We recently connected with Keri Kruspe and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Keri thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?

I’ve been an indie publisher of SciFi romance since I released my first book at the end of 2018. Now, seven years and thirteen books later, I find my biggest challenge is marketing those books. The fairytale of simply uploading a novel and waiting for the bucks to roll in is as elusive as a Cinderella myth.

To this day, I don’t make enough to cover the costs I incur due to not only getting a novel ready for publication (i.e. cover art, editing, etc.) but scheduling and promoting the book, which has its own trials. There are so many marketing options available (and none carry any guarantee that spending the money sells any books) ends up costing hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to the author. Unfortunately, not doing any sort of marketing is a recipe in obscurity.

So, what can an author do to continue with their passion of writing and making a living from it? How can we gain visibility in a crowded marketplace that requires constant effort-from securing book reviews to running promotions – to even let readers know the book exists? It doesn’t surprise me that the 2024 Indie Author Survey from Written Word Media states 78.5% of indie authors cite marketing as the hardest part of self-publishing.

Even for those of us with a lifetime experience in other areas. Tackling a new career in writing during our retirement years has its own challenges.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

As with a vast majority of folks diving into becoming a published author, I too always dreamed of being a writer someday. I wrote my first story at the age of twelve by long hand. It was actually a cute episode of the old Star Trek series with new characters and aliens (keep in mind, this was in the early seventies when stories written by fans weren’t even a ‘thing’). Then in the same year, an uncle of mine gave me my first Brothers typewriter (sky blue if I recall). Eager to use my new machine, I took typing in middle school (my apologies to the teacher of that class, Mr. Mooring-the Boring, for making fun of his name) and off I went! I’ve got to admit taking that class way before computers were a twinkle in Mr. Gates’ eyes was the best thing I ever took in school.

By the time I was fifteen, I’d written several short stories – but then something else caught my eye. I had an older cousin who introduced me to Science Fiction novels and reading those became my passion. As I grew older, I discovered my next obsession… romance novels. Since my late teens onward, I’d devour at least one book a week, if not more.

As we all know, life has a way of steering you in a direction you never intended to go. On the heels of my eighteenth birthday, I got married and almost overnight became pregnant with the first of my three children. Needing to provide for my family, I went into a banking career, (which my father laughed hysterically since math wasn’t my forte). No offense to dad, but over the next forty years I became successful in that industry (even achieving a VP title) until I retired in 2024.

A couple of years before then, I started working on my first novel. It took me several years to learn the craft (which is still an ongoing process) before taking the plunge and releasing a series called “An Alien Exchange”, followed by “Ancient Alien Descendants” and wrapping up my last series “Alien Legacy Brotherhood” this year. For my next challenge – I’m researching the delightful possibilities of delving into the Fantasy Romance genre.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I’m constantly amazed about the new things I learn and try out. While it might take me years to understand why I like certain things and believe I’m good at them. I constantly surprise myself when I assumed I’d like something to only to find out I don’t.

For instance, the marketing efforts of paid ads – especially with Amazon and/or Facebook (Meta) ads. It’s humbling that someone with my background in Finance totally sucks at the number crunching details and the constant need for testing to know if any ad is successful. To be honest, I totally hate doing it.

But… I found I loved creating images for those ads. Me, a person with no talent whatsoever in drawing (I even hated coloring as a child) gets into delving into AI image creators (Midjourney and Dall-E) when dreaming up stuff to post on social media. And now I’m looking into doing a Kickstarter to promote my novels. This is a stretch for me since I have no experience in any sort of crowdfunding.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I sometimes find myself lost in an unfamiliar world. I’m sure a lot of folks in my generation find themselves in the same situation. Computers didn’t have a great impact on my professional life until I was in my thirties, and even then, they didn’t get a strong foothold in the industry until I was well into my forties.

Let’s take social media for instance. For the life of me, I can’t understand humanities obsession with constantly being in touch… no matter where they are or who they’re with. If it wasn’t for my writing business, I wouldn’t have a footprint on any platform. Even today, I schedule all my posts on FB and Instagram a month in advance (thanks Canva!). The main platform I love is on Pinterest. There I can showcase all those AI pics I’ve created along with some hobbies I indulge in (like collecting classic rock vinyl records).

Having said that, I wished I was better at navigating through all the digital offerings out there. Maybe then I wouldn’t find marketing such a challenge.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kerikruspe.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kerikruspe/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/klkruspe15
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/kerikruspe/