We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tracey S. Phillips. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tracey S. below.
Tracey S., looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the story of how you went from this being just an idea to making it into something real.
Music and creativity has always been part of my life. Mu mother was an artist, and my grandmother a well known pianist and music teacher in the Indianapolis area. I started playing the piano at the age of 3. I went to school at Berklee College of Music where I majored in Music Production and Engineering. I owned a recording studio for several years. Now, much later in life, I’m proud to call myself an independent author and I’m publishing my own books and audiobooks. I made this difficult decision last year, after a decade of tumultuous industry related challenges. This is the story of how all my creative talents are finally coming together in my books.
Though I didn’t consciously develop a writing career until much later in my life, I’ve always been a writer. I’ve played with journaling, poetry and song lyrics. I’ve written about everything that happened, good or bad, because putting the pen to paper helped me make sense of things. Then in 2010, I read a book that changed my life. The story was amazing, but the characters were all wrong. I thought, “I can write a story like this. I’ll write a story that I want to read.” And I began to fantasize about a vacation alone with my laptop.
I wrote the first draft in about three months, then the hard work began. Since I didn’t know a thing about publishing, I began gathering all the information I could. It’s hard to believe, but 15 years ago, agents and editors still accepted snail mail queries, self publishing was highly frowned upon, and there were 6 big publishing houses. I signed up for conferences and pitch sessions. I schooled myself in everything publishing and decided – at the time – I wanted to sign with a publisher. I made this decision because I was already running my own business teaching piano lessons to more than 40 students a week. It seemed too daunting to run two small businesses.
Before I could get published, I had to write a better story. Over the next few years, I wrote and rewrote several drafts of that first manuscript. I learned about story structure and characterization. I learned about tropes and dialogue. I learned how to query agents and took notes about industry standards. Then the rejections started to come. Over time, I collected almost 300 rejection letters from agents and editors for one romantic suspense book. But I had found my people in this community. And I’d found a creative part of myself that was missing. This work was particularly meaningful in ways that music hadn’t been for me. So I strove to get better.
That first book wasn’t the one to get my foot in the door, I realized, and five years later, I shifted gears and wrote a thriller instead. I worked with editors to polish my project, and in another year and a half, began to pitch it to agents. Social media had become a place where agents and editors discussed the industry, and it was the place I wanted to be too. In 2018, my working title, Fractured Girl got the attention of an editor on a Twitter Pitch Event. Foot in door.
In 2019, my book Best Kept Secrets debuted with Crooked Lane Books. I was over the moon. What I didn’t know, was how fragile, how fleeting that high would end up being. Shortly after the book launched, the publicist assigned to my book quit. A few months later, my editor moved on. Then the pandemic hit. No one anywhere wanted to publish thrillers. Not in 2020, and not in 2021.
What hit me hardest, was knowing I was the one responsible for my book’s failure. It didn’t sell because I didn’t do enough work or invest enough time or effort into marketing and publicity. I could have done so much more if I’d been paying attention to the changing expectations publishers have for the authors they represent. I thought, what if more authors supported each other? What if a group of writers helped promote each other? Would more voices squawking about a project turn the volume up to eleven?
In 2020 in the middle of the darkest lockdown days, I founded Blackbird Writers. Our motto, together we soar, represents how we all loudly share each other’s books on social media, in our newsletters, and on our websites. In five years, we’ve grown our audience to almost 1000 subscribers. We are on Substack, Facebook, Instagram, Threads and BlueSky. Without the expertise of the Blackbird Writers, I may not have made the pivotal choice to become an independent author.
During the pandemic, respect for independent authors grew. And during that time, I dabbled and dipped my toes in the water, finally publishing my first book, The Client, on my own. Of course I cannot stress enough the importance of finding a great editor. Stacey Donovan helped me navigate the weeds of 26 revisions to polish my book before publishing it. Over the next three years, I published the rest of the trilogy, The Contract and The Cliff Diver. And I learned enough about independent publishing with these books to find the water warm enough, and the current compatible with my needs.
During all the in-between time, I’ve written more books. I’ve pitched those books and added 200 more rejections to my initial tally. With my latest, an American Gothic, Forewarned, I caught the interest of a Big 5 editor. I was in conversation with 3 agents for months about representation. I was close enough to taste that kind of success. But rejection takes it’s toll. It’s hard not to feel let down, or worse, like a failure. It cultivates imposter syndrome and sleepless nights. As a creative, I’m sensitive to criticism. I dragged my feet. I pouted. I complained to my husband. Luckily, with all the rejections, I’ve developed a pretty thick skin.
So I decided to pivot again.
This year, I’m independently publishing Forewarned. I’m publishing it my way, with interior artwork and my illustrations. I’m also producing the audiobook myself. Since I’m familiar with Audacity software due to my piano teaching, it was a perfect fit. I understand audio production and have a good ear. I’m doing all the work, the voices, the recording and the engineering. This culmination of all my creative talents has boosted my creativity and my confidence. I also took back my rights to Best Kept Secrets. In the next month or so, I’ll re-release Best Kept Secrets with a new cover and updated text.
In 15 years, I’ve learned the ropes from my peers, from Blackbirds, and hope to have a successful launch in August 2025. This freeing decision has empowered me to use my voice. To share my experiences and help others along the journey. On Substack, I’m chronicling my progress with a weekly (under 5 minute) video. I’m sharing the difficulty and challenges, and my successes with a wide audience. I hope you’ll join me there to learn about my process.
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?
Blackbird Writers is a flock of 25 award winning mystery and thriller authors. We are cozy mystery authors, K9 mystery authors, police procedure, thriller and suspense authors. Some of of us write romantic suspense too and some write books for children. We are a prolific bunch, with 150 books in our website bookstore.
I’m a thriller writer. I write about fierce women who embrace their shadow side. My first novel, Best Kept Secrets, was picked up by Crooked Lane Books (2019) without an agent. When I signed the contract five days after my mom passed away, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I’d been so focused on improving my craft and trying to get a publishing deal, that I wasn’t aware of the changing landscape of the publishing world. I didn’t realize how authors are now required to do the majority of marketing and publicity for their books. That old world idea that the publisher will do the work for you is a long gone notion.
So shortly after my book debuted, I began dreaming about a group of writers who supported each other and helped each other. I formed Blackbird Writers in the darkest part of the pandemic, when bookstores closed and the world was struggling to find new entertainment. We all needed to escape. I reached out to authors in several groups I belonged to and asked if anyone would like to join me in a group give away. More than 50 authors connected with me. I scrambled to create a website with the help of family members and we created a flash sale website in a matter of weeks. Authors gave away or sold more than 1000 books for one day in May 2020. The Blackbird Writers’ first flash sale was a huge success.
Days later, many of those authors asked, what next? And that’s when we came together to create the group we have now.
Outwardly we have an online bookstore but only collect a small amount of revenue from affiliate links. We have a weekly blog, and 2 anthologies. Our subscribers seem to love the writerly content we provide. Our readers know they can connect with their favorite authors on our site. We share our successes, book launches and events on social media. Behind the scenes we chat to share our expertise and tricks of the trade. What I’m most proud of is how the group has exceeded my expectations. How several of our authors are the best in the mystery industry. And how many of us continue to produce award winning fiction.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Being an artist isn’t easy for so many reasons. You rely on the judgement and opinions of others. It’s a struggle to sell your work in the vast ocean of comparative works. It’s difficult to be SEEN. So part of my decision to pivot and become an independent author had to do with my core values. The question I asked myself was, why am I doing this and what do I need to get out of it if I’m going to continue?
The answer is very personal for me. The decision had less to do with income – though that would be nice, wouldn’t it? – and more to do with fulfilling a deep need to be creative. The truth is, I adore this writing community. And I enjoy writing. I love seeing my characters come to life and delight in putting them through the paces. I also love the process of seeing my story evolve from that first draft into a solid novel. I’ve found I like editing much more than creating the first draft. But even with the ups and downs, the joyful moments and the heartbreaks, I can’t see myself doing anything else. I can’t imagine anything more rewarding.
In this post I’ve shared both my personal process and the birth of Blackbird Writers because on many levels, we have grown together. Blackbirds’ journey is my journey.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
The Blackbird Writers have been a huge part of my writing life. Each author in the group has strengths they share with us. From the beginning we new we needed to be on several different platforms to succeed. Since we were a ‘pandemic baby,’ we used social media and our online presence to our fullest advantage. Along with the website and a blog with a newsletter, we were on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. And since I love chatting with authors, I also built what is now an award winning podcast on YouTube.
These accounts have grown in our five years as a flock. But with social media fragmenting in 2023 we needed to pivot. I think the biggest part of running a business is knowing when to shift gears. It’s not about chasing trends, it’s about protecting your assets. You have to be flexible enough and have the courage to try new things. For the Blackbirds, that shift happened in early 2024 when we moved from a traditional newsletter to Substack. I won’t go into the nuts and bolts of that here, but if you decide to go that route, may I suggests you take time to get to know the platform. Your audience will appreciate you easing them into the new situation.
And that new situation has been the best change we’ve been through. We’re still on Facebook and Instagram, We’re also on BlueSky and Threads now. But Substack is where we blog and share each other’s notes. I post our author interviews there and those go out to Spotify and iTunes. We are growing there in ways we never could have grown with a traditional newsletter.
I have personal accounts in all those places, too, and I’ve added LinkedIn to my arsenal. My Tracey S. Phillips website is for my books and it’s a place to find all the articles I’ve written and podcasts or radio shows. I know a lot of people are on TikTok, but in Substack, I can do all the things: videos, a blog and short posts. Substack is where I post creative news and ideas in my blog, Music Musings and the Muse. In January I started posting weekly short (under 5 minute) videos where I share the good and the bad of my process of independent publishing. I’m getting great feedback from those videos and I’m gaining a following.
My best advice for building an audience is to be consistent. Post only the things related to you and your brand. I know it can be difficult sometimes, but skip posting the photo of your dinner plate unless it’s relevant to your brand. At Blackbird Writers, we discuss all aspects of our writing lives, from crafting the first pages to the experiences that shape us all the way through launching that book. Come fly with us to learn more about our books at blackbirdwriters.com.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.traceysphillips.com
- Instagram: @traceys.phillips
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Traceys.phillipsauthor
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracey-s-phillips-b5a86720/
- Youtube: @blackbirdwriters996 OR https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC08_9xCA16BWy9JLIIbbmFw AND @traceys.phillips-author9669
- Other: Tracey’s Substack: https://traceysphillips.substack.com/
Blackbird Writers’ Substack: https://blackbirdwriters.substack.com/
Blackbird Writers website: https://www.blackbirdwriters.com
Image Credits
Derek Look, Creative Look Studios (only the image of me at the piano)