We recently connected with Rachel Adams and have shared our conversation below.

Rachel , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you tell us the backstory behind how you came up with the idea?

I have been in advertising since I was 19 years old. I worked for my father-in-law at his agency for years. When you work in the field of advertising, you must find a way to squeeze descriptions and services into 30-second scripts. Or, if the ad is stationary, you must hit the important topics in a tiny space while keeping in mind that your audience probably has a limited timeframe for reading it.

Later, I worked with fundraising campaigns and then for the advertising department at a major McClatchy newspaper, The News and Observer in Raleigh, NC. While working there, I refined my art of saying a lot in a small space. Over the years, I’ve always enjoyed editing for other people. In college, I was the go-to person to help my classmates with synopsis writing. Now, here I am, looking over the work of other indie authors and being asked for help. I see the issues, and my mind automatically goes into trying to capture the important things in a novel without describing everything that happens.

In several writing communities and in the authortuber community, I volunteered to help with beta reads and blurb critiques. I’ve handled enough, got enough experience, and established references. Now I feel comfortable offering these as services.

I’m an indie author and as such, I understand money can be tight. I also understand that you need a well thought out book blurb to make a reader open your book. So, I offered my services at a fair price.

I want readers of my stories to get curious from the very beginning. It motivates someone to read more, to then possibly buy your hard work. Understanding this from the author’s perspective and also the reader’s perspective… not just a business and marketing insight, I feel that I have the proper expertise to help other authors.

Rachel , 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?

Yes, book blurbs, critiques, and beta reads are my “official business offerings.” However, I offer Aggressively Helpful Writing Advice as my Substack because of my desire to help other authors.

There are so many programs and courses available out there. I’ve taken several and sampled even more. Most of them teach you the basics. They teach you from the setting of “the perfect world” and “the ideal circumstance.” I don’t do that in my blog. I am honest with warning other writers about pitfalls, worst-case scenarios, and things that may go wrong.

I’m not saying that other courses are improper. They get the job done. I’m not even offering courses. I’m offering advice about scenarios in self-publishing that authors either overlook or are never warned about.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Yes. I want to share resources with other authors, because other authors helped me. We aren’t in a competition here. We need to have each other’s backs.

Sharing knowledge helps everyone.

Do you have multiple revenue streams – if so, can you talk to us about those streams and how your developed them?

Oh, yes!
I’m willing to navigate new platforms that might provide me with some income. Then, I write about it to inform others. I publish those articles in Medium – where I make a small bit of money, unless a story gets boosted, and then it can make much more.
My first example comes from my novel writing experience. I knew my coauthor and I wanted to publish our stories, written on old forums such as MSN Groups and Yahoo Clubs. They were old and needed a lot of editing. Therefore, I began a Kindle Vella account to force me to edit one episode a week at least. Vella provided bonuses as well as royalties.
We used those to pay for our novel’s cover art and beginning a newsletter service for fans. As we finished editing one story in Kindle Vella, I removed it, got volunteer beta readers to help me, and published a reader magnet (something free you offer readers for subscribing to your newsletter). This is how we’ve gained so many fans for our stories.
I learned about the platforms, editing, beta reading, newsletters, marketing, and indie publishing as we did this.
Therefore, I had gained knowledge to share!
I began writing about my process, the unexpected stumbles along the way, and everything I had experienced on Medium. I’ve collected quite a following there and I’ve published a lot of articles in publications as well.
Then…Substack came along. Substack provided a new forum and expanded audience. Hence, I took advantage and now write new articles, share older articles, and network with other authors there with Aggressively Helpful Writing Advice.
I’m expanding to Ream Stories instead of Kindle Vella only… publishing bite-sized pieces of longer work, so it’s still pushing me and my coauthor to edit our work for publication. We also provide bonus and exclusives for those who subscribe to our Ream Stories “Magical Mischief”. I’ll probably be writing some reviews and some insights into these services in the near future – on both Medium and Substack.
I found the productivity sprints run by authortubers on YouTube. Since I used to stream my gaming, I figured, why not? So now I’m an authortuber, too!
All of this led to my networking and then offering to help with beta reads, critiques, and blurbs… which I now use as a service. So, as you can see, I wanted to be an indie author, and now I have several streams of income that came from that one.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://racheldadams.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/racheldadams_writer
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gypsydruidess
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/racheldadams-writer/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/RachelD_writer
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@RachelDAdams
• Other: Substack/ Aggressively Helpful Writing Advice: https://racheldadams.substack.com/

  MEDIUM: https://racheldadams.medium.com/

Image Credits

Rachel Adams
Donika Mishineva