'Hello melodrama': Isabelle Taylor, romance author and bookseller

I did a bunch of undergrad writing courses at the International Institute of Modern Letters, which was a great way to flex my writing chops and make friends who I still adore to this day. It also skewed me toward a certain style of writing, namely capital-L Literary writing rather than my first love, genre writing. I kept this up as I continued onto my Masters, but while that was a fun time, the main thing I learned from postgrad was that my heart didn’t lie with literary fiction, it lay with genre fiction - mainly romance. Hello melodrama, high emotions and reliable plot structures, I missed you so!

After finishing my Masters and getting a job at Unity Books, I wanted to start my author career ‘for real,’ but I didn’t know how to do that without an agent. I had been querying for years, but I wasn’t getting any bites from agents - and fair enough, the books I pitched back then weren’t very marketable! But I didn’t pursue self publishing until I met my wonderful friend Rachael Herron, who introduced me to a community of incredible authors who were making a living with their self published romance books. They were a fascinating combination of being intensely business-savvy while still loving and being loyal to their art. They inspired me to get into self publishing, with the idea that I’d either build a career with that, or use it as a stepping stone into traditional publishing. Nowadays I want to do both at once, because while I love traditional publishing, I write WAY too fast for publishers to keep up with my many, many books. Also different books work better in the self-publishing space than trad pub. My self published books are usually much shorter, spicier and, in 2 of my pen names, gayer than traditional publishing is often looking for.

That being said, it’s been VERY interesting working in bookshops and watching traditional publishing pick up self publishing trends. Self publishing lets authors experiment without worrying if their agent can sell their ‘weird’ book to a publisher. For instance, monster romance was a niche that really picked up traction in self publishing, which made traditional publishing take notice and dip their toe into the subgenre. Traditional publishing has also started buying the rights to popular self published books, because they see those authors have a proven sales record. Basically, when something outside of traditional publishing gets popular, traditional publishing wants to absorb that so they can take the profit. But in those cases, the author is often making bank before traditional publishing appears on the scene.

I’m curious to see where this leads, especially in terms of the author’s path to publication. It used to be pretty standard: query agents, get an agent, agent sells your book to a traditional publisher. That’s really getting shaken up, as authors no longer ‘need’ to rely on publishers to have a successful career. Most authors I meet nowadays who make a living off their books are ‘hybrid’ authors, who do a combination of self publishing and traditional publishing. I think that will be much more common going forward, as both publishing pathways offer unique pros and cons which can help authors achieve the best of both worlds.

Speaking of self published books getting picked up by traditional publishers, this is exactly what happened to my Claw Haven series, starting with Accidentally Wedded to a Werewolf! AWTAW is a cozy fantasy romance (or a cozy monster romance depending on who we're marketing to) about a spoiled human heiress who stumbles into a magical marriage with a grumpy werewolf innkeeper. Every Claw Haven book has been a joy to write, but I adore AWTAW, since it's our first glimpse into that snowy town where monsters go for some peace and quiet. Also I love to write antagonists to lovers and magical spells that force the main characters together. Also knotting. Google that if you don't know what it is. Readers who are familiar with werewolf romances will know!

I can't wait to see AWTAW on bookshelves again. And on MANY more bookshelves, thanks to the unique bond publishers have with bookshops! When it finally showed up on our book rep's upcoming sales sheets, my coworker waved me over to show me. It was very surreal and cool! Now I just have to wait for the book to come in. I don't know how I'll react when someone comes up to buy it, but author friends say I should ask if they'd like a signed copy. If the customer says yes, that's my cue to grab a fancy pen from the fancy pen cup (we keep it next to the vouchers), stare them intently in the eyes, and say, "As you wish. For I, dear reader! Am! The! Author!" 

The Kiwi in me wants to tone down the dramatic embellishes. But I also kind of want to lean into it. When else am I going to get an opportunity like that?