ALLi Professional Author Collette Cameron
This week we welcome Collette Cameron, a Professional Member of ALLi, a USA Today bestselling author, and as her great branding instantly tells you wherever you encounter her online, the author of “sweet-to-spicy timeless romance”. While her USA Today status was for a self-published book, Collette is also enthusiastic about her decision to go hybrid.
Collette provides a great role model to other indie authors, demonstrating so many qualities that drive success, not least:
- high productivity across a range of series
- innovative marketing (eg a multi-book “free starter library” for readers signing up for her newsletter and a “Twelve Days of Christmas” giveaway currently running on her Facebook page)
- her focus on responding to the desires of her readers
What’s your proudest achievement to date as an indie author?
I can honestly say that each new milestone I’ve reached has been my proudest achievement: Publishing my first self-pubbed book, then #10, winning awards for some of those stories, having readers who adore the characters I create for them, and lastly, making the USA Today Bestseller’s list in August 2017 with a self-published book.
What’s the single best decision you ever made?
To start writing! LOL. Seriously, though it was. And I’d just received my Master’s Degree in Teaching and was only going to write part-time. Until I got hooked. Going hybrid was a huge step too and one I don’t regret at all.
What’s been your biggest surprise as an indie author?
Learning that readers don’t care whether an author is indie, traditionally published, big-five, or award-winning. They just crave a captivating, believable tale that carries them into another dimension for a short while.
What’s your greatest challenge – and how do you deal with it?
I am forever running behind, because I don’t carve out the time to write that I should. That doesn’t mean I don’t write nearly every day, because I do, but I also get distracted with the business and marketing pieces of being an author.
How do you get/stay in a creative mood?
I have a rather persistent Muse that seldom hushes long enough for me to slip out of creativity. My mind is constantly going with a plot idea, dialogue, or a twist I want to add. I never get bored!
How do you remain productive/motivated?
I set goals for myself, and I am someone who likes to complete tasks on time. I have so many stories floating round in my head right now (and jotted in my story Bible too!) I think it will be awhile before I stop producing novels.
What’s your favourite thing about being an author–publisher?
The freedom! Okay, and the control.
What are your top tips for other ALLis?
Be as professional and as kind as you possibly can at all times and in everything. Not just publishing a finely-crafted, polished story with a professional cover and blurb, but your behaviour on social media, blogs, and so on. Also, help other authors. Not only is it satisfying, you build a fabulous network of friends.
What’s next for you?
I have a couple of audio books releasing, as well as the Earl of Wainthorpe in January, which is part of a twelve-author Wicked Earls’ Club series. I’m finishing my Conundrums of the Misses Culpepper Series, and then jumping straight into the next books in my Heart of a Scot and Seductive Scoundrels series. Oh, and Seductive Surrender, what is supposed to be my final book in my Highland Heather Romancing a Scot series releases this spring. My readers have made it very clear they expect a few more stories out of that series.
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From the ALLi Author Advice Center Archive
Thanks for sharing your success story with us, Collette!