Emma Chase, NYT bestselling author, discusses the importance of learning the habits of your readers and setting reader expectations before the release of a new book. She discusses how she built up her newsletter audience and gives us hints about what to expect next from her Royally series.
Emma is a hybrid author, who started publishing with a small indie publisher. Her first book was immediately successful, hitting the NYT bestseller list within the first week. She had been curious about independent publishing for some time and liked the flexibility in pricing, as well as the speed of publishing and marketing.
Emma’s writing process has evolved over several years; she claims that as an indie, she now schedules her writing around her life, rather than the other way around. She admits that she is not an especially fast writer and is a big believer in revising along the way, and ensuring she is producing a story that her readers will fall in love with.
She has developed a strategy of trial and error to gauge what readers want; experimenting with different preorder periods to see how sales are affected. She also learns by watching what other authors do, while being mindful that every author’s readership is different.
Another strategy that has worked well for her is collaborations with other authors, who she has met at conferences or author events. Emma worked with a small group of writers on a “Naughty or Nice” Christmas-themed box set, which readers could get by signing up to author mailing lists. It gave a huge boost to her mailing list, and was very well-received by readers.
Another collaborative project is Ladies Who Write – a small group of bestselling authors who work individually to write novels in a fictional world where each author’s characters can appear in another author’s stories.
Emma also explains why romance is her preferred genre, how she approaches writing romance from a male perspective, and talks about the inspiration for her Royally series! Listen in for more details, and keep an eye out for the upcoming cover reveal of Dirty Charmer, coming in the next couple of months!
New York Times bestselling author Emma Chase writes contemporary romance novels known for their clever banter, emotion, and sexy, swoon-worthy moments. Her books have been translated in over twenty languages around the world.
Emma lives in New Jersey with her amazing husband, two spirited children, and two adorable but badly behaved dogs. She has a long-standing love/hate relationship with caffeine.
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