Interview with a full time 7 figure author - Lucy Lennox

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.

How much do you spend annually on average for ads/promo?

I grossed just over $1M and spent $63k on CPC ads.

How large is your backlist?

70 English titles plus translations, mostly in German, French, and Italian

What percentage of your income is from audiobooks?

A little over 10%

Do you make 7-8 figures under a single name, or is this cumulative across multiple pens?

Single pen name

Are you self-published only, hybrid, or trad?

Self-published with exception of a few foreign translation deals.

What are your top three investments as an author?

If top three means most important: Packaging (covers, mostly), Mailerlite subscription for my newsletter, and my PA.

How big is your mailing list now? What was it at 6 figures? What is the smallest size it can be for 7 figures?

It is 45k. During my many 6-figure years it was between 15k-40k. I also have smaller mailing lists in German, French, and Italian.

WORKFLOW

Can you explain any of your best processes or workflows?

I treat M-F, 8am-12pm as writing time. NOT admin time. Writing time. I don’t book appointments during that time if I can help it. Often, I use an internet blocker during those hours to keep me from wandering off.

Another one of my best tips for process is to come up with an annual schedule of your working plan. For me, it’s a spreadsheet of Mondays representing each week of the year. Then I start filling out all of my expected releases so I don’t book stuff around them. Then I fill in the other promos I’ve booked or planned, the vacations and time I know I’ll be useless for my biz (holidays, kid events, surgery, etc). Then copy it to another sheet or tab and change it to a WRITING calendar. This way you’re aware of the weeks you’ll be less productive writing. Make sure these two calendars support each other! Both can change as the year progresses and real life happens. These are working documents.

Now, fill in the empty weeks on your promo/release calendar with more promo. Newsletters, sales, backlist spotlights, special edition offerings, box set releases, audio specials, social media campaigns, ad campaigns, etc. Think of this as priming the cash flow pump to keep money trickling in all year regardless of your big releases.

Make sure everyone on your team is aware of this calendar. This helps me give anticipated due dates for the entire year to editors, proofers, narrators, PA, PR company, etc.

As you earn more, how has your workflow changed?

I have relied MUCH more heavily on help and outsourcing. My tip here is to figure out what your own hourly rate is. This can be however you want to do it, but lets start simple. How much does your book earn in the first year? Take that and divide it by the number of hours you put into it, including brainstorming, writing, revising, marketing, communication with vendors, etc. Divide the income by the number of hours to determine your hourly rate using the first year of income. (I often use the first couple of years instead.) Now. Can you find someone for less than that to do your admin tasks? If so, get them to do admin while you make MORE writing the next book. If you make $100/hr from your writing, you shouldn’t be doing a job you can pay someone else $20/hr to do for you. You should be writing with those hours instead. (Obviously decide what works for YOU. You might LOVE the lower-paying work and prefer to keep it to yourself since it’s fun! Balance according to your own goals.)

How big is your team? And how do you manage it? How do you deal with the pressure of handling it all?

This is one of my biggest challenges. Hiring good people is hard. Training people takes time away from writing. I have a high-level, full-time PA who is super-human. I also have a part-time graphics maven, dedicated vendors in the area of editing, proofing, narration, and translations, an IG reels person, and a part-time shop/shipping assistant. I manage it in my admin time and by using tools like recorded screen-share video tutorials (that way if I have to replace someone on the team, the new person can watch the video without my having to repeat the training), organized Dropbox files, spreadsheets with account and password info (digital assets are an important part of my estate planning, so we try to keep the list updated in case something happens to me), multi-user account functionality like paying for upgraded “team” level accounts on certain sites or adding and removing people from accounts as needed. When the pressure starts to become too much, I pull back from commitments and remind myself this is 100% at my discretion. I can choose to run it however I want to, and that includes changing the plan, canceling things, and pivoting as needed.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

What's the thing you like the absolute least about where you are with the work you’re doing, and how would you change it (if you haven't already)?

I strongly dislike the drama and getting into fights on social media, so I try never to engage with drama-potential posts.

I protect my mental health by avoiding reviews of my work. I rely on my PA to let me know if there are issues I need to know about in reviews. To that end, I avoid GoodReads.

I strongly dislike the fact that the KU page rate has been declining for the entire decade I’ve been doing this. The increase in the cost of a KU subscription a few years ago never showed up in the author’s pay rate. I have spoken at length with KDP reps to no avail. I can’t change it, but I rage about the injustice often. Because of that, I have taken strong measures in the past few years to de-centralize Amazon from my author business by creating and expanding non-Amazon income streams including Shopify/Direct Sales, Kickstarter, Patreon, special editions on Ingram, etc.

What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced at this new level of income and how do you handle them?

The biggest challenge I face is bandwidth. My time is valuable which means I have to be very careful with the way I allocate it in my business. This leads to hard decisions like having to pay more to outsource something than I want to spend, having to let go of some of the control I’m used to having, and reminding myself it’s okay to do things for FUN even if they don’t earn money. I want to do All The Things! But I don’t have All The Time!

Another big challenge of being at this level is not being able to speak openly about my numbers without sounding like I’m bragging and not being able to complain about anything without sounding like I’m ungrateful. It also means having way fewer authors to get advice from about leveling up, and often those high-earning authors are too busy hustling to share tips and advice.

Being a high-earner can sometimes feel isolating. People “other” me in conversations without realizing it by making statements that imply things come easier to me because of my success or my name rather than or in addition to hard work. I try to maintain author friendships with other high-earners so I have a safe space to discuss things and brainstorm challenges that come at the higher level. These groups aren’t easy to find, though.

Is it sustainable? As I watch book rank and income fluctuate I wonder how to keep it all heading in the right direction. ⬆️

I definitely think a 6-figure author career is sustainable. I see soooo many people getting to 6-figures and I’ve seen many authors do it with multiple pen names. Staying at 7-figures seems much more difficult.

My best advice for sustainability is to create multiple revenue streams and become less dependent on any one income stream. This way, I’m not at risk of one company’s shenanigans disrupting my financial security. I specifically built a subscription platform with the goal of covering my largest personal monthly expense (mortgage) so that if I lost my Amazon account, I would know my mortgage was still covered. Next, I tested Kickstarter so I could pay off a vehicle and have one less monthly payment. Then I tackled an Author Education Patreon to cover another monthly bill. If something happens to Amazon, I’m in a much better place now than if it had happened 6-8 years ago. I used to think “wide” only meant leaving KU and putting my books on other retail sites. Now I think of wide as “wide open to revenue opportunities”!

My final advice is to not let other people - especially strangers on the internet - take this dream and/or career away from you. Don’t let them decide what your future will be. Don’t let the latest drama and industry changes distract you from your goals because they will try. It’s very easy to throw up your hands and blame any number of things for your lack of success. It’s much easier to give up than to hustle toward your goals. Persevere. And if what you’re doing isn’t working, try something new. Get industry advice. Learn how to improve your craft and/or your process. Find ways to get to YES even if those ways look different than you first imagined. This industry changes rapidly, and the people who are still here are the ones who never gave up.

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Interview with a full time 7 figure author - Lucy Lennox