We were lucky to catch up with Ann Charles recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ann, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Perseverance is key to success! Since I started writing books, I’ve had to really focus on maintaining my momentum and persevering through tough times. How to market books–whether ebooks, print books, or audiobooks–constant changes. What I did to boost my sales when I started no longer works in this current marketplace. Every year I have to come up with new strategies to make sales and scrap older processes that are now outdated. Sometimes ways of selling products shift even in six months or less. It’s pretty crazy and sometimes overwhelming and often fun but periodically draining. However, I persevere, continue to write new stories, and try to find the right market in which to sell them.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a USA Today Bestselling author who has won multiple awards for my books. But I didn’t grow up wanting to be a writer. I didn’t daydream of crafting stories month after month, nor did I fantasize about living happily ever after as an entrepreneur. But here I am with over 35 books published and working on my next adventure on the page.

I started writing when I grew frustrated reading stories that didn’t end the way I liked. This frustration turned into creating new stories in my head, which morphed into writing novels and then multiple series.

For years I tried to break into the traditionally published world, because back when I started, that’s how the publishing game was played. During that time, I kept working on improving my craft and learning all I could about marketing and promotion. Eventually, I landed an agent, but while I had serious interest from traditional publishers for the first book in my Deadwood Mystery series, the mix of genres in my book acted as a road block for that publishing path.

I finally accepted that getting traditionally published wasn’t in my future due to the mixed genre stories that my brain liked to create (mystery, humor, supernatural, adventure, romance, and more). I took advantage of what I’d learned over the years about marketing and promotion and set off on my own, becoming an “indie” author and publishing entrepreneur.

It took a few years of working a day job and writing/publishing books to make enough yearly income to quit my job and become a full-time writer. That’s a scary jump to make, especially since my husband and I had kids and would need to make enough to support our family (food, mortgage, healthcare, etc). This year marks the 10-year anniversary of quitting my day job and pursuing fiction writing full-time, and while there have been highs and lows over the years, I still love telling stories for a living.

Humor is a key part of my books, and there is nothing as rewarding as when I make a reader laugh and lighten their emotional load–and they write to tell me how I made a difference in their day, their attitude, or even their life. I also enjoy including mystery and supernatural elements in my stories, along with plenty of adventure and a good helping of romance. I like to tell readers that my books are full of mystery, mayhem, and fun in the sun. If they are looking for a wild escape and lots of laughs, I have lots of tales for them to read.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Pivoting well is key in the fiction writing and publishing business. Every year the market shifts, requiring me to try something different to reach readers. But rather than go into the many, many changes on the marketing front that I’ve experienced since publishing my first book in 2011, I’ll focus on one of the more personal pivots I had to make.

Early on in my writing career, I had to shift my mentality from taking the traditional publishing route to being an independent author and going forth on my own. When I first started writing, indie publishing was in its infant stages–prenatal even. I “grew up” as an author trying to fit my writing into the traditional publishing “box.” Unfortunately, the storyteller inside of me refused to fit in any boxes, and I wrote books with a mix of genres–mystery, adventure, romance, humor, and whatever else felt right, including ghosts and other supernatural fun. I stubbornly ran my head into the publishing brick wall for years, finally pivoting when a good writing friend managed to convince me to give indie publishing a try back in late 2010. After I published the first book in my Deadwood Humorous Mystery series on Amazon and via other retailers in early 2011, I didn’t look back. It’s been a wild ride in the indie publishing world ever since, but I have learned so much about all facets of the publishing business this way and it makes me a stronger entrepreneur because of this decision.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

The fact that I’ve been a successful, full-time author entrepreneur for over a decade now illustrates my resilience. I say that with a dose of jest, but it’s the absolute truth. This business has undergone so many changes since I first set sail and several authors that I knew way back when have since given up and moved on to other professions. There have been many moments when the constant shifting of what to publish and how to publish and where to advertise and how to reach new readers has overwhelmed me. There have been times when the idea of trying to write humor on the page–or anything coherent–seemed darn near impossible, but I have persevered through it all and continued trying, refusing to give up. A good friend of mine long ago told me that I’d succeed at this publishing career because I refused to fail. I think of her words when I’m struggling and it gives me the motivation to keep pushing onward and upward.

Contact Info:

• Website: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ann_charles
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AnnCharlesAuthorPage
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/anncharles
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/annwcharles
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/AnnCharlesAuthor
• Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/AnnWCharles Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/ann-charles Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4605878.Ann_Charles Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Ann-Charles/e/B004JLYPFW

Image Credits
Picture of Ann Charles in the middle of the street in Deadwood, SD: Photo taken by Bob Wilson, Frogworks Photography.