We were lucky to catch up with Terra Weiss recently and have shared our conversation below.

Terra, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

Hoping to become a best-selling author is undoubtedly, as a pie in the sky venture—only to be topped by dreaming to make it big in show business. It’s a risky proposition. For me, there was added risk because I was a thirty-eight year old mother of a year and a half old: not exactly the ideal time to be reinventing myself after climbing the corporate ladder doing marketing copywriting for tech companies. But the heart wants what the heart wants—and I was driven to tell my story So, day by day, I’d sit at my laptop and type away during my daughter’s naps and her time with Nana.

Fast-forward six months, and I had my first draft of my first novel. Hooray! I signed up for a conference to pitch my story to agents and editors. To my shock, it went well! I got requests, which gave me the encouragement to keep going. However, I got rejected from all those agents and editors, and would go on to get rejected from 65 more. On top of that, I was told, over and over, that there was no money in being an author unless you make it to the top—in both traditional and indie publishing markets. And there is some truth to that. But there are windows of opportunity, and I saw one as building a career as a mid-list self-published author. I had a handful of author acquaintances I’d met at conferences doing just that—so that’s what I set out to do while making income doing contract writing for companies like the YMCA.

Fast forward ten years, and the publishing industry has only gotten more competitive. But I’d been hard at work, and in 2022, I launched four full-length novels and a holiday novella. My author career was officially launched, and now, a year and a half later, although I’m still working to turn a profit, it’s growing by the day, and will only grow faster now with each novel I release. I have my own LLC publishing company where I do my own covers, my own marketing and PR, my own book formatting, my own…well, you get it. I’ve learned to become the jack of all trades because I’ve had no choice. And although it’s hard, I absolutely love it. It’s my job to tell stories and hopefully make readers happy: a dream come true.

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’m an author of romantic mysteries, a business I got into because of my love for books and storytelling. I was driven to tell the countless stories that lived in my imagination. What sets my stories apart from other romantic mysteries are the quirky and realistic characters and the unexpected plots and twists. I set out to write the books I always wanted to read: page-turning realistic mysteries with a humorous, light, and heartwarming tone. I’m not one who does well with anything too graphic, but yearn for a challenging puzzle. I also crave realness in my characters where they feel like the friends and families in our lives, so I work hard to craft that into my stories that live and thrive in small towns I build in my imagination. I’m most proud of the work I’ve done to make sure to give my readers a unique, heartwarming, and immersive experience, which is reflected in my reviews.

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

If you see an author selling books, it’s pretty much a guarantee that they’re the resilient type. To get to that point, it means that said author has dealt with mountains of rejection, whether it be through pitching editors and agents, submitting short stories to publications, trying to get our books listed in noteworthy places, or fighting to get accepted into hot-selling author social media groups. And then there’s the dreaded harsh reviews. Every author gets them, it’s part of the deal, and most of us wear them as a badge of honor. But they’re not easy to take, especially when you’re first starting out. It’s tough when a reviewer says false things about the book that can influence potential readers to not buy it. Admittedly, there’s been a few brutal reviews that have brought tears, but I’ve learned that if you stick with it long enough, they start to roll off your back.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Being a self-published author means you have to be skilled at pivoting. It’s part of the business, as reader trends change continuously, and what’s all the rage in January might be completely dead by June, especially if something big happens in the world. You might’ve had a bestselling dystopian novel about a pandemic when Covid hit, and in an instant, no one wants to touch a book about that. This means that to stay relevant, you constantly have to be pivoting your brand and stories.

Contact Info:

• Website: TerraWeiss.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/terraweissauthor/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/terraweissauthor/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/terrajw
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@terraweissauthor