We were lucky to catch up with Shawneda Crout recently and have shared our conversation below.

Shawneda, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you have a hero? What have you learned from them?

My foster Dad is my hero. He taught me to keep my word, love myself, and work hard to achieve my goals. His words of wisdom shaped a great deal of the ethics, morals, and work values that guide the career, business, and story decisions for the books I publish. Before it was popular he was “side hustling” and you couldn’t come around him without learning something that made you want to be a better you.

My foster Dad influenced my journey by restoring my belief in good men existing, and relentless pursuit to complete my post secondary education, and stay dedicated to my entrepreneurial pursuits.

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.

Shawneda dot com launched, with encouragement from my foster Dad, who always told me writing was a gift. Books (fiction and nonfiction) were sources of comfort, inspiration, motivation, and learning for me during a challenging childhood. When placed in foster care, poetry, short stories, and other things led to dreaming of being an author after completing college.

Life happened and instead of finishing college and becoming an author, being an author led to becoming a marketing professional, returning to school and eventually landing in technical communication. Writing was a gift, however solving was the skill that provided consistent accolades and work experience. Technology and writing together gave me the corporate satisfaction publishing books provided for me as an entrepreneur.

Being influenced by an unapologetic supporter of Black businesses, struggling to find books written about Black people that reflected the suburban Black experience of my foster family and those who mentored me before leaving my biological family led me to write the inspirational fiction stories that launched my indie author career and business. Needing to write full women’s experiences that show the beauty of diversity, benefits of equity, and power of inclusion became the natural progression of the fiction I wrote in the genres I enjoy the most, that didn’t suppress telling the full story.

So readers who enjoy reading about ambitious, well rounded, sexy, powerful women — especially BLACK women, will enjoy my stories.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

After my divorce and leaving organized religion, I had to pivot how I pursued publishing books and my main source of income. With the advent of algorithms and other technology organic self publishing discoverability became harder. Writing for the Christian or inspirational readers who wanted me to remove all indication that sex happened from books and water down the experiences of the characters left me unsatisfied as an author.

As I rebuilt my life outside of marriage and the church, I took the opportunity to prepare to pivot from writing inspirational or Christian fiction. Being free from the constraints of religion gave me space to grow and develop in my relationship with God, as an author, and to finish the journey in corporate America I’d wanted to pursue before getting married. Providing free solves in ministry doing administrative work, ghostwriting, leading the education department at a former mega church, and providing administrative support to my former spouse’s business gave me transferable skills that companies valued.

With the work values and ambition instilled in by my foster Dad returning to college and reentering the workforce while rebuilding Shawneda dot com turned out to be a very rewarding pivot. The career path I chose benefitted my book business, and the technological skills I developed as a solopreneur informed creative revenue generating solutions for employers.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

I sell on my website, and am cultivating a buy direct business model that rewards readers who purchase direct from me. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple Books, and Kobo are discovery platforms that provide marketplace positioning while I complete my brand rebuild.

Selling on 3rd party marketplaces is a great way to launch and for some authors it is the only way they desire to sell, but alleviating a middleman establishes benefits beyond higher profits that make direct selling the best option. Pros include establishing trust, providing customized options, creative control, and keeping more profits will never be a bad thing.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.shawneda.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/gigpowher
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/shawneda
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/shawneda
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/c/Shawneda

Image Credits
Image Credits Shawneda