We recently connected with Stephanie Reisner and have shared our conversation below.

Stephanie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I always knew I wanted to be an author. I just didn’t know how it would manifest. My father told me many years ago that creative people needed to have a “real” job so they could earn a living in the world because most creative careers didn’t pay anything, and he was one hundred percent correct about that. I worked toward a publishing career for the better part of nineteen years while working a full-time job (making no more than $12,000 a year at it) before my writing took off and I opened my publishing company to publish other authors.

What ended up happening is all those years I spent writing, I finally got lucky and had the right book available, at the right time. Just before Fifty Shades of Grey took off, I had written an experimental indie romance novel as Anne O’Connell called Training Amy (now retitled Confined), a BDSM Romantic Thriller. Much to my shock and surprise, it took off, I sold over 50,000 copies in a year, and I haven’t looked back. I’ve been earning my living as a novelist/publisher ever since. As much as I’d love to say that it’s talent that determines success in a creative career, or time spent writing something literary and worthwhile, that’s often not the case.

I write commercial fiction and I follow the trends of what’s hot. That’s how I stay on top. I don’t write literary masterpieces. I write meat and potatoes genre fiction that appeals to mass audiences. People want to hear that the book you spent twenty years crafting, writing, and editing to perfection is the one that sells. For me it was a book I wrote in a month, editing/revised in another month, and self-published as an “experiment”. I made over $107K on that one book. And it was the sixth novel I’d written (if you don’t count the 7 books that became my first novel). Publishing is like the lottery. Sometimes you get lucky and you’re at the right place at the right time.

But, once you’re on the map, it’s a lot easier to keep readers interested. I have four different pennames at the moment because I write non-fiction, tame romance, paranormal thriller/horror/romance etc…, and the steamy romance. If I’d known that writing commercial fiction back in the early 90’s was the way to go, I would have spent my time writing the type of fiction everyone wanted to read and not wasted time on a fantasy trilogy that honestly – didn’t go anywhere. That said, without self-publishing, making a living as a writer would not be possible for thousands of writers right now, myself included, and readers wouldn’t have such a wide variety of books to choose from.

While I have seen traditional publication and I do have a few novels with traditional publishers right now — I make very little on any of them. I would say my traditionally published books currently net me a scant $1500-$2000 a year right now. And which pen name carries me from year-to-year changes, too. Early on it was my Anne O’Connell penname (BDSM Romance) that made the money. My non-fiction penname, S. Connolly, picked up five years after that. More recently, it’s been my Audrey Brice penname (paranormal fiction) that’s been making the money. My S. J. Reisner penname is the only one that hasn’t graced any bestseller charts over the past twelve years.

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?

When it comes to writing – the only way you learn is by doing and getting people to critique your work. I actually went to college and got a degree in Creative Writing and Literature with a Journalism minor. Hindsight being 20/20 I realize I could have gotten the same level of education by attending writer’s conferences and joining my local fiction writing group that has critique groups and workshops available to help people learn how to craft and write a story. One thing the fiction writing community taught me that college did not, was how to sell my work, and later how to self-publish it, and how to market it! Why colleges don’t teach this for those looking to make writing a career is beyond me. Maybe they do now. I don’t know.

My books provide readers with entertainment and inspiration. I like to think the books of the authors I publish do the same thing. We are not looking to solve any problems with the world. Just to bring a tiny bit of joy to others. I think what I’m most proud of is our non-fiction line of books. Darkerwood Publishing Group LLC publishes niche books about demonology and witchcraft that lean toward the dark side. We have a group of very talented, amazing authors in our lineup who are practitioners first and foremost and for whom the books they write are a labor of love.

I also offer career and spiritual coaching on the side because I’ve become known as someone who can answer questions and help people create a publishing career for themselves.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I think the hardest lesson most writers have to unlearn is that traditional publication is not the only legitimate form of publication. When you’re depositing the equivalent of a $100K+ salary into the bank each year from your non-traditionally published work – the IRS certainly thinks it’s legitimate. The readers obviously think what they’re buying is legitimate. But for some reason, in the authoring/traditional publishing world, it’s still stigmatized as not legitimate, or not good enough. What those who hang onto that belief don’t realize is that most of us who are doing well as self-publishers started out working in traditional publishing. So, it’s not that we weren’t good enough to get published by a traditional publisher. It’s that we realized we’d written something traditional publishing was iffy about, we published it on our own, and we discovered readers wanted it and we could make a living wage doing it ourselves. Which was a huge revelation for me. I used to be one of the people perpetuating the myth that traditional publishing was the only legitimate form of publishing. That’s not to say traditional publishing doesn’t have its place or that people shouldn’t pursue it. It simply means that there are alternatives for work that may not be traditional publishing’s forte.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I think people can best support authors by purchasing legal copies of an author’s work. Don’t download illegal copies. If you can’t afford books, a free library card, or a reading subscription service like Kindle Unlimited are great ways to read if buying books is out of your budget. You’re still supporting authors that way. With illegal downloads and/or sales, the author sees none of that money and most authors are living hand to mouth as it is. Most people erroneously assume that all authors are “rich”. I’ve seen that said in comments about illegal download sites. Most authors are not wealthy. They’re making no more than most of the people reading this. In some cases, less.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.sjreisner.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ofsadrianna/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/darkerwoodpublishing/
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-c-ab866437
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheLovelyCrab