A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Fantasy
My name is Angela. I’ve written 36 full-length science fiction and fantasy novels. My work is available in 16 countries in eBook, print, large print, and audiobook formats. I sell thousands of books each month and I’ve never had an agent or a traditional publisher.
I published back in 2010 with a vanity press, Author House, that basically stole $1500 from me. The biggest royalty check I’ve ever received from them has been $6.36. They promised to do promotions and didn’t. They promised to get my work edited. They didn’t. They even promised to make me a bestseller and back then, I didn’t understand the fine print that allowed them to get out of all those promises.
After that heartbreak, I looked for other options. I sent out a few query letters to publishing houses who were too good for me or had no interest in working with an amateur.
Then, I found out Amazon had started a program online that allowed writers to publish their own material. I took a chance there and never looked back. At this point, I’ve now sold over 1 million books and earned over $1 million in royalties. None of it would have been possible without the Discovery channel, The History channel, and my obsession with the apocalypse.
What apocalypse?
Any of them. Specials on TV when I was a child were full of doom and gloom and to me, that was pure magic. It came together into amazing stories that I now live and breathe. All of my books have an apocalyptic setting, feature odd and different characters who have to survive the horrifying situations I put them into. Most of them do; quite a few of them do not. I don’t really have a target audience, however. I want everyone to read my work. I rotate promotions in different genres, hoping to get people interested who might not normally read this type of story. Once they enter one of my worlds, they quickly find out there’s action, romance, drama, humor, and all the other parts that make up a wonderful tale.
There is also non-fiction. I use realistic survival methods mixed in with the madness, because that obsession has never gone away. I want people to be able to survive no matter what circumstance they find themselves in. I also want them to think back on my work and be so drawn in that they have to read it all again. I’ve always considered that the sign of a great book—when it gets read more than once by the same person.
My recent project is a push to get a film agent interested in my big series, Life After War, with the goal of it becoming a series on TV. It’s much too long to be a feature film. I’ve researched for weeks, finding 41 agents who might be able to help me with that goal. I wrote cover letters, queries, and made detailed files. Last week, I started sending out those queries, so this time next month, I might be a step closer to that dream! There’s nothing I want more for my work than to see it on the screens of the world. It’s an amazing story and I’ve spent 14 years of my life on it. It deserves that attention. And if those agents are still too good for me now that I have a proven history, I’ll find some other way to make my dreams come true. Indies make movies all the time. Why not me?
One of the hardest things about this career has been bringing in new readers. I use paid ad sites, like Fussy Librarian and I beg Bookbub for a feature just like every other author. I use the freebie sites, like OHFB and then I drop blurbs (With links! Don’t forget the links!) into FB groups. I send out emails to my mailing list and I try hard to please the readers I currently have by making sure each book I release lives up to my personal standard of quality.
With all that being said, it’s hard. I work 12 hours a day, bare minimum. Some months, the sales role right in. Other months, it like a barren desert and I do side work to keep the bills paid, like writing articles on Medium and designing fairy book covers on The Book Cover Designer under the name Ann Striker. All of that allows me to do what I love. It really is my dream job and I’m extremely grateful to Amazon and the readers who make it possible.
