Going Indie: Month Two

February was a blur for me.

I had author events of one kind or another every weekend, trying to build my visibility and keep up connections, while still working my day job, doing my part in keeping our household afloat, keeping up with social media and marketing work, and progressing on the next book.

I did this to myself on purpose, but it was still quite a ride. I worry a little whether I have the stamina I’m going to need for this.

If you’d like to start at the beginning of this story, you can read my Month 1 update here: Going Indie: Month One (on Substack) or here: Going Indie: Month One (on this blog). 

The plan in broad terms is to take my writing life more fully into my own hands and raise it from an occasionally mildly profitable hobby to something that pays my bills. To get started down that track, I wrote three short romance novels which I’m indie-publishing in April, May, and June of 2026.



My GenX romances

I chose romance quite intentionally for both business and personal reasons.

On the personal side, I wanted to write something light and escapist. Like a lot of people, I’m finding it difficult to keep heart in the current political and social environment in the United States and I found it healing to write stories where nice people fall in love. Writing was first something I did for myself, and even though I do it with an audience in mind now, self-expression is still paramount in what I write and why I write it.

I settled on GenX Romances in particular because I’m a GenXer myself and because my best known work to this point is my Menopausal Superheroes series which also centers “women of a certain age.” So, even though Romance is a new genre for me, there’s some connection to my previous work and some of my existing readers are likely to give them a try. That’s sort of business and personal, I suppose.

Also, I read and blurbed a how-to book about writing romance for older characters (Write and Sell a Well-Seasoned Romance by Stella Fosse) and it sparked an interest in me to explore love stories for women in their 40s and 50s. I’m a sucker for a good prompt, which is probably how I ended up doing so much short-story writing for anthologies. So, Stella, these three books are probably your fault.

On the purely business side of things, well, romance sells. Romance readers are voracious! That’s a good reason to try writing it if I’m serious about making a living from my words. Romance with older characters looks like it might be a niche that’s building momentum, too. I keep finding more in the sub-genre the more I look for it.

Contemporary romance was the top subgenre in the U.S., with 32% of unit sales in 2023 (Publishers Weekly)

As I wrote these books, I found that the alternating point-of-view structure and clear genre and trope expectations meant that I could write more quickly than I have written my other books. (3-6 months for the first draft of each instead of 1-2 years).

When February rolled around, I had already seen all three books through editing (hired) and formatting (did it myself in Vellum) and gotten two of them into the system at Ingram. I was only awaiting the cover for the third book. I detailed my spending for the first book in my previous post in more detail, but I spent just over $700 producing each book, so I’m starting this experiment $2100-ish in the hole and we’ll see how long it takes me to “earn out.”

Even though I don’t plan to release these books until April, May, and June, I went ahead and ordered copies of both Not Too Late and Acid Reign with plans to hand sell them at my February events. They cost me between $4 and $5 a copy and I’m selling them for $15 each.

I know from past experience that selling your books in person is one of the best ways to learn how to sell your books. It gives you a chance to pitch hundreds of people and see what lands and doesn’t land with audiences. What tag line or approach makes someone pick up the book and read the back? What makes them decide to actually part with their hard-earned dollars and buy it?



More people picked up Not Too Late than Acid Reign to look at, which may have to with the bright colors and the appeal of 80s themed retro designs at the moment. Though my pitch for Acid Reign was pretty well received: “a punk princess falls for a politician; it’s complicated.” I haven’t landed on how to quickly pitch Not Too Late yet.

In February, I took these books (along with my others books—the Menopausal Superheroes series and some short horror collections—to two small local brewery events and a bigger book fair at a larger brewery with a Valentine’s theme. I’ll take them to a local horror film festival this weekend. That last one might seem odd, but, as a multi-genre author, I generally take at least some of all my books when I do an event. Sometimes which things sell where is unpredictable. So we’ll see if horror fans also buy romance or not.

In marketing work, I also finished my one month NetGalley co-op rental for Not Too Late and started a second one for Acid Reign, working under the theory that having reviews lined up on publication day will help me with online sales. I’ll have to wait until April to see if that proves true, but it has already given me some pull quotes and reviews I can link to for social media promotion.

As of this writing, 127 people requested Not Too Late, 114 people downloaded it before my NetGalley offer archived, and so far, 15 have reviewed on NetGalley, and 10 have posted their reviews to Goodreads. This might still collect more reviews ongoing.


For Acid Reign, I’ve had 53 requests so far (it’s still open for another few days if you want in), 45 downloads, 7 reviews on NetGalley, and 4 reviews on Goodreads. While I feel like the cover of Acid Reign is right for the book, I wonder if the darker colors and less playful design have something to do with the lower number of requests.


I’m starting a NetGalley offer for Ready or Not next week, which also has a brighter, lighter cover (with a dog!) and we’ll see how that plays.

Additionally, I devoted some time reaching out to bookstores to see if they’ll host me or sell my books, setting up consignment arrangements with a few places, and pursuing media coverage (with very little success).

I’m also working with an audiobook narrator on Not Too Late, and I LOVE Maggie’s voice and how she’s interpreting my characters so far.

And I made some pretty good progress on The Architect and the Heir, my next project. It’s a Gothic romance, so another new genre for me, but it does let me use some of what I’ve learned writing horror and romance and tap into a lifelong love of Gothic settings and trappings. I grew up on Universal Monsters, Dark Shadows, and Daphne du Maurier, among other things, after all.

I wrote 7,000 or so new words on the project and revised 9,000 or so. I’m bad at guessing how long it will take me to finish things, but it feels like I’m in the final third, so I’m hoping to finish a full draft by the end of March and get started on the revision.

And I approved the cover design!



I tried out a service for this one, since I ran across a good deal and you can opt out of the use of AI in the creation of your cover. The process wasn’t as much fun as working with the indie artist on the romances, so I don’t know if I’ll go this route again, even though I am pleased with the design and it was less expensive.

I am the stubborn girl who is going to try and make it as a romance writer without putting her books in KU because I disapprove of how the Big River site does business, so obviously I don’t make all my decisions just on what makes the most business sense. Sometimes, it’s about what feels right, and this cover company feels a little too slick.

Ethics versus profits, huh? Tale as old as time.

Going Indie: Month One

2026 is my year of living dangerously, by which I mean I'm becoming my own publisher. I did some foundational work for that in 2025, which I wrote about here, but the real push started with the beginning of the new year.

Now that we've flipped the first month of the calendar, I thought it was time for an update. I want to document this for myself and as a help to others. 

My wall calendar: pollinator themed this year!

For starters, I should set the stage. Context is everything, after all. 

I've been a traditionally published author for about 12 years now, through small presses. At the end of 2025, I had completed my Menopausal Superhero series, had my stories included in about 20 anthologies, and had just put out my first indie book, a short story collection that I thought of primarily as my learning project (though I do love those stories): Stories from Shadow Hill. 

I've been pretty happy with my trajectory in my writing life (despite ups and downs along the way), but I wanted to move from "hobby that pays for itself and occasionally a little better than that" to "viable side hustle" and then to "pay my bills with this." And even though working with a small press is faster than the glacial pace of a Big 5 Publisher, it's still slower than I want to go. 

I've long had an interest in "going indie" but I hadn't done it yet. I was concerned about managing all the work of it, and unsure if I could support the initial financial burden to do it the way I wanted to. But, three years ago, I left teaching for a corporate job that is less stressful and pays better. My youngest child turned 18 years old, and I started to feel like maybe I could take this on now. I had more time, more knowledge, and more money to invest. 

I don't like how Amazon exploits creatives, but I recognize the stranglehold they have on our industry, so I wanted my books available through the big river despots, but not beholden to them--no exclusivity. So, I'm "going wide" as they call it--trying to have my books available on as many platforms as possible: ebook, print, and audio. Everything, everywhere, all at once. 

I'm not very business and number oriented as a rule, but I'm trying to corral my brain weasels and improve that. My sister is an accountant and is helping me, and I sought out training, education, and learning opportunities, both casual and more formal about running a business and about some aspects of indie publishing as well as marketing. 

So, now it's 2026, and my first "real" indie book, Not Too Late, a GenX romance will launch April 28, 2026 (for my birthday). 

 So far, I've spent: 

• Vellum software for formatting:  $249.99 (August 2019--bought when I thought about doing this the first time). I've used it for 4 books so far, so that makes Not Too Late's share: $62.50
• ISBNs: $295 for 10 from Bowker June 2025 which amounts to $59 for the two I used for ebook and paperback of this book. 
• Editing: $196.80, July 2025 (I got a friends and family rate from a FANTASTIC editor)
• Bookcover: $400 Pd. July 2025 (I hired a person I met through convention life)
• Proof copy from Ingram: $7.80 (September 2025)
• Audiobook cover: $50 January 2026
• NetGalley Co-op 1 month rental: $63 January 2026 

That's a total of $839.10 by my reckoning, but notice the dates in that list. I didn't spend all of that at once, but spread it out across several months. And the software purchase is an unlimited license, so the more I use it, the less it costs per book. 

I anticipate spending about $400 more on my audiobook narrator. Rather than a royalty share, I'm opting for paying $75 per finished hour and then not having to manage periodic payments thereafter. I did look into being my own narrator, but decided that's more than I want to take on at the moment. Maybe someday. 

Not Too Late has been up for preorder since September in a lowkey way. You can find it, but I haven't promoted it yet.  I put together a books2read link I could use for social media so that people can preorder wherever they might like to. https://books2read.com/NotTooLate which is free and has been really useful for connecting with other folks. 

My big focus in January was getting some early reviews lined up. So, I made a google form that I sent to my newsletter subscribers and posted around social media. That has netted me 9 ARC readers. I set up a bookfunnel download page to use with that, figuring I'd need a bookfunnel account ongoing anyway. 

My research suggests that roughly one quarter of the people who take an ARC will actually read and review it, so I wanted more than 9 people. I checked into NetGalley. NetGalley is a great way to connect with booksellers, librarians, influencers, and just plain old readers, but it's EXPENSIVE ($575 for one book). Luckily, because I have worked on building my network these past twelve years, I had people to ask and learned about NetGalley Co-ops. I rented a month on NetGalley for $63. 

As of this writing, that netted me 127 requests with 114 who downloaded the book. So far, I have 11 reviews and one set of feedback without a review on NetGalley and 7 reviews on Goodreads (which is the only venue where people can review a book that hasn't been released yet). 

For comparison, I didn't do any of this with my learning book Stories from Shadow Hill which came out in October and as of this writing, it doesn't have any reviews at all. 

But here's the thing with going indie: while all that was going on, I was also juggling several other things in the month of January:  

• Managing that NetGalley offer, vetting and approving requests
• Arranging for audiobook narration of Not Too Late, which meant uploading the ebook separately to Amazon so I could claim it on ACX
• Realizing I'd need an audiobook version of the cover, and negotiating that with my cover designer
• Realizing I'd want audiobook versions of all three of GenX romances, so negotiating that with my cover designer
• Finalizing the cover design for the third GenX romance
• Writing the blurb for the third GenX romance (the hardest part, IMO) 
• Working with another audiobook narrator for mini-audiobook productions of one of the short stories from Stories for Shadow Hill 
• Getting Beware Cheap Houses (the aforementioned story) up on ACX (which is when I learned that there has to be an Amazon ebook to go with a book you want to make an audiobook of for ACX)
• Creating graphics for social media and other promotional stuff, then keeping up with posting and interacting on social media (I do Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and Threads mostly) 
• Arranging for another NetGalley rental in February for Acid Reign, the second GenX romance 
• Networking with other romance writers to set up future author events and collaborations
• Giving a reading at a local bookstore
• Arranging for several author events across the spring 
• Ordering copies of books for said events 
• Sending out press releases in my hometown for Not Too Late, since it's set in Bellevue, Kentucky 
• Beta-reading/critiquing two books, a short story, and a piece of a novel for author friends
• Finishing a promised short story for an upcoming anthology: Disruptive Intent (The story is a Menopausal Superheroes short called Ricochet Happens and I'm excited about it!) 
• Picking back up an unfinished novel to work on, a Gothic romance called The Architect and the Heir.  

See how low writing fell on that list? I feel like that'll be my new challenge: balancing all the "business" with the actual creation of new works.  

So, that's where I stand at the end of my first month of living dangerously. It's busy, but it's also exciting and I really think I'm going to love it! 

 

Early Works by Young Samantha: an IWSG post

 

(Reminder: this site is now ONLY my blog. If you're looking for my book links or contact options, events, or any other aspects of my writer life, please visit http://dangerouswhenbored.com )

 

Welcome to the first Wednesday of the month. You know what that means! It's time to let our insecurities hang out. Yep, it's the Insecure Writer's Support Group blog hop. If you're a writer at any stage of career, I highly recommend this blog hop as a way to connect with other writers for support, sympathy, ideas, and networking. If you're a reader, it's a great way to peek behind the curtain of a writing life.

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.  The awesome co-hosts for the February 4 posting of the IWSG are J Lenni Dorner, Victoria Marie Lees, and Sandra Cox!

February 4 question - Many writers have written about the experience of rereading their work years later. Have you reread any of your early works? What was that experience like for you?

___________________________________

I didn't really start taking my writing life seriously, finishing things, and seeing them into publication until I was in my 40s…so "early works" in that sense is really only a decade or so ago, and while I have grown as a person and a writer in those ten years, it's not startling in the way it might be if I'd been at this longer. 

 I *did* write when I was child and young woman: poetry, essays, short stories. Mostly, when I look back at those, I'm kind of charmed at my child/younger self. Sometimes, it makes me cringe a little to see how directly autobiographical I was…but capturing your own lived experiences and considering what they might mean isn't such a bad place to start in a life of making art. 

Young Samantha and her scribblings led to the Samantha I am now, after all, and I like me and the work I do now, so I can't be too hard on her. :-)

 Somewhere along the line, I learned to be a little less "on the nose" but I do still process all the things that worry, bother, or anger me in my writing. And it still works for me. 

 

2026, The year of living dangerously

 

(Reminder: this site is now ONLY my blog. If you're looking for my book links or contact options, events, or any other aspects of my writer life, please visit http://dangerouswhenbored.com )

 

Welcome to the first Wednesday of the month. You know what that means! It's time to let our insecurities hang out. Yep, it's the Insecure Writer's Support Group blog hop. If you're a writer at any stage of career, I highly recommend this blog hop as a way to connect with other writers for support, sympathy, ideas, and networking. If you're a reader, it's a great way to peek behind the curtain of a writing life.

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG. The awesome co-hosts for the January 7 posting of the IWSG are Shannon Lawrence, Olga Godim, Jean Davis, and Jacqui Murray!

January 7 question - Is there anything in your writing plans for 2026 that you are going to do that you couldn't get done in 2025?

___________________________________

2025 in my writing life was in some ways a year of endings. 

I finished my Menopausal Superheroes series, which has been my major focus as a writer for the past decade, bringing that vision to a close. The last novel (Change for the Better) came out nearly exactly ten years after the first novel (Going Through the Change), which had a nice feeling of perfect timing. 

I've been on this roller coaster a long time, and while it's been a great ride, I'm excited about moving on to other projects and ideas. 

 

 

 

I've also spent 2025 gearing up for  

2026, the year Samantha goes indie! 

It is both exciting and terrifying. But I feel good about what I've done to get ready to make the leap and try to move my "hobby that pays for itself" writing life into a real business. 

• Incorporated as an LLC (Dangerous When Bored)
• Trademarked my Imprint/Business Name
• Built my new website: http://dangerouswhenbored.com
• Moved my newsletter to Mailerlite 
• Sought education on a variety of publishing topics (Women in Publishing has been SO HELPFUL) 
• Quietly published my first book (Stories from Shadow Hill) under the imprint, mostly to learn how to do this
• learned Vellum for formatting
• learned about various distribution options (I went with Ingram, with a separate upload to Amazon) 
• began learning Canva for promotional image creation 
• Wrote three short GenX romance novels and contracted for editing, cover art, and audiobook production. (The first one is already available for preorder and my proof copy is soooooo pretty)

 

So, 2026 is when it all comes to fruition, and we find out if I can make a go of this. It's a lot to juggle, and has definitely already felt overwhelming. But it's also super-exciting to make all the decisions myself and have more control over timetables and other publishing decisions. 

I'd love to hear from others about your publishing journeys and what you learned along the way…and if GenX romance sounds up your alley, let me know if you're interested in being an ARC reader and one of my early reviewers for release day!  

2025: The Year That Was

2025 was…not my favorite year. Even though it all came out surprisingly well in the end, it wasn't light and easy and a lot of it felt like windy trudge uphill in the snow. 

Challenges to my personal life included a lot of caregiving demands as those near and dear to me went through health struggles and romantic misadventures as well as stress and worry related to the political landscape of my country. The hateful behavior and attitudes of people who ought to be working for a common good really wore me out. It was A LOT. 

Here at the waning of the year? Mostly, I feel tired.  

That's not to say there wasn't any joy. There absolutely was! The youngest Bryant graduated high school and started attending college as well as landing a good first job. 

Landmark birthdays for everyone but me this year

 

Our eldest is thriving in her chosen career, settling into the cutest house, and finding love. Sweetman and I are rock solid in our love (eyeballing that 20th anniversary in 2026 and wondering if we can swing that honeymoon we never took), and totally in this together every step of the way. The doggos are happy and healthy. Our grandsnake and grandcats are doing well, too. In fact, as I look back over the year, there's a lot to smile about. 

 It was a busy one for my writing life, too. I FINISHED MY SERIES! In July, Change for the Better, the fifth and final Menopausal Superheroes novel came out, bringing the work of the past ten years to a close. 

 

Three of my short horror stories made it into anthologies! Technically Dark Spores came out in December 2024, but all the events were in 2025, so I'm counting it. Behind the Shadows III and Dread Mondays were both just a couple of months ago. 

  

In a year with more firsts than you might expect at twelve years into this endeavor, I was invited to submit to an anthology. Though I've had my work included in many anthologies, I've always gotten in from cold call. It was really a boost to my ego to be specifically invited to submit to Disruptive Intent. The Kickstarter was successful and the book will be coming your way in 2026. 

 

If all that wasn't enough, I also made the leap into indie publishing. I set up my LLC, Dangerous When Bored, set up my new website (dangerouswhenbored.com) and put out my first book under the new imprint, a collection of weird suburban tales called Stories from Shadow Hill. 

 

I learned so much about the intricacies of indie publishing from this project, and I'm proud of the stories! In fact, in another first, one of them has been released as an audiobook! I'm collaborating with Charlotte Chiew to release several of them as mini-audiobooks and then promote them as a collection. Beware Cheap Houses is a cheeky bit of Lovecraftian horror, narrated by a cat named Punkin. 

 

Dangerous When Bored, LLC will bring you three romance novels this spring, so watch for news of Not Too Late, Acid Reign, and Ready or Not, my GenX romances! I've already got audiobook versions in the works, too!

So, 2025 might have been a tough year emotionally, but there's a lot to celebrate. Here's hoping 2026 brings all of us a step closer to exactly what we want out of life. Happy New Year! 

Winter weather, an open book blog hop post

 

Welcome to Open Book Blog Hop. You can find us every Monday talking about the writing life. I hope you'll check out all the posts: you'll find the links at the bottom of this post.

Winter is coming to the northern part of the world. (It's here!). Do you have any plans, or do you prefer to hide from the cold?

_________________

Currently I live in North Carolina, about halfway down the eastern seaboard of the United States, pretty much the northern part of what we call "the South." Since I grew up in the Midwest and spent my early adulthood in Alaska, I don't really find my current home truly cold most of the time (the mountains of NC do get "real" winter, but that's not where I am). 

In fact, I don't own a proper winter coat anymore. The two or three days a year I might need one, I wear a thick sweater beneath a heavy jacket. 

On the dark side of fifty now, I'm more sensitive to the cold than I used to be, especially where I have arthritis. But despite that, I like a nice snap in the air, at least for a little while. It's invigorating. And after I've gotten chilly, I have a great excuse to cozy up with a cuppa and a fire in the fireplace when I come back inside. Cozy heaven. 

 It's actually harder for me in the summer. I wilt in the heat. My favorite is that "cool enough for a sweater" weather in early spring and in the autumn.  

How about you? Do you relish winter? 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

The Best Gift, an IWSG post

(Reminder: this site is now ONLY my blog. If you're looking for my book links or contact options, events, or any other aspects of my writer life, please visit http://dangerouswhenbored.com )

 

Welcome to the first Wednesday of the month. You know what that means! It's time to let our insecurities hang out. Yep, it's the Insecure Writer's Support Group blog hop. If you're a writer at any stage of career, I highly recommend this blog hop as a way to connect with other writers for support, sympathy, ideas, and networking. If you're a reader, it's a great way to peek behind the curtain of a writing life.

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG. The awesome co-hosts for the December 3 posting of the IWSG are Tara Tyler, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Pat Garcia, Liza, and Natalie Aguirre!

December 3 question - As a writer, what was one of the coolest/best gifts you ever received?

___________________________________

Winter Holidays, 2010. We had opened all the packages and were sitting there basking in the glow when my husband announced that there was one more gift. He left the room and came back with a little scroll, then handed it to me. 

When I unrolled it, I found that Sweetman had bought me a writing retreat! I'd be going to Pelican House for a week of quiet and writing. 

 It was quite a gift--not only in the dollar value of the retreat itself, but because it was also a promise to take on the extra labor to grant me the time. He'd be a single dad to our kids (they were nine and two at the time), take care of our house and dog, and leave me free to ignore my part of those responsibilities for a whole week and just focus on my writing!

 It was an amazing show of support.  

That week ended up being really important to my writing life. Not only did I make great progress on the book, but I made friends with a group of supportive women who boosted my confidence and helped me see the value in my work. It did a lot to fight my imposter syndrome and make me feel like this was something I could actually do. 

It's easier to find writing time now. Our kids are older. I changed jobs to something less stressful. I've got better at focusing under less-than-ideal conditions. But the writing space inside my head still looks a lot like the room at the top of the cupola at Pelican House.