Maya Alden was kind enough to share her writing / publishing process in the following interview: 1. At what catalog size did your backlist start producing meaningful income? First, I think “meaningful” is different for everyone. For me, the business started generating meaningful income surprisingly early. I launched my first indie book on June 23, 2023, and by September, with only three books published, I was earning enough to feel comfortable walking away from corporate. But I wouldn’t call that a mature backlist yet. The real shift came about a year later, when I had roughly 12 books published. That was when I began to see the compounding effect of having multiple books and series working for me at the same time, and my monthly baseline moved up significantly. So if I had to give someone a number, I’d say around 12 books. That’s enough for a couple of series, some read-through, and a catalog substantial enough that one book can lead readers into several others. 2. How has your drafting process evolved over the years, and what part of the process do you think is the most integral to writing 17 books in a year? So, I sold my first book to Random House in 2001, and it came out in 2002. Yes, that many years ago. I stayed in trad writing mainstream fiction for 9 books over 22 years. So my process has always been: I have an idea, then I write fifty pages or so to test whether it can become a story, and once I know it can, I write the book. The process has changed now in the sense that I don't "test" the story—I let it stew in my head a while before I put it on paper. I know what the story is, and I know it can hold its own. So, there's less trial and error. I recently started dictation because I usually narrate the chapter in my head before I write it. Now I narrate it to Otter. That creates a great scaffold and first draft. I then work on the second draft. I edit chapter by chapter, so I have the third draft done piece by piece. Once the book is done, I do one more draft start to finish.

Once you've got your goal, the next step isn't to figure out how to hit it. It's to get excited about it. Dwell on the end result, imagine it, decide how you will celebrate it. Some of you are already doing this, and you can tell how it's working: Once your unconscious mind deeply understands what you want to go for AND that it will be a fun and SAFE destination, your reticular activating system kicks in and starts showing you paths you can take. Ex. You talk to a friend and hear how they got a 1000 pre-orders on their book doing reels, and you decide to try them. You get an invitation to a promo that doesn't quite fit your books, so you decide to run your own and invite authors with even bigger audiences than you to participate. You retake some of the book marketing bootcamp and decide to create a big boxset of your books with a more clicky cover, title and blurb....and 10x your page reads. (These are real examples. Also, there are many paths to take. So relax and know you have endless opportunities coming to you). So the steps are: 1. Set your goal: what are you going for in 10x-tober? (I'm shooting for 10x pre-orders). Any goal that stretches you a bit is good. 2. Get excited about the goal any way you can. How will you celebrate once you hit it? What are the benefits of hitting this goal? Once you've arrived, what will look like? Feel like? Taste and smell like? (Seriously, you can get all your senses involved. Your unconscious mind doesn't really understand language, but it does understand symbols, images, scent, sounds... All the sensory details we put into our books to make the world come alive for readers) 3. Do this until you're unconscious mind starts giving you ideas of how to hit your goal. We will definitely be covering more of this in the kickoff call and I'm confident you're going to hear some other people's ideas and get excited about them. If not, go back to step two. :) Use this post to tell me how you're celebrating and what hitting this goal will do for you. How will your body benefit? Your family? Your dog?

THE SHIFT What’s the one key thing that took you from making newbie money to making a living money? - I was one of the lucky ones who hit the right combination of market timing with the right book out of the gate. (And I had help from my sister who was already a published, full-time author.) I would say one of the things that helped by quick start was rapid-releasing the first three books in a series and having very tight branding, to-market covers, and good blurbs. I was also publishing in a hot genre (MM romance) that had high demand and not too-high supply yet. Writing in series helped a ton since each release bumped all the other books, too. Can you nail the moment, or define it, when that moment of change happened, whether it be an internal or an external moment. And if yes, what exactly switched? - One thing that helped me with a mindset shift was going to Romance Author Mastermind and hearing a presentation about Six Figure Thinking. It included the idea of treating your author business like a business which means showing up even when you’re not feeling it. Sometimes I think of myself as a trash collector who has to show up and collect trash even when they’re in a bad mood, or have a challenging family situation at home, etc. This is my full-time job now so I don’t get to nope out of work because I’m not feeling it. My mortgage lender is still going to expect that payment next month whether I’m feeling it or not. This isn’t the case for every author, of course, but it is for me. And it helps me show up and keep plugging away. THE STRATEGY What strategy got you where you are now? (Hard work is obvious) - Consistency, treating it like a full-time job, staying in one lane (clear brand promise), building a platform of followers. My best advice for building a platform is to use reader magnets and bonus story offers in backmatter to capture your readers in their hottest-for-you moment and convert them to newsletter subscribers. Building a robust newsletter is the single most powerful marketing activity you can do to help you sell future books.

The reason I was so excited to start this community is because when I look back on my journey, I notice how I shifted my identity to receive what I want. And the fastest way to change your identity is to join a tribe--and guess what? Right now you're in a tribe of authors who are focused on marketing their books, who support each other, celebrate each others success and having a ton of fun doing it. WIN! So thanks for being here and making this community so awesome and fun. I owe so much to all my author friends who challenge me and hold me to higher standards, either by modeling them or reminding me to advertise my new release and update my covers (Tara and Stasia, I'm looking at you). I love authors so much, but I notice a lot of author groups are full of posts about what's wrong with Amazon. It's okay to notice what's not working, but then I want to move on from dwelling in the energy of the problem to dwell in the energy of the solution--or at least wondering what's possible. I hope you will use some of the meditations in here to think about what's possible. Even if you don't, I know the whole tribe will be shifting your believes automatically! I'll be posting some "How I did it" interviews with 7 figure authors over the next few days to inspire us. Thanks again for being here...hugs and welcome to bootcamp! <3 Lee

If you're on the premium level, you should see all the dates on the calendar! If you are only in the community, you can upgrade by clicking purchase on the full Book Marketing bootcamp in the classroom. Make sure you go through the mini bootcamp first! it's included in your membership. Use those classes to grow your income--the rest of the bootcamp will be there when you need. :) Tomorrow: Golden Angel on Money Matters for Authors Tuesday: Golden Angel on Author Budget Wednesday: Work sprints with moi--we'll focus on our marketing plan and getting a solid sales funnel-- and The Click Problem: Writing Emails That Actually Drive Sales with Holly Darling Thursday Work sprints with moi and Newsletter Strategies with Tammi Labreque Friday: Ad walkthrough and sprint with Stasia Black, then ads Q/A with Malorie Cooper of the writing wives! Bring all your ad questions, please. :D Let me know if you have any questions. 🌈💃🦄📚