Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Patricia Logan. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Patricia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?
I had been a mortgage broker for 18 years prior to the 2008 market crash which wiped out my income and my business almost overnight. Once it became apparent that I could no longer earn a living in my field, I went home and tried to decide what I was going to do with the rest of my life. There were no jobs in mortgage, I had several rental properties but since my tenants also decided to stop paying us for a variety of reasons, I knew I was in trouble. To get out of my own head, I began reading my very large library of romance paperbacks. After about three months and 750 books, I got the wild notion, that if those authors could do it, so could I.
I launched into my new writing career with gusto and after a month, had a fully completed Regency romance. After that, I began another book before I hit a wall. The words weren’t flowing so I decided to change genres. I wanted to write something different and since I had begun reading gay romance, I figured, heck, why not? I wrote one and then decided it was good enough to publish. This was back in 2009 before self-publishing became a thing. So, I shopped it around to various publishers (39 in all), and got back 38 rejection letters. One publisher agreed that the book was good but it would need heavy editing. In 2010, after an exhaustive process, it was published and I waited for the big bucks to roll in.
Needless to say, they didn’t. I had no idea how to market the book other than Facebook, which was just starting up at the time. So, after taking the advice of other authors in my genre, I wrote a second book and then another and another. I slowly began to see a little money but in 2012, after 8 books, a good friend turned me on to Amazon’s self-publishing platform. After that, things started rolling. I didn’t see real money until I was 35 books into my career. That was 2016. I wrote a book that people really connected with and I was finally able to pay my half of our rent for the first time.
Knowing what I know now, with 80 books and 68 audio books, roughly 30 translations in Italian, French, and Spanish, I’m not sure I would have done a whole lot different. I think, as a creative person, you have to just work and work and hope that someone out there picks up your book and decides they like it. They tell their friends and you keep at it, building your backlist so that when people read one of your books, they start searching for everything you’ve written and buy those too. It’s a lot of hard work, putting yourself out there, writing a variety of things until you find your niche within the genre.
For me, that was mystery/thriller/action books with a huge helping of humor. People loved my Death and Destruction series which eventually turned into 10 books with 6 spin-offs, all written in the same universe so that I could include crossover characters. I make a good living now that KU (Kindle Unlimited) is around. And my husband is very relieved that after 15 years of publishing, I can not only pay all the rent, but everything else.
I know the length of this journey might not be encouraging for some. For me, it took a while to turn a nice profit, 6 years to be precise, but I think the key is that you can’t give up. Creatives of every shape and kind have to do that, I think. Find a selling platform or ten that conform to your needs and make it work for you. Build your website so that you can sell direct, put yourself out there, go to industry conventions. For me, that means meeting my readers, doing book signings, smiling a lot, while always remaining professional. Belief in my craft and respect for my gay characters is key for me. I am straight so I hired two gay men to act as sensitivity readers, an editor who’s in love with my characters, and I always take great care not to stereotype or disrespect the men who fall in love in my books.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I think I covered all of this in the previous question, but I’ll fill in the blanks for the things I haven’t already talked about.
As I’ve said before, I tried out several tropes within the gay romance genre. I’ve written everything from BDSM to cowboys to friends to lovers. But it wasn’t until I wrote mysteries with a heaping dose of action, that I really found my niche. People loved reading about my ATF agents and how they fell in love. That series (Death and Destruction), became so popular that I almost immediately wrote a spin-off, bringing back some beloved characters to help out with my LAPD and Homeland Security agents. 6 spin-offs later, I’m still writing about ATF agents, FBI agents, CIA operatives, and cops. I’m known for my action-packed books with a heaping dose of gay love.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
For me, portraying gay men as main characters was a bit of a tightrope walk in the beginning. I’m a straight woman but I have a gay son who I adore and respect very much. At the time I started writing my gay romances, he hadn’t come out, but I always knew that I wanted to do something that he could point to and be proud of. Even if I hadn’t had him in my world, I worked in nursing for a while back in the very early 90s when HIV always led to full blown AIDS. For a short time, I worked in the immune suppressed unit where 100% of my patients died because there was no cocktail back then. There was only AZT which caused horrific side effects and the deaths of those patients was terrible. It was traumatic and eventually led me to leave the career I loved.
When I began writing gay romance, I felt it was incredibly important to portray my characters as respectfully as possible. I became friends with a lot of my readers through social media and by meeting them at book signings and conferences. I asked a very close friend-a gay man-to not only read my books, but to tell me whether I was portraying his community with not only accuracy but respect and grace. I wanted to make sure I was getting it right. For a straight woman who was writing graphic gay love scenes, I wanted to make absolutely sure. The outpouring of love from gay men and straight women who make up the bulk of my readers, was staggering.
When I published my first book, there were only three states who recognized gay marriage in the U.S. We all know that today, at least for now, same sex marriage is legal. I pray that continues but even if it doesn’t, I will continue to write what I write because I want the world to know that equality is critical in this world and that love in any iteration will always triumph. I will always love my community, continue to be an ally, and fight for the ones I love until the day I die.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
In my case, a lot of the resources I use now, weren’t around when I started publishing in 2010. We have Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, X, and more. Early in my writing career, there was only Facebook and it was very new, just catching on. My publishers didn’t even have a page. They also didn’t do marketing of any kind with the exception of putting the books up on Amazon and Barnes and Noble and their own website. It was up to me to spread the word when I had a new release.
Today, I utilize all those resources with the exception of X. I deleted my Twitter account years ago when it became a toxic waste dump for people who hate the people I love. I have also built my own website through Bookbub, and just yesterday, set up my own Shopify store to begin selling direct prior to putting my books into Amazon’s KU (Kindle Unlimited) which is only allowed if the book isn’t on any other platform.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://patricialoganbooks.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorpatricialogan/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ploganauthor/
