We were lucky to catch up with S.J. Tilly recently and have shared our conversation below.
S.J., thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s something you believe that most people in your industry (or in general) disagree with?
The romance genre as a whole has mostly been shunned and shamed by society. It’s called trash, people like to brush it off as not really reading, and has really just been misunderstood. And those of in the industry, understand that. Romance is the largest selling genre worldwide, twice over. It’s a multi-billion dollar a year industry and still, people don’t take it seriously. But that’s because they don’t understand it, and they don’t understand the patriarchal desire to keep it repressed. Sure some will say it’s “bad” because it depicts sex. But when was the last time you watched a Bond movie, or any other action film, that didn’t have sex in it? They almost all do. But the different in that Romance (broadly but not exclusively) focuses on female pleasure. Its empowering. Exploratory. Shows all sorts of interpersonal relationships. Lets people live out and discover fantasies. And offers a safe space to watch these stories unfold because we know it will end in a Happily Ever After.
So romance is not trash, it’s far from it. And in fact is often used as a therapeutic tool as well as being simply entertaining. The misnomer that only books that are hard to read are good for you needs to be left in the past.
S.J., before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
As a Contemporary Romance Author, my brand is relationships. Romantic relationships, friendships, people, human nature, insecurities, love, lust, pleasure, heartbreak. I try to create a world that readers can fall into. The biggest compliment I can give a book, and therefore receive in return, is “I couldn’t put it down”. If a reader can start one of my stories, and lose themselves in it so much that they binge read the whole thing, then I know I did my job correctly.
And even though all my books follow a different lead pair of characters, my readers can trust that there will be some similarities between stories. Such as an obsessed male lead, who can’t get enough of his lady. A over-the-top jealous possessive attitude (best left in books and not IRL). Leading ladies who are plus size. Happily ever afters. No cheating. And tidbits of the Tilly World strewn throughout… Such as the BeanBag CoffeeShop that shows up in all the different series.
Any fun sales or marketing stories?
As an indie-author (independently published) I had to get creative when it came to marketing. My first year of publishing, 2021, I took any money I made from book sales and put it right back into my brand. And since it didn’t feel like enough money to invest Amazon or Facebook ads, I spent all my money sending paperbacks out to anyone and everyone that would take them. These were readers I found on Instagram, Tiktok, facebook groups… Most of the time people would reply that they’d like a copy. And most of the time those people would share a post or story when they got the book mail. But honestly, most of them didn’t read the books. Which is the nature of guerrilla marketing. You just keep trying. So I’d found one booktoker who had listed his PO Box in his bio, so I sent him a set of books, never heard from him, and never thought of it again. Such is life.
Cut to a few weeks ago, now I’ve gained a following, now I have fans, and one of those fans found one of my signed copies of Mr. Sin in a second hand store near her home. So she bought it and shared photos and tagged me and (since the name was unique) I recognized it as one I signed for the booktoker’s PO Box. I messaged her back and told her to cross out his name and put her own, and she did! And she made a whole tiktok about it.
So this was a huge success story for me. I was doing everything I could when I first started, and sometimes those attempts “fail”, but this time it came full circle and not only did I get several reader-made marketing videos from it, the book ended up in the hands of someone who really appreciated it!
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Hearing from readers. 1,000%. Every message from a reader makes me smile. It doesn’t matter if it’s just a “I loved it” or if it’s “this was my favorite book of the year” every time someone takes the time to reach out, it makes me feel validated. And then I’ll get the longer messages, sent to me through my website or in a DM, telling me how a book made them feel. How a character made them feel seen and gave them hope for their real lives. Or how one of my books brought them out of depression… For people who aren’t readers, or don’t read romance, this may sound far fetched, but it’s not. Books can mean so much to a person. And to hear people say those things about my stories and my characters… it means the world.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sjtilly.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sjtillyauthor/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sjtilly
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/SJTillyAuthor
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@s.j.tilly.author