We were lucky to catch up with Brandon Carroll recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Brandon thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start big picture – what are some of biggest trends you are seeing in your industry?

Trends come and go in the writing industry. Which genre or subgenre is popular changes periodically. Romance is still the best seller, but which type of romance varies. Lately, dark romance is on the rise. This is the most popular genre in book spaces like BookTok. Novels like Haunting Adeline are increasingly popular. Romantic Fantasy is also hugely popular. With dark fantasy, there is a line that seems to have blurred between fantasy and reality. Problematic themes cross over into real life and some just can’t separate that in their real lives, giving unrealistic expectations or leading them to underestimate the danger of a real life criminal because this genre happens to have people with dark pasts that have some kind of redeeming quality to them.

Brandon, 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 began writing as part of an assignment way back in fifth grade. I discovered I liked creating my own stories and have made a career out of doing so. I write fantasy romance, specifically MM Romance (male male romance). This is a genre that like most of romance is mostly written by women, but in this case is male centered. It’s often surprising to readers to find the a male has written these stories. Now I have thirteen books published and am working on producing audiobooks to go along with the eBooks and physical books. I am also working to sell signed copies of the physical books from my website, as this is increasingly popular among readers.
I would love followers and fans to know that I write what I would like to read. I write to give people in my own minorities representation that we don’t often get, i.e. people of color in fantasy spaces as fantasy races. I don’t write striving to be a new version of any particular author. I want simply to tell the stories that I create and have others enjoy them and become invested in their worlds.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Since I self publish, this is a critical thing that gets confusing in the industry. First, I learned that there’s a difference between how large and small publishers work if one doesn’t want to self publish, and then there are vanity presses that charge the author to publish but offer no real benefit. Self publishing means everything is on the author. The biggest expenses being editors and book cover designers. An author can do a cover themselves using various programs, but there is a benefit to finding a program that you pay for as it has better tools. You’ll still pay for the images used for the cover unless you hand draw them. Editing is very expensive between line edits and developmental edits, one looking at grammar while the other is looking for issues in the story. I started off trading favors. I edit for some authors that in turn edit for me. Or I do their edits and they make my cover. Then I began to set aside royalties from one project for the next after I’d reached the point of making some profit. In this, there’s also planning for the cost of promotion/marketing and updating or purchasing new programs as technology evolves and skills are learned to do more on your own.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Since my clients are readers, spaces where readers are help the most. Goodreads groups, Facebook Groups, BookTok, and bloggers are the best sources I’ve used to bring in new readers. I don’t find ads to be extremely helpful in online settings as many people scroll or skip past them. But having books in the spaces where readers congregate and look for new books to read as they make their way through their TBR pile (To Be Read) is extremely helpful.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.drakosden.com
• Other: BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/drakosden.bsky.social