We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Erin Wright. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Erin below.

Alright, Erin thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. The first dollar you earn in a new endeavor is always special. We’d love to hear about how you got your first client that wasn’t a friend or family.

I found a group of self-published authors online back in 2015. I didn’t think that *I* was special enough to be an author, but I did want to hang out with the people who were that special, so I joined the group. Over time, I started helping authors by proofreading for them (I have an eye for spotting typos, etc). I still wasn’t cool enough to be an author myself, but I could WORK with authors and bask in their reflected glory.

And then, through happenstance and a convoluted set of circumstances, I ghostwrote a book for another author. And then two more. And then some more for another author. My husband finally said, “Erin! Quit being an idiot!” (Bluntness is his love language. 😂) “Stop writing for other authors; write for yourself. You could make SO much more money, instead of being a ghostwriter.”

That’s how I got pushed to start my own author career. I published my first book in 2016 and was able to go full-time in 2018.

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?

Before I became an author, I was a teacher, and before that, I was a librarian. In fact, I was in the library world for seven years, including 18 months as a library director.

When I joined the author world in 2015, I only knew authors who were exclusive to Amazon with their ebooks (enrolled in their Kindle Unlimited program) so when I started publishing my own books, I of course was also exclusive to Amazon with my ebooks. After all, you could only make money if you were an exclusive author, and I wanted to make money and be successful. #duh

After getting my first couple of books up and published, though, I started asking questions. How do I publish my ebooks where libraries can buy them? They can’t buy them from Amazon, so how do I get them onto the right platform so libraries can purchase them?

Which is when I found out that when Amazon required exclusivity with ebooks, they didn’t just mean that they couldn’t be published on Apple or Barnes & Noble. They didn’t just mean that they couldn’t be published on my own site, and I couldn’t give them away for free. They meant that even libraries couldn’t purchase them and lend them out to patrons.

Well now, I’m willing to put up with some things, but not have my books in libraries? That was a step too far.

So that’s when I decided to pull my books out of exclusivity and “go Wide” with them, which is the indie author term for publishing ebooks on a wide variety of sites instead of just Amazon. I’m not sure if, at that point, I could have even named all of the Wide platforms out there. I had no idea how to thrive on these sites. But what I *did* know is that I was going to figure it out, because I’ll be damned if my ebooks weren’t going to be available for purchase by libraries. (This happened in 2017).

I did a BUNCH of research on the Wide platforms, how to be successful with them, etc, etc, and over time, had authors referring other authors to me. “If you want to know how to go Wide, you should talk to Erin.” Which I found WILD because I still felt like a babe in arms without nearly enough knowledge myself, but back then, we were all a little lost.

In 2018, I went full-time as a contemporary western romance author, and then in March of 2019, I co-founded the Facebook group, “Wide for the Win.” (Alliteration, baby!) When we first started the group, I didn’t think we’d have but mmmaaayyybbbeeee 100 authors in it. After all, there are hardly any Wide authors out there. Who was going to join this little nothing group?

Which is why I found it so insane that we surpassed 18,000 authors in our group this past fall. I did not expect that kind of response to my insignificant stand against one of the largest retailers in the world (Amazon). I started getting authors begging me to do one-on-one consultations with them to help them succeed as Wide authors, so in December of 2020, I started doing those. I’ve helped over 500 authors individually via Zoom (this is not including follow-up consultations with authors), along with teaching classes and doing presentations at author conferences. I’ve even been the keynote speaker for a women’s author conference.

All because I’m stubborn and wanted my ebooks in libraries, dammit. 😅 My husband says that I make granite look malleable when I decide that I’m going to do something, and I guess sometimes that can work to my advantage. ☺️

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

When I first joined the online author community in 2015, I was teaching part-time, going to school full-time to get my teaching certificate, and scrambling to make money however I could. This is why I started proofreading for authors; it was another source of income for me. After my husband (bluntly) encouraged me to start writing for myself instead of ghostwriting, I continued to write a few more books for other authors (to keep the income coming in while I wrote my own books). I also built websites, created ePubs for other authors, and continued to proofread.

As an indie author, everything is on your shoulders – blurbs (the book description), covers, editing, uploading…there isn’t a publishing company like Hachette to take care of those things for you. My husband and I were pretty poor, so just paying hundreds of dollars out for a beautiful cover wasn’t an option, and I have absolutely no artistic skills myself.

So instead of just giving up, I started doing swaps with other authors. They’d create a cover for me; I’d proofread their book for them. They’d write my book blurb for me; I’d create their ePub for them. I didn’t let my lack of cash keep me from pushing forward.

Slowly, as my books gained traction and I started to make a decent income from the sales of them, I was able to start paying for services instead of bartering for them, and eventually was able to cut back on my side hustles. Quitting teaching at the school and quitting college was a huge thing for me, as was slowly stopping taking in proofreading clients. I remember the day that I informed my last proofreading client that this was the last book I’d proofread for them. I’d fiiinnnaaalllllyyyyy made the transition to full-time author, over the course of a couple of years.

I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth (FAR from it) and had to build my self-publishing career to this point brick by brick. It was not easy, and still isn’t easy, honestly.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

In terms of working with other authors in the Wide for the Win realm, my goal is to help other authors be less reliant upon one corporation that sees authors as a whole as a rounding error for their company, not to mention how little they care about an individual author. We don’t matter to Amazon, and it shows.

So my constant driving goal is to help other authors widen their income stream, where they’re bringing in income from a variety of sources rather than just one. I love seeing authors gain that independence and lose the fear factor of one company being able to destroy their livelihood by making a simple change to an algorithm.

I remember when I first stated this particular goal years ago, and the people I was talking to all sort of laughed at the audacity of it, but we’re starting to get there:

I want the *default* decision that authors make when they first enter the indie publishing world to be to go Wide with their ebooks, and the “unusual” decision to be choosing to be an exclusive author.

Especially as direct sales start to take off in the indie author world, it makes more and more sense to be Wide. I love seeing this. 💙

Contact Info:

• Website: HTTPS://erinwright.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorerinwright
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/AuthorErinWright
• Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-wright-author
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/erinwrightlv
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@erinwrightLV
• Other: http://books2read.com/ErinWright
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/wideforthewin/