We recently connected with Riley Smith and have shared our conversation below.

Riley, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you share an important lesson you learned in a prior job that’s helped you in your career afterwards?

In my earliest work experience, I learned that merit has very little to do with success.

We give little kids a fairy tale that says the hardest workers or the most virtuous people get the happy endings, but honestly, that’s just not true in the real world. There’s too much randomness and entrenched inertia.

Early on, I realized that the guys who were getting paid the most weren’t necessarily the smartest or the most innovative or anything like that, the things people pretend get you promoted. The people getting paid the most were lucky, stuck around, and didn’t piss the wrong people off. Most of the guys running the place could barely work a computer. I had to teach them how to use Microsoft Excel.

At first this was annoying, but then it was very freeing for me. It’s something I remember when I think about publishing, or being a small business owner.

A lack of buyers or readers doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. It doesn’t mean you’re bad at what you do. Look at all the really bad books that get published every year and make a ton of money! Merit is a myth.

Merit is a myth, but statistics are real. You can do things that give you a higher percentage chance of hitting your goal. But I always remember that randomness is a big part of the process, so when things seem impossible or I’m wondering why I’m not a millionaire yet, I remind myself that it’s not me failing, it means I’ve got to try something different until it works.

The best thing you can do to raise your chances is just stick around. Keep at it. But if things don’t hit the way you’d hoped… You’re not a bad person. You’re not a failure. You just haven’t had your luck hit gold yet.

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’m a writer, and I own a company called MakeGood Creative Network.

MakeGood is essentially an advice and support network. I write a lot of blogs and film helpful videos, as well as try to connect people to other people who can help them on their journey. Anything I can think of to help creators do their thing, make money at it (if they want), and enjoy themselves more, I’ll do it.

We have a lot of exciting projects lined up for next year. One highlight is a guide for aspiring writers who want to finish their first novel. I’ve written two novels and more than ten novellas at this point, so I know what it takes to go from idea to finished product. Learning that process takes a lot of trial and error, so I’d like to simplify it for newer writers and help them cross the finish line with less stress.

As far as my writing, I write a lot of different genres, and also do some live comedy. Most of my stories are linked by my sense of humor, which has been described as “witty,” “irreverent,” “chaotic,” and “concerning” by various enjoyers of my stuff. I also tend to write powerful women and troublemakers, no matter the genre.

I’ve been releasing several shorter works, mostly romantic comedy novellas, but next year we’ll have more cozy mysteries available, and I’m also planning to publish book 2 of the Citadel series, which follows Cardinal, a smacktalking antiheroine in the prison city she calls home.

The most important things that people should know about me is that I love books, I love creative people, and I’m always down to live life, run my business, and write a little differently than you might expect.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

You have to be resilient to finish a book. It takes an almost deranged amount of persistence, because it’s a very long term project with a lot of potential stopping points and A LOT of doubt that crowds in on you all the time.

My first full-length novel, Cardinal, was published in 2022. I first got the idea for the book in 2017.

That first year was mostly false-starts. Originally, the book had a whole different setting that included a zombie apocalypse, among other things. I also was going to write it episodically, in short stories rather than a novel. I started and tried like four different ways of doing the project.

I finally made myself just sit down and begin the darn thing in late 2018, after kicking the idea around and dumping my false starts in the trash over and over for a year. I joined a weekly writing group, which was the best possible thing I could do. Getting together with people to write every week made it possible for me to finish the book.

After about five rounds of editing, I felt that it was ready to query for an agent. I knew my odds were low so I wanted to give it a shot. I queried for about a year total, throughout 2020-2021. This wasn’t a great time for anybody, and publishing was no exception. Also, I was some rando with a superhero book.

Long story short, no agents bit. But I knew this was a story that people would love. So I decided to take the plunge and self-pub directly on Amazon.

I set a goal to sell 60 copies in the first year.

In the first two weeks, we over-sold that goal. In the first month, we had sold double. I say “we” because many of my sales were friends and family talking my book up. I had an incredible squad that helped me, even though I had no money for advertising.

It was incredible to know that many people were reading, and I got only positive feedback on the book. It definitely set a fire in me to keep going… and take less than 5 years to get the next one out!

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing by George Silverman.

It’s got some specific examples that make it feel dated, but the principle is absolutely sound. The BEST way to get buy-in is one customer talking to another customer. The more you can facilitate connections between your buyers and prospects, the better.

I think a lot of books pretend to get this or pretend to have insights about this, but this book had the best combination of theory and practical application that I’ve seen.

This is why I focus on word-of-mouth and reviews in my marketing strategy for my books. You can make a book sound as cool as you want, but people won’t be interested until someone like them gives it 5-stars and explains why they loved it. I get most of my sales from people reading reviews.

This saved me a lot of time that could have been wasted in failed ad campaigns and helped me put my focus where it really works.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.makegoodcreativetips.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rileyisyelling/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/makegoodcreativenetwork
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/riley-smith-60aa0312b/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/rileyisyelling
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@makegoodcreativenetwork8953
• Other: Follow on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20139701.Riley_E_Smith Follow on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rileyesmith