We recently connected with Cm Smith and have shared our conversation below.
Hi CM, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
In April of 2019, I lost my dad. It was fast, it was unexpected, and it was a shock to everyone who knew him. I was always a lifelong reader. I read everything from fluffy to the encyclopedias my grandma had. But losing my dad pulled my focus in. I needed an escape. I didn’t want politics or world-solving. Honestly, I didn’t want anything that I had to focus really hard on. Game of Thrones would have to wait. I didn’t have the capacity for the volume of character names. I wanted something happy, even if it made me cry. Enter romance books. I’d read them before, they’d be shared with the Anne Rice, John Saul, and Stephen King books on my shelf. But I went deep down the well. In the last eight months of that year, I think I read almost four hundred books. In October of that year, I left my career of twenty-three years in higher education to focus on travel. I had been an agent with a wonderful company part-time for a few years, and the end of 2019 was looking way up. We all know what happened in 2020, right? The world stopped. There wasn’t much to do, and no one was traveling. I helped my children with their distance learning and I read. I read all the sub-genres of romance, from light to dark, funny to angsty, high fantasy to contemporary reality.
And something amazing happened. I found a community online. Other women—and a few men, too—opened their arms and let me be a part of their groups. I found out that four of the authors I had devoured and loved were going to be at a signing in Philly, and I wanted to go. We were in the city for exactly twenty-seven hours. I knew before I left that I wanted to come back the next year. Everyone was so nice and welcoming. I wanted to be in that world more.
Between planning that next trip and being there, my best friend dared me to write my own book. Tell my own stories. Put myself out there—which I had never done before. I didn’t tell anyone at first other than my mom and husband, who both encouraged me to do it. I didn’t even tell my best friend until I was almost through the first draft of what would turn out to be my first release. But she was right. I had ideas. All of the ideas, it would seem. I had cover art, blurbs, marketing plans, and I had words. Between October 13th and November 11th, 2022, I had written over 250,000 words for what would be two and a half books.
I packed up my car and drove solo from Kentucky to Philly. I listened to audio books and pumped myself up to put myself out there. Make new friends. Leave with new connections. I did that and so much more. I found a group of women who have been by my side since that first night at the hotel, asking if anyone wanted to grab dinner.
It was the best decision of my life. I was terrified, but I told them about my book. They told a couple of others. All of the sudden, the community I was a reader in changed, and I was the author. I pushed publish on my first book in March 2023, scared that if I didn’t do it as soon as it was ready, I never would. That first book is now a completed series that has spawned a second completed series as of October 2024 with a new spin off slated to begin in 2025.
And all of it has been terrifying and wonderful and nerve-wracking and fantastic. Had I not taken the leap, I never would have done this, and after forty-five years of living, I have something in my life that energizes me every day to get up and do. I have friends that I couldn’t imagine my life without that didn’t exist two short years ago. Those authors I raced to Philly to see? I now post in their groups about my books and they share in mine! It’s a crazy new life I’m building surrounded by strong woman who prop me up when I need it, hold my hand through the scary times, and scream in joy when the good things happen, and they just keep happening.
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?
Have you ever heard creatives talking about the voices in their head and the conversations they have? Maybe you wonder if they are okay? Yeah, I have those voices. They argue with me, go silent on me, and rarely do we all agree on everything. When I was a kid, I’d write little stories for fun. In first grade, I even won a young author award for a story about a snake. But life happened. Job, school, kids. There was no time to sit and plot out fun stories. And then there was. Covid sucked for a lot of people, it still does. But it was the pause in reality that I needed to finally sit down with a story and write. And I don’t think I’ve gone a day since without writing something, even if it’s just names and ideas.
But what kind of stories do I want to tell? I love the small-town romance books that I’ve read. If I had to pick a favorite, that’s where I’d land. And when I started, that’s what I marketed myself as. However, a very wise woman sat me down, and with all the seriousness she could muster said, “People don’t die in a small-town romance unless it’s the old grandpa who dies and puts it in his will that you have to return home and get married.” Problem was, I enjoy finding fun ways for the bad guys to eat it. I also enjoy making people laugh. But what I write isn’t comedy. So it didn’t fit in rom-com either. And while I enjoy a good dark romance with the best of them, I know mentally, I can’t live there, and couldn’t write it with justice. So, what genre am I? Enter small-town romantic suspense. The bad guys don’t get away with it, but the location still has nosey neighbors, a great diner, people who look out for each other, and all kinds of steam.
My writing is based in reality and some of that reality deals with heavy stuff. Mental health is very important to me, so making sure that’s represented is a big thing. Family and found family are also important to me. When I sit down to start a series, the first thing I do is connect the dots. Are they related, friends, did they serve together? I build their stories off of what they are yelling in my head and how they form the whole. Each book can be read as a standalone, but they are all interconnected.
I tell the stories that I’d want to read. Eight books in, and no third act breakup. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good grovel, but these characters? They communicate. They work through the bad things together. Not saying it won’t ever happen, but the foundations these couples have keep them fighting for each other, not against.
So, what started as CM Smith—Family. Love. Steam. has morphed into CM Smith—Sexy Small-Town Suspense with Humor and Heart, and I couldn’t be happier with where the refocus has taken me. I tell people that there might be a few tears, but you’ll laugh, too. How could you not when the first ‘meet-cute’ ever was because of an allergic reaction to pumpkin?
I’m also really proud that my characters are more than one thing. They have issues; they are nowhere near perfect people, but when they find who they are supposed to be together, the one they are perfect with? It’s magical. I’m going to keep listening to the voices inside my head. They have some great ideas for future books!
How did you build your audience on social media?
Oof, social media is hard! When you start your creative journey, you hear from everyone that you have to be on everything! Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter (or whatever we are calling it these days), Substack, Discord, Patreon, Clapper, Threads, etc., so that’s what you do. You make accounts for all of them with your handle. You create a group on Facebook for your followers—don’t forget to also make a page!—you try to beat the algorithm on TikTok and Instagram. You tweet about you and your books. Because you can’t just post about books, people want to know you, too. But not too much. Because then you’re opening yourself up to danger. Oh, and have a link for a newsletter signup everywhere, too!
Tired yet? I was. I was spending more time following all the social media rules than I was writing. But my groups weren’t growing, and then the comparison thoughts stepped in, which leads to imposter syndrome, and then I shut down completely because it all makes my head hurt and I just want a nap.
The thing I have to keep reminding myself is it took me forty-plus years to figure out this was what I wanted to do, and building a social media presence doesn’t happen overnight. And honestly, if it does, it won’t last. I started my group on Facebook January 1, 2023. This was two months before I published my first book. I invited family who I knew would be okay reading what I write, and friends. They invited their friends, who have invited their friends. Each new release brings in new members. I’m still not a huge group, and I’m okay with that. Because the group I have? They are loud when it comes to helping spread the word about new releases. I have cultivated the relationships in that group, and they are real fans–and friends now, too! They know some personal things about me, but not everything. They get the good, bad, and ugly of life, however. I keep it real, just like my characters. I share what I’m comfortable sharing, and they respect my boundaries. I post on Instagram around a release. I don’t have the time or energy to do more than that. And I watch Broadway clips and other author videos on TikTok. I will never be able to train the algorithm there to not show me all the Cabaret clips ever recorded with Alan Cumming. And I’m not mad about it.
All this to say, pick one. Start there. Build that platform, and then try another one. Remind yourself that it’s not going to happen overnight. And if something makes you sad or mad, that’s not the platform for you. Walk away. Put your energy into the social media you like, build your brand, keep producing creative works—art, books, photography, whatever that looks like to you, and the people will find you. You also have to give yourself grace when you need it. Sometimes you need a break, just like with everything in life. Don’t let others make you feel bad for stepping away. Take the time you need to come back with fresh eyes and words. Those that love you, that are following you because they love what you do, they will still be there!
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
There are so many things in this writing business that offer rewards I never thought about or knew were possible. People sending messages after they read something I wrote telling me they loved it, or they cried, or they couldn’t put it down, or they really connected with a certain character makes my day! The reader who sends a message because they found a typo and they don’t want to upset me, but wanted to know if I wanted to know about it. Yes, the answer is yes to that one! The readers who have sent me cards or brought me a gift at a signing. I met a reader last May that brought me a bronze wrist cuff they made because they loved my books. I had another reader show up with a three-foot-long crocheted penis. There was laughter and tears that day!
But I think the biggest thing, the one that shocks me the most, is when people know who you are when you aren’t ‘on’. What I mean is that I went to a signing as a reader and others there knew who I was. That was shocking and surprising to me in a big way! I understand it if I am a signing author somewhere and they see me in the lobby later. But not when I’m just there. What surprised me more was that other authors knew who I was. That made me cry. Someone that I had admired and read knew who I was and told me they loved my books! What is this life?
There are so many things to be grateful for in this life, but it always comes back to the readers. It all boils down to them, and I’m incredibly grateful every day that they found me, they liked what they read, and they stuck around even after they found out how awkward I am!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cmsmithauthor.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cm_smith_writer_chick/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091960587003
Image Credits
CM Smith