We were lucky to catch up with Raquel Rich recently and have shared our conversation below.

Raquel, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One deeply underappreciated facet of being an entrepreneur or creative is the kind of crazy stuff that happens from time to time. It could be anything from a disgruntled client attacking an employee or waking up to find out a celebrity gave you a shoutout on TikTok – the sudden, unexpected hits (both positive and negative) make the profession both exhilarating and exhausting. Can you share one of your craziest stories?

I wasn’t planning on self-publishing. I wanted a traditional publishing contract. But after 100 rejections (yes, 100), I stupidly ignored a bunch of red flags and signed a contract with a vanity publisher. For those who don’t know, a vanity publisher is just a nice way of saying “scammer”. In a nutshell, they charge exuberant amounts of moolah for services that a traditional publisher does for free, and then they pocket the dough and either provide subpar services or none at all. I had won a contest, so I didn’t pay money, but I paid in other ways: stolen royalties, lost opportunities, and wasted time.

It took me two years to see the light and break my contract. That’s when I learned my publisher was a one-woman show, and this one woman had launched her vanity publishing/scamming business while serving a 30-year sentence for murder. To protect her drug empire, she ordered a hit on some poor guy she believed was narcing to the cops, and then she burned his body to hide the evidence.

I’m all about second chances and all that good stuff, but I believe second chances are something you earn, and to earn one, you have to have changed.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m a full-time novelist and a some-time beta reader, narrator, and blogger. I have a published time travel thriller duology available on Amazon and most online retailers, and I’m juuust finishing up the first book in a middle-grade fantasy series.

My writing style is a conversational combo of laugh-out-loud and serious with a perfectly placed f-bomb from time to time (but like… not in the kids’ books, obviously). I love dumping ordinary characters in extraordinary situations, forced to make decisions no one should ever have to, and then watching as they work their way through the mess. My goal is for my characters to linger with the reader long after the book is over.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I have big dreams of my by book babies soaring into stardom, getting optioned by Universal for a movie that I star in and win an Oscar for my outstanding performance. But I’m one of too many. Like, tooooooo many. So I get a kick out of adorable people who ask me, “Have you sent it to Oprah?” and suggest things like, “Send it to the NY Times!” If it were only that easy. If getting an agent to represent a book is hard, imagine getting Oprah freaking Winfrey to feature me. Is it impossible? No. “Nothing is impossible if you just put your mind to it,” they say. But neither is winning an Oscar for starring in my own movie.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Big dreams aside, all I truly want is for readers to enjoy my books, and nothing is more rewarding than a reader who thinks Oprah is missing out.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://raquelrich.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rich.raquel/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorRaquelRich
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFxj53ZGP2fP3rVjxDBb3ZA
• Other: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09YMRRG24