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Amanda M. Lee recently bought and moved into a four bedroom house, which she paid for with her writing. This prolific Amazon bestselling author currently has five series—with a sixth on the way—30 novels, 7 novellas, 8 bundles, 33 paperbacks, 21 audiobooks and 4 pre-orders out. Her release schedule is insane, alternating between four ongoing series and publishing at least one or two books a month. She’s both daunting and an inspiration to many authors and we got to interview her!
About our Guest
When Amanda M. Lee was a kid, she was torn between whether or not she was going to grow up and be the Incredible Hulk or Wonder Woman. She flirted with being a Jedi Knight for awhile, but she wasn’t up for the intense travel associated with the gig. In her teens, Amanda settled on being a writer — although she had no idea the effort that would entail.
Not only is Amanda a writer now, but she’s a writer in several different mediums. She’s a longtime newspaper reporter, an avid reader and a voracious science fiction fanatic.
Questions and topics discussed:
- After a quick word about how awesome sharks are… How did you get started in publishing?
- What do you think the initial readers were attracted to the witches?
- Do you think it’s that people wish they could say stuff like that?
- You’re known for writing roughly 13,000 words a day… how do you do that?
- Discussed her writing day
- How much of that is dictation and how much is that fingers on keys?
- Do you outline or doing it live?
- We talked about who the witches are based on and which character is based on her
- Did you plan to write cozies? Why did you start writing them?
- What does your production schedule look like for the rest of this year?
- Has anyone ever offered you a trad deal? What about Amazon?
- We talked about what’s in her basement (pics below – click to see larger)
- We chatted about cats for a brief moment =^.^=
- What is the difference between cozy mysteries and romance, is there a difference? Which led to her talk about her sexy romance books under another pen name
- What do you outsource and what do you do yourself when it comes to books?
- Amanda talked about social media and promotions including Amazon ads
- Do you think you write to market?
- How long does it take you to plan a series and what detail is it?
- Have you ever trashed or not finished a book?
- Do you have that magic financially secure I’m gonna retire number?
- Do you ever think you’ll slow down your output?
- How do you deal with criticism and self-doubt and worry?
- What does your usual launch look like? How do you release?
- Talked about readers requests and naming their pets after characters?
- A fan question: Have you planned out the ends for Avery Shaw, Bay Winchester and Aisling Grimlock or will they go on forever and ever?
- What writing tools / programs do you use?
- How do you track sales / promos? Do you even bother?
- How do you avoid burnout?
- Do you have a street team that can help you with promotions?
- What advice would you give to the newbies? What mistakes did you make that they should avoid?
- You didn’t have a mailing list for a long time, when did you set that up and how many subscribers are on it?
Links and mentions:
- Cozy Mystery Top 100
- Vellum – eBook creation software for Mac
- Star Trek pet bed
If you have a second, an iTunes review would be VERY appreciated!
Amanda, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with the podcast and to answer some questions. I know this isn’t your normal fun-thing-to-do, so it is doubly appreciated.
This interview (which should be subtitled “You Will Not Achieve This”) was fascinating for many reasons. Amanda is to be admired for her relentless output and work ethic, but I would caution looking at her as an example or role model for the average indie author. Most people were blown away by Chris Fox’s 21-Day Challenge, but Amanda regularly knocks out FIVE-day novels and doesn’t even consider them a “challenge.” 19,000 words a DAY? ELEVEN more series plotted out and in the works? That would be a quick path to divorce for me. Lastly, her success has come without adhering to any of the conventional indie wisdom (platform, mailing lists, paid promotions, perma-free, tracking analytics, fan engagement, etc.). Even her covers (which, while attractive, would not be confused for trad-pub titles) actively flaunt many graphic design best practices. But none of that matters. Like I said, it was fascinating, but the main takeaway is “write like a machine and ignore all the self-publishing advice floating around out there.”
Loved this interview.