Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Samantha Chase. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Samantha, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you think folks should manage their own social media or hire a professional? What do you do?

When I first started writing, I managed everything myself – even though I wasn’t very good at it. I made the best of what I could create and tried to ignore the fact that it wasn’t as pretty or creative as what I was seeing from other authors. Now, 12 years in, I haven’t given up completely, but I do have a team who helps me manage it. I can handle running my Facebook pages/profiles/and groups, but I need a team for the rest. The decision to let go of the control was primarily based on the fact that I know my limits and handling all of the social media platforms AND trying to write a book wasn’t something I could balance.

I think it’s a very personal decision – knowing when the time is right to let go and hire someone. My results were fine, but my followers and engagement wasn’t growing. So if I simply wanted to maintain what I had, it would have been fine to keep doing it myself and I think that’s what business owners need to consider – what are you hoping to get from your online presence. If you’re someone super creative and you don’t find it time-consuming, that’s one thing, but if you’re struggling, it’s important to know when to throw in the towel.

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 published my first book back in 2011 when I was 43 years old. I’ve wanted to be an author since I was eight years old, but other than writing for my own entertainment, I never actively pursued it as a career. At least…I didn’t for a long time. I dropped out of community college for financial reasons, but I wasn’t majoring in anything related to a career as a writer. I majored in fashion buying and merchandising. Looking back I can see all the reasons that was a mistake, but…hindsight and all. I’ve been an avid reader of romance since I was twelve and I always thought that someday I’d write this amazing romance novel.

I just didn’t realize how long it would take.

I was married at 22 and had my first child at 23. We struggled to make ends meet so I worked full-time for the first four years of our son’s life and writing became a distant dream. We moved from New York to North Carolina and I was able to be a stay-at-home mom, but that’s really a full-time job too. We had another baby and life was good. Hectic, but good. When our older son finished the third grade, we decided to homeschool him. There was a huge homeschool community in our town and I got involved with them and the local co-op. All the moms volunteered to teach something and I chose to teach creative writing because I was so passionate about it. I taught that for almost ten years and it was the high school level students who encouraged me to try to get published. They were the ones who taught me about self-publishing (something I had no idea about) and their enthusiasm really made me take that first step. One of those students even designed my very first cover for me!

So there I was, hitting publish on my first book in November of 2011, and I knew nothing about what to do next. I thought you just hit publish and people would buy massive amounts of copies of my book.

They did not.

Thirty copies later (primarily purchased from friends and family), I knew I needed to do something to keep , but didn’t think I had time to write another full-length novel. So…I participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) the following year and wrote a holiday romance novella. I wrote it in eleven days, did the cover myself on CreateSpace (which is no longer a thing), and decided to put it out there for free just to keep my name out there. Unfortunately, Amazon would not allow me to put it out there for free and I had to sell it for 99 cents. It sold 10,000 copies in a month.

Game. Changer.

That was all I needed to encourage me to keep going. To keep writing. I was back to working a full-time job, but I wrote every free moment I had. I’d come home on my lunch hour and write. I’d write before work, after dinner, on the weekends…I just kept writing. I wrote romances that were 45K – 55K words, and in 2013, I self-published 10 books. It was exhausting and exhilarating at the same time. I desperately wanted to quit my job, but I felt like I needed to make sure I could keep writing. Ultimately, in mid-2014, I knew I was ready to take that leap. And as if the universe was confirming it, I had participated in a box set with four other authors and it hit the NY Times on my last day at my office job.

Later that year, I was signed by a literary agent and got a massive traditional publishing contract. The following year, I had a producer from Hallmark option one of my books for a movie and in 2017, that little book that I published for 99 cents in 2012 became a Hallmark Christmas movie. Seeing The Christmas Cottage on TV, was definitely a career highlight. We were the #1 show on cable and even beat out football! They optioned a second book from me in 2018 – The Wedding Season – and it just aired this year (2023) on Hallmark. It’s such an honor and a thrill to be able to say that!

Since that time, I now have almost 100 titles to my name. I write contemporary women’s fiction and romance that’s hotter than sweet, sweeter than hot. I love what I do and I am proof that it’s never to late to follow your dreams. Do I wish I had started writing earlier? Sure! But I took a chance and now I have the career I always wanted and readers who love the stories I tell. Never let anyone tell you that you’re too old or it’s too late or that the ship has sailed. I’m glad I didn’t listen to those people.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

After getting signed by a traditional publisher, I thought things were going to be great. I had a very toxic editor, however, and by the end of our contract I was seriously doubting my longevity in publishing. We were at a conference together and she had been dogging me about when I was going to give them more books. So after talking to dozens of authors at the conference, I decided to sit down and have an honest conversation with her.

So we met for coffee and after making some small talk, I asked her why she wanted more books from me. We hadn’t seen eye to eye in a long time, and I just figured since my contract was ending, we’d be fine parting ways. She gave me a weird smile and said, “I’m so glad we’re going to have this conversation.” Then she went on to rip me apart for seven solid minutes. She said the most hateful things and I was so stunned that I simply sat there with my jaw on the floor. She attacked my writing, told me I was in a rut, had no talent, was a control freak…and by the time she walked away, I thought my career was over. After all, she had been in the business for more than twenty years and she would know, right? I flew home and went into a bit of a depression and started to think about what I would do if I wasn’t an author anymore.

That’s when my author tribe reached out and rallied around me. Most of them had experiences similar to mine with their publishers at one time or another – and some had that almost exact conversation with that same editor! Apparently, that was her go-to speech when authors wanted to leave! That conversation almost ended my career and I am so thankful that I didn’t give up!

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

After I self-published my first book, my goal was to get a traditional publishing deal. And when I got it, it was great, but it wasn’t the dream I thought it would be. Then I got the first Hallmark movie deal and all I wanted was to go to the set, but that never happened. It didn’t happen on the second one either. So when people get excited and ask about my experience with the movies, it’s kind of a boring story. But now, my biggest goal is to get another movie deal where I get a little more involvement. I would love to not only go to the set, but to also be an active participant in the production process. We’re pitching right now to several networks, but if I’m being honest, I’d love to walk the red carpet one day of a major motion picture that is based on one of my books.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.chasing-romance.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samanthachaseromance/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SamanthaChaseFanClub