky enough to be like, “I’m going to stumble into a coffee shop and find a bunch of people who I connect with and they all are writers.”
Most of us won’t.
There are online communities, Facebook groups. There are so many great ways to meet people that can help motivate you and teach you all of this or get an author coach. Somebody to help guide you and give you a roadmap so that you know where you’re going with this. It’s so rewarding because even on my worst day, it’s still better than my best day in an office because I love that freedom that I get, that I have. The buck ends with me with everything. If I want to make money, I got to keep producing. It’s doable.
As I said, find your community and study the market. I know everyone wants to write the story that feels truest to them, and you can. Build your business before you start trying to be your love project and build that thicker skin. If it’s your project that is closest to you and you have people go, “I didn’t like it. I didn’t like this one part, so it’s terrible.” It’s going to crush you. Get that thicker skin before you start trying. What project is that?
I call it the heart project, the love project. It’s the one that you like have been thinking about since you were seven. You’re like, “I’ve always wanted to write this book. This is the one book that I’ve always wanted to write.” I like that advice because the first book that you write is always to be your first book that you write. The first book you write is not going to be as good as the 10th or the 20th book you write because you’re going to get better as you release and practice. Save the heart book for thicker skin and better writing.
No kidding. Everything’s to market. If you look at Netflix or Hallmark, you can look at something and see like, “I know what trope they’re using.” They’re filming to market for the same reason we’re writing to market. You get a bigger audience, if you’re able to tap into that bigger audience. If you do something super obscure, which it’s fine if you do, but if you’re doing like intergalactic cowboy/alien love, you’re narrowing your audience right there. Make it a lot bigger, then let them take that journey with you to that hard book.
I also want to emphasize that when Lana says that, she’s not like writing to market. She’s called it her brand, puts her humor into it. She’s writing to market and overlapping with what she enjoys and what her strengths are so that she’s doing both at the same time. I like people to write to market but be like, “That doesn’t mean you can’t still write what you enjoy.” You have to find out where the market, and your strengths are.
What’s that diagram?
That Venn diagram.
Thank you.
You found that and that’s partially the journey to finding your brand is like, “Where does that overlap the best?” It does take time but it’s doable.
All it takes is that one series or one book to take off, and that can happen pretty quickly. I can say from experience that’s what happened to me. I’m not saying it’s going to happen to everybody, but it’s a journey.
It was like less than a year.
The first short story I did was in February, but I didn’t start actively doing it weekly until June of 2020. It was under a year. I was one of the lucky ones that, under a year, I was able to find what I needed. That’s also something of studying the market and finding what I need to do to make my brand.
You worked at it. It wasn’t like you put it up, then hoped. You kept working, teaching yourself, learning, studying the market and that’s what you recommend other people to do. Tell us about your books. Where is the best place for people to find you?
Strictly on Amazon. I haven’t done anything wide and everything’s in Kindle Limited. It’s nice to be able to have it all in one place. You can go to Amazon and type in my name and find it there.
Do you have a series coming out?
I do. I have one that’s coming out that I’m excited about.
Tell us.
I’ll have a prequel setup story at the end of December. The series is called Horoscope to Love. Each month will have its own book. This is where the series I was talking about going over the year like Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. It’s a horoscope that leads people to find love. Somebody read, there’ll be a horoscope at the beginning and they’ll read it and see things happening that may have influenced like, “You should try taking a walk.” When they do take a walk, a bird poops on their shoulder. They have to run into the coffee shop to get cleaned up and that’s when they run into so-and-so and find love with that person.
That is so fun.
I thought it would be fun. That’s one I’m excited about.
I’m excited about it, too. I’m like, “I can’t wait until October when my book comes out,” which is you’re going to have such a big readership for people when it’s their month. You’re going to have so many readers. It’ll still spike. It’ll be the same spike.
I’m not going to lie, Gemini. That’s my sign. I was like, “Who’s the hottest guy that I can find for Gemini?”
I bet you were. On all the calendars of every calendar ever because Libra is October. It’s always like a pumpkin. It’s never like the sexiest calendar. By sexiest, I mean firefighter calendars. Specifically, the calendars that I prefer. Firefighter calendars are always a pumpkin and a guy. I’m like, “Libras sexy too. We don’t only like pumpkins like round orange. We like sexy, too.” I’m putting a personal request in for a sexy Libra. Thank you.
You’re the first Libra I’ve met who doesn’t fully embrace the pumpkin fall aesthetic of your month. Everyone else is like pumpkin spice, everything.
I like pumpkin. I do. I like it. I ate a pumpkin muffin from Starbucks. I bought it and I forgot that I bought it to take home. I was like, “A pumpkin muffin.” I do but not on the calendars. I’d like a sexy alpha dude.
I’m trying to think. I don’t remember what Libra is but I’ll double-check. I’ll change out the guy.
It’s only for fun. Thank you, everybody, for being here and me, giving Lana a hard time about my month. Thank you for reading. Hugs and happy authoring here at Author Like a Boss.
Important Links
- Lana Dash
- Meetup
- NaNoWriMo
- Just A Dash of Holiday Magic
- Dear Brother’s Best Friend
- Amazon – Lana Dash
- Horoscope to Love
About Lana Dash
Lana Dash was born and raised in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, dreaming of the day she’d see her name printed on a book cover.
But it wasn’t until she moved to Omaha, Nebraska, and met a supportive group of author friends that her dream of publishing became a reality.
Now she’s an indie Amazon bestselling author who has published over seventy short contemporary romances filled with curvy heroines, sexy heroes, and plenty of humor.
