Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Eva Pohler. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Eva, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I earned my Ph.D. in English in the mid-nineties, specializing in twentieth-century British and American narrative strategies. Ever since, I have taught writing and literature–full time for twenty years and part-time in more recent years–at a university in San Antonio, my hometown, where I live with my husband of nearly thirty years, two of our three adult children, and three rescue dogs.
An award-winning and USA Today bestselling author of over forty novels in multiple genres, I write paranormal mysteries, thrillers, and young adult fantasy based on Greek mythology. Currently, my most popular is The Mystery House Series, which follows three friends in their fifties who renovate or visit haunted properties and try to solve the mystery of what’s tethering the ghosts. It’s been described as Nancy Drew meets the Golden Girls. My second most popular is The Underworld Saga, about Thanatos (Death) needing a holiday. It’s been described as Meet Joe Black meets Percy Jackson.
In every genre I write, I want to give my readers a thrilling adventure that takes them through the full gamut of emotions. I strive to blur the line between reality and fantasy, truth and delusion, and draw from my personal philosophy that a reader must be lured and abducted into complete captivity in order to enjoy the reading experience.
Have you ever had to pivot?
After writing as a hobby for many years, I took the plunge to self-publish two of my completed novels in the summer of 2012. At first, this amounted to very few sales, but after attending a conference in 2013 and learning some marketing strategies, my career took off. I had my most profitable years in 2016 and 2017 and was on a trajectory to make six figures in 2018. I even “retired” from university teaching, which I had already cut down to part-time. But the sales in 2018 were a massive disappointment, and I went back to teaching part-time the following year to supplement my dwindling author royalties.
I soon learned that the cut in royalties wasn’t just happening to me. It was industry-wide. Never had I imagined this kind of setback. Whether it was the growing popularity of Kindle Unlimited, the profound change to the way Facebook worked, the changes to Amazon’s algorithms, or a saturation of the ebook market, no one in the industry knew for sure what had happened. And not everyone was affected. Many authors continued to climb to the top.
I enrolled in courses and began to educate myself more on the business of business. I learned how to brand myself, though it wasn’t easy as a multi-genre author. I built a better website and learned about SEO, content marketing, landing pages, and calls to action. I redid my covers and renamed one of my series, having learned the importance of making my genres clear to readers. I learned how to advertise on Facebook, Amazon, Bookbub, and Google. Essentially, I became an entrepreneur.
When Covid hit in 2019, people started reading more, and I had another good year. It was the same in 2020. By 2021, sales were dwindling again. But I had already learned to expect such fluctuations in the market, and so the downswing in 2022 wasn’t as difficult to handle as the much bigger one in 2018. I had learned how to pivot, and this time, it would be with direct sales.
Although I had already begun to sell signed paperbacks through my website, the idea of turning my site into a full-fledged ecommerce store with my own ebook and audiobook offerings hadn’t occurred to me until I read Morgana Best’s book Stop Making Other’s Rich. The notion of having control over customer transactions, information, and communication was brilliant, and I went all-in on developing this new approach. That’s where I’m at now, and I’m really enjoying it. I absolutely love getting paid throughout the month instead of having to wait until the end when vendor royalties are issued. I also feel better equipped to handle the next setback, which I know will inevitably come.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
I already mentioned Morgana Best’s book Stop Making Other’s Rich. I also gleaned great insights from Pierre Jeanty’s book Seven-Figure Book Business. Nick Stephenson’s course Your First 10K Readers and James Blatch’s course Ads for Authors were also pivotal to my learning and success. Lately, I’ve been watching YouTube videos by experts in marketing and advertising. Favorites include Exposure Ninja, Professor Charley, and Ecommerce Alley.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.evapohler.com
- Instagram: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/eva-pohler
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/evapohler
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eva-pohler-2581b335/
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/evapohler
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@EvaPohler
- Other: Thank you!
Image Credits
Eva Pohler