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

Halli , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

As an indie author, success is largely up to whatever bullet point or goal I ascribe to that word. Like any small business, bringing in money in order to produce future works and invest in endeavors is important; very few of us have the operating funds on our own to support our small business from the ground up. There’s always a startup cost, and profits from sales help produce more content. But creatives especially can branch out from talking about only dollars and overhead and production costs, because art has whatever value we deem right or accurate or proper. So as an independent author, success for me is reaching readers, especially those who “get” my work. I operate under a couple of principles: trusting my readers’ intelligence, and death of the author. Meaning, I trust that my readers don’t need their hands held through every point or reference in a book (and should feel compelled and encouraged to look up things they don’t understand), and that once I put my art out for general consumption, how it is interpreted is out of my hands. So for me, real success is hearing from readers that my books impacted them in a positive way, that they made an impression or made them think.

Halli , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m a queer author and librarian who has always found escape and comfort in the written word. Books saved my life as a child, and the librarians I met along the way were massively influential on how I associated words and stories to escapism, love, comfort, and family. I toyed with writing my own books for years, but never truly found the time or inspiration until 2020, as COVID ravaged the world and we were all locked down in our homes. Since then, I’ve written nine books (with a tenth in the making), focusing on queer stories — romance, friendship, found family, and spanning genres from contemporary to paranormal to historical fantasy and thriller.

For me, I wanted to give something extra to the world of books: a chance to escape, and to experience stories that feel real, with adults communicating and working through their issues, instead of relying on flimsy third-act breakups and miscommunications to spur along some semblance of plot. Character growth and experience are plot, too, and it’s important to give readers variety outside the cookie-cutter books that are popular for fifteen minutes in order to solely generate revenue. I wanted to write for readers like myself, who revel in characters who feel real and who could easily leap off the page into our daily lives.

I’m also a librarian, so research is important to my works, particularly of late. COUP DE COEUR, my eighth book (on sale May 28, 2024), is greatly based in queer life and culture of New York City at the turn of the 20th century. I spent months digging through library archives, reading academic papers, pouring over photographs and drawings and fire maps, all so that the NYC of my book, and of that time, felt real. I take my research seriously, and I hope that it shows in my books.

On top of that, I also offer creative services for other indie authors and small publishers. I’ve had the chance to work with several indie authors and the Unplugged Book Box/Twisted Retreat Book Box by designing book covers and dust jackets. I make my services affordable, since money is always tight when you’re running your own business, especially as a creative.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Self-expression. I truly believe most people have a book “in them”, a story that can be told, but the dedication it takes to sit down and write it all out, then go through the process of editing, rewriting, marketing, etc. is what usually wears folks out. It’s a hard job (emphasis on “job!”), and almost all of us have day jobs, families, and other duties pulling at our time and attention. Pushing through the demands of our lives to also tell our stories is what separates small creatives from larger, corporate ones. It’s what makes us stand out, and what makes the love of our craft obvious.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Absolutely! There is no one-and-done guidebook for indie authors. The greatest resource we have is each other, because we’ve all had to start at the bottom, with nothing but a blank document or journal and the story in our head. All of the other stuff that comes afterwards, the marketing and editing and community connections, is work as well, and indie authors are great at helping each other out and providing free advice and resources.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hallistarlingbooks.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hallistarling/
• Other: Etsy: https://booksbyhalli.etsy.com Email: [email protected]