This week LUV's spotlighting bestselling author, Bernadette Marie. @BernadetteMarieAuthor writes contemporary romances and believes in Happily Ever After. LUV: Many people dream about being a writer. What is the one thing you wish you had known when you started your career? You also started your own publishing company, 5 Prince Publishing and have published over 60 authors. Can you tell us about this? Bernadette: I wish I understood that there isn’t only one way to publish, that there is a reason they tell you to invest in your work and make it professional, and that publishers do not usually seek out authors—authors seek out publishers. Let me dive in a little more. My author journey really began in 2007, before the boom of self or indie published titles. The mindset was, and still heavily is, that you had to get an agent and had to be published by one of the big houses. Now, the publishing world is open to all, and it’s an amazing place to be. This leads me to the fact that there needs to be A LOT of attention to detail. Books that are thrown up on distribution sites before they’re polished and ready, or with covers that are not always catching to the eye, risk the unfortunate mob critique. Take time to invest in your product. As for publishers approaching authors, this isn’t a practice that is often legitimate, so always vet your publishers. I was approached in 2009 by a small publisher that had seen my work, because I marketed myself before I even had anything published, and they wanted to contract me. Unfortunately, they weren’t ready to publish work from other authors, and the business model and the business relationship fizzled quickly and horrifically for me and many of their unhappy authors. Hence my reasoning for opening my own house. I have a strong entrepreneurial background, having opened my first brick and mortar business when I was only twenty. After my publishing deal went bad, of course my mind went directly to opening my own publishing house. I’m a jump in with two feet kind of gal, and that’s how I learned to navigate the new publishing opportunities that were out there—so I did. Originally my house was to only be for my publications, but I saw an opportunity to offer something to other authors. The voices of those who were rejected from the bigger houses were the voices that readers were gravitating to. Soon we found that our business model spoke to others and they were wanting to submit. Twelve years in business and the industry continues to change. We are now considered a medium sized publishing house, and our entire team works as one big happy family.

Posted by LUV Team at 2023-07-31 19:00:36 UTC