Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dahlia Rose . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Dahlia , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Some of the most interesting parts of our journey emerge from areas where we believe something that most people in our industry do not – do you have something like that?

Being an author who writes primarily romance and urban fantasy, one of the stereotypes that I disagree with is that we’re not real authors and we write for bored housewives. The romance genre has many sub genres and tropes, and it is also a billion-dollar industry. The days of call us a genre for bored housewives are gone. We write and build new rich words, and create a dynamic story that will engage readers. The romance aspect of the book just serves to enhance the story, by intricately weaving in a love connection between a hero and heroine, that builds a foundation and slowly moves towards a happily ever after or a happy for now. From its inception, the romance genre was not just about the romantic elements but the story that is created around it. The industry has grown to massive proportions an encompass anything from horror to thrillers, so that stereotypical thinking about our work is wrong.

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 am originally from the Caribbean island of Barbados, I grew up there reading the exact same genre I write in now. I always say who would’ve thought a little girl with sand in her toes and calypso in her blood would be living her dream to be a writer and being recognized through my work. My career started in 2005 by happenstance, writing short stories for my husband who was deployed at the time. I was encouraged by a few authors I met online to submit and that started my passion. I have over seven novels and novellas that has been published and plots and characters fill my thinking to this day. I started in a time where e-books and digital readers were considered not actual writing, I started in a time where diverse characters was not a thing, a funny story was that my first cover had a Caucasian stock cover model who as shaded brown to represent my heroine. Why? Because they couldn’t find any black stock photos for my covers. I was one of the first who wrote Interracial Romance and multicultural, using various ethnicities and cultures. To me it’s my life, its vibrant and represents a lot of my family relationships including my own. I grew up reading romance novels and there wasn’t girls like me on the covers. One of my favorite things to hear when I speak to my readers online or at book events is that they are happy to see women who represent them on my covers. This was my dream and now I get to share it with my readers.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

My journey has been wrought with some of the most unusual circumstances. One of the most difficult things in my career was being stolen from, publishers starting up and offering contracts that were online only and instead of payout out royalties, they would just drop out of existence or change sales number s they made the money, and you made pennies. There was a lot of dishonestly that had to be weeded out to make this industry a viable one and that was one of the major complaints along with dropping off the map and not reverting the rights to the book back to us the authors. This meant we couldn’t republish the without an exhausting fight while they still collect on sales. We face that again but at a larger scale where sometime we are paid pennies on the dollar for our work. But we tarry forth, trying our best to get our work to the readers in the best way possible. Many authors who started this journey with me have long since given up or went on to other careers. But I can’t, this is my dream, I wake up with my characters talking to me, I need to write like it was life’s breath. While that sounds dramatic, it’s my truth, I plan to be writing well into my golden age and watch my work and words evolve as time progresses.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

I am what people call a hybrid author, which means I not only publish in the traditional format through a publisher, but I also publish my own work as an independent author. I was an indie author first, before my agent and subsequent traditional contracts, a lot of us got tired of the dishonestly and pulled a Thanos move from the Avengers. “Fine I’ll do it myself.” Most of my success came from this format of business and I became a USA Today Bestselling author because of it. I started my business with a 50.00 Walmart card of all things, and I bought a printer, so I could print flyers, and after my first book release, my husband and I went to the parking lot of said Walmart, Target, Home Depots and anywhere we could to put the flyers. My first book signing was at a Red Door store, they sell lingerie and I set it up with three other authors. It went famously and from there I moved on to events like Con Carolinas where fiction and cosplay go hand in hand. If I knew I could reach one reader, I took the chance and went to the event with my books and my little treat swag bags. My career grew from being able to market myself in strange yet successful formats. I was a myspace queen when it came to marketing my e-books and in person my print books were bought greedily off the table, because I made myself accessible and spent time not only pushing my work but learning about my readers what they like and who they are. I as down to earth and quirky in public as I am in private or at home with my family. I was blessed with a 50.00 gift card and a tenacious attitude about making dreams come true. I attest those and my fantastic readers for my success, for seeing part the woman who wore a Star Trek costumes to book events to see the reader beyond.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://dahliaroseunscripted.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dahliarose1029/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Author.DahliaRose/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dahlia-rose-4b60a656/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/DahliaRose1029

Image Credits
These were taking with my phone by my husband. No credits necessary.