Be Unapologetically You & Love Without Fear

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Idella Breen, a paranormal romance author based in Columbus, OH, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

My business is writing and selling books as I’m an independent author. My target demographic is anyone who loves a good paranormal romance. I tend to write with a focus on LGBTQ, but I like to think my books resonate with people from all walks of life.

Tell us about yourself

Well, how I finally got the courage to publish my first book is kind of a funny story but probably pretty relatable. I was in college and kind of lost. Let’s just say life hit me a lot harder than what I was prepared for, so I was kind of aimlessly trying to find something to just really get into, like to put all my passion and time into. I was taking a pretty hard English class. The professor was kind of a perfectionist. I just remember how she called me out of class one day after passing back an assignment. At first, I was freaking out. This assignment was literally half of my grade for the semester. When she closed the classroom door behind me, she handed back my assignment, which had a perfect score. I remember what she said to me next because it literally changed the trajectory of my life. She told me no one had ever done this assignment as well as I did, and she asked me if I had ever considered pursuing a career in writing. I guess the rest, as they say, is history. She was my mentor for a time, and I learned a lot working together with her. Now, writing is just a way of life. I don’t think I could stop even if I wanted to.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

My biggest accomplishment as a business owner differs from my biggest accomplishment as a writer. As a writer entrepreneur, I really had to learn the business, and I had to learn it well enough to get people to read a book no one was talking about. My biggest accomplishment on the business side was learning how to get people’s attention through any means necessary and then staying in contact with them even after they bought my product. Writers live and die by word of mouth, more so than any other type of marketing. I think beginners might not look at it that way until they can finally admit that being an artist won’t pay the bills, nor will it put your book in front of people who may love it. Yes, the art will speak for itself, but in the meantime, it’s also great if people know where to find it and how to talk to the people that create it. I love talking to my readers and having that community around the books I put so much of my time and energy into creating.

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

Hmm, definitely the money side of things, but now that I consider it, I think building street credit is also really important. Like, my reputation and the connections I had to build over time with others in my industry. When I started out, I was young. I wasn’t even in my twenties yet. I didn’t know anyone in the writing industry besides the teacher that took me on, but even my mentor wanted me to earn my reputation on my own merits. Which I now really appreciate because, to be honest, I wasn’t great in the beginning. Once I finally had a book take off, I truly felt like I earned that. The money side is difficult because, as an independent author, I front all the costs of every venture and for the production of the product and its quality. Many people will say that all you need is a computer, internet access, and a good enough story that you want to tell to be a successful author. While technically they aren’t wrong, you also need money if you want to create a product that is of a high enough quality that when a reader buys your book online or even in a store, they can’t tell that it’s not published by one of the big publishing houses. That means you need a good editor, a well-made book cover, good formatting and embellishments that make the pages stand out, etc.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

The top three tips I would give, especially to someone wanting to dip their toes into their own writing business, would be:

It’s better to apologize than to ask for permission. I used to sell my self-published books at these fairs and carnivals. A family member of mine used to run the circuit, and I asked if I could tag along one summer and try to sell my books at these events. I’d buy like 20 copies of my book from the press since it was print-on-demand and just sell them out of my backpack at a severely discounted price. I sold them for $1 - $2 instead of giving them away for free because people that pay for something are more likely to give it a glance than if you give it away for free. My goal was to get my name out there, and sometimes people would ask me to leave or something like that, but before they did, I could at least sell half of the books I brought with me. That’s how I got some of my first reviews for my first couple of books. I got to talk to the people buying them, and if they liked me or just had a good impression, they would often just leave a nice review, even if the book wasn’t something they usually read. People like to support young people with lots of passion.
Don’t give up; failure is feedback. This was a hard lesson to learn, but basically, if a product/book wasn’t getting any traction, it didn’t mean I was necessarily a bad writer, though that could be the case lol; it most likely meant I was selling to the wrong people or my product lacked the things to make it popular. Often, I would go through a failed book and pick out the pieces that didn’t suit the genre I was selling it under, and then I would write a better story that checked the boxes that people are reading in that genre were looking for. The truth is, whether or not you’re a talented author, there’s always someone out there that will read what you wrote. But if you want to be popular, you must create a product with that appeal. I like to say, “A well-crafted book written at the right time and seen by the right people will outperform a masterpiece written at the wrong time and marketed to the wrong people.”
Write a lot, read a lot, and have an ego, not a darling. Lots of writers like to see themselves as artists first and foremost, and that’s fine until no one wants to read your books because they are annoyingly pretentious, at least not in fiction. A writer and entrepreneur need an ego. We wouldn’t toil away writing a book unless we expected people to read and love them. That’s just a fact. But I had to learn quickly that my books could not be my darlings. I had a lot to say, and I wanted to write many books, especially if I wanted my writing career to become sustainable as a dominant income. I couldn’t afford to write one book and call that my life’s work. Maybe some people can get away with that. But I’m not a genius writer. I’m not as talented as some. I am a good writer, and I write entertaining stories, which means I need to write a lot of them to keep the lights on. I can’t afford to think of my books as darlings, but I want people to read them and love them.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.idellabreen.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IdellaStillWriting
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/idellabreen/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/idellabreen

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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