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

Laura, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I had a very low-pressure job with very little to do. So, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to sharpen my writing skills and build some experience so that I could find more meaningful work, particularly in the writing field.

I signed up for a few paid internships which taught me how to use WordPress, SEO and keyword research, and, essentially, how to write modern blog posts. I think that the technical skills that I learned in these internships were invaluable. They showed me a lot of free resources that I still use today, such as sites that analyze your blog post titles to make sure they’re SEO friendly and sites that will compress your photos so that your page loads faster.

The biggest obstacle that stood in the way of learning more was the fact that there was no job waiting at the end of these internships, and there was no opportunity to move forward. However, I was encouraged to take these skills and start my own blog. So, I did.

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 went to school for writing and earned my B.A. in creative writing in 2007. My intention was to get a full-time office job and write children’s novels on the side. Then, one day, maybe I could find success as a novelist and change gears to write full time.

Self-publishing through Amazon was becoming very popular at the time. So, I wrote and self-published three books in my 20s.

The marketing process was a huge learning curve and very discouraging. I just wanted to write and let some company handle the rest. Instead, I’ve come to find that, in this day and age, a lot of the marketing is on the author, even those whose manuscripts are accepted by the big publishers.

As a lowly indie author who was new to the industry, I looked for free ways to promote my book. Many of the sites that I reached out to would accept a copy of my manuscript with the intention of reading and reviewing my book, and then I’d never hear back from them. I was grateful to those sites who followed through on their promise to feature my book, even if they didn’t have a wide reach or their site wasn’t very professional looking.

Again, it fell on me to promote myself. It also looks good to publishers if you have a built-in audience to help promote your work. So, starting a blog seemed like a good idea.

My blog would serve as a portfolio of my work and a way to get news about my writing out there, but I knew that no one would want to read the online journal entries of a nobody like me. So, there had to be other bookish content on there that would draw in readers and not just be a play-by-play of my writing process.

I then set out to start a book blog where I would promote other indie authors via book reviews, author interviews, and guest posts so that they would have a free, reliable platform to expose potential readers to their books. I wanted it to look professional and interest readers, especially those who have never read an indie book before.

I myself was a new indie reader, and I wasn’t sure if I’d find a lot of quality content out there to feature, but I was pleasantly surprised to find some really great stories out there that were just as worthy of a traditional publisher as any title on the shelves at Barnes & Noble. It’s just that the competition is so fierce that a lot of great books by talented authors fall by the wayside. This made my job so much easier because I could honestly promote these books as a fan as much as a fellow author.

I know that featuring mainly indie titles is not as big of a draw as those who publish reviews of the new Colleen Hoover or James Patterson books, but I try to craft engaging and interesting reviews and interviews so that it does entice readers to pick up a book by someone who isn’t a household name. The best compliment I receive is from authors who say how thorough my reviews are and how I completely understood the story they were trying to tell and the message they were trying to convey.

It’s been a slow burn to gain followers, but my traffic really exploded in 2024, and the hard work has really been paying off as my numbers grow. I’m very proud to have stuck with it and hopefully helped to boost sales in the indie world.

I only post reviews that I can honestly rate three stars or higher. I don’t believe that readers will get anything out of reading a bad review from me, nor will the authors. So, I don’t accept every title that is pitched to me. Similar to a publisher, I ask for a synopsis, the cover, and the first few pages, and I won’t commit to reading a book unless these all check out. If I agree to read a book and then find out that it’s not for me after all, I will reach out to the author and let them know that I won’t be able to publish a review.

However, all authors get the option of submitting an author interview or a guest post. Many will take me up on this offer. That way, they still get exposure, even if they write in a genre that I don’t like to read or have written a book that I personally can’t connect with.

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

The social media world is always changing. So, what worked then no longer works today.

I do know that I was able to gain as many Twitter followers as I have by seeking out follow threads. I’d put out a post asking other writers and bloggers to post their links in exchange for a follow. I could get a few hundred new followers with each post I made. I’d also share my links on others’ follow threads, and this would get me some new followers too.

It was also very easy to gain followers on Instagram at first. However, as the algorithm changed, my growth slowed to a crawl, and my likes and engagements went downhill.

Today, everyone wants to view Reels and videos. So, you essentially have to become a filmmaker. This is something I haven’t pursued due to time, lack of skills, and shyness. However, it’s Google that’s mainly responsible for my traffic. So, I concentrate on just writing the best blog posts I can. Social media takes a backseat to SEO and quality content on the site itself.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

It costs next to nothing to start a blog. Aside from purchasing a domain and paying the yearly subscription, anything else you will put money into will be optional, whether that’s purchasing a paid subscription to Canva so that you have access to more templates for your images, or paying for social media ads to try to boost the exposure to your site, you can really keep expenses to a minimum.

Authors are frequently asking how much I charge to feature them on their site. I always tell them it costs them nothing and that they shouldn’t pay anyone for space on their site.

My site earns money from affiliate partnerships with other companies. I partner with other sites and feature them on my blog, and any sales made via those links earn me a small commission. I don’t work very hard on promoting these partnerships, but they are all featured on my side bar, and I will embed links in my site as well as feature them in my monthly newsletter or write blog posts about them, as long as they tie in with the theme of my blog.

So, ultimately, it’s a very low risk business with minimal equipment. All it takes is time and the willingness to experiment and figure out what works and what doesn’t.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://laurasbooksandblogs.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurasbooksandblogs/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laurasmithauthor/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-smith-45896933/
• Twitter: https://x.com/lsmith335

Image Credits
Laura Smith