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

Laura , appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

Every writer will tell you they were a reader first. That their love for weaving and crafting stories stems from their own awe at being immersed in somebody else’s world and characters. That was always the case for me growing up but after a three year degree in English Literature, being forced down particular genres and avenues and spending every moment over analysing the intent of the author, I’m pained to say, I fell out of love with books. It was a good two years until my passion was reignited, and I have a pandemic and the rise of booktok to thank for it. If I hadn’t been at home trying to find new ways to fill my time, I would not have picked up a book again and remembered all the reasons I loved the written word, specifically, the fantasy genre.

It was after making my way through every fantasy possible over three years (2019-2021), that I eventually stumbled across a self published author on my ‘for you page’. Suddenly my eyes were opened to an entire community of writers that had paved their own way in the world. Authors that were saying no to the restrictions of the traditional publishing route and pursuing their dreams regardless. Six months later, when a spark of an idea blossomed whilst listening to a song, I was faced with the thought; ‘I could actually pursue this.’ If I hadn’t been immersing myself in indie authors’ books, I might have instantly shot the thought down, the long list of cons in the traditional publishing world weighing down my excitement. Instead, I had a drive and belief because I had seen so many empowering woman find success through their love of writing. I have every indie author that crossed my social media feeds to thank. Keep shouting about your love and success, because you’re inspiring every new writer that finds you.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m Laura, a charity worker by day and a fantasy author by night and weekend, though one day I know I’ll be able to say that being an author is my full time career. As with all writers, I fell in love with writing through reading. I can still recall the books that shaped my love of fiction as a child and through my teenage years; the magical Rainbow Fairy Series, The Inkheart Trilogy, any Philippa Gregory historical fiction, and the epic Game of Thrones. I credit that last series as the catalyst for my love for specialising in multiple point of view (POV) Fantasy.

I’m currently working on the fourth book in my debut series, The Lost Kingdom Saga, with two released and the third coming in the spring of 2025. Despite being early in my writing career, I have five spin off duologies and two completely new fantasy series’ planned for the future (I’ll be around until at least 2035!). I can quite confidently say that all my works will be multiple POV. That can seem off putting to a reader, the overwhelming idea of keeping up with more than one person or place, but there is a reason that I love it. Multiple POV allows for every reader to find someone that they relate to through the ability to offer such a diverse cast of characters and backgrounds. It provides such depth and richness to the characters you read rather than offering a main female and male character with a supporting cast. It offers variety and excitement whether it be switching between characters with an enemies to lovers subplot to those with friends to lovers, switching from the hero to the villain, from a free and prosperous land to one living in dark ages, from an industrialised land to one immersed in religious practice.

My debut series follows four unlikely heirs forced to take the thrones after their entire families are killed in an explosion. Together they must uncover the mystery of who set the explosion whilst a prophecy predicts one of them will cause the downfall of the kingdom, all whilst they navigate their grief, their change in circumstances and new relationships. There was only ever one way to tell that story, and that was through all of their eyes and minds. I always intended on the Lost Kingdom Saga being an introductory, light fantasy series, to introduce readers to multiple POV books. One of my proudest achievements, is that is what I am praised on most. I often receive messages from new readers that were worried about reading multiple POV’s, but all expressed how easy and purposeful it felt once they had read each POV once of twice.

If it wasn’t for readers giving a small indie author writing in a style many are often scared to read, I wouldn’t have become an Amazon UK Top Ten Bestseller with my debut fantasy. Whilst I would love to be able to be an author full time one day, the only thing that really matters is that my books have helped people escape the struggles of their day to day life and immerse themselves in a new world.

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

My entire series was born from a place of resilience, of needing an outlet and something I could control when I felt so out of control. My partner and I at the time were struggling with him being out of work for reasons outside of his control and so the financial responsibilities of keeping a roof over our heads in central London fell to me. I could have let that stop me from pursuing self publishing. Indie authors front all the costs themselves but I kept reminding myself, that saving and being frugal to fund my dreams could pay off in the long run, and it did. I published my first book, Secrets of the Dead, and made enough from sales in the first six months to fund the costs of the sequel, meaning I didn’t need to touch my salary that was still keeping us afloat.

I went into 2024 with a confidence in the year, my partner had found work, the personal struggles we had been facing came to an end and my first book was doing well each month, allowing me to set aside funds to reinvest back into myself and the future books. Other than balancing writing and marketing with a full time job, I didn’t need to be resilient. Until, the life I knew crashed around me as I found out my partner had been having an affair for the entirety of our five year relationship with a woman that knew I existed and had been catfishing and cyberstalking me online. I lost all trust in being online, which, when social media is my sole marketing cost, was not something I could afford to do. I had to completely uproot my life and move, deal with a break up whilst being emotionally coerced to stay in the relationship, face my own self doubts that I had poor judgement and was manipulated for five years. All of this whilst I was completing final edits and two months away from releasing my second book, only halfway through the draft of my third book that was due in three months and still working full time.

A lot of the time I was told to take a break, that people would understand if I pushed things back but I didn’t want something that was mine to be tainted by him and her. My books were my accomplishment. Your goals are your own for a reason, you believe in yourself for a reason, you love what you produce for a reason. It was those reminders of my purpose and goals that kept me going, my love for creativity and writing. When it feels like all could be lost, keeping your dreams alive is what makes you resilient.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I’m by no means an expert in social media, my accounts are still very small in comparison to others, but not focusing on numbers would be one of my biggest pieces of advice. It’s so easy to compare yourself to other creatives with tens of thousands of followers that you believe equate to tens of thousands of sales, but the reality could be completely different. I have always founded my socials in authenticity. One of the pros to being an indie author is how much easier it is to connect with readers once you’re found them. Focus on community not cold marketing. Whilst I do have quick snappy marketing videos predominantly for tik tok, I have never and will never cold message someone asking them to read my book and I do cringe a little when people do it to me. There is a fine line between putting yourself out there and your audiences feeling like you only want sales from them.

I built my tik tok through reading and writing sprints. Partly as a reader in other content creators spaces and partly through building my own. I often do lives where I write and others read for thirty minutes and then we would chat for ten minutes. It offers the ability to connect with readers both ways. I learn about them, and they learn about me. That’s continued on my instagram which I use mainly for fun posts and announcements and daily stories whilst following bookstgrams for my own love of reading. I often see authors that keep their personal life very separate from their author content, only using their socials to promote their books and their contents, and that is working really well for some. But for me, I thrive off connection (it’s why I’ve worked in learning and development) and I love feeling like we’re all simply friends not an author and readers.

My biggest advice is just to be yourself, people connect with you just as much as they connect with what you produce

Contact Info:

• Website: https://authorlauracarter.co.uk/
• Instagram: @author_lauracarter
• Other: Tik Tok: @authorlauracarter

Image Credits

Photo of Garridon Jumper: Chloe Daniel, owner of Dumb Blonde Club
Photo of Special editions (patterned hardbacks) Chloe Daniel, owner of Dumb Blonde Club